#appalachain folk magic
As someone who has a hard time with spirit flight I absolutely ADORE this time of year.
If you’re like me and also usually struggle with leaving your body this is a great time to redouble your efforts and try again.
Rising from the dead to reblog this post (‘tis the season) and to let anyone who still follows me on here know that my friend finally convinced me to join her on Instagram sharing magical info.
It’s called Heckling Hags and I’ll be starting a whole intro to tarot series starting next Tuesday. It’ll be a fun time, though honestly mostly moderated by Kettle.
Sooo yeah, update over. I might pop in here now and then but I likely won’t ever update like I used to years ago.
hereditary witchcraft has become a huge topic of discussion on this site - what’s so interesting about tumblr to me is to see hot-blooded arguments raging on questions i never considered needed fighting. While I understand that that term is used falsely by many who are trying to make themselves seem a little more important than the rest of us, it’s wrapped all the way back around now, where it’s assumed that ANYONE using that term is lying! Fascinating!
I am not one myself, and I am not from the Appalachian area i’m a little too far north, but consider that they are most likely telling you the truth. Appalachian communities are incredibly close-knit and clannish, and most people there benefit from deep family ties and folk remedies and oral history being passed through those lines. They have a generations old distrust of outsiders, and for a long time were more likely to rely on folk cures over medical help. While their grandparents may have never called themselves witches (and may have been teaching magic to ward off witches, a common mindset carried over from the Irish and Scots), they certainly taught their children and grandchildren the way, however they might have called it to themselves.
I find this take interesting (as someone who currently lives and whose family is from a Pennsylvanian part of Appalachia) because your reasoning for why some people might claim the title of hereditary witch is exactly why I wouldn’t.
The folk remedies and superstitions taught to me by my family members are explicitly not witchcraft. Like you said, many are even anti-witch. I tie them into my local, folk based craft but I personally feel like calling the lessons from my family “witchcraft” would be an insult to them.
My rosary praying every day, bible reading, God-fearing, Scots-Irish grandmother would beat me black and blue if she caught me calling what she does witchcraft. Folk healing is one thing. Witchcraft is another. Both might be types of magical practice but they’re different at their core. So while there might be overlap from the folk traditions of my family and my workings with the craft, to claim that I came from a family of witches would be a lie. Therefore, I am not a hereditary witch.
At the end of the day, what people decide to call themselves is none of my business. Everyone’s practice is their own and if someone feels the need to lie on the internet to get praise from strangers they have bigger issues going on.
My only point was that when this post came up as I was scrolling I found it interesting how people can look at the same information and come to two vastly different conclusions. It just goes to show that the craft is a highly unique experience for everyone and discussions about it must have the parameters made clear or miscommunication is bound to happen.
