Welcome Voyagers Thank you for finding your way to the Coracle, an alchemical vessel of individual and collective change powered by the spiritual technology of fairy and folk tales. A few logistics before we dive in to the Journey 1 with the Handless Maiden. This is a long email packed with information and reflection. I hope you’ll take the time to absorb these words and come back to them as the story weaves its way into the fibers of your being. Here is a rundown of this email’s contents for ease of navigation: Ways to work the story Reflections on receiving the story psychologically versus as a cultural document of initiation My written version of the Handless Maiden Further resources and invitation for 1:1 collaboration with me You’ll find my written version of the story below, as well as the architecture I’ve developed for how to collaborate with the stories you will hear in the Coracle. As living beings, these stories are constantly responding to their environment, just like we, and all of nature responds. I have developed this scaffolding through my own spiritual studies and inner process over many years. I offer them with a sincere hope that it helps you on your own path, while also acknowledging that the stories have a life of their own, and that a clearly outlined path is not the truest way to a soul-embodied life. However, spiritual practices exist for a reason. Sometimes we need the discipline to get on the path in the first place, and to stay with it when the going gets rough. It is in that spirit that I offer you the steps below on how to collaborate with the stories. Get on the path, and make it your own! I offer private sessions for those who are looking for a grounded mentor with a rich connection to the mythic in daily life. Respond to this email or send a message to jen@jenniferlighty.com if you’re interested in working with me 1:1. I am offering the Coracle as a gift, in the same spirit in which I have received these stories over the years. If you would like to reciprocate please consider a paid subscription, or a one-time donation through Buy Me a Coffee. The Corpus Callosum Chronicles is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The Compass Lives Inside You: Ways to Collaborate with the Stories in the Coracle We are used to hearing people say a story is alive when we find ourselves moved by a tale, but have you ever considered that a story is actually alive? I mean alive like you and me, with its own desires, intentions, and ability to navigate on its journey. This list of suggested rituals and ceremonial practices will bring you into a living relationship with all of the stories that I will be telling over the next 18 months in the Coracle. Introduce Yourself It’s rude to just barge in and take what we want. When we don’t introduce ourselves with honesty, elegance, and humility in any situation, including meeting a story, we continue to perpetuate the attitude of extraction that is killing our planet. This attitude has us believing collectively that the world is a resource, here for our taking. Introducing ourselves to the story is a recognition that it is also a sovereign being with desires and longings here on Earth to evolve through embodiment. I lead us through a way to do this in the podcast episode. You can make this your own. Have fun and get creative with your introduction. Ku Like Ku Like is a Mū Hawaiian protocol I learned from Ke’oni Hanalei of Pōhala Hawaiian Botanicals. It’s a way for us to honor and acknowledge our internal masculine and feminine that puts us into contact with how these two energy centers are in relationship to themselves and each other, in preparation for their union, what the alchemists called the heiros games, and the Hawaiians call the aumakua. (Note, aumakua is also the word for an ancestral family spirit in Hawaiian culture, that takes the form of animals, plants, or other elements of nature. Here, we are using it to signify the androgynous state of consciousness that occurs when the inner feminine and masculine wed, resulting in a being who is able to function in flow because the centers are in balance and exaltation.) Checking In and Consent Through Ku Like, you will check in every time you listen to a story in the Coracle and ask yourself, “How much of this story am I safely able to receive?” This is a strong initiatory container and I want you to learn how to keep yourself safe. You may hear a no. If so, you have the option to be a witness to the story and the voyagers on the Coracle who do consent. Once you know how much you are willing and able to receive, give your consent to that. If it’s a no, verbally set that boundary. Create an Altar An altar is a physical space for you to nurture your connection to the story. By creating a physical space for it to land and be honored with food, drink, smoke, feathers, flowers, and herbs, you let the story know you are welcoming it into your life and value it as a gift from your ancestors who encoded their wisdom into these old stories so they could survive through centuries of imperialism to this point in time now when we are starting again to have the ears to truly hear them, and to follow their instructions back to a more natural way of living that respects all forms of life. Ritual Walks Set a threshold and step over it with the intention that everything on the other side of it is the story speaking to you through the circumstances in which you find yourself. This is a marvelous way to see how you are part of the land’s dreaming as the story moves through you and out into your environments and interactions. Important—Make sure you step back over the same threshold and close the portal! The Nine Currents The Nine Currents are a path I developed inspired by the Nine Properties of Light as shared with me by Mū Hawaiian lineage carrier, Ke’oni Hanalei, of Pōhala Hawaiian Botanicals. I took each of the properties of light and formed them into questions to help you understand how the story is moving through you and informing you about yourself and your relationship to light itself as the manifestation of creation.(Versus dark as the metaphorical signifier of uncreation. I also want to note that I value both, and have great reverence for the primacy of darkness as the foundation of all we see with our eyes through light.) Because they are currents, they will move you where you need to go, and because you are in a coracle, you will need to learn to paddle and navigate. The Nine Currents could serve as journaling prompts or tools for contemplation. The Nine Currents: The Current of Revelation: What does this story reveal to me about myself, others, or the world? Am I available for the disclosure? Am I hiding? If I am hiding, do I consent to exploring why and commit to the disclosure? 2. The Current of Reflection: How does this story expose my vulnerabilities? Am I available to be exposed? Where am I lying to myself or others? 3. The Current of Refraction: How does the story move me physically? What is it quickening in me? Where am I stagnating? 4. The Current of Diffraction: How can this story help me respond and adapt to the challenges it presents to to my ego and psyche? Am I willing to live with the consequences if I don’t adapt when called? How can I continue evolve when fears arise? 5. The Current of Interference: What am I resisting in the story? How can I work with what I’m resisting, instead of flowing with it? How can I overcome self-sabotage? 6. The Current of Polarization: What choice or choices is the story asking me to make? Where do I need to focus? Where have I been noncommittal to something I really care about? Do I consent to exploring that, with myself or others? 7. The Current of Dispersion: What must I do, or who must I be, in order to transform, now that I have received answers to the previous questions? Where or why do I refuse to change? Where am I refusing my own power and agency? 8. The Current of Scattering: What do I need to do in order to let others know I’ve changed? What gifts can I now share? Where am I withholding? 9. The Current of Completion: What am I now ready to release and completely let go? Am I still holding onto something that I want to release? How can I acknowledge I have completed this journey and move into the world in a new form? Invite Your Image to Converse This may be all you need to do to develop a deep relationship with the story that will catapult you onto the path you’ve been overcomplicating by thinking the story is either inert, or beyond your comprehension. It’s simple and involves only two questions. Ask the image that came when I asked where did you find yourself in the story: Why are you here? How can I serve you? (Or what can I do for you?) Then do it! Reflections on psychology as the primary lens for receiving stories in today’s world If you keep up with trends in the mythopoetic world, you will have noticed that in the last couple of years there has been a move away from the psychological interpretation of fairy and folk tales popularized by late 20th century figures like Robert Bly and Marion Woodman. I cut my storytelling teeth reading books in the Jungian psychology section of the Yes! Bookshop in my early 20s. It was a great job! Many years later, I was reintroduced to working with stories this way by Robert Bly and Gioia Timpanelli at the Great Mother Conference. The primary way we entered the stories was by asking the question, where do you find yourself in the story? For most of us, gender was an issue. I know I almost always identified with a female character in the story, and male friends of mine generally connected with male characters. This makes sense considering how many wounds we all carried (and still carry) around gender. I was able to do some deep healing with my personal biography as a female in a
