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)
January 26 - BONUS night hike & dinner under the stars (6-9pm)
January 26 (or 2/2) - 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
March 3 - 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
March 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 remaining gatherings (missing no more than one) 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.
- 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 fee includes supplies & lunch when you register which will cover almost everything you need for the entire 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).
Group Session Schedule
Timezone: America/Los_Angeles
| Date | Time | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 Oct, 2024 | 10:00 am | 300 min. |
| 2 | 27 Oct, 2024 | 10:00 am | 300 min. |
| 3 | 24 Nov, 2024 | 10:00 am | 300 min. |
| 4 | 12 Jan, 2025 | 06:00 pm | 300 min. |
| 5 | 26 Jan, 2025 | 10:00 am | 300 min. |
| 6 | 2 Mar, 2025 | 10:00 am | 300 min. |
| 7 | 23 Mar, 2025 | 10:00 am | 180 min. |