ENROLMENT FOR THE 2024-25 COURSE WILL OPEN FROM SATURDAY 27TH APRIL TO SATURDAY 18TH MAY. PLEASE JOIN MY MAILING LIST TO ENSURE YOU RECEIVE UPDATES.
I teach storytelling primarily through my Myth Singers program.
Myth Singers is an online Celtic Storytelling Apprenticeship designed to turn aspiring storytellers into confident and compelling artists.
Whether you want tell on a festival stage, by a campfire or to your children at bedtime, this course has what you’re looking for and more.
What will I get?
Myth Singers is designed to take you to the point where you can comfortably entertain an audience with an hour-long set of Celtic stories.
Every month you will study a Celtic tradition, learn stories from that tradition and sharpen your storytelling skills by telling those stories, with close guidance from me. We meet as a group twice per month for around 2.5hrs.
Over the course of the year, you’ll build a solid foundational understanding of Scottish, Irish and Welsh folklore. You will:
take my Introduction to Storytelling course
learn one or two new Celtic stories every month
acquire a solid foundational understanding of the primary Celtic folklore traditions (Scottish, Welsh & Irish)
get to know your own tastes and storytelling style
learn techniques for telling to both adults and children
do your own research into myth & folklore
steadily grow in confidence as the course progresses
stay in close contact with your group and support one another
benefit from my close personal guidance, both as a storytelling coach and mindset coach
enjoy lifelong access to a growing library of my courses on storytelling and Celtic folklore, including my Scottish Myths & Legends 101 course (value £300)
learn techniques to aid you in developing a deep, soulful relationship to Celtic myth and its inhabitants
experience the joy of watching your course-mates progress alongside you
Myth Singer is both an outward journey – learning to tell stories – and an inward journey. We explore what it is to carry stories. To live with them and learn from them. To feed their wisdom into our everyday lives, while also embroidering them with our own offerings of time, attention and whatever quirky expressions of appreciation arise in us.
This is my premium offering. If you commit to this course, I will commit to your success. And I get results. See what my former students have to say:
Kirsten’s Experience
‘You really are the best coach ever!
I can't even begin to tell you what an amazing, transformational year this has been and what the coaching has meant to me. Every single session has been such a joy and I'm so, so very grateful that you decided to share your wisdom with us.
Thank you for launching Myth Singers, for being so unbelieveably supportive, for passing the torch and for helping me to look beyond the veil. I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!’
Kirsten Milliken, Scotland
(now a professional storyteller and part of the HOL team)
Andrew’s Experience
‘I joined Myth Singers with a love for the stories but also with a real nervousness about telling them to people.
In less than six months that nervousness has transformed into excitement. I’ve had the opportunity to explore and share stories with a wonderful and talented group of people. I now feel comfortable telling stories at public events, and I would not have felt able to do that without the guidance and support from Daniel and the rest of the group.
Daniel’s passion for the stories, his knowledge and his generosity with his time and skills has been invaluable. The Myth Singers programme has been a fun and enriching experience so far, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to share these precious stories and play their part in keeping the tradition alive.’
Andrew Wilson, Scotland
The Program
On this course we will explore the following modules:
Connecting to Stories
Storytelling Fundamentals
Scottish Folklore
Welsh Folklore
Irish Folklore
Creative Mythology
The Business of Storytelling
How it Works
We meet twice per month, from 7-9.30pm UK time on either the 1st and 3rd or 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month (tbc depending on what suits the group).
The course lasts for 12 months, from Samhain to Samhain (31st October to 31st October). This was the beginning of the year in the old Celtic calendar, in which night came before day, dreaming before action.
As well as guidance from me, we will have visits from carefully-chosen teachers of Welsh and Irish folklore. Previous guests have included world-renowned teachers Michael Harvey, Sorcha Hegarty and Angharad Wynne.
As you near graduation, you will receive guidance on putting together your own storytelling event. This could be in person or online; it could be ticketed and marketed or you could just invite a few close friends round for an evening of stories at your home. You’ll go as far as is right for you.
There’s no pressure. You and I will work together to figure out what your project should look like. It will be a stretch, but not too much of a stretch.
There will also be a story-carrying project as part of the Creative Mythology module. This will be a much more personal project, centred on cultivating a deep relationship to a particular story, or inhabitant of a story, or a place which you wish to relate to through story. Though your creativity will be very much at play, there’s no pressure to show anything at the end - this is a personal, soulful practice.
‘The sun is singing the world awake. I, Finn, am the sun.’
From Finn & The Fianna by Daniel Allison.
Study a source text with guidance from its author on the Myth Singers course.
Laura’s Experience
‘I will remain eternally grateful to you for giving me enough confidence to carry on with storytelling. I’m still improving all the time, and remembering to enjoy the dance of it. And it must show at least sometimes: I’ve just been hired by the amazing Crick Crack club for a gig in London in March…
I would have given up if your course hadn’t been there. But now, I can’t even imagine telling stories not being in my life somehow at least.
Thank youuuuuuu!!!!!’
Laura Sampson, England
Guest Teachers
Angharad Wynne is our guest teacher from the Welsh tradition. She has spent much of her life searching for her native spirituality, delving beneath layers of Christianity and following pathways back to the ancient myth and early poetry of Britain. She has spent the past fifteen years of her career mapping the sense of place of communities the length and breadth of Wales, uncovering their stories, histories, folk culture and the secrets of their landscapes. But, her strongest inspiration comes from journeys across Wales, listening with her feet, dreaming with the land, finding new and old ways of knowing.
A published author and poet, she is a storyteller with a background in history and archaeology. In addition to organising and leading the ‘In the Footsteps of the Ancestors’ and creating the ‘Dreaming the Land’ retreats and Dadeni, she is a founding member of the Animate Earth Collective.
Sorcha Hegarty is a Cork-born storyteller and the co-founder of the wildly popular Candlelit Tales. Along with her brother Aron, she has enjoyed a decade of collaborative, eclectic and diverse storytelling shows rooted in Irish Mythology.
Driven by their shared passion for Irish mythology and expression, Aron and Sorcha started retelling ancient stories to a near-empty room upstairs in a Dublin pub one rainy evening in November 2014. By the fourth week, the room was full, and so was the hall outside.
Sorcha has a uniquely expressive, naturalistic and modern style of telling, never hiding away from the challenging aspects of myth yet fully embracing them in all their dark and strange beauty. Her vast knowledge, keen insight and brilliant humour make her a superb teacher of the Irish tradition.
How much does it cost?
The price for the 2024-25 course is £1680 (paying a deposit then a lump sum) or £1800 (paying a deposit then twelve monthly instalments). This includes two group coaching sessions each month, two 1-2-1 coaching sessions, webinars with the best guest teachers in the field, and lifelong access to specially-created courses on all aspects of Celtic mythology and relationship to story.
It also includes close personal guidance throughout the year. Once you’ve committed to studying with me, I’ll be 100% committed to you and your success. I’m always only a WhatsApp message away. You will not get this from other teachers.
How do I Apply?
To apply, contact me using the button below or the form on my contact page once applications open. We’ll schedule a Zoom meeting to have a chat and see if the fit feels good.
I’m looking for two things in potential students: passion and commitment.
Don’t worry about your poor memory, stage fright, not being able to pronounce Welsh names. We’ll work on all that. But if you’re not passionate about stories; if you’re not willing to dedicate yourself to this craft; if you’re not the all-in, boat-burning type then this course isn’t for you.
If you are, I look forward to hearing from you.
‘The Battle Crow washed herself in the river. Her black hair covered her white skin like a cloak. Ever so softly did she sing as she cleansed herself before the coming bloodshed. There was such peace in her song that the willows and rushes leaned in to listen.’
From Irish Mythology: The Children of Danu by Daniel Allison. Study a source text with guidance from its author on the Myth Singers course.
Bronwyn’s Experience
‘If you are looking to take your storytelling practice and knowledge of Celtic mythology to greater depths and higher heights, with a fantastic group of awe-inspiring folks you will very likely be journeying and telling stories with for years to come, and with a terrifically supportive, insightful and inspiring mentor, then Myth Singers is likely the commitment and community you have been looking for.
I wanted accountability in my practice, and a community of like-minded creatives with a similar passion for ancient mythology and folklore. I wanted to have to show up twice a month ready to tell stories at a high level of polish. And I wanted to be taken seriously as a storyteller, after realizing I could only do this by taking myself and my journey to become one seriously.
So I signed up for Myth Singers, and have been showing up and practising the art in a more profound way than I could ever have hoped for ever since. It’s a decision I have not regretted for a second.
I am so grateful to Daniel and to my fellow Myth Singers for this! It’s been life-changing so far, and we’re only halfway through the year….’
Bronwyn Asha, Canada
