Spiritual Companion, Bodyworker, and Dreamworker
Spiritual Companion, Bodyworker, and Dreamworker

Writing & Literature

 

Wake up your imagination

 

Past offerings:

 

Who’s Wicked? Taking Another Look at Rapunzel, Writers & Books Literary Center

Fairy tales transport us to a world beyond space and time, to “Once Upon a Time.” They begin with a condition of lack or longing and end with restitution, liberation, marriage, or transformation. Carl Jung saw fairy tales as containing archetypal motifs, or living energies, that show us possibilities for navigating through that middle part of the journey, the testing and suffering.

Using storytelling, comparative folklore, inquiry, creative dramatics, and writing, we will take another look at “Rapunzel.”  What does each person desire, fear, or long to experience? Who is Lady Gothel: protector or persecutor? Who’s “wicked”? How do we deal with the forbidden? Who is the audience for Rapunzel?

Wear comfortable clothes. Bring a bag lunch, a journal, and your imagination!

 

 

Great Love and Great Suffering: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography

According to John Lennon, “All you need is love.” Yet, the Buddha observed that “All of life is suffering.” How do we live with this paradox? In a safe space, we will write about what Carl Jung called, “the incalculable paradoxes of love.”  If you are experiencing that ancient call to a deeper life, come join the caravan.

 

 

 

Gospel of MM
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
, by Jean-Yves Leloup: Book study group

“One welcomes this solid telling of the story and meaning of a neglected text at the root of Christian wisdom, and of a neglected figure who had a special relationship both with the historical Jesus in his lifetime and with the Christ spirit after the death of Jesus.” (Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing)

Book available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or through your local bookseller.

 



Leah Ruekberg is a TEACHING ARTIST, STORYTELLER, and AUTHOR with a background in teaching drama, speech, and high school English.

She is the recipient of the 2012 “Big Pencil Award: A Teacher Who Inspires the Creation and Appreciation of Literature,” awarded by Writers & Books Literary Center, Rochester, NY

Leah draws on two decades of coaching drama and speech, teaching high school English, and writing and performing original stories in her work as a teaching artist. Her work has been featured at educational conferences, (National Storytelling Conference, Chicago, IL, 2003; Sharing the Fire Storytelling Conference, Boston, MA , 2004; A Common Ground For Learning, Buffalo, NY, 2005), retreat centers, libraries, and schools. She has collaborated with other artists to train teachers to bring arts into their classrooms through Aesthetic Education Institute and Wolf Trap: Early Learning Through the Arts. She has been awarded many NYSCA grants (including an Empire State Grant) for collaborating with teachers, where she specialized in teaching “Story Creation” using storytelling techniques to improve student writing. Following her studies with folklore expert, Jack Zipes, she developed a number of residencies using creative dramatics, comparative folklore, critical thinking, community action and creative writing. Leah has also been a free-lance instructor at Writers and Books Literary Center since 1993 and received the Big Pencil Award for being a “teacher who inspires the creation and appreciation of literature” in the Rochester area (2012).