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The Writer as Alchemist, accessing the Gold

As storytellers, we access the deepest part of our truths and present them in stories and poems and song – first to prove we exist, then to heal the wounds, and last to weave the golden threads into a memorable work of art that will outlive us, continue to dance in the world after we are gone.  Writers are story weavers, magicians, shamans and mystics. Writers are also accountants, attorneys, electricians and gardeners. We clean the rings from our bathtubs and stare out the windows over our kitchen sinks while rinsing our dishes, as millions have done before us.  We feed our cats, walk our dogs under the moon and take out the trash.

If we live long enough through it all, if we listen deeply, we begin to hear our memories whisper to us in a completely different way. True stories are hard earned, filled with synchronicity and the kind of alchemy that transcends the every day.  We spend most of our lives saying…

Isn’t that bizarre?

What were the odds they would show up just then?

If I didn’t have a witness, I wouldn’t have believed it!

 

When we try to suppress the alchemy in our stories, we are downplaying the part of story that pulls the reader into a new way of seeing the world. We have thrown down the kaleidescope and chosen to see the world in one dimension, instead of showing the reader how one thing is linked to everything else.  As writers, we need to learn how to weave the gold into our stories, an ancient practice with a modern twist.

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The Writer as the Beautiful Beholder

The universe is asking something from each one of us, especially now. The universe speaks to us through the senses, and it has bestowed all the senses upon us as a compass to find a way into our stories.    Good stories have a kind of radiation and energy that invite memory into story in a new way. In the class we will explore those storytellers and poets who are Beautiful Beholders, to teach us not to downplay our life stories, but instead look at them through a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Story thrives in the hands of  Beautiful Beholders.

The Chemistry of Story

Through story we bring the wound to the page for healing; through story we make people laugh and weep; through story we transform our experiences into teachable moments for the reader.  Story Alchemy is when we choose to access the natural and magical synchronicities of life, inviting our stories to transform ourselves and the readers.

In simple terms, we become Word Alchemists.

 

“Alchemy” is from the Greek khemeioa,

meaning “land of black earth,”

or the Greek khymatos “that which is poured out.”

 

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My next 6-week writing workshop, beginning early August (Thursday group mid July)

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In my next 6-week writing workshop, we will explore the Alchemy of Story, our world and all its mysteries to access them and weave them into our life stories – Learning to create our stories with the heart of a shaman and the slight of eye of a magician will make the stories sparkle with all the creative elements needed to hand our reads words like magic dust on the page.

 

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul,

becomes their blood and self and purpose.

That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it,

because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”

― Erin Morgenstern

 

Calling all Memoir Writers – Topics Covered in this series

Like my last two classes, this class material will had been designed for the times, helping us make sense of our selves inside the world today.

Topics covered in this series will be the following:

•  Remembering Forward:
Memory influences who we were, who we are, and who we are becoming.  Memory is the gold we weave into every story we write. It’s important to invite the past, the present and the future into story. In this course we will learn the importance of the alchemy of memory, and how to weave time into story without time being linear.

•  The Spiritual Practice Inside Personal Story:
The acts of prayer, meditation or other spiritual practices inform our our stories and turn stories into their own version of prayer. How to include and weave our practices into story to turn story into a prayer.

•  Love is Alchemical: 
We will explore the healing magic of love inside story and write into the magical alchemy of love.

•  Birth, Rebirth and Separation: 
We are born and we are separated from a deep knowing, and yet, the knowing is buried inside us. As storytellers, we  learn how to mine the knowing, to merge our deep knowing inside the every day.

•  Grief as Transformation:
We are in it. Right now, the thick of it, with Covid and Black Lives Matter and an uncertain, wobbly election ahead of us. Many of us have lost people we love and will lose people we love. Life & Death and Birth all catapults us into Personal Transformations, even when we don’t ask for it. Shown inside story, these transformations inspire others to not only survive, but also to thrive.

•  Wounds & Healing: 
Yup, we came in to heal – ourselves and each other. Sometimes it feels like a cosmic fuckup and other times we know the wounding and healing is alchemical.  Every year, on January first I proclaim I want a year without any lessons and I then I hear the Universe laughing.

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Inspiration for this Course:

 

Books I have gathered to use as inspiration for this course include Some of Us Did Not Die by June Jordan, Song of the World Becoming by Pattiann Rogers, Writing as a Way of Healing by Louise DeSalvo, On Becoming an Alchemist by Catherin MacCoun, A Good Cry by Nikki Giovanni, A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman, Sorcerer’s Stone, A Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy and The Abundance by Annie Dillard.

 

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Opus From Space by PatiAnn Rogers (excerpt):

“Almost everything I know is glad to be born “

 

Legs and shoulders, knees and elbows flail likewise

against their womb wall everywhere, in pine

forest inches, seepage banks and boggy

prairies, among savannah grasses, on woven

mats and perfumed linen sheets.

Mad zealots, every one, even before

beginning they are dark dust-concealings

or pure frenzy to come into light.

Almost everything I know rages to be born

the obsession founding itself explicitly

in the coming bone harps and ladders,

the heart-thrusts, vessels and voices

of all those speeding with clear and total

fury toward this singular honor.

 

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Included in this class series is the following:

 

• Craft exercises before the longer write: metaphor, making lists, using questions to create a compelling story.

• Thirteen-minute live writing and group sharing

• Belong to a private Facebook group of all writers taking the class

•Feedback from writing peers during class and throughout the week on FB

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Writing Teacher: Laura Lentz

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Author Laura Lentz has taught creative writing workshops online and on the north shore of Kauai for ten years. Her workbook, STORYquest, helps writers turn their story into a Hero’s Journey through 12-weeks of writing prompts and examples out of best selling books. Laura is also a developmental editor and helps writers expand their body of work through unique methods – offering challenging and thought provoking writing prompts inspired by poetry, mythology and segments from literature. Her exploratory writing workshops include Love, Skin and Eros, The Poetry Room, and STORYquest, Make Your Story a Hero’s Journey. Her 6-week workshops are online and on the north shore of Kauai.  Workshop students have the unique opportunity to appear in an annual spoken word shows and in Literati Academy’s online magazine exclusively written by Literati Academy’s writing community in LITerari.us, Laura serves on the faculty of The Kauai Writers Conference and is conducting a Master Class for writers who want to write in sacred places on Kauai and allow Kauai’s beauty to influence their work.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]

Share Your Writing  in a Private Facebook Page

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Throughout the course, you will have access to up to thirty writers in a private Facebook page who are also taking this course – writing to the same course material.  You will share in a private Facebook group, and receive positive feedback from your peers.

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SUNDAY

August 9th – September 8th

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Nine writers creating together

10:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m.

[Pacific Time]

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$220

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MONDAY  

August 10th – September 14th

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Nine writers creating together

4:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.

[Pacific Time]

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$220

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TUESDAY  

August 11th – September 15th

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Nine writers creating together

4:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.

[Pacific Time]

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$220

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WEDNESDAY Evening 

August 12th – September 16th 

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Nine writers creating together

8:30 — 10:30 pm PST    5:30—7:30 Hawaii

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$220

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THURSDAY 

August 6th – September 10th

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Nine writers creating together

4:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.

[Pacific Time]

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$220

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