Đirona's Crown

I spent hours watching the fresh-watered waves
collide against the earth; thunder brewing at the tip top of
the pines, glorious skies that unfurl out and deep into the west;
the wind carrying sweet-water spray onto the land where I stand
in the shadows of the trees, waiting for the first celestial bodies
to rise behind me from the east. Đirona, most beloved star,
crown of the heavens, watching the gulls dancing over the last rays
of sun cresting the waves, a drum, a soft pitter-patter of pine needles
brushing against each other; we contain in all of us these rocky
shores, these watery edges; as the water becomes wine-dark like the
black roses my grandmother grew along the stone steps up to her house,
I reach the dark silhouette of my hand to the sky, and behind it
all the light of the stars gleam as they shower down, meeting
their mirror images reflected by the troubled horizon.

Notes on Ancient Fire by Segomâros Widugeni (2018)

I picked up Ancient Fire, An Introduction to Gaulish Celtic Polytheism, by Segomâros Widugeni on a whim, and I have to say I enjoyed reading the book. Widugeni’s book is 1) blissfully concise, 2) clear, and 3) is full of citations. As people might intuit from other posts on this blog, citations and citational politics/ethics are very important to me.

Breaking Waves

For years, my practice with regards to the spirits has focused almost exclusively on spirits of place (genius loci). I called myself a bioregional animist or a city animist — or just an animist, honestly — because I chiefly seemed to surround myself with non-anthropomorphized spirits.

Notes on Jean-Louis Brunaux’s Les druides des philosophes chez les Barbares (Part 1)

I picked up Jean-Louis Brunaux’s Les druides: des philosophes chez les Barbares on accident at the national library here in the city (I was there for completely different kinds of books, you know how it is). The book, however, is a smash hit, and has ended up being hugely helpful. In particular, it’s helped with the clarifying and linking together of historical concepts that have been floating around in my mind for decades — and often, while I could intuit that there were links missing between all these notions, I lacked the education and the experience to explain why. Enter Brunaux, who brings his considerable expertise and sassy historian wit to the stage.

Orchardcraft

What do I want out of my practice?

Dipping My Toes In Evergreen Waters

How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything that happens in life. — Marcus Aurelius

Resurrection

It’s been a long while since I last updated, and my last meandering post left it on kind of a dark note. I’ve got to admit, not long afterwards, I did end up dismantling all my physical shrines in my home and stored them away until finally, this last week, I took a look at everything and reassessed.

On discernment, discipline, mental illness, and witchcraft

I’ve been having a tough time with witchcraft lately.

Notes on Chapter 1 of Aidan Wachter’s Six Ways Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic

So, as I mentioned on Instagram, I’ve been meaning to work through some books and I decided to create these “let’s read” (get it?) to motivate myself to engage with these works in a thoughtful way, and maybe generate something useful in the process.

A Ritual for Zeus Amongst Oak Trees

I have a friend who does monthly libations to the Greek gods and goddesses and when possible, I try to join. Not long ago I joined him by the river to libate Artemis, and today I joined him in a grove in the forest at the top of a mountain, amongst some of the oldest oak trees in the city, to call Zeus and libate him.