Twenty years ago when I discovered Wicca I had little chance of finding an actual group. For starters, I was still in school and there was no way my parents would have let me find a coven for training. Like most witches, I became a solitare. However,  now that I’ve had the opportunity to take official, structured lessons, I have to say, there is something to be said for coven-based learning.

It’s like the difference between reading about something and working under an experienced teacher. Now for a lot of us books are all we have. So I certainly wouldn’t want to dismiss solitary and book learning. It served me very well for twenty years. However, I do think, that if the opportunity presents itself, that Wiccans should look at taking in-person training.

Which means that as a community, we might want to look beyond the traditional coven structure. How can we get education, such as in the form of seminars or online presenting, to people who might be remotely. This is where the internet and virtual spaces come in handy. Through such things as online webinars, teleseminars, and even virtual spaces, we can bring a large number of Wiccans together who might be in different parts of the globe and provide education and classes.

Will this replace in-person teaching? Of course not. But just as with colleges there are many opportunities from online classes to in-person classes, to a mix of the two, there should be in spiritual teaching as well.

Though I see concepts more clearly now than I have in the past, and I am gaining levels of understanding I did not know, I do not be grudge my solitary years. After all, they brought me closer to the goddess, and in turn, closer to my spirituality and myself.

For some of us, we get out of school and think that our learning is done. Our structured learning, that is. However, our learning continues. We forget sometimes that our entire life is a series of lessons. We go through our lives with the lessons presented to us by Spirit (or God/Goddess) and although we might not perceive these as structured lessons, they are.

Personally, I’ve started taking some lessons to get back to the roots of my spirituality. I am loving these lessons. Sure, I’ve been Wiccan for about twenty years, but I also admit that I fell away from the faith for a while. Now that I’m taking these courses, it’s like “oh, this is what that meant.” Theres’s something about taking structured training that really helps me, at least, to learn concepts and to understand concepts that just reading a book can.

I think it’s important that as adults that we continue this structured learning. If you can’t take classes in-person, look online. Look through your local book shops or in online groups. There are places to take lessons online…just look.

If we approach learning with the idea of a journey, of something we are striving toward, then getting some actual instruction never hurts. It can only help us further our journey and ourselves.  Good luck!

To know. To Will. To Be Silent. What does it mean?

The phrase might be borrowed or adapted from ceremonial magick, but it holds true in nearly every aspect of our lives, not just our magickal ones. But let’s take a look at this phrase, step by step, piece by piece to see what it really means and how it can apply to our mundane and our magickal lives.

To Know.

What does it mean to “know” something? On the surface, if someone knows something, then it generally means they were taught it or learned it on their own. Someone who knows something is generally seen as a point of contact or expert in sharing and passing on that information. Additionally, someone can “know” something in his or her gut, through intuition. This type of knowing is very important in magickal workings.

When doing a ritual or a spell, it is important to know several things. First, you need to know the actual components of the ritual. The timing, where, when, the components being used, the reason for using those components. You have to know this information in order to have an effective ritual or magick working. You also need to know why you’re doing the ritual. Not just the superficial meaning, though that’s important too, but the deeper one.

And you have to know what kind of an outcome you’re working toward.

There’s a lot of knowing that goes into working rituals or magick. But that’s not all, and we’ll look at the next part of the phrase, “to will” in the next blog.

With the help from the wonderful people at the Klarinet list, I am refining my playing. Keep in mind the last time I seriously played clarinet with any instruction the year was 1991, I was a sophomore in high school, and trying to find a way out of marching band. My beloved Yamaha sat in a closet for many years, until about seven or eight years ago when I had it tuned up just to keep it in working order. Luckily for me, I did that, because about six months ago, I decided that I wanted to play clarinet again.