Neo-Paganism
Judy Harrow began to study Witchcraft in 1976, and was initiated as a Priestess in September 1977. She founded the Inwood Study Group in June, 1980. After Harrow received her Third Degree initiation (Gardnerian) in November, 1980, this group became Proteus Coven. Proteus affiliated with Covenant of the Goddess in August, 1981. She served as convening First Officer of Northeast Local Council of CoG in 1983, National First Officer of CoG in 1984, and Co-chair of CoG Grand Council in 1985. She has held various other positions on the CoG National and Local Boards of Directors, most recently National Public Information Officer from 1993-1995.
In January, 1985, Judy Harrow became the first member of CoG to be legally registered as clergy in New York City, after a five year effort requiring the assistance of New York Civil Liberties Union.
Judy Harrow is the Chair-emerita of the Pastoral Counseling Department at Cherry Hill Seminary. She founded the Pagan Pastoral Counseling Network in 1982, and served as the first editor of the Network's publication. She co-created a workshop series on Basic Counseling Skills for Coven Leaders, which has successfully run many times. This grew into a series of intensive workshops for Pagan elders on a range of topics. Judy also founded the New York Area Coven Leaders' Peer Support Group. She served as Program Coordinator for the first Mid-Atlantic Pan Pagan Conference and Festival and for seven other Pagan gatherings.
For two years, Judy produced "Reconnections," a weekly feature on the activities of religious progressives of all faiths, for WBAI radio in New York.
Harrow contributed two essays to Modern Rites of Passage (Book 2 in the "Witchcraft Today" anthology series.), and one to the anthology Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, published in 1996 by SUNY Press. One of these essays has since been reprinted in The Paganism Reader (Routledge, 2004). She has also written for AHP Perspective (the Newsletter of the Association for Humanistic Psychology), Counseling and Values (the Journal of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling), Gnosis, and such small Pagan publications as Dayshift, Harvest, and the CoG Newsletter. Harrow was a regular contributor to PanGaia, writing a column entitled “Mind and Magic.”
Her first book, Wicca Covens, was published in 1999. Her second book, Spiritual Mentoring, was published in 2002. Judy also edited (and contributed to) Devoted to You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice, which was published in 2003, and coordinated the 50th Anniversary reissue of Witchcraft Today by Gerald Gardner, published in 2004.
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