The He-Witch

Stephen Mahon is a solitary, intuitive practitioner of witchcraft whose path is deeply rooted in healing, devotion, and personal transformation. With a rich background as a nurse and academic, Stephen brings a grounded, compassionate lens to his magical practice—one that bridges the mystical and the everyday.
A devoted follower of Hekate within the Hellenic tradition, his work explores ritual,
divination, and the sacred art of connection. His approach is practical and eclectic, blending ancient wisdom with modern insight to create a spiritual practice that is both accessible and profound.
Stephen’s journey is not only solitary but also deeply relational. Through his craft, he seeks to build bridges between independent practitioners, fostering a community of empathy, authenticity, and shared growth. His voice is one of clarity and care—inviting others to explore witchcraft as a living, breathing path of
empowerment and compassion.

You can find Stephen on TikTok @He_Witch

Marie gives an insight into understanding with vibrations and frequencies matter when it comes to your skin and wellbeing. She takes you on a journey of how the environment we surround ourselves in and the people we associate with can impact our mood and health. 

Transcript

0:42

I'm joined here today by a gorgeous human who I came across on. TikTok and I was completely enraptured by him as soon as I heard his lovely voice and, saw what he was doing. I thought I've gotta have him on the podcast. So I'm going to let him introduce himself. He's known as the he Witch on TikTok. So if you want to introduce yourself. Hi Marie. Thank you so much for having me on. This was really unexpected, but I'm really excited. Um, so I am a. Solitary practitioner of witchcraft and I kind of revamped my involvement in witchcraft and decided or was guided to look at TikTok as a vehicle, um, and as a form of connection. Wonderful. And, um. Here we are. This is proof of that connection. This is proof that there is,, a whole community of practitioners that are brought together via a social media platform. So when people. Talk about witchcraft. They immediately think about dark magic, black magic, they occult and things like that. And it's really important for me to clarify that there's a duality in the nature in everything that we do. Absolutely. People know me for the witch of the West End, I deal with the, the moon cycles, the elements. The stars, deities and things like that. And it's a very personal thing. I have a separate subscription on my Instagram. But for you, what does witchcraft mean to you? Witchcraft for me is about exploring my. Capabilities and my potential I think it's about self-exploration and about knowing the self, but it's also about allowing the self to engage with. Universe, deities, herbalism, candle magic,, whatever you are engaging in you can allow yourself to be guided to that medium., The myths and the dogma that surrounds witchcraft, particularly in the, in the United Kingdom. But also, across the world, around, you know, you being devil worshipers or, you are a source of evil. Um. Has been perpetrated by people who were scared. Exactly, yeah. And one of my favorite health writers or nursing writers is Florence Nightingale, and one of her most wonderful quotes is that nothing good comes from fear. Yeah, exactly. And, being uneducated,, in the craft we know that many, many, many women, and men actually lost their lives through the witch trials. And it was usually through women that were either. Midwives, herbalists, the wise women, um, and a lot of them were landowners that the patriarchy didn't want them to have the land. And so there's a lot of. Miscommunication, fear driven,, and getting back to, what actually witchcraft is. It is the cultivation of energy, of all living things, isn't it? It's the cultivation of your intention and your energy. Um, so how did you first become interested in. The craft many years ago I was as a teenager, kind of 13, 14, I met up with my best friend, who sadly is, is now passed, I describe her as my Anam carra. So she's a part of my soul. Yeah. And, um, we became interested in witchcraft together and her mom was a practicing witch and we're talking kind of mid eighties here. We were encouraged to explore that side of our. Curiosity. There was no internet then. So we were reliant on a, I don't know whether you remember it, a a, a publication called Prediction. Yeah. It's still going. Yeah. Um, and that, that was eagerly awaited. It was a monthly and it was like, oh, we've got prediction, but we had to keep it on the low down. Yeah. And we were both at a Catholic school. Oh gosh. Yeah. Yes. Um, so we were literally keeping it on the lowdown and, and did soar for kind of the rest of our lives really. But we did some basic ritual craft kind of learn how to manage that safely with regards to protection, regards to grounding, regards to closing down, et cetera. And. That's where it all began, I have been in and out of the craft for 30 years. Yeah. And I think a lot of witches do that. It's kind of like, you go back to what you have as a primal urge. Yeah. To be part of. Then life takes over, you know, the times that we live in takeover and then you come back.. And moving here, closed a circle for me because I met my husband here Yeah. Uh, in the next village 13 years ago. And we had no plans to move back into this vicinity. But this house is literally in the epicenter of the LANs witch. Yeah, I, I mean, I was gonna ask you, is there there any particular folklore or spiritual traditions where you are? It's an interesting spot. So I live between, um. A triple crossroads and a double crossroads, literally a carte. So yeah, literally divided by about 200 feet. And there has been a church on this site for, since the 12th century. There have also been on, Stone circles here. So for our listeners that don't understand what the stone circles are and who Heta is. Elaborate a little bit more on that. Yeah, so storm circles are, um, ancient structures that were built by, our ancestors to act as, center points for, um. And worship and ritual for the deities that they're revered. Yeah. And the data that they, work within. So Druids have often been sort of connected with. Stone circles, but also other, kind of religious practice. Yeah. Most famous being Stonehenge. Stonehenge, absolutely. But they're not all on this massive scale that Stonehenge is. They can be very simple and often were very simple because what was only, you know, you're talking about very small communities with limited access to kind of cart these things around and get these things set up, but they were set up by the community as. The spiritual center. A revered place. And there is a history of Stone circles being scattered around this area. And literally there is the scars of a stone circle. Mm-hmm. And I say that kind of metaphorically,'cause unfortunately it was destroyed, um, just literally betw these two crossroads. So this is a very, very magical space. There's a 16th century church here, which is a beautiful building. And I remember when I first came here, I was talking to the vicar and we were sort of sussing each other out. And he said to me, do you come to church? I, I live next door to it. I overlooked the graveyard. And I said, I didn't come out of the, the, the, the witch closet, but I said, I have very eclectic taste in spirituality. And he said, I can see that, and he was a lovely soul. And he said, there was a reason the Christians built a church here. So it has this incredible history and this incredible energy. So Hete. Is an interesting de she's the embodiment of the triple goddess. Yeah. When you see, a symbol, which is everywhere these days after the moons. Yeah. Crescent moons and a full moon, that is a symbol for her carte. And that represents, the maiden, the mother and the crone and because we have been. Because we have been programmed, programmed for the predominant information that we've been, been given over the last sort of thousand years has been around Christianity, Christianity and patriarchal. Constructs of that. Yeah. The, the goddess is seen as a mothering figure. Yeah. A gentle kind of loving giving, protecting. Yeah. Yeah. Think Virgin Mary, think C you know, all these kind of wonderful protective deities. Yeah. He's a bit more realistic in that she will show you. And guide you in what you need to do, but it won't necessarily be the most comfortable of rides, and she will get you to the place you need to be, but not necessarily in the way that you think you are going to get there. Yeah. So it won't be a yellow brick road. And, sunshine and lollipops, you're gonna have to do some work. You're gonna have to work with it. But this comes back down to, shadows and shadow work that you have to do. People automatically think that that is to do with like devil, but it isn't. It's the dark spaces within yourself. It's, literally self-reflection of really uncomfortable, Places that you need to go, that you need to reflect or maybe work on to improve yourself and improve your surroundings, improve your journey. So do you use any other deities? I am very eclectic. I wasn't lying when I said that., I use. Hannu man. Yeah. Who is, a Hindu God. Mm-hmm. He's a, he's a monkey. God. Yeah. And he's a god of, he's a bit naughty. Uh, and he's a bit mischievous, but he's also very good at protection, divination and, He's often, portrayed as a warrior. Yeah. He ties in well with the energy of her cast here. It's that kind of strong duality. Yeah, duality and that guidance that I think I get from both those deities. And I just wanna also just touch on something. I wanna make it clear about religion and witchcraft. Yeah. There's no dogma. So you can actually be a Christian and still practice. Yeah, absolutely. But the difference is, is where there is religion and there's control and there are deities in religion that you have to abide. Otherwise you get punished. Yeah. Or you'll be a sinner. Whereas within deity work, you are literally drawing on their. Characteristics to, to actually guide you to a better. Place. Yeah. So it's almost like, for example, Neptune is, worked with with a lot of emotional work. Then you have like Heta for crossroads or protection. Obviously Lilith Mother Lilith is, very powerful female character that is very protective and also works within the dark moon, the new Moon. Lilith for me represents emancipation. Yeah. I would love to see in fact, I think it's happening because you see this fourth wave feminism. Yeah. Yeah. Coming forward. Not the destructive kind of feminism that we have seen, but this very empowering, very flourishing, really quite warrior alike. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like a pasa apasa was sort of like the female Amazon warrior. Yeah. Who was one of the first deities of, of Ephesus before Artemis, but Lilith is very, very misunderstood character. As soon as you mention Lilith, people that know, they think, oh my God, she's a demon. She's a demon that eight babies, and actually she's nothing like that. That is just a, a narrative that's been told. Again, because she was a very powerful woman. But let's get back onto different practices. How would you describe your witchcraft? Do you go out foraging? Do you enjoy foraging and Yeah, I, I, there's, there's two elements to my craft. One of them is intuitive. Yep. And I am intuitive from kind of a herbal floral perspective. So I do go out foraging. I do go out trying to find things. I am by no means a botanist, so sometimes I am drawn to stuff. I haven't got a clue what it is. I'll pick it and then I'll come and find out what it is and what I need to use it for. Yeah. So trusting that level of intuition is a real kind of heart back to what our ancestors would've done. Yeah. They'd have looked at something and thought, this is what I need. I'll try this. But that's again, coming back to I think how we've been controlled over the years and that our intuitive nature has been almost dumped do down. Obviously we know that saying, go with your gut instinct, but actually. The best thing to do is to just get yourself out in nature.. Look at what plants are around you look at what nature provides. Even if you think something's a weed, it's not, so the intuitive side, do you. Connect with Spirit yes. So I trained as a psychic medium. And I trained with the spiritualist church in the uk. Right. Yeah. I'm a little more. Fluid with my mediumship now. So I'm a bit more kind of open and a bit more receptive. But I think from, from from a practice perspective, I use some of the more structured ritualistic practices to enhance my own intuitive practice. So for example, what WCA can offer you? Is, a really practical way to set yourself up.. So sometimes I will work a ritual from spontaneity because I've, I can feel that I need to do it. Yeah. If, for instance, I'm doing some new moon work or I'm working for somebody. Uh, with regards to what, you know, whatever ritual they need me to do for them, or I'm working on behalf of somebody, then that has a lot more, that takes a lot more planning. So when you are working with Spirit, do you do ancestral healing or work with deities like isis or is it just purely that you are using yourself as a channel? I essentially using myself as a channel?. So I, I have a spirit guide that I've had. Essentially all my life. Mm-hmm. And he's a monk. And he terrified everybody at home because I was talking to him in the middle of the night. I was seeing him. He was around an awful lot. And as we do with children, we, kind of rationalize it. As a imaginary friend, and Peter's been with me forever. He's very funny. We kind of have this idea of monks and the spirit world has as being sort of ominous things. And he's the most lovely, warm, understanding, sensible. And sometimes a little bit crazy. And he's been with me for forever really. And has been part of my, development of my craft and my intuition because he understands from the time in which he was here, I feel The persecution that's gone on. When you say the persecution that's gone on, what are you talking about there? Persecution. Personally, well, personally and also. With regards to witches and the misunderstanding of what witchcraft is. Mm-hmm. And I think he connects with me as a way of almost of atonement for that. He's obviously from a Christian. Christian. Yeah. But so much. Of, of any spiritual practice, is is very intuitive. Yeah. So what does a, what does a typical day of practice look like for you? I generally wake up with the sunrise, without an alarm. I will kinda lie there, looking through the window at the sunrise, kind of welcoming that and thinking another day, what can we do with intention? What's going to happen today? But I try and leave my sleep space in a really positive way.'cause I think that's important. Absolutely. Yeah. If you drag yourself out of bed. You need to stop doing that I know it's hard to go and brush your teeth even, but just having that spark of positivity and possibility at the beginning of the day is really important for me. I then light my al alter and I spend maybe five, 10 minutes just. Grounding. Connecting myself, opening myself up into, possibilities for the day. And that's kind of the start to the day. There's nothing flash. I'm not burning incense. I don't wear anything particularly special. And then sometimes it's a day of work. Real life. Yeah. If I am building up to a ritual, I will then set time aside to focus on what I need to do to prepare for that. Yeah. Now that might be a simple thing like, sorting out my herbs. That I need for that ritual or, or getting some oils together that I need for that ritual gathering stuff. Spending time with my book of shadows Yeah. Is a really nice way to prep. Yeah. Do some, do some artwork around what you're doing. Do some, put some intention.'cause that is, that is practice. So, a book of shadows is also known as like Grise or your own spell book. And, that is so personal to me I've been writing mine for sort of like quite some time and it's just so lovely when I look back. I have two, I have one that's literally almost like. A tell all or what things are, and then I've got my other one, which are my rituals and my petitions. But. That in itself is a ritual, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, it really is because you are laying down in ink or in image, whichever way you work I think what kind of blocks people from making their book of shadows or the grim wine. Something personal is how it looks. Yeah. But the whole point of the Book of Shadows or your Renoir is that it was your own personal thing. I mean, nobody should really touch your book of shadows. So do you follow the Wheel of the year or other seasonal cycles? Yeah. Explain to the listeners what the Wheel of the Year is and what sabbats are and, how you, connect your practice with that. So the wheel of the year is essentially a calendar for Pagan practice that we use to divide seasonal ritual and what we are actually doing, if you look at a wheel of the year, it, it's a very,, nature based. Calendar. Yeah. So it looks at, sleep hibernation, awakening, growth. And harvest and in each one of those seasons we have SBAs. And, we also have EBAs, which are,, the bits in between where we use the moon as guidance, But. The wheel of the year, without kind of littering it because I think that automatically puts people, in a, place where they're thinking, I've gotta remember all this.. If you miss. Sa, nothing bad is gonna happen. If you miss a new moon and you are working a ritual that you feel should be time to a moon phase or you feel should be time, time to an EBA or a, then, then yes, you, you need to do that working. You're being guided towards that working. Witchcraft is not prescriptive. It's not about slavishly following a ritual. Ritual. Yeah.. It is about your interpretation, and it's also open to what you've got available to you. You know, if you've got a two pound pack of emergency candles. Yeah. They're good enough. Yeah. This is another thing, for me, I'm quite mindful in all of the things that I get, and I noticed as well with you, you going to either charity shops or you're going to antique shops. Absolutely. I personally, want to make sure that I've got something that has. Meaning, or there's something that I've like invested in for that ritual. However, you don't have to do that. Years ago they didn't have all different colored candles that represented everything. You know, Wyatt has all of the colors in that spectrum. So you know, as long as you use your intention for what that candle is for, but. Witchcraft is not about conditioning. It's a very personal involvement. It's an evolution that you can, dip in and dip out of. And what I love about the,, the wheel is that all of the things that are based with the cycles of the moon and the cycles of the earth and the cycles of the seasons. The Christian calendar is taken from like York. Easter, all of these things, they're all based on, the, wheel of the year., And in part and in part was that was done to ease the transition from Paganism. Yes, that's right. Yeah. But that would be convert, let's call it something that they'll kind of recognize. Yeah. But isn't what it actually is. We haven't abolished. Yeah, we've, adopted. And yeah, it's really interesting because that tension between, organized faith and witchcraft and paganism, Uh, exists because there has been so much plagiarism. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So do you, do you craft your own tools or, or charms or, oh, yes. I'm a bit of a maker. I am of the generation where, you know, you had a craft make a craft draw. You could spend hundreds, if not thousands of pounds setting up your altar, I like to use stuff that I might have found. I found a beautiful piece of you. Um, on a walk. That just around it now that has not, for me, that has not just been found, that's been placed for me to find, and I thought, oh, that's really beautiful. And then when I picked it up, all the bike literally just fell off. It, it was like it had been sanded. This, this has been given to me. To use in practice. And so I was thinking about wands and thinking about buying one and looking online and looking at some of the beautiful things that people make, which they do. And I just thought, no, this will do me. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to start off their practice? Or their interest in, in the craft., I think for you and I, our journeys, and I'm making an assumption about, about your journey now, but I think they've been very organic and they've grown with us as we've grown older and we've matured. And I think the internet is a wonderful thing. I think there is a great witch community out there, but also just be. Careful. Yeah. And I'm not saying that in a, in a, ooh, be careful. I'm just saying choose for yourself what you would want for others.. And, and I think you will just be mindful, as we've said, this is not about being enslaved to a dogma. This is about discovering your potential as,, a practitioner. And your potential to interact with energy's, deity, spirit in a safe and wholesome way. And I say that with, with respect, and that's the other thing.. You have to respect the deities that you approach to work with or that you feel that are approaching you to work with you. Yeah. I think authenticity and, understanding that for me it's a deep rooted respect to nature, to the elements, I'm sorry, I'm just laughing because I wrote down, things that I thought we would talk about. Talked about nearly all of them. But then I, something came to me about authenticity and I thought, are we gonna talk about authenticity? There you go. In my line of work, I've never been one to be put into a box of. Skincare or, wellness. That's why I've got the, the tag. Which of the west end, because I work very much intuitively, I actually created, a therapy intuitive touch. I've worked with crystals for, for years. I mean, I can remember my first memory, my very first memory is collecting stones and my dad giving me a stone polisher., My mom said he was never a normal kid.. Just real odd kid. But that I think is just brilliant. All of my family think I'm nuts and, but I absolutely embrace that. But I think what is really sad, and this is what I always say in my line of work, is that we are so programmed to think in a linear way that you have to just stop and think about. Why did our ancestors revere all of different gods and deities? Why did our ancestors. Walk the earth and even like farming, they, they sort of like worked with the sick Leo cycles of the moon and worship the sun and worship The elements worshiped and still did. And they still do. Yeah. The farmers still do. And I do colonic hydro therapies, but when we do a parasite cleanse, I always put'em on parasite cleanse, making sure that they're two weeks in. For the full moon because the full moon, your serotonin levels raise and the parasites come out to play. So authenticity is really, really important. Yeah. When I did a master's degree I looked at the connection between compassion and. Emotional intelligence. And was your level of emotional intelligence linked to how compassionate you can be? And I work in health and do we need to use ei quos as a guide for recruitment? Because if we are recruiting emotional, intelligent people and there is a, a link to compassion, is that worth doing? And. I came across Heiddeger and Heiddeger philosophy, which is around authenticity, space, and time. You know, he was a predictor of his time. He's a difficult character. He was around in the 1930s. He's German, but in saying that. He provides a very, very interesting take on authenticity. That none of us are truly living an authentic life. We are living something that, we've seen. Yeah. Or we've heard. I like that. But I also think, with you telling me tale about your childhood, about what you know about sorting stones, about collecting, herbs and weeds, about having that fascination with. Are you living almost through your ancestral authenticity? Yeah.'Cause at. We have no filters. No, exactly. And the same, we nothing come. Exactly. Exactly. That's come from somewhere. And also in energy medicine, every decision that you make has a imprint in your energetic DNA for the next four generations and also for the next four generations back. Wow. So, and that when you look at it in a physical terminology, when I'm actually testing kids that have may have. Behavioral difficulties or sleep difficulties when you are testing these children and they're coming up positive for frequencies that they would never, ever be exposed to. Yeah, I'm talking frequencies like alcohol or recreational drugs. That their parents have openly admitted to how, and that's energetic. That's not doing drawing blood and doing a drugs test. We're talking about an energetic frequency that is showing positive from an imprint. but then going back to the craft is all energy. Everything is energy. It's, it's how we interact with it. Absolutely. It absolutely. Yeah. Yes. And you know when, when we said rice at the beginning about going out into nature, that is so important. And nature doesn't have to be upper mountain. No. You know, nature can be in the middle of a city, in a little square that is lined by four trees. Look for shape, listen. Yeah. Get to the point where your awareness is as such that you are picking up that vibration. Yeah, exactly. My dad passed recently and there's so many things that have happened around his, his death and, and since his passing. But part of his ashes are, are in a hazel tree where I hug every morning. I talk to the tree, I do a little petition with the tree, and only yesterday, just opposite the tree. There's a silver birch and there's a natural evil eye looking over the tree. It's just so healing, honestly. It's so healing. But listen, Steven, I could talk to you for hours about the craft. Thank you so much for coming on. For people that wanna follow you, go ahead, tell'em your hand or where they can find you. So I am on TikTok. I am at he. Which, um, and if you want to follow me on Instagram, I am Alfred and the boy, which is a completely other side of my life, which is around interiors., Embrace every facet of yourself. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, thank you Steven for coming on. Really appreciate your time. And I will still be checking in on you and you know, please do stay in touch. It's been lovely.