I​n troubled times we are creating a culture of resistance and delight. This learning community on Dartmoor in the far west of the United Kingdom, believes that myth has something vital to say about the condition of both our lives and the earth. That certain stories we need right now arrived, perfectly on time, about five thousand years ago.

Central to this is the notion that culture and wildness have experienced an artificial separation, and that both initiation and myth can create what Shaw calls a Culture of Wildness. It is such a culture that the school and its scholars endeavour to raise up.

Residential Intensives

Our residential courses in glorious Devon offer an opportunity for immersion into the work of Dr Martin Shaw.

We gather at an old manor house on the edge of Dartmoor to explore myth, storytelling and its relationship to both the land and our lives.

These courses are rare invitations to work with a master storyteller in his native landscape. From folktales to saint stories, from fairy tales to myth, these electrifying experiences will deepen your understanding of quite why story matters so profoundly in our troubled times.

Expect to learn some stories yourself and have a lasting encounter with this most ancient of technologies.

Each course has a different flavour but days will usually begin as scholars, deep in story and poetry, brooding together for the morning sessions. Stories from pocket sized to epic scale will be explored.

In the afternoons, you will often be equipped with a task, to explore the move from seeing to beholding in both the living world and in our own innate natures.
These courses will be up to 60 people together, getting cooked in the mysteries, learning of kindness, grace, grief and rapture. Just like something from the old stories.

Please note these courses are in-person attendance only. They are open to participants who are new to the School and to those who have previously attended courses.