About

“The Otherworld is not a myth, but a reality. In all ages there have been souls who have been willing to risk all for the chance of bringing back with them some assurance of the future life.”
–Jesse Weston, From Ritual to Romance about the origins of the Grail Quest

What is Winterspells?

Winterspells  is a Magical Library of sorts. Here I am drawing together many aspects of the Arts Magical. Most of my articles are based on my life experience to show what can happen on the spiritual path when one has been following it for a long time.

It is also a place where you can explore your own Magical Personality. I hope that  my experiences will inspire you to express your true authentic self — the self has to hide away in the work-a-day world. As I have lived my entire life with my body in the mundane world and my heart and passion in the Otherworld, I hope I may be an example of how it is possible to bring the magic through and live the life of your dreams without ever mucking about in Black Magic.

What you Will Encounter in This Blog

*** I will share my life experiences as a magical vessel, one who mediates Otherworldy realities into this one. By sharing the path that I have a walked, I hope to reveal to those called to Magic what it is like to live as a Mediator between the Seen and Unseen worlds. I hope to show you how to be strong when you experience sensory overload, feel assaulted by the impact of the world, or when your spiritual growth includes things you do not want to deal with or face.

Development of Your Magical Personality:

Magical Personality: Here is where you learn to uncover and express your true personality in the world.

Often we have to deny our true passions in order to cater for someone else’s agenda. This can be a parent, partner, boss. When we feel at the mercy of their opinion of us and shut ourselves down to play their game, we become drained, frustrated, and may even feel like we are dying inside.

The concept of the Magical Personality is from Occult Tradition. It is aligned to the True Will of the magician, for if desire is out of sync with the TRUE will, the magic not work. It is as if the wires are not connected properly. The Magical Personality is often an ideal version of the Self. And example would be Norma Jean Baker, whose Magical Personality was Marilyn Monroe. When she stepped into that role, the insecure, vulnerable girl became a powerful sexual woman.

As a creative artist and seer, I find the most flexible way to find and generate the Magical Personality is through the use of meditation techniques. At Winterspells you will learn:

How to create a space for Magical Practice. This will be your inner Sanctuary, where anything can happen.

Tools: Magic wands, chalices, wands, pentacles, cloaks, head dresses, guises, costumes, masks

Skills: Manifesting your heart’s desire, walking in a sacred manner, psychic development

Development of attributes to forge a Magical Will and perception that are in alignment with your inner truth — your Magical Personality!

Philosophy:

***Magic Without Evil: We are leaning a lot these days about the misuse of power in high places and low. Unfortunately, Thelema has grown and the followers of Crowley have taken his work literally. They think they need to shed blood, torture children and murder people. This is vile and is a direct assault, not just on the human race, but on the Otherworld beings that sustain life on this Earth. We must protect innocence at all costs. Come from the heart and heal the world.

*** Witchcraft is the Green Religion: Essays about how the restoration of Magical Consciousness in relation to the Earth and all her creatures is needed to restore harmony between human beings and the Earth.

**** Witchcraft is a Mytho-Poeic Religion: Essays on the power of witches and enchantresses current in the arts.

***Reviews: Books films, study groups, and  tools, Suggested reading and filmography

***Interviews: Text interviews, reviews, and Podcasts with notable Occultists and Historians of Folklore and Magic.

 

Why is this Blog called Winterspells?

I was born in the winter under a witch’s moon. See my post, Legacy of the Witchblood for more details on that.

I started this blog in the longest, snowiest winter in the history of Seattle.

It is a play on my name, de Winter.

I have lived long enough to know the winter spells and am in a position to guide the younger ones.

Winter is the dark time of year when all of nature turns inward. And it is when out ancestors sat around a warm fire and, in its glow, told stories.

 

What is the Witchblood?

Witchblood can be inherited from the family, being born the seventh of the seventh, being born with a veil, or caul. If not inherited through family, the magical Witchblood can rise up from the land and enter the energy bodies for a moment, or forever, creating inner changes, changes that transform the very marrow of the bones. It can be developed through meditation, initiations and magical rituals, especially those involving the Earthlight, and the Faery. Often those born with the Witchblood are very drawn to the Realm of Faery, for it calls to them and, wondering, they must follow.

I was born and raised in colorful and dysfunctional French Canadian family in a small town in Massachusetts. Despite our poverty I had aspirations to be artist and travel the world. Somehow I have managed to do all of it while, at the same time, following the call of the Otherworld. Of course, it was a long time before I became aware that beings on the other side of the veil were guiding and directing my life. I just thought I was different,  sensitive, creative, over imaginative, and very attuned to nature. When I heard about the Witchblood, I knew I had it. I wanted to cultivate it because I believe it is what gives me access to other realms of existence  in dimensions I wanted to enter and explore.

If you want to know more about me and how magic has imbued my life, I am writing a Magical Timeline. Maybe some of my experiences will resonate with you!

My Magical Timeline: North

My Magical Timeline: North and East, Living Outside My Body

Magical Timeline: Going Where the Veil is Thin

SERVICES

The Empress
The Empress

The Empress, Trump  III, from my  Grail Keepers Tarot.

For 25 years, I have been a Tarot reader. My already strong clairvoyant abilities took off like lightning after a hypnogogic kundalini awakening I had in 1989, after 18 months of intensive meditation and clearing of my energy bodies. I also became a healer at that point…that is a strange story in itself.

I continue to read Tarot, Runes and Astrological charts and practice several powerful healing modalities and transformational techniques. I have been blessed with a large following of clients and great respect both in Seattle and London where I lived for nine years.

www.gothicfaerytales.com

for the dark side of fairy tales….

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook as Alyne de Winter

Charon Ferrying Souls Across the River Styx

Thank you for reading my blog and Bright Blessings!
Alyne  deWinter

27 thoughts on “About”

  1. loving your blog…i joined the school…when i went to the school section i see the need for a password…but no place to establish that

    will be here often!

  2. I just signed up for your site and was welcomed. I don’t know how to add a password so that I can get into your school. What do I do?
    Thank you,
    Ave

  3. Hi,
    You should get an email with the password in it very soon.
    Just in case you missed it, its enchantment
    I’m glad you enjoy the site!

  4. Greetings Dear Lady
    I lived for many years
    in a sun lit place
    where all who came my way
    could stroll about
    as if in some spacious
    Oak Parkland….
    i have a whimsy
    of escaping ritual sacrifice
    Celtic
    joining Alexander and when India came
    leaving
    seeking Buddha
    and Zen simplicity in Japan……
    i was born beneath a hill fort
    and woods of pigeons
    missed the confidence of angels
    …thankyou
    flow

  5. Hello!
    I have a question. It might be a silly question but I just need to know. When you said that witch blood can actually affect the marrow in your bones can you actually feel it?? And how do you know?? I’ve just been experiencing odd things lately.

  6. Its a n energetic thing. Your DNA is, I think, in the bone marrow which is blood. Your bloodline contains the DNA of you ancestors and their “memories”, Faery Tradition is an ancestral tradition having to do with the old ancestor worship of pagan times. You are a product of them. They tie you to the distant, pre-Christian past where the keys to magical practice may still be preserved. So if you “wake them up” you may also receive teachings. This happened to me on many levels. Energy shifts will be pretty rampant right now with all the planetary activity going on as well.
    Hope that helps.

  7. Yes it helps. Thanks! The planets really mess with me I have learned, as I am becoming this new person it feels like. I have been Wiccan for almost a year, but as I’m discovering my past everything feels like its in HD. I sense things now. And I am happy for discover these things when I’m just a teenager. So thanks again.

  8. I’ve just stumbled across this page and I am enchanted. I hope that some kind soul wouldn’t mind answering a question? You have confirmed my belief that those born with a caul are natural witches. However, have you also heard this of those born with animalistic features? You see….I was born covered in hair. Thankfully, it fell out, but I’ve been witchy all along…

  9. Hi,

    How can I join the school? Btw, I send some questions to your e-mail, I wonder if you received them?

  10. Hi Gonzalo,
    I just have the e-book which you can download. I was going to do more but life intervened and I am focusing on writing my novel. Sorry about that. The lessons in the e-book have lots of powerful works in them. It can get you off to a good start in Faery Seership.
    Aline

  11. Hi Arlene,

    This is such a cool website that you have. I’ve always had an interest in the occult, divination in particular. But in the end, I found that the I-Ching worked best for me. Still I love what you have on this site and will return often to learn from you. I love how your articles come from your life experiences because that is a good and personal way to grow.

  12. Thanks Vizier. I’m glad you enjoy the site. I have use the i-ching a lot in the past. But you mostly do it for yourself and I do lots of readings for other people. Its interesting though.
    Cheers,
    Aline

  13. Love your site. Respectfully, there is no such thing as warlocks, if you’re a witch, you’re a witch.

  14. Hi Arlene,

    Sorry for this tooo late reply, actually I didn’t received any notification of your comment as in other cases. Anyway, I haven’t been able to download the e-book, maybe what I need is a password to access the school section.

    Thanks in advance for your comments.

  15. I did not only do it mostly for myself. I’m sure you realize that you gain the greatest satisfaction from using divination to help others. This is why I like your site so much. There are an assortment of skills here that can shape lives in positive ways. 🙂

  16. Well I’ve learned a lot over the years, but I know I have a long way to go still. You are right about the i-ching being deep though. I love how I can see the patterns unfolding or being aware of how certain seeds can lead to certain results. I look forward to a lifetime of learning ahead. 😀

  17. let me tell you something
    Christians never killed off the old ways
    they built their morbid churches over our places
    but never could they suppress the natural unseen way

    christians can be very loving
    can be close to the light
    but beyond their loving ethics they are asleep
    curled up in their self made night

    there they are
    the sleeping ones

    dive into the well
    down down
    till down becomes up

    break the surface and be greeted by the blue wode friends

    in the place of endless Summer
    the place where joy is endless
    because Conciousness is your eternal companion

    when i was a child we made chains of buttercups in the fields beneath the Hillforts of our ancestors

    a 1500 year old church was where we were told God lived
    it was his house
    he was invisible

    the nave was flooded with sunlight
    the windows let in bird song
    the meadows were thick with grass
    a river gurgled on greasy pebbles between banks of scented red earth

    cattle bellowed in their social herd
    in a haze of blue and fly swarms

    oaks pushed and writhed from granite
    on the hill tops
    we stared into the wind and felt the march of time
    felt the ghosts of Romans and Celts
    of Welsh halls and bards

    felt the eternal moment in an instant of childs laughter
    and knew god was just another word for spirit and life and awe and joy

    go clearly towards the light

  18. That is absolutely beautiful Larry. I might want to put it on the front page if you don’t mind.
    thank you
    A

  19. Thank you for the absolutly glorious photos of the rowan trees. They are a favorite of mine and I wasn’t sure if I was correctly identifing them. Nim

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