Ritual for Reconnection will not be offered in 2021.
2022 class dates will be available in September 2021.

The integration of simple rituals into everyday life, throughout the seasons of the year and at major life thresholds create containers through which we can navigate our world and more deeply connect with ourselves, others, culture, and place. Ritual and ceremony have long been used to bridge gaps, transcend difference, gives thanks, heal, move through transition, and connect more deeply with our world. All spiritual systems use ritual as a way to cultivate connection with the unknown and help create context and meaning. In this course, we will explore the elements of ritual and aspects of earth-based spirituality to learn how to create simple and more involved rituals and ceremonies for ourselves, our families and within our communities – giving us the tools to develop a deeper sense of connection within all aspects of our lives.  We will also explore ritual as a contextual life tool for helping us to remember – remember our roots, our deepest, most authentic selves, intentions for our lives, our ancestral stories, and how to follow our hearts, even amidst challenge and chaos.

In this course you will learn:

• Basic elements of ritual for everyday self-care, intention setting, earth-honoring, seasonal transitions and major life thresholds.
• The practice of creating various types of altars and sacred, safe space.
• The use of aromatic plants and herbal medicine to promote connection and access deep intuitive knowing.
• Skills and tools for practicing non-judgment and the art of deep listening.
• How to make and use plant, stone and spirit essences.
• Everyday rituals for mealtimes, morning and bedtime, setting boundaries and intentions.
• Ritual and ceremony for seasonal transitions; equinoxes, solstices, and cross-quarters.
• Ritual and ceremony for major life thresholds; birth, death, menarche, menopause, moving, relationship transitions, marriage, separation, and other major life transitions.

Thoughts on and respect for spiritual traditions:

While I do not consider myself to formally follow any specific religious or ethnic spiritual practice or belief system, I have found great comfort in exploring and reconnecting with my ancestral Celtic roots.  It has fueled my desires and sense of magic and brought meaning and language to my spiritual practice that I did not have before.  I feel the connection to this earth-based spirituality deep in my bones and blood and in the forces of the earth around me.  As I work to reconnect with my own roots I find joy in bringing ritual, ceremony and intention to my daily life, to my community celebrations and to my family traditions.  In this class, we develop tools of self-knowing, non-judgment, intuition, and deep observation to nourish our ritual and ceremonial practices.  We cultivate our own intuition, wisdom, and desires so that we can create meaningful ritual in our own lives.  While I will often draw on and reference my own Celtic/Pegan roots, we do not follow or draw on any one spiritual or cultural tradition and respect and credit are given to all cultural and spiritual systems that inspiration is drawn from.  Conversations about respect and appropriation are woven into course discussions as they arise.  Making space for these conversations is part of my effort to help unravel the controls of capitalism, racism and white supremacy that are so embedded in our culture.

Required Reading:
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (preferably to be read before our first class in March 2019)
Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living, by Robin Rose Bennett

Other reading that may be of interest:
To Bless the Space Between Us, by John O’Donohue

A certificate is awarded upon completion of the course.