Wold's witches ready to welcome springtime

Horncastle’s Flange & Prong witchcraft shop, on West Street, is the brainchild of High Priestess Shelley Hayes and her second Tessa Lowe-Rawlings to not only offer anything witches in the Wolds area could need, but also to educate the public on the true meanings of witchcraft and dispel myths still surrounding this way of life.

“Witchcraft used to be something women living on the outskirts of society were accused of, ladies who worshipped nature or were just slightly different and they were demonized for it, and this is where we get misunderstood," said Shelley, who is head of a coven of around 60 witches in the area.

“Witchcraft is a delicate blend of alchemy, actualisation, divination and manifestation, and bringing to you what you want – you’re the goddess of your own universe.”

While the witches have had mostly positive responses from the community since they set up shop in 2017, Shelley said they still see people cross the street to avoid walking past their establishment, and have had others accuse them of putting hexes on them and summoning the devil:

”People are fearful of what they don’t understand and demonise it, but in witchcraft there is no God so there’s no devil,” Shelley explained, “We also get accused of hexing people but that’s not what we do at all, we have no intention of harming anyone, that’s other people’s perception.

“It’s about channeling the earth’s energy and your core energy and you’re the goddess of your own universe. We don’t do any evil deeds, and we’re not nasty.”

This is a special time of year for the witches as in the pagan Wheel of the Year, an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, Imbolc – pronounced ‘im-olc’ – is the second on the wheel and marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, on or close to February 1.

The earliest mentions of Imbolc date back to the 10th century, and the holiday sees witches celebrating the beginning of spring and new life.

Its literal meaning is ‘in milk’ in Old Celtic as this is typically the time of year where spring lambs are being born and when the earth awakens again after being insulated during the winter months.

For traditional witches such as Shelley and Tess, this is also the time for pledges and rededications for the coming year.

The witches will gather together and perform a ritual with readings and celebrate nature, as well as poetry and reading out blessings requested by members of the public.

Tessa said: “We welcome in new life and always raise our energy levels and it’s a lovely feeling. We always follow it with a feast or party food.”

Anyone is welcome to go along to Flange & Prong to meet Shelley and the witches.

"We get a lot of people coming to us in later life as they’ve not known where to turn, and it’s harder for older people to admit they are a witch as there is still the negative connotations,” Shelley said, “But if people come and see us they’ll find out we’re not evil devil-worshippers – we’d never do any harm.

"Just reach out to us.”

You can visit the witches at Flange & Prong, and also visit https://www.facebook.com/fpwitchcraft