#92 | The Handless Maiden | The Second House

Currently , we've had an episode on the house itself and then a chat with Cameron Allen that went into all sorts of different places , including aspects of health and wellness , that are located here in the second , and as we have walked around this house we we maybe looked in a few drawers and and could have gone down to the basement to have a look around down

there and see what was around , and we might have found an old story down here that might just elaborate some of the themes of the Second House and that story for today , the fairy tale that I'm associating with the Second House today , is really one of my favorite stories from the Grimm Collection . It's a story that I've gone back to many times .

I've presented on this story and talked about it quite a lot . It's quite well known in Jungian circles and the story is the handless maiden , or the girl without hands .

There's so many ways that we can relate to stories and there's many , many different ways to read this story and to associate this story with different elements of the soul and psychology and the human condition and where we are in history and all sorts of different things , and I've used it in many ways over the years .

But today I'm going to specifically spend time amplifying the symbols within this story that relate to the second house .

And , as we know , the second house is about worth and value and our values , money , the relationship to money and the body and our possessions and what we possess and what possesses us , and I'm sure you'll hear , as we go along , many different elements of that in this story . So let's kick off Just like I did in the first House Rumpelstiltskin episode .

We'll look at it in terms of three distinct acts . So much like Rumpelstiltskin episode . We'll look at it in terms of three distinct acts . So much like Rumpelstiltskin .

We're going to start in the same place and we're going to start with a poor miller , and this poor miller really had fallen into such poverty that all he had was his mill and an old apple tree that was behind it .

And he was so destitute and so desperate that he decided to go out into the forest and to try his luck at cutting wood to see if he could bring in more income that way . And so out in the forest he comes upon an old man . And the old man turns to him and says Miller , what are you doing out here struggling like this ? Look , I'll do you a deal .

I'll give you all the riches in the world , just because I'm taking pity on you here . I'll give you all the riches in the world , everything you've ever wanted , and all I want in exchange is whatever's behind the mill . And of course the miller just thinks this is too good to be true . You know what great luck has come his way .

And so he agrees yes , of course you can have that apple tree that is behind the mill . Thinking to the mill , thinking to the apple tree , yeah , that sounds like a pretty good deal to me . And so the the old man lays out a contract for him to sign and he signs away whatever was behind the mill .

And when he comes back from the forest , his wife is there greeting him and says Husband , what's happened out there ? We've got all of these riches . Every time I open a drawer there's more jewels and gold and things . We're suddenly more rich than we've ever imagined . And the husband Miller says oh , this is fantastic news .

I met an old man in the forest and he offered me all the riches in the world in exchange for whatever was behind the mill . And I thought we could do without that apple tree if we're rich , right . And immediately the wife went pale with grief and said no , husband , that must have been the devil .

This afternoon , while you were out in the forest , our daughter was playing behind that mill , and it's not the apple tree he wants at all , but our daughter . And so three years pass and the devil comes to the door .

But the young girl she'd washed herself clean with water and taken some chalk and drawn a circle around herself , and so that when he came to snatch her away , it was impossible because of all the water

that she'd used and this chalk circle that was around her . So the devil went to the father and said listen , take away all water . I want there to be no water near her and I'm going to come back tomorrow and I'm going to take her .

And so the next day , the young maiden she's not able to wash herself clean , she's sitting there crying , and she's crying upon her hands . But because she's cried these tears on her hands , she's purified her hands . The devil , the canon , can't take her . He goes to the father again and says Take off her hands and I'll be back tomorrow to take her .

He goes to the father again and says take off her hands and I'll be back tomorrow to take her . And the father says I can't take off her hands . And the devil says well , if you don't do that , then I'll come for you instead . And off he goes .

So the father goes back to the daughter and says my daughter , I'm so sorry , I don't really know what to do , but the devil has asked that I take off your hands or else he'll take me instead . And the daughter says my father , I am yours , do with me what you will .

And she puts her hands out and he cuts off her hands and so when he comes to the next day , he's expecting to be able to take her now . But she's cried so many tears upon her , the stumps of her hands , that he's unable to take her still , and so he goes away without what he came for .

And the father says to the daughter I'm so sorry for what has happened to you and for your sacrifice . All of your needs will be met in this life . We will take care of you forever . We have all of the riches . You'll be safe here . And the daughter says Father . All I know is that I can't stay here .

So she has her arms and her stumps tied behind her back and she wanders off into the world . So we already have a lot of uh themes from the second house showing up in this uh , rather gruesome tale . But the grim brothers tend to paint things out for us in this way , amplify the images , as the youngians would say . And so we have this Miller .

He's in poverty and he's desperate . He has this kind of desperation to him . So when he meets the old man in the forest he's unable to really see what's going on and the deal or the exchange that is offered to him . He doesn't really understand what he's signing away , this gold and silver and jewels and all of these kinds of things .

He doesn't understand that the deal that he's making is between those dead riches and the alive riches of his connection to his own daughter and her connection to life itself . In fact , he thinks it's an apple tree that he's signing away and he doesn't think twice about that .

But even if you think about that , the apple tree is a living thing that is able to give sustenance and give resources and grow apples , really for as long as it's alive , and he even trades that for the dead wealth of silver and gold . Already we kind of get the sense that that's what's being explored here the values , the living versus the dead values .

And so he makes this distorted exchange like a corrupted transaction with the devil . But he doesn't realize what he's doing . And maybe he doesn't realize because he's in such a deep scarcity and deep lack that he's unable to see beyond the lack that he's in and he just wants a way out of his situation .

So he found a way out of his situation , but it didn't lead him into a better situation at all . The wife is much more suspicious of what's going on here . She sees the riches in the house and she appreciates these riches . But she can understand , she gets the sense immediately that something is amiss here or something is awry .

She , she does not think that this something that they have has come for nothing . When the husband is speaking of uh , what was behind the mill and thinking about the apple tree , it's like she immediately picks up on what has really gone on . She , she's able to see through that .

She's able to intuit that it's not the apple tree at all but her daughter , that the husband had signed away what was really precious and what was really valuable to the family . And in fact , as we see in the story , they do lose her in this exchange .

Even though she doesn't go with the devil , they do lose her out of the family home and they're left with that grief and that anguish and that the torture of such a trauma for the rest of their lives . But interestingly , this devil is not able to complete the exchange . And so what's going on here ?

Three times he comes back to to attempt to complete this exchange and on the second time it's her hands that get lost . What does this mean ? The hands ? The hands are the ability to feel and to touch and to grasp and to hold and the ability , in a sense ,

to connect , and so it's the feeling function , ultimately , that has been sacrificed here in exchange for these riches . So she's no longer able to feel , and if we think about this story as though it were a dream , it's like we , as the dreamer , would be no longer able to feel because we have exchanged what we have for cold riches or cold hard cash .

It's reflected also in the famous Greek story of Midas , who's granted the boon of being able to turn everything he touches into gold , which also ends in tragedy as he turns his own daughter into gold . So it's the ability to make money but the ability not to be in a relationship , in the relationship of exchange .

This is the thing about the second house and its relationship to the eighth house , because the relationship of exchange , this is the thing about the second house and its relationship to the eighth house , because the eighth house is the opposite house and it's the house of intimacy and deep sharing .

The second house is the me and mine , while the eighth house is the us and ours , and there can be a tension or a splitting off in between those in many different ways . Sometimes the gaining of riches splits us off from the ability to deeply relate in that eighth house way , in true intimacy .

And so the daughter she has her hands tied behind her back as we enter Act 2 here and she wanders off into the forest and she happens upon a castle and sees a pear tree , but all the pears in this tree are numbered and the castle itself is protected by a moat .

And as she's very hungry , by the good grace of god , an angel comes and uh , comes down to guide her across the water and she walks along and she just eats one pear with her mouth because she can't reach up to grab it , and then walks back and a gardener the gardener is there and he sees this and is terrified because he sees it as a sort of apparition

or a ghost figure . And so as the king comes down the next morning and he's counting his pears and he sees that one's missing and it's not down at the base of the tree , hasn't fallen off , and so he's confused of what has happened to one of his pears .

The count doesn't balance , the accounts haven't balanced here on his pear tree , and so he asks the gardener and the gardener says oh , I was frightened to do anything . There was some kind of angelic figure or a ghost or an apparition , I don't know what it was , but it came over and it ate one of the pears and then walked back .

And the king is very curious about this phenomenon and so , just to protect himself and the gardener , he goes and gets the priest of the kingdom and so then the priest and the gardener and the king sit quietly waiting that next night and , lo and behold , across comes the maiden , again with the guidance of this angel , and eats one of the pears , and she's

stopped by the king and the king says what are you ? Are you an angelic being ? And she says no , I'm not an angel , I'm just a human . I'm very human , actually , and a bad fate has befallen me and I've lost my hands .

And the king feels such warmth towards her that he brings her into the house and he actually marries her , and then she becomes the queen and he feels such a deep warmth for her that he has silver hands made for her and fitted to the stumps .

Now , a year goes by and the king is called off to war , and so he says to his mother if anything happens , please just write to me . And so he he goes , and a few months later a baby boy is born to the queen .

The mother writes a letter that says happy news , a baby has been born , you're the father of a prince and we're all rejoicing and gives it to a messenger .

And the messenger makes his way into the forest , but it's a long way to where the war is , and so he takes a rest by this log and while he's resting , the devil returns and takes the message and throws it away and replaces it with the message your wife has given birth to a monster .

When the king receives this message , he's obviously shocked at this news that he's given birth to a monster . But he writes a message that says everybody , just relax , take care care of my wife , I'll be back soon and we'll handle it then and then sends that message back .

But the messenger takes a rest , the same log and the devil comes back again and replaces the message with kill the child and the queen . Now , when the mother receives this message , she's so shocked and she writes a message back to him quickly saying what are you talking about ?

Sends that back and eventually another message comes back saying take out her eyes and her tongue so that I know that she's dead . And she's so shocked by this message , and so she says to the queen I'm so sorry , but you cannot stay here . You'll need to leave this place . It's not safe for you here .

And so she ties the baby to her back and sends her off into the forest . So this is the end of act two , and you can hear that we've got lots of further themes to explore . I think a particularly good theme for the second house is the accounting of these pairs . Maybe we can just start there . We have a particular ordering of nature .

That's happening with these numbered pairs . They're not allowed to just be wild and be free and have value on their own . They're only valuable as they are numbered and so they're accounted for . In this kingdom there's not such a trust of nature . There's a trust of man-made tools like counting .

We get the sense that this kingdom , in fairytale language , it's lost touch with the feminine values of the world and itself has fallen into an overly done masculine principle .

And so the king and the gardener and the priest , these three masculine figures they , the king and the gardener and the priest , these three masculine figures , they're watching and waiting and they don't really know what it is . They're even seeing when the maiden comes over . The gardener is unclear of whether it's an apparition or a ghost or something .

He doesn't really understand what it is that he's witnessing there , and so he needs these other two , the king and the priest , to be able to see .

The priest is , like the one , able to see between worlds and uh , and the king is that ruling principle , and the gardener is a connection to nature , and and none of them can really understand what they're seeing until the king is able to really sense into this person .

It's like this is who is actually missing in this kingdom , and he does his best in a kingdom like this by giving her silver hands , which is a very gracious offer to give her those silver hands and silver , as we know , is the metal associated with the moon or the lunar frequency .

So it certainly seems like they can feel , given that they're lunar , associated with the feeling function . It's like it gives her her feeling back . But of course , in reality , we know that metal hands aren't going to be doing much feeling at all . They're more just for show .

Um , so we have this sense of the feeling is perhaps beginning to come back , but it's not back yet and it's more a performative form of feeling that's available . Even to give metal hands is a sense of that hands might just be utilitarian or might just be for show and not actually have their use in the world . You can't really connect with these metal hands .

You still stay disconnected . The queen in this situation , in this second act , it's like she's going through the motions of feeling . She looks like she can feel , but of course she cannot not with these metal hands and so something has to happen .

So of course , the trickster or the devil is usually the one that might interrupt what's going on , and so the trickster does what the trickster or the devil is usually the one that might interrupt what's going on , and so the trickster does what the trickster does , and that's change . Messages move things around .

We try to send one message but a different one is received on the other end , and that happens back and forth between the king , who's at war , and the mother who's in the kingdom , and back and forth .

The messages go until things get very distorted and very violent and we see that the mother is in a place where she obviously is not going to go through with that . But she also realizes now that the maiden , now the queen , is in danger and must leave this behind .

So the first thing the maiden left behind was a situation where she wasn't valued as she was and was essentially sold for gold . And in the second situation she's still not fully valued for what she was , although she's starting to grow back something . But by you know they're silver hands , they're not gold hands . So it's an interesting element like that .

This kingdom , it feels like something that wants to invite back in feminine values .

But it's not quite sure how that works yet , and so she must leave there again , and so we enter the third act and and she wanders back out into the forest and she prays in the forest for help and the angel comes back to help her and guides her to a little hut in the forest that says here all dwell free .

And there's a maiden who takes care of her in that forest and for seven years , away from the world , in the

sanctuary of that forest , and slowly , over that time , her hands grow back .

Meanwhile the king comes back to the kingdom , but a little concerned about this monster child that he might be coming back to , but comes back and immediately is met with his mother , who's grief-stricken , and shows him the eyes and the tongue and says this is your , you , horrible man , this is what you requested .

And the king is absolutely devastated and starts to cry and just fall to the ground , way more so than the mother had anticipated , and she's like oh no , she's alive , I took this from a deer . And she said you know , because of your messages , I didn't know what to do , so I sent her away .

And so the man heads out into the forest himself in search for the queen . For seven years he searches and he doesn't take in any food or any drink and just looks everywhere , under rock , in caves , everywhere into the forest . Seven years go by and he arrives at a hut in the forest , above the door it says here all dwell free .

And a maiden sees him and says hello , king , recognizing him instantly and says you look tired , you look exhausted , you look ragged . You can imagine , after seven years of wandering . He looks wild and unruly and she offers him food and drink , but he says no , he's not going to accept any food and drink until he finds his wife and child .

And he says but maybe I will take a rest . And so he has a lie down on the bed and puts a handkerchief over his face and the maiden goes out into the other room where the queen and her son are playing , and she says your husband has arrived .

And so they walk into the other room and as the man is resting , the handkerchief falls from his face and the queen says to her son who she sorrowful , sorrowful . Will you put the handkerchief back on your father's face ? The little boy takes the handkerchief and puts it back on his face . It's the king .

Hearing all of this , he decides to let the handkerchief fall again , just to see what will happen . And the queen says again sorrowful will you put that handkerchief back on your father's face ? And sorrowful says mother , why do you keep calling him my father ?

You've told me that I don't have a father , except for our father , who art in heaven , and so I figured that my father's in heaven . And when the king hears this , he gets up and asks who are you guys ? The queen says I'm your wife and that's your son . Sorrowful . But then the king sees her living hands and says no , my wife has silver hands .

And she replies well , the good God has caused my natural hands to grow again . And then the maiden goes into the other room and retrieves the silver hands to show him . And then he knew for sure that this was his wife and this was his child , and he kissed them both and was very happy . And he said this was his child .

And he kissed them both and was very happy . And he said a heavy stone has fallen from my heart . The maiden gave them a meal together and they went back to the king's aged mother and there was great rejoicing . Then the king and queen were married again and lived contentedly to their happy end .

And so it's interesting , this number seven shows up , and as astrologers we know , seven is the number associated with saturn , because the saturn cycle is 29 and a half years and if you break that into its four it's about seven and a bit years , and it links with the phases of maturity of 7 , 14 , 21 , 22 and the saturn return of 28 and 29 and going on

into life .

And every seven and a bit , almost seven and a half years , there's this phase of maturity and a threshold to be crossed , and so it takes those seven years in this hut , away from all of the madness of the world of exchange , for the maiden to grow her hands back , and it also takes those seven years for the man to not take any food or drink , so to not

have anything that would be second house-like , to refrain from everything in this world in order to connect with everything in the other world .

It's almost like he has to dry out from all of his old ideas and really search for the feminine and really take his time with it and slow down and look under every nook and cranny and in every cave and under every rock , until he finally finds her in this hut .

Here all dwell free , and so it's in that freedom and it's interesting this word , isn't it free , which also has a connotation in the second house of what is free and what is paid for . And so she lives in the spirit of the gift , in the harmony of the gifting world , and she is just gifted by this maiden or angel .

It's almost like she enters this other world , this other dimension , and the healing occurs there , and she's able to grow her hands back there , and that's where they find each other again . Now there are many different versions of this story .

One of note is the Russian version of this tale , where , when the maiden goes out into the forest , she happens upon a stream and as she goes down to get a drink of water , the baby drops into the river .

She happens upon a stream and as she goes down to get a drink of water , the baby drops into the river , and as the baby's drifting away , she thrusts the stubs of her arms down to rescue the child and in that instant her hands grow back so that she can retrieve the child .

So this is really a story of connecting back to the flow of resources and connecting back to her instincts , in a way , because that's not something that she does through thought , it's something that she does purely through instinct and that's how her hands grow back . For those

astrologers out there who know of the trans-Neptunian object named Sedna , far , far out beyond Neptune in our solar system , the Sedna story has a similar theme to it to stay in her family of origin . So it's kind of like the opposite in a way .

She doesn't want to leave her family of origin , but her father eventually says you can't really stay here anymore , you need to go and find a husband .

And it turns out that the husband that he finds for her is a wicked sorcerer , and so the father ends up coming back to save her and as he's going out to sea with Sedna , the sorcerer causes all sorts of havoc and it looks like they're all going to die .

The father throws Sedna off the side of the boat and she clings on to the edge of the boat and he cuts off her fingers and she goes down into the depths of the arctic ocean . It's said that Sedna is this deity that many shamans will go down to the bottom of the ocean and brush her hair for her , because she can't brush her hair .

So the shaman needs to go down to the bottom of the ocean to visit Sedna , to make sure everything is okay for Sedna , because if it's not okay for Sedna , it's going to be bad for the people in the surface world , and so anytime something's going wrong in the village or something's happening , the shaman will descend into the deepest parts of that ocean and go

down and brush Sedna's hair to make sure that she's okay down there . The orbit of Sedna is something like 11,000 years , so it's that far out and it doesn't occur along the ecliptic , so it's not actually going across the zodiac . It doesn't have the zodiac as its backdrop .

You can't really put sedna on a chart , but you could connect to sedna as a story of like . When do we also need to enter that deep part of the ocean or the unconscious in order to find healing for what's going on in the surface world ? And that may include things happening in the second house , like our health and our wealth and our well-being .

Maybe things that are going on in the body aren't really originating in the body . They may be originating in those deep parts of the ocean and we might just need to go down there to see Sedna , to spend some time with her , to brush her hair , to take care of her , in order to take care of our lives up here in the everyday world .

So there are some reflections on one of my most beloved stories , the Handless Maiden , and I'm sure as you're listening in , you're going to have different takes and different symbols , are going to have different meanings to you , and so I really encourage you to sit with what comes up for you . You know what really arises for you .

That'll give you a sense of your own relationship to this story and perhaps even to these second house themes like value and worth , self-worth , what you value and what you don't value . You know , it's just an interesting reflection , isn't it ?

That what is valued in this world that this story inhabits is the gold and the riches , but not the living forms , not the , not the living beings , and I think that's worth just having a sit with . But if different images came through , I'd love to hear them . Send me a message or an email you could get on the instagram thread .

There's a few different ways to connect , but I'd love to hear them . Send me a message or an email you could get on the instagram thread .

There's a few different ways to connect , but I'd love to hear what comes through for you because , of course , this is just my own personal wanderings through this story and the intention isn't necessarily to tell you what I see .

It's to help you to imagine and dream into a story like this and see what you see , because this is the intersubjective layer of reality . It's going to occur differently for all of us , so I really encourage you to go down to that deep place in the ocean . Spend a little bit of time with

sedna . We'll see what occurs for you down there and when you come back up to the surface world , please let us know .

For those of you who know your second house , I hope this , uh , this little section , this little wandering through the second , has helped you to understand a bit more about which day it is there in your second , what's on the cusp of your second house and who rules your second house , and especially that second house ruler . Where is the second house ruler ?

What is that ruler connected to through aspects , what house is it in ? What sign is it in ? And that'll give you a whole lot more imagery to work with when pondering your own connection to money , value worth and the body . Thanks for listening . We'll be taking a week off next week and then we'll be re-entering through the third house .

I'm really looking forward to that house as the moon has her joy in the third . We're getting to that darkest part of night as we go around the houses , so I'm looking forward to wandering around in there and seeing what we can see until then . Thank you for listening to on the soul's terms podcast .

To support the show , please consider leaving a five-star review , sharing with or becoming a patron at patreoncom . Slash onthesoulsterms Until next time . And met a shepherd who won me .