I am about halfway through an online course by author and Druid, John Beckett. The course is titled “Introduction to Pagan Spiritual Practices - A Polytheist Approach” and it runs for eleven weeks. It includes weekly video lessons and Q&A sessions every couple of weeks as well as an optional facebook group(this part of the course I cant comment on as I don’t use facebook.) The cost is $50 for the entire course and scholarships are available(the deadline for scholarships has passed obviously as the course is under way.)
I thought I would go ahead and recommend this class even though I’m only half way through because it does a really good job of covering the basics of how to develop your own daily spiritual practice, covering a lot of common questions we all have. Its not specific to Druidism and any witch or pagan will find it helpful. John Becketts warm and friendly tone makes the course a pleasure that I look forward to every week and he’s got plenty of experience behind his words. I am also recommending it now because you may (not certain of his policy but you can reach out via email to him) be able to still sign up which would have the advantage of getting in on the remaining Q&A’s. If not the class and course lessons are available to take any time in the future but the Q&A sessions will have passed.
The course sections are:
0. Introduction (free)
- Polytheist Foundations
- Altars and Shrines
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Offerings
- Reading and Study
- Relationships With the Natural World
- Grounding and Energy Work
- Worship and Liturgy
- Building a Liturgical Calendar
- Commitment, Persistence, and Will
I highly recommend this course to anyone who is looking for some extra help and guidance in developing your own spiritual practice from a pagan and polytheist perspective. Its very informative yet down to earth so it doesn’t feel like a heavy lift. If you’d like to get an idea of Becketts style and background you can check out his writing at John Beckett - Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist. (patheos.com)
or you can read his books “Path of Paganism” and “Paganism in Depth.” I can’t say anything about the books though, I’ve purchased them but they are sitting on my stack of a dozen “to read” books, we all know how that goes, lol.
Anyway I recommend you give John Beckett’s work look, I think you’ll enjoy it. I Highly recommend the course to anyone.
“Paganism isn’t something we believe, it is something we do. And this is what we do on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, and so on…” -John Beckett
