Archive for category Path & Practice

After 20 years, the Minnesota Church of Wicca (MCoW) and the Wiccan Church of Minnesota (WiCoM) came together to perform a ritual. What follows is a first hand description of how this happened and why it is significant from the people who were there.

According to Aurora, WiCoM May Queen, “WiCoM was at Sacred Paths Center holding one of it’s quarterly moots. MCOW happened to be meeting at Sacred Paths Center at the same time. Toward the end of the WiCoM moot, during discussions about ritual, someone suggested we do a joint ritual with MCOW.”

Lou Gastuch (“MomHen”) General Representative (“GenRep”) for WiCoM said, “MCoW was meeting in one of the small rooms at SPC at the same time that WiCoM was meeting in the Great Room. WiCoM was trying to figure out what to do for Lammas and we presumed that MCoW was doing the same thing.”

Paul the WiCoM Greenman said, “[Aurora] stated that she thought it was high time to do something about the schism. We had heard not that long ago from Dr. Murphy [Pizza] that both groups were loath to speak ill of the other and were in fact quite complimentary about each other’s organization. [Aurora] felt we should move toward healing the rift between us.”

Aurora continues, “I decided there was no time like the present and dragged the Green Man along with me over to the room where MCoW was meeting. We proposed a joint Lammas ritual and [Faerie Ariel], Iden, and Aura enthusiastically agreed.”

Aayleen of MCoW said of her reaction, “It was a definite YES, absolutely no hesitation.”

A sentiment which according to Lou was mirrored by WiCoM, “The motion passed unanimously”. And her reaction? “By all the Gods, yes!”

Faerie Ariel from MNCoW agrees, “All of the people in our group were absolutely ecstatic at the idea and of course we agreed. We all knew that this was the beginning of a new era for our Pagan community. A time to put the past behind us and to focus on the present for the sake of all Pagan groups. MCoW now uses the slogan: ‘Together For The Pagan Community’ and we can thank WiCoM for the inspiration.”

Everyone seems to agree that working together was a generally positive experience.

Aurora said, “Planning this ritual was an uplifting experience. Pieces just fell into place. Both groups seemed to come to the table with the same outlook on many aspects. [snip] Iden of MCOW wrote a ritual and brought it to the planning session but he was very open to changing what was down on paper. Much of the planning was rearranging his beautiful prose. The planning did not feel like there were two groups at the table whose agendas each had to be accommodated. It really felt more like there were seven individuals at the table who were all committed to planning a ritual together. We all used our best manners and listened to the reaction of all six of the other individuals when we proposed an idea.”

Faerie Ariel said, “Working with WiCoM is like working with good friends for the same cause. A cause that is so desperately needed in our Pagan community. This is only the first step in our journey to bringing our Pagan community together. We can also thank Sacred Paths Center for having a perfect location for all Pagan groups to be able to come together. Without Sacred Paths Center all of this may never have happened.”

Lou described the process as, “No different from any other large ritual committee: discussions on focus, tone, props, etc. MCoW brought one of their Lammas rituals and as a group we moved things around and adjusted as necessary for scale. We did have some miscues at ritual time, but nothing we couldn’t deal with.”

Aayleen said, “Actually, it was quite good. There were only a few small details that were a bit thorny, but for the most part, every one got along well. We found we had much more in common than we thought.”

So it happened that for the first time since the split of Minnesota Church of the Wicca and the Wiccan Church of Minnesota in 1987 that the two groups planned and held a joint Ritual together. 53 people gathered to participate in this historic ritual, August first, 2009 at the Sacred Paths Center. Wiccan rituals tend to emphasis unity and balance. The coming together of these two groups for this ritual made those parts of the ritual far more profound.

Asked about the significance of this ritual, Lou said, “In my opinion, it is a sign of the maturation of the Twin Cities Pagan community. MCoW dates back to at least 1977, which is only about a dozen years after Wicca, per se, was introduced to the US. If we arbitrarily use either the Witches’ Council in 1974 or Gnosticon in 1971 as its ‘birth’ then the Twin Cities Pagan community was still in its infancy. [snip] I consider cooperation to be another sign of maturity. [snip] It gives me GREAT hope for our future.”

Faerie Ariel said, “I see the future as MNCoW and WiCoM doing many more Rituals together. I cannot think of any reasons not to as we work very well together, each group supporting and inspiring the other and working”

Aayleen said, “I believe this was a very significant event because younger members of the community will see that cooperation is the key to the future of Paganistan. Coming together without homogenizing is a very positive thing. I think some of the ‘old guard’ are a bit concerned about that, but Wicca and Paganism in general are constantly evolving.”

Aurora said “This joint effort demonstrated to the Pagan community that two groups, even groups with hard feelings in their past, can work together toward a common goal. I think it shows that the Pagan community is growing and developing skills. We’re becoming more savvy. Other, more established communities have known for some time that today’s adversary can be tomorrow’s ally. I am thinking of usually opposed interest groups that close ranks and work together to help pass legislation of importance to both groups. These groups have learned how to disagree while leaving the door open for future cooperation. Pagan groups are learning this skill as well.”

The original schism is legendary, even the subject of scholarly research, and seems to have happened due to disagreements about filing paperwork. According to Thraicie of the Eye of Horus, “Some paperwork needed to be re-filed with the government, in order to keep the church ‘official’, and accounting was not as clear as it should have been. The MCoW leadership was resistant to the changes that needed to be made, so a certain percentage of the membership decided to hive off, and create a new church. I remember thinking that ‘Minnesota Church of the Wicca’ and ‘The Wiccan Church of Minnesota’ sounded a bit like a Monty Python skit, but this was the name we were best able to agree to. After WiCoM was formed, MCoW did get all the proper paperwork re-filed [snip], so we got two great organizations out of the deal.”