Distance Learning with AFW

We have *just* created a facebook  group to meet a growing need and request for  Craft instruction in the AFW style. We have been approached by students all over the US (and a few internationally) who want to work within the AFW model and would like a bit of direction from Natalie and Laurelei.

There may be a few kinks we need to work out in regards to teaching this way. Teaching Craft online/remotely is new for us, and since Craft is so experiential and personal, the best we can do for anybody (near or far) is to provide a framework for independent study,  a couple of voices of experience, and the opportunity to share personal gnosis in a group setting.

Most of the work a distance student will do will be very independent in nature, and then we will discuss what that work is like as a group. The insights, opinions, and experiences of the DLC’s members will prove to be a sounding board for each of us, much in the same way that happens in real-time, physical space meetings of the coven. Each person in this group comes from a different background, with varying levels of occult experience. That variety will prove invaluable in terms of digging into the material, as long as most everyone participates to some extent in discussions.

If you wish to join the group, please add Laurelei as a friend on facebook and send a request through her to join the group. (The group itself is listed as "secret" so it won't show up in search results.) Only join, however, if you are interested in serious study within *this* Tradition. Casual conversation regarding Trad Craft can happen in any one of a half-dozen other groups where Natalie and I participate.

FORMAT

Our plan is to post the month’s discussion topics at the beginning of each month.  We’ll post relevant links to the AFW blog (and elsewhere) to serve as a jumping off point for personal research and group discussion. Each person can then post questions, insights, etc in the comments below the corresponding topic.

If you have questions unrelated to the Red Cord class topic, you can either pose it to the group in a new post, or you can write directly to Natalie and Laurelei.

We leave it to your discretion to post other assignments to the group (or to send them privately to Natalie and I.) Within the “home coven” (Coven Caer Sidhe), we share all of our assignments with each other in order to have a better mutual understanding of the topic and of our siblings within the Craft family. However, we are nothing if not Willful, and we want you to do your Will in regards to find a balance between personal privacy and group bonding.

GREENING, ADOPTION, RAISING

There are three rites of “initiation” within the AFW format. The first (Greening) is easy enough to perform on your own without much modification from the original format. It is basically an assertion by the individual that s/he is ready to begin her/his study of Craft and that s/he is giving AFW a few weeks of dedicated effort to see if this tradition is a good fit. The Greening period usually lasts about 6 weeks.

Adoption (Red Cord) gets a little more complicated. The ritual honestly looks very similar to Greening, and the intent is similar, too. However, as the name “Adoption” implies, this rite is intended to bring you into the Family. You are stating that you have given due consideration to the prospect, and you want to honor the Witch Blood within you.  Within a physical working group, each member takes a blood oath with the Adoptee, and we embrace each other as siblings. In a distance learning group, though, that blood bond can really only be made between the Adoptee (you) and Tubal Cain (the Witchfather). You will be symbolically linked to us, as all Witches of the blood are. But there is a difference in the extent of those magical links (between people), as I think you will come to understand. The Adoption period lasts no less than 1 year, but can take as long as a student needs.

The Raising (Triple Cord) is the true Initiation of the Witch. It involves trials of the mind and spirit in order for a person to fully and completely claim the title “Witch.” We honestly know of no way to offer the Raising without being physically in the same space. To that end, we are willing to work with each individual, should you choose to pursue Raising. We may be able to come to you, or you might come to us, or we might meet somewhere in the middle. Alternatively, we *may* be able to develop a self-directed series of tests and ceremony that will accomplish the same ends (but look a little different than the IRL version). Raising gives a Witch the full authority within this Tradition to start a coven and/or teach others. There is no human-made Initiation beyond this point, and you can choose to continue studying with the other Raised members of the group (including participating in Red Cord discussions), or you can structure your study and practice however you deem appropriate.

COVEN CAER SIDHE

At the time of this writing, there are 6 corded members of the coven Natalie and I started in Indiana. Natalie, myself, and our Pythia are all Triple Cords. Our 13-year-old daughter and the Hearth Keeper are both Red Cords. And our 10-year-old son is a Green Cord. We also have a few folks preparing to take their Green Cords, including the Hearth Keeper’s 12-year-old daughter.

The coven isn’t large, per se, and it includes our children. These are both true because we consider ourselves to be members of a family tradition.

We don’t have a hierarchical structure within the coven. Nobody is the Maid (high priestess), and nobody will become the Magister (high priest).  Natalie and I have both come from other covens where the hierarchy choked the life out of the group, and we each even have experiences in being carriers of HPS Disease within past groups. There is no rule against hierarchy within AFW (for covens you may start after your training is complete), but we choose not to engage in it ourselves. We see ourselves as Sisters and Brothers to each other within this Craft Family.

The members of Coven Caer Sidhe are encouraged to participate in the discussions happening online, and it is my hope that together we will be able to create a sense of community – of extended family.

If you happen to be in the Indiana area, we would love to have you join us for class or ritual. Likewise, you are always invited to participate with us when we attend festivals or present publicly. And if you have a festival or event in your area that you would like for us to attend, let us know. We may not always be able to afford the travel expenses for events far out of state, but sometimes opportunities open up unexpectedly when we state our needs and desires.

Requirements for Admission

After years of working this path, tweaking it, living with it, and loving it, we have decided to open ourselves up to those who would like to walk the crooked path with us locally (within the South-Central Indiana area).  Here, then, are our requirements for admission.


Greening – green cord

• For children of the family at the age of reason, and for potential new members to the coven.
  
• Creates an informal bond between teacher and student.
  
• Before Greening the student should :
  
  • formally request to join the coven
  • obtain a binder for handouts and personal research notes
  • obtain a flash drive
• During Greening the student should:
  
  • learn to raise, form, move, and ground energy
  • create or obtain a stone bowl
  • begin their personal crane bag
  • choose a coven symbol
  • begin a personal home altar
  • attend at least 2 rituals (Sabbats or Esbats)
  • obtain a ritual robe (either white or black, depending on the time of year)
• Greening lasts through a 6 – 12 month period, or until the age of puberty.
  
  

Adoption – red cord, bone ring

• For children of the family at the age of puberty, and for formally joining members to the coven.
  
• Creates a formal bond – the Red Thread – between the student and all members of the coven.
  
• During Adoption the student should:
  
  • Memorize the year wheel
  • Obtain the three knives
  • Read:
    
    • The Robert Cochrane letters
    • The White Goddess by Robert Graves
  • Read two of the following:
    
    • Masks of Misrule, Call of the Horned Piper, & Pillars of Tubal Cain by Nigel Jackson
    • Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson
    • The Witches’ Bible by the Farrars
    • Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance by Evan John Jones
    • The Roebuck in the Thicket by Robert Cochrane and EJ Jones
    • Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed by Valiente and Jones
    • The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton
    • The Witching Way of Hollow Hill by Robin Artisson
  • Perform a link cutting
  • Write a statement of personal ethics
  • obtain an ancestor skull
  • create a staff
  • obtain a cauldron
  • make an incense
  • make and amulet and talisman
  • make a scrying mirror
  • design and make a Witches’ Glove
  • become proficient in three forms of divination
  • create a totemic fetch
  • acquire a familiar (plant, animal, or spirit)
  • perform contact and possession with a Deity
  • lead a ritual
  • complete red cord checklist
• Adoption lasts a minimum of a year and a day, or until the age of majority.
  
  

Raising – red/white/black cord, witches mark

• For children of the family at the age of majority, and for naming the student as a witch.
  
• Marks the student as a fully-fledged witch.
  
• During Raising the witch should:
  
  • obtain tools, weapons, and other paraphernalia related to the compass
  • read and study as suits their interest

Cords as Markers of Admission

One of the Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers) "writings" that  you'll want to read is titled "On Cords." It first appeared in issue 3 of The Pentagram in March 1965. In it, he discusses two aspects or uses of the traditional Witch's Ladder.

The first is the piece of magical craft that we'll be covering soon. It involves using the cord for spellwork.

The second use of cords is that of the devotional ladder. While many of us will make and use multiple devotional ladders for trance and meditation work related to a variety of focal objects, a great many Witches receive their first ladder as a cord (or set of braided cords) that marks their admission to a curveen.

The cords are usually a length of silk or wool rope, braided yarn, or upholstery cord, whose thickness, length and color vary by tradition. They are versatile, as they are used for cinching ritual robes, indicating rank or degree, measuring the circle, and sometimes for binding blood flow in certain circumstances. When used to control blood flow, they may also be called the cingulum.

Cords used as a cingulum help alter consciousness and they are often employed in initiation rites. There are a few different ways to tie the cords to act in this capacity, but the most common is shown below. However they are used, a cingulum should be administered with care to avoid causing damage or harm.

Cords can also be used as a meditational or trance tool in much the same way as a Catholic rosary. Because they are usually braided and knotted, often with multi-colored fibers, they bind together symbols and imagery that is important to the Witch who wears them. Meditating on a particular knot, strand, or other element of the cord will produce a focused experience on the symbol set contained therein, while working through all the knots (climbing the ladder) produces a transcendent state.

The Spiral Castle Tradition uses a specific progression of cords as markers of admission to the curveen. Each strand of cording that we use is made of a 3 hand-braided strands of wool yarn.

Greening -- single green cord -- This cord represents new growth, the beginning of the learning process and the budding interest of the green Witch in the curveen and Tradition. The purpose of the ritual is to form a magical link with loose bonds between student and cuveen and to establish the beginning of a learning period of at least three months. The Green Cord serves as a physical reminder of that link. Aside from interested adults coming to the Tradition, children of the curveen are eligible to wear the Green Cord (and thereby to acknowledge their relationship to the Craft of the Family) at the Age of Reason. This cord is cut and burned at the time that a Witch progresses to Adoption.

Adoption -- single red cord -- This cord represents the umbilical cord, the blood of birth, and the fire of Tubal Cain. It is a manifestation of the Red Thread. The purpose of the Adoption Rite is to forge a formal magical link between the student and the coven and to establish a formal training period of at least a year and a day. Again, the Red Cord serves as a physical reminder of the link between the Witch and the curveen, but it also reminds her of her link to all Children of Qayin. Children of the Family may be adopted within the Craft at the Age of Puberty.

Raising -- single black and single white cord braided together with existing red cord -- This set of cords is the final set that a Witch within our Tradition will use. The cords are fashioned so that there is a loop on one end, and a long set of tails on the other where the cords remain unbraided. The knot that hold the loop fast is the White Goddess knot. The knot closest to the tails (which somewhat resemble three flails of a scourge) is the Black Goddess knot. A knot is tied in the middle of the braided section -- the Tubal Cain knot. A Raised Witch is a full member of the curveen and Trad, and she wears the most potent symbols of our Craft when she dons her cords. Children of the Family are eligible for Raising, provided that theire knowledge and practice of the Craft is sound, at the Age of Majority.

The Red Thread (and the Initiatory Process)

I have the sense that the Red Thread is one of the deeper Mysteries of the Craft as we are coming to know it. This sense is based on the fact that both Glaux and I find ourselves referring to it regularly in symbolic ways and during Craft discussions, but I am having difficulty putting my thoughts together in any coherent manner in this blog entry. The fact that we are able to point to the symbol as a deep point of connection for our magic, but verbalization seems to fail on some level, tells me that "here be a grave Mystery."

Perhaps in order to approach the Mystery, we should only look at one aspect of it in this post. The Red Thread and the Initiatory Process. 

The "Red Thread" is the moniker we use to refer to the line of Witch Blood that connects us to Tubal Qayin. A few of us come to this Tradition with ties to Qayin, bonds or possibly even Witch Marks that we reinforce through charms or the process of admission into a curveen. Many create that link through specific ritual.

Our system of admission is actually quite simple. We have a beginning level which we call Greening. I'll reserve full discussion of this level for another post, but I'll say here that this is the level for "children" within this path -- whether literal or figurative.

Next is Adoption, and it is at this time when the Red Thread is linked. This Tradition is linked very intimately to flow and nature of the family, so the Adoption corresponds to the time of puberty. When a child has come into physical, mental and emotional maturity sufficient for the study of basic magic, she may be brought into her Craft family. When a Seeker, regardless of physical age, has passed the period of initial giddiness and done some serious work and review of his aims as a Witch, he too is eligible for adoption into the Craft family.

The goals of the Adoption Rite (which you can also think of as a Dedication) are to forge a formal magical link between the student and the coven and to establish a formal training period of at least a year and a day. (This period is until the age of adulthood, in the case of family trad practitioners performing the Adoption with teens and tweens.)

This rite can happen at any of the Gates or Castles. In other words, it can happen at any Sabbat.

During the course of the ritual, the candidate is challenged and queried by the curveen members. Provided that she meets with approval at the end of all challenges, she will take blood oath on the anvil. There are two points to make note of here: 1) participation in the ritual doesn't guarantee success; and 2) the anvil is the "oath stone" of the Tradition and is intimately linked in symbolic terms to Tubal Qayin. 

The candidate is given a Red Cord to wear at the waist, which is a reminder of the Red Thread itself, the umbilical cord, and the fire of Qayin's forge. He is also given a bone and silver ring, which is symbolic of the bone soul (intimately related to the Red Thread and the Ancestors). The ring should be fitted to the Witch's index finger in his power hand, as this is the ultimate location where he will be tattooed with the Stang (or Witch's Mark) at his Raising.