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  • Coven Structure

    It is to my understanding, traditionally (within the traditions of Wicca), that the HPS (High Priestess) has the ultimate authority within a coven because she is considered to be Goddess incarnate/more closely linked to Goddess energy. However is it permissible that a HP (High Priest) hold leadership above the High Priestess within a coven?

    What are your feelings on this?

    Though I may be male, I feel much more like I walk the grey between God and Goddess energy (I am gay).

    Just curious about other's experiences with this dynamic in coven life.

  • #2
    Re: Coven Structure

    Wicca is just a fraction of Paganism. Seeing as you describe yourself as Eclectic pagan, you should have the liberty to create your own structure for coven, or adapt an already existing one to suit your needs, goals, and beliefs.

    I am a lone practitioner, though I do search to integrate, or form a coven, but sadly there are not people in my area that I know of that show my beliefs.

    Best advice I can give for covens is that you should gather regularly. Not forcibly often, but regularly. Also, all members should fully commit; this means that all members have to be present at every gathering, if possible. If someone doesn't assist to a gathering because he isn't motivated enough, either the coven activities or gatherings are not interesting or satisfying enough, or the person has lost interest in the coven in a more general way. Best course of action is that the leader(s) take the initiative to ask this person the motives of their absence and see if any solution can be attained.

    Good luck in your search!

    Check out my blog! The Daily Satanist

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    • #3
      Re: Coven Structure

      It really depends on the coven. In the coven I was in while in college, the HPS and HP were ritual roles which any 2nd or 3rd degree could carry out. The coven "leader" was chosen by consensus--along with other "positions" (though it was all pretty informal)...each person had a different role on the basis of their interests and skills.
      “You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom

      “We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
      ~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

      "We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
      ~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

      "Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett

      Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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      • #4
        Re: Coven Structure

        Originally posted by TheHangedMan View Post
        It is to my understanding, traditionally (within the traditions of Wicca), that the HPS (High Priestess) has the ultimate authority within a coven because she is considered to be Goddess incarnate/more closely linked to Goddess energy. However is it permissible that a HP (High Priest) hold leadership above the High Priestess within a coven?

        What are your feelings on this?

        Though I may be male, I feel much more like I walk the grey between God and Goddess energy (I am gay).

        Just curious about other's experiences with this dynamic in coven life.
        It depends on the tradition that you are working with. Because honestly, I think that this is purely a tradition/path thing, not an inherent energy thing.

        Personally, I think that the idea that a woman is closer to Goddess energy and therefore more suited to leading a coven is sexist BS. I really don't see why a woman should be 'better' in this respect... unless your particular tradition values women more than men.

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