About Ardantane
Welcome to the Ardantane community!
Ardantane is a learning community for those who hold the earth sacred, grounded in a campus in the southern foothills of the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico. We are an educational center for adults, offering online and in-person classes and courses. We are also a retreat facility where individuals, families, and small groups can find a quiet place to center themselves, create, and heal. And we are a volunteer -led, not-for-profit, tax-exempt educational and spiritual resource.
Our Values
Ardantane is created to serve Spirit, the Pagan community, and those who hold the Earth sacred. It does this in many ways:
- Ardantane is a Pagan learning center based on the Wiccan Rede and serving all positive Pagan traditions.
- Ardantane’s primary purpose is to offer high quality programs of study for Pagan spiritual leaders, the Pagan community, and those from other spiritual communities who share similar values.
- Ardantane fosters excellence in teaching, using a national pool of skilled and well-informed teachers who are committed to their own continual growth.
- Ardantane uses both innovative and traditional teaching methods, communications, and educational technology.
- Ardantane offers educational programs of varying lengths and formats to accommodate students’ needs.
- Ardantane is an educational, social, and recreational center for the local Pagan community.
- Ardantane collects, preserves, and makes accessible a central archive of Pagan information and historical material, including recordings of related visual and performing arts.
- Ardantane is based at one main campus, but serves as a catalyst and resource for the creation of regional learning centers elsewhere.
- Ardantane’s campus is designed as a model of harmony with the Earth.
- Ardantane promotes improved communications, networking, and education among Pagans nationally and internationally.
- Ardantane teaches love and respect for the Earth/Gaia, and how to translate those values into daily lifestyle and practical action, working from a campus which is a model for living in harmony with the Earth.
- Ardantane practices playfulness, spontaneity, and joy in living. Ardantane is fun.
- Ardantane seeks harmonious and mutually beneficial relations with the non-Pagan and interfaith communities.
- Ardantane has at its core peace, beauty, and the realization of the immanent Spirit; and always maintains creative, active and growing involvement with the world.
Our Vision
Ardantane provides superb learning experiences for the Pagan community and those who hold the Earth sacred.
Our Mission
Ardantane offers superb learning experiences and programs of study in the wisdom, practices, and skills of diverse Pagan, nature-centered, and indigenous traditions.
We are a resource for spiritual teachers, leaders, and learners, and promote excellence in Pagan teaching, learning, and leadership
around the world.
Our campus in the high desert of New Mexico models sacred, Earth-honoring, sustainable living, and is a community gathering place of friendship and fun.
We collect and preserve spiritual knowledge, sharing and celebrating the ancient wisdom of our ancestors and the living magick that surrounds us.
Our History
At first a vision and service project of the Coven of our Lady of the Woods, Ardantane incorporated in 1990 and later spun off to become an independent entity. We received 501c3 status from the IRS, and in 2001 purchased 25 acres of land in the high desert. We have been building our campus and expanding our programs ever since. Ardantane is led by a board of directors and many volunteer teachers, staff, and helpers. Our Executive Director, Amber K, and Dean of Sacred living, Azrael Arynn K, are in permanent residence at the campus.
Our Campus
Currently we have 27 acres of high desert adjacent to the Santa Fe National Forest, about a one-hour drive northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Facilities include a geodesic dome, which houses our extensive library and provides space for classes and gatherings; three cabins for overnight guests; an ADA restroom/shower facility; the staff residence; and various other buildings. We also offer six ritual circles, six marked trails, two labyrinths, and various shrines. See our visual tour [HERE link].
Areas of Study
Ardantane has four schools: Magick and Witchcraft [link], Pagan Leadership [link], Pagan Spirituality [link], and Sacred Living [link]. All offer online and in-person classes and courses. Students are welcome to take individual classes or courses, or to enroll in a certificate program sponsored by one of the schools for more intensive training, or to create a personalized certificate program with the help of any of our deans.
Classes are typically offered online in the evenings, or as weekend intensives at the campus. Fees are charged class by class (or course by course) and are affordable. We also have limited scholarships and work-study opportunities available.
Retreat Facilities
Whether you need to rest, heal, ground and center, connect with nature and the outdoors, right, create art, or use our large library for research, you, your family, or your small group will find that the land of Ardantane provides plenty of peace, quiet, and space. Contact us if you would like to reserve a cabin. Rates are currently $15/person/night. The cabins are simple, with a short walk to the ADA bathroom/shower facility, and minimal cooking facilities (microwave and refrigerator).
Land Care at the Campus
We care deeply about the land and environment. Our campus is a wildlife habitat recognized by the National Wildlife Federation, and most of our acreage is intentionally left wild. We have a deep well and a state-of-the-art water treatment system. Most electric cables are underground. We purchase electricity in a Green Plan from the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, and plan to switch to solar power when possible. Our Land Care Coordinator overseas erosion control and grass-reseeding projects on campus.
The Land and Wildlife at Ardantane
The rocks at Ardantane are mostly Triassic sandstone, laid down millions of years ago when this area was a shallow seabed. When the Jemez Mountains rose by volcanic activity a couple million years ago, these rocks were overlaid by volcanic tuff, compacted ash from the volcano.
Ardantane is high desert, with pinion pine, juniper, and lots of cacti and sparse shrubs and grasses. It is home to a variety of birds including lots of ravens, a few red-tailed hawks; lizards and snakes; coyotes; pack rats, chipmunks, squirrels, and ringtails; and the occasional roadrunner, elk, bear, and mule deer. Visitors are welcome to photograph the dramatic landscape—and the wildlife, when they choose to appear.
Nondiscrimination Statement
Ardantane admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ancestry, or marital status to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school.
Ardantane does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ancestry, or marital status in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, faculty and staff, scholarship programs, and other school-administered programs.
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