Fluffy Bunnies

‘Fore we start, I would like to note there is an important message at the bottom of post about my current situation, please read.

Ah, summer’s in the air. You know how I know? Teh fluffy bunnies.

Fluffy bunnies are newbs who really don’t know what they’re doing and tend to be quite vocal pretending that they do. They’re generally young – about high school age, but occasionally early college as well – extremely gullible and easily swept up into all sorts of different fancies. They’re vampires, werewolves, witches and anything else you’ll find on a Happy Halloween placard. These kids mean well but dear Gods do they not really know what they’re doing. Twilight is their bible, Harry Potter is their rule book an anything that is campy or overly fantastical they’ll buy into without a second thought. The Craft, they see as a Slice-of-Life type of movie of what their lives will appear like, full of drama and action.

A fluffy bunny is very easy to spot. They tend to spout nonsense like crazy and do most of their research on Wikipedia but are somehow adverse to reading genuine books. And they seem to be totally absent of discerning fact from fiction. While the wonderful world of the occult is full of mysteries and surprises, it isn’t exactly perfectly pictured through the stories of fantasy. They are also easily excited by anyone who talks about the occult and will chatter endlessly about it in hushed (or loud) tones as if you and they are the only ones who know about it or accept it. They’re not very knowledgeable in metaphysics, any sciences, history and barely magick itself. Plus they’re very imaginative with the things they can(‘t) do. Things like conjure amazing (and difficult to summon) deities, high pulsing psiballs, make the weather change, things that generally take a lot of practice and skill, both of which the fluffy bunny lacks.

Although I mentioned that a fluffy bunny is generally young, it is more of a state of mind because I’ve ran into adults far older than me who spout the same nonsense merely because they’re new and decided to believe all the nonsense and conspiracy theories before the actual facts. Not every new occult practitioner starts out as a fluffy bunny because with fluffy bunnies, there is usually a strong air of obnoxiousness and fluffy bunnies tend to be dabblers, not really wanting to genuinely practice. Some do mellow out and become some type of occultist practitioner but generally they don’t. That’s what makes a fluffy bunny so floofy: they’re not really serious about practicing in a sincere way, they just want to do something that they think will get them cool points somehow. It’s unfair to those who really do want to start out and find a teacher but very few will take them because fluffy bunnies got there first or that new practitioners aren’t taken seriously because again, everyone assumes they’re going to be derpy, hyperactive or over reactive odd things that will move on to something else in about a few months.

Being a fluffy bunny, they’re really vocal about silly things that doesn’t very much matter in the greater scheme of things as a Pagan or an occultist. They’re just doing it as a way to feel like they belong because they don’t have years of practice (and probably don’t want to achieve any) under their belt. They may obsess about, say, how lightly Halloween is taken or the fact that a lot of Halloween depictions of a witch is green faced, full of warts, with a long and crooked nose, terrible teeth, looks like a hag and in shabby clothes…and how all of that offends them greatly. These are surface issues, issues that can be bothersome if you put too much thinking into it but they’re not really issues like religious discrimination is an issue. A fluffy bunny wants so much to be part of a circle (yet different), they latch onto the non-issues but that’s it. They just want to live in their own little world where they are the cool kid because they can make rain come down in an instant.

Again, however, I stress that a lot of fluffy bunnies are dabblers. They’re not interested in taking on occultism as a lifestyle or Paganism as a religion, they just saw Vampire Diaries or Supernatural and thought “I want that to be me.” You’ll notice a lot of fluffy bunnies have a very cursory knowledge of magick that tends to closely resemble what media depicts. Media is a little better doing its homework when it comes to witches, magicians and other creatures but they’re still the media, not good at depicting anything it doesn’t consider the norm. Being dabblers, it’s clear they are quite adverse to research because that takes tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime and their favorite television characters don’t seem to spend forever and ever in libraries reading. It’s like they instantly know the difference between a Banshee and a Harpy. Dabblers don’t want to do any work, they just wanna get to the fun stuff and toute de suite. Remember, the occult is filled with reading and studying and getting headaches trying to interpret something written in Latin or 15^th century French. That part is not emphasized in a lot of different shows about the supernatural. Why? Because show producers rightfully believe that watching someone read, read, read and merely max out their library card doesn’t make for a compelling show. Problem is is that you can’t get to the fun stuff without doing all the grunt work. And this is a fact a lot of fluffy bunnies miss. Nothing happens instantly in magick without putting any work into it.

Another issue with fluffy bunnies is that, despite how vocal they are, they really don’t follow the rules. I have met countless Wiccan fluffy bunnies who would endlessly cut themselves and say “It’s how I cope with life”, despite Wicca having a well known “An’ it harm none” rule in their faith. “None” means “everyone, including themselves.” They’re not trying to cease cutting or going to treat it as a problem now that they follow a new faith, nope, they’re pretty much going to take on a different label but do the same thing. There, it becomes clear that they’re just calling themselves Wiccan or Pagan because it can potentially make people moody for all the wrong reasons or just make them appear like they’re standing out somehow.

Nothing is wrong with being new, everyone started somewhere, but here’s how not to act like a fluffy bunny:

• Don’t be hyper/treat it like it is some secret thing: Oh sure, it’s exciting and new now but I ensure you, it’s not nearly as much of a big deal as you think. Be happy but don’t annoy anyone
• Know your knowledge: You’re new, so read. That’s all you can do now, read and ask questions. You’re a newbie, do not present yourself as a beacon of information. You’re not one and not going to be one for at least a couple years. And make sure the questions you ask are relevant, informative questions. Skip all the “Can you teach me how to levitate?” questions and save them for later. Way later.
• If you’re dabbling, stop: I have a whole post in the works dedicated to why dabbling is a bad idea. It is. Just develop a likeable personality and people will like you, no need for gimmicks. If you’re still invisible, just do whatever makes you happy and don’t vie for the attention of others because you’ll probably A) never get it or B) won’t like what you have to do to keep it.

And that’s all for this week of Black Witch.

As a lot of you have probably seen, I have gotten into quite a sticky situation. You can read about it here on “A Plea for Help”. I also made a video detailing what has been going on, which can be viewed here on Ustream (since Ustream embedding can be fickle).

If you look over to the right of your screen, you’ll see where you can donate, buy a natal chart reading or even proofreading services (something I did while in college, might as well bring it up to the fold). As you read over there, I’ll be collecting donations until May 31^st or all $715 is collected, whichever comes first. This is important because if I lose my home, Black Witch will cease to exist. So far 16% has been collected and I thank all the donors who have already come forth.

Wrong Room, Bad Idea

I’m feeling major low key so major low key column it is

This recent week there was a random poster in the African-American Wiccans Society FB group who turned out to be quite the poser. This is what they wrote:

I didn’t blur out the name because lookin at the account, it’s probably a sock puppet. Plus, if you’re going to be oppressive in any way, shape or form, don’t expect respect from the people you’re bothering.

Now, this was a bit uncanny because the group has been around for over a year and this is the first time we’ve ever had someone slip in and go mad and it turns out we weren’t the only ones. The dude was going to all sorts of Pagan and Wiccan groups to most likely preach the same thing that he posted above.

As any reader could believe, I really don’t like this sort of thing. It’s disrespectful, to be simple about it all. There’s a reason that specialized groups like AAWS exist and it is to provide a safe space. I, just like any other Pagan, do not mind different faiths but there’s a difference between outshining the rest and attempting to knock out everyone else’s bulb with a sledgehammer.

If anyone is curious to as why it is disrespectful, I will try to explain.

It is disrespectful because the person is encroaching on a safe space that was bothering no one to proselytize: We understand that Christians have to spread the word of Christ but going the disruptive route definitely does not look good for the faith that constantly espouses “Live and let live”. We’re the Black Pagans group, that’s it. Everyone else who doesn’t fit those two requirements gotta stay out and there’s a reason for it: they already have open places for themselves. White Pagans have all the spaces for themselves, Christians have the whole Western world pretty much for themselves. There is seriously no need to try to gain ground here. Just get over the fact that not everyone is going to be a follower of Christ nor wants to be and it is most likely better this way than have a bunch of false believers.

It is disrespectful because this person came with the sole aim to convert as many people as possible: See, not everyone in the AAWS is fully comfy with being Pagan and still exploring their faith. They don’t need a random rude Christian storming in going, “This is wroooooooooooong [because my faith says so and I won't learn yours]” to make things really murky. Already, Pagans do not proselytize so there’s no reason for Christian folks to come bother us. This dude didn’t come in and start backpedaling because oh noes, they’re not around Christians, how uncomfy it is to respect another faith. This dude just came out thinking, “Man, I’mma get work like I’m on commission, I’m doing such a good thing,” and decided to just come right out and puke all the verbal nonsense you read above. They didn’t want to learn about Paganism or even try to understand it, nah, this person was set on thinking that we were misguided and wrong and that he has to set us “right”. I’ve dealt with enough jacked up Christians to scare them off but not everyone has (nor should need to). If people want to explore a different faith, they should be able to do so safely. This is with any non-privileged group.

It is disrespectful because if you want people to learn about your faith (that everyone already knows plenty about), being rude is not the way: Here is why Christians get such a bad rep. Acts like these. And usually these acts are defended because folks want to ignore the difference between concern-trolling and actual expression of faith to others…unless it happens to them, of course. I can guarantee that everyone who lives in the Western world knows about Christianity, has heard of Christ and know His basic origin tale. It would be impossible not to. Christianity is heavily pumped throughout Western culture, it is the staple, the norm. If a Christian bombed or shot up a school or a theatre, no one would go “Oh you can’t trust those Christians. They follow some masochistic god!” nope. The faith wouldn’t be otherized and the second that it might, you can believe there will be mobs in place. Christianity is written into the laws, Christianity is written into the culture. The Christian God is referenced on American money. The average age of the people in AAWS is middle age on up and we’re Black, we’ve heard of Jesus before, time to take a pause for the cause already. Christians are commonly perceived to be close-minded and persistent to tell others about their faith but the second they have to be the listeners, here comes the defensiveness, dismissiveness or the sudden urgency to be anywhere but where they are standing at that time. That perception didn’t come from imagination. That pic up there isn’t made up, it’s a screen cap. The account might be ran by a fake name but there is a real person behind it. It would behoove Christians to get over that they deserve respect and diligence more than other faiths.

And it’s annoying to use the guilt trip method to convince people to convert to Christianity, as if that has any staying power. Firstly, saying “He died a shameful death” just sounds like Christ was the one who made the bad choice to get pinned up on a cross or did something to earn His death. Remember, this was a follower of this deity (demi-god?) saying this. I know the guy was trying to mean “It sucks how he died” but with a bad choice of wording. This is then being led up with a clear attempt to guilt trip as if the Pagan reading this is supposed to go, “Aw man, you’re right. He did die for me. Even though I wasn’t completely convinced of practicing the faith and feel practically nothing for it in my heart, I feel moved enough to convert back to a faith  because a practitioner that didn’t even try to take the time to learn mine said so.” If belief in any deity (or demi-god) is sincere, then you won’t have to guilt (or threaten, or combo) to make people come to the faith. Guilt tripped Christians generally are among the least intelligent about their faith because they’re doing everything they think they can to avoid going to hell and to keep their god from hating them in opposed to simply living out their faith and living the lives they do as it pleases their god and fulfills them, the followers, as well. In a nutshell, if you have to use emotional or psychological tactics to make someone join your faith, it’s a bad idea. Stop it or stop complaining about how people see Christians in such a bad light.

As I have said before, there are other religions on this earth besides Paganism and Christianity. Christians should really take great pains to learn that, at least as much pains as they take to be actively ignorant of other faiths. If people want to be Christian, there are so many avenues that they could go. Just an immense amount of them that other faiths don’t get, especially in the Western world. There would still be problems in the world even if everyone was Christian (Look up the Real IRA or Northern Ireland if you don’t believe me). It is not cool to neglect the basic idea that people might think differently than you. If you’re going to be in a safe space for a non-privileged group and you happen to be part of that privileged group, sit down, shut up and only ask reasonable questions when appropriate.  If you’re there to troll for new believers, you deserve all the blowback you get.

 

Snake Oil Magick

So, I was checking the Black Witch email’s junk pile because, hey, I like keeping the inbox orderly and you never know when a random Ask Black Witch question or important email winds up there.

This time, I got a lol’ler coaster.

So this email was titled “Gain the Ability to Create Your Own Destiny!‏” so I knew it was gonna be good. Could always use a chuckle. And chuckled, I did.

The email begins:

“That’s Right!

Get the Ability to Create Your Own Destiny and Get
What You Want Instantly!

All will be explained here”

And links to a site called “Magick Power” that would be better off selling Cirque du Soleil tickets or D&D games, judging from the layout. People, this is how you can tell someone is selling snake oil, wolf tickets. It’s a con and not the fun kind where you dress up, eat too much pocky and risk running into Stan Lee. We’re gonna get into how it so apparent later, now we stick with the email.

“The BEST thing is that You will be able to Bring
Anything You Desire into Your Life without Needing
to Do ANY Ritual, Nor Worship Any Strange Entity Nor
Study ANY Occult System for Years…!”

Can you smeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell the nonsense here? Dude, you can’t apply a fast food concept to metaphysics, it just makes for high failure rates, your magick would be a complete dud not to mention you’ll look crazy and stupid, even among occultists and magick practitioners. Not to mention, nice try in attempt to othering alternative deities, that’s smart. You don’t exactly need to worship other deities, magick doesn’t really need that so it wasn’t necessary to bring up. Really bad start.

“I’m talking about the Power to Create or Destroy What
Ever You Want to…As You See Fit!

Simply Visit Here”

Someone is channeling their inner Vishnu. Sounds like some kid that used to get beat up a lot in school, played too much Infamous or God of War and now thinks they could be a powerful force themselves. Look, I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible (improbable but not impossible) but you have to put some work into it. Metaphysics does not work like an instant dinner, there is a lot of work, a lot of reading, a lot of brain strain to see any success. There are no elevators or escalators, only stairs. Lots and lots o’ stairs.

“There is no other course out there like it. In fact,
there has never been a similar course available to the public.

I have to warn you though, mystics have tried to have
this course banned…

I’m talking about some of the most powerful men and
women of the world, that can literally take the site
down any minute without warning.

All I can guess is if you can still get to the
website you may have a chance…”

Actually, there are lots of courses out there like this. It’s the internet, there’s tons of skeevy sites filled with false promises and especially with magick because people don’t know enough about magick besides what they see in media (which is heavily misrepresented) and go with that. So, this guy is relying on someone being really, really gullible.

Dude also should not pull an infomercial move and simply use a blanket statement such as “mystics have tried to have this course banned” and “the most powerful men and women of the world”. Back your accusations up with facts or don’t say it at all. Even with the occultists I know, no one cares that much over this kid so I doubt very much that other important people would either. And does anyone else imagines some modern day Gandalf/Once Upon a Time imagery when they read that too? Unless this kid is pissing off some hacker group, I doubt people care about these fakers nearly as much as they think they do. This site might get taken down by the BBB or some other business entity tho for being a scam but that’s pretty much it.

And the email ends. Lolz. This email wouldn’t have fooled me when I was younger and it doesn’t fool me now. Here’s a rule of thumb, if the person is not up front, they’re probably hiding something. Using blanket statements is not being up front, trying to create an air of mystery that isn’t there is not being up front, promising big things with little work is definitely not being up front and all those things are all red flags. The simple fact that this letter is unsolicited is already telling! I’m a practiced Witch, why would I want anything like what this email offers when I can see straight through the phoniness?

And now the site, which is filled with so much fluff, they should be selling pillows and comforters.

Again, the blanket accusations of mystics trying to get the course getting shut down and that they could get anyone any massive power…for some money.

KNEW IT, Y’ALL! The dude is selling something and it is expensive, worthless and waste of paper. You could tell from the email but this seals the deal.

The why about unnamed mystics trying to “shut down the site” is apparently this:

“Simply, because they don’t want you to have
the power to INSTANTLY Create Your Own Reality, they
have and have used over and over again for
centuries to control, manipulate and literally take
advantage of you like a puppet.”

This is a total joke. Again, unless you are really skilled in magick and the occult, the idea to create your own reality in an instant is laughable. And even then it is A) really rare and B) barely worth it because once you’re that skilled, you learn a few things about ethics that really kills the enticement of the idea. And no occultist is controlling people like a puppet, get your pseudo-secret societies ideas outta my occult. It’s stuff like this that makes people think the Illuminati control everything and somehow everything points to it. After this massively stupid reason is the shot of the book, which is about as bland as anything as far as any book in the occult is supposed to be. The title “Magick Power” is very general because magick has so many different subcategories and types and cultures and ideas, it’s not this one thing and couldn’t be because that’s not how the occult works.

And o hai! Something that totally doesn’t sound like it came out of the X-Men:

“From the desk of: Mystic X.
Dear Friend,

Are you absolutely sick of being left in the hands of someone else who couldn’t care less about YOU?”

That’s life

“Does it seem you’re just stuck in the mud-spinning wheels, going nowhere?”

We do currently have a crappy economy and people generally suck at running their lives

“Do you totally hate the fact that Your Life can go nowhere?”

“Can” implies choice, which, like I said, sounds like life. Life really isn’t fair.

“I bet you do!”

Life sucks, then you die.

“I often receive emails from people just like you who are struggling to make their spells & magick work. You’ve bought books and courses but you just can’t seem to make it work. You’ve dropped $100s-$1,000s into witches, spells, and metaphysical items but haven’t seen any real results, yet.”

Trolololo, that’s because they want to put no real work in it, just want answers with the flick of a wand.

“Maybe you’ve spent days trying to cast each spell to the finest detail, only to find out later that the results were not what you wished for, if any.”

Magick can be derpy like that because it goes the path of least resistance and noobs will always have a hard time with spells because they are new and thus have little practice.

“When I hear these stories I often write back…”

“I want to write back…”

“It’s NOT Your Fault!”

“I am so gonna fleece ya!”

“You see, most of the information you read online and offline now are either incomplete or just total garbage.”

“I’m just like them. Remember, it takes one to know one.”

“It gets me angry that people are wasting their hard earned money on useless stuff in the slight hope things will work out. The cold truth is that… It Won’t!”

It doesn’t anger this dude about that, he’s upset he ain’t making money off of these people. And again, a lot of people want a quick fix, which is not exactly how things work in magick.

“Most of the spells and magick systems the so-called experts push you, don’t work.”

Here’s an accusation that the dude won’t back up. One of many baseless accusations. It’s a tell tale sign because good art, good work speaks for itself. Bad work has to work hard to make others look bad.

“Why?”

“I don’t know either”

“Simply, because most psychics, so-called witches, warlocks
and metaphysical sellers are either lying to you, or just plain
don’t know what they’re talking about!”

So sayeth the person with no credentials, knowledge and has said nothing factual yet, just playing on emotions instead of logic.

“Want PROOF?”

This dude doesn’t have any

“That’s pretty easy! – Just look around you as more and more books, systems, magick rings, talismans, spiritual items, haunted items, witches, and spells are available supposedly to help you fulfill your desires and materialize your wishes, but people are nevertheless getting LESS SUCCESSFUL and LESS HAPPY with their Lives!!”

It’s so easy the dude conveniently forgets to tell you. And decides to pull on heartstrings further with inaccuracies and blatant disregard to social trends that are making people unhappy – not magick – such as use of social media, living sedentary lives and a terrible economy which hasn’t really recovered since 9/11.

“Have you ever wanted something so much you were willing to do almost anything…to obtain it?”

“Have you ever loved somebody so much it makes you cry? Have you ever -” I like Brandy, that was a good song. Very pretty, highly recommend it… unlike this site.

“Are you tired of being controlled by circumstances and events over which you have little to no control over?”

That’s prolly got more to do with politics, economic policy than anything. Unless you plan on hypnotizing the whole Congress to tax the rich at least 70%, it’s not much to it.

“Are you annoyed how the same few people seem to get all the great things in life when you keep on living in misery or a mediocre lifestyle?”

That’s called “comparing someone’s highlight reel with your behind-the-scenes”.

“You’re not alone…It seems the only people that get lucky these days are the ones who know something you don’t.”

Or are one of the 400 richest people in America. Or networks. Or combo. And again, highlight reel vs. behind-the-scenes.

“Those REAL Mystics and Occultists Possess the Power to Master the Forces of the Universe Itself…to Quickly Bring into their Lives WHATEVER THEY Most Want and Desire!”

That’s false. Even occultists and witches still gotta find a job and put work towards things that we want or need.

“The Biggest MYTH is that You Have to Be Gifted,
Chosen, or Practice an Occult System for Years to
Have the Power of the Magick, the Ability to
Define Your Own Destiny!”

Nah, you just gotta play FedEx and deliver a ring to Mordor.

“THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE!”

“IT IZN’T!!11!11!11111!1eleven!1!!!1!111!1!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!1”

“It does NOT matter if You are just a Regular Person with No Special Gift!”

It doesn’t?!?!?!?!

“It does NOT matter if You have NEVER read a Single Page of a Magick Book!”

General literacy would be useful, though. Never reading a single page of any book could be a bit of a wall to success.

“It does NOT matter if You have ZERO Experience in the Occult!”

EMT is probably gonna die laughing over whatever they’ll have to save you from so good job, you’ll be cheering up people at random

“You find this hard to believe right?”

Yep.

“Most people do, but let me tell you this…”

“…I don’t know anything.”

“Whatever your abilities, knowledge and experience of Magick is, I can transform You into a Powerful Magickal Wizard with the Power to literally Create Your Own Reality Instantly at Will!”

Without a big ol’ giant storming through your front door saying, “You’re a wizard, Harry!”? How nice.

“I must first warn you, though…”

“This is some bullsh*t I’m about to sell you on”

“This is not a Method for Weak Minded or Easily Intimidated Individuals!!”

“Actually, I’m hoping that’s what you are because I don’t make a sale otherwise. A sucker is born every minute, I need you to be that sucker.”

“This is a Method of ABSOLUTE POWER…”

“POWWAAAAAAAAAAA”

“The Power to Create or
Destroy WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO…As YOU See Fit!!!”

BIG red flag that this is a scam, the baiting of universe crushing power but with no effort to get it at all? Faaaaaaaake.

“Think about How Much Would You Enjoy Possessing the Power to Master the Forces of the Universe Itself…to Quickly Bring Into Your Life WHATEVER YOU Most Want and Desire!!”

It ain’t gonna happen.

“Imagine Having Absolute Supreme Power and Total Mastery Over Life Itself with…”

Seriously, stop playing so much Heavenly Sword.

“THE REAL MAGICK FORCE!!”

If “real” means “fake”, then yes, this is very, very “real” indeed. And for someone who has disdain for witches and magick, they sure don’t mind using our spelling for it (with a “k” at the end).

“YES…You will be able to Bring Anything You Desire into Your Life without Needing to Do ANY Ritual, Nor Worship Any Strange Entity Nor Study ANY Occult System for Years…!!”

Nah you won’t. And to do real, authentic magick, you actually do have to be practiced. And again, knock off the othering of legit deities. Besides, like I said, Fast Food logic does not work nor bode well in metaphysics.        

“Forget about Witchcraft, Wicca, Natural Magick, Candle
Magick, Black Magick, White Magick…and the rest of them!”

How you really know that A) this guy is a scammer B) an idiot and C) knows absolutely nothing: this dude is supposed to teach you some worldly magick but says “We’re not doing witchcraft or any other form of magick”. It doesn’t make any sense. He just wants your money but don’t want to do any homework to get it.

“I’m talking about REAL Magick, that will Give You the Ability to Possess Amazing Power of Control and Influence in Every Area of Reality, and bring all the things You Desire into Your Life…Simply By Willing It to Be So!!”

This dude just disregarded actual real magick about a sentence ago, what does he know? This dude is a total jip. And he don’t understand the metaphysics at all, yet again, but wants to bait people’s money with promise of having the world in the palm of your hands.

“Discover How You Can SUMMON and INFLUENCE Universal
Energy Forces which Will Give You ALL THE POWER!!”

You’re just gonna discover how broke this dude is going to make you. Then the power you’ll need is power of an attorney.

“Through the Power of the Magick, You can Secretly Influence and Dominate EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY…Control Every Aspect of Your Life, with Ease…soon after You Begin Applying this Mystical Method in Your Own Life!!!”

Someone’s selfish…and most likely has an inferiority complex that they have to work double time to mask up. Besides, the magickal life is not easier than the non-magickal life. Ease, there will be nearly none of that. And it isn’t possible to control every aspect of your life and think about it, you really wouldn’t want to.

“Are You Prepared to Have this Much
Control and Mastery Over Your Own
Destiny…And LIFE ITSELF?”

“Who’s ready to get scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammed?”

“YOU Will be able to Wield Supreme Mystical Power…

Magically Drawing Everything You Want Directly to YOU!!”

Nah, you won’t.

“How?”

“’Cause I don’t know either.”

“Simply, because the very Nature of Reality is within the Mind Itself…This is where the POWER of the MAGICK can easily be transmitted into YOUR LIFE…Through Your Un-Conscious Mind!!!”

That’s over simplifying magick by a lot. There’s a lot more to magick than just willing things about. Even psionics has more to it than simply willing things with your mind.

“Would YOU Like To Gain Complete Control Over Your Social &
Professional Environment???”

You could gain that with some classes in interpersonal skills. Though, no one likes a control freak.

“Now You CAN with the Magick Power course!!”

This kid is a joke, I’m almost running out of snarky things to say, there’s so much fail in this phony open letter. Good thing it’s over.

Okay, here’s something stupid, the site badges:

Notice something missing from these badges? Like the companies that are establishing that this site is supposed to be safe and with 100% satisfaction? Generally when you see site badges like these, there is supposed to be an “awarded by [so and so]” bit on it somewhere so you know it’s vetted, even if you researched it. This doesn’t have any of that so how do you know that they didn’t simply find these badges on Google images and slapped them on their site? Which is most likely what happened.

But wait, for $50, you can buy these books that are supposed to be valued at $1000 (I strongly doubt that’s the actual MSRP) and you too can afford such bogus titles as:

Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage – Complete with inaccuracies, fakery and all things misinforming!

Transcendental Magic – Which, although described as rare books on a very secret type of magic (how you can tell it’s fake because it uses the word “secret” and “rare” to bait you in)
The Arbatel of Magic – A book that is neither classic or rare

The 4 Books of Occult Philosophy – Not at all sought after and wouldn’t have a single magical secret.

This site is just oozing with scamming and con work. It’s sad folks fall for these all the time but they kind of have no one else but themselves to blame for being such a sucker. And you think this dude is gonna stop at sucking up your $50? Nah way, holmes, chances are you’d get emails to buy more and more “secrets” and other things because guess what? What this guy is gonna sell you ain’t going to work and never will because it is complete snake oil in book form.

Now, if you’re bummed because you thought “Oh man, this was the break I was looking for!”, check out these books that are in the resources and information category or just look at the different Samhain Editions here on Black Witch. At least these books aren’t total crap. They won’t promise instant power in an hour but to be honest, nothing could provide that, ever. Metaphysics requires time, dedication and work.

Call for Black Pagans, want to be in another anthology?

Good friend of mine, Crystal B., has been calling for submissions of the minority Pagan experience to create a follow up anthology to Shades of Faith called Shades of Ritual! Here are the details!

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for a follow up anthology to Shades of Faith, released in August of 2011.  This anthology will focus on people of color working in magical communities and their spiritual practices.  This anthology will provide another opportunity to get the voices and experiences of minorities within the Pagan community out to the world and address some of the challenges, stereotyping, frustrations and the beauty of being different within the racial construct of typical Pagan or Wiccan groups. These communities include (but are not limited to) groups and individuals working in Wicca, Voodoo, Umbanda, Shaman, and other Pagan paths.

As many of the roots of Paganism come from the lands of people of color, much of the color of Paganism is often forgotten in the cultural mainstreaming that often happens to ethnic cultures. Many people of color within Paganism walk between the worlds of their birth ancestry and culture, and that of their spiritual culture.  This anthology is meant to show how that might look within the spiritual practice of one’s home.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology.

• Rituals
• Poetry
• Your experience of integration into the Pagan community and how that might correlate with your practice
• Magical work
• Ancestor work
• Deity specific practices and relationships
• Integrating your birth culture with your spiritual workings
• What magical work are you doing now? How do you describe it? Do you work alone, in a group, or in several settings?
• Your birth culture and spiritual workings
• Stereotypes and prejudice and the impact on spiritual or magic workings.
• Being the only person of color in a coven, group or community
• Sharing your culture and history with other Pagans
• Cultural history and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice today
• Family culture and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice
• Cultural appropriations and how that works in your practice.

Rough drafts are due August 15, 2013. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements:
• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material
• Bibliography of works cited
• Prefer APA format

Do write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Crystal Blanton. She is the author of two books with Immanion press; Bridging the Gap; Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society, and Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World.  She is also the editor of the first anthology, Shades of Faith; Minority Voices in Paganism. She may be found online at http://www.crystalblanton.org and her email address for this anthology is crystal@crystalblanton.com .

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

A Witchy Life is a Regular Life

Don’t forget! Black Witch Meet and Greet on Sunday in Baltimore, Maryland! Details at the bottom!

You know, it’s really something when you look about the ‘net and hear people say things like, “if only I had a magic wand” or “I’m not a wizard, I can’t make things happen like that” and things of that nature. Ha, even with magick, psionics, metaphysics, whatever on your side, you still have to deal with mundane life. Hey, right now I’m using a computer, a word processor and taking good advantage of my access to the internet.

Thing is, there isn’t really a “witchy world” and “muggle world”, never was. We live in the same communities that regular folks do, pay bills, vote, go to the market, get a job, so on and so forth. I can summon spirits and entities, and Baltimore Gas & Electric does not care. If anything, they’d probably remark, “That’s nice but you still have to pay your bills and if we don’t see any money from you by the 15^th, you can summon some light spirits or whatever it is you do.”

Magick and metaphysics exists within normal life. Doing magick to make sure the bills are paid won’t magickally make money rain from the sky and there won’t be any sparkly thing happening (okay, most likely, I’ve learned that things can be improbable but not impossible). You still have to get a job, be good at writing a resume and a cover letter, things like that. It could make circumstances occur where there is somehow enough money to foot the bills or make the bills have a positive surprise (registered as forgiven or paid in the system or a surprise credit that makes the bill drop waaaaaay low (this actually happened to me, my electric bill is about $4.50 for this past month, very proud)) but I don’t think you’ll be seeing actual legal tender that is valid in your nation floating or plopping from the sky or out of your pet parakeet’s mouth. And please see a vet if your pet petite bird starts barfing money.

This isn’t to say the magickal life isn’t that magical. It’s just without a lot of the special effects. You can still witness fae and spirits and entities but there isn’t a Hogwarts around to teach you. There’s no Witch school, Wizarding academy, nothing to grant you a A.A. in ceremonial magick. Learning about magick is more like going to the library or the bookstore trying to look at as many titles as possible, finding metaphysical shops that may or may not be near and possible debating with people on Tumblr about what stick of sage is appropriate to use and if “smudging” is a culturally hijacked term. Way less fancy.

Thing is, back then, some things that were seen as magical back then such as a camera operating. People used to think that could steal your soul. Then science became more widely available and now we better understand the process, which does take some of the wonder out of it. Then you have the fact that a lot of shows and movies are so heavy on the special effects and camera angles because there’s no other way to convey that something has happened since movies only can effect two senses, sight and hearing, and has to convey something to make up for the absence to affect the other three senses. Seriously, next movie or show with magic and/or psionics in it, try to imagine if there weren’t any sparks or if the camera angle was as static as the human eye, seeing things from only one point of perspective at a time. You’d see how much detail could possibly be missed because there’s nothing overteaching the fact that something unusual was happening. When I and folks I know do magick, there aren’t really any wide, gaping movements, if any noticeable ones at all. We’re not Gandalf, we just want to get the spell done. Magick doesn’t require a stage manager (unless it’s Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca, ha!)

So does this mean that the life a Witch is ultra boring? Yep. Very. If someone followed me around my life all day, they wouldn’t see anything magickal happening. They may see me on the computer dilly dallying about or…that’s probably pretty much it. Maybe watch me wash dishes and complain about how my sink is too small or that water gets everywhere. I don’t cast spells everyday (that would be tiring!) and the fae in my home only really express themselves by stealing things I won’t notice are gone until I actually need it. Like my glasses. Magick is usually subtle and not loud and so is the magickal life. I do magick because that’s what I’m pulled to and resonate with naturally. I don’t practice magick because of the reactions people give when they learn that I do, that would be stupid and a bit emotionally desperate in attempt to look cool or relevant.

So there you have it, the Witchy life is no different than the normal life besides knowing how to be really handy with herbs and rocks. There’s no Disney or Warner Bros. styled living filled with sparkles, colored wind, designer clothes that seem to never get dirty or ripped and no bills or responsibilities. There is cool stuff and fun stuff and even some “holy crap, that just happened” stuff but that’s about it.

Now, for the Black Witch events!

This Sunday will be the Black Witch Meet and Greet! Here’s the promo that has all the details (I know I will miss something if I don’t do this)

BW Meet and Greet (April 14; Baltimore, MD): Let’s hang out and meet each other! This is the Black Witch Meet and Greet, where you can meet me, fellow readers and have fun. Located at the Washington Monument, (if it rains, we’ll be at the Central Library) this event is open to any and everyone. The meet and greet will be on April 14th starting at 1 PM EST and going to 4 PM. Be there! If this one is really successful, there will most likely be a monthly BW meet and greet.

And if you can’t make this event, that’s okay! There’s always next month!

Ka-ra-o-ke! Music Time With Black Witch! (May 5; Baltimore, MD): I love singing and I especially love karaoke! So let’s do some karaoke together! We will gather at Rainbow Music Studio on 2126 Maryland 2 and have a room to sing the night away! Rooms prices are $35/hour for up to six people and increases by $10 when up to six more people show up (Ex: $45/hour for 12, $55/hour for 18, so on and so forth) so depending on how many people come, the price could be really small ($5.83 per person if up to six, $3.75 per person for up to twelve, so on and so forth) or bigger than that so although I will keep everyone updated, be sure to bring at least $15.

And The Arts! is next week! Sadly, I was forgetful about running a literary contest this year since April is National Poetry Month so here’s what we’re gonna do: hand selected pieces of noteworthy poems such as Saul Williams, unnamed poems and others! Huzzah!

Friends and Magick

Building friendships and magick. Sometimes they don’t mix.

I have to admit, sometimes when being openly Pagan, you can take a hit in the friend department, which can really hurt if you didn’t have many to start with. Since Paganism still has a strong stigma with it, you have to deal with a particular wonder of if people don’t like you for you or if you’d have better success being social if you weren’t such a pretty misunderstood faith.

Within the last ten years of me being Pagan, I have dealt with folks running from me, crossing the street when they see me, keeping me at a clear distance, arguing, appearing visibly threatened, giving me odd looks, the silent treatment, etc etc If it is a negative reaction short of actual assault, I have experienced it and man, is it something to get it from people you actually cared about, respected or held in high esteem. If anything, it makes you a little more cynical and apprehensive about meeting new people.

And this is with folks I’m open with. With others, it can be a total tightrope between talking about my life and censoring out the more important parts of it. So if I get frustrated because something not cool happened regarding Black Witch and I hang with these folks, I have to either learn to be really good at masking or come off as mysteriously moody. Or, if I have an amazing achievement, I can’t share it. And then there’s when positive experiences in my life that are related to Black Witch or the success of Black Witch have to be delivered with huuuuuuuuuge and disconnecting plot points, if at all.

As much as I would like to tell folks, “I’m Pagan, deal with it,” I can’t be that way to every single person on earth because believe it or not, there are still some folks who don’t know that I’m Pagan and the uphill battle of explaining to them may not be worth it. It’s really frustrating, mainly because I already know what has happened when I jumped out the broom closet so wantonly. I still think twice when sharing pictures from Pagan Humor on Facebook (they’re really funny, check it out!)

When I was part of the P.O.D. fan site, The Southtown, when I was around 15 or so, someone had asked about Wicca in the “Spiritual” section of the forum boards. Now, I was a regular there so no harm, no foul right? It was a pretty regular question any ol’ ways, as I thought, and I responded to it like a regular question. Oh wow, the response overnight was deafening. For those not in the know, P.O.D. (Payable On Death) is a rock band that can definitely be a bit Christian faith heavy so they have a tendency to attract Christian fans.

You can probably tell that it is not gonna be a happy story.

I never saw folks go 180 so fast ever before that. Maaaaaaan, people were pissed beyond belief. Bible thumping like never before, people sending me angry messages and pretty much no one coming to my defense until waaaaaaaaaaaaay later. Wow, so much for Christian kindness. These were people who already knew me prior beforehand but in an instant, disliked me as if they never cared to start with. And best of all, I had no one to go to, really. If these people who really liked me at some point in history turned really fast, who else wouldn’t? It was really disheartening. I only talk to about three people from that site today.

This kinda was my first experience in dealing with simply going, “Lemme just be as normal as possible about this faith and all will be fine,” and so early at that. Layer this on top of the fact that I have always sucked with being social with people because people didn’t always like me. When I was younger, it was because I could read, didn’t really find hip hop to die for (I got the feeling at a young age a lot of it wasn’t really that positive, especially to women), I liked learning and was made fun of for being different, lacking “Blackness” and never really understanding the other kids. I never was actively mean to people, I barely bothered people, if anything because I got the opposite. I just didn’t get people and never fitted in. Still pretty much don’t.

I didn’t always have a crappy experience with it came to making friends while Pagan. At the old metaphysical shop I used to go to, I interacted with plenty of people and even made some great connections there (mainly in the form of being a derpy teen hanging about a metaphysical shop daily). This is not to say every interaction was perfect, I still have my crappy social skills to account for but I really would be a little more social (read: total chatterbox) when comfortable.

So when it comes to dealing with people and being my usual worrisome self, it’s like dealing with the Pagan version of Negro Neurosis. Negro Neurosis is not being sure when a displeasing event occurred because you were unlucky or you simply were Black. The Pagan version would be me not knowing if the distance of friendship or reactions was because I really suck with people and they won’t tell me what’s wrong or because I’m Pagan and that squicks them out (perhaps a combo?) The best example of this is when I meet someone at a concert and they’re really warm and then out comes the fact that I’m Pagan either through friending each other on Facebook, I mention Black Witch or something and all of a sudden its pauses, careful wording and delayed responses as if, “Oh no! She’s really different. Not cutesy weird or mock weird or even artistic weird. She’s just plain weird and I have no idea how to interact.”

It really sucks.

Usually, when I have these issues with people, they’re tough to tackle. No one wants to look like the person who won’t be friends with someone because their faith is different but it doesn’t change the fact they may act that way. To tackle the subject can cause friction (which could have been avoided possibly) or become like pinning down a slippery fish. When I feel something is wrong in a friendship, I generally ask, “Is something wrong? We don’t seem to be getting along well” or something of the matter because, hey, might as well talk about a problem before it gets out of hand. Even when I have approached folks about it, I can be met with a stunting silence. I know some people would rather duck such a question to avoid hurt or abrasive feelings but if I’m at the point I have to outright ask what’s going on, we pretty much already punched out the “stung emotions” box on the Friendship Problems bingo card, might as well start getting things out in the open because been there, done that. Not a fun dance to just tease things out and slowly piece them together. I’ve lost the patience to wait for people to finally snap on me, have someone go from friend to fiend in what appears like a flash, cry over crumbling friendships. Instead, those things annoy me now. I take friendship seriously and if there is a problem I take that seriously, too, and rather fix a problem when it makes itself apparent.

When it is comes out that the fact I’m Pagan is an issue, I try to have a mini Q&A because honestly, whatever issue they have isn’t usually with my religion and its beliefs but whatever stigma they learned about it. I’m Pagan, the most harmful I get is that I want people to cut the rings in their six pack holders and I may ignore people if they have a cat/bird/hedgehog/dog/ferret in tow. Not exactly vicious. I rather get stuff like that out the way so that the friendship can grow unhindered, if it ever does. If it is about my personality, I just rather talk it out and see what is going on and how to fix it.

If anyone is wondering why I don’t outright cut off people the second they make me miffed or frustrated, firstly, that’s no way to have a friendship. Even a best friend will work your nerves from time to time because they are a separate person from you with their own thoughts and ideas. Plus, I’m simply a firm believer that sometimes people don’t even know that they’re doing something wrong unless notified and I am especially that. There have been times I unknowingly pissed someone off and didn’t find out until waaaaaaaaaaaay after the eruptive fall out because either a) they dropped really subtle hints that I never picked up or b) just got sick of dealing with me but didn’t want to talk to me about it when it first became a potential irritation.

It sucks trying making friends and not being entirely successful at it. Sucks even more when you learn part of it is because of your religion (or race, or gender). It’s really difficult when first encountering and easy to become bitter from because usually everyone tries to say they’re equal opportunity friendly, it isn’t always true. However, it’s up to you on if you want to maintain the tango of friendship, let them go or put your foot down. You don’t need to roll about with a big pentacle around your neck and you’ll learn – or have learned – that sometimes it’s better to keep quiet and take an L. Just move with what’s best for you but don’t be a doormat nor an explosive cannon.

And don’t forget: Hang out with Black Witch! Two events in Baltimore, Maryland!

BW Meet and Greet (April 14) : Let’s hang out and meet each other! This is the Black Witch Meet and Greet, where you can meet me, fellow readers and have fun. Located at the Washington Monument, (if it rains, we’ll be at the Central Library) this event is open to any and everyone. The meet and greet will be on April 14th starting at 1 PM EST and going to 4 PM. Be there! If this one is really successful, there will most likely be a monthly BW meet and greet.

Ka-ra-o-ke! Music Time With Black Witch! (May 5): I love singing and I especially love karaoke! So let’s do some karaoke together! We will gather at Rainbow Music Studio on 2126 Maryland 2 and have a room to sing the night away! Rooms prices are $35/hour for up to six people and increases by $10 when up to six more people show up (Ex: $45/hour for 12, $55/hour for 18, so on and so forth) so depending on how many people come, the price could be really small ($5.83 per person if up to six, $3.75 per person for up to twelve, so on and so forth) or bigger than that so although I will keep everyone updated, be sure to bring at least $15.

White Out: If You Can’t See it, it’s Not a Success!

Storytime! So one day I was at my local metaphysical shop and I saw a goddess statue for sale among many on the wall behind the register and mentioned, “Hey, that’s a nice Brigid you have.” It had a white dress on, pale skin, flowing hair, I figured it was a Celtic goddess. Then the shop assistant, who I have known for years, snorted a laughter and said, “That’s Yemaya.”

What?

I immediately responded, “You lyin’, she’s White,” and as solid proof, she took down the figurine and there it was beneath the pale feet was “Yemaya” stamped on the name plate.

Lemme throw up a picture here so y’all can see what I saw, sans the nameplate:

Yep, apparently she’s the only African Goddess with consistent sunburn

The shop assistant was just as baffled as me, “I don’t know why we have it, Yemaya is not White, she looks like she was dropped in bleach.” I told her, “Yemaya is whitewashed, why is she so light? Y’all should just chip out the ‘Yemaya’, chisel in a ‘Ceres’ or something and leave it there. Does anyone buy this? Has anyone noticed?”

“Nope, our supplier sent it to us and no one has noticed because her name plate is so small at a distance. I don’t know why we have her, the boss thought it would be fine, we do have Latin customers,” the shop assistant tried to reason through muffled laughter because the boss was in the back and the boss has had some testy problems with the community over race. In our hands was one of them.

“Nah, she could make Beyonce look like Wesley Snipes, y’all may have some Latin customers but apparently none with identity issues so strong this figurine is gonna make it off the wall. Would Yemaya even come if someone summoned her using this? If I were Her, I would stare at the statue and the witch asking for me and go, ‘Newp, whatever your problem is, it’s not as big as mine with that powder light statue. You’re on your own, laters,’” I couldn’t help but to joke.

Many laughs were had because of how ridiculously light this statue was. It reminded me of when I was at a now-defunct metaphysical shop out in the boonies and they had an Isis with a ski-slope nose and light enough to pass – nah, she was lighter than light enough to never be tested in the first place. I knew it was a White owned metaphysical shop with a clearly White consumer base there because I was the only one geeking on the racefail. All the Isis statues I have ever seen for the most part were Black. Black and very beautiful. A White Isis? Uh no. D’accord, this had made some folks at the meta shop uneasy because they knew I was right bringing up the inaccuracy but c’mon, if you’re gonna have deities from Africa, let them be from Africa, not Europe. Isis didn’t need a nose job and some skin lightener.

See, that’s things I don’t like, especially in Paganism. Do not whitewash anything, do not perform cultural swagger jacking of any type. It’s disrespectful beyond belief and if called out on it, do not cover it up. That’s like me stealing someone’s watch and when asked, “Is that my watch?” I respond, “Nah, man, I’ve always had this. Gift from my best friend, dude,” even when it’s clear the watch has a “Love, from mom and dad” inscribed on the side. Thieving is wrong, no matter what.

The part that kills me, though? Is when people try to make up for it with a million and ten excuses. This did not happen at my local meta shop clearly but definitely did at the now-defunct one. The main bullsh*t excuse? “Isis comes in all forms. Even Jesus has been portrayed as Black.” That makes me wanna strike with the fury of the Furies. Wanna know why Jesus was portrayed Black (even tho that’s entirely accurate either because Middle Eastern setting)? Because Jesus definitely was not vanilla White with L’Oreal straight, flowing hair and a perfect goatee. And Jesus only looks that way thanks to an Italian painter that didn’t want to do his research.

Look, Paganism is really, really diverse. Diverse background, faiths, myths, the whole kit and kaboodle. I don’t want that diversity to become All White Everything and anybody who tries to justify that makes me wanna turn their eyes All Black Everything.

It isn’t rocket science to keep things as they are, and if the Pagan doesn’t want to come out as racist, welp, they might as well. Racism can affect anyone but when it comes to White Pagans, they have an affliction which has dated back centuries, even before the existence of Paganism as we know it now. Don’t try to cover it up, just say, “I just want to rob your culture. I like it but I don’t like you, the end.” It would move things along a lot quicker. I learned a variety of culture growing up and also in Paganism and I never tried to turn everything I touched Black because that would be inaccurate of culture. Though, I’m sure if I did, White Pagans would crap a brick because they may be okay with heavy applications of White-Out, they’re pissed to see anything colored in. It’s not hard to include minorities for anything, I can ensure you. Y’know, as long as you’re not racist or do racist things, be it overt or micro-aggressive.

Thing is, Paganism isn’t all White. It’s not the White Pride club, that would be the Klan, Tea Party and GOP you’re thinking of. Africa is the home of the first human, China is the home of the longest standing civilization, how on earth does everyone wind up looking like they came from Milian? Even Gardiner, who created Wicca, took things from his (orientalized) Egyptian learning and from the Hindus as well (don’t that 3x thing sound a lot like karma? And how about reincarnation?) It may have a lot of European parts in it but check closer, there are few “Product of India/China/Egypt/native America” stickers on there. Paganism, again for the slow ones in the back, is not and never was White. Anyone who thinks that is a bigoted idiot, simple as that. It doesn’t matter how ones dresses it, they are exactly that. They are bigoted because they refuse to acknowledge that the world is not White. If anything, the world is mostly other than White so it is rude to ignore that. They are an idiot because clearly they do not know about Paganism from the Paleolithic era to now and very understudied in all the cultures of the world which are part of Paganism and a much bigger part at that. Again, for the really slow ones anywhere, Paganism is not a White Pride club, join the Klan for that or whatever White supremacy hate group is in your area.

If anything, I’m for accuracy and if we’re gonna be inaccurate, let’s color everything in. I want to be reflected and I will. Otherwise, there is hell to pay. I actually remembered some random dude made a dvd about “realistic Pagans” from “diverse backgrounds” and tried to tell me about so I could promote it here on BW. Ha, no. Unless he was talking hair color, there was no diversity, it was a bunch of White kids convening in the woods. I told the dude exactly that and plus some. When he has an 80-100% minority cast, then we can talk. Until then, go bother someone else or go back to the drawing board. I don’t prefer to support any Pagan ventures that won’t reflect me at all. If they feel folks that look like me should be absent from their works, then they should be absent from mine too. And it has to be an honest effort, not a “We have a token! Happy now?” Shivian of Oh My Gods! did that, thoroughly was not appreciated because the character was a clear afterthought. I liked the comics but he should have spent more brain cells on that choice.

What to leave with this? That there’s a world out there and it doesn’t look like how folks depict it on the tv, the movies or even the news. Please acknowledge it or find a new religion. Or just be Atheist and keep the whitewashing out of religion as a whole.

Now, that’s done. The BWshoppe has been really poppin! The marimos are my biggest sellers, I can barely keep them in stock with all the demands. W00t! I was going to introduce a new marimo, a lux marimo but I’mma have to save that for later for I have hit some snags. Nothing bad but definitely don’t want to jump the gun on anything.

Next week on The Arts! is what was what it should have been last month before I fell sick:

- Red Oak Wands/ Merlin’s Realm
- Smooth E
- Nikki Lynette
- What Are You Doing Here? (Laina Dawes) Black Women in Heavy Metal

So Cold

Cold Readings are something every diviner should have done at least a good dozen time before saying they’re certain divination works. Although occasionally nerve wracking, they’re necessary. What cold readings are is exactly that, reading a person on practically zero information, forcing the reading to work on its own merits instead of analyzing the person somehow and using whatever gathered as an aid.

I did them when I first started out in divination through Mystick Wicks and even the message board Fort Minor. On Mystick Wicks, there’s a subforum where you could read for others (as long as it was a free service) and on Fort Minor, I had a dream interpretation thread. Being this is the internet, it made for plenty thoroughly cold readings because all I had was a screen name to really go off of and even that can be misleading so I basically did my readings pretty blind and let the divination speak for itself. It was great because it shut out possible distractions and I had a super high success rate. Very rarely I was wrong and usually it was when I was second guessing myself or trying to scratch for clues that weren’t there.

Cold readings in person were something different because there, there are some clues and they can be super distracting. A lot can be said about a person based on their dress, mannerisms, colloquialisms, accents, race, gender and age. With a little psychology and sociology and a couple readers on intersectionality, you can pretty much guess someone’s life views and the decisions they’ll make in individual situations. Thing is, not everyone is their supposed science and culture stats and that can be a total throw off. To be honest, this is how readings are supposed to be done. Granted, it isn’t easy because everyone carries biases and those can definitely get in the way.

When I do use what info I gather, it’s to gauge how frank I’ll be. Young yuppie? Outstandingly brutally honest. Elderly and blue collar? Much nicer and don’t sugarcoat but be polite. Those are my own biases because I personally don’t care to be sensitive to overly sheltered and privileged folks but for those who had a hard but earnest life, I take it easy on them. However, this is only if nothing else gets in the way.

I remember doing a cold reading on one person at my university’s Pagan Student Union event when we paired up with House of Ruth and with this one person, I couldn’t help but get a psychic ping on a rape. This person was young and kinda scared but if I didn’t get that ping, I would have just brushed it off as another person who thinks divination is scary or condemning. The cards were definitely referring to a troubling incident that was trying to be covered up and thus filled with a lot of distracting opinions from those with ulterior motives. I do remember I did not just come out with “So, apparently you were raped real recently,” because I have more tact and kindness than that, especially for something so harrowing an ordeal. Besides we had our event out in the open where there was tons of people milling about, not the best place to talk about something so private. Instead I just read the cards as is and added that she should seek out a counselor and even a place that could give her legal and other help as well. She left and I talked to one of my friends who was already running the event, Jess, and brought up my ping. Jess told me that I was right and very glad that I handled it with kid gloves because she was apparently a little shaken since it really was recent and it was even her first time learning about the House of Ruth. I didn’t know that the person was a victim but I picked up on it though she said nothing about it – I wouldn’t be surprised if she was still at the denial/self-blaming stage, which is a tough one to get through – and despite it being a partnership event with House of Ruth, I didn’t get a ping on anything that big any other time of the day.

Not all cold readings hit the mark. Oh no, I’ve misinterpreted my divination before – everyone who has done divination long enough has. That’s what makes cold readings risky: if you’re good, you’ll be right most of the time but when you’re wrong, it really hits you. And depending on the person you’re reading for and how averse they are to divination, you could be risking your rep. Divination is not to be done simply to prove to someone it exists, it isn’t a party trick, but when you’re wrong and the person on the other side of the screen or table already sees it as one, it can be hard to deal with the response afterward because they’re full on, “I knew it was fake! Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! Faker.” And, boom, you look no different or no better than Miss Cleo and her fake accent. Wrong cold readings can be from a variety of reasons from being simply too tired or hungry (I actually really do not like to do divination if I haven’t eaten first for this reason. Plus, I’m really cranky when hungry) or being stressed or simply, this reading was read wrong or wrong all along. It happens.

Here, I was on Mystick Wicks doing divination for people and I remember for one reading, I used the Celtic Cross for the very first time instead of my usual spreads. I heard that it was a massively easy spread and make for simpler readings so ‘ey, why not? Welp, it was hard for me to connect with the spread because it was so different from anything that I ever used and thus I picked up absolutely nothing from it. I still had the cards in front of me so I still tried to amble together something through the cards and present them to the inquirer. I got a PM back in about a couple days later – maybe less than that – from them and man, they were not happy with what they got. There was not a single thing I was right about at all. It’s Mystick Wicks so the person isn’t a douche about it but they didn’t mask their displeasure either, which did jab me a little but did teach me that I sucked at Celtic Cross and to not ever test a new spread blind on a reading for someone else.

Cold readings, as mentioned before, can be frustrating. The first part to learning how to do them well is to unlearn looking for clues and identifying biases but the second and hardest part is learning to trust yourself and your intuition. Occasionally, some are gonna get screwed up and be flat out, wrong. That’s totally okay, no need to worry about having a perfect batting average. Instead, just focus on honing your intuition that will be needed for the readings.

Now that’s done for this week. Time to hock mah wares!

The BWshoppe has added a new marimo phone charm! This one has one of my favorite stones, rutilated quartz. For those who don’t know what a marimo is, click here. For those who would like to buy a marimo phone charm with either amethyst or rutilated quartz at the bottom, click here.

So Real, It’s Fake: Afriboos and Science

Just in! Black Witch is officially available on the Kindle for $0.99! First 14 days are free so check it out!

I was around close to downtown and looked at some of the books in the local shops and stalls. Some of these books are the predictable Afriboo* types that talk about science and politics and social structures but I picked up this one because the cover was that comedic.

I mean, look at that cover, doesn’t it scream “All my facts are going to be more slanted than Fox News on President Obama”? You have the obvious Afriboo name, even with an actual Afrika as the last name. Then there’s the super poor, super grainy molecular structure picture. This is already the first red flag – not necessarily the poor quality picture but the joke structure they got up there. Looking at the University of Virginia’s chemistry page, it explains that the exact structure of melanin is quite elusive. And here’s a Wikipedia page that talks more in depth about melanin, even throwing out a few actual structures since there are different types of melanin.Yeah, you’ve probably noticed that the structure doesn’t look as complex and “scientific-y” as what this book has. I guess I should be pleased that the dude didn’t figure out how to craft this into an ankh somehow. Y’know, because the first Blacks are from Kenya/the African Equator Egypt. And those daring bulletpoints! You would think that this book would be the size of a tome if it were going to go into all of these intriguing facts instead of a basic bathroom reader. What, did the dude not want to intimidate the Black race with extended literacy and literature?

Then there’s the back of the book, which explains that it didn’t want to use Latin so that even the most basic simpleton could get it. But here’s the thing, Latin is well infused in English. Like the words “ridicule” (ridere), the terms patron and matron (pater/mater), frigid (frigere), fraternity/sorority (frater/soror) so on and so forth. If you wanna see more Latin injected into language, look at the Romantic** languages French, Italian and Spanish. I understand that some terms like Jaundice (which means “yellow”) can be really intimidating sounding because it’s more than just Latin terms but there’s Greek as well but they have English counterparts and can be explained because they have to since the average person is not a doctor. The book said that a lot of melanin chatter has a lot of Latin in it but that should not be the problem itself and trust and believe anyone can learn Latin. It’s the internet, just Google and learn. I learned it in high school, it’s not that difficult. This guy is just trying the lazy argument of “Oh man, they’re talkin’ a different language than us Blacks, that’s how they’re tryin’ to keep us down”. It would have been a great argument in the 1800s or so because it was a relevant argument but nowadays, there is the internet. And calling Latin an “awkward, primitive” language – don’t he sound an awful lot like White folks who say the same about Black slang and Black languages as a whole?

The table of contents, they smell of Afriboo goodness and material. Pseudo-scientific terminology? Check. African-esque font? Ka-chek. Lack of bibliography? Check. Mentioning “melanin” so many times you’d think the whole book would say “Melanin. Melanin melanin mel. Mel melanin melanin Black melanin. Melanin” and nothing else? Check. Possible nonsense use of metaphysical concepts such as chakras and zodiacs (Most likely tropical zodiac, which is pretty Western)? Check and mate. You can almost hear the internalized racism and backward spewing that’s about to happen humming. I could already bet five bucks this dude was gonna say something a)homophobic b) racist, even against Blacks and especially anything outside the Black/White spectrum c) sexist/misogynistic.

And then, there was the anatomy section.

The anatomy section what I randomly found myself on when I first flipped through the book and I was laughing. Like, mad rollin.

This section is so poorly done I really am shocked anyone takes it seriously. Here came some of the misogyny: The dude couldn’t name the proper parts of a woman’s genitalia. Like, everything was “vagina” something.

Black Race, left; White Race, right

“Vagina Lips”? Really? 27 flippin years as a supposed “doctor” and you don’t even know the freaking basics? Someone did try to tell me that the dude wanted to keep it simple but this is keeping it ignorant and really not benefiting women – or anyone else – in the least. Firstly, there are two sets of lips in the genitalia (not everything is the vagina, folks. Trust me, I own a set) and that is the labia minora and the labia majora. Oh noes! LATIN. What does this secret Latin talk mean?! Easy, labia majora is “big lips” and labia minora is “little lips” and they refer to the outer and inner lips of the vulva, which is the female outer genital region. And let’s get into the comparison between White and Blacks (and, of course, ignore everyone else in the world because according to this book: eh, screw ‘em). Apparently Black women are supposed to be tighter (lololololo, virgin reference), have something like a lengthened flora lifespan. White chicks are supposed to be “smaller”, that’s it. Is. He. Serious? This is medicinal science? More like a travesty to it. I’ve read longer, better written pieces on the labia/vulva on Tumblr. Not all Black women are built the same down there. Yes, there are trends related to racial physical  structure but this surely isn’t it. And notice that the whole “tightness” thing doesn’t really have anything to do with women in and of themselves but what a woman’s body can do for a guy because why on earth would the average woman care if they have vacuum seal or not since it has nothing to do with the body besides intercourse? (And with a dude, of course, gay folks don’t exist!) This is stupid, misogynistic and very short sighted. And about the whole “flora” thing, that already has super wavy logic because I don’t think the Black woman labia naturally keeps microorganisms better because that sounds like illnesses such as yeast infection and such are bound to happen rampantly because the vagina apparently can’t flush itself out with natural discharge. Yeah. Stupid logic. Unless flora is a pseudonym for “semen”, lolz. With how wack this doc is, I wouldn’t put it past him. Not when he seems to lack understanding of the female human body when it is not in relation to a man.

“Vaginal shaft” is where a red flag parade should be in full stomp and speed right now. Wanna know the legit name for the vaginal shaft? Vagina. This is the vagina, folks. Really. Freakin. Basic. It is not a vaginal shaft, it is the vagina, in and of itself. No one has to be a doctor to know that fact, you should know that just from staying awake in Health or Biology in high school. And again with the whole “relation to a man thing”! The Black woman vagina is supposed to be longer and allow increased muscular activity? Seriously? Basically, “this only exists for the peen of the Black man and nuttin’ else!” Yeah, that’s not science, that nonsense. And it’s rude too because the vagina doesn’t exists strictly so a guy as something to stick his penis in (note that the vagina, uterus and the rest of the baby making parts don’t disappear in lesbians), if there is going to be scientific, medical discussion about genitalia, the talk has to be about that organ exclusively, not how it can serve others. This guy doesn’t see women as people, does he?

The “penis” part is funny because of some of the same reason as the previous two, it’s scientifically inaccurate and more sex-based than anything. Not every Black dude has a dong that could parallel the Sears Tower, it’s a racist factoid that was created by White culture waaaaaaaaaay back when some centuries ago to dehumanize Black folks (“Because if you make Blacks more animal-like, then slavery and racism doesn’t look that bad!” is how they saw it) and this was one of the ways, by exaggerating features. Thanks for continuing the work of White socio-cultural prejudice, doc! And the penis exists for more than just being a jizz launcher but I guess in the eyes of this doc, that doesn’t really matter much.

The stemoclavicular muscle? Firstly, that’s a joint. There’s a sternohyoid muscle and a stemoclavicular joint. They’re in the same regions (which is pretty apparent in their names) and hey, I thought this dude said that he was gonna stay away from big and difficult words? And dude, wtf? You compared Black people to monkeys. Let this marinate for a second, folks. He said “monkey”. Not in the evolution-man-came-from-monkeys, way but in the Black-people-are-like-monkeys way. He didn’t take the scientific route but the racist route. Monkeys. Are you kidding me? Dude. No.

I could spend all day on this section – seriously, check out the “sacral spot” and “breath” – but we gotta move on, this whole book’s crappy nature has to be exposed in all its Afriboo glory.

Here comes the fake psychology! Firstly, it’s sociological trends I think this dude is trying to note as psychology has more to do with the individual and sociology has more to do with the collective/crowd. Duh.

Throughout this whole thing, it seems the quack is trying to paint Whites as this unfeeling animal that is not capable of humanity or thought. Now, though there are many passages in the pages of history that could definitely loan itself to those ideas about the race (chattel slavery, institutionalized racism, colorism, atom bombing, church bombings, colonialism, lynchings, imperialism, Vietnam War, Laos, Iraq, South Africa/apartheid, stealing land from the indigenous and the treatment of the indigenous thereafter, Civil Rights movement, etc etc etc), science is still supposed to be objective. Racialized science is a bad idea, no matter whose side it’s defending. And the stuff for Blacks in this section is absolutely pathetic and completely erroneous and/or unscientific.

Is this quack serious? Blacks are monotheistic? You’re joking, right? There are hundreds, if not thousands of tribes in Africa (because, remember, it’s a continent) and I can very much assure you that they were polytheistic as all get out. Polytheism stems from animism and animism was pretty much one of the first metaphysical concepts of human as they were trying to figure out this world that surrounds them through personification. And I’m pretty freakin sure that when this guy says “monotheistic”, it’s code for “Abrahamic”. As in, Blacks are supposed to be naturally Christian or Muslim (remember, there’s that weird anti-Semitic thing about Judaism Afriboos have so that’s not always counted). Which is, frankly, Grade-A, USDA approved, utter bullsh*t. It’s not a “European” concept to believe in many gods, especially since Europe as we all know it came later than Africa and Asia, which houses some of the very first civilizations. Did he buy his degree from the internet?

Then there’s the part that paints the Black race with the broadest brush evar: Maat. Everything is all about Maat, which participates in the usual hyper focus of Egypt and the culture of the land there. Kemet is nifty but it sure ain’t all there is to Africa, trust. And not all Blacks, since we don’t move in lockstep and there’s no All Black Everything convention to decide how to move in lockstep, are going to buy the whole Maat/Kemet thing for themselves. I don’t practice strictly African traditions and neither does everyone else who is Black and Pagan. We acknowledge it because it does deserve that and no one should attempt to scribble away its validity but not every Black person is going to adhere to it because not every Black person is exactly the same. And this so-called “doc” should stop trying to use Maat as an excuse for everything from civility to science to sex (especially sex, this guy really should never hop on that subject ever again). It doesn’t look cool when the Christians do it with Jesus, it doesn’t look any better with Maat.

Just like the anatomy section, the psych section is filled with failure. Like, all fail.

And ‘ey yo, look! We have our own sleep pattern!

I didn’t know our sleeping was so…so…cosmic. I thought I snooze the same way my non-Black friends do. I mean, yeah there’s things like lucid dreaming, dream walking and astral projection, those are totally legit and fine. But those happenings are not race exclusive, many cultures have some sort of manifestation for these events, these instances are human experiences, they’re worldwide. It’s not a Black Only event is what I’m trying to say and not every Negro has this amazing experience as described. We collect our z’s the same way as everyone else does.

Oh, hey, hijacking other cultures holistic methods! Discussing chakras and the zodiac? Those two didn’t start in Africa. That’s more Middle East/Western concepts. So much for staying Blacker than Black. And then, create all this misinformation that is full of crap and even goes as far as denigrating the races/culture these concepts came from. Totes rad, man. Totes rad.

This book, as you can see for yourself, is complete rubbish. It’s definitely a laugh but it’s also concerning when noticing that folks take this literary crap bucket seriously. It’s bigoted, misogynistic, filled with erroneous facts, actually racist against Blacks, just worthless as anything potentially intellectual. It’s an insult to those who actually studies and preserves African culture and Africana diaspora culture only to be compared against completely written up trash created by someone who calls himself a doctor but has the term “fraud” next to their name commonly in Google searches. Just skimming this book (like I’d actually read this from cover to cover, please) and picking out random sections, I can see where the accusations are coming from.

Folks, just stay away from Afriboo books, they’re bad for your intellect and we Blacks deserve way more than this waste of paper and binding. No wonder these folks are so easily laughed out of lauded institutions and circles, not even considered a slight threat.

Next week is The Arts! Let’s see who is gonna get featured

- Red Oak Wands/ Merlin’s Realm
- Smooth E
- Nikki Lynette
- What Are You Doing Here? (Laina Dawes) Black Women in Heavy Metal

After that is Ask Black Witch so send in your questions! Good questions are appreciated, bad questions are eviscerated. Pow!

*Afriboo: A term coined here on Black Witch to describe those who have a sharply biased infatuation with the continent Africa in the same manner weaboos do for Japan. Read the initial post here: Blacked Out Blind

** Romantic languages mean they stem from Latin, which was spoken in Roman culture, hence the term “Romantic languages”

All Wands Everything

Happy New Year! W00t!

So, I have been in the market for a wand for a while. I never really had an interest in them except for a couple years ago when I saw some fantastic crystal tipped, wire wrapped wands and thus I have an on and off desire to look for them. Since I don’t really know of any wand makers in Baltimore or Maryland and the ones I see in the metaphysical shops looks lame to me, onward to Etsy I go! It seems to have everything I want in one place, I would not trust Ebay at all and google searches are headache inducing.It’s best that the wand is handmade, anything manufactured would not really feel the same in usage since it wouldn’t really mean much. Besides, the average wand is made of wood, to have them mass produced just doesn’t seem right since wands are supposed to be as different as the people buying or picking them.

First thing I noticed when I searched for wands on Etsy is the “Harry Potter ZOMGZ” overload and by the 25^th page, it was kinda getting a little freakin annoying. I like Harry Potter, the books were very well written and the wands in the movie were fantastic but, please, not everyone is buying a wand for a prop. Some of the wands in the book cannot be recreated so simply (like phoenix or unicorn cored wands) and for the love of the gods, we get it, it’s supposed to be all mystical and magical, calm down. The descriptions for wands should not be corny or misleading. I already noticed a couple that said they had powerful spells in the handle of the wand and were used in spell duels. Immediately, I closed the tab, they’re clearly shooting for the teenage Pottermore crowd, even though some of the price tags clearly don’t agree. Now this doesn’t mean that one should totally pass up the HP inspired wands or any other inspired wands. I have seen some with R2-D2 and Sailor Moon wands, they’re great for younger practitioners or the young at heart. Inspired is fine but it’s important that the seller doesn’t mistakenly insult their potential buyer with leaning too heavy on the books because it’ll make that wand look like a cosplay prop very fast.

When it comes to looking up wands, the person who made it should be able to tell you everything about the wand. What is it made of (wood, wire, stone), how long is it (8”, 23”) and any other important details (crystal tipped, cored, creation of handle) that is a must-know. I have seen a couple nice wands but the person didn’t include what kind of wood or stone and that put me off because I want to be sure I’m getting what I’m buying. The only downside to buying wands online is that you can’t hold them and get a feel for them. I’m mega picky with wands and various other Pagan products to the point that even if I like the look – and trust, there’s plenty that look stunning – but if I don’t like the energy it gives, I won’t want it. I’m not buying a wand simply because it’s pretty but also for witchy practice. You pretty much gotta stare at pictures and try to sense what would be best for you. There is one maker that does give out free wood samples though to see how it would resonate with you (it’s the last picture on the bottom) and I think that’s great.

As far as price is concerned, that’s up to the practitioners. All a wand is, is simply a stick with possibly some embellishments on them. I’ve seen wands that are in the range of $5-$10, I’ve seen wands that are straight in the hundreds. I want a wand that won’t break the bank and I’ll not regret once getting it. Last I want to do is go after opening the box and lamenting, “I just paid $80 for a branch. A branch off a tree. A dang stick. Which grows for free. I spent more on a stick that grows for free than I do my electric bill.” That wand has to be something interesting and worth the price. The wand I was hunting for was $25, not a bad price for what the wand is made of and the fact I’ve been searching it for nearly half a decade.

The average wand should be the size of your forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Now, unless someone is going to go for a custom made or limits themselves to wands that are that size, that isn’t always applied here. I have seen wands being sold that are about 8” and I have seen wands in person that were about 5” tall. It really varies for the practitioner. I would like a wand that is preferably reaching a foot. Apparently, in my wand search, there are several that say they come with certificates of authenticity. I can see how they are supposed to reassure the purchaser but the thing is they’re not backed by some council of wand makers or anything. It is assumed that the wand you’re depicting is yours (I know there are some wayward folks on Etsy but follow me) so to me the certificates seem pointless a little bit.

What I think are really cool are the cored wands. Wands with actual cores such as this one which is an ironwood with horse hair in the core. There’s also another that can be cored with bone or a particular wood. Part of this is indeed because I am a Harry Potter fan, ha! Another is because a cored wand could lend more to ritual working and spell working. I just think it’s amazing but it’s no promise and definitely no must that the wand I get will be cored, the one I have been searching for wasn’t and that didn’t bother me.

Looking at the wands, it’s clear that they come in such different types and styles. Not all wands are made of wood, there are plenty that have a glass or bone base or totally made of wrapped wire. Some are really whimsical looking such as this cute copper wand, and some that have some polymer clay on them. I would not prefer a wand made of polymer clay or resin because they’re not entirely natural but it is great for those who may prefer them. There’s even lavender wands, which I think look great! For the wooden wands, not all are simple, slender sticks. Some are forked, clearly modified driftwood, things of that nature. That’s pretty good for those who want the roughness of nature that a straight wand could not provide. Some have defined handles and others don’t. It may be expressed through leather wrapping or carved out. It doesn’t matter to me either way if it has a super defined handle or not but I still thought this was pretty nifty. I just love how diverse the wands are. Here’s a wand that has little skulls carved in it! And another that has a claw holding an amethyst. Like I said, there’s wands for just about every practitioner, you just have to look for them.

For me, I did finally find the wand I was looking for and it turned out to be the wands I saw all those years ago. After looking at over 105 pages of Etsy finds under the word “Wands” and 32 possible wand choices, I finally found wand I was looking for. It’s pretty tapered, just how I like them, and no definitive handle but a lovely copper wire-wrapped point with crystals at the tip set on red oak or ironwood. A lil’ bit of sleuthin has brought me to this site, Magic Wands of Wizardry. Check them out! They made the wands I fell for all those years ago. These wands are fantastic in person and it took me years to find so don’t be surprised if it winds up on the “Links of Interests”. It’s definitely getting featured in this month’s The Arts! without a doubt!

I hope this helped you out, it was quite a task for me to simply sit down and search. And for once, it actually got me the wand I actually wanted and have been looking for for years, a lovely ironwood  with a copper wrapped tip that holds a moss agate and clear quartz.