Welcome to The Garnet Grimoire, a place for witches, outcasts, and anyone exploring the magic within.
The Garnet Grimoire is hosted by two witches and lifelong friends. This project invites you to come with us on our journey of self discovery and the pursuit of knowledge. In this digital grimoire, we will be discussing various witchcraft subjects- from going back to the basics to the niche and obscure. Here we are crafting a space to discuss how our magick is influenced by our lived experiences and society around us. Join us as we delve into topics such as spirituality, our individual paths and practices, social justice, religious deconstruction, mental health, chronic illness, modern motherhood, and more. So brew your favorite potion, light a candle or two, and let’s get witchy.

So who are we? Allow us to introduce ourselves!

I met Sage at church camp in the summer of ‘03 where we geeked out about fantasy worlds and celebrity crushes, as any self-respecting teenage girls would do. We have remained close friends through many phases of life and over great distances. With this joint endeavor, we start a new chapter as our friendship continues to grow from church camp to witchcraft.

At the height of my Christian faith, my family and I had moved from the Atlantic coast to the northern Appalachians to get involved in missions work. While the area is absolutely gorgeous I found the change from fast-paced, diverse society to conservative mountain town a bit confining. After all, when your new friends are blushing about holding hands with their crush and you’ve already figured out that you like kissing both boys and girls it messes with your head a bit. In retrospect, I started my deconstruction at 16 although I wouldn’t realize it for a few more years. I rejected all forms of religion and spirituality for quite some time after that. My practice still rests heavily on science and the laws of the universe today.
My journey back to magic was convoluted and messy, but the turning point for me was meeting my husband while living in Washington state. The circumstances that led to us meeting were all so serendipitous that by the end of the week I had to admit to believing in fate… or at least in something. We were engaged in less than six months and have been married now for over six years. I recently moved back to the area I spent so much time running from but this time it’s on my own terms with my own little family.

Today my practice involves a lot of kitchen witchery and bad dream banishing. Creating a space for my family to freely follow their own paths and passions has helped me to pursue many sides of myself and my craft. My current topics of interest include blending my degree in geology with the magick of minerals, the properties of whatever is in my spice cabinet, and aligning with the cycles of nature (lunar, menstrual, seasonal, astrological). I intend to use this project as a platform to digitally document what I experience and discover on my journey, and to connect with other seekers on this path.

When Amie originally told me she was getting into witchcraft, I was certainly intrigued; I also had an otherworldly experience in my youth when I befriended the ghost that haunted my bedroom. However, I was not at a place in my life where I could dedicate much time or energy to anything new as I had been recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had just moved to a scary new city with my husband. So instead, I tracked the moon and collected crystals, ingredients, books… whatever I could find, so that one day, when I was ready, I would be fully prepared to come into my own magick. And unless I’m very much mistaken, that day has come.

For most of my life, I was told who I was and who I should be, but none of it ever felt quite right. I spent a long time hating myself because I thought I was broken or defective because I wasn’t like everyone else. I had a hard time making and keeping friends (except Amie and my husband). I had an even harder time making myself do the everyday things that everyone else seemed to do so naturally. After struggling on like that for about thirty years, I finally started going to therapy and found some of the answers I was looking for (more on that later), dyed my hair purple, and got a wicked septum ring. So now, in my mid thirties, I’m finally starting to figure out who I am, divorced from anyone’s opinion but my own. I’m hoping this blog will help me, and perhaps you, in that endeavor.

So follow along with us as we learn, laugh, and spell cast, and keep reading our Garnet Grimoire.