About Us
History
The Chantry of the Silver Veil is an established ecclectic Wiccan circle. We hived of from the Nomadic Chantry of the Magical Gramarye in 2003. Our first High Priestess, Millie Knox led the group until she retired and left the area in 2013 and we owe a great deal to her dynamic leadership and vision. We have preserved what we learned from her in the philosophy of our circle, our class curricula, and our rituals and workshops, but we also continue to grow as a community.
We are a semi-open circle in that our Full Moon ceremonies are open by invitation. Those who would like to attend a Full Moon ceremony or learn more about the Chantry of the Silver Veil are asked to email us by using the form a the bottom of this page. Our Outreach Coordinator will respond to your email.
Our Philosophy
The Chantry of the Silver Veil is an eclectic Wiccan group with a focus on teaching, healing, and creating and strengthening community.
We are healers. Over the years we have seen that people drawn to the Chantry of the Silver Veil possess strong healing gifts, even if they do not yet recognize them. Most of us practice at least one form of energy healing. Some of us work with crystals, or herbs. Others use forms of divination as a tool to uncover the roots of disease. A few of us posses the gift of using the power of sound/song/words to unlock healing.
We are teachers. The core of our teaching mission is a three-year teaching program that takes a student from neophyte to adept in our tradition (see more about that in the next section), We also offer other classes and workshops from time to time. These are taught by members of our circle, and reflect one of the central tenets of our tradition. All of us have much to contribute; we are not followers, or members of a congregation. We are co-creators of a vibrant and growing tradition. The path to becoming an adept in our tradition lies in the acceptance of our own power and the responsibility for its use. We recognize that this is a path of life-long learning and we bring back into our circle the fruits of our labor and exploration.
This leads naturally to the third cornerstone of our philosophy - community. All of us are members of many communities, whether we consciously recognize them or not. We are born into the community of our family. We grow up in a world of expanding communities - our friends or play groups, our schools, our neighbors, our towns or cities, our universities, our work communities, our churches, our professional organization, our communities of shared interest (hobbies, games, etc.). These are just a few of the possibilities. Wherever our lives touch other lives, we have the opportunity to build and nurture community. And we have a say in how these communities will operate. Will they be open and inclusive, based on mutual respect and understanding? What do we expect of those who share our communities? What do we expect of ourselves in community?
As we move further along the path of community, we generally discover that our definition of community has been too narrow. All communities are not simply human. We exist in community with the other life-forms that inhabit our planet. Do you believe that you can take community further than this? What would it mean if you did?
Do you see yourself as being in community with your deities? What kind of responsibility does this require?
At the core of our work with community is one central practice: we seek to keep our hearts open and to banish fear. It's the simplest thing in the world to understand; perhaps the most difficult to achieve.
Our Teaching Program
The Chantry of the Silver Veil has a three-year teaching program that grounds students in our tradition and seeks to empower them to explore and grow in their own individual journeys. We believe that each person has a unique, individual path to follow. This is the reason each person chose to incarnate now - in this time and in this place. The mission of the Chantry is two-fold: together we create safe space for each person who accepts responsibility for what they bring into our circle to celebrate and grow in community, and we provide the opportunity for each to co-create with us in ways that nurture our circle and shared communities.
In the first year, students begin with an overview of our tradition, its roots and core belief. We begin with ethics, the foundation of CSV philosophy and teaching, and we cover the aspects of our tradition - Esbats, Sabbats, the Wheel of the Year, circle casting, the elements, the planes of existence, correspondences, herbs, stones, divination, and basic magic, particularly candle magic.
At the heart of the first year is self-examination. Students are asked to look carefully at their own belief systems. The purpose is not to encourage one belief or another; it is to help students identify un-examined assumptions and evaluate them in terms of their own paths. For this reason each student is asked to explore one religion that is neither Abrahamic (i.e., Christianity, Judaism, or Islam) or neo-pagan.
The balance of the first year focuses on the student's personal connection to deity.
In the second year, the student becomes an apprentice of the Chantry of the Silver Veil and is dedicated for living for a year completely within the tradition and mastering its elements. We delve more deeply in the elements of the tradition that were covered in the first year and expand into new areas. The teacher may set tasks for individual students to assist them in areas of personal growth.
The third year prepares a student to function as an adept in our circle, For those who wish to continue on, it also begins the preparation for ordination. In this year, students will choose areas of study in which to specialize and may work with other adepts in the Chantry, as well as the teacher, to further their work. They will also explore the many ways in which they can contribute to the Chantry.