Psychic Witch – Tarot Reader
I had the pleasure to be part of the Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum on the topic of Why Psychic Skills are Important. Authors included:
Astrea Taylor, author of Intuitive Witchcraft, Air Magic, and co-author of Modern Witchcraft with the Greek Gods.
Danielle Dionne, author of Magickal Mediumship.
Cat Gina Cole, author of Psychic Skills for Magic & Witchcraft.
And myself, Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch and Mastering Magick.
You can watch the full video below:
Newsweek reached out to me to get my thoughts on Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus two. Here are some of the bits they quoted me on in their article:
Mat Auryn, best-selling author of Psychic WitchandMastering Magick, has studied under Laurie Cabot, who previously railed against the way witches were portrayed in 1987’s The Witches of Eastwick.
Auryn wrote to Newsweek that watching Hocus Pocus in October is a tradition for him, and he pressed play on the sequel as soon as it aired. He thinks that the second Hocus Pocus paints witches far more fairly than the first. It helps to explain that the Sanderson sisters in their youth saw witchcraft as an outlet for spiritual empowerment.
The author also lauded Najimy for her 1993 remarks.
“Watching the Kathy Najimy clip fills my heart with delight. As a child of the ’90s, I have loved her ever since I first saw her in Sister Act,” Auryn wrote. “Seeing her advocate her genuine concern for the real-world effects of practicing Witches and Pagans was very touching and spoke volumes about her heart.”
Real witches also praised Najimy’s show of historical knowledge in the decades-old clip. In it, she explains that some of the women suspected of witchcraft were actually midwives and healthcare workers. And the idea that witches eat children dates back to that time.
It’s a point that Auryn applauds Najimy for getting right. He wrote that the baby-eating trope originated from the fact that many accused witches in Europe “were midwives and assisted in handling miscarriages, as well as knowing herbal formulas for inducing abortions, which quickly made them a target of the church.”
Read the full article here: https://www.newsweek.com/real-witches-whether-hocus-pocus-offends-disappointing-best-1751733
Had an almost 3 hour long chat with Tiffany of Witchlab. Check it out here:
At the tail end of the Pacific Northwest heatwave, we gathered with our TWL Squad for a virtual gathering full of shenanigans. On the agenda includes the first annual Kanani Awards for “best and worst things that are out there.” We also play a game: “Is it a Tori Amos Lyric or Something Courtney Said To/About An Ex?”, which includes a special surprise appearance by Mat Auryn! We talk about leading public festivals and building a Pagan community that includes children. Plus, we announce our line-up for So Mote That Con ’22!
Go listen here:
https://thatwitchlife.com/2022/08/08/episode-149-shenanigans-magick-with-mat-auryn/
In the beginning of August, Mat Auryn tweeted that he had found large portions of his book, Psychic Witch in an independently published book on Amazon titled, Awakening Your Witchy Intuition & Psychic Abilities by an author named, “Glinda Porter.”
Read the full article here:
“Stealing from others:” The continuing plagiarism of Pagan books
Earlier this month, Pagan author Mat Auryn took to Twitter to highlight what he said was a very clear case of verbatim plagiarism of his work.
According to his tweets and provided images, the book Awakening Your Witchy Intuition & Psychic Abilities, penned by an author using the name Glinda Porter, lifted whole paragraphs from his book, Psychic Witch.
Read the full article below:
“Mat talks with Jen about his life, writing, and magick. Roll the video to learn about Mat’s motivation for writing his current book, Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation (2020, Llewellyn) and for a peek into the collaboration behind his forthcoming book, Mastering Magick: A Course in Spellcasting for the Psychic Witch (Oct. 2022, Llewellyn).”
An article about the Instagram imposters committing fraud and identity theft in the occult and spiritual community.
The fake accounts seem to be focused primarily on those who have seen their followings and popularity grow, like Mat Auryn, whose first published work, Psychic Witch soared to the top of Pagan book sale lists in 2020 & 2021, marking 100K copies sold just recently.
Auryn explained how the impersonations and the attempts at defrauding his followers began to evolve, “The first account that impersonated me was near the beginning of the pandemic. Slowly this began increasing to occur maybe once every few months, where a new account would pop up impersonating me. Eventually, it increased to once a month, and then almost weekly.”
Auryn said, “Trying to get them taken down is like throwing dice. Unfortunately, since Meta bought Instagram, the customer service is non-existent, like it is on Facebook. It’s next to impossible to get a hold of an actual human to discuss these issues.”
Auryn related some of his frustrating experiences trying to get pages removed, “I’m still getting notifications about an account I reported almost a year ago. To paraphrase the contradictory message, ‘we didn’t have time to look at it, but we didn’t find anything wrong, so we’re leaving it up.’ I have one imposter account that’s been up for almost a year despite having at least hundreds of people reporting it for impersonation.”
“As the problem increases, I’m not sure what is actually effective anymore to get these accounts taken down. It’s hard not to believe that Instagram doesn’t care about its users and is benefiting from these accounts being active.” He explained, “What I mean, is that you can block these accounts and even put ‘block any new accounts they make’ which means they [Instagram] have the ability to see the IP address and which accounts are connected to the scammers.”
Auryn continued and pointed out one of the major problems with that approach, “Often when a scammer account is taken down, they just create new profiles impersonating someone else. [This] means Instagram seems to have the ability to weed these individuals off their platform but are seemingly choosing not to.”
One of the things that many of those who have been targeted cited as a reason is the difficulty with Pagan authors’ accounts being verified on social media platforms. The elusive “blue star” and verified “checkmark” are rarely extended to independent authors, and few if any Pagan authors.
For Auryn another unpleasant side effect is all of the messages he receives from followers when a fake account pops up, “One of the frustrating things, is not just all the people being scammed through impersonating myself and others – but the hundreds to thousands of direct messages I get from people either informing me of imposter accounts or asking me if the imposter accounts are really me. It’s gotten so bad at flooding my DMs that I’ve shut my DMs off completely.”
Read the full article here: https://wildhunt.org/2022/06/copycat-accounts-affecting-many-pagans.html
“Do you know this smiling face?? We are serving up piping hot tea this Thursday at 12:30 pm ET with witch, writer, professional psychic, and occult teacher Mat Auryn. Join in the discussion live, or watch the playback right here on The Psychic Teas!”
There were a bit of technical difficulties with this live-stream. First it booted Leanne off and then at the end it froze on me and kicked me off. Aside from all that Mercury Retrograde weirdness, it was still a very fun interview.
“Join Roger and Michelle with special guest Mat Auryn! Mat is a witch, professional psychic, occult teacher, and author of the book “Psychic Witch.” Is psychic ability a gift or does everyone have it? Is there a relationship between psychic ability and magick? Learn more at auryn.net If you have questions, feel free to ask. Roger & Michelle will also give a prize if there are a certain number of active listeners…so invite your friends. They will also offer live readings. Watch live on our SoulWhat page for giveaways and readings! You can also listen to SoulWhat on @MichelleSoulTopia YouTube, iHeart Radio, iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcast.”