You

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!

It’s normal to want to “shop around” to find a spiritual group with whom you wish to practice. However, you have to be honest with me about that search and any other spiritual work that you’re doing.

The general rule is: The closer it is to the kind of work that Acorn Garden does, the more important it is that I know about it. Some examples:

• If you want to go to an Easter Mass or Yom Kippur services, just go. These ceremonies are widely known in our culture. I don’t need any explanation.




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




• If you’re training in a religion such as Shamanism, Vodoun, or Santeria, you definitely should let me know. These involve active deities who are worshipped by people whose culture has been oppressed and appropriated. I’d want to confirm that your teachers are qualified.

  
  

  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 want to attend a ritual in a non-Gardnerian form of Wicca, I’d want to know about it in advance. There are some exceptions: If you’re at a Pagan festival and want to attend an open ritual, just go and tell me about it afterwards.




• If you want to interact with a different Gardnerian group, you absolutely must let me know in advance. I will have to speak with the teacher of that group (and they should want to speak with me).

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.