If you have read this far and found something that sounds like home, this page is for you. It is the advice we would give any seeker, whether or not their road ever leads to our door.
Initiatory Wicca does not recruit. Nobody will ever invite you to join a Gardnerian coven: you have to ask, and before you can ask you have to find someone to put the question to. That can seem a strange way for a religion to behave. It is deliberate. The Craft holds that those who belong to it will make their way to it, and that the making of the way is the first part of the training.
Before you begin to look
Be honest with yourself about what you want. If what draws you is the old gods, the moon and the seasons, you can have all of that now, without anyone's leave. Our page on solitary practice will start you off. A great many people find that it is all they ever wanted.
A coven is for those who want something more particular: to be trained by people who were themselves trained, to take a place in a line, to work in a group that meets every month for years on end, and to be bound by an oath. It asks a great deal of time and steadiness. You should also be clear about three plain facts.
- You must be an adult. No reputable coven will consider anyone under eighteen, and many prefer candidates to be somewhat older.
- It will take years. A year and a day in an outer court is the least you can expect before initiation, and two years is common.
- You may not find a coven near you. Covens are few, small and often full. Some seekers travel a long way every month. Some wait a long time.
Do the reading
Learn the history of the Craft before you approach anyone. Read the founders' own books and at least one sound modern history. Our bookshelf suggests where to start. Nothing reassures a High Priestess so much as a seeker who knows what the tradition is, how old it really is, and how it differs from what is sold under its name.
How people find covens in Britain
Almost always in person, and almost always through the wider pagan community.
- Go to a moot. Most British towns of any size have a pagan moot: an informal gathering, usually monthly, usually in a pub. Anyone may attend. Go several times. Listen more than you talk.
- Go to open rituals. Many pagan groups hold open celebrations at the Sabbats. They are not Gardnerian rites, but you will meet people at them, and you will find out whether you like standing in a circle.
- Be known. Initiates attend these gatherings and do not, as a rule, announce themselves. Over months, the regulars come to know who is serious. When you have become a familiar and trusted face, say plainly to someone you respect that you are looking for training in initiatory Wicca. Word will travel.
- Use the national networks with care. The national pagan bodies in Britain have regional contacts who can sometimes put a serious seeker in touch with a coven, and there are long-established directories for seekers. They are a reasonable second road. Treat anything found online with the caution described below.
When you write or speak to a coven
If you are given a way of approaching a High Priestess or High Priest, a short and honest letter is best. Say who you are, how old you are and roughly where you live. Say what you have read and what you have practised. Say why you want initiation in particular and not simply the Craft in general. Do not exaggerate your experience, do not list your psychic gifts, and do not ask to be initiated by return of post. Then wait. A reply may take weeks.
What a good coven will do
- It will meet you first somewhere public, and more than once.
- It will tell you who its leaders were initiated by, at least in general terms, and will not resent the question.
- It will explain what its training involves and how long it usually takes.
- It will tell you about the custom of working skyclad before you are in any position to be surprised by it.
- It will ask nothing of you but your time, your effort and a contribution to supper.
- It will encourage you to meet its other members, to ask questions, and to take as long as you like to decide.
- It will tell you frankly if it thinks you would be better suited elsewhere.
Warning signs
The Craft has its share of fools and a few rogues, and its privacy can shelter them. Walk away, without apology, from anyone who does any of the following.
Leave if you meet any of these
- Asks for money for training, for initiation or for a degree. The rule against it has no exceptions.
- Asks for sex, hints that it is part of initiation, or tells you that a rite requires it. It does not. This is abuse, whatever it is called.
- Offers to initiate you quickly, at a first or second meeting, or online, or by post.
- Will not say where their own initiation came from, or becomes angry when asked.
- Wants you to cut yourself off from family, friends, your doctor or other pagans.
- Takes an interest in your money, your home or your private life that has nothing to do with the Craft.
- Is willing to involve anyone under eighteen.
- Tells you that an oath forbids you to speak about something that troubles you. No oath does.
- Claims great titles, ancient family traditions or powers that set them above everyone else.
Trust your own judgement. If a group makes you uneasy and you cannot say why, that is reason enough. A good coven will not mind being left, and will not pursue you.
The outer court, and after
If a coven accepts you for training, you will usually join its outer court. You will meet with it regularly, clothed, in somebody's sitting room. You will be taught the lore of the Sabbats, the elements, the basic skills of the circle, and how to be quiet. You will be under no oath and free to leave at any time. The coven will be watching to see whether you are reliable, whether you can get on with its people, and whether you still want this after the novelty has worn off. You should be watching it with the same questions in mind.
After a year and a day at the least, the High Priestess may offer you initiation. She may also tell you, kindly, that this is not the right coven for you. Neither outcome is a verdict on your worth. Our Maiden has written about this stage in A Year and a Day, and what follows it is described on the page about the three degrees.
About approaching us
We have to be straightforward. The Coven of Cythrawl does not take enquiries through this website. We publish no address, telephone number or email address, and the site has no contact form. We are a small coven with a full outer court, and the few people we take come to us by personal introduction, from someone already known to us in the Craft.
We are sorry if that is not what you hoped to read. It is not a judgement on you, and the advice on this page is given in good faith. A seeker who follows it is far more likely to find a coven within reach of home than to find ours, and will be better served by it.
The door is narrow and it is not hidden. Those who are meant to find it generally do, and it is none the worse for having taken them a while.
Hesper, founding High Priestess