Category: Personal Blog

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…

There are things I expected from getting older. Grey hair. Wrinkles. A certain amount of creaking when I stand up. Bladder leakage. The gradual realization that getting down onto the floor has become a decision requiring both strategic planning and an exit strategy. I did not expect to lose my…

I read candles for a living, among other things. When I finish spellwork for a client, the prayer candle itself is part of the reading, and I pay close attention to what happened while it burned. Black soot on the glass traditionally indicates resistance or obstacles. White soot can indicate…

There is a wonderful simplicity to candle magic. You need a candle. You need fire. You need a reason. Technically, that can be enough. People have been lighting candles with prayers and petitions for longer than any of us can trace. A flame in the darkness is one of those…

There is a particular photograph that appears in nearly every weight-loss story. You know the one: the Before Picture. The person stands there looking vaguely miserable, usually wearing something unflattering, possibly holding up a newspaper so we know nobody has tampered with the evidence. The lighting is terrible. The posture is…

One of the questions I often hear is some variation of: “What spell should I do?” My irritating practitioner answer is usually: “What exactly are you trying to accomplish?” Because magic isn’t one thing. You wouldn’t walk into a hardware store and announce, “I need a tool.” Well…you could. But…

I want to go on record as saying, “This Seems Poorly Supervised.” I am about to turn 65. I know this because the United States government has been sending me mail. Lots of mail. And AARP started blowing me up ten years ago. Apparently, there is a point in every…

There is a particular sound a Pagan makes when encountering a good rock. It isn’t quite a word. It’s more of an oooh. The rock may be lying beside a creek, embedded in the dirt along a trail, sitting at the edge of a parking lot, or minding its own business somewhere…

I miss the days when being irritated with someone meant I was irritated with someone. These days, apparently, I need to examine why this person triggers me, determine what they’re mirroring back to me, identify the unhealed wound they’ve activated, journal about my response, pull three Tarot cards, take a…

There is a peculiar thing people sometimes do after planting a seed. They dig it up to see if it’s growing. Not literally, usually. Most of us understand that if we plant a tomato seed on Tuesday, digging through the dirt on Thursday to check its progress is probably not an…