---
title: "Frances Billinghurst on Witchcraft, the Dark Goddess, and Returning to the Living Mysteries"
url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/frances-billinghurst-on-witchcraft-the-dark-goddess-and-returning-to-the-living-mysteries/
date: 2026-05-20
modified: 2026-07-24
lang: en
author: "Perseus Arcane Academy"
description: "Introduction Frances Billinghurst joins us for a conversation on witchcraft, devotion, the Dark Goddess, and the living nature of magical tradition. This interview moves beyond surface-level ideas of witchcraft and..."
categories:
  - "Interviews"
tags:
  - "Magic"
  - "Witchcraft"
image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ChatGPT-Image-May-20-2026-07_38_52-PM-1024x683.png
word_count: 4170
---

# Frances Billinghurst on Witchcraft, the Dark Goddess, and Returning to the Living Mysteries

## Introduction

Frances Billinghurst joins us for a conversation on witchcraft, devotion, the Dark Goddess, and the living nature of magical tradition.

This interview moves beyond surface-level ideas of witchcraft and into the deeper questions of practice, responsibility, lineage, land, and transformation. We hope you enjoy and if you have questions or anything to share, please leave it in the comments. To learn more about Frances and her work, I have provided links below.

About Frances:

Frances Billinghurst is a writer, teacher, ritualist, and practitioner of contemporary witchcraft whose work explores magick, mythology, Goddess spirituality, devotional practice, and the mind-body-spirit connection.

Her work is especially known for engaging with the Dark Goddess, Southern Hemisphere witchcraft, initiatory practice, and the relationship between magical tradition and the living land.

Visit her blog [here](https://francesbillinghurst.blogspot.com/) and see a detailed about page [here](http://francesbillinghurst.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html).

Table of Contents

- Introduction- Foundations of a Magical Life- Contemporary Witchcraft and the Loss of Depth- Initiation, Lineage, and the Living Mysteries- Witchcraft in the Southern Hemisphere- The Dark Goddess and Shadow Transformation- Goddess, Moon, Earth, and Sacred RelationshipThe Three Transformations - Free Course

---

## Foundations of a Magical Life

**PAA: You describe your work as rooted in magick, metaphysics, mythology, and the mind-body-spirit connection. Looking back over your path from your first magical circle in the 1990s to your current work, what has remained constant, and what have you had to seriously revise.**

My introduction to magic and witchcraft was through a course where foundational ritual practices were taught – these being the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP), the Middle Pillar, as well as working with the elements. These continue today as foundational practices. The LBRP taught the importance of circle casting while being a ritual within its own self. The Middle Pillar was about understanding, sensing and working with energy. The elements brought awareness of being connected to the physical plane, i.e., nature, connection with the energetics of the land. They also taught other foundational practices such as visualisation, meditation and what is referred to in the Craft as “moving between the worlds”.

Over the decades, these elements continue to by and large underpin my magical (and religious) practice, any changes that may have occurred have really been a deeper layering of them, more so to have techniques aligned with the energetics of the Southern Hemisphere whenever practicable ~ something that has set me at odds with respect to other practitioners (more so with magicians). However, I see this more as a layering or adaptation as opposed to being a “serious revisal”.

> When we look at our world today, one thing that is clear, again at least to me, is due to the rejection of the Goddess, the divine feminine, the Mother, this has translated into how women and girls are treated, as well as how we treat the earth.
>
> Frances Billinghurst

**PAA: Your work has moved through writing, ritual, teaching, healing, devotional practice, and wider conversations around the Goddess and contemporary witchcraft. How do you understand the relationship between these different forms of work? Are they separate streams for you, or expressions of one current?**

Similar current yet different approaches as the Buddha said, there are many ways to climb the mountain. Overall, I see these as threads that are interwoven in order to create the tapestry of how I see the world. In other words, to me, they are all interrelated. Contemporary witchcraft is a religion that includes the worship of the Goddess, the divine feminine. From the outset of the modern revival by Gerald Gardner, this is something extremely unique – some have even referred to contemporary witchcraft as being the first Western religion to focus on Goddess worship.

How I work with deities as a whole is that I see them as living beings – they are not just mythological figures or archetypes. As such, establishing a relationship is an important aspect of this, and this is achieved through devotional work – i.e., setting up an altar, lighting candles, making offerings, chanting prayers or mantras, and getting yourself into an open space to receive guidance, insight, etc.

When we look at our world today, one thing that is clear, again at least to me, is due to the rejection of the Goddess, the divine feminine, the Mother, this has translated into how women and girls are treated, as well as how we treat the earth. This void of seeing the feminine as sacred, the emphasis of it being weak, and where the masculine as being perceived as nothing more as the “conquering hero” and where everything is competition as there can only be one at the top (the patriarchal perception) has long been so damaging for us in the Western world (over 5,000 years of this separated mindset) and unfortunately a “perception” that has been forced upon other peoples around the world. We see today the differences between the indigenous approach, that is more matriarchal focused, where resources are shared, as opposed to the Western patriarchal mindset which ultimately is about greed and who has the most regardless of the methods used.

This separation from the Mother is part of the healing that contemporary witchcraft, that working with the Goddess, the divine feminine, and even working with the true divine masculine energy is part of what I share.

**PAA: When someone encounters your work for the first time, what do you most want them to understand about your approach to witchcraft and the magical path?**

Everything is interconnected. It may not seem that way at first, however, it is very much like an onion, the more time you devote and work with even the foundational practices, you will begin to see the different layers beginning to form and how they interconnect with everything else.

Nothing is separate. It is all interconnected. We do not operate in a bubble. At the end of the day everything relates back to energy. How that energy is shaped is entirely up to the individual, yet it still remains energy.

Energy also essentially works on its own terms outside of human direction. It ebbs and flows with the pulsating rhythms of the universe. What we do on the earth plane, is attempt to manipulate and shape it in accordance to our own will and desire. And it can take time, effort and training (self or otherwise) and effort to develop the skills necessary to achieve and maintain this ability.

> Information is easier to be obtained but this appears to be a double edged sword as “witchcraft” has moved from being a specific set of beliefs and practices, to almost a “catch all” for manifesting and spellcrafting only.
>
> Frances Billinghurst

## Contemporary Witchcraft and the Loss of Depth

**PAA: In your reflections on contemporary witchcraft, you suggest that much of what is now depicted as witchcraft feels very different from what you first encountered in the 1990s. What do you think modern witchcraft has gained, and what has it lost?**

If what is depicted on social media is anything to go by, I do not really understand it, nor how it actually works. This is because it seems to be very much as a hodge podge of techniques grabbed from a myriad of other traditions and practices, and thrown together without any real understanding of what or even why they were used in the first place. I find this interesting considering in essence contemporary witchcraft can also be seen as a scavenger religion (including techniques etcs) from other traditions and practices, yet the difference is that there is reason and a deeper of understanding as to why Masonic influences for example have been included, and even then, how these are utilised within contemporary witchcraft may not necessarily reflect their original usage. This is different from merely grabbing something merely because part of its use you resonate with.

Information is easier to be obtained but this appears to be a double edged sword as “witchcraft” has moved from being a specific set of beliefs and practices, to almost a “catch all” for manifesting and spellcrafting only.

There is also a heavy outward focus – grabbing to change the external in hope that the internal may improve without understanding of the deeper esoteric teachings whereby the inner needs to be changed first – as the NLP starts, it is all about perception. Such work has been reduced to the illusional superficial instant fixes sold mostly by influencers as opposed to longer lasting and deeper personal change.

**PAA: You contrast magic that changes the personal microcosm with a more modern focus on external desires in the macrocosm. How would you explain that distinction to someone who thinks magic is mainly about manifestation, spell results, or getting what they want?**

If someone comes to me with an external manifesting attitude, the first question is why? Why do they want change? What would this change bring them – how would it enhance their lives? Then what are they prepared to do to bring about this change?

Are they wanting something purely because everyone else has it and they feel like they are missing out – a case of FOMO? Or is there is deeper underlying reason that they have not thought about or acknowledged?

Again, we do not live in a void and there are times that in order to get what we feel we are missing out on in our lives could actually result from something we are ignoring to address, to fix, admit that we do not have our shit together.

The person also needs to consider how much effort are they going to put into creating this change. If they are after a quick fix solution, well, good luck to them. It is best they look elsewhere because that is not how I view, utilise, teach magic and witchcraft.

**PAA: In your work on contemporary witchcraft, there seems to be an argument that older foundations are not automatically obsolete simply because the modern world has changed. Which parts of traditional Craft training do you think modern seekers discard too quickly?**

These days people do not seem to be interested in doing the work, of waking the path that climbs the mountain. They simply want to be helicoptered to the top so that they can look at the view. Yet, what they fail to understand is that part of the deeper appreciation and understanding is through the climb.

Modern seekers today seem to be in such a hurry and are armed with tick boxes. Again, everything has been reduced to virtually an app, an instant thing, a gathering of information without actual application to see if things actually work.

There is also an increasing avoidance of self-responsibility, the projection that things are always happening to them, someone else’s fault. Again, the focus externally (macrocosm) as opposed to internally (microcosm) without the basic understanding that they are interconnected.

**PAA: You speak about dedication and devotion in relation to the neophyte. In practical terms, what does devotion look like before initiation, before certainty, and before dramatic mystical experience?**

How initiation affects a person varies and indeed is personal. It is something that only those who have undertaken the process will truly identify with. As Ray Buckland once mention, you can yell about the Mysteries from the rooftop. However, only those who have experience them will truly understand them.

Contemporary witchcraft is experiential – you need to experience the rituals, the practices, etc in order to gain a proper understanding, and this can only be obtained within a circle of people who have been trained accordingly.

**PAA: A lot of people today want access to mysteries without lineage, structure, hierarchy, or obligation. Where do you draw the line between healthy individual practice and spiritual consumerism?**

As already mentioned, contemporary witchcraft is experiential – you need to experience the rituals, the practices, etc in order to gain a proper understanding, and this can only be obtained within a circle of people who have been trained accordingly. And for the most part in order to enter such a circle, you need to be initiated. End of story. If you do not want to follow that route then, even if you download a copy of Gardner’s Book of Shadows (which is on the internet) you are still not going to properly understand the practices or tradition. This is simply because what cannot be written about is the oral information, and the experience passed through the experience of being with someone who has undertaken the actual training in the manner of how it was initially meant to be delivered. Tapping into the egregore, the energetic consciousness that has been built up since the first circle.

Again, a lot of what I see bandied about as “witchcraft” I am not really able to identify with or understand how because it does not into the perception of witchcraft that I have which has been shaped by my training and knowledge passed down through my lineage. I am not saying that it is not “witchcraft” – it is just not my interpretation of witchcraft and as such, I am not interested in it.

## Initiation, Lineage, and the Living Mysteries

**PAA: Temple of the Dark Moon weaves together Alexandrian witchcraft, ceremonial magic, Qabalah, and wider esoteric teachings. How do you prevent that kind of synthesis from becoming eclectic dilution rather than a coherent initiatory current?**

This comes down to experience and training. Some of these practices (threads) are already interwoven into the Alexandrian tradition of witchcraft, others are not. There is a misconception by non-initiates that contemporary witchcraft is “limiting”. However, my personal experience is that it is anything but. It does not prevent any initiate from exploring other traditions or magical/spiritual practices – instead, what it does is provide the initiate with an understanding og what is Craft and what is not.

**PAA: You have also written openly about questions around earlier lineage claims and later re-initiation into a direct Alexandrian line. That is an unusually honest thing to place in public. What did that process teach you about legitimacy, humility, and responsibility in initiatory witchcraft?**

Even to this day I do believe that despite the grey area in my initial initiation that it was bona fide – even if not being able to be proved. This is because it exposed me to or awoken something that resonated within me. It encouraged me to go deeper and in order to be able to one day be in a potion to pass on the deeper level of understanding to others however I felt that I need to clear up this grey area – for the benefit of others – so re-initiation was important to me.

Again, there is a general misunderstanding of what initiation applies and where the actual focus is on (i.e., the current that flows from the source – which is the lineage). There are other lines in Australia, however, I became friends with Murray who happened to have actually been taught directly by Alex and Maxine although at different times even before I decided to re-initiate.

**PAA: Your teaching presents the Craft as a path of empowerment, but also of responsibility. What responsibilities does magical training place on a person that outsiders often underestimate?**

Even within a coven, the Craft teachings self-responsibility. That is where the true understanding of empowerment lies. The techniques taught within a contemporary witchcraft circle focus around three pillars that reflect back to self-empowerment – these being beauty, power and freedom – which are obtained through the worship of the Gods. What outsiders do not understand is that role that religion (or belief) plays because, especially in the Western world, Christianity is often perceived to be the benchmark for religion – however it is not.

## Witchcraft in the Southern Hemisphere

**PAA: Your work on the Southern Sabbats challenges the assumption that practitioners can simply import Northern Hemisphere seasonal symbolism. What changed in your own practice when you stopped translating the Wheel mechanically and began listening to the land itself?**

A simple answer is that it started to make more sense – yet Australia is very unique. The landmass is the same size as the USA and there are many micro-climates. Even the standard advice given by Northern Hemispheric people to “move things around six months” does not necessarily work.

I see contemporary witchcraft is very earth centric: It centres around the magic of the earth, the ebbing and flowing of energy, the seasonal tides, the changing phases of the moon, etc. The more we take note of our environment (macrocosm), the deeper our understanding and personal connection. (microcosm). This is very much in alignment with the thought of many indigenous peoples. Our separation from the earth I believe has resulted in our deeper soul level restlessness and disconnection, even dissatisfaction for some with life.

**PAA: You point out that in the Southern Hemisphere the sun’s path, seasonal gateways, elemental placements, and even the appearance of the moon may need to be reconsidered. How much of ritual structure should be preserved for continuity, and how much should be adapted to place?**

The benefit of foundational training is that once that has been established, you can then modify, change things to fit in. It is like shifting to doing a ritual by rote, merely reciting words and copying actions, to when you start to gain a deeper awareness and understanding of the words you are speaking and why they were chosen in the first place – when they begin to come alive through the actions. You come to a place of awareness of why and how the energetics (vibration) of the spoken word call things into manifestation and are directed through the physical action.

Or simply put, the more you understand energy, you can feel how it moves and weaves, and when you work with it, it simply feels “right”. This is because you are working with it on a deeper level as opposed to applying something on top of it and attempting to shape it (which could end up requiring a constant amount of energy that could be directed elseh). At the end of the day, like a stream or river, the energetic current is at its strongest when following its natural path (which if often returns to).

**PAA: Many occult traditions preserve forms from Europe or the Northern Hemisphere. At what point does fidelity to inherited form become disconnection from the actual land, sky, and body of the practitioner?**

Understanding over heritage, ancestral roots can deepen regardless of where you are – looking for similarities. Australian native trees can have a similar connections to northern European trees but not all identical. I have already felt like a stranger in a strange land. It is very much alive, so it demands our mutual respect. I can only assume that other parts of the world are equally the same – the earth is alive anywhere we go.

Sitting and listening – not imposing one’s ancestral practice onto another nor attempting to image what really should be merged or adopted.

> Real shadow work is not about ticking boxes on what triggers you or acknowledging that you or someone else is projection – it is not about “fixing” alleged flaws either. It is about acceptance – that we are all flawed beings, and the realisation that there is “perfection within the imperfect”.
>
> Frances Billinghurst

## The Dark Goddess and Shadow Transformation

**PAA: You write that the Dark Goddess is connected with the unwanted, forgotten, ignored, and ashamed parts of the psyche, but you also warn against over-analysing suffering in a way that turns us into victims. How do you distinguish real shadow work from spiritualized self-absorption?**

Real shadow work is not about ticking boxes on what triggers you or acknowledging that you or someone else is projection – it is not about “fixing” alleged flaws either. It is about acceptance – that we are all flawed beings, and the realisation that there is “perfection within the imperfect”. This is why we are humans or have incarnated as humans, and is why we work with energetics.

Our modern world however keeps telling us that we need “perfection”. Nature however is not “perfect” – yet it is because everything flows together. The only thing that is “perfect” is artificial, manmade. This striving for perfection can simply be reduced to a patriarchal ploy of attempting to control the last vestibule of the Mother, earth.

**PAA: Your Dark Goddess work includes figures such as Kali, Persephone, Hekate, Hel, Baba Yaga, Sekhmet, and Oya. When working across different cultures and mythic worlds, what principles help keep the work reverent rather than superficial?**

Education and Research. My approach is devotional so I try whenever I can to include as much authentic aspects as I can. Again, establishing a relationship with the deity and even asking them what they want from me – what is possible especially if I come from a different culture or even era to them.

Simply ways of establishing a relationship – light a candle, making an offering (food, incense, etc) and sit and wait – allowing self to be open.

**PAA: In your Kali material, you speak about letting go of what no longer serves us, even offering the ego to the Terrible Mother. What do people usually misunderstand about fierce compassion, destruction, and spiritual freedom?**

Even within Hinduism today Kali is feared. She is still fierce and smashes rose-tinted glasses – she is not a “cool kid” for those who “self- proclaimed rebels”. She represents the wild, untameable, uncontrollable forces in the cosmos that are also necessary for they help to cleanse the unwanted to enable the new to come into existence. I like to use my garden as a metaphor, in order to create growth in the garden, we need to prune, rest, etc. Kali is the action, the clearing out, the pruning.

She also brings awareness that the external change we may be seeking may very need to start with us, and she will often bring about that awareness extremely swiftly, before we have had time to change our minds.

## Goddess, Moon, Earth, and Sacred Relationship

**PAA: In your Return to the Mother work, you ask whether the rejection of the Divine Feminine from soul consciousness is connected to how we treat the Earth. What does “returning to the Mother” require beyond sentiment, aesthetics, or Goddess language?**

A reminder that wherever or whoever we are, we ae all birthed from the feminine energy – 5,000 years of patriarchy has not only shifted us from the feminine energy but also seen the rise of an extremely toxic stinted form of masculine energy. It is not the divine pure masculine either as patriarchy is only focused on control, those at the top who clamber over everything and everyone else. It has no soul, no conscious awareness and in fact it deflects from these, referring to these aspects as “weak” because they are more connected with the feminine energy.

We are so out of balance with the earth, increasingly disconnected as I’ve mentioned – consider who is “mother”, what is mother to us? We refer to earth as “mother earth” however how we treat her as a disconnect, as a commodity, is a reflection of how women and girls are viewed – even in the western culture where a woman’s worth really is still based on who she marries and how many children she’s produced. This is far from being the holder of the sacred life force energy that flows through everything.

Comes back to what I have mentioned, connecting back to the cycles of nature, the ebb and flow of things, the realisation that things happen to us, not as a punishment but because we are all part of the natural cycle even if we are out of balance.

**PAA: Across your work there is a repeated movement: from outer form to inner transformation, from inherited tradition to local land, from Goddess symbolism to lived relationship. What do you think is the next serious task for contemporary witchcraft if it is to mature rather than simply become more visible?**

Contemporary witchcraft has never been meant for the masses. It is a Mystery cult, a Mystery tradition after all, one that has been based on those of the past.

If anything, though I would like people to return to the most conscious awareness of their actions – where every action has an equal and opposite reaction – basic law of physics. We do not live in a bubble – like a pebble being thrown into a pond, the ripples from our actions spread out and even may result in things and in ways that we have not even given thought to. We see so much of this in the world today – avoidance of responsibility.

It is increasingly important that we need to take responsibility for our actions – to lead by example. To shine brighter amongst the darkness. Become that star from which we originated from.

**PAA: Many thanks for sharing your journey with us. **