How Are We Teaching?

We had a really interesting discussion at the end of my Death Emissary course. It was talking about how courses are generally structured, especially in the magical, pagan, and occult community.

Now before we get started, let me just say this isn’t about judging one way over another. There are many reasons why people structure their teachings the way they do and run courses the way they do. I just wanted to share some of the insights I gleaned from their comments and perhaps give other teachers some things to consider.

Modes of Teaching

As we have moved into an age of technology and the internet, it opened up a whole new way to reach more people that was not physical location dependent. Before the internet it was books, and if you were lucky enough to be in an area that had a group/ coven/ or organization, you had in-person learning opportunities. Today, there are a lot more festivals, weekend-events, and metaphysical (Witchy) shops which gives more availability for in-person learning, but it is still very location dependent.

Even though the coastal cities may have a lot, the mid-west is still severely lacking overall.

With the internet though it gave us the ability to not be restricted to just physically in-person, but we could go live with people all over the world. With the ability to record and take at your leisure, it also took away a lot of the schedule constraints many have to access these learning spaces. Many people do not have a Mon-Fri schedule, and still many of these opportunities fall on the weekends.

The internet gave us a wonderful tool, depending on how we choose to use it.

The Interpersonal Communication  Issue

I have taken a few courses/workshops in our community and the majority of them were just recorded videos. There are positives to this mode, mainly being you can see them perform certain acts or techniques, giving more then just written word understandings. It takes it a step up from books, but still has some lacking when it comes to being able to ask questions and get a clearer understanding of the material.

I have noticed in more recent years, some have added a Q&A section. I personal have not taken any in this format but I have heard from others about them. From my understanding, participants send in their questions via message or email, the instructor records a video going through answering them, allowing more depth of the materials, and the class gets to view it. It is definitely a step in the right direction. However, there is still a piece of interpersonal communication that is missing in my experience.

The one thing in-person has that none of the other modes do – real time interaction and interpersonal communication. I think right now this aspect may be even more important as many state they feel more disconnected and alone no matter how many people are on their feeds. I think this has a lot to do with how we communicate online, mostly surface level conversations and to large audiences – not small interpersonal groups. A lot more is lost there then just the words.

I knew that I personally wanted more from what I was putting out there, and that many of the concepts I tech about require more depth and hands-on practice. I could not see being able to do this without that real-time conversation. I didn’t need to be local, but I had to be fully available in a real sense for them to be the most successful.

So I took a different approach for the Death’s Emissary Course. After every class we have a live post discussion. Allowing participants to ask questions, dive deeper, shareing their experiences and struggles. To just talk about the subject matter and have a firmer grasp of it before they started to practice with it. We do a weekly Q&A session that is also in real-time, allowing them to again ask questions, dive deeper, and share, after they have had some time to digest it and practice with it. Yes, for those that could not make it to the live they could either send in their questions or schedule a personal one-on-one session with me. No one ever sent questions in though, but we did have a lot taking advantage of the one-on-one sessions which was awesome. It allowed them to get very personal with their own struggles and advancements, making the journey even more personal for them.

To me, this approach was the only way I could see being able to really teach and produce real results for the people who chose to participate. Blending the personal aspects of in-person learning with the advantage of not having to restrict to just those who could physically access a location or a time. All the classes and discussions are recorded and uploaded to our private server, so they could watch them whenever was convenient for their schedule, and go back to review them whenever they needed to (up to 2 years after the course was completed).

The Comments

I will be honest, I did not think my approach was so odd. I assumed more were taking this route and incorporating these kinds of discussion techniques. My students taught me differently though.

They said the online courses they have taken were more the static video type. Sometimes with a Q&A but not in real-time. Even though it was nice to be able to see demonstrations of the techniques and such, it still left a big gap. For many, it wasn’t much different than learning from a book.

They were surprised at how invested I was in their personal success and how available I made myself to them. Those real-time conversations were a key factor in all of this. It not only fostered a deeper sense of community between us, but allowed them to explore deeper while still having that “in-person feel”  of support along the way. For some, it was the first time they really felt they were making progress spiritually and magically.

It wasn’t just me though. That kind of format allowed them to share with each other and help each other as well. They would talk about how they adjusted a piece in order to get the right result for them – which gave other participants other ideas to experiment with. There were times where people struggled with something, and others jumped in to support them with their own experiences and how they managed to move forward through it. I may be teaching this – but I can only teach from my experience. We are not the same, what works for one, does not work for another. I have taught enough people to give many different modes of the work, but again, it is not universal and new people bring new ideas and approaches.

This style of live/ real-time conversations I feel is truly one of the biggest keys to their overall progress and success. It also gives me a more secure sense that they really understand and can use the content effectively for them. At the end of the day I am a results based person – and this mode of teaching online I feel has produced fantastic results for those who participate. I watched them go through major growth and transformations throughout the year. Stating that they felt they learned more, and were more connected, in a month’s time vs the years they spent trying to work on their own from books and videos. Stating they finally felt like their magic was working and producing tangible results for them. Yes, the materials, frameworks, and skills are a big part of it, but I believe – as do they – that the key was the real-time discussions.

A Consideration

We all have different modes of teaching, and reasons why we structure our courses the way we do. None of this was to belittle or state one way was better than another. It was not to say that we as a community should all adopt this model – for some it is just not possible. I just wanted to share what my students shared with me. How valuable they saw those real-time conversations and how much it helped them in a variety of ways, including connecting to each other.

It is just something to consider. If it is mode you may want to try and see what happens.

For me, it has shown to be an even more crucial part of the learning process than even I had considered. It is also the only way I can teach courses and feel like I have done my best for those I teach. Yes, I have some static workshops, but there is always the option to join a community working on these topics where I am actively participating and available to the people within it for those personal conversations.

I think, on the whole, we should be trying more to incorporate these interpersonal communication modes when we can, because it does change the dynamic and effectiveness for those who are participating. It is also good for us as teachers, because there is always more to learn, more perspectives to see, and something new to discover through the inspiration of others.