Mark Black is a project manager at a digital marketing company.
He enjoys skiing, motocross and playing on XBox with friends.
Mark is also a witch.
The 33-year-old is high priest of The Coven of the Sacred Flame in Winsford. Sipping tea at Chester’s Sally’s Secret Garden Mark, or White Phoenix as he’s known by the coven, may appear an unlikely candidate to practise witchcraft.
Sincere in his beliefs, he is open and humorous.
Mark, who lives in Chester with his partner, said: “Our coven members range from nurses to business owners to bankers and everything in between.
“We have four men; the rest are women.
“With my friends who aren’t Pagan – muggles – yes a lot of Pagans have nicked muggle from Harry Potter – I just don’t talk to them about it.
“My boss knows I’m a witch and in a coven and is fine with it.
“At work I’m there doing a job. I’m not sitting there with a cauldron and a book waving a stick around.
“In the media they say male witches are warlocks or wizards – but it’s hogwash.
“If you follow Paganism and you’re a witch you can be a man or a woman.
“Paganism is the faith, the religion behind witchcraft.
“You can be a Pagan and not be a witch.
“But you have to be a Pagan before you can become a witch.”
Paganism emphasises personal choice, respect for nature and the Gods (including Celtic and Egyptian) and a belief in Turning of the Wheels that celebrates the changing seasons with eight yearly festivals.
Mark, who runs a website for the coven, said: “One of the major Pagan principles is, as long as what you’re doing isn’t hurting anybody, then do what you like.
“Most people think of Wicca when they think of Paganism or witchcraft.
“That’s mainly because the media have publicised Wicca above all with The Craft and Charmed.
“Wicca is just one path in Paganism.
“You’ve got lots of others including Druidary.Each path has other things blobbed on top.
“Some paths say you should go sklyclad (naked) when doing rituals but you don’t have to. Our coven doesn’t.
“As much as I love my coven, I don’t really want to see them without any clothes on.”
While Mark’s coven wears normal clothes for meetings, they are not adverse to dressing up when the occasion demands.
He said: “We dress up at Hallowe’en because it’s fun.
“Last year we’d just moved to Winsford and I had a cloak and a circlet on my head – like in Lord of The Rings.
“All the coven members were coming around.
“There was a knock on the door and when I opened it there was a little girl wearing a pink fairy outfit.
“Her mum was standing behind her and said: “Wow – you really take this seriously don’t you?”
“I thought “if you knew there were a couple of witches in the backroom you’d probably freak.”
While Mark declines to reveal the mysteries of spellcasting – an art reserved for coven members – he insists they work.
He said: “But spells they don’t work like most people think they do.
“If it worked like on Charmed that would be awesome but it doesn’t.
“But there are limits to what you can do.
“Generally we’re asked to do spells for either self-improvement, maybe to help with concentration or with anxiety.
“Healing is a popular one, either hands-on healing or spiritual.”
When asked if he can cast love spells, he replies: “Can you or should you?
“Yes, theoretically. But one of the very few rules of Paganism is you shouldn’t take away somebody’s free will.
“So could you? Yes. But should you? No.
“But you can do spells on yourself to attract love in general into your life because that’s not directed at anybody else.”
According to data from the Office of National Statistics, 251 Pagans, 58 Wiccans and 23 Druids live in Cheshire West and Chester.
Mark said: “We’re just going through the process now of setting up a coven in Chester – it’ll be called The Coven of the Sacred Oak.”
To join, members must be aged over 18 and take part in a ‘witches workshop’ that gives an overview of Paganism and witchcraft.
If accepted into the coven, studies include religion, philosophy, metaphysics, science, meditation, ritual and spellcasting.
More details can be found at www.covenofthesacredflame.org .
