The Artist’s Way Creative Cluster at PWC

Beginning on April 2, 2012, the Pagan Writers Community will be hosting a “creative cluster” to work through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  Writers, bloggers, poets, musicians, artists, and all other manner of spiritual creatives are welcome to join us!

This workshop will take place in the new PWC Ning site and will last for 14 weeks.  There is no cost to participate, but everyone will need to provide their own book for the workshop.  The Artist’s Way can be purchased at a local new or used retailer, online, or through your favorite eBook reader.

Here is what we will be covering:

• Week 1 – Introduction, Basic Principles, and Basic Tools
• Week 2 – Recovering a Sense of Safety
• Week 3 – Recovering a Sense of Identity
• Week 4 – Recovering a Sense of Power
• Week 5 – Recovering a Sense of Integrity
• Week 6 – Recovering a Sense of Possibility
• Week 7 – Recovering a Sense of Abundance
• Week 8 – Recovering a Sense of Connection
• Week 9 – Recovering a Sense of Strength
• Week 10 – Recovering a Sense of Compassion
• Week 11 – Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
• Week 12 – Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
• Week 13 – Recovering a Sense of Faith
• Week 14 – Wrap Up

This workshop will be led by Angelique Mroczka, founder of the Pagan Writers Community and owner of Pagan Writers Press and Ruby Lioness Press.

Dancing the Spiral Dance with Hundreds of New Friends

© Michael Rauner

For days, the song rang in my head, like a reminder of all that I brought to Spiral Dance, and all that could take away from it.

“Let it begin with each step we take,
Let it begin with each change we make,
And let it begin with each chain we break,
And let it begin every time we awake.”

The song spirals around in my head after meeting hundreds of new friends in a dance I have done many times before, but it becomes all the more important in October in San Francisco.

The moment when it becomes clear that we are taking the hands of the many people around us, there is a hush that falls over the crowd.  Not a quiet, but that breath that you take right before you’re doing something that you know is important.  You breathe in to perhaps energize or collect yourself, and then you move forward.

The way we connect in the Spiral Dance is confusing at first, since so many people in one space makes the process of forming the initial circle jumbled.  But the magick takes over and we are suddenly moving together.  Trying not to hold onto the others’ hands too tightly or too loosely, we move slowly around the room until we are faced with faces that smile brightly in the glow of ritual.

We look into each other’s eyes and we connect for just that moment.  At first, it seems like we’re simply going through the motions, but after a time, the trance of the ecstatic takes over.  The energy builds the more faces you see, you smile at some, you nod to others, and you embrace everyone in the circle, one at a time.

From where I am moving, I feel as though I could dance forever.

But eventually, the spiral breaks apart, and our hands are high, the energy is rising and we are rising into the promise of change and beauty in the world.  The energy builds and builds until it seems the room can hold no more and then ecstasy flourishes upward in the cone of power.

I am exhausted at the end of the dance, collapsing to the floor in tears because I have named my power and my work in the world.  I want to begin it now.

32nd Annual Spiral Dance – San Francisco, CA – Oct 29, 2011

Saturday, October 29th, 2011
Doors Open at 6:00pm Ritual begins 7:30pm
Kezar Pavillion
755 Stanyan Street, San Francisco

Intention: With our Beloved Dead we dance the spiral, honoring the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Together we wake up and hear Earth’s call to action and become the heroes of a new story!

$100-$20 general admission, sliding scale
$10 and up – Elders (60 & up), Children (15 & under)
All ages welcome, no childcare provided, WC accessible
Ritual is drug- and alcohol free, family friendly.

For more information and tickets, visit www.reclaimingspiraldance.org.
Rideshare information: www.spaceshare.com/spiraldance

Tickets also available at Field Books, Scarlet Sage, Sword and Rose, Ancient Ways, The Mystic Dream, The Sacred Well, Amethyst Light, and Milk and Honey.

Follow us on Twitter at @dancethespiral
YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/dancethespiral
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Reclaiming-Spiral-Dance/165236606578

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Written by Irisanya, Marketing Coordinator for the Spiral Dance