We’re approaching Samhain, the final harvest is drawing to a close, and the dark half of the year is preparing to settle in. The days are getting shorter, the nights are growing longer, and the natural world is beginning its annual process of withdrawing, conserving energy, and preparing for the…

Hope is not a guarantee. It’s a possibility worth making room for. I’ve been thinking about something since last week’s newsletter, Keeping the Hearth: Magic for Troubling Times. Several readers wrote to tell me how much the article meant to them, and some shared it with friends and family. I…

Or, How I Went Looking for Everything Wrong With My Fat Body and Found Very Little Because, you know, they always tell us that obesity is a disease and is going to kill us and we owe it to the world and to ourselves to lose weight… until an insurance…

October has arrived and the Pagans are not okay. To be clear, nothing is wrong. Quite the opposite. We are so ridiculously excited that we’re just barely containing our bodily functions. We’re practically vibrating. We’re breathing heavily in the Halloween aisles, buying things we absolutely do not need, and experiencing…

There are times when the world seems determined to keep everybody in a state of perpetual agitation. You turn on the news, check your email, glance at social media, and discover seventeen new things you’re apparently supposed to be worried about before breakfast. By the time you’ve finished your coffee,…

Sixty-five years is a long time to live with anybody. I have lived in the same body for 65 years, which seems like an absurdly obvious thing to say, but lately I’ve been thinking about what that actually means. There is nobody else I have known for every single one…

There comes a point in every openly practicing Witch’s life when the family stops regarding your spiritual path as an unusual personal interest and begins treating you as a specialized service department. You may have spent decades studying magical traditions, developing your practice, working with clients, and cultivating relationships with…

The peculiar objects we collect, the power we give them, and why witches have always been spiritually inclined magpies. Witches collect strange things. Bones. Feathers. Stones. Shells. Roots. Keys. Nails. Bits of wood. Objects found at crossroads, beside rivers, in forests, or tucked away in Grandma’s kitchen drawer. Give a…

Chairs, stairs, bathrooms, food, people, and other things I need to know before I RSVP There was probably a time when someone could invite me somewhere and my primary consideration was whether I wanted to go. I don’t remember it, but statistically it must have happened, right? These days, an…

I have some concerns about the veil. Not just “the veil,” but “The Veil.” Apparently, it has been thinning for several months now. Possibly years. Every Samhain, certainly. During eclipses. Around full moons. During various astrological events. On numerologically interesting dates. Occasionally on Tuesdays. At this point, the veil has…

Something happened. The phone rang. The payment arrived. They finally answered. You got the interview. The troublesome neighbor suddenly decided somebody else was more interesting. The opportunity appeared. The road opened. You did the magic and, damned if it didn’t work. Excellent. Now what? To see the full article, go…

Or, Forty Years of Spiritual Practice and I Still Want to Smite the Printer I have spent more than forty years studying and practicing the magical arts. I have taught people about energy, intention, personal responsibility, and the importance of examining their own motives before attempting to influence the world…

There is something almost suspiciously tidy about the Autumn Equinox. Light and dark are balanced, the harvest is gathered, baskets of apples appear everywhere, pumpkins glow obligingly in the background, and a few artfully arranged acorns complete the picture. Perhaps there is a cinnamon broom involved if we are feeling…

The Autumn Equinox, the art of letting go, and choosing what deserves to stay. There’s something about September that makes me want to take inventory. Not necessarily the kind that involves counting jars of herbs, although I probably ought to do that, too. I’m talking about the kind of inventory…

Or, How to Waste a Perfectly Good Life Waiting to Die I recently developed an unfortunate habit of expecting to drop dead at any moment. Not in a particularly dignified fashion, either. I don’t imagine myself peacefully slipping away in a beautiful bed surrounded by loved ones, with just enough…

My first husband once explained that part of the reason he divorced me was that he couldn’t respect me because I “talk about things that aren’t there” and went to my “meetings” wearing a bathrobe. The bathrobe was my ritual robe. It’s not like I stopped by the Piggly Wiggly…

People are wonderfully superstitious creatures. Even the ones who insist they aren’t. They knock on wood. They cross their fingers. They refuse to tempt fate by saying something is going too well. They have a particular shirt they wear when their team plays. They carry something that belonged to a loved one…

I have lost 27 pounds since February… seven long months. Seven emotionally difficult months. The months were difficult because I was losing weight, more that they were difficult and I still lost weight. Twenty-seven pounds. This is not nothing. Pick up a 27-pound bag of dog food and carry it…

I have built a lot of altars in my life. I know how to do it deliberately. I know how to choose a location, cleanse the space, select the objects, arrange them according to purpose, and create something that clearly announces, This is an altar. Those aren’t the altars I’m talking…

There are certain things most of us keep around because sooner or later, we’re going to need them. Bandages. Flashlights. Batteries. A plunger. Ibuprofen. Chocolate. If you’re a practicing Witch, Pagan, conjure worker, or generally magical person, I think there is another category worth considering: The magical emergency kit. To…