“Monday you can hold your head, Tuesday, Wednesday stay in bed, or Thursday watch the walls instead, it’s Friday [that a full-blown attack on civil liberties occurred, and we need to strike back now].” –The Cure (mostly)
Not gonna lie. Last week sucked.
Clarence Thomas (I refuse to call him “Justice,” because justice has nothing to do with any of this) tipped his hand after Roe v. Wade was overturned, gleefully listing off all the other bodily autonomies and privacies he wants the Supreme Court to rip away next. Meanwhile, the Texas Republican Party announced their new platform, which describes homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” and states that the party “opposes all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
Basically, if you’re queer, trans, and/or have a uterus, the Far Right is coming for you. As a gay individual, I am nauseated AF at the moment.
But I also practice Witchcraft, which is historically an instrument of the marginalized and oppressed. If you’re a Witch, you have access to that instrument as well. And now is the time to start wielding it.
Following is a list of books that can help us use the tools at our disposal as effectively as possible. Some of them are manifestos, while others focus on no-nonsense spells and rituals; one is a work of fiction inspired by true events; another provides tips on working magically around and outside the law. But all of them are worth reading, especially for those of us who are ready to take protective and resistive action.
Here we go:
Aradia: Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland
Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 Potions, Spells, and Magical Elixirs to Embolden the Resistance by Ariel Gore
Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz
Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change by Michael M. Hughes
The New Aradia: A Witch’s Handbook to Magical Resistance , edited by Laura Tempest Zakroff [2024 Update: Books in this series now include The Gorgon’s Guide to Magical Resistance and Serpents of Circe: A Manual to Magical Resilience.]
Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism by Sarah Lyons
The Sporting Life: How to Help Yourself with Hoodoo from the Streets to the Sheets by Professor Charles Porterfield
Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising by Starhawk
Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance by David Salisbury
Additionally, I strongly encourage you to check out the website We Are Aradia, along with the chapbooks, prints, zines, and spell kits from Snake Hair Press, which is honestly one of the best online shops ever. I made the conservative Christian financial advisors at my last job hilariously uncomfortable by displaying a Snake Hair EAT THE RICH postcard prominently on my desk.
It wasn’t why they fired me, but it also didn’t do much to get me recognized as a Team Player. I mean, I’m not one, but they probably didn’t need to know that.
And jokes about my unfortunate career choices aside, I am really, really scared right now. I promise it’s okay if you’re scared, too. But we’re not helpless, and we’re not powerless. This I know for a fact. I want you to know it as well.
And I also know that someone somewhere is reading this post and going, “WiTcHcRaFt Is NoT PoLiTiCaL!!!!!1” And I hate to break it to that person, but yeah, hon, it very much is. It always has been. And if you don’t want to believe me, you can click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here to crank open your pineal gland and gain some insight into the matter.
One more thing to keep in mind: As incredible as it sounds, there are Witches out there who are actively working to overthrow democracy. (Click here for some chilling examples.) While the rest of us are debating whether or not we should even discuss politics and Witchcraft in the same breath, Fascist occultists are using their own magics to contribute to the erosion of civil rights.
I don’t want them to get their way at the expense of my (and your) freedom. I don’t want the fight for simple existence to grow even more treacherous than it already is. Hopefully, you don’t either.
Like I said earlier, we’re not powerless, and with solidarity, we are far more powerful than they could ever dream to be. So let’s gather up our resources and change the world for the better.
Let’s turn the possibility of our survival into the irrefutable destiny it always should have been.
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