Britain’s modern-day witches ‘are still facing persecution’ says shop owner

FOUR HUNDRED years after they were burned at the stake, modern-day witches say they are still facing persecution.

Toni Hunt says she and her fellow witches face “endless” abuse for their beliefs – including threats of murder.

She owns a witching shop in

Gloucester and runs witchcraft courses.

“We have had somebody come into the shop and threaten to burn it down with the people in it.

“We have had very intimidating people stand outside and prevent customers coming in and accost the customers outside with their Christian leaflets,” she said.

“We have had eggs pelted at the windows, I’ve had my car keyed – it’s endless.”

Witchcraft has its origins in pre-Christian Britain.

Followers worship the planet, use herbal remedies for healing and believe in the power of positive energy to cast spells.

“Witchcraft isn’t worshipping the devil, it’s not cursing people, it’s not black magic,” Ms Hunt told the BBC.

“It’s a belief in the planet, it’s a respect for everything.

It’s positive thinking, cosmic ordering.”

Lots of people don’t know they are witches – they’ll be into holistic therapies, they’ll be into crystals for remedial stuff.

“They’ll see spirits or they may have a high intuition that means that they can think of a person and they turn up or they know who’s on the end of the phone, so they have all these different abilities but they have never been able to speak about because it would have been still so controversial.

“People like me would probably have been sectioned years ago because if I admitted that I was psychic they wouldn’t have seen it as psychic, they’d have seen it as mad.”

Meanwhile Roz, who asked not to give her second name, keeps the DNA of her, her husband and their dogs in bottles to ward away “negativity”.