The words γνῶθι σ(ε)αυτόν (“know thyself”) were engraved as one of the maxims on the pediment of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, along with μηδὲν ἄγαν (“nothing in excess”), suggesting that careful consideration and the Middle Way will serve us well and keep us balanced and whole amidst this life of wild joys and sorrows.
Image at right: Priestesses in a fresco from Crete
Priestess Training & Community Classes
The Mt Shasta Goddess Temple offers teachings and classes about the historical and contemporary beliefs and practices of holy women, shamankas, priestesses, healers, and ecstatic Goddess devotees. Our Skydancer Center for Female Mysticism offers world-class Priestess training programs which bring together ancient and modern elements of magical and spiritual practice, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and the use of time-tested tools for the work of tending the soul.
2-Year Intensive Training Programs
Bloodstone & Lime
NEW! This highly-requested training is the result of over a decade of work with Ancestral Healing, Sitting With the Dead, and experience serving those at the threshold of life and death. Uncover the hidden treasures of your ancestral lineage and work with the spirits of the dead for healing, empowerment, justice, and joy. Bloodstone & Lime is the first year of the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple’s new two-year Priestess, Psychopomp, and Death Doula training program. This program is a sacred invitation to women who feel the stirring of ancient wisdom within their souls, who are eager to weave the tapestry of their spiritual heritage into the fabric of their modern lives, and who feel called to work with the dead, the dying, and the grieving.
In the program's first year, students delve deeply into working with their genetic and heritage ancestry, awakening, reckoning, and reconciling with the magic of their bloodlines. Each student develops a completely personal path of ancestor veneration and connects with ancestral guides. In the second year, Marigold & Pomegranate, students work through practical and spiritual aspects of becoming a Death Doula, including studying legal, medical, and family issues, as well as techniques of soul and Psychopomp work. At the end of the program, Priestesses take their vows and discern how to serve their communities’ needs best.
Woman Shaman Priestess
If you were born with a heart that yearns for the sacred, if you feel naturally attuned to ritual and devotion, if you are sought for guidance, advice, and assistance from those who want more meaning and magic in their lives, and if you feel ready to accept the role of Priestess in service to the divine in our changing world, then now is the time to honor your calling. In the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple’s signature Priestess training program, students undertake a 2-year journey to study practices of women’s spirituality and female mysteries in a global context. We work with tools and rituals relevant to women’s shamanism, mysticism, and spiritual service, and we connect with the Goddesses of world cultures including information about living lineages and traditions.
Our first year is called Woman Shaman Priestess. This is a year for you to train your heart and mind, develop your practical ritual skills, and connect more profoundly with the power you carry within. Year One includes practices that create a balanced foundation for soul work, helping you develop familiarity with personal ritual techniques, and anchoring the walk of your Priestesshood in grace and devotion. At the end of Year One, each Priestess makes formal commitments to her path and begins to develop a vision for her service. The second year of Priestess training is called Flight of the Skydancer. It involves conditioning the priestess's perspective to meet every situation with a commitment to spirit work, building the mandala of goddesses and allies she will be honoring, and learning next-level tools and practices for the benefit of all. At the end of the second year, each Priestess takes her vows and launches her public practice.
Via Carmen Pythia
In Ancient Greece, the Priestesses at the Oracle of Delphi were known as Pythias, or Serpent Women. For over 2000 years their words were highly prized in the decisions of governments, leaders, spiritual devotees, and those who stood at the crossroads of life. They shared their gifts of prophecy with seekers from near and far, while seated on a 3-legged stool over a crevice in the Earth from which issued a rising cloud of mystic vapors that sent them into ecstatic trances. Their strange yet meaningful utterances become words of wisdom to the petitioners who visited them, and many of their prophecies were eerily accurate and specific.
Perhaps you identify with these ancient Oracles and their lives of extraordinary vision. Have you had prophetic dreams? Do you simply “know” things that others don’t? Do you live your life based on intuition, or desire to live that way? The Mt Shasta Goddess Temple carries on the ancient oracular sisterhood through our Sibyl Training program, the Via Carmen Pythia. We are calling together the Dragon Priestesses of the modern era for a training in classic mystery school style: studying the ways of divination, intuition, trance, and mystic vision, listening deeply within, performing readings, and observing the spirit signs in nature and the patterns of energy in our world. We heed the voices of the spirits, the voices of the Earth, and the inner voice as we develop our gifts for the purpose of helping guide humanity through these times of sudden and rapid change.
Upon graduation from this training program, with an optional completion trip to Delphi, Greece to visit the Oracle site, Sibyls receive Temple support for establishing & maintaining their practice as public readers.
The third year (and beyond) of Priestesshood in the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple involves the deployment of one’s own personal projects, the launch of a new Temple, or another significant endeavor relevant to each graduate’s compassionate path of service. In our Council of Wisewomen and Collegium Sibyllae sisterhoods with program Alumnae, and with Priestess Yeshe’s support, each Priestess and Sibyl takes the steps to bring her projects to life in the 3rd year of the training and beyond, and is welcome to remain in the Temple’s graduate sisterhood circles for as long as she wishes. Your Priestess or Sibyl project might be intimate or global; our sisterhood includes women who serve small local covens, Temple builders, professional and private diviners, as well as authors who have published and sold thousands of books. Wherever your practice takes you, we are here to be of support in your Priestess journey.
Are you ready to explore the Mysteries with us?
For Priestess or Sibyl trainings, please complete all of the following steps:
1) Sign up for Mandala Membership, begin attending the rituals and classes, and get to know us a few months before your training begins.
2) Discern the program that is right for you.
3) Fill out the Training Application linked below.
4) Further instructions for joining the training of your choice will follow.