Creating the Webbd Wheel: Know Thyself
In which we don't look away ...
The rusalka come from Slavic folklore. They are believed to have pagan roots and are associated with crops, water, and Baba Yaga. In keeping with their connection to water, they’ve been described as having tails, like a mermaid.
Well. How could I resist?
As I researched and thought about the rusalka, I imagined them as female nature guardians, handmaidens to Baba Yaga who could shapeshift and spend their time doing magical things such as sitting in birch trees combing out their hair and weaving fine linen.
I also pictured them as dancers.
One of the many things that intrigues me about paganism is the authenticity of it. The old Gods and Goddesses were earthy and genuine, without the more modern overlays of shame and guilt about living in a body and sexuality. Sometimes they were terrifying, sometimes bloody and violent, often unjust and dishonest. As they were imagined by humans, theirs was the power of nature without the benefits of filters, photoshopping, airbrushing, and the other tools we use to pretend we’re something we’re not.
I’ve long recognized the enormous power in knowing, accepting, and loving ourselves in our entirety: our temptations, our wounds, our feelings, our desires, our choices and our demons. To say we are imperfect is redundant if we simply embrace and celebrate our humanity.
The rusalka, as well as other characters in the Webbd Wheel, illustrate my rebellion against social demands for inauthenticity in general and the oppression of female authenticity in particular. A healthy woman is much more than a pretty, obedient object. The most read post on my blog is “Authentic Female Power,” which indicates how many women long for the freedom and safety to be truly authentic in all their aspects. This includes the power to say no, by the way. Even that small action leads to murdered women every day in our modern world.
Through the rusalka, I illustrate what females could be if allowed to live from their personal power and wild nature without fear. Giving them animal aspects and forms was a powerful way to explore the boundaries between a wild female creature and a more “civilized” one.
The Devil card in Tarot, as I’ve written before, is about authentic experience, and so is my writing. Morfran is not looking for a pseudo self or a pretty story about who he is and what his roots are. He wants the truth. And the truth is a treasure. Hence, the Firebird.
However, fully coming to terms with all of who we are takes courage and ongoing work. We all have shadows within ourselves we don’t want to explore. Both men and women experience tremendous cultural pressure to conform to certain standards of behavior and appearance.
The biggest barrier to true intimacy and connection is our unwillingness to fully know, reveal, and take responsibility for ourselves. If we can’t or won’t do that work, not only will we be unable to accept others fully in all their magnificent contradiction and complexity, we will never be entirely emotionally available to ourselves or others. Our relationships will be thin and impoverished rather than full and rich.
Morfran makes a choice to know himself, to be guided by his grandfather, Marceau, and the rusalka in further discovering who he is. This is the classic motif of the hero’s journey Joseph Campbell spoke and wrote about so eloquently. In Morfran’s willingness to be authentic, he is humbled, becomes more confident, and finds a mate. He truly embarks on manhood.
(This essay was published with post #24 of The Hanged Man.)