Is ‘Witchcraft Today’ still relevant?

Reviewing my own presentation is a bit of a weird move, I’ll admit that. But six months between public presentations means I’ve had plenty of time to overthink things, so here we are. Last Thursday night was my Folklore to Fringe Modern ‘Witchcraft Today’ presentation at the Cauldron of Wellbeing in Penrith in Western Sydney. and it’s a part of my series of workshops I’ve been presenting and working on at my local fav occult store.

Here’s what I thought was well received, and here’s what I thought fell a bit flat. 

What was my motivation? 

I had tossed around a few ideas in my mind based on what I was seeing being discussed around various witchcraft spaces (a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about the origins of modern pagan witchcraft, and frankly, alot of misplaced Wicca trashing) and this is what landed, however I wanted to bring my own spin and energy to this. Afterall, I’m no historian, nor an academic in this field, and there’s only so many times I can reheat the same spaghetti. 

Of course, once I’d written the rough outline, the blurb, and sent out the promotional email, aaaand made booking seats available, I then had to write the detailed presentation and things took a direction with my creativity that I didn’t quite predict lol *rolls eyes* 

The Story So Far

The story was far bigger than I had originally anticipated. I think I bit off more than I could chew, and what I presented last Thursday night was probably two workshops rolled into one. It was ALOT of material. If you were there, I apologise for that!

What I think I did well based on feedback I got at the tea & cake break: 

• Solid summary and analysis of the occult influences of modern witchcraft in the european and english context – in one person’s words ‘this is amaaaaaaaazing and so incredibly useful in understanding the big picture’ (thanks P!)
• Good focus on how this fit into the socio-political and economic factors of the time in both Europe and the UK (I covered specifically in detail Gerald Gardners’ origin story and it’s a bit more complex than most people might not realise)

This is where I think things fell a little flat:

• I jumped into a breakdown of where I think ‘traditional’ vs ‘modern’ seekers find their way into witchcraft, and then barreled headlong into the intersection of aesthetic craft and where this hits the dumpsterfire of generative AI. This was challenging and meaty to work through in the second half of an already busy presentation and I think folks already had a head full of information, and were tired. Especially with the effort it took to get there in person in that awful weather (a rainbomb had hit Sydney about 4pm and didn’t stop). Heck, my energy was waning at the end of a long day, and maybe, this could have been a standalone preso?! I still think it was awesome content, so maybe I’ll be back with this another time.

So yeah, that’s my critique and I think I’ll offer them as separate presentations next time because there’s ALOT of thinking to break down across the two areas. If you were there in person, thank you for making the effort, I hope you liked it, got something out of it, and didn’t fall asleep up the back. And I’ll get to work on bringing a refined and reframed version to my online peeps soon. 

Do you want to make sure you’re the first to know about the next workshop? Join the mailing list. That’s where I make announcements first up about when and where I’ll host workshops and other events. I probbaly email once a month or less. Usually less because emails are kinda boring and everyone gets enough of those. I do update our website too, however by the time I tell wider social media (ahem, Meta) about the events we’re running…we’re usually 50-75% booked out.

As always, thank you for being a part of the Western Sydney witchcraft, occult and pagan community and if you’re keen to join us in person, there’s a Midwinter Feast coming in a few short weeks – make sure you secure your seat at the table 🙂 
This is what our last feasting night looked like….book a free seat at the next one if you don’t want to miss out.