Dreamtime Consulting

In a small stone cottage we find a group of children sitting around the hearth. The heat from the peat moss fire warms their hands and feet, and the old granny holding a younger child on her lap, joins in the sing song chant.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses
and all the king's men,
couldn't put Humpty together again."

Nursery rhymes are perhaps one of the oldest hold overs from our very distant past. Their very name, Nursery Rhymes, indicates these provide instructional framework passed from the eldest to the youngest. Born from the oral traditions, the structure is very distinctive in nature. The first feature is the chant-like nature of many of these. In an oral tradition it is very common for not only the history of the community, but the sacred wisdom as well to appear in the form of song and poetry. Rhythmic in sound and flow, this provides a means for remembering both the history and instruction which needs to be learned.

A second feature is the riddle like quality of many of these. In an oral tradition, the teachings and wisdoms of the community are usually locked into the community itself. Those from outside the community would not be able to access the information unless trained in the traditions of the society, and once taught would be taught to whom and under what circumstances that information would be imparted. This is also intended to protect the community, and often times rhymes with false or inaccurate information are given out to provide blind leads. The riddle itself is common to many mystic traditions, and the intention of this is to make the seeker find the answer on his/her own. A second function of this feature is to enable the person to remember. Not just from doing it over and over, but to understand it as well and allowing the personal quest to provide individual meaning.

A third feature is, like the collected stories of the Brother's Grimm, what is generally accepted about these rhymes is not necessarily what is actually being taught or relayed. Indeed the tale or rhyme itself may have been altered, or have several different variations from region to region. The Humpty Dumpty verse is in some instances believed to have been pertaining to a fortress cannon. However, as will be looked at in a moment, Humpty Dumpty quite possibly is not so much about a cannon, as it is something much more deeper.

Language has always thought to be very powerful. Not just the sounds, but the actual letters and words. In the Kabbala, there is a branch of teaching called "The Way of Letters" in which each Hebrew letter holds a particular power, and by combining the letters you actually build or create power. In many traditions, both Pagan and Christian, ritual is done in poetic form. Many of the folk tales themselves have incantations from heros or wizards which guard against harm, or provide a means for attack. Addressing what-ever deity the address is always in a poetical form. So where does this leave us with Humpty Dumpty?

Let us first ask who is Humpty Dumpty? It is not by chance Humpty is portrayed as an egg(a far cry from a fortress cannon). The egg itself has many mythical ties. A symbol for the ultimate mystery of life, it has even found it's way into the didactics of science, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" Easter eggs, the art of egg decorating, the Cosmic egg etc... the forms all convey the same Archetypal meaning. Humpty Dumpty is life itself. His very name is a name of nonsense(as all life is) and embodies one of the rules of a Shamanic training, and that is until we start our quest, life is nonsense.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Important for walls, doors, windows and fireplaces were considered very magical places. Like twilight and dusk, these were the transition points. To sit, or stand or lay at these points was a very perilous act, for it subjected one to that inbetween place(The Holy Ground). The witching hour was midnight, the mid-point. To enter one side or the other was to place yourself under the laws which controlled that realm. Thus, Humpty/Life is an act of peril for we sit upon a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Again we see a vital Shamanic concept and a central one to the current dominate spiritual tradition. Humpty Dumpty, Life, has a great fall. The Shamanic journey starts with a fall, for Alice in Wonderland. In her mythic realm Humpty Dumpty is there and this time he is a guide. Our spiritual insights are great and shattering in some way or other, we may bounce but something always breaks and as a result we reach the next point.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. When life falls, either on one side of the wall or the other, we are put beyond the reach, for a time, of one realm or the other. Horse(totems) and men are mentioned specificly as not being able to reverse this life shattering event. We don't know what side of the wall Humpty fell on, only that it put him beyond the assistance of totems and man. The unspoken teaching at this point is life becomes reliant upon the spiritual at the highest level.

The legacy of our oral traditions have remained with us over the many, many years. They are of such a nature that when they are no longer the primary source of wisdom, they become the under current which seeps into our everyday thoughts, activities. Nursery rhymes are no exception and behave as such. Old Wife tales are a source of wisdom, the voice of children is that of enlightenment. It is no chance the two are often found together, imparting wisdom on a shared basis. While Humpty Dumpty may have indeed have been the name of a fortress cannon, it was taken from and adapted to a much deeper concept and system of wisdom.