Anita Beckett, my mother, died on January 12, 2025, at the age of 93. This is the eulogy I gave at her funeral on Friday, as best I can remember. For most of us, our mothers are our first teachers. I can’t ever remember my mother saying “hey John, come over here – I’ve got something I want to teach you.” But I learned so much just from listening to her, watching her, and being around her. And so I... Read more
Our challenge for the next four years is to not get caught up in the politics we can’t control and to keep our attention on the things that matter most to us as individuals, to our communities, and to our world. Read more
Do witches do deity work? Some do and some don’t. But my practice begins with devotion to the deities in my life – I couldn’t do what I do without regular deity work. But what does “deity work” even mean? Read more
Announcing a new on-line class from Under the Ancient Oaks: “The Call of Cernunnos” based on the devotional anthology The Book of Cernunnos. Registration is open now; the class begins January 16 and will run for five weeks. Details are in Module 0 on the Courses page. Read more
2025 will be a year of moving on. Your victories, your heartbreaks, your grand narratives may have been meaningful and helpful at one time but they no longer serve you. It’s time to move on – it’s time to create something new. Read more
The Top 10 posts of 2024 on Under the Ancient Oaks: re-enchanting the world, being a Pagan in a society that’s increasingly irreligious, and how to deal with a world where the political realities aren’t what we hoped they would be. Read more
I’m still here. 2024 turned out to be a very difficult year for me, but I kept blogging because I had something to say. These are the four best posts of this year that weren’t well-read. If you missed them the first time, I encourage you to read them now. Read more
Vampires, Tarot readers, and mediums. Exclusive girls’ schools where strange and mysterious things happen. Two looks at Victorian England and one look at Philadelphia in a near-dystopian future that may end up being reality. Here are the top five novels I read in 2024. Read more
The seasons are an astronomical phenomenon that can be predicted with precision. But a metaphorical winter begins on January 20 and we have no idea how cold it will get or how long it will last. How do we celebrate the solstice of this coming long winter? Read more
The stories of our ancestors tell of magicians who cursed kings and of kings who hunted witches because they feared their magic (I’m looking at you, James I). In practice, though, political magic is some of the most difficult magic there is. Read more
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