Doctoral Commencement Ceremony

February 1, 2009, at the Home Temple Sanctuary in Aromas, CA

Latin Doctor means Teacher. The Doctorate in Divinity is awarded for exceptional ministry in demonstrated spiritual teaching.  We awarded the Doctorate of Divinity (D.D.) to three Bishops for development and completion of their doctoral teaching projects.

DR. MARITA HACKER, B.D., M.Div., D.D.

Bishop Marita is Dakota Sioux and her husband Harold Dick Chiricahua Apache. They were both trained in shamanic traditional ceremonies of the Sweat Lodge and life-cycle rituals by their ancestors. Their mission is to not only preserve, but to teach and hand down this nearly forgotten knowledge to future generations. As an expansion of her M.Div. thesis, Marita did a deep study of Jyotish or Vedic Astrology and Asian life-cycle ceremonies and chants, in which American Indian ceremonies are rooted from before 10,000 B.C.E., when their ancestors crossed the land bridge from Asia after the ice age and became the first human inhabitants of North and South America. She found many Asian Sanskrit mantric words used in ceremonies of child-birth, healing, marriage, and death in North American Indian traditions. She discovered that the Indian Sweat Lodge followed the Vedic model of cosmos, astrological houses, and directions. She developed and prepared about five hundred PowerPoint slides with detailed photos and text to teach traditional ceremonies and rituals to American Indians, nearly all of whom have lost their traditions. With Harold, she will be using this as her basic curriculum resource for instruction in a new teaching center they are developing in New Mexico.

DR. TOFAH EILEEN YRAGUI, M.A., M.F.T., B.D., M.Div., D.D.

Bishop Tofah Eileen serves as a Sheikha for the local Sufi community, S.R.I., and Sufi Movement International. She facilitates a variety of spiritually oriented activities including leading the Dances of Universal Peace, Zhikr, a group on women’s spirituality, and a regular healing service. She has been teaching and hosting other spiritual teachers at The Garden Sanctuary in Santa Cruz for many years. For her M.Div. thesis she and husband Jay toured, studied, and photographed the ancient sacred sites of Britain, then developed a narrated audio-visual presentation for use in her classes. For her doctoral project, she developed a two-year Cherag training curriculum in world spirituality for her Sufi students leading to certification as an interfaith minister.

DR. WILLA KEIZER, C.C.H., B.D., D.V.H., D.D.

Bishop and Grail Mother Willa Keizer developed and taught a six-year program in Homeopathy and a two-year curriculum in Jyotish or Vedic Astrology, which led to her doctorate in Vitalistic healing (D.V.H.). For her Doctorate in Divinity degree (D.D.), Willa prepared and taught a curriculum in Vitalistic Healing leading to the D.V.H. degree that combines Vedic Astrology with divination, mantra, Kabbalistic ritual, and laboratory preparation of alchemical spagyrics. Her programs are online and available to the general public.