Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic

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Early anthropologists juxtaposed magic and religion, accidentally suggesting magic to their contemporary audiences as an attractive alternative not only to traditionally oppressive religious institutions but to oppressive social structures in general. Given the continuing relevance of diabolical witch fears, making a clear distinction between victims of witchcraft accusations and religiously self-identified Witches is not just a thought experiment.

These witch bells are wonderfully crafted, a little bit smaller than I thought they might be, but are exactly as pictured. Not sure if they want to work with me at all since it wasn't one that came forward, but now that I know who is trying to work with me, I can put my focus on them.This continuing overlap requires anthropologists to remain mindful that we are building relationships and conversations with our fieldwork communities, rather than extracting data from passive subjects, and that their perspectives are as important as our own, even, perhaps especially, when they are in conflict. When people are resisting systemic injustice, they question traditional systems, including religion. It came with a tarot card from one of my favorite decks, actually one of the first decks I ever owned. Murray based her own theory on Frazer’s idea of a universal fertility cult in The Golden Bough and then applied it to creative readings of English witch trial transcripts.

Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places. In contexts where Witch identity is valued, continuing to insist that the label is inappropriate for BIPOC folks sours from allyship into whitewashing. Ivory’s experience and expertise emphasize that words like magic and witchcraft change moral meaning as they move across social contexts.If we widen perspective to include conspiracy-theory-driven moral panics, then one can argue that the practice of witch hunting is just as close to home for people in the West as it ever was, for example in attacks on trans* adults and kids, drag artists, non-heteronormative families, and LGBTQ+ communities more broadly. This book analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures occurring in Arthurian romance in England from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. When you say that my tradition is not Witchcraft, when you say that I am not a Witch, you delegitimize me where being a Witch is a good thing. A predominantly white, Western movement, contemporary Paganism is a product of, a backlash against, and a popular audience for, anthropological ideas about magic. As I was outlining these power dynamics in a lecture for my “Witchcraft, Magic, and the Occult” course, a student furrowed her brow and raised her hand.

Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections—they may also appear in recommendations and other places. Both communities—academic and Pagan—need to reassess cultural and academic anxieties over using the term Witchcraft for postcolonial religions and practitioners of those religions when, and only when, practitioners use the word for themselves.Yet many contemporary subcultures now reclaim Witch as a desirable identity, precisely because of its colonial history. Since this is a love and attraction bath, it’s a good time for some self love, you may wash your hair, brush your teeth, shave, exfoliate etc. As Pagan studies burgeoned in the early 2000s, associated scholars, including many of my mentors, were clear that Witchcraft was only an appropriate label for white-dominated Wicca and other Paganisms explicitly associated with European pre-Christian folk traditions. While both Murray’s witch-cult theory and Gardner’s ancient claims have since been disproven, Wicca nonetheless represents an impressive case of religious inspiration based in anthropology.