There are more than twenty commonly named types of witches, and almost all of them fall into three groups: witches named for what they work with (green, kitchen, hedge, sea, cosmic, lunar, crystal, and divination witches), witches named for how they practice (solitary, coven, traditional, hereditary, and eclectic witches), and witches named for a color (red, white, black, grey, and green witches, which is a newer, looser system). None of these labels is official, none requires permission, and most working witches fit two or three at once. This page explains every type you are likely to meet, then gives you a six-question self-test for figuring out which one you are.
If you want the definition of witchcraft itself first, What Is Witchcraft? covers that, and Is Witchcraft Real? answers the question underneath it.
How the Types of Witches Are Sorted
Witch types are informal labels that describe a focus, not ranks or licenses. Nobody issues them, there is no test, and the same person can be a green witch in the garden, a kitchen witch at the stove, and a solitary witch in the sense that she practices alone. The labels exist because they are useful shorthand: "I'm a hedge witch" tells another practitioner in three words that you work with trance, spirits, and the boundary between worlds, which would otherwise take a paragraph.
The three ways people sort witches overlap, so the table below shows how they fit together before the page goes through each type.
| Sorting system | What it describes | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| By what they work with | The materials and forces at the center of the practice. | Green, kitchen, hedge, sea, cosmic, lunar, crystal, divination, and elemental witches. |
| By how they practice | Whether the witch works alone or in a group, and whether she follows one tradition or several. | Solitary, coven, traditional, hereditary, eclectic, and secular witches. |
| By tradition | A named religion or lineage with its own rules and often an initiation. | Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wiccans, Dianic witches, Feri, Cochrane's Craft, Stregheria, and folk practitioners. |
| By color | A newer, looser system that names a witch by the mood or intent of her work. | Red, white, black, grey, and green witches. |
The oldest of these systems is tradition, because named traditions have existed since the 1950s. The "by what they work with" labels spread through books and forums from the 1990s onward. The color system is the newest and is mostly a social-media shorthand, which is why its definitions vary from one video to the next.
Types of Witches by What They Work With
These are the labels most people mean when they ask about types of witches. Each one names the material or force at the center of the practice.
Green Witch
A green witch is a witch whose practice centers on plants: growing them, gathering them, drying them, and using them in spells, teas, baths, charms, and healing work. Green witchcraft is the most searched type by a wide margin because it is the most approachable. If you already garden, forage, keep houseplants, or reach for chamomile before you reach for anything else, you are most of the way there.
A green witch's tools are a garden or a windowsill, a mortar and pestle, jars of dried herbs, a notebook of what each plant does, and the seasons themselves. The practice leans on herbal medicine traditions and on the table of magical correspondences that assigns plants to intentions, such as rosemary for memory and protection, basil for money, and lavender for peace. The label was popularized by the author Ann Moura, whose Green Witchcraft books came out in the 1990s, and it now covers everyone from herbalists to people who simply feel most themselves outdoors.
Our guides to everyday herbs and spices you can use in spells, bay leaves, and chamomile are green witchcraft in practice.
Kitchen Witch
A kitchen witch is a witch whose magic happens while cooking, cleaning, and keeping a home: stirring intention into soup, choosing ingredients for what they mean as well as how they taste, and treating the stove as an altar. The kitchen witch is close to the green witch and the two are often the same person, but the kitchen witch's focus is the finished meal and the household rather than the plant itself. Kitchen witchcraft is also called cottage witchcraft or hearth witchcraft.
The practice is old and mostly unwritten, because it is the magic that never left ordinary homes: a cross scored into bread dough, salt across a threshold, a pinch of cinnamon for prosperity, stirring clockwise to bring things in and counterclockwise to send them out. Our modern kitchen witch's toolkit lists the tools, and the kitchen witchcraft recipe series shows the cooking.
The kitchen witch doll is a related but separate thing: a small figure of a witch on a broom, hung in the kitchen for good luck and to keep pots from boiling over. The custom is usually traced to Norway and Germany, and the dolls were a common housewarming gift in the United States through the 1970s and 1980s. If you searched "kitchen witch" looking for the doll, that is what it is; if you searched it looking for the practice, the doll makes a good mascot for it.
Hedge Witch
A hedge witch is a witch whose practice centers on crossing the boundary between the everyday world and the spirit world through trance, meditation, dreamwork, and journeying, and then bringing something useful back. The "hedge" is the old boundary between a village and the wild beyond it, and "riding the hedge" is the traditional phrase for crossing over. Hedge witches are often solitary, often work with herbs as well, and are the modern descendants of the village folk healer and the cunning folk who lived at the edge of town and were consulted for cures, charms, and finding what was lost.
Hedge witchcraft overlaps with green witchcraft (the plants), with divination (the messages), and with ancestral work (the spirits), and people sometimes use "hedge witch" loosely to mean any solitary folk practitioner. The stricter meaning is the one above: a witch who crosses over on purpose. Our spiritual gifts test is a good first step if the trance and dream side of this appeals to you, and a dumb supper is a hedge witch's kind of ritual.
Sea Witch
A sea witch is a witch whose practice centers on the ocean and its materials: seawater, sand, shells, driftwood, seaweed, salt, tides, and the weather. Sea witches time their work to the tides the way lunar witches time theirs to the moon, collect water and shells for spells, and often work with sea deities and the folklore of their coast. The folkloric sea witch, who sold fair winds to sailors and could raise a storm, is the ancestor of the practice; the Disney villain is a cartoon of that figure.
If you live inland, sea witchcraft still works with what you can get: sea salt, a jar of saltwater, shells, and the tide tables for a coast you love. Salt is the sea witch's everyday tool, and our black salt guide is the protective version of it.
Cosmic Witch
A cosmic witch, also called an astro witch or celestial witch, is a witch whose practice is organized around the planets, the stars, and astrology. Cosmic witches time spells by planetary hours and transits, work with the energy of each planet (Venus for love, Mars for courage, Mercury for communication), and treat their birth chart as a map of their strengths. Astrology is the backbone of the practice, and a cosmic witch is usually the person in the group who knows when Mercury goes retrograde before anyone else does. Our Mercury retrograde guide is cosmic witchcraft applied.
Lunar Witch
A lunar witch, or moon witch, is a witch whose practice follows the phases of the moon: new-moon work for beginnings, waxing for growth, full for power and release, waning for banishing and rest. Lunar witches make moon water, charge crystals and tools under the full moon, keep a moon journal, and often work with moon goddesses. This is the most common "first" type for new witches, because the moon is free, visible, and on a schedule; our moon phases for spells guide is the starting point.
Crystal Witch
A crystal witch is a witch whose practice centers on stones: choosing them by their traditional correspondences, cleansing and charging them, building crystal grids, and carrying or wearing them for a purpose. Crystal witchcraft is often paired with energy work and with lunar witchcraft (because the full moon is when crystals get charged). The crystals collection and our protection crystals guide are the place to start, and a crystal witch usually owns a crystal ball before long.
Divination Witch
A divination witch, sometimes called an augury witch, is a witch whose practice centers on divination: tarot, oracle cards, pendulums, runes, scrying, tea leaves, and omens. Every witch uses some divination, but a divination witch treats it as the main event and often reads for other people. Tarot, pendulums, runes, and scrying are the four most common tools.
Elemental Witch
An elemental witch is a witch whose practice is organized around the four classical elements, earth, air, fire, and water, either working with all four in balance or specializing in one. A fire witch works with candles, hearths, and the sun; a water witch with rain, rivers, and baths (the sea witch is a water witch with a coastline); an air witch with incense, smoke, wind, and words; an earth witch with soil, stones, and the body. Elemental witchcraft is the framework underneath a lot of Wicca, where each quarter of the ritual circle is assigned an element.
Other Types You Will See Named
These come up often enough to define, and each is a real practice, but they are narrower or newer than the ones above.
- Faery witch (or fae witch). A witch who works with the fairy folk of European folklore, leaves offerings, and follows the old rules of courtesy toward them. Distinct from the Faery Wicca tradition and from the Feri Tradition below.
- Animal witch. A witch whose practice centers on animals, whether living companions, spirit animals, or the familiar of folklore.
- Ancestral witch. A witch whose practice centers on the veneration of the dead, family altars, and the dumb supper.
- Chaos witch. A practitioner of chaos magic, which treats belief itself as the tool and borrows freely from any system that works.
- Tech witch. A witch who works through digital tools: sigils as phone wallpapers, spells typed rather than written, altars on a desk. New, and mostly a style rather than a separate practice.
- Baby witch. Not a type but a stage: the online term for a beginner. Most people drop the label after a year or so.
Types of Witches by How They Practice
These labels describe the shape of a practice rather than its materials, and they stack with everything above. A solitary eclectic green witch is a common combination.
Solitary Witch
A solitary witch is a witch who practices alone rather than in a coven. Most modern witches are solitary, whether by choice, by geography, or because they have not found a group they trust. Solitary witches self-initiate or simply begin, learn from books and their own records, and design their own rituals. Our how to become a witch guide is written for the solitary path, and what is a coven explains the alternative.
Coven Witch
A coven witch is a witch who practices as part of a small group, usually three to thirteen people, with shared rituals and often a shared tradition. Covens offer training, structure, and company; they also require trust and commitment. Some covens initiate members through degrees, others are informal circles of friends. If you are considering one, read our coven guide's section on red flags before you join anything.
Traditional Witch
A traditional witch is a witch who practices a form of witchcraft rooted in a specific region's folklore and pre-Wiccan practices, rather than in Wicca. Traditional witchcraft is a broad label that covers British lineages such as Cochrane's Craft, American folk magic, and reconstructed practices from older records. Traditional witches tend to work with local spirits, the land, and the ancestors, keep fewer formal rules than Wiccans, and are often, though not always, unconcerned with the Wiccan Rede.
Hereditary Witch
A hereditary witch is a witch who learned the practice from family and carries a lineage of it. Genuine hereditary practice exists, especially in folk traditions where charms and remedies passed from grandmother to grandchild, and it is worth respecting when you meet it. Claims of unbroken family lines going back centuries are usually unverifiable, and being a hereditary witch confers no special power; it confers a head start.
Eclectic Witch
An eclectic witch is a witch who draws from several traditions rather than following one, building a personal practice from whatever works: Wiccan ritual structure with a folk-magic charm and a tarot habit, say. Eclectic witchcraft is the most common form of modern practice and is the default for most solitary witches. The one rule eclectic witches are expected to follow is respect for the sources: open practices can be borrowed freely, while closed traditions are best learned from practitioners within the tradition rather than assembled from the outside.
Secular Witch
A secular witch is a witch who practices witchcraft without religion: no deities, no worship, and an explanation of the craft as psychology, symbol, and focused intention rather than as the work of gods. Secular witchcraft is a growing category, and it is the clearest demonstration that witchcraft is a practice rather than a faith, which Witches or Wiccans: What's the Difference? explains in more detail.
Types of Witches by Tradition
A tradition is a named lineage with its own rules, and the traditions below are the ones you will most often hear a witch say she belongs to. This is the short version; What Is Wicca? covers the largest one in full.
| Tradition | What it is | How you join |
|---|---|---|
| Gardnerian Wicca | The original Wiccan tradition, founded by Gerald Gardner in England in the 1950s, with a god and goddess, a ritual circle, and three degrees. | Initiation by an existing coven. |
| Alexandrian Wicca | A 1960s branch of Gardnerian Wicca with more ceremonial magic in it. | Initiation by an existing coven. |
| Dianic Wicca | A goddess-centered, feminist tradition founded in the 1970s. | Initiation; most lineages are women-only. |
| Eclectic Wicca | Wicca practiced solo or in informal groups from published books, with no lineage. | Self-dedication. |
| Feri Tradition | An American initiatory tradition focused on ecstasy, personal power, and the "Feri current." | Initiation after long training. |
| Cochrane's Craft | A British traditional witchcraft lineage founded by Robert Cochrane as a non-Wiccan alternative. | Initiation. |
| Stregheria | Italian-American witchcraft that draws on Italian folk magic. | Initiation or self-study, depending on the branch. |
| Reclaiming | A tradition founded by Starhawk that joins witchcraft to activism and consensus. | Classes and community; no formal initiation required. |
| Folk and closed practices | Hoodoo, brujería and curanderismo, and other traditions rooted in specific communities. | Best learned from practitioners within the tradition. |
Practitioners of Hoodoo, brujería, and similar traditions often do not call themselves witches at all, and it is polite to use the word they use.
Color Witches: Red, White, Black, Grey, and Green
Color witch labels are the newest sorting system, and they describe the intent and mood of a witch's work rather than its materials. They come mostly from social media, so the definitions shift, but the versions below are the ones most people mean. A witch can use color labels and the labels above at once; a red kitchen witch is a kitchen witch whose cooking is about courage and passion.
Red Witch
A red witch is a witch whose work centers on passion, courage, vitality, and drive: the fire-and-Mars side of the craft. Red witches favor red candles, cinnamon, dragon's blood, garnet and carnelian, and spells for confidence, motivation, attraction, and getting what you have decided you want. Some also work with the body and with blood symbolism, in the sense of vitality and lineage. The label owes some of its popularity to pop culture, where Melisandre in Game of Thrones is called the Red Woman and Marvel has its Scarlet Witch, but the practice it names is the ordinary magic of fire and will. Red candles are the red witch's everyday tool, and our candle color meanings guide explains what each color carries.
White Witch
A white witch is a witch whose work is limited to healing, protection, blessing, and helping. The term is old: in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "white witch" was the ordinary English word for a cunning person who cured and found lost things, as opposed to the "black witch" accused of harm. Today most witches consider the white-versus-black split too simple, because protection sometimes requires banishing, and banishing looks dark from the outside.
Black Witch
A black witch is, in the color system, a witch who works with shadow, banishing, binding, hexing, protection through force, and the darker end of the craft. The label is chosen by people who use it, not applied as an accusation, and most self-described black witches do protective and justice-focused work rather than anything malicious. Note that "black witch" is also used in some communities simply to mean a witch who is Black, so read the context.
Grey Witch
A grey witch is a witch who does both: healing and hexing, blessing and binding, as the situation calls for. Grey witchcraft holds that the craft is a tool, that intent is what matters, and that refusing ever to defend yourself is not the same as being ethical. Most experienced witches, if pressed, would describe themselves this way.
Green Witch as a Color
"Green witch" appears in the color system too, where it means what it means above: a witch of plants, growth, prosperity, and the earth. It is the one label that belongs to both systems.
What Kind of Witch Am I? A Six-Question Self-Test
The honest answer to "what kind of witch am I" is that you are the kind of witch you already are: the type is a description of what you are naturally drawn to, not an assignment. The six questions below make that visible. Write down your first answer to each; do not overthink it.
- Where do you feel most like yourself? In a garden or the woods points to green witch. In your kitchen points to kitchen witch. At the beach points to sea witch. Under the night sky points to lunar or cosmic witch. In a quiet room with your eyes closed points to hedge witch.
- What do you already collect without meaning to? Plants and seeds say green. Recipes and spices say kitchen. Shells and sea glass say sea. Stones say crystal. Decks, dice, and coincidences say divination. Old family stories say ancestral.
- What would you rather do for an hour? Cook, walk outside, meditate, read cards, watch the moon, or organize your stones. Each answer is a type.
- Do you want company? If the thought of a group makes you tired, you are a solitary witch, and most people are. If it makes you excited, look for a coven or a class.
- Do you want rules, or a toolbox? If you want a tradition with a structure, an initiation, and people who came before you, read the tradition table above. If you want to build your own practice from what works, you are an eclectic witch.
- What is your magic usually for? Healing and protecting points to white. Courage, passion, and going after things points to red. Banishing, boundaries, and justice points to black or grey.
Read your six answers together and you will have something like "solitary eclectic green witch who leans lunar," which is a complete and normal answer. If you want to test the result rather than take it on faith, our how to know you're a witch guide lists the signs, and the "how to start" section of What Is Witchcraft? gives you a first week of practice to try it out in.
If you were looking for a quiz that sorts you by birthday, that is astrology rather than witchcraft, and the cosmic witch section above is where those two meet.
Do You Have to Pick a Type?
No. The types of witches are a vocabulary for describing a practice, and a practice comes first. Plenty of experienced witches never use any of these labels, and plenty of beginners pick one on day one and change it by month three, which is fine. The labels are most useful for three things: finding books and communities that match what you actually do, explaining yourself quickly to another practitioner, and noticing, from the outside, what your own practice has become.
If you want one label to start with, "eclectic" covers almost everyone, and "solitary" covers almost everyone else. Then go practice, keep a record of what you did and what happened, and let the type find you.
Types of Witches FAQ
How many types of witches are there?
There is no fixed number, because the labels are informal, but about twenty to twenty-five are in common use. The most-used are green, kitchen, hedge, sea, cosmic, lunar, crystal, and divination witches (by what they work with), solitary, coven, traditional, hereditary, eclectic, and secular witches (by how they practice), the named Wiccan and traditional lineages, and the red, white, black, and grey color witches.
What kind of witch am I?
You are the kind of witch that matches what you are already drawn to. Answer six questions: where you feel most yourself, what you collect, what you would rather do for an hour, whether you want company, whether you want a tradition or a toolbox, and what your magic is usually for. Most people land on a combination such as "solitary eclectic green witch," which is a complete answer.
What is a green witch?
A green witch is a witch whose practice centers on plants: growing, gathering, and using herbs in spells, teas, baths, charms, and healing. It is the most popular type because it is the most approachable, and the label was popularized by Ann Moura's Green Witchcraft books in the 1990s.
What is a kitchen witch?
A kitchen witch is a witch whose magic happens in cooking and homemaking, stirring intention into food and treating the stove as an altar. The kitchen witch doll, a small witch figure hung in the kitchen for luck, is a separate Scandinavian and German folk custom that shares the name.
What is a hedge witch?
A hedge witch is a witch who crosses the boundary between the everyday world and the spirit world through trance, meditation, and dreamwork, and brings something useful back. The "hedge" is the old boundary between the village and the wild, and hedge witches are the modern heirs of the village cunning folk.
What is a red witch?
In the color system, a red witch is a witch whose work centers on passion, courage, vitality, and drive, using red candles, cinnamon, dragon's blood, and stones such as garnet and carnelian. The label is popular partly because of Melisandre, the "Red Woman" of Game of Thrones, but it names ordinary fire-and-will magic.
What is an eclectic witch?
An eclectic witch draws from several traditions rather than following one, building a personal practice from what works. It is the most common form of modern witchcraft, and its one rule is respect for the sources: open practices can be borrowed, while closed traditions are best learned from practitioners within them.
What is a sea witch?
A sea witch is a witch whose practice centers on the ocean: seawater, salt, sand, shells, driftwood, tides, and coastal weather and folklore. Inland sea witches work with sea salt, saltwater, shells, and the tide tables of a coast they love.
What is the strongest type of witchcraft?
None of them. The types describe what a witch works with, not how much power the practice has, and every experienced witch will tell you that consistency and focus matter far more than the label. The strongest witchcraft is the kind you actually practice.
What is a female witch called?
A witch. The word is not gendered, and men, women, and nonbinary people who practice are all witches. "Warlock" is not the male form; it comes from an Old English word for oath-breaker and most male witches decline it.
What are three witches called?
A coven, informally, though a coven can be any small group of witches and traditionally has up to thirteen members. "Three witches" as a phrase usually refers to the Weird Sisters in Macbeth or to the Triple Goddess of maiden, mother, and crone, which is a Wiccan image rather than a type of witch.
Can I be more than one type of witch?
Yes, and almost everyone is. The labels describe focus and stack freely: a solitary eclectic green witch who follows the moon is four labels and one ordinary practice. Pick whatever describes what you do, and change it when what you do changes.
