Workshops & Classes
Stephanie and Scott Brown
Stephanie Brown is an artist, educated as an anthropologist, who has been a student of several branches of magick and metaphysical disciplines for over fifteen years, including eclectic paganism, witchcraft, and neo-shamanism, and is a founder of the tradition of Modern Totemism. She crafts fine art and original metaphysical tools that combine natural elements and primitive themes to honor the earth in both aesthetics and in function.
Scott Brown is a wildlife and portrait photographer and owner of Dream Wolf Photography. He has been a student of several branches of magick and metaphysical disciplines for well over twenty years, including most types of eclectic paganism, and he is a founder of the tradition of Modern Totemism. His formal education is as an electrical and computer engineer.
Together they are co-authors of the 2019 book The Modern Totemist.
Modern Totemism: Animal Totem Magick for the Modern Practitioner
The path of the Totemist is the path of knowing the self. It is a way of deep reflection, of deconstructing and examining all aspects of the mind, the heart, and the soul, through understanding the essential animal energies of the human spirit.
Explore the basics tenants and ideas of the tradition of Modern Totemism with the author of the 2019 book The Modern Totemist. Discuss the nature of totems, the structure of Nine unique totems within every person, and how to work with totems to improve your life, your magickal work, and your understanding of yourself.
Finding The Totems: Discussion and Ritual
The path of the Totemist is the path of knowing the self. The nine animal totems we each carry within us are our connection to the fundamental aspects of magick. They are fundamental to our unique identities, but how can we reconnect with them? How can we learn what our totems are and how can we bring them forward?
Join Stephanie Brown, author of the 2019 book The Modern Totemist, for a discussion of the nature of animal totems, our system of nine, and how to work with them in all aspects of your life. Then, stay for a guided shamanic journey (similar to a guided meditation) to explore and learn this method of spiritual communion and to encourage one of your animal totems to come forward.
No previous experience with shamanic journeying or ritual equipment required. Ritual will take place with dimmed lights and a hand drum.
The Responsible Zookeeper: Using Animal Energy for Self-Care
Knowledge of one’s true nature, as understood through the animal self, can be applied to a number of valuable and productive endeavors. Join us as we explore one such application: how to use the knowledge of our unique totemic animal energies for self-care. If we are to imagine ourselves as zookeepers in charge of caring for the animals that are our totems, how would we best create an environment for them that is comfortable, emotionally safe, and intellectually stimulating? Your answers to these questions create a template for how you can support, protect, and nourish your own well-being.
Exploring the Lord and Lady Totems
The Primary, the Lord, and the Lady totems represent the fundamental, essential self in Modern Totemism. They are also one’s personal connection to the two fundamental energies: the active and passive, the assertive and permissive, the yin and the yang, or (by many witchcraft traditions) the masculine and feminine divine energies. Both of these energies exist within every person, but how they are expressed and how an individual relates to them, and what face they put to them, can reveal a lot about their relationship to these magickal principles.
Bind-Runes and Sigil Building
A Bind-Rune is a combination or over-lay of two or more Runes intended to combine their energies; a sigil is any symbol created to work magick. Explore the process of crafting the perfect magickal mark with someone who creates custom bind-runes and sigils for a living. We will cover energy flow through line work, complexity versus simplicity, intentional versus unintentional rune/symbol creation, and the impact of esthetics to harness different types of energies.
The Ethics of Magick
A discussion-based workshop on the ever-evolving ideas of “ethical” vs “unethical” magick, spellwork, and energy work. Less of a one-sided lecture and more of a structured and moderated discussion session. Contribution from the participants will be encouraged. We will cover “light/white” magick compared to “dark/black” magick; the concept of the “light worker” vs practitioners of more traditional witchcraft, both structured and unstructured; defensive vs offensive vs vengeful magick; and ideas of karma and the three-fold law, among other things.
The Science of Magick
Explore how the principles of science and the fundamentals of magick and energy work overlap and coincide. We discuss the energies of light, sound, force, electricity, etc. and how an understanding of these principles can broaden and enhance your practical understanding and use of magick. Some may be under the impression that one can believe in pagan magick or one may trust in science, but not both. Join us as we correct this misimpression.
Energy Tasting
Structured like a blind wine tasting, enjoy an interactive exploration of how natural materials change energy when it passes through them. Subjectively experiencing how natural materials, and magickal tools made from them, truly change magickal energy that passes through them can prove eye-opening, especially when when compared to expectations. This knowledge will help you pick the right tool for a given magickal job, help you find an alternative when you don’t have what you want on hand, and inspire you to find other novel ways of getting a job done.