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Running a virtual pagan moot, my year of creating a sacred space online.

Running a virtual pagan moot, my year of creating a sacred space online.

Last updated on: August 25, 2023 at 10:47 am by Katie Gerrard

Running a virtual pagan moot, my year of creating a sacred space online. 2023-08-25T10:47:57+00:00 Katie Gerrard

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I’ve run an online pagan moot for about a year now. It’s like your everyday in person pagan/ witchy meet up but has attendees from around the world. And is in your own living room.

We meet on the last Sunday of the month with no expectation for attendees to be there every month and explore a different pagan or spirituality inspired theme each time.

You can find out more about it here

Bennu’s Table started back in September 2022 from a desire I had to share some of my own practise.

Back in the early 2000s I attended an in-person group run from a North London living room, facilitated by the inspirational Jean Williams.

Jean’s group, Pagan Pathfinders has become part of witch history, with so many well known and talented pagans stepping over that big Victorian threshold. It was already well established when I started attending, having begun in the 1970s. It ran until the 2010s.

Jean was studying Psychology and wanted to bring what she’d learnt into the pagan world. She coupled this with a supportive, safe space where those new to paganism could find their path.

But just like Bennu’s Table, it wasn’t just newbies who attended.

And some attendees came for many, many years. Coming along on a Monday evening brandishing biscuits to share. You can learn more about Pagan Pathfinders via Jean’s book ‘The Golden Bubble’ (co-authored with the fabulous Liz Wigglesworth)

Bennu is a god of transformation, closely linked with the phoenix. This is something which is overarching in Bennu’s Table sessions – the idea of transformation and self growth. Pagan Pathfinders took you, every Monday, on a journey into your own mind and self. It was important for me for Bennu’s Table to continue that deep but gentle inner work.

Just like Jean, I’ve been studying Psychology and blending it with my witchcraft.

It’s a powerful combination. Each month we focus on a spiritual or pagan theme and use psychological and therapeutic theory and tools to explore it. The backbone of this work is a guided pathworking which allows for inner exploration (and as attendees will tell you – deep restorative relaxation which is perfect for a Sunday.)

We’ve looked at gods, mythological stories, and spiritual theology. We’ve explored these via Polyvagal theory (one of my own personal favourites), Freud, Jung, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Attachment theory.

The Bennu’s Table platform contains some information and pathworkings from past themes.

But because it’s designed to be a sacred, safe space, sessions are never recorded.

You’re free to share and to keep cameras on knowing it won’t resurface later. However, you don’t have to do either of those things.

When I started Bennu’s Table last year, I was a little apprehensive about how it would feel to have a sacred space online. Before the pandemic it might not have been something I’d ever considered trying. I live on the UK coast and I’m not a natural traveller so whilst I’m beginning now to start local events, it involves only local people or those happy to travel from London or elsewhere.

Lockdowns helped me to embrace a wider audience on an online platform.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how easy it is to create sacred spaces online.

I’ll write a blog post in the future with some hints and tips on what’s worked for me (and also what hasn’t!) I’ve been so impressed with how well online sacred space works, I’ve even started developing some ways to run Seidr rites via an online platform.

Over the year we’ve built up a regular, friendly, and inspirational community from across the world.

Many of our attendees identify as pagan, but some are from other spiritual paths. Some are attracted by the psychology aspect, some by the spiritual. We have an equal number of beginners and experienced people, some attendees are looking for ideas to bring back to their own groups, or even to bring back to their own clients.

It’s great to see life “opening up” face to face again post covid, but not everyone has that option.

It’s so important to keep doing things online, especially for those of us who are less able to go out and do things in real life for a whole number of reasons.

I’m not as able as I was twenty years ago to stand in circle. And my neurodivergence makes it harder for me to travel around. Staying online helps me to reach people I never would have been able to before.

But it also makes the pagan spaces I have to offer accessible, and this is something I don’t want to lose.

Our next event is this Sunday, tickets are free but you can choose a donation ticket instead if you’d like to contribute to my running costs. You can find this Sunday’s event and tickets for upcoming here

Technology and Religion

About Katie Gerrard

Author of "Seidr: The Gate is Open" and "Odin’s Gateways", Katie Gerrard is a witch working as a hypnotherapist, yoga teacher and workshop facilitator. You can read more about the author here.

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