MANAGERIAL WITCHCRAFT:

BALANCING ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS, SEEKERSHIP, AND STIGMA IN THE CULTIC

MILIEU

by

JEFFERY BENJAMIN PATTERSON

(Under the Direction of Mark Cooney)

ABSTRACT

One recurring factor in the study of cultic organizations is that they tend to be short-lived.

Based on observational and interview work with a Wiccan coven, Blackian conflict management

theories were used to analyze organizational factors which may contribute to the longevity of

organizations within Campbell’s cultic milieu. Significant conflict management strategies

identified were: efforts to maintain the privacy of group members, a general tolerance towards

within-group ideological diversity, moderate levels of intimacy and involvement between group

members, and a clearly explained but relatively flat hierarchy. This study contributes to the

sociological literature on organizational processes within the cultic milieu and lays a foundation

for more in depth studies of conflict management within cultic organizations in the future.

INDEX WORDS: Conflict, Religion, Organization, Cultic milieu, Wicca

MANAGERIAL WITCHCRAFT:

BALANCING ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS, SEEKERSHIP, AND STIGMA IN THE CULTIC

MILIEU

by

JEFFERY BENJAMIN PATTERSON

B.A., The University of Georgia, 2015

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree

MASTER OF ARTS

ATHENS, GEORGIA

2017

© 2017

Jeff Patterson

All Rights Reserved

MANAGERIAL WITCHCRAFT:

BALANCING ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS, SEEKERSHIP, AND STIGMA IN THE CULTIC

MILIEU

by

JEFFERY BENJAMIN PATTERSON

Major Professor: Mark Cooney

Committee: Joseph HermanowiczTom McNulty

Electronic Version Approved:

Suzanne BarbourDean of the Graduate SchoolThe University of GeorgiaDecember 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1

2 THE CULTIC MILIEU……………………………………………………………3

Cultic Taxonomies…………………………………………………………5

Seekership and the Cultic Milieu………………………………………….7

The Pagan Milieu………………………………………………………...10

Origins of Wicca………………………………………………………….11

The Coven………………………………………………………………..14

3 ANALYTIC STRATEGY………………………………………………………..21

Attraction-Selection-Attriton Model……………………………………..21

Blackian Theory of Conflict……………………………….……………..24

4 METHODS………………………………………………………….……………28

Data Collection…………………………………………….……………..29

Limitations…………………………………………………….………….31

5 FINDINGS – MILIEU AND ASA……………………………………………….33

Milieu Processes………………………………………………………….33

ASA Model……………………………………………………………….36

6 FINDINGS – BLACKIAN THEORY……………………………………………41

Exposure………………………………………………………………….42

iv

Closeness………………………………………………………...……….45

Stratification………………………………………………….……..……47

Diversity………………………………………………………………….50

7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION……………………………………………52

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..55

APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………………...60

A MORAL TIME…………………………………………………………………...60

v

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The cult is a long-recognized category of religious organization, with formal typologies

dating back to at least the early 20th century (Troeltsch [1931] 1992). However, dramatic mass

media portrayals of brainwashing, murder, and mass suicide have tainted the “cult” in a way that

the “church” and “sect” have largely avoided. This stigmatization has led some eminent scholars

to shy away from terminology evocative of the “cult” (see for example Richardson 1993), but the

individualistic expression of esoteric beliefs in the form of small, loosely organized groups

(Nelson 1968) is nevertheless an area of vital importance for the study of deviance, social

control, and social change. After all, it is from such “deviant” fringe groups that radical

environmentalism (Taylor 2002), ethnonationalism (Kaplan 2002), and even alternative medicine

(York 1995) all burst onto the world stage with significant and lingering impact on the

mainstream discourse, resulting in an entire anthology dedicated to how such “oppositional

subcultures” react to contemporary globalist currents (Kaplan and Lööw 2002).

However, very few groups survive long enough to have an impact on their own

subculture, let alone transfer their beliefs to outsiders, even though a select number do manage to

transcend their cultic origins (see, for example, Wallis 1975 on Scientology). In order to isolate

factors which may contribute to group longevity within the cultic milieu, I selected for study a

Wiccan coven that had existed continuously for nearly two decades at the time of study. And

because of the high rate of group dissolution found in all cultic subcultures (Campbell 1972) and

2

a similar tendency for failure in secular startup organizations (Kuntze and Matulich 2016;

Lussier & Pfeifer 2001), I chose to approach the study of this coven from the paradigmatic lens

provided by Donald Black's social structural approach to the study of conflict and social control,

as informed by Schneider and colleagues' attraction-selection-attrition model of organizational

needs. Based on my study of this coven, I identified a moderate level of organizational control

over access, authority, beliefs, and membership as instrumental to the group’s continued

longevity.

3

CHAPTER 2

THE CULTIC MILIEU

Every society has a sense of morality, of proper thought, behavior, and expression. And

while the content of morality may vary widely over time, place, and person, in all cases there is a

good – those things which are valued and held to be virtuous – and there is an evil, comprised of

all things despised. This duality is easily recognizable in the work of Durkheim who heavily

emphasized the importance of sanctions to the study of morality (Durkheim [1893] 1997;

Karsenti 2012). Important to this duality is the element of change, the process by which a social

norm is resisted so thoroughly and vociferously that it is abandoned and supplanted. However,

for every Socrates, Nietzsche, or Marx there are dozens of other radical thinkers toiling away in

obscurity, their work forgotten or vilified as the heresies of malcontents. To paraphrase

Nietzsche, the certainty with which a belief is held has no bearing on its veracity (Nietzsche

[1888] 1990: Sec. 51). In short, some ideas will survive while others fade away, and the simple

difference between a prophet and a madman is how successful they are in gaining converts.

To answer the question of why some deviant ideologies flourish while others fail, British

sociologist Colin Campbell proposed that there is a cultic milieu: a shadowy ideological fringe

present in every society wherein all manner of heterodoxical ideas are shared, refined, and

permuted by a group of perpetual ideological seekers (Campbell, C. 1972). One anthology

includes studies of occult National Socialism, neo-shamanism, radical environmentalism,

ultraconservatism, and even “anti-cult” watchdogs (Kaplan and Lööw 2002). Other studies have

4

looked at far right and white supremacist groups in the United States (Barkun 1990; Bruce 1994;

Gardell 2002; Simonelli 2002; Drabble 2007), UFO religions (Balch 1980; Gallagher 2010),

Neopaganism in the United States and Europe (Ivakhiv 2005; Jorgensen 1999; Kürti 2001; York

1995), the gothic subculture (Introvigne 2002; Jasper 2004), and the Falun Gong in China (Chan

2004), among many other religious, political, and cultural fringe groups.

While these cults – and constituent members thereof – within the milieu represent a wide

array of oft-competing ideologies, Campbell argued that they are nevertheless unified by their

shared position in the milieu. Campbell highlights their shared consciousness of their own

heterodoxy and the opposition they face from more orthodox cultural institutions, arguing that

this results in a broad mutual tolerance and advocacy for individual rights and liberty (Campbell,

C. 1972). This particular facet of the milieu has interesting implications for identifying such

heterodoxical groups. Presumably, the members of these cults are aware of their own deviance

and will be able to identify points of conflict with mainstream society and/or strategies they

employ to minimize such conflicts.

In addition to the external pressure from orthodox groups driving cults to cooperate is the

limited number of media and communication outlets willing to cater to deviant ideologies,

resulting in an overlap in the publishing houses, magazines, bookstores, and the like used by

even the most disparate of cults (Campbell, C. 1972). Because of this overlap, it is predicted that

members of a given cult (or non-members that share the ideology) will have greater exposure to

cultic ideas than will “orthodox” individuals, even for ideologies unrelated or at odds to their

own. This contributes to the cross-pollination of cultic ideas, encouraging synthesis and perhaps

even conglomeration of cults. And finally, all cults are unified by the common ethic of

5

seekership held by the members of the cultic milieu (Campbell, C. 1972) which predisposes them

to seek out fringe science, conspiracy theories, esoteric lore, and other such hidden or forbidden

truths. However, before further exploring the cultic milieu, it is important to first trace the

development of 'cult' as a category of religious expression as it is used within cultic milieu

theory.

Cultic Taxonomies

Cultic milieu theory is rooted in Troeltsch's tripartite typology of religion (Campbell, C.

1972). Building upon Weber's initial church-sect distinction, the theologian Ernst Troeltsch

identified the Church-type of Christianity as a community-level, corporate entity focused on

objective measures of salvation, recruiting primarily through birth. The Sect-type of Christianity

is, instead, a voluntary (e.g. one that recruits through conversion) organization dedicated to a

shared vision of holiness (Troeltsch [1931] 1992). While the Church-type tends to cooperate with

secular social institutions and is generally accommodating of non-heretical diversity, the Sect-

type tends to be much smaller in number and more legalistic in its approach to spirituality

(Troeltsch [1931] 1992). Troeltsch' final category is the Mystical-type which is characterized by

devout believers practicing alone or in small, loosely structured groups, often in rejection of the

ideological impurity of the Church and the legalism of the Sect (Troeltsch [1931] 1992). Leopold

von Wiese (Becker, trans. 1932) elaborated on Troeltsch' typology with the addition of the “cult”

in reference to the small groups practicing this mystic religion, and this category of religious

group was further elaborated and reified by J. Milton Yinger (1957).

6

However, the utility of this concept was limited because Troeltsch' typology was

explicitly designed to account for Abrahamic religion, resulting in a concept of mysticism

bounded in monotheistic spiritualism (Nelson 1968). Charles Glock and Rodney Stark expanded

the definition of cult to include all “Religious movements which draw their inspiration from

other than the primary religion of the culture, and which are not schismatic movements in the

same sense as sects whose concern is with preserving a purer form of the traditional faith”

(Glock and Stark 1965:245). Geoffrey Nelson (1968) combined and reified the above

conceptualizations of the cult into three major criteria, being:

a) Cults are groups based upon mystical, psychic or ecstatic experiences.b) They represent a fundamental break with the religious tradition of the society inwhich they arise.c) They are concerned mainly with the problems of individuals rather than withthose of social groups. (p. 354)

Nelson also described a general framework for cultic survival, with all cults eventually

either dissolving, stabilizing into permanent local cults with some degree of formal organization,

or developing into a new religious movement vying for social dominance (Nelson 1968).

Included in Nelson's typology is the assumption that cults will be persecuted as long as the

dominant religion(s) in society have the means to do so (Nelson 1968). It is also worth noting

that Nelson's typology is not unilinear; just as a cult can become a new religion, a formerly

dominant religion can survive as a cult (Nelson 1968). In fact, one of the strongest strains of the

contemporary cultic milieu has been the reconstruction and synthesis of pagan, pre-christian, and

indigenous religions into a new religion tailored for modern life. We will return to this particular

subculture shortly.

7

Nelson (1968) further distinguishes between two forms of cult, determined by their

origination process. Groups which are formed around the teaching of a singular prophet, guru, or

similar such 'holy man' are termed Charismatic Cults and typically take on a radial structure with

the charismatic leader in the center, surrounded by their close disciples, with newer or less

committed members forming the periphery (Nelson 1968). As these cults grow, they tend to take

the form of a Unitary Centralized Cult1, which grows by branching off into numerous cults

subordinate to the original (Nelson 1968).

The second form of cult described by Nelson is the Spontaneous Cult, which is

characterized by a less formal structure caused by the mutual association of cultists drawn to a

similar ideology, rather than the specific teachings of an individual (Nelson 1968). These cults

tend to grow into Federal Centralized Cults as they form relationships with other cults with

similar beliefs and practices (Nelson 1968). Finally, Nelson identifies Cult Movements2 as the

result of a large number of isolated individuals or local groups with similar beliefs and practices,

but no formal organization uniting them (Nelson 1968). Nelson's typology was further broadened

by Campbell and subsequent cultic scholars to include groups with the composition and structure

of a cult, but organized around beliefs which are less clearly religious (Kaplan and Lööw 2002).

Seekership and the Cultic Milieu

The vast majority (about two in three) of people who join a cult tend to leave it within

two years (Hadden and Bromley 1993:75-97), so any study of cultic processes requires attention

1Notably, this is the form of expansion used by most Wiccan covens who will allow senior members to “hive off” and form their own covens, often in different areas, while still maintaining the “tradition” of their progenitor coven. 2Wicca as a whole could be classified as a Cult Movement due to the lack of a singular organizing body with formalcontrol; the closest such unifying organization – the Covenant of the Goddess – acts as an information clearinghousefor covens of several different traditions.

8

to the means by which cults recruit their membership and why some members stick around.

Turning, then, to how cults grow, there are two competing models of conversion to heterodoxical

ideologies: contagion and seekership. The model with arguably more appeal to the laity would be

the epidemiological model favored by self-styled anti-cult watchdog organizations wherein

heterodoxical beliefs spread through contagion: the open preaching of heterodoxical beliefs, the

interaction of cultists with non-believers, even the mere presence of a cult in a community is said

to cause the spread of deviant ideas just as a virus might spread through a population (Melton

2002; Wilcox 2002).

The popularity of this model can be seen in the number of moral panics surrounding

Satanism, cult “brainwashing”, and other media frenzies fueled by the anti-cult movement3

(Richardson 1993). However, the fact that such cultic watchdogs continue to exist despite their

members assuredly being exposed to such contagious ideas seems to indicate mere exposure is

insufficient. It seems likely that one must also be open to receiving the ideas, a condition referred

to as an ethic of seekership.

First identified by Lofland and Stark (1965) in their study of a small christian cult,

seekership is a recurring theme in cultic studies. In their study, they identified seven conditions

which must be present in the conversion of an individual from a non-believer to a “true believer”

(Lofland and Stark 1965). These conditions are divided into three preexisting traits which make

3While eminent scholars such as Richardson have called for the elimination of the word “cult” due to this popular stigma, I have chosen to use it throughout this manuscript due to its history in the literature and my own belief that relabeling is an act of futility. Any attempt to provide a fresh, sanitized term will simply have the new euphemism 'tainted' by the connotations of the old word, a process Stephen Pinker describes as the euphemism treadmill. Further, because my interest is in the cult as a unit of social interaction rather than a spiritual movement, the alternative term “New Religious Movement” would be inappropriate, especially given that many cults do not have beliefs typically considered religious, e.g. deep ecology or ethnonationalism.

9

someone receptive to heterodoxical ideas and four life circumstances which must co-occur with

one's introduction to a cult (Lofland and Stark 1965).

The three pre-existing conditions they identified are: 1) a sense of tension or frustration,

such as foiled ambitions, lack of recognition, or relational drama, 2) a problem-solving

perspective which lends itself to religious or spiritual solutions to problems, and 3)

dissatisfaction with pre-existing religious institutions, resulting in an ethic of seekership whereby

they strike out on their own to find the answers to their problems (Lofland and Stark 1965). It is

worth noting here that they were studying the Unification Church, resulting in the religious

emphasis of the second and third conditions. However, they argue that political and

psychological problem-solving perspectives can serve as an alternative to a religious one

(Lofland and Stark 1965), a theme echoed by subsequent researchers in cultic studies who have

applied cultic milieu theory to many such non-religious groups.

The four life circumstances which Lofland and Stark highlighted were: 4) a turning point

or period of dramatic change in one's life, such as a divorce, loss of career, or sudden move to a

new area, 5) a close affective tie to the cult, such as a friend or romantic partner already in the

cult, 6) absent or neutral ties outside of the cult, such as only having distant family or a friend

group that is indifferent or supportive of deviant ideologies, and 7) intensive interaction with the

members of the cult (Lofland and Stark 1965). While some research has shown that established,

well-funded cults will send out members with the intent of recruiting them (Zimbardo 1985),

most groups within the cultic milieu lack the resources and manpower to do so. These

organizations are instead reliant on passive recruitment where motivated seekers come to them,

as per the first three criteria of the Lofland and Stark model. What remains, however, is to

10

determine how people find cults, who gets let in, and how cults keep their members. These are

structural issues relating to organizational longevity which we will return to after a brief

exploration of an ideological current within the 20th and 21st century cultic milieu of particular

interest for the study of cultic organization.

The Pagan Milieu

While the cultic milieu itself is a nebulous and abstract feature of society, supposedly

stretching back to at least medieval Europe (Kaplan and Lööw 2002), a relatively recent and

well-studied addition to the milieu can be found in the emergence in early 20th century England

of groups dedicated to the reconstruction of pagan religions, a movement whose members and

ideas can now be found throughout the globe. While there is certainly a wide diversity of beliefs

within contemporary Paganism, including such notables as druidry, witchcraft, cartomancy,

astrology, revivals of the Norse and Graeco-Roman pantheons, and many many others, most of

these groups vociferously maintain their ties to their pagan roots (unlike, for example, the

successors to National Socialism) allowing some significant degree of fidelity in the study of the

various strains of Paganism in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

While there are many fascinating strains of Paganism that are meritorious of study such

as the ethnic Voudoun or Ásatrú religions or the ubiquitous presence of crystals, yoga, astrology,

and tarot cards throughout the Western world, one in particular illustrates the processes of the

cultic milieu and the potential for crossover from the milieu into the mainstream. While it is

notoriously difficult to get an accurate count of pagans (Bonewitz 2005), Wicca is by far the

largest Pagan religion with as many as 1,000,000 practitioners in the United States (Pew 2015).

11

And following the legal recognition of Wicca as a religion in the 1985 Dettmer v. Landon case

(Leagle [1985] 2017), the inclusion of the pentacle as a religious symbol on Department of

Veterans Affairs issued tombstones (Banerjee 2007), and the appointment of at least one Wiccan

chaplain at a major university (Todd 2010), Wicca is an excellent example of the transition from

heterodox to orthodox. This makes Wicca a perfect area for the study of cultic longevity; the

religion itself is unlikely to disappear any time soon, but the individual covens within it are still

very much subject to the cultic tendency towards dissolution.

Origins of Wicca

First publicized by Gerald Gardner – a retired civil servant – in his 1954 book Witchcraft

Today, Wicca positions itself as the inheritor of a grand European Witchcraft tradition. There are,

however, two competing origin stories for Wicca. The view expressed by Gardner himself holds

that he was inducted into a surviving coven of the pre-christian European witchcraft tradition in

1939 and eventually vested with the authority to initiate others into this “Witch Cult” (Gardner

1955). However, the lack of strong historical evidence for such a cult prior to the 1950s,

combined with a novel by Gardner published in the 1940s which had a view of magic

substantially different from the one espoused in 1954's Witchcraft Today would seem to indicate

that he and his close associates synthesized Wicca from various occult ideas within the cultic

milieu of the late 1940s (Clifton 2006). Given the continuing popularity of alchemy and

divination coupled with the rise of theosophical societies, hermetic orders, and orientalism in the

late 1800s and early 1900s, there was certainly a rich assortment of ideas to draw from when

constructing this new religion (Hutton 1999). However, it is important to note that this is not a

12

unique feature of Wicca. Cultic milieu theory holds that all religions followed a process much

like this during their formation; Wicca simply did so in an age with better record-keeping.

Perhaps one reason for the specific emergence of witch cults in England is the

comparative tolerance of witches in British culture, being seen as more akin to the sorcerers of

Africa rather than the diabolists of Europe (Russell 1980). Commoners would go to wise women

for folk remedies or to act as midwives, while so-called cunning-folk provided charms of

magical protection – even Elizabeth I had a prominent magician, John Dee, as a member of her

court (Russell 1980). In fact, apart from the notable exceptional cases of the Salem witch trials

and the antics of the Witch-Finder General, Matthew Hopkins, accusations of witchcraft tended

to be due to property damage, illness, and other such folk concerns and were accordingly

handled through local measures like lynching (Russell 1980).

Compare this to the continent with its Inquisitions and mass burnings and it is little

stretch to imagine that occultists would be more willing to dabble with witchcraft in a country

where it was a public order offense, meaning torture was rare and a conviction was at worst

punished with hanging. By the early 1700s, even the most credulous of judges began to see

accusations of witchcraft as a greater threat to public order than the witchcraft itself (Russell

1980). This was perhaps most humorously captured in the case of one Francisca Ignacia, a

Basque wise woman who was acquitted of her witchcraft charges in favor of being declared

simply incompetent and ordered to cease medical practice (Baroja [1961] 1965). This shows the

transition in witchcraft definitions from a malignant practice worthy of serious judicial concern

to a folk superstition treated with ridicule by the courts; what in the past would warrant torture

13

and execution by the 1800s was chocked up to negligence, incompetence, and other material

causes.

Although it had been over 200 years since the last witchcraft trial in England had ended

in acquittal (Russell 1980) by the time Gardner and company were operating in the milieu, it was

only after the British Parliament abolished the Witchcraft Act of 1735 (which made it illegal to

call oneself a witch) in 1951 that there was an explosion in popular interest in witchcraft (Clifton

2006). While Gardner and associates popularized Wicca in England, its spread to America was

more clearly the result of milieu processes, with books and magazines about witchcraft reaching

American shores long before the first disciples of Gardner, the Bucklands, moved to America

(Clifton 2006).

This initial spread of witchcraft through literary means, along with early schisms between

core leaders in Wicca, resulted in a large number of lineal traditions, akin to the denominations

of Christianity. The most prominent traditions are: British Traditional Wicca (collectively, the

Gardnerian, Alexandrian, and Algard traditions which share many ritual elements and emphasize

an unbroken chain of initiation back to Gardner), the Feri Tradition (a synthesis of British

Traditional Witchcraft with Haiwaiian Huna magic founded by Victor and Cora Anderson in

California), Dianic Wicca (founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest as a feminist religion rejecting all

men and male deities), and the various intellectual descendants of Robert Cochrane's teachings

(Clifton 2006). Added to this are a large number of traditions that emerged in the 1960s, 70s and

80s who claim a family or ethnic origin to their Witchcraft, but bare marked similarity to

Gardnerian witchcraft (Clifton 2006).

14

The Coven

One such family tradition which originated in North America in the 1960s (and formally

incorporated in the 1970s) is referred to as the Circean tradition for its founder, Lady Circe. The

Coven4 which I selected for study belongs to this lineage, having separated from another coven

of the Circean line in the late 1990s before being formally incorporated in 2000 with the blessing

of Lady Circe’s home coven. That said, while the tradition began with its American founder,

many of the observed rituals and stated beliefs of the group are similar to the British Traditional

Witchcraft traditions. And, due to the relatively steady membership of the Coven and lack of

interest on the part of the leadership in significantly expanding the group or seeking converts, I

would classify the Coven as a permanent local cult under Nelson's cultic typology (Nelson

1968). This places the Coven as a respected institution within both the local cultic milieu and the

broader Wiccan community, meaning it is unlikely to suddenly dissolve but also unlikely to

dramatically expand, barring some significant change in operating procedures, group values, etc.

To collect my data, I engaged in a combination of semi-structured interviews, informal

conversations, and participant observation at group functions. While I was not made privy to

complete member records, based on my observations of meetings, I can say that the majority of

the core members are middle-aged or older, though there are members in their twenties and early

thirties and guests tended to be within this age category as well. Given the 6+ year process for

full initiation into the Coven, I was not surprised to find a preponderance of older members at the

core surrounded by a younger periphery. Notably, the incoming High Priestess and High Priest

were of this younger category, having entered the Coven in the mid-2000's and gone through the

4In order to protect the confidentiality of my respondents, I will refer to the group as simply “the Coven” and its members according to their organizational role (if relevant)

15

initiatory process thereafter. Unsurprisingly, the Coven was slightly more female than male, with

a number of rituals having 2-3 women without men between them (in traditional Wicca, the

circle is formed with alternating male and female participants). Because Wicca is generally

considered a more feminist religion than its Abrahamic counterparts (Clifton 2006), I expected to

find this demographic feature.

Because Wicca is a mystery religion, the specific beliefs of a given coven are protected

behind layers of initiation which would require years of study to pierce. In the case of the Coven

I studied, I was told by one 3rd degree (the highest attainable level of initiation) respondent that

the first degree is attainable after one year of study, the second degree requires two years, and the

third degree requires three, for a total of 6 years before all mysteries are revealed. As such, I am

unqualified to speak to their theology or how it might differ from that of other covens. However,

given my focus on structural factors and organizational outcomes, the content of a group's beliefs

is much less important than the heterodoxy perceived by the community as the latter is the actual

source of conflict. Or to phrase it more bluntly, a man convicted of witchcraft is a witch, no

matter how devout a christian he may be.

The Coven certainly meets this criteria, being located in a fairly culturally conservative

suburb of a major city in the Southeast United States. Both in interviews and informal

conversations, members of the Coven expressed concern for their privacy and the consequences

for being outed as a Pagan/Wiccan, with the strongest punishment (expulsion) reserved for those

who intentionally breach the confidentiality of the group or its members. However, their identity

as a Wiccan coven is not hidden from their neighbors, a fact which caused some degree of

conflict for the group early in its history.

16

The Coven began when a majority of the 3rd degree initiates in an older coven reached a

point of irreconcilable difference with that coven's high priestess and her leadership style,

resulting in a schism during which most of the senior members left. They went on to form the

Coven and moved into a dilapidated house in the aforementioned suburban neighborhood. The

neighborhood itself seems to be a mixture of middle and working class families, based on my

external observations of the surrounding houses, but the particular house the Coven moved into

was in a state of disrepair and had for years been associated with juvenile delinquency and drug

crime (Smith 2008). The 3rd High Priestess described in an interview how they came to own the

property:

I actually was the one that found the property. I was a real estate agent at the time. Brand new, didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I had just gotten my license. And it was at the time when [leader of prior coven] was wanting to sell the [prior coven] homestead to move to California or Washington, West Coast, whatever. And so I put my newly minted skills to work and searched for different properties that had a house or just land, but we needed land and a house. And so this [gestures around] was on the market. Not this house, but the property next to it. The first 9 or 18 acres. And it was only 3 miles from the [prior coven]. So we came over here with a bunch of the current elders of [prior coven], without [leader of prior coven], and as soon as I set foot on the property, I said 'it's ours, this is our home'. And I felt like, I really felt like I was led here.

Soon after finding this property, the founders of the Coven split from their previous

coven, with the property becoming their new covenstead in the spring of 2000. While their

heterodox beliefs aroused suspicion from their new neighbors, especially those concerned by the

popular media representations of witches sacrificing animals to Satan or brainwashing children

into joining the cult, these concerns seemed to be largely settled by the time of Kenny Smith's

study of the Coven in the mid-2000s (Smith 2008). There is even a (possibly apocryphal) story

of the pastor of the neighboring church being won over to seeing the Coven as “wonderful

17

neighbors” (Smith 2008), though the man in question was dead by the time of Smith's study so

only secondary sources were available then and may not even be available now, nearly a decade

later, given demographic and leadership changes in the congregation in question. In any case, by

the time of my study the members of the Coven seemed more concerned about the threat of

being outed in the abstract (with regard to the broader public rather than their immediate

neighbors) or in their individual private lives, such as to culturally conservative family members

or employers.

Turning, then, to the more structural aspects of the Coven, it is important to note one key

feature that sets the Coven apart from most Wiccan covens and indeed most cults. Perhaps as a

response to the perceived autocracy of their coven of origin, the Coven has diffused power

through a number of officers selected from amongst the 3rd degree initiates and has a Coven

Council that meets regularly to discuss any non-religious matters relating to the governance of

the Coven. In an interview, a 3rd degree initiate who had been with the Coven for over a decade

described the Coven Council to me:

I: In terms of things unusual about [the Coven] is the Coven Council. That's not really something I've encountered in any other group.R: Yes, that's a unique governance mechanism. It allows transfer of power. It allows the entire group to voice their ideas, concerns, and have an input in how things are run there. I: And I guess since you've been at [Coven] so long, that you probably saw the Coven Council as it was developing. R: It has changed over the years, but it was in place when I came.I: Yes, I think, talking to some of the other members, it emerged in the first year or two.R: Yes.I: Could you tell me a little bit about how it has evolved in the years that you haveseen it?R: Let's see. I was here for a couple of years with [2nd High Priest] and then it wastransferred over to [3rd High Priest] and [3rd High Priestess]. [Pauses for about 20 seconds] I guess I have seen that form because um, I wasn't an initiate at that time,

18

so I wasn't part of the Council, so I don't have direct information on how the Council was. But I do know that it feels more open than it did those first couple ofyears. I: And the Coven Council is 2nd and 3rd degrees, yes?R: It is, and 1st degrees can attend.I: Okay, could you tell me a little bit more about the role of the Coven Council? I know it's very significant to [the Coven], but just in terms of how the Council operates to assist [the Coven] in its mission.R: Okay, there's two components to it. One component is the incorporated business part of it, because [the Coven] is incorporated there's certain rules they have to follow, they have to meet so often, they have to have a quorum, they follow Robert's Rules of Order, and then there's the [Coven] part of it where people can, basically they go around and there's a report on the property, report onthe budget, report on people coming to the Gate [guests and people wishing to visit], report from the classes, and then each person gives a report, they can talk about concerns there, and then as a group put in ideas how to solve that or what todo about it. And then they come to consensus on an answer.

The High Priestess and High Priest have final say on matters of a religious nature, but I

have been told that they tend to heed the advice of the Council on most issues. Notably, the

Coven Council arrives at decisions through consensus building rather than democratic voting,

meaning decisions take longer to be arrived at, but can be enacted with the full mandate of the

Coven's core membership.

Perhaps reflecting the success of this model is the fact that during the course of my study,

the 4th pair of High Priestess and High Priest took the reins of the Coven. Most cults do not

survive the death or removal of their initial charismatic leader (Campbell, C. 1972; Nelson

1968), and yet this one has survived through three transitions of power in their highest offices.

Even more importantly, these transitions of power were largely amicable, with the founding High

Priestess still regularly attending meetings. The second wave of leaders has moved out of state,

but the third wave of leaders were fully supportive of the transition in power (I believe they

19

initiated it themselves) and seem likely to continue attending and supporting the Coven's

meetings.

The Coven's meetings are divided into workshops (including the mandatory classes one

goes through for initiation), work days (where members volunteer to maintain and improve the

property), and rituals. Their rituals are performed at night (between 8 and 10 pm) on or near each

full moon, as well as on the eight Sabbats (the holy days of Wicca). The Sabbats tend to be fairly

well-attended (a couple dozen or more attendees, compared to about a dozen for lunar rituals),

last longer with more involved rituals, and are followed by a potluck and conversations well past

midnight.

The lunar rituals tend to be smaller affairs that provide newer initiates a chance to gain

ritual experience, with having lead such a ritual being a requirement for advancement in the

initiatory process. These “Wiccan Training Moons”, as they are referred to by the group, are

performed like any other ritual, though sometimes breaks are taken to gently correct or guide the

priest or priestess leading it. After the ritual, there is a peer review session between the trainee

and the qualified initiates to help them improve and learn.

In addition to their own rituals, the Coven also rents their property to another Wiccan

coven, a Druidic circle, and a Co-Masonic Lodge in an effort to support similarly heterodox

groups who may otherwise struggle to find a suitable meeting place with consistency and on a

budget. The leaders of the respective groups are in contact of course, but beyond that seem to be

friends with one another, or at least on friendly terms. This is a clear example of cultic cross-

pollination due to limited resources for heterodox groups, though I was unable to study the three

20

other groups in question, so it is unclear to what extent there is overlap in membership or idea-

exchange between their respective members.

21

CHAPTER 3

ANALYTIC STRATEGY

For framing my study and subsequent data analysis of the Coven, I primarily relied on

two theories, one of organizational survival and another of conflict and social control. Most cults

within the milieu dissolve due to a failure to recruit new members and/or hold onto existent ones,

so the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) model is particularly useful for studying these small

religious organizations whose primary concern is to maintain and grow their membership (and

the time, labor, and resources they donate). The social control theory outlined by Donald Black

provides a way of identifying likely faultlines of conflict within an organization and between an

organization and its surrounding community, which is a particularly useful tool for the study of

organizations ensconced within a milieu of highly independent thinkers united only by their

common rejection of societal values and beliefs.

Attraction-Selection-Attrition Model

The ASA framework developed by Benjamin Schneider and colleagues is a multi-stage

model of group affiliation which looks at the separate processes involved in a potential recruit's

attraction to an organization, the criteria used by the organization to select from among

applicants, and finally the process by which those least suited to the organization tend to leave it

over time (Schneider, Goldstein, and Smith 1995). The ASA framework attempts to use fit

22

between individual personality and organizational goals to explain why organizations become

more homogenous over time (Schneider et al. 1995).

The first portion of the ASA Framework deals with attraction, the proposition that

individuals will find organizations attractive or unattractive based on the perceived congruence

between their personality, needs, and desires and the organization's culture and objectives

(Schneider et al. 1995). Because there are so many overlapping and competing ideologies within

the cultic milieu, there is little doubt that a motivated seeker can find someone to fit their needs.

The real challenge is on the part of the group trying to differentiate themselves from potential

rivals offering a similar ideological package.

The second portion of the ASA framework deals with selection. At this stage, prospective

recruits are admitted or rejected by the organization according to the formal and informal criteria

used by the gatekeepers of the organization to determine worthiness. Schneider and colleagues

(1995) highlighted the importance of the founder/leadership's goals in the selection process due

to the obvious desire on their part to find members who will fit into the organization and are

capable of serving its objectives. In a study of Islamic extremist organizations, Thomas

Hegghammer found that recruiters look for signals of quality among perspective recruits such as

combat experience, family members who fought/died for the cause, theological pedigree, and

other indicators of conviction (Hegghammer 2012). Ideally, such signals will be absent in

unstable or disingenous candidates, which is a particularly potent concern for extremist

organizations, but is also likely to be important to any group where ideological commitment is

placed at a premium and a degree of secrecy is necessary to avoid public censure.

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The final stage is that of attrition, during which individuals gradually leave the

organization, with those least suited to the group leaving first (Schneider et al. 1995). Naturally,

this exit can either be voluntary, as occurs when the individual decides the organization is a poor

fit for them and seeks greener pastures, or it can be involuntary, where the individual is forced to

leave by either the organization's leadership or external circumstances, such as the dissolution of

the group or the death, incarceration, or relocation of the individual. In extremists organizations,

voluntary attrition tends to occur due to disagreement with the values of the organization or the

methods it employs to pursue them (Jacobson 2008).

Within the cultic milieu, we know that attrition is the norm rather than the exception, with

entire groups emerging apparently from the aether and disappearing in a matter of months

(Barker 1999; Campbell, C. 1972). Schneider et al. (1995) explain the gradual rise of

homogeneity within organizations over time as a function of this attrition process; as disgruntled

or unqualified members leave, only those most similar to the leaders or suited to their purposes

will remain. This could perhaps explain the process of formalization of authority and ideological

consolidation noted by Nelson (1968) in his model of cultic emergence and growth.

Finally, it is important to note that these stages are at the individual level, not the

organizational level. A single organization can have members or prospective members at every

stage of the ASA model, and most successful ones do. By having continual or frequent

applications and ongoing vetting/recruitment processes, organizations can maintain a roster of

incoming members capable of replacing those leaving due to attrition, if not exceeding their

number. This makes the ASA framework a useful tool in diagnosing the health (and likely

longevity) of a cultic group.

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Blackian Theory of Conflict

The second core analytical strategy I will employ is the theory of conflict first articulated

by Donald Black (1976) over forty years ago. Black created a theory of human behavior

operating at a level of abstraction which eschews intrinsic motivators of behavior (goals,

motives, purposes), the cognitive state of the actor, or even individual differences between actors

(Black 1995). Black's theorizing tends towards the paradigmatic, with a rejection of the tendency

among some social scientists to engage in moralism regarding their subject matter; in short, the

goal of the project is to create – as Black terms it – a “value-free sociology” (Black 1995).

For this reason, Black's paradigm is ideal for the study of the cultic milieu. Because the

cultic milieu is considered an aspect of social structure – the heterodox shadow cast by the

candle of the orthodoxy – it is important to avoid burdening the analysis of cults with moral

concerns. The beliefs, motives, and even participants themselves are transitory features of a

permanent structure, so the rightness or wrongness of any given group's beliefs or goals is an

unscientific distraction. With its emphasis on the directly observable features of social life which

predict the incidence and resolution of conflicts, this purely sociological paradigm allows for a

sober analysis of cults and cultists, free of the sensationalization of the salacious, demonization

of the deviant, or romanticization of the rebellious that typically plagues writing about such

groups.

The first theoretical expression of this paradigm was the theory of social geometry which

used one's position in social space (as indicated by the closeness of their relationships, their

relative position in status hierarchies, their centrality to their community, etc.) in order to predict

25

the outcome of legal cases (Black 1976). Since then, social geometry has been used to predict

and explain conflict management strategies (Black 1990) and the response to mental illness

(Horwitz 2002), suicide (Manning 2012), and homicide (Cooney 2009), as well as many other

areas of moral conflict. To this point, social geometric analysis has primarily been applied to

individual conflicts, but societal conflicts such as war (Black 2011) and genocide (Campbell, B.

2015) have been more recently addressed.

However, social space is static, so social geometric analysis lends itself primarily to

predicting the outcome of conflicts rather than predicting their incidence. While a useful tool, in

order to fully apply Black’s theory of social conflict to the study of cultic longevity, I need also

to turn to a more recent entry in the theoretical literature, Donald Black's (2011) Moral Time. The

theory of moral time addresses the dynamic aspect of social space, dividing it into three

dimensions along which social change occurs, being the vertical, horizontal, and cultural

dimensions5. The vertical dimension deals with hierarchy and is divided into four sub-

dimensions: oversuperiority occurs when an equal rises above their peers, overinferiority occurs

when an equal falls below their peers, undersuperiority occurs when a superior falls in status, and

underinferiority occurs when an inferior rises in status.

The horizontal dimension deals with intimacy and is similar sub-divided as such:

overexposure is when one reveals too much about themself or another (i.e. revealing a secret or

being literally naked), while the opposite is an underexposure conflict (i.e. keeping a secret from

someone who expects openness); an overinvolvement conflict results from inserting oneself into

5While the theory itself is fairly simple, it is also heavily based in spatial reasoning. To assist with this, I have included a diagram as Appendix A which shows the possible movements of social time, sorted by dimension.

26

another's life or body, while underinvolvement is the result of suddenly removing oneself from

an intimate's life.

Finally, the cultural dimension details the general homogeneity of a society, with its sub-

dimensions being: overinnovation (the introduction of a new belief or practice), underinnovation

(the failure to adopt the new way), overtraditionalism (the clashing of opposing cultures), and

undertraditionalism (failure to honor traditional modes of life).

The greater or more rapid the change (referred to as movements of social time), the

greater the resulting conflict is predicted to be. It is important to note here that Black's theory

was created as a way of organizing and explaining observed cross-cultural trends in conflict,

drawn from the sociological, anthropological, and historical literatures (Black 2011). Because the

predictions of the theory of moral time are supported by the observed past behaviors of

individuals, groups, and societies, no claims are made about the cognitive, psychological, or

otherwise intrinsic motivations for their behavior. For example, the rise of an inferior is predicted

to cause conflict with their superiors (an underinferiority conflict), but whether this is due to

jealously, fear of change, spite, or any number of other internal factors is left unstated. In this

view, society can be seen as operating according to a homeostatic principle; for whatever reason,

change is resisted, especially when the change is shocking in its severity or celerity.

This is useful because it allows us to identify likely faultlines in a community from a

structural level without needing to survey the members of the community or wait for the conflict

to occur. That said, a prediction made from such a level of abstraction, regardless of how well-

grounded the theory, can always be wrong. As such, I will use moral time as a heuristic for

identifying potential external and internal threats to the processes involved in organizational

27

maintenance, as articulated by the ASA framework. In general, it is predicted that cultic

organizations will need to be adept at preventing or mitigating the various conflicts that result

from the movements of social time inherent in their existence as representatives of the cultic

milieu.

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CHAPTER 4

METHODS

My entry into the field was facilitated by a 3rd degree initiate who knew of me through a

pagan student organization we were both members of during our undergraduate degrees. While

he graduated a number of years before me and we had never met in person, we were both

members of the social media group attached to the student organization, which is where he

became aware of my study. At the time, he was the member in charge of the Coven’s social

media presence. He was also part of the same small cohort which produced the current High

Priest and Priestess.

From this, it is conceivable that I was granted a privileged position due to being vouched

for by such a respected member of the group, though I have been told that the vetting process

which I went through was standard for all researchers, journalists, and others wishing to study

the group. The vetting process itself was rather simple. After exchanging emails with the (then

current) High Priest, I met with him and his wife, the (then current) High Priestess, at their home

in a pleasant suburb not too far from the Covenstead itself. Here I conducted the first two

interviews for the study and was formally invited to attend the Coven's meetings in an

observational capacity.

It is also conceivable that my presence at the Covenstead affected the behavior of the

members, however I did not notice any overtly deceptive behavior. Perhaps it is because I was

supported by the Coven's leadership from the start and could converse with the members about

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their religion from a somewhat emic6 perspective that put them more at ease around me. There

was certainly no shortage of informal (and often unsolicited) conversation directed at me by the

members during the period prior to and after the main ritual event of the meetings, with topics

ranging from my study and Wicca as a religion to more mundane subjects such as animal

adoption and foraging for wild plants.

Data Collection

Data collection was performed through a combination of participant observation, formal

semi-structured interviews which were recorded, and many informal conversations which were

not recorded. The majority of data was gathered between the months of March 2017 and July

2017 when my participation in the Coven's meetings was heaviest, though some formal

interviews and informal follow-ups were conducted through September 2017.

All interviewees were asked core questions about their entry into the Pagan/Wiccan

community, joining the Coven, their understanding of how the Coven was managed, and the

extent to which they were engaged in the cultic milieu; core members, members with defined

roles, or members likely to have knowledge about particular topics of interest were asked

additional questions. As a result of this and variance in the depth of respondents answer, the

interviews ranged in length from about 20 minutes to an hour.

Of the 17 interviews, the majority (12) were conducted in-person, 2 were conducted via

phone, 2 were conducted via videocall, and 1 took the form of email correspondence. In the latter

6While I do not identify as Pagan or Wiccan, several of my close associates, friends, and family do identify as Paganand I have assisted them with the operations side of the above-mentioned pagan student association. As such, while Ican not speak to a Wiccan as one believer to another, I can speak to them as one with some degree of immersion in their culture and worldview.

30

5 cases, the participants requested the given medium due to perceived difficulties in scheduling

an in-person meeting within the timeframe of the study. 15 of the 16 spoken-word interviews

were audio-recorded with the consent of the interviewee; notes were taken during and following

the one unrecorded interview. The audio-records of the interviews were transcribed, the

transcripts were purged of identifying details, and the original recordings were securely

destroyed. These precautions were taken to protect the confidentiality of my participants given

the sensitive nature of their beliefs and practices in the context of their area.

In all, I attended 9 groups meetings (4 lunar rituals, 3 sabbats, 1 work day, and 1 poetry

reading). Of the meetings, 4 were lunar rituals conducted on or near a full moon, 3 were sabbats

celebrating one of the 8 core holidays of Wicca, one was a poetry reading, and one was a work

day in which members maintained the buildings and land. With the exception of the work day

which took place on a Saturday morning, all of the meetings were held between 20:00 and 00:00,

usually on a Friday or Saturday. Averaging about 3 hours per meeting, my total time in the field

was approximately 30 hours, the bulk of which was spent in the informal pre- and post-meeting

phases. During rituals, I participated fully in the ritual exercise according to my non-initiated

status; only initiates are allowed to participate in ritual preparation, and some entire rituals are

restricted to initiates. Observational notes were taken within 24 hours of an event, typically

within a couple of hours. These notes were subsequently transcribed to an electronic format, the

transcriptions were purged of identifying information, and the handwritten originals were

securely destroyed.

In addition to my interview and observational findings, I found informal conversations

with the members, both at meetings and via email correspondence, to be a rich source of data. In

31

these conversations, I made no effort to hide my role as a researcher and my research role at the

Coven was typically announced as such when introducing guests at the beginning of each

meeting. Details from such conversations were typically recorded with the observational notes

from the event at which they took place or were logged in the form of email histories.

Limitations

There were two key limitations resulting from the design of the study. First, there is some

question as to how “cultic” the Coven really is. Having been formally incorporated for nearly

two decades at the time of study, established as a schism from an existing group with a slew of

organizational resources at the ready, and recruiting primarily from pre-existing Wiccans/Pagans

rather than undecided seekers, the Coven is closest to the “permanent local cult” from Nelson’s

(1968) typology. As such, there is doubt as to whether the Coven is truly representative of the

cultic groups at the core of milieu theory or if it even experiences the same social processes as

they do. A more comparative approach where multiple cults are studied would assist somewhat

in resolving this issue.

The second limitation is the use of historical data gathered from primary and secondary

sources. While historical data is useful, it is difficult to determine from the present state of the

organization, the recollection of the current members, and some past research (conducted by

scholars asking very different questions) whether the features I have identified are the cause of

the Coven’s longevity, happened to co-occur with it in a spurious relationship, or are simply

unique features of the group unrelated to its organizational success. Because most cults fall apart

within the first couple of years of their existence (Hadden and Bromley 1993:75-97), it is

32

important to study these groups early in their lifecourse to establish the causal connection

between group features and organizational longevity.

However, such young cults tend to lack the formal structure, communal property, or

organizational branding used to identify groups for study, so identifying them early on can be

difficult unless the researcher happens to be present for their formation. Given this difficulty in

identifying ‘authentic’ cults and the relative novelty of the analytical strategies employed by the

current project, it was prudent to begin with a well-defined and easily observed cultic

organization in order to generate useful observations from which subsequent studies could be

developed.

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CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS – MILIEU AND ASA

Milieu Processes

Cultic milieu theory predicts that individuals conforming to the seeker model will search

out cults that fit their psychological, political, and/or religious needs and will join cults to which

they have an affective tie (Lofland and Stark 1965). I found limited confirmation of this within

the Coven. While every member interviewed reported having entered the Wiccan/Pagan milieu

due to an interest in occult spirituality and/or dissatisfaction with the answers provided by more

mainstream religion, not all members had an affective tie to the Coven when they first began

attending meetings. In fact, conversations with the senior officers of the Coven revealed a

perception that a majority7 of those entering the Coven found it through its online presence rather

than a referral by a member. However, among those interviewed, most either came to the group

directly because of an affective tie or through a combination of knowing about the group through

its online presence and happening to know a member as well. As one 3rd degree explained,

regarding his entry:

It was usual that people came to the group because they knew somebody. And it wasn't until I was there – you know – that I knew that I knew somebody. And I think that I knew one person from outside of the group. And so it was one of thosethings that you kind of got, that you kind of had to know a friend. It was like the Free Masons where you had to know someone to get in.

7There were no official records kept of this, so I am going based on the perceptions of my informants, with the estimates ranging from “about half” to “most” of new seekers finding the Coven through a popular website dedicated to Witchcraft and Wicca.

34

However, he did go on to say that coming in through the online presence is “more the

norm now”, which he attributed to the passage of time (over a decade since his entry) and the

addition of social media. It is worth noting that the younger members tended to deviate from the

milieu model of generalized deviance, with most of them reporting little awareness of or interest

in other local cults or cultic subcultures. Those who found the Coven through its online presence

were actively seeking out a Wiccan coven, with at least one having been in a different coven

prior to moving to the area. As another member (who found the Coven online) explained:

I've always had my beliefs and such solo, but I did want to practice – as I got older – I wanted to practice with more of a group and kind of – you know – have ritual and just be part of a group, not just be out here solo. That really is it in a nutshell; I wanted to be with a group of like-minded.

When asked if they had been involved in other groups prior to the Coven, they replied:

The Pagan community doesn't really – unless you like move to another state or something – they don't really relish going from coven to coven. Unless you go to a coven that's just not really a good fit, but if you're in the same city they don't like passing from coven to coven really.

Recalling that Campbell and others have found that members of the cultic milieu to be

consummate seekers, exploring a variety of sometimes contradictory beliefs and groups, the

finding that the Coven has members who were simply seeking a group setting for beliefs they

already held is surprising. I suspect this might be a result of the mainstreaming and reification of

Wicca as an independent (and highly publicized) religion, allowing for one to conceivably

convert directly to (or be born into) Wicca without needing to enter the milieu or be exposed to

its ideological currents, just as one might convert to a Christian denomination without delving

into the mystical undercurrent of society.

35

Some support for this suspicion can be found in the more senior (especially founding)

members who tended to conform more closely with the seekership model. They tended to have

much more extensive histories of religious exploration and were more likely to be associated

with groups and individuals in the cultic milieu outside of Wicca. For example, the 3rd High

Priestess apparently has a fairly extensive network of associates in the broader pagan community,

as well as friendships with the members of a co-Masonic lodge, a druidic circle, and a number of

other local cultic groups. She is also involved in a hobbyist foraging club focused on mushrooms

and other edible plants. While not itself a cultic group, this club is likely a point of crossover

between Wiccan and “deep ecology” concerns, a connection well-established in the cultic milieu

literature (Taylor 2002).

Similarly, when I asked one of the third degrees about their path into Wicca, they

highlighted the role of solitary research, beginning with an interest in the occult as a child that

eventually led them to an interest in witchcraft.

“The thing that, thinking back, you know going from an interest in various forms of either fortune-telling or divination, it was sort of a natural progression to discover folk charms and stuff like that...and led to – you know – finding out about witches and contemporary witches.”

They went on to describe at length their experience with other likeminded seekers in

college before settling on Wicca. From there, they found the Coven through their web presence

and were vetted before joining. However, determining whether this split between older and

younger members reflects an aging effect as Wicca continues to mature as a religion, a shift in

the way that people find cults, or simply a local anomaly would require much more extensive,

multi-group data beyond the scope of the current project.

36

And, despite the potential insulation of younger members, the Coven itself is well-

situated in the local and national milieu, sharing its property with another Wiccan coven, a

Druidic circle, and a Co-Masonic Lodge, as well as participating in local Pagan Pride events and

the Covenant of the Goddess, an international and inter-denominational coalition of Wiccan

covens that engages in interfaith outreach and activism (Covenant of the Goddess 2017). While

the 4th High Priestess has expressed interest in maintaining the privacy of the group, I have been

told that the 3rd High Priestess intends to assist her by continuing to manage the Coven's

involvement in the broader Wiccan and Pagan community. For the time being, at least, the Coven

is likely to remain a prominent institution in the local cultic milieu.

ASA Model

On the topic of the organization's longterm prospects, my findings were largely

optimistic. Using the Attraction-Selection-Attrition model pioneered by Schneider et. al (1995), I

looked for indications of organizational health related to the attraction and recruitment of

members, the gatekeeping process to ensure high quality members, and the retention of existing

members. Given that the organization had existed for nearly two decades at the time of study, it

was unsurprising to find it in relatively good health.

Attraction. Specifically, I found a fair number of younger members in their twenties and

early thirties. While few of them were prominent members, this is unsurprising given the lengthy

initiation process; by the time a younger member has reached the 3rd degree (a minimum of 6

years), they likely will not be young any more. However, there is clear interest in joining the

Coven. At every meeting I attended, there was at least one other guest, and often as many as 3-5.

37

Some of the guests either brought children or were children of current members, indicating a

potential for internal recruitment. Although I was told that the Coven does not allow anyone

under the age of 18 to join, those who are brought up with a familiarity with Wicca are probably

more open to joining it. Of these guests, only a portion will end up joining the Coven (some even

belonged to other covens and were simply visiting), but in sum they represent a potential

recruitment pool that is surprisingly healthy considering the Coven does not proselytize. The

Coven also has active classes to prepare seekers for initiation into Wicca, a process which

establishes a degree of commitment on the part of the student.

Selection. Turning, then, to the selection portion of the ASA model, the Coven is – if

anything – oversaturated with selective mechanisms. Much like early Christian churches, Wiccan

covens tend to be small and generally prefer to stay that way for the stated reason of intragroup

cohesion. The Coven is no exception. In order to attend rituals (or even be given the physical

address of the Coven), one must either be vouched for by an initiated member or be interviewed

by the designated gatekeeper. At the time of my entry into the Coven, this gatekeeper was the 3rd

High Priest, though the position itself is not necessarily tied to the role of High Priest. If, during

this interview, the seeker is determined to be untrustworthy, unstable, or otherwise undesirable,

they will be denied an invitation to attend Coven meetings.

After receiving permission to attend meetings, the next level of selection is interpersonal

fit. At this point, some seekers may realize that the Coven does not suit their needs and stop

attending. Or, it may be the case that the seeker does not mesh well with the existent members of

the group and is subsequently uninvited from future meetings. According to the 3rd High Priest,

the former case is far more common, with people very seldom needing to be uninvited. Those

38

who wish to continue coming to meetings are encouraged to take the initiatory classes, though

this is not mandatory. Over the next year, they take classes and continue coming to rituals,

integrating them into the organizational culture and religious worldview of the Coven. By the

time the “year-and-a-day” waiting period has been completed, those still wishing to join the

Coven have demonstrated a strong commitment to both the group and its religious practices.

An additional two year waiting period of training and ritual separates the 1st degree

initiates from the 2nd degrees, while those wishing to attain the highest (third) degree must

complete a final 3 years of training and ritual. Those who have completed the 3rd degree have

therefore spent at least 6 years with the group and clearly desire to participate in a more formal,

ritual capacity (the degrees being, effectively, theological certifications) and so form the core of

the Coven. It is notable that this process is atypical. While most Wiccan covens use the 3-tier

system of initiation, few have such a lengthy or intensive process and some do not even have a

waiting period beyond the completion of training.

Attrition. This could potentially explain the low rate of terminal attrition in the group.

While one would expect a low rate of attrition for a group of such small size to last so long, the

Coven in fact has two rates of attrition, only one of which is low. I have chosen to interpret the

high number of guests who fail to pursue initiation as a strong selective process; however, an

equally strong argument could be made that the Coven instead experiences a high rate of attrition

to the point that very few members stay for any great length of time. As one senior member

noted:

I think we have a pretty crappy attrition rate either way… You rely on people, youdepend on them to come back, and you expect to have a very small attrition rate. And I think with Christianity, what the goal there is to keep people around and with Wicca we're kinda like – we're this weird sort of thing where we're just like,

39

'you want to go, that's okay; you want to stick around, that's okay too', and we're almost standoffish in a way sometimes as a religion… we don't have some sort of command to convert in masses or anything like that.

I was informed of a planned transition away from classroom-style teaching to a more

mentor-mentee oriented form of initiatory training which may address this issue of attrition at the

bottom through increased early integration. However, this change will not take place until late

2017, so its affects – if any – on attrition or other organizational factors are as yet unknown.

What can be said, however, is that the Coven has a markedly low rate of attrition for

those who make up the core membership. For example, while they are currently on their fourth

set of High Priests (a transition that took place near the end of the study period), the transfer of

power has been historically amicable. The founding High Priestess remains as a respected

adviser to the Coven. And while the 2nd High Priestess and Priest retired out west, the 3rd High

Priest and Priestess have both expressed the intention to continue a number of their ancillary

duties to assist the 4th generation of priests in managing the Coven. The peaceful transfer of

power and continued presence of former leaders is exceedingly rare among cults (Nelson 1968)

and was certainly absent in the group that the Coven's founders came from, a feature which I will

discuss at some length in the next section.

In addition to the continued presence of former leaders, the Coven as a whole is markedly

top-heavy with the majority of its ritual attendees being initiates (a large number of whom are 2nd

or 3rd degrees), a fact remarked on with enough frequency in casual conversation that I ended up

adding a question about the preponderance of senior initiates to the interview protocol. The

perception among the Coven's members is that the “normal” way to do things is for someone to

reach 3rd degree and then “hive off” to create their own coven. While hiving is not prohibited8, it

8The other Wiccan coven that shares the Covenstead was the result of one such hiving and another hiving occurred

40

is certainly an uncommon occurrence for members of the Coven to leave. Normally, this would

be indicative of a strong, charismatic leader (Nelson 1968) to whom the members owe personal

allegiance, however no such leader exists.

While the founding High Priestess is highly respected (one member even tried to adopt

his craftname in honor of her), she does not have formal authority over the Coven or its

members. Similarly, the 3rd High Priestess and Priest are both well-respected, but they do not

have the control over the group or its members typical of a charismatic-style leader (Nelson

1968), nor – as evidenced by their recent retirement from the role – do they desire such control.

This low rate of attrition – particularly of experienced, committed ritualists – is the most

probable explanation for the group's past longevity and a likely bellwether for future

organizational health. For one possible explanation of how this low rate of attrition is achieved,

we must turn to Donald Black's theory of conflict and social control, which uses social structure

to predict the incidence of and response to conflict.

when a 3rd degree moved to another state for work

41

CHAPTER 6

FINDINGS – BLACKIAN THEORY

Black's paradigm provides a coherent theoretical framework for the organization and

explanation of my findings. Apart from the benefit of a theoretical lens which positions the

observed as a fact of the social world rather than an area for criticism or change, the social

control emphasis of the Blackian theoretical family is particularly suited to the study of

oppositional subcultures. Because many (if not most) cults and oppositional subcultures are

defined negatively (in terms of “what they are not”) there is significant potential for conflict

between the heterodox cultists and the agents of the orthodoxy – themselves often organized into

“watchdog” cults (Melton 2002; Wilcox 2002). In addition to the threat of external social control

quashing the cult, the factitious nature of seekers (Campbell 1972) makes internal social control

an imminent concern to prevent schism or dissolution.

Both the external threat of social control and the internal need for social control can be

found in Wiccan covens. Wicca, both as a matter of fact and often by design, stands in

contradiction to Christianity, challenging rigid hierarchy, strict law, and a patriarchal cosmos

with a view of the divine that is more egalitarian9, permissive, and feminist. Owing to this, it is

not uncommon for a Wiccan coven to be met with suspicion, accusations of malevolence, or

even direct physical threats (Smith 2008). The ability to insulate itself from such external threats

is therefore a vital concern for the longevity of a Wiccan coven.

9Wicca is egalitarian in the sense that the purpose of the priesthood is organizational rather than intercessional; they lead the group in a ritual that all participate in, rather than performing the ritual on the group's behalf.

42

Exposure

The most obvious way to head off censure from one's community is to avoid the deviant

label to begin with. Given the Covenstead's location next door to a church in a fairly

conservative suburb in the very conservative southeastern United States, there was little chance

of a Wiccan coven moving in and not being considered deviant. However, the Coven employs a

number of means (both intentional and unintentional) to minimize their deviant label and limit

the scrutiny applied to the group.

The theory of moral time predicts that overexposure (the sharing of excessive or

inappropriate information) will cause conflict with the party intruded upon by the exposure.

Typically, this is applied to cases of giving away someone else's secret, revealing intimate details

about oneself, or the literal exposure of one's body. However, Wicca – especially in the Coven's

area – is a heterodox belief system, which is something Black refers to as overinnovation; Wicca

represents a radical departure from the way things are traditionally done and is therefore likely to

attract animosity. I contend that overinnovation can be compounded by overexposure by

combining an already “inappropriate” way of living with a level of openness about one's lifestyle

that allows for direct contrast with the “appropriate” way of living; this proposition is supported

by tentative evidence for a positive correlation between the concentration of LGBT people and

the incidence of anti-gay hate crimes (Green et al. 2001; Alden and Parker 2005). In short, much

as the nudity of an underling is more offensive than the nudity of a superior (Black 2011: Ch. 2),

expression of a deviant belief can be considered a more intimate (and therefore offensive)

exposure than expression of a conventional one.

43

The Coven manages to mitigate such exposure through a combination of fortunate

geography and careful presentation management. While in a culturally conservative area, the

Covenstead is also located in a secluded cul-de-sac at the bottom of a hill; the only way to access

the Covenstead is by driving through a residential neighborhood. Because of this seclusion and

partial inaccessibility, the only outsiders likely to have significant knowledge of the group or its

beliefs are their neighbors themselves. Because the overexposure of an intimate is seen as less

offensive than that of a stranger (Black 2011: Ch. 2) due to the exposure being a less abrupt

change in the relationship, it can be predicted that less conflict will occur between neighbors than

strangers. M. P. Baumgartner's work in an American suburb supports this proposition, as

illustrated by a particularly notable case where a neighbor's rather severe exhibitionism was

tolerated, despite having engaged in levels of public nudity that would have resulted in the police

being called if the perpetrator were a stranger (Baumgartner 1988).

The Covenstead has additional features which limit exposure even to neighbors. From the

street, the Covenstead appears to be a standard residential home with a freestanding barn and

well-maintained yard. There is no signage identifying the property as belonging to a Wiccan

coven, nor are there any obvious indicators of Pagan or Wiccan affiliation to those unfamiliar

with Wicca, so to the casual observer the house and surrounding property could just belong to a

family that enjoys gardening. The ritual space itself is behind the house and consists of a circular

clearing in the trees, situated around a firepit. There is an altar, but it is simply a stone table upon

which they place their religious implements during a ritual and otherwise could pass as outdoor

furniture. Much like the house, the purpose of the area may not be immediately clear to those

unfamiliar with Wicca.

44

On top of the geographical factors, the Coven carefully controls how exposure occurs.

The Coven has an unlisted address, and in order to access the Coven's rituals, one must be

vouched for or vetted. In addition to allowing the Coven to ensure the quality of its recruits (as

discussed in the selection portion of the ASA factors), this also limits the exposure of the Coven's

beliefs and practices. Additionally, the process of setting up the ritual space prior to the group

ritual is restricted to those who have been initiated into the Coven, meaning even those who are

able to attend a ritual can only expose a portion of the group's spiritual practices.

Finally, the Coven maintains a strict prohibition against divulging the location of the

Covenstead or identifying any of its members. Any guest who breaches this rule will be

uninvited, while any member who intentionally “outs” another member of the Coven faces exile.

This emphasis on anonymity is even incorporated into the religious practice of Wicca, with the

adoption of a craftname (a pseudonym used for ritual work) being a key step in the initiation

process. The Coven is no different, with every member adopting and using their craftname nearly

exclusively, to the point that I only know several of the members by their craftnames. As the

(then-incoming) 4th High Priestess informed me, privacy is a significant concern for Wiccans, a

fear that has not abated in recent years. As she explained in an interview:

Fear is the worst enemy of Wicca. Fear of us and our beliefs and practices. This high level of fear results in walls between us and the other faith based communities. Now, as long as I keep silent about my beliefs and continue to live them most people befriend me and welcome me into their lives with open arms. Yet, there are true and valid reasons to fear being outted. Family members would cut ties. Jobs would be lost. And this would ripple to our spouses and children. In the Deep South you are some form of Christian or you are the enemy.

However, just as overexposure can cause conflict, so can underexposure – the crime of

being too secretive. While the vast majority of the time the Covenstead appears as a standard

45

suburban home, the fact is there are some nights where robed individuals dance and sing around

a roaring fire, brandishing knives and chanting songs of praise and communion with the gods. If

the neighborhood did not already know that witches were about, word would quickly spread.

Early on, the Coven made the rounds introducing themselves to their neighbors and the leaders

of the adjacent church (Smith 2008). While there was suspicion and the occasional accusation,

this initial exposure was less sudden and severe than if they had simply moved in and kept to

themselves until the time came to perform a ritual. They have maintained this level of

transparency with their community, making their property (a designated nature preserve with a

walking trail) available to their neighbors and answering questions anyone might have about

Wicca while avoiding open proselytizing.

Closeness

The fastest way for a cult to fail is for its members to leave, so for a cult to survive it

needs to provide them with a reason to stay. While the promise of addressing the seeker's

ideological needs is a good attraction factor, as Lofland and Stark (1965) noted it is the presence

of affective ties and frequent interaction with the cult that best predicts who sticks around. This

meshes well with the view of some of the officers that referral members are more committed

than those who found the Coven via the internet. This may also be the aspect of the Coven

making it most vulnerable to dissolution. Themes of closeness were prevalent in both interviews

and conversations; it was not uncommon for respondents to describe the Covenstead as feeling

like home or the Coven as like a family. However, in terms of more concrete measures of

46

involvement – Black's term for the degree to which one person is integrated into the life of

another – the Coven is somewhat lacking.

While Sabbat rituals tend to be more populous, occasionally drawing members from

outside of the state, the full moon rituals will sometimes have fewer than a dozen attendees.

There is a degree of shared social life between the core members (a fact that emerged in some

interviews and through casual conversation), but many of the members only interact with the

Coven at official group functions, such as the potlucks following ritual. And far from the popular

media portrayal of the 'cultic compound', the members of the Coven maintain their own private

residences, some even in other towns or states. The Covenstead was purchased by a number of

the core members and donated to the Coven (an incorporated entity), and so these members have

some significant investment in the land, as do those members who regularly volunteer to

maintain and improve the property. However, the frustration with organizing and mobilizing

volunteers and donations expressed by some Coven leaders is evidence that these ties are the

result of commitment to the Coven, rather than the commitment resulting from the ties.

Black's theory of social geometry predicts that the resolution to a conflict will vary based

on the social structural context of the two parties (Black 1990). Building on Baumgartner's

(1988) work in the suburbs, Black argues that parties in conflict in a setting where they have

minimal ties to each other or the land will prefer avoidance as a means of conflict resolution

(Black 1990). Avoidance, as a strategy, is implied by the name; one simply avoids the offending

party. This can be as minor as refusing to return a greeting to as severe as physically moving

away. In the case of the Coven, where one can simply stop coming to meetings with little to no

47

consequence, avoidance is predicted to be the go-to means of conflict resolution. As one member

who stopped attending the Coven (due primarily to a loss of interest in group ritual) explained:

There have been many who have been in for awhile and then they're out. Just sort of become inactive for all sorts of reasons… A lot of it is life experience is not conducive to the regular participation anymore which can be kind of energy intensive. And for some people it's not giving them what they need out of a spiritual home, and often times it's both of those reasons.

While avoidance due to lack of interest or rejection of group beliefs is and expected cause

of attrition, when avoidance occurs in mass it can result in group dissolution. This is not to say

that avoidance is necessarily a bad thing. While the ideal strategy for dealing with conflict is to

simply prevent it in the first place, having a social structure which allows those who do not fit in

(or who tend to be in conflict with other members) to simply leave the group is a good

alternative. However, the official stance on intra-Coven conflict is to seek settlement (Black's

term for a resolution achieved by the intervention of a non-partisan third party) wherein the two

belligerent parties have their conflict mediated by one of the High Priests in order to come to a

peaceable solution. Unfortunately, the proportion of conflicts resolved in such a manner is

fundamentally unknowable as conflicts resolved through avoidance are very seldom reported. It

is noteworthy that this approach to individual conflict is replicated on the group level as well.

Stratification

While the High Priests10 are the ultimate formal authority in religious matters, the Coven

is governed by a Coven Council comprised of the higher degree initiates. All matters regarding

10It was unclear to me whether the High Priestess was the technical highest authority or if the High Priest held equalformal authority to her. The 3rd High Priests (the ones who held the position for the vast bulk of my study) were married, so the egalitarianism I observed may have been noise caused by their personal relationship.

48

the management of the Coven or resolution of group-level conflicts or threats (such as an

attempted outing of another member) are brought before the Council. 1st degree initiates are

allowed to attend such meetings in an observational capacity, while the uninitiated are not

permitted to attend at all. From what I have been told by my respondents, the primary goal of the

Council is to avoid the sort of autocratic decision-making that characterized the previous coven

that the Coven's founders broke away from. For this reason, the Council will debate an issue

until a consensus has been reached, rather than holding a vote which could split the membership.

And, once such a consensus has been reached, it carries the weight of the Coven's leaders and

core members, leaving any remaining dissenters in a highly unequal conflict. This is a structural

condition that Blackian theory predicts will result in toleration: the aggrieved party holds their

tongue to avoid further conflict (Black 2011). Because toleration is nearly impossible to measure

reliably, it is difficult to know whether the decisions of the Coven Council are truly accepted by

everyone or simply represent a vocal majority and pacified minority.

In my observational work, there was an incident in which an attendee at a ritual placed

their car keys on the Coven altar, which was perceived as disrespectful towards the sacred space.

The founding High Priestess (and member of the Coven Council) was the one to notice the keys.

While commanding a great degree of both formal and informal status due to her instrumental

role as founder and ongoing adviser, she nevertheless sought out the then-current (3rd) High

Priestess to gain the latter's blessing before addressing the room. The consensus among those I

spoke to after this incident was that in other Wiccan covens, the founding High Priestess would

have addressed the breach without the consultation process. For this reason, I consider this case

to be representative of the organizational culture of the Coven.

49

In any case, this emphasis on egalitarian decision-making and formal procedure helps the

Coven to avoid what Donald Black (2011) refers to as overstratification conflicts wherein one

party gains status or power relative to another party, causing envy and resentment. And, while the

Coven is rigidly stratified with clear obligations and prohibitions attached to each level of

initiation, the vertical distance between the degrees is not great and the transition between them

is smooth. According to Black's theory of moral time (2011), the conflict resulting from a

fluctuation in social space will be a function of the severity and celerity of the change. Because

the progression from one degree to another is slow and the difference between degrees is

characterized as the result of accumulated ritual knowledge and contemplation, there is little

animosity directed upwards. Someone who wishes to have the respect and access afforded to a

3rd degree simply needs to follow the same process as everyone else, resulting in a perception of

procedural fairness11.

This egalitarianism is reflected in the ritual practice of the Coven. There are a designated

Priestess and Priest who lead the ritual, as well as a couple of other positions related to the

performance of the ritual such as a person to lead the non-initiates to the ritual space and two

people who come around with the mead and cakes used for communion; however everyone

present, including non-initiates, participates in every step of the ritual from the recital of chants

and singing of songs to the performance of the symbolic acts (e.g. planting a seed to represent

renewal and rebirth) and assisting in the dismissal of the evoked spirits at the end of the ritual.

And the rituals themselves tend to involve singing, dancing, direct communication with

the gods, and a general sense of levity: at one ritual celebrating Ostara, the core ritual act was a

11I have been lead to believe that the difference between degrees used to be “a year and a day” for each degree, and only in the last several years was changed to 2 years for 2nd degree and 3 years for 3rd. The respondent who informedme of this expressed that they were disappointed at the time (they were not yet a 3rd degree) but that they have come to accept it as an appropriate policy.

50

search for plastic Easter eggs containing strips of paper, each printed with a different rabbit-

themed aphorism from a book called Bunny Buddhism, while another ritual celebrated the

midsummer solstice with a dramatized debate between the God and Goddess in the form of the

High Priestess and High Priest lounging on beach chairs, arguing whether it was time to relax

after the planting or work in preparation for the harvest. While the members of the Coven speak

of their gods with the reverence one would expect from religious folk, there is very little of the

Puritanical soberness associated with more vertically-aligned cosmologies. Wicca in general

tends to have an egalitarian view of the gods, but the proper balance of grateful levity and sober

relevance will vary from coven to coven.

Diversity

It is precisely this lack of a clear consensus on an “orthodox” Wicca (even British

Traditional Wicca consists of three distinct traditions populated by autonomous covens) which

makes a coven a fertile breeding ground for ideological disagreement. A High Priestess' authority

is only as great as her coven's members allow it to be, with dissolution or schism a perpetual

threat; after all, the Coven itself was a result of such a schism. While disagreement over the

operation of the Coven is aired at Council meetings, the religious practices of the Coven are

fairly stable, being a continuation of one of the British-style American traditions. As such, any

member who holds beliefs divergent from those of the Coven's received tradition (or those

modifications since made) is risking awhat Black (2011) refers to as a diversity conflict; these

are caused by one party having beliefs or practices which are incompatible with the beliefs or

practices of another party.

51

The simplest way that the Coven deals with diversity conflicts is simply toleration;

members are free to believe whatever they wish and practice whatever other religious rituals they

want outside of the Coven's events. In fact, the Druidic circle and Wiccan coven which share the

Covenstead are examples of groups which have some members in common but very different

beliefs. The Duidic circle is more eclectic in their approach to religion and bases their rituals on a

received family tradition practiced by their leader, while the Wiccan coven was formed as a hive-

off of the Coven when a number of members were interested in performing a sort of ritual that is

not performed at the Coven. The tolerance of ideological deviance and the presence of a pressure

valve to allow members to explore alternate paths without ceasing their involvement in the

Coven is a key feature that seems to reduce the incidence of this particular type of conflict.

52

CHAPTER 7

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In order to identify the organizational factors which may contribute to organizational

longevity within the cultic milieu, I studied a Wiccan coven that had existed for nearly two

decades at the time of study and had itself been born of an American witchcraft tradition dating

back to the 1970s. I used Schneider et al.’s (1995) Attraction-Selection-Attrition framework as a

guide in identifying organizational concerns under the assumption that a healthy organization

would require a sufficient pool of eligible members, selective criteria to allow for the quality of

applicants to be ascertained, and a means of combatting attrition among existing members. While

all three features were present, it is notable that the Coven engaged in very little active recruiting

while maintaining comparatively strict selective processes such as mandatory vetting for guests

and a multi-year period of study before full initiation into the group.

The result of this focus on quality members over numeric growth is a strong

organizational need to resist attrition. And because the Coven has a generally egalitarian social

structure and leaving the group carries relatively few costs, it is predicted (Black 1990) that the

most common response to conflict will, in fact, be avoidance – a form of attrition. As such, the

strategies employed by the group to minimize and control conflict are of paramount importance

in avoiding attrition. There were four main themes I identified in this regard.

The first relates back to attrition and is a general balance between the maintenance of

group ties through regular meetings, but also the ease of leaving the group (one simply need not

53

come). Second is the use of strong privacy norms which limited the risk of the Coven’s members

being outed, combined with an organizational culture that is generally open to seekers and

welcoming of questions from the community. These features reduce the likelihood of external

conflict and therefore make membership in the group less risky. Third, the group utilizes a Coven

Council which acts to prevent factioning and settle conflict through a consensus-building

approach to governance, while still respecting the levels of initiation (in the form of active

participation being limited to 2nd and 3rd degrees) and the role of formal officer positions such as

the High Priests. Finally – and in accordance with cultic milieu theory – the Coven engages in

the mystical form of religious expression, meaning it prioritizes the authenticity of a religious

experience over strict adherence to doctrine, resulting in a general tolerance of divergent

opinions and practices among its members as long as they do not disrupt the group’s shared

religious experience.

These four features indicate that the Coven has struck a general balance with the

organizational need for control over its resources (in the form of access, authority, beliefs, and

the members themselves) on one side against the tendency for individuals – particularly of the

‘seeker’ type – to rebel against organizational overreach and for communities to censor overtly

deviant or secretive groups on the other side. While the fact that there is a need for moderation

among organizations operating within the cultic milieu is hardly surprising, it is of some

theoretical significance that such a ‘goldilocks zone’ can be identified and potentially measured

in a predictive manner.

Subsequent research into cultic longevity should expand upon the above measures of

organizational health while looking for additional factors which may contribute to or detract

54

from an organization’s longterm success. Such a study will likely build upon current research by

incorporating additional types of cults, particularly early ‘start-ups’ throughout a range of

religious, political, and cultural oppositional subcultures.

55

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APPENDIX A