Greeting story Lovers,

I hope 2023 has started well for you and you're enjoying the steady stretching of the days as we emerge from the depths of midwinter.

We celebrate Scotland's national bard, Rabbie Burns at the end of January so it's been a busy week of stories, poems and haggis!

I cheated Scottish winter a little bit this year by dashing off to the Mediterranean for a week with my daughter.

I wrote a blog post about it with a link at the bottom of this email if your curious about our adventures and my musings on parenting, storytelling and underwater kingdoms.

This time away also helped me clarify a few offerings and gave plenty of inspiration for the year to come.

First up is 'Myth as Medicine'.

Myth as Medicine is a course really dear to my heart.

It is inspired by authors such as Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Martin Shaw and Michael Meade, but really honed through my experience of using Myths and stories to better navigate the modern world.

The course is an immersion into some of the most powerful myths I've found. It offers tools and space to go deep with these stories in a supportive enviroment and has a strong nature connection element too. The stories are plotted in a 'wheel of life' cycle which ensures variety and balance in the experience.

Last year's group loved it.

I'm releasing news of it to my mailing list first. Places are limited.

Myth as Medicine

Story Coaching

I'm also going to pick up story coaching again this year.

I'm offering private, one to one sessions for beginners to experienced storytellers, and story feedback for intermediate storytellers.

I'll be running an online story mentoring group over the summer too, with more info to come in time.

Email me if interested in story coaching: dougie@storyconnection.org

Finally-

A Seasonal story to share

Recently I found a great website of Scottish Folk tales and Lore. There are written stories and audio options. I'm really enjoying it and thought you might too.

Being the traditional time of 'Imbolc', I enjoyed the version of 'Angus, Bride and the Cailleach'.

The Cailleach is the crone goddess associated with winter, and credited with creating the Scottish Landscape. She is fierce and rides on the back of a wolf!

At this time of year, when the snowdrops begin to show, it's s sign that her power is waning and the youthful innocence of Bride, or Brigid, as ready to bring life back to the land.

They have this tale and many more, fit for enjoying and retelling here:

https://folklorescotland.com/highlands-islands/

And if you want to read my blog post that a wrote about storytelling, parenting and underwater kingdoms:

Exploring the Kingdom Under the Sea

I'd love to hear which stories have kept you going through the wintery months too?

Feel free to email and let me know.

This is my first official mailing list email (woohoo!).

There'll be another in a few weeks with info about online gigs and hopefully some story resources worth sharing.

Thanks for reading

Keep it Mythic

Dougie