Trader of the Month - Life’s a Witch

By Sam Stoker

This issue we spoke to Scott and Annette, owners of Life’s a Witch, based in The Village within the Metro Centre.

POTN: Can you tell us a little about your business?

Scott: Life's a Witch was born late last year (2024) when both myself and my mum, Annette, decided we wanted to get out of our respective careers, teaching and nursing. A few opportunities presented themselves and we ran with them - going from idea to actuality in just 4 months

Part of our vision is keeping the craft affordable, trying to ensure that money is not a barrier, and the other half is about building a community of practitioners both solitary and coven based, to bring people together in a space that feels safe.

We have created a space for practitioners (mediums and healers) to practice and we try to share as much of our knowledge in crystals, herbs and spell work as possible, and where we cannot directly help them, we will direct them to someone who can, or find someone who can. 

POTN: How would you describe your path?

Annette: I would see my path as being quite eclectic but ultimately one of a healer. I work with tarot and I am a reiki practitioner. I'm also quite nature based in that I honour nature and the cycles of nature - I love spending time outside and connecting with the world around me.

Scott: In short: eclectic and chaotic. I practice a little bit of everything. I learned to read tarot in my early 20s and although I am not confident enough to read for others, I enjoy it. I am big into spell work, particularly to support emotional release and the betterment of someone's circumstances. I definitely encourage people to be self-serving in their craft at times, to look after themselves first and foremost. I am fairly agnostic, and although I am quite drawn to the premise of deity work, I don't practice it 

POTN: What brought you to your path?

Annette: I became interested in paganism when I was in my early teens - this is when I started borrowing books from the library on things like astral travel, astrology and Wicca. At this time I was entering into my gothic phase, which kind of coincided with my interests. Whilst studying for my exams at school, my mother was having a party for her friends with a medium doing readings: I was asked to come and talk to him, where I was told that I was gifted and we talked about my spirit guides, and that really resonated with me at that time. I then began to learn about tarot, realised that I was quite good at it, and did readings for friends and family for many years until one day, when I was 20 years old, I got completely freaked out and I didn't pick up a tarot deck again until I was well into my 40s. I am now at the age (52) where I realise there is more to the craft than Wicca and now I am free to explore the craft fully and authentically.

Scott: Mum was interested in Wicca and Paganism and I was pretty much brought up around it; I was gifted my first teen spell book (which I still have) for Christmas when I was 15.

I have dabbled in and out of practicing since then, you know, sometimes life gets in the way - particularly things like uni and work - it can be really hard to juggle everything and it's often your practice that takes the back seat. It's quite often the ‘why simply manifest something when I can literally focus the energy to exactly where I want it?’ that brings me back to the craft.

POTN: Are your faith and business entwined? 

Scott: I would say so, like I said before: a good chunk of it is removing barriers, but also creating a sense of community too .

Annette: Absolutely.

POTN: What's in the future for your business? 

Scott: Not that I am expansive - but I want a bigger shop already. I simply do not have the space to stock and display all the things I want to. I want some dedicated rooms for energy healing treatments and tarot readings etc.

Annette: I would love to think about arranging some festivals somewhere in the north/ north east to celebrate the turning of the year - similar to what they do in Cornwall. I would also like a community hub where we could get people in to run masterclasses on tarot or reiki or crystal healing, or even just how to carry out a really effective protection spell. I want to use Life's a Witch as a vehicle to educate and share and support the community; I want to make the craft accessible to anyone who is so inclined.

You can find Life’s a Witch the physical store at 28 The Boulevard, Metrocentre, Gateshead NE11 9YN

Or online at www.instagram.com/lifesawitchuk/

Or search ‘Life’s a Witch’ on Facebook