Occultism is poorly understood by people who don’t study it, and there are all kinds of crazy stereotypes about it that appear in media....

I’ve decided to reassess my relationship to Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s reputation now stinks to high heaven. At this point, she is...

The Greek word that gets translated as “sin” is ἁμαρτία, hamartia, which is better translated as “a mistake.” In the context of Greek...

So, here’s the thing about Beowulf: It exists in relative isolation. We have no idea who wrote it. We know vaguely when it was written,...

It’s an unfortunate fact that nearly all of the Germanic and Celtic mythology that we have was written by Christians centuries after...

Deity work is extremely popular among modern pagans, but it can be hard to know where to start. I get a lot of questions about how to...

The “high fantasy” genre and the “sword and sorcery” genre developed at around the same time, with J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord...

Old English looks a lot more unfamiliar than it actually is. The spellings are different and pronunciations of words are slightly...

Back in my baby witch days, I remember reading that Hecate wouldn’t approve of any magic that was unethical, and that she would not...

If you ask five different occultists what magic is, you’ll get at least ten different answers. There are so many different ideas about...

I discovered Wicca about ten years ago, and got super into it. It was my obsession at the time. I had learned that magic was real, so by...

“Magic” is notoriously difficult for scholars to define. There isn’t really any objective definition of it, because “magic” means...

It’s Christmas, and thus comes the inevitable barrage of internet posts claiming that Christmas was “stolen” from pagans in one way or...

Alchemy could best be defined as proto-chemistry. Ancient, medieval, and early modern alchemists attempted to understand what things are...

I’m kind of fascinated by the emphasis on creation in Christianity. I was raised Christian, but either my denomination didn’t emphasize...

How is it possible for gods to be both anthropomorphic and transcendent at the same time? When it comes to gods, almost anything is...

I’ve gotten extremely tired of seeing posts that deride the Greek gods as arbitrarily cruel. While instances of the gods’ favor may not...

I’ve done a thorough analysis of Christmas and Beltane, so it’s about time that I tackled Samhain. For a while, I believed with all...

I’m not a huge fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson, but there’s a quote of his that I like: “The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to...

If all mystical experiences come from the same divine source, then they should all say the same thing, right? Do they? Or are they a...