--by Jim Dickenson

It is often repeated that the average coven lasts only 2 years. I have heard many stories of covens that formed and fell apart even faster. Why is this true? It is not a lack of good intentions. Most of the time, it is not a lack of love and respect for God and Goddess. Why doesn’t a group of basically good-hearted, well-intended people become a lasting coven?

I think you already know that the answer to such a seemingly easy question is not easy at all. A coven is like any other group in this way - it is the sum of its members’ baggage, gifts, hurts, victories, skills, ignorance - and everything else that they have carried in with them. What can make a coven different than almost any other group is the potential it has for focusing and blending the indi-vidual and collective natures of its members to evolve the Spirit of both.

So… Lets start with what at first glance also seems like a simple question: Why do you want to form a coven?

What is your primary motivation for wanting to practice Wicca in a group? There are many answers to this question and none of them are wrong. (Be prepared. I am not generally P.C. nor afraid of my own judge-ments/ discernment. This may be the last time that you see that sentence in this series of articles.) The vital thing here is that you be crystal clear and conscious of your motivations. Your actions will be based on these motivations, truths, regardless of how conscious or unconscious you are of them.

If your primary motivation(s) for wanting to form a coven are to meet a need to have a ‘family’, a mechanism for forming intimate relationships that you do not have in other places in your life, to ‘belong’ somewhere, to have friends with which to process your work life or family-of-origin, - or any similar need - it is plain and simple. You will not succeed in forming a coven. (I warned you.) Your needs will be better met by social groups, support groups, dating, improving or forgiving relationships with your families-of- origin, forming families-of-choice and, sometimes, by good counseling. If you attempt to form and lead a coven around these needs, it will gradually morph into one of the groups mentioned above because they meet your need with less real work/ leadership. Members will become disillu-sioned, expecting a spiritual group and getting something quite different, and your coven will die before ever really becoming a coven.

If your primary motivation is based in wanting to meet other like-minded people, to have others to discuss study topics with, to find support for being a solitary wiccan/ witch in the mundane world, to get valida-tion for how much you have learned, or form a political/social activist group - or similar needs - you may succeed in forming a coven, but it is likely to die quickly. It is also unlikely to have meaningful or lasting effects on its members. Your needs would probably be better met by informal study groups, attending esoteric gatherings, joining e-groups, etc.

If your primary motivations for forming a coven is to share the experience of a growing relationship with Divinity, to benefit from the synergy of shared ritual to achieve work that is difficult to achieve as a solitary, to learn about the larger world within a microcosm of the mundane world transformed within a spiritual context - all aimed at refinement and evolution of the soul/spirit - you may succeed in forming a long lived coven that has meaningful impact on its members.

What the third case has that the first two do not is a core of motivation organized around something larger-than-life, an ideal of spiritual evolution that if pursued with will, honesty and openness can inspire the mind, heart, body, and soul. That core contains the concept of alignment with Divine will. Connecting the coven to an eternal source of inspiration is the best way to help balance the mundane challenges that present themselves in (and often undo) any group of humans - including covens.

Make no mistake, if you have unresolved feelings in any of the areas mentioned earlier in this article (and who doesn’t?), they will all be stimulated, even magnified, as a by-product of placing yourself within the context of a coven. In fact, it is almost required that these issues be stimulated in order to create sufficient motivation and/or discomfort to encourage adaptation, growth,evolution and maturation of coveners (ourselves).

However, if these issues become the primary focus of the group, it will die. Or worse yet, persist as some form of amateur, co-dependant, support/therapy group that allows (even supports) its members to avoid growth altogether. Such a group will often attempt to use emotional co-dependency as the glue to bind itself together - through mutual paralysis. The only growth that occurs is for those who recognize that they need to leave such a group in order to move forward.

It is the pursuit of an enhanced relationship with the divine, the eternal, the larger-than-life that provide the insight, inspiration, and power necessary to evolve in all other areas of life. This insight, inspiration and power is meant to be taken away from the coven and applied to living in accord with Divinity. You cannot eat the honey while it is still in the hive, cannot drink the wine if it is still in the bottle, cannot live the lesson while sitting in the classroom. With rare exceptions, the coven is not supposed to become your life. The coven is a magickal, spiritual working group to foster spiritual growth to aid you in living more fully.

The irony is that, if you are successful in keeping this higher focus for your coven, all these other very important needs will be met - in a more mature and fulfilling way than ever before.

Jim Dickinson (Gaelan) began his pagan life with the Keepers of the Holly Chalice, (celebrating its 18th year), is the founding High Priest of the Coven of the Rowan Star (celebrating its 10th 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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