The roots of ancient European spiritual traditions are anchored in the land, and – if we know how to listen – the land and the other-than-humans who share it with us can be our greatest teachers. Blackie looks at how we can reclaim these place-based traditions, and with them create an authentic, grounded practice for these very different times.
Carl Jung said, ‘No voices now speak to man from stones, plants, and animals, nor does he speak to them believing they can hear. His contact with nature has gone, and with it has gone the profound emotional energy that this symbolic connection supplied’.
Sharon Blackie´s offerings help us begin to hear the voices of our surroundings again. Her musings are poetic and open our sense of the land. Listening to her, we hear how to re-enchant our lives, and weave ourselves more deeply into the living stories of the places where our feet are planted.
In this experiential course, Sharon Blackie offers practical approaches – map-making, working with story and archetypes, writing and other creative prompts – that will allow you to deepen your relationship with the place where your feet are planted.
We’ll explore these questions, and others:
- What can place tell us about who we are, and who we might one day become?
- How can we put our roots down deeply into the land, and find a sense of belonging there?
- How can we find the gods in our places again?
- How can we engage in conversation with the other-than-humans in our places? – compose a riddle for Trickster Crow, dance with the west wind, serenade the waxing moon?
Course Overview:
Class 1. Place as self
In this class, Sharon works with the archetypes of place, and delves into the ways in which the places we’ve lived – or the places we’ve longed to live – inform who we are, and who we might one day become.
Class 2. Place as teacher
The focus in this class will be on understanding the lessons that places can teach us. We’ll map the song-lines and place-lines of our lives, and work through the ways in which place influences our sense of purpose and calling.
Class 3. Becoming native to our places
What is it that prevents us sometimes from feeling truly at home in a place – or from feeling a sense of belonging to the world? What does it really mean, to belong? How can we cultivate a deeper sense of kinship with the living world around us? In this class, we’ll explore the ways in which we come to truly know the land – both in its physical and imaginal contexts.
Class 4. Re-storying the Earth
In this final class we’ll work deeply with the myths and stories of place. We’ll think about the importance of understanding the old stories of our places, but – just as importantly – we’ll learn how to weave ourselves into the living mythology of the land, developing stories which reflect our presence there, and our relationship with it.