Divining Through Disaster

 Photography by: Maimouna Guerresi

Written by Jaliessa Sipress

Recently, a lot of people’s realities have been turned upside-down; whether through “natural” or man-made disaster or through events that blur the line in-between. Disaster is something most of us live under the threat of everyday. It bubbles underneath our feet and seethes under our skin. It is what keeps us up at night and often impacts our day-to-day decisions. Its intensity and presence ebb and flow but the threat will always remain. Turmoil in this world is consistent but when the building pressure peaks, people start to panic, and they begin to forget.

As witches, misfortune is a part of our lineage. The fear, pain and suffering of those around us prescribed as side effects of us being privy to our own power. Our aptitude to tap into our natural abilities and form deep connections with our bodies, the bodies around us and the body of the earth are all things that make us dangerous because these acts can never fall under anyone else’s dominion. We listen and flow with the earth and her shifts and changes. We practice remembrance and manifestation in accordance with her seasons. We understand that we are of her and can harness her power and this is why we are feared. But the earth is a witch, too. She casts spells of beauty, love and abundance and she, too, is targeted for being angry and vengeful when she tries to heal herself. And this is why we must carry on. This is why we must acknowledge the power of the witch, the strength in our audacity to be our own temples and our own healers. Our abilities to make altars out of debris and never be without our magic because it lies within us.

To divine through disaster is to not ignore it. A lot of the craft is centered in the simple act of noticing. We watch and wait and participate in the art of divine timing. We are here to nurture the collapse of all that ails us, to live in harmony with our fear and loss. We must remember that our ancestors birthed our path to freedom and it is our duty to lead the way for others. Witches work is the work of the people. It is the work we do to stabilize and satiate and educate and support those who have forgotten the power within them.

During times of turmoil, it is our duty to remember and share our knowledge of how to work and heal with water, soil and ash. We must pass on ways to regenerate with what remains when human inventions fail. We are the ones who have to figure out why the world is still turning and we must take note of where our magic fits into the maddeness. We have to keep fighting, casting and believing the way we have been but with steadier consistency and ferocious fervor. Witches have to hold it down. It is our job to lead the way, to teach others how light comes from darkness and to hold onto our beliefs and our beloveds until the walls fall down around us.

Photography By  Photo credit: Maimouna Guerresi

Witchcraft as Devotion: A Closer Look at the Practices and Principles of Witchcraft in the Modern Age

Photography by Mo www.phobymo.com

Written By Jaliessa Sipress

With Vogue magazine hailing our time as a “witchy renaissance,” it is safe to say that witchcraft is on the rise.* But, what is witchcraft? What is it really for? Is it all just spells to get rich and make people fall in love with you? Is it about worshiping he who not be named and learning how to pronounce wingardium leviosa? For some, it is all of these things and for others, none. A witch can mean many things and can come in many forms, and much of it's popularity seems to stem from that. While witchcraft and wizardry has gained wild popularity for it's reclamation of power and perceived formlessness, what should not be forgotten is that being a witch is less about the fact that one has “power” and more about acknowledging where that power comes from.

Witchcraft is a work of gratitude. It comes from the practice of honoring the people, land and animals that came before you, that coexist with you now and that have yet to arrive. Witchcraft is the work of the wise because it is the everyday practice of those who are humbled by the world around them. Witches find meaning in the mundane and see the magic in weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalk or a shed feather of a dirty bird. Witches are rememberers, mourners and healers because they have reconciled with the cycles of life and realized what is and is not in human hands. Witchcraft is about gratitude and alignment, treading lightly and respectfully and only taking what you need. We must remember that witchcraft is less about control and more about connection. A connection to our own divinity, but also an understanding of the limitations of it.

A witch’s power is in their ability to adapt, working with the natural cycles of the earth to bring about abundance, clarity and direction. It is not about manipulation or having complete control. Witchcraft is about surrendering. It is the knowledge that most things are out of our hands but continuing to work with our surroundings to help swing things in our favor. It is the act of bowing to the elements and submitting to their power that makes a spell stick. Witchcraft is a labor of love and intention. Spells work because they are an act of communion with the powers beyond us, acknowledging our need for help, and partaking in a mutual relationship with things we cannot measure. It is about giving without the expectation of receiving.

Photography by Gregory Halpern

To practice magick is to be in attunement with a sensitive and dying world and being interested in working with, fighting for and healing with it. Yes, witches cast spells and ask the universe for guidance. This is because they are interested in being led, in asking for help when in need and respecting that whatever shall come, will come. Sometimes spellwork is feeding late Aunt Mable’s altar or lighting a “road opener” candle for weeks until anything finally sets into motion. Sometimes it is the humbling act of continually asking and never receiving because it is not what the universe wants for you. It can sometimes mean waiting, worrying, re-configuring and waiting again. But all of the waiting and worrying is worth it because the craft is about finding understanding in failed spells and magical mishaps. It is about finding true love for yourself and the world around you and being in communion with the gifts that come from that. It is about faith.

Witchcraft is a fun, freeing, beautiful and impassioned practice, and we must acknowledge that our ability to experience it as such is rooted in the magnetic force of offering. Offering our power, offering our light, offering our darkness, offering our strength, offering our material and immaterial gifts, our dedication and our relationship to the deities and beings that guide us. Staying in a state of gratitude and giving helps to attract the exact blessings you are grateful for. Your love and power are precious tools. Use them to uplift, remember and protect and they shall never go to waste.

Becoming the Earth: Contemplation, Visioning & Aesthesis.

Artist Paige Bradley

Written By Alicia Bello

I wanted to write an erotic love article to you. I wanted to write love to you by saying: May all kinds of milks, honeys, fragrant oils and flowers fill your home, altar, and bath. Let there be Eros possession in which every word rolled off the tongue is a spiced nectar. Let there be every lush nude sensation. Let every body in whatever sensual embrace undulate, hum, shudder and drunk on rhythm and ecstasy … whether crying out or soft sigh of respiration, mouth the genuine expression of ecstatic release (and please do always). Hopefully that article will want to be written soon because, well… what a sensation. Instead this article transformed from body in relationship to body into body in relationship to earth… a different kind of body, of intimacy.. the same and different.. but kind of the same. I have found myself outside significantly more than being inside anywhere. My hands and feet have been constantly investigating and trampling through the tropical landscape of Florida and so the intimacy running through me has been the aesthesis of shoots of new green covered in dew, balmy air scented with salty wet earth, and bees pressed deep into the center of flowers… and all of this is happening in the wide open, no shame, Nature needing no permission to burst with her blatant sensuality.

Connecting to the earth is not a new concept for those who practice the craft (to each and every guardian of the directions, the elementals, Hail and Welcome). It is a foundation of study and also a potent remembering. Within every natural witch lies dark earth, fertile, lush with the protected seedcrets of ancient ways, alive with mystery and kept sacred and untainted from the “normalization” of the status quo. No matter how we practice, each and every expression of the work that we do is beautiful to behold in its own right. Our earnest devotion to our practice is the catalyst to what peels away the layers so we begin to see the world completely differently. The earth is living, breathing, pulsing and we perceive it perhaps as our ancestors have, not in the grandiose Hollywood kind of way, but magic in the very real sense that begins to show itself when we learn(remember) how to look (be in relationship to it).

The Anima Mundi, the spirit of the world at this point is no longer a concept but so much more. It is perceived in the body and felt in the depths of individual experience. We, in turn, interact with our planet instinctually, in which in any given moment we turn on and tune in, and allow the power to course through our very body vessel. We can play the subtle vibrations like an instrument that opens the gates to other perceptions and other realities. The relationship that we cultivate with the spirits of the land is so very vital and just like any important relationship we’ve got to keep in touch, forget the small talk so to speak, and nurture it. We know the state of earth right now and quite obviously to say that it’s not healthy is a gross understatement. Just being with the understanding is like a glacial shower and it’s a beginning. We start right here, right now, with what is right in front of us. Without projecting rage or blame on anything, or fear, for the current state of the earth but to just be in a state of heightened mindfulness about say, the decline of bees or the poisoning of water… The Mother is where she’s at just as we are. Just to be in a heightened kind of mindfulness before any practice in which we evoke the elements, and contemplate their actual current state is incredibly important because we have to start where we are at. That being said, magic works non-linearly. No matter how we are working we can heal through coming into contact with root essence of the elements. What I am offering, however is to maybe initiate any ritual with that kind of present acknowledgment and then move into connection with the spiritus, gennii loci, and/ or Anima Mundi.

Visioning

I practice this visualization outside with meditation and contemplation either at sunrise or sunset, but as I usually instruct: if it feels right to practice it in ritual then do it. If you feel inspired to practice on the spot totally do it….except if your driving…listen to your intuition.

Demeter, just one name for Earth Mother is birthing and dying and birthing for us constantly...

Photo: Alicia Bello 

Vision your body/full self becoming Demeter by dissolving into the earth completely and merging with her creative chaos and order. Lie down on the earth while practicing. If you can, be completely naked or partially naked. See the shape of your body turn into dirt. Watch all of what you were dissolve into the earth completely. You are gone, but now you are also the whole of the earth. You are reborn in spring. See your blooms opening and the bees drinking your nectar. Smell sweetness of the season on the wind. Go through all the seasons of the earth in this way over and over. See the earth, which is you, floating in space. Place the periphery of your attention on the rhythm of the breath of your body. See the earth in your visioning breathing, the rhythms are in synch. Draw the scope of your vision to the place within the earth that you inhabit. See you where you are envisioning yourself as the earth while you are also the earth. Draw this harmonic image into the vision of your heart and let the vision pulse with your breath as you bring your attention back to your physical body. Enjoy your breathing still seeing the earth pulsing with your breath as your beating heart. Start all over again. Do it as many times as you can.

• Take notes on how this practice affects you after two weeks and a month.

 As you move through your day, contemplate aesthesis as drawing in the essence of the world, the Anima Mundi with robust sensory perception. Drink in everything.

The Hoodwitch: Weekly Horoscopes ~ October 28th, 2016

Astrology By Amelia Quint

Moon Void of Course Times
October 27, 9:51 AM Moon enters Libra
October 29, 6:09 AM Moon void in Libra
October 29, 10:01 PM Moon enters Scorpio
October 31, 6:09 AM Moon void in Scorpio
November 1, 10:43 AM Moon enters Sagittarius
November 3, 6:35 AM Moon void in Sagittarius
November 3, 11:05 PM Moon enters Capricorn
 

Moon Phase: New Moon

Under the new moon, work magick to grow, heal, and create. The Scorpio new moon will intensify your connection to the spirit world, So  Samhain rituals will be intense! Be careful what you wish for: attraction spells are powerful now!

During these signs, work magick around the following:
Scorpio- sexuality, investments, rebirth
Sagittarius- law, studies, wisdom
Capricorn- business, ambition, order

Aries

As an Aries, you adore straightforwardness―but not everything in life is that linear, especially when spirits get involved. Under the Scorpio new moon on Sunday night, you may begin to feel as someone is reading your thoughts, or watching your every move. Lady Luna will be on Mercury, supporting this sympatico vibe. She’ll also be in sync with Neptune in your spirituality zone, throwing a veil of mystery over the situation. It’s Samhain, so know that this feeling runs deep. Trust your instincts and don’t try to make sense of it.

Taurus

Under Sunday night’s Scorpio new moon, expect things with a lover, business partner, or dear friend deathly serious. What I mean by that is that you may have an encounter that brings you close to a past life you shared together, or a thread in the fabric that’s tying you two together in this life. Lady Luna on Mercury sends a clear message about the purpose of your current incarnation. She’s also in sync with Neptune in your friendship sector, elevating the love between you to cosmic levels. If it sounds spooky, did you expect anything less from a new moon on Halloween?

Gemini

Sometimes taking care of yourself, day by day, can be an act of spiritual service to your soul. The Scorpio new moon on Sunday night falls in your sixth house of self-care, where your daily habits and personal rituals dwell. If you’ve been feeling drained, this is an invitation from the heavens to start over. Lady Luna and Mercury will be entwined, so you may want to write your way out of this one (as is your sign’s custom). A sync to Neptune in your worldly wisdom sector opens up a portal between you and your most admired icons. Create an ancestor altar for them and see what happens.

Cancer

Everyone else might think this weekend is unnecessarily macabre, but not you, Cancer. As Sunday night’s Scorpio new moon dances through your house of play, it’s time for you to party. You don’t have to turn up if that’s not your style―in fact, a sync from Neptune says that ingesting too many mind-altering substances might get weirder than you anticipated―but you should let yourself out of your shell. Should you need any more motivation, whatever diversion you choose will be potent inspiration for any creative projects you have in process.

Leo

Whatever inner ghosts and past hurts may be haunting you, this weekend will banish them once and for all. Sunday night’s Scorpio new moon lands at the base of your chart, where your deepest emotions reside. It’s like hitting the celestial reset button on your psyche. Lady Luna will be on Mercury, so expect a powerful message about this deep cleanse. She’ll also be in sync with Neptune in your transformation sector, so you’ll want to give yourself space for the waves of compassion to roll in and out. After this, you’ll be a new person. What will you do next?

Virgo

Do you believe in fate, Virgo? Something very much like it is at work this weekend, working to bring you and a kindred spirit together for an important purpose. On Sunday night, the Scorpio new moon lands in your siblings zone, which can also extend to friends who feel more like family. It’s in sync to Neptune in your partnership sector, activating a soul mate connection between you and someone you’re in close proximity with, be it a lover or acquaintance. Have you met long before this? You decide. Mercury and Lady Luna conspire to send you a message that answers that question clearly.

Libra

They say “Money is the root of all evil,” but what are you to do when it’s a necessary one, Libra? Your diplomatic sign is forced to reckon with money, power, and value under the Scorpio new moon on Sunday night. Lady Luna will be on Mercury, implying that you’ll need all your strategic wiles to work this out in your favor. A sync to Neptune in your wellbeing zone means you’ll need to tend to your spiritual health before moving ahead on any major moves. This is Samhain, after all, so call on your deities, spirit guides, guardian angels, and ancestors for help.

Scorpio

It’s your personal new year, Scorpio! On Sunday night, the new moon in your sign lines up with Mercury to give you a message about what magick the next year holds. The question is: how will you use it? Lady Luna will be in sync to Neptune, your house of progeny―of blood or spirit. This year, consider what gifts you want to leave behind for the world when you join the ancestors on the other side. Yes, biological children are one option, but so are artistic creations, businesses, political legacies, and so many more. You stand at the crossroads, a powerful liminal space. Soak it in, Scorpio.

Sagittarius

Your lighthearted sign may be feeling worn out from all this darkness, Sagittarius. First, Saturn in your sign since last September gave you a major reality check. Now the sun and Mercury in your shadow sector are shining a bright spotlight on your inner self, giving you the tea on where you need healing. Luckily, this Sunday night’s new moon in Scorpio is exactly what the witch ordered. It’s in sync with Neptune at the base of your chart, so you may feel as if you’re floating in an isolation tank. Enjoy being buoyed by the cosmos, even if just for a moment, and know the universe has your back.

Capricorn

As a Capricorn, you’re meant to lead, but who will follow? You can be an isolationist at times, but on Sunday night, the Scorpio new moon in your associations sector reveals a group where your soul can finally feel at home. Lady Luna will conspire with Mercury to give you silver-tongued wit with which to charm your new compatriots, and a sync from Neptune in your communication sector seals the deal. In fact, this group may be one that centers around writing, creativity, or technology. A new class or workshop could introduce you to people to which you’re psychically linked.

Aquarius

Forget Halloween’s dark and spooky connotations. This is your moment in the spotlight! Sunday night’s Scorpio new moon lands at the top of your chart, prompting you to make serious power moves in your career, whether you realize it or not. Lady Luna and Mercury will flirt with one another, giving you the perfect words, messages, and body language to see your plan through. Lady Luna will also be in sync with Neptune in your secrets zone, so what happens on Samhain doesn’t have to go anywhere else―the spirits know how to keep silent. Have fun, stay safe, and know your moon will be memorable.

Pisces

If it told you this was a perfect time to study, would you be mad? Hear me out. Scorpio is your ninth house of worldly wisdom, including writing, philosophy, religions, and occult studies. Because this Sunday’s new moon in mysterious Scorpio falls on Samhain, there’s really no better moment to start a proper year-and-a-day commitment to magickal practice, or start exploring witchcraft for the first time. Lady Luna will be on Mercury―the zodiac’s eternal student―and in sync with Neptune in your sign, for added spiritual oomph. What you start now will resonate for years to come.