“Council I Training weaving into “Narrative Cartography”
July 6–10, 2026,
Tipi Village, Jura, Switzerland.
This workshop is a foundational training in the Way of the Council combined with the Art of Narrative Cartography.
Do you feel the call of a week spent in nature and in community?
We invite you to explore a truly unique and expansive way of coming together in council, to learn the structure and principles of this particular form and way of being together, to listen deeply, and to be creative, revisiting and retelling our stories of belonging through our ceremonies, our maps, our dances, and our songs, as those of our ancestors and our land.
The art of narrative mapping invites us to reexamine our relationship with the places and the earth that welcome us.
In our ecological identity, the places we inhabit shape us just as much as we shape them. The river where I swam as a child, the places that saw me grow up, those that saw me laugh, love, and cry. My personal history is made up of places, of territories, explored and experienced. Conversely, I influence these places through my actions: the water I pollute or the garden I tend, the trails I carve with my footsteps in the forest, the trees I prune or embrace, the food I consume.
An invitation to experience my personal history, my experiences, my values, my strengths, and my wounds, through the landscape and territory explored both through the gaze and through walks and ceremony. A unique opportunity to learn through hands-on experience — Weaving council stories and narrative maps.
Participants will
- identify effective practices for facilitating individuals and groups.
- develop communication skills and the ability to be fully present in each moment.
- explore the teachings offered in response to our individual and collective needs and questions
- discover different forms of governance tailored to various contexts
- be invited to join a larger community
- map one’s own sense of belonging to the earth and explore personal and collective songs
- Experience the power of rituals
- Immerse themselves in the healing power of stories and circles
- Experiment with other ways of being together and rediscover the wisdom of cyclical thinking
- Deepen their trust in the unknown and in the web of life
- Meet others who are on the same journey
- Sleep in teepees and spend a week in nature
The workshop will be conducted in English and French, with French translation provided.
Facilitators
A guide specializing in rites of passage, trained at The School of Lost Borders (California), and an eco-therapist.
Artist and practitioner of narrative mapping.
Facilitator, mentor, and trainer in “Way of Council,” with 21 years of experience in council practice; wilderness guide trained at SOLB (School of Lost Borders) under the guidance of Gigi Coyle ( trainer at the Ojai Foundation, author of “Way of Council,” and founder of the alliance Beyond Boundaries (livebeyondboundaries.net).
Logistics
Base price for instruction, materials, and facilitation for the 5-day program:
480–580 CHF, depending on your income, for the 5-day program.
Support price:
580–1,180 CHF, to support our work and continue offering Medicine Wheel workshops.
Shared accommodation in tipis:
250 CHF
Healthy, vegetarian meals to cook together.
A non-refundable deposit of 280 CHF is due at the time of registration; the balance is due 10 days before the workshop begins.
The deposit must be paid into the account of the –
Association pour les Rites de Passage,
IBAN CH16 0839 0039 1577 1000 1,
Chemin de Renens 12, 1004 Lausanne.
Our Tools
- council
- Medicine Wheel of Human Nature, 4 Shields
- rite of passage, 24-hour solo in the forest (vision fast)
- Poetry of Being
- time for rest and reflection
- dream job
- Drum Journeys