Ugh, I suppose I’ll indulge. Weekly Recap 12/4/2023

Writing prompts are pretty hit or miss. This one is definitely a miss. Nonetheless, I did make a commitment to answer one of these things every week, didn’t I?

Okay, here we go. Let me really do some soul searching… what things am I good at?

Well, since you asked, I’ve compiled a short list for you. My skills include:

1. Answering WordPress daily writing prompts
2. Starting lists
3. Coming up with extremely clever jokes
4. Adding filler content
5. Finishing lists

Alright, now that all the fun and games are out of the way, I’ll give you some real answers. These are just the top five things that come to my mind because I don’t think this deserves a significant amount of thought.

1. Writing – Yeah, this is kind of the whole deal with having a website with articles as content, right? If I didn’t think I was a good writer, I would never have started this in the first place.
2. Editing – I have to say I possess fairly high editing skills. I can take things in many different forms. Give me a paper with poor grammar and sentence structure and I’ll correct it. Give me low quality audio and I’ll clean it up. Now… do I always apply those skills to what I produce? Absolutely not.
3. Teaching – For many years, I actually thought I was going to make a career out of teaching — specifically music education. Considering how terribly teachers are treated these days, I have zero regrets that I didn’t fully pursue that goal. Instead, I’ve been able to hold positions throughout the years that allow me to train people in some way. Obviously, running a coven with Selene also helps fill that void. She’s a great teacher too!
4. Music – On top of singing, I play quite a few instruments. I’m fairly confident in my composition, arrangement, recording, and production skills. If you give me enough time I can even make something sound professional. Key words there are “enough time.”
5. Occult Stuff – Hey, have you checked out my website? There’s lots of cool occult and magick topics on here. Go read some articles and tell me what you think!

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Good morning and happy Monday, friends!

And welcome to December, the craziest holiday month of them all.

We’ve barely even started the month and I think we’ve already got every single weekend and many weekdays booked — travel, Christmas, Yule, prison ministry, coven, and other things that I can’t even remember at the moment. It’s a lot to pack into a single month.

This past weekend we’ve had some family visiting. We also decorated our Christmas tree, complete with an adorable Baphomet ornament.

Baphomet Ornament. Original Image.

Speaking of ornaments, I actually have a lot from my childhood. At some point, it became a family tradition that each of us kids received a Christmas ornament every year. My mom held onto them until I had a family of my own — so, unlike almost everything else from my past that was lost during my exciting adventures in addiction, I still have these. Some of them are funny or sentimental — I have Santa Claus riding a scooter, a wooden rocking horse from my first Christmas, and others.

But we also hand crafted a lot of ornaments when I was a kid — and I’ve hung onto those, too. There are candy canes and wreaths made out of beads and pipe cleaners, but the best by far is a tiny little “besom.” I have no friggin idea what a besom (I mean, I’m sure it was made as a broom) has to do with Christmas, but Selene always says it was foreshadowing that I would grow up to be a witch.

Now, what have I accomplished this past week?

A week ago, I interviewed Coby Michael, author of The Poison Path Herbal and proprietor of The Poisoner’s Apothecary. We talked about things like plant spirits, flying ointment, recovery, and more. I personally found his answers to be extremely interesting, so I worked really hard to get the footage edited quickly for Episode 5 of Music, Myth, & Magick. You can now watch the video on YouTube! I know a lot of people prefer to read instead of listen to stuff, so I’m working on finishing the article writeup for this. I hope to have it finished later this week.

I worked out some final details and can now announce that I am officially performing at Turning the Tide 2024. This is a small local festival in South Florida that happens in February. Registration usually maxes out — it’s at a park that has a cap on attendance and camping spaces. I’ll also be teaching a workshop on fluid condensers — and if you’d like to brush up on some of that material, you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series I wrote.

I finished an article about rewriting Christmas songs, showcasing one tune of mine and one by Christiana Gaudet. I think I’m getting inspired to also rewrite “O Holy Night.” As I mentioned in the article, it’s one of my favorite Christmas songs. I’d just love it so much more if it wasn’t about Jesus.

Witchcraft TV has requested airing episodes of Music, Myth, & Magick weekly on their website. I’m working out the details with them. They said they would run a commercial also, so I’ve got to figure out how to turn myself into an ad.

For an upcoming video, I’m also trying to answer questions. I’m posting this everywhere I can, hoping to get as varied of a response as possible. If you’d like a question answered, which can be about anything (the craft, occult, music, etc) you can either comment here or use this anonymous question submission form I created.

I think that just about covers this past week. Things you can look forward to soon are some short music videos on YouTube, an article for Coby Michael’s interview, and more. Stay tuned for more!

Cheers!