Carly Rose is the host of The White Witch podcast, a podcast devoted to all things witchy.
CommunityAd caught up with Carly to chat about tarot, spells, and her new book.
How did you come to start practising tarot and witchcraft?
I have always loved anything witch-related ever since a child — back then I never wanted to be a princess, always a witch! My mum is very pagan and embraced many of the old ways; that combined with school holidays packed off to Bodmin in Cornwall where my grandparents lived gave me exposure to Cornish folk magick, the fae, druid circles on the moors, witch trees, and trips to Boscastle’s Witch Museum. I was hooked.
I was gifted my first tarot deck on my 21st birthday by a friend, a deck I still use eighteen years later. I read the cards purely for myself along with other forms of divination; however, my brother has run tarot workshops from time to time.
What do you think are the biggest misconceptions around these practises?
I don’t think people realise how nature-based witchcraft is as a practice — or at least for my own path. I think the assumption is that witches will cast a hex on you and worship the devil, but many of these concepts were purely brought about to demonise our practices — the devil doesn’t appear within the craft. Many of the witches I know are empaths and highly sensitive. I tend to live by the Wiccan rede of ‘an it harm none do as ye wilt’ which is an old fashioned way of saying “as long as you aren’t hurting anyone do as you wish”.
Do you ever encounter any resistance from friends or family?
Fortunately, I don’t think anyone was surprised when I came out of the witches’ broom closet! Some former co-workers were perhaps when they found out I hosted a witchcraft podcast, but generally people tend to be intrigued and want to know more! The first question I always get asked is ‘do you do spells?’ (I do!)
What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting a practice of their own?
Read every single witchcraft book you can get your hands on! Witchcraft is something you can genuinely spend a whole lifetime learning about, and that is the beauty of it. Although I am a content creator within the industry, I would always say focus on the books first. However, podcasts and YouTube can also help you piece together more of the research. Be mindful when it comes to WitchTok! Some of the videos on there relating to the craft can be highly inaccurate!
There are so many aspects of the craft, and by reading anything related you often find an area you wish to focus on specifically. For example, I am working on hedgewitch practices, which is a very solitary path and focuses on traditions many of the former wise women/healer women would have followed — working with plants and herbs for medicines, teas, cooking, but also within spell work and harnessing their particular power and elements combined with shamanic practices.
What are you working on at the moment?
My first ever book The White Witch’s Book of Healing is currently being published, which is so surreal and exciting! I am still recording The White Witch Podcast, which is about to turn two years old, and I have just launched a podcast called The Hedge Witches’ Almanac with my friend and co-host Rachael the Hedge Witch which talks all about each of the witches sabbaths and hedgewitch practices. I have also just started providing shadow work and wild remedy workshops for a celebrity retreat at an Elizabethan Manor House in Suffolk that’s being filmed for a Sky TV show which is great fun!