A few of my thoughts on and my reading of The Emperor's New Clothes - a story by Hans Christian Andersen that seems written for our times.

The Infirmary

The Emperor's New Clothes

I'm not sure which woke me in the early hours of the morning, this dream or rather this story or the storm.
All I know is it is a tale that demands to be told.
Again and again and again, it loops infinitely till perhaps I/we hear its message.
I doesn't offer any satisfactory answers but at least it may have us asking the right questions.
This is an unedited recording, straight after it found me in the betwixt and between of sleep and wake.

The Robot and the Beast

Pondering on the personal stories of others we carry within us and then tell ourselves, particularly those of the dead and people we have never met.

Infirmary

Letting the story stay lost

A story shared with love and hope for this 2021 Summer Solstice
X

Tales & Tea

The Baker

An Autumn inspired story of surprising support and thought.

The Squirrel

Queen Cobra And The Boy

An old Lincolnshire Folktale newly spoken in the Rutland countryside

The Buried Moon at Summer Solstice

The Witch's Hat

I was delighted when a few days ago, BBC Radio Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln and Leicester all shared one of the Faerytale Apothecary stories.

As the themes for this month’s super full moon in Aquarius are around the encouragement of releasing emotions, humanitarianism, honesty and innovative thinking, it felt apt to share it with you all here too.

It is one of my favourite of the Faerytale Apothecary stories, and I always Love-swoon a little when it finishes!

The tale often makes me think of kindnesses, what does it make you think of?

The Freedom Bird

A Story for the Covid in the Human

Our first Tea Trail of 2024 is conjured into being by the remarkable Shamanic Medicine Woman Carina Johansson. She follows the path of the Völva and lives in the forest of Söderåsen in the south of Sweden where she teaches Shamanism and Seidr.
I first met Carina when I traveled to Sweden many years ago for a training in Shamanic Counselling with SCSS. Despite the deep insights that came through being partnered with her for the work, it is perhaps the laughter and unconditional friendship that I remember most from those times.
If you wish to know more about Carina and the individual client work and courses she is offering, please contact her by her email: carina_gillastig@live.se.
Join us in the undeniable magic of a healed heart.

A Wild Tea of Healed Hearts

Our Imbolc Tea Trail is a rich and potent offering with the frankly fantastic Story-Carrier Tracy Chipman. I was blessed with meeting Tracy at the very first Oxford Storytelling Festival in a red tent overflowing with inspiration, creativity, far lands and magicks.

Tracy Chipman weaves the ancient rivers of oral storytelling, writing and somatic practices, creating unforgettable experiences that invite us towards mythic awareness, more embodied experiences, and self-discovery. She now resides in northern Wisconsin, occupying the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe Peoples. In March 2023, Tracy published her first book, Borealis Mundi - Resting in Place, Loss & Grace. Please visit her website, www.tracychipman.net, to learn more about her work. Or find her on social media:  IG @all.here.dwell.free FB @storyteller Tracy Chipman

Press play to join us on a most wondrous medicine trail...

Wild Hearts Sipping Dwelling Free Tea

It is such a deep honour to have co-created with the incredibly talented Vicki Burke this moon cycle. I first worked with Vicki when we created a Selkie Deep Dive journey together, still one of my most cherished points of making.
Vicki began her life journey as a musician, a saxophonist and teacher. Vicki began her life journey as a musician, a saxophonist and teacher. Just before the millennium she had a beautiful awakening that opened her like a flower and her creative journey began to blossom.  She discovered the art of healing using both sound and energy. At first she used her voice for sound healing. Then she received a healing that healed a creative block she wasn't even aware of and she began to write songs. This led her to the harp. 
As she continued to say ‘yes’ to the universal guidance she received, she realised she was being asked to find her voice. She also knew she was being fully supported in this. 
She started with the spoken word, as a storyteller, creating journeys with her songs for harp and voice. Then she discovered herself as an author and playwright. Finding her singing voice, she believed, was the most challenging for her until she realised she was being asked to speak for the feminine, for the part of ourselves that has been repressed for eons. 
The song she sings for this particular story, ‘A Girl Blowing a Bugle’ was written after she discovered her Sabian Symbol (an aspect of astrology) for her Pisces Sun was ‘Summons, a girl blowing a bugle’. It has taken her over a decade to discover the full meaning of what this is asking of her. And yet, there is probably still much more to learn.
We invite you to join us with a brew and listen as she shares what happened to her when Elizabeth Jane first asked her to bring a story here…
Please visit her website, www.keystothegoldencity.com
or listen to her songs and stories www.vickiburke.bandcamp.com or find her on social media

Wild Hearts Sipping Cups Of Singing For Freedom Tea

I was equal measure delighted and daunted when the most marvellous Sarah Mooney asked me if I could provide holiday cover for her podcast, and I wanted to share with you all the story that came to sit with me as I attempted to fit into Sarah’s shoes, the delightful Cobbler, his wife and the Elves.

You can listen to the whole full shebang podcast on Spotify here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pO09imnTFN5ZMjdH90LUZ?si=Qe7eZpPxTP2gszR9YX9_tA

The Cobbler, his Wife and the Elves

A LEO NEW MOON NIDRA:
Thank you so much to those of you who got in touch with feedback following my first New Moon Nidra that I sent out last month (The Resting Tea).
You asked, and so here it is, a New Moon Nidra for the season of Leo.
It felt most apt to put in the pot alongside the Courage Tea.

Please read before listening:
Yoga Nidra is a form of Deep Rest where nothing is asked of you. A practice of relaxing your state of awareness and entering into a dream-like comfortability. When listening to the recording, please make sure you can be somewhere that you will not be disturbed, and that all devices are on airplane mode with no vibrate, or turned off completely. Create yourself a luxurious and cosy nest - this can be on a bed, in a chair, on the floor, outside in the grass - whatever place will work best for you to feel comfortable and secure. You may want a favourite blanket to cover yourself with, a soft pillow for your head and under your knees. Experiment with what will help you feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible. Likewise, wear whatever will help in this regard too. There will be a series of invitations but everything is open to what feels alive for you in each moment. It is okay if your attention wanders away from my voice, let it land for you as feels right for you. If thoughts come up that feel disruptive, gently guide yourself back into an awareness of my words. There is no way to get Deep Rest wrong!  Each experience is uniquely for you. The recording will be about 25 minutes long and there will be moments of silence to give you a sense of spaciousness and unhurried time together, know I am still with you. If you need to move your body because you are in discomfort, please do so. If anything said in the Nidra feels uncomfortable for you, you can stop at any time. All you have to do, is return to the sensation of your breath, wiggle your fingers and toes and feel the ground beneath you as you open your eyes. Drop in and out as feels good for you to do so. If you fall asleep, don’t worry at all. This is your practice to engage with as you wish, and perhaps sleep is exactly the rest you need right now. The New Moon Nidra invites you to create an intention to help support you for this coming moon cycle. Start to have a think about what you might wish this intention to be, but hold it loosely, don't let it be too rigid. Walk with it and see what simple sentence or word comes back to you time and again. The New Moon is in the astrological sign of Leo, which manifests itself with asking how we can feel safe in the moments when we want to impress, how we can fill ourselves with courage as we step into the spotlight. How we might graciously accept the feedback offered to us from others. It invites us to find the connections to our own brave hearts. The invitation is to use these manifestations as a potential container for your intention. The New Moon Nidra will take us on a little journey with our breath, around our body, out into space, and home to ourselves. Everything with Deep Rest is an offering and there is never any enforced way of engaging with the Practice, it is not something you can ever get wrong. Have a journal and pen ready for if you wish to take any notes afterwards. Also have a favourite mug with your favourite tea ready for straight afterwards too.

Get yourself comfortable, and we will begin.

Leo New Moon Nidra

I am humbled to co-create once again with my dear friend Leah Barnes.

After we finished the Tea Transmission, I sat silently with jewelled tears nestling in my eyes. Not because there was anything wrong or upsetting but because of how cracked open to Beauty I felt from listening to her speak True Words.

What is especially astounding, it feels to me, is that Leah and I have known each other for about 7 years (I think) and have only ever met in person once, earlier this year in Camden. There were tears in my eyes then too. It reminds me that in amongst all the crazy, unsettling, overwhelming noise of an online life, there are pockets of deep connection, sovereignty, positive impact, inspiration and genuine connection. I think perhaps we just need to get still enough to be cracked open by it.

Leah describes herself as a curator of wearable art.
Which is another way of saying much of the jewellery, clothing, bags or shoes she’s fallen in love with and bought over the years were all made by individual artisans or small businesses who bring a vision to life with their own hands.
As the world speeds up and homogenises, buying things made solely by human hands feels like an important act of resistance.

We invite you to pause, rest, be, and listen along with us to the Hummingbird Moon Tea’s still voice amongst the chaos…

WIld Hearts Sipping Cups of Hummingbird Moon Tea

I am utterly thrilled to share that both Willow and Agnes agreed to come visit with us once more in order to create this autumnal joy of a brew.
If you missed when they stopped by last time, you can listen here.
To find out where they might have led our muddy skirts for this October New Moon, simply press play, then join me in hoping they will come calling on us again.

Willow is a Shaman, a Hedgewitch, Tree Witch, a Wisewoman and Druid. She is also a Shamanic Teacher of Healing and the Old Ways. Willow loves nothing more than to be deep in the mysterious Wildwoods connecting to ancient Ancestors and the magic and mystery. She is a Mother of 2 and Grandmother of 6...who delight in her magical nighttime fairy tales! You can find out more about her on her website -www.shamanicwillow.co.uk

Wild Hearts Sipping Cups Of Berries Tea

I have been watching a squirrel through the study window here at the cottage, my but doesn’t that sound grand! Really my study is a desk in a corridor by a window, a window blessed with visitations from the blue tit gang peering in, the rabbit family arriving for their tea, the solitary muntjac deer making a rare visit (it literally lives at the bottom of the garden in the brambles) at exactly the right time - like a dance party for my child self and my birthday. And of course, squirrel. Watching squirrel reminded me of another squirrel I met in another place at another time….

It was such an incredible experience to co-create this tea with Tracy Chipman. She is a quite profound Story Channel who can carry the medicine to such remarkable depths, traverse the Underworlds that many dare not tread or even contemplate navigating.
A part of what makes these tea recordings feel so very special for me is that when we sit to speak them, neither of us knows what the other person is going to say. They will give me the title of the tea, I will let them know only the ingredients that have shown themselves to me and that is all we know of the other before hand. And yet they always feel so beautifully woven into being.
Tracy Chipman, (she/her/they) MA is a healing artist, author, a TRE® provider and oral storyteller weaving with ancient & new experiences inviting us into deeper connections with ourselves and life. She resides in northern Wisconsin, occupying the traditional territories of the Ojibwe peoples. In March 2023 Tracy published her first book, Borealis Mundi - Resting in Place, Loss & Grace.  She'll be collaborating with Jackie Singer in Oxford on November 10 facilitating a day-long women's retreat - Open Your Ear to the Great Below. More info and to register by November 8 here. For more about Tracy's work in the world, please visit her website https://www.tracychipman.net/
It took me some while to pull myself back into the everyday again after this one, take your time, be gentle, but do make take this extraordinary tea with us…

Wild Hearts Sipping Cups of Her Grief Howl Tea

It is with gorgeous delight that I am happy to share another dear friend in the form of Irish designer for TV and Film Damian Draven agreed to co-create a Tea for us. 

He said 'while tapping into memories ushered by Betty's ingredients and listening intently to my heartbeat I was drawn to a rhythm that ebbed and flowed with the drumming of my ancestors. Then taking a pause, it was at this moment that clarity ensued me to write these words...' 
I encourage you to let yourself fall back into them, surrender to them, feel into what they awaken in your own inheritances.

Damian is also a film director, contemporary artist and exhibiting member of the RGA (Reading Guild of Artists). As a journeyman he takes great inspiration and perspective from his travels for which he cites ‘Momentum is king because inspiration can come from anywhere or anyone but the trick is to look behind the curtain for a different narrative, a different energy...’.

Damian’s work can be found here www.instagram.com/damian_draven

Wild Hearts Sipping Cups of Drumming With Our Ancestors Tea

I am secretly delighted in ways I do not fully intellectually understand that the calendar year ends with a New Moon. My ancientness knows though. Feeds on the ways of natural cycles that follow no logical human order. 
One of the dear friends and some time mentor that reminds me of these soul nourishments is the fantastical Sarah Mooney. 
Sarah produces a weekly podcast called Mooney's Mythic Podcast. I would highly recommend curling up with her each week to be transported on rich and luxurious magic carpets of words
She graced us all with her words for the Winter Solstice last season and returns once more for a glorious dive into the winter darkness within. 
We dare you to not get comfortable, to be niggled by your discomfort, and walk with us anyway through an ending that is also a beginning…

WIld Hearts Sipping Cups Of Bitter Snatch Tea

I am always delighted and humbled and in awe of the people I get to share with you here. So imagine how gleeful and grateful I was when the incredible legend of storytelling that is Laura Simms offered up this tale for us as an extra special bonus on a cold January Full Moon.
We both felt that across the world, particularly in North America, an extra large dose of Story Medicine was needed right now.
Laura had this to say - “The Crystal Cup is a revision of a fairytale from Vietnam. I recorded it in 1979 with Weston Woods, Old As The World, Fresh As The Rain. I have not told it since. Given our world today, I found it a story with tremendous heart and significance.”
I truly feel honoured that Laura called forth the story again for us now.
Please join me wrapped in favourite blankets with favourite mugs of steaming drinks as we drop into the richness of what is shared…

Laura is an internationally acclaimed storyteller, writer, teacher and humanitarian. She combines traditional stories with personal narrative. She is artistic Director of the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center in NYC, and served as a Senior Research Fellow for Rutgers University Peace Center under the auspices of UNESCO. She is a founding member of the Healing Story Alliance and serves on their programming committee. Laura saved a zoo in Romania and won the Sesame Street SUNNY DAYS AWARD for work with children worldwide. She received the Hasbro September 11 Grant creating a manual for storytelling for children in crisis, and a training for storytelling and trauma. She is a certified dharma art teacher, and senior meditation instructor in mindfulness awareness practice. Presently she has five books and many recordings. Most recently Laura worked for the Fetzer Foundation Sacred Story Project. She continues to work with The Constellation. www.laurasimms.com

With love
Elizabeth Jane of the Faerytale Apothecary

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Intro music by Audiobay from Pixabay
Outro music by viprodmusic from Pixabay

The Crystal Cup

the cracking of bones
the breaking of skin
yowls that do not know if they are delighted or desecrated
you are in flux
unknowing of yourself anymore
nothing will stay in phase long enough to be grasped
held on to
you are released from obligations
yet steady
regular
metronomic
for now anyway
what is the original mould of you?
what shape of love is in you?
who are you meant to be?

press play….

WIld Hearts Sipping Cups of Transforming Into Herself Tea

Welcome old and new, to the old and new.We began this Spring with a new cycle of story experimentation. There is no neat telling from beginning to middle to end but an unceremonious dropping into one of the silent moments between the established words of a tale. We are leaving the reassurringly known maps behind and opening up to, not where we might want to go, but where the story decides to take us this time. The invitation is to surrender to the journey.Don’t try to find the neat edges of it, but let it envelope you in a foundness rather than a lostness. And where you go after it leaves you in some new location? Well, that is up to you…

(image by Edmund Dulac)


Princess Pea

What does it mean for me to work with Story in a Ceremonial Way?
The first of a few little recordings exploring this question.

Story As Ceremony

The Queen

A reading of the Brothers Grimm version of the story of Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin

Riffing on what could it mean to trust a story

Trust The Story

Riffing on how our own and others personal stories can support us at this time and how to reconcile the discomfort of the ones that live in us.

The Support Of Personal Stories

Do we have our myths the wrong way around?  
Are our heroes and heroines not descending from the human realm into the Underworld but is the human realm actually already the Underworld?
And how do we get our tarred and feathered selves out again?

Infirmary Post

Caught in the Descent

A reading of the myth of Ishtar and her descent into the Underworld in seek of her lost love.  But the Underworld is the realm of her dark sister Ereshkigal and she is not best pleased to see her sister of the Heavens.

Ishtar's Journey into the Underworld

Increasingly our world demands more and more of us, not just our time but our essence, the core of who we are. What if there was another way to be? What if there was a remedy, a tincture of stories that could encourage us to take just a moment back, to close our eyes and remember when we sensed what was around us with awe and wonder, when we could smell and taste the magicks in the air. And what if in this stoppedness, this holding, we were also able to hear the whisperings, the longings of our hearts? 
What then? 
The Faerytale Apothecary is a place of Soul-Speaking, of stories as our teachers, healers, confidantes, that hold the lost parts of us & remind us of marvellousness.   
Honest, true, sincere even if sometimes it is a little rough around the edges, unrehearsed, unplanned, always joyous in it's spontaneity. 
If you have enjoyed the stories and would like to buy me a cup of tea, please hit the Benefaction button at the bottom of the website, or if you would like to subscribe to hear more original tales sent straight to your inbox, or donate to a story in aid of a good course you can find them shyly waiting in the pages too  - and thank you, it really is appreciated.
www.thefaerytaleapothecary.com

The Faerytale Apothecary

Popular tracks