i’ve written before about how uncomfortable it is being Jewish in most witchcraft/magic/occult spaces, but right now i’m feeling it particularly acutely as i try to navigate this queer & trans witchy renaissance we seem to be having (which is, i think, a direct response to the terror & loss of control we all feel in 2017 - magic has always been about resistance & survival to me & a lot of other people)
i’m tired. i’m scared a lot of the time. i want community & inspiration to help keep me going, so i reach for something like a zine that bills itself as an inclusive mix of queer & trans voices on witchcraft, resistance, activism - because it’s a group of marginalized folks, i (maybe foolishly) have this expectation of seeing myself in it, or of the editors being conscious of the many forms of cultural appropriation that happen in these spaces & working to educate about them
but what i’m finding, over and over, is two things: the first is that despite the fact that we exist in greater numbers than i’d ever have expected, there are no Jewish voices in any of the witchcraft-focused publications (indie or otherwise) i’ve ever encountered. the second thing, that cultural appropriation of Judaism & other forms of pervasive anti-semitism DO exist in these publications, just makes the lack of Jewish perspectives more glaring
so in the interest of being direct, here are a few things the queer & trans witchcraft community (i’d like to ask the ENTIRE witchcraft community, but i am speaking to people with whom i share something right now) can do & think about to help:
include us. if you didn’t think that any Jewish folks were involved in witchy communities, ask yourself why! is it because you thought Judaism was a religion only? or incompatible with ideas about magic? Judaism is an ethnicity & a culture - or more truthfully, a group of ethnicities & cultures - with long & complex histories of magic, mysticism & folklore. some of it is considered traditionally “kosher” & some of it isn’t! our relationships to that are individual, fascinating, & worth being shared!
stop throwing around the words “Abrahamic” & “Judeo-Christian” - especially when you want to talk about cultural values or historical oppression. 9 times out of 10, you just mean Christianity. yes, we share some text, but we have VERY different relationships to it. plus, if you’re talking specifically about the persecution of people believed to be witches, that’s the history of Jews being murdered by Christians. honestly just do us a favor & remove “Judeo-Christian” from your vocabulary, there’s almost no context where it’s an accurate description of anything.
educate yourself about appropriation. i should never have to see someone mention “practicing Kabbalah” in a zine that includes no Jewish people. our mysticism is connected to our culture, our history, our faith - not only do you have no business taking it, what could it possibly mean to you without its context?
understand that anti-semitism runs deeper than current appropriation - if you engage at all with any Western occultist or “ceremonial magic” literature or practice, you need to learn its history. what does it mean that the 15th century grimoire you’re drawing inspiration from contains Hebrew & calls itself Solomonic, but has no actual connection to Jewish people? what does it mean that the person who created the most iconic image of Baphomet, something beloved by a lot of queer & trans witches for being androgynous, gave himself a fake Hebrew name? i’m not asking you to throw all of these concepts & traditions out entirely - i have something of a love/hate relationship with ceremonial occultism myself, i collect vintage & antique things related to it & some of it is really interesting - but please at the very least educate yourself about it. specifically, educate yourself about how medieval Jews were treated while non-Jewish occultists were incorporating (often misunderstood or mangled) Jewish mysticism, language & folk practices into their frameworks.
if you’ve stayed with me this far, i appreciate it - i know this post is long & that confronting this stuff can be difficult, but i urge you to do some reading & listening before you push back. i’m writing this because i want to see things change - i want to see communities where people connect meaningfully to their own heritages & participate in actual cultural exchange & learning based in equity & mutual support.
i’m speaking to my own experience, but all of this goes for ANY marginalized culture/tradition being “drawn from” in witchcraft communities without actually including members of said culture.
many of us got involved in witchy things because we felt locked out of mainstream religious practice due to a mix of oppressions - let’s not replicate that in our own spaces.
for fuck’s sake
‘I don’t see us mentioned anywhere’
‘But when I do you’re using the wrong language’
‘But I’m going to assume the people writing about Jewish mysticism are not Jewish’
‘But I’m not going to confront these people directly instead I’m going to try and lecture everyone on Tumblr’
Make up your damned mind.
Oh and Judeo-Christian does mean things.
Abrahamic does mean things.
Dislike does not make things meaningless. Disagreeing with a word does not take away its power.
I don’t disagree with the OP on principle but don’t let yourself get in knots over things like this. I don’t know what place it is they’re operating from but it’s too murky and confused.
“Witchy things” is not a fucking monolith and no one, and I mean no one, is obligated to share their personal practice with anyone. Just that the OP tries to create a singular “witch” community in which (ha ha) to direct their frustration shows their total lack of understanding
Let me try to help here. “Witchy things” are absolutely not a monolith, but as more and more people with like minds interact with each other, a community forms. By having this blog and interacting with other witchy posts you are contributing to the formation of a witch community. Obviously no trait will ever be 100% but trends can absolutely still form and we can still talk about them without going #NotAllWitches. Now to the specific points:
- I’ve almost never seen Judaism talked about in witchcraft as a living thing. The mysticism is discussed as this ancient, influential thing, but it’s hard to find posts that discuss diversity within the craft that remember Judaism and Jewish people. The few times we are (often innacurately, oversimplified, or misleading) does not negate the overall infrequency of it.
-So many people writing about Jewish mysticism are not Jewish, to the point that when researching my own culture I have to go out of my way to actually find Jewish authors. Especially when I don’t have access to my Rabbi right now. Judaism has struck a weird medium where it’s different enough to feel foreign/exotic to the outsider, but “close enough” that people still think they totally understand it even if they miss big points.
-This post was obviously not directed to the most obtuse of the antisemites, but the well-meaning gentiles who want to be more inclusive but maybe never learned how to be a good ally to Jewish people (because again, people don’t really talk about it.)
- Yes, “Abrahamic” has a dictionary definition, and people are using it incorrectly. There is no unified “Abrahamic” belief in the nature of the divine, magic work, sin, Hell, prayer, diet, dress, ritual practice, etc. Saying something is the “Abrahamic” way of doing/believing something has about the same functional power of saying it’s the “Pagan” way. Aka not much. “Judeo-Christian” has the same problem except with the bonus effect of othering Islam and erasing Christianity’s historical oppression of Jews.
- It kind of feels like you’re the one getting in knots about things? This was just a list of how to make the communities we form more welcoming to Jewish people. You say you agree with OP “on principle” but then try to undermine what they say the problems are and tell them to fuck off in the tags.
Anyone going on about Abrahamic religions better be prepared to explain how their opinions square with the Muslim and Baha'i perspectives too. If you mean evangelical Christian (cough because you’ve never actually engaged with any other religion cough) just say that. Or sit down.
