Welcome…
to the 2012

Wood Sisters Winter Storytelling Festival…

Many thanks to all who joined the Wood Sisters on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February 2012, to celebrate the winter festival of Imbolc and Candlemas with a feast of myth, poetry and storytelling, meditation and ceremony, seasonal crafts, music and delicious food.

It was wonderful to welcome several hundred people to the South Devon Steiner School and to see everyone from babes in arms, through to children, young people, men and women, parents and grandparents, all enjoying the magic of storytelling.

This was a true winter festival with some wild winter weather, which contributed both blessings and challenges! Dancing with Brigid on a frosty Friday night under the moon and arriving to falling snow on Saturday certainly added to the seasonal spirit.

Our grateful thanks go out to all the talented artists and generous volunteers who made this festival so successful and to everyone who came along to support us and enjoy the feast on offer.

 

Bones for the Red Tent - Maggi Squire from Jez Stein on Vimeo.

 

Together we raised £3,000, which gives The Wood Sisters exactly the amount they need to create the Red Tent and provides a £1,000 donation to the School. Well done everyone and we'll be back next year!

In the meantime, please browse the website below to see what was on this year and to get a feel for what we will offer in 2013. Have a read of the feedback and comments from this year's festival or find out more about the Wood Sisters… and please do get in touch with any feedback or suggestions for the future you would like to share…

celebrate the winter festivals of Imbolc and Candlemas with a feast of myth poetry and storytelling

In celebration of the Goddess and Saint Brigid, we offered a magical, mythic space at the South Devon Steiner School with four warm and cosy daytime venues. In the Craft Corner were workshops including giant puppet making and Bridie dolls, a world of winter tales for all ages in the Story Space and colourful silk and shadow puppets in the Puppet Place. Quiet time, meditation and simple ceremony were available in the Sanctuary.

Throughout the day, sparks were dancing in the forge and smoke curling from the dragon who guards the outdoor ovens… Tasty pizza, other savoury treats and lashings of tea and cake were served in the Cailleach's Cafe. As the day ended and darkness drew in, we gathered in the beautiful Greenwood Hall for evenings of inspirational tales from world class storytellers, including the national storytelling laureate, Katrice Horsley.

 

Raising Funds for The Red Tent…

Along with championing the creative arts and spirituality, this Winter Festival was also a fundraising event.

One third of the £3000 profits has gone to support the wonderful educational work of The South Devon Steiner School, including helping to provide sand pits or fit wood burners in the Kindergartens, ensuring that future generations can grow up listening to stories by the fireside!

The remaining two thirds of funds raised will be helping the Wood Sisters to create a Red Tent as a dedicated sacred space for the womanly mysteries of myth, meditation, craft and creativity. The Wood Sisters run regular gatherings for women of all ages around the sacred seasons of the year and will be taking their Lughnasadh ⁄ Lammas celebration to The Westcountry Storytelling Festival, where The Red Tent will have its inaugural outing…

Dipping Deep into the Well
of Stories, Songs and Spirit…

As we move through the magic of Advent and Christmas, sometimes the cold days of January and February can feel rather dark and drear.

In the past, people would look forward then to celebrating the earliest signs of Spring and the returning light at the festivals of Imbolc and Candlemas.

… a wonderful winter festival programme

In current times, many of us are also aware of the challenging forces at work in economic, political and environmental spheres and of little lights of hope and new beginnings that are unfolding around the world. With all these themes of dark and light in mind we created a wonderful winter festival programme.

Here are some glimpses of the treats we enjoyed.

• Friday evening featured the amazing talents of Alice and Peter Oswald. Peter, in a single one-hour programme, transported us to the world of the Vikings, to the land of ancient Troy and told the folk tale of Filodoro and Filomena where the heroine must endure severe trials to free her love.

• Alice then performed her new poem Memorial in its entirety, a contemporary bard's evocation of the Trojan Wars.

• On Saturday evening we trod the mythic path of initiation into the orchard of the soul and the ancient forest of the wood brothers and sisters through the tale of The Handless Maiden, told by Dr.Martin Shaw.

• Then dove into the salty shadows of the sea with national storytelling laureate, Katrice Horsley, in a tale of love and longing, identity and empowerment, based on traditional selkie tales and also Japanese ghost stories.

• stories were suitable for all ages including special sessions for children, adults and young people

• we discovered the Celtic Goddesses Ceridwen, Brigid and the Cailleach through storytelling and meditation

• deepened our understanding of ancient and modern approaches to dark and light… despair, hope and empowerment through inspiring talks, workshops and poetry

• ballads, harp music, drums and sacred song

• Celtic tales of Arianrhod the goddess of the moon wheel and Blodeuwedd, the woman conjured out of flowers

• crafts, puppetry, processions and workshops

• and we met the ancient wild woman of the woods, Baba Yaga

Visitors
in their own words…

“Just arrived home from the storytelling festival… still trembling and breathless and awash with emotions from the rich variety of stories and discussions I went to… Thank you so much for gathering such high quality performers and all the care and love that you put into the festival… I feel very lucky to have been able to attend!”

~ Amelia Dubieniec

Visitors
in their own words…

“I felt the atmosphere at the Festival was so welcoming, performers and attenders mingling and knowing that there was much going on (which made it frustrating not to be in 3 or 4 places at once!) You were so clever to have fixed the moon to shine! But it was still jolly cold waiting for the soup! Sam and Sue. et al, certainly worked hard to present a first rate event.  Thank you!!”

~ Hilda Flint

Visitors
in their own words…

“I felt a profound sense of community. I witnessed an extraordinary breadth of style and content in the stories, from the whimsical to the inspirational, including death and the eternal within life, honouring ancient wisdom and modern humour. I was rooted in timelessness and love within the sanctuary and able to birth my own soul expression through sounding and the healing embrace of music. I hope to continue to find this especial nourishment of ritual, humour and prayer in places of meditation, making music and telling stories. I want to keep hold of the concept spoken by a story teller of the land speaking through us and listen as well as be a conduit for the wisdom it needs to impart.”

~ Abigail Robinson, Musician

Visitors
in their own words…

“Alice Oswald's Memorial on Friday night was a surprise and a delight. “… the white bit of flesh between a man's shoulder blade and his neck, where his soul sits waiting for his mouth to open…” Breathtaking! The sharing of such an experience with a group as there was there, when all minds were collectively so enthralled was a rare privilege.”

~ James Bettany

Visitors
in their own words…

“Just to say thank you for an opportunity to volunteer and tell a little story. The whole of the festival was filled with such good positive vibes, despite the cold weather. Thank you for setting up the quiet space. I find that it's so important to have a “refuge” and go into silence…”

~ Olya Marborova

Visitors
in their own words…

“I loved the way that the Wood Sisters, our students, parents and young (and older) people from Embercombe… were involved and hanging out together, it was a bit like a large extended family gathering. The pizza ovens provided a good focus… and oh yes, the sanctuary, I think it was an important space…”

~ Miriam Rose

Visitors
in their own words…

“There were of course many highlights in the festival and each person will have taken home vivid memories… my own were the enchanting, captivating retelling by Martin Shaw of ‘The Handless Maiden’ and the extraordinary sculptural dance by Maggi Squire with masks revealing the three aspects of the Goddess.”

~ Christopher Cooper

Visitors
in their own words…

“So glad that you raised the cash as well as such a wonderful weekend - you all worked so hard under bad weather too - well done! The storytellers were amazing - a great range of tellers and how they remember it all is still a mystery! Very affordable too - so refreshing in a time when festivals are often beyond a family budget - so well done on that.”

~ Trudy Turrell

Visitors
in their own words…

“a very well organised event and congratulations to all involved.”

~ Christine Bell

“Thanks for an a-ma-zing festival!”

~ Caroline David

“A wonderful festival! It was a joy to be part of it.”

~ Laura Salmon

Visitors
in their own words…

“Just wanted to say what a wonderful event you put on. I had a great time being part of the crew. It was a really lovely atmosphere and I loved the stories and poems I heard.”

~ Lara White

“serene, magical, calm atmosphere. Overall it was a wonderful, rich and blessed gathering.”

~ Millie Dubiernic

Visitors
in their own words…

“Thank you so much for the hard work, energy and enthusiasm and for making it happen - it was a pleasure to be a part of this lovely festival.”

~ Laura Hetherington, performer

Guest storytellers and artists ~ celebrated & new!



… and many more!