Giftmaking Ritual: embodying crowness and practising gratitude

St.Joost(Avans) Masters, Den Bosch, 2025
Workshop

This workshop draws inspiration from the multitude of characters of the crow, shifting from bad omen to symbol of death, to wise witch and survivor. As new students, participants face a wide range of possibilities for their future and present, and the current state of the world can feed into the feeling of uncertainty. The crow, as the creature of the in-between, offers great guidance for inhabiting and embracing uncertainty and the unknown. It travels from the underworld¹ to the skies, moving through the grounds of urban and wild, personal and political, physical and spiritual. Through embodying the crow, we practice shifting our energy and doubts into dreams of the future, excitement and hope.

We draw our sense of the underworld from the writings of Sophie Strand and Virginia Vigliar. For us, the underworld is not distant elsewhere, but the hidden layer within our shared landscape, whose entrance calls for a change in the way of seeing and relating to the world. To descend into the underworld is to cultivate both faith and trust, to perceive the intricate interrelations that sustain us. Following the roots in darkness, the mess and fermented, where we can find the nutrients for the aboveground.

In these three hours, we invite participants to a journey of reflection, focusing on care, collectivity and presence, that inspires and sets the tone for a new year of learning and unlearning, both together and personally.

There could be a crow watching you now