Salem, a sleek, black cat, stares at me from his place at the window as I approach the witch’s cottage. I pass by the caravan, home to a druid friend of the witches, enter the house, and am led into the warm kitchen, where nine cats eye me from their various positions above the stove, upon the table top, and treading a figure of eight around my legs. The witches lead me through.

I find myself in a room full of ornaments, bottles, vases, and pictures. Two altars, covered with offerings, stand by the walls, in which are embedded the stones from a dolman, dismantled during the building of the cottage in the 1700s. “Right now we’re in the centre of three standing stones, buried in the walls”, one of the witches tells me, “possibly the reason that many visitors have had very strange dreams here.”

A cat leaps onto my lap as Janet Farrar continues to speak. “I should explain what we are from the outset. We are practising Wiccans or modern witches”.

In fact, within the Wiccan religion, of which there are, they say, “several thousand followers in this country”, Farrar and husband Gavin Bone are recognised as leading lights. Between them they have published 11 books on the subjects of Paganism, Magick (spelt with a k) and Witchcraft. They tour, give lectures, set up covens across the world, and receive a constant stream of letters from people going through personal hardship, asking them to use their knowledge of witchcraft to help.

So what exactly have I gotten involved with here? Am I in the presence of an evil, spell-binding coven of cranks? Or are Farrar, Bone, and the witches of Ireland just normal people following a misunderstood faith?

“Stating that we are witches throws up all sorts of preconceptions”, answers Bone, “about magic, broomsticks and wart-nosed crones. Yes, this faith is magical but intrinsically it’s a spiritual path, with magic as a tool.”

Before we get onto the magic then, what is the spiritual philosophy of the witches? “Well, we don’t believe you can experience the divine directly,” he says. “It’s unknowable, unfathomable. However its human nature to put faces on so we are polytheistic. We have many gods and goddesses.”

The morality of Wicca can be summarised in the “Wiccan Rede”, says Bone, “which states that “As It Harm None, Do As Thou Wilt”. It means you can do whatever you like as long as it doesn’t harm anybody or anything. Besides that, an important aspect is paganism – we draw inspiration from nature. Celebrations centre around the solar festivals, the equinoxes and solstices, and those related to the seasons.”

Then what about magick, spells and witchcraft? “Witches do practice these,” Bone confirms. “In fact the origins of witchcraft are in healing, dating back to shamanism and the use of herbs.” Witchcraft, he continues, involves “using whatever tools are necessary to do the job. For example, we might leave offerings to deities so that they will grant our request. In other instances, witches will embrace New Age therapies – spiritual healing, medium-ship, psychic skills, and tarot card reading.”

Spells, it seems “are nothing more that super-charged prayer. The only difference between a Christian saying a prayer and a witch casting a spell is that the witch knows the mechanisms involved on a psychic and spiritual level. People will say a prayer in a church and light candles. That’s a spell, they just don’t realise it. They are concentrating the human mind on a certain process. The only difference is witches might use a different kind of candle or offer it to a different diety.”

On the face of it then, it seems that witches work for the forces of good. So why does the term ‘witch’ throw up images of evil cackling hags?

“Because of the spread of organised Church Christianity”, Bone replies. “Before this, witchcraft was a normal part of life. In villages were trades such as smith, butcher, baker, and it was the same with witchcraft. Those who practiced the craft looked after the spiritual wellbeing of the village. They conducted rituals which asked the gods for a good harvest, presided over ceremonies and religious rites, and took care of herbal medicine and midwifery.”

Yet things began to change as Christianity spread across Europe. “The old Roman Empire changed tack from using force of arms to force of religious doctrine to control people. And Paganism was demonised. The old warty-nosed figure that we associate with witches is actually a memory of one of the goddesses pagans used to worship. It is the old crone goddess who represents the waning year at Samhain.”

And so began the persecution of the witches “although in fact there were very few real witches persecuted”, says Farrar. “Most of those victimised were good Christians carrying on little folk traditions. A lot of it, too, was about land. It was very easy to call some poor old doddery lady an evil witch, particularly if you wanted the land she lived on. Over 36,000 people died as a result of the persecutions. Yet most witches survived by keeping their beliefs underground.”

And so Wicca has lived on, although the witches of today say that they are still fighting prejudice and misconception. One claim, in particular, disturbs them. “The accusation that Wicca is a cult is so wrong”, Farrar claims. “One rule within witchcraft is you don’t go looking for converts. We believe people find their own way. Also children growing up in witch families are encouraged to look at other religions. And if they decide to become Christians their parents will say ‘Fine’ because Wiccans aren’t possessive that way.

“Compared with Roman Catholicism Wicca is anything but a cult”, Bone, joins in, “we have guidelines in terms of what to believe but we don’t say ‘This is the way it is’. We don’t claim to be all-powerful. In Wicca we treat each other as equals and this extends even to our relationship with gods and goddesses. In our view deities exist because of us and we exist because of them. So, whether we are interacting with a witch, coven leader or goddess we are dealing in an equal working relationship. Rather than grovelling on our knees.”