Orior Per Consilium
..into the way of ancients..
~What an Occult is~
That which is hidden, Secret, or Esoteric. Psychic phenomena and supernormal influences, magic, and divination. The word is from the Latin occulere, meaning "to conceal". The subject of Witchcraft has fascinated people for thousands of years. In pre-christian and early christian times, witchcraft was viewed as what it was-an aspect of paganism practiced by the wiser of the common people who had knowledge of herbs, healing, augury, and magic. The very word "witch" comes from the Old Anglo-Saxon wicce or wicca, meaning a "wise one". For the first thousand years of christianity-the "new" religion of those times-witchcraft existed happily alongside it. In fact, many of the early christian priests served double duty, also being priests of the Old Religion and leaders of the pagan worshipers.
Religion and magic have been inexorably intertwined from humankind's very beginnings. Most religions even today have elements of magic within them. Witchcraft was not originally a religion in itself, but a practice. In western europe, the pagan religious beliefs incorporated belief in, in worship of, a god and goddess who were closely attuned to nature and to the earth itself. There were celebrations of the seasons, the passage of the sun, and the phases of the moon. Witchcraft practices were an integral part of that pagan religion.
It was not until the start of the second thousand years of christianity that witchcraft, and paganism generally, was painted in a bad light by the leaders of the New Religion. Having reached a saturation point where conversion was concerned, the early christian leaders decided that the way to promote what they saw as the "only true way" was to extinguish all other ways. To that end, anything non-christian was presented as anti-christian, therefore, undesirable. Paganism, and witchcraft, fell into this category.
~Coven; Covenstead; Covendom~
A group of Witches is referred to as a coven, from the word "convene." Within the Craft, a coven is a small group that meets together on a regular basis to practice their religion. To most members it is an extended family. In fact, many coven members feel far closer to their fellow coveners than they do to their own blood relatives. A coven is composed of Witches from one district or, perhaps, from just one family.
The word "Coven" was first mentioned in at the trial of Issobel Gowdie, one of the Auldearn (Scotland) Witches. Under questioning, Issobel said, "Jean Mairten is Maiden of owr Coeven...ther ar threttien persons in ilk Coeven...The last tyme owr Coeven met, we, and an vther Coeven, wer dauncing at the Hill of Earlseat..." (Robert Pitcairn Criminal Trials Edinburgh, ). There had been many references to groups of Witches before this was the first recorded use of the word. This was also the first time that thirteen was specified as the number of members of a coven, although that total could be found as early as 1567 in the trial of Bessie Dunlop. Bessie had spoken of five men and eight women in her group. Even earlier, in 1440, Gilles de Rais's group had been eleven men and two women. Indeed, although not necessarily mentioned at the trials during the persecutions frequently totaled thirteen. Margaret Murray made a case that at a majority of the Witch trials, membership in covens was said to number thirteen, but as others have pointed out, she tended to manipulate figures to support her theory. Thirteen was certainly mentioned in a number of the trial records, but not nearly as often as Murray suggested.
Certainly not every coven had to have thirteen members. At the Alloa trial, in 1658, Margret Duchall declared that there were seven women in her coven. Today, there is considerable variation in coven membership. Smaller covens are more common.
The size of a coven is constrained by the size of the meeting place. Traditionally, Witches meet in a circle nine feet in diameter, and thirteen is the maximum number of people one can squeeze into such an area with any degree of comfort. The circle can be increased in size to accommodate more participants, but this is not traditional and can create its own difficulties. When working magic, the relationship of the number of people to the size of the circle is important for building what is known as having a large group in a large circle may work well for a purely celebratory meeting, but if there is magic to do then a smaller number is better. If a coven has a large number of members, it is better to split them into two separate covens.
In some traditions, thirteen is the maximum number of members in a coven, but it includes an "inner circle" of Elders-those of high degree (where a degree system operates) and experience. They can number as high as eight. They make the major decisions affecting the coven and, perhaps, work the more strenuous magic.
The Coven is led by a High Priest and/or High Priestess. From the records of the early trials, it seems that the majority of groups at that time were led by a man, known as the Grand Master. To the judges of the trials he was equated with "the Devil". In cases in which he was identified, the local major landowner often filled the role. He would, however, have substitutes able to lead the individual groups in his absence. At the Grand Sabbats, where a number of covens would come together to celebrate, the substitutes would be known as "officers" when the Grand Master led the proceedings.
It is possible that organized covens came into being during the persecutions, allowing the persecuted Witches to meet with the security of numbers. Before then, Solitary Witches were common, as were smaller groups of family (hereditary) Witches, with larger groups coming together only for the festivals. During the Witch persecutions it was necessary for the "hard core" of the followers of the Old Religion to band together, and this was done in the form of covens.
Covens are autonomous. There is no central authority, no governing body or equivalent of the Roman Catholic Pope. Sometimes a number of covens do, over the years hive or branch out from a central one. The original coven's High Priestess then become known as a Witch Queen, or Queen of the Sabbat, ruling over her younger covens only if needed, and the newer covens would govern themselves. There are, then, no kings or queens of all Witches. At the Greater Sabbats, the covens stemming from one mother coven will frequently come together to celebrate, as was done in the past, with the Witch Queen-the High Priestess of the Mother Coven- playing the part attributed to the Grand Master in the even earlier days.