WITCH CREW

wanna hang out? Oly witch crew started in autumn 2014 with two people and a simple idea: feeding street people, low income people, and the homeless population in what has been called the 'tenderloin district' of downtown olympia (4th) ave. We handed out tacos to people who were hungry, in a manner similar to food not bombs. regardless of what people think of us, regardless of whether we agree, foo

d is a basic human right and no one should go hungry in such a wealthy country. If people directly asked about our principles, we would hand them a pamphlet with the 'charge of the goddess' on it, or the phrase 'oly witch crew loves you' next to a moon goddess symbol. Personal struggles caused a long hiatus with this work, but the membership grew to 6: Gaz, Hannah, Hawthorn, Ezmyrelda, GG (myself) and Sam I am. None of these people went thru an 'iniatiation' as they would in a coven, because 1. we are still in the early stages of sorting this out and 2. we all doubt the value of initiation. initiation is about secrecy, and this is assumed to be a core aspect of witchcraft. we disagree and feel that initiation is about obsolete mideival security culture. People sworn to secrecy were less likely to get everyone burned. Also, occult houses, espescially of the male occultist variety, often had a competitive dynamic, and being sworn to secrecy was a way to guard the magickal version of trade secrets. None of this makes sense to us now, in a world where the 'secret' documents of any occult organization can be dug up online in 10 minutes, or less. For us, our only interest in secrecy is
A. reasonable security culture measures within activism as our witchcraft is political and our politics is spiritual. in other words, trust, and safety. basic respect. if a member confides something in one of us, its kind of fu**ed up to not respect that. If we create an initiation ritual, it is going to have far more in common with trade union initiations than with gerald gardner. simple and direct. It is also not unlike the initiation process of the olympia eagles, a simple process of making sure you have the same core principles as us and are serious about helping us in our mission. We also believe that life itself initiates people, often many years before they come to us. We also believe that many initiation models create a closed system, and it concerns us that a non-transparent closed system creates a perfect environment for abuse of power. Power is a core concern for us. We are concerned with
1. the power to cultivate wellness and healing in a world slipping into a terrifying dark age.
2. the power for the oppressed to rise up and manifest the love of the goddess in a real, present, tangible fashion. The power to destroy all obstacles to cooperation. the power to defeat all enemies of love.
3. the power to create an olympia that is not gentrified, not slipping into an abyss of drug addiction, not a yuppie themepark, and not an economic wasteland.
4. the power to cultivate self knowledge, share skills, heal each other, and protect each other both physically and spiritually

For this we need a family of mature, respectful people who value the political and spiritual struggles of this world and the way they intersect and overlap. We need people who are passionate about spiritually grounded activism and want to embody the gods in radical action and radical compassion.