Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169991 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
This title contains spells and rituals for celebrations marking the seasons and festivals of the year, as well as a wealth of other information about magic for the initiated or the beginner alike. It should be a useful guide for anyone who wants to perform seasonal spells and is a follow-up and next step in the'Real Witches' series, providing a full year's working in the Craft. The book should appeal not only to those who have purchased other titles in the series, but to anyone, from "Sabrina" fans, to serious witches.

From the Publisher
The Real Witches’ Coven is the only book available that tells you everything you need to know about how to start and run a coven (a meeting of witches). If you’ve read a general introduction to the Craft and immediately want to start a coven now, then read this book first.

Customer Reviews

It's a Coven, Jim, but not as some of us know it......
If I were new to witchcraft and looking for a coven, this would certainly put me off. The High Preistess is apparently expected to act like a bossy school marm, and the coven members (call them what you will) must ask her permission to work magic, must show her their Book of Shadows, do their homework, learn their rituals, not talk about witchcraft outside of the group...... well, you get the idea.

If they misbehave, they will Be Punished -- anything from doing the washing up after a sabbat to receiving a dose of The Scourge (oddly enough, apparently, lots of them prefer that, but when you learn that the scourge consists of cords or ribbons, you begin to wonder if this isn't some kind of "in" joke.)

Kate West admits that she trained with Gardnerians and Alexandrians, so this probably explains some of the rituals -- and there are far too many detailed here.

If you're planning to run a coven, you should be a sensible adult, you'll know most of the advice given here already and, if you haven't got your own rituals worked out, what are you doing planning to teach/help others? You shouldn't need a book.

If you don't know what coven life is like, read the book (from the library, perhaps)and then contemplate the fact that it isn't necessarily like this at all.

Sterile
Perhaps I just can't stand her style. But to me this book was devoid of any passion for the craft and failed to inspire at all. The way the author writes about ritals and rites at the beginning is irritating and made me want to put down the book before I had even started it. I have tried several times to read through this book and enjoy at least parts of it, but every time I have found it a task too difficult to accomplish. I think it's the way that her witchcraft practices seem so finite, like this is the way to cast a circle and it will be cast like this every single time. It's formal and dull. I was most dissapointed by the rituals side; all coven orientated, and all about rites of passage and initiations. I think that if a coven were to initiate a whatever degree witch, they'd make up their own, more personal spell, than take one directly from a book anyway. These coven spells took up half the book.

This book is no good for a solitary or a more spontaneous witch.

The Real Witches' Coven?
In regards to this book, the Farrar's 'The Witches Bible', includes a better understanding of the Coven. The Craft is a religion that uses rules as guidelines, rule one of Wicca Rituals and Covens is 'do what you feel is right'. In regards to this book, a reader interested in running/joining a coven would be well advised to consult the Farrar's or Doreen Valiente's book and forming their own opinions and rules for a coven, better still, find a coven and learn their rules.