November is here, which on Vancouver Island means misty mornings, gold and brown leaves falling, and rainy nights quickly growing longer, inspiring us to kindle our inner light as the light in the outer world fades. This brings with it a special feeling of expectation as the season turns to winter. This is our second Autumn back home in Canada, and now that we have experienced a complete turn of the year, I find myself settling into the joyful rhythm of the seasons as expressed in nature, and deepened through seasonal celebrations and our homeschool curriculum.
The rhythm of the natural world becomes embodied in our daily life through activities that connect us to our unique place in the world. With any big life change, there can be a sense of displacement and when we arrived back in Canada, I looked for a way to connect to the land and community here. We went on daily walks around the farm and surrounding forests, we began to notice what plants were flowering and what fruit was ripe. We harvested and gathered. We brought nature inside through cooking, crafting, stories and seasonal celebrations. We met friends along the way. We made connections and began to feel at home. Through this process, I realized that belonging comes from honouring the uniqueness of place and finding a way to relate to it. Our activities have helped to root us here, to make sense of this land.
After a full year of home learning with my Waldorf-inspired curriculum, we begin to anticipate favorite stories and crafts in connection to the season. This week we celebrate our inner light through lantern making, a lantern walk with family, and a special story.
At the start of this week, after admiring the Autumn colours of the ash tree we can see from our window 👆 Phoenix asked to give us a puppet show during storytime. He carefully laid out an intricate landscape of silks, nature treasures, wooden animals, and felted gnomes and creatures. When he began to tell the story, I couldn’t believe it. He was telling Spindlewood, the story that I had planned to tell this week but hadn’t shared yet. Even without hearing the story for a year, he could feel the timing of the story connected to this exact week of the year related to what he was noticing in nature. Seeing him tell this story was a wonderful affirmation that not only does he feel connected to the yearly rhythm, but he feels a sense of agency within it that has inspired him to make it his own.
Spindlewood is a story of a child who braves a dark path to find her fairy friends as they prepare to rest with Mother Earth through the winter. The child encounters 3 trees along the way that offer gifts to help her find Mother Earth’s kingdom. A Spindlewood tree offers tiny glowing lanterns to light her way, an Ash tree offers gold and silver keys to unlock the fairy realm, and a holly bush offers glistening red berries to make a necklace gift for Mother Earth.
The children were especially interested in the gifts from the trees and so we made tiny felted lanterns, modelling beeswax keys, and beeswax berries strung into necklaces. These special props added magic and whimsy to the story. I have included the full Spindlewood story below. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do 😊
Spindlewood-This story, by Charlotte Comeras, is based on a poem by Rose Fyleman, which appears in Autumn of the Wynstones collection.
In a cottage at the edge of a village lived a little girl. All through the summer, she played in the meadow with the sun fairies and the wind fairies; she watched the water fairies as they danced dreamily to the song of the stream as it made its way merrily through the meadow and on into the wide world. When they were not too busy digging and looking after the flowers and trees, the gnomes were the greatest fun to play with, for they loved to laugh and play friendly tricks with the little girl.
Now one day when the trees were changing their green leaves to golden, red, and brown, the autumn wind blew through the wood and over the meadow singing:
“Mother Earth is calling, so children, you must go,
To gather round your Mother deep in the earth below.”
All the fairies stopped their dancing and playing when they heard the call and left the meadow. The gnomes also finished what they were doing and hurried off, for they knew that now there was other work for them to do deep in the earth.
The little girl was sad when she found that all her fairy friends had gone away. As she sat wondering where they could be, a wind fairy flew by in a great hurry.
“Wait,” called the little girl. “Where are you going?” But the only answer she heard was, “Mother Earth is calling.” Then the wind fairy flew into the woods and on. The little girl tried to follow the wind fairy, but it was no use – the fairy was gone.
As she came to the edge of the wood, the girl caught a glimpse of an old, old gnome hobbling along through the trees. He could not keep up with the other gnomes, but as he was so very old and wise, he knew that if he just kept going, he would find them deep in Mother Earth’s cave.
“Wait,” called the little girl. “Please tell me where I can find Mother Earth.”
“My dear,’ answered the wise old gnome, “that will not be easy for you. You must first find a lantern to guide you, for the way is dark. If you go along the golden path, there you will see a spindlewood tree. Ask for one of its lanterns. You will also need a key to unlock the door to Mother Earth’s kingdom. If you go along the winding path, you will find an ash tree. Ask it for its magic keys. Lastly, you must bring a gift to gladden the heart of Mother Earth. If you go along the prickly path, you will come to a holly bush. Ask for some of its scarlet berries to make a necklace with.” When he had said this, the wise old gnome hobbled away till he disappeared among the trees.
The little girl went deeper into the wood, not knowing how she would find the golden path which would lead her to the spindlewood tree. Suddenly, there before her on the path, she saw a golden leaf. “Surely this must be the golden path,” she cried joyfully. And it was.
All along the path there shone a golden light which grew stronger and brighter as the little girl ran along. Soon she came to a beautiful spindlewood tree covered with tiny lanterns. She sang,
“Spindlewood, spindlewood, will you lend me pray,
A little flaming lantern to guide me on my way?
The fairy folk have vanished from the meadow and the glen,
And I would fain go seeking till I find them once again.
Lend me now a lantern that I may bear a light,
To find the hidden pathways in the darkness of the light.”
The spindlewood tree then gave the little girl a tiny lantern that shone brightly. Holding the lantern carefully, the girl thanked the tree and set off to find the winding path.
She had not gone far when very softly she heard the sound of tinkling music. As she walked on, the pathway began to wind more and more. First, it twisted one way, then another, and at every turn, the tinkling music became louder and clearer, until at last, the little girl saw a beautiful ash tree with bunches of strange twisty keys hanging from its branches. She sang,
“Ashtree, ashtree, throw me if you please,
Throw me down a slender bunch of russet-gold keys,
I fear the gates of Fairyland all be shut so fast
That nothing but your magic keys will ever take me past.
I’ll tie them to my girdle and as I go along,
My heart will find a comfort in the tinkle of their song.”
The ash tree threw a bunch of tinkling keys at the feet of the little girl. Thanking the tree, she picked up the keys, tied them carefully to the belt around her waist, and went in search of the prickly path.
It was getting darker in the wood as the trees grew closer and closer together. Soon the pathway was so narrow that the little girl could scarcely make her way. She felt the branches and leaves prickling against her legs and face. Knowing that this must surely be the prickly path that led to the holly bush, the brave little girl kept going. Just as she thought that she could bear the prickles no longer, the pathway became wider and there stood the most magnificent holly bush covered with bright scarlet berries. She sang,
“Hollybush, hollybush, help me in my task,
A pocketful of berries is all the alms I ask,
A pocketfull of berries to thread on golden strands,
(I would not go a-visiting with nothing in my hands).
So fine will be the rosy chains, so gay, so glossy bright,
They’ll set the realms of Fairyland all dancing with delight. “
Thereupon the holly bush shoot itself and many scarlet berries fell to the ground. Quickly the girl gathered them together and made a beautiful necklace. “Thank you , dear holly bush,” she said. “Now I can go to Mother Earth and be with my fairy friends again.”
The little girl looked around and wondered where the doorway to Mother Earth’s kingdom could be. Then, further along the path, she caught sight of the wise old gnome’s pointed hat disappearing down a dark hole among the roots of a huge oak tree. Holding her little lantern, the girl climbed down the hole and found herself in a tunnel at the end of which was a wooden door. Taking one of the twisty ash keys from her belt, she put it in the keyhole, where it fitted perfectly. It turned in the lock and the door swung open. There inside was a wondrous cavern. From the ceiling hung many, many lanterns like her own, and in the light, the little girl could see the smiling faces of all the fairies. Some of them had already curled up sleepily in the folds of Mother Earth’s cloak as she sat there with her arms outstretched to welcome the little girl.
Shyly, the girl stepped forward and Mother Earth lifted her up onto her warm lap. The little girl gave the necklace of scarlet berries and watched as Mother Earth, her eyes shining with joy, carefully put it on.
“Thank you, dear child,” said Mother Earth. “I have been waiting for you. The fairies have been telling me about you, and the wise old gnome said you would come.”
“May I stay here and sleep on your lap?” asked the little girl as she began to feel very sleepy.
“Oh, no, my child, Your own dear mother and father will be calling you soon and there is something I would like you to do for me.” Mother Earth reached into her deep pocket and brought out a tiny sack woven with gold and silver threads.
“Here are some precious seeds, my child. Plant them in your garden and when the shoots peep out of the earth, you will know that your fairy friends are on their way to play with you again.”
The next moment, the little girl could hear her mother’s gentle voice calling, “Wake up, my little one. You will get cold sleeping out here in the meadow.” The girl sat up and rubbed her eyes. There was something in her hand and when she looked to see what it was, she saw the tiny sack woven with gold and silver threads, and she could feel the precious seeds lying safely inside.
“Mother, I’ve been to see Mother Earth,” whispered the little girl, and her eyes were shining.
HeartSong 