Sheena Cundy, Witch Lit author, songwriter, and podcaster
The Creative Council
Welcome to The Creative Council, where I interview creatives about their lives and work and the ups and downs of being a creative soul.
Today’s interview is with Sheena Cundy, aka the Treehouse Witch!
Sheena is an author, teacher, songwriter, Reiki master, oracle reader, and practising Witch. She hosts The Witch Wavelength podcast with her husband Ian and sings in the pagan band Morrigans Path.
Depending on how long you’ve been following me, you might have heard Sheena and I talk about our books Riches for Witches and Tarot for Entrepreneurs:
If not, you might have seen the video in which I read Sheena’s Akashic Records:
The Interview
With no further ado, welcome to The Creative Council, Sheena! It’s good to finally have you!
· Please tell us, when did you start creating? Do you remember what pulled you in?
I started creating with words when I was a young child at school. I loved English lessons because they were all about stories and poems – listening to and writing them. At the age of eleven, I had a poem published about the village where we lived and won a competition with it. I still have the handwritten original!
Reading opened up a different world for me, a portal to the world of imagination… to magic. So, no wonder that, as a teenager, I became fascinated with the magical world of divination, where astrology led to the tarot and the magical arts… and all things spiritual.
I trained as a teacher of horse and rider and enjoyed a career of thirty plus years with those magical creatures.
I continued to write angst-ridden poetry and found a love for music that inspired me to create my own. Over time, those poems became songs and spells, and many years of sitting in spiritual development circles followed, where I learned to hone psychic and healing skills.
I joined a coven twenty years ago and have been a practicing Witch ever since. I started my pagan band, Morrigans Path, with my husband in 2014 and became an author with my first novel, The Madness and the Magic, in 2015.
So, to answer your question (!) in a nutshell, my creativity has been inspired by my love of words, music, animals, people, nature, and magical spirituality.
· When did you start pursuing your current craft for real? As in, when did you begin to take yourself seriously as a creator?
I have always been a writer and a musician. Creativity is not a pursuit for me; it’s an expression of who I am. It’s soul-driven.
I would say my craft is that of a Bard. I’m a member of OBOD (Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids) and a Witch who writes and sings. I have been teaching spiritual and magical development for the past twenty years and I love it.
· How long did it take you to complete your first work?
If you mean published work, Ian (my husband) and I created our first musical album over two years (2002). I remember it well, because I was pregnant with our second son while we were recording the songs! We’ve been publishing our own music ever since.
Book-wise, in 2012, I wrote the first draft of The Madness and the Magic in a month. I took part in NaNoWriMo, an online challenge to write 50K words in November. Three years later, Moon Books published it after publishing it on their blog, which gave me plenty of time to learn how to re-write.
· How long does it generally take you to complete a work?
That depends on what it is. A song can take a couple of hours if it comes easily and weeks or months if I have other things to do. For instance, I am currently writing a song that only needs another verse or two… and, in theory, won’t take much longer to finish. But I’ve shelved it because other commitments have taken priority. So, in practice and at that kind of pace, an album can take a few years in the making.
Again, there are variables if it’s a book. My Witch Lit series (three books) took about three years to write and publish… and my nonfiction Witch Wavelength series took about eighteen months for each book. The recording of the pathworking audios included in both books extended that time but was absolutely worth it. We now have a separate download album of each.
The Magic of Nature Oracle deck, which I created with my sister Tania, took us three years in the making… and was a complete labour of love.
At the beginning of this year, I created a four-week magical online programme in January and ran it in February.
Every creation has its own lifespan, depending on what it is and when it’s brought to life.
· What do you struggle with most as a creative person?
Fitting it all in!
Switching from being an introvert, which is necessary if I’m to write anything, to an extrovert on stage with my band, teaching my students or holding my two-monthly in-person healing groups, plus the spiritual readings and healing sessions I do.
· Have you always had that struggle or has it changed over time?
It has definitely changed over time. As I have become wiser and learnt more about myself, I have realised that the creative process is a cycle.
We must learn to recognise what that looks and feels like for us as individual creatives. Burning out is not an easy option. Nothing in nature is pushed or forced to bloom, so why place such great expectations on ourselves? I wrote at length about this in The Witch Wavelength: Tuning into Your Magical Nature. In fact, the whole writing of the book taught me exactly that!
· What advice would you give to creatives dealing with the same?
Learn about your creative cycle by doing whatever you do… but make sure it’s something you love.
Recognise what distracts you, and remember that focus doesn’t come from working without distractions but from a devotion so intense that those distractions disappear. This, I have found to be true.
Focus on discovering and expressing your unique magic to the world… and share it with others.
You can’t pour from an empty cup… nourish your soul. Do what makes you feel good!
· What do you do to stay inspired?
I read, watch, and listen to good stories, and I take time out to play… at festivals with my band or just have a laugh with friends. I also rest and recharge in nature and walk with my dogs.
I celebrate the turning of the wheel with my coven sisters every six weeks… and life at every opportunity. It’s short and precious.
· And what’s the best creative advice you ever received?
When my dear Mum needed a lot of care and support with dementia in 2019, and I was struggling to get any writing done… an author friend said to me, ‘Sheena, do what you can when you can.’
I have never forgotten it.
You can find Sheena on her website. You can listen to The Witch Wavelenght podcast here and sign up for her The Witch Wavelength newsletter here.
Wealthy Witches Magical Membership
Join Sheena in building a community for people who want to work with magic to grow spiritually and become wealthy in every [Witch] way.
Wealthy Witches is a paid membership for magical people. It includes practices and a monthly (recorded) live workshop on embracing abundance, resetting intentions, and manifesting wealth in all aspects: Health, Relationships, Creativity, Spirituality, and Money.
All our abundance flows from within!
You can sign up for Wealthy Witches here.
Are you a creative and would you like to be interviewed next? E-mail me at marielle@mswordsmith.nl and we’ll make it happen!