Following on from last year, a two day workshop with teachers & trainers in Istanbul on deepening work in the classrooms with fairytales.

Workshop organised by Eğetim Sanatı Dostları Derneği, Istanbul.

Head to the Vogrie Pogrie festival this summer to the cathedral of storytelling venues - this storytelling tree!

Listen to an amazing line-up of storytellers!

Dates: 13 - 14 September 2025

Venue: Vogrie Country Park, Gorebridge (outskirts of Edinburgh)

Information & Camping tickets: www.vogriepogrie.com

A 7 day in-person retreat to the heart of the Black Madonna in Chartres with depth work in the mythopoetic, walking the Chartrean labyrinth, collective dreamwork, psychodrama and embodied practices with the Mundus Imaginalis.

The theme of the Summer School will be announced in due time. What is on the menu is traditional storytelling and mythopoetic work to integrate the myth we will be working with. This includes collective art-practices, psychodrama and fieldwork. There will be a special emphasis on voice-work and releasing the feminine power through body and sound. Woven throughout the entire week is the golden thread of Anima Mundi Dreamwork, a form of collective dreamwork developed by Farânak Mirjalili. In 2025, there will be a special session dedicated to the connection between body and dreams.

We will do this in community, while communing on the sacred hill of Chartres, next  to the Chartres Cathedral. It is the home of the Black Madonna —the place called by Joseph Campbell as the ‘womb of the world’; a site of pilgrimage and mystery from the times of ancient Celts to Christian esoteric traditions, and where druids to templars for many hundreds of years have gathered in pilgrimage and incubation.    

Dates: August 31st - September 6th 2025 in Chartres, France. (1 hour from Paris).

The retreat program includes:

-       Anima Mundi Dreaming // Collective dreamwork sessions (every morning).
-       Storywork // Storytelling & embodied story-work practices: one of the cornerstones of the work the Anima Mundi School developed is being rooted in fairytales and myth. During this week we will be diving deep into this ancient oral tradition through storytelling and embodied story-work. (fairytale(s)/myth to be announced)
-       Mythopoetic art sessions //  a total of 4 sessions where we work with different modalities (clay, mask-work and more) to integrate the story and emerging motifs from the depths.
-       Lecture and discussion evenings // during 2 evenings, we will explore the theoretical frame of our topics through a talk and later group-discussion.
-       Labyrinth and Crypt rituals // a private tour in the crypt of Chartres Cathedral with the Black Madonna and a walk through the famous Labyrinth of Chartres as part of our opening and closing ceremonies.
- a celebratory ceilidh evening on the last day of the retreat.

For more information and to register, please click here.  

SUDDEN STORY: Never Not Broken

An online session with story and conversation exploring the capacity to renew our lives again and again, and to transform what we consider damaged or wounded into revelation.

Storytellers: Laura Simms, Megan Wells & Gauri Raje

Registration available here: https://www.simpletix.com/e/sudden-story-never-not-broken-tickets-232612

NEWS!! NEWS!!

We are thrilled to announce that Gauri Raje will be performing at FatE this year. Gauri’s beguiling storytelling increasingly draws on interweaving her Indian heritage with her current home - Scotland. She has wowed FatE audiences with her delightful tales in the past, so we know you will be as delighted as we are to see her this summer.

Gauri is a Scottish Indian storyteller who tells stories in various languages including Urdu, Hindi, English and other Indian languages such as Gujarati and Marathi.

Her notable performance projects include directing 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' a collection of stories for adults from around the world translated and told in 3 different Indian languages; 'Tales of Exile and Sanctuary', stories from around the world exploring themes of exile; ‘Tales of Ice and Fire’, which includes stories of two goddesses from Scotland and India; ‘Old Deccan Tales’, a performance with stories collected by the daughter of a British colonial officer which were told to her by her ayah and ‘Rewilding Cinderella’, a collaborative performance with 13 other storytellers, musicians & poets of Cinderella stories.

She is currently collaborating with Scottish musician Mairi Campbell on a performance of the Indian epic of ‘Mahabharata’ and its connections to rhythms and stories from Scotland.

Her recent under-publication book ‘Cooking Tales’ - innovations to recipes by and biographies of Asian women in 1950s has been awarded Scottish Asian Award under the Spirit of Scotland category.

FatE takes place in the beautiful grounds of Hopton Court Estate.

Get your tickets now! (Limited tickets available at Tier 3 prices before moving up to Standard Price). Full artists details and tickets available at:

www.festivalattheedge.org

Following on from last year, a two day workshop with teachers & trainers in Istanbul on deepening work in the classrooms with fairytales.

Workshop organised by Eğetim Sanatı Dostları Derneği, Istanbul.

Gaatha - Mumbai’s International Storytelling festival will happen from 18 - 20th October 2024. This year’s theme is ‘Mukhauta’ - Unmasking Narratives. There are workshops & Storytellings. You can find the entire programme here.

I will be facilitating a workshop on 18th October (2 - 4pm) called ‘Recovering Narratives: Working with fragments of Myths & Fairytales’.

I will also be storytelling on 20th October morning for the programme ‘Raagas & Kathas’ - stories with Indian music.

On the evening of 20th October, I will be telling the story of Ahalya in my performance titled ‘Still-point: The story of Ahalya’.

You can find tickets and programme of events here.

A 3 session workshop about crafting stories from your life - whether it be a single incident or telling the story of your life, and striking a chord with your listeners!

Dates of the sessions: 21 September/ 5 October/ 12 October (all Saturdays)

Time: 10am - 1pm

Cost: 30 GBP for 3 sessions/ 10 GBP for each session

Biographical storytelling is about how does one find that kernel in one’s own or someone else’s life-story that has a universal resonance; and TELL it in a way that the moment or the journey of one person’s life becomes universally resonant. You could tell it across a dining table or at Edinburgh Fringe - that depends on who you are and what your style of speaking and being in the world is.

Biographical storytelling is the kernel from which biographical writing, stand up and theatre emerge. It is the fundamental of human communication. Many of the exercises that I work with are one’s that I use in training within organisations, corporate structures and oral history trainings to enable people to create interesting presentations, improve their public speaking skills and become sensitive to one’s own and other people’s stories.

If this sounds interesting to you, do consider attending my 3-session workshop on biographical storytelling. We work in a relaxed but confidential space, where in you choose the stories you want to work with - they could be from your life or from lives of those who are no longer with us.

Please contact me for any questions or to book your place: gauriraje2@gmail.com

Note: We are almost at full capacity — if you are considering joining this retreat, please register asap.

A 7 day in-person retreat to the heart of the Black Madonna in Chartres with depth work in the mythopoetic, walking the Chartrean labyrinth, collective dreamwork and embodied practices with the Mundus Imaginalis.

"In the Labyrinth of the World Soul”

This retreat will be a culmination of a body of work of 7 years at the Anima Mundi School. We will sit within community with some of the mysteries and questions that have risen along this journey, carrying myths of the divine feminine and collective dreaming work. We will reflect on the power of the dark feminine, the mystery of the Black Madonna, what it means to retrieve her from forgetfulness and ponder on what her arrival means at this time of transition?

And centrally the questions we ask, what does it mean to live with dark feminine? What are the consequences of the powers released from her eruption? How do we start walking the labyrinth of our lives with the power and presence of the dark feminine?

We will do this in community, while communing on the sacred hill of Chartres, next  to the Chartres Cathedral. It is the home of the Black Madonna - the place called by Joseph Campbell as the ‘womb of the world’; a site of pilgrimage and mystery from the times of ancient Celts to Christian esoteric traditions, and where druids to templars for many hundreds of years have gathered in pilgrimage and incubation.    

Dates: September 8th - 14th 2024 in Chartres, France. (1 hour from Paris).
The retreat program includes:

-       Anima Mundi Dreaming // Collective dreamwork sessions (every morning).
-       Storywork // Storytelling & embodied story-work practices: one of the cornerstones of the work the Anima Mundi School developed is being rooted in fairytales and myth. During this week we will be diving deep into this ancient oral tradition through storytelling and embodied story-work. (fairytale(s)/myth to be announced)
-       Mythopoetic art sessions //  a total of 4 sessions where we work with different modalities (clay, mask-work and more) to integrate the story and emerging motifs from the depths.
-       Lecture and discussion evenings // during 2 evenings, we will explore the theoretical frame of our topics through a talk and later group-discussion.
-       Labyrinth and Crypt rituals // a private tour in the crypt of Chartres Cathedral with the Black Madonna and a walk through the famous Labyrinth of Chartres as part of our opening and closing ceremonies.
and a celebratory ceilidh evening on the last day of the retreat. 

Fees: 

-       Course fees (excl. accommodation and food): 650,- euro 
-       Accommodation options:  You can stay in Hotellerie Saint-Yves, where our main meetings will be held. Limited availability: 

• Double Room (for 2 people, separate single beds): If you are sharing the room, you will pay 270,- per person for 6 nights. If you want the room for yourself, it will be 520,- euro.

• Dorm Room (shared room for 4 people, separate single beds): 190,- per person for 6 nights.
  
  There also are many (Air)bnb’s available in Chartres for an affordable price, we recommend booking on time.