Familiars are a defining element of folklore surrounding witches and witchcraft—but in Wicca, they’re often treated almost as an afterthought. Why is that? Here, I talk through a few thoughts about what familiars are, why we think of them the way we do, and a potential reason that they’re not considered central to Wicca.
Read more "Video: Familiars in Wicca"I’m a doctor now. Last week, I defended my dissertation and completed the final requirement for my Ph.D. I am, now and forever, a doctor of philosophy. It’s a weird feeling, being done. A good feeling, to be sure—but I’ve been working toward this for the past six and a half years, and it’s weird […]
Read more "The Doctor and the World"People often describe Paganism as a “nature religion” and talk about venerating the natural world as a fundamental tenet of Pagan practice. But what exactly does that mean? What do we mean when we talk about nature–and what are some of the troublesome assumptions underlying that language? (Hint: It’s just anti-industrialism in sheep’s clothing.)
Read more "Video: Nature Doesn’t Exist"As the nights grow longer and colder, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about descents to the underworld. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the hero’s journey, the prototypical underworld descent myth laid out by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. This book is flawed, and I hesitate to bring […]
Read more "A Hero’s Journey Tarot Spread"I’m picking up this tag from Benebell Wen, who in turn got it from Kelly Bear. It’s originally a YouTube tag, but Benebell did it as a blog post and I’m going to follow in her steps (although my post won’t be nearly as aesthetically pleasing). The challenge: To list 5 Tarot decks you love, […]
Read more "#54321Tarot"I consider myself a halfway decent astrologer. I’m by no means an expert in astrology, and I’m certainly not a professional, but I know more astrology than most people in a given room, I have a preferred house system (Placidus, and yes, I have heard of whole sign houses, but thank you for asking), and […]
Read more "Applied Astrology: Life After Grad School"In a video last weekend, I talked about the rub that exists between philosophy, which seeks truth through reason, and mysticism, which seeks irrational ecstatic communion with the divine. As it turns out, I have more that I want to say on the matter. Specifically, I want to talk about the survival of the soul […]
Read more "Philosophy and Mysticism: Malkuth, Yesod, and the Underworld"I’m a philosopher, a mystic, and a magician–but those things don’t fit together as neatly as you might expect. In this video, I talk through a fundamental incompatibility between philosophy’s demands for rigorous reasoning and mysticism’s need to suspend reason in favor of direct ecstatic experience of the divine. And just to top it all […]
Read more "Video: Philosophy, Mysticism, and Magic"I’m a fan of the Dungeons & Dragons (and occasionally other TTRPG) show Dimension 20, which airs on CollegeHumor’s streaming service Dropout. In this season, the players are a group of cognitive functions belonging to the mind of a scientist named Elias Hodge—his impulsiveness, his curiosity, his conscience, and so on. Over the course of […]
Read more "The Eights of the Tarot: What We Do When We’re Threatened"I’ve previously discussed novels about witchcraft on this channel–but what about novels specifically written about traditional Wicca? Here, I discuss five novels that take traditional (initiatory, lineaged, coven-based) Wicca as a setting for their characters and plots. Although I’m critical of them, I try to pull out the things I find significant in each book, […]
Read more "Video: Novels About Traditional Wicca"
Jack Chanek 