A spell means different things to different people. We like to say a spell is intention with teeth. Energetically charged words and actions to help you get what you want. Our spells are more literary than most, and each is written for a specific situation.
We offer them in three forms:
1 - Digital spellbooks that you can flip through on any screen or send to an e-reader.
2 - Printed spellbooks, saddle-stitched 4.5 × 6.3-inch booklets.
3 - Spellbooks with extras, which include the printed spell plus a smoky or clear quartz obelisk, a ritual candle, cast-iron candle holder, bespoke matches, mini resin raven, and a velvet pouch.
A kit is three or four spells gathered around a theme: New motherhood, grief, burning it down, surviving the wait. Same components as the individual spells, but with extra ritual objects, bundled in a custom-made box, and priced as a set.
Not necessarily. Skepticism is normal, but an open mind helps. The kind of witchcraft we practice is called “chaos magic,” and it allows for way more flexibility than most people picture.
The textbook definition: Perceptions are conditioned by beliefs, and the world as we normally see it can be changed by changing those beliefs. In short, if you believe it can happen, it can. Chaos magicians believe that almost anything, with the right intention, can be used to achieve magical ends.
What’s a real witch? Someone who wears robes and knows all the herbs and crystals and builds altars? I came out as a witch pretty recently, but I’ve been one my whole life. Plenty of people are witches without knowing it yet. Coven is for the ones who’d like in but are intimidated or turned off by the ceremony of it due to religious trauma, or just otherwise figured it wasn’t for them. The way of the witch is for anyone who wants it.
Your intention matters much more than having the right tools or saying the words perfectly. A spell is about taking the time to focus your energy, so as long as you mean it, you did it right.
Every Coven spell is structured the same, made up of four sections.
Each starts with an opening essay, where the witch who wrote the spell shares what it means to them and why they felt it needed to exist. Next comes Before, which is divided into three parts: Prep, Setting, and Mindset. This section helps you think through what you need to gather, consider, or do before casting the spell.
The third section is the Spell itself. Every spell includes an action and an incantation, words spoken aloud. Finally comes After, which covers what to look for, what to take away, and what to be aware of once you’ve cast the spell.
If you’re asking what’s physically in a spell, it depends on which format you choose. A digital spellbook comes as a link that opens into an immersive experience built for casting. You can flip through the pages, a candle burns beside you, and you can even see how many other witches are casting it at the same time.
A printed spellbook is a 4.5 × 6.3-inch saddle-stitched booklet. The printed spellbook with extras includes the booklet along with a crystal obelisk (smoky or clear quartz, depending on the spell), a ritual candle, a cast-iron candle holder, bespoke matches, a mini resin raven, and a black velvet drawstring pouch, all packed inside a custom black box.
Of course. Some spells don’t land the first time and then you just keep thinking about it. Many of our spells are meant to be cast repeatedly, and most of the spellbooks include guidance on when or how often to recast.
They can be, but curses are tricky business. Most of ours are aimed at institutions, systems, or something funny, like fuckboys. The handful that are directed toward a specific person, like Hex Your Ex, aren’t for casting lightly. Only if someone’s earned it. And even then, these spells won’t result in bodily harm. They’re closer to a “May you have the day you deserve” sentiment.
Also, we believe there’s a difference between cursing someone shitty who wields power and causes damage (like Trump), versus someone who casually pissed you off. We trust you to know the difference.
Our hexes and curses are about naming harm out loud, and giving yourself a ritual for letting it go.
Spells aren’t a fix and we don’t promise outcomes. What they offer is a small, considered act in a moment that can feel overwhelming. We very much believe that intention creates magic, and miracles (both big and small) do happen. We’ve written our spells with care and lived experience around these specific flavors of difficulty, but they aren’t substitutes for medical care or therapy.
No way. Coven is its own thing, drawn from witchcraft traditions we’ve cherry-picked, as well as the golden rule.
Chaos magic, mostly. It’s more chill than most occult systems. Less ceremonial, less dogmatic, nobody keeping score on whether you did it right. Take what works, leave the rest. The core philosophy: Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Which mostly means the rules are yours to make.
A spell you cast on a screen, at your own pace. Same words and intention as the printed booklet, but the ritual happens in your browser, candle and all. It’s for those who want a hit of instant magic, as it lands in your inbox seconds after you buy it. No app, nothing to install. Oh and you can download it to an e-reader if you’d prefer to cast it from there.
You’ll get a private link in your confirmation email.
Yes. Every digital spellbook comes with a file you can send to a Kindle or any other e-reader.
It’s yours, so use it on your own devices freely. But if a link starts turning up in too many places, it stops letting new ones in. Lost access or got a new phone? Email us and we’ll reissue it. If you want someone else to have it, gift them one.
A live count of other people casting that specific spell at the same time.
Nope, any spell you buy (or are gifted) is yours forever. Or at least until the collapse of society and the internet.
Email hello@covensf.com and we’ll resend it.
Sara Steinberg and a growing circle of other writers. Here’s the list for now. We’re hoping to rope in some even bigger feminist and occult names next.
The spells are written and designed in San Francisco, then printed by Fong Brothers in Brisbane (a few miles south), and assembled back in the city. They’re very much made in the Bay.
This is evolving, but for now, most of our obelisks are natural quartz and labradorite, cut into 3-inch towers, bought direct from a supplier in Taiwan. We’re hoping to go to the Tucson Gem Show this winter and meet more local suppliers.
No. They come from a US ritual goods wholesaler in California. Aside from the Vespers candle, our chime and tea light candles are plain paraffin and unscented.
Yes. We take a limited number of custom commissions each season, for big life moments, or specific situations none of our off-the-shelf spells fit. Email hello@covensf.com to ask.
Yes, slowly. We’re just getting started, so we’re opening wholesale in small batches while we ramp into reality. If you have a shop and you’d like to carry us, email sara@covensf.com and tell us about your store.
Order minimums start at $180, three copies per title. Right now we can offer printed spellbooks and spellbook & extras, and we can turn an order around in about a week. Email sara@covensf.com and we’ll send the current line sheet.
Yes. In your cart, check the “send as a gift” box and tell us who it’s for. For printed spellbooks and kits, enter their address as the shipping address at checkout and it goes straight to them, with no pricing or invoice in the package. Digital spellbooks land in their inbox.
You enter their name and email, and choose the day it arrives, whether that’s right now or their birthday, whenever that is. The spell is personalized to them, and your note goes in the delivery email.
Yes. There’s a field at checkout for a short message. For printed orders, it’s tucked into the package. For digital orders, the note goes in the delivery email.
So sorry to say, but for now, all sales are final, including gifts. If it arrives damaged, email orders@covensf.com and we’ll make it right. We’re too tiny right now to operationally handle returns, but we’ll get there as we grow.
Within the US and to Canada. Digital spellbooks deliver instantly to your email, anywhere in the world. International shipping for printed goods isn’t available yet. If you want to stay in the loop on any expansion, the best bet is probably to sign up for our newsletter.
Orders ship within 3–4 business days. Domestic delivery usually takes another few days after that. Canada: Plan for 1–3 weeks depending on customs.
You’ll get a tracking number by email once your order ships. Domestic tracking updates often. International tracking can go quiet for stretches while a package is in customs. That’s normal.
So sorry to say, but for now, all sales are final. If it arrives damaged, email orders@covensf.com and we’ll make it right. We’re too tiny right now to operationally handle returns, but we’ll get there as we grow. The full returns policy is here.
Email orders@covensf.com and we’ll figure it out together.
We don’t have a storefront yet, but hopefully we’ll get one someday. For now, Coven SF lives online and in pop-ups around the city. We’re working furiously on a spellbook vending machine that we plan to plant in Haight-Ashbury. Sign up for the newsletter and you’ll hear when it lands.
The witch-curious. The skeptics. The girls, the gays, the hopeful, and the haunted. People who don’t believe in magic but believe in intention, and people who already practice and are curious about what we’re into. Anyone who’s fed up with this shit.
No. We don’t draw on hoodoo, brujería, Lucumí, Vodou, curanderismo, or Indigenous practices. Those are closed traditions, and not ours to borrow.
We have complicated feelings about AI. As creatives, it directly threatens our livelihood. We’ve spent our whole careers learning to do this stuff, and AI is coming for it. At the same time, it’s a useful sketchbook. It lets us take ideas that have lived in our heads for years and make them real-ish. We can rough out a website and build a first version of something without learning to code. It gives us room to play. But that’s where it should stay, as the interim sketch.
AI never chooses our words. Every spell is written entirely by humans. But we do treat it as a thesaurus and let it proofread for typos, and it’s caught many 😬. We also use it for the tasks we’d otherwise use Photoshop for, like extending a background or aligning on an aesthetic. Right now the raven at the top of this site is an AI sketch. But we’ve commissioned an artist we fucking love to illustrate the real one. The AI version helped show them what we were after.
We also use it for things like coding, organizing backend systems, and tech support. Those uses feel different from replacing someone’s creative voice.
AI isn’t going away, especially here in San Francisco. Pretending it doesn’t exist won’t slow it down. We’d rather be thoughtful about how we use it: To feel ideas out and automate the boring shit, while protecting the part only people can do.
Buy a spell. Tell a friend. Tag us on Instagram (@thecovensf). Suggest a spell we should make next. There’s a form on the homepage.
Email hello@covensf.com.