Claire Fordham interviews the owner of Witch House.
In case you’ve been wondering, there isn’t a gnarly old woman inside Witch House on Topanga Canyon Blvd, stirring a cauldron while muttering, “Eye of newt, and toe of frog. Wool of bat, and tongue of dog.”
The warm and friendly Tiberon bought Witch House in December, 2022, having moved to Topanga from Los Angeles in 2019. She considers herself the creative curator of Witch House and wants it to be part of the Topanga community.
“Witch House was always meant to be a space where I bring people together and host community events,” she said. “It’s my space. I get to say what comes in and goes out.”
Witch House is indeed an inviting event and work space. The rooms are stylish and filled with books, paintings and fascinating artifacts, along with lots of beautiful creations and hand-made clothes as befitting someone as artistic as Tiberon. She goes by just her first name. No surname. Tiberon is the name her mother gave her at birth. It’s not made up, even though it sounds perfect for a witch.
Tiberon and her mom, Nancy, share an office at Witch House where Nancy makes jewelry that she sells in the Bus Shop on the property. Mother and daughter both make stunning, elaborate clothes. Crucially for Tiberon, because she is a “fair and legal person”, everything that happens at Witch House is being done within the letter and spirit of the law. “All the events I’ve hosted here have been for free, for the community. The only sales I’ve done are at the Bus Shop, and I have my business license and sales permit for that.”
Witch House has been open on the weekends, but is currently closed as it’s a “liminal” (in-between) time. “We’re shifting as the seasons shift.” Tiberon observes the eight Wheel of the Year festivals: two solstices (winter and summer), two equinoxes, and the four seasons. These festivals celebrate the changing times and align with the agricultural year.
“The Wheel of the Year is based on celestial and agricultural alignments,” said Tiberon. “We give thanks to the earth and bring community together. I put my harvest out to share with others. The whole place was filled with pomegranates, last harvest. Sometimes people bring me the harvest from their trees at home, which I think is really sweet. It’s fun to connect with people this way and to share what you’ve grown.”
The next celebration will be the Winter Solstice, which includes yule. Tiberon doesn’t know what they’ll do to celebrate it yet. Her boyfriend, Sean FayeCullen, a professional musician, handles the events side and helps with the repairs on the house and property. The couple also make music together. Tiberon sings.
Tiberon doesn’t live at Witch House. She lives in Old Topanga with her mother and two children, Coco Rose, 16, and Nikko King, 13. Both children are neurodivergent. Nikko is non-verbal autistic, has a full-time carer to help with his special needs, and is home-schooled. The family spend their days at Witch House, so it can be scary for them when people trespass on the property and use the yard as a toilet—as has happened.
Tiberon says the point of her life is to find flow and do what’s natural. “I’m a natural witch,” she said. “I’m just trying to do right by me and my life and do right by the land.”
Nature plays a big part in Tiberon’s life, and she describes herself as a “Hedge Witch”, meaning she is more of a dabbler in magick (all the witches I’ve met or interviewed over the years spell magick with a “k” to differentiate between conjuring and pulling rabbits out of hats as entertainer “magicians” do). She’s a solo witch who isn’t part of any coven.
“Magick has always been part of my life. It’s about how you use the elements, so it’s really a creative process — an alchemy. All women are creative and powerful. If you want to utilize that power, you can. If you want to live in fear, you can do that too. There’s nothing to be scared about.”
Witches are not and never have been those wizened old ladies typically depicted in fairy tales and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The witch hunts of old were because men felt women and girls who were herbalists, healers and midwives were getting too powerful in their villages and had to be stopped. If anyone didn’t like a woman in their village, they labelled her a witch.
Tiberon does perform spells sometimes “intentionally and cautiously.” She doesn’t like love spells. “They rarely work,” she said. “And I would never put a hex (bad spell) on someone. There’s a whole scene out there right now about putting a hex on the patriarchy, but I don’t think that way.
“I feel we need to educate and heal our men, and you start within your community. You start with the man right next to you. Give them space to be who they are, whatever that is. So they feel safe to provide the safety that we require.”
Initially, Witch House wasn’t exactly embraced with open arms by all Topangans. Some members of this famously tolerant community might have worried that there was some black magic devil-worshipping going on. There isn’t. And there’s definitely been a warming towards the place as people have observed and even attended some of the events since the first one on October 31, 2024 (Halloween, naturally) — all incident-free. Tiberon was invited to attend a Topanga Chamber of Commerce meeting to answer questions from concerned citizens.
“One woman asked if I was burning incense. I asked if there was a problem with that. She said she didn’t like incense. So I told her to let me know when she’s coming over and I’d put it out.
“It did feel a little aggressive sometimes with most people wrongly assuming that I lived there. When people were firing questions at me, Brooks Ellis, who organizes Reggae on the Mountain, stood up and said he thought Witch House is the most Topanga thing he’s seen in a long time. That felt like a nice blanket being placed on me.”
Tiberon says being a witch can be a lot of different things to different people. “Me claiming that word on the top of my building means I’m a strong woman whose purpose is to make life fun and beautiful for me, my children and my community. I live my life with absolute integrity. I always wanted to live in a special magical place in nature, away from the city. And now I do.
instagram: i_am_tiberon
