angled Moon. formed at Oestara 1998, is a daughter coven of the Oak, Ash, and Thorn Tradition (OATh) of American Wicca. We are located in the greater Clarksville, TN/Fort Campbell, KY area. We are open to new members: both to novices in the Craft and to those with prior experience in either group or solitary practice. We are a gender balanced group, honoring the Goddess and the God in equal measure. We are accepting of all sexual orientations and we are roughly balanced between men and women in terms of active membership. Open Circles are generally held on the Saturday evening closest to the Full Moon and the eight major holidays. From Beltane to Mabon, we customarily hold our holiday celebrations outside as part of a weekend camping event along with the Hearth Coven of OATh. Although Tangled Moon, as a part of OATh, is explicitly a teaching coven with a formalized course of instruction and a traditional three-degree initiatiory structure, persons wishing to attend Circles with us are not required to make any commitment to Tangled Moon or to the Tradition other than agreeing to abide by the traditional stricture that one must enter the Circle in the spirit of “...Perfect Love, and Perfect Trust...” A portion of our Mission Statement reads: “To provide a safe and supportive environment for free religious expression by Wiccans and other neo-Pagans.” As part of this, we honor and respect the teachings of others, and welcome the presence in our Circles of persons trained in Traditions different from our own, who seek to honor the Goddess and God in the company of others of like mind.

he membership of Tangled Moon is divided into celebrants, students, and Initiates. Celebrants are those persons who worship with Tangled Moon on a regular basis. Students are persons who have declared the intention to study for first-degree initiation within Tangled Moon. (For more information on becoming a student within Tangled Moon, see our page on Students.) Within Tangled Moon, an Initiate is generally understood to be a person who has been initiated at some degree within the Oak, Ash, and Thorn Tradition. Meetings of the coven's Council of Initiates serve, in part, as the business meetings of the coven. Persons who have already attained initiation in another tradition, and who wish to take on the responsibilites of an Initiate within Tangled Moon may choose either to go through the regular Tangled Moon training program for initiation, or they may seek to have their initiation recognized as being equivalent to the comparable degree within the Oak, Ash, and Thorn Tradition. For more information on this latter option, please consult the Tangled Moon by-laws.

s a part of the Oak, Ash, and Thorn Tradition, Tangled Moon is deliberately and intentionally a teaching coven, with a traditional three-degree initiatory structure and an explicit set of training requirements at each degree. Prior to being initiated, students for First Degree within Tangled Moon must demonstrate that they have a personal contact with the Goddess and the God and a knowledge of the principles and requisite skills of the Art Magick sufficient to permit them to manage their own spiritual and religious needs in ethical and moral conformity with the strictures of the Wiccan Rede and the Law of Threefold Return. Further, when working in a group context, our First Degree initiates are expected to be able to fuction as competent designers and leaders of group ritual, and, with a more senior Initiate available to advise them, to act as preceptors for students for First Degree. (For a more complete description of what we expect of First Degree students within Tangled Moon, please see our Student Syllabus)

ur requirements for Second and Third Degree build upon the foundation laid at the First Degree. The focus of our training at Second Degree is on leadership and service in both the coven and the community, and includes an introduction to lay counseling. At Third Degree the focus is on service to the Gods. As it was phrased in one of our initiation rituals: "At First Degree, we give you back to yourself; at Second Degree we give you back to the Community; and at Third Degree you give yourself to the Gods as a tool for their hands..."

e believe that every individual has the right to be secure and respected in his or her own person: in body, in mind, and in spirit. Therefore, we have outlined within our Bylaws certain acts which Tangled Moon will neither countenance nor tolerate on the part of its members.

We believe that the Craft is not something that one practices only in Circle: we strive, each of us, to live our entire lives, both the esoteric portions and the mundane, in conformity to the Wiccan Rede, mindful that every choice we make always has conseqences, and that we are each of us, like it or not, responsible for the all of consequences of our choices.

f you would like to attend one of our Circles, please contact us and we will arrange a pre-Circle meeting with one of our Initiates. This will allow you a face-to-face meeting with Tangled Moon where we can discuss our practices and where you will be free to ask what questions you will. Such a meeting with a Tangled Moon Initiate, and ideally with either the High Priest or the High Priestess, is MANDATORY prior to attending Circle with Tangled Moon for the first time. This rule will not be waived. Further, for legal reasons too complex to be fully explained here, we are unable to permit persons who are less than eighteen years of age to attend our Circles unless they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

And if you are unable to contact us via E-mail, we have a snail-mail address, too:

Tangled Moon
P. O. Box 2773
Clarksville, TN 37042-2773

Bright Blessings,

Lark, High Priestess
Brock, High Priest