Well, I've always had fantasies that certain committed
students would take what they learned from class and
start their own group, but it hasn't happened as far
as I know (their being freshmen may have something to
do with it). Some students have kept in contact with
me afterwards and one even asked my advice on
paranormal matters, so I suppose if I wanted to, I
could contact them and start a 'study group.' 

In fact, after my diss is done, I was thinking of
starting a salon-type study group for hermetic topics
in Chicago to continue the work of a now-defunct group
there, and I was probably going to contact a few
former students (this is college-age, mind you) to see
if they're interested. But I certainly wouldn't start
anything affiliated with the university - I have no
idea about the politics of such a thing. My current
adjunct status may be either a hindrance (no job
security) or a help (under the radar) to such a thing.
But things may change if (when) I get the tenure-track
position I'm applying for. 

But in the class itself, I never trumpet my initiatory
experience. If I reveal anything at all, it's that I
do 'research' into these groups. The smart and engaged
ones figure it out and they may ask me outside of
class and I don't lie - but because my own experience
is so eclectic and I don't affiliate specifically with
any one group, I can still represent myself as
objective and unbiased.
JLW
--- kaligrafr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Aloha,
> 
> >On 11/7/2007 at 3:29 PM jason winslade wrote: 
> 
> >In my first class, I bring students in through an
> >'initiation ceremony' where they get a first-hand
> experience of how power
> >and mystery work, as well as in/out group politics.
> I also have them
> >memorize an 'oath' which is actually a reverse
> acronym for one of the
> >course goals - and see if any of them can solve it
> by the end of the term.
> >Many of them do because they've learned how to
> think, read and act like an
> >occultist.
> 
> I think that, overall, this approach probably does
> give students a sense or
> 
> what occult ritual is, how it works, and how
> occultists look at the world. 
> 
> One of the by now well-established and
> widely-practiced traditions of
> American 
> Neo-Pagan Craft--New Reformed Orthodox Order of the
> Golden Dawn--began 
> as a class-related project undertaken by a group of
> San Francisco State
> College 
> students in 1967. They put together a ritual focused
> on re-creating a
> witches'
> sabbat. They based the ritual on generally available
> published
> sources--historical, 
> critical. speculative, and literary--and on their
> own sensibilities.   
> 
> So far as I know, even though the original project
> was, by and large, arty
> and 
> playful in character, the ritual quickly assumed a
> deeper occulture
> implication 
> and powerful magical efficacy. The movement and
> material they had created 
> grew and prospered. 
> 
> More intriguingly, the NROOGD movement quickly
> gained legitimacy and 
> authority within the greater Neo-Pagan movement in
> the U.S. While there 
> may have been some disputes early on, there was in
> fairly short order no 
> telling doubts that groups of like-minded
> practitioners could bootstrap a
> *real*
> Neo-Pagan Craft tradition--like NROOGD--into being. 
> 
> NROOGD provided an important example and model for
> the development of 
> Neo-Pagan Craft. Lots and lots of little offshoots
> have followed a similar 
> path of creative adaptation of sources and
> bootstrapping it into the
> magical 
> realm. 
> 
> Do you suppose that your teaching ritual and all
> might give rise to an 
> actual magical movement or tradition? 
> 
> [This sort of turns around the initial question of
> this thread--teaching 
> doable esotericism in schools. Because here's an
> example of teaching 
> about esotericism in school--with no intent for it
> to be doable--turning 
> into a vigorous current of occulture.] 
> 
> Musing Occulture & Its Adaptations! Rose,
> 
> Pitch
> 


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