Elf-Daughter of Spring

Another Person: I lit my 7-day deity candle that was dressed with dried herbs and the flame went wild! I think that's a sign the deity like it!

I see you!

On one side of one sheet of paper, write out your boundaries with the spirit world.

Examples include:

I do not consent to any "spiritual lessons" which have not been explicitly discussed with me.

I am not "up for grabs" by random deities passing by. There is no relationship unless I consent to it. I work with the following deities...

I do not require any additional suffering, and I do not consent to it; life is hard enough, thank you very much.

If you want to "help," maybe get me more money. If you want to hurt, may I recommend one of our country's billionaires?

My spiritual goals are x, y, and z.

I came to this reality to X, and not to Y.

Add any terms you like, just stick to one page, and keep it legible.

I liked the opening chapters of Sacred Wild. It's a book about connecting to the land spirits. There's a lot of listening and observing nature around you. Her belief is that the land might not be interested in every little thing going on in your life, but by virtue of living on land you share a common goal. She also discusses cleansing and protection techniques with said spirits, plant allies, travel, connecting with spirits in an urban setting, and things you can do to care for the environment. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on weather magic and folklore, and would like to pick up the book she used as a reference.

I think my one major problem with the book is that I found it to be a bit hypocritical that she tells readers to stop shopping so much and then mentions that she takes several plane trips a year (she goes back and forth from America to Europe) and her excuse is "Hopefully the work I do for the land makes up for it." I was just like "ok Taylor Swift" seriously, I may not have the smallest carbon footprint but I'm not taking multiple plane trips a year between continents. I did like the idea of spirit-led travel, but spirit isn't responsible for paying for the trip? It's a shame because I genuinely like the rest of the book. Heck, I bought a journal to record nature-y witchy stuff, and I never journal, ever.

Okay so Queer Saints, I feel like the first few chapters are a decent introduction to working with saints and he does discuss some "traditional" saints (St. Francis is so much more than the animal saint) but the bulk of the book is devoted to modern (mostly American) queer (and ally) saints. I think I would personally categorize most of these people as ancestors rather than saints, but I feel like a number already have their own "cults" so to speak, YMMV. I will use the term saint for simplicity's sake. I should nots that he refers to Jewish "saints" as tzadik/tzadeket and Muslims as "wali."

I will say I knew the names of many of the folks in this book but not a lot about their lives. I also like that each one is paired with a tarot card, so if you want to connect with that person, you can carry their tarot card around like a traditional holy card. He also suggests offerings to give to each saint or objects to place on altars or shrines.

Don't buy into that kind of talk. If you're practicing witchcraft and you like to take pictures and post them or document your workings that's fine, but it's also fine if you're a practitioner who prefers not to take pictures, not to post about active workings, not to publicly detail every (or any) bit of witchery and magic you're performing.

And let's not forget that some traditions discourage sharing too much of your work or practice, some traditions are closed and their practitioners might not feel comfortable publicly documenting details of their craft that they may feel need protecting, and some practitioners simply hold personal beliefs and preferences against publicly posting their active workings, workspaces, etc.

Áine, Rowan Kal, 2026, digital painting

my full piece for Black Romance Book Fest 2025! ❣