Please join the Temple community in celebrating Aurielle Nazro, who was chosen not only for our Student Spotlight feature, but who graduated from Witchcraft Five on March 21st and was initiated as a ministerial member of the Temple of Witchcraft. Aurielle completed Witchcraft One with Alix Wright and the remaining four classes with Christopher Penczak, who said of Aurielle, “Aurielle is a teacher by trade, and she excels at all the assignments put before her in each lesson. But it can be easy to do the things we find natural. More importantly, she has also excelled in those assignments at digging deep and giving evaluation to experiences, history, and motivations. Though it can be hard, she has faced the interpersonal challenges placed before her, and I commend her for her bravery and ability to do that which is difficult, but necessary.”
Congrats, Aurielle! Thank you for taking the time to share your story.
Tell us a little about yourself, please.
In my personal life, I am married to the love of my life—Dave. I have four children—all girls grown now with my oldest is 32 yrs old and my youngest is 19 yrs old. I love to create works of art and try to connect what I create to my spiritual studies. I am a chemistry teacher at a local High School, teaching Advanced Placement Chemistry and college prep Chemistry for the last 15 years. I love science for it mirrors the connection of the Divine to the physical realm of reality and I try to show that to my students in how I teach chemistry.
What I have discovered is that the Divine is all around us and within us . . . all we have to do is be aware!
Can you tell us about your experience with the Temple?
I have found the entire five years of study with the Temple very enlightening to say the least! It is a true mining into the core of the Hermetic Principle: “As Above, So Below, As Within, So Without.”
When you experience the entire five year program, it lays you bare, open—until finally your vision clears where you can truly see. This journey tested my determination and willingness to delve deep within myself—for I saw what I wanted to see and I also saw what I did not want to see. Challenging yet necessary steps as I strove to connect to the Higher Realms of the Divine.
I represent the Temple when I perform rituals at Myths & Maidens in Manchester, NH. I have performed five rituals a year on various topics as a service to the community there. The rituals are offered to help to dispel misconceptions and raise awareness of what the Temple—and Witchcraft—is all about and what it has to offer the community. It is also a service to solitary witches and pagans and helps connect people. I make it a point to invite people from different covens to participate in the rituals in the hopes of encouraging connection between groups and covens and the Temple.
What drew you to the Temple’s mystery school?
I have been a Spiritual Wanderer, going wherever the Divine Spirit takes me, delving into many different disciplines from Catholicism, to Science, to the Bahai’ Faith to Wicca—bringing me eventually to The Temple. I have found that this path has been an incredible journey for I hear the Call of the Divine most clearly here.
How do you use what you’ve learned in your daily life?
It is what life is all about! Every day is a gift. Every day is a mystery—wondrous to behold, incredible to experience, a joy to revel in—regardless of the stresses and strains that life may offer us.
What do you feel your greatest challenge has been? How have you overcome it?
My greatest challenge has been to take in each lesson and incorporate it as part of myself. That is and will be something that I will always work on. How did I overcome this challenge? By being willing to dig deep, look within, and be as honest as possible as to what I found there. No easy task! Even though I have completed the lessons Christopher has taught me, I know that I will need to deepen each lesson over and over again to reap the true fruits that are there waiting for me. For life is change, and life changes us. So the lessons, approached by an older version of who I am, will discover deeper meanings that I did not see before. The gems are there waiting for me to uncover them.
What’s next for you as a student/member of the Temple?
I stopped performing rituals at Myths & Maidens for the past year and a half so that I could focus on my studies with the Temple and the Mystery School Class—The Living Temple of Witchcraft. It was difficult to do, but necessary so that I could give The Living Temple of Witchcraft everything I could give.
I would like to resume performing the rituals at Myths&Maidens as soon as possible with the blessing of the Temple. I also would also like to create a series of deepening rituals focused on the Chakras Series and then eventually a ritual series on the Tree of Life as well. One day I also would like to teach Witchcraft IV: High Witchcraft, for I so enjoyed the entire year I studied it! One thing at a time…