Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your hair!
Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your hair! A Shamanic journey. A retelling by Maureen Walton 2014
Once upon a time there was a young woman who was pregnant. She was full of joy & felt as powerful as the great Creator herself…which she was . All her senses were peaked and presently her sense of taste flooded in, as she noticed the lush crop of hardy northern vegetables in her neighbours back yard! It was rapini, also known as rapunzel. So nourishing and green! Her dear partner, wishing to please, leapt the fence and gathered a big armful. ‘Not so fast’ came a voice! It was the gardens owner. ‘If only you had asked I would have given but this is a transgression that needs payment’. The old woman made him promise to give up his baby when she was seven years old.
Partly out of fear & partly from careless thinking that she would forget, or be dead in seven years, he agreed.
So time past and one day the old woman knocked on their door & before you could wink ,she had whisked the child away by magic.
The old woman took her to a hidden sanctuary situated on a powerful fault line in a forest. It was an ancient stone tower and had two rooms at the top and a little balcony. This was where oracles came to spend time in deep meditation & seclusion. It was richly and comfortably furnished and held many ritual objects and instruments. Here the old woman proceeded to pass on her vast knowledge to Rapunzel. For that was her name. The old woman often sang medicine songs to Rapunzel as she combed and braided her hair. Rapunzel grew in purity & wisdom. Time passed and her hair became very long. All her power seemed to be bound up in her hair, that was never cut. The old woman would leave for extended times now that Rapunzel was older and Rapunzel would tie off her hair to the railing & let the old gal climb up, as the stairs had long ago been sealed off.
One morning after the old woman had left her, to go on a mission, Rapunzel was singing her sweet songs out over the forest , when a man appeared from out of the thick woods. Both were shocked. Both were afraid. For the young man knew only powerful witches dwelt there. And the young woman knew that her time of seclusion was over.
They studied each other for a long time and read each others field of being. In time they began to speak. And finally she let down her hair for him. After professing their love he departed, promising to return to free her.
Of course when the old teacher returned to visit her prodigy, she sensed immediately the change, the smell of her and the look in her eyes. IN a rage and in despair she cut off Rapunzels hair. As if to sever forever the student who had violated the strict law of seclusion. Then she tied off the braid and waited. When the young man returned and had climbed most of the way up to the tower balcony, he plunged to the thorn bushes below, as the old woman let go the severed braid. Then she spirited Rapunzel away to a distant dry landscape, and left her alone.
So began the young couples yearning , and the search for the other. The young man was blinded by the thorns and could not find his way to his own home , or to Rapunzel. He became a beggar, forever listening for the sound of her sweet voice.
Meanwhile Rapunzel retreated to the safety of the forest to give birth to their child .She emerged saftely and in time ,because of her beautiful voice, was welcomed in many town squares to sing for people and thus she & her baby were fed & given shelter.
So it was, by fate, one day that the two arrived in the same town and the young man heard his sweethearts voice drifting to his ears. He walked towards the sound and soon felt her arms around him with her tears of joy falling into his wounded eyes. This was the medicine he needed, for soon he could see once more and Rapunzel , her hair now long again, realized her power had returned.
So they returned to the young man’s own home, with their beautiful child. And do you know that he was the King of that land and she became the Queen.
And so true balance and peace reigned in that country for as long as they lived…and that’s all I know of them.