Elizabeth Day embraces Halloween season with 'witchy rituals' - she even credits one with finding her husband

Do you have your heart set on redecorating your home this autumn and winter? Dreaming of taking the other half away for some winter sun? Or maybe you’re hoping to overhaul your wardrobe?

Well, author and host Elizabeth Day might have just worked out how to do it… if you're open-minded. The novelist and host of the popular How To Fail podcast is embracing the Halloween season and sharing her experience with “witchy rituals” - and the first one is all about manifesting money.

Elizabeth - whose book The Party is being turned into an ITV series, another one to add to your must-watch TV this month - explained that she put out a call for some more to try out after crediting one with helping her find her husband in the past.

Explaining that she received a lot of comments about a ritual for manifesting money, she decided to give it a try - and showed us how to do the same.

She shared, "So I'm going to do this ritual for money. By which I mean I'm not being paid for it but I'm going to put into the universe the amount of money I would like to receive. So what you do is you take out a bay leaf."

"What I'm going to do is write with a pen the amount of money I would like to receive. Now having written that amount of money I'm going to hold this bay leaf in my hand and then allow myself to feel what it would be like to receive this amount of money.”

The reason, she explains, has to do with the history and symbolism of the humble bay leaf - perhaps only used for the occasional homemade curry nowadays.

In ancient Greece it was associated with victory and with prophecy. In ancient Rome it was also associated with achievement and success. Bay leaf crowns were given to victors in gladiatorial combat and chariot races.

Once you’ve really manifested what this money would feel like, you have two options. The first, if it’s safe to do so in your environment, is to burn it and scatter the ashes. The second is to carry the bay leaf around in your purse or wallet until that money comes your way.

Now, this might all seem like utter nonsense, But Elizabeth has previously explained why she might be a firm believer in the power of manifestation - it’s what snagged her a husband.

Appearing on an episode of Holly Willoughby's YouTube show, Elizabeth explained that one of her mother’s friends told her she had to write down everything she wanted from a potential partner, set that paper alight and scatter the ashes - much like with the bay leaf.

After divorcing in the 2010s, Elizabeth was open to trying this out - and it worked. She told Holly after doing this she met someone "a few months later" who "met every single criteria".

After dating him for two years, they ended up splitting up due to an age gap difference. Undeterred, Elizabeth tried the ritual again, revealing she went "super specific" this time.

She explained, "That was November 2017. In March 2018 I met my now husband, Justin. I had taken a photo of that list before I burnt it. And the more I got to know Justin and the longer we dated, the more I thought, ‘I wonder, I'm just going to look at that list again’.

"He meets every single criteria. And I reckon I put about 85 specific things. He's every single one of them.

"I'm not someone who before that believed in the power of manifestation. But there was something about it that really worked for me… it worked for me twice."