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Something unsettling happened to me yesterday, on my birthday.

In 1998, members of my Wiccan Circle received their rings. It took a long time to have those rings made; the pagan jeweler who made them took the better part of two years to get them done. In that time, two members of our group had left. The rings were designed by our HPS, with a distinctive symbol on the front and raised spirals along the band. They were unique. We charged them in a potent ritual unlike any I’ve participated in before or since.

They were our coven rings.

Since 1998, I wore my ring constantly. The HPS of our Circle retired, the Circle stopped meeting, and over the course of time the other members stopped wearing the rings, or lost them. I was the last one to keep wearing it regularly. It was a source of magical connection and heritage for me.

I have two tattoos, one that represents Acorn Garden, the Wiccan group I teach, and one that represents Hermes Council, the mens group I helped to start. The original inspiration for those tattoos was to get the symbol on that ring tattooed on me in case I ever lost it. I didn’t get that done, since the symbol was designed by someone else for their group, not mine.

That ring meant a lot to me. I wear another ring, with a pentacle on it, but it doesn’t mean as much. A pentacle ring is easy to replace. The coven ring was not.

I’ve had health problems lately. Among the consequences is that I’ve lost a lot of weight. My fingers are thinner than they used to be. My rings started to slip on my fingers, but I started to wear them on different fingers and didn’t give the matter much thought.

Last night, as I was taking off my rings and my rune, I found that the coven ring was no longer on my finger.

I’ve searched for it. I’ll continue to search for it. My hope for finding it is small. I went to the mall yesterday evening. If it fell off there, it’s unlikely I’ll ever see it again; it would probably be swept up and tossed away in the garbage.

I feel bad. Why couldn’t it have been the pentacle ring that was lost?

If I can’t find the ring, I have a couple of alternatives:

– Get a new ring made. A couple of my old Circle-mates still have theirs. It would be possible for a skilled jeweler to make a mold from one of those rings and create a new one that would fit me.

– Maybe it’s time to let go of the old coven ring and have new ones made for my current Wicca group.

In either case, I’ll need some who’s a skilled silversmith. Do you know one?