"There is only one life
you can call your own...
Hold to
your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with."
~ David Whyte
Like much of our language, the word ‘genius’ has lost its earliest meaning. Rather than referring to the high scores of rare individuals on Intelligence Quotient tests (measuring but one part of the multiple intelligences of humans), genius, first meant the spirit of a place, implying that every particular spot had its own unique essence shaped by a distinct wind that blew through it, and rendered it unlike any other place on earth.
Walking the woodland campus at Royal Roads, you may encounter the extravagantly feathered flying peafowl that dwell in our forests. The peacock, with his signature fan, a vivid show of iridescent blue-green plumage, has become a somewhat unofficial yet breathtaking icon of the wild genius of this place. Molting season brings joyful finds for many lucky students who treasure the eye-spotted tail feathers - a beautiful metaphor of the experience of looking deeply into the splendid particularity of things.
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Goethe, and many other wise scholars understood that each human soul at birth is given their own guiding spirit or particular ‘genius’. Perhaps then, the soul, like the acorn that holds within it a unique and already formed image of the mighty oak tree it will become, holds the seed-pattern of the essential character of what we are destined to grow into and fulfill, as it awaits the exact and necessary conditions required for breaking open its husk, and calling forth – making conscious - who we are and what we are meant to do.
It would follow then, that if we are to reach our potential and fulfillment, and live a complete life, we must continue to convene the most creative educational environments possible where the innate gifts of each person become evident and are made more visible through full and authentic expression. We must cultivate the fertile soils necessary for a more inward and informal (but critical) kind of knowing of Self and Other if every inborn genius is to bloom. And, as destiny would have it, it is only when we give our gifts away in skillful and applied service to something greater than ourselves, that self-actualization (i.e. maturity and wholeness) can occur and in turn initiate the adult self to take wing and fly.
Becoming more naturally your genius-self in service to the whole is a lifelong task that requires the companionship and wisdom of the natural world in addition to venerable teachers and guides. Draw from the living wisdom of mythology scholar, Michael Meade in June as he looks into the genius of your life by exploring the two agreements of the soul - fate & destiny. Philosopher-poet, David Whyte, brings an eloquent focus in May on work as a pilgrimage of identity and calling as he artfully asks more beautiful questions of our existence. And a November retreat at Stowel Lake Farm with Meg Wheatley deepens the expression of being called as a warrior for the human spirit at this critical time.
In homage to the vibrant particularity of the peacock, and to reaching our fullest human vibrancy together, we invite you to over 300 extraordinary learning experiences that dare us all to soar.
Hilary Leighton, M.Ed.
Director, Continuing Studies
Visit us at cstudies.royalroads.ca.
