Meet the Crowimmyn

This website and blog features the music of our pagan choir, the Crow Women. The band performs in concerts, presents workshops at pagan events, and has put out three albums. But, before there was the band, there was the coven. Our magical sisterhood continues on, in parallel with our public presence as a pagan band. Today, I’d like to give you a view into the pagan circle behind the singers: the Krowimmin Circle. The Crowwymmyn are an egalitarian women’s circle that was founded in 1992. It’s still alive and vibrant today. 

Reading this, attentive readers might have noticed the different spellings of Kreauwomonne. There is no official spelling, except on our Covenant of the Goddess membership, because we had to write down something when we joined in 1995. Among ourselves, we pride ourselves on extremely creative spellings of Kroughwymhin. This is also a way of distinguishing between the spiritual group, the Crow-womb-ones, and our band, which has the stable spelling of ‘Crow Women’ wherever our music is sold on the internet. (This keeps the search engines from getting confused.) Check out our About Us page, and you can see the whimsical way we all spell our pen names for the blog. Very Krohe.

Membership

Most sisters have been part of the Crowz since the 1990s. We’ve been very selective about taking in new members, because we want women who will become long-term members, who will become sisters. Sisterhood is the crux of our coven. I’m guessing that short-lived covens never get there. One of our bloggers is doing a series of posts on the stages of development of an organization, including pagan circles, and how the members interact with each other over time as they get to know each other. We’re at a very stable stage as a group.

Many covens come and go. It’s true, some ChroWommen sisters also have come and gone for various reasons. Some felt the group wasn’t addressing their needs. One preferred to be a solitary practitioner. A couple realized they needed to follow a different spiritual path. One decided she wanted to be a shaman, not a witch. I don’t see those as mutually exclusive. See Christopher Penczak’s book, The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft if you want to delve more into that.

Music is our Magic

Music and singing have always been a central part of the Crowe sisterhood. We’ve sung at festivals, and our rituals almost always include singing. We’ve recorded three albums and are now harboring thoughts of recording some new songs. The first album, Crow Goddess, included this song we learned years before we ever thought about getting into the recording studio. We Are Sisters has meant a lot to us, especially any time the sisterhood was a little ragged. 

We are sisters on a journey
Shining in the sun
Shining through the darkest night
The healing has begun, begun
The healing has begun

We are sisters on a journey
Singing now as one
Remembering the Ancient Ones
The women and the wisdom,
The women and the wisdom

Author unknown, recorded by the Colorado Midwives’ Association on the cassette Ritual Songs

Another thing we’ve used in ritual to foster sisterhood is this: We stand in a circle facing each other. In turn each sister turns to the sister on her left, maybe takes her hand, looks into her eyes and says, “I am __. I see you __.” For example, “I am Carole. I see you, Marilyn.” So simple, but very meaningful.

We are a women’s circle. For quite a few years we used the term Dianic. But in more recent years, that term has taken on some political values that we don’t share. So we don’t use it any more. We are not of any Tradition, so I guess that makes us eclectic. We also do not have degrees.

Shared responsibility

The big thing is we are non-hierarchical. Many covens have a High Priestess, High Priest, or both. By my understanding, what they say goes. However, I have no experience with that type of coven. In the Kroze, we operate by consensus–everyone’s opinion has equal value. Whoever is priestessing a given ritual is the priestess for that gathering. But rituals are all cooperative workings.

Instead of a hierarchy, we have jobs that rotate among us annually. Currently, they are:

• Mother. She runs the four business meetings we have each year and generally looks after the welfare of the group. This role is the closest thing we have to a High Priestess, I suppose.
• Crone. She runs a couple of talking circles a year and mediates any conflicts that arise in the group.
• Maiden. In charge of promoting frivolity and keeping us from taking ourselves too seriously.
• Malama. Named for a goddess of plenty, she is our treasurer.
• Web Weaver. Manages our online calendar and other internet communications.
• COG liaison. Attends meetings of Chamisa Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess and keeps us in touch with the larger Wiccan/Pagan world.

We have official descriptions for the responsibilities of these jobs. The jobs are chosen by lot each January. We literally put the jobs in a cauldron and draw randomly–guided by the Goddess, of course. Sisters are installed in their new positions at Imbolg.

Everyone has a place in this magical sisterhood

Alane wrote a song that we use for initiations, for waypartings, and for other occasions when it seems appropriate. It’s called You Have a Place Here, and it’s on the Crow Magic album. In our group, every woman has a place in our heart. The roles shift around year to year, but the love and respect are constant. We don’t initiate any woman into the group unless we’re comfortable following her leadership in ceremony, and in any job she draws from the cauldron.

You have a place here in our heart
It will change and grow
You have a place here in our heart
You will change and grow
Yes, you have a place here, deep in our heart
You will depart someday, someway
And still you will have a place in our heart

Oh, make a place for us in your heart
It will change and grow
Oh, make a place for us in your heart
We will change and grow
Yes, we have a place here, deep in your heart
We will depart someday, someway
And still we will have a place in your heart

music & lyrics © Alane Susan Brown (ASCAP) 2010

Mirth and reverance, and more mirth (our favorite part)

Until the COVID shut-down in March 2020, we had weekend retreats (girls’ weekends out) in spring and fall. Those have been another part of developing our sisterhood, with lots of feasting and wine & mead drinking, as well as doing rituals and deepening our witchy practices. We have spent the weekend (pre-COVID) at the Ardantane pagan retreat and learning center in New Mexico in the spring and at a rented cabin or other lodging in the fall. Hopefully as we get vaccinated, we can return to those beloved in-person gatherings.

Persevering through the pandemic

In fall 2020, we did a totally outside retreat with masks and distancing at one sister’s home, going home each evening instead of sleeping over. Fortunately the weather was sunny and warm for mid October. It wasn’t what we would have liked, but it was way better than not doing it at all. We also were able to do an afternoon (versus the traditional evening) Samhain ritual outside, again thanks to mild weather.  For Yule we did most of it over Zoom, with each sister decorating her own small Yule log. Then we came together outside to burn the logs in a fire pit. Yes, we were cold by the time that was done! Imbolg 2021 was all on Zoom. Between COVID vaccines and warmer weather, we’re looking forward to outside in-person rituals again, hopefully for Oestara.

So, that’s my beloved women’s circle, the inimitable Crowwimmin. We’ve been around as a magical sisterhood for almost thirty years, and we’re weathering the current storms, together. In this blog, it’s our honor to share not only the music we create as the Crow Women pagan choir, but also the ways we use the music as part of our rich magical life in Khrowomn Cirkle.