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.)