An Interview with Ellen Dugan
New Worlds Issue: NW052 March / April 2005
By: Jill Johansen, Publicist

NW: How did you become involved with and active in the Craft? Where did you start your path?

ED: As a girl I was fascinated with folklore, faery tales and mythology. I loved the garden, the woods and all of nature. I had a connection to the cycles and seasons of the natural world — they simply seemed sacred to me. I always felt at home in a garden or forest, but out of step everywhere else. As a teenager, my psychic abilities developed, and so did my interest in magick, and the Craft. Back then, my clairvoyance and psychometry were really causing problems for me, and I needed to learn how to control them, or at least to understand what was happening. As a young woman, I was often overwhelmed by the images and impressions that I received and I was very tired of being afraid, so I determinedly began to search for answers. I taught myself the Tarot and used my clairvoyance to do readings at the local psychic fairs in order to test myself. That was a wonderful learning experience for me. A typical Virgo, I had studied pretty much everything metaphysical that I could get my hands on, and discovered natural magick and Wicca along the way. I was pretty surprised, all those years ago, to discover that what I had believed in my heart all along had a name. For me, it just fit. I was home.

NW: Why did you decide to become a writer and how did you settle on writing about Wicca and magick? Who has influenced your work, not only as a writer, but as a Witch?

ED: It wasn’t so much a decision as something I’ve always done. I carried around three-ring binders filled with my own stories and ideas. As I grew older, it was just a matter of finding my niche. I started out writing contemporary romance — no kidding — and I became frustrated with that right away; it’s a tough market to break into. My goal was to get something in print before I turned 40. Finally, I decided if I was ever going to succeed then I should write about what I knew and loved — the Craft and the natural world. I started out writing articles for the Llewellyn annuals and had so much fun and positive feedback with those that I dove into writing my first book, Garden Witchery. The writers who have influenced me the most as a Witch are Scott Cunningham, Claire Nahmad and Doreen Valiente. People may find it surprising that the late Erma Bombeck has influenced me as a writer. Erma was honest and hilarious. When I read her stuff, I just shriek with laughter.

NW: Society’s perception of Witches generally tends to be negative. How do you feel about this and what do you think can be done to change it?

ED: This past fall, my hometown newspaper did an interview on me a week before Halloween to promote a book signing for a new title of mine. It included a photo of me in my gardens, and was a very positive article. It was Wicca-friendly, informative and upbeat. The headline was “Local woman is just your normal, everyday witch.” For a few days, I held my breath waiting to see what Midwestern folks’ reactions would be. To my surprise, the reaction was very positive and friendly. Many people commented that they had heard of Wicca, and had a friend or a relative who was into it. It seems to me that the general public is a bit more educated on Wicca these days. If you quietly go about your life, working your job, raising your kids, contributing to your community and just being a “normal” person, it goes a long way towards squashing down stereotypes. Let people get to know you. Don’t cram your religious beliefs down their throat, just be yourself and set a great example. Dare to “stand up” and quietly make a difference, just because you can.

NW: In your books, you talk a lot about natural magick. Is this the environmentally-friendly form of Witchcraft? Can you briefly explain natural magick and how you got involved with it? Can anyone perform natural magick?

ED: Natural magick is primarily worked with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. These energies are directed into magick that works in harmony with natural supplies, the earth and its cycles and seasons. I became interested in natural magick because this made the most sense to me. If Wicca is a nature religion, then why not work with as many natural items as I could get my hands on, or grow in my own gardens? Natural magick is traditional and a much more practical and cost-effective use of spell casting. Yes, anyone can perform natural magick. It only takes creativity, a sense of wonder and reverence for nature, an open mind and a loving heart.

NW: You had a lot of success with your first book, Garden Witchery. How does your new title, Cottage Witchery, complement Garden Witchery?

ED: Cottage Witchery is my fourth book, and it is a companion piece to Garden Witchery. With Garden Witchery, I encouraged the reader to put the nature back into their earth religion. I took the reader outside into the garden and backyard to focus on the natural world and how it affects spell casting and magick. With Cottage Witchery, I am shifting the focus indoors, on their hearths and homes. This new book encourages the reader to look at the natural world and use practical and natural magick supplies. It then tell how to use techniques to create an enchanting and wonderful environment for loved ones and themselves. By enhancing and charming the atmosphere where we live, we actually strengthen the aura and energy of our magick, our home and ourselves.

NW: What exactly is cottage witchery

ED: Cottage witchery is a style of natural magick that revolves around the hearth and home. It is an uncomplicated Craft that is worked with down-to-earth supplies found around the house. Examples include garden flowers, the trees in the backyard, and cooking herbs and spices from the kitchen cabinet. This approach to magick is both practical and hands-on. The idea behind cottage witchery is to persuade folks to look at their homes in a new magickal way. It encourages them to reconnect with the energies of the natural world — to appreciate, celebrate and then to direct these positive magickal forces into their homes and everyday lives.

NW: What makes a magickal home?

ED: Intention. It’s not about how much you spend, or how big of a place you call home, it’s what you do with what you have, and how you direct the elemental energies and magickal vibes that are naturally there. Perhaps you’ll choose a paint color for a room with magickal intention, such as soft blue to create a calming atmosphere for a baby’s room or a sunny yellow for a home office to promote creativity and knowledge. Perhaps you’ll perform an elemental spell to encourage prosperity, protection or happiness for your home. Again, it’s intention. Because, when you purposefully “bump up” the magickal atmosphere of your abode, and transform it into a sacred space with natural accessories, you are creating a magickal home.

NW: What are your favorite magickal objects in your home and what significance do they hold?

ED: My favorite objects would be the items from nature that are arranged and scattered around my home: a few worn sea shells and water-smoothed pebbles I found on a beach in Cape Cod, a fallen blue jay feather from the backyard and some magickal herbs and flowers from the gardens, arranged in an old canning jar. Yes, these are simple items, but they are magickal things nonetheless. There is a big, old-cast iron cauldron on my brick hearth that I’m fond of (I rescued it from an antique shop). I found it rusted and sitting neglected in a corner. A little steel wool, elbow grease, and black rust-proof paint and it’s an old item made new for magickal purposes. The wood-burning stove not only helps us stay warm in the winter, it adds something extra to the ambience of our house. Plus, the old picket-fence gate that hangs on my living room wall. You’ll have to read Cottage Witchery to get the whole story on that antique gate. I charmed it for protection and to “shut out” negativity.

NW: Your home sounds like a pretty magickal space! Why is it so important to have a special sacred place to perform magick

ED: Working in a sacred space is a way of honoring your connection to deity and to the elements. Taking the time to formally set up or to create a permanent sacred space in your home speaks of your will and intention.

NW: What other projects are you currently working on?

ED: Oh, I’m always working on something — sometimes two different manuscripts at once! I manage to crank out a new manuscript about every six months or so. As to the specifics, my fifth book comes out this July. It’s the newest book in Llewellyn’s Sabbat Series and is titled Autumn Equinox. My sixth book for Llewellyn is scheduled for a Spring 2006 release, and the working title is The Enchanted Cat: Feline Fascinations, Spells and Magick. In fact, I had so much fun with The Enchanted Cat, it only took me about three and a half months to write. Currently, I am working on a new book in Llewellyn’s For Beginners series, dabbling with a little fiction and I want to start putting together a down-to-earth book on the topic of Wicca. Actually, this last book idea is getting pretty darn demanding, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. But, I’ll be sure and let you all know.

Here is another fun interview. This was a Halloween interview done on line, in October of 2003. ENJOY!

Season of the Garden Witch
Ellen Dugan weeds out Witchcraft stereotypes
by Chris Lee
From the-alt.com website October 2003

Witches are often depicted as green-skinned hags, malevolent meanies who'll melt away before your very eyes if they get wet like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Not only would Ellen Dugan, a practicing Witch for over 17 years, remain calm if you showed up with a full bucket, she'd probably put you to work watering. No green skin on Dugan—just two "magickal" green thumbs.

Dugan is the Missouri-based "Garden Witch," a Master Gardener and author of the books Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up and Elements of Witchcraft: Natural Magick for Teens (both from Llewellyn Publications). The basic message behind Dugan's successful blend of her experience with both gardening and Witchcraft is that we all need to get outside and find nature, not God—though they could be one and the same.

Chris Lee: How do you define "Witch" and "Witchcraft" to people when they meet you and want to know what it's all about? Have you managed to distill it all down to a one-sentence summary?

Ellen Dugan: No. Asking someone to boil down what they believe about their faith into one sentence is a bit difficult, but here is a shortened version: to be a Witch means that you are a follower of an earth religion. Witches believe in both a God and a Goddess. We celebrate a solar calendar of holidays, the solstices and equinoxes and the cross-quarter days. Witches believe in harming none and non-manipulation. We also believe in the Rule of Three. This means that we understand that any magick we do will come back to us times three.

C: What were your beliefs before Witchcraft—and on that note, how did you become a Witch?

E: I was raised Protestant. Obviously it didn't take. I began to study psychic abilities, so I could learn how to understand and to control mine, and to search for a different spirituality when I was in my teens. I was pretty surprised when I discovered that what I had held in my heart all along actually had a name. This was more of remembering, and a blooming.

C: Did you or do you now feel like Witchcraft found you? Were there signs or signals calling you to be a Witch, for instance?

E: Well, there was that old mysterious woman who lived on the outskirts of town…. [laughs] In reality, the truth is not nearly as tantalizing as most folks would believe. Some of the signs for me were a love for nature and a reverence for the earth. Feeling connected to the cycles of the moon and the sun and being able to sense the different energy of each season.

C: What's the biggest misconception people have about you or Witchcraft?

E: That a real Witch’s life is anything like Bewitched or Charmed. I don’t twitch my nose and poof the laundry is done. It sure would come in handy though. Fighting off supernatural bad guys or demons is not a common occurrence for Witches. First of all, Witches don’t believe in the devil or associate with evil in any way. Forget what you’ve seen on TV or the movies. That has almost nothing to do with who I am, what I practice or how I live my life.

C: Do you "recruit" people into Witchcraft or have people become Witches as a result of your work?

E: Here is another misconception that I am happy to straighten out: Witches do not recruit. Have I initiated other Witches? Yes, I have, long before I became a published author. To become initiated isn’t much different than joining a new church. Most folks who become initiated are making a change from one religion to another. It is a spiritual and special event. These individuals typically have studied Witchcraft and the religion of Wicca for several years. They have to request to be initiated. Generally, then the teacher or group decides if they are ready and, most importantly, whether or not the initiate will make a positive role model for others, and be a responsible magickal practitioner.

C: Have you ever, perhaps in the beginning, been irresponsible yourself and used Witchcraft for something that now, looking back, you think, 'Oh, that wasn't being a good Witch'"?

E: No, I haven’t. You will recall the Rule of Three; purposely hurting someone else with magick is like shooting yourself in the foot—stupid, dangerous and painful. Have I had a magickal misfire because I didn’t think things through? Of course. Any Witch who has been at this for a while will admit to mistakes. Learning from misfires and not repeating the mistake is how you learn, grow and evolve into a better practitioner.

C: Are spells the Witch version of prayers?

E: A spell is a concentrated and directed gathering of natural elemental energy and positive, personal power. Spells are often cast for prosperity, protection, health, harmony and to encourage loving vibrations. However, love spells that target an individual are considered manipulative, as they interfere with another’s free will. You can magick yourself to be more appealing and attractive, but Witches do not cast on another person without their permission. A good example of this would be a healing spell for someone who was ill. They have to request your help, otherwise it’s manipulation. And magickal manipulation in the Craft is simply unacceptable.

C: What makes you, as a gardening Witch, any different from a gardening Catholic? What do you think you are doing differently, if anything?

E: The fact that I know and celebrate nature as a sacred place. I work with the elemental energies all around me, these being earth, air, fire and water. I grow, tend and then gather my flowers and herbs and use them for various charms and spells. Everything in the garden is sacred and magickal and I treat it as such. For me, nature is my church.

C: I'm interested in your family life. Your bio mentions that you have a husband and three teens. Is your husband a "Warlock?"

E: Just a second I have to stop snickering. Okay, I’m done. In the Craft there is no such thing as a “warlock.” That’s just a holdover from the old television show Bewitched. Both male and female practitioners of the Craft are referred to as Witches.

C: What kind of religious or spiritual upbringing have your children experienced?

E: I’d have to say my kids have enjoyed personal freedom to choose their own religious path. They have grown up with a mom who is a practicing Witch and grandparents and cousins who are Christians. They are free to make their own choices about spirituality.

C: How significant is Halloween for you?

E: For Witches this holiday is called Samhain [pronounced sow-en]. This is the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Samhain is a harvest festival and a time to remember and honor your loved ones who have passed on.

C: Did you ever dress up as a witch for Halloween when you were a child?

E: Sure, I dressed up as a witch. I bet my mother has photos somewhere.

C: When trick-or-treaters show up at your house today, perhaps in a pointy hat with a fake wart on their nose, carrying a broom, is that offensive to you?

E: I love it when I get kids dressed up like wizards and Witches. No, it doesn’t offend me. You need to have a good sense of humor around Halloween. A few years ago, one of my nieces came over to borrow an old Halloween costume of my daughter’s so she could dress up as a Witch. It was really sweet when she looked at me solemnly and promised that she would not have a green, ugly face. She wanted look pretty and to be a good Witch, just like her Aunt Ellen.

C: Have you ever had a "My Other Car is a Broom" bumper sticker on your vehicle?

E: Yeah, I will admit to that. Most people didn’t get it though.

C: Who do you think made the best witch in The Witches of Eastwick—Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon or Cher?

E: None of them. I always disliked that movie. Again, Witches do not believe in the devil. This movie had nothing to do with Wicca or the Craft.

C; Ouija boards—magick or totally bogus?

E: Ouija boards are tools that you use to contact the spirit realm. The trick is once you have contacted a spirit, do you have any idea what to do with it or how to send it back? Bottom line: they are tools, not toys. And no, I do not own one or work with them, ever.

C: Back to the garden—you've been a practicing Witch for over 17 years. For how long have you been gardening?

E: At my own place? For about 20 years now. I became certified as a Master Gardener in the winter of 1999, through the University of Missouri and my county’s extension office. I teach flower gardening and flower folklore classes at a local community college and volunteer with the Master Gardeners.

C: What are your favorite things to plant and watch grow?

E; Flowering perennials and herbs, old fashioned roses and blooming shrubs. Pumpkins and ornamental corn.

C: Is there anything that you haven't planted yet that is on your list?

E: Of course there is a ton of stuff I’d like to try to grow, that’s what makes gardening fun, there is always something new to learn.

C: Finally, in addition to being a witch, author, gardener, teacher, wife and mother, what else would you like to be remembered for?

E: That I contributed to my community, raised great kids, and helped folks to look at both magick and nature from a whole new perspective. Basically, that I made a difference.

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