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Sam Wagar

@samwagar.bsky.social
131 followers 65 following 430 posts

Canadian Wiccan Priest (Sacred Oak Temple in Edmonton), author, MA in History, ABD in Practical Theology, meadmaker, bibliophile, retired. Democratic Socialist (longtime NDP member).

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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
#witchsky "No matter how loudly we clamor for magic in our lives, we are really afraid of pursuing an existence entirely under its influence and sign." - Antonin Artaud "The Theatre and its Double" Preface p 9.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I often wonder why I try to build community with my fellow Pagans. I guess I need a hobby, although lately I think training snakes to play chess would be more satisfying (particularly rattlesnakes).
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The bullies to the south wanted Canada to not trade with other countries as part of the shakedown and Carney walked away. Good. The gangsters did not like our culture and bilingualism policies, so screw them. The world does not orbit the sun in Washington. Bully us and we will not bow down.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I'm sad to hear of the death of Brendan Myers, prolific author, fiction and non-fiction, Druid philosopher, teacher, musician, and kind and gentle soul. Only 52, from a heart attack. I knew him for twenty-odd years and admired his work.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
#witchsky Got together with the temple ritual team / re- organizing team today for Lammas. The in-person public rites will be starting up in six months or so and we're still getting comfortable doing ritual together. On-line esbats will continue (into year seven now). Planting seeds in Edmonton.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Blah, but improving. Summer cold, nothing serious. Back to reading Bateman's book, full of entertaining historical titbits. Temple ritual team get-together on Saturday - it's developing nicely.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Moussaka! Used extra allspice and nutmeg (Americans are such spice wusses!) and made a few minor modifications but it was great! Today's book is Bateman's "Economica" (I confess that it was "Naked Feminism" and her anti-Brexit videos that introduced me to her - seems smart and funny).
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Sore throat and coughing a bit earlier today so I cancelled out of a visit - didn't want to risk it. But the air quality has improved and I'm drinking tea to loosen everything up. And I made moussaka, more or less following Julia Child's recipe. We'll see how it turned out in a bit.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I just reviewed this absolutely gorgeous Tarot deck - The Ebony Tarot / Le Tarot Ebene. Photographed in natural settings around Montreal, Afro-Canadian models, wearing clothing and using props that are evocative of Africa. Resembles the Waite-Smith deck but much prettier.
A group of photos of Tarot cards - A mature black woman holding a scrole, a winged back woman holding two cups, a woman holding scales in a long red dress, a black man tied to a tree with 8 swords on the ground in front of him, a black man on the edge of a cliff holding a flower.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
So many books, so little time! As well as the usual metaphysical, occult and magickal books, I've gathered a couple on economics (Victoria Bateman "Economica", a history centring on women's economic impact, and Elinor Ostrom "Governing the Commons") and Ryan Burge "The Vanishing Church". Fun reads!
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Happy Canada Day!
Canadian flag attached to a hockey stick attached to a porch railing.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
And the writing project is coming along. Still at the 'shovel it all in and edit' stage but the story is starting to come through. The fundamental structure is sound.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Getting excited as I launch a collaboration with a friend. I rarely write with other people, but this looks like fun. Perhaps she'll temper my academic tendencies (never met a footnote I didn't like!). Still at a very early stage, though.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
#booksky I've become interested in witchcraft and colonialism in Africa (mainly - I've read some cool stuff on Brazil as well) and I do book review and recommended reading videos on YT on esoteric books on different topics: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqyV...
youtube.com
Witchcraft and Colonialism
YouTube video by Samuel Wagar
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
#booksky For some reason, I got really interested in magic and witchcraft in modern Africa so I've been reading a lot in the area. I also both write and record book reviews - for facingnorth.net
facingnorth.net
Home
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Got together with the coven and friends a few days ago and looks like relaunching the temple. Stay tuned, Edmonton peeps! And in other news, the Alberta separatist gang is tied to the American embassador to Canada.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Happy Mothers' Day to all the moms. I called up my 93-year-old mom today (thanks to my sister, also a mom, for reminding me).
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Just had some book reviews published in the 'alt-religion review site Facing North - www.facingnorth.net
facingnorth.net
Home
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I am having so much fun reading academic books about witchcraft in postcolonial Africa (and elsewhere). Just finished Geschiere's "Modernity of Witchcraft" after the Comaroffs' "Modernity and its Malcontents" - parallels with early modern Europe and power relations here and now.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
A proper Praetorian Guard knows when the time has come to swap out the figurehead. I am disappointed in the Secret Service.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I often wake with a song in my head but today it was e. e. cummings' poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town", an oddly beautiful and moving reflection on life. "(and only the snow can begin to explain / how children are apt to forget to remember / with up so floating many bells down)"
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Well, I'm alive. So are 90 million people in Iran. Now, Edmonton is a 2nd or 3rd strike target so I would have time to hear about WWIII before evaporating. In a less-drastic scenario, I have enough food to last a couple months so long as the water and electricity held out.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Getting more frustrated with idiots. Nothing new, but I think I need to ignore more randos. Oh well.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
"You can never hold back spring /You can be sure I will never stop believing/ .... / Winter dreams the same dream every time/ ... /And even though you've lost your way / The world is dreaming, dreaming of spring" Although, -14 and light snow today in Edmonton...
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
It's cold today but I believe in spring. So, I'm opening up, getting out of the house, being social. I voted in the NDP leadership race for three of the candidates (ranked choice vote) although things are looking pretty dire for the party right now.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I'm just about half-way through Xiran Jay Zhao "Heavenly Tyrant", the sequel to "Iron Widow". Revolutionary Marxist feminist hard sci-fi drawing from Chinese culture, YA, fast pace. Characters not as well-developed as "Iron Widow" but more complex and interesting than much hard science SF.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Living my life, having weird algorithymic blips - I do recommended reading videos that usually get 20 or so views (which is okay since I just like talking about interesting books) but the latest one has almost 6 K and I did nothing different! Oh well, just keep doing them.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Being aware of the state of the world as it is currently unfolding, it is difficult for me to have hope. On the individual level, my life is going okay. I have enough money, a decent place to live, a sweetheart, good health. But I cannot live isolated from other people or the world around me.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
The USA has kidnapped the President of a sovereign country, Venezuela. Should Canada's PM worry as well? We have natural resources the billionaires could loot, like Venezuela. Despite Trump's glee, the USA has not installed compradors yet. Can anyone spell Afghanistan, or Vietnam?
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
May the candle I light at sunset burn all night to keep the light of hope alive through this longest night of the year. May the sun, unconquered, rise again tomorrow, renewing my life and carrying me forward into the new year. All Hail Sol Invictus! All Hail the Unconquered Sun!
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
A little Christmas music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9_Y...
youtube.com
Silent Night (Goat Edition)
YouTube video by ActionAidSweden
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Mourning the horrific anti-Semitic attack in Australia. Celebrating the courage of Ahmed al-Ahmed, who disarmed one of the murderers and was shot several times by the other.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
#esotericbookchallenge
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
#booksky Just a reminder of the excellent 'alt-spirituality' book review site Facing North. www.facingnorth.net
facingnorth.net
Home
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Bluesky started off with such promise but appears to have fizzled right out. That's a pity. We need alternative social media and lines of communication to those the billionaires own. I'll see what I can do to spark discussion and move things forward.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
#esotericbookchallenge
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
#esotericbookchallenge Now that winter is beginning, I'm hunkering down in my library with a substantial pile of interesting new esoteric books to read. Writing reviews for the 'alt-religion' review site Facing North enriches my library.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
#whatwitcheslooklike
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Samhain is coming and I'm pulling together a list of dead from the Pagan communities over the past year for my coven. We will recite thir names (and those of our personal Ancestors and Honoured Dead) because what is remembered lives on.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Arrived home to 7 new esoteric books to review! I know what I'll be reading in the next month or two. Autumn has set in, winter is coming, and I have tea and books to keep me going.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Thrifting, bought nine books! Schroeder's Theosophical classic "Man - His Origin, History and Destiny", Kelley's "The Black Donnellys", Atwood's non-fiction "Moving Targets" with reflections on the writing process for several of her finest works, including Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake!
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
#antifa History lesson about the last time the fascists were organizing (in the 1970s in the UK) and some tactics that worked to defeat them. (warning to liberals - it wasn't polite 'debate'). www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeHv...
youtube.com
How We Beat The Fascists Last Time: The London History Show
YouTube video by J. Draper
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Met with two Priestess apprentices yesterday and I am very pleased. As an Elder, my task is not to lead but to mentor this next generation, and I am delighted to be able to do it. Autumn's starting, too, a less outward, more contemplative turn of the Wheel.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Sort of nice to be back as an avid reader. Really just needed a series to devour, Charlaine Harris' Southern vampire series down in a book-a-day binge and I have a nice big TBR urban fantasy pile here still.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
One of my favourite things - I performed a wedding / commitment ceremony today. It's been a couple years since I've had the honour. I was glad to have a Priestess-in-training help out, part of what she'll eventually have to do in service to the Wiccan communities.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Edmonton Fringe theatre festival this week. Taking it easy - only one play a day. An assortment of interesting looking stuff - drag kings, burlesque, Electra rethought, Witchy punk rock MacBeth. Senior's discounts! (Even full-price this is a bargain!) So, if you see us out and about, say hi!
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Went out to our MP's summer BBQ today - relocated indoors because of the rain and was crowded. Heather McPherson is an excellent MP. The "Forever Canadian" petition team turned out in force, ten of them, and I signed up. They've got to collect 300K signatures in 90 days, but seem to be doing well.
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
#esotericbookchallenge
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Sam Wagar @samwagar.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
#booksky As a big fan of the True Blood TV series, I was hesitant to pick up Charlaine Harris' books because I feared disappointment, but I'm finally reading them and loving them. Sly humour, deadpan description of outrageous situations, loads of fun!
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