{"id":645,"date":"2017-06-15T22:50:31","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T06:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=645"},"modified":"2017-06-15T22:57:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T06:57:28","slug":"possibly-bad-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html","title":{"rendered":"In Which I Am Possibly A Bad Witch…."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"forestwitch-banner\"
\nI\u2019m about to head out on the road for 6 weeks, and there\u2019s a certain part of the tour that I\u2019m uneasy with: the outdoor festival\u00a0section. \u00a0Not because of the festival \u2013 no, not that. \u00a0It\u2019s more of the camping part of it, and I\u2019m finding I\u2019m deeply at odds with myself. \u00a0Witches should be all about being in nature, right? But I haven\u2019t camped outdoors since\u2026.oh about 2001.<\/p>\n

Why does it matter? \u00a0I think various parts of myself are having an argument. (#geminiproblems). \u00a0Here\u2019s possibly why\u2026.<\/p>\n

Nature, Naturally<\/strong>
\nOne of my favorite books to read growing up was My Side Of The Mountain<\/em><\/a> by Jean Craighead George. \u00a0I\u2019ve read it countless times, and I still have that same dog-eared copy. \u00a0In it, a boy from NYC named Sam runs away to the Catskill Mountains, intent on learning how to survive in the wild, which he does manage to do. \u00a0(If you mention there was a movie made from the book, I\u2019ll tell you it doesn\u2019t exist \u2013 my same answer for people who seem to think there were sequels to The Matrix<\/em>. NOPE.)<\/p>\n

\"mysidebookcover\"It wasn\u2019t the running away part that stirred my imagination \u2013 it was the living off the land, in harmony with nature, using whatever was available to make it work. Similarly, I ate up all of Jane Auel\u2019s Clan of the Cave Bear<\/em> series in my early teens, and many other pre-historic\/early peoples fiction. \u00a0I loved the closeness of the land, the fostering of the various relationships, and the lack of waste. \u00a0I knew it wasn\u2019t an easy life, but it made so much more sense to me.<\/p>\n

The Little Witch\u2019s Cabin<\/strong>
\nI attended a pretty idyllic nursery school. \u00a0We learned about gardening, dug for worms, learned about plants, and played under the trees. There was a little tiny cabin\/play house on the property as well. \u00a0Apparently there were several times were I went \u201cmissing\u201d from whatever the children were supposed to be doing, and could be found amusing myself in the cabin, doing \u201cwork\u201d all alone.<\/p>\n

My parents and grandparents decided to build me a little cabin in our own backyard. \u00a0My father and grandfather built it all. It had two windows, and a Dutch door \u2013 all settled next to a maple tree. \u00a0I spent countless hours imagining I was self-sufficient in the woods, collecting various plants, seeds, rocks, etc for special purposes. I knew about all the plants, trees, insects and animals that lived in our backyard.<\/p>\n

You would think we would have gone camping as a family \u2013 and maybe my family did that before I came along. \u00a0I know my brothers went to various camps from stories I heard. \u00a0But nope, by the time I was in the picture, we were heading down the shore for our vacations. \u00a0So I exchanged out the creek and the woods for the beach and the ocean seasonally \u2013 just another biosphere to explore!<\/p>\n

Outdoors, Indoors<\/strong>
\nIn my college years and beyond, I was often made fun of by the person I was married to for \u201cbringing the outdoors inside.\u201d \u00a0I was constantly dragging home interesting branches, rocks, and anything else I thought was neat. \u00a0In that life, we actually did go camping at a few festivals, often with friends, but it didn\u2019t seem like being in nature. \u00a0It just seemed uncomfortable \u2013 because the tent managed to get placed over a ditch, so I pretty much slept in a hole for a week. \u00a0Or the tent was under a tree that dropped spiders down on it. \u00a0And the bonfire smell in everything for weeks afterward.<\/p>\n

At my first indoor pword festival (PantheaCon, circa 2002), I found it incredibly bizarre to see everyone congregating INSIDE such a nice hotel\u2026instead of doing it out in the woods\/fields\/etc. \u00a0Like whoa, such a disconnect! \u00a0And then, I grew to appreciate it \u2013 because when you spend most of the day running a booth, leading rituals and workshops, and performing \u2013 the last thing you want to deal with is sleeping over roots and having to wait in line for the porta potty. \u00a0Yeap, a real bed, hot showers, and your own toilet is absolutely divine after a day of all that hard work.<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s sometimes this sentiment that \u201creal\u201d witchcraft\/paganism\/whatever only happens out in nature\/outdoor festivals\/etc. But isn\u2019t nature everywhere? Even in the city?<\/p>\n

\"Chai
Chai is key for survival<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Nature, Of Nature<\/strong>
\nWhen I think back to my favorite stories, the correlation that held true then and now is being aware of the rhythms of the land, the weather, the plants, the animals, the spirit. \u00a0And while you can certainly become in tune with nature while camping directly out in it \u2013 I\u2019m appreciative of my inside home, and I guess I\u2019ve always been. \u00a0I still bond with my natural surroundings wherever I live, in all the ways I can manage. \u00a0I recognize the connections.<\/p>\n

And the other important lesson\u00a0from those stories: the idea of waste not, want not. \u00a0That part of me is still keenly aware and contemplating on how do I reduce our footprint. \u00a0How can I use materials that are better for the environment? What habits can I change or develop that are better for nature and myself? \u00a0And as much as I love old houses (we currently live in one that was built around 1900, which is pretty darn old for the Pacific Northwest), I think about energy and space efficient housing that could be our forever home. \u00a0(Note: you can\u2019t put a musician and an artist and 3+ cats in a tiny house\u2026so I\u2019m not talking tiny \u2013 but rather the emphasis on efficient, durable, and practical). \u00a0It is something I think about a LOT, and try to do what I can, when I can.<\/p>\n

Bad Witch?<\/strong>
\nSo after working all of that out in my head, the fact that I\u2019m not looking forward to camping doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t love nature, or understand it. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s because<\/em> I understand it that I appreciate indoor accommodations even more. \u00a0And I know that I can give more of myself as a teacher, performer, artist, etc \u2013 when I\u2019m well-rested and feeling comfortable. \u00a0I\u2019m probably also just psyching myself out over it all, because I\u2019ll be gone for so long overall, and I\u2019m hoping that I won\u2019t be battling sunburn, poison ivy, or bug bites for additional 4 weeks on the road.<\/p>\n

Who knows \u2013 perhaps in this chapter of my life, I\u2019ll come to a new appreciation! \u00a0I\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to be fun because I know a lot of awesome people who will be there. The company\u2019s much better this time around for sure. \u00a0Let\u2019s just hope we manage to not put the tent over a hole in the ground, or under a spider tree.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure if this witch was made for camping…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[299,300,7,4,138],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","tag-camping","tag-outdoor-festivals","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft","tag-witchery"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Which I Am Possibly A Bad Witch....<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm not sure if this witch was made for camping.....\" \/>\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\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Which I Am Possibly A Bad Witch....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I'm not sure if this witch was made for camping.....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-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=\"2017-06-16T06:50:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-16T06:57:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/06\/forestwitch-banner.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=\"6 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\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html\",\"name\":\"In Which I Am Possibly A Bad Witch....\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-16T06:50:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-16T06:57:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/#\/schema\/person\/4b27926466da8da8d2f065b017f61b72\"},\"description\":\"I'm not sure if this witch was made for camping.....\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/06\/possibly-bad-witch.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In Which I Am Possibly A Bad Witch….\"}]},{\"@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. 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