A Bitter Brew from The Yaga

I've been sat down, bitter wormwood tea in hand, in the Yaga's hut many times before, but this time was a bit different. She had a canny look in her eye and a sly grin, her sharp teeth gleaming like ice-covered thorns. "Just remember, in all things there is a price to pay". I felt …

Three Weeks in the Underworld

The devotional "Host of Many: Hades and His Retinue" has been released on Kindle with many interesting and beautiful contributions. I created three illustrations and a poem for this devotional during May last year, each reflecting at the time my own feelings surrounding death and depression. While I was waiting to share these as part …

The Little Things

Sometimes we get so swept away by the majestic, exotic and the wild that we forget the spirits on our doorsteps. Perhaps it is because they are so common that we tend to ignore them as we do everything else in our day to day, the way most people just drift through life never noticing …

The Yaga’s Garden of Death

I planted Hellebore on Salem's grave. It was meant to be Belladonna, but the soil was calling for something and the Belladonna was not ready, and Hellebore was. And so my other love, the other poison went in. She is protective too and a bit less malicious than Belladonna, so perhaps it is right. The …

The Magpie King

"One for SorrowTwo for JoyThe Magpie King has comeAnd in the hollows of his heartThe gleaming of the sun.He stole the light which touched the moonAnd kept it wrapped in vineAnd when they thought that hope was lostHe let the light untwine. One for SorrowTwo for JoyThe Magpie King is hereUpon his head, the Devil's …

Midsummer Magic in the Yaga’s Garden

It is summer and it is time to go back to go back to the hidden paths, back to the Yaga's hut and garden. Summer is a season of overflow and sensuous abundance, something I have struggled to maintain during the darkest hours, with all the death and heartache, but which I am fully preparing …

In The Devil’s Name- Endless Night, Community, and The Poison Path

"You will find the witch at the end of a pointed finger"- Peter Grey Apocalyptic Witchcraft A sad business really when witches turn on each other, sad, but unsurprising given the collective shadow of our community. Witchcraft holds no dogma, there are as many different kinds of witches as there are people who claim to …

A New Journey Down an Old Road…

I have not felt like writing in a while. Losing Salem all but cut up my thoughts and left huge dents in mind that made it hard for me to think, to properly string together a couple of sentences and paragraphs. Her death still rocks me, not because it was sudden or unexpected like Delilah's …

Of Hopelessness and Dark Days

I cannot help but feel I have failed in some way. I don't know how one lives a life like this, constantly tormented by all these "mundane" forces that make it virtually impossible to do anything but crawl into the digital abyss and weep. Life has been a bag of dicks. And I don't know …

The Holly Hag- A Modern Folk Tale

It is said that there is a Hag who lives in the Holly tree. They call her Grandmother. She has storm grey hair and blood red eyes and a nose as crooked as wind torn branches. It was said that you could never take a piece from the Holly tree without The Hag's say or …