Some Beautiful Views from a Green Witch

[starborn]

I was just reading Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews: Herbal Potions, Magical Teas, and Spirited Libations by Amy Blackthorn. (https://www.amazon.com.au/Blackthorns-Botanical-Brews-Spirited-Libations/dp/1578637155)

Anyway, there were a few interesting sections that I wanted to share. But I’ll go one at a time.

Art and Science

When asking a witch what magic is, one is likely to get several mixed answers. The most common is Aleister Crowley’s definition, which resonates with me: “Magic is the art and science of creating change in accordance with will.” That’s a lot of information to take in.

Crowley didn’t put “art and science” in there by mistake. The art of magic is entirely separate from the science of magic. The art of magic is the difference between a painting by one of the masters and a paint-by-numbers copy. Creating magic has art involved, in the same way painting does. Anyone can paint and have fun with it, just as anyone can recite a rhyming couplet. (Yes, anyone. Signed languages have as much art and poetry as any spoken word.) What makes the difference between a rhyming couplet and magic is the spirit of the person reciting them.

I will summarise the next bit.

Science and Magic

Some feel that science and magic are antithetical, but scientists make great witches. In a way, both witches and scientists use the Scientific Method. For those of you who are a little rusty, the Scientific Method is a (generally) agreed-upon set of procedures in investigating anything related to science.

7 Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Pose your question.
2. Design and conduct research.
3. Form your hypothesis.
4. Experiment, testing the hypothesis.
5. Make observations based on the data you collect during the experiments.
6. Use your results to form your conclusion.
7. Communicate with others in the field and out.

7 Steps of the Witchcraft Method

1. State the need.
2. Conduct research.
3. Write the spell/ritual.
4. Do the thing.
5. Make observations.
6. Use your results to form your conclusion.
7. Communicate. Present/share your results. Replicate.

That the parallel is drawn so clearly between the two is really cool. Maybe that’s my INTP talking (What is your MBTI? - #6 by starborn), but hey, I love it!

[Satans_Helper]

They are so similar

Oh here is my test I took I never saw it on the poll. Mine wasn’t there

[starborn]

Oh, neat!

But INFP is there. I can see someone else voted herself on it.

P.S.

lol

[starborn]

Note about the following snippet: I read what she’s saying as a necessary response to the pressures newer witches feel when they dive in and see all the social media content around light versus dark. Out of context, this can sound overly critical. But I believe the context is important, her intent is good, and the message itself is wonderfully practical and empowering.

A Note on Curses, Hexes, and Jinxes

In this age of “love and light,” it is important to remind readers that any living thing exposed to light, and only light, all day and all night, will shrivel and die. Living things need rest. Nature needs balance. Without light, there is no darkness. Plant a seed; it’s in the dark.

Darkness does not mean badness. This idea comes from a racist heritage and needs to be corrected. White does not equal good. Black does not equal bad. Telling people that standing up for themselves and refusing to accept abuse makes them wrong enables abuse. No one deserves to be abused. Ever. If magic is agency, then hexes or bane work is the available recourse for wrongs done. It is not our job to heal our abusers. PS: Karma doesn’t apply here either. Karma is a concept that belongs to Buddhism and Hinduism and applies across lifetimes, for the next lifetime. Karma has nothing to do with being cut off in traffic or even spell casting.

The Rule of Three that is often lauded as the be-all/end-all is mostly misunderstood. It is not a universal law, as it applies mainly to Wiccans and not even all Wiccans. The Rule of Three isn’t some magical multiplication table designed to make us feel bad or to punish wrongdoers. If that were the case, there would be fewer wrongdoers and a lot more abusers in prison. What this principle refers to is the effect our magic has on our 1) mind, 2) body, and 3) spirit. What this means is that if you feel wrong about a spell you’ve cast, that guilt will weigh on your conscience, you might have stomach cramps or some other physical sign, and you’ll feel cruddy about yourself. If you’re feeling guilty, you can remediate the spell you’ve done as best you can. It does not mean three bad things are going to happen to you because you’re a terrible person. If you aren’t feeling guilty, none of those things happen.

Poet Victor Anderson, co-founder of the Feri witchcraft tradition, once said, “White magic is poetry; black magic is anything that actually works.” While I’ve already explained that this is a false dichotomy and hurtful to people of color, it is worth stating that magic that works affects, by definition. Good and evil are so subjective. Doing a job spell to get work because I’ve been out of work is good, right? I’ll be able to pay my bills and contribute financially. But if you get that job, someone, or several someones who also have costs, didn’t get it. You want to ease the suffering of a friend with terminal cancer, but prolonging their suffering is cruel. Cursing child molesters so they are caught and incarcerated means that they can’t harm children while locked away. These are all things we need to think about when discussing our magical intent.

Good vibes are a nice thought, but intention doesn’t always count as much as we think it should. The most popular metaphor for this is dropping a plate on the floor and having it shatter. Apologizing to the plate isn’t going to magically repair the damage done. The plate isn’t showered in a rain of glitter that makes it all better, the way TV magic makes it seem. Everyone messes up sometimes. Words hurt. Own up to it and apologize with feeling and conviction. The hardest part of apologizing is knowing that no one is obligated to forgive us for wrongdoing. That’s scary because it makes us vulnerable, but that doesn’t mean we don’t owe it to ourselves and others to be the best person we can be, whether or not someone is there to absolve you of your guilt.

[Satans_Helper]

I looked through it like five times lol

Out of hearts again

[starborn]

You’re looking for #8 in the list.

Unless the order is random. Eek!

[Satans_Helper]

Thanks for sharing this Great information

[Satans_Helper]

Lol it’s crazy I missed it

[starborn]

I feel like the more I look at that list of letters, the more my brain feels like scrambled eggs.

[Satans_Helper]

Man that very well could be. I was stressed so it’s very possible

[tracyS]

A nice balanced responce. Good read, thankyou.

[Mystique]

Love this! It’s nice to see the law of 3 and the “black” and “white” magick explained so clearly. So many people misunderstand this. Thank you so much for sharing this!

[Phoenix_Rose]

@starborn

This idea comes from a racist heritage and needs to be corrected.

Arguably, fear of the dark happened long before other races saw each other. Cavemen weren’t travelling around the world. According to scientific hypotheses the fear of the dark happened long ago when humans were not the top of the food chain. Many of the predators humans fell prey to hunted at night. As well, humans have always been afraid of the unknown.
If racism is related to the fear of the dark I would say the existing fear of the dark was then transferred to someone who had dark skin. I am not so sure that fear of dark and white magic is based on racism.
However racism must stop and does need to be corrected.

[MeganB]

@starborn

I will summarise the next bit.

I really enjoyed the summary here and the juxtaposition of the scientific method with the witchcraft method. It makes my logical little heart happy

I’ve also never seen the Rule of Three explained the way the author explains it. If I remember correctly, Doreen Valiente had said that Gardiner made up the Rule of Three randomly, just because! I think the explanation offered by the author here makes a whole lot more sense than a general “energy returned to you three times over” – our magic has an effect on all three bodies we have, not just our spiritual one.

@Phoenix_Rose

If racism is related to the fear of the dark…

It’s not that racism is related to the fear of the dark. In this case, specifically speaking about magical traditions and words in the United States, the term “black magic” is said to have been applied to any spiritual tradition brought to the States by enslaved people. This may be where the assumption that Voodoo is all baneful magic comes from. It was demonized by the early white settlers who tried to stamp out the religious and spiritual practices of the enslaved people they owned.

This is also going to differ depending on where you live because the phrases mean different things to different cultures. However, in the US, it’s said that the phrase “black magic” has roots in racism because of the attempted eradication of African Traditional Religions brought to North America during the slave trade.

Now, I say things like “thought” and “supposed” because it’s really hard to prove, but I can see where those lines and connections have been made.

[tracyS]

This is interesting, a little history for me, explains perhaps the intensity in some of Juliet Diaz’s books (my favourite author). Here black magic, or black books refers to grimoires and is more about occult secrecy, I guess from the days where you’d be killed for witchcraft . Black magic is more often called the dark arts and amongst witches that I’ve spoken to here, is generally accepted as just part and parcel of the craft. I’ve not seen it in a racial context before.

[MeganB]

@tracyS

I’ve not seen it in a racial context before.

Yeah, the history and cultural context part here is important. I don’t think the phrase “black magic” has any racial connotations outside the United States. It’s funny because in Ireland they don’t use the phrase “black man” because, historically, that phrase was used to refer to the devil. In Irish, the phrase is actually “blue people” as an alternative.

Duine gorma is the term that is used in Irish to reference black people, yet, translated directly; duine means person and gorm means blue; so black people in Irish are blue people in English (or something). This was many years before The Smurfs, Avatar or the Blue Man Group would enter the cultural zeitgeist, so why then would the Irish language use blue to describe black? It was not a case of there being an absence of a word for black in Irish; dubh was as common in Irish as black is in English, and indeed the dub in Dublin originates from this. Though it is uncertain as to why duine gorma is used in Irish, there are two theories. One is that the use of the work for ‘black’ would make the term too close to fear dubh (black man), which is used to refer to the devil in Irish; another is related to the blue colour of clothing that the Tuareg of North Africa wore who were regular trading partners with the Irish for many centuries before Douglass set foot in the country.

The Black Irish and the Blue Douglass — #DouglassWeek.

Anyway, just a fun little snippet of Irish language and culture

[tracyS]

Lovely bit of history again, , thankyou, didn’t know that either, and Ireland’s just across the waters.

[MeganB]

You’re welcome these little historical snippets are always interesting to learn! I’m glad I could impart some wisdom to you, too lol

[Phoenix_Rose]

@MeganB

In this case, specifically speaking about magical traditions and words in the United States, the term “black magic” is said to have been applied to any spiritual tradition brought to the States by enslaved people.

Ahh! I see. Thank you for clarifying!

[starborn]

@Mystique

It’s nice to see the law of 3 and the “black” and “white” magick explained so clearly.

I was feeling the same. I got that lightbulb moment reading about the law of 3 like, “Oh my stars, that makes so much more sense to me!”

@Phoenix_Rose

If racism is related to the fear of the dark I would say the existing fear of the dark was then transferred to someone who had dark skin.

As someone who has lived in places other than the US, that was my first thought as well. While it seems that’s not the case in this scenario, I have seen instances where colour really affects someone’s perception towards a thing, i.e. unclean = brown, evil = black. So, it’s likely the case in some areas.

@MeganB

It makes my logical little heart happy

Me, too. And it makes sense! Once upon a time, there wasn’t this hard separation of schools of knowledge and thought. Everything was a science. And I think witchcraft itself is, too. We don’t need lab suits to work with energy, mix materials to create new things, and so on.

@MeganB

I don’t think the phrase “black magic” has any racial connotations outside the United States.

I’d say so, too, but Australia is heavily influenced by the culture of the US. It might be safe to assume it’s kind of the same here, even though we don’t have quite the same background.*

For example, we’re slowly adopting US-style Halloween celebrations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thanksgiving crept in more than it has, despite our lack of relevant history or ties to what it is in the US.

* Okay, the settlers have done horrible things to those who came before. So, perhaps I spoke too quickly.

@MeganB

just a fun little snippet of Irish language and culture

I love the little dives into history and culture this brings out. Thank you. Knowledge sets us free (and helps us not repeat the mistakes of the past).

@starborn

The hardest part of apologizing is knowing that no one is obligated to forgive us for wrongdoing. That’s scary because it makes us vulnerable, but that doesn’t mean we don’t owe it to ourselves and others to be the best person we can be, whether or not someone is there to absolve you of your guilt.

I was thinking about this again a while ago, mostly because of watching movies and series. It felt like there were people in them who acted like saying sorry is this magical word that makes everything bad go away, as though people are obligated to forgive them once those words are said.

Anyway, my point is simply that it was nice to read this explained in this way. I’ve had a lot of difficulty over the years trying to explain my belief that good intentions don’t absolve everything.