Hail, Traveler: An Introduction
Author’s Note: The content of this blog reflects my personal experiences and perspectives on magic. Witchcraft is a deeply individual practice, and my approach may not align with everyone’s beliefs or traditions. I encourage readers to explore, question, and adapt what resonates with them. Nothing shared here is meant to serve as absolute truth or professional advice. Trust your intuition, do your own research, and walk your own path.
My name is Anoka. I am a long-time practitioner of magic with an enduring love for folklore, history, and the supernatural. I am queer (bisexual and nonbinary, married to a wonderful partner) as well as autistic with the convenient special interest of all things magical and paranormal. I am also a coffee enthusiast, a chronically ill witch, a former teacher, a devoted cat mum, an ordained minister, a veiling Pagan, and—when time allows—a baker and candlestick maker.
My journey into the witch’s wood began over twenty-five years ago with what I would later recognize as my family’s cunning-tradition. A handful of hand-me-down spells and charms (said to have trickled down from a great-great-grandparent of uncertain European origin) formed the foundation of my early practice. With my mentor’s encouragement, I wove those fragments into a broader magical framework and embraced the title of witch.
What began as a patchwork of family tradition, cottage magic, and hedgecraft has since undergone transformation. Over the years, as I reclaimed my familial languages, folklore, and history, I stripped my practice back to its bare bones—the first charms, the oldest words—and rebuilt it with new understanding. Today, I walk my personal path of Black Book Traditional Magic, an animistic and historically informed approach to witchcraft rooted in folklore, spirit-work, and ancestral guidance.
This blog is a space where I chronicle my evolving practice—returning magic to the center of my life after years of approaching it through an academic lens. Here, you will find personal reflections, musings on folklore and magical history, and journal entries that explore the lived experience of a practitioner working within a self-constructed, tradition-inspired framework.
If these concepts resonate with you—if you, too, find yourself drawn to the crossroads of folklore and witchcraft—then welcome. Let us journey together through the witches’ wood.
