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I feel that a student working with me would be ready to BEGIN calling
him/herself a Witch, rather than a seeker or Fledgling, when she/he had
developed (or adopted) and was comfortable working with:
01) a demonstrated ability to attain and maintain a deep meditative state.
02) at least one familiar.
03) a personal concept of Universal Animism and its implications for both
mundane life and practice of the Craft.
04) a thorough understanding of the Law of Returns (NOT send a dollar,
get three in return... rather triple effects of any action:
first, one for one return or the energy expended - or action and reaction;
second, return via the action's effect on one's self perception; and
third, return via the action's effect on other's perception of the individual)
and its implications for both mundane and magical action (ethics).
05) a developing cosmology which accounts for the ability of both good
and evil to emanate from the divine, along with a rationale for the choice
of one path over the other (my preference would be for good - I'd be extremely
unlikely to teach someone who chose otherwise) along with understanding
that the forces of dark/decline/decay are NOT evil ones... and a working
understanding that evil derives from intent, not from the forces/powers
utilized.
06) a group of correspondences between directions/elements/personal attributes/spirits
(my preference is for six, but what the student developed/adopted would
be up to them).
07) a method of delineating ritual space (notice I do NOT say sacred -
all space is sacred) and a rationale for when its use is mandatory/optional/not
necessary.
08) a ritual calendar with accompanying mythology - which, of course,
makes sense in the contexts of the (micro)climate in which they live and
of [06] above.
09) a demonstrated ability to assert affinity (preferably, or mastery
if that were their choice - though I'd be highly unlikely to carry the
teaching relationship but so far with such an individual secondary to
my own disinterest in "control issues") with at least two elementals (as
spirit forms of the elements from their correspondences from [06] above).
10) relationships with at least two spirit animals/guides associated with
separate correspondences from [06] above.
11) a significant attempt to master at least one method of divination.
12) a demonstrated ability to engage in seasonal ritual and or magic based
upon [04, 05, 06, 07, 08, & 09] above.
13) a definitive (even if rudimentary) conceptualization of the relationships
between language, perception and ordinary/nonordinary realities based
upon significant anthropological/ritual/magical study.
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