- Feb 5, 2002
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*You are in the Catholic forum*
Having taken a quiet moment to consider, I have decided, after all, not to be a witch, but a Catholic instead. Now, I know, witchery is in vogue. The election season was a veritable season of the stuff, with TikTok hexes and covens for cursing Trump getting ample airtime from journalists whose motivating principle seemed to be, "Hey, what's weird today?"
Admittedly, the green touch of envy colors my critique: Women get to be witches and it's all very edgy and personally fulfilling and even a little bit sexy. Male warlocks, for their part, remain big nerds. Witches get to sell jewelry and hand-lotion at music festivals. Try selling mystical potpourri as a wizard — you'll get laughed out of Coachella.
It will be said, of course, that the occult is kosher for womyn and cringe for myn because being a witch is a protest against the patriarchy, understood, in this context, as the historical domination and subjugation of women to Male Power: "We're the grand-daughters of the witches you didn't burn," as the rather genealogically hopeful phrase has it. This effort to reduce witchcraft to an occult version of the rote feminism that everyone already believes (namely, that women should not be oppressed) is rather good evidence of the absolute victory Christianity has won over all witchcraft. Even being a witch, that anti-Christian horror, takes its justification from the fundamental difference that Christianity, with its worship of Christ, the Innocent Victim, has introduced into the world — that the defense of the innocent victim is the only licit moral stance; that all other cultural forms are of the devil, to be condemned.
Contemporary witches are Christian witches. They only get to be who they are on the presumption that the historical narrative is false; that witches were, in fact, misunderstood saints; that witchcraft is an esoteric defense of the oppressed and the marginalized; that, were all the world a witch, peace would reign, and culture would no longer be established in the sacrifice of some "other" who is cast out of the community, but in common knowledge of herbal tinctures and liberated sex. Indeed, the true victory of Puritanism over the witch is the desperation with which every contemporary occultist must explain how their magic is, in fact, busy building up a Kingdom of Justice. I quote, without sniggering, from a Wired article entitled TikTok Witches Are Hexing This Election:
They will call on the spirits of the elements and their ancestors to “raise a mighty blue wave … to wash away the corruption and injustice and wickedness of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a peaceful transition of power.
A wave of compassion for victims motivates them, as one magician, Michael Hughes, argues:
Young people are moving away from traditional religion and toward being more open and compassionate and inclusive of marginalized communities.
Witchcraft, in fact, is simply way of being a good, active, American citizen:
“They’re actively involved in voter registration, postcard writing campaigns, canvassing for Democratic candidates, and donating to Democratic and anti-racist causes.” Hughes thinks of magic rituals as fueling the tanks of more conventional, earthly political resistance—a spiritual companion to calling one’s senator, not a replacement for it.
Continued below.
Why I am not a witch — NEWPOLITY
Having taken a quiet moment to consider, I have decided, after all, not to be a witch, but a Catholic instead. Now, I know, witchery is in vogue. The election season was a veritable season of the stuff, with TikTok hexes and covens for cursing Trump getting ample airtime from journalists whose motivating principle seemed to be, "Hey, what's weird today?"
Admittedly, the green touch of envy colors my critique: Women get to be witches and it's all very edgy and personally fulfilling and even a little bit sexy. Male warlocks, for their part, remain big nerds. Witches get to sell jewelry and hand-lotion at music festivals. Try selling mystical potpourri as a wizard — you'll get laughed out of Coachella.
It will be said, of course, that the occult is kosher for womyn and cringe for myn because being a witch is a protest against the patriarchy, understood, in this context, as the historical domination and subjugation of women to Male Power: "We're the grand-daughters of the witches you didn't burn," as the rather genealogically hopeful phrase has it. This effort to reduce witchcraft to an occult version of the rote feminism that everyone already believes (namely, that women should not be oppressed) is rather good evidence of the absolute victory Christianity has won over all witchcraft. Even being a witch, that anti-Christian horror, takes its justification from the fundamental difference that Christianity, with its worship of Christ, the Innocent Victim, has introduced into the world — that the defense of the innocent victim is the only licit moral stance; that all other cultural forms are of the devil, to be condemned.
Contemporary witches are Christian witches. They only get to be who they are on the presumption that the historical narrative is false; that witches were, in fact, misunderstood saints; that witchcraft is an esoteric defense of the oppressed and the marginalized; that, were all the world a witch, peace would reign, and culture would no longer be established in the sacrifice of some "other" who is cast out of the community, but in common knowledge of herbal tinctures and liberated sex. Indeed, the true victory of Puritanism over the witch is the desperation with which every contemporary occultist must explain how their magic is, in fact, busy building up a Kingdom of Justice. I quote, without sniggering, from a Wired article entitled TikTok Witches Are Hexing This Election:
They will call on the spirits of the elements and their ancestors to “raise a mighty blue wave … to wash away the corruption and injustice and wickedness of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a peaceful transition of power.
A wave of compassion for victims motivates them, as one magician, Michael Hughes, argues:
Young people are moving away from traditional religion and toward being more open and compassionate and inclusive of marginalized communities.
Witchcraft, in fact, is simply way of being a good, active, American citizen:
“They’re actively involved in voter registration, postcard writing campaigns, canvassing for Democratic candidates, and donating to Democratic and anti-racist causes.” Hughes thinks of magic rituals as fueling the tanks of more conventional, earthly political resistance—a spiritual companion to calling one’s senator, not a replacement for it.
Continued below.
Why I am not a witch — NEWPOLITY
