Latest / Mooney's Mythic Podcast / Betwixt and Between

Transcript

Betwixt and Between · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Moony's Mythic Podcast.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to my fireside.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the dreaming world of myth.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is sponsored by snow.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: The soft, silent fall of snow.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: The promise of clarity and purity that it brings.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: The sense of excitement and play.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And the wonder.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: This episode is sponsored by the wonder of snow.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: And of course,
0:44
as I'm saying all that I'm feeling and seeing the sludge and
0:48
the slush and the danger.
0:50
But I've been telling the Snow Queen this week with the
0:56
brilliant musician Sarah Curtis.
0:59
and it has been a precious thing to tell the Snow Queen in
1:05
different venues knowing
1:08
that all the people who have seen it are going to wake up to
1:15
snow in a couple of
1:17
days time or in a day's time that's been really really really
1:23
wonderful and somehow
1:26
SPEAKER_00: for me just to be
1:28
SPEAKER_00: to feel like I'm telling the right story at the right time,
1:31
SPEAKER_00: in the right place to the right people.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's profound.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: I can sometimes feel like, oh, I haven't got it quite right.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
1:44
SPEAKER_00: it just felt...
1:47
It felt like such a precious thing to offer to people's
1:51
mid-winter dreaming.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: It felt like such a heart-filled...
1:58
I was doing one of the sessions a couple of days ago and my
2:03
heart was opening and
2:06
SPEAKER_00: opening and opening and opening as I was telling the story.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: I could have really broken down at the end and wept and wept.
2:17
But we tried to book the room out for as little as possible so
2:23
it would cost us as
2:24
SPEAKER_00: little as possible and we had to get out as quickly as possible.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: But thank you to everyone who came.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to everyone.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: That's really precious.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: I've really felt supported by you all this week,
2:41
SPEAKER_00: by everyone this week in so many different ways.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And I have written down
2:47
all the people I wanted to say thank you to and I'm kind of
2:52
I've been making a plan
2:53
for this podcast I do a kind of mind map sometimes I do quite a
2:56
big one you know so
2:57
I've just kind of seeing where things link together and what
3:01
I'm going to talk
3:01
about and then at the same time I've been thinking about how
3:05
this is it's really
3:06
important that this time of year is structureless I've got some
3:10
clay so that I can
3:12
work when I'm working with my um story group this afternoon
3:16
we're going to make
3:17
some kind of figures some kind of dreaming objects but nothing
3:21
specific we're just
3:22
going to let our hands mold and see what occurs um and then the
3:28
other hand I'm
3:28
trying to structure things you know I'm trying to structure my
3:30
podcast and I think
3:32
SPEAKER_00: I lit my fire with the um
3:36
SPEAKER_00: with the map this morning because I can't find it anywhere.
3:40
So here I am dropping in with you,
3:45
dropping into this pod with the memory of a plan.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: But I did want to say thank you.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to say thank you to Kimberley because she sent me the file of,
4:00
SPEAKER_00: you remember I did the Queen of the Solstice and the sound is quite low.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: And she sent me the file,
4:06
SPEAKER_00: so I sent that to Ted Waters,
4:08
SPEAKER_00: and Ted Waters has sent it to someone called Tom.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully it will come back with a bit more boosted sound in it,
4:16
SPEAKER_00: and I'll replace that with the one that we've got.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to Catherine,
4:22
who noticed on the flyer that I sent out for the retreat that
4:32
I'm running at
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Chalice Well.
4:34
at the end of February that I put,
4:36
come to the sacred heart of Glastonbury.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't, I put, come to the scared heart of Glastonbury.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: So thanks for getting in touch and pointing out that typo.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And I am scared.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really good place to be sometimes.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: To be in the quiver of myself.
5:03
I am scared about these retreats that I run where people can
5:09
come and spend time
5:12
tending to places in themselves that have been forgotten or
5:16
that are forlorn or
5:18
SPEAKER_00: hidden away,
5:21
where they can try out embodying aspects of themselves that
5:27
have been too scary or
5:30
SPEAKER_00: it hasn't felt safe enough.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
5:33
SPEAKER_00: so I am scared in a kind of ex-frighted,
5:38
thrilled kind of a way that we get to step out of some kind of
5:48
treadmill that we're
5:50
SPEAKER_00: on and into the magical and into the liminal for a few days to do that.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to Claire Mulligan.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Because I recorded Arabian Nights.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I'm going to cough.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: As you can hear,
6:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can,
6:10
SPEAKER_00: but I have had a bit of a sore throat,
6:13
SPEAKER_00: which is why I haven't recorded this pod on Friday.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: I've had so many live gigs.
6:21
I really needed to save my voice and I thought that the pod
6:25
might be the end to it.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: I was feeling a bit better today, so here I am.
6:31
Yeah,
6:31
I recorded those Arabian Nights,
6:33
that story from Arabian Nights over three episodes.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And all the ratings took a nosedive.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking, oh, everyone hated that.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: I won't do that again.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And then I saw Claire Mulligan and she said, I loved Arabian Nights.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you could record all the stories.
6:54
Maybe you could do a separate podcast,
6:56
a different podcast where you record it all.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I would love to do that.
7:02
And I've worked out that if I took the whole set and read it
7:07
for an hour a week,
7:09
SPEAKER_00: it would take three and a half years.
7:13
So I think I'd need to be a little bit more set up with this
7:19
podcast before I take on that.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: But it is absolutely something that I want to do.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: I've got the beating heart for it.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: My body is moved by it.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: So I will at some point do that.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And remember that I recorded Arabian Nights.
7:38
I recorded that story from Arabian Nights to give you all
7:43
something to listen to if
7:45
you're poorly or if you need to really go deep in this winter
7:51
or whenever.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: So it's always there as a resource for you.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
7:57
because I started to read it when I was really ill a couple of
8:01
months ago because I
8:02
SPEAKER_00: remembered that Steiner had said that when a child is ill,
8:07
SPEAKER_00: to give them very beautifully illustrated children's books to read.
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And the copies I've got are illustrated by Jane Ray and they're
8:19
very beautiful.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: And I did feel, what was the word?
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Woven.
8:27
with beauty somehow by reading the ornateness and the floral
8:35
elegance of the text.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to offer you that experience as well.
8:44
And I remember as well about Steiner saying about that it's
8:50
when you put scary
8:52
SPEAKER_00: things into 3D that children,
8:55
SPEAKER_00: when you're telling children a story,
8:58
You can be as scary as you like if they haven't seen scary
9:06
stuff because whatever
9:07
SPEAKER_00: they've got in their bodies,
9:09
SPEAKER_00: if you're telling orally,
9:10
SPEAKER_00: is all that they can construct.
9:12
They can listen to your words and they can construct pictures
9:15
from their experience
9:16
SPEAKER_00: of the world already.
9:18
And I often think about that when I'm storytelling and when I'm
9:21
working with
9:23
SPEAKER_00: children particularly that I don't want to...
9:26
re-stimulate any trauma for them or give them any more
9:37
information about anything
9:38
that's scary but that stories can offer a safe place to unpack
9:44
things that have
9:45
SPEAKER_00: already scared them and make sense of confusing things that have come up
9:53
SPEAKER_00: in their life and in the world.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the same for all of us.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I see storytelling more and more.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: It's like a world that we can work with,
10:04
SPEAKER_00: this kind of like safe world where the inner child knows
10:10
is familiar with so they're willing to come out and support us
10:14
to just create more
10:17
safety in our own bodies to create safety in our lives that's
10:23
that's what it's all
10:24
SPEAKER_00: about for me and i've found that very much this
10:30
SPEAKER_00: this week as I've been working with the Snow Queen.
10:35
It's such a big story and such a deep story and more and more
10:39
as I tell it,
10:41
SPEAKER_00: deeper and deeper,
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I go with it.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those stories that seems to keep having
10:47
more life to it so we did our last gig yesterday but I'm
10:53
telling it today as part
10:55
of my story wintering course which feels really good we're
10:58
going to do a lot of
11:02
digging into it with writing with crafts with sharing with drum
11:07
journeying I'm
11:08
going to take the story in sections and with each section work
11:12
with it in a
11:12
SPEAKER_00: different way and I'm really looking forward to that
11:17
SPEAKER_00: But also we've got a couple of private gigs coming up,
11:20
SPEAKER_00: people that have heard about it and wanted to book us.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: That's really exciting.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: And so it got us to thinking that we might do a version of it online.
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SPEAKER_00: So look out for that.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: We might get on the big sofa and tell it to you with stories and music.
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SPEAKER_00: And Sarah Curtis's music is so pure, so beautiful.
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SPEAKER_00: that it kind of, it holds for me the...
11:53
the mysticism of the story and I can go in and out of
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characters and talk to the
12:01
audience and come back and it's like she's holding this
12:07
crystalline globe around us
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SPEAKER_00: with her music and she can always bring us back to the deeply,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: deeply,
12:15
SPEAKER_00: deeply touching and sacred world
12:20
SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear her,
12:21
SPEAKER_00: she's on the pod,
12:24
SPEAKER_00: The Hedgehog Queen of Glastonbury,
12:26
SPEAKER_00: and maybe we'll do some extracts from The Snow Queen.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: It's very long, so I'm not going to do it here right now for you.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: I am going to delight you with something that I've been delighting with,
12:45
SPEAKER_00: and that is with Megan Willoughby's poetry.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: She's made these great poetry books called Serpent Under the Trees.
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SPEAKER_00: And I was so touched by them.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I bought as many as I could and I've given them to people for Christmas.
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SPEAKER_00: I wanted to read a little bit for you.
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Now,
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I'm just going to read the introduction so you know a bit more
13:11
about it.
13:13
This work was created over a three-year period spent living in
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the woods at
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Tinker's Bubble,
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SPEAKER_00: an off-grid intentional community in Somerset.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Off-grid intentional community.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring it back.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring a bit more of the weft of community into our lives.
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SPEAKER_00: I wonder how we all in our individual ways can do that.
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off grid it does feel really different if you've lived i've
13:49
lived off grid for a
13:50
couple of years and off grid means to not be hooked up to the
13:54
um electrical mains
13:57
to not be um hooked up in um in any way to the national grid um
14:05
and yeah it does
14:06
SPEAKER_00: feel very different all of that is kind of can box you in
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i i it's beyond the mind you know um for me it's beyond the
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mind but i can tell you
14:18
that my my system my my body system my mind felt a great sense
14:24
of freedom and it's
14:27
it's really hard work um gathering your own water creating your
14:32
own heat all the
14:33
SPEAKER_00: time you know chop wood carry water chop wood carry water it's um
14:39
SPEAKER_00: it's a pretty full-time job,
14:40
especially when you're doing it by yourself and you're not
14:43
doing it in community.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, I think that the more that
14:52
we have these kind of national support networks the less we
14:58
rely on each other to
15:01
support each other and the more that creates isolation you know
15:06
and i'm all for
15:09
SPEAKER_00: having time to myself absolutely but also to um
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
15:17
SPEAKER_00: to lean in,
15:18
to know that we can lean in when we need to and that we're
15:21
doing things communally,
15:23
SPEAKER_00: I think is really important.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, carrying on with Megan's words.
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SPEAKER_00: Tinker's Bubble began in 1995, entwined with the road protest movement.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Its foundations were,
15:36
SPEAKER_00: as far as my understanding goes,
15:39
built upon ambitions to show that humans can be positive
15:42
members of an ecosystem,
15:44
SPEAKER_00: leaving trails of abundance rather than pollution in their wake.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Listen to that.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's teared me up.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Leaving trails of abundance rather than pollution in their wake.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And can't we,
15:57
SPEAKER_00: can't we really just,
16:00
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
16:00
just give and give and give to this earth so that that is what
16:06
we're doing.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: I really pray that we can do that.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Residents aim to sustain one another by working the land,
16:14
SPEAKER_00: which is made up of woodland,
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SPEAKER_00: orchard,
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SPEAKER_00: pasture and cultivated gardens.
16:18
All labour from washing sheets to felling trees is done using
16:23
traditional hand
16:23
SPEAKER_00: tools and any other power comes either from solar or harvested wood.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: For me,
16:30
the land there is a powerful place full of mirrors which ask us
16:35
to recalibrate,
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SPEAKER_00: relearn,
16:37
SPEAKER_00: recondition and heal,
16:39
SPEAKER_00: especially those parts we did not expect to expose,
16:42
SPEAKER_00: and especially in ways we couldn't have predicted,
16:45
SPEAKER_00: all in all,
16:46
SPEAKER_00: to better know our place.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: And this fascinates me because in the beginning of The Snow Queen,
16:54
SPEAKER_00: in the Hans Christian Andersen version,
16:56
SPEAKER_00: which is the version I've been using,
16:59
SPEAKER_00: the part one is called The Mirror and the Shard.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: And it's about these little devils, these goblins, these demons.
17:07
And I really try not to name them when I'm telling the story
17:11
because it's all,
17:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
17:14
SPEAKER_00: it's all part of us and I don't want to,
17:17
yeah I just try to make them nameless things so I start the
17:20
story by just calling
17:21
them they and they find everything too perfect on earth it's
17:26
just perfect and
17:27
perfect it's totally perfect so they create this mirror to
17:31
create discord and so
17:34
they create this mirror and by creating mirror they create
17:38
reflection and by
17:39
SPEAKER_00: creating reflection they create comparison
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And so that happens at the beginning.
17:47
It's like at the beginning of lots of stories,
17:53
something terrible happens.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, James the Giant Peach, great example.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: First page,
18:02
SPEAKER_00: James's parents were eaten by a giant rhinoceros,
18:06
SPEAKER_00: I think,
18:06
SPEAKER_00: that was escaped from London Zoo.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: So there we are.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: We're in total, we're in a plummet.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: We've had a plummet.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: And so the plummet in this story is that these creatures,
18:22
SPEAKER_00: they just think it would be really,
18:23
really good if they showed the angels and the archangels and
18:28
the stars this mirror
18:29
SPEAKER_00: so they could create havoc and confusion up there.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And as they lift it up and lift it up, it breaks.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And as it breaks, it drops all over the world.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And there are shards of it that are going into people's eyes.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: There are great chunks of it that are being used as mirrors and windows.
18:52
And so it's all around us,
18:54
fragmenting us and breaking us apart,
18:59
closing us down.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And so the story begins that these things are still falling.
19:05
around us and as Anna who is a brilliant homeopath I had on a
19:12
while ago Anna Davies
19:15
she was saying this morning that she felt really gripped by
19:18
that because she was
19:21
talking about thinking about mobile phones and the glass
19:26
screens on mobile phones
19:27
SPEAKER_00: and the crystals that being mined to use those kinds of things
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And so back to Megan.
19:42
Every morning the path is different,
19:44
so we choose three words to describe the distance.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Caressing sound clouds, there clears now.
19:54
And every day the words get bigger until they blot our eyes
19:58
with quivering rivers.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Caring bracken limbs, aching hearts sing.
20:06
Like stone chatters,
20:07
elder whispers a few small words when we forget to listen.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: I see you.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: I see you.
20:17
And ever so as its words grow crisper,
20:21
our ears hear the secrets of cyclical blisters.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Truth in disgust, movement's light cusp.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: because every morning the secrets are different,
20:34
SPEAKER_00: so we listen for three words in hope they are written.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: I was really moved by that, by that practice of taking time to summarise
20:53
SPEAKER_00: distill, recognise, reflect, claim the moment in three words.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: I find so often at a loss with words.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's such a gorgeous practice.
21:12
So from tomorrow morning,
21:15
that's what I'm going to do,
21:17
is mark my mornings with three words.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Just try to capture a moment in three words.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And it reminded me that Jack Kerouac said that about...
21:30
SPEAKER_00: haikus,
21:31
that he had a practice of just stopping and creating a haiku
21:37
with where he was,
21:42
SPEAKER_00: what he was doing,
21:45
SPEAKER_00: and then a flash thought.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: So,
21:50
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember exactly his example,
21:52
SPEAKER_00: but it was like,
21:53
SPEAKER_00: in the woods,
21:56
SPEAKER_00: birds,
21:57
SPEAKER_00: an observation,
21:58
SPEAKER_00: in the woods,
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Bird sounds, nothing to do.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Just three lines like that and I just love that practice.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
22:11
take inspiration from Megan Willoughby and Jack Kerouac in this
22:16
dreaming time to
22:18
SPEAKER_00: try and pull down my dreaming into words a little bit more and more.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: And so this is kind of a scrapbook of words and poetry.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: It's really moving.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Here's another little bit.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I often think if we stopped trying to fix everything,
22:39
SPEAKER_00: to know everything,
22:41
SPEAKER_00: would the world be in a better place?
22:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: a little bit more.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: The birds aren't singing, they're swearing at you.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Everything is eating each other, metabolising life to continue.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: It's a shit heap.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a blood bath.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: You're swimming in it, unsterilised.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: If you can't look, you can't really see.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Join in the pain.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Let life laugh at you.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: For being stress free,
23:31
SPEAKER_00: is without the birds and the bees.
23:34
Make your nest,
23:35
lie in it,
23:37
as it isn't all sorrow for those who have life borrowed.
23:42
It's the true gift of exchanging energy shifts that brings us
23:48
all home to the dirt
23:54
beautiful I'm not gonna try and explain or you know much as I
24:02
love Frank Skinner's
24:03
poetry podcast I also love that some poetry I have around me
24:10
for years and years
24:12
and each time I read it it means something different and I feel
24:16
like that with this
24:17
SPEAKER_00: each time I read it will mean something different
24:22
SPEAKER_00: I did get another poetry book for Christmas myself.
24:29
I'm not going to tell you who it's by because this person who
24:35
writes poetry,
24:37
I was doing a play and I took my son and his friend to go and
24:44
see the play.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: And they wanted to sit at the front.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: They were, I don't know, seven, I think they're about seven.
24:52
And they wanted to sit at the front,
24:53
but there were only a couple of seats at the front.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: And also there were kids behind them.
25:00
So I felt like I couldn't sit at the front because then some
25:03
children wouldn't be able to see.
25:04
And in a ill thought out moment of parenting,
25:10
I said,
25:10
go and you two sit at the front.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And me and the other boy's mum sat at the back.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And it was very beautiful,
25:19
SPEAKER_00: the play,
25:22
and it was very magical and it was very still and very quiet
25:28
and not quite what the
25:29
SPEAKER_00: boys were doing.
25:33
really into so they started mucking around and being noisy and
25:37
laughing and um and
25:39
we were a bit too far away to um to rein them in um and also
25:45
i'm a storyteller yeah
25:46
so i i felt a bit ashamed that they were behaving like this and
25:51
i was trying to
25:53
maybe pretend pretend i didn't know them so uh that that was
25:59
okay sort of first
26:00
SPEAKER_00: time second time and then and then um
26:03
SPEAKER_00: the person who was on the stage said, shh, to them.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And that was when I kind of froze in terror then.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh God, what do I do?
26:16
Do I kind of hide my head and bob down to the front and drag
26:19
them to the back?
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Or I don't know what to do.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, next moment he stopped the plane.
26:25
He said,
26:25
I'm not going to continue whilst you boys are still making noise.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And they were quite quiet after that, thank goodness.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: But I've tried to bury that memory.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I've tried not to think about it.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: That was probably seven or eight years ago.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: And I've tried not to think about it since then.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And then someone gave me a poetry book by this person.
26:54
and that memory flooded back to me so I still can't open the
27:05
book without feeling
27:06
sort of flushed with shame about that experience but I do hope
27:08
to enjoy it at some
27:10
point and anyway I'm so enjoying Megan Willoughby's poetry and
27:16
just reading these
27:18
SPEAKER_00: things over and over again and just allowing them like hmm
27:24
like flakes of snow like each time i read it it's like a
27:29
snowflake that's different
27:32
it settles on me in a different way it settles in me in a
27:36
different way i'm going
27:38
to read a little bit more and then i'm going to put it away
27:43
what is fine anger rage
27:47
SPEAKER_00: passion erotic and heartfelt free expression and a pure strong heart
27:54
fine has clear fire you see this is handwritten in pen and I've
28:04
been really
28:05
struggling to make sense of this this is me talking now not
28:07
Megan I've been
28:08
struggling to make sense of this I've just realized I'm
28:11
misreading it because it's
28:13
not what is fine what is fire that's gonna make so much more
28:17
sense and before I
28:18
SPEAKER_00: start again I'm gonna put a log on the fire
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh,
28:22
I was getting the logs in this morning and there must have been
28:25
30 woodlouse and I
28:28
had such a kind of Laurel and Hardy moment of chasing 30
28:32
woodlouse around my room
28:35
SPEAKER_00: to try and put them back outside.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: I hope I got them.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I hope I got you outside.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I kept putting them on a piece of paper.
28:43
I put them on a piece of paper and then they'd just roll off
28:48
the end of it.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to fire.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: What is fire?
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Anger, rage, passion, erotic and heartfelt.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Free expression and a pure, strong heart.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Fire has clear boundaries, a space that it holds, burning and creating.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Fire invites us in to our bodies.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: To feel our skin like a serpent in the sun.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: the red of a bullseye, the wink of an adder.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: It is a warning, a communication, a venom, a charge.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Fire is sensitive.
29:31
It needs attention and fuel to roar,
29:34
but too much and it will splutter and spark.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Fire likes to be teased, tempted, nurtured and loved.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: But do not try to control fire, it will hurt.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Give your fire space to rise and your world will thrive.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Songs, poems, jokes and tales will gather.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: It bonds the heart to the home.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh, isn't that gorgeous?
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
30:02
SPEAKER_00: nice to think about our fire on the inside,
30:08
our fire in the hearth on these days when we're not seeing so
30:13
much of the sun,
30:14
SPEAKER_00: although the sun's pretty bright today.
30:20
I'm thinking about Terry Pratchett because I talked about
30:23
Pratchett last week and
30:25
then Katie Player got in touch and said that she'd had dinner
30:31
with Terry Pratchett.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
30:32
how exciting that years ago she'd had dinner with Terry
30:35
Pratchett and that he was definitely,
30:39
SPEAKER_00: what did she say?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: He was definitely a philosopher pretending to be a fantasy writer.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was a good way of putting it.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
30:56
So,
30:56
my lovelies,
30:58
my precious ones,
31:00
I wonder what the warm heart of your life is right now.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I wonder where the sucker, the energy, the beauty, the depth is.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a really important time to...
31:25
SPEAKER_00: light a candle and keep reminding ourselves of the light,
31:33
SPEAKER_00: however deep we go,
31:34
SPEAKER_00: however deep into the darkness we go.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Knowing what our lit candles are,
31:41
SPEAKER_00: whether they're music or people or whatever,
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know what yours are.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: But I'm reaching in to
31:56
the depth of our wintering selves and just asking you where's
32:04
the light in those
32:06
places and how can you gather and keep gathering that warmth on
32:17
the inside
32:24
I've got guests for the next couple of weeks so I think that's
32:27
why I'm languishing
32:29
not really telling a story just languishing in your presence
32:36
here in your listening
32:38
because I've got guests for the next couple of weeks on the pod
32:42
so it'll be a few
32:42
weeks before we get to meet like this in the peace of it all
32:50
and I'm doing some
32:53
bits and bobs that my fragmented,
32:58
peaceful,
32:59
unstructured mind can't quite chorale to right now.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing some storytelling at a wassail.
33:08
on the 19th of January and I'm sure over the next week or two
33:13
we'll get to have a
33:14
talk about what that means if you're not a Somerset listener
33:17
and you don't know
33:18
SPEAKER_00: what a wassail is.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: It's basically blessing,
33:22
SPEAKER_00: honouring,
33:23
SPEAKER_00: celebrating,
33:24
quietly and gently waking up the apple trees around us and
33:32
really giving them what
33:33
SPEAKER_00: they need so that they give us an abundant harvest.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: And I suppose that's what I'm talking about,
33:44
SPEAKER_00: is the abundance of our own hearts and the abundance of our lives.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Kind of starts now in the seeding,
33:57
SPEAKER_00: in the gentle,
34:00
SPEAKER_00: allowing like a kind of bubble rising to the surface,
34:04
just giving ourselves time for the bubbles of our dreamings to
34:08
rise to the surface.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: And there's lots trying to stop us from doing that.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: All these resolutions and restrictions and sales and starting,
34:25
SPEAKER_00: you know,
34:25
SPEAKER_00: it's like lots to sort of get on with in this January.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Let's contradict that with a bit more dreaming.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to leave you there.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much, Megan Willoughby.
34:44
Thanks for letting me read from your beautiful collection and I
34:49
hope that there's so much more.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: Although,
34:54
SPEAKER_00: actually,
34:54
SPEAKER_00: if I went on a desert island,
34:56
I'd probably just bring your book with me and it would probably
34:59
do me for a while.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Love to you all.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Really, really, can you feel...
35:11
SPEAKER_00: The softness of my heart is here.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: The deep opening of my heart is right here in this moment.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just saying that because it's like a presence that's for you.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you can feel it
35:40
SPEAKER_00: and it doesn't matter if you can't because it's here for you.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Lots of love.