1. Should you write to someone for information, always enclose an SASE (Self-addressed, Stamped Envelope). Many of us receive several inquiries a day. Sometimes just answering them, much less having to pay the postage and buy envelopes, is a time-consuming, expensive task!
2. Should your inquiry be about Pagan/Craft folks in your area, tell about yourself, and how you came to have our names and wrote to is -after all the Inquisition is alive and sick here in the heart of the Bible Belt. Do not expect names and addresses unless they are already "public". Most of us, even the "public" Pagan/Craft folks prefer to meet people slowly and carefully over a cup of coffee in a public place, before we start introducing you to our groups and our friends. Why should we risk when you have risked nothing? ((Sometimes I get mail that simply has a name and address on it and demand that I send the latest copy of my newsletter or the names and addresses/phone numbers of all Craft people in the writer's areas. One man sent me a letter raising hell because he has (according to him) sent me $0.33 in the mail and was waiting on the copy of my newsletter "I owed him"! Sadly, this type of letter is more common than not... his letter and 33 cents, is ever sent, was never received. Do I really have to explain to grown mature adults about sending money through the mails???))
3. If you are invited to a gathering or festival, whether by written or oral invitation, before you invite others, get permission. Because of space, or other considerations, the number of people that can be accommodated might be limited, or certain individuals or groups may not be welcome because of personality conflicts and resulting disharmony. Also, if a weekend gathering is scheduled and you can only arrive for the ritual and then must leave, ask if that is OK...sometimes the ritual is the climax of the entire gathering, rather than an event in itself; in that case to show up only for the ritual not having been part of the entire event is to 'take-away' from the meaning of the whole for those who were there!
4. Always inquire what you should bring to any gathering. If you have received an official invitation, you should have been told. But, assume nothing! Ask if you need to bring food, robes, candles, drinks, eating utensils (forks, cups, plates, etc). It is unreasonable and rude to assume that an invitation to a gathering means that people just like yourselves, will expect you to come and eat their food, use their utensils and leave a mess for them to clean up after you have gone. If you cannot take food, then at least offer the gatherings sponsors a cash donation to help defray their cost. If you can't stay to help clean up afterwards, at least be considerate enough to get your own refuse to a garbage container.
5. To be invited to participate in another's ritual is NOT your right, but rather a privilege and an honor. If you are unfamiliar with their tradition, common courtesy demands that you at least inquire about enough information to participate in a positive fashion, and most certainly, make no assumptions about adding anything to the circle or placing your "special' crystals, totems, whatever in the circle or at a specific place within the circle without getting permission. Also, do not remove anything from a circle even should you feel it doesn't belong, without explaining why and getting permission.
6. It should not have to be said, but then neither should any of the above: If these Pagan/Craft rituals have no meaning in your life, and if you have just come for the fellow ship, then enjoy the fellowship and please do not attend the ritual. The circle is a significant part of our entire way of life, not a reenactment of some past event just for the sake of the pageantry. When we can, we are pleased to share it with you, and we do so in Love and Light with Peace and Laughter. (by Soapbox Sam)
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