Wow...As I look back over my last updates on this website, I am amazed to think about how much has happened. My last updates were, after all, over a year ago. This is due in large part to the fact that I have been busy actually doing the work of nurturing a fledgling tradition, and haven't had a lot of time to put into upkeep of things like this site. However, I will admit that some of it has been personal. For me, 2009 started with the loss of one of my parents, and ended with starting a new business, so it was a year that I spent focusing on what was really necessary. However, as Imbolc has just passed, and things are starting to stir beneath the surface, I am starting to get the first inkling of the surge in energy that is to come, and I am starting to get back on top of things that I may have fallen a bit behind on.
This have spread like wildfire in the Tangled Woods Tradition. I think I can speak for all of us involved in the founding of this tradition when I say that we had no idea that there would be such a demand for what we were doing. We were completely prepared for our tradition to be meaningless to everyone but us, and knew that maybe a few people--the right people--would get it and find their way to us. What we didn't expect was that people would find us from hundreds of miles away and contact us, asking to become a part of the tradition. What we also didn't expect was that both the founding coven and the first additional coven in this tradition would have been approached by more seekers than they could easily handle. I am truly humbled by it. I'm honored that there are others who see value in what has come out of the small little group of witches that I put together some years ago, and I'm excited to see where things go from here.
All of this unexpected growth has meant that we have had to become adaptable. Rather than turn people away who we weren't prepared to accommodate, we have tried to put our heads together in coming up with creative ways to works things out. We're presented with new challenges all of the time, and while the core beliefs and structure that we laid out for the Tangled Woods Tradition at the very beginning remains the same, after a year and a half, we are still a work in progress! Each new situation presents us with a new challenge to address, and ultimately we hope that it won't be long before all of this learning and adapting through experiences will lead us to a place of having a solid foundation put down that will serve us well for years to come. Of course we knew that this would be a journey. To us, Witchcraft itself is a journey, so how could this be anything else? I consider myself lucky to have so many brilliant and beautiful people taking this journey with me, and can't wait to see what the future holds.
Devia WildOak
HPS Coven of the Tangled Pines