Whispers on the Wind: Welcome to Goddess Behavior, the podcast where ancient myths meets modern main character energy. We're your hosts, Steph and Laura. No textbooks, just great stories, hot takes, and some unhinged ancient audacity. So pour a drink, fix your crown, and step into your mythic era. This is Goddess Behavior. Okay, so today we're talking about the wind. And we're actually very excited. This is Well, it the wind took us down a path that we didn't even realize was so intriguing. Yes. That's what we'll say. Yeah. For now. For sure. it seems like ordinary and not that exciting, but it definitely took us a different direction than we thought. I'm excited. Yeah, I I mean me too. It's it's another rabbit hole for us. But if you stay with us, you can follow us on our on our adventure here with the wind. Exactly. all right, so when you're watching a movie and everything goes completely still And then the wind picks up. The leaves are blowing. someone's hair is blown out you know, crazy. the music changes and immediately you just know something's gonna happen. It shifts, yeah. There's a shift. Like in Pocahontas, you have the leaves blowing up in the wind, right? Or it maybe it's in Frozen 2, this invisible force is trying to get Elsa's attention, right? Or in Mary Poppins, she like literally comes in on the wind. The wind carries her in into London. And out. or maybe you're reading fantasy and a character suddenly feels a breeze in a place where there shouldn't be a breeze. Or smells a breeze. And you're like, How? Yeah, okay, sure. and every single time our brains go, this something important is happening here. Yeah. But why? why does the wind mean that magic is here? Why does it carry messages? Why does it know where we're supposed to go? And why after thousands of years of storytelling do we still treat like the wind like it knows something we don't? Yeah, I think that's a big piece here is I had not thought of wind as like sentient in that. Not at all. Like But at the same time we've seen it so much that I think we just know in our head, like, there's something it's not Something outside of like the normal forces working. Yeah. Yeah, I mean wind is kind of a weird thing. Yeah. You can't really see it, can't hold it. Yeah. You know? And and most of the time we don't even really think about it. Like it just messes up our hair. Yes. But humans have been giving the wind meaning for thousands of years. Because imagine experiencing it before you understood the science behind it. The trees start moving, but there's nothing there. Something touches your skin, but you can't see what's touching you. A storm can appear seemingly out of nowhere. A ship can be carried across an ocean or stranded because the wind simply refuses to blow. And if you lived in a world where gods, spirits, ancestors, and fate were already understood to exist around you, it makes sense that you would. wonder, what if the wind isn't empty? Yeah. Right? What if there's more there? Yeah, I mean across mythology and folklore, humans have turned wind into gods and spirits. We look to it for omens. We imagined it carrying messages, souls, travelers, and supernatural beings. Sometimes the wind warned you that something was coming. Sometimes it was the thing that was coming. And thousands of years later, we're still telling these stories. Fantasy authors use it constantly, a mysterious breeze, A sudden change in the weather. A voice carried on the wind. A character being pulled towards somewhere they were seemingly always meant to go. We might not consciously believe that the wind is delivering messages from gods anymore, but our stories still act like they do. Yeah. I mean I I like to think of to think of it that way, but Yeah. I think it it gets interesting here with like fate and paths and and things woven in that we're unaware of right so yeah we're gonna play whether you think they are or not yeah I carry yeah so we're gonna focus on four different winds today or functions of the wind. Yeah. so the wind as a messenger, as something that's alive, as a supernatural highway and as fate. Because once you start paying attention to what the wind is doing in our stories, you start realizing that it very rarely blows for no reason. Yeah. True. So we couldn't talk about the wind without talking about the colors of the wind. Yeah, Pocahontas. Yeah. I mean, that's like instantly what I think of, but that's just because that's what I grew up with. So maybe that's why. throughout Pocahontas the wind never really feels like background weather, right? when Pocahontas needs guidance, the wind moves her. Leaves swirl around her, they change direction, they appear during important moments. And when Grandmother Will ow is giving advice, the natural world around her almost seems to participate in the conversation. Yeah. Like she always has the leaves rustling. It's always like kinda loud, you're like, Okay, what are you saying? Wait, what? like I find it like as a like very distracting. I'm like, no, I'm trying to listen to Grandmother Willow and all this stuff is happening around me. Can we settle down, please? Disney essentially gives the wind is wind a job. It communicates. and we understand that right off the bat, right? Nobody's watching Pocahontas and sitting there thinking, wow, unusually localized weather conditions today. You know, like it's that wind. That's an aggressive wind, right? We know what the leaves mean, that they mean something. which raises a bit Bigger question, why do we instinctively understand the wind as a messenger? And this is where we need to make an important distinction before we get into the actual folklore. Disney's magical wind should not be treated as a historically accurate representation of Powhatan spirituality. The historical Pocahontas was a Powhatan woman Who lived in Sinecomico? the homeland of the Powhatan peoples in what is now Virginia. Yeah. We think we all know that Pocahontas the movie is not really Yeah, there are no waterfalls on coastal Virginia. You're not jumping off a cliff there. It's a flat beach. Yeah. Yeah. That's you know, save the mountain the state is for the west coast. That's just the geography, let alone the rest of the story. But right. I I think most of us know that it's not totally accurate. Right. And much of what survives in writing about Powhatan religious traditions was recorded by European colonists looking at those traditions from the outside. Right. So we're not gonna look at Disney's colorful leaves and say this is what the Powhatan believed because we don't have the evidence to make that claim. But there's a really interesting wind tradition from other Algonquin speaking people from the same broader region of Virginia, the potomac. Yeah, that makes sense that there would be something. It's gotta be based on something. I mean Disney does do a good job with that where it's not based off of nothing. so I'm sure when they were researching, you know, Pocahontas is like I don't know, 'cause it's such a integral part of the movie. It can't just have come from nowhere. So it makes sense. Yeah. I it's like with Frozen, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean obviously they've gotten better over time, but at the same you know, in the same breath, if you will. The the wind is such a big part of the story with Pocahontas that it makes sense that it came from an actual tradition of some kind. Yeah. And this is where things get interesting. in an early recorded Potomac Creation story. We encounter a creator figure, usually translated into English as the great hare. So like a bunny. and accompanying the great hare are figures associated with the four winds. And in some descriptions, guardians connected to each of the four directions, so north, south, east, west. So wind isn't simply random movement through empty space. It has direction, it has order, and it's woven into the structure of the world itself. so again, that does not mean Disney was secretly referencing this specific Potomac creation story when they made Pocahontas, but it gives us something much more interesting to think about because Disney's Pocahontas exists in a world where nature is constantly communicating. The trees speak, animals respond, leaves move around her. The wind seems to know when she's standing at a crossroads. And Pocahontas doesn't control any of it. She listens to it. Well, and I I think that's like what I was trying to say was like all of these Native American traditions we know have this like I don't know what the word is. Like naturism, I guess. It's like they they really have a strong connection with the the world around them. So their earth, their water, their wind. To me, like all of it adds up to like this being exactly how she would she would interact with it. Right. So in a way where it happens and it might change her path. Right. It might alter. Yeah, she might think I think, I need to do this instead. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, nature gives her signs and she has to decide what they mean based off of what the wind is telling her, right? Yeah. Which is something we'll see over and over again in the stories about wind. Sometimes wind doesn't deliver a message when words it changes a direction or something moves or it makes a sound and It carries something toward you. and the message only exists if somebody is paying attention enough to notice it. So that's our first type of mythological wind. It's as a messenger. whether it's the four directions appearing within the regional Algonquin creation tradition or Disney sending technicolor leaves swirling around Pocahontas, the underlying storytelling idea is incredibly powerful that the world around you might be trying to tell you something. You just have to know how to listen. Yeah, definitely. Especially for a group of people who are very in tune with Nature. With nature, yeah. Makes sense. So what if the wind was literally alive? Yay. Pocahontas gives us wind that seems to carry a message. but Frozen Two takes that idea one step further. Because what if wind isn't carrying the message? What if the wind is the one sending it? Right. So in Frozen Two we get Gale. Yes. And Gale is really fun. The wind spirit who, despite having absolutely no face whatsoever, somehow has an enormous amount of personality. Sure. And that's what I love about Gale. Gale doesn't speak. We never get like this little wind face floating. We don't get like an Olaf type wind. Yeah. going like, Hey Elsa, you know, like trying to communicate. Gale doesn't speak. Gale communicates entirely through movement. It pushes, it pulls, it carries things, it plays with people, it guides them, it picks things up and puts them somewhere else. And because we can't actually see Gale, Disney uses leaves and little pieces of debris swirling through the air to show us where Gale is. Yeah. Which is really genius if you think about exactly how wind works. You you can't see the wind. Yeah. You could see what it does. And somehow within thirty seconds of meeting Gale, we completely accept that an invisible force has feelings, intentions, and apparently opinions. Yeah, I mean, so we first meet Gale through Olaf, and Olaf gives Gale Samantha. Yeah, the name. So good. And Then later we get to see Gale put him back together. I know. Essentially Disney looked at a suspicious breeze and said, Okay, what if it had a personality? And mythology's response would basically be, Yeah, we've already done that. Yeah. the idea that the wind isn't simply a force of nature, but something alive, is incredibly old. And since Frozen already lives in Scandinavian inspired world, aka Norway. Yeah. It's Norway. we do a pretty good job of it, to be honest. So too. we're heading into medieval Norse tradition. Yeah. Kari isn't really a god of the wind in the same way that we call Thor the god of thunder. He's arguably more interesting for what he's for what we're talking about, because Kari essentially is the wind personified. Yeah. So Kari is like Gale. Not is Gale, but in it's probably inspired by Kari I would say so. Yeah. the wind isn't necessarily something he controls. He represents the wind itself. And his family tree makes us even better. Kari is described as one of the sons of a figure named Fornjótr And Kari has two brothers. Hlér, who is also identified with Ægir, associated with the sea. Logi, fire, and kari, wind. So we've essentially got this mythological family representing enormous forces of the natural world. Sea fire wind. Basically the elemental spirits from Frozen 2. we're not saying Disney secretly copied Kari and his brothers and turned them into Gale, Bruni, and the Nokk. But the comparison is really fun because Frozen Two is playing into the idea that humans have been playing with for a very long time. What if the forces around us aren't just forces? They what if they're actually beings? And Kari's family gets even more ridiculous in the best possible way. The Kari becomes the father of figures whose names are associated with frost and ice, including Frosti and Jökull in later genealogical traditions. So mythologically speaking, we get wind, frost to ice. And we're discussing this in a segment about frozen. Yeah. So sure? Now there's an important caveat with Kari. We don't have this enormous collection of surviving Kari adventures where he's running around Asgard having side quests with Thor and Loki. No. He's not that kind of figure. Most of what makes him interesting here comes from these Genealogies and descriptions that preserve this idea of wind as a personified natural force. It's like our primordials. Like we don't have a ton on the primordials of like even Greek mythology or even in Norse in general. Like it's they're just understood as like this is what this is. Like these are this is where these people come from and what it how it all works. Yeah. Primitive forces. Yes. And that's it. Gale doesn't need a complicated mythology either. Gale's entire character works because we already understand the concept. the wind moves toward Anna. Gale wants Anna's attention. The wind pushes something somewhere, Gale wants it there. The leaf starts swirling, Gale has arrived. And what's important to note here too is that Gale basically leads Anna and Elsa through their like family history. Right. So they're like, Well for Kari. They're trying to solve this mystery of like who their mother was was. Yes. And and the group of native individuals that she belonged to. Right. and Gale essentially leads them to find their true family history. Right. The things that have happened in the past that they were kept in the dark about. So the wind sort of leads them to this path of like learning their true history. Yeah, that's so cool. And then like we were saying about Kari being like like this genealog genealogical map essentially of the Norse mythology. It's kind of like here I'm gonna show you this too. I'll show you yours, right? And how you got your powers and all that. So it's pretty cool. That it's not it like like it didn't come out of nowhere. Right. It had a very real purpose and it was a really important one actually. Yeah I guess like we were saying with Pocahontas it maybe is less intentional and maybe just like, this will work with this character because of where she's from, right? Yeah. Where this one it feels like Okay, we looked into how we can incorporate actual tradition into a story. And it's a very big piece of this plot. Cool. Yeah. Like it's huge. Again, Olaf wouldn't have been remade had it not been for Gale. So he's been made. He's a made character. He's a made character. He really is a made character. Yeah. That's why he's so special. That's why he's special. I love Olaf. That's why we love our made characters. Yeah. Because they're the coolest. Yes. Yeah, no one has to explain why an invisible force has intention. We just accept it. humans have all have been looking at the wind for thousands of years and thinking the same thing. You can't see it, you can't grab it, you can't tell exactly where it came from, but suddenly the trees bend, water moves, the temperature changes, something brushes past you, and there's seemingly nothing there. It's not difficult to understand why people looked at something like that and imagined maybe there is something. Yeah, I mean, even if you think of like a scary movie or like it comes up all the time the wind you get a sense of something happening with wind, right? And it doesn't have to be like scary. Not necessarily, but it's it's a Something altering. It sets a mood. Yeah, for sure. It does. So Pocahontas gave us our first idea of the wind carrying messages, and Frozen gave us something slightly stranger that the wind might be supernatural. And once the wind itself becomes a character, the next question is what happens when the character decides to take you somewhere. Yeah. So I mean again, whether it's like an hot air balloon or or a really cool umbrella. Umbrella. Right. with bird handle. Yeah. yeah, sure. I think it's a parrot. Parrot. Mm-hmm. Because it squawks. Yes, that's right. That the wind doesn't just communicate with you. Yeah. It's it can bring you somewhere. It can aid you in travel. Yes. I guess a aiding is not the right word to use. 'Cause sometimes it's not good. No, that's true. Obviously humans looked at an invisible force capable of moving things across enormous distances and thought, you know what else it should be able to move is humans. Perfect. Yep. there's perhaps no better example of this than a woman who looked at normal transportation and said, Absolutely not, Mary Poppins. Love I know, I love Mary Poppins. Love Julie Andrews. I mean true. I anything she is in, I love it. Big fan. Yeah. So good. Mary Poppins doesn't take a train to the Banks' house. She doesn't arrive in a carriage she doesn't even walk up like a normal applicant for the job. No, she doesn't. She blows them all out of the water. Mary Poppins arrives with the wind. At the beginning of the story, the Banks children write an advertisement describing the nanny they want. Mister Banks tears it up and throws it into the fireplace and the Which is very witchy by the way. She very intentional throwing it in, letting it in. into the universe. But anyway. He which he of course didn't do on purpose, but it works out for us. It happens to work for us, yeah. manifestation rituals at a young age. They mysteriously disappear up the chimney. Then the next morning all these completely normal perspective nannies are waiting outside the bank's house and suddenly the wind changes. so you see the the weather vein on top of the houses on their street like shift drastically. Like it's spinning. Spinning. Crazy, yeah. and then comes Mary Poppins. And the other nannies just blow away. Yeah, they like casually kind of drifted off with the wind. And here's the really important part. Mary Poppin''s relationship with the wind isn't a one time joke and In PL Travers, original Mary Poppins, Mary arrives with the east wind and from the beginning we're told that she will remain until the wind changes. Right. I remember that. That's what she tells the children. Yeah. Which means the wind isn't just how Mary travels, it determines when she comes and when she goes. Which I think the children were like took that as like, yeah, when stuff changes she'll leave. Yeah, which you don't like that could be indefinite in their minds, right? Like you really that's no concept of time. Measure. And that's where Mary Poppin starts looking surprisingly folkloric Because long before Mary Poppins floated over London with an umbrella, European folklore was already filled with stories connecting strange winds, whirlwinds, and sudden gusts with supernatural travelers. Yeah, particularly fairies. Fun. Yes, we love our fairies in in on this podcast. in traditions from Britain and Ireland, sudden whirlwinds could sometimes be interpreted as signs of fairy activity. Imagine you're walking along and sudden suddenly leaves, dust, or debris begin spinning violently through the air. Today we look at that and think, tiny whirlwind. folklore could give you a much more concerning possibility. Something is passing through. Fairies, spirits, supernatural process processions, beings moving through a landscape humans thought they understood. And that changes what the wind represents because the wind isn't necessarily a supernatural creature. It's evidence that the supernatural are moving nearby. Does that make Mary Poppins a fairy? I like it. I like to he I like I like to think of that. Or she's like Queen of the Fairies. Queen of the fairies. Magical nanny queen of the fairy. Because Julie Andrews is a queen. I don't care what role she's yeah. And she does look like a fairy. Yeah. You can't see what's traveling, but you can see the world reacting as it passes. which sounds remarkably familiar after talking about Gale. But there's another layer to these traditions that's perfect for Mary Poppins. Supernatural winds don't always just move the supernatural beings. Sometimes they move us. Folklore is full of warnings about people being caught up and carried away, led astray, or transported by encounters with supernatural forces. And suddenly the wind becomes something much more interesting. Than just weather, it becomes a boundary crosser. Wind doesn't care about our borders. It moves through walls, through forests, through oceans, into houses, between places, and in folklore that makes it the perfect vehicle for things that don't quite belong to our ordinary world. And that brings us back to Mary Poppins. What is she? Yeah, I mean we know she's a nanny. But she's also a woman who Flies, talks to animals, jumps into magical wor She does have a a pretty cool bag there. I love her bag. It's never full. I love that. I need need one of those. We need a Mary Poppy's bag, yeah. Carpet bag. Yeah, I mean, she changes reality. She pulls those enormous objects out of her bag, right? And Apparently comes and goes according to the atmospheric conditions. Mary Poppins arrives from somewhere else. She changes everything. And then when the wind changes, she leaves again. Yeah, well it's in and it's interesting the timing of it too, 'cause it's like she resolves all the issues and then the wind changes and then she leaves. Yeah, the wind So it's like the wind knows that things have been resolved. It also is hard to say in my mind if she's the one controlling the wind. True, we don't know. Like she had resolved their sort of like family issues. Yeah. And like for the kids she had helped. Right. And then she shifts the winds and she leaves. Yeah, it could be. Did she shift the winds to arrive also? It could be or the wind is calling her to another family that needs her help. Probably. And that's kind of how it feels at the end. It doesn't feel like she controls it 'cause I feel like it's like her excuse a little bit, like to give the kids a an excuse to why she has to leave. Yeah, maybe. Now we're not saying that PL travers, sat down with a collection of fairy folklore and said, Perfect, I'll make my s nanny a supernatural fairy traveller. We don't have the con that connection to be intentional to compare his work with. Mary Poppins fits into a much older storytelling pattern. A mysterious stranger carried into your world by the wind. and I think that's why her entrance feels so magical, even though it's incredibly simple. No portals open, no spell is cast, no one's summoning her. The wind changes and suddenly Mary Poppins is there. So good. Yes. Which gives us our third version of wind. Pocahontas gave us wind as messenger. Frozen two gave us wind as a living force. And Mary Poppins gives us wind as transportation. But Mary Poppins has one major advantage. She seems to know where the wind is taking her. Yeah. Yeah, she's not bothered by it, right? Yeah. She likes it's her friend essentially. Yeah. A team. Yes. She arrives when she wants to arrive and she leaves when it's time to leave. She practically treats the wind like her own personal Uber. Yes. True. Very true. but what happens when the wind picks you up? And you didn't ask it. You have absolutely no idea where you're going and when the wind carries you across a boundary into a world that you shouldn't that shouldn't even exist. Well, we're not in London anymore. We're in Kansas and there's a storm coming. So Mary Poppins uses the wind as transportation, but Mary Poppins has control over the situation. Dorothy Gale, not so much. True. Because sometimes the wind gently carries a magical nanny across London and sometimes it yeets your entire house into another realm. Slightly different experience. Yeah. So we're gonna talk about the wizard of oz. Have to. Because how can you not with a giant tornado? Yep. Dorothy's journey is really interesting for what we're talking about. about because Dorothy doesn't decide she wants to go on an adventure. She doesn't find a mysterious doorway, she doesn't read a spell, she doesn't follow a map. She doesn't even leave Kansas willingly. The storm chooses to take her. A tornado hits, Dorothy can't make it to the storm cellar. She's trapped inside the house with Toto, and the house is lifted into the air and finally comes back down and the world is completely different. before we get into where Dorothy lands, there is an ancient mythological precedent of the idea that wind can completely determine your course of someone's journey. And for that, we're going back to the Odyssey. the Odyssey. It always seems to go back to that, doesn't it? Odysseus. Yes. Odysseus meets Aeolus, keeper of the winds, who gives him what might be one of the most stressful gifts in Greek mythology. Truly. A bag containing the dangerous winds. It's also is it isn't that in Percy Jackson? Yeah. They use it. Yeah, they do. And the back of their little boat to get away. Yeah, and then they're like, Whoa. Yeah. Another pop card's your reference. There you go. yeah. No, for sure. Aeolus keeps those winds trapped inside and allows the favorable winds to blow Odysseus and his men towards Ithaca. and it works. They get so close to home that Ithaca is basically within reach. Then Odysseus falls asleep. And his crew sees this mysterious bag and decides, you know what we should definitely do? Open open the bag. Yeah. Sounds like when your child fall asleep and your kids get into something they should The snacks. This yeah. Yeah, that's not the worst thing I was thinking. Could be worse. Like the markers or something. Open the thing we've specifically been told not to open. Open. Yeah. Wow. Because apparently nobody in Greek mythology has ever benefited from simply minding their own business. It really does seem that way. Yeah, heaven forbids sailors listen, you know? Anyway. I love it. they think Odysseus is hiding treasure. Sure. Fair. They open the bag. Pirates. The winds explode out. A storm erupts. And instead of finally reaching Ithaca, they're blown All the way back to Aeolus. One change in the wind completely changes the direction of their story. And that's important because Odysseus knows exactly where he wants to go. He spent years trying to get there. He can practically see home and none of that matters once the winds change. There's no place like home. Poor guy. He's never gonna make it. Which gives us this very old storytelling idea. You can choose where you want to go, and the wind decides actually how you get there, especially if you're sailing, right? Yeah. And Dorothy takes us and Dorothy takes that idea to an entirely different level. Odysseus is blown somewhere within his own world. But Dorothy Dorothy gets picked up by a tornado and seemingly dropped into an entirely new one. Also, can we just acknowledge that the girl whose entire life changes because she's carried away by the wind is also named Dorothy Gale. Yeah. Never thought of that until just now. Sure. As in Gale, a strong wind. And again, we're not saying that there's a conspiracy behind her name. but it is seems very convenient. because before the storm she was in Kansas and after she's in Oz. And that means that the wind doesn't just transport her anywhere, it becomes a threshold. the wind is a threshold. Yep. the thresholds are a big deal in mythology and folklore. A threshold is basically a boundary between two different states. See. Inside, outside, known, unknown, safe and dangerous, human, supernatural, living, dead. and our world and somewhere else. Yeah. Or even a world that is your Reality. Mm-hmm. And maybe one that isn't. True. and folklore loves places and moments where the boundaries become less solid. Forests, crossroads, caves, storylines, twilight, midnight, doors, bridges. They're all spaces that exist between things. Liminal spaces. Liminal spaces. We love a liminal space. We do. Somehow it always comes up, doesn't it? It does. Places where the normal rules don't they start to break down. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. but a threshold doesn't always have to be a physical door. Sometimes the weather itself marks the transition. Yeah. The sky changes, the wind rises, the storm rolls in, visibility disappears, and the familiar landscape vanishes. When something and when everything settles, you're not where you started. Which basically Yeah. Which is basically Dorothy's introduction to Oz. She goes into the storm. as an ordinary girl from Kansas and comes out in a world with witches, talking scarecrows, flying monkeys, and ruby slippers, and immediately kills someone with her house. We really don't talk enough about how chaotic that is. Dorothy's first five minutes in Oz are just that. And so for time's sake, we'll just give her story in a nutshell. She arrives, drops a farmhouse on a witch, gets handed the dead woman's shoes, and is immediately informed that another witch would likely try to kill her. Welcome to Oz. And you're like, wow, fever dream. Okay, okay, sure. but underneath all of that chaos is a s storytelling structure that's incredibly familiar. You cross a boundary and the rules change. Narnia has the wardrobe, Alice has the rabbit hole, and Harry Potter has the platform nine and three quarters. Yeah. Coraline has the little door. Yeah. and Dorothy has the wind. and that gives us another evolution. to what the wind can do in a story. So now we're seeing that it can carry someone across the boundary between worlds. Yes. So wind itself is liminal. So it's able to travel through these liminal spaces. Mm-hmm. Wind itself as a liminal object is a fun one. Uhhuh. Leminal. Entity. Yeah. Not object. Yeah. Right. Air is all encompassing. Yeah. Like we talked about last week. So why they would have that High Lords meeting Why would it be Open air building. It also for them. Mm-hmm. Where was that in the Dawn Court? Yeah. Where the birds are listening in the cages and and where there's a reflection pool that they center it all around. They might as well just talk right to him. Seriously. I like when I was reading him, I was like, Why didn't you just invite him to the meeting then? Because you're all talking to him. I know, it's so true. man. But why? Why? I don't know. Why does I don't know. Yeah. Okay. wind is actually the perfect metaphor for that. You can't hold it, you can't see it, it moves through spaces we can't. Mm hmm. Liminal. Mm-hmm. It simply passes through. And maybe that's why wind shows up so often when a story is about to change. Because the moment the wind changes, Dorothy isn't in Kansas anymore. The old rules don't apply And the story she thought she was living isn't the story anymore. Right. It's it's a it alters her reality. Yeah, exactly. But now we have to take it one step further. Odysseus tries to get home and the wind prevents him. Dorothy has no idea where she's going and the wind puts her at the beginning of an entirely new story. So what if nature doesn't just move you? what if sometimes it points you towards something? Because Dorothy gets absolutely no say in where she's going, but our next Disney heroine is given a sign. She sees it, she chooses to follow it, so the Scottish have such a different view of wind. So they actually would rather you chase the wind. Yes. True. I think there's there's actually a song in this movie. sure. Yeah. so the movie the person we're talking about here is is Merida Yes. And the song is chase the wind. okay. And you're supposed to chase the wind and touch the sky. and they want you to follow your fate. Like they talk about wind as fate. Fate. Right. That's what we're getting into. So we're we're staying in Disney, but we're leaving Kansas and heading for Scotland in Brave. Mm-hmm. specifically with the Will-O-Wisps. now before anyone comes for us, wisps are not wind. But they belong here because they introduce the final piece of what we're actually talking about. Not just nature moving us around, but the idea that nature can reveal where we're supposed to go. Well and they're floating in the wind. They're k yeah the wind carries carrying them. Yeah. It's again they're a tool the wind is using them as a tool to eat show them. Like with the leaves. Like the leaves, it's the same. Yeah. To me it works actually. Yeah. Yeah. In Brave, Merida grows up hearing that the wisps can appear and lead you to your fate. And then one day she sees them. little blue lights floating through the forest. And Merida does exactly what every horror movie repeatedly tells us not to do. She follows them in the woods. Why would you do that? Yeah. I'm not gonna do that. But but a very brave Scottish princess is like, yep. With fiery red hair. Doing it. I love Merida. She's so underrated. It's our vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Brave is great. Yeah. and the wisps lead her deeper into the forest and toward encounters that completely change the direction of her life. A little context here is she's being like forced to marry a prince, right? And all of these boys are showing I say boys 'cause they look young. they all show up to the castle and they have to like compete for her hand. Sure. And instead she just like does it herself. There's a trial I love that. An archery trial. Yeah, I need to watch this movie. And she like they're all like not hitting the mark and and it's driving her crazy. So she just like walk gets off her throne. It's so fun dressed on like she tears her fancy dress so she can like do the bow. Yeah, it's so good. Does it herself, hits it dead on and is like, All right, I'm out like you guys suck at this. I'll deal with this myself. That's so funny. so that's who we're dealing with here. She's very fiery. Yes. and is really, really upset that her parents are making her marry some like loser guy. She's like, I can do this. Why do I need a man to do this? Yeah. and so she's very open and tempted to these fates because she really wants something different for herself. Yeah. Something that's not what the path she's being put on. Right. She wants a path of her own choosing. Yeah. So when she sees these will-o wisps, she's like, Yeah, this has got to be better. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever whatever magical thing will take me somewhere different. Disney took something that was incredibly ominous in folklore and turned it into a symbol of destiny. Willow the wisp are mysterious lights traditionally associated with lonely landscapes, especially marshes, bogs, and wetlands. Mm-hmm. Interesting. we'll get there. a traveler sees a strange light in the distance. Maybe it looks like a lantern. Maybe you think there's some another traveler ahead. Maybe there's a house. Maybe there's safety. so you decide to follow it, except you never reach it. it moves, you follow it, and it moves again. And suddenly you've wandered away from the road and into something that you absolutely did not intend to be in. Depending on the folklore, these mysterious lights could be associated with spirits, fairies, mischievous beings, or supernatural forces deliberately leading s travelers astray. So basically, traditional folklore, see base see mysterious glowing lights, do not follow it. But brave, see mysterious glowing light, that's destiny, babe. Go into the forest. Yeah, I mean again, she really, really didn't want the path that her parents were putting her on. And so she wants to choose for herself. Yeah. chooses this. Yeah. She would rather go off into the woods. Yes. Than marry one of those boys. Yep. Fair. but that actually changes what makes Merida's wisps so interesting. Because they don't physically force Merida to go anywhere. They don't pick her up like Dorothy's Cyclone. They don't carry her like Mary Poppins. They just appear and she notices them and she decides to follow them. Yeah. so Dorothy's carried toward her fate, Meredith it's choosing is choosing it. She's guided towards it, right? Yeah. And that gives something gives us something that we haven't talked about yet. What if fate leaves signs? It does. 'Cause it does. Throughout mythology and folklore, people have looked into the natural world for indications that indications of what might happen next. The movement of birds, the stars, dreams, fire, thunder, birds birds birds Yes Animals behaving strangely, changes in weather, the direction of the wind. This natural world the natural world becomes something that can potentially be read. And that brings us to divination, because a seer doesn't necessarily need fate to appear in front of them with a big giant sign saying, Hey, this is about to happen. Right. They interpret. They feel it. It it's everyone sees the birds, the seer sees an omen, everyone hears thunder, the seer hears a warning, everyone feels the wind change, but the The person who knows how to read the signs asks, why change now? Mm-hmm. And suddenly Merida's wisps become part of a much bigger storytelling pattern. Nature moves, someone notices, they follow, and fate changes. And there's one tiny detail about Merida that I want everyone to remember. Her horse. Angus. Merida doesn't travel toward these signs alone. she's repeatedly moving through the landscape on the back of this enormous black horse. And I'm just going to put black horse Woman being guided towards fate in our pocket for later. Yep. because we've reached the point in the episode where I think we need to talk about something or Something else. Yes, something different. so think about how often this happens in fantasy. everything is normal, and then the wind changes. A character stops, something in the bo something brushes against them, they hear something, magic reacts, someone feels like they're being watched. someone suddenly knows which direction to go. someone is called somewhere they don't understand. Someone crosses a boundary they weren't supposed to be able to cross. And the author casually mentions the wind. And we usually don't question it. Just had a random thought in my head Az's is shadows. Our wind. Are wind personified. Mm-hmm. They move with it, they're within it. Like he controls that a little bit too. Like that's interesting. Hm, okay. Well it's a bit. Are they liminal too? Can the shadows go through those thresholds? Probably. It's atmosphere, it's dramatic, it's fantasy. Authors use weather almost like punctuation. but after everything we just talked about, I'm starting to think that we should be a little more suspicious about the wind. Yeah. I mean, when you have a death god that is like, I can smell the wind on you. Yeah you've gotta go. Why are we smelling wind? Yes. What's happening here? Right. And we've seen we've now talked about stories that use the wind to carry messages. And we've seen cultures imagine wind as a living being. And we've seen them carry supernatural travelers. And we've watched it move someone from an ordinary world into a magical one. And we've also seen how signs from nature can be connected to fate and divination. So we have aeromancy which is the umbrella term, Greek air, And Mantia, divination, for reading the sky to foretell the future. And it splits into wind specific practices. austromancy which is interpreting wind generally, anemoscopy which is studying wind direction, speed, and sound specifically. Or watching objects carried on it. So someone who is like us now, being like the wind is weird. Yeah, so we need to pay attention. This is like the study of wind broken down into two sections. Yeah. And then like I think someone along the way was like, we can observe this For it to mean something more. Yeah. one recorded method has the seer physically tossing sand or dirt into the wind after posing a question. Then reading the answer in the pattern the dust forms as it scatters. A genuinely wind as fate ritual. not just wind as backdrop for fate. Practiced across Greece, Rome and the Near East, it treated storm Sudden gusts and shifting wind as messages from the gods about what was coming. So Aeolus as a fate instrument, not as just a wind keeper. So for the Greeks, Aeolus kind of operated, I'm not gonna say as a seer, but he probably like worked with the fate side of it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alios doesn't just hold the winds in a bag. He releases them at Zeus's command, specifically to influence mortal fates or deliver omens. So these sudden gusts, tempest of So they have a meaning. Yeah, they it's winds whether it's an intervention or like a role in someone else's destiny or fate, if you will. It's not just weather. Right. So when fantasy authors repeatedly draw our attention to the wind at very specific moments, it it it's suspicious, right? We have to ask why. something I repeatedly noticed in my reread of ACOTAR Yeah, you were like the wind and I was I was like, my gosh, the wind and and it like took me back a second because they're constantly talking about the winds from the west. And I was like, what's West? Yeah. And then I was like, Hybern's West. Yeah. That's not good. No, it's not. yeah, and then when you brought it up, I couldn't help but see it too. So I think that's what led us down this particular rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah. So we were like, you know what we should learn more about? Wind. Mm-hmm. Yeah. why do I suddenly not trust it anymore? Yeah. I think in my mind I immediately associate it with I think it's like the bigger gaining knowledge or gaining information that they shouldn't have. Or like without the other people's awareness. Right. Right. it doesn't have to be in like a seer type way. Yeah. But maybe seer adjacent. Yeah, and and I think that's a big shift from like where you originally put wind in your head of like, it's the bigger forces at play, right? Like that's what I think of when I think of the but it's how they're being like wielded or like how it's being well and that's I think where we're going with it. in A Court of Frost and Starlight, Mor is at Athelwood, which is her estate outside of Velaris she's riding Ellia, and Ellia is described as th moving as fast as the West Wind. So Ellia is a black horse that she inherited from this estate. This unknown previous owner of this estate. Yeah. Yes. Who has these rare breeds of horses. Right. And Mor just loves them. Yes. So okay, pretty atmospheric wind, right? Like sure. Could mean absolutely nothing, except when Mor starts thinking about leaving, about the continent, about traveling to kingdoms that she have been closed off for years, and her blood seems to call her to go go, go far and go wide, go on the wind, right? And then Elliot notices something. Mor looks towards the woods, and she is aware that ancient terrors have been known to emerge from there, and between the thorns there is a patch of darkness. It's interesting. Yeah. 'Cause Now I have questions. I think I remember when I first read it. Yeah. I just assumed it was kind of Az keeping tabs on her. Yeah. Like the patch of darkness was a shadow. Yeah. And like not in a bad way, but just that he's like, okay, she's good. But then at the same time, it seems more ominous than that too, or could be. It feels definitely somebody watching her book. Who? Yeah. You know. so now that we spent an entire episode looking at what the wind represents in thousands of years of stories and how it can carry messages, guide people, and Wind can signal something supernatural is present. Wind can carry beings from one place to another. Wind can cross boundaries and wind can move something from one world to another. And changes in the natural world can be interpreted as something big is coming, right? And suddenly I don't trust the wind. Because what if we've been treating it like scenery when we should be treating it like information? Yeah. I mean again, it's all in these books. Yeah. Like Yeah, I mean the wind is is an active participant in these stories. It just has been sidelined because like I was telling you, what was I doing the first time? I don't know, especially. I only there for the plot. Apparently me too. Yeah. I was there for Rhys for the reason I guess. Yeah, yeah. Like I just cannot I was like, why did I not pick up on this the first time? I know. But the second time that's really what jumped at me. It really did. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. and no, we're not saying that every breeze that Sarah J. Mass has ever written is a secret portal. Yet. But over the next few episodes, we're gonna be talking about Vasa, Kosh, the Valkyries, World Walking, Ancient Powers, Sears, Horses, Trap things trapped beneath worlds, and eventually what could that could mean for ACOTAR 6, 7, and 8. So before we start pulling on those threads, I want you to remember one thing from today. When the leaves start moving, when someone hears something they shouldn't be able to hear, and when a character feels themselves being pulled toward somewhere they don't understand, when a horse suddenly notices something shifting in the woods, and when Sarah J. Mass tells us that the wind has changed, pay attention. Mm-hmm. Because mythology has been warning us for a very long time. The wind rarely changes without bringing something with it. Yeah. And I think that's kinda where our brains have taken us now. Where it's hard to not look at all of these little clues that she has left us and not be curious as to what it means for the bigger picture. Yeah. I mean, I think we have statements of Koschei being like all knowing. Yeah. How? Right. And in my mind, I'm not overlooking these winds. And that he uses the winds to carry messages. I mean th like So is he also receiving them? Right. Right. and and these birds, trap you know, wind, all of it is there's a lot about the and the winds being liminal and being able to cross boundaries that otherwise maybe he couldn't. And the fact that he can't leave where he is and the winds being him do it for him. Make yeah, or essentially like his tethers to the outside world. And when we say world, can we say worlds? Yeah, we can technically I think I'm wondering how far these winds go. True. Yeah. Yeah, like we said, we're speculating wildly over here, so get ready for what we might have coming next. I mean we're excited. Yeah. I think if you w in the meantime, if you have any wind related things to add, yes. We would appreciate it. Yes. and also if there are things related that you want us to talk about, we're happy to do so. Yes, for sure. and get ready to go to Prythian next week. yeah, we're we're ready. We're re yeah, we're excited. All right. that's it. Until next time. Until next time. Bye. Bye.
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Thats Goddess Behavior: If you enjoyed this episode, please follow Goddess Behavior and leave a review. It helps other legendary mortals find us. Questions are always welcome. No oracle required. Stay bold. Stay curious. That's Goddess Behavior.
