Witch in Darkness, page 25
My beautiful partner, Harry Scordellis, thanks for the Taurus energy I definitely needed, and the dream romance I secretly wanted. You ironed out my anxieties during the writing process and put many good meals in front of me while I typed furiously.
Thank you to my wondrous friend, the ever-precious hostess and sublime witch, Emily Stuart. So much of my life is to do with you and I am delighted about it. “Our minds combine in the guise of an emerald wrapped in petals.”
Ian LaPoint, thank you for the nurturing, the affirming, the questioning, the dancing and the capering. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, and you were gone too long.
Vlad Skofenko, my Ukrainian magician, thank you for the instant alchemy, the ongoing love and the heirloom knife. May we know each other always.
Thanks to Natalya Leary for showing me what a high priestess looks like in action. Your patience, encouragement, humour and love are an endless feast.
Leah Breach, thank you for branding my hands and warming my heart, darling. Your wondrous energy is in this book.
George Hewitt, there has never been a moment since we met that I haven’t been fully aware that you are gold dust. Thank you for being the keeper of my stories and the guardian of my sanity during the most impossibly difficult time. Sagittarian seditionaries forever.
Izzy Goldby-Briggs, thank you for helping me continue to live after one of the biggest parts of both of us died. Completing this book would have been impossible without you.
Thanks to Siobhan Palmer. Wherever you are and wherever you’re going, you’re always with me.
Thanks to Mum and Stad for holding it together as the world fell apart. Without your ridiculous foundational strength, the pages of this book could not have been filled.
Thank you to Mira Mattar, Josh Pollen and all the friends who’ve attended protests alongside me and encouraged me in my ongoing direct action. We will never regret even one second of the energy, time and physical exertion we have given, and we will continue to give much more of it in the future until we meet our aims.
Thanks to my therapist Jula Aniol, whose compassionate and perceptive work has made all the difference to my mental wellbeing.
Deep thanks to the goddess Hel. Your flesh teaches me to connect to this world and your bones remind me to access what lies beyond it.
Deep thanks to the Holy Mother Mary. Even a lowly chaos witch can pick up what you put down at the foot of the Cross.
Unending thanks to all the disembodied beings, the mystical wisdoms and the swirling energies of the natural world that guided me along the path. Thanks to the spirit guides, the long-dead rock icons and poets, the saints, the gigantic figures of fiction and the mysterious souls that populate my dreams.
Thank you to those who left my life, with or without announcing your departure, during the time I was writing this book. Thank you to those who dismissed my grief, resented my needs or failed to consider me. Thank you to those who missed the opportunity to show up for me in the ways I showed up for you many times over. You contributed to my darkness and, while I won’t pretend it was easy to heal from your mistreatment, I did manage to use it as fuel to complete this project. All’s well that ends well.
Thank you to my gorgeous clients and Patreon members for trusting me to offer you something inspiring for your money. It is your belief in my abilities that keeps my little world spinning.
Thank you to my online community across all platforms. I deeply appreciate your interest in my work and the inspiration provided by our ongoing conversation. In particular, thanks to the professional witches, mystics and cardslingers who consistently use your voices in the service of equality and liberation for all.
To the witch in darkness who knows what it feels like to gaze into a candleflame when there’s no other light – you are a part of my reason for writing. Like you, I have turned to witchcraft when all else was lost. In this way we are linked. Thank you.
About the Author
Kelly-Ann Maddox was made in Merseyside, England, in the 1980s under a Sagittarius sun with a shock of black hair and a face like the full moon. As a kid, she checked inside wardrobes to see if Narnia was back there somewhere. Before realizing that she was a real witch, she would often pretend to be one, quoting from the witches of Disney films, mixing potions with the bath-water bubbles and donning her nana’s costume jewellery to create the perfect look of an empowered enchantress.
As she started her serious reading in her teens, she understood that she was stepping into witchhood for real. In fact, being a witch was often the singular point of strength and inspiration that got her through the toughest times during the ongoing mental health issues she endured for years. Knowing how much her practice of the craft nurtured and supported her through those difficult times, she began creating online resources in her 20s, to help other people explore the path in an individualized way.
Kelly-Ann now lives alone in Kent, UK. She is an award-winning professional Tarot reader, Tarot teacher and certified spiritual counsellor, helping clients all over the world with her readings, sessions and mentoring. She has created hundreds of YouTube videos to inspire her viewers to take charge of their lives and be freewheeling spiritual beings.
Kelly-Ann is also a collage artist and poet. She is a committed vegan.
To find out more about Kelly-Ann:
website: www.kelly-annmaddox.com/
email: mail@kelly-annmaddox.com.
The story of Watkins began in 1893, when scholar of esotericism John Watkins founded our bookshop, inspired by the lament of his friend and teacher Madame Blavatsky that there was nowhere in London to buy books on mysticism, occultism or metaphysics. That moment marked the birth of Watkins, soon to become the publisher of many of the leading lights of spiritual literature, including Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, Alice Bailey and Chögyam Trungpa.
Today, the passion at Watkins Publishing for vigorous questioning is still resolute. Our stimulating and groundbreaking list ranges from ancient traditions and complementary medicine to the latest ideas about personal development, holistic wellbeing and consciousness exploration. We remain at the cutting edge, committed to publishing books that change lives.
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Kelly-Ann Maddox, Witch in Darkness
