I'm a queer, middle aged witch, writer, maker from Scotland.
My witchcraft is a hodgepodge of the elements, Saturn, the Morrigan, geekery, intuition, and chaos.
The Wheel of the Year and daily earth magic ground me.
Late diagnosed (36) autism, and CPTSD robbed me of myself for decades. A bad, bad autistic burnout a few years ago killed the rest of my confidence, energy, and worth.
I'm clawing it back in earth, bones, magic, and embodied practices. In writing, knitting, gardening, embroidery, exercise, tea, reading,* tarot, and all the other things that fulfill me.
Reclaiming my creativity, my passion, my unmasked self.
Unacceptable - TERFs, SWERFs, other bigots, AI "art," (please tell me if I share anything ai or otherwise problematic, I can't always tell), individualism, capitalism, the witchy/wellbeing to right wing pipeline,
*Alastair Reynolds, Tamora Pierce, Tolkien, NK Jemisin, Becky Chambers, Nalo Hopkinson, Iain M Banks, Mary Shelley, all the short stories, Ursula K Le Guin, Gail Carriger, Nicky Drayden, John Wyndham, Nnedi Okorafor, among many others...
**Star Trek (especially Lower Decks!), Stargate (especially Atlantis!), Bob's Burgers, Taskmaster, Babylon 5, Futurama, Black Books, Derry Girls, We Are Lady Parts, to name but a few of my TV loves...films too many to mention but two of my all time favourites are Galaxy Quest and Hot Fuzz (LOTR off to the side in its own category!)
The Samhain Ultramarathon | 100 Days of Witchcraft
"Etheri, why are you talking about Samhain already? It's still Spring where you live..." shhh...
October 31st is my favorite day to be a witch! I find myself looking forward to it throughout various times of the year. So, this year, I decided to make a little "challenge" for myself in the days leading up to Samhain, and I wanted to invite others to participate ^.^
Starting July 23rd, I'd like to invite you all to join me for what I'm calling "The Samhain Ultramarathon!"
The challenge itself is to touch your Craft for 100 days in a row! Starting July 23rd, the task is to do something, anything, witchy each day, counting down to October 31st. Some days can be as simple as just updating your grimoire or lighting a stick of incense, while other days can be more elaborate spells or rituals. The ultimate goal is to touch your practice at least once a day, even for just one minute, for 100 consecutive days! It'll be like a spiritual marathon... hence the name :P
I'm sharing this now, over two months out, to give anyone who may want to participate time to coordinate! If you want to share your preparations and if you want to share your "marathon experience" once the challenge itself starts, please use the tag #TheSamhainUltramarthon !
For all my literal-thinking or ND witches out there:
"Do whatever works best for you"
Translation: "Use correspondences and techniques that feel the most powerful, magical, and correct to you, as long as it's internally consistent with your worldview (if basil means love to you, don't turn around and use it in a baneful working for example)."
"It's all about your intention"
Translation: "The way you plan out spells, choose correspondences, craft items, write incantations, etc are all ways of imbuing intention throughout the working; you still have to back your intention up with spellcraft and work, it's not as simple as meditating on an idea."
"It depends on your tradition/path"
Translation: "If you are a devotee of a specific religion, spirituality, or practitioner of a specific kind of magickal art, follow the collective wisdom from that path as it will be the most meaningful to you; if you are new to the craft or not keen on following specific paths and want freedom to explore, do whatever feels the most magical to you in this instance."
"Always have personal protections"
Translation: "In my opinion, you should have personal protections before you engage in other types of spellcraft because it gives you a sense of control and stability going into the working; a personal protection can be anything that achieves that sensation of being shielded, protected, and safe."
"Direct your energy into the target"
Translation: "Play with various techniques until you achieve a strong sensation of some of your internal power, energy, heat, or life force leaving your body and transferring into the target; it will be subtle but undeniably there."
Switched over to fantasy with Highlander. Hadn't watched it in over 20 years, forgot how gloriously fucking stupid it is! Thoroughly enjoyable nonsense!
Now, Van Helsing. More fabulous silliness, full of smoking hotties, and features my favourite ever werewolf transformation style!
The first rule of sewing is you can fix anything if you have patience, creativity, and a little bit of extra fabric! The second rule of sewing is AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
NEW LIMITED TIME SALE! My hand-signed “Warden” & “Guardian” Small Art Prints are now discounted while supplies last! You can check ‘em out in my web shop (in my bio)! ❤️
Sort of obvious, but I had to learn it (like everything else) the hard way. And as spooky season approaches and people may be revitalizing their practices after breaks, I want to say something that might end up saving a couple folks from a lot of frustration and heartbreak:
Just because it worked that way for you in the past, doesn't mean that's how it works for you now.
I mean this in a literal, making-stuff-happen with magic and sorcery way.
You guys have heard the adage that some spirit guides are with you for life, some for short periods, some for just one lesson, etc., right?
Well, the same can be said for sorcerous techniques.
I don't know if I just shed techniques like hermit crabs shed shells or what, but this happens to me a lot. Here's the kind of thing I mean:
You used to do readings with a specific little ritual involving a prayer and incense, but now that technique seems to produce incorrect readings. It feels flat and you can tell you're not connecting.
You used to be able to tie intent into knots and carry the thread around with you all day to conjure specific little occurrences, but now it barely seems to work and manifestation is spotty.
You used to be able to converse with spirits by going into a deep meditation, but now when you try you can hardly connect and it's like their messages are getting blotted out.
And I think sometimes when these things happen, people tend to process this with:
self-blame (I'm not a devoted enough witch, I brought this on myself!),
scapegoating spiritual allies (I used to pray to Hekate before divination but now my divination doesn't work, so Hekate must be mad at me), or
developing personal doubt (I used to think magic worked but now I can't replicate my own results).
When the reality is, if you're a magical snickity-snek and you've shed your skin, you might be slithering about in the soil trying to do the little old things that no longer fit the bigger, better you.
Sometimes this "shedding" is very obvious and we can feel and taste it. "Shedding" may come before, during, or after a period of intense personal transformation. It may come in a numinous moment when you hear a single phrase, or view a single image, that makes you become the Hanged Man and see reality in a whole new way.
But it can also happen without us really noticing it. I might put down my tarot cards for a couple months, pick them up again, and suddenly the ways I used to read don't work for me any more.
It's not because I'm a bad reader, or that the spirits have abandoned me, or that magic isn't real.
It's because what used to work for me doesn't any more, and now I just need to find new techniques.
So if you're trying to pick up what used to work and it just doesn't seem to be helping any more, consider that it's just like outgrowing an old set of clothes. Nothing is wrong with you, or the clothes. It just doesn't fit any more.
Since I think it'd be frustrating as hell to read a post like this without some actionable steps, below the cut are some ideas that might help you develop new techniques if your old ones seem to be failing you.
Start with your beliefs
Examine your own rituals and see if what you're doing still matches what you believe. Let's say you used to pray to Hekate and light incense before divination, but now you do that and your divination doesn't work.
Do you believe Hekate is allowing your divination to be possible? Do you believe she's the best goddess to seek aide from at this time?
What role does the incense play? Is it an offering to Hekate? Is it to feed the ancestors who supply you with interpretations? Is it just to set the correct tone and atmosphere?
Maybe you've grown in your relationship with divinity, and you now believe it's more proper to call on gods with formal prayers - but your divination ritual still uses a simple, improvised prayer.
Maybe your understanding of Hekate has changed and it feels more suitable to call on different powers.
Maybe you feel strangely about constantly "paying" gods to help you, when they say they don't need it - and lighting the incense makes you feel awkward.
Change what you're doing to match what you believe. That's always a solid first step.
Examine your own emotions and reactions
Try performing rituals (from the smallest ritual of stirring intent into coffee, to full-blown compass-casting affairs under the full moon) mindfully.
Be aware of what you're doing as you do it, but also try to examine your own reactionary thoughts and feelings.
Suppose my ritual of stirring my coffee seven times clockwise to manifest a desired emotion doesn't work any more. It used to work great, for years, so I do it quickly. But now it doesn't work, so I do it mindfully.
And while I'm stirring, I watch a few thoughts pop up to the surface: why am I doing this seven times? I'm stirring my coffee for too long and staring into it like an idiot, and it's embarrassing. What if someone thinks I'm weird?
If any individual step of a ritual makes you feel embarrassed, stressed, or avoidant, or if you feel relief from not having to do that any more - that technique is probably not serving you very well.
Seek out methods that make you feel excited, hopeful, empowered, or interested. Or, at the very least, ones that don't make you feel bad.
Be open to shifting your paradigm entirely
Going back to the stirring coffee thing, maybe I think stirring seven times is too much. So I try to stir my coffee three times. But that still feels clunky.
Then I get into left-handed vs right-handed stirring, because someone might have said that doing stuff with your right hand is for blessings.
Then I try out a new little inner mantra while I stir X times with Y hand.
But it's just not working. No matter what I try, it feels like walking barefoot on a gravel road.
So maybe I just need to do something entirely different.
Maybe numerology isn't my thing any more. Maybe now, I just need to embrace my inner divine creator.
Maybe I should think about the ultimately powerful creative energy within rich, black soil - and as I pour my coffee, I can imagine that I'm pouring pure creative energy into my divine cauldron. When I sprinkle in a little sugar, I'm seasoning that creative power to my personal tastes - and no matter how many times I stir it, when I drink that creative power, a new reality blossoms from within me.
No numbers. No memorized chants. No left hand/right hand stuff. Just me, imagining myself as a planet, drinking pure creative energy that will bloom out of my aura as wildflowers bloom in the spring.
Ask for help
I'm not called fool for no reason, and after a couple years of being unable to astral travel - after having successfully done so for years - I finally sat down and asked my spirits for help.
The answer was immediate and simple. So simple, in fact, that I was confident it wouldn't work at all.
Well, of course it worked. I spent years trying to figure out the problem on my own, trying time and time again to use an old technique that I was confident would work. It took a goddess like four seconds to tell me the new way it worked for me.
Even if you're not in communication with spiritual allies, you can still perform divination to help troubleshoot your own magical skills. Try asking a series of questions: what doesn't work for you any more, what you should try, and what you should avoid trying.
When divining, consider the different "levels" of application. A reading that means "don't use excessive force" might refer to high-level life stuff, like, you're working too hard on all your responsibilities right now, learn to relax and the magic will come. But, it might also be referring to something very specific, like, you're trying to raise huge amounts of energy in individual rituals, break them up into smaller spells where much less force is required for each one.
A tip for anyone who deals with chronic stomach issues or chronic illnesses that affect your stomach, anyone who deals with nausea, indigestion, or the like:
I make popsicles and keep them on hand. Lemon juice + ginger, lemon juice + mint, chamomile tea + lemon juice (this one is also great for stress, cramps, or to have as a snack before bed). You can do all sorts of combinations using juices, herbs, teas, etc. Whatever works for you and your symptoms, give it a try. If you don't have popsicle sticks, you can make ice cubes with the same things and suck on the ice instead.
It's something I've done for years now, and it's so helpful and handy to just be able to grab a popsicle when my chronic illness issues mess with my stomach (I deal with a lot of nausea, pain, and not always being able to keep food down, personally). It's especially nice in the summer.
They're fantastic for stomach issues. You can also add sweeteners like sugar syrups, honey, or similar, just be sure to research how your preferred sweetener freezes and holds up in the freezer.
death to nonchalance. romanticise your existence to an unreasonable degree. be gloriously delusional about how good it can get. inconvenience yourself for the sake of love. gush about your passions. get obsessed. get invested. be a fool for the right things. adore your people with your whole chest. devote yourself to something far greater than yourself. get dolled up for the most mundane activities imaginable. smile with your teeth. giggle shamelessly. kiss longer & slower. have a signature everything. accumulate hilarious stories. love so hard it rewires others’ beliefs about love. be someone God clearly had fun making. let people know they made your day. make someone’s day. take spontaneity seriously. send five voice notes in a row, because why wouldn’t you? leave people better than you found them. be so infatuated with your babies faces you take approximately 400 photos of them a day. gush. just gush!!
these are different things btw. actual adaptability means not dealing with being miserable long term. and being constantly mildly annoyed/frustrated with a situation but being “able to deal with it” counts as ambient misery. btw.
let this be your sign to make your life just a little more livable. get a dollar store trash can for your bedside so Cup City’s invasion plans fall through. block a tag or post that makes you grind your teeth every time you see it. get some grip pads so your bed stops sliding across the hardwood a little bit every time you get in it. tell that person you need a little more support. if you get annoyed at a situation more than a couple times, change it. don’t be content with being miserable.
and the more that you start doing this, the better you will get at detecting your own feelings and advocating for yourself! This is an important start to being more of a person in the world if you struggle with that
Explaining the racism and racist stereotypes at the root of the "situation" with Willow/Salixsociety.
Alright. So quite a few of you have been in my inbox asking for clarification for two months now. You want to know about the interaction with salixsociety (you can read my "context post" here), about the dishonest posts they made in their own discord server following (which I posted here), and the conversations about BIPOC and academic racism that came from the two aforementioned incidents. I had been hopeful that I wouldn't have to make this post and that salixsociety would, instead, address their behavior, retract their racist lies, and take accountability, but that hasn't happened yet, and, as it's already been two months and about 1/3 of my inbox is now dedicated to this or related matters, I accept that it's time to sit down and make a post explaining the racism at the root of what happened with salixsociety.
I want to preface this by saying that my initial (and only) interaction with salixsociety did not come from a place of judgment for the terms they were using. Rather, I simply wished to express to them the impacts that such terms (the terms were "exotic," "ethnic," and "racial" being used to refer to POC and their cultures) can have on POC readers and to give them some insight into the perspectives of those potential readers. I never react immediately with judgement when it comes to the use of such terms because I am well aware that there are many people who simply do not know that those terms are harmful and racist, and I know that someone may use them without having the intention to do any harm or to other anyone. That's the sole reason I responded to Willow's request for peer review and feedback on an essay of theirs that they had posted in a server we were both in.
I'm going to touch on the issues one-by-one with their response and their behavior that follows.
1. Assuming authority over People of Color when speaking about racism:
When a white person takes it upon themselves to speak down to people of color about racism, it's incredibly disrespectful. Racism is something that people of color live with every day. To have a white person respond to the suggestion that they not use certain terms with a lengthy explanation about how racism works (per their perception), what racism is, and how "we" have to interact and engage with racism to "dismantle it" (per the white person's opinion and personal preferences) touches on a few different issues.
I'm in no way saying that it's racist for a white person to speak about racism to a person of color. The problem comes with the fact that salixsociety assumed authority in such an exchange. Their response sought to "educate" and "inform" a person of color on racism, and to explain why that person of color was "misguided" in their opinion.
The self-appointed role of educator and authority that salixsociety utilizes relies on and reinforces harmful, racist power dynamics, and also, in this particular situation, seeks to diminish the voice and view of POC and to dictate or "police" their opinions and responses to racism and racist terminology. Furthermore, in regard to this specific interaction, salixsociety positioned the white person's self-proclaimed "academic" interest in speaking and writing about institutionalized racism as being of greater value and a more reliable resource than the lived experience of people of color and the experiences and opinions of POC scholars and educators.
2. Calling People of Color "misguided" for expressing their opinions on the use harmful terminology:
I've addressed previously the issues with using terms like exotic and ethnic to refer to people of color and their cultural customs (you can read my explanations here and here), but I'll briefly revisit those terms and explain why they were addressed. When one uses the terms ethnic, exotic, or racial to refer to people of color, one is centering whiteness as a default norm and everything else as "other." This is racial othering and it is harmful and racist.
To address the issue of salixsociety's response to a person of color expressing concern about the use of such terms by telling POC they are, in fact, "misguided," I will first and foremost say that it is not appropriate for a white person to tell a person of color that they are "misguided" when it comes to matters that impact the comfort and safety of people of color. Doing so diminishes the lived experience of that person of color and disregards their opinion entirely.
If people of color express discomfort with terms and phrases, their perspectives should be respected. Dismissing their feelings as “misguided” suggests that their lived experience doesn’t matter and that their opinion and the discomfort or pain that they feel at hearing such terms doesn't matter.
Furthermore, when a white person tells a person of color they’re “misguided” for having a certain viewpoint, they are assuming and asserting authority over POC identity and experience, invalidating POC feelings, and reinforcing harmful, racist power imbalances by asserting that the white person knows better. This behavior is an example of racial gaslighting, which is when the dominant group (in this case, white people) or a member of the dominant group dismisses or undermines the experiences of marginalized people.
So, is this racist? Yes. The interaction was racist because it dismissed the person of color’s feelings and experiences, it prioritized the opinion of a white person and the white perspective about harmful, racist terminology over the person of color's opinion and experience, and it reinforced racist power imbalances.
3. Painting People of Color as being of inferior intelligence:
In salixsociety's dishonest post they made on their server immediately following our interaction, they made several extremely offensive and harmful claims that rely on racist stereotypes, one of the most egregious and obvious being the assertion of Willow/salixsociety's superior intelligence and education over the person of color they were speaking about.
Salixsociety knew absolutely nothing about me, the person they are speaking about, aside from the fact that I am not white, that I am a person of color, that I am biracial Black. Therefore, their assumption that they are of superior intelligence and are better educated than me is based purely on the only thing they know about me, my racial identity. Asserting that you are of superior intelligence to people of color solely because of your race is a clear example of racism.
The assumption of my inferior intelligence and their need to "meet you where you're at" in speaking to me relies on racist, white supremacist, and colonial ideologies and practices that have been used for centuries to justify the oppression, enslavement, and discrimination of people of color. Salixsociety's assertions of their perceived superior intelligence reinforces and echoes those ideologies, while imposing a harmful racial hierarchy.
This is a very blatant example of racism.
4. Painting Black people as aggressive and angry:
I'm sure this is an example of racism we're all familiar with, but it deserves attention nonetheless.
When a white person spreads dangerous lies about a Black person, and those lies depict the Black person as being aggressive and angry, the white person is perpetuating racist stereotypes that have been used to criminalize Black people, to dehumanize Black people, and to justify things like segregation, police brutality, incarceration of Black people, enslavement of Black people, and, yes, violence against Black people. One cannot ignore the fact that Black people have been lynched due to such lies being spread.
Salixsociety making claims of being "met with aggression" and "fast-paced angered retorts," and of being "attacked," they are engaging with and perpetuating the stereotype of Black people being dangerous, threatening, and aggressive, and are perpetuating, in this particular case, the stereotype of the angry Black woman. They paint themselves as a victim of aggressive behavior that they never experienced, seemingly in hopes to garner sympathy or incite an emotional response from their followers.
These are but four examples of the harmful and damaging racism displayed in just these two incidents. I'm writing this post to make it clearly known that there is undeniably racism at the root of this matter, and that such racism has harmful, negative impacts on people of color not just in our community but everywhere. I cannot and will not sit idly by and allow the narrative to be painted that this had nothing to do with racism, and I cannot and will not pretend that this behavior is not racist.
during a time where deity worship and religion in the witchcraft community is prevalent, i would like to remind both new and seasoned practitioners alike that you do not have to worship deities or work with them in your magical practice if you do not want to - it is not a requirement ♡
A Bog Witch @witchothebogfolk - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
