Link to replay is here Passcode: zq0qM8z^

Helen Matusow-Ayres (with co-host, Kayce Hughlett) moderates a discussion of selected readings from Firefox, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women by Sharon Blackie.

Charged with drama and beauty, this memorable collection by a master storyteller weaves a magical world of possibility and power from female myths of physical renewal, creation and change. It is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shape-shifting women of our native folklore.

We will be discussing these three myths from the book:

• Meeting Baba Yaga

• The Madness of Mis

• No Country for Old Women

More details on our Garden Reading Circle (including collaboratively created guidelines) can be found here. Please read before attending this session. Thank you!

About this selection: Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe – from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia – Sharon Blackie brings to life women’s remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances.

These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness – and wilderness – within.

‘She lived fully, my fox, and I envied her with all my heart. I wanted to dance with her, sister or lover, across the snow-clad vastness of this land. Together, we’d create the Northern Lights. For that is what foxes do – racing over the fells, whipping up the snow with their tails, the friction of it sending up sparks into the midnight sky. This is what makes the aurora’s glow. Revontulet, we call it: foxfire.’