Wicca for Beginners (20 page)

Email lists can hold a wealth of information too. You can join them through Yahoo Groups and other similar services. There is also a collection of links to email lists on
The Witches’ Voice
Web site, www.witchvox.com. You can network on email lists, ask questions, compare practice, find out where to get tools, and much more. Remember, though, that as with anything on the Internet, some of the information you’ll receive will be great, and some will be wrong, bad, or ridiculous, so exercise some caution.

How Do I Find a Group?

Surf the Internet

Whether or not you can find a group in your area will depend on where you live. The easiest, and possibly the best, resource for finding a group is
The Witches’ Voice
Web site. There is a large section of the site dedicated to listing groups and classes from all over the country. You can click on your state and search the list for your city or town. You can also put the name of your city or town and the word “Wicca” in an Internet search engine and see what comes up. Some covens and groups have their own Web sites. Avoid any group that tries to sell you an expensive book of shadows or online Wicca courses. Most of the groups who offer these things are just out to make a quick buck, and the quality of the material you receive is very poor, if you get it at all. Don’t forget to ask about groups in your area on your email lists too.

Check Pagan Publications

If there is a new age or pagan paper in your area, that’s a good place to look too, as are Wiccan magazines. You can subscribe online to some Wiccan magazines if you can’t find them in your local stores.

Network

Another good way to find groups is to ask around, especially at metaphysical bookstores. Ask friends. Ask the woman wearing the pentagram on the bus. Ask the guy at the coffee shop reading the book about Greek mythology. The last time I was at a coffee shop, there was a woman sitting in the corner reading someone’s astrological chart off of her laptop. Based on her large collection of silver rings with magical symbols on them, I’m guessing she was Wiccan.

Sometimes you will see postings at what we fondly call “hippie havens,” aka co-ops, health food stores, herb shops, colleges, coffee shops, art fairs, crystal and rock shops, and yoga studios. Unitarian churches or interfaith councils may also be good resources. If you have a local Goth club, Renaissance festival or medieval faire, Irish heritage festival, Irish pub, belly dance class, drumming circle, science fiction convention, or chapter of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism; a group that studies and re-creates the Middle Ages), I can almost guarantee that it will be a hotbed of Wiccan and pagan activity. Don’t let the fangs, kilts, Spock ears, and homemade broadswords scare you away. It’s quite possible that these folks can help you find what you’re looking for.

Are There Particular Things
I Should Look for in a Group?

Before joining any group, see if you can check them out by asking around in person or on an email list and visiting their Web site (if they have one). Get a read on the group’s reputation in the community. Unfortunately, it is quite likely that you’ll hear a lot of gossip if you do this, and that can be very disheartening. Check out any rumors rather than believing them without question. Oftentimes they spring out of honest misunderstandings, but there is malicious gossip in the Wiccan community too. In my opinion it’s better to hear the gossip and chase down the truth about it than to go into a new group blind.

Here are some questions to ask yourself or your potential coven mates.

comfort level.
When you meet the members, do you have any negative reactions to any of them? Do any warning bells go off? Do they seem to respect each other? Can you sense tensions in the group? Ask questions and take time to get to know them a bit before leaping in.

ethics.
Do you feel that the group has a positive focus? Do they follow the Wiccan Rede or some similar ethical code? Do members of the group bad-mouth each other or members of other groups?

philosophy.
Is their interpretation of Wicca in line with yours?

expectations.
Has the group clearly laid out their expectations of members, and do they follow those guidelines? Do they have a code or rules about how they treat each other? Are you expected to put in a certain amount of time? Is there a set of requirements that you must fulfill in order to join? Are you expected to contribute items such as candles and food to the group? Are you expected to pay money to attend the group? If so, is the money just to cover costs of ritual materials, or is it for something else? (This is a potential red flag.)

schedule.
Does the group’s schedule fit yours? Some groups are very time-intensive, so if you’re in school or you have a family, you may need to find a group that meets less often.

structure.
Is the group structured or freeform? Who is in charge? How are decisions made? Is responsibility shared? Is it a democracy, a dictatorship, or something else, and can you live with it, whatever it is?

style.
Style is really a mixture of comfort level and structure. Is the group fond of large, theatrical ritual or quieter circles? Is it focused on serious study, fun, partying, magical work, ritual work, or all of the above? Do they wear robes, street clothes, ritual wear, or go skyclad? Do some of their rituals include sex or sexual symbolism, and if so, are you okay with that?

flavor.
Does the group follow a particular tradition, cultural background, or set of gods, or does it pull from many different sources? In other words, are they traditional or eclectic? If they say they follow an established tradition, is there a way to check that they are who they say they are and they do what they say they do?

What Do “Eclectic” and “Traditional” Mean, and What’s the Difference?

Most Wiccan practice can be divided into two categories: eclectic and traditional. Viewpoints on the definitions of these two terms vary, but in general, eclectic Wiccans compile their practices from a variety of sources, and traditional Wiccans use a system of practices handed down to them by someone else and that have a certain level of consistency. The lines blur in some places because there are Wiccans who call themselves members of a tradition, but they cull practices from different sources. Although they pick and choose, groups like these often have some point of continuity, such as working only with the Celtic gods or using a specific format for their circles, even if the individual parts of the ritual change.

Should I Be an Eclectic Wiccan
or a Traditional One?

The answer to this question, as with many of these questions, will depend on your preferences and the options and resources available to you. You might decide, for example, that structure is important to you and look for a group of Wiccans that practice a structured tradition, but there may not be one in your area. For the sake of argument, let’s say that you have access to every kind of group possible. Then you choose based on where someone with your needs and habits will flourish the most.

Eclectic Wiccans have a great deal of freedom. They can take ritual elements that they like from books, open rituals, friends, and online sources and disregard the parts they don’t want to use. They can make up rituals on the spot or plan elaborate rites. They can practice alone or in groups. They answer to no one, and their rituals can be tailored perfectly to suit their needs. They are empowered to teach themselves and build their own path, even if they work with a group. That’s powerful stuff.

When you teach yourself Wicca, however, as opposed to learning a single cohesive system from someone else, there may be things that you miss. It’s hard to know that you don’t know something if you don’t have a person or traditional framework to make that apparent. If you’re learning a tradition, chances are you’re receiving your training in a more cohesive and systematic way. Most eclectic Wiccans also miss out on one of the coolest things in Wicca, or any religion for that matter—being able to tap into the egregore, or collective energy of everyone who has practiced a particular ritual. When a rite is practiced over and over again across time, it develops a power of its own. When you do the ritual, you plug into that energy source. Instantly, you are connected to everyone else who follows that tradition and does that ritual. You can experience this easily in a Catholic church. The buildings hum with the energy of repeated ritual. If you create new rituals every time and do them only once, you don’t tap into the collective as easily.

Structured training and tapping the egregore are two of the positive aspects of practicing traditional Wicca. Other pluses are that since you don’t have to write rituals every time, you have more energy to devote to just experiencing the rites. In this way, the structure is freeing. The consistent elements become psychic triggers that can bring you quickly into ritual “head space.” Because you repeat the rites, they begin to take on layers of significance that they can’t if you only do them once. If you do the same rites for several years, you begin to see different things in them. The energy in circle flows well because all of the parts and pieces were created to fit together. In addition, as a traditional Wiccan you not only have the support of your group, you also can connect with other members of the tradition across the globe (if your tradition is international). If you practice a family tradition, you have the added bonus of being able to tap into your bloodline.

The downside of traditional practice is its lack of spontaneity. Although there may be freedom within the structure, there is still a structure. Many people come to Wicca to escape structured religion. There is also often a hierarchy in traditional Wicca, with those who know the most about the tradition “outranking” those who know less. Traditional Wicca has to work this way because if you’re passing on a tradition, you necessarily know more about it than the person you’re passing it to, at least until you’ve passed the whole thing. There are also a lot of rules in traditional Wicca, and you have little to no say in creating them. Wiccans, as I’ve noted, don’t take well to others telling them what to do, which is one reason eclectic practice is so popular. There’s also the family factor. When you are part of a tradition, you have the support and shared experience of others in the tradition, but you also have to deal with the tradition’s politics and personalities.

For those interested in looking into traditional practice, here is a partial list of Wiccan traditions. Because of limited space, I am not doing any of these traditions justice, but this should give you a taste that might inspire you to explore one or more of the traditions further.

Gardnerian

The Gardnerian tradition descends from Gerald Gardner, who is mentioned earlier in this book. Gardnerianism is probably the oldest Wiccan tradition in the United States, excluding folk and family traditions. It jumped the pond from England in the 1960s. It is a very structured, hierarchical, mystery tradition. It has three degrees, or levels of study. It is also an initiatory tradition, which means to become Gardnerian you have to be “made” Gardnerian by another Gardnerian in a specific ceremony. Gardnerianism has a lineage, which is a kind of family tree that tells who initiated whom into the tradition. Its rites and the contents of its book of shadows are oathbound, which means they are secret and can only be revealed to other Gardnerians. Gardnerians worship skyclad and observe the eight sabbats.

Alexandrian

The Alexandrian tradition follows the work of Alex Sanders. Sanders was initiated as a witch in the early 1960s. He was also a ceremonial magician, which influenced some of the tradition’s practices. The Alexandrian tradition has a lot in common with the Gardnerian tradition. Alexandrians observe the eight sabbats, have a three-degree hierarchy, and may worship either robed or skyclad. Alexandrianism is also an oathbound, lineaged, initiatory tradition.

Feri

The Feri tradition was established by Victor and Cora Anderson in the early 1970s. The Andersons had experience with a wide variety of pagan practices, and they melded them into the new tradition. Among other things, Feri has roots in Appalachian magic. Feri is an initiatory tradition, but there is only one degree. Some of its material is oathbound. Its members work both in covens and as solitaries, and they observe the eight sabbats.

1734

1734 is a tradition culled from a set of letters written by Robert Cochrane, who was magister of the Clan of Tubal Cain in the United Kingdom. Cochrane had a broad knowledge of folk practices of Great Britain, some of which he communicated in the letters, which were part of a series of correspondence from the 1960s between Cochrane and an American named Joseph Wilson. They do not detail an entire tradition, however, so 1734 practitioners have filled in the gaps with practices from other Wiccan traditions. There is no lineage, book of shadows, or initiation. 1734 does not refer to a year. It is, in Cochrane’s words, a number that “meant something to a witch.”

Celtic and/or Celtic Reconstructionist

Celtic Reconstructionist Wicca is Wicca that focuses on deities and practices primarily from Ireland, Scotland, and the other Celtic countries. Since most of the pagan Celtic practices have been lost, Celtic Wiccans research history and literature of the Celtic countries to try to re-create some of these practices and incorporate them into Wicca. Celtic Wicca is most often an eclectic path, although there are new Celtic Wiccan traditions being created. One common theme among Celtic Reconstructionists is that they work with the “three realms”—sky, land, and sea—instead of the four elements. Most of them observe the four major sabbats—Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas—but there is no central structure, lineage, or oathbound material. There are also Greek and Norse Reconstructionists who seek to do something similar, except in the framework of those cultures.