In this class we will kill one animal together.
This class is also a Samhain ritual - perfect for folks who want a smaller scale introduction to animal harvesting, and who are yearning for a deeper ceremonial connection to their food and their ancestors. The day will be filled with magickal song and story to honor our own ancestral lineages, tend to our dead, and celebrate the autumnal harvest. A sweet way to celebrate Halloween!
We will gather Saturday evening for our death talk circle, where we will gently prepare ourselves for the work of animal harvesting. Sunday morning we will harvest one animal and roast them on the open fire. While they are roasting, we will magickly craft using different parts of the animal’s body. By dinner, we will assemble a collaborative ancestral foods feast imbued with deep collective meaning.
This class will weave old folk magick traditions with new emergent creations and stories.
Topics that we cover:
-how to efficiently and humanely kill an animal with just a knife, wrapped in song, prayer and ceremony
-how we tend to our human dead during this season, and why
-how to catch blood and keep it well
-how to gut cleanly (either in the field or hanging, depending on your needs), and how to sort the organs for food and non-food uses
-how to skin the animal and process the hide to preserve it until further use (for tanning or rawhide)
-how to prepare each organ for maximum nutrition and taste
-cooking a whole animal on an open fire
-how to find, remove, clean and store sinew for rope and thread
-how to skin the lower legs, and how to make them into adorable little pouches, sewn with sinew
-how to find, remove, clean, and prepare the pericardium heart sack into a beautiful pouch
-how to find, remove, clean and prepare bladders for many different uses as a receptacle
-how to remove and process the eyeballs for painting pigment and magick
-how to find, remove, and prepare the gall for various uses
-how to remove hooves for rattles, buttons, etc
-folk magick traditions of Europe, Scandinavia, and the Celtic Isles involving sheep and goats
Class includes:
1.5 days of hands-on instruction with Harmony Cronin
A collaborative ancestral meal on Sunday
Guided trance, spirit communication, and folk practices taught by Christopher Williams (creator of the Death Doula Oracle deck)
On site camping / bring your own tent.
A finished craft of your own design!
Sliding scale $250-500
Non-refundable deposit of $200 required.
venmo: @x_sonikspike_x
Limited spots available.
Please email gatheringwaysschool@gmail.com to register.