Meet the witch making a living casting spells for the lovelorn and cash-strapped

'Love is the top choice for most people, then after that the most popular things are to do with improving luck and their financial situation'

Services start at £15, while clients can increase the likelihood of seeing the rewards of wizardry by paying more (Shutterstock)

“My interest with everything to do with the supernatural and paranormal began when I was a teenager,” explains Victoria Zasikowski, 44, from her home in Cardiff.

Ms Zasikowski’s mother had a broad collection of tomes on the family bookshelf about different esoteric topics that the teenager would pick up and read. The books on some of the more occult subjects piqued her interest more than boring reference books or histories and Ms Zasikowski began delving deeper into the area. When she was 18, she began reading tarot cards and learning more about astrology, magic, philosophy and occult religions. “The interest just kept gathering speed over the years and I kept branching out into different things, one of which was spell casting,” she says.

Now she’s taken the hobby and made it a profession. Since 2012, she’s been casting spells for money online, helping people with marriage and cash problems through a remote service.

A single cast spell will set back the lovelorn or the unlucky Lotto players £15, while purchasers can increase the likelihood of a spell being successful by doubling or tripling up their hoodoo spell cast (for an extra £15 or £30). For those who want specialist spellwork, Ms Zasikowski can engage black magic services, which she says are more complicated and therefore powerful. They’re also more costly. “They start at £125 and go up from there.”

Purchasers receive photographs of the spells being cast as evidence that they’ve been conducted. Whether the hoped for effect actually happens is up to fate.

It might sound odd to some, but many do avail themselves of Ms Zasikowski’s services – “a steady stream”, she says. The witch casts between 20 and 30 spells per month, with a handful of regular customers who have been calling on her to cast spells for more than a year. It’s enough to keep Ms Zasikowski in part-time work. And while many may be sceptical that her services are doing anything more than parting the gullible from their cash, no one forces those who use her services to seek her out and pay for them.

“Love is the top choice for most people, then after that the most popular things are to do with improving luck and their financial situation,” explains Ms Zasikowski. Of the lovelorn, people split into two tribes: those asking for reconciliation spells (to make a partner who has become more distant interested again) and – to use her description – “work that encourages a third party to develop deeper feelings for the person”.

All the purchaser has to do is give a little detail about why they’re asking her to cast a spell, filled out through an online form. It can result in some pretty personal admissions, she says, but the relationship between a customer and a witch is similar to doctor-patient confidentiality.

Hearing people pour out their hearts can be challenging for Ms Zasikowski – as can ensuring that customers recognise the kind of agreement they’ve entered. “You do get people coming to you explaining everything that’s wrong in their lives,” she admits. “My job is to respond to that in an empathetic way, but I do try and keep a boundary.

“Experience taught me early on that if you don’t have any sense of boundaries, people will latch on to you,” she adds. And though she’s willing to try and help cast spells to help people with problems in their life, she’s categorically not a shrink.

“Essentially the service is practical in nature,” she explains. “People pay me for the work that’s done; I do the work; they have the photographs to prove the work’s been done. If people talk to me about something that’s bothering them, I won’t ignore them but I’ll gently steer them in a direction to friends, a loved one, or if it’s necessary, professional advice.” There’s a pause. “I do try and keep a boundary in place.”

(Victoria Zasikowski (Victoria Zasikowski)

The Welsh witch first realised she was able to cast spells when she began dabbling in the dark arts for friends or family – and on occasion, herself. “It’s a difficult one to explain, really,” she says. “It all hinges on the feedback from people that the work was done for and things that were happening in my own life.”

Initially, she sold her wares (at that point mostly remote tarot readings, rather than spells) on eBay, where she sold for six years. However, in August 2012 the auction website banned the sale of a number of different “intangible” items, including “advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses and information; wholesale lists and drop shop lists.” A petition – Don’t ban our psychics on ebay – gained nearly 2,500 signatures.

“The rug was completely pulled out from under me and everyone else,” Ms Zasikowski recalls. At the same, her personal online business selling direct to customers wasn’t as built up and most of her business came through eBay. “It was a huge worry at the time.”

One of the first things she did was to migrate her business from eBay to Etsy. “That was a bit of a challenge in itself because I was starting off on there with a zero feedback rating, starting from the bottom again,” she says. (On eBay, her feedback rating had ballooned to more than 4,000.) She also introduced spell casting into her repertoire for sale, which “proved really popular”.

But then much like eBay, Etsy decided that – on the basis of customer feedback – it too couldn’t allow such sales on its platform. In 2015, it closed off access to “metaphysical services”. Explaining its decision at the time, Etsy’s then director of communications told reporters that “any service that does not yield a tangible, physical item is not allowed”.

For Ms Zasikowski, it was a massive setback. “It was a huge chunk of income just gone,” she says. “We didn’t get much warning. It was all very much out of the blue and everything was gone.” She has managed in the intervening years to build up a successful business on her own site, free from any future risks of removal, but the memories of being moved on twice in three years still rankles. “We never did get a definitive answer [as to why we were kicked off],” she says.

Discussions among the metaphysical community of spell casters posited various reasons why they were kicked off both platforms. “The only consensus we came to was because of the nature of what we do, there’s perhaps a higher number of chargebacks, complaints and requests for refunds that earmarked our little niche as problematic.”

And that certainly could be an issue. When you’re selling services and not products, it’s far easier for unscrupulous traders to muscle in. For all that there are people like Ms Zasikowski selling services honestly, and creating spells – regardless of whether they work or not – others can and will take advantage.

That certainly appears to be the case when I try to speak to other spell casters. I emailed a number of them, asking if I could speak to them about their business and how they have been hounded from one site to another. Most did not respond to my emails.

But one day, in the middle of the afternoon, I got a response from one, who called herself High Priestess Moirai. “Dear Chris,” it began. “Thanks for the details and for your fast contact.”

“I analysed your case very carefully and I know I can help you. In my opinion, the ideal solution is a one-week work. There are negative energies affecting your natural luck which explain why you find it so hard to get a good life. Until they’re not cleared, there are very little probabilities that you can grow in your life (in general: love, work, money, family). I’m not being rude, I’m just being honest...”

I was now getting the hard sell. “Normally, it won’t take more than three months to make this spell work,” the (obviously canned) email continued.

“I can increase substantially your chances to get it with a shorter and cheaper spell but if I don’t have enough time to remove the bad energies disturbing your life, it may take longer and the success rate won’t be as high.

“Also, the results are permanent with the better spell so you might be able to get great opportunities more than once in a lifetime.

“I’m not trying to push you whatsoever,” Ms Moirai concluded. “I’m just recommending what I believe to be the proper solution. But when it comes to choose amongst 2 spells, you’re the only one to decide. I’ll respect your choice. Any choice… Just tell me frankly if you want this spell and if you have questions to ask, go ahead.”

Taken aback, I replied: “I’m not actually looking for a spell; I’m looking for an interview. Is that possible?”

“No dear,” she replied. “I don’t do interviews.”