NOW OFFERED FOR ITS FOURTH YEAR!

This Land Magical Training – led by Al Head

This Land Magical Training 2022-2023

Starting Samhain (October 31st) 2022 and finishing Samhain 2023.

An inclusive, year and a day, pagan-based magical training.

Course Summary:

• Inclusive. Created from a queer perspective and open to all*
• Held over a Year and a Day from Samhain (October 31^st) 2021 until Samhain 2022.
• Rooted in pagan knowledge and beliefs and the facilitator’s long and deep experience.
• Flexible, person-centred format, tailored to individual needs, schedules and means.
• Working within the restrictions and realities of people’s lives.
• Inviting you to take supported steps into the unknown.
• Emphasis on honouring and connecting to the earth.

Details:

A flexible, practice-based, wide-ranging training course built around the Eight Pagan festivals of the year. Topics will include: – basic pagan practice – building magical awareness – ethics of magic and energy use – working with energy – land connection – magical tools – circle casting – elements – divination – journeying – visualisation – finding and working with guides, ancestors and power animals – ceremony and ritual – working with magical symbols and intentions – spellcraft – protection – healing – raising and directing power – connecting with Folk and other beings of the earth – elemental magic – rocks and crystals – plant and herb magic –astrology – meeting, invoking and aspecting deity – sigil magic – sex magic.

The flexible approach enables you to work from your own experiences and desires and create your own pathway through the training. Some subjects will resonate more than others and you will be able to explore the ones that interest you in further depth and look at others on a basic level. At the start of the training there will be an online ritual in which you will be asked to commit to the year and a day journey and to set your own intentions for the course. An important part of the training will be building up your own personal practice, and you will be asked to commit a regular time to this, in a way that works for your own schedule, lifestyle and available time and energy. Even a short amount of daily practice can weave magic into your life and lead to deep change, and you will be supported to work out how you can best spend this time. There will be some reading and studying but the biggest portion of the training will be experiential, with time and space to share, process and integrate experience. At the end of the training you will be supported to create your own initiation ritual.

Working as a group, and witnessing one another’s journeys are important elements of the training. There are various ways in which this can take place, and some people will be able to access these ways more than others are able to. But it is useful to remember that we, facilitator and participants, are setting out on a magical journey together and will be magically linked throughout this training.

Working in balance with other commitments and needs is core to this training. You will work out the best way for you to access the course, in consultation with the course leader.Format will include:

• Personal practice – established, reflected on and adapted as the course progresses by you and in one-to-one mentoring sessions. This could include: individual body, voice, breath and energy work; meditations; journaling; land connection; ritual; working with guides; creativity; intergration and processing of experience.
• Email – regular course modules will be sent by email. These will include information on a range of subjects, invitations to exercises and practices, ritual ideas, magical guidance, reading lists and links for optional further study,
• MP3 recorded meditations/exercises – for you to listen to and journey to in your own time. May also form the basis for personal practice or for individual and group rituals.
• Individual mentoring sessions – in person, by phone or online. These will generally take place once a month, with additional sessions added if the need arises.
• Facebook group, Discord group or email list – to share experiences, thoughts, ideas, and questions with each other and the course leader.
• Group online sessions – for sharing and peer support. These will be organised bi-weekly for an hour and you are encouraged to join as often as you can, and at least once a month.They will include sharing circles, discussions, q & a and will sometimes also include group exercises or energy connections if all are happy with this.
• Group meetups (optional and only if the covid situation allows) – these non-residential meetups will take place at various locations in the UK to make it possible for as many of you as can to meet in person. They will consist of sharing circles, discussion and rituals, which those not able to be present may be able to access remotely.
• Connection on an energetic level – various times will be organised throughout the course when we will practise connecting on an energetic level from a distance. These times will vary from short moments of connection to shared ritual experiences.
• Rituals – rituals are a fundamental part of magical experience. Throughout the training there will be rituals for you to do on your own or with others, either online, remotely or in person.
• Residentials – If the situation allows, there will be optional group residentials at an additional cost. Participant’s individual circumstances will be taken into account when arranging venues, times and costs with the aim of allowing as many of you as possible to access the residentials. Ideally there will be three residential weekends throughout the course, but we will have to be flexible and work out what makes sense. These are the weekends I would like us to share: 1. Planning and Creating Ritual. 2. Energy Work and Sex Magic. 3. Initiation Rituals and Course Completion.
• Energy Sessions – There is an offer of additional one-to-one Energy Sessions to run alongside the course. These can be in person or online. They could happen on a weekly, monthly or on occasional basis. Energy sessions are offered on a donation basis.

Course completion. The completion of the course will be marked by an initiation ritual. Who initiates you and what you are initiated into will depend entirely on you, your life-path, your journey throughout the course and the guidance you receive from whatever beings, deities or humans you are working with. The course leader will help you to prepare for and plan this and will hold space if requested.

Training Cost. Full Cost: £850. Concessions: £450. Further concessions and work in kind possible. Please get in touch if you are called to the training and we will work something out. Cost can be paid in full, in two parts, or in ten installments (the first being the deposit to secure the place). There are additional costs for residentials and energy sessions.

Contact and bookings: myfaerieking@btinternet.com

*Queer/Inclusive – the training is open to anyone who feels called to undertake it. It comes from a perspective which I call ‘queer’, and anyone who is comfortable with this perspective, whether or not they define as queer or LGBTQIA+, is very welcome. Queer magic sees that polarity is only one way to raise power and that there are infinite other ways, just as there are infinite ways of defining and expressing our sexualities and genders. Queer magic leads us to explore and connect with many lost and hidden deities, and to approach them without making assumptions as to their gender, sexuality or form, just as in a Queer/Inclusive space we try not to make assumptions as to peoples’ genders, sexualities and ways of being. Queer magic does not always follow the accepted pagan ways of gendering such things as planets and elements and will often work to ‘ungender’ our assumptions about these. Queer has a quality of ‘gender and sexuality outside the box’ and an acceptance of freedom of choice, fluidity and change, and this also applies to the magic we are exploring. Queer also has a quality of ‘queering’ accepted definitions and rigid societal structures, and so we will be questioning accepted ways of magic working and finding ones that work for us. A Queer/Inclusive space values principles of consent and respects each person’s boundaries and choices.

Al Head is a queer, genderqueer human. Que has been a pagan since the early 1980s and has led rituals and pagan-based workshops for over 30 years. Que is an energy-worker, a Queer Pagan, a Reclaiming Witch, a Radical Faerie and a Priestex of Cernunnos. Que leads This Land Sex Magic and other energy based workshops and was one of the creators of Queer Spirit Festival. Que is a writer, performer, certified Re-evaluation Counselling teacher and an earth, lgbtq and disability activist. Que is the author of ‘Queer Deity, Sacred Slut’ and is currently working on a second book, about que’s experience of sex magic.