What is Community?  We hear the words “Craft Community” and “Pagan Community” bandied about like so much cottonwood fluff on the winds of spring, yet no one seems to have an idea of what a community really is.

Is a community the open door for seekers to walk through?  Is it a big ego trip for “old timers” such as Moondancer and myself?  Or is it a fiction that we perpetuate in an attempt to be more mainstream?  I believe that it is a combination of all three to some extent…

For the past three years I have worked with others to offer Open Sabbat rituals on a quasi monthly basis for just those reasons that I mention above.  And let me tell you, as an ego trip, they leave a lot to be desired (grin).

When I moved into the Seattle area, the local Covenant of the Goddess council was just being formed.  Being young and full of energy, we jumped in right along with a dozen other groups and solitaries to work on making the Seattle area one in which co-operation and communication was open.  In other words, we vowed to work together for the benefit of all.  Of course, as all bright and beautiful things age, this failed and the local council was dragged into the mud; and the community, which had seemed so promising and bright, became tarnished and bedraggled.

A group of us relative newcomers to the area got together and thought that we could try again, without using the name and reputation of COG, to foster an open community of pagans and witches who would choose to work together for the betterment of the community.  After 3+ years, it also failed, due in part to back biting, in fighting and mismanagement.  A lesson that was painful but necessary for growth to learn.

Well here it is, 10 years later and the community is as much a myth now as it was then.  Why is that?  Is it that as witches and pagans we value our individuality to highly that we cannot put our egos aside? Or is it that the Seattle area egregore is rotten and needs to be lanced and healed.

This area supports and sustains hundreds of pagans and witches, yet public rituals barely draw 20 on a really good night.  Occasionally some one will draw a bigger crowd than others, but I think it is due more to apathy than anything else.  I want to lance the boil that is Seattle and drain the pus out of it.  I want the “community” here to be  healthy vibrant one that welcomes new folks and renews bonds with the older generation.

What can you do to create a better community?  Attend public events.  Host a few yourself.  When you have the choice about gossiping about old history or creating something better and new, choose to create rather than to tear the scab off of the old.  Let it heal.  And with that healing let our community grow to become something healthy and useful!
As I do will, SO MOTE IT BE!!!!

To contact me about this, or any other topic write to me at Raven c/o this website.

Blessed Bees,
Raven, Lady of Nemed Cuculatii