2019 WORKSHOPS

With Cristina Pandolfo (Wales/Sicily)

Plants possess rays of ultraviolet light that effect one another, all living cells emit light rays, and plants and people have at the core of their being particles of light that can become coherent, which is the ability to maintain a beam of light that radiates out affecting that which comes in contact with. This light, that carries intelligence and information, is at the foundation for the ability of plants and people to communicate with each other. Plants, being highly intelligent beings, do not affect only the physical body with their chemical constituents, but respond to human emotions, thoughts, intentions and prayers. We can build a relationship with plants by understanding them through our senses and then communicating through vibrations of light, emotions, thoughts and sound while consciously exchanging breath. Doing this we step into the daydream of plants.

During this workshop Cristina will introduce us to the realm of Plant Spirit and ways to connect with them, also sharing her experience and information directly acquired from Plants consciousness.

With Falcon River (Michigan) and Kathy Crocco (Ohio), Nicki Harris (California) and Sara Macaluso (California)

Amazon Nation Rise! Learn the ancient art of intuitive archery, including basic ground archery techniques used for mounted (horseback) archery. Tap into your ancestral memory and shoot like your Amazon foremothers. Hone your personal will, step up to the mark, focus, and release your energy toward your target. Participants of DoD will have another opportunity to develop your skill in an instruction and practice session. Girls under 17 must be accompanied by parent or guardian. All equipment is provided!

With Pele Yemaja (Michigan)

Come join in the fun of exploring rhythm from African and AfroCuban roots. Classes are designed for all levels of participation.  We will explore the orchestration of poly-rhythm bringing forth the inner child. Let’s have some fun… LETS PLAY! IF YOU HAVE A HEARTBEAT THEN YOU ARE A DRUMMER…

A favorite Gathering concert of seasonal song, chant, dance, and spoken word, facilitated by Ruth Barrett with DoD Gathering presenters of musicians, singers, and poets.

With Caterina Nelli (California)

The PREPARATION:

A “Croning” ritual marks the life transition of women 58 and older into honored elderhood, celebrating their power and accumulated wisdom. Preparing involves discussion and a guided group process to create a ritual experience to be enacted later in the weekend with DoD attendees welcome to witness and support the new Crones. If you have already had a personal Croning ritual, you are also welcome to celebrate this rite of passage in this group ritual of elderhood.

The RITUAL:

This ritual experience is for the women who participated in the Croning Ritual preparation workshop earlier in the Gathering.  All DoD attendees of any age are welcome to witness, support, and celebrate the new Crones.

With Cerridwyn RoseLabrys (California) and Jennifer White California)

Tribal Style Bellydance began its development in the 1960s. It is uniquely designed for a group to dance together in duets, trios, and more, with an improvisation technique built into the moves. In the beginner class, we will do some warm up stretches and practice some basic slow and fast moves to live drumming. We will begin to develop simple choreographies and explore implications for ritual use.

Facilitated by Ruth Barrett and numerous awesome DoD ritual facilitators

On this holy night between the worlds, we are invited to enter a place stillness and simply be where we are: not moving forward or backward but being utterly present, suspended in the space between past and future. It is here that we listen to the voices in the crackling fire, rain, and wind. We enter the dark season of the year by honoring our beloved dead, remembering the witches who perished in the Burning Times, releasing the year that is closing behind us, and receiving divination guidance with which to dream in the dark.

With Sandy Cybele (California)

If you have ever wanted to do divination or already do, here's a chance to work together and learn from other womyn.  Divination  is often a lonely craft, cut off from others who may see, hear or feel similarly.  For too long patriarchy has punished us for our inner knowing and told us we're crazy or our intuition doesn't exist--we aren't crazy, and even if we don't sometimes know how we do it, we know.  This workshop is an opportunity to come together and share our intuitive experiences, explore what we already know, discover some skills we may not know yet, try out different types of divination systems, and continue to grow.  Attendees are encouraged to bring favorite systems to use in collaboration with others. 

With Rev. Ava Park (California) Founder, Museum of Woman and The Goddess Temple of Orange County

It’s 252,019 … and we see many amazing and powerful women doing incredible things in our culture … and, at the same time, billions of women on Mother Earth still experience great difficulty in “making it” –in being successful (whatever that means to each of us) in this clearly woman-despising, death-dealing culture. Autumn is the natural time of the harvest, the Time of Abundance pouring upon us from Great Goddess … and so this fall, at Daughters of Diana, journey to The Queen of the Forest in Her wildwood, making your way to a place deep in Her greenglen, to receive a Gift from Goddess to bring back to support you in “making it” in this, your “one, wild and precious life!”  Despite this depressing, distressing, death-obsessed, dominator-model culture, we women can –we must!--thrive … right here and now … in JOY! It is our duty to Life … our duty to Her.

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*252,019—To the utter bewilderment of modern readers, Ava stubbornly insists on dating from the time of the Acheulian Goddess, not from the birth of a male historical figure, who some historians doubt even existed.      

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With Willow Tucker (California)

The 5 Principles of Prosperity are based on the 5 points of the pentacle. Come and fine tune your manifestation skills, learn how to clear the path before you a critical pre-step before manifestation and to bring all levels of the body, emotions/heart, mind, energy, and actions into alignment with your manifestation. Learn the finer points to wording, not getting too specific to limit the Goddess and her imagination. You will do an actual spell in class.

With Nicki Harris (California)

This workshop will help you prepare yourself to fully experience our Hallows Ritual by understanding the focus of the season and techniques to bring yourself fully present.

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With Queen Hollins (California)

Bringing the Medicine of Afrakaan dance into the 21st century in a way that it can be used as a practical application for bringing balance, wholeness, and healing in our lives. No experience necessary, please dress comfortably and bring water. Give your body permission to move in the way that feels comfortable for you and have a great transformative time!

With Rev. DiAnna Ritola (New York City)

Teaching our children Goddess traditions, rituals, and rhythms while living in the dominant culture can often feel overwhelming. Where do we start? We start with meeting our children where they are, as they are, as WE are. You don't have to be an expert on all the Goddesses, all the rituals, or all the stories to share your love of the Goddess and Her ways with your kids or grandkids. This workshop will give you some tools for your parenting toolbox: stories to tell, easy and fun ritual ideas for toddlers, middle kids, and early adolescents. and how this all fits into the Wheel of the Year. 

With Ruth Barrett and DoD facilitators

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Nicki Harris (California) and Tracie Jones (California)

Join your sisters for an empowering experience of how women’s voices raised in song together will open and heal your heart.  ZERO singing experience required.

With Vajra Ma (Oregon)

The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power® is a devotional moving meditation. It is all three things and it requires all three things, deep meditative awareness, your moving in surrender to that awareness, and a devotional intention. We begin in stillness. We feel our womb and rest in it, breathing into the womb, the source. We open to our heart, feel our desire and our fear to be fully alive, to be loved and seen, naked. From this openness we let ourselves discover pleasure because every feeling and desire and even the simplest of movements create subtle sensations, which we can choose to receive as pleasure. We feel that pleasure, let our selves be affected by it, let it flow through us and create movement and shape. When we do this, we stir direct awareness of the Goddess—Maa!—as our innermost self. From this, all Her powers, can blossom, compassion, discernment and fierce wrath, erotic bliss, beauty, and wisdom. In this practice, we forget what we were taught and experience what we know. Are you ready?
 

With Janet Berres

In this workshop we will be acting out the cards of the tarot. After laying the cards out in a spread, participants will *become* the cards and interact as each card would. Each card/ person will stand in the correct position in the spread and tell his or her story (with help from the audience, if needed). By becoming the cards, you will have a better understanding of how they affect each other and what they represent. If you have trouble pulling the cards all together in a cohesive outcome, this workshop is for you.  Become one with the High Priestess, literally, or the 9 of Wands!

With Jenn Vallely (California)

In this "not your ordinary drum circle," Jenn will facilitate, leading the group through customized activities which develop new neural pathways in the brain, realign breathing, reduce stress responses, and release the feel-good chemicals which will bring about an elevated mood and sense of well being.  As a life-long learner, Jenn has completed recently the UCLArts Social Emotional Arts (SEA) Program  and is now a facilitator of Expressive Arts. She specializes in the expressive arts of drumming and poetry. 

Facilitated by Ruth Barrett (Michigan)

While the “progressive” left touts “inclusivity” to challenge, punish, censor, and legislate against any woman holding boundaries for female sovereign spaces and spiritual practices, Dianic witches and other advocates for female-centered rites and spaces continue to resist. Join the facilitated discussion with a panel of Priestesses who serve women and girls on why female-sovereign rites and spaces of all kinds remain necessary for personal and global healing, celebration, and spiritual revolution.

​ With Pele Yemaya (Michigan)

Bring your drums, percussion toys. Dancers welcome!

With Judith Martin-Straw (California)

A lovely way to start the day - gentle hatha yoga; breathing, stretching, balancing and relaxing. Wear loose clothing and bring water. If you have a yoga mat, feel free to bring it, but it's not required. Fifty minutes of gently yoga and ten minutes of meditation- it's also the perfect antidote to 'camp mattress' and 'altitude challenges'. 

With Queen Hollins (California)

As a vital part of our Gathering's Hallomas preparations for ending the year that is closing, this ritual explorers Gifting back to the Earth the Ancestral Energies that no longer serve us. These energies become stagnant in our bodies and deplete us in ways that interfere with fulfilling our life's purpose, creativity, vibrancy, joy and so much more. Please bring an open heart in a willingness to transform.