Editor's Corner
 Happy Imbolc to everyone from Cherry Hill. "Imbolc" literally means "in the belly of the mother" and it is just as well that Imbolc symbolizes the rebirth and the heralding of Spring since this is also the year of the Dragon in Chinese lore. The dragon symbolizes the embodiment of all the we fear and this is the year to to overcome that fear, to be reborn as a spring bud, from the belly of the Goddess. May we all grow strong and ride the dragon's breath as we overcome our fear and remake the world. Have a joyous Imbolc!
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Featured Article
 PantheaCon is almost upon us. I always look forward to attending this event. The classes and rituals are great but it is more. This gathering, like others throughout the year, brings together a larger community. There are people who I only see once a year, new friends, and important news. Yet, it is more. There is a comfort within the community; a safe place to be. We are among friends, even ones we disagree with. I remember a time when our gatherings and festivals were, and I think still are, so very important in the development of Paganism. Perhaps, I should say important for the development of religious communities.
When I first heard of Cherry Hill Seminary at one of these gatherings, I was intrigued. My academic studies have focused on philosophy and religion, but it was more. Many of my family members have been called to service in their religion. It was a family vocation but one from which I was barred because of my own religious convictions. So I went into another kind of public service; yet, here was a seminary for Pagans.
Our community had something new in the development of our religious communities. Now, in all fairness, there were, and still are, many groups working on community development including leadership, ethics, and keepers of learning, but my heart lies with academic organizations.
I will attend PantheaCon 2012 knowing that I will see friends, many of who are students, staff, and board members of Cherry Hill Seminary, and be part of our ever growing communities. The gathering brings me to community but Cherry Hill Seminary feeds my heart and soul. Our strength is in building communities and the means of growing into ourselves. Cherry Hill Seminary has given to me the means to grow and to share with other communities. What feeds your soul? |
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The Hypatia Society
 Join The Hypatia Society and become a part of the growing Cherry Hill Seminary family. A true passion for learning and service light these virtual halls. As a member of The Hypatia Society, you carry the light of knowledge further and higher.
Benefits for joining The Hypatia Society and supporting Cherry Hill Seminary are as follows:
$20 Astronomer - Vinyl CHS logo decal 5" square
$45 Mathematician - Enamel CHS pin 3/4" round, plus Astronomer benefits
$95 Philosopher - 10% discount on one Foundations course, plus Mathematician benefits
$150 Teacher - 20% discount on one Foundations course, plus Philosopher benefits
$250 Mystic - Free registration at any CHS one-day event, plus Teacher benefits
$500 Beloved - Glass Yule commemorative ornament, plus Mystic benefits
$1,000 Divine Guide - Online link as sponsor, plus Beloved benefits
Cherry Hill Seminary gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of artist Max Dashu to reproduce her haunting painting of Hypatia. Click here to order a printed poster of Dashu's painting.
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Important Dates
For Students
February 11 - End Foundation Courses 1
February 13 = Foundation Classes 2 Begin
For Faculty
February 25 - Foundations 1 grades due to office by instructors
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CHS announces the new Director of Pagan Community Education - Valentine McKay-Riddell, Ph.D.
 Valentine McKay-Riddell is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA, where she earned a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology. She has a private practice in shamanic healing and wellness counseling in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Descended from Scots, Irish, French, and Native American ancestors, Valentine developed a combination of shamanism and art making (Healing ArtŠ) to heal herself from cancer and later founded a nonprofit organization, Orenda Healing International (OIH), devoted to promoting individual and community health and wellbeing. OHI umbrellas many of her research projects, which currently include the influence of the Goddess in Navajo spirituality; filmmaking as a catalyst for intergenerational healing among Native American youth and elders; the possibility of genetic inheritance as the inspiration for shamanic practice; and shamanism as a root philosophy for many of our modern professions, including medicine, religion, and art. She has taught art to young people and adults and Healing ArtŠ to HIV-AIDS and cancer patients, challenged youth, developmentally disabled adults, and women in transition for over twenty years. She is a certified Reiki Master in the Usui Lineage. She has lived in Mexico, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, California, Nebraska, Oregon, and New Mexico, and has traveled in England, Ireland, the Virgin Islands, and the British West Indies.
A prolific writer, Valentine has published a number of articles in popular and scholarly journals and is celebrating the release of the first two books of her fantasy series for young adults, The Alyssa Chronicles: The River Goddess & Other Stories and Starfriends - to be released in 2012 by Cool Well Press.
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. McKay-Riddell. She is an eclectic, motivated, and inspiring woman who is going to bring a wealth of attributes and experience to Cherry Hill Seminary. We are so pleased to have her on board! Valentine's vision is to inspire both Pagans and non-Pagans alike to see Paganism and Pagan Education as part of a continuum and a lifestyle of connecting to source and living with purpose. She sees the Pagan Community Education Program as part of a life-long learning process and as a set of life skills that allow us to evolve over time; she envisions a procreative effort towards community building.
Ultimately, Valentine plans to bring her experience as a shaman, a cancer survivor, and a transpersonal psychologist to breathe a new vitality into the PCE Program that can serve as both a gateway to degree programs at Cherry Hill and as a lifelong endeavor with learning to live in peace and harmony with the earth and the self. Welcome aboard, Valentine!
A big thank you to Jennifer Bennett for her interim role chairing PCE! |
Pagan/Witch/Heathen Community Needs Assessment Survey 2012 Now Open
 In an effort to assess the needs, challenges, barriers, and perceptions of risk faced by Pagans/Witches/Heathens that influence their ability to practice and to determine variations within different segments of the community, Dr. Gwendolyn Reece of American University is conducting the Pagan/Witch/Heathen Community Needs Assessment Survey for 2012.
Dr. Reece is a Witch who has been practicing since the mid-1980s and a faculty member at American University. Dr. Reece says, "The primary intention of this study is to get information back out to the community so that we can figure out how best to build structures that support our practices and help us overcome barriers that we face as Pagans/Witches/Heathens."
The goal is to have at least 2,000 Pagans/Witches/Heathens age 18 and older who reside in the United States take this survey to provide quality data for assessment. Dr. Reece notes, "The more respondents I receive from across the country, the better the information will be and the more useful the analysis that I will share."
The survey is anonymous and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. It can be accessed here.
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Call for Submissions for Brigit: Fire of Womanhood, edited by Patricia Monaghan and Michael McDermott
 It is with great enthusiasm that we invite you to submit a proposal as a part of an anthology of work to be published by Goddess Ink.
To submit: for prose submissions, please send 150-word abstract outlining your approach to the subject; other submissions should be sent complete, with limit of 3 poems or chants per author. Include 150-word biography.
We are seeking submissions in any printable form, including but not limited to:
ˇ Scholarly essays
ˇ Personal essays
ˇ Poetry
ˇ Interior artwork (including small line drawings in black and white).
ˇ Cover and Back artwork (color)
ˇ Chants
ˇ Invocation
Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2012
If you know of someone who might be interested in contributing to this anthology, please contact us here.
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The Director's Desk
 Next in our series on what is needed for accreditation -- Evaluations. In today's world it's no longer good enough to give an opinion; you need measurable results in order to show progress. When CHS applies for accreditation we will need to show a regular practice of evaluating our classrooms, then applying what we learn from the evaluations. That's why it is so important the each of you complete the course evaluation at the end of your course - both students and instructors. You might be surprised at how
closely we examine those results and take to heart your feedback. If you are curious, learn more about DETC accreditation here.
And about that new web site - thanks for your patience while we've been transitioning. Thanks again to Cosette for launching the new platform, moving much of the content, and being available to advise me with tech support. It's far easier and faster now to add or change content, so you'll probably see more frequent changes. For now, be aware that there are lots of resources, downloadable files, e.g., at www.cherryhillseminary.org, including flyers and brochures that you may wish to print out and share. |
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Call for Abstracts
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Esoteric traditions such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Martinism and chivalric organizations
- Ritual magical practices from organizations such as the Golden Dawn and the Aurum Solis and modern initiatory Paganisms
- Esotericisms from earlier periods, such as alchemy, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, the magical work of John Dee or the medieval grimoire traditions, and their re-emergence and relevancy to modern praxes
- Theoretical, paedogogical, and methodological approaches to the study of the western mysteries
- The relation of the esotericisms to orthodox and mainstream practices and society at large.
They welcome presentations, panels and practices focusing on methodological and theoretical issues in relation to the contemporary study and practice of the various western esoteric currents. The conference encourages an interdisciplinary approach and welcomes perspectives from the disciplines of religious studies, theology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, political science, as well as active practitioners. Papers should last 20 minutes, with time for questions and answers. Panels and practices will be scheduled for up to an hour, with time for questions and answers afterwards as necessary.
Please submit abstracts (approx. 200 words), proposals for a themed panel (with three presenters, moderator as necessary, and short description) or proposals for a ritual practice and discussion to conference@jwmt.org.
Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2012. |
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