Everything Under the Moon

For those of us who live in a city, some aspects of witchcraft are not that simple.
Growing your own herbs in a garden?
Lighting a fire outside for a ritual?
That's not easy...

On the other hand, I guess being a witch in the countryside can be tricky, too.
Having a ritual with your witchy friends in a forest, while tourists wander about?
Explaining to your curious neighbours why your garden looks so wild whereas theirs is impeccably neat?

So, I'd like to know, where do you live - and how does it influence your witchcraft?

I live in the country side. It's nice and quiet. No one really bothers us so witchcraft is very easy to do.

I live in a medium city, very close to a larger city (Orlando Fl). It's a veritable tourist area, and what may be a restaurant today could very well be a pawn shop next month. While there are no occult shops/book stores, organic cafes, mediation studios, or even many small businesses near my home, I am about a 45 minute drive from all of these things. Well, that's 45 minutes during an off hour. Morning or evening rush hour? Forget about it. I'll sometimes take a Sunday and go to a favored restaurant with roots in the community, personally owned book stores and shops, and just make an afternoon of it.

The higher population does however mean some options of pagan socializing if you know where to look. One of the Freemasonry lodges in the area has some Wiccan/Pagan members pretty high up, so I've been able to attend some Sabbats in that environment. There are a few meetup groups in the Orlando area that foster group rituals and general get togethers. It's still a small enough Pagan community that you can trace "They used to be in this High Priestess's coven, then broke off badly and made their own, then that disbanded and here are two other groups that won't do anything together...."

There are some nice parks, but you WILL run into random people wondering what you're doing and sometimes passing very loud judgements. We've always had the area we were using reserved if we were doing a celebration. We welcome other people and children to join if they want (the egg balancing on Ostara is always a draw), but there is obvious disapproval when the circle and quarter-calling of a ritual occurs. The key is to be an example of the nature of your worship. Let people see that you represent a people who harm none with words nor actions, but simply want to celebrate life with a positive attitude.

I am currently renting a house that is close to our neighbors, and without any kind of fence to boot! But once I buy a house, you can bet that a privacy fence will be going up with a firepit and representations of the directions in their appropriate places. I have two altars in the house: one dedicated to Bastet and one that changes with the seasons. Depending on the season and what I feel, there may be other things throughout the house such as a well placed bessom and various gemstones and/or charms/sachets.

I do find that living in a city can be a bit like a game of Where's Waldo, wiccan style. There are a number of people who will wear their pentacles or show their Wicca tattoos in public, and a simple exchange of 'blessed be' can put a smile on your face when you're not expecting it.

I live in a medium (or small?) size city, but I live right on the very edge of the city, so there are a lot of wooded areas, fields, hedges, and so on around me. I do live in an apartment, so no fires or gardening here, but there's tons of stuff to forage in the wild areas around here and not very many people to interrupt me. I also spend a lot of time with my grandparents (I grew up with them), and they live in a very rural and heavily wooded area, which is very nice for larger rituals which need a bit more space and privacy.

Rural. Love it. I am a very nature oriented green witch, and being surrounded by nature is what I need. It would be a problem if I wanted to be in a coven, but I am happy as a solitary.

I guess you could say I live in a medium sized town. We're kind of a smaller version of Detroit.
There is a lovely metaphysical store in the town's larger mall. We've had two others in the area that I know of in the decade that I've been a practicing witch, but only the one in the mall has stayed. Most of the Witchvox, activity for Michigan is for areas outside of my county. The few witches from around here that I know, I don't associate with.
I do get plenty of privacy in my neighborhood. I live in sort of a bubble: no neighbors on either side or across the street. I would like to say though that I don't venture outside much, so my rituals don't get interrupted by neighbors. If I do anything magickal outside, it's usually just to drop an offering at the base of a tree or bush. The one time I had an outdoor fire was in the grill. I don't grow anything. I'm terrible at it. The plant in my kitchen is just some mysterious anomaly. newangel

I’s complicated.
A few year I have been working in a city, but I grow up in a small town. I don’t like living in the city, there is smog, and always noisy. I miss the song of the birds and my bicycle. I enjoyed the country life more.

I've lived in a huge city but have found my place along a country coast. Nature is so important to my spirituality and practice. The benefits of my relocation have thus been enormous! The downside is no longer having proximity to a coven. I miss having these friendships and relationships close by. My visions are so much clearer though. Thank you for letting me post.

Thank you all for sharing where you live.
I live in a large city, in a flat with my fiancé with almost paper-thin walls.
So, if I'd like to sing or chant I have to do it rather quietly. And no drumming for shamanic journeys either...well, but then there are head-phones and nice audio tracks
I am happy I can light incense and candles. First I was afraid, the fire alarm box might go off, but it's very modern, so it can detect if there is a real fire or just some incense smoke...
We don't have a garden and every green spot nearby is usually full with people, especially on weekends.
We have a small balcony, but I am not a good gardener at have to admit that I don't even have one single plant at the moment. Though I want to change that in spring.
If I'd like to be in (wild) nature, I can visit a forest on the outskirts of the city, and when I am lucky I don't meet any passer-bys. Yet I only do that in the warm seasons.

I live in a small town in the south of the US. Which is difficult to be a practicing witch. Honestly, its difficult to be practicing any kind of religion OTHER than Christianity. There are a lot of closed minded people (which I can't stand being around) alot of ignorance and putting it honestly, I don't like it at all here. You have to always wonder if there's going to be fall out if you choose to tell anyone about your practice. I still am really antsy about practicing my tarot in a cafe in a bookstore because its in public and I worry if its going to cause problems. Because this town is pretty small, there's only one local magic store. However, as cool as some of the stuff is in there I'm on the fence about going there. One of the ladies who works there is really, really nice and I like her. But the owner, while she is nice for the most part, I don't really like to be around her because she is very...closed minded as well in her own way. She adopts the "my way is the right way" and doesn't seem to have much room to consider other paths that other people take for them. Or at least she doesn't when I speak to her. Also, just in general I've noticed that something about her...puts me in an uneasy state. I don't know, just, honestly I don't care for her...aura? I can't see auras but something about her feels off and makes me uncomfortable.

The other reason why this store (while sometimes helpful) can be a problem is that they are not always well stocked. Actually they are often poorly stocked. I once needed to get some pillar candles and they didn't have any at all. And they wouldn't be getting any more for about two months. And its probably because they don't get much business to be able to pay for some of the stuff they need.

Plus there aren't many places for me to go out and practice. The only areas that have land on them for me to have space to practice are owned by churches and THAT wouldn't go over well. xD I'd love to live somewhere where its kind of rural but really close to the city so there's plenty for me to do. But when I want to practice, I'll have privacy.

I'm in a mid-size, ethnically mixed city. There's local shopping variety & parks. I have a tiny garden. Neighbors are close. BBQs are not unknown & nobody has noticed my small fire-pot or quiet circles or my late-night sky watching in over 20 years.

I live near enuf to Los Angeles to say I'm in a big city but we are on the way outskirts more like a medium city, I'm hoping to relocate to the country, This place is a serious drain on energy.
BB, FF

Small town, but really like a mile outside of town.