Woman Shaman
New online course!
starts July 7, 2010
See video intro
Drummers, dreamers, diviners. Oracles, seers, and prophets. Medicine women, healers, curanderas, and herbalists.
Women who invoke spirit. Rainmakers. Ecstatic dancers, shapeshifters, sky-goers. A global view of female shamans, from chant and sacramental dance to shamanic flight and animal spirits.
Want to participate? Register here.
"Woman is by nature a shaman," says a Chukchee proverb of northeast Asia. Many ethnic traditions say that the first shaman was female. Experience this expansive visual record of female shamans worldwide, from ancient times to the present. We'll look at Saharan and South African rock art, Greek ceramic paintings, Aztec manuscripts, Chinese bronzes, clay sculptures from ancient Ecuador and Iraq, soapstone sculptures from Alaska and ivory from Greenland, and modern photos from around the world. We'll discuss articles, books, incantations, psychic technologies, cosmologies, and video clips about holy women and curanderas. We'll talk about broad patterns and local specifics, about repression by patriarchal lords and colonial masters, cultural resistance and resurgence. See more about women shamans.
The information in this course is based on decades
of study and practice, with profound respect and
a desire to foreground the authentic guardians
of the ancient cultural traditions.
HOW THE COURSE WORKS:
It will be conducted via the WomanShaman listserv, a private yahoogroup for subscribers. Articles, discussion, commentary, questions, and resources will be sent to you by email, which you can access at your own pace, at any time convenient for you. So don't worry about schedules or meeting times: there aren't any, except for the occasional live-cast webinars. There will be at least two each of these to accomodate different time zones.
I'll also post links to video clips, audio and image web pages, and announce webinars for the course on WomanShaman listserv. You have access to the course discussion logs and files as long as you are subscribed. There are no grades or required papers and no credits for this course. You are invited to contribute your insights, experience, and relevant resources (web pages, books, articles, videos, etc.) but this is up to you.
One month's subscription is $29.; subs prepaid for three months or more are $25./month. Low-income scholarship subs are available. If you would like to be a Sustainer, supporting the Suppressed Histories Archives, you are invited to contribute any amount above the monthly subscription. Sustainers (anyone who contributes $50. or more a month) will receive a free copy of the Woman Shaman dvd when it's released, plus one signed poster or print.) When it's time to renew, use the Subscription link on this main page.
Resuming in 2011:
Spiritual Heritages of Ancient Europe
What are the authentic spiritual traditions of Europe--and what happened to them? What can we reconstruct of women's spiritual leadership and practice from archaeological and historical sources? We look at goddess traditions, pagan priestesses, oracles, healers, herbalists, divination, folk ritual, sexual politics, state and church repression, and the faery faiths.
Topics of 2011 session include: The Tribe of Danu. Celtic goddesses, priestesses, and wisewomen. Italian sibyls. Etruscans. Patria Potestas. Women's Mysteries. Slaves and Witches. Priestesses Under the Empire. The Magna Mater. (See Vol. I book contents.) This course offers more than will be possible to publish in the print edition! There's nothing quite like it.
See a short descriptive video ...