Coven
Scorpio season, of course, includes Samhain for us, and we were virtual again (notes on that below, for anyone else contemplating models.)
Other things this month included:
- Initiate discussion (last of our rune discussions)
- Picking up Dedicant classes again with our current Dedicant
- More Dedicant class
- Full moon (on the 20th)
In December’s initiate discussion, we’re going to start working through Thorn Mooney’s The Witch’s Path chapter by chapter, picking one of the exercises each to work through. I loved the book when I read it when it first came out in September, and I think it’s going to be a great framework for us to have shared discussion but also pick things to focus on that suit where we individually are right now.
We are still meeting virtually. I look at Microcovid.org periodically, and run a scenario that involves:
- Gathering (activity, errand)
- 4 people within 5 meters (aka my living room is only about 12 feet square)
- Normal socialising (3 feet or more apart)
- 2 hours
- Average person in the area (see note)
- Fully vaccinated
- Snug cloth masks on both counts
- Normal talking
- High caution budget (I’m fully vaccinated and boosted but even fairly mild symptoms might have an outsize impact on my long-term health, so still being cautious)
Some of our aspects don’t fit tidly: everyone else is interacting more with the general public (public-facing jobs), one has a husband who works in health care, etc. But I figure that gives us a reasonable starting point.
For a bunch of October, that risk (on the high caution setting) came out to about 4x my weekly budget (and I’m spending about half my weekly risk budget on going into work two days a week, grocery shopping, and every third week allergy shot appointments). Right now, it’s 6x my weekly risk budget because case counts jumped up.
I’ve said when we start getting down to around 2x to 1x, we’ll start talking about picking up in-person again. Basically, I’m willing to take on some additional risk for coven stuff, but not an overwhelming amount. (We’re also looking, for scheduling and transit reasons, at doing some things in person and keeping some classes and discussions online, even when we’re comfortable in person again.)
We also have an initiation to do sometime after the beginning of February (our tradition doesn’t do them between Samhain and Imbolc by strong preference), but we’ll look at that independent of the question of regular group meetings if we need to.
Meeting outside isn’t an option for us both because it’s November in Massachusetts (and getting chilly) and because I don’t have private backyard space distinct from either my landlords or from the bike path on the other side of the backyard fence (i.e. a whole bunch of unpredictable background noise.)
Personal
I took an online workshop on the Fixed Stars with Amaya Rourke right before Samhain, and I need to work back through my notes and recordings.
I’ve finished the round of seasonal notes I’ve been working through from Nigel Pearson’s Walking The Tides which looks at seasonal lore and some magic (from a more Traditional Craft perspective) month by month. I’m still working on some zodiac-related notes that I started in August, but it’s nice not to have two sets of notes to work on.
The rest of my life
I had a new book out in November, I’m working on a winter holidays novella collection release (currently in editing) and I’m currently on track (after a bit of a bobble) to win NaNoWriMo again. So, y’know. Keeping busy.
It is also the season in which I get extra cat snuggles, which is a fine and excellent season. (The chance of cat snuggling up to me when I wake up is about 1 in 2 right now, especially if I can sleep in.)
