From Bearskin to Wild Mountain: Recapping Martin Shaw's West Coast Tour

Plus, a decade of the warp and weft of our collaboration.

Well, the latest Vancouver Island tour with master storyteller Dr. Martin Shaw is now complete.

This series was six months in the making, with seeds planted even earlier, most recently, the cross-Canada tour I produced two years ago.

This time, we stayed local to my region, the Cowichan Valley, with the intention of fidelity to this place and the people are keeping showing up for the medicine of old stories.

It’s worth saying - I had the great good fortune of meeting Martin almost 10 years ago. I first encountered his words via the foreword to my teacher Stephen Jenkinson’s book Die Wise. The language was poetic, wild, and full of striking images. When he turned up at the tail end of Stephen’s session at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, I got to share a raucous conversation with him & others around the meal table.

A week later, we met up in Victoria, BC where a friend had set up a gig in town. Martin had just released his latest book Scatterlings and we sat down to record an interview together, which (with a smattering of existing broll) turned into a short film.

From there, we stayed in touch and when a years later I arrived in his hometown of Devon, we shared a pint at the Cott Inn (licensed since 1320 AD) and spoke about men’s work & masculinity.

I learned that years earlier, he was invited by Robert Bly (author of Iron John) to come to North America and bring his particular storytelling gifts. He studied and worked with many “great trees” of the mythopoetic mens movement: including Malidoma Some, Martín Prechtel, Michael Meade, James Hillman and more. (He was also close friends and collaborators with mythsinger Daniel Deardorff).

Martin (center) with Robert Bly (left) and Daniel Deardroff (right)

But while Martin was steeped in this scene, he came from an entirely different tradition, borne from the soil of the Westcountry of England. He was also the younger man within that generation of teachers, and I see him as a bridge to the new chapter that is emerging now.

I cover this extensively in my conversation with Martin on The Mythic Masculine: Gambling With the Knucklebones of Wolves.

In the years since, Martin has been gracious enough to join me for additional conversations, including The Fall and the Underworld and Trailing Beauty.

In 2023, Martin reached out to see about returning to Canada.

We came up with the ambitious plan to send him across the country, under the tour theme of “Codes from the Old World.”

It was a rousing success, with all the appropriate luck and misadventures along the way. The jewel of the tour was a three day immersion called Wolf Milk (inspired by his book, which wove together storytelling and rites of passage work).

Finally, Martin capped the tour back in Victoria with a livestream show (still available to stream now).

In late 2024, Martin felt the inspiration stirring again to visit these shores again.

I took up the charge and To Fall Beautifully From the Edge of the World was put into motion. As named already, we decided to stay local this time.

In early May, we kicked things off with a day-long men’s gathering on Salt Spring Island.

Martin wrote afterwards:

“What an undiluted joy it was - start to finish. Lot's of young men and few Old Growth fellas amongst us. Themes included decency, courage under fire, the capacity to forgive, starting over - all contained within the bearskin of ancient story. It's given me an idea, and I'm going to the ocean for a couple of days to brood into it. Something happened. There was an energy in the day that was undeniable. Friendly and strong. It's good to locate what is beautiful in men and speak to it. There's going to be more.”

From there, we paired Martin with friend and fellow storyteller Jan Blake (also featured on my podcast Into the Belly of the Dragon and in a live conversation The Camel Driver).

She also happened to be in town from the UK, and I wove a conversation about the art and craft of storytelling to a packed house.

From there, we headed to the big show at The Cowichan Performing Arts Center for The Tent of Seven Doors.

The night began with a welcome and traditional song offered by Qwiyahwultu-hw (Robert George), grounding us in the spirit of the Cowichan territory.

Then, the elegant voice of Hanna Elise graced the stage, offering two ancestral songs that opened the gateway to the old stories.

For the next 90 minutes, Martin conjured a vivid tapestry of tales, humour, wildness, and soul. One story bled into the next, invoking laughter, tears, and profundity. By the end, the standing ovation thundered through the theatre and our bones.

Event photos by Hope Fulton

The final encounter of the tour was Wild Mountain, a four day teaching of the epic of Parzifal and the Grail.

While I’ve read the story before, I had never experienced a telling that unfolded over multiple days. This was a conjuring of a different order - to have a story stretch its wingspan and appear among us is an encounter … was nothing short of the miraculous.

I understand Martin when he advocates for these ancient stories to be “reconsecrated in the living world.”

The power of these deep myths is paramount, especially in a time when confusion reigns and the social order continues to dissolve. Stories can be lanterns in a darkening time. Stories can be elders that offer ballast in the storm.

And stories can be the medicine that sustains the places in our soul we didn’t know were starving.

By now, Martin is back in the UK and into the slipstream of where the road will take him next.

We’re already talking about bigger things to come. Get notified by subscribing to the Mythic Masculine newsletter.

I’m immeasurably grateful for all the folks that pitched in to make this tour happen: from the folks who spread the word and rallied their friends and family, to the venues with capable production staff, to the various hosts who housed and fed Martin, and all the folks who offered small but important efforts.

Special thanks to my partner Asha Marie, as well as Tad Hargrave, Simon Yugler, Kirsten Webb, and Cody Wicks and many others. Also thank you to Cedar Song Center for Wild Belonging for hosting Wild Mountain.