New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
I know I'm getting old, because any time I watch a TikTok video about witchcraft, I hear myself unironically grumble, "Back in my day…" For instance, whenever a WitchToker swears up and down that the very first thing a new witch must learn is protection magic, I immediately think, "Back in my day, we started with grounding and centering." But as curmudgeonly as I can be, I will admit that having a few basic protective wards in place—or knowing how to create protections on the fly—is never a bad idea. As the following (honestly not that) harrowing tale of what the kids call "baneful magic" will illustrate. [Ed. Note: I'm not going to get into the intricacies of baneful ...
It can be challenging to stay energized and motivated when the days are getting colder and the nights are getting longer. Nature slows down during these colder months, and so do we. We need sunshine more than ever in these darker days, and although the sun is ever-present, the brightness and warmth it can bring tends to fade from our awareness into the stream of summer day memories when the temperature dramatically drops. Connecting with the energies of the sun through solar magick can help stave off the doldrums of the colder months and bring many benefits year-round. The sun lights, warms, and fuels our world. All life on earth depends on the sun, from the tiniest plant to the biggest ...
Land spirits can be mysterious to many practitioners, often seen as something to fear. In my years of teaching, speaking, and writing about the magic of working with land spirits, I have found that much of this fear people have around land spirits stems from the expectation that land spirits and faeries are the same thing, and therefore something to be wary of. Faeries are one type of spirit of place, but in my definitions, they are not land spirits. Land spirits are the spirit of the land itself, the oldest living spirit in any given place—the primordial essence of life, an elder beyond age. Having a connection to them is a gift, and never something to fear unless you live at odds ...
I was writing my latest book (Stone Witchery & Divination: Lithomancy and Magick with Rocks, Gems, and Crystals) and looking with fresh eyes at my relationship with rocks. Specifically, I wondered not what they are—ask any geologist—but who they might be. Yes, they are persons, but what manner of people? We humans can live next door to a person for years, or work in the same office, and never know much about them; that's even more the case when your neighbors aren't human. Our species, homo sapiens, has been around for maybe 300,000 years, and have been chipping stone tools, stacking rocks into walls, or coveting pretty gems the whole time. How odd that we have been ...
