Inner City Witches - part one
Meet Natasha Mihiri Lalita Crawford, West London Juju woman and tarot reader
In the first of the series looking at a Day in the Life of Witches far and wide, we meet Natasha Mihiri Lalita Crawford, West London Juju woman and tarot reader. We find out how Tasha incorporates magic into her every-day activities as an inner city witch…
What are your beliefs/path and how did you come to this way of life?
“Well, DNA is a big part of it, both on my biological mum and dad’s side, they were healers as were my grandparents, so a lot of things were naturally within me. From as early as I can remember, I was always seeing people who had died, I thought that was normal. Even though I didn’t grow up with my birth parents, for me, that made me aware of of an “ancestral team” around me. Maybe for some people their ancestors are not so strong, but because I grew up in care, not with my mum and dad, I was always very aware of who else was around me and what they were doing for me.
“As I got older, I realised other people didn’t experience life that way, but I was around spiritual people who showed me how to protect myself, put up boundaries and how to get things under control so I wasn’t bothered by spirits all day.
“I know lots of children “grow out” of this stage, but because I was moving around a lot in my childhood, I didn’t have any set rules to follow, so I latched onto the thing which was always there, which was my ancestral team and guides. I’d be moving around and I’d be meeting different families all the time, but the one consistent thing that would come with me were the dead people. I do think that the trauma I experienced in childhood had a big part in my magical practice and one hundred per cent, it affects how I’ve chosen to live my life now, my rituals and so on, and they have helped me heal and cope.
“It wasn’t until I had my son when I was 16, that I got a lot better control over my energy. Up until then it was very hit and miss, and it could be quite damaging sometimes. I think when you don’t have it under control, and you have a lot of entities bothering you, it can be quite an issue. I was always around spiritualists though, and so they supported me to find ways of using the energy better.
“My beliefs are constantly changing. I’m really open to new ideas but generally I believe we are all souls floating around in the universe and we wanted to come to this place called earth because it’s a great way to have an experience and learn – like a soul contract. When we are born, we forget everything, and have to start from day one. Us as humans, we’re like ‘why the fuck would I sign up for half of these things’ but your soul knows why you did, and so you have to trust it.
“I believe in other dimensions, other realities, aliens – I don’t like to cancel anything out. I think that would be ignorant. Even conspiracy theories, I like to keep my mind open because I think nobody really knows. That’s one of the beautiful things about life, that no one ever knows everything. It keeps that mystery of life.
Can you describe how magic plays a part in your day?
“I’m a very ritual based person and a big believer in magic is in everything you do all day. So - I smoke weed – and for me, the whole grinding it, putting it in a spliff, the things I am thinking when I am doing that is magic, manifestation. I turn something as simple as rolling a spliff into something that is magical. You can turn anything into magic.
“When I was younger, and I was studying myself, I looked at my natural routine and adapted that to build magic into it. As I was in care, I didn’t have anyone showing me how to do a routine or what that looked like, so I had to learn things for myself.
“When I wake up in the morning, I spend some time thinking – you may not think that’s magical but it can be. I think about what dreams did I have? I’ll make a voice note because that’s a link with my subconscious. Then I do stretches, getting my energy flowing. I used to be a dancer so stretching is important to me. Now I feel like I’m waking up and in a position to do something now my chakras are moving. I go and make tea. It’s a ritual. I have mantras on my cupboard wall near my tea station. It’s right in front of my face, so I can be reminded every day. While the kettle is boiling, I read my affirmations. Now my mind is in a good place because I have said my affirmations.
“I will speak into my herbal tea – I will centre my thought process around the herbs’ benefits and uses, so it’s ‘programming’ the tea to do what I want it to, heal, energise my body when I drink it. See? Magic. Most days I will pull a tarot or oracle card and write a bit in my journal about my mood, what the card’s message is. All these things are centred around me, right?
“I’m not even thinking about anyone else until I have my energy right. If you’ve been asleep, galivanting around other dimensions, then you have woken up on earth, you have to get your self together, to realign, ground yourself, whatever. It takes me around an hour, then I can start dealing with people. I don’t fuck with people until I’m in that grounded state. And guess what, if I don’t get to that state, I’m not fucking with people that day. There’s no point dealing with people until you’re grounded because your whole day is just going to get fucked up and go left…
“Same with cooking. If I’m in a bad place I’m not going to cook food for myself or anyone. It’s called soul food because you put your soul into it. I’m not a kitchen witch by any means, but this is something – maybe within the black community – if you ain’t in the right mood, don’t be cooking, cause your food is gonna taste like shit and there’s gonna be shit energy in it too!
“In the evening, there is a whole wind down process. I will always cleanse my home. Because I’m always working with energy, I do tarot readings and spellwork, so I need to cleanse my home and myself every day. I have certain altars around my home, so I pick one of them and use that, say, my Hindu deities. I will spend some time tending to the altar, cleaning it, putting some water down, lighting some incense or whatever, I will spend that time with that deity to give an offering of my energy. Then I’ll cleanse my home, using the energy of that deity. I’ll cleanse it every day.
“I do a spiritual bath every day to cleanse myself. With salt, oil, maybe some different herbs or flowers in there. When my bath is running, I speak in tongue over the water, again, programming the water saying what I need it to do and what I expect from it. I will leave the water then to stew, it’s like a growing time. Then I will plot myself in there and envision it doing what it’s going to do.
“Usually I think about money, or health, when I am rolling my spliffs too. I am inhaling prosperity and abundance, and exhaling poverty, brokenness, leaches, you get me. I’m not encouraging you to smoke, you can do it with anything, just breathing. I do these things every day because I see it, I see the benefits and changes from doing them.
“Around my menstrual cycle is another big ritual time for me. We are not meant to be working, being around lots of people, being busy when we have our periods. We’re not meant to do that. Our red moon days are an internal space, we are very intuitive when we bleed. I’m checking in with myself when I get my period. I listen to my body, daily. I don’t go against what I’m feeling. There’s a reason as to why I’m feeling like I don’t want to eat, or socialise or whatever, so I’m listening to my body and not doing it. I don’t feel bad about having the freedom to follow whatever my body needs to do.
“I have crystals around my windows and doors, and so I check whether they need cleansing, re-programming, so my protection is strong. I attract a lot of spirits, so having a good boundary is important. I’ll be standing doing the washing up and chatting to a deity or an ancestor. Sometimes, I can be watching a true crime programme (it’s my Virgo moon, I love true crime) and the victim (spirit) will be standing right next to me.
“My dog is called Lilith, because I have worked with that deity a lot and still work closely with Lilith’s energy. I have friends who are alchemists who questioned me calling my dog Lilith, at the beginning, and obviously it was a big commitment for me to call her that, because I’d be working with Lilith’s energy every single day. But it was not something I did lightly, it was a great choice for me. Lilith my dog is my witch’s familiar. She is a great energy for me to use in magic. She is a great natural grounding energy. She’s also great with spirits, she knows they are there even before I know. She’s a magical force. I wouldn’t advise everyone to rush out and work out with deities, you need to research and look into who you are interested in working with and why, and ask permission before you start with your offerings or whatever.
How easy or hard is it to practice in the inner city when you may not have open space or have nosy neighbours?
“I’ve been in this area for over ten years and lived in this house for over five years. People just know me as the juju woman. I’m half Asian, half black so it’s a combination of magic. When I first moved onto this block, they already knew me. Every now and then they will find a jar in the ground collecting moon water – they know not to touch it, you get me. They aren’t shook, but they are aware.
“My block was very bad at one point, police here every day, people getting stabbed, there would be 30/40 man on the block every day, really intimidating, it was horrible. I literally refused to take my dog out for a wee, because it was so bad. And I’ve grown up rough!
“My window looked out onto those boys where they would be standing causing trouble. I did my magic. You know, people shouldn’t play with magic because it’s real, and this is just one example. I was so angry and upset about people, my friends, being threatened for just walking about the block, it snapped something in me. So I did my spell work and I said ‘by any means necessary get rid of these people’. And within eight months, every single one of those boys who were causing trouble, was gone. Whether they got deported, killed, or put in prison or moved to another block – they were all gone. And the block is now peace – we can be outside, we can talk as neighbours, kids can play out, no one is getting stabbed, I haven’t seen police around here for the longest amount of time. It’s beautiful. But this is how my neighbours know. They saw me do it out my window.
“In regards to not being in the countryside, well I grew up in the countryside with huge open fields, sheep, cows, that was my childhood, I loved that. Coming into the city was different. In the country it’s a quiet, natural energy. in London I had to put new boundaries, mufflers up because it was not just busy people wise, it was busy dead people wise! So I had to figure that out. This might be a little far out, but there is always an energy to use when you are in a busy place, alchemists will understand. In that way, being in the city is really useful and there are always green spaces if you need to change it up.”
IG: @tashastarot