Life Update | and I went to a witches' circle monthly meetup

The reticence of your fellow Witch Circle attendees to share contact details reminds me of the experiences Tanya Luhrmann details in her book "Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft." She was in London about the 70s and people met in bookshops and public lectures. To join a circle or coven you were shoulder tapped after the community got to know you and felt you were safe. The political atmosphere would have been the same as in blue states America today I would think.

Pet loss and emergencies hurt. Fully. I had to go through that 2 years ago and I'm not fully healed. So, I wish you a good healing journey! Also, glad you have returned! I'm in school and working full time so it's been hard to practice but I always have time to watch~

Even though I light up when I see you in my feed, please don't feel like you HAVE to upload, only if you want to.

I'm so sorry about your babies. I have a cat who has always been incredibly healthy but she's 12 now and I'm starting to get nervous about the future...think I'm just going to keep my head in the sand for awhile. I used to take care of sick and injured cats and buried dozens of them, but it never got any easier and one day I just couldn't handle it emotionally anymore and it's been just me and Spooky ever since...

...ANYWHO, I also live in a very conservative, religious area AND a small town, so being "witchy" out in the open is basically painting a target on my forehead, it's not worth all the likely trouble. Even If I DID go to any sort of gathering I'm afraid that my atheism wouldn't be accepted and that it would be too church-like, so good for you for being brave and giving it a shot, but unfortunately your experience sounds like everything that I was afraid of. I always felt like a renaissance fair would be a good environment to blend into for a more fun, casual and safe gathering that would attract more lighthearted individuals. If I ever hosted that's where I think I would do it.

Congrats on 5,000 subs, by the way! That's so awesome. I hope this means that you'll be sticking around here for awhile. You're one of the few people on YT (or anywhere really) who I trust and who's had a positive impact on my actual life, that's so rare and greatly appreciated, to say the least.

Honestly, from my perspective, you are one of the leading voices in sharing secular witchcraft concepts - so I could totally see you leading a witch circle! I've never been to one, but I have been to an event on natural healing where muscle testing and energy intuition were topics of discussion. I went in as a blank slate, knowing nothing, and I left feeling like, "ok, whatever that was, it's not for me."

All too familiar with pet loss. Lost my BFF void in 2013, and as recent as January lost my diluted tortie. You never really 100 percent recover, you just learn how to move on/around it.

I used to teach hoop dance at a local witchy community center and I attended a circle once. They did some knot magic for New Year’s, I think? I definitely overthought like you did and I haven’t felt super comfortable going to another one, but I hope you go back and report again because this was really interesting!

If it helps in anyway, the way I found to stop analyzing everyone's supernatural stories is to accept that they probably aren't in a place to accept that while the experience is very real the explanation they have might not be. People in witchy spaces in my experience fear this stereotype of the vindictive anti-theist that dismisses everything they've experienced and use it in return to dismiss any people who challenge their understanding of the world. This kind of exchange rarely leads somewhere interesting if the person hasn't already started to question their beliefs through their own will.

I attend a Full Moon and New Moon meet-up at my favorite metaphysical shop. Its a witchy but its more open-ended. If that makes sense. It's a mixing pot of practitioners so there are some witches and some who are just into the spiritual and metaphysical. I think you can tell if you found your group or not. I was nervous my first meeting but after my 1st meeting up I knew I wanted to come back at least to get more a feel for it. Ive been going to these meet up for a few months now.

Maybe give yourself another chance with them since you feel it was more of your nervous that drained you.

That pinball machine sounds super fun!
I haven't been to an actual witches circle, but I did attend a 'How to make your own smoke wands' workshop by a local witchy herbalist. It was a small group with a mix of relatively 'normal' people and some more witchy folks. The herbalist leading the workshop obviously tried to keep the amount of woo woo as low as possible, just sprinkled in here and there, which was really nice. Most of the evening we just spent making the wands and chatting without deep diving on subject. So it was nice to be with witchy people but without having to talk about our actual beliefs.

I teach in a catholic high school, and sometimes I have to accompany my students to church, and it's like I'm there, I'm not catholic but I'm respectful, but I'm not really there, my spirituality is in other places... and many witch's circles felt like that to me as well.

I get that same emotional dip after social situations!! I have tried to talk to other people about this and no one I've talked to experiences it lol.

I always worry giving my 'resting witch face' in these situations, which is accidentally disrespectful - its not intentional I just can't help it, which is why i tend not to go 🫣

Are you autistic? (You talked about the special interest thing)

I love your presence in your videos. It’s like talking with a friend 😊 Your science-forward approach to witchcraft is so interesting to me. Can’t wait for the next video!

Thank you for existing. Been having a hard time finding this sort of thing without any deities involved.

I'm sorry for your loss. And I can relate to having social anxiety! The Self Esteem Workbook has helped me a lot with it. I'm fortunate to have a group nearby that is very friendly and relaxed. I've only been out with them once yet but pland to again.

I hope your well atheism is on the rise and paganism gives it color :} so sad about your cat :{ I have 5 cats myself $$ to go to vet and are our family there is no evidence of any psychic abilities. I just do not buy into anything without falsifiable evidence and metaphysical claims are never with evidence in that way. But sounds like for fantasy and cosplay viewpoint I bet it would be fun . Thats all I do the witchy stuff for is fantasy fun.. I can not stand mediums they are just scammers using people. IMHO I am no way good in groups like that. I would have been in the very back watching.. And probably critizing in my mind everything that they try to claim as true. :D its hard to turn that off . I feel the exact same thing at events I have gone to before. Psychic healers I find are truely fake shit they go to them instead of a doctor thats the scary part. I did go to a Goddess church once with my mom. She was native american and really into whoo whoo so she fit right in ROFL. They turned off th elights and we did a kind of meditation . I just wanted the lights back on because it felt uncomfortable. The meditation was not to bad though but they went on about ghosts and death and felt I was a christian church again.. depressing. lol But I liked how they saw death better than christianity but still delusional thinking there is anything after we die.. I really look forward to more videos. Sorry to type so much. had to much caffeine today and did not edit it so its a mess to read..lol

I am so very sorry for what you went through with your pets. My dog of 15 years passed away when I was 7 months pregnant, that was 7 years ago and it still hurts. It was difficult to get over it.

As for the feeling that you said that you get when someone says something to you or does something, I get those thoughts of disbelief or being suspicious myself, what do they signal for you? I think for myself it is either the anxiety feeling that I very often have or the fact that I had relations with a narcissistic person and it destroyed my trust in people so I constantly think that there is something hiding behind their actions

As for the event, I would gerl the same as you, there is only so much woo discussion or in general discussion that I am opposed to or not interested about that I can take, and at a point I also start feeling uncomfortable and I consider it kinda wasted time? But if you would like to give it one more try, I am curious about the outcome! ❤

It sounds to me like the topic sucked, and the social expectations were not met. You probably hoped that at least someone who was there, rolling their eyes, would come to you and say, "I get you. By the way, here's my Instagram..."

I very much disliked most of my witches circles years back when I looked into them. This is before social media around 23 years ago. I had the same 'ick' feelings, but after attending a few, becoming familiar with some people, you eventually start finding out who is on the same page as you.

did you go to the meetup and not come back?

So glad you like to call out the scammers

🤥😪 Where are you!

It's cool that you went out on a limb and attended this meetup! I agree that sometimes it can be a whole mix of personalities. I've never been to a witches' circle meetup - the closest I've gotten was just hosting my own tarot meetups - hearing about circles of protection gave me ideas for the next one. I also appreciated the reminder of the "dip" of energy after social gatherings! My brain likes to work overtime and freak out that the dip "means" something, when in actuality it's likely just a temporary passing feeling, like you mentioned.

STILL MISSING YOU! HOPE ALL IS WELL.. 😪👏

Sounds like you attended an echo chamber