Skaldskapr
Reviving our poetic magical power at the crossroad between the arts of the Storyteller and the Sorcerer
We hear the story again and again: magic is dead. We live at the frayed end of an immaculate braid whose cut happened somewhere before us—a cut that finally severed our ancestors' relationships with the earth, and with the marvelous otherwise.
For many of us, as we look around at the state of our cultures and communities, this story of magic’s death is a dirge of grief. We are haunted by a deep longing: if only the lines were not broken, we might have the resources to avert this moment of great trouble and live in balance and harmony with the Earth.
For some, this trouble pushes us down the rabbit-holes of myth, folklore, legend, and fairytale. We search the texts we still have left, the memories of the stories we were told, the mutant versions we watched on the TV as kids wondering what more might be there. Our guides in this quest are generally the giants of the relatively recent mythopoetic movement: Marion Woodman, Marie Louis Von Franz, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Robert Bly… the list goes on. We follow their mythopoetic muses, their tracks in the soil, looking for the signs of the living cultures that were lost.
For many, though, entering the treasure horde of myth can become an exercise in consumption as we stroll down the museum-like corridors of a collection of Grimms or Lang. We listen to every possible recording of the great storytellers of our time as we revel in the psychological transformation and the emotional amplification the old tales catalyze.
Engaging with these stories solely through a mythopoetic lens, however, leaves a hidden hall of the treasure-horde unexplored. Lurking in the shadows of this hall under the mountain is a fount of great power whose secret key is embodiment.
In that place where sorcerers play,
the stories tell us less about our psychology
and whisper a more practical demand:
“Do this, and change your life.”
The stories become provocations sent down from the deep past to work in new ways in the world.
What would it mean to actually hang from the world tree for nine days and nine nights as the One-Eyed god does,
or to truly encounter the beings of the mounds and receive a living knife?
The Course
In this course, we will explore the crossroad between the arts of the Storyteller and the Sorcerer. We will hone what the Icelandic sagas call Skaldskapr, or poetic magical power, a skill that bridges the gap between enchanting storytelling and working practical magic.
We will dive deep into the word-magic of stories that conjure, and the practices that are hidden away in every story that we encounter. We will unlock our listening, go beyond consumption, and tune ourselves to the practices and provocations of the Old Stories.
Students will work with stories—each story paired with a magical herb from the Nine Herbs Charm—and receive support to track the mythic threads and practical sorcerous arts within them. Skaldskapr is an Old Norse word that means “poetic magical power,” and this course plays with this idea, showing us that it is an art of magic to be able to weave a story—but also that the stories are a treasure trove of practical magical arts.
“The magician is someone who can truly bring the myths to life in the expression’s fullest sense – he or she is a story-teller whose stories are truths of power and action.
”
Starting our work with the Nigon Wyrta Galdor, or Nine Herbs Charm–a 1000-year old healing charm calling upon the power and potency of herbal allies—we will explore the storytelling potency of the Narrative Charm traditions. The use of narrative charms is a folk-magical practice in which stories are evoked as vehicles for transformation, transmutation, and healing. As storytellers, understanding this ancient art is the key that opens the doorway from the practice of being a simple entertainer to the possibility of becoming a healer.
We will then turn our attention to myths and folktales, as we dig up the old bones of practical arts secreted within them. The stories offer easy and simple practices for working with ancestral spirits, gaining fairy-touched blades, becoming a conduit for the chthonic music, and becoming a skilled reader of the Language of the Earth. Pulling out these practical arts will ask us to move from a Narrative Charm approach, where the beings in the story work on the behalf of healing, to a living embodiment and engagement. In this move, every action is empowered with the weight and depth of story as it calls us into living a life infused with touches of the mythic.
STORIES & THEMES:
Nigon Wyrta Galdor The Nine Herbs Charm (Anglo-Saxon England)
The Companion Awakening the Ancestral Daemon (Sweden)
Odinn Hangs from the World Tree Runes in the Dark Soil (Old Norse/ Iceland)
The Hand and the Knife The Magic of the Blade (Germany)
The Earth Gnome Chthonic Music (Germany)
Orpheus's Head Mantic Skull Singing Prophecy (Greece)
Over the course of Skaldskapr, you will work with each story over two consecutive sessions. In the first session you hear the story and practice getting it in your own jaw. In the second session, you’ll be guided to pull out the magical theme, practice, or tool secreted inside the story, and receive a magical task to accomplish on your own between sessions.
You’ll begin to build your own relationship with the stories and cultivate the skills needed to continue this work on your own—and you’ll walk away from the course with five stories to tell, five practical magical arts, and relationships with nine herbs.
This journey is open to all the members of the School of Mythopoetics and also those just starting out.
Meet Chaise and Learn More About the Course:
Practical Information
When:
Sundays, October 6th–December 29th
10 am–noon Pacific
Recordings will be available to participants.
Tuition:
$350 – $200 sliding scale
To register, please email chaiselevy@gmail.com
Meet Your Guide
CHAISE LEVY
Chaise is a father, husband and storytelling sorcerer based in Northern California on the lands of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok people. His love of language and story have been the fuel for his study of trolldom, animal tracking, fire-by-friction, and herblore. Chaise is deeply convinced that the mythic gives us a door into the dreaming of the earth, and that if we imbibe the blood of dragons we will one day understand the voices of the birds.
Chaise’s websites:
northernspirithouse.substack.com
chaiselevy.com