The inheritance no one ever told you that you had.
The inheritance no one ever told you that you had.
Stalking the Rebel Soul is the school’s extraordinary immersion programme, a five-weekend journey which forms the central fire of Dr Martin Shaw’s teaching.
Emerging rehydrated and re-energised from the solitude of lockdown in 2021, this course begins with the oldest stories imaginable, far beyond the conditions of the modern West, travelling through time and place as a thoughtful little caravan trundling through the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, and onto Britain, Ireland, Iceland and many other extraordinary terrains.
Riding alongside these tales is close attention to your own life. You make depth connections; this is not a passive experience.
“Stalking the Rebel Soul,” explains Martin, “was the title I gave my very first year teaching from the belly of my black tent way back at the beginning of this century. Somewhere deep in lockdown I realised it was talking to me again, saying something about the urgency of our times and the need for deeper ground.
“This iteration of the programme is a result of that listening. Although in the short term the prime benefactor of what we do may seem to be yourself, the way of things should eventually dictate that you find useful methods to pass it on. Reverie leads to participation.
“Each weekend is packed with story, poetry, and a culture of conviviality. We are always looking for a little cross-species dialogue, a world which speaks of more than our own reflection.”
Deep listening is required, a willingness to study, a commitment to entertaining more than the polemics of our times. As a student, you will engage in storytelling not just as entertainment but as a different kind of activism.
All weekends include solo time in the afternoons, brooding and deciphering stories contained within the Dartmoor landscape. The mythology of a landscape and the landscape of a mythology is a perennial theme for the year.
The course, undergone by hundreds over the last two decades, will begin its 2024 incarnation next September at an old manor house on the edge of Dartmoor. Between weekends there will be four extra audio stories from the school archive; recordings of the weekend stories to continue working with; a book club that will meet between each session via Zoom and two Wolf Milk talks via Zoom.
This course is open to all ages (adults) and backgrounds. No experience of storytelling is needed, and there is no ‘performance’ aspect to this course. If fully booked there will be 60 people in the 2024 cohort which will run between September and March 2025.
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Please note this course is attendance only.
Where can myth lead us right now?
Stories from the back of the cave. Things that growl and fly. Stories learnt by ear not eye.
Rather than endless choice, is there a chthonic compulsion to become something quite specific?
The move to literacy. How the majesty of Sumerian, Greek and Caucasus myths weave through the stories of Western Europe.
What is the difference between shelter and comfort?
The radical animism of Irish myth, how romantic love served the land and the gods.
What are the stories the West tells itself in private?
Into the Grail mysteries and the matter of Britain. Parzival, the female Troubadours and locating the interior teacher.
How does true generosity reveal its hand?
The genius of the fairy tale: where they meet both the place and people of your own life.
How does a tired road become a song-line?
All weekends take place at an old manor house on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. The fees includes VAT and covers all teaching, accommodation, breakfast and dinner for each weekend. There will also be between weekend zoom sessions, extra stories from the audio archive and recordings from each weekend.
A non-refundable deposit of £720 will be required to secure a place.