The Naked Witch
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley August 17, 2017
Author Fiona Horn
Distributor: Rockpool Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-925429-63-3
Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
Release Date: July 2017
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She has reached the very highest of highs and absolutely the lowest of lows in her career, somehow managing to survive to tell the tale; and what a tale it is to tell.
Fiona Horne was adopted as a baby into a family who went on to adopt another two children. Somehow she did not fit in, did not have the right ‘anything’ to please her father and although her mother tried hard, somehow Fiona and her mother never really jelled.
As a young child she seemed to be the one who was bullied and picked on, deliberately dumbing her abilities and intelligence down at school, desperately trying to make friends and fit into what was considered the ‘norm’.
This lack of self-confidence and self-respect saw her withdrawing into the Australian bush close to her home, finding a little cave where she could simply be herself, creating a space where she could make a little alter and gather together a few coloured rocks, feathers as well as bits and pieces that caught her young eye. As she later says, this was the foundation of becoming a Witch in the modern world.
Her pathway through life has been based on a crash and burn mentality and regardless of how successful she became, she always seemed to end up in a state of deep depression and self-loathing. She was a founding member of the electro-pop group Def FX. Fame but sadly not fortune was hers for the taking until the co-coordinator decided, in 1997, in a simple phone call to end it all with the words, “I don’t want to do this anymore”! Def FX was no more.
While a member of this iconic group she became immersed in Witchcraft, setting up alters wherever they were preforming, reading every bit of literature she could find on the subject. This was the platform for her rise to the top in Hollywood as a celebrity, the face of Modern Witchcraft, she became the author of three books on Witchcraft and Magick, was a TV personality and so much more.
She marries, but sadly this does not last, plunging her once more into the abyss of total despair, destruction and self-loathing once again. This time though, she is rescued by a friend who opens a new doorway for her, that of completing her commercial pilot’s licence and stepping into a world she realised was a where she wanted, needed to be; that of a bush pilot flying in humanitarian aid, as well as a youth outreach worker, living in the Caribbean, enjoying life and accepting that anything in life can be overcome or accomplished.
Reading the autobiography, there are deep moments of immense sadness and joy. There are also so many challenges that have been faced; the wonder of it all is that she managed to survive at all.
Reading the last few chapters, as Fiona struggles once again to overcome her demons, accept the changes in her life and enjoy living in the moment, she also learns to accept that the most basic, fundamental principle she has learned over her flamboyant career is:
‘Learning instead of asking, to give. Instead of holding, to let go. To trust that somehow what I needed would appear. And then learning to accept that I did not need to know, and in fact, must not pursue, anything specific.’
The roller coaster ride that was the life of Fiona Horne tells a remarkable story about a person who is truly a survivor, who has battled the forces of darkness, to finally come into the light of peace and acceptance. In telling her story she hopes that ‘it would be good for its readers’.