Antidote

We are a winter wonderland here this morning.  The snow is falling heavily upon our 100acre wood.  A fire snaps and crackles in the wood stove.  The dogs take their morning naps on the carpets while the cats roam along the backs of the furniture seeking warm laps.  A seasonal simmer in the cast iron cauldron wafts the room in fragrance.   I put the Christmas tree up on Saturday night, a bit early in anticipation of company over the next many weekends.  The lights reflected in the long windows while the snow accumulates outside completes the picture of Hestia harmony.

I love this season.  The season of pulling in and quieting down.  The season of retreat and refresh.  The time for winter tales and the cinnamon and ginger heat in tea and cookies.  The startling glimpse of the evergreens and the winter red berries against the blanket of white spread out over the landscape is ever welcomed.   

I love creating and honouring traditions.  This year the simmer cauldron is new to me.  I discovered it on a group I follow and will now claim it as a holiday or seasonal tradition.  I am told it cleanses and prepares the hearth of the home.  In these times of hangover pandemic both biologically and culturally, anything to refresh and detoxify is worth consideration. 

I read a shattering book last year by Dr. Gad Saad called The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense. He penned a masterpiece in my opinion about the mind virus that is infecting the West.  He writes of the self-delusion that clouds the truths that live in our bones.  He speaks of the parasitic mind virus that attacks reason and his little book might well be better than a vaccine for what ails us.

I got in trouble once for sharing an article in advance of a fairy tale class with my students.  I apologized and learned that without a container to receive challenging and provocative truths, the intent fails and the trolls and monsters that live under bridges rise up.  The first thing they steal is nuance. I almost got cancelled before I began.  I trust that this blog  is container enough.   

I wish I had discovered Dr. Saad’s  book prior to sharing the article.  The offending article I prematurely shared is by Nicholas Kotar, Why Fairytales Might Be Better Than a Vaccine. The article infected my students before I had met them and the ancient divide between science and spirit was constellated. My intention to be provocative and realign my would-be-students to the importance of fairytales was almost lost in the mealy.  I am not anti-science.  I am not insensitive to the fear and terror and heartbreak the years of CoVid have visited upon us all.  But, the story told and the story we tell of these times will either transmit the mind virus or offer an essential antidote. Turn to fairytales.  

I fear that we in the West are losing our grip on common sense.  A blizzard of opinions and edicts and ideologies have hit us hard and the whiteouts are blinding.  I have lost loved ones to this squall of virtue signaling and intolerance. We are losing the capacity to have engaged conversations and disagree respectfully and politely. Perhaps social media is to blame with its disembodied medium.  The nuance of affect, the quality of presence, and the warmth of heart is too often lost in the translation. Keyboard warriors rarely disagree and scroll on.  

One of my favourite fairy tales for this season is a Norwegian tale called, Valemon, The White Bear King.  It is a tale of a gentle King that is cursed by the toll hag.  He needs a bride to love him and break the spell.  Many of us are thus cursed.  We retreat into our animal nature and try and shut out or shout out the noise and the discord of the world at large. We hibernate into our fundamentalism and if only it were snowballs we were lobbing at one another over the walls that divide us.  Words.  Curses.  Cancellations.  Guns.  Bombs.  If only we could stop, breathe deeply, look up to the stars, and follow their guidance back to our truths, however humble.  If only we could learn to melt the ice that too often freezes our human hearts.        

Into my seasonal simmering cauldron, I wrote my prayers on bay leaves.  Peace.  Truth.  Joy.  What prayers would you scythe into the fragrant simmering pot?                 

https://thesymbolicworld.com/content/why-fairy-tales-might-be-better-than-a-vaccine. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X