Of the 24 articles on magick we published in 2017, these are the 11 most popular covering occulture.
Click on the title link to take you to the full article to revisit articles you’ve forgotten, meant to read, or maybe haven’t seen yet if you’re newer to the site. (Welcome!)
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Happy holidays!
11. Revisiting Starhawk’s Fifth Sacred Thing 24 years later
By Donyae Coles
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk was published in 1993 but in the more than two decades since the book has hit the shelves, it has become strangely apt for the times we live in.1This novel eerily mirrors much of the political upheavals and changes that are happening in the world today but also tells us a lot about the power that is in us to resist these changes that will harm marginalized people.
I did not read this book when it was first released so this is my first time experiencing this text. I am reading this book as a Black woman who lives in the America of 2017, and although the initial set up had me rolling my eyes at the now oft used apocalyptic tropes, by the end of the book I was reading wide eyed and wondering how many short steps away from this future we really are.
10. Poetry to deepen your understanding of tarot
There’s a perennial debate about whether one should read books in order to learn the art of tarot reading or one should rely wholly on intuition, guides, and so on. Most of this debate centres on little white books, the slim texts that accompany most decks and provide keywords, meaning, and didactic non-fiction.
As a bibliophile, I always argue for reading as much as possible. However, I would like to focus on a less controversial and often overlooked genre of tarot writing: poetry.
I find the act of reading poetry to be similar to the act of reading tarot because of how both use symbols, (visual) metaphor, enjambment (or bridging), archetypes, and so much more.
9. Danielle Dulsky: An interview with a wild woman
When I first walked into Danielle Dulsky’s yoga studio for Wolf-Woman Autumn Camp, I knew I was in for some serious magick. The studio was welcoming and inclusive, with women from all over the country joined together for a day of connecting with the Dark Goddess.
8. Jailbreaking consciousness with Lasara Firefox Allen
By Sharon Woods
Lasara Firefox Allen is a radical feminist, anarchist and punkrocker whose book, Jailbreaking the Goddess, pushes the traditional threefold model of the Goddess into powerful new territory. We sat down with her to discuss her vision of the feminal divine and the role it can play in activism in a divisive climate.
7. Enchanted resistance: A history of political magick
By Donyae Coles
The current political climate of the world has been more than a bit troubling for many people across all walks of life. With new, strangely reptilian leadership and numerous policy changes in the United States that are leaving many people feeling powerless, hexing the evil-doers of the world is currently seeming like a lot more than just a whimsical suggestion.
Fighting political battles with magick may seem like something that only appears in works of fiction, but there’s actually a long standing and varied tradition of these types of approaches. Magick has many uses and though some people may frown at its involvement in the political, the fact of the matter is that it has been in use for centuries to help people push against unfair regimes and survive hard times.
6. Find your new favourite indie tarot among these 11 decks
By Daleth West
Recent years have provided an explosion of interest in tarot, with a proliferation of exciting indie tarot decks that draw on tradition, pop culture, politics and evocative art to entice card enthusiasts.
Many tarot readers employ multiple decks, and some of us are avid collectors. The reader’s relationship to the cards is complex — we respond to art work certainly, and may find certain decks work better for certain purposes. For example you might enjoy a Rider-Waite Smith deck for divination, keeping one deck for you to study and another to use when working with others; or use an oracle deck for a daily card meditation. The exciting thing about tarot today is the way unique and talented artists have reinterpreted the major and minor arcana. Each deck brings its own wisdom to tarot work, and taps into readers’ intuition in different ways.
5. Some thoughts on the mass ritual binding of US president Donald Trump
By Aaron Leitch
On Friday, 24 February 2017, during the last phase of the waning moon, something amazing happened: witches, Pagans, and occultniks from across the United States — and the world — organized a mass ritual binding or hexing of American president Donald Trump.
By Aaron Leitch
4. 5+ best occultnik podcasts in 2017
By Psyche
I love podcasts. I love listening to them while I’m running, gardening, or working on menial tasks.
I listen to podcasts for news, politics, to keep up with technology and, of course, for the latest in the weird and wonderful occultnik bubble.
3. Witch activism: It’s happening now
By Daleth West
The current US presidency and political climate has mobilized citizen activists in unprecedented numbers. The rise of witch activism certainly has historical precedent, although today’s iteration, with its emphasis on social media as a means of disseminating and enacting magick, has interesting implications for enacting and mobilizing activism. That many self-identified witches are anti-fascist isn’t surprising, given their history as a persecuted group. As such, it’s logical that witches would be resistant to oppressive regimes. Many spiritual communities have traditionally mobilized against fascism, oppression, and inequality. For example, parishes offering sanctuary to draft dodgers in the 1960s and Syrian refuges in recent years, or providing shelter to the homeless in winter months.
2. Four times pop culture got magick right
By Donyae Coles
Entertainment media loves magick. There are so many stories about people, usually of the ordinary sort, that gain clarity and happiness all through the use of magick. Or maybe they learn a lesson about not taking short cuts in life and get what they always had coming to them. Either way, the use of magick is a common trope in movies, comics, and books but it’s not often that they get it right. These four pieces of media show magick in such a way that it almost becomes magick to the knowledgeable viewer.
1. The Rede: Not all witches
By Donyae Coles
Whenever you’re in mixed witch company, (here’s looking at you, online discussion groups) and talk of spells such as hexing, curses or even something like a binding, arises, invariably someone will say “You can’t do that! Threefold Law!” That would be true — if everyone they were speaking to was Wiccan — but realistically speaking, there are many ways to be a witch, and not everyone follows the Rede.
What were your favourites from 2017? What would you like to see us cover in 2018?
