Esotericism, Eurocentrism, and Erasure

“Western” esotericism” in its myriad forms - Hermetism, Wicca, traditional and modern witchcraft, “Cabala,” planetary magic and astrology, and so on - would not exist without centuries of intellectual labor from Jewish, Muslim, African, Indian, and Chinese scholars (4). This comes as a shock to an unfortunate number of people, including magic-users who should frankly know better. Worse, although academic scholars of Western esotericism are highly interested in the topic’s “non-Western” roots, there are many actual practitioners of esotericism who are frankly racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and more. This attitude ranges from simple erasure of the origins of their practices (i.e., claiming that Wiccan rituals are direct continuations of indigenous British faith instead of the eclectic, ceremonial magic-based religion it is) to outright hostility against the cultures that contributed to them (i.e., “Kabbalists” who claim to have “recovered” magical secrets from spiritually greedy Jews).

As a Jew, I encounter the attitude wearily often that someone like me has no place practicing magic, either because Judaism prohibits it or because “Abrahamic religions” just aren’t countercultural or edgy enough or something. I cannot speak for the experiences of other marginalized groups, but I do know that the phenomena of simultaneous appropriation and exclusion is not limited to Jews. This post is meant to remedy at least some of that ignorance.

Countless examples exist demonstrating how “Western” occultism borrowed, bargained, and burgled its way through history. This process continues today with the rampant appropriation of closed practices and erasure of its own decidedly “non-Western” roots, except, perhaps, to add to the “exoticism” of magic as a marketing ploy. With all these currents, does it truly make sense to call “Western” esotericism “Western?”

This post is not meant to contribute to the discussion of whether “Western civilization” is a meaningful or useful term - though I should state that I agree with those scholars who argue that the concept is a modern invention and cannot be retroactively applied to the ideas that supposedly originated from there (1). The broader point, however, is that there is a powerful trend toward Eurocentrism in many occult communities that lead to exclusion and alienation. Many people come to magic because they feel marginalized by society. Let’s not recreate that dynamic in our spaces.

Not to be ignored, of course, are the indigenous peoples worldwide who have had their spiritualities plundered by the colonizers who sought to eliminate them, as well as by their supposedly rootless descendants. Also necessary to mention are the people of the African diaspora who, wrenched from their homelands, maintained their traditions against the most inhumane of odds. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, though I do plan to update it with more information. I strongly encourage and invite others to contribute their own examples which I have overlooked.

People of certain backgrounds, religious or otherwise, often feel strongly discouraged - not just by their own communities, but by occult communities themselves - from pursuing magic. Erasure of the roots of the “Western” esoteric tradition is partially why. People who would rather invent fanciful origin stories as if they “legitimized” their practice are doing themselves, the craft, and current and aspiring magic-users (of all kinds) a disservice by promulgating pseudo-mystical marketing instead of useful, concrete history. I assure you that the latter is far more interesting.

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i’ve written before about how uncomfortable it is being Jewish in most witchcraft/magic/occult spaces, but right now i’m feeling it particularly acutely as i try to navigate this queer & trans witchy renaissance we seem to be having (which is, i think, a direct response to the terror & loss of control we all feel in 2017 - magic has always been about resistance & survival to me & a lot of other people)

i’m tired. i’m scared a lot of the time. i want community & inspiration to help keep me going, so i reach for something like a zine that bills itself as an inclusive mix of queer & trans voices on witchcraft, resistance, activism - because it’s a group of marginalized folks, i (maybe foolishly) have this expectation of seeing myself in it, or of the editors being conscious of the many forms of cultural appropriation that happen in these spaces & working to educate about them

but what i’m finding, over and over, is two things: the first is that despite the fact that we exist in greater numbers than i’d ever have expected, there are no Jewish voices in any of the witchcraft-focused publications (indie or otherwise) i’ve ever encountered. the second thing, that cultural appropriation of Judaism & other forms of pervasive anti-semitism DO exist in these publications, just makes the lack of Jewish perspectives more glaring

so in the interest of being direct, here are a few things the queer & trans witchcraft community (i’d like to ask the ENTIRE witchcraft community, but i am speaking to people with whom i share something right now) can do & think about to help:

if you’ve stayed with me this far, i appreciate it - i know this post is long & that confronting this stuff can be difficult, but i urge you to do some reading & listening before you push back. i’m writing this because i want to see things change - i want to see communities where people connect meaningfully to their own heritages & participate in actual cultural exchange & learning based in equity & mutual support. 

i’m speaking to my own experience, but all of this goes for ANY marginalized culture/tradition being “drawn from” in witchcraft communities without actually including members of said culture. 

many of us got involved in witchy things because we felt locked out of mainstream religious practice due to a mix of oppressions - let’s not replicate that in our own spaces.