Oh, witchcraft laws, what were those exactly? I know about witches in America and the whole Salem thing, but there were witchcraft laws also in England? Of course. The Inquisition.They killed millions of people, actually. And some were witches and some were not. 
 

When I was trying to understand it, just in reading about some of the spells and some of the stuff in the books that you’ve written, I saw how one of your main things was to take the ancient spells and make them more accessible to modern people.  Yes. To bring it forward. I’m like reconstructing spells, in a sense, because a lot of the ancient’s things are inapplicable. Or, it is applicable, but you don’t get how it would be. 

Yeah, I mean where can I even get eye of newt these days? It’d be hard to do. Can’t really get that in C-town.  Does everything have a power to it or do you infuse power into the spell’s ingredients?  Well, it’s both. Everything does have a vibration. Everything has an astrological sign, not just people. Everything. Even if it’s like, I don’t know, a can opener. 

Really? It has an astrological sign because there was a point when somebody invented the can opener and patented the can opener and whatever day that was and whatever year, well if it was May 30th then the can opener’s a Gemini. 

So, if the can opener is Gemini, then what about a can opener that was made at a different time…so does every single thing has its own sign from when it was actually made?  Technically you could say THIS can opener was made in September, but I would sort of more go with the idea of, the first can opener. I mean, it’s the same with cities. Every city has a sign and every country, too. For example, the United States is a Cancer, but New York City’s a Capricorn. 

No way…July 4th, see? Every city, every state, the country, usually has an inception date. 

I’m curious now whether Israel and Palestine have naturally opposing signs.  That’s very interesting. That makes me want to do the research. I don’t know what signs either of them are but I certainly know one thing. And that is that Wicca does not have a belief, like an apocalyptic belief, you know? The whole idea of Wicca is that we live on mother earth, and in a sense worship mother earth. It’s also very close to the original Shamanic traditions of the Native Americans. Man, woman, animal, plant, we’re all on the same level and I think that if you look at what’s happening you see that science is proving that this is true. Because if we don’t take care of the rainforests, we’re not gonna be taken care of. 

That’s interesting that you brought science into it because so many religions place science in a separate category than their beliefs. You’re kind of saying that science is proving long held notions that are in Wicca? It’s more that things are all connected and they’re not so separate. It’s also important to know that the original scientists were persecuted as witches. And at the same time you have people like Freud who tried so hard to completely sever himself from the Occult in order to gain legitimacy.   

Was Freud in the Occult?  No, but he was very conscious to separate his work from it. He had to do that to legitimize himself to an extent. 

I know how other people have defined you. How do you see yourself? I guess I define myself in two ways. I see myself as a professional witch because I am everyday helping people. I’m a great astrologer and a psychic and reader of the tarot cards. Then I also see the silly side of myself, and say that I’m Jewitch! 

Aahhh!! Oh my gosh, that’s so funny. So you still hold onto Jewish beliefs?  Absolutely. I’m actually these days moving back towards the Kabbalah. What I actually found is that the Wicca actually helped to heal my relationship with Judaism. 

I want to talk about your spells and the focus of Wicca on healing, which I guess is also very matriarchal. Healing is very motherly. When you first became interested in Wicca, were you interested in healing something in yourself? What drew you to Wicca? Was it the healing factor? No, absolutely not. It was not the healing factor. I was very angry when I discovered Wicca. I was very angry with my faith and religion and community. I felt it was very limiting. Unless I wanted to get married and have 6 or 8 kids, there was kind of really nothing to do. 

And you’re talking about being raised Hasidic?Yes. I was also kind of asked to leave the community. Officially I was excommunicated when I was fifteen years old. At that time I was studying the Kabbalah and that led me to ceremonial magic and then from that I met the witches. Then I was introduced to Wicca and the thing that really grabbed me was that it was a matriarchal religion and I had never heard of that before. And that was very healing but I wasn’t necessarily looking for it. 

And you’re talking about being raised Hasidic?Yes. I was also kind of asked to leave the community. Officially I was excommunicated when I was fifteen years old. At that time I was studying the Kabbalah and that led me to ceremonial magic and then from that I met the witches. Then I was introduced to Wicca and the thing that really grabbed me was that it was a matriarchal religion and I had never heard of that before. And that was very healing but I wasn’t necessarily looking for it. 

What is the connection between Wicca and spells? How does that even come about? How does it go from worshiping the earth to someone saying, OK, now I’m going to change something or try to utilize energy?  Well, basically it’s like the added bonus. And also, on the Sabbats it’s pretty much in bad taste to do magic. The Sabbats are the time for honoring the earth. Now, the full moons are the times when you go to the Goddess and ask her what you need to ask. So that’s where all the magic and the spells came from. 

Prayer in Christianity is a form of asking God for things as well as praising him. Exactly. And spells are actually the Wicca’s form of prayer. 

What can you do spells for? You can do spells for anything, really. The idea is though that the more positive spells are spells that are done to affect change in you as opposed to trying to manipulate or control someone else. Those are bad. 

Are there bad witches that consider themselves Wiccan? I think that most people like to consider themselves good. I think the bottom line is that people are people. And people of any religion can use religion in very detrimental ways. There are examples of that everywhere right now, all over the world, and it’s disgusting. It’s unholy. With witches, its not the tools, it’s the intent behind the tools. 

On that note, are there some objects that are more magic than others? Candles. Candles are sacred across the board. It’s fire, it’s light, it’s the wax. If it’s pure beeswax candles there’s a lot of myths and mythologies about the beeswax. It’s a very sacred substance. And the bees are considered the messengers of the Gods. 

What is a hereditary witch? You mentioned that before with Gerald Gardner.  They are children who are being raised in Wiccan households. 

Ok, so it’s not like they are children who naturally have powers? I guess I’m still thinking in a fictional sense. You’re thinking like a Harry Potter type of thing. I was pretty psychic as a child, and my mother was psychic. Since I was very young I had this thing about raising the dead. That was like a big thing. When I was very young. 

You wanted to raise the dead?  Yeah. And I did. I raised the dead. I found a spell in a book. I took my father to the cemetery. 

And you saw…you saw…? Yes, yes. There was an apparition, the whole thing. 

How were you not scared?  Now I’m scared. Now I’m not really interested. I was kind of a spooky kid then it kind disappeared until I was 19 or 20 when it resurfaced in a huge way. I feel I was called. The Goddess was calling me back becuase it’s a very important time in the earth right now. 

What are your psychic powers like? I consider them like being in tune with things. But I also know that I’ve worked and developed the muscles. That’s a question I get asked a lot. “Is everybody psychic?” I think that everybody has psychic abilities, but at the same point, everybody could play the piano but not everybody’s gonna be a Mozart. And that’s just the reality. I’ve worked hard both to enhance my powers and to control them.  You had to learn to keep the powers at bay?  Listen. I know a lot of psychics who can’t ever get out of it. They’re just psychic all the time. I used to be like that and I was like borderline psychotic, essentially. 

You picked up energies from people walking in the street? Yeah. It’s scary. It’s very scary. 

You know, I was always afraid of going to a psychic. I just didn’t want to know. It’s just this feeling of being forced to live your life the way it is told. But something you said earlier is that, in knowing you can change your future?  Absolutely. And as far as I’m concerned that’s the only reason for going to a psychic. If the idea is that this is your destiny and it’s a fatalistic view, I’m not at all interested in that. That’s just not the kind of work that I do. What I’m very proud of in the work that I do is that I allow people to sort of see where they’re going and if they don’t like it, they can work to change that. And if they do like it, they can try to find a way to enhance the experience and appreciate it. 

What is your life like now? Have you stopped writing? No, I haven’t stopped writing. I write for Cosmo Girl. I just finished writing this booklet called the “Backpack Astrologer” – it’s the July issue but it’ll come out in June. That will have the astrology for the girls for the whole year. I had two books come out last year, The Encyclopedia of Magical Ingredients and Tarot Power and now I’m finishing a novel.