LISA FAZIO

BIO

Lisa Fazio is a folk and clinical herbalist, astrologer, writer, mother, and the descendant of Irish and Italian immigrants. She lives on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains in what is now known as New York State. Lisa is a second generation Italian American, a practitioner of Benedicaria (the art of blessing, and a lineage witch whose Nonna (grandmother) was born in the city of Benevento, Italy that is also known as La Citta Delle Streghe (the city of witches). Lisa’s Nonno was born in the ancient village of Feroleto Antico in Calabria, Italy. She teaches courses on plant medicine and using plants for ancestral reconnection from an Italian American and traditional western herbalism perspective.

WORKSHOP

The Ancient Oracles of the Mediterranean : Sibyls and Pythias
In this workshop we will learn the history and methods of the ancient oracles in the Greek and Roman world as well as the greater Mediterranean. These oracles were considered to be prophetesses that would channel the words of the gods and goddess by inducing a trance state. They are known as Sibyls and Pythias who lived in temples and caves where people came to worship and make offerings to the gods.

In this class we will focus on the Pythia at Delphi and the Sibyl of Cumae (near Naples in Southern Italy) as well as touch on the sites and locations of other oracles throughout the Mediterranean world. We will discuss the use of this type of divination as a form of healing, plants and other substances they may have used to induce a trance state, and the "Sibylline Books" a setting prophetic poems that were written by a collective of Sibyls and sold to King Tarquinius of Rome. We will learn the myths of both how the Oracle at Delphi came to be and how the Sibyl of Cumae, according to legend, guided the Trojan Aeneas into the underworld.