A SASS witch and friend of @criticalthinkingwitches who is also a journalist has made a zine and you should check it out! Here is where you can download it!

"Imbolc" By S.R. Harrell, 2025.

switching from an ~aesthetic fancy leather bound grimoire~ to Just A Binder with Loose Pages has made my Grimoire Anxiety sooooo much less. is it aesthetic? no. is it functional? absolutely!! i can take notes wherever i want and just move them to different sections!! i dont have to worry about writing something in the wrong place!! i dont need a weird complex index to find all my stuff!!

TRADITIONAL WITCHCRAFT…

…with its many and various branches, is a Craft born largely from the very landscape in which it is practiced. There exist common threads that run throughout the various recensions of the ‘Elder Faith’, but the precise traditions, ways and practices of the ‘Old Craft’ will always differ and be flavoured by the preserved folk beliefs, traditions, customs, lore, historical magical rites, charms and impedimenta of the region in which its practice is rooted. Traditional witchcraft is regional witchcraft, it is not and never has been a standardised practice and long may this continue to be the case. The day witchcraft loses regional variation is the day traditional witchcraft ceases to exist.

Traditional Witchcraft, Gemma Gary (2008)

there's nothing wrong with living an aesthetically pleasing life, or having an aesthetically pleasing magical practice - beauty is meaningful, and personal, and that meaning can be powerful.

however, it has to be aesthetically pleasing on your own terms. having an aesthetic practice shouldn't be done for others, for consumption or notes or whatever. looking at your surroundings and seeing beauty can give you energy, but if you look at your surroundings and see only the effort you've put in for other people, there's no energy or personal power to be gained from that.

be proud of your aesthetic, whether it's soft or dirty or bright or dead. but also be proud that it's a real extension of yourself, done for yourself, creating power in beauty for yourself.

Sir I cannot work on my grimoire under these conditions