INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOPS
with Dr Sharon BlackieA surprising percentage of the people who take my online courses or join my retreats in Ireland are from North America; at the last count, it was around 80%. For this reason, in 2018 I decided it was time for me to begin teaching there, and to offer more opportunities to study with me in person. I lived in America from 1996 through 2001, and so somehow it seems appropriate to bring this work back to a country I once thought of as home.
Current plans are for two visits during the course of each year. I’m already juggling a number of invitations, but if you are interested in having me run a workshop in your location, or offering a lecture, please do email me. However: given the distance and complexity of logistics, I can only consider offering workshops through organisations/retreat centres which are able to deal with all the administration, including bookings.
This page will be updated as new events are finalised, but please do sign up to my newsletter to be sure of receiving news of all opportunities as bookings open.
USA, 2018
Friday 7 – Sunday 9 September
‘The Enchanted Life: Grounding Yourself Through Celtic Mythology’ (weekend workshop)
The Rowe Center, Western Massachusetts.
http://rowecenter.org/wp/events/the-enchanted-life/
Friday 14 – Saturday 15 September
At the Black Mountain Circle, Point Reyes, California:
‘Women Rising Rooted: How Old Celtic Stories Inspire Change’. Friday September 14, 7-9 pm.
https://www.blackmountaincircle.org/events/women-rising-rooted-how-old-celtic-stories-inspire-change/
‘The Mythic Imagination: re-storying our places’. All-day workshop, Saturday September 15.
https://www.blackmountaincircle.org/events/the-mythic-imagination-re-storying-our-places/
Wednesday 19 September
6pm Lecture at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California
‘Women, Waters and Wastelands: Can Celtic Mythology Inform the Ways We Live Today?’
This event is free and open to the public; details here.
USA, 2019
New events will be added as they are confirmed.
Friday 7 – Sunday 9 June
The International Herb Symposium, Norton, Massachusetts, USA (details to be announced in autumn)
Keep up to date with this event here.
Friday 14 – Sunday 16 June
Weekend workshop at The Garrison Institute, Garrison, New York – a beautiful retreat centre in an old Capuchin monastery on the banks of the Hudson River.
‘The Mythic Imagination: Unlocking the Magic of the Everyday’.
Myths and fairy tales are so much more than stories: they’re living principles, deeply enmeshed in our lives and the life of this beautiful, animate Earth. And in the uncertain times we live in, we need their wild wisdom more than ever. They illuminate who we are, who we might become, and help us discover the unique gift that each of us brings to the unceasing becoming of the world.
During this workshop, we’ll explore the many ways in which myth and fairy tales can inform our journeys through life. We’ll delve deeply into beautiful old stories, come to understand the mythic patterns which underpin our lives, and learn how to work with the archetypal characters, places, and situations which influence the choices we make. Sharon will act as your guide through the enchanted forest of your imagination, offering dreamwork, expressive art exercises, and writing meditations to help you develop and deepen your own mythic imagination.
Please Note: This workshop is for women only.
Details and bookings at this link.
(If you’ve attended any of my North American workshops in 2018, this workshop will be a good follow-up, with all-new but related content.)
Friday 30 August – Monday 2 September
‘A Psyche the Size of Earth’: a 3-day weekend workshop at the beautiful Synergia Ranch, New Mexico. Located 30 minutes from the center of Santa Fe and 45 minutes from Albuquerque, Synergia Ranch is set on 111 acres of high desert prairie, dotted with pinon and juniper trees.
The old myths, stories and philosophies of the West offer up a world in which everything is not only alive, but has purpose, intentionality of its own. Over the centuries, this old knowledge has been deliberately overwritten. And so we’ve forgotten how to listen to the song the mountain sings. We’ve forgotten how to listen to the voice of the ancestor who comes to show us how to take up the shimmering mythlines of the past, and weave them into the tapestry of the present. We’ve fallen out of myth.
In this unique workshop, we’ll learn once again how to fully participate in what psychologist James Hillman called ‘a psyche the size of Earth’. We’ll go out and listen to the land’s dreaming, and in the process, we’ll find ourselves getting dreamt. We’ll deepen our relationship with the soul of this world – the anima mundi – in order to uncover and explore not only our own unique mythopoetic identity, but the unique gift, or ‘calling’ – the hidden treasure – which each one of us brings to this world. Through personal myth, fairy-tale narratives and imagery, journeying, dreamwork and land-based practices, we’ll find our own unique bridge to the imaginal world: the mundus imaginalis of ancient tradition; the richly mythic and archetypal Otherworld of the Gaelic tradition to which I belong..
The work we’ll do is rooted in mythology and archetypal psychology – but above all, it’s rooted in authentic relationship with this beautiful animate Earth, and a deeply grounded participation in the land where our feet are planted.
This workshop is open to both men and women.
Details and booking information are at this link.
Friday 6 – Sunday 8 September
Weekend workshop at Esalen, Big Sur, California; details coming soon.
Friday 13 – Saturday 14 September
Lecture and workshops at the Black Mountain Circle, Point Reyes, California; details coming soon.
USA, 2020
May 1 – 2
Keynote presenter at ‘Spirituality in the 21st Century’, Prairiewoods, Iowa. Details to be announced.
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