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The Origin
Originated within a group of friends including Sarah Erif Thunen, Glen Turner, Aidan Kelly, etc. Aidan Kelly was not only the co-founder but was also the ringleader. They began meeting to rehearse and rewrite it. Since Glenn and Judy A. also wanted to be priestesses, and since we were fascinated by Graves' concept of the Threefold White Goddess, we created a three-priestess ritual that has ever since been a hallmark of NROOGD Sabbats. -
No changes
After working the ritual for Sarah’s class at Muir Beach Lodge in January 1968, during which they observed no significant changes in their consciousness, the group transformed into an informal study group that met at Joe and Glenn’s home almost every Saturday night during the next year. As they evolved their own system of correspondences, theories of divination, and parapsychology, their fascination with Graves gave the NROOGD rituals and stories a distinct flavor of their own. -
Second Ritual
At the summer solstice in 1968, they worked the ritual for the second time, as the framework for the wedding of two friends. This time they noticed a subtle change in themselves, perhaps because the ritual was worked as a liturgy, not a play. -
The First Sabbat
After a great deal more rewriting, they worked out their first full-scale Sabbat, with every detail they knew about, for Lammas 1968. Its effects on them were so indisputable that they were bonded into what they would later realize was a Pagan magical order. -
Awarding
In 1969, they decided to award “Order White Cords” to members who had been coming regularly to the Sabbats during the preceding year. The Cords were not initiatory, but rather an invitation to help form (and later to join) a coven. The first ones were given out at the Lammas and Mabon Sabbats in 1969. In October 1969, a core group of those who had received the White Cord met at Joe and Glenn’s home in Lagunitas and held the first esbat of what later came to be called the Full Moon Coven. -
The Sabbat Initiation Circles
During the early 1970s, it was not unusual for one or two hundred people to attend a Sabbat, which people knew about only by word of mouth. The Order began holding regular public circles for the Sabbats and continued to do so ever since. At the Sabbats they offered initiation into the Order to anyone present, and continued to do so until well into the mid-1970s; initiation was accepted by several hundred people during that period. -
More Initiating
In 1971, the Full Moon Coven had begun working its qualified members through the Red Cord initiation, one or two at each esbat. As that process was approaching completion, they decided to try using the system that had been devised by Martha Adler in Los Angeles of holding a public class on thoroughly nonsecret divination techniques and other information relevant for the Craft selecting the suitable people and then offering initiation into a coven to the suitable people in that group. -
The Attendance
By January 1972, attendance at it had settled down to a group of regulars. In February and March, they took members of the group through a new “Coven White Cord” initiation and began a year of training them. They decided to call themselves the “Spiral Dance Coven.” -
The Growth
The NROOGD Sabbats were larger than many of the later festivals