You, the Seeker

People join Wiccan groups for many reasons: to learn magic, to worship the gods, to be part of a community, to dance and sing and play.

All of that is certainly part of the Acorn Garden experience, as it is for any Wiccan Grove.

There’s also a long-term goal associated with Acorn Garden: To acquire sufficient knowledge and skill in the Craft that’s equivalent to a college bachelor’s degree.

That doesn’t mean there are diplomas. What’s offered is the opportunity to be confident in yourself and your ability to help others. In other words, to become clergy.

That takes work. There will be memorization. There will be homework. You will teach classes. You will conduct ritual. There will be structure.

You’re expected to do the work in order to achieve both your goals and Acorn Garden’s.

Eventually you’ll pass beyond the needs of essays and such, but it takes effort to get there.

To learn from a Wiccan group, you have to be there.

In general, I determine the Acorn Garden meeting dates by consensus. That is, I look ahead a few months in my calendar and ask folks if they can make it on such-and-such a date.

Even Shakespeare knew this. From Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1: “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”

Once we agree on the meeting dates, I expect you to be present.

Obviously, there can be exceptions. Life, family, and work come before Wicca. Indeed, the whole point of Wicca is to help folks achieve their goals in all three.

However, if you miss Acorn Garden meetings too often, or are so late that it affects the course of the meeting, it means one of two things:

• This is not the right time in your life for you to be pursuing a course in Wicca.
• You’re not being responsible toward the Craft as a religious practice.

Therefore, there’s a “three strikes” rule: If you miss three consecutive Acorn Garden meetings, or miss more than three meetings in a 12-month period, I’ll treat it as a resignation from the group.

The Goddess has given us many tools. Among them are calendars and alarm clocks. Using these tools are part of the practice of the Craft.

You may have already heard a phrase that’s important in Wiccan practice: “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.”

No one expects this level of “perfection” when you first join a Wiccan group. However, you are expected to behave in a way that will let the love and trust come together.

To that end:

• Illegal substances and hard liquor are not allowed at our meetings. You can’t be so drunk or stoned that your behavior becomes unacceptable.
• No deceptive acts, violations of trust, baneful magic, or discrimination due to gender preference or identity will be tolerated.
• Discretion is vital! Many people outside are intolerant of our beliefs. Revealing another Pagan to an outsider without permission is a serious violation of trust.
• I strongly suspect that people who are interested in Wicca share similar political views. However, such discussion saps the energy from everything else. Leave your Cause at home.

Wicca does not require “spiritual monogamy.”

As a member of Acorn Garden, you can engage with other other religious practices aside from Wicca. If you do, you may be asked to teach a class on what you’ve learned!

If you accept me as your teacher, I’d like to be aware of your spiritual progress. The general rule is: The closer it is to what we do, the more important it is that I know about it.

Some examples:

• If you want go to an Easter Mass, to Yom Kippur, or some other ceremony associated with a widely-recognized religion, just go. I don’t have to know about that unless you feel like sharing.




• If you go to a yoga weekend, a sweat lodge retreat, or something like that, I’d like to know about it, but I can know about it after the fact.

  
  

  If you’re exploring some other form of alternative spirituality (such as Tantra or Transcendental Meditation) or a polytheistic religion (such as Asatru), let me know how you’re progressing.




• If you go to a ritual that involves a indigenous tradition that’s actively worshiped (e.g., Vodoun, Santeria, Native-American) I’d like to know about it in advance. These deities have to be approached carefully, and I’d like to assure the both of us that the teachers are responsible.

  
  

  Of course, if you happen to be a Native American or a descendant of the African Diaspora, you don’t need me to validate your instructor! Just let me know about your studies.




• If you’d like to go a Pagan ceremony (Asatru, Eclectic Wicca, Feri, etc.) I have to know about it in advance, or as soon afterwards as is possible.

  
  

  That latter clause is in case you’re at a pagan festival and you’re invited to a Midsummer Circle or a blot or something like that. You can just go (I don’t expect you to frantically phone me from Maryland!) but please share what you experienced there.




• If you’d like to go to another Gardnerian Circle or a closely-related Tradition like Alexandrian, I must know about it advance. I will want to get in touch with that group’s leader and confirm that we’re in sync and understand what’s going on.

In the first few decades of Wicca in the US, there were few groups and many seekers. There were waiting lists for people who wanted to join.

Those days are over. Now there are many groups, but few seekers.

Thank you for being one of them!

I often get asked, “How many people are in Acorn Garden?” I don’t answer that question directly (for reasons that I explain during the initial interview), but the real answer is “Not as many as I’d like to have.”

The reality is that you may have to wait until we have enough applicants to make the group viable.

Once we have a group, any newcomers will have to be brought up to speed. You may have to sit through some material that you’ve seen before. Better yet, I may ask you teach the lesson; it’s a great way to reinforce what you’ve learned.

Give it time. It takes a while for a small group to grow. But it’s worth the wait.