What: Animal Magic Workshop Series with Lupa
When: Every other Wednesday from June 11 through August 27, 7pm - 9pm
Where: The Guiding Tree, 4831 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97206, (503)239-7458

Do you know what your totem animal is? Have you ever worked with a familiar—or wanted to? Ever been curious about what shapeshifting is all about? Now’s your chance to find out about these topics, and plenty of other areas of study and practice in animal magic! Over a series of six biweekly Wednesday workshops starting in June, join Lupa as she explores the following topics:

June 11: Introduction to Totemism—What are totems, exactly? Who works with them? And, perhaps the biggest question of all—how do you find your totem? We’ll discuss these and other basics of totemism, as well as learn a guided meditation for finding and continuing communication with totems.

June 25: Advanced Totemism—Most people are familiar with the Big, Impressive North American Birds and Mammals—but who are some of the other totems you can work with? You might be surprised! Plus we’ll talk about how to integrate totemism into your practice, as well as how totemism can be a path all on its own.

July 9: The Very Last Totem Card Deck You’ll Ever Need—Frustrated with the limitations of current commercial totem decks, Lupa set out to create a deck that can get you in touch with literally any totem animal out there. In this class you’ll learn how it was developed, how it’s used, and how to create one for your personal use.

July 23: Magical Shapeshifting and Spiritual Therianthropy—Magical shapeshifting uses invocation, evocation, altered states of consciousness and other magical practices to (nonphysically) shapeshift to another animal. Spiritual therianthropy, on the other hand, is a condition in which a person identifies psychologically, spiritually, or otherwise nonphysically as a nonhuman animal, all while living a perfectly healthy life. What are the differences? Can someone who identifies as a therianthrope also practice magical shapeshifting? Is a physical shapeshift possible? Join us, and find out!

August 13: Skin Spirits—For over a decade Lupa has been working with the spirits in animal skins, bones, and other remains in magic and artwork. We’ll talk about where these spirits come from, what sort of care they need, how to work with them, and where to find the right skins and bones to work with. We’ll also discuss ethics, legalities, and other potentially sticky topics.

August 27: Animal Magic Potpourri—Practical work with physical animal familiars, creating new species on the astral plane, and the ever-controversial topic of animal sacrifice in modern pagan practices will be just some of the material covered in this class.

Each workshop will be $15 per person, or pay $75 in advance to reserve your spot at all six workshops!

What: Sunfest XX
When: June 19-22, 2008
Where: Lincolm City, OR

Details TBA; we will be presenting workshops as well as vending.

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