Marsh Thing

So to start things off, hi I’m Mike (he/him).

I am a 30 something animist pagan and practicing witch, a way of life my Mom raised me in. I’ve spent the last few years reconnecting with this part of myself. I’m still learning and growing my craft but I’d like to think I’ve got a handle on some odds and ends at least.

My magic practice intersects with my interests as much as possible. Cooking, writing, nature and mythology will always be central to who I am as a witch and as a person.

By day I’m an engineer married to the woman of my dreams. By night I’m asleep nice and early. You will find me in the woods and swamps whenever I have a free moment.

My plan for this blog is to use it as one of my study tools. Hopefully I can put down some ideas here for storage and see what other witches are saying. The things I say and store here are relevant to my practice, that does not mean that they will apply or need to apply to anyone else’s. Still, I hope that at least some of it may be of use to others.

It’s submittal time at work, so my days this week have been a little too much for me to handle. I’ve tried finding small moments to stop and reflect on my craft during the chaos, with fairly mixed results, but I’m happy to finally be able to pull myself back into things again. For me an important lesson is that the mundane cannot truly be separated from the magical, just moving through the world is an act of magic. At least that’s what I tell myself whenever the world asks a little too much of me.

Monday I went to my new library to scout things out. It’s small so I didn’t expect anything in the way of actual witchcraft books, but I did find quite a few craft, cooking and nature books to check out later.

Tuesday I went with my Dad to pick up a few new items for the house I found over the weekend at a thrift store in the city. A secretary desk for our living room and a hutch for the kitchen!

The hutch is going to be a center point of my craft, not an altar but a good old fashioned work station. I’ll be posting that one once I have things set up because I’ve been wanting something like this since long before I had space for one!

The desk is mostly there to give me a place for mail that isn’t either up a flight of stairs or on my kitchen counter.

Wednesday was another trip into the city, the other city, my city, with my wife to pick up a glass fireplace screen. It’s going to be some time before we get the fireplace in working order, but now it sure looks like it works.

None of this seemed magical at the time. I was just working and running errands all week, but now that I sit back and see the house finally coming together I can tell that we were weaving magic into our home. I can feel a thrum of energy and warmth that is stronger now than it’s been since we moved in.

Today I’m burnt out from running around and finally free from obligations. I’ve had time to update my blog and to spend quiet time with the energy of my home. I cleansed the new hutch with incense and will be pulling myself by the hair back into my meditation practice.

Simple meditation today as I practice my journey work. I still have a lot to learn in this area but it has been a blast to learn about and practice. I’ve started out by trying to visit places that show up frequently within my dreams. There are a few locations that are distinct enough and that I dream of frequently enough that I’ve given them names.

The past two days have been less about a lack of energy and more a lack of time or focus on my part. Friday was for work and errands. The closest that I got to magical work was cooking up a fantastic beef and cabbage tomato soup for my wife and I. It is still far too early for soup, so we sweated our way through the whole meal.

Saturday was errands again, followed by dinner out in the city with friends. The restaurant was only a block from the apartment that I’d lived in as a young kid so I drove by to show my wife. That was the place where my Mom first introduced us to witchcraft and paganism. I still remember celebrating sabbats at an altar in the bay window. It was a strange experience, I was young when we left the city and I hadn’t been back to the area since, but it was so familiar and comforting to this deep-seated part of me.

Today was not a high energy day for me overall. I got through a busy day at work and watched a thunderstorm miss us in the distance.

Yesterday was a fairly low energy (or at least low focus) day for me. I managed to drag myself through work and had just enough left to cook dinner.

My only magical practice was my nightly meditation. I tried the energy offering I had done the night before and it worked (even with far less energy offered) but the spirit was still shy/cautious.

Today was a simple and slow day as I continue my transition back to everyday life. I wrote in my journal and had a decently long meditation, though on a whim I tried something new today at the end of it.

I was really trying to post these every day. I still am trying, but this weekend made that temporarily impossible, or at least unwise.

From Friday to Saturday, my family and I celebrated the life and mourned the death of my grandfather’s younger brother. I had no time for practicing magic, but I believe I touch my craft any time that I connect with and support my loved ones. It is the oldest magic that we practiced.

After the first complete week of the challenge, it was time for a rest day. Spent the whole afternoon out with my wife, unwinding after some of the busiest few months of our lives (so far).

Magic took the backseat to recuperation today, as it sometimes should, but I’m home now and going to squeeze in some reading and meditation time before bed.

Despite my excitement for the full moon, other things needed to come first today. After work I got to pick up dinner and take it over to my grandparents to eat with them. I’m grateful to live close enough to do this on any given day after so many years living across the country. We spent the whole evening there and once we got back home I only had time for a quick trip to the backyard for a full moon meditation.

I offered the antler shed I found the other day to my local altar as well as some dried rosemary from my previous garden, a gift that I hope shows them a little bit more about me and where I’ve come from.

The full moon sat perfectly above the valley, straight off from my yard a little above eye level. As I settle in to meditate after making my offerings, I catch the shadow of what must be a fox running fast along the back fence.