Saturday July 16
10 AM: Medicinal Plants of the Southeast via Botanical Gardens on Zoom: This was very good. The instructor, Melissa Ray, lead us through the qualities of 15 Medicinal Plants from the Southeast. I took this Zoom class through the Botanical Gardens of Georgia for my Native Plant Certification, it was not a Mystic South event. Of particular interest is that there is a teacher named Patricia Howell in Clayton, GA who runs a school on herbs.
12:30 PM: Dark Goddess Rising: A Poppet Creation Workshop by Ivy Laine: A fun, hands on workshop. This was a second choice as I wanted to attend Being A Spiritual Rebel which was cancelled. However creating a dark goddess poppet for myself was a good second choice. I don’t quite know what to do with her. It’s not clear to me which dark goddess she represents and so she’s kinda become lost in shadow since arriving home. I placed her on my altar to Mystic South. However, she may not belong there. This is my very first poppet, so I may be lacking in skill here.
2 PM: Hecate, Boundaries, and Tarot by Clio Ajana: Clio led us through a ritual reading with Hecate. I may be leaving some of this ritual out, due to my note taking.
1.Ground and Center
2. Banish
3. Draw a circle of Hestia
4. Blessing with the 4 Elements
5. Calling the Gods
North, Earth (Sanctuary)
West, Water, (Acceptance—of emotions, internal acceptance)
South, Fire (Freedom)
East, Air (Energy)
6. Check in, What am I feeling? I was feeling some mild derealization but mostly awake and alert, inquisitive and thoughtful.
7. Call of Hecate
8. Shuffle the cards, asking:
Where are my boundaries set in stone?
Where do I feel anxious?
Where do I radiate strength?
Where do I chastise myself internally with negative self-talk?
9. Pull the Moon card as a focus for the reading
11. Ask:
What restricts me that I am resisting?
Where can I expand my horizons?
What realities must I face
Where is my energy lacking?
12. Card 1: North: Tower—What has been torn down that restricts me? The Guidestones and the religious intolerance the act symbolizes is restricting me about being open as a pagan.
13. Card 2: West: Where can I expand my horizons? 5 of Cups: Starfish, making lots of mini-me’s. Lots of creative projects in the studio.
14. Card 3: South: What realities must I face? 0 Fool. Begin to design my own tarot deck, facing the reality of the cliff, the magnitude of the task and experience before me.
15. Card 4: Air: Where is my energy lacking? 10 of Wands. Being in connection with others who are hitting out blindly, unaware of certain aspects of me or my life, or blind to aspects of me. I need to have better boundaries with my community and stop letting them take energy from me.
16. This reading may be done for each area where I feel unsafe or in need of boundary replacement.
3:30 PM: The Spider and the Spiral: Untangling the Web through Rituals of Living by Kaycee: An introduction to an 8 week workshop that focuses on finding people’s “stuck” places in their past. I felt that this would be uncovering and clearing people’s childhood trauma and other past traumas. I asked the presenter what her plan was to deal with these traumas and she said dealing with trauma was outside the scope of her workshop. However we had a good discussion as a group about trauma I felt. The presenter, Kaycee, gifted me with a slinky, which was the tool she was using in the workshop to reweave people’s pasts.
5 PM: Plant Energy Medicine and Spiritual Herbalism by Daniela Simina: This was interesting to take after the Medicinal Plant class earlier. Instead of working with the physical plant we were learning how to tune into a plant energetically and spiritually. A nice redirect after the previous workshop as well.
6 PM: Dinner: The hotel restaurant had a buffet that was affordable and tasty.
Evening: Spent in my room, resting and reading. I think I had some anxiety after the not so safe Spider and Spiral workshop.