Every Wednesday we feature one of our favorite witchy community members as a part of a short interview series called Witches We Love. This week, we wanted to share an older interview with you from our dear friend from the UK, Joana from @love_is_the_law__ . She will be joining our blog as a regular contributor, with her first article on Hermeticism coming out this Friday. Don’t miss it!

Not only is she an inspiring Witch, she’s a mother, business owner and writer. Talk about powerful!! Take a moment to get to know her background & practice, we know you’ll love her as much as we do. Join us in giving her a warm welcome as she steps forward as a more prominent voice in our community. Be sure to give her a follow on Instagram, if you’re not already!

Magick has always been a part of my life, so much so that I didn’t think of it as magick until I came to the UK.

I was born on a little Portuguese island called Madeira, where everyone goes to church on Sunday -and then consults with their local witch once church is finished. My grandmother just so happened to be one of the local witches.

Even though Madeira is a considered a Catholic island, most of the Catholics also practice Santeria, my household was no different.

My mother was Catholic and taught me about Christianity, and my father was an initiate of Santeria and taught me about the Orisa, but my true love of magick came from my grandmother. She, with her beautiful gypsy roots, taught me everything.

The first book that really sparked an interest in magick for me, believe it or not, was the bible. Filled with stories of necromancy, astral projection, divination and alchemy, it made me believe magick was real. Plus, my grandmother lovingly showed me the hidden occult secrets in the bible. How it can be used for spells, and the significance of King Solomon and John the Baptist. This led me to conduct my own research and dig deeper into the secrets of magick.

Growing up surrounded by people who practiced magick, I always believed it to be real but I never understood the science behind it. I knew it worked, I just didn’t know how! -Until I was 14 and I happened to came across the writings of The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, these sacred teachings of occult knowledge changed everything for me! What I knew to be true finally made sense!

From there I read the Kybalion, which lead me to other hermetic writings then the Qabbalah and eventually the Golden Dawn.

Some of my favourite occult writers are Dion Fortune, Eliphas Lévi, John Dee, Gerald Brosseau Gardner, Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie.

For me knowledge is important, especially when conducting ritual magick or summoning deities. You need to know what your dealing with, otherwise you might just piss something off -and believe me when I tell you it’s not fun when you do! Gods can be vengeful and demons are frikin’ scary if you don’t know how to bind or appease them. Knowledge is very important, trust me on this one.

It’s difficult for me to describe what my practice is, because it’s continually evolving as I grow and my understanding of how my magick works deepens.
The best way I can describe myself is eclectic because I live a pagan life, my beliefs are hermetic, my practice is Qabbalistic, my views are Wiccan, I give thanks the Orisa and I’m a Tarot reader by trade. So it’s a bit of mixed bag.

My advice to those looking to join the magical path is:
Conduct your research, especially with work around deities.
Learn fire safety! I have started way too many fires!
Try to practice safe magick!
Most importantly, never restrict yourself. If something doesn’t work for you but another thing does, that’s okay! Do what works for you; there is no wrong or right. Magick is personal, so it needs to work for you -not the other way round. Follow your gut, learn to listen and trust it, and never forget you are star borne! Knowledge is power, do with it what you will.