“I don’t know…I just don’t like to mix politics with my religion.”

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard this over the nearly three decades I’ve been practicing Witchcraft and moving in Witchy and Pagan communities. This type of conversation has definitely wrapped up in the years I’ve been working on this book, four of which encompassed the Trump presidency in the United States, Brexit in the United Kingdom, the rise of White supremacist and nationalist movements around the globe, and so much else that has shaken the geopolitical sphere. The rise of a visible Witchcraft-based resistance to Donald Trump in the US, led largely by women and people of color, has amplified the discussions of the intersection of politics and religion within a lot of Witchy and Pagan communities in the United States as well. Even in the aftermath (and potential resurgence) of Trump, conversations about witchcraft as activism are happening alongside conversations of more conventional Witchcraft topics.

My response is always the same. You cannot extricate witchcraft from politics, because Witchcraft has always been political.

Politics, as any anthropologist (including me) will tell you, is about far more than parties, elections, and voting systems. Politics at its heart is about power — who has it, who doesn’t have it, how it’s distributed, and who gets to have access to it.

Witchcraft, as any anthropologist (including me) will tell you, is about far more than potions, spells, and incantations. Witchcraft at its heart is about power — the power to influence reality, to exercise control over systems, to shape the world. While witchcraft looks different depending on cultural context, in every known society where witchcraft is found, it is about the ability to exercise power outside of the societally ordained power structure. Even in societies where witchcraft is considered to be universally evil, being suspected of being or known to be a witch conveys power on a person.

To claim the label of Witch is to claim power.

Witchcraft has always been, and will always be, political.

What do you think?

Excerpt from Feminist Witchcraft by Susan Harper

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-portals-feminist-witchcraft