This is the #OcculTea tag started by Ella Harrison, Joanna the Polish folk witch, and Leah the redheaded witch. I’m not terribly online and don’t inhabit a lot of the Internet spaces that this tag is largely focused on, so I come at it from a bit of a different perspective. I think a lot […]
Read more "Video: OcculTea – Algorithmic Social Media and Internet Witchcraft"Traditional Wicca is centered on coven-based practice, but a coven isn’t just a group of strangers who meet every full moon. It’s an intimate, tight-knit community. In this video, I talk through some of the implications of traditional Wicca’s emphasis on covens, ranging from initiating new members to the relationship a witch has with the […]
Read more "Video: Covens and Community"I’ve talked before about how I consider some form of necromancy integral to my experience of Wicca. Wicca centers on mysteries of death and rebirth, and part of what that means magically is that I am often engaging with the spirits of the dead. This sounds spooky, but really it looks pretty simple, especially when […]
Read more "Asking Dead People for Advice"As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m in the process of moving. This has, among other things, meant packing up my whole life and making some critical decisions about my possessions. Some things are getting packed into suitcases and taken with me to my next (semi-temporary) home. Some get going into storage until I […]
Read more "Downsizing My Tarot Deck Collection"Anton Mesmer was a weird dude in the late 18th century who put forward a (now thoroughly debunked) theory of “animal magnetism.” In this video, I talk through a little bit of what Mesmer thought and how I think it’s connected to the way early Wiccans understood their magic.
Read more "Video: Animal Magnetism and Wiccan Magic"I’m in the process of moving. Now that my doctorate is finally complete, there’s a lot less tying me to the physical environs of New Jersey. My lease is up at the end of this month, and while I haven’t yet secured a job and a permanent place to live, it’s time for me to […]
Read more "Baba Yaga Lied to Me (And That’s Okay)"Wicca—at least, Wicca as I understand it—is a deeply feminist religion. One of the core values upon which it’s founded is the creation of a religious community in which women are empowered. This feminist value works its way into Wiccan ritual and theology, but the resulting politico-theological narratives sometimes go unacknowledged as political. Here, I […]
Read more "Video: Wiccan Politico-Theology"Many, many years ago, I wrote a post about significators. Reading back through that post, I frankly don’t love it—as is the case with most of the posts I’ve written on this blog. I’ve been blogging for somewhere around 9 years now, and that means there’s a glowing online record of all the things I […]
Read more "… Apparently, Once He Has a Ph.D"As we draw to the end of my year-long project with the TdM, I thought I would do another sample reading—about my career, because that’s my top concern of late. I had a job interview earlier this week, and it went really well. The company seems interesting, they seemed to like me, and on the […]
Read more "A Year of Tarot de Marseille: Another Career Reading"My year-long adventure with the Tarot de Marseille has been a bit rocky. There have been lots of stops and starts, as I’ve tried one thing, realized it wasn’t working for me, gone back to my starting point, tried something new, encountered another obstacle, and started over again. And again. I’m really trying to feel […]
Read more "A Year of Tarot de Marseille: Finally Hitting My Stride"
Jack Chanek 