Community News ~ Upcoming Events:
Sponsored by or involving the faculty of the Women's Spirituality MA Weekend Program, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, California:
February 27/28 - Shiloh McCloud's Life Visioning Workshop offered by the ITP Women's Spirituality Program - Great Sophia, ITP, 1069 East Meadow Circle, Palo Alto, CA 94303 - dgrenn@itp.edu for info.February 27 - Judy Grahn speaks at:
EXPANDING THE CIRCLE Conference: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LGBTQ Students and Studies (February 25-28). Contact judygrahn@gmail.com for information.
Hotel Nikko
San Francisco, California
Contact: ExpandingTheCircle@ciis.edu to find out about one-day rates
February 27 - Second class in the Winter 2010 Teleseminar Series with Chief Luisah Teish through Maestro Conferencing (single sessions $25):
Earth and Spirit: We are children of the Earth. All the food we need for nourishment and the medicine we need for healing is generously provided by Our Mother the Earth. She gives us flowers to express beauty and jewels to adorn ourselves. In this session, Teish will discuss our relationship to Spirit and the Earth and share some of her Earth Reverence rituals.
To register, see: http://ileorunmilaoshun.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201:winter-2010-teleseminar-series-with-luisah-teish&catid=40&Itemid=55
Saturday, March 6 - Connecting with the Sacred Feminine
A panel at East West Bookstore in Mountain View with ITP faculty Kate Wolf-Pizor, Judy Grahn and D'vorah Grenn as they explore connecting with the sacred feminine. Tickets for the event are free but you need to reserve them in advance. Please come out and join us for an amazing evening.
7:30pm Free but call to reserve a place - 800-909-6161
Facilitator D'vorah J. Grenn, Co-Director of ITP's Women's Spirituality MA Program, leads a panel of inspired scholars including renowned poet Judy Grahn, Kate Wolf-Pizor and Maya Spector about how and when each of us - whether in a female or male body - embodies and connects to the Sacred Feminine. Find a sense of awe in connecting to the earth, create your own prayers and rituals, and learn how to communicate with the Divine and the divinity within yourself. Learn to create blessings in your life and gracefully navigate important transitions.
Saturday, March 13 - Chief Luisah Teish - New Beginnings: As Spring approaches Nature bursts forth Her power and beauty. We are blessed with the warmth of the Sun, the beauty of the fields and our own budding eroticism. This is a story session in celebration of the joys of Spring.
To register, see: http://ileorunmilaoshun.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201:winter-2010-teleseminar-series-with-luisah-teish&catid=40&Itemid=55
Third class in the Winter 2010 Teleseminar Series with Luisah Teish through Maestro Conferencing (single sessions $25.)
Saturday, March 20 - Women's Spirituality Alumni Art Exhibit and Reception - 6-8 PM - Great Sophia
Friday, March 26 - 7 PM - D'vorah Grenn, editor of Talking to Goddess and DeAnna L'am, author of Becoming Peers speak at Copperfield's Books in Sebastopol
Saturday, April 17 - 7 PM - Enheduanna's Birthday Party ! Opening Chant by Jennifer Berezan - many wonderful guests -- please join us for this exciting yearly event honoring the first poet of record !
Write to dgrenn@itp.edu for more information.
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See the Sacred Feminine in Action! at ITP in Palo Alto, California
1069 East Meadow Circle, Palo Alto, CA 94303 - 650.493.4430
Saturday & Sunday, March 27/28 - Ubaka Hill Music & Healing Workshop with Vicki Noble
at ITP
The first day of this seminar is an exploration into music as a healing modality. Drummer Ubaka Hill will take you on a cross cultural journey into the world of drumming, and how the drum has been used as a healing tool. Her vision and intention is to facilitate and inspire personal transformation, empowerment, healing and joy with music.
This seminar creatively weaves together poetry, percussion and song to inspire a positive, energetic atmosphere. Her methodology has inspired thousands of people all over the world to utilize music for the purpose of healing - in their practices, in their lives. Participants are encouraged to bring their drums and other percussive instruments.
On day two, Ubaka Hill will be joined by shamanic healer Vicki Noble, who will talk about the genesis of “The Healing Circle." They will discuss their work in building women's community through the process of conducting healing circles, and the transformative effect they've had on participants. In addition, this seminar will explore methods involved in conducting these circles, and how these methods can be used in your practice. and in your own personal transformations.
see http://www.itp.edu/resources/divinefeminine/healingarts.php for more information and to register.
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The Institute Of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California Offers A (Weekend) Women's Spirituality MA Program - One of only Two Women's Spirtuality Graduate Programs - a woman-centered innovative education for personal transformation and social activism based in the values of the Sacred Feminine.
CO-DIRECTORS: JUDY GRAHN, Ph.D., DIANNE JENETT, Ph.D., and D'VORAH
GRENN, Ph.D.
OUR FACULTY INCLUDES:
Yoruba Chief Luisah Teish, founder, School of Ancient
Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center and author, Jambalaya and Carnival of the Spirits
Author Vicki Noble, founder, Motherpeace School for Shamanic Healing
and author, Shakti Woman
Hawaiian Priestess and Kahuna Leilani Birely, founder & director, Daughters of
the Goddess
Reverend Shiloh Sophia McCloud, artist and co-founder, Wisdom House
Gallery; author, Color of Woman and Her Evolution visual journals; On A Wing and A Dream
Laura K. Brown, Ph.D., metaformic philosopher and founder, Oakland
Feminist Women's Health Center
Anne Bluethenthal, MFA, dancer/choreographer, founder & artistic
director, ABD Productions
Linda Chrisman, M.A., certified teacher of Continuum Movement, Rosen
Method bodywork and Somatic Experiencing
Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., women's spirituality scholar and
feminist activist; author, The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient
Greece
Other Adjunct Faculty & Guest Lecturers include:
Max Dashu, independent scholar and founder of Suppressed Histories Archives; Mandisa Wood, M.F.A., dance priestess, poet and visual artist; Carolyn Brandy, drum priestess, Women Drummers International; Mary Beth Moser, Dea Madre Black Madonna Resource Center; scholar, educator and yogini Margaret “Saraswati” Kruszewska; artist Vanessa Tiegs; performer, playwright and teacher Jovelyn Richards; Xochipala Maes Valdez, Ifa priestess, writer and graphic designer.
This new program offers an advanced degree for women at a pivotal
“crossroads” in their lives, women asking themselves: "How can I
create a more meaningful life that is in alignment with who I am?"
The program content and group experience empowers students to find
direction, self-authorization, connection to female roots,
authenticity and fulfilling life work. The curriculum is taught by
supportive, diverse, leading practitioners in the fields of women's
spirituality and spiritual activism, as well as leading authors,
scholars, artists and ritualists. The program promotes intellectual
and creative expression; explores and integrates global and historic
intellectual, social, artistic and spiritual aspects of womanhood.
We are also committed to preparing graduates to transform society
through transforming themselves.
The innovative curriculum explores women’s roles in pre-history and
history, women’s spiritual and religious leadership, women’s work in
healing and social activism, and women’s ritual, literary, social
and artistic contributions. Our feminist learning community offers
dedicated mentoring, encouraging the development of new knowledge
and theory through an integration of scholarly research, spiritual
practice, embodiment, activism and the sacred arts. The Sacred
Feminine and the values of justice and equality associated with Her
are explored in multi-spiritual traditions including Asia, Europe,
Africa, the Americas, the Ancient Near East/Middle East and
Australia. Each student is also encouraged to seek, develop and
honor her own unique path.
The Women’s Spirituality MA degree prepares women for leadership in
the pluralistic global culture of the 21st century. The classes,
which are small graduate seminars in a cohort model meet on weekends
and the program can be completed in two calendar years of full-time
study. Students living out-of-state attend by driving or flying in
for classes one or two weekends a month.
Although the curriculum is new to ITP, the closely-knit faculty has
been teaching Women's Spirituality together for ten years. A bit about the co-directors:
Judy Grahn, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, is internationally
known as a poet, woman-centered cultural theorist, co-founder of
lesbian-feminism, and early contributor to literature of women’s
spirituality. Her work centers on reclamation of stories, values and
methods of Sacred Feminine traditions. Her book, Blood, Bread, and
Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (Beacon Press, 1993)
outlines a new origin theory of culture blossoming from women’s
peaceful blood rituals, especially menstruation. Her poetry
collections include The Queen of Wands, The Queen of Swords, She
Who, and The Common Woman Poems, considered foundational to the
development of cultural feminism. Dr. Grahn is editor of the new
academic journal Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture
(www.metaformia.com). She has been invited to present her work
on Metaformic Consciousness in Chile at Tremonhue, Centro de
Espiritualidad y Salud Integral, where she met with women of varied
backgrounds and religions from seven countries, who are engaged in
remythologizing the feminine in society. Her most recent books
include love is for those who do the feeling (Red Hen Press) and The
Judy Grahn Reader (Aunt Lute Press.)
Dianne E. Jenett, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, is a
co-author of Organic Inquiry: If Research Were Sacred and her work
has been published in the U.S. and India. Her research focus is on
women-centered rituals in Kerala, India, qualitative research
methods and women’s psycho-spiritual development. She is co-founder,
along with Dr. Grahn, of Serpentina, which sponsors women’s cutting
edge research (www.serpentina.com). Dr. Jenett's publications
include “Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred
Power in South India” in Menstruation: A Cultural History (ed.
Andrew Shail, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2005) and “A Million Shaktis
Rising: Pongala, A Woman's Festival in Kerala, India” in Journal of
Feminist Studies in Religion, 21, no. 1 (2005). Dianne examines
Pongala at Attukal Temple from the viewpoint of thirty Hindu, Moslem
and Christian women. She used ethnographic material and the research
methodology she helped develop, Organic Inquiry, to enable her to
explicitly incorporate the sacred wisdom and practices of this
tradition. She and Judy Grahn lead educational trips to explore
sacred arts and rituals of South India.
D'vorah J. Grenn, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, author of
Lilith’s Fire (2000), is founder and director of The Lilith Institute (1997) and
founding kohenet/priestess of Mishkan Shekhinah. Dr. Grenn’s
dissertation was an inquiry into South African Lemba and United
States Jewish women’s religious identities, beliefs and ritual
practices. Other writings include “How Women Construct And Are Formed By Spirit:
She Who Is Everywhere In Women’s Voices” (She Is Everywhere, Volume
I, Lucia Birnbaum, ed. 2005) and “Connecting with Deity through a
Feminist Metaformic Theology” (Metaformia Journal, 2005). Her
article “Lilith’s Fire: Re-reading Sacred Texts” appeared in Feminist Theology journal in September 2007. She edited and published Talking
To Goddess, a collection of blessings, meditations and invocations from 72 women of 25 different spiritual traditions
in October, 2009 (www.talkingtogoddess.com.)
FOR DETAILS ON THE CURRICULUM, CONTACT:
dgrenn@itp.edu or call Sydney J. Reuben , ITP Director of
Admissions,
650-493-4430, ext. 237 / sreuben@itp.edu.
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Submissions accepted for:
METAFORMIA, A Journal of Menstruation and Culture
Visit us online at www.metaformia.com!