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Consumerism & Witchcraft
Written by Marimo (he/they)🌿
I’ve seen a turn for the better in some witchy spaces regarding consumerism in the past few years, but overall it still tends to be an issue for us as a community. I’ve decided to try and breakdown the pitfalls I’ve noticed in my own journey, in the hopes that it will inspire and assist others. I’ve also provided alternatives and ideas on how to make small changes in our practice to help us better protect the Earth, stick it to the failing system and still acquire our bits and bobs we love so dearly.
As always, I am no authority on any subject nor am I perfect—but we’re all learning as we go, so let’s dive right in 🌿
A Preface
There are some things that should be made entirely clear before we begin:
You are not a bad person for wanting an aesthetic
You are not a bad person for unknowingly falling into pitfalls. Only if you continue to purposefully do so after knowing better
You are not a bad person for consuming content/objects or for not always making the most sustainable decisions. At the end of the day, we can only control our small part of environmental impact, while the rest is left up to the major corporations that make more pollution than any of us ever will
You are only human. Show yourself some grace and understanding that the internet so lacks.
My Experience in Consumerist Hell
I have fallen victim many times to consumerism in witchcraft. Starting my journey at the ripe age of about ten years old and heavily in the broom closet, I was quickly drawn in by the shiny rocks, the brand new candles and scents, the promise of new tarot decks and pendulums and other fancy, shiny new equipment. I was consuming an online aesthetic along with my ideals, and it distracted me from starting my journey by learning well.
I began to spend my birthday and holiday money on the aesthetic of things. While, granted, I still did buy a few literary resources now and again from my local secondhand bookstore—I was stubbornly ignoring the sage advice to learn and understand first before diving in headfirst.
I purchased statues, crystals, too many tarot decks to use. I purchased osteomancy bones I later returned to the earth, for I had not done enough research to know that that animal was mine to practice with. I had a tankard full of incense sticks, and even a growing pile of books that would not be read. While I liked to consider myself crafty with my homemade Maypole and various hand-bound Grimoires, something was becoming apparent: this was all a distraction.
The aesthetic I was partaking in was providing me with a false sense of progress and practicality.
When I’d go to do a tarot reading, I’d become far too overwhelmed with choosing a deck to read in the first place. When making an offering to a deity, I’d feel pressured to also bolster the altars of all the other deities I’d set up, and with my wide pool, the connections felt muddy. Often times I’d be off-put on a project or spell because I knew I needed to film it and it needed to look nice.
In the long term, I don’t have many of these items today. I’ve sold and donated a vast breadth of them. Feeling overwhelmed costed me a few years retreat from my craft to recuperate. However, what has stuck with me is the knowledge I picked up along the way.
So, What’s the Issue? TL;DR
I’ve noticed a few issues here in making these mistakes myself.
Consumerism absolutely distracts you from learning and your craft
Overconsumption leads to environmental damage. If everyone hoarded supplies, there would not be enough to go around. And with what gets thrown away every year…it paints an ugly wound on the Earth
We damage our learning abilities by not allowing ourselves to be anything less than perfect
The need for aesthetic creates barriers to entry within the community and creates a divide of haves and have-nots
You won’t be able to truly follow your individual path if you are only consuming and not creating for yourself
Consumerist culture promotes appropriation. Metaphysical stores carry items from closed practices (such as white sage and palo santo, or coyote bones) because someone is buying them. Don’t be that person, and find alternatives relating to your own culture instead
Consumerism can influence your spiritual decisions based upon monetary inclinations (where some may sacrifice a quality ingredient over a higher quantity of a lower quality ingredient)
So, what can we do?
Firstly, I want to clarify that I am not against collecting, nor am I against maximalism or the beautiful visual aesthetic we carry as a community.
I am an artist a very visual person and understand the longing for a beautiful home and workspace. However, this aesthetic shouldn’t come at the cost of irresponsibly harming the Earth or another community.
Thus, I’ve compiled a list of small things that I will be incorporating into my practice to make it more mindful and sustainable. I hope that you’ll join me in a few of them.
Minimize Supplies. While I used to have a huge selection of stationary for my Grimoire, I now limit myself to a simple pencil and watercolor set if I’m feeling artistic. This helps me actually use my Grimoire for study, rather than to keep perfect. It’s also friendlier on my wallet!
Thrift Supplies. There are plenty of perfectly good items that get donated daily. You can get high-quality candles and holders, old crystal bowls for altar offerings, spare crafting supplies, fabric for alter cloths and even clothing if you so wish—all for a fraction of the cost new and while saving the planet just a little bit more. Hell, you can sometimes even find good silver!
Share Supplies with your Community. You can create a sort of barter system with other witches in your area. Perhaps you create a sigil for them, and they provide you with a candle spell. Play to your strengths and grow together!
Look for Creative Outlets. Do you really need to go buy an altar statue that’s been mass-produced? Or can you give your deity the personal gift of a drawing, painting or even hand-modeled or hand-carved rendition? This will also deepen your connection to your craft and your magic, and make it more meaningful and stronger. If you really like something, though, go for it!
If you aren’t the artistic sort, consider supporting an artist before going to a large company. While I haven’t purchased from them myself, Blagowood on Etsy has beautiful deity statues carved from wood by their small team in Ukraine for a comparable cost to the standard mass produced metal statues. I consider this extra labor of love going into these pieces and those of similar small companies to be much better energy for my practice. I myself may put out some art prints and other handmade supplies in the future, but I will likely spread them around my community first.
Try Secondhand Books. While not available in every area and further still not as available for witchcraft and occult books, you may strike luck! Not only are secondhand books less expensive, but you’ll be supporting a local business. That’s not to say you can’t buy firsthand books, but some searching around may be beneficial to the earth and to your wallet in the long run.
Be mindful of where you source supplies and decor. If you are a fan of taxidermy decor, make sure that you source cruelty free. Bats can practically never be sourced without cruelty, so if a shop carries them, I’d be mindful of their other specimens. The same goes for if a shop decides to forgo a culture’s wishes and carry supplies sacred to them, such as white sage or dreamcatchers. Supporting folks who turn a profit off of others’ suffering is not something many would wish to include energetically in their craft.
Search the Wild for Tools. Find sticks, flowers and other plants out in the forest. Learn how to rockhound in your area for crystals. Your craft will be more powerful the more connected it is to the land you are surrounded by. Be sure to reference guides for safety and legality!
Get Creative with Purposes. If you are having difficulty finding exactly what you need by thrifting or searching, make another tool multipurpose if it would do the job good enough. Find supplies that are easy to source and work as substitutes for other ingredients (ex. Quartz as a stand in for other stones)
Spend more time Doing. Go out into the woods (safely) and advance your connection to the earth instead of worrying over the perfect item for your collection. Your craft will benefit
At the end of the day, all of this is your decision. Take what you like, and leave what you don’t. Even if we don’t agree, I thank you for your time and open mind. I will continue updating about how I incorporate these steps, and I will also hopefully post more on witchy crafting in the future.
I wish you well, and hope you’ll decide to follow along on our journey!
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“Eating animals is a personal choice.”
This is an very often quoted line, used not so much as an attack on veganism but as a personal justification for the consumption of animal products. The reasoning goes, that since everyone is entitled to choose their own diets, not being vegan is a personal choice and thus vegans should not seek to “impose” their beliefs on others.
The problem with this reasoning, is that it assumes the only person effected by your dietary choices is you, the moral agent. This is the case when it comes to choosing between an apple or an orange, but not so when choosing to consume animal products. This is because in this decision making process, the one most effected by the decision is the animal being consumed, and their needs, preferences and choices are not being taken into account by the person choosing. Personal choice ceases to be a matter of personal preference when those choices have victims, when they effect other beings. In the case of animal products, it could not be clearer that other beings are directly effected in that are being held captive, exploited, and killed for the enjoyment or sustenance of the person making the decision.
Eating animals is a moral decision, and no moral decision takes place in a vacuum, nor are animals the only beings who are negatively impacted by the decision to consume animal products. Industrial animal farming has a severe and devastating effect on surrounding communities, polluting water, air and driving down land values. Those who try to speak against these corrupt industries either on behalf of these communities or on behalf of animals, are met with legal action and often even criminal charges. Those who work for these industries are also effected; slaughterhouse workers are much more likely than average to have problems with alcohol abuse and with mental health issues like PTSD from working under extremely stressful conditions. These workers have astonishingly high rates of injury due to a high pressure, dangerous working environment, when workers do sustain injuries, The Human Rights Watch reports the industry failing to administer their workers’ compensation programs by systematically failing to recognise and report claims, delaying claims, denying claims, and threatening and taking reprisals against workers who file claims for compensation for workplace injuries. Unfortunately these are most often poor immigrants with no other choice.
This dismissal of all moral criticism under the justification of “personal choice” only ever seems to surface where eating animals is concerned; if any human were committing any other harmful action this excuse would be rightly dismissed as the nonsense it is. For example, if a person decided that they would enjoy watching dog fights, and they arranged a small room in their house for such a purpose, no one would accept the idea that this was their “personal choice” and therefore we should leave them to it. Diet has no special moral significance over any other form of consumption; if we can condemn a person for visiting Seaworld or a bull fight, we can certainly condemn them for paying for an animal to be slaughtered on their behalf if it is not absolutely necessary.
This argument displays not only a lack of understanding as to how personal responsibility works, but shows a stunning level of ego-centrism. This may seem like simply arrogance, but it demonstrates not simply a belief in human superiority over animals, but more insidiously, it states that animals do not even need to be factored into the equation when making ethical decisions. The person making this argument implies that not only do animals not matter as much as we do, but they do not matter at all. This kind thinking is morally bankrupt and completely indefensible.
(More resources at Acti-veg.com)
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i just want my life to revolve around love and art and passion and making others feel safe and secure and just enjoy living as a whole and i don't think that's too much to ask for tbh
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Playing around with some new brushes and rendering styles. I’ve just been craving a little more texture lately! I like my art slightly crunchy these days.
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Witchy Self-Care
*pulls out draft from over a year ago* ENJOY
Hi! this is a list of witchy self-care things you can do. Most of these are pretty basic on account that i wrote this ages ago but they definitely still work. Anyways, I hope these help :)
Do the dishes and dedicate it to your house spirit (if you have one) or a deity (if you're religious)
sweep/mop your floor in the shape of sigils
add rosemary (or rosemary water/essential oils) to the water you mop with to set an intention of cleansing
taking ritual a bath/shower
cleansing your energy. it's so basic but I forget more than i'd like to admit
dedicating time to yourself. it's just as important as dedicating time to your deities/other spirits
light shadow work or going to therapy. bettering your mental health also betters your spiritual.
go outside and ground yourself
take a nap (less witchy, more, I love naps. rest is important)
work out/stretch and dedicate it to an entity
do some gratitude
take 5 minutes to just sit and turn off your devices. you can use this time for anything, just take a second to get off screens and connect with the world around you
meditate. if you can't sit still long enough to meditate, just focus on taking 3 deep breathes
when you wash your face, draw sigils on your face with the cleanser and moisturiser
^do the same as above but with your body wash and when you wash your hair
say some affirmations/manifestations while brushing your teeth
just check in with yourself and see how you're feeling spiritually, psychically and emotionally. sometimes we don't actually know how we're feeling until we sit down and actually ask ourselves.
If anyone has any more to add please comment. I'll add them to the list (with credit of course)
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how do we know Israel are trying to target civilians? I’m sure you are right but some people will say the civilians are killed by accident trying to kill Hamas
New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide - amnesty international
Detailed investigation into two Israeli attacks - amnesty international
Unlawful Israeli air strikes - human rights watch
The targeted killings case - international committee of the red cross
Operation protective edge - amnesty international
West Bank strike - BBC
Doctors say children targeted by snipers - guardian
Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families - guardian
The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war - committee to protect journalists
Israeli strikes killing 106 civilians apparent war crime - human rights watch
Civilians are the primary victims of increased violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory - UN Commission of Inquiry
This isn’t even the end of it, I stopped here solely because I felt my point was made. This information is easily accessible and the evidence is widespread and overwhelming.
An Israeli study found that 61% of all deaths in air strikes in Gaza are civilians, the civilian proportion of deaths is higher than the average in all world conflicts in the second half of 20th century. That is despite the IOF using modern, highly advanced weapons and accurate targeting systems that are supplied by western powers. Does that sound like an ‘accident’ to you?
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“Animals are bred to be eaten.”
This is a surprisingly common argument which appeals to the fact that farmed animals are bred for the express purpose of being eaten. Since this is the purpose of the animals concerned, it is argued, it is perfectly acceptable to consume them. This is often accompanied by questions surrounding what the point of these animals would be if we were to stop eating them.
This argument is deeply flawed at its foundation, as it is based on the unjustified assumption that one group of individuals can, based solely on their own preferences, decide or determine what the purpose of another group is going to be. This undermines the right for self-determination which all humans and animals should have as far as is practicable. The belief that animals exist solely for humans has no more logical basis than the belief that women exist for men, which is also a fairly widely held and misguided belief. Our designation of some animals as “food” and other animals as “pets” does not fundamentally change anything about the animal. Animals are not objects, they have no innate purpose as is the case with a table or a chair, they are autonomous beings with needs, preferences and a will separate to ours. Humans have, at various points throughout history, thought they could decide what the purpose of other humans would be, and attempted to “breed” them specifically for this purpose. That is not to say that slavery is comparable to animals being bred for food, the two forms of oppression are unique and take place in their own context, but it is a telling example of how corrupt this particular line of reasoning can become.
Furthermore, this argument relies on the assumption that just because a purpose has been imposed on a sentient being from outside of themselves, that fulfilling this particular purpose is the only ethical outcome for the individual concerned. If this is indeed the case, it is extremely odd that people who hold to this belief still celebrate beagles who are set free from animal testing labs, or cows who escape slaughterhouses and run through the streets, or pigs who become loved members of a family. In all of these cases, the animal in question is not fulfilling their original “purpose,” and yet, we hear no ethical condemnation. This begs the question of why this could not be the case for all farmed animals, if we celebrate those few who do escape their “purpose,” it would be logical to assume if they escaped from that “purpose”, that this too would be a cause for celebration.
This argument rests on an assumption which is justified by nothing more than blatant and arbitrary speciesism. The notion that it is ethical to decide on another being’s purpose against their own interests is immoral and without any logical basis whatsoever. The prevalence of this kind of thinking throughout history, and the appalling consequences of those occasions when it has been put into practice, should be enough to convince any thinking person against any proposition argued on this basis.
(More resources at Acti-veg.com)
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I absolutely love the relationship between John and Rose, because of how well John’s gooberness and Rose’s wit gel together when they interact.
They ping-pong off each other's quips and jokes, but they still both care about each other. Definitely not a romantic relationship, more like a "i've known this person for so long that I can read them like an open book" kind of relationship. Pesterchums, even.
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I like kissing after kissing n then kissing again
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Everyone who's like, "Yeah! Stop calling people [r-slur]! Use [other term referring to some form of disability] instead!" is completely missing the fucking point.
No form of disability should be used as an insult, period.
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assume for the sake of this poll that the ubi is a comfortable living wage and that you can get a job in any field you’d like.
also if you picked ‘for another reason’ pls put why in the tags/comments im curious :]
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