Dismantling Toxic “Respect” to Forge Deep Relationships with the Land & its Spirits Regardless of the trappings and labels we may latch onto and tie into our crafts, one thing lays at the heart of witchcraft that binds us all. This is our connection with the land and its spirits (conjointly called the Land). Our connection with the Land and the effort we put into our relationships with these spirits, the genius loci, touches all aspects of our practices. We see this in the tools we use—herbs, stones, a lovely shell from the river, a pinch of dirt from a place of power—as well as in the simple focus of our magick. While other systems seek to transcend the everyday or to even attain godhead, witchcraft seeks to improve our everyday lives and to help us live more honestly: to see the world more fully for what it truly is and to embrace the wonder and beauty of being physically incarnate.
 Though we may each approach the Gods through the lens of sometimes very different traditions, devotional practice remains constant among them as a means for us to forge strong relationships with the Gods. What devotional practice looks like for each of us will look different—as it should. Our relationships with the Gods must be personal, reflecting the time and effort spent to know Them intimately. Just as the way you know your best friend will be different than the way their parents know them, so, too, will your relationship with a particular deity be different than the relationship someone else will have with that very same god. However, across traditions and among the many, varied relationships that exist with Them, a foundational part of devotional practice is that of making offerings.
 So pleased to finally be able to announce the title of my brand new trad pub and that it is now available for preorder on Amazon!
Paganism for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Nature-Based Spirituality for Every New Seeker is a comprehensive and inclusive overview emphasizing the beautiful diversity of the modern Pagan movement. If you follow me on twitter or instagram, expect to see some excerpts (and maybe a giveaway) as we get closer to the release date!
Because I am (delightfully) predictable at times, I’m funneling this stirring into so many words. So very many words. This October is going to be a very full month and all of that warrants a blog post to let you know, dear reader, just what it is I’m up to over here.
 There’s a heavy cloud shadow sitting on the mountain. A single opening allows the angled sunlight to find a way through, to find a way to make the hard stone glow. The monsterman won’t look out the window of the truck. I point, tap the glass, but nothing. The mountains that will soon be a faint memory to him can’t draw his eye. As always, he does what he wants and rawrs at me.
He’s known nothing but desert, mountains, and arroyos. Third birthday so very soon, he knows nothing of rivers, nothing of the way a forest wraps you in hushed greenery. It’s funny how I only remember that a blog can be personal, should include the personal, when on the precipice of change. Oh, what a precipice on which I stand.  Because it's late, because I can, because these eclipses are making all our heads spin, all courses and Bone Readings are marked down through Imbolc (February 1.)
 If there is one constant regarding families, it is that families are complicated. Very few people have families or a family history that is neat and clean. Rather, we have problematic relationships with our kin, parents who failed in their responsibilities to their children, grandparents who didn’t care about their grandchildren let alone their own children. We have family histories that travel about the globe, with ambiguous origins and stories filled with violence and mystery.
But that doesn’t necessarily remove the desire to work with one’s ancestors; to make that connection across the generations and feel that stability that comes in being firmly rooted in the past; to stand on the shoulders of those who came before us; to know that though our relationships with our living family may be utter disasters, that someone is there, some family member is there and cares.  This is part two of a brief series on Practical Prosperity Magick. The previous post in this series looked at what we mean by prosperity magick and the ethics of working money magick (and witchcraft, in general.) This post rounds out this short series by looking at how to determine the best approach for your prosperity magick, short-term vs long-term goals, and several simple yet effective ways to work money magick. As always, there are no tools or complicated rituals required for any of these means.
This is part one of a short series on Practical Prosperity Magick. This series will focus on what we mean by prosperity, ethics of working magick for personal gain, short-term vs long-term focus for magick, and will wrap up with a handful of tried and true short-term prosperity magick techniques.
20 Simple yet Effective Cleansing & Purification Techniques This marks the fourth and final post in a series on Cleansing & Purification. This series has taken a surprisingly in-depth look at these two subjects specifically within the context of witchcraft and how they are relevant to witches. The first post in this series was What is Ritual Pollution? Understanding Miasma and Ritual Purity, looking at those activities in witchcraft that can cause the need for cleansing or purificatory work. The second was Signs & Symptoms of Miasma, helping you to recognize ritual pollution within yourself. And the third was Cleansing & Purification: What’s the Difference? providing a nuanced look at the function -and limitations- of these two techniques in order to accurately differentiate between the two. This post puts all of those words into action by providing you with twenty different cleansing and purification techniques.
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