A coven is a group of witches who meet and practice together, usually to celebrate the moons and the sabbats, to train, and to do magic as a group. That is the whole definition, and the rest of this page is what the definition doesn't tell you: how big a coven is, who runs it, what it does on a Tuesday night, what to call a group of witches when "coven" isn't the word, and how to find one if you want one.
If you're a solitary witch wondering whether you're missing something, the short answer is no. A coven is one good way to practice, not the only one. Read on and decide for yourself.
Coven Definition and Meaning
A coven is a group of witches, traditionally thirteen but in practice anywhere from three to twenty, who gather regularly for ritual, training, and magical work under a shared tradition or a shared set of agreements.
The word carries three layers of meaning depending on who is using it. To a dictionary, a coven is simply a gathering of witches. To a Wiccan, a coven is the basic unit of the religion: the group you are initiated into, that holds your lineage, and that meets at the full moons and the eight sabbats. To most modern witches, a coven is closer to a spiritual family: a small group of people you trust enough to cast a circle with, who see you at your most open, and who show up when your life goes sideways.
All three are correct, and the difference matters when someone asks whether you're "in a coven." A Gardnerian means one thing by it, an eclectic Instagram witch means another, and both are using the word honestly.
What a Group of Witches Is Called
A group of witches is called a coven, and that is the answer nearly everyone is looking for. The other words in use are circle, grove, and, in some traditions, clan, hearth, or working group.
- Coven is the standard word, and it implies a closed, committed group with a shared practice.
- Circle is the most common alternative, and it usually means a looser, more open group: people who meet for the full moon without formal membership or initiation. Many covens begin as circles.
- Grove is the Druid word for the same thing, and some nature-focused witch groups borrow it.
- Clan and hearth turn up in Heathen and Norse-leaning groups, where "coven" feels like the wrong tradition.
- Kindred is the Heathen word for a worship group and is sometimes used by witches who practice with Norse gods.
If you need a synonym for coven in ordinary writing, "circle" is the safe one. If you're naming a real group, the word you choose tells people what kind of group it is.
Where the Word Coven Comes From and How to Say It
Coven is pronounced KUV-en, rhyming with "oven," and it comes from the same Latin root as "convene" and "convent": convenire, to come together.
In Middle English and Scots the word was covin or coven, and it meant any gathering or company of people, with no witches attached. The first known use of it for a group of witches is in the confession of Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman tried for witchcraft in 1662, who said her "coven" had thirteen members. Nobody made much of that for two and a half centuries. Then, in 1921, the folklorist Margaret Murray published The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, took Gowdie's thirteen as a rule, and argued that covens of thirteen were the cells of an organized pagan religion that had survived underground since before Christianity.
Murray's theory has been rejected by historians, but it was the soil Wicca grew in. Gerald Gardner read Murray, built covens of thirteen, and by the 1950s the word was fixed in its modern sense. So "coven" has two histories: a plain old word for a gathering, and a word that was pinned to witches by a torture-era confession and a mistaken book. Modern witches took it anyway and made it ours. That is how most of our words work.
How Many Witches Are in a Coven
A traditional coven has thirteen witches, and a real one has however many people can fit in the living room and get along, which is usually between three and nine.
Thirteen comes from Isobel Gowdie by way of Margaret Murray, and it has a tidy logic: thirteen full moons in a year, a high priestess and twelve members, an odd number that can't split evenly into factions. Some traditional Wiccan covens still hold to it as a maximum, and when a coven grows past thirteen, members "hive off" to found a new coven, which is how lineages spread.
Most working covens today are smaller. Three people is enough to cast a circle and call the quarters. Five to seven is the sweet spot for a group that can meet in someone's home, keep everyone's confidence, and not need a committee. Past about twelve, a coven stops being intimate and starts being an organization, which is exactly why the old rule exists.
Who Leads a Coven
A coven is usually led by a High Priestess, often with a High Priest, and in many modern covens leadership rotates or is shared by everyone in the group.
In Wicca, the High Priestess is the coven's head: she leads ritual, trains and initiates new members, and holds the coven's lineage. The High Priest works alongside her, and in most Wiccan traditions the roles are paired but not equal, with the High Priestess having the final say. Traditional covens also run a degree system, usually three degrees, that marks a member's training and what they are permitted to do.
Outside formal Wicca, most covens are flatter. The founder may lead, or the person hosting that night, or the role may rotate by moon. Some covens vote on everything. Some have a "maiden" who assists the High Priestess and is being trained to lead her own coven one day. There is no rule, and the honest answer to "who's in charge" in a modern coven is "whoever the group agreed on, and it's written down somewhere."
If you are curious whether the High Priestess in the tarot deck is the same thing, she isn't. The card is an archetype of hidden knowledge and intuition, and the coven role is a job.
What a Coven Actually Does
A coven meets for esbats and sabbats, trains its members, and works magic together, and in between it does the ordinary things a close group of friends does.
- Esbats are the full moon gatherings, thirteen a year, and they are the coven's regular working nights: a cast circle, the moon drawn down, spellwork for whatever members need.
- Sabbats are the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year, from Samhain to Mabon, and covens celebrate them as a group with ritual, feasting, and the seasonal work of each.
- Training is a coven's quiet main job. New members learn the tradition's rituals, correspondences, and ethics from people who already know them, which is the thing a book can't give you.
- Initiation marks a member's full entry into the coven and its tradition. In lineaged Wicca it is a formal rite passed from initiate to initiate; in eclectic covens it may be a self-written dedication in front of the group.
- Group magic is the reason many people want a coven in the first place. A circle of seven people raising energy for one member's healing or one member's rent is a different animal from a single candle on a single altar.
And then there is the rest of it: the text thread, the carpool, the casserole when someone's mother dies. A coven that only meets in circle isn't much of one.
Coven, Circle, or Solitary
A coven is a committed group with membership and a shared practice, a circle is an open group that meets without formal commitment, and a solitary witch practices alone by choice, and all three are complete ways to be a witch.
Solitary practice is how most witches practice, and it is not a waiting room for coven membership. Scott Cunningham built an entire branch of Wicca for solitaries, and his Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner is still the book most people start with. A solitary witch sets her own calendar, keeps her own book, and answers to nobody, and there are witches who have practiced that way for forty years with no wish to change it. The How to Become a Witch guide is written for exactly that path.
A circle is the middle ground: a group that meets, often for the full moon, without initiation or membership rules. Circles are where most people first practice with others, and they are the right choice if you want company without commitment. Many public rituals at metaphysical shops and Pagan Pride events are circles.
A coven is the commitment. You are a member, you have a role, your absence is noticed, and the group's work depends on you. It is the most rewarding of the three and the one that asks the most.
The Witches or Wiccans page covers the other distinction people mix up with this one.
How to Find a Coven
To find a coven, start with the Plentiful Earth Coven Finder, then your nearest metaphysical shop, then the public rituals in your area, and expect the search to take months rather than days.
- The Coven Finder lists covens that have registered with us, searchable by location and by whether they meet in person or online. Covens that want to be found can list themselves there for free.
- Your local witch shop is the oldest method and still the best. Shop owners know which groups are active, which are open, and which to avoid. Go in, buy something, and ask.
- Public rituals are how covens meet prospective members. Pagan Pride Day events, open full moon circles, and sabbat rituals at shops and Unitarian churches are all places where coven members show up in the open.
- Online covens are real and have been since the 1990s. A coven that meets over video is a coven. It suits people in small towns and people who can't be out.
- Meetup and social media work, with care. Search your city plus "pagan," "witch," or "Wicca," and treat what you find the way you'd treat any stranger on the internet.
The Witches' Voice, which was the directory everyone used for twenty years, closed in 2019, and nothing has fully replaced it, which is part of why we built the Coven Finder.
Before you join anything, read the red flags first. The short version: a real coven does not ask for money beyond shared costs, does not pressure you toward sex or nudity as a condition of belonging, does not isolate you from friends and family, does not demand secrecy about who leads it, and does not rush you into initiation. Any one of those is a reason to leave.
How to Join a Coven
To join a coven, you meet the group at open events, ask to be considered, spend a period as a dedicant or outer-court member, and are initiated when both you and the coven are ready, which traditionally takes a year and a day.
- Meet them in the open first. Go to their public rituals or classes. Watch how they treat each other and how they treat newcomers.
- Ask. Most covens will tell you plainly whether they're taking students. Some aren't, and that's not about you.
- Expect a getting-to-know-you period. Traditional Wicca calls this the outer court or dedicant stage, and a year and a day is the classic length. Eclectic covens are often shorter. During this time you attend some rituals, do some study, and everyone finds out whether it fits.
- Ask your own questions. What tradition, what's expected, what does it cost, who leads, what happens if I leave. A good coven answers all of these without flinching.
- Initiation. When both sides agree, you're initiated, and you're in. If it never feels right, walk away with your thanks. Nobody owes a coven their membership.
How to Start a Coven
To start a coven, you gather two or more witches you trust, agree in writing on what the group is for and how it runs, and meet for at least one full turn of the year before you call it a coven.
- Start with people, not a plan. Two or three witches who already trust each other are the seed. A coven of strangers recruited from a post rarely lasts.
- Write the agreements down. What tradition or path, how decisions get made, how often you meet, what it costs, how someone joins and how someone leaves. One page is enough. Every long-lived coven has this document, and every coven that blew up didn't.
- Decide who leads, even if the answer is "we rotate." An unspoken leader is a future fight.
- Meet for a year and a day. Thirteen moons and eight sabbats is the traditional proving period, and by the end of it you'll know whether this is a coven or a book club with candles. Both are fine, but only one is a coven.
- Pick a name and, if you like, list yourselves. The Coven Finder takes new listings, and being findable is how a small coven becomes a real one.
Cunningham's Living Wicca has a plain chapter on building your own practice that translates well to a small group.
How Covens Are Named
A coven names itself after the thing that holds it together: a place, a moon, a tree, a deity, a lineage, or a joke that stuck.
The traditional Wiccan pattern is "Coven of the [Noun]" or "[Adjective] [Noun] Coven," and the nouns run to moons, trees, stones, and animals: Coven of the Silver Wheel, Blackthorn Coven, Oak and Owl. Covens with a patron deity often name themselves for her: Hearth of Brigid, Circle of Hecate. Lineaged covens sometimes carry a name handed down from the mother coven. And a great many covens are named for the street they meet on, the cat who attends every ritual, or something someone said at the first meeting that nobody could stop laughing at. Those last well, because they're true.
If you're naming a new coven, choose something you'd be comfortable saying out loud to a stranger at a shop, because you will.
Coven FAQ
What Is a Group of Witches Called?
A group of witches is called a coven. Looser groups are called circles, Druid groups are called groves, and Heathen groups are called kindreds.
How Many Witches Are in a Coven?
A traditional coven has thirteen witches, and most real covens have between three and nine. Three is enough to work a circle, and past twelve a coven usually splits.
What Is the Leader of a Coven Called?
The leader of a coven is called the High Priestess, usually with a High Priest beside her, and in many modern covens leadership rotates or is shared instead.
What Is the Difference Between a Coven and a Circle?
A coven is a committed group with membership, roles, and usually initiation, and a circle is an open group that meets without formal commitment. Many covens start as circles.
Do You Have to Join a Coven to Be a Witch?
No, you do not have to join a coven to be a witch. Most witches practice alone, and solitary practice is a complete path, not a waiting room.
How Do You Find a Coven?
You find a coven through the Coven Finder, your local metaphysical shop, and public rituals in your area, and you read the red flags before you join anything.
How Do You Join a Coven?
You join a coven by meeting the group at open events, asking to be considered, spending a dedicant period that traditionally lasts a year and a day, and being initiated when both sides agree.
How Do You Start a Coven?
You start a coven by gathering two or more witches you trust, writing down how the group runs, and meeting for a full year before you call it a coven.
Are There Covens Near Me?
There are probably covens near you, and the Coven Finder is the place to look first. If nothing is listed for your area yet, your nearest witch shop will know.
Can Men Be in a Coven?
Yes, men can be in a coven, and most covens are mixed. Some traditions run women-only or men-only covens by choice, and that's a feature of the specific coven, not a rule of the craft.
What Is a Coven Synonym?
The closest synonym for coven is circle, and grove, clan, hearth, and kindred are used by specific traditions.
Is Coven a Word?
Yes, coven is a word in every major English dictionary and a valid Scrabble and Wordle word, and it has meant a gathering of witches in English since the 1600s.
Is a Coven the Same as a Wiccan Coven?
No. A Wiccan coven is a coven within the religion of Wicca, with initiation, degrees, and a lineage, and a coven in general can follow any witchcraft path or none. What Is Wicca covers the difference, and the Wiccan glossary has the terms.
Whether you find your coven this year, start one, or never want one at all, the craft is yours either way. The word "coven" was handed to us by people who meant it as an accusation. We kept it because a room full of witches turned out to be a good thing to have a name for.
If you are still working out the basics, our guide to what witchcraft is covers the definition, the traditions, and what solitary practice looks like before you decide about a group. And if you are still deciding what kind of witch you are before you decide about a group, our guide to the types of witches has a six-question self-test.
