Wild Genius
The NAVIGATORS—Mentorship in Poetry, Myth & Story
OVERTURE
Journeys | Navigators | Overture
In this section:
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Invitation
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Quick Facts and Figures
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Why join this Navigators mentorship?
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Wisdom and Resiliency for Modern Times
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All Praises to the Teachers and the Lineages
WEST COAST edition Starts:
Friday | January 13 | 2023 | 17h30 Pacific
Saturday | January 14 | 2023 | 09h30 AWST
[Vancouver Canada | Perth Australia]
CONTINENTAL edition Starts:
Saturday, January 14 | 2023 | 08h30 GMT
Saturday January 14 | 2023 | 16h30 AWST
[London UK | Perth Australia]
Invitation
An old tradition says that tellers of tales are also meant to be trained as diagnosticians able to prescribe a next step for healing. The first step is listening and reflecting deeply.
Across cultures, myth holds encoded information, encompassing concerns ranging from ecology to initiation of the soul. This mentorship teaches how to make a bridge between the instructions hidden in myth and the practical healing that is possible to emerge from a group process.
Join this fellowship of brave travellers searching together for these old roots of culture and community.
“A myth tells the truth—
without the use of facts.”
Daniel Deardorff
The Other Within:
The Genius of Deformity in
Myth, Culture & Psyche
Quick Facts and Figures
Quick Facts & Figures:
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TWO EDITONS:
WEST COAST for North America | Australia
CONTINENTAL for Europe | Australia
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2.5 hour zoom class, once a month
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1.5 hour community follow up coaching call every month
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Optional 60 minute 1 to 1 mentoring once per month
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Private online forum Wild Genius Studio
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Option of 2 tuition levels for the full 4 month semester:
1. Main calls + Community calls + forum
$300 CAD | €220 EURO | $340 AUD
2. Main calls + Community calls + forum + 1 to 1
$600 CAD | €440 EURO | $680 AUD
Why Join this Navigators Mentorship?
All of our work addresses the modern sense of exile, dislocation from purpose, grief, and lack of healthy connection to ancestors with an integrated approach. Group work with old myth has the following features and benefits:
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Confirmation of chaos as possibly initiatory
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Felt sense of ancestral guidance
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Eldership from the old wisdom traditions in myth
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Weaving strong bonds of recognition in the group
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Companionship for your travels and troubles
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Surprising revelations of inner knowing
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Experienced guidance of the process
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
J.R.R, Tolkien
The Hobbit
The depths of what is within the imagery of myth is a perfect welcoming home for seekers of beauty in the unusual and forgotten.
It is relevant for anyone deepening their relationship with the Other World—dreams, nature, psyche.
This is a way to work practically with the old African proverb, "It takes a village . . . " cutting through the false sense of isolation in modern times—since we bring both personal and practical concerns to the table.
Wisdom and Resiliency for Modern Times
We will work primarily with Northern European tales. These were passed down in oral tradition with origins going back perhaps a few thousand years. Myths of this quality become imbued with very perceptive analysis of human nature and the common challenges of living in community.
The storehouse of wisdom held in myth is much more contemporary and revolutionary than one might think at first glance. As Martin Shaw has said, "The stories arrived right on time, 5000 years ago." To understand this requires a ritual working with stories, differing from entertainment.
All Praises to the Teachers and Lineages
First, thank you yes, YOU, for doing what it took to be here to face this time of being alive with all of its challenge and jeopardy. Keep going. Your work is needed in the world.
And also, thank you to the teachers I have been especially influenced by: Michael Meade, Robert Bly, Danny Deardorff, Clarissa Pinkola Estéz, Martin Shaw, Martín Prechtel, Robert Johnson. And the Dagara Elders, Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé.
And all praises as well to the generations before, including the Grimm Brothers, that somehow had the fortitude and foresight to keep the old stories close enough that we could borrow them again today.
SYLLABUS
Journeys | Navigators | Syllabus
In brief:
This section is meant to give you a good sense and "feel" for the nature of the work in the mentorship.
In this section:
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Like Stepping into the Old Stories
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Wounds and Genius
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How to approach the work
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Themes January to April 2023
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Elements—The StoryCarrier's Map
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Myth—The Compass of Attention
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Ritual Tasks—A Practice for Steering
“The medium is the message” implies that the invention of a dichotomy between content and method is both naïve and dangerous. It implies that the critical content of any learning experience is the method or process through which the learning occur
Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner
Teaching as a Subversive Activity
Like Stepping into the Old Stories
There is a world wide resurgence of interest in old tales and their telling. Something badgers our bones and scratches an ear calling us to pay attention. Truth be told, an old myth or story seeks to pass on and uncover the renewable sources of wisdom, resiliency and inclusion to each generation. It wants to be generous.
You will learn how to uncover the particular guidance a myth is meant to give to each listener personally. Not a moral of the story, for myth never really does that. Not a general advice, for the wisdom is peculiar to the moment. And yet the value in working in a group shows everyone the riches of the "storehouse" hidden in each tale.
Wounds and Genius
Both wounds and genius get spoken of in the context of a ritual telling and working session. This path of training will be practical—we will study one story a month. We work as if under the guidance of a kind of Elder (the story itself), who has heard all of the details of life many times before. We find here initiation, trouble, style, and sass, and the making of powerful alliances in the mythic world.
Many types of people could benefit from this mentorship: storytellers, facilitators, performers, counsellors, or those wanting to delve in for personal reasons.
How to approach the work
By necessity, the work relies on own personal relating to the myths. Each month, we will work with one story. That will be the common journey we undertake to uncover an embodied application.
We meet, with a theme of investigation that each person has their own personal reflections upon. After a break out room for greeting and catching up, we explain the theme, and tell that month's story. After the break, we return and work with the different images in the story, uncovering some of their perceptive wisdoms.
Themes January to April 2023
Themes for January to April 2023:
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“More lost than ever before.”
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The Map Room.
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“Map is not the Territory.”
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A new identity.
Bringing some grit and truth to the conversation will be worthwhile—you will get out what you put in. Everyone has the option to work with the small practical task over the upcoming month. These often are only a few minutes per day. The additional community collaboration call each month is highly recommended, it is facilitated by Apprentice Tina Schomburg, often with the support of other apprentices.
Elements—The StoryCarrier's Map
We will be referring to the energies of the five Elements of the West African Dagara cosmology, which are Earth, Mineral, Water, Fire, and Nature. There is no need to "study" these before beginning, you can pick it up along the way.
Always we are dealing with the Grit and the Grace . . . and the Guile needed in life to navigate the troubles we face simply by being alive. In a very real way, we are living in the territory of the wild elements on this Earth. They are gigantic forces seen from our human sense of scale, yet we feel their powers stirring in us constantly.
We will work in the stories holding the map of the Elements as our ancestors once did daily. No doubt the elements will visit us in the course of the stories.
“Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new. Only she knows the secret of change, only she knows truly that all things are crouched in eagerness to become something else, and it is from this universal tension that she draws her power.”
Peter S. Beagle
The Last Unicorn
Myth—The Compass of Attention
To carry a story, more than the simple telling, is to have undergone some examination in the way the story affects the teller. Only in this way can the teller be able to step into the secret aspect of their craft—as a listener to the responses that come from an audience with a deep compassion and wit. To help find bearings. To know how to prescribe practical ritual.
The circumstances described in the myths are timeless situations that all people in all times experience. We will learn, by practice, the way of bringing the personal into conversation with the perennial. The myth doesn't tell you what to do—it helps you understand what the situation already really is anyway.
This way of working with story in community is not only personal, but the time-tested way of training those who would tell stories as well. If that is your interest, you are welcome to join us.
Ritual Tasks—A Practice for Steering
Our goal is to receive some particular, personal detail from each story, and turn it into a worthy task—this is what we call a "ritual task." It is a relatively small thing to do that embodies the relationship with the story. We are working with a deep re-education of the modern fascination about transcendence (just thinking about) to balance it with the wisdom of the emergent (active relationship).
Such a task has a practical effect of training, practicing, attention directing, and discovery. A ritual task is a mysterious small adventure that holds the possibility of stepping into a new identity. As always, working with an indigenous sensibility that "it takes a village," we will witness each other and support the work.
Ritual tasks, in this context, are steps that do something different enough to make a difference. They are something you do to interact with the knowledge hidden in the storehouse of the story instead of just intellectualizing. Always they are designed to bring a particular step of wisdom from the mythic world into this world.
“Gaia visited her daughter, Mnemosyne,
who was busy being . . . unpronounceable.”
Stephen Fry
Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold
The Longing for Eldership
To humans, young or old, the stories have been around so long that they begin to look as if they might be Elders of a type in relation to the human world. And it is certainly a time when the world is longing for Eldership to replace the poverty of simple "Oldership." Our adventure is nothing less than part of the old training from many cultures that suggests that Elders, at least in part, get trained in the work of story.
“Myth and nature are the two great garments of the world, with nature being the living green garment that covers the planet and myth being the multidimensional, many-colored fabric that continually weaves human culture.”
Michael Meade
The Genius Myth
TESTIMONIALS
Journeys | Navigators |Testimonials
DETAILS
Journeys | Navigators | Details
In this section:
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WEST COAST Dates and Times [Canada | Australia]
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CONTINENTAL Dates and Times [Europe | Australia]
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Zoom Protocols
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Communication Protocols
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How the Support Team Calls work
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How the Optional 1 to 1 Calls work
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How the On Line Platform works [Wild Genius Studio]
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Technical Requirements
Dates and Times for The Navigators
West Coast Edition [Canada & Australia]
Scroll down to see Continental Edition for Europe | Australia
Dates & Times BC Canada [Vancouver]
5:30 pm to 8:00 pm PDT [except April 14]
Friday 13th January 2023 PDT
Friday 10th February 2023 PDT
Friday 10th March 2023 PDT
Friday 7th April 2023 PDST —6:30pm to 9:00pm
Dates & Times Western Australia [Perth]
9:30 am to 12:00 noon WAST [no change]
Saturday 14th January 2023
Saturday 11th February 2023
Saturday 11th March 2023
Saturday 8th April 2023
Team follow up calls Vancouver time 7:00 pm
Thursday, January 26
Thursday, February 23
Thursday, March 23
Thursday, April 20
(Perth Time 11:00 am Friday except April 28 10:00 am)
Dates and Times for The Navigators
Continental Edition [Europe & Australia]
Scroll back up to see West Coast Edition for Canada | Australia
Dates & Times Europe [London | UK]
8:30 am to 11:00 am GMT
Saturday 14th January 2023
Saturday 11th February 2023
Saturday 11th March 2023
Saturday 15th April 2023
Dates & Times Western Australia [Perth]
4:30 pm to 7:00 pm WAST[except April 15]
Saturday 14th January 2023
Saturday 11th February 2023
Saturday 11th March 2023
Saturday 15th April 2023 [3:30 to 6:00 pm]
Team follow up call times tba.
Zoom Protocols
Bring your best Zoom game:
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5 minutes early for calls
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frame your camera for head and shoulders
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enough light to make your image visible
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mute and unmute as appropriate
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stay present and attentive
Accommodations
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If you must be travelling (on phone) drive safely
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Recordings will be posted
Communication Protocols
Joining this cohort, you are expected to keep the facilitators fully informed about any other ritual or ceremonial activity you are participating in, or leading. We recommend caution with any use of plant medicines during this process, but it is an individual decision, we just want to be informed as a duty of care.
Please ensure that you are signed up for the mailing list for emails. (it is a double opt in GDPR compliant, so remember to confirm!) here:
https://www.wildgenius.guide/subscribe
Use the proper email to contact us:
Sign up for the Signal app if you are not on already—that is our quick communication platform.
Respond to Signal group general messages with a heart or thumbs up to acknowledge—make sure your notifications get to you.
You need to have a computer and internet or phone and data to get onto the calls! Computer is best!
How the Support Team Calls Work
The Support Team Calls are led by apprentice Tina Schomburg. Once a month, in the week following the call, she facilitates the group to go deeper into the moment of each myth which each participant felt most affected by, in relation to what they are going through, and also the monthly theme.
Through breakout rooms, and also the participation of more experienced members of the group, further depths of the stories are brought to light. These calls may also be attended by others in The Alchemists apprenticeship group, making for an enriching 90 minutes.
How the Optional 1 to 1 Calls Work
Additional Tuition | 50 minute 1 to 1 call | monthly
If you sign up for the 1 to 1 additional coaching calls, they will be done by one of the apprentices in ritual leadership. Those calls are a chance to further refine the soul work of that month's story. The Zulu shaman Credo Mutwa said, "If you have a dream, you are supposed to get up in the morning, and start walking toward that dream."
A story is also like a dream, something from the mystery of the mythic world. Working with the story includes the "other-than-human" in our affairs. To support your ritual assignments, a one on one session time together (on the phone) is a time to refine how to use the work personally and powerfully.
How the Online Platform Works
[Wild Genius Studio]
Our platform is private and independent of the social media giants. We are just now in the process of switching providers and plan to have the new platform space operational by end December 2022. Expect to see areas for coursework and resources and a visiting area private to the Navigators.
The new platform also has an App for cell phones. This is a chance to be in conversation with other participants.
See the gateway for the online Studio HERE
Technical Requirements
Some technical considerations:
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proficiency in English speaking and writing
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a computer and internet for the Zoom call
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a cell phone with Signal App for our 1 to 1 calls
“Friends ask you questions, enemies question you.”