Sharon Blackie

An old Samoyed saga tells of a hero who dies three times. Twice, he is brought back to life by an old man with one hand, one leg and one eye. The third time, the old man can’t save him, and so he gathers the hero’s bones into a bag and takes them to an old woman who lives deep in a cave. She is tended by bone-people; a monster guards her left side and another guards her right. The old woman burns the bones in her fire pit and sleeps on the ashes; three days later, the hero is restored to life.

Our ancestors descended into caves to listen to the whisperings of the Otherworld. From January 2021, I’ll be taking up residence in my own virtual Bone Cave, tending a fire pit around which you are all invited to gather, and listen with me to the songs of salty rock and earth-root. The Bone Cave is a place for entering into the mystery – for imagining and reimagining the world, and our own unique mythopoetic journey through it.

In The Bone Cave, we’ll gather together around our virtual fire pit at least once a month, and delve deeply into the myths and stories which can sing new life back onto the ashes of our depleted bones. We’ll search the hidden cracks for the images which call to our soul; we’ll come together to remember who we are, and who we someday might become.