Coven
Coven (old French covent, convent) is a name for a religious, mostly female community or gathering of up to thirteen active witches , also known as a witches' circle .
etymology
The term comes from the Latin convenire "to come together" and conventus "gathering" and arose as a variant of the archaic covin "fraud", "deception". In Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales , the term covent appears for a meeting of 13 people; in the witch trials of 1662 in Auldearn, Scotland, the term covine appears to describe the organization of witches; as Walter Scott mentions in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft of 1830, this can also be found in the name Covine tree for the tree in front of the castle, where its master received his guests. Montague Summers described the Coven as conventicles , conventicle '.
history
References to coven can be traced back to the 12th century in literature. John of Salisbury describes organized groups at the Witches' Sabbath , which, however, are nothing but deceptions created by the devil ; Germanus von Auxerre also referred to women roaming at night as such in a popular medieval story.
It was not until the Inquisition that the belief in the existence of such witch associations was taken seriously; accused witches were subjected to painful interrogation and forced to confess that they were members of secret, subversive organizations. The oldest reference to a coven in a witch trial dates back to 1324, when Alice Kyteler was accused of membership in a group of 13 in Kilkenny, Ireland. In the 16th and 17th centuries there are several confessions of having joined a coven. The concept of the coven was established until the end of the witch hunts in the early 1700s.
organization
Traditionally, a coven consists of 13 members, one of whom is the leader; There is, however, little historical evidence of this constant number of members, including only a few witch trials that could have been forced by inquisitors. In Cotton Mather's writings to the witch trials of Salem states that the witches would be organized in a form that closely resembled the church that they had a baptism, a communion, and officers who "horribly where our Lord would resemble" .
According to British anthropologist Margaret A. Murray, the leader of the Coven was the Grand Master, or revered deity, presumably a pagan horned deity who went to hell under the Inquisition. On the Sabbath, when the god or devil was personally present, the grand master became the board of directors. Each coven also has a summoner who secretly informs the members of the time and place of the next meeting. In addition, Coven is said to have had the high-ranking position of maiden , who mainly assisted the grandmaster and led the dance with him.
The covens are said to have been independent of one another, but connected to one another via a network; the witch trial of North Berwick According should Coven three have worked together to King James VI. to murder of Scotland ; however, there is a lack of evidence for such networks.
Many followers of the neo-pagan Wicca movement organize themselves in covens, but it can be assumed that an even larger number practice alone. The coven are not looking for members and do not accept every applicant. Usually, Wicca covens meet on the full moon for a ritual gathering, called Esbat . Gerald Brousseau Gardner saw 13 as the ideal membership, each coven should have six men and women (ideally couples) and a high priestess ; 13 is an ideal case, but not a strict rule.
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Ayto: Word Origins . Second edition. London: A&C Black Publishers Ltd 2005.
- ↑ Chembers 21 Century Dictionary . Revised edition. New Delhi: Allied Chambers. P. 312.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable . Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Rosemary Ellen Guiley: The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca . Third edition. New York: Visionary Living 2008, p. 75 ff.