Last month I posted a video going over the results from a viewer survey I posted about a year ago. Some of the questions I asked in the survey were about how people felt about the more political topics I had started to make some videos about, and in the video I responded to a few things I learned from the survey results. For example, some people said they don't understand why the political/justice related topics are relevant, and/or they don't think they belong on my channel. I explained briefly in said video, that my channel is about my life, and the identities I hold are part of my life. So when I talk about the LGBTQ+ community, I talk about my own place within it and my own experiences as a non-hetero person. When I talk about Paganism and Witchcraft, it is with the similar knowledge that I am sharing views from minority identities. There are more of us than people think, but Pagans ARE still a religious minority. And we get treated as such. I used to not think my life was political, and I "didn't like politics" (which, as a child, I thought of mostly as voting for Senators and the like, and voting for or against school tax levies).
Ever since starting my YouTube channel, however, I have made videos about my religious path and identity with the knowledge that this is a minority point of view. This is fringe. This is still widely and vastly misunderstood by many people.
I started The Pagan Perspective collaborative channel with some other Pagan YouTubers in order to show more of the diversity of our community, and find common ground while celebrating our differences and the fact that having those differences is okay! At the end of my college career I did a semester's research for a Psychology course on prejudice/stereotyping using Pagans as my target study group, and since then, I've been presenting that work as a workshop at Pagan Pride events, at Unitarian Universalist Churches, and to private coven groups. People have asked me to continue sharing that work for years now, because people realize that we are a group that is affected by prejudice and stereotypes, and that the work I talk about, understanding how and why we do those things, how they work, can help us change the way we operate for the better.
I did all those things, believed all those things, wanted the world to be a better, more inclusive, more understanding and fair and just place, before I woke up to the fact that this meant my life was political, and that I was doing social justice work. Now I know that. And while I know it took me some time to see, I continually find myself being surprised when others don't see it. One, I need to slow down and remember that if it took me time, it won't happen overnight for them, either. And two, you'll see repeated several times below, maybe I'm not being clear enough about my work.
As an example, earlier this month (when I first started writing this post) I was looking through old posts and found a continued thread from a year ago that I hadn't continued reading after my initial response, because I was upset and confused and didn't feel like having to explain my position once again. But I read through it today, and wrote a long response, and I'd like to share it here, with some reflection.
The comments I responded to were in response to a video I posted about understanding privilege, intersectionality, and what it means for an identity to be "salient" in a situation (based on my prejudice/stereotyping work, also). I was originally going to share the comments here, without the people's names, but I've decided just to recap it for you. In the comments, the people share their opinions that the idea of privilege is "nonsense" and "rubbish". When I said it isn't either, and that I was surprised to find that so many people who regularly watch my videos don't agree with this work, the new comments (that were from a year ago, that I didn't read until now) said that such things "come down to people's opinion that is strongly shaped by their worldview". They also express that in their opinion, people watch my channel for Paganism and Witchcraft content, not social justice or "progressive theories on how society should work." Someone else said that the idea of privilege has been "debunked countless times" (which... it absolutely has not, unless they mean in their own mind), and "has no place in Paganism or Wicca." Another comment said the commenter doesn't think privilege is something that really even happens, and that it's not important. The final comment was something about how "plenty of religions ... focus on teaching people to ... control other people's behavior" and that Paganism isn't one of them.
Most of these comments were from someone who's been following and supporting my work for years, so I initially felt personally hurt that someone who I thought has liked and supported me for so long apparently doesn't care about my rights, our rights, our issues, the way I thought people who support me did. I clearly made an assumption about what supporting me means to the people who choose to do so.
I cannot know why people decide to support me. I have learned over the years that some people who support me DO entirely disagree with me... They've left enough hateful comments to make that clear, yet they still watch and offer financial support. And that feels weird. Why support me if you don't agree with the work I'm doing? To have someone to make fun of? That doesn't feel good, that doesn't feel supportive... I can't guess why people do what they do. I struggle often with whether it's ethical to continue being supported by people who don't actually support me as a person, my life, my rights, my values.
On the other hand, there are others who I feel do support me, but for some reason they don't actually know what the work I'm doing is about. As you'll see from my reply below, which was written earlier this month, I'm beginning to think that perhaps I haven't been clear enough about how my work is political/social justice work, if people who have been following my work for so long don't see that, yes, I AM a "social justice warrior"... And that's not the insult that people on the internet think it is. Have I been unclear? Or have I been perfectly clear in my intentions, but people who don't believe in it will only ever see their own point of view regardless of what I say? While I cannot know for sure, because I am only me, not everyone's reactions to me, I can think about it and adjust my own work accordingly to where I think I might have work to do, such as considering whether I do need to be even clearer about what my work is for, and what I believe. Here is the response I wrote that day, and have left here on my blog in reflection before actually coming back to publish this post. I've decided to share it publicly and reflect on it here as one way of clearing things up, and marking this point in my path:
Cara Mia - cutewitch772
I didn't read these again until now because this kind of thought process makes me upset. The fact that people don't see social justice and privilege as issues related to religion is actually part of the problem. A lot of people seem to view religion as something outside justice, and it really isn't... It's a huge part of how people think the world should work, as you said. Which is why I don't understand making a distinction between Paganism/Wicca/Witchcraft and "progressive theories on how society should work"... Paganism, Wicca, and Witchcraft ARE progressive ideas about how society should work!
Paganism is a minority religion. We are a minority, and we are treated as such. There is privilege to being a member of a majority faith--people don't tend to automatically assume you're evil, people don't think you're made up or don't exist or are pretending to be Harry Potter, the civic calendar acknowledges all your religious holidays and many places automatically get days off for them, to name a few privileges. You don't think Pagans and Wiccans online talk about the unfair treatment we get as Pagans all the time? They do. All over the internet, all the time. Most people seem to spend the first few years of their Pagan path doing just that, lamenting the way society treats us relative to majority faiths (mainly Christianity, in the US). Maybe those people aren't thinking of it as a social justice issue, or as lacking privilege in that realm, but that's exactly what they're talking about. We just don't all have the terminology to know what other people (activists, people working in social justice, etc) call it.
My channel is about me and my life. You may recall that I've also done videos about my sexuality, because it's part of my life, and about the intersections between my Pagan identity and my identity as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ rights issues are social justice issues. Heterosexuals have privilege in our society. As do white people, as do men, as do able-bodied people, as do neuro-typical people, as do lots of groups, some of which I am a part and some of which I am not a part. This is about recognizing that we have privileges in some ways, and not in others, depending on our identities, and remembering to take other people's identities into account instead of assuming everyone is like us. Things like wheelchair accessible buildings are a result of recognizing privilege that people who can walk up stairs have, and making the world more accessible for people who have a different identity in that regard. That's just one example that I think many people comprehend today, but don't necessarily think of as related to this issue, and it is.
Plenty of Pagans have progressive notions about society. Have you never heard people talk about how much better they think things would be if Christianity and other Abrahamic religions hadn't killed or converted everyone and changed the way the world works? The resurgence of interest in Goddess traditions in the past several decades? What about people making plans for Pagan-based education for our future generations? At the last Pagan Pride event I attended, last year, there was a whole section of Selena Fox asking people to name out loud ideas for the future that we would like to see, such as Pagan schooling, more Pagan-oriented senior care and end of life assistance, Twelve Step programs for recovery that aren't focused on only one religion's idea of God, and much more. Pagans have their own ideas of how society should work, all right. Again, I go back to how many videos and blogs I've seen from Pagans talking about how mainstream society misunderstands us. The Pagan Perspective is about education for the betterment of the community, learning about our differing views so we can expand the way we think about our diverse community, and the way we relate to one another. The Pagan Pride movement is similarly about education and community, educating people that we are not the horrible people they have been taught that we are... These ARE social justice issues. I used to try to separate them, too, because I thought I "wasn't a political person." But the reality is that every identity we hold is political. Laws and social structures make things a certain way, and changing them to improve our lives and the world around us is political. LGBTQ+ rights, political. Pagan rights, political. It's not about controlling other people's behavior... It's about recognizing our own privilege and how we can understand it to help improve the world. I can't control you, nor can you control me. It's about choosing to do the work ourselves, because we believe in treating other people (or animals, or the planet) better. And if some people don't think that I've been trying to improve the world and our place in it by educating people about Paganism... I'm not sure what anyone thinks I've been doing.
If people think, for example, that I've been educating with workshops on Pagans & Prejudice, and being asked to fly or drive to various locations around the country to present this information to Pagan groups and non-Pagan groups alike, because people DON'T think prejudice and social justice are issues that Pagans and Witches can speak to and do something about... then I'm not sure those people have been paying attention. That's what it's been about the whole time.
It's not my fault if people haven't seen it. We all live with our own blinders on about certain things. I've been doing the work, but it's up to the people observing it to see what they choose to see. We all experience the world through our own lens.
I didn't always see it either, but now I do. Witches ARE warriors for justice. Magick is the art of CREATING CHANGE. That's radical. We've always been that way. Not all of us are today, I think due in large part to the fact that so many of us have convinced ourselves, like I did, that politics is a separate thing that we don't have to be part of. But realizing that's not true is up to each of us, on our own journey. I can't make that happen for others, I can just talk about my own experiences and my own journey, which is what I've been doing this whole time. And maybe the fact that people haven't gotten that, means I haven't been clear or loud ENOUGH. I think most of us, radical as we may be, could do MUCH more.
I am happy to have found traditions of Witchcraft lately that fully embrace our role as Witches in creating change for the world, which again I think many Pagans and Witches already do, but they either don't know that it "counts" as politics or activism or social justice because we don't always talk about it in those terms, or they're afraid to name it, because maybe they don't want to sound like a radical "SJW" as you said. Maybe they don't want to get made fun of online for it. But if you don't want change, you don't do magick. If you don't want a better, more just world, if you don't have ideas about a better way of living, I'm not sure what people are doing with their religious views at all... Because that IS the way we see the world and how we think it should be, or we'd believe something else. Some people in this world cling to a religious identity but don't truly live its principles, but THAT is something that is not widespread in Paganism. And that's probably because many of us weren't raised in it, we found it, and we consciously chose to follow it. We typically do something about our beliefs. You revere nature? You work to protect it. That means everyday practices like conserving energy and water, not littering, not polluting, but it also means supporting environmental protection efforts, signing petitions, donating to causes doing the work you support, maybe taking part in community impact like cleaning up the beach. Pagans are usually people who DO things based on their worldview. We don't only sit home and pray about it. We go out into the world and make it a better place, we design ritual to change our consciousness and the way we see the world because we understand that when we change the way we see the world, the world around us changes. We know how magick works. We are change-makers.
Or, we're not.
Lots of people will continue to do nothing and be complicit because they don't see anything wrong to change, and that's their own journey, but that's not me. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. I've seen it my whole life, I just didn't know anything was wrong. So I get that. A lot of people are there. But please don't try to tell me it's not my place, or doesn't fit with what I do on my channel... It is everything to do with my channel. All my identities, all my life experiences. It's everything, and everywhere.
Those who can't see that, it makes sense that they also don't see it in the world around them. And vice versa--if they don't see it as a problem in the world, of course they wouldn't notice it in my channel, in my work. That makes sense. But as you said, it's about your worldview. If you don't see it, YOU don't see it. That doesn't mean it's not there, everywhere, permeating our culture. If anything, it just proves it. It's so ingrained, we don't even notice it anymore. Until we do.
Taking a deep breath... Honoring that you have been watching and supporting my channel this whole time... without realizing that you apparently fundamentally disagree with why I do this work, the whole time... That feels very raw for me, I imagine it feels weird for you, too. So just offering gratitude for the situation that you are even here to have heard what I've been saying for years, and acceptance that it is always up to you whether to actually hear/see it.
Blessings~
There are so many more examples I could give to this discussion...
Part of revering nature and wanting to protect the environment for me is also my choice to be Vegan. Very few of us talk about that, because what we eat is such a charged topic for people. I remember years ago talking on The Pagan Perspective about whether Pagans are required to be vegetarian, and saying no, of course it's not a requirement for your beliefs the way that some religions have actual dietary requirements or other lifestyle restrictions (which plenty of people break anyway). But for me, not eating meat is a change I wanted to make as a child, but my family was in charge of what I ate and made me eat meat. As soon as I graduated from college, moved out and became solely responsible for buying my own food, I went Vegan. I personally don't see that choice as separate from my environmental work, from bettering life for creatures on this planet whether human or non-human animals (for we are animals, too, and what makes us more important?), or from dismantling systems of oppression and abuse--ALL forms of oppression and abuse. This is something I've been thinking about a lot as I read more about Witches who work for justice, specifying "ALL forms of justice, dismantling ALL forms of oppression and abuse", but all of it is focused on humans and the planet, the Earth itself and the plant life, with only a side note for the animals, as though they aren't part of the inhabitants of the planet and the environment. I even did it above in my response to that person, talking about revering nature and I only talked about the planet itself... Even I, as a Vegan, still have ingrained programming that makes us forget to talk about the animals in the main discussion. That's a powerful realization in and of itself. And I know people will be tempted to say that focusing on that means we don't care about the injustice against humans. That's not true at all. We can care about MANY issues at once, and think they are ALL important, and do work toward as many of them as we can. ALL forms of justice. Against ALL systems of oppression and abuse.
Which brings me back to the idea that some people seem to think justice is not applied to religion. It takes me back to the YouTube Project For Awesome in 2014. P4A is an annual event created by the Vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green, where people create videos about a non-profit cause of their choice and upload it to YouTube, and fill out a form to have it be part of the official Project for Awesome website. Then everyone watches them, likes and comments on them, donates directly to the cause if they want to, over the course of a few days, and at the end, the videos with the most interactions get some of the money raised by P4A itself. It's a pretty cool thing the Vlogbrothers put together to get people involved in learning about causes, and an easy way to learn about causes others care about and donate to them if you can. The reason I think of this is that you can make your video about ANY non-profit organization, so one year, after I had been working closely with Pentacles of Pride, International, an organization based in Arkansas, I made my video for P4A about them. Pentacles of Pride's main project is sending free pentacle charms to anyone who requests one, because we know that pentacles are a minority faith symbol that isn't as readily available to people, and sometimes they can be expensive. So, even though they are not the ONLY symbol used by Pagans, of course--it largely depends on the path you follow--Pentacles of Pride decided to send simple pentacle charms to those who wanted a symbol of their faith and couldn't otherwise obtain one. Of course, they had to buy the charms, and they pay for the shipping. So donations to them mainly go toward helping pay for the charms themselves, and to pay for shipping them, because they ship anywhere in the world. Some of their other projects, which I mentioned in the video I made (linked above), include interfaith temples, funding scholarships, and publishing anthologies of Pagan stories/experiences.
I was really proud of the video I made about the organization, and I listed it in the section of P4A that was for Religious/Spiritual non-profits. It may have been a miscellaneous category, I can't remember now, but I do remember checking it out and finding that someone else did a video about an Atheist non-profit that sounded really cool, so I went to leave that person a comment about how I liked their video, and saw the comments other people were leaving them. Other people, other Nerdfighters... people from this online community who are all about Decreasing World Suck, were saying things like "This video doesn't belong on here. This issue isn't as important as other causes." Someone else actually said "Religious organizations don't belong on here, P4A is more for important things like hunger and clean water." No one was saying those things weren't important, as there were hundreds of videos already about those causes. I was surprised. We're a community of nerds who fight for the things we love, and fight to Decrease World Suck. The non-profit is called The Foundation to Decrease World Suck. Why did these people think that hating on someone for their views was appropriate or necessary, or in any way decreasing the amount that the world sucks? They clearly forgot to be awesome that day, which is the exact thing Nerdfighters strive NOT to do. DFTBA = Don't Forget To Be Awesome... it's the reason I say it at the end of all my videos as part of my closing statement, and here was this community that is all about making the world better and learning about causes, saying this religious organization wasn't important enough, that this person's identity as an Atheist was so unimportant that they shouldn't have made a video about a cause they care about, that they had a personal connection to, that helps improve their world... What would they say about my video about Pentacles of Pride, International?
Obviously wanting to be taken seriously as a religious minority, not wanting to get hatred every day from family, school staff, peers, strangers at the grocery store, etc., are not the same as fundamental needs like clean water, providing education, and battling hunger across our country and across the globe. But that doesn't mean being part of a minority religious identity doesn't affect people. I mean, clearly, people think it's not important enough to talk about... That shows some prejudice and privilege right there. People think religion isn't part of the discussion of justice, even though religion is where a lot of people first get their ideas of justice. This person had a strong personal connection with this non-profit that no one else was talking about, so they made a video to get the info out there, just like I did with my personal connection to Pentacles of Pride. Hundreds of people made videos for Water.org and other big causes that we had all already heard of because they have been P4A causes for years... To tell some people that their choice to expose people to a little-known, minority faith (or no-faith) organization, "didn't belong" and "wasn't important"... is... not awesome. And it goes right back to that idea that if we care about one thing, like being taken seriously in our religion and spirituality, it somehow means we don't care about clean water and sustainable resources and educating children across the globe. We do care about those things... (In fact, as a Nature-reverent, Earth-based Pagan, those things are PART of my religious and spiritual path and experience, not separate from it.) That's why, in life, we contribute to as many causes as we care about. No one said we were picking one over the whole, but lots of people like to make that argument as a way of making someone's cause seem lesser. Our hearts are big. Our love is infinite. There IS enough to care about ALL THE THINGS. Just because someone wants to say "Hey, I have this other experience that not a lot of other people know about or take seriously, and I thought you might like to add it to the list of things you know about so maybe it can help", does NOT mean they are saying "Hey my experience is way more important than all those other experiences in the world and you should only listen to me."
Obviously wanting to be taken seriously as a religious minority, not wanting to get hatred every day from family, school staff, peers, strangers at the grocery store, etc., are not the same as fundamental needs like clean water, providing education, and battling hunger across our country and across the globe. But that doesn't mean being part of a minority religious identity doesn't affect people. I mean, clearly, people think it's not important enough to talk about... That shows some prejudice and privilege right there. People think religion isn't part of the discussion of justice, even though religion is where a lot of people first get their ideas of justice. This person had a strong personal connection with this non-profit that no one else was talking about, so they made a video to get the info out there, just like I did with my personal connection to Pentacles of Pride. Hundreds of people made videos for Water.org and other big causes that we had all already heard of because they have been P4A causes for years... To tell some people that their choice to expose people to a little-known, minority faith (or no-faith) organization, "didn't belong" and "wasn't important"... is... not awesome. And it goes right back to that idea that if we care about one thing, like being taken seriously in our religion and spirituality, it somehow means we don't care about clean water and sustainable resources and educating children across the globe. We do care about those things... (In fact, as a Nature-reverent, Earth-based Pagan, those things are PART of my religious and spiritual path and experience, not separate from it.) That's why, in life, we contribute to as many causes as we care about. No one said we were picking one over the whole, but lots of people like to make that argument as a way of making someone's cause seem lesser. Our hearts are big. Our love is infinite. There IS enough to care about ALL THE THINGS. Just because someone wants to say "Hey, I have this other experience that not a lot of other people know about or take seriously, and I thought you might like to add it to the list of things you know about so maybe it can help", does NOT mean they are saying "Hey my experience is way more important than all those other experiences in the world and you should only listen to me."
WHICH brings me to another example of a Pagan operating in privilege that came to mind while writing the above response to that I didn't go into: there once was a straight male Pagan commenting on my video about gay male Pagans/the stereotype that men in Paganism are gay, who attested that people never assume male Pagans are gay, because it's never happened to him. In his mind, because it has never happened to him personally, that meant it never happens, and I must have been lying or making it up. This is a problem that many people have. We think that our experience speaks for everyone's reality, and it doesn't. Thinking it does, is a form of privilege. The video I did on that subject was actually requested by multiple male Pagans who watched my videos, who have personally encountered the stereotype that men in Paganism are gay--they are heterosexual, but had experienced that some people, when learning that they were Pagan, assumed they were also homosexual--and they wanted to hear my thoughts on it. That is a stereotype I had seen and heard for YEARS, since I was about 12 and first studying Wicca, so when people asked me to talk about it, I thought sure, I have experienced that stereotype floating around enough that I can talk about it a little. For someone to say it's fake, a lie, or never happens because it hasn't happened to them, is an example of privilege. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't give you the right to claim others are lying about their own experiences. I'm not a male Pagan, so that stereotype has never been put on me, but I know it happens to others. I concluded that perhaps it makes a difference if you know the exact paths these men follow...
The stereotype that Pagan men are gay often is leveled at Wiccan practitioners, I've noticed, perhaps because of the fact that many people in the general public only know Wicca and Witches as examples of Paganism, and there is a stereotype that those paths are "for women." But Norse paths are more associated with Viking warriors, typically thought of as very masculine and made up of mostly men. There is not as much stereotype of those men's sexuality. Druids, similarly. I have not specifically heard people offering the stereotype that Druids are gay because of their path. Both Norse paths and Druid paths, while we know they are not specific to any gender, are generally stereotyped as pretty male-centric paths, having mostly male practitioners, etc. We know this isn't true today... It's a false stereotype. But it may explain why a straight, male member of one of those paths has never been faced with the stereotype that his Pagan path makes him gay. Because people don't have that stereotype of paths they see as heavily masculine or male-centered, only of paths that are stereotypically seen as "feminine" and made up of mainly "women." So we see how it might work, from one person's point of view to another's. But to say that the men who asked me to talk about the topic because it happens to them all the time, are lying about it, or that I'm lying about it and made it up, because this other person has never had it happen to them... is it's own kind of closed-minded. And it could be related to a discussion of privilege and social justice--if you don't believe something negative/harmful is happening, you aren't very likely to work toward helping it not happen anymore. It can also be used in a discussion of intersectionality, because all the men in this example are Pagan, and all identify as Men. But it makes a difference which path they follow--a Norse Pagan man, or a Druid Pagan man, and a Wiccan man, have different stereotypes leveled at them, and different experiences of the world. The intersection of their identities and experiences makes a big difference in how each of them are treated, how they treat others, and how they see the world. But for one to say the other is lying about those experiences because they are different, is unjust, and plain incorrect. Just because something doesn't happen to us personally, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
The stereotype that Pagan men are gay often is leveled at Wiccan practitioners, I've noticed, perhaps because of the fact that many people in the general public only know Wicca and Witches as examples of Paganism, and there is a stereotype that those paths are "for women." But Norse paths are more associated with Viking warriors, typically thought of as very masculine and made up of mostly men. There is not as much stereotype of those men's sexuality. Druids, similarly. I have not specifically heard people offering the stereotype that Druids are gay because of their path. Both Norse paths and Druid paths, while we know they are not specific to any gender, are generally stereotyped as pretty male-centric paths, having mostly male practitioners, etc. We know this isn't true today... It's a false stereotype. But it may explain why a straight, male member of one of those paths has never been faced with the stereotype that his Pagan path makes him gay. Because people don't have that stereotype of paths they see as heavily masculine or male-centered, only of paths that are stereotypically seen as "feminine" and made up of mainly "women." So we see how it might work, from one person's point of view to another's. But to say that the men who asked me to talk about the topic because it happens to them all the time, are lying about it, or that I'm lying about it and made it up, because this other person has never had it happen to them... is it's own kind of closed-minded. And it could be related to a discussion of privilege and social justice--if you don't believe something negative/harmful is happening, you aren't very likely to work toward helping it not happen anymore. It can also be used in a discussion of intersectionality, because all the men in this example are Pagan, and all identify as Men. But it makes a difference which path they follow--a Norse Pagan man, or a Druid Pagan man, and a Wiccan man, have different stereotypes leveled at them, and different experiences of the world. The intersection of their identities and experiences makes a big difference in how each of them are treated, how they treat others, and how they see the world. But for one to say the other is lying about those experiences because they are different, is unjust, and plain incorrect. Just because something doesn't happen to us personally, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
There are many more examples, but you've got the idea by now.
This is stuff that we, as Pagans, as Witches, talk about all the time. How people see us, how we see each other, how we treat ourselves and others as a result. This is about prejudice, it's about stereotype, it's about justice and compassion and equity in our affairs, it's about political identities, and it's about social change.
Magick is about change. It is the art of creating change. Of changing consciousness. At will.
We are change-makers.
"She changes everything She touches and everything She touches changes."
"When we change the way we see the world, the world we see changes."
"What happens between the Worlds changes all the Worlds."
"Be the change you wish to see..."
These are not ideals for people who don't want change. Who don't want progress. Who don't have ideas of a better world. These are tenants of those who seek to create substantial change, not resist change or be complicit with systems in power simply because we were born into them.
(As a side note, anyone who was raised in a majority/Abrahamic faith and consciously chose to begin following Paganism of any kind, or any other minority faith, is already someone who consciously chose Change rather than be complicit with the system in power that they were born into. You are magickal. Don't tell me you're not able to change the world. You already did.)
In the interest of intersectionality and knowing that this is not everyone's path, I do want to say here that I know not all Pagans are Witches. Not all Witches identify as Pagans. Not all Pagans do magick or spellcraft outside the magick inherent in their rituals. And maybe their rituals are for change, maybe they aren't; maybe they're purely for celebrating the holidays or communing with the gods. Maybe the gods never challenge some of us to change, maybe they don't ask us to help change the world, to be better people, to treat others better, to dismantle oppressive systems. Maybe they don't. So that is up to everyone's individual path. It is each of our decision to answer the call, or to listen for it in the first place.
But for those of us whose path is about change, who do care about social justice, and fighting injustice and oppression, I don't believe we should shy away from that. And maybe I've been too quiet, too unclear, about who I am and what all my work has been for. Maybe not. But just in case,
I am a Witch.
I am a change-maker.
My path is not about sitting still, never changing, never making progress.
My path is not about not believing other people, or saying they're wrong, or lying, because I haven't yet or never will experience what they have.
I was long ago called to understand, and to help others understand.
We can't always fully understand, we can't be in someone else's shoes, but we can listen to them. We can believe them. We can take their experience into account, knowing we will NEVER have the exact same experience as someone else and that's why their view matters. Because with it, we have a fuller picture of reality than we would with just our own.
My path is not about denying other people's experiences.
My path is about recognizing the role I play in the world, and how I can better understand it, and change it when I need to, to create the change I really want to see.
So many people now are doing intense inner work to improve themselves and the world around them and their relations with others, to remove blockages, and traumas, and old behavioral patterns that hold us back. They aren't all billed as Witchy practices, or as religious or spiritual at all, but they are absolutely the same as the work Witches do. As I do. Maybe not all Witches are doing that work. That's their own decision. But it's important work, that I think we should all be doing at some point. Just not until you're ready. I wasn't ready for a long time, myself. Now, even though I am ready, there are aspects I'm not ready for. It's a long process, and a lot of work.
My path is about doing the work.
My path is about being ready to not be ready.
My path is about showing up.
Learning everything I can. Deciding how it applies to me.
My path is about struggling with things I don't think are for me until I learn the lesson I need to learn. My path is about not immediately saying "no" to someone's experience because I disagree, but sitting with it until I decide whether it's for me, whether it's good work, whether I need to create a change. And if it's not... then saying "no."
I understand--I have to continually remind myself--that this, to be a Witch, is not the same idea shared by all Witches or Pagans. But it is what I believe we are here for, whether it takes us years to realize it and start to do the work or not. It took me years. It takes years, it takes lifetimes.
There are whole groups of Witches and Pagans who understand that we can create substantial change, and we have a responsibility to do so for the better, to help the world and its creatures and peoples, not hinder them. These groups do so much, and every day we recognize that we choose the work we will do, but that there is always more to do. And maybe one day we will add on that further work, and maybe we will let others head it up while we continue doing ours. But it's all good work, all important work.
There are also groups of Witches and Pagans who honestly do nothing but dress up, call the quarters, and gossip together. I know, because I've been to some of those circles. They don't care about change, they talk about the same things every time, complain about the same things, never considering that they could actually do something about it instead. Through witnessing those kinds of groups, I quickly learned that Witchcraft and magick that aren't seeking to do anything to create positive change are not for me. Make no mistake, Witches are change-makers, and that means potential to create change... But not all of us are actually doing that. Again, that's their journey.
But it's not mine.
I hope I've made things a little more clear.
Blessings~
-C-
-C-
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Update:
I wrote this post weeks ago, originally. I'm publishing it today and wanted to offer a few other thoughts that came up last night/today.
- First, a link to the programming schedule of this year's Paganicon, the Pagan convention in Minnesota. A friend reminded me of this event yesterday, and I can't help but notice how much of the programming--the rituals, the panel discussions, the workshops--is rooted in social justice and political work. As you look through it, you'll see content relating to creating healthy boundaries, addressing issues of abuse and related things in our communities (similar to what we recently talked about on Pagan Perspective), looking at paths through a queer perspective, a Pagan recovery meeting (remember one of the suggestions with Selena Fox's talk? Some people are already doing it!), discussing the role that colonization has on the way we view indigenous practices, viewing the Goddess through more than just physical biology/having a uterus, making spaces more welcoming to trans individuals, Self Love work (which is radical in itself in a society that profits off us not liking ourselves), the dangers of cult mindsets and how to watch out for unhealthy religious groups, death midwifery (another suggestion someone had in Selena's talk and which people are already implementing in a Pagan framework), cultural identity, and many more including things actually titled "Tarot and Social Justice" and "Political Magick." And this is just one year at one event. These things have a place in Paganism.
- I checked my email today and found SJ Tucker's most recent email update. In addition to talking about her newly released songs this month and the fact that she is performing at Paganicon next month, she also mentions in the email that this weekend is her birthday (Feb 22), and if people want to do something nice for her birthday, she suggested that we donate to a group fighting to save the White River Bridge in Clarendon, Arkansas, and preserve it as a walking and bike path. Here is SJ, a Pagan singer-songwriter and musician, encouraging folks to give to a local conservation effort that is important to her personally. Her email says, "Their next official court date, to fight for the conservation of the old bridge as a pedestrian and bike path, just happens to be on my birthday, February 22nd. Let’s give them a boost! Learn more about the organization and their conservation efforts here: http://www.whiteriverbridge.org/ " This is political. This is people going to court, fighting for things that matter to them, to maintain something good for their community.
Just more things to think about. Thanks again for reading. I'm sure there will be more in the future, but this post is long enough for today. =)
Blessings x2~
-C-
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