Meditation Jam - Celebrate Life With Guest Aindrias De Staic

I am so happy to share this lovely talk I’ve had with an Irish musician, actor, and one of a new generation of Irish storytellers, Aindrias de Staic. He also uses storytelling as a therapy, after discovering its perks himself when battling an addiction, and now shares that with groups. We talk about life and storytelling and Aindrias brings some magic to your day with a lovely soulful Irish story.

After we'll do a light-expanding energy meditation.

Music by Steen Thottrup and Moby.

Transcript

In life we have obstacles,

You know?

When you're dealing with daily life,

You know,

Like you have your work.

And in days like today where it's raining and my phone is broken and I'm pissed off and life is shit.

But then if I hear a story,

You identify with the character.

So if you tell me a story about something you did,

I can believe in it.

Like it worked,

Let's say like watching a good movie,

Like a good Disney movie.

You believe in the character.

You know,

Especially if it's a story of triumph over adversity.

You know,

You experience these things in your body,

Mind and soul.

When someone is telling you a story,

You see it in your mind's eye.

And then that belief then helps you when you go to sleep at night.

Then the story goes round in your soul and in your dreams.

And then the next day you might be better able to take on the obstacles and the overwhelming parts of life because your body,

Mind and soul has overcome obstacles on a subconscious level.

Infinite wise part of you that is connecting to all but also comes with its own journey,

Its own challenges.

And when we connect to this pure heart energy through the igniting meditations,

It bypasses all these and goes straight to your core so that you can open up and hear,

Feel,

Accept and have fun with your beautiful self.

I see the energy as a key that unlocks parts of us.

And I will also invite guests to speak about their work,

Experiences,

Journeys and listen to their wisdom.

So before we start,

I would also like to just put out a little warning that please don't be driving while listening to the meditation or doing something that demands your full attention.

Because I know that for some this energy can put you into a deep relaxation,

Almost like sleep.

So please no driving.

Okay,

So warm welcome and let's start this meditation jam.

So warm welcome to today's pod episode and I'm really happy to share this talk I had with Andreas the Stak.

And Andreas is an Irish musician,

He's an actor and one of the new generation of Irish storyteller.

And he has also been a TV and radio presenter,

A scriptwriter,

Filmmaker,

Theatre director.

Now also working with therapeutic storytelling with groups,

Where he draws on his own experience of how that helped him get through a really rough time.

I saw Andreas the first time in a YouTube clip from this 1st of May Beltane,

Where he did this beautiful,

Lively,

Colorful story about the fairies during Beltane.

And then I googled some more and I found a lovely TED talk.

And then I just thought this would be so good for all you listening to this pod.

So here we are,

And I'm truly,

Truly grateful that Andreas wanted to join.

And it's a very,

I feel,

Open and honest conversation,

Both about his experience,

And also we get the premiere of one of his stories.

So there is some storytelling and there is some talk as well.

So I really hope you will enjoy it as much as I did talking to him.

And after,

As always,

There is a meditation for those of you who want to join that.

And today we are connecting to a beautiful awakening energy that is awakening parts of us to shine our light into the world.

So with no further ado,

I say,

Hello Ireland,

This is Sweden Calling and welcome Andreas.

Hi Andreas and warm welcome.

How are you doing?

Good,

Thank you.

And yourself?

Yeah,

Good,

Thank you.

And you are in the west of Ireland,

Right?

Yeah,

That's correct.

Has spring arrived yet?

Well,

We had a bit of a spring and now we've had a few days rain,

So it feels a bit wintry at the moment.

Yeah,

But I think I read that you are doing some organic.

Yeah,

I'm doing organic farming.

Since I took over my family farm,

And it's mostly been a cattle farm for years,

But I'm slowly kind of redoing it now with organic farming.

So that's interesting,

You know.

What are you putting down in the ground?

So I've planted a lot of trees.

I've planted over 300 trees.

Wow.

Some of those are still in a tree nursery and more of them are just being planted out.

So I'm just kind of recolonizing the natural biodiversity onto what is and was more of a cattle farm.

So I'm just kind of I've taken on a kind of an acre around the house,

Around this old cottage,

And I've made veg beds.

I'm growing all my own vegetables,

So potatoes,

But I'm also,

As I said,

I've fenced off parts of it with trees.

Like there's still a lot of cattle here,

So a relation of mine is renting it off me for cattle,

But I'm just taking it back piece by piece.

So I'm slowly rewilding elements of it,

You know.

Did you know anything about that or are you learning as you go along?

I mean,

I knew a bit about farming growing up,

You know,

But not much I didn't think I would become a farmer.

But I'm so grateful.

I'm the luckiest man in Ireland to have a small farm.

And like it's about 28 and a half acres,

But it's just fascinatingly interesting and it changes every day with the climate of this old trees,

New trees,

Young trees.

There's a hare that comes across,

There's badgers.

So there's a lot of wildlife and I've had a biodiversity plan done on the farm earlier this year.

So I'm working with somebody on that,

Working on an ecologist.

I have a horticultural person who's here at the moment and we're planting some trees and doing some jobs.

And then,

Yeah,

And also like I have a chalet at the side of my cottage.

I'm actually in the chalet at the moment.

And so I have room for people sometimes to come and hang out as well and work here.

So it's nice,

You know,

Like people can come here for when they need a break from their daily lives and they can just work for a few days.

And so it's nice,

You know.

Yeah,

Lovely.

And at the same time,

You're doing your music and performing and storytelling.

Yeah,

Yeah.

I mean,

I've always been a musician from a young age.

And I suppose I've always been a storyteller as well.

Like I grew up in Ireland in the 70s and 80s when there was no mobile phones,

No internet.

And we only had maybe one or two TV channels.

So my cousins had a pub where I grew up on the Mayo Galway border.

And then down here,

South of going clear,

My grandparents had a pub in Ennistymon.

So I suppose I don't really remember much of the old Irish tradition of people telling stories in the houses.

But my father was a storyteller and a writer.

And I always thought,

You know,

That when I would get to a certain age,

I would just start writing my stories.

But I'm a bit dyslexic and a bit ADHD.

And I just found over the years it was the telling of the stories was my strongest way to communicate them.

And I've discovered you for myself when you told this,

The Beltane.

Oh,

The Baltan story.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Very special time in Ireland,

The coming of the summer.

As you can imagine,

Ireland has a long,

Wet winter like where you are.

Yeah.

And I'm sure you're in Norway,

Sweden,

Sweden,

Sweden,

Sweden,

Sweden.

Maybe you're familiar with the long,

Dark winter,

Very little sunlight.

But the story,

The Baltan story is kind of about the summer is great for humans,

But for the fairies,

It's the end of their big party,

Baltan.

And they don't reappear again until Halloween,

You know?

Yeah,

I didn't know that.

That was new for me.

And that story,

Was that something that you came up with yourself?

Or is it like more a folk story?

I don't know.

You see,

There's a tradition around here where people put up the Maybow.

It's a folk custom.

So they put up a branch of a native tree over the door of their house.

And because there was always a story about the fairies would be passing on May Eve,

That the night of May Eve was the night the fairies would be around.

So there was always a bit of that.

Then there was,

You know,

So there's a folk custom around that.

Then there's also,

I suppose,

There's customs about the animals having spirits,

You know?

And then I suppose the rest of it just came to me.

It was just one of those things.

I was working with the video,

The man who made that video at the time.

And I was just making it up.

And he was saying,

This is good.

That works.

This doesn't work.

So we did it.

And we're lucky because sometimes with Irish storytelling,

I imagine like a lot of storytelling,

The folk tales and the myths,

They can go on for hours,

You know?

And a lot of our ancient myths are just history and prehistory.

Whereas doing the Baltimore story came in at about six or seven minutes.

It was nice for online.

I mean,

It's still quite long for online,

But for people my age,

They were still able to sit and listen to something for seven minutes.

Yeah,

For sure.

You caught the attention because as you say,

Online,

It's like two minutes and then you're gone in a way.

So for people who don't know,

If we just backtrack,

So you started,

You always had music and storytelling.

And I think I've read or heard that you studied as a musician teacher.

Yeah,

Well,

First of all,

I studied heritage studies.

Well,

No,

First of all,

I did science.

I did science up in Sligo,

Which is in the northwest of Ireland.

Then I didn't,

I love Sligo,

But I didn't work with the science,

Even though,

You know,

My mother was a doctor and I'd love scientists in my family.

But it just wasn't for me that the lab work,

I didn't like it.

So then I came back to Galway City,

Which is,

You know,

In those days,

90s was a great city for the arts in Galway.

And I was studying heritage studies under a man called Dr.

John Donahue.

Now he would have written the book on him,

Cara.

Oh,

It's my soul friend.

Yeah.

If I'm going to have one book with me anywhere,

That's the book.

Yeah.

So you're familiar.

We didn't realize at the time he was so amazing.

Well,

We did,

You know,

To be in his presence was amazing.

So I did two years of heritage studies and John was just amazing.

And he kind of encouraged.

It was around the time in the mid to late 90s when lecturers and college professors were,

They stopped taking assignments,

Handwritten,

And were being asked to type things or to get them typed up.

So that'll show you how long ago it was.

And it was before email submissions,

Obviously.

So we were doing our assignments,

But he would say to us,

You can,

You know,

Give me three pages or 3000 words,

Whatever it was,

Or you can do a presentation.

So I would say,

Oh,

I would.

I didn't know.

We didn't have words like ADHD or dyslexia back then,

But I was just writing about traditional music or stuff or about dolmens or megalithic tombs or whatever we were doing essays about.

And he would say,

You're better when you don't look at your notes,

Leave down the notes and tell us,

Tell us,

Tell us.

So I would start telling stories.

And if I was talking about a music session,

He would say,

And Andreas,

Tell me now,

Andreas,

Who was up in the rafters looking down at you?

And I go,

Oh,

The fairies,

Of course.

So he would encourage me to do all that about the fairies,

You know,

Who was up and he described the fairies in a way that we could all see them.

And sometimes as a storyteller,

If you can see it in your mind,

Then the audience can see it,

You know.

So and then he got us to talk about things about the landscape.

He would say landscape has presence and memory discuss.

So we would discuss landscape,

Having a memory and just very esoteric,

Very kind of left field,

Right brain,

Very out there kind of stuff,

But very much rooted in tradition,

Particularly the Irish heritage.

And yeah,

So that was amazing.

And I kind of forgot about it.

Then I was on,

As you said,

Then I did my my postgraduate was in music degree.

Or I learned to become a music teacher,

And I started to develop a certain way of teaching music workshops because I couldn't read or write or music.

But my I have a master of arts in community music,

Which was about communities being empowered through music.

So I developed a little thing workshop and little thing is an Irish music that we do with the mouth because I did it.

They did the leap.

They did the leap.

But they really have to be.

So I developed a workshop with that.

And then I was traveling.

And as you know,

I was in Australia for a few years and it wasn't working with Irish music because I suppose I I had a bit of a occupational hazard of the alcohol.

And then,

You know,

There was the Irish economy collapsed.

You may remember in 2007,

Eight.

So we were down a lot of my generation.

We had to go to Australia or Canada or places for work.

But after a while,

I had this journey where I had to stop drinking.

But I didn't stop playing music.

So I started busking on the streets and I was in Melbourne.

And Melbourne is the biggest speaking Greek population outside of Athens.

So I learned Greek music.

I learned Gypsy music.

I learned Jewish music,

Classical music.

And then when I came back from all my travels,

I was back in the West of Ireland and people like,

You know,

Jump up and do your thing.

There was a revolution in in the arts where,

You know,

The arts have become commercial and privatized and there were some local people in the West of Ireland who wanted to kind of showcase the other side of all that kind of commercialism.

So I had to jump on stage and I just started telling stories and playing tunes without thinking about it.

And it became a show called Around the World in 80 Quid,

Journey of an Irish Travelling Fiddle And it was all bits of world.

It was about an Irish guy myself,

Obviously,

Was thinly disguised autobiographical content.

But I was telling stories and playing music about my journey.

But it was also about my journey about recovery from drugs and alcoholism.

So I suppose I had kind of been accidentally dipping into transformational storytelling even at that time.

And then in the recent years,

I've had a few more stories that have gone out on radio and won awards and stuff.

But I've noticed that having trained as a music teacher and being able to teach kind of community music and empower people through music and work alongside music therapists,

I've now started to work a bit as a story therapist as well,

Having,

You know,

Having had my own transformation through storytelling.

Yeah,

I'm thinking that,

I mean,

We have had storytelling for such,

I mean,

Since man began as a way of passing along wisdom or morals and how to live.

And in your stories,

Is it more about your story or is there like a little moral thing or a little,

You know,

Lesson or something,

Or is it more stories about you?

Or not you completely,

But.

.

.

Yeah,

Thank you,

Maria.

That's a good question.

I mean,

It started as stories about me.

It started as thinly disguised autobiographical content.

And,

You know,

You see a lot of writers tend to do that.

Like,

Again,

In Ireland,

We have Oscar Wilde or James Joyce.

They'll often start off writing about themselves.

But once you learn to get yourself out of the way,

You can kind of move on from that and start to learn other stories.

So nowadays I'm learning a lot of traditional stories from around the world,

Folk tales and mythology.

And again,

You know,

Dipping back into Irish folk stories.

But I suppose the transformation that I had was through telling of my own story of transformation.

By standing up and embodying that,

By standing on stage and saying,

Talking about my own recovery from drinking drugs.

I didn't know about storytelling therapy or community therapy or group therapy at that time.

It was something I learned about later.

I just started telling stories,

You know.

So now when I do a show,

Like,

For example,

I've got a Dublin Friday night and I will do mostly traditional stories.

And I will do maybe I try to do like the Baltimore story,

Seven minutes.

I have another story about a village under the sea that I do about 15 or 20 minutes.

And then so I tend to do,

You know,

Nice traditional stories in a nice traditional way.

And I've kind of developed what's called the Bardic style,

Where I'm using a musical instrument to kind of narrate and soundtrack certain parts of the story.

Yeah,

And that's I think makes it very alive and inspiring to listen to.

What is it you think that it is that makes it therapeutic in telling a story?

Why is it good for us in your experience?

I think it's because in life we have obstacles,

You know.

And it's hard when you're dealing with daily life,

You know,

Like you have your work.

You try to say,

For example,

Some people in Ireland have to try and buy a house.

And,

You know,

In days like today where it's raining and my phone is broken and I'm pissed off and life is shit.

And but then if I hear a story,

You identify with the character.

So if you tell me a story about something you did,

I can believe in it.

I like it.

Work like we're watching a good movie,

Like a good Disney movie.

You believe in the character,

You know,

Especially if it's a story of triumph over adversity.

You certainly see,

You know,

You experience these things in your body,

Mind and soul.

When you hear a story,

When someone is telling you a story,

You see it in your mind's eye.

And then that belief then helps you when you go to sleep at night.

Then the story goes round in your soul and in your dreams.

And then the next day you might be better able to take on the obstacles and the overwhelming parts of life because your body,

Mind and soul has come has overcome obstacles on a subconscious level.

That's really nice.

And you experienced it yourself going through like your recovery.

So,

You know,

Firsthand.

Yeah,

I think so.

When I was in early recovery,

I met other people who were in recovery,

Like musicians and people from Ireland.

And I was able to identify with them,

You know,

I was able to identify with these characters.

There was also a great Australian poetic writer called Banjo Patterson,

Who had a story called.

There was one called Clancy from the overflow,

And he had another story about these horses that broke out.

And the horses had escaped into the Australian outback and all these cowboys,

You know,

Australian cowboys turned up to kind of go after the horses.

And one man turned up and he was on like a shitty little white horse,

Like like a mule,

Maybe like a little white donkey.

And they all said,

Oh,

You will be no good with that little thing.

That little white horse is no good.

You know,

We have to we need,

You know,

Big men,

Big horses.

You know,

That kind of macho world.

Like,

Sorry,

The story is obviously set in like Australia in the 1800s or something.

Yeah,

But I just remember reading that story at a really dark time in my life.

And I was crying and crying because the story goes on now.

But in the end,

It's the it's the little man and the little white mule that manages to go and bring back,

You know,

The wild horses,

You know?

Yeah.

And I just love that story.

I must read it again,

You know,

And I have to keep believing in that.

You know,

When I feel like when I feel so low and I've just,

You know,

As you can imagine,

Storytelling,

You know,

Trying to work as a storyteller,

It's just so hard.

People just say to you,

Oh,

Yeah,

You do this for children or yeah,

It's for kids or to get taken seriously sometimes is so hard to get paid properly.

So hard dealing with festivals is so hard.

You turn up at a festival and they want you to perform in a pub,

You know,

Under a fucking big screen that's shown the soccer or football.

So,

You know,

Life can be so hard and I have to keep going back to certain stories that have kept me going in dark times,

You know,

Like like that story by Banjo Patterson and also stories I've heard of other people.

You know,

I often get very attracted to underdog stories,

But,

You know,

You have to never give up so many things that people think are impossible are now becoming possible.

So many sometimes after lots of rain comes the summer sun.

You know,

You often hear in America about certain baseball teams or football teams that are at the bottom of the league can come up and win the league.

You know,

I have to believe in these stories and it helps me to believe in myself when I believe that,

You know,

Magic can happen.

I find in life all the magic can happen.

It just takes a long,

Long time.

Yeah,

Sometimes sometimes it can go quick,

But yeah,

Sometimes.

But usually there's a lesson that we can see maybe after.

Yeah,

Yeah,

That's it.

Exactly.

Yeah,

There's a lesson.

Yeah,

I think I think that's it.

It's the lessons.

And,

You know,

Like like,

As I said,

When I'm on stage telling the story,

I tend to empower that story and I can see the story in my mind's eye.

And the clearer I can see the story,

The clearer the audience can see it,

You know?

Yeah.

So I was thinking because I mean,

The times are shifting and the field I'm in,

Like the spiritual and going back to finding your heart and listening to your body and all this and trying to clear the bus.

I'm feeling there's like this shift in also maybe going back to listening to stories,

Because that's part of it,

To,

As you say,

Believe in the magic and visualize it and have someone tell these stories.

So have you felt that there is a shift in the market or in audience?

Yeah,

I have.

I think people have suddenly got tired of like the mainstream culture.

People are looking for something that makes sense to them,

Particularly during the covid pandemic.

You know,

Suddenly people got tired of,

You know,

News and fake news and the global culture.

I mean,

It's been happening for years.

People have been getting tired of it.

But now people are interested.

I know in Ireland,

People are really interested to tune into the local folklore,

Customs and heritage in the area in which they live,

You know?

Yeah.

So people are now eager to learn the history.

Why is the river called,

You know,

The Valley McRaven River?

Why is the old Abbey called Queen Abbey?

Why,

You know,

The people are asking questions now.

So we're looking at the old Gaelic words,

The old Óam,

The old people are going back a few years ago,

Like maybe five or 10 years ago was the first time in the history of the world that there was more people living in cities than there was in the country areas,

Because the cities have been growing,

Growing,

Growing.

But now the world kind of knows that maybe this that it needs to reverse a bit.

So now more people are trying to move back a bit.

In Ireland,

The cities are gone a bit dead.

Well,

I only know I worked a lot in Galway and Dublin.

So people are now moving to the to the small towns and villages.

And there's life coming back to these areas.

And yeah,

People now also have more time for storytelling.

I find when people come to my storytelling performances or workshops,

I say,

OK,

You know,

We're going to turn off our phones for one hour.

So,

You know,

I think,

You know,

As you know,

Yoga has been hugely popular in recent years.

People now need because say people like I'm in my 40s.

So I remember what the world was like before the Internet,

Before mobile phones,

When there was time to talk to people,

When you could go somewhere without Google Maps and you had to ask people,

How do I get here?

You know,

Like ask for directions.

Because now,

You know,

You ask for directions and people think you're trying to rob them or there's paranoia.

But now we've come back,

You know,

So now we've got to come full circle.

We've got to kind of say,

OK,

We might never get rid of the Internet or the mobile phone or the television,

But we have to start to limit them.

So I think maybe that's one of the reasons that there's people are now starting to listen to stories again,

Is because it's like we need it.

We need this food for our soul because we need to connect with each other.

We need to connect with land and we need to connect with the environment.

Like I kind of feel sick if I don't do something in my garden every day because I'm only got back into gardening and farming since the pandemic.

Like before the pandemic,

I didn't know the difference between an oak tree and an ash tree.

I just all trees were the same.

Whereas now,

So it's only the last three or four years I've got back into nature.

But that has had a huge effect on my storytelling,

You know?

I can understand.

I can see that.

And nature gives so much energy.

And yeah,

As you say,

If you if you're feeling low,

You can just go in your bare foot and stand on the ground and you feel it.

If you are aware of it,

If you're not,

If you're just feeling it's cold and dirty,

Then yeah,

You might not feel it.

But that's the part of stopping and just taking it in.

Which I feel storytelling is part of because that is a way of stopping your mind and just listening to this heartfelt stories that really catches your soul.

So you also went to India and did some yoga meditation.

How did that work?

Yeah,

I loved India.

You know,

India is amazing.

It's like it's like,

What is it,

A billion people.

So you can't say that India is this or India is that.

India is everything.

You find all kinds of people and all kinds of things in India.

Like it's like the whole world is in India.

You know,

Just the city life,

There's rural life,

There's beaches,

There's people everywhere and there's all kinds of people.

You know,

You meet some Indian people that can speak English,

Speak Irish,

Speak whatever.

And then you meet people in India who speak all these other languages.

So you meet all kinds of things in India and like many people.

But they're very spiritual as people.

And,

You know,

The yoga is big.

Their vegetarianism is big.

I had an amazing adventure in India,

I suppose,

Because I was working also telling stories and playing music.

And,

Yeah,

I was mostly in parts of Goa and Calcutta.

And yeah,

It's a huge part of the journey for me going to India,

Because it's like really is going to another world,

Because I grew up,

You know,

All my life in Ireland and it's,

You know,

Rains all summer and then it stops raining a little bit in winter.

Like today is the middle of May and it was pissing rain today.

When I go to India,

I get this mad.

It's like a whole trip because the sunshine,

Yoga,

Beaches.

I mean,

You could get that in Spain or other places.

But to me,

When I landed in India,

I was like,

Wow,

I'll never forget it.

And everyone is in the moment in India,

You know,

Even the way they talk.

If they won't say,

Oh,

You got a haircut to go,

You are styling,

You know,

You are styling.

Yeah.

You know,

I am thinking,

You know,

It's very they talk in the present.

And they live in the present.

So I love that.

I haven't been back there now about four or five years,

But hopefully get back someday soon.

Yeah.

So but you also tell stories in is it old Irish or Gaelic or?

Yeah,

We have we have our own native language here,

Gaelic.

It's popular.

About 20 percent of the population speaks Gaelic,

Maybe more,

Maybe 30 percent now.

And it's having a revival at the moment in the cities.

So in many cities like Dublin,

Galway,

Belfast and Cork,

The Gaelic language is getting very popular,

But also in many rural areas are still Gaelic speaking like like in Scotland.

So,

Yeah,

I was lucky.

I grew up in a Gaelic speaking area right between Mayo and Galway.

So I speak a kind of a nice Mayo dialect of Irish.

And I work telling stories also in Irish language,

Which is nice because it's very musical because you could say I have this way to talk to Trastor.

I was we involved with our own idea.

I was trusting a little who we involved with.

We don't know about a good look on that.

I find it very musical kind of language.

So I tend to work with that a bit as well as much as possible.

Yeah,

It sounds nice.

I can't understand the word,

But.

Yeah,

It's it's it's it's hard to understand.

It's nice.

Yeah.

So I don't want to take up too much of your time,

But it's so nice to listen to you.

But do you have a story maybe that you would like to?

Yeah,

I'll try a new one.

Yeah.

Story called Steve Mish.

OK,

And so in Ireland,

A lot of the stories change over the years.

OK.

After the Battle of Ventry,

Where the king of the world was defeated by Fionn Mac Ghaol and all the warriors of Ireland,

The king of the world and his army left.

But as we know from another story,

The king of the world had brought his daughter,

But she was left up in the mountains.

Now,

Even to this day,

You could ask the people in that part of Kerry and they will tell you that Steve Mish is haunted.

Sometimes it's a warrior with a black dog that can be seen on the hill.

Other times it's the screeching of a wild woman.

So the story I'll tell you now is the story of the wild woman.

For many years,

The people were afraid of Steve Mish.

There was rumours that a wild,

Wild,

Wild animal was up in the mountains.

Often sheep could go missing.

Village people from around the villages and towns were afraid to go up in the mountain.

Often there could be heard shouts and screams from the mountain.

And it is well known that some wild warrior lived there.

There was a rumour that it was this woman Mish was her name,

And she had been left over from the Battle of Entry.

She lived for 300 years up in a cave in the mountain and would terrorise towns and villages if she got in a bad mood.

So the king one day decided that he would push up a prize.

He said,

Three pieces of gold,

He said,

For whoever can go up and rid us of this terrible,

Terrible wild monster that's above in the mountain.

So many warriors came with big swords and shields,

And they would go up,

But they were never seen again.

Another warrior came from far away,

And he would say he would go up and get the three pieces of gold.

But sure enough,

He was never seen again.

Although some say they heard his head rolling down the hill.

Then finally,

One day,

A young musician called Dov Rish was busking and passing through the town.

Now Dov Rish played a harp.

You all know the harp is the emblem of Ireland.

And he went.

And his harp could be heard as he played through the town.

And the nights that he was playing in the town became wet and dark.

And people went off home early.

And the next day he was hanging around the town playing a few tunes on his harp.

And he heard about this,

That the king was offering a reward for anyone who could go up and tame the wild beast of the hills.

So Dov Rish said to the king,

King,

Says the bard Dov Rish,

Is it true that you're offering three pieces of gold if somebody can go up and rid your town of the wild,

Wild,

Wild animal that's above the mountains?

This is true,

Said the king.

Three pieces of gold I will give it for anyone who can rid us of this terrible affliction we have that there is a wild animal above the mountains.

And so Dov Rish with his harp said,

Well,

I will bring my harp to the mountains,

He said.

But was there any chance,

He said,

If you give me the two pieces of gold and the king said,

Oh,

Not at all.

But if I give you two,

You could disappear like the rest of them.

I'll never see it again.

Well,

He said,

Would you give me one?

And I get the other two when I come back,

Having rid you of this wild animal that's above in the woods.

Right,

Said the king.

I give you one piece of gold and you can collect the other two when you come back.

So Dov Rish took one piece of gold in his pocket and he headed up into the hills with his harp.

And sure enough,

As he was going up the hills,

He could hear a wild sound.

Aaaaah!

Aaaaah!

Aaaaah!

Was the sound of the wild beast in the mountains.

But Dov Rish was not afraid.

He walked up with his harp until he came to a clearing at the top of the hill.

And as the sun came out in the morning,

He started to play his harp.

He went.

And after a while,

The Khaa Khaa started to stop.

And the wild beast of the mountains came closer and looked at the harp and heard the sound.

And sure enough,

It was indeed her.

It was Mish herself,

The daughter of the king of the world from far away,

Who had lived in a cave for 300 years.

Her nails were long,

Her face gone wild,

Hair all over her body.

Indeed,

She had turned into a wild beast.

But Dov Rish paid no attention,

Even though Dov Rish was a bard who had played in the great halls all over Ireland.

So he knew when he had an audience.

So even though he knew somebody was coming closer and looking at him,

He didn't stop playing.

He kept playing the music on his harp.

And eventually,

When she became really close to the harp,

She looked at him and she said,

What's this?

And he said,

Oh,

This is a harp.

It plays music.

And she said,

I remember music.

And then she looked into his pocket and she saw the shiny piece of gold as it was reflecting the sun's light all around the mountain.

She said,

What's this?

What's this?

He said,

Oh,

As he took the shiny piece of gold out of his pocket,

This is gold.

And you all know that in those days,

Women loved gold.

So,

Of course,

He picked up the gold and it shone all kinds of light all around her and in her face and everywhere.

And when she picked up the sun's light and then she picked up the piece of gold and shone it at the sun and she said,

Yes,

I remember this.

For she was the king of the world's daughter.

She had seen the gold and the Spanish galleons and many kinds of pieces of gold.

And then she looked at and there between his legs,

She saw something.

She said,

What's that?

And he said,

Oh,

He picked it up and he said,

Oh,

This is my trickery stick.

What does the trickery stick do?

So he showed her a trick with his trickery stick and he played the music.

And suddenly she became calm and said,

More,

More.

She wanted more with the trickery stick.

But he said,

No,

No,

No,

No.

It can only do one or two tricks in the day.

Might do another trick tomorrow in the morning.

So she spent the night looking forward to the trickery stick in the morning.

And then in the morning,

Just before he got up,

She was wanted more the trickery stick.

But first he had to play a tune on the harp.

And she sat and she listened to that.

And as she sat and she listened,

She became calm and meditative.

And then she wanted the trickery stick,

But he said,

No.

And he took out the piece of gold and he shone it around.

And at some point she started to catch her reflection in it and her reflection in the lake and the clear water as the music kind of brought the calmness and stillness about her.

And sure enough,

She started to cut her nails and her hair.

And then he did a trick with the trickery stick and she wanted more.

But he said,

No,

It can only do one or two tricks in a day.

Maybe tomorrow in the morning.

And then down by the lake on the top of the mountain the next morning,

As he was playing his harp.

She was swimming in the lake.

And playing with the piece of gold,

Throwing it up in the air and throwing it around and diving down.

And suddenly she was becoming clean.

She was sometimes like a mermaid,

Sometimes like a salmon,

Transforming from animal to fish to woman.

And finally she emerged from the lake and they enjoyed the trickery stick.

And they came down into the town and suddenly she looked so beautiful.

This beautiful woman with her gown flowing down,

Her lovely red hair,

Her aquamarine eyes,

The color had come back in her red rosy cheeks.

And the king said,

Oh,

My God,

It has stopped.

The roaring of the wild beast has stopped.

And a beautiful woman has appeared.

Now I must give you the two pieces of gold.

And Dovrish said,

King,

He said,

I do not need your gold because I have found now a reward that is more worthy and more valuable to me than any piece of gold.

Oh,

Said the king.

And where is the third piece?

He said,

And Dovrish and Mish said,

Aha,

The third piece of gold lies at the bottom of the lake and it may never be seen again.

But we are happy and we will go on our merry way with our harp and the sunshine at our backs.

Oh,

How was that?

Oh,

Lovely.

I loved it.

It's oh,

Yeah,

I was just smiling the whole way through.

Yeah,

It's a new story,

So it's a bit rough.

I think that's the first time I've done it on my own.

I just learned it there about two weeks ago off somebody who was passing through here.

I just thought I'd do a new one because you have the Batman story and you probably can find other stories online.

So I just said I'd give you a new one.

Yeah,

It was lovely,

Lovely.

And you just feel so good listening to the story like that.

And thanks.

Yeah,

It's like good energy and you can almost feel like the history in it.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Indeed.

Yeah,

Thank you.

So this is like world premiere for you and this story.

Yeah,

It is a world premiere actually,

Yeah.

Totally.

Thank you so much.

I also I have three questions to all my guests.

Ah,

Yes,

Indeed.

Yeah,

So what is the most positive thing you take with you from what you've been through or maybe going through?

If you had like a lesson or something that you felt like,

OK,

I went through that,

But now I came here.

I think the thing is that life goes on,

You know,

That's the only constant in life is change,

But it goes on and on and on,

You know.

So even when we die,

You know,

Life goes on in other ways.

Like,

You know,

It was hard for me when my father passed away in 2016.

But,

You know,

He lives on sometimes in me,

In the music,

In my brother and sisters,

Those kind of things.

And so even,

You know,

In a very practical level,

There's life after death.

Another,

I put it to you a different way.

Like sometimes I have trees growing here and,

You know,

These big trees that are strong,

But there also be these weak little trees that might have been eaten by a rabbit or a cow.

And I think,

Ah,

That tree now is ruined because the rabbit at the top of it and then the cow ate all the leaves in the back.

And I think that tree would be no good.

And the big trees get chopped down for wood.

But the small tree that I thought was damaged will suddenly survive a winter and keep growing.

And suddenly the tree that was damaged is the one that is the most interesting.

So it's kind of like that,

That if you can hang on long enough,

The good stuff will happen.

That there's little miracles happen every day.

Like even,

You know,

I have a shitty day today,

But I feel really good after telling that story,

You know.

Just because,

You know,

It's nice to have a new story on the go.

And I'm just looking out the window now,

And even though it was raining a lot today,

You know,

There's a stretch in the evening.

So it's half nine here now.

It's not even dark yet.

So I think that thing of like hanging on,

Don't give up,

Life goes on and it's life is never over.

You know,

Even when human life is finished on this planet,

There'll be some other kind of life,

Whether it'll be fungi or whatever,

You know,

Or dinosaurs come back.

I think that,

You know,

That's it.

It's the eternity of life.

That's,

I think,

Maybe what I like.

You know,

Like one day at a time,

Just keep living one day at a time and the good shit will happen.

Yeah,

Love that.

Okay,

So the next question.

When do you feel most like yourself at peace and relaxed?

What are you doing then?

That's interesting.

Um,

I have to like when I'm on stage,

I'm kind of high,

But I'm kind of hyper alert.

Um,

Almost like,

Like a hunter,

You know,

I'm catching things,

Making up things like even doing that story.

I was,

I was making up bits on the spot,

Trying to remember other other details.

So I'm really alive when I'm storytelling,

Particularly on stage.

I can be really alive.

And I sometimes like I,

I can go down into a story and get improvising to it.

Other times I can be,

Get very involved in music piece while I might be thinking of what to say.

I might find that I'm playing some very musical thing because I'm,

You know,

If you're doing one thing and thinking about another.

So if I'm thinking about a story,

But playing music,

But the music can actually be kind of nice when I'm thinking about the story.

So that's when I'm very alive.

The other time,

Which is totally different,

Is when I'm in nature.

So when I'm working with the garden and the farm,

Um,

Or when I'm surfing on the sea,

I'm kind of alive,

But relaxed.

Whereas when I'm on stage,

I'm alive,

But kind of more excited,

You know,

I'm in the game.

So yeah,

Either in nature or telling stories on stage,

They're my two kind of speeds.

So that's a good balance.

Yeah,

We need both.

I think we can't,

Yeah,

We can't only be peaceful.

We need to have some action as well.

Yeah,

But there's not much action in rural Ireland.

It's quiet.

It's quiet.

Yeah.

Maybe in the summer it might pick up a bit.

Yeah.

But then you have to create some,

You have a field,

You can have host a festival.

Yeah.

I have a field,

Yeah.

I have a festival in the rain with cattle.

Okay,

So the last question then.

So what is joy for you today?

And if it was a colour,

What colour would it be for you?

I like a colour that's a bit darker than terracotta,

You know,

But I like a red,

Purple,

Maroon,

That's kind of more of a clay,

Earthy colour.

So I'm looking for a colour that's kind of terracotta.

Like,

Like,

Like,

It's like a faded red.

I like when red is red,

But I like when it's faded a bit.

So that's one colour that I really like,

Especially this time of year.

Coming into the summer,

I don't see it,

You know,

Because everything is green,

Obviously.

Ireland is a very green country because it rains a lot.

But there's a red sometimes in the bark of the trees or in County Mayo,

Where I grew up a lot as a child,

There's a red that comes out in the rocks sometimes in West Mayo.

And you'll see,

Yeah,

You'll see that.

But like a natural red,

Like a kind of like a beetroot sometimes has a lovely red,

You know,

If you cut a beetroot.

I like those kind of shades,

Like from a beetroot red to a kind of an orange terracotta.

I like those colours.

When I was in Argentina and Brazil,

Sometimes the terracotta,

Like I think terra as in the ground,

The terracotta red was on the ground,

It was the red dirt,

You know,

There's lots of red dirt in hot countries like India and Australia.

I was just going to say Australia.

Yeah,

I remember.

Yeah,

Has a red dirt.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Yeah,

A friend of mine actually wrote a book called Red Dirt about the Irish in Australia.

So there's a yeah,

There's a red dirt and I'd love to see a bit of that now because it's summer,

But it's just been raining a lot.

So I love when when the summer comes to Ireland and the sun kind of dries out things and picks me up a bit.

Maybe that's just how I'm feeling today.

It might not be the answer to your question.

No,

No,

There's no right or wrong.

So but the other one was what is joy for you today?

Ah,

I had a bit of joy telling that story.

Yeah.

And the other joy I have is like when I'm farming or gardening,

You know,

I had one or two really good days this week in the garden.

We had some good sunshine there Monday and Tuesday.

So I had some good stuff.

Also,

Even though I give out about the rain,

I've just planted some trees and May is very,

Very late for planted trees.

But I planted a few in early May because they're in wet patches of the farm.

And then we've had three or four days of rain.

So I think they're going to be OK.

So to answer your question,

Joy for me is like the farming and gardening and being in nature.

And the other joy is on stage telling stories.

Yeah.

So they kind of go together with the first question.

Yeah.

OK,

So I am so,

So,

So happy and grateful and thankful that you wanted to do this.

And I just adore the storytelling.

And what's up next?

You're going up to in the north of Ireland to do some.

Yeah,

You know,

Between Dublin and Belfast is the best cultural jock.

So I'm there on Saturday night.

I'm doing Torniri Storytelling Festival on Friday night.

And then I'm back in Clare on Sunday to work at a local festival here.

We have a storytelling session in the afternoon.

So,

Yeah,

It's very busy.

Like I do the gardening and farming and during the week and then at the weekends,

I'm like traveling to different parts of Ireland to do storytelling.

So,

Yeah,

That's that's my life.

Yeah.

So and I'm going to put links to your web page,

Maybe or your Facebook and Instagram.

If someone wants to book you or,

You know,

Want some storytelling on a festival,

They can find you.

Fantastic.

So thank you so much for doing this.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for asking me.

It was a pleasure.

It's great to do these things.

I learn more about myself and my work and my stories when I have to explain it to someone like myself.

I really enjoyed the podcast.

Oh,

Good,

Good,

Good.

Yeah.

OK,

I'm going to let you go now.

And again,

Thank you so much.

Yeah,

You too.

I'll talk to you soon.

Thanks very much.

OK,

So again,

Thank you so much,

Andreas,

For joining today.

I'm truly,

Truly grateful for having the opportunity to talk to you and hear a story and your own transformational story throughout life.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And for those of you who want to do a meditation,

We are today connecting with a really warm and lovely energy that is awakening your body,

Awakening parts of you that it's time to allow to come forth and shine out into the world.

So you could,

If maybe you like to press pause and just have a little stretch before we continue,

Or please get seated in a comfortable position.

Maybe you're lying down.

Close your eyes.

Keep your palms up,

Your back straight.

And let's do some meditation,

Gemma.

So we start by taking three deep breaths.

Then imagine that way you are,

Sitting or lying down.

There is a pillar of red healing Earth energy that is coming from Mother Earth.

And it's going up through you.

Around you.

Covering your body inside and out and continuing up and out into the sky and the universe.

And we now have this red healing Earth energy keeping us grounded on this journey.

And imagine that there is a similar pillar of divine bright light.

Universal energy that is coming from above.

And it's going down through you.

Around you.

Covering your body inside and out and continuing down.

Into Mother Earth.

And we now have this universal energy keeping us balanced on this journey.

And we take another deep breath.

Then imagine yourself standing somewhere outside.

It could be in nature,

By the sea,

In a city,

Maybe on top of a mountain.

Just let whatever comes to you be the right image at this point.

And as you're standing here,

You are.

And as you're standing here,

You are.

Relax.

Feeling Mother Earth holding you steady.

Maybe you feel a slight breeze.

Caressing your body.

And it's a beautiful day.

You're taking it all in.

And standing and breathing.

And in front of you.

You have a beautiful,

Strong,

Shining sun.

And you set your focus to the sun.

As you're standing here,

Relaxed,

Comfortable.

Now feel the ray of the sun warming your body.

And everything around you is starting to fade out.

And it's just you and the sun connected and connected.

Connected and harmonized in your vibration.

Together with the vibration of the sun.

And as we take another deep breath,

Feel how the energy from the sun warming your body.

Sun is expanding in your body.

Igniting your energy.

Awakening your slumbering parts to yourself.

To life.

Almost like a wake-up call.

And all you have to do is take it all in and allow this energy to move through you from the sun.

And you can observe if you feel it moving through your body.

Or just relax and allow it to ignite your energy.

And there is nothing you have to do right now.

No thoughts that need to be solved.

You can just relax and let this energy move through you.

Awakening parts of you that is of you that is ready to come forth in your day,

In your life.

You don't have to think about what or how.

Again,

Just allow the energy to move through you.

Effortless.

Without trying to control or steer.

And if you can't see or feel or get anything,

Don't worry.

Just by you being here,

Listening to this,

Your energy is doing the work for you.

So you can just relax and keep on following this journey.

Now we take a deep breath.

Now you can see yourself as you are standing in the spot that came up for you.

See how you start to shine like the sun from your heart throughout your body into the surrounding where you are.

And it's an infinite energy,

So no holding back.

Just allow it to move free and expand in its own pace.

There are no right or wrong,

Just energy.

And as you do so,

Maybe you feel yourself relaxing further.

And it's a lovely transformational energy that is awakening your body,

The part of you that are ready to step forward and move forward.

And as you do so,

You are ready to step forward to explore and enjoy life,

Feeling peaceful and connected.

Now we are sitting this energy a little bit longer.

And if you like,

You can observe in your body,

In your physical body,

If there is anywhere you feel tension,

Then ask this energy to move there with some extra focus to let go and harmonize with this soft,

Beautiful vibration that is moving.

And if there is any situation in life,

Maybe in your past or the coming that you are thinking about,

Then ask the energy to move there to release anything holding you back from your life.

It could be a thought pattern or a situation that you've been involved with or you have coming up.

Now send this beautiful,

Light energy to it and let go without trying to adjust or control the outcome.

Just allow it to move free in its own pace.

And we take another deep breath.

And you can start to come back into the space where you started and we give thanks to Mother Earth and Father Universe and the Higher Self for joining us today.

And you can start to come fully back,

Start to move your hands,

Your feet,

Your neck,

Maybe clap your hands and stamp your feet.

And I thank you for listening.

Sat Nam.

So warm welcome back from.

.

.

Wow,

Yeah!

I have such a lovely feeling in my body from that energy and I really hope that you felt it.

And what we did was we envisioned ourselves somewhere.

It could be in a busy city or out in nature,

Whatever came up for you.

And there we instantly connected with the sun and I felt it,

Or I saw it as the sun and the energy that was like laser focused on us to awaken a part of ourselves that is,

I don't know,

Time to awaken,

Time to wake up at this point.

And the whole feeling was just so warm and loving and I had this biggest smile on my face the whole time.

So a beautiful light energy that was still very,

I felt,

Transformational.

And as always it doesn't matter if you fall asleep,

Or you think about something else,

Just by you being here listening to this,

The energy is doing the work for you.

And the words are more for us to get an inclination of what is happening.

And I always recommend that you journal after and that is a good way for our brain to come on board on the journeys that we are doing because it isn't always obvious the transformation that is happening and it isn't always quick.

Sometimes it takes longer and sometimes it goes,

We notice it maybe in half a year or a year's time.

And I remember when I started doing this back in 2004,

We were doing,

Working with these energies with the teacher I had and at that time I had no idea what I was doing,

I didn't see anything,

I didn't get anything.

I just felt that it was good for me and I had this inner drive that pulled me to do it and continue.

But then,

Like half a year or a year after I started to see that I've shifted in the way,

It could be in what I ate or in the way I reacted or thought and I always felt it was so good to go back then and look at my notes from the journeys that we had taken,

The inner journeys and then I could,

Oh wow,

This is from that time and it's showing up in this way now.

And then when we get that kind of proof for our mind and brain,

Then that can,

Our mind can start to relax and trust what is coming from the inside.

So,

Journaling,

Yay!

Or if you just want to draw something or just make a note of what came up for you.

And again,

If you fell asleep,

No worries,

The energy is still working with you.

And so,

This energy was all about awakening something and I think this is different from all of us because we are all in different journeys but it did awaken parts of us that has been slumbering that is now ready to wake up and come forth and shine like the sun.

So,

We don't hold back the good parts and why should we do that?

Well,

I don't know but we do it.

I think we all know that we hold back in some areas of life and could be out of experience,

Fear,

Our beliefs about ourselves,

About our life.

It could be a hundred million reasons but that is also why I enjoy these energy meditations because they don't bother about the reasons.

They just bypass our brain and get straight to it.

So,

I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know if you have any questions or something you like to share from this.

So,

What else is going on this spring?

Well,

I have,

If you are listening to this as it is being released,

I have this season's last live Pure Heart group online ignition and we will do that on the Sunday,

The 28th of May and as always it's in my Facebook group called Pure Heart Studio and if you haven't joined before you can catch the recordings from the previous ones or just jump on this one and the theme,

The energy theme we are going to be working with this time is happy and energy of happiness and that is such a wide and big subject.

So,

I am waiting for more information to come to me around it but what I do think is that it's not about what happiness is but opening ourselves up to the flow of happiness but maybe it could be something else.

We'll just have to wait and see until I get more information or maybe until the next Sunday,

The 28th and the theme has been this season,

It's been pure,

Raw and happy so it is connected but of course you don't have to go through all three ignitions,

You can jump in at anyone that speaks to you which is so good about working with energy,

It's all about listening to our heart,

Listening to our body and following that and we are ever expanding so one day we might think it's this one and then the next month it's a totally new subject or energy and then we want to try maybe the first one so there is no particular order in this.

And also if you haven't already,

I have the 7 Day Feel Good Challenge online,

You find it on my webpage and it's free and it's a meditation,

There are tools,

There are an e-book,

There are some EFT we are working with and even if you don't feel like you are in a bad vibe or in a funk,

Then I would still recommend that you check it out because when we are in a funk we are not maybe always that receptive to do this kind of thing so then you at least have the tools at your side that you can use or if you are feeling low then please go ahead and take it and 7 Days,

Yes it's not a lot or 7 steps to get out of a funk so it's not a miracle course but depending on how deep down you feel you are but I mean we all are days,

Weeks,

Months,

It depends sometimes moments but this 7 Day Feel Good Challenge is it comes with tools to lift your vibe so that you at least want to get out of the funk or it will take you depending on where you are of course and if you want to go even deeper into your practice,

Listening to your beautiful inner wisdom then you have my coach program,

You can also find that on my webpage and then we connect to your energy and your heart and it is as well it's tools to move through but it's also personal ignitions where I connect to your energy and record what it wants to let you know at this point and just hold your space for you to go through whatever it might be that you are moving through in your transformational journey.

So and again I just want to say I'm so so so happy and thankful for Andres to have joined today and more storytelling to the world I think it would make it a better place for sure,

It is so uplifting and soul warming so I'm so happy that I found this YouTube clip and then found Andres and for him to join in this podcast for you to hear as well so big thank you again yeah so have a beautiful day and week until the next time,

Sat Nam You have been listening to Meditation Jam with Maria Rine and I am so grateful that you have joined today with your energy.

If you liked it please remember to subscribe hit the like button and leave a review if there was something specific that you enjoyed and you will find more links in the text below from my guests and also to my social media if you like to follow me there so thank you again for joining and I hope you have a beautiful day week and month,

Sat Nam