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The Triple Crescent
Samhain, New Year
October 2008 - Vol 1, Issue 2
In This Issue
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Blessings!

Samhain means "Summer's End." As the days grow short and crisp in the Northern Hemisphere, the veil between the worlds thins and we prepare for our journey through the Dark. Now is the time to gather our loved ones close, turn inward and remember the Ancestors.




Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere, the days grow longer as the veil between the worlds shimmers with the bright promise of life renewed. Happy Beltane!

Crisis Intervention for Non-Professionals
Instructor: Nan Brooks
This class is designed to provide students (who are assumed not to be mental health professionals) with effective tools for the empowerment model of basic crisis intervention. Those of us who are recognized as spiritual women, priestesses, and/or strong advocates for women are sometimes called upon to assist in a crisis. A sister may have sudden need to talk after an accident, physical attack, or any sudden life-changing event. How can we help? How can you not injure her further? How can we empower her to move through the crisis? How can we bring the Goddess into the situation? How can we help her find the professional help she may need? Women of all experience levels are welcome. This will be an intense class.

Effective Community Rituals
Instructor: Nan Brooks
Every community marks the important times with ritual. Whether our rituals are for a few women or a thousand, newcomers or seasoned Goddess women, the turning of the year or a life transition, we all want them to be meaningful and transformative.

For those of us with experience in creating rituals, how can we keep them fresh and deepening? For those of us who are new to creating ritual, how can we develop skills that will serve us and our sisters? Here is a class that will provide ideas and refine skills with a combination of practical ideas and the abstract principles that form the foundation of effective communities and their rituals.

We will explore the meaning of ritual, the use of intention and energy, leadership issues, and more. We'll talk about creating sacred space, how to prepare and encourage the participants, the use of color, music, storytelling and dance, and a myriad of approaches to the central act of magic. Students will be empowered and en-couraged to share their questions, experiences and ideas and will create a community ritual step by step. All levels of expertise and experience are welcome in this class, from beginner to "old hand".

Exploring the Goddesses I: The Dance of Kali
Instructor: Tinnekke Bebout
The Dance of Kali is a course for womyn who are curious about the Dark Goddesses or Hindu Goddesses or just about Kali Herself. It's a chance to learn more about this ancient Goddess whose worship continues in the modern day and to experience Her for themselves.

Living a Powerful Life
Instructor: Pammyla Brooks, MS
There has been ongoing discussion about Power and what it means to each of us in our lives. I invite you to join us as we explore tools and techniques all designed to increase our feelings of power in everyday life. Each week we will explore a different area in which we experience our power. These include Power with People, Power from the Body, Power of Intention, Power from Memories, and Spiritual Power.

Each week, readings and class objectives will be posted. Techniques and sample exercises will be completed to deepen understanding of the principles. For example, each student will create her own Personal Power List so she knows where she draws her power from in life. You are encouraged to engage in online discussion with your classmates. Weekly Reflections Papers will be submitted to the instructor with your reactions to the material and any insights that you have gained over the past week.

This course is appropriate for anyone interested in feeling more powerful at work or at home. All levels from beginners to advanced are welcome to participate in this 6-week class. Join us!

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.- Roseanne Barr

Women's Rites of Passage: The Blood Mysteries and the Four-Fold Goddess
Instructor: Jenny June Sterling
The intention for this six week class is to explore the rites of passages in a woman's life to discover the unique mysteries and inherent gifts of the feminine experience in life. We will define "rite of passage" and look at ways women's rites of passage have been transformed into disempowering experiences. We will look at the four blood mysteries/rites of passage in a woman's life: menarche, pregnancy/birth, menopause and death and will discuss the symbolic and literal ways in which they change and mold us, while at the same time discovering ways to recreate our rites of passages to be empowering. We will also discuss the Goddess in Her four aspects: Maiden, Mother, Matriarch, and Crone. Text for this course include: The Woman's Wheel of Life, and A Woman's Book of Life, by Joan Borysenko.


Instructor Bios:

Tinnekke Bebout is a Dianic Witch and Priestess who has been on her Path for nearly 30 years. She moderates Z Budapest's email list (as well as several others) and is a member of the Susan B Anthony Coven #1. She is a co-founder of The Lake Area Goddesses Society and has been published in Circle, PanGaia, The Loom, and The Goat and Candle. She is also a contributor to an anthology of Goddess poetry. She was one of the organizers for the Gathering the Goddesses 2008 festival and she runs an online Dianic BOS. She's an artist, mom, and nurse - and she makes a wonderful guacamole.

Nan Brooks is an ordained Priestess of RCG-I and an experienced crisis intervention provider. Though she is not a trained mental health professional, she has been called upon to intervene in crises in women's lives for many years. She served as Director of the Office for Women's Affairs at Indiana University, where she provided assistance to women who had been sexually harassed, attacked, and/or abused. She trained with Cindy Houston, LCSW, an expert in the empowerment model for recovery from domestic abuse, with Barry Burkhardt, Ph.D., Mary Pellauer, Ph.D., feminist ethicist and theologian, and others.

Pammyla Brooks, MS has been teaching adult in interactive classes for over 10 years in private, non-profit, state, and community settings. She is the author of the book, Choose Power: Tools and Techniques for Home and Work. She has an MS in Clinical Psychology, is a Certified Toastmaster (CTM), and is certified in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). She has been teaching University of Texas faculty, staff, and graduate students for the past 5 years. She completed Cycle I in the Guardian Path before she took time off to complete and promote her first book.

Jennifer June Sterling is an environmental educator who has shared her passion for the natural world and the Goddess to individuals of all ages. She holds a BS in Environmental Education, a Montessori Teacher Certification, and is a graduate of the Woman Wisdom Mystery School in Berwyn, PA. She is currently in her second cycle of WTI and spends her days at home marveling at the miracles of life and nature with her three children, dog, cat and husband. You can read about her musings about spiritual parenting as a goddess woman in her blog on the RCGI website. .
Thanks to you, we're all set with a new roof and new gutters on the RCG-I Mother House in Madison!

However, there is still much work to be done -- please help!

The International headquarters of RCG-I is located in a modest house in Madison, WI. Last year over 100 inches of snow severely damaged the roof and gutters of this space. In late September, a new roof and gutters along with other structural repairs brought this part of the house back into good condition (more on this in a later newsletter). There is still quite a bit of work needed on other parts of the house, but this is a major step forward. Thanks to each of you who has contributed to making these repairs possible.
Traditional welsh woman's top hat
I'll bet you know the hat I'm talking about. It's the round conical hat that sits atop the head of the traditional Halloween witch. No one really knows why this particular hat is associated with witches, but it's fun to speculate.

Illustrations in fairy tales from the 18th and early 19th century feature a classic witch: caped, wand in hand and black conical hat atop her head. So, by that time the standard witch's hat was already familiar. Or, one might take a look at the national dress for women in Wales. Again dated from the 18th century, it too features a hat like a witches pointed hat with a brim.

But, even centuries before that on the western border of China,between Kazakhstan and Mongolia in the Tarim Basin, ancient shaman mummies from two to four thousand years ago are being unearthed with similar conical hats.

It would seem that for centuries the conical hat has been associated with magical power and spiritual connection. Is it possible that for generations a pointed hat has been passed along as a mystical tool? Or, is there just something magical about that hat?

Jade River
Consistery Executive
Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess--International
RCGI is an international congregation of Goddess Women. Currently, 2,739 women have signed the Affirmation of Women's Spirituality and become members of the Congregation.
labyrinth
Do you feel Called to celebrate and serve the Goddess?

Do you wish to study with other Goddess women and witches?

Women's Thealogical Institute

For 20 years, a mult-dimensional school and seminary for Goddess Studies, Women's Witchcraft and Spirituality.

  • A path to Ordination
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Click here for the daily celebrations for October.

Click here for the daily celebrations for November.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

RCG-I will celebrate its 25th anniversary at the Gathering of Priestess and Goddess Women, May 15-17, 2009 in Wisconsin Dells, WI.
Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess-International

phone: (608) 226-9998
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