About
Ringing Anvil
Awaken
Imagination, Inspire Vision, Create Transformation
Shauna is the founder of
Ringing Anvil, and Mark has joined her in creating events supporting the Ringing
Anvil initiative, and founding the structure of the community leadership, ritual
arts, and spiritual growth program. Other staff will join us as the initiatives
expand, and Ringing Anvil will engage presenters with significant expertise
for different projects.
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Shauna
Aura With 12 years experience as an artist, writer, designer, and marketing strategist, she has organized conferences, themed events, and created rituals, shrines, and art installations. She is a graduate of the Diana’s Grove leadership and ritual arts program and the Chicago C3 leadership program in environmental sustainability. Her articles have been published in Circle Magazine, Reclaiming Quarterly, Between the Worlds, Isis Seshat, and other local publications. Shauna is inspired
by mythic imagination, awakening the vision of the impossible, the pulse
of ecstatic drumming, and the song of a healthy, sustainable community. |
Learn more about the story of how Ringing Anvil came to be, and what the name means. |
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My spiritual roots
I began my current spiritual path when I began writing down my dreams at around age 11 or 12. My mom and dad were flaky spiritual hippies who told me if I wanted a spirituality, I'd have to find one. I began writing down my dreams, and as a teenager got interested in Celtic mythology. Soon after, I wanted to become a Druid, though I was more of a solitary practicing eclectic Pagan, there not being many Druid organizations accessible to a 15 year old in southern wisconsin.
The primary goddess/deity/mystery I worked with during all this time was a moon goddess; I usually call her the Lady in the Blue Light. She appeared in my dreams, and at night when I would walk home I'd look up at the Moon and talk to her. I didn't have many friends as a teenager; I felt crushingly alone, and She made it ok. Knowing that She was there, that She was reaching for me, let me know that it would get better, that I was meant for more than just being a sad, lonely teenager.
Later, I began to have dreams of a water temple; I would dream of a structure where water was pouring. Some kind of sacred fountain or chapel where the presence of this goddess of moonlight and waters was. I felt that complete sense of divine communion in that place of the waters. I knew that someday I wanted to build shrines or temples that helped others feel that sense of divine communion.
I tried several times to attend public rituals, or become involved with Pagan communities, but that never quite worked out, so largely my practice was solitary through dreamwork, creativity (painting as a road to divine communion) and the ecstatic divine communion I experienced when dancing at drum jams, raves, and clubs.
After attending an event at Gaia's Womb in 2004, I became involved with Chicago Reclaiming, attended a Midwest Witch Camp, and signed up for Diana's Grove Mystery School. I completed my leadership training there in 2007 and have worked to build community and run events in St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Milwaukee since then, as well as to bring the tools of magic and community building out into the Midwest.