Place, Identity and Belonging

Course Description

This course will take us deeply into the mysteries of place: into the literal ground of our being. Psychologist and mythologist Sharon Blackie shows us how a place is so much more than just a backdrop for human activities. She reveals how our relationship to place largely determines both our identity and our ability to feel a sense of belonging in the world. 

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?

This course is ideal if

• Discover the ways in which the places you’ve lived have shaped you
• Understand the role of place in the development of your purpose, your calling
• Cultivate a sense of kinship with the living world around you
• Come into relationship with the spiritus loci, and with the archetypal energies that populate your place

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.

By the end of this course you will have

• Understood the lessons offered by the places you’ve lived
• Delved deeply into your own sense of belonging, or unbelonging, to the places you’ve lived
• Developed your own stories of place, which tie you to it
• Identified the archetypal energies in your landscape