Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft: Family Coven?

Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft: Family Coven?

Last updated on: November 4, 2013 at 3:12 pm by Lydia MN Crabtree

Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft: Family Coven? 2013-11-04T15:12:57+00:00 Lydia MN Crabtree

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Firmly ensconced in my new home office, I hear Nathaniel and Sam downstairs watching YouTube, and I am reminded why I wanted a ranch style home – everything on one level. I mull over the idea buckling down to work instead of going downstairs, but eventually, I decide that the trip is avoidable. I venture down and ask Nathan about this column.

“So, I’m writing about Family Coven, and I need to talk it through with someone.”

Nate crosses the living room in his wheelchair and turns off the Xbox, then wheels to face me. “OK. Shoot.”

Taking in his battered body from a motorcycle accident just a few weeks ago, I watch him wind and unwind the bandage around his arm several times while I talk through the ideas I have for this column. Eventually, I send Sam up for the box of ace bandages from when Sam had his accident with a mountain and broke his foot. Pretty soon Sam and I have outfitted Nathan with a new bandage that is clean and fits better than the one Nathan was worrying. Talk then turns to dinner: the smells that only crockpot pot roast can provide are wafting through the house. We playfully argue with Sam about setting the table before Tony, my husband, gets home.

I begin a game of fetch with Ziek, an eleven-month-old terrier mix, all black, gray and white. Alice, the five-year-old service lab mix, takes up residence in the only patch of sunlight streaming through the windows on this October evening. Her red and tan coat shimmers in the light, her black and red service vest easily stretching as she makes herself comfortable. She watches my game with Ziek, ever mindful of whether or not I will need her. Ziek, still in training, plays fetch as reward for going through various commands that Nathan has been working with him on. He has all the enthusiasm and energy of the puppy he is, and he is given the latitude puppies always get. Occasionally he is on the couch crawling all over myself or Sam, getting plenty of attention to make up for his day all alone with only Nathan as a companion. Through all this discussion and activity, no one leaves the comfort of the living room, including Alice and Ziek, until we hear the garage door open announcing Tony’s return from work.

Sam, with all the piss and vinegar of a 15-year-old, jumps up and runs toward the dining room, declaring he is going to set the table before Tony can unload his car and get back into the house. Without as much urgency or energy, Nathan and I head into the kitchen to gather drinks and condiments and arrange the crock pot on the table.

For a brief moment after the chaos of dinner prep, we all bow our heads and I repeat my sister Sarah’s prayer for a meal:

“Lord and Lady, thank you for our food and all our many blessings. So mote it be.”

We have a brief hand squeezing contest and then launch into our meal, everyone a little grateful that this meal was actually prepared hours before — we just have to sit and consume. Talk begins with an analysis of Sam’s day at school and his afterschool volunteering for Chorus. Tony talks about visiting the latest church he is creating a sound and video system for; Nathan talks about who called him and how much sleep he got during the day, since he is still recovering from the two surgeries required to mend the damage caused when mini-van met him on a motorcycle.

Soon the conversation turns to thoroughly exploring hot sauces, the hottest foods we have ever eaten, where and when they were consumed. We talk about flirting and how you know when you are being flirted with, leading Nathan to reminisce about being single in Japan while wearing a Navy uniform.

“Navy uniform and single, not a bad way to be,” I comment with a wink and grin.

“Single sound engineer in cowboy boots at a different bar every couple of weeks, not a bad way to be either,” counters my husband with a wink and grin of his own, referring to his five years as the front of house sound engineer when he was in his early twenties.

This gets the teenager going, and we discuss women and dating, which leads us to a comparison of exotic dancers and waitresses at Hooters and the Tilted Kilt. This conversation turn comes by some chauvinistic statements Sam made off the cuff. Eventually Nathan and Tony call Sam’s bull and dinner begins to break up. Everyone chips in: clearing the dishes, putting away condiments, and storing the rest of the roast for pulled pork sandwiches the next night. When it’s obvious the boys have everything under control, I take Tony’s computer bag and make my way back to my office to sit down. Then, I begin what I had run from about an hour and a half earlier, this new column here on Agora about Family Covens and Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft.

Just as I begin to type, Alice comes in and lays at my feet, and Sam pops his body in the doorway.

“Hey mamma, ‘Distraction, distraction, distraction, distraction.’” Every distraction is punctuated with jazz hands blinking my direction. I smile, and he settles a bit and then says, “Good luck with that article.”

As he turns to leave, he passes Tony who comes in to set up at his station behind mine, saying, “I guess we will figure out how well this new office configuration is going to work, since I have drawings to complete.” I just nod and smile and think….

THIS IS FAMILY COVEN. These every day, ordinary moments, these are the building blocks that give birth to hereditary witchcraft.

When a house is set up as a temple to the gods, and the persons who have been charged with the safe keeping of those within that temple honor divinity in what they say and do, hereditary witchcraft flows through every connection created in that temple.

We birth our hereditary witchcraft in these little rituals: prayers of thanksgiving before food, an encouragement of group effort in clean-up, support for each other in our endeavors. We birth hereditary witchcraft with our discussions: the differences in how men and women are viewed directly related to their choice of vocation; the differences in how men and women relate from flirtation to serious issues; an easy acceptance that all acts of love and pleasure are of the goddess, when done with due diligence and respect by the use of safer sex practices. Even a discussion about the shock and awe around something fiery hot and created from the earth is a building block of strong family coven and a paving stone for hereditary witchcraft.

I think I sought Nathan out early this evening because I tend to break down Family Coven and the practice of Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft into clinical and academic explanations. Yet this seems to miss the mark at times. I have thoroughly done my research and vetted my ideas with other family covens around the United States and Canada. But explanation of what Family Coven is seems to fall incredibly short of what actually happens in a family coven.

In coming columns, I will give the academic, magical and psychological reasons why Family Coven is a powerful way to view your family. I will discuss tips and tricks. I will tackle the hard issues around Family Covens with multiple spiritual paths, blended family units and dealing with extended family groups, as well as schools, clubs, and society.

Through all this, I will strive to remember this evening in October when I sat down to write my first column for Agora. This evening held within a few hours all the things I hold sacred about Family Coven. As you read my column, I hope you will remember that Family Coven is not something you take up as a new challenge or a new way of living; it is the opposite. It is more about how you integrate ideas around spirituality, emotional security, raising children, defining family, and defining social justice and privilege (including the differences in sexes and sexual orientation) into the daily act of living.

It is a million little conversations you have with those with whom you share food, shelter and resources with to survive. It is using those conversations to push your family beyond survival and into spiritual thriving, growing, and developing. It is achieving and accepting that every being in your home, including yourself, is sacred and an accurate reflection of the Divine. That makes playing with the animal pet, setting the table, eating a meal, conversing with family members, cleaning up afterwards and breaking up to go and do the work of living all acts Divinely inspired, divinely led and divinely fulfilled.

Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft is published on alternate Mondays. Subscribe via RSS or e-mail!

Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft

Columns

Family & Household Practice

hereditary witchcraft

Pagan

Paganism

witchcraft

Previous Post

November 2, 2013

Naturalistic Traditions: Were the Ionian philosophers naturalistic?

Next Post

November 5, 2013 Paths of Power: Interview with Sable Aradia

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many people did Jesus feed with five loaves of bread and two fish?

Select your answer to see how you score.

500 2,500 5,000 1,000