Woman of the Sea as a Mirror

Selkies are faeries of the sea and there are many different versions of their stories. They take the shape of a seal when they are in the water and when they come to land, they may shed their seal skins and take human form. If you come upon a Selkie in its human form, find its […]

Spock and the Dangers of Being Polite

There’s a quote from Spock in one of the original Star Trek episodes – Amok Time. “…after a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting.  It is not logical, but it is often true.” I learned a lot of important things from watching Star Trek, The […]

The Child of Salt

One of my favorite stories is a traditional tale published in Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart. It tells of a “child made all of salt who very much wanted to know where he had come from.” In the video below, I’ve reframed the story a bit.

Folklore As Dream Work

In a recent article on Forbes, Jordan Shapiro shared this quote by Marie-Louise von Franz. It echoes my experience of folktales throughout my career as a traditional storyteller. I first recognized the potency and power of these tales while reading Rumpelstiltskin to my daughter. The Story Wisdom, in these tales that have been distilled over […]

The Rumpelstiltskin Effect

Once There Was… This is the book that opened the door to my storytelling journey for me.  At the time, I was reading folktale picture books to my 4 yr old and enjoying her experience of them, as well as remembering my own childhood delight in them. The Grimm’s collection of tales had been a […]

The Handless Maiden As A Mirror

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected many folktales in the early 1800’s. The Handless Maiden is one of the tales from their first volume entitled, Kinder- und Hausmärchen. (Children’s and Household Tales) This story of a young woman whose hands are cut off by her father as a result of his mistaken promise to a dark […]