with Carrie West
Distance coven workings are a completely different matter for us because these are being set-up on different channels. These are usually implemented when members move away but wish to remain part of the mother-coven, or to include members who have completed the formality of the foundation course and live in a different part of the world – even in a different hemisphere. The basic intention or focus of a Sabbat working, however, remains the same and any Coven member worth their salt can extract the salient points of the group ritual and adapt them for solitary working proving they understand that the reason for the working is …
- To re-charge the ‘group-mind’;
- To empower individual members;
- To re-charge pouches and personal ritual equipment;
- To focus the members on being part of a working group;
- To reinforce the meaning of a particular Sabbat;
- As an affirmation of loyalty to the Tradition by the sharing of bread and salt;
- And as an affirmation of faith and trust in the Ancestors.
All members of the Coven are welcome to attend the Sabbat both in person and at a distance but once again this requires a great deal of effort on the part of the Dame and Magister to get things organised. We’ve often set up a distance working and wondered if we’re playing to an empty theatre, since there’s nothing coming back on the astral! This is doubly annoying because we’ve taken the time to prepare the ritual/pathworking/exercise aimed at members of all levels (which ain’t easy) and no one’s bothering to come to the party – because if we were being left to our own devices, then rest assured we’d much rather be going for something with a lot more ooomph! and pushing own magical boundaries on a personal level.
It is possible to sychronise a ‘live’ Sabbat with those far, far away but again this takes a lot of physical, mental and magical organisiation. The ‘script’ has to be compiled and circulated with time allowed for any points to be clarified because, despite many years of study, there are those who still don’t get it. Like the regular excuse: ‘I couldn’t do [time and/or date] so I waited until the next Saturday, is that okay?’ NO! it bloody isn’t! If the Sabbat had been arranged for a certain date, time and location at your local working site and you’d missed it … would you expect to turn up a week later and still expect us to be there???
If we’ve arranged with the Dame-Magister to sychronise our working with that of the Coven, we will propably be working to a pre-set time-table so that power-raising can be co-ordinated with a view to contributing to the re-charging of the group mind-set. Be assured that it may take some time before we notice any tangible results but records should be kept in our magical journal and provide regular feed-back or we may find ourselves out of the loop.
It is possible to adapt group rituals for solitary workings if we know our Craft – and members should try as near as possible to emulate the Sabbat working by repeating the Dame’s Compass-casting,; the Magister’s invocation and the Invoking (and Banishing) Pentagrams, followed by the Dance/Chant in order to raise energy within the personal Compass … if there is room. In order to transfer any surplus energy to the group at the end of the ritual, hold up both hands facing North (in the direction as the Coven Stang) and visualize pushing the energy in that direction. The Compass should be closed down in the normal way by saying …
Kinship to kinship; blood to blood,
May there be peace and honour between us now and forever.
Hail and farewell.
… followed by the customary ‘cakes and ale’ or whatever you choose to use to earth yourself after the rite.
This is an extract from our limited edition publication Round About the Cauldron Go …
Melusine Draco 