This is a snapshot.  A reveal.  A peep behind the curtains. This is how life is for me, in the here and now.

For a lot of years I looked at my witchy heroines and heroes on the internet and thought that one day, one day I would have that life, and then I would be a working witch.  It would be how I earned my living, it would be my 24/7.

Sometime last year I gained a different perspective.

It came through loud and clear that what mattered was how I lived right now, in my ordinary, not particularly dramatic days; that how I lived in ordinary circumstances, how I practised my craft, my spirituality, in the middle of the mundane was the key.

Maybe you, too, aspire to be a full time lightworker/ witch/ coach/ fill in your dream role here…so in the spirit of honesty and authenticity I thought I’d share how it is in my life, most days, right now.

I am just turned forty-seven.  Two years ago we moved to live with my parents to help care for my mother, who lives with dementia and is severely sight-impaired.  I live with my second husband.  My youngest son lives elsewhere, my eldest, who has an autistic spectrum condition, lives with us.

I begin my day around 5.30 a.m.  My husband commutes to London so has an early alarm.  He is kind and brings me tea.  Then I write for a while, pull cards, read from some of my daily books (The Goddess Companion is a favourite) and pray.

After I’m dressed I’ll get breakfast and then start work around 7.30 a.m.  Initially this will be some social media work or admin on the PC.

Some days I have to leave around 8 a.m. to go to other work. I might be doing admin/ PA work or off to a local university where I help students with study skills.  Sometimes I go into a school I once worked in to do educational testing.  I have about five different “jobs” mostly on a zero hours basis.  This gives me a chance to manage the household, provide care when needed, keep on top of chores, do day to day business admin and manage my own health, which can be variable.

I’m taking a bookkeeping course right now (another way to “make cheese” to support my witching) so when I have a spare half hour I might get some of that done.

And in the middle of it all I’ll be fetching groceries, or clearing up after the cats, or emptying the bins, or loading the washing machine.

Evenings I meet with clients online, or prepare lessons for the “witch school” I made on Patreon.  I work on creative projects, write, plan, dream.   Sometimes I catch up with friends or take a walk with Simon when he gets home. I like to end the day with an episode of something and some books.

Every day is full. Every day is different.  My goal in life is to be a “working witch” but to do that I need to be supporting myself and right now I can’t do that by spiritual work alone.  And that’s ok.  I’m offering what I can to be in service and I’m blessed with friends and co-creators who are supporting me in this endeavour.

It isn’t a book deal, or a global speaking tour, or 50k followers on Instagram, all of which I have thought would be benchmarks of “success”.

It is real life.  It is my life.  It means,for now, I can do the things which need doing, the messy, gritty, unglamourous things.  These are the things I bump up against everyday which challenge me to think about how I can use my practice to bring a little more magic into the world, whether I’m living true to my principles.  The rude girls in the library, the homeless man shouting at me to help him, the huge car which cuts me up in traffic, the friend in crisis.

I learned a lot about witching from Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series.  Granny Weatherwax, Tiffany’s mentor, says that most of witching is “headology”.  I feel that’s true.  Being an everyday witch is 99 % headology and 1% mystery as far as I’m concerned.

And it’s in that 1% that the real magic lies. 

So I will continue to practice my own brand of working witchery.  And if the gods decide I’m allowed to do a bit more magic and a little less muggling I will be extremely grateful.  But I will not wait to exercise the magic I have to share until certain circumstances are in place or the world looks a particular way. This blessed now is where the magic happens.