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The Way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek it in difficult things.
- Mencius
Aglaian Triad of Wicca is a Craft coven located in Homewood, Illinois. The coven was established just before Samhain 1982, and has trained over three dozen witches. We have been a Covenant of the Goddess (COG) member coven since 1989.
We are currently accepting new members.
Herman Enderle's Temple of the Pagan Way followed Ed Fitch's "Pagan Way" ritual system, which can be read about in Herman Slater's compilation of rituals titled A Book of Pagan Rituals (Weiser) [another good source of Fitch ideas is The Witch's Grimoire]. Many Chicago-area groups can trace at least part of their ritual practices to ideas or rituals adapted, or even lifted verbatim, from Fitch's Pagan Way system. The Pagan Way system was an attempt to create a generic pagan system which transcended many of the divisions between traditions which had emerged at the time. Pagan Way followers were not necessarily witches. Pagan Way used ideas in ceremonial magick very heavily.
Click on this link to learn more about the history of Chicago-area neo-paganism.
Our tradition is the Aglaian Tradition. Our ritual practices at this time (1998), particularly our practice of Esbats, continue to resemble Ed Fitch's Pagan Way system, as mentioned above, but we are slowly drifting away from Pagan Way ritual practice, particularly its' elements of ceremonial magick. We have, throughout our history as an eclectic coven, regularly deviated from the Pagan Way "playbook" with rituals which emphasized native American, Celtic, Egyptian, Greek, and other mythological and ritual traditions. The Aglaian tradition emphasizes spontaneity and ease of ritual, and depth of feeling and purpose, over the form of ritual. Extemporaneous generation of ritual is acceptable and many aspects of our ritual practice, such as the Charge of the Goddess, is never scripted - we never know what will be said in the Charge until the moment it occurs.
Though our ritual practices may be described as eclectic, our philosophy and metaphysics are uniquely Aglaian. Our psychic ("magickal") practices draw upon a variety of occult sources, most importantly Rosicrucian (AMORC), Tibetan Buddhism, and prosperity consciousness. We also incorporate some insights from Zen Buddhist, Theosophy, modern psychology, and channeling techniques. We follow the book Modern Magick, by Donald Michael Kraig, very closely in our use of ceremonial magick (which though, again, we are in the process of de-emphasizing).
Like most Witches, we celebrate both the Goddess and the God together as the triune manifestation of the planet's life force. We dedicate ourselves to helping our species attain harmony and happiness both within ourselves and (very important) with the other living species of Earth. We seek to change the world by using the psychic and magickal methods taught by the Craft, as well as lots of plain hard work. We follow the Wiccan Rede:
These eight words does the Wiccan Rede Fullfill:
An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will.
We also teach the laws of Reincarnation, the Law of Three-Fold Returns, the Law of Amra (Give if ye would Get), as well as many other Cosmic principles. We encourage parallel membership in other mystical or occult societies to enhance our understanding of Cosmic Law.
Learn more about the Aglaian philosophy, approach, and metaphysical system.
The coven is run by a High Priestess and a High Priest, who are equals. Men and women currently number in almost exactly equal parts in the coven.
Aglaian has, in its history, had five successive high priestesses and two high priests.
It is important to emphasize that we do not charge fees for initiation or attendance at rituals. We are clergy-laity and do not try to make a living from teaching Wicca or running this group. We do expect members of the group to pitch in to share the cost of replacing perishable goods, and to share the cost of our Covenant of the Goddess membership dues, and the cost of decorating the Temple for Sabbats.
Only initiated members of Aglaian may attend Full Moons. Prospective new members may however be invited to attend either New Moons or Sabbats, or both.
Another rare, but important, event is the occasional initiatory rite.
You will also have attended several New Moons and will have had an opportunity to meet all the current covenors. At this point, if we all agree you are right for Aglaian and Aglaian is right for you, you pass through a Dedication ritual and are thereafter known as a Dedicant.
The second degree comes after you have a demonstrated mastery of Wiccan principles, an awareness of the basic principles of other neo-pagan religions, and an awareness of the root principles behind psychic manifestation (magick). There are seventeen principles of which you must demonstrate certain knowledge and understanding. When you have been initiated at this point, you will be known as "First Degree".
We teach First Degree classes whenever there are enough First Degree candidates to justify the effort. When classes are not being taught we encourage self-directed study by the candidates.
When the candidate appears ready, she will be tested by a series of written and verbal tests, as well as a "lab" consisting of ritual tests conducted by the candidate, alone, with High Priestess and High Priest of Aglaian observing.
There is no formal testing for Second Degree. It is obvious when one becomes worthy of a Second.
As a rule, we tend to recognize degrees from other groups only when we know the other groups very well, and they are local. Unfortunately it is difficult usually to verify training outside of the Chicago area, or check on the reputation of groups elsewhere in the country.
As a member of our coven you will be expected to attend all Esbats (New and Full Moons). [Exceptions will, of course however be made for work schedules and other real-life interference.]
You will be responsible for making your own travel arrangements to get to the temple in Homewood, Illinois. It is unlikely that those without cars will be able to join Aglaian, due to our suburban location.
Attendance at Sabbats is optional though most choose to attend.
You will not be required to make progress toward your higher Degrees. You will not be kicked out of the group for failing to make a Degree beyond Dedicant. The higher Degrees are not for everyone.
You are not required to help with the various coven improvement projects, but if you do help we can make more rapid progress toward the beautiful kind of group we all would like Aglaian to be.
Absolutely no financial compensation for our teaching is expected, accepted, or required. At times we ask for members of the coven to help out with temple supplies, cost of photocopying, and our Covenant of the Goddess membership, but this does not exceed $5 per month, per coven member.
The median age for Aglaian members is 35 years old, though our ages span from 16 years old to 75 years old. We have both white-collar and blue-collar professions represented among our membership. The kind of person who works well with this coven will have the following qualities:
We probably will not challenge many of your current beliefs, we do not want to challenge your beliefs, but in the normal process of spiritual inquiry we may challenge those beliefs. We are a way to enlarge your world possibly by embracing new ideas you have not yet encountered, or further expanding your current occult knowledge.
We have encountered students in the past who almost seemed to want us to be a rubber stamp and feel-good committee for their current beliefs. They felt they knew everything they needed to know just because they read a few books (the well-known "3BP" syndrome - "3BP" = 3 Book Pagan. Related to the IRAB phenomenon - I know everything already because I Read A Book.
One caveat: If you are under eighteen years of age, we will not be able to accept you for membership without your parents' permission.
Your very first step is: call us at (708) 799-6474 (Please no email inquiries about attendance).
You can talk to us about membership any time throughout the year, but we do not initiate new Dedicants, or begin dedication classes, during the Dark of the year (Samhain through Imbolc).
We will first meet you in a public place, probably in Homewood, so that we can further gauge your degree of preparation to join coven life. After that, we usually invite people interested in our coven to our next New Moon ritual (only Full Moon events are fully restricted from non-members).
Public rituals may be attended wearing any dark, undistracting, comfortable clothing. No special clothing is required. Please bring some food or drink item to share with others afterward.
For beginners who have not read any of these books, we recommend starting with Starhawk.
Serious inquirers call us at (708) 799-6474, leave a message on the voicemail for Aglaian Triad of Wicca.
You may also email us. If you do write us via email, please be concise and you must provide a telephone number. We do not have the time to get involved in lengthy email correspondence and find frequently that a question can be answered more easily over the phone. We do not do any form of teaching via email, so please do not ask us doctrinal, ritual, or magickal questions via email. We unfortunately just do not have the time to keep up with email, so if your email cannot be answered quickly it may not get answered at all.
We also want to emphasize here that we are a "f2f, carbon community". We are not an internet entity or a correspondence school. We do not do any form of long-distance training of students, or initiations by email or telephone. If you cannot travel to the south suburban Chicago area, you should probably not bother to contact us because you must attend meetings to benefit from this coven. You must be able to commute to a suburban location, we cannot give you a ride. Sorry.
If you would like to write us a traditional letter, you may also snailmail us at:
Aglaian Triad of WiccaBUT WE MUST WARN YOU that we are unlikely to write you a response back. As with our situation with email, we do not have the time for traditional non-electronic correspondence. So, if you want a response to your letter, you must provide a telephone number where we can call you or an email address where we can write you back.
P.O. Box 1662
Homewood, IL 60430-0662
We do not have any pamphlets which describe Aglaian to send you, or any other literature, so please do not write to us asking for such mailings. This web page is it!
We are happy to get mass mailings from occult organizations and metaphysical businesses, so please feel free to add us to your mailing list.
If you are not sure you want to join Aglaian, but would just like to stay in contact with other neo-pagans in the Chicago area, we would encourage you to check out the chicagolandwitchesdotorg email list. This is the largest email list devoted to the discussion of Chicago-area neo-paganism, and has over 130 members. It was started by Aglaian leadership. If you are not already on the chicagolandwitchesdotorg list, subscribe to that by sending email to: chicagolandwitchesdotorg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagolandwitchesdotorg
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Any non-technical queries to Aglaian Triad of Wicca should either go to email at aglaian@visioncollective.org or telephone us at 708-799-6474. Be sure to leave a message if you get voicemail.
This page created 07/29/96 Last updated: 11/24/2001 This Aglaian Information Page © 2002 by Jeffrey Benner. Permission must be obtained before reproducing in any non-electronic format.