I want to take a moment to post about a problem come to my attention today.
I met a girl at a local ecclectic shop who explained that she was pagan and in a coven almost right after giving me her name. I have no issue with people who identify themselves predominately by their belief systems, don't get me wrong, and I do find this very common among younger pagans.
I asked, with interest, what path their coven followed. She seemed quite confused so I rephrased and asked what religious beliefs the coven followed. She replied matter-of-factly, Wicca. I paused then asked, well, which path of Wicca? She continued to seem confused and then said, mostly just wicca and pagans.
I gave up on this line of questioning but the girl continued. We plan on getting a temple eventually. Our High Priest wants to make us wide spread, at least through Tennessee. First we have to get a coven house.
I asked what a coven house entailed.
She explaiend that one of her coven members was getting a large farm house, out away from town with hardly a neighbor that was large enough for the whole coven to live in.
At this point Damon had grown interested in the conversation and asked the girl how long she had been practicing.
She said she had been in paganism for only 3 months and that her High Priest had brought her into it by helping her get in touch with her abilities as an empath.
Now, I'm trying not to be critical of any coven or their practices but it seems strange to me to
1. initiate a young girl
2. collect and seclude the whole of the coven
3. concentrate, at an early stage of coven-hood, on widespread outreach for the coven
4. have a coven member who seems confused on the coven's basic doctrine
This seems bordering on cult-ishness. Maybe I'm wrong and have a skewed view as a solitairy pagan but the whole situation seemed uncomfortable to me.