All white on the night
While most people see them as a troublesome lot, here’s one witch who looks on the bright side, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
PATRICIA WESTON, a former journalist, is a white witch who chose enchantment over interviews and deadlines. The mother-of-one has a black cat called Gucci, is the proud owner of broomstick and wants to bring witchcraft to the masses. Weston is not your typical textbook witch. She looks and sounds more like the girls in the Aaron Spelling television series Charmed – the kind of girlfriend you’d like to go out with on a night on the tiles where you sit on barstools, slurp cocktails and put the world to rights.
Opinionated and articulate, she wants to bring wicca or witchcraft into the open. The wiccan way is a lot of fun, she explains. “It’s about women (and the occasional man) coming together to do healing and meditation.” And to cast spells of course.
It’s a spiritual path, she continues. “In the old days the poor old witch was ostracised from society. Although she was treated like a pariah, people still came to her for cures. Times have changed. In the 21st century you can immerse yourself within society and have a husband, a child and a home.”
Weston doesn’t have a cackling laugh, there is no hooked warty nose and no pointy chin. Instead she sports long blond hair and wears black clothes with purple accents. The black is to cloak her against unwanted energies, she explains. “Many of the people I see bring their problems and issues to me. I wear crystals and the colour black to deflect their negative energies so that they don’t affect my ability to heal.” After such sessions she uses salt and white sage, which she burns, to clear the air.
At her gatherings she convenes people for healing, meditation and casting spells according to the phases of the moon. She casts spells, mainly for women, to remedy lack of confidence, draw love and money to them and to conjure up employment. These take place in a witch’s house that her husband built for her. Set adjacent to the family’s bungalow in Skerries, it isn’t anything like the crone’s house in fairytales. It streams with light and has a warm atmosphere.
The cauldron is just one of the many witch accoutrements in her possession. In the purpose-built house is an altar dressed in purple and laden with all manner of witch kit, including a pale willow wand, made from the wood of a fallen tree so that you don’t unnecessarily harm the tree. She bought it from a UK-based eBay shop called Moon Goddess Garden, which is run by witches. The magic tool can be used to cast a circle to keep positive energy in and negative energy out.
