witchcraft – Serendipities

Books for Beginners: Magic, not Gods

October 8, 2023
by Alexandra

So, yesterday someone asked me a question about what kind of books and resources I would recommend for getting started with magic. I inquired further, and they clarified that they had no interest in deities at this point, which narrowed down my potential list of recommendations. After a little poking through my shelves and some reviews for books I haven't gotten my hands on yet, I finally settled on these:

Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation, by Mat Auryn
I haven't read this one yet, but I have leafed through it and it seemed like it was pretty solid on the basics: meditation, energy work, grounding and shielding, etc. And it got a pretty glowing review from John Beckett! There's also a sequel of sorts: Mastering Magick: A Course in Spellcasting for the Psychic Witch. And you can find out what else Mat Auryn has been up (or find podcast episodes where he had a guest appearance to talk about his books) to on his website.
Grovedaughter Witchery: Practical Spellcraft, by Bree NicGarran
This one I own, and I've followed the author on social media for a decade or longer, and her stuff is usually pretty clear, and almost always secular. Despite being a pagan, the gods don't really figure in her witchcraft; her focus is more on folkloric-flavored witchcraft, inspired by fairytales. Bree also has a podcast, Hex Positive, which has a lot of additional resources.
Evolutionary Witchcraft, by T. Thorn Coyle
I own this one, too, and read it for the book club run by the Fellowship Beyond the Star a few years back. It's from a Feri/Reclaiming perspective, and does include some deities but it also includes both the Iron and Pearl Pentacles, and a lot of movement exercises, which makes it a valuable addition to this list.
TrancePortation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World, by Diana L. Paxson
This one is very focused on trancework and remains one of the most comprehensive books I've ever read on that topic. It's heavy though, so it takes a while to get through, but all the exercises build on each other. If you're interested in trancework and journeying, I can't recommend it enough.
Six Ways: Approaches and Entries for Practical Magic, by Aidan Wachter
I haven't read this one, either, but I did just finish Weaving Fate: Hypersigils, Changeing the Past, and Telling True Lies, by the same author and that book moved this one into my Need category. Weaving Fate is a little more specific and a little more advanced, but a very engaging and straightforward read with good instructions; I can't imagine Six Ways being much different in that regard.
Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols, by Laura Tempest Zakroff
This is the first that was recommended by someone else as I was discussing this post, and I was really grateful for the suggestion because my own sigils are almost always bindrunes or ogham or some combination thereof, so I don't really own any books on sigilry. It's a powerful type of magic in its own right though, and though it doesn't really jive with my personal practice (I don't use other people's sigils, as a rule), I have long been impressed with Tempest's work. Plus, this book had a glowing review from another author whose work I admire, Misha Magdalene (author of Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Magical Practice, a must-read for any queer neopagans or group leaders)
The Elements of Spellcrafting: 21 Keys to Successful Sorcery, by Jason Miller
I've seen this one recommended a lot, too, though I've yet to get my hands on a copy of it to leaf through. Still, I've found many of Jason Miller's blogs very insightful, and this book has a great review by another blogger I've long admired, River Enodian.

I think I'll stop there, for now - I could recommend more blogs and online courses and youtube channels but for now I think I'll stick to a list of books! I'd love to hear other people's suggestions as well - if you feel like I made a mistake leaving out your favorite book, let me know! Feel free to talk about them in the comments here or on FB; I always love to start a conversation. (And who knows, if this really becomes a conversation maybe I'll curate a list of other types of resources: podcasts and classes and videos, oh my!)

Mystic South 2023

This year I was presenting a workshop on four Irish Fairy Queens I titled “Into the Hollow Hills”. Like last year, this year my workshop was in the first block on Friday, and also like last year I did not expect very many people… and was proven wrong! I ran out of handouts, which is always a good position to be in! I think it went pretty well, though this was the first time I’d run through the entire thing with an actual audience, and it ended up taking a bit longer than I expected, so I skimmed some of the additional material after I covered the four main fairy queens. I basically only included information on other fairy monarchs if they had a connection to one of my main four: Úna, Áine, Clíodhna, and Fand. Fand is not necessarily known as a folkloric fairy queen, but she has shown up in that role in my own life for a long time, and she is the wife of a very well known fairy king (Manannan Mac Lir), and I thought it would be best to include her with those caveats. (Aoibheall I approached to see if she would like to be included but she demurred, so I only mentioned her briefly. I would not have chosen to exclude a fairy queen known as Clíodhna’s sister and rival, otherwise! I wouldn’t want to have my firstborn cursed to prick their finger on a spindle.) Then I covered some basic safety rules for the journey, and led a guided journey to a liminal place between our world and the world of Fairy, and brought everyone back right as the block ended, though I stuck around a little to chat with folks for a bit!

Meeting people finally in person is really one of the highlights of Pagan events for me, and I got to meet a couple of people I’d only known online again this year, and got to spend more time with the ever-amazing Daniela Simina (who has two books coming out next year, and I am finally the proud owner of a signed copy of her first book)! I also went to a bunch of really great workshops, both by people I hadn’t heard of before, and people whose work I’ve admired for a long time.

In that second category, Llevin and Gwen Ithon were back and teaching several workshops, and I went to most of them! The class on “Raising Bairns” was taught by Gwen and their (adult) daughter Aurelie, and was a really good look at how to raise kids within a pagan/magical culture without indoctrinating them into a specific tradition. Instead, Gwen and Llevin emphasized the philosophy and core values of their culture and traditions, taught their children some basic skills (grounding, centering, cleansing, etc) and involved them in the home practice (rituals to the household gods, prayers said when lighting a fire, etc). Gwen and Aurelie both emphasized that their culture believes that if one family continues only in one magical society or tradition, it stagnates; having generations each find their own preferred way to practice keeps things fresh and invigorated and breathes life into the practices. They also talked a bit about rites of passage. Then Llevin and Gwen together taught “Soul Burden”, about releasing illness and negativity from the spirit body. It included an esoteric discussion of how souls and reincarnation are viewed in their tradition, and a few examples of healing modalities, including one using a bowl of silvered water that I’m going to have to try for myself! I also took their class on fairies, called “Conjured by Candlelight” and though it took a more ceremonial bent than my practice, there was a lot of valuable information, and some streams of continuity for me that I’m going to be chewing on for a while.

I also went to Daniela’s paper presentation on fairies, specifically on “Apotropaic and Propitiatory Elements in Home Design”, which was full of great information, and even better pictures! I love hearing Daniela present, because our paths are so similar, and while I did already know a lot of the information, I also learned some new things! And in any case I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it; I always try to go to my friends’ workshops! I went to Debra Burris’s workshop “An Eclipse is Coming!” for the same reason, but by about ten minutes in I had caught the hype bug. That workshop was a fun mix of science, mythology, and folk practice, and I’m really glad I went. The only other person I really knew who was teaching was John Beckett, and alas the class I most wanted to take was scheduled in the same block as mine, so I’ll have to grab notes from someone!

Of the people I had never taken a class from before, I think Nathan Hall’s workshop “Hedgeriding: Experiencing the Liminal between Animism and Witchcraft” aligned the most with my own philosophies (if not quite with the specifics of my practice). He talked about how it’s not re-enchantment of the world around us, it’s ourselves that we need to reenchant, and I could not agree more. And as for rewilding, that, too, is necessary to internalize: “What can you do today,” he asked, “to make yourself 10% more feral?” The last part of the workshop was a guided meditation to meet local land spirits, and it went a little sideways for me (I got the Fair Folk first instead, which shocks no one), but I did end up having a powerful experience with the local river. I liked the workshop so much I bought his book!

I went to three classes about plants, two by Anastasha Verde and one by Ivy Laine. Anastasha’s first one was “Sacred Botany, Sacred Grief” and it focused on ecological grief and presented an overview of pagan rituals she’d found that were meant to address that. It definitely got my ritualist brain wheels turning! Her second one was on “Rewilding Your Practice with Bioregional Animism” which I am ALL ABOUT, and it was great to have an open discussion about the Appalachian and Piedmont regions. She also emphasized knowing your local watershed, which is particularly important to me. I came away from that one with a lot of good ideas. Ivy’s workshop was “Beautiful but Dangerous”, on poison plant allies of Appalachia, and it had a lot of good information. I learned a lot, and got to finally ask someone what I might use Carolina Horsenettle for. I’ve been wondering about it since that plant popped up in my yard two years ago, and while I’ve been trying to get to know the plant spirit, I’ve not found much folklore on it, but Ivy (and others) agreed that generally you’d use it the same way you might use bittersweet nightshade — that is to say, as a a slightly less malefic substitute for belladonna.

All in all, it was an amazing conference (as always), and I can’t wait until next year!

The Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2023

This past weekend, I attended the Morrigan’s Call Retreat in person for the first time. (Blog followers with a keen memory may remember that I had a presentation slated for the 2020 retreat, but that one ended up being virtual, for good reason!) It was also the first time I’d ever really been to New England (at least I assume Manhattan doesn’t count?), and the first time I ever met Morgan Daimler in person, so it was a weekend of firsts in a lot of ways, for me.

I had two presentations, and I’ll be uploading the notes from those to my Patreon for supporters as soon as I manage to find the time to finish editing them (but my time is a bit constrained now that my child is out of school for the summer, so patience is appreciated!) Anyone who was at the retreat but didn’t make my workshop is also welcome to email me to ask for the handouts or notes for either “Working with Deities of Battle” or “When the Morrigan Goes Quiet”.

I hadn’t been sure how I was going to get to the retreat itself as I don’t drive, but I trusted in Na Morrigna and it worked out — one of my sorta-local friends was also going and we rode up together, which was a really nice way to start the weekend. (Getting stuck on the train between DC and Baltimore was less nice, but all’s well that ends well.) We arrived on Friday during orientation, but the nice folks at registration and the regulars we ran into at lunch all helped us get oriented properly. I also first ran into Morgan at lunch, and met the whole crew in one pass! I got unpacked and prepped for my first workshop, “Deities of Battle”, made my introductions to the local Fair Folk, and then wandered over to the pavilion.

Way more people showed up than I expected, and it turned out that I hadn’t brought enough handouts. Whoops! People were pretty accommodating, though, sharing with neighbors and taking pictures on their phones, and I handed out a lot of business cards for folks to email me afterwards. It seemed to go over pretty well – even when I took a Deep Dive into UPG with a side dish of Extreme Woo, including the discussion of the Otherworldly War I mentioned here previously. I was really nervous about its reception, but when I later walked in on a conversation on how to use some of the types of battle sorcery I’d mentioned against A Certain Florida Man currently playing at Governator, I knew I’d found my people. Na Morrigna might not pick political parties, but They do stand for sovereignty, and right relationship, and I find most devotees take a stand against oppression and bigotry. After dinner I went to the first ritual, despite feeling a bit like my energies were tapped out. (Shout out to a tylwyth teg ally of mine for helping me actually stay upright through that!) It was pretty good, but I was focused a little too much on staying upright to get much of anything out of it. And, to my extreme disgrace, my attempt to turn off my phone earlier had apparently not taken — it was still on the “shut down or restart?” screen when the alarm went off at the very end of the ritual. Not the best omen! At least it was a pretty tinkly musical alarm and not blaring beeps…

On Saturday, I went to Morgan Daimler’s workshop “Offerings 101” and then Sionnain McLean’s workshop on “Spiritual Self-Care” and thoroughly enjoyed both. Morgan’s was a little oriented towards beginners but also had some fun anecdotes and a few things I hadn’t thought of. I think Sionnain’s flowed nicely into mine, on the topic of fallow times, and there were certainly some common themes. That workshop I’ve done a couple times before, and it opened up nicely into a discussion and sharing session where attendees were addressing each other and it really felt like we were building community. After lunch I went to “Pagan Priest/ess Work” also by Morgan, and got some great advice and also a little bit of validation for my own path, which is more spirit-focused than human-community-focused, though I still do work for the human community around me. Then my friend Katie and I just… stayed. We talked to Morgan and Mel for probably the next two hours, missing the ritual and instead going in deeply into some personal practice stuff and also veering into the weeds on a fair few other topics! It was probably more what I needed — sitting still, for one, as my spoons still weren’t quite full.

There had been a Kindred Crow concert planned for that night, but with Caine in the hospital and Irene deep in grief, that was not to be. (I share the grief, but our friend was not so central to my life, nor I so central to hers, though I miss her sorely and will be at the memorial service tomorrow.) I did attend the bonfire circle that night, though, and so was there to witness and take part in a raising of energy for the members of Kindred Crow, and managed to capture a small clip of it to send on. I also managed to finally connect with the land deeply that evening, and received a profoundly personal message — including the awareness that I was about an hour too far west to be on the land of my indigenous ancestors.

The next day, partly because of my intense experience leading to not-great sleep (and the suddenly chilly weather didn’t help) and partly just due to my energy expenditure, I spent most of the day just chatting with folks in the dining hall. I was a little disappointed at not feeling up to the ritual and workshops, but I wanted to be able to make it back to my friend’s house without fainting and that was already a tall ask. It was nice to connect with folks, though, and I managed to bond with people over my chronic illness, and over butterfly raising!

When we left, my friend graciously agreed to take me an hour east for me to greet the land my ancestors lived on when the first colonists arrived, and that was a complicated and powerful experience — one that I will probably be processing for a while. It is enough to say here: I was recognized, even as diluted and as distanced as I am. In so many ways, the Morrigan’s Call Retreat was a homecoming for me.

Dryads and Wood-Wives: A Question of Categorization

February 1, 2023
by Alexandra

I got an interesting question on tumblr last week, and while I’m not going to copy the entire thing over here, nor my entire rambling response, I thought it brought up two important worldview questions that might illuminate my practice a bit for ya’ll, and may help out others who are new to walking the path of a fairy witch.

The first question was, basically: is a Germanic wood-wife the same thing as a Greek dryad? Are these just two names for the same exact thing? On the surface, it does sort of seem that way; they’re described in very similar terms. But one of the trickiest things about the realms of Fairy (and one that I think is the hardest for people to wrap their heads around) is that we can’t cleanly separate fairies into specific species. There’s a lot of evidence in the Scottish Witch Trial manuscripts that the difference between a devil and an imp and a fairy and an elf was pretty much a difference of attitude, and that the same being might be called two or more of these terms even by the same person.(1) And there’s plenty of folkloric evidence that these beings can change their appearance, or at least deceive our senses. So we just can’t quantify and identify them as we do with animals and plants, and just because they seem similar doesn’t necessarily mean they are the same.

On top of that, we have to add the complexities of culture – both ours and theirs. I think it’s reasonable to say that some of the Fair Folk seem to have a sort of symbiotic relationship with nearby humans, to the point that there’s some cultural bleed between the two groups.(2) So it would make sense to me that the dryads would have more Greek sensibilities and prefer offerings of common Greek foodstuffs, whereas wood-wives would have more Germanic sensibilities and prefer more common Germanic foodstuffs – and that seems to be born out in the folklore about what to offer and how to give it. So it doesn’t make sense to me to try and force a pattern on that – there’s no way to reduce them all, to the point where you can say “all feminine forest spirits should be offered [some kind of food]”. I think it’s better to just not worry about whether wood-wives and dryads are the same “species” and instead of highlighting the similarities, learn about the differences, so that you don’t accidentally offend anyone.(3) When I encounter new beings in the landscape, either Over Here, or Over There, as I’m going about my business, one of the things I ask is what they call themselves – not their Name or even name, but what type of a being they want me to know them as. They are usually willing to either show or tell me enough that I can at least figure out what paradigm will work best in my interactions with them, and I then move forward treating them as the folklore surrounding that being suggests that I should.(4)

That brings me to the second question: do fairy beings travel to places other than where their original folklore is from? I think they do. I think it would be strange to think that only humans travel across our world, when plants and animals have done their best to migrate (with and without our help) as well. I also think that the symbiosis I spoke about in the last section plays a roll, but this time on a more macro scale. I’ve heard stories of brownies and nisser traveling with their families on boats to the Americas, and there are stories of fairy beings being “chased out” of certain areas (often by Christian priests). I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that some of them might’ve come that way to the Americas or Australia or wherever. Personally, I’ve met a lot of fairy beings who, when I ask them what type of being they are, identify themselves as something from European folklore. Near where I live, it’s been mainly beings known from Celtic or British or Germanic cultural folklore, and I think that makes sense given the colonial history of this area. (I’ve met some indigenous otherworldly beings as well, but they’re usually fairly shy, and so far none of them are specifically symbiotic to the indigenous cultures of that side of my family, but I’m nowhere near the traditional homelands, either.) I wouldn’t be super surprised, either, to find beings from Central American or Islamic or Korean folklore nearby, either, considering the current demographics of the area, but I also can’t say that I would necessarily recognize them if I did, as I’m not as well versed in those. Generally though, I think it’s not impossible to find beings from any culture that is currently represented in your area or has ever lived there, because these beings are usually believed to be both powerful and long-lived, and it’s therefore a good idea to just learn as much as you can about anyone you might encounter.

When I ask fairy-like otherworldly beings(5) what kind of a being they are, I’m not looking to categorize them, to check them off in a field guide, or to decide what “species” they belong to – I’m trying to gain context. How they present themselves tells me a little about their expectations, their likes and dislikes, and their sensibilities. And then I’ll use that information, and offer Dryads clean water, diluted wine, and olive oil, and offer wood-wives bread or other things made of grain, and perhaps a bit of milk. I’m a witch looking to create relationships, not a scientist trying to answer questions that might just be unanswerable.

See Emma Wilby’s Cunningfolk and Familiar Spirits (Sussex Academic Press, 2005), and Seo Helrune (www.seohelrune.com) has talked about the same in the Nordic sphere, with alfe vs jotnar, in some of their classes.
“Symbiotic” here not necessarily meaning “mutualistic” (benefitting both parties) on a micro scale. I think it’s likely that it’s mutualistic on a macro scale of our two populations, but on a micro scale yeah some humans definitely get fucked over, more along the lines of commensalism or straight-up predation.
Really, learning as much as you can in order to avoid giving accidental offence is probably my #1 Fairy Witchcraft rule.
To an extent: there’s plenty of folklore that says “don’t ever fucking talk to these omg just leave quickly and pretend you didn’t see them”. That’s fairly wise for those wishing not to end up in deep water with the Fair Folk but as I’m already fully submerged, I don’t always look away – I trust that my bargains and roles and allies will keep me safe in most normal situations, and I don’t try to mess around with things above my pay grade. A lot of my discernment has been just figuring out what is and is not within my pay grade, and while I might not rush inside and barricade the door if I see a kelpie, I’m not likely to touch it or try to banish it, either. To quote Morgan Daimler, “I like my liver on the inside.”
There’s some disagreement about whether “fairy” includes non-European folkloric otherworldly beings, and more about whether it should, so just to be clear, when I use “fairy” I do mean it in the more general “folkloric otherworldly being” sense. But I try to use “fairy-like” when I’m explicitly talking about non-European folkloric otherworldly beings, out of respect for people in their source cultures who might not feel like the word “fairy” is appropriate. Some of that, I find, is because of a misunderstanding of what a “fairy” is, based on popculture, though – I had a long discussion with a Persian friend about fairies and djinn where at the end we basically decided both terms covered the same basic category, but she originally had thought all fairies were small Tinkerbell types which did not seem at all like her understanding of djinn!

Warding for a Defensible Home

August 31, 2022
by Alexandra

I first started thinking about writing something on this topic a few months ago, when Irene Glasse posted a very good blog on Set-And-Forget Protection Magic. She touched on things like using iron, witch bottles, and witch balls, and a number of rocks and plants that are known as protective.

That got me thinking about my own methodologies, including my personal reasons not to use iron. I made a few notes, and then… didn’t write the blog. Fast forward to last Dark Moon, and the instruction to make Defensible Homes, and I realized it was time to take this back out. The image below (which is also the one used in the thumbnail) is what comes to my mind when I imagine “defensible”. It’s a strong, tall, castle wall, with a few places for archers and lookouts and other defenders.

I’m not sure what castle this is, as the image was provided by unsplash, but look at that wall! Those crenellations!

In my own practice, the first thing I tend to do in a new house is a claiming. I greet the spirit of the parcel of land, and of the house itself, and I inform them that I will now be dwelling here, and caretaking these spaces. This is now, as I explain, my territory, and I will build a safe nest, and I will defend it against all who wish me ill. Generally, the spirits of land and house are just happy to have been spoken to at all, and they’re willing to allow me to proceed.

Then, I’ll usually walk the perimeter (as best I can) and repeat the claiming there: all that I encircle is my territory, my home. This was traditionally done with burning torches in places like Norway and Scotland, but I’ve done it with a candle, and I’ve done it with sprinkled oats, and I’ve done it with a staff. Clockwise is best for this sort of thing, at least in my personal practice, beginning and ending either at the front door or the driveway (if there is one).

Once claimed, I’ll then sweep and smoke out any stagnant or unwanted energies, and evict any spirits who won’t play nicely with others. You’ll want to do that before you’ve set up the strong wards on a new house, or after you’ve taken down the old wards, if you’re rebuilding them, to make the sweeping out easier.

Next, I’ll refill the space with the sort of energy I want to have in the house – generally I use some kind of a blessing, in water or smoke. You shouldn’t just sweep out the unwanted, without have a clear idea of what should replace it, because otherwise you may create a magical vacuum, which of course will then fill itself with whatever is nearby.

Once the energy I do want is filling the space and spilling out, I’ll return to the perimeter, and this is the part where if there’s land, I’ll sink in a few spikes or nails as anchors. Railroad spikes are very popular and very effective, but my work involves the Fair Folk far too much for me to want to use iron as my ward anchors, so I tend to use copper instead (silver would also work very well for me, but it’s a bit more expensive). I place anchors at each corner, and the edge of each entrance (like the driveway, and the front walk), moving in a clockwise direction. I set part of the enchantment into each anchor before I drive it into the ground, so that I can feel those and pick them back up when I’m ready to weave the warding-walls. (Though don’t think of “walls” as just a fence – you want to block off access above and below you as well.) For my ward weaving, I usually work primarily in trance, with very few props (outside of the anchors I’ve already driven into the ground), but you could also create some sort of object to hold the spell, if that’s the kind of work you’re more comfortable with. You could tie all the anchors back into a jar spell of some type, perhaps.

As I move around the perimeter, I also ask for the help of any trees or shrubs near the property line, near the driveway and front walk, and near any back or side doors. Although I haven’t really lived in a place where I’ve done a lot of landscaping, if you’re considering putting in some new bushes or shrubs in any of those places, maybe do a little research on which plants are considered protective! I have a little baby hawthorn that’s still in a pot for now, but will hopefully one day be placed near my front walk. Some protective plants are already pretty common in landscaping, such as roses and holly!

I also set up zones within the perimeter, to designate whether and when friendly-inclined spirits are allowed in. For example, I generally recommend that children’s bedrooms have an extra layer of warding to keep out everything but allowable humans and pets, and the child’s own guides and guardians. I also usually have tight wards around my own bedroom, and the bathrooms. I try to keep the Folk who are “wandering through” confined to my office (which doubles as ritual space) and not out in the house at large. And while you’re thinking of wards, don’t forget the other types of entrance: water pipes, electricity, the internet. I tend to use sigils or bind-runes above doors and windows, as well as around pipes and conduits, as my inner layers of warding, sometimes literally drawing them in paint. Do remember to paint over or otherwise remove them before you leave, if you move away, though!

In addition to the “zones”, I’ve drawn sigils around my house to create a sort of “flushing” system, so that if I need to clear the house quickly, I can use a sigil on the front door and activate the others throughout the house to flood the area with a deluge of cleansing energy. It’s not as good as a deep clean, but if you’ve ever wanted to smoke-cleanse the whole house after an unwanted guest left and you found yourself too drained to do so, you should maybe try it. It lets me address an issue in the moment, pretty much regardless of my current energy levels, and stops the problem from getting too bad before I can get around to a full cleanse-and-bless.

One thing that I try to do with wards that I don’t see talked about a lot, is I try to create some kind of feedback system, so that I will be aware quickly if anything tries to get past the wards, or if they are damaged. Part of my system for that includes my House Steward, one of the key spirits in my household, who can do some repairs on his own, and is more than capable of grabbing my attention when needed. Spirits and spirit relationships make up another entire layer of the defensibility of my home, but I think that might be best discussed in its own blog, so we’ll do that next week!

The final thing I’ll say, though, is that even most set-and-forget wards and protections need to be looked at once a year or so. If you’re using a jar as a focus object, maybe put that jar somewhere it’s not in the way but you’ll still see it occasionally, so that you will notice quickly if it breaks or something else problematic occurs. For anything you can’t see to check on periodically, it might be a good idea to incorporate a check-in into your seasonal practice somehow! Maybe every January (New Year, New Wards) or some time in March when you get sucked into Spring Cleaning. Whatever makes the most sense for your personal practice!

Here are the links for the blogs on Spirit Relationships for a Defensible Home: Part 1 and Part 2.

A Lunar Eclipse, The Midnight Culmination of The Pleiades, And Otherworldly Tides

It’s been a while (and a whole change of blogging platform) since I last made a “Faery Weather” post,¹ but it seems to be That Time again. For those who haven’t seen the old posts, this basically started when the Morrigan and some of my Fair Folk contacts started giving me messages to pass along about how activity in the Otherworlds was going to spill over into my local environment (which was defined somewhat broadly by Them as the Chesapeake Bay watershed region, though it is probably less applicable the farther one gets from the Bay itself). The first few blogs turned into a semi-regular series, but when Na Morrigna had me start writing out Their messages on the Dark Moon, some of the information was getting passed along that way instead. I haven’t really been sharing much of my personal involvements in various Otherworldly shenanigans recently for a couple of reasons: some of it is sort difficult to describe, some of it I can’t really talk about, and it’s all very deep in the UPG well of woo.²

But this “weather report”, though still UPG, is more general in application, and the gist of it is this: over the next few days we’ve got the waning of the Leonid meteor shower, a full moon, a lunar eclipse, and the midnight culmination of the Pleiades cluster.³ Any of those by themselves might mean a “high tide” of Otherworldly activity spilling over into our realm, but with all of them together and taking onto consideration just how much activity there’s been on “quiet” days lately,⁴ I think we need to be prepared for a higher-than-normal high tide.

The usual warnings apply: ground, center and shield. Ward your spaces. Check in with your spirit allies. Be prepared for extra wackiness even in your mundane life!

However, if you know how to ride a wave, this is an excellent time to go witchy-surfing (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor, haha). There’s extra liminality going on — the sun is transitioning from Scorpio to Sagittarius as well — and there’s a profusion of swirling energies, perfect to harness if you have a working well-suited to these conditions. I’m supposed to recommend caution, but I understand that sometimes experimentation is the best way to learn, so use your own best judgement.

If you are planning to make overtures to Otherworldly beings, just remember that even the Fair Folk most friendly to humanity are not always kind, and though the Fair Folk do not lie, they often mislead. I usually recommend starting with those closest to you if you intend to work with the Fair Folk — your own Good Neighbors — but others will be riding the winds and traveling the fairy roads as well: some neutral, some baleful, some hostile or even predatory. You don’t want to grab the attention of the Slua Sí! Being able to discern between neighbors and interlopers is very important in spiritwork in general but it’s especially important right now.

There have been conflicts these past couple of years that took place mostly in the Otherworlds but have spilled over into our realm,⁵ and I’ve been experiencing more conflicts taking place unseen in parts of our world as well, lately. It’s tense out there — though like with mundane wars, some places have been hit more heavily than others. There isn’t really a major physical dividing line that I’m aware of, but the idea of “front lines” (as humans experienced them in the trenches of the World Wars) makes a pretty good analogy to distinguish between harder hit areas and places that have been more sheltered from the conflicts. If you live in an area that’s been more like the front lines, it will be even more important to shield and ward these next few days.

Hopefully this message finds its way to those who need to hear it, but if it isn’t relevant to your path please scroll on by. I’m happy to discuss things over email if anyone has more specific concerns, and I’ll respond to any comments posted here as best I can, but I think it’s important to stress again that this is UPG, and not everyone experiences Otherworldly flows in the same manner. This message will be most helpful to those whose UPG best aligns with my own!

Notes:

Those are available here on wordpress, if you’re interested.
UPG, for those unfamiliar with the term, stands for “Unverified Personal Gnosis”, which is knowledge I have gained from my own personal experiences interacting with the Otherworlds and Otherworldly beings.
For that last one, I recommend reading Morgan Daimler’s recent book “Living Fairy”, on their experiences with Otherworldly celebrations following the cycle of the Pleiades cluster.
A lot of pagan writers have commented on this phenomenon, but John Beckett had a pretty good introductory pair of blogs in 2016 and has some more recent thoughts about it, too. Those can be found here on Patheos.
And these have been even worse, in my experience, than what Beckett mentions in the blogs linked above, and I’ve heard similar from a few of my fellow “fairy-involved” witches.

The thumbnail image on this post is a stock photo of the Pleiades cluster provided by SquareSpace.

Riders on a Baleful Wind, and a Charm to Keep Them at Bay

This time of year, between the autumnal equinox and Samhain, is when I notice the most activity from a loose grouping of spirits I’ve begun to refer to as Riders on a Baleful Wind. I’m referring both to the Wild Hunt ⁠(or, really, Hunts, plural) and also to some of the Fair Folk⁠—trooping fairies who travel near these dates*, and groups like the slua sí, who are also associated with wind or storms, and overlap somewhat with the folkloric Wild Hunt.

As a folklore motif and a mythological archetype, the Wild Hunt is prevalent across much of Northwestern Europe, and the Hunt of each region has its own leader. Often these leaders are Pre-Christian deities associated with war or death, like Odin/Woden and Gwyn Ap Nudd. Other times they’re figures associated with the aos sí, like Manannán Mac Lir, or they’re said to be famous ghosts, like Herne the Hunter. These folk tales came with European Immigrants to the Americas as well, and here the Hunt is sometimes known as the Ghost Riders. (Some of you will be familiar with the song, I imagine.) Besides the leader, who or what exactly the rest of the company is varies from tale to tale. Sometimes they are human dead, sometimes they’re said to be fairies or demons, but most frequently these groups seem to be something of a motley crew. The overlapping circles of the Fair Folk, the Gods, and the Dead are difficult to pick apart, and it’s especially difficult to draw any clear lines when we’re looking at the Wild Hunt and related groups of weather-riding unfriendly otherworldly beings.

Unfriendly and intimidating though they may seem, not all of them are actually malevolent. That’s why I term them “baleful”, not “baneful”, and each individual group poses a different type and level of danger. Malevolent or not, however, they’re generally not spirits most witches want in or around their homes or places of business, and with that in mind I’ve been working on a charm object to add a little additional protection to whatever wards you already have in place.

Warding Charm

The charm itself is fairly small and would easily blend into an autumn wreath. The ingredients are pretty simple as well: a sweetgum ball, some red yarn, and iron water.

SWEETGUM BALL: One per charm, dried, preferably with the stem attached.

Part of the work I’ve been doing with the Ogham for the past two years (or more, really, but I think it was two years ago that I really started diving in deeply in a structured way) is finding local plants that have similar energy to the plants of the tree ogham list.** Sweetgum, a tree indigenous to my area, has an energy that I think is similar in some important ways to Blackthorn. While it doesn’t have thorns, it does have spiky seed balls, and its sweet-scented sap, like blackthorn sloes, is actually very bitter tasting. Additionally, it’s a favored food of luna moth caterpillars, an insect I have long associated with nocturnal fairy beings. Blackthorn is sometimes said to belong to or to ward off the Othercrowd, and I find Sweetgum fits that niche as well. I have since learned that sweetgum balls are also used in hoodoo for protection, which dovetails nicely with both my experience of the tree, and this charm.

RED YARN: Or thread, I suppose. Enough to wrap around the sweetgum ball twice at perpendicular intersections, and tie off to leave tails for hanging.

I decided to spin my own yarn. I’ve wanted to learn to spin for a long time, but until recently thought I was allergic to wool. It turns out, I’m probably reacting to a chemical used in the commercial processing, because I did a test with a friend’s fleece-to-homespun and had no redness, no itching, no bumps, no hives! Excited, I borrowed a drop spindle and purchased some red-dyed roving from an artisan supplier. They included a sample of some other colors and I used that to figure out a technique for spinning. That way, once I started on the red roving, I could focus more on spinning my intent and my power into the yarn, instead of still figuring out what the heck I was doing. If you don’t spin, I recommend braiding embroidery floss as a good alternative for adding your intent and power to the string. Something like: I’m a badass witch and I protect this space; I decide who enters and who the wards keep out.

Iron Water: Soak some nails in water with a little splash of apple cider vinegar for a few days. When it’s ready, dip the sweetgum ball, yarn and all, into the water and let it get saturated.

I doubt I need to tell most of my readers that iron is known to ward off the Fair Folk, but just in case you need the refresher: that’s why we’re using iron water. You could also stick those very nails into this charm if you wanted, but that’s a bit stronger than I wanted for my personal charms, and it would be a little too strong for some allies I don’t want to keep out. I wanted something vaguely iron scented. Enough iron to say that I know what I’m about, but not enough iron to deeply offend those who are welcome across my threshold.

This is also probably a good time to tell you that this charm, as I’ve made it, is basically a “No Tresspassing” sign. It’s not going to do much good if it’s your only line of defense. If you have decent house wards, though, and gods or allies you can turn to in times of need, that sign will be enough to make those Riders more inclined to go around, rather than through. There are fewer obstacles elsewhere, and easier prey to be found. As with most predators, that’s usually enough, as long as you don’t provoke them.

* Though the ones who travel near the autumnal equinox may be following the Pleiades, not the equinox. See Morgan Daimler’s recent writings on that for more information.

** Nota Bene: The Ogham is an alphabet, and it’s not just about trees. Trees are one of the ogham lists. There’s also word ogham, skill ogham, bird ogham, even dog and waterway ogham. Eventually I’ll make my own local herb and bird and waterways lists, too, and maybe a modern skills ogham. But a lot of my general witchy practice includes work with plants, so trees seemed like a good place to start.

Building a Witchy Go-Bag

Ever since Witches’ Sabbat last year, I’d been thinking about easier ways to bring the majority of my tools and bits and bobs with me, in the event I want something while I’m away from home (like at an event at a campground in a whole other country). I began compiling a list of things I might want, but I kept getting stuck with a list too long or too short and I couldn’t figure out what sort of container to put it in. I wanted something structured and weather-resistant, but beyond that I wasn’t really sure.

Then, about a month ago, both Seo Helrune and Morgan Daimler started talking about their go-bags, and I went scrolling through types of bags on the internet and ran straight into a bag type I hadn’t realized existed: structured makeup travel bags. (Yeah, I’m not that into makeup. But then, if you’ve seen me in person you probably already know that.)

So I looked around and ordered one that was black and water resistant and had what looked to be a good layout, and I waited. When it arrived, I started gathering things and moving them around and revisiting my list and adding more things to a shopping list and taking things out and looking for the perfect notebook and now… Here it is!

The Final Kit:

Mirror (came with bag, not pictured)
slim A5 notebook and mechanical pencil (in outer pocket, not pictured)
3 plastic quart-sized zip bags (in zipper pocket, not pictured)
1 white cotton handkerchief (also in zipper pocket)
a small bottle of whiskey
a ceramic folding knife
a corked test tube
a mini rattle
3 biodegradeable plastic 5 gal bags (green, tucked around jars)
a jar of sea salt
a jar of pipe tobacco
an empty jar
a spice shaker of my ash salt (not quite the same thing as black salt)
a compass
a crystal pendulum and a silver ring in a small jewelry box
a roll of washi tape
an electric tealight
3 tealight candles
a small box of matches
an incense cone and a metal stand, that will be swapped out for incense matchsticks once I acquire ones I like
a leather pouch with a few important crystals (this is sort of a divination set and sort of a set of tactile anchors for trancework)
a tiny sewing kit with some different colored thread and a mini scissors
a set of finger cymbals (in lieu of a bell, because I like them better)
a tin with a mini tarot deck, the Radiant Rider-Waite-Smith
an altoid tin, containing white chalk sticks, black birthday candles, and a number of bright candies
some of my business cards (hey, a witch has got to self-promote)

This is the out-of-town bag, and as such it doesn’t contain the things I always have in my purse, which includes most of my enchanted jewelry (if I’m not wearing it), a number of small personal charms, and a set of oracle cards of my own devising, as well as my phone, calendar, pens, sunglasses, tylenol, hair ties, etc. If I’m wandering about a witchy campground, those things will likely also migrate into here or into my pockets (or, gods-willing, the apron I will finally sew for myself).

I’m glad to have finally made this, and it’s usable now even if there are still a few little things that need tidying. It might seem like a lot of stuff, and it is, so I may need to think about making something scaled down just a touch, something between what I carry everyday and this whole bag, but then again… As much as I love my tools, most of the time, most of what I do uses very few tools at all. This bag is a safety net, for when I can’t just pop home and grab something, for when the closest store is farther away than I can easily walk. I’ll take it to events and I’ll take it to house calls, and as I do the work, I’ll learn what I use most and what I can replace with something I’ll use more.

Shielding

There are nearly as many approaches to shielding as there are paths in paganism and witchcraft. Some of the more popular include:

Carrying objects or materials known to be protective (such as certain types of plants, certain crystals, hag stones, or iron)
Using sigils or bind runes, inscribed either on yourself (in lotion, as a tattoo, etc), on a belonging (like clothing, shoes, jewelry), or on something small enough to carry with you (like a notecard, business card, or guitar pick put in your pocket, bag, or wallet)
Spoken spells, used daily or whispered when extra help is needed
Enchanting jewelry, clothing, or something you carry with you, like a keychain or charm bag
Spirit protection, provided by a familiar, a guardian spirit (often an animal, mythical being**, or ancestor), or a constructed thoughtform or servitor
And finally, by energy work, using energy to construct shields that aren’t anchored to anything but the practitioner themselves

As the last one is the way I create my own shields, that’s the way I’ll be focusing on in this blog.

The simplest way most people learn to make shields with energy is to imagine* an egg of bright light surrounding them. Most people will have heard this before, and you might have heard that it should be white or gold, but I’m here to tell you that it can be any color, or a combination of colors, or no color, and it can be bright or dark, provided that whatever color or not-color and brightness or darkness you choose is something you associate with the thing you want the shield to do. That is: to protect you.

But what kind of protection are you looking for? I think it’s important to be clear on that before we go any further. Do you want to keep every single type of energy that is not yours out? Probably not – that will keep out blessings and interpersonal connections and all sorts of things you probably want. Do you want an impassable barrier between you and spirits? Strange ones maybe, but gods are spirits, too, and if you’re a devotee I doubt you want to completely shield out the object of your devotions. Do you want it to keep out negative energy? But what counts as negative? Do you want to be completely unaffected to the point of apathy about the suffering of others? Do you want to be unable to tell when other people are anxious or angry? Again, probably not always. There are probably some things you always want to keep out, like intentional malevolence and non-consensual energy feeding, but other things you probably only want to keep out sometimes, or only keep specific types out. For example: it might be good idea to shield out angry or anxious energy coming off of strangers, especially in tight spaces like a commuter train, but you might want to be able to feel some of the same energies off your romantic partner sometimes, to help you empathize with them. Once you identify what you what you want the shield to do, at least in broad strokes, I have another tip for you.

It doesn’t have to be light.

You can make a shield with any type of energy. Light, darkness, void, elemental energy (using whatever element system you like), plant energy, crystal energy, WHATEVER YOU WANT. Promise. It just needs to be: 1) a type of energy with which you’re familiar enough to imagine clearly and work with accurately, and 2) something you think will be useful for protection.

So, pick something, imagine it, and then try to feel it. Build it the same way every day until it gets easy. I recommend trying to build it in the morning as you start your day. Maybe right after your alarm goes off, or in the shower, or right before you start your morning commute. Do it the same time every day and it will become routine, and as it becomes routine it will get easier and easier. Don’t worry if you forget one day – just do it when you remember, and try to be as consistent as possible. Once it gets easy (and I recommend waiting until you’ve been doing it for at least three weeks), you can try something more advanced.

Once you’ve mastered doing a single layer shield with one type of energy, you can try creating a sort of composite energy material from other types, or build up multiple layers, each with different types of energy. Let’s say someone, and we’ll call them A, decided to stick with white light for their three weeks of practice, but now A is thinking it would be nice to have something that would slow down the energy of their partner’s outbursts, without completely keeping it out, and something else to mask their presence from spirits, because A noticed that the white light seems to make them more visible. So, A thinks about it for a while, and decides that they’ll keep the white light, but make it the inner-most layer, and then outside that they’ll put a layer of charcoal for filtering, and then outside that, a layer of salt water. Now, they’ll spend three weeks focusing on building all three layers, until that gets easy, too.

As you experiment with other materials, you may also think about using reactive materials. In our mundane lives, we’re familiar with things like glasses that get dark when you walk into sunlight, or liquids that react in the presence of magnets. You can work with or create those types of energies, too. One I like to use is sort of a liquid one-way mirrored glass, that can get darker/lighter and more/less mirrored as I tell it to, or according to its programming. Programming is another thing you might consider: you can create shields with certain pre-sets, like “increase filtering of other people’s energy when I am in a crowd”, or “filter out spirit activity while I’m at work”. You can also think about programming in shortcuts so you can adjust the layers without having to rebuild the whole thing.

This, too, you’ll have to practice daily for a while: including all the programming. Once you’ve really set up the shield the way you want it and the building is both solid and easy, you can set it up to function permanently on a low or medium setting, and then just walk through the building once a week, and eventually once a month, as it learns to stay for longer periods of time. Because it is taking hits for you in its protective role, it will eventually degrade and need patching and cleaning, so I do recommend you release and rebuild it once a month, perhaps on the waxing crescent moon. If you find yourself forgetting, you should at least try to make an effort to clean and patch quickly every time you use your shield intentionally at a high level, as part of the wind-down process afterwards when you’re in a safe space and can lower your shields a bit. That might be best to check and do before bed. Left alone – unpatched and uncleaned – for too long, even the best shield will disintegrate and you’ll be left unprotected. But if you rebuild and patch and clean regularly, the whole process will become fairly automatic, and it will take less focus and less energy than it did when you first created your shields.Helpful tips for blindspots: build an egg not a wall. Fill it up with something. Different layers can fill each other’s loopholes.

Some final tips on shielding:

Make sure you’re building something that goes all the way around you, not a wall. Things can go over or come under walls. It doesn’t have to be egg-shaped, but it will work better if it goes around your energy bodies, too, instead of being skin-tight (though someone else entering your space should cause it to retract to the space between you, even if that space is microscopic).
Related: make sure your shield is consistent. That is: make sure you’ve got it just as thick at the small of your back and under the soles of your feet as you do in front of your chest. Try not to have seams or weak areas. Pay equal attention to all areas when patching and cleaning.
If you really want to use a type of energy but it seems to have a loophole or blindspot, pair it with something else that fills that lack.
You can definitely include weaponized elements in your shield (for instance, spiky protrusions or acid), but make sure that your shield isn’t all weaponry – you need purely defensive measures, too.

That’s all for now. Hopefully it helps! If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!

* By “imagine”, I mean you should attempt to visualize or feel [tactilize?] or hear [auditorize?] the energy, or even smell or taste it. Use whichever sense is strongest and most accurate for you when you’re sensing energy.
** That is to say, a being from myth, like a gryphon or a dragon. I don’t mean “mythical” in the sense of “fictional”/”doesn’t exist”, but if you’re a witch, pagan, or spiritworker working in a pop-culture paradigm, fiction is your myth, so go ahead!

Book Review: Fairy Witchcraft

Full Title: Fairy Witchcraft: A NeoPagan’s Guide to the Celtic Fairy Faith

Author: Morgan Daimler

Publisher: Moon Books: Pagan Portals

Length: about 100 pages

Review: 5/5

Links: Amazon, Goodreads

Morgan Daimler is a long-time witch and Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan who is currently a member of Ar nDraiocht Fein, a neopagan Druid fellowship, and is a practitioner of a neopagan form of the Celtic Fairy Faith. Daimler is widely published in both fiction and non-fiction, the latter being mainly on the topics of paganism and witchcraft. This is Daimler’s second book on the topic of fairy witchcraft (the first being A Child’s Eye View of the Fairy Faith).

As with most Pagan Portals books, Fairy Witchcraft is meant to be an introductory guide. At just 100 pages long, it can hardly be expected to be comprehensive on the subject, but Daimler does a very good job covering all the basics and still finding room to add a few tidbits that may be helpful to the more experienced practitioner. Daimler spends a bit of time discussing holidays, altars, tools, and ritual format for the fairy witch, and while I personally use a different calendar and set up, I think this information would be indispensable for a beginner. I would recommend this book to any newbie looking to begin down the path of work with the fae, and I would also recommend it to any intermediate practitioner looking to reexamine and reinvigorate their practice. Many may find that their own way of doing things differs from Daimler’s (I know I did), but the text never claims that there is only one way of doing things. Rather, the reader is encouraged to find practices that best suit them. The text is also peppered through with illustrative anecdotes that really give the reader insight into the depth of Daimler’s practice.

The most refreshing thing about this book is the acknowledgement of the diversity of the fae. Not all of them are happy sweet little winged people who want to give you good luck, certainly not! Daimler discusses various types of fae (but does not list them all, which would certainly require an encyclopedia all on its own) and warns the reader that not all of them are nice. There is a reason there is lore about predatory fae (such as kelpies) and there are certainly reasons that protective charms against the fae have been passed down. Still, Daimler thinks that working with the fae isn’t any more dangerous as any other kind of spiritwork or witchcraft – as long as the proper precautions are taken. My thoughts exactly.

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The Final Kit:

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