Everyday Wicca by Gerina Dunwich

On December 27, 1959, Gerina Dunwich was born. She developed an keen interest in the occult after realizing at a young age that she possessed psychic abilities and the ability to communicate with the ghosts of the dead. In the summer of 1969, she was formally introduced to witchcraft and spiritualism by an older family member, and she has since dedicated her personal life and composing career to educating the public about the ways of the Craft.As a teenager, Gerina Dunwich (writing under a different pen name at the time) began writing poems, short tales, magazine articles, and stage plays with complete musical scores. His Voice Was His Vehicle, her first published newspaper story, was an interview with Jim Peterik of the rock n' roll band the Ides of March (and later, Survivor). It was released in October 1976, co-written with her cousin Barbara Williams. By the spring of 1980, Gerina Dunwich was running a small press literary journal called Golden Isis, a one-woman operation specializing in Goddess-inspired poetry and eccentric fiction.

Its international distribution expanded to about 3600 copies, with subscribers from Puerto Rico, Australia, Italy, and Japan among them. A decade later, Gerina self-published Circle of Shadows, a book of her own poetry. After visiting Salem, Massachusetts, in April 1984, Gerina moved to the North Shore of Boston, first to Beverly and then to Ipswich. She bought the historic Moses Day Homestead in Haverhill in the winter of 1986, a beautiful 17th century Colonial house built around the period of the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. The house was a hub of paranormal activity and had been featured in a local television documentary on haunted houses in the Boston area.

Gerina had a strange dream in which the soul of the late witchcraft novelist Sybil Leek arrived and said to her that her destiny as an author was written in the stars shortly after she moved there. Gerina's goal came true when she signed her first book contract with Citadel Publishing in 1987. (The contract was dated October 31st, appropriately.) The following year saw the release of her first book, Candlelight Spells, and the start of her lucrative career as a prolific book author. She moved into a century-old Victorian mansion in the beautiful and historic hamlet of Fort Covington, New York, in December of 1993. She quickly founded The Country Witch (later renamed The Calico Cat Whatnot Store), a small business on High Street that sold antiques, curios, and different occult goods.

(Incidentally, Sybil Leek's antique shop in the New Forest was also on a High Street.) The shop was essential in bringing together many of the area's Pagans, including those who would eventually become Gerina's close friends and members of her coven. Gerina Dunwich got a ministerial license from the Universal Life Church in February of 1998. Her first handfasting as a legally ordained minister was for the younger brother of the relative who had introduced her to witchcraft some thirty years before.Gerina has appeared on various radio talk shows across the United States and Canada. She's spoken at festivals and gatherings around the country, including the CraftWise Pagan Gathering in Waterbury, Connecticut, the Real Witches' Ball in Columbus, Ohio, and Panpipes' Pagan Day Festival in West Hollywood, California. She's a member of the International Ghost Hunters Society, the Author's Guild, and the Fellowship of Isis. Her biography can be found in a variety of reference books, including Who's Who in the East, Who's Who of American Women, Personalities of America, and Crossroads: Who's Who of the Magickal Community (The Witching Well Education and Research Center, 1988).

In addition to being an occult author and recognized spokesperson for the Neo-Pagan community, Gerina Dunwich is a freelance paranormal researcher who specializes in ghost animals and animal-related hauntings. She is mentioned in Anne Carson's Goddesses and Wise Women, Raymond Buckland's The Witch Book, and other publications. She established the Paranormal Animal Research Group in 2005, which examines haunted locations and studies animal sensitivity to paranormal events.