Maggie Duval

Mystic, wizard, and creative polymath, Maggie carries a deep, familial connection with Nature, more at home deep in a forest in the middle of nowhere, the wide-open spaces of the West, or the timelessness of the desert, than any city. 

 

A writer from a young age of stories, poems, and essays on nature and magic, her dream when she grew up was to be Merlin from T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, a spider dangling from her wizard’s hat, a raven on her shoulder, scratching words upon vellum with ink and quill. Her happy place was imagined as in a turret, surrounded by thousands of books and cats scattered about, an alembic and other equipment from her alchemical experiments taking up any leftover space in the dusty chamber.

 

Her real education came from her mother, who steeped her in esoteric wisdom. She would take Maggie on “playing hooky” days to visit metaphysical bookstores, attend lectures, visit shrines and sacred places. Also, to meet with wise beings such as Lao Russell, his partner in life, love, art, and spiritual matters of Walter Russell, subject of Glenn Clark’s The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe, at the University of Science and Philosophy, based in their stunning villa in Swannanoa, Virginia. Meeting Lao, who seemed a magical shimmering angel of light, left a huge impression on a young Maggie.

 

In the early ‘90s, while living in Berkeley, CA, she took classes offered by Cecile Moochnek, a friend of Natalie Goldberg, utilizing the methods described by Natalie in Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind. Learning these writing techniques opened Maggie’s mind to new ways of expression, more in resonance with her ways of seeing the world, untethered from outlines and linear rigidity.

 

Maggie brings over 19 years of experience and expertise as a producer, director, and experiential designer to her work as a Somatic Writing Story Coach. In 2002, she completed her training as a therapeutic/autobiographical monologue facilitator, a technique combining writing and performance developed by Tanya. 

 

Integrating her writing, with her love of the magical realms, following four years of intense study, in 2003 she received her ordination from Silentlight Spiritual Science Center, a school dedicated to teaching comparative religions, philosophy, and service to humanity. Her focus and expertise are in rituals and ceremonies, incorporating much of the indigenous (Celtic and Mayan/Aztec) wisdom she has been gifted with by her many teachers.

 

She has facilitated and produced several deep soul writing and performance workshops, including Divining the Creative Wellspring and The Election Monologues (Austin, TX), Sense of Place: San Marcos Stories (San Marcos, TX), as well as one-on-one writing/spiritual coaching. 

 

A long-term explorer of the convergence of art + science + tech + entertainment since her involvement in the early days of Burning Man, she has created, produced, and directed exciting and immersive intimate to large scale events at SXSW Interactive and beyond. As a producer and director, she brings these creative, big picture sensibilities to bear on her coaching work.

 

Maggie is working on a memoir, framed as a dialogue on creativity, philosophy, and metaphysics with her dear friend, mentor, and "artist in adobe," the late Santa Fe Living Treasure, Myrtle Stedman. She resides in Taos, New Mexico, mom to a 24-year-old artist daughter, a border collie, and three silly cats. In her spare time, she is a talking head with the Plutopia News Network.