The Journey

1. Runic Scripts and the Mythopoetic Imagination

We will lay the groundwork of establishing an understanding of symbols, what they are and how they are different from signs. We will learn about the underlying wisdom in Northern mythology and its relationship to personal and universal destiny and fate by studying the concepts of “Urlog” and the “Wyrd” which are presided over by the three Norns: who are the past, present and future. We will inquire into the “Well of Memory” and its relationship to the Tree of Life – Yggdrasil.  Opening up the pathway of how to become “Tenders of the Well” which will be part of this journey.

2.  Drinking the Blood of Dragons: Learning the language of the Land

In this lesson we will pay attention to the patterned language of place.  Bird sounds, animal tracking, marks in bark and following the movements of the rivers will all be guides and grammar that forms a “language” a Mother Tongue.  We will discover how we can write poems from these natural shapes through the techniques of the asemic tradition and new and ancient writing, with practical advice on how to develop a language from the Earth for interspecies dialogue.  

To use our hands to conduct new lines and shapes, expressing our emotions in lettered shapes found in streets, trees, feathers, rocks, furs, snail trails, or ripples of water. To become founders of new alphabets, and play with whim, explorations, spell-meters, new hidden passes and obscurities. To free a magical language from the landscape and from within us - to retrieve new hieroglyphs. When we read the lines of the leaves, the Earth's language becomes mysterious.

3. Yggdrasil: Inner Journeying in the Tree of Life

We begin by reading the Edda and especially Odin’s initiation on the Tree of Life, followed by a meditation on the runes and how they are embedded within the poetic voice from nature and the Ash tree. We will examine the runes as animated symbols when chanted. This session will also explore the special polytheistic mindset of Northern Europe and how the perception of self was closer to the idea of a “psyche,” which is a more nuanced, complex and poly-sensory notion of the self. Andreas will demonstrate how the multi-self perception relates to the Tree of Life and the deep psychological significance this Universal Tree plays in today’s ecological crisis.

4. Tracking Spirit Realms: Mytho-cartography

We will discover ancient symbols such as chevrons, spirals, runes and other dynamic lines and learn how to combine them to create chants and spells.  This work is similar to shamanic journeying, visualizations and meditations.  The aim will be to learn to create inner song lines from our own life’s experiences.

Galdr & Poetic Spell Meters:

This session will include a practical session on what is an oracular practice and what is oracular language?  When we understand symbols as animistic and alive, then what role does ritual have in creating a relationship to the symbol? Using gentle visualisation techniques, we will go on a journey to retrieve an “unbidden” image and learn to craft this image into a poetic metre called the Galdralag (A Spell Metre), a writing technique seen in the Edda. There will also be a practice on how to write spell metres and how we can transform them into a song or chant for beneficial purposes.

You will be taught how to write in the traditional poetic metre which was given to us from Odin in the Poetic Edda.

5. Brewing the Mead of Poetry

A practical session on pottery, beadmaking, buckskin, carving, whittling, fire-by-friction, mead making. Creating libations that are part of the ceremonial work in this course, to create something of beauty to offer the world.

Rituals of Blessing and Reconciliation

Bringing ourselves together in community to re-enact the central ritual of reconciliation between the Sky Gods and the Earth Spirits.  We will explore what it takes to bring forth Wisdom (Kvasir) into these troubled and troubling times.

Together we will gather around the the great horn/vat of Odrerrir and make Mead together as medicine.

6. Utiseta: Traditional Solitary Meditation 

Discovering solitary meditation in the wild and what it can mean for us today.  Learning about the practice of staff and the cloak, and the tools we have available to us to work with the Utiseta practice from the Icelandic Sagas.  Returning to the settlement: Integrating our findings and our imagination Gathering to integrate what we have learnt - the integration and alchemical union of the Eagle and the Serpent and forming the be-winged serpent: the Dragon.  Taking what we have learnt and putting this all into practice with conversations and a final assignment.