“Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical.”
“By studying how dreams and fairy tales work, we can then follow their archetypal maps with greater agency into the unknown because they help us to see the meaningful dimension of our personal experience. They show us when we are undergoing universal rites of passage such as initiation, exile, symbolic death and rebirth.”
Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
Storytelling Journeys and Retreats
Nicola offers storytelling experiences that support participants to explore and celebrate their own mythic life journeys–discovering new connections, harvesting hidden gifts and celebration personal transformations.
Story Weaver’s Vision Quest (Retreat)
A mythic and imaginal journey into the heart of story. Unravelling threads of meaning and insight from your lived experience, we explore parallels in myth and fairytale, commune with nature, dance, sing and share stories as we weave transformative visions for each and all. Story Medicine, like the ancient Japanese art of ‘Kintsugi’, gathers the broken or misunderstood fragments of our lives and joins them together again with seams of gold. Your Story Guide, Nicola, will be supported by a team of retreat weavers offering drumming and spoken story, yin yoga, organic ‘real food’ catering, sacred dance, music and song.
Next retreat: Feb 2020 in Byron Hinterland, Qld
Download a flyer here for more information about this retreat:
Mythic Story Dive (Writers’ Retreat)
Imagine a week of dedicated writing time in a nurturing space with daily yoga/meditation and writing sessions to release and transform embodied stories, followed by supportive sharing and feedback circles. Delve deeply into the mythic adventure of your life and reweave personal stories into uplifting mythopoetic tales. Release habitual ways of storying your life to discover new visions for your life—past and future. Mythic story diving, like its deep sea cousin, allows you to explore the underwater caves of your imagination, finding unexpected treasures and uncovering forgotten dreams. Your Story Guide on this journey, Nicola has over ten years experience facilitating transformative community arts projects in rural WA.
Next retreat: To be advised.
Storytelling
Do you have an event where you’d like to include a traditional oral storytelling performance? Contact Nicola with details and she will find and prepare a traditional tale to entertain and inspire your audience. She also adapts traditional folk tales for Australian landscapes and people. Nicola is connected to a network of skilled oral storytellers and can help you find the best storyteller for your event.
Sacred Story Circles
Traditional myths and fairy tales are ancient. They are medicine. Often hundreds if not thousands of years old, they have travelled across continents, over oceans and mountains, and down through the centuries. They are the distilled wisdom of our ancestors, and when we know how to listen, we can discover within them answers and clues for the challenges we face in our lives now. Through this mythic lens, we gain insights into our past, present and future journeys.
An intimate experience of story, community and the sacred contemplation.
Participant Feedback
“Nicola-Jane le Breton’s prowess as a community story sharing and writing facilitator is quietly astonishing. I have been fortunate to experience both short and long term impacts and ripples from being embraced in Nicola’s nurturing and safe space to write and share within my community and beyond…Nicola allows stories yet unimagined to unravel, and voices and words found to fit them, and holds a space for all to listen up good…My community has been enriched by both finding our own stories and learning to listen to old old tales in new ways. I think Nicola-Jane has re-awakened and unleashed the storyteller and deep listener in us all, for which I will always remain grateful.”
“Nicola and Silvia have created an incredibly rich, multi-faceted invitation to and experience of the world of the story and the art of storytelling in this retreat/workshop/experience. It will probably take you out of your comfort zone, but I really recommend going along for the ride—you will have an incredible journey and will come back with a deep well of story inspiration to work with.”
“This inspirational writing/storytelling retreat… has been a gift and an absolute delight to be part of! The well thought-out and orchestrated programme delivered a depth of experience that helped me to access a well of creativity that had long lain undiscovered. Thank you!.”
“If you’re ready for new beginnings, and don’t know where to start, this is the course for you. If you’re yearning to spark a fire, get in touch with the natural self, this is the course for you. If you’re feeling like you’re ready to burst, and the pressure is starting to hurt, this is the course for you. Thank you, Silvia and Nicola.”