Category: Blog Post

Rain, Hail, & Poetry

Posted on by runa

The ides of May brought glorious rain, and not so glorious cooling. But the gardens of Villa Westwyk, and Grandmother Willow* were thrilled to have a full day of rain with a near inch of accumulation. The rain also brought lots of inspiration and had me penning a poem during a small tea break. I feel pretty good about it — it’s been about a year since I’ve written any poetry beyond spells.

I struggled with whether or not to share it; but, it felt synchronistic to my intention of creating a magical life #OnTheCovenstead and to ultimately feed hungry community members with the food that I grow and the energy exchanges I do through my Creative Crone Shop. If nature inspires some creative work, it feels appropriate to share, especially since I’m approaching my Jupiter return. No better time to share my knowledge and perspective.

So enjoy the poem, and maybe go put your bare feet on the Earth while you read it.

Liminal Hail & Farewell

By Runa Troy

Spring messages us by drenching rain

One of the last long soaks

Before the Covenstead hardens

Into the dry language of summer.

It reveals like an opening night.

Spring, soft-voiced, reluctant, yet determined

Gathering her mystical tools to depart, whilst

Summer showcased by spotlight, adorned in sunflowers

Hail striking the roof mid-sentence

Be prepared, Spring cackles;

My pelting sets the stage, instructs the flyman

The curtain rises, the wheel turns

The plants lift themselves like a choir,

Green mouths open in hallelujah.

Delightfully fluttering ducks

Raise cheers in the nearby pond

I sit grateful, cozy indoors, 

Soft light, watching, listening, 

Understanding its language

Knowing its secrets

*I’ll write more about her in a couple of days

Brace For Impact Anniversary Sale!

Posted on by runa

Healing through Magic & Community

The first time I hurt my knee I was in the Army. “Runner’s Knee” they called it. Then there was tendonitis, and later a ligament strain. There would be many situations throughout my time in the military that continued to degrade my knee. Running on long distances on asphalt or concrete while wearing boots and carrying a ruck that weighed between 40 and 60 pounds didn’t help. High training tempo with limited recovery time made things worse. Tack on standing for long periods of time with little rest during duty watches and patrols reinforced said injuries. The push-through-the-pain warrior ethos within the United States military turns minor tendon irritation or cartilage problems into chronic, crippling pain and changes a person’s mobility.

This was decades ago now and seems an entirely different lifetime ago. I certainly am not the same person I was when it happened, and my knee isn’t the same either. Now these many years later, the reckoning with repeated knee injuries has arrived. However, the journey to getting things fixed will take some time, energy, and resources. 

First of these is a lateral loading brace that as of the writing of this post, has not been fully integrated into daily life here #OnTheCovenstead. The prosthetics experts contend it’s a ‘build up to best” approach.The goal is that this brace gives me a bit more time before attending a total knee replacement surgery, since these types of operations don’t happen on a normal trauma-induced surgery case. The short version: It may be a bit of time before I will be able to have knee-replacement surgery. This has been made more complicated by the fact –one many of us have noticed since the COVID-19 Pandemic erupted – the current decline of employer-provided health insurance in the United States. Insurance doesn’t mean covered expenses, as we know. Time to enact a plan.

That’s when I noticed my shop has been open for five years this month. It was time for some presents for my clients. Enter my Brace For Impact sale in the Creative Crone Shop. Everything in the shop has been discounted 26 percent, since I’m hoping we can help make this surgery happen before the 2026 year is out. I’m once again leaning on some witchcraft to manifest some necessary things in my life. In the process, you get a little prezzie, too! This sale starts today and goes until the Full Moon – May 31, 2026. Whether it’s a Dream Academy class, an interpretation reading, Rune casting, it’s all on sale. 

This sale is just a quick moon cycle, so now’s the perfect time to grab a reading, a consult, or a copy of Magic In Your Cup. Whether you’ve been waiting to try out a Rune Casting or stock up on dream interpretations, I’m excited to help you during our anniversary and the lead up to some fix-the-knee down time. Thank you for being part of the Creative Crone community. Happy shopping! 

What The Witch Is Reading – April 2026

Posted on by runa
A picture of library bookshelves stuffed full with one book in particular that reads RUNA TROY on the Spine. The words: WHA THE WITCH IS READING are in script over the top of the image. Underneath that title is the subtitle: Giving Back To All Books Gave To Me

This section of my blog is dedicated to spreading the love of reading and books and the people who make them happen. I would not be the Witch I am today without books. I owe an obscene amount of gratitude to all the makers of books out there. This is my way of giving back. I hope that something I pick up and review will guide you to acquire the next tome on your To Be Read stack.

Books That Shape a Witch’s Journey

I’m writing classes* again this season whilst trying to create a magical covenstead. Reading time has also been split between research and fun. The two fun books included getting perspective on Land tending from a former journalist turned farmer and some straight-up creepy fiction. Although it took me a minute to finish them all in between moving too many cubic yards of materials, they were all lovely companions during breaks and at the end of the day. Damn I love books. Here’s What The Witch Is Reading:

The Dirty Life – A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball

I overheard someone talking in our local food co-op about this book/ They said she was a jet-setting journalist with an Ivy-league background turned go-to-bed-exhausted New England farmer. Like the fiend that I am for books, I pulled up my phone and requested it from my local library asap. 

Kimball’s ability to recall the nitty gritty of being pulled to the Land (and the love of her life) was done with such tender-loving care that even if her worldview does not include the esoteric – you can tell they have a relationship. She also had me enthralled by the love of food and the semi-gourmand focus of the text. I will die on the hill that growing your own food and then preparing it to nourish self, kin, and community is some of the most powerful abundance magic anyone can conjure. Kimball seems to agree. She wrote, “Food, a French man told me once, is the first wealth. Grow it right, and you’ll feel insanely rich, no matter what you own.” No Lies Detected.

It also is an investment in healthcare that you didn’t know was a benefit on partnering with the Land and working it to live harmoniously with it and on it. In the book she details how she and her partner wanted what they did to be birthed from sustainability. Although she doesn’t talk about applying permaculture principles to the Land, many of their practices were at minimum regenerative, if not shadowing permaculture. That sustainability often meant more labor in the “start up” time of creating a prolific piece of Land that remains healthy. Doing that often makes the Land tender healthy, too. In The Dirty Life, Kimball records the alarming juxtaposition at a community meeting where old-school farmers who had plowed with draft horses like she did at her farm, against the younger generation that had embraced commercial farming practices – think lots of giant machinery and diesel fuel costs and harsh chemicals and a focus not on soil health, but that of output – showed physically the reflection of their methods in their appearance. She wrote, “…the old people looked healthier than the young who tended toward the obese.” Again, another telltale sign that she’s really in league with Land and community. 

The most quotable moment in the text which now is typed up and hung on the wall in the harvest shed here at #VillaWestwyk: 

“A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and has no end. There are only the things that must be doe and things that can be done later. The threat the farm has got on you, the one that keeps you running from can until can’t, is this: do it now or some living thing will wilt or suffer or die. It’s blackmail, really.” 

Seriously though, living close to the Land – whether its a community park that you tend or a huge farm like Kimball, or a tiny covenstead like yours truly, there is a richness there that defines that relationship:

“On our evening farm walks, the list of crops to harvest grew longer, we cruised the peas as the sun went down, grazing on handfuls of pods so full they looked dented…This is the farmer’s privilege, a form of decadence, and it made us feel rich.”

Practical Permaculture for Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth by Jessie Bloom & Dave Boehnlein

The Home Landscapes part of the title is what pulled me to this book. Also, I’ve read just about everything that Jessie Bloom has written about permaculture as well as heard her lecture. She has a lived experience in permaculture design and knowledge that is “local” in its approach, meaning she knows the nuances of doing what I’m doing in the Pacific Northwest, because she is as well. So it wasn’t a tough sell to get this book, except this home landscapes bit.

My hope was this book would present an integration between permaculture and a more modest piece of land, be it city lot or small rural covenstead that tends to be missing in some of the books on permaculture. Most of them present the information under the pretense of huge swaths of land. We have two acres, which is perfect for the covenstead, our neighbors, and community to live abundantly. Therefore, I was deeply interested in Bloom’s perspective on integrating smaller spaces in a permaculture design. I’m less familiar with her co-author, but his CV is clutch and I’m always ready to learn from others who are living their consulting/writing/business. They didn’t disappoint.

This book has actionable insights and advice to apply permaculture anywhere. It’s a comprehensive how-to whether you’re a beginner or a more intermediate designer. There’s not a lot of preachy language in this book, which I appreciate. Permaculturists are tired of preaching, but it still comes out in other texts I’ve read. 

I would say this book is great for beginners or veteran permaculturists, because if nothing else it’s a great idea generator. Apparently, it is used by the Oregon State University Permaculture Design Certificate course. Bloom & Boehnlein definitely get expert status in this covenstead of Beaver alum. There is a PNW bias to the book, I found, but not that it was a problem for me. Given that Bloom cut her permaculture teeth in this environment, many of the stories and lessons would happen in that coastal maritime zone. But all growing zones are featured and the diagrams and lists are super helpful. Want to learn more about the bones of permaculture? This is definitely a good place to start. 

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

First horror novel I’ve read in a very long time and was recommended to me by @marywyrd.bsky.social (see photo). I love stories where the people are accidental heroes and this one fills the bill. The characters are so relatable and charming and you’re like, OMG don’t die! 

It centers on a recently divorce woman, Kara, who finds a portal to a terrifying, unstable dimension in her uncle’s museum of curiosities. That setting and Uncle Earl’s adorableness, helps bring comedy into this horror genre book so skillfully that my forage back into horror reading (I used to fancy myself a horror writer…until I had kids).

Add in some external complicated relationships (ex-husband, mother) and you’ll be nodding along with her desire to keep the crazy at bay. Little does she know it’s abutting her own bedroom. Kara’s sidekick Simon, the barista that works and lives next door, navigate this very weird other world together in regular-peeps bravery and fortitude. No superheroes here. Just two folx not wanting to die in a world that wants them dead (sound familiar?)

The setting both in the Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy and the unnamed one they find behind a hole in the wall, is absolutely a character in itself and you may feel creeped out just by the eccentricity of Uncle Earl’s world and the other one filled with creepiness like none you’ve ever read before. 

The Hollow Places, for me, was darkly entertaining and full of unexpected laughter. When faced with the horrors of this world and the one on the other side of the hole in the wall have you wanting to scream and you laugh instead – good read, I say. Anything that horrific that kept me picking it up to finish is a winner – especially after decades of not reading horror. Good rec, Mary. Might have to check out more of Kingfisher’s work.  

As mentioned above, we’re still in high garden building and planting season here #OnTheCovenstead; but, there’s still plenty of reading being done. Currently I’m blazing through the memoir Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life by Jay Blades of The Repair Shop fame. Do have to sometimes put it down and grieve for how so many of the countries that should know better are racist to the core. Yet, inspiration can be found in overcoming adversity, and Blades storytelling comes through like a chum giving you a chinwag at the pub. More on that next month! 

(*Walking the Path of the Elder Futhark is coming soon to the Creative Crone Shop)

Feeling Earth’s Love As A Witch

Posted on by runa
A rainbow, often a symbol of promise and love, as seen over Villa Westwyk.

I have a hazy memory of early tween-dom, not long before I first start exploring the path of an earth-loving witch. It was in the cemetery that was next to my school. Having a graveyard next to my school wasn’t that odd – it was a parochial xtian school attached to one of the largest congregations in the eastern Detroit area.  I loved that cemetery (hello Scorpio stellium). There were huge 100-foot-tall trees – likely Eastern White Pines, which at the time of this love story, I didn’t know any trees taller than these. I loved to sit under them especially in the warm, sticky months of a Michigan summer. It would be easily fifteen degrees cooler under those tall, soldier-like conifers. I loved that calming smell of pine from the birth of its spring buds to the composting needles I’d crouch on to get respite from the noise and energy of people. I could breathe with the trees, with the grass and the dirt and the song of the birds. Yep, I was the weird girl who sat in the cemetery under a tree, alone. To me, it didn’t feel weird. It felt right.

I was struggling with the new social aspects of moving from elementary to middle school (although we called it ‘junior high’ then), especially because I was one of the youngest in my grade. Also I was discovering that I didn’t get excited about being around a lot of people, and that being under a tree reading a book held more for me than playground games. I was not immune to the budding attraction to boys. I tried flirting – I was not great at it. Yet, who is at this point in our lives? It’s all experimentation with what works and doesn’t work. For me,  I wanted my target to read my facial expressions and know exactly what I meant. That’s an immature Scorpio for you. Instead of practicing more like many of my peers, I was happier squirreling away somewhere in that park-like setting of quiet in the parish’s cemetery. 

The day I remember feeling love from the Earth begins with finishing physical education class and then being dismissed for recess – 20 tortuous minutes before lunch, but it also meant that if I packed my lunch, I could just go straight on from recess in a secluded part of the cemetery through lunch before returning to class, providing the weather was dry. Teachers left you alone if you had your nose in a book. I took full advantage. I was feeling pretty good, knowing I’d have this 45 minutes to listen to the birds while I dived into a story far away from this awkward tweendom. Also, it was a brilliant Spring day. One of the firsts for the season. I was leaving the gym, headed to the locker room when one of the boys I had a crush on called me a slut. I didn’t know at that point in my life what a slut was. I knew it was bad because of how my classmates either recoiled – the girls – or laughed – the boys. I scowled my way to the cemetery, fuming with embarrassment and near hateful revenge fantasies. 

Looking up from the ground at very tall conifer tree.

I reached the tallest tree. Now in 2026, I can still remember the grave that was closest to it. It sat at a slight angle in the ground and was listing slightly away from the prevailing winds. ‘Against all odds,’ is the nickname I gave it. When I sat under that tree, that couple had already been dead 100 years. In my sessions in the cemetery, I would concoct the most epic of supportive love stories. I imagined war and storms kept them apart, but they always found each other.

That day, I couldn’t find the joy I normally felt in this favored spot. I just found anger, sadness, grief, and distaste. And resolve, that I wasn’t what that dumb boy said I was. I opened my book, had a hard time seeing the words for my anger, and put it back in my bag. I pulled out my composition book, and my favored multi-colored fat pen to write in red (I was mad after all). But I snapped it closed again and shoved them both in my bag. I just sat there, staring out across the cemetery. I’m not sure if I sighed, took a big breath or what, but I got a snootful of pine that suddenly had me feeling silly for being upset about being called a name I didn’t even know what it meant. I tucked my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my knees. I rested my back firmly against the bark of this towering guardian of the crooked grave. Its sturdiness seemed to seep into me. I leaned my head against it. Looking up at a tall tree from the ground is always an exercise in feeling small. I started to imagine just melting into that giant trunk, when I heard a voice. Was it a voice? It could have been any number of creatures that today I know exist, but at that exact time, I squarely thought it was ‘someone’ whispering. The wind had picked up slightly and I shook my head thinking the wind was making noises. Today I remember clearly how the Land talks to me now. The voice  simply said, “It’ll be okay.” Young me reached out and drew a smiley face in the soil beside me. “Thanks,” I said out loud. Robin tweeted its song back. Then suddenly I felt very self conscious and looked around. All the activity was back at the playground, in the ball fields. It was just me and the trees, birds, and soil. 

I stretched out my legs and continued to play with the soil in my hands. I heard the bell for lunch ring, and just as it did, a Peregrine Falcon – native migrators to Michigan and whose numbers at the time of this story were very few –  came barreling down the main walkway of the cemetery – not quite a road, although the hearses would use it to traverse to graveside ceremonies. The falcon flew deep and low and sped right by me in that telltale bullet shape raptors can achieve before suddenly shooting straight up into the canopy of trees out of my line of sight. I was floored. We had just discussed this bird in my earth science class and its importance in the Great Lakes area. It’s the first sign from the universe I can remember. 

Need a friendly ear? Talk to the trees.

I got out my journal and started writing, recording the moment that later would feel very spiritual. I sketched my best attempt at what I just witnessed. I munched my lunch and listened to the wind through those wonderful trees. Before I knew it the time to return to class was due. I stood up, dusted off my clothes and my hands and headed back in. I saw the offensive boy as I was heading back in and he tried to bully me again, but the science teacher was close by and I called him over and told him about seeing the falcon. He told me that was a really special sighting and maybe we’d have class outside soon to see if the rest of class could see it.

I felt like the trees, the birds, and the soil all comforted me that day. They talked to me in their language. They grounded and centred me away from the emotions that did not serve me. They planted the seed for a relationship that would ebb and flow throughout my life and still does. I love the Land, its energy, the Spirits in and about it. But it loved me first. 

Today, that girl is a woman who often can be found book in hand under a tree – likely Grandmother Willow, the eldest and tallest tree of Villa Westwyk. It’s a relationship that has taught me patience through the rhythm of the seasons. It taught me determination, like the dandelion that grows in cracks and crevices. It taught me a whole lot of discernment – your environment helps you thrive or struggle. It’s solidified my animist worldview and opened up the literal interconnected cosmos at my feet, and above my head. When we are stewards of the Land that contains us, it sustains us. The Land understands you belong, that you are its kin. It’s just waiting for you to fall in love, too. 

Six Years of Sustainable Growth: A Witch’s Journey

Posted on by runa
The sunrising on Villa Westwyk in the summer of 2025.

It’s high food-planting season. Over on Bluesky I’ve posted about the things we’re doing each day #OnTheCovenstead to live in concert with the Land. Part of that is growing our own food – obtaining a yield, as us permaculturists like to say. At the end of the farm-work day I’ll record what was done. I’ve been sharing the highlights – like I said on Bluesky (are we following each other?) – as the work to grow as much food as we can – for us, for our kindred, and for the community* – reaches a fevered pitch.

And then someone asked for photos of what I was talking about (thanks Pamelia!). This took me down such a long road to be able to snap some photos and share. It also had me thinking about sustainability, because, well, as a practicing permaculturalist Witch, I’m constantly thinking about that. Looking to snap some current photos, then had me looking at where we’ve been on this property. It’s been six years since we had a half-crocked idea to take two acres of abused land and create a covenstead that was ecologically sustainable for a magical life. 

I’ve blogged before about my love of small, slow solutions, a tenet of permaculture, because it allows you to make mistakes, adjust along the way, learn from those lessons, and create something stronger moving forward. The systems needed to mimic nature in order to live as a human being can be intense. Everything from composting, planting food forests, and rainwater harvesting takes time. A forest doesn’t shoot up overnight. Neither does a covenstead. Gradual lets you incrementally act in a manageable form. 

Let me lay it out in picture form – here’s where we started:

This shows the view from the north of our back patio along the eastern edge of our cottage. The former owners had shoved 18 boxwood bushes into this space and slugged a huge amount of glyphosate-based herbicides everywhere. If these were Oregon Boxwood, I would have repurposed them somewhere special on the property. But most began to die off even as I moved them to provide shelter for our poultry. In the background you can see the weather beaten cold frame that was here when we moved in. We used it until it was absolutely unsafe; but the beds remain and are now our root garden.
Looking north (the opposite view from above). This is the back of our small cottage in summer 2021 – a year in. This is where we would install a cover over the patio (the measurement plumb line you see in the photo above), the tomato tunnel, and the greenhouse. Future plans include a small geo dome in between the polytunnel and the greenhouse to host our hot tub and tropical plants year round.

We installed the polytunnel in the fall of 2023. The photo below is Spring of 2024. Small, slow solutions in action.

Above you see us mid-cardboard applying. Done so to block vegetation, and at this point it looks very unorganized and messy. We inherited the four troughs in the corners as they were put down during installation to help anchor the tunnel to the ground. Winters here bring hurricane-speed wind gusts blowing off the Pacific Ocean (we’re six miles as the crows flies to the beach).
High growing season 2025. Tomatoes anyone?
The small greenhouse was built in the fall of 2024 (buy things on clearance, friends).

Investing in the infrastructure of a new poly tunnel to replace the dilapidated one that was here when we moved into Villa Westwyk, took a bit of small-scale steps. Same with the greenhouse. Bit by bit we took planned and intentionally thought-out actions in order to reduce adding too much at once, and minimizing risk. Like Jessi Bloom wrote in “Practical Permaculture” it’s easier to fail spending $100 versus $1000.  If I’d planted all the trees I planted to today’s count (17), there’s a good chance I would have put them in the wrong place. It’s taken me some time to observe & interact with the environment here. As a witch, I also needed to get to know the Land and its needs, strengths, and where it needed extra special attention towards energetic things. Notably, this often leads to understanding the physical needs of the Land as well. Like, there is no way in heck there will ever be anything that grows in the southeast corner here. Why? Well, I had to learn that. (It’s keeping something else out – story for another blog post.)

Heck, do you know where the prevailing wind is where you live? Does it change seasonally? Which direction does your front door face? All of these things factor into how you implement affordable, scalable projects to live with the Land as much as possible. 

The same is true for our spiritual lives. As a Witch you cultivate power over time. Small repeated acts, lighting a candle daily, keeping a lunar magic calendar, or an intention journal, build a deeper connection than dramatic, infrequent rituals. Burning your magical candle at both ends does nothing but lead to burnout (why readers like myself take energetic cleansing seriously). A Witch cannot expect instant manifestations until you can feel the subtle shifts of energy. 

One of the key strengths of small slow solutions is their adaptability – whether it’s practicing the Craft or designing the landscape of the environment around you with generations to come in mind. As a Witch I aim to be a good ancestor. As a permaculturist I aim to provide for my great-great-great grandchildren. This led my thoughts to noting where this simple question of “Pictures?” how both as a Witch and a permaculturist, there is a harm-reduction mindset. Small, slow solutions make sure you have the space and time and energy to do things as kindly and considerately as possible. 

Incremental changes allow for continuous observation and adjustment. If a system fails or a spell underperforms, the consequences are limited, and lessons can be applied immediately. This iterative process builds a resilient system capable of responding to environmental, economic, social, or energetic changes. You don’t buy a ready-made altar, you curate it over time. A slowly built one becomes a living system, not just a collection of items. 

The greenhouse. April 2026. Full of overwinter plants and seed starts.

Small, slow solutions align closely with natural rhythms: the seasons, moon phases, plant growth. A Practice grounded in these cycles becomes more sustainable and intuitive, I’ve found and each year as I practice this becomes more and more concrete that magic and permaculture go together. A slower approach to your Craft creates space for reflection, which mirrors the interacting part of the permaculture tenet of observe & interact. I’m constantly asking myself why I want to do a spell? What are the potential outcomes (and dare I say consequences)? Is there a simpler or more aligned way to move forward? Like sometimes just having a conversation with someone is a whole lot faster than a cord-cutting spell. 

Villa Westwyk’s polytunnel (aka the Tomato Tunnel) as seen in April 2026.

Patience, observations, and intentional design are held up by small, slow solutions. Creating a garden or a magical practice that grows and adapts over time, creates a practical and resilient path forward. Magic is alive; just like the Land here at Villa Westwyk. Witchcraft is an ecosystem; not a transaction. The subtle shift in perspective can be very profound. It also opens the door for a Practice that fits into daily life. 

I’m not the same Witch I was six years ago. As the Land evolved, so did my Practice. Today my magic is deeper, I’m more skilled, and my intuition has never been stronger. 

Here’s to an abundant growing season – for both the Land & our Practice(s)!

Looking north along the east end of our cottage. The polytunnel and the greenhouse with its various plant starts all around, which include pine trees, strawberries, herbs, currant and berry bushes, and a few fruit trees.

* (I’m dropping off another 9 dozen eggs to the food bank this week). 

From Rented Attention to Real Community: A Witchy Maker’s Path

Posted on by runa

I try hard to live by my ideals and hold that line in every area of my life. Doing business with that goal in mind is endlessly challenging. I aim to use only tools that aren’t harmful, which is why I avoid most social platforms and portals. I don’t want to endorse practices that contradict my values.

I know my business’s absence won’t hurt those platforms. It does create an inequitable landscape for me and other small businesses trying to do the same (if you’re one of them, please say hello in the comments!). I’m always looking for new ways to reach my audience (yes, you). If you know of ethical places I should be supporting, please leave a comment. I’m listening and open to partnerships that align with my values.

There’s no simple answer about ethical commerce under capitalism, and opting out of mainstream platforms has its trade-offs. Socially, it can feel isolating: I miss being able to view what my main chat group is discussing regarding the latest Instagram reel or TikTok. Professionally, skipping those platforms can feel like opening a shop but not being on the main street where people walk. Even with a strong product, fewer people discover it organically.

More and more, people don’t “Google” first — they scroll. Discovery happens in feeds, and if your business isn’t there, you lose an important funnel. That loss is real and painful.

Meanwhile, peers in my field are posting daily, building audiences, and capturing attention. I don’t view other creative, witchy providers as competition, but by opting out I risk losing visibility. It’s hard to justify. Yet avoiding social media has given me more control and a slower, more intentional kind of growth: my audience is genuinely invested.

I’m trying to shift from rented attention to an authentic audience. My newsletter, long-time client mailings, and a private Discord community let me reach people without an algorithm deciding who sees my work.

That’s why my website has become central to everything I do. It isn’t friction-free: I still spend time each day managing security issues — clearing logs, caches, and handling other nuisances despite the tools I use. That hour could be spent writing, editing, teaching, or practicing, but I accept it as part of staying true to my principles.

One of the only places you can find me online outside of RunaTroy.com is on bluesky @runatroy.bsky.social — come say hello!

I aim to act from my worldview, be in right relationship with self and community, and remember that energy is connected. If I put my attention toward things that don’t align with my values, I’m contributing to harm. Walking the path of a witch and running a small business is a tightrope, but it’s one I choose.

I’m actively looking for like-minded partners and ethical platforms. If you represent a marketplace, community, or curator that aligns with values-driven creative work, or if you know of places I should be supporting, please comment below or email me at runa@runatroy.com. Let’s build sustainable, values-aligned ways to share our work.

Our doors are open! Welcome to Runa’s Dream Academy

Posted on by runa

There’s something powerful about beginning in alignment with the new moon – a moment that invites intention, reflection, and quiet transformation. It felt only right that today, I’m opening the doors to my Dream Academy with the launch of the Dream Craft Foundations course. 

Honestly, this course has been years in the making, shaped by not only my own practice, but by long traditions of dream work, spiritual inquiry, and the understanding that dreams are not random. They are relational. Recent months have been focused on building, refining, and deep listening, to my own practice, my teachers and mentors, and to the rhythms of dream work itself. Now the course is ready to be shared.

Dreams are more than fleeting images or fragmented stories. They are a language, a bridge. They are a place where insight, intuition, and spirit meet us in ways we often overlook in waking life. And yet, so many people feel disconnected from their dreams. They are unsure how to remember them, interpret them, or meaningfully integrate them into their spiritual or witchcraft practice. That’s exactly why I created Dream Craft Foundations. 

Dream Craft Foundations is a 10-week, self-paced, virtual course designed to help you build a consistent, grounded, and personal relationship wit your dreams. This isn’t about memorizing symbols or following rigid frameworks. It’s about learning. Each module offers both structure and spaciousness, so you can move at your own pace while still feeling supported. 

In Dream Craft Foundations you will learn how to develop a sustainable dream recall practice, understand the unique language of your dreams, work with dreams a a tool for insight, magic, and transformation, integrate dream work into your existing Craft in a way that feels natural and aligned. Each module – one through ten – builds on the last, giving you both structure and flexibility as you deepen your practice. 

While the course is self-paced, it’s not solitary. All students are invited to a dedicated Discord community. It’s a virtual space to share experiences and reflections, ask questions, receive support, and practice together in a respectful, collaborative environment. Dream work can be deeply personal, but it also becomes richer when witnessed and explored in community. That’s the part I’m most excited about the Dream Academy, is the potential and possibilities for a strong network of dreamworkers. 

There is some flexibility in how you approach the course, too. It’s divided into two parts, so you could start with part one and then when you finish those five weeks, you can procure part two – weeks six to ten. And for those who maybe have a lot of Libra placements (just kidding), you don’t have to commit to the full journey right away. The first module is available on its own so you can step in, explore, and see how it resonates before deciding to continue. This low-cost trial is for a limited time. So don’t wait until the full moon, take a low-risk preview today.

There’s never a perfect time to begin to learn something new, but there are moments that feel like an opening. The new moon is one of those moments. This is a time to start a new beginning, to plant intentions beneath the surface, where growth isn’t yet visible, but is already unfolding. Dream work mirrors this process. So much of what happens in dreams is subtle at first – a fragment, feeling, a place. Over time, with attention, those fragments begin to form a language, a relationship, a new path, a threshold. An invitation to start something quietly powerful that unfolds over time. If you’ve been feeling the pull to deepen your dream work, to reconnect with your inner landscape, or to bring more intention into your practice, this is your invitation. This work unfolds over time. It meets you where you are. 

Enrollment for Dream Craft Foundations is now live. You’re welcome to step through our open door. If you’re unsure or curious, or just want to feel into whether this is the right path for you, I invite you to reach out. Ask questions. Start a conversation. This work begins with listening. 

Sweet dreams!

What The Witch Is Reading – March 2026

Posted on by runa

This section of my blog is dedicated to spreading the love of reading and books and the people who make them happen. I would not be the Witch I am today without books. I owe an obscene amount of gratitude to all the makers of books out there. This is my way of giving back. I hope that something I pick up and review will guide you to acquire the next tome on your To Be Read stack. 

This month’s What The Witch Is Reading features a diverse collection of titles. With each edition of this column, I mention my habit of exploring literature across various genres. I’ve found that delving into different styles enriches our understanding and broadens our perspectives on, well, life. And thereby the magic we make in it.

Each book presents an opportunity to engage with new ideas, and there’s something valuable to discover in every exploration. This month you’ll encounter authoritarian resistance, the importance of being a responsible ancestor, and challenging patriarchal norms. It’s a rich selection that invites deeper contemplation, dialogue, and spell work. I’m excited to share all the various voices within these books. I hope you find them as thought-provoking as I do. 

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

A mentor of mine listened to me howl about current politics one day over a virtual coffee date. They recommended this book because it not only explains how authoritarian leaders gain and keep power, it connects historical dictatorships to modern politics, and helps the reader recognize warning signs and defend democracy. 

This book caught me right away when it listed that many of the autocrats from Amine to Trump and Erdogan, Gaddafi, and Putin all came to office through elections. It also highlighted that women aren’t normally the ones causing autocratic or fascist rule.

“Some readers may wonder why I do not discuss strong female leaders in modern history, such as Britain’s prime minister Margaret Thatcher or India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi. While some of these women may have had certain strongman traits (Thatcher’s nickname was “The Iron Lady”) or engaged in repressive actions against minority populations, none of them sought to destroy democracy, and so they are not addressed here. 

And these guys are real pieces of work as Ben-Ghiat points out later.

“When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Gaddafi in 2008, he insisted she dine in his private kitchen. He showed her a videotape he made of her – a montage of photos of her with Putin and other male leaders, set to a song, “Black Flower in the White House,” he had commissioned in her honor.”

As my nation continues to backtrack on social and justice issues, the examinations in this book made plain some of the idiocy we’re seeing today (think RFK Jr. and Kid Rock’s embarrassing reel on how manly and healthy they were–🤢), but Berlusconi seems, as Ben-Ghiat writes, inspired them. “The goal, in these and many other cases, was to demean professional women and make viewers laugh with him, and at them.” 

Is there hope to get out from under these strong men? The book definitely details great ideas on how to combat these unhealthy leaders. The means to the end of any strongmen is the people. “At its core, though, resistance remains anchored in physical presence: people reclaiming public space and making a different nation visible and audible. In-person protest has crated the images and tactics that still inspire protestors today. … Around the world, one resistance action inspires others.”

However, it’s not going to be a fast switch. And we may want to start by tearing down anything and everything that has TFG’s name on it (and there are many). 

“Undoing the effects of a leader’s oppressive presence and policies takes years, especially when his symbols, burial sites, and buildings live on… The strongman’s stadiums, highways, and airports, which his admirers see as proof that he brought the nation to greatness, cannot cover over the catastrophic loss that results from his rule. Expropriated assets, raided companies, interrupted schooling, disappeared parents, kidnapped children, and massacred communities leave voids that cannot be filled.”

Yes, Americans, she featured our current leader.

“The drive to accumulate and control bodies, territory, and wealth is a hallmark of strongman rule. The leader needs these possessions as much as he needs food and sleep. The rituals and pageantry of authoritarian rule, from rallies for the masses to the elite gatherings staged at private spaces like…Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, play to his bottomless need for control and adoration.”

“To oppose Authoritarians effectively, we must have a clear-eyed view of how they manage to get into power and stay there. The strongman brand of charisma, equal parts seduction and threat, attracts many followers by celebrating male authority. The autocrat bolsters patriarchal authority when it is seen as under threat…”

In short, hex the patriarchy (more on that later). But our country has a lot of shadow work, too in order to strengthen our democracy and heal the wounds currently being made, even as I write this and you read this. 

“America has played an outsized role in the success of authoritarianism around the world, starting with the US banks and media outlets that supported Mussolini’s dictatorship in the 1920s. Although American backing of strongmen was most visible in the age of military coups, the US continues to prop up authoritarians. Lawyers and wealth managers help to keep them in power by securing the money they loot from their nations in offshore accounts.”

But the most chilling piece of evidence in this examination of Strongmen and the steps to recovering form it is founded in hope. She writes:  “There are two paths people can take when faced with the proliferation of polarization and hatred in their societies. They can dig their trenches deeper, or they can reach across the lines to stop a new cycle of destruction, knowing solidarity, love, and dialogue are what the strongman most fears. History shows the importance of keeping hope and faith in humanity and supporting those who struggle for freedom in our own time. We can carry with us the stories of those who lived and died over a century of democracy’s destruction and resurrection. They are precious counsel for us today.”

If you have the tickets, I highly encourage you to read this. I was left with feeling that they mostly will self implode, but we as the people will need to keep the pressure up. I wrote my congressional people and told them to read this book, too. 

Like Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

In the end, the book left me with this thought: We Witches tend to know ourselves well or are working on it. Knowing the enemy is maybe where the rest of us struggle. The enemy has shown themselves. Do we know them?

Stir: My Broken Brain and the meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor

I picked up this book because the food nerd in me demanded it. This book was an audio ‘read’ for me. It’s language was beautiful and the writer weaved in food love and illness in a brilliant way. It’s largely a feel-good story, but there is one quote in the book I may have to have someone needlepoint some art:

“…felt the power of a recipe in a new way. How it takes you by the hand and tells you just what to do. A good recipe makes you brave.” 

If you need a read that you feel like you’re rooting for the main character, Sitr will be a quick and delightful read. Apparently the actual hold-in-your-hand book had 27 recipes. My library download of this book didn’t host that. I may have to remedy that and buy a physical copy. ::rushes to put it on the list of book-store wish list:: 

Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs; An Antidote for Short Termism by Ari Wallach

I liked this book’s main theme in that it really pushes folx to look beyond their own lifetime. In the author’s words there are distinct actons that need to happen in order for us to become Great Ancestors. 

“Longpath has two critical pillars that are designed to combat the forces of short-termism, and to help you “garden” a brain that brings in a much bigger picture with every decision, even when those decisions lie deep beneath the surface of your consciousness. Those pillars are: 

Transgenerational Empathy: A continual awareness of your place in a chain of being, wherein you reckon with your inherited history, find alignment in and with the present, and make adjustments to improve the future.

Futures Thinking and Telos: An expansive capacity to think about many different types of futures and an invitation to imagine the future you want.

For those of us who have deep empathy, Wallach contends that we are futurists in our own right.  “That’s why empathy for the past has everything to do with the future. Transgenerational Empathy allows you to see what made you.” Transgenerational Empathy. If you’re an empathic person, that’s a heavy term. Long after returning the book to the library, I was still pondering the term Transgenerational Empathy throughout my day. 

Mostly, the book defines that there needs to be a shift in not only how we learn, the author details, “There’s a lot of learning and realignment for us to do during our life spans and a finite amount of time to do it all in. Living an aligned life, comes with an acceptance that inevitable. One day, we won’t be alive, and this fact gives everything we do in our life meaning.”

One day, we won’t be alive. We have to care about what happens after. If we don’t are we even human?

The book’s spotlight on how current politics blocks our ability to be good ancestors, especially where the technology sector is concerned.

“Tech even created the ecosystem that enabled the manipulation of the US political system, as a 2018 report released by the Senate explained: “Social media have gone from being the natural infrastructure for sharing collective grievances and coordinating civic engagement, to being a computational tool for social control, manipulated by canny political consultants and available to politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike.” 

Although I feel the book suffered from a bit of an advertising undercurrent throughout the text (the author teaches these tenets to organizations and leaders), and gives me pause to wholeheartedly recommend it, I liked that the book goes well beyond the Socratic view of examining life, but that an examined future is worth fighting for. 

It did give me hope that there are people trying to get others to think about our grandchildren’s grandchildren, and act accordingly. For that, I was grateful to read it. 

Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 Potions, Spells, and Magical Elixirs to Embolden The Resistance by Ariel Gore

This book has been in my TBR pile for too long. But it felt like the perfect brain cleanse after reading Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen. And it was. As a former student of Gore (seriously if you have a chance to learn with her, do it), I have long loved the eclectic mix of people she has in her life and writes about. In this book, Gore brought out all the powerful witches and there’s 26 different spells to choose from, A to Z, from the most incredibly diverse and powerful group one could assemble as a, dare I say, Mega-coven. 

Gore suggests that you start with the letters of your first name and work those, as to not be overwhelmed. But I can see how each and ever witch out there just might get through the whole dang alphabet. If I were to follow that guidance to do the spells of my name, we’d be looking at the following spells:

R – Reclaiming Power. Call on the goddess of transformation to do no harm and take no shit. (Every B’Witch I know could use a dose of this magic. A more powerful you is a more powerful ally.)

U – Unleashing Nemesis. Let the goddess of retribution and reparations explode in all her glorious pent-up fury. (The intro to this spell is all about Nazi Germany and I was like,  holy shit, is this relevant, prophetic shit, Gore wrote.)

N – Never Erase. Raze the border walls to the ground: no person is “illegal.” (This entire section gave me chills and is so apropos given the collective fuckery we’re all dealing with right now.)

A – Ancestors. Hit up your dead relatives to help you smash the system. (Where our inheritance merges and how that mashes with our magic. Next layer ancestor veneration, readers.)

And there are 22 other sections to spell out the end of white supremacy and its older brother patriarchy. Pretty slay. 

Gore weaved a special kind of magic in the book by using dozens of other practitioners from around the world in every representation. You can feel that powerful energy coming throughout each letter’s of the larger spell work. Imagine if every witch out there worked all 26 of these spells. From my words to the Universe’s desire. So it is. All this or better, witches.  

I only have two concerns about this book. First is the inclusion of glitter in one of the workings. As a land-tender I am all too aware that commercially produced ‘glitter’ is harmful to the environment. However, it is easily substituted with colored sugar, salt, dried herbs, or mica. The second disappointment I had was that it took me so long to get to this one. I could have used this book when it first came out. Better late than never. Regardless, it’ll be well worn before too long. 

See you for the next post on What The Witch Is Reading. Thanks for reading and comment if you have any questions, anecdotes, or requests.

As you can see, I read a little of everything. I’m always curious about what others are reading. What book are you working through right now? Let me know that, too!

Fighting Internalized Capitalism with Runes

Posted on by runa

I spent the last week chasing healing for a severely arthritic knee. I learned I need to slow down and be patient. However, the doctors didn’t tell me that, the Runes did. The treatment process will be ongoing for the next season, or three. I’ll likely need surgery down the road, but regardless of surgery timeframe, I need to get stronger.

To get stronger, I first needed to completely rearrange my home to facilitate better flow for my mobility, a physical therapy spot, and an ergonomic tune-up in all my work spaces. Little did I know the Runes were following me through the whole thing.

This new normal and journey to healing has brought up a lot of feels for me. Not surprising, since fighting against capitalism has been a key foundation in the Craft work that I do. But what a reminder this week has been. There has been a lot of dialogue this week in my world about production, worth, abilities, new disabilities, and a general berating of my unchecked to-do list. I felt underwater, as if Laguz (ᛚ) had swallowed me.

Number one on my to-do list is assisting people in living their most magical life. Capitalism is the antithesis of magic. My creative consulting business focuses on how what I’ve learned living a life in the Craft can help others to live one, too. However, much of my time right now must be spent on healing, while balancing the demands of life. I expect I will have to remind myself that prioritizing self-care is magic. Bringing my Practice along whilst I do the things necessary to heal brought out renewed energy towards disrupting systems that are unhealthy for the Earth, people, and ourselves. This journey began with me turning to the tools of my Craft to help boost my resolve to get better and do so without internalizing capitalism’s judgment of how I live. I did this by spending extra time with the Elder Futhark.

I took a bag of Runes along with an ice pack and heating pad and did all the hot/cold sessions that my medical team wanted me to complete in a day, to stave off the nastiest of the inflammation in my poor knee. And then I started divining while healing. I jumped into digital communities where other mystics and seekers hang out and I gifted readings to others. An exercise in maybe feeling productive, but also as I did it more and more, I recognized I was able to partner with these ancient symbols as another layer of healing. It morphed into a spell for healing as I put out that complimentary witchy energy to others. The beacon of hope that is Kenaz (<) gifted me with inspiration when I didn’t even know I was looking for it.

As I sat with the Runes, meditating on the symbols between Odin Pulls for others, they brought other things deep into focus. Raidho (ᚱ) came in with its over-arching perspective: Capitalism doesn’t just organize economies. It organizes nervous systems. When productivity becomes worth, rest feels like guilt. When survival depends on output, burnout becomes normal. That isn’t a personal failure. That’s structural trauma. Under capitalism, self-neglect is reframed as drive. Overwork is ambition. Exhaustion is hustle. We learn to override hunger, fatigue, grief, and the witch’s most important tool: intuition. Then we wonder why we feel disconnected from ourselves.

A system that rewards constant production trains us to abandon our bodies. We ignore pain. We silence intuition. We distrust rest. Imagine! We don’t feel trusting enough to take a minute to breath, take a nap, or make our sleep schedule sacred. Self-care in the eyes of capitalism becomes another task to optimize instead of a relationship with ourselves, especially in the care of our physical bodies. Ehwaz (ᛖ) reminded that self-trust is the key to harmony.

Trauma isn’t only catastrophic events. It’s non-stop pressure. It’s economic precarity. It’s never feeling safe enough to slow down. When your survival feels conditional, your nervous system never fully recovers. Add chronic illness into the mix and you have another are of your life that capitalism makes you feel less than. This is where spiritual practices can become radical, as my Craft has done for me over the years. It’s not as escapism, or aesthetic. It is reclamation. My time. My body. My mind. My Practice. Take divination for example: Rune divination invites slowness, reflection and listening. That is the opposite of the constant output demanded by capitalism. Isa (I) provided the on-time message of Rest Is Doing.

Casting Runes isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about interrupting the grind long enough to ask: What am I ignoring? What truth am I avoiding? Where am I out of alignment? It’s structured pause in a system that profits from your exhaustion. Runes require presence. You breathe. You focus. You feel (sometimes I hear, too). That moment alone challenges a culture that wants your attention fragmented and monetized. Attention is power. Reclaiming it is healing. Much like the Seed Rune (ᛜ), Ingwaz’s energy let’s us lean on that self-focus.

Capitalism says: Be productive. Divination asks: Be honest. Capitalism says: Do more. The Elder Futhark asks: What matters. One measures value in output. The other measures value in awareness. When you sit with the Runes, you’re practicing listening instead of reacting, reflection instead of performance, and meaning instead of metrics. That’s nervous system repair. That’s self-trust rebuilding.

Taking care of yourself in a system that benefits from your depletion is not indulgent. It’s resistance. If Runes help you slow down, reconnect, and remember your inner authority. That’s not fallacy, that’s reclamation.

What messages do the Runes have for you? The Creative Crone Shop features Rune Castings for a quick questions or long-detailed year-ahead readings. What guidance does the Elder Futhark have for you? Book a casting with Runa today.

Creating Connection & The Magic of Hearth Craft

Posted on by runa

Over the past few months, I’ve been showing up on Bluesky with what I’ve categorized as “Creative Crone Dispatch.” They are little tidbits of Craft knowledge, curated into regular threads born from my skills & experience of  more than four decades of being a Woman In Total Control Of Herself. I started to really dig them and they made me recognize I have more to say.

A writer having more to say?

At my deepest heart, I’m a nerd. I’m also a Scorpio Stellium, so I like to get deep. I like to discuss the depths of a subject and learn as much as I can.  And if we can sneak off into that corner booth at the pub underground and talk over it with our fav beverage deep into the night, I’m in heaven. 

Social media can be a bit of the opposite, a hellscape, so controlling the content we want to explore, and keeping the coolest of folx closest, the Creative Crone Dispatch was born. Normally, I know exactly what I want to focus on – but today I decided to ask the near 1k people following me, what they wanted to chat about.

The answer came quickly via @4islesandco.bsky.social . However, my response wound up being too many threads and this blog post was born. So, my dear one, here is my very quick, hopefully easily digestible, thoughts on your query.

Let’s start with what Hearth Craft is – it is the magic of tending our center. It can look like sweeping the floor with intention. It’s stirring the pot as prayer. It’s is lighting a candle and fucking meaning it. Before temples, before skyscrapers of capitalism, there was the hearth. And around it – women. Hearth work is civilization’s first altar. 

When someone mentions Hearth Craft, it is often in the same sentence with Hestia, the keeper of the flame. She did not wage war. She did not chase lovers. She did not leave. She stayed. Her power was continuity. Her magic was steadiness. Her gift was the flame that never went out. 

If it’s not Hestia, then it’s the goddess Brigid. She represents not only poetry, but the forge. She is also the ‘banked’ fire in the kitchen. She lives in bread rising under cloth. In clean thresholds. In the quiet pride of a well-kept space. Hearth Craft is not perfection, but devotion made visible. 

In Nordic tradition, Frigg is associated with the home, weaving fate at the spindle. She knows the threads before they tighten. She sees what is coming, and keeps her counsel. Queen of Asgard, yes; but, also keeper of keys. Guardian of the household’s inner sanctum. In the ol’ Norse world, women carried the keys at their belts, the symbols of authority over stores, wealth, and running of the home. This was not small power. It was sovereignty in wool and iron. Frigg’s magic is not loud. It is strategic, patient, and protective. Hearth Craft, in her lineage, is the weaving of peace – sacred harmony – within walls that can withstand the storm. 

Not every hearth keeper had a myth. Most were unnamed. Grandmothers who salted soup by instinct. Caregivers who rose before dawn. A partner’s hands cracked from winter wood. Hearth Craft honors them, too.Their magic was consistency. Their altar kin-keeping. Their spell was love. When they cooked, they crafted communion. When they tended home, they tended spirit. This is not “just domestic.” This is sacred architecture. 

They would sit at the hearth, a portal available to most of humanity, as the hearth is a threshold between worlds. The fire of the hearth transforms. Food becomes body. House becomes home. 

In a world obsessed with spectacle, Hearth Craft makes us consider if the magical act of ‘tending’ isn’t one of the holiest, powerful. To tend the hearth is to hold fate gently in your hands. 

And I leave you with this final piece of my regular Creative Crone dispatch – a bit of ‘hearth craft’ to get you started: This week, choose one hearth ritual. Light a candle before cooking. Bless your doorway. Sweep with intention. Bake bread as an offering. Ask yourself, what am I building here? And then follow the answer. The flame is waiting.

Although not entirely all Hearth Craft, my book, Magic In Your Cup talks about intention, tending, and the sacredness of what we put into our bodies and how to make it more magical. Find it wherever books are sold, or get one personalized just for you at the Creative Crone Shop.