Where Waters Gather

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  1. Book Review - How to Read Nature

    review

    This book is maybe a bit further afield of what I usually review in my spiritwork blog, but it felt like it fit well in with some of the things I’m focusing on this year. My read of Braiding Sweetgrass made me want to turn more attention to the world around me, and my morning ritual for the land spirits involves a thoughtful walk through our lush suburban neighborhood, which has made me want to understand better what the land is telling me. It also didn’t hurt that the book was a rather serendipitous find; my eyes just landed on it during an unplanned bookstore trip, and the above connections made me decide to pick it up.

  2. Book Review - Liber Indigo

    review

    It felt like I came across Liber Indigo by Justin Kirkwood by chance, though it really may have been a good call by the YouTube algorithm (where the companion videos are posted). I was instantly intrigued; the subtitle “The Affordances of Magic” may just sound like word salad to many folks, but someone who works both in UX design and in magical practice, it jumped out at me as something combining both of my special interests. What I found wasn’t quite what I expected, but was still a very worthwhile excursion into esoteric thought.

  3. Grounding? Centering? Balancing?

    ritual practice

    I’m fascinated by the commonalities and differences in various pagan and magical practices, and also in the terminology we use for them. A perfect example is the first thing that pretty much every “how to do magic” or “how to do ritual” guide covers, the topic of “Grounding and Centering.” It seems like a simple topic, but there’s still a ton of diversity, and to some extent confusion, in how we talk about it. Today, I want to go a bit into the theory behind those things, to try to figure out just what we mean when we use those words, and share the approach that I’ve landed on, which seems to be a bit different from a lot of others I see.

  4. Book Review - Braiding Sweetgrass

    review

    A year or two ago, it seems like everyone in my pagan circles was reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, but it took me a while to get to it. Now, having read it, I’m sorry it took so long. This book struck me, challenged me, and inspired me. I can already feel how it’s reframing my approach to how I talk about and interact with the world around me. I only wish I hadn’t read it during a cold winter, since what it really made me want to do is go outside and sink my paws into the dirt.

  5. A therian journey ritual

    ritual therian

    This post from a few weeks really struck a chord for me. While I am a coyote, and an initiate of the Pack Tradition, it’s really important to me for therianthropy/otherkinness/altherumanity to be inclusive of other sorts of experience as well. Diversity and accessibility are really important. To that end, I want to share something I came up with originally for a therian retreat in 2023, as a way to bring folks along on an experience of their other side(s), whatever that may mean for them. This ritual was constructed for a group, but it should be pretty easily adaptable to individual practice as well.

  6. Book Review - Visual Magick

    review

    This weekend I finished reading Visual Magick, by Jan Fries, and I had enough thoughts about it that I thought I’d do a review, of sorts. This is an interesting one to review because one thing that became very clear while reading the book is that it’s not really “for me.” But that being said, I still came away from it with a lot of stuff that I found helpful and valuable, even if there was plenty of other stuff that made me roll my eyes or wince.

  7. Introducing Bondwork

    practice

    Over the past three months I’ve been working on a general project for myself to “re-enchant my life”. Really, to me, this is one of the most important things I can do in my life, up there with (and tied into) things like “build strong communities” and “make a difference in the world.” But task-management is a thing, and so making it a specific theme has been really beneficial.

  8. The Singer-in-Silence

    Wanderers

    Years ago, one of my first posts here was about the Dancer, the Wanderer who really introduced me to that whole pantheon, who’s still very important to me in drawing me deeper. But it struck me recently that I haven’t actually talked in-depth about any of them here. I think it’s far past time now, for a few reasons. One is that we just completed a cycle of focussing on one Wanderer each ritual, for the past year… And another reason is that another Wanderers just very clearly nudged me to talk more about them.

  9. Spirits in Autumn

    seasons autumn

    This is the last in a series of posts reflecting on how my experiences of the spiritworld changes throughout the year. It feels like this is just about the last possible moment I could reasonably have done one for Autumn, but there still feels like something to say. In general I’m really glad to have done this series, because of how it helps me get perspective on the living world around me, and also focus on my own journey through the seasons.

  10. On Vessels, Consecration, and Six Ways

    book practice

    I just finished a read-through of Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is hands-down my favorite book on magic ever written. Though it purports to be a book on “sorcery”, which is usually held as a fairly self-focussed practice, I find it deeply resonant as a spiritworker because it’s loudly animist, coming from a deeply animist place of building relationship with spirits. I still find new things to pull out of it whenever I read it.

  11. Prayers for Courage and Bravery

    prompt prayer

    This week I was challenged to write some prayers, the sort that one goes to for comfort and strength when times are hard. This is certainly something I need, something many can benefit from, and I’d be happy to have more around when I need them.

  12. Small Offerings

    prompt ritual

    This week’s prompt:

    I want you to write about small offerings. Offerings made on a daily or weekly basis, or offerings made spontaneously, rather than offerings that need more thought put into them, or are part of bigger things like rituals.

    Write about those small moments of remembering the gods and spirits, and the small things you give back to them.

  13. On Healing

    prompt healing

    This week, Trace asked:

    I want you to write a prayer for healing and wellness, for someone in need of help getting through and recovering from ailments. I want to have a good focus toward The Wanderers, toward the things in need of aid, and any other spirits you think may be helpful to reach out to.

    Oddly enough this is a topic I’ve mulled over a lot in the last few months, with a few too many bouts of sickness than I’d prefer to have, and in the middle of that a workshop where I chose to focus on the Healer divinity of another tradition I follow. And honestly I find that before I write a healing prayer, I need to talk a little bit about how I understand the role of spirituality in healing.

  14. Spirits in Summer

    seasons summer

    This week, I was reminded that it’s about time to continue my seasonal series, talking about the spirits in and of the summertime.

  15. Spirits, Gods, and Helpers

    theology prompt

    This week’s prompt from Trace gets into some of my favorite theology questions:

    What is the distinction between gods and spirits? Can one become the other? How do gods and spirits cooperate, and when do they come into conflict? Are there spirits that regularly work with a god for commonly shared goals and interests? How does this relationship compare to subservient beings like angels?

  16. Conflux Virtues

    virtues theory

    Systems of virtue ethics help people decide the right thing to do by focusing on internal traits, “the kind of person you want to be”, contrasting with utilitarian ethics (maximizing some external goal) or deontological ethics (finding specific rules to live by). At their best, the tenets of a virtue ethics system inspire people to change themselves to exist more in positive relationships with the world around them.

  17. Spirits in Spring

    prompt seasons spring

    This week’s prompt from Trace:

    I want you to write about spirits, and how they handle the changing of seasons and temperature in spring. This can include lots of spirits, especially local ones of the earth and plants and waters, weather and sky, but it certainly doesn’t need to just be about natural ones. If you have feelings for city spirits and how they handle the season, that would be good to include as well. It’s a time of change, and I’m sure many have very strong opinions about and reactions to that.

  18. Songs in Ritual

    ritual song prompt

    This week’s prompt from Trace:

    I want you to write about songs, in a spiritual context. What can songs do for folks coming together in spiritual ways? What songs do you have feelings about, good and/or bad, from previous spiritual experiences? What do you hope to do with music and songs to help yourself and others connect?

  19. The First Circles

    evenlight myth ritual

    Last weekend was Evenlight, the Conflux tradition’s celebration of the spring equinox. At our gathering, we focussed on the ideas of how spirituality can be immanent, or present in our daily lives, and this felt like a good story to go with that idea.

  20. Crafting

    prompt crafting

    Trace’s prompt for this week:

    I want you to write about spiritwork being done while crafting something tangible. Weaving or sculpting or carving or any number of other craft projects. I want to hear about things you’ve done like this, and I want to hear about the principle behind it, what you’re doing to make it beside the things you do with your paws.

  21. 3 Pagans on Tap - Talking Wanderers and New Traditions

    video 3pot

    I was on the 3 Pagans on Tap video stream again recently. We had a great wide-reaching conversation about the Wanderers, my explorations, and what it means to be a "new tradition"

    Thanks so much to Maleck and Sarenth for having me on the show again!

  22. Tine-maps

    prompt crafting

    This week Trace asked me to write about Tine-Maps, which are a subject that I’ve talked about a bit before but never given much details.

  23. On Divination

    prompt divination

    This week’s prompt from Trace:

    When you’re tossing things or pulling them out of a deck, what’s going on? Are you having a conversation, or otherwise interacting with someone? Multiple someones? What’s going on when when you’re doing your thing? When you work with tines, is it different from when you use decks?

  24. Spirits in Winter

    prompt seasons winter

    I've started doing regular writing prompts, from folks close to me. This week’s prompt came from Trace:

    I want you to take some time to write about spirits in winter. There definitely seem to be spirits that you get closer to during the wintery season, but it would also be good to talk about spirits of the land and how they respond to it. It might also be worth reflecting on how spirits react to winter in different places and compare them, with the places you have experience with.

  25. Reindeer Lessons

    ritual winter

    My connection with reindeer started because I thought they were cute. I found the look appealing. I liked the gender complication of a deer species where both sexes had antlers. Like many furries, I decided to be a deer for winter.

  26. 3 Pagans on Tap - Storytelling Ritual

    video 3pot glowtide ritual

    Over the Glowtide break, I was honored to be included in a storytelling ritual hosted by 3 Pagans on Tap, where I got to tell the story of the first Glowtide. My part starts at 43:50 but I do recommend listening to the whole thing, since there's some truly wonderful stuff throughout. Thanks so much for inviting me to be a part of this!

    Please do be aware that this is a video of a ritual, so watching it could be considered participating in that ritual, even though it's not a live event anymore.

  27. 3 Pagans on Tap - Wolves on Parade

    video 3pot pack

    I was honored to be a guest on 3 Pagans on Tap, talking a lot about therian experiences, Pack Magic, and other animal spirituality. And I shared a drink recipe!

    Thank you Maleck and Sarenth for having me on the show!

  28. Why Spirituality?

    introduction question

    I originally answered this question on the Around Grandfather Fire Discord server, as one of their weekly prompts, but I thought it would be good content for here. The question was "Why? Why pursue mysticism, magic, spiritwork, etc? What's the drive? What's the push?"

  29. Waters Gather - a story for beginnings

    wanderers myth evenlight ritual calendar

    This is a myth for the beginning of the year, the start of a new time in life, or any other times when the road is unclear and full of uncertain emotion. I told it at our Evenlight (spring equinox) ritual circle this past weekend.

  30. The Dancer-Between

    wanderers dancer between

    If I’m going to share more about the Gods I’m learning to honor, there’s an obvious one to start with.

    I call That One the Dancer-Between, the Sovereign of Neither Here Nor There.

  31. Kindled Fire 2021

    ritual kindled fire calendar

    Yesterday was our first circle of the (Gregorian calendar) year, the rite of Kindled Fire. This is the time of year when the sun’s increasing presence in the day starts to be noticeable, when we begin to think about what we can do with the oncoming warm seasons. It’s a tenuous time; in many places, February is still one of the coldest months of the year, and where we live now, it still tends to be very dark and rainy. In fact, last night’s ritual was the first one in years that had to be substantially altered because of inclement weather.

  32. Culture and Conflux

    introduction culture

    Before I get particularly into the specifics of beliefs and practice, I figured it'd be helpful to define some terms and basic assumptions. I talked a bit in the last post about this whole exploration being involved with culture, because gods, spirituality, and religion are themselves intimately involved in culture. (That, among other things, is why cultural appropriation is so important to consider; practices can't always be disentangled from the rest of the culture that birthed them.) Sarenth Odinsson wrote a lovely post recently on what developing culture could look like for modern heathens. That path isn't mine, but the writing about it shows the interrelations and considerations between spiritual practice and culture.

  33. Introductions and beginning-places

    introduction

    I didn't really expect to be starting a blog. I was trying to write a book. Weirdly enough, it's a lot easier for me to wrangle page layouts and heading styles in print than it is for me to get a blog running. But when I asked how to go about working out and sharing my myths on the Around Grandfather Fire Podcast, the hosts quite reasonably called me out on this being a faster and more accessible way to share it, a sentiment which my gods resoundingly agreed with. I'm still doing the book. I love the idea of doing a book, and having a physical object I can hold that represents this work, but now I also have this.