ALTERNATIVE CRAFT LAWS from John P. McClimans Introduction: 1. These laws are guides and aides to a better understanding of ourselves and the Craft. 2. The Craft is made of the interaction of people and divinity. 3. This interaction must be in perfect love and perfect trust. 4. The foundation of perfect love and perfect trust is found in balance. 5. Balance is achieved through understanding of the cycles of life and death. Organization: 6. A coven is a group of two or more people who have joined together for the purpose of interacting with one another and divinity. 7. There shall be no limit to the number of members a coven has, but balance becomes more difficult to achieve as the number of members increases. 8. The final arbitrator of the membership of a coven is the membership. Authority: 9. The authroity of a coven comes from the interaction of its membership with one another and divinity. 10. Authority must be balanced by the total membership of the coven. 11. Imbalance of authority will corrupt individuals and destroy the effectiveness of the coven. 12. Balance is achieved through taking responsibility for your actions and the actions of the coven. 13. Because each member of a coven is responsible for self and coven, the only authority the coven can exercize is authoritative authority. 14. No one can assume the leadership of a coven without the approval of the membership. 15. The membership is the final authority of a coven. 16. A coven which is in balance has little need of perpetual leadership from one person or couple. 17. Each full member of a coven must facilitate some aspect of the coven. 18. If only a small percentage of a coven's membership is actively responsible and facilitating within the coven, there is little chance of balance. (NOTE: A coven may choose to maintain a hierarchy, priesthood, system of initiation grades or other similar devices to encourage individual development. These trappings ofter cause imbalance in a coven through the combination of unnecessary authoritarianism and the relinquishing of personal responsibility.) 19. A coven has need of only two ranks: Probationer, a member who is still in training, and Initiate, a member whose training is complete. (NOTE: This should not be construed as having ended studies, but rather as having begun them by virtue of having gained basic information.)