Living Through the Harvest, in Two Parts (2)

Part Two- Coming to Balance

Novices of the Old Ways – Indianapolis has a birthday this month. Officially, we are 6 years old. The very first ritual was Mabon and so it has a special place in my heart.

In those 6 years, we’ve done much together. What started as an open community became an open community with a coven at the center. That first Unification saw 13 people come together to form Alchemical Crossroads, which later became Stone Chalice and Rising Blade. There have been six years of rituals (some of my favorite being Pride Day ones), magic, visiting local Universities to speak and do more rituals, building amazing ritual props, retreats to West Virginia to meet our East Coast “siblings”, and more.

There’s also been hardship. There have been sabbaticals. There have been tears. Many of those 13 people have come and gone, and it is my sincerest hope that they find their way and learn much along that way.

I’ve always told my coveners that everyone has things to learn, including me. Being Ordained fours years ago didn’t equate to the learning being complete. In fact, the roller coaster had just started. I’ve learned so much about myself as a person, as a Priestess. This work isn’t easy. It’s often quite lonely. As a Priestess, my role is a service one. That’s how we see it within the Novices covens. I still have to finish that blog about the training of Pagan clergy, but for now I’ll say that it was work. It is work. While Paganism is wide and Wicca is varied, and there is not a governing body of the whole giving out Initiations (so what one group’s path to clergy is like compared to another varies), the work Novices Votary’s do is in depth with a minimum of 3 years of deep personal work, and then figuring out where they might serve.

Not everyone even finishes to program. And that’s ok. Not every Witch is a Priest or Priestess. Are they their own Priest or Priestess? Sure. These paths aren’t hinged on priesthood. But they sure are served by a properly trained and supported priesthood, and its simply not a role fit for everyone.

I also learned much about the people that chose to come together and unify as a magical group that I lead. There have been countless times that I have taught what I’ve been taught by my up-line, both to my coven and the various incarnations of the two prison circles I lead. Years ago, I learned about Jungian principles within Pagan Cosmology by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone. When I teach this, I always say, “The first thing magic changes is the self.”

People may come to magical traditions, in part, to alter the world around them. Eventually they will alter their world and their circumstances. However, it is they who will be altered first because that’s how this all works.

I had a coven of mostly brand-new magical practitioners. Those with experience had limited experience. No one save for myself had ever worked in a coven setting before. We were, and still are, a teaching coven. I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I had listened to what I was teaching. Really, really listened. Especially when discussing the Shadow, and how all our Shadows begin to be churned up when we start working magic. And what’s in those Shadows starts to crawl into the light. I wish I had been prepared for what that would be like but then again, this is an experiential path, after all. We learn so much by putting down the books and actually doing.



One of the blessings of this Mabon is clarity, but I also have to recall gratitude because I can sit here and wish all I want. That changes nothing. Instead, I focus on the gratitude of obtaining such a major moment of clarity. It explains so much and not only prepares me for the future, but helps me ground and center. That Group Mind that was created knows what it’s doing, and like my Priestess has said, it wants to stay alive.

Everything that’s occurred is simply growth, even when there’s shedding. Maybe, if we can each have a Shadow that needs purging, each coven has a Shadow too. Maybe that Shadow is made up of parts of each coveners’ Shadows. Just as the channel of the individual magical practitioner is cleared of blockage (which is the purpose of kicking up all that shit in the Shadow) by doing magical work, maybe the channel of a coven is cleared while it’s members work magic together, while they explore their Shadows, while they figure out how to integrate those ‘dust clouds’ and decide what stays and what doesn’t. Microcosm and macrocom, right?





Being a Hunter is still affecting my life, a few months out. I needed my Village while dancing in the pool of light out in the darkness of the forest of Wisteria that was my hunt space. My Village also needed me. I needed to see that I have always been a Hunter. I have always been the one to take my proverbial weapon in hand and charge out into the Hunt. That’s how, at my core, I support.

I needed to understand more deeply what support means, what I require, what I will continue to do and what I will no longer do. I am not and cannot be the Hunter and the Villager at the same time. Nor the drummer either. I have understood, digested, reflected and grown more than I ever imagined. I am thankful. And I’m patient. Nothing about our collective future within my coven needs to be rushed. It knows what it’s doing, for all of us.

I’m thankful for these experiences and living through this harvest as Her scythe swung so near. I’m relishing in this feeling of balance and am unafraid of the future.

I hope that much of this will serve to help you in some form or fashion. Blessed Mabon.

image credit: Sage Goddess