New on YouTube. In various religious and magical spaces, the concept of “tradition” is incredibly important. But what is tradition, really? Why is it valuable? And why do people get so weird about it? In this video, I talk through my thoughts on these questions, and provide my own proposed definition of religion: A set […]
Read more "Video: What Even is Tradition, Anyway?"In my previous post, I started to outline the interpretation of a massive Opening of the Key reading that I did for myself last week, to mark the winter solstice. I’ve been in a bit of a rough patch lately, with the death of my father, genera malaise in the workplace, and a healthy dose […]
Read more "My Yule Opening of the Key: The Second Operation"New on YouTube. Qabalah for Wiccans released last week, which means I’m officially a published Pagan author now. That’s incredibly exciting, but it’s also weird in some ways I hadn’t anticipated. I share some thoughts about the Pagan community’s relationship with publishing and with authors, the way an author’s involvement in book publicity requires the […]
Read more "Video: Thoughts on Being a Pagan Author"This is an older deck, but it’s one I’ve been meaning to get my hands on for quite some time. The Green Witch Tarot is a deck designed by Ann Moura, the author of the highly successful Green Witchcraft books.* It’s a colorful Tarot deck printed with Pagans and witches in mind, adapting the classic […]
Read more "A Review of the Green Witch Tarot"Like any other community, Paganism suffers from Discourse™. A lot of the time, problems in Pagan spaces can be avoided through careful reading and critical engagement. In this video, I talk through some of the problems that I see frequently in Pagan conversations, and I talk about the importance of some foundational critical reading skills: […]
Read more "Video: Reading Comprehension for Pagans"I haven’t written about it in a while, but longtime readers of the blog may remember that I have a devotional relationship with Baba Yaga. This is, nominally at least, part of my practice of Slavic polytheism, but in many ways it’s its own sort of thing. I hadn’t really anticipated forming this relationship, and […]
Read more "Baba Yaga and the Gods"People read Tarot for a variety of reasons. Some people use it predictively, some people use it introspectively, and so on. The uses range from the purely psychological, to decision-making, to bona fide divination. However, a common thread among all Tarot readers is that we read Tarot because it works. Whatever we’re trying to use […]
Read more "Sometimes You’re Wrong"I’ve been away from the blog for a while, and I apologize for that. My father died unexpectedly, and I had to fly out to the West Coast to deal with that. I will likely write about the grieving process at some point here on the blog, but for now, I prefer to keep it […]
Read more "The Four of Swords and the Nine of Wands: Rest Imposes Itself"This week, I had the privilege of joining Tess Whitehurst and Natasha Levinger on the Magic Monday podcast, to talk about Hermetic Qabalah, the Tree of Life, and how to make an often impenetrable subject accessible and relevant for magical practitioners outside of the Golden Dawn paradigm. (And, of course, to promote my book, which […]
Read more "My Appearance on the Magic Monday Podcast"With Pride month coming up, I’ve been thinking a lot about family in all its forms: Chosen family, biological family, spiritual family, and so on. Pride is, historically, an interesting time for me; my High Priestess had to drag me kicking and screaming to my first Pride, because I was still processing a great deal […]
Read more "Family in the Tens of the Minor Arcana"
Jack Chanek 