Earlier this week, Ella Harrison, Polish Folk Witch, and the Redheaded Witch asked participants in online witchcraft communities to use #occultea and share their thoughts on a series of prompts about participating in these spaces. I’ve spent the last couple of days watching folks on YouTube, Instagram, and elsewhere begin responding, and it’s been really gratifying for me. I both love and hate social media, and in those moments when I feel like I’m struggling or frustrated or failing, it’s good to hear other experiences, either to affirm my complaints or to challenge and reframe them. My relat ..read more

Are blogs still a thing? Heck, are websites still a thing? Do we want them to be a thing? I spent most of 2023 not being very active on the internet. At least, not in the way that I have been in the past. I spend a lot of time on Discord, where I’ve got a server tied to my Patreon account, and I’ve gotten comfortable on TikTok, but my presence on other platforms has dwindled. In fact–maybe you noticed–I lost my Facebook account in Meta’s last round of “you need to operate under your legal name or else.” It turns out that “or else” is having your account disabled, with no recourse for getting i ..read more

Holy shit, friends, this has been a year. I feel like I haven’t kept up with anything, and it’s all just gotten away from me. When that happens, I have to resort to lists: I started my PhD in August, and am going to school full time, working as a TA, and continuing to work my full time WFH publishing job. I’m also still working on writing project, managing a Patreon community, and trying to just be a normal person who also happens to practice witchcraft (sometimes hopefully with a coven, albeit that coven is made up of equally busy people who are living in the same unhinged timeline I am). A ..read more

My book, The Witch’s Path: Advancing Your Craft at Every Level, is out on Wednesday! Written during a period of personal burnout, it’s a book about taking next steps as a witch (but really, could apply to magicians and occultists more broadly). Whether you’re an exhausted group leader, an armchair occultist who needs a shove, or an overwhelmed beginner trying to figure out how to create something meaningful for yourself, The Witch’s Path has you covered. I draw on my background as a classroom teacher to discuss core concepts that apply regardless of tradition, differentiating ex ..read more

You may consult the oracle by searching for The Poetry Fox, and giving him a follow on Instagram @thepoetryfox. He does parties and public events, but I’m sure would consider your next sabbat gathering for the right price. How do you know if the gods are talking to you? This is something I really struggled with as a new Pagan. In devotional spaces (as well as in witchcraft spaces generally, where we’re talking about spirit contact of all kinds, beyond gods), it’s common to hear extraordinary stories about divine encounters. I’ve been privy to a number of these conversations. Sitting next to ne ..read more

Photo courtesy of Sagar Vasnani and some royalty free website I closed and then promptly forgot the name of. *screams* Create sacred space in whatever manner your tradition or intuition deems appropriate. For this ritual, an outdoor setting is ideal. If working indoors, seek out a dark space that reverberates to some degree: a stairwell, an elevator, a basement, a neighbor’s basement, etc. This is most effective when other people are within earshot. Anoint yourself with mud, dirt, dust, and whatever earthy materials are present. The more the better. Close your eyes and imagine your skin harden ..read more

It’s common now to assert that witchcraft is a “practice” as opposed to a religion in and of itself. You might hear this in the context of, “Wicca is a religion, but witchcraft is a practice,” or “Witchcraft is a secular craft–some people just combine it with their religions.” Many practitioners identify as “secular witches” or “non-religious witches,” and our communities are adjusting both our perspectives and our vocabularies to better include and understand the growing variety (which is awesome). These perspective are valid and make a lot of sense to an increasing number of people, but they ..read more

How do you know when you’re an expert at something? Or when you really are “advanced” as a practitioner? For lots of us, we connect expertise to the ability to charge money for something, to when we can point to where others defer to us for our opinions, or to when we repeatedly find ourselves in situations where we seem to simply know more than other people in the room. In this video I reflect on expertise as a moving target, and how sometimes the way we talk about “experts” is less helpful than we think it is. If expertise is about knowing more than others in the room, maybe you’re standing ..read more

My second book, The Witch’s Path, is now available for preorder. I’m very proud of it, and pleased to here be able to share a short excerpt from it. The Witch’s Path is my love letter/pep talk to other witches as a whole. Whatever kind of witchcraft you’re into (or thinking about getting into), this is for all those people out there going, “Ugh, there’s too much to read and I’m lost,” or “I’ve been at this for years and I’m bored—what’s next?” or, “I love this but I’m afraid to actually practice,” or “I can’t believe how terrible this community can be sometimes—why do I still ha ..read more

It’s easy to take a cursory glance at social media and leave with the impression that learning to practicing witchcraft will cost you a lot of money, and certainly there are plenty of us that enjoy formalizing courses, specialized tools, and elaborate altars. But there are actually lot of ways to begin exploring and practicing that don’t cost anything at all. In this video, I touch on five things that you can do to begin building a foundation that don’t entail spending. I encourage folks to share more suggestions in the comments, either here or over on YouTube ..read more