Hello! Happy 2024!

Be sure to come out to support the Toronto Pagan Collective’s ‘Illuminé” vending and workshop gathering this May 25th at the Society Clubhouse!\I’ll be there offering a workshop

Better than Eclectic: Exploring Syncretic Pathwork

Join me as I share how you can create a deeply meaningful and ethical, Witchcraft and Pagan spiritual practice based on ancestral veneration. If we cultivate a healthy pride and understanding of our heritage we can celebrate one another’s spirituality in non-prejudicial and non-appropriative ways.

Good news! We are working on a future collaboration to bring you a new iteration of WITCHfest North celebration. Stay tuned.

was going to move the WITCHfest North information to my business site by July 16th and archiving the information for now. However, a couple of dedicated WItchy types protested and so, I have renewed the site for another year! I hope to see you all at the monthly Witching Wednesdays online, last Wednesday of each month.

Are you interested in offering your time or energy to plan or bring your talents to the festival? Let me know. Drop me a line monica.bodirsky@gmail.com

Due to the COVID pandemic, we continued the festival online for two years and since then many of us have changed locations, careers and found a new direction.

We would like to thank those who were involved and offered so much of their time to make this an incredible festival with a great deal of love, talent and magic.

The following people deserve a special shout-out for helping to keep WITCHfest North active and on a broomstick for five years:

Stephanie Days, Rowena Katigbak, Lisa Cristinzo, Lisa East, Rosemary Stehlik, John Huculiak, Joseph Hart-Day, Terrie Brookins, Daniel Rotsztain, Dr. Debbie Danard, Kris Gurky, Isabel Ford, Saimah Khan, Rochelle Holt, Lori and Angela Lytle, Betty Jane Ware, Catherine Starr, Rebecca Claborn, Sarah October, Liz Selke, Nori Negron, Sarena Johnson, Dmitry Korolev, Sue Todd, Ariane Terveld, Amy Lou Taylor, Richelle Holt, Laura Gonzalez, Erika Robinson, ‘V’, Tara Greene, Aysen Farag, Phyllis Curott, Victoria Dayes, Devynne Monroe, Brenda MacIntyre, Shelly Carter, Marilyn Shannon, Andrew McGregor, Linda Turu, and all of the venues and people who assisted us, hosted us, carried us forward and joined us on our witch walks.

We are coming to you from the sovereign traditional dish with one spoon treaty 13 lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenonsaunee, Mississaugas of the Credit and the many Indigenous First Nations who have traded, met and have continuously resided here for over 15,000 in Tkaronto (Toronto).

our Two 5th Anniversary logos shown below are in celebration of our theme of intergenerational knowledge sharing represented by the “Maiden Mother and Crone” as well as a cosmic being holding crescent moons while standing in the middle. Both were commissioned and created by artist Natalie Very B.

ABOUT WITCHfest North

We ran the festival live for three years and online for two years due to the pandemic. The plan was to review the viability of such an extensive festival at the five-year mark to proceed or move in a different direction. Thank you again to all who helped make this a success, and the only month-long Witch festival Toronto has ever held featuring artisans, workshops, a Witches Ball, and divination events.

WITCHfest North began in 2017 as a month-long gathering and celebration for the month of October after the process to repeal an archaic law began in August of 2017. Section 365 of the Canadian Criminal Code stated it was illegal to ‘pretend’ to be a Witch or to procure fortunes. The law was reflective of the society at the time of its origin and was likely an effort to prevent fraud, however, it was targeting specific belief systems, Visible minorities and was oppressive.

WITCHfest North is now a thriving annual Arts and Culture Festival that takes place from October 1 to the 31st and is filled with many exciting workshops and talks, as well as rituals and an artisan market. We aim to support Witches, pagans, Indigenous spirituality, heathens, rootworkers and all non-majority, earth-based spiritual expressions.

We also act as an incubator helping to support small businesses through offering a space to participate regardless of experience, so they may gain exposure and we promote Women (Womyn, Womxn) and Witches in the arts so they can support themselves as independent business people.

By ensuring that our community is visible through making our diverse lives visible through festival activities our programming is helping to eradicate stereotypes and build a healthy presence that is defined from within our community. We are taking our power back.

Thank you for your support for our 5th Anniversary. We are proud to be an official business partner of One Tree Planted, and each ticket or pass sold will plant a tree to help reforest British Columbia after devastating fires. After this the trees will be planted wherever the OTP organization feels the need is greatest.