So Just What Do We Expect?

Come gather around my witchy sisters and brothers and fellow seekers. Park your broomsticks for a while and settle in around Cerridwen's Cauldron with your favorite brew of choice. I am feeling a little wordy tonight.

I know my last few posts have been more centered around what we see missing from some of our fellow teachers and practitioners. It does occur to me that you have a right to know what we expect from our potential students and what you can expect from us. 

While our first handout has several pages dedicated to practical rules of engagement it really boils down to we expect you to be courteous, friendly, and accountable for your actions. We will provide you the same. 

Wicca is a mystery tradition that is a combination of magic, mysticism through ritual and ceremony, and spirituality. It is a tradition of experience. It is a process of learning how to actively change your consciousness. As much as we have very serious discussions about moral development and ethics the reality is magic is very individually focused. You and you alone are responsible for your magic both what you put into it and what you get out of it or as a fellow high priest reminded me recently: no man (or woman) escapes his own wyrd/destiny...

So what can you expect from me as a teacher and high priestess? The same. As a fellow seeker, I will listen to your questions and concerns and share my knowledge or how I would go about getting answers. I will respect your privacy and keep confidential information confidential. I will do my best to have good boundaries physically and emotionally with you. If you are not comfortable with something I am doing or teaching, I expect you to challenge me in a respectful manner so we can have a discussion about it and learn from each other. 

One of the larger issues that I personally strive for is to make sure that every participant in each ritual understands the process that is going on. I don't believe in using secret words in public ritual. I was at a very badly run public ritual where the hp began calling the directions in their own secret code. I don't care if you are a published writer, you can't expect everyone at the ritual to have read your book. You need to treat a public ritual as neutral territory and assume your participants don't know anything.  I have been at multiple rituals in other traditions (Wiccan and otherwise) where a different language was used and translations were made available or explanations were made as to what was happening. For example, when I have been at Ifa ceremonies much of it is said in Yoruba but English translations are provided before, during, or afterward. When I have been in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies the ceremony is typed and said in Tibetan and in English and sometimes in Sanskrit depending on the ceremony. I have also been to Catholic masses that have been said in Latin, Spanish and English and sometimes German depending on the community. Don't make things more confusing for folks than they have to be. Keep the language clear. 

The other issue that I have and strive to make sure doesn't happen with our group is that if you are doing a group ritual that is aimed at uncovering deeper emotional issues (hidden fears, denial being broken off etc) make sure you are providing some sort of process afterwards for aftercare or a safe place to discuss whatever was brought up.  Again, we are a mystery tradition that is focused on personal transformation. Don't call up energy and issues that you aren't willing to help sort out and calm back down again. Again, I do place an expectation that if a student or participant is not okay with what is going on, that they speak up and get clarification. I would rather stop a ritual process to explain something than potentially harm someone emotionally. 

Some of this should be common sense but it isn't always practiced. This does lead to another concern I would like to leave people with. Teachers of spiritual traditions or otherwise are human. We all have good and bad days. We all have times were our consistency fails for a variety of reasons. We all come from a variety of background experiences that when shared, should make us stronger as a community. Remember to have patience. With that, I am outta here for the night. Time to enjoy the beautiful rain we are finally having. 

Blessed Be! 

Moral Development As A Community Issue

“The three core principles of Goddess religion are immanence, interconnection, and community. Immanence means that the Goddess, the Gods are embodied, that we are each a manifestation of the living being of the earth, that nature, culture, and life in all their diversity are sacred. Immanence calls us to live our spirituality here in the world, to take action to preserve the life of the earth, to live with integrity and responsibility….Interconnection is the understanding that all beings are interrelated, that we are linked with all of the cosmos as parts of one living organism…So interconnection demands from us compassion, the ability to feel with others so strongly that our passion for justice is itself aroused”…pg 22 Starhawk. Spiral Dance

The very first handout the coven gives our students for their book of shadows is largely about the rules of engagement we expect from them as students and what they can expect from us as coven leaders and teachers.  That handout also includes discussions on boundaries for ritual and codes of conduct in general both on a physical and metaphysical level.

When I posted the first post in this series, I postulated that perhaps we sometimes confuse ethics with moral development. I say this because there is a need to delineate between performance expectations within a group setting to maintain a healthy group and when, how and why to use witchcraft or considering the moral implications of using magic on/for yourself or others.

I get frustrated at the several different schools of Wicca out there that will teach you how to employ a candle to draw money to you before they teach the student how to reasonably connect with the natural power around them without hurting themselves or others in the process.  I understand the desire to practice witchcraft to meet a practical need but if you are destroying yourself physically and mentally in the process is meeting the other need going to do you any good?  Turning your boyfriend into a toad really isn’t going to do you any good if you aren’t addressing your own insecurities or emotional issues that led to the break up to begin with. Magic really does come down to transforming ourselves before we can transform the world around us. However, this is a slightly different issue than moral development. I don’t believe that moral development is just a spiritual issue. It is a community issue, a practical one.

Moral development is studied from a non religious standpoint in modern psychology. Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg are just two examples of psychologists who have written on the stage of moral development in children and adults. Piaget concluded that moral development is learned through social interactions and internalizing just behavior. Kohlberg further decided that moral development is more involved and evolutionary than just deciding what is right for the moment or group concession.

It is not to say that I expect my students to become immobilized with the fear that they might be doing something to harm someone inadvertently. Goodness no. However, I do expect my students to think through the full ramifications of their process. Are they doing something to bind someone’s will? That isn’t acting in unconditional love.  Do I want my neighbor who ran over my husband to move? Yes but instead of actively wishing him harm, I ask the gods to bless him with opportunity and fortune to either move him or move us away from him. I also pray and do spells to protect my physical property and members of my household and have followed every legal recourse to ensure we stay safe from harm.

I do understand that many people do not want the responsibility of ensuring standards for social norms and social responsibility. However, I see that one of the inherent issues in the dumbing down or our society is that we are also not expecting any level of personal accountability or standards of behavior either unless they are completely self serving. Yet we are bitterly disappointed when community does not meet our level of expectation. We can’t have it both ways. If we want our community to have accountability and responsibility than we have to be a part of that in both the creation of the standard that the holding others to the same standards. 

Wicca, Ethics, and Morality

I think I have started this article a dozen times or more.  It will be more than just one article and it really does include a broader scope than just Wicca in its content. In part, I must admit it is inspired by my favorite actor of the moment, Anson Mount, and some of his interviews on playing Cullen Bohanen on Hell On Wheels and moral development, ethics and redemption being more of a universal and psychological issue than purely religious in nature. It is also inspired by the potential of a new round of seeker classes at the house. As much as I want to focus on the more universal aspects of morals and ethics I am going to attempt to limit this article to just dealing with Wicca and the teaching of ethics and morals.

It is widely acknowledged that Wicca does not have a hard and fast code of ethics for its followers be they clergy or layperson. More often than not, we as clergy and teachers teach ethics from a standpoint of what you can and shouldn't do with the power that you are about to learn how to use. That we work and live in perfect love and perfect trust and honor the Wiccan Rede of "An it harm none, do as thou will." I begin to wonder if we as clergy and teachers are confusing ethics with expectations of moral development.

Wicca is centered on the beliefs that we are interconnected to the world around us. We also can achieve self actualization through understanding those connections and working in harmony with them. Through the traditional text of the Charge of the Goddess, we teach that we are to live in perfect love and perfect trust and to harm none.

It is my belief that we have to somewhere have a baseline understanding of what harming none constitutes. I know too many clergy and laypeople who choose those two guidelines as an excuse to be sexual predators, improperly use finances, and ignore the emotional and physical boundaries of others. Because we acknowledge that we do not exist in a vacuum, I believe that means we have a greater responsibility to promote basic human rights, compassion and a non-oppressive environment. If we expect other professionals to have bodies that govern their code of ethics, why aren't we demanding it from ourselves?

I hear too often that expecting Wiccan clergy to hold to a formalized ethical code is like herding cats. I also hear the same thing about expecting a more formalized curriculum and standards for moral development for students and potential clergy. I think we are selling ourselves and our students short by not expecting more from each other and them.  I also do not think we will ever be taken seriously as theologians and philosophers until we do start having higher standards of what we are teaching and how we are living our beliefs.

I do agree with the thinkers of my generation like Mount, that ideals of ethics, morals, and redemption (self actualization) are universal in their nature. I think that we Wiccans in particular need to start taking more accountability for our own actions and how we are interacting with others and impacting the world around us. As the chant goes, "she changes everything she touches and everything she touches changes."

Cosmic Belly Button Lint Revised or Why Spirituality Matters to Me? Semi Autobiographical...

Blogging in a format that is something other than a quick bitch about what is currently driving me nuts or what I am geeking out about is a new to me thing. Even when LiveJournal was all the rage, I did not use it as a more serious critique of my inner and outer world. I am still attempting to find my voice but there are some repeated themes you will come to find as you traverse these pages with me. Spirituality is a big deal for me. Understanding the underlying issues of cosmology and the expression of belief and faith are equally huge deals for me. My personal spirituality is based on the belief that there is divinity and that divinity loves us. Our power for transformation comes from our connection to divinity, our connection to our ancestors, and our connection to the natural world around us (nature spirits, ecology and humanity.) As much as I am writing about the ideals and beliefs of the Wiccan coven I am a part of, I am not purely Wiccan. I am not purely Christian or any one thing. However, I do have a very keen understanding of both theologies and some days I lean more to one side than the other. From 1973 to 1982 I grew up in a very traditional family structure in small communities where the ALC Lutheran Church was the primary expression of spirituality. My father wanted to be a missionary or pastor and took his role as a layman pastor seriously. (He has since achieved that vision and travels the four corners preaching the gospel.) My great great grandfather helped build the church that we worshiped in weekly and my extended paternal family was very stout in their belief system. So what happened? In 1981 or 82 one foggy morning 50 head of cattle showed up on the fields of the family homestead after my mother thought she had an agreement from my father that there was to be no cattle. I was too young to remember the exact day but I do remember the cattle fondly. My Mom, not so much. This was the straw that broke the camels back in a long line of issues that showed my Dad was more interested in what someone else thought than what Mom thought. She filed for separation and divorced him by the end of 1982. When my Mother stared moving around to finish her college education, we were introduced to other expressions Christianity than just Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Including my being introduced to the Assembly of God community through a friend who wanted me to go to a bible study class with her. I was assuming something more akin to Sunday Bible school of arts and crafts and coloring pages not an actual academic discussion of the book of John. My Mother was worried. She asked my Dad to attend a class with me and he bought into everything they were preaching for better or worse. My Dad remarried someone who was involved in the Pentecostal movement and both of them never settled on one community to practice with. Each weekend was a new church depending on what the sermon topic was about. My Mother did continue with the ELCA Lutheran Church in the variety of towns we lived in to give us some stability when we were with her. We had several odd discussions with my step mother on spirituality and pop psychology. When I was in high school, I went to a fairly large, progressive school that offered a comparative religion class and I was introduced to non-Christian expression’s of spirituality. Throughout my k-12 experience, I identified as a Pentecostal. I read every book and listened to every sermon tape I could to understand not only who God was but how to please Him as well. With puberty also came a nasty child custody battle and being incredibly unpopular with my peers, overweight, and into science fiction (thus a social outcast) I also was diagnosed with clinical depression. When I would talk to my pastor’s and bible teachers about my depression I was always told that if I was truly a child of God, I would be happy all the time. That if I wasn’t happy, I must be in a state of sin and separated from God. My question then and now is How the FUCK is a 10 or 13 year old sheltered child with no life experience in a state of sin AFTER they have become born again and repent on a daily basis? I don’t get that type of thinking. When I graduated from high school in 1991 I went to the University of South Dakota and met one my first non Christian spiritual teachers Robert Bungee. Dr. Bungee was a Rosebud Sioux half-breed linguistic and Sioux Tribal expert who had a difficult time believing I was not a half breed myself. We spent many hours talking over coffee and cigarettes at the Indian student center. He also brought in shaman and political activist Orval Lookinghorse and his lovely wife to explain larger concepts of the peace pipe and the 12 sacred traditions. When I left USD because of a nervous breakdown, I returned home to Minneapolis and started taking classes at the Minneapolis Community College. I studied Chemical Dependency Counseling because my mother was very entrenched in the adult children of alcoholics movement and I thought it might be a wise career move and a way to get on the reservations and be useful. While at MCC, I also worked with some folks who were interested in shamanism as a spiritual tradition and also hung out at the local women’s bookstore where I picked up my first book on Wicca Ffiona Morgan’s Wild Wymen Don’t Get the Blues and accompanying tarot deck, Daughter’s of the Moon. My love of Wicca was born. I love ceremony and ritual and spells. Oh the candle combinations and incense I could burn! Better yet, I didn’t need a pastor or priest to tell me the right way to please the goddess. I was whole. I practiced as a solitary but being bound by social convention still had to practice some form of Christianity to appease my parents and grandparents. I can honestly say I became Catholic to rebel and hide my witchy leanings. I love Roman Catholic Christianity because of the pomp and circumstance. I also appreciate that there is a female aspect of god, and that there are very alive and active schools of mysticism. I also really appreciate their social justice leanings even if I am more liberal in other areas. Mysticism and social justie being the most important because I do believe there is more out there in the universe than what we can see and touch with our regular senses and compassion for all people is kinda mandatory for me. It wasn’t until years later when I met my husband and non-legal sister wife (legal disclaimer: we are not bigots or polygamists we are polyamorous and while I am committed to both I am not legally married to either) that I practiced Wicca publically or with another teacher outside of what I was learning on my own through books and experience. Through my journey with my sister wife and high priestess we have studied the African Diaspora traditions of Ifa/Santeria. I have taken attunements for the Usui Reiki system of healing and have also studied with the local O.T.O lodge though I am not nor intend to be an initiate of that group. Not anything personal, just not my cuppa joe. All the while, my partner and I still run a small coven and take in seekers all the time refining our system as we increase our knowledge and understanding. My point being, as you have slogged through all this, I probably would not be as interested in spirituality and the expression of it if I hadn’t had the life experiences that I have had. Issues of faith, redemption, and morals matter but are not limited to a particular focus or ritual expression. Understanding, compassion and forgiveness do matter.

Motivational Psychology and Wicca

Motivational psychology is one of my favorite subsections of psychology. In 1996 I received an Associate’s Degree with honors in Chemical Dependency Counseling or Addiction Therapy as it is currently called. I worked for several years as a counselor for different agencies and continue to work on my bachelor’s degree as time and money allow. When Cat and I first started going through the coven book of shadows, I was surprised that she included a section on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as a part of understanding underlying issues of the need for ritual and spell work and why they sometimes bomb or hopefully succeed. In recovery we talk a lot about what is our motivation to change our life, transform it completely by not giving into our addiction and why we may need to change our inner world so that the outer changes can be made. My first mentor, June, focused equally on Maslow as she did on the twelve step program of AA to help folks make the connections they needed as a part of their recovery. Magic, as one definition states, is the art and science of creating change. Ritual workings and spells are some of the tools we use to help our lizard brain get over itself and grow into a new way of thinking, perceiving and doing things. For Maslow, the over arching goal is self actualization or the continual process of self fulfillment or the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. i.e. one person to express themselves athletically or another person to express themselves through art etc… The basic structure of the hierarchy of needs focuses on 1. Biological and physical needs for air, food, shelter, water, warmth, sex, sleep etc. 2. Safety Needs i.e protection from the elements, physical security and emotional security. 3. Social needs i.e sense of belonging and compassion. 4. Esteem needs; self esteem, mastery, etc.. 5. Self actualization. In Wicca we strive to live in harmony with the natural cycles around us each according to our abilities. The motivation for most types of spell work comes down to one of those needs not being met be it a search for a lover or turning the lover into a toad (social needs) to any of the number of prosperity spells for biological and physical needs to protection spells for safety needs. Earlier, I made the distinction between spell and ritual working. Spells to me mean that I am doing something that is affecting my outer circumstances like the ones mentioned in the last paragraph. Ritual workings then are about changing my inner thoughts and world to help manifest a better physical world. For example, I have a ritual from Family Spirit by Awo Folokun that is designed to change self esteem and inner tapes from negative to positive. I perform it at least once every 6 month cycle. When I am asking the universe for an additional boyfriend or more money coming in to pay off a bill that is a spell. Why most magic flops for people is that they are usually not clear within themselves what they really need to have happen (working or spell) and they are usually not having patience for their issue to manifest. Harkening back to the last post with clear intent you need faith and patience to manifest your desired vision. Unless of course you’re interfering in the free will of someone else but that is an entirely different conversation of morals and ethics in magic. With that, gentle readers, I have a pug that is napping next to me and I am sorely tempted to join her. I hope this was helpful in some way. Blessed Be!

Intent, Faith, and Patience...

I am writing more because I need to remind myself of what I know. Magic really boils down to the belief that we can change our circumstances and ourselves. Our coven focuses on being a transformation based coven. Meaning that while others may focus on healing, hexing etc... we are primarialy focused on changing ourselves before we expect to see changes in the outside world. With that, intent or focus on your desired change but must be followed up with real world work. You also have to have faith that the desired change will come about and patience knowing that the universe very rarely works on the instant oatmeal timing of this day and age. It is way too easy to get discouraged because something is moving slower than expected but that doesn't mean the universe isn't working in the background to bring about your dreams and visions. Have faith, and as my pastor father in law says, Patience, jack ass, patience.... Blessed Be and courage to all those waiting for their vision to manifest.

Raven's Gate Cosmology

Raven’s gate Tradition Cosmology

When I am not busy being a wife, customer service goddess in a healthcare setting, or a savage geek I think about how our universe is formed and how we are a part of that design. Cosmology and how it informs my world.

Raven’s Hearth Coven, as previously stated, is an eclectic tradition based off of the Celtic myth cycle. As such, we (like most wiccan covens) are an earth based expression of spirituality. In the simplest of words, we see the divine through the world around us and because or our Celtic/Germanic ancestry see it through the agricultural cycle beginning with winter and ending with fall or the death, birth, life, death and rebirth. It is also, once you contemplate it, the ebb and flow and the human life cycle, the lunar cycle, and the cycle of a basic day.

So we start, as most covens do, with Samhain or Halloween (October 31) Samhain is the culmination of fall and the start of winter. Traditional/historically that last sheaf is bound, the harvest is gathered. There is time to honor the spirits of the dead and the life of the previous cycle. What worked well and what didn’t work well.  It is the time we have to clear out the old and get ready for the new cycle ahead of us.

At Yule (December 21) we celebrate the height of winter with the celebration of the birth of the divine child. While traditionally the child has been focused on the Goddess giving birth to the God, I believe that the divine child can be both male and female essentially while traditional European models focus on a single male child being birthed, I believe that it is either twins or an hermaphrodite that is born.

The beginning of spring is celebrated at Imbolc or February 2. Imbolc represents the maturing of the divine child into a youth traditionally the time of the maiden.  In Celtic agricultural society the remaining candles were blessed as well as the fields and grain that would be planted once the weather was warm enough and the ground thawed.

The height of spring is then represented with Ostara or the Spring Solstice around March 21.  This is also the reflected in the maturity of the maiden and male youth.  The fields are usually able be plowed and planted. (Hey, I live in Minnesota so the chances of the ground being thawed are slim to none but I do understand you warmer climate people get to be outside in March without your parka.) This is also the time of year that if you have been able to plant, you are usually at a waiting time for the plants to be big enough to tell if it is what you want or if it is a week that will need pulling.  Daily life is like that too but that’s a different article.

The next season that is celebrated is the beginning of summer at Beltane or May 1^st. Beltane celebrates the sacred marriage of the Goddess and the God. Lots of sex happens at this time for humans and animals as well. Even in the land of the north, it is usually warm enough to be outside without several layers of clothes. The crops are planted unless it’s a really cold or wet year.

Litha is celebrated on June 21 and is the height of summer. By this point the Goddess is pregnant with the divine child/ren from all the sex at Beltane.

Lammas/Lughnasadh is the beginning of fall and is celebrated on August 2. It is the first of the harvest season. In traditional Irish culture this was also the time of the fairs that the grains and animals would be brought to. Contests of strength and skill would be had. It is not a whole lot different from modern times and the county and state fairs that happen locally. There is a lot of work preparing for the winter ahead and celebrating the good that has been manifesting.

Mabon is the autumnal equinox celebrated on September 21. The Mother starts going into her time of confinement while the Crone starts to become more active. The God starts to die at this time with his full decent being at Samhain.

Samhain again being a time of resting after the harvest and honoring what has passed on the last year.

So my observations from this is that our cycles are based off of this main one from the lunar cycle to the human to our daily cycle. The next few blog posts, as I get them written will be dissecting these cycles individually.

I am off to enjoy a cuppa and chill out with the family. I always welcome critiques of my writing and our thought process. I hope it blessed you in the process to read it as it has for me to get it written.

May the love of the goddess dwell in your heart and enlighten you!