Online 7-Week Reading Course
Section 1: Thursdays, 5pm-7:15pm Pacific Time, October 10 - November 21, 2024
Register for Thursday Section Here - 2 spots remaining
Section 2: Fridays, 9am-11:15am Pacific Time, October 11 - November 22, 2024
Register for Friday Section Here - 2 spots remaining
For seven weeks in October and November, I will hold two small weekly online seminars (each group with a limit of 19 participants) and we will read the entirety of Homer’s masterwork, The Iliad. Along with the Odyssey, The Iliad is one of my favorite texts, worthy of a lifetime of reflection and surely of luxuriating in a slow read over a couple of months.
The Iliad is a powerful story. It gives a deep access into a mythic mode of consciousness that is more akin to astrological consciousness in its conception of the individual in relation with a world of other beings. If you are an astrologer, this is a way of connecting directly with the mythic mycelium and consciousness that nourished astrology beyond relying on the interpretations of others.
The Iliad is also a story in the tragic mode, a powerful evocation of the challenges, dilemmas, and challenges of being human. When we read it, we are situated at a special place in Greek consciousness, where many possible notions of the human individual and the more-than-human world are being sketched, and where we can also feel a multiplicity of ways that life is being experienced, understood, and negotiated. I often think of the Homeric and Archaic periods as a time of Twilight in the Greek world — before the clear swing towards Day consciousness reached in Classical and Hellenistic times and exerting dominance into the present. In Homer we can feel the emergence of Daytime ways, yet we can also feel the ongoing immersion in Night, in multiplicity, in recognized embeddedness, in the vivid presence of the gods.
Each week, we will read a few chapters, supplemented occasionally with interpretive essays, art and imagery, and the many creative re-imaginings of the story from both classical and modern times (such as contrasting translations, excerpts of Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles, Jungian and archetypal amplifications, context and interpretation through anti-patriarchal lenses, and some other innovative takes). I will also share some of my original written and video material.
In our meetings, we will discuss the stories and figures together, amplifying especially those with astrological connections (there are many!). We will explore such characters as Hera/Juno, Zeus/Jupiter, Aphrodite/Venus, Ares/Mars, Achilles and Patroklos, Helen, Paris, Priam and Hecuba, Hector, and many others in the charts of participants through planets, asteroids, stars and constellations referenced throughout the text. In addition to work in words, we will engage the material experientially in our groups through movement, dreamwork, art-making, and active imagination.
The word for singers of story in Ancient Greek, rhapsōidos, referred to someone who “sews songs”, drawing threads of story and image together into music suited perfectly to those gathered. We will approach our space with a similar intent, holding room for patient, thoughtful reflection together, our discussions weaving and woven by the stories, dreams, active imagination, and life experiences each of us bring as we read.
Dates:
Section 1: Thursdays, 5pm-7:15pm Pacific Time, October 10 - November 21, 2024
Register for Thursday Section Here
Section 2: Fridays, 9am-11:15am Pacific Time, October 11 - November 22, 2024
Register for Friday Section Here
Commitment: Reading 3-5 hours per week
Cost: $475/person (Also buy copy of The Iliad. Translations will be recommended.)