CB – Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to interview with PWC and share some of the exciting things that are coming in 2010.

AM – Please tell us a little more about yourself.

CB –  Well, I am a mother, grandmother and wife in my family.  I work during the day as a drug and alcohol counselor working with adolescent drug users.  I am also a High Priestess with Family Wiccan Tradition International and Dance of the Spirit Moon Tradition.  Outside of those things I am an author that writes for several columns and gearing up for the release of my first book with Megalithic/Immanion Press.

AM – What drew you to Wicca and got you started on your spiritual path?

CB – I had been searching for my spiritual path for a while prior to finding Wicca.  I knew I didn’t fit into the mold of Christianity but did not know where I did fit.  I met a friend of my husbands and her pentacle intrigued me to do some research into the subject.  After researching the Wicca path, I knew it made more sense to me than any other spiritual path I had encountered.  After this point I joined a local coven and began the process of discovery and training.

AM – What is one of the most important things that you have learned recently on your spiritual walk?

CB – Most recently I have dealt with tragedy and right when I thought I could see what was in store I had a crushing blow in my family.  My mother died January 29, 2010 after a accident that landed her in the hospital for 2 ½ weeks.  My mother and I were extremely close and have lived together in conjunction with my family for the last 8 years.  She was my right arm.  I think this incident has pushed me to understanding another layer of the concepts of trust within spirituality and being able to surrender to the process of life and death.  I don’t know that there is such a thing as being OK with the process that is inevitable but it does support the idea that nature does not stop and we are all in a place of transition every day; every moment.  I am still learning to trust in the Will of the Gods while in the face of such uncertainty, fear and sadness.  I think that is my process for 2010.

AM – What is the Family Wiccan Traditions International and what makes it different from other traditions?

CB –  Family Wiccan Tradition International is a non-profit organization that supports the concept of family spirituality and working within the family unit or coven to establish tradition and practice within the home.  So often people have to go outside of their family to worship in covens and groups; leaving a break within the family as it pertains to spirituality.  Family Wiccan Tradition International, or FWTI, supports families in establishing this structure and supporting family spiritual union and growth.  FWTI has several resources including classes and a clergy training program.  Currently FWTI has family covens all over the United States and some overseas as well.

AM – How did you become interested in writing?

CB – I have always been a writer.  I remember winning the Young Authors Award in elementary school and continuing on to write a lot of poetry in my younger years.  After leaving my first coven in 2004, I was inspired to pick the pen back up.  I started writing and submitting articles to Witchvox as a way to process the situation I was recovering from at the time.  This progressed to gaining some columns and eventually to the development of my book.

AM – Tell us more about “Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society”?

CB –  This book highlights some of the notable techniques used by professionals in the field of counseling and correlates them to the world of covens and groups.  The concept of the book is to open up dialog around politics within the Pagan community and supporting the development of skills around conflict mediation, mentoring, spiritual counseling and group dynamics.

Since I have worked in the social services field for the last 14 years, I worked to share some of those skills with others in hopes that it would support healthier covens and groups.  In addition I hope to give people understanding and choices in the myriad of ways to defuse or cope with situations that are common within group settings and also those that are distinct within the Pagan community.

AM – What inspired you to write this book?

CB – In 2004 I left a coven that had become very unhealthy and dysfunctional.  This situation sparked something within me around dealing with people who were not training in ways of dealing with others and working through situations in ways that could alleviate hurt and pain to those involved.  I felt that this situation I had gone through was not uncommon to others that people have dealt with in dysfunctional covens where the leaders or other members did not have training and were operating inside of ego instead of skills.  This was one area I felt I might be able to support others in and give back to the community itself.

AM – This is your first book release.  Are you nervous about how it will be received by readers and the Pagan community?

CB –  Yes!  I think the anticipation of the book is fueled by the length of time it takes to produce a book when going through the publishing process.  As the time ticks, the more anxious I become.  In addition I think that the topic is one that is not commonly wrote about, at length, in the community and usually when it is written about it is not from the perspective of passing on techniques.  There are books out that are a similar subject but I am nervous about how my book will be received since it is actually giving counseling concepts to deal with situations instead of those that are more intuitive or common.

In addition, we all know how some communities are set in their ways of training and thinking.  These concepts are not new to the world but some will be new to Pagan leaders and practitioners.

AM – What can we expect to see next from you?

CB – I will continue to write articles for e-zines and magazines.  I am also flushing out the concepts and outline of my next book around dealing with pain within the Wiccan faith.  It will have some of the same objectives as Bridging the Gap does but from a personal place of dealing with pain and hurt.  Other than that I will continue to work within FWTI and doing presentations at various conventions.  There is also the podcast that I started in 2007 and started again in 2010.  You can find information on my website regarding upcoming issues.

AM – What do you think is the most important piece of advice that you would give an unpublished writer?

CB – Keep writing.  I think that it is easy to get stuck on what you “think” something should look like or sound like.  In essence, one of the most useful things I have found in writing is the actual process of writing itself.  If you don’t allow yourself the freedom to write and experiment with your writing, you can stifle your creativity and damage your hope.  Everything you write may not be brilliant but some of it may be.  Go back over it after you have written it all but in the mean time, just write.

AM – Where can we go to learn more about you and get information on when “Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society” will be released?

CB – There are several places that are available to get information about me and any upcoming releases.  My website, www.crystalblanton.com, is set up to give updates and also provide articles and poems I have written.  You can search for Crystal Blanton on facebook and find my page along with my authors page where I give updates.  Of course there is twitter and although I swore I would not do it, I did;  www.twitter.com/BlantonHPs.  For more information on Family Wiccan Tradition International you can go to www.familywiccantradition.org or for Dance of the Spirit Moon you can go to www.danceofthespiritmoon.com.  Upcoming releases will be announced on these formats and there is also contact information for me as well.  And lastly, you can search for walking with the spirit on itunes to get to the podcast itself.  Enjoy!!

AM – Thank you for sharing your time with us today Crystal.  We wish you the best of luck with “Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society” and your future writing endeavors.

This book will contain 55,000 words, black and white illustrations and appendices with ten pages of resources and information for further study.

The lack of statistics in the pagan community makes it hard to quantify trends within pagan groups; yet the experience of practitioners show how often disputes and witch wars have forced groups to dissolve.  This is not only common but is inevitable within a collective of people. Several pagan communities have avoided the fate that many others have been trapped within.  The shelf life for a coven or group has no limit, but a trend has been set in which many find their end within two years of conception.  How do we continue to thrive within a community that cannot sustain long-term consistency? What are we missing?

As we evolve it becomes increasingly clear that being an incredible ritualist is not all that is needed to be a competent leader or member of our pagan society.  Our priests and priestess have a large disadvantage in dealing with the unavoidable dynamics of other practitioners, whether in a coven or the general community, because of the lack of training and resources to become competent to do so.  Unless they come to the Craft already equipped with these skills from professional training or other life experience, the leaders in our community have not possessed the skills to effectively model or train in these techniques.  For all the intensive training we endure in the Craft, pagans as a society are still ill-equipped to competently cope with the growing needs of our own community.

Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society will be first book to look at filling the common gaps in our community by using techniques as tools to assess, understand, and work with the changing dynamic of any group or coven.  Behavior modification/shaping, effective boundaries, assessment tools, anger management, and restorative justice are just some of the counseling techniques that are used as a bridge in this book to better understand and work with the dynamics that are common within a group of pagan practitioners.  While maintaining a professional polish, the book uses humor, common scenarios, exercises, and step-by-step resources to examine the commonalities between techniques used in the counseling profession.

Readers will learn the following:

• Basics of common techniques used in counseling including anger  management, assessment tools, boundaries, behavior shaping, restorative justice and many others
• The common traps that occur within groups, which lead to devastating effects and dissolution
• Communication techniques
• The creation of the group mind and how it is effected by the budding dynamics of a group
• Creating boundaries to effectively mentor students
• The importance of creating clear objectives and expectations as a group
• The art of holding your group members accountable
• When it is not your fight (choosing your battles?); how to avoid unnecessary conflict and turmoil

In 2001, American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) polling data showed that there were approximately 134,000 pagans in the United States and the fastest growing religion (by percentage) between 1990 and 2001.  At that time it was estimated that the number of Pagan practitioners double about every 30 months.  According to the 2006 poll conducted by Covenant of the Goddess, 38 percent of practitioners worship in group settings.  This book is not only for those who are newly participating in coven or group dynamics but also for those who are trained leaders in the Craft.  Many practitioners identify with a solitary practice but are still members of the larger religious community.

Both the neophyte and the novice can benefit from the information, exercises and thought-provoking discussions the book generates.  Since no person is immune to the pitfalls of working with others, this topic is one that needs more resources shared as common knowledge in our community.

Navigating through life can be complicated. Demands on our time from family, mundane jobs, covens, mentoring and teaching make time management complicated at best and like juggling raw eggs on the worst of days. One slip and it feels like there is goopy, slippery egg all over your feet, making it harder to stay on your toes.

There is a certain amount of skill that is required to effectively balance the multiple roles of Pagans and Witches everywhere. Unlike other groups or religions, the Pagan community requires a lot of energy and effort from those involved. All communities need energy to sustain them, and many, especially religious groups, have structures and resources in place to help promote and maintain balance. Within Paganism we have few resources and little structure to fall back on when we find that community is falling short.  This requires us to put in a different level of elbow grease than other communities require of their members.  If you put a good number of people together to create a grassroots structure with no solid outline to work from, you would have what amounts to today’s Pagan community. It is not uncommon to experience disorganization, lack of trust, gossip and backbiting, and devaluing of the contributions of other community members.

This is a beginning step to understanding politics, how it works in the Pagan community and how we can better use our skills to create something lasting and beneficial for everyone.  In order to effectively do this we must also take a look at ourselves from an in-depth perspective to make sure we are giving the best we can to any group or community.  When we add energy to that of our fellow Wiccans, Witches and Pagans, we are responsible for what is manifested, and in turn we should be working with integrity and be prepared to deal with whatever comes our way to the best of our ability.  Assessing ethical and moral codes allows each of us to figure out how we would like to progress into the next phase of existence.  Ethics change as the layers to our lives change and grow.  What might be one’s value set today could be completely different a year later, depending on what the person has been through prior to reevaluation.

One of the things I learned from my first coven experience is the ability to use my judgment and make more informed decisions based on my personal assessment of situations.  This is something I did daily at work but had a tendency to relinquish my power to others in my spiritual life. Of course, this was a testament to my perspective on my own self-worth at the time, and that was hard to face as I continued to grow in the Craft.  Trusting myself before others and asking the questions I really need to know instead of relying on second party information and interpretations helped change the course of my personal ethics over the span of a year or more.  This lesson falls under ethics and values because it is what has enabled me to be as trustworthy and honest as I can today.