Wicca et. al. Bibliography
About Shand and Wicca
I have been a Witch since 1987, when I Self-Initiated into Wicca. A few months after, I was studying Tarot with Francesca De Grandis, who was then Francesca Dubie. My Initiation came up in discussion and Francesca went out of her way to acknowledge that this was valid under Faery Tradition as she and Starhawk taught, and that her basis for this statement her first hand knowledge that Victor Anderson recognized initiation into Faery. "It's his tradition, so he gets to say that Self Initiation is valid," she concluded.

(Faery should not be confued with Feri, which as far as I can tell are different directions that Victor's students took his teachings. Feri recognizes the validity of self-Initiation per se, but not into Feri proper.)

In my Sophmore year in college, I met Peregrine, then a 2nd Degree Witch and member of Crystal Unicorn Coven based out of Mason, Ohio. Crystal Unicorn was a Coven formed by five Witches from five different traditions (Gardnerian, Seax, Dianic, Faery, and I forget what else) that met at Goddess Gather one year and were Divinely instructed to form a coven together.

Peregrine was forming a Grove (a Wiccan teaching Circle that isn't a Coven) and being very interested in furthering my education I became a founding member of White Horse Grove. Things progressed the way these things usually do, and in 1988 White Horse Grove became White Horse Coven with Peregrine's elevation to 3rd Degree and the Initiation of several of his students, including me. This process continued such that I was elevated to 3rd Degree Samhain 1990, when the first of my students reached Initiation. Those who had Initiated concurrently with me also reached their 3rds, concurrently with most of their graduations. (I had graduated the year before.)

What traditionally happens at this point in a Coven's lifeline is that the 3rds all hive off and form their own daughter Covens. This isn't at all far from what we did, but it's not all we did, either. Over the course of the development of White Horse Coven, we rejected religiously what we rejected politically: hierarchy and particularly gender based hierarchy. We wanted to preserve our kinship, but the Gardnerian model simply didn't work for us. We sought a flatter organization, and we got it when we created White Horse Tribe.

Thirteen years have passed since then. What happens within the Tribe is not the concern of those outside the Tribe, so I won't detail the joys and growing pains of so diverse a body as we grew to be all working togther as closely as we had when we were able to get a dorm together in college. In that time I've founded Groves and been part of Covens, I've taught and I've learned. With the passage of time, I reached a point where I decided that my path and White Horse's had to part ways, and in late 2001 I withdrew from White Horse.

Since then I have been in solitary practise, getting to know myself outside the context of White Horse. At this point I've come partially out of the chrysalys and begun meeting with people again. If the right student comes along, I'll teach again. Beyond that, only the Great Ones know what awaits.

If you'd like to correspond, feel free to e-mail me.


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