Latest / Mooney's Mythic Podcast / Boiled sweets, bongs and Bards

Transcript

Boiled sweets, bongs and Bards · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Mooney's Mythic Podcast, sponsored by... sponsored... sponsored by... sponsored by...
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: actually,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: it's not sponsored by anyone,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: but I was just thinking it would be nice to practice having a little sponsorship
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: jingle at the beginning.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: So there it is.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it could be sponsored by something nice, ethical, sustainable.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: So any ideas, put them on a postcard to me.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: And welcome.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming back.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming back.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so grateful you're here.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so, so delighted that you're listening to this.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: And thanks for all the amazing feedback.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for your support, guys.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: I really feel like my tribe,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: my team are all behind me as I bring this out into the world,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: whatever it is,
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: whatever it turns into.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: it just feels good and it feels worthwhile and, and yeah, you've been amazing.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: everyone who's messaged me,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: everyone who said,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: keep going well done and told me where you've been when you've been listening to it
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: and what you've been doing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's absolute nectar to me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: And let me know what you, what you want or how you see it going or what,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: what most nourishes you or excites you or makes you chuckle, I'd love to hear about it.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: It did make me feel a bit nervous as well.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: I like when I recorded the first one,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was imagining no one listening and that was very freeing.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went to record it yesterday and I got really sweaty and I didn't...
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't end up recording it, so I'm back on board today.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for Emma Stowe.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: She's anchoring the nerves for me.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, gratitude, gratitude, absolutely.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm seeing in my mind's eye now a swathe of colour, swathes of colour
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: beautiful, magical array of delight.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's because the Aurora Borealis graced us this weekend in Glastonbury.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know anything about it,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: so I just went to bed Friday night and I wake up Saturday morning to everyone
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: talking about it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Total FOMO.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was like,
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Really felt like I'd, what did she say?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Kate Tempest.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Was that a pivotal moment?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I just went stumbling past.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not quite like that, but I feel like that's what life can be like.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So Saturday night, I was all in to stay up all night and watch it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I got my duvet and I put it on the trampoline out in the front garden and I thought,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: right,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to sleep on the trampoline.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: I've got my mum staying.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: My mum said to me, if it's really good, wake me up.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: That felt like a massive responsibility,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: actually,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: to kind of like decide when the light show of nature was good enough to wake
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: someone up and get them up.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that filled up a lot of my thinking time as I was watching the sky.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: I lay on the trampoline and sweet relief to be outdoors.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sweet relief to be outdoors at night.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: really special, looking up at the stars.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: that's where all the stories come from,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I believe,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: just our ancestors lying on their backs,
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: looking up at the stars,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: dreaming,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: dreaming,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: dreaming,
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: dreaming,
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: dreaming these stories in.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't sure, you know, when you stare at black for so long, you can see all sorts of colours in it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I just wasn't sure if I could see the northern lights or not.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I was graced by the beauty of the cosmos that night.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was absolutely,
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I started to feel very full up on the inside and very kind of,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: yeah,
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: awed,
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: just totally awed,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: which was a really beautiful feeling.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't sure if I was seeing clouds or, I don't know what I was seeing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I went for a walk.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: I thought,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: I get right out into the darkness.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: I went on Wuriel Hill and get right out into the darkness.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I went for a walk.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it was as if dawn at any moment could break.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there was a lightness about the sky.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: But it didn't.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was just the possibility of the lightness filling the sky.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Just the knowing that those lights were out there was really filling me.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then on the way home, I saw a little badger just running across the road.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: It had such a strong impact on my body, looking at that badger, watching that badger.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: My whole body seemed to sort of soften.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I realised how that badger is not trying to lose weight.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: That badger is curves and round places and it's totally in its own skin,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: in its own body,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: in a way that I'm really not.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I felt the gift of that badger's presence.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then I remembered many years ago, my friend Jack Everett, he died recently.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: He gave me a little pouch with some badger claws in.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Medicine gift, he said.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: And he said the badger claws are a symbol of being able to scratch away to the truth.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: But he put them in a very soft pouch because he said it was a strong medicine and needed softening.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think he was talking about me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I started thinking about badgers and badger medicine.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I did a bit of research about badgers and thinking,
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: do I resonate with any of these attributes that badgers have?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: I did find out a few interesting things that they've got lots of different smells.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: They can punk out different smells at different times so they can have one if they're scared.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: And definitely my whole
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure it's the same for other people if I get really frightened in fact I had a
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: big shock once and my armpit hair went white and they can have other smells I mean
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: maybe my kind of like pheromone switch is a bit shonky because I'm not noticing
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: that particularly maybe that's what I could call upon the badger to sort of switch
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: on my my pheromones I don't know if I'd want that actually but
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's a thought.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's there in the bag if I want to take it up.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: A badger.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's got such sensitive hearing.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know this is the same with a lot of animals.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's got such sensitive hearing that it can hear a worm.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: It can hear a worm moving deep under its feet.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: You just...
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: Relax enough, tune in enough with our hearing to even just imagine what that's like.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just think about what's deep under your feet right now.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've got Craig who plays the bagpipes.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: But beyond that, the earth under his flat, there are worms.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: And there's probably badger tunnels as well,
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: they stretch for 50 metres and they're handed down,
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: they can be used for hundreds of years.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: I just love that.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: I just love stopping.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: wherever I am,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: and just feeling deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the earth,
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: to all that's going on,
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: the rock and the crystal and the burrowing creatures and the holes and the roots.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: I love standing between two big trees and just thinking, wow, both your roots are underneath me.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's such a great place to be on the earth.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: I also found out about badgers that they can have sex and then they can have an egg
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: that's been fertilised,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: but they can delay implantation.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: They can delay it until they know that they've got enough around them to bring that
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: little baby badger,
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: that cub,
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: into the world in a good way.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm really bad at that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, just to think about have I got everything I need?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Not just like I'm doing it now.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to do it now.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to do it now.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Have I got everything I need?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Is this the right time?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Can I hold on to whatever this is, whether it's an idea or an action or whatever?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can I hold on until I've gathered around me everything I need?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the opposite to what I've done with this podcast,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: which has just been just to do it,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: and then read all the things that say don't do it until you've got three episodes
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: and don't da-da-da.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: I've been reading a lot about how to go about making a good podcast and all the
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: ways I've got it wrong.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you've just got to do things in your own way, haven't you?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Another thing I learned about them is that they have quite baggy skin,
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: which means when you grab hold of them,
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: you can't really grab them.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: They can get away really easily, which I thought was a great skill to have.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the last thing was that they're friends with hedgehogs.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're friends with hedgehogs.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And they only sometimes eat them.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm no relationship expert,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: but that doesn't seem to be a good foundation for friendship,
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: as far as I'm concerned.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: that you may have a friend that you sometimes eat,
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: so honour to the hedgehog for being that person in the badger's life.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Which brings me on to my hedgehog benefit gig.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: So on the 7th of June,
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Paul Thompson and Sarah Curtis and I will be at St Benedict's Church in Glastonbury
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: and we will be telling tales of all things hedgehog.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Sarah Curtis.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Check her out.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Check her out.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: When I get used to all the fiddly bits of recording a podcast,
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: I will bring her in to sing to you because we were walking up the steps in Wales
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Cathedral yesterday
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And she sang a little bit in the sound chamber there.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: And literally the tears were just rolling down my face.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't even accessing feeling.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: The tears just responded.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Paul Thompson, I haven't met him.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard his music and it's gorgeous.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And he seems to be a very, very sweet man.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: He went around England on a milk float, I do believe.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: So come on the 7th of June.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's going to be a great and sweet and funny night.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: And 10% of the night's going to go to Prickles, which is a hedgehog care charity.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm, yeah.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: So thinking about gigs,
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: thinking about storytelling out in the real world,
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I have been thinking about atmosphere and creating a really magical and sweet atmosphere,
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: like a really sacred,
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: gorgeous,
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: kind of boudoir-y little atmosphere.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a real kind of nest.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what I tell stories into, how I can kind of create more and more atmosphere.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I wanted to get in place for next year.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was having a massage and the woman who was giving me a massage,
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: she had one of these things where you put water in and essential oils and they sort
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: of steam out,
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: it kind of steams out.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I was watching the steam coming out and I was thinking,
• 14:03
  oh,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: with candlelight,
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: it's like having a smoke machine,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: but cheaper and not at all toxic.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I got really excited and I went to buy one and they were like 30 quid,
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: which is just,
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not spending 30 pounds on something like that,
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: particularly when I'm quite likely to,
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: trip over it and break it at some point.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I decided,
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: my granddad always used to say,
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'll fall over one of them,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: which basically meant,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: he'd get it for free or he'd manage to find one.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, I'll fall over one of them, I'll look out for one.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then Sunday morning,
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: because my mum's just moved house,
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: so she wanted to look for some bits and bobs,
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: we went to Cheddar Boot Sale.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought I'd look out for one of those.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And my son said to me, I'm not going.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's just bongs and boiled sweets.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Which I think is...
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: a particularly clear insight into what he puts his attention on because I haven't
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: really noticed any bongs or boiled sweets there.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to get an essential oil diffuser and when I go to Cheddar Boot Sale I see cheese and earrings.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that got me thinking.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Pay attention to your intention.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you putting your attention?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: In this moment right now,
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: in this podcast,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: there's a moment here for you just to build a picture in your mind's eye of what
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: would be the most nurturing,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: the most nourishing,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: the
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: the kindest thing you could do for yourself in this moment, in this day, what would it be?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Lovely.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: So we went to Cheddar Boot Sale.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I love Cheddar Boot Sale.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, it's gorgeous there.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's full of tat.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Everything's a pound.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Not everything's a pound, but I like to pay a pound for things.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: I like pounds, you know.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not that good at parting with notes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: They're not coming my way so fast.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: And lo and behold,
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: halfway through looking around the boot sale,
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: amongst the foot spas and the one flip-flops and the leg warmers with holes in and
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: the house phones,
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: there she was.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: this atomizer and it had already had a sticker on I didn't need to ask for the
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: price it said one pound and I was just like totally excited I just like gave her my
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: pound I even I bought some flowers from her as well actually gave her three pounds
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: because I was that excited about getting this atomizer and I brought it home and
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: let me I'm gonna just set the scene for you I got it home
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: I might need to get a different chair for podcasting because I feel like this is a bit of a noisy chair.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: But for now, it works.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: So imagine you're in a comfy chair.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you're in a comfy chair.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not, just allow me to set the scene.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: You're in the cellar of a great building full of cushions and a crackling fire.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: And by the fire there's a storyteller.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: The room is candlelit.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Steam begins to billow.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you can't see the steam billowing, can you?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: You can hear that noise, can't you?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's the noise it makes.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: In order,
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: the payoff,
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: having a great plume of steam coming out,
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: is that noise,
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: which I have to say...
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Just really puts me off my story stride,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: so...
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now I've got this massive lump of noisy plastic and I'm not really sure what to do
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: with it.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to have to find another way in.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: another way to evoke the ancient magic of story.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: And when I gather my thoughts, when I look at the landscape within myself, I see the moors.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: I see the dark moor, the river sparkling.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: I see the mists rolling over the fields.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's a place that I've walked upon and dreamed upon my whole life,
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: ever since I got stonkingly lost on 10 tours with my friend Jackie Elston.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: You were great, Jackie, by the way.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: You had it much better.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have a clue where I was going.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: But thanks for that.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll be there next week for about 10 days because I'm supporting a Vision Quest project
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: And a vision quest is that people have different words for it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Some people call them wilderness vigils.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Some people call them long nights out of the stars and stones.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: They're basically time completely by yourself.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: In my tradition,
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: we make little tiny little bundles of prayers on ropes and we put starves around us
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: in a circle and we put this rope around us so that we have a physical barrier that
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: stops us from going out of that space.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm not doing that next week,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: but I'm supporting a lot of people who are,
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: yeah,
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: praying for your lives.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: All of you that are brave enough to do that,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: to just,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: sometimes,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: I do it myself for sure.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you just, you just on and on and on.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: You just can't stop.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: You just can't stop.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: You just can't stop because there's this, there's this feeling underneath that's scary.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever it is, a disappointment, a hurt.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: I know that when
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: I feel hurt.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: I talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk until the feeling's gone away.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's really brave to go out and really drop into the earth and drop into
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: four days and four nights,
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: no food,
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: no water,
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: no distractions,
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: just the earth and the stars and
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds really glamorous, doesn't it?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: But my first four days, I can tell you, pissed it down.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely pissed it down.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Pissed it down.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so much.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: I had a blanket.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I had another change of top, like a cardigan or something.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: I had a blanket and a cardigan.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: And someone sweetly slipped me a black bin liner as I was going up.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you,
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: I spent most of my,
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: I spent the first two days either climbed inside the bin liner,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: trying to put it above my head so that I could close it above my head.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: My hands were shaking or putting it over the top of me like Neil in The Young Ones
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: when he was snotting all the time.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: the top of me but my legs were still getting really wet oh yeah hard work and then
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: the sun came out and it was like I feel this year some resonance with the moments
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: when it's sunny of that feeling of deep deepest relief it's been a big winter I
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: know
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: I know for one and all,
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: it's been a big winter and these moments when the sun comes out is releasing a sort
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: of sense of relief in our bodies.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: And, wow, you know, let's get really into the rain because...
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Nature loves it.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's love it.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let's love the rain.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Let's love being out.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Let's normalize being outdoors in all weathers.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, let's just do it because it's the best place for us to be.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's the healthiest, most alive and magical place for us to be.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm supporting this vision question.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: I've done four.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: Four times I've done this and in my tradition we go out for four nights and then we
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: go out for seven nights and then we go out for nine nights and then we go out for
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: 13 nights.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't speak, you have your word taken away.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's the way that we put it.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you're not singing or making any sound at all.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's really an inward journey.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: Except that someone who's holding the space
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Medicine woman, medicine man may come and visit you at some point.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a moment when they might pray with you and they might ask you or give
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: you permission to speak.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: They may give you,
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: they hand you a tobacco which you have put down and you can speak when you've got
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: that in your hand.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I think only once that happened to me, I think it was in my 13 days, maybe nine days into my 13 days.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: And,
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: there was so much I wanted to say and wanted to share and all the layers and all
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: the feelings and all the insights,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: it's quite incredible.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: But with that tobacco in my hand, I told this story.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: I told this version of this story.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Once upon a time, there was a girl whose mother had died.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sadness filled the house like a noisy,
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: steaming essential oil machine,
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: aching and irritating and all-consuming.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: But it wasn't long before the father married again.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: And his new wife, she was haughty, they said.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: She was rude, they said.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: She was mean, they said.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: And she had two daughters.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: And she loved her two daughters.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: And she was desperate for her two daughters to have the best life and the finest life.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: And she really felt that she'd married down, marrying this guy with his single daughter.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: But there wasn't much left on the market.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so she had to always make sure that it was her daughters that got things first,
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: that got the best of everything.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And she'd never taught the daughters to do anything wrong.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: They just preened themselves and cackled all the time and did their nails and their hair.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the young daughter, she was used to, her mother had been ill for a long time.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: She was used to looking after the house and cooking the food and sweeping the hearth.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they would laugh at her because she was dirty and her fingers were short and
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: her hair was often scraped back.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: And they called her Cinderella.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Look at you covered in dirt and dust.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So disgusting.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And look at us.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: We have got the finest clothes and we've got the finest hair and we are so beautiful.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Look at us.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Look at us, Cinderella.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're so beautiful.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're just so beautiful.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And they were really, you know, really up themselves.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then one day an invitation arrived at the house.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: You are all summoned and welcomed to a great ball at the palace because the prince
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: is looking for a bride.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, I want to marry a prince.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want to marry a prince.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'll marry the prince.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to marry the prince.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to marry the prince.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want to marry the prince.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so there was so much excitement in the house.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: There was push-up bras and glossy lipstick and frustration over hair not quite
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: going right and decisions over how long the nails should be and what earrings to
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: wear and all of this going on.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, Cinderella, you can't come with us because it would just be embarrassing.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: You would just look at you in that cardigan of patchwork.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: You would be a complete embarrassment to us.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And we want an audience with the prince.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: So you can't go.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't want to go anyway, said Cinderella.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: She wasn't even sure if she did because she hadn't had a moment to think.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: But when the day came and off they trotted like
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was going to say something about an animal then, but I'm not going to, because it would be an insult.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: Off they trotted to the ball.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Cinderella was left alone.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a moment when the quietness of the house was a balm, was a relief.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: There was a moment when the quietness around her felt good in her body because she could feel herself.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: But then she hit it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: She hit a feeling of longing.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: And she started to cry.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Tears are a river.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: They'll always take you somewhere.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Tears are a river.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: It'll always take you somewhere.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And these tears were like a magical waterfall.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: And in the glistening of that magical waterfall,
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: Cinderella's fairy godmother appeared,
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: sparkling and jewel-like,
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: kind.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And she said to her,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Cinderella, of course you'll go to the ball.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: And she summoned a dress of such beauty.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Nature gave Cinderella the dress that she deserved to wear.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Moss and daffodil, rose petal and bluebell.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: tiny little bird feathers.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was a dress of such exquisite beauty.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Cinderella gasped when it wrapped itself around her.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: And there were these shoes, beautiful sheepskin slippers.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: So light and so comfortable, Cinderella knew that she would be able to dance all night.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: But how am I going to get to the ball?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Aha!
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: the wave of the godmother's wand lifted up into the air and she summoned a pumpkin
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: from the garden and she called upon the mice that were hiding amongst the skirting
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: boards and the rats who were around the bins and the lizards in the pond and so the
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: Mice and the rats,
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: they turned into great horses with fine plumage and the pumpkin turned into a
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: golden carriage and the lizards turned into footmen and they opened the door and
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: they said,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Cinderella,
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: you shall go to the ball.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: And she stepped inside and the fairy godmother looked for a moment very pleased
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: with her creation and did notice how precarious it all was.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, Cinderella, you better be back by midnight.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: because this magic will begin to fade.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so Cinderella got to go to the ball.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: And as she opened the door to the ball,
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: her dress began to move and shift again as butterflies started to spin around her
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: and oh my my,
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: people turned around and they gazed and they gawped and it was the prince himself
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: who made a beeline for her and they
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: And they danced and they danced and they danced and they danced.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, my.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: They danced.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: They laughed and they danced and they span.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: And she quite forgot what the time was until she just caught herself looking up.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it was 10 minutes to midnight.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so she ran and ran and ran and ran and ran all the way back.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: to the carriage where the carriage was waiting.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Quick, they said, and they started to thunder and thunder and thunder back to the home.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: But it became midnight suddenly and bloop!
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: The carriage turned into a pumpkin and the mice and the rats,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: which were once horses,
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: they just disappeared back into their holes and the lizard slunk away somewhere
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: moist and Cinderella was left by herself to run home.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that was when she realised
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: That she only had one shoe on.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: She must have left it as she came out of the palace.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: And she couldn't worry about that now.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: She had to just keep on going.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: And she got back just in time.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Her dress was in rags.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: She had one shoe on.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: And she lay there panting by the hearth when the others came in.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: And they were full of it.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was lovely.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we danced to the prince and he spoke to us.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then this girl came in.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: She ruined everything.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: She danced with him all night.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: She hogged him, she did.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, didn't she understand everyone should take turns and obviously one of us is going to marry.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: On and on and on.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Cinderella swept the hearth and she lit a fire for them.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: And she massaged their sore, sore feet from dancing all night.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, she got a little sleep by the fire.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the prince.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: The prince had been stirred very deeply.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: And he'd noticed amongst all the things that were very different about this beautiful, exquisite woman.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: She had very comfortable shoes on.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: And when he went outside, after she ran, he did follow her.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he saw that she tripped and she lost one of her slippers and he picked it up.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: He went to call after her, but she wasn't listening.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: She was gone, gone, gone.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: And he looked at the slipper and he thought to himself,
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: I will find the owner of this slipper.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: I will find her.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what he did.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: He told everyone that whoever's foot fitted in that slipper that they would marry him.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the slipper went up and down the land.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: And lucky for Cinderella, really, that she had pretty wide feet.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: They were small, but they were pretty wide.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it was gaping at the side.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: They were made by Mother Nature herself.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: So they fitted her feet perfectly.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: So even people that had the same size feet, they couldn't fit into that.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: slipper.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: He knew when he saw the feet in there,
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: nope,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: nope.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: But the sisters, oh, the sisters, they were not going to be beaten.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so when they saw that slipper, it was the mother who had the idea.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: She looked at the great feet of one of her sisters and she brought her
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: The axe from the side of the fireplace.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, cut off your toes.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the girl looked up at her horrified.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: She said, do it.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Cut off your toes.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: You won't need toes.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: You won't need them.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not when you're a princess.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: Not when you're a queen.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: You'll not need toes for nothing.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: So she cut off her toes and she wedged her feet into the shoes.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: They fit.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: They fit.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: They fit.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: She simpered to the prince.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that was when the prince thought, oh, my God, this was a really terrible idea.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: What to do?
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: He'd made one of those great declarations that you do in fairy tales.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so he had to marry her and she hobbles off with him to the palace.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: But she hasn't gone very far when she's like, oh, the blood's squirting everywhere.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: And he he he looks terrified.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: And he says, these aren't your slippers, are they?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like, no, no, they're not.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: I want my toes back.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: I want my toes back.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so they go back to the house and she gathers up her toes and they go to A&E to
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: see if they can put their toes back on.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: Put her toes back on.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's the other sister.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: The woman's still got the axe.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: The mother's still got the axe.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like caked in blood.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: She's just wiping it down.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: cut off your heels what heels what good are they come on it's just a heel my
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: goodness sake just cut them off and you will be a princess no you will be a queen
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: and so in the end she does she cuts her heels off and she squashes them in um
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: probably one heel because anyone she wasn't that one heel she squashes them in and
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: she's
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: And the same thing, she goes off to the palace and then she's like, she can't balance.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_02: She's like a weeble, you know.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: She's just kind of absolutely no balance with a heel.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: And she's just going flying about all over the place.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the prince looks at her.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: The prince looks at the shoe and sees the blood streaming out of the shoe.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he gets what's going on.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, back you go, come on.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: And he can't just leave her because she can't stand.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: So he takes her back.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: And as he opens the door to the cottage, there's a girl sitting by the fire.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: And he may not have noticed her,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: because she's doing a really good job of being invisible,
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: but there's a blue butterfly that's landed on her shoulder.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: He suddenly remembers the butterflies on the dress of the girl.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: He was not that into fashion, but he remembered that.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: And he says, you...
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: you try it on she looks over at him she's actually a bit reluctant too because it's
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: got you know blood all over it but she does try it on she puts her foot into it and
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: it fits perfectly and the prince holds out his hand and she takes his hand she
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: steadies herself
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: with his hand and as she does so you can see the other slipper on her other foot
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: and she looks him deep in the eyes takes a breath and then walks out with her
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: slippers on into the world walks away from the sisters and the mother and the
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: father and the prince
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: And she walks out into the world,
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: into the trust of the earth under her feet and the sun and the stars and the moon
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: above her.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: And she lives happily ever after.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: So let's take this story in different sections.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: Let's take this last bit in my version, which is not, it's just this version that I'm telling right now.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: Where she holds onto the prince, where she steadies herself with the prince's hand.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: Where is it in our life that we need support?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: Where is it in our life where we need to reach out and be steadied so that we can walk our path?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much in this story.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of the oldest fairy stories and it's found all over the world.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: I thought the oldest one was from China, about 850 AD.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: But it isn't, as it turns out.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: The oldest one ever found is earlier than that.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: I've got it written down here.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Rhodopis, and it's a Greek one.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: and it was written sometime between 7 BC and 23 AD, but, hey, this story is much older than that.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's in the seven basic plots as being, you know, one of the most popular stories ever told.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: Rags to riches.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the great storylines in the...
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: old one from China which was that I think there's a great fish I think the fish
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: arrives out of the sky or something like that and then she uses the bones to prey
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: upon
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: To pray for what she wants.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: And her dress is made of kingfisher feathers.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: And the sisters are killed with flying stones.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Ye Shen, I think the story's called.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's the story that we know.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Charles Perrault, really, I think, is the story that we... It is in Grimm Tales.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: there's a version in Arabian Nights, but Perrault puts the pumpkin in.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: And for me,
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: because I grew up on the Disney version,
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: the root of most of my problems,
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure,
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: is this story about the,
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: the pumpkin and the lizards and the transformation.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: And, oh, it's just riddled, this story.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's just riddled with...
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: suppression on all levels it's like first of all that's what happens if there's not
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: i think the mother she is the embodiment of self-love okay the kind of bedrock of
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: inner love nurture and caring she's not there yeah she's not there and when when
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: that's not there anything can get in there and attack we take what looks like love
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: um and isn't you know
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: So then there's this wicked stepmother role.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: She can come in, you know, and it's not activated.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: The masculine, the man, the father, there's an emptiness there.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: He barely gets a mention in the whole story.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's this girl who's got a dead mother and a completely absent father.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's a cultural pandemic.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the dead mother and the completely absent father.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it's if we take stories as a psychic landscape, you know, that's in all of us.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, it's on the outside and on the inside.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so all this can come in,
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: the bitches and the meanness and what this story does,
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think,
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: is just keeps women separate and untrusting.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, really, it's like on so many levels.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: it's just a really dangerous story in the way that it's told in our culture.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: Firstly,
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: not to trust your sisters,
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: but the mothers are wicked,
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: that,
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: the thing to aim for in life is to catch the eye of a prince you've never even met
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: before who has got kind of worldly guilt and goods
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: By guilt, I mean golden, guilted, gilded.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: Really,
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: I've just had these kinds of stories rammed down my throat and I just want to take
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: them out of my body,
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: you know.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: So in these retellings and the way I want to,
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: retells these stories it's like where are the stories where the sisters um support
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: each other where are the stories where the mother comes in and and the father you
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: know healthy and whole it's all healthy and whole and that
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's the way I want.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't mind where a story starts from,
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: but that's where I want stories to end now as a way of really remending and
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: reweaving our world through fairy stories.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: through all different kinds of stories.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I was thinking as well about the pumpkin and the mice and the rats and the
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: lizard and thinking,
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: wow,
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: these are normal things.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, the story is like, you know, we are conjuring great magic from normal things.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, who's got a pumpkin growing in their garden?
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us, I hope, but I was thinking it'll be, you know, kind of round up in a recycling box.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're not even taking responsibility for our own recycling.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not taking responsibility for my own recycling anymore.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: I just put it in a box and it gets taken away.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I want my life back.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want my life back on all these levels in all these ways.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's the story I've been thinking about.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's a shame that I won't be telling it with a great plume of steam coming across
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: my face to create the magic.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I would have been better off with a bong.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: But there you go.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: is probably the end of today's podcast except to say that on Sunday I'm going to be
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: telling a story at the Bardic finals because in Glastonbury there is a Bard
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_02: appointed every year and that next week's podcast I'll talk you through that
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: ceremony and tell you what happened and read some extracts from the Bardic pieces
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: but thanks so much for listening and
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder how it is for you, how it was for you, what you found delicious and what you didn't.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm feeling like there's something kind of markety, I should be saying.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, like and subscribe.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: Keep listening.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: Tell your friends about it.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Let's keep meeting up in this place.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: to excavate our souls with story.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of love.