“The Search for reason ends at the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide… We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic seashell, and when applying our ear to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone (1951), quoted by Ezra Furman in this article on how her Judaism influences her music.
"Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves." -Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart
Non-theism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment. Non-theism is finally realizing there is no babysitter you can count on.
It bothers me when other atheists are too quick to do away with the beauty religion cultivates, as if it were necessary to toss the beauty out right along with the cosmology.
It’s nice to see someone else take the same approach to religion as I do. I knew others like me had to be out there, we’re just *really* hard to find (esp. because there’s not a special word for us).
I especially liked this quote... they finally summed up into a sentence or 2 what I’ve been trying to articulate for years.
I think we make a mistake when we fail to distinguish the form from the content of religion. Doing away with both is like smashing a glass because we don’t like the drink inside it.
(It’s also nice to see I’m not the only one bothered by Atheists(TM). I really wish we could get more public criticism of them & their ways by other nontheists.)
Hi! I'm an atheist black witch that's not comfortable doing spirit work at all. I know that as a black person, hoodoo is my birthright. But would it be appropriate for me to practice hoodoo as an atheist? Like, for example, to use graveyard dirt in a spell while thinking "my ancestors did this when they were alive and it worked. i want to follow them" instead of believing that they're on the other side helping me? I know hoodoo has ATR elements in it. I don't wanna be disrespectful.
also since i didn’t have enough space: i called myself an atheist cause it summed me up better. i believe that gods are real to other people but i don’t want to involve them in my life or my practice. so like an agnostic secular witch. if that affects your answer. I know that i can involve my blackness in magic without doing hoodoo, but i mostly would like some closure on whether this path is open to me or not.
Well as you said, because you’re black, hoodoo is your birthright so it’s definitely open to you regardless of your beliefs. No one has the right to tell you that you can’t practice it. Keeping that in mind, since you asked for my opinion and I totally understand your concerns I’ll share my thoughts…
It’s common for people to conflate ATRs with hoodoo, and while they are absolutely related to each other, they are also fundamentally different. Hoodoo is a magic tradition and not a religion, so there aren’t inherently any deities involved in hoodoo. As you mentioned, its original roots are in African traditional religions, but for centuries hoodoo evolved and grew mostly in black churches during and after slavery. The majority of traditional rootworkers today are Southern Protestants who involve the Bible, Christianity, Jesus, and the Christian God very heavily in their hoodoo. So the ways in which various religions have been involved with hoodoo have changed and evolved over time. You don’t have to include any deities or religion into your rootwork - although there will always be many influences from various religions in hoodoo (ATRs, Christianity, Judaism, and more).
You may find the term nontheistic helpful btw! A nontheist is someone who doesn’t necessarily believe in or not believe in deities - either way, deities just aren’t a part of their practices or beliefs. For example, Buddhism is commonly thought of as atheistic, but really it’s nontheistic because interacting with or worshipping deities is not inherently a core part of the religion - it’s included in some branches but not others.
~ See below the read more line, clipped it because this is a long answer ~
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So I hope it’s very clear now that you absolutely do not need to work with any deities or any particular religion to practice hoodoo. However, spirits, in general, are a totally different story. There’s just no getting around the fact that spirit work is a core aspect of hoodoo. Yes, you could absolutely use hoodoo techniques in your magic (it wouldn’t at all be appropriative for you to do that), and it would be meaningful to think about the ancestral traditions aspect. But to really engage with and do rootwork, you have to actually work with and engage with nature spirits and ancestral spirits. There’s just no way around that IMO.
The only possible saving grace here, I think, might be an adjustment in how you think about working with nature and ancestral spirits. IMO it’s about the nature of the actual connections you have to nature and your ancestors through the rootwork, not the nature of your particular beliefs about them. It doesn’t really have to involve beliefs in supernatural spirits if that’s the aspect of it that bothers you.
You don’t need to have any beliefs in “spirits” of plants, herbs, trees, etc. to know that all plant species scientifically are known to have different properties and uses for herbalism and healing in various ways. You can still deeply connect with the energies and “personalities” of them without imagining them having actual “spirits” in whatever way you maybe don’t like about that thought of it. I hope this makes sense? The same idea can be applied to ancestors.
You don’t need to believe that your ancestors’ still have some consciousness floating around in a magical alternate dimension to know that your ancestors live through you in your DNA. Make an altar for them and think of it like visiting a grave to honor and respect their memory and the aspects of them that live on in you. Use graveyard dirt and think of their essence being in there no differently than how their essence is physically contained in your DNA. I believe you can take it to a super literal, non-supernatural level and still engage with it all in a very meaningful way that is still doing the “work” of the rootwork.
However… if it’s not just the paranormal/supernatural aspect and the aspect of spirit work that makes you not want to involve them is more about wanting to do magic solely on your own rather than have any reliance or dependence on others… then tbh I’d say rootwork probably just isn’t your style at all more than anything else. In all its stages of evolution from a mish-mash of ATRs to the practice it is today, rootwork has always been about a sense of collective power in the earth and in one’s ancestors beyond just oneself. I do think having an openness to that and an appreciation for that is essential. Hoodoo isn’t a solo pursuit, it’s about connecting into a powerful spiritual network, digging deep down into the roots - the herbal roots, and your ancestral roots.
Humans are, by Nature, creatures of spirit. Our archaeological record, particularly at Göbekli Tepe, suggests that before even we grew crops to feed ourselves or built permanent dwellings and settlements, Nature called us to worship together; civilization did not predate worship, but our commitment to communal worship may have brought us civilization. Whatever other faculties humankind possesses…
Theology map. I have been hanging onto this one for so long, and have seen so many variations of it in so many places, I no longer have any idea where it first may have came from. #Theology #Map #Religion #TheologyMap #Theism #Atheism #Deism #Pantheism #Pandeism #Panentheism #Agnosticism #Monism #Polytheism #Skepticism #Nontheism #Omnism #Autotheism #Igtheism #Henotheism
God is good? If you say so, honey. God the Enslaver” rings much more true than God the Savior. If the god of the Bible was real, we’d all be his slaves. Before the civil war, the sum total of free will that slaves had was one singular choice: Disobey your master and get the whip or fall in line with the master’s wishes. Disobedience was swiftly and harshly punished. Well, if the Christian god were real then we are in much the same situation. Your choices are either to fall in line with his wishes or your disobedience will be punished with eternal torment in hell. The punishment of damnation may be slightly less immediate than the whip but the threat would loom nonetheless. Frankly, the whip sounds merciful compared to burning for all eternity. Thankfully, there is not a shred of compelling evidence that a God or Gods are real, much less the Christian god. And even if he were real, why would I revere someone who wants to torture me for all eternity because I wouldn’t believe without evidence?
