a bell and a pomegranate

atriptothemorg:

witchsistah:

talldarkbishoujo:

threedifferentways:

My observations and experiences as a Pagan Woman of Color:

• On finding out I’m of black descent, people keep asking me who my Met Tet is. Who my Head Orisha is. Which Lwa am I bound to. And then saying “Why not? It’s your bloodline after all!”, when I tell them I don’t follow a African Diasporic Path.
• When I was serving Loki, I was spit on by a local (Caucasian) Asatru, who felt me claiming such a bond was an insult to his “warrior race” ancestors. I was later told by well-meaning others to never bring up my connection to Loki among other pagans. Not because of “Loki = Bad” spite, but because it will be assumed I’m fluffier than a bag of cotton balls because no black person would be accepted by the Aesir/Vanir.
• I was invited to a local Open Circle by a Caucasian friend. The Open Circle was held purposely for allowing those not grouped or covened to join in a seasonal festival and was open to the general public. After arriving and confirming my attendance, I was discreetly told that the ritual would “probably not be good for you and your energies because your kind of gods are so different from ours”. I repeated these words to the High Priestess, who looked every where but at me and then said, “She wasn’t supposed to say it like that, but yes.”. I asked her if she knew which gods I was beholden to, she said, “The Voodoo ones.”. My stone face corrected her. I did leave, but I took a red pen and hashmarked my name from the attendance sheet, then wrote beside it why I was leaving. “My race is not welcome.” My friend said it looked like I had left a blood mark on the paper. She later told me another person spoke up and said, “The nigger left? Oh good. Now we can have a proper ritual.”.
• Online, everyone assumes I am Caucasian because of my assumed name, and that I use runes for magic and tarot for divination. When I correct them, they usually drop the thread at once. On occasion, I have had my comments removed because “Only whites can understand the Goddess. Non-whites have males Gods as their patrons. This has been documented throughout history.”.
• The “Pagan Community” is as whitewashed as the British Colonial Empire. There are outstanding individuals and groups that stand against the tide. But for the majority, it’s either conform to the ‘standard’, or be exotically invisible.

It is for these reasons (and so many experiences like them), I find it hard to claim I am pagan at times. The connotation of the word has shifted from “country-dweller”, to “person not of a Abrahamic faith”, to “a person of European ancestry following a religion loosely based on Western European and/or Northern European religions”.

If I say I am pagan, it is assumed I am white. If I correct that, then I am accused of race-baiting, wanting to be a Special Snowflake, denying my ancestry, or wanting to be white. I am immediately considered a charlatan compared with infamous characters as Miss Cleo and Dionne Warwick. I’m obviously trying to lead young impressionable real pagans (read: white) away with my fake hoodoo mumbo jumbo.

If I remain silent, I am viewed as commiserating with the very people that would render me invisible.

If I speak up, I am viewed as spreading lies and assaulting white people everywhere in my quest to destroy the Caucasian race and self-worth.

I have nothing to add to the arguments discussions being held back and forth. I’m just a Pagan Woman of Color, that has found refuge in her personal friends, but views the Pagan Community at large racially hostile towards People of Color and has had that view justified far too many times than not.

Co-signing all of this as a black eclectic Pagan who works predominantly in a Greco-Egyptian milieu. This is so similar to my experience it almost hurts. I have had people constantly, constantly assume that I’m an expert on West African deities and religions (syncretic or otherwise) simply because I’m black, and assume automatically that this is what I practice

I have been interrogated over and over again for not practicing an ATR. I’ve been told that I can’t/shouldn’t work with European deities, that my experience and my calling is not valid. That honoring my ancestors by necessity means following their deities even if I haven’t been called by them to do so.

I have had my “street cred” challenged over and over again by white people with far less knowledge and practical experience than me, despite being a lineaged Alexandrian (though I no longer consider myself Wiccan).

I have experienced that chilly reception in “open” public circles, being the only black face there, the side-eyeing, the “are you sure you’re in the right place”, “we don’t work with those deities/energies” comments. I remember one Pagan Pride Day when I still lived in Phoenix, there happened to be an older black woman with a few friends and I must have talked to her for ages and ages. And OH BOY did we get stares. Maybe they thought the Negros were plotting some voodoo business, heh.

And I too am 100% solitary and generally refuse to engage with the Pagan community online or in meatspace outside a tiny handful of long time and trusted friends/working partners. For all of the above reasons and a slew of others.

OMG! All of this, ESPECIALLY the idea of “natural” or “genetic” religion (of course, if you’re Black you’re supposed to only follow an ATR, if you’re Asian only Hinduism or Buddhism) yet they’ll snatch ANY PoC deity they want for worship.  AND they got the nerve to Whitewash them if they find them too “ethnic.”  That’s why Quan Yin is now basically Jesus with boobs to those folks.  I’ve seen White statues of African deities.  

This! So hard! I identify as a pagan woman of color too and I have had to take a step back from the pagan community because it is so white, so culturally appropriating and so unfriendly to people of color! There is no analysis around oppression or injustice and some of those motherfuckers have the nerve to steal deities that were the product of colonization! While at the same time pushing out people of color with their whiteness. I really want to start some sort of anti-racist, anti-oppression magickal community. Cause I feel like we can do a lot of powerful work. We just need to get together and do the business.