Tag: update

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 – Resources Page

Hi everyone!

Quick, go to our main page! Now, look over there. To the right. Do you see it? There’s a shiny new button for you to push. Go ahead! Push it! I’ll wait.

If you’ve ventured to explore a bit, you’ll see that we now have a Resources page, which takes all of the content-driven articles from the site (contest announcements, updates, etc. are excluded) and lumps them together into categories so that you can peruse them together rather than having to dig through the entire site to find them.

In other words, say you wanted to look at all of the New World Witchery posts on Pow-wow. Instead of searching for that term and wading through pages of results, you can now click on “Resources,” follow the link to “Magical Systems,” and viola! There is an entire section with links to all of the articles we’ve produced on Pow-wow/Braucherei so far. It’s sort of like an index to our site, which allows you to focus what you want to read down into specific subject areas rather than making you victim to my capricious Gemini posting habits (whereby you get a post on hoodoo followed by a contest announcement followed by a post on fairy tales, and so on and so forth).

I hope this will be of some value to you! I’ll do my best to keep it up-to-date. It was a little daunting to get it all put together initially, but I think it should be pretty sustainable going forward. If you have questions about how to use it, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help. And if you see categories that are missing or notice I failed to put something into a category that should be there, please let me know that, too!

Thanks so much for your patience and support with this site! And of course, thank you so much for reading!

All the best,

-Cory

Quick Update – Compass & Key Open!

      

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let our readers and listeners know that our Etsy shop, The Compass & Key Apothecary, has re-opened with a selection of oils and mojos for you. We’ve always gotten tremendously positive feedback from those who buy from us, and we always try to add little extras  to the packages to make it really worth your while to purchase. We seem to be producing more or less seasonally at this point, so as long as we have stock, we’ll be happy to sell it, and the money we raise is put towards programming costs (like webspace, music, etc.), resources (books, online journal access, etc.), and other New World Witchery-related expenses.

For those who are interested, here’s a run-down of what we have currently (I’ll update as we expand our inventory, too):

Oils

  • Attraction Oil – Trying to get a little extra attention? Looking to bring a little prosperity your way? Attraction Oil is a marvelous and refreshing blend which provides a bit of magical “oomph” to workings intended to draw love or money. This is often used to anoint lucky charms, love letters, or money in one’s wallet in order to bring good things into one’s life.
  • Wall of Flame Oil – If you need to keep bad influences out of your life, this oil is right up your alley. It’s like laying down a ring of fire around you and the people and things you love. Sharp, clean, and hot smelling, it sends back any hurtful energies directed at you to their sources.
  • Uncrossing Oil – When you’ve got troubles that just don’t seem to quit, and it feels like your luck has just plain run out, this is the oil to use. A little of this worn on the body (particularly the hands and feet—though do be careful if you have sensitive skin) or burned while praying can do wonders to knock any curses off of you.
  • Black Cat Conjure Oil – A recipe which draws on feline power to reverse a curse in some spells, but more frequently used to create a little back alley romance. This formula bubbles with sensuality and strength, but has a dark edge which allegedly puts a potential lover (or sometimes an enemy) under your power. A strutter’s blend, for someone who doesn’t mind magic with a few teeth and claws thrown in.
  • Saints & Spirits Oil – This oil is attuned to the spirit realm, and can be used to anoint offering candles or to work spells relying on the aid of spiritual forces. It’s got a “churchy” smell offset by lavender for a peaceful, pleasant effect.
  • Crown of Success Oil – This is our famous recipe, stuffed with good herbs, prayers, and magic! It is used in several different workings, including candle burnings, anointing one’s head, and feeding mojo bags. This formula is reputed to inspire opportunities in one’s life, and to give one the courage to take those opportunities.

Mojos

  • Crown of Success Mojo – A potent little mojo bag, full of useful herbs, a written prayer, and a good dose of magic! Carried on one’s person, it is alleged to create confidence and reveal one’s natural talents. It has been said to open doors that might otherwise remain closed, and to give one the fortitude to walk through those doors. Can be fed with either our Crown of Success Oil or a little whiskey or rum.

 We also sell combinations, like the Crown of Success Bundle, which gets you both a bottle of the oil and the mojo bag for $2 less than buying them separately. We’ll be adding a few new oils and mojos over the coming weeks, too, so keep an eye out for those.

October is a big month for us, usually, and we will hopefully have lots of fun things for you over the next few weeks, including drawings and giveaways, special episodes, and generally just good old-fashioned fun.  If you’re interested in participating in any of these things, you should definitely follow us on Twitter, as that’s largely where our giveaways will happen (or at least where they’ll be announced). For those who don’t want to get on Twitter, though, don’t forget about our Share-a-Spell Contest, which desperately needs submissions!

We do hope you enjoy our October fun here at New World Witchery! Let us know how you’re liking (or disliking, if it stews your prunes in a bad way) what we’re doing here.

Until next time!

-Cory

Podcast 23 – The New Year, Anniversaries, & Birthdays

-SHOWNOTES FOR EPISODE 23-

Summary

We’re back! We tell you what’s been keeping us busy and talk a little about our upcoming plans.  Then we get into our main topic: annual celebrations, including New Year’s, Anniversaries, and Birthdays.

Play:

Download:  New World Witchery – Episode 23
-Sources-
Witches All – Elizabeth Pepper, ed.

American Folklore: An Encyclopedia – J. H. Brunvand, ed.
Ozark Magic & Folklore – Vance Randolph
“Birthstones” article on Wikipedia
Also: Open Call for Submissions from Misanthrope Press!

Promos & Music
Title music:  “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues.  From Magnatune.

Promo 1 – Druidcast
Promo 3 – Pagan Homesteader

 

Quick Update

Hi all,

I had been hoping to do several more posts this week than I have, but unfortunately life got in the way.  My wife, who is carrying our second baby, had to go to the hospital this week due to fears about pre-term labor.  All seems well now, but she’s on a form of bedrest which means I’m having to pick up a lot of slack as far as childcare and housekeeping are concerned.  I’ll probably have less time to write (and sadly, podcast) over the next month or two, so please accept my apologies in advance for any diminished content.

I hate having to say my personal life is interfering with my passion and making any kind of announcement here, but I thought that you all should know about it.  I’ve still got several articles planned (and a few that will be popping up in non-internet sources soon, too) and Laine and I always have the podcast planned about three months out, so we’ll definitely have stuff out to you, but please be patient if things don’t come quite as frequently as they have been.

Here’s hoping all is well out there with you!  Thanks for reading, and for your support and understanding!

-Cory

Quick Update – Holiday Lore Contest Reminder

Hello everybody!

This is just a quick reminder that we’ve got our Winter Lore Contest on right now, but time is running out to get your entry in.  We’re looking for information centered around the winter holidays, specifically local or family:

  • Practices
  • Customs
  • Traditions
  • Songs
  • Recipes
  • Stories
  • Crafts

Please make sure you tell us what area you are from (generally), and if you would like us to use your name on the blog/podcast.

You have until midnight (Central Time) on Monday, December 6th to submit your lore via blog comment or email, so don’t delay!  You can still get an additional entry if you tweet, blog, or otherwise spread the word about the contest and send us the link.

The prizes are:
Two Runner-up Prizes – Signed copy of Judika Illes’ latest book, The Weiser Field Guide to Witches

One Grand Prize – A Compass & Key Hoodoo Starter Kit, with a selection of oils, botanicals, curios, and other products for budding rootworkers.

We’ve gotten a number of excellent entries, but we still would love to get some more, so please submit before time runs out!

Thanks for reading (and sharing)!

-Cory

Quick Update

Hi all,

I know the posting here this week has been pretty shoddy, and I probably won’t get a post up (other than this update) at all until next week at this point.  I’m hoping to do something fun for post number 100, but my day job is eating up a lot of time due to a big event we’ve got on Friday, so I don’t want to shortchange anyone with a half-baked post when I can just wait a week and do something much better.

At any rate, thanks for being patient, and please know that I’ll definitely have something good to post soon!

All the best to everyone!

-Cory

Success!

Thank you all for bearing with me.  I think I’ve finally got the feed situation sorted out, and all episodes of NWW are now showing up on iTunes and Podcast Alley.  If you happen to see errors showing up in those places with these episodes, please let me know, but otherwise I think we should now have back episodes listed along with our most current ones.

Again, thanks for putting up with the crazy posting today, and hopefully not unsubscribing and writing me hate mail!  🙂

All the best to our wonderful readers and listeners,

-Cory

Blog Post 75 – A New Look!

Hi everyone!

So you may have noticed a subtle change or two to our page today.  We have a new look here at New World Witchery, which hopefully makes us look a little more interesting.  Our fantastic web designer is none other than the lovely Sarah, Witch of Forest Grove (and The Pagan Bookworm and Hedgefolk Tales and proprietress of Forest Grove Botanica)!  Many many thanks to her for putting together such a neat design (especially that banner at the top—the old one was kind of sad looking).

If you run into pages or buttons that don’t work, please let me know so we can get those fixed.  Likewise, if you suddenly find one of your comments missing from a previous post, let me know that, too.  Some of them wound up being sent back into “hold” status during the update.

Again, a thousand thousand thanks to Sarah, and we hope you like our new look!

Thanks for browsing!

-Cory

Blog Post 71 – How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Hello everyone!

We’re almost at the end of this hiatus, and I haven’t posted anything really since right before I went off to grad school for the summer.  But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been up to some witchy business in the meantime.  Today I thought I’d share a few of the things I’ve been doing over the past six weeks (well, other than performing detailed exegeses of 18th-century English poetry and seeing about 27 different versions of Shakespearean performances).

The first thing I should tell you is that I was living on campus, and this campus just happens to be a beautiful rural campus right at the edge of Appalachia.  My access to folklore primary sources was much abetted, and my opportunities to get out in the woods increased a good bit.  Secondly, my dorm was immediately across from a beautiful old cemetery.  As you can probably guess, I spent a good bit of my time there.  Here are some photos of the amazing graves and other funerary décor found in the old boneyard.The graves here date back to around the mid-nineteenth century, so they aren’t incredibly old, but many of them are gorgeous.  And they are certainly older than lots of other cemeteries in the area.

This also happens to be a religious school, so there are plenty of beautiful crosses here, too.  Since it’s as close to Appalachia as it is, the cemetery has a strong Celtic influence in the stonework.

The time I spent here mostly involved taking late night (or often midnight) walking tours of the area.  Among all those graves and under a very starry sky, it was pretty amazing.  If you’re wondering whether or not I encountered “anyone,” though, I have to say the answer is no.  I did bring offerings of food and whiskey several times, leaving them near the small side gate rather than any specific grave (since I wasn’t trying to contact anyone in particular, that made sense to me).  Wildlife abounds near this cemetery, so I often heard things wandering out in the dark just beyond the light’s cast.  I even occasionally met other folks taking late night constitutionals among the headstones.

Since I wanted to do well in my schoolwork, I also made up a potent little mojo bag, which I carried in my pocket.  I anointed it daily with either Crown of Success oil or some local whiskey, depending on what seemed appropriate for the day.  As far as I can tell, it worked magnificently (though I’m still waiting to get final grades back…mojo don’t fail me now!).  I may outline just how I made this specific mojo bag later this week in case there are other students looking for a little “oomf” in their studies.

Of course, a huge portion of my time was dedicated to reading completely non-magical texts (Paradise Lost, vast quantities of Shakespeare, a number of Restoration-era authors like Swift, Pope, and Dryden, etc.), but I also had time to work my way through a few magically inclined books as well.  I’ll be posting some reviews of those as time permits this coming week, so stay tuned for those.

The beautiful natural surroundings of the school also afforded ample opportunities to get outdoors.  Though the heat was stifling some days, trees always provided comforting shade and occasional mountain breezes helped cool me off, too.  So many of the plants that grow in that area have magical connections:  elder, sumac, sweet gum, passionflower, poke berries, and blackberries all grow wild.  I did some harvesting, particularly a good bunch of sassafras, so I’ll try to get some info up on that at some point, too.

Last, but certainly not least, I also had long drives to and from school on the weekends, so I filled up my iPod with lots of witchy podcasts and caught up on some of my favorites.  I also got to hear some new ones (at least new to me) that were excellent.  If you haven’t checked out Pagan Hooligans yet, it’s a great show and the hosts are a lot of fun.  They’re recording their adventures in paganism from day one, and it’s really a refreshing perspective!  I’ve also started really listening to and enjoying Iron Powaqa Radio, which has a decidedly sassy side and always makes me smile.

So that was my summer in a nutshell, I suppose.  I’m going to be trying to get back in the swing of regular posts as soon as possible, and hopefully there will be another podcast up fairly soon, too.  Until then, thank you all for your patience and support!  Feel free to post, email, discuss, and generally share your own New World Witchery here, and we’ll look forward to hearing from you!  Thanks for reading!

All the best, and be well,

-Cory

%d bloggers like this: