Quick Update – Live Broadcast on 10/30/16

By Dennis Hill from The OC, So. Cal. (via Wikimedia Commons)
By Dennis Hill from The OC, So. Cal. (via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Hello everyone!

We have another live broadcast coming up, and we’d love for YOU to be a part of it!

We’ll be doing our live broadcast on Sunday evening (October 30th), and we’ll be starting around 9pm or so Central Time. The theme this time around is “Ghost Stories.” Share your personal ghostly encounters and spooky goings-on with us via chat, email, or even call in! We will be talking to both Patreon supporters and all other listeners for this one, so don’t be shy!

Make sure you go to our Mixlr site page to listen and chat with us. You can download the Mixlr app on your phone or tablet, too, if that’s easier for you.

If the whole thing goes according to plan, we’ll also try to release the conversation and stories as a podcast, too.

Looking forward to talking to you all soon!

Best witches 😉

-Cory & Laine

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

Update – Share-a-Spell Contest!!!

Hi everyone!

So I know I promised more practical spells for this post, but I promise those are coming in the next post. It’s even written already, and will be out next week, so fear not.
Today, though, I come bearing good tidings! Tidings of a contest, in fact! Here’s the skinny on how to enter and what you might win:

“Share-a-Spell Contest”

Rules
We want you to share a favorite spell with us. It can be something simple, like carrying a rabbit’s foot and rubbing it when you need a little luck, or a full-blown ritual invocation of Furcas, Solomonic Duke of the Infernal Realms. We would love magic from American and/or folkloric sources, of course, but really any spell that you’ve used and found effective will do.

The trick to this is that we want your spell in audio format. We want you to record yourself describing the spell in 5 minutes or less, then send that recording to us. We can accept .mp3, .m4a, AAC, and .wav formats. If you don’t have a good audio recorder program, you can go to an online recording site like Vocaroo and do it there, then email the file to us. When you’re recording, please state your name (a pseudonym is fine) and where you’re from (either general location, like “the Pacific Northwest” or your tradition, like “I practice Pow-wow magic”), then give us your spell including any ingredients, incantations, and actions necessary to complete it.

Please note that by sending us your audio spell, you are giving implied permission for us to include it in a podcast at a later date, so if you don’t want to share your real name, it’s totally fine.

When you’re ready to submit your spell, send it to compassandkey@gmail.com with the subject line “Audio Spell Contest.”

Deadline for submissions is Friday, October 14th, 2011. Drawing will be held on our episode closest to Halloween.

So now that you know how to enter, what can you win?

Prizes
This is still up in the air at this point, as I put a call out to our Twitter followers and haven’t heard much yet, but we’re thinking of giving away a book, a set of magical oils, or an online/Skype card reading. Or possibly all three. Or possibly all three AND something else. Really, like I said, up in the air at the moment. But just to give you a little more to go on, if we do those prizes, here’s what you’d be getting:

  • Book – Probably one from a recent or upcoming New World Witchery guest, and most likely we’ll try to get it signed by the author if possible.
  • Oils – A set of oils handcrafted by us, just like the ones we used to sell (and will again in the near future, I promise!) at our Etsy shop. Some of our formulae are Crown of Success, Saints & Spirits, Black Cat Oil, and Van Van Oil. We may include a mojo bag and/or charm with the prize, too.
  • Card Reading – A cartomancy session with Cory, done either via Skype, phone, or email. You’ll get up to twenty minutes, which is enough time to ask at least a couple of questions.

If you have a prize you prefer, let us know when you submit your entry, and we’ll take that into account when we finally make our drawing.

We’ll try to hammer out more specific details as we get closer to the drawing, but for now we hope you will participate and we can’t wait to see what kinds of spells you send in!

Best of luck, and thanks for listening and reading!

-Cory

Quick Update – Reminders, Thanks, Apologies

Hi everyone!

First of all, I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who’s written, posted, tweeted, or otherwise shown support and love during the past couple of weeks after the arrival of my new daughter.  She’s doing well (other than a little cold which she got from her big brother), and we’re starting to normalize.

I also wanted to apologize very sincerely to anyone who is waiting on a response from me via email or comment.  I always mark incoming emails and comments so that I can get back to them, but it is just taking me a while to get around to responding at this point.  I will be writing to anyone who’s written to us as soon as possible, so thank you for your patience, and sorry again for the delay.

There will be more material up on the site soon (I’m working on a few articles now), and Laine and I are already planning more episodes and lining up more guests.  So if your inbox has been a little light lately due to my absence, rest assured I’ll be burdening you with my insufferable prattle again soon.

Finally, I wanted to remind everyone, especially those of you who write, that there is an open call for submissions from Misanthrope Press right now.  They’ve got a Pagan-themed short story anthology called “Etched Offerings: Voices from the Cauldron of Story” that they are putting together, and they will be accepting your work right through the end of this month.  So if you’ve got a story you’d like to share, please do so!  Complete submission guidelines are here.

Thanks again for all the support and patience!  I’ll be in touch soon!

-Cory

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