#witchy meta
Rather frustrating. The comments being ‘this is why you shouldn’t learn witchcraft from tumblr- read a book!’
-deep breath- no.
The publishing industry sees significant booms in new age/witchcraft material every 20 years or so and so very much of them are filled with the same attitudes you’ll see on social media.
The hosts of problems people are calling attention to in the new age movement are not native to tumblr or twitter or tiktok. Cultural appropriation has been a problem in any time period that colonizers decide that they can make a profit from native cultures by selling their beliefs as 'ancient wisdom’ and their tools as novelties and trinkets.
And I do mean any time period.
Books are not pure. Books are written by authors and because authors are human they are going to have their own biases.
And I’m not saying you should stop reading. I’m saying you should question everything you read. Why does this author think the only way to raise your energy is through chakras? Why does this author think these imported resins cannot be substituted with local herbs? Why does this author put so much emphasis on the womb as a center of a womans power?
“But Lee! If there are no perfect books, how do we find resources on witchcraft?”
Talk to people.
Talk to people currently practicing whichever practice you want to practice. Ask them questions. With few exceptions, most cultures being referenced in new age woo are alive and active and vocal online.
Yes, I realize that they, too, are imperfect resources. The goal is not to have a library of perfect, unproblematic fonts of information, or even have an unproblematic practice. The goal is to do even a little better than those that came before us. We will not be able to immediately heal from the people we didnt know not to trust, but we can bit by bit make the world a better place by letting people speak.
