Thelemic Witchcraft for Beginners
Thelema is a
Greek word meaning ‘will’ or ‘desire’. Join Caroline Tully in a beginner’s
workshop on Thelemic Witchcraft, a form of New Aeon Witchcraft that focuses on
methods for causing change in accordance with your will. Through practical
ritual and discussion this old-but-new approach to Magick will be illuminated.
Caroline has a background in various traditions of Witchcraft and Magick and is
also an academic who studies ancient Mediterranean Pagan religions and their
manifestation in the modern world.
Ancient Mediterranean Witchcraft
Ancient
Greek mythology provides stories of princely heroes who seek out legendary
sorceresses and their magical power. Witches acted as guides for figures such
as Odysseus and Jason; men required to enter the feminine, womb-like space of
the Underworld or to journey to the ends of the Earth. In later Roman
literature, witches degenerated into cemetery-scouring hags; no longer sending
the hero down to the Underworld, but instead bringing the realm of the dead up
by performing necromantic rites.
Join
Dr Caroline Tully in a workshop on Ancient Mediterranean Witchcraft that focuses
on mythological witches, ancient magical techniques, and the inheritance of
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman magic evident in Wicca today.
Through discussion and practical ritual, ancient approaches to magic will be
revealed.
Minoan Snake
Goddess
The
Great Goddess was the original, and only, deity of humankind from the dawn of
time up until around 3000 BCE, when Goddess-oriented cultures were conquered by
patriarchal, warlike worshippers of a sky god. Late Bronze Age Minoan Crete
(1750–1490 BCE) is considered to be the Goddess culture’s final flowering.
According to Goddess History, Crete exhibits the last gasp of the feminine
values associated with Goddess culture before it was wiped out by warlike,
patriarchal Mycenaean Greeks. Before this time Minoan Crete was peaceful,
worshipped the Great Goddess and her Dying and Rising Consort (who was also her
son), and women and nature were respected.
Join
Dr Caroline Tully in a workshop on ancient Minoan religion, focussing on the
Snake Goddess. On the island of Crete the snake appears in the worship of the
female deity more repeatedly than anywhere else in the Mediterranean. Ancient
artifacts have been unearthed that portray the Goddess or Her priestesses
holding snakes in their hands or with them coiled about their bodies, revealing
that they were an integral part of the religious rituals. Through discussion
and practical ritual, contemporary approaches to Minoan religion will be
revealed.
Death in
Ancient Mythology
The
cycle of birth, death and rebirth is at the core of Pagan mythology. Many myths
deal with journeys into the land of the dead. Often these are stories of
descent and return. These myths show us how the cycle of birth, growth, death,
and rebirth plays itself out in the seasons. Working with these myths,
retelling the tales, and exploring them in guided journeys and meditations can
help us deeply integrate our understanding of the circle of rebirth. Initiation
rites found in most Pagan mystery religions, both ancient and modern, re-enact
or are inspired by myths of descent into the Underworld and approach death
through metaphor and ritual. This workshop explores Underworld myths of
Inanna’s Descent, Demeter and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice, Circe and
Odysseus, Aeneas and the Sybil, and others. We will explore ancient mythologies
and practices around death, as well as Pagan ways of celebrating and mourning
loved ones including funerary rites and ancestor reverence.
Magical Gems
and Jewellery, Healing, and the Stars
Witches regularly wear occult jewellery: pentagram
pendants, amber, jet, moonstone, coral, or even acorn necklaces; magical rings
with special stones or symbolic designs; and lots of silver, the metal of the
moon. Wearing jewellery is a form of communication: to the wearer to other
people, and to hidden forces attracted by certain colours, substances and
patterns.
Join Dr
Caroline Tully in a workshop about magical gems and jewellery from ancient
Greece, Rome and Egypt; ancient healing modalities and gods; and healing
astrology. Learn about the stone amulets, empowering talismans, and protective
jewellery of the Ancient World, and the spells used to activate them. Through
discussion and practical ritual, contemporary approaches to healing magic will
be revealed. Bring a piece of your own jewellery and through ritual we will
draw down the stars to consecrate it to a healing deity. Participants will also
take home their own moonstone amulet.
The Goddess
Asherah, Ecopaganism, and the Anthropocene
Biblical bad girl, Queen Jezebel, worshipped a tree
goddess called Asherah, mentioned forty times in the Hebrew Bible. Ancient
Israelites performed ritual “on every high hill and under every green tree” —
an expression that occurs in the Bible fifteen times. Trees feature in the
narratives about Abraham, who set up altars under sacred trees, and Moses, who
spoke to Yahweh in the form of a burning bush. The most famous trees of the
Bible are the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life in
the Garden of Eden.
With all this tree worship, how did humanity became so
divorced from nature that it caused its own geological epoch called the
Anthropocene? Join Dr Caroline Tully in a workshop that looks at the
environmental aspects of ancient Mediterranean religion, and ways that we can
realign with the natural world today. We will also look at the tree as a
conceptual map in Kabbalah, the relationship of the Tarot to the Tree of Life,
and how we can return to Eden through scrying the Tarot trumps or pathworking.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own Tarot cards (but it’s not
essential).
