hi! I'm québécois (and irish) by heritage and i'm trying to reconnect more and include it into my spirituality. I've felt very pulled to Mother Mary and various Saints, but growing up in a wiccan household (that was also very anti-christian) I felt like I simply wasn't allowed to mix catholicism into my spiritual practice. Seeing your blog helped me realize it doesn't have to be this way, so thank you! :') how freeing!
do you have any advice for someone who doesn't have much background knowledge on how to get started? e.g. how to work with Mary, how to find Saints that resonate? thank you!! -- seashellspirit / garden-goth
Well hi! I'm so pleased to hear from you!
You are lucky in that there are more resources nowadays for getting started, especially when you don't have much of a background in Christian culture and beliefs. I know that it is daunting to see centuries of material and wonder "where do I even begin!?", especially when there's so much venom coming from far-right sources from their supposed Christian lens.
For me, even as I was raised in a Catholic but not very religious household, I had to teach myself too. Sources like Sara Raztresen's book Discovering Christian Witchcraft is a great starting point! It talks about working with Mary in a Christian context, angels, demons, the liturgical calendar, and it especially breaks down and re-explains how Scripture was and is used to demonize witchcraft, when in fact, we can definitely do a personal Christian practice that includes it. She's coming out with a book "Discerning Christian Witchcraft" in December 2025 and I'm counting down the days! For my prayers to Mary, there's online resources for praying the rosary. As long as you're comfortable with the prayers (even making your own prayers), you can call Mary with it. It's like holding her hand. AND! I recommend Sara's books because she has a super well-researched and comprehensive bibliography in that book that can help you explore even more things, like books from theologians and scholars who critically read Scripture and aim to dismantle the centuries of harm other interpreters have caused! Not many spiritual books have that. She also has a Youtube channel.
For saints, if you find a book on Saints A-Z, or any encyclopedia on them, read through it. See if there's saints in there that through their struggles, lives and patronages, you can resonate with a few.
Saints, Angels & Demons: An A-to-Z Guide to the Holy and the Damned by Gary Jansen is excellent, beyond gorgeous, and comprehensive! I found Judika Illes's book Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints & Sages is also a good book if you still need to make your search non-suspicious to your folks. I find some of the information in it to be not that elaborated on, sometimes with too much of a New Age interpretation for my taste.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is: be patient with your learning and with yourself. It takes a lot of self-learning and deconstructing to build a spirituality. Don't let others dictate to you what Christianity or witchcraft looks like.