Journal of Poetry Therapy [jpth] ph080-jopt-362455 November 8, 2001 15:36 Style file version Nov.

19th, 1999

Journal of Poetry Therapy, Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 2001 (

C 2001)

Warrior Mothers as Heroines and Other Healing

Imagery in the Finnish National Epic of Kalevala
Sirkku M. Sky Hiltunen, Ph.D., Ed. D., RDT-MT., ATR., LPC1

By introducing mother imagery from the Finnish mythological epic of Kalevala, the
author introduces ego stages for healing metaphors. The metaphors are illustrated
by examples in both Finnish and English. The author shares the inspiration for her
personal and transpersonal journey. A distance of more than a decade from her
own culture was required, before the healing imagery of Kalevala opened up to
her. An invitation for the readers to find their own healing imagery from Kalevala
is presented.
KEY WORDS: ego states; healing; imagery; metaphors; transpersonal.

PREFACE

In seeking to define my own self-identity and in the process of my own heal-

ing, I sought to understand, accept, forgive, and love myself by learning to
understand, accept, forgive, and love my mother. I studied interpretations of fairy-
tales and Greek mythology, but they did not speak or appeal to me, nor did they
give me the imagery for healing that I intuitively needed for my transpersonal
journey—a journey within and beyond my personal self. In that process, as a Finn,
I began to draw strength from the metaphors of the Finnish epic of Kalevala, the
mythological female imagery of which is rich and introduces maidens, daughters,
wives, and mothers as powerful sages and warriors.
According to Baldwin (1989) and James (1981), transactional analysis recog-
nizes that people carry three major ego states within themselves: the child, their
parents, and the adult, whose responses are influenced by one’s own childhood
and parents. The healthy responses, guided by the Higher Self, come from the ego
states of a nurturing parent, a positive adult, and a free child; whereas the unhealthy
1
Address correspondence to Sirkku M. Sky Hiltunen at The Art and Drama Therapy Institute, Inc.,
327 S St, N. E. Washington, DC 20002.

3

C 2001 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
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4 Hiltunen

responses, guided by the negative, angry and fearful Saboteur’s voice within us,
come from the critical parent, the fearful adult, and the fearful adopted child. The
Saboteur’s psychological mission within us is to “to do away with you so you
won’t threaten these neurotic, angry child parts of your parents” (Baldwin, 1989,
p. 25). “Healing the child within” (Whitfield, 1989), has become a popular concept
among professionals and laypersons alike. The mother imagery of Kalevala struck
a core within me and began the personal healing process of my “mother within.”
It took me about ten years of separation from my own culture to look back and
rediscover and identify with my own ancestral heritage, namely the mythology and
healing female imagery found in Kalevala. I was reading Kalevala in junior high
school as early as the late fifties. Later on in the sixties I studied it in transpersonal
or spiritual study groups in Finland. Regardless of my early exposure to it, it did
not become alive to me before the eighties when I had lived in the USA for over a
decade. By then I had gained the needed distance of time and space and was able
to see my own culture differently, longing to connect back to it.
The mythological imagery found in Kalevala has been a powerful source for
my personal healing. I have discovered seven mother metaphors in the Kalevala:
1) the unfulfilled mother, 2) the controlling mother, 3) the nurturing mother, 4) the
creative mother, 5) the sage mother, 6) the warrior mother, and 7) the healer mother.
These are some of the mothers that we carry within ourselves as a part of our ego
states—as daughters or sons—as a learned response to those qualities which we
liked to embrace the most or the least—emulating our own natural mothers. The
interpretation of Kalevala’s female heroines is introduced here as a medium for
healing for those who are seeking to understand themselves and their mothers.
In accepting and loving the unfulfilled or controlling mother, and in discovering
and empowering the nurturing mother, the creative mother, the sage mother, the
warrior mother or the healer mother within, all of us can be strengthened and
empowered to become better and stronger people.

KALEVALA

Kalevala, the national epic of Finnish people, represents a vast oral tradition,
sang by rune-singers, and collected, edited and synthesized by a physician and
folklorist Elias Lönnrot as a result of several collection and research trips between
1828–1844. Bestowed with skies, a rucksack and a remarkable memory, Lönnrot
traveled arctic regions of Finland, Karelia, Estonia, and Ingria. Runes (runo)
refer here to mythological, orally transmitted poetry which male and female rune-
singers sang or chanted to the next generations. They may have chanted runes while
working, or performed them in special occasions, such as funerals and weddings.
The first Kalevala collection of runes was published in 1835 and the second
expanded version in 1849. The Finnish version of Kalevala utilized for this article
was published in 1958 (based on the expanded version first published in 1849). To
date Kalevala has been translated in its entirety in 35 languages and partially in
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 5

100 more. There are four English translations. For this paper the British translation
by W.F. Kirby (1907), and the American English one by E. Friberg (1988), are
used. The latter one is the only English translation made by a native-born Finn,
who as a child immigrated to America. Friberg (1988) states:
In this way, the Kalevala can be characterized as serving an ethnic memory of Finns,
at the root of Finnish historical consciousness, but at the same time as having been a
vital component in the shaping of Finland, a collective vision of what the nation was to
become . . . One might say that, in true folklore fashion, the Finnish people through the
Kalevala actually sang themselves into existence . . . . It is the shaper of our language; it is
the inspirer of our independence; and it has been the source of the flowering of our art and
literature (p. 12).

Kalevala’s impact on the national-romanticist movements in Finland was

profound. This eventually lead to the independence of Finland in 1917. Voting
rights were granted to women in Finland as early as 1906 as the first European
nation and as the second nation in the world only one year after New Zealand.
Kalevala’s mythology has not only impacted nationalist movements, but also
it greatly inspired visual artists, writers, musicians, and playwrights, especially
Kalevala’s three major male heroes. Kalevala’s mythological heroes became
a source of inspiration also for Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), an internationally
known, national-romanticist Finnish composer, who created his programmatic
music especially for Kalevala. Akseli Kallen-Gallela (1865–1931) is most famous
for his paintings inspired by Kalevala’s heroes and heroines. His painting of
Lemminkäinen’s Mother at the River of Tuonela (Hades) has been imprinted
in my visual imagery ever since I encountered it for the first time in the
1950’s.
One of the major plots of Kalevala centers on its heroes courting Louhi’s
extraordinarily beautiful daughters. Louhi, the mistress of Pohjola (Northland),
rescues Vainamoinen and holds him hostage until he promises to send Ilmarinen
to Pohjola to forge a sampo, a symbolic yet tangible, magical, and supernatural
entity capable of creating wealth and supreme power to its owner. The forging of
the sampo is one of the numerous tests that the heroes pursuing Louhi’s daughters
have to go through. The others test the heroes’ supernatural wisdom, knowledge,
skills, and powers.
Louhi is one of the central female heroines, sage, and warrior mothers of
Kalevala. Louhi has been given equal time in comparison with some of the male
heroes. Lempi, Lemminkäinen’s Mother, however, only dominates one out of the
fifty powerful runes of Kalevala. She is just briefly mentioned a few other times,
even though she is transpersonally the most significant heroine, warrior, and healer
mother of Kalevala. Other female characters in Kalevala play minor supporting
roles, except Ilmatar, Väinämöinen’s mother, who is the Spirit or Goddess of the
Sky and Air and is the Creator of heaven and earth; and Marjatta, who births the
new leader who overthrows Väinämäinen. Ilmatar’s rune begins Kalevala’s story
and Marjatta’s rune ends it.
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6 Hiltunen

The fact that Kalevala’s heroic women have been so long overlooked, speaks
not only for the men who have written exclusively about the male heroes, but also
for us women writers who have written so little about the powerful heroines of
Kalevala.

KALEVALA’S LANGUAGE

Kalevala’s mythology and its vivid imagery created by its powerful cha-
racters live in the readers’ imagination transmitting a language which directly com-
municates with the unconscious and/or transpersonal levels of psyche. The images
communicate knowledge and wisdom that can not, or need not, be expressed or
explained in words. It is just as poignant as the language of our dreams and can be
directly understood through our intuition. Vaughan (1979) points out universality
of imagery as the language of unconscious.
Vaughan further states that our intuition is the “guru” within. We do not
necessarily need to find outer teachers for our spiritual journey. She indicates that
intuition plays an important part in creativity, problem solving, and interpersonal
relationships. Intuition can be the vehicle for an artistic inspiration, mystical
religious experience, perception of reality, telepathy, extrasensory perception, and
clairvoyance. The connection of intuition to the imagery and the discovery of
personally meaningful imagery can provide the wisdom for the inner guru, teacher,
and the healer.
The importance of Kalevala’s mythology amidst other mythologies is in
its direct contact with the ancestral collective unconscious, which is transmitted
through its imagery. Vaughan (1979) talks of the transcendence of ego boundaries,
when it is able to tap into the warehouse of ancestral unconscious, which is
collective and universal. The ethno-centric personification imagery is transmitted
collectively and unconsciously in the artistic self-expressions of the ancestral
psyche of Finnish people. The language of unconscious and collective psyche
draws from mythology and dreams and is transmitted and received by intuition.
However ancestral or ethno-centric—and in this case peculiar to ancient Finns—
the imagery presented here are also universal characters, who can be found in
greater or lesser degree in any culture or ethnicity of people.
Kalevala’s language itself already is pregnant with imagery, which directly
springs from its ancient culture and traditions. The meaning of individual sayings
as such is actually at times untranslatable, because of its unique imagery, richness,
power, and onomatopoetic qualities. Magic formulas in Kalevala often consisted
of charms through which the shamans and sages retrace the origin of things
and substances in order to exercise supernatural powers over them. When I
began rediscovering Kalevala and rereading it, I was impressed with its linguistic
qualities and realized so profoundly during my visits to Finland how contemporary
Finnish language has been simplified, “refined” and become less pictorial, thus
losing some of its ancient power.
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 7

Actually, Kalevala’s verses consist of eight syllables and eight-beat rhythm,

which are considered trochaic tetrameter. Was this the original, essential rhythm of
ancient Finnish? Could it be compared to the Japanese language or its traditional
syllabic structure of Haiku (5-7-5) or Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)? The Japanese syllabic
structures are still utilized even in contemporary Japanese television-commercials;
whereas the contemporary spoken Finnish language has no trace of trochaic tetra-
meter. One feature, however, is still prominent, namely the accent on the first
syllable of each sentence.
The ancient Finnish language is powerful; it expresses beauty and strength
beyond compare. The ancient Finnish expresses Kalevala’s mythological content
of sages, shamans, poets, animism, and the magical powers of their words so
well that even names had meanings and often referenced nature and nature spirits.
Unfortunately most of the meanings were left untranslated by the two English
versions referred to here.
The previous introduction was presented to enable the reader of this article to
briefly glimpse some very basic and general considerations about Kalevala before
exclusively focusing on the mother imagery. It has become urgent for me to write
about the heroines of Kalevala, not only because they have touched me deeply and
personally, but also because they have been, until recently, often overlooked. Even
in “Kalevala Mythology,” scholarly research on Kalevala, published in 1989, there
are very few references to the female characters of Kalevala. Especially two of
the major sages and heroine were omitted, namely Lemminkäinen’s mother and
Louhi, the Mistress of Pohjola (Northland). Both of them not only represent sages
of equal importance to its heroes Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, and Lemminkäinen,
but are also warrior mothers.

WARRIORS, SHAMANS AND SAGES

Chogyam Trungpa (1984) has lectured and written exclusively about the
Shambhala path of the warrior, which draws its sacred wisdom from the ancient tra-
ditions of Tibet, China, Korea, India, and Japan. Trungpa talks of collective human
wisdom, which has no exclusive claim by West or East, nor any one culture or
religion, and which offers a tradition of warriorship that can solve the problems
of the world. He further recognizes that aggression is not the solution but the very
problem of humankind.
He refers to a variety of cultural examples of warriorship and lists American
Indians, Japanese Samurais, British knights, as well as Biblical and Jewish war-
riors. These examples of warriors, however, were exclusively men, never women,
who actually were on physical battlefields and fought with tangible weapons.
His concept of warriorship, however, talks of a form of spiritual bravery and
fearlessness and uses no tangible weapons in battles. He talks of the spiritual
warriorship. Trungpa’s definition does not exclude anyone, nor does it make any
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8 Hiltunen

gender claims for warriorship. In this article warriors which are discussed are
exclusively legendary and mythological female characters.
The Finnish word sisu, which does not have a precise one-word, English
counterpart or translation, is a national quality and characteristic of the Finns. Sisu
means stick-to-itiveness; exertion of will through action to the end; unwavering
pertinacity; a forceful forwardness of pursuit; and persistence in overcoming
obstacles. This is how the Finnish Kalevala and universal warrior traditions meet;
sisu is one of the essential qualities of a warrior. The term warrior here refers to
bravery, fearlessness and sisu.
The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1970) distinguishes shaman-
ism from religion and states that the shamans were endowed with powers that they
exercised over spirit beings, which governed nature. He further states: “Among
Finnish peoples, magic made its influence felt throughout all aspects of material
and intellectual life” (p. 300). Furthermore, The Encyclopedia quotes Beauvoir’s
research on Finnish magic in reference to Kalevala and states: “All people who
have been able to get to know the Finns have regarded them as masters in the
occult sciences and, leaving national pride aside, have proclaimed their superiority.
Norwegian kings in the Middle Ages forbade people to give credence to Finnish
beliefs and prohibited voyages to Finnmark in order to consult magicians.” (p. 300).
“Sage” here refers to an older person, male or female who is acknowledged and
respected for her/his experience, judgement, and supernatural wisdom. The term
sage will replace the term “shaman” exclusively in this article in order to shift the
focus from the specific shamanistic practices to the generic metaphor of sage as
a wise person with supernatural wisdom and an ability to connect to the spiritual
world.
The warriors and other mother imagery from Kalevala will focus on the
unfulfilled mother, the controlling mother, the nurturing mother, the creative
mother, the sage mother, the warrior mother, and the healer mother. The first
two mother metaphors will represent the unhealthy responses and be guided by
the “Saboteur” (Baldwin, 1989), instead of the Higher Self. The remainder of the
mother imagery may be guided by either, depending on the health of the ego.

AINO’S UNFULFILLED MOTHER

In order to introduce Aino and her mother, we need to become briefly

acquainted with Joukahainen, Aino’s brother and a young sage who hears about
Väinämöinen and sets forth to compete with his supernatural powers and his
knowledge in spite of the warnings of his mother.
As a result, Joukahainen loses and Väinämöinen is about to sink him into the
ground amongst marsh and mosses, because there was no real contest between
them. As a last resort, in order to save his life, Joukahinen promises his sister
Aino to Väinämöinen. Joukahainen treats Aino as a tradable commodity. When
Joukahainen returns and tells the news, their mother is extremely pleased because
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 9

this marriage provides her with an opportunity to climb up the social ladder of
prestige and fame. When Aino, the bartered bride to be hears the news, she weeps
bitterly. Aino cries out that it would have been better if she were never born than
to be promised to the old Väinämöinen. She considered her beauty and youth to
be wasted on an old suitor. Aino’s mother sees the opportunity to fulfil her own
unfulfilled needs through her daughter.
Sai emo sanelemahan: But the mother took the word:
“Mitä itket, Ainoseni, “Why do you weep, my little Aino,
Kun olet saava suuren sulhon, Since you have so great a suitor,
Miehen korkean kotihin Going to a great estate
Ikkunoillen istujaksi, There to idle by windows,
Lautsoille lavertajaksi?” Gossiping upon the benches?”
Tuohon tytär sanoiksi virkki: But to this the daughter answered:
“Oi emoni, kantajani, “O my mother, you who bore me!
Itkempä minä jotaki: Surely I’ve a thing to weep for:
Itken kassan kauneutta, I am weeping for my hair,
Tukan nuoren tuuheutta, For the beauty of my braids,
Hivuksien hienoutta, . . . ” For the fine and youthful tresses . . . ”
Sanovi emo tytölle, Said the mother to her daughter,
Lausui vanhin lapsellensa: Spoke the elder to her dear one:
“Mene, huima, huolinesi, “Go away now with your worries,
Epäkelpo itkuinesi! Useless, silly with your weeping!
Ei ole syytä synkistyä, There’s no cause now for dejection,
Aihetta apeutua:” None for all this mournfulness:”
(Friberg).
Aino’s melancholia deepens into a severe depression, her helplessness into
frustration and anger. She lacks sisu and does not see any other way out of her
misery; therefore she drowns herself in the lake. Aino’s mother is the unfulfilled
mother who lacked her own self-actualization and attempts to actualize her own
dreams and ambitions through her daughter, even to the point of her daughter’s
destruction. Aino’s mother is nameless in the epic; she is only identified by her
relationship to Aino. This is actually a reflection of her character; she vicariously
attempts to fulfill her own needs through her daughter, Aino. Consequently, after
Aino’s tragic death, she lives her life guilt-ridden, depressed, and even more
unfulfilled.

LOUHI—CONTROLLING MOTHER, WARRIOR MOTHER

AND SAGE MOTHER

Louhi, the Mistress of Pohjola (Northland) has several daughters, but their
identities are not always clear, for no individual names are given. Louhi’s
extremely challenging tests are presented in order to assess the power, bravery,
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10 Hiltunen

and supernatural wisdom of the male competitors before rendering the hands of
Louhi’s daughters, these “rewards of beauty.”
Aino’s brother Joukahainen, instead of accepting the responsibility for his
own actions after Aino’s death, shoots Väinämöinen. Väinämöinen falls into water,
where he swims for days. A mighty bird, which Väinämöinen had rescued in the
very beginning of the epic, returns his favor and carries Väinämöinen on his wings
to the borders of Pohjola and to Louhi.
Louhi rescues Väinämöinen and offers him hospitality, yet it is as if he was
held as some kind of hostage. Louhi will not allow Väinämöinen to return, unless
he agrees to get Ilmarinen to Pohjola to forge the sampo. For this supernatural,
yet tangible object, the form is not specifically described, only some qualities. It
is said to be a magical entity, which possesses supreme powers and is capable of
creating unlimited wealth to its owner. Sampo becomes the very object over which
Louhi and her people of Pohjola and Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen,
and the people of Väinölä will eventually fight.
Väinämöinen departs with a promise to get Ilmarinen to come to Pohjola.
On his way he meets one of Louhi’s daughters. Väinämöinen drops everything
and begins to court the Maid of Pohjola. The Maid of Pohjola presents many
supernatural tests and tasks to Väinämöinen. Väinämöinen passes the first two
tests, but wounds himself in attempting to pass the last test. This means that he
has to interrupt his pursuit and return home. Later after returning home, he tricks
Ilmarinen and magically flies him to Pohjola, where Ilmarinen builds the sampo
for Louhi. When Ilmarinen requests his reward from Louhi, namely one of her
daughters, the Maid declines. Thus Ilmarinen has to depart without collecting
his reward. Louhi’s daughters are described as willful and determined, besides
possessing some of the supernatural knowledge of their mother.
Louhi herself is described as an ugly looking woman, but a clever thinker
and powerful sage, who time after time is presenting new supernatural tests and
tasks for the suitors of her daughters. She is totally in control of their destiny
and empowered by her control over all of the supernatural heroes of Kalevala.
Eventually, Louhi’s youngest daughter becomes the wife of Ilmarinen. Just like
all Louhi’s daughters, she is the powerless daughter of a powerful and controlling
mother burdened by her feelings of inadequacy. She has a feeling that she can
never measure up to her mother’s power, yet she has a need to prove that she can.
Her feelings of inadequacy make her exercise her powers over a weaker person
that herself, over the weakest and the truly powerless, namely the orphan slave
Kullervo. She is acting out her own controlling mother within, making others feel
what her mother made her feel in order to empower herself and overcome her own
feelings of inadequacy.
Louhi, throughout Kalevala so far has been sitting in the seat of power with
such a magnitude that she did not have to physically move anywhere. Instead,
others are to approach her. Her powers are further enhanced by her possession of
the sampo. Throughout most of the Kalevala, Louhi displays her knowledge by
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 11

giving orders to others and tests to suitors, not by displaying her own supernatural
powers and gifts. She is a sage and warrior mother who manipulates and controls
others around her, not with her beauty, bestowed only to her daughters, but with
her mind, supernatural knowledge and power.
Only after Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, and Lemminkäinen steal the sampo from
Pohjola, is Louhi forced to leave her seat of power and follow them by ship in
order to regain the sampo back to the Northland. The fight ensues, the sampo falls
into a thousand fragments. The loss of the sampo transforms Louhi into a fierce
and fearless warrior and forces her to reveal and demonstrate the magnitude of her
own supernatural powers.
Väinämöinen uses his charms to create Louhi’s shipwreck, thus sinking and
destroying her boat. Louhi is described as jumping into the water to lift her boat
up, but it has broken in half. She then is described to perform her only and most
powerful act of warriorship and supernatural transformation in the entire Kalevala:
Tohti toisiksi ruveta: She transforms herself completely
Otti viisii viikatetta, And became a different creature:
Kuusi kuokan kuolioa, Took five scythes and six mattocks
Nepä kynsiksi kyhäsi, Which she fastened on her fingers;
Kohenteli kouriksensa; Then transformed them into talons,
Puolen purtta särkynyttä, Lifted them up as her hands;
Senpä allensa asetti, Half the wrecked boat set beneath her,
Laiat siiviksi sivalti, Changing boat-side into wings
Peräpuikon purstoksesa, And the rudder to a tail -
Sata miestä siiven alle, Under her wings a hundred men,
Tuhat purstön tutkaimehen, On her tail a thousand more,
Sata miestä miekallista, Altogether a hundred swordsmen
Tuhat ampuja-urosta . . . And a thousand ready archers . . .
Siipi pilviä sipaisi, One wing glanced along the clouds
Toinen vettä vieprahteli. While the other grazed the water
(Friberg).
Louhi fights alone as a female sage and warrior against the powers of the three
most acknowledged male warriors and sages, namely Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen,
and Lemminkäinen. She gives an impressive performance and displays sisu,
fearlessness, and bravery to the end of her fight. She is able to grasp the sampo,
but it falls into the water and scatters into pieces. Louhi does not take her loss
lightly. She vows revenge. She captures and hides the sun and the moon, causing
eternal darkness for Kalevala, where Väinämöinen and the other heroes live.
Väinämöinen attempts to free the sun and moon but is unsuccessful. Ilmarinen
decides to forge a sun and a moon and sets them on the sky, but they provide no
light or warmth. Then he decides to forge other tools to free the sun and moon
from Pohjola. The Mistress of Pohjola transforms herself into a bird and flies to
spy on what Ilmarinen is forging. Louhi flatters him and states that he is such a
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12 Hiltunen

superb smith and urges him to tell her what he is now forging. Unsuspectingly, he
then replies to the bird that he is forging an iron collar for Louhi in order to chain
her into the rocky mountain. When Louhi finds out this threat to her freedom, she
returns back home. To avoid further confrontation with her male counterparts, she
frees the sun and moon. Then she once more transforms herself into a dove and
takes the message to Ilmarinen about the release of the sun and moon to be sure
that they know instantly the news, thus removing the threat to her freedom and
her power. Louhi is a controlling mother, sage mother, and a warrior mother who
transforms in the end into a peaceful warrior mother.
Her emphasized lack of physical attractiveness no doubt has created some of
her need for compensative control. She uses her powers to gain more control over
others; she has to possess sampo to increase her powers. She displays sisu, but
eventually withdraws from the fight when she encounters powers greater than hers.
She is undoubtedly a good mother and wants what’s the very best for her daughters,
however, she dominates her daughters with her overbearing need for control.

ILMATAR—NURTURING MOTHER, SAGE MOTHER

AND CREATIVE MOTHER

Ilmatar (Airess) who is also called “Luonnotar” (“Naturess”), the words of

which mean a female representative, or spirit of Air and Nature, may be even a
Goddess of Air. She is the female Creator, who as a virgin is pregnated by the
air and tempestuous water and gives birth to the first male sage, Väinämöinen. In
addition to creating Väinämöinen, she also creates the Earth Mother (Maa emo),
Sky, Sun, and Moon from bird eggs, while pregnant and laying down in the water.
All of the Kalevala’s heroines presented here are sages with supernatural
powers, however, Ilmatar is the only female heroine who is described as not a
person but as divinity and spirit originating from celestial realms. Other female
heroines are mythical sages, who perform tasks equal in magic and supernatural
powers to their earthly male counterparts.
Besides his supernatural powers, Väinämöinen is also a poet, magical musi-
cian, and rune-singer, who easily enchants his listeners, including all creatures,
even to the point of unconsciousness if he wills. He visits “Tuoni,” Hades or
the Realm of the Dead, three times and returns triumphantly unharmed. Yet
Väinämöinen turns to his mother Ilmatar for advice on several occasions when he
himself lacks the needed supernatural knowledge or wisdom. Ilmatar is a powerful
spirit sage, woman, and mother, whose powers surpass those of V äinämöinen’s,
even though he is supposed to be the single most powerful sage in the entire Epic
of Kalevala!
Ilmatar is a nurturing mother who rescues Väinämöinen for the first time
because he is unable to call forth powers to cut down a gigantic oak tree, which
shuts down the sun and moon from shining and impairs growth. Because Ilmatar
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 13

is also a sage from water, she sends forth a man, who is described as thumb-sized
at first. Initially, Väinämöinen expresses his lack of faith in this little man as a
symbol for the doubt of his mother’s powers. But to his great surprise, the tiny man
transforms equally in power and size into a giant and is able to cut down the oak tree
and return the sun and the moon to Kalevala. It was the task which Väinämöinen
himself failed to perform. Similarly, advice and charms are offered to Väinämöinen
by his mother on several occasions in order to rescue him from life situations, in
which he is either unable to cope or lacks the powers or charms as a sage.
In addition to being a nurturing and a powerful sage mother, Ilmatar can be
classified here as the creative mother, a part of which is to be a birthing mother,
the metaphor for the agonies of women’s pregnancy and birthing. In fact, it is
said that Ilmatar carries Väinämöinen, the main hero of Kalevala, for 700 years.
The incubation period of the creative process can be compared to pregnancy and
agonizing labor pains.
The act of creation is an essential act, the divine potential for which is
embedded in the entire human race. According to the Bible, God was the Creator
who created man in His own image. It is only a matter of awareness of and
connection to this original source as to the degree to which creativity is expressed
by different cultures, ethnic groups and individuals. Ilmatar is the nurturing mother
and the sage mother. First of all, however, Kalevala’s Ilmatar represents ancestral
spirit of creativity, this divine ability in all humankind.

LEMMINKÄINEN’S MOTHER—NURTURING MOTHER, SAGE

MOTHER, WARRIOR MOTHER AND HEALER MOTHER

Lempi, Lemminkäinen’s mother is primarily identified in Kalevala by her

relationship to her son. Occasionally, her son is called Lempi’s son. The fact
that so many heroines of Kalevala are nameless demonstrates the ancient social
convention in which women were exclusively identified by their relationships to
their husbands or their children. Lempi has raised her son imparting her knowledge
as a sage. She is gentle and nurturing mother, who lovingly raised him, has tried to
warn him and to help him to be more careful and considerate, but of no avail. She is
becoming increasingly concerned about his fate when he leaves his wife and then
does not return from his courting trip to Pohjola. The signs regarding his death
appear to Kyllikki, his wife, when her comb begins to bleed. She immediately
informs Lemminkäinen’s mother.
Lemminkäinen’s mother briefly mourns for the death of her son, then she
begins to act. According to Trungpa (1984), the real warrior’s fearlessness comes
from sadness, vulnerability and tenderness of heart. This is the warrior with
healthy responses, guided by the Higher Self. This awakened heart is also the
heart of compassion. Lemminkäinen’s mother has this tender heart, the sign of
a genuine Shambhala warrior. However, she does not let the sadness take over,
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14 Hiltunen

but rather takes over the sadness. It is her emotions that become the fuel for her
motion, for her determined action.
The description about her determination and exercise of her will is powerful.
She becomes a positive force and personifies sisu:
Käteen helmansa kokosi, In her hands her skirt she gathered,
Käsivarsin vaattehensa, With her arms her dress she lifted,
Pian juoksi matkan pitkän, And at once commenced her journey,
Sekä juoksi jotta joutui; Hurried on upon her journey.
Mäet mätkyi mennessänsä, Mountain thundered ’neath her
Footsteps.
Norot nousi, vaarat vaipui, Valleys rose and hills were leveled,
Ylhäiset maat aleni, And the high ground sank before her,
Alhaiset maat yleni. And the low ground rose before her
(Kirby).
Lempi arrives in Northland and questions Louhi about the whereabouts of her
son. During the confrontation between these two warrior women almost opposing
in their exercise of power, Louhi gives excuses and suggests that a bear or a wolf
has devoured Lemminkäinen. Lempi firmly rejects such an innuendo.
Louhi attempts to mislead her once more, but Lemminkäinen’s Mother calmly
and firmly rejects her lies. She demands to know the truth, which Louhi finally
renders to her. Even though Lemminkäinen’s Mother does not have the social
status or power that Louhi does, she does not hesitate to confront and question
Louhi until she finds the truth. However, she does it in the manner of a true Finnish
warrior woman with sisu, directness and strength. As soon as she learns about the
fate of her son, without loosing a moment, Lemmink äinen’s mother continues her
powerful search.
Juoksi suuret suot sutena [As] a wolf she tracked the marshes,
Kulki korvet kontiona, [As] a bear the wastes she traversed,
Ve’et saukkona samosi, [As] an otter swam the waters,
Maat käveli mauriaisna, Badger-like the plains she traversed,
Neuliaisena niemen reaunat, Passed the headlands [as] a hedgehog,
Jäniksenä järven rannat, [As] a hare along the lakeshores,
Kivet syrjähän sytäsi, Pushed the rocks from out her pathway,
Kannot kaati kallellehen, From the slopes bent down the tree-trunks
Risut siirti tien sivuhun, Thrust the shrubs beside the pathway,
Haot potki portahiksi, From her track she cast the branches.
Viikon etsi eksynyttä, Long she vainly sought the strayed one,
Viikon etsi, eipä löyä, Long she sought, but found him never
(Kirby).
She continues her search and turns to the spirits in nature. She asks the Road,
the Moon and the Sun about her son. The Sun is able to reveal to her the true fate
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 15

of Lemminkäinen. She responds first by weeping, for she is not only a warrior, but
also a nurturing mother, then instantly goes forward and takes action. She goes to
Ilmarinen and asks him to forge her a special rake so she can find her son in the
River of Tuonela (Hades).
After arriving at the River of Tuonela Lempi chants to the Sun, the creation
of God, as well as the Creator Himself, to remove the evil enchantment of death.
Again, the description of her search by raking the river is determined and powerful,
and it results in her lifting Lemminkäinen from the river. However, he is not whole.
Some parts of him are missing, not to mention that he is lifeless. She searches all
the pieces that she can find and puts him back together piece by piece.
She chants and summons the divine powers from the midst of heaven and
God eternal to aid her in reconstructing her son’s body. Then she has to restore
his life. For that she summons a bee, “the bird of honey,” to fly and collect special
ointment of life. She directs the bee to different realms. The first two trips fail. The
third and mystically the highest trip is to the ultimate heaven to fetch the ointment
from God Himself.
According to Wilber (1981) there are five major levels of consciousness:
1) personal level (persona & shadow); 2) ego level (ego & body); 3) centaur level
(total organism & environment); 4) transpersonal levels (self which transcends
one’s individuality and connects to worlds beyond, within, and without oneself,
expanding one’s awareness beyond persona, ego and centaur levels); and 5) unity
level (atonement with manifest and unmanifest universe).
There are many different terms for levels of consciousness identified and
defined in the transpersonal literature. This author uses simplified categories of
“personal, transpersonal, and universal.” The personal encompasses the ego as
well as our wounded and traumatized parts. The transpersonal refers to the self
that has transcended the body, ego, and its wounded or traumatized self. Universal
refers to our Divine unity consciousness.
In Kalevala, Lemminkäinen’s Mother is described not only as knowing but
possessing the ability to transcend her personal level. Furthermore, she is able
to connect to consciousness beyond her personal and transpersonal levels while
seeking the ultimate divine life giving force to restore her son.
In her last attempt to save her son’s life, Lemminkäinen’s Mother sends
her messenger to God, the Creator. She encourages the exhausted bee to go
to the ultimate levels of spiritual consciousness to bring forth the life force.
The bee has performed its best and is uncertain whether or not it can master
the ultimate. That is true to life’s spiritual journeys, when one is at one’s wit’s
end, then one is often presented with the most difficult spiritual tasks and tests.
Instructed, encouraged, and empowered by Lemminkäinen’s mother’s advice, the
bee departs once more and finally succeeds. Lemminkäinen’s mother performs
the most demanding spiritual task of her life, the resurrecting of her own son; and
bringing him back to life. She is the ultimate transpersonal heroine of Kalevala,
the healer mother who can connect at will to the universal consciousness.
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16 Hiltunen

The bee is the metaphor for an individual spiritual journey. The image of the
bee flying higher and higher until it reaches its goal and obtains the life-giving
force is so poignant. One’s spiritual search to the point of the total exhaustion and
surrendering it all bring challenges and ultimate tests of endurance and can only
be succeeded by unwavering faith.
After restoring her son back to life, she wants to know what was causing his
downfall and realizes that he did not know all the needed charms to save himself.
Then she is described to care for her son very tenderly and restoring him back to
health and his handsome looks. Lempi is always there for her son, in spite of his
impulsiveness, vanity and overt indulgence with women.
In addition to possessing the knowledge, which connects her to the highest
consciousness and to the Creator, Lemminkäinen’s Mother is a powerful action
taker in service for others. She is not only strong but also kind. She personifies,
among so many other Kalevala characters, the symbiotic relationship that
Finnish people have with nature; nature is such an essential part of our ancient
Finnish animism and belief system. Consequently, animism, the belief that
spirits were inhabiting every living creature from animals to rocks, permeates
Kalevala’s magical mythology and empowers its sages, male and female alike.
Lemminkäinen’s Mother masters countless charms which enables her to summon
the forces of nature. She uses them to serve others, not for her own gain of power.
First and foremost Lempi, Lemminkäinen’s Mother, is a powerful healer. She
also personifies the nurturing mother, the sage mother, the warrior mother and the
healer mother. Furthermore her warrior mother personifies sisu. She is empowered
by her spiritual knowledge to love, to serve, and to utilize it for healing. She is
sensitive, but strong. She is perceptive and fearless. She is a beautiful metaphor
and provider of rich healing allegories, a treasured jewel and gift of imagery,
rendered in Kalevala by the intuitive psyche of the ancient Finns.

CONCLUSION

Kalevala’s women represent a range of metaphors from powerful ones to

victims; rulers to servers; strong to weak ones; mothers to daughters; goddesses to
earthly humans; damsels to mistresses; active to passive ones; loving to vengeful
ones; thinkers to feelers; hurters to healers; fearless to fearful ones; and worriers
to warriors.
Kalevala women metaphors did not only begin my own personal healing
journey, but also inspired me to dramatize and direct plays featuring them
exclusively in a transpersonal drama therapy and therapeutic theater method.
I use Kalevala and my ancient Finnish heritage as a source of content and
inspiration together with the ancient Japanese Noh Theater for a method which
is termed Therapeutic Noh Theater. I have already dramatized Lemminkäinen’s
Mother, Ilmatar, and Louhi. The dramatizations of Aino, The Maiden of
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Warrior Mothers as Heroines 17

Northland, and Marjatta are forthcoming. In addition, this author has also
created a healing ritual based on the seven stages of womanhood discovered in
Kalevala.
Kalevala’s mother imagery provides us, presented in any artistic form or
medium, with metaphors and allegories against which we can mirror ourselves.
They can act as a vehicle for healing, whether only read or experienced as
an actor in therapeutic theater or as a member of an audience. Just as Lempi,
Lemminkäinen’s mother is able to access the universe and the highest levels of
consciousness, as expressed with the metaphor of the bee, so can healing imagery
inspire us to discover the nurturing mother, the creative mother, the sage mother,
the warrior mother, and the healer mother within. First we need to learn to accept
and love the unfulfilled mother, the controlling mother or any other fearful or angry
ego stages of the mother misguided by the Saboteur. Then we may finally identify
with and empower our higher self to guide the sage, the creator, the warrior, and
the healer within. My acquaintance with the allegorical imagery and the mother
metaphors of Kalevala has enhanced my personal understanding, acceptance,
forgiveness, and love of my own mother and subsequently the understanding,
acceptance, forgiveness, and love of my self.
Kalevala’s metaphoric imagery renders the readers a rich mythological
heritage, which is the language of psyche, dreams, and intuition. Kalevala’s
imagery has been, and will be, interpreted in many different ways, as these
interpretations will spring from the levels of the knowledge, experience, and
consciousness of each interpreter. It is essential that we make our own
interpretations of Kalevala’s powerful mythic imagery. I invite you to read it
and discover what might empower your parent, child, or adult within. It is only
with personal meaning and by processing it through our own consciousness that
we can harness its true healing powers.
All of us, regardless of which cultures and ethnic heritages we represent, can
recognize and claim our own unique and individually ethnic ancestral heritage in
heroism and in warriorship. If we do not have or know our own national heritage,
we can search the vast international mythological literature and embrace any of
the universal mythological heritages.
Finally, we should not confuse kindness for weakness. We can proceed to
overcome our fears, excel in bravery, and become kind warriors as Trungpa terms
them. That is the true transpersonal challenge for us as women or as men: to know
ourselves and overcome our fears of the unknown as well as of ourselves.

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Baldwin, M. (1989). Self-sabotage—How to stop it & roar to success. Moore Haven, FL: Warner
Books.
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18 Hiltunen

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