TWH — The Global Wicca Summit will take place from Sept. 4 through 10, 2018, and be focused on the question, “Is Wicca a global faith?” This free, interfaith summit will discuss and examine the current state of Wicca throughout the world.
The organizers are encouraging local groups to host local face-to-face meetings, where online resources can be shared among people who may lack access to the internet, or a safe way to connect online.
As an online conference, the summit will lack the travel and hotel costs of most face-to-face conferences. Travel has carbon costs to the environment as well as financial costs to the individual. The “Pagans Tonight” network will also broadcast selections from this summit. These broadcasts will occur nightly throughout the summit, helping to bring get the message out within a smaller carbon footprint, which aligns it more with the Wiccan reverence for nature.
Leaders of the Witch School and the Correllian Nativist tradition are hosting this event. The former has had over 250,000 students registered for a variety of classes, suggesting a large number of potential participants.
Organizers of this event have plans for a gay Wiccan summit and awareness campaign, which is slated to run from April 27 through 29.
Some Wiccan traditions exclusively trace their origins to Great Britain and Ireland, but the Correllian Nativist Ttadition has a different history. Part of its origins can be traced to Cherokee traditions. Lady Orpheis Caroline High Correll founded the Correllian Nativist tradition in 1879 C.E. Her family, the High Corrells, claims descent from both Cherokee Didanvwisgi and traditional Scottish witches. The Didanvwisgi are Cherokee medicine men or shamans. Aradian Witchcraft, spiritualism, and hermetic thought also influenced the Correllians. According to the Correllian’s website, “Lady Orpheis’ nativism was a highly political and deeply syncretic [sic] form of Pagan universalism, which stressed the need for the world’s native (Pagan) religions to unite in the face of colonial Christianity.”
These influences may give members of the Correllian tradition a unique perspective on Wicca as a global faith. Its members live in Australia, Europe, India, South Africa, South America, and the U.S. Ed Hubbard, co-founder of the Witch School, stressed that the goal of discussing “Wicca as a global faith” is not to impose one spiritual vision on the entire globe. He said, “No one has to accept our vision of our future, only we do.”
The Correllian Nativist tradition is considered by its members to be a “global community, a faith that extends beyond borders to create [a] spiritual family.” This global identity may be a driving force in the Correllians’ practice. Besides this global summit, they will play an active role in the seventh Parliament of the World’s Religions. Members will organize a Samhain ritual at that parliament, and also plan to present their findings from this summit.
The seventh Parliament of the World’s Religions will occur from Nov. 1 through 7, in Toronto Canada. Its theme will be “the promise of inclusion, the power of Love: pursuing global understanding, reconciliation, and change.”
Organizers of the Global Wiccan Summit are seeking “presentations, papers, and panels.” For more information, or to submit proposals, send an email to EdthePagan@aol.com. Additional details about the summit can be found at its Facebook page.
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