1.) Coven size -- benefits of a large coven is that the likelihood that you'll have enough people to make for a nice sized gathering for any particular even is better. Also, folks can break into smaller 'affinity' groups for the smaller group experience (men/women, folks interested in specific areas, etc). In my experience, a certain number of people are required to get and maintain a certain level of community momentum as well. Drawbacks can be that it's more difficult to get to know everyone (sometimes even find conflicts with some). With really huge groups, there is the possibility of getting lost in the crowd as well.
2.) Jaina Bee and I have been friends since we were 16 and I'd been following along with her process here and elsewhere. For a long time, this aspect of my life had slipped under. We moved into new space and it's... there's a lot going on here, and I started feeling like it was time to dig out. I was sort of mucking through a reintroduction, having lots of thoughts and questions, and when Jaina said, "hey, we're going to give distance aspirant a try", it seemed like the perfect thing to give the digging out a sense of focus and process. Honestly, the distance piece was a big piece of the draw for me. Between kids and work, I haven't got a lot of social energy or going out and doing things space, but I'm a night owl and tend to find that when I have space for thinking and through stuff is after most reasonable people are asleep. Also, initial forays into not nearly as well established attempts similarly made me think perhaps I would like to keep the 'safety net' of interaction online, at least initially. Now I sort of wish y'all lived a lot nearer, but I like feeling connected to people all over the place too, so it's all good. :)
3.) I schedule my time commitments as soon as have confirmation, and often significantly ahead of that if I think something might be coming up. Two kids with school events and swim team makes this imperative. I am pretty rigid about keeping scheduled events -- I flex my weekly gyrokinesis class once or more a month in part because I have teacher training and can (and should more regularly) do it on my own, and in order to fit CAYA in, that's the only way it was going to happen. In the absence of pretty compelling reason, I will be where I say I'm going to be, if it makes it on to my calendar though.
4.) Ritual -- Chrystal mentioned as part of ritual a potlatch that we both experienced at different times. Potlatch in the big house was SUCH a formative experience for me. And listening to Bill and Carla and Karen's stories around the campfire, and the big canoes. I miss them all so much. Jaina and I bonded at sixteen on the Indian canoe trip, the canoe that was taken out by the ancient madrona branch a few years ago. I still sing a mangled version of either a canoeing song or it might be a lullaby that Karen taught us. Such a tremendous honor that Bill was given these dances to share with us all. Such an amazing experience. I watched on the sidelines from 10-16, then participated in a couple when I was older. Cedar burning still triggers really strong, good memories for me. Deep soul food. And the art of the coastal tribes too. But ritual. That was a huge summer ritual, between the dances, the canoes, the salmon baked traditionally staked up around pits of cedar bark. There was the Sunday ritual of going to church (Lutheran) with my parents where I learned some sense of structured religious ritual, both in complex ritual, as well as how simple and stripped down the ritual could be and still be fairly profoundly meaningful. Now I have my daily practice, parts done in the morning as soon as I'm coherent enough to remember where I am in the recitation and parts done in the evening as part of my getting ready for bed, cleaning off the day, sending love, best wishes and gratitude out, and checking in/grounding. I do the Mothers of the New Time at full moon. I clean and sweep with intent at new, and burn down the remains of candles that are too far gone for their candle holders in a big ceramic plant dish. Sometimes I plan rituals, sometimes they happen spontaneously. Sometimes daily acts (cooking, cleaning, etc) are ritual acts, and sometimes they're just getting stuff done... Ritual is such a state of mind thing -- it sometimes seems anything in the right mind set can be ritual.
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