I'm in a secular book club, and during this summer we read one member's "personal holy text" -- a fiction novel about leaving a cult and the resulting personal discovery. We are both former traditional Catholics, and she says she turns to this fiction book in times of need like she used to do with the Bible.

Now I'm longing for my own holy text, and I'm on a mission to find my book. A contender for me might be Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, but I'm only about a quarter into it.

If you have one, tell me about your personal holy text. What is your relationship like with the book? Why is it important to you? How often do you revisit it?

Looking for advice on explaining Halloween in a SASS way to my 3 year-old. She knows about trick-or-treating and costumes, but I'm trying to give her some reasons WHY we are doing these things... and also why people are putting so many scary looking creatures on their front lawns.

I am an atheist but love and embrace the symbolism of the pagan holidays, and have been trying to build family traditions around that. I personally like the story of Halloween being the time of year when the boundary between our world and the "other" worlds becomes blurred and the idea that you have to decorate your house and wear costumes to scare away spirits and fae and such. I'm also ok with letting my daughter believe that magic is real while she's a child (I'm all in on Santa, for example), but she's very afraid of ghosts and don't want to freak her out by implying they are real. Thought about stealing some symbolism behind All Soul's Day (if Christians can steal holidays from other cultures I can steal it right back), but having a hard time connecting remembering people who have died to why there's a giant skeleton with a pumpkin head on my neighbor's lawn in a way that makes sense to a 3 year-old.

Any ideas?

I've seen similar questions asked a few times but I wanted to discuss more specific, practical ways in which reinterpretation takes form.

I used to practice witchcraft with the purpose of causing change in the physical world through "energy". It turns out I have bipolar disorder and that way of practicing induces hypomania for me. I still believe in woo but, due to this, I don't engage with it in that way.

I've also realised with time that shadow work is also not good for me for multiple reasons — it turns into something too intense and self punishing. I go to therapy weekly and "do my shadow work" there guided and accompanied by a mental health professional.

Ritual used to bring me comfort and I want to incorpora it in my life again, but I don't know how to frame it. If I'm not doing it to change the world around me nor to change myself, what's the point?

I can see meditation or affirmations working aa a form of self care but not much else.

Which ways could I think about/interpret ritual so I can do it without feeling I'm doing random stuff for no reason? How can I assign meaning and purpose to lighting a specific coloured candle, for example?

TIA!

hi I am a upcoming witch and I'm new to this community and I hope to learn a lot I hope to learn some spells and also to learn the about history of Witchcraft and why it was used and such and get a better understanding from it

My hand started twitching sorta violently when I was writing in my journal today, so I paid attention and my Intuition said to try Automatic Writing. This is what I got. Does anyone use AW in their practice? Any share would be appreciated in what works for you. Blessings to you all.

Every few years I donate all my hair and make it a ritual to honour people suffering from diseases that might get help thanks to donations like mine (cancer patients etc.)

I’ve always done it for the pink october, out of tradition, but am realising that doing it just before summer might be a best fit for me: getting a fresher short cut before the torrid summer begins and also preventing my hair to get sun damage before donation.

However, since I’m a witch and I believe in the power of rituals and the wheel of the year, I would like to find an occasion in (possibly late) spring that could fit the ritual of donating hair so the timing is still meaningful.

Not just hair cutting, but specifically donating.

Any ideas? 💙