Statement on Consumption of Substances at CAYA Coven events
Statement on Mental Health Treatment and CAYA Coven
Statement on Diversity in CAYA Coven
Statement on Intimacy within CAYA Coven
Ritual, magick and spiritual practice can be a deeply personal process. Close friendships are likely, and even encouraged, to form in the process of building magickal bonds within our Coven. Feelings of closeness and admiration may develop into feelings of attraction and romance among your covenmates. This can be amplified by the powerful, fertile feeling of many of our rituals and workings as we celebrate the Witches’ Year. As a Coven, we support thoughtfulness and personal responsibility in this issue.
Here are some thoughts to consider before beginning a new sexual or romantic relationship within the coven.
For Initiates:
This is your training year, all about your growth, your learning, and your service. You are getting to know the Clergy and Elders of this group, as well as your own Hive, Tribe or Cohort.
When contemplating a new romantic or sexual relationship, please consider: In this intense time of transformation, will this relationship be a distraction or another form of support? Does it serve your learning to complicate these new potential friendships? How will you form other bonds within your Hive and among the coven while focused on the development of this new relationship? Are you interested in the person, or are you focused on them as a magician or witch? Know that there is a difference between admiring the power and presence of a Priestess or Priest and having a genuine attraction to an individual. Will you still feel this attraction in a few months, when you are more familiar with everyone, and you better know yourself as a witch?
For ordained Clergy and Elders:
The Elders of CAYA Coven strongly discourage ordained Clergy to develop new sexual or romantic relationships with Initiates during their study, across all traditions.
When contemplating a new romantic or sexual relationship, please consider: Every year within the coven, we grow stronger as a family. How would this relationship affect the friendships and camaraderie you have already developed? How would your Covenmates react to the news of your relationship? Would this relationship set a positive example for the Initiates that count on you to lead?
For established partners:
The decision to worship and serve together can both strengthen and complicate a relationship. Please consider: If you are in the same Trad, how will you reach out to your other sisters and brothers? If you are in different Trads, how will you achieve an impartial, objective judgment when asked to teach, lead or make other decisions involving your partner(s)? How will you balance your CAYA time commitments with the commitments of your relationship?
For everyone:
Know that you are free to do as you please with your private life, with the consent of all those involved. When contemplating a new romantic or sexual relationship, please consider: Does adding this type of intimacy make this Coven more like a family, or less? Would you still be able to stand together in service to our coven and our community if the relationship were to end? How does this potential relationship affect your work as a Priestess or Priest?
Statement on Consumption of Substances at CAYA Coven events
CAYA Coven is both a spiritual and social organization. We like to celebrate together, in worship as well as at parties for birthdays, private rituals and rites of passage (Commitment cermonies, baby Blessings, marking a young woman’s First Blood, Croning rites, marking life passages etc.), movie nights, American cultural events, and for many other reasons. We enjoy the company of our sisters and brothers.
Everyone is in this Coven is free to do as they please regarding attendance at private social gatherings. Everyone is also free, as they wish, to consume foods and substances as provided at those gatherings. No one is expected to do anything they are uncomfortable with, and attendance at a gathering does not imply consent to consume any substance. CAYA Coven does not condone criminal activity. As a Coven, we support thoughtfulness and personal responsibility in this issue.
Wine, mead and ale may be brought by individuals to public rituals, but non-alcoholic options should always be made available. If you are responsible for providing cakes and ale for a ritual, make sure that there is something for everyone. If you are voluntarily bringing something to share, feel free to bring either alcoholic or non-alcoholic options. CAYA Coven does not serve alcohol to minors.
As Clergy or Initiates, know that your actions and your level of intoxication reflect on the Coven as a whole. If you are serving as Clergy at a public event, it is essential to be as fresh and alert as possible to serve the needs of our community; do not arrive to ritual under the influence of intoxicants. Stay proactive and responsible on your path.
For our sisters and brothers in Recovery:
Know that you are supported by your coven. While your sisters and brothers may make different choices than yours, know that your coven trusts you to know your own path. If you feel challenged or upset by events, you may wish to find an Elder or Council member that you trust to talk through those feelings. Please also maintain outside resources (meetings, sponsors, etc.) for your continued success. Stay proactive and responsible on your path. CAYA Coven does not provide any certified treatment counseling for individuals in Recovery.
Statement on Mental Health Treatment and CAYA Coven
If you are in an active mental health treatment program, or working with an ongoing or recurring mental health situation, it is important to stay proactive and responsible on your path. Additions, removals, or changes of some medications, even as prescribed by a doctor, may dramatically change one’s behavior and mood. If you are in a psychiatric treatment program and your medication is likely to cause changes in your behavior, you may want to find an Elder or Council member that you trust to check in with on changes in your medications and what support you may need from the Covenmates. Please also maintain other resources (counselors, doctors, groups, etc.) for your continued success.
CAYA Coven does not provide any certified Mental Health Treatment or Counseling.
Statement on Diversity in CAYA Coven
CAYA Coven was founded under the belief that all persons are inherently worthy and divine. We seek to reflect that belief in our practices.
We do not turn anyone away from our rituals based on ability status. We offer as many accessible rituals as possible, and are always seeking ways to expand accessibility.
CAYA Coven does not withhold membership status or ordination on the basis of race, ethnicity or ancestry.
We encourage our Clergy and Initiates to explore their personal histories and share their stories on how their ancestry or apparent race has affected their lives as individuals and as Priestesses or Priests. We strive to create an atmosphere of safety for those stories. We believe that we can better serve our community by better knowing ourselves and one another.
CAYA Coven is committed to honoring our Ancestors.
We know that without our Ancestors we would not be here. We honor the benevolent contributors to our bloodlines. We also honor those witches, magicians, and activists that came before us. We are grateful to receive their wisdom. We acknowledge that our Ancestry may be complex and sometimes painful. Two people may have ancestry on opposing sides of colonialism and other forms of persecution. We acknowledge that these oppositions are possible within one person’s bloodline as well. Awareness and thoughtfulness are key in understanding one another’s perspective.
CAYA Coven is committed to honoring diverse Deities.
In our public rituals, we are committed to honoring Deities of every culture, not only those that we are biologically connected to. We joyously work with various pantheons, even in one ritual, if we feel it serves the purpose of the working. Our confirmation of the righteousness of our working is the feeling of consent those Deities bestow upon us with magickal feelings, synchronicities, and other psychic phenomena. In our individual practices, we encourage our Clergy to maintain an attitude of exploration, education, receptivity and ethical comportment in their mutual relationships with Deities.
We believe magic comes from everywhere. We honor Deities from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, Arctic and Nordic Regions, the Middle East, Egypt, the Indian Subcontinent, the Pacific Islands and the Americas. We have special awareness that our practice is often one of outsiders looking in on indigenous culture and we are aware that as outsiders our understanding is limited. Rather than an attitude of appropriation, we approach diverse cultures with the desire to explore, propagate and preserve traditions and practices that may otherwise be lost, due to the legacy of colonialism.
CAYA Coven’s Wildflower Tradition does not withhold membership status or ordination on the basis of sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
We believe that love and Divinity come in various forms, and we are grateful to have multiple reflections of that variety within our membership.
We are committed to holding spaces for the important work of developing and integrating Women’s Mysteries and Men’s Mysteries into our lives. The Grove of Artemis and the Brotherhood of the Moon provide places for us to hold this space for our larger community. The Amazon Priestess Tribe and the Green Men Tradition provide places for us to hold this space for female born women and male born men.
We are committed to holding all-gender inclusive spaces for all people to share and worship together.
Our Family Sabbats and other circles provide places for us to hold that space for our larger community. The Wildflower Tradition provides places for us to hold this space among our selves, as well as serve the larger community.
CAYA Coven is committed to honoring gender-diverse Deities.
LGBT, Queer and gender-variant Deities are given places of honor at many rituals, as are non gendered Deities. We do not wish to limit the Divine.
CAYA Coven is committed to Feminism.
We believe in the power of women. We are grateful to our mothers for our miraculous births. We recognize that women have been greatly maligned in many different cultures and by most pervasive religions. Our feminist stance is not against honoring men or the divine masculine. Rather, we believe that our Coven’s commitment to feminism creates a crucial balance of power in a world where both women and men have been injured by patriarchy.
CAYA Coven is committed to Humanism.
We believe in the equality and worth of all people. The women and men who serve as leaders in our coven are honored for their individual unique gifts and talents.
