Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Modern Traditional Witch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LauraTempestZakroff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-28T22:56:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-29T01:23:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/03\/wheel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTempestZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html\",\"name\":\"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-28T22:56:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-29T01:23:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72\"},\"description\":\"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/\",\"name\":\"A Modern Traditional Witch\",\"description\":\"Weaving the Realms of Tradition, Folklore, and Modern Practice\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72\",\"name\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff\"},\"description\":\"Laura Tempest Zakroff is a professional artist, author, performer, and Modern Traditional Witch based in New England. She holds a BFA from RISD (the Rhode Island School of Design), and her artwork has received awards and honors worldwide. Her work embodies myth and the esoteric through her drawings and paintings, jewelry, talismans, and other designs. Laura is the author of the bestselling Llewellyn books Weave the Liminal, Sigil Witchery, and Anatomy of a Witch, as well as the Liminal Spirits Oracle (artist\/author), The Witch\u2019s Cauldron, and co-author of The Witch\u2019s Altar with Jason Mankey. Laura edited The New Aradia: A Witch\u2019s Handbook to Magical Resistance (Revelore Press). She is the creative force behind several community events and teaches workshops online and worldwide.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.lauratempestzakroff.com\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LauraTempestZakroff\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/owlkeyme.arts\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LTempestZ\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/author\/ltzakroff\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel","description":"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel","og_description":"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html","og_site_name":"A Modern Traditional Witch","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LauraTempestZakroff","article_published_time":"2017-03-28T22:56:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-29T01:23:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/03\/wheel.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Laura Tempest Zakroff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LTempestZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Tempest Zakroff","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html","name":"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-28T22:56:32+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-29T01:23:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72"},"description":"I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/","name":"A Modern Traditional Witch","description":"Weaving the Realms of Tradition, Folklore, and Modern Practice","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72","name":"Laura Tempest Zakroff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acc3ea529c8d56233a639e2fc69121da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Laura Tempest Zakroff"},"description":"Laura Tempest Zakroff is a professional artist, author, performer, and Modern Traditional Witch based in New England. She holds a BFA from RISD (the Rhode Island School of Design), and her artwork has received awards and honors worldwide. Her work embodies myth and the esoteric through her drawings and paintings, jewelry, talismans, and other designs. Laura is the author of the bestselling Llewellyn books Weave the Liminal, Sigil Witchery, and Anatomy of a Witch, as well as the Liminal Spirits Oracle (artist\/author), The Witch\u2019s Cauldron, and co-author of The Witch\u2019s Altar with Jason Mankey. Laura edited The New Aradia: A Witch\u2019s Handbook to Magical Resistance (Revelore Press). She is the creative force behind several community events and teaches workshops online and worldwide.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.lauratempestzakroff.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LauraTempestZakroff","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/owlkeyme.arts\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/LTempestZ"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/author\/ltzakroff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":462,"date":"2017-03-28T14:56:32","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T22:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=462"},"modified":"2017-03-28T17:23:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T01:23:58","slug":"wheel-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/03\/wheel-witch.html","title":{"rendered":"Go Ahead Witch, Re-Invent The Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"wheel\"$ There tends to be a mindset in modern witchcraft that all you need is a good book and\/or a teacher\/an initiation, and BOOM, you\u2019re a Witch! Everything you need is right at your fingertips on the web, so just absorb and go!<\/p>\n

Books are awesome (if they\u2019re written well and contain solid information) <\/em>and so are teachers (if they know how to teach and foster growth)<\/em>, as are schools (though everyone learns differently and at separate rates)<\/em> but that\u2019s only part of the process of truly understanding witchcraft.<\/p>\n

In a recent discussion seen somewhere in my spiderwebbings, somebody commented about \u201cre-inventing the wheel\u201d in regards to resources and learning witchcraft. \u00a0Why do all the work if it\u2019s already been done?<\/p>\n

And I thought, huh\u2026isn\u2019t that sort of the point? To know how to make the wheel in the first place, instead of just buying the wheel and using it?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And if we\u2019re going to keep rolling with that metaphor (ahem)<\/em>, making a wheel is more than just having the parts and putting them together. Or knowing how to drive. You have to understand the materials, the science and math of it,\u00a0and appropriate application. \u00a0Woodworking, metal smithing \u2013 learning to use the tools and materials are all key parts. They\u2019re not as glamorous and they certainly are a LOT of work. \u00a0However, in the end, you have a superior wheel because you truly understand it inside and out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you two fictional references I come back to a lot. \u00a0The first is a young adult novel by Monica Furlong called Juniper<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0It tells the story of a young Cornish girl being apprenticed to a Witch, who is also her aunt. \u00a0Fantastical parts aside, this book is one of the best examples of a fictional book that really nails down (for me) the essence of witchcraft. \u00a0Juniper is eager to learn spells and magic, but she finds herself doing relentless chores, being tested about the number of crows in trees, the names and uses for herbs, and making sacrifices. It\u2019s through this mundane hard work she develops\u00a0real skills. \u00a0She learns there are certain things she has to figure out on her own to truly understand them.<\/p>\n

Or if you want to go larger media and movies \u2013 consider the first Karate Kid<\/a><\/em> movie.\u00a0Through \u201cpaint the fence\u201d, \u201cwax on, wax off\u201d, balance exercises and catching flies with chopsticks Daniel learns muscle memory, patience, control, and strength, in real world terms.<\/p>\n

It can be easy to learn the short version, to acquire the trappings, check all the boxes, and have guided assistance. But if you don\u2019t go deeper, then maybe it\u2019s a hobby, not a vocation. It\u2019s playing the role, without being it. And that can get you into trouble in the long run.<\/p>\n

Every Witch\u2019s path is different. \u00a0Sure, we have a lot more resources available, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily make it easier. \u00a0Having access to a lot of books or a teacher doesn\u2019t mean your path will be easier or better than someone else\u2019s. It\u2019s not a better\/worse, hard\/easy, it\u2019s just different. \u00a0I long ago learned not to assume ANYTHING when teaching witchcraft to others. \u00a0Even the basics can be a revelation, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with multiple approaches.<\/p>\n

In the end, what matters is this: do you really understand the how and why of what you\u2019re doing? Can you build the wheel on your own? If we take away the flash, crystals, glitter, velvet, limited edition grimoires, and fancy trappings, can you still witch?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"