The Cottage in the Woods: Reflections on Mentoring, Paganism, and the Path Home
For the past year, I’ve been mentoring students in the Community Ministry Certificate (CMC) programme at Cherry Hill Seminary — an online, not‑for‑profit divinity school dedicated to earth‑centred and pagan spirituality. After completing the programme myself, stepping into the role of mentor felt like entering a shared metaphysical space — what I’ve come to call…
at home in the universe: a guided meditation
Since leaving Asheville and my beloved community, it has been hard to feel connected to the place we find ourselves. The work on this has been long and tough and it’s not over. I know that I have to find the gifts in the struggle and so I ask of myself and the Divine everyday,…
There are no margins in the circle
I started my project Open Coven almost ten years ago and in that time it has gone through various iterations from blog to creative business. Only a couple of months ago I was all in with making Open Coven an embroidery business. Each stage of this project reflects what was going on for me personally…
Sacred space tour
a change in the weather means I can be in my greenhouse more. the winter saw it hibernate but now it invites me to return and be communion.
Celestial Beginnings: An Online Course on Beginning Embroidery
If you’ve ever wanted to learn embroidery but didn’t know where to start, Celestial Beginnings was created just for you. This beginner-friendly online course gently guides you into the world of stitching through simple designs for each zodiac sign. Whether you’re completely new or picking up a needle again after years away, this course is designed to…
Embroidery as Ritual
Looking for a beginner embroidery guide? Discover how to turn slow stitching into a ritual practice. Includes symbolic embroidery kits for modern makers. Embroidery has always been more than decoration. Long before it became a hobby, it was a way to mark time, to tell stories, to protect, to bless, to remember. Cloth carried symbols.…
The Evolution of Open Coven
I am deep into the work of finally launching my new embroidery kits. This work is so joyful and exciting but has also been challenging and required patience. I can’t wait to share them. In the run up to the launch, I thought I would talk a little bit about why I chose the name…
Choosing to Act
I grieve, I mourn and I worry. I compartmentalize, I steel myself. It’s all I can do while I stare down machines of hatred, greed and fear that seem to be moving across the world. In Tianmen Square, Beijing 1989 the footage and image of a man standing in front of a line of tanks…
The Power in Creativity
Here in the UK we are experiencing a significant arctic blast. Freezing temperatures and heavy snow have seen our landscape transformed. I walked with my family along the canal and we marvelled at the light filtered through the sparkle of snow frosted branches and the mysterious patterns on the frozen water. The world felt magical…
Stand Still
Stand Still We are truly in the Yuletide season. The darkness seems never so close as these days leading up to the longest night, and this year that darkness is particularly heavy. Solstice comes from the roman word ‘solstitium’ meaning ‘sun standing still’. I welcome it, this opportunity to be still. I want to wrap…
A Witch’s Pilgrimage
A challenge for me after moving from Asheville in the US to North Staffordshire in the UK was the loss of the bond with where I lived. Over fourteen years I had developed a precious, reciprocal relationship with the genius loci and leaving the spirit of that place was very hard. I know of course,…
The Four of Cups and Finding Solace in the Practice
The ritual as I remember it, was unchanged. I would come home from school, make tea, put it on a special table, and start sewing while watching Little Women on VHS (the 1949 version). Back then I did tapestries – large vividly printed designs on canvas that I filled in with thick, wool-like yarn, a…
Embroidery Myths
Perhaps you scroll through sumptuous pictures of embroidery and other fiber art projects online but think “I could never do that.” If that is the case I am here to tell you that you are mistaken. I want to address some of the myths about embroidery. Embroidery is ComplicatedAt first glance embroidery can look intricate and…
A Potteries Pagan
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…
Free Zine
For several years I have had a Mailchimp account, but recently I’ve become a bit frustrated with several aspects of the tool. In particular, you now have to pay to create an automated response for new members so I can’t offer any incentives for signing up for my newsletter. So instead, I am offering a…
What is Paganism?
The age old question! Well in this video I talk about what I have learned about the history of it and what it means to me personally.
Join Me for a Free Lammas Ritual
Where I have landed in the UK, I see the shift of the season as it mellows. The nights are a little longer, the fields turn to gold and we see the late flowers of goldenrod and yellow loosestrife. The year has been hard for too many of us. Join me as we step out…
This Dark Moon
The chinking sound is snail shells in my pocket. Foraged on a walk, their residents long gone. Spirals remind of the cycles of which we are all part. This past week was a mourning. For people and places. Absences yearning to be filled. I began the week with offerings for a lost friend, gone too…
Canal Magick
It is not pollution in the canal at Kidsgrove, but iron oxide in the stone that makes it orange. Even so, the look of it was alarming. Not a muddy orange brown, but bright, lurid. When a barge passes through it, it agitates the water creating orange plumes. You can’t see the bottom at all.…