“Dreaming the Presence: Exploring Undercurrents of the Sacred Feminine in Dreams”

with Rabbi Jill Hammer

Thursday,  January 13, 2022 at 12 NOON Eastern Standard Time 

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In sacred texts from the Bible to the Descent of Inanna, dreams have been a source of prophetic wisdom and profound inspiration.  In contemporary times, our dreams may offer us surprising and moving images of the sacred feminine that come to inform and guide our lives.

This presentation will explore dreams of the sacred feminine, some from kabbalists of sixteenth century Sfat, and some from contemporary dreamers who are discovering the Presence in their nightly visions, in feminine forms.  We’ll consider how these images include recognizable mythic elements but also unexpected insights— and how they inspire dreamers to heal and transform their lives.

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

January 27 2022 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time
“Onsite research: Listening to the Land“
Elizabeth Cunningham

February 10 2022  TIME TBA
“Recent Thinking on the Maternal Gift Economy“
Genevieve Vaughan

February 24 2022  3PM Eastern Daylight Time
Title TBA
Apela Colorado

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event. 

“The Old European Roots of Women’s Circle Dance”

with Laura Shannon

Thursday,  November 11, 2021 at 12 NOON Eastern Standard Time 

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In traditional contexts, women’s circle dances provide an embodied experience of community-oriented values including solidarity, shared leadership, mutual support, and a culture of peace. Archaeomythologist Marija Gimbutas associated these values with the egalitarian Neolithic civilisations she explored, and these are precisely the values which humanity needs to activate to ensure a viable future for our planet.

Women’s ritual dances of the Balkans belong to an oral tradition which has been handed down through female generations through thousands of years, as Elizabeth Wayland Barber has shown. Laura Shannon has spent over thirty years learning these dances from grandmothers in villages in Greece and the Balkans, with a focus on the symbolic ‘language’ of dance and textile patterns reflecting the image of the Old European Goddess.

This illustrated talk suggests that the open circle of the ritual dance may represent a symbolic womb through which dancers experience a metaphorical journey of life, death, and rebirth, particularly through spiral dances associated with springtime. The sacred centre of the circle may be understood as a symbolic omphalós or navel, with the danced path as an umbilicus connecting dancers to the life-giving Mother Earth. Bread ovens in these cultures are often also shaped like an omphalós: the community is nourished with vitality both through the women’s dance, and by the bread the women bake.

Traditional women’s ritual circle dances have relevance not only as living descendants of Old European Goddess cultures, but because of the insights and wisdom they offer participants today.

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

January 13 2022 at NOON Eastern Standard Time
“Dreaming the Presence: Exploring the Sacred Feminine in Dreams”
Rabbi Jill Hammer

January 27 2022 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time
“Onsite research: Listening to the Land“
Elizabeth Cunningham

February 10 2022  TIME TO BE DETERMINED 
“Recent Thinking on the Maternal Gift Economy“
Genevieve Vaughan

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event. 

“Sacred Instructions”

with Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset 

Thursday,  October 21, 2021 at 3 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

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Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, Sherri Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day, such as environ-mental protection and human rights. For those seeking change, she offers a set of cultural values that will preserve our collective survival for future generations. As she says, “Women are the water-bearers of the universe,” and a non-patriarchal view of culture is necessary for the survival of all people. Embracing traditional core cultural values teaches us that “the Earth Mother, and all life that lives upon her, has the same right to live as we do. There is a place within creation for all things, and all life holds equal value.”

Sacred Instructions is “a roadmap for those who may be lost—and not even realize it. Sherri Mitchell’s hauntingly beautiful prose truly honors the traditional Native American wisdom that she shares with us as readers. She deftly makes the timeless suddenly modern again, and more relevant than ever, by using ancient perspectives to address the disconnect and disengagement that so many people feel in the world today.”   –D.J. Vanas (Odawa Nation), Author of The Tiny Warrior: A Path to Personal Discovery & Achievement 

Sherri Mitchell -Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, (She Who Brings the Light) is a Native American attorney, teacher, activist and change maker who grew up on the Penobscot Indian Reservation. She is the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, and convener of the global healing ceremony Healing the Wounds of Turtle Island. She is the founding director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of Indigenous land, water and religious rights, and the preservation of the Indigenous way of life.

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

November 11 at NOON Eastern Standard Time
“The Old European Roots of Women’s Circle Dance”
Laura Shannon

January 13 2022 at NOON Eastern StandardTime
“Dreaming the Presence: Exploring the Sacred Feminine in Dreams”
Jill Hammer

January 27 2022 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Onsite research: Listening to the Land”
Elizabeth Cunningham

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event. 

“The Sacred Sites of Cornwall”

with Cheryl Straffon

Thursday,  October 7, 2021 at 12 NOON Eastern Daylight Time 

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Cornwall lies in the far south-west of Britain, originally a Celtic country (like Wales, Ireland and Brittany) with its own history, traditions and language. It still has probably the largest concentration of prehistoric sites in western Europe, and unlocking the key to these tells a story of the time when the Neolithic and Bronze Age people lived in harmony with the Earth Mother, and respected and loved a Goddess of the Land. In Cheryl’s book, ‘Pagan Cornwall: Land of the Goddess’ she discovered a continuity of Goddess-tradition in remote Cornwall from ancient times right up to the present day, using evidence from archaeological research, folklore and legend, and rural tradition and custom. 

“My previous partner and I were both interested in embodiment, which was an ancient Cretan technique in which a priestess would embody the Goddess. We both started to create ritual around that idea. We devised the Celtic Goddess wheel of the year, and it felt natural to go to places in the land where you could celebrate.  We would use Carn Euny for the Samhain ritual, which  was a time in Celtic myth when the Otherworld was very close.  At the winter solstice we have used a local fogou down here in Boscaswell. After sleeping the dreamless sleep we go down in the darkness to call back the Goddess of light out of the fogou, who will return with the first light.”

Cheryl Straffon spent the first 19 years of her life in Cornwall (UK), and then went to London and Cambridge Universities, where she studied English and Comparative Religion. Since 1986 she has returned to Cornwall, where she has researched, written and published a number of books about the sacred sites of Cornwall, and the prehistory and history of British and international Goddess cultures. These works include Daughters of the Earth: Goddess wisdom for a modern age, Pagan Cornwall: Land of the Goddess, Megalithic Mysteries of Cornwall, and Fentynyow Kernow: In Search of Cornwall’s Holy Wells.  She produced and edited the Goddess Alive! Journal and for over 25 years she has also produced and edited the Cornish Earth Mysteries magazine Meyn Mamvro.

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

October 21 at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time
“Sacred Instructions”
Sherri Mitchell

November 11 at NOON Eastern Standard Time
“The Old European Roots of Women’s Circle Dance”
Laura Shannon

January 13 2022 at NOON Eastern Daylight Time
“Dreaming the Presence: Exploring the Sacred Feminine in Dreams”
Jill Hammer

January 27 2022 at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time
“Onsite research: Listening to the Land”
Elizabeth Cunningham

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event. 

“Yarb Women: the Traditional Female Healers of Appalachia”

with H. Byron Ballard

Thursday,  September 23, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time 

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The land of misty coves that comprises the southern highlands of Appalachia is one of the most diverse bioregions in the world. One of the cultures that stubbornly clings to its old ways is the tradition of the cove doctor, the yarb (“herb”) woman. These women ran their subsistence farms and took care of the medical needs of their immediate communities. Their work included midwifery, fertility, tending the dying and dressing the bodies of the dead. Their tools were simple and their skills much sought after.

The materials of the yarb woman included the plants that were cultivated in the garden and those that were wildcrafted. These were gathered according to the signs of the Moon and preserved through drying, tinctures, poultices and salves. There was also a tradition of incantations brought from the British Isles and employed against many common ailments.

The folkways of the region have traditionally been in the firm, experienced hands of generations of strong women and that remains to this day. The work of yarb women continues and flourishes in the Internet age where students come from far afield to learn these old ways, ways passed down through families whose ancestors have walked the hills for many generations.

H. Byron Ballard is a WNC native, teacher and writer. Her essays feature in several anthologies, and she writes a regular column on Crone-life for SageWoman Magazine. Her books include “Staubs and Ditchwater,” “Asfidity and Mad-Stones,” “Embracing Willendorf,“ “Earth Works,” and “Roots, Branches and Spirits.” She has presented at festivals and conferences including Sacred Space, Southeast Wise Woman Herbal Conference, Glastonbury Goddess Festival, ASWM, Appalachian Studies Association and Scottish Pagan Federation Conference. She is one of the founders and serves as senior priestess at Mother Grove Goddess Temple in Asheville, NC. She can be reached at My Village Witch.

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

October 7 at NOON Eastern Daylight Time
“Sacred Sites of Cornwall”
Cheryl Straffon

October 21 at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time
“Sacred Instructions”
Sherri Mitchell

November 11 at NOON Eastern Standard Time
“The Old European Roots of Women’s Circle Dance”
Laura Shannon

January 13 2022 at NOON Eastern Daylight Time
“Dreaming the Presence: Exploring the Sacred Feminine in Dreams”
Rabbi Jill Hammer

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.