Category: News

Blog Post 174 – New World Witchery Cartulary No. 3

First of all, despite the fact that I have the little tag on the side of the blog that says “Blogging Without Obligation,” I would like to apologize for the incredibly slow past couple of weeks. I keep convincing myself that I have time hiding somewhere in my days and I just have to find it, but I’ve yet to find it and use it to keep posts up regularly. This month, it’s been particularly bad, and I know I haven’t been providing you with much content (other than our recent episode, which I hope was fun for everyone), so I apologize for that. I also haven’t gotten my blog up at Witches & Pagans yet for April, so if you follow me there, my apologies as well. Hopefully things will be returning to normal soon, but until they do, please know that when I do produce content at New World Witchery, I will try to make it the best it can be everytime.  Thank you all for being patient.

I think I should share a few items with you that may or may not be of interest to friends of NWW. You’ve probably noticed that the Compass & Key Etsy store has been down lately (and it appears that the Hex Folk Market has also shut down as well). I’ve been struggling a lot with whether to reopen the Etsy shop, because it provides a good way for people to support the show and site, but it is also a bit labor-intensive. While I was finishing my schoolwork, I had a good reason not to keep it open, but I recently made an order for someone who contacted me independently of the Etsy site and remembered how much I love doing that work. However, I’m also aware that there are a lot of sites out there offering similar goods, and too many cooks may be in the conjure kitchen at the moment. So I’m working on some new product ideas, things you probably won’t find everywhere. So basically, I’m saying keep your eyes open, and we will hopefully have *something* available there soon.

In the same vein, I’m also going to suggest you keep your eyes open when it comes to the Cartomancy Guide we posted a few years ago. I’m not saying something is definitely going to happen with that soon, but something is definitely going to happen with that soon.

Also, apologies that the Witches’ Calendar is not yet updated. I will hope to have something up soon, but I do apologize it’s not up to date yet.

Now that all the shamefaced apologetics and shameless self-promotion are out of the way, I thought I’d share a few things that have come across my sightlines lately. Most of these are interesting items I’ve read, and things I would love to hear from you about.

First of all, Fire Lyte recently wrote a post in response to listener Mimi’s question, “Has the era of Pagan Podcasting ended?” I’d be interested to know the thoughts of those out there who listen to podcasts and read blogs geared towards the magical community. My understanding is that there are certainly a number of folks who are trickling away from regular production (we’ve been posting less frequently here, obviously), but that there still exists both a demand and a supply of such shows. The Lucky Mojo Hour, Conjure Crossroads, Lamplighter Blues, and Old Style Conjure podcasts have all produced shows somewhat regularly over the past six months or so (although the only one on a highly regular schedule is the Lucky Mojo show). Likewise a number of more directly Pagan podcasts have been producing somewhat steadily: Lakefront Pagan Voice, Ariel’s Druidic Craft of the Wise, the charming iPod Witch, the venerable and popular Wigglian Way, & Modern Witch Online, for example. A few have never wavered, like DruidCast. And I see new shows starting to rise to the surface, like New York Pagan. Yes, there are definitely shows that are disappearing or fading away, and there will always be shows that explode with potential and then vanish without a trace. And I think Fire Lyte makes a great point about breathing room—it seems that a number of folks have needed it lately, so perhaps we’ll see some of the old hats diving in and doing new work soon. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, New World Witchery isn’t planning on going anywhere for a while. But what do you think? Has the era of podcasting come to a close? Should we all just close up shop and go home, or is there a better way for us to present our content?

My current bookshelf has had a nice little group of texts that might be of interest to our readers. I’m finishing up Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life, edited by Marion Bowman and Ulo Valk. It essentially addresses the concept of religious performance as it is done by people in their day-to-day lives. There are essays about how saint stories influence the behavior of a woman living on the Russian borderlands, a look at how the layout of a house can become a sun-clock tied to the performance of work in the home, and the importance of angels to the royal family of Norway. I’ve also been working through Alan Dundes’ excellent look at biblical folklore, Holy Writ as Oral Lit. If you’ve ever wanted to see how many different people killed Goliath (or his brother), this is a book to pick up. I’ve also got a book on my “in” pile called Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, by Stephen A. Mitchell, which looks quite promising.

With the lovley spring weather moving in (between the bouts of intense storms), it’s gardening time again. One of my favorite folklife blogs, The Blind Pig & The Acorn, has a couple of excellent posts  on some gardening practices which bridge distinctly Appalachian culture with a sensible, fun personal narrative. Her post “How Does My Garden Grow” and the post on “Patch Farming” are particularly nice. She also goes through each month of planting by the signs, usually posting around the first of the month. If you incorporate gardening into your magical or folk life, check out her blog.

For those who have been wondering, the Pagan Podkin Super Moot will be in New Orleans this year, and while I’m still working on dates and locations, it will likely be sometime in early October. I’ll be posting info at the main Pagan Podkin page, and here as well. I’m hoping to make things coincide with the New Orleans Folk Magic Festival in some way, too, but I can’t promise anything yet.

Finally, a happy birthday to Fire Lyte (a bit early, but better that than late, right?).

Thanks to everyone again for their patience, and for sticking with us!

-Cory

Quick Update – Contest Ending This Weekend!

Hi everyone!

First of all, sorry for the long silence on both the podcasting and blogging fronts. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks covering an extra workload while my boss is out on maternity leave and I’ve had writing for school that I had to finish up as well. I’ve got several things in the works, including a new episode of the show and some new material for the blog, but I may have to beg your indulgence and patience for a little longer, so please bear with us.

I have NOT, however, forgotten about our current contest, and I hope you haven’t either! We’ve received a number of excellent contest entries so far, but there’s still time to get your name in the hat! You can read the complete contest description at Blog Post 169 – A New Year, A New Contest, but in brief we’re looking for your magical folklore. It can be on any number of topics: love, money, luck, etc. We are asking that you submit the lore using a specific format, like this:

[Name – preferably one we can use in the show, but let us know if you’d rather us keep it anonymous]
[Region/Location – as localized as possible; we don’t need an address, but “Southern Illinois” or “Foothills of the Rockies” would be lovely]
[Ethnic/Cultural Association – if applicable; such as “Italian-American” or “based on something my Lakota Sioux grandmother told me”]
[Type of Lore – love, luck, money, etc.]
[Your bit of lore]

You can send in as many pieces of lore as you like, and each piece gets your name entered in the hat. So if you send in ten pieces of lore, you’ve got your name in our kitty ten times and your odds improve.

We do have a few rules, of course:

  • You can only win one prize.
  • No entering under multiple names/emails.
  • While we are looking primarily for North American lore, we welcome lore from around the world as well.

And I’m sure you remember the prizes:

  1. The Braucher Basket – featuring a copy of Hex & Spellwork by Karl Herr, a copy of the new translation of The Long Lost Friend by Daniel Harms, a small folio of hand-written/painted charms, and a few other little goodies.
  2. Granny’s Gunny-Sack – featuring a copy of Ozark Magic & Folklore, by Vance Randolph, a copy of The Candle & the Crossroads by Orion Foxwood, and a little sack full of curios, herbs, and magical charms from the Appalachians.
  3. The Hoodoo Hamper – featuring Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic by Catherine Yronwode, The Master Book of Candle Burning by Henri Gamache, a candle or two, a lucky rabbit’s foot, and a selection of oils from our Compass & Key Apothecary.

So if you haven’t entered (or heck, if you have and want to up your chances of winning), send us your folklore and get yourself in the mix for these lovely prize packages!

We’re closing the contest at midnight on Sunday, March 31st, 2013. Entries received after that time won’t count. We’ll be drawing names on the next episode recorded after that date (sometime in mid-April, though prize winners may be notified earlier for addresses).
Here’s wishing you good luck! Thanks for all your entries so far, and best wishes to you all!

-Cory

Blog Post 170 – A Little Gift

Hi everyone!

I hope you’ve all had a festive holiday season and are looking forward to a fantastic 2013! I’m working hard on a number of projects at the moment, including new posts for the blog, getting new show topics and guests lined up, starting a New World Witchery contest, finishing a school project and an assignment for an academic journal, finding PhD programs, continuing work on any of the books I’ve got in the works (and looking for publishers for those books), planning out some second-half-of-the-year classes for my local magical group, keeping up with my reading list, learning a couple new languages (and refreshing my Spanish, too). Not to mention working a day job, being a father to two brilliant kids, and a husband to a very patient and very loving wife.

All of which is to say that life is very busy, but not so busy that I don’t decide to take on MORE crazy projects! (As a Gemini, having too many irons in the fire is par for the course, apparently). During the latter part of last year, I was listening to a conversation between Fire Lyte and Velma Nightshade on their joint podcast about the lack of witchy apps out there, and specifically how there isn’t anything that can integrate with their calendars like an almanac app. Well, I’m not a programmer of any kind, but I do know how to go through and use Outlook to generate iCal files, so I started working on something to fill that need. And here it is!

A Witch’s Calendar – iCal version for 2013 (Q1).

The calendar includes witchy holidays with lore, links, recipes, etc. I’ve included a number of the days I personally observe, and the full and new moons. Many of the links will bring you to the New World Witchery site for posts on the topics highlighted in the calendar alert, and some will send you to book recommendations, other sites with related lore and/or products, and so forth. For example, the calendar entry on New Year’s Day (which is when the whole thing starts…sorry for the delay in releasing it) includes a link to our entry on that day’s practices, a link to Sarah Lawless’ post on Hogmany, and a click-through to Lucky Mojo’s Chinese Wash, so you can start your year with a clean and lucky house.

It’s in a zip file, so please make sure that you can open those and that you know how to add an iCal file to your favorite calendar (a quick Google search will probably help you figure out how to do that).

I should point out a few caveats:

  • This is only for the first quarter of 2013. I’ll be working on getting other quarters up as soon as I can, but I wanted to get at least the first three months out there.
  • There may be one or two of these dates that have an entry with no links, or which are blank in some way. I’ll be correcting those in future versions.
  • It’s totally free and you can share it as much as you like, but please let folks know where you found it.

It’s sort of a New Year’s/Twelfth Night gift to y’all for being so spectacular, so I hope it’s useful to some folks out there. If someone out there is more technically gifted than I am and wants to undertake any improvements that integrate with this calendar, I’m a-okay with that. Just send me an email and let me know! And if you find this useful and all that, we’d certainly welcome donations to help support future work.

Here’s wishing you a very happy New Year! Thanks for all you’ve done for the show, and for being a spectacular audience!

-Cory

Blog Post 169 – A New Year, A New Contest!

Hi everyone!

If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you know we’ve passed some milestones recently and have been thinking of fun ways to celebrate. So what are we excited about?

  1. We just passed 666 followers on Twitter. Who doesn’t get excited about nefarious numbers?
  2. We’ve received over 100 reviews on iTunes, making us one of the top-reviewed magical/pagan shows there. Can we just say how much y’all rock for that?!?
  3. We’re entering our 4th season, which means we’ve got three years of New World Witchery under our belts!
  4. It’s a new year! Lucky 2013! What’s not to celebrate about that?!?
  5. Laine recently taught my wife and I how to play Cards Against Humanity. It’s sort of the cherry on the sundae of celebration we’ve got going on.

With all that cause for excitement, we thought it would be high time for a contest. We’re going to have a somewhat broader focus this year, and hopefully spend some time looking at spiritual and magical paths from places across the country, so in order to do that, we want some of your lore and magic! We’ve done this before for holiday lore, but this time around we want lore related to the following categories:

  • Love (example: “When your nose itches, someone wants to kiss you”)
  • Luck (example: “Babies born at 12:12 on 12/12/12 are considered extra lucky”)
  • Money (example: “An itch in your left palm means money’s coming your way soon”)
  • Health & Healing (example: “Putting a wad of chewing tobacco on a bee sting will stop the pain and heal it faster”)
  • Fortune-telling/Predicting the Future (example: “Monday’s child is fair of face…”)
  • Protection from Harm: (example: “Putting a piece of lightning-struck wood in your rafters will prevent storm damage and fires”)

Now, obviously, don’t use any of the ones from that list, but otherwise, it’s pretty much fair game what you want to send in. Each bit of lore gets you an entry in the contest. Just make sure that if you send multiple entries in the same email, you number them separately (i.e. in a numbered list, if possible).

When you do send your entry in, please use the following format guide:

[Name – preferably one we can use in the show, but let us know if you’d rather us keep it anonymous]
[Region/Location – as localized as possible; we don’t need an address, but “Southern Illinois” or “Foothills of the Rockies” would be lovely]
[Ethnic/Cultural Association – if applicable; such as “Italian-American” or “based on something my Lakota Sioux grandmother told me”]
[Type of Lore – love, luck, money, etc.]
[Your bit of lore]

So a sample entry might look like this:

Nigel Aloysius Gimmelschtump (but call me “Smackdown” on the show, please)
Western Kentucky
Something from my German-English grandfather’s family
Money
“You should always hold on to the first dollar you make at any job. As long as you have it, you cannot be fired from that job.”

That might seem a little complicated, but it will be enormously helpful if you can follow that format. And, hey, free contest, right? Also, my apologies to Nigel Aloysius Gimmeschtump, wherever he may be. And to anyone calling themselves “Smackdown,” for any reason at all.

So what’s in it for you? Good question! Well, we’re putting together three prizes, based on three areas of North American folk magic:

  1. The Braucher Basket – featuring a copy of Hex & Spellwork by Karl Herr, a copy of the new translation of The Long Lost Friend by Daniel Harms, a small folio of hand-written/painted charms, and a few other little goodies.
  2. Granny’s Gunny-Sack – featuring a copy of Ozark Magic & Folklore, by Vance Randolph, a copy of The Candle & the Crossroads by Orion Foxwood, and a little sack full of curios, herbs, and magical charms from the Appalachians.
  3. The Hoodoo Hamper – featuring Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic by Catherine Yronwode, The Master Book of Candle Burning by Henri Gamache, a candle or two, a lucky rabbit’s foot, and a selection of oils from our Compass & Key Apothecary.

See? Good stuff! Send us a couple of emails and you could win one of these awesome prizes! Just because I’m nitpicking, here are some other rules though:

  • You can only win one prize. If your name comes up after you’ve already won once, we’ll pull another name for the next prize. Let’s not get greedy.
  • No entering under multiple names/emails. If we catch you doing that, you get no prizes. Possibly we will also curse you. Or sell your name to telemarketers. Sort of the same thing.
  • While we are looking primarily for North American lore, we welcome lore from around the world as well.

This contest is going to have a deadline of March 31st 2013, so please get your entries in by then!

Thank you all so much for three great years of New World Witchery! We love y’all to bits and pieces, so good luck in the contest!

All the best, and thanks for reading & listening,

-Cory

Quick Update – Reminder: Pagan Podkin Super Moot 3!

It’s almost here! The third annual Pagan Podkin Super Moot is happening in a matter of days! Here’s a quick reminder about what it is, who’ll be there, and what’s happening:

The podcasters attending are:

Due to his recent illness, Peter Paddon of The Crooked Path will not be attending, but will be with us in spirit. Mojo and Sparrow of The Wigglian Way also had to bow out, but are sending their love our way.

The actual meet-and-greet day is Saturday, October 6th, at The Mystic Dream in Walnut Creek, CA. We’ll have two meet-and-greet sessions, one around noon and another around 3pm. In between, we’ll have mini-classes done by some of the podkin, including:

1. “Magical Interwebs: Learning to Research your Path Beyond the 101 Books,” presented by Fire Lyte of Inciting a Riot. (around 12:30pm – 1:00pm)

2. “The Clear Moon Brings Rain: Omens, Signs, & Superstitions in Everyday Life,” presented by Cory of New World Witchery, (around  1:00-1:30pm)

3. “Dancing the Body Divine,” presented by Saturn Darkhope of Pennies in the Well: (from about 2:00-3:00pm)

We’re also hoping to do a panel discussion with all the podcasters around 3:30pm, and (fingers crossed) we may try to record some of that, though we do have some limitations on recording equipment in this particular situation (not everyone will have mic).  But at the very least, this should be a lot of fun!

We have some wonderful sponsors for the swag bags this year. We’re planning to give away at least one of those bags to a lucky listener who attends our meet-and-greet, which will include items from:

So if you’re anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area on Saturday, please come by and say hello! I’d love to meet you, and who knows, you may even win some witchy goodies! Happy October to you!

Thanks for reading, listening, and being generally great!

-Cory

Quick Update – Pagan Podkin Super Moot 3

Even though it sounds like a Japanese-import video game from the 90’s, the title of this blog post actually refers to the annual gathering of Pagan and magically-minded podcasters which is in its third year now. A number of podcasters have already been mentioning the event, but we only nailed down final details in the past few days. This year’s event is going to be in the San Francisco area, so if you’re out California way, come on by! We’ll be having a meet-and-greet as usual, which will also involve the opportunity to win some swag from some of the Moot sponsors (see below for a complete list and copious thanks to them). The date of the meet-and-greet is Saturday, October 6th, and we’re tentatively saying we’ll be there from 1pm to 4pm, though we may wind up sticking around a little longer.

Our meet-and-greet is going to be on Saturday, Oct. 6th at The Mystic Dream in Walnut Creek, CA, and they’ve been very accommodating to us so far, so we’re thrilled to be there!

The podcasters attending are:

We may also have some guests from the SFO area coming out to meet up, too, including magical authors and musicians, though we’re still hammering out those details.

We want to send special thanks to our sponsors this year, too! You’ll probably hear us gushing over them plenty in the coming weeks, but I’m going to be the first (I think):

They’ve all been incredibly generous with us, and they’re almost all small shops/publishers/artists who can use some support, so please surf over to them and check out what they have.

If you’re going to be coming to the meet-and-greet, please let me know! I’d love to plan to meet you and maybe even get the chance to sit and chat a while! You can leave a comment on this post or drop me an email. You can also keep up to date on the plans and details of the events at www.paganpodkin.com.

Hope to see at least some of you there!

-Cory

Quick Update – Picture Contest Winner!

Hi everyone!

Thanks to all who participated in our recent mini-contest, guessing where I was for Blog Post 157. The correct answer, of course, was Memphis, Tennessee!

Our big winner of the Compass & Key Lucky Bundle prize is…..

Coyote Rose!

Congratulations to you! Please send me an email at compassandkey@gmail.com with a shipping address, and we’ll get that prize package out the door to you.

Again, lots of thanks to all who played! Keep watching our feed for more on the Memphis trip, very soon!

-Cory

Blog Post 157 – Weekend in Pictures

Bonus! Answer the following (very easy) question and get your name in the hat for a prize! One lucky winner will get a Lucky Bundle from Compass & Key Curiosities with a few bottles of our best lucky oils and a lucky curio or two. Leave your answer in the comments section below by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (4/25/12) to enter!

The Question: Where was I?

Told you it was easy! Good luck!

Quick Update! – Spring Lore Contest Reminder

Hi folks!

This is just a reminder that if you want to get into the drawing for our Spring Lore Contest, there’s never been a better time than now!  You’ve only got five days left—until March 21, 2012! We’re looking for Springtime Lore this time around: seed planting rituals & customs, fertility charms, spring cleaning spells, etc. Anything and everything related to Easter eggs, baby animals, April showers, and (shudder) bunnies. We’re trying to put together an episode featuring folklore, ritual, and practice from all over the country and the world relating to rebirth, green grass, renewal, etc. and we need your help to do it! So if you’ve been hanging on to a killer magical gardening tip, a clever and enchanted use for chocolate rabbits, or a story about dancing naked around a maypole, fire up your email and send it in!

So what’s in it for you if you send us lore? Prizes!

The Prizes

  • A copy of Etched Offerings: Voices from the Cauldron of Story from Misanthrope press (an anthology of pagan fiction featuring stories from several podcasters like Oraia Helene, Saturn Darkhope, & me!)
  • An email card reading from Cory, with a 1-2 page card report featuring a 2-card split and 7-card layout, plus interpretations and a fairy-tale recommendation to connect your reading to a story you can turn to for more inspiration.
  • A goody box from Compass & Key Apothecary featuring several of our oils, curios, and mojo bags. While actual contents of the box are subject to change, they will likely have at least 2 oils, 2 mojo bags, 1-2 curios (like rabbits’ feet, gator paws, or Mercury dimes), and 3-4 herbal samples.

How to Enter

Send your entries to compassandkey@gmail.com to enter, and be sure to put “Spring Lore” in your subject line.

We hope to hear from you soon! Remember, the deadline is midnight on March 21st, 2012, so get those entries in before then!

All the best, and thanks for everything you do!

-Cory

Blog Post 152 – What’s Happening & What’s Yet to Come

Howdy everyone!

First of all, I hope that the blog hasn’t been too much of a let-down to you lately. Things in real life sped up, so blog stuff (and by extension, podcast stuff) had to slow down a little. But we are still trying to get several posts a month and at least two shows a month up on the site. The new resource button on the side bar should also be useful if you’re jonesing for a NWW fix, as you can now browse through the back catalog of posts by looking at their subject matter, and probably get a heck of a lot of reading done (if you’ve read every post we’ve written, you’ve gone through 180,000 words or so…go you!). There’s a lot here to peruse on a variety of subjects, so get comfy and enjoy.

In the process of creating that resources page, I noticed several things. First of all, I noticed that some areas have been heavily covered, and others much less so. When it comes to magical systems, I have tended to write about the things I know, or at least the things I’m actively learning about.  There are some systems that I’ve written relatively little about, so as I start organizing my “to-do” list I’ll be thinking about ways to cover those other systems a bit. I probably won’t ever write as much about Afro-Caribbean magic as I do about hoodoo or braucherei, but I know I’ve got questions about the former, so I may bring you along as I ask those questions. My posts on holidays are severely lacking, too, so I think I’m going to force myself to really tackle some of those.

I also noticed that a poll we did a while back indicated that most readers want more practical stuff (techniques, methods, recipes, etc.) and information on herbs, roots, and curios than anything else. So I’ll try to add some of that in, as well.  I think some book lists covering reading suggestions broken down by magical system may be in order, too.

None of this may happen at a breakneck pace—I still have a lot of real-life stuff keeping me busy, too—but there’s a good chance you’ll see some good articles coming up over the next few months on things like ‘gipsy’ magic, the magical uses of honeysuckle and passionflower, St. John’s Eve, and/or Ouija boards. There will probably be more folktales and lore to share, techniques for hot-footing and stop-gossiping folks, and maybe even a recipe or two for magical oils.

Whatever we wind up covering, I hope you’ll come along with us. The journey through the landscape of magical folklore in North America is far from over, and I think there’s still a lot for me to learn (which hopefully means a lot for you to read!).

So much potential! And Spring is in the air, breathing new life into the world! Enjoy, and stick with us! I think you’ll enjoy it. I hope you will.

Thanks for reading,

-Cory