I'm a witch, initiated into the coven-based side of things - otherwise known as Wicca - but at the moment I mainly work on my own, celebrating the seasons of the year and the phases of the moon. I'm also working on my own spirituality with meditations and so on.

My lineage and much of my practice is Gardnerian but I also have Alexandrian lineage and there are certain parts of my BoS that are not Gardnerian.

Not very well at the moment! My coven fell apart and I feel only part-trained. I also had a lot of personal troubles which meant that I had very little time to even THINK about my spirituality. However, now I have the time and the gods are hitting me over the head about it 8-)) I'm doing an immense amount of reading, submersing myself in pagan thought, history, myth and anthropology. I feel I don't really PRACTICE - I feel so busy at the moment with everything else that a full moon or seasonal celebration sometimes boils down to simply an internal acknowledgement. Things are very fluid at present. I have contacts within the initiated side, particularly my own tradition; I have an invitation to visit another coven and I talk with a friend who is setting up her own coven within our tradition but which is unfortunately too far away for me to join through not to visit for the occasional celebration. Perhaps when I feel ready, I will work formally, even on my own(!), as a coven.

It boils down to what I feel inside. However, the best "spell" or working that I ever did was totally off the cuff and the event wished for happened within hours. Most of what I do is meant to put my own self in order; to be in touch with myself, the Otherworld and the rest of the universe; for celebration.

It chose me! I have always felt that things weren't right with my religious upbringing. My first film that I saw was about Lourdes and I definitely linked to "the lady in the sky". Feminity divinity just made sense. I liked the simplicity, spontaneity and lack of hierarchy of the Church of Scotland but felt drawn to the ritual and Mary of the Roman Catholic church. If there had been as much stuff around in the 1970s/early 1980s as there is today, I would probably have found the path earlier. As it was, I came across Doreen Valiente's books in the local library and that was that. At my initiation, I came home.

Sometimes I really feel that I have been in the Otherworld, or that I have had contact. It's very internal though occasionally I have had what could be termed "benign poltergeist activity" in the house. I have several times had the/a Goddess invoked upon me and once it came unexpectedly during a Dark Goddess ritual at Glastonbury. I feel as though I am living in the back of my head, as an observer. While I am speaking or doing something, there's a voice in the back of my brain going 'why am I doing this, why am I saying that'. I'm aware but in a trance state and my words and actions are not dictated by myself. I do have problems in coming out of trance. I believe that the spirits are all around; I can sometimes sense them but not see them.

We all ARE. I'm not convinced that they are terribly concerned with us except for the damage we are doing to our planet. I don't believe in them, any more than I believe in rocks, to paraphrase Terry Pratchett. I know they're there. Though Bast does get frequent libations when the cat does a disappearing act!

It's part of me, indivisible. My father is polite but really thinks it's a load of rubbish, my work are accepting on the grounds of diversity and the Sea Cadets don't bother - though my CO burst out laughing when I pointed out that our new Commodore would HATE me as he spends his spare time 'on Christian activities' according to his biography. I have "My other car is a broom" on the back of my car... Years ago, when on a course at HMS Excellent, a Naval Chaplain told me that should I ever have any problems to get in touch with him and he would do everything he could to help.

Cyclical. Though I do think that some can get 'stuck' and not go on - perhaps these are the earth-bound spirits of some ghosts. We go on to another place, where we can contact those in this world, before coming back here, at varying periods - some almost immediately, others wait longer in the otherworld. Life and death are two sides of the same coin; only a veil separates them and prevents the two worlds from being in constant contact. Sometimes that veil is drawn aside, sometimes it is ripped and sometimes a soul cannot get past it. Sometimes I wonder whether it is even more binary - with being born alternatively one side then the other. Is this world the Otherworld for those who die on the other side? When we die here, are we born on the otherside? Are we in their heaven?

Not necessarily linear. Whether spiral or whether all times exist at the same moment, I don't know. But I feel sure that there are such things as timeslips and residual memories.

Oh good grief! Well, I obviously don't believe in Satan... neither do I believe in a constant fight between good and evil, dark and light. There is dark and light in us all; we have the shadow in ourselves. What might be seen as evil may be necessary - while the gods are bountiful, they are also destructive and that destruction may be necessary. I also feel that much of the universe can be seen as amoral - none of this 'if God loves us why does He send a hurricane?'. Look to what we have done to the earth and the climate, but sometimes acts of god are just that and amoral or beyond our understanding. As to whether someone can be totally evil or totally good, I really don't know. As the cliche goes, even Hitler had good parts and loved his dog. Is it imbalance? Is it the work of the gods to bring forth something else? Does the universe care? I really haven't got a clue. I have heard people speak of being in the presence of pure evil but I have never experienced that but it is possible, I suppose.

Er? The circle is out of time and can be felt as such. However, it is not necessary to cast the full formal circle etc to work. Off the cuff, in your head or whatever can work just as well. I like having my bits and bobs, but they're not essential. My finger works as well as a wand or athame, my hands can hold liquid if necessary. It's what goes on in your head, heart and spirit that is important. Those tools that I do have are not finely crafted: I bought my athame blade but made the handle from wood gathered in the woods opposite the house in which I was conceived - it's very simply shaped to fit into my hand. My wand appeared in the house and I have no idea where it came from: it's a length of wood, seasoned and barkless, trimmed at each end and the length of my forearm. I'm currently de-barking a forked stick in order to make a rattle with naturally-holed seashells. I'd rather work outside in nature but unfortunately, my surroundings and rushed lifestyle mean that the back room or the extremely overlooked garden have to do.

I don't bother them, and am happy with them as long as they don't bother me or others. One thing I am bigoted about is bigots - of any variety; I don't think any of us have all the answers or can look down on any other person. None of us are better than others and I don't think that we should automatically as pagans write off the Christians and other monotheistic religions as having nothing to offer but repression. I'm not happy about some of the treatment of animals either. I do think that what we lay at the feet of some religions is not the result of the religion but of the society - for instance, Saudi Arabia is not an example of Islam but an example of an extremely fundamentalist sect of Islam - as if the Wee Wee Wee Frees were Islamic rather than Presbyterian Christian!

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio... Science is fine, but some scientists think that if it can't be scientifically explained it can't exist. Rubbish! I do think that more remains to be discovered, that some of the things that are now considered paranormal will be discovered to be explainable, but not all.

Far more influenced by high magic, antiquarianism and romanticism. Any village witch would have been far more practical with certainly no crystal-tipped wand! Get back to nature - meditate under a tree... I think we are more divorced from the land, more rational due to scientific indoctrination. Modern pagans talk and talk and talk and talk... sometimes things just ARE.