All things have a lifecycle. Groups and organizations are no exception. A coven, a pagan organization, or a pagan band is like a person. It is born, it grows, it lives for a time, and, eventually, it dies. Its life may be short or long, but it cannot last forever. Music can be part of …
This is installment seven of my eight-part series on pagan group psychology. Whether the group is a band of pagan musicians, a circle, or a festival community, it will follow the general patterns of human groups, passing through a series of predictable phases. We have considered the psychology typical of new groups, the energy of …
All groups go through a predictable arc of development. Pagan bands, covens and study groups are no exception. In this series, we give advice for leadership for each stage. We offer ideas for pagan rituals that work for your group, meeting it at the place it’s currently at, and helping it move forward in a …
A new pagan group has been together for several months and things just seem to be getting more disorganized. Instead of diligently getting started on time at rituals and classes, the members chat and joke around. A sign that the group is degrading? No. It’s a sign that it has moved out of the first …
Groups are born and grow just as people do. In our previous discussion of group evolution over time, we’ve looked at newly formed groups, in posts on bonding, on dependency and on anxiety. In this post and the next one, I’ll talk about the second phase of group development. The term for the beginning stage …
In this series on the evolution of groups over time, we’ve been examining the features common at the beginning of a group. This first stage is called the forming stage and has very predictable dynamics. When a pagan circle (or class or performance group) first forms, several dynamics are apparent. In Part 1 we looked …
Anxiety in New Groups: Group Development, Part 3 Read More »
This article will focus on issues of dependency in a new pagan circle. In a previous post, I wrote about the qualities of new groups. Pagan circles, covens and study groups function in the same way as any other group, and will tend to develop over time in a predictable way. In my last installment, …
Dependency in a New Pagan Circle: Group Development, part 2 Read More »
In this series of posts, we’ll take a journey through the stages of group development that all groups go through. A pagan circle is like any other group—it follows predictable patterns of human behavior. I taught a class on group dynamics throughout the 28 years when I worked as a psychology professor, so I’ve thought …
Forming a New Pagan Circle: Group Development, Part 1 Read More »
