About Thorn

Hi!  I'm Thorn.  I'm 28 and a native of Washington, DC, transplanted to the South for graduate school.  I'm in my last year of an M.A. program in religious studies and intend to continue on to Ph.D. work in 2013.  I specialize in evangelical Christianity and Neo-Pentecostalism, but my life-long obsession with all things witchcraft means that I usually have my finger (or sometimes my whole arm) in the subfields of Pagan studies and Western esotericism.  You can always find me on the fringes of the American Academy of Religions' Pagan Studies group (and sometimes directly at the podium).

I am a Gardnerian Witch (capital 'W' intended) but also practice what is sometimes termed "traditional witchcraft" and other forms of magic, so I consider myself a witch (lowercase 'w' intended) on many fronts.  I've been practicing some form or other of Wicca since adolescence and trying to destroy my classmates with witchcraft since well before that (and to no avail).  I also have a very strong interest in Vodou, Santeria, Hoodoo, and related traditions, and have a happy but sometimes tempestuous relationship with an orisha.

My non-magical (or arguably just as magical) life consists of playing guitar, skating with a roller derby league, reading tarot, hoarding books, and obsessing over my cat, Oliver.