THE COURAGE OF TURTLES - Central Washington University

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producer, Harrow is the high priestess of a Gardnerian coven based in her narrow,
homey apartment in Washington Heights. (The Gardnerians are descended from a
coven founded in Britain by Gerald Gardner in the early fifties.)
Harrow has lived with the large, bearded man in the photographs on her livingroom
wall for seventeen years. He and the others in the photographs are all middleaged,
jolly C and nude. Gardnerians almost always worship Asky clad.@
In her soft voice, Harrow says she Aresents the term >feminist theology= because
>feminist= is often equated with the term separatist. There are plenty of us feminists who
aren=t separatists. You don't have to disrespect men in order to respect women.
Separatists are part of the picture, though. Certainly, a lot of the art and writing comes
out of those groups.@
Harrow traces her involvement with witchcraft to being Aa forest-oriented,
nature-oriented sort of person, more than you'd expect from someone who grew up in
the city. And when our consciousness began to raise about ecology, that also became
important to me. I heard from friends that there were people who made a religion out of
this.@
Wicca has given Harrow Aa framework. It's become the focus of my life, which
was pretty scattered and unfocused.@ As a high priestess, Harrow says, AI got much
more confident and assertive from the experience of being a model for other people,
teaching and mentoring.@ She notes that a support group of coven leaders meets once a
month. AIt's a very little pond, okay?@ she says. ABut I'm a decent-sized fish.@
There are seven men and women in Harrow's coven: an X-ray technician, a
housewife, a student, a secretary, a copy editor, a computer technician, and a computer
consultant. During a typical meeting, Harrow says, they will Acast the circle C creating a
focus and sense of differentness C and then work on a particular theme. The second
half of the meeting will be whatever anybody wants to work on C magic or personal
issues.@
To work magic, Harrow explains, Awe focus our will, our attitude, our personal
energy, on our goals-through visualization, through chanting, affirmations, lots of
different techniques. If someone is ill and wants to get better or wants to make some
other change in their life, wants to change jobs or have a new relationship, whatever.
It=s a way of making a transference of consciousness. I=ve seen results again and again:
people getting jobs, getting better from illnesses, against the odds. For me, a lot of the
magic is completely explainable in terms of psychology, okay? That=s big heresy, but it=s
the truth.@
As for black magic, AI=m sure it goes on,@ Harrow concedes, Abut it=s a whole other
world.@
Harrow=s group belongs to the Covenant of the Goddess, a federation of covens
incorporated as a legally recognized church. AIn every way, [Wicca] is deepening and