About Our Coven
Cottonwood Star is an inclusive, land-based coven. Committed to inclusion, we actively examine inherited practices, methods of teaching, and identity within the Craft in light of contemporary knowledge and perspectives. Our aim is to maintain a living tradition that is safe, culturally relevant, and responsive to the world and land we inhabit. We still have work to do, but we try to approach the work mindfully.
Our practice is land-based, and the coven draws its name from the land it borders, which is full of cottonwood trees and New England asters. In fact, if you open a cottonwood tree branch at the right time, the inner branch will reveal a magical secret: a pith shaped like a 5-pointed star that travels upward, deep from earth to sky. Asters also have an association with stars through the goddess Astraea, the Star Maiden. Asters represent the Star Maiden’s tears, as well as justice, renewal, and love.
Like the tree, flower and the goddess, the guiding vision of Cottonwood Star is one of deep earth knowledge, stellar magic, justice and healing. We work together to remember our highest aspirations: Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.
Our History
Cottonwood Star is a dual lineage coven rooted in the Isis Uranian and Whitecroft Gardnerian traditions.
The Isis Urania lineage was founded by Janus-Mithras in the early 1960s. It is based on a mixture of family traditions, Hermeticism and Western esoteric knowledge. Inula, the High Priestess of Cottonwood Star, received her third degree from the Isis Hathor coven in Montreal, where she studied for nine years.
Our Whitecroft-Gardnerian lineage is part of the broader Gardnerian initiatory tradition and comes to us by way of the Three Rivers coven in Cambridge, Ontario, which practices inclusive Wicca. Inula has her third degree in the Gardnerian tradition through Three Rivers.
Cottonwood Star encourages critical thinking about inclusion, cultural appropriation, and decolonization within Western occultism.
Cottonwood Star 