Cody Lee Johansen
I am a husband, father, farmer, and friend. I live on the banks of the Magic Skagit River, ancestral lands of the Sauk-Suiattle people. I practice rune reading, tarot, land magic, and work with many spirit guides. My life began Pagan but I veered off into the Christian church in college. I found my way back to my Pagan and ancestral roots in 2005 and have journeyed along this path since then.
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Cody’s Column: What do I do?
First, the world is a shit show or a paradise… all at once without stopping,.. It has been…since a long time ago… This article will be about practical solutions for when the “shit storm” comes your way. What do I do as a Pagan when there is a shit-storm? Answers from Nature: Mushrooms, Rivers, and Beaver Mushrooms have been around, quite possibly the longest alongside microbes. They function by creating networks, sharing resources, fruiting only on the edge of their domain, quietly making advances on the forest floor. Mushrooms do seem to share a quality of locating themselves in habitats where there is decay, usually from plant…
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Book Review: Feral Magick Unleash Your Inner Animal Self by Denny Sargent
Book Review Feral Magick Unleash Your Inner Animal Self By Denny Sargent Publisher: Weiser Books Published Date: July 7th, 2025 184 Pages Do you remember as a child, imagining yourself as an animal and playing in the woods? What about making animal sounds? Denny Sargent’s guide to Unleashing Your Inner Animal Self will have you reconnecting with your own Feral Magick again as you flip the pages in his new book. A PNW resident and world traveler, he connects the traditions of Shamans from around the world to a new term, Neo-Animism, “the belief that nature spirits are not just real but are also accessible if you open…
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Cody’s Column: Cernunnos
A long time ago, before the old stories were recorded, in a land now far away from my own, deep in the forest…a shadow emerged from the underworld. A large hulking presence with antlers for a crown. He was calm, the forest creatures seemed to congregate around, and a glowing metal torc encircled his neck. He looked deep into my ancestors’ souls and reminded them that they were connected to everything around them and that the passage of death was but a bridge. The Antlered One and Hooved One they began to call him…Cernunnos, Cernunnos, Cernunnos. He blessed the fertility of the land and its people. A name that would…
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Book Review: Pagan Portals Nine’s a Charm
Title: Pagan Portals Nine’s a Charm: Herbs of the Anglo-Saxon Healing Poem Author: Martha Gray Publisher: Moon Books Release Date: August 1st, 2025 Pages: 144 pages There is so much packed into these 144 pages! History seekers, mythology revelers, herbalists, and healers all need to read this tome. Martha Gray wrote this while tending to her garden and cats. It couldn’t be more magical. I imagined books piled on her desk, herbs in bouquets upside down drying in the breeze while a magical candle burned spirit into her words. There is a robust Forward that sets the historical context for the book and the depth that it will explore. …
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Cody’s Column: For the Love of Wisdom
What wisdom does your land hold? How about the people who live there? These are two essential questions that have guided me on a quest to become more connected and explore a realm beyond my own, uncomfortable at times, but filled with adventure. It all started when I began working at the local library a little over a year ago. I had just finished a stint on an organic apple orchard, picking apples, juicing them, and bottling the juice on site. Before that, I had worked on my own farm, during which I experienced a manic episode that nearly separated me from reality and all that I love. The…
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Cody’s Column: Inner and Outer Balance Magick
The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you’ve lost it. – Anonymous We learn to walk by scooching, crawling, toddling, and then finally by upright walking. I’ve seen this in my own children with lots of falling in between each stage. We are, however, born to balance along with many of the other creatures and plants of this world. Balance is what connects us on a primordial level. Many of our senses give us a view of reality by balancing light and dark, cold and hot, pressure, pain, pleasure, tastes, smells, and sounds. We use this sense network to create a blueprint for our brain to interact with.…
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Cody’s Column: Protection Magick and the Elk of the Skagit
May is here in full force, like the mighty elk that return each year to the upper field. Their antlers symbolize a powerful form of Protection Magick, just as the Elder Futhark Rune Algiz suggests. The elk are a little fewer in number this year though. Is the balance off or are we just seeing the cycles run through their courses? I am wondering if the hunting pressure was heavier this last year or if the hoof rot is to blame for the lower numbers. After checking the local Game Harvest Reports it looks like there were six 6pt. bull elk harvested, making the trend upward from the previous year. …
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Cody’s Column: Using Divination Tools with the Land
April is such a bouquet of emotions, thoughts and experiences here on the farm. Big projects we laid out in the winter are being realized. New projects are coming to light. The forest is waking up and so are the weeds! Many of them are medicinal, I am thinking about the hedge deadnettle, which should be called Purple Dragon’s Breath. This plant wakes up around the time bumble bee queens rise from their slumber and begin the search for a mate and early food to support her soon to be colony. There are so many signs of Spring, it is a wonder to me how many times we miss…
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Cody’s Column: Working With Land and Animal Spirits
It is eclipse night, and the rain is pouring down. I won’t get to see the eclipse, but I will feel it. I have been feeling it in the land and animal spirits that live here along the Magic Skagit River. The ravens who have been visiting again, the elk all standing in a line alongside the road, two eagles perched on a branch chattering with each other, circles of water rippling on the river, nettles peeking up off the forest floor, Indian Plum flowers blooming, and of course the iconic daffodils blooming in the Skagit Valley. Tonight, I write to you about being receptive to these spirits. For some…
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Cody’s Column: Connecting with Your Spirits
We made it through our first full moon in January and still no snow. Now it is February, and we received snow on Imbolc. The forest is still not asleep by any means. The tree spirits seem talkative along the well-worn paths. Bird chatter is ever present and today I even came across a squirrel chirping in a cedar tree near the banks of the Magic Skagit River. I drew runes in the wet sand and got Nauthiz, the rune of need for my actions to take this month. This will be my jumping off point when I speak with the spirits of the land as well as the tree…
