post apoc media is always banging on about the necessity of macho survival skills but frankly it’s the gardeners/farmers who know 150 preservation techniques for winter beets and who understand the art of good pH balance in compost who will survive on our non energy dependent farms while you all butcher each other with katanas in burnt out shopping centres
I recently went to see a forum where a Pagan speaker was representing Paganism in an interfaith context. Before that, I attended Pagan Pride earlier in the month.
In response to the ahistorical and inaccurate statements I’ve now witnessed repeatedly, let me just say:
1. Not all Pagans are witches and certainly not all witches are Pagan. Seriously, there are secular, atheist, agnostic, humanist, Christian, Jewish, etc witches. They do not identify as Pagan.
2. Not all Pagans worship a God and Goddess. Certainly, they do not all believe that all gods and goddesses are faces for such.
3. Not all Pagans believe in or worship “Mother Earth.”
4. Not all Pagans believe in a strict duality of “masculine energy” and “feminine energy.” In fact, historically speaking, most of them didn’t. Gender essentialism is not found in every path. It’s transphobic and erasing, non-binary phobic and erasing, and really damaging even to those who do identify with the gender they were designated at birth.
5. Many Pagans do not all follow “Harm None” or the “Rule of Three”. That’s a Wiccan thing and even then, not an “All Wiccans” thing.
6. Some of us practice cursing. Stop “No True Scotsmanning” the practice. Stop calling it “black magick”, that’s racist.
7. No, cursing is not the same thing as hexing. Hex is just the German and Pennsylvania Dutch word for spell. Hence hexenmeister meaning spell master. Saying a hex is always a curse is like saying a spell is always a curse.
8. There was no great period of a grand unified Witch Cult that all got along and worshiped the same before the evil Christian men came along. Pagans killed each other over whose gods were better. Gods were used in propaganda machines – many of our myths boil down to, “My god can beat up your god.” Also, Rome burned witches long before it was Catholic.
9. Flying ointment is not applied via the vagina using a broom handle. Don’t do that. That is a fantastic way to absorb poisons through a mucous membrane and get splinters. Seriously, that’s how you get splinters in your vagina. Or die. Or both.
10. I am less concerned about the persecution of affluent, white, ciscentric, heteronormative, gender essentialist, psuedo-liberal Paganism than I am about the ongoing oppression, exclusion, erasure, and appropriation of other cultures by modern Paganism and the ongoing problems with sexual misconduct by Pagan leaders. No, your persecution complex really, really doesn’t override any of those concerns.
11. There is no Witch Pope. No one can excommunicate a witch for not witching the way they want them to witch. Please stop saying there is only one way to witch and that you speak for it.
I was talking about this on my Native blog but I’m gonna bring it up here too:
It doesn’t matter how carefully or respectfully you approach closed practices; when you ignore the boundaries of another community and take their practices, traditions, and other parts of their culture without their consent, then you are automatically being disrespectful.
There is no “safe” or “respectful” way to practice closed traditions that you do not have access to. I honestly don’t know why this is so damn difficult for so many witches and pagans to understand.
If a member of a closed group invites you to observe, or even participate, that is fine. For that one occasion with those people.
That is the only situation in which it is in any way acceptable.
And no one is obligated to invite you or include you in anything. I don’t care how much fun a Purim spiel sounds like or how interesting any Native American practices would be to watch. You have no right or entitlement to those rituals.
And if you are invited, remember that you are a guest in someone else’s home. Be polite, show respect for your hosts, ask questions and dont just assume you can do whatever you like just because you got past the threshold like you’re a goddamn vampire.
These responses are great.
One thing that people really don’t understand is that, just like being invited into someone’s home, being invited to partake in closed traditions is temporary and that invitation can be rescinded at any point. If someone invites you into their home for a drink or a chat, would you assume that that means you can just stroll in whenever you want now? No, of course not, because that’s their home and they have the right to decide when you can enter it.
The same goes for closed cultures. You can be invited to step inside for a bit, but that isn’t an invitation to move in and make yourself at home or to start taking everything you see for yourself.
A big example of this is European “Powwows,” which are when non-Native Europeans in countries like Denmark, Germany, and the Czech Republic host “Native American Powwows” where they dress in traditional regalia, perform dances, and have drum circles. They believe that they’re honoring Native cultures, but what they’re really doing is stealing our traditions and sacred practices because they think it’s fun and interesting. They approached our cultures and used them in ways that they believed were respectful, but no matter how good their intentions are, what they’re doing is cultural theft.
And that’s what so many people do on a smaller scale with traditions that aren’t theirs.
(And I also want to point out that the reply from @twodotsknowwhy can be taken both metaphorically and literally. When you are invited into a cultural space, whether it’s a house of worship or a social gathering or whatever else, then there will be specific etiquette that you need to follow. Talk to your hosts about expectations, don’t make assumptions, and always be polite and respectful. You are a guest who was extended a kindness by whoever decided to invite you in, and you need to remember that.)
wrennette 