Customer Reviews

Wicca Covens: How to Start and Organize Your Own

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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

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.

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!

If you are in a coven, read this. If you are thinking of joining a coven, read this. If you are thinking of starting and/or leading a coven, use this book to beat yourself about the head and shoulders with!

Seriously, Judy's contributions to the pagan community are many. She has a counseling website that is amazing, but this book is hands-down the best on this subject. She has absolutely "been there, done that" and I am sure her T-shirt is old, too.

Running any group is difficult, but when you throw religion into the mix... it is threetimes as difficult. It hits you mentally, spiritually and physically. Harrow's book is like having an elder friend to turn to when times get rough. She goes into group dynamics and interpersonal relating as well.

My copy will probably have to be replaced because I know I am wearing it out.

because the title of the book is not actually what the book is about. A better title would be something like: Group Dynamics In Wiccan Covens And How To Deal With Interpersonal Conflicts In A Wiccan Coven.
The part of this book that includes an evaluation of how dangerous a given group is was quite funny. Turns out that the the mainstream religions are far more "cult-like" than Wicca. So when you tell someone you're a Wiccan and they tell you that you belong to a cult, give them a copy of the evaluation form in this book, and watch 'em squirm, at least if they evaluate their own religion honestly! This book is an absolutely essential book for coven leaders, and members, to read. Along with Covencraft by Amber K, which IS about the nitty-gritty, day-to-day stuff on how to start, organize and run a coven and Inside A Witches Coven by Edain McCoy, which is a wonderful book in helping a person decide if they should join a coven or not, these three books contain invaluable information.
I cannot stress enough the need to find out everything you can about coven life before you decide to join or start one! Speaking from personal experience, when everything is working being in a coven is of the best experiences a Witch can have. When everything is not working out, being in a coven is one of the most painful experiences a Witch can have.
These books will make you think of things you would probably not have thought about on your own. Don't be naive enough to assume that all Witches will act ethically and kindly all the time, lest you end up sifting through the wreckage of a group you helped found!
All three of these books should be in any coven's library! Thank Goddess I found them and the three of us are who are left are now in the process of rebuilding our group.

Judy's book is an excellent resource for both the self-created as well as lineaged Coven leader.

Focusing on real-life concerns such as determining training outline content, group dynamics, fascilitating individual & group growth, *Wicca Covens* helps give the group leader workable tools to use to in helping them develop their own teaching style & more efficiently guide their own students towards their own goals.

Definately no "canned" training outlines here!

A must read for anyone either presently or soon-to-be running a training group.

Great job Judy!

Harrow's book, together with Isaac Bonewit's Cult Danger Evaluation Form <www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html> helped me shape my incredibly difficult decision to leave my disfunctional coven.

Harrow gives us an excellent overview of what a coven member should expect in terms of ethics, and well-functioning group dynamics. It should be mandatory reading for every HP and HPS, and equally so for every wannabe.

If things aren't working for you in your Pagan circle or coven, read this book, and you can find tools to help it run better. Or to raise your consciousness about when it's time to hit the road.

You won't find practical magic or spells in this book. But you will find a well thought-out analysis of what makes Pagan groups work well together.

There are a couple of good books on the market that deal with Wicca Covens, and in my opinion there are not enough.

While a lot of Covens cover within their own group their own rules and such regarding how their covens are structured and formed, those outside the coven structure are sadly lacking in the necessary teaching, information and skills needed to undertake such a project.

Judy Harrow presents here an in depth book dealing with the formation, principles and workings of a Coven. From starting a coven to dealing with individuals within the Coven group to deciding when to meet or how to perform ritual together, it is all discussed in a grown up manner with a common sense approach to the problems and day to day workings.

There are way too many people out there who are calling their group a "Coven" only to have someone realize they are nothing more than a working group. And there are those out there who really do want to create a working coven, and need a guide to help them put it all together. Many people do not know what a real coven should look and feel like. This book can help clarify a lot of these questions.

No one book will contain all the answers or have everything you need to be completely assured of a successful coven. But this book covers much ground in the practical approach to forming a Coven. If you are taking the first steps, or think you have a coven and are not sure, or looking for experiences from someone who has been in a coven, this book can certainly help you out.

This book covers some very important subjects for coveners and those who run covens. While Amber K's book covers the how to, this book covers what is arguably more important - how not to, and what to do when things don't go the way the how to books say they should. After all, witches are people too. These two books would likely work well as a set (doesn't have to be an either/or thing). You may need some advice on how to set up a BOS, what to do about dues and so on, but when things get rough, which can sometimes happen, you need the kind of information that is in this book. Additionally, you get not just the author's input, but those of elders who are respected by the community as well. All in all, this is a wonderful book.

Excellent book,Judy Harrow has written everything out in an easy to read, easy to follow and understand form. Answers every question you could think of when it comes to starting and organizing a coven. Would highly recommend for anyone thinking of starting a coven or just generally curious about the inner workings of a coven.