WORKSHOPS BY LARRY CORNETT
2450 W 6 St, Apt UpS, Cleveland, OH 44113 hugnome42@yahoo.com (216) 583-0007
WORKING WITH NATURE SPIRITS (2 1/2hr)
Each plant, animal, rock, and other entity has a spirit (consciousness
resonance matrix). These spirits can join together,
in a hive-mind, as a spirit of an area. Nature spirits include real
biological intelligences, are psychically powerful, and are much less abstract
and controllable than the Elementals that many magical people who perform all of their rituals indoors are familiar with. They
can be extremely powerful allies. This is a hands-on workshop in which
practical techniques for contacting nature spirits, finding power spots, and
working with Nature Spirits in magical workings will be taught.
This workshop should be located near trees and wild vegetation (without poison
ivy) with a good vibe and will involve contacting nature spirits. It is
best presented over at least an hour and a half.
SCIENCE, CONSCIOUSNESS AND
MAGIC (1 1/4hr)
Quantum mechanics and associated theories of consciousness, as well as many
spiritual philosophies, indicate that matter, energy, and life itself are
manifestations of non-localized, unified, underlying strata. The
underlying strata are described as waves of probability in quantum
mechanics. By unifying one's consciousness with such underlying strata,
one can achieve states of consciousness in which one can obtain and send
information and also influence events. In this
workshop, quantum mechanical theories concerning the nature of consciousness
and magick will be discussed, along with associated laws of magick. A
quantitative theory developed by Evan Harris Walker, at the Aberdeen Proving
Ground, Army Ballistic Research Center, will be given special attention.
EARTH HEALING MAGIC (1 1/4 hr)
This is a workshop on magical techniques for healing the Earth. After covering some basics on the nature of magic and Earth healing, we are going to poll those present to determine what level of experience those of us here have in various types of magic, in order to determine how much time we need to spend on basics and help focus the workshop at an appropriate level. We will also get a feeling for how many people have done earth-healing magic and may have something to share. Then, after spending a few minutes or as much as half the remaining time for this workshop on basics, we share magical techniques or chants that we found to be good for healing the environment.
TRUE TALES OF THE OCCULT (1 1/4 hr)
A sharing by participants of funny stories of strange occurrences in ritual, magic, psychedelia, etc. with bizarre outcomes, encounters between Pagans, Atheists, etc. and fundies, funny chants, and weirdness at esoteric gatherings. Participants are encouraged to bring at least one funny true story, but avoid naming those directly involved -- except for your role in it.
EARTH RELIGION RIGHTS NETWORKING (1 1/4 hr)
This participatory workshop will cover how to deal with religious discrimination, along with organizations, resources, and tactics that can help. It will begin with a summary of the pertinent issues, resources and tactics. Participants will be given a limited amount of time to cover who they are, what they have actually done to help people with legal problems associated with their religion, the results of such efforts, and lessons learned. Which topics interest participants the most and who has experience and expertise in such areas will be determined. The remaining part of the workshop will focus on one or more areas where there is experience, expertise and interest. Sign-up sheets will be circulated for forwarding to a variety of Earth Religion Rights organizations. Participants are encouraged to distribute and/or circulate brochures and pertinent information. Participation in this workshop has generally been small-involving only a few people with problems and activists.
If possible, this workshop should be coordinated with other workshops on
Earth Religion Rights. I will need to know who else is presenting such
workshops, when they take place, and what they are about to help coordinate our
efforts.
MODERN PAGANISM (1 1/4 hr)
This is an introductory workshop on Modern Paganism, in which various Pagan
paths are defined and
described and video tapes of actual rituals shown
Another version includes a general overview of Pagan beliefs and ethics, Pagan rights issues, and a brief overview of working with nature spirits in the shamanic Wiccan traditions that I trained in and practice (Circle, Amaranth Energies, VisionWeavers) as well as the Coyote Medicine Society (a Cherokee medicine society that is somewhat eclectic).
MAGICAL FORUM AND PRACTICUM (2 1/2 hr each, except 1 1/4 hr on ethics)
This is a series of workshops in which participants, from as wide a variety of traditions as possible, share techniques - generally after an initial forum focusing on ethics and ritual formats.
In these forums, each topic shown below is covered in a two to three hours per topic, with (except for the session on ethics) the first half being discussion and the second half being hands-on work with various techniques:
* Ethics and Overall Ritual Formats
* Grounding and Centering
* Personal Purification
* Space Purification
* Empowering Boundaries (Circle Casting, Self Defense, etc.)
* Calling Deities, Quarters, etc. (Invoking, Evoking Devoking)
* Power Raising, Focusing and Release
The success of this depends on active participation by others. In these workshops almost everyone teaches. I usually handout material focused on the topic of each forum, and others often do also. The forums that I have been involved with have been free, although donations for the hosting site or whatever could be requested. Some have taken place at Pagan stores, some at a UU church, and some at the home of forum participants who have enough suitable space and time to host such gatherings.
The best I was involved with started on Sunday afternoons at the Arlington, VA Unitarian Universalist Church and was initiated by the CUPPS group there and the local Church of All Worlds nest. We had about 20 active, regular participants. About half were experienced and half were new to ritual. Besides Wiccans, a Voodoo practitioner, and a couple of ceremonial magicians, we had an Aikido instructor and a Taoist Sorcerer sharing techniques. Everyone learned. Eventually, the forums moved to a couple of participants homes, that were large enough, more comfortable, better equipped for ritual, and not under any time or institutional constraints. By the time we got to the forum on invocation, some participants were inviting selected individuals to their existing covens or private groups, and a new group meeting for full and new moons and Sabbats formed among some of the participants. When a member was hospitalized shortly before a forum, we knew techniques that worked for everyone participating and quickly did a very powerful and effective healing ritual.
If a suitable location and some co-sponsors can be found in or near Cleveland, I would like to help make it happen. We could also use a Yahoogroup to share information on techniques, starting a monthly thread on one aspect at a time, followed by a face to face forum and practicum where we would try various techniques associated with that aspect.
HANDOUTS
I generally provide handouts to those attending. Depending on the
workshop, they can include definitions
of Pagan Religions, beliefs, and ethics,
instructions on how to
work with Nature Spirits, a set of links to Earth Religion Rights related
resources, a two pager on Quantum
Mechanics, Consciousness and Magic, a handout on Earth Healing Magic, the
latest edition of my local
Pagan, etc. events calendar, etc.
BRIEF BIO
Larry Cornett is known for his Calendars of Events < http://www.lcorncalen.com/CAL-OHIO.htm>
and is a founding member of the original ADF Mother Grove, as well as the
Association for Consciousness Exploration < http://www.rosencomet.com/sitemap.html>,
The Rosencomet Project <http://www.rosencomet.com/>,
the Church of All Worlds Triskelion Nest, the Earth Religions Legal Assistance
Network < http://www.erlan.org >, the
Sacred Earth Alliance < http://www.erlan.org/SEAHomepage.htm
>, and VisionWeavers Coven. He is currently practicing Wicca, Shamanism, ADF
Druidry, and Tibetan Buddhism. He works as an environmental consultant on
pollution control, toxic and radioactive waste management, risk Assessment, and
environmental restoration< http://www.cornettenv.org/resume.htm
>. He is interviewed on U-Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZNONo0_LWU