Dianic University Online : Sample Lesson

My vision for Dianic University is to bring the Goddess and her rich culture closer to as many women as possible. The Women's Spirituality Forum, our non-profit organization, has done this pioneering work for the past 30 years with my leadership. We have done this by organizing events such as conferences, festivals, classes and tours, publishing books, and now CDs. Hundreds of women have worked and presented to make this Goddess culture available.

Today, thanks to the winds of time and providence, the Goddess has returned with her women remembering and practicing her worship around the world. It has become The Third Wave.

Women's Mysteries have been revived and propagated by my daughters and those whom I have never met. It is my pleasure to be part of the herstorical phenomena of the emergence of the sacred Feminine face of god. Women have discovered that we are stronger and happier seeing the Divine within. The emptiness that women have tried to eat away, cry away, and rage away has been filled with blessed Goddess spirituality. This is the path of women we are going to lay out in monthly increments as our planet turns in order to flow this knowledge into the world, and into you. Out of these studies, which will feature the natural world, identifying plants and sacred trees, mythology, identifying your personal Goddess, memorizing sacred poetry, we will practice self-blessings and other empowering spells, as well as rituals for groups. It is my hope and dream that we shall grow into a community of women who will reach out to each other on this and other lists, and create friendships and support groups for each other regionally. Then we invite you all to our annual Goddess 3K festival in the redwoods of La Honda California where we mix and worship and sing and dance.

I would suggest if you are looking for a quick “witch fix”, soaking up witchcraft through a fast food straw, don't take this path. The reason this kind of growth takes time is because you are working with the subliminal self, who is never in a hurry, yet controls everything. When you learn how to be friends with your deep mind and call her up at will, then you will begin to grasp the ancient wisdom of witchcraft. Today we live in a time when science and psychology are coming together to validate the knowledge and way of the ancient witches. The old witchy ideas that all is connected to everything else, that we exist on the Web of Life, that we are all descendants from One Tree of Life and as people we are all cousins, is regarded as a fact in the “real” world, and not just a spiritual notion, by our knowledge of DNA and how it works, and by our knowledge of evolution and cosmology, and how they work. And where all is connected, magic can happen.

What do you get by mindfully taking this Journey around the sun with me and the other SIGs?

Dianic Tradition

This is a women-only tradition. We practice Women's Mysteries. We celebrate the seasons of life and our place on the circle of rebirth. This trend of worship, women together in prayer, is present in everybody's ethnic traditions. Women's Mysteries are the core of the community, where women take care of important matters, bless the children and the house, provide psychic protection against bad things, even attempt to make rain if there was a draught. This women-only activity created a rich culture of embroidery, cooking and baking, feasting and dancing.

We understand the Goddess as an all-encompassing Flow/Origin of all life. We see males and females united in the Mother who can create the same as her (daughters) and the different from her (sons). She is the Tree of Life. Hence in her eyes all living creatures partake of her divine essence. She is the beginning and she is the end. Beyond Mother Nature there is more nature. She is everlasting and self created. Circle within the circle, her symbol is the spiral like our DNA, all is from her and all returns to her in the end. In other words, we agree with the new scientist who see the universe as a huge recycling entity, everything we see out there is also within us, we are made of the same stuff as the stars. We are the children of the stars, rare, complex and beautiful.

As my song goes which is best known all over the world:

"We all come from the Goddess,
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean."

The Deity

We honor the Female Principle of the Universe of ten thousand names. This is very important. This is where we are different from all traditions and religions. Most of the religions have one kind of pantheon with an all-important name or code for the deity. We as women are not bound to that rigid mode. Each culture has named the Goddess with their own imaginations, and it continues to happen like that forever more. The Goddess is all women – without exception. She is one mighty force, all-inclusive, all-mother.

However, we are humans and we need to break this concept up into aspects we can relate to. Since we understand Mother Nature as God, her seasons, her nature all merited different aspects complete with names and characteristics, reflecting our earthy adventure from the cradle to the grave. The most often prayed to aspects are the Maiden Goddess Diana / Artemis / Luna / Athena / Queen Mother Goddess: Hera / Juno / Minerva / Nu Qua / Kwan Yin / Crone aspects: Hecate / Magera / Kali / Innanna.

Who is A DIANIC WITCH?

A woman who worships the Goddess in her many guises. Dianics are not asked to be loyal to just one aspect of the Goddess, you can relate to any of them, any time. You can research and come up with aspects of the Female Principle of the Universe we have never heard of before. We see all aspects of the Goddess as one in the end. Dianics are not insecure if you attend some patriarchal church, if you worship any other gods, even male gods, as long as your personal practice is Goddess and women only.

It is important that women have something on their own, their own spirituality, their own culture, their self worth from within. Dianic Tradition fosters strength in women and a view of themselves as divine and complete/whole human beings.

We begin to offer at this time The Journey. As we evolve it will be much more.

The Journey around the sun is starting June 21st. It includes personal destiny work and seasonal witchcraft. I lead this with you. This first installment will be the basics only. Next time we begin on the destiny work. It’s good for all levels to just mindfully encircle the sun, honor the aspects of the Goddess, and enjoy our new sharing with each other. In the process we will learn a great deal about the lost holidays of the Earth and Moon, and the lost Women's Festivals still waiting to be revived. Each season we will learn a new spell, we will learn to use our power.

Textbooks for The Journey are:

The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries (PDF form for students) by Z Budapest

Written in the early seventies, it has served to awaken the feminist witchcraft movement which has grown since into a Global Goddess movement. This work is currently out of print available only here in PDF form. I am hoping that our interest will help bring it back into print so that more women can awaken to the Goddess through what I have written, but for now, it is “our” textbook, and I am making it available to you.

"Grandmother of Time" by Z Budapest (Harper Collins)

This book presents the lost holy days of the sacred Earth in a poetic way. Holidays and how to celebrate them, Goddess Monologues and herb lore, spell work for the seasons. This is in print. Please buy it from your bookstores or on line.

"Grandmother Moon" by Z Budapest( Harper Collins)

This book follows the Moon and her lost holidays, deepening the emotional magic, healing our inner wounds. This book also is in print, so please buy in stores or on line.

For destiny work we use:
"Summoning the Fates" published by XLIBRIS. It’s about the generational destiny as interwoven with the personal one.

"Celestial Wisdom for every Year of Your Life" (Redwheel)

Personal destiny as it is influenced by the transpersonal planets. This is brand new book and is currently out in bookstores.

Blessed Be!
ZB

"While the Moon shone at the
Full The women were at their places
Circling the altar”

Hold up your hands to the heavens and breathe in deeply seven times, each time follow your breath with your consciousness to each part of your body, starting from the head, moving to your throat, your heart, your breasts your solar plexus, to your genitals and finally to your feet. With each breath you are bringing in blessings from the universe.

When you have felt a deep inner calm, and are filled with a simple of peaceful glow, kiss your hands. Yes. Plant a big kiss, one each hand, now. Don't ask. Just do.

Everything that is mine
is thine,
Everything that is thine
is mine,
tout tout throughout and about.

This is a very to-the-point identification with the deity ritual. Feel the self-kiss on your lips. Smell the scent of your own flesh. Know that's it’s you that you have kissed. Feel compassion towards that woman. Imagine all the works your hands have been doing for you. We are made of the same stuff as the universe. Everything in us is the same as what is in the stars and planets, and in all life on earth, and wherever else there may be life. Imagine! You are made of stars. You are the reason why gases congealed and created planets and stars exploded, and re-gathered again. You are the end result of billion and billions of years of evolution. You are the crowning of many, many deaths. You are standing on the bones of your ancestors. Let this sink in.

Notes: The last line of this invocation is from a very old chant which was recorded in a witch trial. So you are not only offering yourself to the Goddess, and receiving all from the Goddess. You are also joining in the dance which the witches of old danced with each other and with their Goddess. Think about this also.

Dianic witches have to have some structure to go with all that otherwise very Aquarian/tolerant freedom. The structure is light. Because we would be denying the Goddess if we bound ourselves with rules and titles and all the trappings of the patriarchal world. We are not lazy, or unsophisticated. To the contrary, we are profound in the simplicity of deep awareness. But even we need some structure, to remember who we are and honor the Goddesses within and without.

Each morning before you get out of bed, lie comfortably, perhaps flat on your back, with your arms relaxed at your side, and become aware of the sensitive psychic space around us. Just lie there until you can actually feel the glow or buzz, and then give yourself a "spirit to body" boost by praying. You can use prayers from your childhood or use the prayers offered so far,

But you can write your own prayers or improvise. There will be continued suggestions n how to infuse your everyday life with Goddess awareness.

In the evening light a candle as you undress, think about the day and how it has unfolded, and settle down in front of your candle, alone, except for perhaps your cat or dog on your lap, and pray again.

Remember, this is praise, not shame. This is a prayer to a beloved friend, not a cruel mistress who must be placated. So just keep it simple, and beautiful, and short, unless the bliss takes you, in which case you will be surprised as how much time has passed. But for the most part, short and simple is best, as this is a practice for a life-time, and it is not an Olympic exercise in spirituality, and you don’t want to burn out.

Exercise Three – Self Blessing Ritual

This ritual should be performed before doing any magical work, or just once a week, preferably on Friday the day of the Goddess Freya, which is the Northern name for the Lady (which is what Freya means). Let us begin after sundown. Prepare your altar with two white candles anointed with your favorite oil. The altar is dressed in white, the chalice is filled with half wine and half water. Sprinkle salt on the floor and stand barefoot upon it.

Light your two while altar candles, saying, "Blessed be thou, creature of fire." Light the incense, but don't use those fruity smelly sticks they sell in novelty shops. Instead get Frankincense and sandalwood, plus some self igniting charcoal on which to burn the incense chunks.

Dip your two forefingers into the chalice; touch your forehead, say: "Bless me Mother, for I am thy child." Dip your finger again and touch your eyes, saying: "Bless my eyes to see your ways." Dip again and touch your nose, saying: "Bless my nose to smell your essence." Dip and touch mouth, saying, "Bless my mouth to speak of you.” Dip and touch breasts, saying: "Bless my breasts, formed in strength and beauty." Dip and touch genitals, saying: "Bless my genitals that create life as you have brought forth the universe." Finally, dip and touch feet, saying, "Bless my feet that I may walk on your path." Take a little time before extinguishing the candles. You shall experience a surge of energy and lightness of the heart.

Blessed be.

Goddess Prayer

Our mother who art the earth
Nourishing are thy ways
Thy web of life be woven
Thy ways be found within
As it is all around.

Thank you this day for our bread and sweat
And forgive us our misuse of you
As we forgive others their misuse of us
And lead us not into exploitation
But deliver us from lording it over you
And over each other and over fellow creatures.

For thine are the waters of life
The feeding, breeding seeding ground
For now and as far as close to forever
As we shall ever come.

Notes:

Look at your life and set up an altar where you celebrate your first fruits of labors this year. Make a list of all the things you are working on, be it small or big, its all labors of life. Make a circle with barley on your altar and contemplate the magic in its design. Know that all nutrients are present in the grain. It’s a special gift of Demeter.

Light your two altar candles and a little incense (sage or whatever is available) and put your own picture in the middle of the barley circle. Take a deep breath and say:

Blessed be the circle of life and my place on it.
Blessed is the wisdom of the Earth and grain that she brings forth.

Now take one grain of barley in your mouth , chew and swallow it. This is the blessing for all my insides, may my body be well nourished and free of illness (add special needs if you have some). Take an other grain of Barley and say:

May this grain be nourishment for my soul.
May this barley teach me the courage and rebirth of the grain.

Stay on this thought and chew this grain because banishing fear is a sticky thing. Finally take a breath and an other grain into your mouth and say:

This is for all my ancestors who are not in body at this time.
May they receive the pleasure from this grain through my body.
Blessed be.

Eat that grain for the dead slow and reverently. Now nip out the candles with your fingers (never blow out candles you blow away the blessings) and go to sleep. Repeat this spell thrice in a row. When its finished take the remnants from your altar and offer it to the birds as sacrifice. Feeding the birds pleases the Fates.