The Gods of Place:

Inhabiting the Horoscope​

(A companion course to 'The Gods of Time')

with Brian Clark

Available to book until 1 October as a self-study course

Place is the first of all beings, since everything that exists is in a place and
cannot exist without a place - Archytas

Mount Etna from Taormina

by Thomas Cole

4-week online course, with or without live sessions

Live sessions suitable for UK/Europe/Asia/Australia/NZ time zones

Participants in Canada, USA and South America may wish to book without the live sessions, contributing to the conversations and asking questions via the online forum.

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Live sessions: 6, 13, 20 & 27 July 2025

Tutor: Brian Clark

The stoa and spring at Brauron, a place sacred to Artemis, goddess of nature and the wild

Sacred places are ensouled by nature spirits that dwell there. In ancient Greece, the spirit of the divinity was embedded in certain landscapes. Demeter’s sacred sites were located near arable land, outside cities – as an agricultural goddess, her sanctuaries looked out upon the fertile terrain. Asclepius’s sanctuaries were placed in beautiful rural settings, near healing waters that supported and encouraged the curative process. Zeus’s abode was Olympus; Athena, the city; Hephaestus, the forge.

Gods and Archetypes are ecological by nature, situated on both the natural and psychic terrain. 

Ecology considers the relationship between life forms and their habitats – literally, a study of an organism’s natural habitat. As a psychological study, ecology could be characterized as the study of psychic places – how they are sustained, maintained and renewed. Astrology also deepens our relationship to the gods of place by highlighting natural psychic environs. The twelve houses, traditionally known as ‘places’, are symbols of the natural environment – physical and psychic landscapes of our lives. They speak to the settings, the scenes, the situations, and the habitats of our lives. Since planetary archetypes inhabit these regions, the metaphor of place opens and deepens ways of understanding places and aspects of the horoscope. 

This is the stoa and spring at Brauron, a place sacred to Artemis, goddess of nature and the wild. Artemis also presided over transitions in the life cycle and the protection of the young. Reflecting her transitional character and love of the wild, her holy places were often located in marginal regions, like swamps, or at junctions where boundaries between culture and nature were blurred, on the edge of cultivation.
 
Once one has seen her, one can never forget the glory and the serenity of the admirable face of the goddess on the Brauron reliefs who so wonderfully suits her landscape.
Lily Kahil, “Mythological Repertoire of Brauron”

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The Course

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In this four-part course, we encounter the spirits and the deities, the psychology and the poetics of place. We will explore the mysteries and ambiguities of mythic, psychic and astrological places through myth, symbol, archetype, technique, dream, memory and the unconscious. We will revisit the lived places, the fantasy places, and the soul places of our lives.

Ensouled places are historied, many-layered and storied and have presence and spirit. My intention is to encourage and inspire ways to enrich and ensoul our sense of place.

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Course Format

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Each class consists of a pre-recorded lecture of about 75 minutes, followed by a 60-minute live on-line discussion session held on Zoom. A reading list and suggestions for self-study will also be included with the course. The course is limited to 25 participants.

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Each pre-recorded lecture will be made available one week in advance of the live discussion session. The live sessions will be recorded and the recordings will be available for you to rewatch in your own time. If you know you will miss a session, you are welcome to send in your questions ahead of it and then listen to the recording afterwards. 

You will retain access to all the recordings for 3 months from the end of the course.

Religious Ceremony in Ancient Greece, by Francis Oliver Finch

Live Discussion Sessions are limited to 25 people 

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The live sessions take place on Sundays at the times listed below.

You can find your equivalent local time using a time zone converter, such as here. International Time Conversions 

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If your time zone is not listed, you can find your equivalent local time using

an online time zone converter or contact us if you are unsure.