I Have Some Reservations
From the pages of Scary Mommy, where ladies of a progressive bent share their fever dreams,
Could Witchcraft Make You A Better Parent? Real Witches Say ‘Yes’
I suspect the word real is creaking under the strain there. Other creaking may occur during our travels. Still, the author of the piece, Annie Midori Atherton, is keen to entice us with the prospect of paranormal parenting:
As a new mom fumbling through the daily grind of work, caregiving, and what little social life I can manage to eke in, I often find myself wondering how other parents pull it off… Some days I’m so worn down… that I feel I’d need to summon supernatural energy to thrive — rather than just survive.
And so, obviously,
For a growing number of people — including many mothers — witchcraft doesn’t begin or end with Halloween. According to one scholar, the number of Americans who identify with Wicca or paganism has risen from less than 200,000 twenty ago to nearly two million today.
Uncorrected narcissism, or fears of being an uninteresting person, or both, will do that, I suppose.
The scholar in question, linked to in the piece, is a Women’s Studies denizen who tells us that “much of the recent growth [in pretending to be a witch] is coming from young women,” a truly startling insight. However, we learn, from lesser authorities, that witches “can identify as male, female, or non-binary.” So, there’s that. And we’re told that these pretentious young women, or pretentiously ungendered beings, these would-be witches, may also engage in astrology and socially-distanced bonfires. Harry Potter and Twilight are mentioned too, adding further heft to the deep rumblings on offer.
Says Ms Atherton,
I realised that not only do modern witches abound, but many of them are also parents, which got me wondering… might they have some sage wisdom on childrearing?
Beats poking dog shit with a stick, I guess.
To find out, I turned to the moms who identify as witches to hear how practising magic helps them raise their children and feel fulfilled and powerful in the process… Here’s how they do it.
At which point, we’re ushered towards the “sage wisdom” of Ms Mya Spalter, author of Enchantments: A Modern Witch’s Guide To Self-Possession, and a self-described “hot but approachable tour guide” to all things mysterious and occult. Ms Spalter, “a practising witch herself,” shares her “magical knowledge,” whereby the inadequate are invited to “build rituals around your intuition” and to “harness the power of crystals.” Her contribution to the topic of better parenting is summarised as “embrace your power.”
Quality stuff.
Our excavation of uncanny knowledge continues with input from Treva Van Cleave, a mother and, er, witch, who can, we’re assured, call upon her ancestors by fondling her late grandmother’s necklace. Strange “emanations” are mentioned. Which is exactly what you need when getting children ready for school or loading the washing machine.
Bethany McCarter, who was raised by a witch and identifies as one herself, said she teaches her children to trust their gut when it comes to sensing auras.
Yes, I know. The creaking can get a bit much. Just try to ignore it. Alas, Ms McCarter’s expertise in sorcery and aura-sensing is somewhat elusive, indeed seemingly non-existent; but she does offer more practical advice – say, the best shoes to wear when visiting Disney World.
Upping the intersectional game somewhat, Kathleen Richardson informs us that she bonds with her daughter and can “manifest healing and abundance” via “Hoodoo, a form of African-American folk magic (also referred to as Conjure or Rootwork).” These magical feats are, we’re told, pointedly, “not a religion, but the spiritual and supernatural tradition birthed in American slave plantations.”
Ooh. Bonus points. I think we have a winner.
Update, via the comments:
Regarding those “fears of being an uninteresting person,” mentioned above, Daniel Ream adds,
The best summary I heard in my 1990s college days (the first wave of this stuff) was “she’s trying so hard not to be ordinary.”
I suppose it’s not entirely surprising that a 20th-century recreational pseudo-religion, an ill-defined, means-anything-you-want spirituality, propagated by a retired civil servant and aimed at people who find other religions unfashionable, should be popular among the woke demographic.
Still, the overlap of wokeness and woo is worth noting.
What movie is that from?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
What movie is that from?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Oh noes. My first double post. Ever.
Typepad continues to offer interesting challenges.
Even nuns watch porn, Pope says, warning of risks
from the BBC
How does he know?
How does he know?
Well Catholics do do that confession thing. Though AIUI he’s supposed to keep those confessions under his big Pope hat.
he’s supposed to keep those confessions under his big Pope hat
I’m surprised he’d have time to be listening to all those nuns, I’d think confessing the College of Cardinals would keep him busy enough. Maybe the omniscient Big Guy tipped him off.
I take full responsibility for our breakup…totally my bad. She is one of the smartest, most sophisticated and worldly thinkers I ever met, and I will likely try to marry her if the opportunity ever presents itself again.
I hope she sees this, bro.
Typepad continues to offer interesting challenges.
During the last 24 hours I went on an emotional journey, from aggravation and exasperation, and Shouting At The Internet, to resignation, acceptance, and an eerie calm.
And in other, other news:
So there’s that.
“she’s trying so hard not to be ordinary.”
Some days it seems like half the world is doing some kind of cosplay…
I suppose it’s not entirely surprising that a 20th-century recreational pseudo-religion, an ill-defined, means-anything-you-want spirituality, propagated by a retired civil servant and aimed at people who find other religions unfashionable, should be popular among the woke demographic.
Still, the overlap of wokeness and woo is worth noting.
What movie is that from?
I see some of our regulars have been culturally starved.
Aw, I used to be in that Wiccan thing when I was much younger, and then I grew up. Actually, it is amazing how much in-fighting there was among Pagans about who was “authentic” and who wasn’t.
By and large, it was all White women wanting to form covens with themselves as the high priestess, a witchy Mean Girls, if you will. Claiming that them lighting a candle was far more “spiritual” than the grandmother in your local Catholic church doing the same – chances are the difference being that the Wiccan was doing it for her own “empowerment” while Grandma was doing it to offer prayer for a wayward child or grandchild. Narcissism indeed.
As with so many other things Terry Pratchett got his witches right.
By and large, it was all White women wanting to form covens with themselves as the high priestess, a witchy Mean Girls, if you will.
You can imagine my surprise.
I see some of our regulars have been culturally starved.
It’s a good film. I dug it out for my kids and they loved it.
It’s a good film.
I’m not sure I’d go that far. But it’s the only film I can think of that has flying brooms, neighing cartoon seahorses and Nazi stormtroopers.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
I see some of our regulars have been culturally starved.
The title is familiar, as if I once did know the story, but I don’t remember anything at all. Probably because I was too old when the movie came out to want to see it, and encountered the book at such a young age that it’s all lost in the mists of time.
Similar situation regarding other children’s stories: I don’t remember the plots of Dr. Doolittle, Stuart Little, The Borrowers, The Wind in the Willows, etc. (Hence my question in a previous thread about the name of the series in which every story ends “Now if Mister A doesn’t do silly thing B so that the C goes all silly thing D, So-and-so will tell you another story”. I recall a sixties writer using that construction in a few of his more whimsical essays.)
I’m not sure I’d go that far.
Well it’s no Murder She Wrote that’s for sure. :-p
Site has been down a long time. I tried posting this hours ago. This is the first time it worked.
First time for me, too.
[ Picks lock on drinks cabinet. ]
This calls for a celebration.
This calls for a celebration.
There’s a false back on the cabinet. That’s where the good stuff is kept.
chances are the difference being that the Wiccan was doing it for her own “empowerment” while Grandma was doing it to offer prayer for a wayward child or grandchild. Narcissism indeed.
Aside from the silliness and narcissism, I had a moral objection to all that casting of spells on people. There is a huge moral difference between praying for the recovery of a sick child and casting a spell to make someone fall in love with you or to make someone hire you. (I did not believe their spells had any power over others, but that did not negate the immorality.)
pst314: yep. It is a conceit that they can have all sorts of power, when in fact not only does reality not work that way but they are fairly powerless people.
First thing to mind on seeing the headline was what Granny Weatherwax would think of this. Not much, I imagine.
Is there still a booby-trap in that cabinet?
Is there still a booby-trap in that cabinet?
Seems sexist and unnecessarily dangerous to the lady regulars.
#savetheboobies
[ Resists temptation to post photos of blue-footed boobies. ]
Seems sexist and unnecessarily dangerous to the lady regulars.
Straight-up aimed at the henchlesbians, who are all over the licker, er liquor when it’s not being watched.
Is there still a booby-trap in that cabinet?
Well if necessary I do know the combination to the lock on the medicine cabinet. But it will cost you.
pst314: yep. It is a conceit that they can have all sorts of power, when in fact not only does reality not work that way but they are fairly powerless people.
The lust for power is the most dangerous of sins.
“she’s trying so hard not to be ordinary.”
It would be better to try to be normal.
My wife reads a website called ecosophia.net, which is run by a druid with some sense. His definition of magic is far different from the New Age crystal set, and he opposes casting curses because of the rebound effect on the caster. He’s a prolific writer and doing a series on little-known aspects of magic in America. This post on Johnny Appleseed will give you an idea.
he opposes casting curses because of the rebound effect on the caster.
My pagan acquaintances often asserted the existence of a “rebound effect”, and used that to bolster their claims that they never cast curses upon people. But I did not believe them because they had also spoken occasionally about love spells and spells to get someone hired (which amounts to a spell upon the person making hiring decisions and/or a curse upon the competing job candidates.) In the end, I concluded that the “rebound effect” was nothing more than rhetoric to crafted to deflect criticism of neo-pagans/wiccans/whatever, and to help them think of themselves as exalted beings.
Urgent question on behalf of David: What are the best alternatives to Typepad?
Evidently, as you and I have just been able to post, it appears maybe to be fixed, even though the 28 October post appears to be terminally FUBAR.
Not fully fixed: I can only comment on this post. I cannot comment on the most recent post (possibly because it has more than 100 comments–display of the page hangs up on the 100th comment.)
Typepad really FUBARed the dog.
I cannot comment on the most recent post (possibly because it has more than 100 comments…
Simple experiment, let’s run this one up to 100 and see it it hangs as well, if not it might indicate something FUBAR in something someone posted past 100.
After this only 13 left to go – your turn…
My browser won’t display the bottom of the page on the most recent post, so no comment box. My ancient waterfox browser at home displayed the start of a new post not a multiple of Japanese loos, but something about “The link above is cour” and still no comment box. None of the sidebar content appears in the most recent post, but it does here, and on the main page. OK – hitting Post and may the Force be with me.
None of the sidebar content appears in the most recent post…
Ditto on three different browsers,
Simple experiment, let’s run this one up to 100…
Let’s not. Only post comments that are useful or interesting.
Let’s not. Only post comments that are useful or interesting.
It will get there anyway, and if this one gets past 100, that would indicate to Gospodin Thompson that there is something banjaxed on the other thread.
possibly because it has more than 100 comments–display of the page hangs up on the 100th comment
Well that explains why my own long dormant blog on Typepad was now mostly functional.
It will get there anyway, and if this one gets past 100, that would indicate to Gospodin Thompson that there is something banjaxed on the other thread.
I don’t think it would tell David anything he doesn’t already know. Leave it to the folks at Typepad to fix all their bugs.
In the meantime, we can safely add maybe 8 more comments to this post, and maybe 58 to the post before this one, before breaking that 100-comment limit.
Why do I feel like I’m in the middle of psyop?
While comments are now posting at first click the page is having an extended conversation with the server when you click the refresh button. So there’s still stuff going on that probably shouldn’t be.
Leave it to the folks at Typepad to fix all their bugs.
Yes, but that may not extend to their deleting multiple posts, or an individual post with something that is offending the system.
While this gets sorted, some amusement; Today In Racism™: wypipo going to see the new wakanda movie.
I suspect that David is not going to bother deleting duplicate comments until Typepad is working properly again. Which I think would be a prudent and sanity-preserving course.
Today In Racism™: wypipo going to see the new wakanda movie.
Tomorrow in Racism™: wypipo not going to see the new wakanda movie.
Because if the movie doesn’t make enough profit, it’ll be the fault of raciss wypipo not spending enough money on it.
You are also a racist if you don’t help Doaa heal from racial trauma.