Wisdom of Storytelling, Wilderness Initiation & Mythopoetic Landscapes | Leon Cossar (2020)

In this episode from Season 1 (2020) we have Leon Cossar on the show.

Leon is an outdoorsman, a burgeoning poet, rascally storyteller and independent scholar of deep ecology, anthropology and mythology. He is currently studying a masters in ‘The Poetics of Imagination’ with Dr Martin Shaw and leads online programs guiding people into the mytho-poetic conditions of their life.

As Leon puts it himself, he was born in big sky country and is a 6th generation farmers son. He grew up with dirt spittin larrikins' spinnin’ yarns of brawny bush rangers and wide eyed toothless shearers who were kings of the wool sheds and scrappin’ pub brawls.

When the prison bars of school bent open he flew from the parched textbooks and drought riddled country upon the wings of an inner dream and calling to become a wilderness guide on the high seas and soaring mountains. As a wilderness rites guide Leon leads rites of passage programs with youth, vision quests with adults and as a death doula offers his services to the ones who are passing through.

He writes among other things on the miraculous human pilgrimage from here to there and the questions we must ask ourselves to guide us in genuine ways toward our one day, all at once, full arrival and disappearance.

It was such a pleasure to have Leon on, and I really enjoyed delving into the mytho-poetic landscape, wilderness connection, and all the rest of it…

 

TIMESTAMPS:

[5:20] Opening the Container: Leon opens the circle with an appreciation for the “mystery” & offers a unique twist on ways we can invite the sacred into our space

[12:08] Gargoyles

[16:00] Understanding “soul language”

[16:46] Diving deeper into myth

[20:14] Myth & poetry

[21:56] Charles Darwin...and poetry?

[32:08] Going beyond the limits of what we call “language”

[34:40] Where have the “original people of the land” gone?

[36:28] A spiritual experience with the wind

[37:24] “You’re not from here….”

[40:18] Taming the wild man with education

[41;17] Turning to face the beast

[44:18] Men and the need for rites of passage

[50:51] The Vision Quest

[55:33] Addiction

[57:34] How do you make something sacred?

[58:37] Initiation in every day of our lives

[1:00:00] Questing

[1:04:00] Listening to the communication of nature

[1:15:04] Understanding death

[1:16:00] Psychology and myth

[1:17:00] The alchemy of communication

[1:11:00] Writing your language

[1:20:00] Deepening your relationship with poetry