Wicca Covens [Paperback]

JUDY HARROW (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2000

A wiccan high priestess with a master's degree in counseling offers real-life case studies and examples of what has worked--and what hasn't--in forming a coven.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (June 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806520353
• ISBN-13: 978-0806520353
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #541,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book by One Who Was There, March 2, 1999

By 

"rosemary_edghill" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicca Covens (Paperback)

This is a long-needed book about coven leadership - not Magic Power of Witchcraft, not spells to make you Goddess of the Office, and not another rehash of the Atlantean Grandmother Tradition of Sacred Memory.

What makes WICCA COVENS a particularly powerful book is that Judy was =there= almost from the very beginning of the New York NeoPagan scene. She speaks and writes from over two decades of experience as a priestess, healer, and facilitator. I am seriously looking forward to spending many many hours with this book, but I wanted to rave about it now. I'm convinced it will save a lot of people from making painful mistakes, both in seeking out a coven and in running one.

I guarentee this is one book that will be on Bast's reading list.

--Rosemary Edghill

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The psychology of running a coven, November 7, 2000

By 

Kirsten M. Houseknecht "Practice is the midwi... (philadelphia, pa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wicca Covens (Paperback)

Wicca Covens, by Judy Harrow (of Proteus Coven), is not a step by step book on how to set up a working group, study group, or coven, whatever the subtitle may imply. What it *is* is a book of coven dynamics, psychology, and all the other messy parts of running and being in a coven, that you hope you will never deal with, but you will.

Judy Harrow has a background in psychology and human relationships, and that is the main focus of the book. It covers a great deal that will be needed by anyone working in a group with the strong personal ties that any religious and work group will form.

Most of this book covers how to deal with loss, with growth, what kind of parent/child or teacher/student relationships may form, and how to deal with them. In addition it covers some magical and practical matters such as: picking the right kind of group for you, finding a working method you can work with, and the drawbacks and advantages of different styles of leadership. The sections on dealing with the coven member's problems, the press, the public, the prima donna, and other chronic issues, will be useful to any member of any coven.

The book is drawn mostly from the personal experiences of the author, with comentary on "how to handle problems" and "what happened to me" from several other coven leaders and elders. Many times the disagreements of these sources about how to handle particular problems, what to teach in what order, etc. is just as informative as when they agree. Many of them contributed ritual, prayers, and other liturgy which are scattered through the book.

I would suggest this book as an *addition* to Amber K's book "Covencraft", which I recommend for more of the 'nuts and bolts' of forming a coven or working group, and which I consider a required book to read before trying to form a coven. These two books together would form a very useful set of books on any coven leaders shelf.

In the interest of fairness, I must state that I know a few of the pagan leaders quoted in this book, and consider several of them to be close friends; I have tried not to let this bias my recommendation of the book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should Become a Classic Text of Its Field, March 23, 1999

By 

strega2 "strega2" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wicca Covens (Paperback)

Wiccan High Priestess and professional counselor Judy Harrow has contributed a long-needed and valuable book for the Wiccan community. In a lucid, articulate style that makes her book a pleasure to read, she draws on her many years of expertise in both fields to provide a textbook for spiritual groups that operate within a small structure. Her grasp of the dynamics of group work is formidable, and explained in a format that is accessible to any non-professional. She offers many valuable pointers for group leaders--such as defining the important difference between pastoral and psychotherapeutic counseling, and how to avoid overlap--as well as defining possible pitfalls and offering commonsense solutions. The book is enriched by the voices of her students, many of them coven leaders today. I'm a professional counselor myself, and would highly recommend this book to anyone working with small groups of any kind. Bravo, Judy!