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The Correllian
Nativist Tradition is the largest and fasted
growing Wiccan Church in the
world.
The Correllian Nativist Tradition is a
legal Church and a public Charity in the USA,
having full 501c3 status.
The Correllian Nativist Tradition has
locations in countries around the world including the USA,
Canada, Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, Uruguay,
Mexico, Belgium, Argentina,
Greece
and Spain and members in many other
places including Peru, Brazil, Hong Kong
and
Singapore.
The Correllian Chancellery is Headquartered in
Hoopeston, Illinois, USA.
The Correllian Directorate is
Headquartered in Albany, New York, USA. The Correll Mother
Temple is located in Danville, Illinois, USA.
So what is the Correllian Nativist
Tradition, and what makes it different from other
Wiccan
Traditions?
Usually when people ask this they
are expecting a liturgical answer -some special beliefs or
ritual forms that are unique to
Correllianism.
Correllianism does put an unusually strong emphasis on the philosophical aspects
of
Wicca,
and
on the spirituality and
inner mysteries of the Wiccan religion, but liturgically our
beliefs do
not
especially differ from those of other Wiccan Traditions. Rather it is our
attitudes
toward
the Pagan community and its future that tend to set us
apart.
The Correllian Tradition is
dedicated to the advancement of the Pagan people. We
believe
strongly
in the need for increased communication and co-operation between Pagans
everywhere, from all Traditions.
We stress the importance of the Pagan Clergy as teachers and facilitators, and the
need for a strong public presence. The Correllian Tradition emphasizes
celebratory as well as initiatory Wicca,
and is strongly committed to accessible public
ritual.
But perhaps the one thing that most sets
Correllian Wicca apart is that we have
embraced the internet as an educational tool. Correspondence teaching
is
nothing
new in Wicca, but we were the first to utilize the internet as a serious tool
for training new initiates. This
has brought great expansion and many changes to our Tradition,
and we are still in the process of mastering this new teaching
medium.
HISTORY
The Correllian Nativist Tradition is based upon
the teachings of members of the
High-Correll
family. The
High-Correll family were descended from a line of Cherokee
Didanvwisgi
who
intermarried with a line of Scottish
Traditional Witches, whose descendants
were
further
influenced by Aradian Witchcraft and by the
Spiritualist Church.
The founder of the Tradition is the
blv. Orpheis Caroline High Correll. She is said
to have
founded the Tradition as an entity separate from her
ancestry, on September 4, 1479
Pisces (1879
AD).
Right: Blv. Caroline High Correll, 
founder of the Correllian Tradition.
Shown c.
1530 Pisces (1930 AD).
Orpheis Caroline was a practicing
psychic, spiritual healer, and herbalist, and
spent
many
years with the traveling circus which she owned with her
husband, John Correll.
In creating Correllian Nativist
Wicca, Orpheis Caroline drew upon her
Native
American
heritage, as well as ideas of European Witchcraft,
Spiritualism, and Hermetic thought.
The early history of the Correllian
Tradition is somewhat unclear, with familial and
religious
structures wholly interconnected. The family followed a very
formal,
matriarchal and matrilinear
structure with its
roots in Cherokee custom, from which the current offices of
the
Correllian tradition derive their form.
Lady Orpheis called the Tradition
simply Nativist, and this would remain the
Tradition’s
primary
designation until the appellation of the term
“Correllian Nativist” in 1592 Pisces
(1992 AD),
or as we
now more commonly call it; Correllian.
Blv. Orpheis
Caroline High Correll,
shown in the mid 1490s Pisces (1890s
AD).
It was during these years that the blv.
Caroline
was active as a circus
fortune teller.
Lady Orpheis’ Nativism was a highly
political and deeply synchretic form of Pagan
universalism,
which stressed the need for the world’s
Native (Pagan) religions to unite in the face of
colonial
Christianity.
Whether Correllian Nativism was
originally a branch of what would later be called
“Wicca”
or not is a matter of debate. Correllianism’s claim to
Wiccan status rests both upon
Lady Orpheis’ claimed Scottish
Traditional lineage, and also upon her Aradian lineage,
which she acquired in 1504 Pisces (1904 AD) through Lydia
Beckett, a student of
Charles Leland. We would say that any
such debate would be only a matter of
semantics
anyway.
There have been many changes instituted in the
Tradition over the years, particularly
in the Council of 1579 Pisces (1979 AD) and the Council of
1592 Pisces (1992 AD)
both of which struggled with the necessities involved
in adapting the Traditions forms
to the modern world and to the needs
required for a public Tradition.
The
Correllium, symbol of the Correllian Tradition, was
originally a personal
symbol which came to be used as a
familial crest by Lady Orpheis' Cherokee
ancestors.
Today the Correllian Tradition has two Join-Heads
designated as First Priestess and
First Priest, whose powers are represented
by the office of Chancellor. This is based
upon
the traditional Cherokee
clan structure which was used by the High-Correll familial
Tradition.
The
Tradition has always had both a Matriarchal Head (in Cherokee the Agayv
Gigagei)
and what might be termed a Fraternal Head. The
Matriarchal Head of the Tradition
was usually
the oldest woman, the
Fraternal Head her brother or son. Below is a list of persons
who
have
served in this capacity during the Tradition's existence, ending with
the current
Joint-Heads.
Matriarchal Heads of Tradition
Orpheis
Caroline High Correll
Mable High-Correll
LaVeda Lewis-Highcorrell
(Regent)
Krystel High-Correll
Fraternal Heads of
Tradition
William High
Frank High-Correll
William
High-Correll
Don Lewis-Highcorrell
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