Category: Blog Post

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.

What The Witch Is Reading – February 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.

Reading in the winter is one of the things I most enjoy. Snuggling up in my reading chair with my puppers, next to the fire and sipping tea whilst I work my way through a book is heavenly. As I mentioned in my last post, most of my reading has been dedicated to recent research I’m doing for an ongoing project while still doing my Witch Work and running a permaculture Covenstead. Those books won’t appear here as to not give the project away before it’s ready for its public. But I’m always reading. Since my last post, I have finished two books (I’m reading a total of 4 right now – what? I like variety!)

Scorpio Witch by Ivo Dominguez, Jr. and Zoë Howe

I would not call myself an astrologer. I only started deepening my astrology knowledge back in 2017, with a big increase in my application of it in my daily life and magical practice beginning during the pandemic. But even knowing enough to be dangerous allowed me to enjoy this book and learn more and solidify some of the knowledge that I have about the impact of a Scorpio Sun, which yours truly is. 

I saw myself in so much of the content for connecting more deeply with the Scorpionic aspects of holding this sun sign. I know what the stereotypes are – and Dominguez and Howe go beyond and provide great tips to lean into that power. This is done through clean, no-nonsense writing and the play off of Dominguez’s more professorial tone and Howe’s more rock-n-roll takes on things plays a nice yin and yang in the text. The reader is left more grounded yet invited to shake their Witch’s rattle. 

Howe details early that Scorpios are those lone wolf witches who are perfectly content with being a solitary practitioner, “…unless a very special group presents itself.” She continues the expose on Scorpio suns with, “… magical work is sacred and we, the Zodiac’s least trusting sign, have to feel certain before we allow ourselves to be vulnerable in the presence of others.” ON POINT, readers! 

The book also explores the different moon signs that a Scorpio sun might have and how you can use the sway of the lunar energy to balance the light and shadow within that Scorpio sun. 

Dominguez also explores the rising signs, so going into reading this, knowing your big three is a plus, but early in the book there are directions on how to find your sun, moon, and rising. The anointing oil instructions he provided in the book is dead-on Scorpio scent love. I’ve already created it and use it in my daily meditations when preparing my sacred space. 

The part of the book that I will return to often – this is a reference book to be sure, but not dry and stale, but something that will teach you over and over again – is the exercises, spells, and rituals included – many by other writers who hold that Scorpio Sun in their chart.

I would, however, like to purchase a copy where they didn’t use the script font in the section titled “Postcard from a Scorpio Witch” by Lisa Jade. Utterly difficult to read and feels inaccessible depending on the reader’s mood, lighting, and eyesight. But the way it presents definitely feels like someone writing you a postcard – or letter even as it’s a few pages long. So the design choice made sense. But, maybe a clearer script font would be more appropriate?

However, I’m already awaiting the arrival of two more in this astro-witch series. When they get to the top of the TBR pile, you’ll hear from me on those books, too.

Mountain Magic: Explore the Secrets of Old Time Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer

In 2025, along with reclaiming spirit work, I also had the goal of learning more about the cultural and societal influences on my ancestors. These goals continue through 2026, and if you’ve not explored your ancestors’ lives as we recall them, I highly encourage it. 

My path to explore these ancestral influences led me to Mountain Magic. It was on a stand right by the cash register, so maybe a spontaneous purchase, but also someone nudging me on my elbow, saying, “read this.” A good few branches of my family tree begin and branch from Appalachia USA. Beyer’s knowledge of that is fairly well rounded. As I mentioned last month, Wild Witchcraft, also by Beyer, sits on my shelf and I referenced it in Magic In Your Cup. Beyer loves research, as I do, and so getting a second book by her didn’t take much thinking. 

Like so many Craft books, this one hosts all kinds of working recipes. The ones in this book were inspired or done by generations of Appalachian folk magic. There’s some things in the mix of what is presented in this book that may make even the most devoted of Witches raise an eyebrow. But again, this is an education in how our beloved dead perhaps saw and ‘worked’ the world. It was nice to see validation of the materia magica that continues in my own practice naturally, but new ones to try, especially as I try to work with Beloved Dead in my spirit work. 

One interesting thing happened whilst I was reading this book. I had just finished the section on using Witchballs for Protection. Now in my lineage, witchballs were decorative, often hollow, glass spheres hung in windows to do the same things the Appalachia Witchballs did – trap evil, spells, and ill fortune, protecting the household. In other cultures they can be called spirit balls or friendship balls. Again, I had just finished that section when my partner and I were off on errands. Part of that was dropping off a donation to a thrift charity shop. When we drop, we often pause to shop, too. Treasure hunting is one of our favorite pastimes. What did I find? But a huge, six-inch diameter Witchball featuring all my favorite colors, with a motive of waves through the center. I’m heavy in the water element in my Natal chart, and it was like my ancestors said, “Here, you need more wards. We found this for you and now you know more about how to employ it.” 

Another thing is that I found the same Abracadabra energy in Mountain Witch that also appears in Scorpio Witch. Given that Abracadabra has been part of magic for millenia is encouraging to see it worked from different Practitioners perspectives. Absolutely they use similar tools, but employed slightly different – something that is not unusual within different paths of the Craft. Beyer folk magic; Dominguez with a more Witch/Wicca/Pagan viewpoint. Both powerful magic speaks to different paths and sympathies. And that synchronicity was electric to discover in this month’s readings.  

Up Next:

I am reading more research I can’t reveal yet; but, you know I’m not just reading one book at a time. I picked up two books at my local library – both a little more secular subjects, but I followed my intuition again for book selection. The books are: 

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and 

The Pursuits of Philosophy: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of David Hume by Annette C. Baier. 

I’m in the midst of writing a fiction short story, so heady non-fiction is the way to read for me now. However, sudden urges to hit the used book store may bring a different work to the next Bookish Witch post.

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!

What The Witch Is Reading: Signs & Opting Out – January 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. 

Most of my reading has been dedicated in the last six months to research I’m doing for an ongoing project while still doing my Witch Work and running a permaculture Covenstead. Those books won’t appear here as to not give the project away before it’s ready for its public. But I’m always reading. This last month I finished two books even whilst dealing with all the HOLIDAZE shenanigans. Tell me if these are in your TBR pile or if after reading my review you want to add them to that nice Sunday stack.

Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guide to Leading An Intentional Life by Cait Flanders.

As someone who has made it a mainstay of my life to live intentionally, and also spent a few years being a constant traveler, I was excited to get my hands on this tome. The author, Cait Flanders, wrote this one on the heels of her book, The Year of Less, which was its own adventure in living minimally. Opt Out doubles down on the lessons of The Year of Less and dives deeper into Flanders’ goal to build a more meaningful life focused on nature, connection, and personal values, which for her includes a heavy travel schedule.

The part of the text that really appealed to me is that when she first began to create the life she lives now, there were naysayers, lack of support, and huge hurdles mostly put in place by societal expectations. I felt that hard. Not having a permanent address is a big problem in the outer world. People not understanding why you’re doing something leads to lack of support. And people who think your choices somehow affect or make their life ‘less than’ will always stand in front and block your way.

“People will always make comments when you decide to live a counter-culture lifestyle. They will have even more to say if you struggle with it,” she wrote, after her first attempts at living the life she wanted did not go smoothly. Regardless, Flanders is successful in the end and navigates all of the pushback throughout the book. She uses a hiking as a metaphor for the journey of living intentionally that even if you’ve never even considered such a way to live, you can picture it in your mind as you read — the reader starts at the trailhead, and she takes them through the whole ‘hike’ of opting out that leads them to the great viewpoint at the end. The amount of uniqueness that came into Flanders’ life is then spilled on the page in practical guidance of how to apply the lessons she’s learned that readers can take and make deliberate choices in their own.

“The only thing I can guarantee is that … progress is never linear,” Flanders writes. “Your map won’t be a straight line — and you will be better for that.” The amount of evidence within this quick read to help you create your own map to an intentional life. If you live a life more esoterically as I do, this worldview of intentionality isn’t new; but, seeing how someone else walks this path was inspirational and provides a gentle, encouraging tone like when you meet a fellow hiker coming from the other direction on the trail and they let you know some good intel about the journey ahead. “hey, there’s a wash out after the last bend,” or other lessons so you are more prepared and supported to make such a leap to a more intentional life. No woo-woo in this book, but it’s not necessary at all. This quote has stuck with me since reading:

“A lot of us are hurting in our friendships and relationships because people cross our boundaries or don’t meet our needs in some way. But most of the time, we don’t tell people what we need. We just expect them to know or understand we are on a journey. Not only is is unfair to place an unspoken expectation on someone; it’s also unfair to assume that people will always understand what we are doing and why. People can see only as far for you as they see for themselves. So we have to remember that if people aren’t doing the same thing as us, they won’t automatically understand.”

Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson.

In 2025 I set about to reclaim some of the Spirit Work talents that I was born with but was suppressed as a child because they were summarily dismissed by the world around me. So when this book appeared before me, I took it as — you guessed it — a sign. Laura Lynne Jackson is a psychic medium and author of the book, The Light Between Us, a NYT best seller.

She very much details the energy of people, places and things. “Because we comprise energy, we also give off energy,” she writes. And that energy can be channeled to pay closer attention to the whispering patterns, repeated moments, and subtle disturbances that often pass us by in our hectic daily lives. Jackson bids the reader to treat the signs as a living dialogue between inner awareness and the outer world, asking what it means to recognize meaning in them without forcing it, as opposed to treating signs like an abstract superstition or fixed answer.

Like many Practitioners in the Craft, Jackson encourages discernment over certainty, curiosity over dogma, and a more intimate relationship with how insight actually arrives. The author also includes a central theme of the presence of our Beloved Dead and Those Who Came Before. Throughout the book this presence of the “Other Side,” as she terms it, is not distant or theatrical, but adjacent to our ordinary experiences, helping to bring symbols, timing, and resonance. If you’re a Witch, this is not new to you, but the approach by Jackson that this is a fact of life is refreshing.

The book is full of stories of people who asked for and received signs, and who received near divine intervention from their Spirit team — Jackson calls them your Team of Light. Many of them made me catch my breath and examine the signs that I likely missed from the Universe, my Beloved Dead, or just the collective energy that often can make things happen miraculously. If you have ancestral work in your Practice, some of the ‘asks’ that Jackson details Some of the language left me wanting for a deeper dive, but Jackson falls clearly in the ‘love and light’ crowd — not that it’s bad, but it’s a different foundation than this writer’s. But for people exploring spirit work, Jackson’s prose is conversational and story-focused.

The best part of the book was how such a universal language of signs can be interpreted differently and also the comfort in grief and confusion they can belay to the reader. It’s clear that Jackson wants to offer the reader a way to a sense of wonder in the midst of loss, turning grief into a path for deeper connection. It empowers the reader to go on their own journey to empower them to work with their own spiritual realm team. Love never ends is the author’s message, and it continues to impact our lives greatly. We just have to notice the signs.

Up Next:

I am still working through Scorpio Witch by Ivo Dominguez, Jr. & Zoe Howe, because I have to keep stopping and pondering the information inside of it. Anything with astrology in it sends me down a deeper rabbit hole, so I’m relishing this one a little longer.

I also picked up Mountain Witch by Rebecca Byer as part of a Yule haul recently. Her book Wild Witchcraft already sits on my shelf.

However, sudden urges to go book shopping may bring a different tome to the next Bookish Witch post.

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!

Letting the ancestors decorate the Covenstead

Posted on by runa

In the last few years, my partner and I have felt the gentle tug toward older traditions, especially as winter begins. We’ve leaned in harder to the unique cultural aspects that our ancestors loved. These pops of echoes throughout the covenstead honor stories told by grandparents, snippets of folklore tucked between recipes and holiday rituals. On the surface it looks like our house is full of garden gnomes. And it is. 

Over the years here at Villa Westwyk, our cozy cottage has begun to be filled with images, statues, and decor of (Jule) Nisse (Tomte), aka what Americans know as gnomes, or what those in Iceland call the Yule Lads (Jólasveinar). The latter have names like Spoon Licker, Door Slammer, and Window Peeper, so you know they are put in the trickster spirit column. But none of the pranks they do are completely harmful, but more a reminder that the spirit of the Land needs tending and nurturing.

Found throughout Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, these small, mischievous household guardians from our Northern European ancestors have become a charming theme for our winter Solstice observances, and we’ve employed them as part of our regular warding and protection magic. The gradual inclusion of these symbols of gratitude for the simple things in winter – As we began to decorate the covenstead for Yule, the theme of these holiday tricksters bring a blend of generosity, humor, and just a pinch of chaos, which aligns well with the PNW’s moody, moss-draped December.

Growing up both of my partner and I were taught about these protectors of farms and families, hosting a beard much like my partner bears.That such energy would follow us here to the landscapes of evergreen forests is not surprising. Our covenstead, soft with rain and wrapped in fog, already feel like the natural habitat of the energy that tomte & nisse hold. They are after all, creatures who thrive in places where the boundary between the everyday and the enchanted is thin. The Yule Lads, who in Iceland descend from the mountains one by one each night, would find no shortage of dramatic ridges and misty foothills to wander here. You can almost imagine them stepping out from behind a cedar trunk with a half-eaten cookie and a grin. They remind us that winter magic lives in the handmade and the thoughtful. They were like tiny elfish guardians, ensuring the well-being of land, livestock, home, and community through long, dark winters. Their presence mirrors a worldview where the home and Land are sacred, alive with unseen watchers. 

However, you do not want to disrespect these spirits. Like other Land spirits across the world, these mini-santa-claus characters are highlighted in the time between Dec. 12th and December 24th, coinciding with many of the global cultures’ winter festivals. They can be as prickly as the Yule Cat, the pet of the ogress Grýla, who is said to be the mother of said Yule Lads. Don’t disrespect them or you won’t be seeing a mysteriously placed pinecone on your windowsill, but maybe a broken window, which is especially not fun when it’s winter. The lore about their naughtiness was that the pranks were spurred by misbehaving children in the household (sound familiar?) Well behaved children meant the Yule Lad milked the goat as opposed to stealing the milk. And good children received small tokens and treats for their efforts. When the Yule Lads are helpful, they would like to be acknowledged for that help. So traditional celebrations, offerings, and poems of gratitude fill the winter nights in their honor. 

We’ve rekindled and reinterpreted this ancestral customs of the Yule Lads as winter offers simple, low-pressure ways to bring the tradition into modern life. Ancestors may have left out a small bowl of porridge or cookies (sound familiar?); and today it’s a lighted candle in the window, a little brew from the cupboard, left as an offering in gratitude for the home and the Land that shelters us. The GrandWitchling likes to check to see if “someone” has taken a sip. Honoring traditions doesn’t require strict accuracy or elaborate ceremony. What matters is the spirit of the custom. For us it’s about respect for the unseen energy everywhere that is channeled to safeguard the home and protect all its inhabitants. In a region where winter stretches long and the nights fall early, these small rituals offer warmth and a sense of continuity. And if what matters is held in the vessel of an impish gnome, I’m even more about it because, let’s have fun and joy where we can get it, yes? 

Janus & The SAD Witch in Winter

Posted on by runa

Crafting A Life With Seasonal Affective Disorder

When the light shifts as winter approaches each year, I become a different person. Like a witchy Janus, people who see me in the winter time say I even look different. I am not the summer Runa that is cheery, active, and social. I am the winter Runa that is slow, introspective, and solitary. This is life with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), aka seasonal depression. The fact that I suffer with this disorder is no secret, but I have many new folx reading my work, and it made sense to address one of the challenges I face in my life regularly and how it impacts, shifts, and informs my life – writing, food growing, and my Practice. 

This disorder is a form of depression that shows up in a seasonal cycle, usually lasting around four to five months each year. It presents a lot like clinical depression, but has its own seasonal twists since different symptoms tend to show up in the winter-pattern versus the summer-pattern SAD. As its acronym suggests, sadness and other depressive symptoms dominate the winter season for SAD sufferers, including having little or no energy, changes in sleep and appetite, physical aches pains, and bodily system problems (think digestion, breathing, or reproductive) and thought processes become cloudy. SAD sufferers are not immune to suicidal ideation either. Let me spotlight here that if you are feeling like you may cause yourself harm, please seek professional healthcare support. Witches have therapists, too. 

As a Witch, the awareness of these energetic cycles is helpful. It helps to acknowledge SAD as the real mental-health condition it is. That said, it’s important to remember that SAD doesn’t make you broken, or “too much,” although the overculture wants you to think you just need to shake your head, pat yourself on the back, and – wa-la! you feel better. Instead, it’s been helpful to me to approach this time of year and the onset of SAD, as a natural response to seasonal changes in light, energy, and routine – like a Witch does. The Land is fallow, so sleeping more, eating differently, and needing more physical comfort and deeper roots & connections seems more aligned with our planet’s natural rhythms.

Photo by Runa Troy

In naming and acknowledging SAD, it both grounds you by giving you language for an experience many others share, without labeling yourself as a problem. It’s about understanding your rhythms so you can care for yourself with more compassion and intention. Once you’ve named and acknowledged, you can weave practical support with not just treatment routines and actions, but with Witchcraft and/or energetic practices. There was a moment back in 2016 – a decade or so after my diagnosis – where I literally yelled out the back door after like the 30th day of gray skies, “I fucking have SAD, give me a break!” It was a crude acknowledgement, but it was a positive energetic step in reckoning my shadow. If you are reading this and have SAD, I hope your reckoning is more graceful and kind. 

Both times of the year suck for having a seasonal depression. But in both cases the overculture – capitalism, the patriarchy, and living under a surveillance state – wants you to behave the same 24/7, 365-days of the year. Practitioners know this is unsustainable. However, when depression shows up – seasonal or otherwise – your brain may not be your best friend at any given moment and you will need to have in place ways to cope, destress, and build tolerance and grace to get through. This may be especially important if you’re like me and cannot take or have an atypical reaction to typical medications prescribed by western doctors. Also, the typical length of time it takes for many of these medications to ‘work,’ are about the time the disorder fades again. This means med management is often complicated depending on the individual (per the American Medical Association). And if you’re past your second Saturn return you may find that the SAD symptoms are hitting you harder than earlier in your life. But giving it a Saturnian perspective – developing infrastructure to support your life even under SAD has been helpful for me. 

Foundational to that structure is a combination of psychotherapy, Vitamin D intake (all year), and light therapy. Treatment focused on this combo has been the most helpful for my body. Your mileage may vary. As I write this, I’m under the glow of a full-spectrum light box. I do this early in the day to not disrupt my sleep. Also, there are grow lights in my greenhouse, and working with my plants while those lights are on is also helpful. If the rare and brilliant sunny day in the midst of the Big Dark here in the Pacific Northwest shows up – You will find me outside getting all the sun rays I can. Before having access to artificial sunlight, I went so far as to split my time between the PNW and the Mojave to try to battle SAD. But the Land called me back, so I had to come up with new tactics. It was normal to then approach SAD with my Craft. 

My Craft practice is rooted in the ebb and flow of the natural world, so seasonal cycles become more than just weather. They’re invitations. Each turn of that ‘Wheel of the Year’ as many before us dubbed it, brings its own lessons, energies, and rhythms. These annual rotations shape how we move, rest, create, and connect. In the bright months, I rise with the growing light; in the dark months, I descend into reflection, stillness, and deeper magic. By honoring these shifts instead of resisting them, a Witch learns to work with the season’s current, letting it guide spellcraft, intuition, and the pace of daily life. 

That doesn’t mean that I’m constantly doing spellwork, divining, building altars, or not just completely overwhelmed with magical work during the SAD season. I took a hint from the things I do for my body to apply to my practice. So you will find me focused on getting more ‘light’ into my Craft. I do more candle and fire magic in Winter. Fire scrying in front of the fireplace is stillness and depth. Even on some of my worst SAD days in the season, sitting by the fire feels healing; adding divination feeds my spirituality. Candles, bonfires, and wood stoves can also be healing like sunlight, if not simply comforting. On those sunny days when I’ve plopped myself out under the sun rays, there may just be a jug of water I’m charging to drink later – this is especially nice when it’s Capricorn season in the Northern Hemisphere, since it’s very grounding energy. I have found that using that grounding energy to make my tea (of uplifting and comforting herbs, for sure) or brew my kombucha. 

Psychotherapy can be like an energy clearing – you talk it and clear the air. When I feel that the SAD season is approaching (each year it shows up in a slightly different time, but by Fallow Thursday*, it’s here, I remember to reset any and all stagnant energy in my life, especially within my home. ‘In the preparation there is a cure,’ as my Gigi used to say. I prepare by doing lots of energetic clearing and boundary setting. I create simple charms to ward off gloom or overwhelm, and each year I perform a cord-cutting from seasonal obligations and social pressures. 

Next is where grace comes into my Practice. I upend any baneful thoughts with kindness towards myself, especially my higher conscience. I give myself the grace to allow winter to be a teacher of rest, surrender, and deep magic. I planted seeds in late summer and early autumn to honor both the struggle and the beauty of the season. Do I always get it right? No, but I learn, forgive (there’s that grace), and start anew. 

This grace leads to thankful recognition: I am able to move at that darker, slower pace because I’ve been blessed to work for the Land, Kin, and Seekers of Magic. It also helps that my gnosis is strong in ‘this too shall pass’ and it does every year. In the midst of coping with the winter blahs (my former name for it before diagnosis), I approach each day with gratitude. Finding that gratitude can be a magical spell in itself, especially when SAD is beating a Witch up pretty hard. When all your brain is saying is to sleep, that gratitude can change the tide. I find this by winter introspection journaling, making rest sacred, and creating a small section in my BOS/Grimoire for winter mood tracking, dreams, and energetic tides. 

Like Janus, the god of doorways, gates, boundaries, thresholds, SAD can often feel like being suspended between who you are in the light months and who you become in the dark ones. That’s a liminal space, and Witches love liminal space. So it still sucks, but it doesn’t last forever, you’ve already overcome this before, and there are choices and exits when things feel stuck – like a door having two directions. The Witch reframes this season as sacred and not punishing. May your season bring you that reframe, even if SAD has you by your witchy locks. May you find and step into a different type of power that centers, grounds, reframes, and is gracious and grateful.

If you’ve read this far, let me leave you with a bit of a Big Dark blessing:

May the dark months wrap you in gentleness, and may your inner flames glow steady and sure. May you honor the light you carry and the rest your spirit craves, trusting that both are sacred, both are needed, and both will guide you through the winter’s quiet magic. 

Go drink some water now. 😉

Blessed Be,

~R

**Fallow Thursday is my term for the US’ Thanksgiving holiday. In 2024 our Covenstead finally decided we were not going to stress everyone out with this middle-of-the-work week holiday. Instead it’s dedicated to being fallow as the Land is doing.

What The Witch Is Reading – January 2025

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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. 

January flew by and I’ve been spending extra time reading, which I adore. Next to the fire with my puppers in my lap and a cup of coffee nearby. It’s the best. My own book launch went off spectacularly and I am deep in drafting book two, so the bookish witch life continues.

Recently Finished:

Modern Magic: Stories, Rituals, and Spells For Contemporary Witches by Michelle Tea. The magic in this book is certainly the storytelling prowess of its author. Another title could have been ‘Craft for Real Life,’ as Tea weaves the necessity of the magic throughout a life peppered with unconventional living arrangements, relationships, and recovery. Everything from working with Saints, Mystical Snacktivism, House magic, and more. My favorite part has to be Laurie’s Egg of Light under the chapter called ‘Witch Panic.’ I was screaming in delight with recognition of my own kind of Egg of Light spells I cast for protection on kindred. Laurie wherever you are, I see you, Witch. Also, I love the approachableness of how Tea writes of her magical practice. It’s fluid and flowing and weaved in her life from dreams to charms. From breathwork to hexing, whether you’re a Witchling or a Crone, you’re going to dig this book.

An Apostate’s Guide to Witchcraft: Finding Freedom Through Magic by Moss Matthey. There’s a soothing flow and voice in this book. Matthey’s ‘considerate, sensitive, and nurturing,’ nature as detailed by foreword writer Mhara Starling is evident throughout the book. The escape from a cult healing that happens through Witchcraft is so validating for those of us who had our own religious trauma to heal from. The book clearly represents all the lessons that Matthey pulls not just from his cult escape, but also his Welsh and German ancestry. The section of the book on identity and diversity under the chapter of The Queerness of Witchcraft especially resonated with me. But the amount of quotes I pulled out to remember for later was pretty high in this book. His section on progressive revelation and Doubt is Divine under chapter 10 has me considering many new things as well as a new list of books to acquire from said chapter. The amount of progressive revelation from this seemingly new Witch shows that Matthey just may be an older soul than we know. A seeker like many of us, Matthey’s book is one to help you shed anything that’s not serving you and find your way to your own journey of freedom through the Craft. 

The Way of Fire and Ice: The Living Tradition of Norse Paganism by Ryan Smith. I love books with thick bibliographies and clear indexes, especially on subject matters that I may refer back to, like Nordic spirituality. Ryan Smith’s book is not only deeply knowledgeable in this path, but also its evident – if you study it – adaptable traditions that build community and resist fascism. This book is dense in all the subjects found under Norse mythology and the spiritual paths it has created. Smith’s radical look at this brings hope in a world seemingly bent on destroying healthy spirituality and its communities. If you’re called by the likes of Freyja or Thor, this book gives you a nice basis in understanding how to build relationships with these deities and develop practices (and songs) within a modern life. His section on Runes is making me seek out some other resources as well. As a long-time Rune caster there’s information in the book on the Elder Futhark that is counter to some of what I understood. I’m excited to find where the disconnect between what I understood and what he writes in the book may be bridged. I finished this book feeling like I had some new missions in my own spiritual practice, so good on ya, Smith. 

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. This book was gifted to me near my birthday in November by the admirable Theresa Reed. It has been quite the solar-return blessing. This book brings us soothing prose, even I might add practical hopefulness in the light of so much violence and terror in the world. Gay is an award-winning poet and clearly a Knight for finding enchantment in our lives. Pleasure and happiness are the balance to the pain and sadness of modern life. Bite-sized essays are great to read when the world is too heavy. Grab your cat, cup, and get this book in your lap for a quick pick-me-up, or a long session of reading for bliss. My favorite – which will be unsurprising to anyone who knows me – surrounds an interaction with a praying mantis. It is essay number 7, which gets my numerology nerd excited. Birds and crows figure prominently, too, so Gay gets another stamp of approval from me. Seriously, the weaving of language to convey healing balm for the reader for the wounds and weariness of the world.

The Old Farmer’s 2025 Almanac. Every year this periodical finds its way to me. This year it was a Yule gift from my eldest daughter and her family, including my dear Grand Witchling. As a ‘farmer’ of sorts my whole life, the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets included in this book are always appreciated, but as I grow older, the coverage of farming trends and the people behind it are a bigger pull. This year’s volume has me planning a trip to the home-stomping grounds of Canadian kindred and the cheese makers in British Columbia. Such synchronicity – which often happens when you’re paying attention to the land and cosmic weather, which the TOFA has done for 233 years. I’d really love to see less advertising in it, or keep the advertising to the back, since sometimes the latest and greatest in land care can be found there. But this year’s publication seems to be especially fraught with commercialization. But the inspiration found inside of it is still gold. 

Up Next:

Blackthorn’s Protection Magic: A Witch’s Guide to Mental & Physical Self Defense by Amy Blackthorn. Many a book on my TBR pile comes from recommendations from a community I belong to and adore. Laura Tempest Zakroff has a patreon that I participate in as much as I can (I wish I could attend all the time!). If you want your TBR pile to grow, come hang out with this well-read crowd, too. I just dipped into this one the night before penning this post, so only initial reactions from me on this. But Blackthorn really wants the reader to understand where they stand in the world of magic before proceeding and that kind of expectation is something I deeply support. Looking forward to more. 

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. From the author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss comes another title that seems destined for more in my own life, as getting more serviceberries here at Villa Westwyk is a goal. 

Kimmerer is known as a great teacher and I’m ready to learn all about natural wealth distributions and the idea that all flourishing is mutual. In a world where the rich cannot be satisfied, this book already feels like the start of realigning ‘enough’ in our lives. 

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’s talk about books! Comment below. If you have a book you think I should read, let me know that, too!

What The Witch Is Reading: 2024 Year In Review

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I’m working through a tall stack of books on my nightstand this month, and will post a hearty monthly What The Witch Is Reading entry on those books soon. Today you get an overview of all the books I read last year and what I thought of them, and share my top favorites for the year. 

Laying my posts out all at once made me recognize that I was still very much in book-writing/editing/launching mode for Magic In Your Cup, and my consistency of reading was slowed and composing my posts even slower. My goal for this year is to consistently post each month and finish at least one whole book, since I’m starting the writing process all over again for my ::crosses fingers:: book two. I hope you’ll join me in this venture. If you don’t want to miss the Bookish Witch news, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter. 

My Top Reads of 2024

The Book That Stayed With Me The Most: Early in the year I read a book that has led me down some new pathways in my spirituality and connected me to ancestors I hadn’t realized. That book was Longing For Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna by China Galland. As I noted in my post in February, the Black Madonna appeared to me in a dream a few years back. The book is making me think now, post 2024 election here in the USA, about the nonviolence in specifically Galland’s story, the Solidarity movement in Poland that she stumbled upon within her search for the Divine Mother and her own spiritual journey. Thanks to this book, I’m learning more about the little folk practices my Polish and other Slavic ancestors did that were adopted by the descendants that focused on assimilating as opposed to continuing their spiritual and/or magical practices. Longing For Darkness is the kind of book that continues to leave bits of its stories inside you as you walk your own journey in life. If you haven’t read this particular book, perhaps consider putting it on your list for 2025. 

The Book That Let Me Lean In: In the middle of the summer I was ripping through the book Alive With Spirits: The Path and Practice of Animistic Witchcraft by Althaea Sebastiani. This book’s guide to helping you deepen your own relationship with the Land, Departed Dead, and all manner of spiritual and physical relationships a Witch may have. Even if you’re a long-time Practitioner like myself, this book has such a great map to help you reinforce your own Practice, or even teach you a new thing or two. I loved all the reinforcement of what I knew to be a healthy practice and viewpoint on the Craft, that as a solitary practitioner isn’t always available. For that, I’m very grateful to the author and their book. If you do the work presented in the book, you’re absolutely going to rise up more powerfully in how you do your Practice. Don’t take my word for it, go read the book and do the work. 

The Book That Charged Up My Spellcraft: Of Blood and Bones: Working With Shadow Magick of the Dark Moon by Kate Freuler was a book I had listened to when it was first released and then again during my research for Magic In Your Cup. But I picked up the hard copy and read it through again, pausing to do some of the workings inside of it as I reviewed. As I mentioned in my post on this one (October 24), as a Witch that picks up snake skin, wasp nests, acorns, and animal bones to use in my spellcraft, this book felt like a sister grimoire that will remain on my shelf for many years to come. 

The Book That Showed Me A Different World: As a dreamworker myself, I am always gobbling up any books on dreams – magical or otherwise. But Elhoim Leafar’s book Dream Witchery: Folk Magic, Recipes & Spells From South America For Witches & Brujas showed me many new magical practices and beliefs around dreams that still intrigues me every time I see his name or pass the book on my shelf. The worldview here is so unique and ever fascinating. Even though my dream practice looks different, it was definitely refined after reading this one. Case in point, Leafar’s reiterating protection magic while doing so many of the workings in the book is a great reminder even for us Crones that any practice’s foundations need to be fortified regularly. I’m ever grateful for that message within the book. 

Below is a link to each one with a short vignette on what books/authors are covered in each post if you’re new around here and missed them the first time around. 

What The Witch Is Reading: February 2024

What The Witch Is Reading: May 2024

What The Witch Is Reading: July 2024

What The Witch Is Reading: September 2024

What The Witch Is Reading: October 2024

What The Witch Is Reading: November 2024

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’s talk about books! Comment below. If you have a book you think I should read, let me know that, too!

Blessed Frau Holle Day!

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What January 6th Means For The Creative Crone

For many a years my family leaned into our Mediterranean heritage and celebrated La Befana and gathered round the table with some good Lasagna on Jan. 6. This date is the 12th day of Yule. But in recent years, we’ve been leaning into our Germanic kindred traditions of Frau Holle day. As I talk with my fellow Witches during this time of year, I recognize not many Western Practitioners may know much about who this figure is. I thought I’d share a little bit about that and give you all a little Kitchen Witchery to perhaps play with yourself.

Frau Holle, much like her Italian counterpart, La Befana, is a holiday Witch. In some communities throughout the Alps range, you will see her accompanying the more demonic creatures during Krampusnacht . Her origin stems from the winter goddess Mother Perchta (sometimes written Berchta). She’s also known by the names Hulda or Holle. This last one is how I was introduced to her. All the cleaning that leads up to winter celebrations (e.g. Xmas) is necessary otherwise Frau Holle will think you lazy and not bless you with her light. Lore has it that she sneaks into your home at night like a grizzled Dolores Umbridge checking your baseboards for dust and such. If you don’t pass the white glove test, well…let’s just say the coal in your stockings might just be set afire.

She was around long before Xtianity came to Northern Europe. She’s associated with nature and fertility and as she is connected with cycles of death and rebirth, she is celebrated in winter. Those in charge of hearth and home, especially where women were concerned, had the closest relationship with her. She is said to be the goddess who looks after children who have passed on. In some lore, she is the one that prompts you to create a cozy nest during the coldest time of the year. The word Hygge and Hulda sound very close when you say them as a native Northern European might.

She is venerated during Twelfth night, as well as again in the beginning of Spring (Wonnenacht/Walpurgisnacht). She’s petitioned to help us get through the winter, and then thanked profusely once we’re on the other side of it. She is at the center of the lore around Women’s Christmas, as part of celebrating her, women gifted their sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, and friends little small gifts on this day. Some of you may know it from the more Irish tradition of Little Christmas, where the men take on the household duties for the day and the ladies take over the pub (my kind of celebration!).

The Grimm brothers turned this goddess into Mother Hulda in one of their fairy tales. In their story she’s a magical being who tests two stepsisters, rewarding the kind and hardworking one with gold and prosperity while punishing the lazy and cruel one.They did include some of the mythological associations long connected with Frau Holle like shaking out the featherbed, which symbolizes snowfall and her ability to control the winter weather. They also included jumping into the well and golden apples and spinning. They represent the descent into the underworld, as well as industriousness and domestic skills.

I like Frau Holle Day, because it’s like a small pick-me-up after the come down of Winter Solstice and New Year’s celebrations. In the years when things have been hectic there’s still time to celebrate. It can allow you to celebrate with anyone you haven’t been able to catch up with during the Solstice proper. Also, any place that I can connect with Divine Feminine, I’m there. This patriarchal world can be weary. The 2024 Holidaze, for yours truly, have been peppered heavily with workload and illness for me. As Frau Holle day arrives, I’m finally feeling better.

Since I live so close to the ocean, my freezer is filled with good Pacific seafood directly procured right from the fishing families of my community. I’ll be making a version of Cioppino. Yes, yes, we’re back to that American-Italian influence from my old neighborhood and my other Mediterranean ancestors, as well as the Slavic lands line the Adriatic Sea. Of course our Nordic ancestors had the food of the North Sea. Therefore, this type of dish connects and honors them as well. Cioppino, which basically means “chip in, chip in!” is some Kitchen Witchery that is near and dear to my heart. I’m all about using up what you have and creating goodness from it, especially if you can add Magic, too. Frau Holle Day Sea Stew will use up many of the things in my freezer and larder.

Frau Holle Day Sea Stew as written here will focus on the water’s bounty near me – Salmon, Halibut, Black Cod, Dungeness Crab, Spot Prawns, butter clams, and the like. Feel free to add the things to this stew that are closest to you. When I lived in Louisiana, my version of this working included crawfish and catfish (oh, how I miss catfish!), because it was available. If you’re on the east coast you likely have blue crab or cod available. If you’re somewhere in the middle, our rivers and lakes give us lots to make up a Frau Holle Day Sea Stew. If you’re reading this from far away from North America, again, I’m sure you have seafood that is germane to your area that could be used. Local food is the yummiest and freshest, as well as holding its own most powerful energies, and thereby its magical properties. My counsel is to go for that. Find a local fishmonger and let them teach you and help you. They likely have a good source of fish stock which is key to this working.

Do also visit your local bakery and get some good crusty bread to go with this. You can get fancy and serve it in bread bowls. If you bake bread regularly, make a fresh loaf just for this. This recipe will serve about four people. Feel free to divide or multiple the ingredients to make more or less.

This observation is about entering into the deepest part of winter with a focus on enjoying even these harsh times. I also like to look at it as a reminder that a little bit of this and a little bit of that can make a whole meal – this isn’t just about food. Ask yourself in your own life what a little bit of (fill in the blank) and a little bit of (fill in the blank) could enhance your life? Where can you chip in a little extra to your life? What bit of talent, what bit of education, what bit of gumption can you add to the stew of your life and create something new and beautiful? Those are the thoughts to enter into while making this festive meal.

I set up a small altar to Frau Holle in the house – often on the dining room table or the kitchen windowsill – as I’m called. This often includes lighted candle(s) and incense. The candle color echoes the season for me, something white, or blue, or that wonderful PNW gray. As for the incense, it brings a lift. I opt for something that reminds me of sunnier days like lavender or tangerine, or as I’m called. Cedar is a well loved scent in this house, as is sandalwood, so over the years this Jan. 6th celebration has included those. Listen to your gut for which to choose. Understand the correspondences of each incense, and maybe what you may need as you begin 2025.

I may have a short meditation, focused on the energy that Frau Holle represents. Where can I bring in more feminine energy into my life? Where can I create a world where children thrive? Where can I make my hearth and home a sanctuary? Where can I make winter that much lighter, safer, and warmer? I allow the thoughts and any divine downloads to percolate and mull. You can journal if you want, but I tend to focus just on the energy in that moment and let that energy fill my kitchen as I get ready to create this lovely meal.

If you’re interested in the Kitchen Witchery to go with this date, please visit this link on my Patreon. You’ll note that my patrons received this Working last year. They get all my content way ahead of time. So if you love it, consider joining my Digital Covenstead. Come join the circle!

BIG NEWS: Magic In Your Life Retreat!

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March 21-23, 2025 – Starlight Meadows – Bothell, Wash.

I’m super excited to announce that I’m co-hosting a magical weekend retreat in 2025! All focused to start your spring off magically and double-down on the Magic In Your Life. Check the slides out below and registration link for Magic In Your Life may be found HERE. My patrons at the Front-Porch Sitting level and up receive extra goodies and discounts.