Their is three routes to becoming a Water Witch, joining a coven straight away, starting out by gaining knowledge and then choosing to join, or creating a study group that later turns into a coven.
Water Witches start out as apprentices, sort of trainees, and within this stage we ask that you get to understand what we stand for, to get to see and understand some of the rituals practices by the coven you are joining.
Most covens have an outer and inner ring, the outer ring is made up of apprentices and young witches that are family members. As a member of the outer ring, you may be invited to some celebrations, but not usually coven meetings. Apprentices wear ordinary clothes, even at celebrations.
Eventually when you and the coven feel you are ready you will be invited to a special ritual, it will be just you and either one or two leaders of the coven, and will take place in a magic circle. In this ritual you will make promises to the coven to behave as a good witch to keep the one basic law, and to keep all that you learn and know of witchcraft secret, and in particular the identities of your fellow coven members. We wouldn't want to spoil your experience by telling you the full details here and each covens gateway rituals will vary.
(See coven button on right to see the structure within a coven.)
Not everyone can find a coven, or knows, a Water Witch. We therefore have an alternative route for those that wish to join from outside. This involves doing a fair bit of research and reading on your own, although we tell you where to look, and getting to understand enough to decide if it is for you. You can see the full procedure from the home page by selecting 'become one'.
We have covered this as one of our first pages labeled as new groups
Existing coven. Most, but not all, existing covens will not take members not introduced by a current member, the advantage of joining an existing coven is that there is a greater level of experience and knowledge available, the disadvantage is that you may feel that you are the junior, perhaps not be able to get so involved as you would like and the arrangements may already be firmly established. many of the longer established covens are very secretive and based on handed down traditions, while many of the covens formed in recent years have followed the route explained under new groups, and perhaps easier to understand for a person with no family background of witchcraft.
Founder member of a new coven. The great advantage is that you all join as equals, and you can be fully involved in the way that the coven is set up and will run, fine tune its rituals and more. Its exciting, but harder work. The disadvantage are that you don't have so many experienced people to fall back on, and have to gain the skills needed amongst the coven members. This is however the route we would recommend for most new members where possible.
Although you might have thought that all these self established covens would be very different, in practice they end up very similar, so although you go through the discovery process and with a little help from us are able to get the coven running smoothly in a way that you understand fully believe in and own, it ends up being very similar to other water witches covens.
Atlantic coven. This is the large coven that includes all those who do not wish to be a part of a local coven. Coven members do not usually meet, but work together over the internet using code names, and email addresses. they do not disclose their identities. Projects etc also are covered on the internet, as are sabbat routines. In effect this is a half way step between being a solitary, and being in a normal coven.
By sharing celebrations, rituals, and doing some things at the same time even if greatly separated you get a feeling of being a part of something larger and can combine your power with others.
Mediterranean Coven. This operated like the Atlantic coven but is specifically for members who are under 18. A possible first step before setting up your own coven, or a way to become involved while still remaining where you are at present, if no others are near to you.
Pacific coven. Another general virtual coven for adult members that you will find better detailed elsewhere on this site.
Remaining a solitary. This will appeal to those more interested in one area only or in to the study of witchcraft, rather than the practical application.
Tweeny are not a coven as such, and we will discus this later.
The best way to start is with a group of friends who set up a new coven or as a part of a study group that turns into a coven. The advantages with both of these routes is that you are fully involved with the establishment, understanding all your own routines and developing your own rituals, with help of course. This is far easier to believe fully in than coming along to an established coven where you may feel you have to take what is on offer.
A local coven is better than being a solitary or joining one of the distance covens, as you get mutual support, a timetable, with meetings, and can share experience so that you can all get far more benefits faster. As different coven members get different skills the range of skills available to the cove is far greater than a solitary could manage.