Click here to listen to The Valiant Course and the Soul Life in the season 2 archives on buzzsprout
Are we solitary and relatively powerless egos in a mechanical world, or do we belong to a community of seen and unseen Others? What does it mean to live the life of the soul, and why is this necessary?
“The Fire-bird and the Princess Vasilisa,” a Russian fairytale about a hunter and a horse, a king, a magical bird and a mysterious princess, offers a way into the imaginal realm where such questions can be considered.
The image is a stautuette from thr 4-3rd century BCE, courtesy of Rama on wikimedia
Transcript of The Valiant Horse and the Soul Life
Hello everyone, and welcome to Myth Matters, a bi-weekly podcast of storytelling and conversation about mythology, and why it’s important to our lives today. I’m your host and personal mythologist, Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours you are part of this story circle,
A belated Happy New Year my friends. Welcome to a new decade and the 2nd season of Myth Matters, previously known as Myth in the Mojave. 2020 is off to a busy start for me but I did find some time to sit by the fire and pet my cats during the holidays, and to reflect on what we might discover together in the coming year.
I want to give a shout out to longtime listener and patron, Rags Rosenberg, who sent me the story that I’m going to share with you today with the request that I consider it for a podcast. A custom made podcast is one of the benefits that I offer to patrons who make a monthly pledge of $5/month or more to Myth Matters, so if this sounds good to you, head over to Myth Matters on Patreon and sign up.
The story that we’re going to work with today is a Russian fairytale called “The Fire-Bird and Princess Vasilisa,” which was collected by Alexander Afanasyev. You can find variations of this story online but I do prefer Afanasyev because his telling is spare and unencumbered with distracting details that have been added by the teller. When you find a story that attracts you, I suggest that you look around for more than one version of it so you can sift the nuances. Storytellers can be tempted to embroider although I try not to do that.
On that note, let’s turn to the story. I invite you relax and listen and note the moment in the story that catches your attention. This points toward the significance the story may hold for you right now. After I tell it, I’ll share some of my thoughts about it.
“The Fire-bird and Princess Vasilisa”
Once upon a time, in a certain kingdom, there was a strong and powerful king who had ruled for many years. Among his servants was a brave huntsman who had a valiant horse.
One spring day, the brave huntsman went for a ride through the forest on his valiant horse. The trees were putting out new leaves, flowers bloomed, and the forest creatures were busy. He saw a large, golden feather lying in the path. It glittered like a flame in the sunlight.
His valiant horse said, “Leave the golden feather where it lies. If you take it, you will know trouble.” But the brave huntsman looked at the golden feather and thought, “If I bring this feather to the king, he will be pleased and probably give me a reward.” This reasoning made more and more sense to him and he did not listen to the words of his horse. He picked up the golden feather and galloped back through the forest to the palace of the King.
He went before the king and said, “My King, I have brought you a golden feather of the fire-bird.” The king looked at the feather, and then at the brave huntsman. “Thank you. The feather is very fine indeed,” he said, “as far as feathers go. Since you were able to bring me a feather of the fire-bird, you will be able to bring me the bird itself. Bring me the bird or, I swear by my sword, your head will be removed from your shoulders!”
The huntsman wept bitter tears and went to his valiant horse. The horse was waiting for him. “Master,” said the horse, “why do you weep?” “The king has told me to bring him the fire-bird, and no man on earth can do that,” said the brave huntsman. “I told you,” said the horse, “that if you took the feather you would know trouble. Well, do not be frightened yet, and do not weep. The trouble is not now; the trouble lies before you. Go to the king and ask him to have a hundred sacks of corn scattered over the open field, and let this be done at midnight.”
The brave huntsman went back into the palace and asked the king for this, and the king ordered that at midnight a hundred sacks of corn should be scattered in the open field.
Early the next morning, the brave huntsman rode out to that field. The ground was scattered all over with corn. In the middle of the field stood a great oak tree. The brave huntsman let his horse loose to wander as he pleased. Then he climbed up into the oak and hid himself among the green limbs. The sun rose. Suddenly there was a noise in the forest that surrounded the field. The trees shook and swayed, a fierce wind blew, and the waves of the ocean rose in sprays of foam. The fire-bird came flying on huge wings, flaming golden in the sun. It dropped down into the field and started to eat the corn.
The horse wandered in the field, this way and that, quietly nibbling at small tufts of grass. Slowly he came closer and closer to the fire-bird. Suddenly, he stepped on one of the fire-bird’s spread wings and pressed it to the ground. The bird struggled and flapped mightily but it could not get away. The brave huntsman slipped down from the tree, bound the fire-bird with three strong ropes, saddled the horse, and rode to the palace of the King.
The brave huntsman took the fire-bird to the king, who was very pleased.
He said ” Since you were able to bring me the fire-bird, you will be able to bring me my bride. The Princess Vasillisa lives in the land of Never, on the very edge of the world where the red sun rises from behind the sea, and she is the one for me. Bring her to me, and I will reward you with silver and gold. But if you do not bring her, then, by my sword, your head will be removed from your shoulders!”
The huntsman wept bitter tears and went to his valiant horse. The horse was waiting for him. “Master,” said the horse, “why do you weep?” “The king has ordered me to go to the land of Never, and to bring back the Princess Vasilisa.” “Do not weep–do not grieve,” said the horse. “The trouble is not yet; the trouble is to come. Go to the king and ask him for a silver tent with a golden roof, and for all kinds of food and drink to take with us on the journey.”
The brave huntsman went in and asked the king for this, and the King gave him a silver tent with silver hangings and a gold-embroidered roof, tasty foods and rich wine.
Then the brave huntsman and his horse set off for the land of Never. On and on he rode, who can say how long, and at last they arrived at the edge of the world, on the shore where the red sun rises from behind the deep blue sea. The brave huntsman looked out over the blue water and saw the Princess Vasilisa in a little silver boat, rowing with golden oars. He let the horse loose to wander where he pleased. Then he went set up the shining tent, with its silver hangings and its gold embroidered roof, and set out the tasty dishes and rich wine which the King had given him. Then he sat down to wait for the Princess Vasilisa.
The Princess Vasilisa dipped her golden oars in the blue water. She saw the tent standing, silver and gold in the sun and rowed a bit nearer to see it better. It was a beautiful sight. She rowed to the shore, grounded her boat, came up to the tent, and looked in. The brave huntsman rose and bowed before her. “Good-day to you, Princess! “he said. “Be so kind as to come in and share a meal with me, and taste my foreign wines.” The Princess sat down with the brave huntsman and ate some of the marvelous food and drank a goblet of the king’s wine, and they enjoyed themselves. The wine was strong and made her drunk. Soon the Princess was fast asleep.
Quickly the brave huntsman called to his valiant horse. He came running and the brave huntsman folded up the golden tent and mounted his horse with the Princess in his arms. They made their way swiftly, back to the palace, and she slept the whole way.
When they came to the king’s palace, the brave huntsman carried the Princess inside, and the king was very, very pleased. “Go, sound the trumpets for our wedding,” he said to his servants, “let all the bells be rung.” The bells rang out and the trumpets sounded, and the noise of the horns and the ringing of the bells woke up Princess Vasilisa. She looked around. “Why are the bells ringing,” she asked, “and what’s with the trumpets? And where is the blue sea, and my silver boat?” The Princess Vasilisa wasn’t happy.
“The bells and trumpets announce our wedding,” said the king, ” The blue sea is far away and instead of a silver boat, you will have a golden throne. ” But the Princess Vasilisa was not satisfied. “Let the one who brought me here go back to the blue sea,” she said. “In the middle of that sea lies a great stone, and under that stone is hidden my wedding dress. Without that gown, I will not wed.”
“You heard the Princess,” the king said to the huntsman. “Ride back to the blue sea, find the great stone that lies in the middle and bring back the wedding dress that lies hidden beneath it. Bring back that dress, or by my sword, your head will be removed from your shoulders!”
The huntsman wept bitter tears and went to his valiant horse. There is no way of escaping death this time,” he thought to himself. The horse was waiting for him. “Master,” said the horse, “why do you weep?” “The king has ordered me to get Princess Vasilisa’s wedding dress from the bottom of the sea.” “What did I tell you?” said the valiant horse. “I told you that there would be trouble if you picked up the golden feather of the fire-bird. Well, do not be afraid. The trouble is not yet; the trouble is to come. Let’s go get the wedding dress of the Princess Vasilisa!”
The brave huntsman rode for who knows how long, until they reached the edge of the world, where the red sun rises from behind the deep blue sea. The brave huntsman looked out over the water, but the valiant horse looked up and down the shore. It saw a huge crab moving slowly, sideways, along the sand. When the crab came close the valiant horse stepped on the crab’s neck.
“You will be the death of me!” cried the crab, “Let me live, and I will do whatever you ask of me.”
“Very well,” said the valiant horse; “this is what you will do for us. In the middle of the blue sea lies a great stone, and under that stone is hidden the wedding dress of the Princess Vasilisa. Bring us the dress.”
The crab called out in a voice and the water roiled and foamed and thousands of crabs, large and small, came from all directions. The huge crab told them what was needed and sent them back into the sea. After a little time, the water roiled and foamed again and the multitude of crabs came to the shore with the wedding dress of the Princess Vasilisa. The brave huntsman took it and galloped back to the palace on his valiant horse.
He went into the palace and gave the wedding dress to the Princess Vasilisa. The king held out his hand to the Princess but she did not take it. “No,” she said, “I will not marry you until you order the brave huntsman to bathe in boiling water.” The king ordered his servants to get a big cauldron of water and make a great fire. “When the water is at its hottest” he said, “take the brave huntsman and throw him in.”
Everything was ready. The water in the cauldron boiled and the servants took hold of the brave huntsman. “Now this is trouble” thought the brave huntsman. “Why did I pick up the golden feather of the fire-bird? Why didn’t I listen to my valiant horse?” He recalled his valiant horse.
“Wait my king” he said, “Let me say farewell to my horse before I die.” “Very well,” said the king.
The huntsman wept bitter tears and went to his valiant horse. “Master,” said the horse, “why do you weep?” “The king has commanded me to bathe in boiling water” he said. “Don’t be afraid and don’t weep,” said the valiant horse. “You’ll live.”
The huntsman went back into the palace and the servants grabbed him and threw him into the cauldron of boiling water. Twice he sank below the surface and then he jumped out of the water and turned into a man so handsome that words can’t describe him. Seeing this, the king decided to bathe in the boiling water too, and foolishly plunged into the water and died in an instant. They buried the king and made the brave huntsman king in his place. He married the Princess Vasilisa, and lived many years with her in love and harmony.
Now, let’s take a close look at this story.
First, we have a huntsman, one who goes hunting, is out looking. He’s not at home sitting by the fire. And he has a horse, a partner who shares his essential quality, bravery. Together, they find something extraordinary, a golden feather from the fire-bird, and from there, everything unfolds.
There’s a long tradition of stories about what is commonly called, in fairy tales, an animal familiar. In other traditions this animal may be called a totem animal. This describes an intimate relationship with an animal and its qualities that is both actual and metaphorical, by that I mean that it is recognized and related to through the imagination. Given all that horse knows, we might say that it is the form of what James Hillman called the daimon, the huntsman’s guide in his unfolding and spokesperson for his soul life.
James Hillman noted that it is easier for many of us to believe that we are solitary and relatively powerless egos in the world than to accept our lived experience of belonging to a community of seen and unseen Others. Beings, other beings in our interior life and the world beyond, and to see that we are guided by presences like the valiant horse. The reality of Others, of non-humans with consciousness, intelligence, and the autonomous ability to influence and shape our lives, is denied by the limited theory of a mechanical, material universal.
This distrust of our own experience and of the imaginal, another word for “soul,” is a result of centuries of conditioning in Western culture, of schooling in the limited dogmas constructed by people who’s fears and doubts, and political, philosophical, or religious agendas about “truth” became part of the Western power game. And yet, alternative understandings survive, and we have a story about a valiant horse who speaks quite clearly to his huntsman and to whom the huntsman repeatedly turns in his despair. The huntsman weeps, he surrenders to his situation, and in this state of openness, receives the higher intelligence of his guide.
The valiant horse is an integral part of the huntsman and his life, and we’ll refrain from turning the horse into a symbol and talking about what “horse” means. You know something about horses, about their beauty and speed, their willingness to partner with a rider, and the depth of their understanding, effort, and heart. You have a feeling about this horse, and an image, and that’s enough.
The horse doesn’t ask the huntsman what he wants to do with the fire-bird feather. He says, “Don’t pick it up unless you want to know trouble,” and in this way he surfaces the desire of the huntsman. “Trouble” is anther word for adventure, for the extraordinary adventure of life. Once spoken, the huntsman can’t refuse it. He is out looking around after all. He explains his desire to pick up the feather in a logical enough way—don’t we all! But there’s no way, king’s reward aside, that he can leave a golden fire-bird feather on the path and the valiant horse knows this, because he knows his rider better than the man knows himself.
And so, the story unfolds. The princess Vasilisa, like the fire-bird, is a mysterious visitor from another realm, and she must be brought to the kingdom to marry the king. Who or what is she? The missing element, something valuable and necessary. Here, one may be tempted to leave the story and bring in concepts, to speak of the “masculine” and missing “feminine” and so tell a different story about the nature of the king and the kingdom and the huntsman and what they, as “men,” must be lacking. Let’s not do that. Gender concepts are fluid cultural constructs and it’s time to embrace this, as many people strive to live this reality and the definitions become less and less meaningful.
In place of the term “feminine,” we might say that what has been repressed or denied sufficient value in the kingdom must be brought in and honored, and the one-sided nature of the kingdom is expressed in this story through the absence of a queen.
So, the huntsman is brave, the king is strong. The presence of a princess and her marriage to the one who is her equal, her proper match, takes place and they become the rulers of the kingdom. The union of male and female is a root metaphor, an archetypal image of new life, abundance, and harmony, and marriage lends this stability and the time to mature. Necessary elements come together in service to life, the life of the individual and of the kingdom.
The huntsman survives the bath in boiling water and emerges transformed, while the king doesn’t survive it. The existence of a kingdom, and a king who is replaced in this story, remind us of the collective import of our willingness, or lack thereof, to pick up the feather and allow ourselves to be guided by the imaginal, to heed the call of the soul life and listen to the horse.
If this notion of the “soul life” puzzles you, then I suggest that you begin by paying closer attention to everything and allow for the possibility that it, whatever it is, a thought or feeling or event, is more than you know and doesn’t belong to you. Allow yourself to be with it, perhaps informed by it, and resist the urge to explain it away. This is not a process of making it more personally meaningful to you either. It’s not about you. It’s a perspective that begins with curious attention to what is present.
We live in what Hillman called the cult of the self, a mythology of the personal self—me and my life, mine—so it’s easy to forget that your call, your feather, and your response to it has consequences for us all. I’ve focused on the partnership between the huntsman and the horse as I reflect on the collective transformation currently underway. Is it possible that our recognition and engagement with the life of the soul, and with what Hillman called “the soul of the world,” is the key to successfully deconstructing the corrupt paradigm and living in a new kingdom? If so, this is a move that each of us can make that is not limited by our finances or scope of influence on social media. It is a move into a deeper, richer reality. It is a move to the fullness of our humanity.
When you undergo a transformation, the world is also transformed, and I remind you that transformation is often the emergence of a new perspective. Actually, it is always the emergence of a new perspective, a new way of seeing and so a new way of showing up in the world. This isn’t easy. The king is strong. You may end up in very hot water now and again. You may feel that you are at the end. And yet, if you are like the huntsman in the story, your bravery and your valiant horse will be all that you need.
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