Family Practice

Special Note

FAMILY PRACTICE IS
 

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
 

PAGAN PARENTING
 

RITUAL
 

SABBATS
 

FAMILY MOONS

(Full Moons)

LONE MOONS

(New Moons)

RITES OF PASSAGE
 

Dragonstone Family Altar

Picture by Dia or Tony

By: Lydia M. Crabtree

Practice.  It is an interesting term to describe what pagans, witches and Wiccans do.  We practice our beliefs.  We recycle. We garden. We perform elaborate and simple rituals. We camp and hike.  We practice our beliefs.

We were raised to believe that practicing one's faith lead to growth, strength and strong character.  It does.

Yet, pagan families struggle over whether or not it is correct to pass along the same lesson to their children.  It is certainly not as easy as it when we were learning a well established religion. There are no Vacation Pagan Schools, weekly Moonday Schools or even camps to run to and learn the pagan spiritual lessons.

Yet, even when there is the rare opportunity to expose children to the art and science of the craft, there seems to be a fear that a parent might unduly influence their child's destiny.

Do you think the Universe and your child's will are that weak?  It wasn't the teachings of our parents that we buckled under, it was their expectation that we could not live any other way or diverge from the accepted doctrine at all. 

We don't have to keep our children in the dark about the joy we find in paganism. 

We have to accept them for who they become and expect they will only be who they are meant to be.

What Pagan Parents should be afraid of is loosing our children because of a lack of direction, a lack of grounding and centering or worse still loosing them to zealots and cults.

I recently had a long talk with a neighbor who saw my "Freedom of Religion Means Any Religion" bumper sticker and stopped to discuss it.  Turns out she had rejected the Christian church when she was around 30 years old. Now her oldest son has joined an extremely conservative church and married a preacher's daughter.  He refuses to let her see his grandchildren because she is 'Godless.' Near tears she said, "I just don't go to church and that makes me Godless?"

My favorite quote is "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." (John Mellencamp) Children need to be taught to figure out what they stand for.  Further, children WANT some direction and guidance and boundaries.  Psychology has taught us that clearly defined boundaries, consistent parenting and an instillation of faith has the best chance of raising healthy, happy adults.

Family Practice of Paganism or Wicca or Witchcraft or whatever it is you call what you do, can give your child that same sense of security, place in the world and sureness that Christianity may have given you. Simultaneously, it will give your child what you didn't have, choice. 

Good family practice raises children to choose a spiritual path to study at his or her Coming of Age and initiates them into that path when they are between the ages of 18 and 21.  Good family practice teaches children that their Family Coven™ is special because no one else does it like they do, and yet being in Family Coven™ doesn't teach that there is only one way.  A Family Coven™ finds its own way and expects that everyone else, even their own members, will find theirs.

Great Family Covens™ are open to the organic nature of children and change to suit them, include them and accept their ideas.

Just remember, it wasn't the faith you rebelled against, it was the expectation.  Give your child the faith and let your only expectations be that they have some kind of faith, some kind of code of value or honor to live by and a love and respect for their Family Coven™.  In these expectations, you place more pressure on yourself to guide, lead and love your children correctly than you do on the child.

Children want leaders and if they do not find them in their parents, they will find them.