Marian Green Workshop Weekend

Last Friday I left in the afternoon for a workshop weekend with Marian Green, organized by the Dutch division of the Pagan Federation. The location was a Stayokay hostel in a beautiful lane in Arnhem. The normal travelling time would be 75 minutes, but because of traffic jams it took me twice that long. I had taken that into account, so I arrived approximately at the expected time, around 5pm.

The group wasn't as big as in the other workshop weekends, I think there were about 25 people. Most of them I had already met at other weekends, workshops, meetings etc. I shared my room with 2 others. Our 4th roommate had taken her own camper to sleep in. I didn't sleep too bad. I missed Ron very much all weekend, but I called him as often as possible.

Marian Green is an author who has been working in the field of ceremonial and folk magic since the early 1960s. She also organises a conference in the UK every March since 1968 to bring together (neo-)pagan writers and their readers, the Quest Conference. She has written more than a dozen books on ceremonial magic and witchcraft. She is the editor of Quest magazine, published since 1970. She teaches at The Invisible College and runs workshops in and outside the UK. I have several of her books and I like her approach very much.

We had our own big room with a very nice view. The theme of the weekend was "Inner Journey and Past Life Regression". Very interesting, but not something to take lightly. Therefore Marian provided us with a lot of theory and knowledge. We did several exercises to train certain elements. We looked into the advantages and dangers of past life regression. Eventually we used two different techniques, different but both effective. I have been back to two past lifes, quite an experience!

It was an intensive workshop mentally. It took me a lot of effort to keep concentrated and alert, but it was very much worth it. In between sessions I went for a walk in the surroundings of the hostel. The autumn is such a beautiful season! The trees have sensational colours. This one was down the street. Behind the hostel was a wonderful footpath. When I was standing still for a while this tree (the one in the middle) gave me a yellow leaf, that I've put in my daily planner.

Sunday after lunch it was time to say goodbye to old and new friends. We wanted to take a group photo, but a lot of people went home immediately and Marian didn't want to join us. Pity!
The journey home took a lot less time. I was so happy to see Ron again, and the cats and dogs! I'm very very tired, but I don't care. I'll take my rest and look back on a great weekend!