Subj :  Dedication ritual                                                


 
HPS:    We have a dedication to perform. Will the one who has chosen the
name _________, please approach.
        Every Witch is a pagan. Not every pagan is a Witch.
        There are many ways to honor Nature in our lives. For some,
regular participation in Pagan Circles is a way to stay attuned to
seasonal rhythms, and enrichment and support for their real work in
the world, a way of finding community. An artist, a doctor, a mother, a
counselor- such people may find joy and substance in pagan celebration
eight times a year, or even at each Moon, but will to pursue it no
farther. They are the Earth Mother's children as fully are her
priestesses and priests. Their lives contribute as much as ours to the
re-creation of pagan community, the restoration of ecological sanity. A
window is not opened buy lifting one side. Others of us find in active
priesthood our life's work, our art form. We will dedicate a larger
portion of our time and energy to the religion itself. We are the
producers of ritual and ceremony, not the consumers. Not because we are
better, holier, or more devoted, but because this is where our talents,
and our delight seem to lie.
        <Dedicant and Teacher approach the altar, Dedicant carrying
athame or similar tool. Remember that by now, most Dedicants have chosen
a particular path and may require another tool other than the athame,
such as an herb knife, sword, staff, or power stone. Be flexible here.>
 
Teacher: @Name@, what do you seek?
 
Dedicant: I seek to study witchcraft. I ask you to teach me.
 
<After each of the following questions, the Dedicant should respond,
preferably extemporaneously>
 
Teacher: Do you understand that witchcraft is the priesthood of the Old
Gods and Old Ways of Nature, and that every witch is a priestess or
priest?
 
Teacher: Do you understand that initiation into that priesthood will
change your life forever, in ways you cannot now foresee?
 
 
Teacher: Do you understand what priesthood requires: that, if you become
a witch, you serve the Lady and the Lord by serving their people, to
the fullest of your ability?
 
Teacher: Knowing these things, do you want to study witchcraft and its
related arts until you know enough to decide whether this is truly your
Path?
 
Teacher: Do you understand that witchcraft is one of many means to serve
the Old Gods and waken the Old Ways, and that even if this is not your
way after all, you may learn and grow while you are here? Can you accept
that the decision may be no?
 
Teacher: Teaching what I love is a great joy. But I can only teach in
joy if I know that what I love will be used and shared with care and
honor. Before I am willing to teach you, there are three things and a
fourth that you must promise me.
        1. Will you respect and protect the confidences of all who you
meet in the Circle and all who seek our aid, revealing their identities
to no one except by their explicit permission?
 
        2. Will you practice and teach the Craft for love alone, using
this knowledge or teaching it only as a free gift, as I give it now to
you, never accepting payment for it in money, goods, or labor?
 
        3. Will you promise never to use what I teach you to affect
another person, avoiding not only baneful magic but all well-intentioned
meddling, unless you have that person's explicit permission?
 
        4. And if time brings fullness, as all here hope and expect it
will, when you teach new students of your own, will you require these
three pledges of them, along with their pledge to similarly bind their
own students, so that all who spring from this line may be so pledged?
 
<Only proceed if all responses have been satisfactory>
 
Teacher: This being so, I consent to teach you. This is how I value my
labor- that I will plant only good seed in good soil, to become fruit
both sound and sweet. I will teach you, I will learn from you, I will
learn with you. So, we begin by exchanging our pledges. Hold out your
tool of power. <Student holds out tool so all may see> Repeat after me.
        I, @name@, here and now pledge to you, @teacher's name@, to the
Gods, to all in this Circle, and most truly to myself, that I will
explore the path called Witchcraft. Its lore and its symbols; its
rituals and its deeper meanings. Sharing with you my joy in discovery
and all my doubts and qualms...Exploring all questions with open mind
and heart...Until I know surely whether or not I am for the
priesthood and witchcraft is for me...In token of this pledge I swear on
this tool of my power to devote myself, from this moment on, to learning
the ways of witchcraft.
 
        <Teacher covers hand of student with his/her own hand>And I make
this pledge to you in return:
 
        For the lesser knowledge, which can be taught, I will be your
teacher. For the greater knowledge, which must be discovered, I will be
your guide and friend. For the questions and perplexities of the path, I
will be your companion. To answer when I may; or simply to be silent as
you seek your own answers. And when the time comes to choose whether or
not you will enter the priesthood, I will share with you all I have
observed and thought... and may the Gods prosper our work together.
 
Teacher: Know that although I am your primary teacher, this Circle is
not made of the two of us alone. All here are dedicated to the Old Ways
and each has unique knowledge. All of us learn from and with each other.
Together we are more than the simple sum of each of us alone. Go around
the Circle now, and accept greetings.
 
 
<When the Student has made the rounds, it is usual for them to be
required to perform some simple ritual act, such as a salute to the
Watchtowers, according to their individual abilities or studies.>