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Outside the Charmed Circle

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Select a Month January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017

February 2020

February 14, 2020

Materia Magica: Some Thoughts on the Stuff We Use to Do Magic

On the subject of magical materials, you’ll find two basic schools of thought, the Hardcore...

January 2020

January 30, 2020

A Brief Theological Tangent on the Reality of Gods and Spirits

Are gods and spirits real? It's a fun question to debate with friends over drinks,...

January 02, 2020

Outside the Charmed Circle: Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You!

I wrote a book! And since it comes out in just a few days, this...

December 2019

December 18, 2019

Review: “The Eloquent Blood” by Manon Hedenborg White

Manon Hedenborg White's "The Eloquent Blood," a doctoral thesis on the goddess Babalon, is the...

August 2019

August 29, 2019

What’s in Your Appendix N? (Memories of the First Books #4)

I was ruminating on the similarities between geek culture and p-word culture, and the thought...

May 2019

May 21, 2019

What Your Favorite Ritual Tool Says About You: An Exercise in Humor

What DOES your favorite ritual took say about you? What messages are you unknowingly sending...

November 2018

November 01, 2018

Making a Witch: An Interview with Shannon Barber

Hello, beautiful creatures! Today, I have the unalloyed pleasure of sharing with you an interview...

October 2018

October 29, 2018

On Self-Preservation, Pragmatism, Politics, and Power

The US midterm elections, possibly the most important elections any of us have ever lived...

September 2018

September 06, 2018

Movie Review: “Hereditary” (directed by Ari Aster, 2018)

"Hereditary" is an extraordinarily well-made, emotionally affecting film with incredible performances, and I feel deeply...

July 2018

July 12, 2018

On the Necessary, Ineluctable Otherness of Witchcraft

Is witchcraft a set of beliefs? A set of practices? Or is it something else...

June 2018

June 26, 2018

The Long Haul: Managing the Everyday Magic of Resistance

You have the right and the responsibility to say, "This is what I'm working on,...

June 21, 2018

A World Turned Upside Down: On Politics, Power, Gods, Judgment, and History

I can tell someone why they should care, but I can't make them care. At...

June 14, 2018

An Alchemy of Grief: On Sitting with Death and What Comes After

How many of us in 21st century America have spent time with the dying, held...

June 01, 2018

#FollowFriday: Shannon Barber, Michael Lux, and Anthony Rella

I come away from their writing feeling like I've just had my brain sand-blasted and...

May 2018

May 24, 2018

An Alignment of Belief and Praxis

Even as we invoke the land, we contribute to its destruction.

May 21, 2018

Somewhere I Don’t Belong: Intruding on Paradise, and Other Lessons from Hawai’i

I was welcome to visit, respectfully, and to contribute to the local economy, especially with...

May 16, 2018

A Presence Beneath Our Feet: An Anecdote on Communing with the Mountain

I remember my promise to the mountain, and I am reminded that the spirits of...

May 09, 2018

Communing with the Land in the Age of the Slow Collapse

Stepping away from the slow collapse into dystopia and ecological suicide may not avert disaster,...

May 02, 2018

Snapshots and Sketches: A Rueful Panegyric for “The Community”

Maybe there never was a "community" after all, just an assumption of universality papering over...

April 2018

April 06, 2018

#FollowFriday: Scarlet Magdalene, Brandy Williams, and Laura Tempest Zakroff

These are some of the sharpest, wisest, best-educated folks writing about magic right now, and...

April 04, 2018

Bedroom Temples and Broom Closets: On Praxis, Space, and Community

I enjoy group rituals and Pagan and polytheist conferences, but at the end of the...

March 2018

March 18, 2018

Witch-Aesthetics Redux, or, Everything Old Is New Again (Except Us)

If you're suspecting that I'm about to call this a manifestation of misogyny, you're exactly...

March 15, 2018

We Can Be Heroes: Some Thoughts in the Wake of #NationalSchoolWalkoutDay

We live in a world on fire, and we cannot wait for a hero to...

March 09, 2018

On Being a Witch: The Relationships at the Heart of the Craft

If witchcraft is what witches do, then the witch is the Other who does the...

February 2018

February 22, 2018

Some Unconventional Thoughts about Pagan Conventions

That's not to say that conventions aren't important, or filled with magic. They can be...

February 16, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: How to Learn Sex Magic in Three Easy Steps!

It's time to get down to brass tacks... but first, I apologize for any misapprehensions...

February 10, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: Getting Down to Business, As It Were

It's not surprising that our ancestors came up with the idea of using sex as...

February 08, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: Dancing in the Thicket Between Science and Religion

Magic is notoriously one of those words where, if you ask any ten practitioners, you'll...

February 04, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: Let’s Talk About (How We Talk About) Sex, Baby

Coming up with a universally-accepted definition for sex is a fool's game, but I've never...

January 2018

January 13, 2018

A Long, Cold Look in the Mirror

The responsibility for preventing abuse in our communities doesn't lie with the victims or the...

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