The Writer's Passage (formerly Working the Word) was a part time course that offered a new approach to the art of creative writing: a journey through time in which students experienced the whole literary adventure of humanity through their own writing. I modelled the course on the principles of Waldorf Education modified to suit adult writers. I found that following the course of historical time greatly enhanced creative capability and writing momentum. The course is now available as The Writer's Passage in pdf format.
Story Medicine was a year-long part time course that explored the healing potential of stories. Central to the course was the development of imagination through the making of new tales. My research into story and the pathways developed in the programme are contained in my book 'The Power of Stories', published by Floris Books, UK.
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The Bardo of the West is a first attempt toward the creation of a total biography by means of creative writing, a journey that leads from memory to imagination: participants recall their past and imagine their future including the journey of the soul after death. The aim was to create a contemporary, western Bardo through active imagination.
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In the course Biographical Writing - from memory to imagination, human life is a grand orchestral piece that plays universal themes in seven-year movements. Our individual lives are breathtaking improvisations on top of this steady rhythm. In this course one learns to listen for the background music.
Through writing one explores seven-year life cycles to gain insight into the past and orientation for the future. This ten week course offers a powerful vantage point from which to order memories of the past and envision the future in community with other writers. The course culminates in an exploration of the soul's journey beyond life.
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Many unresolved issues in our life are stories not properly told. They are tales frozen in interpretations. Through the process of Imaginal Metamorphosis we can thaw our stories from this imprisonment and allow them to become what they are truly meant to be: personal myths and important steps on our journey toward ourself. Participants in this process rewrite their tales and learn to give and take story medicine in community with others.
The Calling - a course for men - within the masculine destiny there are challenges and resolutions common to all men. In this course we use simple writing techniques to access the directive powers within these experiences. This course is for men who want to hear their calling and find ways with which to clarify their life journey.
Jennifer Kornberger and I founded the Goethean Studies Programme in Perth as a contribution to a new artistically inspired ecology.
The Beemaster was a contemporary mystery drama/event conceived and written by Jennifer Kornberger and performed by students of the Integral Studies Course 2008. I directed the play and worked on a new approach to acting that enhanced the connectivity of the cast.
In my research into child development and the role of story and myth in adult life, I have worked much with the age appropriate story as a healing tool. I have found that there is an archetypal sequence of stories that reflects the stages of development in human biography.
This phenomenon has become ever more transparent in the work with my students in the 'Story Medicine' training. One step in the sequence of story always contains the next as a seed. To work with this unfolding sequence creates a body of story. This body of story organizes the fragmented parts of our lives in harmony with a higher archetype, much as the healthy physical body organizes the separate organs into a stable functioning whole. On its highest level this work establishes a resonance between the individual biography and the biography of the universally human.
Many forms of contemporary psychology focus mainly on the problems in the soul life. Story Medicine takes the opposite approach. Its focus is on the forming of a health-giving matrix for the soul life. In establishing the healthy body of story the ailments of the soul (which are themselves stories) find a context in which they can be integrated and harmonized. For the child, providing this context works like a prophylactic, for the adult it is a healing journey. Working with a body of story is not only effective for individuals. Couples, families, organizations and whole communities have their body of story that can be activated and worked upon. In all cases Story Medicine aligns an individual or group with its essential being and purpose.
Step 1 - Making a Life Map: Our memories make us into who we are. The more we own our past, the more we own ourselves. Simply writing our memories down is an act of integration. Penning them in the right sequence, following the archetypal themes contained in the seven-year cycles enhances transformative momentum in biographical work.
Step 2 - Transformational Writing: Through the practice of transformational writing we will learn to change our factual experiences into imaginative tales. These tales will help us to see old events with new eyes and put them into a greater context. (See chapter 27 in 'The Power of Stories' by Horst Kornberger, Floris).
Step 3 - From Memory to Imagination: The next step utilizes the story making capacity gained in step 2. Our ability to transform our memories into imaginative stories now becomes the foundation for imaginal explorations of the future, again taking the lead from themes contained in the seven-year cycles.
Step 4 - Creating the Bardo: Many cultures provide a bardo, a travel map for the human soul to orient itself in the life after death. Such travel maps also serve as a powerful means of orientation during life. We will attempt to create a contemporary bardo through giving and receiving imaginations. This will allow us to objectify our inner world in community with others. Taking our stimuli from the work of Rudolf Steiner and Dante's 'Divine Comedy' we will aim to create a bardo appropriate to Western culture.
Step 5 & 6- Act on your Life: The last step will be to recast the imaginal pictures of the Bardo into dramatic scenes and act them out. Acting is a deeply transformative experience. Acting out imaginal scenes in community with all those who have helped to create them heightens the cathartic effect of this work. Performing these scenes in front of an audience will be the culmination of our adventure through biography.
