We were lucky to catch up with Justine Lieberman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Justine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Justine the Witch was not initially intended to grow to what it is today in fact, the reason I use that handle is because a friend of mine reached out to my hairstylist and said she was referred by “Justine, the witch”. At the time I was just holding moon circles and dabbling in Tarot and candle magick. My friends and I thought it was hilarious, and so Justine the Witch was born. I had no idea the fuss it would turn into… publicly referring to yourself as a witch does not go over well in general. Alas, I have deep convictions about standing in my fullness and my authenticity after being raised in a high control evangelical cult. I don’t allow other’s uninformed opinions to dictate my life, and witnessing the blatant hatred and disgust because I chose to own a title people called me behind my back just encouraged me to lean further in. Being a witch may involve spells and incantations, maybe crystals and astrology, and others may use different words, “healer, psychic, herbalist, shaman, priestess…” in my opinion all of those are witchy, and I’m taking the word back. What I didn’t know then is coming out of the broom closet would put me in a position to be of service in a much bigger way than I had imagined. My mission is to fully witness my clients, to hold space for them, and help guide them toward their natural gifts. Being seen is tricky, and I learned with young children that they shine when they are seen. Even flowers tend to bloom healthier when they are told they are beautiful (seriously I did an experiment, it works!). So I dedicate myself to fully witnessing and encouraging my clients through my one-on-one coaching called Alchemy Academy. You know that saying, “if a tree falls in a forrest but no one is there did it make a sound?” Well, my job is to hear the sound and validate my clients as they experience their successes, and to support them through hard times. It becomes real when you know someone is watching. And I happen to have a penetrating aura so I really do see others in ways most people don’t.

Justine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Around 2014 I experienced my dark night of the soul. My whole world was rocked, the eating disorder I had struggled with on and off most of my life came back with a vengeance, my weight was swiftly reaching an all time low, my marriage was falling apart, and was unable to be present for my child and two stepchildren, I needed help. I began therapy with an eating disorder specialist (she saved my life, and I am eternally grateful) and began my healing journey. In order to get healthy I had to take a very honest look at myself, and choose to change. The more honest and authentic I became, the more sensitive to energies I became.

Having been raised in a high control evangelical cult, and nearly dying due to the eating disorder that was created because of the environment and abuse, I had no faith in any God. I was an atheist, but I did have an inkling that reincarnation was possible for two reasons. One, I had experiences with ghosts or spirits since I was a small child, and two my child used to tell me stories that usually began with “When I was your mama.” My child also saw auras, and seemed to have other gifts.

Over time my curiosity lead me deeper into astrology, which lead me to archetypes, which lead me to shadow work. Fate brought a woman into my life who recognized my gifts and took me under her wing, initiating me in The Craft. I was then brought to an Indigenous spiritual healer who began to teach me, and then I began seeking out established witches to continue my growth. I didn’t know I was a bloodline witch on both sides of my family until relatively recently. Eventually I was leading moon circles, reading Tarot professionally, performing ancestral and past life healings, and now I am a Certified Cacao Ceremony facilitator, I am Reiki 2 certified, I cohosted my first retreat in April, and I am preparing to launch my fourth annual online shadow work course and ebook!

The majority of my business today is my Tarot club on Patreon where my clients receive 45 minute monthly Tarot readings virtually, and Alchemy Academy, which is a 1.5 hour monthly one-on-one focused entirely on my client and their astrology, Human Design, numerology and any other modalities that I am called to include. I call myself a Tarotpist because Tarot has a way of feeling like a therapy session.

This last year has been a bit slower than usual because I chose to commit the past 10 months to helping Bobby Samini and Chele Roland in exposing the dirty underbelly of the cult I was raised in. For the past 10 years I have been speaking out publicly about my experiences of abuse in the group. Over that time I connected with many survivors, and several of them are a part of the current and upcoming lawsuits.

I am so grateful that I do have a business that allows me the flexibility to follow my heart and do what I know is right.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A few months ago a woman reached out to me to share her experiences in the cult to see if she had a case, but about 10 minutes later she sent me a message explaining that she couldn’t speak to someone who blatantly calls themself a witch because she’s a Christian. She’s not the only one.

I can see how my craft makes the very people I am trying to help uncomfortable. I have have had moments where I wonder if I need to give up my passion in order to help expose this cult, but then I would be allowing the cult to once again take my identity. As uncomfortable as it is, I choose to stand in my truth.

Publicly referring to myself as a witch has required resilience because of the negative connotation surrounding the word. 13 million women were tortured, mutilated, drowned, burned at the stake, and hung during the Burning Times. This period of time was so horrifying that women turned on each other, sister against sister, son against mother. It was dangerous to be a woman, because “woman” became to equal “witch”. This trauma lives in our bloodlines, our ancestresses who did survive did so in extremely dark times, they were forced into a religion that they didn’t believe in order to save their lives and the lives of their children. They stopped growing healing herbs, and men took over as doctors. They stopped reading because a woman owning books was a sign she was a witch. Women became silent and obedient.

When people have a visceral and negative reaction to my title I see it for what it is: generational trauma. You don’t want me to call myself a witch because somewhere deep in your bloodline you remember the terror. You whisper the word “witch” because subconsciously you wonder if that word is an accusation. You are disgusted by my practice because there was once a time where you would have been murdered for associating with me. Fearing the word “witch” is systemic.

Yes, I could call myself something else, but I reject the connotation that witches are bad. I am a social activist, I have devoted 10 years of my life and donated the last 10 months of my life to helping survivors of a cult. I cofounded a nonprofit for survivors of this cult. And guess what, I am hated for that too. But I can look in the mirror and know exactly who I am. I can sleep at night knowing I am doing my best to create positive change in this world.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have a super huge following, but it’s decent and I would say that initially it began because I broke all the rules. I was instructed to post at the same time every day, create different posts for each social media platform, interact with as many pages as possible, and don’t get too personal.

All of those are perfectly wonderful social media rules, but what I have found is when I post just to post my message falls flat. I get the most business from sharing my story openly and sometimes vulnerably. Yes you can go and have your tarot cards read by anyone, but some people feel drawn to me because I publicly grieved the loss of my familiar. I showed my humanity, my devastation and heartbreak. Others feel like they can relate to me because they too were raised in a high control group. Some feel safe with me because I am an advocate for the LGBTQ community and have supported my trans child and his pronouns.

There is no separation for me from Justine the Witch, and Justine the mom, and Justine the activist, Justine the animal lover. And people really respond to that. At least the type of people I hope to attract, because I am not generic and I genuinely care for my clients. In my opinion sometimes it’s about quality not quantity.

So maybe for some of your struggling with being seen on social media, find a way to humanize yourself.

Oh! And if you have a hard time with content creation (like I do), it’s worth it to hire a social media marketer. My graphics are phenomenal because I was rebranded by an incredible team who really truly gets me and my message. All I have to do it fill in a few blanks, write my caption and tah-dah! Some graphic designers will do it all for you, including posting, but I choose to keep that ball in my court because I love writing… I am a word witch after all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://justinethewitch.substack.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/justinethewitch?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justine-lieberman-blanks-360272219
• Other: https://soultrine.com/pages/justine-the-witch https://www.patreon.com/justinethewitch?l=es#no_universal_links