Expect more details as they become available.

Paths

Council of Trees: Receiving and Acting on Messages from the Land

(with BrightFlame)

To participate in the Great Turning–a quickening time when aligning our values with our actions will change the world–feeling and acting from our connection with the Earth is imperative. Through experiential techniques, we will open to the Tall Ones and bring through their messages. What would they have us know Now? What would they have us do to bring forth a just, regenerating world? What ritual might enhance this work? What mysteries, what connections, what wonder will they whisper? We’ll seed our tree work with the Pentacle of the Great Turning: Desire, Surrender, Transformation, Solidarity, Manifestation. This major cross-Reclaiming spellworking will magnify the energy we create together. In addition to crafting magic/ritual with the trees, our path will bring relevant messages to the ritual team to incorporate in our evening magic. This path is suitable for those 16 and older and will be of interest to seasoned witches and those newer to the craft. BrightFlame’s co-facilitator? The trees! (and you)

The Goddess Path

(with Anu)

At the Ragnarok, the gods wage war on each other, destroying themselves, and threatening the very existence of Life. The goddesses, however, remain outside of the fray, for they do not engage in the cataclysm. Why would they, when everything they have created would be desecrated and ruined? Therefore, the goddesses remain after the Ragnarok, and their wisdom, energy, and compassion survive as vital and essential resources for us all.

In The Goddess Path, we will meet four of these Norse goddesses: Freyja, Hel, Idunn, and Frig. We will experience, through discussion, meditation and exercises, how to bring these goddesses more fully into our lives so we can enlist their wisdom, energy, and compassion. We will learn how each of these goddesses can aid us in shifting cosnciousness, rebuilding resilience, sacred lives and community, and ensuring that Life and Love of Life endure.

Anu also proposes an afternoon 4-day class, “A Feminist Introduction to the Runes” (or somethingsomething Rune workshop):

The Runes are an ancient Norse system of symbols, used for divination and magic. Traditionally they have been interpreted as expressions of the power of the gods, namely Odin. But the runes are actually ancient Goddess symbols, and their meanings are far deeper and more complex than we are led to understand today.

This 4-day, afternoon workshop will explore the Runes from a feminist perspective. Participants will learn the meaning and interrelationships of the runes, and begin to practice casting the Runes for divination and magic.

 

Earth skills path

(with Willa)

Let us invite the trees to participate in and guide our experiences together. We seek to know the trees as people who want and need to connect with us in a relationship of giving and receiving. Learn and experiment with the techniques of reverse wrapping cordage, woven baskets, and coiled baskets, while exploring the many things trees provide to the ecosystem: food, fiber, medicine, shelter, fire, wisdom. Together we explore the magic and metaphor of basketry: the energy of the tree material, the energy of our intentions, how weaving can bring our communities closer, how weaving can help us integrate and understand our experiences. We will be creating baskets individually, and we will communally weave a ritual basket.

 

Teachers & Facilitators

Anu

Reverend Anu Dudley, PhD, has been teaching the three year ordination curriculum at The Temple of the Feminine Divine in Bangor, ME for more than a decade. A semi-retired history professor, this fall she is teaching a semester-long course, History of the Goddess at the University of Maine. She has also taught a 13 week “Introduction to the Runes” for a number of years. She produces a weekly radio feature, Earthwise: Reflections on Earth-based Spirituality, for WERU FM. Anu hosts the annual round of Wiccan ceremonies at the Heartwood Grove. Anu is one of the founders of the Wild Maine Witchcamp.

BrightFlame

BrightFlame is a teacher, writer, priestess and activist. She weaves a witchy, ecofeminist tale in her yet-to-be-published novel, The Working. She has been part of and teaching in the Reclaiming Tradition since 1995, including New York, Vermont and Wild Maine Witchcamps, and NYC and Philly Reclaiming communities. In addition to witchcamp teaching and many iterations of Reclaiming core classes over decades, she’s offered workshops and rituals with Starhawk since 2016. Her specialties: sensing and shaping energy, labyrinths, connecting with the Earth, storytelling, magical activism, and lots more. Sign up for her infrequent newsletter and follow her blog: brightflame.com. She tweets @brtflame and posts on fb at facebook.com/BrightFlame.1

 

Willa Moore

Willa Moore is an artist, bodyworker, and practitioner of ancestral skills. She has been living off grid and following the path of earth skills for 5 years. She is bringing her basketry skills and other wilderness skills to the Earth Skills Path. She intends to share song as well. It is her intention that through our interactions with our nonhuman kin we heal ourselves, repair our relations, and transform our personal and cultural lifeways. She currently is archiving her doings on instagram @scrimshawrocketstove.