You Do Not Need Permission To Be A Witch
If you’ve ever felt like you have to “earn” the label witch, this conversation offers a different path: witchcraft as identity, relationship, and lived experience. Laura, a Tucson-based witch and ritual facilitator, describes coming into the word “witch” slowly, especially after growing up in conservative Christianity where spirituality can become surveillance. Instead of rigid rules, Laura emphasizes animism, interconnected energy, and the idea that magic is innate. That framing matters for modern paganism because it shifts the focus from looking like you’re “doing it right”, to feeling true, which is often the missing piece for people recovering from religious trauma and rebuilding trust in themselves.
One major theme we discussed is accessibility in community ritual. Laura noticed that Tucson has plenty of spiritual people, witches, and pagans, yet many gatherings sit behind paywalls or professionalized branding. Laura helped build a low-barrier ritual space through Celestia Collective, including livestreams and posted replays so people with disability, anxiety (eyyyyyyyyyyy stressyfolx represent), or limited transportation can still participate. Practical altar work shows up here too: breathing onto an altar when energy is low, gifting cost-effective offerings like local honey, or burning one stick of incense and sharing the ash across multiple deity spaces. Their point is sustainable witchcraft practices that work alongside depression and anxiety, not only on your best day.
The episode also digs into deity work with specificity and care. Laura works with several deities such as Astarte, Brigid, Hecate, and Loki. They talk about devotion as relationship rather than subjugation, a key difference for many ex-Christians exploring polytheism and pagan sovereignty. Offerings, poetry, voice, sex as sacred energy, and protest as spiritual action all become part of a coherent practice instead of separate “witchy” compartments. There’s also an honest look at “right way” anxiety, the lingering urge to find the correct ritual steps, and the long work of trusting intuition after being taught the body is sinful and the heart is misleading.
Inclusivity in witchy spaces is an ethical discussion. Laura argues for nuance: women-only or identity-specific circles can be valid and necessary, especially for safety and unfiltered sharing, but it should not default into hostility toward all cis men or blanket exclusion that blocks learning and community. The goal is a magical community where trans people, non-binary people, women, and men can all find appropriate spaces, with clear boundaries and real accountability when someone behaves badly. Laura shares hard-earned life advice like waiting until after your Saturn return to marry, and a memorable story of a “deal” with Loki that later turned into direct service to a disabled trans person in need. The takeaway is simple: inclusive, trauma-informed witchcraft is possible, and it starts by building communities that treat humans as whole people.
