I’m not good at maintaining pages like these as I’ve mentioned on social media in the past but let me introduce myself.
My name is Ashe, I am neurodivergent (ASS) and identify as nonbinary for which I make use of they/them (or die/hen/hun) pronouns. I mention I’m neurodivergent for those who are too and relate to things I write, but also as it has a big impact on how I experience life and thus write about it on my blog.
At the time of writing this in late 2021, I’m 24 years old turning 25 in February, and I was born and raised in Overijssel, The Netherlands. I have graduated as a Media Designer at CIBAP in 2019, specialised in graphic design and 2D animation,
Since graduation, I’ve spent my time creating a variety of card decks, which you can buy here, as well as writing on a variety of often spiritual subjects here on the blog. Besides the deck shop, I also have an Etsy where I sell reference sheets and offer different types of readings.
I’m a creator first, big nerd second, and these two often interact with one another. I’m very into video games, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) and Germanic & Scandinavian folklore, legends and mythology. I’m also a big sucker for renaissance art and sculptures and these really cool weapons you can see at the Met Museum website.
The last few years I’ve been really interested in Shadow Work, Psychology meeting the spiritual. TTRPG has become a big way for me to connect to other people, so I’ve adapted methods of divination to generate prompts and outcomes to use in those games. I now believe a spiritual life only suits us if we can merge its various aspects into other areas without too much effort.
For me, the spiritual path is one of self-exploration. The analysation of the past in relation to the present and future. That’s why I renamed the blog to Path of Ashes. We all walk a journey in life, a pathway that is often messy and complex. The ashes are the lingering bits of everyone that has crossed our path, as well as the remnants of the past. Memories, experiences, hopes and dreams that got us to where we are now and will take us to where we wish to go next.
My evolving path
When it comes to my spiritual beliefs, I will have to admit they have changed dynamically over the years since I was a little kid. My mother is a spiritual person and got me into tarot at the young age of 8.
Throughout my life, there have always been spiritual women that were important and close to me. My mother, her best friend, a family friend, the mother of one of my exes. I will say it engrained that association between femininity and spirituality in me growing up, where I now miss the spiritual masculine and long for it.
For a good couple of years, I wrote content for The Witches Circle on Amino, and have been part of the leadership too during that time, but I am no longer active on that platform. Perhaps you know me from there, and if you’re active in it, you may still be able to find several of my posts.
Over the years I dabbled in a variety of subjects and paths. Wicca was a prominent one when I started out as there was little to no other written material I could get my hands on, but it wasn’t really for me.
I got a lot of support out of “science witches” and Norse/Germanic paganism. Wights and Ancestral veneration are important to me, even though I don’t ascribe a lot of importance to family gatherings. I find it more important to know who we are connected to and how we are connected (by blood, land or choice). This feeling of being connected to the land we live on is in turn also important to me, and therefore I also ascribe to the idea that we should use resources in our practice as close to home as we can find them so that they can enhance our relationship to the land around us.
In short, I’d describe myself as a Northern-Germanic Pagan. I try to learn about the things we do know about the old ways and then fill in the gaps in a way that seems fitting in the modern world. UPG is a big part of this.
I hope to see you around on the blog and that I can add a little support on your self exploration journey.
– Ashe.
Path of Ashes 