Lefthand Witch

Lefthand here refers to non dominance, not the lefthand path. Our dominant hand is for the everyday world, our non dominant hand for the other world. Focus is on traditional witchcraft, shamanism, energy work. Living down under.

[phoenixcollective]

reblog if you would be fine sharing a restroom with a transgender person

[irisedwhisperer]

Quick idea I had and need to note down before I forget it:

a witch bottle designed not to harm the incoming energies (like most witch bottles seem to be with their nails, thorns and black pepper) or block them (like the protective witch bottles I’ve seen with rosemary and basil), but filter and transmute.

Somebody throwing bad luck at you? Great, you’re giving me energy, I’ll filter it and change it into a blessing. 

“When life gives you lemons” sort of idea, inspired by a post I’ve seen floating around about that witches shouldn’t ground bad energy, but filter it and transmute it, because earth can only take so much negative. 

[kyfriedwitchin]

one word

charcoal

seriously, charcoal filters, man

maybe also mussel shells? since they’re filter feeders? hmmmmmm…

[thistletongue]

You could crochet a net wrap around the bottle or paint a “net” around it.

[breelandwalker]

Bury it in a pot of geraniums or add persimmon seeds, for change and transformation.

[boudoirduchaman]

[darkelf-whitewitch-deactivated2]

✨🔮✨

[khofnak]

Of course it has to be about our religion, the media has to talk about the shooters citizenship status, his family’s status, we have to discuss how religious he was, whether he prayed or not, his ethnicity, nationality, etc. and of course the “Muslim community” needs to take responsibility for this. We aren’t considered part of the community, as people who can mourn the deaths of the victims but as outsiders always being pushed to justify our existence.

[halboxed]

Whether he prayed or not he was an Islamic extremist. We NEED to question the faith as a lot of bombings and terrorism is acted out by those who claim to be a part of Islam. I say look into the faith and reform it.

[dyemelikeasunset]

@halboxed i hope you unfollow me. i’m sickened by this response

[daniel-oneiroi]

go fuck yourself, @halboxed. No one investigated Christianity when a member of a Deep South fundie group cracked my skull and left me unconscious. No one investigated after years of starvation and torture (I was less than 75lbs at 11 years old). No one investigated when we got sent to a camp in the woods to be spiritually rehabilitated as small children and shown photos and drawing of people being burned alive and told that we were going to have this happen to us if we didn’t obey. No one asked questions about hours of kids as young as four years old being sent to “confession” for crimes of Original Sin. No one helped me when I was forced to drink sulphur water because the Church was charging for clean water and not everyone could afford it (I’m allergic to sulphur, by the way.) No one investigated when the cops, who came by dozens of times a year, told me that it was my own fault because I didn’t obey my parents and they wouldn’t have to discipline me if I would just behave. No one investigates Christians like they do Muslims. So please. Go fuck yourself. LGBTQ Muslims exist, and no, it isn’t a contradiction.

[halboxed]

@thurisazsalail read my follow up reblog numb nuts. I know they do exist, I want a reform for the sake of peaceful muslims, radicals can fuck themselves if they cry about it. I say it needs looking into because unlike christianity there are more instances of mass death and destruction. Mass murder does happen in christianity of course but these terror attacks are in the name of allah, an Islamic god. But trust you to make it about yourself. I don’t think religion is required in this modern day but praise allah for these angels of death sent to wipe away non-islamic heathens right? All those who criticise our gargantuan religion is oppressive! Meddling critics!

[daniel-oneiroi]

And yet when we think of “Christian mass killings”, there are jokes even today about “drinking the Kool-aid”. Ever wonder where that came from? And to think, even after that, no white man ever was subjected to a Terrorist Watch List or profiles based on gender and race to prove he wasn’t secretly flying out to meet a radical Christian group, did they. No, no one will say it’s about Christianity. It’s just about all of the terrible ways that we exist not in lockstep with Christian thought. It’s about everyone BUT Christians having to ‘prove’ themselves ‘good’ and ‘moral’. So nope, once again, no one will ever, ever, ever hold Christians to the same accountancy that we do Muslims.

[lefthandwitch-blog]

It's not Islam or any other religion that needs a reform when these things happen, it's extremism.  These people who do this in the name of any religion, be it Islam, Christianity or Purple Jelly Babies - they have pre-existing mental health issues and latch onto religious ideas as a way to express that.  

Evil acts are done in the name of religion all the time, but the religion can't be held accountable unless every single believer of that religion is doing the same evil acts, only then can we say the religion is the problem.  The fact that 99.5% of followers are not like that proves it is not the religion but the nut job who is misunderstanding it.

[natural-magics]

Hello, (I hate to ask really, it seems like you get these so much but) I've become interested in becoming a witch but do not plan on practicing Wicca- and I'm afraid that I may end up doing something wrong or incorrectly and searching hasn't done me very much good. Is there anything I am suppose to know so I wont mess up along the way?

hi! take a deep breath and relax — I don’t think you should worry too much about doing something “wrong.” witchcraft is a practice and it’s a learning process. there is usually trial and error involved. it’s okay to make mistakes (we all learn from them), so try not to be afraid of messing up.

here are some things I’d suggest in general for a beginner:

RESEARCH! this is one of your most important tools when approaching witchcraft. never stop studying! there is always something new to learn or a new perspective to consider. The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft by Judika Illes and Witchcraft: a History by D.G. Maxwell-Stuart are excellent books to start with. you can click here for a list of non-Wiccan related witchcraft books. here are some more book recommendations that you might find useful, categorized by topic.

go at your own pace. try not to rush, but don’t be afraid to jump in, either — do what feels right for you; trust your intuition and instincts.

it’s a good idea to research correspondences (herbal, mineral, lunar, etc), though there’s nothing wrong with coming up with your own correspondences and associations for materials. here’s a helpful post to start you off: How to Use Your Stuff.

this one is important: research materials before using them. for example, certain herbs should be handled with caution because they’re poisonous and/or may cause skin irritation, while others may interact negatively with certain medications. certain minerals should not be used in gem elixirs due to toxicity (here’s a list).

work on practicing meditation (see tips on my FAQ) and visualization (click for tips).

work on grounding and centering. click for an introduction article.

remember that tools are just that — tools. you don’t need a fancy altar, an athame, a wand, tons of herbs and crystals, or even candles to practice witchcraft. these are items that help you focus, but don’t sweat it if you don’t have everything on hand. it’s also fine to use substitutes. for example, white candles may be used in place of other colors, rosemary is a good substitute for most herbs and olive oil can be used to anoint items if you do not have any essential oils.

prior to performing any spellwork, it’s a good idea to cleanse the area (some people like to cast a circle). there are a number of ways you can do this - smoke cleansing (here’s how I do it), sound cleansing (bells, music, clapping, chanting, etc), steam, salt water, and/or sweeping with a besom (traditional broom).

be clear when stating, focusing on and/or directing your intent/energy when doing spellwork.

generally, it’s not a good idea to invoke any deities or other entities if you are not familiar with them. you do not have to call upon any gods or goddesses for help during a ritual or spell, unless you are comfortable with doing so.

I advise against performing spells that influence other people’s free will (mainly love spells to “make” someone fall for you).

take it a day at a time and I think you’ll be fine :) also, please visit my FAQ.

substitutions for common materials (for spells, not for ingestion):

rose petals in place of any flower petal

rosemary in place of any herb

tobacco in place of any poisonous herb

frankincense in place of any resin

[charlottesarahscrivener-blog]

Charlotte's Rambles: The thing about defining witchcraft is...

…witchcraft, HISTORICALLY, was a label used by larger society to label a “bad” magic practice. Witchcraft is what people did outside/against/ in spite of normal religious practice, rules and morals. Witchcraft rebelled against the social norms. Witchcraft was the term people used, for generally bad metaphysical shit done with unorthodox methods. 

Until the term was “reclaimed”.

But before that, what witches actually did depended on the society that labeled them. Medieval christian society? Witches be worshiping satan. Ancient Greece? Witches be hanging out with cthonic deities and murdering children. Early modern Britain? Witches be hacks who are trying to con simple people out of hard earned money.

What witches were was decided by the taboos of the society that labeled them witches. If you broke those taboos, congrats, you could have been accused as a witch! 

So when I see people going around trying to define witchcraft, I get seriously confused because there IS no way to universally define witchcraft! Witchcraft was a label slapped on people, not a term deriving from one religious cult that had a set of practices and ceremonies and  a cohesive decided upon morality.

Sure, some times pagan practices or christian practices have been called witchcraft. But that doesn’t mean that the practices were considered by their founders to be witchcraft! It means they were considered by others outside of their practices to be witchcraft. 

Example:

Culture A, let’s call them catholics. They light incense in church.

Culture B. Let’s call them puritans

Catholics: la de dah, ave maria, *swings incense around*

Puritans: AHHHH! THAT’S WITCHCRAFT! YOU HEATHENS! JESUS DIDN’T USE INCENSE! YOU ARE WORSHIPING DEMONS!

Catholics: *confused look* say whaaaat?

<more fighting and war and executions and stuff>

Example two: 

Culture A, lets call them Saxon heathens

Culture B: lets call them early christians

Saxon heathens: *sprinkles blood of animal in field* la de dah please <insert deity here> can we have good wheat this year because last year sucked ass and you are so great and kind and special.

Early Christians: THAT"S WITCHCRAFT! YOU ARE PLACATING DEMONS! INSTEAD OF RELYING ON THE ONE TRUE GOD

Saxon heathens: *fondle knives*

Third Example:

Culture A: lets call them rationalists

Culture B: Lets call them folk practitioners.

Practitioners: la de dah, would you like your fortune read?

Rationalists: THAT’S WITCHCRAFT! YOU ARE RELYING ON IGNORANT SUPERSTITION INSTEAD OF YOUR REASON!

Practitioners: *shuffles cards*

Now I know I just made a thousand history teachers scream with my vague reductionist examples, but do you see the problem with trying to define witchcraft? Witchcraft basically is manipulating life/others lives using methods/beliefs/practices/deities/things that larger society or people in power define as UNACCEPTABLE AND WRONG AND EVIL AND STUFF. 

Witchcraft throughout recorded history was defined by the very people who wanted to destroy unorthodox practices. So what it was depended on what they thought was orthodox.

So. Rather than getting hung up on exactly what a witch is NOW, I’d rather look at what, in history, a personal labeled as a witch DID. And why. And why was it feared? Did it threaten the power structure? Blaspheme a deity? What societal needs were filled by the person in the witch role? And do those needs still need filling? 

If so. How?

Otherwise you just end up getting all Margaret Murray on peoples asses. And nobody has time for that!

Please note: There have always been borderline acceptable practices that were considered close enough to orthodoxy that they were sort of allowed. Of course what was considered borderline in one society was considered straight witchcraft by another, so you run into similar problems defining these practices too. What seemed to be common features were: being ignored/tolerated by the laity of the day, using whatever dominant religion at the time as a power source for performing magic (like using the name of Jesus, or calling on Woden), and generally performing beneficial magical acts, like healing the sick, or counteracting a malicious practitioner, and for this reason a version of this person was usually tolerated if not embraced. These people often did self-identify as things like “cunning man/woman/person, fairy doctor, white witch, charmer, pellar, white wizard”. The general distinction being that they were on the borders of “acceptable” society. Witches were outside of acceptable society.

also note: I’m talking about western/european history here.

FINAL NOTE: I’m talking about HISTORY. What ya’ll want to self identify as, is a different matter entirely to what I’m talking about here, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t call yourself a witch.

Just that you should be aware that there is no good one answer in history regarding a uniform set of morals, practices and other things that witches identified with.

It’s all relative maaaaaan.

[archive48]

“Doctors who spent years studying the human body”

Do you mean doctors who spent years learning about abled white cis men’s bodies

[arlovskayas-deactivated20150823]

do you know anything about the world besides what you read on tumblr

[fempunkandkittens]

Okay but this is true?? Shut up with your bullshit, the medical industry for a very very long time has used the able bodied white cis male as their standard and that has very real healthcare consequences for a lot of people.

Do you know why most women don’t know when they’re having heart attacks? Why heart attacks kill more women than men? Because symptoms of a heart attack are different for women and the ones that doctors usually recognize and publicize are the symptoms experienced by men. Do you know why it’s so difficult for Black and Brown people to get diagnosed if they have skin cancer? Because doctors have been taught to recognize it on white people. People of size are constantly told that their problems are entirely because of their weight and doctors don’t even bother to look beyond that to be sure that’s the case. So those people have medical conditions go undiagnosed properly for years, and die in the process.  Fuck, even just the fact that people think it’s okay to charge women more for healthcare because “they have extra parts” (?????) is indicative of the way the male body has been considered the standard for fucking ever. And the healthcare needs of disabled people or trans people? Forget about it.

OP is 1000% right. The medical industry has used the able cis white male body as their standard of care for CENTURIES and that has real consequences for the rest of us today. It’s getting better but it’s not where it should be. So fuck off with your snarky commentary, you’re wrong. The healthcare industry is not equipped to handle the needs of people with disabilities, women, PoC, trans people, people of size, etc. and that’s in large part due to the fact that the established body of medical knowledge was created by studying able, cis, white male bodies almost exclusively.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Hey there folks, speaking as a trained EMT and a pre-med student, I can confirm that the above person is approximately 7000% accurate.  In my EMT training, I would repeatedly ask ‘’but what if my patent is a woman” or “what is my patient is a person of color” and at first all I got was shock.  Then I got confused bumbling.  I got some answers–basic symptoms of a heart attack in women, how to recognize cyanosis in someone of color, the basics of how to work with an autistic patient or someone who for whatever reason can’t communicate well with you.  In fact, EMTs and other EMS workers are getting a lot better at learning the differences between the health care for a person of color or someone disabled.  We were even told that we would need to ask our patients for their biological sex (I know, I’m really sorry, I know that there are people who find this intensely uncomfortable or even harmful, but there are real medical reasons for this and most decent EMTs will use whatever pronouns you ask them to).  But most if not all of the answers we were given about women were directly related to gynecological issues.  The guys teaching me?  They were good guys.  Nice.  Funny.  Smart.  Devoted to caring for patients.  Impassioned about protecting people, especially women and teenaged girls, from assault.  Largely not sexist toward me or their coworkers.  Hell, they were even smart enough to say “listen, boys, the women in this class have a higher pain tolerance than you, they just do, and as a rule if a women says their pain is a 5 on a scale of 1-10, assume it’s somewhere around an 8” when a kid laughed during the gyno unit.  But they just didn’t know what to say when I asked “so if you’re supposed to palpate the patient’s chest, what do you do if your patient’s a triple-D” or when I asked “so if your patient gets menstrual migraines, how do you know if this headache is a stroke or not.”  They had never been taught.  This is a real problem, one that many medical professionals work hard to remedy once they start practicing.  But this is not bullshit.  At all.  The standard patient is a cis white guy with no disabilities or chronic illnesses.  It’s a huge fucking problem and I’m going to need you to step down with your bullshit, there, friend.

[smallercomfort]

This is an issue with mental health too, where people of color (black and Hispanic people especially) are less likely to be taken seriously with mental issues, and where community outreach for these groups is very very different from the kinds of programs that might be effective for white people.

Autism is rarely diagnosed in women because the symptoms doctors look for are all specific to men. Doctors used to blame depression and other mental illnesses in women on a misbehaving uterus, and it’s still a struggle for women to get their symptoms taken seriously enough to merit proper treatment.

Mental health for LGBT people has a long history of being an oppressive shitshow, given how long it took the medical community to stop pathologizing sexuality and gender identity. (Conversion therapy is still legal!)

[jackironsides]

As well as autism rarely being diagnosed in women, it’s also harder for a person of colour to be diagnosed, as it’s perceived as being a middle-class+ white man’s disease.

And! We didn’t know how large the clitoris was until THE NINETIES because no-one thought it was worth investigating. Thanks to a female researcher in Melbourne, Australia, we know that it’s roughly a wishbone shape, and has two ‘legs’ that extend down under the labia majora. 

(I am proud of my memory as I read this in a book five years ago, but here’s a link. The researcher’s name is Helen O’Connell.)

[thegirlwhocutthemoonintwo-deact]

Yes yes yes

[lefthandwitch-blog]

When they want to test new medicines, testing is always done on males because there is not hormonal fluctuations, so the results can be more accurate.  Except if you happen to be a woman who has a monthly cycle.

[lefthandwitch-blog]

Moon phase patterns in the Southern Hemisphere

[badpsychicadvice]

Satan is in my closet playing the violin again. I told my mom but she won't do anything about it because she says he plays classical music better then I can. What do I do?

Take lessons! You’re being presented with a rare opportunity here! Be the next Paganini.

[daniel-oneiroi]

And if you take up the fiddle, you might get a free upgrade to a golden fiddle!

[lefthandwitch-blog]

Solstices and Equinoxes in the Southern Hemisphere (img. courtesy spheresoflight.com.au)

Many witches in the southern hemisphere want to celebrate the various points of the turning of the year.  It’s not mandatory to do so as a witch, but many like to.  The conundrum for many is whether to turn the wheel or not.  If you follow a northern tradition, it can help to stick to northern dates, as this will help you feel a connection with other path walkers.  This leaves the problem of winter festivities in the middle of summer and vice versa.

Others like to turn the calendar approximately 180 ° so yule happens in our winter.  This of course puts you out of sync with the rest of the pagan world (most still living in the N.H.).  

This is a decision you need to make for yourself.  If you aren’t sure, try doing it one way for a year and see how that feels, then try doing it the other.  If you do want to shift dates so the event you are celebrating and the time of the year match, these are the dates you need:

Summer Solstice:    21 December

Autumn Equinox:     21 March

Winter Solstice:       21 June

Spring Equinox:      21 September

Other dates:

Lughnasadh:          2 February

Samhain:               30 April/1 May

Imbolc:                  1 August

Beltaine:                31 October    

I don’t celebrate any of these.  To me, that is too synonymous with wicca which is a religion.  I acknowledge the changing of the seasons through being in sync with them and the changes in my behaviour.  As the weather gets cooler, the jumpers go on and the house is made warm.  Heartier meals like soups are prepared.  As the weather gets warmer, the house is opened up more and lightened up.

I will pick up interesting sticks and leaves which reflect the changing seasons around me, and bring them inside as reminders of what is happening in the world in which I live.  My personal belief is when you allow yourself to come into harmony with the world and her changes, you don’t need dates on a calendar to remind you.  As you come more in tune with the natural rhythms and energies, you will find you naturally mimic what is happening ‘out there’.  You will become more quiet and introspective as the world turns further into winter.  You will find yourself naturally more open to spirits and otherworld activity around the time of samhain, no clock or calendar will be needed.

Witches back before a time when things could be easily written down were in turn with the natural world.  They looked to the stars, plant kingdom and animals behaviours to tell them what was needed when.  Some traditions did have people who studied these things as a science, but for the lone wild witch, all she needed was her keen senses and intuitive knowing.  I believe the more focus that is put on strengthening this part of us, the more accurate and in tune our craft as a whole will be.

[consciousness]

[errorschacha]

This highly scientific two-step word search predicts what you’re getting for Christmas with astounding accuracy.

[oolongearlgrey]

“harp rat” 

???

[mad-rabbit-tempest]

demon bordgame I think of Ciel Phantomhive

[scaredykyleisgonnagosoon]

Grotesque Angst

Yeah probably

[trixieone]

Succulent poltergeist. Sigh. This is sadly possible.

[thetreeswestofhere]

Chanting Cannon

Sweet!  Didn’t even know they made those. 

*lights fuse* ……. BOOM! OOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM.

[da-at-ass]

CHERUB

GASTROPOD

<3

[upthewitchypunx]

Sick trebuchet… Apparently I have a siege lined up?

[lefthandwitch-blog]

Astonishing gastropod - awesome.  It will go well right along side the spiders, lizards, ants and now frogs that visit me.

[earendel-rising]

I have finally gotten around to making a permanent set of Anglo-Saxon runes.

[lefthandwitch-blog]

These are really lovely and self made adds power to them.

[lefthandwitch-blog]

[blackwitchspace]

If it’s okay for Witches of Color to follow you, or you want to meet new WOC please repost!

[starr-medicine]

This makes me sad that someone has to post this, to know there is people who have issues with those that are different from them. It does not matter who you are now, we all die and leave these husks behind. 

[blackwitchspace]

It’s sad but it’s something (other color than white) witches sadly deal with

[lefthandwitch-blog]

You’ve got to be kidding me!  Seriously?  What the fuck is wrong with people?   Last time I checked, the colour of a person’s skin had nothing to do with witchcraft or anything else.

[chillona-deactivated20200528]

Then you must not know the origins of hoodoo, Santeria, etc. because it matters to us brujas of color

[blackwitchspace]

This

[lefthandwitch-blog]

You’re right I don’t know, because it’s not part of my life experience.  I’m from half way around the world.  No reason why I should know about traditions that ar not part of my culture.  

I was referring to the colour of someone’s skin having nothing to do with their worth as a person.  I have had contact with white skinned people who practice hoodoo, but I guess that can’t be true, right?

[lefthandwitch-blog]

Assigning elements to directions

This isn’t actually necessary in witchcraft.  If you want to follow a specific path that does this, then by all means do this, but it’s not actually necessary in order to practice witchcraft.

The other issue that comes up when first wanting to explore witchcraft is, all the information seems to follow the northern hemisphere.  North-Air, East-Earth, South-Fire, West-Water is what tends to come up.  However, that isn’t necessarily right for where you live.  It’s northern hemisphere specific.

In 2000 I moved to Perth and I decided to follow my instincts on what felt right to me, relating to the environment where I was.  In Australia North is the direction of the equator.  It’s where heat comes from, so North seemed to naturally go with fire.  Likewise, the South is where the Antarctic is, lots of cold wind blows from there.  So South matched up with air.

Being West coast, the ocean was only a few streets away from where I was living and it was obvious West would be water.  And to the East laid all this land, so that became earth.

Once I moved back to the East coast, North and South stayed the same, but it was natural to flip East and West.

One of the things that has always fueled my witchcraft is listening to the land.  If we go back thousands of years, witches didn’t have the internet.  They didn’t have books they could turn to, and most were illiterate.  They didn’t write anything down, it was all passed on by word of mouth and repetition.  But first of all, they learnt it from the land, the land spirits and their ancestors.  

My guiding principle has been since then, seek the wisdom of the land first.  What feels right according to where I live?  What is my intuition telling me?

[indigaux]

Dear white Witches: Saying “Dark/Black Magick” is Racist!

(pre-p.s., I say white witch as in causcasian practitioner of magick… chill before you spill)

Back when I was in Boston, my friends and I would frequent trips to the local bookstore to check out the latest developments in the YA/NA fantasy. One friend in particular is a harsh judge of books, so when she tossed a novel aside for its use of the words “dark magic,” I grew skeptical. I didn’t understand why she was so turned off by a phrase that was only used to describe a craft that specializes in hexes and demonology. She told me that “dark” and “black magic” are terms built on racism and colorism because they associate darker shades with deeper evils. She also said that “light” and “white magic” are built on the same foundation: demonizing deeper shades of colors by associating them with negative qualities, and romanticizing lighter shades by associating them with positive ones, was racist.

I dismissed her answer, rejecting the idea that literal colors and the meanings behind them had anything to do with race. Frankly, I still don’t believe that the metaphors of colors originally had anything to do with people of color. The color black had been associated with death because of the grayness of one’s complexion after they bit it. Yellow/white had been associated with goodness because of daylight, and the crops that were able to grow in the rays of the sun. These metaphors exist all over the world! However, I am not ignorant to the fact that white people now benefit from such metaphors and they’ve taken advantage of them by visually portraying bad guys as dark and good guys as light.

Also, when it came to magick, I always saw it as a neutral force that could be manipulated into influencing good or bad outputs. So, even though I dismissed phrases like “dark” and “light” magick, I did it under different terms and I wasn’t so strict and bitter about it. I just prefered “dark” and “light” witch instead.

That all changed when I watched a documentary about witchcraft on Hulu (or YouTube?).

Some old guy was recording a documentary about witches and he started his international film in the UK. I had found this doc. online after Googling “unbiased witch documentary” (because it seems like every film about witches is just some Christian Jesus-freak ranting about devil worship), so I was pleased to find that the narrator was being pretty neutral about the subject. 

He’d been recorded going to a witch expo in England and he reported how sweet and friendly the witches were. He had one-on-ones with them as he asked about their craft. He asked them if they were evil, if they were good, and what they thought about what the Bible has to say about witches. They mentioned Wicca and how they’re all about peace and love, just like Christians are [supposed to be].

Then, the narrator asked about a recent crime that the police said was done under occult influence (a mutilated dead body was found in a river). All the witches seemed oblivious and claimed it was against everything they believed in. When the narrator asked the investigators about the crime, they said that it must have been voodoo witches because Wiccans don’t do that kind of stuff. The police called them “witches that practice black magic,” as he constantly referenced voodoo.

The narrator proceeded to travel to Africa, or as he called it, “the dark continent”, to learn more about “black magic”. Clips of people in the midst of worship flashed across the screen as creepy sounding music grew louder on the TV. If you know African paganism, you know that they shout, dance, and holler as they invoke their gods. It’s popular for people to invite their deities to take hold of their bodies as a form of offering. When the narrator discovered this, he used words like “dark arts” and “possession” to describe their religious practice. He called their gods “devils” and totally slandered their beliefs. It was clear the editors only used clips of people who said nasty things about Afro-paganism. People who were of Abrahamic religions spoke their trash almost as much as the narrator had, because they were the primary focus of interviews. They claimed witches had cursed their families, sacrificed their children, and stole their cattle. 

When the narrator spoke to the police, they were glad to report that “anyone spotted practicing black magic would be severely punished”. 

The only witch they interviewed was a man who often went on trips to the pagan marketplace. The narrator followed him there and proceeded to only record sellers who were marketing “macabre” items like shrunken heads, animal blood, and poisonous herbs. They even had the nerve to throw in a clip of a woman holding up The Devil tarot card!

I was outraged, and finally realized the ugly behind the terms “black” and “dark magic”.

It’s not just about specializing in curses, demonology, hexes, and necromancy. It’s the fact that every time someone thinks of voodoo, they they don’t think of healing and rootwork and using such powerful witchcraft for good. They think “black magic!” and “dark arts!” because they associate Afro-paganism with curses, demons, hexes, and the dead while Wiccans and European witches get credit for using magic for good and gods that aren’t even theirs.

I mean, how likely was it that a vodoun witch in the UK murdered someone for a spell..? Why would they blame an African-esque witch? Because they associate them with “black magic.” Because a “white witch” would have never done something like that. *rolls eyes*

(p.s, I really want to know what you guys think. Why do you think dark/black and light/white magick/witch are okay terms to use? Why don’t you?)

[daniel-oneiroi]

I think that white witch shit is real cute from a place that practiced cannibalism and ritually killed people.

[qedavathegrey]

I don’t know I’d call the terms “black magic” and “white magic” inherently racist, but there is OBVIOUSLY a whole lot of ignorance in regards to “voodoo” (which is a religion, not just a means by which to practice witchcraft) and crafts of Africa and the diaspora that is MOST certainly built on racism. But it also has to do with the fact that many African traditions are closed, thus they “must be doing something devious.” No, they’re preserving their tradition. There are few books available on any craft of African, as I learned recently when I searched through our entire local Barnes & Noble for anything relating to magical traditions from Africa or the diaspora and turned up nothing, and thus white witches are fed information through outdated, misguided (and sometimes blatantly racist) works. That’s not to say books on the matter don’t exist, but they aren’t readily accessible and there’s an obviously lack of research made by the media (specifically film) when it comes to representing these religions/faiths/crafts. And this isn’t new.

And it must be noted that these terms are used to represent concepts in countless cultures. It is the division between what one does /with/ magic. There have always been those who heal, bless, etc. and those who perform necromancy, curses, hexes, etc. regardless of race. White is used as a color of purity in “voodoo”, Santeria, Umbanda, just as it is many cultures. I’m quite sure this has nothing to do with “glorifying the Caucasian complexion.”

My big problem is the imposition of white, Western European morals on completely different culture without ANY understanding of that culture/faith/etc.

So while I absolutely believe that the community is swimming with racism, I think there are much better things to focus on than the possible (but unlikely, latent) racism in the terms of “white/light” vs. “black/dark” magic.

[lefthandwitch-blog]

I do not buy the whole ‘white magic/black or dark magic’ is racist.  This idea comes out of America, which is steeped in racism.  It is understandable that a culture that is almost in a frenzy about the issue, can’t see objectively outside of it.

The terms white and dark refer to the energies you work with.  Lighter energies, seen as more positive are often called light or white.  The not so nice energies, the heavier energies are called dark or darker.  

The whole ‘white witch’ thing comes out of wicca.  The premise is they only work with light/good energies, but too much of that can be just as bad for you as too much of the darker energies.  

All energy is neutral.  All energy is needed.  Think in terms of yin and yang if that helps.  We need the destructive energies that tear things down, just as much as we need the constructive energies that build things up and create new.  Without either, we would be in chaos.