Across the Swirling Waters

Nov 13, 2025 4:31 pm

Warm greetings story lovers,

Only the most determined leaves cling to branches, and local rivers swell to bursting, following the recent torrent of rain. The glorious purples of late summer, and gold of early Autumn make way for winter grey. The dawning of winter here in Scotland always feels a little bleak, with fire, folk and ceilidh the only remedy through the winter darkness.

As the dust settles on the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, and a flurry of Samhain activities, I find myself with a couple of imminent ventures and the final round of live storytelling events of 2025.

If you're in Ireland, Scotland or Oregon, I'd love to see you!

If you're somewhere else entirely, maybe you'd like to join the Winter-Spring cohort of Myth as Medicine?

Yarn Storytelling Festival

In the early hours of Friday morning I'll be heading across to County Wicklow, Ireland, for the finale of the Bray Storytelling Festival. The festival is beautifully curated, with a range of traditional and contemporary storytelling events spread across the county.

On Saturday night (15th) we'll be showcasing A Wolf Shall Devour the Sun for the last time in 2025, and our first time outside of Scotland. Since EdFringe it's been a puzzle to work out how to adapt this show to non-theatre spaces, do the tech ourselves and make the show more mobile. After transforming the venue up in Aberfeldy last weekend, we're excited to bring the show to Courthouse Arts.

On Sunday, we'll be joined by the inimitable Aron Hegarty from Candlelit Tales for a travelling version of the Hearth Fire Sessions. Expect traditional tales, well told, with a smattering of music throughout. If you haven't heard Aron tell yet, you're missing out. There is a link to his podcast at the end of this mail.

Wolf Show in Wicklow

Hearth Fire Wicklow

Hearth Fire Sessions in Edinburgh

Later in the week we return to our spiritual home of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and as always I'm joined by a fantastic array of guests.

Tim Porteous is easily one of my favourite Scottish storytellers. He's so effortlessly funny, with a rich humanity running through his stories. I'm delighted he'll be joining us. I've attached a video of him telling below.

Chandra I know from a previous life, bringing songs to the fire and choirs to festivals. She's a gifted musician and singing, who's travelled far and wide with her music, carrying a mix of Scottish and global songs. She doesn't perform in Edinburgh so often these days, so its a rare chance to see her.

Finally, Alastair Blain is an enigmatic, and first class painter. We worked together on the Animate Lands show, tracking Fianna myths in the landscape. He'll be painting live on stage and decorating the space with epic images of the Scottish landscape.

Hearth Fire Edinburgh

Celtic Dreamtime in Oregon

West coast friends might be interested in coming to an evening of music and storytelling at Moon Mountain Highway, Hood River (near Portland) on 23rd Nov, 5.30-7.30.

Celtic Dreamtime

I'll be sharing tales alongside some gifted and gorgeous local musicians, Jenny Jah Lee & Savannah Clancy. (Music linked below)

Myth as Medicine

For those of you who are nowhere near these places over the next week, or maybe prefer a deeper dive into northern myth through the winter months, I'll be running my flagship Myth as Medicine programme from Jan 13 -March 17th, 7-9pm GMT.

This course plots 8 myths upon the 8 directions, rising in the East with the singing birds, enjoying the heat of midday sun in the South, gathering by the fire to share our gifts as the sun sets in the West, and visiting the house of the death hag in the Wintry north.

Each myth prompts deeper inquiry into our own lives and offers insights into the cultures of old. Bespoke creative exercises and nature connection activities offer a deepening of relationship with each myth, and ground our own mythopoetic journey.

Previous participants have had good things to say about it, and I'm always struck by how the myths continue to grow with each group process. This could be the last live cohort as I start to collate the material and create a handbook around the process. We'll see.