The Lightning Bird
An Initiation Narrative for Our Times
Course Structure & Fees
A Residential Programme
Dates: 14 – 19 March 2027
Location
Eloma, a private residence in South
Devon, near Dartmouth
Details and directions will be sent on booking.
Fees
Spaces are limited so please book swiftly if you would like to come.
We have a small number of bursary places allocated for those who are unable to attend for financial reasons. We will let you know if your application has been successful once places have been allocated. To apply for a bursary please fill in the application form.
An Invitation
The firebird, and the lightning bird from Africa, are mythical creatures associated with magical knowledge and the elemental forces of the earth and sky. The lightning bird has a relationship with that most potent of powers, the strike of lightning itself.
In this time together we look at the initiatory stories of these creatures, one from Eastern European folklore, the other from the Southern Africa traditions, and consider what the firebird and the lightning bird might have to tell us of fire and water, of warrior and lover, of destruction and renewal – the polarities of this moment, the initiation of our times.
Initiatory stories carry us through the thresholds of life, those moments when who we think we are collapses to reveal the ‘something further’ that is asked of us. Through the telling, the ritual and the encounter, they explore the demands of our passage, the possibility of renewal and the call to become more authentically, more fully, ourselves.
We will hear these two initiatory stories told, the firebird and the lightning bird, their versions and variants, their meanings through the lens of Jungian and existential psychology.
We will be called to consider our own stories, personal and collective, how they shape our place within the world, how they trace and give meaning to our turning points and initiatory passages.
We will be working within ritual space and the mythic map of the landscape around us, looking at how initiatory ritual is constructed and how it can bring about change, how the natural world supports and reciprocates our efforts.
We will be using the tools of dream and mythic journaling, the use of poetic language and the medicine of shared experience as we slowly weave together our understanding of what it means to live in authenticity in these times.
This is an opportunity to pause before the threshold, to consider these magical stories in which are encoded the old wisdom from far-flung places and times, and look at how their guidance, their potency and their instruction can support us, alone and together, as we step forward into the next transformation.
Your Guides
The lead guide of this programme will be Colin Campbell supported by Anél Hamersma and Rachel Fleming.
Colin Campbell
Colin works with African mythology and the wisdom traditions of South Africa, specifically those that are based on our relationships with the ancestors and spirits of nature. He looks at where these ancient indigenous practices collide and coalesce with the knowledge and belief systems of the west.
One of the most unique and precious treasures Colin Campbell bears is that he is one of the few who were accepted, taught and initiated by some of the wisest pre-industrial African knowledge carriers who lived in Southern Africa. Sadly, due to the decline of this indigenous culture and its associated natural habitats, Colin and his younger brother Niall, are now amongst the rarest-known custodians of ancient sacred African knowledge systems.
Find out more about Colin on https://colincampbell.co.za/
Anél Hamersma
Anél Hamersma is a South African facilitator and writer whose work explores what helps us feel fully human and in relationship with the living world. With a background in performance, she creates spaces where people can rediscover their own expression and a sense of belonging. Her initiation as a sangoma in Botswana in 2001, and the two decades of practice since, continue to shape her sense of a world alive with presence and possibility.
At the heart of her work is a wish to help people trust what moves them and find the courage to give it expression. She writes two Substack publications: Free Range Human, a long-form interview series exploring aliveness and re-enchantment, and Miracles in Slow Motion, a collection of personal essays.
Rachel Fleming
Rachel Fleming has worked with animist education for many years, designing and delivering educational programmes for Schumacher College, University of Wales Trinity St Davids and Embercombe, with a focus on the meeting place between human, spirit and nature, between ‘ecology’ and ‘spirituality’. She is co-founder and curator of the Contemporary Animism programmes and loves to convene conversations that explore the deepest depths of why we are here, the ways we find belonging to the world and how to be in service to soul. She is committed to scholarship, word magic, creative imagination and the medicine of circles.