The BW Halloween chat is today at 4:30 PM EST (That’s about an hour and a half from now). I will be taking questions from twitter (@thisblackwitch) and Ustream. If you want to submit starter topics, please comment below.
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It’s this month’s Ask Black Witch! Before we get to the questions of this month let’s pick the winnahs of Samhain Pickers!
– Alice O.
– Taryn M.
– Erika B.
W00t! You all have been contacted and remember folks, Halloween chat is at 4:30 PM EST on Ustream! Now on with the questions!
I’m 13 years old (And Black) and I’m just coming out about being bisexual. I’ve been interested in magick and Paganism for awhile, but in between school and the other activities I do, I never have time to focus on this. I’m not afraid about me interest in Paganism but it’s not really accepted in my area, since i live in the bible belt. I brought it up once and I got in a very large argument that left me wondering, Is there anything against Bisexual people in the Paganism religion? Other than that, do you have tips, or sites, that I can use to further my investigation and study of this religion. It’s been on my mind since I was 8 and it’s never left, so I’m positive that I am serious about this, but if you were to look at the knowledge of this topic, it would seem like I didn’t care. Any help??
– IceBiFire
Here’s the fun part about Paganism and what sets us apart from Christianity: We don’t care about your sexuality. You can be gay, straight, bi, pan, asexual, demisexual, it doesn’t matter in this religion. As long as you’re not a raging jerk and understand consent, all is spiffy. If anything, folks will embrace you, you’ll probably have an easier time finding someone to date and other fun stuff as you explore your sexuality. If someone was being a homophobe or bi-phobic, they have far less ground to stand on in Paganism (nature is rife with examples of pretty much chucking all sexuality and gender norms in the trash, for one, and so does plenty of mythologies, for two) and it definitely would not get nearly a favorable audience as it would in some Christian circles, like the Bible Belt. Keep in mind tho that bigots can exist in any walk of life but you ought to run into them less in Paganism. Way less.
You can see useful information about Paganism all over Black Witch, just click Resources and Information but here’s a basic clump to get you started:
African American Wiccan Society – Yeah, it says Wiccans but it refers to all Pagans, there’s also a facebook group!
Mystick Wicks – a great forum to interact and meet with other Pagans
Then there’s the book I always recommend: Where to Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy
Now, you’re a young person so that means I’m gonna link dump some useful information here. Here’s some tumblrs about being bisexual so you can navigate your feelings and experiences better
Bi’s of Colour – This is UK based but fantastic nonetheless. And they even have a phone number, I recommend Google Voice to call it for free.
QPOC – This tumblr operates as an asks blog (where people ask questions and get them answered) but has outstanding information I think you’ll benefit from. And you can still ask relationship questions here at Black Witch. Sometimes it gets a tad raunchy tho (not really but definitely not exactly age appropriate for young teens) but that’s what the scroll button is for.
Bisexual facts – Also an asks blog with tons of helpful advice!
And when you get into a relationship down the road of life, it’s important for you to be super informed so every relationship will be a happy one and you can recognize the bad ones before they get worse. And do not forget to build a relationship with yourself and know what you truly want, like and dislike before you want to have a relationship with another person. Take your time, get to know yourself first.
What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like – very important because a lot of people get confused on it, straight, gay, bi and otherwise. Everyone should be reading this.
Condoms and sex safety – this is for the future, the better informed you are, the happier you’ll be. You don’t have to click on it now if the idea of sex squicks you out – which is totally fine – just store this post for future use.
Bisexuality myths and realities – Since you live in the Bible belt, you will probably hear a ton of these, best know how to get them out of the way because they will be annoying. And here’s another. And anudda.
Don’t forget to find a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at your school or any physical place that serves as one if you can. You sound like you’re on the cusp to high school so there definitely should be one there.
Hi,
Sorry, but I can’t seem to find your name on your website, but my name is Khadijah, and I am 17 yrs old, in high school, and I have always been interested with the supernatural. But, now I am starting to take an interest in Wicca. I’ve seen shows about it, movies, and even read books about it. But I can’t really find any non-fiction books that really explain what it is. So I was just wondering if you could sort of be my mentor? Or just someone who can quickly explain anything you know about it…
If you’re willing to help me, that would be so, so great. However, if you’re worried about my maturity level, you have nothing to worry about, because, I’m in challenging classes and have always been told I’m mature for my age. I’m just someone who would like to learn about a religion that is open and peaceful, rather than having to sit for hours in church to prove I believe in God.
It really would be wonderful if you could help me, but now I’ve realized I have written an essay for you, and am just going to let you think about it.
Thanks,
Khadijah
Black Witch is the name! I can’t be your mentor because I can be major derpy with time but you can always ask questions here on BW, that’s no problem. If you don’t want to wait for the end of the month to get answers to them, that’s what the BW Twitter and Tumblr is for. And for the movies and books that touch on subjects like Wicca and Paganism and Witchcraft, I highly recommend you take those with a grain of salt (a salt lick even) because they’re full of stereotypes. I always recommend Where to Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy, it’s the book that got me started and is a great piece of writing.
Maturity is very useful in this faith because there’s a lot to learn and trust, the more you learn and understand, the happier everything becomes. Keeping an open mind is the best first step you can take. And you haven’t written an essay, I am known for sending friends honest blocks of texts a page or so long so no problem. Besides, I like reading so don’t be afraid to get in contact again.
Can you make me a mermaid?
– Vanessa
Since you actually wrote in a legible manner, I shall go easy on you.
I’d make you a mermaid but I’m all out of clay to do an ornament sized one but there’s a site that makes tons!
Hopefully you didn’t think I was gonna actually turn you into an actual mermaid? Lolz, not my thing and you most likely wouldn’t have been able to afford it, spells aren’t cheap and if I did pay for pray, I wouldn’t be either.
Remember folks, the Black Witch Ustream chat is on Halloween at 4:30 PM EST. Be there!
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Alrightee, folks time to continue the very last American election coverage on Black Witch and get something for Samhain underway. And don’t forget Samhain Pickers and the Ustream chat on Halloween, that’s at the bottom!
Let’s Take a Vote
Alright, American readers, things are going down to the fine line as the election is less than two weeks away and man, is it starting to show. The debates have really been something (as some of y’all could tell from my Twitter) though I don’t like how Third partiers like Dr. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala have been locked out of the debates. They should be allowed the floor to talk about how they plan to fix America just like everybody else. Instead, they get arrested for something that should have been so basically granted to them:
Since creating such an election info dump the last time around, I notice the one I touted the most was Vote Smart. It’s their Vote Easy, simply stunning. I have used both their presidential and congressional election sections and suggest everyone to do the same. It is fantastic, if you haven’t used it, do so.
So to keep this one even more brief than the last, here’s what you need to know and use:
Vote Smart/Vote Easy: Best way to find how out who you stand with and who stands most for you.
The Debates: They are quite entertaining. Watch them here if you haven’t. There’s one more for the major parties on Monday and then there’s the Third partiers debate on Oct 23.
Samhain Edition
Woot, Samhain/Halloween is around the corner! I’m very excited. It’s my favorite holiday, I’s love it muches. So here are some books and sites for Pagans and those curious about joining the faith:
Where To Park Your Broomstick (Lauren Manoy): First book I ever started out with and will always recommend no matter what. Great with the basics and even teaches about other religions so you can make a sound choice in what faith you really want to follow.
Elements of Witchcraft (Ellen Dugan): Another book I started out with as a noob. The guided meditations are fantastic and everything is so thorough in the book with some writing exercises in there, too.
The Crystal Bible (Judy Hall): Great book for beginners in crystal work and other forms of Earth/Green magick. The visuals are stunning, the information is simple and easy to use, great for beginners.
The Watkins Dictionary of Magic (Nevill Drury): Great resource book for those trying to figure out the magickal world and simply curious alike. Very well written and I refer to it all the time.
The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews (Scott Cunningham): This book is a late add but useful in its basics for those that want to get into potion making. The recipes are pretty nice, some entries are a little dated but this is a good book overall for noobs and experts alike,
Candle Magic for Beginners (Richard Webster): Great book for those getting into candle magick. It teaches how to work with colors, fragrances, different types of candles and with spiritual beings (even angels).
A Witch Alone (Marian Green): I’ve just picked this book up but it seems pretty decent so far. It’s very strong in information and for all Pagans, not simply Wiccans and great for solo practitioners.
The Temple of Witchcraft series (Christopher Penczak): There are several books in this series, such as The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, The Outer Temple of Witchcraft and more. I used these when I was new and they’re great and very thorough.
The Magickal Life (Vivianne Crowley): Great book for beginners that covers on just about everything Pagan from her beginnings to her discoveries and learnings. Very entertaining read, too.
Amulets & Talismans for Beginners (Richard Webster): Another flawless book from Mr. Webster, he’s just that great an author. This book is to teach you about, you guessed it, amulets and talismans. And it is spiffy.
Pagans & Christians (Gus Di Zerega): This book pretty much came from a roundtable discussion between Christians and Pagans in the comparisons and contrasts between our faiths. It’s a pretty good read to see where we’re the same and where we’re not.
Shades of Faith (Crystal Blanton): This book is about Blacks in Paganism and through various essays, explores those personal experiences in the Pagan faith and the cultures they lived in. I have written two pieces in the book, “Missing in the Picture” and “Why Don’t You Like Me?”
A couple sites that practitioners can use:
MysticWicks: This message board has it all and is great for noob Pagans and the experienced alike. They have a section for everyone.
Alabe: Natal chart drafting site, I use it all the time when I’m creating natal charts for anyone. Fantastic and free to use but their software is also stunning.
AAWiccan Society: This is for all Black Pagans, don’t let the name fool you. On this site is information about other Black Pagan blogs, the AAWS blog, twitter and Facebook group. Definitely check it out.
God Checker: Fantastic online checker of the different deities in the world with a hint of humor. Very much fantastic.
That it for this week, folks! Next week is Ask Black Witch! Send questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated.
Don’t forget though, I’m announcing the winners of Samhain Pickers next week! Be sure to submit! Send an e-mail to thisblackwitch@hotmail.com with “Samhain Pickers” in the subject line and in the message, provide:
Name
Type of divination: (Tarot, cartomancy, basic natal chart, dream interpretation)
Click send and you’re done! Also, there will be an Ustream chat on Halloween at 4:30 PM EST with me, Black Witch! I want to interact with you guys so I’ll be taking questions through Ustream and Twitter (@thisblackwitch) so ask some good questions, okay?
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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
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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I have had a complete run of late posts for the past few weeks and this one is going to be no different, with a post on the latest day ever, Monday. I really feel like I’ve gotta say something now because this is getting ridiculous.
So, I’ve posted on the BW Twitter that my laptop is finally dead. It passed sometime during this week. Can’t blame it, I was pretty hard on it so it was a long time coming, either way, it’s dead.
When it wasn’t dead, it was on its last legs. The screen had stopped working so I had to hook my laptop to the tv which you could imagine reduced the portability of the laptop. Then there’s the fact the laptop had grown so slow and sluggish that it would freeze for minutes at a time if I wanted to just open a document. The longest freeze time was nearly ten minutes. The laptop was bought new in 2009, it’s almost 2013 and it has dealt with being treated pretty hard. So I kinda was waiting for it to go before getting a new one, which will be coming on Tues.
So now the lappytop is le dead. I did have a friend come over so I could borrow his hard drive reader so I could at least yank some of the latest posts for Black Witch and I did but they’re still in an unfinished state since there’s nothing to clean them up to the point I would like it and put them up. Yes, I do have mobile apps on my tablet and cell phone, Documents to Go, which is awesome, and Google Drive to share my files on between my devices but they’re not as good as finishing my works on an actual full sized computer. Linking is practically impossible, pictures are a headache and the spell checker is not as good on these mobile devices as it is on a computer. These mobile devices are good for me to write out ideas and columns in their rough shape, absolutely fantastic, but not to present writings to the world. This is the only exception because I gotta say something since I know readers are prolly wondering why BW keeps updating so late as of recent.
Thus, this does mean that I am writing. I’m working on this week’s write up, Afro-Punk’s extra piece and so on and so forth on my tablet and cell phone. I plan to go to the library if my cold isn’t that bad (well, it’s just a sore throat but I still don’t want to pass it to others and it’s been coooooooooooold in Baltimore) and update there or just wait for the new laptop and go from there. So I am writing, I just can’t update when I like. This means I’ll have to push the Etsy store reopening to Halloween (I’ve been keeping it under wraps because I wasn’t sure what would happen but it was going to be on the 16th) and no trips to NYC for Halloween.
So that’s what’s been going on. Expect the new piece on Monday (Tuesday at the latest).
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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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It’s this month’s Ask Black Witch! Where readers ask me questions and I answer them! Huzzah! And, remember, it’s real easy to submit questions but beware: Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated. Let’s hop to it!
I want to become a pagan, but I don’t know how to tell my family. They are serious Christians. But even worse, my mother used to be catholic. How do I go about this? Not only this, but I would like to know more before I completely consider becoming pagan.
What if I want to become a pagan, but I’m naturally violent, hurt, and angry? Like, I’m literally unable to let go. What happens then? Am I suddenly a “Dark Witch”? Will everything I do turn against me or go horribly wrong?
Thanks,
– SweetFire
Folks, this is what a really good question look like. Send more like these.
Sweetfire, I would say pick your battles wisely. Even I haven’t told every member in my family that I’m Pagan and I’m pretty open about my faith to the average person and been practicing for the past ten years. Some folks are really stuck in their ways and it’s up to you to decide to disturb that or not. I’ve learned that some people, even serious Christians, still have room to be open minded but you have to prod carefully around that.
This part depends solely on whether or not you live with them or not: If you do then just learn to be very cautious, you don’t want to risk food and home because someone couldn’t see past their own bigotry. If you don’t, it’s up to you on when and how you want to tell them. If you’re outed, you may have to put your foot down and give them the choice that either they can have their religious bigotry or have you but they can’t have both. As much as I would like to promise all will be happy, it wouldn’t be realistic. So get ready for tense moments, having to stand up for your beliefs (whatever they may be) and deal with a lot of broken record preaching as well as Olympic grade guilt tripping and some strained family ties. The only way you can be ready for that is to be studied up on your faith and explore various faiths as well to know truth from falsehood.
To be read up on this stuff, check out the Resources and Information tag here on Black Witch, especially the The Arts!: Samhain Editions because they list books and sites for you to read and visit and that should really help because right now you sound like you’re on the fence so just keep everything under your hat for now until things have solidified a little more.
If you’ve got a poor temper that you’ve a hard time to let go, I would recommend meditation and counseling. Doing meditation and more religious practice will help you through your personal problems and keep you from flying off the handle and counseling (I recommend doing a google search or going to Psychology Today to look for affordable therapists) to deal with your problems. I understand how a bad temper can rip through practice but your faith, regardless of whatever faith, is supposed to help reel that in. This is given that you are consistent in practice of whatever faith you choose to practice. Some of the books recommended – and I’ll always recommend Where To Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy because that’s where I got my start and is a fantastic book – will have meditation techniques in there for you to use readily. You could even google search basic meditation techniques and use those. You won’t become some dark witch or anything, especially when you have your first dealings with karmic repercussions. It’s one thing if you’re evil by nature but it another to just have a temper like any other human being. As you keep practicing, you’ll probably find yourself calming down more as time goes on and your opinions/perspectives change so again, I recommend meditation and counseling. If you don’t truly want to be the ever-hexing witch (and you won’t, it’ll be too much trouble and energy) you fear, then you won’t be.
Me and my friends want to swap bodies, and I also want to swap bodies with this girl. However I know she won’t agree but I like her and want to learn about her so I can impress her. So do you have a voluntarily body swap spell for my friends and a non-voluntarily spell for the girl
– Mike
Oh geez, when I first saw this I first thought “Another body swap spell?” and then I saw the girl part. Dude, no. If you want to learn about someone, you get to know them the normal way: talking to them, chatting with them online, things like that, just like how you got to know your friend. Don’t worry about impressing her – besides, if she saw this, she probably would be super creeped out. If she doesn’t want you to get to know her, deal with it. Maybe you should learn communication skills instead of asking for spells – something I don’t give out on Black Witch. Besides, body swap or possession anything takes a great deal of learning in witchcraft as well as skill, something I can probably bet you don’t have at all. Magick is too advanced for you, especially what you’re asking for, stick with learning communication and stuff that doesn’t involve coercing people, no one wants to get to know or be impressed by potential creepers/psychos.
I have been reading for the past 10+ years on and off books like the power of the psalms, candle magick. I live in southern California and I have always looked for other black witches in the area with no luck in finding any. And my questions I have two, 1. I had a reading about 8 years ago and I was told I was a white witch under Christ rule is this possible? 2. I have lost, I will say power when I moved back to Callie. How can I get that back again? I come from a family that believes but won’t tell you anything and now days I am over 3000 miles away and I am the baby of the family and I do not won’t to lose the art is there any kind of way you can help me and point me in the direction of someone who want a student?
Blessed Be
– Gwenaveir
Eh, it sounds like you’re a Christian Witch – or at least a Christianity-influenced Witch – judging from the fact that you read and reference books like Power of the Psalms so I don’t see how it could really concern you on being a “white witch under Christ rule” since it sounds like you already are (this is ignoring the fact that there’s no real thing as a white or black magick – outside of colloquial description I would suppose – since magick is colored by intent and nothing is really pure on either side). I mean, it is completely possible to be a Christian Witch and if the Christian path/theology is right for you, go for it. Otherwise, you may want to spread your net to something less Abrahamic influenced if it bothers you that much.
I don’t think you lost power, just settling down after a move and hence still getting back into the swing of things. Just calm down, do what you did in the past to gather energy and it should come back, you and yourself is still settling from being one place to another, it’s going to take time.
The last part confused me somewhat, does your family practice magick but keeps it secret or something? What your family does, short of putting a fix on you or traumatizing you somehow, shouldn’t really have much bearing on your metaphysical practice. But you also mentioned that you’re the baby of the family so I guess you’re homesick and when amongst familiarity you thrive (which makes total sense because the mind is at ease) but all in all, it seems that you don’t really need to be a student of anyone because these are kinda issues you can still solve yourself through time and practice. I recommend you do that for a little bit, at least a few weeks, before throwing up an ad for student practice on WitchVox – but you can socialize with people on Mystic Wicks, which is just as good, if not better.
I am having very serious difficult times right now, as many are. Serious financial difficulties, a house in foreclosure, and a neighbour who has coveted my property for years, harassed me, and may now finally succeed in getting his hands on it. I have tried to meditate and perform an out of body experience, as I have always felt that might awaken the powers I believe that lie dormant within me, and give me some insight into what I can do to help myself, but I can’t seem to concentrate like I should be able to.
Can you give me some insight into how I can help myself?
-Thom
Y’know, it sounds like you should stay in your body for a second and do some actual doing. Walking outside your body isn’t going to do much in helping you A)Keep your home and B) Making sure your neighbor doesn’t get it (granted, if they are) unless you plan on haunting said neighbor. I would work with some people who specialize in foreclosure to make sure that you’re losing your home fair and square, not as a result of banks being their usual evil selves. Then, if it’s true that you can’t keep your house, then prep for that because you’re going to have bigger problems in the near future than your neighbor trying to nab your home. And just because they wanted your property does not necessarily mean they will get it.
TL;DR: The powers you need to awaken are that of a lawyer. Do that.
That usually would be it for this month (I only answer up to three questions per ABW) but I looked at my Formstack account and noticed I missed a couple due to either my email filtering them out or something like that so let me get to a couple.
I want to know if werewolves are real
– Jaszmin
Usually I joke and such but upon thought, I think it can be considered a good question. I looked up the definition of a werewolf in my trusty book o’ knowledge The Watkins Dictionary of Magic and here’s what it said about werewolves:
Werewolf: In occult and folk belief, a person who can transform into the form of a wolf and eat human flesh. In other cultures, individuals are similarly believed to become other fierce animals, such as a jaguar or a tiger. Compare Vampire and see also Lycanthropy.
Alrighty, Lycanthropy it is!
Lycanthropy: From the Greek lukos, “wolf”, and anthropos, “man”, the belief among practitioners of witchcraft and sorcery that a human being may transform into a wolf. In Europe the wolf was traditionally regarded as the most ferocious animal, and in this regard the sorcerer capable of such transformation personified bestial power and terror – hence the many legends of the werewolf. The term is also used generally to describe the magical act of changing into any wild animal, for example a hyena or tiger, and there are examples of “leopard men” in Africa and “jackal men” in the Congo. Some legends relating to lycanthropy may have their origin in the psychedelicexperience, since it is now considered that hallucinatory witchcraft potions are responsible for the legend of witches travelling through the air to the witches’ Sabbath, riding on their broomsticks. Many shamans – some of whom use psychedelic sacraments – similarly believe themselves capable of self-transformation, and assume the form of a power animal.
Oh wait, there’s more. I looked up the history of lycanthropy on the internet and came across a couple good finds.
In “Lycanthropy – A History of the Werewolf”, written by Geffyb, explains that the werewolf was especially feared during the Middle Ages when wolves commonly attacked men unprovoked and thus thought of as evil men doing the work of the devil. There were various takes on the story of the werewolf and how one becomes such a thing. There’s mental illness, a punishment of God, or through satanic rituals. The method we all know and hear of so commonly comes from Italy, Germany and France and expresses that a man could become a werewolf if he slept outside on a particular Wednesday or Friday on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his face.
In “Lycanthropy: Myth and Medical”, written by Jennifer Cruver-Plaza, she brings up the earliest mention of lycanthropy being in Metamorphoses, written by Ovid (43 BCE – 17 CE). Then there’s the medical condition Werewolf syndrome, congenital hypertrichosis, which has several various strains. Though the condition is rare, it has been documented in the sixth and seventh centuries through four generations within the Gonzales family where, Petrus Gonzales, his kids and their grandchild were called the Family of Ambras. The condition makes them dog faced. Then there’s a psychological disorder where patients act or believe that they are indeed animals and does not exactly remember what they did but believe they were possessed by something. And there’s being poisoned by a fungus called ergot of rye, called ergotism, which was particularly nasty.
And there you have it. So technically, they can be real but not exactly as media such as Twilight would like to picture it.
I’d answer the other missed ones but they’re lol-worthy so I’ll save them for a future Ask Black Witch: Off Day. Don’t let the fact I missed a couple discourage everyone else from using the Ask Black Witch Submission Form. Remember there are other ways to contact me, go to the Contact Me page to learn how!
I’ll be at the Baltimore Book Festival all this weekend so try and spot me! Plus, I will be at Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor 2 signing today at around 7 PM. Signing is from 6-8PM at Soundgarden in Baltimore, MD.
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Le w00t! Here in America, the presidential election is around the corner and things are mighty fierce. There’s drama, passion, fire and a whole lotta talky talkin’. But who to vote for? Well, here at Black Witch, all the info about all candidates, Democrat, Republican and Independent as well as voting info for your area. It is very important that regardless of who you’re voting for, you’re very well informed so you may make the right choice. No one should simply vote for their party, they should vote for what’s right for the country, whatever that may be. And Black Witch is not officially endorsing anyone, I’m an Independent!
Now, let’s look at the history of voting first and the pro/cons of each method, this vid is quite funky…eh you have to watch on the site, sorry about that folks. It’s called the “Brief History of Voting”. I’ll have a version posted to the BW Tumblr.
Now that’s out of the way, I posted that because as a Black blog, it would be really incredibly stupid for me to make the assumption that things in this election are being played fair and square. There’s a whole vibrant history this country has about voter suppression and we’ve got to counter-act that as much as possible so everyone who wants to vote and can vote may do so on November 6. That’s why the next two The Arts will be about voting and making sure you’re aware of all your options and no matter what, make sure you have your voter card in hand. Let me tell you a story:
When I was a wee young lass back in high school, they passed out voter registration forms in my African-American Studies class. Everyone in school was supposed to have one passed out to them by then end of the day, regardless if they choose to fill it out or not. I filled mine out annnnnnnd, nothin happened. For months. I filled out another voter’s registration form at the local NAACP. Nuffin. I filled out another one at a local college. Nada. It wasn’t until I went down to the main voter registration center of Baltimore City a couple days after my birthday to straighten it out and all of a sudden the woman working the desk said that I was registered since ’06 but it was awful odd how I never got my official card until that day. See, I was ready to go over the desk and give my “I’m Black, I’m Educated and I’m Gonna VOTE. I will channel my inner Rosa Parks, man” monologue, maybe knock over a cup of pencils, but the lady completely understood. She was Black herself and gave me a look that said, “I wonder how many folks are like her and still don’t know?” She wished me a happy belated birthday, gave me my card and I have had it in my wallet since.
I shared that story because I’m just one of many, many people who have registered to vote and didn’t hear back from anyone. My card said that I registered Oct ’06 but I never got a card in hand until July ’08, just months before the presidential election. That means I waited nearly two years to get my card and that itself didn’t happen until I went to the Registration & Records office in my city.
It is very important to have that card in hand when you vote because otherwise, they will try to discount your vote and trust me, every vote counts so let’s start with showing you how.
There are several sites to aid you in registering to vote. There’s:
– TurboVote
– GottaRegister
– Rock the Vote
– Vote 411
So register and check! Don’t get caught up like me, okies?
Here is how the US Voting System (should) work, thanks to the BBC:
Elections:
The United States holds elections every two years. Once every four years there is a presidential election, with congressional elections held at the same time.Mid-term elections take place in-between presidential elections, in the middle of the presidential term.
Elections for the House of Representatives are held every two years. Senators have six-year terms, with one-third elected every two years.
State governors serve four-year terms with about half up for election every two years.
Primaries:
Voters also get to choose their party’s candidate in the main election. Voters register which party they support, and can then participate in primary elections.Before he became the Republican candidate for president in 2000, George W Bush had to beat Republican Senator John McCain in primary elections.
Primaries are sometimes quite close to the general election, and once they are over, candidates must turn quickly to the general election.
Now we all know that it simply isn’t that easy here in America, nope. We’ve got quite a history when it comes to Voters Rights, the effect of the Electoral College and things like that so let’s get into it.
Voters’ Rights
This is our right to vote. Every American citizen over the age of 18 should have it in theory but it wasn’t always that way. When the country first started, only White men over the age of 21 and owned property were considered capable of voting. It took decades, centuries actually, to turn the tide and let women and minorities as well as those who did not own property to be let in. The Civil War made it so that the average White guy could vote but Blacks couldn’t vote until the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870 (and we all know it didn’t really end there), women couldn’t vote until 1920 with ratification of the 19th Amendment, and the voting age was dropped to 18 due to the 27th Amendment, ratified in 1971. If only problems were this easy to solve, though. Again, this is a Black blog so I am going to include this: The country didn’t really get its act together on justifying whether Blacks such as myself ought to really vote until the Civil Rights Movement and they couldn’t bs us anymore (Jim Crow still had some sodium in his system about us getting the fair right to go to the polls). Not saying these folks don’t still make attempts to, they just have that pesky writing that basically translate to, “Okay, knock off the literary tests, property ownerships and poll taxes. And no one needs to guess how many jellybeans are in a jar to determine if they’re fit to decide who should run the nation next,” that stands in their way. And here is where we talk about Voter ID Laws and why you need to know about them.
Voter ID Laws
Y’know how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it so you wouldn’t have to jump through loops just to vote? Voter IDs are those loops, just redefined as “Happy Patriotic Circles of Exercise and Happiness” if you asked the folks who back them.
Voter ID Laws are to stave off voter fraud, something that has happened a very small number of times. According to a New York Times analysis from 2007 found through ProPublica, only 120 identified cases over the past five years, according to the Justice Department. Most of these cases came from erroneously filled registration forms or misunderstandings regarding voter eligibility. 86 convictions came from that but usually when election fraud happens, it’s not from the people but the election officials who want to swing the results or wonky absentee ballots, which voter ID laws can’t help anyways.
These laws come in the form of presenting some sort of identification such as a birth certificate, bill of some sort (electric bill, gas bill, etc), a photo id or something that basically let officials know that the person before them is indeed who they are. This marginalizes the elderly, minorities and low-income groups because they are the ones that are usually lacking information such as this and this information is just like guessing how many jellybeans are in a jar: Absolutely no determination of whether or not the person is fit to vote, it’s just an additional and unnecessary obstacle to separate potential voters from the polls. There are variations of strict and non-strict voter id laws and this site will let you know how with a handy map and easy to read charts. Rock the Vote also has something on Overseas/Military voting, Felons Rights and Student Rights, something affected by these laws.
These laws are important to note, as well as our voter rights as a whole because it affects our electoral college, what really determines who wins the election.
Electoral College
America has a two tier election system, and it especially comes up in the media around the presidential election. What basically happens is the popular vote fuels the electoral college, which determines the outcome so a candidate can win the popular vote but still lose the election because they lost the electoral and vice versa. What happens is the popular vote is summed up by districts and representatives so a tiny district with a lot of people will probably have a lot less pull than a bigger district with not a lot of people in it. The Idiots Guide of voting explains it effortlessly:
Every state (and the District of Columbia) has a number of electoral college members equal to the number of representatives and senators in that state. There is a minimum of 3 members, in states such as Alaska and Montana, and a maximum of 54 members in California. Securing a majority of 270 electoral votes (out of a possible 538) ensures that the candidate will go on to the White House. Therefore, a candidate can actually become president by winning the electoral contest but losing the popular vote—which is what cost Grover Cleveland the 1888 election, and more recently resulted in George W. Bush becoming president in 2000.
The electoral college was originally created to keep the vote in the hands of the people and downplay partisan politics. Ironically, modern critics find the winner-take-all approach of the electoral college unfair because it takes the vote out of the hands of people and may fail to reflect the popular national will by unfairly skewing the importance of individual votes in certain states. The electoral votes are won wholly, county-by-county then state-by-state, regardless of whether a majority is decided by one vote or one million votes. This process has resulted in extremely close presidential races in the election years of 2000, 2004, and 2008.
And that’s how the Electoral College is le done!
Who’s Running?
Alright, now, we’ve got all this out of the way, you’re informed! Now on to the candidates vying for your vote! Just wanna let the world (well, the American readers) know that there are various sites to help you make that choice as well. I’m just going to list who is running and the sites to help inform you below to keep it all simple.
Now, here are the US Presidential Election Candidates, nabbin the info from Politics1!
Democratic Party: Barack Obama (Pres)/Joe Biden (Vice Pres)
Republican Party: Mitt Romney (Pres)/Paul Ryan (Vice Pres)
America’s Party/American Independent Party: Tom Hoefling (Pres)/J.D. Ellis (Vice Pres)
American Third Position Party: Merlin Miller (Pres)/ Harry Bertram (Vice Pres)
Constitution Party: Virgil Goode (Pres)/Jim Clymer (Vice Pres)
Green Party: Jill Stein (Pres)/Cheri Honkala (Vice Pres)
Justice Party: Rocky Anderson (Pres)/Luiz Rodriguez (Vice Pres)
Libertarian Party: Gary Johnson (Pres)/Jim Gray (Vice Pres)
Objectivist Party: Tom Stevens (Pres)/Alden Link (Vice Pres)
Party of Socialism and Liberation: Will not be listed on Black Witch due to not meeting constitutional qualifications to serve as president/vice president
Peace and Freedom Party: Rosanne Barr (Pres)/Cindy Sheehan (Vice Pres)
Prohibition Party: Lowell Fellure (Pres)/Toby Davis (Vice Pres)
Reform Party: Andre Barnett (Pres)/Ken Cross (Vice Pres)
Socialist Party/Liberty Union Party: Stewart Alexander (Pres)/Alejandro Mendoza (Vice Pres)
Socialist Equality Party: Jerome White (Pres)/Phyllis Scherrer (Vice Pres)
Socialist Workers Party: James Harris (Pres)/Maura DeLuca (Vice Pres)
Oi! That’s a lot of people! You can click on their names to go to their websites and check ’em out but here are some sites to help you decide as well:
– Vote Smart: They have coverage and information for both presidential and congressional elections so it’s a one-stop shop with a great site that is informative and interactive! Read about the various candidates listed above, their stances on various subjects and most of all take the Vote Easy test! This test is pretty rad as it asks your opinion in 13 subjects from Abortion to Social Security and will determine which candidate best match you and your beliefs. It’s super cool! Try it out!
– Presidential Candidates: This site is okay, but informative. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Vote Smart and sometimes a little confusing to navigate but what is really useful is their issues section on the side which list from Abortion to Trade Issues as they outline what the issue is and what various candidates feel about it. Also there’s a Profiles section that tells you the information of the candidates such as their age, their ancestry, military service, books, siblings, things like that. Definitely worth a look.
And that’s that! Remember to check out Vote411 to know where your polling place is and get informed! If I missed anything, lemme know in the comments and we’ll touch on it next month.
Next week is Ask Black Witch, submit your questions! Check out the Contact Me page or submit to the Ask Black Witch submission page, link is on the side. See you next week, or at the Baltimore Book Festival!
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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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The past couple of weeks have been awful weird for me. I think within a three day span, I had about three to four people on separate occasions to hear of my religion and try to tell me to do something about it which is already embedded in the faith. Lemme illustrate:
Person 1: I told that I used divination to help me determine my issues and the solutions for them, such as tarot. Works pretty solidly for me since I actually know how to do it and done so for a while. They freak out and say it’s potentially demonic and that humans rely too much on themselves when they should rely on God and nature. Thing is, divination, given that the root word is “Divine”, as in “to divine”, as in “to communicate with the divine/divinity using a medium,” is relying on divinity and the collective unconscious of the universe, not the human self.
Person 2: Friend brings up Paganism and Animalism are two different things whereas Animalism is embedded in Paganism as one of the starting points of what we know as Paganism today. Paganism is pretty much the umbrella term for any nature-based belief and Animalism is firmly embedded in it given that Paganism started showing itself around the upper Paleolithic times, which is about 30,000 – 10,000 B.C.E*
Person 3: Some Christian that lives around the corner from me wouldn’t let up that other faiths actually exist and are just as legit as their own, asks me about the basis of my faith. I just say that Pagans believe in polytheism, duality and that divinity is expressed through nature, hence why we don’t have churches or other houses of worship since the earth is already holy unto itself. The lady then turns around and says that while she agree that nature is God-made, still thinks that I lack faith in a God – as in, she thinks I’m an Atheist – and that nature is a work of God, something that apparently I know nothing about, being the deluded, polytheistic Atheist that I supposedly am.
The thing isn’t that they happened necessarily, I’m quite used to witnessing brain farts about my religion. Hey, they occasionally make for interesting reads here on Black Witch! The issue is that they happened so closely together and mostly by folks who know me personally that it almost made me wonder how good of a job I do about explaining my faith without bopping people over the head with it. I mean, some of these questions are like asking a Christian, “Sooooooooo, do you believe in Jesus because Jesus said not to steal and to be nice to everybody. Are you sure you believe in a higher being?” They’re well embedded in the faith and kinda on the 101 level of things. While I’m glad that the people I know are knowledgeable enough to not try to stake me while taking a nap or attempt to bottle my tears because they heard they’ll live forever that way**, it does make me facepalm a little when they still see my faith through the lens of “something quirky she believes”. If anything, it makes me wonder what they think I actually do believe if they managed to bypass some of the more basic facts of my faith.
It should be noted that the average person is not a pro in comparative religious studies but still there are some basics that are well known (or at least should be) for various faiths. Such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity are all monotheistic religions, Buddhism doesn’t seem to have a violent streak in it, Atheists don’t believe in anything (except the wonders of science) and Hindus have various deities, thousands of them. Since Paganism isn’t very well known but kinda well stigmatized all the same, it is a little understanding that my friends and especially the random person on the street wouldn’t have all their facts in a row. So we’re not exactly working with a tabula rasa but kinda against the tide with some spots of tabula rasa resemblance.
Paganism, regardless whether the average Pagan would like to admit it or not, is still a little known religion. Regardless of how fast it is spreading, and it is spreading at quite a pace, Paganism is still little known and highly stigmatized and the stigma is what rests in common memory. Either that or the misinformation, such as assuming every Pagan to be Wiccan, regardless what kind of Pagan the person has identified themselves as. Or just thinking the person to be outright mad simply because they believe in spells and telling the future.
When the average person hears the term “Pagan”, the idea of a fairly normal person doesn’t spring to mind, simply a person that is straight from the story books as demon-summoners, wicked people and blood drinkers. These folks aren’t very Pagan at all. Have they existed in Pagan religious/cultural history? Oh sure but there’s no religion on this planet that hasn’t gone straight into WTF territory somehow and with such the wide umbrella such as Paganism, we’re going to dredge a lot of folks who are a bit more eccentric than most in our past. However, it doesn’t mean that Pagans today aren’t civilized people, just like any other practitioner of some sort of faith. It just means that you could be a civilized, normal person that is Pagan and the average person may still think you might sacrifice their cat to the Devil, even if you were a card carrying member of the Humane Society.
There’s not much really one can do about it but keep correcting nuances and mistakes as they come along. Sure, it’ll be like straightening up the memory of an Alzheimer’s patient but repetition does make for learning. It is a bit frustrating but necessary, especially if the information can alarm others, such as divination or witchcraft. Now, I’m not going to say that the average person has absolutely zero reason to climb the walls upon hearing that someone reads tarot cards or cast spells given the usual spooky stigmas surrounding those two but it still isn’t a good excuse for them to do it. When it comes to things like divination and magick, prepare to just play a repeat session of 20 Questions over and over again until the person gets it through and through that you’re not going to summon Satan in their living room and you’re not a Satanist simply because you use tarot cards and palmistry to help determine what to do next. That’s pretty much all a Pagan person can do, as well as keep an eye out to identify any myths that they may mention obliviously or take as fact. I know in my personal experience, when I bring up divination to my older friends, they’re quick to assume that I’m summoning demons or other malevolent spirits until I remind them that if you’re doing divination right, no spirits should be conjured at all because they’re not needed. As for the witchcraftin’, I judge on how long the person has known me and how likely are they to freak out about spells and to what extent. So some folks know I do stuff like that and some don’t. Then others find out because they discover I write Black Witch.
Now, this is not for every Pagan as no Pagan has to serve as the cultural ambassador. Newp. You can mention what you plan to do this upcoming Samhain and if anyone foams at the mouth about it, you can just leave them there to froth while you find more rational people. It shouldn’t be a privilege to talk about what you do in your religious faith just as normally as anyone else.
And this goes for anyone who knows someone who is Pagan or Witch: albeit it is always great to get facts from the horse’s mouth, no one is obligated to be your Encyclopedia Pagananica. That means if they say something you don’t understand about their faith and you’ve already grilled them relentlessly before (if not sure, think about if the person was exasperated at the end of it all or had a “Plz stop talking” look on their face), juuuuuust make mental note of it, assume it’s most likely not evil and try to Google it later on if possible. That and remember, if you’re not a practitioner of the faith, you probably don’t know more about the faith than someone who has practiced it for years so it would not be wise “educate” the Pagan friend on things they probably already knew existed in their faith. Nothing is wrong with sharing what you learned, that’s fine – always makes me happy when my non-Pagan friends take it upon themselves to learn about my faith without drilling me endlessly with questions and make me more amiable to clear up mistakes in the nuances – but I will admit it’s a liiiiiittle aggravating when it feels like someone is trying to teach me something that was already well espoused in my faith. So, to be short and dry, your Pagan buddy is not your personal Well o’ Paganism and should you learn a thing or two on your own, please remember that your Pagan friend probably has known this as well. Oh, and don’t forget to listen the first go around, it usually make everyone happier in the end.
And that’s all the Black Witch for this week! Huzzah! Sorry I’ve been uber late with the postings. Either I get caught up in something else, stuck in bed, playing video games performing intellectually strenuous tasks, things like that. I just gotta get back on top of things, that’s all.
*Note: Wicca started in 1957 by Gerald Gardiner, it is not an ancient religion. It was created around the same time the television set was.
**It doesn’t work. Total myth. Do not attempt. Who seriously thought that one up?
Black Witch 