Aerik Arkadian, Questions and Answers – Ep. 6

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At some point in early December, I decided I wanted to do some sort of craft-related Q&A video. You might have seen me post about it in my weekly recaps or on social media. You might have even noticed the dedicated “Anonymous Question Submission” form that I made on my site.

Alright, first let me talk about some background feelings. I was pretty hesitant to try this because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get any sort of response, but Selene kept telling me I’d never find out for sure unless I gave it a go.

So I did.

A few days went by and no questions were submitted. This seemed to back up my initial feelings and hesitation. Surely I would have to cancel this project and move onto something else.

But all of a sudden, responses started to come in.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, exactly, maybe a few easy questions that took about 15 minutes to answer. But I got more than 30! It was so much to talk about, in fact, that I decided to make it an entire episode of M3. Lots of really cool stuff was asked about — mysteries, the role of the masculine, tips for beginners, and tons more.

Alright, enough talk. You can go watch the video. But yes, I know some of you just prefer to read, so I made this article where you can find all the text-based answers.

Music, Myth & Magick Episode 6 aired on 1/3/2024

Friendly Disclaimer: I do not speak authoritatively for the craft, for wicca, or for any tradition — only for myself. These answers are filled with my own personal experience, interpretations, and beliefs. As always, if there’s something you don’t like, I kindly invite you to please feel free to disagree.

THE QUESTIONS

It’s a long list, so I’ve decided to include a table of contents for ease of reading. Click any of the links to jump to the answer.

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Question 1: What tradition are you from/did you achieve your degrees in?

I’m a third degree Gardnerian High Priest. I studied with a Gardnerian coven to receive my degrees and the coven that I run with Selene today is also Gardnerian.

Question 2: What is the difference between a HP & HPS besides “gender?” would you say there’s an expectation of the role that differs from that of a HPS?

This is a very controversial topic for a lot of people. I’ll give you my opinion. The simple answer is: none. Every person, regardless of gender, is a union of divine masculine and divine feminine energy, which means that everyone can channel or personify god or goddess energy.

Now in terms of jobs we perform in circle, we do divvy them up. Sometimes that’s based on convenience, but politics within a tradition can unfortunately influence that as well. I will say that in our coven, our overall goal is balance.

Question 3: Can you teach us some male mysteries?

No. We can talk about it though.

Before I get too far into any of this, let me remind you this is all my opinion. So please… Feel free to disagree.

First of all, what’s a mystery? I think a pretty good definition is “experiential wisdom.” That means you can’t fully understand it until you’ve experienced it; therefore, it can’t be taught.

Okay, so let me try to frame this picture for a moment. You’re asking about men’s mysteries, and as much as I personally don’t like to think about spiritual mysteries solely belonging to either men or women, we can at least start the conversation there, which begs the question: What are women’s mysteries? Now, I am not trying to label or reduce anyone, but historically, and in tribal civilizations, this has often been answered from a physical, biological perspective of childbirth, menstruation, and lactation. I can’t experience those as a man, so I won’t talk about them any further. And you might be saying “men don’t really have a biological equivalent to this” and you’d be right, which is why tribal groups usually had some sort of rights of passage for entering manhood such as participating in the hunt. We don’t hunt anymore in modern society and we’ve pretty much done away with most rights of passage, so there’s a gap here that could be replaced by something as simple as a respected male role model giving you a firm handshake and saying something along the lines of “as a man, I accept you, and we’re in this together.”

But let’s think of this from less of a biological viewpoint and more of a spiritual one, where we’re dealing with the archetypal sacred feminine and sacred masculine. And actually, there’s a third archetype, the sacred offspring. It’s best to look at these as parts of a whole, so we’ll consider each one as it fits in a Thesis / Antithesis / Synthesis triangle.

From the divine mother, we learn the mystery of birth, or rather the mystery of life. This is the thesis, the beginning of our journey.

From the divine father, we learn the mystery of death. Obviously we can’t experience physical death and then talk about it, but we can certainly have a symbolic one or death of the ego – a common theme that is seen throughout several mystery traditions. Death is the opposite of life, it is the antithesis.

What do mom and dad do? They create a baby! And the mystery we learn from this divine offspring is that of rebirth into unity and newness — something that is neither the mother, nor the father. The child is the synthesis of two opposing ideas, the top point on our triangle.

Obviously these are spiritual milestones that everyone can experience, regardless of being a man or a woman.

If you’d like to take an approach based on the tree of life, then you have the two pillars, the pillar of force, headed by Chokmah, the archetypal masculine, and the pillar of Form, headed by Binah, the archetypal feminine. And of course, between them, you have the middle pillar. Each of the pillars and basically every point on the tree of life contains it’s own set of mysteries, which would be an entire book of information. If you’re interested in that, maybe pick up a copy of The Chicken Qabalah by Lon Milo Duquette, Qabalah for Wiccans by Jack Chanek, or The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. Better yet, read all three.

If you’d like to glean some mysteries purely from the god, then let’s consider his journey around the Wheel of the Year. Around Spring Equinox, the god is young. He’s the hunter. You could also say “horny teenager” or “sower of seed.” The next phase is at Summer Solstice, adulthood, King, someone who has assumed responsibility for the land and is the protector of those who reside within it. By Autumn Equinox, the god energy is sacrificial, ready to die because death is what is required for the cycle to continue. And finally, at Winter Solstice, the god is born again, and the entire process repeats itself. In this example, one of the primary mysteries portrayed is that of Death and Resurrection, as we see exemplified in godforms like Osiris or even, dare I say it, Jesus Christ.

In turn, this connects back to the “wild hunt” right of passage. In a hunt, you have the hunter, the person doing the hunting, and the prey, the thing being hunted… the thing that dies. The god is BOTH hunter and prey, simultaneously the one who hunts and the one who dies, and so here we have the mystery of duality.

I’m sure we could talk about this more, but I think that’s a pretty good start.

Question 4: Where can I find recipes that involve ways to make medicinal herbs, teas, and even bake or cook with?

If you’re looking for a general herbal guide, Scott Cunningham has The Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. It’s a classic. He also wrote The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews, which includes lots of recipes for practical applications — teas, potions, inks, soaps, etc.

I don’t spend a lot of time baking or cooking, and when I do, I usually just try to find recipes online, BUT I have flipped through a few witchy recipe books at the bookstore. They all seem pretty similar. And Scott Cunningham, again, has a book called Wicca in the Kitchen. I’m just not really the best person to ask about stuff like this.

Question 5: What is the difference between a priest and a HIGH Priest? What would you say are the definition or expectation differences?

This difference is one of degree, at least within our tradition. When you are initiated as a first degree, you become a priest or priestess. That in and of itself is not something to take lightly, and it’s why we treat initiations so seriously. The expectation at this level is that you’re present, learning, and willing to take on small jobs that are assigned to you.

A High Priest or High Priestess, on the other hand, is someone who is ready to have a coven of their own. In our line this happens at 3rd degree. The expectation at this level is that you really know and understand ritual, can teach classes on the fly, and are capable of performing any and all jobs within circle.

Not everyone needs to be a high priest or high priestess. There’s nothing wrong with being a priest. Getting your second or third degree doesn’t give you any special bonus points in the afterlife. It’s really just more about the role you want to play in serving the craft in this lifetime.

Question 6: What’s the best place to find a wicca coven? I bought a few books and i’m interesting in learning more.

The only real source of general coven listings that I’m aware of at the moment is MandragoraMagika.com — it has listings for several groups in multiple countries and isn’t limited by any one tradition, so you’ll be able to get an idea of all the things around your location.

There is also Facebook. I know there’s Alexandrian seekers and Gardnerian seekers groups — usually they have listings of local covens too, but if you’re not seeing something if your area you can always post and ask or message and admin.

Question 7: Is bookstudy critical to elevating or is classwork & hands-on-practice enough to train a HP?

Independent study is an important element, not only to achieving degrees within our tradition, but also to steady spiritual growth. Just so we’re all on the same page, our coven assigns reading and homework. Those assignments and whatever classwork we do are meant to lay foundations and inspire your own personal study so that you can go further with whatever sticks out or calls to you.

Question 8: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever had a spiritual teacher/mentor ask you to do?

I think practicing skyclad in a group setting was probably one of the weirdest and most uncomfortable things I had to deal with. I knew full well what I was getting into, and I had actually done some of my solitary practice skyclad, but I was completely unprepared for the actual experience of being naked in a group of other naked people. But now it feels so natural and comfortable, I wouldn’t have it any other way — it actually feels weird sometimes to do ritual with clothes on.

Question 9: What is your lineage to Gardner?

Our particular coven can trace its lineage back through the Long Island Line. I wouldn’t say it is necessarily oathbound to reveal any more than that, but we like to keep it that way. We tell our initiates their full lineage, with names, on their day of initiation.

Question 10: Which gatherings do you attend?

In terms of festivals, we go to things like Phoenix Festivals, Florida Pagan Gathering, Turning the Tide, Summer Magick, and others. Mostly stuff in the South Florida area.

For regular rituals, we do esbats and sabbats. We try to line things up with the full moon, but sometimes a new moon. Sabbats for us are usually open — sometimes a “coven family” ritual, where several covens will meet, sometimes a wider community ritual. Since we have lots of coven family in the area, that often means we’ll attend more than one ritual per sabbat. One year, which I lovingly refer to as “The Year of Three Mabons,” we celebrated Autumn Equinox three times in one week. The schedule can get pretty busy.

Question 11: What is the role of the masculine in modern day Wicca considering much of it is focused on the sacred feminine?

I guess that depends on who you ask, but since you’re asking me… I think Wicca is very much about the balance and unity of two polarities. You can’t have that unity if you’re only focused on one side… and a lot of that imbalance comes from bias on the part of teachers and coven leaders rather than core aspects of Wicca. In our coven, at least, we’re looking for that balance and equality. And I think I’m really lucky that our coven’s High Priestess, who also just happens to be my wife and magickal partner, shares this value. You can’t ignore the god anymore than you can ignore the goddess.

Ultimately, the role of the masculine is the same as the role of the feminine — they are both there to balance each other.

Question 12: I’m sorry I’m still new, what do you believe happens to us when we die? I get anxiety for myself and my family members

Please don’t ever apologize for being new! Nobody started their craft journey knowing everything. For me personally, I believe we are reincarnated through a series of lives before ultimately returning to “the all” or “source” or whatever name you’d like to give that sort of thing.

Question 13: What inspired you to work towards being a High Priest?

Believe it or not, my childhood dream was to be a Christian preacher.

After I started earnestly seeking the craft and was initiated into a coven, I began feeling a lack of male presence. And that’s not because the craft is fundamentally unbalanced, it’s because I was often the only dude in a ritual and a lot of times I was just the acting priest by default. In hindsight, I feel like the universe was preparing me — I got a lot more hands on ritual experience than someone might normally get and today I am very grateful for that. But at the time, it got a little upsetting and I wasn’t always shy about expressing my discontentment with the situation.

I used to basically beg any High Priest I could find to please come and circle with us, let me watch you do ritual, let me learn from you. But those experiences were few and far between. There was always a void and I eventually felt like I was being called to fill it. So here I am.

Question 14: How can I be more in tune with myself, intuition, and nature?

For getting in tune with yourself, definitely practice meditation. Daily. Spend some time with each of the four elements and try to determine how they’re balanced within you. Which ones have traits that come out more often than others? Which ones need adjusting?

Next, I think working on divination is a great way to hone your intuition. Grab a tarot deck or any other divinatory tool and work with it every day. Give yourself a quick three card reading in the morning to predict how your day is going to go. Once you get comfortable with that, you can ask friends if you could give them a free reading. Every time you do any sort of psychic work like this, it flexes and strengthens the muscles of intuition.

Finally, if you want to get in touch with nature, you need to spend time with nature. Go on nature walks. Stand barefoot in the grass. Grow plants from seed and talk to them while you water them – eventually they might talk back. Find the tallest tree near you and meditate with it, touch it, and get a sense of its energy. Visualize yourself becoming a tree. How does a tree think? What sort of hopes or fears does a tree have? All of this may sound absolutely ridiculous, but it can put you on an entirely different vibratory wavelength.

Question 15: What is your favorite subject to study?

Music! For a long time I used to treat my music as a totally separate entity from my spirituality, but there’s all these things I experienced regularly as a musician that I began using as benchmarks for how I would feel in ritual. For instance, a coven successfully working as a group mind feels very similar to a band improvising together. Raising energy during circle feels very similar to working up a crowd at a concert. I eventually realized that music and spirituality are really just two sides of the same coin. There’s all these musical mysteries too, like the divine monochord, the law of octaves, sympathetic resonance, and the music of the spheres — these are all things I’d like to develop and talk about more in the future.

Question 16: Whose teachings do you hope to emulate in your practice? Whose teachings/writings do you find the most inspirational for your practice?

Well, that’s going to be hard to narrow down. While I respect the writings of some of the forerunners of the craft during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s… I personally don’t always find them to be particularly inspiring. I find that I draw a lot from older sources like Franz Bardon and even as far back as Agrippa. If we’re talking about modern authors that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, there’s a couple that stand out — the sarcastic wit of Jason Mankey or the calm and well-informed demeanor of Ivo Dominguez Jr.

As far as emulation goes, that’s a lot like music, right? I somewhat jokingly say that if I could sound like any band ever, I’d sound like Muse. But sometimes I play something, teach something, or say something that I know didn’t come from me and it doesn’t always feel right. The person I most want to emulate in my practice is me — not in terms of ego, but in terms of being true to myself.

Question 17: Who is your favorite Wiccan “celebrity” alive today?

Hmm. I don’t know. Does Stevie Nicks count? She’s pretty cool.

There’s lots of well-known, witchy authors that the community has celebritized. Ivo Dominguez, Jr., for example — I totally “fangirled” when I met him after one of his workshops. Then he sat down and had lunch with us. A while after that, he agreed to be the first guest on my show.

Most of these people are very accessible and down-to-earth. It’s refreshing!

Question 18: What does a regular day of devotional work look like for you, if any.

For a good long while, devotional work was not a part of my life at all. I honestly think it was PTSD from Christianity where it was like “you have to read the Bible and pray to God every day to grow spiritually.”

I have my patron deities and I do things regularly that I feel honor them and tap into their current of energy. When I play music, it honors Pan and Apollo. When I write, it honors Thoth. They’re not needy, but if they want something, they let me know… and I do it — sometimes that manifests through inspiration for a project like an article or a song. Sometimes it just means saying hello and bringing them into a ritual. Occasionally it means a small offering like making an incense blend.

So that’s like the Wiccan side of it. Most of my devotional work stems from things that I’ve learned in Lucumi, like talking to the dead or honoring the Orisha on certain days. There are some things I do every day now, like working with our ancestor altar, and things that I do once a week, like leaving out offerings of rum and cigars.

Question 19: What attracted you to this path? What attracted you to the tradition you’re involved in, in particular?

It all started with rocks. As a kid, I had this fascination with digging in the dirt in the back yard. I’d bring home whatever rocks I found and keep them in this big orange and brown shoe box. Anyway, that kind of stuck with me forever and later in life I decided I wanted to decorate my room with rocks, or more specifically crystals. I went to a local shop and bought a couple quartz formations off their shelf that I thought were visually appealing. When I got back to my car, I took them out of the packaging so I could get a closer look at my new purchases, and when I held them in my hand, I felt this very distinct energy that I couldn’t explain. Certainly nothing I had learned in Christianity gave me any sort of explanation for that, and I was kind of flipflopping back and forth between atheism and agnosticism, but I wanted to learn more about this energy and experiment with it. I started hanging out at metaphysical bookstores, got my reiki certification, practiced meditation, and even studied tarot — basically anything I could get my hands on and learn with the label of “new age.” The deeper I got, everything seemed to keep pointing me in the direction of wicca and witchcraft, but that made me seriously uncomfortable.

The Bible is very clear on what to do with witches. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” is an often quoted phrase. I was still going against almost two decades of Christian programming. I was comfortable with new age stuff because I told myself a lot of it was based on eastern philosophy or even newer discussions in science like quantum theory, meaning none of it was not expressly “witchcraft,” the unforgivable sin that would condemn me to an eternity in hell. After all, what if I was wrong? What if Christianity was right? This was a haunting voice in my head, a perpetual whisper that continued for years. I really had to sit around and work out what I believed, what resonated with me, and what felt true. Wicca seemed like an overall cosmology that connected a lot of the big dots for me — the elements, god and goddess energy, reincarnation, etc. So I bought a copy of Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham, and started practicing on my own in secret. But I eventually hit a wall. I searched on the internet for more guidance, but there were too many contrasting voices and opinions on what to do or what not to do. I felt stuck in my spiritual growth.

Now enter a spiral of bad decisions, depression, and drug addiction that lasted for years, the end result of which was my relocation to Florida. When I got here, I had a series of spiritual experiences and revelations — the universe literally spoke to me. I decided that if I was going to be serious about my spiritual growth, I needed to join a coven and have a structured learning experience.

I remember actually Googling the phrase “covens near me.” At that time, WitchVox, which was a website for coven listings, was still a thing. I found a listing for a Gardnerian coven. This was the first time I had really considered traditions, but out of everything I could find at the time, Gardnerian seemed like the most legit. I really wanted structure and lineage, so I sent the coven a message and kind of just sat back and gave it up to the universe.

Several months later, I got a very interesting email with a subject line saying “THE COVEN HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU.” And that was the start of this particular leg of my spiritual journey.

Question 20: I’m 67 now, and despite extensive low-level reading and a few courses I didn’t act on a referral to a local coven because of my age. What are your thoughts?

Well, I’m not 100% certain if you’re saying you chose not to join a coven or that you weren’t asked to join one, but either way I would say that covens are autonomous entities, each one might operate with significant differences. While one particular group of people might not feel right, might not be a good fit, another might feel like home. It just depends on the people. I can’t really say more.

Question 21: If you could give any piece of advice for someone interested in the role of spiritual leadership, what would it be?

Yeah, just make sure your heart is in the right place. Don’t do it for personal gain. Do it because you want to serve the craft.

You will most likely invest a significant amount of time and energy into people. But people are… people. Some of them will hurt you. Sometimes you’ll wonder “why am I even doing this?” But others will make you extremely proud and fill your heart. Be ready for both extremes and understand that it’s all part of the experience of being in a leadership position.

Also, something I have to occasionally remind myself of… you can’t force anyone to do anything… not even your students. They have to want it.

Question 22: So, what are some tips (dos and don’ts) you’d give to beginners?

One of the biggest lessons in magick, I actually learned as a child from Mz. Frizzle on The Magic School Bus. “Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy.”

Don’t ever stop reading, don’t ever stop learning, but also, don’t be afraid to just do things. A lot of magick is learned by doing — you can read about a ritual all you want, but develop a much different perspective once you finally perform it. This is the difference between “knowing” and “understanding.” Also, you might do things wrong, which is totally okay. Mistakes are part of the learning process. Nobody is perfect. Everybody messes up. But the fear of doing things wrong can hold us back from experiences that we need to move forward.

Question 23: What would you say is your greatest weakness? Your greatest strength?

What is this, a job interview? I’ll answer this in respect to the elements. I’m good with fire. As an Aries, I have some of those tendencies. The one I have the most difficulty with, the one that scares me the most, is water.

So do I get the job?

Question 24: What do you consider an underrated material? Like a plant, rock, etc

Interesting question! I’d have to say stones… Just regular stones that you can find outside in the dirt! Smooth “river rocks” are the best. Everyone is always into crystals, but I’ve made a ton of talismans out of ordinary stones. With a Dremel, or even with a paint pen, you can carve or decorate with sacred symbols to empower them.

We sometimes do house blessings by having the entire coven hide small trinkets or charms around someone’s home. I frequently use river rocks for this purpose.

Question 25: What is your coven’s process by which to vet new seekers?

We exchange emails. We ask questions. If that works out, then we move to a phone call and ask more questions. From there, my wife and I will meet the seeker face to face for coffee and ask lots more questions — somewhere neutral and public.

If all of the initial meetings go well, then we invite them to attend one of our classes or open rituals to get a feel for the group. At this point, it’s a coven process and everybody needs to be able to play nicely together.

Question 26: What is your coven’s process by which to remove destructive members?

Luckily, we haven’t had to enact anything like that yet. I’ve heard and watched other covens do it, but I’d prefer not to speak to their experience. Disruptive people in the craft often tend to weed themselves out, especially when they see that a group is serious and assigns homework — that doesn’t stop everyone, but it’s also why our vetting process has so many steps.

Question 27: Did your coven choose to file as a religious non profit or a different legal structure?

No, but that is a very wise decision. We’ve been toying with the idea of a non-profit for the past year. Running a coven is expensive — you never really fully understand that until you have one of your own.

Question 28: How does your coven maintain community spaces and finances?

Community space is mostly our house.

As for finances, we don’t charge for anything we do within the coven. Some groups have “coven dues” or required donations, but our tradition says not to do that. My wife and I consider this a way of giving back to the craft, which has given us so much. For our outer court folks, we really only ask them to sometimes bring food or a drink to share with everyone after rituals. Financial limitations should never be a deciding factor when trying to grow spiritually.

Occasionally, there is a guest speaker or teacher we want to bring in and pay. If that’s the case, we decide as a group and split up the cost.

All that said, and while we will never make it an express requirement, we do hope to see our initiates help out in shouldering the load. And to be honest, we have. Two of our coveners recently donated a Zoom subscription to help us with distance rituals. When we see someone step up and say “I want to run ritual” and they plan it, bring the supplies, and lead everyone, that also helps out tremendously… and makes us very proud!

I have tons of books that I talk about or list on my website, but I’m not usually a big fan of spellbooks. That being said, a lot of people will recommend The Complete Book of Spells by Deborah Lipp or The Witch’s Book of Spellcraft by Jason Mankey.

I think it’s usually better to write your own spells and spend more time developing how you personally work with energy, your visualization skills, and your meditation practice — these are all very fundamental.

For learning about witchcraft, Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, which we lovingly refer to as “Uncle Bucky’s Big Blue Book” is still a pretty good start, although we don’t necessarily agree with everything in there. You can check out the Paranormal Series on Kindle. Look for the one with the Farrar’s books — it has titles like “A Witches’ Bible“, “Spells and How They Work” and “What Witches Do.” It’s cheaper than buying the paperbacks, which are sometimes hard to find. Finally, if you’re looking for a very structured approach to high magick, you can check out Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts by Donald Michael Kraig.

Question 30: What are some good ways to continue to grow in witchcraft?

Actually, I have two tips that I’d like to share here.

The first is something that I learned in my musical career, but yes it applies to witchcraft too. When I was in high school, I started taking guitar lessons from this guy named Doug. Doug taught me some life lessons too, the most important of which was the value of structured practice. He told me to take an hour each day, 15 minutes spent on music theory, 15 minutes practicing my scales, 15 minutes learning a homework piece of music, and 15 minutes doing something fun, like trying to play a rock song that I really enjoyed or a “goal” piece that was above my abilities. In a few months of doing this, I shot ahead of many other guitarists around me who had been playing for years.

With structured practice for witchcraft, it’s pretty much the same concept. It doesn’t have to be an hour, but let’s say you take 30 minutes each day — 5 minutes meditating, 5 minutes practicing a form of divination, 10 minutes reading a book that challenges you, and 10 minutes reading something you just enjoy — like my blog, right? It’s very important you make this a daily routine. You can obviously customize your structured practice plan — maybe you have 2 hours each day, maybe you only have 15 minutes. The key concept here is regularly spending small focused amounts of time on a variety of topics rather than doing something for hours straight once a week or once a month.

The second tip is just to realize and accept that sometimes, you’re going to hit spiritual plateaus. This is natural and part of the process. In my opinion, when this happens, you have two choices to try to get out of that feeling.

You can go back to the beginning and review, re-read books you’ve already read — if you’re reading the right stuff, it hopefully challenged you the first time and the second time through will show you something new. I have some books i’ve read four or five times and I’m still getting new information. You’ll also see on my website I frequently write articles on basic topics, things that we might go over in out outer court Wicca 101 classes — when I do that, I try to go as deep as I can, and I learn a lot in the process.

The other thing you can try to do to push through that plateau is throw something entirely new into your routine. Don’t necessarily stop your regular routine, just add something new that you haven’t done before.

Okay, this is what that might look like. Let’s say you’ve hit a plateau with divination. You’ve been working with tarot for a few months doing daily readings on yourself, but you don’t feel you’re making steady progress anymore. You might go back and re-read your tarot books — hopefully you read challenging ones the first time. Or you could change it up, try something new. Try automatic writing, try tea leaf reading, try reading runes — these are different forms of divination, different skills, but they flex and strengthen the same muscles of intuition. Once you return to tarot again, you might notice that you’re seeing things in a different light.

Question 31: What are some good ways to learn about the history of it all?

If you’re looking for a book on the history of traditional witchcraft, I think The Triumph of the Moon by Professor Ronald Hutton is hands down the best resource. It’s a fairly long book, it’s not always an easy read, but it’s got more information than you could ever want. For something that’s a little more easily digestible, Prof. Hutton also has a YouTube documentary called A Very British Witchcraft that goes over a lot of the highlights.

Question 32: What are some good beginner plants/herbs I can start off with? (Like to grow myself and use in medicine, teas, or spells or books to read about this)

There are a lot of basic kitchen herbs that are pretty easy to grow. Basil doesn’t take up too much space and can pretty much make a home on any windowsill that gets direct sunlight. You can find baby basil plants at most grocery stores. Use the leaves to spice up your cooking or in a salad, or use it in your spellwork for its fiery elemental energy.

Mint is very resilient and has several uses. Chamomile is good to grow for teas. If you have space, Rosemary or Oregano can grow into woody bushes.

Here’s what I would recommend if you really want to give it a solid try. Go to your local garden center or hardware store or wherever else they sell packs of seeds. Pick 5 or 6 plants that stick out to you, and then spend a few weeks seeing if you can get the seeds to sprout. I’ve killed several innocent plants this way, but I’ve also been successful with several.

Question 33: How do you feel about the community’s expectations of male witches? and who do they have to look up to other than emulating the gods?

Wow! Really asking some difficult questions! I’m not sure if I can accurately crystalize the community’s opinions, but I can sort of walk you through my experience with the word “witch” because when I was first starting to walk this path, I didn’t really identify that way and I wasn’t sure what to call myself. There is a classic example, even in Gerald Gardner’s early works of fiction, of the synergy between the witch, who is female, and the magician, who is male. You might even see this in the tarot’s major arcana — the counterpart to the magician is the high priestess, right? We tend to assign gender to certain words. Add on to that the fact that the mainstream media’s portrayal of witches for so many years was generally as older and ugly women, and you end up with some understandably confused people.

I now view the word “witch” as a very broad term — it doesn’t denote age, race, gender, or even tradition. I fully identify with the word and to me it basically just says you’re a person who does magick in one form or another. Or to put it more eloquently — anyone who does any sort of woo-woo. (If you want to know where that came from, watch M3 episode 1).

Now… the community’s expectation of male witches is definitely going to depend on which traditions are present. You’ll probably get different answers is you ask a Dianic witch or a Minoan witch or an Alexandrian witch. Some people might tell you men hold all the power and some people might tell you that men are an unnecessary accessory… like a scarf on a bright summer’s day.

I know in some British Traditional Witchcraft groups, things can get very female-centric, very goddess-oriented… and hey, you’ll see this sometimes made manifest by lower numbers of men being present in certain covens or maybe, as I experienced, a coven that has no High Priest. As a community, we’ve even come up with a system to address this. It’s called the “rent-a-priest.” It’s when you’re planning a big ritual like an initiation or elevation, but you don’t have a High Priest, so you borrow one from a coven that does. Having a “rent-a-priestess” is totally possible too, but in our tradition and in our area at least, you’ll see it’s much more common to find a coven that is lead solely by a High Priestess.

I don’t feel it’s always of high importance to base things on what other people think. I feel the more important thing is what you do. So to that end, go out there and defy people’s expectations if you want. Or exceed people’s expectations. Be an active part of the community and give back to the craft in the best way that you can — if we can all do that for a while, maybe we can be less concerned with something as trivial as gender roles.

The second half of this question asks who do men have to look up to or emulate other than the gods. Trying to emulate the gods is… noble… but ultimately impossible. Now at times, like during certain rites, you could say that the High Priestess is acting as a representation of the Goddess or the High Priest is acting as a representation of the God, but that only lasts for the duration of the ritual — outside of circle, everybody is just a person. The gods aren’t always fair standards to judge ourselves by, which is why I think it’s important to have real human role models in our lives. But specifically, I think it’s important that men have access to other men and women have access to other women to learn from — you know, if they want.

Alright, this is getting to be a long answer, but now it’s personal story time for me.

I’ve already made mention of the fact that when I was being trained, there was a lack of male presence. I was often the only guy in a ritual and our coven did not have a dedicated High Priest. This lead me to ask one question over and over again: “Am I doing it right?” There is a lot to be learned from reading. There is a lot to be learned through instruction. And there is a lot to be learned by doing. But experiencing someone’s energy when they lead a ritual can’t be taught.

Several years ago, when Selene and I were first degree initiates, we were invited to a small gathering — a group of covens within our coven family. It was meant to be a weekend of learning and building relationships, but I was focused on one key aspect — I knew there would be High Priests there and I also knew that a group ritual was normally held.

By this time, I had been initiated and performing the duties of a priest for at least a year without ever having seen it done by someone else, so it’s fair to say that I was more than a little excited at the thought of finally having that experience. Selene and I went to the gathering, hung out, and got to know people. I was probably asking every 20 minutes “are we going to do ritual tonight? are we going to do ritual?” And everyone was like “yeah, yeah, later.”

So later came and what happened was everyone got tired and decided to go to bed. I was pretty disappointed. I really felt like that was my one shot to learn and that I had missed it.

We went back to the next morning to have breakfast and say goodbye — a lot of people had already packed up and left. But as luck would have it, there was this High Priest and High Priestess there and they were like “oh you just want to experience ritual? yeah we’ll do that.” And we had an impromptu circle. It was amazing. It was the first time I had ever seen a couple, and by that I mean a magickal couple, lead a ritual. The energy dynamic is way more intense.

But the most important thing it gave me was validation. And that’s something that only a High Priest could have given me. I saw what he was doing in ritual — and it worked. And it wasn’t too different from what I did, which means I wasn’t doing it wrong!

Long story short? I think you need to have other people in your life that you can look up to and emulate. Not the gods, not people from books that were written 100 years ago, but real people that are living today in our current world. Society changes over time, the craft changes over time, so it’s important that we measure ourselves against each other in the present. If you don’t have access to at least one person near you that you feel you could look up to or emulate, then you need to make a serious effort to seek them out.

Question 34: What are your comments on on-line “rare” oath-bound events?

I don’t have a lot of comments, especially if it’s an oathbound event. Distance ritual is definitely possible, we’re beginning to implement some of this in our coven, but it also presents its own unique set of challenges. I think every group has to decide for themselves to what degree remote interaction is acceptable.

Question 35: I’m actually really curious about Gardnerian Wicca and would love to learn more!

Great! This question came from a Facebook group, so I think you’re in the right place. Hang out in the groups, read what people say, and ask questions yourself. But the best place to learn about a coven is to actually be part of one, so if you have a genuine interest, take a look and see if there are some covens near you that do outer court classes or public rituals — that will give you a chance to meet with people and see if you click.

Question 36: Do you have any proposals on how to educate candidates to the point that they can be accurately evaluated?

I was once an eager seeker who might have blindly joined any coven that came my way. There are some books out there today that can help educate people as to what covens are like as well as point out some red flags with spiritual groups. If someone contacts us and isn’t totally sure what they want, we might ask the to do some reading and then reach out again in the future.

The bottom line is this… if anyone in any sort of spiritual group asks you to do something you’re uncomfortable with, perhaps you should reevaluate whether or not that group is really for you. Now this is one way that the internet and all of these Facebook groups can really be advantageous for seekers — you could post, for example, saying something like “is it normal for a Gardnerian coven to charge for classes” and someone will reply and tell you NO, this is definitely a red flag… and then based on your location, perhaps recommend the name of a reputable group nearby.

And as much as there are red flags for seekers to look for, there are also red flags that covens have to watch out for too. For instance, if someone seems to be looking to obtain an initiation so they can add validity to products or services they’re selling, that’s something that needs to be addressed. Both parties, the coven and the seeker, need to be comfortable with each other.

Conclusions

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading my answers. If so, would you please take a moment to drop a like on the video… or maybe even subscribe to my YouTube channel? That makes a huge difference to me!

I’ll leave the “Anonymous Question Submission” form up on my site. I can’t promise that I’ll make another video like this anytime soon, but if you do want to ask something, I’ll file it away for the future.

Anyone have any thoughts? Disagreements, perhaps? Hopefully so! Let me know in the comments!

Ah, well would you look at that? You made it all the way down here. Seriously, there’s almost 8000 words in this article. If you read each of them, I’d like to sincerely congratulate you. As an award for your diligence, let me point out that there are Amazon affiliate links within this post. You know what happens if you make a purchase using those links? Amazon pays me a small amount of money. But seriously, “small” is overstating it. You’d probably have to buy like 100 books before I could afford a cup of coffee. If you’d really like to help support me, you can hop over to Patreon.

2 responses to “Aerik Arkadian, Questions and Answers – Ep. 6”

michael branscáth

January 5, 2024 at 7:49 am

Good questions and answers. Keep up the good work, Aerik.

LikeLiked by 1 person

1. Aerik Arkadian
  
  January 5, 2024 at 10:24 am
  
  Thanks Michael! I’m think I’m just lucky that some people asked such thought-provoking questions!
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person