Introduction

Covens and other kinds of magickal groups, including study groups, fraternal lodges, and churches, serve various purposes. How can we describe these purposes? I propose the following broad categories:

• Community
• Teaching
• Worship
• Magick
• Initiation

Below, when I say “pagan” I mean generally those who follow non-Christian paths (e.g., the same use as in Pagan Pride Day). When I say “mainstream churches” I mean Christian churches in 21st century America.

Community

Fellowship

Fellowship includes the breaking of bread, sharing of meals, and spending time with one another. This topic is covered well by pot-lucks, community events, conventions, and festivals (e.g., Pagan Pride Day, which is held in many cities across the country). This is a kind of community that involves members of the group helping, supporting, and caring for other members of the group.

Service

Service is an outward-facing kind of community, where members of the group interact with and provide help to non-member of the group. This is often done through volunteer service, food banks, and soup kitchens, but can also involve open invitations to non-members to share in public ritual and in sacred spaces. Mainstream churches, Masonic lodges (and other fraternal organizations), and magickal lodges all have a long history of providing community service.

Teaching

Teaching in mainstream churches includes “Sunday School” and “Bible Study”, which promulgate a fixed symbolic language and dogma.

As pagans we don’t have dogma, but we do have a lot more to teach. Covens and lodges will often have classes on various topics. These topics include, but are not limited to, divination (e.g., tarot or astrology), the making of magickal tools (e.g., amulets, talismans, candles), various pagan philosophies, and governance.

Worship

Because I want to draw a distinction between “worship” and “magick” later in this document, I’d like to restrict “worship” in this section to mean religious devotion. Worship can be done communally with open ritual, but it can also be done personally, one-on-one with deity.

Think of a church or a chapel that’s empty of people, but that is filled with the signs and symbols of a goddess or god. We might enter this sacred space and pray, speaking our thoughts to deity. We might bring offerings of flowers or light a candle. This is what I mean by worship.

As pagans, we might have an altar dedicated to a deity, covered with the signs and symbols of this deity, and we might stand or kneel in front of this altar to pray, to give honor and thanks, or to ask for favors. We might provide offerings of flowers, candles, incense, wine, or liquor. This is also what I mean by worship.

Magick

Sacraments

One broad definition of “magick” is that three key elements are required: intention, a sacrament, and an action on that sacrament.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sunday Mass has a sermon by the priest during which he defines the weekly intention of the congregation. After this, the priest performs the miracle of transubstantiation, fixing that intention into the host, which becomes the sacrament. Then all the members of the congregation consume the host, taking into themselves the intention.

This basic formula is followed in many pagan rituals as well. I’ve participated in rituals where every person determined their own intention, wrote it down on a piece of paper (the sacrament), and then burned the paper (the action). Alternatively, everyone tied knots of their own intention into a piece of string (making it the “sacrament”) and then wore that string as a bracelet until it fell off (an action that lasted days or weeks, serving during that time as a reminder of the original intention).

Pagans have many options for sacrament creation, both concrete (e.g., bread, paper, chocolate) or abstract (e.g., the Cone of Power); and many options for action (e.g., burning, burying, eating; or, in the case of the Cone of Power, sending the energy raised to a person or a place).

Spirits

Another definition of “magick” is that the conjuration, evocation, or invocation of a spirit or deity is required. This happens during the Roman Catholic mass and in mainstream church services.

For pagans, this also happens during the Drawing Down the Moon ritual, during simple banishing rituals that call archangels by name, during more complicated angelic or Goetic rituals, and during rituals that invite possession (e.g., some Vodoun rituals). The key requirement being that an “other” is called by name and is expected to be present during the ritual.

Requests are made of the spirit (or spirits) called, perhaps to charge an object (e.g., a sacrament), to teach, or to influence reality in some way.

Initiation

“Initiation” means some kind of “rite of passage” that marks maturity or acceptance.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation are all initiations that mark the entrance of the congregate into a more privileged group. The initiation marks progress of both age and learning.

Similarly, in Masonic and other fraternal traditions, initiations change people from “outsiders” to “insiders” in various ways, again often involving a period of learning that is required prior to the initiation.

Initiations may also have a magickal element, as seen in magickal lodges, such as the Golden Dawn, where the goal of initiation is not only to mark acceptance into the group, but also to place specific intention into the candidate (who, using the model from the previous section, becomes the “sacrament”). These rituals often involve spirits or deities, and often require a period of study or contemplation for weeks or months after the ritual.