The Establishment (AfroPunk) Version

Nota Bene: Black Witch Ustream chat time and place has changed. It will be at 4:30 PM EST now and on the AfroPunk Ustream. It will still be on Sunday, Halloween but at 4:30 PM and on the AP Ustream. Please take note and I’ll see everyone Sunday!

I was wondering what you think about numerology? How does it, if at all, relate to Paganism? Witchcraft?

– Djay

Numerology is actually a form of divination so it relates heavily to Paganism and witchcraft as divination tends to be pretty important. I don’t practice it myself but I know those who do and it definitely does relate. It’s also another form of divination that gets misused often and due to that it reaps a pretty bad rap, just like astrology. Perfectly acceptable form of divination that can definitely work your brain if you have a thing for numbers though.

Over the past couple of months or so I have been studying paganism, I was curious what lured you towards it. Also at the time did you have anyone else to share your beliefs?

– Rashawnda

What lured me to Paganism? Hm, kinda a good question and one I haven’t been asked in a while. I’ve always kind of had a hidden lure to Paganism ever since I was a kid. Heck, I remember when I was young and playing with long fake nails and funky nail polish I would always say to myself, “I wanna have these nails when I become a witch!” Ah, funny how things manifest (except for the fake nails, I dropped those after preteens because they simply destroyed my real nails and I lost interest) but I wasn’t always “Yea yea, Paganism!” I still had my reservations about the religion because I was raised hearing the same thing about Witches and Pagans but I read Where to Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy, it looked like a harmless book and I’m glad I did for it opened my mind and, well, shown me a path I would soon take as my own.

Did I have anyone to share my beliefs with? Well that all depends on the age group. For the older crowd, I did have people to share my newfound faith with and even receive guidance at a local metaphysical shop. They’re not there anymore but good news, I’m currently looking for them and hopefully I’ll find them, especially the one I consider practically my mentor and second mom, Ms. Donna. As for the younger crowd, ehhhhhhh…not so much. I had one or two close Pagan friends that were my age but any others that were my age and Pagan, I seem to always fall out of touch with them. Though I had a couple close Pagan friends, I couldn’t always be around them so I kept to myself often and hung out at the metaphysical shop. When I did talk about my faith to others my age, I wasn’t always given the warmest receptions around. One of them I still keep in touch with thankfully but otherwise, since I wasn’t (and still am not kinda) the social type, I just stayed to myself and with my books when around my own peers. When I couldn’t be at the metaphysical shops, I hung out on online communities such as Mystic Wicks and Witch Vox and made friends through that. (Be careful when making friends online if you’re a teen in the Pagan circles, there are some pretty creepy people out there.)

What do you think about this article about the Air Force being more open to pagans in the battlefield?

– Mat

Well, I must firstly say that my personal political feelings aside, I am very proud to hear of someone serving in the military and doing their duty. From the title of the piece “Air Force Academy Now Welcomes Spell-Casters,” I can kinda tell it’s gonna be a piece that’s going to be a bit misleading and carry a tinge of sensationalism since they are putting a Harry Potter/”aren’t these people crazy?” twist to their words. Instead of calling us “spell-casters” and giving the image that we fight wars on Firebolt 3000’s broomsticks and can make the Taliban disappear with the flick of a wand, they could have simply called us by our proper names: Pagans and Wiccans  or better yet, Witches – especially since no one obviously dropped the writer a memo that not all Pagans and Wiccans participate in spell casting.

Although I feel that the article could have been held to a higher standard of journalism, I do like this part: “…keep in mind that magic doesn’t necessarily mean miracles…. Say you have cancer, and someone does a healing spell for you. It doesn’t mean the cancer disappears overnight. It could mean your doctor thinks up a different treatment.”’ Sound like someone knows what they’re talking about, which is a step in the right direction for the military to understand religious tolerance. I am happy that the military is growing more open to Pagans but I am cautious all the same. As I see the military (and a lot of American homestead policy), if you’re not Christian or living by a Christian standard, you’re tipping on a nasty tightrope. I don’t think that Christian/Pagan relations of the military will automatically be smooth – something clearly shown by the wooden cross planted in the middle of dedicated sacred space and by the journalistic piece itself – but it is nice to see the military is trying to do something rather than brushing the problem under the rug. I feel that if the American military is supposed to defend the American people, they should do so without discrimination of race, religion, orientation and/or gender because we the American people are not of one sole race, religion, orientation or gender and our military ought to reflect that.

That’s all the Ask Black Witch for this month! If you wanna send me a question, you can email (on the About Me/Contact me page), tweet me on Twitter, comment below or best of all, use the Ask Black Witch form on the right side of the site! Remember, should you email me, please put “Ask Black Witch” or something along those lines in the subject line so I won’t regard it as spam and delete.

All the winners of Samhain Pickers have been picked and read for! I hope you like your readings and there are any errors, lemme know and we’ll get ‘em fix tout suite!  Thank you everyone for making this giveaway such a success! I hope to do more giveaway and contests in the future! Samhain Pickers will be yearly so if you didn’t enter or didn’t win, there’s next year!

And remember readers! Halloween/Samhain is on Sunday and that’s the Black Witch Ustream chat! It will be here on Oct. 31 at 4:30 PM EST. How this is gonna work: I video cast and you guys talk to me via chat and we hold a convo in real time! Bring good questions! I’m really excited as this will be my first vcast! Don’t want to use Ustream to talk to me? If you have a Twitter account, you can speak to me via tweeting me @thisblackwitch and I’ll get your comments and questions all the same. See you Sunday!