I must confess to being delightedly surprised to find myself here.
The last ten years have been a really rather interesting time to say the least, I am not wanting to go into the whole saga, but the gist of it is I was diagnosed with M.E./CFS and finding myself frustrated time and again by the lack of supportive healing available for energy illnesses via conventional medicine, I of course turned to things often thought of as a little more Woo-Woo...Crystal gazing, reiki practitioner training, toe-dipping into witchery, kundalini yoga, ritual art, I did not expect my path to include studying shamanism so in-depth, or that I would find my way to working with story so strongly.
I am immensely glad that I am.
It feels, for me, important and rich and breathtaking and heartbreaking and beautiful and inspirational and humbling and sky-soaring and oh my such incredible work to do.
My Spirit Teachers, Guides and Allies, my dear Human Family and Friends and Mentors have gently, carefully led me ever onwards. Not quite carrot on a stick type of tempting, more probably cake! But it has felt like that, something asking me to take just one more step into the unknown, then just one more, then just one more...such a bumpy, crazy, frightening, glorious journey of uncertainty and learning to trust not just them but myself, and the power of stories.
A more in-depth look at what exactly Stories as Medicine means will be a later blog, as will what it means to sit with them ceremonially as opposed to in audience with.
I find this work is not about perfect, or polished. It asks nothing more from us than that we are willing to show up, however that looks, simply being open to what is there for us to learn, to heal, to be.
I think of myself more as a Story-Carrier than a Teller, but even that doesn't always feel right. Maybe a Story Channel? For as soon as I open up to listen to, to feel the story, I know it is not ever something that belongs to me, that I am merely the translator, the mouthpiece for it to speak through, a means of communication.
I do it the best I can, with shaky hands and sweaty palms, even if it means having ash on my face or twigs in my hair, wading through rivers to ask a stone what it wishes to share. I build an altar for them and give praise to them. I pray to them and offer my immense thanks that I have been found by them.
Underpinning it all is Love.
For them and from them.
It never feels a one way relationship, that I offer up willingly and easily a gratitude that is received fully as much as I am given and nourished by them.
Maybe the nerves of a 'live' Story Ceremony will never go away, maybe this is a reminder of the important humanness of the mix and that I really care about the work I do.
Stories offer us so much more than a simple distraction or relaxation, they offer us a chance to really be in conversation with our unique selves and all that exists around us.
They open the door to the Realm of All Possibilities.