Round the Herne

 The next chapter of Lilian Gask's "Quest of the White Merle" (1909) in which youg Conrad and his friendly robin arrive in Japan.

 The next chapter of Lilian Gask's 'Quest for the White Merle', where the hero Conrad reaches Russia and Mongolia.

 The fourth chapter of 'The Quest of the White Merle' by Lilian Gask (1909) details the hero's adventures on an island of geese and swans. I am starting to run out of silly voices given the sheer volume of characters in this novel.

 This is my reading of the third chapter of 'Quest for the White Merle' by Lilian Gask, wherein the hero Conrad encounters a wide variety of sea birds, all of whom have unconvincing silly accents.

 Admittedly only one person said they would like to hear more of the book, but it doesn't take much to get me into Jackanory mode. This is my reading of the second chapter of Lilian Gask's "Quest of the White Merle" in which the young hero, Conrad, encounters more talking birds in his search for a cure for his father's incipient blindness. If I get a couple more requests, I'll record the third instalment (there are sixteen chapters altogether!)

 I've been thinking a little about Yule traditions. Like many people I not only follow the widespread practices but also have my own particular habits that I repeat every midwinter season. Mine are mostly centred around stories which I like to enjoy. For me it is a time to listen to the audio recording made by theatrical legend Simon Callow of the Charles Dickens' story 'Doctor Marigold's Prescription'. This was one of Dickens regular performances during his touring days, a first-person narrative of a traveling cheapjack's life from his birth through to a Christmas-time reunion with his beloved adoptive daughter. Like all of Dickens' work it is full of sentiment and an observation of the brutal excesses of mid-Victorian life, and perfectly pitched with the balance of humour and pathos. Callow's performance is excellent and filled with a real enthusiasm that might be expected from an acknowledged expert on the author. This is also the season when I love t...

 Today I was given a lovely book as a birthday present (well, one of several gifts) - 'Quest for the White Merle' by Lilian Gask, published in 1909. This is the first chapter of a young boy's adventures into the magical realms of nature - especially with various talking birds. If anyone would like to hear subsequent chapters, let me know and I will record them. I think the book is out of copyright so it should not cause any legal issues. The book has some lovely illustrations by Dorothy Hardy, who painted for numerous children's books over the years. Gask was a prolific author of adventure stories for children, though little known these days. A merle, if anyone is wondering, is an old name for a blackbird.

As it is my birthday today I thought I would record a story from one of my favourite authors, the inimitable Saki. This one is "The Story of St Vespaluus", a mildly comic tale about a young prince whose country is caught at the juncture between Paganism and Christianity - whilst the country is an imaginary one, ancient Lithuania had a tradition of sacred serpents, the zaltys (and the revived Romuvan religion still does revere the grass snake and has a holy day devoted to them). I wonder how often the kind of strange accommodation described at the end of the short story happened in real life?

 The final instalment of the short series of seminars looking at theology within the pagan traditions. This one looks at notions of theodicy (why do people suffer; why are some people so horrible) and touches briefly on ethical codes in different traditions. If you have any questions, post them here and I will answer in the message section (or it might inspire a future podcast).

 The second instalment (a few days late going up due to the mayhem of life) looks at different understandings of deity in various forms of paganism and touches briefly on other orders of spiritual beings. If you have any questions for the third and final part, please add them to the comment section below. As previously, if you find this useful please make a donation to a food-bank or similar kind of charity in a place near you.

 Finally got round to putting together the short intro to Pagan Theology, having talked about it for months on end. This course will be in three parts, each uploaded on Thursday evenings and exploring different aspects of theology for pagans. I was going to do this as a live podcast, but various factors have made that difficult so I've opted for pre-records instead. If you have any questions or there are specific topics you would like covered in future instalments, please add your comments to this post. In the spirit of reciprocity (as mentioned in this first recording), if you find this series useful or interesting, please "pay" for it by making a donation to a food-bank or similar service near you - whether donations of actual food or through a monetary gift to them. If you're more of an animal-person then help feed the residents of an animal shelter local to your neighbourhood.

This year's Pageant, celebrating pagan mythology through the performing arts, has had to go virtual due to the wretched pandemic and rules that make public gatherings nigh on impossible. Thankfully we have had willing volunteers offering their skills at storytelling, poetry, and song (namely Carys, Nick Ford, Greg McDowell, and Rob Lummis). The links to the YouTube playlist are below -  Welcome – https://youtu.be/mnNNHR3xLK4 Opening talk on shapeshifting in storytelling - https://youtu.be/sf_tJi3RtBU The Indian Boy, the Witch, and the Wolf (Rob Lummis) – https://youtu.be/HqUVfeJslqo Pagan songs from Carys – https://youtu.be/_IYlzjqaRBo Tide of Words (poems about oceanic myths) - https://youtu.be/Pny4LsEwOW4 Arcadian Werewolf Rap (Nick Ford) – https://youtu.be/71m1-wDg3J0 Shifty Sagas (stories about shapeshifting) - https://youtu.be/0Bl7JzSODi4 Reflections on the Golden Bower (poems by Greg McDowell) – https://youtu.be/VGSCBwcUSQc Farewell - https://youtu.be/I...

A final tale to mark Halloween 2020, this is my reading of M R James' short story 'Two Doctors' (the medical element seems somehow suitable to the current world climate). There have been many excellent readings of James' stories over the years - most notably by the lugubrious Sir Michael Horden and Sir Christopher Lee - and various TV, radio, and stage productions based around them. Lee's authoritative, sepulchral presence carried the stories - in my case I have to rely on silly voices to move it along. This tale is rarely recorded, possibly because the ending is a bit vague as to quite what went on and it does feel slightly rushed at times, but does feature mysterious bed-sheets - a topic which James' much more famous and nightmarish  'Whistle and I'll Come To You' includes as well. Maybe James had a traumatic experience with some hospital corners once?

A suitable story for remembering the dead at Samhain, as well as timely for Remembrance Sunday, 'The Unbolted Door' was written in 1929 by Mrs Belloc Lowndes and deals with the grief a married couple feel for their lost child. I have the story via an anthology, 'When Churchyards Yawn' edited by Cynthia Asquith (who also contributed the final story). This is my reading of the short story.

A Halloween tale for 2020. This is inspired by the Nordic legends told about the draugr (a vengeful form of undead creature much given to guarding what is theirs - much as the Morgelyn has its guardian in this particular tale), though here the setting is the Cornish coast a few centuries ago when wrecking merchant ships was a lucrative (if somewhat murderous) way for the unscrupulous to make a living.  Having enjoyed many holidays in Cornwall, this has a nostalgic air for me despite the unpleasant undertones. The coastline has a drama all of its own, not matched by our East Anglian seafront. Mrs Pencarrow discovers that everything comes at a price. Some treasures, perhaps, are not worth the cost of attaining them. If I get the time and some peace and quiet tomorrow, I might also record one of the short stories I have been reading to mark the Halloween season.

This talk was given at the IPC October Moot, looking at some vaguely connected ideas around the magical nature of language. Due to the need to edit out some "colourful comments" emanating from the audience I've used a free editing service which includes the watermark - I'm far too much of a cheapskate to pay for the upgrade and get the watermark removed.

A friend has enrolled on a Jungian course and asked about the Trickster archetype, so this video covers a few rambling thoughts about the matter - looking at how this challenging, boundary-pushing, sometimes humorous archetype can be thought of as manifesting via the four personality types that Jung describes, plus some ideas on its expression through paganism and wider culture. Towards the end I mention a little about the thoughts of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin on the topic of carnivalesque - a chaotic, uproarious theme in a few novels, paintings, stage plays etc. as well as celebrated worldwide from ancient pagan ritual through to the Notting Hill Carnival today.

Below is a poem written in the Welsh cywydd llosgyrnog metre as an honouring of Gwynn app Nudd, the medieval name for the King of the Fairies in Welsh folklore. For some of us at least Gwynn is a later understanding of an Ancient British deity whose name has survived on some altar stones from the Romano-British period, Vindos or Vindonnus (possibly two separate beings, but my intuition is that they are different titles for the same entity). I'm not sure who the artist of the inset picture is - cannot find a name as yet! As per the explanation given in my reading of it in a YouTube recording linked at the bottom of this page (and yes, I know I misread one of the words but I don't have the time at the moment to re-record it properly), the story contained in the poem has its roots in the hagiography of a 7th century monk - the manuscript of which dates to the 1500s. The monk, Collen, sets up his hermitage on an island in the flood plains of Glastonbury that is already owned by Gwy...

In September I gave a live talk via Facebook for my publisher (Moon Books), talking about Ancient Egyptian religion as a taster for the new book. Might be of some interest to people who tune in to this blog on occasion. 

Having received a few questions about the previous recording of the talk on Jungian Shadow concepts at the Ipswich Moot, I decided to create this deeper look into the topic which answers those questions as well as going off in other directions. This meander contextualises what the Shadow is, how it has been projected on to pagans, how it might be thought of within modern pagan communities, and how the Shadow can be worked with via ritual etc. If there are an additional questions which people would like answered, feel free to send them in by email or as comments on this post.

Recording of a discussion on ways in which Jung's idea of the Shadow archetype can be applied within paganism.This was our first Ipswich Pagan Council moot reconvened in the real world after months of lock down. A small attendance, but hopefully things will begin to revive.

An odd ramble around ideas from the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes on social contracts and how this could relate to animist or polytheist ideas. Would a greater focus on mutuality provide a strong ethical basis within the smaller scale western polytheist traditions? Jane Jacobs economic models explored the idea of reciprocity (she uses the term trader) as a basis for a healthier way of interacting than the more Nietzschean approaches that have been in vogue for at least a few centuries now. I wonder to what extent this approach can be extended into spiritual and social/moral realms. This can also link in to ideas on agency within animism, but I'll leave that to some future occasion to explore.  The short version of all this waffle is for us to think of each of the living beings (human or otherwise) that we benefit from in some way, and then deciding on how to reciprocate so that we give benefit back to them in some manner. 

A traditional tale of how a bored king learns something from a humble woodsman. There are a number of variations on this from different parts of the world, but this is my spin on it.

It still being too hot to be creative or in any guise original, I have taken the lazy option of reading somebody else's story which - whilst a very unseasonal choice - smacks of the flames of Hell of which we are getting a foretaste.  The short story, set at a provincial pantomime, was written by the playwright J B Priestly in 1931 though my copy is from a very dog-eared collection of horror tales called "Christopher Lee's Omnibus of Evil" published in 1978 with each tale introduced by the late, great actor (who would have been ideal in the role of Mr Ireton within the story). The 21st century theatrical world seems to be sadly missing any horror specialists to follow in the footsteps of Lee, Cushing, Price etc. I blame the fact on the modern horror films' preference for chainsaws and disembowelment over the staged, gentlemanly menace of the theatrical troopers of yesteryear. We live in an age devoid of subtlety or nuance. Or maybe I have just become a fully-fledg...

  A short story from the collection Scottish Fairy Tales, published by Bracken books. My edition is from 1993, but the stories are written in a much older style so this may well be a reprint from earlier. This particular short story is called "The Seal Catcher and the Merman". It involves an encounter with what would normally be called as selkie, though is referred to as a merman. A little graphic at the start, but it ends well! For anyone unfamiliar with folklore, a selkie is a creature that can take the shape of a seal in the oceans or a human when they fancy a walk on the land. Al the accounts suggest that they are gentle creatures, though easily taken advantage of because of it. Most selkie stories feature seal-women so it is unusual to have a story involving a male selkie.

Early August is, for many pagans, the time when they celebrate what the Anglo-Saxons referred to as Lammas and the Irish called Lughnasadh (which is not to say these festivals are identical). The Irish term takes its name from the deity Lugh, this name tracking back to the early Celtic Lugus - altars to whom are found in many places. Myth has it that Lugh was born what might be termed mixed-race in that his father was of the Tuatha de Danann, the tribe of the goddess Danu, whist his mother was of their mortal enemies the Tuatha de Domnu - she being the goddess of the abyss in the deep sea. Descriptions of her offspring rather make them sound like something dreamed up by Lovecraft. Not all of them are horrific though, and Lugh's mother Ethniu is one of these.  The tribe of Danu arrive in great, impenetrable clouds that descend upon the Iron Mountain in what is now County Leitrim and discover that Ireland is already inhabited by the Fir Bolg. The people of the sky meet the people of ...

Some thoughts on a dripplingly hot day, as I skulk in the shadows, about the nature of narrative and its relationship to polytheist religions as well as to our own lives as individuals. Narratives can be both positive and negative (or a parson's egg of both) and the prime purpose of this podcast is to get my listeners - both of you - to think about the role story plays in your life and the lives of the communities of which you are a member. Touches a little bit on Baudrillard's idea that we are living in a synthetic bubble as a result of the impact of cinema and TV on our expectations of reality. Could go into this more from a pagan point of view (do we expect our religions to be more like the things we see on TV than reality), but an hour of waffle seem sufficient for one day. Also brings in Collette Dowlings now somewhat dated ideas from the Cinderella Complex as an example of the potential negative impact of a widespread story.

The final installment about epistemology within polytheism, including a short muse on how Foucault's ideas on the Regimes of Truth could potentially apply. If viewers have any questions to pose, I could address them in future philosophical asides.

According to newspaper accounts (which, as we all know, are completely trustworthy and reliable), on September 26th 1449 two dragons met to fight it out in a meadow in the Suffolk village of Great Cornard. The black dragon had come from Kedington Hill in Suffolk whilst the red dragon had flown over from Ballingdon Hill on the nearby Essex borders. For some reason that remains inexplicable to this day, the red dragon won and both beasts returned to their hills. Afterwards the meadow became known as Sharpfight Meadow (I have no idea what it was called before that). The newspaper accounts offered of explanation for why this battle took place, so I made up the bit about witches and wizards for the sake of shameless embroidery. It may have been a garbled memory of a clash between two rival armies (or sports teams, or boy scouts, or who knows what else) each flying a dragon pennant. The esoterically inclined might consider the dragons to be ancient land guardians and the clash between th...

An additional meander through the realm of epistemology, branching out into ontology and cultural shift. thanks to viewers for the questions posed in response to the previous podcast - they (eventually) get answered in this recording. If anyone has any further questions in response to this waffle please let me know. There will, at some point, be a third and hopefully final addition to this diversion into philosophy.

Finally a visit to the barber today, so I look less like someone who sleeps in a ditch and shouts at pigeons. To mark the day, here is a meander through some philosophical concepts around epistemology from a polytheist stance - how do polytheists know what they claim to know? How can the truthfulness of claims be assessed (and what do we even mean by truth anyway)? There will be a follow-up to this at some stage, as there are other ides that I want to explore - and if anyone has any questions or reflections of their own, it will help to shape where the next video ramble goes.

This seminar (conducted as part of my day job) gives a basic introduction to some ideas from within Analytic and Archetypal Psychology, which might be of interest to some of the people who subscribe to this blog. If there is sufficient interest, I'll do a more in-depth one next year.

This story is set in Ireland but combines a number of different elements from various cultures - particularly French rural tales. A woman encounters a faoladh - one of the werewolf-like creatures of Irish folklore - and eventually has a strange child. The story is also partly inspired by the visual image of Danielle Dax as the wolf girl in the brilliant 1984 film "Company of Wolves". There are a number of Central and Eastern European traditions of wolfherders - sometimes people with magical powers over wolves, or sometimes werewolf-like creatures which occasionally brush up against humanity. At some juncture I will record stories about the volcko, lloberus, dzgyrag, Puldu Kaldana and others. The rather stunning artwork inset is, I believe, by Caitriona Maire MacDougall. This is recorded partly to celebrate the summer solstice and partly because this weekend would have been the Wolfshead Pagan Camp (which has been running for several years in Suffolk). Unfortunately th...

A short story that I found in one of Lady "Sperenza" Wilde's collection of Irish folklore. An impoverished Irish farmer loses two of his cows only to be recompensed by a family of werewolves. The story illustrates the somewhat different nature of lycanthropes in Ireland. The legend is somewhat like an Irish counterpart to Androcles and the Lion - whether this was deliberately so or simply reflects a common theme encountered in many cultures around the world. This is recorded partly to celebrate the summer solstice and partly because this weekend would have been the Wolfshead Pagan Camp (which has been running for several years in Suffolk). Unfortunately the dread coronavirus has put paid to out ability to meet up at the White Horse pub in Finningham for the gathering (at least for now). There is a strange tradition of wolf imagery running through Suffolk history, which I will highlight at some point on this blog.

A couple of days ago my publisher let me know that the latest book had been completed (in terms of cover art, lay out etc.). "Pantheon - The Egyptians" will be in the shops for May 2021, which is some positive news for me amidst the sea of gloom in the world at present. The book explores Egyptian mythology, history, theology, ritual and so forth - details on how to purchase will be added once the book becomes available for retail. To mark the event I have finally found time away from work to make a short recording of a prayer to Tehuti, the ibis-headed god of writing, which is given in both English and a reconstruction of how it may have sounded in the language of Kemet. There on ongoing discussions between linguists as to exactly how early Egyptian may have sounded, which is partly a problem of vowel sounds which readers were expected to know rather than having made explicit to them in reading hieroglyphs. The people who carved the letters clearly never envisioned a day w...

There is a tale within a tale that appears in the myths of Herakles, told to him by a thief - whom he lets go after he finds the story amusing. In Greek it is called the Batrachomyomachia - the War Between the Frogs and Mice. Authorship is disputed, but Homer is a likely candidate. The piece is a comic aside and widely believed to be a satire, both of the overblown Epic poetry style of many Greek writers who somewhat ladled it on with a trowel, but also perhaps of much human politics and how the Gods might actually view our endless disputes and fractiousness. What to us is so massively important may to them seem really quite petty. This is my much shortened version of the story, just as a bit of levity in times of stress (both personal and global). The beard will soon be full Dumbledore if the barbers do not open in the next few weeks.

This story is one that I made up (mostly as I went along, as you may notice!). However, it draws on a number of folklore traditions about robins, both accounts of how they got their red breasts, but also their curious and magical behaviour. The Church has accrued a number of traditions about this bird, such as the redness coming from Christ's blood as the previously brown bird tried to pull out either the thorns from the crown or the nails from Jesus' wrists during the crucifixion, or that it was a burn mark from hell fire as the bird tried to bring water to those in torment. In either case the redness results from an act of mercy. There are suggestions of a link to the mythology of Thor, but this has proved elusive to pin down beyond endless repetition of the same vague reference on websites. Irish myth states that Queen Medb has a pet robin and a pet squirrel, and one of the Welsh triads gives the robin as amongst the most blessed of animals. I wanted to record a story ab...

One of the few benefits of social media (there are plenty enough disadvantages to it) is that you get to talk to people you'd never otherwise meet. Recently I have been chatting to a pagan man from Georgia - the country adjacent to Turkey and Armenia, not the state in America - about various aspects of religion, mythology etc. Knowing nothing whatsoever about Georgia, I decided to learn a little more about its ancient religions and traditions. I came across this story, about a boy apprenticed to Vakhraca. Not at all sure if I have pronounced the name correctly, but Vakhraca is referred to as the devil in one account. Given that he emerges from a stream, I did wonder if he might once have been the spirit of the water course. Whatever the figure in the story was originally, the tale of shapeshifting is reminiscent of other form-changing battles between an older wizard or witch and their young apprentice. These stories crop up a lot and may well suggest some kind of initiatory proc...

Reading poetry to revive what's left of my brain after a few weeks of relentless work (which the lock-down seems to have made more intense rather than easier!) These short poems are The Stolen Child and The Song of the Wandering Aengus, both by W B Yeats, and The West Wind by John Masefield. Should anyone know if there is indeed an adjective (akin to petrichor for rain) to describe the aroma of old books, please let me know. As you can see I am in full lock-down shaggy beard and hair! I count the days till the barber shop reopens, as does Mrs Lovett.

West Suffolk College was going to host a seminar today on Max Weber's theory of the Iron Cage - and drawing in ideas from psychology, sociology, ethics, and religious studies. Due to lock-down this has now been turned into a virtual seminar which you can watch at your leisure. If there is sufficient interest in discussing the topics raised, a virtual discussion could potentially be organised via Webex. There were going to be some other seminars this academic year and, depending on the kind of response gleaned to this virtual event, some of those may also be turned into this kind of format.

I was going to record a dragon story yesterday (St George's Day) but struggles with the modern monster of technology consumed too much time. So, belatedly, here is a Hindu tale about a giant serpent demon which could be considered a dragon of sorts. The monstrous Vritra swallows up the rivers and causes terrible droughts and much death, till the god Indra comes along and sorts him out. In doing so he gains the title of Vritrahan, the dragon slayer. I am not sure who the artist is with the picture of Indra and Vritra inset. Should anyone be wondering, yes I do look that fat and unkempt - consider it the impact of quarantine! I was told yesterday that I look old and haggard, so there's no point denying it anymore! Once it is lifted I will be joining the long queues at the barbers and eating dust with Fat Fighters.

The Royal Shakespeare Company have started a Share Your Shakespeare project to encourage people during the lock-down to read a speech from a poem, act out a speech from one of the plays etc. So this is my brief contribution to that - three of the Bard's sonnets. Sonnet 29 I have chosen because I first heard it read aloud several decades ago by the American actor Ron Perlman, who has a fantastically gravelly voice well suited to poetry. I can fully sympathise with the poet's words, having had many occasions in life when I have wished I were much more like some very impressive person or another rather than just being a ginger hobbit (mind you, Old Will was a ginger too - look at that beard!). Not quite so many experiences of the Thy Sweet Love, but that's what happens when you're a hobbit. Sonnet 81 is here because, in these dark times, there will be many people looking at family, friends, lovers etc. and wondering if all too soon one will be attending the funeral of...

Passing the time with a reading of Saki's short story "The She-Wolf" in which a windbag gets hoist on his own petard by one of Saki's recurrent characters, the man-about-town Clovis Sangrail (a surname that will amuse Arthurian enthusiasts).

Seeing as it is Easter and I'm going stir crazy the same as everyone at present, here is the tale of St Melangell - an Irishwoman who sought refuge in Wales where she became an abbess and, having shuffled off her mortal coil in old age (thankfully no gruesome martyr's tale here) became the patron saint of the hares who formed a significant part of her congregation. I did check what else she might be a patron of, but the Catholic website was not giving anything away! I have not been able to identify the artist of the icon here, though it was listed by the website as Flemish art. If anyone fancies visiting her shrine it is in Pennant Melangell in Powys and her holy day is May 27th. She may be a memory of an older figure, or possibly she is a genuine mortal who attained canonisation.

With lock-down still in place the meeting of the Ipswich Pagan Council cannot take place this evening (at least not in the flesh). So below is a recorded moot talk on the mythology of the Greek deity Pan. We are looking at setting up a Zoom chat tonight, but still working on the technical details,

Seeing as lots of people are reporting on social media how they are feeling as if they are imprisoned in their own homes, I thought I would record Oscar Wilde's monumentally long poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, for an insight into what it is really like to be banged up with no escape in sight (unlike just hanging around at home longer than most of us would wish) - I promise to leave Mr Wilde in peace for a while now, having recorded three of his works in as many days. This poem is a bleak one, which Wilde dedicated to a soldier who had been sentenced to hang for murder during the period in which the poet was sentenced for what will probably seem to most a very little thing - bedding Lord Alfred Douglas and rather too many rent boys. The poem addresses the awfulness of Victorian prison life and the horror of capital punishment. After all this recording, I think I need to give my throat a rest for a day or two!

Oscar Wilde was a man of many words, as can be seen from the length of some of his poems. The Garden of Eros is a tad lengthy, but beautiful - an invocation of both the wonders of nature (gardeners should enjoy it) but also the power of myth and legend to transport readers into a whole other realm away from the prosaic and pragmatic. Eros is the god not only of sexual and sensual desire but, in the Platonic philosophy the power of attraction in general - the force that holds atoms together and draws intellects to the the topics that uplift and inspire them. Is Wilde singing the praises of the literary Muse that inspires him, or is he thinking of some pretty young man (hopefully not the petulant Bosie) with whom he has shared his love of Greek Myth, Arthurian romances, and the all the other sagas? I'm not sure it wholly matters to whom the poem is addressed. Ultimately I see it as a love poem to the very power of storytelling itself. The photo, incidentally, is of the gardens at...

Some more poetry to bombard people with - slight variation here, linking poems to pictures instead of having my face on the screen. This is about as technological as I get - no idea how to do the cinematic-style imagery I've seen on professional podcasts. I don't have many subscribers, but I'm interested as to which style of poetry (with or without imagery) people prefer. Today's poems are as follows: The White Hind also by Aonghas MacNeacail, from his collection The Avoiding and Other Poems, published 1986 by MacDonald Publishers Endymion by Oscar Wilde, from the Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde, published 1994 by Wordsworth Poetry Library Bluebells for Love by Patrick Kavanagh, from the anthology The Long Embrace, published 1987 by The Blackstaff Press A Lady of Quality by Thomas Kinsella, also from The Long Embrace

To help alleviate the boredom that many are experiencing during lock-down I shall be uploading a few poems that I like over the next week or so. If you like the poems enough to want to track down the books, whether to buy now (by mail order, obviously) or to get from the few remaining libraries when they reopen, the titles are below: Seed-saver by Nicholas McLachlan (included in an anthology called Cum - New Writing from Kerrypublished 1996 by Kerry County Council [that's a Gaelic word, not a typo]) The Calling of Taliessin by Charles Williams, from his collection - The Region of the Summer Stars, published 1950 by Oxford University The Calling of Arthur & Taliessin's Return to Logres also by Charles Williams, from his collection The Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams, reprinted 1982 by Brewer Cities of Mind by Chase Twitchell, from his collection Dog Language, published 2006 by Bloodaxe Books Before the Owl Takes Flight by Robin Herne, from my collection Bard...

Some snippets from the long life of the Greek goddess Iris and her twin sister Arke, cobbled together into one tale - the choice of which is partly inspired by all the children's drawings of rainbows currently being displayed in windows all over the country to express thanks to NHS staff and other key workers for keeping Britain running during the lock-down period. This is m small contribution to help alleviate the boredom that many are feeling (at least, I hope it distracts from rather than adds to the tedium!) Members of the Gippeswyk Storytelling club cannot meet this month, for obvious reasons, so this is part of a virtual gathering for them as well. I'll add some other stories and poems over the weekend, ready for what would have been our regular meeting date on Monday. The rainbow symbolises hope (amongst other things) and, I'm hoping that my favourite Greek cafe in Bury St Edmunds will survive the economic turmoil and reopen in due course. I shall be eating my...

Here are the links to the Virtual version of the Leaping Hare pagan convention, featuring the talents of Nick Ford, Carys, Jonathan Boddam-Whethers and myself. In theory one should play on automatically from the previous, but in case there are problems with list I have pasted each link individually below. INTRODUCTION SHEEP POEM (NICK FORD) UNDERWORLD INITIATION (DR J. B. WETHAM) CALL MY BLUFF MINI-QUIZ CARYS'S SONG (GAIA) BEAR TRIBE POEM (NICK FORD) BROTHERHOOD OF THE SHADOWS STORY EPOMEDUOS AND THE MARE ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD TALK

If you haven't already heard you will have worked out for yourself, in the light of government decisions, that the Leaping Hare convention has been postponed from its March date. Assuming that the coronavirus situation has been resolved (ideally cured) in time, we are aiming to meet instead on Saturday 17th October - usual venue in Colchester. Details of the programme can be found on their website. It is mostly the same as originally planned. As a bonus to try and keep people's spirits up during this period of isolation, we will be running a Virtual Hare this Saturday. A playlist of videos will be run including talks, storytelling, poetry, a quiz, and song. The link will be posted in a number of places, including on this blog, for you to watch at your leisure. If you enjoy it, we'd like to encourage you to donate to whatever your local Hospice is - whatever sum you can afford (we appreciate that many will be financially struggling right now with work drying up for lots of ...

I was asked to contribute an interfaith voice to a week's worth of what might be termed short sermons at the Cathedral, inspired by concerns over environmental threats and how Christians (or anyone else listening) might react. This is the first time I've spoken at the cathedral and the first time I've ever given a Bible reading anywhere, so it made for an interesting Friday 13th - for me, if not necessarily for everyone in the congregation. Though they were very polite and said they found it interesting. The text is below. It could have been more polished, but as this was a novel experience for me I really wasn't sure quite what to say and what to avoid. The Land, the Soul, and the Storyteller The Ancient Romans believed that the landscape was garlanded with places of spiritual awe and mysterious presences which they referred to as the numina. For the people of the ancient world what made a place sacred was its innate spirit, its ineffable presence or numen....