(All classes in Esoteric Space (Ridgley Room 2) directly across from the elevators in the front of the hotel unless otherwise noted.)
Presented by Ecumenicon Fellowship, the Order of St. Michael, and the Chesapeake Pagan Community in cooperation with Darkovercon Science Fiction Convention. For any questions about the program, feel free to talk to any teacher or the Esoteric Program Chair (Charles Butler) or inquire at the Ecumenicon table in the Dealer's Room.
2:00 PM - Setting the Wards.
Creating a safe space for spiritual classes for the weekend.
All Teachers.
3:00 PM - Mythology and Magic of the Younger Futhark.
Introduction of Runes and the Norse Gods.
Ice & Fire.
4:00 PM - Shabbat Discussion & Candle Lighting.
Discussion with Candle Lighting at 4:44 PM.
Tovah.
5:00 PM - Attitude of Gratitude.
Spiritual exercise creating a necklace for personal protection. Colors, materials, and meanings from Ifan, Christian, and Wiccan traditions. Make a personal rosary. $5 materials fee.
Charles Butler Neto.
6:00 PM - Stav Exercises - Hand to Hand.
Energy system based on Norse Runes. (2 hours)
Ice & Fire.
8:00 PM - Tea & Tarot.
Opportunity for personal readings and comparing techniques. (2 hours)
Chesapeake Pagan Community & friends.
10:00 PM - Oracle.
Participants will symbolically erect a temple to the Great Goddess Ishtar and then have the opportunity to consult the oracle within, who will be in trance. (2 hours)
Miriam Benson (Shulameet).
9:00 AM - Tai Chi. Wake up with energy movement, personal DVD of Tai Chi Instructor.
10:00 AM - Personal Rune Making .
Ice & Fire gives a personal introduction to the Futhark. Making a rune set you can take home. $5 set. (2 hours)
Ice & Fire.
12:00 NOON - Clergy Clatch. (All interested) Do you have "clergy" on your forehead in invisible ink? Whether ordained or not, people seek you out for spiritual counsel and guidance. This is an annual reunion, all newcomers are welcome.
1:00 PM - Guest of Honor Speech - No Programming.
2:00 PM - The Hidden Folk.
A discussion on the Hidden Folk of many traditions, the Fairies, the Good People, the Kobolds, and other names.
Tchipakkan.
3:00 PM - The Evil Eye.
A discussion on the Evil Eye both in medieval lore and folk belief, and in modern psychology and healing arts.
Tchipakkan.
4:00 PM - Trance, Mediumship, and Knowledge.
Discussion of Trance Mediumship, Shamanic Trance, Pentecostal Prophetic Tradition, and Words of Knowledge. Compare and contrast Christian, Sami, Pentecostal, Norse, and other traditions.
Myth Woodling, Miriam Benson (Shulameet), Anna Sara Fire, Charles Butler, Jane Sibley, and Laurel Mendes.
5:00 PM - Falling Stars Memorial.
Originally started as an AIDS Memorial, this service now honors all who have passed this prior year in fandom, personal families, or beyond, particularly of chronic illness.
Charles Butler leads.
6:00 PM - Shiltpron & Faith Day. Sime~Gen Fandom annual gathering in honor of the work of Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Jean Lorrah, and others. (2 hours)
8:00 PM - Cleanup for Healing Circle. Resetting the space for Midnight healing circle.
9:00 PM Clam Chowder (Don't even think there is programming)
12:00 MIDNIGHT - Healing Circle.
Using laying on of hands, Reiki, and several other techniques, healing circle for all who seek help. Charles Butler and others. (1 hour)
Charles Butler, Rik Fire, Anna-Sara Fire, Archonstone.
9:00 AM - Christian Mass.
Offered by the Order of St. Michael for all present. (2 hours) - In ALTERNATE PROGRAMMING.
11:00 AM - Ecumenicon Chocolate Party. Come and meet the sponsors of the Esoteric Track and the various teachers. Books of authors will be available for signature. Come and hear about Darkovercon, Ecumenicon, and other places for esoteric training.
12:00 NOON - Rune Casting and Other Norse Divination Systems.
Jane Sibley teaches ancient Norse systems from Runes, seed, and sand casting. Hands on. (2 hours)
Jane Sibley.
2:00 PM (1 hour) - Closing the Wards. Clearing the space. All instructors. All Welcome.
Charles Butler (Neto) (Moderator) is the co-founder of Ecumenicon Fellowship and director of the Esoteric track for Darkovercon. He is trained in Christian (Presbyterian, Pentecostal), Wiccan (Ravenwood, Fellowship of Isis), and Ifan ( Temple of the Personal Path) traditions, and his greatest joy is helping people find their own path and vocabulary to the Divine. He is currently working on a series of historical fiction on the life of Salome of Galilee: "Sparrow of Jerusalem", "Threading the Maze", "Whispers of Empire", and forthcoming "A Virtuous Woman". He is the creator of a five-suit Tarot deck (The Transformation Tarot) and publisher of a collection of retold patakis (teaching stories) from the Ifan tradition "Madupe". He is a storyteller and playwright with a current musical/opera in production "According to Us" now slated for the Greenbelt Arts Center for May of 2009. (Attitude of Gratitude, Trance Mediumship & Knowledge, Healing Circle, Chocolate Party)
Miriam Benson (Shulameet) is a 3rd degree priestess in the Protean tradition of the Gardnerian lineage, with more than 25 years of magical experience. In addition to serving as Sweat Circle Coordinator at the Chesapeake Pagan Summer Gathering, she is a Discordian Adept. Nothing perks up one's karma like a bit of mirth in one's magic, now and zen.
Chesapeake Pagan Community (CPC) serves the Pagan community of the Baltimore-Washington, DC region by managing activities requiring resources and volunteers beyond the means of the individuals and small congregations of Pagan folk located here. Our activities include classes, workshops, spiritual healing circles, seasonal celebrations, and our annual summer gathering. We invite like-minded folks to join us and help create a harmonious community to learn, worship, share, and teach. www.ChesapeakePagans.org (Tea & Tarot, Oracle)
Anna-Sara Fire is a Master of Divinity candidate with Stockholm University , focused on Sami Studies, and a ministerial intern with Ecumenicon Fellowship. For the past 3 years she has been a student of Shamanism under Rev. Dr. Crow Swimsaway and Bekki Shiningheart of the Church of Earth Healing . (Trance Mediumship & Knowledge, Healing Circle)
Rik Fire is an ordained Interfaith Minister with Ecumenicon Fellowship. His primary spiritual pathways are Shamanism, Ifa, Gnosticism & Unitarian-Universalism. He is employed as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for a managed behavioral healthcare company. His eclectic private practice specializes in working with clients in areas related to spirituality, gender & sexuality & energy healing, as he is also a Reiki Master & shamanistic practitioner. Rik lives in Bucks County , Pennsylvania with his wife, Anna-Sara, child, Markus & their dog, Cherokee. Rik has been traveling & teaching at various venues for the past 10 years. (Healing Circle)
Laurel Mendes has been a practitioner of altered states of consciousness for the past 20 years. As one of the founding members of Hrafnar, Laurel has been practicing the art of Seidh, a shamanistic tradition rooted in the sacred traditions of Northern Europe, since the beginning of its resurgence in the late 1980's. Laurel, under her seidh-name Raudhildr, was one of the practitioners sourced in Jenny Blaine's work "Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic". Laurel is also an Elder in the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (NROOGD) tradition of Wicca, has served as La Place in La Societe de la Rose Blanch, is a published poet, a dedicate of Brigid and an ordained minister with The Fellowship of the Spiral Path. (Trance Mediumship & Knowledge)
The Order of Saint Michael is an esoteric, ecumenical Christian community oriented toward self-knowledge (gnosis in its original meaning) and spiritual growth. The Order provides a community for those seeking to enrich their traditional faith experiences and for those searching for a personal path to the Divine. Members seek contemporary meaning in traditional forms of worship and prayer, combining the rich traditions of the past with an exploration of contemporary mysticism and ritual. (Christian Mass)
Debera Rothschild (Tovah) grew up in a conservative Jewish household. At the early death of her mother, she started to question her own beliefs. In Hebrew High School, she took a class about Jewish Mysticism where she found some of the things she was taught to ring true. Later in life, her father would take her to temple with him on Saturday mornings. This became the way they reconnected in a spiritual way. In massage school, she began to think outside of just traditional belief systems and again to question her own religious beliefs. Although she never has forgotten where her roots are, at the death of her father, her religious belief system was shaken. Tovah went back to the commandment of "Question Everything," and started incorporating some of the philosophies she was learning into her belief of "Life, the Universe, and Everything." Lighting candles and the Sabbath services are ways Tovah has found to reconnect with her father and the past. (Sabbath Candle Lighting)
Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D., is a traditional Norse practitioner, specializing in runes, divination, and the Wise Woman path. She has taught at many Pagan cons and gatherings, including Ecumenicon, EtheraCon, Rites of Spring, Twilight Covening, ConVocation, and more. Her first book, "Norse Mythology...According to Uncle Einar" appeared in 2000, and her next two books, "The Divine Thunderbolt: Missile of the Gods" and "The Hammer of the Smith" were published in 2008. The thunderbolt book examines the folklore and comparative religion of the divine missile (primarily lightning and meteorites) from the realm of the sky god(s) to targets on earth in the Near East, Greece, Rome, and Western Europe. "Hammer" is a historical fantasy novel set in pre-Viking Scandinavia, with plenty of battles, folk medicine, a sidekick whose magic only works when he's drunk, a mysterious dead body, and a tuxedo kitten who saves the day. She is at present working on a manuscript dealing with traditional Norse folk/magic medicine and plans to also finish a book on runes, focusing on historical usage, stylistics, and Pagan & Christian magic. (Trance Mediumship & Knowledge, Ecumenicon Chocolate Party, Rune Casting and Other Norse Divination Systems)
Tchipakkan is an artist, writer, healer, and eclectic pagan-heathen-rustic. I have been worshipping the old gods openly since her teens. I live on a small farm in NH aimed at self sufficiency and sustainability, with 3 adult children- all artists and writers, and a varying assortment of animal friends and livestock. My "day job" is running Cabochons, where we sell our various arts and crafts and festivals, Renaissance fairs and historical reenactments. http://www.stupidityinmagic.com/cabochons/main.html. (The Hidden Folk, The Evil Eye, Trance Mediumship & Knowledge, Chocolate Party)
Miki Tracey is the National Administrator of Ice and Fire USA, a foundation started in the UK by Graham Butcher to forward the teachings of Hafskjold Stav; a Viking era mind/body/spirit system. She is a certified practitioner/instructor for the group and group leader of the dc stav club. Her experiences range through several mind/body/spirit systems including Stav; Korean, Anusara and Hatha Yoga; and a smidgen of T'ai Chi/Qi gong. (links are http://iceandfire.us and http://dcstavclub.org my home email is miki @ iceandfire.us) (Mythology and Magic of the Younger Futhark, Stav Exercises Hand to Hand, Personal Rune Making)
