I’ve kept blogs online since blogs became a thing. I’ve used LiveJournal and Blogger and tumblr. A few different personal websites, including this one. I even blogged a little on Facebook, back in the very early days of that being open to the public internet.
I’m told people don’t read blogs much these days, or even read much in general. But I’m firmly a part of GenX, and I was one of those kids who not only crushed the library’s summer reading program but also won her fair share of free Pizza Hut pan pizzas from the BookIt program back in the ’80s. I read. And I ready pretty quickly. Given the choice between reading a few pages of text and watching a five or ten minute video online, I’ll pick the reading every time.
Sundial photo, used with permission, from: https://unsplash.com/photos/grayscale-photo-of-round-analog-clock-cJLokI4adx8?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
I found paganism as a teenager in the mid-90s, in the new age book section in my local Waldenbooks. I convinced my parents to jump on the AOL bandwagon back when they were handing out install disks like free toothpicks at restaurants, and found some pagan chatrooms. When I went to college, we had a LAN on campus, and suddenly the brave new world of the pagan internet was fully before me… all thirty-something websites on the Yahoo! search engine, including Witchvox, which acted as both a content hub and a networking space for 90s and early 00s pagans. And there was a pagan group on campus which I promptly joined.
But as the post title says, with apologies to Bob Dylan, times change. Waldenbooks is no longer in business, and neither is that mall. AOL’s been dead for decades, as has Witchvox, and while I believe there’s still a pagan group at my university, I’m now more than old enough to have a child in attendance there. Search the internet today and there are millions of websites and social media groups. Hundreds if not thousands of authors, and books that run from general overviews of paganism to niche drill-downs into the mythology and worship of a single deity.
Maybe it’s my age showing, or the GenX penchant for nostalgia, but I find myself missing those early days. It may have been more difficult to network or find information, but what we could find was usually useful. It was fun, back then. Research and networking as a 2020s-something pagan is… difficult. Things are scattered all over now, and much of it isn’t to my particular tastes in things anyway. Now in my late 40s, I find myself in a different place in my paganism than many folks creating visual content.
But like all adaptable GenX witches, I have changed with the times, at least a bit. I have pinterest boards full of links to various pagan topics. I have links squirreled away on apps. I have an entire YouTube account that I use to follow pagan content creators. I’m even on TikTok, not that I’ve really ventured into the “WitchTok” side of things. I do enjoy Instagram and I still keep my toes in Facebook. Not everything out there is going to be for me and my practices, but I’m not quite at the stage of “get off my lawn, you whippersnappers!”
Why start yet another blog, if blogging’s a dying content form? I feel like I still have something to say, and that there’s still some corners of the internet that’ll appreciate it. Also, I hate the sound of my own voice and don’t particularly enjoy being on camera. The thought of editing my own videos for a visual content account gives me hives. And given the increasing issues of social media algorithms throttling content, I wanted my work to be in a place I controlled.
So welcome to the latest iteration of Oak and Clover. I hope you’ll enjoy browsing as much as I enjoy writing. The oak symbolizes my work in druidry, while the clover is the more whimsical side of my witchcraft. Both are a nod to nature, and the four-leafed clover in the logo is a symbol of my Irish heritage. I even have one on my back, as a part of my tattoo honoring the goddess Brigid. May my words flow freely and may the ways be open for those words to go out into the world. So mote it be!