Dear Story-sailors,
You’re probably familiar with this story pattern:
A great task is at hand, one that promises a prized reward at the end of a perilous path.
Two older siblings,
who are privileged and know the slick ways
of the world,rise to the challenge.
But often, their arrogant ways,
lead their sure-footed steps no-where.
They get lost, turn into stones or
walk out of the story before the real adventure
even begins…
And there is another character, one our heart may recognise straight away…
The youngest brother or sister.
The fools of the world; the slow, dreamy ones…
The ash-covered fire gazers who are naively
open to always meet and respond to
whatever crosses their path.
These young ones manage to complete
the tasks, which the others could not fulfil.
Against all the odds and regardless of what others may think, it is the fool who feels at ease with being lost, who can best navigate the uncharted waters with grace and ease. In fact, it seems the fool doesn’t navigate at all, but rather participates wholeheartedly in a call and response relationship with anything and everything they meet however unexpected they may seem.
One year into a global pandemic with many structures in the world changing radically, we hear a call, as storytellers and creative practitioners, to heed more closely to what we might be able to learn from the younger brothers and sisters. What does it mean to become lost? can we find or develop resilience and perhaps even pleasure within this state of being lost? Can we listen attentively to the youngest part of ourselves, trust nonsensical wisdom, and meet with integrity anything and everything that comes to meet us along the way?
Roi Gal-Or and Karmit evenzur, originators and co- carriers of 'Storytelling Beyond words,'
have been hearing the temple bells ringing and calling us to gather the great fellowship of mystics, visionaries, wandering imagineurs, love-struck poets, and soul-seeking storytellers.
Shakespeare wrote: “Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered!” and so, we aim to sail the seam of the world as we know it, hoping to stumble across the legendary lost Islands beyond those places we habitually inhabit.
We warmly invite you to join the crew in our companion-ship of fools, becoming the hull, the sails, the waves, the wind, witnessing the becomingness of things, focusing on movement and fluidity, embracing every moment.
On this course, we will gather for six live zoom sessions over 3 months to:
● Engage in mapping our multi-dimensional travel, where personal stories, visions, and quests interact with the realms of the imaginal.
● Compile a lattice of stories and poems, and discover islands as ‘place markers’ to help us chart, plan, reflect and dream with the world.
● Engage in body awareness research that will help us be more consistently rooted in the present moment.
● Explore the tools we have to (non)navigate the great unknown and build our confidence around creative living/projects.
● Have the opportunity for networking and engaging in creative collaboration with other storytellers.
● Hold a container and context that can provide accountability for your creative practice. Surveying the personal ‘pests’ you may meet in your own personal creative process; (procrastinating, diffusing, self-sabotage, etc) as well as your strengths (be they hidden or in plain sight ), so you can be in a more transparent relationship with the best conditions that help you create.
● Create spaces for you to try out new things and receive feedback and meaningful input from other storytellers.
The course fee includes a contribution to Emerson College, home of the School Of Storytelling,
(which is struggling due to the pandemic), running costs and course delivery. You can choose a fee bracket that corresponds to your financial ability
Friend £285
Supporter £360
Sponsor £570
Now, Since you have arrived this far on this page, here is a little gift of a story for you: Once upon a time, a great temple with a thousand bells stood on an island surrounded by the sea. When a wind blew or a storm raged, all of the temple bells would peal out in unison, producing a symphony that could be heard in the mainland and which sent the heart of the hearer into raptures.But over the centuries the island sank into the sea with the temple and the bells. An ancient tradition said that the bells continued to peal out, ceaselessly, and could be heard by anyone who listened attentively. Far away, in a distant country, a storyteller heard this legend and decided to travel for thousands of miles to sit on the shore, opposite the place where the lost temple had been, and try to hear the sound of the bells. For days he sat on the shore and listened, trying hard to push away and block out the loud sounds of the wind and the waves so that he might hear the bells. But it was all in vain. After many months he decided to give up the attempt. Perhaps he was not destined to be one of those fortunate ones who heard the bells. Perhaps the legend was not true. He decided to return home and admit failure. It was his final day, and he went down to the shore to say goodbye to the sea and the sky and the wind. He lay on the sands, gazing up at the sky, listening to the sound of the sea. He did not resist that sound that day. Instead, he gave himself over to it, and found it was a pleasant, soothing sound, this roar of the waves. Soon he became so lost in the sound that he was barely conscious of himself, so deep was the silence that the sound produced in his heart. A strange thing happened…in the depth of that silence, he heard it! The tinkle of a tiny bell followed by another, and another and another . . . and soon every one of the thousand temple bells was pealing out in glorious unison, and his heart was transported with wonder and joy beyond words
