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Tag: polytheism

Talking to Gods

On July 3, 2021May 23, 2022 By thornthewitchIn The Pagan Community, Wicca1 Comment

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 …

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Encountering Gods, Forcing Belief

On May 3, 2015February 24, 2022 By thornthewitchIn WiccaLeave a comment

It started with Herne. Well, more specifically, it started with Corvus (who was a seeker at the time) asking me for strategies that would help her encounter Herne in some way that would push her over the threshold and into “really believing in Herne.” Considered with Vulcan rationality, this is a bizarre request. Why try …

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Recent Posts

  • Learning and Unlearning Witchcraft: Can Bad Info Ruin Your Practice?
  • Talking to Gods
  • Cicada Magic
  • Secular vs. Religious: Making Distinctions as a Witch
  • Don’t Be an Expert Witch: Expertise, Advancement, and Small Ponds

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It’s been a super rough several days, and I’ve mostly needed to just stay offline, focus on what’s happening in my own state, listen to what established pro-choice orgs and activists are advising rather than succumb to panic, and navigate the collective grief of my immediate communities. I’m still working a job, still preparing to start a new term at a new university, and still obligated to all of my usual tasks and deadlines. It sucks that the world doesn’t just stop for a minute to let us catch our breaths. But focusing on the routine is also helpful when my impulse is to just rage: go to work, journal, mark the wheel of the year, greet the moon, talk to the garden, read for school, practice some guitar, play with the cats. So that’s what I’m trying to do! I posted this thread on Twitter (where you can find the rest of the conversation) last week and wanted to also share it here, because I just saw the sort of statements I’m taking about in the comments on another thread from @maeviuslynn about the presence of women in magical communities. Basically summed up as, “But there are so many women here…how come you need to keep talking about how you’re treated by men?” A smattering of the books acquired in London and Edinburgh! This was totally a book buying venture for me. The literary culture of London in particular is just unrivaled, and that extends to the esoteric titles available. I tried to stick to signed, out of print, limited releases, and other titles that just generally wouldn’t be available to me otherwise. And with the cost of shipping increasing so much in recent years, that means a lot of UK releases, too. I’m usually too overwhelmed to brave the British Museum (the sounds! the lights! the screaming children! the strangers touching me!) but we got lucky and went on a quiet day. These are John Dee’s magical tools! Dee was a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I and was a famed astrologer, mathematician, and magician (and more, and back in a time and place when all of those things overlapped in ways we don’t usually expect now). Pictured here are an obsidian scrying mirror and several wax pentacles. This is mostly outside of my magical wheelhouse, but it was still so cool to see. Scotland and England are both gorgeous, and we’ve had the opportunity to visit a number of ancient sites that are spiritually significant to contemporary Pagans because of the beliefs we have about their connections to pagans from the past (some of which is rooted in scholarship and some of which is modern conjecture or pure fantasy). It’s led to lots of good conversation about the magic of place, ancestral connection, and what we might call “spiritual lineage.” A beautiful (and deeply disturbing) reminder of Edinburgh history. We stumbled upon a small water fountain erected in remembrance of the murder of people accused of witchcraft. It’s not prominent, and I would’ve missed it entirely had it not been for an empty street on an early morning wander with @the_witches_next_door A clootie tree at Avebury. People have hung strips of cloth, ribbon, necklaces, and other sorts of charms from the branches of these trees, hoping to bring healing or fulfill various sorts of wishes through the sacredness of this sight. We saw similar trees in Glastonbury, though not as large as this. People had also left notes and small objects around the tree roots. Good morning! I’m reading and making guides for my book club, drinking coffee, and enjoying the morning light. Shoutout to my “regular” shelves, which include lots of literary fiction, horror (my favorite genre), and folk and fairy tales. Both the late 19th/20th century occult revival and the development of contemporary witchcraft were heavily informed by the literature of the day (what we might today call “pop culture”), and it’s worth thinking about how literary and art worlds (and now film and television worlds) inform magical ones in any given historical moment.
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