Book Witchery as Spiritual Practice: On Recommendations and Resistance

Another facet of my bookish life...

Words are magick.¹ Conversations bring change and growth in community. And change, growth, and community undermine fascism.

That’s why I’m shouting out some reads today.

As a writer and publishing professional, I’ve been sharing book recommendations for nearly a decade, and recently, I finally took the plunge and became a Bookshop.org Affiliate. I’m really proud of my little online bookshop made of lists, and I’m excited to use this tool to share more resources in the future.

Bookshop.org is cool because it’s a way to resist the *shall-be-unnamed* big corporate monopoly we’re all fighting against. You can buy books through my shop or by using individual links I include in future book recommendations posts. If you use my Bookshop.org links or lists, I do receive a commission. I’m using this program as a way to support talking about books I already love.

Basically, this allows me to share radical, whimsical, and often spiritual² reads a bit more sustainably.

(A NOTE: Microcosm Publishing books, including my book, don’t appear in my Bookshop Affiliate lists because I already work for Microcosm as an editor and author and therefore already benefit financially from Microcosm books sold. To avoid a conflict of interest, I’ll continue to share Microcosm book/title links in recommendations lists here on the blog, but I’ll be using links directly to Microcosm’s website instead of my Bookshop.org page in those cases.)

Here’s all the places you can find my book witchery:

• My Bookshop.org Affiliate page (mostly comprised of nerdy, infodump-y lists right now)

• My book about disabled-centered and anti-capitalist magick

• My freelance editorial services here and here

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Thanks for being here for the journey, dear readers.

Let’s keep having great conversations at the intersections of spirituality, creativity, and justice. Ya’ll are magickal.

In Wonder,

Kandi (Ivy) Zeller (she/they)

1. I love the definition of magick laid out in this article: “action taken to bring about internal transformation or external change.”

2. When I describe or experience any tool/practices as spiritual, I want to acknowledge that that is not everyone’s experience. Any practice/tool I share is meant for all, regardless of spiritual label (or lack of label) or whether you experience these tools as spiritual or as some other adjective(s). Labels, while helpful in describing our experiences, are ultimately insufficient, so I want to hold space for that tension here. Also, my understanding of how god expresses godself is expansive. Basically, I conceive of spirituality as our experience with divine love and connection. But even that feels a little religious-y. Put another way, I believe spirituality is the place where we as individuals and communities connect with the “force of love that holds up the universe” (in words sometimes attributed to Julian of Norwich), whether we conceive of that love as divine or as the love shared between fellow humans/other creatures or some combination of both loves. It is the place within our bodies and our communities where we find love and connection with all who have come before and who will come after.