Spirit Northwest

J. Allen Cross will cover what it means to live life as a folk practitioner, and how folk traditions, rituals, and methods of working magic develop from everyday living.

From dirt roads to the big city, wherever you find yourself, you’re likely to find people. Where there are people, there’s culture, belief, ways of thinking, resources, methods of problem solving, and all of these things eventually add up to folk magic.


Demystify the secrets of this living practice, learn the power of “because I said so”, and learn to live your life as a practitioner of the old ways in a modern world.

Join us for a live recording of That Witch Life Podcast where hosts Kanani Soleil, Courtney Weber, and Hilary Whitmore interview author and keynote speaker Maria Minnis. Please note--audio in session will be recorded and shared publicly as a podcast. No video will be recorded.

Channeled History: How to connect to the past to illuminate the present.

Hans Dieter Betz, editor of the Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (PGM), proposes that “In its Hellenistic transformation, the Egyptian religion of the pre-Hellenistic era appears to have been reduced and simplified, no doubt to facilitate its assimilation into Hellenistic religion as the predominant cultural reference". I argue that in the contemporary Pagan paradigm, revival and reconstruction continues this process. In 1999, I was an experienced Wiccan ritualist and magic worker, but the Greek Magical Papyri in Translation opened my eyes to a faraway time, culture, and magical worldview. I was eager to try a PGM ritual for myself, and with the overconfidence of youth, I performed the copper cup divination rite from PDM XIV: 395-427 in public. Focusing on this case study, I will demonstrate that the rite was "reduced and simplified" in an attempt to "facilitate its assimilation" into the Neopagan framework of the early 21st century CE.