I am SO excited that not only did Lisa Chamberlain reach out to me before, but we’ve been able to chat a little (I have learned so much!) and she even agreed to doing an interview for the site!
I had a lot of questions for her, both about her practice and background, but also her writing and publishing process, so this interview is mostly self-serving to satisfying my own curiosity, but I think that you guys will enjoy it too.
Also, I had asked if she had some fun or interesting environmental photos she might consider as a personal representation (knowing that she wants to stay private, so a traditional portrait was unavailable) and she was SO generous as to share all the pictures in this article! I am delighted at how beautiful and creative they are!
Nathara: You mention on your website that you came to be interested in Wicca/Witchcraft as a teenager, but I love hearing HOW people came to discover that Wicca/Witchcraft existed outside of fairytales. For some people that was their weirdo friend at school or the movie The Craft. How did you learn that Wicca/Witchcraft was a “real thing” and that you might be interested in learning more?
Lisa Chamberlain: Well, I basically was the weirdo friend in my high school, and The Craft came out during my last year in college, so there wasn’t really any pop culture or peer interest component for me as a teenager.
In a way, it sort of started with a sudden, seemingly random interest in candles and incense when I was about 13 (sounds cliché, I know, but there you have it!). But my mom was really weirded out by that and disapproved, (Apparently these items were only appropriate at Catholic mass, and not at home!) So that first spark got quashed down fairly quickly, but at the same time, it let me know that I might be on to something.
A couple of years after that, I started driving to the lake shore instead of going to the late Mass on Sunday mornings. I felt far more at peace sitting there and looking out at the water than I had ever felt in any church, or any indoor space for that matter. I felt a connection to something there—something quiet and unseen, but incredibly real. I didn’t know it yet, but I was in the process of “losing my religion” in order to find my true spiritual path.
Just before I started college, a friend and I walked into a magical bookstore in a town about 45 minutes away. I had never been in a magically-charged space before, and I can still remember seeing how bright and clear the energy of the room was. I commented on it, and the owners explained that they intentionally kept the store cleared and positively charged. This was my first experience being able to talk to another human being about some of the things I’d been slowly awakening to—namely, intuition and a deep sense of connection to the Earth, but also the knowing of an energetic connection to something that was both within me and greater than me, which I soon came to identify as magic.
Nathara: You’ve also mentioned on your site that your practice is both eclectic and solitary – has this always been true or have you worked in covens or groups as well?
Lisa: I haven’t worked in a coven. I’ve had brief experiences with informal groups, and occasionally attend public Sabbat rituals, but I never clicked with the individuals I met in a way that made me want to enter into a collective practice with others. I think growing up Catholic probably predisposed me to rebel against structures of all kinds, almost as a reflex. But I’m also just very highly sensitive and find I have an easier time tuning in when I’m not surrounded by other people’s energy. (And that’s not a dig at anyone’s personal energy—just maybe an indicator that I still have some growing to do in the empathy-management department!)
Nathara: What does your practice look like? A day in the life, etc. Only expecting broad strokes here.
Lisa: Well, I have a lot of morning rituals. I greet the day very consciously when I open the blinds and curtains, acknowledging the Elements as well as everything I can see from my windows (the sky, the trees, etc.) I spend about 10 minutes free-writing about my intentions for the day, as well as whatever else comes into my head. I have a pretty noisy brain, so getting some of those early-morning thoughts out of the way really helps set me up for a good day. I also have a yoga practice, and I strive to meditate for 15 minutes before getting into the day’s work. I am a BIG believer in meditation, whether it’s a general daily practice, or specifically to prepare for ritual or spellwork.
Beyond morning rituals, there’s not necessarily a strict consistency in what I do from day to day. I still go through “phases” of different interests, or different practices will seem more important than others, depending on what I’ve got going on in life.
For example, lately I’ve really gotten into magically charging my drinking water. Sometimes this takes the form of crystal elixirs, but I’ve also found that just focusing positive energy into the water glass in my hands has a noticeable effect. I might say a few words if there’s a specific intention, but usually the purpose is just to optimize the energy of the water. (If you’ve never tried this, take a sip of the water you’re drinking, then focus on charging it with positive energy and take another sip. You’ll notice a difference in how the water feels in your mouth.)
At night there’s always at least one candle lit on my altar, if not several, depending on what I’m up to. I love changing the items on my altar according to the seasons, or what new tools have come into my life as of late. (For example, I’ve had a lot of “visiting” wands in the form of perfectly-sized twigs that literally show up on my doorstep. I’ll keep them for awhile, and then return them to the Earth when the time feels right.)
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also started to appreciate the wisdom in letting the Wheel of the Year truly roll with each passing day, rather than focusing so much on the specific sabbat dates on our modern calendars. I’ll start revamping my altar maybe halfway between sabbats in preparation for the next one. I’ll make a point of cooking with foods that are coming into season at the moment. I might work one or more spells that are in alignment with the next sabbat’s themes in the week leading up to the designated day. With the cross-quarter sabbats, I often wait until the actual cross-quarter day to mark the holiday, particularly if my schedule is hectic. For example, Samhain’s cross-quarter day is typically November 6 or 7, which is a much easier time for me to really focus in on ritual than October 31st usually is.
Nathara: How do you feel about a Wiccan or Witchcraft practice built entirely on book learning?
Lisa: It’s definitely not going to be the same as a practice that includes experiential learning with other Witches, or growing up with traditions handed down from parents or grandparents. That’s a big component that I don’t think you can ever substitute for with additional reading or even extra practice. A solitary practice is exactly that—solitary. You’re really on your own, in a way that members of a coven are not. So you’re the only one who can determine whether you’re “doing it right” or not.
At the same time, I think you could argue that much of what we consider lineaged practice today also originally came from book learning. If you look at the broad strokes of the evolution of the Western Mystery Tradition, it seems like each generation of seekers, alchemists, occultists, etc. was drawing on a combination of what they learned in books from their predecessors, and their own psychic receptivity.
So I think it’s a combination of book learning and psychic receptivity that moves anyone forward in a practice like Witchcraft.
That said, there’s the form and structure of one’s practice, and then there’s the internalized experience of the practice. Whether coven or solitary, I think it’s possible to spend years going through the motions and following instructions and not actually feeling your own connection to the God and Goddess, or the Universe, or whatever your concept of divine source might be. I think the reason eclectic Witchcraft has become so widespread is that it allows for more flexibility in finding and strengthening that connection.
Nathara: You mention in Wicca for Beginners that what you believe on day 1 will differ from what you believe on day 100 which will differ from what you believe on day 1000 – how have your beliefs evolved over time?
Lisa: I think the biggest shift I’ve had is in my understanding of divinity. I was raised to believe in an external deity, whose good graces I may or may not be in at any given moment, depending on my behavior. So it took me a rather long time to really connect with the divine masculine—known of course as “the God”—largely because of the associations with that word that I’d had since birth. The Goddess, or divine feminine, was easier for me to access because I didn’t have any kind of confusing equivalent in my religious background. But I generally thought of both God and Goddess as external from me, rather than also existing within me. Today I recognize that we all have this divine energy within us, whether or not we’re able to tap into it at any given moment.
I also have a much deeper grasp now on how much my thoughts shape the circumstances I encounter. I can do spellwork until the cows come home, but if my thoughts are constantly focusing on what I’m trying to solve, or what I think is wrong, then I’m not in a place to experience the manifestations I’m calling forth.
Nathara: Switching gears here, let’s talk about books! You had mentioned in our previous conversations that self-publishing streamlines the publishing process significantly and can speed up the publication rate. What does your publishing process look like (from concept to release) on Amazon vs. the process you’re currently experiencing with Sterling Publishing?
Lisa: Well, the writing process is more or less the same either way. When it comes to producing the books, I have more flexibility as a self-publisher in terms of things like cover design and, yes, the release schedule. In fact, I was a little nervous about agreeing to Sterling’s initial deadlines for Wiccan Kitchen, simply because I’d never had to work on someone else’s schedule before! And as I had mentioned before, delays in traditional publishing can happen that are out of my control, as I’ve learned with this first book. It was initially to be released last fall, but is now coming out this April, so it looks like its proximity to the next two books I’m publishing with them (Wicca for Beginners and Book of Spells) will be closer than initially planned.
I still value being in control of the process in many respects, but I’ll also say that most self-publishers have far fewer resources than traditional publishing houses do when it comes to marketing, formatting, design, and distribution. When Sterling first showed me the interiors for Wiccan Kitchen, for example,I couldn’t believe it. From the color of the inks to the illustrations to the general layout—there’s so much they can do that I can’t on my own.
Another staple part of the traditional publishing process is editing. I do my best to edit my own books, but it’s so great to have a professional taking a closer look at the manuscript and helping me clean up some opaque phrases or potentially unclear points. I feel really blessed to be working with Sterling’s Barbara Berger on these books. I really trust her judgement, and it’s just such a luxury to have an editor!
One thing that self-publishers learn in a hurry is that there’s a lot of work to do that traditionally-published authors don’t have to think about, such as formatting, cover design, marketing, and learning the ropes of working with Amazon. It’s a huge learning curve!
By the way, this is a good time to mention that I don’t do all of this by myself—I have a very small team working with me behind the scenes. One person in particular deserves pretty much all the credit for his analytical skills and general business mindset, which I do not naturally possess. He’s even more reclusive than I am and doesn’t like for me to call attention to him, but in the interest of transparency he said I could mention him for this interview. (So, hi Shaun, and thanks for all you do!)
Nathara: Regarding “Wiccan Kitchen”, you had mentioned that with this book, Sterling Publishing was able to connect you with a recipe designer. I assume that means “Wiccan Kitchen” has a collection of exciting, custom recipes for readers to learn and use! What kind of recipes can we expect? And about how many?
Lisa: There are 40 recipes in total, most of which are focused around eating in season with the Wheel of the Year. There’s also a handful that are tailored toward magical goals, like fertility, creativity, and success.
You had asked earlier about the process of working with a recipe designer, so I thought I’d cover that here. For the Wheel recipes, I focused on the produce that’s most likely to be available (in most of North America) around the time of each Sabbat, and submitted rough ideas for a variety of dishes, including main entrees, soups, salads, and desserts. Some are based on what I like to cook, but others go beyond my rather humble expertise. For example, Sterling felt that we needed to include meat dishes, which were not part of the original Kitchen Witchery book. I’ve been vegetarian for almost 30 years, and have never even cooked with meat, so I’m way out of my depth there! However, I did incorporate the seasonal aspect to the meat dishes as well, based on research into traditional slaughtering and storage practices, which we’ve been distanced from as a society for many generations. So, for example, you won’t find beef in any of the recipes until Lammas, or any chicken past Beltane.
Our recipe developer, Wes Martin, then took my suggestions and fleshed them out into full-fledged recipes. There was a lot of collaborative discussion in the process, and quite a few were essentially his inventions. The hardest part was probably narrowing down the wider list of all the possibilities he came up with!
Nathara: Will “Wiccan Kitchen” be designed more like a recipe book, with a kind of lay-flat binding, photos, etc?
Lisa: It will be a hardback book with hand-drawn illustrations throughout. It’s split into two parts, beginning with the content from the original Kitchen Witchery and then closing with the recipes.
Nathara: Is “Wiccan Kitchen” going to be appropriate for beginner cooks and witches alike [I’m asking for my own benefit here!]?
Lisa: Overall, yes, although some of the recipes may be slightly more intimidating to beginner cooks, and best saved for when they’ve gained more experience in the kitchen. (I think that’s true of any cookbook that isn’t specifically geared for beginners, though.) I think the book is accessible to people who are new to both Witchcraft and cooking—at least, that was my intention. For example, there is a section called “Kitchen Magic for the Culinarily Challenged.” 🙂
Nathara: Can people can expect your publishing schedule to continue at the same rate in 2020?
Lisa: It will probably be similar to the past couple of years, with 1 or 2 new books from me. A lot of work has gone into transforming the books that are going to Sterling, so that’s the bulk of what I’ve been working on over this last year. However, you may see a few more from the new writers I’m collaborating with, depending on how things unfold over the next several months.
Nathara: What topics would you like to explore in the future?
Lisa: Right now I’m most excited about the topics that the new writers are bringing to the table.
I reached out to roughly 20 writers altogether, and heard back from about half. The offer was for collaborating on a co-authored book of the writer’s choice, with both my name and their names on the cover. (I will be contributing at least a chapter to each book, and also providing developmental editing assistance and covering all marketing efforts.) I think you’re right that some may have misinterpreted either the initial outreach or subsequent conversations, but it was never my intention to have someone else write as me.
It’s so refreshing to have new perspectives and experiences to learn from. But these collaborations are still in the early stages, so I don’t want to say too much about them.
Personally, I’m moving ever further into a nature-based orientation to magic and spirituality, so something along the lines of “Green Witchcraft” is in the works. I’d like to do more with working outdoors, and just really connecting with the spiritual energy available in outdoor spaces.
[FIN]
Thank you so much, again, to Lisa Chamberlain for the fantastic interview! I learned a lot and she was so generous with providing extra details and information. I’m really looking forward to seeing her new books coming out from Sterling Publishing and the new collaborations that she’s working on.
And if you missed the link above, you can visit Lisa’s website at Wicca Living over here: https://wiccaliving.com/
