Frances Billinghurst's Blog, page 10

Contemporary Witchcraft Online Book Launch - 1 August

It is over half way through July already and I feel as if I have fallen down a rabbit hole.  I mean, one moment it was June and I was working on finalising my presentations for WitchsFest USA, and now the month of August has almost arrived.

Firstly, I would like to thank Peni Delina Perrault Bedard for suggesting that I participate in this New York based event, as well as to Starr Raven Hawk and her crew for all their hard work in organising not only a physical event, but online as well - so effectively there were two events happening over the weekend.  Just like WitchCon, that I took part in back in March, WitchsFest USA also recorded all of their online workshops so I have slowly been watching these.  No wonder I feel as if I have fallen down a rabbit hole.

So, with August almost upon us, this can only mean one thing, my next Moon Books published book is about to be officially released.  Contemporary Witchcraft: Foundational Practices for a Magical Life is, I guess, my version of a beginner's book, yet it offers more than just.  Witchcraft has certainly shifted since my time as a neophyte, and while this is great that so many people are being able to find self-empowerment through the magical arts, I personally feel that this is coming at a cost - and the cost is that some of the basic, foundational practices have been cast out with the bathwater, so to speak.

Many modern witches, or at least people identifying themselves as witches on social media, seem to be fixated on one aspect of witchcraft and indeed magick - that of spellcasting.  Now, I am not going to get into the debate here about this save to mention that there is more to witchcraft and being a witch than just spellcasting, just as there are many more ways of making magick than casting a spell that often appears to be aimed at the result as opposed to the cause of the problem or issue.

In Contemporary Witchcraft: Foundational Practices for a Magical Life I offer an alternative of how to create a magical life for yourself through the religion of witchcraft.  Yes, I do believe that witchcraft is a religion.  However, if you don't believe that witchcraft is a religion, that is perfectly fine.  What I cover in the book does focus more on establishing foundational practices that will set you up for life.

Think of it this way;  You are wanting to build yourself a house.  There are a number of initial steps that you need to make before construction even begins.  These include soil testing and preparation, and then mixing together the cement, sand and water to make the concrete for your house's foundation.  In Contemporary Witchcraft: Foundational Practices for a Magical Life I offer tips and techniques of how I laid the foundations for my own "magical house" that has seen many alterations and additions over the years, yet is still very much in tact.

Currently, you can pre-order your copy through Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound where both paperback and ebook versions are available.  

Within Australia, Contemporary Witchcraft: Foundational Practices for a Magical Life is available through my LunaNoire Creations etsy store as well as selected outlets around Australia including Carpe Diem with Remi and The Magickal Crystal Forest in Adelaide, Muses of Mystery in Melbourne, The Crystal Chalice in Canberra and Avalon by Nature in Boolaroo, Macquarie.

To mark the release of Contemporary Witchcraft, I will be doing a Facebook live on my author page on Sunday, 1 August 2021 at 7pm ACST.  This timing is rather auspicious as it is Imbolc here in Adelaide, the sabbat or seasonal festival marking the beginning of spring, the awakening of the spirit and the return of the Maiden Goddess.  As such, I hope you will join me for my online launch of Contemporary Witchcraft: Foundational Practices for a Magical Life.

Embracing the Dark Goddess during Difficult Times

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since I received pre-release copies of my first book that was to be published by Moon Books, Encountering the Dark Goddess: A Journey into the Shadow Realms.  These pre-release copies arrived some nine months prior to the book's actual release in March 2021.
One of the people who generously agreed to review my book was Nimue Brown.  What I found of interest was her comments that my book assisted her during the initial COVID pandemic in 2020.  This was something that I had not even thought of - considering when I had submitted the manuscript to Moon Books, what became COVID was a mere whisper.
What follows is part of Nimue's review.  Her full review can be found here,

"Dark journeys happen. Dark nights of the soul happen. Sometimes we have no choice but to crawl on bloody hands and knees through some kind of personal Hellscape for a while. Working with Dark Goddesses, or The Dark Goddess as an aspect of the Goddess, is about having the tools for those journeys. Find yourself in the thick of one and you may reach for a book like this for guidance and wisdom. Being prepared won’t save you, but it will help you make sense of things."
...
"This is a book that will work no matter what you believe. If you’re exploring Goddess as archetype and energy, with no particular belief, then this book will work for you. If you believe that all goddesses are aspects of one great goddess, this book will work for you. If you are a hard polytheist seeing each Goddess as a specific being with their own personality and intentions, this book will work for you. It’s been written with great care and inclusivity, and there is room for all outlooks here so long as you are at least broadly interested in the subject matter.

"I found it a helpful read during a hard time. There is wisdom here, compassion and life experience. I can entirely recommend getting a copy."
Encountering the Dark Goddess: A Journey into the Shadow Realms  is now available both in paperback and ebook format through a number of outlets and distributors - a list of which can be found here.

Dancing with Kali Ma

I am delighted to be taking part in what is my second USA festival for the year. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I will be taking part in WITCHFEST USA - A PAGAN FAIRE that will be running from 9 July to 11 July 2021 both in the physical sense in New York city as well as online.

My second workshop will be taking place on the Sunday at 10am (New York time - or 11.30pm ACST) and is entitled Dancing with Kali.
Kali is one of the more mysterious and enigmatic goddesses found within the Hindu pantheon. Her dark and wild appearance conjures up feelings of awesomeness in anyone brave enough to gaze upon her face. Kali symbolizes death and her dancing can cause ultimate destruction; however she also brings about renewal of life. 

As this will be more of a practical workshop, grab yourself a set of mala beads as we will be surrendering our egos to the "Terrible Mother".

You can register to attend the weekend where there will be only 90 events, occult workshops, online performances, presentations, as well as online shopping. Tickets cost $95 (US) however your online tickets enable you to watch all presentations.

Details about how to obtain your ticket can be found here.
If you are not able to get to Witchfest USA this year, then you might like to get yourself a signed copy of Encountering the Dark Goddess: A  Journey into the Shadow Realms from LunaNoire Creations, my online etsy store.

Reclaiming the Dark Gods at Witchfest USA

I am delighted to be taking part in what is my second USA festival for the year. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I will be taking part in WITCHFEST USA - A PAGAN FAIRE that will be running from 9 July to 11 July 2021 both in the physical sense in New York city as well as online.

My first workshop will be taking place at 10am (New York time - or 11.30pm ACST) and will be on Reclaiming the Dark Gods.

The Gods of the witches has always been a rather shadowy character, somewhat of an enigma who appears to be both human and animal, divine and demonic. He can be found lurking amongst the shadows, ready to appear in our nightmare, or he rises up from the Underworld, hell bent on causing death and destruction. He is the hard hitting image of masculinity at its most brutal, yet the ever devoted consort of the Goddess.

From Anubis to Zeus, it is time to reclaim the power of the Dark Gods found not only within witchcraft but paganism in general.

You can register to attend the weekend where there will be only 90 events, occult workshops, online performances, presentations, as well as online shopping. Tickets cost $95 (US) however your online tickets enable you to watch all presentations.

Details about how to obtain your ticket can be found here.
If you are not able to get to Witchfest USA this year, then you might like to get yourself a signed copy of Call of the God: An Anthology Exploring the Divine Masculine within Modern Pagan from LunaNoire Creations, my online etsy store.

Working Magic in the Southern Hemisphere

Last week, I took part in Moon Con 21, a two day online event organised by my publisher, Moon Books, where a number of authors shared insight into their personal spiritual practices, thoughts and yes, their books.  

On the Sunday, I was joined by two other Australian based authors, Julie Brett (author of Australian Druidry) and Jane Meredith (author of Journey to the Dark Goddess, Aspecting the Goddess and Aphrodite's Magic).

A recording of our discussion can be found here:

Recordings of all the other interviews and panels can be found on Moon Book's YouTube channel or Facebook page.

Getting Ready for MoonCon

In our current COVID effected world, one positive side is that fact that for the last year a lot of events have moved on line as a substitute, which means that people all around the world are able to access such events.  

I was involved in my first online event in July last year with the wonderful Australian astrologer, Kim for her Witch: Radiant + Rooted podcast.  Since that time I have been involved in a number of international "events" that I probably would not have had the opportunity to attend physically.

Next weekend I will be involved in another online event, this time something that the publisher of my latest two books, Moon Books, are organising - MoonCon21 - that will be involve two days of talks, panels and Q&A live sessions with a whole host of Moon Book authors on Moon Books' own FaceBook page.

Rachel Patterson (Pagan Portals: Kitchen Witchcraf series and many other titles) will kick the weekend off on Saturday, 5 June at 11am (British Summer Time - approximately 7.30pm Adelaide time), followed by the first panel of authors consisting of Mabh Savage (A Modern Celt, Pagan Portals: Celtic Witchcraft), Debi Gregory (The Elemenpals) and Fiona Tinker (Pagan Portals: Pathworking through Poetry).  Throughout the day other authors will be taking part with Cyndi Brannen (author of the extremely popular Keeping Her Keys) closing the first day.

I will be heading off the Sunday round of authors taking part in a panel with two other Australian authors, Julie Brett (Pagan Portals: Australian Druidry) and Jane Meredith (Aphrodite Magic, Aspecting the Goddess and Journey to the Dark Goddess).

Morgan Daimler (Pagan Portals: Brigid, Pagan Portals: Lugh and many other titles).and Irisanya Moon (Pagan Portals: Aphrodite, Pagan Portals: Reclaiming Witchcraft and other titles) will be closing the second day 

Submission Call to Mark the 10th Anniversary

I realised the other day that next year, 2022, will mark the 10th anniversary since I self-published my first book, Dancing the Sacred Wheel: A Journey through the Southern Sabbats.  Only 400 copies were released in the initial printing, all but two copies sold out in only nine months.  In June 2021, after updating and expanding the original manuscript to some 292 pages, I released the second, and a subsequent third edition through print-on-demand platforms.

In preparation for the 10th anniversary  of Dancing the Sacred Wheel next year, I thought it is about time to not only update my continual study with respect to working with the traditional eight sabbats that form the "Wheel of the Year", especially from a Southern Hemispheric perspective, but to offer the opportunity to anyone else who has been working at re-visioning working with the sabbats to contribute.

Having already edited an anthology in the form of Call of the God: An Anthology Exploring the Divine Masculine within Modern Paganism, I am now officially putting out a call for submissions for an anthology focusing around working through the seasonal year that may differ from the traditional wheel with its eight festivals. 

If this is something that you would like to take part in, more information can be found here.  At this stage, submissions will close in November 2021.

Breaking Time Barriers on This Old Witch

Did you know energies flow differently in the southern hemisphere?

Join This Old Witch hosts (E. Massey and Alexander Cabot) along with author Frances Billinghurst (me) as we break time barriers and discuss what it means being a witch in Australia.

Breaking the debate of initiated and non initiated Witches.

You can watch the whole interview here. Warning: It does go on for over two hours (just).

Chatting on This Old Witch

 Ever wonder what happens when a country witch crosses paths with a city witch? We did too. This Old Witch is a podcast that brings together a country witch (E. Massey) with a city witch (Alexander Cabot) to share their perspectives on witchcraft, spirituality, and magick.

Guests speakers have included Stephanie Taylor Grimasi (wife of the late Raven Grimasi), Orion Foxwood, Silver Ravenwolf, Ivo Dominguez, Sorita d’Este, Selena Fox amongst others.

I am delighted and extremely humbled to soon be included to this list of guests as I will be making my appearance on the This Old Witch show at 7pm on Saturday, 15 May 2021 (American Eastern Standard Time) – which is around 8.30am Sunday morning (16 May) here in Adelaide.

I first became aware of E. Massey (the country witch of the duo) some five or six years ago when he contributed a piece of his artwork to my anthology,  Call of the God: An Anthology Exploring the Divine Masculine within Modern Paganism . It wasn’t until March of this year when our paths crossed again as we both presented at Witchcon. So when E. contacted me and asked if I would like to be a guest on their show, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

You can join us live 7pm Saturday night (American EST) or 8.30am Sunday morning (Adelaide time) where our chat will be recorded live on the This Old Witch Facebook page as well as on Spreaker. You can also listen to the previous shows through these links.

PAN, PAGAN Dash Campaign and Me

PAGANdash hopes to better group pagan religions and this may help the Australian Bureau of Statistics to reduce the number of inadequate description responses which is over 137,000 respondents. Pagan Community Project, and specifically MorganAkasha asked Pagan Awareness Network (P.A.N.)  to take over the running of the PAGANdash campaign after the 2006 census. In 2011, P.A.N. dedicated much of its early focus to the PAGANdash campaign, providing the website and all free downloads from it for all pagan groups across Australia.
One of the reasons behind specifying an “Other” religion is not necessary to provide a more accurate number of people within Australia who identify as pagan but also so to show the social acceptance of paganism and the gradual removing of any stigmas associated with pagan paths.
On Wednesday, 12 May 2021, at 7.30pm (Sydney time) P.A.N. will be going live on their Facebook page to not only launch this year's PAGANdash campaign, but there will also a line up of speakers, including yours truly who has been invited as the key note speaker.
You can join the Facebook live here .