This is probably a story nobody but me really knows, so here it goes:
I was just starting on the pagan/wiccan path in 1984 and was searching for my magickal name. Lydia Athena had indicated it would come to me from the Goddess, and so it did, out of the clear blue: Webweaver. It has turned out to be a title as in Dorothy, Webweaver but I had to work with it a while to understand that my job was to bring people together and help us all experience the Universal Web of Consciousness so that we understood we are One, and we are All. From this weaving I learned that even the unlovely, the critics, the people who give us the most difficulty and who seem to damage us the most are people with whom we are psychically joined at the level of All Being. They are often our best teachers and our most loved souls beyond this dimension. Who else would link with us in such intimate karma? Who else would agree to play the role of enemy?
(The Goddess gave me a second name at the time which was to remain secret. I finally learned its significance in a healing crisis in 2004 and was then released to share "Anemone" with the rest of the Web.)
We (Merlin & I) stayed with Lydia's Circle for about 10 years through some very rough times. We experienced a long break from circles and magic after a particularly odd witch tried to stir things up a bit too vigorously. The circle re-formed and we remained there until we hived off in 1994 to form a teaching circle. Lydia's Circle was celebratory and she did not want to teach in any formal manner. In fact she had us learn The Craft by observation and well placed questions to which she might or might not give complete answers. It works, but takes time. We had a wonderful hiving off ceremony and parted the work friends, of which I am very glad.
While working with Lydia, I produced a little announcement newsletter which I called The Web because it provided communications networking among the celebrants. This was in the 80's and I had no idea there would be a world wide web with which we would be confused. After we started teaching in our own circle, in the 90's we still held on to our Web name because we like the sense of the interconnection of being that it implied. And I had grown fond of spiders. The Web Newsletter grew to a full fledged newsletter, and our group began to build on that theme.
After the internet took on its gargantuan proportions, and the confusion continued, we talked about changing the name entirely. However, we decided we were already well known and the name still fit what we were/are doing: connecting people and the earth, the four footed and winged ones, the rocks and trees and everything else in the web of consciousness in which we believe the commonality already exist. So we remained The Web.
Then, again out of the clear blue sky I understood one morning that The Web is a path of spiritual enlightenment or understanding, and that was/could be clarified by adding the Pagan Academy of Teaching and Healing (PATH). By that time (and off hand I don't recall the year) we were teaching Wicca I and Wicca II which provides initiation as priest and priestess (I) and initiation as healer (II). I ran this extension of the name by people active in the group at the time and they liked it. We thought we might indeed become a distance learning pagan school, a seminary or other formal education institution someday. We have steered away from development that at this time.
We used the short name PATH because it is easier to say, but also descriptive. And, as poet and writer I like metaphors.
In 1998 when I turned 50 I had a croning ceremony. Blaze, who conducted the ceremony, gave me some shamanic tasks to complete in preparation for this ritual transition. In the course of those, GrandMother Spider Woman came to me in Her Web and indicated she was the prototype of our work--always had been, and I should learn some lessons on Her Web. One of them involved her food packets tightly wound in spider silk fastened to her web which she told me were individuals who had failed to mind their own business, to focus on their own path and lessons, and who had been removed from becoming a problem for other people, at which point she looked at me sternly and said "Don't be one of them. You won't like it."
I take that pretty seriously even now 8 years later. It is a great reminder too, that people learn at different paces, in different ways, and in different order than others, and that each of us is perfectly where we should be at any given time. Perfection is process, and as we change we are on schedule, and doing what needs to be done. So lots of times, I just let things work themselves out, instead of resorting to my initial Aries response of "Here, I can fix that". It has been a deep journey in consciousness to know I have not taken this earth walk to fix anything. I help when I can, I teach, I put things together, but what any individual does with that is up to them. (Sometimes the results are admittedly baffling.)
Then in 2001-2002 we as the Web decided to seek non profit status. Another strange journey, but ultimately we prevailed!
On that journey we erroneously though we could incorporate as a cultural center because we defined our mission (or part of it) as "helping to define the pagan culture of the 21st century" (we figured our descendents could rewrite the mission in 100 years.) So for a while we called ourselves The Web PATH Cultural Center because the arts are an important part of our work, as well as teaching, healing and ritual. Wicca II even includes a section on channeling sacred writing, which produces some very cool stuff.
Turned out that was about the time the feds took away the cultural organization category from the 501(c)(3)'s probably in response to some of the Arab cultural centers they believed were terrorist cells. Also, EarthFirst type groups had incorporated as cultural centers. So on advice of counsel, we went back to The Web PATH Center, Inc.
The delays in completing our incorporation were centered on the NY State government's concern about another part of our mission statement. Whatever did we mean about supporting a sense of community? What is building community, they asked. We fiddled with the wording some more, and finally they said okay, we get it. (NOT!)
So no, despite those who have accused us of avoiding the truth of our pagan activities, our name isn't a subtle dodge of our paganism. No one is fooled, and just about everyone in Wayne County seems to know what we do--well, maybe only half of them. Our name is a mirror of our whole identity, as pagans, as teachers, as healers, as artists, as webweavers in the universal consciousness. Our hope is that people will understand that the name is a clue to the truth about our universal interconnection of being, not just the People of the Web but also the People in the World.
This vision of all people being connected in the mind and identity and love of the All Being supports our inclusiveness as a Circle. Merlin & I have always taken a stand that the Web Circles are open circles. Our Council of Trustees joins us in that. Membership is open. The sense is that out community is so strong, that a disrupter or person with divergent beliefs, would feel so uncomfortable that they would either evolve themselves (the preferred response) or go away until they can evolve. Fear of the "other" is inconsistent with understanding the universal interconnectedness of being. That doesn't mean we are never scared, but with this understanding, it is easier to be brave.
I remember a looooong evening in a discussion circle at Lydia's with a white supremist with pagan leanings and a Jewish member of the group, and the rest of us with varying degrees and applications of liberalism that occured in the 80's. A couple of dozen of us sat in Lydia's living room and talked until we all could embrace. It was very late, or early in the morning when the walls came down and we gave up our egos. It was a break through in my own consciousness to see the white supremist as a human being. I still disagree with his politics, philosophy and skewed view of history. Perhaps because of that evening as well as his own evolution, I am confident he is non violent. Could we all circle otgether? No. He opted out voluntarily, because he was uncomfortable with Lydia's firmness in all are welcome. We learned our lessons from her.
So that is the story of our name. We have taken a big step by becoming incorporated, so the web is no longer Webweaver's or Merlin's either. The interim officers were first: Rosewycke (Auburn), StoneLight Weaver (Syracuse), Myriah/M'Lyssa (Red Creek), and HisLadyHeart (Newark). They changed nearly every year. Merlin still serves on the Council while I do not. I think myself as CEO/gopher. Now I have a trainee for the next Webweaver - Aurora Dawn. The Web continues to change and grow.
The Web is not a geography, it is a community. So in a very real sense, we (Webweaver & Merlin) welcome the Web into our home on a regular basis because we built the space for it. At the same time, The Web is an entity unto itself, one which will evolve to the 7th generation and beyond, I hope and believe.
We are still commited to experimenting with out cultural environment to clarify the definitions of pagan culture in the 21st century. The Council is made up of 3 to 13 members voted on by the voting membership. Those Council Members then choose their 3 or 4 officers. They are free to rotate or share positions as long as the work gets done. Except for the standing committees (Policy, Finance, and Nominations), the ad hoc committees also select thier own chair or facilitators, and decide how they best function. As long as the work gets done and the information flows, they can experiment with form and function.
All of this fluidity is about empowerment. How do we create power, share poer, encourage people to stand thier own power? We have many many models in this world about holding power over others. How can we get away from that? How else can we operate in a council of peers? That is the challenge of weaveing Webs in the 21st century.
Love and visions, Webweaver-Anemone
