The Handless Maiden
When everything is geared toward ultimate profit, the Feminine is severed
Listening to one of my favorite podcasts this week, This Jungian Life, one of the hosts read the tale of The Handless Maiden. It’s a story shared by several cultures with small differences within, but the basic story is about a miller who is approached by the devil (or some shadow figure), who offers the miller (who is poor) a ton of money in exchange for what’s behind the mill. The miller makes the deal gladly as he believes the devil means to take an old apple tree which grows behind the mill. The devil actually means to take away his daughter who is sweeping in that location at the time of the deal.
When it becomes clear that the daughter is the trade, she weeps, and through her cleansing tears, is too pure to be taken by the devil. The devil tells the miller he must now cut off his daughter’s hands so she is rendered unclean (and without agency) if the miller is to survive (and keep his new wealth).
Hands are severed and the daughter leaves her home in search of some kind of life away from the father who betrayed (and abused) her.
Later there’s a prince and he marries her as he can see her true beauty and goodness, and soon the prince is king. Some versions have the king making her a gift of silver hands so at least she’s got something, albeit less facile than human hands (and of course silver is another version of wealth).
A child is born to the queen and king while he is away at war, and through the devil’s intervention by screwing with messages sent back and forth, the queen and babe are banished and she’s on the road again.
She comes to an elder person (sometimes male, sometimes female) and for the first time in the story asks for some help. The elder person grants help in various ways including what to do to regrow her hands — sometimes it’s through hugging a tree, sometimes it’s plunging her arms in the water of the pond they sit by to save her baby — oh sometimes it’s not one babe, but twins.
They then show her a house nearby in which to stay and advice about not letting just any old person in — they must say a certain phrase three times, otherwise no go.
Finally the king, who has been looking for his queen and babe, finds the house and until he says the required phrase thrice, she holds out. He does and so she does and the family is reunited.
I’ve been feeling through and talking and musing and writing about the sharp point of patriarchy we’ve reached in the US. Besides the glaring no-holds-barred thrust by our leadership of Money + Power-Over is all that is of value and the ultimate goal, there is and has been for many decades a devaluing of The Feminine in our culture.
I don’t mean men vs. women, as we all have both energies, both sides of the brain’s hemisphere, both or all possibilities of how we perceive and act within this life. I mean the archetypal Feminine - the creative, artistic, compassionate, moony, circular, tender parts of our Self.
When you are in an environment or condition where all you see and hear — absorb — is about gaining wealth and beating out another — the whole zero-sum thing — then you become more oriented in that direction, as we have in this country for a few generations.
I’m not saying wealth itself is evil — no no — even the bible doesn’t actually say that. I’m saying the love of money, the prizing it over all human, animal and natural life is the cutting off of ALL of our hands for it.
Now is the time to consider What’s Here Now in your corner of the world. What is happening inside your home and outside that you did not consent to? Have your hands been lobbed off in the process of feeding this kakistocracy with your attention and your life-blood?
There is another choice - or many, every moment choices we can make from a different place. The first step is opening your internally seeing and externally seeing eyes — a reckoning of sorts.
Nothing of impact can happen before we see and feel what’s here now…