I’ve shared this quote a lot of times, but I’m going to share it again because it feels like the focus of my life right now: “Attention is the beginning of devotion” – Mary Oliver I shared this quote in a class description, a ritual working, and in the path I co-facilitated as part of WorldWide WitchCamp last weekend. Last November during a poetry reading / spell working I did for a public event, I walked onto the stage and offered this... Read more
Let’s talk about what you want, what you really really want. After all, the new moon is in Scorpio and that’s where it gets real. Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash I know my body and heart tend to feel things intensely, as though there is a sound within me that needs to be released. As though there is a deep want knocking from the inside of my ribcage and from the depths of my heart. Monday November 13, 2023... Read more
Sticking to a daily practice has always been challenging, but I know why now: neurodivergence. It wasn’t JUST that I was lazy or inept or unwilling. (Though I claim those too.) Once I figured out my diagnosis, it made everything easier, right? Not really. I still struggle with daily practice, but I have learned a few things that have helped. I’m much more consistent, which works for me. What to Do So You’ll Do It Before anything else, you don’t... Read more
Since my ADHD diagnosis, folks have reached out and asked me about how to navigate witchy spaces knowing what I now know about my brain. And I tell them, I take medication, so things are easier and also nothing has changed. (All brains operate differently, after all.) But when I returned from BC Witchcamp last week, I realized something I hadn’t realized before. I mean, I knew I wasn’t the best with transitions and that I would have a post-magick... Read more
This blog is the second part of last week’s blog: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/chargedbythegoddess/2023/09/honoring-the-wild-the-long-arc-of-activism-bends-toward-hope-part-1/ Looking Ahead What is clear in my activist work and the work of those who told stories in the book is that this is a practice that is not for the future anymore. This activism is required for what is happening right now. Climate change is no longer a future event; it is here. It is in the dramatic temperature changes, in the shifting of shorelines, and in... Read more
“Our tradition honors the wild and calls for service to the earth and the community.” – from Reclaiming Witchcraft’s Principles of Unity One of the first things I learned as a witch was the elements. I turn to Air to feel the wind, to know change and inspiration. I turn to Fire to feel heat and sun, to know transformation and passion. I turn to Water to know blood and tears, to make contact with emotion and depth. I... Read more
A few weeks ago, I had a bout of insomnia. For a few nights, I couldn’t sleep. At all. And I am not a person who has trouble sleeping. (Well, jet lag sometimes gets me. And being really angry about something or someone. But neither of those apply right now.) I lay in my bed with my eyes open, switching back and forth between trying to stare at the dark and opening up my phone to see what else the... Read more
I wonder sometimes if I seem less witchy because I talk less about spells and more about feelings. Feelings are crunchy and harder to contain. They don’t come with instructions or moon phases or certain essential oils. (Okay, some might.) They come with questions. They ask only for a witness, a sacred witness. They stand in the periphery, sometimes shadowed, sometimes screaming. Thanks for reading Heart Magick! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. But I... Read more
Sometimes, when I walk in the morning, it’s dark enough for my brain to stop thinking about what’s next on my schedule. These mornings, as the night creeps and stretches further across the start of the day, random phrases jump in my head. I think of them as breadcrumbs along a path I wanted to follow again. I don’t remember setting them down. I don’t remember carrying anything in my pockets. I don’t remember wanting to return to things like... Read more
I wanted to write about something else this week, but my brain has already forgotten what it was excited about, so this is a surprise entry. (Not that you would know that unless I said anything…) My friend Hilary took pictures of me before a ritual at California Witchcamp. As I was looking at them, reviewing them to see how they turned out, and if I looked as witchy as I wanted to look…I took myself back to that dusk,... Read more
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