Sunday 7 November 2010

Three years of blogging

A Bad Witch's Blog is three years old today!

Yes, it is my blog's third birthday. I started writing it on November 7, 2007, and I have kept posting about five or six times a week for three years.

Looking back over the past year, here are some of the most memorable things that happened:

Doing a fire walk (pictured) has to be at the top of the list.

On a bitterly cold evening in February, I managed to fulfill a long-held ambition, to walk on fire (or rather, on hot coals). The fire walk was put on by Survivorbility, which runs fire walking and glass walking events throughout the UK. These are often to raise money for charities – in this case those taking part were collecting sponsorship for equal opportunities charity The Fawcett Society. It was a charity I was happy to support, even though I must admit I was terrified before the event. You can read what happened here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/02/fire-walking-facing-ones-fears.html

My second most memorable event of the year was spending the night in a haunted theatre with ghost hunting group The London Paranormal Society, back in July. This involved conducting short vigils in various parts of the theatre, using traditional and state-of-the-art equipment to detect temperature changes, odd sounds and potential spirits. You can find out what happened here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/07/bad-witch-goes-ghost-hunting.html

A workshop back in May by pagan teachers Vivianne Crowley, Caroline Robertson and Caroline Wise, on the myths and truths of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, was the third event I would not have wanted to miss. The Emerald Tablet is an ancient and mysterious artifact said to contain the secrets of alchemy and magick, and the workshop explored these things through talks, meditations, practical work and a beautiful ritual. You can read my write-up here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/05/working-with-emerald-tablet.html

While at home, I had a go at learning tea-leaf reading, which was another thing I had always wanted to do: You can read about my first efforts at http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/01/tea-leaf-reading-my-first-attempts.html - although I would say I am still learning the art and certainly hope to write more about tea-leaf reading in future.

I'd also like to mentions some great books I've read over the past 12 months. One of the books that was given away in a recent competition (more about that later), Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction, was among my favourites and you can read my review of it here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/03/review-witchcraft-very-short.html

A History of the Pendle Witches and Their Magic: Wicked Enchantmentsby Joyce Froome is another wonderful historical book. It is about the events surrounding one of the most famous witch trials in English history, when a dozen people who lived around Pendle Forest were charged with murder by witchcraft in 1612. My review of that is here:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/07/history-of-pendle-witches-their-magic.html

And my third favourite is another book published by Oxford University Press - On Monsters: A History of Our Fears. You can read my review here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/01/review-on-monsters-history-of-our-fears.html

A Bad Witch's Blog itself has seen a few new things over the year. I introduced new pages in September - links at the top of each page that say things like "home", "events", "books", "links" and "spellbook", to help readers navigate around the site more easily. I wrote more about my pages here:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/09/bad-witchs-blog-gets-new-pages.html

The first competition on A Bad Witch's Blog took place in the run-up to Halloween, with a prize of a copy of Grimoires: A History of Magic Books and Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction offered by Oxford University Press. It proved popular and I hope to run more competitions in future. You can see the details here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/10/win-grimoires-and-witchcraft-vsi.html

But, however many fun things I have done over the past year, it is the people who read A Bad Witches Blog that keep me writing. Thanks very much looking at my posts and for sending lovely comments, questions, suggestions and photos!

My last birthday post: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/11/bad-witch-is-two-today.html

5 comments:

Makarios said...

Felicitations on three good years. And, as we say in my part of the world, long may you wave.

chilledchimp said...

Happy birthday! And good to see you yesterday

Benny said...

Happy Birthday Bad Witch's blog. I'm a new-ish reader in New England USA. You are on my RSS feed, and I look forward to more interesting updates from the UK.

James C. Wallace II said...

Gauisus Natalis!!!

Michelle said...

Well a very Happy Birthday to your blog.. I love it and visit regularly! Vivianne is also running wonderful workshops in London too at the moment - I went along the other night and was not disappointed!
Thanks for always having an interesting blog - it helps me keep up to date with events as well. Blessings. x