The Dance: Pas de Deux

This is just beauty. It feels like the dance that started the universe; the dance of souls falling in love; the dance between ourselves and our god soul. Yum!

Upcoming Workshops for Fall 2011

My fall workshop line-up is complete!

I will be teaching at Le Mélange Magique and Charme & Sortilege in Montreal, as well as at The Elemental Book and Curiousity Shop in Winnipeg. With the exception of Intro to Contemporary Paganism, advanced registration is required and a minimum number of people must be registered for the class to run. All classes are capped at 9 participants. Please register directly with the shops.

Fall Series: September through December
Building a Personal Spiritual Practice *FULL*
Privately organized.
The focus of the work of this class is to develop a core devotional spiritual practice. Devotion can be outwardly or inwardly expressed. For example, the class can be used to enter into relationship with a deity/spirit or set of deities/spirits, or to come into closer contact with our own soul, inner light or higher self. Class is every second week. Each session builds on the last one and the exercises are flexible enough to be adapted for individual beliefs, traditions and deities.

Thursday October 6th, 7pm -9pm
Intro to Contemporary Paganism
Le Melange Magique, 1928 Ste-Catherine W, Montreal H3H 1M4
What is Paganism? Ask a dozen people and you’ll get at least a dozen answers. In this brief introduction, we will discuss what we mean when we use the word Pagan in a contemporary religious or spiritual context. We will explore some of the various philosophical underpinnings that seem to unite most contemporary Pagan traditions, as well as some of the common conceptions and misconceptions people have about Paganism. ($5 donation to the MPRC, register with Le Mélange Magique)

Sunday October 16th, 2-4pm.
Crafting Ritual: An Introduction
Le Mélange Magique, 1928 Ste-Catherine W, Montreal H3H 1M4
Ritual is a space in time carved out for spiritual or transformative work. It usually involves set forms to create and contain the energy of that moment; and is an integral component of many contemporary Pagan practices. This introductory workshop provides an overview of common ritual formats and some basic considerations when crafting a ritual for yourself or small groups. ($30; Register with Le Mélange Magique)

Saturday October 29th, 1-4pm.
An Introduction to the Elements
Charme et Sortilège, 4933 de Grand Pré, Montreal H2T 2H9
Many contemporary Pagan and esoteric traditions use the five foundational elements of earth, air, fire, water and ether/spirit. What are they, where do they come from, what do they represent, how can we tune-in to their energies for our magical or spiritual work, and why would we want to? This 2-hour introduction scratches the surface of these questions and offers some practical exercises to explore the five elements. ($45; Register with Charme & Sortilège)

Thursday November 3rd, 7-9pm
Developing Daily Practice
Elemental Book and Curiousity Shop, Winnipeg, MB
Daily spiritual practice is a commitment to self-care, as well as personal and spiritual growth. Depending on your tradition and beliefs, it may also be a commitment to your gods, coven- or Craft-mates. For a daily practice to work for you, it has to be something that satisfies your spiritual goals and that you enjoy. It also must fit into your daily life. In this workshop, we will discuss some of the reasons for undertaking a daily practice, as well as its most common forms and commonly-encountered obstacles. We will then develop individual plans for starting, and maintaining, a daily spiritual practice.

Saturday and Sunday November 5th-6th
Elements of Ritual
Elemental Book and Curiousity Shop, Winnipeg, MB
Ritual is is a space in time carved out for deep work, usually involving set forms to create and contain the energy of that moment; and is an integral component of many contemporary Pagan practices. This hand-on workshop is an introduction to crafting ritual for solitary work, or for small or large groups. We will break ritual down into its individual components to work with them, and then build it back up again. This workshop is offered as a weekend intensive.

Wednesday December 7th, 7-9pm.
Developing Daily Practice
Charme et Sortilège, 4933 de Grand Pré, Montreal H2T 2H9
Daily spiritual practice is a commitment to self-care, as well as personal and spiritual growth. Depending on your tradition and beliefs, it may also be a commitment to your gods, coven- or Craft-mates. For a daily practice to work for you, it has to be something that satisfies your spiritual goals and that you enjoy. It also must fit into your daily life. In this workshop, we will discuss some of the reasons for undertaking a daily practice, as well as its most common forms and commonly-encountered obstacles. We will then develop individual plans for starting, and maintaining, a daily spiritual practice. ($45; Register with Charme & Sortilège)

Summer Solstice Ritual June 23rd

What's a kick-off to summer without some drumming, dancing and chanting in honour of the shining eye in the sky? Please join us for an open summer solstice ritual in Angrignon Park on Thursday June 23rd starting at 7pm sharp. We will be exploring all the ways that we define ourselves under the summer sun.

The ritual is being organized by individual members of the local Pagan community coming together for this occasion and will take place rain or shine. The event is kid-friendly, but anyone under 18 years old must be accompanied by a legal guardian or have a note from a parent. It's ritual is FREE to attend, but we will asking for donations ($2-$5).

We will meet at Angrignon metro at between 18h30 and 18h50. Make sure you arrive on time or you may not be able to find us (the park is pretty big). There will be someone near the benches inside the metro station waiting to greet you and take you to the ritual site.

The ritual will start at about 19h00 and end at about 20h00 (with a light feast afterward).

If you can, please bring:

• seeds to sprinkle and throw away
• feast food to share (finger foods)
• drums or other rhythmic instruments if you have them (optional)

For more information, check out the Facebook event page.

Witchy Ways of Knowing. What's Yours?

As witches, we believe in (and hopefully regularly engage) alternative forms of 'knowing.' We don't just rely on the material realm and reality to give us information. Many of us pay attention to 'hunches' or intuition, have conversations with our gods or spirits, consult divination systems like the tarot or runes, read clouds or tea leaves, or practice some other form of nature divination or augury. The information we receive supplements--it does not supplant--the information that our analytical self is receiving from the material world.

I think some people use intuition, or similar ways of knowing, without really realising it. Think of the people you know who always seems to carry good fortune with them or be 'at the right place at the right time.' However many of us tune out our intuition or come to doubt it through many years of people telling us that decisions and actions should be based on facts, not feelings. I find this particular ironic because just about all the successful research scientist I've spoken to have told me that most of their 'big discoveries' have come from following hunches or even vivid dreams.

What's interesting about the scientists is that while they may be following a sense of intuition, or even guidance, in their research, their methods are rooted in a strong foundation of practical science. The two--conventional and alternative knowledge--work synergistically. It's through building practical foundations and actively developing our intuition and other ways of knowing that we can gain our deepest understandings and work our most powerful magic.

A wise witch once told me that an effective witch should know (and trust) the different intuition-like ways that they receive alternative knowledge, as well as being proficient in several different systems of more tangible divination to help check or deepen the guidance. For example, I often will follow-up a hunch or omen with a tarot or rune reading and some material research.

What are you ways of knowing? We don't all receive alternative knowledge the same way. Do you get flashes or visions? Hear sounds, voices or hold conversations? Sporadically perceive deeper meaning from seemingly everyday things, occurrences, conversations or songs? Get 'gut feelings' or read 'vibes' off of people or objects? Have vivid or prophetic dreams? Simply 'know' something? Get a whiff of a scent or aroma, or a taste on your tongue, real or not? Or perhaps the hairs on your left arm stand up or you get a pain in your right big toe.

Pay attention to your ways of knowing. Develop them. One way of doing this is to keep a small notebook and simply jot down when you have a 'flash.' As part of your daily or regular practice, see if there are patterns to any of them. Which ones ring true or are revealed as true over time? You can also work with a flash through divination, art or stream of consciousness writing.

The Celtic Tree Ogham Online 8 Week intensive

This is a really unique online workshop offering from my friend Raven in the UK. It's fairly hands-on and I'm sure will be fantastic. Even though the Celtic Tree Ogham is based on UK trees, part of the workshop will help you build a personal Ogham that relates to the trees of your land. It also looks at tree ecosystems. Very, very cool stuff.

Here's the info:

The Celtic Tree Ogham Online 8 Week intensive
The Celtic Tree Ogham is one of the lesser known forms of divination. This ancient Celtic alphabet has some parity with the runes, ie an alphabet for which each letter also has magical significance and meaning. In this case the divinatory meaning is derived from observation of the ecological, practical as well as magical properties of twenty trees native to the British Isles, e.g. Birch, Rowan, Alder, Willow and Ash.

Interest in... the Celtic Tree Ogham is beginning to grow and has expanded outwards from the British Isles, extending into countries such as the USA where many of the Celtic trees are not native to the land. Where the traditional Celtic trees are found, they frequently occupy different ecological, practical and magical niches.

In this workshop we will work on learning skills and tools to develop and build energetic connections to the trees of the Celtic Ogham, along with using other resources and research to learn about the ecology of the trees. We will learn how to translate these energies into understanding the trees that are part of our native ecosystems whether you live in mountains or the desert or even in the British Isles (!); and work towards building a personal tree ogham system that is relevant to your own land, and which may be more or less based on the traditional Celtic tree ogham system. (Read more...)

About Raven:
I am a British Witch who has been working and teaching in the Reclaiming tradition for over ten years. I am also an initiate in the Anderson Feri tradition. I love to travel and has taught courses, classes and Witchcamps in the UK, Germany, US, Finland and Israel, as well as online classes. I have an on-going love affair with trees - the Celtic Tree Ogham is my favoured divination tool, and I have spent many years studying it, teaching it and offering readings using it. I am an ecologist by training and a lover of the natural world, and sees much of my work as building connections. I am a self-employed artist and crafts-person (I make ogham sets, runes and more!), jack-of-all-trades, a poet, writer and recovering academic.

Register by the 26th of June directly with Raven (greenwomancrafts@gmail.com)