• Crafting Articles

    WitchCrafting: Crafts for Witches

    Drink Up Witches   Merry meet! While Sahmain is a solemn sabbat, the new year starts at midnight. For this witchcraft, mix up a cocktail or two to celebrate. These are just a sampling of recipes that can be found online.   Going Off the Deep End Daiquiri     1½ ounce rum 3 ounce blueberry juice 1 ounce pineapple juice 1 squeeze fresh lemon Put all ingredients in a shaker, shake well and serve over ice. Garnish with a slice of fresh orange or lemon. (Recipe by by Isie) Witches Brew Cocktail   1 oz vodka 1.5 oz raspberry liqueur 1 oz lime juice, strained 1 drop purple food…

  • Spells & Rituals

    SpellCrafting: Spells & Rituals

    New Year’s Intentions Merry meet! With Samhain marking the end of one year, it’s a time to focus our intentions on the witches’ new year ahead – and help them manifest. This spell will match a wish to each of the elements.     Prepare an altar for Samhain with a candle for each of the elements. Have four small pieces of paper and, to put them in, four envelopes or small glass jars. Add sacred objects, and perhaps items related to your intentions. Put the four aces from the Minor Arcana, which will represent the elements, and the Nine of Cups, the wish card, on the altar.   Burn…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – The Witch’s Yearbook: Spells, Stones, Tools, and Rituals for a Year of Modern Magic by Clare Gogerty

    Book Review The Witch’s Yearbook: Spells, Stones, Tools, and Rituals for a Year of Modern Magic By Clare Gogerty Publisher: David & Charles 128 pages Publication Date: August 10, 2021         Clare Gogerty, a seasoned practitioner of the craft, gives a year’s worth of ideas and wisdom for celebrating the sabbats that makes for a helpful resource for beginners. Chapters begin with an introduction to the festival, a topic of interest (trees for Mabon, the moon at Yule, magical creatures for Ostara), botanical and crystal correspondences, holiday traditions and customs, rituals and spells, and a witchy craft (apple wand, incense, Brigid’s cross). On the Samhain pages, for…

  • Spells & Rituals

    The Rite Way

    A Ritual for Samhain   This Samhain ritual is written for a solitary practitioner, but can be adapted for more than one. In sacred space, you will be writing your own Charge of the Dark Goddess or God … or both. Because I prefer to spread out materials, I will be setting up a minimalist altar on my dining room table with a black candle; a pentacle; objects representing each of the elements; books, papers, and computer, a cup of a psychic tea blend, and pumpkin bread. To begin, cleanse your space by ringing a bell, clapping your hands, or smudging the area. Create sacred space to protect you and…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – Wiccan Teas & Brews: Recipes for Magical Drinks, Essences, and Tinctures by Cerridwen Greenleaf

    Book Review Wiccan Teas & Brews: Recipes for Magical Drinks, Essences, and Tinctures By Cerridwen Greenleaf Publisher: Cico Books 144 pages Publication Date: May 14, 2023         Cerridwen Greenleaf was a toddler when she learned the importance of herbs from her Auntie Edie, but it took curing a cough that lingered after a bout of flu and did not respond to pharmaceuticals for her to begin evangelizing the drinking of herbal brews. “Tea conjures a very powerful alchemy because, when you drink it, you take the magic inside of you,” she wrote in Wiccan Teas & Brews. “They have the power to heal when nothing else will,”…

  • Interviews,  Monthly Columns

    Witch Hunt

      There are witches all around us. You can find them anywhere… The Witch on Wheels has been documenting her findings.   Meet: Christina Aisling Eddy   Christina is the senior member of the coven. As an empath and a healer, she believes in a holistic approach, something she brings to her jobs of an emergency medical technician and a caregiver to the elderly. The next steps for Christina are becoming a death doula and volunteering in hospice to help the elderly and their families move on. Her husband, a Catholic, is supportive of her path. Learn why she stayed in the broom closet into her 40s, who her familiar…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – A Spell A Day: 365 Easy Spells, Rituals and Magic for the Everyday by Tree Carr

    Book Review A Spell a Day: 365 Easy Spells, Rituals and Magic for the Everyday By Tree Carr Publisher: Watkins 336 pages Publication Date: June 13, 2023         Tree Carr gives readers 365 spells and rituals in book form, organized by element. There are several ways to choose which spell to cast: by intention, chronologically, synchronized to magical and celestial dates, and using the divinatory art of bibliomancy by opening the book to a page at random. For each of the five elements – air, fire, water, earth, spirit – Carr presents spells for three new moons, three full moons, three solar returns, sabbats, and a collection…

  • Crafting Articles

    WitchCrafting: Crafts for Witches

    Apples Three Ways Merry meet! Apples correspond to Mabon and there are many simple ways to incorporate them into your craft when celebrating Mabon.   I like to use them as candle holders on my altar and table. For tea lights, take an empty candle container and push it into the top of an apple. Scoop out the area and drop in a tea light.           Similarly, core the top of an apple to hold a taper candle, careful that the apple remains stable.       When done using them as candle holders, you can slice the apples horizontally into thin circles, dip them in…

  • Monthly Columns

    Good God!

    Meet: Liber   Liber may well have originated as a native Italian god of fertility, vegetation, and wine. He is also associated with intoxication and was known for throwing wicked parties. The Romans later merged his identity with that of the Greek god Dionysus. Like Dionysus, Liber represented uninhibited freedom and the subversion of the powerful. He was a patron deity of Rome’s plebeians – the largest, least powerful class of citizens – who rejected the civil and religious authority of the ruling class elite. Before being adopted as a Roman deity, Liber was a phallic deity and a companion to two different goddesses in two different archaic Italian fertility…

  • Spells & Rituals

    SpellCrafting: Spells for the Craft

    Mabon Mandala     Merry meet! This issue’s spell coordinates with Mabon, but is also appropriate anytime you wish to offer gratitude. Given that a prayer is a spell and a mandala is a prayer, therefore a mandala is a spell.     On the second of three and the most abundant of the harvests, I suggest creating a mandala from seasonal botanicals to thank the Mother for her blessings. In an open space, preferably outside as a gift of beauty to the earth, lay out fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, vegetation, and found items in a pleasing way. Make each piece you place an offering of appreciation for one of…