Abstract: This book offers an ethnographic study of the initiation ritual practiced by one coven of Witches located in Ohio. As a High Priestess within the coven as well as a scholar of religion, the author of this book is in a unique position to contribute to our understanding of this ceremony and the tradition to which it belongs. The book's analysis of this coven's initiation ceremony offers an important challenge to the commonly accepted model of “rites of passage.” Rather than a single linear event, initiation is deeply embedded within a total process of becoming a Witch in practice and in community with others. This book expands our concept of initiation while giving us insight into one coven's practice of Wicca and introduces readers to the contemporary nature religion variously called Wicca, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, or the Craft.

Keywords: ritual, coven, Ohio, rites of passage, initiation, Wicca, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, the Craft