She was initiated into Alexandrian Wicca by the tradition's founders, Alex and Maxine Sanders. She met the Sanders in 1970 through a friend who had become interested in exploring Wicca. Janet accompanied her friend to keep the friend "out of this weird cult", but she instead joined the Sanders coven, and would go on to become, in the words of Knowles, one of "England's most eminent and respected modern day witches." In the coven she met Stewart Farrar, her future husband and co-author.