Where is started for me

The craft has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Not because I grew up in a house that believed in it, quite the opposite actually. There was no religion in my home, no spiritual framework, no conversations about energy or intuition. I remember trying to go to Sunday school with my best friend once. Honestly, I think it was more FOMO than faith. Everyone else seemed to 'belong to something' and I was curious about what that felt like.

But even before that, there were signs. Things I understand now, looking back through the lens of who I became.

From my earliest memories, I was obsessed with animals. Everyone around me used to say I "had a way with animals”, and I still do. Injured birds, abandoned animals, strange little creatures people overlooked, they always seemed to find me somehow. I’ve been rescuing things since I was about five years old and, to be honest, not much has changed.

So...I’m starting this mini-memoir from age five as a lot of my memories start around that age. I was always fascinated by the “baddie” in films and cartoons, mostly because they were usually witches. I didn’t want to be the princess. I wanted to be the sorceress. The powerful woman in black who answered to no one. I loved the way they dressed, the confidence they carried, and the fact that they didn’t seem desperate to be liked. There was something exhilarating about them to me, still is.

At my primary school, there was a huge old oak tree with a natural hollow where the trunk split into the branches. Whenever it rained, the hollow filled with water and, in my mind, it became a cauldron. My cauldron.

I spent every morning tea, lunch break and afternoon tea standing at that tree making potions from whatever I could find. Acorns, leaves, berries, bark, flowers, twigs. Other kids would bring me drink bottles or little containers and tell me what was wrong in their life that day, and I’d make them something to fix it. Looking back now, it’s funny…but also strangely telling. Even then, I was trying to create structure around intention. Trying to influence outcomes. Trying to help people feel better, safer, stronger.

The practice followed me home too. My bedroom became its own little potion operation. As I got older, things became more intentional. I started reading. Researching. Learning where these traditions actually came from rather than the distorted versions shown in movies and television. Most media painted witches as evil and psychotic, but the deeper I went, the more I realised how much symbolism and ritual still exist in modern life without people even recognising its origins.

At school, I was absolutely “the goth”. Black clothes, anti-social, permanent resting bitch face. I wasn’t depressed or troubled, despite what people assumed. I just had no interest in pretending to fit into something that didn’t feel natural to me. I’m exactly the same today although far more mainstream in my fashion sense. That attitude definitely attracted its fair share of bullying over the years, but I dealt with most of it privately through ritual work. Not in a dramatic way, but through focused intention, protection rituals, lighting candles, collecting symbols, and the belief that I could influence my own outcomes instead of simply accepting them.

And I did.

There are people in life who seem naturally lucky. The kind of people where things just always seem to work out for them. I think I probably appear that way from the outside sometimes. But it’s never been passive for me. I’ve always used my practice to direct energy toward what I wanted, whether that was protection, opportunity, confidence or removing obstacles from my path. I have always achieved the success i have chased throughout my career.

Then, over time people close to me started asking me to do the same for them.

What’s interesting now is how many similarities I notice between people who feel drawn to the craft. When I speak to women about this part of myself, the overlap is almost always there. A fascination with candles, incense, forests, storms, old bottles, crystals, bells, castles, certain smells such as patchouli, sandalwood, obscure antique objects (treasures), feathers, gothic imagery, hippy markets, witchy little shops, ravens, the moon, old cemeteries, hidden meanings. It’s honestly like recognising a frequency in someone else.

My own practice has evolved constantly over the years, but intuition has always sat at the centre of it. I’ve done plenty of reading and research, and I continue to, but I will always trust my instincts above rigid structure. I have no interest in conforming to anyone else’s version of what this path should look like.

In my late teens and early twenties, I started creating ritual tools for myself. Candles, oils, balms, bottles, little spell structures designed around specific intentions. It gave form, process and focus to the work. A physical way to direct energy toward an outcome.

That eventually became part of my life in a much bigger way.

I should probably also say that I’ve always been equally fascinated by what people call “dark magic.” That sounds more ominous than I actually mean it to. But if you are genuinely drawn to the craft, you inevitably become curious about both creation and destruction, protection and consequence, light and shadow. That’s just a fact.

Personally, I don’t believe magic itself is dark or light. I think the intent behind it is what matters.

I am someone who is passionate about justice, about protecting people who are vulnerable or being harmed. And yes, there have absolutely been times where I’ve performed rituals designed to stop someone from causing damage or to return consequences where consequences were deserved. But I don’t do those workings for other people because I cannot fully know their motivations. Intent matters too much for that.

For years, people close to me encouraged me to share my ritual tools publicly, and until recently, I resisted it. Partly because this work is personal, but mostly because I knew if I did it, I would need to do it properly, and it takes time. I can’t mass-produce this kind of work. Everything I create is individual. Planned carefully. Built layer by layer around the person and their intention.

That is the foundation of my practice.

I also wanted the tools themselves to feel beautiful in someone’s real environment. I never wanted them to feel separate from daily life or hidden away like something weird or shameful. They should feel like they belong in the home of the person they were created for.

What excites me about now and why it feel right...is seeing more women openly reconnecting with ritual and the older traditions surrounding it. I know phrases like “women stepping into their power” have become overused online, and honestly I cringe a little saying it too, but there is truth underneath it. Women are awakening parts of themselves that were suppressed, or never shared for a very long time.

And I think anyone out there that doesnt want that to happen and is frightened by that... should be concerned...

Because witchcraft, at its core, teaches personal responsibility, intuition, awareness, influence, and self-trust. It encourages people, especially women, to understand their own power instead of handing it away.

When I look back now, I realise the craft was never something I suddenly discovered one day.

It was already there.

The oak tree.

The potions.

The animals.

The fascination with powerful women.

The instinct to work with energy before I had language for it.

It has always been there.

I would love for you to share your journey with me or even let me know if any of this resonates with you. Thanks for reading.