Classes & Events

Learning the Language of Astrology

a 13 week course

Course Format
All lectures are recorded to be watched on your timeline and the next lesson is sent to participants on Thursday each week.

Six bi-weekly live 90-minute discussion calls will be held during the 13 weeks for a total of 19 classes.

Course Description
This 13-week course will give you a crash course in the basics of astrology, primarily taught from a traditional/ancient astrological perspective, with syncretic modern/psychological awareness. We will cover the fundamental building blocks of astrological language so you can begin or deepen your understanding of the language of the cosmos. Longer description below.

Astrology is our universal time clock, ever moving in its cycles. Using it, we look at a snapshot of the universe at any particular moment and the forces that are at play at that time. It is inherently animist, magical, and queer, and it is from this perspective that we will be exploring the cycles of the cosmos.

Nearly everyone knows their sun sign and has heard about mercury retrograde these days, but what do you really know about astrology? Learn the basic building blocks of astrology, the language we have for interpreting the movements of the celestial sphere and their impact on our earthly existence.

The goal of this class is to give you enough astrological language and insight to be able to recognize the fundamental aspects of an astrology chart and begin to interpret them. This is primarily taught from a traditional/ancient astrological perspective, with some syncretic modern/psychological awareness. Like learning any language, you will be able to recognize when it is spoken and you should be able to construct crude sentences by the end of it, but this will be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. No matter your level of astro knowledge, everyone can benefit from going over the basics.

While much of this course will be experienced in the form of lecture and discussion, there will also be opportunities for experiential exercises, personal exploration, and connection.

All lectures will be recorded and uploaded for attendees each week. There will be an opportunity to attend the recording if you would prefer, but also all recordings will be sent out weekly. There will be biweekly live calls for discussion.

Topics covered include:

• Why astrology is useful, as well as some of its limitations
• The Queerness of astrology and Queering Astrology
• Animist, magical and somatic/embodied astrology perspectives
• 7 traditional planets, trans-saturnian planets, and nodes
• Stone, herbal, and metal correspondences to planets
• Magical, embodied attunement to planets
• The 12 zodiac signs
• The 12 houses
• Traditional aspects and dignity
• Looking at your most important planet of the moment and how the motions of that planet will affect you over the coming year (Annual Profections)

Emotional Embodiment: Awareness, Empathy, and the Gift of Feeling

a five-hour workshop

In a society that prizes mind over body, emotions are often thought to be a nuisance, inconvenient, or something that takes us away from the “reality” of a situation or what we would really like to be happening. In reality, emotions are a vitally important part of being alive and navigating this world in a body and are not going away any time soon. The more tapped in we are to our emotions, the better equipped we are to handle them as they arise. Being able to identify, feel, and release emotions is a useful tool for resilience, connection, and development.

There are no negative or positive emotions as each emotion has a function and an action, useful information that alerts us to do something based on what we feel. This workshop will be a mixture of mind-stimulating lecture and discussion as well as exercises and interactive experiences of emotions as we explore what emotional embodiment looks and feels like. This is designed to give you the tools to move from a place of reactivity, repression, or overwhelm of emotions to one of receptivity and flow.

We will explore:

• Embodiment and emotions as experiences or states of being.
• The difference between expressing, repressing, and channeling emotions.
• A model of emotions that includes four broad categories of emotions with many sub-categories, each with their own gifts and challenges.
• Information about emotional neglect and what we can do to develop emotional competency and intelligence.
• Empathy and holding space for others and our own emotions

Based on the work of Karla McLaren, Jonice Webb, Barbara Frederickson, Dan Siegel, Antonio Damasio, Stephen Porges, and more.

Desire as a Verb: Generative Consent and Boundaries

a five- or two-hour workshop

Desire is active and changing. It shapes our boundaries and drives our decisions around consent. It can also be scary to engage with or admit to in the moment. Even within an encounter, we may be caught off guard by multiple or unexpected changes in our desires. How do you know what you desire? How do you ask for it? How do you support and celebrate boundaries and desires at the same time?

We will explore:

• What is it like to follow your Yes, rather than focusing on your No
• The difference between tolerating, supporting, and celebrating
• What we want, are willing to do, or won’t do
• Embodied exercises of desire, boundaries, and consent
• How to notice and communicate your changing desires
• And what to do when your partners’ desires change

Intro to Erotic Alchemy: The (Re)Union of the Separated

a five- or two-hour workshop

Erotic Alchemy utilizes the processes of transformation found in nature to understand and encourage the unification of matter (the body) and consciousness (soul/spirit) within an explicit and intentional erotic context. In this workshop we will be focusing on the particular alchemical formula of the three conjunctios, or the (re)union of the three principles: sulfur, salt, and mercury, or soul, body, and spirit. Drawing deeply on the work of practical, psychological, and spiritual alchemy, we will investigate these conjunctios and the transformation that can be found within.

We will explore:

• What is Erotic Alchemy and how can we engage with it
• Alchemy as a process of personal transformation
• The alchemical formula of the three conjunctios and how that relates to the erotic and relationships
• An embodied experience of soul, body, and spirit and the unions thereof

Sacred Erotic Embodiment: Integrating Soul, Mind, and Body

a five- or two-hour workshop

Sacred Erotic Embodiment is the practice of whole body connection and bringing the spiritual into the material (or recognizing it is always there). We will explore our own embodied awareness and both internal and external sensory experiences, focusing on solo experiences for this first class. The experiential praxis will be a clothing-on guided somatic experience.

The Praxis of Sacred Relationship

a five- or two-hour workshop

Sacred Relationship is an approach to being in relationship with yourself, others, and the world, that emphasizes the spiritual nature of relationship. I particularly like Brene Brown’s definition of spirituality which is: “recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.” The particular approach we will be exploring has been born out of my own experience and practice of relationships as well as some sacred sexuality, developmental psychology, and neurobiology.

Mindful Erotic Embodiment: A Conscious Self-Pleasure Practice

A two-hour workshop often co-facilitated with other Seattle Sexological Bodyworkers

Mindful Erotic Embodiment (MEE) is a conscious self-pleasure exploration practiced within a communal erotic space. This practice can be transformative! MEE sessions will weave together the heart and genitals in the heart-field of supportive community. This often produces a state of arousal that is free of fantasy, unfinished emotional business, religious dogma, cultural caveats and habitual sexual behaviors. In this erotic trance state, an individual becomes aware of the body as a source of wisdom, happiness and freedom. This event will involve breathing, savoring, sound, movement, self-touch, placement of attention, and awareness of intention. Please come prepared to engage with your desire. Bring toys and any supplies you might want including towels or mats to sit on. We will create a sacred and supportive space full of music and good company.

Embodied Empathy and Holding Space

a five- or two-hour workshop

Holding space is the practice of being with what is arising in yourself or others without judgment or fear and with love and compassion. In this class we will explore what holding space is, what it is like to hold space for ourselves as well as others, how it can be utilized within sacred sexuality work, and some tips and techniques for this important skill.

Embodying the Sacred Whore

a five- or two-hour workshop

From at least the beginning of written human history, as far back as we know, there have been sacred whores, also often called sexual priest/ess, temple prostitute, and other names. The sacred whore is an erotic priestex who embodies sexual sovereignty, knows all parts of the body to be sacred, and celebrates the erotic in all of its forms. The work of sacred whoredom begins with the body: recognizing all bodies as holy and working to embrace and inhabit all parts of the body.

In this class we will explore a bit of the threads of the sacred whore through history, feel into ways to embody this way of being, and play with practices to enhance our experiences of sacred whoredom. We embrace sexuality and the erotic as life-force and central to existence, related to all aspects of existence, and work to fully embody who we are in every (erotic) moment.

Queer Bodies, Queering Desire: Authentically Reclaiming Our Sexualities

a two-day embodied somatic practice playshop, with Mischa Gilraen of Authentic Queer Desires

You and your Queer Body are invited to a potent two-day embodied somatic practice playshop where we will move, share, and breathe fire into our unique sexualities, all through the vibrant lenses of queerness, transness, and neuroemergence.  All who identify as Queer/LGBTQ+ and feel called to attend are invited to register.

Queerness is both who we are and who we are becoming: it is both an identity and a continual process of active resistance, (re)claiming, and creation.  Our bodies are Queer; our sexualities are Queer: Queering Desire is an act of working to set ourselves free from the restraints of cisheteropatriarchal white supremacy culture and allowing ourselves the freedom and liberation to imagine and create our juicy erotic futures.  We will practice this slowly with plenty of time for rest and pleasure.

We’ll weave together movement, breath, and playful sensuality, shedding layers of restriction that inhibit our desires and planting seeds to fully embody our Queer Erotic Selves. We’ll have opportunities to laugh, sweat, and cry as we reclaim our rightful place as architects of our own sexual ecstasy and erotic natures.

Day One of our weekend together will be dedicated to building group resonance through grounding and creating embodied art together, exploring our queer erotic bodies with breath and movement, and sharing the stories of our bodies and genitals.

Day Two will focus on exploring consent and desire–or how we understand what we want and don’t want from a place of embodied knowing–utilizing movement for personal liberation and pleasure, and engaging in mindful erotic embodiment practice–a communal self-pleasure experience. We will use the technologies of the Wheel of Consent to expand our capacities for both giving and receiving and asking for what we truly desire.