Tag: magick
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Witchy Everyday Carry: What’s In My Priestexing Bag
Categories: ArchiveFor years, I carried a small version of a full ritual setup in my bag, just in case I was called upon for an urgent matter such as a hospital visit, death call, or emergency ghostbusting and house blessing service. But I realized that during those sorts of calls, I didn’t seem to need much…
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Healing and Protection: The Two Essentials in the Craft
Categories: ArchiveMarcy Young was my very first witchcraft teacher, and one of the things she taught eighteen-year-old me was that I always had permission to work magick for healing and for protection – as long as I did it in such a way as to not infringe on the free will of the person I was…
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Abracadabra: Having the Courage to Create What We Speak
Categories: ArchiveSpeaking up, speaking out, speaking aloud, speaking confidently is an act of will, an act of magick.
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The Work: A Tale of Two Wiccas
Categories: ArchiveIn Traditional Initiatory Wicca, there are working rituals and celebratory occasions that have a distinct pattern, symbolism, and lore attached to them. And then, there is the other stuff. And the other stuff, at its heart, can really only be defined as purpose-driven and intuitive ecstatic practice.
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Recitation, Vibration, Intonation, and Resonation: Harnessing the Power of Sound
Sound has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m teaching my students about the power of recitation, vibration, intonation, and resonation in magick through the use of the Qabalistic Cross, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and the Middle Pillar exercise. These ceremonial magick operations are part of our tradition’s spiritual heritage, and
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The Magick of the Coven: Understanding Shared Connection
For a long time, I thought a coven was a group of people who practiced magick together. It didn’t occur to me until embarrassingly late in my practice – in a coven, mind you! – that there was more to the coven than people getting together a couple of times a month for celebration and
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The Agency of Spirits: Getting Uncomfortable About Noncorporeal Beings
Categories: ArchiveOne of the questions that I am routinely asked is whether or not a practitioner can be called to the service of a deity outside their cultural context. There’s a lot of concern in the Pagan world these days about cultural appropriation and the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and it is an
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The Triple Ring: A Protection Spell
Categories: ArchiveOne of the first spells I learned as a young witch was the Triple Ring. When my teacher, a spry old crone named Susan, realized that my go-to shielding spell was making me oblivious to all sorts of things in my surroundings — which made perfect sense as I was visualizing a thick, red brick
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The Nine Sacred Woods of Wicca: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sacred Fire
“Nine woods in the Cauldron go — burn them quick an’ burn them slow.” Thus goes the couplet from “The Rede of the Wiccae” by Lady Gwen Thompson. In this poem, originally published in Green Egg in 1975, Lady Gwen doesn’t specify which woods are the nine that should go in the ritual fire, only
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Esbats and Sabbats: Methods and Tools for Timing Observances
Wiccan practice is based on eight solar observances, called Sabbats and known collectively as the Wheel of the Year, and 26 lunar observances, called Esbats, each year. Some people hold very strictly to celebrating the moment, or at least the day, of the observance. Others are more relaxed about the time of the gathering, factoring