#Neopaganism

[banecraft]

Remember when historian Diane Purkiss chose violence? 🤣

“In this essay, I will show that medieval and early modern witchcraft was for the most part not a pagan practice, but a dissident form of Christianity. I will also argue that modern pagans and modern witches are themselves products of the very globalized, commercial, urban and anywhere culture which they set out to resist.”

[hauntingfaerie]

[recaptchalater]

You can worship all of the gods

There seems to be this perception online right now that a god has to reach out to you personally through signs and omens and mysterious dreams before you can start praying to them.

There's also this idea that you have to establish a close personal relationship with every god before you can ask them for anything.

People ask things like "I want to work with [deity], but they haven't reached out to me. What can I do?"

I'm not saying this modern version of worship is wrong, but it's vastly different from how gods were worshipped in the past. You don't need a close relationship with a god to pray to them. People who were closer to specific gods were closer to them due to their lifestyles, and the things they were prone to pray for.

Sailors prayed to the Dioscuri for safe passage because they were sailors.

Soldiers prayed to Mars for strength in battle because they were soldiers.

People prayed to gods based on the things those gods were in charge of, the things they did.

You might wonder, if there's no pre-established relationship between myself and this god, why would they help me?

The answer is offerings. Offerings are a transactional relationship, given and received. A gift for a gift. And they didn't always take place before the gift was given, either. It was equally common for a person to pray something like;

"Mercury, if you deliver me safely on my journey then when I arrive I will pay to have an altar raised to you in the town I find myself in."

We know this because there are a great many plaques on offerings and even buildings devoted to the gods, describing the debt owed to the god, by whom it was owed, and what was given in payment.

If you want to worship a god, just do it. You don't need anyone's permission. Just start praying to them. If you want something from them, give something in return. It's far more straightforward than many people make it seem.

[nyxshadowhawk]

[the-netjeru-are-in-festival]

Anubis or Hermanubis.

Museo della Città, Rimini, Italy.

[witchboxco]

Late Winter.

[templeofvenusministry]

Enjoy our shine to the Goddess Aphrodite ✨️ 💖 may she bless you and your feed on this day.

[booksandwitchery]

Demystifying Energy in Witchcraft

Throughout my life I've heard the word "energy" used, viewed and treated in the spiritual sphere as some ethereal, supernatural force. I even saw a TikTok the other day claiming that secular and atheist witches do not believe in energy work. I'm not sure where this treatment of the term "energy" started, but it likely has a lot to do with some more "woo" practices like Reiki and crystal healing.

I think we need to remove this stigma from the term "energy" in the Craft because 1) energy is an objectively real, observable material and 2) the benefits of working with and understanding energy shouldn't be packaged and branded as a medium for the "mystics only" club. This was something really meaningful that I took from Psychic Witch, where Mat Auryn explains energy in more scientifically observable terms.

Rather than defining energy as a mystical force, he explains that reality is, in fact, entirely composed of energy. The majority of us don't really think about reality this way, but anyone who has taken a physics class can tell you that this is a fact. Reality is energy--this is not a mystical perspective; it is a fact of the laws of physics. The scientific method has shown us that even things that appear solid, (diamonds, skeletons, my coffee mug, for example) are merely energies vibrating at a slower rate. Everything is made of particles perpetually in motion.

Still with me? Okay, so--Auryn breaks this down further by stating that the five senses are just various ways that we perceive energy. So in a sense, we are achieving a rudimentary form of energy work just by perceiving the world around us. Put in this context, many other animals are superior to humans with certain types of energy work (I wonder if this is part of why animals are so sacred to us witches). Dolphins and bats can legitimately use echolocation to experience sound waves as a form of sight. Indeed, we humans are far from the top of the totem pole when it comes to energy perception--it's almost as if humans were not created to rule over the rest of the earth (such a crazy concept).

Some examples of energy that our bodies cannot perceive include magnetic fields, radiation, wireless signals, and ultraviolet light.

What I'm trying to say is that Auryn's book really helped me to think of energy in terms of empirical reality, and reinforced my (somewhat) recent realization that magick is a valid, observably effective tool that can be used to achieve the changes we want.

[chadelirio]

witch altar inspo 🌙

[annasinthewalls]

Feel free to rb for more varied input

[mx-toby]

Hey Witches!

Today, lets talk about decolonizing paganism!

(buckle up cause its a long one)

Witchcraft is a great and broad practice that has been around for a long time. Its great for religious and non-religious individuals.

But over time, it seems that the lines are blurred on what is acceptable in our individualized practice.

It is crucial for any and every witch to be aware about how to be respectful towards closed practices and to spread that awareness.

What is a closed practice?

Closed practices are those that you can only be a part of if you were born into the community, or if you have been initiated into it.

I commonly see closed practices promoted in neo-pagan books and blogs. I also see it heavily engrained in "wicca" influencers (which can be very convoluted and controversial if you learn from bad sources) Without proper research, this information reaches public spaces full of naïve and impressionable baby witches and actively harms communities and cultures that hold sacred and closed practices.

What are some examples to look out for?

✨ One i have seen countless of times is the promotion of white sage as a method of "smudging" or "cleansing" a space.

white. sage. is. for. a. closed. indigenous. use.

Native Americans have been telling us for YEARS that purchasing and using white sage from your local store

1) steals from native americans and

2) takes away the whole purpose of the sage

DO YOUR RESEARCH

✨ Closed Spiritualism Practices

Vodou and many other African-based spiritualities are plundered to add to Wicca or eclectic witchcraft. Most of these practices are closed as well. To join Vodou, one must find a priest and commit to the practice. Like Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism), it is not something that can just be plucked up and added to your own.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

✨here are some great sources to begin with!!

(the @ applies to tiktok)

@jewitches, who runs a blog full of information about the Kabbalah and Jewish witchcraft.

@quiibunnie, is an Indigenous practitioner

@thathoneywitch, practices Hoodoo.

@imbigsowhat, has several videos talking about Vodou.

DO YOUR PART: DO THE RESEARCH

[teawith-matty88]

Apollo drawing

It's giving young cool surfer vibes 🌻🌞✨

[creature-wizard]

Also: Hekate is never mentioned as the Maiden Mither Crone archetype. She is a “triple” goddess but her three forms are Selene, Hekate, Artemis. (Sometimes Persephone is swapped for either Selene or Artemis). Like I swear when I first started dabbling into this whole thing I actually put my own knowledge from my own damn culture in the back burner and took that Neo-Pagan shit for granted. Always do research!!!!!

Oh yeah! That's a great example of an ancient goddess getting something totally modern projected onto her.

[glintlips]

So, I made a thing. Happy Solstice to all who celebrate! 🌞🌲❤️

[alatismeni-theitsa]

This is a very good read. Please read it. I know that shouting "cultural appropriation!" over nothing is vexing and pretentious, but this isn't "nothing". And it's a phenomenon that continues for centuries at this point.