Who we are, and what we will not do
Tribal Harmonix is a fellowship of witches, pagans, druids, heathens and polytheists who hold one unfashionable conviction: that the sacred plants and fungi our ancestors used were part of the religion, not a detour from it.
Our story
We began the way most things in this world begin: as a reading circle. A handful of people from different traditions, a Wiccan high priestess, two druids, a heathen, a Hellenic reconstructionist and a psychedelic-integration therapist, meeting once a month to read The Road to Eleusis and argue about it.
The argument never ended, but the reading turned into rites. We found that the circle, the quarters, the Wheel and the moon gave the medicine a shape that the psychedelic world rarely offers. We found that the medicine gave our rites back a fire that books alone could not. We wrote down rules, trained sitters, made mistakes, fixed them, and kept meeting.
Today the fellowship is a network of local circles that keep the same calendar and the same code of conduct, gathered under one name: Tribal Harmonix, a tribe in the oldest sense, people bound by a shared rite rather than by blood, and a harmony in the musical sense, many voices holding one chord.
What we are
- A religious fellowship with a calendar, a code and a council.
- Multi-traditional: Wiccan, druidic, heathen, Hellenic, naturalistic, eclectic.
- Harm-reduction first, integration always.
- Committed to reciprocity with the cultures our sacraments come from.
What we are not
- Not a source. We never sell, supply, trade or point anyone to a source for any substance.
- Not a clinic. We do not treat illness. We can help you find people who do.
- Not a club. Sobriety is honoured in every rite; nobody is ever asked to take anything.
- Not above the law. Members are responsible for knowing the law where they live.
Eight things we hold
Read aloud at the opening of every sabbat. Short enough to remember on a hard night.
The sacrament and the rite are one.
We do not take the medicine and then do religion. The preparation, the cup, the night and the morning after are one continuous sacred act.
Reverence before the plant, the fungus and the molecule.
Whether it grew in a forest, a jar or a laboratory, it is approached as a teacher and treated as a guest.
The circle holds.
No one journeys alone in our rites. Every circle has a sober warden, a spoken consent agreement, a door you may walk out of, and a plan for the morning.
Nothing without integration.
A journey that is not brought back into daily life is a wasted gift. The dark-moon circle, the journal and the land work are as much a part of the rite as the cup.
Reciprocity to the lineages.
The sacraments came from somewhere, and often from people who paid dearly for sharing them. We give back money, protection and credit, and we refuse to extract.
Sovereignty of body and mind.
Cognitive liberty cuts both ways: the right to journey, and the right to say no. A sober witch in our circle is as whole as any other.
The earth is the first temple.
We keep the Wheel because the planet does. What we do with the plants must be good for the land they grow on.
Honesty about risk.
We say plainly what can go wrong, for whom, and what to do about it. Mystery is not an excuse for vagueness about medicine.
Circles, roles and the council
Circles
A circle is a local group of five to twenty members who meet by the moon and keep the sabbats together. Circles choose their own traditions and gods; they share our calendar, code and safety standards. Anyone may start one after a year of membership, with two trained wardens among the founders.
Roles
Every rite names a warden (sober, trained, responsible for bodies), a celebrant (who leads the rite), a keeper of the fire (hearth, food, warmth, the practical sacred) and a scribe (who records what the circle agreed, never what individuals experienced).
The council of stewards
Elected yearly by the circles. The council keeps the money, the code of conduct, the reciprocity fund and the safety standards, and hears complaints. It cannot tell any circle which gods to call or which sacrament to use.
Offer before you ask. Give back more than you took.
Almost every sacrament in use today reached us through someone else's suffering. The Mazatec healer who shared the mushroom was ostracised by her town. Peyote populations are collapsing under demand from people who were never part of the peyote road. Ayahuasca tourism has reshaped whole river communities. We cannot undo that, but we can refuse to add to it.
Tribal Harmonix pledges that:
- A tenth of all membership income goes to Indigenous-led and source-community organisations, chosen each year by the council and announced at Lughnasadh.
- We do not work with peyote. It is slow-growing, over-harvested, and belongs to the people of the peyote road.
- We name our sources. Rites, songs and techniques borrowed from a living culture are credited, and we do not perform ceremonies that belong to initiatory lineages we are not part of.
- We grow what we can, where the law allows, rather than taking from the wild.
- We advocate for the religious rights of the communities who kept these sacraments through prohibition, before we advocate for our own.
The rules of the circle
Every member agrees to these in writing. Every rite opens by reading the first four aloud.
Consent is spoken, specific and revocable.
Touch, closeness, singing to someone, holding someone: all of it is asked for out loud and may be withdrawn at any moment, including mid-journey. "No" ends the conversation.
No one is ever required to take anything.
Pressure to partake, however gentle, is a breach. Sober participants are full participants.
What is shared in circle stays in circle.
Names, stories, visions and tears are confidential. The scribe records decisions, never experiences.
Nothing is bought, sold, traded or sourced here.
Not at gatherings, not in our chats, not in our newsletters. A member who deals is removed.
Every rite has a sober warden, and the warden's word is final.
If the warden says the rite ends, or that someone needs help, or that we are calling a medic, it happens without debate.
Know and follow the law where you live.
The fellowship does not shield anyone from the law and does not ask members to disclose anything unlawful.
Everyone is welcome who keeps these rules.
All genders, bodies, races, abilities, sexualities and traditions, twenty-one and over. Harassment, bigotry and proselytising have no place in the circle.
Complaints are heard, and the council acts.
Any member may bring a concern to any steward. Serious breaches mean removal; criminal harm is reported to the police, with the survivor's consent.
Still reading? Good.
That is the first test. Come to a newcomers' circle and ask us the hard questions in person.