XIV TEMPERANCE (reversed) The card depicts a beautiful woman on a white horse, led by a flock of blackbirds. She is the psychopomp, who carries souls to the Otherworld, the goddess who holds the key that opens the doors between the worlds. She bridges the realms of life and death, the manifest and the unmanifest, … Continue reading "This Week’s Reading (6 October 2025)"| Hearth Witchery
In old cottages, you might find various things hanging up around the house, a horseshoe over the door, horse brasses on the hearth, or glass balls in the windows. These are not just decorations; they were originally wards for magical protection. Their purpose was to turn away negativity and evil. Within living memory, it was … Continue reading "WARDING MAGIC"| Hearth Witchery
I always look forward to finding horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) in autumn, the shiny brown ‘conkers’ once beloved by schoolchildren for their games, but they are much more useful than that. The tree is so named because the nuts used to be made into liniments to treat muscle sprains in horses. They contain aescin, a … Continue reading "Horse Chestnut Salve"| Hearth Witchery
THE UNIVERSE (reversed) The card depicts the Goddess dancing within the centre of the Universe, which lies within our hearts, for the centre is wherever we are. She holds a circle which is a symbol…| Hearth Witchery
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES (reversed) The card depicts the Knight of Pentacles. Unlike the other knights, this one doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere and patiently leads his horse through the trees. He has forgone the shiny armour of his fellows and instead wears practical, homespun clothes. He is Silvanus, the god … Continue reading "This Week’s Reading (22 Sept 25)"| Hearth Witchery
At the autumn equinox, day and night stand equal once more, but the dark is gaining. Afterwards the hours of darkness progressively become greater than the hours of light, with dawn getting later and sunset getting earlier each day – a process that will continue until the winter solstice. The Sun is weakening, and the … Continue reading "The Autumn Equinox"| Hearth Witchery
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THREE OF CUPS (reversed) The card shows three lovely women dancing and raising their cups in celebration. They are the Three Graces, the sisters Splendour, Joy and Good Cheer, the attendants of Aph…| Hearth Witchery
I was not going to repost or promote my reflections on the origin of Halloween from 2021 as I did last year. I figured I had done what I could to set the record straight, and get the word out. Alas, this article from a generally trustworthy source continues to give the impression that theContinue reading "Is Halloween a Pagan Festival? – Repost from 2021"| Thomistic Philosophy Page
TWO OF SWORDS The card shows a moody landscape of pools and rocks, where two women are quarrelling and batting at each other with wooden swords. The younger one is thee Vanir goddess Freya, mistres…| Hearth Witchery
Yes, you heard me right – fuchsia jam! Many of us grow fuchsias in our gardens, but did you know that from the flowers to the berries, every part of the fuchsia is edible? You can add the flowers t…| Hearth Witchery
THE HANGED MAN The Hanged Man card depicts Odin, hanging on the great world tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, which has its branches in Asgard, the upperworld, its trunk in the middle realm or E…| Hearth Witchery
Marymass, sometimes known as Murmass, is the Scottish name for the feast of the Assumption on 15th August. It replaced the earlier festival of Lughnasain in the northern regions where the harvest w…| Hearth Witchery
As a public representative of Paganism, I frequently talk to people who feel drawn to Pagan religions but aren’t sure if Paganism is the right fit for them. As minority belief systems, the specifics of Pagan beliefs and practices are not well-known in wider society. Additionally, the incredible diversity of Pagan religions means that although... The post You Might Be a Pagan If… appeared first on Glasse Witch Cottage.| Glasse Witch Cottage
Foundations of Witchcraft: A Blackfeather Mystery School Manual is the revised and expanded (over 10K words) text formerly known as Blackfeather Mystery School: The Magpie Training. This manuscript is slated for release through Crossed Crow Books for August of 2026. (The next Foundations training will be in September of 2026.) Pre-order your copy here. Foundations...| Glasse Witch Cottage
It’s the 1st August: Lammas, Lughnasadh. The first harvest festival, it comes as a welcome respite for me. I’ve been away in Canada visiting family, and the 35 to 38C temperatures were horrendous. …| Down the Forest Path
In what should not be a surprise for anyone who knows me even a little, I am a former theater kid. Where some families are focused around sports, my family of origin was focused around the arts. I have been a performer my entire life. As a member of a theater family, this meant that as I was growing up, my wheel of the year – the anchors that helped me connect to the passage of time – took the form of theatrical productions. | Glasse Witch Cottage
Friends, Ash and I are so excited to share some big news with you. People who are local to the Western Maryland area know us as a team. Although I’m the one with a media presence, Ash and I are partners in pretty much everything. We write songs for Kindred Crow as a team, develop...| Glasse Witch Cottage
There’s a funny quote that circulates around the internet from time to time. It’s been attributed to lots of people, up to and including Sigmund Freud, but as far as I can tell it originated from a random person’s Twitter feed many years ago now. The quote reads: “Before you diagnose yourself with depression or...| Glasse Witch Cottage
This spring, I had a chance to sit down with JoAnna Farrer of The Coffee & Divination podcast for a lovely, wide-ranging conversation. We cover a lot of ground: tarot, divination, reconstruction of seidr, oracular work in general, Pagan community, and more. Check it out at one of the links below! General purpose link, for...| Glasse Witch Cottage
There is a stereotype within the Pagan community that gets encapsulated as “Epic Wolf Shirt Guy.” It’s an extreme form of animal kinship. Epic Wolf Shirt Guy has an animal they really resonate with, usually something sort of stereotypically Pagan, hence the wolf being the prime example of this stereotype. The joke is that they own 2,327 representations of their animal, have an altar dedicated to their animal, wear clothes with dramatic art of their animal printed on them, and may in fac...| Glasse Witch Cottage
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(Content warning: death, grief)| Glasse Witch Cottage
The huge diversity of personifications, spirits, deities, and other entities that are associated with Yule and Christmas is astonishing. There are multiple versions of Father Christmas (aka Santa C…| Dowsing for Divinity
One perspective common to most of the belief systems that fall under the umbrella term of Paganism is a desire to connect more fully with the natural world. There’s a recognition among most Pagans that Western culture, as a whole, has slipped too far from the cycle of the seasons and the interconnected web of existence. Indeed, treating the natural world as a resource to be exploited and viewing the lives of our non-human neighbors as meaningless and expendable has resulted in a world in tu...| Glasse Witch Cottage
This article is too good and too interesting for it to be lost so I have retrieved it from the Wayback Machine. Reclaiming Narnia: Walking Trees, Talking Beasts, Divine Waters By Jonathan Wool…| Dowsing for Divinity
Do you judge books by their cover design? It’s very hard not to. Books are colour-coded these days. Pastel colours suggest a light beach read. Especially if the cover art is an actual painting of a…| Dowsing for Divinity
Kerby Anderson provides a summary of how mankind has viewed the world from the Romans until today. This summary provides us a perspective against which to compare and contrast a Christian, biblical worldview based on New Testament principles.| Probe Ministries
The pentagram is an ancient symbol, used around the world to represent things that come in groups of five (the five senses, the five elements in Chinese symbolism, four elements plus spirit in the …| Dowsing for Divinity
On medieval buildings in England, a strange face can be seen carved on walls. We call him the Green Man. But who was he originally, and why is he everywhere?| Historic Mysteries
It was a fact of medieval life that you could die a sinner. However sin eaters, on the edge of society, could take that sin away for beer and a loaf of bread.| Historic Mysteries
These are suggested guidelines for a coven or working group. Please feel free to adapt them for your group as you see fit.| Dowsing for Divinity
I was a lonely child. I am now and have always been a bit of a too-much person. I have big feelings, an abundance of natural energy, and I’m very smart. I also fall into the neurodiverse world when it comes to how my brain works. I have some sensory processing issues that can cause trouble if they get too close to the surface. I know now that some of the behaviors and lashing-out I experienced as a child were a response to hitting neurological overwhelm. It’s easy to analyze all of that n...| Glasse Witch Cottage
One of the aspects of Pagan culture that can seem unusual to newcomers is the names that some Pagans take as part of our spiritual journey. Many times, these names are unfamiliar and identifiably not part of the larger culture from which we hail. Some of us only use our spiritual name in religious spaces like ceremonies and Pagan gatherings, but as taking a different name becomes more common in the wider culture, more and more Pagans are feeling empowered to legally change their name to their...| Glasse Witch Cottage
Depending on the metric you use to sort generations into categories, I am either one of the youngest members of Generation X or one of the oldest members of the Millennial generation. My birth year is 1980, which means I occupy a weird overlap between generational lines. One of the big ways both generations struggle involves money and property. According to the Schroders 2023 U.S. Retirement Survey, over 60% of non-retired Gen Xers do not think they will be able to fully retire. Based on conv...| Glasse Witch Cottage
The number one guide to understanding the wheel of the year - an ancient Celtic calendar based on festivals that celebrated our connection with nature.| The Outdoor Apothecary
If you are writing a blog here at Patheos, you are a Pagan leader, whether you like it or not. You have been given a platform, and consequently, you have a responsibility to others in our community. We must speak out. By all means, write about the gods and write about magic. But also write about what the gods and magic mean in the context of today's political reality.| The Allergic Pagan
Join us tonight at 8pm ET / 7pm CT / 6pm MT / 5pm PT on Pagan Musings Podcast. KaliSara and RevKess take an in depth look at Atheopaganism, or atheist Pagans, by having a conversation with John Halstead, Cat Chapin-Bishop, Áine Órga, and Tom Swiss. John is the editor of a book called Godless Pagans: voices of Non-Theistic Pagans. The others are all contributors to this anthology.| The Allergic Pagan
