Feasting when the Veil is Thin

 Here is a link to a collection of vegetarian recipes for the time just after Samhain up to Yule. I believe some of you have seen it before. It is linked through the blog on the other (less user-friendly) website as well. Yule-Imbolc and Imbolc-Ostara collections are forthcoming! Leave some comments on this blog or over on our Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you!

Introductions, Part II

 Part II of the witchy tag interview can be found here. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase any of the books or other suggested helpful items through those links, we earn a small commission. Something to keep the lights on, as they say. 

Meeting Us and Finding Us Online

 Some greetings and introductions are in order. A longtime witchy friend of mine has agreed to stomp out a path with me, a kitchen witch's path with a slightly different spin on the wheel of the year. We are striving to keep some older traditions alive, and in some cases that means modernizing and adapting them a bit. 

Some of the posts contain affiliate links. We are working on an Etsy shop and will most likely go through Amazon to publish our book(s). For now, we have a Zazzle store where you can find Pagan-themed holiday greeting cards. 

We also have a Facebook page. That's about it for our online presence right now. We're busy making magic in the mundane world but will be online more as our schedules allow. This is a very busy season for witches, as you well know. 

Always a little bit backwards

 I am going to share the blog from my website here until I catch up, and then experiment with linking this blog back to the other site. I'm trying to be in two places at once. 

I've been up to stuff. Things. I recruited others. Check it out here. 

Fly or Die, Broom to the...Doom?

 Whatever, I've decided to go all-in. I have a website but will keep this blog separate for now. I am working on building up the site, the Facebook page, and whatever else I can fit into my schedule. I have a lot of witchin' to talk about and write about. The plan is to do a lot of it in book form. The website is pretty empty right now, but I'm getting it together when I can. I bought a house and am still trying to unpack and organize allllllllllllllllllllllllll my books, scarves, kitchenware, etc. We cleansed it, but there is more proper witching to be done inside and out. 

Feel free to check out the site: Better Hearths and Cauldrons - check back for updates. 

The page is more active at the moment because that's what I've had the most time for: Better Hearths and Cauldrons Facebook

Y'all know I ain't got the wherewithal (talent? yeah, talent) for TikTok or IG. 

Guess What?

 This will come as a surprise to NO ONE, but here it goes: I am not the type of witch you see on YouTube, IG, or any of those other sites. And I have a feeling that most of you aren't, either. 

Yes, I would absolutely adore being able to wake up quietly, do a morning meditation and/or ritual, prepare a magical brew of herbs, sweetened with local honey, and sip it at a lace-covered, crystal-adorned table, surrounded by houseplants. And yet...

What's stopping me? Well, for one thing, a lot of people have made showing carefully choreographed and curated snippets into their lives into an actual living. This is what they do for work. Everything looks amazing and perfect because that's their job, their livelihood. 

I, on the other hand, have no presence. I'm not cute. My house is never neat because I can only fight so much against the 'gorbage mornster'. I am anxious, I am stressed, I am very rarely dressed (not true but it rhymes). I get up at 5:30 to get ready for work. There is no time for a leisurely breakfast. I shower at night and am lucky to drink an entire cup of coffee before it's time to hit the road. And no, I am absolutely not getting up any earlier than that except for the month of Ramadan because I work for people who observe it and our days begin and end earlier. 

You want to know if there's a point, don't you? Well, there is. And here it is: I have a bad habit of beating myself up for not doing enough. I don't read cards enough. I don't do anything for the sabbats or esbats most of the time. I have no witchy daily routine to speak of. And as I said earlier, I suspect a lot of us are in the same rut. If we have the time, we don't have the energy, and vice-versa. 

We know better than to compare ourselves to those we see online. Consider this your reminder: They are doing a job. Do they really, truly do all of those things when the camera isn't rolling? I neither know nor care enough to speculate. I just want to remind all of us that we're not bad for getting busy with the duties society as ascribed to us so we can "earn" a living. We're not less-than because we don't cast a circle very single day. We're tired. We're all very, very tired. Tired of this pandemic and all the concerns it brings with it - health(care), school, work, social time, housing - many of us may have never faced such insecurities before. This is some shit. It's okay to be caught up in survival mode right now. 

But what if we made a plan to get out of some of that? What if we had some tiny steps, some itsy-bitsy goals, miniscule changes that could add up and give us some of that witchy spark back? I have ideas. I've been keeping notes. Not much has been done as of yet (see notes on pandemic and gorbage mornster). 

But what if we got together and supported each other as we achieved these little sand grain goals? Soon we'd have a whole beach to ourselves. Yes, I am going to say it: we could be sand-witches. I'm so sorry. Please don't leave. But seriously, is anyone out there ready, willing, and able to participate in little ways to reclaim our witchiness...es? Lemme hear from ya!