“A cold spring, the violet was flawed on the lawn. For two weeks or more the trees hesitated; the little leaves waited. One day in a chill white blast of sunshine, on the side of one a calf was born.” — “A Cold Spring” by Elizabeth Bishop Springtime always evokes the poet in me and […]
Writer, Fashion Alchemist, and Venus devotee Gabriela Herstik has conjured up a potent guide for solitary witches that infuses disparate practices with a feminist punch. Her newly released book, Craft: How To Be A Modern Witch, is empowering without being trite or preachy, witty without losing reverence for the subject matter, and equal parts style and […]
Last weekend, artist, activist and Satanic firebrand Jex Blackmore led a ritual of resistance that drew hundreds to a neon-lit warehouse in Detroit. Inspired by the recent implementation of a biblical “sexual identity” workshop by a metro-Detroit church and the hiring of religious activists in key positions in the Department of Health and Human Services, Blackmore’s […]
Well-versed in the ways of aural and visual seduction, creatrix Corinne Dodenhoff is our February Slut of the Month. A witch, fine artist, illustrator, musician, and 1/2 of Babe Coven (with her ride or die Haleigh Moon), she’s conjured interdisciplinary shows, witchy markets, and community events that center femmes and body positive magic. This Saturday, she’ll […]
Many of my friends celebrate New Year’s as a perfunctory holiday or as “amateur night,” because the calendar year is a creation of modern times. Pagans and Witches alike view Samhain or Halloween as the “Witches New Year,” despite varying opinions. For me, the new year actually takes flight on the eve of Imbolc (February […]
2017 was the worst year for a lot of minorities, and when it gets worse for minorities I push myself harder to provide outlets for them to speak up. In 2014, I founded Esoteric, a feminist zine based in Nashville that focused on women who ran their own businesses, bands and dreams. In 2015, I […]
As an enthusiast of the art of comics, one that I’ve kept taped to various incarnations of vision boards is, of all things, a Christian Jack Chick-inked pamphlet, “Hi, There!” featuring a winking grim reaper, scythe in hand waiting around the corner for a wise-cracking construction worker who is shocked to meet his maker. When I […]
For my one-year wedding anniversary I escaped to Woodstock and experienced the starry night sky: a cabin surrounded by woods complete with sherbet colored sunrises and falling leaves. For a brief moment, frenetic city life and work-centered commitments were on pause and for two days only pleasure mattered. I breathed in air scented with beeswax […]
Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers is a kaleidoscopic grimoire that positions the great literary craftswomen of our time as seers, sorceresses, and sages. Taisia Kitaiskaia’s gripping, exquisitely crafted words are set ablaze by Katy Horan’s haunting images that pulse with primal magic. Their collaboration will not only inspire you to dig deeper into transportive […]
knifesex‘s Babalon begins with hypnotic intensity, building in a brooding crescendo as creatrix Vanessa Irena whispers: “Holy is the whore.” She repeats this phrase, mantra-like: a fitting beginning to a sonic offering to Babalon. Alternately sinister and celestial, fusing noise, trip hop, and synthwave, knifesex’s first full-length release is a soundtrack for destroying the divide between sacred […]
