Ritual Leader Curriculum

Weekend Schedule:

• Thursday        9:00 – 12:00, 1:30 – 4:30                                       6 hours
• Friday              9:00 – 12:00, 1:30 – 4:30, 6:30 – 9:30               9 hours
• Saturday          9:00 – 12:00, 1:30 – 4:30, 6:30 – 9:30               9 hours
• Sunday            9:00 – 12:00, 1:30 – 4:30                                       6 hours           

 

Suggested reading:

• Awakening with the Tree of Life, by Megan Wagner
• Ritual: Power, Healing and Community, by Malidoma Patrice Some
• Rituals for Everyday Living, by Lorna St. Aubyn
• Global Ritualism: Myth and Magic Around the World, by Denny Sargent
• Rituals for our Times: Celebrating, Healing and Changing our Lives and Our Relationships, by Evan Imber-Black and Janine Roberts

 

Overview of skills and techniques learned on the course:

Statement of purpose:

The purpose of Healing Ritual is to: create altered states of consciousness beneficial for healing, focus personal intent and will, integrate parts of the personality, open the heart and make us receptive to healing and call in Spirit to access spiritual insight and new perspectives. 

Assessment skills learned:

Using the 7 Universal Stages of Human Development, we will learn skills to:

1. Identify where a person (or couple/family/group) may be on the developmental path
2. Assess what kind of ritual a person might need for healing
3. Recognize what support they might need after the ritual is over

Ritual skills learned:

1. Structuring safe ritual space – setting up and closing down, the flow of beginning, middle, end
2. Attending to the physical ritual space and utilizing the environment and the people involved
3. Attending to the psychological state of the person and people involved
4. Attending to the spiritual aspects of ritual
   1. Invocations, prayers, supplications
   2. Working with spirit guides, ancestors, animal energies, deities, archetypal energies
5. Setting intention
   1. Focusing the heart and will (dates, times, explicit desire)
   2. Writing and artistic exercises
6. Sensitivity to the healing process – understanding the energy flow, knowing when to use silence, touch, movement, energetic sound etc.

Expressive Arts techniques learned:

1. Psychodrama
   1. Role playing
   2. Empty chair technique
   3. Sculpting
   4. Circle work
2. Storytelling: rehearsed and spontaneous
3. Dream Theater
4. Altar making
5. Art Exercises
6. Internal exercises
   1. Active Imagination
   2. Guided Meditation
   3. Journeying with drums
7. Creative and effective use of
   1. Sound – Music, Chanting, Drumming, Rattling
   2. Elements – earth, water, air, fire
   3. Props – stones, bones, incense, sage, seeds, plants, colors, fabric, costumes
   4. Body – movement, body postures, body gestures
   5. Symbols