As Samhain approaches and we enter the dark half of the year, we work within both physically and spiritually. The Temple Bell is looking for submissions sharing members’ workings for the new turn of the Wheel of the Year.
We also are always willing to see reviews, rituals, and pieces dealing with the Sabbat. Please send any queries to the [email protected].
Account Balances reflect the last day of the month.
Account Balances:
Opening Balance: August 31, 2014: $25,342.69
Closing Balance: September 30, 2014: $38,478.56
Petty Cash: $78.22.
Paypal balance: $844.46
Certificate of Deposit: $2512.84
The Temple of Witchcraft appreciates and supports the network of Pagan, New Age, and Witchcraft shops that serve as meeting and entry points for our community. Please support your local retailers, and let them know you appreciate them, too!
If you’re looking to do some seasonal shopping, we can help, and offer you the opportunity to support the Temple at the same time in four different ways!
The Temple, in conjunction with our Leo and Gemini Ministries, is pleased to present our new Zazzle online store, offering shirts, altar cloths, and other items featuring the Temple sigil and related artwork. Now you can order from your computer and mobile device and have items shipped to you directly! All profits from the online store go directly to support the Temple and its work.
Just click on the link above or go to “Shop” on the main menu bar of the website and choose “Zazzle Store”. If there is an item or style of item you would particularly like to see offered in the Zazzle store, feel free to email us at [email protected] and let us know!
While the Temple Store run by our Virgo Ministry has been a fixture of our sabbat events for years, for the first time, we will be offering select items from the Store for sale online, shipped by mail-order direct to you!
Just click on the Temple Store Square Market link here or go to the main menu bar of our website and choose “Square Market” from the “Shop” menu.
Please be aware that, as with our events, our Temple Store is staffed and run by part-time volunteers, so please be patient with us as we work out the details of getting items packaged and shipped to you as efficiently as possible.
Third, the Temple of Witchcraft participates in the Amazon Smile program, which donates a percentage of your purchases on Amazon.com to a charity of your choice, including the Temple! Just click on the link above or go to smile.amazon.com and choose “Temple of Witchcraft” as your charity for donation. Then just make sure to start your shopping from the smile.amazon.com page so your purchases are recorded as supporting the Temple!
Lastly, Copper Cauldron Products by Temple founder and Virgo Lead Minister Adam Sartwell are available from the Copper Cauldron Etsy Store. Here you can unique hand-crafted items like Heart of the Dark Mother Incense and Oracular Ointment, made at specific times in conjunction with seasonal and astrological alignments. They are produced in limited batches and once they’re gone, they’re gone! Keep an eye on the Etsy store for new offerings, because they tend to go quickly!
Although this past weekend in New Hampshire featured summer-like temperatures and sunshine, the changing leaves on the trees certainly know that Autumn is here: the “Season of the Witch.” The Temple of Witchcraft is preparing for a busy October, with a wide range of offerings including classes, workshops, rituals, and more!
On Sunday, October 5th (the first weekend), we have our Children’s Ministry Mabon Ritual from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, followed by our Scorpio Ministry Ritual for Those Mourning a Loss and Honoring the Ancestors from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, both held in South Hampton, NH. Online registration is open (and encouraged!) for both events. Email [email protected] for information about Children’s Ministry events and [email protected] for more on the ritual.
The following Friday, October 10th, features the Congress of the Bones ritual at the Temple in Salem, NH, from 7:00 to 9:30 pm. This is one of three “founder rituals” performed annually by the Temple Founders and involves communion with the ancestors, beloved dead, and the Mighty Dead of our Timeless Tradition. Online registration is available and space is limited, so pre-registration is encouraged.
After Columbus Day Weekend, we have the Temple’s monthly Protection Ritual in Salem, NH, at 7:00 pm. Email [email protected] for details or to register to attend.
On October 16th, the Scorpio Ministry offers an Ancestor Letter-Writing class in conjunction with our Letters to the Ancestors call for Samhain. The class is not required to participate in the effort, but is open to those who might need assistance in composing their letter(s).
October 18th, join us at Celebrate Samhain in Peterborough, NH, for a day of vendors, workshops, and Samhain events. The Temple will have a table at the event to offer information and goods from the Temple Store.
Then … Saturday, October 25th is the main event! The Temple’s annual Psychic Faire and Samhain Celebration! A day-long event with psychic readers, local crafters and artisans, and the offerings from the Temple Store, including an all-new book from Laurie Cabot, the “Official Witch of Salem, MA”—Laurie Cabot’s Book of Spells & Enchantments—with contributions by Laurie’s student, Temple founder Christopher Penczak! The faire is free and open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Then, at 7:00 pm is our annual Samhain Ritual. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged, as this is by far the most heavily attended ritual of the year!
But we’re still not finished! The week after our New Hampshire Samhain celebration, the Temple offers a rare opportunity: a lecture by noted scholar Philip Hesselton on Gerald Gardner and the modern Witchcraft revival, October 28th at 7:00 pm at the Temple in Salem, NH.
That weekend, November 1st, is the start of the Temple of Witchcraft offering Wheel of the Year sabbats in Portland, Maine! High Priestess Silver Lyons and High Priest Casey O’Brien will offer a Samhain Ritual at the Allen Avenue UU Church, 524 Allen Ave., Portland, ME, starting at 7:00 pm.
Then it’s Samhain for the little ones as the Children’s Ministry offers its Samhain ritual on Sunday, November 2nd, at 2:00 pm in South Hampton, NH. Email [email protected] for more information.
That’s ten events in just one turn of the moon! We hope to see you at some of our celebrations of the Season of the Witch and the turning of the Wheel – Samhain blessings to all!
by Tracey Frink
As my husband and I walked home, the sun set in the west, fire meeting water. A house finch trilled for its mate, and she came flying across the road to join him whilst the pungent aroma of summer and green, ripening earth hung in the air. To feel our feet touch the earth and to be joined with the elements in this way was, itself, magickal. As dusk draped her soft cloak around us, the cicadas were softly singing. The air was rife with life. A fire had been lit, and the fire faeries were dancing. The smoke rose, carrying with it our hopes and our dreams to the waiting ears of the Divine. The cares of the day were transmuted to peace and serenity, our conversation, consecrated.
Tracey R. Frink is a modern mystic, healer, equestrian and faery lover. She lives on a small horse farm in North Carolina. She has studied all the great world religions and is forever trying to throw her arms around the world. She is enrolled in her second year in TOW and is looking forward to her studies. She holds a Master of Divinity and is currently a Masters Student of Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Equine Assisted Mental Health. She is a Reiki Master and an avid barrel racer.
by Tina Whittle
I’m a mystery novelist — it’s my profession now, my nine to five, and I enjoy it very much, especially the part where I get to slip into points of view far more exotic than my own. I enjoy reading speculative fiction for that same reason, especially the genre where talented witches vanquish evil doers with their mad magickal skillz.
But as much as I enjoy watching Harry Dresden shoot fireballs from his fingertips, I found myself longing for a detective story where the crime-solving witch was someone more like . . . well, me. I cannot conjure flaming spheres of destruction. A full Patronus spell is beyond my pay grade too, as is levitation. Like most witches, however, I work with magick every day, with great success. How would a witch like me solve a mystery?
The result of that pondering was the short story “A Fox in the Hand.” It was recently selected by Crime City Central to be featured in their podcast. It’s a rather gentle bit of crime fiction — no corpses, just a stolen ceremonial dagger — and it features a witchy protagonist armed with only her wits and a rather nice Lenormand deck. There’s also a Siamese named Puff Daddy and a cute cop and some musings on holding on and letting go and the magic that lives in the heart of the mundane.
If you’d like to download the story, or listen to it on streaming audio, you can find it here: http://crimecitycentral.com/crime-city-central-no-102-tina-whittle/
Tina Whittle is mystery novelist/freelance writer working in the Low Country of Southeast Georgia. She is a recent W5 graduate and serves as co-editor of The Temple Bell. You can learn more about her and her writing at http://www.tinawhittle.com.
The slam of a Prius brought my attention away from the glowing coals inside the sacred fire pit.
Sarah had arrived and was making her way over, arms laden with a heavy cardboard box filled with
items from her past. She called, asking if there was something the spirits could do to help her move on
with her life after a divorce.
“I want to forget about him and move on. There are other things I want to focus on now” she said.
“Sarah, what you need is a Phoenix ritual” I told her.
“A what?” Sarah asked.
“A Phoenix ritual”, I explained. “We burn what we want to let go of or what’s stagnating life, let
the fire transmute the energy, then rebirth it, drawing new life up from the ashes.”
“Destroy what no longer serves then create? It’ll feel good burning the crap he gave me,” she
mused.
“Yup. Wham, Bam, cycle complete. Let me know when you want to come over, I’ll give you a
hand,” I offered.
The day arrived and I was prepping the fire, gathering wood, and telling the spirits what was
going to be happening while waiting. The fire was just a pile of hot coals now. I leaned in and from the
embers I blew breathe of life, air creating the flame which began to consume the earth’s wood. Nearby
sat a bucket of water which would in turn destroy the fire should it rage out of control.
“That was quick. Have you been doing this a long time?” Sarah asked.
Three days, I thought, I’ve been here for the last 3 days. Three days basking in the flames of the
sacred fire I built under August’s noon sun, breaking 100 degrees outside the fire. Hours spent
drumming, dancing circles around the pit, basking in its smoke as it washed out impurities, the sweat
and ash dripping from my flesh. I’m sure there are easier ways to bond with fire but spirit knows this is
my way, a shamanic way, a way of ordeal, over the top, fit for a Viking, and for me anything less would
be cheating.
Sarah’s right though. Fire is lighting for me quicker the longer I stay at this pit. Fire and I talk,
we merge. Intent and relationships are built. Fire, by its light, guides the way, the tinder sparks to life,
the kindling soon follows. I could not expect her to understand, can anyone truly understand the path
of another? So I simply reply, “Yeah, it’s something I do.”
Sarah takes out old photos, cards, writings, and an old t-shirt depicting a concert she went to
years ago. Her former life is tossed into the flames as I drum. She reads a short poem and reflects on
the pain being released, the heat and flames grow. Amidst the burning, consuming, destructive fire my
own thoughts go back to the last three days.
* * * * *
Heavy rocks, lugged across the field, under the sun, carefully placed to encircle this temple of
fire, as I called to the gods to dedicate it as a sacred site. Loki answers, coming in, taking control of my
arm and hand, to draw several runes bound together in the dirt while speaking one work.
“Muspellheim.” Similar to how one calls their astral temple, I was to use the runes and sacred fire pit
to anchor Muspellheim here for ritual that evening. One of the 9 worlds of the Norse, an inhospitable
plain of fire. Home to salamanders and fire giants, and ruled by Surt. If I believe the writings of Raven
Kaldera he’s supposed to be my godfather—a godfather to all of Loki’s children. He’s old, he’s fire, he’s
the spark of creation. He has seen gods and worlds made and destroyed. When he’s appeared to me I
see a large bald man, square face and jaw, black and red, pulsating with the magma that is his skin.
Just another family barbeque, nothing like an evening of steaks charred roasted in an elemental plain
with your dysfunctional relatives.
Opening the gates the rest of the world faded away and I became blinded by the smoke from its
smoldering landscape.
“Who comes to Muspellheim gets burned”
Words whispered in my ear as I lay burning on the sands of the fire circle, no longer a circle but
a beach next to a fiery boiling ocean. I listened to the ocean steaming and heard the drumming of the
fire giants nearby. Shards of hot glass, sand transformed by heat, pierced my skin as I lay writhing in
burning agony on the sand. I silently praised my guardians, without whom I was certain death would
have already come. Of course, outside my own hallucinations, to any innocent onlookers, I appeared as
a raving lunatic rolling around screaming on a lawn next to a bonfire.
As I screamed and cried shouts for help, I heard whispered into my ear “ This Fire is Chaos. What
have we taught you about Chaos?”
“It will burn me?!”
“What else?”
Really? Now they’re going to question me? I’m being burned alive here. Dig deep Kim, find the
ability to respond if you want to get out of this.
“It’s always moving, always consuming. Creation and Destruction. Life and Death. Constant
change. Its opposite is order, yet chaos is order, it is its own opposite. Stagnation. Death without
renewal. To master chaos one first has to master order. Only by mastering order could one hope to
guide the chaos into shape. Instead of being consumed by total destruction one must learn to sit in total
harmony with fire reigning down on all sides. If chaos was emotion, order was the mind. Master the
mind to master order. Only then could you reach out and grab the fire without it consuming you.”
“You expect fire and brimstone here, so that is what you are finding.”
I hate when they point out the obvious. My emotions, my fear, my pain, all responding to my
surroundings and expectations–inducing panic, inducing my current reality. I breathed into my mind
and calmed it. Come on Kimberly, this is all in your head, now man up. The fire continued to burn at
me, the glass continued to poke at my skin, but none of it had an effect. I was free of the limitation I
believed I had here.
* * * * *
By the time I finished my own reflections Sarah’s items were ash and the energy was
rising just above the flames. She gave the phoenix a name, one that signified the new life she was
creating. It took form and flew off to set new paths towards creating the desired manifestation. As
Sarah departed we gave final gratitude. “And with that we’d like to thank the fire and gods. Remember
to act on any opportunities surrounding your intent, no matter how small. They are not coincidence, but
the universe answering.”
After her own gratitude I let her know one last thing, “Repeat this on your own when you need
it. I’ve shown you, now it’s your own ritual, your own responsibility to do.”
* * * * *
As I waited for the coals to die out, I circled the fire pit with the sun rising to high noon. Beads
of sweat dripped and I recalled an old Klingon saying. “Today I am a warrior. I must show you my heart.
I travel the river of blood.” The reply from the spirits came quick. “You are a priestess. You walk the path
of compassion. Let us show you your soul.” Please. Please do, I thought as I drifted ahead in time to the
fall to my planned trip to an active volcano in the Pacific, an otherwise lovely tourist attraction but for
me, a planned shamanic week. Though I would see plenty of beauty, it was education and with my
spirit friends I knew it would not be your typical tourism. Many tell me I should simply vacation
sometime and leave spiritual behind, but that’s not possible. There is no separation in mundane and
divine aspects anymore. Spirit is everywhere, I am its student, and anywhere I go there would be
education and lessons.
My thoughts wander further, setting in motion events only my own thoughts could create, and a
wonder if I will ever learn. I am certain it will be a grueling week. I wonder what deities I will find at this
major hot spot of fire activity, what challenges and adventures? What lessons spirit will show me, what
insights I’ll gather, or if I’ll finally become a travel writer, depicting a harrowing adventure tale of how I
escaped a volcanic temple after stealing an idol and being chased by natives and lava….
Before I can go too far through my imagination I am reprimanded. “That is the future. This is
now. See the coals? Bring them back to life. Raise the fire up again with but your breath this time.”
I do as my teacher bids. On my hands and knees, face into the hot pit, I bow to the great fire
and with my breathe and some more wood it is soon blazing anew. Soon I am dancing again, soon I am
drumming, soon I am once again drenched in sweat as my education continues. I have been told not
many journey to Muspellheim, but I know those that go are transformed and learn to call the fire home.
Kimberly Vale is a Shaman, a Priest, a Priestess, Massage Therapist, Reiki Master-Teacher, a Writer, and budding Fire Tender. As a Shaman, Catholic, Buddhist, and Pagan she finds herself working with people of all religious denominations to show them ways to reach the divine beyond what their traditional priests and dogma allows while doing what she can to facilitate healing in all manners available to her. www.KimberlyVale.com
“God is a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, and you are the music.” — Pink, “God is a DJ” Try This (2003)
My first experience with ecstasy was on the dance floor, under the pulsating lights. No, I’m not talking about the infamous club drug of the same name, I’m talking about ecstasy in terms of spiritual experience, its original meaning: ex stasis, to be outside of one’s self, in that eternal moment where time seems to stand still, the mind is quiet, and separation seems to dissolve.
I’m likely not alone in the experience, either, as one of the first ways I heard the ecstatic experience explained to a group of gay men was: “It’s like when you’re dancing and you really get into it…” with various nods of understanding from the audience.
Of course, this experience is not even limited to the queer community: in the book Trance Formation, author and researcher Robin Sylvan looks at the global rave culture and finds numerous examples of experiences we might call “ecstatic” or “shamanistic,” such as feelings of ego dissolution, oneness with everything, distortions in time, spiritual presences, or unexplainable joy and feelings of wholeness or intense meaningfulness. No surprise, really, since dancing to exhaustion following a driving beat in flickering half-light is one of the oldest ecstatic techniques known to humanity. Why, particularly, is it a queer mystery?
Perhaps because of the long association of nightclubs and dance with queer culture. One of the nicknames of the gay dance club is “gay church.” Ecstasy on the dance floor has for some time been the most accessible and affirming form of the practice available to the queer community. Additionally, there is a freeing quality to ecstatic practices that appeals strongly to oppressed or marginalized peoples. The hit song “Let It Go” from the Disney film Frozen is seen by many as an anthem of the kind of oppression queer people (as well as women and other marginalized groups) feel, and the exaltation of being free to express one’s true self. Other dance anthems, from “Born This Way” to “I Will Survive,” express a similar sentiment: there is joy to be found in letting it all go, dancing like nobody is watching (or like everybody is) and being fully, freely, who you really are.
This freedom is the first step to the even greater ecstasy of letting go of even who you “really” are, releasing all preconceptions of self to simply be in the eternal moment where the dichotomy between self and other seems to fall away and the question “who am I?” gives way to the experience of “I AM,” perhaps in the divine sense of “I am that I am,” as the burning bush spoke to Moses.
It’s one thing to unintentionally dance yourself into ecstasy and another to seek that experience within a sacred context. Indeed, sometimes the initial unexpected experience leads to seeking, trying to understand the process and deliberately recreate it, as it did for me. Dancing to driving drumbeats around a sacred bonfire under the stars has proven just as effective as “the most magical gay nightclub in the world” (as the mid-festival celebration of the Between the Worlds queer pagan men’s festival has been called). Indeed, I’ve experienced both modes in the course of the same night.
The process of seeking ecstasy follows on the Mystery of Emergence from Ostara: Having had the strength to step out into the light and claim identity, the seeker now moves closer towards union with that light, shedding and leaving even that hard-won identity behind as part of the journey. It takes the same strength, the same daring, and also a paradoxical willingness to surrender, to stop fighting, and allow things to unfold of their own accord. One of our greatest barriers to ecstatic union is literally our-selves, the conscious parts of our identity that question, nag, or even fear the experience.
Of course, just as letting go of our-selves is vital to achieve ecstasy, so is letting go of the experience itself. Although the moment can seem timeless, we exist in time and so, therefore, it cannot last. We return from the ecstatic experience, a re-enactment of the divine Fall into space, time, and material existence, which may be gentle or harsh, not unlike our first transition from the ecstatic union of the womb to birth and independent existence. In the journey of the Tarot, we have ecstatically cast off the chains of the Devil, recognizing the illusions that imprison us, and experienced the fall of the Tower, plummeting from the heights of our experience. Ideally, we emerge from that into the Star: new hope, new potential, a new balance between elements of the self, a new openness to grow, change, and progress.
As Christopher Penczak outlines in his book The Gates of Witchcraft, ecstasy has a “dark side,” that of addiction. Sometimes the way people look to “let go” is through chemical means, whether it is an excess of alcohol, marijuana, or ecstasy (the drug) or even harder drugs like cocaine or crystal meth. Sacred use of intoxicants has a long history in the quest for ecstasy, but their use, and abuse, in a party culture is generally anything but sacred (although there are exceptions, as Sylvan’s Trance Formation points out). These substances are how some of the queer community try to achieve or enhance the ecstatic experience, or prolong it, so they never have to let go of that incredible, transformative feeling of oneness.
The power of ecstasy is not in remaining in that timeless, transcendent moment. If you could do so, and never return, how would that be any different from death? For all we know, death is another ecstatic transformation that moves us on, either to change and progress beyond this world or to exist in that timelessness and oneness forever (or both, but that paradox is another topic of discussion). Those who seek merely the ecstasy, and not the ways in which it can transform them upon their return, are chasing the end of their existence, whether they know it or not; an endless string of “ecstatic experiences” with no real growth or development afterwards is a sure sign of a spiritual thrill-seeker who has confused the experience with its purpose.
The power of ecstasy is that of creative destruction: It is the psychic blast that reveals the ego as nothing more than a sometimes useful illusion. It is the shamanic initiation of being torn apart, so the spirits can rebuild you more able to work with them. It is the paradox of letting go of everything you have, everything you think of as yourself, in order to make the leap across the Abyss and find your Higher Self waiting for you on the other side, because you are the one you have been waiting for.
Ecstasy is our birthright as spirits-made-flesh, living in space and time, to touch the timeless, eternal source. It is particularly the undeniable birthright of all people who have been maligned, marginalized, persecuted, or mistreated, because it is an experience that shows all those things for the wrongs that they are and reminds us of the sacred maxim we recite in the Temple: “There is no part of me that is not of the gods.”
Steve Kenson is a Temple founder and Gemini lead minister, making the Queer Mysteries a part of his ministry work. See his Ministerial Profile for more information. He is teaching and facilitating ritual at the Coph Nia festival for Men Who Love Men at Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary in Artemas, PA, August 6–10.
Working the Temple Store at Ostara this year I rang up the purchase of one of our Temple members. As I looked down into the box of paper bags I realized that we were on our last bag. I remember thinking when I first purchased them it seemed like we would never be able to use them all. I bought them for the store so long ago I had no idea what website I bought them from. It made me think about milestones.
I recently went through a milestone this year. I graduated from Witchcraft Five. This is the Mystery School first class that has gone all the way through all five years and all five levels with the support of the temple. Five years of doing the five hundred exercises required to graduate. Christopher said it was interesting how the graduates seemed to focus on the Temple and the Pagan communities they work with more than they focused on Christopher continuing to teach them (like the “secret witchcraft six” we joke about). Everyone in the circle of people sharing their projects and where they were going to go with their work and their paths made me proud to be among them!
This year’s Templefest will be the fifth that the Temple has put on. I didn’t realize it until Steve pointed it out this year. I love how the symbol for this year’s Templefest is a pentagram drawn by our very talented Leo lead minister Mark—a symbol with five points! This year we are doing things a bit differently for Templefest by moving it to Lammas instead of Litha—offering an early registration price and other changes that come with experience of doing this five years running.
This weekend we also finally have our Temple Open House here in Salem, NH. We will open our doors to the public for this free event. We went through a lot of work to raise money so we could build a parking lot. We had to deal with getting an occupancy permit and put in all the things the town required us to have to be a open to the public as a religious institution in our area. There was a lot of work behind the scenes to get us ready. We as a Temple have come so far!
So as we pass into the renewal of Spring I take a moment to honor the milestones of our past and those awaiting us in the future. I offer up a breath in prayer to the spirits of the Temple—both in body and beyond—in gratitude for all we have accomplished, and all that we will accomplish together. Thanks to a generous member of the Temple community, we’ve already got more bags!!
Blessings of the gods on you all.
Adam Sartwell is a Founder and Virgo lead minister of the Temple of Witchcraft. Adam’s psychic and intuitive gifts led him to study Witchcraft in his teens and he is a teacher, healer, and professional Tarot reader. He spends time hand-crafting products for the Temple store (which he manages) and has written essays for The Green Lovers and Ancestors of the Craft anthologies from Copper Cauldron Publishing. He can be reached at [email protected].
For our third installment of the Mentor Spotlight, The Temple Bell presents Elsa—Lead Minister of the Scorpio Ministry. Her student Helen O’Hara, tells us that she is “a sensitive and empathic individual who can ‘read between the homework lines’… she also is a wonderful combination of cheerleader, devil’s advocate and Mother Superior.” Ms. O’Hara tells us that “not only has she responded to my routine homework in a timely thoughtful manner, but has addressed all my additional questions and issues in great depth and detail.” What she likes most about Elsa “is her ability to be completely non-judgmental—no question or issue is ever too small or insignificant to be addressed, and her insights are always uncannily accurate.”
Let us catch a glimpse of Elsa’s mentoring style as she fills us in for our Spotlight!
How long have you been a mentor?
Since September, 2012
How do you approach mentoring? Your philosophy?
My goal is to be present and witness the student’s experience with the material—allowing the student to fully engage with it and to have their unique experience. I am encouraging and challenging–depending on what is needed. Also, since I am a therapist, I provide support when it is necessary since some of the curriculum can be stirring emotionally and psychologically. It is important to help the student have the deepest and best educational and spiritual experience possible for them.
How do you know if you’ve been a successful mentor?
Success as a mentor appears when your mentee moves forward in the curriculum ; when he/she shows thoughtful expansion of his/her understanding of the material—a deeper mastery of his/her magickal and ritual skills when it is for his/her highest good. While it has not been my experience, I also imagine it can be positive and important to support a student who needs to either step out to take a break or even leave the program if that is what is best for him/her. Success is not absolutely defined as finishing–Witchcraft V and becoming an ordained minister for example. Success is different for every student. Our role is to support the student to their highest and best outcome.
What advice would you give a new mentor?
Balance your messages to your student/mentee with positive feedback and challenges. If you find you have a student that outshines even yourself, how lucky for you. But usually, there is something that needs more attention or development so give that feedback along with positive feedback. Also, go ahead and tell them if you learn something or your awareness is expanded by something they said. It is very important to acknowledge that we all are constantly learning and that the learning can come from our students as well as our teachers. We can learn something from every interaction.