Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca

Sept Creation Handbook and Worksheets

Would you like to form a sept of UEW? UEW is a tradition that works as an OUTLINE for belief. Our ethics and clergy ethics, our training methods and "circles" are common throughout these groups, although our beliefs differ. There are ATHEIST UEW groups, ones based on Celtic and druidic religions and a large group of Hellenists, too. The reason that we can co-exist is because we all believe that NO ONE can determine the spiritual experiences of another, and that any spiritual experience is valid, as long as it is not forced upon another. Look, I'll put it this way. If I walked out on a cloudy night, and the moon broke through the clouds and down a moonbeam slid Artemis, replete with silver arrows and accompanied by a varied hunting party of beasts and demi Gods, you can BET that it would change my life, but I would not expect it to change yours. What we experience through prayer and ritual and life are OUR experiences, and we can share them, but we only share words that tell about our experiences. UEW fosters the belief that being true to the morals and ethics of your faith outweighs who you say words to. As long as you follow the Five Points of Wiccan Belief, it's Wicca. We DO exclude monotheists that believe in a deity of one gender (a God that is male, but no Goddess and vice versa) This is because the idea of a deity that has only one gender clashes with our world view. We believe deity (or energy) to be both male and female, or be without or beyond gender. We acknowledge without/beyond gender by using the terms "The ALL" or "Lord and Lady" instead of "God" or "Goddess." Lord and Lady can mean two gods or five, a million or one, just as "wife, mother, sister and daughter" can mean as many as four and as few as one.

While UEW allows personal practices to vary, and group ritual to use standardized form, septs are the method by which a group adopts specific rites to a group of folk. Septs STILL use generic ritual at large, multi-coven gatherings, but are dedicated to a specific type of ritual. Septs are groups of two or more individuals and are designed with the idea that they will teach in the form of that sept (while staying witin UEW curricula). A pair of people practicing together and adopting specific ritual, but not spreading or sharing that specificity are not considered a sept.
Septs are created for many reasons. Some are created to honor a specific God, others are created because a coven has joined UEW from a previous tradition and retained the titles, names of the God and Goddess and coven-specific requirements. Some septs only do their sept-thing among solitaries, while others do their thing as a coven or group of covens.
One can be a member of one sept of UEW, no septs of UEW or many septs of UEW. For instance, members of MacMorgan covenstead, which is a coven AND SEPT of UEW, include one member of the Sept "Servants of Hades", and One member of the Sept of Apollo who is also a member of Brother/sisterhood of Hera.
Some septs are little more than codes of conduct. For instance, if someone wanted to create the holy order of UEW purple hat wearers as a sept (but WHY!?) they could make rules that all sept members agreed to hold to, like "ALL MEMBERS WILL WEAR PURPLE HATS" membership would be voluntary, of course.

Lay ministers, Priests, High Priests and Septs:
TEACHERS of UEW who are a part of a sept are in a unique position. If someone approaches them and wants to learn Wicca, but is not interested in the sept, we try to not use disinterest in the Sept as a reason for not choosing that student. That student may be taught:
A. UEW Wicca by the sept member with a stress on the differences between the sept and practice in general.
B. By refering that student to a teacher who is teaching non-sept UEW.
C. In a teaching Coven. (see Types of Covens, handbook)
D. From a source like CFFN or All One Wicca.

Find details and worksheets on creating a sept,Here

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