A coven is its people. These are the ones who lead ours and who write for this site, introduced by the names they carry in the circle.
You will find no photographs on this page and no surnames. The people of the coven are known in the Craft by the names they took at initiation, and those are the names used here. This is not theatre. Most of us are not open about our religion at work, and some have reason to be careful. What we are free to say about ourselves is below.
Those who lead and write
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Elowen
High Priestess
Elowen came to the coven's outer court in 1995 and was initiated at Candlemas 1997. She took the third degree in 2005 and has led the coven since Samhain 2011, when Hesper put the sword into her hands. She is a nurse, and brings to the Craft a nurse's patience and a nurse's intolerance of nonsense. She wrote the pages of this site that deal with death and the rites of passage, and in the Journal she has written about November Eve.
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Corwin
High Priest
Corwin was initiated in 2003 and took the third degree in 2010. He has been High Priest since Samhain 2011. He is a joiner and furniture maker, and the altar, the floor of the covenstead and a fair number of the coven's wands are his work. He is the coven's historian, and is chiefly responsible for the pages on the history of the Craft. His Journal essay is The Old Religion and the Honest Historian.
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Tamsin
Maiden
Tamsin joined the outer court in 2012, was initiated at Candlemas 2014 and took the second degree in 2017. She has been Maiden since 2019 and has charge of the outer court. She teaches in a primary school, which she says is excellent preparation. Her Journal essay is A Year and a Day.
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Hesper
Founding High Priestess and elder
Hesper was initiated in 1974, founded the coven with Wystan at May Eve 1981 and led it for thirty years. She stepped down at Samhain 2011 and is now its senior elder. She kept bees for half a century, baked the first of the coven's crescent cakes, and at eighty still comes to every Sabbat. She chose the coven's name, and explains it in What the Hill Is Called.
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Bryn
Second degree, keeper of these pages
Bryn came to the outer court in 2019, waited with everyone else through the two years when the coven could not meet, was initiated at Candlemas 2022 and took the second degree in 2025. He builds websites for a living and built this one, on the understanding that the coven would tell him what to put in it. His Journal essay is Copying the Book by Hand.
In memory
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Wystan
Founding High Priest, died January 2016
Wystan was initiated with Hesper in 1974 and founded the coven with her in 1981. He was its High Priest for thirty years and its elder for four more. He was a quiet man with a loud laugh, who could find any constellation in the sky and name every tree on the hill. He planted most of the younger apple trees in the orchard. His name is read at Samhain, last in the book.
The rest of us
Six other initiates make up the coven. They have chosen not to be described here, which is their right, and they are no less the coven for it. The three members of our outer court are not named either. They are under no oath and have made no commitment, and may yet decide that the Craft is not for them.
About Craft names
A witch takes a new name at initiation. It is chosen by the witch, not given, and people choose for all sorts of reasons: the name of a plant or a star, a figure from legend, a word in a language that matters to them, a name that simply arrived. It is used in the circle and among other initiates.
The custom has a practical origin. In the years when exposure could cost a person their livelihood, it meant that witches could know one another well and still be unable to betray one another's identity. It has a deeper purpose too. The name marks off the person one is in the circle from the person who pays the gas bill, and over the years the first has a way of improving the second.
British custom is to use the name plainly. We do not prefix it with Lady or Lord.