Cancer treatment and chronic illness can make traditional ritual and spellwork nearly impossible, because fighting to survive chemo and radiation leaves little energy for anything else. How do you nurture your spiritual path when you can’t burn incense without becoming nauseated, or have no energy to rise, or can’t stomach your favorite ritual foods? Jessica provides tips on talismans, charms, and teas from her own experience with breast cancer for those on similar journeys and their caregivers, as well as creating and sustaining meaning through treatment and after.
Jessica Settergren has been a solitary witch and Pagan since 1996 and studied many mythologies and traditions for worship, philosophy, and craft. While her personal practice has Wiccan bones, she branched into an eclectic mix of Norse, Greek, and Irish paganism over the years and focused much of her studies through The Irish Pagan School. She’s been dedicated to The Morrigan for over a decade. In 2019, Jessica was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common form of breast cancer. Her treatment included surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy, with all the horrid side effects many cancer patients endure. She discovered most of the cancer support available is rooted in Christianity and didn’t address her concerns, so when she finished treatment she wrote a cancer support book for Pagans. Defying Shadows: For Witches and Pagans Battling Cancer and Critical Illness, was published by Crossed Crow Books in February 2025. You can find her at www.jessicasettergren.com.