Trump Economy: One Doll, Multiple Dolls

Dean Baker

December 22, 2025

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Sasquatch doll, Portland, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

The government shutdown made the November jobs report especially hard to read. There was not just the problem of missing a month of jobs data for the first time in many decades, but also the difficulty in trying to determine how much impact the shutdown had on the data.

In principle, the shutdown should have had little direct impact on either the household or the establishment survey. In the household survey, people who had been furloughed should have been back at work during the reference period and therefore answered that they were employed. With the establishment survey, government employees were always on the payroll, so should have been listed as employed.

But there are indirect ways in which the shutdown could have affected the data. For example, the number of workers who report that they were involuntarily working part-time jumped by almost 900,000. This number is always erratic, but that is still an extraordinarily large increase. It is possible that the rise is at least in part connected to government workers returning after the shutdown who may still not be working full-time.

One on the ironies of the surge in people working part-time because of the economy is that Republicans endlessly screamed about the increase in part-time employment under Biden. However, that increase was voluntary.

People have all sorts of good reasons, such as family obligations, school, or hobbies, for preferring to work less than 35 hours a week (the definition of a part-time job). Now, when we see a big increase in people working part-time because they can’t get full-time work, these politicians are silent.

If One Job is Good, Two Jobs Must Be Better

The other way in which there was an unusual change that could be at least partly explained by the shutdown was a surge in the percentage of workers who report that they were working multiple jobs. This measure, which is not seasonally adjusted, hit 5.8 percent in November, up from 5.4 percent last November. This is the highest share reporting they are working multiple jobs in this century.

If the rise in multiple jobholders is not an anomaly, it suggests that workers are having increasing difficulty getting by on their wages. That would not be surprising given a reported slowing in wage growth, coupled with the recent uptick in inflation. The year-over-year rate of growth in the average hourly wage fell to 3.5 percent, down from 4.0 percent in 2023 and 2024.  (The annualized rate by my preferred measure — the average wage for the last three months compared to the prior three months —  was 3.7 percent.) With inflation at 3.0 percent as of September, this means real wages are just barely rising.

Homegrown Confusion on Native-Born Workers

One of the main rationales given for Trump’s mass deportation campaign is to open up jobs for native-born workers. The world doesn’t work that way, but that’s a longer discussion. The immediate issue is that the Republicans are celebrating their confusion about how the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates native-born workers.

The basic story is that BLS has a set of population controls that it puts in place at the state of the year. New ones for 2026 will be included with the January jobs report. These controls determine population levels for the household survey. They are independent of whatever actually happens in the world over the course of the year.

These controls put the civilian non-institutional population at 274,633,000 for November. Suppose that half of us had died from another pandemic. Because of the BLS population controls, the civilian non-institutional population would still be at 274,633,000 for November. Suppose Kristi Noem’s ICE crew gets really ambitious and deports half the population, both citizens and non-citizens. Because of the population controls, the civilian non-institutional population will still be at 274,633,000 for November.

The point is that the civilian non-institutional population is fixed by construction. BLS gets an estimate of the foreign-born population from the monthly household survey. The number of people reporting they are foreign-born has fallen sharply in 2025. This is partly because some have been deported or left voluntarily. It is also partly because many foreign-born choose not to answer the survey. And some foreign-born undoubtedly just say they are native-born on the survey.

In any case, we know that the survey is finding many fewer people saying they are foreign-born. But the number of native-born is not calculated from the survey. BLS just subtracts the number of foreign-born estimated in the survey from its population controls. This means that every time the number of foreign-born workers in the survey declines, the number of native-born workers mechanically rises. If the number of foreign-born workers reported in the survey fell by 2 million, there would be a reported increase in the number of native-born people working of 2 million even if not a single additional native-born worker had a job.

This is what the Republicans are celebrating when they tout a huge boom in jobs for native-born workers. If anyone is really interested in how native-born workers are doing, the data are right there in front of their face. The unemployment rate for native-born workers was 4.3 percent in November. That’s up from 3.9 percent in November of 2024.

Recession Level Unemployment for Black Workers

One of the most shocking trends in the labor market in 2025 has been the jump in unemployment among Black workers. It hit 8.3 percent in November, a rate that white workers would only see in a severe recession. This is especially striking since the unemployment rate for white workers has barely risen, hitting 3.9 percent in November, up from 3.8 percent last November.

It would take some work to determine the causes of this sharp jump in unemployment, but the Trump administration ending pretty much all efforts to protect Black workers against discrimination likely played a role. In any case, the economic situation for Blacks has deteriorated with remarkable speed in the second Trump administration.

Low Quits and Fake Jobs

There are two other items worth noting in the November jobs report. The percentage of unemployment due to people who quit a job before they had a new own lined up dropped to 11.0 percent. By comparison, it averaged 13.2 percent in the strong 2018-19 labor market. This suggests that workers are pessimistic about their labor market prospects.

There is one last point. Picking up on a comment by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at his press conference following the Fed meeting; it is likely that we are overstating job growth. In September, BLS announced its preliminary annual benchmark revision, which showed 911,000 fewer jobs as of March 2025 than had originally been reported.

These revisions are based on unemployment insurance filings, which are a near census of payroll employment nationwide. The final revision, which will be put in place with the January report, will likely be somewhat smaller, but it nonetheless is likely to still mean the economy was creating substantially fewer jobs than the monthly data had shown.

The same factors that led the monthly reports to overstate job growth in 2024 and up to March of 2025 are likely still in place. This means that we are probably still overstating job growth, with the first estimate to come next summer.

Powell put the number at 60,000 a month. That figure is likely in the ballpark. That would mean that we have seen close to zero job growth in 2025 and have likely been losing jobs since April.

More Data to Come, but the Economy Does Not Look Strong

We still have lots of catch up to do with data reports, notably we will see the November CPI on Thursday, and we should get the October and November data on personal income and spending before the end of the month. But what we have to date is not pretty.

This first appeared on Dean Baker’s Beat the Press blog.

Dean Baker is the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. 

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OCEANOGRAPY

CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Theory emerges after fish from dark legend washes up on beach

SEA SERPENT CRYPTID

Scientists are analysing the body of a three-metre-long 'doomsday' fish which was discovered dead on a beach.

Michael Dahlstrom
·Environment Editor
Wed 13 November 2024 

A rare 'Doomsday fish' was found on Grandview Beach in Encinitas and was spotted by Scripps Oceanography PhD candidate Alison Laferriere. Source: Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography


A giant oarfish has been photographed washed up on a rocky beach. It’s the second time the remains of this rarely encountered species have been documented off the southern Californian coast this year, and scientists are working on a theory as to why.

For centuries, dark legends have linked the species to natural disasters like earthquakes, leading to it being colloquially referred to as the “doomsday fish”. There has been speculation the deep sea species could be brought to the surface during underwater tremors, although this has not been scientifically proven.

After the first oarfish was discovered in August near San Diego, California, a 4.4-metre magnitude earthquake was detected in Los Angeles, prompting some locals to discuss the superstition.


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Legend links oarfish to earthquakes, although there is no scientific evidence linking them to the disasters. Source: Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography
'Devil wind' theory linked to 'Doomsday' fish death

The latest discovery occurred last week at Grandview Beach in San Diego County. The three-metre-long fish was discovered by a student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the institute that analysed the last specimen.

The body was collected and hauled to a research facility, where samples were collected to try and understand more about the fish. While the cause of death is yet to be determined, the Institute has formed two possible theories.

Its marine vertebrate collection manager Ben Frable said, “it may have to do with changes in ocean conditions and increased numbers of oarfish off our coast. Many researchers have suggested this as to why deep-water fish strand on beaches.”

“Sometimes it may be linked to broader shifts such as the El Niño and La Niña cycle but this is not always the case. There was a weak El Niño earlier this year.”

Frable also noted the beaching coincided with the recent red tide, a type of algal bloom that produces toxins that can kill people, marine life and birds.

The coast was also struck by strong, extremely dry Santa Ana winds, also known as "Devil winds" which can cause cold water to rise from below the surface layer of the ocean, and trigger large waves. In popular culture they're rumoured to affect people's moods, and during the hotter months they're known to fuel out-of-control wildfires.

"Many variables could lead to these strandings,” Frable added.

In September, two Aussie fisherman caught an oarfish off the Top End. The long, slender fish is rarely seen in Australian waters


Newly discovered creature the 'size of two basketball courts' photographed underwater

The 'mega' coral is believed to be the world's largest – and could hold a special key for scientists.


Michael Dahlstrom
·Environment Editor
Updated Thu 14 November 2024


The "mega coral" was discovered off the Three Sisters island group in the Solomon Islands. Source: Steve Spence/National Geographic Pristine Seas


An ancient marine organism has been detected underwater by a research vessel north of Australia. At 34 metres wide, 32 metres long and 5.5 metres high, and with a circumference of 183 metres, the discovery team described it as being as big as two basketball courts or five tennis courts.

Described as a “mega coral” by the discovery team from National Geographic, what’s remarkable about the find is that it is one standalone network of identical polyps, rather than a reef. It’s believed to be the world's largest coral after growing uninterrupted for 300 and 500 years in waters surrounding the Solomon Islands.

There are no records of the giant organism on the island, which has been inhabited by humans since between 28,000 and 30,000 BCE.

From National Geographic’s vessel Pristine Seas, the coral was initially thought to be a shipwreck, and it was only after underwater cinematographer Manu San Félix dipped under the waves that he found it was a brown, red, yellow and blue Pavona clavus – a widespread but rare stony coral.

An aerial photograph shared by the ship's crew shows the ocean giant compared to their vessel. Others taken underwater show hundreds of fish swimming around it, highlighting its important role as a marine habitat.

Although it appears stationary, coral is an animal. Each polyp has a mouth that opens directly into a stomach, which is surrounded by a circle of tentacles that are used for defence and attacking prey.

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World's largest coral discovered off Solomon Islands


National Geographic divers measure the massive coral. Source: Manu San Félix, National Geographic Pristine Seas
How important is this mega coral discovery?

Pristine Seas founder Enric Sala said the find was significant and compared it to discovering the world’s tallest tree. “Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and colour,” he said.

While the coral discovery has caused elation, the Pristine Seas crew are concerned about its future. Because of its size and position deep in the ocean the coral appears to be healthy, but other parts of the reef which were closer to the surface were heavily degraded.

This week the IUCN announced 44 per cent of warm-water reef-building corals had now been added to its Red List of species threatened with extinction. Climate change remains the greatest threat to the world’s tropical reefs, and they are projected to decline by 70 to 90 per cent at 1.5 degrees of warming above preindustrial average temperatures. At 2 degrees of warming, 99 per cent will likely be lost.
What are the other largest organisms in the world?

Measuring more than 180 square km, the Posidonia australis seagrass meadow in Shark Bay is the largest plant.


At 115.55 metres, the world's tallest tree is the Hyperion, a coastal redwood in California.


The world's largest ever animal is the blue whale, which can grow to 30 metres long and weigh more than 180,000kg.

The giant organism is made up of genetically identical polyps. Source: Manu San Félix, National Geographic Pristine Seas

Coral key to island nation's survival

Following National Geographic’s announcement, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said reefs were important in providing livelihoods for the region. “Our survival depends on healthy coral reefs, so this exciting discovery underlines the importance of protecting and sustaining them for future generations,” he said.

The coral is the summation of millions of identical polyps. Because it has lived for generations, the researchers believe it could hold important genetic information that could be key to coral survival during periods of climate change.

“It is a natural monument that has seen the arrival of the first Europeans to these waters,” said San Félix, who was the first to spot the record-breaking mass. "Illustrious figures of humanity have coexisted with this colony: Newton, Darwin, Curie, Gandhi, Einstein... and it has survived them. It now stores information on how to survive throughout the centuries,” he said.

CRYPTID
A giant 'sunbathing' fish that washed ashore in Oregon turned out to be an unexpected oddity

Elysee Barakett
Updated Wed, June 12, 2024 

A giant species of fish that was first discovered seven years ago washed ashore in Oregon last week, according to marine biologists who study the animal.

Beachgoers in Gearhart, a small town just south of the Washington border, found the 7.3-foot-long hoodwinker sunfish, also called a mola tecta, on June 3.

The species was first discovered in 2017 and has been occasionally spotted near Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest. It’s recognizable by a thick flap of skin in place of a tail, which is split in two.


When Keith Chambers, the general manager at Seaside Aquarium in Oregon, first received reports of a circular, gray fish on the beach, he assumed it was a run-of-the-mill ocean sunfish.

“I’ve seen a lot of them,” he said. “It wasn’t that spectacular of a moment for me.”

But marine biologist Marianne Nyegaard noticed something unique in the aquarium’s Facebook photo showcasing their finding — the fish had smooth skin and a two-part tail. She identified the fish as a mola tecta, a species she discovered and has been researching since.

“As soon as we could, we just jumped in the car and drove down to see it,” Nyegaard, who lives in New Zealand but was fortuitously visiting Seattle that weekend, said.

“It was a fantastic coincidence. It doesn’t get any better than that,” she said.

“It’s like I can’t get away from them,” she added, laughing.

newly discovered and rare species of sunfish (Courtesy Seaside Aquarium)

The name “mola” comes from Latin and means “millstone,” which refers to the fish’s flat and circular body. The fish are known for floating along the ocean’s surface — what some scientists lightheartedly refer to as “sunbathing.”

But Nyegaard said the activity serves an important purpose: catching jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures for prey.

Sunfish dive deep down into colder water when they hunt. Since their bodies cannot efficiently regulate temperature, they warm themselves using the sun. While the fish lie on the ocean’s surface, birds clean them by eating parasites off their skin.

Certain features of hoodwinker sunfish distinguish them from ocean sunfish, Nyegaard said. As ocean sunfish grow, their skin wrinkles. Hoodwinker sunfish are always completely smooth.

Where a normal fish would have a tail, sunfish have a flap. An ocean sunfish’s flap is wavy and has bony formations. The hoodwinker sunfish’s flap is divided into two, and it can move each part independently of the other.

“Why those two species need different backends, we don’t know,” Nyegaard said. Some theories are that they need the two-part flap for steering or agility, she said.

Nyegaard said sunfish in general are still mysterious to scientists. There are five species in total, including the hoodwinker, but it’s unclear how or whether they can co-exist in the same location.

It’s also unclear whether the hoodwinker fish in Australia and New Zealand are linked to the ones in the Pacific Northwest and have somehow migrated across the equator, Nyegaard said.

Since the discovery, people have flocked to Gearhart Beach to visit the lone hoodwinker on the sand.

“It’s not the first time it’s washed up, but it is the largest one to wash up,” said Tierney Thys, a marine biologist at California Academy of Sciences.

“Strandings like this remind us how humans inhabit a mere 1% of the available living space on this vast ocean planet,” she said. “It’s both humbling and inspiring to encounter one of these incredible creatures and a powerful reminder we have so much more to learn.”

CORRECTION (June 12, 2:22 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated what Mola means in Latin. It is millstone, not milestone. It also misspelled the first name of the marine biologist at California Academy of Sciences. She is Tierney Thys, not Tierny.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Revealed: Pennsylvania has investigated more than a dozen UFO incidents in the past decade

Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
May 4, 2024 

The March 2023 conjunction of Jupiter and Venus photographed from the International Space Station. The appearance of the two planets close together in the sky prompted multiple UFO reports in Lebanon County, according to records from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. (NASA photo)

Mysterious lights following a motorist on a dark country road, a saucer-shaped craft hovering over a suburban subdivision, and a flaming orb falling into the woods are among phenomena Pennsylvania residents have reported to authorities, state records show.

After the head of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) casually mentioned during a legislative hearing earlier this year that the agency tracks UFO sightings, the Capital-Star obtained records showing PEMA has investigated more than a dozen such events in the last decade.

“We take all reports and we share it with the appropriate agencies to be able to investigate,” Padfield told members of the state House Appropriations Committee in February.

Often dull and tedious, state budget hearings nonetheless are a chance for the Legislature to grill administration officials about how they plan to spend the taxpayers’ money.

The cabinet secretaries flesh out the details of the governor’s budget proposal but deliver few bombshells. Every once in a while, however, an answer prompts lawmakers to look up from their stacks of white papers with surprise and demand more.

It was thus as Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield fielded a question from state Rep. Ben Waxman (D-Philadelphia) about potential threats to the state’s nuclear power plants from drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.


“We have had reports of unidentified flying objects in the past,” Padfield said before quickly moving on to the role of the Federal Aviation Administration in regulating drones.


“So, wait. Run that back again. What did you say about UFOs?” House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) asked when Padfield had finished his answer.

Padfield replied that PEMA occasionally gets reports of lights in the sky from county 911 centers and upon investigation authorities can attribute them to astronomical or earthly sources, such as helicopter traffic around the Pennsylvania National Guard base at Fort Indiantown Gap.

“Most of them are unfounded, or they’re attributable to some other mechanisms,” Padfield concluded, prompting another follow up from Harris.

“So, what about the un-most?” Harris asked. “You’re talking like ET phone home or something?”

Padfield conceded that some sightings are “undefined” and are difficult to understand unless the person reporting the phenomenon gets pictures but everything is passed along to the appropriate agencies.

Not satisfied with Padfield’s answer, the Capital-Star filed a right-to-know request with PEMA seeking records of unidentified flying objects and aerial phenomena and, for good measure, “encounters with unknown beings including those of suspected extra-terrestrial or cryptozoological nature.”

PEMA responded, perhaps appropriately, on April 1, with 40 pages of records on UFO reports passed to the Commonwealth Watch and Warning Center, which receives reports of certain events from county emergency dispatch centers and distributes them to appropriate state and federal agencies.



The records PEMA provided in response to the right-to-know request go back to 2013, when the agency received a half-dozen UFO reports.

Padfeild said during the budget hearing that some sightings are easily explained. That was the case last year when multiple people called 911 in Lebanon County to report suspicious lights and a hovering object that made no sound.


One caller in Bethel Township reported that the lights had followed his wife from Hamburg in Berks County to their home and that the object was stationary in the sky above their house. Another in the city of Lebanon reported seeing an oval shape that changed colors from gray to black to transparent and all she could see were the object’s lights.

Those calls happened on March 1, 2023, which was the height of a convergence of Jupiter and Venus in the night sky, when the planets appeared to almost merge into a single point of light. The spectacular astronomical event had been widely reported in the news, PEMA’s records noted.

Stan Gordon, a Westmoreland County resident who operates a 24-hour UFO, bigfoot and cryptid reporting hotline, said he regularly receives reports from across the state. Gordon said he became fascinated with UFOs as a kid in the 1950s. He describes himself as the principal investigator of Pennsylvania’s most famous UFO case.

In 1965, residents across six states saw a fireball cross the sky. Residents of Kecksburg said they saw an object shaped like an oversized acorn make a controlled crash into the woods not far from where Gordon lived. Four years later, Gordon set up his hotline.

“It’s never stopped ringing,” Gordon said, adding that the number of cases, including reports of unexplained objects in broad daylight and at close range, has increased in recent years.

Many are resolved with a little bit of research, he said. “We’ve always taken these cases very open mindedly. We approach them scientifically.”

Starlink satellites, which are launched dozens at a time from a single rocket, appear as a train of lights in the early evening sky and have prompted many recent reports. High altitude balloons and plumes of rocket exhaust and other space research activities also look unusual but are attributable to human activity, Gordon said, adding that he has never seen a UFO himself.

Other reports are less easily explained.

On Sept. 21, 2023, a Shermans Dale man reported a UFO with eight vertical lights he described as white, yellow, and a hint of green hovering about 200 feet above the road near a Perry County gas station. The man attempted to take a video with his cellphone before the lights disappeared but he later discovered the video had not been saved, the PEMA records say.

A Lower Saucon Township man called the Northampton County 911 center Dec. 19, 2021, to report a flying saucer with seven or eight lights on its underside over his development. Police responded but it’s unclear from the records whether they took any action. PEMA provided the caller with contact information for Gordon’s hotline, the records say.

Montgomery County authorities investigated after an Upper Pottsgrove Township man reported a glowing orb about the size of a small aircraft fell from the sky on Sept. 15, 2014. The object, which he described as orange and yellow fire-colored, floated behind the treeline and did not reappear. An officer who responded reported seeing flashes in the area but no other suspicious activity.

“There are a lot of cases that are very, very detailed that are not easy to explain away,” Gordon said.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.

TEXAS

Austin witches create community at witch markets, tiny home agrihood

One natural witch lives at Green Gate Farms’ tiny home agrihood, where she feels safe to openly practice her craft.

By Emily HernandezFeb 25, 2024


FWW said the animals that live at Green Gate Farms, like this goose named Goldie, have been an important part of her daily connection with nature as a witch. 

Emily Hernandez


Though you may not be aware, a vibrant witch community is thriving in the heart of Texas. It's a community full of magic practitioners who may just entrance you with their welcoming lifestyles and curated spellwork.

Despite a general lack of knowledge about such alternative spiritualities in the U.S., many witches in the Capital City told MySA that Austin feels situated to become a safe space.

“(Witch) is a word that some people don't feel comfortable being described. It's very loaded,” Jessica Beaver, a self-described natural and folk magic witch, told MySA. “In a lot of other countries, witchcraft (is) literally the word for bad, evil, greedy magic. But it is something more in the Western world, more in America, where witchcraft itself has been reclaimed as something that does not equal (evil magic).”

Beaver is the owner of Yarrow & Sage, a metaphysical shop that sells magical offerings like runes, tarot cards, crystals, herbs, and other ritual tools. She also runs the Austin Witches Markets, which have evolved since their founding in 2015 to become a space for all kinds of magic practitioners to source ingredients, connect with like-minded people and grow their small businesses.

Shea Curtis, a vendor at the February 3 Austin Witch Market, sells handmade artwork filled with pressed flowers and paper insects from her shop Dark Whimsy. 

Emily Hernandez

Amanda Aguilar, one of the vendor’s at the Austin Witches Market, offers customers oracle readings and connects people with their spirit guides by working with deities, ancestors, and guardian angels through her business Runic Rose Oracle.

“It’s just been very accepting and loving, and I’ve noticed that that translates to the customers because they feel accepted…which is really important, especially if you’re navigating the spiritual journey,” Aguilar told MySA.

Austin Witch Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie and her son sell crocheted oddities from her shop Knoddities at the February 3 market. Emily Hernandez

Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie sells handmade crocheted anatomical hearts, Baphomets, and cryptid lovies from her shop Knoddities. As both a Christian and a magic practitioner, she believes everyone is a witch in their own way.

“If people think that prayer isn’t a form of magic, I mean, come on!” McKinnie told MySA.

“You’re talking to a God and it magically somehow sends it up to him,” her son added.

Another witch who has sourced spell ingredients from the witch markets is FWW, who goes by her spiritual pseudonym. As someone who comes from a long line of witches, she feels the magic running through her veins daily.

“I try to live my life as acutely aware of the magic that is around us naturally,” she told MySA. “Even just this morning…I saw two hawks, which happen to be my spirit animals. Whenever I see a hawk, or especially a peregrine falcon, I know that it's going to be a good day.”

Natural witch FWW sits on a couch in the community farmhouse at Green Gate Farms, where she lives in a tiny home agrihood.

Emily Hernandez


FWW describes herself as a natural witch who lives in a tiny home at Green Gate Farms agrihood— which is a residential neighborhood centered around community farming. Since moving to Austin in 2016, she feels like she finally has a place to put down roots and openly practice her craft in her witchy cottage. She also found that she has two familiars on the farm: the barn cat Millie and a gray kitten.

Growing up in Massachusetts, FWW said she couldn’t really come out of the “broom closet” because of close-minded attitudes about alternative spiritualities. However, she started her journey when she was 13 under the guidance of a magic practitioner she affectionately calls The Seeker. She recalls a time when he taught her how to summon air.

“I put my hands out, and I really felt it and summoned it. I watched this pile of leaves literally start to spin upward like this up to where my eyes were and then it went the opposite way down back,” FWW said. “I was sold immediately. I'm enjoying reliving it actually.”

Her daily rituals include meditation in her loft and grounding, which FWW describes as touching the earth and imagining that she is taking in energy she needs and pushing her roots deeper into the ground to solidify her connection with the earth.

“Depending on my mood, I will go full out and do the full circle and all the candles and all the chants and all the things,” FWW said. “And then other times when I'm doing spellwork, if I find a seed that lands in my hand, I'll put my intention into that and let it go to the wind and plant itself.”


For her, following a specific deity isn’t necessary to feel fulfilled as a witch.

“For certain days of the year (like) solstices and Sabbots, I will reach out to Goddess as a whole, and God as a whole, and then the Universal Spirit that comes around that,” FWW said. “I use the pantheons as a guide more so than worship. Because nature is the worship.”

Feb 25, 2024
By Emily Hernandez is a Dallas native who graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She covers trending news about the Capital City’s culture and beloved Austin staples. She has interned with The Daily Beast, The Texas Tribune, KUT News and the Austin American-Statesman, writing on topics ranging from the church of Scientology trying to silence rape victims to white nationalism within the 2022 Texas gubernatorial race.