Reunion Circles

🌞 Annual events and reunions account for our multi-dimensional needs by acting as structured "time travel" —

They allow us to process past experiences, restore social connections, seek self-transcendence, and safely reconstruct personal narratives over time.

Observing milestones and engaging in community rituals facilitates well-being through specific, integrated dimensions:

1. Social

• Community Connection: Reunions and festivals actively lower loneliness and elevate positive affect by anchoring us in shared, in-person communities.
• Collective Effervescence: Large gatherings generate "group identity fusion"—a state where personal and group identities merge. Sharing these moments builds a lasting sense of belonging and fuels prosocial behaviors, such as generosity.

2. Emotional

• Narrative Reconstruction: Sitting with past memories helps transform how we view our younger selves. This process can highlight positive growth or prompt us to reconcile past pain, helping to shift current emotional responses.
• Nostalgia Regulation: Looking back can intensify both positive and negative feelings over time, ultimately providing a buffer against current distress by reinforcing a meaningful, continuous personal identity.

3. Spiritual

• Self-Transcendence: Attending annual ceremonies or gatherings frequently offers an opportunity to step outside the daily self.
• Meaning-Making: Reflecting on the passage of time encourages existential inquiries about personal values, which helps individuals align their current actions with their core purpose.

4. Psychological

• Integration and Moving On: Re-engaging with past phases of life allows for emotional regulation and active "integration," turning old insights into actionable, forward-looking behaviors.
• Coping with the "Anniversary Effect": Recurring events can trigger reflections or trauma anniversary symptoms. However, actively engaging in these events within a supportive network allows participants to master emotional control and reduce long-term psychological distress.

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Following the moon phases and the Wheel of the Year helps to build non-theist community and alleviate psychological distress by offering structured, nature-based mindfulness.

These cycles provide predictable times to pause, set micro-goals, and share communal experiences without relying on religious dogma.

How These Cycles Alleviate Stressors and Mood Disorders

• Managing Clinical Anxieties: Anxiety often stems from a feeling of unpredictability. Tracking the Wheel of the Year (which marks the transitions of the seasons) and the phases of the moon provides a reliable, observable structure to time, making the passing of days feel less overwhelming.
• Relieving Chronic Depressions: Severe depression often erodes a person's motivation. Shifting from annual resolutions to lunar planning establishes micro-goals. Celebrating these smaller monthly milestones releases dopamine, helping to build momentum and resilience against depressive episodes.
• Validating Emotional Fluctuations: Lunar tracking—such as journaling with a Moon Phase Mood Tracker—gives you permission to honor your natural energy levels rather than forcing constant, unsustainable productivity.

Building Community in a Non-Theist Way

• Shared Astronomical Events: Gathering for non-theist holidays, such as observing the solstices and equinoxes, centers the celebrations around our shared natural environment, local ecology, and astronomy.
• Secular Rituals and Support: Many individuals bond over these concepts in secular groups (such as r/SASSWitches on Reddit). These communities prioritize naturalistic perspectives, allowing members to share their intentions, struggles, and self-care practices without attributing them to deities.

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A Covenstead is the meeting place of a coven (a group of witches), particularly within modern religious movements like Wicca.

It serves as a permanent ritual site or temple where the group conducts ceremonies, stores sacred items, and holds meetings.

Covensteads can be:

• Physical: Often the private home of a high priest or priestess, but sometimes a public area like a park or rented space.
• Symbolic: Referred to as the "spiritual hearth" of the group.
• Virtual or Astral: Some modern practitioners use virtual spaces (like in Second Life) or "astral temples" when they cannot meet in person.

Covensteads in Los Angeles:

While many Covensteads are kept private to protect the community, several groups and organized spaces are known to operate in the Los Angeles area as of 2026:

• DragonStone Covenstead: A larger organization that includes the Ghostwheel Coven; they celebrate full moons and the 8 major sabbats at locations in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.
• The Grove Coven Network: A network of groups, including the Coven of the Grove, which holds public reading circles and rituals at Pan Pacific Park.
• The Urban Coven: A large community (estimated at nearly 3,500 members) founded for women in Los Angeles. They are known for hosting monthly full moon hikes at Griffith Park.
• Historical Covensteads: Los Angeles was home to the influential Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, founded in 1971, which helped pioneer the Dianic Witchcraft tradition.

For those seeking local community rather than a specific permanent temple, Los Angeles has a high density of metaphysical stores—such as Moonlight Store and Academy in Hollywood, Pan’s Apothika nearest to, The Green Man Store in the valley, The Psychic Eye, House of Intuition and The Crooked Path —that often host public ceremonies and classes.