This is a special one-off  interview with the author and editor Raven Digitalis about his exciting first collection of occult horror stories, Black Magick, published by Moon Books in March this year. My regular A guide to Pilgrimage Interviews column  features people who either inspired or  were featured in my book or were inspired by my book, but as many of you who follow my social media & blog will know, I am also a keen horror fan, and ghost story writer. Therefore, I jumped at the change to dig deeper into Raven’s premier fiction book and his first time as editor.

Firstly Raven, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. A little about you. Could you introduce yourself to people who don’t know you yet?

Namaste, Thea! Thanks for having me here! Sure; I am an author from the (admittedly currently frightening) USA. I’m currently located in Missoula, Montana, with my beloved familiar Catskills, and this is the city in which I was born and raised, although I recently lived in Hawaii for four years. My first publishing contract was with Llewellyn in 2007, and since then I’ve had the pleasure of creating and co-creating a number of books (my favorites being Esoteric Empathy and A Witch’s Shadow Magick Compendium) as well as Oracle decks (The Empath’s Oracle and A Gothic Witch’s Oracle).

How long have you been a horror fan? What about horror (black magick) is it that draws you to it?

I’ve actually been a horror fan since childhood! I remember writing a little article for the local newspaper, alongside others from my elementary school, about why I loved reading horror novellas. At that time, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street series were my childhood versions of horror literature — and not to mention Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! This later progressed to watching the Nightmare on Elm Street series at a young age. In fact, I wrote an article about the original film, and how it provided a jumpstart of inspiration for my new Black Magick anthology! Here is the article: “A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Film That Made Me.” LINK: https://gnofhorror.com/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-the-film-that-made-me

Do you have a specific favourite horror author and one that inspires you to write?

Truth be told, I don’t do a lot of fiction reading. I read quite a bit of nonfiction, however! Still, it’s been a fun and necessary experience to dip my toes into the waters of horror storytelling recently and do a bit of catching up. Better late than never! Lately I’ve been loving the work of Catriona Ward, who is a brilliant American Brit. The multidimensionality of her work is thoroughly engaging, which I love. Simple stories can be nice, but those that delve a bit deeper into symbolism, and which don’t immediately reveal everything to the reader, is the type of mysterious storytelling I most prefer.

How long have you been writing horror?

I fully admit it: Black Magick is my first-ever venture into writing fiction. Although I am the editor of the anthology, which took an incredible amount of work and was equally rewarding in the end, my story in the anthology is my first piece of fiction writing aside from little pieces I wrote in college! Also, as an aside, my oldest friend in the world, Miranda S. Hewlett, is the book’s Associate Editor and contributed one of my favorite tales to the anthology, called “Don’t Forget to Feed.” Whereas my story, “The Night Everything Changed” quite directly deals with a queer relationship and some underlying magickal dynamics, her story is a hauntingly claustrophobic “thinker” of a piece! Miranda’s expertise as an English professor assisted the anthology in coming together; her editorial assistance picked up where mine left off! Additional proofreading for the book was performed by another longtime friend (who is also a fellow contributor), S.M. Lomas. She helped the project come together as a whole. Her story, called “Fata Morgana,” is an engaging tale that incorporates ceremonial magick; in fact, her story draws inspiration from Goetic (Solomonic) ceremonial magick, as well as Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune’s short stories and novels, alongside other classic British occult writers who ventured into fiction at various points in their career.

How did you come up with the idea of putting together an anthology of stories about “Darkness, Horror and The Occult?”

I’ve enjoyed the rare occurrences of true magick and mysticism being interwoven with the art of storytelling. It’s hard to believe that I conceived of the anthology back in 2007 or 2008. I had become acquainted with a number of authors whose creative pursuits blended Witchcraft and magickal spirituality with fiction as an artistic medium. I wanted to explore fiction myself, and got the authors on board for the project. Since then, half of the authors dropped out for their own reasons (or were impossible to contact), and I was able to replace them with equally brilliant writers, some previously published and some not. I’m most proud to include Storm Constantine’s short story “Candle Magic” in the anthology, as she was a friendly acquaintance from back in the day. The anthology is dedicated to Storm, and I’ll never forget her masterful writing (both fiction and nonfiction) and her warm, friendly approach to her fans, friends, loved ones, and kitty cats. It’s a great honor to open the anthology with her fantastic Witchy tale of obsession!

How did you choose the stories that appear in the book?

I actually contacted the authors — well, all but Poe — and asked if they either had something previously written that would fit the bill of occult horror, or if they would be interested in writing a story exclusively for the project. Some of the stories, including mine, were massively rewritten in comparison to their 2008 versions. I couldn’t be more pleased with the final result.

I noted that you have one of Poe’s great short stories, “The Black Cat.” Why did you choose this story for your anthology? (NB it scared me when I first heard it read aloud, it’s a wonderfully sinister story.)

Gotta love Poe! Yes indeed, “The Black Cat” sticks with me to this day because it’s so brilliantly poignant. For one, my boy Catskills who I mentioned is a one-eyed black cat himself! Additionally, the tale’s main character struggles with alcohol dependency, which is something that I’ve struggled with during some very dark days. However, I am incredibly pacifistic, even with my personal magick, and have never become violent as a result of drink. It feels awkward to have reprinted a classic story that includes animal abuse, but that’s part of why I wanted to keep it in there: real-life horror exists around us every day, and most of the time we are unaware. I feel that the story is a good reminder for readers to recall that true evil and pain exists around us in the form of violence, physical and otherwise, and that we are here to help the world to lessen violence in some manner; any way that we can. It all begins with awareness and care… empathy, really.

Moon Books are not well known for fiction, how did you approach them with your idea? Why did you choose them?

It’s true! Moon Books and Collective Ink in general focus mainly on nonfiction. My cold pitch to them was a long shot that proved to be worthwhile! What happened was that, back in 2007 and 2008, I had only published one book, Goth Craft, with the second on the horizon. Somewhere around 30 publishers refused the Black Magick manuscript at the time. To be honest, I don’t really blame them. I was not as well-known at the time, for one, and for two, the stories were subpar compared to how they’ve appeared in their ‘final forms.’ Moon Books took a chance on the project, insisting that I additionally create a book for their Pagan Portals series to be released at the same time. I did so, and now Pagan Portals: Magick for Empaths is now on shelves and e-shelves! I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pen that mini-book at the same time as editing stories for Black Magick. Everyone at Moon is a pleasure to work with, and I can’t wait for the 6 November book signing at Watkins Books in London! I’ve never been to the UK, or even Europe (only India overseas), and I’m excited for the experience. I’ll be joined at the book signing by the book’s aforementioned associate editor, Miranda S. Hewlett, as well as another longtime dear friend, Rhea Troutman, whose story called “3:33” is quite possibly my favorite in the collection.

What is your spiritual practice and how does this impact on your writing?

I am blessed to have jointly operated and founded a Pagan temple for 16 years. Although it is no longer in operation, the experiences learned during that time will last a lifetime and probably longer! At this point, my solitary work highly emphasizes daily practice. I bang on about daily practice quite a lot in my nonfiction books. In addition to daily yoga, meditation, and prayer — even if it’s brief, depending on the day — I most especially pay attention to the lunar cycle and align my magickal intention and creative processing to those natural tides. This is something I especially picked up during my time living in Hawaii, as the seasonal shifts are not as prominent, but now I’m coming back to a balance of solar and lunar observation alongside the observation of select Hindu festival days. I consider myself both a Pagan Witch and a Sanatani or American Hindu.

Lastly, what are your future plans? What are you up to this year? Are there any future books in the pipeline?

I’m working on yet another book, my eleventh, which is slated with Llewellyn for Winter 2025/2026! I can’t say much about it quite yet, but I will say that it’s about shadow work with a special emphasis on spell craft. It’s some of my best material in years (fiction aside), and I hope everyone enjoys it!

For more information about Raven’s work please check out his website: www.ravendigitalis.com and of course buy his books! https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/raven-digitalis

Thea is a Heathen and a pilgrim. She likes to think of herself as a Nemophilist, which means a ‘haunter of woods’. She spends most of her free time walking in the wildest remotest lands, places that still make the gods tremble, and she loves the challenge of finding connection through nature to the divine. She writes prolifically, read equally, has a passion for learning, taking photos, grow things, and spend time with her family. she works in education and lives in the south of the UK.

My blog has a full review of Black Magick edited by Raven Digitalis, please check it out here: heathenpilgrim.substack.com