Eight students and their professor visited us from Wofford College, SC.
Queen Lady Passion and *Diuvei often host groups of college and university students who want to experience traditional Witchcraft. In this capacity Coven Oldenwilde hosted a circle for eight students from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and their professor Daniel Mathewson, PhD, after sunset in the Covenstead ritual room on Wednesday, April 27th, 2016.
Sarah boldly leaps the balefire.
The Beltane Sabbat ritual involved an hour of meet ‘n’ greet Q & A upstairs; casting downstairs; leaping a Strega blue cauldron fire while wish-making and for healthy stamina throughout the upcoming season; tossing lots — groups of three buckeyes or black walnut shell halves — to divine the future of each participant; the High Priestess gifting each a similar div kit of dried, marked fava beans and explanatory scroll (in our “The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells For Modern Problems”); and follow-up Q & A back upstairs again prior to their departure.
Lady Passion answers a question in circle.
As always, we found the visiting students intelligent, curious, respectful, and brave, and felt honored that Daniel had brought around a second crew of his charges to work real, ancient magic with us to usher in spring and summer.
Enjoy seeing what it was like, in these pix and video shot during the event!
Update: Wofford class returns
Visiting Coven Oldenwilde to learn about Witchcraft and leap a flaming cauldron has become such a talked-about experience for Wofford students that Prof. Mathewson arranged a special field trip to Asheville on Nov. 11 for his Fall 2019 class.
This time, after casting circle, we broke the ice before the main event by getting everyone to play an olde-style Pagan version of Ring Toss, in which the females line up opposite the males and toss rings made of woven vines or rattan that the males must catch with arm, leg, or hand, or be disqualified for the next round. Thus emboldened, everyone leaped the cauldron fire we lit next at least once, making a wish as they jumped over it.
After the rite, Prof. Mathewson sent us a glowing testimonial along with this group selfie:
Wofford College religion class at Oldenwilde Covenstead. Prof. Mathewson is at lower right. The students are wearing the small silver Witch brooms Lady Passion awarded each one for bravely flying over the fire.
Thanks so much for generously hosting my class again. I can report that the students were 100% enthusiastic about their time with you and *Diuvei. A couple expressed on the drive back that the two hours we spent with you will be the most memorable thing they will have done during their entire college careers. Another one reported this morning that she had a very vivid dream about the cauldron leaping ritual. In the dream she was having an out of body experience, looking down on us in the ritual room. She said there were blue dots all around us.
— Dan Mathewson, PhD, Associate Professor of Religion,
Director of New Faculty Teaching Initiatives, Wofford College