The Furious Spinner

Our first night of the Old Mermaid School of Telling Tales and Finding Art was a lot like the first day of any school. We shuffled our feet and paper and wondered where we would sit and what we would say. We gathered around the unlit story candle, a mermaid card, and a mermaid matchbox.

“Mario and I believe story telling is part of the fabric of a community,” I told them. “We create community as we tell stories to each other, no matter how small or big the group. We remember our history, we recall our connectedness, and the Invisibles and Visibles come together to listen to the enchantments. This is how we create and maintain community and peace and justice.”

I handed out the Old Mermaid School of Telling Tales and Finding Art notebooks we had created for everyone. About then, a spider joined our group, crawling on the rug up near my feet. We said hello to her as Spider Woman or Anansi. Then we lit the story candle, welcoming fire. I led the group on a fire meditation, an idea I got from Mara Freeman’s Kindling the Celtic Fire. Then each person talked about a memory of fire. We ate and talked. It was different from what I had expected or planned, and that was just fine.

After everyone left, Mario and I talked about what worked and what hadn’t. The elemental meditation had prompted some amazing stories. And we needed to gently, gently persuade people to leave any books at home. Stories read and stories told are completely different animals, so to speak. When you tell stories, the listener is a much more active participant than when you read a story. But that’s a discussion for a different post.

We decided we would end this session of storytelling in a class project on Beltane or thereabouts. Each of us would dress as a character—our bodies and our dress would be our artwork, found and created. And we would each tell a story to go along with our “dress.” We can tell our own story, or the story of a character in a faery tale or myth, or a story of our own creation.

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