Stars you didn’t know practise witchcraft – Gemma Collins to Kerry Katona’s family

As the world comes together for Christmas, plenty will be looking forward to a different event altogether.

For Pagans and various other cultures, the Winter Solstice on December 21 – which marks one of Earth’s poles reaching its maximum tilt away from the sun – is a huge event in the calendar.

From gathering the family together for a celebration to heading over to Stonehenge for its annual festival, there are plenty of ways to mark the occasion for all sorts of different cultures.

But in celebration of all things witchy, we decided to delve into the celebrities you likely didn’t know had ties to the occult – from the Katona family to Canadian hitmaker Avril Lavigne.

Avril Lavigne

According to several sources, Canadian punk-pop superstar Avril Lavigne has openly declared her religion as Wiccan.

Asked at the Hollywood Show about her religion, the Sk8r Boy singer allegedly said: “I freely point myself out as Wiccan, although I don’t think it should really label who I am as a person.”

However, when she was growing up Avril was brought up in a strict Catholic household, which caused her to fall out of love with attending church. She admitted in 2019 that she has her “own personal relationship with God”, elaborating: “I’m not a crazy Bible-thumper, but I do have faith.”

When she released her single I Fell in Love With the Devil that same year, Avril reportedly caused a stir with her Christian fanbase – as the title of the song and gothic-style promotional images were accused of “exalting evil”.

As reported by World Religion News, fans were fuming with the title, with one unfollowing the star on Twitter as they wrote: “How can you fall in love with the Devil when God created you with [the] amazing talent which made so famous?”

However, the track was actually about a relationship the star was in during her battle with Lyme Disease, as she explained: “Sometimes your heart conflicts with your head and leads you into situations that you know aren’t right and then once you’re there, it’s very difficult to get out.”

Kerry Katona’s daughter

Kerry Katona shares her 18-year-old daughter Lilly-Sue McFadden with ex-hubby Brian McFadden – and with parents who forged careers for themselves in the music industry, it’s no surprise she wanted to stand out just like them.

Though born Irish Catholic, Lilly-Sue said she was “always drawn” to spells and crystals before a chance encounter in the woods convinced her to convert to Wicca.

Lilly explained to OK! Magazine that she came across a tree with a tiny fire burning near it and a Pagan symbol, which led her to research Wicca in more depth.

She explained: “It’s incredibly spiritual. I do spell jars and candle spells for all sorts of things – for personal growth, for a good night’s sleep, to protect my family.

“We also believe in the ‘three fold law’, which is whatever you put out, comes back times three.”

The teen added: “That’s why I’d never put a curse on anybody – it’ll come back on me in a big way. It’s a very individual path for every witch – you do what you want, but you practice kindness and goodness, always.”

Gemma Collins

The Only Way is Essex star Gemma Collins has opened up in the past about how she feels she is “some sort of prophet” – and was put on Earth to help ease the suffering of others.

She also thinks she’s a white witch – and opened up about her spiritual experiences last year on her BBC Sounds podcast.

Gemma explained: “It is something I will talk about in time. I have endured pain and suffering in my life, things haven’t always been easy, I have suffered. And now I can help people in their lives.

“The difference between white witches and dark witches is that a white witch is very spiritual, into nature and can make magic happen. That is me.

“Dark witches focus on dark magic, black magic and all kinds of horrible things. I don’t believe white witches have warts on them either, or pointy noses.”

It isn’t the only occult theory Gemma has – as she also believes lizard people are “living among us”.

She said: “I believe there are lizards living amongst us. Do these humans who appear to be humans and look like us and act like us, go into the tunnels where their human faces, their human bodies – do they retract back into being lizards when they go into the tunnels?”

And as though things couldn’t get weirder, Gemma added: “There’s been so many reports that there are different kinds of species living in the UK and around the world – I want to meet you, I want to touch you, I want to smell you, I want to know more.”

Lorde

Royals singer Lorde has mentioned witchcraft plenty of times in interviews, admitting her fashion sense has a “goth-witch vibe” and agreeing with Lena Dunham’s assessment of Taylor Swift’s friend group as a “witches’ coven”.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph back in 2017, Lorde explained she had a “connection” with the late pop superstar David Bowie – and explained further about her own views of witchcraft.

She explained: “I have always felt connected to [David Bowie], even though I spent only about five minutes in [his] company. I felt he was watching over me in a way.

“It would be no surprise to anyone I am not weirded out by ghosts or spirits. I am basically a witch.”

And it isn’t the only time she has considered Bowie’s influence in her work, explaining of her second album Melodrama: “I feel like the whole time spent writing this record, I’ve had him in my thoughts, I’ve had him in my heart. It’s hard not to make something and not think, ‘What would David think of this? If I could play it to him, what would he say?”

She also added that she does witch-style rituals to get ready to go on stage, adding: “I’ve got flowers and arrange them in a little way before I go on stage, or a few times I covered my hands in glitter using my hands like little energy conductors. So I’ve been doing weird, witchy things.”

Yoko Ono

John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono might not have spoken much about witchcraft, but there’s no doubt she’s heavily associated with it.

On releasing her solo album Yes, I’m A Witch in 2007, Yoko explained: “We, women are all witches. Witches are magical people. You accept a wizard, which is a male version of a witch, as a magical person. The human race is a magical race of wizards and witches.

“We are here to heal this planet and let it shine. And We Will.”

Azealia Banks

Controversial rapper Azealia Banks opened up about practicing witchcraft back in 2016 via a series of disturbing Instagram videos.

With walls covered in bloodstains, feathers and what looks like dead chickens on the floor, the room was definitely a state.

In the video, holding a sandblaster and wearing protective goggles, the rap star said: “The amount of crap that’s about to come off my floor right now guys? Oh my God.

“You know I got to scrape all this s**t up. I’ve got my sandblaster and my goggles – it’s about to go down.”

She then added: “Real witches do real things.”

Azealia said she uses the room for “brujeria” – the Spanish word for witchcraft.

The move sparked concern with animal rights groups and fans – and afterwards, an ongoing feud with Lana Del Rey took a witchy turn, as Banks wrote on Twitter: “You know the Big Band Witch is smarter than that. When her house mysteriously goes up in flames while she is asleep inside, I want to see as many #AzealiaVoodoo hashtags as possible.”

For more of the latest showbiz news from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk