Category: Witchcraft

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The Great Quickening: Forging the Healing Flame

By Katrina Rasbold

The crossroads is not merely a place of meeting, learning, and magic. It is also a place of decisive power.

For too long, the magical community has been told to “keep the peace” or retreat into private practice while the world outside bleeds. We have been sold a diluted version of spirituality that is, in truth, toxic positivity, that asks us to simply “vibrate higher” while the soil is poisoned and the collective psyche is fractured by calculated cruelty.

Enough of that. We are not here to bypass the darkness; we are here to transmute it. We are the darkness and we rule those shadows.

Continue reading The Great Quickening: Forging the Healing Flame

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A Witch’s New Year Ritual: Releasing the Old and Weaving the New

By Katrina Rasbold

As the final days of the year dwindle, a hush falls over the world and we feel a moment of potent stillness before the whirlwind of a new beginning. For those of us who walk a path less trodden, who feel the hum of ancient energies beneath the modern world, this isn’t just a time for champagne toasts and fleeting resolutions. It’s a liminal space, a powerful threshold brimming with magical potential.

This New Year’s Eve, let’s cast aside the fleeting promises and instead, weave intentions into being with the wisdom of the Craft. Continue reading A Witch’s New Year Ritual: Releasing the Old and Weaving the New

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Ancient Spells and Incantations by Enid Baxter Ryce

Reviewed By Katrina Rasbold

Enid Baxter Ryce’s Ancient Spells and Incantations is a captivating journey into the heart of humanity’s magical heritage. This beautifully crafted grimoire serves as both a historical preservation and a poetic re-envisioning of the words our ancestors used to shape their world.

Continue reading Ancient Spells and Incantations by Enid Baxter Ryce

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The Many Veils of the Moon by Mitchell King

Reviews By Katrina Rasbold

In a crowded field of magical texts that often recycle the same basic correspondences, Mitchell King’s The Many Veils of the Moon: A Grimoire of Lunar Magic for the Green Witch arrives as a refreshingly original and deeply poetic voice. King, an accomplished poet and educator, weaves a grimoire that is as beautifully written as it is practical, offering a sophisticated guide for those seeking to deepen their communion with the lunar cycle. Continue reading The Many Veils of the Moon by Mitchell King

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Chaos Magic by Ivy Corvus

Reviewed by Katrina Rasbold

Chaos Magic is often misunderstood and often seen as too complex, too edgy, or simply too “chaotic” for the average practitioner. In this addition to the Pagan Portals series, Ivy Corvus strips away the gatekeeping and confusion to present Chaos Magic for what it truly is: a highly adaptable, results-driven, and liberating spiritual technology. Continue reading Chaos Magic by Ivy Corvus

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The Great Turning: Standing at the Crossroads of Dark and Light

By Katrina Rasbold

 

Welcome, travelers, to the ultimate crossroads in time.

 

The nights have stretched impossibly long, consuming the days in shades of indigo and charcoal. The air bites, the sap has sunk deep into the roots of the trees, and the Earth seems locked in an impenetrable slumber. We have reached the depth of the year.

Here at the Winter Solstice—Yule, Alban Arthan, the Longest Night—we stand at the most profound liminal space on the Wheel of the Year. As the Witch at the Crossroads, I am familiar with these in-between, liminal places where choices are made and realities shift. But this… this is the cosmic pivot point.

Many modern celebrations rush toward the light, eager to drape tinsel over the shadows and dispel the quiet with forced cheer, but the wise know that we cannot truly welcome the dawn if we have not first sat vigil in the dark.

Continue reading The Great Turning: Standing at the Crossroads of Dark and Light

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It’s Witch O’Clock Somewhere

By Katrina Rasbold

Witches have a different relationship with time than most people. We feel the tug of moons and seasons, yes — but also the strange elasticity of hours that stretch and contract depending on the work we’re doing. Time is not a straight line to us but a soft, breathing thing. It bends. It listens. It waits until we’re paying attention.

Magic teaches us that time is never just one thing. Continue reading It’s Witch O’Clock Somewhere

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Where We Stand When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

By Katrina Rasbold

There is a quiet place in the life of a Witch that the outside world rarely witnesses. It isn’t dramatic. It isn’t cinematic. It doesn’t look like a movie scene where the moon hangs low over a forgotten road and bones rattle in the branches.

No, the real crossroads lives in far more ordinary places. Continue reading Where We Stand When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

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10 Favorite Witchy Movies

By Katrina Rasbold

Last week, I posted my “10 Favorite Witchy TV Shows & Mini Series” and I thought I would follow up with a list of my 10 Favorite Witchy Movies. Are they predictable? Absolutely. They are at once predictable and cliche. There are no doubt glaring omissions that will cause readers to say, “But what about…?” and “YOU LEFT OUT…!” This is not a list of ALL Witchy movies or the BEST Witchy movies, but my own favorite Witchy movies. Because it would be like choosing my favorite children, these are listed in no particular order but are the top ten favorites from a wonderful line of magical films I have enjoyed in my life. Continue reading 10 Favorite Witchy Movies

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A Hedge Witch and the Elements

By Cat Gina Cole

Many people assume a Hedge Witch is simply an herb worker or a kitchen witch. In my family tradition, however, a Hedge Witch is someone who lives and works with the elements—and with psychism—every day. We define witchcraft as the ability to work with all forces of nature, both those of the physical world and those beyond the veil.

Those who follow my blog may remember my entry, “Weather Magic With Clairvoyance in Time and Space,” where I describe how I built my relationship with the Element of Air. In this article, I expand on that work by sharing a core belief from my tradition: the directions and the elements are separate things. The Direction of East is the realm where Air resides. This distinction is fundamental to how I connect with the elements. Continue reading A Hedge Witch and the Elements

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My Top 10 Witchy TV Shows & Mini Series

By Katrina Rasbold
Recently in the Crossroads Occult Newsletter, I listed my favorite Witchy TV shows and mini-series and I thought I would share them with you here. These are my favorites and I do not expect them to agree with anyone else’s. If you think of some you feel I overlooked or didn’t list, it is likely I didn’t see the show or it was not one of my favorites.

Continue reading My Top 10 Witchy TV Shows & Mini Series

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Samhain: Gateway Between Worlds and Seasons

By Katrina Rasbold

As the last leaves fall and the year’s light wanes, the veil between the worlds thins. Samhain (pronounced SOW-in or SAH-win), one of the four great fire festivals of the Celtic calendar, stands as the final spoke on the Wheel of the Year. It is both an ending and a beginning—a time when the harvest is complete, and the dark half of the year begins. Continue reading Samhain: Gateway Between Worlds and Seasons

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Want Magic? Make it Happen!

By Lady Saoirse

Bright Blessings,

We just finished a move – one we planned for over the course of nearly a year. Why didn’t we just sling a spell and wait for the universe to make it happen for us? Because changes manifest with elbow grease and sometimes spellwork doesn’t help at all. Continue reading Want Magic? Make it Happen!

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Paganism and Church

By Cat Gina Cole

How did Pagans ever become a church? I thought Pagans were anti-church? These and other similar questions flood social media these days. The word “church” has become something of a swear word in our time. It is currently a word that represents control, abuse of power, corruption, telling people how to live, what to believe, and being “Our way or the highway” about every aspect of a person’s life. There is a big resistance to that now, not just in the Pagan communities but in general and they are not wrong. Christian churches do have that history to them; however, it made me wonder about the origins of the word “church” and its original meaning. Continue reading Paganism and Church

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Wicca – Not THAT Old

By Lady Saoirse

Bright Blessings,

I’m watching yet another program- this one from the 1990’s that insists the Witchcraft Trials were all about persecuting the pre–Christian Pagan faiths. I’m not naming this one. There are countless places this is claimed but nowhere is it claimed more than by mainstream modern magical practitioners. Sayings like “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn” are shared by people whose family does not worship Pagan gods and many of whom condemn our neo faiths as demonic. Continue reading Wicca – Not THAT Old

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Phoenix Rising: A Surrender to Initiation

By Tatiara

Once upon a time I assumed that transformation would be gentle. That one day I would simply wake up feeling lighter, unburdened, freed from the weight of the past. But the harsh reality is that rebirth is rarely so kind. It is fire and ashes, a shedding of skin that can feel more like unraveling than becoming. This I learned the hard way. Continue reading Phoenix Rising: A Surrender to Initiation

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Aphrodite’s Gift in the Maelstrom 

By Tatiara

Life, at times, moves in slow, steady rhythms, like the tide lapping at the shore… And then there are times like now—an unrelenting maelstrom of change. The kind of change that upends what we thought was stable, that spirals downward with such force we fear we may never surface again. And yet, within this spiraling descent, there is a choice: to be swallowed by the current or to find a force within us that allows us to stay afloat. Continue reading Aphrodite’s Gift in the Maelstrom 

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Herb of the Week: Lily of the Valley

By Katrina Rasbold

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) is a delicate, fragrant flower that has been cherished for centuries for its beauty, symbolism, and healing properties. Known for its bell-shaped white blossoms and sweet fragrance, Lily of the Valley is often associated with purity, protection, and spiritual healing. In magical traditions, it is revered for its ability to enhance psychic abilities, cleanse energies, and provide protection. However, it is also a powerful healing herb, with a long history in herbal medicine, particularly for its effects on the heart and emotional well-being.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the magical, spiritual, and healing properties of Lily of the Valley, along with ways to incorporate this sacred flower into your spiritual and wellness practices. Continue reading Herb of the Week: Lily of the Valley