{"id":14102,"date":"2017-11-01T01:10:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T06:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=16230"},"modified":"2017-11-26T18:07:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T23:07:49","slug":"nikki-sleath-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2017\/11\/01\/nikki-sleath-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki Sleath\u2019s Book Explains Witchcraft to the Unfamiliar, for PaganPagesOrg She Talks About Her Magick to the Familiar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just in time for Halloween, Nikki Wardwell Sleath self-published \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>You Might Be a Witch<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d It provides a simple overview of the Craft, defining wha<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>t modern day witches think and what they practice, dispelling myths along the way. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the first half of the 103-page book, she talks about her own life, going from a child with no magickal exposure to a woman in her 40s who is the founder and High Priestess of the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The second half of the book<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> covers such topics as the <\/span><\/span><\/span>general belief systems of a witch, the ethics of magick <\/span><\/span><\/span>and how to speak to skeptics. <\/span><\/span><\/span>It<\/span><\/span><\/span> ends with a twenty-question, multiple-choice quiz to see if you\u2019re \u201cCautiously Curious,\u201d \u201cA Witchlet in the Making\u201d or ready for a coven.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s totally just for fun; the questions are stereotypical,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sleath hopes her book will increase public acceptance of earth-based spiritual practices and will help readers see the magick in themselves so they can be more accepting of it in others. Although she expected those who might be curious to purchase it, she said she\u2019s also had many witches buy copies to give to their family and friends.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people are maybe a little more witchy than they think,\u201d she said, noting that magick often exists in ways that may not be recognized.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, when she was six and in the first grade, she wanted to win a raffle for the angel her teacher had made. It would go to the first student to guess the number the teacher had selected.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the number was 11. I felt the same sense of disorientation that I would have when experiencing d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, except that I also felt a surge of adrenaline, knowing I would win and that it somehow felt like cheating to have known the number ahead of time,\u201d Sleath wrote in her book.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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She did win, and 11 was to become a determining factor in many decisions and superstitions. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still have to look away after seeing 11:11 on a clock out of superstition that if I look back again at it before it has changed to 11:12, that my wish will not come true,\u201d she wrote. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another form of divination she relied on as a child was to get the answer to a question by kicking off her shoe. If it landed face up, the answer was yes and if it landed facedown, the answer was no. If it landed on its side, she took it to mean there was continued uncertainty. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For a high school genealogy project, Sleath learned her eight-times great-grandfather was Samuel Wardwell, one of the \u201cwitches\u201d hung in Salem. While she thought it was cool, that\u2019s where it ended. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to finding witchcraft, she said her big ah-ha moment was when she acted on psychic impulse.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had been dating the same guy in college for three and a half years and I loved him. I thought we\u2019d have a life together, I really did. But I didn\u2019t know any better because I hadn\u2019t had a higher quality relationship yet than that one. I didn\u2019t know that all of these things that were weaknesses in it, I didn\u2019t know them to be real problems.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThen, just one day, all of a sudden, the way that he spoke to me, I kind of realized it all and I made a snap decision: \u2018You know, I think we\u2019re done. I can\u2019t do this any more.\u2019 That was just an intuition in the moment. I wasn\u2019t planning on breaking up with him that night,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The big moment came the next morning when she threw away his key.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that once I did that, I would never go back to his apartment. As it\u2019s going up in the air toward the giant hole of the Dumpster, I had images of myself, like flashes of myself forward through my life in various adult stages. Just me. No other people involved. And I saw myself confident. I saw myself professional. I saw myself rocking it out. I saw myself enjoying my life in all these different decades. And in my moment, I was at the age of 21, I was gifted with this big revelation that I am the one. I don\u2019t need any guy for me to define happiness in my life. I knew I didn\u2019t need a man for me to be happy. And I decided that I didn\u2019t care at all. \u2026 It felt really incredible.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was only looking back that she realized how magickal that moment was. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As it turned out, the next day she was introduced to the man she later married.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, she recognized a pattern that had been occurring. Each fall, she would become more psychic and have more instances of deja vu, \u201cknowing exactly what someone was going to say before they say it, knowing what people\u2019s thoughts were.\u201d Then, come winter, she would go back to her normal intuitive level.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That started her researching.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI stumbled upon some good websites about the Craft and that hit me over the head. Everything I ever believed and didn\u2019t know that it was all there as a practiced religious and spiritual way. When I was a kid going to a Protestant church, I just thought I wasn\u2019t a spiritual person because I never had a spiritual experience there. And that couldn\u2019t be anything further from the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sheath got her degree and became a physical therapist, but the structure of the healthcare system burned her out quickly. She started to study holistic practices beginning with meditation, yoga and Reiki and going on from there.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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While practicing the Craft on her own, in 2012 she opened Nikki\u2019s Nature, offering energy healing, aromatherapy, auriculotherapy and hypnotherapy. She did past life regressions and Reiki. She also began attracting students who wanted to learn witchcraft. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The coven in which she had trained moved back to New Orleans, so she began her own. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen it just started snowballing, she said. \u201cSince then I have been teaching the classes to an ever-increasing number of people.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She moved her practice into<\/span><\/span><\/span> a bright, airy space in an old ax factory in <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Canton, Connecticut<\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When she had only a few students, lessons were individual. As more people came, she began groups that met weekly, together moving through her year and a day progressive curriculum. As one group completed its training, they were initiated. With night now open, she\u2019d begin a new group.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a magical religious practice and I take it very seriously as do all the people in my coven and my community. It\u2019s a large community. Right now we have 41 active members in the coven and I have nine or ten new people starting in a couple of weeks, so it\u2019s going to be 50 people. \u2026 It\u2019s an awesome community. I keep it 100 percent drama free. I won\u2019t allow anyone to stay if they make it \u2018all about me\u2019 or if they can\u2019t hold themselves together.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of all she does, the magickal training is most in demand. The ninety-minute classes cost $20. Groups are about<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> six to nine <\/span><\/span><\/span>people \u2013 nearly all of whom are women. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really hard to find, and even sometimes when you do find it, it\u2019s not great,\u201d she said of training in the ways of the Craft. \u201cIt\u2019s random. I have people in the coven who have been in other covens and a lot of them are more social and they don\u2019t get organized, learning and deep magick done. They get together because they all identify as witches and they want to celebrate the full moon and do things like that, but I think there has to be structure in order to see routine, progressive growth,\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Sleath<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>In my coven it is a true occult order. We teach ceremonial magick and so people have to learn the Golden Dawn style traditional ways of establishing sacred space, but then of course within that, the ritual varies depending on what it is. It\u2019s different if it\u2019s a moon or a sabbath \u2013 different things are done, but the whole casting and setting up of the space is very ceremonial in nature. It\u2019s amazing because obviously, everyone can do whatever they want outside of the large group gathering that we have, if they want to experiment with other things. You do what you want, but by doing that routinely in a coven, they just wind up with such strong skills. They know that they can command energy and focus their words and their thoughts at a moment\u2019s notice when they need to, and that\u2019s an amazing thing that a lot of people can never get from a book. So that\u2019s one of the big benefits of structured training and practices. The confidence in your skill set is just so much beyond anything that I could have achieved when I was a solitary, for sure.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In their own practice, \u201cw<\/span><\/span><\/span>hat each individual person does can vary greatly depending on what their passions are, what their talents are, what makes them feel spiritually connected. And one of the cool things about witchcraft is there isn\u2019t just one way of feeling connected to the divine. There\u2019s so many ways and I think that\u2019s one of the reasons people love it,\u201d Sleath said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome people simply are into the nature and earth-based energy parts of magick in the Craft. Some witches find a lot of gratification in working with various deities, mythologies, spirits, angels. I do both of those things. I work with nature very closely, but I also have a lot of guides and deities that I have very personal relationships with. It\u2019s intensely gratifying on many levels.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After years of practice, dreamwork became a large part of Sleath\u2019s magick.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cDreaming, I believe, is every person\u2019s spiritual birthright, but \u2026 [it] is important for me as a witch. I get a lot of insight, a lot of precognitive information, a lot of direct energetic and communication experiences with the divine through my lucid dreaming practice that you would never be able to experience in waking.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was after about seven years into her dream work \u2013 journaling every day \u2013 before, she said, \u201cmy lucid dreaming ability blossomed to the point where the deepest magick I could ever imagine happens in that space. For me, that\u2019s a big part of my practice. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>A lot of times when I start talking about lucid dreaming, and some of the really deep magical stuff that has happened, people want to know if their dream was lucid. The thing is, if you have to ask that, it was not. Every lucid dream has a very intense tangible ah-ha moment when you go, \u2018Oh my god, I\u2019m dreaming,\u2019 and your whole sensation changes and you\u2019re aware that you\u2019re in your bed. It\u2019s not astral travel.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In lucid dreaming, she said, you\u2019re in a different reality, a dream reality but you\u2019re aware of real time in ordinary reality while experiencing the dream. \u201cIn that state, because we\u2019re not limited by the physics here and our physical body, you can practice magick in ways [you can\u2019t in this plane]. You can actually shoot lightning out of your hands and make a banishing pentagram and watch it dissipate. You can do all of the things we do here symbolically and energetically, but see, as if you\u2019re in Hogwarts, the effects. And it\u2019s amazing. But the deep magick is not just that energy stuff and the flying and all of that, it\u2019s how I\u2019ve been able to actually experience goddesses directly and that\u2019s something that I can\u2019t even make someone believe. No one can ever really believe or know what I\u2019m saying unless they experience it for themselves. \u2026 It\u2019s unimaginable.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By setting her<\/span><\/span><\/span> intention in the dream time and then again in the morning, she feels \u201cin the flow of what I want to get done in my life.\u201d If there is something urgent, she\u2019ll do a spell. However, she said, most of the spells she does are on behalf of others.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard part of doing spell work is really knowing what you want and understanding the underlying motivations and getting the statement and the vision in your mind super clear. Most people never get that far. They have a vague idea. And then it\u2019s hard to manifest. Doing a spell for money is not a great idea. People do it all the time and it doesn\u2019t usually work that well, and the reason is that money is an abstract concept. We don\u2019t need the money. We need the things that money affords us in our lives,\u201d Sleath said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For that reason, she tells people, \u201cIf you can\u2019t afford a new car, do a spell for a car, because you don\u2019t know by what means that may end up becoming available to you.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Spells must have a crisp vision and a clear understanding of the goal. Lining up the correspondences \u2013 colors, herbs, gems, astrological timing \u2013 give the spell energy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI think many witches nowadays are very, very ethical. We talk about ethics all the time and how to appropriately point your thoughts and your goals so that it is always as well-intentioned as possible,\u201d Sleath said. \u201cI think many spells done by witches are actually much more ethical than a lot of prayers being done by good-intentioned Christians. For example, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ethical to pray for an outcome for someone else. \u2026 You don\u2019t even know that\u2019s the best thing for that person. That would be the same as me doing a spell for someone without getting their permission.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to ethics, karma is another topic that comes up.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bone of contention with a lot of groups online right now; everyone\u2019s arguing about it. I absolutely believe in karma. I absolutely believe that you will attract what you put out there. \u2026 I teach that to my students, that you have to be aware that your thoughts are very powerful and what you think about \u2013 and especially what you put out there magickally in sacred space \u2013 will also return to you, possibly in an amplified way.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While some people may poo-poo karma, calling it an Eastern concept that does not fit with their tradition, she boils it down to energy and ethics, saying there\u2019s a reason all religions subscribe to that.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou do attract what you give off. If you do magick at all, the things you put together are sympathetic magick; you\u2019re operating under the assumption that like attracts like. Well, if you\u2019re thinking about revenge, that attracts revenge. To me it\u2019s that simple. Our thoughts absolutely draw circumstances to us.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When crafting a ritual, she encourages an escape clause, explaining, \u201cIf you\u2019re not positive that there won\u2019t possibly be an ill effect on somebody or on yourself in the act of conducting this spell, then you need to have a statement in there such as, \u2018As long as it be for the highest and best good of all involved.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Witches need to be able to work with both the light and the dark, she said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that light and dark are balanced in the world. Everyone has light and darkness within themselves. \u2026 I never intend people harm and I make sure I\u2019m super ethical in any magick that I do, but I teach people to do shadow work. I help people to not fear death and to understand the affect of their consciousness that exists on beyond the body so they don\u2019t fear moving on. I\u2019ve worked in hospice. \u2026 I work with a goddess who is very closely tied to death and so it\u2019s actually been given to me as a mission, to help people not fear the dark [and how] to conduct themselves responsibly.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sleath intends to write a book about dreams.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople that have excellent dream recall often have magickal tendencies because \u2013 and I did my entire master\u2019s thesis on this, on dream recall,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her survey-based research correlated a person\u2019s rate of dream recall to how well connected to nature they perceived themselves to be. <\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cIt was off the charts, statistically significant,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople who rated themselves as feeling like they were very closely connected to nature have much higher dream recall than people who say that they\u2019re not.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the act of doing that project I read every study about dream recall that exists. All of the factors come down to mental clarity, so all of the things that make you better at remembering your dreams are things that increase your mental clarity [such as meditation]. \u2026 A lot of pharmaceuticals ruin your dream recall and it\u2019s because they have an effect on your mental clarity. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a general belief that dreams are worth remembering, you\u2019ll remember more. Your open-mindedness to the metaphysical enhances your dream recall. There\u2019s even political ones, like Republicans have worse dream recall than Democrats. People who exercise more recall dreams better. People who do creative stuff, like music or painting, they also have better dream recall.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That book, however, will come after she complete the one she\u2019s already started that puts together two different magickal approaches. Unlike her first book that was meant to be accessible to everyone with an open mind, this book will be for magickal practitioners to augment their own practice and their relationship with deities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her message to witches is: \u201cYou can\u2019t just leave your magick for your gatherings, your moons and when you\u2019re standing in front of your altar. You have to bring it with you into what you perceive as the mundane, otherwise, how is it really helping you? You\u2019ve got to trail those sparkles with you through your work, through the things [you do]. \u2026 I think that\u2019s where the depth of experience really comes from \u2013 when you can maintain and live in your enchanted world view all the time, even when you\u2019re not literally standing in front of your altar or gathering together with your friends to do magick. That\u2019s like immersion. That\u2019s really your Craft. And there\u2019s a lot of ways to do that.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For more information, visit nikkisnature.com, email her at <\/span><\/span><\/span>nikki@nikkisnature.com<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/u><\/i><\/span><\/span> or call <\/span><\/span><\/span>860-212-0055.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For Amazon information, click image below.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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About the Author:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lynn Woike<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>was 50 \u2013 divorced and living on her own for the first time \u2013 before she consciously began practicing as a self taught solitary witch. She draws on an eclectic mix of old ways she has studied \u2013 from her Sicilian and Germanic heritage to Zen and astrology, the fae, Buddhism, Celtic, the Kabbalah, Norse and Native American \u2013 pulling from each as she is guided. She practices yoga, reads Tarot and uses Reiki. From the time she was little, she has loved stories, making her job as the editor of two monthly newspapers seem less than the work it is because of the stories she gets to tell. She lives with her large white cat, Pyewacket, in central Connecticut. You can follow her boards on\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Pinterest<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, and write to her at woikelynn\u00a0at gmail\u00a0dot com.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Just in time for Halloween, Nikki Wardwell Sleath self-published \u201cYou Might Be a Witch.\u201d It provides a simple overview of the Craft, defining what modern day witches think and what they practice, dispelling myths along the way. In the first half of the 103-page book, she talks about her own life, going from a child with no magickal exposure to a woman in her 40s who is the founder and High Priestess of the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick. The second half of the book covers such topics as the general belief systems of a witch, the ethics of magick and how to speak to skeptics. It ends with a twenty-question, multiple-choice quiz to see if you\u2019re \u201cCautiously Curious,\u201d \u201cA Witchlet in the Making\u201d or ready for a coven.     \u201cIt\u2019s totally just for fun; the questions are stereotypical,\u201d she said. Sleath hopes her book will increase public acceptance of earth-based spiritual practices and will help readers see the magick in themselves so they can be more accepting of it in others. Although she expected those who might be curious to purchase it, she said she\u2019s also had many witches buy copies to give to their family and friends. \u201cI think a lot of people are maybe a little more witchy than they think,\u201d she said, noting that magick often exists in ways that may not be recognized. For instance, when she was six and in the first grade, she wanted to win a raffle for the angel her teacher had made. It would go to the first student to guess the number the teacher had selected. \u201cI knew the number was 11. I felt the same sense of disorientation that I would have when experiencing d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, except that I also felt a surge of adrenaline, knowing I would win and that it somehow felt like cheating to have known the number ahead of time,\u201d Sleath wrote in her book.     She did win, and 11 was to become a determining factor in many decisions and superstitions. \u201cI still have to look away after seeing 11:11 on a clock out of superstition that if I look back again at it before it has changed to 11:12, that my wish will not come true,\u201d she wrote. Another form of divination she relied on as a child was to get the answer to a question by kicking off her shoe. If it landed face up, the answer was yes and if it landed facedown, the answer was no. If it landed on its side, she took it to mean there was continued uncertainty. For a high school genealogy project, Sleath learned her eight-times great-grandfather was Samuel Wardwell, one of the \u201cwitches\u201d hung in Salem. While she thought it was cool, that\u2019s where it ended. Prior to finding witchcraft, she said her big ah-ha moment was when she acted on psychic impulse. \u201cI had been dating the same guy in college for three and a half years and I loved him. I thought we\u2019d have a life together, I really did. But I didn\u2019t know any better because I hadn\u2019t had a higher quality relationship yet than that one. I didn\u2019t know that all of these things that were weaknesses in it, I didn\u2019t know them to be real problems.     \u201cThen, just one day, all of a sudden, the way that he spoke to me, I kind of realized it all and I made a snap decision: \u2018You know, I think we\u2019re done. I can\u2019t do this any more.\u2019 That was just an intuition in the moment. I wasn\u2019t planning on breaking up with him that night,\u201d she said. The big moment came the next morning when she threw away his key. \u201cI knew that once I did that, I would never go back to his apartment. As it\u2019s going up in the air toward the giant hole of the Dumpster, I had images of myself, like flashes of myself forward through my life in various adult stages. Just me. No other people involved. And I saw myself confident. I saw myself professional. I saw myself rocking it out. I saw myself enjoying my life in all these different decades. And in my moment, I was at the age of 21, I was gifted with this big revelation that I am the one. I don\u2019t need any guy for me to define happiness in my life. I knew I didn\u2019t need a man for me to be happy. And I decided that I didn\u2019t care at all. \u2026 It felt really incredible.\u201d It was only looking back that she realized how magickal that moment was. As it turned out, the next day she was introduced to the man she later married. That same year, she recognized a pattern that had been occurring. Each fall, she would become more psychic and have more instances of deja vu, \u201cknowing exactly what someone was going to say before they say it, knowing what people\u2019s thoughts were.\u201d Then, come winter, she would go back to her normal intuitive level. That started her researching. \u201cI stumbled upon some good websites about the Craft and that hit me over the head. Everything I ever believed and didn\u2019t know that it was all there as a practiced religious and spiritual way. When I was a kid going to a Protestant church, I just thought I wasn\u2019t a spiritual person because I never had a spiritual experience there. And that couldn\u2019t be anything further from the truth.\u201d Sheath got her degree and became a physical therapist, but the structure of the healthcare system burned her out quickly. She started to study holistic practices beginning with meditation, yoga and Reiki and going on from there.     While practicing the Craft on her own, in 2012 she opened Nikki\u2019s Nature, offering energy healing, aromatherapy, auriculotherapy and hypnotherapy. She did past life regressions and Reiki. She also began attracting students who wanted to learn witchcraft. The coven in which she had trained moved back to New Orleans, so she began her own. \u201cThen it just started snowballing, she said. \u201cSince then I have been teaching the classes to an ever-increasing number of people.\u201d She moved her practice into a bright, airy space in an old ax factory in Canton, Connecticut. When she had only a few students, lessons were individual. As more people came, she began groups that met weekly, together moving through her year and a day progressive curriculum. As one group completed its training, they were initiated. With night now open, she\u2019d begin a new group.     \u201cIt\u2019s a magical religious practice and I take it very seriously as do all the people in my coven and my community. It\u2019s a large community. Right now we have 41 active members in the coven and I have nine or ten new people starting in a couple of weeks, so it\u2019s going to be 50 people. \u2026 It\u2019s an awesome community. I keep it 100 percent drama free. I won\u2019t allow anyone to stay if they make it \u2018all about me\u2019 or if they can\u2019t hold themselves together.\u201d Of all she does, the magickal training is most in demand. The ninety-minute classes cost $20. Groups are about six to nine people \u2013 nearly all of whom are women. \u201cIt is really hard to find, and even sometimes when you do find it, it\u2019s not great,\u201d she said of training in the ways of the Craft. \u201cIt\u2019s random. I have people in the coven who have been in other covens and a lot of them are more social and they don\u2019t get organized, learning and deep magick done. They get together because they all identify as witches and they want to celebrate the full moon and do things like that, but I think there has to be structure in order to see routine, progressive growth,\u201d Sleath said. \u201cIn my coven it is a true occult order. We teach ceremonial magick and so people have to learn the Golden Dawn style traditional ways of establishing sacred space, but then of course within that, the ritual varies depending on what it is. It\u2019s different if it\u2019s a moon or a sabbath \u2013 different things are done, but the whole casting and setting up of the space is very ceremonial in nature. It\u2019s amazing because obviously, everyone can do whatever they want outside of the large group gathering that we have, if they want to experiment with other things. You do what you want, but by doing that routinely in a coven, they just wind up with such strong skills. They know that they can command energy and focus their words and their thoughts at a moment\u2019s notice when they need to, and that\u2019s an amazing thing that a lot of people can never get from a book. So that\u2019s one of the big benefits of structured training and practices. The confidence in your skill set is just so much beyond anything that I could have achieved when I was a solitary, for sure.\u201d In their own practice, \u201cwhat each individual person does can vary greatly depending on what their passions are, what their talents are, what makes them feel spiritually connected. And one of the cool things about witchcraft is there isn\u2019t just one way of feeling connected to the divine. There\u2019s so many ways and I think that\u2019s one of the reasons people love it,\u201d Sleath said. \u201cSome people simply are into the nature and earth-based energy parts of magick in the Craft. Some witches find a lot of gratification in working with various deities, mythologies, spirits, angels. I do both of those things. I work with nature very closely, but I also have a lot of guides and deities that I have very personal relationships with. It\u2019s intensely gratifying on many levels.\u201d After years of practice, dreamwork became a large part of Sleath\u2019s magick.     \u201cDreaming, I believe, is every person\u2019s spiritual birthright, but \u2026 [it] is important for me as a witch. I get a lot of insight, a lot of precognitive information, a lot of direct energetic and communication experiences with the divine through my lucid dreaming practice that you would never be able to experience in waking.\u201d It was after about seven years into her dream work \u2013 journaling every day \u2013 before, she said, \u201cmy lucid dreaming ability blossomed to the point where the deepest magick I could ever imagine happens in that space. For me, that\u2019s a big part of my practice. \u201cA lot of times when I start talking about lucid dreaming, and some of the really deep magical stuff that has happened, people want to know if their dream was lucid. The thing is, if you have to ask that, it was not. Every lucid dream has a very intense tangible ah-ha moment when you go, \u2018Oh my god, I\u2019m dreaming,\u2019 and your whole sensation changes and you\u2019re aware that you\u2019re in your bed. It\u2019s not astral travel.\u201d In lucid dreaming, she said, you\u2019re in a different reality, a dream reality but you\u2019re aware of real time in ordinary reality while experiencing the dream. \u201cIn that state, because we\u2019re not limited by the physics here and our physical body, you can practice magick in ways [you can\u2019t in this plane]. You can actually shoot lightning out of your hands and make a banishing pentagram and watch it dissipate. You can do all of the things we do here symbolically and energetically, but see, as if you\u2019re in Hogwarts, the effects. And it\u2019s amazing. But the deep magick is not just that energy stuff and the flying and all of that, it\u2019s how I\u2019ve been able to actually experience goddesses directly and that\u2019s something that I can\u2019t even make someone believe. No one can ever really believe or know what I\u2019m saying unless they experience it for themselves. \u2026 It\u2019s unimaginable.\u201d By setting her intention in the dream…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}