Esoteric Writing Lab

Esoteric Writing Lab
A creative practice series for devotional, symbolic, and magical writing
Facilitated by Jessica Chappell
Location: Online via Zoom
Recorded for absentees: Yes
Prerequisite: None

The House of Memory: 3-Part Course Upcoming

This three-part writing lab approaches memory as something still alive within the self. Each class, we will enter memory through a different threshold: the room, the object, and the voice. Through guided writing exercises, students will move through inner rooms, encounter charged objects, and listen for the voices that continue to echo through the psyche long after moments have passed.

Rather than writing autobiography in a straightforward sense, we will work with memory as atmosphere, emotional pattern, symbolic recurrence, and inner landscape. The goal is not simply to remember what happened, but to discover how memory arranges itself within the body and imagination, and how writing can become a method of entering those hidden chambers.

Over three classes, you will create a small body of memory-based writing rooted in place, object, and voice. These pieces may become poems, fragments, monologues, prayers, essays, ritual texts, or seeds for future work. What matters is not the final genre, but the act of listening closely to what still lives inside the memory.

You will leave each class with a piece of writing that you wrote. Expect guided writing, subtle craft, and language that becomes more sensory, symbolic, intimate, and precise over time.

The goal is not to “write your life story” in the conventional sense. The goal is to enter the hidden house within the self and discover what still lives there. Language that can remember, witness, name, release, honor, and give form to what has remained unseen or unfinished.

Part I: The Room
We begin with spaces: a bedroom, a kitchen, a garden, a hallway, a childhood home. Students will write from within remembered places, focusing on atmosphere, sensory detail, emotional pressure, and the strange intelligence rooms can carry over time.

Part II: The Object
In the second class, we work with objects that hold a charge. Students will explore how physical things gather memory, and how an object can become a point of longing, desire, identity, grief, attachment, or revelation.

Part III: The Voice
In the final class, we listen for what remains alive within memory. Students will write through monologue, confession, dialogue, and direct address, allowing buried voices, younger selves, ancestral echoes, and unfinished conversations to emerge onto the page.

The Planets: 8-Part Course Previously Recorded

This course invites you to develop your own devotional texts, one for each of the classical planets. Each class, we enter a planetary current and write from it using a simple poetic vessel. The form changes each session. We will work with structures such as hymn, blessing, benediction, psalm, refrain, call-and-response, and litany.

Over eight classes, you will create a personal planetary cycle. By the end of the lab, you will have seven devotional texts, one for each of the classical planets, written in your own voice. These pieces can be used in ritual, meditation, prayer, altar work, or personal practice. The text you write here becomes a living companion you can return to again and again.

You will leave each class with a piece of poetry that you wrote. Expect guided writing, subtle craft, and language that becomes more evocative, devotional, and precise over time.

The goal is not to “write better poetry” in the conventional sense. The goal is to develop a voice that can carry spiritual weight. Language that can bless, clarify, protect, praise, and seal. The final class will be used to refine and share the work, allowing each participant to polish their planetary texts and experience them spoken aloud. By the end of the eight sessions, you will have a set of seven devotional texts, one for each of the classical planets.

What we do each class:
A teaching on the planet’s symbolism and tone
A timed “transmission” writing session
A simple constraint (the vessel) to shape the piece
A refinement pass to strengthen rhythm, image, and clarity
Optional sharing to practice reading as consecration

Who this is for:
Students who love esoteric study and want a lived creative practice
Writers who want structure within a spiritual container
Anyone longing for language that feels like prayer, vow, or sacred petition

You will leave with:
One finished planetary text per class (7 total)
A repeatable method for evocative spiritual writing
A stronger command of tone, rhythm, and symbolic imagery