Pagan/Magical Workshops by Taylor Ellwood

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Seven Stages of Alchemy

In this workshop we explore the seven stages of alchemy: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation. Each step in alchemy is part of a process of refinement that is meant to get rid of impurities, i.e. personal traumas, while bringing the person to a state of conscious awareness, where s/he can mindfully change his/her life for the better. I will show you how can integrate the seven stages of alchemy into your life, so that you can manifest the reality you want.

Breathwork Intensive Workshop

In this workshop, you will learn different breathing techniques that are used to raise internal energy and promote a healthy conscious awareness of your body and your mind. I will explain the benefits of each type of breathwork and show people how to do the breath work, as well as explain how it can be used to change bad behavior patterns into positive, life affirming patterns. This is a two-hour class.

Technology and Magic

Contemporary technology is relevant to the practice of spirituality. We have cyber covens and e-lists where ritual and discussion occur. But there are other ways of integrating technology into spiritual workings. This workshop focuses on providing examples of how to integrate technology into your spiritual practices. As technology continues to develop, spirituality can also evolve with it. The magician must be willing to work with the tools of the time and this workshop is geared toward that goal.

Space/Time Tarot workshop

When most people work with Tarot they think of the cards as answering a specific question or depicting a specific future event. I'll discuss how Tarot can be used to limit the conscious awareness of possibilities, and why it's important to know when to use tarot as a divinatory tool. I'll also show you a method for creating your own spreads, which can be used to produce more accurate readings. We will discuss how the tarot cards can be used to do pathworkings with the spirit of each card or evocations, where the spirit of the card is summoned for an external working. I will also show you how you can use two tarot decks, one deck to evoke an entity, another person, or even your past or future self, and the other deck to do the divination with the evoked being guiding you as you do the reading. We will do a sample ritual with the tarot at the end of the workshop, to explore all the possibilities it can really offer.

New Approaches To Traditional Ways of Doing Magic

This workshop is about learning how to revamp your magical techniques so you can get more out of them. I will show you how to do instant invocations and evocations, how to banish with just a thought, and how to take everyday activities you do and make them part of the magic of your life. Innovativeness is a form of discipline and a successful magician never relies on what others have done but creates his/her own way. I will show you how you can get started developing your personalized approach to magic.

Near death experiences

Death is a fixation and obsession in our culture. In this workshop I will explore that fixation with you. We will discuss near death experiences and rituals and how they can play a role in shaping your identity in a positive, affirming way. If you're afraid of death, this workshop will help you overcome that fear and recognize that death is a natural part of life that can help us appreciate the experiences we do have. I will also show you how near death experiences can be useful in spirituality, and precautions that you need to take if you do a near death ritual. Finally I will do a pathworking for people interesting in experiencing how a near death ritual is set up.

Undoing Male Stereotypes

With the advent of Feminism a lot of stereotypes about women have been challenged and undone. But what about the stereotypes that men deal with on a daily basis? How do stereotypes about the male sex adversely affect society and perpetuate discrimination and sexism in all directions? In this workshop I explore these questions as well as the stereotypes that men deal with on a daily basis. The goal of this workshop is to help both men and women recognize these stereotypes and how they impact the relationships that a man can have with friends, family, spirituality, and work. Once we recognize the impact that these stereotypes have, we can create models for new behaviors and this workshop will show you how to do that so that men and women can truly be equal.

Energy Working

Within all of us, exists a potential that I want to help you realize. This workshop involves helping you learn how to access and use some of that potential, in the form of energy work. Energy work involves learning how to work with your internal energy or chi in a manner that will help you focus it on not only realizing better physical health, but also manifesting your imagination into reality. In this workshop, I will show you how to feel energy, if you've never felt it before. I will introduce you to breath work and how it can be used to raise internal energy. I will show you how to shield yourself, and how to work with power spots, leylines, elemental energy, and other forms of energy work.

Subversive Energy Work

When most people think of energy work, they think of a form of energetic healing like Reiki or a new age fluffy feel good healing system. This workshop, while acknowledging the healing power of energy work, has a different approach to energy, one with attitude. Learn how to be a subversive energy worker, healing the land, putting Reiki into protest activities or simply using energy as a form of defense. As with any system of spirituality, the uses we put our spiritual power to are only bound by the limits of our imagination.

DNA Magic

What is DNA magic? Can we really work with the physiology of our body, and if so how? What risks are there? These questions and more will be answered in this workshop, where I present how I have been working with DNA magic since 1997. Learn how to bond elemental energy to your DNA, how to access the biophotonic energy within your cells, and how to communicate with your body. Come with an open mind and be prepared to think about your body in a whole different way.

Space/Time Meditation Techniques

In this workshop I will show you some of the space/time meditation techniques I've developed to experience a world of possibilities that can be manifested into reality. Learn how to travel back in time through your memory and undo traumatic events. Discover more possibilities in your life than you thought possible by traveling on the DNA spiral of your soul. Activate the experiences you want to manifest in your reality by learning how to find them on the space/time web. Learn how take the energy out of possibilities you don't want and put that energy into the possibility you do want. Get ready to experience a new way of understanding space/time and integrating that experience into your life to manifest what you really want.

Neurotransmitter Spirit Guides

In this workshop, Taylor will show you a new method for connecting with the consciousnesses that reside in your body. He will show you how he has combined shamanic vision questing with the ability to create a highly personal and effective symbol system (known as an Alphabet of Desire), which can be used to connect with the different neurotransmitters (electrochemicals in your body). The benefit of this connection is that it can be used to achieve altered states of consciousness, without relying on drugs, and can be used to achieve new emotional balance and also aid in enhancing the physiology of your body.

How to Balance Intention with Impact

While all of us have the capacity to manifest mindful intention within our lives, sometimes the best intentions can still put us in situations that we really didn't expect. In this workshop I will show you how to cultivate an awareness of the impact of your intentions so that you can be aware of not just what you want to manifest, but also the consequences of manifesting it. By learning to recognize the impact of our actions, we can manifest our intentions more meaningfully and in a manner that benefits everyone.

Cultivating Body Consciousness

We live in a body-phobic culture, which teaches us that the body is dirty. In this workshop, I teach you how to get in touch with the consciousness of your body, so that you can develop a healthier relationship with it. You will learn how to experience any emotional state you want within a minute. You will learn how to create and work with a residual body image, which can help you achieve your ideal body. Finally I will cover how different functions of the body, some of which are treated as embarrassing can actually be used to create a healthy paradigm for how you live with your body.

Practical Evocation through Art and Media

Many people imagine Evocation to be an art done with chalk on the floor and a magician muttering phrases and then commanding some external force to appear and do his/her bidding. In this workshop we take a different approach to evocation, looking at how the medium of art, via collage work, painting, sculpture, etc can be used as an effective method calling forth the entities we wish to work with, without all of the ceremonial pomp attached. The goal of this workshop is to introduce you to how you can use everyday materials such as newspapers, magazines, Christian "Chick" tracts, comics, books, or even spam email as a way of making collages that can be used for magical purposes. We will also look at how writing has been used and is being used to evoke specific circumstances in people's lives. Learn how to incorporate evocation into the art you do, so that it becomes an aesthetic expression of the entity as well as a way of defining what the entity will do.

Finding Your Elemental Balance

In your daily life, you experience different elements everyday. Whether you rely on the classic Western model of the five elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit, or other elements such as sound, or love, this workshop will teach you how to cultivate a new balance with the elemental energies in your life. I draw on Franz Bardon's work of accumulating elemental energy and pore breathing to show you how to accumulate specific types of elemental energy. Then I will show you how to find the right spirit guide for the elemental pathworking. By combining the elemental energy with the spirit guide you will learn how to use elemental magic to heal and balance yourself with the elements. Finally we'll do a short pathworking to an element of your choice.

Space/Time Sigil workshop A sigil is a statement of desire, turned into a symbol, which a person uses to manifest that desire into reality. I will briefly discuss the history and theory of sigils. Then I will show you two advanced sigil techniques as ways of working with space/time in a non-linear fashion with the purpose being to shape reality to one's will. One technique shows people how to use multiple sigils representing multiple probabilities and how to connect the sigils together so that when one probability (sigil activates) occurs so too will the other probabilities (sigils) activate. The second technique shows people how to use sigils in a web that can strengthen specific possibilities in one's life while cutting other unhealthy possibilities out of one's life.

NLP Perception exercises

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a system of psychology that you can apply to your perceptions of the world around you. This workshop is intended to foster an awareness of perception and how NLP applies to it as well as how important it is to be mentally flexible with our beliefs and practices. We will focus on enhancing our five senses to achieve a better awareness of what is in our external and internal environments. We will also focus on achieving a level of comfort with the body that is often lacking, because of societal programming. Finally I'll show you how NLP techniques can be used to anchor emotions and other powerful states of mind into your life, so that you can empower yourself at any moment.

Undoing the Saboteur: The importance of Conscious Choices in your Everyday Life

Whether we realize it or not the culture and lifestyle we've been raised with have ingrained us with values and morals and feelings that can sometimes sabotage our interactions with other people. But how do we become aware of these biases? In this workshop we explain how important it is to make a fully conscious choice in your interactions with people and events and what you can do to accomplish this goal. We explore why we sabotage ourselves, and how we can focus our awareness on both our environment and on what's happening internally so that we avoid sabotaging ourselves and learn to recognize how to change the circumstances we are in.

****The following classes are presented with Lupa****

Your Magical Mate

Everyone's heard of the dreaded love spell--a bright pink candle, a handful of rose petals (watch those thorns!) and a picture of your would-be beloved. Of course, we know the outcome of this unfortunate attempt at romance. Instead, how about some constructive advice on both magical and mundane methods to find that special someone--or someones? In this workshop we'll tell you about the magic we worked to find each other, the mundane actions and thoughts that helped hone our search, and what's made our relationship a success since then! Rather than trying that tired old compulsion spell, give our techniques a try for yourself--find out about why it's important to love yourself as well as your partner(s), and what you can do to keep a relationship healthy both on the magical and mundane levels.

The Importance of Communication and Service in Community

This is more of a talk/discussion where we examine the importance of communication and service in community. What is effective communication and how can we improve our communication skills? What is service? How do we define service? How do we find the community that fits each and every one of us? Is there such a thing as a perfect, all-inclusive community? How can we avoid drama in the community? These questions and more, we'll consider in this workshop.

Kink Alchemy

In this workshop we apply the seven steps of alchemy to kink magic and explore how a scene/ritual can be used to alchemically transform the psyche of a person from lead into gold, while in the process freeing that person of the blockages and impurities that have held hir back.

Chaos Magic 101

The often-misunderstood but ever-useful chaos magic is a sure way to broaden your magical options and shatter your paradigmal tunnel vision. In this workshop we will define what chaos magic is, how it works, and how you can use it to dynamize your own magical workings. We will discuss common techniques, such as sigils, banishing with laughter, and creating an alphabet of desire. The full version includes a chaos magic ritual created by workshop participants in order to fully illustrate the theories discussed.

How to Create a Pop Culture Entity

This workshop shows people how to create an entity based off a pop culture icon or persona, or create an entity and make it part of pop culture. We explain why you want to work with entities and what they can teach you. Participants are walked through the process so that they have a firm understanding of how to create and work with an entity

Practical Pop Culture Magic

Reinventing the wheel has never been easier--or more fun--with pop culture. In this workshop we show how pop culture can be applied to any magical paradigm and explain why it will still work. We also show you the best systems of pop culture to draw on such as role-playing games, anime, and other sources that provide some structure that can be tweaked toward a magical perspective.

Blue Magic: Making Money Work For You

A lot of pagans and occultists have the ingrained belief that poverty makes you virtuous, but we take a different tack. In this workshop we'll talk about the poverty myth and the beliefs people have about money. Then we'll discuss ways you can use magic to deals with these ingrained beliefs as well as resources you can use to start learning how to make money work for you. Most importantly, we'll examine the role of individual choice and show that individual choice plays a larger role in how you handle finances than many people would have you believe.

Neopagan Acceptance of Sex- and Gender-Based Subcultures

The neopagan community, comprised of Wiccans, pagans, druids, Asatru, and many other nature and magic-based paths, has historically been particularly accepting of other subcultures, including those related to sex and gender. Many neopagans participate in the BDSM/fetish scene, practice polyamory, and are queer friendly. However, as inclusive as the community may be, we sometimes find ourselves marginalized by homophobia, transphobia, and misunderstandings surrounding polyamory. Learn how we have overcome prejudices in the past, how to deal with intolerance in the present, and how neopagan efforts to be accepted and recognized by mainstream society parallel and may be supported by efforts of gender- and sex-based subcultures.

The Pagan Publishing Industry

You've got some great ideas and you have friends who tell you that you should write a book. But is that all there is to the pagan writing industry? In this workshop, we offer you our perspectives as experienced writers and editors for an occult publishing company. We'll tell you of the importance of promotion, marketing, and of course writing. If you want to get a book published, come to this workshop.

Sacred Sexuality/Sensuality

In this workshop we present a frank appraisal of sex magic and the various systems of magic that incorporate it. We'll discuss what both sex and sensuality is and how they relate to each other. We'll talk about the benefits and dangers of sex magic and how energy work is used in it. Finally we'll do a couple of energetic and sensual exercises to show you how to manifest the sacred into your sex life.

Kink Magic

The use of primarily vanilla sex for magical purposes is pretty well covered, but what about those who like other flavors, too? Here we present how BDSM and other fetishes can be utilized in magic for both practical results and personal development. In this workshop, magic and kink are intertwined to reveal a world of possibilities that can be made manifest through play. Learn how energy work can be used to top someone, how you can invoke or evoke entities during play, use mirrors and sigils to manifest possibilities, use subspace for spiritual journeys, and much, much more. Safety issues in magic and kink are also covered.

Rites of Passage

What is a rite of passage? When do you have a rite of passage and how do you have it? How do you recognize them, and how do you deal with the upheaval in your life that can result from them? Must a rite of passage be organized and group-oriented, or can it be sponetaneous and solitary? We explore these questions in this workshop with examples from our own lives, but also with an aim of exploring the role of initiation in magic and in our lives.

Identity/Aspecting Magic: a New Approach to Invocation

What constitutes identity and how can you use different personas to become a better invoker? We'll teach you that and explore what identity is from our own perspective as well as the perspective of several other prominent occultists. We'll tell you the benefits and dangers of aspecting and invocation and what you can do to address those situations.

Childfree Pagans

While many pagans feel called to be parents, there are some pagans who choose to remain childfree. In this workshop we will explain how to go beyond the "procreative" slant of many pagan traditions, giving birth to ideas and projects instead of children, and the ecological and time-management benefits of being childfree. This is not a class to bash or complain about pagan parents; rather, it is a resource for childfree pagans, as well as for those curious as to why we made the choices we did.

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