{"id":8412,"date":"2017-01-09T18:41:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T01:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8412"},"modified":"2017-01-09T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T01:46:08","slug":"some-spare-links-and-the-witchcraft-aesthetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8412","title":{"rendered":"Some “Spare” Links and the “Witchcraft Aesthetic”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00b6 The University of Heidelberg has scanned and put online a 1916 issue of Form<\/em>, a small British art magazine containing numerous illustrations by Austin Osman Spare<\/a>, noted English occultist and artist. Here is a sample.<\/p>\n

\u00b6 If I were visiting Milan, I would visit this Tarot painter’s studio and drop a few euros. <\/a>Maybe I could afford one card.<\/p>\n

His shop boasts an endless variety of cards, making it a treasure trove for lovers of the occult in the Italian North. Some decks depict the major and minor arcana (tarot\u2019s \u201cface card\u201d and \u201cnumber card\u201d equivalents) in Cubist shapes. Others portray them as animals or even flowers, inspired by vintage science books. One deck reimagines traditional iconography with old maps that Menegazzi finds at Milanese flea markets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00b6 First, I am always suspicious when a news article introduces someone as “controversial,” as in this case: “the controversial Azealia Banks.” It’s like a way of saying, “We don’t like her, but we are pretending to be objective.”<\/p>\n

According to the article, the performer outed herself as a\u00a0 Brujeria <\/a>practitioner, in other words, folk witchcraft.<\/p>\n

The video shows Banks getting ready to clean out her closet in which she has practiced Brujeria for the past three years. After seeing the closet caked in chicken blood, feathers, and some black stuff we can\u2019t figure out, the Internet of course went wild. But why was everyone so shocked to learn that Banks had been sacrificing chickens? The artist, as problematic as she may be, has admitted to practicing \u2014 specifically Brujeria \u2014in the past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then the writer, one Samantha Mercado<\/a>, gets off onto the subtlties of the “witchcraft aesthetic” and female empowerment.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of pop culture trends that feed feminism, but the mainstreaming of witchcraft has proved both empowering and problematic. The word and idea of a witch were traditionally associated with demonizing women \u2014 images of an ugly outcast cackling over a cauldron or a green Margaret Hamilton come to mind. But recently, the image and connotation associated with witches has become more and more empowering \u2014 witches are being portrayed as heroines instead of demons.<\/p>\n

With this new, all-empowering image of a witch comes a slew of trends pandering to a “witch aesthetic.” From blogs to high-end clothing lines, it seems like everyone is trying to cash in on the witch trend, and while the increased popularity of witchcraft has helped the practice grow, it makes you wonder if everyone appropriating it understands its origins.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh shit, the secret is out. Witches don’t go door to door asking if you have heard the word of Cernunnos. No, we let the “aesthetic” reel in the innocent seekers. We’re happy to see young ladies dressed up in “sexy witch” costumes. Next thing, Pandemonaeon <\/a>albums, festivals, polyamory, and arguments over “traditional.” (With the guys, it’s tricker. But not much.)<\/p>\n

Really, art beats dogma every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b6 The University of Heidelberg has scanned and put online a 1916 issue of Form, a small British art magazine containing numerous illustrations by Austin Osman Spare, noted English occultist and artist. Here is a sample. \u00b6 If I were visiting Milan, I would visit this Tarot painter’s studio and drop a few euros. Maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,95,39,159,29],"class_list":["post-8412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-journalism","tag-occultism","tag-tarot","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2bG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1249,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1249","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":0},"title":"Montr\u00e9al Magical Mercantile Tour","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A group of Pagan Studies scholars started Friday at the big John Waterhouse exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It offered the largest selection of his paintings ever, plus sketches, drawings, and letters. When the docent suggested that \"The Magic Circle\" was not really about religion, she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11001,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11001","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":1},"title":"Have We Indeed Reached “Peak Witch”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I doubt it. But that is the kind of significant question that the New York Times is asking during Witchcraft and Paganism Media Month: \"When Did Everybody [sic] Become a Witch?\" Witches are your millennial co-workers doing tarot card readings on their lunch breaks, and professional colleagues encouraging you to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10074,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10074","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":2},"title":"Call for Papers: Pagan Art & Fashion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"CFP for a special issue of The Pomegranate on Pagan Art and Fashion\u00a0 \u00a0A beautiful young woman drapes her long auburn hair over a human skull, pressing it close to her face like a lover. Another, clad in black and holding a wooden staff, poses like a model in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13198,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13198","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":3},"title":"The First Wiccan Book Published in India","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A little more than twenty years ago, in the preference to his landmark study of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft, The Triumph of the Moon, the historian Ronald Hutton wrote that \"the unique significance of pagan [sic] witchcraft to history is that it is the only religion which England has even given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"India\"","block_context":{"text":"India","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=india"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/ANI-20221216115613-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9676,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9676","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":4},"title":"Call for Papers: A Special Issue of The Pomegranate on Pagan Art and Fashion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From Caroline Tully (University of Melbourne, Australia), guest editor of an upcoming issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies devoted to Pagan art and fashion. A beautiful young woman drapes her long auburn hair over a human skull, pressing it close to her face like a lover.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pomegranate-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11873,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11873","url_meta":{"origin":8412,"position":5},"title":"How Makers and Creators Might Price Their Work","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I graduated from college, I owned three Tarot decks: the Rider-Waite\/Pamela Coleman Smith deck (of course), the Marseilles deck (for history), and David Palladini's Aquarian Tarot (well, it fit my personal aesthetic at the time). This is fun, I thought, I should collect more Tarot decks. And then the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"King of Cups Tarot Card","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Palladini-King-of-Cups.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8412"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8421,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions\/8421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}