​Cultural Appropriation?

In the past couple-six years, there has been a lot of buzz in the Pagan / Witchcraft / Earth Spirituality movement about so-called cultural appropriation.

In my definition, that would be using aspects of a culture or ethnicity that is not your own, without giving credit to the original people who practiced a particular folkway.

An example is those tacky souvenir “dream catchers” that appear in every gift shop and flea market throughout America. The story about a woven dream catcher comes from Indigenous tribes of the American southwest. Buying an authentic dream catcher from an Indigenous artist, learning the story behind it, and using it appropriately is NOT cultural appropriation. Buying a plastic knockoff truly IS.

However, those who are “woke” / politically correct claim that EVERYTHING is appropriated from other cultures. Smudging to cleanse an area with fragrant smoke. Wearing braids in one’s hair. Eating particular foods. Wearing particular clothing. Practicing Tarot. Using a sweat lodge. African / Cuban / Diasporic traditions of drumming. And so forth.

Some culture praxes are “closed,” which means you have to possess the genetics and cultural heritage in order to participate. You must be appropriately taught by an individual who has mastered the techniques, as well. Which is understandable.

To an extent, everyone does some form of cultural appropriation. For example, the Romans invented indoor plumbing and paved roads. Every time you flush a toilet or drive to the market, you’re technically appropriating Roman culture. Things like Chinese food, Madras print fabric, various forms of music – classical, rap, country, rock – were appropriated from traditions other than our own American culture. Yet now they are shared by everyone.

You know what is upsetting? When “gatekeepers” decry cultural appropriation amongst eclectic magick-users, but fail to notice that mainstream Western Esoteric Tradition (especially Wicca and Gardnerian Witchcraft) has swiped many things from British Folkloric Traditions. That means us working-class peasants. Gerald Gardner, Cecil Williams, and Robert Cochrane incorporated the folk magick praxes of working-class people from the British Isles into their esoteric practice. This includes sweeping a space to hallow it, tying knots for spellwork, use of poppets and natural objects for sympathetic magick (although many cultures do so), use of certain poems, dances, and songs; brewing potions for sympathetic magick, the use of ritual drama(s), God/dess names, dates for holiday celebrations, the use of a ritual knife or athame (although that’s also done in other cultures) and other magickal symbolic tools, sending remote energy, meditation and esoteric rites, many herbal and other healing rites and recipes – and so on.

The Western Esoteric Tradition culturally appropriated stuff from all over – not just from my ancestors. Including, but not limited to: The words “witch” and “Wicca” from Anglo-Saxons. Much of the Qabalistic magick from Judaism. The use of the four directions / watchtowers / elements from the Greeks. And the Native Americans. And the Egyptians. The names for the elemental creatures, such as undines and sylphs, from the Swiss – yes, really, although Greek names were used. Ritual use of the athame /ritual knife from Judaism, and also casting a ritual circle from the Jewish people and the Sumerians. God and Goddess and entity names from all over the place.

You know what is NOT culturally appropriated?

Smudging – it is not just a Native American practice. The word “smudge” itself comes from Middle German and means to clear an area with smoke. It can also mean to summon various spiritual beings with smoke. British Isles Folkloric Traditions call it “enhazeling” because hazel, blackberry, and willow withes were burned. Catholics had their incenses. So did people from India. Indigenous peoples of the Americas used white sage – and this plant is being over-harvested, so they have a point – with a traditional ritual. People who are not of that particular heritage should not employ the ceremony. Yet please don’t tell me that smudging is exclusively reserved for Indigenous people.

Tarot – This practice did NOT come from Roma people in Europe, although they used it for divination. The Tarot likely came from Egypt, or possibly India (so maybe from the Roma), but the earliest references to Tarot are from the mid-fifteenth century in Venice, Milan, and Florence. It was originally a card game, and was brought to the rest of Europe by traders. It has been associated with the Qabalah but was not originally used in that manner – although divination with it works fine.

Drumming – many cultures use drumming for healing, trance work, dancing & ecstatic rites, communication, invoking spirits, raising energy, and for martial purposes. Everyone has it. Not all cultures use all rhythms – people who enjoy African beats, which might honor entities as well as being great for dancing and drum circles, might not enjoy the lively marching tunes of the Scots – while I find Celtic driving three-counts and five-counts perfect for getting my housework done. It summons ambition, for me.

Sweat Lodges – yes, Indigenous people from the American continents used these for spiritual reasons, as well as for healing, cleansing themselves and social interaction. However, we Celts used sweat houses as well. In Ireland, they were made of stone and were called tigh’n alluis. Scandinavian people have their saunas. Japanese folks have their baths. As do the Romans. (see above for an Irish sweat house).

Braids/ Locs - here, read this: https://lionlocs.com/blogs/dreadlocks/history-of-dreadlocks?fbclid=IwAR1TqTDeiXY1H1RkyojFoaXEtnG2f7PtYskLMoYxx_bhU-uYgqaO7X-P3rE​

In fact, appreciating and appropriating the cultures of others is so frequent worldwide that we cannot identify when it first began. British grave goods and trash pits contained beads from Asia, glass fragments and statuary from Greece by way of Rome, metal goods from Spain, and so forth. The famous Gundestrup Cauldron was likely made by Thracians, found in a bog in Denmark, depicting Gaulish and British deities and figures of the Near East. The Franks’ Casket (below) depicts Germanic and Biblical deities, Roman mythology, with Anglo-Saxon runes and Roman letters, and was probably made in Northumbria, UK. It may have originated in France. People in Rome and the Near East used copper, tin, bronze, and iron imported from the British Isles.

Don’t like it? Stop using your Roman plumbing and dig yourself an outhouse. 😊

What trad am I, anyway?
Nowadays, the movement in magick is away from the label “Wicca”, since apparently, Gerald Gardner only used the term once; and the connotation is of fluffy bunnies, little girls on Tic-Toc trying to curse the moon, and authors such as StarHawk and Scott Cunningham, who had beautiful liturgy but were a bit short on historic facts.
The Wicca label is useful since it’s now federally recognized. The US Army uses it – Dave was one of the first to have it put on his “dog tag” identification prior to Desert Storm. It was helpful in that the chaplain would have to look up appropriate prayers and rituals instead of just mumbling the Lord’s Prayer over a wounded soldier, and calling it good. We got our holidays recognized, which doesn’t get us any federal days off, but at least kids in school might get a nod for Beltane. So thank you, Wiccans, for helping to gain federal recognition for soldiers’ tombstones, hospital and prison visits by chaplains, and a minimal recognition by local governments when it comes to holiday celebrations and gatherings.
The current trend is toward using the word “Witch” and “WitchCraft”, which many people like, but I have a few issues with. For one thing, some magick-users are trying to be ooky-spooky as part of their mystique, and I am hustling away from that stereotype – I’m scary enough without openly calling myself a Witch. The appellation “Swamp Witch” is true, but mainly used humorously. For another reason, “Witch” comes from the Anglo-Saxon-Germanic languages, and those folks were the historic enemies / colonizers of we Cymric people. The Dobunni tribe, who were Celtic, once dwelled on the eastern side of the Severn River in what used to be Cymru, and is now England. The Dobunni were wiped out by the Hwicce tribe of Saxons. So I don’t want to use my enemies’ name for myself – Witch, Welsh, none of that.
Many people have rejected the term “Pagan”, since it meant “people of the country” in Latin. Urban magick-users don’t really want to call themselves Pagan, or Earth Religions, or Nature Spirituality. However that moniker TOTALLY applies to me, since I AM, in fact, a hick from the country who goes barefoot and eats venison and can identify every local species of bird. I do realize that term does not fit everyone. “Polytheist” means people who worship multiple deities, entities, and spirit beings. That also applies to me, but I realize there are non-theistic magick-users. And even with the “K”, magick-user sounds like someone engaged in a tabletop role-playing game that involves wizards, monsters, and polyhedral dice. (Nothing wrong with that, but it ain’t a religion.)
I have some Cymraeg words for use in my file about “Witchy Words” on my “Works” page on this website. For example, a dyn hysbys is a male wizard, and a gwrach is a female magick-user. Although it sounds like a cat vomiting. So yeah, gwrach gors would translate at swamp witch. At least I can communicate with the raccoons and frogs.
So let’s see. I’m Earth Religious, and a practitioner of Nature Spirituality. I am an animist, believing that everything has a soul. Even cars. Especially cars. I am a polytheist, which includes deities, ancestors, spirits, land wights, the Fae, and other beings. I am of Cymric heritage, but purists keep arguing that I was not born there – to which I reply that African-Americans were not born in Africa, either, yet the hyphenated term is a good one to signify African or Cymric or any other ancestry. My tradition is part hereditary, partly achieved by study and research, and partly I made it up or swiped it from others, because it works. I can blend in reasonably well with Wiccans and Heathens at their events, so that makes me a bit eclectic. I refuse any initiations, degrees, or other gate-keeping measures – they are useful for many practitioners, since they welcome the discipline and recognition of achievement. I practice folk magick but it’s not all from Cymru – there are elements from around the British Isles. My ancestors did a lot of that form of magick, but I also learned by observing and just trying out stuff for myself.
All of this is too darn complicated, so I’ll just keep calling myself a PAGAN. So there.

Ace & Dave in their natural environment.