Classes & Workshops
in the TwinCities area
To advertise your courses, contact cuupstc@aol.com
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Free Orientation
Sessions
Free classes on Paganism and
CUUPS and the Unitarian Universalist connection are offered by
CUUPS-TwinCities. Session I explores your Pagan experience and sets
it in the context of the Pagan larger movement. Session II focuses on
CUUPS as an alternative/experimental form of Pagan organization, what we've learned
from our relationship to
Unitarian Universalism and what we have contributed to Unitarian
Universalism. Sessions are taught by Christa Landon, one
of the co-founders of CUUPS. See the CUUPS
Calendar for dates.
Relatives, curiosity seekers, and Pagans of any path are welcome to
attend. There is no obligation entailed.
RSVP@paganinstitute.org to
ensure that there will be enough packets prepared for all.
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Classes & Workshops
The Pagan Institute
The Pagan
Institute offers classes, workshops, and seminars
in cooperation with CUUPS-TwinCities
Membership
is not required
to
participate in any of the classes below.
Unless otherwise indicated, all classes are held at First Unitarian Society.
Distance Education programs are in production.
Click here for the catalog of
courses to be offered in 2006
Map Bus
Information Directions
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Enchanting:
Chants and Hymns
Chanting and
singing are not only wonderful ways to heal and nourish one's soul, they
are also wonderful community-building practices. Whether you sing
only for yourself (and your favorite deity) or are already comfortable
with teaching chants, you'll learn new ones and have a great time.
Included in the series are Pagan devotional chants and hymns, chants for
dancing, lullabye magick, circle casting, raising energy, and more.
Drums and other acoustic instruments are welcome, too!
Each student will receive songsheets of the material we'll learn
together. (Bring a 3 ring binder)
No pre-requisites. Sliding
scale: $5-10 per session.
In pleasant weather, we'll hold this in the lower FUS garden off the
Lower Assembly Hall.
Dates: We will meet on several Sundays
7-9 pm. If you're interested, sign up!
Register at cuupstc@aol.com
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Second Chants
a Pagan Choir
Help Make the Magick Happen!
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Practicing
Paganism
Taught by Dr.
Christa Landon. (bio below)
8 90 minute sessions in July & August
Drawing
from Jungian psychology and comparative religions, this series is
accessible to seekers new to Paganism but will also offer long
term practitioners new perspectives. If you are interested in
comparative religions, this course will provide you with some
academic tools which can deepen your appreciation of your Pagan
religious experience.
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| Natural
Theology |
Theology
is thinking about our Ultimate Value. What are the underlying
assumptions shared by most Pagan traditions, ancient and modern?
What sources do we draw from? What is the ultimate authority? What
do we mean by "The Gods"? |
The
Goddess
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Known by a thousand
names, the Divine Feminine engages in all aspects and stages of a
woman's life, and a man's. The "Great Goddess"
controversey. |
| The
Masculine Aspect of God |
King, Warrior,
Magician, Lover -- the God also imaged in many ways, only some of
which are honored in Christianity. |
The
Dyad:
Hieros Gamos |
Modern Western
culture tends to view opposites as enemies, embraced in a death
struggle; Pagans view opposites as lovers, embracing to create new
life. And the God who is son, lover, and brother as well as
father, is a very different person. |
| Sacred
Times |
Solar festivals,
agricultural season festivals, lunations and full moons. |
| History |
A quick review of
Western Paganism from pre-historical evidence of ancient Paganism,
its classical development, oppression and survival under
Christian governments, its rediscovery in the Renaissance and
Enlightenment and its rebirth in the Age of Aquarius. |
| Ethics |
The metaphysics of
benevolence; magickal boundaries; Karma, dharma, and doing no
harm.. |
| Magick |
What it is, what it
isn't, and why we spell it that way. |
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Registration: $15 per session or $80-120 sliding scale for the series, which includes printed
materials; partial scholarships (work
exchange) are available. Register
Here.
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Ritual
in Theory & Practice I:
The Outer Form
Drawing from the
fields of Jungian psychology and history of religions, as well as from over 35
years of experience in several traditions, we'll explore the dynamics which
underlie the many traditions of Pagan ritual. Prior ritual experience is a plus,
but not required.
4 sessions
Taught
by Dr. Christa Landon. (bio below)
YOU
WILL LEARN:
> Some
of the universal elements of ritual
> Dynamics of Tradition: major sources,
how traditions evolve
> basic principles of ritual magick
> Intention
> Purification in the Pagan worldview
> Beyond Good Intentions
> Basic "ritual hygiene": boundaries and grounding
> Public
ritual etiquette
> Breath
and visualization exercises for charging and grounding
> Chants and spells for
casting and opening circles
> Some
Pagan devotions
No
prior experience is required. Printed materials will be provided. Registrations are now being taken for the
course for
which there will be a $40-80 sliding scale
fee which includes printed materials.
Tuesdays in September, 7 - 8:30 Register Here.
Ritual in Theory and
Practice II: Elemental Ritual
4 sessions
Taught
by Dr. Christa Landon. (bio below)
Tuesdays in October, 7-8:30, Register Here.
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Rise Up and Call Her Name
February-April 2008
Taught
by Dr. Christa Landon (bio below)
Through this unique, multimedia curriculum, we become a group of
travelers, exploring the surviving Goddess worship in cultures of Asia,
Africa, and Native Americans through song, story, folk arts, dance, ritual, and journaling.
Each highly experiential unit consists of 4 sessions, and may be taken
separately, though they are intended to be taken together.
Tuition: Each unit is offered on a sliding scale $50-100, and includes the
resource collection and materials for making your sacred bundle. You
may register for one or all. You
will also need to purchase your Journal and Songbook, which will cost $20,
but is good for the entire 12 sessions. Please bring a sturdy 2"
binder for the class.
Open to men and women. Each class is limited to 10 participants.
Goddesses of the
African Diaspora: 4 sessions: February
Beginning the Journey
The Black Madonna
Isis, Hathor
Oya, Yemaya, Oshun
Goddesses of
Asia: 4 sessions: March
Kali, Shakti
Devi, Tara, Kwan Yin, The Tao
Amaterasu
Pele
Goddesses
of the Americas: 4
sessions: April
Tonantzin,
Virgin of Guadalupe, Spider Grandmother White Buffalo Woman
Spider Woman,
Changing Woman
The Travelers Return
Classes will meet on
Sundays from 3-5 p.m. Because of EXTENSIVE materials
(hundreds of pages), you
will need a 2" D ring notebook or a 3" notebook. Because
of the materials intense nature of the course, we can offer ADVANCE
Registration only.
Register Here.
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Pagan
Scriptures: Beyond
the Book of Shadows
4 2hr. sessions
instructor: Christa Landon (see bio below)
"Pagans are not people of the book; we are people of the
library."
Many Pagans are unaware that ancient Pagans had scriptures, and that
some of these have survived the past 16 centuries of persecution.
We will discuss issues of classics and canon: what are the texts,
ancient and modern, which are most powerful and authoritative among us? By
what criteria might such texts be selected? Each student will
begin their own "looseleaf Pagan bible."
Session I: Scriptures, Classics, Canon &
Criteria:
Scriptures: We had them first!
On what basis do we select a text as a Pagan classic?
Session II: The Book of Shadows as a Pagan
Institution:
as a received text and as
living and growing corpus
Session III: Ancient Surviving Pagan Religious Classics
Where to find them (in translation!)
The Hermeneutic of Retrieval
Editing and commentary
Session IV: Modern Religious Pagan Classics
Session V: Constructing your OWN "looseleaf Pagan Bible"
Student presentations
Session VI: Constructing your OWN "looseleaf Pagan Bible"
Student presentations
Printed materials will be provided; please bring a durable standard-sized 3 ring binder
for them. Registrations are now being taken for the workshop for
which there will be a $60-120 sliding fee which includes extensive printed
materials.
Dr. Christa Landon, instructor (bio below).
Register
Here. April,
May, June 2007
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Proposed program,
to be offered when 4 students are registered
Pastoral
Care of Pagans in Prison
In response to many requests
from prison chaplains, prisoners, and Pagan volunteers, we are sponsoring a program for Pagans of all
traditions who wish to serve as advocates, counselors, and priestly care-givers
to Pagans and other non-Christians who are prisoners or transitioning out of the
criminal justice system.
Many Pagans,
whatever their traditions and training, have experienced difficulties in being
recognized as clergy by prison officials. This program is designed to resolve
that problem by directly addressing prison officials concerns and developing
interfaith dialog.
Part of the concern of prison officials has to do with lack of training and
screening standards among Pagan trads. Most clergy of Christian faiths have
participated in basic Clinical Pastoral Education full time for a minimum of 12
weeks after their first year in graduate school seminary. Indeed, this is
a requirement for accreditation by the Association of Theological Schools.
Until Pagan seminaries can participate in formal CPE programs, the only way for
Pagans to have this training is to complete a year or more of graduate school at
a Christian or Unitarian or interfaith seminary or divinity school.
Our program is an experiment, and intended to be a pilot project in pastoral
clinical education in the prison setting for Pagans, Native American religious
leaders, Unitarian Universalist laity, and practitioners of other
alternative religions.
The faculty will include prison chaplains currently employed by the State of
Minnesota, a Wiccan priest who himself had been incarcerated and developed
programs for prisoners, a prison social worker and former warden, and Unitarian
Universalist clergy.
The training provided will presume that the participants knows their own
traditions and can lead worship; you need not be ordained to participate.
Our program consists of
1. an application process, including a reflective essay
about your own identity as a
religious care provider
and why you are interested in participation in this program;
2. required reading;
3. preliminary seminars including
sharing
expectations: an overview of what we hope to do over the year.
group
dynamics and collegiality;
the
action/reflection model;
principles of
pastoral care;
penal
culture: understanding the penal mind;
penal
culture: understanding the concerns of the institution's staff,
with an emphasis on the staff chaplain;
boundaries
and identity;
basic clergy
self-care;
interfaith/intertrad
religious worship;
4. visitation/reporting: Each participant commits to at least
1 visitation session each
month at a facility
of his/her choice.
5. monthly seminar: These will consist of a training program
to expand our knowledge
base, sharing
cases, and an open session to address issues as they arise.
Participants will be have access to a private listserv and message board to
facilitate communication and sharing resources.
We hope this pilot project will
offer a model to which Pagans in other areas can point as they attempt to
improve relations with prison officials elsewhere. Whatever mistakes we make can
be used to develop good practice standards.
A waiting list
for the next class is now being formed. We need a group of
4-6 to begin. If you are interested in the challenge,
please contact classes@paganinstitute.org
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The
instructor:
Dr. Christa Heiden Landon has practiced Paganism since 1969, was
ordained a high priestess in the Pagan Way tradition in 1972,and
studied Neo-Thelemic Magick with Gerry Ahrens. She was
one of the first openly Pagan priestesses to attend a fully accredited seminary (Meadville/Lombard Theological School) where she earned
a doctorate in ministry with a dissertation entitled, "SACRED COSMOS: The Implications of Ancient Pagan Traditions for
Modern Liberal Theology of Nature." Her graduate
work included
Ritual and Spiritual Direction from Dr. Robert Moore, (Jungian
psychologist and one of the founders of the Men's
Movement).
Dr. Landon was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister and is one
of the co-founders and past board member of CUUPS, Inc. She has lectured on Paganism at Theosophical Societies, universities,
academic conferences and cultural centers, and appears in a segment of
"Beliefs and Believers," a course in comparative religions
often aired on public television. |
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To advertise your courses, seminars, workshops, and retreats,
contact
editor@paganinstitute.org
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Updated April 12, 2007
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