Witchcraft. As best as I can.

I'm a lazy, broke, ADD witch.

I'd like to paint myself as some sort of polished esoteric scholar, or even just well-versed in rune-working, but I need to face it. Half of the time I have no idea what I am doing.

I grab a handful of herbs from the spice cabinet and hope that oregano substitutes for marjoram.
Esbats sometimes pass by completely unnoticed.

I have no idea where I put my athame...or if a decorative blade from the Renaissance Faire even qualifies as an athame (it's probably in storage, actually).

Thanks to Kansas' broken economy and a Bachelor's degree in English I often can't afford supplies so I make do with what I have. No red candles? Well then, I'll just smother this white taper with acrylic paint and hope for the best. Okay, I was being facetious there. Anyway, I'm pretty good at improvising.

What magick really boils down to is, in my opinion, intention. Yes, the trappings are pretty specific for a reason, but if you live in a small town it might be difficult to come by dragon's blood resin unless you order it online. I like to imagine that Spirit gives us a pass when we are doing the best we can. Things are doubly hard for spoonies, i.e. those of us with chronic illness, physical or mental, and going through an entire ritual can be draining enough, especially as an empath. Some days it's all I can do to shuffle my tarot cards.

So let this blog be a place where the poor and the half-hearted may find respite from a world insistent upon perfection. I'm pretty eclectic in my practice so don't expect me to follow a specific path. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Words are a form of magick themselves, so you will also find that I post poetry, short stories, and I even write my own spells from time to time. Feel free to borrow the spells and alter them to suit your needs, just give me a smidge of credit is all I ask.

ALSO, BIG IMPORTANT THING THAT REQUIRES CAPITAL LETTERS:

Trust your intuition, kids. If something doesn't feel right, don't do it. You evolved those gut instincts for a reason. Working magick is the perfect time to try and hone those instincts into a valuable tool you can apply to most areas of your life. This BIG IMPORTANT THING is doubly important if you work with spirits and entities outside of yourself. I don't use Ouija boards for a reason, and that reason is that I have a baaad feeling about them. I add a candle to certain rituals because I have this nagging sensation that I should add a bit of illumination to the atmosphere. A lot of the time we think we have to adhere dogmatically to the recipe, but sometimes a little less sugar or a little more frankincense is just what is needed.

My cousin, Fr. Eamonn O'Conghaile, is an Irish Catholic priest in Connemara. He is also a seanchai, a keeper of our clan's oral tradition, very similar to the ancient bards. He has a beautiful analogy that I try to employ whenever I think about why people operate differently:

"Everyone is on a journey. Some people take a boat, some ride a bicycle. Others might drive a car or take the train. In the end we all end up in the same place, some fellows just get there sooner than the others."

Blessed be, cats and kits.