Back in March of 2025 BlueSky held a hashtag related event called WitchMadness, designed to foster a community among the many disconnected practitioners who had gravitated to the platform in the post-Twitter era. And it turns out that my snarky take on modern magick was a popular part of that now thankfully ongoing online trend. What follows is a dated list of those short and pointed comments in their original format. The only edits have been to compress the multiple three-hundred character segments into a single paragraph where required. Everything else remains unchanged, and hopefully speaks for itself.

OK, more WitchMadness before bed. Lessons from a gutter mage. Bad words have power. Bad words have taboo energy. Bad words stated with guttural intent work surprisingly well to keep bad things at bay. So tell the shadow at the top of the basement stairs to piss off and bother someone else. The Hat Man at the end of the bed to fuck himself and then fuck right off. The anti-Pagan priest to suck a communion wafer or eat shit. Words have power. Use them like you mean them. Burn them into the aether as you speak. Become them. Colonise the language. Change the world.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 2nd March 2025.

Further tips from a gutter mage for WitchMadness day two. This is a personal favourite. Try to prioritise subversion over creation. No matter how well designed the spell it must still occur within the rules of the wider reality, and while they may not be as inflexible as most state they are definitely unbreakable. So it is better to take something that already exists, a groove that the flow of fate is known to run down, and apply some esoteric grease the wheels in the mundane world to have it run smoothly for you rather than build a whole new scenario out of imagination. For money magick remember to send those job applications or there is no path for manifestation within your sphere of influence. Health spells work best if you take your vitamins, protection is easiest when you are grounded and centred. Reality is not the enemy, but an ally.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 2nd March 2025.

Even more insights from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness today. Location, location, location. Honouring who you are now is important, but where you were when your magickal practice began to grow can also be a deciding factor in the tone and success of the rituals you undertake. The adept that grew up an urban mage will likely do better within the boundaries of the city, where they can call on the familiar medicine of the asphalt and concrete to help seed the weave of fate with their focussed will. Rural practitioners will naturally feel more at home with the woods and fields, weaving Gaia’s resonant bounty into their spells. Neither is better than the other, but it is an often overlooked aspect of the adept’s life that can have a genuine effect on the success of their craft. Playing to the strengths that helped shape your growth is never a bad thing.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 3rd March 2025.

More Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness today. Labels are for laundry, not people. Yes, openly identifying as a practitioner of a certain spiritual path can be useful in finding others who do the same among the mass ranks of humanity sleepwalking towards the Reaper. A tried and tested tool for seeing worthwhile signal among all the pointless cultural noise. Few truly magickal people completely embrace solitude, after all. But those labels are but a surface level identification that says very little about what is really going on within the fractal consciousness of the people you meet. Family see a different face to those in your friendship group, whether you realise it or not. And again, work colleagues, ritual partners. All are seeing a you that fits those subgroups within your life. This is not dishonesty but authenticity. The personality is reactive, so if taken too literally the idea of labelling yourself can restrict further growth. Freedom comes from wearing those culturally enforced labels like fashions, discarding them when they become threadbare or the colours begin to fade.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 4th March 2025.

Something a little different for WitchMadness today. Not exactly sharing my hard earned wisdom here, this is more of an answer to a question that came up recently. So, why I call myself a Gutter Mage then. I doubt I am the inventor of the term, but I do have my own definition that I live by. While I am well read and skilled enough to take advantage of more established ritual ideas or paradigms after nearly two decades in the craft I do find myself often falling back on the crunchy, dirty, ego driven urban sorcery of my youth. And more so as I get older too. Blood, willpower, every day objects and pop culture. I grew up in one of the poorest parts of London, had little money when starting out. I couldn’t afford 24 hour pillar candles and expensive incense. I had no ritual chamber to retire to when the ectoplasm hit the fan. My first magickal knife was on a key chain and the ingredients for those admittedly ineffective early spells were either found in the wild or sourced from the supermarket. I scratched sigils in the trash piles outside of derelict buildings. Meditated in haunted graveyards after sunset. Blood pacts with dark goddesses while the moon cast the city streets in silver. Smog Sylphs and Broken Dryads. The dead ever present. Mine is the low sorcery of the disaffected underclass, more 90’s grunge and apathy than the 70’s punk of chaos magick. And that suits me just fine.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 5th March 2025.

Bonus wisdom from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness this evening as I’m at a loose end and feeling reflective. Don’t discount the totemic power of vermin. I mean yeah, sure, everyone wants to be a wolf or a bear or a dragon. I can respect that primal calling in their blood. I applaud it even. But the more urban among us likely only ever saw such storied beings in zoos or trance states. Maybe as a bonded spirit sharing the mortal shell as it goes about its day to day. Now rats. Foxes. Raccoons. Adaptable, sneaky, aggressive when cornered and used to fighting as a group, or at least attempting to. Crows and even seagulls. Annoying for the average person, but we adepts should be able to see the beauty in all that the natural world offers us. Especially when these animals refuse to be brought low by the modernity that paved over their original homes.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 5th March 2025.

Controversial tip from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness today. A wall built on hollow ground is only ever going to collapse when under siege. I can taste the prevailing energy in the air like all of you. Feel the current world situation biting at our heels. And I understand why some would want to try and fight back using sorcery. Maleficium as catharsis. So yes, grand hexing operations have their uses, true. I have taken part in a few over the years. But the adept should see to protect themselves first. Stay shielded. Prioritise your mental wellbeing. Try to remain as anonymous as possible if you choose to take part. Don’t let the enemy know what you are doing. Above all, try not to let the bladed news cycle spiralling down the drain at the moment eat up your soul. Keeping your family safe and community strong has to be your main concern.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 6th March 2025.

My tip from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness today is short and sweet. The Gods are not for everyone. Standing alone is not the sign of damaged or lesser practice. Secular Witches or Occultists are walking just as rich and involved a spiritual path as the most deeply entrenched polytheist with a whole harem of deities to choose from. It is not fair to tell those who have no desire to seek divinity through a pagan lens that they will find the gods eventually or grow into such things. No. As long as the magick resonates within them their practice is more than valid enough.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 7th March 2025.

My Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness today is important. Drama is for schoolkids, though sometime your critics have a point. Constructive input can help save a psyche spiralling into monomania, though where the adept ultimately draws that line in the sand around their own ego has to be a personal decision. An it harm none undeserving do what thou wilt and all that. In my experience the people who interact negatively with others have their own issues that they are working through, and if they are going down in flames anyway there is no point in feeding the fire.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 8th March 2025.

Important Gutter Mage tip for my return to both BlueSky and WitchMadness today. A dull blade is more likely to slip. Seeking out the weird is an integral part of our lives. It defines our fashion, purchasing habits, what we read and say. The magick always wins, after all. But it is too easy to forget that those hugely powerful forces of creation must be directed by focussed will towards a given goal. Tired adepts make mistakes. Like dull blades their consciousness struggles to cut through the grey. Know when it’s time to take a break. Rest is not weakness, WitchSky.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 12th March 2025.

Late for WitchMadness today, but posting some Gutter Mage wisdom anyway. So there’s no point fearing the Reaper. She will find you when it’s time, no way round that. The best way to honour her inevitable arrival is to have a rich tapestry of tales to tell about the life that is now slowly sliding away. Yes, to fixate upon mortality is a mental trap that causes more harm than good. But accepting that your link in the generational chain only represents a personal myth cycle is freeing. Live well, live long, and make the Reaper proud to take your hand when the time comes.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 13th March 2025.

Seeing as we’re all heading into MercuryRetrograde now, my Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness today is a a gentle reminder that not everything that goes bump in your life is necessarily spooky. Runs of bad luck just happen naturally, and hexually transmitted illness is rare. Most of the time there is a perfectly rational explanation for why the power went out before you saved the latest draft of your book, or why the toilet is refusing to flush. Car engines wear out, soles on shoes degrade, people just get hit with mallards sometimes. Yes, the world is strange. Also yes, the adept should be aware of those shifting tides that swirl under the safe, consensus reality which others believe to be immutable. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is unlikely to be the wronged soul of Crowley coming to find magick in your butt.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 14th March 2025.

Just because I’m a Gutter Mage doesn’t mean I’m not a realist. Even during WitchMadness. There are some days that will just get away from you, where the mundane world comes pressing against the barriers that the adept has woven around their weird, weird life. Weekends that are full of material concerns. Chores. Yard work. Disposing of a dead seagull by throwing it over the neighbour’s fence. But that’s OK. There’s nothing worse than realising that you are too Heavenly minded to be of any Earthly good just that little too late to keep hearth and home together, WitchSky.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 16th March 2025.

Some more Gutter Mage insight for WitchMadness today. No magickian is an island, nor chaote a small principality. Even the most self sufficient or irredeemably antisocial adept functions within the same cultural zeitgeist as their more group minded peers. Talk if you want to, lurk if you cannot. But take notice of what they do. Even if the actions of those Witches or Occultists fly in the face of your own beliefs much can still be gained from observing their practice. Cautionary tales have value. We all share the weird, every one of us. This need not be a solo story.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 17th March 2025.

Bonus wisdom from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness this evening as there’s something in the air. And I just can’t resist poking the crone. Best way to deal with gatekeepers is to jump the fence and carry on anyway. My first occult library was made up of bootleg PDF’s. Course notes from a bunch of once closed traditions, likely leaked by disgruntled initiates with an athame to grind when their expensively good time went bad. Insights leaked on message boards. Groups joined and information stripped before moving on. That was me way back when. And I am all the stronger for my refusal to play by earthly rules while pocketing their astral toys. The magick always wins. If it is pulling you close there is nothing that can get in the way of its mercurial embrace. Information wants to be free. And yes, the street finds its own uses for things too.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 17th March 2025.

Darkly uplifting Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness today. When life gives you lemons, take it as a sign that it’s time to hit the books and find out who the most citrus adjacent deity is, and then make a deal to become sole distributor on the material plane. Because the adept honours their true will best when fighting to make a bad situation better, either by mundane or magiclkal means. Reversal spells, healing servitors. Remembering to take your painkillers. Ultimately you either stand to pick that fruit from the tree, or lay down and become mulch beneath its roots.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 21st March 2025.

Here’s a Gutter Mage tip for WitchMadness today that will definitely hit home. Frankly, your magick ain’t anyone else’s term paper to grade. While every man and woman may or may not be a star, you are all unique. Brain chemistry, memories, schemas and trained behaviours. There is a reason why asking a trio of chaos magickians a yes or no question will lead to seven and a half answers, at least one of which would make your head spin. Same for the adepts of other traditions too. Being chastised for not doing the weird in the usual way can be just as damaging to someone exploring the nightside of their nature for the first time as threats from the followers of hidebound organised religion no doubt sitting like mafia mooks at their dinner table. As long as it works well enough to get you to the final exam you do not need to justify your practice to anyone.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 22nd March 2025.

My wisdom from a Gutter Mage for WitchMadness today is short and sweet. You don’t have to like the outcome of your spellwork, WitchSky, but you do have to own it. Things go wrong, unforeseen consequences occur. No matter how good you think you are you can’t cover all the bases. We are flawed, and regardless of how focussed our will it is always filtered through the lens of our previous experience. Then again, some choose to blame the gods, say it is divine intervention when the shit rolls downhill and pools in their usually pristine robes. Others carry on casting at issues while ignoring the bills piling up at their feet. And the truly deluded wish upon a star for outcomes that will never come to pass when they would be better served accepting the mundane. Yes, it’s possible to throw too much magick at something, so know when to let go and move on.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 24th March 2025.

So my Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness tonight is an unwelcome combination of uncomfortable and true. See, no matter how loudly some in the community would argue otherwise, your fellow magickians do not automatically deserve universal love and light from you. You don’t have to like everyone in the club because they know how to blag their way past the bouncer busting out Thelemic poses at the door. Hell, I’m a turn of the Millennium chaote, I come from a tradition that is built upon individuals who only coalesce into something approximating a group structure once in a blood moon to assert their autonomy. No kings, no masters. So yes, the list of people I dislike in the occult field is just as long as anyone else’s. Sad but true. The trick is to just ignore those you can and leave those you can’t to continue pissing on their feet in the dark.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 27th March 2025.

My final slice of Gutter Mage wisdom for WitchMadness this month is perhaps the most important. Learning to spell is as easy as reading widely, but casting safely comes from practical experience. Brick upon brick, ritual after ritual, astral Lego sculpted in to either the throne that the adept will one day sit upon or the half finished project that finds their naked feet in the dark. Altering the weave of fate is never easy, and rarely predictable. But doing nothing out of fear or vanity achieves even less. Test your boundaries, identify your weaknesses, transcend those limitations and carry the scars with pride. Even Prometheus was burned by the flame he carried, though proved smart enough to avoid being consumed. Yet if he had not taken action and fell while holding a star in his hand we would all still be dwelling among ever shifting shadows.
— Gavin Fox (Author), BlueSky, 29th March 2025.