[Today we sit down with Susan Harper, author of the new Pagan Portals: Feminist Witchcraft.]

Forests Haunted By Holiness: Your new book Pagan Portals: Feminist Witchcraft is due out on 1 July from Moon Books. First, congratulations! Second, how did this book come about? Why a book about specifically feminist witchcraft? 

Susan Harper: Thank you! It’s so exciting to see it out in the world. I wanted to write the book I wish I had had when embarking on my path more than thirty years ago. I also wanted to offer a more contemporary take on Feminist Witchcraft that recognizes genders beyond the binary, and which incorporates feminist perspectives beyond the largely second-wave feminism that informed earlier writings on feminist craft and spirituality. Witches are playing and are going to play a huge role in fighting the tides of fascism and other oppressive forces, and I thought sharing my own take on how politics and witchcraft inform each other might be especially valuable now. 

FHBH: Can you give us an example of how feminist-focused witchcraft differs from other branches or philosophies of witchcraft?

SH: First I should state that I think any witchcraft tradition can be practiced through a feminist lens — it doesn’t have to be, but it can be an often is. For me the key difference with Feminist Witchcraft (as opposed to witchcraft practiced in a feminist way) is that it centers the importance of naming and healing from the wounds of patriarchy. It centers the experiences of women and folks of other marginalized genders and explicitly declares our sacredness. In the early days of the larger feminist spirituality movement, Feminist Witchcraft spaces were women-only (and often cis-women-only), which set it apart from some other traditions. Spaces like that still exist, though the spaces in which I practice are explicitly open to any women (cis, trans, or otherwise) and nonbinary people who find their homes in spaces that center healing from patriarchy. 

Something that also sets Feminist Witchcraft, at least as I have always practiced it, from many other traditions is that it is non-heirarchical. There is no system of initiation, and the power structure is largely flat. This means that leadership, including ritual facilitation, rotates among community members. People take on roles based on their skills and the need at the time, rather than any one person or group of people being “in charge.” While there may be folks who take on regular duties such as offering their homes for ritual, this is something the community decides rather than it being required of that person because they are the person inherently responsible.

I enjoy this flat heirarchy and egalitarian structure, as someone who partly rejected the religion of my youth due to the power imbalances and gatekeeping of sacred knowledge I saw there. This egalitarian ethic also holds that we all have things to teach and things to learn, and that we are here to help each other on our paths. 

FHBH: What sort of research went into Feminist Witchcraft? Long hours digging through stacks of books? Long discussions with other practitioners?

SH: A lot of research and a lot of remembering. This book is very much about Feminist Witchcraft as I practice it, so much of it is based upon my own experiences and the books I have read throughout my life and career and which have inspired me or otherwise shaped my thought.

I’m also an academic, so the chance to dive into old favorites and new discoveries was one of the best parts of it. I did take longer than I meant to in writing this book (we won’t talk about how long), so I feel like the real heavy work of it was going back through my experiences of thirty years in Witchy and Pagan communities to tease out what I wanted to share. There was some beautiful wandering down memory lane about early experiences with a dear friend who recently passed away (miss you, Mary) and with friends who are in my life to this day.  

FHBH: Where will readers be able to find your book?

SH: It’s currently available on Amazon, and I am working to get it placed in bookshops (brick and mortar and online). I also am encouraging libraries to stock it! It is available in paperback and e-book format. 

FHBH: What other projects are you working on?

SH: I’ve always got a thousand things going on. In my academic life, I’m finishing up edits on a book I co-wrote on ethnographic research and on a book chapter I wrote on being a higher education professional in the current political climate. My writing partner and I just agreed to write a book on ethnographic interviewing as well.

On the witchier side of my life, I’m creating a proposal for a book on the Contemporary Pagan ethics of abortion, based on an article I published in a scholarly journal a few years ago. This is in the very early stages but I am excited by it! I’m currently in the process of working with a couple of folks to revamp my website and social media to better promote my workshops, including a bunch I’m doing on Tarot in my local library system. And of course, I’m already plotting the sequel to Feminist Witchcraft!