Witch Fest 2021

 

My haul from this year's witchy gathering.

Witch Fest was back baby!  And it was pretty fun.  To be honest it wasn't as crowded as previous years, but that's ok.  We didn't have one at all last year, so I'll take anything!

The emptiness of Astor Place.

The belly dancers were there and they bring all the vibes!

Lady Rhea selling her famous spell candles.

A tarot author with his new deck release.

So after an hour or so things did start to pick up, and that was good because Starr almost didn't do her class!  She taught a workshop on the concept of the Warrior Witch, which was fascinating.  She doesn't believe in labeling oneself as a particular kind of witch, instead to study everything and be knowledgeable about all different types of practices, not only for the sake of protection, but for what she calls adaptive witchcraft.  Basically Starr does not adhere to the notion of cultural appropriation, as she explained, she even carries a bible in her witch bag because one must be prepared for anything!

The second class I sat for was with the official witch of NYC herself, Lady Rhea.  She taught us how to do a Ouija tarot reading with thirteen cards and a planchette.  Very insightful!  She believes that everyone should try Ouija and told us that that's how she started as a very young girl.  Also interjected were wonderful stories of old school NY, and as a New Yorker myself, those are the stories that make my heart sing.  I had no idea she used to work for Waldbaum's (a former supermarket chain in NY) cutting lox.  She said it's where she learned Yiddish.  Can I love this woman anymore?

I didn't want to get Lady Rhea's face, sorry.

We did buy a few things of course, how could I not?  Especially with Ana in tow, but I was able to win an item with my free raffle ticket (the felted garland) and I got a deep discount on the bath spell kit and unicorn oracle deck because they were part of the silent auction.  I basically got both items for 15 bucks less than the actual cost of the bath kit by itself.  I also got Ana a bath bomb in a cauldron which is supposed to contain a crystal but it didn't say which one.  Ana's first purchase which she had to have was a resin cast cat pendant with blue glitter eyes:

Semi masked Fairy (Ana) with cat necklace.

We stayed for the majority of the festivities except for the closing summer ritual, Ana was done and tired at that point.  So, I took her to the park in Union Square to further tire her out.

It was such a great day!

I did ask Starr about Pagan Pride Day, but as of right now, they still don't know.  Apparently the city made them do a lot of paper work just for this one, mostly regarding masks.  I'd also like to add that at some point we were once again harassed by a group of Christians.  What surprised me however was that they were Latino, usually it's a bunch of old white people absolutely disgusted with us, but these were very very young Latino kids.  Really scary to think that someone got to them like that.  Not only were they saying that we as witches were sinning, but they flat out stated that Buddhism, Hinduism, Homosexuality and Satanism weren't going to help anyone.  And for a very young kid of color to say that, that really makes me sad.  Thankfully they left after preaching with a microphone and speaker.  We don't let people like that ruin our day.

Blessed Be!

🌛🌝🌜