Wild Genius
Professional StoryCarrying Mentorship
OVERTURE
Journeys | StoryCarrying | Overture
StoryCarrier is the old job—the one who can diagnose a ritual out of the interaction around a story in community. They know the medicines of welcoming, initiation, grief and praise—how to hear the guidance of ancestors and how to dance with the wild energies.
We are talking about old myths. They used to guide individuals and communities through times of jeopardy by connecting people with the deep powers of community and nature.
A StoryCarrier, by this understanding of the term, is also a ritual maker. Ritual done in response to the telling of the myth is the human part of the conversation. The StoryCarrier is only the vessel for the wisdom of the ancient ancestral storehouse in myth to be delivered to the human community who are currently alive.
The mentorship is open to join at any point, and to leave at any point, but we expect that the process will be engaging for a year or even more. You will meet good people similar to yourself, on a path to seriously revive the depth of this old vocation called by many names: the Griot (West Africa), Bard (Celtic), Fili/Seanchaí (Irish), Ashik/Ashough (Turkic), Pingshu (China), Maggid (Jewish), Dengbêj (Kurdish), Kobzar (Ukraine), or Mo'olelo (Hawaiian).
Zoom meetings follow six week cycles, and as a mentee, you will help to organize live events in your location.
You will be strongly supported by:
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leadership from senior StoryCarriers of 30 years exp.
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a deep focus on three mythic stories / semester
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repeated practice during the weekly calls
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three one on one sessions each 6 week semester
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written outlines to support your further notes
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the opportunity to host live events in your location
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small group size
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Sunday evening Australia, Sunday morning Europe
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Meet an interesting and supportive cohort
Sliding scale per semester is
Scholarship supported: $397 AUD |€222 Euro
Regular Tuition: $444 AUD |€249 Euro
Legacy Tuition: $497 AUD |€277 Euro
Sundays—Perth 16h00 | London 09h00
Tickets at Humanitix
From wherever you are starting from, the practice is likely to be dynamic, by turns heartwarming and challenging—bringing you closer to the character that is you.
SYLLABUS
Journeys | StoryCarrying | Overture
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.
The modern world breeds unbelonging, misdirection of gifts and purpose, ancestral disconnection. All of these griefs are present when people gather. A StoryCarrier is helps to unravel of these complexities and "wicked problems," and facilitate re-belonging, re-orientation to purpose, re-connection with ancestors.the Working in a group shows everyone the riches of the "storehouse" hidden in each tale in a way much deeper than mere entertainment.
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.
This is not a disembodied process. Each person brings what is in their life that might benefit from some hints from the mythic world that is in the story. It is this very ongoing practice that allows the StoryCarrier to earn the authority and compassion to listen to audience responses. People carry grief In this tradition, the story told is only the beginning of a community conversation, wrangling out the translation from ancient wisdom
Themes
The great powers continue to drag their heavy bureaucratic feet on making meaningful changes to policy for environmental, economic, and social issues. Add to that the looming horror of fascism boldly advertising itself as with lies and duplicity. In answer, the myths tell us to look both within and without for resources. Some of our themes will be, for example:
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More lost than ever before
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Grief and Praise
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A style is the doorway to a genius
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True identity
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Welcoming and community
Bringing some grit and truth to the conversation will be worthwhile—you will get out what you put in. You will likely meet new friends to collaborate and celebrate with.
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. The conversation leads toward finding bearings and practical ways to work with what has been uncovered.
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, these evenings provide valuable experience.
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 | StoryCarrying |Testimonials
DETAILS
Journeys | StoryCarrying | Details
Aspects of the evening that may affect people
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Sometimes emotions get expressed in the container
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A small shrine to the elements is in the room
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Drumming during the story affects some people
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Please respect this is a drug and alcohol free event
Best Practices:
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Do your best to arrive 15 minutes early
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Bring a specific intention or question for guidance
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Come as you are, even on the edge of tears
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Bring a notebook if you wish
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Stay present and attentive
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Consider that everyone, including you, is helpful
Accommodations
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If you need any specific accommodation, please communicate with advance notice if possible
Questions?
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Happy to assist! Get in touch!
“Friends ask you questions, enemies question you.”
