My Issues and Rules for Maintaining a Culturally Sensitive Practice

[Trent]

I’ve been asking myself some basic questions in an attempt to ground my beliefs lately. What links me to my spirituality? Where is the line between calling upon a goddess and appropriating them? When can I justify using their names in spiritual practice?

My problem is that I am a white, middle-aged, trans, female art witch. My ancestors were colonizers, I have no connection to the land I live on and no right to claim any. Said ancestors were a mixed bag of Anglo-Saxon, Irish, Welsh and Scots – distinct cultures that happen to share a skin colour. When I say I am ‘white’ I mean that as a negation of cultural identity, the stories of my ancestors were told seas and continents away from where I sit by people who had a firm local identity that I have not experienced and also feel no right to claim.

So I’ve come up with some rules of which goddesses I feel I can invoke and ways of approaching my practice and I thought I’d share them. Note that if you have a strong connection to a particular culture and you claim that practice with respect, I wouldn’t apply these rules to you.

1. The figures of dead religions are free to be invoked. I allow myself this because the lessons of the past are worth preserving.
2. I only invoke the names of a living religion that I don’t have a cultural connection to if that religion is open.
3. If I do have a connection to a mythology that people are trying to reclaim or protect, my practice must support theirs.
4. Whenever I invoke a deity of any culture, I must approach the practice with respect. Part of that respect is not claiming the titles of that religion for my own. My practices are something new and must honour the cultures they come from.

Examples of putting these rules into practice:

* Lilith is a complex figure being primarily Judaic. I am not Jewish, nor do I have any connection to Jewish culture so that would usually mean I’d not invoke her. However, Lilith has much deeper roots in Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, which satisfies my first rule. There is also that a significant number of Jews that believe in a focus on sharing their wisdom and practice. She is also not worshipped in their religion. On balance I allow myself to invoke her as a name of the goddess I syncretize with Aphrodite/Ishtar/Astarte/etc.
* As mentioned, I am ¼ Welsh, but I live a couple of continents and a few seas away from Wales. I have no hope of ever learning Welsh, I’ve struggled enough with English. But I’m learning as much as possible and share what I can with others while not claiming that culture as my own. Even so I rarely invoke Welsh deities.
* I have felt drawn to the figure of Mictecacihuatl, La Calavera Catrina or the ‘Lady of Death’ (you might notice a theme I have going on here) but I have no connection to that culture and need to learn a lot more before I even consider invoking her.
* First Nations religions are right out, I respect them and that I have no business being in theirs.

I want my practice to be respectful. If this helps, you have questions, critique, thoughts or suggestions, please have at it.

Discussion

[blumoon138]

This reads to me as nihilistic. Especially about the part where you have no right to claim your ancestors stories because you don’t live on the land they are from. To be frank? Bullshit. Of course you have a right to their stories. I say this as a Jew, a people who have spent 2000 years untethered from their native land, long enough that diaspora is a central theological/ cultural motif. Of course you have a right to claim the culture of your people, to adapt it and make it work for you. There’s nothing more healing than uncovering broken practices and finding a way to make them your own. Which, to be frank, also includes reclaiming the non-oppressive parts of the American white cultures you come from. I say this as someone who also has a very clearly recorded family history of the precise way in which my family stole land from American natives. Everything they are doesn’t automatically become unworthy because of their oppressive actions.

[valsavana]

>As mentioned, I am ¼ Welsh, but I live a couple of continents and a few seas away from Wales. I have no hope of ever learning Welsh, I’ve struggled enough with English. But I’m learning as much as possible and share what I can with others while not claiming that culture as my own. Even so I rarely invoke Welsh deities.

I supposed this is the one I question here. A lot of people from indigenous or commonly threatened people/religions (Judaism) don’t necessarily live on their ancestral lands and may have gaps in knowledge of their culture and/or religion of varying sizes, but I (& I’m guessing you) would never have a problem with them pursuing their practice at full speed despite it.

So why not extend yourself that same grace? I mean, the English tried to do a lot of things to the native Welsh that were similar to the atrocities carried out against First Nations people, especially the suppression of the indigenous Welsh language & cultural/religious practices. Basically, if having the blood gives First Nations or Jewish people a legacy right to practice their religion, despite perhaps not living on ancestral lands or speaking the language or being super versed in the ancestral cultural practices, why wouldn’t you have that legacy right to the religions whose blood flows in your veins?

Would the gods not know the gaps in your knowledge are something you were born to and not your fault? Would a parent not be joyous to find their lost child on their doorstep, even if that child spoke another language and had no memory of them?

[PariG_1234]

This has been on my mind a LOT, even years ago in my work as a Druid, and I am very similar.I have ancestors who are Native American, African (slaves) and predominately white Europeans. As they say, “my body is read as white”. So I carry the life-long privilege of whiteness and know now that I have in the past appropriated anything I wanted, without thinking. I am fiercely protective of my ancestors/ancestry, and the fierceness is partly due to knowing what I’ve lost (last 2 generations left any story behind), and knowing that many people who are the same do appropriate those traditions while also reading as white, mostly not in a good way.
I came to the conclusion not long ago-similar to you, that because I am not living in Wales (I have a LOT of Welsh ancestors) that I should not use those gods…It is s different CULTURE, and it’s not mine. And yes, I don’t speak the language. Even “English” culture is not mine.The ground I walk on is not filled with gods. And since I am not enrolled in a tribe, and my body would never be read as Black, I need to steer clear of those practices, but SUPPORT those people and those practices-at the very least, buy the books and learn about the differences.
So it leaves us in an unusual place. But not one devoid of story, myth and spirits to work with. This is one reason I switched from Druidry to Witchcraft (the other being that there are too many racists at the table in discussion groups of the former). The other is that Druidry is UK practice, so not mine, but we do have a rich history of witches.
Here, there are lots and lots of stories…We don’t have gods, but we have myths, and this place is alive with Spirits of PLACE, not tradition…I see these spirits as attached to the land, not the tribes who lived on this land, so I feel I can work with them. I feel I must be in service to the land as my Goddess. But I’m trying not to use names of any other culture or language. (White people do like to exoticize). I am also digging into any local myths, legends and witchcraft histories that I can find in my area.

It’s a complicated and very touchy subject, but something that desperately needs to be aired. And IN MY OPINION, anyone who is white who argues for using whatever needs to CHECK.THAT. PRIVILEGE. Or at the very least check to see if they are standing in a place where a different set of rules apply…

And FWIW I am finding a lot of solace in Via Hedera’s book “Folkloric American Witchcraft and the Multicultural Experience”…and there are a lot of new books out like Ozark Folk Medicine (Brandon Weston) and New World Witchery (Cory Hutcheson)…

So, thank you, this is much needed nuance.

[Landyacht55]

You’ll get no judgement from me. The only thing Id like to tell you is

just keep being honest with yourself. But there is something I would like to expand upon.

You mention indigenous, so Ill just say this to everyone here: Remember, a person growing up on a reservation doesnt have the cultural choices that many of you, or I, have. They really have no choice, or doubt, that they are first nations indigenous. They had no choice in how they defined their identity socially, culturally, or [otherwise.](https://otherwise.So)

The part where appropriation “crosses the line”, for most first nations, is when people of “european descent” try to appropriate the culture, by speaking as an authority on native american issues, or trying to present, or forward themselves, with native american regalia.

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Im someone with First nations grandparents. But I know very little of the tribe they were from, or what customs are their own vs the tribe. Does it matter? Here is what a first nations member once told me verbatim:

> If your ancestry is distant, and your life was not impacted in any significant way as a result of your indigenous ancestry to the extent where you aren’t sure what your nation is (and therefore what your culture is), then it is also important to be up-front about what you have and have not experienced and to make sure you aren’t speaking to the things you haven’t experienced. It’s also important to be really honest with yourself about any privilege you might have grown up with as a result of that disconnection….

>…It is also how you present yourself to others and making sure you aren’t wearing your Indigenous identity as a cloak or as a point of interest. Again, I don’t mean to imply that you are doing any of these things but I have seen a lot of people who are doing this, and a lot of young people who suddenly change their whole identity (and outward appearance) once they find out they had some Indigenous ancestry. Then they inevitably go on to speak to issues experienced by Indigenous people and injustices in Canadian society when they haven’t experienced any of it. That really rubs me the wrong way..

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So what do I do? Well, I made up my own religion. Since I have no ties to the tribe or the people. I carry out rituals. My grandmother made pies. This sounds stupid, but when I make a pie, I think of her, and in a way she lives on in those moments. Same thing when I hunt for sustenance . I pray over the thing I am hunting (whether foraging or hunting for game). This is the way I was taught and it is my responsibility to carry these on, or not. In a way my granparents are always with me. When I found out about all souls day and Samhain, I do those same things. I just keep incorporating these practices into my portfolio. I think these gods or deities are something like that, they are just tools to teach us. If you are using this for your own personal practice to promote gratitude, or sympathy, or altruism, or whatever. Its for us to be better.

[Sekhmetdottir]

I am going to risk being reductionist here. Many of the native cultures of “white” Europe’s traditional culture, belief systems and languages were suppressed and eradicated by patriarchal ruling classes supported by the biggest incarnation of patriarchy – the christian church (catholic or orthodox), that had roots in the granddaddy of all patriarchy, the Roman Empire. That said – there are many crossroads and intersections in belief systems and I think this is ultimately down to being human. We are all human and need to respect and not play with other’s traditions and beliefs.

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[Thatladyofthelake]

This is lovely! And thank you for sharing your experience. I would say that, for me, building rituals to connect to the land I live on (though it’s not the land of my ancestors) and connecting to the rituals that would have connected my ancestors to the lands they lived on are very important in terms of not perpetuating colonialism (uprootedness and disconnection from the land) I think of it as being a guest and respectfully participating in and upholding native traditions and protocols when invited, and relying on my own roots and connection to the land in my own practices. Like you so beautifully said: your practice should enrich, support and centre the folks who originated the tradition. I do believe we can love whatever land we live on and it will love us back if we co-create with it. Paraphrasing from Robin Walls kimmerer: it’s about aiming to be a beneficial, naturalized species instead of an invasive one.

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