This is not a how-to-do folk magic blog.
I am not as interested in how to do folk magic well.
I’m asking questions about the use of biblical text and Christian elements in folk magic practices and the relationship between that and the rest of Christianity.
For some background, I am saying what I’m saying as a witch and a Christian. I am speaking as someone who has grown up in the church and studied at the undergraduate and masters level academically Christian history, church history, the New Testament, and Hebrew Bible. The way Christianity is thrown around in folk magic is concerning to me. Let me demonstrate what I mean with examples of what I heard discussed on social media about the topic. This is not an exhaustive overview and I don’t claim it as such.
I started talking about this issue I had in a couple of posts back in 2022. In the initial creation of some of these past messages, I used paraphrases or general statements to kind of distill what I was hearing on social media when folk magic and Christianity were the topics. Continuing to do that in this work which will also include the past examples that I used in 2022 posts as well as new examples that are unique only to this post. My ideas around some of these quotes have been clarified since I wrote about it in 2022.
At least in the corner of witchcraft social media I consume I’ve seen a significant uptick in the utilization of the Christian Bible in ritual, spellwork, and general practice. Using the Lord’s Prayer in a ritual or praying to Christian figures such as Mary, the Mother of Christ and various saints would be examples of what I mean. Much of this adoption seems to be connected to an interest in folk magic and practices. Here’s what I mean.
Most folk magic practices are syncretized with Christianity. Can’t do folk magic without Christianity
I guess I don’t know enough about folk magic to say whether this is wrong or not but I do question if there couldn’t be other alternatives outside other alternatives to the Christian aspects of whatever folk magic working is being done. couldn’t a different entity a different tool be used or created that would do the same thing without depending upon the power of Christian beliefs and practices? I would think this would be especially necessary if Jesus Christ is not part of the practitioner’s realm of understanding of the world or magic work or belief system. If I’m thinking about who the key Saints are and the key tools such as a cross or the Lord’s Prayer don’t mean anything if they don’t have Jesus Christ behind them.
As I said I don’t know enough about folk magic to state this claim is wrong in any way but it does seem to narrow an understanding of folk Magic Because it negates any alternatives to Christian tools, Entities, and beliefs.
“Mixing Christian elements with magic has happened throughout time, therefore, should be accepted in magic and is necessary if practicing folk magic.”
This tends to be the response to people that question the use of Christianity in folk magic practices. My issue is not so much that Christian syncretism didn’t exist my issue is whether should it continue in practice today. Should the use of Christian elements as they were understood in the earlier time period be continued in the 21st century with Christianity itself has gone through multiple changes since the time that this folk practice was recorded? especially should that use be done by practitioners that don’t hold the same beliefs about the Christian elements that the 14th and 15th-century folk practitioners did? Does that matter?
There’s a difference between accepting that Christian elements are in folk magic practices and utilizing those Christian elements as a practitioner themselves. Whether or not a magic practitioner incorporates Christian belief, practice and tools is up to the individual. I’m not going to dictate others’ spiritual practices to them.
However, should Christian elements be used only because they have been found and have been used in past folk magic workings? Should those understandings of the Christian elements be explored, critiqued, and analyzed? Do those understandings of the Christian elements need to be brought forward into the 21st century? What are the implications of keeping these understandings of the Christian elements?
There’s the power behind Christian prayer and tools which is proven by the number of people who worship the Christian god. That energy and power will still be there without believing in that god.
If the belief that god is not powering the prayer then what is? Is it the words themselves? Are the words of the Bible inherently powerful because they are in the Bible? What about the variety of interpretations and translations of the Bible? Are particular translations more powerful than others? If so how is that judged? How’s that measured? How is that determined? If the word is so powerful does that mean that the Bible is inerrant? Does that mean then all parts of the Bible have power behind them and therefore should be used in workings? How is that different from Biblical literalists? Or are only those particular prayers found in the Bible inerrant? Or if a prayer being used in a folk magic working is not found in the Bible what is bringing up power to that prayer? Is it a particular denomination’s tradition?
Is it the belief of the people that are powering the Christian prayer and tools? Is a folk practitioner then that is using Christian elements and tools but isn’t part of the Christian Community then siphoning off some of the energy power of the Christian Community of which they are not a part?
It’s also concerning how the idea of a lot of people doing it there for it should be used because a lot of people have used it in the past. Does worship of the Christian God demonstrate the power of the Christian God? Is that how the relationship with God and Jesus Christ is understood For Christian elements and tools to be used in folk Magic? does it matter if some Christians don’t share the same understanding of the relationship between God and themselves? does it matter that not all Christians use the same tools and elements or have the same understanding of those tools and elements?
What if new translations or better translations have demonstrated a different interpretation or a different reading of the text? later on, after this folk working was used. is that not part of the relationship to the text or the prayer to the working?
It is very difficult to remove the elements of Christianity and Catholicism from folk magic.
Once again I don’t know or practice enough folk magic to say if this statement is true or false. the question that it brings up to me is even though it may be difficult does that mean it should not be tried if the particular practitioner has little to no connection with Christian elements tools and beliefs? Is it no longer folk magic if a practitioner does remove the Christian elements from the working? or from the rituals that they do? And is that only because the people community that had done Them originally did them with Christian elements? Is it wrong to advance and move forward and take a side step away from the Christianity elements when practicing folk Magic? Are the Christian aspects of folk magic necessary? Specifically, the Christian elements as they are understood in the historical context of when they were initially used? Furthermore, are these Christian elements as they are used in the folk magic working specifically connected to a Catholic understanding of Christianity? if so must a Catholic understanding of Christianity be used in Folk magic workings?
To those asking the question why do any of these questions matter or why do I have such a hang-up about this is because I am concerned about how Christianity has been used to oppress and marginalize others. A certain passage may be used for a particular spell or ritual in folk magic because of a particular interpretation of the text that can have further implications about how the biblical text is understood. Lots of the problems in American White Christianity today come from the fact that the Bible is cherry-picked out of its context to “say” things about homosexuality, the personhood of women, the environment, family structure, and reproductive rights to name a few. It concerns me when the power of the words of the Bible via prayer or the Bible itself is used without consideration of the context in which they existed. Putting the Bible in context shows the nuance of the text. It usually shows the significant difference between concepts as they were discussed then to how they are discussed now. I think the historical context of the Bible should be part of the discussion when it comes to whether or not utilizing a piece of scripture as it was interpreted when the work was first made should be part of the discerning process as well as whether or not it was part of a tradition.
As can be seen, I have a lot of questions still about how Christian elements in folk magic workings are understood by the practitioners that do the workings. I also have a lot of questions that are about the relationship between folk magic users that are using Christian elements and the rest of the Christian Community that exists on this planet. Because of all the questions I have I plan to do some study with folk Magic in some ways regionally specific Magic texts and analyze in these texts where Christianity is used how Christianity is used in the workings that are discussed. So I’ll mainly first be trying and attempting to find these Christian aspects and that is Christian is a very Broad term in this study that I plan to do it’s going to include anything about Mary it’s going to include anything about Jesus Christ it’s going to include anything about the Saints it’s going to include anything about really any mention of any biblical narrative, it’s going to include anything about communion it’s going to include anything about baptism it’s going to include any of these practices as well as the characters in the tools.
From there I’m going to summarize what I’ve encountered and see if I can answer the questions that are in this blog. as well as build out some sort of understanding when it comes to how Christian elements are related to the 21st century in folk Magic. They’re probably will be some exegesis as well if particular scripture passages and prayers from the Bible are utilized in the folk magic elements and workings that I read. I hope to have my questions answered and a better understanding of Christianity in folk magic.
In short, I have questions and hope to discover answers.
Thornback’s Theories 