I’m excited to start offering workshops and rituals in the Madison, Wisconsin area. Soon I’ll be listing the events I’m hosting on my main website, but I thought I’d put this one here so I have a link I can give people other than a Facebook event.
Return to the Root: Samhain Ritual and Workshops
Do you seek community and spiritual connection?
Do you yearn to claim your magic?
Do the ancient mysteries call to you?
3:30 PM: Doors Open
4 PM: Workshop – Community Building, Leadership, Safety, and Consent
5 PM: Workshop – Temple of Sacred Sound: Chanting and Trancing Techniques
6:00 PM – Break
6:30 PM: Workshop – Samhain Traditions: Honoring the Harvest, our Ancestors, and the Beloved Dead
7:00 PM: Samhain Ritual: Return to the Root
7:10 Doors will close. Don’t be late!
Post-ritual: Folks are welcome to hang out and chat.
From light into darkness, the year has turned. This is year’s final harvest, the time when we seek community and draw together around the fire. It is when we seek the mysteries, when we journey down the roots of the World Tree into the depths to the Underworld, the land of ancestors, of dreaming and shadow. It is the center of the spiral path of initiation where we claim our magic.
All spiritual seekers are welcome. No bigotry or harassment will be tolerated. (A link to a formal safety/inclusivity policy will be posted soon.)
Location:
Dance Life Studio and Fitness, 6725 Seybold Rd, Madison, Wisconsin 53719
4pm – Community Building, Leadership, Safety, and Consent
How do you build a healthy community? This experiential workshop will offer magical and mundane tools to help build sustainable groups. Whether you define yourself as a leader, or you would just like some skills to better support a group, this workshop will address common challenges of small groups including drama, conflict, and issues of harassment and bigotry. We’ll explore tools and processes working with power and structure in groups, boundaries, communication, conflict resolution, safety/anti-harassment policies, group dynamics, as well as exploring what gifts we bring to our communities, and what challenges we face as leaders, organizers, and volunteers.
5pm — Temple of Sacred Sound: Chanting and Trancing Techniques
Chanting is an ancient form of spiritual, meditative, group, and personal practice. Join us to learn chants and work with the interplay of voices, harmonies, rhythm, and movement. We’ll explore different types of chants—chants for holding space, healing, trancework, journeying, and raising energy. We’ll also look at how rhythm and other instruments can add to the power of group chants. The first part of the workshop will be teaching and practicing techniques, and the second part will be a small ritual for healing or journeying. Together we will experience how the ecstatic energy of sound, rhythm, and movement can add depth to ritual or your own personal work. Will you bring your voice to the sacred singing bowl of community? *All skill levels welcome. Feel free to bring drums, shakers, didgeridoos, singing bowls, gongs, or other instruments you’re familiar with.
6pm – Break
This will NOT be a potluck event, but you’re welcome to bring a snack, sandwich, or other simple fare to eat during the break.
6:30 pm — Samhain Traditions: Honoring the Harvest, our Ancestors, and the Beloved Dead
This workshop will offer a chance to discuss various traditions for the dark time of year, and we’ll address the themes of the Return to the Root ritual. Samhain mean’s Summer’s End in Gaelic; it’s the end of the harvest season and the last preparation before winter. This seasonal celebration honors death as part of the cycle of life. It’s when we honor our ancestors and beloved dead. The nights grow longer and there is more space for silence, for inner reflection, for releasing and letting go and to acknowledge what we personally harvest this year. To honor the sacred life cycle of our bodies and the land we live on, we must also understand the depths of the Underworld, of death, of transformation.
7:00 PM: Samhain Ritual: Return to the Root
In this ritual, we will journey down the roots of the World Tree that bridges the realms…through the gates of the Underworld, down to the center, to the deep within. We seek the Well of Need, the sacred life-giving waters held in the depths of the earth. In these uncertain times, we seek our magic, we seek the song of our spirit, we seek the waters of the well. What calls you forth? Why would you risk the journey of transformation? What do you yearn for, and what do you fear? What challengers bar your way? What wisdom do your ancestors have for you? What beloved dead will you honor?
We seekers must each make this passage, we must each face our shadows and find the mirror in the center of our heart. Will you claim the power hidden in the shattered glass of your sacred heart? How do you make beauty from the broken? To claim your magic, to heal, to drink from the sacred well, we must release what no longer serves and let our old stories die.
Will you wake the song in your blood? Together we gather in the alchemy of ecstatic and participatory community ritual to dip our hands down into the waters of life…to sing and drum the call of our souls.
Admission:
Sliding scale is $5-$25, no one turned away. We’d rather have your voice and your presence whether or not you can afford to pay. Donations go to cover the space rental fee and supply costs.
Location: Dance Life Studio and Fitness, 6725 Seybold Rd, Madison, Wisconsin 53719
Children:
This event is not appropriate for children. Well-behaved and responsible teens are welcome to attend the workshops and ritual. Adult themes may be addressed, and workshops/rituals may require silence and stillness.
Facilitator: Shauna Aura Knight
Shauna is an author and artist living in Madison, WI. She writes books and teaches workshops on leadership, community building, consent, and facilitation skills in the Earth-Centered community. Find out more about her at www.shaunaauraknight.com or contact her via Facebook, at ShaunaAura@gmail.com, or via text message at 773-812-2917 with any questions or to find out how to become more involved in rituals and events like this.
Will you step into your deepest self?
Will you be the hero of your own journey?
Shauna Aura Knight 