Anne Maria Clarke - Tales of Wonder

Mirror Mirror on the Wall - Anne Maria Clarke

11/23/2018

Mirror Mirror on the Wall?
The transformation of the wicked Queen
Anne Maria Clarke

Moving into middle age is tricky. We are no longer Snow Whites' with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood....no longer Cinderallas' and all the other sweet heroine's with their impossibly tiny feet and innocent hearts.

Finding a way forward within the unfolding drama of life is hard when beauty fades. Yet as always the trusty fairytale helps out by setting the various routes before us.

"Mirror Mirror on the Wall," demands the jealous Queen.
"Who is the fairest of them all?"

You O Queen are fair it is true yet Snow White
is fairer by far than you!"

And so the descent into madness begins and the 'wicked' stepmother sets out to kill the youthful, beautiful Snow White.

There are many such tales of maladjusted Queens wringing their aging hands and hatching elaborate plots to maintain their positions as the lovliest, most loved and admired of all. Poor things! But in the end, after all the schemes, the poisoned apples, the deathly sleep spells and the like, the young pretenders always survive these jealous, insecure Queens.

The mirror never lies you see and nature cannot be checked. But there are other roles, other parts to inhabit and to thrive within, other routes to take not predicated upon the illusion of eternal physical beauty, routes based upon the nurturance of grace and surrender. This is not to say that older women cannot look good, of course not, but we must learn how to move aside when the young ones bloom around us instead of feeling wretched. We must shift, change and transmute or forever be unhappy and bitter and cold like these fairytale Queens' who despite all their efforts end up creating the exact opposite of what they intend.

Paradoxically you see, coming to terms with nature enhances beauty. Jealousy, hanging on, not letting go, fighting the seasons, refusing change is corrosive and this is partly what the faithful mirror reflects back to us.

Age appropriate behaviour on the other hand generates an altogether different kind of woman - one that is easy on herself. In fairytale and myth such characters are not hard to find. In the tale of Cinderella for example there is a kindly soul that all young girls grow up loving: the fairy god mother who magically appears when all seems lost and helps Cinderella realise her dream of going to the ball and dancing until midnight with her handsome prince.

This character's prime quality is kindness. She understands the unfolding drama in ways that the wicked, embittered Queen can never do. She stands aside you see - a pre-requisite of wisdom. She views the story as a whole, with all it's twists and turns and shifting and switching of places and thus behaves with clarity and integrity. No longer the central character of the tale as once she surely was - as perhaps we all were - she has evolved into this most magical of roles.

Appearing when all hope is lost, free from personal desire to help Cinderella escape her life of drudgery and attain her true destiny. With a wiggle of her magic wand she moves the tale toward it's Happy Ending. A humble pumpkin is changed into a fairy coach, six white mice become horses, a seventh a footman and Cinderella's rags are transformed into the most beautiful ball gown ever imagined.

This is mothering in it's highest octave. A most worthy state to which we can all aspire with enthusiasm.

The rewards are great for all concerned - for by these ways - even the most distressed wicked Queen can be redeemed so that when next she looks into the mirror of her soul it can reply most joyously.

"Snow White is still fairer by far than thee.
Yet you, Oh Queen have changed,
the lines of bitterness have softened on your face.
Your heart is at ease.
You have become kind!"

Anne Maria Clarke
x x x

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk /Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness

www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
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One Thousand & One Nights - adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke

10/28/2018

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One Thousand & One Nights
adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke
Title Music: The Lion Goddess
written & performed by
Anne Maria Clarke with David Johnson

This is the story of Scheherazade, the greatest storyteller in the world, who enchanted the cruel Sulton with her tales of wonder and thus preserved her life for One Thousand & One Nights

It is a tale of betrayal, loss and cruelty yet also of healing and eventual forgiveness. It gives us an opportunity to ponder difficult themes as we marvel at the wit & ingenuity of Scheherazade and to ask ourselves if we might be able to bring light into such a place of darkness and to forgive one such as the Sultan who has committed such terrible crimes?

Anne Maria Clarke
x x x

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Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth: Anne Maria Clarke: part two

7/24/2018

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Part Two: July
In this video I explore Tolkien's Imaginal Realm & ask the question: was he really the Maker of Middle Earth or more of a visitor, an honoured guest & recorder of this most mysterious realm? ( text below)
audio recording: David Johnson

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth?
Anne Maria Clarke explores Tolkien's Imaginal Realm
Part Two

J.R.R Tolkien is almost universally regarded as the Maker of Middle Earth and yet he would not have bestowed such a title upon himself. He regarded himself more as a honoured guest within the region rather than it's creator.

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all mannerof beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many
questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.

Tolkien: Essay on Fairy-stories

Looked at in this way fairy – stories clearly open a door into another realm and those who pass through, even for a moment, step beyond their time and maybe, even beyond time itself.

Yet what is this realm, this mysterious other dimension ...far away and ever near – and who are the characters that inhabit it?

Tolkien named it Faerie, a realm of power he said and fantasy is the means of entering it. Carl Jung, the Swiss analyst called it the collective unconscious, to be reached via his notion of active imagination, whilst Henry Corban, the Suffi inspired French philosopher called it the imaginal or mundus imaginalis reached in prayer and meditation.

A philologist, a psychiatrist and a philosopher yet quite clearly visionary artists too, drawn through powerful experience, deep into the transpersonal, into the mystic.

They arose in my mind as 'given' things,

Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher about his tales,

and as they came, separately, so too the links grew. An absorbing, though continually interrupted labour. Yet always I had the sense of recording what was already 'there', somewhere: not of inventing.

J.R.R.Tolkien: Letters

He regarded the resulting tales and paintings as a combination of inspiration and invention based upon his travels and discoveries within the realm. The intersection between the two he regarded as a fusion field of sorts within which the magic of his creations, or sub- creations as he preferred to say, occurred. Always he had the sense of being guided in his endeavours by something greater than himself. His task as he saw it was to stay attuned to that power so that the reader or viewer of the paintings might experience these things as intended.

Writing to W.H, Auden he repeated what he had said to his son.

I dare say something had been going on in the 'unciousness'
for some time and that accounts for my feelings throughout that I was not inventing but recording...imperfectly...and had at times to wait for what really happened to come through.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Letters

In Carl Jung's exquisite, hand written Red Book ( published 2009) that looks more like a medieval illuminated manuscript than a work of recent times, he recounts deeply personal visions and encounters with apparently autonomous aspects of the collective and transpersonal akin to those encountered by Tolkien.

When he began setting these things down around 1915 he was at a stage of his life when he felt he had lost contact with his soul and had set out to re-discover it.

My soul, where are you? Do you hear me?
I speak. I call you
Are you there?

Much to his surprise and initial consternation, he was met with a reply.

Several characters appeared and spoke most notably a wise old man, a spirit guide of sorts, named Philemon, who had appeared in Ovid's Metamorphosis and in Geothe's Faust, a character not unlike Tolkien's Gandalf.

Later Jung said.

[Philemon] was simply a superior knowledge, and he taught me psychological objectivity and the actuality of the soul. He formulated and expressed everything which I had never thought.

He deemed Philemon and other such characters to be aspects within the psyche, which he could produce but which could also produce themselves, as having their own life. They were for him therefore both psychological and metaphysical and set the scene if you like for his theory of the collective unconscious, a vast realm he explained,

replete with archetypes and active principles that interacted between that source and human consciousness.
crystalinks.com

Of these brief years between 1913 and 1916 Jung writes

The years when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. Everything later was merely the outer classification, scientific elaboration and integration into life. But the numinous beginning that contained everything was then.

Carl Jung: on the Red Book

In allowing such phenonema to speak: says James Hillman the American post Jungian analyst, Jung shifted the field of inquiry funementally away from the empirical toward what might be apprehended - rightly in Hillman's view - as poetic and phenomenological.

Poetry is the only appropriate language for matters of the psyche, he says, the only language - save music and the sacred arts capable of rendering the mystery of the soul.

Henry Corbin - Mundus Imaginalis

Between the last degree of time and the first degree of eternity....

This beautiful quotation that I've heard many times on the lips of my editor & teacher Hazel Marshall, introduced me to the sublime ideas of Henry Corbin and his notion of the mundus imaginalis, the realm seemingly to close to Faerie and even aspects of Jung's great collective.

Here he is writing about storytelling within the Suffi tradition in which stories, open doors to the imaginal realm and become initiations for teller and listener alike.

The mystical recital says what cannot be said or make itself known ....in any other way.... for the mystic does not recount a story, he is that story...but it is story that breaks visible history, since it is the passage to that which is hidden from the appearences of this world. The mystic is the object of this meta-historic story because it is in him that it takes place and this is why he is at the same time his agent, the actor and active subject.
Henry Corbin

Else where Cobin quotes the Suffi wisdom tradition in which it is held that,

The reciter, the deed recited and the hero of the recital are one sole and single reality and this takes place in every being, according to the measure of each being.

Corbin's Suffi storyteller, Jung and Tolkien have all clearly attuned to something of a much higher order, like maybe Dante did in the Divine Comedy, or William Blake and the English Romantics in their own visionary outpourings.

Joseph Campbell, the great mythographer is quite clear about how such offerings comes into being. They are glimpsed from above he says by those highly attuned souls who then render their experiences into poetic form.

The visionary experiences of both Jung and Tolkien took place over relatively short periods of time when for both men writes Dr Lance S. Owens, the doors to the other realms were blown wide open. It is a testement to the sanity of both men that they were not overwhelmed by the flood of experience. Both men we know spent the rest of their lives attempting to work through and integrate the material generated during these intensely creative years.

Humility

The thresholds of such realms are not always easy to cross. All the more reason then to enlist the help of a guide. Myth, legend and fairytale are replete with guardian characters, not unlike Philemon, Gandalf and Virgil. Often a ritual cleansing must be undertaken before access to the mysteries may be gained. We must remove our shoes so to speak, shift our focus away from our everyday consciousness, as these aventurers have clearly done before us.

Yet humility is the quality most required in such endeavours and reverence too. It is not to be assumed that one might pass there and back again merely at will. For this is sacred ground, as Corbin reveals and sometimes we might not be able to match its frequency. We are spiritual beings of course - yet we are flesh and blood creatures too.....and so it is not always easy. The perils and pitfalls of hubris are ever present in such endeavours and so humility is our only true safeguard.

Grace

Only ever by grace did Tolkien believe he was admitted to Faerie – only ever by grace had he come and gone since he was a young man in the trenches of World War One, when he had first begun to set things down to accompany the Elven languages he was developing – and later as he convalesced back in England with his beloved Edith looking after him – what wondrous light filled days they must have been – paradoxically – for they existed hand in hand with great grief and loss – and yet the comings and goings went on and on - and it must have seemed as if they would go on forever – but it was not to be – and eventually the light dimmed and his excursions became fewer and fewer until at last they were no more.

Then there was only the memory of what had been.

Much later, toward the end of his life, the short tale of Smith of Wootten Major came to him and he set it down in earnest. It was to be the last tale he wrote before his death in 1973. Some say it's auto – biographical in a way. Who knows! It certainly concerns the adventures of one such soul, the Smith's son, fortunate to come and go between Faerie and the everyday world by means of a fay-star discovered in a children's party cake – and it concerns the necessity too, many years later of giving up that star so that another might know its magic.

I will not spoil the tale for those who have not yet encountered it but I will tell a little of it's wonders; for at the end of all his travels, Star Brow, as he became known, not only has his memories - but the gift of a Living Flower also, a keepsake given to him by a beautiful Elven maiden with whom he once danced in the Vale of Evermorn. He did not know it at the time but she was the Fairy Queen herself, the anima mundi if you like, Soul of the World.

The flower did not wither nor grow dim; and they kept it as a sercet and a treasure. The smith made a little casket with a key for it, and there it lay and was handed down for many generations in his kin; and those who inherited the key would at times open the casket and look long at the Living Flower, till the casket closed again: the time of it's shutting was not theirs to choose.

Tolkien: Smith of Wootton Major

Grace you see: only ever by Grace.

So have a mind to the words of this great man if ever you should wander in the deep, deep realms of Faery – and savour it whilst you can - lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.

Much love

Anne Maria Clarke

x x x

See also: Tolkien: On Fairy-Stories
Anne Maria Clarke explores
Tolkien's Master Class

http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog/tolkien-m…

References
J.R.R. Tolkien:
On Fairy-Stories
Letters
Smith of Wootten Major
Dr Lance S. Owens: Tolkien: An Imaginative Life
https://youtu.be/SuDJ2JzfBT8
Carl Jung: The Red Book
James Hillman - The Red Book: Jung and the Profoundly Personal
https://youtu.be/CBQWN0fL430
Carl Gustav Jung and The Red Book," an all-day symposium, features presentations by prominent Jungian scholars.
https://youtu.be/SAURpBfGA1I
Becca Tarnas:The Back of Beyond: The Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien
PhD Defense by Becca S. Tarnas
https://youtu.be/3soOYajHUBM
Henry Corbin: Mundus Imaginalis John Carey -
The Role of the Grail in Henry Corbin's Thought
https://youtu.be/6dgzeVOUe7M

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Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth Bodleian Library Oxford UK June/October 2018

6/3/2018

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Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth
Anne Maria Clarke @ the Bodlelian Libray Oxford
Part One

On the 1st of June this year I had the very great privilege of attending the opening day of a major new exhibition about J.R.R. Tolkien at the Bodleian libray, Oxford. The city was full of Tolkien enthusiasts the day before when I arrived with my husband. On the way in we drove by 20 Northmoor Road, the quiet leafy street just outside the city where Tolkien had lived with his family between 1930 and 1947 and from where he wrote the Hobbit & much of The Lord of the Rings. Whilst we were parked, discreetly we hoped on the opposite side of the road, several other cars pulled up and people emerged briefly with cameras to take photos before continuing on their way. Our central hotel too was full of those who had come especially from all over the world and we overheard several fascinating conversations about the great man, whose appeal as we know is universal. Nearly one hundred thousand exhibition tickets we were told, have been booked in advance.

*******
The Bodleian library, under the direction of curator and Tolkien archivist, Catherine Mcllwaine has created a wonderful exhibition. A ' once in a life time event' announced the Telegraph, and for fans, it is indeed a treat.

One enters via a hallway onto whose surfaces familiar maps and images from the tales have been brilliantly projected as illuminated animations, effectively drawing you in so to speak, to the terrain of Middle Earth. The interior of the exhibition is replete with treasures and curiosities of all kinds, ordinary and extra-ordinary alike. Tolkien's old desk and chair for example, intricate doodles on faded newspaper crossword pages, overlaid with Tolkien's exquisite calligraphy and snippets of obscure Elven phrases.....clearly works of art in their own right. There are photos and details of his childhood and early education, his time in the army during the First World War, the love of his life Edith and their four children: progressing sequentially through to his time as an Oxford Don and the beginnings of his writing, illustration and consolidation of his Elven languages of which astoundingly, there were sixteen. There are audio recordings too, featuring classic and well-loved Elven phrases and a large central 3D map of Middle Earth illuminating the route taken by Frodo and his companions from the Shire, through Rivendell and Lothlorien to Mordor.

Particularly charming are the hand-written pages and illustrations from Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas which he wrote and illustrated for his children for a full twenty-three years.

There are letters from fans including the Queen of Denmark, Joni Mitchell and Iris Murdock, all in praise and wonderment at his achievements.

Prominently featured are Tolkien's own illustrations of his work, several of which have been enlarged and projected onto the walls. His original covers for three parts of The Lord of the Rings are displayed alongside his delightful Book of Ishness and some original manuscript from his founding epic The Silmarillion, all of which so perfectly depict the magical realms in a way which as in the writing, exhibit his unique capacity to juxtapose utterly sublime and visionary themes with the humble everyday concerns and comforts of life, like the importance of the hobbits second breakfast. He renders both with finesse and an almost transcendent lucidity.

Judging from snippets of conversations overheard as we made our around, it seemed to me as if each person had their own very personal thing going on, their own deep and intimate connection with the landscape and characters of Middle Earth - as if they had personally traversed the difficult terrain, experienced the terrors, exhilarations and profound beauty of that world. And I marvelled at Tolkien's great genius at being able to realise and to animate such a realm and convey it simultaneously into our collective and deeply intimate and private worlds.

He wanted to create a new mythology some have said, one rooted in the landscape of Britain and in the Northern countries to which he felt such affinity. It is abundantly clear and has been so for many years, that he suceeded in doing just that.

A clever, clever man without doubt, an Oxford don, philologist, medievalist, creator of languages....and yet....his sucesss as a person, a husband and father as well as an author is rooted not only in these scholarly attributes but in his connection to and his deep humility in relation to something far greater than himself, as the following little story reveals.

Tolkien once received a letter from a reader who said that although he himself had very little faith, the world Tolkien wrote of seemed permeated with such a quality....

which seems to be everywhere without a visible source like light from an invisible lamp....and this gives me great comfort.

Tolkien replied as follows:

I can only answer that of his own sanity no man can securely judge....I can only say that if santity inhabits his work or a pervading light illumines it then it does not come from him, but through him and you would not perceive it in these terms unless it was with you also.

It is this most generous and inclusive recognition (to which I would like to return in part two) that marks Tolkien out as a man of real wisdom and that imbues his work with a purity all too rare in our contemporary world.

To be continued.....

Anne Maria Clarke
x x x
tolkien.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG
Dates1 June – 28 October 2018
Exhibition hours Mon-Sat 10AM – 5PM
Sun 11AM – 5PM

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Pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Czetochowa ( YouTube version) Anne Maria Clarke

5/1/2018

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Black Virgins, found mostly in France, Spain, Switzerland and Poland are widely believed to be ‘a survival and a continuation under a new name and a new religion, of the goddesses of the classical world.’ Goddesses like the Shulamite whose poignant voice opens the sublime Song of Songs in the Old Testament.

‘I am black and I am beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.’

This is a personal the story of a pilgrimage taken to Poland's own highly revered Black Madonna of Czetochowa.

Written & Presented by
Anne Maria Clarke
Audio Production
David Johnson
Title Music
Prelude in C J.S.Bach
(BWV 846) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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CELTIC LEGEND The Shepherd of Myddvai & the Fairy Maiden

4/2/2018

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A 12th century Welsh legend about a shepherd who meets and marries a beautiful fairy maiden who emerges from the depths of a hillside lake in the Black Mountains of Carmarthenshire.....

Adapted & Perfomed by Anne Maria Clarke
Vocal Arrangements Composed & Performed by
Ruth Churchill - Dower with Anne Maria Clarke
Music Composed & Performed by Chris Chambers
David Johnson audio production.
Illustration - Through the Looking Glass - Edward Burne-Jones

Many years ago when my children were small, we often visited Wales during the summer holidays. We stayed on a farm deep in the Carmarthanshire countryside.
One year the Farmers wife gave us a present of Joseph Jacobs' Celtic Fairy Tales in which I discovered the legend The Shepherd of Myddvai and the Fairy Maiden (no direct relation to Arthurien Lady of the Lake but a distant relation if you like, who emerged from the depths, the same watery portal to the celtic otherworld from which such creatures may from time to time rise up to interact with us mortal folk.

Over the next few years we visited the tiny village of Myddvai many times and took the long walk up the mountain side to the remote lake of Lyn y fan fach, where story is said to have begun.

On returning home I wrote my own adaptation of the story with a view to recording it and was blessed to work with the lovely Ruth Churchill - Dower Chris Chambers and David Johnson who collectively helped bring it all to life.

We performed it live several times and made a studio recording which has remained in our archive ever since.

It is with great pleasure and fond, fond memories of all those involved in its creation that we have decided to issue it here this year.

much love

Anne Maria Clarke

x x x

# me too

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Celtic Inspiration: From a Dream of Angus Oge at New Grange, Ireland by George William Russell

3/1/2018

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From a Dream of Angus Oge
at New Grange (Sid in Broga) Ireland
George William Russell
read by
Anne Maria Clarke
Music by
Chris Collins
www.indiemusicbox.com
Audio Production
David Johnson
x x x

New Grange (Sid in Broga) Ireland - once a a temple of the great Mother Goddess. Her triple Lunar Spiral is carved upon a huge stone at it's entrance. Yet both Lunar & Solar dieties were reverred here & it is famous for being oriented towards to the Winter Solstice sunrise.

New Grange (Sid in Broga) is the largest and most impressive of several dozen prehistoric monuments found in the Boyne Valley 32 km (20 miles) northwest of Dublin in Ireland. New Grange was constructed 5,000 years ago, and forms part of a sacred landscape that includes the nearby site of Tara, seat of the ancient kings of Ireland.
Order of Druids Oviets & Bards
www.druidry.org/library/library/new-grange-ireland

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness

www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Anam Cara - Soul Friend Anne Maria Clarke

2/1/2018

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Anne Maria Clarke
music David Johnson
Illustration Wendy Andrew

“Your beloved and your friends were once strangers. Somehow at a particular time, they came from the distance toward your life. Their arrival seemed so accidental and contingent. Now your life is unimaginable without them. ”
John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

For Christmas this past year my husband and I bought each other new wedding rings - mine is a beautiful diamond - his a silver band from Ireland engraved with the words Anam Cara. When I showed him a picture of it before I bought it, his whole face lit up and I knew it was perfect.

The notion of Anam Cara is close to our hearts you see and has seen us through moments of great joy and celebration as well as through extreme sadness and despair.

Anam means soul and cara is friend.

This idea of the soul friend has deep roots in Celtic Spirituality. It was brought into popular consciousness a couple of decades ago by the much loved yet now sadly departed John O' Donohue the Irish poet and mystic, in his beautiful book Anam Cara : a book of Celtic Wisdom bought for me by such a friend as treasured thereafter. ….

Originally reserved for one's spiritual mentor, shaman, druid, or latterly priest, to whom one confessed one's inner world and from whom one received spiritual guidance, the term evolved to embrace lovers, close friends and even beloved animals. We may have hundreds of acquaintances and social contacts yet the vast majority of us will only have five or six core friendships over the entire course of our lives.

Such friendships are precious indeed and are somehow distinguished from others by the level of intimacy present.

With our soul friends, we are enabled by some mysterious connection to penetrate through to a deeper level of knowing, to slip through some kind of inter -dimensional portal if you like, to a realm where we are connected to what is infinite and eternal within the soul.

Our Anam Cara come into our lives and it is as if we have known each other before, maybe many times, in many lives who knows? Yet whatever the ultimate explanations may turn out to be, they know us profoundly.

Friendships like these says John O' Donohue, are always an act of recognition.....there is a flash of recognition and the embers of kinship glow.

They get us on a deep, deep level: they understand our soul's purpose and will assist us to full-fill it. We may at times be separated for many years, our lives may take us in very different directions, sometimes many hundreds of miles away from one another and yet the bond with ones Anam Cara is never broken even when these dear ones have died.

It is love that allows this deep knowing of another to occur, an ancient love of the unique soul that inhabits the body whilst here on earth. Such love, says O' Donohue,

….. is absolutely vital for a human life. For love alone can awaken what is divine within you. In love, you grow and come home to your self. When you learn to love and let yourself be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit. You are warm and sheltered.
John O'Donohue

On New Year's Day my husband and I took a walk into the frosty wood near our house with our faded wedding service sheet that we had written many years ago. The last time we read it was two years ago in Rome on our anniversary. We had stayed in a little pensione with a lovely view of Saint Peter's Basilica. As the sun set over the old city we lit candles and stood at the open window re-reading our vows with tears brimming in our eyes as though not a single moment had passed since we read them as two young people.

This year, a little older still, my husband led our way through the wood to a circle of young oak trees he's been tending for nearly a decade. There're off the beaten track, nestled behind a group of tall, established trees, thick laurel bushes and prickly brambles. I'd not seen them for a couple of years and was surprised at how much they'd grown. This is one of my husband's special spaces, sacred space if you like, where he comes to be quiet, sometimes very late at night. No one, apart from foxes, badgers, moles, rabbits, birds of course and monk jack deer frequent this spot and so it's very peaceful. We stood in the circle, with the characterful oaks surrounding us and I began to read our favourite passage from Journey to the East by Herman Hesse which we had first quoted all those years ago.

There were wonderful festive days whenever we met other parties on our way.....numerous groups were simultaneously on the move, each following their own leaders and their own stars, each one always ready to merge into a greater unit and belong to it for a time, but equally prepared to move on again separately. Some went on their way quite alone. I also walked alone at times, without a tent, without a leader, without a speaker.

Our tale is difficult to tell because we not only wandered through space, but also through time. We moved toward the East, but we also travelled into the Middle Ages and the Golden Age; we roamed through Italy and Switzerland, but at times we also spent the night in the tenth century and dwelt with the patriarches or the fairies.

During the times I remained alone, I often found again the places and people of my own past. Sometimes my company consisted of the beloved characters of my books; Almansor, Parsifal, Witiko or Goldmund rode by my side, or Sancho.

When I found my way back to our group in some valley or other, heard the league songs and camped by their leaders' tents, it was immediately clear to me that my excursions into my childhood and my ride with Sancho belonged essentially to this journey.

For our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something geographical, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and nowhere, it was the union of all times.

Hermann Hesse, The Journey to the East

As we stood together in the winter wood, re- reading these familiar words with the oaks bearing witness, it was for a moment as if we too had stepped out of time .....into the infinity of love itself and silently we gave thanks, for each other and for all the wonderful soul friends we have known along our way that have enriched our lives so deeply.

What grace it is that we find each other.......what divine magic!

And so in parting I wish the same for you, and....if you have not yet met your Anam Cara, your own Soul Friend or Friends, may they make haste from the distance toward you and may your heart open wide to greet and cherish them.

much love
Anne Maria Clarke

DREAMING THE WAYS OF ELEN
Wendy Andrew
https://www.paintingdreams.co.uk

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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness

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Once upon a time in 2017

1/1/2018

2 Comments

Once upon a time in 2017

Much love and gratitude from Anne Maria Clarke x x x

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness

www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet (YouTube version)

12/13/2017

2 Comments

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy? Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

11/27/2017

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Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy?
Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

The Sugar Plum Fairy is related to a group of make - believe characters traditionally placed on the top of Christmas Trees or - fashioned from icing or marzipan – are used to decorate birthday cakes and the like. Frivolous creations yet frequently treasured by their owners, like the brightly coloured Nutcracker doll in the ballet story - each year brought down from lofts and attics where they reside for most of the year, carefully wrapped in tissue and old newspaper.....but please do not imagine that this is all they are.

The Sugar Plum Fairy has deep roots in myth, in centuries old stories of mortal beings spirited away into other realms, magical realms that do not conform in the slightest to our everyday world. Oisin is famously carried away to Tir Nag Nog in the Irish legend, Taliesin to Annwn, the Welsh Other world and Thomas the Rhymer in the Scottish poem, who accompanies a beautiful lady to Elf land where he remains for seven full years.

There are various ways of arriving in such places or states as they might be more helpfully understood. In the Nutcracker story, young Clara falls asleep beneath the lighted tree on Christmas Eve and like Alice, who drinks her magic potion, shrinks down to the size of her toys and dreams of journeying to an enchanted realm with the Nutcracker doll given to her as a gift by her uncle, the local toymaker. The imaginal world, the 'let's pretend place' if you like, is all at once animated, made real and true and the everyday world for the duration, pales into a kind of bland insignificance. Yet it is precisely because of these 'adventures' these extra-ordinary journeys into the beyond, that our everyday mortal world is enriched and made new.

Joseph Campbell called such adventures The Heros Journey, the pattern of which is reflected in stories from across the globe. First he says, the hero must leave the familiar world, he or in this case she, must break away, however fleetingly from the enthral of the parent, she must cross the threshold between what is known and what is unknown. There will inevitably be difficulties along the way, obstacles and challenges to face that will ultimately lead her to grow up and she will come back changed, no longer a child but a young woman with the knowledge gained – the treasure if you like that she brings home from her adventure.

In our story, it is almost as if in crafting and giving Clara the handsome Nutcracker doll her uncle is enabling this important transition from childhood to adolescence. In Joseph Campbell's scheme, this uncle could well be the wise helper whom the heroine is destined to meet. He is clearly the initiator of the adventure and knows full well the powers invested in his Christmas Nutcracker doll. He knows too of the Sugar Plum Fairy who inhabits the heart of the make – believe kingdom whom Clara is destined to meet.

Parents of course are reluctant to let their children go and often do not recognise the moment when it is right to do so and so it falls to others, like Clara's uncle to create the opening for the adventure.

In Tolkien's tale Smith of Wootton Major, it is the apprentice baker who steps in with a similar sort of magic. Every year a beautiful cake is made for the village children and in it is placed a lucky charm ( in truth a Fay-Star ) whose finder can thereafter travel there and back into the realm of Faery.
A pretty pink fairy, not unlike our Sugar Plum is placed on top of the cake to add to the enchantment – but no one ever knows that she is actually a manifestation of the mighty Fairy Queen herself who rules over the enchanted realm with her husband the Fairy King – humbly disguised in this tale as the apprentice cook. Not all is what it seems to be at first glance you see and the fairy on the cake and indeed our own Sugar Plum are merely ways in which these immense archetypal energies choose to clothe themselves at what we might call - their lower octave - or frequency, the outer ripples if you like, of the deep, deep source from which they come to form.

Well, the young boy who finds the Fay-Star ....Tolkien's alter ego it has been said.... travels at will between the worlds and becomes known as Star-brow, for whenever he returns from Faery, the star which is stuck to his brow glows and glows especially after he meets the Fairy Queen.

But before Clara and her Prince can tavel to such a realm, they must first do battle with the seven headed Mouse King who appears after midnight in the sitting room with his army of mice. The battle is hard fought with each side alternately gaining and loosing in ascendency but then the mice get the upper hand and for a scary moment it seems as if the Nutcracker is defeated. The Mouse King swells with pride, momentarily taking his eye off the battle – but that one moment is all that is required by an emboldened Clara who grabs a gigantic slipper ...and hurling it across the room with all her might, hits the fearsome Mouse King in the head, knocking him down dead.

Triumphant, Clara and the Nutcracker then journey across the skies to the enchanted Land of Snow during which time they fall sweetly in love. The Nutcracker becomes Clara's beloved, completing her introduction to the adult world. On arrival in the snow clad kingdom they are greeted by a troupe of delightful Dancing Snowflakes before continuing their journey onward to the delicious Land of Sweets, presided over by the Sugar Plum. They tell her of their battle with the household mice and she rewards their courage with a spectacle of seven lovely dances culminating in her own exquisite Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy with it's tricky turns that is the pinnacle of the entire ballet.

Clara then awakens from her dream, still clutching her beloved Nutcracker doll. She dances with him in her arms savouring the wonders of the night before. The curtain falls, the audience applaud rapturously if all has gone well, willing the curtain to rise up once more. The characters then dance one last time onto the stage to take their well earned bows, each in order of importance concluding of course with the delectable Sugar Plum who completes the grand finale.

Yet surely this is a story for children and it is to the soul of the child or indeed the inner child that it calls. It is nostalgic certainly, a recreation of an ideal Christmas adventure into the world of the imagination – and - if you have spent any time with very young children, those who have not yet lost their innocence, you will know that this is just the kind of adventure they adore and from which they benefit hugely. They know full well the difference between dimensions – that toys don't actually come to life, that children don't actually shrink down to join them and do battle with household mice. They know clearly that the Land of Sweets is imaginary and that the Sugar Plum Fairy is a figment of this realm ....and yet....and yet...within its own ontology... to use a clever, yet perfectly precise word, such things are as real as real can be.

So please don't scoff and turn up your intellectual nose - for the Sugar Plum Fairy, albeit fashioned from festive marzipan and frosted icing ... is not at all discontinuous with the Fairy Queen proper – as Tolkien has clearly shown us - the archetype - the goddess in fact before whom men quake in their boots and bow down.....and to whom, unless we have hearts of stone, we are all ineffably drawn.

At Christmas time, in our Western traditions, alongside the more sober Mother of God, this is clearly how she finds her way into our everyday lives. We can make her small if we wish, we can diminish her significance, like TinkerBell in Peter Pan - yet there she still is, every year delighting us with her magic.

Like Oisin, Taliesin, Thomas the Rhymer and Star-Brow, Clara and the Nutcracker Prince all meet a Fairy Queen of sorts – and maybe it is fitting that our Christmas adventurers meet her in the form of the Sugar Plum, for it is said that to meet her within her higher octave, so to speak, is sometimes too awesome an experience. The Nutcracker is a taster therefore, a prepatatory initiation into the more grown up wonders to come.

So have a mind to these deep connections when you place your own manufactured fairy atop your Festive Tree. She is no lightweight - as innocent children see very well - she is a reflection of light itself - glorious and utterly compelling to behold - the feminine aspect of the the Divine within creation.

Happy Solstice
&
Merry Christmas to all

Anne Maria Clarke

x x x

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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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HEAVENLY CREATIONS (YouTube Version) Anne Maria Clarke explores the wonders of The Alhambra

10/29/2017

2 Comments

There is a pattern in the heavens that those who want to can see & establish it in their own minds
Socrates

Heavenly Creations (YouTube version)
Written & Presented by Anne Maria Clarke
Music and Audio Production: David Johnson

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Sleeping Beauty - Awakening the Slumbering Soul Anne Maria Clarke

9/30/2017

1 Comment

Adapted & narrated by
Anne Maria Clarke
Audio production
David Johnson
Music composed & performed by
Tom Nordon
Illustrations
Edward Burne-Jones

To celebrate over 25 years of telling tales I have decided to re - issue the very first fairy-story I ever adapted and set to music. It came about after being given an enchanting book by P. L. Travers entitled All About the Sleeping Beauty in which the author delves into the rich symbolism and mystery of the this classic tale and it's continuing relevance and applicability to us all.

'What is it in us that at a certain moment suddenly falls asleep,' she asks. 'Who lies hidden within us. And who will come at last to awaken us, what aspect of ourselves?
To give an answer, supposing we had it, would break the law of the fairy tale. And perhaps no answer is necessary. It is enough that we ponder upon and love the story and ask ourselves the question.'
P.L.Travers
ALL ABOUT THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/
Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Preghiera di Pace - San Francesco d'i Assisi Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

8/31/2017

5 Comments

Preghiera di Pace
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Each year on International Peace Day, the United Nations invite us to join together in a celebration of peace by way of a globally linked network of events and artistic contributions from across the world.
We decided to make a recording of this beautiful Peace Prayer as a contribution.
http://internationaldayofpeace.org/get-involved
narration
ANNE MARIA CLARKE
audio production
DAVID JOHNSON
music
composed & performed by
MATTIA CUPELLI
www.mattiacupelli.com/
illustrations
www.googleimages.com

PREGHIERA DI PACE
Signore, fa' di me un strumento alla tua pace;
Dove e' odio che io porti l'amore.
Dove e' offesa, che io porti il perdono,
Dove e' discordia che io porti l'umione.
Dove e' dubbio che io porti la fede.
Dove e' errore che io porti la verita.
Dove e' disperanzione che io porti la speranza.
Dove e' tristezza che io porti la gioia.
Dove sono tenebre, che io porti la luce.
Maestro, fa che io non min' tanto,
Ad essere consolato quanto a consolare.
Ad essere compreso quanto a compredere.
Ad essere amato, quanto ad amare.
Poiche' donando si riceve.
Perdonando si e perdonati,
Morendo si risuscita a vita eterna.

PRAYER OF PEACE - Translation
Father, make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring love,
Where their is injury, let me bring pardon
Where there is discord, let me bring unity.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith,
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is despair let me bring hope.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
Where there is darkness, let me bring light.
Master, grant that I may not so much seek,
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
Morendo si risuscita a vita eterna.

The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") is observed around the world each year on 21 September. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace. From education to the arts, social justice to sports, health to the environment, neighborhood issues to service for others, there are many ways to participate in Peace Day! We (United Nations) invite you to create a public or private activity related to peace, spread the word about Peace Day... LEARN MORE

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
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More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/
Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version) adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke

7/31/2017

2 Comments

THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version)
adapted & narrated by ANNE MARIA CLARKE
music by CHRIS CHAMBERS
audio production DAVID JOHNSON
Illustration: Between Earth & Water - KAREN DAVIS

A Celtic Folktale

"Where ever the sea meets the shore - where ever the water is deep and cold enough for seals – the tale of the Selkie Bride is told...."

Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/
Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog

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Mirror Mirror on the Wall - Anne Maria Clarke

Mirror Mirror on the Wall?
The transformation of the wicked Queen
Anne Maria Clarke

One Thousand & One Nights - adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke

One Thousand & One Nights
adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke
Title Music: The Lion Goddess
written & performed by
Anne Maria Clarke with David Johnson

Keep up to date with Anne Maria Clarke's blog

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth: Anne Maria Clarke: part two

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth?
Anne Maria Clarke explores Tolkien's Imaginal Realm
Part Two

Grace

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth Bodleian Library Oxford UK June/October 2018

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth
Anne Maria Clarke @ the Bodlelian Libray Oxford
Part One

Pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Czetochowa ( YouTube version) Anne Maria Clarke

CELTIC LEGEND The Shepherd of Myddvai & the Fairy Maiden

Adapted & Perfomed by Anne Maria Clarke
Vocal Arrangements Composed & Performed by
Ruth Churchill - Dower with Anne Maria Clarke
Music Composed & Performed by Chris Chambers
David Johnson audio production.
Illustration - Through the Looking Glass - Edward Burne-Jones

Celtic Inspiration: From a Dream of Angus Oge at New Grange, Ireland by George William Russell

From a Dream of Angus Oge
at New Grange (Sid in Broga) Ireland
George William Russell
read by
Anne Maria Clarke
Music by
Chris Collins
www.indiemusicbox.com
Audio Production
David Johnson
x x x

Anam Cara - Soul Friend Anne Maria Clarke

Anne Maria Clarke
music David Johnson
Illustration Wendy Andrew

DREAMING THE WAYS OF ELEN
Wendy Andrew
https://www.paintingdreams.co.uk

Once upon a time in 2017

Once upon a time in 2017

Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet (YouTube version)

Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy? Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy?
Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

HEAVENLY CREATIONS (YouTube Version) Anne Maria Clarke explores the wonders of The Alhambra

Sleeping Beauty - Awakening the Slumbering Soul Anne Maria Clarke

Preghiera di Pace - San Francesco d'i Assisi Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Preghiera di Pace
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version) adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke

THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version)
adapted & narrated by ANNE MARIA CLARKE
music by CHRIS CHAMBERS
audio production DAVID JOHNSON
Illustration: Between Earth & Water - KAREN DAVIS

A Celtic Folktale

Anne Maria Clarke is a writer and storyteller of myths, legends and fairy - stories.

Archives

Mirror Mirror on the Wall?The transformation of the wicked Queen Anne Maria Clarke

One Thousand & One Nightsadapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke Title Music: The Lion Goddesswritten & performed by Anne Maria Clarke with David Johnson

Keep up to date with Anne Maria Clarke's blog

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth?Anne Maria Clarke explores Tolkien's Imaginal RealmPart Two

Grace

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-EarthAnne Maria Clarke @ the Bodlelian Libray OxfordPart One

Adapted & Perfomed by Anne Maria ClarkeVocal Arrangements Composed & Performed byRuth Churchill - Dower with Anne Maria ClarkeMusic Composed & Performed by Chris ChambersDavid Johnson audio production.Illustration - Through the Looking Glass - Edward Burne-Jones

From a Dream of Angus Ogeat New Grange (Sid in Broga) IrelandGeorge William Russellread byAnne Maria ClarkeMusic byChris Collinswww.indiemusicbox.comAudio ProductionDavid Johnsonx x x

Anne Maria Clarke music David JohnsonIllustration Wendy Andrew

DREAMING THE WAYS OF ELENWendy Andrew https://www.paintingdreams.co.uk

Once upon a time in 2017

Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy?Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

Preghiera di PacePeace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version)adapted & narrated by ANNE MARIA CLARKEmusic by CHRIS CHAMBERSaudio production DAVID JOHNSONIllustration: Between Earth & Water - KAREN DAVIS

A Celtic Folktale

Anne Maria Clarke is a writer and storyteller of myths, legends and fairy - stories.

Archives

Mirror Mirror on the Wall?
The transformation of the wicked Queen
Anne Maria Clarke

One Thousand & One Nights
adapted & narrated by Anne Maria Clarke
Title Music: The Lion Goddess
written & performed by
Anne Maria Clarke with David Johnson

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth?
Anne Maria Clarke explores Tolkien's Imaginal Realm
Part Two

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth
Anne Maria Clarke @ the Bodlelian Libray Oxford
Part One

Adapted & Perfomed by Anne Maria Clarke
Vocal Arrangements Composed & Performed by
Ruth Churchill - Dower with Anne Maria Clarke
Music Composed & Performed by Chris Chambers
David Johnson audio production.
Illustration - Through the Looking Glass - Edward Burne-Jones

From a Dream of Angus Oge
at New Grange (Sid in Broga) Ireland
George William Russell
read by
Anne Maria Clarke
Music by
Chris Collins
www.indiemusicbox.com
Audio Production
David Johnson
x x x

Anne Maria Clarke
music David Johnson
Illustration Wendy Andrew

DREAMING THE WAYS OF ELEN
Wendy Andrew
https://www.paintingdreams.co.uk

Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy?
Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet

Preghiera di Pace
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

THE SELKIE BRIDE (YouTube version)
adapted & narrated by ANNE MARIA CLARKE
music by CHRIS CHAMBERS
audio production DAVID JOHNSON
Illustration: Between Earth & Water - KAREN DAVIS