The Modern Guide to Witchcraft (34 page)

Next, ask yourself what kind of coven you want. Do you intend to focus on a specific magickal tradition? Do you want your group to be religious or secular? Do you want a rotating leadership or one defined leader? How will you choose the leader(s)? In other words, consider all the factors that will define and flesh out your group. These guidelines will make it easier for others to decide whether your coven is right for them.

Here are some other things to consider:

• How will authority and responsibility be handled?
  
• Will your coven work magick for magick’s sake, or will you bring religious aspects into your group?
  
• Where and when will you meet?
  
• Will you have requirements about how many meetings a year a person must attend to remain a member?
  
• Will you have study requirements?
  
• Will members participate in activities together outside the coven setting?
  
• Do you plan to keep a book of shadows for your group (and if so, how and where will it be maintained)?
  
• Will you need to have specific tools or clothing for your coven meetings?
  
• What festivals will you observe?
  
• What other types of gatherings do you want to hold (for instance, to respond to a member’s personal needs)?
  
• What types of members’ personal problems should the coven avoid getting involved in?
  
• How will someone attain the role of priest or priestess in your group?
  
• Who will make the decisions? Will you run your coven democratically, or will the leader’s word be the final authority in matters?
  

After you’ve ironed out these details, politely approach individuals you think might be interested. Talk over what you envision and listen carefully to the way each person responds. It’s okay for them to ask questions. If they don’t, you should be worried. Nonetheless, somewhere at the bottom line, their vision of the group has to mesh with yours, or there are going to be problems.

Once you’ve found a core group, the next stage is the “shake ’n’ bake” period. Consider setting a time period (for example, a year and a day) before anyone is considered a full, formal member of the coven (and before she’s initiated into the group). This trial period gives everyone a chance to see if the relationships between the members work. It also allows time to learn the skills necessary for working magick together. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a good coven.

During this growing stage, try out a variety of rituals, spells, and meditations together, keeping notes in your book of shadows about each event. Find out what sensual cues work best for everyone. Note what goes really wrong, and what goes really right. Review these notes regularly.

At the end of the trial period, everyone should sit down together and powwow. Discuss your accomplishments. Talk about what has and has not worked. Ask each person if he or she would like to continue in a more formalized manner. If the answer is yes, great! If not, separate as friends and spiritual helpmates. Just because you’re not working magick together doesn’t mean your friendship will end.

Those who decide to move forward now have an even greater task ahead, that of keeping things going. Establish a line of authority and really start organizing. And, of course, it’s time to start formally meeting as a coven.

As Donald Michael Kraig writes in his book
Modern Magick
, “Magick is not something you do, magick is something you are.” Once you shift your way of thinking from mundane to magickal, you’ll never see the world as you did before. Now, when you walk into a building, you’ll sense its vibrations. Gemstones won’t be just pretty baubles; instead, you’ll see them as life forms that can aid you in your spellwork. Dreams will no longer be nightly happenstances, but messages from your inner self.

Magickal awareness brings you into intimate connection with all life on earth and with the cosmos beyond. You become conscious of how your thoughts produce results. You notice how your emotions and actions influence others and how they create the circumstances you experience. You sense the presence of nonphysical beings in your environment and allow yourself to be guided by your spiritual guardians. You recognize coincidences as meaningful events and learn from them.

At some point in your magickal process, you’ll have to decide why you’ve chosen this path. Many people, especially teens and young adults, initially get interested in witchcraft and magick because they feel weak and seek to gain power over others. If you stick with it, however, you’ll soon discover that witchcraft is really about gaining power over yourself and your ego.

When people ask me to do magick spells for them, I usually encourage them to get involved themselves. I’m happy to share spells with them, as I’ve done in this and other books. But often spells you do for yourself can be more effective, if only because the outcome is more important to you than to another person. You can pour your emotions into the spell. You feel a strong connection to any other people who may be involved in the spell. You know the outcome you desire.

Everyone possesses magickal ability. But magick isn’t for couch potatoes. It’s for people who genuinely want to take charge of their lives and their realities. Magick involves study, discipline, and practice. You’ll have to build your mental muscles. It requires you to shift your old habit patterns and beliefs, which is easier said than done. It demands that you “clean up your act” and examine your motives. Most importantly, magick forces you to delve deep within yourself to discover who you truly are.

You don’t need to purchase a warehouse full of supplies in the beginning. Start with a few basics: candles, incense, ribbons, and kitchen herbs. As you progress, add some quartz crystals and gemstones. Later on, you may wish to invest in a wand, chalice, athame, and pentagram. Tarot cards, a crystal ball, and pendulum might follow at some point. Build your collection as your need or interest dictates.

Sometimes magick items find you. A friend gives you a tarot deck. You spot a crystal lying on the side of the road. In time, you might decide to grow your own magickal herbs. Some witches like to fashion their own candles or even distill their own scents. Others fabricate special ritual clothing or jewelry. Apply your talents however the muse guides you.

No matter how long you study and practice witchcraft, you’ll never know it all. You could be at it your entire adult life and still barely scratch the surface. It’s like any other subject: The deeper you dig, the more you discover.

Some people begin studying one type of magick and then move on to learn about another. In the course of your studies, you’ll undoubtedly find yourself drawn to certain schools of thought and not others. Your heritage, temperament, interests, locale, companions, and many other factors will influence your decisions about which path to follow.

As you explore different types of magick, you’ll discover that despite their outer forms of expression, they contain many common denominators. Gaining knowledge about one school of thought can increase your skill in another. Although some purists might disagree, many people think it’s fine to combine features from different magickal traditions and schools of thought.

Magick transforms you. It becomes an integral part of your life and your worldview. You might study intensely at one period and then ease off temporarily. You may do lots of rituals for a time, then not perform any for a while. But once you assume the magician’s mantle, you’ll wear it forever.

Magick exists everywhere, all the time. You are part of the magick. Blessed be.

Skye Alexander is the award-winning author of more than thirty fiction and nonfiction books, including
The Everything
®
Wicca & Witchcraft Book
,
2nd Edition; The Everything
®
Spells & Charms Book, 2nd Edition
;
Naughty Spells/Nice Spells
;
Good Spells for Bad Days
;
The Secret Power of Spirit Animals
; and
The Everything
®
Tarot Book, 2nd Edition
. Her stories have been published in anthologies internationally, and her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. The Discovery Channel featured her in the TV special
Secret Stonehenge
. She divides her time between Texas and Massachusetts.

I wish to thank my editors Tom Hardej and Peter Archer, and all the other talented folks at Adams Media for making this book possible.