I am inspired to share a recent New York Times article by Craig Foster who won an academy award for his film ‘My Octopus teacher’. Craig is an old friend of mine from Cape Town and I remember when he was working on ‘My Octopus teacher’. I was writing my book ‘Leopard Warrior’ and staying in Dublin, Ireland. He recommended that I swim in the cold Irish sea everyday to connect to the wild. He encouraged me not to wear a wetsuit, but to rather ‘feel’ the element of the water and let the wilderness teach me. I took his advice and swam most days. I had a few close encounters with sea lions and overzealous seals, and felt inspired to delve deeper.
One of Craig’s earlier films was The Animal Communicator with Anna Breytenbach. He helped put her on the world stage but most importantly highlight the importance of talking to animals and listening to what they say.
Another important and award winning film he made was The Great Dance: A Hunter’s Story; documenting a band of Kalahari San Bushmen hunting in the Kalahari Desert. This is an incredibly moving account of a band of hunter gathering Bushmen in a remote part of the Kalahari Desert using intuitive tracking to survive and thrive in one of the harshest wilderness settings on earth. A must see for nature lovers and people yearning to understand the world of our ancient ancestors.
After I published my book ‘Leopard Warrior’, I had a chat with Craig and I told him my passion and yearning for teaching modern people African indigenous (Shamanic) skills to connect more deeply to nature. He recommended I go to Botswana and work with a mutual friend of his, Alwyn Myburgh, a well known safari guide, leopard tracker and animal communicator. Alwyn had a wild leopard called Matsebe that he use to consult with. He asked her about me and she said, “bring him here to meet me as soon as you can…”. The rest is history as they say. And for the last 5 years we have lead 8 retreats in the Kalahari Desert. (Read Article).
Craig encouraged me with my writing and said “John, we need to teach people that animals are the guru’s. We need to follow them…” There is much that we can learn from the animal world. Our retreats in the Kalahari are focused on learning from the wild ones so that our own wildness can surface and guide us. If you are yearning to connect to the undomesticated, ancient part of you then these retreats will help you.
On the 16th May I will be hosting a Free Webinar where I will be talking about our remarkable retreat, Dreams & Tracking in the Kalahari. It is the ONLY retreat of it’s kind in Africa today where the focus is teaching people African Shamanic skills involving inner and outer tracking, to connect to our animal spirits, ancestors, wildness and ultimately our humanity.
May the Wild one inside you break free from it’s cage and rise up; the world needs you. 🦁
Warmest wishes, 🙏
John.