Have you ever felt a special connection with a fictional character? Or admired someone who lived before you were born?
Do you have an affinity with a certain species of plant or animal? Maybe a plant you regularly ingest, like coffee? Perhaps you’ve loved giraffes or dinosaurs or dragons since you were a kid?
Do you feel a strong connection to a certain place? It could be a big place like a region, or a small one like that grove of trees in your neighborhood park.
What about your ancestors — are you called to have a relationship with them, but unsure what that would look like?
Would you be surprised to hear that all of the above falls into the category of “your guides”?
IT’S TRUE! Your guides, or holy helpers as I learned from my longtime teacher Briana Saussy to call them, encompass an enormously wide circle of entities you can turn to for support, guidance, and encouragement in any aspect of your life — from health to work to some vague feeling of dissatisfaction.
Every human person has holy helper spirits — including you, whether or not you’re aware of them.
YEAH! Your own personal support team of well-wishers, miracle-workers, and wisdom-keepers!
Bounding Tiger, Journal Dragon is an email course in which we will spend 13 weeks getting to know 3 such holy helper spirits using the power of JOURNALING!
YIP YIP!
The journal is your anchor, your canoe, your life preserver, and your paddle on this curiosity voyage. With it, we will document the development of consistent, healthy relationships with our holy helper spirits — and the wonder that will ensue.
Without that container, we’re floundering in the river: unsupported and focused on keeping our heads above water. Telling ourselves, “I can do it all by myself if I just work harder! If I just keep doggy paddling maybe I’ll bump into a log!” is a limiting belief — it limits us from experiencing the true interconnectedness of beings, which is how doors open and miracles happen.
And when I say “we” I mean it: I will be participating right alongside you and sharing my own experiences so you’ll always have an idea of what it can look like.
On this curiosity voyage, expect to slip behind the curtain of ordinary reality and encounter figures both strange and familiar.
Each week, I will provide a series of prompts, practices, and case studies for you to explore. Twice a week I will hold office hours to answer your questions and hold space for anything you wish to share.
Healthy, happy, mutually beneficial relationships with your personal team of holy helper spirit guides — that’s the jam we’re jamming about here!
Ultimately, this course is about the practice of living and working in harmony with yourself and the world around you — all the better to embody self-esteem, live your best life, and enrich the world, my dear!
IN THIS COURSE YOU WILL:
- Identify the 3 holy helpers you’ll be getting to know/working with/cultivating relationships with/learning about during our 13-week journey.
- Learn their names, their ways, their medicine, their characters.
- Compare and contrast their gifts with your own.
- Discover the ways they can help you and how they need to be cared for in return.
- Take an action together with at least one of them, e.g. build an altar or shrine, consecrate a talisman, cast a spell, perform a ceremony/ritual, make an offering, create artwork.
- Receive prompts and practices you can use over and over again.
I created this program because I noticed myself craving community — and the personal accountability that comes with being in a container of learning — around the practice of caring for my relationships with holy helpers. I would like to create that kind of container within this class — with you! I wanna build that community with you!
DATES & DETAILS
When: September 6 (New Moon in Virgo) – December 18, 2021 (Full Moon in Gemini)
Where: Your inbox weekly with writing prompts, practices, and case studies
With: Your journal, notebook, sketchbook, or video diary
How much: An honor system sliding scale of $25-75 per month for 3 months
Office Hours: Twice a week. You are encouraged to send me an email at any time, day or night, with your questions and any experiences or journal entries you wish to share, and I will respond during those office hours.
REQUIREMENTS
For this 13-week program, you’ll need four things:
- A blank journal, sketchbook, notebook, or three-ring binder**
- Time every week to spend at least 15 minutes with your journal
- An internet connection to receive email prompts
- A heart that’s open to seeking spirit
**NOTE: if you are the type who has an easier time processing out loud, you may choose to keep a video or audio diary instead of a written journal. If that’s the case, I suggest creating a folder on your phone and/or computer where you can store those diaries. The container of the journal is important: it keeps us from losing track of our holy helpers and their guidance, aka floundering in the river.
COST
I’m offering this class on a sliding scale. This is the honor system: I trust you to self-select the appropriate tier for yourself. If you aren’t sure, please consult this visual of the Three Bottles model that herbologist Alexis Cunningfolk created. You can read about Alexis’s thoughts on the sliding scale here (this post is where I got the Three Bottles model) and here. I completely agree with them. Here is Alexis’s breakdown of the sliding scale:
A Quick Guide to the Sliding Scale
While I encourage you to read my full thoughts on the sliding scale, here is a very brief rundown:
The top price class ticket is the actual cost of the class. If you choose a ticket price below the top tier you are receiving a discount.
The middle price is for those who are able to meet their basic needs but have little-to-no expendable income. Paying for this class may qualify as a sacrifice but it would not create hardship.
The bottom price is for those who struggle to meet basic needs and paying for this class would still be a significant hardship.
The Pay-It-Forward price is a few bucks above the actual cost of the class and that extra money goes towards supporting scholarships as well as future free and low-cost classes. Essentially it’s an opportunity to not only take your class but also support your fellow community members while you’re at it. Sweet!
You can make a single payment or sign up for a payment plan, which will automagically charge you once a month for three months.
Registration is CLOSED for the fall 2021 season. Check back in Spring 2022 for the next adventure!
FAQ
Question about the program that isn’t answered here? Email me at paigezaferiou@gmail.com!
Why do I need a journal? Can’t I develop these relationships by myself?
Holy helper spirits are liminal beings. They exist in-between and more often than not are unseen, so it can be astonishingly easy to allow their guidance, and even entire relationships, to fall by the wayside. Relationships with living human allies usually aren’t as difficult to keep track of. It’s a lot easier to reread texts or pick up the phone and ask someone, “Hey, what was that super insightful thing you said to me last week?” and then they use their physical human body to communicate with you about it. The journal is something physical we can use to connect with our holy helpers and record the wisdom and guidance they share with us.
How do I choose my three holy helper spirits?
We will begin the program by identifying the three guides we’ll be working with for our three months together. If you have trouble identifying which three holy helpers are ready to work with you right now, you will have the option to add on a 1:1 session with me where we’ll retrieve them together.
How do office hours work?
You are encouraged to send me an email at any time, day or night, with your questions, observations, and any experiences or journal entries you wish to share. Twice each week — most likely Monday and Friday, but I reserve the right to be flexible — I will respond to messages.
Is this class for me if I’ve never worked with holy helper spirits before?
Yes, this class is designed for all levels of experience but ESPECIALLY beginners, newcomers, and wonderers. You do not have to already have established relationships with certain holy helpers. But if you do, this program will help you practice healthy connection and deepen those relationships.
This program is for you if:
- You love journaling! Pretty notebooks and pens and, if you’re so inclined, stickers?!
- You are curious what people mean when they talk about their guides.
- You wish to experience the power of your own personal guiding spirits.
- You are unsure of where or how to start.
- You are open to meeting spirit guides you weren’t aware of.
- You feel stuck, frustrated, or lost in any area of your life: health, creativity, work, purpose, living situation, relationships, routine…
- You sometimes catch yourself thinking “I can do it all by myself!” but you know deep down that everyone and everything is connected.
- You know holy helpers have the power to guide you, enrich your life, increase your luck, and help you get what you want. But when it comes to actually cultivating those relationships, you don’t know what to do, you don’t know how to integrate them into your life, and you’re afraid you might mess it up.
I’m here for you. You’re not going to mess it up. We’re going on this adventure together.
Registration is CLOSED for the fall 2021 season. Check back in Spring 2022 for the next adventure!
