The third in a series of articles about forming and growing a successful coven.

--by Jim Dickenson

In the last article in this series, I wrote about the importance of leader-ship in a coven and some of the background work that should go into visioning for leadership. In most covens, leadership is personified in the role of the High Priest (HP) and/ or High Priestess (HPS). The HP/ HPS, of course, are charged with acting on the plan -serving the vision.

The last decade has provided me with a full experience of leadership from several perspectives:

• as a covener with no leadership experience
• as a High Priest in the tutelage of a more experienced High Priestess
• as a High Priest in partnership with a High Priestess
• as a High Priest providing tutelage, then partnership, with a second High Priestess
• and finally, after passing the service to another, as a covener with leadership experience.

Let me assure you that each leg of this journey offers unique challenges and opportunities for personal growth. If the journey is pursued with commitment to service, it can be a powerful initiation of its own.

As with all journeys however, it is often easier to walk on a path that many other feet have smoothed and often smarter to follow the signs they have left to mark the more successful of the forks in the path to take. It always amazes me how strongly and often we all resist this simple truth, cutting new (and often less direct and less pleasant) paths to the same place, or worse, to quicksand. Here are some of the trail markers that others were kind enough to leave for me and a few that I have planted on my path.

First, make sure that all the visioning and planning mentioned in the earlier articles is done to the best of your ability and to a reasonable level of detail.

Second, hold to the summation of all that hard work -the vision -faithfully but gently, knowing that it will take on a life of its own. When the vision no longer serves the coven, you must be willing to let it evolve into one that can serve without doing violence to the core identity of the coven or tradition to which you belong.

The vision/ plan/ philosophy/ focus/ path of a coven must be conceived as the cradle that catches and shapes the coven's powerful creative energies of magickal and spiritual transformation. Communicated from the heart, it inspires others to work synergistically for the higher good of all and is the foundation of leadership. It is the fertile soil from which the flower grows. It cradles the seed. It, of itself, is not the flower.

Next, the role of HP and HPS must be conceived to have an essence separate from and beyond the people who serve the role. In part, this means that the archetype of HP or HPS becomes a mantle to be drawn down around the person serving the role -as a judge wears the judge's robes when serving the principles of justice. In our tradition, I am granted the title of HP based on my experience, service, and initiations, but I am the High Priest of my coven only for the time that I am elected to serve in the role of HP for the coven.

Spiritually and magickally, this means that this 'mantle' must be created for the HP and HPS. Similar to 'pulling down the moon', The mantle of leadership is infused with the responsibilities and duties of the role and is pulled down and worn by the person who accepts the role.

This mantle ultimately evolves with and as part of the group mind of the coven and is supported and shaped further by any patron deities the coven may have. Over time, the mantle can become the repository of the gained wisdom and experience of all HP/ HPS that have served in the role, the essence of the group mind, and the guidance of the coven patrons.

If you are just starting a new coven, this mantle begins with the creation of a 'job description' for the HP and HPS. What is the nature of the duty, responsibility, obligation, authority, and service of the HP and HPS? How will they be able to act on or provide these? What is the limit of what they should and should not do? What are the checks and balances to their authority within the coven -if any? How are the people chosen to fill the roles? How long will they commit to fill the roles? Will the role be rotated among qualified members? How will you decide who is qualified? As always, there are many questions to ask first! The answers may change or evolve over time, but it is usually better to have a firm place from which to begin.

In our tradition, the members of the coven elect the HP and HPS from eligible 3 rd degree initiates. If it is not possible for both to be 3 rd degree initiates, one may be 2 nd degree initiate working toward 3 rd degree initiation. They generally serve 3 years in staggered terms so that there is continuity provided by overlapping changes in office. (There are minor variations among the covens within the tradition.) There must always be both a HP and an HPS in each coven. The balance and polarity of masculine and feminine energy is very important to us.

The HP and HPS generally have final authority in most matters, though are

charged to fully facilitate input/ process from membership. There is even a mechanism to overrule the decisions of the HP and HPS in the extremely rare cases that it is needed. The form has been very well thought out by our Founder and Elder, Ivo Dominguez, jr.

Let me assure you that a well conceived form from which to begin makes the inevi-table storms of personal and group growth (growing pains) much easier to weather and to rebalance. Leading a coven is still an enormous amount of work, but in times of need a well conceived and formalized form can be a welcome and unexpectedly soft pace to land.

That is also one of the very many blessings of a fully realized and energized HP/ HPS mantle. Similar to the way that purification at the gate of the Sacred Circle allows us to set aside the mundane worries of the day, the assumption of the HP/ S Mantle allows us to lessen the effect of our personal agendas, personality, and personal preferences when acting in service of the coven. Of course, all of what we are is still present, but the mantle helps us to pull the best of who we are forward to serve.

Even a well-charged and developed mantle, however, cannot always compensate for a lack of counseling skills and a lack of education about group process. It is essential that anyone aspiring to leadership of any kind of group get educated about basic counseling skills, group dynamics, process, facilitation and stages of group evolution. Our tradition believes in this to such an extent that it is a requirement of 3 rd degree initiation.

Covens are places of spiritual exploration and those spirits are incarnated as humans -at least this time around! We are very social creatures of the manifest world. We have our love affairs and fights, hurt feelings and arrogant moments, playful moments and traumas. Some of our lessons can only be learned through relationships. No matter how needed, some lessons are not going to be welcome or pleasant. And even the most positive experiences can be destabilizing -must be to shake the status quo.

Leadership must be able to see which of these events is a necessary part of the group process and which are destructive to the overall health of the coven. Without

some awareness of what is normal and necessary conflict, leadership can over react to every mini-drama and/ or overlook a sore that needs to be lanced to heal.

Groups will grow and shrink. Members will leave with hugs and kisses. Others will leave in a storm. Some will be asked to leave. Others will struggle to make it all work out. It is the job of leadership to maintain a core of stability and continuity, to reinforce the vision and the purpose of the coven, and to provide guidance and patience when needed.

Many groups fall apart at the first signs of conflict/ discontent because their leadership has no sense of what is normal in group process and/ or have no skills to manage the conflict. Growth is often painful. Some-times, even when the lessons are vitally important and healthy, they can feel like a forced march through the desert. Persis-tence of leadership is often what gets everyone to the oasis.

What lends leadership persistence and helps get them through the desert?; The support of other leadership. That is why our covens are always lead by a HP and an HPS. It helps to get a balanced male and female point of view. It helps to work as a team united in service to the coven. It helps to have someone to help you vent, so you do not do it inappropriately in front of the coven (Yes. HP/ HPS's are human too.)

As mentioned earlier, the pathway of leadership is another kind of initiation. Lessons abound on the nature of power and authority, confidence and arrogance, magick, faith and worship, the right to lead, the rights of the individual spirit and the health of the group as a whole… the list can be very long! And when the lesson being taught is really one for the HP or HPS, a good partner can provide the often needed reality check.

Jim Dickinson (Gaelan) began his pagan life with the Keepers of the Holly Chalice (celebrating its 18 th year), is the founding High Priest of the Coven of the Rowan Star (celebrating its 10 th year), and founding High Priest of the newest coven forming within the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, The Guardians of the Windsword -which he expects will be equally long-lived.

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