soulinthemists:Weaponizing Witchcraft? I hear that word “weaponized” quite a bit today especially
soulinthemists:Weaponizing Witchcraft? I hear that word “weaponized” quite a bit today especially among young people at our church who are “savvy” in the ways of current relationships. And then I was given a book as a gift by a friend in the craft. Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 Potions, Spells and Magical Elixirs to Embolden the Resistance, Her personal review of the book can only be described as having one foot in both camps…’Interesting shit”. So I looked up the reviews online and read this:… “magic has always been a weapon of the disenfranchised” and promises to teach her readers how to make “salt scrubs to wash away patriarchal bullshit” and “mix potions to run abusive liars out of town.” and then this:“… self-identifying witches have become political, like the protestors in Boston in August 2017 who dressed as witches and carried signs saying, “Witches against White Supremacy”, “Hex White Supremacy”, “Good Night Alt-Right”, and — note the acronym — “We Interrupt Those Choosing Hate”. And last of all this:“… Witchcraft, then, has been repackaged as a kind of female empowerment. Erica Feldman, the proprietor of HausWitch shop in Salem, Massachusetts, says that for her the initials WITCH stand for “Woman In Total Control of Herself”. Deborah Blake, author of Modern Witchcraft: Goddess Empowerment for the Kick-Ass Woman (2020) gives away her stance in the title, but adds that “Many women are feeling frustrated, frightened, triggered, and down-right furious with the current social and political environment, but also feel powerless to create positive change … Witchcraft can give them both a sense of personal empowerment and a number of goddesses through whom they can channel those feelings in healthy and productive ways.” What the article is saying but I don’t quote here is that witchcraft is feminism and every woman is a witch…all of which isn’t so because witchcraft isn’t political and the witches I know aren’t radical feminists looking to get it over on the patriarchy. What is happening is witch and witchcraft have been redefined just as the Satanic Temple has redefined what it means to be a satanist. Women who feel disenfranchised, that is, they see themselves as victims and have to blame someone, have grasped magic and redefined it to suit their political agenda and then wonder why nothing is happening when the cast their spells and put out their hexes. Someone needs to sit down with a legitimate low country root doctor and learn about those topics. I have sat down with older women upset with what they consider ‘their condition” and lack of empowerment. Both are successful in the careers. One is divorced and the other unmarried. Both are in their 40s, Both are bitching because they can’t find a man who is interested in having a relationship with them. There lives, they share, are a series of one night stands or short sexual stints, and they want to know why they aren’t wanted. So it’s the “patriarchy” and a “man’s world”.They entered the craft because they wanted to find “Love Potion No. 9″ Look up the lyrics of this 60s-70s era hit song. There are many eligible men in our church…divorced, unmarried and doing fairly well for themselves. What I have discovered is that these guys avoid militant feminists like the plague and are verbal about this fact. And these women can be dangerous when it comes to other’s marriages. I will only say that I have had more than one woman try to convince me I was married to a control freak or any other number of names in order to break up our marriage hoping that would make him available. I was told I didn’t deserve him or he didn’t deserve me. For you see, some women just can’t stand to see another woman in a relationship that the other doesn’t have and so decides to break it up. I know other women witches will call me out on this. So be it. Its the truth and many women come into the craft not to “find themselves” or do good in the world but to engage in a personal even political agenda. I avoid those. One older woman witch told me about an argument she had with one of the feminist witches and told her to her face in front of others (we witches do argue) that it was surprising she was down on the patriarchy when the power and deities she called on were all males. Wasn’t that “telling”? I don’t know the outcome of that “duel” but I will say that anyone can come into the craft for any reason but the power behind the craft isn’t going to respond to the wave of a wand just for any reason. One witch told me that her “power” was herself and her inner energy. I respect and respected that and went on my way while another witch looked at her and said “Good luck”, the tone of her voice making her feelings about the witch’s “personal energy” clear.Witchcraft or “the craft” is learned, that is true. When one threatens with it, that causes a real problem because the witch is really saying she or he is powerless. Witches who “have the power” and “have it together” don’t go anywhere near that route. Rather than throw a tantrum and a spell, they simply sit down in their pentagram, have a talk with the Dark Lord, cast their spell or hex or whatever without telling a soul and get on with life. The supernatural…the “beyond us” is affected alot by our own free will. The goal is to find and live our lives as our authentic selves, unburdened by culture and religion so we can experience freedon of thought and freedom to act if we wish. About the book: knowing I will be pilloried by those in the craft who believe otherwise, I agree with the witch who shared it with me: “Interesting shit.” -- source link