Spiritual activism & the alchemy of collaboration

An interview with Casey Zabala, founder of Modern Witches

Today we’re sharing an interview with

Casey Zabala

, founder of Modern Witches and the creator of the Wanderer’s Tarot and Wyrd Sisters Oracle. She’s also the editor of the recently published anthology A Confluence of Witches: Celebrating Our Lunar Roots, Decolonizing the Craft, and Reenchanting Our World, which features essays, spells, and reflections on themes of magical activism, animism, and merging ancient practices with modern technologies, among other mystical subjects. (The anthology also showcases work from two former Rebis contributors: Maria Minnis and Sanyu Estelle!)

Casey and her team have been working to organize the 2024 Modern Witches Confluence, which takes place online from October 27 through October 30 and in-person on November 2 at the San Francisco County Fair Building from 10am-6:30pm—we’ll be there selling copies of The Rebis! Get your ticket, mingle with fellow witches & activists, watch keynote speaker Jessica Lanyadoo, attend one of the incredible workshops they have planned, and hang out with us!

Also: thank you to everyone who has preordered The Star anthology—we have sold 20% of our inventory! If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can reserve yours here and we’ll be shipping them out the week of October 14. Profits from the sale of our publication are redistributed to social justice orgs.

Hi Casey! Thank you so much for sharing some of your reflections on The Star, this season of life, and your book, “A Confluence of Witches.” Let’s start with your book. Like The Rebis, you’ve brought together a group of writers and witches to share personal essays about their experience with spirituality. What led to this book idea, and can you share a little bit about your process for working on it? 

As an artist, writer, and working witch I have been healing from endless pivoting caused by the pandemic business world, and was really craving a creative project that took me off-line and into a more archival form. The anthology had been a dream for some time, and in 2022, when I decided to take a break from hosting Witches Confluence events, I had the space to dive into the project.

So many of the witchcraft books I grew up with are collections, some of them collated by tragically outdated second-wave feminist collectives, and I wanted to create something different for modern practitioners. The seed for this anthology was to gather together some of the most radical and diverse voices in modern witchcraft, and to highlight the wisdom and creativity being activated at this deeply transformative time. 

I started working on the anthology when I was just a couple of months pregnant, and I completed editing all of the submissions when I was 3 months postpartum. I adored the process of being in the creative crucible while also going through such a physically creative transformation. Editing and working with our contributors was a supportive outlet for my creative praxis during that time. 

What a beautiful offering. What are some of the lessons you’re integrating from the alchemy of collaboration during the production of A Confluence of Witches?

It has been an honor to collaborate with witches from so many different backgrounds, and I am truly struck by the commitment each of our contributors has to honoring the magic that is within them and within their lineages, whether that be an innate connection with spirit passed down with love, or through traumatic experiences and reckoning with colonial patterning. Each of our contributors is not afraid to own both the shadow and the treasure of their pasts, and in doing so, they are enacting healing for themselves and for future generations of witches. 

As an editor and curator, I feel grateful for the trust bestowed upon me by all of my peers, collaborators and friends. And as I continue to evolve in my own practice and work, I am learning more about how to hold supportive boundaries for myself and others so that my work rings and resonates with those who will benefit from it most. 

You’re also building community through your Witches Confluence—we can’t wait for the fall conference on November 2. Can you talk a little bit about the theme and some of the speakers and workshops you’re excited about? 

The theme of the Witches Confluence this year is spiritual activism, which is a call to connect the dots between our spiritual practices and our desires for a more just, equitable, and liberated world.

Modern Witches as an organization has always aimed to demonstrate how witchcraft is an inherently political practice, and with this event, we are hoping to engage with magic and spirituality in ways that can fortify our activism, strengthen our capacity for organizing, and inspire us to participate in these revolutionary times.

Kiki Robinson will be teaching a workshop on “Protection Magic for Witches & Activists.” Jeff Hinshaw is teaching “Astro Activism: Harnessing the Power of the Zodiac for Social Change” (online). And Dori Midnight is leading a workshop on “Collective Spell Casting”—and the spell formulated during that workshop will be released at our closing ceremony.

Essentially, activism is about pushing for social and political change, and witches above all else understand the power of believing in change. Magic is change, and we are capable of building new worlds!

The Star from Wanderer’s Tarot

“Magic is change”—I love that. The concept of spiritual activism feels inherently Star-like. What’s your relationship to The Star card, these days? Where do you see it showing up in the world? 

I love this connection to The Star. These days, The Star speaks to me about being resourced enough to show up for healing work, on both the personal and collective scale.

Traditional depictions of The Star show a figure pouring libations into the water, and back to the earth. I see this as a prompt for giving and receiving. When we are able to both give of ourselves (energy to support a cause, time in showing up for activations, money to mutual aid) and receive (compassion from our peers, gratitude, creative fulfillment, love) then we are most resourced and able to show up at our best.

This is the role of spiritual activism for me—it’s about acknowledging that our inner healing and spiritual work is a sacred partner in the work of fighting for liberation and justice. If we can’t dismantle how white supremacy is operating internally, or in our spiritual beliefs, then how are we going to dismantle white supremacy in our relationships, governments, and economies?

For me, an important element of The Star’s teaching is the sense of being resourced by Spirit, or something larger than us. The Star reminds us to participate with ALL that is; connecting with our communities of care, and honoring the constellations of meaning within us, and making sure the two are aligned in their value systems. 

On a personal level, I am committed to doing more work around connecting my internal values with my external actions and commitments. In doing this community building work, I understand how important it is to be in integrity, and how much capacity and bandwidth that truly takes. While I am always committed to doing better, I am also committed to honoring my process and humanity at every step of the journey, especially now as a mother with so many new demands on my energy. 

With the equinox behind us, I feel ready to fully embrace this season—it’s a moment of inward reflection, of quiet creativity. What are some of your favorite creative rituals for fall? 

Fall is a time of returning to nourishment for me. After the Confluence, I move into reflection, rest, and reset mode. During the time before Samhain, I like to re-attune to ancestral work, craft new protective talismans for my home, and work with my spiritual allies of the dark season. Decorating my home with rowan garlands and pulling out my stash of beeswax candles for the darker evenings are some small but resonant ways that I honor the seasonal shift. 

Thank you so much, Casey—see you at the Confluence in November!