#do i still use the term wiccan for myself

[salixsociety]

Yes, I Hate Wicca.

A hopefully comprehensive guide to all my strifes.

More often than I care to admit I find myself quarrelling with people over my seemingly baseless hate for all things popular and simple. I'm accused of being a pretentious traditionalist, of being a snob, even of being a white supremacist on grounds of talking about European culture as a replacement for conventional witchcraft. I will not deny that I am a touch snobby and pretentious - such is my biggest flaw - but I am not a white supremacist, and my loathing for many seemingly innocuous witchcraft practices is not for nothing. It is because I hate Wicca, and everything related to and derived from it, and I have good reason to. Today I would like to introduce you to every single reason I have to loathe Wicca passionately, so that I can hopefully defer future debate partners to this post instead of retyping the same arduous messages.

What is Wicca?

Per the r/Wicca subreddit:

Wicca is a neopagan religion based on ancient pagan beliefs. It's an earth-based religion that believes in a God and Goddess as representative of a greater pantheistic godhead. Wicca includes a system of ethics and teaches that we all are ultimately responsible for our own actions. We believe in gods. We believe in magic. We believe in multiple realities. We practice alone, or in groups. We practice witchcraft.

I chose the r/Wicca subreddit for my first primer because it's easy to accuse people of misrepresenting a faith if you do not allow the community to speak for itself on what their faith constitutes. As much as I hate Wicca, and do not think it is redeemable, I have no desire to be accused of letting my hate set the tone of my arguments against it. I don't want to give militant Wiccans leeway to claim that I speak on their behalf and therefore my points are wrong. The Wicca subreddit is a large community and often referred to by Wiccans, and it features this brief description of 'The Craft'. In any case, though Wicca nowadays is divided and will be described slightly differently by everybody you ask about it, the description provided by the subreddit is a pretty good example of common ground between all Wiccans. That description mostly matches up with how the average Wiccan would describe their faith. My personal description of what Wicca is would look slightly different. I would take care to note, for one, that Wicca is a form of Western Esotericism, more specifically Western Occultism. [1] I also find it important to note that whether or not Wicca is an earth religion, or nature religion, is of some debate, and not all consider it such. What is also subject of some variation across traditions and individuals is whether or not The Craft is pantheistic: some people accept the two gods of Wicca as figureheads for every pagan god in existence, others simply worship them as one single masculine god and one single feminine god. 'Witchcraft' is also a term that has no set definition - I can only assume that the mention of it on r/Wicca intends to broadly refer to most or all forms of magic accepted within Wicca.

Worth noting is that Wicca has spread very far beyond the confines of British Traditional Wicca (BTW), which are streams of Wicca that still adhere strongly to their roots. What is and is not Wicca is something that is of some debate among Wiccans themselves. That's why I think it is highly important to establish a few definitions that we'll be using for the rest of this post:

WICCA: I'll admit to using this term loosely. When I say 'Wicca' in this post I'll mainly be referring to the community of people who consider themselves Wiccans, i.e. the Wiccan religion. I may also use it to describe the broader influence of Wicca, however.

WICCA-DERIVED: I'll mostly use this term when I don't want to paint something as being inherently Wiccan, just related to or derived from it. Wiccan practices often escape the bounds of their respective culture and then grow into staples of various traditions that aren't meant to be Wiccan at all. When referring to such things I'll refer to them as derived from Wicca, or similar.

Wicca's Origins

To understand the history of Wicca we have to travel back a bit further than its founding: to the 16th and 17th century Witch Hunts in Europe. I have another post on this same blog detailing the relationship between Wicca and the Witch Trials, which I highly recommend reading to get a better understanding of the accusations of antisemitism I will be making shortly. At any rate: the witch trials happened across Europe and its colonies throughout the early modern period, after a time of much disaster. As I state in my other article:

Before the early Church turned its hateful eye to the concept of 'witches,' it was firmly on jews. Jews, alongside other heretics and oppressed minorities like the Rroma, were considered utterly worthy of damnation. They were seen as antagonistic to the Church, going against everything the Church stood for, and furthermore as misanthropic, greedy, unreliable enemies. They were the scapegoats for many disasters and indeed frequently accused of practicing magic or poisoncrafting to invoke these disasters on the 'Good Christian Folk'. Furthermore, and this may sound familiar to you, jews were accused of 'consorting with the devil' and murdering children in order to consume their blood to mock the Eucharist, often referred to as blood libel. It was often claimed that this (nonexistent!) practice was done on the Shabbat, alongside other practices twisting and mocking those done in Church on Sunday. The persecution of Jews in Medieval Europe was horrific and seemingly endless, having origins in antiquity and reaching a peak during the Crusades, and another when the Plague ran rampant. Jews were banished, forced to convert to Christianity or brutally murdered, not infrequently by burning or strangulation.

It is fairly easy to see, with some research and critical thought, that it wouldn't logically be real witches being murdered during the witch hunts. For starters, it's hard to believe that there were really people out there flying through the sky on brooms, to mythical locations, to dance naked under the full moon, have sex with the devil, and cannibalize children. There were of course those people who confessed to having done such things, but they were under threat of torture. Indeed, this archetype of the 'witch' has its origins in the Church's loathing for non-Christians and heretics. As Lily Climenhaga states [2]:

"Magic" acted as a description for individuals or groups who did not subscribe to the perceived societal norms of the medieval Christian community. Jews and heretics, the principle Others within Medieval Europe, existed outside of the societal norms and played an important role in the formation of the Christian perception of witches and witchcraft. Common elements existed between stories surrounding Jews, heretics, and witches. These beliefs created the preliminary conditions necessary for the mass persecution and intolerance toward witches and became inherent to the idea of the witch as the diabolical Other within Medieval Christian thought.

Furthermore, the stereotypical image of the witch is directly derived from hateful depictions of the marginalized. The conical, wide brimmed hat that we often see a cartoon witch depicted with actually comes from the conical hat known as a judenhut (jew hat), which was compulsory for many jews to wear in the Middle Ages. [3] Then there is of course the typical red or black hair, short and stocky figure, buckled shoes, large hooked nose, green skin, et cetera. All of this to say: It was not witches being hunted during the witchcraze. There is no such thing as a human person able to fly on broomsticks, cause storms at will, magically steal money from a distance, and curse someone to death with one glance. The medieval and early modern 'witch' is a mythical figure used to justify the persecution and eradication of the already marginalized. This idea is fairly commonly accepted now, as it should be, but it wasn't always.

In 1828, German lawyer and professor Karl Ernst Jarcke proposed the witch-cult hypothesis: a now discredited theory that the people persecuted and murdered during the witch trials were not marginalized innocents, but rather members of a pan-European pagan religion. He posited that this pagan witch-cult was older than Christianity, but had been driven underground by it, and only came to light when the accused of the witch trials confessed to witchcraft. This hypothesis was affirmed and adapted by other scholars throughout the 19th century but remained of moderate popularity at best, until 20th century Egyptologist Margaret Murray became one of its most avid proponents, incorporating it into many of her works. Most notably, she featured it in 1921's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and 1933's The God of the Witches. [1] Murray's writing is the origin of many Wiccan motifs, such as the thirteen member coven, the Horned God (based on the works of James Frazer) and the cross-quarterly gathering. Furthermore, as a radical skeptic and rationalist, Murray wished to strip the witch-cult hypothesis of all supernatural notions. [4] She claimed that the secret society of witches were not Satanists but nature-worshippers, and that the gatherings were actually orgies, where a priest dressed in ritual skins and horns fornicated with all the gathered women. She also proposed that these rituals were actually benevolent fertility rituals for the good of the witches' communities, and there was little to no malevolent magic involved. She was also the one to introduce the idea that the people who confessed to curses and other malevolent magic were actually witches who had forgotten their own original intent, or had been misinterpreted by the court. [5] Murray herself [5]:

For centuries both before and after the Christian era, the witch was both honoured and loved. Whether man or woman, the witch was consulted by all, for relief in sickness, for counsel in trouble, or for foreknowledge of forthcoming events. They were at home in the courts of Kings [...] their mystical powers gave them the authority for discovering culprits, who then received the appropriate punishment.

These writings were a turning point for the associations of the word 'witch'. Prior to these hypotheses, 'witch' was a bad word, an insult even, reserved only for people - especially women - believed to have evil intentions and use spiritual methods not sanctioned by the Church for their own benefit. The use of the word 'witch' nowadays, as a self-imposed title for anybody using any magical means, can be traced back to this pivotal moment in time. While Murray did great PR for the nonexistent witch archetype, erasing the idea that their practices were Satanic and supernatural, she unfortunately did much harm to marginalized peoples by propagating the idea that it was not them being persecuted, but some mythical clan. Therein lies my first problem: Wicca minimizes the impact of what it calls the 'Burning Times' on marginalized peoples and instead adopts all this suffering for itself, painting the 'witch' as a marginalized, oppressed, and beloathed historical figure, when it's the very people who would've been doing the burning who founded, shaped, and maintain Wicca. In doing so, it also adopts various words, like Sabbat(h), which is a word unique to Judaism and has been weaponized against Judaism since the Middle Ages. Despite much criticism, even from Murray's contemporaries, she was invited to write a highly influential piece for the Encyclopaedia Brittanica in 1929. She used the opportunity to promote her hypothesis as fact, and it quickly grew so influential that according to Jacqueline Simpson, the ideas got to be "so entrenched in popular culture that they will probably never be uprooted." [4] But we haven't even gotten into when Wicca was actually founded, so let's get to that.

One of, if not the only contemporary fan of Margaret Murray's hypothesis, was Folklore Society fellow Gerald Gardner. He was an interesting and well-travelled man, having come from a wealthy family, growing up with nursemaids and a family firm. As a result of his illnesses (namely asthma) and constant travels abroad during childhood, he never received a formal education, nor did he attend school. Instead, through his travels and family acquaintances, he developed quite the interest in spirituality. At first he developed an interest in the Buddhist beliefs of the Singhalese natives on his tea plantation, later in British and Celtic folklore from his relatives the Surgenesons. In his biography, it is revealed that it is from these relatives that he learns that his grandfather, Joseph, was rumored to be a practicing witch. [6] Different accounts of Gardner's life had it that it was also rumored within his family that a Scottish ancestor of his had been burned as a witch in 1610. [7] A few years after this time with the Surgenesons, Gardner was initiated as an Apprentice Freemason in Ceylon. He quickly rose in the ranks, but eventually lost interest in the Masonic activities and resigned in 1911, presumably because he wanted to leave Ceylon. [6] After this he moved around Asia a fair bit more, taking a great interest in Indigenous beliefs there, and even participating in some of their tattoo and ritual traditions. During this time of travel, Gardner also decided to take the Shahada, the Muslim confession of faith and, technically, final step in the process of becoming Muslim; but Gardner never became a practicing Muslim, mostly using the Shahada as a means to gain trust from the locals in Malaya. [7] In 1927, Gardner's father's health deteriorated, and he went back to Britain to visit him. During this time in Britain he researched various spiritual and religious movements, namely Spiritualism and Mediumship, and he reported many spiritual encounters with whom he interpreted as deceased family members. [6] [7] He attended many Spiritualist churches and seances, and had a number of spiritual experiences that, according to his biographer, changed his interest from a purely amateur anthropological one to one of genuine personal belief. [6] He became re-involved with Freemasonry, and started taking a serious interest in magic. When he, after his retirement, officially moved back to Britain, he started pursuing magic there with some seriousness. He became involved in such things as nudism, and, in September 1937, he requested a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph. D) from the Meta Collegiate Extension of the National Electronic Institute, an organization based in Nevada. This organization was widely known for providing illegitimate degrees and diplomas through mail order, for a fee. After this he began to introduce and style himself as 'Dr. Gardner' despite having no academically recognized qualifications. [7]

He started allowing spirituality to shape his life, such as when he bought land on his beloved Cyprus because he came to believe that he had actually lived on the island before, in a past life. He wrote a book referencing this as well, influenced by his dreams: his first novel, A Goddess Arrives, followed a British man in the 1930s who had, in a past life, been a bronze age Cypriot. [7] When World War II became an imminent threat, Gardner and his wife moved to Highcliffe, just south of the New Forest, to escape potential bombings. [7] He becomes involved with the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, a magico-religious tradition in Western Esotericism. The Fellowship had been founded in 1920 by George Alexander Sullivan, based upon a blend of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Freemasonry and his own personal innovations. [7] It requires mentioning that Western Esotericism and all of its more modern traditions (Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Freemasonry, Occultism, et cetera) are inseparable from white supremacy. This is something fairly well-recorded, if shrouded, and so complex I am hesitant to delve into it in great amounts of detail. It is, however, pivotal for the reader to understand that many of Western Esotericism's greatest thinkers from the Middle Ages onward were antisemites, racists, misogynists, colonialists, and even nazis. Western Esotericism also had a gigantic impact on 20th century race studies, and the idea that there was such a thing as a superior or aryan race. Defenders and fans of Western Esotericism are quick to point out that there are also many non-white thinkers in Western Esotericism that were pivotal to its formation, and I would never deny that. I am, however, denying that what Western Esotericism has turned into is productive. Having been founded upon the backs of indigenous and marginalized peoples, by appropriating their practices and denying their suffering, such as the appropriation of Kabbalah and the denial of the persecution of jews, shaped by men who were famously evil, such as Aleister Crowley, and used as pseudoscientific justification for some of mankind's greatest atrocities, I cannot stand with Western Esotericism. Ever. It is true that Western Esotericism has been the victim of white supremacy as well: Freemasons being persecuted and incarcerated as part of the 'jewish conspiracy' in Nazi Germany for example, but at the same time the connections between Esotericism and the nazi, half-Nordic, half-Hindu German Faith Movement cannot be denied. Folkish and Odinist 'traditions' find their roots in nazi occultism as well, as they sprang from the desire for a Pan-Germanic ethnic identity. These faiths persist to this day, attracting many different types of people and turning them into white supremacists or even neo-nazis.

Back to Gardner. During his time with the Rosicrucian Order he had also joined the Folklore society, where he published some works and became member of the governing council, where he was a distrusted man. He had also joined the Historical Association. [7] He ran into some quarrels and troubles with the Rosicrucian Order and found himself increasingly cynical of their practices, especially when Sullivan claimed that World War II would not come the very day before Britain declared war on Germany. [6] There was, however, a select group of people within the Order with whom he got along quite well. [7] Biographer Philip Heselton theorized upon who this group could be and claims they may have been Edith Woodford-Grimes, Susie Mason, her brother Ernie Mason, and their sister Rosetta Fudge, all of whom had originally come from Southampton before joining the Order in Highcliffe. Per Gardner himself: "unlike many of the others [in the Order], [they] had to earn their livings, were cheerful and optimistic and had a real interest in the occult". He was "really very fond of them", claiming he "would have gone through hell and high water even then for any of them." [6] It was these very people who took him to the house of a woman Gardner calls 'Old Dorothy' Clutterbuck, a wealthy local to the New Forest area. They, according to him, made him strip naked and take part in an initiation ritual, wherein he caught the words 'Wicca' and 'Wicce', which he recognized as the Old English words for witch. Though research by the likes of Hutton and Heselton shows that the New Forest Coven, as Gardner calls them, were likely only formed in the 1930s, Gardner took this experience as proof of the witch-cult hypotheses which he had learned about from Margaret Murray's writings. [7] Gardner spent a significant amount of time with them but only ever described one of their rituals in detail, one intended to ward off the Germans from coming to Britain. It is attested in both Bracelin's and Heselton's biographies. Gardner went on, after these events, to also become involved with druidry and be ordained as priest in the Ancient British Church, and he conducted some rituals according to the Lesser Key of Solomon with his nudist and occultist friends. [7] In 1947 Gardner was introduced to Aleister Crowley, a man of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the founding father of Thelema, a Western Occultist new religious movement. Crowley is one of those ubiquitous, evil figureheads in Western Esotericism that people prefer not to give too many words to. His history with occultism, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and sexual abuse is too vast to summarize in one paragraph. Still, Thelema persists to this day, as do Crowley apologists. Crowley elevated Gardner to the IV° of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and issued a charter decreeing that Gardner could admit people into its Minerval degree. The charter was written in Gardner's handwriting and only signed by Crowley. [6] [7] [8] When Crowley passed away, Gardner appointed himself the leader of the O.T.O.. He would, however, lose interest in leading the O.T.O. within a few years. [7] During this time Gardner also travelled through America, especially in hopes of learning about Voodoo and Hoodoo. [7]

Gardner wished to spread his newly founded Wiccan religion, and wrote another work of fiction in order to do so. He described various Wiccan rituals in this book as 'High Magic' and based it heavily on the Solomonic Keys. He was also working on a scrapbook which he did not intend to publish, which he called 'Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical'. Therein he wrote down various Wiccan rituals and ceremonies, and this book would later form as the prototype for the Wiccan Book of Shadows, a term he himself coined. He claimed the book to be of ancient origins to his followers. During this time he also gained his first initiates, and the first covens were formed. [7] During this initial time of true organized religion, Gardner ran into several problems. People important to him left his faith due to his actions with the press, and he had quarrels with some members who recognized that many of his rituals and such had been adapted straight from Thelema. [4] In 1954, Gardner wrote arguably the most influential work on Wicca: Witchcraft Today. It was his first non-fiction work, and contained a preface by Margaret Murray, the woman who had popularized the witch-cult hypothesis on which Wicca was built. In this book, Gardner praised Murray's theories, and added some of his own: namely that the European belief in faeries was actually because of a hidden pygmy race living alongside mankind, and that the Knights Templar were actually initiates into The Craft. [7] After this, Gardner started cultivating larger scale attention for Wicca. He invited the press to write about his religion, and most of the tabloid articles produced painted him and his cult in a negative light. They were made out to be devil worshippers, cultists, et cetera. Nevertheless, Gardner persisted, and encouraged the press to write more. He thought the publicity, even if negative, would help prevent the 'Old Religion', as he called it, from dying out. [7] [8]

In 1960, Gardner's official biography, Gerald Gardner: Witch, was published. It was penned in its entirety by Gardner's friend Idries Shah, a Sufi mystic, but Shah used the name of one of Gardner's High Priests, Jack L. Bracelin, because he was wary of being associated with witchcraft. In 1963, Gardner visited Lebanon. On his way home, he had a heart attack on ship, en route to Tunisia. He was buried there, the funeral only attended by the ship's captain. [9] Many authors have speculated on Gardner's life since his passing. Though he was devoted to his only wife, Donna, it was claimed that Gardner spent many evenings 'cuddling up' to a young High Priestess named Dayonis. Biographer Philip Heselton claims that Gardner had a longterm affair with Edith Woodford-Grimes, nicknamed Dafo by Gardner. This theory was affirmed by Adrian Bott. [10] Gardner was one of, or possibly the first person to use what Wiccans know as a 'Craft name', a magical name used for magico-religious purposes in Wicca. Gardner was known as Scire by his followers. Reportedly, Wicca was not known as Wicca at the time of its initial development. Gardner often referred to his adherents as 'the Wica', but the religion was only ever referred to as 'Witchcraft', capital W.

In Wicca's founding lies my second problem with it. Wicca was founded by a white man, based on a combination of Western Esoteric notions and experiences, Spiritualism, Mediumship, appropriation of indigenous European, Asian and even American spirituality. It was built on a hypothesis that denies the suffering of marginalized peoples and claims it for nonmarginalized, white, privileged Europeans instead. It poses itself as something with roots in academics, while the founder had never enjoyed any form of education and possessed a fake PhD. It was influenced heavily by cults, occultists who are generally acknowledged to be terrible people, and pseudoscience. It claims to be ancient, but was founded in the 1900s. And, importantly, it contributes heavily to white supremacy through the idea of a pan-European cultural identity and pan-European pagan religion.

Wicca Today: Innocuous Propagation of White Supremacy

Wicca has grown exponentially since its founding, now being by far the largest pagan religion actively being practiced in the modern era. It has both organized covens and solitary adherents across the world, and most people who have access to the internet will have heard of Wicca once or twice. Wicca is, truly and undeniably, inescapable in pagan and magical spaces. It's easy, and common, for adherents to claim that Wicca is not what it once was. 'Yeah, the origins are bad, but that doesn't make the whole Craft bad,' is a favored argument against the idea that Wicca's origins make it inherently irredeemable. I disagree strongly with this, and always will; something that was built with bricks made of appropriation and lies can't be separated from those evils. If you took the appropriation out of Wicca, it would cease to be Wicca. Deconstructing Wicca would leave you with a blend of Freemasonry, Thelema, folk magic, Christianity, various Indigenous beliefs, Kabbalah, Occultism, and some misrepresented paganism. If you take the appropriation and harm out of Wicca, it simply ceases to exist. Nevertheless, many people think Wicca can be separated from its evil origins. That's why in this section of the article, I'd like to delve into why that is not true, and how Wicca continues to do harm in this day and age.

For starters, of course, Wicca has not ceased to be appropriative simply because time has passed. Rather, the appropriation gets increasingly less attention, until it becomes so integral to the Craft that people don't even notice or stop to think that it may have come from somewhere that never wanted it to be taken in the first place. A prime example, which I've already touched on very briefly, is the use of the word 'sabbat', in reference to 'Wiccan' holidays. As I wrote in my other post about this topic:

The very root of this word is the Hebrew ש־ב־ת (sh-b-t). It is the root word for many words pertaining to rest and not working (or more broadly: 'cessation'). This word evolved into שַׁבָּת (shabát), which translates to Saturday or weekly rest-day, normally. This word, also often spelled Shabbos from Ashkenazi Hebrew, travelled through various antique languages (Ancient Greek -> Latin -> Old French) directly to Middle English, where it became 'Sabat', and later Sabbath. While this word, in its travel through Europe, has influenced some words, you'll notice that it has also stayed one unique word, with a unique meaning: the Jewish Rest Day. The Sabbath, Shabbos, Sabbat, Shabat, et cetera, will always and has for most of its history been the word uniquely reserved for Saturday in Judaism. To those not very well read on Judaism, it may be helpful to know that Judaism is what is considered a closed practice. It is only permissible to practice Jewish religious tradition, and to a large extent, Jewish culture, if you are a Jewish convert. By extension, that should clue you in on the nature of the word and holiday of Shabbat.

This word, which should have stayed what it was meant to be, a word for the Jewish rest day, first became associated with the archetypal witch during the late Medieval period, when jews, and later witches, were accused of going to Sabbaths or Synagogues to perform evil rituals. Though there were attempts by the likes of Margaret Murray to claim that the word 'sabbat(h)' as used by 'witches' was not in any way related to Judaism, those claims have been strongly disputed. Murray claimed in her 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe that 'sabbat' actually came from Old French s'esbattre, meaning to frolic and amuse oneself. This theory has no proof, nor is it readily academically received or accepted. The word in conjunction with witchcraft is deeply hurtful to Judaism and jewish people across the globe, as it reminds them of the persecution they faced when their faith and culture was considered evil and worth being killed over. I highly recommend reading Why I Don't Call Them Sabbats, Why You Should Stop, and Other Thoughts on Problematic Aspects of Western Witchcraft by Nile Sorena for more thoughts on this topic, as well as Jews and the Witchcraze by Jewitches.

The Wheel of the Year, the cycle of yearly Wiccan holidays (the very ones referred to as 'sabbats', which I refuse to do and will not start doing), is just as appropriative as the use of the word sabbat, but, hilariously, it is also quite magically and religiously dysfunctional. The Wheel of the Year is a Wiccan invention, initially based on the works of James Frazer, Robert Graves and Margaret Murray, the latter of whom was a big proponent of the theory that 'witches' gathered on cross-quarterly days, something that is still a big motif in Wicca. These theories were adopted by neopaganism by Gardner's Bricket Wood Coven and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a neo-Druidic group founded by Ross Nichols. Supposedly, these people harmonized the eight primarily holidays described by the former academics to create an easy-to-use calendar for neopagans in Britain. [11] In the 1970s, prolific Wiccan Aidan Kelly gave names to some of the previously unnamed Wiccan equinoxes (Mabon and Ostara) and the Wiccan summer solstice (Litha). [12] This leaves us with the contemporary wheel of the year, which looks like this:

There are many reasons I find the Wheel of the Year appropriative and dysfunctional. For starters, Wiccan lore claims that the spokes-on-a-wheel structure is borrowed from Celtic mythology, but there is no evidence that Celtic myth ever depicted the passing of time as a wheel. Nevertheless, there is no inherent problem with viewing the passing of time as a wheel; cycles are very important in paganism across Europe. More cumbersome than the supposedly ancient wheel structure, is the combination of pagan holidays from various only passively related cultures. Beltane (Bealtaine), Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc are Celtic; specifically Gaelic. They all work well in conjunction, and were historically celebrated by the same people(s) throughout their years. Yule is Germanic, being celebrated by the Norse, continental Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon peoples. It was not in any way historically related to the four primary Celtic festivals, and doesn't work in conjunction with them very well, as many things that made Yule significant to the Germanic peoples, were celebrated during Samhain by the Gaels. Mabon is a contrived festival, filling an autumnal gap. The Germanic peoples did not have a specialized holiday for the autumn equinox, nor did the Celts, so Wiccans filled this gap with a 'lesser Sabbat' in the 1960s, named 'Mabon' by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. [12] It was named for Mabon ap Modron, a figure in Brythonic mythology. As Wicca is wont to do, it paints itself and its traditions as incredibly ancient and cultural, and Mabon is no exception to this rule. Wiccans generally paint Mabon as a 'Celtic harvest festival' filled with rich traditions of sacrifice and preparation for winter, but factually, nothing is less true. Mabon (ap Modron) as a deity has nothing whatsoever to do with the autumn equinox, and there is no solid record of consistent autumn equinox festivities as celebrated by the Celts (nor by the Germanic peoples, for that matter). Noteworthy also is that on top of this usage of the name of Mabon for an unrelated festival often being deemed appropriation by Welsh and other Gaelic people, additional offense is often taken to the likening of the 'Mabon' celebrations to Thanksgiving, as many leftist people involved in Celtic culture have no respect for, nor wish to be associated with, colonialism. Ostara is an almost equally contrived festival, based on a single attestation by a Christian in England, Bede, who claimed in his work The Reckoning of Time that there was an Anglo-Saxon goddess named Ēostre, to whom a spring feasts were dedicated during the month of Ēosturmōnaþ (modern April). Litha, too, finds its origins in Bede's The Reckoning of Time. Per Aidan Kelly himself:

Summer was also rather easy. The Saxon calendar described by Bede was lunisolar. It usually had twelve months, but in the third, fifth, and last month of an 8-year cycle, a 13th month was added to keep it (more or less) in sync with the solar years. The last and first months in the calendar were named Foreyule and Afteryule, respectively, and obviously framed the holiday of Yule. The sixth and seventh month were named Forelitha and Afterlitha; furthermore, when the thirteenth month was added, it went in between them, and the year was then called a Threelitha. Obviously, by analogy with Yule, the summer solstice must have been called Litha. (I later discovered that Tolkien had figured this out also.)

Now, there is nothing wrong with being inspired by various open, European cultures and using that inspiration to create something new. Traditions don't have to be centuries old to be valid. What makes this thing that Wicca does appropriation, is that it refuses to acknowledge its traditions as modern, and its inspirations as cultural. This started way back in its origins, when Murray popularized the witch-cult hypothesis and Gardner espoused it, and it survives into the modern day with Wiccans either refusing to admit or pointedly ignoring the fact that their traditions are modern and were established in the modern period.

Wicca also breeds tolerance for cultural (mis)appropriation. When one is not taught to feel any animosity toward appropriation like the use of the word 'sabbat(h)' outside of its original context, even when the usage of the word is of active detriment to the people to whom the word originally belonged, one will feel confident doing other, similar appropriation elsewhere as well. This is why you'll often notice that it is Wiccans, and people who practice Wiccan-derived practices, who end up appropriating such things as white sage, dreamcatchers, sound bowls, reiki, et cetera. Some of those things should never be used by people who are not native to the culture those things come from, such as white sage, which is not only strictly closed but also a severely endangered plant; others are open to foreigners, but should be treated with respect and acknowledged as belonging to a certain culture. Wiccans who readily appropriate such things are often unable or unwilling to provide substantial information on where those practices or items come from and why they should be within their rights to have them, except through arguments which minimize the cultural value of something. A great example of this is this famed argument: "white sage can't be closed, it's a plant. Plants belong to the earth, and the earth belongs to everyone. I should be allowed to use white sage." Ignoring the fact that white sage is endangered and white sage in stores is generally poached, which entirely negates the 'respecting the earth' aspect of that argument, this argument also diminishes the cultural importance of white sage to Native Americans.

A different reason that appropriation runs rampant in Wiccan communities is, actually, white supremacy. The goal of white supremacy is to homogenize the white race into a single white cultural and ethnic identity, so that all white people may band together and rule over the inferior races, as it were. People think that white supremacy has to be quite drastic, only recognizing it in such things as fascism and neo-nazism, but in actuality, white supremacy is propagated in many far more innocuous ways. The wish to eradicate minority languages, various conspiracy theories about aliens, many commonly accepted forms of pseudoscience, and many forms of cultural appropriation that are popular to this day are huge cultivators of white supremacy. Something does not need to explicitly state, or even have the intent or desire to create a homogenous white ethnic identity to further white supremacy. This topic is so vast and complex it is impossible to summarize in any effective way in this post, which is why I encourage all magical practitioners and pagans to see witchcraft as highly intersectional an do their research about white supremacy and other harmful ideologies that survive in western spirituality to this day. Folkism and Odinism are great examples of not explicitly, but undeniably white supremacist spiritual organizations that further white supremacy by attempting to create a universal Germanic (and then European) cultural and ethnic identity. Wicca also engages a lot with the idea of various pan-European identities. This is particularly visible in two ways: one, the idea that there is a pan-European witch-cult that has survived from prehistory into the modern age. Magic, throughout Europe, as well as paganism throughout Europe, is highly variable and culturally dependent. Though it follows many of the same themes, as it does mostly have its roots in Proto-Indo-European common origins, it is distinctly different. If Europe had one, shared, culture, our world would look very different. Indeed, Europe is just as culturally diverse as any other place, even if nowadays (thanks to white supremacy) that is harder to see. There is not and never has been one singular secret society of witches in Europe. Instead, folk magic, which is culturally and linguistically dependent, and extremely variable across Europe, has survived under the radar of the church into the modern era, and it is one of Europe's most beautiful assets when it comes to illustrating our cultural richness. The second way that Wicca propagates pan-European identities is through their dual divinity system. Wicca's divinities, the Great Horned God and the Triple Goddess, who both are also, in turn, appropriated from Gaulish and Celtic lore respectively, are often said to be a sort of figurehead for all pagan divinities and serve as a sort of shorthand way to worship them all, in a soft pantheist way. The Horned God or Lord, the divine masculine, represents all male pagan gods, and his counterpart represents all female pagan gods as the Divine Feminine. Now, pantheism is not inherently problematic, but when one tries to reduce every pagan divinity in existence, gods which all have wildly different cultural and historic backgrounds, to two deities, without even being so courteous as to make those deities liminal and featureless, I fear that does turn into a problem. No, it is not possible to worship every single pagan god in existence by paying respects to just two deities who are mostly modern inventions. Every deity and every religion, every culture, has distinct needs, requirements, and ways of paying respect, and attempting to reduce all of that to the idea that two gods can serve as a prism and replacement for all the gods which have ever existed is a major flaw to this religion as well as a serious indicator of a strong tie to white supremacy.

But there is another problem to the dual divinity system of Wicca, which is gender essentialism. On top of cultural variability being completely forsaken by this prism-pantheistic idea, it also completely fails to acknowledge that there are many deities across Europe and across the globe which do not conform to the gender binary. The abrahamic God Himself is a great example, but so is Loki, a deity who is oddly well-beloved by Wiccans despite the religion's bioessentialist nature. So are Hermaphroditus from Hellenic myth, various South American divinities, even deities in Tagalog lore. As a matter of fact, gender-neutral depictions of divinity have been found on Celtic gold. [13] Divinity itself, as a concept, has no gender. Rejecting the gender binary has also been crucial to magic and witchcraft across Europe, see for example crossdressing being a prerequisite to successful Seidhr practices, and the associations of men practicing seidhr with unmanliness and even homosexuality. [14] Rejecting the gender binary was a powerful act when it came to magical skill, as it furthered ones journey into the liminal and undefined, the strange and 'other', which is where all manner of magical creatures resided. In fact, the residents of the Otherworld, the Faeries themselves, are not too keen on gender binary. The Divine Male archetype of aggressor, protector, avenger and ruler is one that, in Faery Courts, is generally represented by the Queen, not the King. If there even is a King. I find this ironic, considering Wicca's desire to be closely associated with Celtic mythology and antiquity. The concept of Divine Femininity and Divine Masculinity is also directly contradictory to feminism. To attempt to reduce a woman to nothing but the soft, sensual, sagely, nurturing caretaker is undeniably misogynistic. The idea of a Divine Masculine, too, is antifeminist, though only in the sense that it is entirely patriarchal. Men are leaders, providers, and warriors, according to the gender essentialist archetypes that the Divine Feminine and Masculine reference. This is harmful to men, as well, because it places them in the position of needing to be manly and invulnerable at all times, much to the complaint of both men and women in the modern age. It is simply unproductive and anti-feminist, in a way that is hard to ignore. The bioessentialism of Wicca goes beyond just the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine archetypes of their deities, however. There is a strong emphasis within Wicca on depictions of genitalia, and many Wiccan authors and figureheads draw comparisons between really any long object and a phallus, believing that everything in magic has to eventually circle back to fertility. Wands are phallic, athames are phallic. The average Wiccan supply store will have penis shaped candles, penis carvings of various crystals. Wicca propagates bioessentialism the likes of which are not seen in any other form of paganism, not even historic paganism. This attitude towards the nonconforming and emphasis on the gender and sex binary make many people feel excluded from Wicca. Trans people, nonbinary people, really any queer or gay person, of any sort, can experience Wicca as a hostile environment. Wiccans may argue that it isn't transphobic by saying that they are including both sexes and never intentionally exclude trans, gay and nonconforming individuals, but what they fail to realize is that the binary, any binary, is outdated. There are more than two gender identities, and there are more than two sexes. Intersex people can never feel included when the religion so heavily affirms that there is, or should be, only penis and vulva.

Furthermore, Gardner himself was a flagrant homophobe, and well-known for it. Lois Bourne, a High Priestess of the Bricket Wood Coven, Gardner's own coven, wrote this about him: [15]

Gerald was homophobic. He had a deep hatred and detestation of homosexuality, which he regarded as a disgusting perversion and a flagrant transgression of natural law ... "There are no homosexual witches, and it is not possible to be a homosexual and a witch" Gerald almost shouted. No one argued with him.

Wicca Tomorrow: Cultural Erasure and Loss

Admittedly, none of what I've said so far has truly captured my biggest, and primary, reason for hating Wicca as much as I do. Other than the fact that I myself am indigenous, and have felt the effects of white supremacy, cultural erasure, and homogenization of white peoples all my life, other than the fact that I am queer and in a gay relationship, other than the fact that I have family who were victims of the holocaust, other than the fact that I am, at my core, an intersectional, radical leftist - the thing I hate the most about Wicca is its potential. Not potential for greatness, mind. I hate Wicca's potential for destruction. I already get to witness it in action every day, and it strikes fear into my heart like nothing else.

I, personally, have always believed that the first antidote to white supremacy, in an ironic but poetic spin, is love for one's own culture. White supremacy, in an attempt to make the white man feel at home in his whiteness and like he has one thing (superiority) in common with all other white men, strips him from his local culture. He is forced to view himself as part of something great, something that spans all of Europe, or all of Germania, or what have you, and he is made to turn a blind eye to what he already has. Local culture. His language, more specifically even, his dialect. His mother's lilt, and his father's flowery cadence. His neighbors. Their celebrations, their cooking traditions. His city. Its architecture, its communal sites, its judicial system. His land. Its medicines, its foods, its magics. The animals upon it. His companions, his livestock, rarely even his foes. Everything a person truly needs is within walking distance when in nature. Every ecosystem is equipped with everything we could possibly need, from a varied diet, to our medicines, to our shelters, to our hygiene products, all the way to the very things that keep us in check. That is not coincidence: we were grown, woven fiber by fiber by that land, that soil, over thousands, millions, billions of years. We do not need the whole world, there is no reason to try to conquer it. But we want to colonize, and so we must make larger and larger teams, clans, armies, races. The man from Truthan must become Cornish, then Celtic, then English, then British, then European, then white, then better. He would have been better off, happier, had he stayed Cornish.

In the worldwide community of people who take an amateur and personal interest in magic and paganism, Wicca is white supremacy's most effective tool in stripping people of their local culture. Wicca did not become this by design; shoddy and evil though its origins may be, I do not think Wicca was created with the intention of homogenizing and radicalizing the white race. However, in the 1950s, when all cultural magic in Europe were flying low under the radar of the church, hiding in families, in villages, in cookbooks and journals, in visits to the local keening woman to cure the evil eye the neighbor gave your cow, Wicca was the first community, first organized religion, to wave a flag and loudly and proudly proclaim to be pagan, to be witches. To do magic. It was the first to associate itself with those labels and voluntarily take them on, to be known by them. Through this singular association with those terms, it became the first thing people thought of when they thought about magic. Because the magic of the common people, the folk magic, is never termed magic by the ones doing it. "This rowan stick in my windowsill against lightning? Magic? You mean that stuff those witches in London do?" Nowadays, as the first form of magic and paganism to go mainstream in Europe since Christianity's taking over, Wicca is ubiquitous when the amateur goes to research magic and paganism. When the internet came along, this became a bigger problem than it may already have been before the digital age. Now, when people are introduced to the concept of modern magic and paganism, when they go to research it, they will only find Wicca. Not for utter lack of sources on (other) cultural magic, on the contrary: there are plenty, but one needs to use specific key words to find them. More scientific, more academic, more secular. When one wants to research cultural and specific magic, one must assume the author does not believe himself, nor does he believe you do. Wicca, however, has resources that do assume the researcher is interested in practicing, which is yet another reason that people go to Wicca rather than something else. They won't find the folk magic, and if they do, it won't be as comprehensive, accessible, entertaining, and personable as Wicca. Wicca will always win, because it was never challenged in the first place. This has led to a huge disparity in the amount of people who know about and/or practice Wicca, and the amount of people who know about and/or practice folk magic and/or cultural paganism. And as Wicca gains more and more popularity, both because it was always set up for success by chance, and because it subtly purveys white supremacy in a way that most people do not even recognize, it will continue to smother cultural, traditional, and folk magic.

Wicca's Reach: Contemporary Magic

Many people who would not consider themselves, or do not identify as Wiccan, still get called that by me in an intentionally derivative way. Not usually to their faces, but when I am discussing reasons why I do not like Wicca, I find it hard to draw a substantial, or even relevant, line between people who identify as Wiccans, and people who do not identify as such but still, functionally, are. Due to Wicca's chokehold on the first several pages of Google when you look up most things pertaining to magic, most practitioners of magic are essentially Wiccan without the label. They do not associate with Wicca intentionally, but they have no idea how to access, or any awareness of the existence of folk magic resources, and so end up practicing the magic Wicca teaches. In witching communities, well-known Wiccan authors are considered staples to read, such as Scott Cunningham. Authors that do not call themselves Wiccan (anymore) but do promote the magic are just as popular, such as Arin Murphy-Hiscock and Nathan M. Hall. These authors all have the same fatal flaw, which makes them Wiccans and automatically unreliable in my eyes: they promote the very idea which Wicca all but created, that there is one, single, universal way to do magic. That you, a Hawai'i Native living on the Islands, will do the best magic you've ever done with this set of European herbs that do not grow on your own soil. With this set of half-baked, appropriative Laws and methods, contrived out of a mishmash of appropriated indigenous practices and European traditions; like the Threefold Law, which is nothing but a cheap and terrible misinterpretation of the Dharmic concept of Karma. Except Wicca doesn't call them that. It calls the herbs staples, essentials. It calls the half-baked rules Ardanes and Magical Theory. Nothing is more ironic to me than a supposed nature religion telling people to forsake the nature around them in favor of the 'universal subsitute' Rosemary (salvia rosmarinus), a plant they've never even seen in real life save for in the jar in their spice cabinet.

Nowadays, thanks to the omnipresence of Wicca, there is a whole new magical tradition, yet unnamed. It consists of all those secular practitioners of magic who do all of their research via resources actually pandering to practitioners, all those people who claim 'we are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn', all those people who have never heard of or hardly ever think about magic that isn't 'witchcraft'. I like to refer to it as 'contemporary magic', or sometimes 'modern magic', in a context where the label contemporary could be cause for confusion. This 'modern magic' is that more-or-less universal, monotone, Wiccan derived, secular magic that most people would term 'witchcraft'. The magic you see on TikTok. The spell jar magic. The cord-cutting magic. The lemon hex magic. The 'spiritual but not religious' magic. The sound bowl and smoke cleanse magic. The light and love magic. The 'white' magic. Magick. This magic is not culture-less, not at all. It is its own culture, as it were, and not only that, most of the spells, rituals and rules it has have their origins in European culture. But this magic is, in a way, anti-culture. Colonial. It smothers and endangers local magic, more relevant magic, and spreads like wildfire because it is so easy to never have to research beyond Wicca. What makes this modern magic inherently harmful is that it, too, is appropriative. The resources that provide you with this magic, which like the religion that sprouted it, is a huge, sometimes dysfunctional and clashing mosaic of culture, do not actually inform you of the origins of any of the practices that they teach you. They teach you what to do, how to do it, what materials to use, et cetera, but they don't teach you where these rituals came from, why these plants had those associations, what culture sprang this curse. And contrary to popular belief, those things are crucial to magic. The cultures at hand deserve to be honored for what they've given, and every culture has the right to be preserved. Culture is important elsewhere, but it is fundamental to magic. Magic cannot exist without culture. Gods are nothing but a lens to view the world through, magic is nothing but a response to struggle in a language that every human shares: the language of wonder and learning. Magic, at its core, is nothing but humanity's ability to feel amazed, and learn from the elegant language the earth speaks to us. And it is propagated by our ability to speak, to share, to teach to one another. Mother to daughter, brother to sister, chieftain to peasant, wife to warrior. Carry this, eat that. Don't do this, don't go there. Wicca does not acknowledge this importance of culture, nor does it make any efforts to teach the practitioners of it and its derivatives what cultures it was built on and off of. That is the crux and definition of cultural appropriation.

Wicca will continue to spread. I think one of my toxic traits is that I resigned myself to this idea a long time ago, much like how many people resign themselves to the idea of white supremacy or climate change. I can't help but see Wicca and the damage it does as irreversible. Wicca occupies the first pages of any google search about magic, the first thought anyone has when you self-identify as a pagan or practitioner of magic. 'Witch' as a word is completely different than it once was, as is the word sabbat. It feels inescapable, and this weighs heavily on me as somebody whose culture, too, is growing lost in part due to the priority of Wicca over cultural magic. I started writing this post in hopes of getting out all my grievances with this tradition. Ten thousand words and a great many sources later, the wound Wicca carved into me when I realized people would choose it over the valuable cultural knowledge I have and want to preserve no longer throbs, it just aches emptily. If this post manages to change one person's mind on Wicca, it has done its job, and I can die happily. If this post motivates one person to look beyond Wicca and glance at the rich and wild world of cultural magic, especially their own culture, I'll spend eternity in the afterlife gloating.

If there was one thing I wanted the reader to take away from this post, it is not that they should hate Wicca and actively fight to eradicate it. It is that culture is beautiful. All cultures are beautiful. There is no such thing as 'white culture' and we should strive to dismantle that, but the way to do that is to acknowledge the real culture. British culture, English culture, Cornish culture. Low Saxon culture. Silesian culture. Yakutian culture. Tibetan culture. Qazaq culture. Yup'ik culture. Irish culture. Amazigh culture. Cree culture. Sámi culture. Maori culture. Aymaran culture. Muscogee culture. Zulu culture. Find what is rightfully yours, because no matter who or where you are, there is culture in your ancestry, and there is culture in your neighborhood. You are entitled to it like you are entitled to air and water. Learn about the plants that are native to your area. Learn about the medicines your peoples used when conventional medicine was not available to them. Learn about their faith before Christianity, learn about the way they thought the universe came to be and what made humans human. Eat cultural foods, both yours and not. Talk to your elders, and really listen to what they say. Try to remember the weird superstitions and turns of phrase you grew up with. I promise it's there, and I promise it's beautiful. I promise it will make you feel at home.

In the following weeks I will try my best to dedicate some posts to the beginnings of folk magic. How to get involved, where to look for resources, what makes a good resource, what keywords to use when searching, what to do when it feels like there's nothing out there for you, how to find which culture you are a part of. Until then, I will leave you with my sincerest gratitude for reading this ridiculously long complaint.

----------------------------

Doyle White, Ethan (2016). Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. 

Climenhaga, L. (2012). Imagining the Witch: A Comparison between Fifteenth-Century Witches within Medieval Christian Thought and the Persecution of Jews and Heretics in the Middle Ages. Constellations, 3(2). 

“The Dehumanization and Demonization of the Medieval Jews.” Medieval Antisemitism?, by François Soyer, Arc Humanities Press, Leeds, 2019, pp. 45–66.

Simpson, Jacqueline (1994). Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why? Folklore, 105:1-2: 89-96.

Murray, Margaret Alice (1933). The God of the Witches. S. Low, Marston & Company, Limited.

Bracelin, Jack (1960). Gerald Gardner: Witch. Octagon.

Heselton, Philip (2012a). Witchfather: A Life of Gerald Gardner. Loughborough, Leicestershire: Thoth.

Valiente, Doreen (2007) [1989]. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale.

"Britain's chief witch dies at sea". News of the World. 23 February 1964. Archived from the original on 8 September 2018.

Heselton, Philip (2003). Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation Into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft. Capall Bann.

Lamond, Frederic (2004), Fifty Years of Wicca, Sutton Mallet, England: Green Magic, pp. 16–17.

Kelly, Aidan. About Naming Ostara, Litha, and Mabon. Including Paganism. Patheos.

Ambiguous Deities on Celtic Gold, Numismatic News. February 27, 2023.

Price, Neil (2002). The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.

Bourne, Lois (2006). Dancing with Witches. London: Robert Hale. p. 38.

---- If you enjoy my work, please consider purchasing or commissioning some of my written resarch, ordering a reading, or commissioning my art. Click here to see the options. Thank you!

[samwisethewitch]

In Defense of Fluffy Bunnies, or Witchcraft in Times of Burnout

At the very end of 2023, I used my Christmas bonus from work to buy myself a tarot deck I never would have purchased six months earlier.

This deck was from a creator whose work I had really enjoyed in the past, but when I had looked at it earlier in the year, I'd had concerns that it was softening the meaning of some of the more "difficult" cards in the tarot. For example, The Hanged Man is replaced with "The Patient Witch" and Death is replaced with "The Broom." I'd had concerns that replacing these cards, which are traditionally associated with more dire or upsetting readings, meant the creator was trying to whitewash tarot into something cute and fluffy, sacrificing a lot of its depth in the process.

The deck is The Cozy Witch Tarot by Amanda Lovelace, and I'm so glad I gave it a try. This deck has an incredibly kind and gentle feel, but it is absolutely capable of giving serious readings. The depth of the tarot hasn't been compromised at all by Lovelace's changes, and her version's greater emphasis on agency and personal empowerment is exactly what I need in my practice right now. I use this deck to read for myself almost every day.

So what changed? How did I do a complete 180 in my thoughts on this deck in only a few months?

I've always been very opposed to "love and light" or "fluffy bunny" witchcraft. For those who aren't familiar, these are both terms used online (usually negatively) to describe witches who only do "light" or positive magic. According to the Witchipedia, "Generally, the 'fluffy bunnies' have based their practice on only the most delightful aspects of their spiritual path or romanticized, fictional Hollywood or literary accounts of witchcraft or Wicca." From what I can tell, this term came out of Wiccan Internet forums in the 1990s, and it refers to someone who dons the aesthetics and mythology of Wicca or witchcraft without actually engaging critically with magic theory. Fluffy bunnies also tend to focus on feel-good magic, at least according to stereotypes.

Similarly, "love and light" witches are known for only focusing on the lighthearted side of witchcraft. In an opinion article for The Wild Hunt, Storm Faerywolf writes that, "On the surface it seems harmless enough: a philosophy of love, kindness, non-violence, and a concerted practice of positivity." This type of witchcraft is very closely tied to the "spiritual but not religious" movement and borrows a lot of concepts from New Age spirituality, like crystal healing, the Law of Attraction, and chakras. While fluffy bunnies are very much a product of the 1990s, love and light witches are very much a product of the New Age boom of the 2010s.

I've been very vocal about my dislike for both of these types of witchcraft on this blog in the past, and I still 100% agree with Storm Faerywolf, who says in that same article: "But to assert that pain, and fear, and even anger are somehow less important than our joy, our courage, and even our love, is to do a grave disservice to our collective mental and spiritual health... groups that embrace this mode of thinking have effectively ensured that they can mutually avoid anything that might challenge their cultish mindset. Angry over injustice? You’re just living in a lower vibration. Afraid of contracting a deadly virus? You just don’t trust Jesus enough."

I think accepting and working with challenging emotions is an important part of what it means to be a witch. Spiritual bypassing and cries of "good vibes only" do more harm than good. But for a while I got so caught up in rejecting anything even remotely fluffy or love-and-lightish that I ended up with a magical practice that, to be honest, kind of made me miserable. And I don't think I'm the only one.

I spent a lot of 2022 and 2023 wrestling with injustice, both in my spiritual practice and in my personal and professional life. My practice is inspired by witches like Starhawk and Christy C. Road, and politics play a key role. Most of the spells I did in 2023 fall into the category of justice magic, including breaking family curses and hexing rapists. At the same time, I was working a series of direct services jobs that saw me working closely with homeless teenagers, domestic violence victims, and people battling addiction, just to name a few. And that's not even getting into my personal life and recovery as a queer, disabled survivor of abuse.

And let me tell you: By the end of 2023, I was fucking exhausted. I was beyond burnout. And I didn't even want to do magic anymore, because magic had become just another part of my life where I had to face the injustice and harm happening in the world around me.

I was in desperate need of some fluffiness, some love and light. And that was when I bought the Amanda Lovelace tarot deck.

I knew something had to change. In my burnout, I desperately needed to be tenderly cared for. I needed my spiritual practice to be a source of peace and comfort, not a drain on my energy. I needed to get out of the dark for a bit so I could remember how to see the stars.

What I've realized in the last few months is that yes, anger, pain, and fear are important in a balanced magical practice and a balanced life -- but joy, love, and comfort are equally important. And if you spend a lot of time in one part of your life dealing with pain and fear (like I do in my day job), focusing on love and healing in your witchcraft can help keep things balanced.

"Comfort" and "care" are definitely the keywords for my magical practice right now, and that means my magic looks a lot more fluffy than it has in the past. And that's a good thing.

[maidenofsophia]

Stuff About Me

Disclaimer: This is getting to be an old blog and during that time my spiritual path has taken many turns from Gnostic Christian to Filianist to Eclectic Pagan. Posts from the past might be very different from what my beliefs are today, including both religious and political.

What Am I (Currently)?

My name is Rose. For simplicity, I refer to myself as either a Sophian Witch or Déanic Pagan. My path is a bit of an eclectic mix of my religious journey so far, I synchronise what I've learned as a Gnostic, a Wiccan, a Filianist and so on but would not label myself as either of those anymore as I don't feel fully aligned with any of them.

What's a Sophian?

A Sophian is a devotee of the Divine Sophia, aka Holy Wisdom. A Sophian views Wisdom as the Ultimate face of God. There are many different versions of Sophia, from Platoism to Gnosticism to certain branches of Christianity and so on. I personally worship the TrinoSophia, or Sophian Trinity, as I believe was revealed in the Nag Hammadi texts. This being Barbelo, Sophia and Zoe.

What does Déanic mean?

While I'm not longer a Filianist, I do still consider myself Déanic. A Déanist is someone who worships the Ultimate God as the Divine Feminine. The Supreme Goddess who created all without the need for a male counterpart or Father God - Déa being the feminine Latin word for God. However, while some Déanists and most Filianists worship an exclusively feminine deity(ies), a few like myself believe there are 'lesser' gods and other entities who are children of Déa but higher than humans and some of those can be masculine or non-binary. I worship the Goddess as the alpha but also have a place for the divine masculine, not as Her equal but still worthy of respect and devotion.

Where does the Pagan come in?

It feels like the most simple and therefore truest label for me to identify with. Not all Déanists are Pagan as many prefer to mainly see Déa as the Creator but above rather than within Her creation. Personally I see Her as both within and beyond (panentheism). The Mother created and watches over us but the Daughter walks with all creation as both Princess of the World and Queen of Heaven. The other gods I worship too feel very much a part of creation. I love nature, I love animals and for me no church or temple can compare to the sense of divinity I find when just walking through the forests or gazing at the moon. And connecting my spirit to all that's around me makes me feel complete in a way Abrahamic-like theism cannot compare.

What is your pantheon?

First and foremost, I am a devotee of the Lady Sophia; divine wisdom. I worship Her in Her threefold form as I believe was revealed in the Gnostic scriptures and what I made sense of through the lense of the Filianic trinity. That being She is, in Three modes:

The Mother (Sophia, The Creatrix)

The Daughter (Zoe, whose name means Life)

The Absolute Deity / "Dark Mother" (Barbelo)

I also invoke the Seven Great Ladies, who in Filianism are known as the Seven Janyati. These are the Seven Powers that reflect the highest aspects of Déa. I use their Greek names; Theia, Phoebe, Nike, Metis, Themis, Tethys and Rhea.

For the divine masculine, I worship the Horned God. Not as Sophia's consort or equal, but one of Her most honoured children or "emanations" as both male and female and other entities all came from Her. My preferred name and form for him tends to be Cernonnus, Celtic being my most direct ancestry. But He also comes to me as Pan and Lucifer. If Sophia were to be seen as a Queen, then my Lord wouldn't be Her king consort but more a loyal Knight in Her service or governing Prince.

Sophia is much more the Déanic part of my identity, and while I do connect with Her and other goddesses via nature, Cernunnos is much more the 'Pagan' side of me, being Lord of the forests and the glen.

I also invoke and honour Mary Magdalene as my Hera (a Filianic term for an ascended human soul). I believe She was Jesus' most enlightened disciple and an avatar of Zoe Sophia, the divine spark, fully realised in woman form. I worship Sophia and Magdalene as the Divine image of Mother and Child.

What is your scripture?

I don't see any religious text as the definitive Word of God. I believe they all have been written by people who felt God in their hearts through their own interpretations and some I connect and find wisdom with, others I don't. I try to read all with an open mind.

Both the Gnostic texts and the Clear Recital (the Filianic Scriptures) are probably the closest to my heart and influence my path but I don't hold either to be without error.

What are your current political beliefs?

I'm very much a proud "wokey leftist", support complete separation of Church and State, am pro LGBTQ (as well as being a lesbian myself), fully support every person's right to bodily autonomy. Not to say I won't call out BS on the left by certain individuals where I see it.

Enjoy my blog!

[stellarcobweb]

tbh . thinkin.

so. energywork related stuff basically

tl;dr my energy system is weird (/neu)

two of the systems of magic that i'm naturally talented at have been clairsentience (tbh i kinda joke abt being a dark empath but fully do not consider myself an empath at all. i'm just REALLY good at picking up on the energies of a place or person, esp in an inuitive way. i don't personally feel it though. the primary way i speak to entities, be they deity or spirit, is via impressions of emotion), and energywork (more on that in a sec)

HOWEVER. i do also consider myself an energy vampire, in a sense. primarily in the "i feel like my energy system is a bucket, and there is a tiny little hole in the bottom of that bucket constantly draining me bit by bit, so i need to intake more outside energy so that i can stop that gap and fill myself back up" kinda way. and tbf, while i have fed directly off of people before (with consent), i tend to fix my issue by just. filter feeding??? for lack of better term??? and taking the energy of food that i eat??? not to mention its a lot easier for me to upkeep my energetic body now that i'm not in an abusive relationship w an asshole abusing me in spiritual ways

either way, i was thinking about like. so, my energy has been read for me a few times before, and i remember the main things to stick out were like. its very sticky! it clings, and the like. tbh thats part of why i named my blog the way i did lol, i used to compare myself to spiders (and butterflies, tbf. and now moths LOL), not to mention i was directly told that my energy was a lot like that of a spiders. which tbh in combo with my tug towards the concept of thread of fate, weaving fate, the red string of fate, etc. kinda funny ngl. also one of the reasons why i learned how to crochet and shuttle/tatting lace AND kumihimo

but aside from that, i've always been like. inherently connected to the concept of stars, or the night sky. primordial void. that kinda thing. i like calling it primordial soup tbh. which does lend a voidy quality to the energy i have, alongside general dark stuff.

it also makes cleansing really easy tho! mainly in the. i'm not replacing dark with light, i'm just getting rid of the stuff not meant to be there, or that is kicking the balance of the place out of whack. or like. hrm.

when i'm cleansing my energy system, or someone elses, for example, i'm not clearing them of negative or positive energy, or destroying whatever lean or sway they have. i'm getting rid of any parasites, hangers-on, things that are harmful to said system. it gets complicated in situations w people sharing the body, but even then, i'm not weakening any ties there. which ig is an example of me being able to do very fine-tuned delicate energywork???? shit gets complicated and if you touch the wrong thing even slightly you can throw the whole system out of whack. also tbh i tend to view energy systems as connections of strings, one for each relationship you have to someone else, distinct memories that have left an impact, your energy systems linking up together, etc... very fascinating stuff tbh

tbh i also personally think its funny that like. i ascribe to the belief that i was reincarnated from a deity (not one local to this universe), who i tend to define as a Cosmic Creatrix of sorts. despite that, i associate myself currently mostly with destruction vs creation, though i can do either/or. destruction is just easier and more natural. honestly in terms of like explaining how i feel abt the whole thing: stares at Rukkhadevata and Nahida. it feels a lot like that situation. plus the other beliefs i have in regards to how exactly i was created, why i/she died, specific things i remember from that past life (not much)

idk its fun to think of these things

anyways all that to say that when i was still wiccan, i would only ever do new moon sabbats bc they felt better to me. more like home

[yekuthiel]

「 ✦ shalom everyone ! ✦ 」

join me; kiss the mezuzah on your way in !

my name is yekuthiel ,, no nicknames ! (unless its witty & creative -- than goyim get a pass) ANYWAYS .. i am a neochassidut nephesh mavar jew , more specifically a seagoat theriomythic ! now you might be wondering what in G-d's name does any of that mean and i'm glad to tell ya' ! ✮ neochassidut is an approach to judaism in which jews learn beliefs and practices of hasidic judaism, and incorporate it into their own lives or prayer communities ,, yet without formally joining a hasidic group . ✮ nephesh mavar are jewish alterhumans who feel that their alterhuman identity is, at least in part, influenced by jewish spirituality, theology or philosophy . ✮ theriomythic is a term for those who identify as one or more mythical type creatures . ∘₊✧──────✧₊∘ WHERE YOU CAN FIND ALL MY SOCIALS my linktree 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟 𓆞𓆝 𓆟

꒰ extra ꒱ : i am autistic + ADHD ,, please be mindful that i'm not the best at articulating how i feel into words sometimes . i am physically disabled ,, though my physical disabilities are in the process of being "fixed" (surgery and lots of physical therapy) it still affects me everyday; despite it i still love walking and practicing quadrobics when i physically can .

i am technically a “transman” by common LGBTQ+ terminology but i prefer to go by the term ay'lonit adam, please do not define my identity as a trans man . my queer identity is intertwined with my faith thus i don't feel comfortable using the term "trans man" for myself . overall though i fully support and love the LBGTQ+ community and understand socially i am apart of it i don't partially care about using goyim terms to ultra specify every multifaceted part of my being so i just call myself queer , please don't ask me to elaborate on this .

lastely .. i am a pacifist zionist i do not support israel's actions blindly but i believe and support the right to exist as its the ancestral homeland of the jewish people .

i am 100% against kahanism and believe in a peaceful two-state solution .

i support palestine though the center for peace communications and i absolutely do not support hamas in anyway .

𓂆 accepting of anonymous asks ! please don't be too mean , i do have feelings behind the screen .. >_>

꒰ DO NOT INTERACT IF ANYTHING LISTED BELOW APPLIES TO YOU ! ꒱ i will block you immediately in any context, whether that be you liking a post or reposting my stuff , i don't care do not interact with me .

antisemites anti-zionists hamas supporters anti Peace Comms (The Center for Peace Communications) JVfP (Jewish Voice for Peace) supporters pro-“sexwork” xenophobes islamophobes fajoshi's + himedanshi anti-anti + proshippers transmed terfs radqueers anti-recovery harmful paraphilics anti-therians transrace / rcta zoophiles maps / pedos misogynists messianic christans star child / indigo child + wiccans

⠀⠀

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[vicewiccanblog]

.: My Spirit Protector/Guardian :.

Ok, I don't remember the exact term used for these entities. So if someone can correct me, feel free to do so.

Around the time I met my deity, I also met my protector. They morphed from the darkness of the grove I saw in my vision, forming into an owl-like shape with these 'shadow flames' of sorts coming off their form. And when they appeared, I felt...calm. Protected. As if by just them being there, nothing would harm me. I actually felt like someone genuinely cared about me, but it was also coming from myself. A part of me that I had denied for so long, finally finding its way back home to rest and be comforted. And I did cry, because it felt like that part of me was starting to heal.

And I believe that, ever since that day, I've seen them in my dreams. But not as an owl, instead seeing them take form of whatever I am 'comforted' by at the time. And I started to realize this when they started appearing as Katsuki Bakugo, because he's the one character I've ever felt that deep of a connection with (aside from Dabi and Deku of course but they haven't shown up as either of them yet). And ever since, they've basically tried to 'become' him. I feel like they're doing this so I trust them more, so I'm comforted by their presence and we can actually talk.

Every time I have met my protector, they have talked in this sweet tone - like a doting parent. Or even a loving pet. But their voice is always 'off', I guess like how one would explain a mimic trying to copy a voice. Just this distortion to it, their voice fluctuates in tone/pitch where they sometimes sound like Soft!Bakugo but them suddenly it sounds like a mouse and then flips between that and the voice it's trying to copy. It doesn't scare me, far from it. I know they're trying to appeal to me, so I feel safer around them. But, sometimes, I do wish I'd see their shadowy owl form again.

As I've been re-visiting these memories lately, I've been looking up Owls and what they mean symbolically. I've found they mean not only wisdom and mystery, but also things like change and truth/shadows. And to me, this means that my protector taking the form of an owl simply means I need to face the darkness - I had started being more 'open' after my mom's death, and she was the one thing keeping me mentally blocked off from this side of myself. So it makes sense, I am one who prefers the truth even if I have a hard time accepting it. And I feel like my protector is trying to help me with that, including in my dreams and visions.

I find it fascinating that, in my first time calling out to deities who may want to work with me, all this happened right away. I felt no fear at all, only peace and connection to things I felt were blocked off from me for so long. And I know that, even if I stumble and fall (i.e. my mental/physical issues making it hard for me to function), at least I have those two on my side. I have my diety, and my protector...and possibly an incubus, I'm still trying to figure that part out. But it seems like I have a lot of spiritual guides on my side, I just need to apply their guidance into my real life. Because I am largely doing all this for self-healing, I have always had a connection to the occult and grew up being told my dad was a Wiccan.

I know that my protector is smiling at me, seeing how strong I really am. And I just wanna cry, they feel so proud of me and no one has ever made me feel that way. Not even myself. So thank you, protector. I'll do all I can to make you proud of me, though I know you already are.

[gravelgirty]

Peeling a Predator Part 1: Cherry Picking

This is not easy to do.

I am going to start writing small moments in time where I should have seen the red flags in my relationship with a monster.  It is personal.  It is stripping myself bare and it absolutely will not put me in a good light.  Let’s make this clear.  I may have been mentally ill, but I was still a participant. Something happened, I broke free.  But I was still there and the fact that I didn’t get away sooner means I, at least in my heart, was partially responsible for the horror.

Red Flag #1.  Cherry Picking.

The X cherry picked from the most respected writers in the English Language to suit their personal morals.  The ones that he relied on the most that he eventually used to justify his inhumanity:

Leslie Marmon Silko: 

 Killing a cop in print because he was a witch.  Yes, it was fiction.  No, it should never have been a justification to kill someone you think is a witch. Silko’s fiction, and I reiterate FICTION, has a lot of scenes where people rise up in defense against poisonous witchcraft and they kill.  It never once occurred to him that in these scenes, the people actually had a choice in the matter,  They were fight to the death or die scenarios.

For that matter, he cherry picked anything from Silko if it meant an excuse for murder.  This is absolutely not a slur on the writer, who sure has suffered enough in this world.  But as far as Ivan D. Cales Jr is concerned, she was one of his major script writers that justified murder if it suited his purposes.

Matthew Wood.  

I bought one of his books on herbalism and pored over each page as a treasure.  I looked for ways to help and heal; I  hadn’t expected him to exam it too but it was for his own gratification...but there’s a small, poignant notation where someone identified as witch/wiccan and went to the rez despite warnings to do so.  The language is very brief and doesn’t give up anything, but it sure implies a lot.  He was obsessed with that page and read it over and over.

John Trudell.  

After reading and listening to the spoken poetry of STICKMAN, he went on a deep dive of his work and latched on to the his quote, “there is no good or evil, there is only consequence.”  In this case he ignored the absolute pain and suffering this Native American artist endured with his children, wife, and mother-in-law dying in a fire during a horrible chapter of First Nations rights advocation.  Like Silko’s work, I am condensing this into the most basic terms because it is far more appropriate that a concerned reader investigate their own words for these situations, and not someone else’s perspectives and translations.

Conclusion:  Your partner has the right to quote and emulate whoever they wish among the poets, philosphers, and essayist.  Just PAY ATTENTION TO THE COMMONALITY.

Nest post:  PORK IS EVIL or, Overly Justified Bias.

[wonderingwarlockofthenight]

I put this out there because as a practitioner of traditional witchcraft myself for over 22 years now I’ve heard Many people’s opinions on this subject, and it Always causes friction, frustrations and gatekeeper opinions to take over the conversation. This does us as practitioners a huge disservice and solves nothing. I would’ve made this poll a lot longer because I know there’s even more names out there but that’s not an option.

I personally prefer to go by Warlock firstly, followed by Witch or Necromancer due to my practice. So I’m sure you can see why I’m asking this question at this point, and yes.. I’m well aware of all of these names definitions, especially Warlock. I just don’t care. I’m not a Wiccan or follower of their rules, nor do I care for “gender neutral terms”. To me a Warlock is nothing more than a male witch and that’s how I like it, for me.

So my question to you is -

1. Why is it important to you what another practitioner calls themselves?

2. How does this affect you and your craft?

3. How would you feel if someone came after you for what you call yourself and told you that You were wrong in this subject on a regular basis and that you couldn’t call yourself the name that you do?

Words get reclaimed all the time like the word “Witch” was some time ago, or even the word “Queer” in the gay community, which as a gay man myself I personally don’t like or use this word because I remember all of its previous definitions and still view it as an insult. As I’m sure those of you view “Warlock” due to one of its definitions. Now with that said about the word “Queer”.. it’s also not my place to tell others that they can’t or shouldn’t call themselves this word. So why do certain people feel the need to forcibly “educate” others on this subject when in most cases they never asked. I’m just really curious.

As practitioners we really need to stop playing this game of “If you go by this you’re not a real practitioner of the craft”. It was funny the first time around with the toddler act, but It’s beyond old at this point. With that said, it doesn’t mean I’ll ever cave into another persons opinion of what I should call myself as a practitioner and nether should you.

💀💀💀

[windvexer]

What would a different form of magic be that isn't witchcraft? I know this is probably a dumb question but I'm honestly just trying to learn 😅

This is what bums me out about people insisting that it's okay and not harmful to call literally everything witchcraft!

It's erased an entire world of magic!

People! Literally! Don't! Know! Other! Stuff! Exists!

So let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, Anon: this is NOT a dumb question. This is a really important question, and not enough people ask it, and that's how we get to people tagging literally anything nonwhite and/or nonchristian as #baby witch #witch tips #witchblr #witchcraft 101.

Witchcraft has, until very recently, been a term to denote bad, harmful, or malicious magic. This is in contrast to good, helpful, or benevolent magic.

In a community, you can have a cunning person who practices good community-oriented magic, and you can have a witch who practices stealing delicious milk from the teats of cows.

This implies that it is more than likely the good cunning person and the bad witch were more or less practicing the same variety of bioregional folk magic, just to different ends.

In this context, witchcraft is any application of magic which is culturally subversive or harmful.

But there's so much more to the story!

In the mid 20th century, there was a witchcraft revival movement in England. Long story short, small groups of people worked to create a cohesive religious practice which they claimed was authentic British witchcraft. These practices are called Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft (2 separate things).

These practices were mostly ceremonial, involving elaborate rituals, magic wands, four elements, circle casting/compass laying, and so on.

These magical practices fueled and were fueled by an exploding culture shift in the western world and became so popular that they dominated perceptions of, and understandings of, what magic was.

Witch stopped being a person who used magic in bad ways, and started being a word for any person who uses magic.

Unfortunately, this is a problem, because now we have one word being used too many ways:

On one hand, witch is still a word that to many people denotes an evil or bad person who uses magic in evil or bad ways.

And, on the other hand, witch is now a word that refers to practitioners of a modern British magical tradition and its offshoots and variations, regardless of that person's maliciousness.

And, on the third hand, because Wicca had become so danged popular, witch has become a word that is applied to any person who practices magic, whether or not their practice is British and whether or not it is malicious.

The topic is further confused because witchcraft is so personal that one witch's witchcraft may look nothing like another witch's witchcraft.

What witchcraft is exists, and must be understood, contextually. In modern usage, a person claiming they practice witchcraft may mean any of the following (not a cohesive list):

"I am Wiccan."

"I practice magic derived from the British witchcraft revival period, but I am not specifically a Wiccan or follow any particular system."

"I practice magic which isn't derived from that British stuff, but I believe the title 'witch' best fits my practice."

"I practice magic that isn't witchcraft, but I call myself a witch as a term of convenience."

"I practice magic and I thought the word for that is 'witch', but if I put some thought into it I might realize I don't think that label suits me."

"I do not practice magic or Wicca but I enjoy nature and I pray to the moon."

With a word stretched so thin, outlining exactly what is and is not witchcraft can be a bit of a chore. However there are things which we can pretty safely say are just down right not witchcraft.

Before we go on, it's vital to mention that witchcraft is a term people get to choose, or reject, for themselves. So if someone from the following traditions is like, "nope, it's witchcraft to me," you should listen to them.

Anyway, here are some things that are not witchcraft:

Jewish mysticism (I've even seen posts about straight up Judaism, not even mysticism, just like, Judaism, being tagged as witchcraft)

Voodoo

Pow-wow

Folk magic

Chaos Magick

Santeria

Palo

Ancestor veneration

Praying to saints, angels, Mary, etc.

Faith healing (for example, as seen in Evangelicalism)

New Age

Spirit keeping

Worship of any nonchristian god or goddess

Heka

[screeching-0wl]

Hello!

I've been devoted to Apollo for some time now, but I haven't been able to find sources that can clearly explain to me his festivals/holidays and how to celebrate them.

I'm coming from Wicca (as that's all I was exposed to in terms of spirituality, previously), but I feel that its never worked for me. Hellenism seems like a nicer fit, as I'm already interested in the history of the time and I feel connected to the Theoi (especially Apollo) already.

As I'm finding myself in my spiritual journey and figuring things out, I do feel that slowly transitioning (maybe one deity at a time) will be for the best; especially since I'm still young and don't have all the time in the world.

Anyway ! To get to the point (I'm sorry for being all over the place), I was previously celebrating the Wiccan wheel of the year in a more Apollo-centric way, but I would like help finding information on His real festivals and holidays.

I'm sorry if you've gotten a similar ask, or if you've talked about this already! Thank you for this blog, its helped me a lot !!

Hi there!

I was planning to make a post about his festivals anyway, so here we go!

Apollo's festivals

We probably have the most detailed accounts of Attic/Athenian and Panhellenic festivals when it comes to most gods. Of course, other festivals such as regional ones did exist and I could mention some of them and the scarce bits and pieces of information that have survived but in this post I will focus on festivals and celebrations we know a little more about - some of the ones we could celebrate nowadays or even attempt to reconstruct. There were plenty of festivals celebrating different gods and Apollo had quite a few of his own but I think this will be more useful in terms of modern religion.

I will briefly talk about the history, how the festivals were celebrated back in ancient times and what we could do nowadays. Don't stress if you don't have access to some of the things listed as offerings. These are only my suggestions and things that could especially be associated with each festival. It's fine to offer something else.

So, let's go over some main festivals of Apollo:

Just a PSA: you don't have to celebrate all of them

Pythian Games - Panhellenic; every four years - during the third year of each Olympiad

History: The games were said to have been established shortly after Apollo killed Python and set up the oracle at Delphi. They were also meant to commemrate those events.

Celebration: involved various athletic (foot & chariot races) and musical competitions. The winners received a wreath of bay laurels from the city of Tempe in Thessaly.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - wine, oilve oil, laurel; watch sport/musical competitions on the TV or attend an event like that; physical activity, listen to music, sing, write songs/poetry

Pyanopsia/Pyanepsia - Athenian; 7th day of Pyanopsion (around October)

Gods: Apollo, Helios, Horai

History: The origins of the festival are linked to the Athenian hero Theseus was said to have established the celebration to thank Apollo and commemorate his victory over the Minotaur.

Celebration: Rites incorporated remnants of rustic magic, including two offerings, consisting of a hodgepodge of the pulse (edible seeds) and a branch of olive or laurel bound with wool, around which were hung fruits of the season, pastries, and small jars of honey, oil, and wine. The offerings were carried to the Temple of Apollo, where they were suspended on the gate. The doors of private houses were similarly adorned. Children carried Eiresione [Ειρεσιώνη] - a wand of laurel. They were going from house to house singing. It's possible that in exchange for Eiresione, the children received small gifts. Eiresione was said to bring good luck over the year if fixed above the door.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - especially seeds from the legume family, grains, honey, wine, olive oil, fruit, incense, laurel & olive branches/leaves; singing, celebrating with your loved ones (if you can), prayer/hymns, exchanging small gifts, hanging a laurel/olive branch over the door

Delphinia - Athenian; also celebrated in various other parts of Greece; 6th Mounychion (around April)

Gods: Apollo & Artemis

History: Again, connected to Theseus

Celebration: involved a procession to the Delphinion (the shrine) where both Apollo and Artemis were worshipped. Seven boys and seven girls carried olive branches, bound with white wool. There's a possibility Apollo was also honoured as a god having influence on the sea.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - especially olive oil, olive branches/leaves, water, saltwater, wine, incense; going on a walk - especially somewhere by the sea or a river; prayer/hymns

Gynmopedia - Spartan; annual (around the 6th to the 10th of July)

Gods: Apollo, Artemis & Leto

History: might've begun in 668 BCE to honour a Spartan victory in Thyrea. Apparently, it's possible that Lacedaemonians took it "more seriously than any other festival". It was the first public gathering of the new year.

Celebration: it featured enerations of naked Spartan men participating in war dancing and choral singing, basically it was an exhibition of all kinds of accomplishments in gymnastics, music, and dancing. They would honour Apollo through songs and performed songs which represented the phases of life. The leader of each chorus group would wear a headpiece known as the "feather crown" made of palm leaves.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - palm leaves; dance, singing, blasting music, physical activity, celebrate with your loved ones (if you can), reflect on life a bit

Hyacinthia - Spartan (+Amyclae); three-day & annual (probably early summer)

Gods: Apollo & Hyacinthus

History: Based on mythology. Held in honour of the Spartan youth, Hyacinthus who was a lover of Apollo.

Celebration: Athletic contests were held to commemorate Hyacinthus' death (killed with a miscast discus). The rites gradually passed from mourning for Hyacinthus to rejoicing in the majesty of Apollo. It's probable the festival was connected with vegetation and might've marked the passage between spring and summer.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - flowers, incense, grains; physical activity, prayer/hymns, take some time to appreciate the people in your life, read the myth about Hyacinthus

Karneia - Spartan, 7th (Attic) Metageitnion/(Spartan) Karneios (around August)

Gods: Apollo (Karneios)

History: Due to the sacred law, the festival was the reason why Spartans did not help the Athenians in the Marathon battle.

Celebration: Five young men were chosen out of each tribe; one man, decked with garlands, ran away, and the rest followed him. The festival might've been connected to vegetation and fertility.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - flowers, grains, fruit; prayer/hymns, physical acrivity (go for a jog/play tag?), spend some time outside, learn about the Battle of Marathon

Thargelia - Athenian; (pretty important festival), annual 6th & 7th of Thargelion (around May)

Gods: Artemis & Apollo

History: held on birthdays of Artemis & Apollo; sometimes it might've involved human sacrifice, especially in it's early days

Celebration: vegetation ritual; It was common to offerthe first-fruits of the earth to the gods. The first day involved a purifying and expiatory ceremony. On the second day of the festival there was a feast and procession as a mark of thanksgiving. Branches of olive bound with wool, borne by children, were affixed by them to the doors of the houses (pretty much the same thing as during Pyanopsia). Musical contests were also common on the second day.

What could we do nowadays: Offerings - grains, bread, honey cakes, all kinds of fruit (especially figs), honey, wine, olive oil, incense, olive branches/leaves; prayer/hymns, plan a purification ritual/activity (it could even involve things like: cleaning your house, taking a bath, etc.), make dinner and invite friends/loved ones to share it with, sing and listen to music.

Apollo is also honoured during:

Noumenia (new moon) under his epithet Noumenios

The 7th day of each month

During Summer/Winter Solistice (his arrival from/deparure to Hyperborea, marking the change in seasons, if you follow the myth)

Some things that might also be useful:

Here's an example of "Greek Wheel of The Year":

It's a simplified diagram showing some main Hellenic holidays. You can find more info on the website (link above). Of course, this is not the only way to celebrate Hellenic festivals but since you mentioned the Wiccan Wheel of The Year, I figured it could be easier to picture or get used to.

Attic Callendar 2022 - a reconstruction of the Attic (lunar) calendar; days marked for specific festivals and to honour certain deities [FYI Hellenion is kinda problematic, though, so keep that in mind - see more about that here & here ]

Ancient Greek Fesivals - summaries

You can also create a personal, UPG-based festival/holiday! @theoi-crow explains it really well in this post - LINK

I might write a short post about other fesivals for/involving Apollo, such as Stepterion because I think it's particulary interesting but could be difficult to celebrate today. It's more of a bonus, so I'll just link it here once I'm done.

Hope this will be helpful!

[the-lost-kemetic]

Hi, I hope you don't mind this question as I am still figuring out terminology with some things. There was a post that you reblogged and gave your thoughts regarding "working with deities" and I am wondering what term might be better? I have used "working with" as opposed to saying "worship" due to personal reasons relating to trauma from two previous religions which I am still working at overcoming. I'm not even sure what it is that I am doing other than trying to get over my fears in trying to interact with my deities. Two books that I started reading by Sharon LaBorde seem to be Wiccan influenced which really isn't helping me trying to reach out to Anpu and Heru.

So let me explain what I meant with that post.

My issue is that often times, people act as though witchcraft and paganism are synonymous or somehow the same thing when they aren’t. Sure, some people might practice witchcraft while also being a pagan, but that’s not true for everyone.

For me personally, my witchcraft and paganism are two completely separate concepts. When I’m worshipping my beloveds, I am not practicing witchcraft. When I am practicing witchcraft, I am not worshipping my deities.

This brings us into the main issue today: deity “work”.

Witches will often say that they are “working” with deities. I’ll give my thoughts on that later, but one of the things I see very often is that “deity work is not for beginners. You should be advanced to do deity work”.

This quite frankly is bullshit.

Because then they’ll turn to pagans and tell them the same thing. Pagans worship deities. People in the past didn’t need to be priests to worship gods. They didn’t need to “practice for 5+ years and know protection and be able to do [x] spell” before they could worship their gods, they just did. They gave prayers and offerings without being witches.

That’s where my issue with the term deity work comes from. The idea that you need to be advanced to do it, and then they subsequently chase away new pagans from giving offerings.

To get a little bit into some personal anecdotes: almost every “witchcraft and paganism” group I joined when I was just starting out had this idea. My personal practice is a lot different compared to the more “popular” ones you’ll see here, so every time I would mention that I worshipped my deities I always got the “you’re too inexperienced to do that!!”

Going back to my original point: deity work and deity worship are two different things. From what I’ve seen, deity work is “I’m going to ask this deity for help. And use this deity in my witchcraft” which… has always seen somewhat disrespectful to me due to the fact that the gods aren’t here to be your personal servants? They’re beings with their own lives and wants and needs. Of course, I’m sure not everyone who works with deities has this mindset, but this is just the one I’ve seen the most.

To get back to your original question, I completely understand your plight with religious trauma. It took me a long time to work through that as well. If the term deity work is what works best for you, that’s fine. My real issue with that term refers to a certain subset of people in the witchcraft community who have this certain mindset that “witchcraft = paganism”, when it does not. I myself called my devotion deity work until I realized that I am truly devoted to my deities and that I don’t work with them, since I don’t believe I’m equal to them.

As long as you aren’t conflating witchcraft and paganism and as long as you’re understanding the differences between working with and worshipping a deity, it’s completely fine to use what terminology feels best.

[gryphis-eyes]

From witchcraft asks 41, 52 and 93 💖

Hello 💐

41. What’s the craziest witchcraft-related thing that’s happened to you?

I often talk about this one to people who talk to me about my craft ; I physically saw the demon I interacted with after asking for a confirmation, he looked like a tall shadow figure for some reason I was afraid but also felt so calm when I saw him (kinda sad it happened once in the beginning of my practice and now I rarely see stuff)

52. What is your biggest witchy pet peeve?

New ager/wicca . At first I tried to just avoid them, then after joining the divination community I was face to face with them so I was just telling myself "k act like you tolerate it's not your practice it's ok" but oh boy new age is making a lot of damage where I live, almost erasing other types of witchcraft. I'm truly tired of seeing people talking about appropriated stuff (spirit animals or Lilith) without making a lot of research or they just look at ressources that agree with them :| or they say "but I don't mean any harm" ok then stop ? Also they are still using twin flame related stuff while we all know where it come from etc but "no I don't mean any harm while talking about it, I'm not talking about the evil twin flame" no no there is only one twin flame concept and if you want an other term there is simply "soulmate" even if this term got lost in a lot of false belief. I'm saying that here because I mostly see new ager/wiccan do that but I'm sure other people from other belief system do it, acting like everyone got the same belief as you. The easiest exemple can be the whole drama about curses and that if you do one it goes back to you 3 times but there is an other one. As a someone who works a lot with demon how many people I saw talking to me or an other person in the same kind of path that involve demon saying "demons are harmful being and straight up evil !!!"... And ? First of all demons are neutral, second... Why are you saying this to someone who work with them, exchange with them and see them in a total different way ? Oh you're going to show me their description from goetia who isn't something we refer to and is not even the surface of those beings🥹?

I'll stop there because I can't stop talking haha but you get the image there are some other stuff but that's the biggest one, the second one is the obsession with astrology but with my lack of knowledge I can't say more it just makes me feel weird that people tell you "you got free will" then tell you everything is writed on your chart... So it's like Naruto you say destiny doesn't exist and you're the one shaping the futur but in the end destiny exist and everything was writed from the beginning?

93. What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone who is searching for their matron and patron deities?

Oh boy my first advice will sound annoying but I've been there, the short answer is don't search for your matron/patron it's like searching for a lover and only wanting your soulmate, the long answer is yes search for that but it need a lot patience (also the term patron/matron comes from Wicca, I think but people always end up with a "main deity"/patron)

I'm going to show you a simple exemple I'm in a group of people who started witchcraft togheter (we are 4) and evolved together, one of us chosed her deity right in the beginning, two of us ignored their true call (I'm one of those two 🫣) and the last one was just waiting for things to fall on his laps

Now we are on our 8th year of practice, yes we all found our main deity now (and it took a lot of time)except the one who was waiting for things to fall on his lap but he know where to search.

1. Don't wait for a deity to chose you, maybe you got some connexion with one but don't know it yet it's possible but from my experience no one is chosed

2. Since you're a kid is there an entity or an archetype that always inspired you, for me it was Lucifer (I've made a post about it maybe it can help)

3. Do you truly want a patron ? Here it's pure on my pov, having a patron mean it's an entity you'll be bound to, it's being devoted to them maybe now without being into it you tell yourself it sound good and yes it's nice to know that there is this being you can trust and got your back but it also mean you have to put the work etc

4. Let's say you really like Artemis but you're not a big fan of the Greek pantheon and their belief in general, do you like Artemis or do you like the moon ? The hunter archetype ? That she is a goddess ? The animals associated with her ? Or you can ask yourself those questions without having a deity in mind

5. Time spend with a deity ≠ they are my patron

I've been working with Leviathan since many years, he isn't my patron and I'm not his devotee, Lucifer made many appearance but I've not spent that much time with him, he is now my patron. Asmodeus was presented to me as having the potential to be my patron but when I worked with him I didn't felt like it or maybe it's meant to happen in the futur who know but in the end I'm not working with him anymore

6. Know that in the end you'll find your patron/main deity. It's someone that you find along the way sometimes it's someone who's just next to you but you're not looking at the good ones, you are free to chose and free to meet as many deity as you want until you tell yourself "damn I love that one we got a amazing bound". Be patient, it's ok to meet and entity you work well with but then they leave or you don't feel like working with them anymore, it's ok if you search thousand of pantheon as long as you go in those place with sincerity. Hell, i've been from Tyr to Loki then to Apollo and many others I've even tried to approach Tiamat, yes it's a lot of deities but when I was on their side I was doing it with sincerity and pure wish of wanting to learn from them and "pay back" for their services. Even now if I have found my path I told myself many times that I miss Apollo but it really wasn't for me, same with the Egyptian pantheon I truly love them but I felt so distant just like when I worked with the Norse pantheon I didn't find a home but I found a pantheon that accepted to welcome me in their home and let me learn then let me leave once I was ready.

(I hope I didn't went too far haha)

[bookishblogging]

Hello! I don't quite know how to start this but I've been very interested in wiccan practice. I tried delving into it when I was in college but I didn't know where to start, the most I did was make moon water and charm a necklace. I'm going through quite a lot right now and I found myself seeking crystals, sigils, and charms to keep me grounded, although I still don't know how to do them quite right. So my question is, will they work on me, someone who isn't a practitioner?

Hello!! Witchcraft is a process, and there is no real "right or wrong" way to do things, so don't feel bad about the way you practice!! You can be considered a practitioner if you do any sort of magick, but if you're uncomfortable calling yourself a practitioner that's okay.

NOTE: all links are in purple for your convenience :))

I am not sure if you are using Wicca as an umbrella term for witchcraft or if you are specifically interested in Wicca, but be wary that there is a problematic history of Wicca that has been a big topic of discussion as of late. Wicca is defined as: “a religion influenced by pre-Christian beliefs and practices of western Europe that affirms the existence of supernatural power (such as magic) and of both male and female deities who inhere in nature and that emphasizes ritual observance of seasonal and life cycles." It was created around 1950 by Gerald Gardener (who has a whole slew of issues with appropriation and such). It's important to find out if Wicca is for you. Wicca is a very structured version of witchcraft, and witchcraft in general isn't Wicca. There are lots of rules surrounding Wicca and it's very labor intensive.

Apart from that, I will be talking with my experience as an eclectic witch, I can't say much from the Wiccan perspective.

Crystals, sigils, and charms are an amazing way to start! Crystals are super easy, and practically impossible to mess up (unless you put some toxic ones in water- I personally just don't put ANY in water to avoid poisoning myself because it's bound to happen). This is a great source for crystal properties I would recommend looking for what you want to get from the crystals, and then invest in some crystals that correspond with what you're wanting. A great place to buy crystals is Etsy or a local metaphysical shop (if you have one, they are few and far between!) Crystals are amazing when meditating or to have around your space. I like charging my crystals with Selenite (another type of crystal but it's really good for cleansing/charging) and the moon when it's a full moon. I charge them somewhat frequently, about once a week. I am pretty lazy when it comes to crystals, I just have them around my space + on my altar and let them uplift my vibe. I will carry some obsidian and black tourmaline with me if I'm traveling but other than that I am pretty lax with my crystal usage. I think they are such an amazing (and pretty) way to dive into practicing without having to make a big commitment to something.

Sigils: Here is a big post I made about sigils that can hopefully clear up any lingering questions about them if I don't cover it all in this post. Sigils are also a m a z i n g for starting your practice because they are easy and practical. Again, there isn't really any particular way to mess this up, and there isn't a wrong way to go about creating them. I have two methods of sigil creation on my post, but there are endless ways to create sigils. I use them to help with my grades, to help with warding (intro to warding post) or a slew of other things. I like to do my sigils when I clean, so I create the sigil with cleaner/floor polish/mop it into the floor/whatever and then I break the sigil (by cleaning up the cleaning solution- I'm not sure I am explaining this in the best way so feel free to ask clarifying questions lmao) and by breaking the sigil I am "sending that energy out into the universe." You can also put sigils on bay leaves and burn them, or write them on your papers, put them in water on your door, whatever floats your boat. Again, no wrong way to do this, just whatever seems the most practical to you.

Charms are something I am somewhat unfamiliar with but here are a few sources I found that can hopefully provide you with some help!

How to enchant, enchanting masterpost

I am sure you are already versed on charms/enchanting if you have already done such, but regardless, whatever you do in your practice is valid. From making moonwater to casting a spell, you are valid in your practice.

In regards to your other ask, starting your practice is relatively easy! My biggest tip would be to just dive in and research as you go. It's easy to get bogged down by trying to research EVERYTHING and then going into practicing. Just take it one day at a time and research what you're interested in, try it out, and go from there! If you have any other questions please feel free to shoot me another ask or a DM :)) Hope this helped!!

[broke-witch-bytch]

I am a part-time witch, if you could even call it that, and I wonder what you (as a more "professional" witch) would say about my situation. About a year ago I started getting into the topic of witchcraft and wicca, i saw a book about the wiccan religion in a bookstore and it just spoke to me. Since then I've read more about it, but also the witchy practices apart from wiccan magick. I really rather enjoy doing rituals sometimes, and I often think about whether I believe in the wiccan godess and god. But can I even call myself a witch or a wicca, or keep this as a part of my self-perception, if I only turn to it once in a while? I'm still going to school, so I don't have the time nor the resources for complicated and routined rirutals, but my interest also shifts. There are weeks in which I don't grant it a second thought and don't feel very witchy or wiccan, then sometimes I stare at the moon for hours and talk to her (as a personification of the godess) and check on my tarot cards for the near future. I simply don't feel fully entitled to count myself as a witch, and though I guess that my commitment really varies, i would like to be able to identify as one, sincr the thought of it gives me comfort and strength. What do you think?

my love I am by no means a pro BUT I do understand this sentiment bc I struggled with it for many years (part of that struggle was being in the broom closet). I've since found that my view on religion is and should be personal. it's not the 'wrong' path, it's just yours. as humans we have to wonder "where do we come from and where do we go?" and so most of us turn to religion for the answers. there was a time when I thought rituals were silly, but now I have a money bowl on my TV stand. don't feel like you need to rush to find yourself. I think 'witch' is meant to be a loose term and it can mean whatever you want it to mean. I hope this helps!🥰

[diariesofthehermit]

On Magic

So with Wicca and Wiccans I used to think: “why on earth does anyone think that saying XYZ will make A,B, or C happen? Don’t people realize that all their spells and rituals are made up, that the symbols and tools and words used are all arbitrary?”

Then, suddenly, I realized that it doesn’t matter. The specific words don’t matter. The specific ritual items or ritual actions don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the faith, the belief- the will. The words and the rituals are just tools used to direct your own consciousness, which is in itself the true source of power. 

The spells and incantations focus and clarify our will and intent, and it is our will and intent itself that is efficacious. So, yes the spells and rituals are all made up. It really doesn’t matter all too much which crystal or which rock you use for this or that purpose, as long as your choice is significant to you. 

That’s why I still think a lot of these “books of spells” for sale are capitalistic nonsense, because I can say with near certainty that whoever wrote those spells does not know your psyche any better than you do. The best way to write a spell is to sit alone, reach into your heart and say whatever it is that you want to say. Make it rhyme, sprinkle some alliteration, add some meaningful rituals, give it power. Just do not forget that the power is not something external. It was always there, waiting.

There are those who think that our thoughts have nothing to do with matter, or are unable to truly affect it. Such people have never considered their own bodies. Mind and matter are not two separate entities, they are dual aspects of a single, fundamental unity. How else could fear make your heart beat quicker, could love tie knots in your stomach? How else could you make your fingers move with naught but a mere thought?

The matter of your brain is conscious, alive. Considering that matter is matter, and that everywhere it exists it is composed of the same basic elements, there is no reason to believe that what is true for the network of atoms and molecules in your brain is not true for those within a rock, a river, or a flash of lightning. If mind is here, why not there? 

The purpose of religion is to bring those two poles, the internal and external mind, into accord. It is to see the external in the internal and the internal in the external. Magic, prayer and ritual, to me, are just forms of communication. They are tools for communicating with myself, and tools for communicating with all that surrounds me. They are tools for bridging that gap.

Fashion your tools to best suit your needs. Speak from the heart. Magic is not about some special set of words or actions that work above and beyond the laws of nature, the laws of nature are the magic. You are those laws, and they are you. Ma’at is your very heart and mind. 

I will show you the proof of proofs. Science seeks to understand the cause of behaviors. For example, in the past believed the wind blew because, well, it wanted to. If we did not offer sacrifice, perhaps it might stop. Now, scientists describe the behavior of the wind not in terms of an animistic spirit but in the laws of physics and in the behaviors of atoms and subatomic particles.

Yet why do subatomic particles behave in the ways that they do? Why is it that electrons seek “oppositely charged” particles and are repelled by particles of “like charge” in the first place? What causes them to move in accordance with their specific natures? At this point you have reached the end of possible scientific inquiry and must resort to philosophy, and we are back at square one: they act so because it is their will to act so. Is it so hard to believe that will and consciousness are fundamental aspects of the universe? Aren’t they, after all, fundamental aspects of your “material” body?

It is will which moves the cosmos, it is will which moves your limbs. Call it what you want: magic, ashe, heka etc. True magic is about harnessing our will, nothing more and nothing less.

[knockaines]

Tag: “Meet a Witch”

 I decided to answer this Tag I saw my friend answer on their blog as a fun way of everyone who stumbles upon this account get to know me a little bit better. Here is the link for the original Tag.

1. Do you use runes as a written language?

Not really, even though I have a rune set runes were never a divinatory tool I quite clicked with.

2. Do you feel you have natural gifts such as (premonitions, hearing spirits) and if so do you think this is what led you to this path?

My natural gifts are really poor and it is something that I have been working on for a while. I first stumbled upon this path when I first found out about Wicca and wanted to read more about it.

3. What deity do you work with if any and why?

I don’t work with any deity but the ones that I honor most often are Áine, Manannán mac Lir, Airmid, Miach, Brigid, Cernunnos and Drusuna.

4.  Have you always worked with this same deity?

I started connecting myself with Brigid around this year’s Imbolc, eventually the other deities just started popping up in my morning prayers.

5. Do you use any personal items in your practice, (blood, semen, tears, urine, etc)?

I have never done that and have no problem with people that do that; in fact, I’m open to using those items in the future in my practice.

6. Do you do past life readings or have ever had one done; who where you or how did you die?

I have had two friends do Tarot readings for me talking about how in my past lives I have lived in Egypt and have been a Witch, but I never took those very seriously.

7. What is your favorite magical tool?

My first Waite-Smith Tarot Deck that I have owned since 2018, as well as the Hagstone I found at the beach in 2020 and my Stang from a pine tree I have found this year.

8. What is a song or type of music that gets into a witchy mood?

Here is my witchy Spotify Playlist.

9. Where is the most magical place you have ever been?

Casa do Fauno, which in English would mean “Faunus’s House”, a medieval Pub in Sintra.

10. What animal is your familiar if any?

I don’t work with familiars.

11. If you have a familiar, did you choose them or did they choose you?

Not appliable.

12. What in the craft are you best at (tarot, spells, rituals, etc.)?

I am fairly confident in my Tarot skills, as well as meditating if this counts. I have been also fairly successful in practicing divination with eggs.

13. What in the craft would you say you are weaker at?

I’m not very good at following my intuition. Tarot helps me on that aspect of myself, but I have been trying to work on being able to listen to myself without the aid of any divinatory tools.

14. What is your most favorite part of your craft (spell writing, divination, etc)?

Divination, especially Tarot, is super cool and allows for a lot of space for me to work on my creativity. I also really enjoying brewing herbal teas with magickal intentions. Not to refer the endless amounts of research.

15. What was the first tool you ever purchased?

A rose quartz necklace in 2017 at a Reinassance Fair.

16. What was your first homemade tool for your practice?

A little plate I made in clay to put my crystals, as well as a little gnome figure.

17. If you were a goddess or god, who would you be?

I find this question quite odd.

18. Do you use astrology in your practice? In what ways?

I practice planetary magic and am interested in starting a devotional relationship with the planets in the near future.

19. What if any ways could you practice dark magic and still respect the beliefs of Wicca?

I do not agree with the term “Black” and “White” magic, nor am I in any way Wiccan, so I will pass this question.

20. Do you have any witches in your family?

Not really.

21. What item can you not witch without?

Probably my Tarot Deck.

22. What is your favorite sabbat or time of year ritual?

I really am fond of celebrating Winter Solstice, but Lughnasadh has a special place in my heart because it was the first Sabbath I celebrated.

23. Have you ever had a YouTube burn out?

Not appliable since I am not a Youtuber.

24. What is your fav witchy shop, and do they have an online store?

“Ishtar Artes Mágicas”.

25. When buying witchy items, do they choose you or do you choose them?

A little bit of both.

26. How do you organize your herbs/ingredients?

I reutilize old glass jars where I store my herbs.

27. Do you have interest in other deities that you don’t work with; if so, which ones?

I have an interest for all the Fairy Queens as well as the whole Iberian Pantheon, specially Rhiannon and Nantosvelta.

28. Do you have a favorite time of day to do spell work; if so, why?

Not really.

29. Are you solitary or do you work with a coven?

Solitary.

30. If you could pick a certain witchcraft tradition that fits your practice most what would it be (Druid, Celtic, Wicca etc)?

Traditional Witchcraft.

31. What was the most creative spell you have ever done. What did you use?

I feel like enchanting jewelry is always creative.

32. What do you prefer for divination (tarot, oracle, runes ,etc, and why?)

My Rider-Waite Tarot and my Brian Froud’s Faeries Oracle since those are the two decks I work with the most.

33. What are some ways you keep yourself grounded?

Establishing a daily meditative pracitce.

34. Have you ever had a spell go horribly wrong?

Nope.

35. What are your opinions on initiation rituals?

I intend to, in the future, experience one myself.

36. Have you ever had full contact with your deity; if so, what happened?

I felt very healed after a specific meditation I did with Brigid.

37. What about you is un witchy?

My grimoire is not on a fancy notebook.

38. For the dating witch, how do you tell a new love interest that you are a witch?

When the time is right.

39. Who is a past witch that has inspired you, famous or not?

Scott Cunningham.

40. How do you handle rejection from a fellow witch that refuses to do a reading or spell for you?

That has never happened to me.

41. Do you think it is necessary to cast a circle when you do spell work or any magical working?

Not at all.

42. If Steven Spielberg called and wanted to make a movie of your life, who would you want to play as you?

I have no idea.

43. What is some advice that was given to you that you pass along because it made an impact on your path?

Meditating one minute every single day will have a bigger impact on you than taking one day of the month to meditate for 30 minutes. Practice every single day.

44. What is some advice you would give someone who has not found there deity?

While I am not fond of that specific phrasing my biggest advice is to just put yourself out there. If a deity or a group of deities have been on your mind for a couple weeks, around a month, do not be afraid to do a simple prayer and offering, like lighting a candle for them and leaving out a cup of water. You will find what deities feel right for you to connect with through practice, so put yourself out there, be respectful and know how to handle if it it goes wrong.

45. Where do you buy your herbs?

I don’t have a specific store in specific.

46. How did you feel casting your first circle (silly, scared, stumbling, etc)?

It felt odd because it was something I never did but I got used to it.

47. What was your first successful spell?

I am more experienced with ritual work than spell work, so this is not very appliable.

48. What is your general practice for meditation?

Do it everyday for a short amount of time, between one to five minutes.

49. Are you a day walker or a night comer?

Morning person all the way.

50. How and when did you know you wanted to be on this path?

When I started reading about Wicca when I was fifteen, I knew the path of witchcraft (not Wicca though) was for me. And since I have always been very drawn to fairies and folklore, when I stumbled upon the tradition of Traditional Witchcraft I just wanted to dig in deeper into the occult.

51. What type of pagan are you (Wiccan, eclectic, hedge, etc)?

I would consider myself a Pan-Celtic Pagan since the traditions I follow most closely are Irish Paganism and Iberian Paganism, with a growing interest in Welsh Paganism as well.

52. What candle color do you use most?

White and green.

53. What area would you like to see your craft grow in?

Growing my connection with fairies, household and land spirits as well as the deities I honor.

54. What is your preference, to buy or make your tools?

I love making my own tools in clay.

55. What fictional witch book/screen inspired you the most?

Perhaps Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service.

56. With your first spell were you alone or in a coven?

Alone.

57. What is your favorite candle, incense scent for magical purposes?

None in specific.

58. Where is your favorite place to go to reconnect with nature?

Casa do Fauno, as well as the beach and the pine wood near my home.

59. Do you believe in fantasy creatures (unicorns, gnomes, elves, fairies, etc)?

As I have mentioned before, I follow the Fairy Faith.

60. Do you believe in ghosts/spirits?

Yes.

61. Would you ever teach the craft?

If I felt knowledgable enough, yes.

62. What if any legal herb do you use for moods?

Lavender, chamomile and mugwort.

63. What is the most recent spell/ritual you have done? (slight detail please)

I have recently performed a Compass-Laying Ritual.

64. Do you have a happy place you go to during meditation?

My personal Nemeton.

65. What is your favorite witchy book?

Mists of Avalon.

66. Do you have a ritual to get ready before a ritual or spell? (what is it)

I daily perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram every morning.

67. Do you always use your own spells or do you tweak others?

Sometimes I write my own, but a lot of times I use pre-made spells for my personal references and adapt them according to my will.

68. Do you prefer spells/ritual inside or outside?

Inside since I sadly do not have the chance of performing anything outdoors.

69.  If you are coming from a Christian/catholic background. Did you find the transition hard with family and the whole going to Hell thing? Basically leaving all you been told was right?

My family overall does not care for religion, they are very agnostic.

70. What are your totem animals?

I do not work with this concept.

71. What are some things you reuse after spells/ritual work?

Sometimes I reuse candles.

72. Who helped you most when you starting on your path?

Scott Cunningham’s books.

73. Do you know any good witchy phone apps (like moon phases)?

Labyrinthos is good for learning Tarot.

74. What is your favorite magical study?

Fairy Folklore.

75. Outside of the YouTube and Facebook community, do you have a lot of witchy friends in the physical world?

A couple of them, but not many.

76. Do you feel that the deities we work with are a force from one higher power and that all beliefs and religions are from the same one God/place?

Not really, I very hardly identify as Hard Polytheistic.