Clare sent me this piece about a suburban English witch (apologies for the bimbo photos in the sidebar—seems to be SOP for the Daily Mail). It strikes me as half amusing, half slightly alarming. Most self-styled witches and pagans these days seem intent on separating themselves from the traditional notion of the witch as someone practicing magic, but not this one.

So is she (a) lying, (b) deluded, (c) a real witch? My guess is some combination of (a) and (b). For instance, what’s wrong with this picture?:

She looks a bit sheepish. ‘I was very naughty, actually. I made some lightning.’

Lightning? As in ‘thunder and . .?’

‘Yes, but I didn’t do the thunder bit, just the lightning.’

I guess if you can do magic you don’t have to think very much about physics.

She also claims to be able to turn herself into a cat, and to kill people with spells. Not that she would do anything like that:

But could she kill someone with a spell? She nods sagely.

‘I could but it would involve an awful lot of effort and, more importantly, it would be wrong. No true witch would do such a thing.’

Good to know. Perhaps strangest of all, she wants nothing to do with Ouija boards.