To BC with Gratitude
Aug 23, 2024 9:44 pm
Greetings distant friend and story lover,
I hope your summer has been adventurous and harvest bountiful.
I've been back in Scotland for over two months, and the impact of my BC trip is still strong: what a landscape, what hospitality, what a fine time was had, with no shortage of mythic moments and poetic wonder. It's an encounter to shape my whole year.
Truly, the gratitude continues to ripple, and often my mind has drifted back across the ocean during this uncharacteristically wet Scottish summer. I hope to travel to the West again soon.
Before saying more, I want to give a nod of thanks to everyone who came and brought their own light to our roving hearth, and to our team of benevolent hosts, and especially to Tad, Hanna and Cari, who went beyond the bounds of friendship and responsibility to make the tour happen. What a crew!
May the blessings each of them bestow upon the world return many times magnified!
In Scotland, August is Edinburgh Fringe time. The biggest arts festival in the world erupts within our ancient capital for a month of revelry, creativity and chaos. Streets are packed with fire jugglers and amateur theatrics, every basement becomes a venue, creative careers are launched or broken. It's quite an event.
I've returned to the Fringe with my Animate Lands show (which I presented a version of up in Cumberland with Siarimis). It's a deep dive into the old Fianna tales, with an eye on animistic insight and a curiosity as to what these tales and this culture can offer us amidst the complexity of modern times. It's got a cracking trad music score provided by Freya Rae.
We've had some sweet feedback and reviews and I'll have a video of the show to share more widely soon.
With the festive season almost done, I have a few storytelling opportunities to share that might pique your interest: one local, one digital and one wild adventure in Europe.
Myth as Medicine
This autumn, I'll be running my Myth as Medicine online course.
I personally love this course, and get rich feedback from participants. In essence it's a journey through a curated northern myth cycle, diving deep into one story per week. As well as dreaming into the imagery and gleaning codes of the old cultures, we engage in physical activity, nature connection practice and reflective enquiry to personalise the tale and imbibe its tonic qualities more deeply.
Over 10 weeks we build momentum, and the cohort tends to be filled with gorgeous folk. As we turn towards the darker months its especially potent.
The sessions will run from Sunday 22 Sep-8 Dec, if there's enough interest I might do a midweek version too, so feel free to message if that would suit better.
Sign up and more info:
Sign Up
https://buytickets.at/dougiemackaystoryteller/1369223
More info
https://storyconnection.org/myth-as-medicine/
Questions and enquiry:
dougie@storyconnection.org
Storytelling in BC
It's with a touch of envy that I let you know that undisputed queen of storytelling, Jan Blake is coming to your neck of the woods.
I first saw Jan tell back in 2015 and it was a game changer. I went on to study with her for two years and we became great friends. I owe much of my storytelling development to her mentoring. She's the real deal!
...She's rubbish at backgammon, but an incredible storyteller and wonderful human.
Go hear her telling stories live, at Lila School of music (Duncan) on Sept 19th...
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/marketingforhippies/1358230
I'd be there if I could!
Wolf Tracks and Tales
Now for a bit of a wildcard. For several years I've been brewing a storytelling project relating to wolves. I write about it extensively in my latest blog post (linked below), but its come into sharper focus as I look at the relationship between wolves, landscape and culture, and how the European portrayal of wolves in faery tales affects the way we relate to the real animal.
This journey burst into life once I started tracking wolves in Europe with my mate Greg Sommer, who was originally trained many years ago at the Wilderness Awareness School.
This October, we'll be running a wolf tracking and storytelling weekend near Berlin, in Germany. Wolf tracking by day, wolf myth by night. It has the ingredients of an epic weekend.
It's a long way to travel from BC, but it's not a bad excuse to come visit!
Maybe you know some people in the area who might be interested too?
Wolf Weekend link:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/dougiemackaystoryteller/1350415
Blog post:
I expect this wolf thing to grow over the next year or so, and seeing as I can't get close to wolves in Scotland, that means travelling. Maybe there'll be some tracks and tales sessions in BC sometime in the future!
That's it for now. I'd love to hear any reflection on the tour if you feel to share, and hope we cross paths again before too long.
May the turning of the year be illuminated by fine tales and fantastic folk
All best
Dougie
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