When it comes to my practice I am far removed from the idea people have of a witch. I wear black, but only because of a need to stay invisible after being attacked many moons ago. I have cats, I even had a black cat familiar, but he died last year.

I started on this magical path at the age of fourteen, really getting into it around the age of nineteen or twenty. Where I live has never been big on the magical scene, so buying anything was ridiculously difficult. I learnt early on that the greatest tool I possessed was my own mind.

I have dabbled a fair amount with different practices and have taken what I find useful from some. I’m very eclectic. Some people label me as a traditional witch, I admit, I used to identify as one too. But over the years I just felt I’m more of a “me” kind of practitioner.

I like to acknowledge the moon, mainly because she’s so freakin’ gorgeous and majestic. I’m also very fond of the divine feminine – I don’t worship deity, however, I do acknowledge the Mother, Mother Earth. Plenty of trads get their panties in a knot over people like me, calling us fake, fluffy, whatever, saying it’s not the done thing to celebrate the moon phases, or be down with the divine feminine.

I just do what I feel comes naturally to me. I’m not against anyone doing what they want in terms of their own practice. Quite frankly it’s none of my business.

The full moon comes around every 29.5 days and I do something most of the time. I admit, what I do isn’t to everyone’s taste, but it’s my thing and that’s what’s important. Don’t worry, I’m not running around the garden naked, nobody needs to see that!

What I generally do is look at what no longer serves me and release it. It could be a habit, an idea, a person, anything. I’ll usually have a good idea of what I am releasing because I will have been journalling a lot, especially in the run up to a full moon.

The format is something similar to the above, although I tend to skip step number two entirely. What I tend to do is read over what I’ve written and then read it again as each thing I’m releasing is burnt.

Most importantly at the full moon, in my opinion, is that people do whatever they want (as long as it’s legal and they aren’t hurting anyone else). This sort of practice is very personal. Books and videos are a fantastic resource for giving us ideas, but something that comes from within you, from your heart is always that much more potent, so coming up with your own ideas of what you wish to do is a fantastic way to connect with each full moon.