Witch who says she ‘calls in’ ancestors on Halloween thinks the portrayal of witches during spooky season is ‘awful’

A witch who says she “calls in” ancestors on Halloween has described the portrayal of witches during the spooky season as “awful”, because it mocks their historic “suffering”.

Lilith Wildwood, 56, from Nottinghamshire, claims she had an “out of body experience” at the age of one, which she believes opened her up to “non-physical energies”.

When she was eight, she said, she met a woman named Mrs Grimble in the woods, visible only to her, who introduced her to magic and witchcraft.

After years of studying, Lilith said she finally “found her people” at university, where she began practising magic in a weekly group, and later founded her own online coven, The Webcoven of Untamed Witchery, in 2020.

Each Samhain, at the end of October, when “the veil” between the spirit world and the living is at its “thinnest”, Lilith said she and her group of witches connect with ancestors.

In the past, she claims to have communicated with Mrs Grimble, her great-grandmother, Freddie Mercury and Marilyn Monroe.

Lilith, who is also a psychotherapist and business coach for witches, told PA Real Life: “In the past people murdered and tortured witches in horrible ways.

“After being tortured, witches might have had a broken nose and she might have broken fingers and ripped clothes.

“I don’t think people realise the connection between the reality of what happened and the portrayal of witches now.

“It’s like people are making fun of all this suffering and I think that’s just awful.

“I’d say that 99.9% of what people see on films and in the media about witches and witchcraft is false – witchcraft is actually quite mundane, there are no explosions, we wear normal clothes, we don’t always wear pointy hats.”

Lilith first became interested in witchcraft as a child, after she said she had an “out of body experience” at the age of one.

She said: “It was also a near-death experience – I had a choking accident and I always remembered leaving the smallness of my body and entering the greatness of cosmic consciousness.

“I believe it opened me up to non-physical energies and I started sensing auras and energies around me as I got older.”

When she was eight, she said, she came closer to understanding this experience when she was in the woods and met a woman named Mrs Grimble.

Lilith claimed she was only visible to her and she taught her “all about” magic and witchcraft.

“Some people would say she was an imaginary friend, but I believe she was real and someone who had passed on,” she added.

At about the same time, Lilith’s mother had a friend who was a psychic, and she began taking Lilith to a spiritualist church where she would watch her connect with “those who have passed”.

Two years later, Lilith discovered a comic called Misty in her local corner shop, and she finally felt that she was not alone in her witch identity.

However, not everyone was accepting of this – she became known as the “weird one” at school.

When Lilith was 12, she recalls Mrs Grimble telling her that she no longer needed her, and she continued to study witchcraft independently.

At 18, Lilith joined her first witch group at Crewe and Alsager University – which has since been closed  – and finally felt that she belonged and had “found her people”.

After university, she continued hosting witch groups, and in 2020 she moved her group online, naming it The Webcoven of Untamed Witchery.

She now hosts weekly rituals and magical gatherings on Zoom with about 30 other witches.

She and her “sister witches” also celebrate Samhain, a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.

Lilith said that among witches it is recognised as the time when “the veil between the spirit world and the living” is at its “thinnest”, and she connects with those who have passed over.

In the run-up, which she will be “honouring” on November 3, she has been teaching her coven members how to “tap into” their psychic powers.

“We’ve been doing candle gazing which helps to quieten the thinking part of the brain, so the rest of the brain can open up to energetic reality,” Lilith explained.

“We hold objects that might have belonged to somebody else, and see if we can see any auras around it.”

On Samhain, she and her coven will begin with a group meditation, chanting, and lighting candles.

She added: “We then do a visualisation, where we all imagine ourselves walking into a woodland together, standing in a circle around a fire together, and that helps people feel really connected despite being online.

“Then we open the gates to our ancestors, and we do a chant to invite them in – it can be pets, people or inspiring famous people.

“So we start with 30 witches and after everyone has invited their ancestors, there could be up to  100 people and pets living or dead within the circle.

“Then I give time and space for people to have conversations with those people that they’ve invited in, and there’s often a lot of emotion afterwards.”

Lilith said that she and the other witches do not always see the people themselves, but instead “pick up on their energy and essence”.

In previous years, she said she has connected with Mrs Grimble and her great-grandmother.

“It’s just extremely comforting and if you’re struggling with something in life, you can ask them for advice, and they usually give you some really good advice,” Lilith added.

She even claims that she has seen celebrities cross over at other witches’ requests, including Marilyn Monroe and Freddie Mercury.

“We invite anyone that inspires us, or we want to meet, and they will have some kind of skill or wisdom that will help us to move forward on our path,” Lilith explained.

“Someone asked Freddie because they wanted more confidence.”

However, she believes that witches are often misrepresented in popular culture and the media, and finds the portrayal of witches, especially at Halloween, offensive.

She said: “I find it really upsetting and I hope in the future people can understand why.”

On November 3, she will be “opening the doors” of the web coven to invite other people to take part in this community ritual. For more information, visit:
https://lilithwildwood.co.uk/veil/.