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Witchy story time. Might ruffle a few feathers, but it might interest some of you as it did me. About two years ago I was at an Occult Conference. Most speakers had a brief Q&A after their talk. This one was with Christina Oakley Harrington (Founder of Treadwells in London.)
The question was a tangent from the talk, but for context the talk was "Women in Wicca 1950-1970" which was fascinating and spoke openly from experience of the struggles women went through to maintain their craft in a patriarchal post-war Britain. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The question focussed around something touched on in the talk, and was querying the potential blockers of practicing one's craft indoors rather than outdoors (as much of the Wiccan coven / group practice had to move indoors behind closed curtains.)
The audience member asked how they might overcome the problems with practicing indoors. The practitioner stated that they find their work less potent when surrounded by Wifi and 4G (remember this was 2 years ago) and asked how to get around these obstacles.
The "answer" wasn't strictly an answer as much as it was something to consider. Harrington mentioned that in the early 20th Century there was a generation worried about electricity being introduced into their homes, many of our grandparents would have had this concern.
She mentioned that later, the same concerns were present with radio (homes without electricity was still common in the 1920's, FM radio was introduced in the late 1930's) and later the microwave, the internet, mobile phones etc etc. Did occultism and witchcraft come to a halt?
Whilst I can't remember Harrington's words verbatim, the opinion I took away was that we often limit the potential of our practice by worrying about external factors, and the perspective was such that if we allow these to become problematic, we may need to look at our practice.
Personally, I grew up with a television that only had 4 channels, no internet and phones that could double as gym weights. I also passed through the birth of the "Techno Pagan" generation (still going strong although I don't think that term is often used now!)
There used to be a mentality that we take electronics out of our sacred spaces, I used to do that. But looking at my practice, I can't fathom why I would allow myself to think that my phone/tablet playing music in the background would somehow disrupt my personal power. No way.
The occult world last year has seen rise to virtual rituals, zoom meditations and spell work, a newly rising generation of witches who use tech in their every day practice and a wealth of ways for witches to connect and practice together, even thousands of miles apart.
Whilst I can appreciate that tech can bring its own issues in our practice, I'd be more concerned with a loud TV upstairs disturbing me than I would give weight and power to something unnecessary. We are far too powerful to let ourselves be taken into a trap like that.
We ended the conference with a group ritual, it was potent, moving, powerful and symbolic. There would have probably been 100+ phones in the room, did that put a dampener on anything? Not at all. Thought didn't even occur to me.
I definitely love those perspective moments and I really enjoyed hearing that question answered by someone with such experience. Let's encourage ourselves not to place so many barriers before our power, and own it instead. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
