Bill Bruin
@otherworldwayfarer.bsky.social
Ad hoc Sorcerer, self proclaimed Hauntomancer and occasional Celtic Scholar.
Musings on Paganism, Celtic Mythology, Animism, Hauntology, Sorcery, Environmentalism, Folklore, Antiques, Druidry, Psychogeography and a constellation of other far-flung topics.
Musings on Paganism, Celtic Mythology, Animism, Hauntology, Sorcery, Environmentalism, Folklore, Antiques, Druidry, Psychogeography and a constellation of other far-flung topics.
Blessings of Divalia this December 21st!
Divalia was the sacred festival day of Angerona, an obscure Roman goddess whose sphere of influence encompasses the easing of pain and anguish, and the heralding of the new year and returning sun. 1/3
Divalia was the sacred festival day of Angerona, an obscure Roman goddess whose sphere of influence encompasses the easing of pain and anguish, and the heralding of the new year and returning sun. 1/3
December 21, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Blessings of Divalia this December 21st!
Divalia was the sacred festival day of Angerona, an obscure Roman goddess whose sphere of influence encompasses the easing of pain and anguish, and the heralding of the new year and returning sun. 1/3
Divalia was the sacred festival day of Angerona, an obscure Roman goddess whose sphere of influence encompasses the easing of pain and anguish, and the heralding of the new year and returning sun. 1/3
Carhartt has moved from a high-end workwear brand I couldn't afford on a woodsman's budget to a mid-range designer brand I can't afford on an Environmental Waste Services Supervisor's budget. How we've both grown.
December 20, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Carhartt has moved from a high-end workwear brand I couldn't afford on a woodsman's budget to a mid-range designer brand I can't afford on an Environmental Waste Services Supervisor's budget. How we've both grown.
I've officially started work on what will either be my first book or my own personal Navidson Record-esque descent into madness; we'll see which it is over the coming months.
December 13, 2025 at 2:50 PM
I've officially started work on what will either be my first book or my own personal Navidson Record-esque descent into madness; we'll see which it is over the coming months.
This is Glastonbury, or at least its carcass, all jagged glass teeth and exposed brick. Now it haunts the outskirts of the thing that wears its skin and carries its name, the ghost of industry amongst the crystals and singing bowls.
There is a palpable power here.
There is a palpable power here.
December 6, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This is Glastonbury, or at least its carcass, all jagged glass teeth and exposed brick. Now it haunts the outskirts of the thing that wears its skin and carries its name, the ghost of industry amongst the crystals and singing bowls.
There is a palpable power here.
There is a palpable power here.
My partner was complaining about an unidentified smell of burning bread in the house; he didn't appreciate my suggestion that we may be haunted by a dyslexic ghost.
December 6, 2025 at 2:16 PM
My partner was complaining about an unidentified smell of burning bread in the house; he didn't appreciate my suggestion that we may be haunted by a dyslexic ghost.
Blessings of Faunalia this December 5th!
Faunus is a Roman god whose sphere of influence encompasses the forests, fields, and winds of the Roman world.
Although he would eventually become associated with the Greek god Pan, Faunus is a distinct deity harkening back to Rome's ancient animist roots.
Faunus is a Roman god whose sphere of influence encompasses the forests, fields, and winds of the Roman world.
Although he would eventually become associated with the Greek god Pan, Faunus is a distinct deity harkening back to Rome's ancient animist roots.
December 5, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Blessings of Faunalia this December 5th!
Faunus is a Roman god whose sphere of influence encompasses the forests, fields, and winds of the Roman world.
Although he would eventually become associated with the Greek god Pan, Faunus is a distinct deity harkening back to Rome's ancient animist roots.
Faunus is a Roman god whose sphere of influence encompasses the forests, fields, and winds of the Roman world.
Although he would eventually become associated with the Greek god Pan, Faunus is a distinct deity harkening back to Rome's ancient animist roots.
I did not expect to get Marcel Prousted by a bag of roast chestnuts in a Prague Christmas market, yet suddenly, I am deep in the woods of West Sussex, sitting by the fire with my long-dead father cutting walking sticks again. How taste and smell can fold time and space for a precious second.
November 29, 2025 at 1:14 PM
I did not expect to get Marcel Prousted by a bag of roast chestnuts in a Prague Christmas market, yet suddenly, I am deep in the woods of West Sussex, sitting by the fire with my long-dead father cutting walking sticks again. How taste and smell can fold time and space for a precious second.
Home, in its most ideal state, is a sanctuary, a place of restoration; for those of us practicing alternative religions, it's often a sacred place where altars are tended. In a culture that treats home as a set to display, it's essential to reframe it as a relationship between place and inhabitants.
November 29, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Home, in its most ideal state, is a sanctuary, a place of restoration; for those of us practicing alternative religions, it's often a sacred place where altars are tended. In a culture that treats home as a set to display, it's essential to reframe it as a relationship between place and inhabitants.
Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic.
November 29, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic.
Many Pagans struggle with concrete; they see it as a seal that prevents connection with land trapped beneath it. In truth, concrete is our legacy; in the future, it will become the indelible mark of our broken relationship with land, the most ubiquitous technofossil of them all.
November 27, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Many Pagans struggle with concrete; they see it as a seal that prevents connection with land trapped beneath it. In truth, concrete is our legacy; in the future, it will become the indelible mark of our broken relationship with land, the most ubiquitous technofossil of them all.
Beauty abounds, even in the most mundane of places. It's moments like this, in their rapturous numinousity, for which I am eternally grateful.
November 24, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Beauty abounds, even in the most mundane of places. It's moments like this, in their rapturous numinousity, for which I am eternally grateful.
Something I've been thinking about lately is that as magical practitioners, we are often deeply concerned with what we allow into our space. We curate energies, bar certain spirits from entering our homes, and purify our spaces and belongings, but what about more modern, digital means of entry?
November 22, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Something I've been thinking about lately is that as magical practitioners, we are often deeply concerned with what we allow into our space. We curate energies, bar certain spirits from entering our homes, and purify our spaces and belongings, but what about more modern, digital means of entry?
One of the toxic legacies Neopaganism has inherited from the Romanticism that birthed it is the separation of "pristine wilderness" and "urban sprawl".
There is no such dichotomy, all land is sacred and all land is tainted, this is living in the Anthropocene. We need to sit with this truth.
There is no such dichotomy, all land is sacred and all land is tainted, this is living in the Anthropocene. We need to sit with this truth.
November 18, 2025 at 2:48 PM
One of the toxic legacies Neopaganism has inherited from the Romanticism that birthed it is the separation of "pristine wilderness" and "urban sprawl".
There is no such dichotomy, all land is sacred and all land is tainted, this is living in the Anthropocene. We need to sit with this truth.
There is no such dichotomy, all land is sacred and all land is tainted, this is living in the Anthropocene. We need to sit with this truth.
The Glastonbury Town Hall mural by the incredible Faye Suzannah is a truly exquisite work of repeating patterns that harkens back to antique hand-painted wallpaper.
You can find more of Faye's work at www.fayesuzannah.co.uk
You can find more of Faye's work at www.fayesuzannah.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The Glastonbury Town Hall mural by the incredible Faye Suzannah is a truly exquisite work of repeating patterns that harkens back to antique hand-painted wallpaper.
You can find more of Faye's work at www.fayesuzannah.co.uk
You can find more of Faye's work at www.fayesuzannah.co.uk
Incomprehensible book of instructions in hand, muttering blasphemous curses as the lights overhead pulse and flicker, a growing sense of dread in the impenetrable darkness that my ambition has overreached my grasp...
Setting up the smart lighting isn't going as well as I had hoped.
Setting up the smart lighting isn't going as well as I had hoped.
November 15, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Incomprehensible book of instructions in hand, muttering blasphemous curses as the lights overhead pulse and flicker, a growing sense of dread in the impenetrable darkness that my ambition has overreached my grasp...
Setting up the smart lighting isn't going as well as I had hoped.
Setting up the smart lighting isn't going as well as I had hoped.
Rain lashes the fields and hedgerows of the Somerset Levels, and as the river Brue creeps over its banks and spreads across the land, so I pay a wary homage to the Morgans, beautiful otherworldy maidens who dwell within the churning mire, and lure unwary men to a watery grave.
November 14, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Rain lashes the fields and hedgerows of the Somerset Levels, and as the river Brue creeps over its banks and spreads across the land, so I pay a wary homage to the Morgans, beautiful otherworldy maidens who dwell within the churning mire, and lure unwary men to a watery grave.
A dragon lives in our rafters. Facing towards the heavens, his fearsome visage drives away wayward spirits who would dare to creep into our homes through its rafters.
Or at least that's the idea. I'm no artist, but I tried my best, and so does he, keeping a diligent, if slightly cross-eyed, watch.
Or at least that's the idea. I'm no artist, but I tried my best, and so does he, keeping a diligent, if slightly cross-eyed, watch.
November 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
A dragon lives in our rafters. Facing towards the heavens, his fearsome visage drives away wayward spirits who would dare to creep into our homes through its rafters.
Or at least that's the idea. I'm no artist, but I tried my best, and so does he, keeping a diligent, if slightly cross-eyed, watch.
Or at least that's the idea. I'm no artist, but I tried my best, and so does he, keeping a diligent, if slightly cross-eyed, watch.
As the spirits of storm and wind rattle and rave outside our little house on the hill, beating at its gables in feral fury, we give thanks to the gods of solid doors and firm roofs, of good builders, and good luck. How lucky we are to share this little port in the storm, safe as houses.
November 11, 2025 at 9:07 PM
As the spirits of storm and wind rattle and rave outside our little house on the hill, beating at its gables in feral fury, we give thanks to the gods of solid doors and firm roofs, of good builders, and good luck. How lucky we are to share this little port in the storm, safe as houses.
Settling down for an early evening with a glass of nocino and a little research, I've been struggling a lot lately with executive dysfunction. I haven't been able to read, write, or do much of anything that nourishes me, but there's something about November's dark nights that brings me renewed awen.
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Settling down for an early evening with a glass of nocino and a little research, I've been struggling a lot lately with executive dysfunction. I haven't been able to read, write, or do much of anything that nourishes me, but there's something about November's dark nights that brings me renewed awen.
Remember Bristol is for you, not just for Jesus.
November 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Remember Bristol is for you, not just for Jesus.
It's still remarkable to me as a practicing sorcerer how working craft towards one defined end goal often triggers a cascade down through several other areas of my life: like cogs in a machine, the movement of one piece sets others in motion in different far-flung facets of my existence.
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
It's still remarkable to me as a practicing sorcerer how working craft towards one defined end goal often triggers a cascade down through several other areas of my life: like cogs in a machine, the movement of one piece sets others in motion in different far-flung facets of my existence.
Just as the Tor looms over the town of Glastonbury, so do the derelict chimney stacks of Beckery Road and Clarks Village still tower over the landscape. Often overlooked by the pilgrims that travel here, there is every bit as much power in the shadow of these last vestiges of a lost era of industry.
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Just as the Tor looms over the town of Glastonbury, so do the derelict chimney stacks of Beckery Road and Clarks Village still tower over the landscape. Often overlooked by the pilgrims that travel here, there is every bit as much power in the shadow of these last vestiges of a lost era of industry.
Since moving to Street five years ago, every November I dress my altar with leaves from the ginkgo tree that grows in town.
It's not native to this land, neither am I, but its leaves fall each year and enrich the soil of the land it grows in. I hope I enrich this land in some small way as well.
It's not native to this land, neither am I, but its leaves fall each year and enrich the soil of the land it grows in. I hope I enrich this land in some small way as well.
November 9, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Since moving to Street five years ago, every November I dress my altar with leaves from the ginkgo tree that grows in town.
It's not native to this land, neither am I, but its leaves fall each year and enrich the soil of the land it grows in. I hope I enrich this land in some small way as well.
It's not native to this land, neither am I, but its leaves fall each year and enrich the soil of the land it grows in. I hope I enrich this land in some small way as well.
Why am I here and why do I do this to myself? These are questions that apply to my new Bluesky account but also, like, my life in general.
November 9, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Why am I here and why do I do this to myself? These are questions that apply to my new Bluesky account but also, like, my life in general.