Questions and Answers

No. The Guild has no creed, no scripture and no worship that its members are required to offer. Its members include believers of several religions, pagans of several kinds, and people of no religion at all. Nothing in the Papers requires any of them to be otherwise. Some members find that they must think carefully about the language of invocation in the light of their own faith, and mentors are well used to that conversation.

No. The existence of the Guild, its aims, its government and its methods are public, as this website shows. Two things are kept private: the names of members, which are theirs to disclose, and the wording of the rites of admission, which are best met for the first time by the person being admitted.

No. The Guild has been independent since its founding. It holds no charter from any other body, grants none, and claims no lineage older than 1971. Individual members are free to belong to whatever else they please.

The Guild as a body believes nothing. Its members have Records. Most of them would say that workings done with care are followed by their intended results more often than they can comfortably put down to chance, that the effects are usually modest, and that the most reliable effect of all is upon the practitioner. A few members are thoroughgoing skeptics who value the practice for its own sake. All of them are welcome, and all of them are asked for evidence.

Because the word is plain and old, and names a worker and not a priest. It comes from the Latin for a lot, and first meant one who casts lots to learn an answer. The fuller story is told under About the Guild.

None. The course begins at the beginning, and every member begins as an Apprentice whatever he or she has done before. Petitioners who have read widely are sometimes at a disadvantage, since they have more to set aside.

Thirty to forty-five minutes a day for the daily practice, and two evenings a month for the Chapterhouse or Workroom. The practice is daily, and that is the point of it. If you cannot find half an hour on most days, this is not yet the time to petition.

A lamp or a candle in a safe holder, a bound notebook and a pen. Members are discouraged from buying equipment. The instruments are made by hand in the third grade, and an instrument that has been bought is generally the worse for it.

It is less dangerous than its reputation and more demanding than a hobby. The real risks are ordinary ones: fire from an unattended flame; the strain of intensive inward practice on a person who is already under strain; and self-deception. The course is designed against all three. It is graded, it is supervised by a mentor, it teaches closing before it teaches opening, and it requires a Record that other people read.

No. The second of the Five Charges forbids any working upon a person who has not consented to it, and no one consents to be harmed or compelled. The Guild teaches protection and banishing. It does not teach attack.

No. The Guild does not perform workings or give readings for the public, whether for payment or for nothing. We would also advise caution toward anyone who offers to remove a curse or to change your luck for a fee.

No. None of these has any place in any rite of the Guild, in any grade.

Yes. Every part of it can be adapted and has been. The Gates may be worked seated, or wholly in the imagination. The Lamp may be kept with a sound or a touch in place of a flame. The Record may be dictated. Tell your sponsors what you need. They have very probably met it before.

By writing a letter to the Warden of the Gate. The whole procedure is set out under How to Petition.

The annual dues are at present 96 United States dollars and are reduced or waived on request. There is no charge for instruction, for examination or for admission, and petitioners on probation pay nothing. See Membership.

Yes. About a third of our members work alone through the Hearth Course, with a mentor and, if they wish, an online Workroom.

Not at all. Many members do. You will begin as an Apprentice like everyone else, and you will be asked not to mix the rites of other bodies with those of the Guild inside its Halls.

Petitioners must be at least eighteen. There is no upper limit. The oldest person yet admitted Apprentice was eighty-one, and reached Journeyman.

At any time, by a letter to the Warden of the Seal, without giving a reason. Nothing you have undertaken binds you to stay.

Because a letter in your own words tells us more than a form could, and because writing it tells you something as well. This website has no forms of any kind and collects no information about its visitors.

Letters are answered by members in their own time, usually within three weeks, and more slowly in the weeks around a Convocation. If a month has passed, write again to the Warden of the Seal. Please note that there are some kinds of letter that we do not answer.