How to Become a Witch (32 page)

There is often wisdom in beginning with a study group or Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) chapter, as described later, and getting to know several Paganfolk in that setting before you attempt a coven. When the time is right, you can contact selected people with whom you felt a connection and explain the kind of coven you have in mind. Some people whom you like and respect won’t share your particular dream or want to join a coven at all. That’s all right; it has to be all right. They can still be your friends. If you can find three or more people you would want for coven sisters and brothers, and who are interested in your coven project, invite them to a quiet meeting for further discussion.

At the meeting, explain again what you have in mind. Share the core concepts in your written vision, charter, or bylaws. Be clear on what parts are negotiable and which parts are not. Invite their input on the pieces where you are flexible. The point is to get everyone participating as full-fledged members of the team from day one, while you still hold the core principles intact.

It may help you to have a list, with issues that are “carved in stone” and issues that are “sketched in pencil.” Here’s a fictional example; yours may be very different:

Coven Firefox Issues and Decisions

Name:
It has a name that’s meaningful to us, for reasons I’ll be happy to explain. When you hive off and start your own coven, you can pick the name.

Tradition: Eclectic, no particular brand. Negotiable as long as coven independence is preserved and the tradition is not too rigid.

Membership: Adults aged eighteen and over; both women and men are welcome. Not negotiable, due to legal issues with minors. Also, Rolf and I (Miriam) want to join together, so it will be a mixed coven. If we have public or family celebrations of sabbats, they can be open to pretty much anyone.

Cultural Context: Eclectic or Celtic emphasis. Celtic fine if we can include other cultures and pantheons occasionally. Negotiable to a point, except that we don’t want to imitate Native American religions, and we don’t want to always be confined to one pantheon.

Program Focus: Celebration, mutual support in spiritual growth, teaching and learning magick, community service. The mix is negotiable. Things we won’t support: party paganism (indiscriminate sex, heavy drinking, illegal drugs), rivalry with other covens.

Ethics: The Wiccan Rede, the Law of Return, and the New Wiccan Book of the Law will guide our actions. The last is pretty extensive, and we are open to discussing it and creating our own version, as long as it’s based on the Rede.

Leadership and Decision Making: For the first year and a day, my partner Rolf and I will be acting high priest and high priestess, then the coven will have an election. In any case, major decisions will be made by the whole membership. Minor decisions will be made by whoever holds the relevant office for the coven.

Degree System: We need some kind of structured program for learning and recognition. It could be a three-degree system, a five-degree (elemental) system, or something else. I think working that out together would be fun.

Legal Status: Right now we see no need for incorporation or tax-exempt status, but it’s negotiable.

Meeting Schedule: Must include eight major sabbats and full moon esbats. Apart from that, negotiable; probably averaging one meeting each week would be good.

Meeting Place: We prefer to have the covenstead at our home, unless someone has a better space. Having a regular covenstead for most meetings is essential. We are okay with rotating occasionally to members’ homes and outdoor sites.

Money: Maybe have modest dues, occasional fundraising projects, or in-kind donations of candles and supplies. Negotiable as long as we don’t get hung up on money or make it hard for people to afford membership.

As the coven launches, it will encounter the normal bumps, tangles, and confusions of any new organization. If you put in the effort and are fair-minded and persistent, it will succeed…though usually not with exactly the same people you started with. There will be gains and losses in the first couple of years as the right mix of personalities come together.

Read the books mentioned above; you can really benefit from the experiences of others. Then find sources of ongoing counsel and support. Network with other leaders in your area, especially trusted elders and experienced Craft leaders in the Pagan community. Join local and regional networks, and national/international organizations such as Covenant of the Goddess, Circle, and the Pagan Federation. There is no excuse to be isolated unless you are one of those so-called leaders who fears having your power diminished if your coveners are exposed to different ideas.

Life in a Coven

Relationships in a coven can be confusing; it is like no other organization you have ever belonged to. It is a little like a family but without the baggage, good and bad, that comes from growing up together. It is somewhat like a church or temple but much smaller than mainstream religious institutions. Thus there is more intimacy—no meaningless “How ya doin’?” to a stranger in the next pew. There is also more responsibility; a large church has workers and floaters, those who make it happen and the others who are along for the ride. In a coven, everyone must pull their own weight: there is no room for observers or inactive members.

Many covens are hidden from the outside world, so they can feel like a secret society or underground movement. Within the coven, there is freedom to be yourself and to express sides of yourself that you could never reveal in the muggle world; at the same time, you are never anonymous, never in the background; every member is very visible to every other one at every meeting.

It takes courage to be part of something like that.

When you first join, chances are you will be called a “dedicant,” “student,” “seeker,” or some such title. Most covens have a traditional period of “a year and a day,” during which new people can explore the Craft and that particular coven. At any point, you can say goodbye and disappear into the sunset—“no harm, no foul,” have a good life. Or the group could decide that it’s not a good match and gently suggest that you explore some other path or coven.

If everyone is happy and harmonious after the year and a day, you might ask to be initiated as a full member of the Craft and the coven. Initiation is serious stuff, and if the others think you need more time, they will tell you. But if an initiation ritual is held, then you’re officially a priestess or priest of the Old Religion, a Witch, and a full coven sister or brother.

What happens if you decide a year (or ten years) later that you don’t want to be part of the coven? Then you resign and go do whatever you need to do. The coven will simply label you “alumnus” or “alumna” and wish you well…or, if it’s not a happy parting, they may do ritual to cut all spiritual and emotional ties with you. Either way, you’re free to go. Forget the B-movie blood oaths: “Once you have passed these doors, you are forever bound to this path…” Witches are committed to freedom and will respect yours.

Taking your measure

One of the old customs was to measure each candidate for initiation with a cord, marked to show the person’s head, heart, and height. This cord was kept in a safe place by the leaders, and if the new member ever betrayed the coven, the cord could be used as a magickal link to punish the individual. Many covens have abandoned this practice, since we live in somewhat less dangerous times, so perhaps we can afford to be more trusting.Most covens today give the cord to the initiate to wear at all rituals.

Alternatives to Covens

We have mentioned starting a study group. You can also practice as a family. If you have children, you will not be training them to become priests and priestesses unless they are of age and want you to. But you can certainly celebrate the sabbats with them, and teach them about nature, and share little magickal techniques that will boost their confidence and help them be happy. Some useful books for Wiccan families are:

• Ancient Ways: Reclaiming Pagan Traditions by
  Pauline Campanelli (Llewellyn, 1991)
  
• Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life
  by
  Pauline Campanelli (Llewellyn, 1989)
  
• Pagan Homeschooling
  by Kristin Madden (Spilled Candy, 2002)—Useful even if you are not homeschooling!
  
• Family Wicca: Revised and Expanded Edition
  by Ashleen O’Gaea (Career Press, 2008)
  
• Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions
  by Starhawk, et al. (Bantam, 2000)
  

You can do witchy outings together as a family to festivals and public sabbats. When the kids are asleep or at a friend’s, you and your spouse or partner can do more serious magickal workings together.

Another option is starting or joining a CUUPS chapter. The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans is affiliated with the UU churches but caters specifically to Pagan or nature-oriented Unitarians. Anyone can form a CUUPS chapter in association with a local UU church or fellowship. Then you have church facilities to meet in and the sheltering presence of an established church. CUUPS chapters cannot be as exclusive in their membership as a coven, and CUUPS programs tend to be broadly Pagan rather than specifically Craft-oriented, but CUUPS makes sense for many Witches who would otherwise be alone. (For more information on CUUPS, check their website at www.cuups.org or e-mail [email protected].)

Even if you don’t choose to join any group, you may feel the need to join Craft sisters and brothers around a fire and lift a glass of mead, feel the bone-deep pulsation of a really hot drumming circle, pick up some tips on spellcasting at a festival workshop, or howl at a huge orange harvest moon with a few hundred other Witches on a crisp fall evening to remind yourself that you are not alone.

If you do decide to join or create a coven, remember that no choice is final. You may make different choices in one year or ten years down the road. If you join a coven, you can take a sabbatical or resign or hive if the coven no longer meets your needs. You can just leave.

If you practice as a solitary for now, either by choice or because you can’t find a compatible coven, that can change at any time. It may take a year or more to find the right coven—or create it—but if that’s what you need, you will do it.

If your family practices together, that’s wonderful—and at some point you may all choose to affiliate with a coven, or attend festivals and open sabbats together, or even join an open-minded church or temple of some kind to enrich your spiritual community. (We know a Wiccan high priest and an Asatru elder who enjoy Buddhist meditation each morning, many Witches who also attend Unitarian churches, and a Wiccan/Christian mystic who sees Jesus as another avatar of the dying and resurrected grain god. Amber is very drawn to Taoism, and Azrael studies early Christianity. It’s called “freedom of religion,” or freedom to create your own unique spiritual path.)

Coven member or solitary, family Witch or religious blend; make a choice and give it your energy, your curiosity, and your commitment. Then review your spiritual health frequently, and adjust your practice as you need to.

Chapter 12

Sacred Priestess, Sacred Priest
Serving the Lady and the Lord

I
am Goddess, neverborn,

Touching magick, wielding power,

I wear the crescent, wear the horn,

I am a Witch at every hour.

Long ago, before Azrael had ever heard of Wicca, she attended a seminar on expanding one’s consciousness and role in the world. One of the first exercises was to write one’s ideal vocation on a nametag. Although she had no trouble coming up with her preferred vocation, Azrael had a great deal of trouble with the idea of being called “Sacred Priestess” during the workshop—because she didn’t feel she deserved it. In her mind, priestesses required years of training and initiation, and all she had was the desire. Well, she was eventually persuaded to write “Sacred Priestess” on the badge, and afterwards it stayed stuck to the dashboard of her car as a reminder of her goal until she was initiated as a first-degree Witch, a priestess to herself; then it became an affirmation of her accomplishment and path in life.

Almost every Witch is a priestess or priest of the Old Religion. We serve the Lady and the Lord and those in our communities who come to us for help. Some of us call ourselves “Wiccan clergy” to emphasize to the outside world that we share the legal rights and responsibilities held by clergy of other faiths. (The legal responsibilities are different in each state and nation. Some governments maintain a list of registered clergy and expect you to prove that you are qualified before you officiate at a wedding, for example. Most require you to notify authorities if you learn of child abuse or another crime while acting in your ministerial role. You will need to research local laws if you intend to act as clergy in a public role.)

Card-carrying witches

Some Witches would like to function as clergy in the wider society and know that they will sometimes need credentials to be recognized—say, if they want to perform a marriage, act as a hospital chaplain, or attend an interfaith conference. Organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess and Aquarian Tabernacle Church are registered as churches and tax-exempt organizations with the U.S. federal government and do issue clergy credentials to members. Efforts are under way in Canada and some European countries to get similar recognition for Pagan clergy.

This doesn’t mean that a priestess of the Craft has the same religious role as a Lutheran pastor or Roman Catholic priest or Jewish rabbi or Muslim imam. We might teach—as a rabbi does. We may offer comfort and spiritual support to a covener—as a pastor does with his or her “flock.” We often officiate at rites of passage, though we call them handfastings and child blessings rather than weddings and baptisms. But we don’t hear confessions, offer absolution for sins, interpret holy scripture, or stand as official channels between humanity and the gods.

Craft clergy are different in another way: we openly use magick in different forms for many positive purposes. Now, Christians and others perform magick in very restricted ways, but usually only an ordained clergyperson is allowed to. They call it transubstantiation (turning wine into the blood of Jesus), or faith healing, or other things. But the list of approved magickal practices, and the occasions where they can be performed, is very short—and they won’t call it magick. And almost none of them will do divination.

Another difference is that the ministerial roles of the mainstream faiths are few in number and carefully limited. When Amber long ago considered studying toward ordination in the Unitarian Church, she had the choice of two seminary programs: congregational leadership or religious education. Today, specialties like youth ministry or military chaplaincy are better supported, but the roles are still pretty limited.

Contrast the many possible roles of a Witch—from bard to deathwalker to sacred clown—and it becomes clear that we have many different ways of serving the Goddess and the Old Gods, expressing the sacred in the world—being priestesses and priests!

What God(S) Do We Serve?

Most Witches serve both the feminine and masculine faces of Deity. (Some focus exclusively on the Goddess; very few focus only on the God.) We personify them and call them Goddess and God, or Lady and Lord. Frequently we refine these great polarities further to more specific aspects like the Moon Goddess and the Hornéd God. We can get more specific still and speak of individual, named deities like the moon goddess Selene or the hornéd god Cernunnos. And even a named, individual goddess or god may have more than one aspect; we can see the Celtic goddess Brigit in her role as Healer, or Poet, or Smith.

The green man

One of the favorite God-forms in the Craft is the Green Man. He is masculine divine energy as expressed in the plant kingdom, especially the sprouting, growing, blossoming energy of the wilderness. He is often represented as a semihuman face, with leaves forming his hair and beard and even sprouting from his mouth. Many medieval cathedrals have the Green Man carved into the stone and wooden decorations. One theory is that Pagan artisans built and decorated these churches, and because they didn’t know or care about Christian symbolism, they used the images of the Old Gods of nature.

Now, many Witches are perfectly happy working with, say, the Lady and the Lord, period. Usually they don’t feel a need to get any more specific. Others might base their rituals on the Moon Goddess and the Sun God. And many others work with an entire pantheon from a specific culture, such as the Celtic deities Arianrhod, Brigit, Ceridwen, Dagda, Lugh, Manannan, the Morrigan, Rhiannon, and so on.

Though the old pantheons of northern and western Europe are popular among Witches generally, there is nothing to prevent one from working with any pantheon in a Wiccan context. That is, you can be a Witch and work with the deities and mythology of ancient Egypt or classical Greece or early China or anywhere else. You may feel strongly drawn to a particular culture and era—perhaps through a past-life connection—and feel both fascination and strange familiarity with the religion of that time and place. Follow your heart.

The wild hunt

On stormy nights, the spirits of the dead ride in the Wild Hunt. You may hear the thunder of their black horses, and the lightning struck by their hooves reveals their huge, dark forms in the clouds. If they catch you at some lonely crossroads, you may join them and ride the night forever. The huntsmen may be Faery folk or werewolves. Their leader may be Woden, Herne, Charlemagne, the Teutonic goddesses Holda or Berchta, or the Welsh god Gwynn ap Nudd. Our deities include the dark, mysterious, and dangerous, perhaps because we have no devil as a catch-all for anything difficult.

Many Witches work with a small number of deities special to them and develop a “divine circle” of guides and role models. For example, Azrael enjoys working with Brigit, Amaterasu, and Ganesh, whereas Amber has bonds with Brigit, Hecate, and Coyote. Divine relationships evolve and change, too. Once Azrael worked a great deal with Persephone, and Amber was deeply involved with Bast, but life changes, and those particular needs are no longer so great.

Still other Witches are deeply devoted to one particular goddess or god and work almost exclusively with that divine aspect. It could be Isis, Odin, Habondia, Pan, or any other. But in such cases the Witch may explain that she was chosen by the deity, rather than the other way around. The Witch is called to service and has no desire to seek elsewhere.

Many Dianic feminist Witches focus only on the Goddess. Their need and their joy is to explore the feminine side of the Divine that has been neglected and devalued for so long in Western patriarchal society. For some, the Goddess is simply their source of strength, pleasure, and inspiration, and there is no wish to divide their attention and explore male deities. For others, our civilization seems horribly out of balance in its focus on patriarchal gods and values, and Goddess awareness is essential to restore balance and harmony to the world.

Many of us explore God aspects that have been neglected by the mainstream faiths: God as Warrior, Lover, Brother, Sage, and Trickster, among others.

We all explore and honor the faces of Deity that seem right to us, and in the Craft we are free to do so.

Training, Initiation, And Degrees

Wicca has long been a religion of initiates. That is changing as more people want to be Witches but don’t feel the need for an initiation. Others don’t want to practice with others, except perhaps to attend a public ritual—for which you don’t need initiation; you just have to show up. For many, the practice of Witchcraft is a private thing, and solitaries answer to no one but the Goddess and the Old Gods about their initiations or degrees.

However, a foundation of formal training is ideal, and now there are many choices of where to get that training. The traditional way, of course, is to join a training coven, committed to passing on Craft knowledge so their students can grow as Witches and eventually form their own covens, if they choose.

A second option is to take online courses. These can provide good information but cannot replace experience-based participation in a group for learning things like raising and grounding power.

A third alternative is to attend live workshops like those sponsored by metaphysical shops, at festivals, or at Ardantane. Here the teaching is face to face, and students gain the experience of practicing in a group. Of course, classes at bookstores and festivals are on whatever subject the teacher wants to teach, not necessarily what the student needs at the moment.

So what constitutes basic training for a Witch? Here is a list of skills and subjects that one coven covers in the first year of training:

Training for a First-Year Craft Dedicant