These stunning felted-wool witch hats are the handiwork of a Kentucky-based fiber artist named Kate.

The world of fantasy felted creations is her full-time job now. On top of creating them, which she sells in her shop Felt Wicked Art, she also teaches felting workshops all over the United States and offers downloadable tutorials to would-be hat makers. But she writes that she nearly gave up after making (and selling) her first hat at a craft fair:

I made a few "normal" hats before making my very first witch hat. It would be unrecognizable today as my style, with just a few wrinkles and some embellishments. At that point it was really more of an experiment and I was actually a little self-conscious of it. I took it to a craft fair though and it to my surprise it sold that day. It was a relief that someone else thought it was interesting too, as some part of me still just wasn't sure. And I almost didn't make any more. I didn't want to go through that vulnerable process of making something unique and then asking people to give me money for it. In the end though I just couldn't stop myself from making another one, and then another one, not necessarily because I even wanted to sell them but just because I loved the hats so much! I'm glad I stuck with it."

We're glad you did too!

Kate's bewitching hats are available through her Etsy shop and her website. Read the rest

Starting at $14.99/month, you can have a box of "luxury occult items" sent to you by Box Bewitched. You'll pick either The Maiden, The Mother, or The Crone box and each month, they'll send you a curated assortment of healing crystals, incense, spell candles, magickal herbs, oils, pagan jewelry, altar tools, ruins, apparel, and other bewitching goodies. No nose twitching necessary.

As a bonus, a portion of the proceeds go to helping homeless cats.

Previously: Theme song for Bewitched has lyrics, here's Steve Lawrence singing it

Thanks, Brittany High! Read the rest

Today we do something weird, in honor of the end of the second season of Flash Forward! Instead of coming up with a future and then finding experts to talk about it, I asked an AI to write a future for us. And the AI apparently wants us to talk about space travel, witches, and the occult.

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In this episode we feed all the past Flash Forward episodes to a neural network, and ask it to write a script for us. And that script is full of space travel, Mars conspiracy theories, future witches, and a whole lot of theories about cutting someone’s hands off.

▹▹ Full show notes Read the rest

Vice profiled Boing Boing pal and contributor Maja D'Aoust, co-author of The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction and Its Hermetic Influence Throughout the Ages. Read the rest

The government of Romania has updated labor laws to officially recognize witchcraft as a profession, part of a "drive to crack down on widespread tax evasion in a country that is in recession."

But some Romanian witches who will now have to pay taxes on income they earn for spellcrafting are not amused.

The Washington Post reports that "On Saturday, a witch called Bratara told Realitate.net, the website of a top TV station, that she plans to cast a spell using black pepper and yeast to create discord in the government." (Ed. note: As an aside, that url won't load for me).

That's Bratara Buzea, above (thumbnail via Yahoo News). The 63-year-old woman was imprisoned for witchcraft under communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's repressive regime.

This AP article, via MSNBC, says she is expanding her planned anti-government spell recipe to include cat excrement and dead dog. Oh yes she did. Shit just got real.

And President Traian Basescu isn't laughing it off. In a country where superstition is mainstream, the president and his aides wear purple on Thursdays, allegedly to ward off evil spirits.

Witches from Romania's eastern and western regions will descend to the southern plains and the Danube River Thursday to threaten the government with spells and spirits. Mauve has a high vibration, it makes the wearer superior and wards off evil attacks, according to the esoteric group Violet Flame -- which practices on Thursdays. A dozen witches will head to the Danube to put a hex on the government and hurl mandrake into the river "so evil will befall them," said a witch named Alisia.