Come build your magical song skills! You’ll immerse yourself in the wild beauty of the Ardantane campus where you’ll listen to the music of the earth, then return to work through a series of songwriting steps that will culminate in your own original chant. You’ll learn chants and leadership skills for drum circles and use them in our Friday evening fire circle. Hands-on workshops will add to your toolbox of music skills for rituals large and small, and you’ll apply many of those skills in the Saturday night ritual. The ritual will be your chance to dedicate yourself to a musically-rich spiritual path with the Goddess Sarasvati as your companion.

Alane holds a doctorate in social psychology, has extensive experience in writing and performing music and has been a pagan priestess for three decades. Her workshops balance the interpersonal, musical and sacred aspects of pagan music. Whether you see yourself as ‘musically talented’ or not, this retreat will help you to enrich your spiritual practice with the beauty of music.

Plan to arrive Thursday, as workshops and activities will take place all through the day Friday and Saturday. More sacred music activities will take place Sunday, concluding at 3:00 pm.

Registrants will have access to a private Facebook group that begins on September 2^nd, in which a pagan song will be posted each day for 28 days, up through September 29. These will be the songs to be used during the weekend. This group gives participants the chance to become familiar with the music in advance, and is also a place to begin to build our musical community. Participation in the Facebook group is not required in order to attend the weekend.

The retreat will be led by Alane Brown, a songwriter for the pagan band the Crow Women, writer for the blog Pagan Song, and an experienced fire circle facilitator. You can learn more about her online at https://pagansong.com/about-us/about-alane/

Cost: $130 class only, with code OFFCAMPUS, $160 class plus lodging.