Choosing a Teacher or Group

A young woman had done quite a bit of reading and some solitary practice, and felt the Wiccan Path was where she belonged. After some time, she felt she was ready to expand her Craft understanding by studying with a teacher. She had finally found someone who had offered to teach her, but she wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. He assured her that he was a Lord High Purple Robe Something-or-Other, and therefore well qualified to be a teacher, but this "assurance" didn't make her more comfortable.

Sound familiar?

Well, just offhand, I'd say the guy sounds like

  • an egomaniac

  • a crank

  • someone who is not a teacher

I've run into people who sounded like him -- claiming all sorts of ooga-booga-type titles, etc. Some of those were just harmless nut cases, but others were genuinely dangerous (in the sense of physical danger, and sometimes spiritual/magical danger as well).

There are many things that can be said about the ethics and relationships of teachers and students, but one of the most important is this: Magical training forges a permanent karmic link between teacher and student.

Therefore, you should exercise caution and judgment when deciding to apprentice with any teacher: their problems, as well as their skills and strengths, will naturally, through the karmic link, tend to get passed along to you. Thus, you want to choose a teacher whom you respect as a person, AND who has a reasonably good control over her/his life.

Some things you might want to think about: ·

  • Does this person have a healthy sense of her/his own identity? That is, does s/he seem to have both an honest appreciation for herself and an honest awareness of her weaknesses? (We all have them, and anyone who can't accept that fact will tend to trip themselves up.) Does s/he like herself, yet have reasonable humility? (If the phrases "power-tripper", "doormat", "egomaniac", "paranoid" or "perpetual victim" apply, the answer is probably no.)
  • Does this person handle their life, including the annoying aspects of mundane reality, in a reasonably balanced manner? The inner and the outer often mirror each other, and a person who is continually in crisis mode is not exercising their magic to good effect. This doesn't mean that a Witch should necessarily be rich, or free of problems, or otherwise above the daily work of living; but a Witch should not live habitually in self-generated crisis.
  • Do you WANT to share this person's karma, or would you hope that, er, not too much of it would rub off, thank you?

Isaac Bonewits devised this handy little tool. The higher the score, the more dangerous a group is likely to be. Bonewits deliberately omits any numerical scoring system, preferring to leave it more to intuition:

The Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (version 2.0)

Factors: 
Low ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... High

  1. INTERNAL CONTROL: Amount of internal political power exercised by leader(s) over members.
  2. WISDOM CLAIMED by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations.
  3. WISDOM CREDITED to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s).
  4. DOGMA: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or "fundamentalism."
  5. RECRUITING: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing.
  6. FRONT GROUPS: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group.
  7. WEALTH: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members' donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.
  8. POLITICAL POWER: Amount of external political influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members' secular votes.
  9. SEXUAL MANIPULATION: of members by leader(s); amount of control exercised over sexuality of members; advancement dependent upon sexual favors or specific lifestyle.
  10. CENSORSHIP: Amount of control over members' access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).
  11. DROPOUT CONTROL: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.
  12. VIOLENCE: amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).
  13. PARANOIA: amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.
  14. GRIMNESS: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
  15. SURRENDER OF WILL: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual dis-empowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
  16. HYPOCRISY: amount of approval for other actions (not included above) which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate group's declared principles for political, psychological, economic, or other gain.

The Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame Copyright c 1987 by P. E. I. Bonewits. Used by permission.

Note: The current version of the ABCDEF may be found at Isaac Bonewits' website: http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.HTML.