Workshopping The Dead

I've presented a number of classes and workshops on the Dead over the years, always with a focus on reconstructed ritual technologies. In this workshop, however, I'm going to do something different.

I'm also going to talk about the lore and practices I learned from my Spiritualist family as well.

Nowadays, the word "Spiritualist" carries a range of meanings. But back when my father's family first got involved (roughly four generations ago), there was only one. A Spiritualist back then was an adherent of Spiritualism, a new religious movement rooted in spirit contact that emerged during the mid-1800s in the Burned-Over District of Upstate NY. The original premise of Spiritualism was simple: Death is just a change of state, and we can communicate with those who have gone on before us.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was only a few years after its emergence in the U.S that Spiritualism crossed the Atlantic to my birth region of North-West England, where it eventually became a predominantly family-based practiced passed down by parents to children.

(My family was odd long before I set out on the crooked path.)

In this workshop, I'm going to give you the synthesis of practices that work for me. I may not be a Spiritualist myself (except in the loose sense of that aforementioned original premise), but I still often find myself reaching for the lore and tools of my childhood and adolescence. Whether I'm engaging in ancestor work, meditating issues between the living and Dead, experimenting with Iron Age Nordic necromancy, or simply helping someone to cross over, there's not a Dead-related practice where that early experience with Spiritualism (as mediated through my family) isn't useful in some way. Not only does it provide me with a model for positive spirit contact, it also gives me a workable framework for interpreting the sensory elements that crop up, while also expanding my working toolbox.

Oh, and it also gives me some very active Dead, all of whom seem to think they're hilarious.

Topics Covered In This Workshop:

• Perceiving the Dead

• "Spirit" and the metaphysics of spirit contact (according to Spiritualism)

• Sensory cues and effects

• Getting attention

• Fire and water

• Communication

• Guides

• Directionality and offerings

• Summoning/psychopomping through intermediary spaces

• Purification and odd reactions to interaction with the Dead

Attendees will also have the opportunity to troubleshoot any ongoing issues they may be having with the Dead.

Cost: $30

Length: 2.5 hrs.

All ticket holders will receive recordings regardless of attendance.