Storytelling
Celtic Medicine Stories
for the Soul
The Lad of the Skins
An Exploration of Life and Death
from deep within the Irish Storytelling Tradition
Live Online Storytelling Sessions
Storytelling is one of our oldest forms of healing
I do live, online stoytelling sessions about once a month. I tell mostly old Celtic tales and some from other lineages on grief, death and transformation.
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“…a story is "‘holy’, and it is used as medicine.
The story is not told to lift you up, to make you feel better, or to entertain you, although all of those things can be true.
The story is meant to take the spirit into a descent to find something that is lost or missing and to bring it back to consciousness again.”
~Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Celtic Medicine Stories Podcast
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Thomas The Rhymer
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The hills and woods surrounding our villages have always been known as places of initiation. Each time we step into the wilds we open ourselves to the unknown, to adventure.
This talk from the Scottish Borders tells of Thomas The Rhymer’s initiation into the gift of prophesy by the Queen of Elphame.Thomas was an historical figure living around the end of the thirteenth century who produced volumes of prophetic verse. These poems were consulted as a guide by the people of the region well into the nineteenth century.
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28 minutes audio file
The Dreaming of Elen & Macsen
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This is a re-telling of a text captured in a 12th century Welsh manuscript - The Maginobion.
As the land of Britain dreams, she calls in a strong ally - Emperor Macsen of Rome.
This enchanting tale is of the sacred marriage between land and human and the inner one between masculine and feminine.
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20 minutes
Tatterhood
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Told live in 2021 as part of the Rites of Passage Council Winter Storytelling series. This tale, originally collected in Norway, explores the dance between our Wild Self and our Domesticated Self.
It is also a descent tale - the descent into the Underworld and the transformational powers of this journey.
Click the image above to access the YouTube video of the live recording.
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1 hour 16 mins
Myrddin of the Wildwood
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Times of our greatest challenge can become the times of our greatest transformation.
Forests have always been a place we go for assistance during these tumultuous times.
It can help to have a guide, one who has trod this path before.
Myrddin is one such guide. You might know him as Merlin. This is his story, the best we can tell it from the historical record.
Set in the sixth century at a time when the Old Gods were doing battle with the new this story offers insight into personal transformation in turbulent times.
It's a story of loosing what we love, of the ensuing storm of grief and what it can initiate us in to.
I offer this old tale from my homeland, Scotland, along with reflection time to help draw on it's medicine.
This is a recording of a live online storytelling. It includes audience participation.
Click the image above to access the recording then use the passcode.
Passcode: e5F.9BtM
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1 hour
Song of the Selkie
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From up and down the western coasts of Ireland and Scotland and from Iceland and the Faroe Island come tales of Selkies - sealwomen - those who can be both human on the land and seal in the sea.
The Selkie stories help us learn how women have had to shapeshift to fit into a man's world and what we need to belong, to feel at home in our skins.
This is a recording of a live, online, storytelling session. It includes audience participation.
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1 hour 24 mins
The Dream Makers
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Told live on Nov 1, 2023.
The Dream Makers is a folk tale from the Isle of Skye in Scotland about following our dreams.
Click the image above to access the recording.
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14 minutes
Taliesin
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This old Celtic tale tells of a young boy’s accidental initiation into wisdom.
It speaks to the shapeshifting we must do to inhabit new versions of ourselves until we are reborn into our fullest expression.
This is a live online recording of my telling of this story.
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26 minutes
Tam Lin
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Told live on Nov 1, 2023.
Tam Lin is a folk tale from the Scottish Borders about persistence.
Click the image above to access the recording.
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17 minutes