Upcoming Course on Being Pagan
Plus similar courses you may enjoy
As you maybe know, I wrote a book called Being Pagan: A Guide to Re-Enchant Your Life. I also teach a 9 week course on the book, which goes into each chapter in more depth.
The next installment of the course begins 9 April, 2023. Here’s some information about it:
A nine week course on re-enchanting your life, developed and instructed by Rhyd Wildermuth
In a world of uncertainty, political upheaval, climate change, and endless consumerism, and in alienated societies bereft of meaning and connection to nature or community, what does it mean to be Pagan?
This course, developed and instructed by Druid, writer, and Gods&Radicals Press co-founder Rhyd Wildermuth, explores the core beliefs and practices of Pagan and animist belief to guide the participant into re-enchanting their worlds and reconnecting to ancient currents that have never truly gone away.
Through readings, videos, and group discussions, we’ll look at the 9 threads of connection essential to not just calling oneself Pagan but actually being Pagan.
Connection to Pagan Time (the rhythms of the moon, of seasons, and of non-linear time)
Connection to Body (what it means to be a body, not just have a body)
Connection to Land (direct experience with nature and place)
Connection to Plants & Animals (deepening our relationship to those who share the earth with us)
Connection to the Other (integrating the unconscious, dreams, and the imaginal into the waking world)
Connection to Ancestors (becoming grounded in and understanding the people and stories that create us)
Connection to Gods and Spirits (understanding, honoring, and being in relationship with those unseen)
Connection to Will (reclaiming your agency and enchanting a dis-enchanted world)
This course is ideal both for those new to Paganism as well as those seeking to re-center their beliefs and practices away from capitalist and mass-marketed ideas and towards something deeper.
No prior knowledge or academic experience is required.
If you’re interested in taking this course, the sign-up link is here. Tuition is sliding-scale, and there is also a discount code (GREEN) that you can use to further reduce the cost if you need. Also, Founding Subscribers of From The Forest of Arduinna can take this course for free.
Also, there are two other courses that we offer through Ritona which are coming up a bit sooner. The first is Five Principles of Green Witchcraft, which is taught by Asa West. This is a really great course based on her extremely popular short ‘zine of the same name. If you’re already familiar with a basic level of magical theory but want to ground it better into the world around you, you’ll love this course. It starts 23 February.
Also, in March, a long-time friend of mine Alley Valkyrie will offer her course, Land: Loss & Reconnection. This is an very in-depth look on land relationships, especially the history of displacement and disconnection from land. She’s a great teacher and endlessly knowledgeable, and is also a great artist. Oh, and she’s also a fellow ex-American: in fact, we moved to Europe together about six years ago. Her course starts 11 March.
This course actually sounds really attractive to me, though I would probably skip Thread 8. Would that be all right?
Talking about my God again
Michelangelo and William Blake were right about God.
From a Biblical perspective the nature of God is seen as reflected in aspects of the created order. Yes, God to a certain degree does have the nature of space, wind, emptiness, mist, air, sky, force, energy, light, darkness so congenial to Buddhist/Hindu/New Age types. However humans as being made in the image of God, are the best representation of what God is like – especially a human at their highest development, a mature, wise, good, vital 50+ man or woman. I knew a dynamic, spiritual woman in her late sixties, another one in her eighties they both reminded me of a female God the Father carrying personal authority.
To me saying God is NOT like a man – Our Father in Heaven - is dumbing God down, making God less than what he is, flattening the divine out, a less than human gas. In a true sense since humans are made in the divine image, humaness is intrinsic to God, God is even MORE human than we are, as our humanity is but an image of that which is being imaged. though divine humanity is an infinite multidimensional cube compared to our simple flat squares. God is even more perfectly human than us who are echoes, a flatter image of him.
There is much wisdom and truth in Michelangelo’s and William Blake’s depictions of God as a dynamic, active, wise older man. Far from being simplifications of God they point to his personal depth, his danger, his joy and love and perfect humanness and the familiarity and commonality we encounter when we meet him for he is like us for we are patterned after him.