Hearth & Horn

I've got my first draft of an in-person/online-in-a-group beginner course together.

Teaching Wicca and Paganism by Thea Sabin is a total banger, like even as a moderately experienced teacher, I was greatful for the changes in direction it pushed me in.

My main worry now is commitment/persistance. I've got it down to 9 seminars, but that's still a lot (and not enough).

I've decided I'm going to challenge my participants. Basically, they will all be adults, and my website is already there. So I'm not going to do a thing where I just read out the website with slides. Riffing off Sabin, but also thinking about what I would want from a pagan course - I would want to be treated like a 33 year old man who has been around a bit, who is capable of tackling big ideas and being treated as an adult. The basic structure is going to be that you read some webpages, maybe do an activity, and then come to class and discuss it. Not the other way around, where I impart information followed by homework. Fencraft (at this stage) is more ideas-oriented than like, skills-oriented, where it's important I teach you spells correctly, and it's also a-way-of-living-your-life moreso than most pagan trads so I feel like a lot of, try it and see what you think is the way to go.

So it's more like, self-education with socials.

Still - I worry about time commitments (adults are busy!), and I also worry about the material needing time to percolate. You've got to reflect a bit on what you're doing for it to be meaningful. And then on the flipside, if I don't do 9 weeks (a proper sprint, and I will be expecting a substantial amount of homework) but instead 9 months, well how many people are going to have that kind of marathon-persistance and remembering?

There's also the way the material builds. I worry in both directions. Will doing a month-by-month, with an entire month just devoted to the Act Of Walking be too boring and people will drop out? Or is that, exactly the amount of time the average adult needs to try it out around other commitments? And the time a serious seeker needs to give to it?

Every two weeks? That's an 18 week course, so ~4 months. 4 months is long enough that most people ought to be able to read like, two books? perhaps. The Seeking example Dedicant year is two classes a month. But I feel like perhaps, people treat in-person connections as more meaningful than internet ones.

Can I make it drop-in? I'd rather not, it all builds on itself, and if it's drop in people are more likely to drop out.

& there's the fact this is new - I can't count on people to say, have the name recognition of Wicca. & the fact we don't actually do anything as flashy as spells in that time, it's not practical focused, it's very spiritual-lifestyle focused. & it's not exactly a course for initiation, so it won't be people who are already feeling a deep sense of commitment (necessarily!)

Also - my persistance. What works best for me? Can I do 9 weeks more easily than 9 months? There's pros and cons to both. They're both big commitments for me. 18 weeks/4 months leaves 6 months for the rest of the year - for example, for a person who wanted to do this seriously then to progress onto Course 2 (whatever Course 2 is) or, 6 months of ritual or 6 months of studying other things. And it means I can potentially run the starter course twice a year, which again - is a big commitment, but ideally at some point it'll pay off in other people wanting to transmit it, or doing work of their own that I can follow.

I guess, i can't do all things to all people - I just need to do it the way I think works best, and it'll attract people who vibe with that.

But I'm excited about it - I'm looking at the overview and thinking, this would be fun to attend.

I have more serious thoughts about this but I wanted to get the scraps on paper now