17yo: "Mom, if you were a badger and I was a mouse, would you eat me?" Me: "No." 17yo: ☺️ Mr: "...but if you pissed me off, I'd think about it." 17: "Girl. What the hell.😐"

Big news! An old favorite is coming back… Pizza Hut’s Book It Program!! Help your kids stay motivated, track their progress, and earn free pizza along the way. 🍕 Be sure to download the app to make goals and track progress. Books + Pizza = Win #summerreading #bookit

If you are told of seemingly impossible encounters, journeys into high strangeness and your first impulse is to demand they be declared hoax or hallucination, then I pity you. If your need for cosy certainty trumps the possibility of wonder, you are imaginatively impoverished. – Brian Danbury, 1981

The collective *is* personal. hashtag animism. hashtag animism is a worldview and political framework. hashtag there is no separation between us. ( #WitchSky #PaganSky )

The weirdest things keep popping up in my native plants garden .

Just because something is decentralized or unregulated doesn't mean there isn't a community surrounding it. Just because something is decentralized or unregulated doesn't mean that community hasn't created standards or established ethics for professionals. 1/ #WitchSky #PaganSky

It's hard to be positive when there is so much fuckery about. But we have to try. In so many ways, we have to try.

Good morning from sage blossoms.

Forging—& maintaining—connection with others remains one of the only ways to help us get through the ongoing turmoil &, in general, live a life worth living. Connection can take many forms. Community can take many forms. All these forms, so long as they are reciprocal, are valid. 1/ #WitchSky

Good morning from May Day. Today is special for many different reasons but an underlying theme of those reasons is people coming together and supporting each other. May your day be filled with community.

With the ongoing unfolding horrors in the US, I fully expect the Pagan/witch/spiritual/whatever scene to become MUCH WORSE. It doesn't exist in a vacuum and the rampant bigotry is already largely unchallenged and, frequently, normalized—both on- and offline. 1/ #WitchSky #PaganSky

Sharing this again. Mom and I are still homeless. She is recovering from surgery and a bad infection. I’m trying to keep both of us safe and fed. Anything helps and is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Vetting people in the Pagan, witchcraft, spiritual, whatever scene INCLUDES scrolling through their replies to find the (unfortunately usually inevitable) antisemitism, transphobia, ableism, and/or other forms of bigotry. #WitchSky #PaganSky

BEGGING y'all to practice discernment. There are MANY people who present themselves as spiritual authorities but what they say 1: does not match the words of known vetted experts 2: doesn't match established scientific consensus (eg: psychology, human development, quantum physics, etc) 1/ #WitchSky

It has been a day of wrangling kids & arguing with technology. But... my course Be a Local Witch is now back after being unavailable for months. This is course will guide you through rooting your witchcraft in your local land. Practical animism for you, from me. www.ladyalthaea.com/be-a-local-w...

To the bookstore that bought 15 copies of my indie books today...

Good morning from violets.

www.prisonlit.org/donate/ Prisoner’s Lit Project is an org I support as much and as often as I’m able. If you’re fortunate enough to have a tidy tax return, or to be treating yourself to a fine selections of books this week, please consider making a donation to PLP or buying books from the wishlist

In sinking yourself into animism, it's necessary to look backwards *and* forwards— —yes, deconstruct the influences of xtian hegemony in your life; yes, reconnect to your culture & pre-xtian religious ways BUT ALSO 1/2 #WitchSky #PaganSky

Yes, animism is about caring for the trees, animals, and the land. But it’s also about caring for each other. 1/ #WitchSky #PaganSky

I promise you everything Althaea does is supporting and enriching community in one way or another. If you've got some money to spend on ANYTHING she does, it goes far beyond just helping her.

THANK YOU so much to everyone who sent something over! 🥹 My new kid is blown away that so many people cared. She has enough to get everything she needs and is excited to get clothes, new shoes, and some makeup (this girl and her lashes. lol) 💜💜💜💜💜

Life is never dull. My kids found a baby barred owl that had fallen out of their nest and was being messed with by other humans. The little floof is now safely at the nearest wildlife rehab center to us. They're feeding them and will then try to find their nest to give them back to their parents.🥹

Hi. I recently took in a houseless teen. She came with a backpack filled with mostly school supplies & doesn't have much as far as clothes or personal items. If you'd like to toss a dollar or two at her so she can get some clothes, it would be greatly appreciated! Paypal is ladyalthaea @ gmail. 💜

As someone who is an animist, who has been teaching land-based witchcraft for a decade, and who is genuinely about this life, I have entire books and courses (multiples) that were wholly written outside.

Current office view.

I've spent the last two days (around child-based shenanigans) working in the native plants garden I've (slowly) been cultivating. Raking is finished. Invasives are pulled (again, I frickin hate mulberry trees). And I've started relocating plants to it.

Those of us who are new need to hear this. Going from proud disbeliever to becoming Pagan was a shock, and some of what I accepted at first I no longer believe. This made me fearful I would lose it all, and that I had been lying to myself. Self-flagellation over doubt is awful.

Me: "It's my book's birthday today." 17yo: "You should get me a bottle of champagne." Me: "For my book's birthday??" 17yo: "I'm trying to frickin celebrate, bro."

Just because a path is spiritual doesn’t mean that common sense gets thrown out the window. It’s okay to question your experiences and beliefs. It’s okay to find holes in those beliefs and to discard them for new beliefs. 1/

It's another grief heavy day here. Today I am focusing on the native plants garden. My littlest monster and I are raking out the oak leaves and removing invasives (again). Hopefully there will be time to plant more natives, otherwise that's tomorrow's project; there will be more grief to process.

There's far less in witchcraft that is metaphor than commonly purported. Spirits are REAL. If you think that’s a metaphor for connecting with your Higher Self or some modern archetype bs, don’t be surprised when the Land & witchcraft force you to face reality—such lessons are rarely taught gently.

Sorry to share this again but mom is still recovering from surgery and I’m trying to pay room rent and for her medicine. Anything helps.

Good morning from frost kissed blossoms...

Good morning from plum blossoms, battered by the storm.

Good morning from plum blossoms.

Relationships with the Gods often follow a predictable pattern, where things fall into a routine & we settle into the path of devotion after the excitement of beginning a new relationship. Things are familiar, comfortable. Eventually that stability crumbles—the path changes. 1/ #WitchSky #PaganSky

It's not surprising with the way that the end of a relationship is viewed as a failure in our society that discussion of the end of relationships with the Gods and other spirits is practically nonexistent in the Pagan polytheist and witchcraft scenes. Yet these relationships can and do end.

New friend in the garden (to replace an old friend who didn't survive a move).

My 15yo calls just as the rain hits. He and a friend lied what they were doing and got stuck in the storm. Make it back home just as the tornado sirens (and warning alert) go off. Pets assembled and babies ready to take shelter within minutes. Storm passes over us entirely a few minutes later.

19yo: "There were mashed potatoes in your coffee so I dumped it out." Me: 😐 19yo: "There are *no* mashed potatoes in your tea." Me: 😶 19yo: "I promise. That would be WEIRD."

You never needed a substack -you needed your own website with a blog.

Again, if you have a Substack, the best time to switch away was months ago -- but today's the second best time.

Me, walking into my kitchen for the first time that day: "Oh. Someone had an idea. It was a *bad* idea, but they had it."

Good morning from plum buds.

Find SEVEN new exercises in the resource library of The Winding Way! These are a mix of beginner friendly back-to-basics and intermediate/advanced to help stretch your skills and give you goals to aim for in your practice. What's been added: 👇 #WitchSky #PaganSky

As someone who values the kind of relationship with others wherein you grow as people & encourage the best in each other, please know that if you have what you perceived as a growing relationship with a racialized person and they call you in regarding internalized yt sprmcy, that is a *kindness.* 1/

Good morning from flowers.

Spiritual practice doesn’t help us escape or avoid the realities of our everyday lives, of existing within a physical body, of the society in which we live. Rather, it seats us more deeply into awareness of these things, helping us acknowledge things we may otherwise be trying to ignore. #WitchSky

Witchcraft is open to everyone. The ability to cultivate the necessary skills to practice witchcraft is available to us all—regardless of race, culture, gender, sexuality, age, able bodiedness, mental health, or neurotype. 1/2 #WitchSky #PaganSky