amitymamaThe Attachment Parenting Community

holistic_mama · 08-15-2005, 12:36 AM

Hi All,

As I'm preparing for our first LA Block, I'm pulling together how I am going to deal with the vowels. And...as I do more and more research...'A' is pretty universally symbolic of 'The Beginning'. So, I want to start our letter studies with 'A'. I also want to start our school year with the Little Falcon Fairy Tale; however, try as I might, I cannot pull an 'A' out of this story. It just does not have the soul quality of 'Ah'.

So, I've decided from this that I am going to start with Little Falcon and do a short Form Drawing block with this (this is going directly against Beth from Enki Ed's advice as she doesn't recommend a seperate FD block). Then, we will start our actual LA Block with 'A'. Which also leaves me an prickly situation; as I'm not sure if there are Fairy Tales out there that encapusulate the soul qualities of the vowels or not.

There is a passage in the Enki Fairy Tale Guide: "...the Vowel Stories do not have the Wisdom of collective unconscious found in the Fairy Tales." My first instinct was to completely reject this...but as I have been culling through the Fairy Tales; and also reading in my letter books; I'm coming to a sense that this is true. The consonants are all pulled from material things outside of us...hence why they have the qualities of the 4 elements. The vowels are the soul qualities...I don't know if there are Fairy Tales out there that would encompass the soul qualities...but I'm not finding any in the Grade One Fairy Tales. I need some ideas for sources...I can write my own...but I would like to stay with something time honored from the collective conscious if possible; this may end up my being my doctoral thesis after my kids are grown! ;P

I just love the Fairy Tales...as I go through them...I have a chart with each letter and number; and as I discover a FT that moves me, I jot it down for the appropriate introduction.

Peace,

Sharon OS · 08-15-2005, 12:55 AM

being that the vowel sounds are sounds found in nature (wind oo, fire maybe soft i, earth maybe soft u, water maybe ah, etc.) perhaps the Enki Nature Stories would lend themselves well?

I would still like to hear what Vimala has to say about her experience of finding vowels sounds in stories through the ages.

the mysteries continue . . . .

Sharon

holistic_mama · 08-15-2005, 01:14 AM

Hi Sharon!!

From what I'm reading the consonants are the ones that embody the earthly elements (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water). And...this is a big part of the Enki Fairy Tales. Beth gives examples of B being of the Earth...R being of the air...and M being of the water etc.

I'm getting that vowels are something else entirely...that they are the moving, drifting, turning soul qualities that are 'within' us. Steiner attributes them to the revolving planets...movement plays an important part of the vowel qualities.

Your right...the mysteries continue!!

Peace,

Kimberly in TX
Mom to Nathan 6yrs, Phoebe 5yrs, Max Benjamin 4yrs

"When the first baby laughed for the first time,
Its laugh broke into a thousand pieces,
And they all went skipping about,
And that was the beginning of fairies."
~J.M. Barrie
Scottish, 1860-1937
from Peter Pan

Deborah · 08-15-2005, 09:29 AM

I asked Vimala:

We use fairy tales to teach the consonants. Kimberly and others are looking for fairy tales to teach the vowels and can't find any that have the soul qualities she feels in the vowels. So the question is: are there any stories/fairy tales that you feel tie into each vowel? I think the vowels need either song or poetry from what I am hearing from the others.

She replies:
Vowels are the most sacred emanations of our "soul sounds." I suggest Kimberly write songs or poetry since fairy tales do not have a high enough vibration to touch "vowel energy." If poetry, it must rhyme (not Haiku); if songs, they must be written in the key of A --

jo · 08-15-2005, 10:01 AM

I really love the idea of poetry for vowels. I'll keep looking!

jo

Sharon OS · 08-15-2005, 03:25 PM

I look forward to everyone's contributions on this!!!!!!! I'm not a big poetry person, so I am indebted to those who are!!!

Thanks!!

Sharon

holistic_mama · 08-16-2005, 12:45 AM

I've emailed the Steiner library requesting McAllen's 'The Listening Ear'...anything that they've got on Angels and letters...anything that they've got on colors and letters...and some eurhythmy books that I've checked out before that have verses in them; hopefully some will be suitable for this project and I won't have to completely reinvent the wheel.

I've spent the whole day pouring through my books and music. Did Vimala
give any indication why only the Key of A (and does major or minor make a
difference)? I have to say that I'm having some major 'resistance' to this as it seems really constraining to me...but I've pulled some music off of the shelves and am only listening to A (in major and minor) to see how it feels to me.

Also...I'm wondering why the poetry has to rhyme? I was going for having a strong sense of the moving soul-qualities...the letter sound...and the letter quality...for instance A is supposed to be Purification: washing, purifying breath (from "Being and Vibration" a book that is listed in Vimala's bibliography). I would have thought that rhyming would be secondary to those things.

I've had several ideas...and so far haven't been able to connect them all up...a really frustrating morning actually. I've been looking through my
battered copy of Fairy Queen by Edmund Spenser (which is written in Old
English verse) trying to find a suitable verse about Una. I thought that
since the letter quality of U is 'carrying...like a society carrying its
members'; that the story of Una carrying the responsibility of her kingdom
to look for the Red Cross Knight would be good. Also, my kids are already
familiar with Una through the children's version of this story as a
Michaelmas story (the Red Cross Knight kills the dragon...and saves Una's
country). But...for some reason as I flip through the book...all I'm finding are bawdy passages. What's up with that?!

I'm also looking through my Shakespeare...assorted Fairy books...and through
the Speech section of the Grade One Enki

At any rate...I'm hoping to pull it all together this week for the vowels.

Whew...who knew that a simple question about handwriting was going to blow
the lid completely off of our Language Arts materials?! I love it though...this makes it so much more personalized to me...a much stronger gift to give to my children!!

Deborah · 08-16-2005, 12:30 PM

She didn't say anything more. What a journey you are on with this - I am impressed. I actually had a dream last night about the Steiner library -- what's that about???? Definitely time for vacation ...

jo · 08-16-2005, 11:53 PM

Kimberly,

Do you have A child's Seasonal Treasury? on page 7-8 there are letter verses. If nothing else, perhaps I will lead paintings with these verses or something similar but all tied into one longer verse.

hmmmm...

jo

holistic_mama · 08-17-2005, 09:58 AM

Oooohhh, why Jolene...I do have 'A Child's Seasonal Treasury'!! It is one of those books that I love and never use...thanks for steering my attention to it.

Those verses are actually the best yet...although, the Steiner library just sent me a note that they are sending me a bunch of stuff; and I'm hoping to find/create something that is actually 'short-story' length; so that we can actually do recall with it.

I'm also searching for appropriate music to play while we do the painting. I asked around at choir practice last night...and while everyone thought that the idea was really cool...no one had any suggestions for music pieces.

Peace,