Leonora Carrington, 1954, Sidhe, the White People of the Tuatha dé Danaan.
It’s taken me a while to discover what we will consider next. In the end I had no real choice. It’s been a bumpy ride since early this year. In that time I’ve encountered the Weird for the first time since I got An Education, read hundreds of pages of Jeff Kripal’s books on extreme religion, UFOs, the paranormal, life after death and all things Impossible, been initiated into the Gabonese Bwiti tradition in Brazil, given talks in France, Cornwall & London, taught seminars on Hillman and Corbin, and most recently, and maybe most importantly (though I am far from sure), I’ve read Jeremy Vaeni’s books. I do not know where this leaves me. It’s a strange land—maybe a Non-Where. I take that to be a good thing.
For what seems a very long time I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that I had become uneasy being a channel for Henry Corbin or whoever it is he had made me, and needed to move on. I was totally right, but the various paths I started down never felt adequate. I think now I’m on the road again, or I can see it from here. This is awkward because Jeremy says there is no road and I’m pretty sure he’s right. I could retire even more fully than I have already and live in a cave somewhere, but that would annoy my family and do no one any good. So I’ll keep doing whatever this is that I’ve been doing. It’s not exactly teaching, because I have long known that I don’t know much and that in some strange way I am not the person who wrote the books that have my name on them. And in the last year I’ve learned that it’s way worse than that. Maybe I’m a tour guide in a country I’ve never been to before, shouting over my shoulder, gesticulating wildly, telling you all how what you’re about to see looks to me. I think that’s arguably sort of useful and I like doing it. Traveling alone is a drag. I’m a bit concerned about how this will work out in this new country on some new planet, but I guess we’ll find out.
The authors we need to read in these ten weeks are Jeffrey Kripal, Jeremy Vaeni and Alana Eisenbarth. They will totally flip you out. Trust me. I’m kind of hoping that some of you will not know what’s coming ‘til just before we talk about it so I can get the thrill of leading you into the Wild Unknown—but… I would be remiss in not at least pointing you towards Archives of the Impossible, and OurUndoing. Both are treasure troves awaiting discovery.
I want to keep the reading list and sequence flexible over the course of ten weeks, so the schedule below is tentative, but it gives an idea of what’s coming. Ten weeks is a long time—you can pay tuition by the week and come or go as you please.
I hope you’ll join us for this adventure in unlearning everything you thought you knew about this world and the next.
Tuesdays & Thursdays — 4-5:30 pm EST
January 2 & 4 — Strieber & Kripal, Super Natural
January 9 & 11 — cont’d
January 16 & 18 — cont’d
January 23 & 25 — Kripal, Changed in a Flash
Jan. 30 & Feb 1 — cont’d
February 6 & 8 — Jeremy Vaeni, Urgency
February 13 & 15 — cont’d
February 20 & 22 — cont’d
February 27 & 29 — Alana Eisenbarth, The Girl Who Thought She Was God
March 5 & 7 — cont’d
TUITION & REGISTRATION
Payment options are flexible. You can pay as you go if you’d like.
Full tuition is $40 per week. Scholarships always available.
You can register and pay by the week or the full term.
PAYMENT LINKS ARE IN THE REGISTRATION FORM
The texts are all available on amazon at good prices (links are in the schedule above), both hard copy and digital. Scholarship students can access pdfs as part of tuition.
Registration will get you all the links you will need. As always, links to the recordings are sent to everyone, so when you can't make it live you'll still get all the content.
Email me with any questions: tcheetham@gmail.com
Thank you. Looking forward to the ride ;)