I earn £44,000 a year teaching women how to be witches

Welcome back to Me and My Money, Metro’s series taking a peek in the nation’s wallets and bank accounts.

This week we speak to Lilith Wildwood, 56, from Nottinghamshire, a witch, psychotherapist and teacher of magic and mysticism, who helps ‘magical women’ build businesses.

It’s less about spells, more about using Tarot, ‘inner work’ and psychology to influence the world around you, she says. And, it’s profitable.

Hi Lilith! Tell us about yourself

I grew up in a single parent family, with my mum and my sister. Money was very tight but as children we never felt any stress. Mum worked full time and it still wasn’t enough to cover things – once we shared a boiled egg for our meal, but we were happy.

I did a Performing Arts degree and then an MA in psychotherapy, but although I worked for a couple of days in a factory and then for Mum in the holidays, that was my only foray into the working world. I found it impossible to work. Six years ago I got an autism diagnosis and realised that’s why I hadn’t been able to work in an office, as I am highly sensitive to my surroundings.

You describe yourself as a witch — what does that mean to you?

I called myself a witch since as far back as I remember. It means I work consciously with intuition, symbolism, altered states, and the interconnected nature of reality. I recognised early that my inner experiences, visions, and sensitivities aligned more with mystical frameworks than with conventional religious or psychological ones.

I don’t practice spell-craft in the stereotypical sense. My work is built around Tarot, Qabalah-based consciousness models, and deep inner-work. I teach people to use altered states, symbolism, and intention to create internal shifts that lead to external change. It’s more about psychology, awareness, embodiment, and transformation than magic tricks.

How did you start making money as a ‘witch’?

Aged 27, after my MA, I started home educating and was in receipt of benefits. During that time I started to run groups from home, teaching mysticism and magic, but as a fulltime single parent I couldn’t earn much from this. I fell into debt because my benefits were never enough to cover expenses. By the time my child left home, I owed £15,000, despite building up my businesses.

How did you resolve the debt?

I had always been spiritually attuned and as I started studying more, my skills grew. I also had time to focus on my work. I built up to teaching three groups of up to 13 people a week, in my house, and growing my private psychotherapy practice, paying off the debt all the time. I also managed to save £3,000.

I then went travelling and did psychotherapy and mysticism work online from Asia, Australia and America. I was away for two years and paid my way using what I was earning because my travelling lifestyle meant I didn’t really have any expenses. By the time I returned, I had £3,000 left.

When did you begin accumulating money again?

When I came home, in 2015, I saved some more money and then spent £6,000 buying a 25-year-old van and repairing it. I lived in that for two years, only buying food, petrol, car tax and insurance. Again, my expenses were very small, I couldn’t buy any possessions because there was nowhere to put them.

After living in the van and then lodging with a friend, I moved into a rented place, but six months later the Covid lockdown hit.

My landlord sold up so I had to leave. By now I had lived in more than 20 different places in my life, and I didn’t want to rent again. Although I wasn’t in debt anymore, I had no savings, so I spent two years sofa-surfing whilst building up my online work and saved £20,000 for a house deposit. I bought a detached bungalow in 2023.

Can you explain what you teach?

I help women turn their mystical or healing skills into sustainable online businesses. That includes things like: offering Tarot, healing, or psychic sessions professionally, building online courses on spiritual or self-development topics, and running workshops, rituals, or circles online. 

It’s niche, specifically in terms of the challenges we face. Witches can often have lots of skills and knowledge but little business understanding. They could be stuck in jobs they hate and have no idea how to change.

In the last year, I have taught 30 people on a year-long course and 150 people on short courses about how to develop their business. My fees for one-to-one can be up to £450 per one-to-one session for personal business mentoring and for psychotherapy I charge up to £160. I keep the groups to a minimum cost so more people can be involved.

What do you earn and spend in a month?

Being self-employed, my income is mixed with business expenses, but annually it’s roughly £44,000, and after expenses I have about £36,000.

My monthly income is variable but around £3,573, of which I spend £1,500 on mortgage and rent for my shared-ownership property and £158 on council tax. My water rates, energy and television license cost me £182, with the internet costing £35 and streaming services £18. I spend £40 on car insurance each month and £610 on groceries for my cat and I. My phone costs me £10 a month and I have about £50 of travel expenses. My car loan repayment costs £118 and I pay £180 for my life insurance and health insurance for me and the cat. Each month I spend £121 on business expenses. Whilst I don’t have savings, I put £500 aside for my tax bill monthly.

Why is your work so important to you?

So many people tell me I’ve saved their life, or helped them feel empowered and valued, in all three arms of my business, which motivates me to help others. There are people who are scam artists, but you’ll find them in pretty much every niche. For those who are genuinely witches, it’s about helping people.

Is calling yourself a witch good for business?

It hinders, but I do call myself a witch because I see it as a political point. We have valuable skills, such as healing or herbalism, and even though it can mean I’m misunderstood or not taken seriously, I reclaim the word. People can be nasty, for example, I put an advert for my business on Facebook and a man commented ‘burn the witch’. Others don’t think I should charge for spiritual services. Witches have been vilified for hundreds of years even though our work is all about helping people transform their lives for the better.

Do you splurge or save?

I save in order to splurge. I try to save between £500-£1,000 a month, mostly for tax purposes, but I don’t have many expenses. I don’t go out to parties, drinking or the cinema, so I made a decision to let myself have the things that I want and need. My hot tub cost about £1,000 in total, but I’m disabled and it helps me exercise and be comfortable. By saying yes to myself, I can make my safe, sacred space enjoyable.

Biggest financial challenge?

My biggest financial challenge is keeping the house going because it’s something I’ve never had to do. I ended up buying a shared-ownership property and so I have to pay a mortgage and rent and it’s £1,500 a month. It’s a big chunk of money but now I am not reliant on a landlord and can do what I want in the house, and it’s secure. After 56 years I have got to the perfect place for me.

What is your top financial tip?

Do everything you can to not borrow money, avoid debt because it’s expensive. It makes any financial difficulty worse in the end.

Have you ever used a money spell to help yourself?

Yes all the time. If I feel like I’m struggling I will do some money magic, it helps me feel calmer, which makes the situation easier and it helps unconsciously direct me to where I need to be.

What’s the biggest misconception about being a witch?

We fight for validity. Every woman in business will face a certain degree of mistrust, but we have to learn to describe our work in a way the general public understands, avoiding technical, magical words and instead using down-to-earth language, explaining how our work is going to help somebody.

The biggest misconception about witches is that we’re either dangerous, delusional, or stuck in fantasy. Modern witches are often highly intuitive, analytical, psychologically aware people who work with consciousness, symbolism, and inner transformation. It’s about understanding the deeper layers of human experience and using them to create meaningful change.