Disabled Witchcraft: 90 Rituals for Limited-Spoon Practitioners

Accessible, inclusive, anti-capitalist magick

Magick is all around us and should be for everyone. But the practices in many witchcraft books can be difficult for many of us to perform due to chronic illnesses, sensory issues, allergies, or other disabilities—and the financial limitations that often go hand in hand with them.

In this guide, disabled witch Kandi Zeller sets out to change that. Through 90 inclusive (and sometimes spicy) magickal rituals designed for witches with disabilities of all kinds—especially the invisible ones—Disabled Witchcraft lays out a truly accessible magickal practice with a solid dose of humor and heart. If your spoons (aka available energy and executive function) are limited on any given day, that doesn’t need to be a hindrance to following your spiritual path. From guidance on using crystals for nervous-system regulation to tarot readings for spoonies to laying a curse upon unjust health systems, you’ll find practical tools to harness the magick of your disabilities, fight both ableism and capitalism, and embrace a more expansive version of the path.

Read on for an excerpt of Disabled Witchcraft: 90 Rituals for Limited-Spoon Practitioners by Kandi Zeller, now available for preorder from our site or from your local bookseller. Out everywhere 9/17/24.

Witchcraft Is for Everyone: A Flexible Spiritual Practice for Disabled People

Witchcraft is for everyone. That’s one of the things I love most about witchcraft as spiritual practice: it is a flexible road, typically walked by the marginalized in resistance to unjust power structures (including religious structures).

As a person who is disabled (at least in part due to religious trauma and abuse), queer, and an eclectic witch, I’m no stranger to that road. I invite my fellow witchy, disabled spoonies on this journey through 90 rituals that are designed to be just as fabulously flexible, irreverent, and sacred as so many witches and other practitioners on the margins who have chosen similar paths of spiritual resistance throughout history. The rituals in this book honor and celebrate disability; they are also financially accessible and adaptable to whatever your circumstances are.

Regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religious or spiritual label (or lack thereof), socioeconomic status, race, ability, or any other factor, you are welcome here.

You are witchy enough.

When you have the spoons, let us walk this path together.

Disability, Witchcraft, and Why I Wrote This Book

To be disabled is to resist by your very existence. My disabled body smashes ableist assumptions in all spiritual spaces. In fact, I believe disability is itself a form of witchcraft.

Why? Because I personally define witchcraft as anything that connects me or others—in a transformative way—to divine love and community, whether I understand that community to be with God/Goddess, saints, those who have gone before, those who will come after, other humans or creatures in the present, the universe, or some combination of the above. And if witchcraft is about transformational connection, my mind goes straight to the way disability interrupts—and offers the opportunity to transform—unjust societal structures by its very presence.

A system like capitalism that demands people all work forty hours per week (or more) at a set location, just to survive and pay their bills? Disability says no.

A society that views healthcare as a luxury for those who can afford it, rather than a human right? Disability says no.

A public place that isn’t accessible to people of all abilities and mobilities? Disability says no.

Disability says, “We’re here.” Disability says, “Everyone will one day be disabled, and many of us are already disabled and can’t mask or perform ability at the expense of our bodies any longer.”

Witchcraft gives me a why, an undergirding love, a transformative fire of justice to bring to the systems we presently exist in. At its best, witchcraft (and spirituality in general) aligns us with the voices—past, present, and future—on the margins. For me, witchcraft has been a way to transform my experience (and the meaning I make of it) without directly relying on the unjust systems surrounding me. But that doesn’t mean, as a disabled person, that I always have access to all parts of the craft.

And when I talk about access, I’m referring in part to financial access. We live in a capitalist society. Even spiritual practices and medical care are monetized and often financially out of reach for many of us, especially those of us who are disabled. And, unfortunately, despite how inclusive witchy spaces can be, witchcraft books don’t often address the barriers to access created by capitalism and ableism. A disabled witch is left to ask, What if I have severe allergies and can’t do traditional incense? What if my medical bills are so high that I can barely afford any witchy shit?

It’s questions like these that have led me to write this book, with a special focus on financial accessibility for disabled witches who find themselves with limited resources amid the swirl of unjust systems that surround us.

As a disabled witch, I’ve had to cobble together a form of the craft that works for me, in spaces that have often been ableist and financially inaccessible, and I want others to have an easier time on their paths. I live with several disabilities, including but not limited to severe allergies, arthritis, migraines, PTSD, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, vaginismus/vulvodynia, GERD, dyscalculia, and probable AuDHD (working on a diagnosis for that one at the moment). For these reasons, I’m writing this book for my fellow witchy spoonies who are in search of anti- capitalist, inclusive, and sometimes spicy rituals (with a side of humor and heart).

In hopes that you won’t have to be as scrappy but will remain resourceful . . .

In hopes that the craft will become more inclusive and expansive . . .

In hopes that you’ll know both snark and reverence are part of the wonder . . .

In hopes that you’ll find in the craft another way to resist . . .

In hopes that you’ll know the earthy, watery, windy, fiery power that is magickal you.

That’s right. You are fucking magickal.

Want to keep reading? Check out Disabled Witchcraft: 90 Rituals for Limited-Spoon Practitioners by Kandi Zeller, available everywhere 9/17/24.