Editing Coven (section)

==Modern paganism==
{{Wicca|expand=Key concepts}}
In [[Wicca]] and other similar forms of [[modern pagan]] [[witchcraft]], such as [[Stregheria]] and [[Feri Tradition|Feri]], a coven is a gathering or community of [[witch]]es, like an affinity group, engagement group, or small covenant group. It is composed of a group of practitioners who gather together for rituals such as [[Drawing down the Moon (ritual)|Drawing Down the Moon]], or celebrating the [[Wheel of the Year|Sabbats]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mankey |first=Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UO67DwAAQBAJ&dq=coven+sabbat+celebration&pg=PT12 |title=Witch's Wheel of the Year: Rituals for Circles, Solitaries & Covens |date=2019-12-08 |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |isbn=978-0-7387-6098-8 |language=en}}</ref> The place at which they generally meet is called a [[covenstead]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=K|first=Amber|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJrgXRkw0OQC&q=K,+A.+(2003).+%E2%80%9CThe+Covenstead%E2%80%9D+in%C2%A0Coven+Craft:+Witchcraft+for+three+or+more.+St.+Paul,+MN:%C2%A0Llewelleyn.&pg=PR17|title=Covencraft: Witchcraft for Three Or More|date=1998|publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide|isbn=978-1-56718-018-3|language=en}}</ref>

The number of people involved may vary. Although some consider thirteen to be ideal (probably in deference to [[Margaret Murray|Murray]]'s theories), any group of at least three can be a coven.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCoy |first=Edain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0mn7UDqJ0UC&dq=coven+number+of+member&pg=PA128 |title=Ostara: Customs, Spells & Rituals for the Rites of Spring |date=2002 |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |isbn=978-0-7387-0082-3 |language=en}}</ref> A group of two is usually called a "working couple" (regardless of their gender). It can also unofficially be called an "Obaven" by some members of the community, derived from the Scottish Gaelic word "obair" meaning work, a tribute to  the more official term "working couple", a [[portmanteau]] with the word "coven". Thus creating the word, "Obaven". Within the community, many believe that a coven larger than thirteen is unwieldy, citing unwieldy group dynamics and an unfair burden on the leadership.<ref name="KCovenCraft">[[Amber K|K, Amber]] (2002). ''Coven Craft: Witchcraft for Three or More''. Llewellyn Publications.</ref> When a coven has grown too large to be manageable, it may split, or "hive". In Wicca, this may also occur when a newly made [[High Priest]] or [[High Priestess]], also called [[Wicca#Covens|3rd Degree]] initiation, leaves to start their own coven.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=James R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FSnxlwQV0ccC&dq=coven+third+degree+initiation+starting+new+coven&pg=PA63 |title=Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions |date=1999 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-134-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Wiccan covens are usually jointly led by a [[High Priestess]] and a [[High Priest]], although some are led by only one or the other, and some by a same-sex couple. In more recent forms of modern pagan witchcraft, covens are sometimes run as democracies with a rotating leadership.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Wicca and Witchcraft for Dummies|last=Smith|first=Diane|publisher=Jon Wiley & Sons|year=2011|isbn=9781118070017|pages=96}}</ref>

===Online covens===
With the rise of the Internet as a platform for collaborative discussion and media dissemination, it became popular for adherents and practitioners of Wicca to establish "online covens" which remotely teach tradition-specific crafts to students in a similar method of education as non-religious [[virtual school|virtual]] [[distance education|online schools]]. One of the first online covens to take this route is the [[Coven of the Far Flung Net]] (CFFN), which was established in 1997 as the online arm of the [[Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-07-18 |title=Coven of the Far Flung Net |url=http://www.cuew.org/cffn/index.html |access-date=2022-12-14 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718020827/http://www.cuew.org/cffn/index.html |archive-date=2006-07-18 }}</ref>

However, because of potentially-unwieldy membership sizes,{{clarifyme|date=October 2018}} many online covens limit their memberships to anywhere between 10 and 100 students. The CFFN, in particular, tried{{when|date=October 2018}} to devolve its structure into a system of sub-coven clans (which governed their own application processes), a system which ended in 2003 due to fears by the CFFN leadership that the clans were becoming communities in their own right.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

===Other contemporary forms===
The Urban Coven is a group founded on [[Facebook]] by [[Becca Gordon]] for women in [[Los Angeles]] to gather, hike, and howl at the [[Moon]]. It meets monthly and is estimated to have almost 3,500 members. A January 2016 gathering at [[Griffith Park]] drew nearly 1,000 women, and was described as follows:

<blockquote>A lot of the women ... were there in groups — mothers and daughters, friends, colleagues. Some arrived solo and struck up conversations with other women or hiked in solitude.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/full-moon-hike-los-angeles_us_56a66b14e4b0d8cc109ae62a|title=This Is What An 'Urban Coven' Looks Like|first=Antonia|last=Blumberg|date=25 January 2016|access-date=23 March 2018|newspaper=Huffington Post}}</ref></blockquote>