Witches are killed many times, but they always come back. We have come back too and are now looking to connect with other witches and hone our skills. For us, witchcraft is the skill which allows one to manifest emotions materially. How can we channel our emotions to create the things we want? How can we manifest our “internal” life “externally”? (We use quotes here because we believe in the continuity of the internal and external. As above, so below; as below, so above.) These are some questions we are using as a compass to guide our journeys.
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. Witchcraft as a skill to navigate through emotional stories and beliefs is thus deeply about politics and accountability.
The story we tell ourselves is that of altleft witchcraft, which is about practising accountable politics by paying deep attention to one’s own emotional life and uncovering the stories given to us by the violent societies we live in. Often these stories are disturbingly unaccountable and oppressive. For instance, the story that migrants need to “go home.” Or the story that dark skin is “dirty” or “inferior.” Or the story that people forced to live in financial poverty are “lazy.”
The problem is that even while in principle many of us do not buy into these stories, over time, given the everyday repetition of violence in our society, these stories become materially embedded into our bodies. Whether we like it or not our bodies begin to automatically respond emotionally to these stories behaving in ways we do not agree with, leaving a contradiction between our principles and our feelings. This is a subversion and ultimate death of intuition and emergence of automated control by oppressive systems in the minutest experience of our lives and deaths. The feelings produced in this process are often painful—and either out of guilt, shame or denial—we choose to ignore or run away from these ‘problematic’ (in principle) feelings. However, this inability to face painful feelings where our bodies themselves begin hurting leads to a reproduction of unaccountable (and often unnoticed) (in)actions driven by these painful feelings and the oppressive stories underlying them.
Altleft witchcraft is about honing the skill to stay with these painful feelings, confronting painful stories we tell about ourselves and the world around us, disassembling and re-engineering these stories into more accountable ones—accountable to self and then to others.
Altleft witchcraft is about honing the skill to not act on problematic feelings, not trying to outrun them. Not trying to “solve” them, but honouring them for the messengers they are.
Altleft witchcraft is practising the idea that feelings are messengers from our bodies to our conscious minds, and that messengers cannot be “solved.” Rather, these emotions and feelings carve openings like all messengers do—to rethink our stories, who we are, and our possibilities. Listening to and treating these messengers with respect might just be the opening to create a shared world, or even a small shared community where connectedness and solidarity is established through difference.
Altleft witchcraft is about knowing that the possibilities are abundant but manifestation of these possibilities requires work. Your emotional work. It’s about self-accountability. There are no easy answers.
Altleft witchcraft is a practice of remembrance and validation of our true selves as we move away from long practised loops and patterns. It is about coming home to ourselves.
Altleft witchcraft believes in respecting others’ consent and free will, and the principle of no-harm.
Altleft witchcraft is a collaborative practice. We are still learning. Will you join us?
