As a #witch who is #white, I do often feel caught between the pincers of "this practice is appropriative" and "this practice is linked with the far right" 😩
I'm actually helping run a coven now, and I feel their frustration on this front. I want to give them easy guidance. But none of this is easy.
1/
As a witch I feel I am called to be real. To be open to listening and experiencing the world as it is.
And the history of my ancestors is stained by blood, so much blood. It is discomfiting. It should be.
Do my white siblings imagine this is in any way easier for witches of colour to confront and navigate? It is not.
2/
I have to catch myself from over-judging others tho. I see problems that they might not have, yes, but they might see problems with my own practice that I don't.
Judging the other is a way of denying problems situated within yourself. Of externalising discomfort.
3/
Seeking to create a rigourously pure and untroubled practice is also a tactic that can be linked to denial. The easiest way to do this is to just make up entirely new things: new symbols, new rituals, new gods.
Sure. But do you think even that doesn't bring in prejudices from the world you are rooted in?
To be a witch is to find truth. You will be pulled back to the dirty, bloody world that birthed you whether you seek that or not.
4/
And so I sit with the problematic elements in what I do. I read #Tarot, and I'm mindful of its history interlinked with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its many, many problems. I'm mindful of the appropriation of Jewish mystical elements.
It isn't pure. I'm not pure. I can handle being regarded with disdain for my choice. I'm a grown woman.
I honour my personal goddess, part of a pantheon I am culturally "allowed" to claim, but which is also much-claimed by fascist shites. Fuck em.
5/
Purity is a trap. But ignorance is worse, an intentional closing of one's eyes to the harm one might do.
Witches are called to truth and action. That means confronting colonialism and our own implication in it. That's part and parcel of the work.
We must own our shit.
Fin/
Purity is a trap.
Agreed: it's either a fool's game or a cop-out to demand sterile perfection before you even begin.
Potential solution: regard it as part of the work to resolve the problematic elements, whether by purging, reclamation, reconciliation or whatever other measure is appropriate and viable.
Of course, that's easy for me to suggest, as a 100% syncrete, who doesn't really have a culture of her own.
Tattie
Matilda
Lisa DiFalco
Kat S
Catherine is not complacent