Hello to the inquiring minds of the Inglenook readers. I am bringing you an offering as your Transformation Features Writer. If you want to know more about what that means, you can read my first Inglenook download for December 2025. Before I pull any cards for you, I want to know the question I’m supposed […]

How Magical Realism Reveals Possibilities for the Future When looking at the effect of human dominion over the past five centuries, it seems there is no question that Earth’s plight is a crisis of self-destructive anthropocentrism. Philosopher Donna Haraway, in her book Staying with the Trouble, urges us to imagine a world without the human […]

            It’s fun to think of astrology as personalities. The most reductive forms of astrology are the tastiest sugar all over our teeth.             Personality prescriptions are many of those astrology memes, or when someone says, “You’re a Leo. You must be obsessed with romance (or yourself).”             Despite that, astrology is useful to me […]

For many practitioners of magic, divination requires some basic ingredients. Candles, prayer books, crystals, incense, spices, and tarot cards often serve as tools that help shape and alchemize thoughts and desires into meaningful changes in one’s life. But at what point do magical “materials” cross the line into “magical materialism”? It should come as no […]

Hello to the inquisitive Inglenook readers. My name is Malachi Lily (they/them), and it is my distinct honor to join the illuminated Inglenook team as your monthly Transformation Features Writer. What are Transformation Features, you ask? Essentially, I offer my trained skills as an energy worker, diviner, and writer to ask relevant questions about and […]

Wondering what to buy for someone who's a real witch? The honest answer: forage in the woods and make a handmade broomstick, wreath, or talisman. With perfume names like "Witchy Woo" hitting the market, the witch community, Inglenook included, has mixed feelings about the commodification of witch paraphernalia, and of the holidays in general. That […]

We have a bone to pick with Roald Dahl. It’s not that we don’t love his mischievous, real-world tale of witches lurking in 1980s England — we do. The Witches is a classic. It's suspenseful, adventurous, and filled with danger and vivid imagery. But Dahl’s witches are bald, clawed, square-footed, and “allergic” to children. They're […]

Magical realism is when elements of the fantastic, the otherworldly, the "unreal" slip into day-to-day life. "Unreal" is in quotes because reality is subjective, and good literature's purpose is to present a variety of perspectives and challenge our notion of what's "normal" and "accepted." When used like a lens with a blurring effect, magical realism […]

Within the umbrella of “creative nonfiction” there exists a subgenre known as “speculative nonfiction.” It’s not a widely-used term. You’re not likely to find it on Publisher’s Marketplace or the shelf labels of bookstores. But as the art of writing about life has become more popular, it’s an undeniable trend that memoirs are becoming less […]

In magical realism, otherworldly elements often highlight political tensions, injustice, and oppression. Protagonists (and authors, for that matter) lean on magic as a coping mechanism to escape or re-contextualize the brutalities and all-too-familiar discrimination of the past, doing away with romanticized notions of bygone eras. When authors dive into magical historical fiction, the real or […]