The study part of the work includes reading and written assignments, the experience work includes journeys you make and the service work is about work you do for others, people, animals, plants, the planet. You will need to write all of these up and send them to us. We will discuss these with you, help you find answers to your questions and support you through your apprenticeship and journeyman-ship.

Timing is important on the course, as in all magical work. You will need to organise your life to get your work to us on time. to help with this we suggest you find a rhythm to your work. Rhythm is one of the most important things in all shamanic practice. The training revolves and focuses around the seasons and the eight festivals of the Celtic year.

Reading and Listening. You will need to read a lot, listen to stories, music and songs as well as practise and write up your experiences. We give you book, music and song lists which, whilst extensive are not exclusive. We are also interested to hear about books, music and songs, not on the list, which you have found useful. The books include stories as well as technique and history. Story, song and poetry are the major ways the lore is transmitted in the Celtic tradition. We will be encouraging you to make your own poetry.

Craftwork is a major feature of the training too. Shamans, like many magical practitioners, try always to make their own "paraphernalia". Making your own rattles, staff, mask, silver branch, Dreamweb, wand, drum, etc. invests the instrument with your own energy and that of the guides, helpers and other beings who were with you as you made it. This is very important to shamans. * Storytelling is also a major feature of the training. The lore was passed on through story, by the shaman or bard, and it is a beautiful art. Remember when you last listened to a story rather than read one or watched one? Using the hearing sense enables the imagination to be evoked and expanded more than using visuals - although these work too but in a different way. The art of storytelling is rather like music. It has cadence, rhythm, flow, loudness, softness, different tones. All these touch different parts of our inner being and can also transport us across the worlds.

Study

This course is about building the Inner and the Outer Rainbow. The Lore you learn will also be about the spiritual structure of your own body and soul; how these work together; their connection to the Web of the World and to the Cosmic Web.

Each lesson lasts six or seven weeks, corresponding to the rhythms of the eight Celtic festivals. The period from a Lunar festival to a Solar festival (e.g. Samhain to Winter Solstice) is seven weeks. The period from a Solar festival to a Lunar festival (e.g. Winter Solstice to Imbolc) is six weeks. This numbering has a significance which you will come to understand over the course. Over this period you are asked to do the following:

Lore - Read and understand a piece of lore (wisdom teaching) so that you can tell or write it back to your tutor in your own words. For examples The Hazel Nut Universe in the 1st lesson ­ you read about it, draw it, hear stories and then write your own understanding back to your tutor. This helps you in your Bardic role ­ as keeper and transmitter of the Lore.

Journey - You learn how to journey and journey on a particular theme. For example Finding Your Sacred Space, Journeying Within your Body, Meeting Your Familiar, which are the first three journeys of the course. Even if you already have a Familiar it will be well worth while re-making your relationship at the new level you will find yourself at on the course.  This helps you in your role as a Walker Between the Worlds

Story - You will hear one of the Celtic stories each season, told by one of us on tape. We then ask you to tape yourself re-telling the story (not reading it) as though to an audience. We specifically ask that you do not memorise the words - we do not give you the stories in "traditional" words as the purpose of this exercise is that you know the story rather than learn it. Your own words and style will come out through this and, rather than being a "clone" of someone else, you will become your own self, the inner bard and story-teller. This way you will be able to be heard by others, they will feel your passion and the way the story is for you. You will show (not tell) your listeners the story. This helps your Bardic skills, you to know and retell the Lore in each story.

Craft - We ask you to make an instrument for your Craft. You have two seasons to do this as it can (but doesnšt always) take time. You have to "envision" the instrument ­ the first is a Rattle ­ which means asking for your rattle to show itself to you. Not someone elsešs, yours. You will find the materials and decorations, and make it yourself. Many of us find a song or chant comes with it and an image of the Guardian Spirit of that instrument. Maybe also the guardian power which over-lights it. You will then enliven it, call out its spirit and befriend that spirit. You will also learn to use the instrument in ceremony, ritual, healing and augury. This helps your skills as Bringer Home of Wisdom, Mediator and Walker Between Worlds. 

Experience

In Experience we ask you to make your own discoveries, to learn from your own experience. This comes about through the journeys you will make - not all of them at our direction. You will journey of your own accord, as well as doing the journeys in the course. This will empower the Lore you have learned and make it real within you.

It will also come through the craft work, the making of your own magical implements, your paraphernalia. Interacting with wood, stone, metal, plants, water, air, fire, in order to craft your shaman's tools will give you a very deep knowing and knowledge of how and why they work. This will stay with you far more than learning it out of a book.

It will also come about through the actual telling of the stories, which we ask you to do and tape and then send us the tape. To tell a story successfully is to live it, not read it but have it alive within you as you tell. You are there, seeing out of the characters' eyes, feeling with them, hearing and sensing. This way it becomes real for your audience. Also, you will find that the story itself has ideas of how it wishes to be - on this day. It will change itself within your mouth as you form the words and you will hear yourself saying them as though you hadn't heard them before. The skill you acquire is how to enable this interaction, this walking across the worlds, to happen.

Service

And service ... do we do all this work for our own delight? It is unlikely we get too much delight if this is our aim. Funnily enough, sharing our loves and delights with others makes them get bigger rather than smaller. We enjoy ourselves more. Perhaps that is part of the "carrot" the gods offer to get us to do all this work! The form your service takes will be your own. We can offer suggestions - if you want. There have been shamans who work as healers (of course) but also as financiers, people managers, vets, farmers, psychologists, factory workers, people who serve tea in cafes, writers, scientists, housewives and husbands, teachers, cooks, gardeners, policemen ... the list goes on forever. Think about it for yourself, what is actually excluded by shamanism? One of its main tenets is "inclusiveness".

Don't worry about how you may serve. It will come to you as you listen and work with Otherworld, a bit at a time, as you are able to see it.

Shamanism is about being within and a part of the world, a knowing rather than an unconscious part. Shamans work willingly within the world, knowing their deep connections to it over the whole life of our soul - which is made up of many, many personal lives. By service they help it to grow and realise its potential. As it becomes real to all of them so they discover a most joyful reason for being here.

There is a great deal of work in the course. You will find that you need to organise your time very carefully and your relations with your family and how you deal with your everyday job. This is part of the shaman's skill - how s/he integrates seamlessly with the world around in which s/he lives.

This course is written and maintained by the clergy of "Trad of The Sacred Cauldron". The course includes, meditations, visualizations, setting up an altar, creating a circle, consecration of materials, invocation, evocations, divination, storm raising, how to write your own spells, worshipping your deities, sabbaths, esbats, candles, stone, herb and talismanic magick, creating a cone of protection and power, spells, record keeping systems, simple recipes for incense, oils and sabbat cakes, your robe, the cord and other materials. You will also receive a free copy of Where Witchcraft Lives by Gerald Gardner via Email. Some lessons are delivered online and you will be entitled to contact clergy by email and chats sessions. This course will take you from beginner to the First degree. After completion of this course you will receive a certificate stating that you have completed the work for a first degree initiate. If you live outside of the USA or Canada you must mail in order form. You can also purchase our BOS full of spells and recipes, which we offer separately. Please see the item listed below this course.
Purchase of this course means that you automatically agree to the terms and conditions set forth on this web site.


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