The Lady and the Serpent (part 4)
Final part on this personal rendering of a old folk tale from the Norse tradition full of embodied feminine wisdom.
On the first chapter, we learnt how the queen could not conceive a child and got advice from a mysterious crone to perform a ritual to manifest her desire. Then we witnessed how she struggled with some of the instructions and learnt how to make peace with her doubts to carry on anyway. And in the previous chapter, we saw how she eventually gave birth to a magnificent son and how many years later he encountered a terrifying giant serpent that prevented him to leave the kingdom and meet a princess to marry.
I am really excited to share this last part as I feel it’s the part where everything comes together, and a refreshing twist brings a new dimension to all elements of the story.
Credits again to Martin Shaw, Robert Bly and Aaron Cantor for introducing this epic story in my life!
I Am Not I I am not I. I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see, whom at times I manage to visit, and whom at other times I forget; the one who remains silent while I talk, the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate, the one who takes a walk when I am indoors, the one who will remain standing when I die. -Juan Ramon Jimenez
As agreed, the prince gets an escort of the strongest men, counselors and diplomats to confront the serpent again on the southern edge of the kingdom where it was last spotted. They will depart in a couple of days in the hope of extracting more details about his intentions. They were only left with the repeated statements of:
“Older brothers get to marry first”. But was this a beast seeking justice? Revenge? Or bring chaos into their kingdom?
A day passes by, and the king and the prince find a moment to go for a walk together. He asks his son how he felt about the mission as he could sense that the he was quieter than usual. The prince paused his walk and looked deep into the woods for a long time as if he was considering the ramifications of a possible harsh confrontation with the serpent. As his gaze rested on a blossoming linden tree one could hear the many robins, jays, black birds, magpies, chirping and squawking. A woodpecker would add its contribution. Then a moment of silence would finally emerge as the mewing of a distant buzzard would let all its preys know that everything could be taken away at any moment, including this charming pastoral symphony. Another moment passes and the prince finds finally the words that articulate his concern.
-”Father, something tells me that addressing this giant serpent with a cohort of strong and intelligent men with intention to make peace seems a bit of an anathema. Even if we do not fight him and end up agreeing on his terms.”
Another long pause followed. The prince closed his eyes, frowned, tilted his head as if he was digging deep into his heart for clarity. Then suggested:
-”If we truly mean to make peace with the monster that laid lurking in the shadows at the margin of our kingdom for all these years, we owe it to come from a place of joy, beauty, understanding and even wonder. Not from a place of fear and judgement.”
The king replied:
-“For the safety of our people, a king cannot afford to always think like that. When you dare to be that innocent in the face of adversity, and once blood gets spilled, the emotional backlash you get can be enough to spread doubts over the legitimacy of a king.”
The prince clarified:
-”I am definitely not against leaving our counselors and loyal soldiers behind. What comes to me is perhaps I can meet the beast with a small troupe of artists, poets and musicians first. The strongmen could be simply staying a bit further back ready to intervene if necessary.”
The king stared at his son with an air of disbelief and tried to gauge how serious or foolish of an idea this was. He said:
-”Let’s walk and let me meditate this.”
By the end of the day, the king decided that it could humor the insight of his son and that although it could be risky, this seemed to be a new way to practice what his own father told him once: That one should refrain from placing restrictions on children, but instead find a way to go along with them.
The time to meet the lindworm comes, and the prince indeed departs with artists, dancers, poets, musicians and the escort of strongmen and counselors. When the prince and his subtle group of people find the monster, they find a surprisingly relaxed and placid creature. When pressured long enough to know more, he only responded with the request to find a woman to marry soon. And when they seemed to have nothing more to say to each other, the prince decided to send word back to his father and mother that the serpent will be making his way to the kingdom. From there, they dispatch messengers in other neighboring provinces letting them know that a prince is looking for a woman. As you imagine, they are not ready to advertise yet that the so-called prince has no arms and legs, is shy with words and is as long and wide as a drakkar…
A few weeks pass, and a young woman seems interested. A wedding ceremony takes place but an important detail is that in this culture there are two ceremonies. One at the altar and another one the next day once the couple had their first night together. As you can understand, there is an eerie atmosphere that morning. Besides the obvious shock of the encounter at the altar, the bride now seems to have been frozen by the serpent’s stare. He takes her to their room to consume the marriage, and we never get to hear from her again!
The next day, servants knock at their door to see if the lindworm and the young lady need anything and prepare them for the following ceremony. They open the door and only find a pile of bones with the beast raising its head and claims loudly : “ Older brothers marry first!” Since the second ceremony is now highly compromised, the serpent is technically right to do as if the marriage did not occur at all.
More time passes by and it has now been twelve young and innocent ladies that have come from further and further away lands and that have all been eaten up by this unfair prince lindworm. So much so that the kingdom now has a reputation of being a place where young ladies go, only to never return. After the last twelfth unsuccessful wedding ceremony, the days turn into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And it’s now been four summers in a row that have gone by, and no more women are showing up anymore to get married to the dragon.
That’s where at the edge of a forest, you could find some hills. In one of those hills, you could find a wooden house where a shepherd and his only daughter where living peacefully. They had known of course about the castle recent events for a long time. The young woman was of a calm, introspective but assertive nature. The type that when questioned sometimes, she would just pause for a long time, tilt her head, close her eyes and be in what seemed to be in between listening to what her heart, head and hara had to say and what the wind, the hills, and the trees might be whispering to her. Then finally, she would come with an answer that was honoring all of those beings in presence. That was her little magic power. She learned that when she was a young girl and her father used to tell her that she was blessed with a magical power:
“The power to stop and stretch time !”
She could do that, whenever she wanted and for as long as she wanted. And she would be able to start again on her own terms once she had an answer she would be satisfied with.
She spent her time helping out her father and working around the farm. When she had a moment for herself, she used to simply play by the river. She would be up on trees sing her favorite songs. She would go up and down boulders and find a spot to sing or go for a swim at the lake. She would sit next to a fire to warm up at the beach and contemplate the waters, and their ever changing reflections of the sky in the evenings, regardless of the season.
It was not long after one of those mini escapes that the following morning she informed her father that she didn’t know why, but she had the strong urge to answer the call to marry prince lindworm.
Her father could not believe what he just heard and thought she had gone insane. Why on Thor’s name would she do that? Since she was adolescent she knew about the stories of the serpent eating young women during their wedding night. But no matter how long the father argued and tried to persuade her to let that silly idea go, she would just stand back and listen to her father speak and go on and on saying things like:
”This is suicide! What are you going to achieve jumping straight into the serpent’s mouth? I have already lost your mother, and you are all I have left from her. I would not bare it to lose you too. You are being selfish and ungrateful! “
And when that went on, the shepherd would eventually burst into tears and collapse with his head between his hands and wail in complete disbelief of what his daughter had just announced to him. The daughter, went to hug him and say:
-“Father, I love you! Everything I love in this world I owe it to you. I am so grateful for everything you introduce me to and you made very proud of being your daughter. This decision had been maturing in my being for a while. All I can say, is that it feels right and that I need to be there at some point, I just have to figure out one more thing before. I will go by the river to find the answer and prepare my way after that.”
Upon hearing those words, the father had a long sigh of relief and stopped crying. He cleaned his tears, smiled at her as if he had finally understood what she was saying and what made her come to that decision.
And so the shepherdess made her way to the river and sat there with the intention to ask for help before going to the castle. And sure enough, not too long after a crone appears of what seem to be out of nowhere and asks the young woman what she is doing here? She says she is answering a call to go to the castle and is very determined to face prince lindworm at the altar; but she is wondering if there is something else she should do or know before doing so.
To what the crone replied:
-”Well if you are going to the castle to marry the lindworm, here is what you should know, this is what you should do and this is what you should tell them.”
The young woman turned herself away from the river and faced the mysterious old woman and gave her utmost focused attention.
-“You are going to tell them that you will marry the prince but that the ceremony will not happen before another twelve months and one day.
Then you are going to come back to this river on a weekly basis and sit here in silence for at least four hours, rain or shine at the same time that the hour where the wedding ceremony is supposed to take place. Simply sit here, and whenever a thought coming from fear emerges, all you have to do is literally ask your heart what you should do and take note of it. Sometimes the fear may come back again and again, and you will likely see how the answers from your heart may be different at times or come from a deeper place. Learn to distinguish the different voices and what their needs are. Feel how the tensions between them and how they can reach a consensus. Aim at becoming your heart’s best friend.”
The crone, paused to make sure the lady was still on the same page, then continued :
-“Meanwhile I want you to get exactly twelve dresses. And on each of them you will stitch a heart on the front of it, and make sure they are all different. You will need all of the dresses and you will wear them ALL at the same time, one on top of the other for the wedding. You may have to do some extra adjustments to make sure they all fit you. Make sure you wear one of them when you meditate. One for each month.”
Another pause arose and more instructions followed:
-“Now this is crucial; make sure to ask that in the bridal room, they should place a large bath with two buckets of lye, two robust metal brushes with hard bristles and two buckets of warm milk next to it. And closer to the wedding day, come here again and I will tell you what to do with those.
Is that understood?”
The young shepherd woman felt a shiver going up her spine that reached the back of her head. She was feeling quite some apprehension and uncertainty at the complexity of the task. But she also felt this was likely the best help she would ever get. She let out a resounding and determined “Yes!” and a hopeful smile.
And so, the young woman announced herself to the king and queen as the new bride interested in marrying the prince. By that point, the king was not really looking forward to the ceremony and could not help feeling already sorry for her. When he found out she was not officially of noble descent, he had some doubts on whether this was some sort of joke. But the more he let that sink in, the more he was pleased to not “waste” anymore royal blood, and the serpent never seemed to make a fuzz of any woman showing up at the altar, judging by the large pile of bones he was turning them all into. So in that spirit, he softened his posture and proceeded with a certain resignation that betrayed his low levels of hope.
When she mentioned she would marry but only on twelve months and a day, he thought to himself, that at least it would spare him of another public embarrassment for another circle around the sun. And when she mentioned the brushes and buckets next to the bath, he was already numb by the whole thing and agreed, then deferred the handling of those minor details to his ministers. So this time, the anouncement almost became a non-event.
Weeks and months go by and the shepherdess does follow up on that practice where she sits by the river and lets her fears emerge. Refines them. Stretches them and finds nuances. Talks to them and listens to their intentions, and wants and repeats them back to make sure she got them right. Often, just more nuances and details would come of that paraphrasing. Until she would feel a very clear re-statement of the fear in a way that sounded many levels of magnitude more beautiful, legitimate and simpler from the original feeling. She could intuit their meaning sometimes by the shivers, sighs, the way she was breathing or a certain softening that would take place in various places in and around the body.
Sometimes it was very hard to talk to the fears. There would be just nothing. As if there was nobody there and the voices were not interested in being heard. But she knew there was something nonetheless as she learnt to distinguish between anger, resentment and numbness. Other times, it was like a volcanic out pour that never seem to end and that was very draining and very hard to tame. She wondered at times whether all those fears were really her own and not something that was her bones remembered from her ancestry or even the land she was living on.
But nonetheless, she was thankful for the experiences and at any moment she remembered she could always ask her heart for help. She would ask what to do and what all this meant. She would double-check she had understood clearly and what it thought the solution was.
Sometimes the answer were to simply run away. Other times, it started with hiding but turned into an intention to go back at the issues once more time had passed or waiting for help to manifest itself. And other times, the heart seemed oddly prompt to action with seemingly obvious concrete solutions to resolve the fears. For those, she spent some extra time making sure the heart knew what he was talking about and asked for more clues to be sure it was not victim of self-deception and not honoring enough the fears with respect. By the end of the following spring, she felt as if she was having a true conversation with a friend and she was looking forward for that moment.
A month before the due date of the wedding, the crone appeared again. This time they had a wonderful talk as if they had known each other for years and went for a long walk in the woods. Sometimes pausing on a log or boulder to stretch and dance or even climb a pine tree. While both were up there, the crone did provide the details on how to use the lye, the milk and the brushes and blessed the young woman by saying :
-”Just look at you! You are now such a wise woman!
Like the elder is to the adult and the adult is to the child!
I think you are ready now. But do you feel ready?”
To what the young woman simply smiled and replied:
-“I feel as ready as I’ll ever be.
And I feel that no matter what, something good will come out of it.”
The day of the wedding has arrived and the shepherdess is present at the ceremony with her bulky dresses on and a large heart stitched on the front of each and everyone of them. She is alone walking the aisle to face prince lindworm and she feels the fears bubbling up and parts of her body tensing up and others getting hot, while her hands seem to become cold and she feels like her knees are weakening. But all through out, she is just putting one step in front of the other and breathing deeply and it feels like she is chanting something to herself. At first people thought she was praying to herself. Others thought she was singing the “here comes the bride”. Others felt she was uttering some sort of incantation.
Like many times before, the ceremony was swift. Like many times before, the serpent stared at the bride and was feeding on the fear he was picking up from the chapel. Like many times before, the serpent took the bride and dragged her into the nuptial room where everything was going to come to a dramatic conclusion.
Now the woman feels the full intensity of the encounter and despite her fears, she keeps taking deep breaths in, a pause, and deep breaths out.
The servants take a last look at her, full of pity and fear. One of them makes a quick gesture on their forehead before taking a rushed and clumsy bow and proceed to withdraw themselves.
The door has just shut and the young woman is now alone in the room only an arm length away from the serpent. From her view, he looks enormous and her heart is pounding so heavily, she feels her hair on her arms standing up and tries to remain composed through her deep breathing. The serpent comes now even closer and it seems like because he had no human for lunch in a few years, he wants to taste every particle of fear, and perfume in the air before squeezing her and gobbling her up. He coils around her slowly and in his mind, he’s already feeling her bones crushing along his outer and inner body. He had in previous occasions simply jumped unto his victims in a split second and was over with them in almost no time, but now he feels he can be a bit playful. So, he deliberately starts to apply pressure in the hope of feeling her gasping, or even better, let out a high pitch scream that would vibrate through out his spine; but then would release his hold for a minute or two and then start again his torture. He would do that again with slightly higher levels of intensity. After what seemed to be the fifth time, all through this, the young woman remained composed. She would be letting out gasps and groans and screams but was always going back to her breathwork and quiet chanting.
He remembered how the brides clothing could upset his digestion and this time it seems the newbride was carrying extra heavy ones. He thought now it was time for this to be over and felt he would ask the ultimate token of his dominance over a human soul by asking her to surrender themselves to him and take of her dress.
To what she looked straight back at him and replied without hesitation:
-”I will take off ONE of my dresses, if you take off one of YOUR sets of scales.”
The serpent that was hissing from the back on his throat and about to give the coup de grace suddenly stopped making any noises. Seemed to pause. Then replied confused and intrigued:
-”No one has EVER said this to me before!” then tried to dismiss what he had heard and repeated his demand to undress but it was too late. By this reaction, the young woman had already gotten the message that she had landed an important point of leverage. And thus she simply stated again:
-”I will take off ONE of my dresses, only if you take off one of YOUR sets of scales.”
The serpent moved further back and thought to himself: “Well, how hard can this be? I am still the mightiest being in these land, kingdom and beyond if I take off one of my sets of scales. I am tough enough.” With this in mind, the serpent starts his convulsions. He rotates and rubs himself against the walls, furniture, rugs and floors. You can tell this is not a pleasant experience for the serpent. After what seems to be like half an hour of struggle, the reptile has now shed one layer of his scales. He looks tired by the process and shortly after and without words, the young woman effortlessly removes one dress. She picks it up from the floor, folds it and places it on the nearby table nicely as if it was about to be put for display later. She is now looking like almost nothing had happened. Except that now she has a slightly different dress with a slightly different heart stitched to the front and appears to wait now for the serpent’s reaction.
He simply says:
-“Now take that dress out too! I am hungry!”
To what the young woman replies with an equal calm tone as she did before:
-”I will take off ONE of my dresses, if you take off one of YOUR sets of scales.”
Now the serpents is back to hissing and they now start to sound like growls. He is again caught up in convulsions, twists, and almost knots that start damaging parts of the nearby furniture. You can feel this new round of the exercise is quite harder than the previous one and seems to be taking longer. When he is finally done, she nodes calmly and again simply takes off another dress, folds it nicely and places it right next to the previous one and is now displaying yet another version of the same dress with yet another version of the heart on it. The lindworm releases now a louder growl and asks her how many layers has she got still to go? With a defiant look she replies :
-“Only a few more. Feel free to eat me up as I am now if you want…” The look she had then hinted that she was also dead serious and was willing to surrender at any moment and was not displaying any of traditional signs of fear he was accustomed to.
The serpent whipped his tail and hit the ground in protest in a last ditch effort to impress what should have been his delicacy. The thunder clap that rang out was so potent, that the windows, shelves and wall decorations were shaken in the room. Everything around them took some extra moments to settle back to stillness but the young woman managed to remain composed all throughout.
As the tension stretched to what seemed to be an eternity, the serpent prepared himself to yet another round of convulsions to remove another set on his scales. This time the scene was not pretty at all. The grunts and hisses that went along the contortions revealed that this time the serpent was going through hell. It was as if the beast had deep and fresh wounds beaten again and again hinting that his levels of pain could be reaching an exponential scale. He felt that each time he thought he had reached a new threshold, another higher one was experienced not so long after.
Again the removal of a set of the serpent’s scales seemed to be taking longer and longer.
Again the level of sheer misery and pain seemed to be getting higher and higher. Again when done, this was contrasted with the effortless and swift manner that the shepherdess removed one of her dresses.
Again the calm and composure displayed by the woman seemed to anger and frustrate the serpent even more each time.
His anger turned eventually into rage. After another few more rounds his rage turned into fury.
A few hours had passed since they first entered the room and started this little game of daring to show whom can outlast the other, where the young and seemingly weak prey clearly was having an advantage. And by the time she had only one dress left, the serpent no longer looked like a serpent. It looked more like a human size greenish and translucent slimy worm full of goo that could barely find his way on the floor.
The young woman, took a moment to give herself a rest. Went to the table to pour herself a large cup of water. Skoled it down. Slammed the cup on the table. Wiped her mouth with her upper arm. Took another deep breath and released a gasp of relief. Rolled up her sleeves. Took a towel from the bath and picked up the fragile lindworm and placed it in the bath. She poured the two buckets of lye into the bath. Grabbed the gooey lindworm with the towel in the bath and started scrubbing vigorously with the metal brush along his body.
This was now a whole other level of screeching and screaming that the young woman had to go through. But the lindworm would twist and recoil all he liked, he was not going anywhere until she was done scrubbing. For what seemed to be the end of another two hours, something else emerged. Now it was no longer a repugnant translucent and gooey worm, but a dirty young adult man that looked like it had lived naked in the woods for many years and had wounds and scars all over his body and had long dirty and messy black hair.
It must have been the middle of the night when the young woman took another short break to grab another drink and again took another deep breath before she went to pour the buckets of milk unto the bath. This time she uses the towel to gently bath the young man. Now they both look more relaxed and she is now a bit more playful with the process. He lets out a giggle. She teases him and starts making comments on his appearance. It’s now nearly five in the morning when she looks at him in a very different way and seems to enjoy combing his hair and removing his knots. Now he does not make a single move as she goes through the process.
Then she stopped, and asks him to stand up. She goes back to the table and this time pours herself a glass of wine. She drinks from the glass while looking back at him through the mirror and gazes his torso and lower back. She brings him the cup for him to drink and while he accepts, she takes a step back and removes her last dress and lets it fall on the floor. They both stare into each others eyes and both seem to contemplate what they both went through tonight. She now joins him in the bath, turns her back at him and hints at laying on the bath together with his arms wrapped around her.
The morning is now rising and not a word has being uttered by either of them in hours. Only sighs of relief and gentle moans can sometimes be heard in between the lapping sounds. Then they both wrap each other in large towels and make their way to the large nuptial bed.
It is now mid-morning when the servants knock at the door and are expecting to go clean and collect a pile of bones like the previous dozen times and meet a large grumpy snake that keeps saying “Older brothers marry first”. This time, they cannot believe what they see when they discover a young and lovely couple cuddled in bed in what seems to be radiant contentment.
Now make what you wish of this ancient folk tale that came into my life and now is hopefully a bit part of yours.
But to this day; in that kingdom that is inside you, and everywhere else as well, I sincerely wish you to find:
The young woman with a cultivated heart.
And the man that learnt to shed his scales.