Our Beliefs

Beliefs are a very personal thing. Those who belong to the New Forest Coven have many and varied personal beliefs about many things - including spiritual beliefs. Summarised here are the principal beliefs we share collectively and recognise as fundamental to our gathering and the way of the Woodwitch.

• There are many Gods with many names, but all Gods are one God (Dion Fortune). All paths of truth and light lead to the divinity of the Gods. The term “Gods” is used by the coven to express the entirety of the many names and aspects by which God is known.
• It matters not greatly by what name you call God, or in what image you see God. What matters most is that you recognise and love God. (For clarity in our gathering, we all refer to God as: The Winter Lord or The Summer Lady. And alternative which we collectively use is: Eternal Mother or Eternal Father.)
• We worship the divinity of God in both male and female aspects - as God is our gentle, wise Father… and our loving and caring Mother.
• We express our worship of the Gods through all things natural and we have a reverence for all things natural and all living things.
• We believe in the continuity of life. As life ends - so it begins. We believe in life eternal for the spirit and our higher being. We collectively refer to our spiritual home as: Eternal Home or The Summer Lands.
• We consider ourselves to be Pagan Witches and therefore we do not consider ourselves as Christians or any denomination thereof. We do not hold faith with the Christian philosophy and therefore we do not believe in a personal superhuman devil.
• We believe that evil exists as an opposite of good and only takes on consciousness when we allow it to enter us and influence us.
• We believe the magic of the universe is still unfolding… the cosmic forces and energies which are both everlasting and undiminishing are natural resources available to anyone and everyone who knows how to invoke, and direct them. Until science qualifies and quantifies this area of Witchcraft, it will continue to be viewed as ‘magic’. In the meantime, it is by virtue of these - as yet undefined - forces and energies and their manifestation in nature, that we accomplish natural and metaphysical magic.
• We believe in ‘Higher Justice’ (Universal Balance) the balance of causality and effect which transcends physical laws. To breach this law means we will unavoidably answer to it. (energy for energy - the balance is always maintained)
• We believe in fundamental respect - respect others and there values as you would have them respect you. We believe one should never deliberately seek to harm or hider another for singular motives.
• We believe that there are many paths which lead to the Gods. The path of the Woodwitch is but one of them and this is the right path for us… But does not mean that other paths hold less truth.