Abundance and the needs of the “kingdom”: The Shepherd’s Nosegay fairy tale

 

This episode revolves around a Czech fairy tale that you’ve probably never heard of but I suspect you’ll recognize some of the motifs.

The story raises some interesting questions about the nature of abundance and what’s necessary to the life of our “kingdom,” the kingdom of our inner world and the outer society.

Fairy tales speak to us about common life experiences and psychological processes. They also convey cultural values, and the needs and concerns of particular times and particular places.

I think the themes and messages that show up in story after story also tell us something about our collective aspirations. I hope you finds something useful in this story.

Transcript of Abundance and the needs of the “kingdom”: The Shepherd’s Nosegay fairy tale

Hello and welcome to Myth Matters an exploration at the intersection of mythology, creativity and consciousness. I’m your host Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide beautiful crazy world of ours, I’m glad that you decided to join me here today.

In the last episode, I talked about epic myths and the Odyssey. How epic myths like the Odyssey bind together myth, history, cultural values, and identity, and considered whether or not Nolan’s new film version could perform this function for us today. I hope you enjoyed that episode, and that it gave you a little bit broader sense of what that movie could be about for all of us, broader than taking it merely as a good action story. 

Well, today I have a Czech fairy tale to share with you. I’m feeling the need for a fairy tale, and I’m Czech, and I’ve been intrigued by this story called “The Shepherd’s Nose Gay.” It’s a very innocuous title, right? And like a lot of fairy tales, this story might not seem terribly grand and yet there’s a lot in it to explore. Fairy tales have often been treated as the second-class citizens, so to speak, in the world of myth, because there are no gods involved, and yet there are plenty of supernatural presences, and lots of magic. 

And the thing about fairy tales, they compel us because they describe life experiences and psychological processes that are familiar to us. They also convey cultural values, and they speak to the needs and concerns of particular times and particular places. What really intrigues me, as someone who knows a lot of fairy tales, is the repeating themes and motifs, and how those reflect our collective aspirations, wisdom, or dreams or problems that humans have been grappling with for thousands of years around the world. 

In some ways, life changes. This is primarily a function of our technologies, and then also some of our cultural ideas. You know, we don’t live the same way now as people did 200 years ago, and yet there are so many commonalities. The fundamentals in a life, like falling in love, dying or losing people to death, being in a family, trying to belong, the things that we want and need, and the hardships that we face, these have not changed much, and I think there are some things that we really need as human beings that have been obscured by the way that we live today in this 21st century, the way that those of us in the dominant culture live, anyway.

We’ve created a world where we can be very preoccupied with what human beings do and with what we’ve made and our technologies, and these have created a deep alienation from some of the things that are most basic and essential, like our kinship with others, sharing this earth, and our need for real community. 

Now I have a feeling that you’ve never heard of “The Shepherd’s Nosegay.” It’s likely going to remind you of some other stories. It did me, and this story in my mind holds this aspiration, these aspirations, and that’s something that I’ll come back to after I tell you the story.

Now, I initially found this in a collection titled Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Czechoslovakiaby Virginia Haviland. It’s also in a collection titled The Shoemaker’s Apron: A Second Book of Czechoslovak Fairy Tales and Folk Tales by Parker Fillmore, and you can read that online thanks to Project Gutenberg. So, I will post a link to the book at Project Gutenberg with this transcript. 

Now, without further ado, let me tell you the story. I invite you to relax and listen. You don’t need to try and figure anything out. I do suggest that you note any details that call to you, moments in the story that feel compelling, or questions that arise in response to the story, because these things are clues to where you might locate yourself or find some meaning in this story right now. 

THE SHEPHERD’S NOSEGAY

There was once a king who had a beautiful daughter. When it was time for her to get a husband the king set a day and invited all the neighboring princes to come and see her.

One of these princes who received this announcement decided that he would like to have a look at the princess before the others. So, he dressed himself in a shepherd’s costume: a broad-brimmed hat, a blue smock, a green vest, tight breeches to the knees, thick woolen stockings, and sandals. Thus, disguised he set out for the kingdom where the princess lived. All he took with him were four loaves of bread to eat along the way.

He hadn’t gone far before he met a beggar who implored him to give him a piece of bread. The prince at once gave him one of the four loaves. A little farther on a second beggar held out his hand and begged for a piece of bread. To him the prince gave the second loaf. To a third beggar he gave the third loaf, and to a fourth beggar the last loaf.

The fourth beggar said to him:

“Prince in shepherd’s guise, your charity will not go unrewarded. Here are four gifts for you, one for each of the loaves of bread that you have given away this day. Take this whip which has the power of killing any one it strikes however gentle the blow. Take this beggar’s wallet. It has in it some bread and cheese, but not common bread and cheese for, no matter how much of it you eat, there will always be some left. Take this shepherd’s ax. If ever you have to leave your sheep alone, plant it in the earth and the sheep, instead of straying, will graze around it. and the sheep will graze around it instead of straying. And finally, here is a shepherd’s pipe. When you blow on it, your sheep will dance and play. Now farewell, and may good luck go with you.”

The prince thanked the beggar for his gifts and then trudged on to the kingdom where the beautiful princess lived. He presented himself at the palace as a shepherd in need of work and he told them his name was Yan. The king liked his appearance and so the next day he was put in charge of a flock of sheep which he drove up the mountain side to pasture.

He planted his shepherd’s ax in the midst of a meadow and, leaving his sheep to graze about it, he went off into the forest hunting adventures. There he came upon a castle where a giant was busy cooking his dinner in a big saucepan.

“Good-day to you,” Yan said politely. The giant, who was a rude, unmannerly fellow, bellowed out: “It won’t take me long to finish you, you young whippersnapper!”

He raised a great iron club to strike Yan but Yan, quick as thought, flicked the giant with his whip and the huge fellow toppled over dead.

The next day the prince returned to the castle and found another giant in possession of it. “Ho, ho!” he roared on sight of Yan. “What, you young whippersnapper, back again! You killed my brother yesterday and now I’ll kill you!”

He raised his great iron club to strike Yan, but Yan skipped nimbly aside. Then he flicked the giant with his whip and the huge fellow toppled over dead.

When Yan returned to the castle the third day there were no more giants about. So, he wandered from room to room to see what treasures were there.

In one room he found a big chest. He struck it smartly and immediately two burly men jumped out and, bowing low before him, said: “What does the master of the castle desire?”

“Show me everything there is to be seen,” Yan ordered.

So, the two servants of the chest showed him everything—jewels and treasures and gold. Then they led him out into the gardens where the most wonderful flowers in the world were blooming. Yan plucked some of these and made them into a nosegay, that is, a little bouquet.

That afternoon, as he drove his sheep home, he played on his magic pipe. The sheep paired off two by two and began to dance and frisk about him. All the people in the village ran out to see the strange sight and laughed and clapped their hands for joy at it.

The princess ran to the palace window and when she saw the sheep dancing two by two she also laughed and clapped her hands. And then the wind shifted and a whiff of the smell of the wonderful nosegay that Yan was carrying was blown into her window. She said to her serving maid: “Run down to the shepherd and tell him the princess desires his nosegay.”

The serving maid delivered the message to Yan, but he shook his head and said:”Tell your mistress that whoever wants this nosegay must come herself and say: ‘Yanitchko, give me that nosegay.'”

When the princess heard this, she laughed and said: “What an odd shepherd! I see I must go myself.” So, the princess herself came out to Yan and said: “Yanitchko, give me that nosegay.”

But Yan smiled and shook his head. “Whoever wants this nosegay must say: ‘Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay.'”The Princess was a merry girl, so she laughed and said: “Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay.” Yan gave it to her at once and she thanked him sweetly.

The next day Yan went again to the castle garden and plucked another nosegay. Then in the afternoon he drove his sheep through the village as before, playing his pipe. The princess was standing at the palace window waiting to see him. When the wind brought her a whiff of the fresh nosegay that was even more fragrant than the first one, she ran out to Yan and said: “Yanitchko, please give me that nosegay.”

But Yan smiled and shook his head. “Whoever wants this nosegay must say: ‘My dear Yanitchko, I beg you most politely please to give me that nosegay.'” “My dear Yanitchko,” the princess repeated demurely, “I beg you most politely please to give me that nosegay.”

So, Yan gave her the second nosegay. The princess put it in her window and the fragrance filled the village until people from far and near came to enjoy it.

Now, after that every day Yan gathered a nosegay for the princess and every day the princess stood at the palace window waiting to see the handsome shepherd. And always when she asked for the nosegay, she said: “Please.”

In this way a month went by and the day arrived when the neighboring princes were to come to meet the princess. They were to come in fine array, the people said, and the princess had ready a kerchief and a ring for the one who would please her most. Yan planted the ax in the meadow and, leaving the sheep to graze about it, went to the castle where he ordered the servants of the chest to dress him as befitted his rank. They put a white suit upon him and gave him a white horse with trappings of silver. Then he rode to the palace and took his place with the other princes but behind them so that the princess had to crane her neck to see him.

One by one the various princes rode by the princess but to none she didn’t give her kerchief and ring to any of them. Yan was the last to salute her, and instantly she handed him her favors.Then before the king or the other suitors could speak to him, Yan put spurs to his horse and rode off.

That evening as usual when he was driving home his sheep, the princess ran out to him and said: “Yan, it was you!” But Yan laughed and put her off. “How can a poor shepherd be a prince?” he asked.

The princess was not convinced and she said in another month, when the princes were to come again, she would find out.

For another month Yan tended sheep and plucked nosegays for the merry little princess and the princess waited for him at the palace window every afternoon and when she saw him she always spoke to him politely and said: “Please.”

When the day for the second meeting of the princes came, the servants of the chest arrayed Yan in a suit of red and gave him a sorrel horse with trappings of gold. Yan again rode to the palace and took his place with the other princes but behind them so that the princess had to crane her neck to see him.

Again, the suitors rode by the princess one by one, but at each of them she shook her head impatiently and kept her kerchief and ring until Yan saluted her. Instantly, the second  the ceremony was over, Yan put spurs to his horse and rode off again, and although the king sent after him to bring him back, Yan was able to escape the king’s men.

That evening when he was driving home his sheep the princess ran out to him and said: “Yanitchko, it was you! I know it was!” But again, Yan laughed and put her off and asked her how she could think such a thing of a poor shepherd.

Again, the princess was not convinced and she said in another month, when the princes were to come for the third and last time, she would make sure.

So, for another month Yan tended his sheep and plucked nosegays for the merry little princess and the princess waited for him at the palace window every afternoon and, when she saw him, she always said politely: “Please.”

For the third meeting of the princes the servants of the chest arrayed Yan in a gorgeous suit of black and gave him a black horse with golden trappings studded in diamonds. He rode to the palace and took his place behind the other suitors. Things went as before and again the princess saved her kerchief and ring for him. This time when he tried to ride off the other suitors surrounded him and, before he escaped, one of them wounded him on the foot.

He did gallop back to the castle in the forest, and dressed once again in his shepherd’s clothes, he returned to the meadow where his sheep were grazing.There he sat down and bound up his wounded foot in the kerchief that the princess had given him. Then, when he had eaten some bread and cheese from his magic wallet, he stretched himself out in the sun and fell asleep.

Meanwhile the princess, who was a bit vexed that her mysterious suitor had again escaped, slipped out of the palace and ran up the mountain path to see for herself whether the shepherd was really with his sheep. She found Yan asleep and, when she saw her kerchief bound about his foot, she knew that he was the prince.

She woke him up and cried: “You are he! You know you are!” Yan looked at her and laughed and he asked:”How can I be a prince?” “But I know you are!” the princess said. “Oh, Yanitchko, dear Yanitchko, I beg you please to tell me!” So then, because Yan always did anything the princess asked him when she said: “Please,” he told her his true name and his rank.

The princess was overjoyed to hear that her dear shepherd was really a prince and carried him off to her father, the king.”This is the man I shall marry,” she said, “this and none other.”

Yan and the merry little princess were married and lived very happily. And when the people of the country speak of the princess they always say: “That’s a princess for you! Why, she always says ‘Please’ to her own husband!”

Now, earlier, I noted that these common themes in stories, the values that come up over and over and over again, tell us something about collective aspirations and visions of a good life. Here, that common theme is one of generosity, I think. Generosity as a measure of good character and kind heart, and a source of good, even magical fortune, depending on you who you help. And there’s more here, but we’ll get to that. 

So, thinking about this in terms of the prince first, you know, in the last episode when we were talking about The Odyssey, I mentioned Zeus’s law and xenia, the ancient practice of extending hospitality to strangers, and here in this fairy tale is an echo of that ancient practice of sharing what you have with the visitor or passing stranger who is in need. In the earlier instance, Zeus’s law, you did this because the stranger might be a god, and then later, over time, in the dominant culture, anyway, maybe influenced by the Christian message about doing unto your brother, maybe you this practice evolved into a do it because it’s the right and good thing to do. But still, the possibility of supernatural good fortune lingers, and I get the feeling that this prince appreciates the personal fulfillment and spiritual abundance that generosity affords us. 

We’re simply happier and more peaceful when we’re kind and generous, right? You don’t have the sense that the prince thought he was being tested and made any kind of calculation. 

Now, in this story, there are four beggars, but we know that they’re all one because the test had to go down to the last loaf. And I find it interesting that the fourth beggar called him “Prince in shepherd’s guise.” Whatever was at work here knew who the prince really was, and this beggar knew what the loaves were actually worth to this wealthy and powerful man, and so the question was: is he willing to be kind to someone of such a lowly station and to ultimately give it all away? 

In this case, the prince exceeds the request of the beggar. Each one asks him for a piece of bread, and every time, the prince gave away the entire loaf. He’s willing to continue his journey empty-handed. What do you have faith in? I wonder, in order to make that decision. What do you think? 

It seems that the prince acts without the idea that he’s going to be rewarded, but of course he is, and he’s rewarded with the magical bread and cheese so he’ll never go hungry, and he gets more. He gets the means to satisfy all of his needs, a job, and so a place near the palace, and protection, and in combination these allow him to search out adventure, and he also gets a way to woo and win the princess. 

Now, this prince decides to disguise himself as a shepherd and go see this princess ahead of the official festivities. He goes as a shepherd, someone lowly and simple. And I think again we have this common a common theme that what is true, what has real value, is revealed when the trappings of power and wealth and social status and class are removed. The essence, what matters, the character of a person in this case, exists beyond these things, and it’s seen more clearly without them. So, we can imagine that showing up as a shepherd gives the prince a necessary anonymity, and it’s a test for the princess, for her character. How does she treat a lowly shepherd? It also shows us his character because when he decides to go see her, he is curious about more than her physical beauty. The story says he wants to go and see her, but he shows up under these unusual circumstances and interacts with her over time, without her understanding exactly who he is. 

Now, I also note that being a shepherd, well, a shepherd is a protector, right? A shepherd is a caring leader, but at the same time, this prince is lively and brave. He’s a strong young man who goes out in search of adventure, and the rude and aggressive behavior of the giants stands in contrast to the prince and his friendliness, the bloodthirstiness, and presumably a knee-jerk reaction to protect the treasure through violent means. These are qualities of a giant, something that’s not quite human. And here, as in many fairy tales, the giants assume they will prevail because they’re big, and this leads them to underestimate the prince. Interesting metaphor for our times. 

Well, so having defeated the giants, now the prince has acquired another treasure, and I imagine that if he told the king about his exploits at this point in the story that would bring him fame, but the prince sticks with his disguise and bides his time.

When the official process of selecting a husband begins, the prince sheds his disguise and now the question becomes: Will the princess and the prince recognize each other? That is, see through their social ranks and images to the person each has come to know-the true character. 

The official contest takes place three times, and each time Yan the prince arrives on a different colored horse wearing clothing of the same color: first white, then red, and then black. These colors are associated with alchemical processes, but here they appear in a reverse order from the usual alchemical formula. Are there other symbolic possibilities associated with these colors that might give us a clue as to what’s going on in this story?

These colors are also used in traditions around the world, to describe the dynamic nature of the world, the changing seasons, or interplay of elements for example, often in combination with a fourth color of yellow or blue. Here we have the three, but I think that this dynamic interplay of elements is still operable. We know that three a powerful pattern in many stories, especially fairy tales. You know the event will take place three times and THEN the change will occur.  And this is a kind of creative dialectic. 

You have the exchange between black and white, so to speak, and then there’s this third, the conversation, the potential. So, the way I’m thinking about this, like as another example, when you connect deeply with another person, whether a lover or a friend or collaborator, you’re you, and the other is the other. So there’s one and two, or black and white, and yet between you there’s a third right that rises up that is its own thing, the conversation or the marriage or the relationship or the project, and the two of you grow together by being devoted to that third, the relationship, as well as tending to yourself and continuing to learn about the other. So all three exist with their own identity, and yet there’s this overarching oneness, so the black and the white are like the typical choices, black and white, and then we have red. Red, the potential for something else, for something else that changes the relationship between those two things. 

The red is potential, and it might feel like it should be the last horse, that first we should meet the white and the black. You know, in our usual world of this or that, the conversation partners in that dialectic. But here and in many stories, the red comes first, and I think this is because it actually begins the process. Everything begins with an awareness of the potential, with an opening or a rupture in the status quo that exists between black and white. First, we realize there’s a new creativity present, and then we see what it’s working with, the black and the white, and what are those? 

Again, you can feel your way into your own meanings and examples here. I think of the white as being this sort of contemplative, innocent, pure, airy spirit, and maybe the black is what’s hidden—the depths, the compost. In any event, if you go that direction, then you have this sense that we’re talking about a transformation. You know, maybe another form of alchemical process where you have these two seeming opposites, even the prince and the princess in the most basic gendered sense, and something new that rises up that changes them both. 

So, let’s take a look at the princess. The story begins with her, with her need for a husband, and it culminates with the wedding. In many ways, see this story is actually about her, even though so much of the action involves the prince, he comes as kind of a catalyst. But who she is? And what she represents is the prima materia, so to speak, of the story. What’s going to change? And so, what is she like? 

Well, the princess is good and she’s smart. I like the word “merry” in this story. We don’t use that word very much these days but I think it suggests that she’s capable of taking a joke, of seeing the humor, of having the lightness that we need to get through things and have some perspective. She doesn’t take offense when the shepherd says, “Well, tell her to come down and meet me.” You know, she’s curious, she’s intrigued, and she’s willing to say “please.”

Now I think this is more than a formality, and I don’t get the sense that she acquiesces to this out of some sort of patriarchal conditioning, you know, that she’s going to follow the authority of the male. I mean, she’s a princess talking to a shepherd after all. I mean, rather, I think this is another form of the generosity and humility that the prince displayed when he gave away his four loaves of bread. Only here, the respect and good feeling this practice will foster is more intimate.

Like the prince, this princess seems to have a firm sense of her self-worth and what she wants, and what is truly valuable in her world. Like the prince, she knows what she wants. She recognizes it, and she’s persistent and patient. Patient until it’s time for the process to be over, which is after those three meetings. Patient until the mysterious prince is wounded, and this is the signal. What do you make of the fact that it’s the wounding that brings about the end of the testing, the wound and the mutual tending? Then the final pretenses drop. 

I said this story begins with the princess and the kingdom, and the princess represents the life of the kingdom, and I have the sense that she intuits what is necessary to that life and is searching for it as she surveys the available princes. Which brings me to the flowers, the nosegay. This reminds me of a fairy tale that Robert Bly popularized some years ago, called “Iron John.” 

There are a number of common elements between these two stories: a prince in disguise as a common person who enters a contest to win the hand of a princess and receives magical help, who appears three times with red, white, and black horses and gear, and slips away until his third appearance, when he’s wounded, and subsequently discovered through the persistence of the princess, who is an active agent in her destiny. 

In both stories, it’s the gift of flowers that initially attracts the princess to the young man and allows the couple to get to truly know each other without the artificial conventions of the court. In the “Iron John” story, the flowers are wild. The princess prefers the wild flowers over those grown in the royal gardens, and this symbolizes a message in the story that the natural and wild is required to bring life to an increasingly sterile, civilized kingdom. 

In today’s story, the flowers are the most wonderful, sweet, and beautiful, and they come from an unexpected place outside the kingdom, the garden previously owned by the giants. The flowers are among the fruits of the shepherd prince’s victory over them and what they represent: aggression, rudeness, arrogance, death dealing, violence. So I think again, the flowers suggest the qualities needed for the life of the kingdom: friendliness, respect, generosity, nurturing, beauty, strength, courage, and a firm grasp on value. What matters. These qualities are tested, found, and recognized in the prince and the princess, and bring them together. 

There’s a lot to think about in this story. I find more the longer I sit with it. Ideas about the kingdom of my country these days, and about the condition of my inner kingdom, and how they are related. I have one final thought about the flowers, the cut flowers in the nosegay, and generosity, those loaves of bread given to the beggars. Flowers speak to us of the abundance of the earth, a wealth of form and beauty and life, and color, and fragrance, and the shelter and the food that they offer to the bees and the birds and the other insects. Flowers are a kind of abundance that sustains the heart and the spirit as well as the body. That feeds our imagination too. That demonstrate the life force of Earth.

And yet the life of a flower is relatively short, and the life of a cut bloom is even shorter. But somehow that shortness, the transitory nature of flowers, cut or on the stem, is part of their beauty. Flowers can remind us to savor the present, and paradoxically, there’s plenitude in the cycle that a flower is part of, right? You can feel that seed to sprout, to bloom, to rot that takes place over and over and over again. The individual doesn’t last, but life continues. And what makes that possible? Where does that abundance come from? 

I’ve always hated, you know, I often hear this in the sort of law of attraction stuff that talk about an abundant cosmos, but that sets it up as if the earth is sort of like a soda machine. You know, you push the button for the flavor you want right now, and it drops into your hand, and you walk off without deeper questions or responsibilities for costs or consequences. I think that view of abundance is the ultimate expression of a kind of myopic individualism.

But there’s another view, which is that the cycle keeps going through generosity and the sense of kinship. That if I make $1 and I give it to you, and you give it to someone else, and you give it to someone else, you know that there’s this repeating and this motion, and that through that we sustain life, and we also guarantee that there’s enough for all of us. If we don’t hoard, if we aren’t stingy, if we aren’t exploitive, then the earth will give and give and give and give, and we can give and give to each other. I hear that in the phrase, “What we tend, tends us.”

The beauty, the lightness, the playfulness, the respect and courtesy, the generosity. Maybe these are all of the things that are necessary to the ongoing life of our kingdom. I have a poem for you before we close, written by someone who I think spoke very eloquently to this formulation in this time, but first I have a few announcements. I want to mention a couple of online offerings that are available to you right now. 

The first one is called Step into the Fairy Glen, and that will begin on October 10. Runs for two weeks and it’s a guided exploration of a really great, really great story. So, if you like how I work with stories in this podcast, you might want to check it out. You do this at your own pace, but within a set time frame, so you don’t have to be available at any given point on any given day. But you do move through this story with a group, and it’s really a very valuable story for anyone who is at a crossroads, who’s in transition, or feels like they’re skating on the surface of life. I will post the link to details and registration with this transcript. 

The other online offering I have available right now is a self-guided exploration of the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna and the cycle of transformation. This one is something that you do completely on your own. You could go and get it now, and then use it at any time that speaks to you. You listen to the full Sumerian story of Inanna, not only the descent part, and then use the reflection questions and prompts to go deeper into your lived experience of transformation. 

Now, I also have to mention something that’s happening in person, in real time: Greater Mysteries in the Hudson Valley. This is a project I’ve been involved with for a while, and it’s really an incredible and unique experience. Greater Mysteries this fall is two weeks of offerings that bring together the land, myth, ritual, the body, and music in community around the theme of cycles of transformation. 

I’m offering two programs in this sort of preliminary, preparatory offerings. I’m going to be giving a talk/workshop on the underworld, different dimensions of the underworld experience, and ways that it’s been imagined. I’m also going to be telling the myth cycle of the goddess Inanna, and then holding space for some community conversation about the myth.

Those two offerings take place before, as part of the preparation for the Greater Mysteries event itself. The Greater Mysteries event takes place with the new moon, September 25th and 26th. This is a communal experience that blends original music, ritual, movement, and myth at the Widow Jane Mine, which is a cave-like space that evokes the mystery caves have held for humans since prehistoric times. If there’s any way that you can be in the Hudson Valley in the next couple of weeks, I hope you will check out Greater Mysteries. This is a beautiful opportunity to explore what becomes possible when music, myth, ritual, and community meet in a place shaped by deep time. Don’t miss it. 

I’m going to post a link to these offerings with the transcript of this episode, and if you do attend and you see me, please say hello. I would love to meet you or remeet you. 

A big welcome to new email subscribers: Karen, Concepcion, Frances, Fiona, and Tony. Welcome to Myth Matters. If you are new to Myth Matters, I invite you to head over to the Mythic Mojo website. That’s where you will find information about my other offerings, and you can join the email list if you would like to receive links to new Myth Matters episodes in your inbox and receive my monthly newsletter. 

I can keep creating Myth Matters for you because I have some financial and soul support from amazing Patreon patrons and supporters on Bandcamp. I want to give a shout out to longtime supporters Jennessee and Anne-lise. Thank you, my friends, for sticking with me, not only for months but for years. And if you’re finding something of value in this podcast and you can afford to send a few dollars my way, I hope you’ll consider doing that. Take a look at my Patreon. There are a variety of ways that you can structure that, and I appreciate your support of Myth Matters in whatever form makes sense for you. 

Now, I want to share a poem with you. This is written by Wendell Berry, who died recently at age 92, I believe. Barry was an essayist, a poet, a farmer. He wrote a classic called Unsettling of America in the 1970s that’s still relevant, and Berry has been a touchstone of mine for decades. He beautifully links the stewardship of the earth and the health of the soil with the quality of our food, our environment, and our character. Berry wrote about the cultural and spiritual dimensions of every aspect of place and food and community, from dirt to plate. 

As he said, life comes from the earth, and it’s a gift conditional upon our ability to appreciate and care for it, and it’s no coincidence that we’re witnessing the degradation of human societies and our quality of health and connections at the same time that we have been degrading the land, our food, and abandoning the circle of kinship that sustains us. 

This is that generosity and respect that fuels real abundance. And it’s a hard truth. And yet, change is possible. We can change direction. We can heal it. This is “Wild Geese” by Wendell Berry. 

Wild Geese  by Wendell Berry

Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer’s end. In time’s maze 
over fall fields, we name names
that went west from here, names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed’s marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.

If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just, and life-centered, life-embracing world. 

And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Take good care of yourself and until next time, keep the mystery in your life alive.