Latest / Mooney's Mythic Podcast / Death and Wassail

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Death and Wassail · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

0:08
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Moony's Mythic Podcast.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome aboard.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Ah, feeling quiet today.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling really quiet.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for coming here in this quiet space to meet me.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling like
0:36
This time,
0:37
this January time is such a sacred time for deep peace,
0:45
for stillness.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: It's the moment, moments before the awakening.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And last night,
1:00
thank you for all the people that came and particularly and
1:05
especially and
1:05
SPEAKER_00: wondrously thank you to Sophie Pullinger who created a soundscape,
1:10
SPEAKER_00: a live soundscape for me to wander barefoot with my story,
1:20
SPEAKER_00: with a story,
1:21
SPEAKER_00: with the story.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: It was an old story from Andrew Lang's fairy tale book called The
1:31
golden apple tree and the nine pea hens and it was a long story
1:38
not the kind of
1:38
story I would usually tell but I felt compelled to tell it and
1:44
it was a big journey
1:46
and the first half I told the story and in the second half we
1:52
worked with sound and
1:55
SPEAKER_00: word to create a kind of
1:59
ritual landscape for the audience to dream and plan their future,
2:08
our year into.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: And I remember at one point,
2:15
SPEAKER_00: walking everybody into the orchards of their own being,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: into the apple orchards of their heart,
2:23
and to imagine these trees bursting with life and laden with
2:30
golden apples.
2:34
And I invited everybody to see their own reflection in the
2:39
fruiting golden apples
2:41
SPEAKER_00: of the orchards of their hearts.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Can we do that now?
2:50
SPEAKER_00: See ourselves as the most glorious parts of ourselves would see us.
3:01
And just see if that makes any difference to the way that our
3:05
body rests on the earth.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: To the way the breath moves through our body.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And today I'm really sitting in the grace of that.
3:20
I'm feeling something very deep inside me that has opened and
3:30
is available to all of us.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: And in that way of deep listening,
3:37
SPEAKER_00: when you're working with someone,
3:39
SPEAKER_00: when you're both creating something together and you're
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Well,
3:43
SPEAKER_00: being listened to,
3:45
SPEAKER_00: I say,
3:46
I felt deeply witnessed and listened to by Sophie and the way
3:52
that she created the
3:53
SPEAKER_00: sounds through the story was the best,
3:58
SPEAKER_00: best company.
4:00
I know you know this,
4:01
and if this is your first podcast,
4:04
go and listen to some of the others.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: It's all about good company.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: It's all about accompanying myself,
4:12
SPEAKER_00: accompanying you in this act of life that we are on,
4:21
SPEAKER_00: this life that we are living on.
4:26
And this week I've been thinking mostly about death in this
4:30
life because I was
4:33
SPEAKER_00: going to have a guest on today who has created a sacred death centre.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: And so I've been thinking about what that means for death to be sacred.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about how...
4:52
unspoken about death is where we see I have seen so many images
5:00
of violence on the
5:02
screen in my life and so much death but it's it's not really
5:09
it's like we don't
5:10
know how to manage it I don't move in circles where death is
5:15
very easily managed or
5:17
SPEAKER_00: spoken about and it's part of life
5:22
It's part of life and it's part of our cyclical selves and our
5:26
cyclical being selves.
5:28
And that's what I think is taken away from us when we're not
5:34
really experiencing
5:37
SPEAKER_00: life in the heart of the human experience,
5:40
SPEAKER_00: when we're not experiencing death in the heart of human experience.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: It takes away so much.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: It takes away the preciousness of every moment.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: This could be it, guys.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: This could be the last moment.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, what if the last moment was now, the last 10 minutes?
6:02
SPEAKER_00: How would we spend it in this last 10 minutes of our life?
6:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad to be here with you.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad to be thinking about this.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm also thinking about
6:20
What I'm giving death to in my life so that I can stir and the
6:28
blossom of me when
6:29
SPEAKER_00: the springtime comes can be as light and fragrant as absolutely possible.
6:38
And I'm feeling my shoulders and I'm just thinking,
6:40
well,
6:41
what can I put down,
6:43
like mulch?
6:44
What of myself can I put down so that I can mulch myself for a
6:50
really good,
6:51
SPEAKER_00: light springtime and a wonderful harvest?
6:56
And I'm thinking about that a lot because I'm storytelling at a
6:59
wassail on Sunday,
7:01
SPEAKER_00: which I'll tell you more about.
7:03
later on but this would be the segment of the podcast where I
7:09
would be talking
7:10
about death and about sacred death so first of all I thought oh
7:16
I'll see if I can
7:17
get another guest on yes I'll I reached for my phone and I was
7:21
like about to kind
7:22
of ping out a load of messages can anyone come on the pod and
7:26
then I just thought
7:27
SPEAKER_00: hmm
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It's just so nice to be here with you.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: It's so tantalising to be here and have you all to myself.
7:37
So here we are with not much to say and not much to do,
7:43
just enjoying each other's company.
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SPEAKER_00: And so I've got this book here called Japanese Death Poems,
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SPEAKER_00: written by Zen monks and haiku poets on the verge of death.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: And I've read a couple of these before on the pod.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: I find them a really amazing source of inspiration.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking this week about near-death experiences.
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When you watch someone who talks about having experienced a
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near-death experience,
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SPEAKER_00: I just feel like there's so much light in their face.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: They've got so, they're so switched on to life.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm going for this year is that much joy in life.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to read a couple of these to you.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: All four pillars of enlightenment crumble at once.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: See, see, moonlight wreathing coral branches.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Now all grows as dark as the palace of hell in the grasp of Satan.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: hell.
8:58
And I'm feeling back over my year and the moments of hell in my
9:04
year for myself,
9:08
SPEAKER_00: for my own heart,
9:11
SPEAKER_00: for the earth,
9:14
SPEAKER_00: for the people,
9:15
SPEAKER_00: for all the people,
9:17
SPEAKER_00: all the devastation.
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SPEAKER_00: Just feeling that
9:23
SPEAKER_00: thundering, rippling through my body.
9:26
And I'm breathing,
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breathing it out,
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just letting it go,
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just letting all that go.
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This is a poem by Teshitsu,
9:49
who died on the seventh day of the seventh month in 1673,
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aged 64.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: New Year.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: What binds it to my life is rice gruel.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm remembering, I'm remembering when I read that, that, um,
10:07
that parts of the Great Wall of China apparently were stuck
10:11
together with rice,
10:14
SPEAKER_00: with sticky rice,
10:15
SPEAKER_00: and it created such a strong cement that it's hard for us to,
10:21
SPEAKER_00: with all of our technology and machinery,
10:24
SPEAKER_00: to actually knock it down.
10:27
And I'm thinking about last week I parked under a tree all night,
10:32
and when I came back,
10:34
geez.
10:36
It must have been a squirrel had practically shat cement all
10:40
over my car.
10:41
I mean,
10:41
I don't know what I'd been eating,
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but it was really,
10:44
really hard to get it off.
10:48
And that's what I feel like I want to do right now is to
10:53
defecate all the hard and
10:55
lumpy stuff so that I've got this rich soil for my life for
11:00
creativity and rest and play.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what I want to be doing.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, just like a good death, a good death to it all.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And thank you,
11:13
SPEAKER_00: David Lynch,
11:15
for dying today because it's made me think about you and your
11:21
death and your life
11:23
SPEAKER_00: and all that you brought forth in your life.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And I've got some words that you wrote, that you spoke.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Here we are.
11:37
Life should be blissful and blissful doesn't mean just a small happiness.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: It's huge.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: It is profound.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: The whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.
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Intuition is the key to everything in painting,
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filmmaking,
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business,
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everything.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: I think you could have an intellectual ability.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: But if you can sharpen your intuition,
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SPEAKER_00: which they say is emotion and intellect joining together,
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SPEAKER_00: then a knowingness occurs.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: What is intuition, I wonder, for you?
12:18
SPEAKER_00: It's for me a deep listening.
12:24
And I often use that which I call intuition when I'm working
12:29
with stories.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm learning a story and I learn it.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: If it's an old story, I learn it by rote.
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SPEAKER_00: I learn it in the most boring way possible,
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SPEAKER_00: point to point to point to point to point in the story.
12:50
And then there's a point where other images begin to unfold in
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my mind and
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SPEAKER_00: And if I'm, oh, there's my phone.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't find it earlier to turn it off.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: It seems like it's buried deep in the sofa.
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SPEAKER_00: If I allow those images to appear,
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SPEAKER_00: then the story, then I'm listening to the story.
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It's like that's the beating heart of the story and it's those
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images that I follow
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SPEAKER_00: and tell when I'm telling the story.
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I don't know if that makes sense to you and I'd love to hear
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how you do it,
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how you
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SPEAKER_00: what your creative practice, your creative process is about.
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And I've been thinking about that a little bit because I think
13:52
what Sophie and I
13:53
SPEAKER_00: did last night when we shared this story journey,
13:58
SPEAKER_00: that we created art.
14:01
We created art with our skill because we've both been doing
14:09
what we've been doing
14:09
SPEAKER_00: for a long time.
14:12
and our intuition we talked about the story but we hadn't
14:17
rehearsed it and we've
14:19
known each other 25 years and we've been in some very deep
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ritualistic places
14:29
together we've witnessed each other in in deep places so we
14:33
know each other's inner
14:34
SPEAKER_00: landscape and because we
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were comfortable and felt safe within that inner landscape of
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each other.
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We were able to listen and trust and create and listen and
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trust and create.
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SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's art.
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SPEAKER_00: And because it created a kind of splendor on the inside of me,
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SPEAKER_00: And because I could see,
15:07
SPEAKER_00: oh,
15:07
SPEAKER_00: I wish I'd seen them,
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SPEAKER_00: the faces of the listeners,
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SPEAKER_00: the faces of the audience.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
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that's what got me thinking about people who'd had new
15:23
near-death experiences and
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the light in their faces because there was such softness and
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such light in these
15:30
SPEAKER_00: people's faces.
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SPEAKER_00: I'll remember it always.
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And usually I'm counting the money and working out the
15:42
financial aspect and when
15:44
SPEAKER_00: the next one is and when all different kinds of things,
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SPEAKER_00: but it just,
15:48
SPEAKER_00: it was so complete.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: It was such a complete experience.
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SPEAKER_00: None of that seemed to really matter.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Interesting for me because it's art.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: And so I've been thinking a bit about creativity and, um,
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And where it comes from.
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SPEAKER_00: And this woman, I don't know if you know her.
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SPEAKER_00: Have I written her name down?
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Martha Beck.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Do you know her?
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SPEAKER_00: She's supposed to be Oprah Winfrey's sort of creative coach.
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SPEAKER_00: And she talks about having crippling anxiety.
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And she says that instead of trying to control her anxiety,
16:29
she started to befriend it.
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She says I started treating myself like a frightened animal and
16:36
doing for myself
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SPEAKER_00: what we all instinctively know will calm a frightened animal.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Imagine,
16:44
SPEAKER_00: she says,
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you found a freezing dirty puppy on your doorstep and you
16:48
decided you wanted to
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SPEAKER_00: help it.
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SPEAKER_00: What would you do?
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SPEAKER_00: And she says you'd get down on its level.
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SPEAKER_00: You'd speak to it kindly and softly.
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SPEAKER_00: Don't try to explain to it what it needs to do next.
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SPEAKER_00: It's an animal.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Allow it to be afraid while regarding it with compassion.
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SPEAKER_00: And she says that when she does this to herself,
17:08
SPEAKER_00: she has a dramatic shifting feeling in her body,
17:11
SPEAKER_00: her brain,
17:11
SPEAKER_00: her whole psychology.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: And then she says she got into creativity and things got really weird.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he says.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: What does he say, David Lynch?
17:23
SPEAKER_00: He says, this whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: What parts of our lives are wild at heart and weird on top?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he really celebrated the weird, didn't he, David Lynch?
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And I guess if we're all totally unique, then...
17:44
SPEAKER_00: then that's the weird.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: So what's your weird?
17:48
SPEAKER_00: What's your weird and how are you going to allow it to have a space?
17:53
How are you going to speak to it kindly and get down onto its
17:59
level and look after it this year?
18:03
And these are the things that I think about when I'm creating
18:06
stories is,
18:12
yeah,
18:13
what they're,
18:14
SPEAKER_00: what their medicine is, what their gift is.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: I feel like,
18:20
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:20
she's telling a story here with her story of anxiety and
18:26
frightened animal and,
18:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:28
SPEAKER_00: she's telling a story and there is that,
18:30
SPEAKER_00: there's a story,
18:31
I think I've told it on the pod about the crescent moon bear
18:38
where a woman's
18:40
SPEAKER_00: husband comes home from war
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And he's aggressive and angry and he won't go near her.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: And she goes on this great big journey to see this wise sage.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And she says, help me, you know, I need help, I need help.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And the woman says, oh yeah, you need the hair of the crescent moon bear.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: It's a bear that's got a shape of a crescent moon on its throat.
19:05
And so the woman,
19:06
she spends ages leaving food out for the crescent moon bear.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: And befriending it long, long, long time.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: She's so dedicated.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: She so loves her husband.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: And eventually she gets her hair.
19:21
And then when she brings it back to the wise sage,
19:23
the wise sage throws it on the fire.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, well, I spent ages looking for that.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: And the woman says, well, that was your training.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: You now need to go and treat your husband like that.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: And in these stories, it's like we're all one.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: It's all different aspects of our psyche.
19:41
So it's like,
19:43
it speaks to the angry,
19:48
traumatized,
19:49
hurt parts of our psyche.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: And there will always be something
19:56
SPEAKER_00: And if we're saying in this moment,
19:58
SPEAKER_00: oh,
19:58
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
19:58
SPEAKER_00: you know,
19:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any traumatised parts or I don't have any crushed places,
20:03
SPEAKER_00: then that's not true.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: So that's an indication that there's somewhere we're not looking.
20:10
And I just really feel like this slow and silent time of the
20:16
year before we really
20:18
SPEAKER_00: wake up into the rest of the year,
20:23
SPEAKER_00: into the spring,
20:26
That we've got this opportunity to go deep down into the
20:34
cellars of ourselves.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: As these stories do.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: In this story that I told last night,
20:41
there was a moment where the prince went down into the cellar
20:47
that he was told not
20:48
SPEAKER_00: to go into.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And there was a barrel in the cellar.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: And there was a voice coming out of the barrel saying,
20:57
SPEAKER_00: please give me a drink,
21:00
SPEAKER_00: give me a drink,
21:00
SPEAKER_00: please.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm parched.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And so he gives water to this place.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: And three times he gives water to this place.
21:08
And each time he gives water to this place,
21:10
the rings of the barrel burst.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: And then finally,
21:14
SPEAKER_00: this great dragon comes out,
21:16
swoops the princess off and has to go on another big journey to
21:21
reclaim his
21:22
SPEAKER_00: feminine life.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: And I know that that's how it can feel sometimes,
21:30
that we don't want to poke the bear deep down in the cellar
21:34
because it could ruin
21:36
SPEAKER_00: whatever's going on.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: We don't want it to upset our lives.
21:45
But that's what Clarissa Pinkola-Estee says in the story with a
21:50
similar moment
21:53
SPEAKER_00: where in Bluebeard she's told not to open the door.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: She's been given a key and she's told not to open the door.
22:00
But she does open the door and she sees all the women that have
22:04
been murdered
22:05
SPEAKER_00: brutally or shoved in this room.
22:08
And the key that she has in her hand that she's used to open it
22:13
bleeds and it won't
22:14
SPEAKER_00: stop bleeding.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: It's like you can't unsee it.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And there's this blissful,
22:19
SPEAKER_00: unaware place where we are just cruising along,
22:23
SPEAKER_00: but actually the duck legs underneath are just going,
22:26
SPEAKER_00: going,
22:26
SPEAKER_00: going,
22:27
SPEAKER_00: going,
22:27
SPEAKER_00: going,
22:27
SPEAKER_00: trying,
22:28
SPEAKER_00: trying not to get our hair wet,
22:29
SPEAKER_00: trying not to get our hair wet.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: And then when we do see it, we can't unsee it until we've
22:36
SPEAKER_00: really cleared that place and that could be a big work.
22:45
And so let's use this time in the way I believe our ancestors
22:53
have always used this
22:54
SPEAKER_00: time to go down into the cellar of ourselves and see
23:06
what is starved and squashed in the barrel and when we release
23:13
it it may burst out
23:15
like a great dragon but what a beautiful thing i can never uh
23:21
stop myself thinking
23:22
when i tell that story as the as the dragon bursts out of the
23:26
barrel and like flies
23:28
SPEAKER_00: away what a wonderful sight that must have been what a glorious sight
23:40
these are my uh these are my musings so far today I wasn't
23:46
intending to go through
23:47
those uh stories and I may tell that story it's the um the
23:52
golden apple tree and
23:53
the nine pms I may tell that story in a few weeks with Sophie
23:57
um on the pod but
23:59
SPEAKER_00: she's not sure that her
24:03
The resonance that comes through when we're playing together
24:08
will translate in the podcast.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: I think that we might be all right.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: I think that we've created here a space sacred enough, safe enough.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: But you can tell us.
24:27
We'll ask the audience that were there to listen to the pod and
24:31
see what they think.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Let's read a couple more of these.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: They're so beautiful.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Toho died on the 18th day of the first month, 1730, at the age of 74.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Food is steaming on the stove.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Ah, misery.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: That moment.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but there's...
25:04
SPEAKER_00: I remember a friend who was dying.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: I was sitting with him and I said to him, I wonder how I'll die.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: And he said, mid sentence.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And I want that to be the way for
25:22
SPEAKER_00: all of us,
25:23
SPEAKER_00: that there's always something warm cooking on the stove,
25:26
SPEAKER_00: that there's always something warm in the fire,
25:29
that there's always something bubbling in our lives until the
25:35
moment we die.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: May that be the way.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: When autumn winds blow, not one leaf remains the way it was.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: So if we go back to the autumn and feel the wind blowing through us then,
25:53
SPEAKER_00: the wind blew through us then,
25:55
SPEAKER_00: and this is the last settling time for ourselves,
26:01
this is the last settling time for those leaves to really
26:08
deepen and drop.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Mmm,
26:15
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
26:16
SPEAKER_00: because on Sunday,
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
26:18
SPEAKER_00: maybe you're going to different wassails everywhere,
26:20
SPEAKER_00: but if you're around in Somerset and you want to come to the Shoe Museum,
26:26
SPEAKER_00: we'll be wassailing.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: I'll be telling stories in the orchard on Sunday at two o'clock.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what's a wassail, you people?
26:35
uh from that aren't from Somerset oh I was just sitting on my
26:39
foot then and it was
26:39
going dead you people from that aren't from Somerset might be
26:43
curious to know that
26:45
um that we have this tradition of wassailing it's kind of
26:48
different everywhere but
26:49
in Somerset well let's go back to the beginning traditionally
26:58
the 1st of December
26:59
SPEAKER_00: to the 24th of December was a time of fasting and
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And then 24th of December,
27:09
everyone would dig out their preserves and their pickles and
27:14
their fruitcakes and
27:15
everyone would gather together and bring what they'd been
27:19
saving from the year.
27:22
And then this time,
27:25
again,
27:25
this January time,
27:26
there wouldn't be much about food-wise.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And we would gather in
27:36
SPEAKER_00: apple orchards, fruit orchards,
27:40
SPEAKER_00: to create a hullabaloo,
27:43
SPEAKER_00: to wake up the trees,
27:45
SPEAKER_00: to kind of,
27:46
there's these stories about dipping bread in cider and hanging
27:50
in the trees and
27:52
banging pots and pans and whacking the trees with sticks as a
27:56
way of waking them up
27:57
SPEAKER_00: and shaking them up and making sure that we have a good harvest.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: It's important, you know, it's really important.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: It was our lives and our sweetness.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking this morning,
28:10
SPEAKER_00: it's not how I like to be woken up,
28:12
SPEAKER_00: particularly to be kind of whacked with a stick and shouted at.
28:17
So when I wasail on Sunday,
28:19
we're going to be,
28:20
we're going to be gently whispering to the trees.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be singing them
28:27
SPEAKER_00: sweet songs.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be sharing our secrets with them.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be inviting them into aliveness.
28:38
We're going to be describing the blue sky and the joy of living
28:46
and reminding the
28:47
SPEAKER_00: trees to wake up in that way.
28:49
And also I'm going to tell some great stories about apples and
28:52
apple trees.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: So if you're around then, that'd be great.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
29:02
next week on this podlington i've got a band coming on uh is it
29:07
my first band i had
29:08
the winter rain on that was two of them but this is witchy
29:10
finger and there are um
29:13
four of them so that should be exciting and also um yeah
29:17
thinking in that way about
29:20
SPEAKER_00: uh about witches one kind of one last week of um uh dwelling into the um
29:31
SPEAKER_00: the darkness of ourselves,
29:34
SPEAKER_00: and I don't mean that in a way that witches are dark,
29:38
but I do know for myself that sometimes I'm gripped with fear
29:45
when I create,
29:46
SPEAKER_00: and when I speak my feminine seeing,
29:53
SPEAKER_00: and that I call my witch wound,
29:56
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I might get burnt at the stake for it.
30:00
So I wanted to invite Witchy Finger on to come and play and to
30:04
just acknowledge
30:07
SPEAKER_00: places in us that feel afraid.
30:11
Because I think keeping those places company means that they
30:16
can stop maybe ruining
30:20
SPEAKER_00: things when we want to.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: We want to get juicy and creative.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: I felt it last night.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I stood on the stage and I felt nervous.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And I said, oh, I'm feeling nervous.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Amazing that you can do something for 25 years and still feel nervous.
30:37
And I just allowed myself to be seen in it and kind of let it
30:42
like a sort of
30:43
SPEAKER_00: electric shock,
30:45
SPEAKER_00: like a little tingle,
30:46
SPEAKER_00: just move around my body like a little tingle.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: And then I began to...
30:52
SPEAKER_00: And this woman,
30:53
SPEAKER_00: that's why I was looking at her work,
30:54
SPEAKER_00: because Martha Beck,
30:55
SPEAKER_00: who I talked about earlier,
30:57
SPEAKER_00: she talks about getting creative.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Where is it?
31:02
SPEAKER_00: She says she swapped an anxiety spiral for a creative spiral,
31:06
SPEAKER_00: losing herself in drawing and painting.
31:09
And she talks about anxiety going when she when she fills those
31:15
times with creativity,
31:16
SPEAKER_00: then her anxiety dissipates.
31:18
And I can totally understand that in terms of journaling and
31:26
creative drawing and
31:28
SPEAKER_00: that kind of thing.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: But when you're actually presenting your art,
31:33
SPEAKER_00: when you're being seen in those places,
31:36
SPEAKER_00: I think anxiety can always be there.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: and that's okay, and we can hold it by the hand.
31:46
So I am holding my anxiety deliciously by the hand so that I
31:57
can carry on creating
32:02
what my heart's desire wants to for this year,
32:09
what my soul wants to map through the year.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: And I really hope that you are doing that too.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And come, come, come to the Chalice Well at the end of February.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Come to the Chalice Well Gardens.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Come to the sacred heart of Glastonbury.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be there for three nights in the retreat house.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be working in the most precious and magical ways.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: to celebrate ourselves, our creativity and our wonder and our glory.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be creating ritual in the gardens at night.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: They're so sacred.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: There are these two yew trees in the gardens.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: As the water flows down the garden,
32:58
there are these two yew trees and I feel every time it's
33:02
another portal and another
33:04
SPEAKER_00: portal and another portal,
33:05
we can really just enter and enter and enter ever deeper and
33:09
deepening spaces there.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be working with myth,
33:15
SPEAKER_00: working with story,
33:16
SPEAKER_00: working with archetype,
33:18
SPEAKER_00: really getting to know ourselves and building resilience,
33:23
SPEAKER_00: really beautiful,
33:24
flourishing resilience within us to be exactly the beings that
33:30
we want to be.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: I've actually really enjoyed this pod.
33:37
I was a bit nervous when I knew that I was going to be doing it
33:42
by myself today and
33:43
SPEAKER_00: I prepped for a guest.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed being here with you.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: And if you think,
33:50
SPEAKER_00: oh,
33:50
SPEAKER_00: you know,
33:51
SPEAKER_00: Sarah sounds like she needs a coffee,
33:53
SPEAKER_00: not coffee,
33:54
SPEAKER_00: though,
33:54
SPEAKER_00: because Sarah stopped drinking coffee,
33:56
SPEAKER_00: which personally I think is a great help towards alleviating anxiety.
34:03
then you can put some money on my Patreon page,
34:10
and that is Mooney's Mythic Podcast on Patreon.
34:14
But for now,
34:15
blessings and peace,
34:17
lots of love,
34:18
and talk to you next week.