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I was recently reading Advanced Witchcraft by Edain McCoy. In her book, she calls out to the more advanced practitioners in her audience to make spaces available to less advanced practitioners, the curious and the interested.

I was very inspired by her request and it really gave me a lot to think about. These days people get together in groups so much less frequently. We are very busy with work, child-rearing, working on our own paths and, for some, working with our own groups. And now, with the advent of COVID, that is just another large obstacle to in-person networking and knowledge-sharing.

When I first began on my path in the early 90's, there were open Moon salons, where people could go, ask questions, mingle, and see what Wicca was all about. There really wasn't much of an online presence yet. Now it's really more the inverse. There is a lot of information online, even classes, but for the curious or those who are solitaries, it can be difficult to get past the basics or find help to move through obstacles along the journey. And frankly, some people just do better by working with another person and having that personal experience.

I am a 2nd degree priestess with zero desire to lead a group. I feel strongly that I have an obligation to the wider community. As an introvert's introvert, delivering on that obligation is a little trickier. But even I have found some ways to step up, such as becoming a mentor through the Wiccans and Pagans of Arizona's Facebook group, establishing a Facebook group called Wicca and Witchcraft Q&A for people to come and ask questions they might not have another place/person to ask, and by recently establishing a community witchy Discord (for all paths, not just Wicca) called Cerridwen's Cauldron (https://discord.gg/TJWZ8DWmk6) to facilitate learning, sharing and a sense of community.

Pagan World is another wonderful way to bring us all together and I was delighted to find it. I hope other more advanced witches also give this some thought. There are many pagans or pagan-interested who do not know what the next steps are. We can be the light on their paths shining the way as they step into their esoteric futures.

Blessed Be