Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes

You may think these stories are the stuff of “once upon a time” and have nothing to do with you or your times. But “once upon a time” is now, because the past is laced into the present on the needle and thread of stories.

The Jungian writer Polly Young-Eisendrath

To mankind he sent a different punishment: woman.

when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human.

“As you enter positions of trust and power,” Toni Morrison wrote, “dream a little before you think.”

History isn’t what happened. It’s who tells the story. —Sally Roesch Wagner

It’s time to tell stories where no one is to blame for the human predicament and all of us are responsible for forging a hopeful path forward.

All I know is that in my early thirties I became acutely aware of the feelings of constriction, heartache, and anger that had been brewing in me since I was a girl. Slowly, the desire to do something to change the story became stronger than my fear of speaking up.

I know, in my bones, that we can break Cassandra’s curse, that we can dispel our culture’s enduring mistrust and devaluing of women. And when we do, all of humanity will benefit.