Setting the Extra Place
28 October 2026 · Samhain
Every year the plate at the end of the table gets a little fuller, and every year I understand a little better why we do this.
Merry meet, and welcome to the Hearth
This is a gathering place for witches, Wiccans and pagans of every path who keep the old ways alive in the modern world. Pull up a chair. The kettle is on, the candle is lit, and nobody here will ask you to prove anything.
We are practitioners, not professors. Everything written here comes from people who actually cast the circle, tend the flame, bake the bread, and stand outside at midnight in the rain because the moon asked them to. We celebrate witchcraft, Wicca and paganism because they have made our lives richer, kinder and stranger, and we think they might do the same for you.
Three doors into the Hearth
The Craft
What witchcraft is, what Wicca is, how they fit inside the wider pagan world, and what we believe. Plain words, no gatekeeping.
Read on ›
Practice
Altars and tools, casting a circle, keeping a Book of Shadows, candle magic, herbs and the tables of correspondence we actually use.
Get your hands dirty ›
Library
The books that shaped us, a glossary for the words that trip up newcomers, and links to kindred hearths across the world.
Browse the shelves ›Why a hearth, and why Brighid?
In the old houses the hearth was never allowed to go cold. The fire was banked each night under the ash and coaxed back each morning, and a household that let its fire die was a household in trouble. Brighid, the Irish goddess of the hearth, of poetry, smithcraft and healing, was the keeper of that fire. She is a goddess of the threshold between winter and spring, between the forge and the finished blade, between the sickbed and the walk outside.
We chose her name because that is what we want this place to be: a fire that is always kept, that anyone can warm themselves at, and that is tended by many hands rather than owned by one. Our flamekeepers take it in turns, nineteen of us over nineteen nights, and on the twentieth night the goddess keeps it herself.
At the Hearth this season
Open circles
We hold an open Esbat every full moon online, and gather in person for each of the eight Sabbats. Newcomers are welcome at every one of them. There is nothing to join and nothing to pay. Come as you are, and bring a candle.
Kitchen Table
Our study circle meets on the second Tuesday of each month to read, argue gently, and practise together. This winter we are working slowly through the elements, one per season, starting where every hearth starts: with fire.
From the Journal
What the Garden Taught Me About Lughnasadh
3 August 2026 · Lughnasadh
The first harvest is not the big one. It is the one that tells you whether there will be a big one. That turns out to matter.
A Circle in a Studio Apartment
14 April 2026 · Practice
Three paces across, a cat who will not stay outside the circle, and a downstairs neighbour who thinks I am into interpretive dance.
A word before you go in
Witches do not proselytise. Nobody here will try to convert you, recruit you, or sell you a destiny. If you are curious, read; if you are drawn, practise; if you are ready for company, write to us. The door is open and the fire is lit, and that is the whole of the invitation.
If you are a journalist, a student, a worried parent, or a person of another faith who simply wants to understand, you are just as welcome. Start with Common Misconceptions and then ask us anything.