天 - In the West, polytheism and witchcraft faded after Christianization. Witchcraft and the worship of the old gods was demonized, labelled “pagan” through a Christian lens.

天 - In Asia, however, most of our native traditions and religions survived, we continued practicing our ancestral ways.

天 - In Vietnam, we give offerings to the stars and sell our laziness to hungry ghosts, in China, they use talismans to clear a child’s “demon gates” as they grow, in Japan, they pray to a myriad of Kamisama, in Korea, they hang bells to ward off evil spirits: none of these practices, amongst thousands of others, are witchcraft, or pagan, these are things that we just traditionally do.

天 - Calling Shinto, Chinese Folk Religion, Đạo Mẫu, etc “pagan” is colonialist and borderline racist; it examines the world through a European, Christian lens, and centers White Christianity as the standard viewpoint. Not to mention that laypeople don’t see what they do as pagan, these are just traditions that link them to Heaven, Earth, and their community.

天 - But you might be thinking, “Wait, then what’s folk magic?” Folk magic is clearly delineated from ritual traditions, at least in our (Asian people’s) minds. But, Westerners are very quick to call anything that we do “pagan” or “witchcraft”. Our ancestral veneration is not pagan, our festival rituals are not pagan, and praying to many gods or Kamisama is not pagan.

天 - A lot of Asians use “pagan” or “witchcraft” to save time and energy so we don’t have to explain the intricacies of our cultures and their potentially occult aspects. Many Asians don’t take issue with the Western labels at all, as this issue is very personal, we are not a monolith. We can’t have this conversation everytime we’re called pagans.

天 - That isn’t to say we don’t have words for “witch” or “witchcraft”, etc, we most certainly do. My point is that Westerners will often call our religions and traditional practices “witchcraft”, instead of our actual witchcraft, like the folk magic I detail here.

天 - To be honest, if you called a follower of the Vietnamese Folk Religion, Đạo Mẫu, Chinese Folk Religion, or Shinto, “pagan”, you’d either get cursed out or slapped. Our ways are our ways and separate from the Western-centric labels of “pagan” or “witchcraft”.

Ellen Favorin