Back on the Broomstick: Old Witchcraft, New Path

When the bonfire burns low and the spirits are abroad, you’d better know your way home.

This Samhain, Laylla and Chelle explore the spooky traditions of Nos Galan Gaeaf, the Welsh eve of winter, Samhian here in the Nothern Hemisphere, and the magick we can draw from its folklore today. From encounters with Y Ladi Wen, the White Lady, to the fearsome tailless black sow, these stories have plenty to say about respecting boundaries, keeping your promises, and knowing when it’s time to leave.

With tales of ghostly encounters, bonfire divination, and a look at the Welsh Otherworld figure Gwyn ap Nudd, the witches find inspiration for modern spells to protect yourself and your home as the dark half of the year settles in.

Samhain is also a time to seek messages and glimpse what might be ahead. From marked stones in bonfire ashes to seasonal fortune-telling customs, the witches discuss divination woven into Welsh folklore and how those traditions can inspire our practices today. They also pull an oracle card for the holiday to see what guidance awaits as we enter the dark half of the year.

We talk so much about opening ourselves to ancestors and messages at Samhain. There’s just as much magick in deciding who gets an invitation, what deserves our attention, and when to close the door. Gather close, keep the hearth warm, and remember that a thinner veil doesn’t mean an open invitation.

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While we’re lighting candles for the ancestors, what magick can we make for those of us still on this side of the veil? This week, Laylla and Chelle are talking about Samhain for the living. There’s plenty of room at this season’s table for remembering the dead, but let’s also feed the people who are still here.

We’re exploring the magick of giving people their offerings while they’re alive, preserving the stories and traditions we love, and deciding which inherited patterns have followed us far enough. You don’t need children to leave a legacy, and you don’t need a message from beyond the veil to have a meaningful Samhain. The people you teach, the community you care for, and the kindness you put into practice all become part of what you leave behind.

As the Wheel turns toward the darker months, we’re tending the hearth, protecting our peace, and making room for endings that don’t come with a funeral. A friendship, an old belief, or a version of yourself you’ve outgrown can deserve acknowledgment, too. And you’re allowed to mourn what’s finished without immediately knowing what comes next.

Plus, we’re sharing a simple spell with candles, earth, and a little tombstone to hold a funeral for habits and ideas that have overstayed their welcome. Give them a proper send-off, then turn your attention to the life you’re still making.

This Samhain, honor the ancestor you’re becoming: choose one thing you want to be remembered for, one pattern that ends with you, and one thing you’ll nurture while you’re here.

28: Connecting with our Beloved Dead: Intro to Ancestor Work

This episode is sponsored by The Witches Moon

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Nobody has to be hexing you for your energy to feel completely wrung out. Sometimes you’ve just spent the day in a crowd, read tarot for a lot of people, or had so much fun you forgot to ground.

They’re talking psychic self-defense for situations that aren’t necessarily toxic, just draining. What magick goes into packing? How do you stay open to connection without taking on everything around you? And what happens when two experienced witches forget to follow their own advice about grounding? There’s an ocean reset, a lt of crystals, and a reminder that even the best adventures can leave you needing a little time to come back to yourself.

This week, Laylla and Chelle share how a last-minute trip came together in just three days and took them to Salem, Massachusetts, during October’s witch season. Between a visit to the Haunted Warren Museum, a stop at The Satanic Temple, reading tarot, and connecting with their people, there was plenty to keep their witchy senses busy.

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Samhain is approaching, the nights are growing longer, and we’re making room for some powerful company. This week, Laylla and Chelle are talking about dark Goddesses, the pull toward Hecate and Lilith, and why Their energy feels especially relevant right now. When the world keeps asking us to be quieter, smaller, and easier to manage, there’s something deeply magickal about connecting with a goddess who encourages us to stand in our power.

Chelle shares her personal experiences with Hecate, while Laylla talks about her relationship with Lilith, reclaiming female power, and questioning the patriarchal perspectives that shape the stories we inherit. We explore what “dark” means in our spiritual practice and how these relationships can help us navigate endings, hold boundaries, and trust our own voices as we enter the season of the witch.

We’re also answering your questions about recognizing a connection, making offerings, beginning a devotional practice, and working discreetly while still in the broom closet. Whether you’ve walked with these powerful figures for years or are just getting curious, join us at the crossroads for a conversation about devotion, sovereignty, and the parts of ourselves we’re ready to stop apologizing for.

Laylla's List of Lilith Books

The Book of Lilith by Barbara Black Koltuv

Lilith’s Demons, by Julie R. Enszer

Lilith’s Fire: Reclaiming Our Sacred Lifeforce, by Deborah (D’vorah) Grennv- founder of the Lilith Institute

The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics, 1972–2003, by Judith Plaskow

The Lilith Question by Aviva Cantor Zuckoff (magazine article)
https://lilith.org/articles/fall-1976-29/

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Names have power, witches. But when someone knows yours, what do they actually have access to?

This week on Back on the Broomstick, Laylla and Chelle explore the folklore of true names, secret identities, and supernatural bargains, from Rumpelstiltskin toThe Wizard of EarthSea. Why do so many stories hinge on discovering a name, and how does that idea show up in modern witchcraft?

We’re talking about names as taglocks, the connections they create in spellwork, and why a “true name” might mean something very different from the one on your birth certificate. We also explore the power of choosing a name that expresses who you are or who you’re becoming, and why some names are shared freely while others are kept between a witch and their practice.

Then we get into warding your name. What exactly are you protecting, and how can you put some magick behind the boundaries you set? From private ritual names to the usernames we put all over the internet, there’s plenty to consider about who gets access to us and on what terms.

Plus, two simple spells: one to reflect unwanted energy directed at your name, and one to give your name a magickal cleansing. Because you can’t always keep your name out of someone’s mouth, but you can have a say in what power that gives them.

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Fall is here, whether the weather got the memo or not, and Laylla and Chelle are welcoming the season of the witch with a visit to a local Pagan Pride Day event and four spooky cemetery tales full of curses, cages, shocking encounters, and graves that are rumored to be alive with ghostly witches.

The witches talk about going to CNY Pagan Pride Day on Saturday, September 19! Laylla and Chelle will be there with Back on the Broomstick and Crystal City Circle, helping lead this year’s main ritual, hosting a community table, and presenting workshops. Come say hello, join us in circle, and spend the day celebrating our wonderfully witchy community.

Our spooky stories range from an accused witch escaping Sale, to the Catawissa caged graves to Shamokin’s Witch’s Hat monument, the witches share stories of restless spirits, whispered warnings, and a summoning dare with some seriously questionable consequences. But who were the people buried beneath these unusual monuments, and how did their resting places become the stuff of local nightmares?

After the ghost stories, we turn to the history we can uncover, including grave robbers, grieving families, and the gap between what a monument means and what people imagine it means. We also discuss why these legends take hold, why women so often become the witches in someone else’s story, and how our expectations can influence what we experience.

Plus, a grounding and centering practice for approaching spirit work with an open mind, clear intentions, and room for “I don’t know.”

This episode is sponsored by our friends at The Witches Moon.

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The Wheel is turning, the leaves are falling, and some of us would like to speak to a manager about summer ending. This week, Laylla and Chelle explore the magick of Mabon, the autumn equinox, and putting the garden to bed, including the things in our own lives we’re trying to keep blooming through sheer stubbornness.

From the harvest we actually got to the seeds we absolutely don’t want to plant again, the witches get honest about manifestation, changing seasons, and finding balance without giving every obligation an equal piece of ourselves. There’s room for gratitude and grief at the same table, lessons from Persephone and Demeter, and a reminder that you don’t have to hate something to let it go.

Along the way, we share simple seasonal magick for releasing what’s finished, protecting what matters, and tending ourselves through the weeks between Mabon and Samhain. What are you preserving for Future You, and what can you finally give permission to rest?

We close the episode by pulling cards from the Motherpeace deck and The Oracle of Forgotten Witches for a little guidance as we move into the darker season.

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The autumn equinox is here, the light and dark are balancing, and the witches are taking stock of what actually grew this year. In this episode, Laylla and Chelle talk about Mabon, Harvest Home, and why more modern witches are rethinking the language and traditions we use around the season.

Then it’s time for gratitude, but not the sugary “everything happens for a reason” kind. This is gratitude with an attitude. The kind that honors what nourished you, what challenged you, what taught you where your boundaries are, and what you are very grateful to be leaving behind.

The witches explore the growing trend of 30-day gratitude practices in modern Paganism and how to make them feel more magical, grounded, and reciprocal. Instead of simply listing what you are thankful for, what happens when gratitude becomes a relationship with the land, your home, your community, your spirits, and the everyday things that keep your life moving?

Plus, some ideas for turning the weeks around the equinox into your own personal Harvest Home season by asking what you are gathering in, what you are sharing, what you are giving back, and what you are finally ready to compost.

Because sometimes the harvest is abundance, sometimes it’s wisdom, and sometimes it’s realizing you absolutely do not need to plant that particular seed again

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Pull up a chair in the Solarium, pour something warm, and prepare for a very bookish, very witchy catch-up with Laylla and Chelle.

This time around, the witches are flipping pages, checking the stars, and knocking a few titles off of their ever-growing magical to-read pile. They explore the music, folklore, and enchantment woven through Irish tradition in Draíocht Ceoil: The Sound of Magic in Irish Traditions by Geraldine Moorkens Byrne, then wander into the shadowy halls of the psyche with Aliza Einhorn’s Tarot of the Unconscious, a fascinating look at the connections between tarot, psychoanalysis, symbolism, and everything lurking just beneath the surface.

They also crack open Patricia Telesco’s Your Book of Shadows and talk about what it offers witches looking to create a magical record that actually feels personal rather than like something copied out of someone else’s grimoire. Then it is time to consult the heavens with Wyatt’s Astrological Year Calendar 2026 from AstrologicalYear.com and Theresa Reed’s The Book of Astrological Returns, exploring how astrology can become something you work with throughout the year instead of something you only remember when Mercury starts acting suspicious.

And because no proper Solarium gathering is complete without a little tea, Laylla and Chelle catch up on what has been happening in the wider Pagan community, including Beck Ravenswood’s ongoing fight against Pennsylvania’s old divination law and the larger questions it raises about religious freedom, fortune telling, and why laws written for another century are still haunting modern witches.

There is also plenty of Pagan Pride Day talk, upcoming events, community happenings, books worth adding to your shelf, and the usual wandering conversations that happen when two witches are left alone with caffeine, new magical supplies, and opinions.

Come hang out in the Solarium. The books are open, the tea is hot, and apparently Pennsylvania law still needs an exorcism.

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The witches sit down with Patti Negri, the “Good Witch of Hollywood,” psychic medium, paranormal investigator, and author of Dollcraft: A Witch’s Guide to Poppet Magick & Haunted Dolls, for a conversation about what happens when witchcraft and ghost hunting collide.

Patti shares her approach to paranormal investigation as a practicing witch, while the witches explore haunted objects, spirit communication, and the strange questions that arise when witchcraft and ghost hunting overlap.

And apparently Patti didn’t come to the interview entirely alone.

While recording, Laylla and Chelle noticed some unusual activity on Patti’s video, including mysterious orbs moving through the room and a few particularly intriguing moments involving the dolls behind her. Was it dust, light, camera weirdness, or did some of Patti’s otherworldly housemates decide they wanted a little screen time too?

The evidence may be open to interpretation, but one thing is certain: Patti’s energetic dolls seemed very interested in being part of the conversation! So turn down the lights, grab your favorite protective charm, and listen closely. You never know who, or what, might be listening along with you!

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