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A Witch's Ashram

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Clicks

So Long, and Thanks for All the Clicks

Last updated on: September 16, 2015 at 10:29 am by Niki Whiting

So Long, and Thanks for All the Clicks 2015-09-16T10:29:11-08:00 Niki Whiting

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Dear Friends,

I began blogging as a personal project during a time of transition in my life. At that time I had a 3 year old and a 4 month old. I was living in Wales and about to quit my PhD program. I wanted to go deeper into my own spiritual practices, develop writing that was not academically driven, and find out what “my own ashram” might look like. Through the discipline of writing and practice, through the connections woven from the world wide web of words, I feel that I have succeeded in all of my goals.

Now, I live in Olympia, WA. I have a 7 year old, 4.5 year old, and a 17 month old. I have embraced my own practice, built relationships with gods and spirits and humans, and never once given up on this path. Helping create Many Gods West is once of the fruits and services of the Work I’ve been doing.

But the Work takes on a life of its own. Had I known how spiritually intense putting on MGW would be, I might have thought twice about doing it. My skills on many planes were tested and sharpened. I had to work with a variety of people and spirits. What I thought was a service to my communities turned out also to be a service to the gods. And the gods took notice.

In the hours/days/weeks after MGW I received the thanks of deities – many of them not my own! Not content to let me rest on my laurels, my own gods said “GOOD, NOW YOU HAVE TO CUT OFF YOUR HEAD.”

I am called to prepare for more Work. Part of cutting off my head is quitting blogging.

And so, Big Announcement #2 is this: I am leaving Patheos and blogging for the foreseeable future.

By Rob Bye, Unsplash/Here I go, leaping off the ledge!

What will I be focusing on?

*My family. My home. My communities. My practices. It’ll be nice to really sink into my Work and not think to myself “Would this make a good post?”

*A Place project. I plan to work on learning about this Land and its Peoples, the gods and spirits who are here.

*Many Gods West. I’ll be organizing this conference again, as a service to the gods and my communities. I hope I’ll see you there next summer!

*Reading tarot – for fun, service, and profit! (You can contact me at myownashram at gmail dot com if you’re interested in a reading.)

*Singing. I still have not fulfilled a promise I made to Kali a few years ago. I’ve been working on it, but it is not complete.

*Writing. Oddly enough, just because I’m quitting regular blogging doesn’t mean I’ll be done writing. A few months ago I published this piece on Gods & Radicals. I consider it one of the best things I’ve ever written. It took three weeks to write. I’d like to work on longer form writing and to see just what my writing can look like when I craft it – editing more than once, etc. I hope to write for Gods & Radicals, a few other magazines, and…… start a book. I have at least two books in me, I think.

Graffiti in Olympia

I won’t be gone from the internet entirely. Facebook is this stay at home parent’s connection to the wider world! I’ll be maintaining A Witch’s Ashram’s FB page, where I’ll be sure to post links to my various writings when they appear, as well as keep connecting you to links I think are thoughtful, and perhaps posting little bits of thoughts in progress.

Eventually I’ll get a personal website up and running. And who knows? Maybe start blogging again.

I want to give a huge shout out of thanks to a few people: Karina B. Heart, for a phone call in Wales, where she challenged me to discover just what “my own ashram” would like. Christine Hoff Kraemer and Sarah Whedon, for early writing and editing opportunities. Jason Mankey, for being one of my biggest encouragers, a kick ass editor, and now, one of my favorite friends. And of course, to Adam and my kids, for putting up with “hang on, I just need to finish this post”.

And to you! THANK YOU FOR READING.

[The title is a nod to the Douglas Adams novel “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”.]

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