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The Feral Witch, 39 Trafford Road, Trafford Road, Rushden (2026)

30/07/2026

I'll be at Wicksteed Park, October 10th and 11th, come by and say hello!

20/05/2026

Topic Of The Week – Craft Rituals – Major Rituals

All “religions” have major rituals, so what are the ones in The Craft? Let’s have a look! (This will be a brief description of rituals; I shall be going more in-depth with some at a later date)

While the first major ritual may be seen by many as a christening of sorts, there’s one that I prefer to think of as The First – Coming Earthside.

Coming Earthside is when a baby is born, it leaves the Summerlands and rejoins the others here on the mortal plane. So why do I celebrate this? Because not all women who fall pregnant have the good fortune of carrying the baby to full term so celebrating a baby Coming Earthside is a huge thing, especially for those who have lost a pregnancy.

Babymoon – this celebrates the first 40 days of a baby’s life on Earth. For those forty days, the mother is not expected to do anything other than care for her child and build a bond with it (not something easy in todays world) After the Babymoon ends, the first full moon after this is when a Naming Ceremony is normally held.

Naming Ceremony – this is a baby’s naming ceremony (or christening) and, if they’re part of a coven, when they’re first introduced to the coven members. They do normally have people who will be their godparents (the term Name Parents is also used) and generally will have a total of three. Girls will have two male name parents and one female, boys the opposite. This may seem odd but it’s to balance the scales, so to speak. This ensures the child has enough input from both genders to bring up a balanced child.

Blood Moon (girls only) – this is when a girl would get her first period. It’s considered time for a big party to celebrate the girls first steps into the divine womanhood and is usually held by the mother (or mother figure) of the child with ONLY female participants in attendance. It is also usually held on the first Dark Moon after her period starts, this goes back to a time when The Craft had to be done in secret and away from prying eyes to keep its practioners safe.

Second Naming Ceremony – sometimes referred to as a Becoming ceremony, this is generally more a coven celebration. This is when a young witch turns 13 and choses their coven/witches name. It’s a celebration of a new member joining the ranks as an initiate in training.

Handfasting – a witches wedding! These have two different types – a year and a day or lifetime. Those who do a handfasting for a year and a day can then “upgrade” it to a lifetime commitment should they chose.

Handparting – the opposite of a handfasting, for those witches who decide their life paths have diverged to much to remain together.

Croning – this is the end of a female witch’s reproductive life and is normally celebrated one year after her last period.

Crossing The Bridge – the end of a witch’s life, this is the equivalent of a funeral, with less mourning and more celebrating of the life led.

So, there you have it, all major celebrations during the life of a witch! Which do you find most fascinating?

Have a fabulous week and I’ll see you next time to talk about the Minor Rituals.

13/05/2026

Topic Of The Week – Shadow Work

This week’s topic – Shadow Work, what is it and how do you do it. Let’s go!

Shadow Work…sounds like something from the movies needing dark lighting and an eerie soundtrack right? Well, it’s not. In modern terms, it has another name, especially in the psychological area – self-reflection.

Self-reflection isn’t quite the same as shadow work. While it does require you to look at your own actions, shadow work goes deeper and asks you to not only look at your own actions, but also the things making you react in the way you do. It asks you to really dig deep and can be extremely uncomfortable if you’re not committed to doing it properly.

Let’s use an example – imagine you get a cut on your hand. It’s not too bad, so you put a plaster on it and carry on about your day. The following day, the cut is beginning to hurt but you ignore it, it wasn’t that bad, it’ll heal on its own eventually right? After a few days have gone by, it’s become obvious it’s infected. You head to the doctor, get some antibiotics and start taking them. After a week, the infection is gone, it’s all fine…until after a few more weeks, you realise you have no feeling in that part of your hand, it’s all gone numb. Why?

Because, without you being aware of it at the time, that little cut was deeper than you realised, it hit nerves. After it got infected and was left untreated for days, the damage became irreversible – the nerves had gone and left that part unable to feel anything.

How does this relate to shadow work?

Think of it like this – shadow work is microsurgery – it’s going back to that old wound, opening it up, really inspecting the damage and hopefully, being able to repair at least some of it so you can gain some feeling back.

This is why so many people find it difficult – no-one like to open old wounds (even those they don’t really realise are wounds) and poke around to figure out if the damage is repairable. It’s painful, it can be messy and it can be thoroughly unpleasant to do.

The other side of this though, is if you do the work, and do it properly, it can actually rewire your brain to make you both happier and healthier! We all know if we’re happy and healthy, life seems just that bit easier, so why do we resist putting the work in for it?

Simple answer is – it’s hard and it’s scary, but on the other side of that…is life and joy and sunshine…so put the work in, it’s SO worth it!

Have a fantastic week and I’ll see you again next week when I’ll be covering Craft Rituals – Major Rituals.

06/05/2026

Topic Of The Week – Solitary Witch vs Coven Witch

So, you’ve decided to follow the path of being a witch, now you have to think about where you go with that. Do you want to practise on your own as a solitary witch, or become part of a bigger group (frequently referred to as a coven)

Each have merits to them and also downfalls to them so let’s get into it!

Solitary Witchcraft.
The upsides – no rules or restrictions to what you can do. Doing a love spell? No-one telling you about free will and the unethical side of it (you have to figure that out yourself) Want to hex that ex? No rules to follow about waiting to see if it’s worth it or not to do it, you do you boo!
The downsides – no-one to stop you doing something REALLY stupid! Having no rules to follow other than those you think of yourself means you won’t always think before acting on something and spell work can easily fall into knee-jerk reactions.

Coven Witchcraft
The upsides – you have people to bounce ideas off and question if the spell you’re wanting to do is a good idea. You have that emotional support for when things get tough. For women, you gain a “sisterhood” of likeminded women around you who help you grow.
The downside – you have to curb kneejerk reactions to situations. Spells you may think are needed aren’t always seen as the best option by others. Some covens can become very closed off from new members

So, as you can see, each has its upsides and downsides and how you practice is an individual choice.

Do you have to pick one over the other though? The simple answer is no; you can do both! I do a lot of my work as a solitary witch; however, I also have a great group of women I can lean on when I need the help. Doing it this way allows those kneejerk reactions with the added bonus of tempering by the other coven members who will always make me dig into why I had that reaction. Invariably, this leads to me not doing the spell work rather than doing it! *

So, what’s your thoughts on the different types of practice? Let me know in the comments, and as always, I’ll see you next week for another fascinating topic – Shadow work!

* - this is part of what is known as shadow work

01/05/2026

Topic Of The Week - Crystals

For many new witches, their first steps into this magical world is through using crystals. They may have one gifted to them by another practitioner, or they may see one at a local shop/market and simply like the look of it to wear as jewellery, either way, I’m not sure I know ANY witches who don’t own at least one crystal!

So why are crystals a “main stay” of witchcraft practice? The answer, at it’s most basic is simple – energy!

Everything on the planet vibrates on its own frequency. Now without going too deep into the science, there is a certain “bandwidth” that things will resonate on (for most humans, this is between 4 and 12.5Hz), and for the most part, everything falls into that bandwidth. We might not be able to feel it consciously, but since we are also vibrating on this frequency, we don’t notice it overly much. It only when we come into contact with something that vibrates on a frequency sufficiently different to our own that we notice it (hence why you may hear witches say a crystal will bite them, weird I know, but we’re getting there!)

As you see above, the human body generally resonates at anything between 4 and 12.5 hertz (different parts of the body will vary, and it can even change between standing and sitting!). Different crystals resonate at varying frequencies (the whole subject is very detailed and has WAY more branches of it that I’ll go into here, but it’s worth looking into if you’re interested in it) and those that have harmonic frequencies to us, feel most comfortable. Think of it like music – you play a C, E and G on a keyboard, it’s sounds nice, but swap just one of those notes, and it may not sound as nice as you’d like!*

The same thing works with crystals – if you pick one up that harmonises with your resonate frequency, it’ll feel warm, it may also feel like it’s either not there or sinking into your hand. If you pick one up that creates “a bum note”, it’ll feel spiky, heavy or even like a shock through your hand! I have had ones before now that have been such an off note with me, it’s made my entire arm hurt AND left it a little sore for a good few minutes after putting it down!

Over time, you get to know which crystals you can work with and which you can’t, but how does that explain those times when you feel drawn to a crystal you KNOW you can’t work with, only to find it will actually harmonise with you?! Again, the answer is simple – something has disrupted your normal resonance and using the crystal that would normally bite you, it helps stabilise it and bring it back into its natural alignment.**

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this little look at crystals, so let me know in the comments if you have a favourite crystal you work with, or if there’s a particular one that sends you running away for fear of your sanity!

Have an amazing week, and I’ll see you again next week when I’ll be talking about the differences between Solitary and Coven based witchcraft.

* - This also explains why certain pieces of music are pleasant and others……..not so much!
** - Personal resonance frequencies can be thrown out of alignment by a variety of things such as illness, fatigue, emotional crisis, stress and for women, their menstrual cycle going weird. Always consult a medical professional if you feel in anyway unwell first!

22/04/2026

Wheel of the Year - Part Two

Welcome back to part two of The Wheel of The Year! Let’s go!

This half of the year start with Litha, June 21st.

Litha, or as it’s more commonly known, Summer Solstice, is the opposite date in the witch’s calendar to Halloween, it marks the halfway point in our year and is the longest day and shortest night of the year. Quite a lot of witches will make sure to be up before the sunrise on this day as the summer solstice marks the last long day of the year, so we want to enjoy as much of it as we can! You may have seen the solstice celebrations around Stonehenge, but there are also other sacred stone circles where similar celebrations happen too.

Next up – Lammas, August 1st

Lammas marks the start of Autumn, the leaves are starting to change colour, crops are almost ripe in the fields, and the days are beginning to cool off. Many schools will begin to put out their annual “Harvest Festival” letters, and Lammas is where this tradition comes from. Farmers would begin bartering crops, livestock and other produce to help maintain a balance throughout the colder months to come.

Next, Mabon, September 20th – 22nd

Like it’s opposite yearly date in March, this date varies slightly. Mabon is also known as the Autumn Equinox. Harvesting of crops is now well underway, final livestock trades are being done, and traditional farming communities would be turning over unused farmland for the coming winter as frost helps break down the soil to make tilling it in the spring easier.
It’s also around this time of year a lot of witches will begin to “slow down” in their practises, favouring doing shadow work* instead of expending their energies on fertility magics or growth magics.

This then brings us back to Samhain, October 31st.

And that’s the Wheel of The Year!

I hope you enjoyed this look at the witch’s calendar and learned something new. What’s your favourite time of the year? Personally, I love Samhain, can’t beat a bit of spooky stuff!

Have an amazing week, and I’ll see you again next week when I’ll be talking about Crystals.

*I’ll be doing a post about Shadow Work in a future post so stay tuned for that!

15/04/2026

Topic Of The Week –Wheel of the Year - Part One

The Wheel of The Year, in other words, Witches celebrations and festivals! Let’s get into it!

Now we all know of the various holidays celebrated around the world such as Christmas and Easter, but did you know that witches have EIGHT very specific holidays throughout the year? Let’s get started!

First up, we have the Witches New Year.
Now this doesn’t fall at the same time as the Gregorian Calendar New Year on December 31st, it actually falls on October 31st, two months earlier. That’s right, the Witches New Year is Halloween! This is when the veil between the mortal and spirit realms are at their thinnest and when communication with the spirit realm is easiest. In the Witches calendar, it’s called Samhain (various different areas will pronounce this differently so it can be pronounced as sow-wain, sow-ween, or sow-wen)
Celebrations include huge family get togethers and parties. If there’s a sit down meal, there’s also normally a place setting that’s left empty, to honour those in the family who have passed away. If it’s more a party style gathering, there may be an “ancestors table” to one side of the room where people can write a note to a loved one. This may or may not then be burnt later in the evening as a way of sending the messages through the veil to the spirit realm.

Next up on our Wheel of the Year – Yule, December 21st

Yule is a witches Christmas (Christianity had Christmas close to this festival in the hopes it would help convert more witches to the fast growing religion) and it is the longest night of the year. Traditional yule logs would be brought in and placed in the fireplace and lit before sunset. This had to be kept burning until the sun came up on the following morning to ensure the return of the sun in the coming weeks and months. And yes, this is where the tradition of a chocolate yule log comes from too!

Next up – Imbolc, February 1st

This festival heralds the arrival of spring – the first flowers are popping up through the ground, the days are noticeably longer, and while there may still be bitterly cold nights, frost in a morning is now noticeably less. Spring has finally arrived! Up in Scotland, this is the time of year the Scottish people would have woken up hoping for bad weather, but why? All because of the legend of the Cailleach. The Cailleach was thought to be The Queen of Winter who, if she could get out of her home on this date to gather firewood, would bring with her more cold weather until much later into the year. If it was raining, she wouldn’t venture out, and so warmer weather would definitely be on its way! And yes, this idea was adopted by Americans for Groundhog day!

Next up - Ostara, March 20th – 22nd

As you may notice, this one has a date range as it’s a little tricky to pin down to a single date. Ostara (also called the Spring Equinox) was the date when the first hares were seen out in the field boxing for the ladies! This is also where the Christian celebration of Easter comes from. Ostara is essentially a festival of new life and growth – the first spring lambs are being born, flowers are in full bloom, trees are waking up fully from their winter slumber and new life is exploding everywhere.
The Easter bunny was actually the March Hare, but given how much more aggressive hares can be, and how much larger they are, something cuter and fluffier was needed! (Frankly, I’ll take a March Hare over the Easter Bunny any day, unless if Hugh Jackman’s Easter Bunny of course!)

Our final one for this part of the Wheel of the Year is Beltane, May 1st

May 1st was historically when you’d have Morris Dancing, maypoles and big parties celebrating the first day of summer. The weather is noticeably warmer, the days longer and all the new life is abundant. Crops for the winter have been planted and settled into their growing cycle. It’s now heading towards the longest day of the year, and we’ll get to that next week, so make sure to come back for part two if the Wheel of The Year!

Have an amazing week, and I’ll see you again next week when I’ll be talking about The Wheel of The Year, part two!

08/04/2026

Topic Of The Week – Black Magic vs White Magic

People hear the term Witch and think “black magic” or “white witch” but what is the difference between the two, and is there such a thing a black or white magic? Let’s get into it!

In witchcraft, we access energy to create outcomes in our spell work, otherwise known as manifestation. And how do we know if what we’re using is black or white? The answer is as simple here as it is complicated – it’s all down to the person and what they want to achieve.

For witches, there is no such thing as black or white magic. Yes, there are certain things that are considered bad and others things considered good, but they aren’t called black or white magic, instead spells fall into the categories or Baneful magic or Non-Baneful magic (those are the main two topics, they then divide into other more specialised ones as you get into it, I did say it was complicated as well as simple!)

The most common thing a person will think of when they think “witch” is being cursed by one. This falls into the category of Baneful Magic (otherwise termed black magic *inserts eyeroll*) Baneful magic is all the stuff that makes a person’s life difficult or does harm BUT (and this is a big but) it’s always done with the intention of teaching said person a lesson.

Let me give you an example of this.
Imagine a person you work with has been making nasty comments to your fellow co-workers about you behind your back, causing you to become the butt of the office’s jokes. Not nice and it’s a form of harassment right? You confront them about if, you may even go over their heads to the higher ups, yet nothing is done to stop it. You decide to use baneful magic to turn the tables on them, to show them how it feels being the butt of everyone’s jokes. The intention here isn’t to harm them (well, not that much!) but to get them to grow as a person and stop their infantile behaviour. Best outcome to this is it works, they apologise, and go on to be a much nicer person, maybe even standing up for someone else they notice is being bullied in the same way they were bullying you.

Baneful magic is designed to hold up a mirror on bad behaviour and put a spotlight on it for the whole world to see, with the hopeful outcome that it stops and makes the world a better place in the process.

Non-Baneful Magic is more about protection and healing. This is generally what’s referenced when people speak about “white magic” and this is where most witches would like to think they sit.

Personally, I’m more a “whatever it takes” kinda witch, I’ll go the light path first – I’ll protect myself and bounce what you send back to you but if that doesn’t work, don’t think I won’t darken the light into shadow and walk that path!

Probably the easiest way of explaining “black and white magic” is in terms of parenting – White magic is gentle parenting, Black Magic is the 70’s and 80’s style parenting or “stop crying otherwise I’ll give you something to cry about!”

So remember, if you do know a witch who is out of the broom closet, be nice to them*, especially if you aren’t sure if they’re willing to walk into the shadows when you screw up! You could end up with the world seeing everything you ever did wrong!

*General rule here – be kind to everyone you meet, many may be fighting a battle you can’t see, so in this life, if you can be anything, just be kind!

Have an amazing week, and I’ll see you again next week when I’ll be talking about The Wheel of The Year, part one!

The Feral Witch

30/07/2026

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