Informative and thoughtful articles authored by select contributors
By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
Last week I was reminded not to be too inflexible- but not to be SO flexible I’m a doormat.
That’s a tough one for me, folks. I’m a fist hipped woman and I have my own way of doing things. I never followed any crowd and even within my own faith community, I’m an individual. Continue reading How Flexible Should I Be?
By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
My little patio garden is thriving in the July heat. I have two lavender plants and two roses, one regular sized, complete with bristling thorns, and one dainty, thornless miniature rose. The thorned rose has been nibbled on by June bugs and the mini rose was munched on by rabbits. So far at this new location we moved to a couple of months ago, there have been no spider mites or aphids which were plentifully at our other apartment. Before that, we lived by the woods and while no rabbits or deer got my roses, the June bugs were mad about them. Continue reading Life is Like a Rose
By Katrina Rasbold
Humans often consider the power of speech and written word to be the defining quality that sets us apart from the rest of the animal world. With the exception of some animals specially trained to communicate, Koko the Gorilla, for instance, humans alone possess the demonstrated ability for the ongoing use of language. There is little denying the power of words. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: The Power of Words
By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
Quite often, we talk about banishing negativity and bringing in positive energy to our lives but we don’t always talk about banishing negative people. Sometimes, your family, your best friend, or even your significant other is just being downright negative. The thought of being without these people temporarily, let alone permanently, might be unbearable. However, sometimes if you want to live a peaceful existence, people give you no choice. Continue reading Protect Your Peace – Banish Them!
By Katrina Rasbold
Of all of the holidays, it can be argued that most cultures at some time or another celebrated Midsummer. The Sun reigns at its full power and dominates the sky for the longest day of the year on Litha. It is commonly believed that the Faeries are most active during this time; an idea perpetuated by William Shakespeare’s famous play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The power of herbs and plants is said to be strongest at this time, so many of the summer herbs are harvested on this day. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Purge, Protect, & Burn Stuff at Midsummer
By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
I don’t know about you, but I have moved around a lot. I do mean a lot. It seems like every year, Mom had us somewhere new and some years, she had us live more than one place. People ask, “Were you a military brat?” I tell them, ‘No, Mama had the wanderlust.” So is it any wonder why I always heard people’s stories about their love for their hometowns and I wished for what they had? At almost age 50, I am still wishing for that. I could lament my fate, but I’d rather explain how you can feel at home when no PLACE is really home. Because if you practice magic, it can be done. Continue reading Practical Magic With Saoirse: Making Yourself At Home
By Katrina Rasbold
We spend a lot of time talking and thinking about why bad stuff happens, especially to people who we consider “good” and undeserving of strife and particularly when it comes in what feels like a disproportionate avalanche. We become deeply angry and philosophical when we try to understand why bad things happen to innocents like children and animals. Often, we become so mired in our determination to understand why something happens that we fail to effectively manage the situation at all. The assignment of blame is one of the greatest time eaters and malice fertilizers ever and is usually the focus of tremendous attention. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: When Bad Stuff Happens
By Katrina Rasbold
Emotion magical practice because spell work begins with what you want to have happen. If you cannot feel, then you cannot want and feeling is emotion. All intense emotion is high energy and you can, with rational thought and careful planning, direct all the intensity of that energy toward your goal. Passion will spike energy right off the meter, whether that passion comes from lust, anger, fear, or exultation. High emotion of all kinds: love, fear, sadness, anger, frustration, etc, can fuel your magical energy like a stoked furnace. But should you? Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Magic & High Emotions
Bright Blessings.
I think it’s fair to say people hating on their degrees is an internet trend right now. It seems like every day I read an article where someone laments that they feel their degree is “worthless.”
No, it isn’t, and I will tell you why. Continue reading Practical Magic with Saoirse – The Magical Importance of Education
By Tatiara
Is hexing ever appropriate, or is it simply a misuse of power? With great power comes great responsibility. One important responsibility is self-development. This includes character development. Ultimately a person’s character is revealed by how they exercise the power they possess. Hexing once meant witchery in general, as in the adage, “a witch who can’t hex can’t heal.” Now it implies causing unpleasant, unlucky, or harmful things to happen to people, often as an act of revenge. However, hexing and healing are two sides of the same coin. A healing misapplied could bring evil consequences. A hex for the right reason could be used for good. This is very tricky territory, though. Continue reading The Mystic Witch’s Journey: Feeling Vexed? Before you Hex, Do X
By Katrina Rasbold
It can happen to all of us, although thankfully, not usually to the degree we see in the graphic above. Rituals fail. It is easy to raise one knowing eyebrow and say that it failed because it was intended to fail and all things are exactly as they should be and blah, blah, blah, but there is a huge difference in knowing that rituals sometimes do not go as planned versus understanding why rituals sometimes go in the ditch and how to manage that inevitability. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Ceremonial Interruptus
By Katrina Rasbold
In this line of work, you do get asked some fascinating questions, like “Do Witches use flying ointment? Did they ever? Is the rendered fat of an unbaptized baby one of the ingredients in flying ointment? Time to break these questions down. Continue reading Ask a Witch: What’s With the Flying Ointment & Unbaptized Babies?
By Katrina Rasbold
What are you like in your relationship with the Deities you honor? How do you engage them? What role do they perform in your life? Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: The Lesson of the Grateful Child
By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
A school is being sued. A child could not come out trans to their parents, but they felt safe coming out at school. When the parents found this out at, this lead to the child attempting suicide, so the parents are suing the school accusing the school of forcing their child to identify as trans. The minute I found out about this I got on the telephone and called the school. I thanked them for being a safe place for kids. They really appreciated hearing from somebody that supported that. I gave them my contact information as a Priestess and I told them to let me know if they needed anything at all. I just might hear back from them. Know why? Allies need help in making a safe place for our kids. Continue reading Practical Magic With Saoirse: A Safe Place for Our LGBTQIA+ Kids
By Katrina Rasbold
In last week’s Witch At The Crossroads blog, we talked about symptoms of psychic attack and these may come from intentional malice or inadvertent ill will (like pouting and wallowing in anger). In this post, we discuss how to effectively manage psychic attack once it occurs or we suspect it has occurred. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Managing Psychic Attack
By Katrina Rasbold
In researching for this article, I looked back over a blog post I wrote on Patheos Pagan in 2015 and wow, have my views ever changed! One of the great benefits to blogging and journaling is the opportunity to review and reconisder our position from years before and notice how much we learned in the interim. Back then, I had a more naive perspective on psychic attack and since that time, I have performed literally thousands of cleansings on people suffering from the effects of untreated psychic attacks, plus wrote a book on the subject. Where at that time, I considered true psychic attack to be uncommon, I now know it happens all the time. People are so much more comfortable slinging baneful energy around than I ever imagined back then. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Identifying Psychic Attack
By Katrina Rasbold
Many Witches appreciate the reconstructionist approach to spellwork, feeling it lends authenticity to their practice. Does technology have a place in spellwork or is it in opposition to the flow of energy? Continue reading Ask a Witch: Are Technology and Spellwork in Opposition?
By Katrina Rasbold
An up and coming, fast-track, newbie Pagan I know recently referred to feng shui as “fluffy bunny magic.” I stared in amazement because, gentle reader, if taking the energy movement in your home seriously is fluffy bunny magic, then it is the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Little is more vital to your day-to-day magic than the energy flow you cultivate in your own spiritual sanctuary. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Breath of the Dragon
By Katrina Rasbold
There is little doubt that rain is essential to life. Without it, life would not exist on planet earth. In times of drought, not only do we suffer economically and ecologically, but we also suffer emotionally and spiritually. Most people require a healthy balance of water to dry in order to thrive. Since our bodies are composed of a high percentage of water, we naturally relate to the humidity and water around us. Many people, even those who do not swim, are drawn to the water and enjoy standing in the ocean or in a river, just to participate in the kinship that exists between humans and water. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: The Power of Rain
Conveyed by Brahn th Blessed
I coined the term ‘cosmytheology’ some years ago to combine three studies that contribute to our understanding of who, what, and where we are: cosmology is the branch of astronomical science that focuses on the origins of the universe, mythology is the branch of literature that describes our relationship to the divine, often in metaphor and fable, and theology is the study of the divine from a philosophical perspective. Science, philosophy, and literature are three paths by which humankind seeks to understand our existence as beings in the boundless universe. Do you question your existence? Continue reading The Essynian Mysteries – Chapter 1