The myth of Pygmalion: How to bring beauty to life - Lian Brook-Tyler
Release Date: 07/23/2025
The hidden power in mythic stories of desire and love - Stephanie MacKay
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Stephanie MacKay. Stephanie is a mythologist, wilderness guide, and cultural craftswoman devoted to the long, slow work of remembering how to belong—to land, to lineage, to story, and to each other. As founder and director of Fianna Wilderness School, she has spent the past 15+ years guiding rites of passage, seasonal myth circles, and nature-based mentorship rooted in the wilds. Stephanie’s work braids together her Celtic ancestry, years of deep study with Martín Prechtel and the Animas Valley Institute, and a fierce love of story as medicine. She...
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How to heal the wounded men: trauma, numbness & masculinity - Hugh Newton
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Hugh Newton. Hugh’s life began in the midst of a war in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). Growing up in such harsh conditions meant that he had to work hard to overcome his complex childhood trauma. Hugh began his self-development journey 30 years ago, and has been passionate about both supporting men to step into the fullest versions of themselves, and strengthening and uplifting the African continent that he loves so much. Hugh works as the lead male facilitator at Celebration of Being, and was a certified leader at A Band of Brothers for 7 years....
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The ‘small print’ of working with powerful myths and archetypes - Caitlín Matthews
Be Mythical
This week’s show is with Caitlín Matthews. Caitlín is an internationally renowned author, a teacher of shamanic training programme, a facilitator of Systemic Ritual® and the co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS). Caitlín is the author of over 80 books, including Diary of a Soul Doctor, Singing the Soul Back Home, the Art of Celtic Seership, Celtic Devotional and The Celtic Book of the Dead. Her books have won a number of awards. She is known internationally for her work on the spiritual, mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. She...
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How to honour the differences between men and women - Serdar Hararovich
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Serdar Hararovich. Serdar is a Relationship & Secure Attachment Specialist offering integrative, attachment-based coaching and healing. He supports both men and women to heal early attachment wounds, establish inner security, reclaim their deepest self, and cultivate the emotional skills required for deep, soulful, and secure love. Serdar works with a wide variety of individuals - including, but not limited to, therapists, relationship coaches, and other practitioners. The common thread among his clients is a deep desire to go beyond the surface -...
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Plato’s allegory of the cave: how to journey from shadows to truth - Lian Brook-Tyler
Be Mythical
In this episode, Lian tells the ancient allegory of Plato’s Cave, a story of awakening and the painful beauty of learning to see. Each month, Lian’s shared a mythical tale as a doorway into your own soul. These stories are one of the oldest ways ancestral wisdom has been carried down to us, a living inheritance that continues to speak when we meet them with reverence. And this one feels especially poignant, because it will be the last story Lian tells in this way. Our community is evolving into its next form, UNIO: the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls. UNIO now becomes the living home...
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How to manifest beyond vision boards: metaphysics & morality - Mike Bais
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined once again by Mike Bais. Mike is Lian’s own Kabbalah teacher, a physiotherapist, counsellor, university lecturer and author, also having had his own practice for many years. He is a trained priest in the esoteric christian tradition, which lead him to follow the mystical side of this lineage called the A.S.A. (Apostolic Succession of Arimathea). He believes that the Teachings of Christ are universal and should not be limited to a religious structure. His esoteric training comes from the western mystery tradition and the Toledano Kabbalah. Living in the...
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Shamanism vs animism: how to live spiritually in modern times - Nicholas Breeze Wood
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him. Nick’s shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects -...
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How to be seen: small changes that make your unique presence work for you - John Kippen
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by John Kippen. John is an entrepreneur, professional magician, speaker, resilience and empowerment coach and published author. John was dealt a bad blow in 2002 when he was diagnosed with a large benign brain tumor. Its removal, although successful, left him with permanent facial paralysis which stopped his forward momentum forcing him into hiding for more than 12 years. As John hit bottom, he rediscovered his childhood love for performing magic and storytelling. Now filled with passion and hope, he discovered that his facial paralysis had become his...
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Ancient technology & modern science: the power of the shamanic drum - Sophie Messager
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Sophie Messager. Sophie bridges worlds that rarely meet. A former reproductive physiologist with a PhD, she traded her microscope for holistic practices after experiencing the transformative power of an empowered birth. Her decade-long journey as a doula, birth educator, and author of deepened her exploration of the rhythms surrounding women’s transitions. Now a holistic life transition mentor, Sophie guides women through significant life thresholds – from birth to perimenopause and beyond. Her unique combination of scientific expertise and...
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The healing home: how to design your house as a sanctuary - Paula Robinson
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Paula Robinson. As an intuitive interior designer, Paula understands the profound effect that the spaces where we live and work have on our health, happiness and success in life. Often called the ‘space whisperer’, she helps people to create living and working environments that transform their lives on all levels. Paula has been an interiors columnist for The Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and Move Or Improve? magazine, and is the author of "" and "". Paula is happiest in nature - especially by the sea - and loves designing outdoor spaces. She is...
info_outlineIn this episode, Lian shares the ancient and evocative myth of Pygmalion, a story of longing, creation, and the mystery of what brings something… or someone… to life.
Each month, Lian tells a mythical tale… as spell, as memory, as invitation... not to be analysed or consumed, but to be felt, stirred, remembered as a magical doorway into your own soul.
She first shared this live with our beloved community in UNIO, our Academy of the Soul, in which we continue to journey more deeply together with it in a month-long quest.
To join us for the next mythical quest, you can join UNIO here: bemythical.com/unio
In this telling, Lian explores the mythic figure of Pygmalion… a sculptor who turns away from the women of his world and instead pours his longing into the creation of his own ideal. Together, we walk with her through the temple of Venus, through stone and flesh, through the spaces where our own unspoken dreams might come to life.
This is more than a tale of a man and a statue… it is a meditation on what we create when we shape from love, and how the act of creating shapes us in return. It reminds us of the timeless dance between the human and the divine… how longing leads us to the altar, how offerings made in faith and beauty may yet be answered. Listeners are invited to reflect on their own sacred longings, and how these desires might be the soul’s way of sculpting something real into existence.
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage.
What you’ll receive from this episode:
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The longing beneath creation: Pygmalion’s yearning reminds us that what we create from devotion holds the power to awaken not just the object of our love, but something within us too.
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The mystery of transformation: As in myth, so in life… what seems lifeless may stir to breath beneath our touch, when desire meets ritual and prayer.
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The sacred act of shaping: Whether in art, relationships, or the soul’s unfolding, we are always creating… and in turn being created.
Resources and stuff Lian spoke about:
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Join UNIO, the Academy of the Soul: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.
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Join our mailing list for soul stirring goodness: https://www.bemythical.com/moonly
Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth: https://www.bemythical.com/unio
Go Deeper: https://www.bemythical.com/godeeper
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