Serpent and the Veil
A Mystery School of Irish Wisdom and Spirituality
Applications for 2024-2025 cohort will open in June 2024.
Join me for an in-depth year-long immersion to connect to the spiral dance of life, to participate, remember and embody the rhythms of the season and the power and magic we share with the Elements. We will reclaim our sense of belonging and our own sovereignty through Irish mythology, the land herself, native European herbs and sacred ritual. We will remember our own indigneity by connecting to the Irish Wisdom tradition. We will traverse through the veil and collectively work to reconnect the Otherworld with our own, thus restoring balance and healing to the Earth. We will journey together in Ireland at the culmination of our year together.
Due to the deep and intimate spiritual work of this course, it is a brave space, a space of grace, for women/ femme/ trans women and those who identify as women. Nonbinary people and trans men are welcome to apply and we can discuss if this might be a supportive fit. We seek to ever be inclusive, while also allowing ourselves to reclaim sacred space for those who have been marginalized and oppressed by the patriarchy and white supremacy.
Please note, this is not a substitute for therapy or trauma work. Tonja is not a mental health care professional. Tonja is a guide offering invitations to deepen into the mythic work of reclaiming our native roots, based on her Irish lineage and teachers, and her work of over 20 years.
What we will do together:
Through Serpent and the Veil mystery school, we will be delve deeply into spiritual and mystical connection with our Irish heritage (blood or spiritual, not DNA driven) in order to walk through the veil to heal and transform self, community and Earth.
Through Serpent and the Veil mystery school we will gather in community and, through that power, destabilize and bring down the reach of the patriarchy and white supremacy. One ritual, one circle, one myth at a time.
Through Serpent and the Veil we will work with herbs and their wisdom, accessing primal connections and the knowing held within and without. We will experience the oneness that we all are through the culmination of accessing entheogenic aspects of the most sacred plants.
Through Serpent and the Veil we will live with the seasons, celebrate the eight sacred festivals, connect with lunar cycles and, through that, discover our place of belonging in the cosmic rhythm.
Through Serpent and the Veil we will shed the culturalized layer of skin, the consumeristic, capitalistic skin that has held us captive, and through that shedding we will rise into our own sovereignty of participation and protection: the serpent awakened.
Through Serpent and the Veil we will dive deep into our role of dismantling colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism, remembering that coming back to our own roots and traditions we are part of the mythic resistance.
We will meet, one on one, to discuss the symbolism that comes up in your journeywork and to have personalized check ins monthly, for the first six months.
We will journey together in Ireland over Samhain 2024, connecting to and tending to the sacred sites, walking with the ancestors and moving through the veil at this luminous and liminal time.
Reclaiming Tradition
Many of us who are not BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) in America come from Native European roots. And many who are BIPOC have branches of their lineage tree from Europe. The Serpent and the Veil allows us to reclaim our own traditions and roots, shifting from the appropriation of spiritual traditions that are not our own. This school is meant to help us learn, remember and practice our own rituals and traditions. This school is not meant to be exclusive in any way. All are welcome to receive and use the tools to deepen into their own traditions. Listen to the voice of your own knowing to discern if this is the right program for you. Please do not base your decision on the outcome of an ancestry DNA test, as that is giving your power to the patriarchy (and is a colonial tool) and discounting the knowing and longing in your own heart. All are welcome.
The Quest to Belong. Read more HERE.
In Serpent and the Veil, we will be:
Calling in the Ancestors
Working with Gods and Goddesses of the Tuatha de Danaan of Ireland with Lugh, Brighid and the Morrigan as our patrons and primary guides.
Reading Irish mythology: discussing and practicing its relevance and purpose in our lives today
Using guided journeywork to connect and journey through the Veil to the Otherworld
Celebrating rituals aligned with the seasons
Participating in the mythic resistance through anti-oppression and social justice work
Working with the ancient symbolism of tarot
Allying with native Iris herbs
Connecting with lunar wisdom
Pilgrimaging on the sacred land of Ireland
Sharing our gifts with the greater community
Creating art to deepen in to our experience
Students who engage in this mystery school journey will be:
Curious and open
Willing to journey to the wild edges, willing to sacrifice fear for growth
Committed to the financial exchange
Questioning
Deep listeners
Comfortable with nonlinear thinking
Disciplined
Playful
Embodied
DATES and Information for the 2023-2024 Cohort:
Serpent and the Veil will meet in the following ways:
1. One on one virtual connection sessions: November- April. One hour session in November with each subsequent monthly session (December- April) approximately 30 minutes. We will set a calendar for these sessions to begin after our first gathering. These are not therapy or coaching sessions. These sessions are intended to help you deepen into the symbolism that comes up individually in the guided journeys each month.
2. Virtual ritual for each of the eight holy days of the Wheel of the Year (specific dates below) from 5-8 PM MST.
3. Virtual class one Saturday per month from 10-2 PM MST for content and myth then again from 4-7 PM for herbcraft and journey work. You will also have specific invitations (ie homework) to deepen into during the break between, so I encourage you to set aside the whole day for mystery school.
4. Virtual small group meet-ups with each other sprinkled through each month (an hour or less and on your own time).
5. Virtual Weekend Retreat in June.
6. In-person pilgrimage in Ireland during Samhain (7 days).
*All classes/ meetings/ gatherings/ retreats are in-person via Zoom except the Ireland pilgrimage which is in-person in Ireland.
In myth our souls can fall deeper. Myths tenderize us to make different decisions about how we live. -Martin Shaw
Serpent and the Veil 2023-2024 dates
All times listed are Mountain Standard Time
NOVEMBER 2023: Fri 10 Nov from 5-8 PM Samhain AND Sat 11 Nov from 10-2/ 4-7PM
DECEMBER: Sat 16 Dec from 10-2/ 4-7 PM AND Fri 22 Dec 5-8 PM Winter Solstice
JANUARY 2024: Sat 13 Jan from 10-2/ 4-7 PM
FEBRUARY: Fri 2 Feb from 5-8 PM Imbolc AND Sat Feb 10 from 10-2/ 4-7 PM
MARCH: Sat 9 March from 10-2/ 4-7 PM AND Fri 22 March from 5-8 PM Spring Equinox
APRIL: Sat 13 April from 10-2/ 4-7 PM
MAY: Fri 3 May from 5-8 PM Bealtaine AND Sat 11 May from 10-2/4-7PM
JUNE RETREAT (online in-person) Sat 15 June from 10-2/ 4-7 PM AND Sun 16 June from 11- 3
JUNE: Fri 21 June from 5-8 PM Summer Solstice
JULY: No class: IDIR AIT (the in-between)
AUGUST: Fri 2 August from 5-8 PM Lughnasa AND Sat 10 August from 10-2/ 4-7 PM
SEPTEMBER Sat 14 Sept from 10-2/ 4-7 PM AND Fri 20 Sept from 5-8 PM Autumn Equinox
OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER: Ireland Pilgrimage Initiation: Sunday 27 Oct 27- Sunday 3 Nov
DECEMBER: Sat 7 Dec from 10- 1: Integration and Reflection
CURRICULUM/ REQUIREMENTS FOR INITIATION
Students will eligible for initiation, during the pilgrimage in Ireland by completing:
Reading list (8 books to be read/ referenced). All students must supply their own books plus a Centennial Smith-Waite Tarot Deck
Community engagement: service work/ offerings in and to the community (20 hours over the year)
Completion of four elemental ritual tools
Completion of a book of wisdom
Mythic soul cards for 10 of the myths that will be covered in class (simple collage art)
Attendance at 90% of the classes/ rituals (in person or virtual)