Sounds almost
impossible,
right?
That’s not the fairy tale we’re taught.
Instead, we get, “Once upon a time, there was a girl who was cursed. A girl who was beautiful. A girl who was good.”
If the girls are good enough, if they suffer enough - sleep quietly long enough, smile enough, are patient enough - they win the grand prize! Which is, apparently, to be the object of a hero’s quest and to never go on a journey of their own.
But that’s only one way of telling the story.
There are as many tales and ways of telling them as there are stars in the sky. What’s your star? What will your story be?
You Deserve Good Things.
Beauty. Magic. Confidence, kindness, and care. Ways to fight burnout and feel at home in your own skin. You deserve an enchanted life.
And guess what? You’re already good enough. Already worthy. Already magic. If you don’t see it already, Enchant will help you remember.
If you’ve been feeling burned out, emotionally exhausted, and like your spark has dimmed…
If you’re struggling to carve out time to tend to your own needs…
If you want to feel lit up, energized, and powerful, all by unlocking the power of fairy tales and folklore…
Enchant is for you.
Hi!
We're Dr. Sara Cleto
and Dr. Brittany Warman
We’re the queens of burnout. Or at least we used to be.
We love fairy tales and folklore so much that we got MAs and then PhDs studying them. We’ll never regret doing that, but we do regret the toll the stress and perfectionism took on our minds and bodies. And the habits that calcified and hung around, even after we’d graduated.
Early on, a professor told us to never say no, ever, to anything, and to volunteer for everything, before being asked, or we would never get jobs. To Type-A, chronically ill people pleasers like us, this was like spraying a raging fire with gasoline. Our burnout just about burned us to the ground.
So we read books.
We got A LOT of therapy, both physical and mental. We slept a doctor-mandated amount of hours that felt selfishly grotesque. We read some more.
We remembered what had drawn us to fairy tales and folklore in the first place, and we used it to re-enchant ourselves instead of squashing ourselves. We’ve even started to learn how to say no! (It’s so hard!) We learned that we don’t have to live in burnout to achieve what we want.
We know it’s possible to do serious work and to still keep your sparkle.
Enchant is our distillation of what we’ve spent the last 14 years learning. It’s the folklore we learned and taught in universities, and it’s the work we’ve done since then to make a stronger, more magical frame for us to hold it in.
Folklore is the artistic fabric of everyday life.
Fairy tales are stories of magic that reflect cultural and personal dreams. They can be beautiful and yours and a powerful key to making everyday enchantment.
Enchant is our quest to show how they can wake you up and light you up. How folklore, fairy tales, and some science-based practices can make you feel equipped to handle burnout, grounded in yourself and part of a magical, possibility-filled world.
What Are We Covering?
Cinderella:
The Syndrome and Your Story
Do you remember the song the mice sing in the 1950 Cinderella? It goes: “Cinderelly, Cinderelly/ Night and day, it's Cinderelly/ Make the fire, fix the breakfast/ Wash the dishes, do the mopping!” This week is basically about that. We’re going to talk about endless business and feelings of inadequacy and where they come from so that you can start countering them. You’ll learn the systemic ways that burnout takes root so that you recognize it when it happens to you. And we’ll teach you how personal narrative can merge with the fairy tale to create the beginning of a path out of burnout and back into reenchantment.
Live Discussion/Q&A on February 28th at 7PM ET,
will be recorded!
Snow White:
Surviving and Thriving
Snow White often gets a bad rap as the most passive and helpless of fairy-tale princesses. But what if we flip the script and think about her as the ultimate survivor, in the face of an impossible situation? Through the lens of Snow White, we’ll learn exactly what burnout is and some very concrete steps for what to do about it. (Good news! Folklore has a lot of answers for this!) We’ll zero in on the folklore of ritual and show you how to develop practices that can help.
Live Discussion/Q&A on March 6th at 7PM ET,
will be recorded!
Beauty and the Beast:
Boundaries and Tradition
Would you believe us if we told you that Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale about boundaries? Failed boundaries, holding boundaries, and negotiating relationships? It really is. Using Beauty and the Beast to guide us, we’ll talk about what a boundary actually is (spoiler alert: this term is used incorrectly, even harmfully all the time!), how the weaponization of “therapy speak” can lead us astray, and how healthy boundaries can save your life. We’ll also talk about what tradition actually is (it’s more malleable than you might think!) and how bodylore and foodways can teach you to connect in ways that don’t impoverish you.
Live Discussion/Q&A on March 13th at 7PM ET,
will be recorded!
The Little Mermaid:
Finding Your Voice
The Little Mermaid tells us a lot about the consequences that happen when you give up your voice. This week, our mission is to help you find your voice. Sometimes, it’s so hard to even know what you really, really want or need, and it can be even harder to say it out loud. We’ll talk about why this is so common and ways to fix it through play, art, and authentic connection. We’ll also work on making space in your life for magic through implementing simple tools that free up your time.
Live Discussion/Q&A on March 20th at 7PM ET,
will be recorded!
Rapunzel:
Your Tower and Your World
The paradox of Rapunzel is that you both need a tower and to come out of it. You need a space of your own to thrive and recharge in and you need connection to the world around you. This week is about striking that balance. We’ll defend sleep to the death, explain how creating your own altar can completely change how you feel about your home, show you why you really need a room of your own (thanks, Virginia!), and plan ways you can bring enchantment to your community.
Live Discussion/Q&A on March 27th at 7PM ET,
will be recorded!
What Do You Get?
We have packed SO MUCH into this!!
- 5 Recorded Lessons from us that you can watch any time you want! Our lectures and discussions are college-level… but definitely not snooze fests! During these recordings, we'll dive deep into each week's subject and explore how it can help you re-enchant your life. Please note: these lectures are pre-recorded as opposed to live, and will drop each week on Thursdays.
- 5 LIVE Discussion/Q&A Sessions on Crowdcast where we'll work together to explore each week's lesson, answer each others' questions, share quests, and so much more! And don't worry - the live chat will be VERY active as always, we're sure! Community is SO important to the magic of Carterhaugh, and giving you more time together live just seems to make sense to us for this course in particular! These meetings will take place Wednesdays on February 28th, March 6th, March 13th, March 20th, and March 27th. They will be recorded.
- A PDF Enchant Workbook, which contains introductory material and an incantation/affirmation, discussion questions, and quest for each lesson, so that you can engage fully with each topic.
- A beautiful Enchant Journal PDF, which features prompt questions specifically designed to get you thinking about how to create (and notice) the magic in your life. (You can also purchase this separately in print form if you'd like to!)
- Access to our private Facebook group just for Enchant 2024 students - While participation in the course Facebook group is optional, it really is one of the best parts of Carterhaugh. We have an amazing community of kind, creative, and very smart students, and the discussions that unfold in this space are always a delight and incredibly supportive. In fact, we learn new things from our students every time!
- FIVE bonus offerings from the incredible Terri Windling, Dr. Maria DeBlassie, Briana Saussy, Dr. Jeana Jorgensen, and Sara and Brittany (more info on those below!) Plus a ton of PDFs too!
BONUS MATERIALS!?
Bonus #1:
"The Armless Maiden and Wild Sanctuary" with Terri Windling
In her talk, beloved writer, folklorist, scholar, artist, and editor Terri Windling explores the Armless Maiden fairy tale (aka "The Girl With No Hands") as a powerful story of surviving calamity, focusing on the role of "wild sanctuary" in processes of transformation, creativity, and healing.
Includes storytelling by Howard Gayton!
Special Note: We will also be hosting a LIVE Q&A session with Terri Windling on March 23rd, 2024 at 12PM ET!!
Terri Windling is a writer, editor, artist, and folklorist specializing in fantasy literature and mythic arts. She has published over forty books, receiving both the World Fantasy and Solstice Awards for Life Achievement, plus nine other World Fantasy Awards and the Mythopoeic Award. She has edited fantasy fiction since the 1980s; and published numerous anthologies of magical stories, including sixteen volumes in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror series and six volumes in the Snow White, Blood Red series of adult fairy tales (co-edited with Ellen Datlow). She also writes fiction for adults and children, nonfiction on folklore and fairy tales, and a long-running blog: Myth & Moor. A former New Yorker, Terri now now lives with her British husband, Howard Gayton, in a small Dartmoor village full of artists.
Howard Gayton is a theatre director, performer, teacher and scholar specializing in Commedia dell'Arte, puppetry, foolery, folk pageantry, and .storytelling. His work is inspired by all manner of mythic tricksters, zanni figures, fools, jesters and sacred clowns, as well as by the use of masks in drama, myth, magic, and sacred rituals the world over.
Bonus #2:
"Conversing with the Tarot to Conjure Main Character Magic" with Dr. Maria DeBlassie
This special Enchant tarot series with incredible scholar, writer, and bruja Dr. Maria DeBlassie is designed to help those suffering from burnout and stress to recapture their main character energy by consulting the deck. The cards are the embodiment of story magic and, by conversing with them—exploring the stories and iconography that overlap with folklore—we can learn how to reclaim our own story and find enchantment—and empowerment—in our daily lives.
Dr. Maria DeBlassie is a native New Mexican mestiza and award-winning writer and educator living in the Land of Enchantment. She writes and teaches about spooky stuff, romance, and all things witchy. She is forever looking for magic in her life and somehow always finding more than she thought was there. Find out more about Maria and conjuring everyday magic at mariadeblassie.com.
Bonus #3:
"Mommy Magic" with Briana Saussy
Renowned teacher, best-selling author, and Sacred Artist Briana Saussy is giving everyone in Enchant special access to her "Mommy Magic" video program and workbook! If you're a biological mom, a foster mom, a dad who also moms, a chosen mom, or if you identify with the role of mom or mother and you have children in your life that would benefit from magical support, then this workshop is for YOU! It's a great introduction to Bri's story-based Sacred Arts practice and will cover everything from banishing bad dreams to maintaining love, respect, and peace in the home. You can read more about the program here - https://brianasaussy.com/mommy-magic/
Briana Saussy is an author, storyteller, teacher, spiritual counselor, and leader for a growing community of soulful seekers. She is well-grounded in the world’s great religious and intellectual traditions, as well as western psychological practices. Her work speaks to anyone who is looking for range and comprehensiveness of vision, which is required for a genuinely pragmatic approach to spirituality. 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. You can read more at brianasaussy.com
Bonus #4:
"Dancing Through Fog" with Dr. Jeana Jorgensen
In addition to researching and publishing on a variety of folklore topics throughout her academic career, Dr. Jeana Jorgensen has been studying, teaching, and performing dance for over 25 years. With training in Middle Eastern dance, the flow arts, aerial dances, and butoh, she utilizes her dance background to have and share embodied experiences. In this workshop, we will cover some connections between folklore and dance, an introduction to embodied movement, and prompts to dance and move one’s bodies in mindful and artistic ways.
This workshop is accessible to all regardless of one’s dance background, experience moving, and so on.
Dr. Jeana Jorgensen uses her PhD in folklore to investigate the links between folklore, narrative, gender and sexuality, and other facets of history and identity. These topics form the basis of the college courses she teaches and the books she writes for the general public, as well as her academic research. When not glued to her laptop, she cooks, bakes, dances, and grapples with her floordrobe. You can learn more about her at jeanajorgensen.com.
Bonus #5:
"(Im)Practical Romanticism" with Sara and Brittany
In a special bonus lecture, Sara and Brittany explore the 18th/19th-century concept of Romanticism and how it fits into the idea of everyday magic.
We discuss the power of imagination and nature, the scholarly quest to re-enchant the world after the Enlightenment, and, of course, how folklore fits into it all.
(And yes, the Gothic - the shadowy side of Romanticism - will surely come up as well. It's US after all!)
Bonus #6: A Ton of Awesome PDFs!
You get a guide to making your morning routine feel more enchanting, a Romanticism checklist, and a list of Brittany's favorite magical meditations on the Insight Timer app too!
FAQ
"Um, what exactly IS Carterhaugh?" - The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic is an award-winning online school dedicated to classes on fairy tales, folklore, and all things fantastic. We aim to use our knowledge and passion for these subjects to share their wonder, solidify their importance in society, and spread a bit of magic into the world. Want to know more? Check out our "About" page by clicking here!
"When will I hear from you/get access to the first lesson?" - You will hear from us each week on Thursday, for 5 weeks, starting February 29th, 2023 (the first lesson will be available the moment you sign up!) - we generally get things out by noon, but sometimes there are evil technology fairies! Rest assured that we'll keep you updated if that happens though. We will send an email and post in the private Facebook group! You'll also get our live Q&A/discussion sessions each Wednesday of those 5 weeks at 7PM ET!
"What if I can’t look at any of the materials that day / can't come to the live discussion?" - You do NOT have to watch the videos on any specific date – they are yours to view whenever is best for you! This is one of the many reasons why online courses work so well – they can fit everyone’s schedule :). The lecture recordings and the replays of each live Q&A/discussion session will remain up throughout the course, so you can catch up whenever you'd like!
Is this course only open to women? Nope! People of all genders are welcome at Carterhaugh and in this course!
When will I get the bonus materials? You will get access to Terri's lecture, Briana's workshop, Jeana's workshop, and Sara and Brittany's additional lecture right when you sign up! Maria's weekly tarot card talks will drop each week with the rest of the lesson materials, and there will be an additional LIVE Q&A session with Terri Windling on March 23rd, 2024 at 12PM ET!!
“I’m just a folklore fan. I don’t want to ruin my enjoyment with a bunch of academic stuff.” - We are the last people in the WORLD who would ruin your enjoyment of folklore and literature!! Believe us, we’re just as passionate about the beauty and wonder of these tales, and we know that part of that wonder lies in their mystery. We will never tell you what a tale “means." These tales are meant to be explored, meant to inspire personal meaning. We’ll give you folkloric history, and how the tales have been interpreted in the past, but we’ll never tell you what you “have to” believe about any folkloric story and we’re CERTAINLY not the kind of professors who are gleeful about “ruining” folklore for people!
“Guys, I love this, but money is SO tight right now….” - We understand this feel so hard. Money is tight for so many. This is why we’ve made this 5 (yes, 5!) lesson course as affordable as possible AND packed in all the enchantment, mystery, story, and community you crave right now. We're also offering three different payment plans (and an early bird deal!) to help you find an option that works. Our school is an investment, and it’s one that you deserve - we know our community and the magic we make together is worth it, and we would love for you to join us (plus, if you join us this time, you can take it AGAIN anytime we offer it for 50% off! And you'll get anything we add to the course too!)
“How involved are you guys? Is this just a thing where I get access to a bunch of stuff and then good luck?” - NOPE! We are 100% involved in our courses from start to finish. We’re always jumping in to answer questions and offer encouragement in our private course Facebook group, and we’re also available during the live Q&As to answer all your questions. If you can't make it to the Q&As live, you can email us in advance, we can answer your question live, and then you can catch the recording when you have time!
“I hate Facebook. Do I HAVE to participate?” - The private Facebook group is really how the course community comes together. Discussion is incredibly active, people are always extraordinarily kind, and it’s seriously like no other discussion form we have ever seen. So while it is absolutely not required, it really does add to your enjoyment of the course if you participate there! We’ve had students make fake names just for our courses before though, so you don’t have to embrace all of Facebook to be a part of our private group! All of this said, if you really, really don’t want to be a part of Facebook in any way, we also have a discussion questions forum open on Teachable with the rest of the materials where you'll be able to post and engage with each other.
"What I find that this just isn't for me?" - We stand behind our courses 100%, so if you are unsatisfied for any reason, please contact us with your request and answers to the discussion questions for week one by March 3rd at midnight ET for a full refund. Please understand that we cannot grant refund requests after this date.
As always, if you have additional questions at any time, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]
All the above makes you go “YEAH. BRING IT ON.”
Folklore and fairy tales light you up
You want to learn how to use them to vanquish the forces of burnout
You’re looking specifically for a discussion of contemporary religious or spiritual practices
You don’t want to mix your academic studies or cultural criticism with a sense of humor
You’re expecting an instant, miraculous fix - we’re offering real, effective tools, not an instantaneous cure for existing in the 21st century
Okay, time for some real talk.
Our community - the students and friends and magic seekers that have found their way into our courses - have been the biggest surprise and the best part of Carterhaugh. It's not something we anticipated, but it's not an exaggeration to say that it's why we're still here, teaching courses online in a job that's better than anything we could have imagined. It's because of YOU.
If you want connection, if you want to hang out and learn in a low-key way with other wonderful people, this community is for you. If you love folklore, and you're looking for others who are enthusiastic, creative, imaginative, and kind, welcome home.
Carterhaugh grew from our love of fairy tales and our own friendship with each other. Carterhaugh is still here and thriving because of the what came after: our community.
Also?
We are feminists and disability scholars who support the LGBTQ+ community and believe that Black lives matter.
Period.
The gates of Carterhaugh are open...
If You've Read This Far...
If you've read this far, clearly something about our school resonates for you.
You can be the magical soul you want to be.
Art and stories can help you get there.
Invest in your magical life with us at Carterhaugh - you won't regret it.
