I will be facilitating The Goddess Is Alive & Magic Is Afoot at Friends General Conference Gathering this summer (June 27 - July 4, 2009). 

This year's Gathering theme is "Wings of Joy, Fire of Love, Rooted in Spirit," which accounts for the somewhat daring wording in the description of this workshop. :)   

Workshop information

• General focus: Quaker faith and practice
• Additional focus: Women's issues

Brief Description

Friends who experience the Spirit through the Goddess in any of Her forms – deity, nature, the earth, the seasons, each other, and more – will soar with joy, bask in love, and root ourselves deeply in the Spirit.  We will share Meeting for Worship, worship-sharing,  discussion, magic, ritual, healing, music/singing/drumming, and more.   

Full Description

Expectations and objectives for the week:

To create a space where Goddess-centered Friends can come together; worship together as Friends; build community; speak in our own authentic voices; experience joy, love, and rootedness; be in the Goddess together; be the Goddess together; experience the healing power of community; and return to our larger Quaker family – the Gathering, our Monthly Meetings, our extended Quaker communities – energized and refreshed.

I expect to cover:

Our experiences of Quaker worship as Goddess-centered Friends; the spiritual practices and disciplines of worship, writing, magic, and singing/music/drumming; ritual structure across religious traditions, including unprogrammed Quakerism; being fully present in our Monthly Meetings; using the workshop as a retreat.

Our format will be:

• Opening worship, 15 minutes
• Check-ins, 30 minutes
• Day’s topic/agenda, 1 hour and 45 minutes (shorter on First Day)
• Closing worship, 15 minutes

Daily topics/agendas:

• Workshop overview; orientation to the building; introductions and ice-breaker (the story of your name)
• Worship-sharing on what brought us here; Meeting for Worship for Healing and/or ritual for healing
• Singing the Goddess
• Magic as spiritual practice
• Ritual structure across religious traditions (including unprogrammed Quakerism)
• Ritual and magic for the dark of the moon
• Anything else we are strongly led to cover during the course of the week

Advance reading:

Participants should arrive having read two books and two short articles:

• their Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice;
• a book of their choosing on Goddess worship or other form of Paganism;
• Hall, Daniel. “Christians in My Meeting Made Me Pagan.” From the website Yours, Daniel. http://home.earthlink.net/~danielhall/id2.html.
• Salmonstone, Laura. “The Syncretic Pagan.” From Witchvox, Adult Pagan Essay Series.  http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=uswa&c=words&id=8282.

I will hand out a one-page poem during the workshop, as well as song lyrics, etc.

Participants should bring:

..a spiritual journal, as well as anything that will help you be more present and more physically comfortable during the workshop. You may also wish to bring music or musical instruments; copies of the advance reading or any notes from the advance reading; readings, books, or music you find meaningful in relation to the workshop; items from your spiritual practice; representations of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, the Goddess; items from nature; magical tools.

Experience in participatory teaching

I have facilitated interest groups, workshops, and ritual at Quaker Gatherings since 1998. I facilitated my first week-long workshop at FGC Gathering in 2007. I have been actively involved in ministry, particularly music ministry, since 1986. I have taught and led ritual, magic, and Spirit-based group decision-making since 1990, and sacred vocal music since 1997.

My other teaching experience includes Scottish Country Dance, in which I hold an international certificate, humanitarian work, trauma recovery, basic life support and first aid, and computer skills. I’ve mostly taught adults and teenagers, and occasionally children.