“I didn’t decide to become a witch. I remembered I was one.”
Lisa Lister, from WITCH: unleashed, untamed, unapologetic
About me
I am Amanda NicDhomhnaill Bereska. I am a writer, dancer, musician, yoga practitioner, card reader, bibliomancer, and witch. I am a settler of Scottish and Ukrainian ancestry on Treaty Six territory, born and raised in Edmonton.
Whether dancing, playing music, engaging in Celtic and Slavic ancestral animism, or reading, what I love most is storytelling, and that is what flows through all my other practices.
Stories, myths, fairytales, poems, and archetypes are everywhere, and that is where I like to find wisdom in card reading. They make the impossible feel less daunting, the dark less endless, and give beauty and purpose to life.
If you are looking for an experience that draws on new and ancient stories along with the power of the written word, then perhaps we have found each other.
“I started calling that girl back. The girl who loved living, the girl who danced instead of walking.”
S.C. Lourie
Birch
The birch tree is meaningful in both Slavic and Celtic traditions. My surname, Bereska (Березка) comes from bereza (береза), the Ukrainian word for birch. This is also the root of the Ukrainian word for March, Berezen (Березень), as birch trees are among the first trees to show their leaves in the new season of spring.
This is the symbol for beith in the Ogham alphabet. This is associated with birch, purification, clarity, and the colour white. Conversely, in the Celtic tradition, the birch is associated with the festival of Samhain (Halloween) at the end of October and nearly the end of the seasonal year. Purification is important at this time of year. In Celtic reckoning, cycles begin in the dark, so the shift to the dark months of the year is a new beginning.
How can we prepare ourselves? How shall we begin?
“Light cannot see inside things. That is what the dark is for…”
John O’Donohue, from “For Light”
Bone
As things begin, so too things must end. The Ogham letter dair is associated with the oak tree and the north wind, cold, and snow, even battle, as well as the colour black. In many countries that share the Celtic culture, oak trees and oak groves are sacred places. They are liminal spaces where you may find yourself somewhere between the worlds.
In Slavic cultures, oak groves are the dominion of Perun, the mighty thunder god. Still today to write an oak leaf on a pysanka represents strength and power. Slavic and Celtic cultures share this association with the oak for strength, skill, endurance, and truth.
Will you use your strengths to create stability, develop skills, and speak the truth? Or will you stray and go to war? What are you capable of in the light and in the dark?
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”
Edgar Allan Poe, from “The Raven”
Hook
The hook-shaped Ogham letter phagos is representative of generational knowledge. In ever-popular Celtic Birth Tree Calendars, it is associated with the beech tree, the tree of learning. It is emblematic of not a single month, but the entire year. All seasons are weathered here.
In writing, the hook is a first sentence that captures the reader’s attention. Some of these have echoed through the years and we knew them before we knew where they were from, such as our friend Poe above. Some things begin and end, but some things hook into the human psyche and stay through generations.
What written work can we pore over to find the hook for your new knowledge?
“Tell yrself yr own fairy tale, the scary&wondrous story of yr life, and the magic will be with you again, casting its shadows, worrying you back into the heart of things.)”
Taisia Kitaiskaia, from “Ask Baba Yaga”
How I Work
Readings are in-person at markets or online
You bring your question, idea, or intention, and leave with a keepsake of how we spent our time together.
I work with tarot and oracle cards as well as bibliomancy. Once the cards are drawn, I will write out my interpretation. To give you resources with how to work with your reading (internalize, journal about, create a ritual around, learn more about—however you like to express yourself!), you can choose either an oracle card draw or a book from my collection for a final piece of parting wisdom.
Perhaps this will be the first typewritten letter you have ever received, or maybe it will join a collection of other prints, notes, or postcards you have. Wherever your keepsake lands, I hope it provides meaning and clarity for you.
Birch, Bone & Hook 