What if you have really, really, really got your heart set on being part of a group, and you just can’t find one anywhere, or there isn’t one around that you are comfortable with, and you just don’t want to wait around until a new one shows up? Well, you could start your own group. Yes, even a beginner can start their own group-you don’t have to be High Priest or a Priestess or have any other type of fancy title, you don’t have to be “ordained” or “authorized” by anyone, and you don’t have to get permission from any other group, either. It isn’t even required that your group even has to have a leader! If you’ve got two or three friends that want to study and learn as well, than you’ve already get all the group you need. Organize it just as you would a club meeting or a high-school/college study group. You don’t have to go met in any fancy buildings, cemeteries, pine groves, beaches, deep dark forests, caves, or any other spooky Hollywood type of place, although you can if you really want to. You can meet right in your own living room (if you’re a teenager make sure you get your parents’/guardian’s permission first). Later on, if more people wish to join your group, you could think about starting a more organized, “official” group, with rules, laws, books, leaders, teachers, and stuff like that, and you could consider renting or buying a building to use just for your covens group meetings. If you really want to go all-out, you can write your own textbooks, hire teachers and spiritual leaders, have workshops, and buy a small bus or van to pick up your members. The most extreme that you can go, would be to build a church and start your own religion. You are only limited, buy how big you are able to dream.
Why start a group? Well for one thing–it’s good to talk about your beliefs and feelings with others. A group gives you someone to share your experiences with. It gives you people to talk to, and people to listen to. You need not be limited to people of your own age group either. Teens, adults, and elderly can mingle together and have some great conversations.
Now for those of you who are really truly determined to roll up your sleeves and become a 100% real Witch every day for the rest of your entire lives, and not just play around with a few spells for a year or two and then move on to the next fad, then you might want to consider an apprenticeship. Yeah, that’s right, just like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. You don’t usually join a coven for this, as most real Witches view covens as a sort of “playground” for the “baby Witches” who aren’t yet ready to dig in to the real thing–a life long medical, scientific, and spiritual career in Witchcraft. Apprenticeship used to be the most popular way for Witches to get their training. In apprenticeship, you seek out an older, wiser, more experienced Witch (often a Crone or a Wizard) that is willing to personally teach you the art of Witchcraft. You will live with or close by this Witch for many years-five, ten, twenty years or more. At first you will simple run errands for your teacher, watching and listening carefully to everything he/she says and does. You will start writing you Grimoire immediately–by taking notes of absolutely everything. (If you weren’t go at note taking in science class than you won’t last long as an apprentice). You will usually begin by studying and memorizing the names and uses of various plants, herbs, rocks, and minerals as well as how to identify each and every one, and what they cure and how to administer them to the sick. You will also usually learn the meaning of various colors and how they affect people. You will most likely learn to make and use your own candles, and often you will be taught how to do other things on your own such as sewing, embroidery, making your own clothes, knitting, weaving, crochet, “homemade” cooking, and toy or doll making ~now don’t groan-these are all necessary skills that all real Witches eventually end up having to learn, and the earlier you learn them the better. You will study things like dreams and visions, and you will spend allot of your time-hours each day- sitting silently practicing the art of deep meditation. If you didn’t like history class, you’re in for bad news–you will most likely spend allot of time in libraries researching the history and spiritual and medical practices of Africa, China, Ancient America, Haiti, and Papua New Guinea. Later, after you have gained the teacher/Witch’s trust you will be allowed to assist in spells and things, and much later-probably years-as you become more experienced, you will move on to things like healings, exorcisms, and lifting curses. There is a dark side to Witchcraft that isn’t often spoken of-to date I’ve yet to find a book on Witchcraft that even mentions it: death. Many young teenage Witches have their fairy-tale fantasies about being a Witch smashed deeply into the ground with the hash reality that Witches are often surrounded by death. Real death, not video game, vampire movie, fantasy type death, but real dead people-including possibly people that you know. Preparing a body for burial requires allot mental strength and should not be taken up by the weak or faint hearted. There are very few people who have the mental strength to deal with being around or even hearing about death, much less handling the actual dead bodies. Be prepared to help your teacher in the preparation of dead bodies for burial-you will probably be asked to assist in the funeral services as well. It is a plain and simple fact that a majority of real Witches are there to help the dead pass on to their new existence in the afterlife and the preparation of a body for burial is a common thing for Witches to do. This is why Hollywood so often associates Witches with cemeteries, fact is if you are a Witch you may very well spend allot of time in cemeteries-but not casting spell at midnight-instead you will be burying the dead, cremating the dead, performing funerals, blessing the dead one’s spirit, and helping to ease the pain of a grieving family. It is often this harsh shock the reality of what Witches really do that causes most aspiring young Witches to give up on Witchcraft and instead turn to Wicca. It is this association with death that has made true Witchcraft so unpopular among the young generation of today, and why Wicca is quickly becoming the “new age form” of Witchcraft. Sad thing is, is that very few young people realize that there is no horror in death, that death is merely the passing of one life into another. Their minds are so filled with Hollywood superstitions and fears about death, that they run in terror from Witchcraft once they are asked to help the dead and dieing pass on into the next life. Wicca is often more appealing, simply because they are unable to face the facts of life-that you can’t escape death. You might as well face the facts now, that if you want to be a Witch, you are going to spend allot of time with dead people, especially for those of you training to become Witch Doctors, Mambos, Hogan’s, and Borkas, all four of whom deal with dead bodies more often then live clients, be sure to keep this in mind when choosing your teacher. If you want to avoid having to work with dead people than you should steer clear of an apprenticeship with Witch Doctors, Hogan’s, Mambos, Borkas, Aborigines, Jala`, (pronounced: hale-lee) and some Medicine Men/Women; to be on the safe side you should choose a Garden Witch, a Kitchen Witch, a Green Witch,——- . Depending on the type of Witch your are training under, you may also learn about things like using Vodun Poppets, Medicine Bags, healing auras, rock divination, crystal healing, spirit animals, animal communication, Taoist exercise, Feng Shui, Yoga, music and dance therapy, essential oils, incense, Reki, smudging, homeopathy, aromatherapy, massage therapy, hypnosis, and any of countless other things. You may also need to take a collage course in psychology and mental health, if you plan to some day open a practice of your own. (Remember Witches often treat clients, and you will need to know how to diagnose grief and illnesses and be able to give advise to them, this is especially important if you will be dealing with dead bodies and may need to provide counseling to the families of the dead.) Each Witch uses different methods and has different beliefs, so the Witch you choose to study under should be chosen carefully to make sure that he/she is actually the type of Witch that you want to become, because that is the whole point of being an apprentice-to become like your teacher in every way.
So, what do I look for in a teacher/leader? Will, aside from the obvious fact that the Witch you choose for a teacher/leader should teach/do/believe things that you yourself would like to learn, your teacher/leader should above all be an overall good person. So, what makes a good person a good person? Look at how they live their lives. Do they take care of themselves and their families? If they spend more time away from home than with their families, they aren’t taking care of their families mental and emotional well being-how can you expect them to care about your feelings if they don’t even care about the feeling of their own family? What are their goals and priorities in life? If they are chasing after big houses, fancy cars, more money, and the opposite sex then they aren’t very spiritual, and can’t be expected to teach very spiritual things. Do they take care of their health? Obviously you don’t want to be lead by someone who gets drunk and smokes-if they don’t care about their own health, how can you expect them to care about the lives of their students and congregation? What kind of things do they talk about with their friends? If they swear, make dirty jokes, talk loudly about or bullying the opposite sex or those weaker or different from themselves, and are always horsing around and making a joke out of everything, than they have a very low self esteem and are showing off to make up for their lack of confidence. Do you really want to be lead by such a cowardly bigotries person-how can you expect them to stand up for what they claim to teach/ preach/believe, if they don’t even believe in their own self abilities? You also want to steer clear of teachers/leaders who lie, cheat, steal, tease, threaten, have violent tempers, commit adultery, or sexually harass or abuse anyone. Well, those are the things you want to be sure your teacher/leader does not have, but what about the things that he/she should have?
Don’t forget to creat a lesson plan, here’s a sample to help you get started:
Each Lesson Should Include
Prepare the classroom, before students arrive: (On the night before or the first thing that morning set up any props, charts, etc. Make sure that the seats are clean and in order, open or close windows, and make sure that the room is neat and free from distractions.)
Pass out any handouts as students arrive: (Either stand at the door, assign someone to stand at the door, or place handouts on a table at the door.)
Opening Song Service (Optional): (Opening with a Song Service helps to relax tensions and loosen any hard feelings that students may have upon arrival. Rythmatic praise and worship choruses sung to the beat of drums, tambourines, and clapping do wonders to fill the students hearts with joy and love, it also gives students something to do while waiting for the others to arrive. Opening Song Services should never last for more than an hour.)
Opening Prayer: (Every class should always open with a prayer, thanking God for the day, the teacher, and the students, blessing the lesson, the teacher and students, praying for those not in attendance, praying for any who are sick or in need, etc. It is best if a different person prays each week/class/lesson, so that everyone-teacher and students-gets a chance to pray.)
Title of Lesson: (Always start with a lesson title, so that students know what the main idea of this lesson is.)
Topic/Idea/Subject of Focus: (Be sure to tell the class, what your main topic of the lesson is, and the point you are trying to make with it.)
Supporting Ideas: (Inform students of any supporting topics to be discussed.)
Scripture Reading About Topic: (No matter how good the stories, examples, pictures, charts, and props are, the lesson should always amplify the Scriptures, not drown them out. Be sure that Scripture reading is the central focus of every lesson regardless of the subject being taught. Read the Scriptures out loud to the class with a good strong voice. While many teachers try to encourage students to take turns reading the verses for the class, this is not usually advisable, as they rarely speak loud enough or clear enough for the rest of the class to hear or understand. Instead, encourage students to re-read the Scriptures used in the lessons, at home to their families and silently to themselves. Encourage them to study and pray at home over each lesson they learn in class.)
What Did God Say About This Subject? (Support your lesson’s point of view by including several Scriptures quoting God’s word on the subject. Study these verses with the class, and discus what each student feels God meant by what He said.)
What Did Jesus Say About This Subject? (Support your lesson’s point of view by including several Scriptures quoting Jesus’ word on the subject. Study these verses with the class, and discus what each student feels Jesus meant by what He said. Find out how they feel about what Jesus was saying.)
Lesson on this topic: (The lesson was written to promote free thinking skills. It points out the opinions the author has on this subject, and teaches the subject as the author sees fit to interpret it. The lesson is intended to be read to the class, either by the teacher or a volunteer reader-multiple readers per lesson is not recommended, as changing speakers throughout the lesson confuses most students, and causes them to lose important parts of the lesson. After reading the lesson, the teacher should state his/her agreements or disagreements with the authors point of view, and encourage the students to do the same.)
Personal Opinions and Theories About Topic: (Tell the class how you feel about the subject, and hoe you feel about what God and Jesus have said about it.)
How Does this Lesson Apply to Our Daily Lives? (Explain to the students how this subject affects their daily lives. Give examples of how they can use this subject to improve their lives.)
Ask Questions and Encourage Open Discussions About this Subject: (Ask students how they feel about this subject, and how they feel about what God and Jesus had to say about it. Find out why each student feels the way they do, by encouraging them to talk about thing that they have done or seen or heard that affected how they think about this subject.)
Closing Prayer: (Every class should always end with a prayer, thanking God for the day, the lesson, the teacher, and the students, blessing the teacher and students for safety on their way home, praying for those not in attendance, praying for any who are sick or in need, etc. It is best if a different person prays each week/class/lesson, so that everyone-teacher and students-gets a chance to pray.)
Closing Song Service (Optional): (Closing with a Song Service helps to relax tensions and loosen any hard feelings that students may have developed during the lesson. Rythmatic praise and worship choruses sung to the beat of drums, tambourines, and clapping do wonders to fill the students hearts with joy and love. Closing Song Services should never end to early, and students who wish to stay and keep on singing should be allowed to do so. Expect most closing Song Services to last for more than an hour or two.)
After Class Student Fellowship: (Always allow students time and space to freely discus the lesson, their lives, or whatever, after the class is over. This encourages lasting friendships, and Christian fellowship, that may other never find a time or place to occur.)
What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!
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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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LDS and SDA are the closest, though neither is 100% the same as what I believe.
