Coven

Short description: Group or gathering of witches

A coven (/kʌvən/) is a group or gathering of witches. The word "coven" (from Anglo-Norman covent, cuvent, from Old French covent, from Latin conventum = convention) remained largely unused in English until 1921 when Margaret Murray promoted the idea that all witches across Europe met in groups of thirteen which they called "covens".[1]

## Contents

* 1 Modern paganism
* 1.1 Online covens
* 1.2 Other contemporary forms
* 2 In popular culture
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 Bibliography

## Modern paganism

New Forest in Hampshire where the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, stated he encountered the New Forest coven.

In Wicca and other similar forms of modern pagan witchcraft, such as Stregheria and Feri, a coven is a gathering or community of witches, like an affinity group, engagement group, or small covenant group. It is composed of a group of practitioners who gather together for rituals such as Drawing Down the Moon, or celebrating the Sabbats.[2] The place at which they generally meet is called a covenstead.[3]

The number of people involved may vary. Although some consider thirteen to be ideal (probably in deference to Murray's theories), any group of at least three can be a coven.[4] A group of two is usually called a "working couple" (regardless of their gender). It can also unofficially be called an "Obaven" by some members of the community, derived from the Scottish Gaelic word "obair" meaning work, a tribute to the more official term "working couple", a portmanteau with the word "coven". Thus creating the word, "Obaven". Within the community, many believe that a coven larger than thirteen is unwieldy, citing unwieldy group dynamics and an unfair burden on the leadership.[5] When a coven has grown too large to be manageable, it may split, or "hive". In Wicca, this may also occur when a newly made High Priest or High Priestess, also called 3rd Degree initiation, leaves to start their own coven.[6]

Wiccan covens are usually jointly led by a High Priestess and a High Priest, although some are led by only one or the other, and some by a same-sex couple. In more recent forms of modern pagan witchcraft, covens are sometimes run as democracies with a rotating leadership.[7]

### Online covens

With the rise of the Internet as a platform for collaborative discussion and media dissemination, it became popular for adherents and practitioners of Wicca to establish "online covens" which remotely teach tradition-specific crafts to students in a similar method of education as non-religious virtual online schools. One of the first online covens to take this route is the Coven of the Far Flung Net (CFFN), which was established in 1997 as the online arm of the Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca.[8]

However, because of potentially-unwieldy membership sizes,[clarification needed] many online covens limit their memberships to anywhere between 10 and 100 students. The CFFN, in particular, tried[when?] to devolve its structure into a system of sub-coven clans (which governed their own application processes), a system which ended in 2003 due to fears by the CFFN leadership that the clans were becoming communities in their own right.[citation needed]

### Other contemporary forms

The Urban Coven is a group founded on Facebook by Becca Gordon for women in Los Angeles to gather, hike, and howl at the Moon. It meets monthly and is estimated to have almost 3,500 members. A January 2016 gathering at Griffith Park drew nearly 1,000 women, and was described as follows:

> A lot of the women ... were there in groups — mothers and daughters, friends, colleagues. Some arrived solo and struck up conversations with other women or hiked in solitude.[9]

## In popular culture

In popular culture, a coven is a group or gathering of witches who work spells in tandem. Such imagery can be traced back to Renaissance prints depicting witches and to the three "weird sisters" in Shakespeare's Macbeth (1606).[citation needed]

Orgiastic meetings of witches are depicted in the Robert Burns poem "Tam o' Shanter" (1791) and in the Goethe play Faust (1832).[citation needed]

Films featuring covens include Rosemary's Baby (1968), Crowhaven Farm (1970), Suspiria (1977) and its 2018 remake, The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Four Rooms (1995), The Craft (1996), Coven (1997), Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution (2006), The Covenant (2006), Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), The Witch (2015) and Hereditary (2018).[citation needed]

In television, covens have been portrayed in the U.S. in supernatural dramas such as Charmed, Witches of East End, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, The Secret Circle, True Blood, Once Upon a Time and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The third season of American Horror Story is entitled Coven, and focuses on witches. The animated series The Owl House (2020–2023) also focuses on witches, and interprets covens as required organizations of witches with specialized magic.[citation needed]

In vampire novels such as The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice and the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, covens are families or unrelated groups of vampires who live together.[citation needed]

## See also

* Magical organization
* Wiccan organisation

## References

1. ↑ Murray, Margaret (1921). The Witch Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology.
2. ↑ Mankey, Jason (2019-12-08) (in en). Witch's Wheel of the Year: Rituals for Circles, Solitaries & Covens. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-6098-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=UO67DwAAQBAJ&dq=coven+sabbat+celebration&pg=PT12.
3. ↑ K, Amber (1998) (in en). Covencraft: Witchcraft for Three Or More. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-1-56718-018-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=iJrgXRkw0OQC&q=K,+A.+(2003).+“The+Covenstead”+in Coven+Craft:+Witchcraft+for+three+or+more.+St.+Paul,+MN: Llewelleyn.&pg=PR17.
4. ↑ McCoy, Edain (2002) (in en). Ostara: Customs, Spells & Rituals for the Rites of Spring. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-0082-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=e0mn7UDqJ0UC&dq=coven+number+of+member&pg=PA128.
5. ↑ K, Amber (2002). Coven Craft: Witchcraft for Three or More. Llewellyn Publications.
6. ↑ Lewis, James R. (1999) (in en). Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-134-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=FSnxlwQV0ccC&dq=coven+third+degree+initiation+starting+new+coven&pg=PA63.
7. ↑ Smith, Diane (2011). Wicca and Witchcraft for Dummies. Jon Wiley & Sons. pp. 96. ISBN 9781118070017.
8. ↑ "Coven of the Far Flung Net". 2006-07-18. http://www.cuew.org/cffn/index.html.
9. ↑ Blumberg, Antonia (25 January 2016). "This Is What An 'Urban Coven' Looks Like". Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/full-moon-hike-los-angeles_us_56a66b14e4b0d8cc109ae62a.

## Bibliography

* Margot Adler (2006) Drawing Down the Moon. Penguin Books.
* Miriam Simos (1999) The Spiral Dance. San Francisco: Harper.
* Janet and Stuart Farrar (1996) A Witches' Bible: The Complete Witches Handbook. Phoenix Publishing.

* v
* t
* e

Wicca

History|

* History of Wicca
* Etymology of Wicca
* Wicca and LGBT people
* Dettmer v. Landon

Traditions|

| Wicca|

| British Traditional|

* Alexandrian Wicca
* Algard Wicca
* Blue Star Wicca
* Central Valley Wicca
* Chthonioi Alexandrian Wicca
* Gardnerian Wicca

|

Other|

* 1734 Tradition
* Celtic Wicca
* Church and School of Wicca
* Cochrane's Craft
* Coven of Atho
* Dianic Wicca
* Faery Wicca
* Feri
* Georgian Wicca
* Odyssean Wicca
* Reclaiming
* Seax-Wica
* Stregheria
* Universal Eclectic Wicca

Notable figures|

* Gerald Gardner
* Doreen Valiente
* Alex Sanders
* Maxine Sanders
* Sybil Leek
* Dafo
* Margot Adler
* Victor Anderson
* Artemis
* Gavin Bone
* Lois Bourne
* Jack Bracelin
* Raymond Buckland
* Eddie Buczynski
* Zsuzsanna Budapest
* Charles Cardell
* Ipsita Roy Chakraverti
* Patricia Crowther
* Vivianne Crowley
* Robert Cochrane
* Scott Cunningham
* Phyllis Curott
* Cerridwen Fallingstar
* Janet Farrar
* Stewart Farrar
* Raven Grimassi
* Gavin Frost
* Yvonne Frost
* Philip Heselton
* Frederic Lamond
* Silver RavenWolf
* Starhawk
* Joseph Wilson

Deities|

* Triple Goddess
* Horned God
* Green Man
* Holly King / Oak King
* Mother goddess

Key concepts|

* Wiccan morality
* Wiccan Rede
* Rule of Three
* Wiccan views of divinity
* Coven
* Craft name
* Magic
* Witchcraft
* White magic
* Otherworld
* The Summerland
* Reincarnation
* Karma
* Skyclad
* Summoner
* Watchtower
* Familiar spirit
* Animism

Rites and ritual|

* Drawing down the Moon
* Great Rite
* Handfasting
* Wiccaning
* Fivefold kiss
* Magic circle
* Cone of power
* Herbalism
* Scrying
* Spellwork / Incantation
* Banishing
* Divination
* Invocation
* Initiation
* Rite of passage
* Eko Eko Azarak
* Solitary practitioner
* Smudging
* Spiral dance

Holidays|

* Wheel of the Year
* Solstice
* Equinox
* Imbolc
* Ostara
* Beltane
* Midsummer
* Lughnasadh
* Mabon
* Samhain
* Yule
* Esbat
* Wild Hunt

Paraphernalia|

* Magical tools in Wicca
* Altar
* Athame
* Besom
* Boline
* Book of Shadows
* Cauldron
* Censer
* Chalice/Goblet
* Horn
* Pentacle
* Runes
* Incense
* Tarot deck
* Wand
* Talisman
* Amulet
* Scourge
* Candles
* Bell
* Statue
* Parchment
* Witch's ladder

Literature|

* Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
* The Meaning of Witchcraft
* The Spiral Dance
* What Witches Do
* Witchcraft Today
* Charge of the Goddess
* Enchanted Feminism

Related|

* List of Wiccan organisations
* Bricket Wood coven
* New Forest coven
* Traditional witchcraft
* Witch-cult hypothesis
* Left-hand path and right-hand path
* Cunning folk in Britain
* European witchcraft
* Malleus Maleficarum
* Granny woman
* Cunning folk
* Witching hour
* Witch-hunt
* Witches' Sabbath
* Flying ointment
* Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
* Witchcraft Research Association
* "Fluffy Bunny"

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