Let’s talk about the elephant in the room- unreliable, fear-mongering sources in the witchcraft community. I did a live stream on the 20th of this month with Frankie of chaoticwitchaunt, and some of their viewers asked questions/made assumptions that left me very concerned. As well as, the general air of discourse on the internet the last month has been… alarming to say the least.

Firstly, just because someone says something online about magick, doesn’t make it true. This goes for me as well. Now I am not trying to even remotely suggest that because it IS online, that it should be dismissed. Frankly, a huge portion of witchcraft is UPG (unverified personal gnosis), which is just as valid as magick that has a historical basis. My book, for example, is not a piece of online literature, and yet that has a fair percentage of UPG in it. Because it’s what works in my practice. A good rule of thumb online is, consume… but verify. Even if it works for their practice, that doesn’t mean it’s always going to work for your own and that’s okay. It doesn’t however make it a “rule,” or something to be afraid of just because a content creator put it out there. Consider the context, again, consume but verify.

The reason I bring this up is that there has become an alarming amount of “information” (and I truly use that word loosely) spread around the internet, that suggests all sorts of things, that simply have no background or are dangerous. Recently a major content creator from the clock app recommended Julius Evola to their following. A super fascist, who hated women, was racist, called Hitler a moderate, and said that if he had it his way the Christians would have been un-alived as well in the holocaust because it was a “bastard jew religion.” This is dangerous. No one should entertain his “occult” workings when one of his books outside of occultism was “Three Aspects of the Jewish Problem.” This man who has been in modern days been cited by the extreme alt-right as a god. Now I am not saying of course that this content creator purposely exposed their predominantly underage following to a nazi, but upon learning about this information, they 1. Didn’t take the post down 2. Described him as “troubled” when addressing it.

So let’s talk about why this matters, outside of the problematic obvious. Recently there has been a lot of online discourse regarding the accessibility of information on the internet. A lot of younger people especially feel that they are limited to what they can and cannot consume because of financial reasons- which is very valid. Because of this, without even venturing down the [in my opinion] deplorable path of stealing from authors by pirating books, they are left with TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, and even bloggers like me. These positions are ones, for lack of a better term, of power. You have a content creator who has hundreds, even hundreds of thousands, heck even millions depending on who it is, who can share information to their following. Here’s when things get tricky. The algorithm for content creators (I know because I am one) runs on engagement. Well-sourced and vetted information can get traction, but you know what does get traction? Reactionary fear-mongering. 

You have content being made where “everything” is apparently a closed practice, which isn’t rooted in reality or historical context. This is an opinion being stated as fact. And this is dangerous to actual closed practices and religions. Take vodou, for example, closed by race and initiation. One cannot simply pick up a vodou book and start practicing. Aside from that being entirely problematic, without proper initiation, to my understanding, it won’t even work. Now that being said, if we label EVERYTHING as a closed practice, suddenly the term “closed practice” is no longer taken seriously. This is directly harmful to POC spiritual practices, religions, and closed practices in general. Gated practice does not mean closed. And because your favorite content creator said plants are closed… I’m sorry but what. 

Now, this is of course not true that these are our only sources, we have lots of legal and free ways to source books online- I will link some of these examples at the end of the blog. However, when you have people who are lead to believe that they cannot do these things, or even more simply, their favorite content creator is canceling historical authors left and right, they feel as though they are only left with the option to consume this clickbait based content. Leaving them far less equipped than before they even began.

So what to look out for?

• Consume but verify. Sure consume content out there! There are TONS of knowledgeable and legitimate sources that really are just sharing what they know. So listen, but then see where else you can find this information before taking it on as 100% fact.
• Does their content scare or worry you? Perhaps let’s examine why that is. Is it because they want you to engage and continue to come back to them for more information? Are they perhaps using you for engagement?
• Never heard of an author suggested before? Google them. If the first thing that comes up is their history of fascism, racism, etc… perhaps that’s one to pass on.
• Look into trusted publishing houses in our pagan community. Usually, they have a pagan editor (I for example am not with a pagan publisher, but my editor was a pagan!) and with that, there is a degree of responsibility being held to them.
• If a content creator is not addressing issues with their own content, perhaps one to let go of.
• Please remember, that just because a pagan/occult author from 100+ years ago was problematic in their viewpoints, consider the world they lived in. No- Julius Evola is not an example of this. But Crowley would be. An example is he is labeled as a pervert, but do you know why? It’s because he was a bisexual, who had a relationship with a man. Just consider that, when you see broad lists online still shaming him for his relationship choices over 100 years later.

Sources to obtain legal free books:

• Google your local library, you can sign up online, request books, and even get ebooks. Yes you will have to wait sometimes, but it supports the authors, and is free!
• https://openlibrary.org/
• https://www.scribd.com/ (this does have a monthly fee of 10 dollars)
• https://sefaria.org – Sefaria
• http://luminist.org/archives/index.htm… – Luminist Archives
• https://occult-world.com/library/ – Occult World
• https://archive.org/details/books – The Internet Archive
• https://hermetic.com/
• http://sacred-texts.com

And on a final note, please stop with the moldative fear-mongering. It’s not funny, its not true, and saying it “killed your parents,” or “terminated your pregnancy” is irresponsible and unacceptable.