Category: Pagan Life


So Real, It’s Fake: Afriboos and Science

Filed under: Pagan Life, Race — 2 Comments
January 11, 2013

Just in! Black Witch is officially available on the Kindle for $0.99! First 14 days are free so check it out!

I was around close to downtown and looked at some of the books in the local shops and stalls. Some of these books are the predictable Afriboo* types that talk about science and politics and social structures but I picked up this one because the cover was that comedic.

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I mean, look at that cover, doesn’t it scream “All my facts are going to be more slanted than Fox News on President Obama”? You have the obvious Afriboo name, even with an actual Afrika as the last name. Then there’s the super poor, super grainy molecular structure picture. This is already the first red flag – not necessarily the poor quality picture but the joke structure they got up there. Looking at the University of Virginia’s chemistry page, it explains that the exact structure of melanin is quite elusive. And here’s a Wikipedia page that talks more in depth about melanin, even throwing out a few actual structures since there are different types of melanin.Yeah, you’ve probably noticed that the structure doesn’t look as complex and “scientific-y” as what this book has. I guess I should be pleased that the dude didn’t figure out how to craft this into an ankh somehow. Y’know, because the first Blacks are from Kenya/the African Equator Egypt. And those daring bulletpoints! You would think that this book would be the size of a tome if it were going to go into all of these intriguing facts instead of a basic bathroom reader. What, did the dude not want to intimidate the Black race with extended literacy and literature?

Then there’s the back of the book, which explains that it didn’t want to use Latin so that even the most basic simpleton could get it. But here’s the thing, Latin is well infused in English. Like the words “ridicule” (ridere), the terms patron and matron (pater/mater), frigid (frigere), fraternity/sorority (frater/soror) so on and so forth. If you wanna see more Latin injected into language, look at the Romantic** languages French, Italian and Spanish. I understand that some terms like Jaundice (which means “yellow”) can be really intimidating sounding because it’s more than just Latin terms but there’s Greek as well but they have English counterparts and can be explained because they have to since the average person is not a doctor. The book said that a lot of melanin chatter has a lot of Latin in it but that should not be the problem itself and trust and believe anyone can learn Latin. It’s the internet, just Google and learn. I learned it in high school, it’s not that difficult. This guy is just trying the lazy argument of “Oh man, they’re talkin’ a different language than us Blacks, that’s how they’re tryin’ to keep us down”. It would have been a great argument in the 1800s or so because it was a relevant argument but nowadays, there is the internet. And calling Latin an “awkward, primitive” language – don’t he sound an awful lot like White folks who say the same about Black slang and Black languages as a whole?

The table of contents, they smell of Afriboo goodness and material. Pseudo-scientific terminology? Check. African-esque font? Ka-chek. Lack of bibliography? Check. Mentioning “melanin” so many times you’d think the whole book would say “Melanin. Melanin melanin mel. Mel melanin melanin Black melanin. Melanin” and nothing else? Check. Possible nonsense use of metaphysical concepts such as chakras and zodiacs (Most likely tropical zodiac, which is pretty Western)? Check and mate. You can almost hear the internalized racism and backward spewing that’s about to happen humming. I could already bet five bucks this dude was gonna say something a)homophobic b) racist, even against Blacks and especially anything outside the Black/White spectrum c) sexist/misogynistic.

And then, there was the anatomy section.

The anatomy section what I randomly found myself on when I first flipped through the book and I was laughing. Like, mad rollin.

This section is so poorly done I really am shocked anyone takes it seriously. Here came some of the misogyny: The dude couldn’t name the proper parts of a woman’s genitalia. Like, everything was “vagina” something.

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Black Race, left; White Race, right

“Vagina Lips”? Really? 27 flippin years as a supposed “doctor” and you don’t even know the freaking basics? Someone did try to tell me that the dude wanted to keep it simple but this is keeping it ignorant and really not benefiting women – or anyone else – in the least. Firstly, there are two sets of lips in the genitalia (not everything is the vagina, folks. Trust me, I own a set) and that is the labia minora and the labia majora. Oh noes! LATIN. What does this secret Latin talk mean?! Easy, labia majora is “big lips” and labia minora is “little lips” and they refer to the outer and inner lips of the vulva, which is the female outer genital region. And let’s get into the comparison between White and Blacks (and, of course, ignore everyone else in the world because according to this book: eh, screw ‘em). Apparently Black women are supposed to be tighter (lololololo, virgin reference), have something like a lengthened flora lifespan. White chicks are supposed to be “smaller”, that’s it. Is. He. Serious? This is medicinal science? More like a travesty to it. I’ve read longer, better written pieces on the labia/vulva on Tumblr. Not all Black women are built the same down there. Yes, there are trends related to racial physical  structure but this surely isn’t it. And notice that the whole “tightness” thing doesn’t really have anything to do with women in and of themselves but what a woman’s body can do for a guy because why on earth would the average woman care if they have vacuum seal or not since it has nothing to do with the body besides intercourse? (And with a dude, of course, gay folks don’t exist!) This is stupid, misogynistic and very short sighted. And about the whole “flora” thing, that already has super wavy logic because I don’t think the Black woman labia naturally keeps microorganisms better because that sounds like illnesses such as yeast infection and such are bound to happen rampantly because the vagina apparently can’t flush itself out with natural discharge. Yeah. Stupid logic. Unless flora is a pseudonym for “semen”, lolz. With how wack this doc is, I wouldn’t put it past him. Not when he seems to lack understanding of the female human body when it is not in relation to a man.

“Vaginal shaft” is where a red flag parade should be in full stomp and speed right now. Wanna know the legit name for the vaginal shaft? Vagina. This is the vagina, folks. Really. Freakin. Basic. It is not a vaginal shaft, it is the vagina, in and of itself. No one has to be a doctor to know that fact, you should know that just from staying awake in Health or Biology in high school. And again with the whole “relation to a man thing”! The Black woman vagina is supposed to be longer and allow increased muscular activity? Seriously? Basically, “this only exists for the peen of the Black man and nuttin’ else!” Yeah, that’s not science, that nonsense. And it’s rude too because the vagina doesn’t exists strictly so a guy as something to stick his penis in (note that the vagina, uterus and the rest of the baby making parts don’t disappear in lesbians), if there is going to be scientific, medical discussion about genitalia, the talk has to be about that organ exclusively, not how it can serve others. This guy doesn’t see women as people, does he?

The “penis” part is funny because of some of the same reason as the previous two, it’s scientifically inaccurate and more sex-based than anything. Not every Black dude has a dong that could parallel the Sears Tower, it’s a racist factoid that was created by White culture waaaaaaaaaay back when some centuries ago to dehumanize Black folks (“Because if you make Blacks more animal-like, then slavery and racism doesn’t look that bad!” is how they saw it) and this was one of the ways, by exaggerating features. Thanks for continuing the work of White socio-cultural prejudice, doc! And the penis exists for more than just being a jizz launcher but I guess in the eyes of this doc, that doesn’t really matter much.

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The stemoclavicular muscle? Firstly, that’s a joint. There’s a sternohyoid muscle and a stemoclavicular joint. They’re in the same regions (which is pretty apparent in their names) and hey, I thought this dude said that he was gonna stay away from big and difficult words? And dude, wtf? You compared Black people to monkeys. Let this marinate for a second, folks. He said “monkey”. Not in the evolution-man-came-from-monkeys, way but in the Black-people-are-like-monkeys way. He didn’t take the scientific route but the racist route. Monkeys. Are you kidding me? Dude. No.

I could spend all day on this section – seriously, check out the “sacral spot” and “breath” – but we gotta move on, this whole book’s crappy nature has to be exposed in all its Afriboo glory.

Here comes the fake psychology! Firstly, it’s sociological trends I think this dude is trying to note as psychology has more to do with the individual and sociology has more to do with the collective/crowd. Duh.

Throughout this whole thing, it seems the quack is trying to paint Whites as this unfeeling animal that is not capable of humanity or thought. Now, though there are many passages in the pages of history that could definitely loan itself to those ideas about the race (chattel slavery, institutionalized racism, colorism, atom bombing, church bombings, colonialism, lynchings, imperialism, Vietnam War, Laos, Iraq, South Africa/apartheid, stealing land from the indigenous and the treatment of the indigenous thereafter, Civil Rights movement, etc etc etc), science is still supposed to be objective. Racialized science is a bad idea, no matter whose side it’s defending. And the stuff for Blacks in this section is absolutely pathetic and completely erroneous and/or unscientific.

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Is this quack serious? Blacks are monotheistic? You’re joking, right? There are hundreds, if not thousands of tribes in Africa (because, remember, it’s a continent) and I can very much assure you that they were polytheistic as all get out. Polytheism stems from animism and animism was pretty much one of the first metaphysical concepts of human as they were trying to figure out this world that surrounds them through personification. And I’m pretty freakin sure that when this guy says “monotheistic”, it’s code for “Abrahamic”. As in, Blacks are supposed to be naturally Christian or Muslim (remember, there’s that weird anti-Semitic thing about Judaism Afriboos have so that’s not always counted). Which is, frankly, Grade-A, USDA approved, utter bullsh*t. It’s not a “European” concept to believe in many gods, especially since Europe as we all know it came later than Africa and Asia, which houses some of the very first civilizations. Did he buy his degree from the internet?

Then there’s the part that paints the Black race with the broadest brush evar: Maat. Everything is all about Maat, which participates in the usual hyper focus of Egypt and the culture of the land there. Kemet is nifty but it sure ain’t all there is to Africa, trust. And not all Blacks, since we don’t move in lockstep and there’s no All Black Everything convention to decide how to move in lockstep, are going to buy the whole Maat/Kemet thing for themselves. I don’t practice strictly African traditions and neither does everyone else who is Black and Pagan. We acknowledge it because it does deserve that and no one should attempt to scribble away its validity but not every Black person is going to adhere to it because not every Black person is exactly the same. And this so-called “doc” should stop trying to use Maat as an excuse for everything from civility to science to sex (especially sex, this guy really should never hop on that subject ever again). It doesn’t look cool when the Christians do it with Jesus, it doesn’t look any better with Maat.

Just like the anatomy section, the psych section is filled with failure. Like, all fail.

And ‘ey yo, look! We have our own sleep pattern!

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I didn’t know our sleeping was so…so…cosmic. I thought I snooze the same way my non-Black friends do. I mean, yeah there’s things like lucid dreaming, dream walking and astral projection, those are totally legit and fine. But those happenings are not race exclusive, many cultures have some sort of manifestation for these events, these instances are human experiences, they’re worldwide. It’s not a Black Only event is what I’m trying to say and not every Negro has this amazing experience as described. We collect our z’s the same way as everyone else does.

Oh, hey, hijacking other cultures holistic methods! Discussing chakras and the zodiac? Those two didn’t start in Africa. That’s more Middle East/Western concepts. So much for staying Blacker than Black. And then, create all this misinformation that is full of crap and even goes as far as denigrating the races/culture these concepts came from. Totes rad, man. Totes rad.

This book, as you can see for yourself, is complete rubbish. It’s definitely a laugh but it’s also concerning when noticing that folks take this literary crap bucket seriously. It’s bigoted, misogynistic, filled with erroneous facts, actually racist against Blacks, just worthless as anything potentially intellectual. It’s an insult to those who actually studies and preserves African culture and Africana diaspora culture only to be compared against completely written up trash created by someone who calls himself a doctor but has the term “fraud” next to their name commonly in Google searches. Just skimming this book (like I’d actually read this from cover to cover, please) and picking out random sections, I can see where the accusations are coming from.

Folks, just stay away from Afriboo books, they’re bad for your intellect and we Blacks deserve way more than this waste of paper and binding. No wonder these folks are so easily laughed out of lauded institutions and circles, not even considered a slight threat.

Next week is The Arts! Let’s see who is gonna get featured

– Red Oak Wands/ Merlin’s Realm
– Smooth E
– Nikki Lynette
– What Are You Doing Here? (Laina Dawes) Black Women in Heavy Metal

After that is Ask Black Witch so send in your questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated. Pow!

*Afriboo: A term coined here on Black Witch to describe those who have a sharply biased infatuation with the continent Africa in the same manner weaboos do for Japan. Read the initial post here: Blacked Out Blind

** Romantic languages mean they stem from Latin, which was spoken in Roman culture, hence the term “Romantic languages”

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All Wands Everything

Filed under: Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
January 4, 2013

Happy New Year! W00t!

So, I have been in the market for a wand for a while. I never really had an interest in them except for a couple years ago when I saw some fantastic crystal tipped, wire wrapped wands and thus I have an on and off desire to look for them. Since I don’t really know of any wand makers in Baltimore or Maryland and the ones I see in the metaphysical shops looks lame to me, onward to Etsy I go! It seems to have everything I want in one place, I would not trust Ebay at all and google searches are headache inducing.It’s best that the wand is handmade, anything manufactured would not really feel the same in usage since it wouldn’t really mean much. Besides, the average wand is made of wood, to have them mass produced just doesn’t seem right since wands are supposed to be as different as the people buying or picking them.

First thing I noticed when I searched for wands on Etsy is the “Harry Potter ZOMGZ” overload and by the 25th page, it was kinda getting a little freakin annoying. I like Harry Potter, the books were very well written and the wands in the movie were fantastic but, please, not everyone is buying a wand for a prop. Some of the wands in the book cannot be recreated so simply (like phoenix or unicorn cored wands) and for the love of the gods, we get it, it’s supposed to be all mystical and magical, calm down. The descriptions for wands should not be corny or misleading. I already noticed a couple that said they had powerful spells in the handle of the wand and were used in spell duels. Immediately, I closed the tab, they’re clearly shooting for the teenage Pottermore crowd, even though some of the price tags clearly don’t agree. Now this doesn’t mean that one should totally pass up the HP inspired wands or any other inspired wands. I have seen some with R2-D2 and Sailor Moon wands, they’re great for younger practitioners or the young at heart. Inspired is fine but it’s important that the seller doesn’t mistakenly insult their potential buyer with leaning too heavy on the books because it’ll make that wand look like a cosplay prop very fast.

When it comes to looking up wands, the person who made it should be able to tell you everything about the wand. What is it made of (wood, wire, stone), how long is it (8”, 23”) and any other important details (crystal tipped, cored, creation of handle) that is a must-know. I have seen a couple nice wands but the person didn’t include what kind of wood or stone and that put me off because I want to be sure I’m getting what I’m buying. The only downside to buying wands online is that you can’t hold them and get a feel for them. I’m mega picky with wands and various other Pagan products to the point that even if I like the look – and trust, there’s plenty that look stunning – but if I don’t like the energy it gives, I won’t want it. I’m not buying a wand simply because it’s pretty but also for witchy practice. You pretty much gotta stare at pictures and try to sense what would be best for you. There is one maker that does give out free wood samples though to see how it would resonate with you (it’s the last picture on the bottom) and I think that’s great.

As far as price is concerned, that’s up to the practitioners. All a wand is, is simply a stick with possibly some embellishments on them. I’ve seen wands that are in the range of $5-$10, I’ve seen wands that are straight in the hundreds. I want a wand that won’t break the bank and I’ll not regret once getting it. Last I want to do is go after opening the box and lamenting, “I just paid $80 for a branch. A branch off a tree. A dang stick. Which grows for free. I spent more on a stick that grows for free than I do my electric bill.” That wand has to be something interesting and worth the price. The wand I was hunting for was $25, not a bad price for what the wand is made of and the fact I’ve been searching it for nearly half a decade.

The average wand should be the size of your forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Now, unless someone is going to go for a custom made or limits themselves to wands that are that size, that isn’t always applied here. I have seen wands being sold that are about 8” and I have seen wands in person that were about 5” tall. It really varies for the practitioner. I would like a wand that is preferably reaching a foot. Apparently, in my wand search, there are several that say they come with certificates of authenticity. I can see how they are supposed to reassure the purchaser but the thing is they’re not backed by some council of wand makers or anything. It is assumed that the wand you’re depicting is yours (I know there are some wayward folks on Etsy but follow me) so to me the certificates seem pointless a little bit.

What I think are really cool are the cored wands. Wands with actual cores such as this one which is an ironwood with horse hair in the core. There’s also another that can be cored with bone or a particular wood. Part of this is indeed because I am a Harry Potter fan, ha! Another is because a cored wand could lend more to ritual working and spell working. I just think it’s amazing but it’s no promise and definitely no must that the wand I get will be cored, the one I have been searching for wasn’t and that didn’t bother me.

Looking at the wands, it’s clear that they come in such different types and styles. Not all wands are made of wood, there are plenty that have a glass or bone base or totally made of wrapped wire. Some are really whimsical looking such as this cute copper wand, and some that have some polymer clay on them. I would not prefer a wand made of polymer clay or resin because they’re not entirely natural but it is great for those who may prefer them. There’s even lavender wands, which I think look great! For the wooden wands, not all are simple, slender sticks. Some are forked, clearly modified driftwood, things of that nature. That’s pretty good for those who want the roughness of nature that a straight wand could not provide. Some have defined handles and others don’t. It may be expressed through leather wrapping or carved out. It doesn’t matter to me either way if it has a super defined handle or not but I still thought this was pretty nifty. I just love how diverse the wands are. Here’s a wand that has little skulls carved in it! And another that has a claw holding an amethyst. Like I said, there’s wands for just about every practitioner, you just have to look for them.

For me, I did finally find the wand I was looking for and it turned out to be the wands I saw all those years ago. After looking at over 105 pages of Etsy finds under the word “Wands” and 32 possible wand choices, I finally found wand I was looking for. It’s pretty tapered, just how I like them, and no definitive handle but a lovely copper wire-wrapped point with crystals at the tip set on red oak or ironwood. A lil’ bit of sleuthin has brought me to this site, Magic Wands of Wizardry. Check them out! They made the wands I fell for all those years ago. These wands are fantastic in person and it took me years to find so don’t be surprised if it winds up on the “Links of Interests”. It’s definitely getting featured in this month’s The Arts! without a doubt!

I hope this helped you out, it was quite a task for me to simply sit down and search. And for once, it actually got me the wand I actually wanted and have been looking for for years, a lovely ironwood  with a copper wrapped tip that holds a moss agate and clear quartz.

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Medicine and Potions

Filed under: Race, Spells & Potions — 2 Comments
December 14, 2012

What I have noticed as a constant in the Black Pagan community is a strong favor towards homeopathy over modern medicine such as vaccines. Always they would talk about their illnesses and ask what herbs or stones to get, what deities to pray to and such. It’s really troubling when they want to use this for their children’s primary care as well. I find that to be intensely problematic.

To have absolute distrust of vaccines is like raising a fuss over the water having fluoride in it, it’s very alarmist. It does more harm than good to opt out of “childhood vaccines” (e.g. Mumps, measles, polio, etc). Now, I personally have my reservations with shots such as flu and tetanus for my own reasons but it is not a bad idea overall to get the childhood vaccines because they prevent extremely fatal and preventable illnesses such as the whooping cough. It is okay to use potions and other forms homeopathy  but to rely on them totally while having incredible distrust of its more modern form, medicine, can still cause major health problems. I make potions myself to help when I get sick but I still go to a doctor when things get bad.

While it is a little foolish to be super skeptic of all vaccines, it is perfectly fine to be concerned about institutionalized racism in medicine because there is a long, very steady streak in that reaches into modern times such as now. Given that the face of medicine and science in the West is White, that can definitely cause suspicions to any minority that is concerned about their health because any minority that is aware of their history knows, usually when it comes to something vital, racism can really cause quite a body count through stereotyping, misinformation and forcing destructive privilege. When racism clearly will stop otherwise intelligent doctors and scientists from accepting perfectly good doctors and scientists from even entering medical schools or to simply help people thanks to their extremely illogical, unbelievably shortsighted and incredibly irrational ideas of those who can’t pass the paper bag test, it makes perfect sense to distrust that same system when it asks you to give them your arm so they can inject something into it.

History is riiiiiiiiiiife with medicine not boding well if you’re not White. Tuskegee, anyone? How about Eugenics? Even Bayer tested on victims of the Holocaust (and before someone screeches, “They were White! Racism affects us too!” there were more than Whites being detained. There were Blacks and Asians too, please get your facts straight).  There are countless, countless documents about racism in medicine and immunization – sadly science won’t fit in the scope of this post but, man, is there a lot of bigotry there too – that warps how minorities look at medicine and the system that provides it. Granted, in some of the writings I link to, the bigotry is pretty well outlined: “At least three patient factors affect ethnic and racial disparities in immunization rates: patient preferences, distrust of ‘the system,’ and lack of knowledge. For example, certain racial or ethnic groups may be more likely to call on religious or lay healers or to seek informal help through social networks rather than seeking care from physicians. Further, members of racial/ethnic minority groups often express a preference for providers from their own background, and such providers may not be available. Only 9%of physicians and 12.3% of nurses are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” (p. 657, Larson) It already reeks a little of “They’re so irrational to be trusting these non-sciencey people we never vetted because of some silly conspiracy theory of ‘the system’ like we’re planning this.” How rude. At least the lay healers and social networks are less racist than the folks wearing lab coats on average. Unless you’re White, not sharing the same opinions as George Zimmerman is kinda a big deal because that creates the difference between being a sick person and a dead person. And, remember, this is a document that is actually talking about racism in medicine, thus recognizing it, and they’re still applying prejudice on the sly. That’s how pervasive that problematic (and potentially deadly) thinking is.

‘Ey, before I get any deeper, maybe we should familiarize ourselves with how vaccines are made and how they work. So here’s How Are Vaccines Made and there’s even a fun, interactive game called History of Vaccine which will take you through the times about health, sickness and preventative care from the 1600s to now.

Vaccines, in and of themselves, are not bad. To be honest, it’s better to be vaccinated overall because it reduces the chances of infection and fatal illnesses that are very preventable. There’s a reason why Americans do not have severe outbreaks of measles or polio. Right now, there is work on the HIV/AIDS virus and last I checked there has been amazing strides towards the cure and vaccine. Yes, there is the argument of mandatory vaccines and autism but even that has been proven not to be connected. In their purest form, vaccines are to be just that, a serum to prevent illness.

When it comes to medicine, potions are the starting point of it all. Whether science likes it or not, it has a lot of starts in witchcraft and medicine is included. What used to be regarded as folk herbs and folk medicine has been studied, bottled up and distributed in the form of pills, shots and syrups. There are various types of potions such as teas, tinctures, poultices and wraps. Some that I use are to help my throat when it’s sore, when my muscles are achy/inflamed/swollen, cramps, etc etc. I use potion work with modern medicine so I reduce visits to the doctor and stay healthy. I’m a little lucky that I have so many doctors and health professionals in my family (pretty much all my aunts and both of my grandmothers) so medicine knowledge trickles down but it’s information anyone who pretty much stayed awake in biology or biochem should know since medicine is merely knowing how the body works and how different substances interact with the body.

Anyone who is thinking of getting into herbalism and potion work should pick up a few books on how the body works, botany and things of that nature because without proper knowledge, potion work can become very, very harmful. Do not relax on the idea that because it came from nature, it’s harmless. There are plenty of plants, creatures and occurrences that come from nature and the earth and are plenty dangerous. To assume Mother Nature is some kind and benevolent being clearly is not a very realistic person. Possibly a fluffy bunny that should stay very far away from potions so they don’t mistakenly kill someone.

Aside from the natural function of the body’s immune system and things that can be used to strengthen them, I don’t believe there is a potion version of the vaccine besides vaccines themselves since they use actual parts of germs and viruses and, welp, there was nothing like that back in the heyday of potion making. Potions were taking things from nature and using those to make remedies for illnesses. This doesn’t mean that making teas and tinctures are phony and useless, it means that everyone has a territory for their own. Potion work isn’t perfect and neither is modern medicine but combined, they can create a pretty healthy person.

So! Get at least your childhood vaccinations? Yes. Be aware that the instruction of medicine can be super prejudiced to the point it could kill you if you’re a minority? Yep. Are potions worthwhile to do? Sure are, just know what you’re doing. Is it smart to distrust vaccines and go with homeopathy instead? Nah, not really, get at least the basic shots and know how vaccines are made. Don’t slough off potions for modern medicine? Sure, modern medicine had to start somewhere. Don’t slough off modern medicine for potions? Please don’t, modern medicine isn’t a total cock up, just some of the people who study it and all of the institution that administers it. Is fluoride bad for you? Newp, it strengthens your teeth with the amount that is in drinking water.

Stay healthy!

Next week is The Arts! Who is being featured:

– Lupe Fiasco x KRS-One Christmas Battle
– Rolling Jubilee
– EddsWorld

After that is Ask Black Witch, the last of 2012! Send in your questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated!

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Stick a Fork In It

Filed under: Relationships and Dating, Spells & Potions — 1 Comment
December 7, 2012

There are those who have relationships that are on life support or total corpses and these folks wanna use stones, herbs and/or candles to bring the relationship back to life. Boy, are these folks the depressive sort.

The thing about relationships and magick is that, although magick is boundless and there is no such thing as impossible, it shouldn’t be used to provide a dying relationship CPR. If mundane actions such as communicating or interacting with each other in an equal manner couldn’t save the relationship, I highly doubt rocks and candles would.

Think about it, magick is to provide help with life, not live it for you. If a person has to rely on stones that help fidelity, candles that increase passion or herbs that creates irresistibility to keep a relationship alive or going, it’s time to consider pulling the plug. A relationship should be of two people who actually care and enjoy each other’s friendship to the point they feel romantic emotions. The love should be from deep down inside, not based on anything superficial. To be looking towards magick does say that one person at least wants the relationship to go well but also telling that there are some deep cracks in the relationship that’s probably going to ultimately kill it if not actually identified. Instead of working on clearing up the symptoms, work on the illness. And this is to say nothing of the fact that these metaphysical works do have to be recharged to keep going, they’re not permanent.

In my experience, when asking the inquirers about their relationships and why they are looking for whatever it is that they are, it really does seems like there are deeper problems that no bell, book or candle could solve on its own. If there’s no solving the problem that is starting all the issues, there’s no point. Assuming there is an issue and not a bad case of paranoia.

There are folks who are simply not cut out for relationships because they have so many issues with themselves that bleed into their interactions. They don’t trust others, they believe every negative stereotype about the gender they date, haven’t truly healed from past hurts, there’s a variety of reasons why these folks should take a break from relationships but they don’t. Instead they rather buy all these things that won’t help the relationship because it can’t help the person having the messed up ideas. If a person is forever suspicious of their significant other cheating despite the significant other not doing anything suspicious nor has a background in being unfaithful, there’s no magick in the world that could help the relationship and keep it afloat because the problem is not the relationship but one of the people in the relationship. It may seem easier to buy a candle and ask it to provide emotional security in the relationship but, trust, it’s a lot better to talk to the significant other and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Then there’s the fact that some do not understand – or want to understand – that the problem could be with them or the type of people they prefer to date. If a person consistently dates the cheating type, the problem isn’t necessarily the person they date (although, anyone who is a cheating type is certainly problematic), it’s them themselves because it’s their choice to get involved with such a person. This person, instead of looking within themselves and going “Hm, why do I keep going for these types?” would rather be stalking around a metaphysical shop trying to find black salt, various stones, candles, whatever to thwart any possible sneaking about their lover could be doing. And it’s a real doozy if they finally found one who actually is faithful because this person will have it so deep in their head that all wo/men cheat and thus that significant other will be treated the same. This person (and note I never called them a “witch” or anything that signifies dedicated metaphysical practice because usually it’s not a Witch but a dabbler) will probably never get it through their head that magick will not solve the problem. If anything, it may even exacerbate the drama and ultimate death of it.

As I have mentioned earlier, I have had the experience of talking to these folks as they stood there sifting through whatever 7 day candle looks most ominous and as I tried to be the voice of reason. If it’s for suspicions of cheating, I would ask, “Are you sure?”, “If you’re sure that this is a constant problem, why stay?”, “Have you guys had a sit-down discussion, do you really think magick is needed?” If it’s for lack of communication, I would ask “Does s/he know how you feel about this?”, “Have you guys actually talked? As in, you both are being totally honest, being blunt and all?”, “You are aware that this is a bag of rocks and not an automatic truth serum you’re buying, right?” When it’s dealing with a person who has a money drain lover, it’s “Okay, have you thought about separate accounts so they can drain themselves and you don’t bail them out? They can’t play Wall St. forever”, “If this person is bad with money, have you told them?”, “These money spells you wanna cast won’t work if there’s a hole in the cup of fortune and it’s going to take more than magick to make someone decent with finances. Have you thought of dragging them to a finance seminar? The library has free programs.” No matter what, they are pretty much never deterred. They believe that magick is the silver bullet to their relationship when it really isn’t. Instead, these are problems where the person should think if it’s worth keeping their significant other around or not.

Now, all this is different from mutual rituals that are declarations and confirmations of love. Those can also involve herbs, stones and candles that symbolizes strengthened love, increased passion and things of that nature but they’re used as a supplement instead of as the defibrillator. There’s nothing wrong to have stones, herbs or candles that symbolize happiness and good fortune on the relationship, that’s what marriages are essentially, but the issue here is that these materials are not often used in this fashion.

The most outstanding problem of all this, once everything else is stripped away, is that it impinges on controlling others through magick, always a bad idea. These folks are not trying to really help the relationship through magick but fix it to their liking. It should be simple, if you don’t like the person you’re dating or they’re doing a deal-breaker, the relationship should come to a halt. No one is perfect, that’s fact, but no one should put up with dating people they don’t like either. Of course, it’s never that easy in every relationship but things shouldn’t get so bad that magick is sought out to help the problem. This is a spot where magick should not be needed because it’s a mundane issue. Everyone has relationship hiccups and no one has to practice the occult to remedy them, anyone who thinks that clearly should stay away from dating (and the occult) as a whole.

It’s important to use as little magick (to none at all) in the basic runnings of a relationship. A relationship should have intrinsic value, it should mean something sincere to the people in it. That can’t be faked through magick and if magick was used to make love happen where there isn’t, it could definitely produce a lot of problems from creating an obsessive love to a forever tumultuous relationship that’s hard to leave. It’s just too easy to complicate things with magick, especially a relationship.

Besides, if the significant other is this much of a problem, don’t use magick to change them, just dump the fool already.

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Here Comes The Holidays! Punji Pits, Ahoy!

Filed under: Coming out of the Broom Closet, Pagan Life — Leave a comment
November 16, 2012

Next week in America is Thanksgiving, where everyone celebrates by stuffing their face (including me), watching parades and the coming advertising onslaught of All Christmas Everything. This is a time to deal with family and friends, fending the turkey from the pets and dealing with the emotional punji pits that can be at an all-time high around this time of year.

It can be tough being Black and Pagan during the holidays. There’s the usual emotional punji pit that comes with relatives being relatives and their billion questions, some of them that pose outdated beliefs or simply make you want to endure waterboarding instead of spend another minute with them. Then there’s being Pagan on top of that and if whether you’re in or out the broom closet, it’s really tough to navigate what to say and do and not result in some nuclear meltdown. Families are like countries, everyone has their own rules, customs and taboos. And just like countries, some don’t get along with others, some have more in-fighting than others, some are just simply peaceful or with a weird past.

If you’re out the broom closet to your folks, congrats! Prepare to experience questions and remarks that will make you wish you didn’t. Given that Black culture is heavily influenced by Christianity to the point that it is part of the African-American/African diasporic gaze (how Black culture sees and interprets stuff), expect a lot of churchy questions to spike around this time of year. You know, the usual accusations of devil worshipping, blatant misuse and cherry picking of the Bible to back up those accusations as attempts to scare you back into Christianity, crazy conspiracy stories that somehow explains how Witchcraft (or a real humdinger, Christianity) is truly evil, folks talking about Indigo children or complaining about how fluoride in the water is somehow killing people and the government practices witchcraft and somehow the connection between them makes sense. Yaaaay, the fun world of interacting with people while practicing the occult or metaphysics.

These questions are probably going to be stupid, some very fear-mongering and don’t feel bad if you’re new to being Pagan or out of the broom closet. It’s more them than you, to be honest. Paganism/Wicca/Witchcraft has had quite the nasty slandering of reputations for a very long time and then you layer on the historical forced practice of Christianity on Blacks when we were slaves as a method to make them more dependent on the new culture they’ve been dragged into and then have that same religious institution be instrumental to important movements once those slaves take back the right to be human, you’re going to get a WTF salad a good bit of the time. Being Pagan, practicing magick, simply not adhering to the Abrahamic faiths, none of those are bad things in and of themselves and you have to remind yourself that. Chances are, when you got started in the practice, you had a lot of the same notions and beliefs as well until you finally picked up a book so try to be understanding from that perspective. This does not mean you should proselytize and be annoying, this means that you can’t always get frustrated at your uncle if he doesn’t understand why you left Christianity and erroneously claim you suffered from “church hurt” because it’s not 100% his fault. It’s the culture.

The best way you can go about this is being as factual as possible and, if you can, set your boundaries. This is supposed to be a family holiday, not an interrogation. Unless you’re running about on a broomstick or a mop screaming, “I’M PAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAN! I DO WIIIIIIIIIIITCHCRAAAAAAAAFT! I PLAY JAY-Z TO DO MONEY SPELLS AND KANYE WEST TO SUMMON NARCISSUS! I’MA WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!” it’s pretty certain that the questions you’ll get will be from others that are curious (to put it nicely) that you’re somehow not practicing their faith and why. Be as factual as possible, even about the Bible, and if you don’t want to talk about it anymore, you should be able to establish that. Being part of a different faith does not give anyone the right to be an absolute jerk. If anyone says, “You shouldn’t have became a Pagan if you didn’t want people grilling you with questions about it,” bring up the fact that there are people who think if Blacks didn’t want to experience racism, they should somehow become lighter, stop talking about racism, ignore history and drop the culture. Again, something that is your identity is not anyone’s greenlight to be a nuisance. That is very stupid thinking, remember that.

Now, dealing with others is going to differ depending on if you live with your folks or not. If you live at home, any faux pas during the holidays will not end after the last guest has closed the door so pick your battles wisely. You don’t want the act of telling off your cousin about how you don’t even believe in Satan to continue well into the new year because your parents think that your new religion has made you a tetchy hothead. If you live away from home, you can have a little bit more freedom in standing your ground and expressing how you want to be respected. The only weighing factor is how much you want your faith to be respected and how much would it mean to you if they expressed disappointment or threatened to go as far as disowning you but weigh carefully.

If someone wants to genuinely have an actual conversation – not a one-sided blame game, an actual dialogue – then talk to them. You don’t have to do it in front of everyone, you can do it in private if you or they want and actually listen to them. They may have just as stupid questions as the ones as you possibly fielded but remember, this person simply wants to learn about what it is you’re doing and all they have to go on is what they picked up growing up. They’re trying to understand you and your faith so help them out. You don’t have to lecture them or anything like that, just answer questions as plainly as possible and with bite sized information so in case they tell others, they’re going to recite the correct facts.

Staying in the broom closet? That’s a perfectly fine place to be. And it should be your choice on how long you wanna stay there. There are many reason to why a person should not reveal themselves until the time is right: there’s the possibility of financial issues, not being able to handle the emotional strain just yet, worried of fallout and/or wanting to make sure that Paganism is the faith they’re going to choose so if they take heat for it, at least it’s worth it. The holidays can be a stressful time, you don’t have to out yourself if you don’t want to. Yeah, everyone is all together thus it can look like it’s ripping off a bandaid when broadly announcing your faith but it can create a perfect storm of stress because everyone is all together to drill you about being Pagan. Don’t feel ashamed about keeping your faith to yourself, it’s a waiting game but one that is for your safety and wellbeing.

Know someone in the broom closet? Let them stay there. As you probably saw from the last post, “Busted”, it’s not really appreciated to drag someone out of the broom closet. Yes, you may think, “The truth will set you free,” and that’s really nice but in some instances, the truth can also leave you broke, alone, homeless or outright killed. Ignorance (in very small doses) can be bliss. That means your job is simply to play ally, not spokesperson. What this means is that if you’re cool with the relative being Pagan, then be there for them. Be the sounding board, listen to their stories and ideas, be there for them when they vent. Heck, be their alibi or distraction when the heat is starting to come down. Being an ally means that you’re cool with the relative being Pagan but you have to remember when they finally come out the broom closet is their choice alone. They’re probably going to talk to you about it but that’s not your cue to out them. Help them weigh their options but don’t pick it for them because that is most likely going to cause an irreparable rip in your relationship. You’ll be identified not as an “ally” but a “backstabber” instead and you don’t want that.

So! Now that everyone knows what to do, go out there and have fun. Navigate the emotional punji pits, try not to fall in any of them and have a happy, happy Thanksgiving!

Next week is TheArts!, let’s see how is getting featured:

– Bea Gaddy

– Straight Line Stitch

– Zen Writer

Don’t forget, Ask Black Witch is at the end of the month! Don’t forget to send your questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated!

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Busted

Filed under: Coming out of the Broom Closet, Pagan Life — 3 Comments
November 9, 2012

So, now my mom knows that I’m Pagan.

It wasn’t through my choice or this would be waaaaaaay down the line. Newp. I got outed by my sister out of some kind of show of concern trolling. None too happy about this because this is something I tote very often on the column: If you know someone who is of some kind of alignment that is not readily socially favorable such as gay or Pagan, you leave the battle alone. It’s not your choice to decide whether the person wants to have that big discussion (or argument), it’s theirs and it doesn’t matter what your opinion is on the matter about the person closeting themselves, it’s up to them to decide on when to say something about it. Unless you plan to 150% care for the person and the possible ensuing problems, don’t bother.

So, I had a surprise conversation about my faith with my mom. She asked me if I had anything against the Bible and I had no clue what she was going on but I knew that it would probably be better for me to fluff like usual because while I don’t mind challenging churches and closed minded Christians about my faith, it’s a little different when the person I could be debating with is my mom. Granted, as much as I would love to express my faith to her, we don’t live in a perfect world and I’m more than aware of that. My mom isn’t some rabid Christian but she’s still strongly Christian enough for me to have concern about going “I’m Pagan! I haven’t prayed to Jesus since Bush was trying to explain exactly what happened in New York and why this somehow justifies invading Iraq.” She never seemed the type to have a liking towards metaphysics and things like that so yeah, I was doing just fine keeping my mouth shut and pretty much living a double life where around her, I don’t bring up anything that has anything to do with religion and if so, I try to end the convo as fast and seamless as possible. Friends have asked me in the past when do I plan to tell her but my response has usually been, “Somewhere between the future and never. Maybe waaaaaay in the future or just not at all.” See, if I can avoid an argument that’s not really necessary, then I do because I’m not a very confrontational person, believe it or not. I mainly only push when shoved.

Continuing where I left off, my mom asked me if I had anything against the Bible and I was hemming and hawing, completely surprised. Apparently my sister thought my mom kicked me out a year ago due to religious differences and said that I had a faith that was opposite of mom’s. Here’s the bullsh*t in the sentence: I moved out because I’m getting older, simple as that. Also, Paganism is not the opposite of Christianity. If anything, that would be Satanism. I’m not a Satanist, I’m Pagan. Paganism is different from Christianity in a few ways but we’re not their opposite.

After hemming and hawing (I already thought about running but figured that was pointless and senseless), my mom asked me what was my faith’s name and so I told her, totally concerned that she would flip out. She didn’t, thankfully, and pretty much told me how she was younger and she was into things like astrology and such. Some of the stories were interesting and it pretty much was a good hour or so of me being quiet and trying to keep things from going nuclear. So far things were fine but I didn’t want push it.

After her talk it seems that she’s most convinced that just like it was a phase for her, it’s one for me. Usually hearing that makes me pretty miffed because I’ve been practicing Paganism for the past ten years, far beyond “phase period” but since I pretty much didn’t talk about how long I actually practiced, I let it go. I already was dealing with the fact that she knows about I’m Pagan, I didn’t feel I needed to go into specifics.

Though the conversation went much better than I thought it would (mainly because I let her do the talking), I’m still quite pissed at not having the choice to decide when was the right time for myself. Though my mom said she’s okay with me being Pagan, now things are awkward because hey hey, she found out her kiddo’s Pagan. What fun.

It is a good thing that I live on my own and not under my parent’s roof because this would be very tricky because I don’t feel like answering questions on my faith and why I’m not Christian anymore when I’m not in the mood to do so. It is a good thing I can pay my own bills and do not have to worry about being disconnected financially. I can buy or borrow tons of books on magick and Paganism and not worry about my things getting rifled through or those books getting thrown away just because. I can run Black Witch a whole lot better when not hiding my business cards and business papers. I’m lucky that I’m pretty independent with my living and finances (and Black Witch always takes donations) because others usually aren’t so fortunate when someone opens their mouth at the wrong time.

This changes a lot of things for me and as you could see in the writing, it’s pretty hard to talk about. It definitely sets me back emotionally because I totally didn’t think I would have to deal with this so soon. A lot of thinkin has to go into how to go forward and I didn’t exactly plan for this.

So again, to those who know someone who is Pagan and also know their family doesn’t know: Please keep silent because it’s not your fight and not your problem. The Pagan in question knows what’s best for them, not you so let them choose. Unless you really want to have a nice, heavy rip in your relationship with this person (because they’re not going to be grateful), just stay silent.

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Dead!

Filed under: Spells & Potions — 1 Comment
November 2, 2012

Alright, all the Samhain Pickers have been read for and the Ustream chat went fairly well despite me derping on camera a lot (I need to learn better public speaking skills). The musical acts I did mention since someone asked for a list:

– Straight Line Stitch

– Femi/Dri Fish

– Blindside

– Polysics

– Janelle Monae

– Saul Williams

– Lupe Fiasco

– Big Bang

– 2ne1

– 4minute

– Psy

– Nikki Lynette

– Gackt

I mentioned a lot! Which is great because it gives me a new starter master list for The Arts! features. And businesses I’ve mentioned

-RA Sushi

-XS

-Boullibase Café

-Yolly Molly

-Rams Head Live (music)

-Soundstage (music)

Onward with the column for this week!

I’ve been reading this book as of recent, The Witches’ Book of the Dead by Christian Day. I’ve got to admit, it’s really good and I would highly recommend it. It’s great as an introductory book into death magick/necromantic magick. If anyone wants to learn about how to work with the dead, this is the book for you. No, it won’t have you killing animals or people – I would have put this book back on the shelf if so, I’m quite against that stuff and so is the author apparently – but some of the rituals, it will require blood work. Don’t freak, I’ll touch on that a little later.

This book is so well written! I normally am not interested in death magick of any sort and I was way too spooked to when I was younger but I’ve just thought this would be an interesting topic now that I’m older and boy, is this book great! Again, I recommend it to anyone who is interested! It covers everything such as rituals to commune with the dead, working with spirits, ghost hunting, Ouija boards (finally a good book on that), so on and so forth.

What I am so keen on is how Day reflects upon and interprets skulls. I usually would never use skulls in my works because I am a little superstitious about skulls inviting death, misfortune and illness into the one who wears it and dotes on it aplenty. Day goes in an enlightening way about skulls and the different types and purposes in magic of skulls. Of course I know that skulls are very powerful, death is natural, and bone is a pretty strong material, magickally. I just grew up with reservations about skulls and that stuck with me, especially growing up in a violent area and thus not wanting something that could attract more problems. Day’s entry though made me see skulls in a different way that is pretty positive and to the point that I don’t mind introducing at least skull candles into my own works when appropriate. I don’t think I’ll get up to human bone because it simply isn’t my thing but I think skull candles are fine enough since I usually use candles in my works anyways.

The author is very balanced ethics-wise, always a big thing to me. Even with hexing, Day takes a very fair approach about it such as mentioning that hexing in the past was not always bad, it’s was usually used as a form of justified retribution but if you’re doing nothing but hexing and jinxing, you might have problems that only a therapist could solve. I couldn’t agree more. There is no savage killing or maiming in this book, a point I feel needs to be mentioned a ton of times, trust on that. Besides the teeny weeny blood work from the practitioner done and skulls that (aren’t a must) can be bought from BoneRoom.com, there’s absolutely nothing human derived. Hey, even the skull can be made from crystal instead of a legit human skull.

Alright, as I mentioned at the start, there is some blood magick involved. Nothing that could paint the walls and put you into shock, you’ll be pricking your finger with a medical lancelet and it’ll just be you who gives up the blood, no one else.* If that squicks you out, don’t worry, there’s other rituals in this book to do without bloodletting of any sort. Me, personally, I’m not against blood work in magick as long as it is done smartly (e.g., not draining your body of blood, not killing/maiming other living things). Blood is a pretty strong force in magick – I mean, it is a life force in and of itself – and is perfectly natural to use. However! I am gonna put on the responsible columnist hat and say if you’re a teenager or younger, I would say hold off until you get older. This is to keep your parents from freaking out, me getting justified hate mail from freaked out parents and you guys from doing something that you may not fully understand the impact of until you get older. Understand it first, you’re not trying to recreate a scene from The Craft.

The mention of the Ouija board is great! I usually tell everyone to beware of them – not because they’re bad but because you could be inviting some serious astral nasties to come bother you – but Day’s section on them is fantastic! It goes into the history behind them, the mainstream mania that involves them, how to use them well and what do to if things go wrong. It’s simply well written and makes the Ouija board look like a normal tool in opposed to some thing of mystery and foolishness.

When it comes to working with death magick, it is important to remember that it’s not the insta-answer if you want to bring back someone from the dead. It is very sad and depressing to say but you can’t bring anyone back from the dead. Although I am a firm believer that anything can happen in magick, when it comes to the dead, I think it’s better to keep them there and to commemorate their spirit instead. I mean, think about it, even if you did bring back a loved one, you guys wouldn’t simply pick up where you left off. Oh no. First there would be the body; either it would need a serious ritual that is way advanced for practically anyone to get the body to a successful living state or something to replace that if the person was turned to ashes. Then there’s fact someone is about to experience being dragged back into the land of the living, where there’s suffering, poverty, corruption, injustice, the restriction of a physical shell, stuff like that. The person may not appreciate being alive again if the afterlife was better. And it’s not like there’s anyone really that they could talk to about the experience and the experience would most likely leave them changed any ol’ ways, definitely not just resuming life as they just left it. It simply would be better to honor and work with their spirit now that they moved on. I understand the desire to want to bring back a loved one but trust, it’s better to work with their spirit.

I think it’s fantastic to work with spirit because your ancestors and other spirits are usually willing to help you out in some way or another. They’ll always be there for you and the spirit world is quite boundless. This is not to replace god worship necessarily but amplify working with those who have passed on and, in turn, are part of the collective knowledge of the universe – the Death Current, as Day calls it.

So if you want to get into working with the dead, this book is an absolute must. There’s no chattering about like a goth that’s trying too hard to be scary, the writing is refreshing, and it has a sense of humor and realism that occasionally is absent from magick books. The Witches’ Book of the Dead is a fantastic introductory book to get someone comfortable with working with the dead and with full immersion at that.

Welp, that’s all the Black Witch for this week! I hope you liked the Ustream chat, it was very enjoyable. All the winners of Samhain Pickers should have their readings by now and if you don’t, contact me immediately.

*At all. Just you. No killing. No maiming. Simply doing the same act diabetics do just to check their blood sugar. Just want to make that crystal clear.

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Hooray for Samhain

Filed under: AfroPunk/The Establishment, Pagan Life, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
October 16, 2012

So, Samhain is around the corner and Afro-Punk asked me to write some pieces on it. No problem. Already was on it.

Samhain is Halloween and one of the biggest holidays for witches, wiccans and Pagans and personally one of my favorite holidays. It’s so nice and spooky and fun! And you get free food from your neighbors, always spiffy. Halloween is a fun holiday but also a holiday filled with a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions. Let’s start with the biggest misconceptions: The spells

Firstly, please do not sacrifice animals on Halloween. It won’t work, regardless what you’re trying to accomplish and this is the 21st century, Witches such as myself have other, far simplier methods for magick working. I don’t sacrifice animals and neither does anyone else I know and I’ve been practicing Paganism and witchcraft for about ten years now. Again, no sacrificing animals, not necessary. It’s cruel to the animal (and illegal). And in case I have to throw this in there: no sacrificing people either. There are other ways to cast effective spells that doesn’t involve a bottle of chloroform and a burlap sack. It’s cruel to the person (and illegal). No killing, no maiming, no harming. Sign up for the military if that’s what you’re into.

Now, the spells. What I touched on above is a pretty big stereotype, misconception and a harmful one. People who usually know nothing of magick but watch a lot of movies get this thinking that killing or maiming living things for Halloween will have some spectacular effect that frankly won’t happen. From summoning the devil to trying to revive a long dead relationship, there is really no need to take the life of another to make these silly things happen. None. Whatsoever. At all. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous or earnest the intention of the spell, sacrifice is not necessary at all. While it is true that sacrifices has happened in Paganism’s history and still continues in some pockets of the world, they’re done by extremely skilled practitioners and with respect to the animal’s life, not some random loser out for serial killer-esque kicks and giggles so again, refrain from doing any harming. No blood.

Since Halloween is associated with magick and spells, that means I could bet dollars to donuts that many people from the everyday dimwit to the well-seasoned witch is attempting some spell of some sort, whether they got the spell from the internet or from a book on witchcraft that very night. Actually, I usually don’t since it’s like shopping on Black Friday, not my thing, everything is clogged and not interested. I rather terrorize my friends for free snacks or watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, I can cast spells any other time of the year, it’s no big deal. Other witches celebrate differently or the same, we’re our own individuals.

Next to spells, there’s the belief of summoning the dead, usually via Ouija board. Though it is correct that Halloween is the day that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, talking to the dead is no simple task. It’s too simple for things to go wrong and I would strongly advise against it. I don’t mess with Ouija board and neither do any of the witches or occultists I know. This is not to say no one does, but those who do are usually pretty skilled enough to handle anything that could go wrong because despite the honest fact that you could be trying to summon Jimi Hendrix, it’s still very possible you could get a demon or some other malevolent spirit. Without proper skill, anything can come through if you don’t know what you’re doing and most folks don’t. Last anyone needs is a destroyed room or haunted house.

Halloween, having its starts in Ireland as Samhain (meaning “Summer’s End”), is about the passing of the year and a day of the dead. It was originally the New Year’s Eve by the Celtics of the British Isles and France, marking the “death” of the old year and the “birth” of the new year. It was also regarded that the invisible veil between the living and the dead grew to its thinnest point at sundown, thus communication between the worlds is easiest.  As written in A Witch’s Halloween by Gerina Dunwich, the folklore goes:

“Every Samhain, a deity known as the Lord of the Dead was said to gather together the souls of all men, women and children who had died during the previous year, and had since been confined in the bodies of animals while waiting to enter the underworld. With their sins expiated, they would be set free to begin their journey to the Celtic underworld of Ti-na-n’Og, whose open gates awaited them.

In addition, homesick spirits were free to roam the mortal world and return to their old earthly homes to seek the warmth of the hearth fire and the company of their living kin. Families prepared offerings of fruits and vegetables and hilltop bonfires, which illuminated the night sky with an eerie orange glow and served as a guiding light for the souls of the dead. These fires were kept burning throughout the night to frighten away any evil spirits intended to harm the living.”

This is roughly how Witches, Pagans and Wiccans celebrate. It is celebrated as a day of remembrance of those who have passed on or as “The Witches’ New Year”. This does not mean that we don’t have Halloween parties or anything of that nature, we just treat it a little differently than the average person. There are various rituals and divinations that can be done and the best way to go about them is through books. I highly recommend the book A Witch’s Halloween by Gerina Dunwich.

That’s all the Black Witch for today!

Also, this is the third annual Samhain Pickers where you submit your info and if you win, I do your divination (Tarot, cartomancy, basic natal chart or dream interpretation).

How to submit:

Name

Email

Type of divination

Send to thisblackwitch@hotmail.com with “Samhain Pickers” in the subject line. Winners are picked on Oct 26. Good luck!

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Not Gonna Work

Filed under: Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
October 7, 2012

So I was on the Black Witch tumblr, tumblin’ like always and look at what I found on my dashboard:

Oh. My. Gods. No. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I don’t know what site this is – I shall hereby declare thee webpage Spellz-R’n-Us, and it is done – but man, I really hope no one took that seriously. I mean, really? Okay, let’s go over what’s wrong with the whole picture, starting with the glaringly obvious.

– It’s titled “Baby Spell”. Not fertility spell or anything potentially legit sounding but “Baby spell”.

– It’s either “to make a baby or find love”, a major red flag because those aren’t very similar. At all.

– ‘Dat ad. It does not help the corniness and shadiness of it all.

– What you will need for this spell: Rose peddles – I mean, petals. That’s it. Yes there is such thing as hand magick, meaning no materials used but your own mind and ability, and I am usually a fan of minimalism but this spell is a dud from the start

– The casting instructions: First of all, handclap for the American public education system and American politics snipping it up, what stunning prose we all have witnessed. It was a twist between a rejected Justin Bieber song and adolescent stupidity/horniness in pure form.

This whole spell is a total joke but the wording, oh dear gods. I am a big fan of free verse poetry but this person simply has zero idea how lines work but then again it could be cut into by the Spell Index, I wouldn’t know and perhaps no one will through this person’s aversion to punctuation. Let us put special attention on the spelling and wording, bearing in mind that this is a spell for either to make a baby or be given love (something the writer of the spell has zero concept of). Now, if someone made a slipsies somewhere by forgetting a comma or something like that, I would not be that harsh because even this blog probably has some typos lurking on here but the writing is super bad. Let us focus on the word “pragnetse”.

Pragnetse.

The word looks like it should rhyme with “magnet”. And the snippet it is in, “…baby give me pragnetse your so hot…”, oh my gods, the person who wrote it must be 12, there is no care towards fertility nor the desire of deep love which transcends the physical. This is not love, the person would have been more on point if she or he wrote “Oh man, let’s bone. Babezzzzzz.” And you can’t give someone a pragnetse or pregnant. While it is the creation of the gift of life, you still can’t give someone pregnants like, “Here you go, nine months of hormonal roller coasters and limited range of movement to finish with a pain that could kill a man and a new life with a wailing, shrill thing that hopefully won’t grow up to be a serial killer or genocidal maniac.” No. This isn’t even internet talk the person wrote, it’s incoherent and conflicting babble. (What if the person just wants love? Do they take that part out now?)

And this, “…baby baby come to me in reall life and my dreams” – No. Absolutely zero concept on love, I’m not letting up on this point. If you love someone (and all is healthy between you two), they shouldn’t consume your waking and dreaming life. This person has clearly never been in love or experienced a genuine relationship. This is, like, the 50 Shades of Grey of spells: innaccurate beyond belief, jaw dropping for those who are more informed and the question begs, “Who greenlighted this stuff?”

Speaking of the action part, “then throw the rose peddles in the air and the spellis done”, lol-worthy. Dude, “peddles” and “spellis”, I am dyin’ over here. Oh man, does this person really think this spell will work with no raising energy and incoherency all around? There is no structure, you’d have to do more than chuck some roses petals in the air and that’s that, especially to inspire something as deep as fertility or love. Way more.

Man, this spell – and site – is all sorts of terrible. And oh look, apparently there’s spells for body swaping so all the pathethic guys asking me this can perhaps go over there. Hopefully no one, animal or human, dies as a result of this and if the spell is as bad as this one it won’t work.

All joking out my system (not really), here’s the thing: spells like the one I just dissected above would never work, a forever dud. Believe it or not but spells – good spells, well constructed spells – do have a method to their madness. Regardless whether the spell requires a lot of materials, some materials or none at all, there is a form and function to them all. And this is for any type of spells, simple to complicated.

Spells need well defined purpose. The spell above wasn’t, it was supposed to be used for two extremely different things. For a spell to work, it needs a solid purpose, simple as that. If there’s no purpose, then there’s no point. The purpose could be as little as just wanting to have a good day after a long streak of strife and trouble, it doesn’t matter as long as it is well defined. Even multi-purpose spells (which is what that spell tried to be and failed miserably at) are closely related and pretty general in function, not asking for something in particular.

Like attracts like in spells, the person who wrote the spell above apparently had the faintest of faint ideas of that but still missed the mark about a mile wide. In case a couple readers couldn’t figure, love and fertility aren’t easy spells and would need materials of some sort or at least a lot of skill to go material-less. And the actions you perform also have to be more than what the pseudo-spell above wrote. There has to be some meaning in what you do, what would chucking petals in the air have anything to do with having kids or finding (fake) love? If you want something palpable to occur, there would have to be more than just that. Now, if this person had better wording and said to have the rose petals released on a gusty day, I’d be a little more lenient because the symbolism is carrying – if you just want the love part, the whole motion is pretty useless for the baby part. There just has to be a defined point in what is being done.

It would also be smart to mention that without energy movement, you pretty much wasted your time and money. There is no movement of energy here, just say some poorly written words and hurl some rose petals. There’s no pulling of energy, no raising of energy, nothing. Just empty movements.

Frankly, this spell is a fantastic picture of what a skeevy looking spell looks like and why you shouldn’t use spells you found on the internet.

That’s all for Black Witch, sorry this post was super late! Please know also that this is the third year of Samhain Pickers! Samhain Pickers is the yearly divination sweepstakes that I do. Here’s how to enter:

Send an email to thisblackwitch@hotmail.com with “Samhain Pickers” in the subject line and your:

  • Name
  • Email (to contact the winner)
  • Form of divination done (Cartomancy, Tarot, natal chart, dream interpretation)

And winners will be selected on Oct. 26 so get crackin and submit! Also there will be a BW Ustream chat (I am learning to get better at those) on Samhain at 4:30 PM EST. Be there!

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What a Dud

Filed under: Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
September 14, 2012

Doing spells for a while, you’re going to notice that occasionally you get a few duds. It’s not that they don’t work out in the grandeur that you hoped or that they backfired somehow, they just didn’t work. At all.

I guess before I get into the lamenting of how spells don’t work, I guess I should go into how you can tell a spell did work. Usually when I do spells, the most basic way I can tell it worked is through whether it actually did. In detail, usually I notice when things are tilted in my favor, even when I have a severely slim chance. Basically, things just fall into place, no matter the obstacle.

Then there’s spells where simply nothing happens. Everything appears to be business as usual and whatever happens happens. It doesn’t mean the spell makes life more awry or anything, it’s just simply a dud. You thought you did everything right and everything felt like it was going well but nothing of note occurs. There are several reasons why a spell simply does not work and sometimes it is due to the caster, sometimes things just fall apart.

The biggest reason I have noticed (and experienced) for spells simply going ka-put is actually experience itself. When you’re a noob at spell casting, it’s hard to get a feel of things because, frankly, you’re new. It’s hard to learn how to gather and manipulate energy because it’s not exactly like swimming or coding, there’s no visuals or anyone to really go, “No, no, you’re making a mistake,” when you’re in the middle of it all and on the brink to making a flub. It’s all intrinsic when you start out, just something you and only you can really feel…and you probably can’t feel a thing. The only thing that cures that problem is meditation and energy manipulation exercises. Enable to get good at this stuff, you have to practice at it to be better at it. Learn grounding and centering exercises, learn how to pull energy up from the ground or from the universe, so on and so forth. Just keep at it because the more you do it, the more successful spells become because actual energy is being used, directed and charged and a stronger stream of it at that.

Another reason is that if you use any sort of divinity, sprite, elemental, spirit, whatever, in your spellwork, you should have some sort of rapport. You don’t have to have to necessarily have a decadent shrine to each and every thing you ask to aid in your spellwork, just have some type of general rapport, at the very least be respectful. Yes, you could bypass all that and use your own energy but as you read above, it’s just a fast track to burning yourself out.

Then there’s distraction. If you’re not fully focused on the spell while casting it, practicing absolute mindfulness, it’s not going to work as well as it should. That’s different from not having enough energy because the caster could definitely be well skilled but if their mind is scattered or just unfocused due to a rough day or the concern of the situation weighing too heavy on their mind, the spell may never get off the ground. Spells run on intent but if your mind is scattered, there isn’t as much focus on intent as there should be.

Ah, and finally, not knowing what you want. I’ve had spells flat line on me this way. There has been spells where you want tons o’ stuff to happen and trying to cram all that into one spell thinking that it’ll work. For example, you cast a spell to do well in school, get into a good college or to get a good job and to be financially, emotionally and in other forms successful. That’s too much. Casting a spell for good fortune or to do well in school, things of that nature are far more on point rather than trying to do such a catch-all spell. Basic rule of thumb: If you can’t fit the point of the spell into a single, cohesive sentence, it’s too convoluted and needs to be trimmed down.

All in all, sometimes spells don’t work. Don’t feel bad, it happens to everyone at one point or another. Look at it like this, though: at least it didn’t backfire, that’s worse. The only thing you can do is either try again or just fix the problem the mundane way.

Welp, that’s Black Witch for this week! Next week is The Arts!: Presidential Edition. Yeap! There’s going to be an all-around guide about the upcoming American presidential election (sorry, international readers but Black Witch is an American-based blog so it matters). That means there’s going to be:

– The History of the Method of Voting
– Voter ID laws and how to get around them
– The candidates: Democratic, Republican, Independents, the lot!

And after that is Ask Black Witch so send in your questions via the FB fan page, twitter, the comments section, Tumblr or the Ask Black Witch submission form! (Don’t know where those are? Have you tried the Contact Me page up top?)

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