wise fool school - online course
Wise fool school is a simple but profound online course and community to share practices and teachings drawing on the heartful and humerous spirit of my version of the Tao Te Ching. The practices are deliberately simple to make them easy to integrate into your daily life.
Although this will be ‘Tao-ish’ in flavour it will be informed by over 20 years of far-reaching spiritual exploration and my work as an interfaith minister.
This is the Path of the Wise Fool, recognised and revered in many traditions.
Life can be grand and mysterious, wild and tough sometimes but it is all easier to live through with perspective, and connection to inner resources and a greater sense of spirit.
“I’ve joined wise fool school because I love the way Francis expresses the ineffable in such a deceptively simple way. AND I got a wise fool school badge to wear!” - Lucy
As Shakespeare wrote:
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be
a fool. “
At the heart of this paradox, there is a space where we can seek wisdom, without taking ourselves too seriously!
Wise Fool School
Wise Fool School
Is a place
Of unlearning and undoing.
A place to remember,
To re-member,
To put ourselves back together
Piece by piece;
Patchwork heart and care-worn soul.
A place which exists everywhere and nowhere,
A place which you will find in the wonder of the ordinary moment.
A place you will find in the mysterious depths of your heart.
Wise Fool School
Is a place to find belonging
Even when you are very far from home.
It is a place to reclaim your spiritual authority
And to sink into the hidden waters of your soul.
Wise Fool School
Is a place to be
Forever returning,
Forever returning home,
To yourself.
Semper Remeans
Semper Domum Remeans
Practicalities
I am planning in-person retreats and workshops and all sorts of things for the future but the course that is available right now is a 6-week course where each week you will receive an email with a video in which I will share some of the poetry from ‘My Tao Te Ching’ and a practical technique you can learn and practice during that week.
These will include various forms of meditation and shamanic practice that will deepen your sense of connection with yourself, others and the world.
There is an exclusive facebook group, just for members of wise fool school .
You will also receive a beautiful little hand-made book with the heart of wise fool school philosophy in it and a badge so you can wear your belonging proudly. We can make good use of the connecting power of the digital world but these analogue items have a magic of their own as talismans and symbols to help us keep connected to a way of being in every moment.
Explicit Curriculum
You will learn the importance of meditation and reverie, of stillness and movement. You will learn how polarity and paradox can guide us in uncertain times and how to speak and listen to the universe through blessing and omen.
Implicit Curriculum
There are techniques and methods here but more important than anything else is a way of being. A way of being you can learn only through poetry and play, myth and magic, absorbed through spiritual osmosis.
Hidden Curriculum
These are the learnings you will find in the subtle magic in every moment, but only if you know how to see. They are hidden, not out of paranoia or protection, but by the nature of their nuance.
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ― W.B. Yeats
Want to get an even better feel for it?
If you want to get an even better sense of it, here is the first video I send out to new members to welcome you and tell you a bit more about the course:
