גלות השרירים // Galuṯ HaSharirim

Seipa (sword) amulet, Iraqi Kurdistan, early twentieth century. Engraved silver. (Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv)

Even when the ox has his head in the [fodder-]basket, to up to the roof, and remove the ladder from under thee.

- Tosefta Berakhot 33a (quoted in Ancient Jewish Proverbs by Abraham Cohen)

If you do not suffer the toil of study, you will suffer the toil of ignorance.

- Moshe ben Ezra, source unknown

“Western” esotericism” in its myriad forms - Hermetism, Wicca, traditional and modern witchcraft, “Cabala,” planetary magic and astrology, and so on - would not exist without centuries of intellectual labor from Jewish, Muslim, African, Indian, and Chinese scholars (4). This comes as a shock to an unfortunate number of people, including magic-users who should frankly know better. Worse, although academic scholars of Western esotericism are highly interested in the topic’s “non-Western” roots, there are many actual practitioners of esotericism who are frankly racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and more. This attitude ranges from simple erasure of the origins of their practices (i.e., claiming that Wiccan rituals are direct continuations of indigenous British faith instead of the eclectic, ceremonial magic-based religion it is) to outright hostility against the cultures that contributed to them (i.e., “Kabbalists” who claim to have “recovered” magical secrets from spiritually greedy Jews).

As a Jew, I encounter the attitude wearily often that someone like me has no place practicing magic, either because Judaism prohibits it or because “Abrahamic religions” just aren’t countercultural or edgy enough or something. I cannot speak for the experiences of other marginalized groups, but I do know that the phenomena of simultaneous appropriation and exclusion is not limited to Jews. This post is meant to remedy at least some of that ignorance.

Although not all intellectual contributions were directly related to esotericism, they did lay the groundwork for esoteric concepts to develop. Mathematics from Jewish, Muslim, Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, and Chinese sources were indispensable in the development of the basis of what would eventually be known as “Western” astrology (4). 

In fact, the very concept that the planets have influence over certain parts of nature, as expressed by authors such as Agrippa, is derived from (among other works) al-Kindi’s De radiis, which argues that planets and certain magical words exert control over the world (3) (8).

The Liber vaccae (Book of the Cow), originally written in Arabic, is a book of magical experiments whose Latin translations can be found across Europe, including in the occult library of St. Augustine’s Abbey in England (5). (A Hebrew manuscript also exists [10].)

The Picatrix, that famous astrological and magical treatise, was originally written in Arabic and translated (probably by a Jew) for a Christian audience sometime in the 13th century CE (2).

Though many of the human promulgators of Hermetism are anonymous (or pseudonymous), the philosophy combined Neoplatonic thought with ancient Egyptian magical practices. It was preserved by a Baghdadi school at least as late as the 11th century CE (Merkur).

During the Renaissance, European Christian authors began appropriating the Jewish Kabbalah for their own theological ends, “rescuing it” (or so they believed) from the stubborn heresy of the Jews. Virtually all subsequent “Kabbalistic” or “Jewish” (including many “Solomonic”) texts produced by non-Jews since have directly originated from or been inspired by this theft (9).

Russia - admittedly a country on the outliers of “Western” esotericism in some respects - produced many occult philosophers (such as Helena Blavatsky) who drew upon various Asian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous faiths (7).

Not all of this knowledge was limited to the “educated classes,” either - it could be found in the repertoires of ordinary people as well. The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, for instance, contains material straight out of Agrippa’s writings, mentioned above (6).

Countless examples exist demonstrating how “Western” occultism borrowed, bargained, and burgled its way through history. This process continues today with the rampant appropriation of closed practices and erasure of its own decidedly “non-Western” roots, except, perhaps, to add to the “exoticism” of magic as a marketing ploy. With all these currents, does it truly make sense to call “Western” esotericism “Western?”

This post is not meant to contribute to the discussion of whether “Western civilization” is a meaningful or useful term - though I should state that I agree with those scholars who argue that the concept is a modern invention and cannot be retroactively applied to the ideas that supposedly originated from there (1). The broader point, however, is that there is a powerful trend toward Eurocentrism in many occult communities that lead to exclusion and alienation. Many people come to magic because they feel marginalized by society. Let’s not recreate that dynamic in our spaces.

Not to be ignored, of course, are the indigenous peoples worldwide who have had their spiritualities plundered by the colonizers who sought to eliminate them, as well as by their supposedly rootless descendants. Also necessary to mention are the people of the African diaspora who, wrenched from their homelands, maintained their traditions against the most inhumane of odds. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, though I do plan to update it with more information. I strongly encourage and invite others to contribute their own examples which I have overlooked.

People of certain backgrounds, religious or otherwise, often feel strongly discouraged - not just by their own communities, but by occult communities themselves - from pursuing magic. Erasure of the roots of the “Western” esoteric tradition is partially why. People who would rather invent fanciful origin stories as if they “legitimized” their practice are doing themselves, the craft, and current and aspiring magic-users (of all kinds) a disservice by promulgating pseudo-mystical marketing instead of useful, concrete history. I assure you that the latter is far more interesting.

i’m tired. i’m scared a lot of the time. i want community & inspiration to help keep me going, so i reach for something like a zine that bills itself as an inclusive mix of queer & trans voices on witchcraft, resistance, activism - because it’s a group of marginalized folks, i (maybe foolishly) have this expectation of seeing myself in it, or of the editors being conscious of the many forms of cultural appropriation that happen in these spaces & working to educate about them

but what i’m finding, over and over, is two things: the first is that despite the fact that we exist in greater numbers than i’d ever have expected, there are no Jewish voices in any of the witchcraft-focused publications (indie or otherwise) i’ve ever encountered. the second thing, that cultural appropriation of Judaism & other forms of pervasive anti-semitism DO exist in these publications, just makes the lack of Jewish perspectives more glaring

so in the interest of being direct, here are a few things the queer & trans witchcraft community (i’d like to ask the ENTIRE witchcraft community, but i am speaking to people with whom i share something right now) can do & think about to help:

include us. if you didn’t think that any Jewish folks were involved in witchy communities, ask yourself why! is it because you thought Judaism was a religion only? or incompatible with ideas about magic? Judaism is an ethnicity & a culture - or more truthfully, a group of ethnicities & cultures - with long & complex histories of magic, mysticism & folklore. some of it is considered traditionally “kosher” & some of it isn’t! our relationships to that are individual, fascinating, & worth being shared!

stop throwing around the words “Abrahamic” & “Judeo-Christian” - especially when you want to talk about cultural values or historical oppression. 9 times out of 10, you just mean Christianity. yes, we share some text, but we have VERY different relationships to it. plus, if you’re talking specifically about the persecution of people believed to be witches, that’s the history of Jews being murdered by Christians. honestly just do us a favor & remove “Judeo-Christian” from your vocabulary, there’s almost no context where it’s an accurate description of anything.

educate yourself about appropriation. i should never have to see someone mention “practicing Kabbalah” in a zine that includes no Jewish people. our mysticism is connected to our culture, our history, our faith - not only do you have no business taking it, what could it possibly mean to you without its context? 

understand that anti-semitism runs deeper than current appropriation - if you engage at all with any Western occultist or “ceremonial magic” literature or practice, you need to learn its history. what does it mean that the 15th century grimoire you’re drawing inspiration from contains Hebrew & calls itself Solomonic, but has no actual connection to Jewish people? what does it mean that the person who created the most iconic image of Baphomet, something beloved by a lot of queer & trans witches for being androgynous, gave himself a fake Hebrew name? i’m not asking you to throw all of these concepts & traditions out entirely - i have something of a love/hate relationship with ceremonial occultism myself, i collect vintage & antique things related to it & some of it is really interesting - but please at the very least educate yourself about it. specifically, educate yourself about how medieval Jews were treated while non-Jewish occultists were incorporating (often misunderstood or mangled) Jewish mysticism, language & folk practices into their frameworks. 

if you’ve stayed with me this far, i appreciate it - i know this post is long & that confronting this stuff can be difficult, but i urge you to do some reading & listening before you push back. i’m writing this because i want to see things change - i want to see communities where people connect meaningfully to their own heritages & participate in actual cultural exchange & learning based in equity & mutual support. 

i’m speaking to my own experience, but all of this goes for ANY marginalized culture/tradition being “drawn from” in witchcraft communities without actually including members of said culture. 

Leonard Nimoy (via yidquotes)

“Magic is a practice and its language is performative: words are a form of action. Rather than describing reality, magical speech strives at generating a defined change. But it also is intended to communicate. The Jewish worldview ascribes high significance to various hidden entities in general, and in particular to their influence on human life. Foremost among these is the Lord. Subordinated to Him are the archangels, countless hosts of heavenly angels and other heavenly powers, such as the constellations and planets (once thought of as living entities). On earth, myriads of demons and other maleficent spirits dwell side by side with human society. At the margins exist the deceased. These entities are directly addressed by the magical oaths or adjurations, through which the practitioner tries to gain control over and then to enlist them at his service, or to expel them.”