Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Witchcraft Bestseller)

by Pam Grossman

She is a figure that unorthodox people have been reclaiming for the past several centuries, spiritually, culturally, and politically. Hers is an identity that unconventional women, and female artists in particular,

Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini, Rosaleen Norton, Marjorie Cameron, and Vali Myers (not to mention those still living such as Betye Saar, Judy Chicago, Kiki Smith, and Cindy Sherman to name but a few).

Outspoken feminist Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote these words in her poem “Witch-Wife”: “But she was not made for any man / And she will never be all mine.”

“crepuscular,”

the words grammar and grimoire are sprouted from the same etymological seed.

by Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, and Björk

outré,

eldritch

Artists like Rasputina, Portishead, and Mazzy Star

Florence and the Machine, Grimes, Lana Del Rey, and Chelsea Wolfe

Princess Nokia

rituals from both Yoruba and Wiccan traditions.

Azealia Banks

Ghanaian artist Azizaa

artist Witch Prophet makes hypnotic songs

Beyoncé’s 2016 visual album Lemonade is filled with imagery of transformation and spiritual healing specific to the black female experience.

syncretism,

Yoruba-influenced religious practices, such as Candomblé, Santería, Vodoun, and Hoodoo,

folk-magic traditions of the indigenous people of Ceylon and Borneo

Representation of different cultures is an admirable goal, but not at the expense of the original creators, who are often being erased or exploited in the process.

“Vodoun chooses who it wants. The flesh is such an impermanent thing.”

mutability

Vodoun, for example, incorporates threads of Catholicism, Freemasonry, and various indigenous African traditions. Likewise, Christianity itself was developed from an amalgam of earlier influences: Zoroastrian, Greco-Alexandrian, Greco-Roman, and, of course, Jewish.

We could change from a dominating commodity culture into one of true exchange in which we learn from each other in humility and respect.

it’s imperative that we remain sensitive to one another’s perspectives and lived experiences, and open to recalibrating as we listen and learn. This is especially necessary for white practitioners like me, who’ve benefited from the cultural advantage of white privilege, and who have an obligation to continuously confront and undo our own racism. There is a reason that the archetype of the witch resonates with those who feel different or oppressed:

Support, compassion, and mutual consideration are the key ingredients to manifesting prosperity and peace for everyone.

accretion.