Welcome to Crosscountry Witchcraft, a blog run by Tom McArthur and Kym Deyn.
We’ll be touching on many different aspects of witchcraft with our wildly different approaches, including folk magic, Wicca, spirit work, poetry, tarot, divination and the Greek Magical Papyri.
Is Intention Really Everything?
Is intention really everything? Short answer, no.
Tarot & Storytelling Workshops
It’s the dead days at the end of the year. I’d been tempted to use them for necromancy, burn some parsley, open up the Green Velvet Bible that sits on my altar, next to a daugerrotype of the man who once owned it, and see how far we get. But its also very cold inContinue reading “Tarot & Storytelling Workshops”
Dionysus, The Bacchae, and Initiation into the Queer Mysteries
This is my story about what queer spirituality means to me and how I found my identity as a gay man through initiation by Greek tragedy. During my second year at university I took part in a production of Euripides’ Bacchae, an ancient Greek tragedy that tells the story of a king called Pentheus (playedContinue reading “Dionysus, The Bacchae, and Initiation into the Queer Mysteries”
Cursing Like a Bitch
There are always people who want to take sharpest teeth out of our mouths. We ought to be kind where we can, but we also have to survive.I’m not interested in petty witch internet ethics (you know the kind), which generally fail to recognise the breadth of human experience, and how sometimes magic is our only…
Mysticism and Chronic Illness
Last night I walked into my kitchen alone, and was struck with the realisation that everything was glistening. The mucky glasses on the shelves above the sink, the tins of Parisian tea, even the stains on the kitchen countertop. It’s not the waiting, but the action of being and burning with it.
Ensouling Statues
Statue ensoulment is the process whereby you turn a statue into a living vessel for a divinity. This allows you to experience the intense presence of the divinity and communicate with them. It also provides you with a physical focus for your worship.. The belief in statues as receptacles of divinity dates back to theContinue reading “Ensouling Statues”
Spirit of Place: Why Do Some Witches Love Churches?
In the ‘Spirit of Place’ series I am going to be talking about some of the places that are important to me magically and giving some insight into how I work with them. This week I am looking at Churches: One of the fundamental abilities of the witch is to create a sacred space whereverContinue reading “Spirit of Place: Why Do Some Witches Love Churches?”
Storytelling, Poetry, and the Tarot
“Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,Which I am forbidden to see.” – The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot Tarot lends itself to literature, from the poetry of T.S. Eliot to the novellas of Italo Calvino.Continue reading “Storytelling, Poetry, and the Tarot”
Raising the Dead: Poetry, Inheritance and Necromancy
In my dreams, my uncle knows he’s dead. I’m ushering a class of primary school children through a set of front doors into a brutalist office building. It’s my uncle’s next crazy plan..
Words from the High Priestess: Healing Magic
The other day my High Priestess said something rather brilliant. I mean, she says brilliant things quite a lot, but unfortunately I am not often able to share them due to my oaths. However, this time I am able to share some of her thoughts on healing magic: Magic rarely works miracles, that’s not toContinue reading “Words from the High Priestess: Healing Magic”
