Secular Witchcraft & DIY Witchery

Greetings and Welcome to DIY Witchery!

I’m Alex Wrekk (they/she) I am an agnostic secular witch and have built my personal witchcraft practice over 15+ years. I am the owner of Portland Button Works and the Spiral House Shop I am an organizer for CritWitchCon, librarian at the Archive of Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Zines (AWMOZ), I’m 45 year old punk,vegan, anarchist, feminist, and zinester (itt means I make zines). I identify as white, bisexual, and a relatively cis woman. I love DIY projects, building altars, making charms, collecting jars, filling my pockets with acorns, zines, travel, befriending crows with peanuts, my Jackie Cat, Ian B, my house and home and things I grow in my garden while living in my 120+ year old house in Portland, Oregon.

I have built my own practice and I do not discuss particulars about it very often. I call it DIY Witchery because it is built on my personal DIY punk ethics and methodologies. It takes a hands on and trial and error approach to witchcraft. ie: fuck around and find out magic.

I don’t cast spells so much a build them and then release them. From the outside it probably looks like cottage witchery set loose in a punk house of a philosophy student drop out. In reality, I probably draw a lot on folk magic, traditional witchcraft, and a twist of chaos magic for the fun of it.

I got tired of this being so long so I’m putting a “cut” here.

Keep reading

upthewitchypunx:

criticalthinkingwitches:
Our upcoming April Witches’ Brew (a virtual event) will be aimed at sharing how the written word can be a powerful way for witches and related friends to raise their voices - be it through editorials, fiction, non-fiction narratives, and more.
Are you newer to CTWC? What is a Witches’ Brew, you may ask? Our Witches’ Brews are small coming together of witches events throughout the year, focused on a particular topic to open up conversations and invite learning. These are short events compared to our full Con - about three hours on one day.
We’ll open with our traditional potions, with a poetic and narrative tilt, from our Gnome & Cauldron host - Jul Bloomfield. Jul may have something extra special to share with our Brew-mates, about potions past and future! So be sure to tune in.
[about 15 minutes]
Next up on our Brew agenda, an independent book seller will lead a panel on demystifying the publishing process with authors who have experience with traditional publishing, self publishing, and freelance writing work.
Join Alex Wrekk (book seller and zinester), Lane Smith (traditional publication), Lee Cotman (freelance and independent publication), and Trae Dorn (independent publication).
[about 45 minutes]
We’ll break to chat together about what we’ve heard and what we think (you won’t be left on your own for this!). It is traditional, and a wonderful way to meet other witches and friends of witches.
[about 20 minutes]
Followed by an adventure through some contemporary fiction with Ana Mor, our voracious reader in residence. She’ll be touching on some examples of witches in fictions outside of the great Sir Pratchett and the great Billy Shakes, and where you might find room for your own voice in fiction.
[about 20 minutes]
Our last session will be a discussion on finding trustworthy sources for your own witch journey, as a bit of a fireside chat between Alex Wrekk and Lee Ignire of Do the Magical Thing. Alex and Lee talk about how they evaluate books for their shelves. They will share book recommendations on a variety of topics, including good books for new witches, intermediate witches, plant magic, divination, and witchcraft and occult history all through a CritWitch, queer, and trans inclusive lens.
[about 30 minutes]
Closing out, we’ll come together again to chat and connect about the Brew, and the organizers will share some great Con news!
[about 20 minutes]
So, join us friends, far and wide, for From Print to Publishing: Raising your Crit Witch Voice!
April 5th 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST / 5 PM GMT / 3 AM AEDT (April 6)Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jh607WCuSyabmWAUVxnbWw
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom
Free tickets still available for tomorrow. I’ll be up and coherent at 8am Pacific time tomorrow, but you can just watch in your pajamas if you want! I’ll be leading a chat with folks in different places in publishing and then a chat with my buddy Lee Ignire from Do The Magical Thing about how we pick books for our shelves and we have book recs on a variety of topics. it will be good time.

15 minutes!

Our CritWitch brew tomorrow is about books, so in the shop I covered the wall of zines with a hanging we use at vending events with books on it. Ian B thinks it hilarious to turn a wall of zines into a wall of books.

I usually have a wall of records or a wall of a wall with fake branches and real dried hops as my background. I haven’t used the office before, so this will be fun!

criticalthinkingwitches:

Lee from Do The Magical Thing has Book problem, do you? join us Saturday as we discuss magic, witchcraft, and occult books at April’s Critical Thinking Witches Brew!
Get a free ticket here!
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom

criticalthinkingwitches:

Our upcoming April Witches’ Brew (a virtual event) will be aimed at sharing how the written word can be a powerful way for witches and related friends to raise their voices - be it through editorials, fiction, non-fiction narratives, and more.
Are you newer to CTWC? What is a Witches’ Brew, you may ask? Our Witches’ Brews are small coming together of witches events throughout the year, focused on a particular topic to open up conversations and invite learning. These are short events compared to our full Con - about three hours on one day.
We’ll open with our traditional potions, with a poetic and narrative tilt, from our Gnome & Cauldron host - Jul Bloomfield. Jul may have something extra special to share with our Brew-mates, about potions past and future! So be sure to tune in.
[about 15 minutes]
Next up on our Brew agenda, an independent book seller will lead a panel on demystifying the publishing process with authors who have experience with traditional publishing, self publishing, and freelance writing work.
Join Alex Wrekk (book seller and zinester), Lane Smith (traditional publication), Lee Cotman (freelance and independent publication), and Trae Dorn (independent publication).
[about 45 minutes]
We’ll break to chat together about what we’ve heard and what we think (you won’t be left on your own for this!). It is traditional, and a wonderful way to meet other witches and friends of witches.
[about 20 minutes]
Followed by an adventure through some contemporary fiction with Ana Mor, our voracious reader in residence. She’ll be touching on some examples of witches in fictions outside of the great Sir Pratchett and the great Billy Shakes, and where you might find room for your own voice in fiction.
[about 20 minutes]
Our last session will be a discussion on finding trustworthy sources for your own witch journey, as a bit of a fireside chat between Alex Wrekk and Lee Ignire of Do the Magical Thing. Alex and Lee talk about how they evaluate books for their shelves. They will share book recommendations on a variety of topics, including good books for new witches, intermediate witches, plant magic, divination, and witchcraft and occult history all through a CritWitch, queer, and trans inclusive lens.
[about 30 minutes]
Closing out, we’ll come together again to chat and connect about the Brew, and the organizers will share some great Con news!
[about 20 minutes]
So, join us friends, far and wide, for From Print to Publishing: Raising your Crit Witch Voice!
April 5th 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST / 5 PM GMT / 3 AM AEDT (April 6)Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jh607WCuSyabmWAUVxnbWw
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom

Free tickets still available for tomorrow. I’ll be up and coherent at 8am Pacific time tomorrow, but you can just watch in your pajamas if you want! I’ll be leading a chat with folks in different places in publishing and then a chat with my buddy Lee Ignire from Do The Magical Thing about how we pick books for our shelves and we have book recs on a variety of topics. it will be good time.

I’m up at my folks’ place in the SE Washington woods and I always love the thrift store up here. I used to always buy big bags of random used candles for cheap. One time the clerk asked me why and I wasn’t gonna say I’m a witch and burn a lot of candles, so I said I keep them for when the electricity goes out, which it does out here from time to time.

Now there’s never giant bags of candles and I’m really bummed. I should not have given away my secret. One time though I got two spirals of wax and didn’t have one of these set ups to use it. I just found one at that thrift store. There’s a clip that holds the candle and it snuffs out when it gets to that point. I might experiment with timed spells that snuff themselves out.

friend-crow:

msbriket:
teawitch:
stars-and-branches:
In the witchcraft community we talk about witch’s ladders a lot but y'all are seriously sleeping on the potential paper chains have. Yes the ones you made in Kindergarten.
For example, I just did a protection spell for myself and my community by making a paper chain from recycled local newspaper and some light sigilwork on each loop. You could do all sorts of workings with paper chains by changing the material, using color correspondences, sigils, etc.
If you’re using biodegradable material, like paper, you can do workings where you hang the chain in nature to naturally remove a problem over time.
There are lots of creative possibilities with this.
Okay, now I want to make paper with seeds in it, make it into a chain and bury it on the edge of my property
paging @upthewitchypunx

Is anyone surprised that I’ve done this already? What I haven’t done is made my own paper from garbage and then made a paper chain for that!

criticalthinkingwitches:

Our upcoming April Witches’ Brew (a virtual event) will be aimed at sharing how the written word can be a powerful way for witches and related friends to raise their voices - be it through editorials, fiction, non-fiction narratives, and more.
Are you newer to CTWC? What is a Witches’ Brew, you may ask? Our Witches’ Brews are small coming together of witches events throughout the year, focused on a particular topic to open up conversations and invite learning. These are short events compared to our full Con - about three hours on one day.
We’ll open with our traditional potions, with a poetic and narrative tilt, from our Gnome & Cauldron host - Jul Bloomfield. Jul may have something extra special to share with our Brew-mates, about potions past and future! So be sure to tune in.
[about 15 minutes]
Next up on our Brew agenda, an independent book seller will lead a panel on demystifying the publishing process with authors who have experience with traditional publishing, self publishing, and freelance writing work.
Join Alex Wrekk (book seller and zinester), Lane Smith (traditional publication), Lee Cotman (freelance and independent publication), and Trae Dorn (independent publication).
[about 45 minutes]
We’ll break to chat together about what we’ve heard and what we think (you won’t be left on your own for this!). It is traditional, and a wonderful way to meet other witches and friends of witches.
[about 20 minutes]
Followed by an adventure through some contemporary fiction with Ana Mor, our voracious reader in residence. She’ll be touching on some examples of witches in fictions outside of the great Sir Pratchett and the great Billy Shakes, and where you might find room for your own voice in fiction.
[about 20 minutes]
Our last session will be a discussion on finding trustworthy sources for your own witch journey, as a bit of a fireside chat between Alex Wrekk and Lee Ignire of Do the Magical Thing. Alex and Lee talk about how they evaluate books for their shelves. They will share book recommendations on a variety of topics, including good books for new witches, intermediate witches, plant magic, divination, and witchcraft and occult history all through a CritWitch, queer, and trans inclusive lens.
[about 30 minutes]
Closing out, we’ll come together again to chat and connect about the Brew, and the organizers will share some great Con news!
[about 20 minutes]
So, join us friends, far and wide, for From Print to Publishing: Raising your Crit Witch Voice!
April 5th 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST / 5 PM GMT / 3 AM AEDT (April 6)Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jh607WCuSyabmWAUVxnbWw
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom

Rabbit Rabbit

spiralhouseshop:

Greetings from the Reed Zine Fest! It’s at Reed College in the Kaul Auditorium. We’ll be here until 4!

Hey, we have zines about witchcraft and stuff!

upthewitchypunx:

criticalthinkingwitches:
Mark your calendars!
Our Next Witches’ Brew is April 5th!
Register for our FREE virtual event with this link.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom
Our upcoming April Witches’ Brew will be aimed at sharing how the written word can be a powerful way for witches and related friends to raise their voices - be it through editorials, fiction, non-fiction narratives, and more.
Are you newer to CTWC? What is a Witches’ Brew, you may ask? Our Witches’ Brews are small coming together of witches events throughout the year, focused on a particular topic to open up conversations and invite learning. These are short events compared to our full Con - about three hours on one day.
We’ll open with our traditional potions, with a poetic and narrative tilt, from our Gnome & Cauldron host - Jul Bloomfield. Jul may have something extra special to share with our Brew-mates, about potions past and future! So be sure to tune in. [about 15 minutes]
Next up on our Brew agenda, an independent book seller will lead a panel on demystifying the publishing process with authors who have experience with traditional publishing, self publishing, and freelance writing work.
Join Alex Wrekk (book seller at The Spiral House and zinester, @upthewitchypunx), Lane Smith (traditional publication and author of 78 Acts of Liberation: Tarot to Transform Our World), Lee Cotman (freelance and self publication), and Trae Dorn (independently published author of The Mia Graves Saga, host of BS Free Witchcraft podcast, @traegorn) [about 45 minutes]
We’ll break to chat together about what we’ve heard and what we think (you won’t be left on your own for this!). It is traditional, and a wonderful way to meet other witches and friends of witches. [about 20 minutes]
April 5th! Free! Virtual! Sign up here!
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: From Page to Publishing: Raising Your Crit Witch Voice!. After registering, you will receive a c
Zoom
Our next Witches’ Brew is coming up!

friend-crow:

echosblanketfort:
friend-crow:
echosblanketfort:
friend-crow:
Any good grimoire or witchcraft book should have at least a little bit of shit that makes you cringe. You don’t get to learn about magic without the cringe factor.
Something something the difference between medicine and poison is dosage…
it hones your critical thinking skills and ups your bullshit tolerance. these are very important skills for wizards to possess
Yes. But also. Wizards are cringe.
Like you have your edgy egotistical Crowley type wizards, who some people think are badasses, but they are also HUGE DORKS.
But badass and huge dork are not mutually exclusive. True wizard shit lies in the reconciliation of these opposing qualities.
You are so wise. The duality lives in us and we need to acknowledge it if we want to thrive
*nods sagely while blowing a bubble pipe*

spiralhouseshop:

New at The Spiral House at Portland Button Works in March!
Cook Like Your Ancestors: An illustrated Guide to Intuitive Cooking With Recipes from Around the World by Mariah-Rose Marie
Compendium of the Occult: Arcane Artifacts, Magic Rituals, and Sacred Symbolism by Liz Williams
Downtown Local by Aaron Cometbus
Abortion Pill Zine by Isabella Rotman, Sage Coffey, & Marnie Galloway
Fixer Eraser Zine #8 by Jonas
Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles by Beth Pickens
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

spiralhouseshop:

Back in stock at The Spiral House at Portland Button Works!
Alive With Spirits: The Path and Practice of Animistic Witchcraft by Althaea Sabastiani
Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton
Witchcraft Cocktails: 70 Cocktails infused with Magic and Ritual by Julie Halina Hadas
Sew Witchy: Tools, Techniques, for Sewing Magick by Raechel Henderson
Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle
Tarot Card Sticker Book: Perfect for Tarot Journaling from Weiser Books
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck
Tarot for Creativity: A Guide for Igniting Your Creative Practice by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi

spiralhouseshop:

BACK IN STOCK!
Six Ways: Approaches & Entries For Practical Magic by Aidan Watcher
By Rust of Nail Prick of Thorn: The Theory and Practice of Effective Home Warding by Althaea Sabastiani
Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk magic from Appalachia by Jake Richards
The Green Witch’s Oracle Deck by Arin Murray-Hiscock
Morbid Magic: Death Spirituality and Culture from Around the World by Tomás Prower
Labyrinth Tarot Deck
Crow Tarot
Art Magick: An Inspiration Deck for Creativity by Molly Roberts
Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle

Ok! Reed College talk done and now I’m on to next projects like adding a bunch of new stuff to the @spiralhouseshop catalog, gearing up for our next @criticalthinkingwitches virtual Witches’ Brew, assembling a bunch of zines for Reed College Zine Fest next weekend, dropping zines off at the cute new bookshop in Kenton, and getting all the paperwork I need for my Mvskoke citizenship.

Also had to find my passport and credit card that I hid in very smart but annoyingly hard to remember places. The CTWC folks are using our own money to fly to Montreal to meet up with one of our organizers and run our event from the same place AND I’M SO EXCITED TO MEET EVERYONE! 5 years of online organizing and friendship and we all get to hang out running the con virtually for a long weekend.

That is, if they let us Americans into Canada. Who knows if the political climate will escalate or if there will be a new pandemic or anything. I bought travel insurance just in case.