The organization B Arts in Stoke-on-Trent recently asked locals to embroider patches for a picnic blanket on the subject of what the city means to us. With the patch was to be a piece of writing describing the design we chose. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish mine in time to be included so I’m sharing it here.
When I was seventeen I discovered that Paganism & witches were real.
I’d always assumed Paganism was lost to ancient times, but had always wanted to learn about it. After many years of living in London I’d returned with my family to Stoke-on-Trent. In doing so, after I found my community, a group of new friends who taught me Paganism and Witchcraft are real. This realization set me on a path I still follow.
I spent many hours searching through the Pagan /New Age section of our local indie bookshop Webberleys. Their selection was excellent, stocking classic tomes such as Spiral Dance (by Starhawk), Hedge Witch (by Rae Beth), Drawing Down the Moon (Margot Adler). Webberleys became my school as I delved into a fascinating journey of ancient and new ways of expressing personal spirituality and agency.
A great deal of Pagans and witches have similar stories of discovery, developing their spiritual path through a bookshop with an esoteric section. I will be forever grateful for Webberleys and the part it played in my Pagan development.
Now I return again to my hometown after many years away and I see that it wasn’t just Webberly’s that helped form me as a witch and Pagan.
Ceramics were the basis of this city and in this beloved craft and industry you can see the four elements at play. Earth as clay, water needed to form it, air that dries it and fire that hardens the clay giving it strength and longevity. These four elements are sacred to Pagans.
The bottle kilns, so emblematic of this city, are our standing stones reminding us of the magic of the Potteries; the creativity like seams of clay or ley lines running through it, echoing back through time.
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