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The Hearth and the Key

Confident Witch Circle: Othala • $49 • September 25, 8pm • Pre-Registration Is Required

America/Detroit
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Your legacy is in your hands.

You didn't get to pick your body and its specifications before coming here. You didn't pick your milk language, or the kind of spirituality you were raised with. You didn't choose which concepts about family, division of labor, and shame you would be taught. All of that was here waiting for you.

Some of what you've inherited is load-bearing. Without it, you would not be who you are today. (Sometimes this even applies to things we'd rather have done without.) 

Some of what you've inherited is rot. Maybe you know which is which, but most of us never bother to really examine everything in our inheritance.

Othala is the rune of the homestead, of inheritance and legacy. It is what is received, what is nurtured, and what is passed on, all in one. In this class, we're going to take a good, hard look at our own heritage and legacy. Because even though we didn't choose our inheritance, we have the opportunity to choose our legacy.

Never been to a Confident Witch Circle? Never studied the runes, or Norse myth? You're not behind; start from right here!

✽  What you'll take home

Company at the Crossing

Funeral rites are some of the oldest recorded by archaeology. While details vary around the world, our dead were never expected to make this journey alone.

The Estate Audit

Now is the time to take a look at what you've inherited and what you're building to pass on with your legacy. You get to choose.

A Practice to Keep 

You'll leave with a completed spell promising renewal and rebirth in the spring, with a working to tend through the dark half of the year.

Six months of darkness

Winter is coming...

...but so is Spring. Even though that can be hard to remember 'round about Yule.

Our spellwork in this Circle will give you a talisman to carry you through those darkest months of the year, with a reminder that there is light and life coming back when the Wheel turns.

Can your legacy be found?

Unless you plan to die naked and homeless by conveniently falling into an open grave, you are going to leave behind a legacy for others to reckon. Of course you'll leave behind your hamr, your physical body. But you'll also leave behind:

  • Bills. So many bills.
  • Property, whether house and land or just possessions.
  • Your passwords, to access your financial, email, and social accounts.
  • The song you sang to your toddler that was the only thing that would put them to sleep.
  • The "correct" path to take your dog out on a walk.

Now is the perfect time to check on your final arrangements and make any needed adjustments.

Real humans study and work here.

Queer, neurodivergent, disabled, chronically ill, and socially awkward people are what passes for "normal" around here. (Psst: "normal" is just a setting on the dryer.) Straight, neurotypical, socially effortless people are welcome too. We assume they can adjust.

Two hours. Two rooms. One ritual.

We begin with a short round of sharing: name and pronouns, your current energy level, one thing you are proud of accomplishing or learning this week, and a question to think about while we work. "Pass" is a complete sentence.

I open our lessons with myth, folklore, lived experience, and other stories to give us a world to walk around. Then we build on it.

The stories create the framework that gives the practical material somewhere to live in your brain. Long after you forget which handout contained which detail, you'll remember that bowl, the storm, the slippery frozen bridge, or the god who made a particular mess of things.

That story becomes a place where the rest of the lesson can live.

Before anything else, you'll get a full rundown of what to expect during our ritual. You won't be expected to do anything in ritual except the working; Weavers of the Web will be handling the details. You'll get full instructions for every step of the way.

The night ends with a final story to weave it all together, and some optional reflective homework to carry the lessons into the rest of your life.

"Homework" isn't what grade school wanted. There's nobody handing out gold stars, nobody will be disappointed if you don't do it. (Except maybe you.) The work belongs to you.

Here are a few things I want you to know without making you work up the nerve to ask:

  • Your written work during the ritual is private. Yours only.
  • You are not required to share anything. Passing is a complete answer, and nobody will circle back and pressure you for a "real" response.
  • This is one class where you must be on time. The doors will be closed at 8:30pm when we cast circle.
  • Attending once is not a hidden commitment to an initiatory or monetary track.
  • You will not be asked to swear an oath, declare a belief, or pray to a deity with whom you have no relationship.
  • You may stand, sit, pace, stim, doodle, knit, use a fidget, wear headphones, leave for the Sensory Room, turn your Zoom camera off, or otherwise operate your body as required by your needs while in circle.
  • Confidentiality: You may talk about what you learned and what you personally experienced. You may not identify who else attended or repeat another person's story outside the Circle. You are allowed to be vulnerable in this room; confidentiality is what lets that happen.

Around these parts, our rooms have more than one kind of seat.

Some people sit here in the chairs, in person, which is everybody's favorite. Some need to join through a Zoom call. Some people register, but then have bodies or transportation or children or work schedules or whole weeks that collapse at the last minute; they enter through the secure recording instead.

All of them are inside the Circle.

I teach to the physical seats and the Zoom together as one room. There are always off-camera seats available, just as Zoom participants have the option to turn off their camera. You're always free to pass and remain silent, too.

My promise is that the Circle is securely bounded. The recording is only shared with registered attendees through a secured link that expires after thirty (30) days. The recording is not posted publicly or re-used for anything else.

The confidentiality rule applies to everyone with access to that recording just as if they were sitting in the classroom. 

Class is held at Keys To Manifestation, 809 Center Street, Suite 7A, Lansing, Michigan.

Here is what you can expect to walk into:

The store is on ground level. There are no stairs and no elevator.

Parking is in the lot directly around the building. If you come straight up the front walk, there is no curb.

The front doors pull open and are not automatic. Inside, the doorways have low metal thresholds (a lip rather than a step). The floor is commercially carpeted from the lobby into the library classroom; the retail floor is wood.

Our classroom is in our library, which doubles as the meeting place for Weavers of the Web's community nights. There are rainbow curtains, moon goddess banners, a wall of books you are welcome to browse, tables, a whiteboard, overhead fluorescent lights, and enough open floor to reach a table with a walker or wheelchair without requiring everyone in the room to rearrange around you.

We have an eclectic mixture of rolling executive chairs with arms, upholstered office chairs, folding chairs and stacking bucket chairs, even a couple of wingbacks and bar stools.

Take the chair that works for your body.

Or the not-chair; there's open floor space, too, and yoga balls and floor cushions. Or bring your own seat. Make yourself comfortable, please.

There is one single-occupancy non-gendered restroom.

It has grab bars beside the toilet and along the wall. The sink is wall-mounted with open space beneath it, allowing a wheelchair to roll underneath. The floor is tile, with no rugs to trip over.

A separate sensory-friendly room is available throughout the class.

It has low lighting, a futon, pillows, blankets, exercise balls, and a rug. It is much quieter and darker than the classroom.

You do not need permission to use it.

Get up and go. Stay for five minutes or the rest of the evening (you DO have to leave when I lock the doors). Come back, or don't. I will keep teaching, nobody will follow you, and nobody will demand an explanation afterward. (We might ask if you're okay.)

The sensory room exists so that needing it doesn't cost you the class.

Incense made from herbs, woods, and natural resins ordinarily burns in the shop and church space. We do not use synthetic fragrances.

Natural smoke and residual scents can still be an access problem. With sufficient notice, I can keep the combined space incense-free for 24 hours prior to class.

That reduces the scent, but it cannot turn an active metaphysical space into a 100% fragrance-free environment. This is just one reason our Zoom access exists.

Still and sparkling water are available from Weavers' refrigerator. Help yourself. Hydrate or die straight! (j/k, you're welcome to die straight if you want)

The parking lot is lit at night. If you would rather not walk to your car alone at 10 o'clock, I (or somebody more physically imposing is usually available) will walk out with you. Just ask.

A'Kos is Kender's retired autism service dog from 4 Paws for Ability. Once upon a time, he was the key to helping Kender have more independence. Now, he's doing everybody's favorite retirement job: Store Greeter.

He's in the building regularly (though not EVERY day), usually stationed wherever he predicts the belly rubs will be most plentiful. If dogs are difficult for you, let me know when you register and I can keep him out of the classroom that night.

One Confident Witch Circle class is $49.

Class runs Friday from 8:00-10:00 PM, in person at Keys To Manifestation or live through Zoom.

Same class. Same price. Same room. Your choice of seat.

If you will be attending by Zoom, your spell kit will ship on Friday, September 18, to ensure you receive it before class night. If you register after this date, your spell kit will be shipped after class.

If you register and your body, your ride, your children, your work, or your whole damn week falls apart, you do not lose your class.

Tell me at least 5 minutes ahead of time. I will make sure we record that night (I don't unless I expect Zoom folks) and send you the secure recording link. It will remain available to you for 30 days.

If $49 is the reason you cannot attend, email me and we will sort it out. There is always a way.

We don't do financial aid forms and burdens of proof. We DO do work-study and scholarship programs. So please, reach out and ask.

You can sponsor a seat for someone who would otherwise be priced out.

Contact me directly to purchase a scholarship seat. I'll hold the credit until someone needs it. 

You get to quietly make the room bigger.

About Your Teacher

Solinox raises an athame to cast circle at an outdoor ritual

Lord Solinox Silverstar

they/them

Lord Solinox Silverstar is a 3rd-degree High Priestx in the WISE-ATC tradition, founding clergy of Weavers of the Web, ATC, a teacher at Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary, and the owner of Keys To Manifestation. They teach because they believe that every person deserves access to the tools and supports that help make a better life.