How to "blend" a Coven Ritual

I have only been the High Preist of a coven for a couple months now. And if you take into consideration the fact that our first offical rital only took place on November 7, 2010 then you reduce that experience down to barely more than one month. But I do have six years of personal experience in the craft, and in that time I have grown a lot. However, most literature I have found on covens from established authors and "experts" have suggested that covens must have a near PERFECT chemistry with one another for the coven to be worthwhile in their endeavors. To me, this has begged the question.."is this even possible?" Unless your members are just mindless drones and have no opinions, thoughts, or beliefs of their own how do individuals come together as a group in perfect harmony? How are there never any differences? The simple answer for this is that the coven exists for a few meetings and then disbands, as is often the case. But what if you what to establish a more long term organization? Well, then it seems to me that you have to be willing to compromise. As long as your compromise is not so outlandish that it goes against every aspect of one or more members beliefs, what is the harm in blending the thoughts and ideas of all members to reach a reasonable consensus and keep in mind the real meaning of why you are gathering together?
AND WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING? The real meaning of gathering together as a coven is..or at least should be, the acknowledgement of the holiday (sabbat, esbat, or other significant date or occasion and what it means in the broader scheme of things.) NOT to get into petty differences over deities, names, dogmas, or the degree of darkness and light they contain. If you are creative enough you can always find a compromise that will suit all. There are no shortage of "all purpose" ritual outlines out there that you can use and modify to the needs of your own coven.

With a little blood, sweat, tears, and above all CREATIVITY...you can construct a ritual that will suit all members very well.

I titled this blog as a "how to" without giving much in the way of "how to" instruction, and this is intentional. It is not necessary and yet maybe very well impossible to give coherent how to instruction for properly "blending" a coven ritual. This will be up to you and your other members. Only you know the needs of your specific coven...and that's where the creativity comes in.

Om Sarva Buddha Dakini, Hri Mama Sakta Soha!

Mortecai