Something's Cooking
Okay, so...
I'm redesigning this site. Again. And I'm tweaking my brand a little. Buckle up while I summarize the last eight years.
Rewind to 2018, when I started this whole thing as "Geek Girl Tarot". Cute, tidy name. Surprise plot twist: the name wasn't completely accurate, since I eventually realized I'm nonbinary. The "girl" part also leaned heavily into the girlboss culture at the time.
The more important issue: I had no idea who I was yet. I looked at what other folks were doing — the aesthetics, the vibe, the whole spirituality-industrial-complex — and I mimicked it right down to the professional photo shoot with the makeup artist who prepped me in advance.
You know, the stuff you do when you don't trust others to accept the real you.
Here's what I've known since childhood but wouldn't admit: my actual personality is unhinged AF; I didn't know if anyone would want that. Would people show up for the softly-lit Tarot content that occasionally had a geek reference? Or would they show up for the real me: the one who cross-references crystal correspondences with video game lore and has Opinions™ about how some online witchy spaces carry the same vibe as fandom communities (the taking-things-way-too-seriously part)?
Over the last several years, my business did what most solo-run businesses do: it evolved based on my wants and skills. I started making bracelets. And I realized how many communities I straddle: witches, geeks, furries, skeptics, storytellers, and those who think spirituality and tech aren't enemies. For a long time, I held back because I thought that made me hard to market, and that showing up fully might push some folks away. Now, I realize that's the point. My interests and identities inform my work, so those who stick around aren't doing so just because they're willing to put up with my idiosyncrasies. They're here because they're drawn to my weird.
My "Heresies"
Here's how I diverge from the typical digital witch. Consider this the part where I confess my heresies, in order of "will get me removed from a Facebook witchcraft group":
Heresy #1: I side-eye the lore, even the lore I practice.
Heresy #2: My magic system doesn't fit neatly into a digital course or content calendar.
Heresy #3: I don't compartmentalize to be palatable.
Heresy #4: I don't play the "real witch" game.
I'm done with the discourse about what real witches do — or don't do. The framework of legitimacy has ugly roots. It's the same logic that allowed educated, credentialed (often male) occultists to cozy up to power while folk practitioners were persecuted for doing the same. Much of modern "witch identity" rests on folklore treated as ancient wisdom, even though much of it developed from the 1970s onward.
Further, believing that all witches share the same political ideology, or identify with the marginalized, is dangerous thinking. It denies the existence of witches (and other magical practitioners) who side with oppressive regimes.
Heresy #5: I refuse to pick an extreme side in the AI wars.
I'm not "AI is an unmitigated evil and will destroy humanity," and I'm not "AI is the greatest thing ever, and you need to adopt or get left behind."
Remember that cult-survivor thing I mentioned two heresies ago? It makes me wary of evangelists on either side of this discussion — especially when they're pitching a utopia or warning of an apocalypse. I also work with data in my day job, so I have a reflexive twitch whenever someone hangs their entire argument on a single study or dataset as if it were scripture.
My actual stance: AI is a tool, and the conversation we need to have is bigger and messier than "it's good" or "it's bad." We need to talk about when and how we use this tool, and who decides what guardrails to put in place. Also, we need to approach this conversation with empathy, since we've all been shaped by different systems. This means we each have different views on what is acceptable and when the ends justify the means.