It’s Beltane, may day, a time of frolicking and fire, blessings and faery lore.

Lovers dance and leap the flames, cattle are driven through smoke before making the journey up to the shielling dwellings in the high hills. Faces are washed in morning dew.

On this day, some of my nearest and dearest make their way up to the Glen Cailleach, to a shrine that is tended in honour of the old crone goddess of the land. Sadly I can’t be with them this year, but I send them a nod of appreciation for tending these old relationships with land and mythic cosmology.

In contrast, I find myself surrounded by boxes and without wifi as I have just moved house. Not much frolicking here.

However, there are a little flurry of activities over the coming weeks, with a free online call next week, a Hearth Fire Session in Edinburgh as part of Tradfest, Duns Play Fest this weekend, and a Substack essay going through the final edits.

Salmon of Wisdom free call

One of my highlights through the darker half of the year has been retreating up to the Scottish Highlands, out west of Inverness and nestled in Glen Strath Farrar. I've spent many a moment out on the land co-visioning a space of heritage learning, ancestral craft, nature connection, community building and mythopoetics.

There has been mayhem amidst the majesty, yet one or two crystal clear images have emerged. One relates to the Salmon, its place in landscape and lore and the opportunity to gather on the land, in celebration of these old tales, with the chance to embody them and engage in the practical aspects of the tale.

Fionn and the Salmon of knowledge is one of the keystone myths of these isles, and I'm very excited to be working with some fantastically gifted facilitators during our summer retreat, and during our free call next week.

If you want to meet the team, and spend a free evening leaning into mythology and ecology of the salmon, click on this link and comment 'wisdom' and you'll get sent a link to join for free.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJEThmlIeA8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Or dm me for details.

Hearth Fire Sessions

May in Edinburgh is the time of Tradfest, an eclectic festival celebrating traditional arts in Scotland and beyond. This month's Hearth Fire Session is part of the programme, and as ever, I'm joined by a stellar lineup of guests, featuring international artists and Gaelic song.

I'll be joined by Moroccan filmmaking and storytelling duo Tizintizwa (Nadir Bouhmouch and Soumeya Ait Ahmed), Indian-Scottish contemporary storyteller, Niall Moorjani, and Scots-gaelic singer & musician Evie Waddell.

I'm almost starstruck myself!

Tickets

Duns Play fest

This weekend, in the heart of the Scottish Borders, there is an eclectic arts festival that I'm excited to be a part of. A fine mixture of workshops and performance, across multiple venues, I'll be bringing myths of mayhem and magic on Sunday (4th) at 2.30 on the main stage.

https://www.dunsplayfest.org.uk/general-5

Substack

A new post is sooo close to being ready to share! It should be out in the coming days, as soon as I've sent it to someone with greater grammatical sensibility than myself to proof-read it.

It's a post on storytelling that I started whilst in Ireland and then have been tidying up since, posting the question 'what is a storyteller? And how we relate to the role in Scotland.

I've loved writing it, and hope it'll be a treat to read. I'll pass it on shortly.

Come say hi at:

https://deeprootscommunity.substack.com/?r=3vls8&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist

...

Until then, wishing you a blessed Beltane and scintillating summer.

May your cattle reach the high hill unblemished, the milk flow freely and the sunsets from the hill be beautiful.

All best

Dougie