Myth as Medicine:
finding Vitality in a Natural Myth Cycle
Are you interested in mythology as a tool for connection and insight in the modern world?
Do you enjoy storytelling and the opportunity to go deeper with story?
Would you enjoy journeying through a cycle of wild Northern myths, tracking the vitality they can offer in your life?
If so, Myth as medicine could be for you.
Watch this short video to see if it is a good fit…
“I loved the Myth as Medicine course. I found it incredibly nourishing to listen to and discuss a story every week and each and every one of them has stayed with me in a powerful way. “
“The activities to work with in between the meetings were wonderful ways of connecting with nature and with myself. Overall I found the course to be very healing – this really is medicine for the soul.”
K.A. 2022
What happens?
We meet online each week for 10weeks. I tell a selected myth, relevant to one of the Celtic directions. We reflect and explore that story as a group.
During that week we go deeper with that story with bespoke reflection and nature connection activities.
Additional resources are offered during the week to support the experience.
Each week flows into the next, following a natural cycle (Celtic medicine wheel), creating a complete experience.
The diversity of the activities and stories ensures each week is fresh and the experience cumulative.
By participating in Myth as Medicine you will:
- Immerse yourself in wild Northern Myths (from Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Siberia)
- Gain inner clarity
- Learn to us myth as a mirror for your life
- Deepen relationship with nature and ancestral cultures
- Glean wisdom from ancient cultures
- Develop ‘mythic literacy’ (understanding the coded language within myth)
- Learn tools for journeying deeper with story
- Spiral around a mythic ‘medicine wheel’
- Share a unique experience with a Cohort of fine folk
“What a rich group of people you have gathered! It was such a treat to listen and share.”
N.D. 2022
When is it?
The course will start on Wed 8th March, 7-9pm GMT, then weekly until May 10th. We will finish at Beltaine, the start of Celtic summer.
Recordings of the online meetings and stories willbe available for anyone who misses one.
Midweek support and resources will be provided.
Price is sliding scale: £195-225 (concessions £165)
Payment in instalments, and further concessions possible upon request: dougie@storyconnection.org
“I’m telling anyone who can listen about your course, I loved it. I’d totally do it again!”
V.M. 2022
What is the Medicine of Myth?
Myths are fun, they are wild, they are compelling.
Certain myths are powerful. They can offer healing and insight in our daily lives.
Myths and folk stories can play the role of ‘elders’, often missing in the modern world.
This course is founded on a premise that myth cycles and storytelling help us discover our place within nature and the cosmos, that stories remind us what it is to be human. This way is fundamental to indigenous living, and remembering of this way is nourishing.
The more time we spend around myth and story, the better we tune our ear to the subtle patterns of ancestral cultures, and recognise archetypes in our own lives.
The more respect we give a story the more likely it is to reveal it’s hidden treasure.
When we work with the cycles of nature, our life can flow more easily and effortlessly.
This course allows us to savour poetic soul-food that has nourished nature immersed people since the dawn of time.
These concepts will be familiar if you know the following authors:
Clarissa Pinkola Estes (The Women who Run with the Wolves), Robert Bly (Iron John), Martin Shaw (Branch From the Lightning Tree) and Sharon Blackie (If Women Rose Rooted) Michael Meade (Living Myth podcast)
More about the Process
This course will present a specially curated mythic cycle.
It provides the opportunity and tools to go on an individual and group journey with each, taking us closer to our wild nature, ancient cultures of wild northern lands, and our inner selves at the same time.
Nature connection activities and reflective questioning will support the process.
Previous participants have appreciated the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of storytelling and myth, in a way that has enriched their dailly lives.
Participants have awakened to mythology and story as tools for mindful living, imagination, finding points of connection to the natural world and ancestral cultures.
Participants have been surprised at the unique ways this course has supported them in navigating the trials and tribulations of their daily lives, and felt the support of a caring cohort.
This is an opportunity to approach stories and myth with mix of reverence and playfulness that helps the story sing to us, and tune our ears to hear its specific resonance to our daily lives.
In short:
- Ten mythic stories are told ‘live’ over ten weeks through online story share and reflection
- Bespoke exercises to engage with each story are given, including reflective journaling and nature connection prompts
- Video recordings of live calls are provided (catch up in your own time) as are weekly updates and additional resources
- Cohort support and group chat offers an engaging community environment
- I will guide this through a tried and tested model of mythic immersion, combining his professional experience in storytelling, nature connection and community development
Finally
Storytelling is an age old craft, honed by glowing firesides since the dawn of human culture. Some people call humans ‘the storytelling animal’ as our language and brain have evolved through storytelling.
It is a powerful medium, although few utilise that power to its full potential.
Stories offer entertainment but more than that, many myths carry the wisdom of ancestral cultures who passed on the best of their knowledge through story. These insights can be gleaned from myths when we give them attention and approach them in a certain way.
Just listening to such tales is enlivening, it can rewire the brain and rewild our minds amidst the mundanity of the modern world. Yet another beauty of stories is their adaptive quality. Each listener hears something unique according to their own experience and values.
Great stories touch everyone deeply, yet in diverse and personal ways.
This course guides us through a process of tracking our own personal medicine in myth, in order to live enriched lives rooted in the ways of our ancestors and touched with wonder.
“Dougie, the Medicine in Myth is real and I am grateful for the stories you are sharing, connecting with such lovely folks in your class, the thoughtful conversations, and the invitations to take the stories deeper into our own inner work.”
J.D. 2022
Dougie Mackay Storyteller 