Well we do have a deep well even if we run a bit shy on camels just now. I have dozens of our chicken's eggs and a wood burning sauna between a little mountain and a beaver pond. I can trade at least a dozen and a half eggs plus a good 210 degree sweat in exchange for you carrying your entourage upon your back, Blackbeard, to our ears. If the stories are exceptional there may be some potato's placed under your discretion as well. What do Bard's get for shipment across the Atlantic these days? Ha!
Well, at the risk of offending those Maine-ites, 'cause that is the summer home of Wyeth, my uber-surrealist and fav painter of all time (yes, he isn't fashionable these days but as I never was in step with fashion, don't give a jot), i want to shout out in favor of the Pacific NORTHWET as a good place to rock and roll in the telling of stories(we even have our own sasquatch to myth-on about.) And thinking about it, it would be like you never left Devon, cause it rains here like nobody's business! Jeez-Louise, has it been wet! But it is defiantly green and abloom in hellebores, supposed to do a radical change--and get to 60 by Saturday. So CONSIDER a Traveling school, the hedgerow education, because your dartmor program, all 5 , sounds like a winning ticket----for some who live in jolly olde and for those who can afford the time and money. Wish that were moi, but alas.............in the future though, always the future to ponder.
Another part of desert law is to go alphabetically in such contests. Unfortunately honor demands Ma before Mi. Plus that is alot of sibilance in a state name. And many desert serpents are poisonous. Which is another serious consideration.
I'm trying to organize my thoughts, but they defy easy organization. So instead I'll say this: many years ago now, I went back to school, to study theology, because I was interested in story. Because these seemed, to me, to be the myths that told us who we are that have lasted and been carried along with us for so long. No one understood, at the time, my insistence that theology is story.
As I went back, I was also gifted a piece of advice by Rev. William Swing, Episcopal Bishop of California: don't go to school just to read and think. You have to put it in practice. Doing, not just reading. Surround yourself with a community of people putting the stories into action. And so I became baptized as an adult in the Episcopalian Church (Anglican - I'm revealing my American roots).
This offering feels like someone read my bones and is calling.
I would love to go to this one! but am land-locked on the Minnesota prairie. Rowan Williams has been a guiding star in the internet conversations that have I treasured since the beginning of the solitude of lock-down, giving a long context to the present moving of the Spirit. So much insight and encouragement, beginning with the YouTube recordings of his inspiring Gifford lecture series. I hope you will find a way for non-attendees to participate on line in some way.
Plus, I am impressed that Martin is including women voices in this important convening. It reminds me of the councils before Christendom split into east and west. Or we could just continue squabble about the date of Easter!
Lucy, forgot to ask.... How did you end up in Minnesota (my old stomping ground and where I got my BA back in the day)? I had always envisioned you in a pottery shed messing with clay in Eng-u-land!
I grew up in Minneapolis, did walkabout into the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but then met a young rural potter just starting out close to Robert Bly's home farm. A chance to be part of forming an artist community in a deeply agricultural area, and we are still here. More at www. tokheim-stoneware.com
Agree with Lucy. there has to be a way for non-attendees to participate in some of these forums. However, thanks Lucy for the tip on checking out u-tub for these Gifford lectures.
I have been listening to the Smoke Hole sessions these past few weeks and finally finished up with Jay Jeffries(SP?) and Mark Rylance and thought those were outstanding, so now have another book list to look at. So I am not at a loss of reading material. That Mitchinson(Sp.?) character? I had never heard of him before! He's an editor and a writer and his brain is so full of interesting ideas, thoughts and of course, books-to-read.
And I am aware that these sessions were conceived as a way to get out of the pandemic lockdown and the isolation we all found ourselves in, but I would be more than willing to listen to Smoke Hole II. You have the most erudite friends, Mr. Shaw.
Sounds wonderful! love this direction, Martin. Don't think I can manage 5 weekend trips from the Far West (Washington state)... a tad farther than even Maine :-)
I am SO excited about such a radical turn-i trust it precisely because it IS so radical and because you Martin, are utterly sober about your truth. Thank you for demonstrating this wild possibility in a world that reveres consistency. I am giddy with this.
Sounds like a lot of your Substack followers are outside the UK or Europe. I’m in New Zealand… too far away to come over every month for such a provocative gathering. I am very grateful that I am able to follow you and others on Substack but also wistful that in person gatherings are not open to me.
“I can’t be worrying about that. Some things we just have to do.”
This is the crux, what you have said right here. I mean, as to how to know that the work is the true work. For whatever reason, we are given things to carry that feel clumsy, awkward, the gift that is also burden. I think of Moses by the burning bush - forced to navigate straight through his reluctance. The fear and reluctance itself could then be a way to recognise the important work & the true direction.
What does happen when you fall in love with a bear??? This is so compelling. I’m also intrigued about all this Maine speak! I’m heading there for the first time this April to visit my newly relocated sister and witness the eclipse with her. Curious shifts afoot!!
I would sign up in a heartbeat if I lived closer (Portland, Oregon is a great place to live, though). I will be in England for 6 days starting July 3, however—is there any place I might encounter you then? I’d love to buy you a pint and raise a glass to Isaiah preaching naked for three years.
Dangling a juicy bite of perfectly rare Wagyu ribeye before our eyes during Lent may actually be a sin 🤣😭😭 Would it be right for me to quit my job and move to the UK for this course? 🤔
I find the location deeply problematic. Almost selfish. I would prefer Maine.My backyard makes the most sense to me. Dirty dog, flaunting this so.
Well, God favours the Bedouin, so maybe a gathering there! I led a conference by Lake Darimascotta for nine years.
Well we do have a deep well even if we run a bit shy on camels just now. I have dozens of our chicken's eggs and a wood burning sauna between a little mountain and a beaver pond. I can trade at least a dozen and a half eggs plus a good 210 degree sweat in exchange for you carrying your entourage upon your back, Blackbeard, to our ears. If the stories are exceptional there may be some potato's placed under your discretion as well. What do Bard's get for shipment across the Atlantic these days? Ha!
I do love a sauna while the stars circle. Maine is surprisingly un-disorientating for a Celt!
The Gwynn in the undertow of my Yid nods to the Moor.
Yes to Maine! I’m right down the road from Damariscotta. Would love to contribute as a registered Maine guide.
Yes, please Maine. The continent asks.
Yes to Maine! I’ll row my way there from Cali!!!
I agree come to Maine!
Ahh, it's been three-ed. Desert tribal honor leaves no waver on this. It must be so.
I feel this too:(
I agree but was feeling Mississippi not Maine. Hill country blues. Great food. Mild winters. We’ve got 55 acres to host on and in.
Well, at the risk of offending those Maine-ites, 'cause that is the summer home of Wyeth, my uber-surrealist and fav painter of all time (yes, he isn't fashionable these days but as I never was in step with fashion, don't give a jot), i want to shout out in favor of the Pacific NORTHWET as a good place to rock and roll in the telling of stories(we even have our own sasquatch to myth-on about.) And thinking about it, it would be like you never left Devon, cause it rains here like nobody's business! Jeez-Louise, has it been wet! But it is defiantly green and abloom in hellebores, supposed to do a radical change--and get to 60 by Saturday. So CONSIDER a Traveling school, the hedgerow education, because your dartmor program, all 5 , sounds like a winning ticket----for some who live in jolly olde and for those who can afford the time and money. Wish that were moi, but alas.............in the future though, always the future to ponder.
Yes also to PNW!!!
Yes…fair enough—but who was it said the last shall be first?
Another part of desert law is to go alphabetically in such contests. Unfortunately honor demands Ma before Mi. Plus that is alot of sibilance in a state name. And many desert serpents are poisonous. Which is another serious consideration.
Maine, Down East in the West.
I'm trying to organize my thoughts, but they defy easy organization. So instead I'll say this: many years ago now, I went back to school, to study theology, because I was interested in story. Because these seemed, to me, to be the myths that told us who we are that have lasted and been carried along with us for so long. No one understood, at the time, my insistence that theology is story.
As I went back, I was also gifted a piece of advice by Rev. William Swing, Episcopal Bishop of California: don't go to school just to read and think. You have to put it in practice. Doing, not just reading. Surround yourself with a community of people putting the stories into action. And so I became baptized as an adult in the Episcopalian Church (Anglican - I'm revealing my American roots).
This offering feels like someone read my bones and is calling.
I would love to go to this one! but am land-locked on the Minnesota prairie. Rowan Williams has been a guiding star in the internet conversations that have I treasured since the beginning of the solitude of lock-down, giving a long context to the present moving of the Spirit. So much insight and encouragement, beginning with the YouTube recordings of his inspiring Gifford lecture series. I hope you will find a way for non-attendees to participate on line in some way.
Plus, I am impressed that Martin is including women voices in this important convening. It reminds me of the councils before Christendom split into east and west. Or we could just continue squabble about the date of Easter!
Lucy, forgot to ask.... How did you end up in Minnesota (my old stomping ground and where I got my BA back in the day)? I had always envisioned you in a pottery shed messing with clay in Eng-u-land!
I grew up in Minneapolis, did walkabout into the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but then met a young rural potter just starting out close to Robert Bly's home farm. A chance to be part of forming an artist community in a deeply agricultural area, and we are still here. More at www. tokheim-stoneware.com
Agree with Lucy. there has to be a way for non-attendees to participate in some of these forums. However, thanks Lucy for the tip on checking out u-tub for these Gifford lectures.
I have been listening to the Smoke Hole sessions these past few weeks and finally finished up with Jay Jeffries(SP?) and Mark Rylance and thought those were outstanding, so now have another book list to look at. So I am not at a loss of reading material. That Mitchinson(Sp.?) character? I had never heard of him before! He's an editor and a writer and his brain is so full of interesting ideas, thoughts and of course, books-to-read.
And I am aware that these sessions were conceived as a way to get out of the pandemic lockdown and the isolation we all found ourselves in, but I would be more than willing to listen to Smoke Hole II. You have the most erudite friends, Mr. Shaw.
WOW! This is so thrilling!!! And what a star line up of guests ✨count me in!
Hi Natasha, drop me a message at tina@schoolofmyth.com and I’ll pencil you in.
Sounds wonderful! love this direction, Martin. Don't think I can manage 5 weekend trips from the Far West (Washington state)... a tad farther than even Maine :-)
Yes! Please bring this to Maine!!! We need this NURISHING ART over here too!
I am SO excited about such a radical turn-i trust it precisely because it IS so radical and because you Martin, are utterly sober about your truth. Thank you for demonstrating this wild possibility in a world that reveres consistency. I am giddy with this.
Sounds like a lot of your Substack followers are outside the UK or Europe. I’m in New Zealand… too far away to come over every month for such a provocative gathering. I am very grateful that I am able to follow you and others on Substack but also wistful that in person gatherings are not open to me.
“I can’t be worrying about that. Some things we just have to do.”
This is the crux, what you have said right here. I mean, as to how to know that the work is the true work. For whatever reason, we are given things to carry that feel clumsy, awkward, the gift that is also burden. I think of Moses by the burning bush - forced to navigate straight through his reluctance. The fear and reluctance itself could then be a way to recognise the important work & the true direction.
What does happen when you fall in love with a bear??? This is so compelling. I’m also intrigued about all this Maine speak! I’m heading there for the first time this April to visit my newly relocated sister and witness the eclipse with her. Curious shifts afoot!!
Maine is the new thing. There is something brewing here.
Can’t wait to explore this in person David.
Excited about this new direction! Of course the chances of me making it there are pretty slim, but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with God.
I have no doubt that this is going to be a bold, vital and wondrous new direction for this program!
I would sign up in a heartbeat if I lived closer (Portland, Oregon is a great place to live, though). I will be in England for 6 days starting July 3, however—is there any place I might encounter you then? I’d love to buy you a pint and raise a glass to Isaiah preaching naked for three years.
Dangling a juicy bite of perfectly rare Wagyu ribeye before our eyes during Lent may actually be a sin 🤣😭😭 Would it be right for me to quit my job and move to the UK for this course? 🤔
Quick question, can a person participate in just one weekend?
Sadly no - but they can come to the 2025 Summer School!
Ok! Thank you.
Find this announcement oddly reassuring. Don't know what I was expecting! Not that.
THIS IS AMAZING!!! LOVE THIS NEW DIRECTION! 💕🙏God bless!