Home Again, Home Again

This week has been a bit hectic. 

The course outline for the Seekers' class is complete.  Miel and I met with the shopkeeper where we want to have the classes.  She is very excited about it too.  It looks we can do the night we want at the time we want and for a very reasonable price for participants/students.  She's got to double check the calendar and get back to us, but I think we're pretty much set.  Once we have it all definite and wrapped up, we'll publish the info here.  

Beyond that, my family and I went to South Dakota for an extended weekend.  We live in such a beautiful country.  I love when I get the opportunity to explore new corners of it.  We went through the Badlands at sunset and after dark.  And then we went back in the mid-afternoon.  It is absolutely stunning.

We also went to Mount Rushmore.   If you've never been, there is this point on the road up there, where you come around this turn in the road and suddenly before you are those stony faces, carved in the mountain.  

Then there was the Prehistoric Indian Village.  They've been doing an archaeological dig there for 11 years and have barely gotten into it.  

We also stopped at the touristy sites -- The Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Cosmos Mystery Site, and the 1880 Town.

The best part of all of it though, along with the time with the family, is the energy of the different places.  There of course the Badlands.  Then there are the beautiful rolling hills and mountains.  It's just amazing.

Sunset and moonrise in the Badlands

Another section of the Badlands with amazing colors in the dirt.  Over 75 million years ago, it was all under water and there were giant sea creatures living here.

Prairie Dog!  

I almost forgot about the prairie dogs!  We stopped at a prairie dog farm just outside the Badlands and fed them!  They are so freaking cute!!

So my advice?  Get out into the land.  Feel its energy.  Get to know its history.  See the sunrise and the sunset.  

All the best, 

Lapis

Public Outreach

Miel and I have done a lot of work over the last few days.  We've finalized the curriculum for the Seekers' Class, touched base with a shop to host us, and have a solid plan for this.  It's coming together quite nicely.  At first we weren't quite sure we wanted to do this but then pieces kept coming together.  We kept getting those nudges from the Universe.  Thankfully, we're now smart enough to listen and not need the 2x4 to the head.

The class is going to be 13 classes.  No, we didn't try to be that 'witchy' about it but we got down to 12 classes and checked out another training syllabus and realized we missed some important stuff.  There wasn't anything we felt we could cut and so, we ended up with the very witchy number of 13.  We are thinking one class per month, preferably on a weeknight for an hour.  We want to run through this though with the shop and make sure this all seems reasonable.  

Although we've spent the last dozen or so years in Blue Star, we've both had outside classes and such.  It was interesting to see how we perceived each other's strengths and where we had skills that we don't really use anymore.  Blue Star really does focus on honoring the gods, not so much on the spellwork and stuff.  We are going to have to dig into our past, dust off some of our old knowledge and pull it out for this class.  We have done our best though to keep it mostly generic to Wicca.  Once we have a schedule, we'll be reaching out to our non-Blue Star pagan friends to help us out with more info and resources to talk about other Trads.  We are lucky that here in the Twin Cities, there are LOTS of options available to us.  

This week, I'll be typing up the curriculum and syllabus.  Once that is all nice, neat and edited, I may find a place on here to post it.  We should have class schedule, location and cost finalized shortly after Lammas!  

We also listened to the Universe nudging us on the public ritual.  We got our volunteers for Pagan Pride and have sent in the email volunteering to do a ritual there.  Again, once we have the time and location, we'll of course publish that so you all can come see what we are about.  It's been pretty neat to see our community coming together for this.  Some of our dear friends whose lives have gotten really busy are coming in to do this with us.  We've got some GREAT voices coming so we'll definitely be able to showcase our singing how quickly and amazingly it raises energy.  I'm very excited to share that feeling with everyone.  It's just amazing!  Again, once I know what time we're doing the ritual, we'll pull together planning meetings and start publishing info about it.  

All the best, 

Lapis

Weekend Update with Lapis

Unfortunately, I've found a new show to occupy my time on Netflix.  The Paradise.  It's a BBC show about a department store.  I've been avoiding the laundry for a bit now.  

So what have we actually accomplished this week?  Well, we are one Blue Star volunteer away from doing a ritual at Pagan Pride.  We're thinking of doing a sort of teaching ritual.  While our rituals have many of the same steps.  We purify the space to prepare for the ritual, cast circle call elements, call the gods... These are pretty standard to most Wiccan rites.  Our altar placement is slightly different.  We have specific movements and stances.  I was thinking that it might be neat for people to have the open opportunity to ask us about those.  

The downside though is that it interrupts the energy of the circle.  One of the truly magical things about Blue Star is that when we sing, when we gather in numbers, the energy is vibrant and pure.  It tingles though your body and sends chills up your spine.  What better way to showcase who we are than through that?  This is what Miel and I are currently struggling with.

In other news, we are also putting together a Seekers' Class.  We've yet to settle all the details but it looks like we'll probably do a once a month meeting.  We're pulling together a curriculum tomorrow and hope to have it all worked out by Lammas -- August 1st -- and then speak to one of our local shops to see if they'll host us.  There will be a cost associated to help cover rent of the space and materials.  New Moon and a harvest sabbat.  Surely good signs.  

Lastly, tomorrow we are making our second run to IA to pick up seven pups and bring them on the last leg of their journey to safety, not under the threat of being put down, and finding forever homes with loving families.  The transport almost didn't happen.  It took longer than usual to put it all together.  I was really worried that those seven pups weren't going to make it out of Little Rock.  An hour after the transport is usually shut down, it finally came together.  Miel is coming with me and my daughter again.  

Well, it's past time for me to go to bed... 

All the best, 

Lapis