Ariel Gore - Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 Potions, Spells, and Magical Elixirs to Embolden the Resistance

Ariel Gores magical, majestic Hexing the Patriarchy is a field guide to fixing whats wrong with the world. Just holding this book in my hands made me feel giddy with hope.

KAREN KARBO , author of In Praise of Difficult Women

We have needed this book for centuries! Ariel Gore, in all her witchy-smart goodness, will inspire you, bolster you, lift you up, remind you who you are, and show you how to find your power in a world that is constantly trying to keep you from having it.

KERRY COHEN , author of Lush and Loose Girl

Its time to conjure. Ariel Gores Hexing the Patriarchy is a call to arms a magical field guide that will set the crap that needs to burn on fire.

LIDIA YUKNAVITCH

Ariel Gore has given us the tools and the nerve to be magic.

SOPHIA SHALMIYEV , author of Mother Winter

This alphabetized witch primer had me at B: binding spells for grabby assholes!

JENNIFER BAUMGARDNER

I endorse Ariel Gores book, which covers everything from wholesome light witchcraft for health to what you gotta do to punch your enemy in the throat.

JENNIFER BLOWDRYER , journalist and punk music artist

I formally initiated myself as a witch when I was a twenty-one-year-old single mom surviving on welfare and student loans. The patriarchy had me by the throat in the form of misogynist family court judges, food-stamp-cutting governors, and national politicians happy to dehumanize poor women to feed their own greed for power. I felt like I was under legislative, financial, and psychic attack all at oncebecause I was.

Id been talking to owls since before I could talk to people, and now, in an acquaintances forested backyard, I came upon a deer. When we locked eyes, I decided she was a messenger of the Goddess, and I whispered a little prayer: Were up shit creek here. Send help if you can.

The very next day, in an old-school brick-and-mortar bookstore that smelled of coffee and wet leaves, I happened upon a copy of Witchcraft for Tomorrow by the British witch Doreen Valiente. I read The Witchs Ballad on the first page, and I thought, Count me the fuck in.

I followed Doreens instructions for self-initiation, and I made a plan: I would magically defend myself from the patriarchy, and once Id recovered my strength, Id go on the offensive.

I lived in Sonoma County, Californiakind of Witchville central at the timeand soon enough, I found a few witchy elders to help me on my way.

One of the first assignments I got from one of those witchy elders was to create my own alphabet.

My own alphabet? I felt a deliciously childish ting! in my chest at the idea. Like the secret codes I used to make when I was a kid?

My elder took a drag from her menthol cigarette, grabbed a handful of tortilla chips, and laughed. Just like that, honey.

Creating my own secret alphabet, painstaking and fancifulI mean, how do you decide what your W will look like?came as excellent relief from the daily work of mothering and adulting in a world that hated mothers and only seemed to value adults as consumers. Maybe my O would look like my babys satisfied belly. My Z could be a lightning bolt to zap feminist sense into the people who had power over me. My I would be a raised revolutionary fist with a great blood-red manicure.