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September 25 through October 1, 2023

The astrological star of the show this week will be Friday's Aries full Moon, also known as a harvest Moon. Because full Moons symbolize a time of release, this is the perfect opportunity to clear out whatever no longer serves you once and for all! The week starts out a big frenetic under Monday and Tuesday's Aquarius Moon, as we'll be bombarded with new ideas, innovative thoughts, and possibilities we'll want to explore. Make note of what you discover, but refrain from taking any direct action until you've had time to network with others to get more information. And thanks to the Moon's travels through Pisces on Wednesday and Thursday, we'll also get spiritual confirmation or intuitive insights to move us forward. We'll need to practice extra caution under Friday's Aries full Moon as well as Saturday's Aries Moon, as both have a way of urging us to look before we leap. Caution on the road will be called for as well, as everyone seems to be in a hurry to get where they think they are going, and they won't slow down if you get in their way! Let's all take a breather under Sunday's Taurus Moon, taking a cue from "Ferdinand the Bull" and focusing on a lazy, easy-going day. Don't worry about those chores, they'll still be waiting for you next week…

The Everyday Witch’s Coven, by Deborah Blake

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When someone mentions the word "coven," you might envision thirteen black-clad, pointy hat-wearing witches dancing around a fire or cackling around a cauldron. I'm not sure that was ever the norm, but even if it was, times have changed. And covens have changed with them.

During the years when Wicca was the most common form of group Witchcraft practice (or at least the one you were the most likely to find if you went looking), covens usually followed specific outlines. They were led by a high priest and a high priestess, members progressed through levels like first degree and second degree, and there were formal initiations. Rituals were complicated affairs full of ceremony, and everyone wore robes or some other form of garb.

None of this was a bad thing. I've been to a number of wonderful Wiccan rituals, and my first teacher/high priestess had come from a Wiccan coven and that's how she taught those of us who were in her own group (with some variations). We didn't do degrees or initiations, and when I got to the point where I was ready for my own training as a high priestess, she merely set me a number of tasks to perform in my "year and a day" of preparation, but there is no doubt that my witchy origins were firmly rooted in the Wiccan world.

On the other hand, over the last couple of decades, modern Witchcraft practices have changed and shifted. It is, after all, a vibrant and blossoming spiritual practice—the fastest growing religion in North America. As more and more people find their way to a Witchcraft path, the variety of approaches to working within a group structure has changed and shifted, too.

While there are still many traditional Wiccan covens, the desire for diverse forms of group work, along with the need for more flexible alternatives and the changes in Witchcraft itself, have led to a shift in what constitutes a coven, and a group of witches may look very different today than it did twenty or thirty years ago. Certainly my own practice, and my group's practice, have undergone a number of changes from where we started out in 2004. Here are some ways in which covens may vary.

The Modern Witch's Coven—Variations on a Theme

• Size: While covens didn't have to number thirteen, they were often more likely to be larger groups. These days, a coven can literally be as small as two people, if they practice together on a regular basis. My own group started with three, and has been as large as twelve. These days it is usually five with the occasional guest, but not all of the members can attend every single ritual due to distance and scheduling, so it's not unusual for there to be three or four of us at any given ritual.
• How Often They Meet: The first coven I belonged to was a little unusual in that it started out as a study group, so it met every Thursday night, and we simply celebrated whatever occasion was closest to that night, if there was one. Otherwise our high priestess just taught us some aspect of Witchcraft. My own group, Blue Moon Circle, started out by meeting twice a month. We met for every full moon, and for the eight sabbats, and did new moons in the four months without a sabbat in them. But as our lives got busier and more complicated, we ended up just meeting on the sabbats, and observing the full moons on our own. I know covens that only meet on full moons, and others that gather on any and every lunar and seasonal occasion. This can vary from group to group, and will probably be based on what people want and can manage.
• Who Is In Charge: Some covens still have the traditional high priest and high priestess, but it is just as likely to only have one, or to have the person or people who lead the group use no titles at all. (I no longer do, for the most part. I might lead the rituals, but we're all equal.) Some covens don't even have a leader, and people take turns being in charge of ritual.
• How People Dress: Some covens still wear witchy garb (robes or some other clothing specifically reserved for ritual use), while others don't. Blue Moon Circle used to dress up for full moons and sabbats, but we've gotten more relaxed over the years (or lazier, depending on how you look at it) and mostly just show up in our everyday clothes. The only exception is our yearly Yule dinner party, where we get kind of fancy, but nothing particularly witchy. Again, this is something that the people within a coven can discuss and agree on.
• The Rituals: The formality of the rituals themselves will vary a great deal, too. Some covens still do a long, ornate ritual, including walking in a procession into the circle, casting a formal circle, lighting candles and calling quarters, invoking the gods, and so on. Others, especially groups that meet on a more sporadic basis and have a more casual approach, may just skip that part and just do whatever ritual they have planned. My group used to be more formal before Covid hit, but we were all so tired and frazzled, we shifted to a more laid-back way of doing things and most of the time that's what we've stuck with. It really depends on what mood we're in and what we're doing.

No Wrong Way
The most important thing to realize is that there is no one right way to practice with other witches. Whether you call yourselves a coven or not, whether you meet up regularly or just when people have time, whether you are formal or casual, what really matters in that you treat each other with respect, enter into a ritual circle prepared to do serious magical work, and follow whatever your path is with reverence and mirth.

Witchcraft is, at its best, an accepting and welcoming religion, with something to offer to all those who come to it with an open mind and a willing spirit. If you can find people to share it with, that's just a bonus.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2023. All rights reserved.

I'm both a psychic and a yoga teacher, and am wondering what you think about the connection between physical fitness and psychic ability. It seems to me that being healthy and fit would enhance our psychic abilities, just as it enhances every other area of our lives, yet I see many psychics who are riddled with health problems and terribly out of shape. What do you two think?

- Andrea

Astrea:

The strange ancient ritual of the Sin-Eater may help me explain what's happening here. In ancient times, people would place a feast on the body of the departed, for it was thought that the Sin-Eater would come and eat the feast and thus take the sins of the departed soul away.

This guaranteed the departed would go right into Heaven with all his sins forgiven. Though this is a really creepy idea, I think it will help me explain why many psychics are in awful physical and/or mental shape.

Just as modern vampires suck energy from others instead of blood, today's psychics take on the problems and ailments of all the people we read - unless we take proper precautions so that doesn't happen. Most of us do, but some of us don't know how.

The psychics you encounter who suffer from various health conditions are the ones who weren't taught to protect themselves against taking on the problems and issues of their clients.

For most of us psychics alive and working today, no one in the family was familiar with protection rituals because psychic ability was frowned upon by most organized religions and banned completely from others. Those of us who came into our abilities in the sixties had to discover our own protections, and some of us did better with this than others.

Every psychic has to find a personal way to connect, read and help clients and yet keep their problems and illnesses at bay, and this can be harder in some situations than in others.

Sometimes the client comes to us in such a weakened, unhappy state that our hearts reach out before we can take time to protect ourselves. At those times we're vulnerable, and many psychics will choose to take that heavy energy on instead of sending it back to the person suffering. We all do this occasionally whether it's intentional or not.

Even those of us who know better sometimes forget to protect ourselves; everyone gets sick once in a while. Part of being human involves taking on illness to strengthen our immune system. Now that there are vaccines for measles, mumps and chicken pox, people don't get all those childhood diseases. Similarly, we're not as accustomed to fighting off psychic germs as we used to be.

That is changing, however. More and more awareness is coming through now, so I predict that the next generation of psychics will pay as much attention to their physical well-being as they do their psychic abilities.

Fewer of the new kids are going to be plagued by the old ills because they're being taught how to not take on the physical and mental problems of the people they help.

*****

Susyn:

You address a very important issue. Having personally experienced both sides of these health issues and how they affect our abilities, I can clear some of this up for you.

I struggled with an eating disorder most of my life, and it wasn't until I got a handle on it that my psychic gifts began to emerge.

I had been fascinated with psychic phenomenon from an early age, but I grew up in a time when those sorts of activities were discouraged. I feel there was a direct link between that repression and the appearance of my eating disorder.

I encountered my first psychic experience at the age of seven, and by the age of eight, I was putting on extra weight. By the time I went to high school, I weighed well over 200 pounds.

I have heard this referred to as psychic puffing. In an effort to squelch or protect our gifts, many of us have a tendency to bury or hide them behind walls of extra weight or other bad health practices.

We must keep in mind that many of us had negative experiences as psychics in past lives, and unless healed and released, the memories of our suffering carried over into this lifetime.

If we were psychics, astrologers or witches in past lives, many of us were run out of town, imprisoned, hung or burned at the stake. That would make anyone think twice about recognizing, exercising or revealing their gifts!

You are correct in saying that the healthier we are, the stronger our spiritual gifts become. Most people have the desire to be healthy and in shape, but are working through their own fears and issues in an effort to reach a point where they can make a commitment to better health and maintain that commitment.

In addition to battling those inner issues, of course, we are all dodging the constant bombardment of food ads, endless encouragement to indulge (Super-size me!), and the misinformation everywhere regarding food, diet and health.

One of the gravest problems is how food producers who are driven by hunger for high profits laden most of what we eat with sugar, antibiotics and hormones. Even when we attempt to eat healthy, there are many hidden poisons in our food that keep us addicted to the very stuff that is making us unwell.

So eating healthy and staying fit is a challenge for all of us, not just people who are obviously struggling with their weight.

It's great that you're leading by example. While you may not be able to help all those psychics who are ailing, you can encourage your clients to replace unhealthy habits with exercise and spiritual practices, and remind them that in doing so, they will gain many physical, emotional, mental and spiritual gifts.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.