Latest / Mooney's Mythic Podcast / Back in The Saddle, John Wayne, Equinox and fairy seeing eyes

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Back in The Saddle, John Wayne, Equinox and fairy seeing eyes · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Mooney's Mythic Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good to say that.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't sure I was going to be saying that anytime soon, so thanks guys.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here to listen to me saying that.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this episode is sponsored by Bones.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is sponsored by our bony bones.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just feel the skeleton of ourselves at the moment, right now.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: All the little toe bones,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: all the bones in the feet,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: lifting up the bones in our legs,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: the bones in our pelvis and our hips.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was all out of joint for me and I'm really grateful.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: glad to be back in the saddle and um and and out of pain and right here recording
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: with you so thank you to my bones and thank you to all the people that think about
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: bones and work with bones let's ease in through this equinox to our autumn winter
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: with the grace and brilliance of our bones.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can you feel the shift?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: if you're listening to this at the time I'm recording it, we're just on the equinox.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And last night I really saw the moon in a way that I haven't seen her all summer.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: really grateful to this time when I feel more connected with the night,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: more connected with the dark than I do in the summertime.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And because I've been
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: in this place of journeying with my own body pain.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you were tuning in last week to the musical Chip Shop episode,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: sorry to break it to you guys,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get the Chip Shop audition.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I won't be touring Somerset Chip Shops with a musical.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It will be happening with someone else, so let's go and see it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let you know when I'm going and we can go together
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been thinking about our bodies and how when I was having a treatment where
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: my hip and pelvis were being kind of pressed back into place,
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was on my back and I was looking up and I suddenly had this image of John Wayne
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: coming out,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: like dressed as a cowboy with his belt on,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: with his
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: gun at his hip coming out with his leather waistcoat on with these saloon doors
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: like coming through the doors you know and the doors are like wafting behind him
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: open closed open closed open closed and I was like yeah I'm back I'm a cowboy
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it made me think about my granddad because he loved John Wayne.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: He loved cowboys.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I told him that there was a new cowboy film out and he watched Brokeback Mountain.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't impressed, but cowboys were a big part of his life and his liminal dreaming.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so there it was.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, yeah, I'm back.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a cowboy.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm back in the saddle.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then this other voice came in and said, no, you're not.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're the saloon doors.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at the saloon doors just kind of flapping open and closed, open and closed.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I could just really feel that about my body that I needed in this changing time.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: to pay attention to those places because I feel like I've been out like a cowboy
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: all summer and um and now it's time for me to retreat and attend to the places that
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: are a bit wobbled with so much action and it got me thinking about this South
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: American ceremony and I know that it's an ancient ceremony and I know that um
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a version of it in France,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: there are versions of it in India and in that way I believe all indigenous people
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: had some kind of ceremony like this and it's called closing the bones.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's traditionally used after you have a baby because when you have a baby all
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: your collagen softens,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: your body really softens so that you can open
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's really good to create a ritual to come back into yourself.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the Closing the Bones ceremony is a ceremony where you take seven scarves and you lie down.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And let's do that now.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's imagine we're lying down and we're lying on seven scarves.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the people of the village,
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: the women,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: the midwives,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: the healers,
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: the shamans,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: they're all gathered around us to create this ceremony with us.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the equinox.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what a perfect time to create balance in our bodies.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And these scarves from the feet, they're tied into a knot around our feet to keep us together.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then around our calves.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then around our thighs.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then around our pelvis, right around our pelvis.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And around our belly.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And around our chest.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then around our head.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just feel like we're wrapped up tight for a moment.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then relax.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Relax into that containment.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Relaxing back in.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Drawing our energy back in like the oak tree is drawing its energy back in.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Drawing our energy back in so that we can bring our energy down,
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: deep down,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: deep into our dreaming,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: deep into our winter time.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: bringing it right down.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling the richness of that and I haven't been feeling that this week.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in so much pain and I've no idea how to deal with pain.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: How do you deal with pain?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me confused and grumpy and not very good at taking action.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: because I didn't get this chip shop job and I'd learnt a monologue,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: the first monologue that I'd learnt in a long time,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about other monologues.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Alan Bennett, for me, he's the king of monologues.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: he's a writer.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote Lady in the Van.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the most recent thing.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that was autobiographical about a woman that he let live on his driveway for a long time.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he wrote this series called Talking Heads, which was a series of monologues for the television.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then it went, it was adapted for radio.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And, and if you like, um,
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Fleabag.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's that kind of monologue.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's one person speaking, direct to camera, not to camera.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I often think about the difference between a comedy,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: a comedian and a storyteller and someone doing a monologue.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Could I make my stories a bit more funny and call myself a comedian?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Could I make them a bit less funny and call them serious?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Something more serious, I don't know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he wrote these brilliant monologues.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you're,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: because lots of people have asked me recently about training,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: about storytelling,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: kind of guidance and mentoring.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Alan Bennett is an absolutely brilliant thing to have in your canon to
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: study brilliant writing for a single voice.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: in the monologues that these people,
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: these speeches,
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: that these characters,
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: when they speak,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: they give so much away about themselves that they may not even be aware of.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the way that they're written tells the audience so much about them.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And often when you're writing and you're going to writing groups,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: the advice they say is show,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: don't tell.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I get confused about really what that means.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Alan Bennett gives you a masterclass in that.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: The monologue I was thinking of is called Cream Cracker Under the City.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this woman and she's getting older and she's frightened of being sent to an old people's home.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she's having a wrangle with her cleaner because she wants to clean up.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: She wants to have control over her environment.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: But she's got this cleaner from the council and this cleaner says that she's the
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: only thing standing between the woman in the monologue and the home.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: She's threatening.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: She's saying to her,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: if you if you don't listen to me and stop putting the hoover around and stop
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: dusting and doing all those things and let me do it,
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: then I'm going to tell the council that you can't look after yourself and you're
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: going to go in a home that you're dangerous and you're going to go in a home.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But she can't let go, you know.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this lifetime of doing these things.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And she doesn't like the way the woman cleans.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's fallen.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And she can see under the sofa that there's a cream cracker.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So she's talking through the monologue about how she's going to save the cream cracker as evidence.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But then she starts thinking about something else and then she eats it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So she's eaten the evidence.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But not only has she eaten the evidence,
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: but she's created a load of crumbs,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: which is even more annoyed about because she hates cleaning.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she hates mess and she wants to clean it, but she's been told she can't clean.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see her vulnerability there.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then someone comes to the door.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the postman and says, you know, I haven't seen you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you all right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or something.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: She says, yeah, yeah.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't say nothing on the floor for hours and I can't get up.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she's too proud and she's too afraid.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So she doesn't.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the part I thought about because at one point when my back was so bad,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't put my pants and my socks on.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'd have more luck hooking a duck in a rigged fairground than I would getting my pants on that day.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I was feeling into who I could ask.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Could I ask my son?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Could I knock downstairs to the guy, you know, plays the bagpipes, Craig or Anna downstairs?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or the guy upstairs, could I ring a friend?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just kind of spent ages of looping them on the floor and then gradually edging
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: them up my body.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: But she doesn't.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: ask for help either and at the end of the monologue you see that or you realise
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: that she's going to die there she's going to die alone lying on the floor clutching
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: a dirty cream cracker that she's half eaten worrying about the mess in the house
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: strong reflection.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I did ask for help.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I did ask for help.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I got my bones put back in the right place.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm feeling that that is the equinox lesson for me to pay attention to my body.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That coming back into myself, that coming back into
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: autumn into earth time into hibernation means really good self-care of my body so
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: here we are in the containment of this beautiful closing the bones we're close with
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: our bones let's come really close to our bones
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the good thing is I've been doing a lot of storytelling because it's been painful to keep still.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's been painful to move.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the only distraction that really suits, that really gets deep in there for me is to tell stories.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been telling stories.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been watching storytellers.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I went to see a guy called Fra Gunn, an Irish storyteller.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he was a great storyteller.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lovely Irish accent and tells stories in a way.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I feel a much more precise way than I tell stories.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very pleased,
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: pleased,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: but it was pleasing for me to hear him tell stories in that way.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So in the spirit of not knowing how to stop
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of having my hip and my pelvis slightly out of tune with each other,
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: but still not knowing how to stop,
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I went to see him tell stories.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went to see the wonderful Leela Bunce doing a recreation of a day in a
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Saxon woman's life,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: which was also fantastic.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I told stories myself a couple of days later and I thought, I'm going to tell Froggon's story.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to recreate the way that Leela started her performance because it was really
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: wonderful and fun for me.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So she's the Saxon woman, but you don't see her at first.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: You just hear her trying to get the animals together.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to share the story that Fragon told as I remember it and how it's
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: weaved and cooked within me in the last few days,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: paying homage to Leela's gorgeous beginning.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure I'll do justice to both or either, but I hope you enjoy what I bring to you.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Daisy, yes, I know.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: You need milking.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's totally, yeah, I'll get you.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to shear you.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just need to.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Daisy, over there.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I need help.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I need help.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I need help.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well then, we'll go to the market on a Tuesday and we'll get some help.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go to the market and we'll choose a girl who can help you.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what they did.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Rowana and her husband,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: they went to the market to find someone to help them because it was all too much.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Rowana had a job she could get called away at any moment.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: She couldn't be tending to the sheep and the chicken and the cows.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: They needed help.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And there were a few girls there.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: But one of them caught their eye.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: She was taller than the rest, broad-backed, and Rowena knew that meant that she could work all day.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Something else about her, too.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Something light.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: She couldn't put her finger on it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, the deal was done.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: The money exchanged.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: An island, that was her name.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: She came back.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: She came back with them, and she did.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: She worked well.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ha!
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Daisy, Daisy seemed to love her.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: The milk, it seemed to be creamier.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: The chicks had no problem and the hens laying more eggs and they clucked away and
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: one of them followed her around the house.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that she spun the sheep's wool, beautiful.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Rihanna was pleased.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: But she was curious too about this island.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: about this girl who avoided any questions about her past, who sidestepped anything personal.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Arana was curious.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And she noticed that after her work was done,
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: she didn't hang around,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: she didn't chat,
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: not one for small talk.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: She would slip away.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Arana just really wanted to know where she was going.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, following her would be too strong a thing to say.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping tabs, noticing.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: She just happened to notice that she was slipping out at night.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, Rowana was standing by the window in that general direction of where she noticed Ireland go.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the moon was pretty dark, so she couldn't see much.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: But she could see something.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: She saw the island was going to the tithe barn,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: the disused one,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: not the one that they put their parsnips and roots in,
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: not the one that they still sang the old songs in,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: the one that the roof was gone long ago,
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: the one that was like a cathedral to the stars.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: She noticed the island went there, as she noticed that she went there and she danced and she sang.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: She noticed that she went there and she danced and she drummed and she sang.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Night after night, she noticed that.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the moon, it got chinkier and bigger and fuller.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Rorana had a very good view because of that moon.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when that moon was getting fuller, she noticed...
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Island was naked.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Island was dancing naked.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Island was drumming and singing and dancing naked.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that moon, it reflected the light of her skin and the light in her eyes.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she was transfixed.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that night when the moon was full, she watched Island spin and spin and spin and spin and disappear.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or she didn't come that next day for work, or the day after that, or the day after that.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Eileen was gone.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Rowie, she felt a bit bad about the spying and she wondered if it had anything to do with it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And one night when she was feeling a bit bad about all that, she heard a knock at the door.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: She was used to knocks coming, any time, day or night.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: She was a midwife, you see, and they could come.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: They had no Monday to Friday about them, these babes.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was raining that night,
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: and when she opened the door,
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: he stood there,
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: soaked,
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: and he said,
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: come,
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: and she saw the look straight away.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was worry in his eyes.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: So she got on, and she rode with him.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was a horse that he'd brought with him, and she rode with him.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she stuck behind him.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the rhythm of the horse,
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: of her being so tired and having everything to do all the time again now,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: the rhythm of the horse,
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: it fairly made her fall asleep.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And she closed her eyes and she leant against his back and she nearly fell asleep.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she just flickered her eyes open and whoa,
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: there was a great hill in front of them and they were making straight for it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But then, just as she was about to think, we're done, we're gone for, poof,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: She hadn't seen a gap.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: She hadn't seen a cave entrance.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: But now they were riding deep with stalagmites and stalactites all around them,
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: deep into the heart of that hill.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it opened out into a great cave.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Dirt floored.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Tall, vast, beautiful.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to look around.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: She was fascinated.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But she didn't have time because she heard a familiar moan.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there was her island.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pregnant.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the man, he looked at her dark eyes and she needed to say nothing.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: She just gave him a reassuring look and she held the hand of her island.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's all right, she said.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: She stroked her belly.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: She could feel that the baby was coming soon and a few of her touches of her
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: experienced hand knew that it was all in the right place.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: This woman just needed a woman's hand to hold.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So cool as a cucumber,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: she sat there as Island moaned and shook and opened and she took out of her pouch a
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: little tincture of rose.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And she opened the bottle and the rose oil filled the room and it went fair up Ireland's nostrils.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Rowie smiled and she said, yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Bloom and open like the rose.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Bloom and open like the softness and the beauty of the rose.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Ireland's body began to relax and open and shudder and shudder and open and relax.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And before you knew it, there was a babe in the room.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she never got used to it.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Rory,
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: for all the hundreds of babies that she had delivered,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: holding that babe for a moment in her arm,
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: she felt the wonder of all of life around her.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: She was humbled and sweetened by it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the man, he came over and he had children.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: a jar in his hand, crystal it was, or at least she thought now, maybe it was diamond.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he got some kind of ointment out of it and he just very gently put it over the
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: lids of the babe's eyes.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Just before Rowie handed the babe over to the mum and as she handed it over,
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: some of that ointment just went on her hand,
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: went on her fingers.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Where suddenly she felt so tired.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: She felt so very tired.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And she wiped her eye with that hand.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And everything around her shimmered and shifted.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: She looked at the man again and he had antlers strong and proud and those black
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: eyes were ringed with light purple and he had the starlight about him and pointed
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: ears and she did not know if he was elven or fairy but she knew he was king.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And she looked at her island and she was the same.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: A pearlescent sheen around her and light
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then she looked around the room.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: which was no longer dirt floor,
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: which was no longer stalactite and stalactite,
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: but it was a hall,
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: a great hall,
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: billowing with bejewelled silks.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: An island was sitting on a great feather bed with four oaken posters, posts.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: She was dumbstruck.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was struck dumb.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she smiled the simple smile of the dumb one.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: An island sitting there with a babe at her breast.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: She smiled and she held the babe.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, yes, you can see.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can see us now.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: But how?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Aylan and the man, they told her many stories.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Many stories of the fae, of the initiations, of the ways.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: They told her stories until she was lulled into a kind of a sleep.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when she was lulled into that sleep,
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: the man,
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: he took his hand and he wiped it across her eye and he lifted her up.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And all the way home she slept.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when she woke up, she could see with both eyes normally again.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: But she always knew.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And she always gave thanks on the equinox,
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: on the solstices,
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: on the moonlit nights,
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: in the star-filled times,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: for all that she knew might be around her,
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: but that which she could not see.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I heard Fragon tell a version of that story and he said it was from Cornwall.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd heard a few different stories, different versions.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'd heard a version from Ireland and a few different storytellers telling it in different ways.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I used this story as a frame and as Ireland is there with the baby,
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I told a few other fairy stories on the night before.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a really lovely way to share stories.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it reminded me of neuro-linguistic programming.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: They say that they call it story cupping,
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think a story nesting,
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: that if you want to hypnotize someone,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: you start a story and then you start another story and then you start another story
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: three times and then
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can nest a lot of information in the middle bit and then you go out with the three stories.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do it sometime on a podcast for you.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I really enjoyed that.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Except that I couldn't stand up.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: After I'd finished telling those stories, I couldn't stand up.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I knew I was in trouble and I had to do something.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I told these stories in the Nivola room in the goddess house.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Nivola is Avalon, spelt backwards.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Avalon is the magical name for Glastonbury, where I live.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And there is the legend of...
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: of the Lady of Avalon and the Lady of Avalon has these resplendent antlers.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And she also can be called Ellen of the Ways.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, she's very much an archetype that is used a lot in mythology around here.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it was wonderful to honour her with that story in that room where there were so many images of her.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the people that came to the storytelling that night were really special people.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was very much a privilege to tell them stories.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've been telling stories at night in Bridgewater for a twilight evening with fire and circus.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very gorgeous.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: place to tell stories amongst a crew you know amongst a crowd of people each doing
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: our own creative thing so I've really enjoyed that and when you receive this
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: podcast I'm going to put it out on Friday I will be preparing to run the retreat
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: that I'm doing this weekend a storytelling retreat
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I've changed all the dreamings and ideas that I've had about doing this retreat
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: because I hadn't really tuned in to the earth,
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: to the moon.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't really listened to what it was that the season was.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: What the women coming to the retreat needed at this time.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been a really big teaching for me.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I am taking the story of the Handless Maiden.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to use the closing the bones that we did at the beginning of the podcast.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to come like distill ourselves really back deep into the root of
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: ourselves so that we can deeply listen to nature again.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: deeply listen to ourselves and strengthen this connection on the inside for the
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: coming autumn and winter.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when I ran this retreat in January the same at the Chalicewell Gardens,
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about that.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of working.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's Noah, if you can hear that banging noise.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's in and out getting some snack and going back into his teenage den.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: But we're in here in a very different space.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, well, the story was much more about working with the hands and regrowing the hands.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I just assumed it would be kind of same retreat, different venue.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I got a spanking to make that assumption.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so here I am.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Pain has brought me deep into the moment to more integrity, to deeper listening.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: So think of us on that retreat.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be offline, but by the magic of date publishing this podcast, you'll be receiving it.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Think of us, we'll be in Pembrokeshire and I'll tell you all about the retreat next week.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take you through the story in the dreaming way that we did it.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: We can go on that journey together.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a series of storytelling events coming up at the Goddess House throughout the winter.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think the next one is the 17th of October.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, if you want to sign up to Patreon, if you've got...
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: you think,
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: she needs a pint of Guinness,
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: that woman,
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: or I want to buy her a mint tea,
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: then you can sign up to Patreon Moony Stories,
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Moony's Mythic Podcast,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: and you can support me in that way.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: But really, your attention, your listening, your presence here is just so glorious and wonderful for me.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that this podcast has been somehow nourishing,
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: nurturing for you,
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: somehow activating a desire to love yourself a bit more,
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: to love the earth a bit more.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: If there's anyone you can share this podcast with,
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: great,
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: comment,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: all the things,
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: all the things would be amazing.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: But for now,
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: magnificent, happy, joyous wonder to you.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I really say that from not a
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: yeah with deep respect to all of it,
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: to the pain and the loneliness and the grief and all the other places,
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: all the places that sometimes stop us from going deep inside because we don't want
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: to feel what's in there.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's provide good company for each other whilst we feel it all so we can be
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: total, multifaceted, kaleidoscopic versions of ourselves.