How To Join The Coven
A Few Things To Keep In Mind
- Prospective Initiates must be willing to set aside the usual beliefs of western culture. As a basic foundation of our Faith, we are polytheists and animists. These two beliefs are essential to the effective practice of Feycraft. Spirits, deities, etc, are not psychological constructs to help you feel better. It takes work to fully accept these two foundational truths because our western culture has taught us that everything is a figment of our imaginations – spirits, deities, etc., are not figments of your imagination or “personifications of your subconscious.”
- Prospective Initiates must be willing to make Coven activities a high priority. It takes time and commitment to make it through the Dedicant period, and then when that’s over, you still have to participate in regular Coven life. We become a chosen family. Participation by every individual is of high importance. This isn’t a church where you can come and go as you please – your presence is extremely important. We realize that some folks may have children who sometimes get ill and need to be tended, or anniversaries they need to spend with their significant other – we get it. We just ask that you don’t lie about emergencies when there really are none – you never know if the Deities are going to take what you say as a request.
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- Prospective Initiates must be real people. You must be willing to drop the societal masks. We are not prone to being “fake” with one another. While we recognize that a facade is sometimes necessary to properly exist in modern western society, we cast that facade aside when we are with one another.
- Prospective Initiates should have their mundane lives in somewhat decent shape, or at least pursuing that as a goal. You don’t have to be independently wealthy or plan to stay at your current job forever. You should be doing your best for you, for now. None of us are perfect people, but we try to be reasonably stable, so have a job, pay your bills as best you can and have reliable transportation to and from meetings. As long as you have made peace with where you’re at and refuse to become stagnant, this should not be a difficult requirement to meet. Despite what that other religion tries to teach you, poverty and spirituality do not make good bedfellows.
The Application Process
- First week of August: Application for Dedicant Status is opened, and left open for the entire month.
- September: Coven Council reviews Applications. Approved Applicants are contacted with time, date, and location for a “Meet-n-Greet.” After this, the Coven Council meets to discuss the Applicants.
- October: By the end of the second week (usually) of October, Applicants are notified of their status, whether they’ve been accepted, or not.
- By the end of October, new Dedicants attend Orientation, given access to Coven Training materials along with the class schedule, invited to the private MSC Facebook group, and will attend the Coven Samhain Ritual.
From there, it’s about doing the work, becoming part of the Family, progressing forward in your spiritual and magical practice, and growing as a human being.
If you want to know when the Application for Dedicant Status becomes available, subscribe to the Waitlist below. You will only be emailed once the Application is available.
A Couple Of Added Notes:
Please don’t email us asking questions like, Where do I stand on this list? or What’s my status? or When will I know if I’m accepted? None of those questions are relevant until the second week of October. When you sign up for the Waitlist you’re not signing up for membership, you’re signing up to be notified that you can apply to join.
The list you sign up for is not a waiting list for you to be accepted. It’s a waiting list for you to apply. You are one of hundreds of people who are waiting to fill out an application to join us. At last count (which was October, of 2022), there were over 200 people waiting to fill out the application. Most of them probably won’t.
Once your application has been reviewed, you’ll be sent an email with either (a) an invite to the Meet-n-Greet at a public place of our choosing, or (b) a notice that your application was not accepted. If, and only if, you attend the Meet-n-Greet, we’ll consider you for Dedicant Status.
After the Meet-n-Greet, we’ll meet to discuss your application, how the Meet-n-Greet went, and how we perceived your energies. In October, we’ll send you an email with either (a) a notification that you’ve been accepted into the Coven as a Dedicant, with information about when and where to attend Orientation, or (b) a notification that we are not a good fit for you at this time.
NOTE: We do not accept looky-loos, boo. If you are accepted, you are expected to be consistent. This is a commitment, not a free-for-all. Becoming a Dedicant is the first step towards Initiation. If you do not intend to Initiate, and become a long-term Coven Member, please don’t bother submitting an application.
Sign up for the Waitlist here to be notified when the application is available.