Table of Contents

• How I Became a Hedge Witch: My Path and Practice

• Dear Joy: Your Personal Questions Answered

• Special Dates and Celebrations This Week

• Coven Share: How do you do you?

• Thanks & What’s Upcoming?

Hello and a warm welcome to our tribe, old and new,

I’m excited to be working on some castings tomorrow, drawing on the powerful energy of the Full Flower Moon at Lunar Beltane. It’s always an honour to share the magick that has so positively shaped my own journey and my favorite spell. In this week’s Dear Joy, we reassure one reader not to be surprised when she asks for support through magick… and actually receives it. Magick responds to intention, and sometimes the answer is simply “yes.” 

How I Became a Hedge Witch: My Path and Practice

How I Became a Hedge Witch: My Path and Practice

Last week, I promised to share the what, why and how of my own practice—from voodoo to kitchen witchery, and the eclectic path I walk between. I believe in pausing often: when things aren’t working, I try something new; when they are, I lean in and do more. After more than 35 years of practice, things are flowing well—and I hope sharing my path encourages you. This week, I’m also sharing my old favourite spell: the Orb of Protection. It has served me well, and I hope it supports you too.

When you choose to have me walk a part of your journey with you, it’s important to know who you’re inviting. Discernment matters deeply—with guides, practitioners, and indeed with all paths.

I can still picture myself as a toddler, watching nasturtium leaves dance under the raindrops, cleaning themselves, and starting over. Plants have always spoken to me. My father had a deep affinity with nature, and my mum has always found peace in the garden. I grew up on a smallholding, mostly self-sufficient, where I learned the rhythm of the seasons and the quiet wisdom of plants. We only took what we needed, and I absorbed that knowledge like a sponge, I was on my spiritual path.

My religious upbringing was in the chapel, church school, and even a convent. While the teachings of love and compassion stayed with me, I found the undercurrent of judgement and exclusion difficult. Mum worried about my love of candles. I was the one leading Ouija board sessions as a teenager—not something I recommend now, but it was part of my journey. My first Tarot deck found me at 15 and I felt both an instant connection and fear of the strong energy.

At 16, I was introduced to dynamic meditation and shamanic journeying through native plant medicine. That same year, I formally began learning healing practices, cleansing auras, reflexology, and energy work. At 19, I discovered egg magick and harmony meditation. By 22, I was practising Reiki, yoga, and Buddhist meditation, living seasonally and celebrating the earth’s cycles.

Two decades ago, during an abusive relationship, I found the necessity of regular spiritual practice. I would place myself and my children in an Orb of Protection daily. That habit stuck, and the calm it brought truly saved me.

In the years that followed, I lived in Buddhist countries and made a pilgrimage to Newgrange (Ireland), where I connected with Brigid as saint and goddess. I currently live in one of the most haunted areas of Europe—and while spirits are frequent visitors, it's the living I often find more challenging.

Later in life, illness became a turning point. A sabbatical followed, and I devoted myself to wellness and the deeper alchemy of magick. I wouldn’t wish that journey on anyone, but I wouldn’t change it either. It brought me to a place of peace, health, and full-time practice. During COVID, like many, my life shifted. I’d been a solitary practitioner for years, but a friend helped me find my online tribe.

Now, at nearly 50, I work energetically with clients around the world. I’m currently deepening my practice with Tree Ogham as a form of divination and energetic healing. I owe much to those who came before me, and though nothing I do is new, I draw together what works into a toolkit that’s uniquely mine.

Magick is something I live. It’s in my kitchen, my garden, my daily walk. It isn’t separate from me; I am an expression of the infinite. Since childhood, I’ve seen energy, colours, heard the voices and felt healing through my hands. I’ve probably spent years hiding these gifts to fit in, but no more. I work only with entities who step into the light, and I live by the rule that what I do returns to me.

Being a hedge witch is not so much a job as a way of life. It began in curiosity, grew out of necessity, and now is who I am. I draw strength and power from the natural world, use energy consciously, and seek alignment with universal law. My spiritual practice is grounded in reciprocity, regeneration, and working with the land—never against it.

What I Do and Don’t Do

Some things are sent to test us. If you’re in a difficult season, I’m deeply sorry—I’ve been there. These are the times of greatest growth. Fate is what happens to us; destiny is what we choose to do with it.

In my readings or from others, remember: Tarot shows a timeline snapshot. You always have free will.

I only cast with consent. I do not send harm to others—not because I’m naive, but because I understand energy, karma, and how it returns. I work with light. That includes only engaging with entities who step into it.

I ask, "Does this information raise the vibration or not?" If not, I let it go.

I focus on transforming sickness to health, grief to peace, lack to abundance. I work with sun and moon, fire and sea, wind and soil. Hedge witchery is a path of balance and practical magic. It is regeneration.

My Favourite Spell: Orb of Protection (aka Shield of Light)

Everything starts with intent.

I enter a liminal state with a body scan: I relax my mind by being focused in my body.

I imagine a shower cleansing me. That water becomes light. That light fills me, then overflows into my aura.

I then visualise an orb surrounding me, that becomes filled with source light. You can include others in their own orbs—always separate them lovingly.

When the energy feels strong, I give thanks. I close my connection to source by imagining turning off a tap or placing a lid on a teapot.

I then imagine roots from my feet reaching deep into the earth. This is a great time to release what no longer serves you.

And then I go about my day, protected, grounded, and grateful.

This simple practice has brought me peace, protection, and stability for decades. May it serve you well too.

Dear Joy: Your Personal Questions Answered

On my Etsy shop JoyWellnessWitch my practice is open to the whole world. I'm very grateful to the openness and connection I have with my clients. Each week I'll be sharing someone's energetic queries and my intuitive advice.

Special Dates and Celebrations This Week

MON 12th Full Moon Flower Moon Lunar Beltane. The Full Flower Moon during Lunar Beltane is a powerful time for hedge witches to honour fertility, growth, and the blooming of intentions set earlier in the year. As the veil between worlds thins, it's ideal for hedge riding, ancestral connection, and divination beneath the moonlight. This lunar energy amplifies nature-based spells, especially those involving herbs, protection, and personal transformation.

Coven Share: How do you do you?

We feel good as we connect with our world and our tribe, the way I celebrate the cycles of the year and being connected to the elements may look very different to you, please share your practice with me, we grow as a community and how you celebrate may really inspire others, this is your space to fill.

If you have a picture of how you appreciate nature, celebrate the cycles of the year or of your practice please share them with me, I will only be able to pick one that I feel best represents this time, but I’d love to know how you are getting along. Please say if you'd like an anonymous share or if you're happy for me to use your name and location in the world.

Thanks & What’s Upcoming?

This is the legal language, you know, what the lawyers told me I had to write:

This newsletter is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes, I am just your friend, I’m not a licensed therapist, and this newsletter is not intended as a substitute for a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional.