(All classes in Esoteric Space (Ridgley Room 2) directly across from the elevators in the front of the hotel unless otherwise noted.)
Ecumenicon Fellowship is responsible for this track. You must be a registered member of that convention to attend.
2:00 PM - Setting the Wards.
Creating a safe space for spiritual classes for the weekend.
Any teachers and students on site.
3:00 PM - Magickal Crafts.
From beads, to runes, to personalized Tarot cards, several options to choose. Star materials will be available for the Falling Stars memorial service on Saturday. Craft table will be left up throughout the Con.
Charles Butler.
4:00 PM - Shabbat Discussion & Candle Lighting.
Discussion with Candle Lighting at 4:44 PM.
(Tovah) Debera Rothschild and others.
5:00 PM - Accessibility for Ritual – Differently Abled and Spiritually Gifted.
Reaching out inclusively to everyone.
A panel and circle discussion with Jane Sibley, Karen MacLeod, Seanara Coyote, Charles Butler Neto, and Patricia Taylor (Lady Luna Rose).
6:00 PM - Grounding, Centering, Shielding.
And how to get through a conference without being psychically fried. Useful techniques for beginners; even "old hands" might get some new ideas.
Seanara Coyote.
7:00 PM - Divination Open House.
Share your technique with others in a round-robin fashion. Tea, cookies, and chocolate. (2 hours)
Ecumenicon Fellowship.
9:00 PM - Body Intimacy, Part I.
An intimate and sacred conversation about how our physical bodies assist and limit us as spiritual beings. What is your experience? Is your physical body helping you or holding you back in your spiritual experiences? What is your overall relationship with your body? We will explore and share experiences and welcome people with differently-abled bodies.
Anna-Sara Fire.
10:00 PM - Healing Circle.
All are welcome to share their spiritual gifts. All healing circles are welcome, from laying on of hands to prayer from many faiths.
(2 hours)
Charles Butler Neto & Others.
9:00 AM - Tai Chi. Wake up with energy movement, personal DVD of Tai Chi Instructor.
10:00 AM - Esoteric Space, Counseling for Alternate Clergy, Tips, Do’s and Don’ts for Clergy.
If you are Ecumenicon clergy and need your 3 CEU Counseling credit, this class fulfills that requirement. Fee for this class is a share of the instructor’s hotel room. (3 hours)
Rev. Rik Fire, LCSW.
1:00 PM - Guest of Honor Speech - No Programming.
2:00 PM - Tarot as Sacred Storytelling: Reading Without the Book.
We will invite the archetypal images of the Tarot to speak directly to and through us. There will be several Tarot decks available to work with, but bring yours if you wish. Please bring writing paper and pens/pencils with you.
Seanara Coyote.
3:00 PM - Healing With the Holy Spirit.
Energetic healing is a technique commonly used by many esoteric practitioners. For each it takes a different form. Many are familiar with a set of techniques grouped together under the title "Reiki" wherein the healer acts as a channel for Universal energy to heal a subject/patient. The Universal energy can be accessed through a variety of methods. For some, the "Reiki Glyphs" or symbols act as a trigger in the practitioner’s mind to "open an energetic channel." Other pathways to the Universal/Source energy are also available, depending on the practitioners working paradigm. One such path is that of a deep prayer state in which the practitioner calls upon one of the oldest names for the healing power of the Divine. One may believe in Angels as messengers of God, independent entities, or facets of the diamond that is the Divine in all His/Her glory. One may
believe that Angelic personae are masks the Old Gods wear. No matter how a practitioner forms his or her cosmology, it is possible to call use the power of the Source by calling upon Its healing aspect to effect positive change within both the practitioner and the client/patient. Raphael, Whose name is derived from the Hebrew verb "rafa", to heal, and "El" a name for the Holy On, is interpreted "It is God who heals", "God Heals", "God, Please Heal". Using Raphael as a Guide, we can all learn by doing, to heal ourselves and each other." As a student of Jewish Mysticism, Rill strongly identifies with the Jewish Renewal movement and studies Hebrew Kabbalah with a fierce yearning for knowledge. She finds Truth with a capital 'T' in the proverb stating, "She is a Tree of Life to those who hold her Dear."
Rill (Deb Friedman).
4:00 PM - The Labyrinth, a meditative walk with the Order of St. Michael.
Labyrinth Walk - A Personal Spiritual Journey. Labyrinths are as old as civilization. There are many variations and reasons for taking the journey. This Labyrinth is an 11 circle path based on the Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral, but is a valuable spiritual tool for those of any belief system. Walking this path brings you close to the center, the place where wisdom may be waiting for you, then away and then close again, until you finally reach the goal. The journey to the center is a time of preparation and clearing, the center is a place to be open to the Divine or the Cosmos in whatever form is meaningful to you. The journey home is the time to integrate what you have received. Come and walk, renewing your spiritual center. Newcomers to this walk are especially welcome. Members of the Order of St. Michael will be available.
Order of St. Michael.
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. Come and make your star.
6:00 PM - 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.
7:00 PM - Introduction to Shamanic Journeyworking.
Rev. Rik Fire, LCSW.
8:00 PM - Free Form Drumming Circle and More Journeyworking.
Come and learn to connect with rhythm. Some instruments available. Bring something to add to the mix.
Rev. Rik Fire, LCSW.
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. (1 hour)
Rev. Rik Fire, Rev. Anna-Sara Fire, and others.
9:00 AM - Christian Mass.
Offered by the Order of St. Michael for all present. (1 hour) - In ALTERNATE PROGRAMMING.
11:00 AM - Body Intimacy, Part II.
An intimate and sacred conversation about how our physical bodies assist and limit us as spiritual beings. What is your experience? Is your physical body helping you or holding you back in your spiritual experiences? What is your overall relationship with your body? We will explore and share experiences and welcome people with differently-abled bodies. Continuation of Part I, and Healing Circles.
Rev. Anna-Sara Fire.
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. His novel Princess of Galilee is forthcoming from iUniverse. Email: chazzer3332000 @ yahoo.com. Mailing address: Charles Butler, 3205 Kimberly Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782-3722.
Seanara Coyote was initiated into Promethean Wicca and Welsh Traditionalist Wicca in early 1978, receiving her third degree in both traditions by 1980. She taught herself to read the Tarot in 1968, and has worked with the cards ever since. She has also studied Tarot with Geraldine Amaral, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and James Wanless. Through her Wiccan training and practice and her personal growth, Seanara evolved Western Transformational Wicca, an initiatory Path which centers around the journey from "wounded healer to healed healer" and whose main tenet is: "The primary purpose of magic is personal transformation." She is the High Priestess of Westran Alpha Coven, all of whose members are intimately familiar with disability issues through professional training, advocacy work and/or personal experience. Under her mundane/legal name, Seanara holds a Masters' degree in Social Work from Stony Brook University and an LCSW-R from the state of New York.
Ecumenicon Fellowship is a multi-faith church founded in Maryland in 1987 by Charles Butler Neto, Rosemary Kooiman, Paul Kendrick, and Sally Page Byers-Whitlock. We have held a multi-faith conference every year since that time, and have added workshops at Darkovercon for at least the past 10 years. Ecumenicon Fellowship strives to welcome the variety of human spiritual experience to its forums and house-based churches now located in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, and Georgia. Pull up a chair.
Rev. Anna-Sara Fire is a Master of Divinity candidate and she was ordained as an Interfaith Minister at Ecumenicon 2009. For the past 5 years she has been a student of Shamanism under the auspices of The Church of Earth Healing. She is devoted to honor the spiritual relationship between mind, body and soul as a minister, writer and certified personal trainer. She works as a hospital chaplain at a local hospital and rehabilitation center.
Rev. Rik Fire, LCSW 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 12 years. Email: rfire @ magellanhealth.com.
The Order of Saint Michael is an ecumenical, esoteric Christian community oriented toward knowledge (gnosis) and spiritual growth. The Order has Pagan and Jewish Associates as well.
Karen MacLeod (Lady Greyeagle) has always viewed her world a bit differently than most, investigating and studying many and varied topics over the years. In 2003, she received her 3rd degree in Western Transformational Wicca. Her expertise in disability issues is mostly first-hand. She is a former member of both the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), and the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association (USCPAA). She is also a member of Daughters of the Flame, a group dedicated to the Goddess/Saint Brigid. These women each keep an eternal flame dedicated to Brigid of Kildare on the hearths of their own homes around the world on a twenty day rotation; each tending the fire in her own way. Website: http://www.simegen.com/bios/klbio.html
Rill is a Wiccan Priestess recently initiated in the Blue Star Tradition, who has deeply felt Jewish roots that she isn't afraid to let show. She holds both of her traditions equally close to her heart and has managed, with great effort, to successfully integrate her Jewish and Pagan practices. As a Witch, Rill is a devotee of the Dark God. She finds herself serving the alternative sexuality communities as a mentor, guide, ordeal facilitator, and ordeal dancer.
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.
Rev. Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D., is a Norse scholar and ordained spakone (wise woman) with both Ecumenicon Fellowship and Woodhenge. "Norse Mythology...According to Uncle Einar", and "Hammer of the Gods" are available at her dealer's table. A second novel, "The Hammer of the Smith", is working its way down the slush pile at Tor. She is helping with the Accessibility panel from her experience in working with an invalid mother and with volunteering for the blind.
Patricia Taylor (Lady Luna Rose) is a Sacristan (Minister of Sacred Environment) being that her interests lie in practical magic, taking ordinary things and making them sacred. She holds two Certificates of Interfaith Studies from Ecumenicon and is the first to have achieved that distinction). Lady Luna Rose is High Priestess of Crossroads Teaching Circle, a congregation of Ecumenicon Fellowship.
