The story of the Lindworm is an old Norwegian Foktale that I have felt tap me on the shoulder over the last couple of weeks, with a curious nudge.

"How would you see me differently if my genders were switched?" it asked " what would I taste like if the Queen were a King and the sons were daughters?"

Well?

A Stone Council Story that is one I am especially fond of.

What if the King continually offering the Princess as Prize in fairytales could be read as the death of patriachy giving way to the restoration of the Sacred Inner Marriage; the trials of the Poor Suitor the Courtship of Yin and Yang? How would that reconcile our view of the way women are treated in these stories?

A reading of the myth of Ishtar and her descent into the Underworld in seek of her lost love. But the Underworld is the realm of her dark sister Ereshkigal and she is not best pleased to see her sister of the Heavens.

Do we have our myths the wrong way around?

Are our heroes and heroines not descending from the human realm into the Underworld but is the human realm actually already the Underworld?

And how do we get our tarred and feathered selves out again?

What does it feel like to say the word Giant?

How does it want to move about our being?

Where does it take us when we seek them out in the landscape?

Where exactly do the stories that make up our being originate, how many of the tales we carry around are not even technically ours, if not where do they come from and what do we do about it?

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

Riffing on the idea of fairy tales as more than simply gorgeous bedtime stories for children but as deeply therapeutic containers for adults and teaching tales for all.

The beautiful story of Thumbelina from Hans Christian Andersen.