2

Whence Came Covens?

[Wicca is] for those who have become enchanted by the moon shining through the trees; who have begun to investigate the sublime world that lies out beyond the fabric of daily life, and who stand in smoke-shrouded circles, raising aloft their hands to greet the Goddess and the God as the candles flicker on the altar . . . for those who, through choice or circumstance, meet with the Silver Lady and the Horned God alone.

—Scott Cunningham, Living Wicca

 

 

 

Dr. Margaret Alice Murray (1863–1963), according to Michael Jordan, was “a pioneer in the study of a subject which had, hitherto, been virtually devoid of academic research.” That subject was Witchcraft. Margaret Murray was born in Calcutta, India, on July 13, 1863. At the age of thirty-one she entered University College, London. Her main interest was in archaeology but at that time it was difficult for a woman to receive an advanced degree in the subject, so instead she obtained a degree in linguistics. This in turn led her to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics and to specializing in Egyptology. She joined Sir Flinders Petrie in his excavations at Abydos, in Egypt. Then, in 1899, she became a Fellow and then a junior lecturer in Egyptology. She remained at University College, as an Assistant Professor, until her retirement in 1935.

The works of Sir James Frazer led Murray to take an interest in Witchcraft, which she eventually came to view as possibly being a pre-Christian pagan religion. She studied the records of the Witch trials during the persecutions and, in 1921, published her findings in the book The Witch Cult in Western Europe. There she proposed that Witchcraft was not merely a product of the Christian Church of the Middle Ages but had, in fact, been a religion in its own right. Its adherents, she said, formed into groups known as “covens.” Although Sir James Frazer, in The Golden Bough (1890), had discussed the possible prehistoric origins of Witchcraft rituals (he made no mention of covens), and Charles Godfrey Leland in his book Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches (1899), had examined the workings of Italian Witches, no one had previously done the detailed examination that Murray did, nor drawn quite the same conclusions. She referred to the cult as a “Dianic” one (as did Leland), centering on the worship of the goddess Diana. According to Murray, evidence from the trials showed an organization of groups led by a male leader, who was regarded by the Christian chroniclers as the Devil. She saw connections to Witchcraft in all strata of society. Such conclusions, by a scholar of some note, caused a minor sensation. Many were quick to dismiss her findings out of hand. Others were just as quick to join forces with her. In 1931 she published a complementary volume, The God of the Witches, that looked more closely at the male deity, a horned god, and attempted to trace back the origins of the pagan cult to Palæolithic times.

The historical view is that what is now known as Witchcraft was the Old Religion, embracing presumably theology, occult powers, and ceremonial rituals . . . and which was driven underground by the onslaught of the emergent Church and associated power politics.

—Justine Glass, Witchcraft: The Sixth Sense—and Us

Murray remains a controversial figure, yet much of what she uncovered, from the records of the early Witchcraft trials, was valid. It’s impossible to read her first two books on the subject without acknowledging that there is a core of truth to her theory of Witchcraft being an organized, pre-Christian, pagan religion. Her argument for covens was weak but the evidence from the trials was genuine. Many of her detractors are nowhere near as qualified as she was herself. In the mid-1950s, she was the president of the prestigious Folk-Lore Society, and she received a number of academic honors.

In the trial of Bessie Dunlop, in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1567, there is the first mention of a coven, with Bessie speaking of there being five men and eight women in her group. However, she didn’t actually use the word “coven.” That was not used until the trial of Isobel Gowdie, in Auldearne, in 1662. At that trial the specific number of thirteen for the group was given. Murray claimed that “the number in a coven never varied, there were always thirteen,” but it seems she made the figures fit her theories. In 1932 Cecil L’ Estrange Ewen “checked over the corresponding figures for the alleged covens for England and found the lady’s (Murray’s) groups of thirteen had in each case been obtained by an unwarranted omission, addition, or inconcinnous disposition.” However, later writers such as Montague Summers picked up on Murray’s words and referred to covens of thirteen.

This degeneracy of the legal system, the taking of evidence of children, the tricks to obtain confessions, and the bland acceptance of evidence of flying, shape-shifting and familiars, was to continue until the fanaticism of Protestantism purged itself in bloodshed and regicide. Because most of the educated classes believed in witches the judges and magistrates did not dispense justice, but rather administered procedures which had as little connection with normal criminal procedures as those of the Inquisition when witchcraft cases were involved.

—Ronald Holmes, Witchcraft in History

Today many modern Wicca groups feel that the only “valid” way for a Witch to work is in a coven. Yet, as was shown in chapter 1, there is absolutely no reason why coven working should be considered any more valid than solitary working. That covens are here to stay is definite and the majority of today’s Witches seem to prefer them. But the tradition of the Witch alone is far older and, although in many ways it is a more difficult path to tread, it is equally as satisfying. Solitary Witchcraft is the oldest form of Witchcraft. Solitaries are Witches in their own right; they are not simply working alone until such time as they can locate and join a coven. Despite today’s emphasis on covens, there is a place, if not a need, for solitary Witches.