I’m a part time witch and use my powers to get back at my exes

If you see a man in a cape mooching around the herbs and spice section in a Liverpool Aldi looking for sage, don’t be alarmed.

That’s just Gideon Allen, self confessed part-time actor, administrator and witch.

His apartment is home to an array of capes, a cauldron, jars of herbs, a ouija board, shelves full of spellbooks and a huge sign near the cooker that says ‘the wicked witch’s kitchen.’

‘People think it’s a joke, but this has consumed my life,’ the 27-year-old from Liverpool tells Metro.

Gideon has always believed he was magic. Ever since he was a child he was aware of something otherworldly that protected him from evil forces.

‘I just felt this spark within me, an energy. I can’t really explain it, but I just felt very in tune with the universe. I learned to embrace that, and then one thing led to another, and I realised I was a witch,’ he remembers.

However, life wasn’t so magical for him at school. Growing up gay and ginger in Preston – ‘depress-ton’ as Gideon calls it – he was subjected to cruelty, bullying and physical violence.

‘They called me gay before I even knew I was. They threw bricks at me. I didn’t feel safe, ever,’ he remembers. 

At home, things were difficult too, Gideon admits. ‘We never saw eye to eye, and it was just not the best environment for me to grow up in. So I just had to take myself out. There were times when it made me feel incredibly alone, but then I realised that there were amazing people all around me, I just needed to go and find them – and the only way I could do that was by being myself.’

Today, Gideon has a new ‘adopted’ family. He met his best friend Diarmaid in a magical way at college, he says. ‘Diarmaid was doing art and said he felt compelled to switch to performing art, which was where he met me. Since then we’ve become really attuned and I’m really close to his family, who have adopted me and we spend all the special occasions together.

‘I pick up friends like Pokemon. I just wanna catch them all’, Gideon jokes. ‘I’ve got this weird intuition about people when I know who to go for.’

For as long as he can remember, Gideon has been magically manifesting what he wants from life. ‘I just put all my energy into it and I know everything is going to be okay. If I need some extra cash, something will just come up. Or, if I need an opportunity, it just comes to be. It’s hard to explain but I feel this guidance and intuition with the universe.’ 

And it’s clearly worked out for him, as he has been largely successful whenever he goes for a job or audition.

However, Gideon has also witnessed unexplained misfortunes among those who have wronged him – something else he also puts down to his magical powers. 

‘Sometimes it happens subconsciously. The rage comes out, and then something terrible happens to someone. ‘People lose jobs, fall down the stairs…

‘All my exes have got receding hairlines, which I think is 100% down to the witchery. It’s not like I’m pulling out a book and looking for the spells about about baldness, it is just like I see red and that energy comes from me, like a darkness and I see it consuming them.

‘Another ex cheated on me and the last time I saw him he had a walking stick. All the while, my nearest and dearest tend to be thriving. So I like to think that is just magic, radiating off me.’

Following a decade of living in different towns and cities, two years ago Gideon moved to Liverpool from Preston after a chance encounter. 

‘I’d been to a spiritualist church who told me to look out for the colours pink and white, which matched the colours of my aura. They told me that if I saw a sign, I’d need to follow it through,’ he explains.

‘I’d been up partying and woken in the morning hungover. So my friend and I went to get coffee at a van, which was pink and white. There, I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen for five years who was leaving her job that day and they were looking for a replacement. She essentially offered me the job and before I knew it, I was working there.’

While it’s clear Gideon likes to have a joke about his witchcraft, he insists it’s a grounding practice for him – a lifestyle rather than a gimmick. 

On one ghost hunt in Pendle Hill in Lancashire two years ago, the paranormal investigators’ devices lit up all around him and spelt out the words ‘witch boy’, he explains.

‘If I’m feeling down or don’t know what to do, I’ll turn to the books, select herbs and let ritual steady me. Just like a religious person turns to God, I use my magic all day every day. There’s a spell or a chant for everything, and it always works out. 

‘I even enchant men into falling in love with me. I don’t need a spell book to do that, though – I radiate love. I’ve had men in relationships with women tell me they think I’m magical!’

According to Lovehoney, 40% of men worry about their performance – however, Gideon says his bedroom is somewhere his sexual identity and sorcery collide. He typically follows the ‘three day rule’ whereby he waits 72 hours before sleeping with someone because he believes intimacy should be intentional.

By day three, most of his lovers know about Gideon’s witchy leanings, but can still be surprised when he puts on one of his capes for foreplay. Typically, reactions range from delight to confusion.

‘Sometimes they can’t get enough of it. People like role-play, and that’s how they perceive it. They will come in, see the cape, and they will see trinkets here and there. Good sex is both playful and sacred,’ he says.

‘I also have gloves and a whip. I don’t think that ties into witchcraft, but it certainly goes with the aesthetic.’

Romantically, Gideon is dreaming of settling down and perhaps a big white wedding. ‘I’m a hopeless romantic trapped in a lustful world,’ he says.

The only thing he’s been unable to manifest is the love of his life, and he’s currently fine with that. 

‘People ask me why I don’t magic up a boyfriend. But it’s magic, not a miracle,’ he laughs. ‘You can only do so much.’

 Gideon is talking about sex, magic and masculinity as part of Lovehoney’s ‘Menifesto’ campaign. You can find out more here.