Author
Rowenna.
Creator of Grimoire. Writer of the Grimoire blog.
I am a solitary witch and the creator of Grimoire. I came to the craft in the early 2000s (I was in my teens) and have been practising as a chaos witch ever since. My practice is matriarchal: I work primarily with the female divine, use astrology as a timing system for workings rather than as personality content, and have kept a working apothecary and deity journal for two decades. I studied English Literature and History at Oxford and now live in Notting Hill, London.
I built Grimoire because I could not find what I was looking for: a private, ad-free digital book of shadows that holds tarot, lunar work, herbology, deity practice, spellcraft, and a working journal in one place, with everything stored locally on the device. The app I wanted did not exist, so I built it.
I write all of the pieces on the Grimoire blog. The work spans seasonal guides for the eight sabbats, deep profiles of herbs and crystals, primary-source research into the history of Western magical tradition (the Pendle witches, Aradia, Frazer's Golden Bough) and reference pieces on the daily disciplines that hold a practice together. My approach draws from folk-magic tradition, classical correspondence systems, and a discipline of citing primary sources where they exist and naming modern adaptation where it does not.
I work alone. In the way most modern witches do.
Writes about
Recent writing
Jar Spells: A Working Guide
Sweetening jars, banishing jars, money jars. Jar spells are among the most widely practised workings in modern witchcraft. A complete working guide: the Hoodoo roots of the tradition, how to engage with them honestly, and three fully worked examples.
15 August 2026Cunning Folk: The Working Witches of English History
For five hundred years, when ordinary English people needed magical help, they went not to a witch but to a cunning man or cunning woman: paid professional folk-magicians present in nearly every parish. Who they were, what they did, and what modern witchcraft actually inherits from them.
13 August 2026Eclipse Season 2026
August 2026 contains two eclipses that bracket the month and pivot the next eighteen months of the astrological year. A complete guide to the Leo solar eclipse on 12 August and the Pisces lunar eclipse on 27 August: what they mean, what they ask of you, and how to work with them.
11 August 2026Glastonbury Tor
A hill in Somerset that has been a Neolithic settlement, the legendary Isle of Avalon, a Christian monastic stronghold, and one of the most significant sites in modern paganism. A layered history of Glastonbury Tor, and how to work with it from a distance.
8 August 2026The Greek Magical Papyri
The most important corpus of magical texts you have probably never heard of: practical spells from Greco-Roman Egypt, written across seven centuries. Where they came from, what they contain, and why they are the root of the whole Western grimoire tradition.
6 August 2026The Witch's Guide to Mugwort
Mugwort is the witch's dreaming herb: the first plant of the Nine Herbs Charm and the most-named herb in this blog. A full profile: botany, folklore, magical correspondences, safe practical use, and three simple workings.
4 August 2026Bread and Grain Magic: Spells for Lughnasadh
Five working spells for the first harvest: a bread-baking ritual, a grain charm, a first-fruits offering, a harvest accounting, and a John Barleycorn release. Specific, sourced, and adaptable for solitary practice.
1 August 2026Lughnasadh Energy and Intentions: The Harvest Accounting
The third spoke of the wheel-of-year intention arc. Lughnasadh's mode is accounting: not gratitude, not celebration, but the honest ledger of what was planted, what has returned, and what it cost.
30 July 2026Herbs of Lughnasadh: The Plants of the First Harvest
The herbs of early August: meadowsweet in the damp meadows, heather coming into bloom, the first blackberries in the hedgerows. A guide to the plants of Lughnasadh and how to work with them.
28 July 2026Lughnasadh for Solitary Witches
Lughnasadh falls on 1 August: the first harvest sabbat, the feast of Lugh, and the beginning of the harvest arc that runs to Samhain. A complete practical guide for the solitary practitioner: rituals, altar, journal prompts, and how to mark the first cutting when you are working alone.
25 July 2026The North Berwick Witch Trials
In 1590, James VI of Scotland personally interrogated accused witches at North Berwick, convinced they had raised storms to sink his ships. What the trial record actually shows, why James wrote Daemonologie in response, and how North Berwick set the template for Scotland's far deadlier witch-hunting tradition.
23 July 2026Leo Season 2026: A Witch's Guide to the Sun in Leo
Leo Season 2026 (22 July to 22 August). What the Sun in Leo means, why this year's season carries unusual depth with the South Node entering Leo and a total solar eclipse on 12 August, and how to work with it in your practice.
21 July 2026