Community

Join the Nostos Network

Our community

The beating heart of Nostos is our online Network, centred around a learning program with a focus on mythic imagination, creativity, philosophy as a way of life and grounded practice. This isn't a one-off course: it's an ongoing journey of discovery.

The Nostos Network is for you if you’d like:

  • to explore an authentic spiritual path, rooted in our oldest Western philosophical lineage and wisdom traditions, alongside a community of fellow seekers
  • to learn how to integrate transformative practices from depth psychology (Jungian and post-Jungian) into your spiritual practice
  • to understand how the practice of philosophy can help us to live well in challenging times
  • to uncover and make sense of your own unique journey through this life and beyond, and the nature of your personal calling
  • to cultivate your mythic imagination
  • to learn from a group of highly qualified teachers who are experts in their field
  • to have access to guidance and spiritual accompaniment along the way
join us

The beating heart of the Nostos Institute

If you find yourself longing for mystery, for beauty, and for an authentic path of self-discovery and spirituality which has a long lineage here in the West and which is steeped in both tradition and innovation – join us in our online community of the curious.

For just £300 a year or £30 a month, you can access an in-depth, live online teaching program led by Dr Sharon Blackie, with expert guest teachers and contributors. You’ll also have access to live webinars, spiritual direction sharing circles, resources across a wide range of media, community conversations and networking, and very much more. While you’re a member, you’ll also have full access to our archive of videos, audio downloads and written resources.

Our program is rooted in a love of knowledge and learning, but it’s also an adventure in the mythice imagination, and focused on developing practical wisdom to live by. Our aim is to guide participants along a path of awakening and transformation through our unique and alchemical blend of philosophy and psychology, of creativity and contemplation.

Our study program (you can find out more about the subjects and practices we work with at the bottom of this page) is carefully planned, coherent and structured – but it also invites an open, spacious and reflective exploration of ideas.

The Nostos Network is hosted by Mighty Networks, and is available on the web and in a mobile app. But you can’t join us from the Mighty Networks app (although the app works well once you’ve become a member) so please subscribe instead through this website, which will take you to your web browser.

What you'll enjoy as a member

  • A recorded lecture from Sharon, focused on the subject we’re studying that month
  • A live Zoom session with Sharon, focused on our monthly subject
  • Agora: a monthly philosophy circle with Mark Vernon
  • A monthly live Zoom sharing circle with our spiritual director, Vanessa Chamberlin
  • A seasonal book group
  • A wide range of other tools, practices, resources and reflections to inform your spiritual journey, including guided meditations and our unique core practice of lectio philosophica
  • Ongoing opportunities in discussion forums to ask questions and enjoy conversations with members of the Nostos team
  • An engaged community of fellow seekers to accompany you on this journey

All live online sessions will be recorded for later viewing if you can’t make the scheduled times, and you’ll have a chance to ask questions afterwards in the community forum. Most sessions will take place at 16.00 or 17.00 UK time, midweek or Saturdays.

Ongoing benefits

  • Expert guidance from Dr Sharon Blackie and the Nostos Institute team, and other highly qualified contributors
  • Post your thoughts, ideas and reflections and participate in community discussions; share your creative work
  • Encourage each other; develop your own support circle; chat with and direct-message other community members; arrange in-person meetups with others in your location
  • Access to our archive and library of resources
  • Early bird exclusive access to our in-person retreats at Broughton Sanctuary and to online events and workshops which are also open to non-members
  • All spaces are gently moderated to ensure your comfort and safety
join us

What we'll study

Each month, in addition to our ongoing philosophy and spiritual direction circles, we’ll dive deeply into a single subject area. 

Philosophical traditions and the soul’s journey

• Philosophy as a way of life
• A background to Plato, Neoplatonism, Hermeticism and other threads in the Western wisdom traditions
• The nature of the soul; fate, calling and the soul’s journey
• Value ethics and practical wisdom to live by

Mythopoetics

• Mythology: the nature of myth
• Cultivating the mythic imagination
• Personal mythmaking and other acts of mythopoesis
• Understanding cultural mythology and the stories we live by

Cosmologies

• The nature of the Divine and the Divine Feminine
• Sacred geometry as a contemplative and spiritual practice
• Archetypal cosmology and astrology
• Synchronicity and spirituality
• Contemporary animism and panpsychism
• Mysticism and contemplative practices

Depth Psychology

• Individuation and the journey to wholeness
• Dreamwork
• The art of alchemy
• Active and guided imagination; reverie
• Understanding archetypal languages e.g. tarot
• The embodied imagination
• Creative practice and the archetypal artist
• Creating meaningful ritual
• Spiritual ecology: a psyche the size of earth

For a more detailed list of the subjects we work with at the Nostos Institute, please visit this page

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