Blue Triskele Wicca?
I've been thinking of the style practiced by LCoP as "Blue Triskele Wicca" for a while now.
While our lineage derives from NECTW via Eddie Buczynski's Welsh Tradition, our closest lineage kin are Blue Star Wicca. This is because our founders, Branwen and Caspian, were the first initiates by Franque and Tzip into the Coven of the Blue Star in Philadelphia, before Franque and Tzip moved to New York and started the tradition called Blue Star Wicca. When I met a couple who had been initiated by Blue Star initiates, we discovered that the altar arrangement hadn't changed substantially--after a quarter of century of separation. We are still influenced by the practices that Branwen and Caspian learned from Franque and Tzip. So, we are more like Blue Star than we are like anything else anyone will have heard of.
But we aren't Blue Star. The core of our Book of Shadows was written by our founders after they separated from Franque and Tzip. We don't have a degree system. We aren't interested in being a Tradition with a capital T. If someone moves away and founds a new coven, they should change their Book of Shadows without feeling that they have to consult their upline--just as we do. We believe that Wicca works best when it can change organically, gradually.
Perhaps most radically, our Wicca includes three deities, not two: our Lady, our Lord, and our Revealer. The Revealer happened to us because I am third-gender. I didn't fit right as a priestess or as a priest. So Branwen told me that I needed to go find a third-gender deity and bring it back to the coven. (Unlike some of the folk in the discussions about trans-inclusion in paganism, she didn't respond "you don't fit our system, so go elsewhere and celebrate your own mysteries." Instead, she said, "you don't fit in our system, so we need to expand our system to include you fully." Blessed be her memory.) So, most of a decade ago, I discovered Phanes, the bi-gender deity in the Orphic Cosmogony. I brought back to the coven a Revealer who comes from Hellenistic mysticism, is radiant, and golden-winged. When, a couple of years ago, our coven did a sharing about our experienced of the Revealer, I discovered that most of my covenmates worship a Revealer who reflects Northwestern European traditions, is hooded, and shrouded in mists. That's when I knew that this had become meaningful for the coven as a whole, not just "Ian's thing". Since that discussion, most of the initiates have stood as herald of the Revealer at least once, as a conscious way of deepening their connection. And they also challenged me to stand as priestess of the Lady and as priest of the Lord, to help me deepen my connections with them.
We aren't Blue Star, but we're close. And our core is a triad of deities. So, Blue Triskele Wicca. I mentioned it to my covenmates for the first time last week, and people seemed to like it. I have no idea if my covenmates will use it, but I think I may.
Blue Triskele Wicca...how does that sound to you folks?
While our lineage derives from NECTW via Eddie Buczynski's Welsh Tradition, our closest lineage kin are Blue Star Wicca. This is because our founders, Branwen and Caspian, were the first initiates by Franque and Tzip into the Coven of the Blue Star in Philadelphia, before Franque and Tzip moved to New York and started the tradition called Blue Star Wicca. When I met a couple who had been initiated by Blue Star initiates, we discovered that the altar arrangement hadn't changed substantially--after a quarter of century of separation. We are still influenced by the practices that Branwen and Caspian learned from Franque and Tzip. So, we are more like Blue Star than we are like anything else anyone will have heard of.
But we aren't Blue Star. The core of our Book of Shadows was written by our founders after they separated from Franque and Tzip. We don't have a degree system. We aren't interested in being a Tradition with a capital T. If someone moves away and founds a new coven, they should change their Book of Shadows without feeling that they have to consult their upline--just as we do. We believe that Wicca works best when it can change organically, gradually.
Perhaps most radically, our Wicca includes three deities, not two: our Lady, our Lord, and our Revealer. The Revealer happened to us because I am third-gender. I didn't fit right as a priestess or as a priest. So Branwen told me that I needed to go find a third-gender deity and bring it back to the coven. (Unlike some of the folk in the discussions about trans-inclusion in paganism, she didn't respond "you don't fit our system, so go elsewhere and celebrate your own mysteries." Instead, she said, "you don't fit in our system, so we need to expand our system to include you fully." Blessed be her memory.) So, most of a decade ago, I discovered Phanes, the bi-gender deity in the Orphic Cosmogony. I brought back to the coven a Revealer who comes from Hellenistic mysticism, is radiant, and golden-winged. When, a couple of years ago, our coven did a sharing about our experienced of the Revealer, I discovered that most of my covenmates worship a Revealer who reflects Northwestern European traditions, is hooded, and shrouded in mists. That's when I knew that this had become meaningful for the coven as a whole, not just "Ian's thing". Since that discussion, most of the initiates have stood as herald of the Revealer at least once, as a conscious way of deepening their connection. And they also challenged me to stand as priestess of the Lady and as priest of the Lord, to help me deepen my connections with them.
We aren't Blue Star, but we're close. And our core is a triad of deities. So, Blue Triskele Wicca. I mentioned it to my covenmates for the first time last week, and people seemed to like it. I have no idea if my covenmates will use it, but I think I may.
Blue Triskele Wicca...how does that sound to you folks?
- Edited to correct spelling.