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Plan a Cemetery Visit for Samhain
In many cultures, the late fall is a time in which the dead are honored with great ceremony. There are a number of ways you can do this, and if you’re fortunate enough to have your kinfolk buried nearby, you can incorporate a visit at your family’s cemetery into your Samhain festivities. My family isn’t buried anywhere near me, so I’ve sort of adopted the cemetery up the road from me, which is where a previous owner of my house is buried, along with several generations of her family. I walk up there every couple of weeks just to do some maintenance, say hello, and leave small offerings. I also…
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Copper Dowsing Rods & Water Witching
So, when I bought my little cottage earlier this summer, I knew one of the first things I needed to do was get a fence put in, so my dog could derp freely around the yard off-leash. Even though it’s a rural area, and not a super busy road, keeping him safe was crucial, so I found a couple of local guys to do the installation. Before they could do that, however, we had to determine where things like the gas line and the water main were (call before you dig!). After these were marked — I wasn’t even home when they did it — I got a call from…
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Introducing “Wicca Journal for Beginners”!
All, I’m super excited to announce that after a LOT of hard work behind the scenes for the past several months, I have a new book coming out, Wicca Journal for Beginners, available October 19! It’s a little different from most of my other books, but I’m so psyched about it — it’s not a book on how to practice, but instead it’s a journal that can serve as a sacred space for you to write down your experiences and reflect on what you’ve learned from them, allowing you to become more in tune with your feelings and beliefs. Inside, you’ll find a brief introduction to Wicca, a collection of…
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The Witch’s Home is Now Available!
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The Myth & Magic of Virginia Creeper
One of the things I love so much about my cottage in the woods is that I am surrounded by plants, many of which I never encountered in the wild when I lived in an actual town. I’m taking some time to get to know the flora (and fauna) of my new home, including the seemingly endless array of Joe Pye weed, mullein, chicory, fleabane, and goldenrod. I discovered the stone wall up against the hillside behind my house is covered in a beautiful five-leafed vine, did a bit of digging, and learned it’s Virginia creeper, or Parthenocissus quinquefolia. In some places, it’s considered so invasive that you’re not allowed…
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Y’all, It’s Soup Season
I’ve always loved fall — it’s my favorite time of the year, and I know you Summer People are miserable as soon as the temps drop below 70 degrees, but for someone like me who hates to be hot and sweaty, this is the most wonderful season of all. I love crisp cool mornings, watching the leaves turn red and gold on my hillside, seeing my breath in the air, pulling out my hoodie/boots/jeans collection, and the smell of woodsmoke wafting through my forest as bonfires light up. But one of my favorites parts of fall is that it’s soup season. There’s something so magical about soup, and it doesn’t…
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Make a Group of Ghosties!
When I moved a couple of years ago, I discovered that while I had about five boxes of Yule decor, I had over two dozen boxes of Halloweenery – it’s my favorite time of year! And this is one of my favorite decorations to put out – every fall, random strangers would stop and take pictures of my front yard, because of all the Halloween nonsense, and this group of ghosts was always a huge hit. Here’s how you can make your own, with about $20 worth of random supplies. For each ghost, you’ll need the following: 1 4-foot length of 2″ PVC pipe, cut with a 45′ angle on…
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The Saga of Jason and the Speed Bump
I’m a big fan of using mundane stuff in spellwork, because there are always things around your house that you can finagle into a magical application. If you’re a parent, especially, I guarantee you that there are plenty of kids’ toys that are going to come in very useful at some point. To illustrate this, I’d like to share an epic tale from nigh on twenty years ago, when my twins (who are now college students) were toddlers, and we had a fairly impressive collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. At the time, I lived on a one-way street in a residential area, and because it was the connector…
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Simple Spell to Get a Job
I first crafted this working nigh on twenty-five years ago, and have offered it up in various incarnations since then — a number of people have used it in its many forms, and it’s usually pretty darn successful. I truly think the reason it’s successful is because, frankly, it’s EASY. Like, stupid simple. You don’t have to have much magical experience to make this work for you, although obviously understanding why it works is always beneficial. This is a spell to do after you’ve scheduled an interview — which means you still gotta do some real, mundane work, like filling out applications, tidying up your resume, etc. If you can’t be…
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Herbs to Dye For
So I like playing around with herbal dyes, and put together a list of some of the cool stuff that’s out there. People have been using plants to dye fabric, fibers, and even their skin for ages, so it’s a neat thing to start exploring. I thought I’d share some of the nifty ones I’ve found so far. Plant Scientific Name Part Used Color Common Uses St. John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum Flowers Red/yellow The Greeks used St. Johns Wort to dye fabric. Although it’s native to Europe, today it’s all over the United States, and is often considered a weed. Named for St. John the Baptist, because it flowers around…
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Unlocking Key Magic
A while back, I was doing a bit of noodling around for a thing I was working on and it occurred to me I had never written a single thing about using keys in magical workings—which is a bit odd, because I do use them regularly myself. THUS IT WAS TIME. I’ve always been fascinated by keys. Even as a kid, I got excited when I found random ones lying around. I think at one point I had a couple of dozen stashed in a box, just because I thought they were neat. As I got older, and began to discover the transformative power of magic and witchcraft, I realized…
