Page of Pentacles

W.
Congregationalist Wiccan Association of BC
C. A. 5196 Moscrop Street
B. C. Burnaby, British Columbia
V5G 2G4
www.cwabc.org #19- November 2006 c.e.

Some Ideas toward a Wiccan Ethics
By Sam Wagar
The single most common Wiccan ethical
statement is “an ye harm none, do what you will.”
This, plus the belief in the “Three-fold Law,” the
belief that whatever one does returns to one
magnified three times, probably reduces the amount
of wilful harm of others done in the Wiccan religious
communities. But neither of these precepts says
anything about how we should behave or what kind
of people we should aspire to become.
Our Gods are not role models that we wish to
emulate. They are powerful and beautiful and
obsessively centred in their areas of excellence. They
cannot point us toward a happy and balanced life, not
on Their own, because They are anything but
balanced. They cannot show us an ethical, just and
moral way of living because They are neither ethical,
nor just, nor moral, nor living beings. In the same way
as it is absurd to speak of an ethical or moral
mountain, it is meaningless to speak thus of most
Gods.
Talking About Mental Illness and
Addiction
By Aurora Rose
I am very happy to be receiving the newsletter
each month and read it eagerly from cover to cover. It
has been quite a long time since I contributed to its
content but I have a request to make instead.
As you know, it has been a long and thorny row
that I am continuing to hoe on my path of recovery.
With help from my partner, my excellent psychiatrist,
and the good people of AA. and the Addictions
Centre, I have been making this journey. While the
help and understanding from these groups and the
love, patience and loyalty of my partner and my family
have been paramount to my recovery, the journey on
the most part is a solitary one. My tremendous pride
has often left me handicapped in my ability to reach
out for help when help was really needed. I have
wound up pushing people away in my ‘need’ to do it
on my own. Even though I have a loving family and a
small circle of loyal and patient friends, I am literally

(Loki said) “You got to understand

the god thing. It’s not magic. It’s
about being you, but the you that
people believe in. It’s about being
the concentrated, magnified
essence of you. It’s about
becoming thunder, or the power of
a running horse, or wisdom. You
take all the belief and become
bigger, cooler, more than human.
You crystallize.”
-Neil Gaiman American Gods (NY:
HarperTorch, 2001), 443.
Announcing With Great Joy, the
Initiation of Anne Doré, lay clergy of
the Vancouver-Burnaby Temple, to
the Second Degree in Pagans for
Peace Tradition!
Anne has read, studied, and
performed numerous public and
private acts in devotion and in
service to the Gods - she is well
prepared and deserving!
-Sam Wagar (Maphis 3rd)

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 What we need to develop, as we develop Wiccan
ethics and ways of being together, is a model of
human excellence that we can aspire to. We need a
model that is not a single person, because each
person differs in needs, capacities, and tastes – one
size does not fit all. We need a model, moreover, that
fits well with the individualistic streak of Paganism
and that respects our need to be moral agents and to
make individual ethical choices.
The great Pagan philosopher Aristotle came up
with an ethical system and model 2400 years ago that
is still suited to these needs. Aristotle argued that we
don’t need ethical systems that list rules, does and
don’ts, or that attempt to deal with every conceivable
question. This is because people are different and
there are simply too many situations to ever have a
perfectly exhaustive list of responses, and because
rigidity and rules-based behaviour is not natural and
rational nor spontaneous and beautiful.
What we need, instead of rules, said Aristotle, is to
develop strength of character, character expressed in
action. A person of good character will naturally
choose to do what is right under whatever
circumstances they are presented with. They will
have a well-developed sense of appropriateness,
appropriate to them, not necessarily to anyone else,
and will consistently act in tune with the good.
The means to develop strength of character, said
Aristotle, is to understand that there are virtues that
can be cultivated, effectively like developing a series
of good moral and ethical habits. By developing the
habit of always doing the right thing, informed by
practical reason and judgement,, we will respond to
any situation by doing what is right in that situation.
Aristotle is fundamentally healthy in his ethics: the
goal of ethics is completely practical and concerned
with good human functioning here in the world, with
living the good life, which he considers to be the
happy life, the soul in accordance with reason.
Although Aristotle complied a list of virtues like
courage, generosity, public-mindedness, friendship and
so on, he refrained from saying how exactly these
would be expressed for a given individual. More
importantly, he said that virtues are the actions and
the passions occupying the middle path between two
extremes, each of which is a vice – one being too
much expression of the action and the other too little.
For example, although generosity is a virtue, giving
away everything that you own is a vice, as is giving
far less than you can afford. Each of us, however,
must find what is virtuous to do and to find the
balanced middle ground of correct action that
expresses the virtues in tune with our nature and
circumstance. Ideally we will also enjoy doing what is
right – we are virtuous not because of rules but
because the good, or virtuous, life gives us more
pleasure.
2
So we have here a positive model of right action
to aim toward, one that is in tune with the basic
ethical precepts of Wicca I mentioned at the start,
and that can include our devotion to particular deities.
Although the servant of Aphrodite will behave
differently than a devotee of Quan Yin or of Odin or
Mars, all can be ethical people who pursue the good
life. The aim is not to adhere to a rigid list of rules, but
rather to seek to become people who have a strong
understanding of themselves and a good personal
ethical code: people who can be trusted to behave
appropriately under any circumstances.
Aristotle’s ethics do not seek to limit our pleasures
or to deny the body or the spirit. Instead we are
required to choose and to take responsibility for our
choices. It is based on the understanding that what
we do, we are. By choosing to lie, we become liars
and it becomes easier for us to remain dishonest than
to become honest. By not standing up for what we
believe to be true we become cowards. But the vices
of cowardice or greed or untrustworthiness are flaws
of personal character, not flaws in the universe. In
other words, we cannot fall back on the claim that
“the Goddess made me do it.” Vices can be
overcome by changing our actions so we can become
the kind of people that we want to be.
Aristotle doesn’t give us any kind of an easy out
from our ethical responsibilities, nor a simple set of
rules. What he gives us, from within a polytheistic
Pagan framework, is a dynamic process and a system
of mutually reinforcing virtues and vices. Just as the
Gods should be understood in and through their
relationships to each other rather than as all-powerful
singular figures, no one virtue is a complete guide to
the good life, and no one person is complete without
community and interaction.
By adding a sense of the virtues to the ethics of
“an ye harm none” we know not only what we should
not do but what we should do and how we should go
about doing it. Even more importantly, we learn who
we should be, whatever we are doing.
(The main piece of Aristotle’s ethics is The
Nicomachean Ethics, available in numerous
translations.)
Mental Illness and Addictions
starving to death. I am in very real danger of
becoming socially anorexic, and quite frankly it scares
the hell out of me.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am a survivor and
was one before I succumbed to this illness. I count
my blessings with an open heart and an open mind on
a daily basis. But I am learning to reach out, and I
may as well not even try if I am not going to be open
and honest.
Now for the request; I have fallen back on solitary
ritual and prayer, and while there are blessings to be
found within a solitary practice, I am sorely feeling
the loss of the blessings that a group conscious can
bring. To make a long story short, I am in desperate
need of support. I have accepted my decision to step
down from any leadership role at this time. It feels
good, right, and proper. I have no idea how long this
‘stage’ of my recovery is going to last, if, indeed, it is
just a ‘stage,’ but I am willing to honour the process
even if I don’t necessarily understand it. What I
would really like right now is some support from our
faith community by advertising for it in the monthly
newsletter. On the last page I often read about
support, prayers or rituals needed for various
individuals…well, I would like to be considered one of
those individuals. I am hurting and still so very ill, but
have a tremendous desire to be well and whole again.
There are many good people in our faith
community who either live with mental illness or
know some one who does. They will also know the
addiction issues that often walk hand in hand with
Bipolar Disorder. It is my hope that these people
come forward to openly talk to others about the
disease or any other form of mental illness that
cripples either themselves or a loved one. It is also
my hope that people in our faith community light a
candle for me…because I cannot carry on without
their support and prayers. I am a broken person who
desperately needs their help.
Thank you kindly for reading this email. This
reaching out for help is not an easy thing to do, and
you are the first people that I have really and honestly
asked for help with something this intimate. If you
should wish to publish all or part of this letter in the
newsletter then I give you permission to do so. We so
rarely hear of people willing to come forward to write
about their struggles with mental illness. To tell you
the honest truth, I probably would have found it easier
to have talked about losing an arm or leg, than to talk
about being mentally ill – but you know, I feel better
now having put these words on the screen, knowing
that I will soon be sending them to you via cyber-
space. I remain…
3
My Granny was a Witch
by Angela Flegel
I spent most of my summers growing up with my
Granny. We had many adventures and along the way
and she taught me many things. My Granny did not
call herself a witch, but she was very proficient in
practising “old wives tales”.
She followed the wheel of the year even though
she did not have a name for it. In the spring she
would ready her garden for the harvest of summer
and autumn. In the summer she had afternoon tea in
the summer house, which was little more than a shed
that over looked her garden. There she would sit and
tell me her life stories, while admiring her work. In
the autumn we gathered the seeds from those plants
from whose bounty I was forbidden to eat. “Those
are for next years garden” she explained. We would
bury last years garden beneath the soil so it could
prepare the earth for the following spring, Granny
didn’t waste anything. She taught me how to preserve
mother’s bounty and her dark, musty, dirt floored
cellar would be filled once again until next autumn.
Her winter days would be spent sipping tea and
knitting or sewing for her great grandchildren. She
would nest in her little “shack” - that’s what the
grandchildren nicknamed her home- as if to hibernate.
Then in the spring she would emerge begin again as
the wheel continued to turn.
Throughout my summers, and other times spent
with my Granny, she would teach me her ways of
healing. I had come to her one summer with large
warts on my hand and she tied the warts up with
string and had me pee on them. After a few days she
took the string off and buried it in the compost pile
although, to be done properly should have been buried
in the manure pile but we would have to make due
with what we had. To my surprise the warts quickly
disappeared as if by magick. She would cure my cuts,
bruises and insect bites with what she had it could be
anything from stale bread, mud and leaves to
interesting liniments she kept. She was very strict
about taking care of your teeth and I remember
dreading having to brush my teeth with baking soda.
She still had her teeth when she passed away. Makes
me wonder if I should switch from toothpaste to
baking soda. Upset stomachs were cured with a
weed that grew in between the paving stones in her
yard and when I became interested in herbal healing
found out that weed was chamomile. I only wish that
I had listened and paid closer attention to her “old
wives tales” when we still had time on earth together.
 My Granny never feared death and would tell me people is maybe not that important.
when she was in her 90’s that she was tired and she We time travel all the time anyway.
was ready to go and I would always respond “Granny When we dream of the future, we time travel.
you can’t go until you’re one hundred and ten”. When I invite Slothwoman into my life, I time travel.
Because of her calmness where death was The reader has the choice now to roll her eyes
concerned as I grew up my fear of dying ebbed away and be irritated at the letdown: first the exciting idea
and now I no longer fear my death. My Granny was of time travel, and then nothing but run-of-the-mill
embraced by the crones loving arms on March 3, imagination? Maybe a little creative visualization, and
2005 at 103 years old. that’s it?
My Granny was a Witch. Merry Meet and Merry The other choice would be to go with it. Okay, we
Part and Merry We Meet Again Granny. use what’s called “imagination” to time travel. What
does that mean? And just how ordinary do we want
our imagination to be?
This celebration of the ordinary, of lifting everyday
Time Travel And The Slothwoman events out of the humdrum of boring repetition into
what’s special and amazing every time is something
morgan moonlady mama that attracts me spiritual traditions. Some Christian
musky you musky - mystics do it, Buddhists do it, practitioners of magick
let me cuddle up with your do it. And practitioners of magick do it with intention,
mysterious feathers, with will.
let me cry at your Intention and will imply choice. I have the choice
furry breast. to see my experiences with Slothwoman as just
morgan moonlady mama another Disney movie in my mind, or I can, with
musky you musky - intention and will, declare that my visits with
big mama you, Slothwoman are examples of time travel. If I make it
bigger than life, so, I can go deeper, investigate more what it means
bigger and softer and for me to time travel, and experience extending
warmer than life, myself more and more into the vast expanse of what
let me drink of your we call past and future.
thick milk. After all, I hold, with many philosophers today, that
morgan moonlady mama time is not a static thing. It’s a relationship. “Before”
musky you musky - and “after” are not actual things, only words for
your brown hairy hands relationships to what we experience as “now”. Time
cup me, hold me is plastic, malleable.
like a little plum, If I believe that, I might as well walk my talk. I
your heartbeat drum might as well take my visits with Slothwoman
lulls me to sleep. seriously, let her hold me in her big hand, let her lull
musky you morgan mama, me to sleep in her cave, the better to dream through
moonlady you, these cold, short days.
my morgan mama.
Isabella Mori is a practising psychotherapist in
Vancouver. She welcomes comments and questions
This is a poem I wrote last year. It somehow feels through email at moritherapy@shaw.ca, through her
apropos right now, on these gray, rainy mornings, web site at www.moritherapy.com, or through her
when we can feel the faint ancestral stir of needing to blog at www.moritherapy.org.
retire into the back of the cave. Slothwoman was Fireside Chats are friendly, relaxed conversations
introduced to me by Z Budapest in The Holy Book of about everything (well, lots of things) under the sun
Women’s Mysteries. She immediately spoke to me, that happen Wednesday Nights at Sacred Space, 27
this shaggy, stocky, muscular prehistorical mama with W. Pender Street, Vancouver. Participation is free.
a never-ending supply of milk and dreams. She smells For a schedule, call Isabella at 604-618-0830.
of musky smoke from the fire she tends in the cave
and her skin is rough.
One of the themes that seems to fascinate us
lately at the Fireside Chats Wednesday nights at
Sacred Space is time travel. My view is that whether
“actual” time travel – shamanistic, yogic,
technological or otherwise – indeed occurs for some

4
Temple News opportunity not only to get some great Pagan
merchandise at an excellent price, but also to help the
North Okanagan Temple (Vernon-Kelowna) Temple’s achingly empty purse while you do so! T-
shirts will be $25 standard price through us, 2X T-
shirts will be $27, bumper stickers are $4, buttons are
Upcoming Events:
$2, and other items may vary. Check out the website
at http://www.northernsun.com and make sure you
* Saturday, Nov. 25, 3 pm to 5 pm - Sable’s house,
get the item’s ordering number. Contact Jenn B at
Vernon - November Temple Council Meeting
fergnclaud@hotmail.com to place your orders and
* Thursday, Nov. 30 - deadline for Northern Sun
make arrangements for sending her your payment(s)
fund-raiser orders and payments
before the end of November. Don’t wait! This is your
* Friday, Dec. 15 - deadline for Pagans in Need Yule
last chance!
hamper donations
* (?) Saturday, Dec. 16, 3 pm to 5 pm - Bean Scene
PAGANS IN NEED
Coffee House, Kelowna - December Temple Council
Meeting
Thank you to those of you who brought donations
* Saturday, Dec. 23, 6 pm to 8 pm - Inner Light Yoga
for the Pagans in Need Yule hampers to Samhain.
Studio, 2807 44 Avenue, Vernon - Yule (Winter
We’re off to a good start, but there’s much more to
Solstice) Ritual - also, deadline for Women’s
do if we’re going to give some local Pagans a better
Mysteries registrations & payments
Yule. Especially needed are cash donations to
* Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007, about 2 pm to 7 pm -
purchase a turkey and/or some fresh fruits and
Jamie’s house, Winfield - Women’s Mysteries classes
veggies, and non-perishable food items. There will not
begin
be another ritual that you can bring these items to, so
please contact myself or Rowean at
Hi everyone, time for another update!
rowean@shaw.ca to make arrangements to drop off
donations (or perhaps have them picked up.) Deadline
SAMHAIN
for donations is Dec. 15.
Samhain was a big success. We had about 25 to
WOMEN’S MYSTERIES
30 people attending, a definite first in Vernon. There
were a lot of new faces (always good to see!) and a
Women’s Mysteries will start Saturday, January
lot of old faces I hadn’t seen in a while. Donations
13, at about 2 or 3 pm at Jamie’s home in Winfield,
were still not that great, but with the attendance being
running for about four or five hours, and will continue
so much better, we are encouraged and intend to
every second Saturday thereafter for five classes,
have more events in Vernon. There were quite a few
ending on March 10. If someone is coming in from or
comments about how wonderful a space the yoga
through Vernon, Rowean and I would appreciate a
studio was (a sentiment I agree with!) Our thanks to
lift. If not, registration costs will need to cover our bus
Jen Zult for being Persephone, and also to the Inner
tickets to Winfield, and will be more expensive. With
Light Yoga Studio, and to Karen, for making us feel at
a ride, we can get away with charging everyone a
home! I know I really enjoyed it myself, and I hope
very affordable $20 for the whole course. Each of us
others did as well.
will also need to bring some simple food items to
share. The Yule ritual on Dec. 23 will be the deadline
YULE
to receive registrations and payments - no exceptions!
(When the final figures were tallied, due to last
We liked it so much that we’re coming back there
minute cancellations, the Women’s Mysteries
for Yule on the 23rd of December, rather than have
weekend retreat cost Rowean and I personally $90
our Yule ritual at the Unitarian church in Kelowna the
out of our own pockets. Ladies, this is important to
day after they have theirs. Once again we’ll be
me but I can’t afford for that to happen again.)
meeting at 6 pm. Bring your singing voices because
we’ll be doing some Solstice carols! Also, if you want
ENERGY NEEDED
to bring a potluck munchie, you’re welcome to do so.
Erin has just recently been diagnosed with
NORTHERN SUN FUND-RAISER - LAST CALL!
diabetes. I’d be grateful for energy geared towards
surviving the financial difficulty this has caused
The end of November marks your last opportunity
because of time required off work. He also
to order a T-shirt, button, bumper sticker or whatever
apparently has some elevated levels of liver proteins
from our Northern Sun fund-raiser. This is a great
in his blood; this means the high blood sugar has

5
affected his liver. This may go away but has to be
closely monitored; some energy directed towards
easing the strain and fixing the problem would be
appreciated.
Our beloved Provincial Chairperson, Deb Eilers,
could use some energy sent her husband Mario’s
way. He had a bad fall and crushed one of his lumbar
vertebrae. Mario was the sole breadwinner and so
they could also use some help in the financial
department. De won’t say it, but she could use some
healing of the spirit for herself too.
A congregation member and her son were
recently in a traumatic car accident, and could use
energy both to cover the financial difficulty that the
loss of their vehicle presents, and also, healing of the
spirit to overcome the flashbacks and post traumatic
stress effects this event has caused them.
Jennifer B is looking for energy to help with her
father’s health. Jamie’s sister is still fighting breast
cancer, Peggy is still recovering from her surgery and
chemo, and a local Pagan with bladder cancer is now
recovering from surgery. When sending energy to
fight cancer, I caution you to be careful; often waning
moon energies to destroy tumours are more helpful
than positive healing energy, which can cause
unwanted growth.
Blessed be,
Diane Morrison (Sable)
Priestess
CWABC North Okanagan Temple
Vancouver-Burnaby Temple
October brought two more interviews for Sam.
The first, on October 24, was a friendly exchange
lasting 17 minutes on the Kid Carson morning show
on 94.5 FM, Vancouver. Two hours later, a phone call
came in from Leavenworth, Washington, asking Sam
for a phone interview on their morning show, October
30 (KOHO, 101.1 FM). The Vancouver Lifestyles
Magazine came out but the article on Wicca was
reduced to one page and featured only two women,
including our friend Kelly who is a second generation
witch. It was nice to see her photo and read about
her experiences. Unfortunately, the author failed to
mention CWA or our website.
Sam has settled into a permanent work location
with a regular schedule of nights, Monday to Friday.
It’s so nice to have a reliable schedule to build a bit of
a personal and social life around! Anne met her latest
deadline at Dalhousie and was given the go-ahead to
the next step in her dissertation. If it’s true that slow
and steady wins the race then there may be hope yet!
Our October Open Public Circle, the day after
Thanksgiving, focused on expressing gratitude for the
6
blessings in our lives. We also did an exercise with
energy balls – creating them, shaping them, tossing
and playing with them.
A dozen people gathered for the coffee meet on
Friday, October 27. Lively conversation, resource
sharing, and pumpkin carving filled the evening. We
meet the last Friday of the month, 7 pm, at Sacred
Space, 27 West Pender Street in Vancouver across
from Tinseltown and near Stadium Skytrain station.
Next Public Ritual (Open Circle) – we return to
the second Monday of the month – November 13 at 7
pm in the Community Room near Old Navy at
Metropolis/Metrotown. We will be remembering the
dead, especially the fallen in Afghanistan.
For more information, please contact
samwagar@shaw.ca or annedore@shaw.ca
Blessings,
Anne Doré
Priestess
CWA lay-clergy
New Westminster Congregation
The New Westminster congregation will be
meeting on the dates of the Sabbats in New West.
The lay clergy co-ordinating it are Jamie and Sherryl
and the supervising clergy person is Deb Eilers. They
are still looking for a more suitable location.
On October 31st at Douglas College in New
Westminster 14 people attended a ritual presented by
CWA New Westminster to mark and celebrate
Samhain. The event was the first presented by the
congregation in a planned series of Sabbat rituals to
be held over the coming year, and was also a first for
Jamie and Sherryl who acted as celebrants for the
first time at a CWA event.
The ritual itself was a standard (?!) Wiccan circle
with a guided meditation portion dealing with facing
the Darkness and expressing love and gratitude to our
Old Ones.
Many of the participants were attending their very
first Wiccan ritual. Unfortunately Jamie and Sherryl’s
inexperience led them to forget the Guest Book for
the event, however contact cards were distributed
and most of the people there expressed their intention
to return for Yule.
The space rented at Douglas College was a
concrete walled classroom and although the
participants managed to transcend the prosaic
surroundings the organizers hope to find a space more
conducive to ritual activity in future.
cwanewwest@hotmail.com for more information.
 Nanaimo Temple
Urgent Plea For Nanaimo Homeless

It is that time of year when our weather can

change suddenly and people find themselves turning
up the thermostat. Unfortunately, some of Nanaimo’s
citizens don’t have that option. I am asking that we
collect blankets, gloves, jackets and toques for
Nanaimo’s homeless. The next time we have a cold
snap of weather where the temperature falls below
zero, we will take the gathered items out and give
them to those in need. Please feel free to drop off
your unused items at my home 620 Sandy Court.
Call 250-753-8899 for directions.
Gaia Gathering
Nanaimo Temple had its Annual General Meeting The 3rd Canadian National Pagan Conference
on the 1st of November and its regular Sabbat ritual University of Winnipeg - Winnipeg, Manitoba
on November 4th, as well as making a presentation to May 18 – 21, 2007
the Unitarian Church congregation about Samhain. A
full report of the Temple’s activities was not received For Registration forms and more information –
by press time. visit www.gaiagathering.ca or email
Although the accident to Deb Eilers’ husband has info@gaiagathering.ca
meant that the Women’s Mysteries course is being
organized by Sally Kimber, it is doing very well. The
Temple has plans in the works for Men’s Mysteries, a
variety of intermediate Wicca courses, and another Chief Lisims of the Nisga’a,
Wicca 101 coming in January. The Hon. Dr. Frank Calder
For more information on this and other matters 3 August 1915-4 November 2006
contact them through http://
www.nanaimowiccan.info/ or (250)-753-8899
Dr. Calder has died in Victoria at the age of 91. A
Memorial Service will be held at Christ Church
South Okanagan Temple (Penticton) Cathedral at a date not yet set. He is survived by his
wife Tamaki and son Eric. He asked to be buried in
Ross Bay Cemetery among the monuments to
After a very busy month in September, October colonialism.
was a little less so. Unfortunately just at Samhain two
members of the Pagan communities in Penticton area,
Willow and Tyger RedEagle were burned out of their He dedicated his life to achieving the recognition of
home. Although the RedEagles were not members of First Nations rights. He concluded the day of his
CWA, they approached us for help and the maiden speech in the Legislature in 1950 with a
congregation has been rallying as much community motion for a BC Bill of Rights. His pursuit of
support for them, to try to help them get back on their recognition of the non-extinguishment of Aboriginal
feet, as they can. title split the Canadian Supreme Court, leading to the
modern treaty process and the signing of the Nisga’a
If you need to contact us you can call Justin at Treaty.
(250) 770-1667 for public ritual and Men’s night info,
Jenn S. at (250) 493-2783 or Angela (250) 770-1667
A brief summary relating to his Order of British
for Women’s Circle info and Mike (250) 770-8644
and Angela (250) 770-1667 for general Temple/ritual Columbia is found here: http://
information. www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/2004/
More information on the doings of the South 2004_FCalder.htm
Okanagan Temple will be in the December
newsletter.

7
CWA-BC Membership requirements:
CWA is not a coven or an association of covens and
so we do not require training or Initiation of people
who wish to be members. We do not expect “perfect
love and perfect trust” but a much more normal level
of trust and mutual respect of our potential members.
Potential members must be legal adults, must attend
at least three of our Open Circles over the course of
a year, sign the attendance book at each of them,
signify in writing that they agree with our statement
of beliefs and our ethic statement (below) and pay
our annual membership fee (currently $25). Only
voting members may vote or be elected to
congregational councils or the provincial council, may
vote to confirm a clergy person for ordination, or train
for our clergy.
Clergy training takes a minimum of one further year,
regardless of the amount of previous training or
experience which a person may have.
CWA Statement of Beliefs:
The members of this Society believe:
a/ that the divine is multifaceted and that it is
appropriate to Name and worship a variety of
Goddesses and Gods in a variety of different ways,
b/ that the divine is primarily immanent,
c/ that there are a variety of guardian spirits and
levels of divinity,
d/ that we generally shape our liturgy and theology
around the worship of the Goddess or the Goddess
and the Old Gods,
e/ that the divine is ever-present and ever-active in
the world,
f/ that we can through petition, action, and ritual,
cause change in the world in accord with our Wills.
Every woman and every man is an embodiment of
divinity.
All acts of love and pleasure are acts of praise of the
Goddess. This specifically includes all non-coercive
sexual orientations.
An ye harm none, do what ye will.
Statement of Ethics:
All members of this Society must bind themselves by
agreement with the following:
Although there are many Goddesses and Gods and
many Paths to their worship, our path does not
involve;
a/ animal sacrifice,
b/ any coercive activities,
c/ charging fees for teaching the Craft beyond the
recovery of costs, or for Initiation. (Members of
groups may reasonably be expected to share in the
expenses of events sponsored by the group, or agreed
to as part of its obligations as members of this
Society, and voluntary donations will be accepted).
d/ malfeasance,
e/ breaking Priestly confidentiality, subject to the
law,
f/ oath-breaking.
People who wish to become further involved in our
church need not be members to volunteer for
committees (although nonmembers cannot vote) or to
attend basic Religious Education classes (which will
be taught by members and clergy). Just contact the
Secretary of CWA as a whole or your local
congregation’s lay clergy or congregation council
Summoner.
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