When I tell someone about OldeForest, inevitably the name seems to get spelled wrong written.  I’ve seen both Old Forest and OldForest and OldForrest.  I’ve also been asked if it was deliberately a play against Gerald Gardner’s New Forest Coven reference.  I chuckled the other night at yet another misspelling.  One has a space where there’s no space, the next is missing a letter but closed the “gap”, and ‘Old Forrest’ sounds like a reference to a certain young man that is far from old, though his energy level sometimes makes those around him feel over the hill.  And as for the Gardner bit, you’ll have to ask the Gods.  When the Tradition that is OldeForest was dropped into my head, full born as Athena ever was, about half a decade ago, that’s the name that was on the astral birth certificate.  Maybe there’s a pun in there for the Wicca’d Witches out there, but hell if I know.

It does occasionally get on my nerves that people see to miss the ‘E’ in OldeForest.  It’s like constantly having your name mispronounced.  I sat back under the moon early this morning and had a good think about why it bothered me so much.  It’s just an E, after all.  A vowel.  Something to buy on Wheel of Fortune.

And then I realized that E is for a good number of things that we Espouse in our group:

E is for Excellence. In OldeForest, we strive to be the best we can.  Self-improvement is not an option in our group.  We don’t expect perfection, but we do want to see…

E is for Effort. We  take action.  We try.  When we fail, we know we at least attempted and have learned something that didn’t work.  Then we get up and put our Wills into Action again.

E is for Expectations. We have them.  I’m not going to get all psycho-babblicious on you and talk about how expectations are bad, la-la-la.  If you’re in OldeForest, you’re expected to live up to your commitment.  You’re expected to use good manners.   You’re expected to co-contribute to the creation of the group.  It’s called setting the bar.  We may not always meet it, but it’s always there.

E is for Encouragement. We’re all held to the same standards of excellence and effort and expectations of behavior.  However, we aren’t perfect and so we sometimes fall short.  To counter that self-flagellation tendency when we fail, we encourage each other to get back in the fight.  Encouragement can come in many forms, but its core is someone else’s belief in you when you can’t seem to find it for yourself.

E is for Empathy. Empathy is different than sympathy.  Sympathy looks down on the person going through their difficulties.  Empathy sees with compassionate eyes.  Sympathy is shallow, empathy deep.  Empathy isn’t about trumping someone else’s story with your own just to prove you’ve been there — that’s just flat-out competitive martyrdom.  Empathy is that ability to gather someone close in silence and still resonate so the person suffering knows they are not alone.

E is for Elders. We have them.  We love them.  They have a place in our work and how any working group of any salt gets by without them, I’m unsure.  There was a point when the group I used to belong to mass-dismissed their entire body of Elders.  To this day, I wonder, “What were they thinking?”

E is for Everyday. Line us all up in a row with other normal folks and I challenge you to pick us out.  Our path is practical first and foremost.  We don’t attract attention to ourselves with how we dress or with our Wicca-bling.  We attract attention through our good works and solid ways — when people find out we’re Craft, it’s a bit of a shocker.

E is for Evolving. Who we are three years ago is not who we are today.  We are growing as a Tradition through trial and error and tenacity.  We try something, and if it works we keep it.  If it doesn’t, we aren’t so attached to it that we can’t let go.  We know that growth is a sign of a good healthy system… growth means change.  If the people and the rites and the work isn’t evolving, you might as well shut your group down because it’s a zombie.

E is for Eclectic. The individuals in our group all have their own paths and own beliefs.  We still work together under the larger auspices of the OldeForest Traditions.  Our diversity gives us great strength, our unity the beauty of a prized patchwork quilt.

E is for Egalitarian. We believe very strongly in the balance between masculine and feminine force, elevating neither above the other.  This mutual respect between the sexes gives us a firm foundation for the Greater Mysteries of this Path.

E is for Ethics. Ethics are a cornerstone of our training in OldeForest.  Not everyone’s ethics end up being identical, however, self-examination is required to determine those ethics and then the member must live by those ethics in a demonstrable way.

E is for Effective. We set goals, we meet goals.  We plan our yearly workings and outings and carry through with those plans.  When we work together, we see results.

E is for Educational. OldeForest strives to be a Tradition of learning, facilitating educational opportunities through both classwork and group gathers and ritual work.  Our favorite question is Why? for good reason.

E is for Eternal. That’s how we see the bonds we make and the work we do.  What we effect together lives forever.  We have known each other before, we have come together again to do work in this life.  We know that our words and deeds live on beyond us.

Perhaps the people dropping the ‘E’ are doing us a favor.  It might be nothing to them, but to me… that ‘E’ is the difference between Old’E‘Forest and ‘E‘veryone ‘E‘lse.

Photo by Eddi 07 (via Flickr).