(Phaedra Bonewits, Neopagan teacher, writer, and initiate of several traditions of Wicca, Witchcraft and Hermetic Magic, thinks of herself as just another occult generalist who insulates her house with books. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Phaedra was a pioneer in public Pagan worship in Chicago where she was a founding member of Panthea Temple, was an active public Pagan in North Carolina, and served as national vice president of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS). These days you can find her at the blog of the website, http://www.neopagan.net, that she and Isaac ran. )
To all my friends who learned ritual and magic way back in the day when I did:
- Please teach.
- Please do public rituals.
- Please start training covens/circles/temples/whatever.
- Please pass along your depth of knowledge and skill as we were taught by people who were deep in their knowledge and skill.
- Please give people the opportunity to learn from your example and mentorship, not just from books.
I am constantly meeting people who are so hungry for the real thing. They don’t even quite know what the real thing is, but they know something more must be possible. It’s just that, they don’t know how one gets there.
So many people have never experienced the powerful rites that we took for granted. They are earnest, they are committed, but they don’t know what can be achieved because they’ve never actually experienced it.
We can’t (and some would say shouldn’t) teach everyone. Over the years, I haven’t taken on that many personal students. It’s hard work, and if you move around the country a lot as I have done, it’s not possible to do one-on-one work with people for long periods of time. (And yes, teachers of mine, you were right; students will break your heart.) So you do what you can do, which is heaps better than doing nothing at all.
I would not be the practitioner I am today without the generosity of those who shared their skills and experience with me; to name a few: Christa Heiden Landon, Althea Northage-Orr and the late John Northage, Alan Salmi, Aidan Kelly, my beloved Isaac, of course, and many more, some well known, many not.
I also owe something to everyone who gave a workshop I attended, or put on an event, or officiated at a powerful ritual that I had the privilege to attend. All you old-school Pagans and occultists in Chicago who set such high standards, I owe you.
We’re getting old. We’re dying off. Too many of those who drove the scene (however you think of it) are already gone. (If you think at 50 or 60 you automatically have decades still ahead of you, believe me, it’s not something you can count on.)
Students and initiates of mine, have you trained at least one person? Have you done a ritual for guests or for the public so they can get a sense of what good ritual feels like? Have you done a presentation or given a lecture or led a workshop? Have you done these things the past decade? If you have, bless you, keep it up. If you haven’t, give it a shot. Do it for me.
Heck, do it for everyone. And for the ones who will come after them.
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