Home » Magick » M3 Episodes » Season 1 » Thorn Mooney, Social Media, and Runes – Ep. 7
Thorn Mooney is the High Priestess of Foxfire coven as well as the author of The Witch’s Path: Advancing Your Craft at Every Level and Traditional Wicca: A Seeker’s Guide. She has master’s degrees in both religious studies and English literature, plus a new book on the way. And she’s also a musician.
Thorn and I talk about things like how to handle not feeling magickal, social media’s influence on the craft, the runes, and more. But first, let’s take a look at her newly-announced book release!
Witches Among Us
Thorn has been teasing a new book for a while, but it was just officially announced about two weeks ago. At first, it was only available as a pre-order directly through the publisher (Llewellyn), but other sites have caught up with the hype. You can now pre-order on Amazon as well… with an expected delivery date of Oct 2024. Good things are worth waiting for!
There’s plenty of starter books out there for seekers, filled with “how to” manuals for doing ritual… but Witches Among Us promises to be different. More or less, Thorn says that it talks about witchcraft, but can be aimed at people who aren’t witches and maybe aren’t even interested in becoming one.
It must be pretty good because Ronald Hutton said it’s “The most thoughtful, intelligent, and sophisticated survey of contemporary witchcraft on both sides of the Atlantic available at present.” And he wrote The Triumph of the Moon, which is pretty much the best historical reference for witchcraft that anyone has ever written. Ever. So, yeah.
Feeling a Bit Unmagickal?
Something I struggle with sometimes is a lack of connection during magick. I describe this as “not feeling magickal.” I have the ritual words memorized, for sure, but they don’t seem to go anywhere. When I ask Thorn how she’d handle something like this, she jokingly assures me that it’s just a “me” problem and she has certainly never felt that way.
Actually, she discusses a bit of this in The Witch’s Path, especially the topic of burnout. I’d like to delve a little further into it myself in the future — perhaps I’ll write an article on how I personally experience these feelings, but I think this is a part of the video that is worth listening to. Maybe you can relate? And if so, you can at least take solace in the fact that other people in the Craft sometimes go through the same thing.
One way to try to shake the feeling is to try something new — even exploring a new topic or tradition. Is it possible to take this too far? Will experience of other Craft traditions help us progress in our “home” tradition or will it just confused the hell out of us? Does it mean we’re betraying our original oaths? I don’t know — listen to the interview and then you can tell me what you think.
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Remove Thy Stick, Friend
I speak now not of myself, not of Thorn, and certainly not of you, dear reader, but take heed of my words, for surely there is one in your midst with a stick up their butt.
Alright, seriously, yes… Gardnerians sometimes have a reputation for being hoity-toity, snobbish gatekeepers. Honestly though, if we expand that, doesn’t every tradition have someone that fits a similar description? And doesn’t it transcend any one particular religion? In my personal experience, there were plenty of people I encountered in Christian churches with sticks up their butts too.
The thing is… this type of attitude is especially prominent in Facebook groups for seekers. I dare you to find a traditional witchcraft group on social media that does not contain posts of seekers asking innocent questions and getting rudely shut down by those with experience. I mean, I get it, answering “what type of spell can I do to find my cat/familiar named Salem” for the 17th time might get old, but the attitude is turning off seekers.
There’s definitely an interesting discussion here, so again I’d invite you to watch the full interview.
Look at my fake altar
At one point in the conversation, Thorn and I talk about the difference between learning witchcraft from books and learning witchcraft from social media… or dare I say it: from the dreaded WitchTok.
On one hand, you’ve got an author that probably spent a decent amount of time filling pages with content. Even if you decide to fill your book with complete horse manure, it still takes a while and requires expansion and development of thought. As someone who writes almost every day, I’m well-aware of the time commitment. There might be other hurdles as well, like shopping around for publishers.
On the other hand, you’ve got someone who writes for 3-5 minutes and then clicks a “post” button. As Thorn points out, having a high number of followers doesn’t mean you actually know your shit, either — it’s just evidence that you’re popular. Her opinion here is especially interesting because she has a foot in both worlds — she’s written books and has high follower counts.
Can you learn good stuff from social media? Absolutely! I’ve learned a ton! But it really only started helping me after I learned how to separate witchcraft fact from fiction. There’s a lot of dissenting voices and contrasting opinions — it’s easy to get confused! At the beginning of my journey, I personally had to stick to books.
One way that books differ highly from social media content is that they are usually filled with words and not pictures or videos. This has its own set of pros and cons.
I’m very grateful for not being flooded with images early on in my journey. Reading and imagining things for myself helped me define my own particular flavor of magick. I feel like it also flexed my mind’s eye, further developing my meditation and visualization skills. But I can honestly tell you that there were some things I had issues with until I saw them. For instance, I never felt like I had a very good handle on the LBRP until I watched a few YouTube videos of other people performing the ritual. For that reason, even though I want to be all, “books are the way to go!” I have to honestly say that I find value in both avenues of learning as long as are you are acutely aware of misinformation and compare multiple sources. Case and point? Most of the videos I first found on the LBRP were garbage… it took me quite a while to find a good one that actually helped instead of taught me bad habits.
Runes
It’s always a pleasure to talk about the runes with another practitioner. In the interview, Thorn shares a little bit about how she first encountered runic divination and her views on how it differs from other divinatory systems like tarot. Honestly, I feel like this could have been our entire conversation, but we didn’t have much time left when we finally got to the topic!
Even though it’s a short segment, it’s still worth listening to!
Thorn’s Other Books
Thorn’s first book, Traditional Wicca: A Seeker’s Guide, is a perfect introductory text for someone who might be interested in the world of witchcraft. People will sometimes email us and ask to join our group, but they’re not entirely certain if they want the “coven life” … or even what that might entail. This is an easy book to recommend for someone in that situation (and we frequently do).
This book allows the reader to really understand some of the differences between solitary practice and coven practice, what to expect from a coven, and even some red flags to look out for!
The Witch’s Path: Advancing Your Craft at Every Level is a great book to turn to if you’ve hit any sort of roadblock. This is aimed at seekers and coven leaders — the beginner and the adept alike.
I was particularly attracted to the sections of the book that address burnout. As I told Thorn, I feel like I run pretty much perpetually burnt out. There’s a lot going on in our lives, but I’m grateful for all of it.
There’s also some very interesting exercises that involve getting reacquainted with your own practice, like clearing your altar and slowly putting it back up piece by piece, appreciating each individual part.
If you haven’t checked out your sign’s part of Ivo Dominguez Jr’s The Witch’s Sun Sign Series, then honestly, what have you been waiting for? Thorn cowrote Taurus Witch (along with several other notable people) and it’s a must read.
I’m an Aries, so I obviously read Aries Witch — and you can find out more about the entire series in Episode 1 with Ivo, but I did read Taurus Witch, too. You know why? Because my wife is a Taurus!
Even if you’re NOT a Taurus, you can find valuable information on how to relate to people who are.
How to Find Thorn Mooney
Thorn Mooney is all over social media! It shouldn’t be too hard to find her, but I’ve collected a bunch of her links and put them all in one location for you.
- Facebook @ thorn.mooney
- Instagram @ thornthewitch
- Patreon @ thornthewitch
- TikTok @ thornthewitch
- YouTube @ drawingKenaz
And if you want to catch her at the bar at Mystic South…
Music isn’t always helpful
In the M3 series, we’ve talked a lot about how music can enhance your overall magickal experience. In fact, lots of people have told me how sound and music can set the tone for their ritual.
But what we have yet to discuss is how it can actually sometimes distract you!
One time before the start of a sabbat ritual, I turned on a playlist filled with traditional Irish folk music (or at least, Irish-folk-inspired Pagan music). Much to my dismay, the entire coven laughed at me and demanded I turn it off! While I do occasionally appreciate this style of music, I have to accept that many people find it … uhhh… let’s say “quirky.”
But beyond the use of obnoxious background music, sound can sometimes shift our attention away from where it needs to go… especially if it’s being performed less than perfectly. Thorn says her own personal hell is a drum circle. I can relate! Although I really do enjoy a good drum circle, I frequently find myself getting lost in logic like counting the beat instead of truly feeling the rhythm. For people who are easily overstimulated by audio, this could be a rather difficult atmosphere to cope with.
Want to hear some of Thorn’s favorite music to use during ritual? Go ahead and give this section a watch!
Conclusions
Social media is definitely doing some interesting things to the Craft — I’ll be interested to see where this takes us over the next few decades… but regardless of your skill level, Thorn Mooney has a book for you! And heck… even if you’re not interested in being a witch, you might want to give her upcoming book a read!
Do you know someone that has interesting things to say about the spiritual aspects of music? If so, feel free to contact me because they might just make a great future guest on M3!
Oh… and… have I ever mentioned how much of a difference it makes to me if you subscribe on YouTube, hit the like button, and leave a comment? At the very least, it just helps me know that someone is listening. Okay… okay… at least I save the annoying call to action for the end. Go subscribe! And while you’re at it, take a look at my Patreon!
Have you ever noticed these little disclaimer paragraphs at the end of my articles? They’re different every time. A lot of people would just copy and paste the same thing over and over again… but that’s because most humans don’t understand the true joy that can be found in writing fine print. I can literally say anything down here and nobody would notice. I could tell you that the earth was flat. And maybe it is. I could tell you my hopes and dreams… or even my biggest fears. But mostly I could just tell you that there are Amazon affiliate links within this article. If you use one of those links to make a purchase, then Amazon pays me a small commission. This is a good way to make everybody happy, right? For instance, if you use one of my affiliate links to buy Thorn’s book, it’s a small win for her, a small win for me, and a giant win for Amazon. Also it’s a win for you… duh… because you get a cool book. Okay. I’m gonna go make some tea.
Aerik Arkadian 
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