How to Become a Witch (29 page)

Deepening Your Practice
Exercises for Exploring the Worlds Beyond

Witches’ Universe

• Draw your own model or diagram of the universe; it can be an existing model or totally original.
  
• Pretend you are a frog in a country pond. In your Book of Shadows, explore: How many “worlds” do you know well? What environments are you only vaguely aware of? How many are completely outside your experience (for example, a mountain peak)? Is this a good analogy for humanity and our awareness of other planes of existence?
  

Other Inhabitants

• Plant devas: Go to a park, garden, or wild area in nature. Shed preconceived ideas. Touch a plant; open your mind. What impressions do you get? Is there communication?
  
• Mindshifting: Imagine being a tree. Now ask a real tree if you may share its mind; if you get a positive response, send your mind into it and just experience its life from the inside. You may have to slow your thinking in order to match its experience. Thank it when you come back out.
  
• Ancestral spirits: Learn about some of your ancestors by asking your parents or elderly relatives for stories. Make a shrine to commemorate one who especially interests you. Meditate on that person. Ground, center, and send out an invitation to communicate; see what you receive back.
  
• Discarnate humans: Have you had any contact with “ghosts”? Write the story in your Book of Shadows. Have any of your family or friends had similar experiences?
  
• Faery folk: Research theories about them on the Internet or at a library. Think about them, discuss them with open-minded friends, and decide what you believe.
  

Astrology

• Find out where and at what time you were born. Find a local astrologer who will draw up your natal horoscope (birth chart) or use the Internet to create your own. What can you learn about you?
  
• Get an astrological calendar or almanac. Study the symbols until you begin to understand them. Now look up today’s date, and find out what is happening astrologically right now. How could that affect what you were planning to do today?
  

Divination

• Buy or make a pendulum. Learn its yes and no responses. Ask questions where you know the answers to verify that they are consistently accurate. Now ask an important question for which you
  don’t
  know the answer.
  
• Choose another divination method that interests you: tarot, runes, scrying, whatever. Make or get the basic tools you need; if you buy them, read the literature that comes with the set/deck/tool. Then just experiment, with a friend if possible. Write your experiences in your Book of Shadows.
  

Psychic Skills

• Sensitivity: Go to different places and just sense the energies. Describe them in your mind. Become used to being aware, simply noticing. What does it look, sound, and feel like?
  
• Intuition: Pick up a book at random in the library without even looking at the title, subject, or author’s name. Does it “feel” bright, dull, light, heavy, or what? Write down the impressions you get. Now read it, or at least read enough to know whether your impressions were accurate.
  
• Shielding: Practice putting your shields up, using the breathing technique described on page 193. Do it several times in one day. Then go somewhere that usually makes you feel tense or frazzled. Put up your shields and note how your feelings change.
  
• Auras: Find a willing person, animal, or motionless object. Look for its aura. If necessary, unfocus your eyes a little or use your peripheral vision. If you can get close, hold out your palms and feel it. Then try the mental humming technique from chapter 5; see if the sound changes as you focus on different places in its energy field.
  
• Psychometry: Get an old object, perhaps an antique you don’t know much about. Hold it and relax. Record any sensory impressions you receive, then research the item’s history and see if it matches anything you felt.
  
• Dreamwork: Program yourself to remember a dream, and have paper by your bed so you can write it down the moment you wake up. Record your interpretation of its meaning. Try this for problem solving: focus on a problem or question just before you fall asleep, then let it go, and in the morning see if your dream has provided an answer.
  
• Past lives: Have you experienced déjà vu, the sensation that something is very familiar, even though it should be completely new to you? Or have you had a recurring dream about a place you have never visited in this life? Write about these experiences in your Book of Shadows.
  

Chapter 11

Circle Near the Old Oak Tree
Solitary, or Three or More

D
ance the round with Pagan folk,

Touching magick, wielding power,

’Neath the stars, beside the oak,

I am a Witch at every hour.

“Ye may not be a Witch alone” is an old Craft saying. This is not to say that you cannot practice as a solitary, but almost everyone sooner or later hungers for like-minded friends and teachers—community. But if everyone around you follows a mainstream faith or none at all, how do you connect?

Making Connections Online

A relatively safe way to begin is with the Internet. This is not to say that everyone you meet online is sincere and trustworthy; there are scammers and predators who pretend to be High Priest Muckety-Muck of the Temple of Eternal Whatever, looking for careless young women or anyone with a credit card.

But fortunately these are fairly rare. It’s not an easy scam to run; it does require some knowledge to look convincing, and there are risks involved for the scammer when real Witches discover him or her.

The great majority of those online are probably honest about who they are and what they can offer, whether it’s an introduction to a local coven or information about community events. Observe normal precautions (don’t give out your credit card number or detailed personal information, meet only in a public place at first), and you should avoid problems.

Far and away the best resource for contacting Witches in the United States (and Canada, Australia, and many locations around the world—including Antarctica!) is Witchvox.com, which has from a few to hundreds of listings for each area. An excellent resource for European Witches and Pagans is the Pagan Federation’s website: paganfed.org. If you don’t find what you need on these websites, do a search for “Wicca” and the name of your country, region, or state.

You can find classes online as well; a few are free, and others charge moderate fees but allow you to converse with real people instead of simply downloading assignments and reading lists. As with brick-and-mortar schools in the real world, the quality varies. Anyone with computer skills can set up a class online and present themselves as an expert in the Craft. Before you pay for an online class, check the teacher’s experience and qualifications.

Where to Meet Witches Locally

Go to your nearest metaphysical or New Age shop—once called “occult bookstores”—and look at the bulletin board or chat with the staff. Besides selling books on everything spiritual or magickal, they are important information centers for the Pagan community. Besides, you’ll have fun browsing among the crystals and incense and colorful tarot decks.

While in the shop, look for copies of a local newsletter that you can subscribe to. Some national Pagan magazines have classified ads to connect you with others in your area; contact information for
Witches & Pagans
,
Circle Magazine
, and other important periodicals is listed in appendix C.

If you live in or near a big city, there will be open events you can attend: public sabbat celebrations up to eight times a year, workshops (often held right in the bookshops), drumming circles, and concerts with Pagan musicians. Such events will be posted at the bookstores and listed in local newsletters or possibly online at Witchvox.

A few Wiccan/Pagan schools and retreat centers exist on the physical planes besides the ones that exist only in cyberspace, and the number is growing. You may be fortunate enough to live in New Mexico, near Ardantane Pagan Learning Center; or in Wisconsin, not far from Circle Sanctuary; or in Missouri, a short drive from Diana’s Grove. There are others as well, listed in appendix C. Good advice: make an appointment before visiting, or better yet, register for a scheduled event. This will ensure that you don’t appear at an inopportune time.

Pagan Pride Day events are popping up around the country like mushrooms, and these are a great place to meet people and learn about local groups. Typically they are held in August or September, in local parks of medium to large cities. They are very public events, so you can hear about them through radio and newspapers, or you can try an Internet search for “Pagan Pride Day” and your nearest city.

A well-organized PPD will have information tables for local groups, people selling ritual costumes or artwork or crafts, a food booth, mini workshops, games, and live music and dancing. Not so long ago, something this public would have been unthinkable, especially for Witches. It is still not possible everywhere.

At the bookstores, online, or at events like Pagan Pride Day, you can get information on meetings of Pagan organizations: in the United States, local councils of the Covenant of the Goddess, and in Europe, groups affiliated with the Pagan Federation, and many local networking groups. Advertised meetings are usually open to visitors. You can observe the meeting, then talk to people during the social period afterwards. Most Witches and other Pagans will be very friendly if you show a sincere interest.

Festivals

Imagine that you are in a wooded campground; the red bark of ponderosa pines glows in afternoon sunlight, and you glimpse a blue lake through the trees. Canvas pavilions form rows along the dirt road; one merchant sells drums in many sizes, and a small child in blue coveralls bangs enthusiastically on a djembe drum as large as he is. A slender young woman in a beaded vest and a bearded Druid in white robes walk past you, talking together. She is wearing a tail, perhaps coyote or wolf.

At a jewelry booth glittering with silver and colored gemstones, a motherly looking woman in a tie-dyed caftan peers at an amulet; she has a handmade broom over her shoulder and wears a pointed hat edged with feathers. At the booth next door, a muscular young man, kilted, goat-horned, and bare-chested, swings a two-handed broadsword, getting a feel for the balance. Across the road, a black woman with beaded cornrow hair and a stack of books tries to explain a magickal operation to a wiry, lean man who looks like Wyatt Earp but is wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.” At another booth, no one is present, but a sign says, “Take what you want, leave the money in the cashbox.”

You are at Merchant’s Row at Dragonfest, one of the largest Pagan festivals in America. It looks and feels a little like Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley transplanted to the Rocky Mountains, with a medieval undercurrent of the Society for Creative Anachronism and a strong dash of Sierra Club.

In every season of the year, in every part of the country, in countries throughout Western Europe and North America and Australia, Pagans gather in force: they gather to camp in the out-of-doors, to meet like-minded people, to perform ritual and celebrate together, to attend workshops on magick or healing or anything Pagan, and to shop among merchants and artisans.

Once, Witches and Pagans were so deeply closeted that they held no festivals. If you were fortunate enough to be in a coven, your coven brothers and sisters were the only Witches that you knew. Your religious community was very small, very tight, and limited to the knowledge and perspectives of a handful of people.

Then the festival phenomenon began. On private land in the country, at remote spots in the national forest, or in out-of-the-way state parks or retreat centers, Pagans gathered for the first time to meet others not of their immediate group.

Today, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Pagan festivals. Most are still outdoor camping events held on long weekends. A few are held at hotels—perhaps the largest being PantheaCon, held each February in San Jose, California. Here, three thousand Pagans gather to enjoy more than 150 workshops, rituals, and concerts. Other large festivals in America have been going for decades: Pagan Spirit Gathering recently moved from Ohio to Missouri, EarthSpirit Rites of Spring in Massachusetts, the United Earth Assembly in Oklahoma or Texas, and Spring Mysteries Festival in Washington State are some examples. However, there are also many smaller gatherings; every year, a few new ones are organized, and a few disappear.

Local Councils of the Covenant of the Goddess frequently hold festivals, such as Magickal Mountain Mabon in New Mexico. These smaller, more localized events are a good way to meet Witches living near you.

The Pagan Federation International (PFI) hosts conferences, “pubmoots,” and other events in the British Isles, Europe, Canada, and Australia. National and regional associations sponsor gatherings in their own countries as well, and you can get information on these if you are connected with PFI.

The first things you will notice at a Pagan festival are the diversity and the friendliness of the people. You will meet Witches, Druids, Asatru, Dianic feminists, eclectic Pagans, and a sprinkling of Buddhists, Jews, liberal Christians, and people whose spiritual paths defy description. Ages range from babes in arms to graybeards and crones. People dress in jeans and T-shirts, or elaborate ceremonial robes, or nothing at all.

The one thing that all these people have in common is that they are friendly—to each other, and to new visitors—and tolerant of different lifestyles, beliefs, and religious practices.

Courtesy and respect are the watchwords. Rudeness, intolerance, discrimination, or sexual harassment will usually be handled quickly and effectively by volunteer staff—or, in extreme cases, a council of elders will be called to deal with the situation.

You are responsible for your own meals and lodging at most festivals. “Lodging” may be a pup tent, a hammock slung between two trees, or a fancy hotel suite.

The structure of the program is similar at most festivals. Workshops will be offered during the day by volunteer teachers, occasionally by nationally known Pagan authors and leaders, and cover a great variety of topics, from arts and crafts to ritual to magick to healing arts to various exotic religious paths. Each lasts an hour or two and is likely to be a wonderful introduction to some unusual subject.

Various rituals will be presented: an opening ritual to welcome people and establish camp rules, rites of passage from child blessings to handfastings to cronings, a main ritual that reflects the theme of the festival, special rituals for Witches or Druids or whomever, silly rituals just for fun, and a closing ritual. For entertainment, there will be bonfires with drumming and dancing, concerts by fine musicians and singers, or open bardic circles around a fire, where everyone takes turns leading a song or telling a story. Between scheduled programs, people cook meals, socialize, or shop at merchant booths. Attendance at anything is strictly voluntary; although some festivals prefer that you sign up for the workshops you plan to attend, most do not.

What to Expect at a Pagan Festival

Almost anything one can say about Pagan gatherings will have exceptions somewhere. However, the following are true of most Wiccan or Pagan festivals:

• Festivals often require that you preregister and pay in advance. Many events are limited in size by the park, retreat center, or hotel they are using.
  
• There will be a fee for attending, but it is usually modest.
  
• You will supply your own shelter and food at most festivals, but not all. It will cost more if it’s in a hotel or if the cost of housing and meals is included.
  
• There will be a registration table where you check in and get a printed program. Here you will probably be asked to sign up for a work shift to help with routine tasks that enable the festival to happen.
  
• There will be merchants and craftspeople selling their wares; bring money (preferably cash; some accept checks or plastic).
  
• Festivals are a great place to meet renowned Pagan authors, musicians, leaders, and teachers.
  
• There will be first-aid personnel and a medical tent in case of illness or injury.
  
• The festival organizers will generally do their best to make facilities handicapped-accessible.
  
• Helpfulness, honesty, courtesy, and respect will be expected from every participant.
  
• There will be a few rules of expected conduct sent to you before the festival. You may be asked not to bring animal companions. You will be told not to bring guns or illegal drugs.
  
• Usually you wear whatever you like or whatever’s comfortable, although nudity may be restricted in some times and places.
  
• Private sexual activity between consenting adults is accepted; sexual harassment is not.
  
• Normally, you may bring alcoholic beverages, although drunkenness and especially obnoxious drunken behavior may get you escorted off-site.
  
• Most festivals are very child- and family-friendly, and some provide children’s activities onsite. Be aware that your child may see casual nudity.
  
• You will be welcomed if you follow the rules, which are a million times less restrictive than out in the muggle world; you will be expelled from the event if you do not.