Point Reyes Books

with mythologist, author and storyteller, Dr. Martin Shaw

Storyteller Martin Shaw returns to Point Reyes for a series of intimate evenings at the chapel. Weaving myths and folklore with a conversational approach on how approach these ancient stories in modern life, Dr. Shaw both enchants and challenges the notion that these epic tales are just for children, or took place ‘a long time ago’. Whether riding the back of a firebird or sleeping in a hollow tree dressed in bearskins, we will experience the invigorating reality that these states are occurring within us all the time.

We have all have a sense of the storyteller as entertainer, but what do we know of the vocation’s deeper calling? In many oral cultures, the teller is a kind of cultural historian of place. The teller is a hinge between logos and mythos, village and forest. A kind of edge-thinker. How could we re-vision such a figure?

Over three winter gatherings, Dr. Shaw offers stories both far travelled and local to him; from the Greek epic of Psyche and Eros through to rare Devonian folktales - a treasury of the imagination. As well as Shaw’s telling and commentary, participants will be encouraged to both learn and explore the stories themselves. What do these archaic myths tell us about our own lives and how to live? The weekend will also involve time in the wild tangles of nature - getting a sense of emergent stories from the living world. From this practice we align mythology as the heart of ecology - the story of place.

We will experience five foundational steps to myth telling, and a journey through the orality of ancient storytelling to the bardic schools and medieval dream poetry. This is not a passive experience; each participant will leave will a quiver full of stories, fiery language and clear thinking on how to broaden their experience of both myth and its telling.

Dr. Martin Shaw is a storyteller, mythologist and wilderness rites-of-passage guide. Author of the award winning "A Branch From The Lightning Tree," he leads the Oral Tradition and Mythology program at Stanford university, and is visiting lecturer on Desmond Tutu's leadership program at Oxford university in the United Kingdom.

Martin Shaw: www.schoolofmyth.com
Email registration questions to Jen at:  j_c_bader@yahoo.com