We met up over Red Elm Cafe sandwiches, to talk about our favorite season, our favorite holiday. And witchcraft. Add broader issues of spirituality and sandwiches: ham and cheese, tomato and mozzarella, chicken and avocado. The sammies were very tasty, and matched the perfectly comfortable simplicity of the Hilltop cafe itself, where the vibe was warm, accepting, friendly, and- dare I say it- magickal?

We –they– are a diverse group of witches. Some are comfortable proclaiming themselves as witches, others are broom-closeted at varying levels. The names used in this story may be their actual names, and maybe they’re fictional.

Sage very openly proclaims himself a witch, though he doesn’t present as typical. He’s proudly Trans-Masc, and owns his big-otter-cute, silly, empathetic, and warm energy.

Jasper considers herself a mostly-witchy, little-bit-Christian crone who tries to find moments of mundane magic in every day, not just the sabbaths.

Samantha, or Sam (yeah, like the witch from Bewitched, but with dark hair and no nose-twitch) is a Texas-born gal with loads of knowledge about everything from how to anoint a candle to what makes a perfect simmer pot, but she says hasn’t been feeling very witchy, rather she feels squelched a bit and forced into the broom closet by a very conservative workplace.

Crystal has a certain energy, a bright aura. Jasper had asked her friend at one point, “Are you a witch?” And Crystal didn’t say she was or wasn’t, but her bright eyes twinkled in her mocha face as she suggested that energies exist. And bad energies need to be met with bad energies.

Finally, there is Jewels. She’s short, cute, and sweet; she exudes mama Earth energy with an underlying hint of ‘don’t try me’ Puerto Rican heat. She wears crystals as jewelry and passes on memes and podcasts with all kinds of relevant-to-witchcraft wisdom. Jewels feels like she has always known things before they happen, like passings of loved ones, words before they’re uttered, even up to knowing what people might wear. But she stalls suddenly at open, clear acknowledgement of herself as a witch or a bruja. As she’s searched for her path, she’s made some surprising discoveries. She recently learned that her parents hadbeen cleansed by a limpia (essentially a blessing from a Santeria practitioner) prior to their marriage 45 years ago, and they credit their union’s longevity to that ritual blessing. But she stops short, very very short, of truly calling herself a witch. Santeria is a closed practice, and it’s hard to get in.

Sage explains closed practices in a very clear way- if you need an initiation or conversion to get in? It’s closed. And if a closed practice has a ritual? It’s theirs. Sage illustrates this with the Native American practice of smudging, similar to the limpia in Santeria. Both are rituals with many steps, passed down through ancestry and practice. Smudging involves tightly bound bundles of herbs and fire and cleansing smoke. As someone outside of Native culture, you can do a smoke cleansing, but not smudging. He suggests that the two are similar in intent, with similar tools, but they’re different. (Still wonder why? Google it. While you’re at it, google appropriation versus appreciation.)

About his knowledge base, Sage begins, “I was raised in the absence of religion.” But memories of his Quinault grandmother’s earth-based practices led him to explore Wicca. He eventually drifted away from that, stating, “Wicca ended up being too binary for me, and very cisheteronormative. Divine female and divine male, that just doesn’t have room for people like me.” He has retained the spirit-animal his grandmother bestowed upon him– the otter– and also blends Native and Wiccan practices with a heaping portion of reverence for the Hellenic Pantheon.

Jasper recalls all the churches she visited as a child with her mother “left me feeling like as a girl I was only there to follow rules men made. As a woman I would just have to submit even when the things the church said were stupid and often contradictory.” She felt inspired when introduced to a wiccan-leaning women’s group that observed The Wheel of the Year. “It felt right.” But the group eventually dissolved, and Jasper said she started to fashion her own version of earth-meets-celestial spirituality. “I like love and light, and good energy. I believe in spreading that.”

Of her walk on the witch side, Sam said, “I started early.” How early? “I was probably 12 or 13.” Sam remembers, “I got a book by Silver Ravenwolf from Half Price Books and really tried to get into Wicca but it was way too deep into ritual and rules and that’s why I didn’t vibe with Catholicism. So I just started researching and reading and experimenting.” Some of those experiments have included working with candles and crystals collected from a variety of sources, one of her favorites being Mystic Sanctuary. Jasper accompanies Sam on jaunts there, but also loves Crescent Moon Gifts, where she recalls dipping her toes in Wiccan waters when the shop had their first location in Freighthouse Square. “Their selection of Tarot cards is amazing, and they have so many events!”

Most of these events can be found at the Weekly-Volcano.com event calendar, along with many others. I had gathered my friends with the express knowledge that I was doing a piece for the newspaper, so we did a bit of a pick-and-choose from that calendar when talking about the things we like to do, and are likely to do, through the spooky season.

The Asylum at Freighthouse Square is likely to be on the list of things to do for Jewel’s 16 year-old daughter (and possibly her 14 year-old son), as well as The Haunted Woods at Maris Farms, though that might be too intense for Jewel’s toddler. She’s excited about all the other activities at Maris Farms, and the season wouldn’t be complete without pumpkins!

Sage lives with his partner and his 15 and 19 year old kiddos, who love trick or treating, usually making their own costumes. Horror movies are a seasonal tradition for Sage, who is excited about the Blue Mouse schedule of Friday Night Frights.

While she’s excited about all the different Halloween-themed events at a variety of Tacoma Public Libraries, Crystal’s favorite Halloween activity is taking her 6 year-old grandson trick-or-treating; they always visit a particular North Tacoma neighborhood off of North Stevens, where every year they run into family and old friends. The 90’s Halloween Costume Glow Ball at McMenamins sounds like a blast to her, as well.

Sam’s active-dude husband is likely to want to participate in the Pierce County Parks Zombie Run 5K, but while he’s doing that she’s more likely to grab some wine and carve a pumpkin while watching a horror movie. She’s not a total homebody, though- she has circled a number of the over-21 costume events happening around the area, and is already talking to her husband about going to the Spooky Sip Drag Brunch.

Jasper likes to do things with her hands, and literally squealed when she saw all the paint and sips and craft classes on the Weekly Volcano calendar. She’s trying to get me to do Craft Theory’s Cat + Moon Painting and Craftopia’s CaTi Plant Class with her, and we both want to do the Witch Bottles: History, Lore & Make-n-Take at Crescent Moon Gifts.

As for me, I’m trying to get my new mini-coven of friends together to do all the spooky tours, notably Blackwell Mansion, the Steilacoom Ghost Tour (my old stomping grounds), and the Ft. Nisqually Candlelight Tour.

Stay connected with the Weekly Volcano newsletter, where I’ll be checking in with more adventures with the thinning veil, including what that term (and others I’ve used in this article) mean. And don’t forget to check the Weekly Volcano calendar of events daily – not doing so would be more unlucky than a black cat walking over a broken mirror under a ladder.