Lys

Buddy, I'm a witch living in a country where my ability to live safely in the open as a queer person and a pagan could be gone TOMORROW, you think I'm going to sit back and keep my mouth shut about it?

It's not enough to debunk and decolonize. It's not enough to educate and inform. It's not enough to mutter over a candle and hex the fascists. We did not get to where we are by sitting back and going Oh Well It'll Be What It Do, No Use Gettin Worked Up.

My cauldron is the polling booth, my wand is my registration, my sigil is the marks I leave on the ballot, my spell is exercising my right to vote. All the magic in the world is NOTHING if it's not accompanied by practical action.

Witchcraft is an inherent act of rebellion. I am not a creature who will go gentle into that good night. And I'll keep encouraging others to educate themselves and defend their civil rights until the day they put me in the ground.

disrespectfully, shut the fuck up.

the 'witches' who were burned were women who did not conform to the patriarchal standards of their time. women who read, women who did not marry, women who did not want to bear children. the women who were burned were not witches, and you have no right to use their history as a catchy slogan to paste all over your culturally appropriating, under researched, witchtok wiccan practice.

acting as if the women who were burned were weak and irrelivent and your theoretical witch ancestors were powerful enough to evade the tragic femicide is directly mocking and degrading the women who were murdered. put some respect on their names.

thank you.

Ahmed's family's campaign has raised €976/€20,000. Ahmed is displaced in southern Gaza caring for his father and brothers while his wife is alone in the north with their fifteen-month-old daughter, Najah, under constant bombardment. They have lost a child before and live in anxiety and fear of never seeing one another again. Any donations help support safe passage so the family can reunite. This campaign has been vetted and promoted by @/gaza-evacuation funds here. (contacted by @najah-meshal)

Eman's family's campaign has raised $1,305/$5,000. Eman is a science teacher and mother of five children; Nada (11), Rahaf (8), Sarah (5), Sham (3), and Zeina (9 months). They are struggling to find clean drinking water, survive the harsh climate, endure sickness, and are surviving on canned food. All donations are used to support their basic survival. This campaign has been vetted by association through Eman's sister Eslam here. (contacted by @emanfamily3)

Shaima's family's campaign has raised $2,179/$30,000. Shaima is a mother of four (Magdy, Walid, Abdel Rahim, and Amal) currently separated from her husband, who was across the border at the time of Israel's attack on Gaza. They have been displaced six times and are in desperate need to evacuate to Egypt to reunite and escape the genocide. Any funds will help secure their safety. This campaign has been vetted by association; information here. (contacted by @familygazaamal)

Mahmoud's family's campaign has raised $4,035/$40,000. While Mahmoud was able to evacuate to Egypt, his sister, Soha, her husband, Hassan, and their four children (Ahed, Mohammed, Majd, and Karim) are still in Gaza. They have been displaced seven times and now reside in a refugee camp, where conditions continue to worsen. Donations, through Mahmoud, support the family as they struggle to find stability. This campaign has been vetted by @/90-ghost here. (contacted by @ahed-family2)

An understanding of sympathetic magic: Correspondences, their metaphysical and theoretical framework, and their derivation.

Magical systems that incorporate the entire gender spectrum.

Energy work that isn't based on visualization.

The means of manifestation: How, where, and when spells affect physical change. The physical mechanisms through which witchcraft manifests beyond just willpower/intent/wishes/etc.

The history and subsequent influences of, and on, popular contemporary practices like Hermeticism, "Ceremonial Magick"/Golden Dawn, Wicca, and New Age/New Thought/LOA/Reiki.

How to approach and practice magic with critical thinking skills.

Influence of consumerism on contemporary practices.

Divination as systems: all methods of divination beyond tarot, their statistical applications, and their different methods of use.

The anthropology of medieval Arabia, Europe, Near East, and Asia relative to the magical or occult publications of the era. What is purely religious, parareligious, or syncretist and what does that mean for the interpretation of the text?

The genuine limits of our knowledge of the ancient world, what's possible for us to know and what can't we know?

Conversations with practitioners of closed or semi-closed practices and perspectives of POC when it comes to what the western world would label as "witchcraft".

The differences and similarities between superstition and the practice of witchcraft.

An understanding of the influence of colonialism on modern witchcraft and the language used to discuss magic.

Critical Race Theory (CRT), Queer Theory, and systems of oppression.

Botany and herbology: An understanding of the physical and medical properties of plants.

Building a personal lexicon for modern and/or colloquial terms used in and by the witchcraft community to describe and discuss practices.

Spell design: What makes a spell a spell? What is the smallest or slightest action that can be considered a spell and why? What are the most important and influential elements of the design and application of a spell?

Altars: Their use, design, and potential; whether or not an altar would benefit your practice or goals for practice.

A critical approach to spirit work and astral projection, being able to discern between personal narratives and probable experiences.

A safe and solid community to become a part of. One that does not allow the influence of personal narratives (Without addressing them as such), doesn't allow for the mixing of adults and minors, and with established and enforced logical and reasonable rules.

Collect and cross-reference correspondences from as many sources as possible, then start to create your own.

Try to find a STEM subject that interests you and study it through any non-dogmatic avenues available to you.

The items highlighted in blue are things I highly recommend!

Here is a list of things to avoid.

This is, of course, not an end-all-be-all list of possible responsible and healthy pursuits.