Groups · Workshops · Mythopoetic journeys
Shared inquiry, creative expression and the living language of myth.
Some work asks to be undertaken in company. Soul Metaphors is developing carefully bounded group journeys in Adelaide and live online across Australia, in which story, image, embodied reflection and conversation create a field of shared discovery.
Offerings taking form
Some gatherings follow a particular myth. Others begin with the lives carried into the room.
The Listening Ground is an open, weekly circle for women and men. The Gilgamesh journey is a closed twelve-week process for men. Archetypal Roots: Echo and Narcissus is being shaped as a closed mixed-group journey. Each has its own purpose, form and boundaries.
Expressions of interest · Adelaide region
A weekly circle for honest sharing, deep listening and personal integration. A place to speak without being hurried towards an answer, and to witness without interpreting, advising or fixing.
In development · Adelaide & online Australia-wide
A twelve-week closed journey for men through companionship, civilisation and wildness, power and responsibility, grief, mortality and the long search for wisdom.
In development · Adelaide
A mythopoetic inquiry for women and men into voice, reflection, longing, self-recognition and the difficult ground of reciprocal relationship.
The Listening Ground · Entry and booking
First-time participants complete a brief entry form before attending. A short conversation may be requested when an answer needs clarification. Each gathering proceeds with a minimum of six confirmed participants and is limited to twelve.
Places are confirmed by advance payment. Concession arrangements may be available on request and are considered individually according to financial need and the viability of the gathering.
A booking may be cancelled or transferred with at least 48 hours’ notice. Later cancellations and non-attendance are ordinarily non-refundable. If Soul Metaphors cancels a gathering, participants may receive a full refund or transfer their booking.
Gilgamesh · Entry and commitment
Every applicant completes a written expression of interest and a brief conversation before payment is accepted. The journey begins when at least eight men have fully committed and paid, and is limited to twelve men.
The full contribution is $540 ($45 for each of twelve gatherings), paid before commencement. Private payment plans may be arranged in advance. All core creative materials are included.
Concession arrangements may be available on request and are considered individually according to financial need and the viability of the program.
Withdrawals received at least 14 days before commencement are refundable less disclosed unrecoverable costs. Within 14 days, a refund is available only if the place can be filled. After commencement, the program fee is non-refundable. If Soul Metaphors cancels the journey, affected fees will be refunded in full.
Echo and Narcissus · Entry and commitment
Every applicant completes a written expression of interest and a brief conversation before payment is accepted. The Adelaide journey begins with eight fully committed participants and is limited to twelve. The live online journey begins with six and is limited to eight, allowing greater care for conversation and witness on screen.
The full contribution is $360 ($45 for each of eight gatherings), paid before commencement. Private payment plans may be arranged in advance. Core creative materials are included for the Adelaide journey. Online participants provide an A3 art journal, soft chalk pastels and charcoal from the preparation list supplied before commencement.
Concession arrangements may be available on request and are considered individually according to financial need and the viability of the program.
Withdrawals received at least 14 days before commencement are refundable less disclosed unrecoverable costs. Within 14 days, a refund is available only if the place can be filled. After commencement, the program fee is non-refundable. If Soul Metaphors cancels the journey, affected fees will be refunded in full.
Archetypal Roots · Echo and Narcissus
Echo loses the freedom to speak from her own beginning. Narcissus becomes captive to an image that cannot answer him. The myth holds two different ways a person may lose their bearing in relationship.
This offering does not ask participants to identify who is “the narcissist” and who is “the echo.” It approaches both figures as living images that may reveal voice, image, longing, refusal, self-loss, self-capture and the possibility of renewed orientation.
How do we recognise ourselves without becoming imprisoned by our image—and how do we enter relationship without surrendering our own voice?
Receive the myth before explaining it. Notice the figure, image, action or phrase that remains alive after the telling.
Begin with personal association. Drawing, writing and carefully held conversation allow meaning to emerge without diagnosis or imposed interpretation.
Use landmark, map, terrain and compass to recover bearing: what is real, where am I, what shapes this ground, and what guides the next responsible step?
What is presently known
The work will be participatory and carefully bounded. Each gathering brings together oral storytelling, a concise psychological or relational bearing, facilitated discussion, artmaking, optional sharing and collective witness. Research may illuminate patterns associated with narcissism, vulnerability, empathy and self-silencing, but it will not be used to diagnose participants or absent people. “Echoism” is held as a mythopoetic lens rather than a clinical diagnosis.
The Adelaide journey will run with eight to twelve participants and includes core creative materials. The Australia-wide live online journey will run on Zoom with six to eight participants. Online participants receive a preparation list and provide an A3 art journal, soft chalk pastels and charcoal. Cameras may be turned off during private artmaking, with a return to the shared room for witnessing and closure. No gathering is recorded.
Both forms run for eight weekly three-hour gatherings and cost $360 ($45 per gathering), paid before commencement, with private payment plans by prior arrangement. The same participants travel together for all eight weeks. Expressions of interest are open; dates are still being shaped and payment is not yet being taken.
Register your interestAsk about the online circle →This is being developed as an educational and experiential mythopoetic group—not as diagnostic instruction, psychotherapy, couples therapy or crisis care. Participation, creative expression and sharing remain invitational. The group witnesses without advising, fixing or claiming the meaning of another person’s image, and every recognition is returned towards relationship, choice and responsibility.
The Listening Ground
This is an independent Soul Metaphors offering for women and men who want a steady place for honest conversation, deeper inner work and shared witness.
Participation is always invitational. A person may speak, request support, witness another person’s work or pass. No-one is required to disclose more than they choose.
Wednesday evenings
6:30–9:00 pm
Women and men
Paid at advance booking
The four movements
Each gathering moves through four rounds. The form provides orientation and safety while allowing the living needs of the circle to be met.
An opening check-in: where am I mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually?
A place to consider agreements, accountability and where our actions have fallen short of what we intended.
An opportunity to name what has brought us to the circle and, where appropriate, undertake deeper facilitated work.
Acknowledgement, blessing and final check-out, bringing the evening to a grounded and responsible close.
Shared stewardship
Gaia remains the lead facilitator, holding responsibility for the overall container and any deeper process requiring experience. A rotating Caretaker welcomes the circle and guides its movements, supported by a Time Keeper and, when needed, a Supporting Caretaker.
This shared stewardship gives participants an opportunity to practise listening, leadership, clear agreements and responsible care—capacities that can be carried into families, workplaces and communities.
The boundaries of the circle
The Listening Ground is a facilitated personal-development gathering. It is not psychotherapy, family therapy or crisis care. Participation with a relative or partner requires particular respect for consent, privacy and each person’s freedom not to respond to another’s work.
Where the contribution goes
Participation fees sustain the practical costs of keeping the gathering possible and the responsible facilitation of the work. As Soul Metaphors becomes financially established, part of what the practice generates will also support carefully chosen community projects.
The intended first project focus is community infrastructure at The Farm for Wellbeing—beginning with the practical foundations needed for people to gather safely and well. A dedicated project page will make any future contributions visible as this part of the work develops.
Expressions of interest
Express your interest in The Listening Ground and you will be contacted when the Adelaide-region venue and first Wednesday gathering are confirmed. The agreed fees are shown now for clarity; payment will not be accepted until the practical foundations are in place and bookings formally open.
Express your interestMyth · Symbol · Soul · Story
Soul Metaphors acknowledges the First Peoples, Original Tribal Leaders, and Custodians of the lands, waters and skies where we live, work and gather. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded, and honour the living histories, Lore, relationships and knowledge carried upon Country across generations.
We offer this acknowledgement as a commitment to relationship and responsibility: to listen carefully, to respect what is not ours to claim or carry, and to approach Country, culture and community with humility, respect and good feeling. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and to those who continue to carry culture forward.
nungki mewa - with good feeling
