An invitation from Dr Martin Shaw
Dartmoor, England
Summer School
The Tent of Seven Doors
The next four-night immersion will be our summer school 2021, scheduled for July 19th to 23rd. Please sign up to the newsletter at the bottom of the page if you would like to be kept updated with more information when we have it, or register your interest by contacting . Our events page will be kept updated with news on other courses in 2021.
Below is the information for the 2020 course which didn’t go ahead due to Covid-19. This will provide a general idea of what the course may offer, and some practical details.
To become a true human being, the old stories tell us we have to walk through seven doors. Not six, not eight, seven. We invite you to walk through them with us.
As a culture that barely understands the word culture
As a maiden growing her hands back
As a sailor longing for Ithaca
As a yew with a singing kid in its branches
As a condor glimpsing Byzantium
Let these doors make of us a Yggdrasil.
***
In deeply troubled times, this is a moment to enter the magic of place, story, language; to study with a master storyteller in the landscape he lives and creates in.
This is not nostalgia but a kind of activism of the soul.
Suffused with story, buffeted by weather, our enquiry will be deep: how do we, as modern women and men, respond to both land and legend? What could we do with such a thing? Come find out.
As wandering scholars, we will start the day deep in folktale and poetry, brooding together for the morning sessions. We explore stories from pocket sized to epic scale, more than a few that you may learn yourself.
In the afternoons, you will be equipped with a bardic task, to explore the move from seeing to beholding in both the living world and in our own innate natures. There will be one day fully on the moor. In the evenings there will be good local food, music and story. Sixty people together, getting cooked in the mysteries, learning of kindness, grace, grief and rapture. Just like something from the old stories.
This West Country School of Myth spring school will take place from May 11th to 15th at a venue on Dartmoor in Devon. It is equally open to participants who are new to the School and to those who have previously attended courses. Please scroll down this page for more information.
How do we respond to the artistry of both land and legend?
May 11 · 15, 2020
A Spring School
With Dr. Martin Shaw
This is a residential course and the fee includes 4-nights accommodation, all teaching and meals (locally sourced and seasonal where possible) from supper on arrival day to breakfast prior to departure. Please scroll down the page for fees and booking information.
Arrival: 5PM
Departure: 9AM
What could we do with such a thing? Come find out?
The Tent of Seven Doors
FEE: £738 Budget shared room · £756 Standard shared room
Accommodation is in shared rooms of up to seven people and the fees include VAT at 20 per cent. The budget beds are mostly bunks in these shared rooms. To apply, please email , stating your preferred room option. You will be sent a link to a registration form and will need to pay a non-refundable deposit of £348 (including VAT) to secure a place. See here for terms and conditions.
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