Back in 2017, when the world was only half mad, I ran a series on the old fairy tale The Handless Maiden. It’s a gruesome tale of betrayal and trauma, but also of healing and hope. I revisited it recently to create a pdf version for my lovely readers to download and realised how relevant the story is to current events.

The story follows a maiden who is sold by her father to the devil in exchange for wealth and an easy life. He chops off her hands and then promises to take care of her – classic controlling behaviour. The maiden, quite sensibly, decides to leave and goes wandering in the forest in search of healing.

The tale has many meanings and the series explores the journey of the maiden in the context of the descent and return of a dark night of the soul. It’s about healing deep wounds and reconnecting to the wisdom of the body and the natural cycles of life. In a sense, we’re all handless maidens, lost and confused and in need of healing – some more so than others.

It’s also about how technology disempowers us, making us lazy and complacent. We look for the easy option. We hand our power over to others and this prevents us from seeing reality clearly. It’s then all too easy for us to be misled and tricked. We follow the crowd. We sleepwalk into tyranny. Because freedom is too hard.

We’ve reached peak insanity (or perhaps not yet) of the materialism that denies the soul and is obsessed with controlling nature and conquering death. The hoodwinked use modelling to ‘confirm’ their fantasy version of reality and call it ‘science.’ And the world falls into its own shadow.

Everything is now distorted into its opposite. Freedom is Slavery. Health is Sickness.

The mania to control nature and escape death can only lead to the one thing you’re running away from: death. Or a living death, a loss of soul. We’ve been in this state for a long time, at least since the industrial revolution. But you can argue it goes back to the dawn of civilisation and maybe the invention of agriculture.

More technology isn’t the answer. We can’t fix our broken mill (as in the story) by upgrading and becoming more ‘efficient.’ As Tessa Lena says in her excellent article, The Physical World Is the Only One We Have:

“Technology managed by people whose hearts are a mess, is not going to save us.”

We need a return to the heart. We need to heal our souls. Following the handless maiden on her journey into the underworld can help you to become whole and reclaim your sovereignty (your crown), so you can live with integrity and true inner strength.

This story is especially helpful if you’re struggling with the encroaching darkness of the current times.

We’re in a global spiritual emergency – an initiation into a greater life of wholeness and even joy. But we must travel through the underworld forest to get there.

You can read the Handless Maiden series here, or download the FREE pdf here.