Kate is an initiate of the Path of Pollen shamanic tradition and one of only two individuals authorized to teach seminars and trainings for women on behalf of the Path of Pollen. In that capacity she co-teaches The Way of the Melissae seminar and the year-long training Arte Triptych Melissae with The Sacred Trust, a UK-based educational organization. Both of these courses are led by Kate and the Educational Director of The Sacred Trust, Naomi Lewis.
The Way of the Melissae
The Way of the Melissae is a well-trodden path for
distaff members of the European shamanic tradition known as The Path
of Pollen. This workshop offers a rare opportunity to work directly
with women from The Path of Pollen who will be sharing teachings
that have traditionally been passed down ‘from mouth to ear’.
Central to the tradition is the magical formula known as Six-Hex-Sex
which is embodied and expressed by the Melissae in her role as Priestess
and as Pythoness – a specific oracular mode of magnetic trance –
and training in the veiled ways of the Priestess and Pythoness will be
emphasised during this teaching event.
The Melissae utilise little-known arcane methodologies to move into limenal zones, in-between places of ‘neither-niether’ – where the three-fold structure of sisterhood ‘cells’ can be encountered and its denizens met, namely the Sisterhood of the Spinners, the Sisterhood of the Wise Maidens and the Sisterhood of the Fey. Each of these sisterhoods holds a particular body of teaching, orientated towards encouraging the student to become both the flower, the flow-er and the pollinator of honeyed wisdoms. Participants will also be introduced to the apis-codex, being a guide to living the fullest of lives in accordance with the Path of Pollen.
Image: Maggie Taylor
See What's On for dates and venues.
Arte Triptych Melissae
Arte Triptych Melissae is a private, three-part training for women in the ways of the distaff members of The Path of Pollen, the Melissae. The Melissae draw their inspiration from a different spring than most: it is an arcane discipline, a vein, an underground working - difficult to trace but easy to recognise once encountered. The training itself is imparted in three folds, each educating the participant in the ways and wiles of one of the three sisterhoods associated with the Pollen Way. Here, specific meditations and ceremonial practices that revolve around the Lemniscatic Volatus, the Dance of Infinite Flight, are imparted and utilised to move between worlds and step outside and beyond the circles of time. Student will be stretched so that they might reach through the surface of the tradition, accessing practical applications of the work to be applied to themselves and others. Within these practices and accompanying ceremonial work and ritual action, a path is laid leading to physical and metaphysical health and simultaneously a pilgrimage is made towards a vital and radiant life and the tableaux of honey and sting.
See What's On for dates and venues.
"The Way of the Melissae workshop and the training Arte Triptych Melissae have introduced me to spiritual practices that are staggering in their beauty, power and scope. .. We have been held, and deftly led through these exquisite teachings by two beautiful and loving women - Kate Shela and Naomi Lewis - whose ability to teach a diverse group of individuals never fails to inspire us all. I can barely measure, much less describe, the value I place on this experience, which I know will continue to unfold throughout my life" Dr Patricia Coates, Microbiologist
Recommended Books
Simon Buxton, The Shamanic Way of the Bee (Destiny Books, 2004)