Parenting in Magick- Prompts

It’s October and the deadline for submitting pieces to Parenting in Magick is going to be here soon! If you need a reminder, it’s October 15th, and if you need the guidelines and basic information, that can all be found here! I’m looking forward to reviewing submissions and putting this book together, as well as doing a whole lot of my own writing.

I was talking to someone interested in submitting a piece to Parenting in Magick, but they were struggling with what to write about. There are many areas a book on parenting and magickal childhood can cover. So, she asked me if I could give a list of prompts. Prompts are helpful, particularly when we are struggling to write. I use them a lot and if it helps get more submissions, so much the better!

Some of the chapters and scope I think I’ll be including (and writing about myself) in Parenting in Magick are the following. All pieces can be written from the perspective of parents, or from the child. How you define magick, spirituality, and what your practice/tradition looks like is up to you- I don't limit my anthologies to one perspective- the point is many perspectives. There is one caveat- I don't include work that promotes racism, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of hate and intolerance.

Potential chapters/topics

• Pregnancy and Childbirth

• The little ones (under 10)

• The bigger ones (tweens and teens)

• Education (formal and informal)

• Fun (crafts, activities, etc)

• Milestones (celebrations such as birthdays, life transitions, first steps, new experiences, reaching adulthood)

• Rituals and Blessings

• Letting go (leaving the nest)

• The next Generation (the grandparent experience)

Some of these topics might be combined into one chapter, and there could be more topics/chapters that get added.

For further ideas, I came up with a bunch of prompts that will hopefully get people motivated and writing!

Potential prompts

• What was your favorite childhood memory involving magick?

• What is the one thing you wish to instill in your children involving magick?

• How do you approach teaching your children about Gods/Spirits/Spirituality?

• Share rituals you’ve created centered around your children and magick

• Share blessings you’ve created for your children

• Types of blessings: protection and warding, development, connection to the divine/Gods

• How do you connect your children to their ancestors

• Magickal songs you sang to your children

• How did pregnancy connect you to your spirituality?

• How did childbirth change you spiritually?

• How did you teach your children to explore their magical practice?

• How did you teach your younger children to be safe with their magical practice?

• Share your children’s magical practice and experiences.

• How do you celebrate birthdays?

• How do you celebrate holidays?

• How did you handle the rebellious teenage years?

• What was your approach to answering the “hard” questions, like death, sex, personal freedom, social responsibility, etc?

• How did you encourage your kids to connect with the natural world, particularly in an age of computers and indoor life?

• How did you handle adversity from the outside world?

• What did you do if your kids came home, upset, because they were teased for having a witchy parent, or being witchy/magickal/different themselves?

Of course, pieces don’t have to cover just these ideas, but can include anything else so long as it’s about parenting, grandparenting or remembering your magickal childhood. And pieces don’t have to be “articles” or essays, but can include things such as poems, songs, prayers, craft ideas, recipes, and I am looking for a few images to include. At this time, I haven't decided if art will be color or black/white- that depends on how much color increases production cost with amazon. My hope is their new color printing is cheaper than it was in the past. Please refer to the original submission guidelines regarding pictures.

You can submit any pieces by emailing me at liminalraven@gmail.com with the subject “Parenting in Magick”.