Holy shit, friends, this has been a year. I feel like I haven't kept up with anything, and it's all just gotten away from me. When that happens, I have to resort to lists: I started my PhD in August, and am going to school full time, working as a TA, and continuing to work …
My book, The Witch’s Path: Advancing Your Craft at Every Level, is out on Wednesday! Written during a period of personal burnout, it’s a book about taking next steps as a witch (but really, could apply to magicians and occultists more broadly). Whether you’re an exhausted group leader, an armchair occultist who needs a shove, or …
Continue reading Learning and Unlearning Witchcraft: Can Bad Info Ruin Your Practice?
You may consult the oracle by searching for The Poetry Fox, and giving him a follow on Instagram @thepoetryfox. He does parties and public events, but I’m sure would consider your next sabbat gathering for the right price. How do you know if the gods are talking to you? This is something I really struggled …
Photo courtesy of Sagar Vasnani and some royalty free website I closed and then promptly forgot the name of. *screams* Create sacred space in whatever manner your tradition or intuition deems appropriate. For this ritual, an outdoor setting is ideal. If working indoors, seek out a dark space that reverberates to some degree: a stairwell, …
It’s common now to assert that witchcraft is a “practice” as opposed to a religion in and of itself. You might hear this in the context of, “Wicca is a religion, but witchcraft is a practice,” or “Witchcraft is a secular craft–some people just combine it with their religions.” Many practitioners identify as “secular witches” …
Continue reading Secular vs. Religious: Making Distinctions as a Witch
How do you know when you’re an expert at something? Or when you really are “advanced” as a practitioner? For lots of us, we connect expertise to the ability to charge money for something, to when we can point to where others defer to us for our opinions, or to when we repeatedly find ourselves …
Continue reading Don’t Be an Expert Witch: Expertise, Advancement, and Small Ponds
My second book, The Witch’s Path, is now available for preorder. I’m very proud of it, and pleased to here be able to share a short excerpt from it. The Witch’s Path is my love letter/pep talk to other witches as a whole. Whatever kind of witchcraft you’re into (or thinking about getting into), this is for all …
Continue reading Serious Play: Shifting Our Perspective on Ritual
It’s easy to take a cursory glance at social media and leave with the impression that learning to practicing witchcraft will cost you a lot of money, and certainly there are plenty of us that enjoy formalizing courses, specialized tools, and elaborate altars. But there are actually lot of ways to begin exploring and practicing …
It often surprises people to learn that I write my books and blogs by hand. Computers and phones have become so ubiquitous that I think it just doesn’t occur to us that this might be an option that some writers still choose—it sounds so antiquated and needlessly difficult. Maybe even pretentious. I admit that I …
A friend recently remarked that they appreciated how, after all these years writing and creating videos online, and with all the changes that have taken place in witchcraft communities, I’ve never stopped identifying as Wiccan. It’s true that Wicca seems to be increasingly falling out of favor–for all kinds of reasons–and it’s also true that …
Thorn Mooney 