Smoky Mountain Sorcery

Smoky Mountain Sorcery: Latest Articles

  • These Sacred Mountains

    It’s been raining all day today, a magical sound in the Smoky Mountains. Up here, my little farm sits at about 3100 ft, and sometimes that means the clouds wrap themselves around our little ridge and we disappear inside them, unable to even see the cars in our driveway. The mountain I live on is…

  • Christian Trauma In The Face Of Rising Christian Fascism

    Of all the decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in June, the one that gave me the worst panic attacks was Kennedy vs Bremerton School District. Surprised? I’ve certainly written a lot more about the overturning of Roe vs Wade in light of my own adoption trauma. But high school football coach Joseph Kennedy…

  • So You Want To Hex a Public Figure

    There’s apparently quite a controversy brewing over on Tik Tok about hexing public figures, such as Supreme Court Justices. Having cast a few successful hexes, I’m here to offer some guidance on how to do it effectively. First off: I’m not Wiccan, and do not subscribe to any “rule of three.” Some of the controversy…

  • How Sharing Trauma Can Make A Difference

    Heartbreaking Stories of “Late Term Abortions” Helped Me See The Lies I’d Been Told By the “Pro-Life” Movement I was raised to believe abortion was murder. That as an adoptee, it was only because I was born before Roe v Wade that I was born at all. My mother told me often, when I complained…

  • No, Love Doesn’t Win

    It’s been a rough few days. A good friend of mine, venting rage and frustration about the general loss of bodily autonomy and civil rights we’re witnessing said something along the lines of, “I know love wins and all that, but right now I’m angry.” They were posting on social media to an audience that…

  • It’s All Just Too Much

    Two years ago I wrote about the Collective Trauma of George Floyd’s Murder. Since then, over a million Americans have died from Covid. We watched a violent insurrection take place at our Capitol. Police killings haven’t even slowed down, much less stopped. An insidious attack on books in libraries and classrooms has blossomed into an…

  • The “Domestic Supply of Infants” and “Pro-Life” Thinking

    I was adopted as an infant. Relinquished at birth and placed at 7 weeks. My family was open about this from the beginning, and one of my very earliest memories was being told that I was adopted. But I was also told that I was an only child because of Roe v Wade. “Your daddy…

  • Why I Hate Mother’s Day. Also, Please Don’t Say This To Me

    Mother’s Day is really painful for people with abusive childhoods. We try to avoid the day on social media, but it’s nearly impossible. Obviously lots of people have mother’s worth celebrating or that they miss, and they deserve to have a day. But there needs to be a way for those of us with trauma…

  • This Was Always Gonna Happen

    So SCOTUS is gonna overturn Roe v Wade, and a lot of folks out there are shocked. If I had $1 for everyone on Twitter who’s take was “bUt ThEy’Ll LoSe ThE FuNdRaIsInG IsSuE!” I could cancel student loans. This is clearly difficult for some left-of-center folks to understand, but the right wing doesn’t actually…

  • Trauma Brain: What Living With CPTSD Looks Like

    Trauma causes permanent changes to the brain. I wrote an actually coherent – articulate even – article about the science around it here: Your Brain On Trauma. This video is more of an explanation of what it’s like to live with those changes, and a real time demonstration to boot. I’m like a squirrel on…

  • Donald Trump Shows Typical Abuser Behavior by Blaming Nancy Pelosi For Not Stopping J6

    CW: Victim Blaming The events of January 6, 2021 are seared on the brains of many Americans. My household watched the carnage unfold via YouTube livestreams until it finally got picked up by mainstream media- well after the crowd had broken through the barricades, climbed the walls of the Capitol and forced the certification of…

  • A Word About The Oscar’s Incident

    My oldest was surfing Twitter when it happened, and soon the whole household was debating whether or not it was a bit. Then we saw Jada Pinkett Smith’s struggles with alopecia. And a closer look at the video of her reaction to the “joke” made it clear this was in no way staged. I realize…

  • The Mórrígan as Mother and More: My Appearance on Personal Pans

    I had the honor of appearing this week on the Personal Pans podcast with Vanessa Walilko. We had so much fun, I feel like I’ve gained a new friend. Here’s how she described the episode: What happens when your mother is not a mother?  Where do you find a maternal figure?  When you find yourself…

  • Do Abusive Ancestors Grow On The Other Side?

    More thoughts spurred by Tyler Henry’s new Netflix series, Life After Death. In one episode, Tyler gives a message where a departed mother apologizes for how she treated her child in life. “I see it now,” Tyler quotes her as saying to him. “I couldn’t before but I do now.” (May not be exact, I’m…

  • Tyler Henry’s Adoption Trauma

    Last night I binged the whole season of Life After Death With Tyler Henry. Concurrent with the various readings Henry gives to strangers, the season details the emotional drama surrounding his Mom’s newly-discovered adoption. Obviously, I had a lot of feelings, and there was a lot that I related to as the season progressed. Theresa…

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