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Voodun is not a Relationship Fixer, Try Talking

Filed under: Relationships and Dating, Spells & Potions — Leave a comment
April 6, 2018

Ah not long since I posted my Ask Black Witch, which featured a tidbit about love and magick, I got this doozy:

How to get the maximum results from use of female voodoo doll regarding nothing negative. The use of doll is on my wife. Her attitude and disposition toward me has been very negative!! I appreciate your assistance. Thank you very much

– Lamont M.

Breh. Why do people send messages like this to me? Why? Whhhhhhhhhhhy?

Why did this dude first say “regarding nothing negative” but turn right around and say “The use of the doll is on my wife. Her attitude and disposition toward me has been very negative[.]” That’s regarding something negative. If she has a terrible attitude, don’t do Voodoo – TALK TO HER.

Everyone, relationships are hard. This is for everyone. You have two very imperfect people trying to make companionship work. If you have a problem with the person you are dating (or, in this case, marriage) try talking to them. For real, regardless of whether you are:

– Dude dating a woman
– Dude dating a dude
– Woman dating a woman
– Cis dating trans
– Trans dating trans
– Cis dating cis
– Gendered person dating genderless person
– Genderless person dating genderless person

If you’re having problems, talk to the person! If talking can’t fix it, then consider giving it the chop. Seriously. To control the other is a bad sign. Like, it points to abuse. Always. If you need to control someone to get them off your case, then consider divorcing or breaking up with them. It may suck but it’s not abuse, which is always worse. Be more civil working it out or just leave the relationship if it is that irreparable.

Writing to me with an “I want to control my woman because I don’t like her attitude, will you help” message is never a bright idea. I’m very predictably going to say this is an act of abuse, to not do it and call the person a moron for trying – I very predictably don’t like abusiveness. When have I ever said or done anything otherwise in the near ten years that I have been penning this blog? (Holy Oya, it’s almost been ten years. Oh my gods.) This dude needs to put the voodoo dolls down and instead talk to his wife about why she’s giving him grief. Silencing her on a problem doesn’t make the problem go away.

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Ask Black Witch: Time to Catch Up!

Filed under: Ask Black Witch — Leave a comment
March 30, 2018

All right, I’ve been gone for a while so I’m going to try to clean out what ABW’s I have sitting about. Let’s get started!

I’ve had contact with someone now I’m locked in spiritually i feel like I’m transitioning thru colors. Green n Gray already. I don’t understand how I know but I’m hereditary. I don’t have a teacher or know where to start.

Bossy C.

This isn’t a bad question but one I do get with some consistency. The problem is less burdensome than it appears so let’s break it down.

Chances are usually better than not that you are not bound to anyone, especially at such a new stage. It is probably just nerves. While there are spooktacular stories of being bound to someone in occult, it is not always actual bindings. The telltale-sign? How new the person is to the occult. While there are cultural beliefs of binding to others which are verily legit, it’s less “You bumped into them in the market, now your soul has been deadbolted and soldered to them for ever and ever” and more, “You developed a bond which is a bit resistive to breaking – but can be broken through relatively simple and mundane ways.” If it were someone more neck deep in magick, then it could be possible bindings (which can also still be broken). But new? Naaaaaaah, not likely.

Color magick is pretty important but different colors can mean different things to different people. For example, I’m American, so I can associate red with anger. My friend in France? It’s yellow. Which can confuse me because I, as an American, associate yellow with fear. But another one of my friends on the other side of America would rather associate white to fear, and yellow to wistfulness. This means I can’t really say for sure what the colors you feel mean because I could say “jealousy and indecisiveness” but be waaaaaaaaaaaaay off the mark. This is where your Book of Shadows/Disk of Shadows (BOS/DOS) comes in and and a reference guide on color magick (I have suggested several books on my site, I tend to suggest Where to Park Your Broomstick by Laura Manoy most) and work it out yourself for accuracy. If you’re hereditary, that’s also a good place to start as well if there are any source materials to work with.

Basically, the best place to start is with a book and your BOS/DOS. I wouldn’t get too wrapped up about the guy, either.

Hello, this is all new and foreign to me. I have been through a lot of shit in my life and I have found a sigil that means a lot to me. It is the treachery returns to the betrayer sigil. If I were to get this tattoo is is just symbolism or does it automatically become a charged sigil?
– Damon H

The quick answer is: don’t do it.

If you have no idea what the hell you are doing, simply abstain until smarter – always a good rule of thumb in magick. Getting sigils (especially from the internet – Tumblr is the worst offender I’ve found so far) can be a cool thing…until you are reminded that it’s a bonding magickal symbol. Magickal symbols probably shouldn’t be tatted anywhere on your person unless you’re a 150% scholar on the thing you’re getting. It could be the symbol is from a culture and you’re about to be super disrespectful (like getting a Hindu deity on a part of the body deemed disrespectful, like a leg or back), the symbol can tether you to the meaning of whatever you got, for good or for worse (and guess which part of the binary gets me “Plz help” emails), or it loses meaning to you or you found it was the wrong symbol all along (think of people who get tattoos that they think means “strong, willful” and it actually means “moron”).

Even the sigil you mentioned could be a wildly different symbol from what I’m thinking of…because a lot of cultures have different sigils. A lot of them. It could be the Voudon version, the Latin version, there’s even a Wiccan version (I don’t always take that version seriously (see: Tumblr) but it does exist).

You’re breathing intent and effort into the sigil and fastening it to yourself, literally. It’s probably not smart. Just get a tat of something else that signifies the same thing and is not a sigil or religious symbol.

Hi just wanted to start by saying that I love your writings. You are very eloquent, and as a fellow research nerd (art history grad student) I love how you stress research/reading.

My question is two fold (and slightly predictable, sorry). I read your stance about love spells and it makes so much sense. I’ve been hesitant to try any for a lot of the reasons that you mentioned. I saw that you said spells to get a date were easier. I was wondering if you could point me towards the direction of some such spells? I am moving across the country this summer and would love to date more in my new city. I am also a woman with a disability and would love a little boost in getting dates. Any suggestions you have on where to start researching for a safe spell (don’t want a stalker either) would be great!

I was also wondering if you knew of any resources for spells for the differently abled? Or how to adapt spells safely? I’ve read a lot about grounding through connecting your bare feet to the dirt or taking cleansing baths to prepare for spell work which isn’t an easy option when you have a mobility impairment. Anny thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!

-Kels

For spells about relationships, there are several in Where to Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy as she has a pretty decent chapter on it. As well as general “Magick 101” for anyone starting magick. All spells carry risk, though. There is no spell I can think of, even the super positive ones, that are 100% risk-free. Doesn’t exist. There are plenty of low risks (like the super positive spells) but there aren’t any no-risk. Spells backfire, go flat or deeply awry. I remember once casting a small money spell for $87 dollars when I was a teenager – that exact amount – because of a concert I wanted to go to. I got the $87…and literally nothing else. Like, no money was coming my way – it got tied up somehow, fell through or it was a huge hassle. Basically, the spell took the intention to be “I want $87…and that’s all the money I’ll need for the rest of time.” Really simple spell and it backfired marvelously. Again, no such thing as a no-risk spell. Even if you did correctly, something can still go topsy-turvy. So that means you could still get a stalker-type with even a “I just want a date” spell. Not as likely as a super controlling one but it is still a possibility.

It’s easy to adapt for disability because you’re still touching the ground somehow. I don’t do the “bare feet on soil” because living in the city, you’re not super likely to find a place good enough or safe enough (no broken glass or dirty needles on the ground). There are other ways to cleanse yourself that doesn’t use baths. Just modify as you go with whatever works best. It’s the point of the action, not the action itself.

can u get me out of this binding and protection from a dreamscape witch and other forces negative to me. they say im the reincarnation of king tut…

– Skylair G.

Ah, another binding question but with a tad more nonsense. The nonsense:

A “dreamscape” witch – yes, different entities exist on the astral plain but this sounds more Narnia than anything

Reincarnation of King Tut – Seriously? This is right up there with Cleopatra, Cesar and other historical figureheads most commonly touted in Western lore. If you think you’re one of these people, chances are stupidly good that you’re not. There can not possibly be that many King Tuts, Cleopatras and Ceasars, walking about. Just not.

This also is another “gimme gimme” request, nothing substantial. Chances are very strong that this person is mainly stressing themselves with their own thinking – there isn’t a real issue, just reading into shadows in the window.

If I tie a picture around a piece of meat and bury it. What happens to the person on the picture?
– Pearl

Behold, an actually stupid question. If you’re going to dabble in magick: don’t. If you don’t like someone and learning is too time-taxing for you, just be old-school confrontational about it.

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The Arts!: “Avant Guardians” and “Guns, Explained with Cats”

Filed under: The Arts — Leave a comment
March 26, 2018

Guns, Explained with Cats
This insightful video by Alex Clark explains why there should be better gun control in the United States – because, there should be better gun controls. Explained with cats.

 

I grew up with gun violence, it’s not fun and it devolves from “good guy with a gun and bad guy with a gun” to “people with guns” really, really fast. And frankly, this is America, is extraordinarily hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, especially when they’re doing the same thing – shooting. Then you’re just a plain ol’ shooter. Just get better gun control already.

Avant Guardians
This series is absolutely wonderful and chuckle worthy. It’s of a guardian angel in therapy to work through her problems so she can be a better guardian angel to her human, that she warmly nicknames “Creepy Charlie”. Watch all the episodes here on their site but here are the first two episodes:

 

 

 

That’s all for this week! Next week is Ask Black Witch. Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated! Send them in!

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“Won’t Someone Fix My Problems? I Only Want to Make Them”

Filed under: Pagan Life, Relationships and Dating — Leave a comment
March 16, 2018

Everyone, let’s start with a comic from “Heck if I Know”:

This comic pretty much illustrates the end game of practically every whiner, dabbler and dunce that waltzes into my inbox, even while I was on break.

Thing is, people are a lot more corrupt than the character in this comic. I don’t think I’ve had many, if any, that wanted the person in their crosshairs to have any will or choice in the matter. Just “change their mind so I don’t have to change myself”. Which is usually a red flag of “you’re abusive” because trying to control someone is not an expression of love, at all.

Or better yet, folks want to bring down actual gods and goddesses to do their handiwork…as if that has ever worked out well for the human involved. Even in various texts, the humans does work out for a) was usually a demigod (half human, half deity) themselves or b) it moreso works* – with a huge asterisk because it wasn’t all roses and candy. It’s Oshun, not Alexa. It’s Loki, not Tom Hiddleston (I have to explain that one a lot – or I get a bunch of “I think I’m haunted”/”I might be possessed”/ “Life is crappier than usual and in really weird ways” emails). Many deities like helping the universe they helped create because they are duty-bound or some particular living (or not living) creature really warms them. No deities appreciate being treated as the lowly grunt that has to scoop up whatever excrement you’ve made of life itself. And are extremely happy to express that by making a point of being a celestial-grade douchebag to whomever doesn’t get it. Which, as deities, they’re really, really good at.

The comic is comedic because some poor sprite has to help this hapless guy work out a very normal and very much singular (in the fact it only affects the guy alone, not the guy and the spirit) problem. It is understandable that love is complex but it’s not better solved with divine intervention because, just like the person in the comic, it fixes nothing. The person learned nothing. Or at least, what they learned was that they actually don’t have to do anything, just run to someone else and let them do the hard work. Which eventually becomes an eventual loop of nonsense, especially for the person on the receiving end of all of this.

What would have better suited the person in the comic, Joe, is to have learned from the previous big issue that got him the boot the first time, not bother with the sprites (or, if they were trying to clue him into what to do, actually listen) and just try to fix things so they won’t be broken the next time. Is it easy? Not at all. Relationships are never easy. Dealing with people in general is incredibly taxing, being in a committed, emotional partnership with just one is also hard. But doable, with some effort, some thinking and some effective communication. But going to lengths of wanting someone else to clean up the mess you made (or just make it all disappear because “free will” is a chore) is not smart. Which is why I’m usually pretty flippant when folks ask. Especially if it is the hundredth time asking and won’t take “no” for an answer and “Here are some reasons why your plan is bad…” as a follow up. I think I have rarely came across anyone who was asking for a person to be controlled or manipulated somehow who was really respectful, level headed or, well, respectful. Always beggars and, moreover, always beggars with attitudes that makes the reason why they’re now abruptly single very crystal clear the longer they talk.

Long story short, don’t be like Joe. Be sensible. Sometimes relationships don’t work out. Magick just sometimes delays the inevitable, especially if the person is stubborn. And by “delay”, I mean, “makes all things point straight to the inevitable”. No need to beg some random person on the internet or dabble in something that is probably not smart to dabble in.

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Black Identity and Paganism

Filed under: Race — Leave a comment
March 9, 2018

It seems pan-Africanism is getting a revival of sorts in Western Black culture. Not a full revival but a sort of revival. There’s the natural hair movement, the extended (but sometimes very lop-sided) discussion of history and faiths that fall outside of Abrahamic beliefs and more media that reflects Blackness a bit more than usual (movies such as Black Panther (The superhero, not the political party) come to mind.) This is great for a host of reasons but also could potentially be another as identity movements such as these come and go in hills and valleys.

Pan-Africanism refers to all things Black: the history, the people, the culture. When done well, it’s very self-confidence boosting and creates solid ground to build a stable identity upon, inclusive of all Black people, not just a thin slice of an intersection (which is usually male, usually straight, usually cis, usually Western and usually 1D in ideas and beliefs). It decenters Whiteness, which is both inaccurately used and determined as the yardstick of “what is a human? What is human?” and allows people, Black people, to simply be themselves. When done poorly, it just subtly supports White supremacist thinking, theories and ideologies, creates discord and only benefits one thin slice of an intersection (which, again, is usually male, usually straight, usually cis, usually Western and usually 1D in ideas and beliefs). Then there’s the middle where things just swing between the two because Blackness is understood and expressed differently by different Black people and people, in general, are pretty complex. What bothers someone from Zimbabwe is probably not going to bother someone from America, which may or may not irk someone from Germany. All Black but all different for a myriad of reasons.

And with Paganism, this is no different. It’s been said many times already, Paganism – particularly Western Paganism – has a severe and vastly ignored issue (there’s lip service but still usually ignored at the end of the day) of painting itself as overly White. Paganism encompasses all indigenous faiths throughout the world but is usually streamlined to Euro-centric practices, with some token practices that get commonly Whitewashed, such as yoga, chakras, feng shui, Voodun and, as a whole, Buddhism.

Black people in the West seem to want to get more back in their cultures but it’s difficult because there are many more things in play besides just race alone. For one, there’s the different Black cultures. What someone from Nairobi feels is important to them is going to be different from someone from Atlanta because the differences of where they come from, which sometimes is commonly forgotten when Black people, particularly Westerners, want to have a cultural revival and reconnection but may still adopt Western imperialist attitudes about those who are not similar to them, even if they look like them. Rave about being from the “motherland” but shame those who are still there simply because of difference of opinion or complete misunderstanding. I saw this a lot from those who were happy to see Black Panther because of its Black representation (which did indeed pain Marvel at the start, which not just a Marvel problem but a Whiteness-in-comics general problem) but would still make light or underhanded jabs about the state of various African places. Or still referred to Africa as a country and not a continent. Or about the manner of traditional African dress and style referenced or featured in Black Panther.

With other ideas and practices, such as natural hair and the modernized concept of being “woke” (aware of institutional injustices that is primarily driven by White supremacist & imperialism-focused racism but strongly targets with a vein of anti-Blackness (but can also get kicked into selfish and blind overdrive that ignores intersectionalism when not balanced)), it helps Black folks relate to their histories and look more into whatever scraps of their family tree and past they may find but it still is difficult. From the Black cultural side, there’s a lot of misinformation because most Western books on Black culture and identity were generally written or gatekept by White editors and writers and explorers so what facts and info is more widely available is pretty much poisoned with “those subhuman savages with bones in their noses” beliefs from National Geographic to a good sum of academic books. That can further poison more minds and reinforce Western imperialist ideas (“Life sucks as an American but at least I don’t live in a mud hut”) as well as confuse in Black minds.

From the Pagan cultural side, it works pretty hard to keep Paganism, and all its diverse practices, very White. Either on purpose or through subconscious accident. Many Black folks just looking at the Pagan side of their pan-cultural history already have problems of encountering expressions of identity that should be for them being Whitewashed and torn apart. Or they run into the same gatekeeping of Whiteness that is already common just about everywhere else.  What is discovered is that modern Pagan practice tends to choke out diverse perspectives in favor of tokenized ones that preferably has price tags attached to them.

It’s nice that there’s a new wave of Black identity where now we’re more in control than prior but still there are walls present. If it isn’t self-perception of pan-African cultural identity, it’s outer forces that could reinforce negative self-perception of pan-African cultural identity.

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I’m Back

Filed under: Uncategorized — 3 Comments
March 2, 2018

Welcome back! I’ve been gone for a while! I mainly needed a break. During the time of my break I’ve been working on stuff (not all of it Black Witch focused) and even got a new 3D printer so I can make things to put in the BW Shoppe. Right now it’s full of book arts stuff like sewing cradles, awl guides, things like that. As time goes on, I’ll add more stuff. I’m also going to open it up for custom 3D printing service as well but that’s probably going to need a minute or two because there’s a lot to explain about 3D printing to those who never seen it in action (here’s a video of it in action). 3D Printing: It’s one step above watching paint dry). Either way, stuff is happening.

I’ve taken a break from a lot of BW social media (FB, Twitter and Tumblr) but that’s because it was wearing me out, frankly.

Not much has happened since I was on break, which was probably a good thing. I was pretty stressed so nothing really useful would have came from it.

That’s all for updates! I may do a livestream on FB later (possibly Saturday).

Here’s a sample print that I’ve been working on:

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I made a cat feeder!

Filed under: BW Announcements, Pagan Life — Leave a comment
December 25, 2017

I have been late on postings but I haz a reason (I have been posting a lot of non-Pagan-y posts, mainly site updates (can they be called updates? Whatevers, it shall be.)) I have mostly finished the cat feeder! The automatic cat feeder that I have been working on for a little over a year. The reason why it took a little over a year is because I kept changing my mind and, thus, changing the design.

For those who are going “What does this have to do with being Black or Pagan?” I made a robot and it didn’t blow up, chuck my cat, murder me, prank call the CIA with terrorist threats, or set anything on fire so hush. (It did throw food at me once and tried to randomly tell the time from 2021). And I’m Black and I’m Pagan, there ya go.

Here is a crappy video of it working:

So crappy, such wow, very amaze. It was late at night, I got tired of setting up things again and again and testing things again and again that I just laid out some aluminum foil for easy clean up and called it a day. All I cared about was not having to solider things together again. I got annoyed that I figured I’d have to 3D print another container for the cat feeder and I’m impatient so I went to the craft store and bought a cardboard box, glue gun, some oven clay (clay that is hardened in an oven). In the video is what you get from all of that. And a hackneyed chute that basically is notebook paper. Eventually, it’s going to have a 3D printed form but I just want this to work now since my 3D printer is away. I’ll eventually have it under the same roof as me, just needs the space for it. Either way, I have a functional robot.

Yes, that is a Pringles can. I usually try to paint stuff and basically make it mine but I am just in the testing/prototype phase so I’m not slapping bolts and BW’s on everything. That and it’s a machine designed to feed my cat – she seriously does not care what it looks like.

Does not care at all

When I originally thought this up, I figured that the cat feeder should have a camera, bluetooth, wi-fi connectivity, two motors and an LCD screen.

A cat seriously does not need all of that. As long as it vomits food once a day, it does not matter to her what it looks like or what it does. So now I have a spare servo motor and teeny LCD screen that’s currently sitting in my project box.

I had coded everything from scratch, which actually didn’t take as much time as I thought it would, especially since I whittled everything down to a single motor and some teeny clock to tell the mini computer the time and when to feed the cat. It’s only 60 lines of code (because I love spaces and gaps). I already have a background in code from since I was in high school (I had one Intro to Tech class, that was it) but I pretty much put it all together with ze power of the internets.

Woo! This is why I took so long posting stuff and suches. The second post will come later. And, look! I 3D printed a water dish for my cat as well.

It’s a gravity watering dish. You use a random soda bottle, fill it with water, flip it upside down and there you go. The dish says filled with water, nothing overflows, I never have to worry about my cat being thirsty because of my forgetfulness.

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[BW Announcements] 3D Printed Black Witch!

Filed under: BW Announcements — Leave a comment
December 9, 2017

Amazing news, everyone! Black Witch is now outfitted with a 3D printer!

The World is Mine! I can print whatever I want!

This is great! I used to repair them and make CAD files to 3D print for others so I got one of my own. I’m still sorting the code out on the profile files so I can have a more plug-and-play experience.

I plan to add these 3D printed items to the Black Witch Gift Shoppe (which is currently empty because I very sporadically fill it). I plan to restock the shop with journals but I also plan to add knickknacks to the store. Here is a WIP of a sample CAD (Computer Aided Design) shot:

 

More will be added! The thing about 3D printers is that they are fairly versatile – if you can think it, it can be printed. Things can be printed in a variety of materials: wood, metal, plastic, flexible, etc.

This also means that I can eventually open up a small custom 3D print design service because 3D printing is still new to a lot of people and thus still not very present or chatted about much in the Black community, where we could get a lot of usage out of this. It isn’t because Black folks are tech-adverse or not bright, it’s because tech (and the rest of STEM) has a serious racism problem they like to gloss over a bunch that basically boils down to this: keep them out by any means necessary – tokenization, make subject appear too complex or boring, plain old micro-aggressions or blatant “we seriously don’t want you here – get the hint and leave, dummy” racism.  I could go all day about this but long story short, hopefully having a small 3D print custom design service on Black Witch will be useful to those who could really use it. I’ll be creating a page for it quite soon, I just want to make sure all the details and pricing make sense, especially for those who are new to 3D printing and thus don’t know the terms.

Huzzah, hopefully, this will make things super easier!

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Not a Demon

Filed under: Pagan Life — 6 Comments
December 7, 2017

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I get a lot of pretty dumb questions here on Black Witch. I honestly wish I had a better spectrum of inquries. Here’s one from the BW Facebook fan page:

Why do people ask me stupid questions like these? I got some weird guy in Australia with a super obvious fake name of “Nixon See Dee” who probably is a teenager or a young adult with no life.

Some may think I’m harsh. Let me break down why this is stupid.

People who have “weird” experiences – which usually turns out to be normal human life experiences – tend to believe it is proof that they are part of the supernatural or metaphysical automatically. It isn’t. Part of the basic litmus test for if you are part demon/angel/undine/gnome/whatever is that you wouldn’t have to ask about it because it is already part of your life. Your parent would have remembered being with some random spirit (this is another thing – the person will believe they are half-whatever magickal but can’t trace which side of the family that half is…because it isn’t there) and the magick would have shown up significantly during child rearing.

Also, it seems people in the West are obsessed with being demons or angels. Can’t even recite a single line from the Book of Enoch or a single word of Latin but somehow are on the family tree of fearsome entities. Does this mean I don’t believe people could be part of mystical families? Not necessarily, it’s a big world and truth can be stranger than fiction. However, it is extraordinarily improbable. Especially when the person asking has to actually ask.

Obviously, my initial response was too difficult to understand for this guy, hence his reply:

“Ra sounds”? “Noises of the devil?” Sounds like a super Christian who is having a hard time adjusting to life and hence crafted this up. Like I said above, hearing a “Ra ra” noise is not a demonic noise personified. Demons can make a variety of noises but they’re not exactly the loud crowd, honestly. Unless it involves knocking stuff over to troll people, then they are all for noise. (Note: If stuff is getting knocked over inside your home, it is not automatically demons. Please read more books besides the Bible. Thank you.) Also, two things about the interacting with animals: A) Interacting with animals telepathically isn’t inherently demonic (Not everything potentially metaphysical is not demonic – remember, everyone, this isn’t a Christian site, so the unexplainable isn’t shoved in the “work of the devil” pile) B) These occurrences with the birds and dog are not exactly iron demonstrations of telepathically talking to them. Given how this dude is, he’s probably reading into everything he sees and interacts with as him somehow interacting with them and “proof” that he is of at least partial demon heritage. I’ve practiced witchcraft, psionics and am fairly studied up on the occult, I’ve seen the type a million times: male, usually young (but can go well into mid-age or more), and very self-absorbed.

If you have to ask “What counts as demonic?” it is very safe to say you are not any parts demon. You’re just a normal person with a possible complex. Like Austin Gillespie (he calls himself Augustus Sol Invictus), the neo-nazi who thought that he was a god – even when he was battling stomach flu. He’s just a self-absorbed, dumb nazi.  Seriously, read up on the SPLC write up of this guy, it’s a great demonstration of what self-absorbed bullsh*t personified looks like, the Pagan edition. Befriends a woman he met online, she was nice enough to put him up in her home for his stay but she had to pay for all his expenses and he broke into her phone to basically pry through all her life. That’s not all the crap he’s done, frankly. This is why there are women-only sects in Paganism, sheesh.

Back to this dunce at hand:

Firstly, I think he meant “Western Christian culture” because “English culture” literally zooms into England only. And England’s occultic history isn’t exactly chock full of demons – that’s a Christian repainting of indigenous faiths. And I doubt he’s smart enough to be so hyper focused on the occultic history of England or I would have probably heard the name of some random entity by this point of the conversation. I haven’t.

Now, it really does depend on the culture because – surprise, surprise – different cultures perceive the same thing differently. With their own names, background stories and everything. It’s called “cultural diversity”. And once you take Christianity way off center focus and try to see the culture for itself, you find way less demons. They do exist in other cultures but when looking through the Christian gaze, everything Pagan is demonic, including the neutral and benevolent deities and spirits. I mention the Christianity so much because that’s usually what the asker at least passively believes in and frames their “amazing story” by.

And note that I said about two or so times at this point to the guy some variation of, “if you have to ask, you’re not demonic”. And note how he’s just plain not listening. Feeling intense energy doesn’t make one demonic. Many people feel that. Many people invoke that at music shows and while creating something. It’s part of being human. Nothing incredibly metaphysical or occultic there and definitely not demonic.

If he feels that he is part demon, it really is from the media he interacts with. The full bit below:

It really is. Usually teens get this kind of thinking because they’re super new to the world of magick and witchcraft and they’re coming from the usual pop culture depiction of it being dark and scary and how nothing is as it seem but everything is jaw-dropping…and they’re doing it. This wows them. And then they spend way more time beyond “dabbler” status and calm down.

Again, the guy is bringing up the “ra sound” as his groundbreaking basis of proof that something spooky is definitely afoot. Which is a super low threshold of proof. And here comes the reference to a satanic meditation. Given this guy so far, for all I know, it’s a 100% normal, garden variety meditation that involves a focus word and he probably decided to use “devil” or something equally fluffy bunny/dabbler. Even if it were a bona fide satanic meditation, that doesn’t make you half-demon still. Not at all. Potentially engaged in demonic practices but not a demon – or even a partial demon – yourself.

This guy really doesn’t get it and I’ve said it as plainly as I could. Actually, at this point, it begs the question of “why did this guy ask if all he wanted was blatant confirmation bias done for him?” It’s pretty pointless to ask if you already think you know the answer. At that point, you’re wasting someone else’s time out of complete selfish vanity.

I got confused with the “Ra” stuff because frankly, I still didn’t know what was the sound he was talking about and I do know that dabblers tend to mishmash Christian rhetoric with very orientalist ideas about Egyptian deties commonly. Too commonly.

Instead, the guy says “monster sounds”. Now things are getting very childish. It probably is a normal sound. This dude is seriously reaching for something that just plain isn’t there.

Yep, this guy is basically the super basic version of Austin Gillespie (the dude’s Latin name is incredibly ridiculous and I actually have Thelmites for friends so I’m 100% not using the alternative). Like, the selfish stupidity of it all. The obsession with their genitalia (I’m certain if I let the dude talk longer while gassing his ego, it would have devolved to that – it always does) at the end. The absolute refusal to listen to reason. I don’t practice demonology or anything of that nature – this site is called Black Witch because I’m a Black person that practices magick, pretty simple to understand – but I know enough about it to tell that this isn’t it.

I’ve encountered a lot of people who would believe they are part something magickal, besiged by demons or something else that is outstanding. In the scope of the human experience, it is entirely understandable that some people will feel that their life is a little more magickal than others. However, it’s not entirely common to be part-fae/demon/undine/etc and finally discover it when you’re much, much older. At all. Unless it was already in the family tree, it’s extremely unlikely. Extraordinarily unlikely. I remember one person telling me they believed they were part werewolf because they liked raw/rare meat. That’s a low threshold of proof. Believe it or not, there are many people who prefer their steak not so well done. It simply just isn’t. Same thing here. Low threshold and, on top of that, very self absorbed. That doesn’t mean there’s a demon here, just a dense person.

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Ask Black Witch – Free Space!: From Ko-Fi to Venmo ~ Now Easier Way to Support Black Witch

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November 28, 2017

I didn’t get any worthwhile questions this month so I’m taking the time to talk about Venmo on BW.

Ahem…

New thing alert! I switched from Ko-Fi to Venmo! This means that instead of seeing “Support Black Witch with Digital Coffee”, it is now “Support Black Witch with Venmo”. The change happened because a) ease of use b) more people have Venmo c) much more versatile. This means everything Ko-Fi related is gonna change in the sidebars and Venmo is going to be flouted a lot more.

Venmo is a much easier way for readers to donate fiscal support, for me to do transactions if I ever decide to open up for doing paid divination, natal charts, custom 3D printing or bookbinding for others, whatever. Life is made simpler. This also means that I will be changing the sidebar to account for this. Venmo uses QR codes so this makes life easy for me since I’ve already had QR codes on my blog for years.

This is what the new BW Venmo code looks like now:

Custom designed by me, ha! I’m super used to making these and it’s totally functional

This will now be in the sidebar and wherever appropriate.

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