The Repeater and the Black Bird (both teachers) conducted a day-long session at The Brewery. In the courtyard we set up cooking plates and brewed a portion of beer (named Mead by us).
Beforehand, we asked the School Nurse (the Medicin Woman) to conduct an initiation ritual to open our minds and hearts for the process of brewing and teaching. Our focus was on the knowledge and poetry which can be gained from drinking the mead – according to Nordic mythology.
We succeded in recruiting a number of students, all of which went through the initiation performed by the Medicin Woman, and developed the ritual of chanting the myth of the Theft of the Mead continuously for the duration of the cooking part (app. 3½ hours). Other texts were read on top of the chanting to find the inspiration of poetry and infuse it into the mead while brewing.
Students stuck around, and we got to talk about the process of brewing, the process of chanting, and of the mythology of combining scholarship and poetry in one drink.
The Gardener was also initiated and took turns in the process.
It turned out to be a laboursome task, but the outcome of engaging students and staff, we find, was well worth the effort.
At the end of the day, instructions were crafted together with the myths for future repetitions of the brewing. These together with a stirring stick crafted by The S have been placed in the care of the Protector of the Archive.
The Repeater wants the brewing to be repeated – we will seek to find students who can repeat The Brewery on their own next week.
In a fortnight, the brew will need to put into bottles for storing, and in 6-12 months the brew will be ready for tasting. This gives promise of an ongoing process and engagement of both teachers and students and continual discussion and reflection of the themes outlined above.
/The Repeater, The Black Bird