Humor has been viewed as a way of looking at a situation from a different point of view, diffusing a crisis and providing an opportunity for increased insight and objectivity.

Humor has also been described as willingness to accept life and ourselves with a shrug and a smile, lightheartedness, and gives a sense of mastery over a situation.

Reflect on these questions:

• What role does humor have in your life?
• Has your sense of humor changed over the years?
• What helped keep it the same or helped change it?
• Share something about yourself that is humorous. How is the ability to laugh at ourselves helpful one?
• Share a time when how you have been hurt by humor, yours or another’s. What times are humor NOT appropriate?
• Share a time when you laughed with someone, or laughed at yourself in a way that was refreshing and healing.
• How can humor be used for good or in helpful ways?
• Share humor that did not need words to be funny.

• Baubo, Greek Goddess of Mirth

Read your two other deity sheets.

• 51 Green Man
• 51 Green Man Charms
• 52 Sheela Na Gig
• 52 Sheela Na Gig Charms

• Try one charm from either deity sheet.

• Read pg 276-296 from “Gatherings for Goddess”  by B. Melusine Mihaltses

More Reading

• The Mystery of Baubo
• Baubo, Vulva Clown

Art / Video

• Eight Ancient Exhibitionist Figurines
• Map of Greek Mythology
• #6 Persephone, Demeter and Baubo  (59 min)
• Baubo from a StarFire offering. (3 min)
• Demeter and the Passing of Seasons  (5 min)

Other

• The Benefits of Laughter
• Laughter and Spirituality
• Funny Jokes: 1000s of Our Best Clean Jokes | Reader’s Digest
• Baubo’s Bawdy Joke Bazaar
• Eleusinian Mysteries
• Anasyrma

Reflect on these quotes:

“Hearts are breakable,” Isabelle said. “And I think even when you heal, you’re never what you were before.”

-Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels

Some people see scars, and it is the wounding they remember. To me they are the proof of the fact that there is healing.

-Linda Hogan, Native American author

Healing comes from letting there be room for all of “this” to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

-Pema Chodron, American Buddhist nun

Reflect on these questions:

Tell us of a time you were really hurt or wounded.

What was the cause?

What was helpful in healing from that?

What physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual healing do you long for?

What interferes with your healing?

• Ixchel (brief correspondences)
• Ixchel (Wikipedia)

Read your two other deity sheets.

• 64 Sukuna-Biko
• 64 Sukuna-Biko Charms
• 62 Xochiquetzal
• 62 Xochiquetzal Charms

• Try one charm from either deity sheet.

• Read pg 237-257 from “Gatherings for Goddess”  by B. Melusine Mihaltses

Reading

• The Ancient Mayan Civilization for Kids
• Mayan Gods and Goddesses
• Dragonfly Symbolism and Meaning
• Mayan Cross

Videos

• Top 10 Gods and Goddesses of Mayan Mythology (9 min video)
• Ixchel and the Dragonflies (17 min video)
• Traditional Mayan Music of Guatemala (9 min video)
• Modern Music: The Water Blessing Song by Nalini Blossom (6 min video)
• Ixchel Medicine Goddess Mask (1 min)
• Meditation for Manifesting with the Goddess Ixchel (20 min)

Kriyas fro Healing

• Tattva Balance Beyond Stress and Duality
• Meditations For Creating Self-Love
  

OTHER

• Healing Wheel model
• Letting Your Light Shine model
• SpeakOutLoud

Class 1: The Odysssey

• Hero’s Homecomings (1)
• Guests and Hosts (2-4)
• A Goddess and a Princess (5-6)

Class 2: The Odysssey

• Odysseus Among the Phaiakians (7-9)
• Odysseus Tells his Own Story (10-11 (line 1-375) )
• From Persephone’s Land to the Island of Helios (11 (line 375-end) – 12)

Class 3: The Odysssey

• The Goddess, the Swineherd and the Beggar (13-15)
• Reunion and Return (16-17)
• Odysseus and Penelope (18-19)

Class 4: The Odysssey

• Recognitions and Revenge (20-22)
• Reunion and Resolution (23-24)
• The Trojan War and the Archaeolgists

“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to. Our anger may be a message that we are being hurt, that our rights are being violated, that our needs or wants are not being adequately met, or simply that something is not right.

Our anger may tell us that we are not addressing an important emotional issue in our lives, or that too much of our self – our beliefs, values, desires, or ambitions – is being compromised in a relationship.

Our anger may be a signal that we are doing more and giving more than we can comfortably do or give. Or our anger may warn us that others are doing too much for us, at the expense of our own competence and growth.

Just as physical pain tells us to take our hand off the hot stove, the pain of our anger preserves the very integrity of our self.

Our anger can motivate us to say “no” to the ways in which we are defined by others and “yes” to the dictates of our inner self.”

QUESTIONS

• What role has anger played in your life?
• Tell us of a time you were really angry.  What was the cause? What was the result?
• What makes you angry – the personal, political institutions, religion, society, God, the universe?
• How do you express or release your anger?
• Are you comfortable feeling angry? Why or why not? 
• Is all anger the same? Can you imagine ways that anger can be used for good?

• Yanauluha
• Yanauluha Charms
• Goga
• Goga Charms

• Try one charm from either deity sheet.

• Read pg 171-185 from “Gatherings for Goddess”  by B. Melusine Mihaltses

Hawaiian Myths

Hawaiian Religion

Pacific Ohana: The mythology of the Hawaiian Culture (slides explaining some of the deities)

Goddess Pele: Hawaiian Goddess of the Volcano

Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes by W.D. Westervelt [1916]
(The Fire Goddess Pele, her deeds, family and loves.)

VIDEOS

Miscellaneous Myths: Pele (5 min video)

Pele Searches for a Home (25 min video)

Holo Mai Pele (53 min video explaining the saga of Pele her rivalry with her sister Hi’iaka)

Hawaiian Moon Calendar

1% Pele Oil Labels

“Controlling Anger Before it Controls You” (article)

Anger Management: Tips and Techniques for Getting Anger Under Control (article)

How do we craft a rooted yet flexible approach to life that invites change in without risking our integrity?

2) Tell a brief story about a significant change at any point in your life that was completely unexpected. How did it affect or change your life?  Did you welcome or resist the change? 

Was there a message or lesson in the experience that nourished you spiritually?

Were you surprised at how you handled it?

3) Tell a brief story about a significant change in your life that you purposefully created. What did you lose and what did you gain in the process? Did the change bring you the gifts and challenges you hoped for? 

4) Do you usually embrace change or avoid it? 

It is possible to be “addicted” to change, to the adrenalin rush of leaving frustrations behind and stepping out into the unknown?

Is it possible to call something “security” when really it’s being in a rut?

How do you balance the spiritual and practical rewards or change with the risks of change?

5) Ask yourself — “Where have I become too complacent? Have my routines gone past “comfortable” and into a rut?

How does fear of the unknown stifle my personal growth?”

6) What would you like Oya to destroy and then transform and rebuild in your life?

• 61 Tinia
• 61 Tinia Charms
• 67 Kishimo-Jin
• 67 Kishimo-Jin Charms

• Try one charm from either deity sheet.

• Read pg 148-169 from “Gatherings for Goddess”  by B. Melusine Mihaltses

Ideas:

• • Emotional_Fatigue_Buster
  • Fire Tattwa 2010 DOT Commentary
  • Fire Kriya: 2010 Meditation
  • Simrit Kaur: Fire Tattva Meditation (MP3)
  • African Gods & Goddesses Re-Envisioned in “Yorùbá African Orishas” Photography Series
  • Yemaya Pittsburgh Production: Oya Dance

Class 1: The Iliad of Homer

• Introduction to Homeric Epic
• The Homeric Question
• Glory, Honor, and the Wrath of Achilles (Read 1-2)

Class 2: The Iliad of Homer

• Within the Walls of Troy (Read 3-6)
• The Embassy to Achilles (Read 7-9)
• The Paradox of Glory (Read 10-12)

Class 3: The Iliad of Homer

• The Role of the Gods (Read 13-15)
• The Longest Day
• The Death of Patrokios (Read 16-17)

Class 4: The Iliad of Homer

• Achilles Returns to Battle (Read 18-21)
• Achilles and Hektor (Read 22)
• Enemies Tear’s – Achilles and Priam (Read 23-24)

When do you wish you could have been more courageous? What held you back?

Over the past several days/weeks/months, have you seen examples of people being courageous?

Has anything happened in the course of your day/week/ month where you had to summon up courage?

Is there something you have been thinking about doing but haven’t had the courage to do? Is now the time for you to do it? If you are still struggling, what help do you need or what steps can you take towards doing it.

• Little Frog
• Little Frog Charms
• La Bafana
• La Bafana Charms

Take a look at some Nordic Paganism links:

• https://hubpages.com/education/norsemagic

• Try one charm from either deity sheet.

• Read pg 89-109 from “Gatherings for Goddess”  by B. Melusine Mihaltses

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 1

• Why Egypt Needed Hieroglyphs
• The Ancient Egyptian Alphabet
• How Language Becomes Lost

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 2

• Napoleon in Egypt
• Early Attempts to Decipher the Rosetta Stone
• Willian Bankes and the Keys to Decipherment

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 3

• Jean-Francois Champollion Cracks the Code
• Suffix Pronouns and the Hieroglyphs of Ptah
• The Immortal Scribe

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 4

• Hieroglyphs and the Bible
• Dependent Pronouns and the Passive Voice
• Past Tense and Adjectives

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 5

• New Ideograms Related to the Gods
• Names of the Pharaohs
• Ancient Egyptian Numbers

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 6

• The Egyptian Calendar
• Names of the Gods
• Negation in Ancient Egyptian Sentences

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 7

• Reading Hieroglyphic Jewelry
• Palimpsests: When Scribes Make Mistakes
• An Ancient Egyptian Prayer for the Dead

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Class 8

• Translating the Tomb of Perneb
• Translating Tutankhamen’s Tomb
• King Tut’s Magic Mirror and Sarcohphagus