Coven Power–What It’s Really All About

by Veronica Cummer, author of Sorgitzak: Old Forest Craft

The center of any coven needs to be love. Love is the greatest magick, the greatest virtue any witch can ascribe to. Yes, witches are meant to be teachers and healers, to promote fertility of the land and of the community, to worship the Gods, but behind all those duties lies love. Behind all those responsibilities, must lie love.

But, sadly, some covens seem confused by this at times, perhaps because the witches within them are confused or, worst still, the High Priest and High Priestess. For this kind of love has nothing to do with power, at least not the sort of power having to do with being the voice of authority in a coven or being the center of its attentions. That kind of power or power-seeking stems from insecurity, particularly that of not knowing deep down inside who you are and why you are here.

One of the biggest obstacles towards this—besides a lack of a strong sense of self—is confusing divine love with other forms of love. Or confusing what isn’t even really love at all with love, which is the far greater problem. For divine love isn’t controlling, it isn’t envious, it isn’t tinged with regret or shame or anger or fear or based upon the idea of I’ll do this for you so you’ll do that for me.

Divine love is a gift. Divine love is being able to see and fully experience all of life and yet stand apart from it at the same time, to be able to stand in the center of your own being, the center of the Wheel, and not be pulled off balance. Divine love is the ecstasy of the Goddess. Divine love is the ecstasy of the God. Divine love with what They make together or, rather, what that symbolizes—a union that creates a greater whole than the sum of its parts.

Just as divine love is coming to be your own inmost divine self and learning to act out of the knowledge without fear in your heart. Something that every witch needs to come to and that covens as circles of witches bound together to a singular purpose need to express, as well. For each coven forms a Self, a living and conscious Spirit, and that Spirit also needs to know divine love at its core.

copyright © 2009 Veronica Cummer, all rights reserved.