NANCY MELLON IS a storyteller, healer, visionary and artist. She has been sounding the healing theme in storytelling for over twenty years, worldwide. Her workshops brim with creativity and wisdom, and now she has written an extraordinary book, Body Eloquence, in collaboration with Ashley Ramsden, founding director of the School of Storytelling at Emerson College UK. The authors offer astonishing new insights to a broad range of readers, including medical practitioners, storytellers and community builders, by exploring the human body as the foundation for transforming the human story.
Donna Eden writes in the Foreword, “Body Eloquence is a thrilling read, guiding us into the cornucopia of poetic relationships that reside in the human body. Its thesis is that every organ embodies a purpose and has an influence that goes far beyond its biological function. Every organ is as vitally connected with the psyche and spirit as it is with blood and oxygen. Every organ embodies a specific theme, holding its own important piece of the cosmos’ great mysteries.”
This is a wondrously profound yet practical book that portrays both Eastern and Western perspectives. It tells the story of the body’s inner landscape in which every organ is a teacher and an ingenious healer with memory and creative responsiveness to internal conditions. Its message is far reaching, as it looks deeply into the connectedness between world stories, mythic patterns and characters, and the human body. It also explores yoga, dance and music relevant to each organ. Body Eloquence aims to awaken us to the stories within us, to help us towards a reverent and practical appreciation for ourselves and our bodies. Its message is one of healing, integration and harmony.
Mellon writes: “Every organ emits its own different rhythmic frequencies and tones. I believe that the healing community will appreciate these more fully in the coming years to very good effect. Musicians and storytellers have always tuned in with more or less intention to these different frequencies in order to communicate with their listeners. They form their words and gestures and plots to bring internal processes into play, to refresh and stimulate, heal and balance.”
Storytelling and its related art-forms have become prevalent now among artists and healers around the world. Artists and healing practitioners alike increasingly recognise that the art of storytelling works as a direct counterbalance to the fast-growing, less personal electronic communications where a screen often replaces human contact. Storytellers speak fully embodied, with visible gestures, wrapped in body warmth and with their faculties intact, including rich imagination and intuition. “Without healthy imagination and intuition that is so important for solving problems on all levels,” cautions Mellon, “both children and adults are simply at the mercy of other people’s images and agendas.”
