Spirit Writer

I'm currently working on a healer's bio of sorts as a personal archive that may be of interest to others who've traveled a similar path, which I hope to publish here in the next few months. It'll include my experience going from an evangelical belief system to the New-Age toxic positivity movement and how they're often two sides of the same coin. In the meantime, I came across a fascinating bit of "channeled" info. I haven't completely let go of my woo-girl days that I'll be covering in the bio. I've noticed a strange phenomenon in the lightworker community. People actually think Donald Trump is a lightworker. Maybe it's not so strange. I've seen people, especially women, treat abusers as victims in New Age and Pagan circles. From what I observed in the '90s and early aughts, these abusers have to start out by using performance progressivism to get women to fall for it. While I don't think Trump has any loyalty to a party, he

Smoky quartz, one of my favorite grounding stones. Credit: Parent Géry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons I've created a new meditation video for my Northland Hearth channel in support of my article at Hubpages titled, Crystals for Grounding and Healing the Root Chakra . My goal is to add more audio and video media to my existing blog posts and articles across the web, as well as create new written content and support it with videos. This will include a range from what some might consider "woo" to hard polytheist journeys. Why should AI have all the fun, eh? I hope you enjoy.

A sacrifice to Thor. Credit: Johan Ludwig Lund, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons I've been designing prayer/gift cards for my crafting business efforts. This is the poem I wrote for Thor to use with one of my designs. I hope you enjoy it. Prayer to Thor Hail to Thor, Mighty God of Thunder! Rugged wielder of Mjolnir,  Guardian of Asgard, Warrior, I praise you. Devoted to family,  good friend of humanity, Grant me your gifts of courage,  loyalty, and fierce truth so that my words and deeds  may always honor you. Hail Defender of Midgard! Hail Thor!  Prayer to Thor by Trish Deneen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

 Image by  Gerd Altmann  from  Pixabay   Just a quick note to share this excellent video by Canadian Heathen blogger Michelle Wyn aka Hearthside on YouTube . Firstly, she's taking on the task of making her blog posts more accessible by creating videos for them. Secondly, in this video, she discusses what she calls shame culture in Heathenry, especially in online spaces. She says: "In our fast-paced modern world it is becoming more and more easy to publicly shame someone in a moment of anger, but unlike the shaming of Heathen culture historically, this sort of shaming can have a permanent effect on someone’s life with no room for recovery...Beyond this, public shaming on the internet does not cause people to change their behaviours. It may even have the inverse effect." I would expand this to all of internet Paganism and Occultism. I find it ironic how quickly the metaphorical pitchforks are reached for by people historically concerned with being persecuted by pitchfork wi

A Winter Solstice sunrise. Image by gdizergega/Pixabay . I hope Heathen folks had a good First Yule/Mother's Night yesterday if you celebrate (or whenever you do). For Pagan and Heathen folks, Happy Winter Solstice to those in the Northern Hemisphere and Summer Solstice to those in the Southern Hemisphere. May the season bring you love, joy, and prosperity. © Trish Deneen  

Nightcat was a Lokean at heart, hence the fox. May she be at peace. Credit: Graphic made by me in Canva. I'm still shocked at the news that a favorite  YouTuber  died suddenly on Saturday. I've enjoyed her polytheist content for a couple of years and became a member. There have been times when her channel was my spiritual home. She was unabashedly real about her beliefs and her struggles with mental illness, both of which I could relate to. But she also included fun gaming content and held a safe space for Lokeans, godspouses, and LGBTQ+ Pagans.  She was so welcoming to everyone who was kind and respectful. I know that those who knew her personally are suffering more, but the closest word I have to describe what I'm feeling is grief. I know I'm not the only one if the comments on her channel and Discord are anything to go by. Rest in peace, Sweet Nightcat. You're in the arms of your beloved holy ones and ancestors now. Thank you for your honesty, food for thought, l