With Ostara comes a return to life and the season of new beginnings. I founded this group quite a while ago before turning control over to the members. You will notice that all members are administrators as well. This is how I feel a good coven is run.

In the interim, I have been busy building on my own experience as a leader of a coven. I have taken several advanced classes to further humble myself by how much I don't know. I have also undergone Dedication and Initiation all over again--kind of the way a contractor renews certification. This past Imbolc, fifteen years after the first time I spun off from my mother coven and became High Priestess, I did it again--mostly to show how life is one long session of learning and we all need to update every now and then.

And so I have come back to Four Winds, because I can see where this coven still has remarkable potential. Now I need to familiarize myself with what has happened here during my absence.

Greetings, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes us!

--Sappho Wolf



If you joined on or before January 18, 2008, you will notice that your membership in Four Winds has been upgraded to Administrator. I decided to go out on a limb and put the cybercoven in the hands of its members. It dawned on me that just because I don't have the time to devote to Four Winds as a proper manager doesn't mean that no one among us does. Let everyone's talent and interest shine!

--Sappho Wolf

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How many of you have been affected by breast cancer, directly or indirectly? The Great Healing Work is all about applying those thought processes we call "magic" towards healing the ill, giving strength to the fighters, and sending good will all around.

You don't have to be a member of Four Winds to participate. To make a statement, visit this special message board and leave your thoughts.

Greetings and welcome to the Coven of the Four Winds! This is the new incarnation of Four Winds after spending many years in various states of activity at MSN. We're still getting settled in here, which gives you the opportunity to get active early and have a real hand in the shaping of this cybercoven.

As mentioned above, congratulations to our two new Priestess-Managers, Lily and Theodosia!

Would you be interested in contributing to a Four Winds Grimoire? Other groups sell cookbooks, but this would be a book of herbal magic and remedies.

Finally, if you'd like to get in contact with me directly (real e-mail) please feel free to write to me at sapphowolf@stonebench.us .

Ananke!

Sappho Wolf

Groups seem to get on a lot better if a few ground rules are established at the beginning. It's up to all of us to police ourselves. No one will get kicked out or banned for breaking a rule, but said person will be made aware so that no future problems occur.

1) No matter how crazy an idea may seem, no matter how far an idea stretches any kind of conventions, nothing anyone posts will ever be called "STUPID" in response. Respectful debate is welcomed, but everyone is free to express their own thoughts.

2) No one is to pull rank. This means someone who has been initiated will not be derogatory towards solitaries, for example. We all have varying degrees of experience, but we are all equal.

3) Please share what you know. We're trying to build up a solid knowledge base here, and every contribution helps.

4) Try to stay on topic on each of the forums. Hopefully we have enough of a selection to accommodate everyone. If not, ask Sappho.

5) No matter what, remember that you have more in common with your Coven family than you have in contrast. If we all work towards making the Coven a pleasant place of good experiences and mutual learning, we all benefit.

Thank You!

Rede Of The Wiccae
(Being Knowne As The Counsel Of The Wise Ones)

Submitted By Lady Gwen Thompson & Adriana Porter
First Published In Green Egg Magazine
Vol. III. No. 69 (Ostara 1975)

1. Bide the Wiccan laws ye must in perfect love and perfect trust.
2. Live and let live – fairly take and fairly give.
3. Cast the Circle thrice about to keep all evil spirits out.
4. To bind the spell every time, let the spell be spake in rhyme.
5. Soft of eye and light of touch – speak little, listen much.
6. Deosil go by the waxing Moon – sing and dance the Wiccan rune.
7. Widdershins go when the Moon doth wane, and the Werewolf howls by the dread Wolfsbane.
8. When the Lady’s moon is new, kiss the hand to her times two.
9. When the Moon rides at her peak, then your heart’s desire seek.
10. Heed the Northwind’s mighty gale – lock the door and drop the sail.
11. When the wind comes from the South, love will kiss thee on the mouth.
12. When the wind blows from the East, expect the new and set the feast.
13. When the West wind blows o’er thee, departed spirits restless be.
14. Nine woods in the Cauldron go – burn them quick and burn them slow.
15. Elder be ye Lady’s tree – burn it not or cursed ye’ll be.
16. When the Wheel begins to turn – let the Beltane fires burn.
17. When the Wheel has turned a Yule, light the Log and let Pan rule.
18. Heed ye flower, bush and tree- by the Lady blessed be.
19. Where the rippling waters go, cast a stone an truth ye’ll know.
20. When ye have need, hearken not to other’s greed.
21. With the fool no season spend or be counted as his friend.
22. Merry meet an merry part – bright the cheeks an warm the heart.
23. Mind the Threefold Law ye should – three times bad and three times good.
24. When misfortune is enow, wear the blue star on thy brow.
25. True in love ever be unless thy lover’s false to thee.
26. Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill – an it harm none, do what ye will.

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names:

Whenever you have need of anything, once a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.

You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you be free you shall be naked in your rites.

Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My Presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth.

For My law is love is unto all beings. Mine is the secret that opens the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is the cauldron of Cerridwen, that is the holy grail of immortality.

I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal, and beyond death I give peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone before.

Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured out upon the earth.

Hear the words of the Star Goddess, the dust of Whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircles the universe:

I Who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,

I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.

For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.

From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.

Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.

Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.

And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.

For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.

Principles of Wiccan Belief

Council of American Witches, 1974

Seventy three Witches formed the Council of American Witches in 1974. In April of that year, at the Spring Witchmeet in Minneapolis, MN, (1974-APR-11 to 14), they adopted the following document. At the time, Wicca and other Neopagan religions were greatly misunderstood in North America. This document helped to set the record straight.

The thirteen statements are necessarily vague. They do not precisely and completely match any one Witchcraft tradition. But they do provide an introduction to the full range of belief systems called "Wicca."

The Council disbanded later in 1974.

In seeking to be inclusive, we do not wish to open ourselves to the destruction of our group by those on self-serving power trips, or to philosophies and practices contradictory to those principles. In seeking to exclude those whose ways are contradictory to ours, we do not want to deny participation with us to any who are sincerely interested in our knowledge and beliefs, regardless of race, color, sex, age, national or cultural origins, or sexual preference. 1

Principles of the Wiccan Belief:

1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.

2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility towards our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.

3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called "supernatural", but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.

4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity-as masculine and feminine-and that this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be supportive of the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship. 2

5. We recognize both outer and inner, or psychological, worlds -- sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc. -- and we see in the interaction of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.

6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.

7. We see religion, magick and wisdom-in-living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it -- a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft, the Wiccan Way.

8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch -- but neither does heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature. 3

9. We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness, that gives meaning to the Universe we know, and our personal role within it.

10. Our only animosity towards Christianity, or toward any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be "the only way," and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.

11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the origins of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and our future.

12. We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil", as defined by Christian tradition. 4 We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor do we accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.

13. We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.