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Greetings!

I don't know how many of you are out there reading this, if there's only one of you, or maybe even none. Maybe this post floated across your dash or popped up while you were looking at a specific tag. Who knows? In any case, I'd love to take some time to introduce myself to you and the community properly.

I want to preface this introductory post with the fact that Tumblr has changed a lot since my last foray into the absolute chaos of this site years ago, so bear with me while I re-learn a number of things on the technical side.

That aside, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

Maybe someday I'll share my given name, but today is not that day. In the meantime, you can call me Archer Sims.

This blog exists solely for use with my journey into magick and any other occult topics I might look into in the future.

If that's not for you, then just move along and be on your merry way. I won't be offended if you decide our paths shouldn't cross again.

Here's my story:

(Apparently it's long. Sorry not sorry.)

I started my journey into practicing magick a couple of decades ago as a kid, but nothing really stuck. At that time, all that really existed as resources for us young misfits back in the day was Silver RavenWolf's books and the like, and they just didn't sit right with me. I think it's because they didn't set realistic expectations or properly explain witchcraft to my skeptical mind. I wanted to believe, but the exercises and information just didn't work for me the way I thought they should, and the rules seemed so strict that I didn't walk away with even a vague understanding of what witchcraft actually is.

Still, even though I was raised Lutheran, I considered myself largely Agnostic for an extremely long portion of my life. College opened my mind to a number of other religions and practices, and immediately I was hooked. Their belief systems and the way culture and spirituality were often intertwined was absolutely fascinating. Not only that, but a lot of the ideas were new (to me at least) and made a lot more sense to me than what I was raised on. (Side note, everyone should have a copy of this book for interacting with other religions courteously, because it's phenomenal: How to Be a Perfect Stranger)

I studied most of these religions from an anthropological viewpoint, but the concepts I was introduced to blew my mind. I started digging into some of the ideas I liked most a bit more and realized that I no longer knew what I believed. Was I a Deist? Free will and scientific exploration were/are very important to me, but no, not quite. Was I more closely aligned to Buddhism? That didn't seem to fit, either. Islam? Judaism? Hindu? Was I an Athiest in denial?

I was struggling to find answers, and it was frustrating. As life got busier, I stopped looking, and I quickly found myself in a spiritual limbo that lasted years. Maybe even a decade, honestly, but the feeling was pretty nebulous and I didn't even realize it until very recently.

My sister is a practicing witch, mostly guided by the Norse traditions, and sometimes we would talk about religion and beliefs, even if I couldn't put into words what exactly I believed. I've always admired how confident she is about her practices, and how excited she gets whenever I ask questions. I still had a bad taste in my mouth from my last try at reading a witchcraft book, so even though I never thought less of witches or pagans, I didn't think either were for me.

And yet, I've always enjoyed reading tarot (mostly for myself, but I did read for friends at a LARP event once), something about runestones just feels "right" when I hold them, and it occurred to me recently that anytime I prayed in my life, rare though it was, I always addressed my pleas to "God, Goddess, [and] Gaia". It never even occurred to me that it was "abnormal" for my upbringing. This was just how I was.

Some of you may be aware of The Alleyman's Tarot that was funded through Kickstarter. This project and the Facebook group that came from it changed everything.

I'm the type to look up words, terms, phrases, etc when I don't recognize something, especially given how much language constantly evolves. So when someone in the group asked if there were any other chaos magicians excited for this deck, naturally I went to find out what it meant.

I was floored by the concept that a personal paradigm using belief as a tool and drawing from infinite sources to get results existed. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever even considered that something like that could be real. It wasn't a perfect match, of course (I'm not well versed in quantum anything or some of the other scientific fields suggested to boost it), but it was scarily close.

Cue research frenzy #1. I devoured websites, articles, webpages, and started working my way through some of the better rated books I found. I took notes and wrote my thoughts in a journal (I didn't know what a BOS was, so that was a pleasant surprise later), and started to explore some basics for sigil magick.

The one sigil I activated came back to me in a way I didn't expect, but it worked, and I was beginning to truly understand that there was more to the world than I'd been led to believe.

I admit that I neglected my studies for a while after that. I'd started a new job and making time to research and practice fell by the wayside. But to me, chaos magick wasn't inherently spiritual, and so when my mom died last year, I didn't think to turn to it for any sort of comfort. I was too depressed to even draw a daily tarot card.

Between then and this month, life kept happening and I just focused on surviving and hitting personal productivity goals. My sister is amazing though. When I was researching before, she'd offered to loan me some of her books so I could explore other witchcraft paradigms. Something this month reignited that spark (probably the fact that our Alleyman's Tarot decks should be shipping anytime now), and I made the decision to just go for it. After all, if I didn't like it, then I didn't have to use it.

She started me off with How to Become a Witch by Amber K and Azrael K. Just from the introduction, I realized that my personal avoidance of witchcraft from that childhood experience had been warped by misunderstanding and time. No one likes admitting they're wrong, but sometimes I love being wrong. It means there's something new to learn and experience, and I can gain new insight and perspective and grow as a person.

I really enjoyed the book. It laid things out in a way that completely changed my expectations for witchcraft (no special effects or gross violations of the laws of physics) and made me even more open to the truth. I was extremely relieved that in the introduction as well as a later chapter, there was a warning of red flags regarding scam artist covens/cults and a real discussion of the social risks involved if you make the choice to come out of the broom closet as a witch (things like having your kids taken from you if things go sideways).

For me, this was the introduction I really needed. It was open, honest, shared several examples to help broaden my understanding, and most importantly, it didn't feel like a fad book for preteens in the 90s who just wanted to be "cool" (I say, having been one of those kids). It felt concrete and something about it demanded that it be taken seriously - without taking itself too seriously. I had the added benefit of being able to discuss topics with my sister when I had questions, which helped me solidify a lot of concepts even more.

And that leads us to tonight...

I'm still figuring myself out - am I a chaos magician, an eclectic witch obsessed with space, or something else entirely? What feels right? What resonates? That's why I'm on this journey, and I can't wait to see where this road leads. 😀

I'm going to reread "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" by Silver RavenWolf now that I know what to expect. Before you yell at me, let me clear this up: I know she's problematic on numerous social fronts, and I know she's full of herself and believes her way is the Only Right Way. But part of learning is taking in multiple perspectives, and now I have a much more solid foundation to make those judgment calls and take what I read with a grain of salt. (Also I have beef with this book from the past and want to be able to properly explain what parts I think are terrible now that I'm a better researcher. That'll teach it to mess with me. lol)

Anyways, if you stayed with me this long, thank you. 😊 It's nice to know I'm not just shouting into the void.

If you have any resources or tips you'd like to share, I'm open to suggestions!

I'm not online all the time, but I'll check in fairly often. I don't know if I'll be posting regularly or exactly what I'll be posting, but I wanted to create my own cozy little (private) corner of the internet for learning, growth, and a base from which I can connect to all of you lovely people!

Special thanks to my sister for helping me learn without boundaries. 💖

~Archer