Latest / Mooney's Mythic Podcast / Cunning cunny's and the lost art of whistling

Transcript

Cunning cunny's and the lost art of whistling · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, hello gorgeous people.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hello listeners.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello beauties.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hello my amazing, lovely, trusting people who have dared to put this on and have a little listen.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I really...
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really sourcing from a deep place, from an ancient place, I think, to bring this to you.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's bringing up lots of fear, lots of terror for me.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm remembering that the word terror is the beginning of the word terrific.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this is a terrific experience for you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is my third podcast.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been making me think about the number three, which is really important in fairy stories.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of threes, three little pigs, three wishes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to have a bundle of three stories at the end of this podcast that
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: come in three in the Book of Grimm Tales.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: The brothers collected them and bundled them all together.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed when I was reading different books to work out why they were so popular.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading Harry Potter.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading the first chapter of loads of books to think,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: what is it about this book that really captured people's imaginations?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was reading Harry Potter.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And in the first chapter,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Different people say, the most famous boy in the world.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The boy's name on everybody's lips.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: The boy who everyone will know.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, that's a spell.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is a spell.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she's a clever woman.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she wouldn't have done that
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: by mistake, JK Rowling.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to do the same here.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I would, this podcast will be in everybody's ears.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast will be listened to all over the world.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast will be nectar to the soul of so many and a real sweet relief and deep
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: connecting journey for all those who listen that's my spell for today's podcast and
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder what it is that you want to magnetize in your life and if you could say it
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: out loud to someone or just you know wooden spoon in the kitchen or your steering
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: wheel
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I find the washing machine gets a lot of conversation when I'm trying to work
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: things out.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder what you would say three times that you wanted to really bring towards you
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: to really make happen in your life.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not a, you know, it's not a Healy Healy podcast.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's plenty of those.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yet this podcast, I would love to grow.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to just really,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: really grow so that by the autumn,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: when I go out storytelling again,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: it can be kind of like part,
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: part storytelling,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: part sort of podcasting.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: That would be my great desire.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm not going to do any storytelling between now and then,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: but kind of bookings take care of themselves over this spring,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: summer time.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the winter, I kind of book a venue and hunker down and sort of stay in one place and
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: and tell stories through the winter.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love you to join me so keep your ears out and your eyes out for when I'm doing that.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Last week we were meandering about whistling because I'd gone to see Hannah Taluki
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm sorry Hannah if I'm pronouncing your name wrong but it will rectify that at
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: a later date.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I went to see Hannah's Lukey singing to the birds on the morning of Beltane,
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: on the morning of May Day as a way of calling in the summer.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been thinking about whistling ever since then.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously the people that do it the best are, you know, the working classes and the birds.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't hear that anymore.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't hear people whistling anymore.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I did.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I imagined it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: But didn't people whistle more many years ago?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And have they stopped whistling because there's nothing to whistle about?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think you need to be pretty happy to whistle, you know, pretty uplifted to whistle.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out that the birds whistle in the morning because it's that kind of
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: moisture on the air means that they can whistle.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: sing further.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been going for these walks and I've been whistling with the birds and I've just,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: just been listening and repeating and listening and repeating.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're like,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: whatever, you know, but listening to them and repeating and I got it was walking along and I whistled.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was listening to a whistle and then I repeated it.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then the bird, I'm sure it was whistling back.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then I whistled again.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm sure it was whistling back.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it was whistling back really like three times.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so thrilling.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I just went like this.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was dead silence.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I really freaked that bird out.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, part of this podcast comes along with an apology to that bird.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I really didn't mean to.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening, bird, this podcast is dedicated to you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And at the weekend I was...
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: officiating a ceremony,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: as I do sometimes,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: and there was this guy whistling,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: like making bird whistling noises.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I was thrilled and I went up to him and I said,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: when did you start making those whistling noises?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: How did you learn?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of, you know, notepad to the ready.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, well, you know, when I was at school,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: They thought it'd be a really good idea to put all the most disruptive children
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: together with an inexperienced teacher.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't really know where this is going.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Jan, we all had our trick.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of us could hold his breath for so long he'd turn purple.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's tickled me.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And another one would lead us in this like,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: like we'd all,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: when she was turned around,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: we'd all stamp our feet.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then when she'd look back again, we'd all stop.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I could whistle and I can do it like this.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he showed me and he said, and you can't see it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't see his face wasn't moving and he was whistling and she wouldn't know
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: where it was coming from.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that way of using whistling.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: It got me thinking about other ways of using whistling,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: to call people or,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: pickpockets.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like someone's coming.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Whole language in whistling, I'm sure, has at some point and place is being used.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was listening to the radio and the DJ was talking about Emmett Till.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Emmett Till,
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: in the 1950s,
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: he was in Mississippi and he was in a shop in the local store and he whistled at a
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: woman in there.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then four days later,
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: the husband and the half-brother,
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: they beat him to death,
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: basically,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: brutally beat him to death.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the mum so courageously demanded that his body be put in an open casket so that
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: the people could see how brutally he'd been beaten.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And, yeah, how...
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: How incredible to do that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that things need to be revealed.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I really love family constellations,
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: which is a modality where it's kind of like a kind of field of drama where people
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: get to play different characters in your family and secrets kind of bubble up.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's really incredible.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: work but the belief in family constellations is that um you know secrets can really
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: sort of drag the energy out of a family and i think secrets can really drag the
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: energy out of the the world so um in that way just just thinking of you i mean i i
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: don't know her mom's name um she's just credited as as mother but yeah in this
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: moment just thinking about you
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing I noticed is that when I called the last podcast,
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: the first podcast,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wet Lips and the Wild,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: it suddenly spiked in listeners before.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was just like storytelling or something like that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously I was referring to whistling,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't think those people,
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: some people who clicked on were necessarily thinking about whistling when they
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: thought about wet lips.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that has been a source of curiosity for me this week.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I looked up lots of different words for a woman's anatomy.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when I looked up cunt,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: there we are,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to say it because it's actually what I want to talk about.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: When I looked up cunt, it said a vulgar word for the vulva.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, who's writing this that doesn't recognise vulva?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: that the root of vulga and vulva are the same thing.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm wanting to celebrate my body
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: or even just feel connected to it because I just feel like there's so much language
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: that disconnects me from my body,
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: from just really inhabiting my body deep,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: deep down into my root.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's all about earthing, bringing me back to the terror, terrified.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's like connected with the earth.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the more that I am out of my body, the more that I am connected
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to escape myself.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: The more disconnected from the earth I am, the more vulnerable I am.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: basically the more money you can make out of me because I'm buying this,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: that,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: and the other to try and live when I don't need it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if we're connected to the earth and we're growing our own stuff, then we don't have a hole.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're not, we're not trying to fill this hole where we should be inhabiting inside ourselves.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: yeah I think it's home and it's so used as a a derogatory term and it's the same I
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: know for my I was talking to my mum about it and she was saying well what about
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: prick you know prick is a word that's you know demeaning it's like you know tiny
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: and inconsequential just a little prick yeah so let's let's bring our our bodies
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: back I know that
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: when I go on stage, if I'm going to tell a story, then I will often just kind of pull up my skirt.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Anna Samaya,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: that's cool to kind of,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: raise your skirt and use your,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: use your,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: what should we call it?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fanny, when I was little, we called it Fanny.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yoni just feels not quite right.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, cunt, it's like,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Surely it's the beginning of country.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's my land.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's my land.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Country, it's like it softens it, but it's like, does it have to be?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have to be softened?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I've started to use the word country, my country, to myself.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that feels good for me.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, yeah.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so before I go on to tell stories,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm feeling a bit out of my body,
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm feeling like my feet aren't quite landed on the ground,
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I will pull up my skirt and just have a look at her.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like looking at a very, very, very old woman.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: very old, wise woman.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: She's got a lot to say, you know, she's got a lot of opinions that she keeps to herself sometimes.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And, um, and then when I go on stage, I think about that, my lips, her lips, those lips.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think about,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not bitten,
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not consciously thinking,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: but these are the images that come into my mind of,
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Stone, you know, stones, caves.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Long barrows.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think about long barrows.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think about entrances to the earth, gateways into the depths of the earth.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really good imaginative landscape for me to tell a story from.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: a really connected place for me to tell a story from and it gets me totally beyond
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: oh you know is it is my story going to be any good or are they going to like me or
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: are they going to get it or anything like that it's not how it is it's just like
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: little thing there from my speaker i'm going to get involved in the conversation
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: yeah it's just like
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I am the voice of the earth and what comes through me has got sustenance trusting
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: that what comes through in story has got sustenance and I'm aware that you know I'm
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: a storyteller so I do think it's like the most important thing and that reminds me
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: of the
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Romeo and Juliet,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: the Romeo and Juliet film,
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: and they ask the nurse,
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: what's the story about that Shakespeare's writing?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, oh, it's about this nurse.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that we all see things from our perspective and we all give ourselves the main role.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the more I have told stories, the more I know that it is my way of
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: bringing something very... and... yeah, right, it just feels just right.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to tell a story.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: now this little bundle of three stories that we have and um I wanted to tell this
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: story now at the beginning of um of the podcast at the beginning of the podcast
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: journey podcast number three as I mentioned before because it's one of my early and
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think I maybe I had a ladybird
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: book and it may have been along with The Hobbit which I'll probably talk about a
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: little bit afterwards my first experience of of the other of the little people of
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: the kind of magical presence kind of the written word or the story of these magical
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: presences hmm
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I am finding my way with my breath,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: noticing it's warm,
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: my lips,
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: feeling my belly soft,
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: seeing the world of this story creating itself around me,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: kind of in a circle,
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: like as if I'm on a very slow-moving merry-go-round,
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: and trusting that the story will begin itself in just the right moment.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can you feel the doors opening?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Can you feel the ears opening?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you feel that people have listened and spoken those words for so long, for so many, so many times?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can you feel yourself leaning in
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: when a story's wrapped in a once upon a time.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time, there was a poor, hard-working shoemaker.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: He worked so hard,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: his fingers were calloused at the end of his fingers and his eyesight was going
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: after so long looking at the tiny details of the shoes and his back was sore from
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: leaning over all day.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But buying shoes from the shoemaker was going out of fashion.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Buying shoes online, buying trainers made by factories, that was much more desirable.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so the chain, leather shoes, sold less and less and less.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he was buying less and less and less leather until one day he only had enough.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: leather to make one pair of shoes and he just couldn't see how life was going to
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: continue and he was making this one pair of shoes but it wasn't like the way he
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: used to make shoes with vim i think viv's a word actually vim it wasn't like that
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: it was it was a sad and um
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: solemn procedure.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, halfway through, he just gave up.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was just like, can't even remember how to make shoes.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: He just couldn't even put the needle through the leather anymore.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: He just didn't have the oomph for it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: So he went to bed, listened to some beautiful music in bed, listened to some
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: exquisite song in bed listen to some sonorous viola in bed really slept and dreamed
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: and recouped and remended himself but woke up in the morning like feeling really
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: stressed about issues that you haven't made
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he went downstairs and there on his counter they were.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: the shoes made,
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: not just made,
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: they'd been,
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: the leather was like the butteriest leather and the stitches,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: they were,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: even in his heyday when his fingers were the nimblest he couldn't make stitches
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: like that,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: they were just so,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: they were absolutely gorgeous and there was a kind of sheen around the shoes that
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: made them look even more special and spectacular and if he had only just put them
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: in the window,
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: the bay window
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: of his shop when someone came in and bought them and gave him a tip and he had
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: never in his life had a tip before,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: but there they were.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets the money from the leather and he sits down to make the shoes and he's like,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: what if,
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: what if I go to bed and I leave these?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I wake up in the morning and they will be made.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes to bed and he's in bed and as he's in bed he's remembering the times
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: when he's been to weddings and funerals and celebrations of birth.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's remembering all these times and all the music and the poetry and the words
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: that have been said over those times.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's thinking about honouring life and death and he falls asleep.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when he wakes up in the morning, he goes downstairs and his heart's beating.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not sure what he's going to see.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: But there they are.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are two pairs of shoes and they are just ding dang.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're so gorgeous.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: He sells them very quickly and he buys more leather.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this goes on and on and on and on.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so he becomes prosperous and his wife is like, wow, you know, let me into this secret.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells her and they decide.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming close to Christmas time and they've got people that they want to see
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: who it is that's doing this.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they hide.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they wait.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the clock in the workshop strikes midnight.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And tumbling out come two little people.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Tiny, tiny, tiny little people.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they laugh and they roll and they joke together.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all the while they're heaving with these great needles and pushing and working together.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And they run off again.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the wife says, oh, we have to.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: thank them somehow we have to leave them something somehow and she says I'm going
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: to make them some fine cloaks some fine cloaks because when they're not rumbling
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: and tumbling around they must get chilly and um and the man says okay I know what
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do I'm going to make them some shoes and I might not make them as fine
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: as they make my shoes but I'm going to make them with all the love in my heart so
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: they make these garments with all the love in their hearts
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: They sew them and they bench and they hide again.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they're comfortable.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think I even thought this when I was really little, you know.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they're comfortable because it's like,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: when you play hide and seek and you get yourself into a position and you just think
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: in the end you want them to find you because you're all crunched up.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so they wait.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then people come tumbling out,
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: little tiny people,
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: and they try on their cloaks and they put on their shoes and they're so,
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: so,
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: so happy.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And off they tumble.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm doing this tapping, but I'm not doing that to annoy you like the kid did with the teacher.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just wanting to keep the life of the story moving as the story finishes.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whilst I just talk a little bit about the meanings for me of the story.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: because it's very sort of Christianized in the Grimm's tales.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important for us that we,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I,
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have to tell stories until I've kind of really got to the kernel of them.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's this story really about?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And anciently about,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: with all the layers of all the,
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: or let's use the story in Sunday school to,
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: make sure that,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: um,
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: children do this or do that or for control for manipulation and control like
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: everything like everything and look how story has been used for manipulation and
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: control in this time for advertising and all kinds of things so
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: A production of the story in Bristol Old Vic and Kid Carpet was the shoemaker.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he stayed up all night making music.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was a DJ and he stayed up all night making music and kind of would wake up sort
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: of over his turntable and would be like,
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: oh no,
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I stayed up all night making music again and I haven't done my work.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he'd go down and his work would be made.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yes!
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just love that concept of like...
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: That idea of do what you love,
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: just do what you love and hand it over when you need support to hand it over.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Expect a miracle.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Also ask for practical support.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I say that as a dyspraxic person that needs a bit of support with things every now and again.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I just love that idea.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just do what you love and trust that things will fall into place.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not the same as, you know, just be distracted and stay up all night watching, scrolling.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like be totally engaged in what you love and trust.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that idea.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And also I know that you know that this story is called In a Shoemaker.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't in the Germanic actual translation.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's Rietelmanne.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you pronounce that word.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: a German person could tell me.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'd really appreciate that.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I lost my friend Johanna.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like witch men, which is white or wits.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's a proto-Germanic term meaning thing or creature.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Creature, I love that word.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it did get me thinking about elves.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this has been my experience in my childhood until I read The Hobbit.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mrs Lee did read the first chapter of The Hobbit to us in reception at school.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Really, thank you, because, oh, wow, like, wow.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was just completely absorbed and engaged.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: But only the first chapter, I think.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I never read any more of it until I read it to my son.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: about five years and I sat and I read that very first chapter and then he he had
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: fallen asleep but we just kind of fell asleep together on the bed he was about nine
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: eight or nine and um and then I swear I swear on my life these kind of this these
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: images just bowled towards me they came roly-polying
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: towards me and they said now you want to write a book like that about us we want
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: you to write a book about us and i was like well i've never written a word i was
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: like oh my god i don't feel up like you can do it you can do it you can do it
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: anyway they introduced themselves as nook and cranny and um and they were things
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: they were creatures they were i don't even i don't have the word for them um
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: brownies munchkins I don't know and so I spent quite a bit of time then for the
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: rest of the year I do feel like you know something like that comes to you strongly
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: you know honouring it was important so whenever I was storytelling for children I
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: would describe these characters of Nook and Cranny and I would just kind of evolve
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: the story or make up the story with the children
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did that at different schools and then in the local library,
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had a Monday session in the local library and the local kids gave me some ideas.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was at a camp and we got so far,
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: there were these two children,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: they were running across a field and one of them fell in a massive hole and the
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: other one,
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: a nook and cranny,
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: go on these great adventures trying to find the...
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Get the little boy back.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a boy and a girl.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: The girl is so that they can get back in time for tea and not upset the parents.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember asking where he'd fallen and a kid saying, in the elf king's pocket.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, I mean, can you just see that image?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just like a kid just falling down a hole, falling.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: and then dropping into the elf king's pocket.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: So then the story really evolved around Nook and Cranny and this girl going down
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: and the elf king asking for him to look in his pocket and he finds this little boy
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: in his pocket.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they're much more like elves for me
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: now that I have kind of entered into the Tolkien world,
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: this sort of very tall,
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: ethereal,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: magical creatures,
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: kind of a reputation for kind of seriousness,
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: rather than these kind of fun,
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: roly-poly little...
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I imagined when I first read The Elves and the Shoemaker.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was exploring different podcasts,
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: one of the podcasts that I was listening to was,
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's called the Immortal Starlight podcast.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a woman who channels the Elven realms.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, get this for a story.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just so gorgeous.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm completely enchanted by it.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: She had this vision.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: am I going to get this right?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that there was a grove of silver birch tree and a deer walked into the centre of
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: the grove of birch trees and lay down and gave its life.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then the bark of the silver birch trees began to unravel and
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: and unfold and come together to form pages.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the skin, the hide of the deer became the cover.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there was this book in the centre of this magical grove of trees.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then she kept going back to this vision that the pages and deciphering what was in that book.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that book was eventually published and called The Silver Wheel.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's...
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gorgeous.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I was going to read a little bit from it, but I forgot to ask her permission.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe next time I will.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: So on to the second story, because if you remember, these stories came in a bundle of three.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I mean, you can't say the word.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I say the word elves, I think of Elvis.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, on to the second story.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a poor servant girl and she's sweeping.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: She spends so much time sweeping.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: She can hear that in her dreams.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: In her dreams, in her dreams, in her dreams.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this noise, this noise, this noise.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And one day she doesn't even notice.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's like sweeping, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then on top of her pile of sweepings, one of my
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: really terrible habits that when I sweep the kitchen, I just leave the pile.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just leave the pile, leave the pile, leave the pile.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: My mom's coming around, which she is later.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, and then I frantically tidy up, which I shall be doing at the end of this pod.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this, on top of her pile, there's this kind of golden shimmering letter and she can't read.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So she takes it
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: to this old, old woman who she's seen reading these old recipe books.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: She takes it to the old woman,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: and the old woman says,
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: you have been invited to the birth of an elven child.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the girl's going, oh, no, I'm not going to that house.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Enough of that freaky stuff.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going there.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: She says, this is a great honour.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: You should go.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So in the end, she does convince her, and she goes, and they go to the Hollow Mountains.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And let's just think for a moment where the hills are where we live.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the hills?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's magic in them hills.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the hills?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the hills?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the crystals?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the caves?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about, you know, wherever you live.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's a hill nearby.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's magic in that hill.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the closest mountain to you?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think maybe Canningley is the closest mountain to me, but I could be wrong.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so she finds her way into the hollow mountain and everything is tiny and
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: beautiful and ornate and gorgeous.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And she dances and they celebrate the birth of this baby.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, oh, it's a real honour to have a human here.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: We really wanted a human here.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for blessing us.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they persuade her to stay.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: They say, stay three days.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in that three days,
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: She drinks and laughs and learns spellmaking and flies and does all kinds of
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: shimmering and delicious things.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And on the third day, she says, no, actually, I really do want to go.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they let her go.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when she comes back, it's been seven years.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: When she comes back, it's been seven years.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And her master has died.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of things have changed.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like this story could really be used as a sort of cautionary tale to not
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: kind of go away with the fairies.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's what it's about.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's about...
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: you know, isn't that a great thing?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: Her master's died.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: She's not beholden to anyone anymore.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's spent time going deep within the mountains of herself,
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: laughing and playing and celebrating birthing.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she's come out and her master's died.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: She's not beholden to anyone anymore.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Shoemaker, you know, they make the shoes and they run off and they never come back again.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And, um,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's because they've integrated.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we have these amazing experiences in our lives and then they integrate.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if we're keeping on trying to repeat them on the outside, then we're kind of running something.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think the elves in the shoemaker story is about integrating the magic as well.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the third story is about the elves.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, remember that this translation of elves is a creature or thing in it.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: They swap the baby with a with a changeling.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: So there's kind of like they you know, it's not your baby.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anna and the woman's like you know this isn't my baby um I'm sure it's a changeling
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: and wow that you know that was really a reality at some time that people would
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: believe that their child had been taken and maybe it had been who knows who am I to
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: say what um in this in this time when people whistled when people whistled because
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: they were that connected with the birds when they whistled because they were
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: carefree language who am I to say that babies weren't
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: changed into changelings.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the neighbor in this story, she says, you've got to make the baby laugh.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got to make this changeling laugh.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they try all kinds of things, you know, jokes and farting and, you know, all kinds of stuff.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the changing is not laughing.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the end, they come about with this idea where they boil water into eggshells.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there she sets about, she's on the fire.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: She puts the baby by the hearth and she lights the fire and she's got these water into eggshells.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then the water starts bubbling and the changeling is laughing.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then when she does that,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: the elves,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: the band of elves suddenly appear and they bring the child back and they set it
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: back on the hearth and they take the changeling away.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this always reminds me,
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was telling a story once at a camp when my son was a baby and I just thought it
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: would be really good to put him into the story.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I was outside and I was telling the story and I held him as a baby and I was saying...
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: oh, you know, I'm fed up with him.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just wish the fairies would come and take him away.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then these three teenage girls who were dressed as fairies, they came and they took him away.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: They were delighted by him and he by them,
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: but I probably had 20 minutes before he'd start going,
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: where's my mum?
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they took him, they played with him whilst I was telling the rest of the story.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big adventure to
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: find him and then whilst he was away they painted him head to toe in gold and they
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: brought him back totally painted gold after 20 minutes and were like we're sorry we
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: were just playing with him and he was happy as anything I mean nothing's changed
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: for him he's still very much interested in teenage girls to the story I love this
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: playful
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: way of making the child laugh you know sort of engaging imaginatively and
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: creatively in that way of making the child laugh i really um i really like that
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: yeah wondering if i've got any more to say on this podcast any more to offer you
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: about stories in the world
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think that's it, my friends.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Please stick this podcast on your timeline, text it to someone.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: whatsapp it however you um however you communicate or uh somewhere where there's
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: people talk about it or tell them about it i really would love it to grow and grow
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: and grow and um yeah blessings on your life and your sunny day uh think of me i'll
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: be listening to podcasts and cleaning up my house for the um arrival all right lots
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: of love bye-bye