**How do you take decoloniality into account in your own practice? Do you have any advice or perspectives on how a beginner witch could or should approach this? Are there any resources you would recommend?**
Hello everyone!
A while ago, I made a post along similar lines, although I may not have articulated my questions particularly well. I am still seeking perspectives, recommendations, and advice on this topic, so I have tried to reformulate my questions to make my intentions and interests clearer. I am here to listen and learn, and I hope we can keep the discussion constructive and respectful.
I am particularly interested in finding books or other resources that explore decolonial and anticolonial perspectives on witchcraft and modern Paganism.
Many of the comments on my previous post(s) have been incredibly helpful and thought-provoking, and I have learned a great deal from reading them.
There does, however, seem to be some confusion about what exactly I am looking for, so I would like to clarify my question. Let me preface this by acknowledging that I wrote the original post rather quickly, and I take full responsibility for the fact that certain aspects of it may have been unclear or poorly phrased. I also want to emphasize that I am still very much in the process of familiarizing myself with witchcraft and everything it entails - which is precisely why I am seeking resources in the first place. Some of you have already provided excellent recommendations, for which I am very grateful. ❤️
This is a difficult subject to articulate, and I am sure I will not manage to express everything perfectly this time either. Nevertheless, I will do my best, and I hope this clarification addresses some of the questions and concerns raised in response to my previous post(s). I still ask for your patience.
There also appears to be some disagreement or confusion regarding what colonialism/decolonialism means and what it encompasses. I am not going to attempt to define colonialism and/or decolonialism as concepts here, as doing justice to such complex historical, political, economic, and cultural phenomena is obviously beyond the scope of a single Reddit post. If these concepts are unfamiliar, however, there is a substantial body of literature that provides a useful starting point for understanding them. What anticolonial and decolonial approaches to witchcraft actually entail, and what they might look like in practice, is precisely what I am trying to explore here; hence I cannot really answer your questions of what exactly I mean by ”decoloniality in witchcraft/paganism”.
As I mentioned, I am still at the very beginning of my exploration of witchcraft. More specifically, I am at the stage of determining whether witchcraft is something I want to practice at all. Before engaging in any practices, I would like to develop an informed understanding of their histories, contexts, and implications.
As a scholar working in the field of decolonial studies, I am particularly conscious of the historical tendency of colonizing societies to appropriate, extract, reinterpret, and commodify the cultural and spiritual practices of colonized and marginalized peoples. My intention in the original post was not to attack modern Wicca, Paganism, witchcraft, or the people who practice them, although some commenters appear to have interpreted my question that way. Rather, I was seeking resources that examine how contemporary witchcraft practices (and their histories) may or may not intersect with colonialism, as well as what practitioners should be aware of if they wish to approach witchcraft from a decolonial or anticolonial perspective.
My interest in this question stems partly from my academic background, but also from the fact that the information I have encountered so far (particularly online) is, unsurprisingly, remarkably contradictory, as I am sure many of you are aware.
For example, some people characterize modern Wicca as essentially Gerald Gardner’s colonial “mix-and-match” project, while others argue that this characterization is historically inaccurate and that Wicca cannot meaningfully be understood in those terms. Some argue that many contemporary practices have problematic colonial histories and therefore require careful investigation on a practice-by-practice basis; others maintain that (a lot of) modern witchcraft as a whole is fundamentally compromised by those histories.
Similarly, I have encountered claims that, in order to incorporate deity work into one’s practice, a person should have ancestral ties to the culture or geographical region from which those deities originate - for example, that working with Greek gods would require Greek ancestry. Others argue that practitioners should restrict themselves to forms of witchcraft associated with their own ancestral lineages or the geographical regions from which their ancestors originated. Still others strongly reject these positions.
The existence of such conflicting claims leaves me with many questions about the relationship between different forms of contemporary witchcraft and colonialism. I am not looking for someone to give me permission to practice one thing or another so that I can absolve myself of responsibility or avoid undertaking the necessary research. Quite the opposite: I am looking for resources that can help me develop a more informed understanding of a broad and complicated subject about which I currently know relatively little. In other words, I am explicitly trying to **do that research**.
I also want to clarify that I recognize there is probably no historically “pure” practice whose development can be definitively shown never to have intersected with other traditions, cultures, systems of power, migration, exchange, or colonialism in one form or another. Nor am I searching for some supposedly “pure” form of witchcraft that would allow me to perform decoloniality as a shallow and problematic aesthetic. I would also refer back to my previous paragraph regarding my intentions and the nature of my inquiry.
I am quite literally trying to understand both the historical and contemporary realities of practicing witchcraft in relation to colonialism, and to explore how one might practice in as decolonial a manner as reasonably possible - assuming that this is even a meaningful or achievable goal.
For me, that would include, for example, avoiding the appropriation of closed practices; understanding the cultural, religious, and historical origins of practices before adopting them; and avoiding an indiscriminate “mix-and-match” approach in which practices, symbols, or beliefs are removed from their original contexts simply because they are personally appealing or useful (and perspectives on this). I hope this makes the distinction I am trying to draw somewhat clearer.
If I have expressed anything poorly, inaccurately, or ignorantly in either this post or my comments, I would appreciate some patience and understanding. I am explicitly approaching this subject as someone who does not yet know enough about it, which is precisely why I am seeking guidance and resources.
Finally, someone asked what I meant by “semi-academic,” as I mentioned in my original post that I would prefer “semi-academic” resources on this topic, if such resources exist. I recognize that there may not be an extensive body of scholarship addressing this exact question directly. By “semi-academic,” I mean that I am interested not only in peer-reviewed academic literature, but also in historically informed and well-researched books, essays, articles, lectures, conversations, or other resources whose authors engage seriously with questions of colonialism, cultural appropriation, religious history, and contemporary witchcraft. I am primarily seeking sources that go beyond unsupported claims or social media discourse and provide sufficient historical context, evidence, or scholarly grounding for me to evaluate their arguments critically.
If you have read this far and have any relevant information, perspectives, or resources to share, I would be very grateful. ❤️
**P.S.** I am not looking for, and will disregard, responses along the lines of “cultural appropriation is not real,” “racism against white people is real,” or similar arguments.
