Round the Herne

 This is my reading of the third chapter of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful 1908 children's story "The Wind in the Willows". In this chapter Mole gets wanderlust and decides to brave the Wild Wood. I love the lyrical description of plants as the seasons change - very reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's nature poetry, filled with the same love of the green realms. 

 My reading of the second chapter of Kenneth Grahame's delightful 1908 story "The Wind in the Willows", in which Mole meets Toad and the all enjoy (for a very brief period) the joys of life on the open road.

 My reading of chapter one of Kenneth Grahame's wonderfully lyrical 1908 children's story, "The Wind in the Willow". Mr Mole awakens from his winter slumbers and encounters both the River itself, a central character in this semi-animistic tale, and Mr Rat who dwells beside the waters.

 A recording for the Suffolk Jungian Circle (and anyone else who might be interested) reflecting on Jung's views about the archetypal nature of unidentified objects in the sky. If you would like to take part int he online discussion (7.30pm on Wednesday 28th May).

 As today is St George's Day, I thought I would share a short story about a dragon - the Krepel is part of the folklore of Bytom in Poland. The area where the dragon once lived is no longer forest land but part of the city itself (as to what became of the dragon in the long-term, alas I do not know - there are no accounts which I could locate answering that one).

 What started off as some research for a lecture (around male friendship) took me off down various mythological tangents, including into the daimona/goddess/spirit Philotes from Ancient Greece who formed and sustained friendships between people (and sometimes also sexual relationships, but that is a side issue). The work-related research has been looking at the connection between social isolation and what are euphemistically called negative life outcomes - ill health, mental problems, increased chances of suicide etc.). While friendship may not get anywhere near the modern cultural coverage of romance (thinking about all those soppy songs, films, Mills & Boon novels etc.), in ancient times there were plenty of tales about friends going off on adventures together.

 The April meeting of the Suffolk Jungian Circle (taking place on the 23rd) will be discussing the Red Book. One of the members, Carol, volunteered to do the video presentation to spark discussion, but is even less technically-minded than I am - so rather than the usual talking head format, we did it as an interview so I could take care of the recording element. If you would like to take part in the monthly discussion leave a message and I will send you the link.

When the router died, I spent a bit of time adding more to this story. It's never going to go anywhere (from a publishing perspective), but it's providing a relaxing diversion for me to write.  CHAPTER 1 is  here CHAPTER 2 is  here   CHAPTER 3 is  here   CHAPTER 4 is here (if you haven't already read them) CHAPTER 5   As the induction class drew to a close, Catriona glanced round to see the other members of the group looked as stunned and bewildered as she felt. A rueful smiled played on the Principal’s lips as his kindly blue eyes took them all in. it was doubtless far from the first time that he had turned people’s worlds upside down. A painfully thin lad with a prominent Adam’s apple and bad acne set further along the bench, staring at the copious pile of notes he had taken and looking as if he might cry. The light from the three large stained glass windows cast hypnotic patterns across them all. The Otherworld, which she had always taken as ...

 Bit of a meander into some of the issues linking the realm of artistic creativity (be that painting, music, sculpture, cinema or whatever else) to ethical issues. Partly this is in response to events over the last year or so where a few prominent creative types have fallen off their pedestals and quite a few former fans have sworn off reading/watching/consuming their output. Be interesting to hear how followers of this channel respond to ethical concerns about creativity.