My partner is open and accepting of spirituality and religion but has no personal interest in it. I'm a longtime practicing witch with very strong spiritual faith. We are also non-monogamous and queer with lots of non-monogamous, queer friends.

Recently we attended a fertility rite for the benefit of some friends who are trying to conceive, and a huge part of this was an orgy. It was hosted by a trusted friend who has experience hosting events like this, everything was safe and comfortable and frankly it was a delight to participate.

Understandably, as a non-spiritual person who likes sex, my partner was most excited about that aspect of the event, and excitedly referred to the event as an "orgy" many times in the weeks leading up to it. And yeah, I was excited for that too, but it got on my nerves after a while. Eventually I was able to put into words why I felt that way.

"I know you're not as interested in the religious aspect of this, and that's fine, this isn't a closed event and your energies are definitely going to be welcome and appreciated. And I know you have a lot of respect for my beliefs, so I don't believe you mean any harm. But as someone who's been practicing this religion for a few decades now, one of the most common microaggressions against pagans and witches is to get really hung up on the 'sex' part of sex magic. And when you fixate so much on that word, it just reminds me how little we are taken seriously in our society."

My partner had never even thought of it that way, thanked me for telling them, and from then on started to refer to the event as a "fertility celebration". It felt really great to be heard and understood.

So I wanted to share a success story about communication and education about how our practice intersects with our relationships with non-practitioners! I hope everyone has someone in their life who is willing to listen and understand about the things they don't experience directly.

Peace to y'all this day.