On (or about) this date in 2018, Solinox Silverstar held the first Community Night event for Weavers of the Web. It was the first time we ran through the Threads of Wisdom discussion series, starting out with a discussion of the Book of Shadows. Only a handful were in attendance, and for most of those first months and years Solinox’s own family frequently made up half or more of the guests. We met in borrowed space on South Washington Street in Lansing, a place we shared with several other non-mainstream spiritual groups.
Things have changed over the years. Many of our founding members are now gone, as is the space we shared. COVID came as a surprise to everybody, and forced us to up our game and go digital to keep our small community together. As the first Wiccan church in the nation to go fully online (and later hybrid) with weekly meetings and regular sabbat rituals, we managed to grow and flourish even during the pandemic restrictions.
We have moved around a bit, meeting in libraries and public parks (when we even could get together in person). As the pandemic eased and in-person meetings started up again, we kept our online services available. We found a new physical home in Lansing at Keys To Manifestation. We purchased property in Lansing with a long-term goal of building our own temple. Just this past month, we expanded our joint church/store space with Keys To Manifestation to improve our offerings with more room and more privacy.
All in the service of our community, and our mission: that none need ever be alone!
Today, Weavers of the Web is proud to have 11 active board members, with five Dedicants and two Initiates in the WISE-ATC tradition of Wicca. We regularly have 20 or more attendees at our weekly gatherings, and upwards of 35 at our Sabbat rituals. Our Patreon fold has grown to 20, our Meetup group has over 180 members, and our newsletter goes out to more than 210 subscribers every week, with members of every group from across the country.
Our first week of the year usually includes a Financial Report and a discussion of Ritual Etiquette before diving into our first topic. This year, we’re going to put those out on our YouTube and Patreon so that we can have a PARTY to celebrate FIVE YEARS of serving the Greater Lansing Pagan community! Come on out and join us! There will be cake and food and drink. Feel free to bring something to contribute to the party, but mostly just bring yourselves and we’ll take care of the rest!
Doors open at 6pm and we’ll keep the party going as long as we have folks here, with music in the main store area and food and drink (and Zoom! Click here to join the call!) in our new church library space. Won’t you join us in celebrating?