Event Category: Classes

Magical Recipes- An Online course: Food, Potion, and Power in Old Norse & Folk Magic – Lena Heide Brennand – Zoom

Magical Recipes- An Online course: Food, Potion, and Power in Old Norse & Folk Magic

This one-night, fully practical online workshop is about making two complete, historically grounded Viking recipes from start to finish: a Viking herbal honey bread and a traditional-style Viking mead, prepared live in your own kitchen using simple, accessible ingredients.

By the end of the evening, every participant will have baked a finished loaf of herbal honey bread and begun a real mead preparation that continues fermenting after the session, alongside a clear understanding of why bread, honey, herbs, fermentation, and time were understood as powerful and magical in the Norse and Northern folk world.

In Viking and folk tradition, magic was not abstract. It was kneaded, brewed, heated, tasted, shared, and remembered. Bread and mead sat at the heart of both daily survival and ritual life, carrying meanings of hospitality, protection, abundance, oath-making, and community. Fermentation itself was understood as a living process, something that transformed sweetness into strength through patience and care.

During the session, participants will be guided step by step through the preparation of a historically inspired, kitchen-safe Viking herbal honey bread, using grain, honey, and simple herbs rooted in Northern tradition. Alongside this, participants will learn how to prepare a traditional-style Viking mead using honey, water, and yeast, following principles drawn from historical and archaeological evidence rather than modern commercial recipes. The bread will be fully prepared and baked during the live session, while the mead will be mixed, activated, and set aside to ferment at home.

Alongside the practical cooking and brewing, the workshop explores how these recipes functioned as ritual technologies. Participants will learn how intention was built through timing, repetition, touch, and attention; why kneading, stirring, heating, and spoken words mattered; the symbolic and practical roles of honey, grain, herbs, water, and fermentation; and how food and drink moved fluidly between nourishment, medicine, celebration, and ritual power. The session also addresses how to adapt these techniques responsibly for modern kitchens while respecting historical reality.

All ingredients are non-toxic, food-safe, and easily sourced from ordinary supermarkets. Ingredient lists and clear instructions will be provided in advance.

The workshop is designed as an intimate, hands-on experience. Participants are encouraged to bake and brew along on camera, ask questions, and share their process, though cameras remain optional. No prior baking, brewing, or magical experience is required.

Places are strictly limited to preserve a practical, interactive, and genuinely communal atmosphere.

Come knead. Come brew. Come taste the old magic.

You will leave with warm bread, living mead in the making, and a deeper understanding of how magic once lived in the hearth and the cup.

Participant Preparation

During the Workshop

The bread will be fully prepared and baked live

The mead will be mixed, activated, and set aside to ferment

Fermentation continues at home after the session

Important Notes

No prior baking or brewing experience required

Instructor Bio

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

This is a participation workshop only, if you are unable to attend please request a refund as this course will not be recorded

Becoming Monsters – An Online Writing Workshop – Tania De Rozario – Zoom

Becoming Monsters – An Online Writing Workshop

Horror movie monsters often articulate the cultural anxieties of their time. They have the power to reflect, reinforce, and sometimes resist, prevailing notions of gender, morality, justice and beauty. Asking what makes a monster scary often tells us a lot about what society fears.

In this generative workshop, Tania De Rozario shares her love of horror films and feminine monstrosity and will show how, as a queer woman, empathising with female monsters has helped her discover new ways to tell her stories.

This single-session course will focus on helping participants use horror, myth, and monsters to discover news ways to tell their own stories. It will comprise a short warm-up exercise, a 20-minute presentation, 50 minutes of guided writing focusing on persona, and an opportunity to share the writing that was generated during the session. The workshop aims to help participants to generate new ideas, encourage them to discover new ways to tell their own stories and provide them with a fun/meaningful experience.

This class is open to writers of all experience levels, 18 and above. Please note that this session will include mentions of violence, assault and trauma in the context of some of the films that are mentioned. It will also contain still images from horror films that may be distressing for some participants.

Participant Preparation – Participants should be prepared to participate in generative writing exercises during class-time. There is no formal feedback given but participants will have the opportunity to share work generated in class, out loud or in the chat, if there is time and if they desire.

Instructor Bio

Tania De Rozario is an essayist, poet, visual artist and the author of four books. Her work engages with issues of gender, monstrosity, queer identity, home, and notions of belonging. Her latest collection, Dinner on Monster Island, (Harper Perennial, 2024), has been described as “sharp and searing” (Ms. Magazine), “unique” (Publishers Weekly), “a book with resonance” (Kirkus Reviews), “taut and riveting” (LA Times), “a gem of queer literature” (Audiofile), “a book to savor” (Bay Area Reporter), “elegant”, “droll” and “magnetic” (British Columbia Review). Tania’s writing has won the New Ohio Review Nonfiction Contest (2020) and the Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Contest (2021), has been a finalist at the Lambda Literary Awards (2021) and has been published in journals/anthologies across four continents.

This is a participation workshop only, if you are unable to attend please request a refund as this course will not be recorded

An introduction to Thelemic Magick Workshop – Julian Vayne

An introduction to Thelemic Magick Workshop

2 week online workshop

19th & 26th March 2024 – 8:00- 9:30 pm GMT

Julian Vayne leads a two part workshop exploring the theory and practice of Crowley’s occultism. Participants will learn about the cultural context in which his approach called ‘Thelema’ developed, and will have the opportunity to try some of the accessible and powerful practices grounded in that tradition. Participants will learn about the ancient Egyptian deities that populate the Crowleyian cosmology, the methods of mediation and mind-control that Crowley suggested, and his approaches to contacting spirits including the Holy Guardian Angel. We’ll also see how Crowley’s work influenced modern esoteric systems ranging from Wicca to neo-Tantra and beyond. These workshops are be suitable for neophytes but may also offer experienced magi a new perspective on Crowley’s system.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Bio:

Julian Vayne is a British independent scholar and author with over four decades of experience within esoteric culture: from Druidry to Chaos Magic, from indigenous Shamanism through to Freemasonry and Witchcraft.

Growing up in the Britain of punk and then rave culture Julian immersed himself in the philosophy and techniques of magic. His journey into group ritual practice began within the Western Esoteric Tradition when he was 16. Since then he has worked in ceremony with practitioners from many different lands and lineages. Julian is a senior member of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros and widely recognized as one of Britain’s leading occultists.

Summoning The Spirits – Seance with Medium Patti Negri on Zoom

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A LIVE SEANCE AND WILL NOT BE RECORDED AND TICKETHOLDERS WILL NOT RECEIVE A RECORDING.

IF YOU BUY A TICKET AND ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND PLEASE REQUEST A REFUND.

Spirits are all around us. You do not have to be a psychic, medium or witch to communicate with the other side. But, there are some definite rules and guidelines you need to follow for safe, effective and powerful communication with spirits.

This intimate online seance will be limited to 25 people, giving everyone the opportunity to request summoning a specific spirit. Patti cannot guarantee every spirit will be willing to communicate, but they most always do, due to her gentle and respectful technique and amazing ability to “lift the veil” between the two worlds. Lasting around two hours, Patti will give an explanation and lesson in her proven techniques for safely and respectfully doing seances. Then, she will conduct a full séance, lift the veil and give everyone who wants one an opportunity to speak with their beloved deceased.

Since March 2020, Patti Negri has been regularly conducting on-line seances. Since spirits exist outside time and place, she has found that the internet turns out to be the perfect medium!

Patti Negri has been communicating with spirits since she could talk. She did her first séance when she was just seven or eight years old. She sat cross legged on the floor and I started asking the spirits to enter the room. She created her first chant – and low and behold – the room filled with orbs of bright light. They started in the corner and quickly began filling the room. It was amazing. She ran screaming out of the house… but had never been so excited. She had actually and consciously contacted the other side – and was able to control it. Her journey had begun. Since then she has studied religion, metaphysics, science, occult sciences and cosmologies and belief systems of all kinds and combined the truths within to create surefire and safe techniques to raise the veil between the worlds.

Patti Negri is a Psychic-Medium and “Good Witch” best known for her recurring role on the Travel Channel’s #1 show GHOST ADVENTURES. She is the international best-selling author of OLD WORLD MAGICK FOR THE MODERN WORLD: TIPS, TRICKS, & TECHNIQUES TO BALANCE, EMPOWER, & CREATE A LIFE YOU LOVE. Patti’s body of work includes appearances on such shows as MASTER CHEF, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, WIPE OUT! and A LITTLE LATE WITH LILLY SINGH. Patti has a popular weekly podcast called THE WITCHING HOUR and can also be heard on nationally syndicated radio with Adam Corolla, Jason Ellis, Mancow Muller and Coast to Coast with George Noory. Patti was voted number one psychic, medium, trance medium, tarot reader, witch / magical practitioner in the world in an Internationally competition by Times Square Press. She has graced numerous magazine covers, contributed to over 20 books and conducted seances on radio, film, and TV working with such legends as Emma Stone, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel, Martin Sheen and Gregory Hines.

Summoning the Spirits – Online Seance with Medium Patti Negri

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A LIVE SEANCE AND WILL NOT BE RECORDED AND TICKETHOLDERS WILL NOT RECEIVE A RECORDING.

IF YOU BUY A TICKET AND ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND PLEASE REQUEST A REFUND.

Spirits are all around us. You do not have to be a psychic, medium or witch to communicate with the other side. But, there are some definite rules and guidelines you need to follow for safe, effective and powerful communication with spirits.

This intimate online seance will be limited to 25 people, giving everyone the opportunity to request summoning a specific spirit. Patti cannot guarantee every spirit will be willing to communicate, but they most always do, due to her gentle and respectful technique and amazing ability to “lift the veil” between the two worlds. Lasting around two hours, Patti will give an explanation and lesson in her proven techniques for safely and respectfully doing seances. Then, she will conduct a full séance, lift the veil and give everyone who wants one an opportunity to speak with their beloved deceased.

Since March 2020, Patti Negri has been regularly conducting on-line seances. Since spirits exist outside time and place, she has found that the internet turns out to be the perfect medium!

Patti Negri has been communicating with spirits since she could talk. She did her first séance when she was just seven or eight years old. She sat cross legged on the floor and I started asking the spirits to enter the room. She created her first chant – and low and behold – the room filled with orbs of bright light. They started in the corner and quickly began filling the room. It was amazing. She ran screaming out of the house… but had never been so excited. She had actually and consciously contacted the other side – and was able to control it. Her journey had begun. Since then she has studied religion, metaphysics, science, occult sciences and cosmologies and belief systems of all kinds and combined the truths within to create surefire and safe techniques to raise the veil between the worlds.

Patti Negri is a Psychic-Medium and “Good Witch” best known for her recurring role on the Travel Channel’s #1 show GHOST ADVENTURES. She is the international best-selling author of OLD WORLD MAGICK FOR THE MODERN WORLD: TIPS, TRICKS, & TECHNIQUES TO BALANCE, EMPOWER, & CREATE A LIFE YOU LOVE. Patti’s body of work includes appearances on such shows as MASTER CHEF, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, WIPE OUT! and A LITTLE LATE WITH LILLY SINGH. Patti has a popular weekly podcast called THE WITCHING HOUR and can also be heard on nationally syndicated radio with Adam Corolla, Jason Ellis, Mancow Muller and Coast to Coast with George Noory. Patti was voted number one psychic, medium, trance medium, tarot reader, witch / magical practitioner in the world in an Internationally competition by Times Square Press. She has graced numerous magazine covers, contributed to over 20 books and conducted seances on radio, film, and TV working with such legends as Emma Stone, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel, Martin Sheen and Gregory Hines.

Summoning the Spirits – Online Seance with Medium Patti Negri

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A LIVE SEANCE AND WILL NOT BE RECORDED AND TICKETHOLDERS WILL NOT RECEIVE A RECORDING.

IF YOU BUY A TICKET AND ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND PLEASE REQUEST A REFUND.

Spirits are all around us. You do not have to be a psychic, medium or witch to communicate with the other side. But, there are some definite rules and guidelines you need to follow for safe, effective and powerful communication with spirits.

This intimate online seance will be limited to 25 people, giving everyone the opportunity to request summoning a specific spirit. Patti cannot guarantee every spirit will be willing to communicate, but they most always do, due to her gentle and respectful technique and amazing ability to “lift the veil” between the two worlds. Lasting around two hours, Patti will give an explanation and lesson in her proven techniques for safely and respectfully doing seances. Then, she will conduct a full séance, lift the veil and give everyone who wants one an opportunity to speak with their beloved deceased.

Since March 2020, Patti Negri has been regularly conducting on-line seances. Since spirits exist outside time and place, she has found that the internet turns out to be the perfect medium!

Patti Negri has been communicating with spirits since she could talk. She did her first séance when she was just seven or eight years old. She sat cross legged on the floor and I started asking the spirits to enter the room. She created her first chant – and low and behold – the room filled with orbs of bright light. They started in the corner and quickly began filling the room. It was amazing. She ran screaming out of the house… but had never been so excited. She had actually and consciously contacted the other side – and was able to control it. Her journey had begun. Since then she has studied religion, metaphysics, science, occult sciences and cosmologies and belief systems of all kinds and combined the truths within to create surefire and safe techniques to raise the veil between the worlds.

Patti Negri is a Psychic-Medium and “Good Witch” best known for her recurring role on the Travel Channel’s #1 show GHOST ADVENTURES. She is the international best-selling author of OLD WORLD MAGICK FOR THE MODERN WORLD: TIPS, TRICKS, & TECHNIQUES TO BALANCE, EMPOWER, & CREATE A LIFE YOU LOVE. Patti’s body of work includes appearances on such shows as MASTER CHEF, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, WIPE OUT! and A LITTLE LATE WITH LILLY SINGH. Patti has a popular weekly podcast called THE WITCHING HOUR and can also be heard on nationally syndicated radio with Adam Corolla, Jason Ellis, Mancow Muller and Coast to Coast with George Noory. Patti was voted number one psychic, medium, trance medium, tarot reader, witch / magical practitioner in the world in an Internationally competition by Times Square Press. She has graced numerous magazine covers, contributed to over 20 books and conducted seances on radio, film, and TV working with such legends as Emma Stone, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel, Martin Sheen and Gregory Hines.

Practical Energy Magic 2 – David Lee – by Zoom

This mini-course consists of two two-hour sessions.

Part One – Wednesday 26th April 7pm-9pm

Part Two – Wednesday 3rd May 7pm-9pm

Ticket is both parts

Part 2 of Practical Energy Magic consists of explorations of internal sensed energy practices and the energy-alchemy of desire. In the first of these two 2-hour sessions we’ll explore the practice and theory of internal energy circulation and concepts of auric structures and power-centres. In the second we’ll discuss and practice a rehearsal of sexual energy transmutation using the Dragon-Eagle Working.

Health Warning: If you have a severe heart condition, such as would make it dangerous for you to run for a bus, do not attempt the exercises in this course without medical advice.

If you have any other condition which concerns you, take medical advice before doing these exercises.

BIO:

Dave Lee’s magickal practice began in the late 1970s with the multi-model approach known as chaos magick. He has spent over four decades exploring consciousness and changing realities, using techniques that include meditation, magick, psychedelics and energy work. He was a founder member in 1980 of the first ever working group of the Illuminates of Thanateros chaos magickal order, and still serves in that community as an Elder. He joined the Rune-Gild in 1996 and was recognized as a Master of Rune-Lore in 2007. His books include the ground-breaking Life-Force: Sensed Energy in Breathwork, Psychedelia and Chaos Magic. 

He publishes a newsletter very month or two with details of his forthcoming events and publications. All his public-facing links including the newsletter signup are here: https://linktr.ee/david23lee

Victorian Hairwork Jewellery Masterclass with Karen Bachman

4-week online course

Tuesdays, 7, 14, 21 & 28th March 2023

6:30-9:30pm Taught via Zoom by Karen Bachmann

PLEASE NOTE: This class requires supplies, a full list will be emailed upon registration.

In this four week class, students will learn about the history of–and create their own piece of– Victorian Hairwork.

We will explore–via readings, lectures, and making–the ways in which hairwork functions as a “secular relic,” and how this relates to the Catholic tradition of human relics as well as what has been called “the Victorian Cult of Mourning.” We will examine the genesis of Speaking Reliquaries, or Redende Reliquaire, and the transformation of human remains into objects of veneration, power, and sentiment. We will trace this idea to the 18th and 19th centuries, when the fascination with preserving human hair became popular as a means of keeping a physical relic or memento of a loved one—living or deceased—near. We will also examine how this developed in the context of Queen Victoria and the cult of mourning she inspired.

This course will also delve into the history of the veneration of human remains as memory objects, and participants will design and create their own memory objects utilizing classic techniques in Victorian hairwork which will be taught over the course of this class. Methods covered will include wire (gimp) wrapping, palette work, and sepia work. Other, less common, materials may also be include such a teeth, nails, pieces of fabric, etc. In this manner, animals or beloved pets may also be honored.

In the final class, students will present their final project.

A supply list will be emailed upon registration.

Bio

Professor Karen Bachmann teaches at both Pratt Institute and Fashion Institute of Design. She specializes in both fine and bridge jewelry, wearable art, and decorative art. She has particular interests in medieval memento mori and 19 th century sentimental work. Lectures, workshops, and talks include the American Folk Art Museum, Mutter Museum, Victorian Society of America, Morbid Anatomy Museum, Atlas Obscura, and Katonah Museum of Art, amongst others. She is a practicing studio jeweler and a former master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a past and current lecturer and workshop leader with NYC Jewelry Week. Her studio work has been published in Art Jewelry Today Volumes I & II, and the Lark 500 series books. Written published work includes “Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Hairwork Jewelry”. Her most recent publication is an essay on 19 th century mourning jewelry in the book “Death: a Graveside Companion”, Thames & Hudson.

Lucid Dreaming Workshop with Sarah Janes

4 week online course

Sep 13, 20, 27 & 4 October 2022 7:00- 8:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Each session includes a short hypnagogic meditation of 25 minutes.

Temple Sleep: Ancient Dream Oracles and Sleep Medicine

How can a dream be medicine? How can a dream reveal the future?

In ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, it was thought that an auspicious dream could offer an opportunity to receive divine and miraculous healing. Entire sanctuaries and temple complexes were dedicated to dream space, sleep medicine and oneiric oracles. These centres functioned somewhat like a religious or spiritual spa and healing was usually delivered in a dream by beatific appearance or transcendent touch of a god or goddess.

The Greek god Asklepios is probably the most famous dream physician and you might imagine him as a sort of ancient Greek Wim Hof figure, dunking willing supplicants into chill spring water and promoting other immune-boosting tactics such as emotional catharsis through art, movement and song, fasting and abstinence from sex. Archaeological evidence for over 300 Asklepions (Sleep Sanctuaries dedicated to Asklepios) have been found across the vast territory of Hellenistic Greece. There is even at least one Sleep Temple in the UK – at Lydney Park in the Forest of Dean. This is a British-Romano temple dedicated to the Celtic deity Nodens (of the Silver Hand). Archaeologist Tessa Wheeler and her husband Mortimer, excavated the site with assistance from a young JRR Tolkien who, inspired by the folklore and discoveries of the dig, went on to weave these influences into Lord of the Rings.

In this session we will explore the roots of dream medicine culture in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, in ancient rituals of astral irradiation, dream divination and miracle-making and the divine celestial influence of night time oracles. We will explore the mechanisms of homeostasis in sleep and how these processes might really be enhanced in episodes of lucidity to work as potent placebo. Those familiar with lucid dreaming will know the feelings of bliss and ecstasy lucid dreaming is able to produce – could these experiences, in and of themselves, be part of a healing event? We all know what it feels like to wake up energised and inspired from a wonderful dream, and we all know the residual feeling of gloom that can seep into our day from a nightmare. How can these ancient dream techniques teach us more about our potential for self-healing, personal growth and the divine reality of nature. How can this ancient wisdom empower us to get the maximum benefit from our night-time slumber?

Dream Magic: Dream Incubation, Spells and Interpretation

Words and dreams are magical thought forms

In the ancient world, magic was often the preserve of the literati. Words and stories can create a feedback system with dreams, they create and record dream content. Looking at ancient dream analysis, we see that the preoccupation of ancient oneiromancers was always ‘the future’. This alone is an interesting concept to philosophise about. That dreams were clear visions of a yet to unfold series of events is rarely, if ever, attested. That they contained signposts, symbols, codes and language clues was much more case. In a sense, dream incubation is a sort of dream programming – using words and prescribed rituals to ensure a desired dream event or revelation. This can be achieved through the mere act of sleeping in a temple (the sacred sanctuary) of the particular god you’d like to dream with, or by making a special phylactery to charm favour from the desired entity.

Dream interpretation in ancient Egypt relied heavily on wordplay and visual/phonetic puns. As the hieroglyphs are made up of many images, punning and wordplay in the ancient Egyptian language has multiple dimensions.

In this session we will explore the dream story stelae of ancient Egypt – these are frequently interpreted as propaganda texts to prop up a royal claim. They also reiterate the importance of the dream as a narrative device and they establish the dream as a reliable hotline to the gods. We shall also look at the dream spells of the Greek Magical Papyri as well as dream interpretation and prognostic texts.

How can we work with words to improve our own dream experiences and recall of them? Reading and writing are excellent dream tools. We will explore the most effective ways to influence dream content, record it and make sense of it in our own ‘Night Book’.

A Wave in The Ocean of Everything: Mastering Lucidity in Dreams

Are you dreaming now?

How can you be sure? Is this a dream? There are many simple and effective techniques that can encourage more regular and reliable episodes of lucidity. If you have never had a lucid dream before it is likely quite possible that you still can, you just need to experiment and identify what works for you. A lucid dream could occur spontaneously, or you might feel that you have to work really hard to attain it.

In this session we will explore some of the most effective and popular techniques for inducing lucidity including: Wake Back to Bed, Wake Induced, Mnemonic Induction, Dream Induced, Body Scanning or Sense Initiated, Dream Journalling, Triggers, Sleep Hypnosis and Personal Mythology.

How can the ancient wisdom of dream incubation and sleep temples be applied to the contemporary dreamer about town?

Future Visions: Precognitive Dreams, Sleep Tech and Telepathic Experiments

What does the future hold for dreams?

We are a chronically sleep and dream deprived culture. We need sleep and we seem to need dreams for healthy imaginal and emotional catharsis. Our sympathetic nervous system has a chance to relax in sleep, as our body goes through its deepest processes of homeostasis. Sleep offers us the opportunity to reset, rebalance and detoxify. Without it, we wither and die. Healthy circadian rhythms are the blueprint and fingerprint of wellness.

To this end, sleep is something of great interest to those studying longevity and those who are exponents of transhumanism. Many attempts have been made to hack and enhance dreaming. In this session we will explore the emerging world of dream technology, supplementation in the form of nootropics and the fascinating scientific research that is trying to enter the world of the dreamer and extract their most intimate and unconscious fantasies. Making sense of garbled dream imaginings, might we be returning to the oracles of old? What can dreams really tell us about the nature of consciousness and time perception and what happens when you draw the dark unconscious out into the light?

In this session you will be invited to take part in an experiment of dream telepathy and oracular vision.

Sarah Janes has been an enthusiastic lucid dreamer since childhood and has written about dreams, dream culture and the anthropology of dreaming for a number of academic journals, the Idler magazine and more.

Sarah’s first book Initiation into Dream Mysteries, Drinking from the Pool of Mnemosyne is out later this year with US publisher Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. This book explores the ancient history and philosophy of dream therapy and sleep medicine, beginning in deepest antiquity through to ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. It also has seven stories in it which are inspired by her own dream incubation practices. These stories are designed to act as psychomagic narratives to influence your dreams and take you on a self-initiatory conscious dream quest.

Sarah has given talks on the subject of dreaming at conferences, festivals and events all over Europe and hosts her own online Egyptology lecture series Explorers Egyptology in which she has had many esteemed Egyptologists and ancient history scholars and experts as guests.

This year Sarah is curating a series of events and talks to coincide with the touring exhibition #FEMININEPOWER at the British Museum, she is working on a sitcom about paranormal investigators and developing sleep hygiene/reality shifting workshops to tackle sleep deprivation in teenagers.

Sarah is also currently working with author and biologist Rupert Sheldrake and Guy Hayward at the British Pilgrimage Trust to reinvigorate the practice of dream incubation on pilgrimage in the UK.

Sarah co-hosts a weekly chat show – Consciousness Hour with author and researcher Anthony Peake. Anthony specialises in writing about exceptional human experience and anomalous phenomenon. On Consciousness Hour – life after death, dreams, Near Death Experience and OBEs, psychedelics, altered states, synchronicity, parapsychology and time perception are regular themes.

Alongside Carl Hayden Smith from the Learning Technologies Department of Ravensbourne University, London, Sarah developed The Seventh Ray, a virtual initiation experience inspired by ancient Mystery School traditions.

www.themysteries.org

Lucid Dreaming Workshop with Sarah Janes

4 week online course

May 3, 10, 17 & 24 2022 7:00- 8:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Each session includes a short hypnagogic meditation of 25 minutes.

Temple Sleep: Ancient Dream Oracles and Sleep Medicine

How can a dream be medicine? How can a dream reveal the future?

In ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, it was thought that an auspicious dream could offer an opportunity to receive divine and miraculous healing. Entire sanctuaries and temple complexes were dedicated to dream space, sleep medicine and oneiric oracles. These centres functioned somewhat like a religious or spiritual spa and healing was usually delivered in a dream by beatific appearance or transcendent touch of a god or goddess.

The Greek god Asklepios is probably the most famous dream physician and you might imagine him as a sort of ancient Greek Wim Hof figure, dunking willing supplicants into chill spring water and promoting other immune-boosting tactics such as emotional catharsis through art, movement and song, fasting and abstinence from sex. Archaeological evidence for over 300 Asklepions (Sleep Sanctuaries dedicated to Asklepios) have been found across the vast territory of Hellenistic Greece. There is even at least one Sleep Temple in the UK – at Lydney Park in the Forest of Dean. This is a British-Romano temple dedicated to the Celtic deity Nodens (of the Silver Hand). Archaeologist Tessa Wheeler and her husband Mortimer, excavated the site with assistance from a young JRR Tolkien who, inspired by the folklore and discoveries of the dig, went on to weave these influences into Lord of the Rings.

In this session we will explore the roots of dream medicine culture in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, in ancient rituals of astral irradiation, dream divination and miracle-making and the divine celestial influence of night time oracles. We will explore the mechanisms of homeostasis in sleep and how these processes might really be enhanced in episodes of lucidity to work as potent placebo. Those familiar with lucid dreaming will know the feelings of bliss and ecstasy lucid dreaming is able to produce – could these experiences, in and of themselves, be part of a healing event? We all know what it feels like to wake up energised and inspired from a wonderful dream, and we all know the residual feeling of gloom that can seep into our day from a nightmare. How can these ancient dream techniques teach us more about our potential for self-healing, personal growth and the divine reality of nature. How can this ancient wisdom empower us to get the maximum benefit from our night-time slumber?

Dream Magic: Dream Incubation, Spells and Interpretation

Words and dreams are magical thought forms

In the ancient world, magic was often the preserve of the literati. Words and stories can create a feedback system with dreams, they create and record dream content. Looking at ancient dream analysis, we see that the preoccupation of ancient oneiromancers was always ‘the future’. This alone is an interesting concept to philosophise about. That dreams were clear visions of a yet to unfold series of events is rarely, if ever, attested. That they contained signposts, symbols, codes and language clues was much more case. In a sense, dream incubation is a sort of dream programming – using words and prescribed rituals to ensure a desired dream event or revelation. This can be achieved through the mere act of sleeping in a temple (the sacred sanctuary) of the particular god you’d like to dream with, or by making a special phylactery to charm favour from the desired entity.

Dream interpretation in ancient Egypt relied heavily on wordplay and visual/phonetic puns. As the hieroglyphs are made up of many images, punning and wordplay in the ancient Egyptian language has multiple dimensions.

In this session we will explore the dream story stelae of ancient Egypt – these are frequently interpreted as propaganda texts to prop up a royal claim. They also reiterate the importance of the dream as a narrative device and they establish the dream as a reliable hotline to the gods. We shall also look at the dream spells of the Greek Magical Papyri as well as dream interpretation and prognostic texts.

How can we work with words to improve our own dream experiences and recall of them? Reading and writing are excellent dream tools. We will explore the most effective ways to influence dream content, record it and make sense of it in our own ‘Night Book’.

A Wave in The Ocean of Everything: Mastering Lucidity in Dreams

Are you dreaming now?

How can you be sure? Is this a dream? There are many simple and effective techniques that can encourage more regular and reliable episodes of lucidity. If you have never had a lucid dream before it is likely quite possible that you still can, you just need to experiment and identify what works for you. A lucid dream could occur spontaneously, or you might feel that you have to work really hard to attain it.

In this session we will explore some of the most effective and popular techniques for inducing lucidity including: Wake Back to Bed, Wake Induced, Mnemonic Induction, Dream Induced, Body Scanning or Sense Initiated, Dream Journalling, Triggers, Sleep Hypnosis and Personal Mythology.

How can the ancient wisdom of dream incubation and sleep temples be applied to the contemporary dreamer about town?

Future Visions: Precognitive Dreams, Sleep Tech and Telepathic Experiments

What does the future hold for dreams?

We are a chronically sleep and dream deprived culture. We need sleep and we seem to need dreams for healthy imaginal and emotional catharsis. Our sympathetic nervous system has a chance to relax in sleep, as our body goes through its deepest processes of homeostasis. Sleep offers us the opportunity to reset, rebalance and detoxify. Without it, we wither and die. Healthy circadian rhythms are the blueprint and fingerprint of wellness.

To this end, sleep is something of great interest to those studying longevity and those who are exponents of transhumanism. Many attempts have been made to hack and enhance dreaming. In this session we will explore the emerging world of dream technology, supplementation in the form of nootropics and the fascinating scientific research that is trying to enter the world of the dreamer and extract their most intimate and unconscious fantasies. Making sense of garbled dream imaginings, might we be returning to the oracles of old? What can dreams really tell us about the nature of consciousness and time perception and what happens when you draw the dark unconscious out into the light?

In this session you will be invited to take part in an experiment of dream telepathy and oracular vision.

Sarah Janes has been an enthusiastic lucid dreamer since childhood and has written about dreams, dream culture and the anthropology of dreaming for a number of academic journals, the Idler magazine and more.

Sarah’s first book Initiation into Dream Mysteries, Drinking from the Pool of Mnemosyne is out later this year with US publisher Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. This book explores the ancient history and philosophy of dream therapy and sleep medicine, beginning in deepest antiquity through to ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. It also has seven stories in it which are inspired by her own dream incubation practices. These stories are designed to act as psychomagic narratives to influence your dreams and take you on a self-initiatory conscious dream quest.

Sarah has given talks on the subject of dreaming at conferences, festivals and events all over Europe and hosts her own online Egyptology lecture series Explorers Egyptology in which she has had many esteemed Egyptologists and ancient history scholars and experts as guests.

This year Sarah is curating a series of events and talks to coincide with the touring exhibition #FEMININEPOWER at the British Museum, she is working on a sitcom about paranormal investigators and developing sleep hygiene/reality shifting workshops to tackle sleep deprivation in teenagers.

Sarah is also currently working with author and biologist Rupert Sheldrake and Guy Hayward at the British Pilgrimage Trust to reinvigorate the practice of dream incubation on pilgrimage in the UK.

Sarah co-hosts a weekly chat show – Consciousness Hour with author and researcher Anthony Peake. Anthony specialises in writing about exceptional human experience and anomalous phenomenon. On Consciousness Hour – life after death, dreams, Near Death Experience and OBEs, psychedelics, altered states, synchronicity, parapsychology and time perception are regular themes.

Alongside Carl Hayden Smith from the Learning Technologies Department of Ravensbourne University, London, Sarah developed The Seventh Ray, a virtual initiation experience inspired by ancient Mystery School traditions.

www.themysteries.org