Around Connla’s Well there are nine sacred hazel trees. Sometimes the trees drop hazel nuts into the well, where, in its depths, salmon wait to consume such nuts. Over the years these salmon acquire beautiful spots on their back. Each nut is said to contain a story, and each marking is slightly different according to the tale. These spots are eruptions of beauty. It’s how storytellers get made. Waiting patiently for wisdom to fall upon them.

In this two year programme, Dr Martin Shaw brings some of the greatest stories we have to study, wrestle and absorb. Currently visiting fellow at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, England, Shaw has a lifetime of experience with quite what these incredible stories can unfold. These are not arid lectures, but vivacious encounters with both the oral and literary strands of ancient story. They are the mythic ground you stand upon. You will both learn shorter stories to carry in your pocket and apprehend how the longer myth cycles are revealing themselves in your own life.

4 Gatherings over 2 years

Gathering One:
The Woman Who Married A Bear

The ancient technologies of myth. Over this first weekend we explore some of the oldest folklore we have. Stories with the good scent of the oral tradition about them. Tales of the perennial tension between the civilised and the wild, with initiation experience as a hinge between them. How does this juxtaposition reveal itself in our times?

Gathering Two:
Conch Blow At The Gates of The City

Moving from the Shaman to the Senate. A telling of Psyche and Eros, The Birth of Hermes and a reading of Euripides Bacchae. These incredible Greek stories tell us something about the change from worshipping in an underground cave to erecting temples in the daylight. The human touch becomes more pronounced.

Gathering Three:
Wild Christ

The most famous book in the world is filled with stories many of us can only half remember. Who are Deborah, Naomi and Esther? What is Samsons relationship to the Sun? How did Joseph return from the Underworld? And who is this Trickster God Yeshua: born a fugitive, dies an outlaw, then has the audacity to return? This gathering engages the stories through a mythopoetic lens.

Gathering Four:
The Love That Moves The Stars

A dive into the Irish epic of The Pursuit of Dermot and Grainne. We will explore the dynamism and challenge of romantic love, both through the epic and through Celtic poetry and tradition. There’ll be an exploration into the life of W.B. Yeats and the challenges delivered by the philosopher John Moriarty. Martin will also unearth the little told fairy tale, The Wooing of Becfola.