What can you expect when it comes to studying in a traditional Wiccan coven?
How does Cottonwood Star function as a coven and training group?
A Traditional Lineage
- Training in a traditional lineage with a structured approach to practice. You are taught in a guided, scaffolded system. Teaching is cumulative in nature in order to help you build skills.
- You can leave at any time. We only ask that you honour any oaths you made upon initiation.
Group Dynamics
- We strive to create a safe learning and practice space. We won’t ask for favors that violate this (sexual, financial, or personal).
- All coveners need to leave their personal agendas at the door. We’re all working to foster a non-competitive safe space where all can learn. This is easier said than done but it is always the goal!
Personal autonomy and responsibility
- You should take ownership of your practice.
- We want you to think about what is within the tradition and what is your unique flavor. This includes thinking about how you can interpret and modernize things where appropriate.
- We teach you the foundations and ask you to work with the to build a strong base. From there, you can specialize in what interests you. What the lineage will teach you is really just the beginning of your practice. If you make it to the third degree, you will realize that your years of study have really given you the building blocks from which you can go on.
Cottonwood Star Commitment
- Transparency and honest feedback. No teacher is perfect or has all of the answers. Teachers and students grow and learn together as coven-mates, based on group dynamics and personalities. We will tell you, as kindly as possible, if it isn’t the right fit.
- Likewise, we will tell you when you are ready to go further and give you information about what next steps involve.
- Despite being a lineage tradition, Wicca is a system that is constantly evolving and changing with society. We are adapting the tradition with this in mind. We pass on a lineage as it was taught, clearly identifying any adaptations that were made for inclusion and decolonisation sake.
- Wicca is outwardly a system that uses polarity as a means of finding a personal union or internal balance but when we talk about polarity, we do not mean gender or sexual polarity. Our practice is open to non-binary and trans identifying individuals. Polarity is simple a tool to work with, based on an evolving personal understanding of our relationship to society and the land.