A bad witch's blog

Tuesday, 30 December 2025

Green London: Winter Walk in Beckenham Place Park

I love going on walks in the great outdoors in the days between Christmas and New Year. I took these photos at Beckenham Place Park, which is a huge green space in the Borough of Lewisham in South East London, although it takes its name from a village on the borders of Kent.

The park includes areas of ancient woodland, meadows, a lake, and sustainable gardens. There are several walking routes to enjoy, including part of South East London’s Capital Ring and Green Chain Walk, which are clearly signposted. The River Ravensbourne runs along the eastern edge too.

A Palladian-style mansion in the grounds is a community hub that offers lots of events and workshops, including Mind, Body, Spirit and crafting activities. You can find out the details here. An old stableyard has been turned into a lovely cafe too. The park hosts fairs and festivals as well. At the moment there's a winter funfair and skating rink. If, like me, you want to avoid the commercialism of a funfair, the park is large enough that you can get well away from it and simply enjoy being in nature. As the sign in the picture below suggests:

Leave your headphones in your pocket
Allow yourself time in nature
Slow your pace
Look at the base of a tree then follow the trunk skywards
Gaze at the leaves framing the clouds (or bare branches at this time of year)
Look for the bird that owns the song
See the beautiful, question the unusual
Allow curiosity, fascination, and wonder to take hold
Actively connect to nature, it's good for you

You can find out more about Beckenham Place Park here: beckenhamplacepark.com/

Green London

I've been blogging regularly about London's green spaces in an effort to dispel a prevalent myth in the pagan community that it's just all concrete. Even in the City, which is of course heavily built up, there are still places where nature thrives, while Greater London has huge areas of woods, commons, parks and beautiful gardens.

The pictures on this post were all taken by me. Please do not use them without my permission.

Some Previous Green London Posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/07/green-london-ruskin-park-tranquil-gem.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/04/green-london-rookery-streatham-common.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/03/green-london-plumstead-common-its.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/03/green-london-londons-first-botanical.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/09/green-london-st-alphege-gardens-city.html

Monday, 29 December 2025

Occult Book Review: Pagan Portals - Chaos Magic

From Roman Saturnalia, to Tudor Revelries of Misrule, to the modern gap between Christmas and January when no one knows what day it is, but we're happy to drink Baileys for breakfast, this is the time of year for chaos. I decided to embrace the spirit of the season and read Pagan Portals - Chaos Magic, a book about manifesting your desires by throwing out dogma and making magic fun.

Actually, as an eclectic witch who honours Eris, Goddess of Chaos, I'm all for that at any time. However, I found this book a great reminder to clear the clutter of old ways of working, look at things with a fresh eye, and aim to start the New Year with a new attitude. Those are things chaos magic really helps with, as it offers oodles of techniques for embracing change.

Here's the synopsis of Pagan Portals - Chaos Magic from the website of publisher Moon Books:

Divided into two parts - Theory and Praxis - this book is a primer for those seeking to explore the philosophies of chaos magic, its principles and practical applications. In Part One, you'll learn to harness the power of intention, belief, and creativity not only to shape your reality according to your desires but also to decondition your mind, remove limiting beliefs, enter altered states of consciousness, achieve gnosis, and more. In Part Two, you'll learn to work with sigils, hypersigils, and magical entities, as well as explore powerful techniques, such as visualization and invocation, and the controversial realm of pop-culture magic. Presenting an understanding of the core concepts of chaos magic, this book provides insight into how to embrace chaos and unleash the mad scientist within. Your reality is yours to create.

The book is by Ivy Corvus, an American occultist who has been practicing chaos magic and other esoteric techniques for over 15 years. She's known on YouTube where she has cultivated a reputation as an experimental chaos magician. This is her first book, but it's extremely well written and easy to follow. Each chapter has practical exercises which build on each other. It's perfect for beginners who want to learn, but is also good as a refresher course for those with more experience.

You can view Pagan Portals - Chaos Magic on Amazon.

Please note I earn commission from some links.

Wednesday, 24 December 2025

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Pentagram

I recently learnt that the first mention of the pentangle - or pentagram - in English literature is in the Yuletide tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The 14th-century chivalric romance was originally written in Middle English, but the author is unknown.

Although Sir Gawain is depicted as a Christian knight in King Arthur's service, the tale itself has themes about nature and seasonal cycles that resonate with pagans. The tale is also full of magical symbolism. Sir Gawain is described as having a pentangle on his shield. Here's a translation of the relevant passage:

"Then they brought him his shield, which was of bright red, with the pentangle painted thereon in gleaming gold.
"And why that noble prince bare the pentangle I am minded to tell you, though my tale tarry thereby. It is a sign that Solomon set ere-while, as betokening truth; for it is a figure with five points and each line overlaps the other, and nowhere hath it beginning or end, so that in English it is called “the endless knot.” And therefore was it well suiting to this knight and to his arms, since Gawain was faithful in five and five-fold, for pure was he as gold, void of all villainy and endowed with all virtues. Therefore he bare the pentangle on shield and surcoat as truest of heroes and gentlest of knights."

The pentagram symbolises various things in different traditions. For witches it represents the elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit, while in some Christian traditions it is a sign for the five wounds inflicted on Jesus at the crucifixion. In this text it means "truth". Knights were supposed to obey the three principles of Truth, Love and Courage.

You can find both the Middle English version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the translation I quoted above for free on Project Gutenberg The picture is from a 14th century edition of the book.

Tuesday, 23 December 2025

Tips to Struggle Less with Recycling at Yuletide

The photo above shows one of my efforts to reduce waste at Yuletide - wrapping a gift in a reusable scarf and upcycling the front of an old greeting card into a label.

While I'm sure that everyone reading my blog is good about recycling, a survey found more than half of the people questioned admitted they recycle less at Christmas. They get overwhelmed by packaging, wrapping paper and cards.

The survey, by waste management company Sortera UK, reveals confusion over festive bin collection days and a lack of space for rubbish are major reasons recycling habits slip during the holiday season.

About 80 per cent of consumers end up with at least one extra bag of rubbish after the festive holidays, while almost one in three households say they put out three or more additional bags on bin day. Furthermore, more than 50 per cent of people recycle less at Christmas than they do throughout the rest of the year. Why? Because many feel unsure about what’s recyclable, struggle to find the time, or simply run out of space as recycling bins overflow with packaging.

Sortera’s marketing director, Jonathan Younger, says the problem spikes at the time households should be recycling more, “Christmas waste doubles, sometimes even triples, but recycling rates go the other way. People feel overwhelmed and the bins fill up fast. The good news is that with a bit of planning, it’s still easy to stay on top of recycling and make sure things go in the right bin.”

Commenting on the survey results, Adam Herriott of WRAP said: “A few simple habits can make sure your day runs smoothly. Flattening boxes, reusing gift packaging, and checking any changes to local collections all help keep valuable materials in circulation.”

Sortera has launched a practical Christmas Waste Guide, with tips for reducing waste, to help consumers stay green during the holidays.

Jonathan added: “Small changes make a big difference. One of my favourites is switching from wrapping paper to reusable gift bags. They look great, save loads of time and can be used again and again, just don’t write on the tag.”

Alternatively, use scarves and upcycled cards as labels, like I still do each year to wrap gifts for my loved ones. I keep the scarves and reuse them each year - as well as sometimes wearing them as shawls or using them as altar cloths in between birthdays and Yule.

Monday, 22 December 2025

Tarot Reading: A Magical Yuletide Card for the World

With the Winter Solstice behind us, the sun reborn and the festive holidays ahead, I drew a tarot card as a reading for the world. The Three of Wands was revealed. It's a card of optimisim, of looking forwards, contemplating a journey, new opportunities, and success.

The deck I used was the Magical Nordic Tarot and the image shows three branches just starting to burst with new buds and pointing upwards. The book that comes with the set says that it represents celebration and joy. The word on the card is "freedom". I see it as very positive for this time of year. The festival season is a time to put your woes behind you and enjoy life. There are opportunities for travel and meeting people. It's a time to allow hope into your life and let yourself have the freedom to do what you want.

Wands are a card of energy and creativitity. Wish for whatever you want the future to bring, whether that's love, success in business, a project, a new home, a change of location, a fresh start, or the renewal ands strengthening of an existing partnership.

The Magical Nordic Tarot was created by Jayne Wallace and is published by Cico Books. The images on the cards show the Northern Lights in the background, which felt appropriate for this time of year and was why I chose to use this deck for my Yuletide reading for the world.

You can view The Magical Nordic Tarot on Amazon.

(Please note I earn commission from some links)

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