What do you mean by witchcrafts?
I understand witchcrafts as the subversive use of magic to disturb or unsettle prevailing oppressive norms. Because they subvert the status quo, witchcrafts have often been demonised in the Western world. They are seen as either nonsensical superstition or as dangerous and scary— characterisations with which I do not resonate— but which can be prevalent due to cultural objectification of and disconnection from the land.
In Western Europe, this is compounded by the conscious or unconscious memories and intergenerational trauma accumulated from the terror of mass deforestation alongside genocides of witches and wildlife committed by imperial-colonial-ecclesiastical forces at the dawn of this modern age. More recently, over the last 250 years or so, over-emphatic individualism intertwined with capitalism, misogyny, breakdown of community, and the violence of medical and psychiatric institutions in the Western world all contribute to maintaining European disconnection from the land, exploitative structures of property and capital, and the related fear/dismissal of magic and witchcrafts.
Given this context, witchcrafts can be medicine if they challenge the Western practices of colonisation, white supremacy, empire, ableism and cisnormativity. Witchcrafts hold creative, liberatory and transforming healing potential for the Western world. For me, witchcrafts in this sense undoubtedly demand creating and maintaining good reciprocal relations with the land and its spirits, and consequently, approaching the body-mind as an extension of the land. My understanding here has been largely shaped by Indigenous/Adivasi approaches to spirituality, land, and community in the Indian subcontinent, Turtle Island, and Australasia as well as by pre-capitalist and pre-Roman folk healing and landworker practices of the commons in Western Europe.
What do you mean by magic?
Magic are heterogenous more-than-human relational practices that engage life and death beyond the measurable and the rational. They may or may not include rituals and/or communications with spirit beings including land spirits. For me, magic is deeply tied to beliefs about power. Beliefs are emotional, and emotions can be used to tell stories. The stories we tell ourselves— consciously or otherwise —also drive our actions or inaction on Earth. Accountability for these (in)actions is thus rooted in the emotional telling of stories to ourselves. Stories are powerful. Unaccountability for (in)actions is a misuse of this power and creates oppression.
In this sense, I believe magic is political because it can be used to both oppress and liberate. As a subversive use of magic, witchcrafts are skills to navigate and unlearn internalised emotional stories and beliefs for unsettling and/or healing.
What do you mean by unsettling?
Unsettling is a mode of deep healing that occurs through unlearning settler ways and cultures which we have all internalised. In Western Europe and many other parts of this world, settler cultures are a dominant norm. These are cultures rooted in settled agriculture and life— they harbour a fundamental fear or mistrust of the land or nature and value civilisation and progress over maintaining reciprocal relations with the Earth. This results in lives lived in disconnection from the land (which includes animals, trees, water, air, seas, soil, terrain and skies etc.)
This disconnection is the structural root of physical, mental, and spiritual health issues faced today. Unsettling seeks to undo this disconnection by intertwining individual and collective healing with struggles for justice.
Why do you talk of justice if your focus is healing?
Justice and healing are intertwined. There can be no sustainable healing without justice. Healing without justice is like shooting the messenger— it covers up the symptoms that tell us something is deeply wrong, while ignoring the root cause of the malaise.
As a witch, do you perform black magic?
I do not engage in any practice without informed consent or with an intention to harm you or anybody else.
I also do not perform hexes or curses, even on malicious actors, because I believe that all oppression shall crumble effortlessly when each one of us is grounded and in good relation with our Earthy selves. So, I focus on empowering people to create good relations in/with our Earthy lives.
That being said, I also do not judge others’ choices to engage in modes of resistance that may seem right to them.
Do you offer online healing sessions?
Depending on your needs and what you are seeking, I may be able to work online with you. Just book in for a free online pre-consultation and we can talk more about your needs.
Do you offer healing in-person?
Currently, there are only certain healing services like Massage and Bodywork or Trancework that I offer in-person. This is usually in the EX4 geography in Devon (UK). If you are looking for in-person services in another area, please book a free online pre-consultation and we can talk more about your needs.
Are you a man or a woman?
Yes.
Why do you call yourself a witch if you are a man?
Have a question that has not been addressed here? Please contact me directly, I will be glad to hear from you 🙂