Think you know what a witch is? Think again. Harmony Nice, or @peachycinnamon, is the author and YouTuber redefining what it means to be a Wicca witch in 2020. Move on from the pointed hats and black cat clichés, being a Wicca witch is all about being in touch with your reality, washing away bad energy, and shaking off ancient misconceptions.
Read below for our interview with Harmony, a witch who uses Wicca for wellbeing.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Probably like an actress or something like that! Never a YouTuber! It wasn’t a thing. I always wanted to do something interesting, I just didn’t know what.
What attracted you to wicca and the spiritual?
When I was 14, I discovered that my great nan, Hilda, was a witch. I had never met her, but I was given her tarot cards and her Ouija board. She was from Germany and died before I was born.
I was depressed when I was about 15, and as a way to help me feel better, my mum would help me focus on plants; talk about plants and learn about plants as a distraction and to help cheer me up. Through that I got into Wicca when I was about 17. It was the classic, ‘I went through a rough time and found religion.’ I went through a rough time and found Wicca.
Wicca taught me that the world doesn’t owe you anything. It made me more self-aware about how you should act, and how you should treat other people, and with that in mind, it made my life so much better, so I stuck to it. I got into witchcraft when I was about 14 and started doing tarot cards then, but then I got into Wicca (that’s the religion) when I was 17.
Could you explain what Wicca entails?
Witchcraft is spells, potions, tarot cards, divination and any type of spiritual practice that can be declared as witchcraft. Even herbal remedies can be declared as witchcraft. A Wiccan is a witchcraft, Pagan based religion. So, it’s a pagan religion that incorporates witchcraft. It follows a law of celebrating the sabbats. We celebrate traditional pagan holidays, with the addition of practicing witchcraft as part of our religion.
We use witchcraft for the benefit of our lives and those around us and we use it to celebrate the earth.
What did you study and did this guide you into your career?
I went from school to do a makeup artistry course. But I quit, twice. I worked at café for a few years, then I worked at a shoe shop for a few years. I think makeup got me into YouTube; I started my channel primarily based on makeup, then when I mentioned to people that I was a Wiccan, it turned into talking about that.
I have always been really into makeup, but Wicca made people more interested until my channel basically became makeup and Wicca.
What does your day-to-day entail?
I do try to incorporate my religion into everything that I do. I do my makeup, and I meditate, and I do my tarot cards every single morning. I try to put spirituality into everything; when I’m having a shower in the morning, I picture myself washing away bad energy for the day so I’m preparing my mind and body for the day.
Because of my job, I get to work at home, so I don’t have a job to go to – basically my whole life revolves around planning and making videos on Wicca. But if it was a full moon, I might do a ritual for the full moon, which may mean I need to stay up until midnight to do the ritual in front of the full moon. It’s the same if I want to do small rituals; sometimes I’ll do a bath ritual where I’ll create a certain set of ingredients that have the intention I want to set on this ritual; that might be cleansing, or if I want to manifest some love energy.
I’m a Cottage Wiccan, so I do a lot of kitchen witchery. If I’m baking a cake, I may use specific ingredients that relate to the intention I want to set. Then I can cut it up and give it to people to share abundance, love, or a blessing.
What are some of the common misconceptions people have about you?
Obviously, the Satan thing. Some witches do believe in Satan, but Wicca tends to not. Not all witches worship Satan, I think that’s a common misconception from Christianity, used to create fear about Paganism.
Christians took the Norse God, with the horns, to create a bad representation of Paganism. That’s where the half-man-half-goat image of Satan comes from, when actually it’s the Pagan God of fertility and love. But they switched it around to make him a symbol of fear.
The pentagram represents the elements, but people use the inverted pentagram as a way to say they believe in Satan, but the regular pentagram represents feminine energy and the elements, and the inverted represents male energy. So, history has switched the meaning of Pagan symbols to make them synonymous with Satan.
People also think witches practice the silly fantasy magic; they think we are like the witches in Harry Potter. When actually magic is all to do with intention, it can be as little as thinking about how the sun rises and sets everyday and seeing that as a magical thing.
They say science doesn’t back up witchcraft, but really everything in science could be declared as magic. It is magic that gravity exists. Magic is just science that hasn’t been discovered yet. It’s basically the manifestation of energy and placing intent, it’s not the flicking of a hand and a fog appears.
What is your favourite thing about your spirituality?
I think it’s more to do with how kind it is. It’s such a soft religion that promotes kindness and softness in every way. Believing we are not above the Earth, believing we are equal to the Earth and that we have been out here to take care of it and work alongside it. Not to overrule it.
It also promotes the idea that we aren’t above animals, and instead we use all these things that we have been given to create something positive. Really, the only thing we’re got when we die is the energy we leave behind, and that’s what Wicca teaches you; to leave positivity behind.
It helped me because for a while I thought the world was against me, ‘why can’t I have this, why can’t I be that’, when actually you’re not above anyone and no one is above you, you’re all just here. When I realised that, I wasn’t as confused about everything and I wasn’t as angry.
I wouldn’t say Wicca is a religion, I would think of it more as a philosophy; it’s more about understanding the nature around you. There are Gods, but they are seen as the personification of nature.
So, that’s my favourite thing. The way it grounds you and puts things in perspective. It makes you think, ‘why am I doing this, why am I so angry, why can’t I let these things go?’ it’s because you feel like the world is going to do something to you that’s magical but you can’t do that, you have to work alongside it to make you feel happy and accepted.
What has been the most surreal moment of your journey?
As crazy as it sounds, it’s probably been discovering the paranormal and magical things like that. I’ve always been a believer in the paranormal and when you get into things like Wicca, you do subject yourself more to the spiritual world. We have a literal holiday that celebrates the dead and the circle of life, so I feel like I am constantly connected to that other side of the veil.
I started going to seances a couple of years ago and that really opened my eyes to life after death. I don’t believe in a heaven or hell or anything like that, I believe more in reincarnation, if anything. I believe that all these spirits are recycled energy that has been manifested there. It’s more of an angry energy or happy energy that has been manifested there and then appears as a human.
Even though I’ve kind of always believed in ghosts, I’ve never seen proof until I started being more involved in spirituality. It’s made me feel quite comfortable because I used to be quite scared of death, but now knowing there is something after, it’s made me not so scared of death. It’s made be realise it’s a part of life and I shouldn’t be so worried about it.
It’s quite eye opening and quite mad. Sometimes I get visits from my grandma, but I just get the overwhelming sense of smell of her. I’ll just feel her and actually be able to smell her being near me. It comes at the most random and helpless times. I know it sounds absolutely mad, but when you feel it, when you see it and you hear it, you realise it’s real.
What’s your top piece of advice for someone looking to be more involved in wellness?
Read. Read books. That’s where I started, just reading and reading, looking things up. And then actually doing it; putting one practice into your everyday routine and slowly building it up.
Also, discover what you believe in instead of listening to what everyone else is doing. Think about what you’d like to be like and read up on it. I cannot emphasise how good books are for helping things like that.
Why do you think wellness is becoming a bigger trend?
I think it comes in waves of helplessness. I think at the minute we are going through a time where we are so ruled by social media and pressure that we need something that is going to be an escape. With Wicca, it’s all about traditional beliefs, and going back to that and focusing on the basics is so calming that it feels like it’s meant to be. When people discover these practices that have been happening for years, all the self-care things that are emerging, it takes people out of that pressure world and takes them away from the superficial. It just takes you back to where you want to be.
It helps you to realise what makes you feel good and helps you focus on the actual reality around you and helps you to focus on just us. Just us and the planet, me and the earth. It’s all about you being grounded with yourself and that’s why people need it now more than ever.
What do you think are the next big wellness trends?
Cannabis and weed. I think it’s such a big trend that is happening. I’m hoping that it might get legalised, but you never know. CBD has become such a big thing and people are discovering how CBD is good for anxiety, and how alcohol is so toxic and how something more natural to have fun is better. I think people are going to grow to that a lot more.
Seeing products with hemp and CBD in them, I think people are starting to realise that it’s not a negative, scary drug. It’s literally a plant and I think people are going to catch up to that a lot and it’s not going to be as taboo.
Can you describe your makeup style?
I would say I like autumnal, all year around. I love sparkles and jewels underneath my eyes. I like the oranges and the golds. I’m usually out of my comfort zone if I’m not wearing nice neutral, peach tones.
