Earning a Living in the Craft: A Wiccan's Guide to Professional Witchcraft

While Witchcraft is an incredibly personal practice, there are opportunities to monetize the Craft. In a previous issue, we discussed the ethics of making money through Witchcraft. If you’ve decided the ethics align with you and are ready to earn some extra money or make a full-time career from aspects of your practice, here is how to get started.

Decide What You’ll Do

There are several aspects of the Craft that lend themselves to monetization. There are the obvious ones, such as reading tarot cards, tea leaves, or performing other divinations for others for a fee. But there are other ways to earn money as a Witch as well.

Do you know a lot about the history of Witchcraft or spell work and rituals? Perhaps you want to monetize that by writing books about the practice or starting a blog you can earn ad income from.

Do you have access to a great supplier for herbs, crystals, and more? You may wish to open a metaphysical or apothecary shop to supply other practitioners.

Not sure a physical store is for you? You can create custom spell candles, potions, and more by online orders.

In love with love? And also travel? Get licensed to perform marriages and travel the country to perform ritual handfastings for other Witches.

There are so many ways you can turn your Craft into a part-time or full-time job. Choose what suits your personality and talents best and set to work on improving your skills.

Hone Your Craft

Once you know what you want to do to earn money as a witch, you need to make sure you are an expert at it. You must be at a professional level if you want to do it as a full-time job with no other income.

For example, if you’ve only just started learning tarot 6 months ago, you probably aren’t at the place to turn it into a full-time job yet. Start honing your skills with free readings for friends and family, then move into increasing your professional abilities by doing tarot on the side of the job you earn your primary income from. If your interest is in gemstones or being an herbalist, you better know how to identify your products quickly and without much (or any) research.

Some pathways will require practice, others research, some both. But before you even consider trying to have a healthy side-hustle or have your Witchcraft be your primary source of income, you need to hone your skills to top-notch levels.

You don’t need to know the ins and outs of running a business yet, but you need to be a professional when it comes to whatever skill or product you are selling.

Be Prepared for a Lifestyle Change

Being your own boss can be freeing in many ways. But it can also mean a significant lifestyle change. Most professional Witches don’t drive new cars or live in mansions. Like any small business owner, you need to be prepared to make your money stretch at times. You’ll be responsible for your own insurance, your own taxes, and more, on top of the other expenses you already have like rent or mortgage, utilities, food, etc.

Most professional Witches shop thrift stores, drive older vehicles (or don’t have their own), and make every penny work as hard as it can. But most will also tell you how much they love it. They aren’t slowly dying at a miserable job they hate. A lifestyle centered on reusing materials and reducing waste aligns beautifully with the core tenants of the Craft. They are doing something they love.

It is a tradeoff. And you have to decide if you are okay with it before moving forward.

Dip Your Toes in Slowly

Unless you are independently wealthy, you likely can’t just quit your job today to be a professional Witch tomorrow. The best way to start building up a client base, some money, and get a feel for the market is to start it off as a side hustle. This requires time out of your personal life, as you still have to focus on your full-time job. But it is the best way to start to make connections and build your business slowly until you get to a point you can transition to full-time if you want.

You don’t have to go full-time ever if you don’t want to! Keep it as a side gig as a way to earn an extra income. If you do want to go full-time, though, starting your business on the side of your primary job is still the safest way to move forward and make sure your business will be viable.

Have Clear Goals

When starting a business, it is important to have clear goals, with deadlines, and to know what your plan of action is if they aren’t met, especially when starting something as a side gig. It is easy to let a side gig wallow and wane if you don’t have clear goals and deadlines.

If your goal is to make this your full-time job, when do you want to be able to quit? What will you need to be earning to make that happen? How will you get to a full-time salary when you can’t commit to the job full-time until you quit?

An example might be:

“Save enough from doing tarot readings to cover expenses for two months. Once that amount is saved, quit your primary job and begin tarot readings full-time. I want to have this accomplished in 8 months. If I’ve only saved half of that in that time, reevaluate business tactics and market.”

If you don’t have any experience running a business, your goals also need to include learning all aspects of it—from writing a business plan to accounting and taxes to marketing and promotion. After you have your goals set, you need a well-thought-out business plan. How will you find customers? How will you price your services? What does the market look like?

Know Your Market

As part of your business plan, you need to know the market for the product or service you are selling. Will you only be providing it locally? Is there enough desire for your product or service in your area to do that? For example, building up a large client base in a city is easier than in a small rural town. If you move your services to be partly or fully online, how will you compete with existing professional Witches? What will set you apart? How will you market yourself?

All that’s left to do is get started. Good luck, and may the Goddess bring you blessings!