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JUSTINE NORTON-KERTSON (they/them)
Eco-witch, spell book author, founder and editor-in-chief of Android Press and Solarpunk Magazine
Eugene-Springfield, Oregon
Witchcraft is about nature worship, or at least, having a strong reverence for nature. I attempt to bring witchcraft back to the basic element of connection between people and the world around us. I use spell work to motivate myself to go out into the world and make things happen. It’s putting your will and energy into a thought or idea and working to manifest it in some way, symbolically or magically.
Eco-witches and solar punks push the radical idea that nature, the environment, animals, other creatures and beings besides ourselves are important. We recognize the sentience in other things. Given the state of the world, we find any opportunity to use the tools of witchcraft to help fight climate change, because I feel like it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation.
Ollie Hancock is an editorial intern for High Country News reporting from Portland, Oregon. Email them at Ollie.Hancock@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline I Am The West -December.