The Maidens of the Wells
In
ancient times Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so
that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the
voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would
offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and
seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the
food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from
this service.
But
King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels
and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup
for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well
and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's
vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also,
carrying off the golden cups. And so the service of the wells ceased. The land
was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the
waters were dried up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman,
he that once made the land bright with his treasures.
After
this time, King Arthur instituted the Knights of the Round Table, who, when
they heard this story, were determined to recover the wells and protect the
damsels. They swore they would totally destroy the kindred of Amangons and his
men. But though they made vows to God, they could never hear a voice from the
wells nor could they find any damsel, for these had been pierced by the swords
of Amangons' followers or else hanged.
The
Round Table knights found damsels in the forest accompanied by well-armed
knights. One of these was captured and brought back to Arthur's court where he
told the following tale. "All of us are the children born of the damsels
whom Amangons and his men raped. These great wrongs shall never be redeemed in
worldly time. We are bound to travel in common, knights and damsels, through
this land until God wills that the Court of Joy be found, for that will make
the land bright again. Whoever seeks that Court shall find greater adventures
than were ever in this land before."
The
Round Table knights decided to seek for the Court of the Rich Fisherman, who
was a shapeshifter. Although many knights sought it and few found it, none
asked the right questions when the Hallows were processed about the hall of the
Rich Fisherman who appeared in such splendour that none recognized the
fisherman they had seen earlier that day. At that table the Grail appeared by
itself and served all who sat there, providing food in great variety.
On the day that the Court of the Rich
Fisherman was found, and the correct answers received by the seeker, the waters
flowed again, fountains which had been dried up ran into the meadows. Fields
were green and fruitful and the forests clothed in green leaf on the day that
the Court of Joy was found.1
CHAPTER
THREE
Recovering
A Feminine Standpoint: A Teaching Story
Who cannot love herSelf cannot love anybody
who is ashamed of her body is ashamed
of all life
who finds dirt or filth in her body is
lost
who cannot respect the gifts given
even before birth
can never respect anything fully.
Susan
Cooper, Daughters of Copper Woman
Story opens our hearts, nourishes our
souls, awakens our minds, refreshes our spirit. Story is the vehicle we use to
pass on wisdom that is so intrinsic to our human nature that story is the only
way we can express it. Story is in all times and in all places.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Woman
Who Run With The Wolves
The Rape of Feminine
Spirit
Like the maidens of the wells, the
voices of women's wisdom have been raped away by centuries of masculine
domination and rationalism. We thought
we could live without the feeling and intuitive, imaginative and symbolic
voices of Feminine Spirit. But like
Logres in this tale, Western culture has become a materialistic Wasteland
without the healing presence of the waters of the wells of feminine Wisdom. Wisdom.
In the last 40 years, we
have experienced the return of Feminine Spirit in all her many forms. Despite the backlash against the women’s
movement and the latest ‘war against women’ in the US, women are standing up
for financial equality with men and shattering glass ceilings. Women in business and politics are stepping
forward with innovated ideas that come out of their feminine experience, their
feminine brain and their feminine imagination.
And those companies who have women CEOs and women in higher management
are reaping the financial rewards of their innovative style. Women's voices are speaking out and being
heard, asking the right questions and giving the smart answers.
As women re-discover our unique powers
of love, interconnection, vision and healing, purpose and wisdom, we invariably
give our gifts to the people, and the world, we love. Like the Maidens of the
Wells, women give freely of our gifts to all who ask. This is our special magic
- the more we give, the more we have to give.
To understand the heroine’s journey in
the 21st Century, we have to understand that besides re-learning our
mother tongue of the imagination, women need to reclaim our unique feminine
standpoint and voice. For long
centuries, a woman’s sense of herself has been undermined by social and
religious authorities. When we look to
our sisters in the East, we are justly outraged by their plight in countries
like Afghanistan
and the brothels of Thailand. And yet, it was only 300 years ago that women
in the West were burnt at the stake for being witches and seductresses, healers
or merely old, and it has only been in the last century that Western societies
have given women the right to vote.
Women are finally ‘free’ and yet what woman feels free from all the old
prejudices and fears that seem to be programmed into our genetic code after
thousands of years of repression?
Our sisters in Afghanistan
have had to deal with the Taliban, and women in the West have had to deal with
our own inner Taliban - all those
nasty voices that judge us, criticize us and put down our self-confidence; that
create fear, depression and anxiety and that cover up our truest and best
selves. And it appears that there's an American Taliban in office in many states of our Union. We know that the patriarchal
demands on women have twisted our feminine natures to conform to masculine
standards of behavior and belief. These
inner terrorists are hard to point fingers at because they are invisible
tormentors. These inner suicide bombers would rather see us dead than free of
their old lies and beliefs.
It is only by experiencing how we are not really
free and equal to men, in the political arena, in the business world and in our
personal relationships will women come into our true freedom. No matter how successful a woman is – which
is really a measure of how well she has acclimated herself to the masculine
hierarchy – she still has to confront these negative voices, both within
herself and also in her environment, for often men still do not understand or
validate her standpoint. That is why we
must reclaim a truly feminine standpoint, and know it for what it is. Perhaps then men will stop expecting us to
be, think and act like them and finally take it upon themselves to understand
us in our true feminine form.
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