The Coven

Towards the end of “All Souls’” the cousin of Sara Clayburn, who narrates the story, suggests that the strange woman was possibly a “[…] living woman inhabited by a witch […]”[1] and maybe came there in order to “[…] summon Agnes and her fellow servants to a midnight ‘Coven’ in some neighboring solitude.”[2]

The word coven refers to a group or meeting of witches.[3] The origin of the word is not clear. Possibly it derives from the verb “to convene,” a synonym of “to gather.”[4] The English Anthropologist and Egyptologist, Margaret Murray, was the first who claimed that witches would gather in groups of thirteen, called covens. A coven could consist of both men and women, and would include one priest figure, called and officer or devil leader. In history, a coven was first mentioned in the trial of Bessie Dunlop in 1567.[5] The number thirteen in a coven can be seen as a mocking parody of Christ and his 12 disciples.[6] Murray compared the organization of a coven to the service at a church. Therefore, the officer, or devil leader, functions like a minister in church.[7] Another theory, regarding the number thirteen in a coven, is that thirteen is the maximum number of people that can dance in a nine-foot circle. Moreover, each participant of a coven is said to be an expert on a specific field of magic, for example producing sickness or death in humans, bewitching agricultural produce, or storm raising. Murray’s theory of covens has often been criticized by students of witchcraft as based on insufficient evidence, though contemporary witches do often refer to witchcraft groups as covens. Coven activities are still reported across Europe and the United States today.[8]

Oil on canvas called “Witches’ Sabbath” from 1789.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Sabbath_%28The_Great_He-Goat%29#/media/File:Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Witches%27_Sabbath_-_WGA10007.jpg

[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 206.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Encyclopedia Britannica, Coven, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/141082/coven (accessed April 4, 2015).

[4] Rosemary Guiley, The encyclopedia of witches, witchcraft, and wicca (New York: Facts on File, 2008), 75.

[5] Margaret Alice Murray, The Witch-cult in Western Europe (Charleston: BiblioBazaar, 2008), 223 – 227.

[6] Encyclopedia Britannica, Coven, (accessed April 4, 2015).

[7] Murray, The Witch-cult, 15.

[8] Encyclopedia Britannica, Coven, (accessed April 4, 2015).