What has become of the alchemists? – the rainmakers, the ancient oracles and voices of the wells, the medieval magicians?
They knew that by working with the force of nature, that which resides in the very matter of the universe, in the blades of grass, in the winds that blow, that they could change the world. At this moment of great change for us, as we stand on the very edge of what is possible for the human species, perhaps there is something important we have forgotten. What is it that we have lost that has allowed the great mystery of life on earth to flee from our lives. Where does magic now reside in the world and how can we possibly bring it back?
Due to the overwhelming interest in our 1 year Contemporary Animism programme we are excited to offer the online modules of this course as a stand alone programme.
“Magic is what happens when you are fully embodied in nature” – David Abram, author of Spell of the Sensuous
In this course you will be standing on the shoulders of the old magical traditions as you connect back to the creative and intelligent force within nature itself – the same force that runs through all of us and is our birth-rite to know.
By being resonant with it, with all that is, by knowing the names of things, by offering libation to the ancestors and spirits of place, we aim to learn the old ways of working with the world, to make the changes it is asking of us. If we are truly inside something bigger than ourselves, and everything around us is alive, then it is time to tune back in, because our very future as humans depends on it.
Animism is the belief that we are one small part of a greater intelligent whole and within this whole we all have a part to play. This is a belief shared by our ancestors for thousands of years and with indigenous traditions around the world.
What would it mean for us to believe again?
This course is a deep exploration of animistic magical practice that focuses on the context, the place and the needs of each individual.
By joining the group you will become a member of a small group of people who are pioneering this work in the world. The intention is to learn together, to create together, to challenge current knowledge and belief systems and come up with practices and understandings and beliefs that work for each of us and may even benefit the world at large.
Core Facilitators
Angharad Wynne
Angharad spent much of her youth exploring her Welsh homeland by foot and delving deeply into the western magic, healing and spiritual traditions in order to piece together the lost parts of her own indigenous culture. Connection and dialogue with with nature and landscape is central to her work as is the magic of everyday, the creation for meaningful ceremony for our lives today and sharing the spirituality and mythology of her homeland with others. A published author and poet, Angharad is also a storyteller who uses story as the starting point for deep enquiry and a source of timeless wisdom and healing. She regularly runs spiritual and creative retreats including the Return to Centre series for women, In the Footsteps of Ancestors, an annual pilgrimage following ‘Songlines’ across the sacred landscapes of Britain, and Dreaming the Land which she co-runs with partner and collaborator, Eric Maddern. She speaks widely about finding ‘the dreaming’ of place; of working with intuition, knowledge and landscape to draw together threads of spiritual practice which are connected and meaningful to and arise from specific geographical and cultural landscapes.
Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell grew up in rural southeastern Botswana, the son of a renowned anthropologist and a creative healing mother. He is currently a practitioner of traditional African medicine, based in Cape Town, South Africa and the UK. He receives clients from all over the world, and facilitates international group processes relating to natural law, transformation, healing & personal power, sacred sites, and cross-cultural cosmology. His work bridges major world cities with ancestral homelands and forgotten wilderness, taking him from the Amazon Basin to Los Angeles, the sacred sites of Venda to the urban grit of Johannesburg, and remote Ethiopia to the City of London. Colin co-founded and co-runs a training school in Botswana for traditional doctors and sangomas with his brother Niall Campbell. He is also a lifelong artist and musician, his style once again bridging the traditional with the contemporary, the timeless with the timely, and the sounds of the sacred with the lyricism of electric rocking funk.
