The Bone Chandelier - A Community Samhain Story
This story is a retelling of the collective creation of approximately 20 women of Nourishing Kin on the night of the Samhain Gathering on October 29th, 2023. Many thanks to Courtney Earl, who transcribed this story.
(B:) There was once a young girl that lived in the countryside. Every morning she woke at sunrise to walk the country roads. On one particular day she was walking past the pond and noticed that the surface of the water was eerily calm. Not a single ripple, the water looked like a giant piece of glass with a perfect reflection. The sight of it drew her closer, curiosity tugging at her to wander nearer to the water than she normally would.
She approached the water’s edge and hovered her face over the glassy surface expecting to see her own reflection. To her surprise, it was the face of an old woman that stared back at her. (J+J) She jumped back in surprise and shock, letting out a yelp that echoed on the trees around her. She darted her gaze quickly left to right, grasping for any explanation, the possibility that there was someone else around. It had to be magical, and she could see no one in sight for miles that would be the source of the witchcraft. The village lay a few miles away, but the surrounding lands were nothing but forest, rocky hills, this pond, and of course her own family’s homestead. There was nothing but silence.
(M) She gathered her courage to look again into the glassy water and confirm her eyes had seen what she thought they had seen. She slowly stepped forward again to bend her body over the water, peering into the inky black. Again, the face of the old woman appeared before her. This time, the old woman’s hands reached up out of the water. The girl could not move back in time as the woman’s boney fingers clasped the front of her dress and pulled her into the water with her.
The girl thrashed in the water, kicking and yelling. The pond being fairly shallow, she was able to pull herself back up and scramble back onto the bank. She heaved breath into her lungs with the exertion and terror that she’d just experienced. There was no old woman anywhere. Her mind raced as it sought for any explanation. ‘This could not be real! I must have dreamt this. Surely, I just fell into the water by accident. There was no one here.’
A voice, crackled and shaky, clearly spoke “But I am”.
(C) She whipped her head around, back to the water, to the tree line, down the road she had walked, and saw no one. The voice had spoken, but not into her ears. It was a voice she heard deep within her.
The voice of the old woman spoke again. “Don’t fear, child. I have bestowed a gift upon you. You now have the gift of Wisdom and Prophecy.”
“Who are you?” The girl cried out.
(A) The answer came: “I am you.”
“See that path that leads you into the forest? Follow it with my voice and I shall show you your destiny.” The girl, with the fear in her gut melting and a new trusting confidence rising in her heart, rose to her feet and began to walk the path into the trees.
She felt her footsteps squish in the mud as she followed the intuition in her mind. The pull coming from the old woman, she walked.
(H) Eventually, she came to a cave opening on the side of the rocky hill. It beckoned her to enter and she heard the sounds of women singing, chanting, and even hollering.
(C) She walked into the darkness and followed the rocky tunnel deep into the Earth, feeling the beating of a drum. The drumming sound gets louder, deeper, vibrating the ground under her feet and every cell in her body. It electrified her and she walked faster and faster until she reached the point that the cave opened into a wide cavern with high walls. There was a glow and radiating heat of the bonfire.
In the center of the large room, a group of women danced and drummed. They were naked. Even as they were aware of the young girl’s presence, they did not stop their revelry. At the ceiling of the cave ascended a large chandelier made of hundreds of bones. The woman danced, chanted, drummed, and only stopped on occasion to suck the marrow from the bones hanging from the ceiling. In the center of their circle, was the old woman.
The old woman beckoned the girl to come forward. She took her by both hands and whispered to her, “You have come for your death.”
(A) The woman began to lead her down another dark tunnel from the cavern. The girl felt a shiver down her spine, but despite this strangeness of the surroundings, she did not feel afraid. A sense of calm came over her, as if she were returning home. It was like no home she had ever known in this life, but it was like a hearthfire she had known across the ages of time.
She allowed the old woman to take her into the tunnel and lead her to an underground lake. This time the water in the cave was an electrified blue and shown lights upon the walls and ceiling of the cavern like an aurora. (Rochelle) The old woman helped the young girl undress and take steps into the water. This time, gently and willingly she submerged herself in the cold water. The old woman spoke, “In this water, you will die as the Maiden. You will become as the Mother.”
(N) When the girl emerged from the water, she was now a woman grown.
The Crone led the woman back into the cavern where the other women continued the dancing and bone marrow sucking ritual.
(K) “For your next initiation, you must be buried in Earth.” The Crone led her to a place of the ground where a fresh grave had been dug out and laid her body into the soft dirt. The woman gathered around to pile dirt on her. From her feet and arms, they covered her and packed the dirt in around her until nothing but her face was left looking up at the cavern ceiling.
She heard the drum beat continue. She watched and waited. A small slit in the cavern wall showed that the sun set, dark sky was revealed and the drumming and dancing went on. She stayed in that grave until the sun rose again.
(M) The old woman came to retrieve her as she pulled her new body out of the earth and dusted off the soil that made her bed. She felt a twinge different in this woman’s body, though it looked no different than it had when she emerged from the cavern lake. The old woman explained, “You are no longer nourished by food. You are now to be sustained by the blood of men.”
The drumming ceremony had ceased as they all prepared for nightfall, prepared for the hunt.
(Transcriber’s addition) It was the girl, now a woman, that made a plan to lure the most corrupt and evil of men from the village. She had been a very observant little girl in her time, and had listened well during her mother’s quilting gatherings as the women talked. She heard their complaints, their woes, the injustices that women had endured. She had sat helpless, listening to each woman who made themselves weak to appease their men. They had downplayed their dreams, exhausted their energy, and made themselves small to survive life in their homes. The girl dreaded the day she’d have to join them in a life she could never create for herself.
(M) That night, they set a spell to glamor leaves into $100 bills and left them outside the doorways and taverns of the most foul men in the village. They were easily tricked and gloated about their good fortune as they picked up each bait leading into the forest. Their greed and lust formed a line straight into the cave. They saw the circle of women awaiting them and clapped each other on the back for even more good luck. Money and women? This was their lucky night, they thought.
(L) Meanwhile, many wives of the village awoke in the darkness to find their husbands missing. They felt a collective sigh of relief that they were gone. They began looking from house to house. One wife would ask another, “Is your husband missing?” If the husband was good and kind, the answer was “Johnny is here with me. We are content and happy.” If the husband was trash, the wife would say, “Yes, Ricky is missing too.”
The wives of the trash husbands congregated in the center of town. They began to form a plan. “You have a large house.” One said, pointing at another. “And you have a great supply of chickens. You can sew and knit very well. You have a goat and a cow. You make a fine vanilla latte. If we pool our resources, we can all live together and raise our children and be just fine until our husbands return. Let’s pray to the Gods they never do.”
Thus, the wives were content with this plan.
Meanwhile, the women in the cave gather the men together. They lure them closer to the fire and it is with no effort at all that they push the men into the fire and let them burn. Their bones are added to the Great Bone Chandelier and the marrow is sucked out for sustenance. The dancing and drumming continues. The men will provide a healthy amount that will last for many years to come.
(B) The Woman also steps into the fire, but the fire does not burn her in her immortal body. It creates a cloak of flames about her that burns bright with all the colors. Leaping flames bite at her hair and create a crown about her head.
The old woman turns to the woman again and says, “It is time for your last and final initiation. You must now find and dance with the wind.”
With her cloak of fire, the Woman leaves the cave to look for the wind. She wanders the forest, but cannot find the wind. As she walks she is catching trees afire from her person. She circles the village and flames leap from tree to tree. Finally, the North Wind blows in and catches the fire to spread quickly in a blaze encircling the entire village. The Wind picks up the woman and blows her up into the sky, twirling and swirling and dancing among the treetops.
All of the village comes out to watch and witness. Their fear turns to awe as they realize the fire is not burning the trees, even though the entire forest seems ablaze. They watch with amazement as the woman seems to fly with the Wind until she is dropped off at the water of the pond once again. She is submerged into the water and her cloak of fire goes out.
This time, when she emerges from the water, draped in white robes, she has a light shining from her brow. She claims her sovereignty as the creator of her own destiny. The villagers recognize her as the Enchantress, Prophetess, and Seer. They shed tears of happiness that the most wicked and corrupt of their village are gone and she will guide them into a new era of peace and prosperity. Her gifts of wisdom and prophecy help the villagers and they raise their sons and daughters to not know greed and power. They all have a chance to grow and fulfill their destinies with mutual love and encouragement.
(Transcriber’s addition)
The old woman is not seen again for some time. It is when the children of the village have grown and raised their children and seen their grandchildren, the old woman’s image appears . . . on the glassy surface of the pond.
