Welcome to the
Story Apothecary
Medicine & Wisdom of Old Stories for New Uncertain Times
Hi, I'm Nana, an oral storyteller and an apothecary, and I believe that stories have the power to heal. Stories carry within them ancient magic and a mystery, a secret map to the world. Listening to oral traditional stories is one of the most radical things we can do in our time.
Stories are not empty words strung together, but potent, necessary and challenging. Stories shape our world. We are told that Eve ate the apple, and the telling of that one story has affected women's place in culture, society, relationships, in power. The danger of a single story.
I bring good news, there are many stories about wild women, about wild nature, about freedom, about belonging-to ourselves, and to the world. Stories speak of descending to the underworld, of shedding your skin to reveal a true form, of having your hands cut off and growing new ones. They offer hope, courage, wisdom and medicine. That's what they have offered me. That's what they offer to all who have the ears to listen, and the heart to let them in.
Stories belong to the wild, in ceremonies, to gatherings around the fire, to communities coming together to witness each other. They belong to sorrow and grief; to happiness and ecstasy; to birth and loss; to the land. They belong to us.
Photo courtesy of In Feathers
“Stories are medicine. They have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything – we need only listen.”
We are living in unsettling, troubled, and uncertain times. Illness, climate crisis, war. And yet there is love, beauty, joy. and hope. They are all here: the difficult and the delightful; the sad and the joyous; the heartbreaking and the loving. There is not one without the other.
So what can old stories offer? A guide, a map to the terrain of life. A guide to your true nature, a bread crumb trail to where the inner treasure is hidden. There has always been illness, and famine, and war. There has always been love, and heartbreak; grief and joy; loneliness and belonging.
Stories can offer us maps to our personal, and collective journey in this world. And more importantly, they are the catalyst to conversations about the things that are important. Stories have been around for as long as we have, and they still have a lot to offer to us.