MythCraft: Meeting the Wild Witch - a 6-month immersion in Fairytale, Crafting, Soulwork & Kinship/Sisterhood to enchant, enliven and empower your life

one Sunday per month x 6

10am - 3pm in Berkeley

meets outdoors (weather permitting)

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

We will meet monthly for storytelling, sharing circles, deepening practices, ritual and craft-making.

Within the framework of a myth or fairytale (and some additional stories) which we use as a map, mirror and guide, we will explore aspects of our own natures, examine our own stories, experience the magic of creative expression and support each other to access healing, wisdom & transformation which we can share with the world, our communities and loved ones.

You will also bring home beautiful hand-crafted objects to enhance your daily life and remind you of what you discovered.

Baba Yaga & Vailisa the Beautiful

This immersion works with the Slavic fairytale Vasilisa, the Beautiful. This story invites us into the archetypal realm where an encounter with the wild witch Baba Yaga and visit to the dark forest reveals essential insights and instructions for living well in these times.

Working with this story of initiation, individuation (Jung’s term for maturation or development), and motherlines, we will begin to:

reclaim ancestral blessings
heal motherwounds & witchwounds
retrieve projections, dance with the shadow and accept “the uglies”
set flexible boundaries
employ healthy discrimination, discernment and discretion
transform loss and fear
contend with uncomfortable truths
awaken instinct and intuition
navigate through dark times & uncertainty
emerge seasoned and resilient

Each Session includes:

opening ritual
sharing circle
deepening process or inquiry
storytelling & reflection questions
craft-making with instruction
closing ritual
tea or warm beverage
lunch break

Also included:

Catered Lunch
Craft Supplies to use & take home
Guest Speakers
Zoom Integration Call (dates TBD) x 4
Companion E-Booklet
Optional Full Moon Hike
Optional What's App or Signal Group

Craft Projects may include:

Needle-felted Spirit Doll (past session)
Small Hand Broom
Beeswax Candles
Clay Figurines
Carding & Spinning Wool
Weaving or Wet-Felting
Flower Crowns
Pysanky Ukranian Eggs

This program is for anyone who:

identifies as a helper, healer, creative or mother (inwardly, outwardly or archetypically)
finds themselves at a crossroads, in an initiatory phase or in the midst of a dark forest (a period of disorientation)
recently experienced a transition, transformation, major lifecycle event, illness/recovery, relationship shift
needs to integrate an experience, grieve a loss, heal a psychic wound or process a change
is interested in myth & fairytale, the archetypal realm, finding deeper meaning, self-healing
would enjoy making crafts and practicing handwork skills
enjoys connecting with the natural world
values or seeks beloved community/kinship/sisterhood
welcomes more ritual, spirituality or sacred objects in their life
could benefit from a spacious container for self-care

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE/COURSE CONTENTS:

October 27 - life skills & witch etiquette: sweeping, sorting & seeing in the dark/night vision

make a hand broom
meet the wild witch Baba Yaga
activate seeing in the dark/night vision
explore the witchwound & motherwound
cacao ceremony

November 24 - purification & soul ignition: elements & initiation

make candles &/or clay figurines
experience earthing and/or burial practice
learn fire-tending
explore your relationship with nature & the Divine Feminine
*sauna (optional)

December/early January (TBD) - spinning & transformation: warmth, wool & web of life

card & spin wool
dance with shadow
participate in an elder counsel
explore mentorship/apprenticeship and archetypes of transformation

January 26 - weaving yourself whole

weaving and/or wet-felting project
take a dream walk
practice tools for integration
explore life cycles - menarche to menopause
learn about maya abdominal therapy

February 23 - crowning, rebirth & sovereignty

make a flower crown and/or pysanky-Ukranian egg decorating
rebozo massage exchanges
hair wrapping tutorial
explore sovereignty & feminine power
closing circle & ritual

LOGISTICS

Schedule - Please check the dates to make sure you are available and able to commit to attending at least four of the six gatherings (missing no more than two and not two in a row) and avoiding late arrivals or early departures. It is difficult to create an atmosphere of intimacy when people don't show up and suddenly return or miss the beginnings and endings of gatherings. And, life happens so we also need to have grace when it needs to happen. Note: We do not always meet on the same Sunday of the month and the December/January session dates are still TBD.
Location - We will meet OUTSIDE in the backyard of Casa Tanner. Located in Central Berkeley, Casa Tanner is accessible by public transportation and about 1 mile from three BART stations. There is street parking available and a place to park bikes. Carpooling is encouraged. Note: On a couple of ocassions we may meet at or move to a nearby wild space for an activity. Address will be sent out prior to meeting.
What to bring- Sun Protection and Warm Layers for meeting outside, a camping chair and/or picnic blanket if possible (we have some seating and two picnic tables).
Crafting supplies - There is a nonrefundable $125 fee for supplies & lunch included in your registration which will cover almost everything you need for the entire 6-month immersion and it will be supplied to you at the gatherings. On occasion, it may be recommended to collect a few supplemental items.

"Reise" Eiseman-Sanchez Tanner

As a coach and facilitator, Reise offers compassionate insight, nourishing guidance and engaging content that is trauma-informed and culturally sensitive. Her offerings provide soulful support & life fuel for transitions, transformations, initiations, life passages and periods of uncertainty, as well as the preparatory and integration/return phases of journeys, change and rebirth.

With an MA and completed PhD coursework in East West Psychology along with numerous certifications, she is passionate about storytelling, working with myths, folklore & fairytales as medicine, and (re)connection with the natural world.

Her background draws from mindfulness, traditional healing, indigenous wisdom, women's studies, depth psychology, ecopsychology, archetypal activism, applied mythology, liberatory methods, restorative practices, decolonial theory, as well as neuroscience, somatics, logotherapy, positive and narrative psychology.

Bringing almost twenty years of experience as a birthworker, perinatal educator, women's holisitic health practitioner, empowerment coach and yoga instructor, Reise helps mothers, creatives and caregivers (in the literal and archetypal sense) to restore balance, own their truths and come home to their lives (and bodies) in order to stay connected to what lights them up, be of service to what matters and give from a fuller cup (without overwhelm, shame & blame, or a long list of shoulds).