sabrinamari | Craft Post 7: Braided Stream

Expanded and reposted as an entry from a comment below.

The most powerful group I have ever been part of, until the Fires of Venus Keepers group, was my core coven of many years, Braided Stream. This group was composed of the same small group of people who remained bonded over 6+ years, with the occasional addition of a very few who came, stayed a for a little bit and moved on to other groups.

The core of Braided Stream was the single most united, powerful and courageous group of *Magicians I have ever encountered. We grew a group mind the likes of which I have never seen anywhere else, though I wonder if FoV may offer something exquisitely similar soon...

Our nickname was "The Bunny Borg": tender, tremendously loving and fiercely interwoven at the level of bodymind.

We were like the fingers of a single hand, coming together in ritual and magic like a troupe of trained professional dancers, anticipating each other's moves and shifting, adapting to the flow of energy as it evolved before and around us.

We used every magical technique for healing and empowerment we could find and we invented those we couldn't. We tried everything and stopped at nothing. We ignored everyone who said we couldn't, shouldn't stick our fingers into every pie.

We made some awe-inspiring mistakes, but we lived.

We were champions, and honest-to-Gods glorious.

We were magnificent.

We were also a group of 1st Degree Initiates, every single one a woman who came up in ranks under me to stand beside me as an equal, a Magician and a teacher in her own right.

All but I were Neophytes during the majority of the group's critical formative years. To be fair, my fantastic working partner Dove was a 3rd Degree, and we worked as a team during the first year and a half, until she felt a powerful call to move on. If I had not had Dove for that first period, Braided Stream would have been impossible to create.

Neophytes are people in the midst of an often-chaotic and always profound transformation, alternating amongst states of ecstasy, misery and wonder. They are not stable people. They are fiercely in the midst of becoming someone else, and you better keep up or get the hell out of the way! If you are a Neophyte's teacher or you live in the same household with a Neophyte, buckle your seat belt. If you are a Neophyte's partner or lover, someone needs to explain what is happening to you tout suite.

Coaxing each glorious Magician-healer into full blossom almost killed me---I had FIVE NEOPHYTES at once!!!

To make matters worse, remember that I had no working partner after the first year and a half---it was truly an impossible situation. I begged Cat and George (respected peers and friends very dear to me) for help, I tore out my hair, I shifted moons into long, half-day affairs and worked in a Neophyte support group meeting, a formal class and a full-on ritual into every coming together.

It was fucking ridiculous! I have NO IDEA how we pulled that off. None. I could not do it today without forfeiting my entire life to the process.

And oh, Gods, it was so beautiful.

You see, before Braided Stream ever formed, I had one deep, heartfelt wish: I wanted to be part of a group of equals, all as powerful as I or more so, each of whom could help teach me to fly fly fly, and with whom I could break all the barriers my soul encountered.

And the Gods gave me Braided Stream.

This is where I really learned almost every damn thing that made me the Priestess I am today.

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* I use the term "Magician" in reference to the Magician of the Tarot, who brings together earth and sky, channeling the wisdom and power of the universe into ritual for purposes of healing, transformation and empowerment. I do not use it here as a reference to "practitioners of ceremonial magic".