#witchblr discourse

[stagkingswife]

Since its apparently “Shadow work is a requirement for practicing magic” season on the witchblr discourse wheel of the year here’s a reminder: nothing is a requirement for practicing magic except practicing magic. Nothing is a requirement for being a witch except identifying as a witch.

Does introspection and self reflection help the pursuit of a magical or spiritual practice. Yes it does, the same way understanding how you think and feel and react to the external stimuli helps with most things in life. But that introspection does not have to be done in the style of Jungian shadow work. I’ve been practicing for 29 years and I have never done shadow work. I straight up don’t believe in the Jungian “shadow self”. This has not hindered my practice in the least.

So do shadow work, do some therapy, do The Artists Way, do whatever works for you to help you understand your own self. But do it because you want to, not because you think you have to. Forced introspection is insincere. And insincere introspection is utterly unhelpful.

[cultkinkcoven]

I get the thing of wanting to be as harmless and uncontroversial as possible in your craft. I understand white witches trying their best not to encroach on closed practices or cultural appropriation. I understand wanting to cancel problematic occultists and generally push the witchy community away from its history with white supremacy and racism. I get it, I really do.

and I say this with love and try to come across as gently as possible.

Some of you, though your intentions may be pure, don’t seem to recognize the difference between genuine caution and concern and blatant white saviourtism. I promise you that people of color don’t need white witches to speak for them. I promise you that it is not your responsibility to be the saviour that enforces what is and isn’t problematic, especially when you yourself are so clueless about the issue at hand.

People who don’t know even the first thing about Judaism shouldn’t be trying to herd all of their white friends away from Lilith or dictate why you shouldn’t use magick with a k. It’s frustrating because the original message gets completely lost every single time.

Jew witches will say “hey guys maybe don’t work with Lilith if you don’t understand her origins because she’s not just a girl boss mother of demons but also has a lot of history in our culture as an extremely violent and chaotic energy that actively victimizes women and children”

But all that tumblr heard was “Lilith is associated with Judaism and that means she’s a religious figure and can’t be worked with by non-jews” without having even the slightest clue what her role in Judaism was and why people advise caution. Saying that Lilith is a religious figure to Judaism tells me that you’ve never even met a Jewish person in real life.

People will say “hey Crowley was actually a piece of shit and shouldn’t be idolized as a wise practitioner when he was literally just an extremely racist heroine addict who tricked a lot of women into having sex with him for rituals”

But all that tumblr hears is “Crowley bad. Anything associated with Crowley also bad. If you do anything that was associated with Crowley you are also bad.”

Indigenous witches will say “Hey white sage is an extremely sacred herb that is being heinously over harvested by corporations selling the witchcraft equivalent of fast fashion and it’s causing severe harm to indigenous businesses and communities, please stop supporting them”

but all that tumblr heard was “White sage shouldn’t be harvested. If you get white sage from anywhere, even indigenous people themselves, you are racist.”

and in retaliation to that super hard stance you have witches who have decided they don’t care about respecting closed practices in general and purposely buy from non indigenous sources out of spite

“I don’t know enough about this topic to have an intelligent stance on it” is ALSO a perfectly acceptable position. You don’t have to be opinionated about things you don’t understand. You’re more than welcome to just avoid the things you know would make you uncomfortable to participate in without pushing blatant misinformation.

Most occult spaces have some sort of historical tie to icky stuff like racism, misogyny, ablism, etc. You’re not a bad person for recognizing that and wanting to stay away from them. I’m happy you care.

But you are not an authority on things you’re uneducated about. When you pretend to be you only muddy the words of the people you’re supposed to be helping.

Saying shit like “using magick with a k is just as antisemitic as using a swastika” completely waters down what real antisemitism is, and makes the matter less serious than it actually is.

Saying “working with Lilith is just as antisemitic as working with the Tetragrammaton” is just a complete slap in the face to practicing jews, and you don’t know why because you don’t understand Judaism or the people who created it. You can’t understand it because you’re so busy talking over them that you never took the opportunity to listen.

Before you make the decision to run these mass cancelation events, take a second to consider if you’re doing this because it’s actually important and something you truly understand, or if you’re just doing so to feel morally pure and accepted by your fellow politically correct white peers.

[tyetknot]

*carefully tosses a golden apple labelled 'TO THE LEAST PROBLEMATIC' into the middle of witchblr discourse*

[moonlit-hexes]

Witchcraft Practice & Disability

I have often struggled and grappled a lot with the concept of my practice being able to co-exist with my disabilities. I have been practising witchcraft since before I was made aware of my disability, but my disability sure made themselves aware throughout my practice.

From being unable to get up, plan or do Anything for major events and days, to the simple mundane task of going up to my altar and saying thanks to all my spirits. Every single task was dictated or rather, negated by my disability and my inability to function or do anything.

The only discourse for the same, is a persistent reminder of, "meditate everyday only then are you a witch," "you cannot be a witch unless you have a daily routine and do something everyday" and the list just goes on.

When will we have a collective talk about how such ideas are rooted in sheer ableism and the capitalistic idea of constantly working and being active? Rest is objectively a part of the cycle of nature, periods where we flourish and are active and others when we rest.

Why are we not allowed to extend the same to our bodies and our spirit?

And this is not to say that all spirits and deities you will be working with, will be okay with you vanishing for months on end. Unfortunately promises and oaths made to the spirits do not follow the same rules for disabilites. There are deities and your spirit team that might excuse you and give you that time, but not every spirit you make a contract or contact with are obligared for the same. They are not obligated to stay or do anything in the period that they are not being fed or given something in return. And that is okay. That is why we bite how much we can chew.

But that is in very specific situations, with very specific spirits. You are not ruining yourself or your practice by not being active for a week or for months or hell, even years.

Your disability does not make your practice "armchair witchcraft" (i really bloody hate that phrase).

You are allowed to take breaks. You are allowed to come back later. You are allowed to mourn being unable to practice when you want to. And you are allowed to ask for grace and time from your spirit team and deities.

Your practice is your own and it is horrifying how norms are policed by non-disabled, able-bodied and neurotypical witches for what they feel entitled to.

If you are one of them, clearly, this space and post are not for you. If you do not understand how people go months and years away from their practice, then this is also clearly not for you.

I want to talk more about what can be done during the major periods of breaks, and what not to do. This is not to throw shade at the posts that talk about - pulling 1 card from your bed because sometimes even the energy for that is lacking. (and that is for future posts)

We are disabled. We have needs. We will take up space. We matter.

And a special fuck you for the people who believe that taking medications will "hamper" your intuition.

I would love for other disabled witches to also share about their experiences and how they navigate these periods <3

Happy witching to you and a protective period of Samhain for your loved ones ✨🎃🍂

[sierrawitch]

It’s very hard to have proper discourse anymore. Online or offline. About anything, really. People are too quick to jump to conclusions, too ready to take everything as a personal attack, or to take things out of context and avoid the main point of the conversation.

Whether political or educational or moral etc, healthy discourse (NOT debate) is so rare in our modern day.

As an example, the stigma of witchcraft, or magic as a whole. Finding common ground and fostering understanding and even curiosity about this “taboo” idea is so foreign to the religious status quo. Folk practitioners like myself are persecuted for deviating from the “holy” path and falling into a life of “sin”. But not enough people are open to learning about what witchcraft and folk magic really are in order snuff out that stigma.

There is room to come to a mutual understanding without having to 100% agree with everything the other person stands for. We should not be having win or lose conversations. Things should be more inquisitive that.

[mamaangiwine]

Lol I think it's so funny that so many modern pagans want so badly to steer clear of any kind of Christian influence, and be so angry at Christianity, but will impose their Christian sensibilities of "Good and Evil" onto their new chosen pantheons.

Y'all wanting to be so literal about everything makes me wanna peel my own eyeball like a grape.

[psalmicwitch]

"I call it magick because it feels more mystical/makes the distinction better for me"

"I call it magic because magick was just a word invented buy some guy in the early 1900s"

Actually I call it magix cause I can't fucking spell.

[devildevotee]

sigil for f/akeclaimers to step on glass lol

[honeybadger-the-pop-witch]

Something I’ve Been Thinking About in Terms of Arthurian Paganism:

And it deals with Lancelot Du Lac.

Something I find super interesting as I interact with Arthuriana on Tumblr and read/listen to books about King Arthur is how I view Lancelot Du Lac in the greater context of my paganism journey with this pantheon.

I’ll admit that Lancelot is not my favorite knight as a character, and I have not reached out to him as a deity, but Lancelot du Lac as a literary device is fascinating—and has somewhat shaped one of my domains for him.

Lancelot du Lac is a literary device used to explain the cultural trends from the moment he was inserted into canon and onwards. First when Courtly Love became a main trope in literature, Lancelot du Lac represented everything a Courtly Love should be. He did everything for Guinevere and Guinevere, to the best of her station in society, did everything for Lancelot—but they could never be as Guinevere was married to another. Lancelot was used as a vehicle to discuss what intrigued people so much about Courtly Love as well as giving women in loveless marriages a means to escape and think of world where they could be with who they loved.

Then when Courtly Love became a “no no” as shifting cultural values and norms enforced the idea that adultery in any situation was wrong, Lancelot became the vehicle to tell that story in the Post-Vulgate. The reason why Galahad exists to an extent, and, in this telling, the Battle of Camlan, is to show just how much this grievous sin could bring about the damnation of all people’s lives around you. Galahad even warns his father Lancelot to not fall back into his old ways with Guinevere when he returned to Camelot, and, after everything was said and done, the two people who committed the sin of adultery could never be together again—not even in death.

And then everything changed again, and now shipping wars are a more common cultural phenomenon. So the Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur love triangle became the Arthuriana version of Team Edward VS. Team Jacob. You wrote your retelling picking an end game for Guinevere and Sir Lancelot became the literary vehicle to discuss complicated relationships in a new YA format.

And finally, with it being more accepted to write books about queer experiences, Lancelot now becomes a vehicle for that discussion in a literary lens—as seen in tumblr discourse and retellings where Gawain was in love with Lancelot and vice versa. Or painting Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur as a polycule. Or a thousand other different things.

So what does this mean for my pagan path?

Well, Lancelot du Lac’s main domain as of right now are the arts and literature. The humanities, mainly.

We see Lancelot du Lac as one of the best ways to tell a story—his entire character inspires discussion, histories, and retellings. And I believe his domain should reflect that. Lancelot du Lac is one of the best literary mirrors I can think of, so I hope this does him some justice.

[fernthewhimsical]

My dears,

You do know that you do not have to interact with the Witchblr Discourse Wheel of the Year, right?

You can just ignore, or block, or blacklist tags.

We don't have to be the ones to keep the wheel turning

[cultkinkcoven]

Why are you mimicking the evils of a white person by being so racist?

I’m going to answer this the same way I have answered similar questions.

If you believe my practicing demonolatry makes me racist or “mimics the evils of white people” then there really isn’t much I can do about that.

If you think that people who worship or work with demons are purposely trying to appropriate any given culture or religion just by the sheer act of working with a demon, then I am compelled to believe that you do not understand what Demonolatry is.

I am going to continue worshipping the spirits I have relationships with. Whether I call these ancient gods by Hebrew names or not, my practice is my own. If my practice bothers you, you are more than free to block me.

Worshipping Lucifer or any other spirit that has been demonized does not mean that I hold any discriminatory beliefs about Jewish people or seek to make a mockery of their religion or culture. Equally so, it does not mean I hate Christians, Muslims, or any other organized religions. It does not imply anything about my sentiments towards other minorities. Working with an Islamic demon doesn’t mean I hate muslims and seek to appropriate their culture.

I don’t mimic Jewish customs, I do not wear Jewish symbols. I do not say Jewish prayers. I occasionally work with an entity that Jewish people as well as other groups of people in the ancient middle east described as evil at one time. Using her hebrew name does not automatically mean I am appropriating the Jewish culture, no more than I would be appropriating Arabian culture by worshiping Iblis. Using her Hebrew name doesn’t mean that I feel any particular way about Jewish people. But if it makes Jewish people this uncomfortable to have demonolaters use these Hebrew names, then fine. I won��t use them. I’m most definitely still going to worship my deities, but I have no reason to call them by a Hebrew name.

Religious people are always going to disagree with demonolatry, regardless of what religion they come from. You can accuse me all day of offending Jewish people with my practice. Unfortunately that is the way that demonolatry has always been regarded. I offend all religious people with my practice.

But accusing me of being racist because I recognize a deity that happens to have a cultural name is just silly to me I’m sorry lol.

“You’re racist because you didn’t listen to Jewish people when they told you to stop worshiping demons.”

I didn’t listen to the Christians either if that makes you feel any better. “Pagans are racist because they are pagan” is the level we’ve gotten to.

“You recognize a deity that has an Arabic name, that must mean you hate all Muslims.”

Please don’t hurt your back. 💀

[esoteric-chaos]

Unpopular opinion maybe? You do not need to charge your crystals. Intention into them yes. Charging? No. They've been charging in the earth for how long? They aren't going to run out of energy anytime soon. As a spoonie witch, I have to ration my energy as much as possible and find it unnecessary.

[snakeflower-cottage]

So funny watching people read small parts of a discourse I was involved in and make blanket statements about me.

It’s simple. I have my opinions (and many others share my opinions) on what is and isn’t witchcraft and what is and isn’t acceptable.

There were witches (not witches under my definition but besides the point) that disagreed. It happens all the time with religions/faiths that have different denominations. Look at the history of different Christian denominations and how they treated each other and still do.

I called the one user ugly because I was tired of hearing the same tommyrot and having her insult me out of nowhere first. (And because I could idc)

People are sending me asks saying I’m pissed off or bitter, like girl, it was a text post of 7 words I didn’t like (some because of annoyance and some because it’s literally racist/culturally appropriative) and then a bunch of people blowing up. So????

Started takin the piss because the whole thing was so ridiculous to me.

Anyways just yapping and had to get that off my chest

[cavorta]

May 15, 2025 This blog post has gotten several likes and reblogs and now I wonder, is the topic of "Healing the Witch Wound" trending somewhere? Maybe on WitchTok? Feel free to write a comment if you have seen this trend somewhere blowing up.

November 14, 2024 My latest blog is online now: Why I don't Buy the Idea of "Healing the Witch Wound" - And you don't need to either.

[witchescollection]

helloo!! i saw your ask game and i was curious about question 1 “what’s your thoughts on AI witchcraft”

ty in advance for replying 💕🪼

Hi!

This is definitely a controversial opinion (and I'm happy to debate)! A little disclaimer that I'm not super familiar with artificial intelligence's inner workings, and so if anyone has any additional information about AI to share I would love to hear it.

The answer is: I think it's fine.

I think AI is a tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, but I don't think that, for example, using ChatGPT to write spells for yourself is harmful (unless we plan to argue that the only way we should be casting spells is handwritten, purely original ones).

Similarly, I don't think AI art is particularly bad, even in the context of a devotional act. I don't think devotional acts have to be made from scratch with your own soul put into them (like... if I buy Loki a pepsi that's fine, I don't have to make it from scratch).

In regards to the wider debate around the ethics of AI, I think that (especially on this website), there's a huge emphasis on copyright and ownership and consent. I'm too much 'Death of the Author' and 'Ownership is bad' to truly disagree with AI.

I think it can be used for harm, like anything, but as it stands it's not inherently harmful (aside from it being an echo-chamber, but that's more to do with the specific algorithms being not being advanced enough yet).

I hope this answers your question!

[jasper-pagan-witch]

I wanna start discourse that isn't usually on the Witchblr Discourse Wheel of the Year. Everyone give me your controversial elemental opinions.

Mine is that I think a fifth element added on top of the Greek ones (air, earth, fire, water) is dumb because it gets positioned over the others instead of incorporated into the existing dynamics. Like a bad team leader that just got transferred to an existing team.