SHADOWPLAY WEBZINE

Julia writes:

"Asking a Leo to write about herself is fraught with danger, especially one who has so many planets in her first house, but I'll try to be modest, and more importantly, brief!

I was hit by a fallen angel at a very young age, and although the scars have healed, I never quite got over the experience. Angels are heavy, trust me.

The house in which I grew up was haunted, and I remember being given detention at primary school (in the 1950s) for telling my teacher I was a pagan. These two things are not necessarily connected.

The 1960s passed in a blur of school, rock music and the occasional out of body experiences - not chemically induced, as far as I remember.

The 1970s was my psychic period - front row of lectures at the Society of Psychical Research in London, attempts to levitate the lecturer during boring talks, lunchtimes at work spent sending/receiving zenner images with a friend ... you get the idea.

Towards the end of the decade I discovered tarot, and then discovered over the next few years that I didn't have a clue how to use it. Fortunately I found a teacher who not only made the tarot clear (amazing!), but also led me to the doorway of Wiccan initiation and the study and practice of magic - which curiously enough brought me back to fallen angels and their ilk.

Having lived variously in Surrey, London (lots of different bits), Cambridgeshire, Wales, and then London again, it was getting harder to avoid the debt collectors, so I took off for Sydney, Australia in 1988. That was fun! I had a job for a while, then no working visa while my application for residency was processed, so I wrote "Witches of Oz" [Editors' Note: one of the first and best Southern Hemisphere oriented guides to the Craft], which amazes me by being still in print almost 10 years on.

In and around all that, I founded the Pagan Alliance, published Pagan Times and Web of Wyrd (two Australian Pagan/Wiccan magazines), and ran a pagan open group and a coven/magical lodge in Sydney.

Work-wise I'm a CEO, and finished my Masters degree last year, having taken a Graduate Diploma with Distinction the year before. I'm now living in Melbourne, still trying to avoid the debt collectors, and have just finished writing my first novel. With two friends I've recently taken over editing and publishing of Pagan Times again, which is proving to be more fun that it was the first time round!"

CAST & CREW