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March 2018

March 01, 2018

Answer Me These Questions Three: A Word for Discerning Seekers

The story of the Seeker is a classic, almost a folk ballad in its structure,...

February 2018

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 02, 2018

After the Mirror: An Ending, with Neither Closure nor Resolution

Sexual abuse and sexualized violence are very real problems in our communities, as in our...

January 2018

January 20, 2018

After the Mirror: A Personal Recollection of Complicity

I ended my last post by saying I know about missing stairs from personal experience....

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...

January 10, 2018

Memories of the First Books: Deities & Demigods

D&D encouraged me to explore the vast array of spiritual traditions throughout history, beyond the...

January 05, 2018

A Blessing for the New Year

It's traditional to start the new year off with introspection, contemplation, and a resolution or...

December 2017

December 28, 2017

Sharpening Your Knives: Three Simple Tools for Developing Discernment

With the exception of a few gifted folks, magic and spirituality are hard work. Not...

December 26, 2017

The Spaces Between: Discernment and the Power of “Yes-And”

In a culture which pushes us to believe in the binary choices of yes or...

December 22, 2017

Leviathan Grumbles: Simplicity and the Betrayal of Discourse

Anti-intellectualism is an attitude of bad faith which violates the principles of discourse. Moreover, its...

December 15, 2017

Down Comforters, Army Blankets, and the Necessary Problem of Nuance

Nuance lives in the spaces between binaries, thriving in shadings and shadows, dancing on the...

December 12, 2017

Gods Behaving Badly: Managing Outcomes When Things Get Complicated

If a god is leaning on you, they tend to have a reason for it....

December 10, 2017

#NotAllGods, and Some Rules of Thumb for Working with Gods

While some folks disagree on this point, I maintain quite firmly that human beings are...

December 06, 2017

Saying No to Gods, and Other Challenges of the Path

...the gods relate to us for their own reasons, just as we relate to them...

November 2017

November 16, 2017

Book Review: “Sigil Witchery” by Laura Tempest Zakroff

Zakroff has taken the time and effort to ground her work in both legitimate art...

November 08, 2017

The Politics of (Spiral) Dancing, and Giving Away Your Power

What we call "politics" is, like any other realm of human endeavor, a way in...

November 03, 2017

Apoliticality and Other Comfortable Lies We Tell Ourselves

Politics is, in short, another word for talking about and negotiating power... and if I've...

October 2017

October 28, 2017

Agency and Agenda: Notes Towards a Consent-Based Approach to Praxis

I don't much relish being treated like Mrs. Hughes or Carson the butler, especially if...

October 25, 2017

Some Thoughts on Consent in Magical Praxis and Community

Consent's a funny thing. It has the potential to start or end relationships, to create...

October 19, 2017

The Dead Are With Us Still: A Meditation on Samhain

Samhain. Halloween. The night before the first day of Winter, the beginning of the slide...

September 2017

September 29, 2017

The Intrinsic Queerness of Witchcraft, and Why It Matters

Witchcraft is inherently queer, deriving much of its power from its transgressive queerness, and any...

September 21, 2017

Mabon and Everything After, or, Learning to Love the Equinox

The imminent arrival of the Autumnal Equinox makes this as good a time as any...

September 14, 2017

Meeting My First Pagans: An Autobiographical Interlude

If she was telling the truth—if there really were druids and witches and magicians still...

September 05, 2017

Mixtape of Shadows: Tori Amos, “Little Earthquakes”

Heretical feminism, stark confessionals, afterlife speculations, and fey witchery: welcome to the beautiful, terrifying world...

August 2017

August 31, 2017

Memories of the First Books: A Treasury of Witches

My first exposure to books on real magic, the first grimoires I encountered as a...

August 28, 2017

Memories of the First Books: Dungeons, Dragons, and the Dark Arts

Like many of my contemporary practitioners of the dark arts, I am forced to confess,...

August 24, 2017

A Belated Introduction, with Roadmap and Coming Attractions

The TL;DR version is that I'm a geeky, queer, feminist Faery witch and sorcerer with...

August 22, 2017

Start as You Mean to Go On: A Coda and a Prayer

When confronted with the actual awfulness of life in America for anyone who isn't white,...

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