Show Notes
Mooney’s Mythic Podcast - Show Notes Episode: Winter Solstice Songs & Sacred Rest with Ted Waters Host: Sarah Mooney, Storyteller Episode Overview A cozy fireside conversation about wintertime, rest, and the lost arts of singing, dancing, and storytelling. Sarah welcomes farmer, seasonal celebrant, and singer Ted Waters to the sofa for an intimate exploration of what it means to truly winter well. Ted shares original solstice songs, teaches call-and-response singing, and tells the story behind her album Earthline - a collection of songs born from a friend’s pilgrimage along the Mary Ley Line. Sponsored by: Winter. By the retreating of our energy deep into our bodies. By the remembering of our self-care, of our quietness. Featured Guest: Ted Waters Ted Waters is a farmer, seasonal celebrant, singer, and composer living just north of Chew Valley Lake. She runs a small organic farm (nine acres, two of no-dig veg) with chickens, a beautiful roundhouse in the woods for kids’ groups and retreats, and an ongoing battle with deer who eat the trees they’re trying to plant. Ted is also a Natural Voice Network trained choir leader who believes passionately in reclaiming singing as a normal practice of expression and connection. She co-runs the farm with her partner, homeschools her kids, and creates music that weaves together environmental awareness, seasonal wisdom, and deep rest. Connect with Ted Waters: * Spotify: Ted Waters Music * Instagram: @tedwatersmusic * Bandcamp: Search “Earthline” album * TikTok: Ted Waters Music Songs Featured 1. “Winter Solstice” (Original) Written in a lay-by after being treated to a spa day by a friend following four exhausting years of farm setup. The song emerged quickly - as creativity does when we finally rest. Key lyrics: “Oh, winter solstice, I’m glad you have come / My body is tired from all that I’ve done / I’ll rest here a while in your deep winter’s night / Revived and renewed and awake with the light” 2. “The Holly King” (Traditional poem, spoken) “’Twas the night before yuletide and all through the glen...” A magical tale of the Holly King arriving to remind the Fae folk that they’ve forgotten to celebrate - no hearth fires, no music, no bells, no rich fragrant smells. He teaches them to play again: to gather mistletoe, light bonfires, dance, sing, string lights on trees, and build snowmen. A reminder that rest isn’t just lying down - it’s also making spiced mulled cider, having hearty times, being creative, and playing. 3. Call & Response: Haymaking Song Ted teaches a traditional call-and-response work song, imagining tossing hay with old-fashioned pitchforks. When your body is doing something, you get out of your own head. We’ve been copycats from birth - this is how we learned to speak. Invitation: Bring singing into your daily tasks - making the bed, doing the dishes, whatever repetitive work you do. 4. “Time for Home” (from Earthline album) A song about bringing Oski the horse home after 100 days of pilgrimage along the Michael and Mary Ley Lines. Key lyrics: “Wide daylines, rains on night / Early mornings, something to find / Come, Oski, turn with me / I’ll hold your end, move your main / You and me, I know / Time for home” The Story Behind Earthline Artist Sophie White embarked on a solo pilgrimage on horseback along the ancient Mary Ley Line - the sacred energy line that runs through Cornwall, Avebury, Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor, and other ancient sites across England. She was commissioned by the Royal Western Academy to draw a picture every day of her journey. Her friend Michael Canning (a vet, not a poet - though Ted disagrees!) began writing poems in response to Sophie’s drawings, capturing the feeling of each day without ever speaking to her. Ted discovered the pictures and poems one evening with a glass of wine, kids in bed, and accidentally put about 20 of them to music. The result: Earthline, an accidental album recorded in Glastonbury to honor the ley line energy. Now availabl
More from Mooney's Mythic Podcast
Show Notes Mooney’s Mythic Podcast: Under Anger, a Broken Heart . She spent one night at Wales Millennium Centre seeing Laurie Anderson, then sneaking in to see the Shovel Dance Collective, and she cried, giggled and danced her way through it. Laurie’s Friends and Teachers show leaves her with a teaching from Pema Chödrön: underneath anger there is always a broken heart. Sarah carries that question into the new story she’s making, about a great oak that splits into gardener, magician and king. She also lists her own shadow on a till receipt while working as the witch of Wookey Hole. Max Porter’s All of This Unreal Time and Robin Williamson’s bardic magic feed into the drunk, brilliant wizard she’s learning to embody. Featured * Laurie Anderson: Friends and Teachers, Llais Festival, Wales Millennium Centre. * Shovel Dance Collective: The Bold Fisherman shoveldancecollective.bandcamp.com * Robin Williamson: “Five Denials on Merlin’s Grave”, from A Glint at the Kindling (1979) * Max Porter: All of This Unreal Time * Direction support: Joanna Procter, Reveal Productions * Intro music: Queen Space Baroque Coming up * Friday 23 Oct, 6pm: a mythic storytelling show in the woods near Glastonbury (secret location) with musicians, fire and aerial acts. Get in touch to come. * Friday 30 Oct: Samhain Secrets and Songs with Ted Waters, St Benedict’s Church, Glastonbury.https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998949432563?aff=oddtdtcreator * Women Who Run With the Wolves: a seven-week Tuesday-night circle in Glastonbury. Starts beginning of November 3 spaces left * One-to-one online sessions this winter for speeches, stories and performance. Support the pod on Patreon : Mooneys Mythic Podcast | Stories, soul craft, good company | Patreon
As autumn turns us down into the earth, this episode opens with a threshold track from Tarisha, then shares a treat from the archive: a conversation with Welsh storyteller Owen Staton. Together they explore unscripted telling, storytelling cards, letting a story “sing it plain,” and stories as nourishment and refuge. Owen StatonWelsh performance storyteller, actor and writer, host of Time Between Times.🎧 owenstaton.substack.com · Apple Podcasts🌐 www.welshstoryteller.com · ko-fi.com/owenstaton · patreon.com/owenstaton7 MusicIntro music: Ritual Door 2 Queen Space Baroque Opening track: Tarisha – Deep into the Earth we go, with thanks for permission Come and find me * 14 Oct – Story Wintering: Greek myths, beginning with Artemis * 23 Oct, 6–8pm – Once upon a… Forest: a mythic woodland trail near Glastonbury with circus, music and stories from the realms of the fey. The location is sent when you book. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/once-upon-a-forest-tickets-2002560757132 * 24 Oct – Wellington Garden of Light: oracle storytelling * 30 Oct, 7:30pm – Samhain Secrets in Story and Song with Ted Waters, St Benedict’s Church, Glastonbury. Bring an ancestor stone and photographs. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/samhain-secrets-in-story-and-song-tickets-1998949432563 * 3 Nov – Women Who Run with the Wolves: 7-week in-person circle, Glastonbury (a few spaces left) * 18 Dec – Festive family show with Sarah Curtis (harp and piano), St Benedict’s Church Next week: Laurie Anderson and the Shovel Dance Collective.Support the pod on Patreon, share it with a friend, or leave a comment 💛
Mooney’s Mythic Podcast Past the equinox, Sarah reflects on telling stories in the woods and the prayer she’ll make next time. She also talks about unwrapping a bubble-wrapped six-year-old part of herself, and joining the fierce Savage Sisters Morris side. In the story pot: The Princess’s Blankets and Tam Lin. Then a furious poem from Extinction Rebellion co-founder Stu Basden, recorded at the Green Gathering, and an invitation to come back to life together. Music: Queen Space Baroque, “Ritual Door” (opening titles) · Tarisha, “Deep Into the Earth” · Wyndreth, “My Mother’s Savage Daughter” Support Wyndreth: the writer of My Mother’s Savage Daughter is living with dementia. Please give if you can:👉 https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-mothers-savage-daughter-needs-our-help Come and join me: * 🌲 Mythic Wander, Friday 23rd October. Get in touch for the location. * 🐺 Women Who Run With the Wolves, Glastonbury, seven Tuesdays from 3rd November (I said the 2nd in the episode, but it’s Tuesday 3rd!) * 🕯️ Story Wintering, online, once a month
Opening music By Queen Space Baroque Online workshop Thursday 6:30–8:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998740818593?aff=oddtdtcreator Samhain telling of Donkey Skin in Glastonbury, 30th Oct https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998949432563?aff=oddtdtcreator
Sarah previews The Synthphonic Orchestra ahead of Friday’s Rose Concert, then reflects on cycles — vision quests, moon time, community rhythm — before telling a Loathly Lady tale: three princes, a dried well, and the old woman who asks only for a kiss. Music: The Synthphonic Orchestra, “Love Remains” Upcoming: Rose Concert (Fri 11th, Glastonbury Town Hall) · Autumn Threshold Gathering online, next Thurs, 2-for-1 tickets on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1998740818593?aff=oddtdtcreator Women Who Run With the Wolves (Glastonbury, late Oct) · Greek myths (details soon) Loved this? Send it to one person who needs the story today. Keep the kettle on for the pod — Patreon (Mooney’s Mythic Podcast).