Thomas the Rhymer
About our Spoken Story Series
Because of the needs of this time —when our normal outgoing lives have changed and our social interactions, our education, and our entertainment are happening mostly in our own individual homes, ONE is offering a series of told stories for your enjoyment, healing, unwinding and to lean into the ancestral wisdom passed through tales, myths, and legends.
Our storyteller, April Thanhauser, is a member of the ONE visioning council and a life-long lover of folk and fairy tales. She tells us:
“Stories, like hearth fires and campfires have always brought people together —for sharing wisdom, laughter, tears, and comfort. No matter where our people came from, stories are part of our heritage. The traditional tales I will be telling originate from many different parts of the world, but please accept them as a gift from the old ones of our shared human culture.”
About this Episode:
In honor of Beltane, the magical cross-quarter day and joyful spring festival of the Celtic Year, we offer the story of “Thomas the Rhymer.”
Thomas of Ercildoune, a Scottish laird of the 13th century, sat under a Hawthorne tree one day at the beginning of May when the blossoms were just beginning to open. As he was singing and harping and day-dreaming, a Lady, dressed all in green, came riding on a white horse.
The magical under-world journey that unfolds from this encounter has been preserved in ballads and Scottish oral tradition for hundreds of years. RJ Stewart, a renowned scholar, and teacher of Faerie lore calls the ballad of Thomas the Rhymer one of the truly “initiatory” stories of Faerie, its symbols giving us a template for our own spiritual journeying.
Beltane was known in Celtic tradition to be one of the three times of the year, when “the veils between the worlds are thin” and communion between humans and the faery folk becomes easier.
Mara Freeman (author of Kindling the Celtic Spirit) writes, “In Ireland, Beltaine was a time when the faeries rode out of their dwelling places in the Hollow Hills within the Earth into the human world.” It is a time of fertility and creativity, a celebration of renewed life, the flowering Earth, and sweet Love.
May all of our creativity flourish, together and in harmony with our Faery kin, in service to our beloved Mother Earth!
Two resources for more on Celtic Faery traditions:
http://www.chalicecentre.net
Home - RJ Stewart Spiritual Practices for the 21st Century
Books:
Mara Freeman, Kindling the Celtic Spirit
RJ Stewart: Earth Light (and many others)
Listen to other Stories:
“East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, is a Northern story of a girl who must save an enchanted prince.
“The Magic Hummingbird”, tells the story of a drought, a famine, two children and a magic hummingbird.
“The Wonderful Healing Leaves”, tells the story of an unlikely hero who must secure healing leaves for the king from the land of no return.
“Xueda and Yinlin”, tells the adventures of two courageous young people who seek a cure for the mysterious illness which has stricken their village.
"Picking Mountain Pears", a traditional Japanese folktale, tells the adventures of three brothers who undertake a quest for the mountain pears to help their beloved mother heal from a mysterious illness.
