Archive for August, 2013


Ask Black Witch: Is My Friend A Witch?

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Filed under: Ask Black Witch — Leave a comment
August 30, 2013

Hello,

I know this email may come as very random to you. I found you online after doing a little searching. I wanted to ask if you would check out few pics of my friend.  I think they may be a witch but not sure how to ask the question. I think it may be an altar or potion or something.  I can explain more if needed.

Thanks!

Mike

The pictures, thankfully, weren’t of some raunchy images or overly weird stuff but of what actually does look legitimately like an altar – not necessarily a Witch’s altar, the person could be Wiccan or Pagan instead. I’m not showing the pics because I’ve the sneaking suspicion these were taken on the sly and thus not with permission or at least permission to be shown about.

Ok, so you have a friend and they’ve a really Witchy/Wiccan/Pagan-looking altar, now what? Well, there’s always the direct approach of saying, “Hey, so I noticed your table and its really fancy set up. It kinda looks like an altar of some sort. Are you Wiccan or Pagan by any chance?” You can clear the air faster and if the person thought s/he was fooling someone with her really obvious set up, s/he can be made aware that she should be more out in the open…given you didn’t happen upon this via sneaking about (you would be surprised how many people employ their sense of wonder and inquisitiveness at the wrong times).

Now, if they say yes – I really recommend the direct approach because that gets you the answer faster – don’t be judgmental, don’t become a super waterfall of questions (especially dimwitted ones) and if your friend is freaking out because you found out, try to allay their fears that they’re about to lose someone over their practice. One major reason Witches, Pagans and Wiccans alike don’t really announce who they are from rooftops is because of all the unnecessary blowback they, understandably, don’t want to get. People have outrageous responses to hearing that a friend/family/person-they-know practices magick or is some type of Pagan that usually range from “Bad to “Pretty Bad” to “Quite Catastrophic”. Instead, just be a good friend. If they want to talk about it, talk about it. If they admit and then want to drop the subject, then drop the subject. Just try not to make them feel like you’re going to get very weird on them and possibly dart out their life or turn them into the local laughing stock.

And don’t become suddenly paranoid that they’ll put a fix on you or anything mental like that. Life and magick doesn’t work that way.

If they deny, then just ask them to explain in detail exactly what it is that you are looking at and why you came to the conclusion – remember, in detail – of thinking that your friend was practicing magick. They have a legit altar setup with besom, chalice, bell and all so they should come clean but if they say it isn’t, then after you explain how you arrived to your conclusion, drop the subject.

So go on and talk to your friend. You may learn something new about them

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The Arts!: Short Films (Roper, Electronic Purgatory, Children)

Filed under: The Arts — Leave a comment
August 23, 2013

I’ve been busy, busy, busy this week. That means short films!

The Roper

I saw this at Artscape during their short films. It was very captivating for me and really cool to see a Black cowboy in action doing what he loves. The second song beginning with accordion is absolutely poppin, too.

Electronic Purgatory

If you have seen the Afro-Punk Documentary (and by the way, Afro-Punk Festival is this weekend. I won’t be there though), then you’ll love this. It’s about the Black rocker, the history of rock and why s/he does not receive the shine they deserve.

Children

This fantastic animated short film is brilliantly made about how schooling does not exactly breed thinkers and intellectuals but can be more of a crushing institution that can apply enough pressure to make one pop.

That’s all for this week! Next week is Ask Black Witch! Remember, good questions are appreciate, bad questions are eviscerated!

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Don’t Watch the Throne

Filed under: Pagan Life — 2 Comments
August 16, 2013

So, I was perusing the Black Witch Tumblr (as I frequently do) and up came a couple discussions that provoked a memory from when I was 17.

When I was a wee young lass (ok, this was, like, 9 years ago) I wound up unknowingly summoning a Throne when I was in my room practicing a song for choir. It was blue (as all ethereal beings look like to me because it’s already hard enough to see them, ha) and a fairly big thing that looked like a wheel with an eye in the middle…and coming towards me. I was pretty scared since I sensed a lot of energy coming off it and had no clue what it was and it was coming towards me in a quick fashion in my bedroom. It disappeared (or I got rid of it, I don’t remember but I do remember a forceful energy) before it got to me but not before I nearly fell over my scattered clothes in my junky room. It was there for roughly half a minute but the memory stuck with me for far longer.

I was singing “When Ezekiel Saw The Wheel” and when I was visited by the faint blue entity but had no clue what the relation was for the longest time until I had gotten deeper into my metaphysical studies.  I had learned that it wasn’t a random visit nor anything my imagination could cook up but I mistakenly attracted it. It turns out the song was about seeing a Throne:

“Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
And the little wheel run by faith
And the big wheel run by the grace of God
A wheel in a wheel
Way up in the middle of the air”

Yah, I thought it was about the sun and its rays.

I had never heard of a Throne when I was that age but I really did like the song and thus sang it often and with heart. Putting all that energy in the song and singing it so frequently probably is what mistakenly brought the Throne I saw. Oh, and I’m sure it didn’t help that I’m in an area that’s surrounded by old churches, an old synagogue (that was bought by the Freemasons) and the Freemasons main building is roughly a street away.

For those who are probably going, “What…is a Throne? You’re not talking highly bedazzled chairs, are you?” don’t feel bad, it’s not common knowledge. A Throne is an angel. A high ranking angel as that. Google search the image of “Throne – angel” and you’ll see that angels are not exactly “people with wings”. The “people with wings” concept is from European artists for people to better connect with the imagery… and not frighten them. The Throne I saw is an Ophanim, which is a high ranking Merkabah angel that guards the throne of Glory. They’re mentioned a lot in The Encyclopedia of Angels (Rosemary Guiley). I highly recommend reading the book.

So, that was a “Wow” experience I kinda never wanna have again. Only thing that surprises me is that I could summon such an entity at a young and magickally inexperienced age.

See you next week for The Arts!

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Getting Under My Skin

Filed under: Pagan Life, Race — Leave a comment

Now, I always like reading and responding to readers. Makes me feel like there is dialogue and that I’m accessible. However, do not come here like this:

Dislike

Wanna get me viper fast? Come in here promoting something so offensive to my race and skin color. I don’t stand for racism so I definitely don’t care for its little brat sibling, colorism/shadism, and can’t stand those who promote it. I don’t care if this is spam or not, I don’t like it.

I’m Black, been Black, gonna be Black and forever gonna stay Black. I’m not gonna act like my skin tone and my racial make-up is the worst part of me because it is not. But my reciprocal vindictiveness is and this stuff definitely brings those traits out in full effect. Don’t like it? Drink skin lightener.

Skin lightener is disgusting and the mindset that greenlights it is highly disturbed. It’s internalized racism because you are actively believing the bullsh*t our Eurocentric culture pushes to the point you’re willing to put caustic chemicals on your skin to achieve it as if it’s gonna buy you a ticket out of the woes of the Negro. It won’t and never will.

Lemm’ tell you a story ’bout a Black girl I met who was ashamed to be Black. She wasn’t light enough to pass but definitely enough to get confused for another ethnicity like Greek by folks who are too dumb to tell the difference. She just didn’t like who she was because she didn’t see positive Black representations and already felt to be a fish out of water because she didn’t like activities and behaviors that are constantly aligned with “Blackness”. If anything, she liked Eastern alternative culture and was a J-Fashion enthusiast. She just wanted to be someone else and preferably not Black because she felt her Blackness, from her features to what she saw in her community, was holding her back. If anything, she wanted to be White because she believed the ads on tv, in the magazines, in the movies, on the internet, that if she was White, she would be easier loved, easier desired, clothes would fit her better, her whole life would be better. She internalized the subtle “White is Right” thinking that so pervades our culture from literature to moving media to the digital world.

I never was angry at her for thinking the way she did, she was a nice person. She wouldn’t hate on others for being Black or being darker, she just wanted to be White because she felt she couldn’t be pretty otherwise. If anything, I tried to help her figure out that being Black doesn’t mean you are ugly or stupid or have to like crappy hip hop (or hip hop at all, for that matter). She told me about how people in alternative fashions would pass over her because of her skin, she wouldn’t be respected as much as her White counterparts and that she would be so much better off if she was lighter, not Black, skinner, all these things that she just internalized. She told me a White lolita had thrown coffee on her dress because of her weight and race. She told me about how she just wanted life to be easier because being Black was weighing heavy on her self-esteem.

See, even though the girl didn’t irritate me, the thinking sure did because it is really common for Black kids in alternative culture. I never felt like being White was going to make my life better (Glad too, I like the fact I don’t peel like an onion when exposed to sunlight for longer than an hour), but I do understand the aching feeling of displacement from Black culture and the idea of Blackness. Commonly, Black kids who break the mold start to feel like they’re the broken rejects of their culture because they didn’t follow along the usual narrative somehow. They don’t fit in with the alternative kids always because they’re Black and they don’t fit in with the other Black kids because they’re alternative. This is how the girl I knew felt, but with the added idea that if she were White, people would like her more and respect her more. That’s not good. At all.

That’s why I don’t like people like the commenter up there because they capitalize on such a painful and unhealthy thinking. And then on top of that, they come to a site that is painfully pro-Blackness trying to peddle that crap. What? Did they expect I would just think, “Eh, that’s just who they are. They simply asked a harmless name even though their website is problematic”? Yah, no. That earns nothing but disrespect from me and rightfully so. If their site was about the physical and psychological dangers of skin lightening, I’d be fine because we could definitely use sites like that around. It’s absolutely disrespectful to me that someone would think I would be okay with it. I’m not going to see it as someone’s different life choice. I’m not going to respect it as a “different folks, different strokes” kind of thing. It is just trying to aspire to Whiteness, regardless of whether that is done for intrinsic or extrinsic reasons.

It took me a long time, as well as with the help of other Black lolitas, for this girl to actually be okay with being Black and learn that there’s nothing wrong with being Black and different from the crowd, it doesn’t affect your Blackness. She’s actually starting to like herself. She not walking about letting out her inner Janelle Monae but she’s getting there. Getting a little more confident everyday. Feeling more comfortable with who she is everyday. She is getting better and her life seems to be positively improving slowly but surely. That’s what being comfortable with who you are gets. She wasn’t going to find that kind of happiness nor get better at taking care of herself by trying to be something that she’ll never be nor should strive to be. I made sure she tried to understand that being Black is not the worst part of who she was and that anyone who tried to make her think that way was not a friend of hers nor worthy of respecting. I also explained to her the history, psychology and sociology of what she was feeling so she didn’t feel terrible but just understood how she and others got that way because it’s important for her to understand the mechanics of the society she was participating in and how those bad feelings occurred.

So, please, do not come to my website pushing that carcinogenic crap and asking me for tips on how to improve your site. There’s no reason for me to treat you with an iota of respect nor civility. If you were just about any other subject on the ‘net, you would have fared so much better than right now. Just keep your wonders of unnecessary skin scorching treatment to yourself, that’s what you should do.

Alright. Next week is The Arts!

– The Roper
– Electronic Purgatory
– Children

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How Not to Hex Your Coworkers

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — 2 Comments
August 2, 2013

I was reading Ask a Manager and there’s a post I never thought I would see in the longest time: someone actually asked about a co-worker threatening curses on others, the post was titled “An Employee is Putting Magic Curses on Her Coworkers”:

I’ve recently been contacted by a supervisor in our company who has heard that one of his subordinates has been regularly “cursing” both him and his daughter (who also works for our company). By “cursing,” I don’t mean using foul language. I mean she considers herself something of a witch and has been literally putting curses on these people.

It was quite surreal, I tell you. Alison of Ask a Manager gave fairly good advice about the situation, I figured I may as well put my 2p in it since, well, I’m an actual Witch and I have had an office-setting job before. (Metaphysics training or not, everyone has to have a job. Bills don’t magically pay themselves.)

My take:

Oh. My. Gods. Anyone who regularly curses is totally batty. It’s one thing to curse once in a while (and note, as rarely as possible) but to be regularly cursing people because you never learned other, more useful coping mechanisms? Batty and rightfully insane. Seriously, just learn some better coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with crappy people, the world is full of them so why waste the time and energy to choke up an effective jinx?

So Ms. Alison asked for more info and it turns out the person writing in works HR in a school division and the basic story is there are four janitors, named here as Jeff (head janitor), Mandy (assistant head janitor), Whitney (cleaner) and Roberta (cleaner).* Mandy doesn’t like Jeff and Whitney and expresses so. Roberta tells the OP that Mandy has said something along the lines of “When people make me angry, or cross me, I don’t worry because I have ways to get rid of them. And I’ve cursed them. I have a place in my house with candles and other items and I know how to do that.” Whitney is scared silly of being cursed and is looking up ways to ward them off online (bad idea because the internet is full of crazies), Jeff doesn’t care. The OP just wants to know if this can be taken as a bona fide threat between employees.

Before I continue: this, people, is why I am so glad I don’t post spells here on BW. Alright, moving on.

Ms. Alison said yes and I agree. If I were fielding the question, I would also inform the OP to treat it as a threat and respond to it accordingly, which should include possible termination from position for Mandy.

Look, I know I’ve dealt with not-cool people at work – everyone has, and will – but threatening to jinx? No way. There are much more mundane ways to handle annoying or bad co-workers and that includes going to HR. No one at your job (hopefully) is worth the energies that casting a spell, especially a revenge spell, will cost. Instead, just know your rights as an employee and speak up when things go awry. Like a normal worker. And if it is that bad, feel free to use this handy guide of employment I wrote and find a new job. Otherwise, you look completely mental if you go the “I’ma hex you!” route. Either deal with it like a normal person or start looking about on Indeed.com.

I really feel bad for everyone involved – except for Mandy – because they have to put up with such foolishness. Mandy is an assistant head janitor so it is clear that she has some power of authority and should have used that to solve whatever problem she was having with her co-workers instead of going the vindictive route. Instead, she hexes when someone makes her angry or crosses her? Oh, come on. Welcome to real life, where not everyone is going to be sugary sweet to you and crap happens. Occasionally, people are going to make you mad because the human experience is complex. Does it make it right? Not always, but you have to learn how to deal with the fact that people can be jerks in a better way than looking for your jinx kit. That’s just a sign of a really vitriolic, hot headed person who won’t deal with the problem directly for whatever reason. And that is not someone that the OP should want to continue working for them because it’s going to be a slippery slope.

Yep, I said “slippery slope”, here’s the thing: if Mandy is already easy to get hot under the collar for some non-descript reason, she probably will also get pissy at the OP/HR Person and use her usual “I’ma curse you!” because she will feel angered by the fact s/he is siding with Whitney and Jeff, and try it on Roberta because she spoke up (and good on her for doing so). Mandy doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to handle the fact that not everyone likes her and how to respond to that in a professional manner, which she really needs to learn if she wants to be an effective member of the American workforce.

So, moral of the story for my more witchy readers: Don’t jinx your coworkers if you have a problem with them. Instead, handle the problem like a rational person and use the methods that should already be provided for you within the company/school/business/whatever is provided to you. If those methods are not provided or ragged with corruption, then look for a new job. I know the economy is hard but it is possible with the correct tools. And if you’re hot-headed like Mandy was, learn some cooperation and mediation (not “meditation”) skills.

*Of course they’re not real names.

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