Death and Hard Ons

Mooney is in bed and in a “soup of stories”: Aphrodite and Hephaestus are stirring in her Greek myths group, and last week she was out on the Somerset Levels with Tessa Wills, who reads the starling murmurations as an oracle.From those three days, here is a drum journey. It takes you along the Sweet Track, the Neolithic timber walkway across the Levels, to the edge of the liminal. There you meet the starlings, become one, fly, and come back with something written down. Have a pen and paper nearby.Music: opening titles by Queen Space Baroque. Journey music is “We Are All Stars” by Galen Hefferman and Jahnavi (Portland, Oregon), at galenhefferman.bandcamp.com.Coming up: the Greek myths group and Women Who Run with the Wolves circle are closed groups this time round. Look out for them next year. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

It’s Samhain week, the veils are thin and I’ve been all over telling stories. I talk about telling stories as a witch at a prison family day, and thank everyone who braved Storm Austin for our woodland fire magic. I read from The Princess’ Blankets by Carol Ann Duffy, illustrated by Catherine Hyde, and share a simple ancestor ritual you can do at home. I also tell you about my new work with Tessa Wills, reading the starling murmurations on the Somerset Levels.Come alongSamhain Secrets in Story and Song with Ted Waters, Friday 30 October, 7:30–10pm, St Benedict’s Church, Glastonbury. Bring a stone to represent your ancestors.Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998949432563?aff=oddtdtcreatorWomen Who Run With The Wolves, seven Tuesday evenings starting 3 November in Glastonbury. Just one place left.To book, email [email protected]* Opening titles: QSB Baroque* Time for Home, sung by Ted Waters* Sweet Dreams, a cover of Heal the Last Stand, sung by Ted Waters* Lay Fallow by Michael Kennedy, sung by Ted WatersSupport the podIf you can spare a couple of pounds a month: Mooneys Mythic Podcast | Stories, soul craft, good company | PatreonOr share it, leave a comment on Substack, and tell me you’re listening.www.sarahmooney.co.uk This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Show NotesMooney’s Mythic Podcast: Under Anger, a Broken Heart. She spent one night at Wales Millennium Centre seeing Laurie Anderson, then sneaking in to see the Shovel Dance Collective, and she cried, giggled and danced her way through it.Laurie’s Friends and Teachers show leaves her with a teaching from Pema Chödrön: underneath anger there is always a broken heart. Sarah carries that question into the new story she’s making, about a great oak that splits into gardener, magician and king. She also lists her own shadow on a till receipt while working as the witch of Wookey Hole. Max Porter’s All of This Unreal Time and Robin Williamson’s bardic magic feed into the drunk, brilliant wizard she’s learning to embody.Featured* Laurie Anderson: Friends and Teachers, Llais Festival, Wales Millennium Centre. * Shovel Dance Collective: The Bold Fisherman shoveldancecollective.bandcamp.com* Robin Williamson: “Five Denials on Merlin’s Grave”, from A Glint at the Kindling (1979)* Max Porter: All of This Unreal Time * Direction support: Joanna Procter, Reveal Productions * Intro music: Queen Space BaroqueComing up* Friday 23 Oct, 6pm: a mythic storytelling show in the woods near Glastonbury (secret location) with musicians, fire and aerial acts. Get in touch to come.* Friday 30 Oct: Samhain Secrets and Songs with Ted Waters, St Benedict’s Church, Glastonbury.https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998949432563?aff=oddtdtcreator* Women Who Run With the Wolves: a seven-week Tuesday-night circle in Glastonbury. Starts beginning of November 3 spaces left* One-to-one online sessions this winter for speeches, stories and performance.Support the pod on Patreon : Mooneys Mythic Podcast | Stories, soul craft, good company | Patreon This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

As autumn turns us down into the earth, this episode opens with a threshold track from Tarisha, then shares a treat from the archive: a conversation with Welsh storyteller Owen Staton. Together they explore unscripted telling, storytelling cards, letting a story “sing it plain,” and stories as nourishment and refuge.Owen StatonWelsh performance storyteller, actor and writer, host of Time Between Times.🎧 owenstaton.substack.com · Apple Podcasts🌐 www.welshstoryteller.com · ko-fi.com/owenstaton · patreon.com/owenstaton7MusicIntro music: Ritual Door 2 Queen Space BaroqueOpening track: Tarisha – Deep into the Earth we go, with thanks for permissionCome and find me* 14 Oct – Story Wintering: Greek myths, beginning with Artemis* 23 Oct, 6–8pm – Once upon a… Forest: a mythic woodland trail near Glastonbury with circus, music and stories from the realms of the fey. The location is sent when you book. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/once-upon-a-forest-tickets-2002560757132* 24 Oct – Wellington Garden of Light: oracle storytelling* 30 Oct, 7:30pm – Samhain Secrets in Story and Song with Ted Waters, St Benedict’s Church, Glastonbury. Bring an ancestor stone and photographs. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/samhain-secrets-in-story-and-song-tickets-1998949432563* 3 Nov – Women Who Run with the Wolves: 7-week in-person circle, Glastonbury (a few spaces left)* 18 Dec – Festive family show with Sarah Curtis (harp and piano), St Benedict’s ChurchNext week: Laurie Anderson and the Shovel Dance Collective.Support the pod on Patreon, share it with a friend, or leave a comment 💛 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Mooney’s Mythic PodcastPast the equinox, Sarah reflects on telling stories in the woods and the prayer she’ll make next time. She also talks about unwrapping a bubble-wrapped six-year-old part of herself, and joining the fierce Savage Sisters Morris side. In the story pot: The Princess’s Blankets and Tam Lin. Then a furious poem from Extinction Rebellion co-founder Stu Basden, recorded at the Green Gathering, and an invitation to come back to life together.Music: Queen Space Baroque, “Ritual Door” (opening titles) · Tarisha, “Deep Into the Earth” · Wyndreth, “My Mother’s Savage Daughter”Support Wyndreth: the writer of My Mother’s Savage Daughter is living with dementia. Please give if you can:👉 https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-mothers-savage-daughter-needs-our-helpCome and join me:* 🌲 Mythic Wander, Friday 23rd October. Get in touch for the location.* 🐺 Women Who Run With the Wolves, Glastonbury, seven Tuesdays from 3rd November (I said the 2nd in the episode, but it’s Tuesday 3rd!)* 🕯️ Story Wintering, online, once a month This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Opening music By Queen Space BaroqueOnline workshop Thursday 6:30–8:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998740818593?aff=oddtdtcreator Samhain telling of Donkey Skin in Glastonbury, 30th Octhttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998949432563?aff=oddtdtcreator This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Sarah previews The Synthphonic Orchestra ahead of Friday’s Rose Concert, then reflects on cycles — vision quests, moon time, community rhythm — before telling a Loathly Lady tale: three princes, a dried well, and the old woman who asks only for a kiss.Music: The Synthphonic Orchestra, “Love Remains”Upcoming: Rose Concert (Fri 11th, Glastonbury Town Hall) · Autumn Threshold Gathering online, next Thurs, 2-for-1 tickets on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998740818593?aff=oddtdtcreatorWomen Who Run With the Wolves (Glastonbury, late Oct) · Greek myths (details soon)Loved this? Send it to one person who needs the story today. Keep the kettle on for the pod — Patreon (Mooney’s Mythic Podcast). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Opening Track Ritual Door One by Queen Space BaroqueGathering us all up in this pod, talking about myth, magic,Featuring Malin Lewis 'Hiraeth' This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

In the thick of the heat, Sarah sits with Donkey Skin — the dancing, the impossible dresses, the prince as the first green shoot pushing through — and finds a way to move difficult feelings like toffee instead of chewing them over. From there: treasure held underground, the last auk’s disappearance, a garden as mirror for self-care, and a folk song recorded to defend Felton Common from Bristol Airport. Ends with a grounding meditation to root you in the earth and let the sun in.Music: Ritual Door No.1 by Queen Space Baroque. “The Goose and the Common” by the Common Land Choir.Sarah will be telling stories at Priddy Folk Festival (four sessions in the children’s tent, half eleven and three) and at Tolpuddle Festival the following weekend. This autumn she’s running two courses in Glastonbury: Women Who Run With The Wolves (Tuesdays, 7 weeks) and a Greek myth wintering course (Wednesdays, biweekly). She’s also playing a gig with Ted Waters on 30th October at St Ben’s, Glastonbury. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com

Opening music: Ritual Door No.1 by Queen Space BaroqueSarah records this episode in the aftermath of an accidental encounter with cactus acid and two visits hospital having her eyes rinsed out with saline — which turns out to be the perfect portal into a meditation on salt, flavour, and what we’re worth.Moving through Cap o’ Rushes, Donkey Skin, a North American corn myth, and the story of the giant turnip, this episode asks: what are we hiding under the donkey skin, and can we begin to dance in our own radiance again? Sarah weaves personal reckoning — the places where we make ourselves small, the six-year-old still reaching for something she never got — with fairy tale as inner map.A Summer Solstice episode in the truest sense: everything revealed, shadows and all. Closes with a live guitar fragment of the Detectorists theme tune. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahmooney.substack.com