Weaving the worlds together through story and magic.
As I wrote in my first book, Making Magic:
Magic is a wild animal. It is hawk and eagle, raven and owl, coyote and fox, wolf and wildcat, badger and bear. It shifts into all of the shapes and forms in between. Magic has been hunted and harried, tortured and trapped. It has witnessed its kin killed and its natural habitats destroyed. And like all wild creatures that find ways against the odds to survive, magic has grown careful and cautious, wise and wily. It is seen only in glimpses—a flash of eye, a swish of tail, a blur of motion—and then we are left with only trees and shadows and stars. It cannot be pursued in the usual ways. It is not something you can buy with money, earn through good behavior, or attain through the heat of drama and risk. The wilderness in which this particular wild animal resides is not found in some exotic place. It is here, and it is absurdly, wildly, free.
Magic has a story, and part of its story involves family, just as your story does.
The Sacred Arts are magic’s family, and we cannot come to understand it until we know them. Spinning Gold is where discover the Sacred Arts in their natural territory of folklore, myth, fairy tale, ceremony, and ritual practice.
Stories are not static.
They are living, breathing, beings. They hunger for the just right words, they thirst for an open-eared audience. They can feel lonely, ignored, and they can be abused and twisted beyond recognition.
When stories are remembered and restored they come alive, they twist and turn in fast sambas and swift split leaps and slow waltzes.
Stories find one another.
At some point the story of Magic became part of your story and that is why you are here right now reading these words.
Isn’t it time you find and get to know the story of your own, inner, magic? Really get to know it – in all of its stunning originality and particular detail?
Spinning Gold is where we live next to the electric truth that all true magic comes from “within” and meet some essential characters in the story of magic and the story of you: Love, Faith, Hope, Justice, Moderation, Courage, and Wisdom.
Stories have history. Stories are history. And, how do we create the future? We tell a story.
Spinning Gold is where we learn to reach into our lineage and broaden out into our legacy. Discovering both our Ancestors and our Descendants.
Stories have names.
They hide names. They give names. They challenge the names we think we know.
Spinning Gold is where we learn the true power of our name.
Are you ready to discover and hear them?
Are you, take a breath now, ready to tell them?
If so, then you are ready to begin Spinning Gold.
WHAT IS INCLUDED:
IN SPINNING GOLD YOU WILL LEARN:
✺ What the Sacred Arts are
✺ About the connection between Sacred Arts and Story
✺ The seven natural powers that each individual has and how they show up for you
✺ How to write your way back to yourself
✺ How to work with a lasso/cord to reach into lineage and legacy
✺ Dream Magic
✺ Sacred Arts journaling techniques
✺ The hows and whys behind Active Imagination Meditations
✺ About the connection between Magic, Mindset, and Manifestation
✺ You core wounds, their appropriate medicines, and their great blessing ways
✺ The power hidden within your name(s)
✺ Foundations for establishing right relationship with the living world
Note: Participation in Spinning Gold is a prerequisite for participation in any other SAA courses.
COURSE DETAILS:
Spinning Gold is a year long course comprised of 7 teaching modules that are each centered around a guiding story. We work with a month on/month off schedule so that learners have time and space to implement the content they have immersed themselves in.
Each month of the course features a teaching call with me that is available to the entire group – current students and our lifetime access alumni and/or alumni who have chosen to audit the course.
The general syllabus includes:
The Introductory Module
Guiding Story: Rumpelstiltskin
Natural Power: Faith
In the initial module we work with the story of Rumpelstiltskin to explore the natural power of faith (and ALL of the stuff that it triggers in us) and the most foundational of all the Sacred Arts – the Sacred Art of Right Relationship.
Learners will emerge with an understanding of what the Sacred Arts are, why story matters when learning the Sacred Arts, how to identify the seven natural powers we all have within us – and deal with the resistance we have around them, how to work with dreams, and the power of telling our own stories.
Module One
Guiding Story: Tamlin
Natural Power: Love
The Scottish Ballad Tamlin is a fantastic illustration of the weird and mysterious ways that the Otherworld finds us (and we find it) and the ability that is a pre-requisite – absolutely, gotta have it, for anyone who would create any kind of transformation in their lives.
We delve into the natural power of Love and explore the Sacred Art of Alchemy and Magic.
We will begin practicing some honest to goodness magic, explore journaling as a sacred and contemplative practice, discuss the Art of Memory, and begin working with Active Imagination techniques.
Module Two
Guiding Story: Vasilisa and the Baba Yaga
Natural Power: Courage
The most fearsome witch in the woods has always been the Baba Yaga. In this module we encounter her through the eyes of young Vasilisa and delve into the mysteries surrounding the Sacred Arts of Lineage and Legacy.
Working with a lasso, honoring our Ancestors and our Descendants, and refining our understanding of the relationship between magic and mindset practices are central themes in this module.
Module Three
Guiding Story: Beauty and the Beast
Natural Power: Hope
In this module we work with an original re-telling of Beauty and the Beast while we wrestle with the natural power of hope and the Sacred Arts of Divination, Astrology, and Dreams.
Our relationship to the heavens, wild places, land, and wounds will be explored as will initial divination techniques and intermediate dream work and rituals.
Module Four
Guiding Story: Sir Gawain and the Lady Ragnelle
Natural Power: Justice
A handsome knight, a heinous violation, and a burning question are the ingredients in the guiding story for Module Four.
Here we will explore our natural power of Justice and all that it makes possible as well as where it has been wounded. Balance and tension will be our companions through this module as we get familiar with the Sacred Arts of Ritual and Ceremony.
We will learn the basics of creating ritual and ceremony and begin to create our own.
Module Five
Guiding Story: Medea/La Llorona
Natural Power: Moderation
TW: This Module centers around two ancient tales that have elements of spousal and child abuse as well as infanticide.
Though the stories emerge from opposite ends of the world, their message is potent and felt in all languages.
Here we consider the Sacred Art of Cleansing and Purification and its role in our overall magic making and gold spinning.
We encounter themes of Necessity, Sovereignty, and Authenticity along the way as we clean out our own horror stories and learn to identify the needed medicines for healing and repair.
Module Six
Guiding Story: The Story of Job
Natural Power: Wisdom
My re-telling of the Biblical story of Job places us face to face with our natural power of Wisdom…and the shift in perspective that it requires. In this module we get familiar with the Sacred Arts of prayer, meditation, and blessing – discovering the differences and nuances in each one and putting them into practice.
We conclude the final module with a ceremony that may be performed individually or as a group and various ways to create/refine your own Sacred Arts practices.
Delivery:
Modules are delivered through the private classroom and portal which all learners must join so that they can access their materials. Modules are composed of MP3 audio files, pdf’s, and videos.
Timing:
Spinning Gold begins and concludes on Summer Solstice each year.
Returning students:
Returning students may choose to audit Spinning Gold for a reasonable fee each year. Auditing the course provides students with access to all course materials, including new materials, and the monthly teaching calls.
About the Teacher
Briana Saussy is a best-selling author, teacher, and Sacred Artist who has been facilitating women’s groups and teaching women’s mysteries since she was (16!) years old! Bri is now 42!
As a Sacred Artist, Briana’s clients include New York Times best-selling authors, business leaders, award-winning artists, authors, entrepreneurs, yoga teachers, and business coaches.
Briana’s work speaks to anyone who is looking for range and comprehensiveness of vision, which is required for a genuinely pragmatic approach to spirituality.
She is well-grounded in the world’s great religious and intellectual traditions, as well as western psychological practices.
Bri holds a B.A. and M.A. in Eastern and Western classics, philosophy, mathematics and science from St. John’s College (Annapolis and Santa Fe), and is a student of Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.
She has also trained at the Cross-Cultural Institute founded by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyes.
In her teaching, Briana is noted for a practical, grounded, and supportive approach to the mystical and magical while also invoking the depth and range of story, myth, and folk traditions from around the world. Briana is the founder of the Sacred Arts Academy Training Program, the first of its kind and only of its kind four year comprehensive training in the Sacred Arts.
Additionally, Briana has contributed to more than 7 books, including her two titles: Making Magic: Weaving Together the Everyday and the Extraordinary as well as Star Child: Joyful Parenting Through Astrology.
Briana’s work has been featured in the Paris Review, Yoga Journal, Mind Body Green, The Mountain Astrologer, Energy Magazine, Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine, and the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers. She is a regular contributor to Enchanted Living magazine.
GUEST TEACHERS:
Theresa Reed on Embodied Intuition
Esmé Wang on Mental Wellness and Magic
Pam Grossman on Witchcraft and Magic
Fabeku Fatunmise on Ancestors + Lineage
Chiron Armand on Magic in the City and Urban Shamanism
Randi Buckley on Healthy Boundaries
Alexandra Franzen on Survival and Books
Dyana Valentine on Oracular Living
Jason Miller on Sorcery
Kara Hoppe on Trauma and the Sacred Arts
Heidi Rose Robbins on Astrology and the Sacred Arts
Amy Oscar on Angels and Divine Messengers
Martha Jo Atkins on Death and Dying
Danielle Cohen on Visibility Magic
Najah Lightfoot on Rituals and Practices for Creativity
Debra Smouse on Structure, Space, and Sacred Arts
Myra Krien on Sacred Dance
Sarah Anne Lawless on Flora and Fauna
Grace Quantock on Sacred Arts with Limitations and How to Make a Blessing Bowl
Returning students may choose to audit Spinning Gold for a reasonable fee each year. Auditing the course provides students with access to all course materials, including new materials, and the monthly teaching calls.