My Thoughts on “Closed Practices”

Recently, there has been a trend of telling people they can’t practice this, they can’t used that because it is a “Closed Practice”. In order to respond to this we must first understand what people mean by the term “Closed Practice”.

I have done a lot of thinking and researching this before deciding to speak about this topic. The best definition I could find for the term “closed practice” is from this discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/witchcraft/comments/encgd4/closed_practices/

“A closed tradition is any tradition that does not share its practices with outsiders or condone use of its practices outside of its specific cultural contexts– such as indigenous spiritualities. There are many reasons for traditions to be closed. Usually, it’s because the culture suffered genocide or extreme oppression. We appreciate it when people take the time to learn about our history, our cultures, and the way we do things– like when everyone rallied around our water protection cause– but when non-natives adopt our spiritual practices without understanding their context, without our permission, and without being part of our communities, it feels like another kick in the gut from colonizers (even when that’s not the intention!).”

I have thought on this topic for days on end, it has been in my face across my social media platforms, and even part of in person conversations. I tend to mull things over, and chew on them before I decide my stance on something. Not to mention meditating and asking Frigga’s guidance before speaking (if I even decide to speak up on something, sometimes I take Frigga’s example and just choose to not speak; she is after all the Goddess who does not speak what she sees.) The thoughts and feelings about this that I am about to share are all my own, and I acknowledge and respect your right to disagree with this opinion, I will not however put up with any abusive language geared toward myself or others that may choose to comment. That being said, here goes…

The first thing that strikes me especially within this definition is that it is “any tradition that does not share its practices with outsiders or condone use of its practices outside of its specific cultural contexts” Okay, for me that means if a practice is closed I don’t even know it exists, because it is not shared with outsiders. I would also take this to mean that if a member of a group was moved by spirit and their guides to write, publish and distribute information on these practices, and many books encourage the reader to try the techniques described as the only way that you can truly learn from it is through the experience, then that would mean that practice is no longer closed and therefore acceptable to practice.

Furthermore, I am plagued with a question to those that are proponents of closed practices, the first being “Do you believe in reincarnation?” the second: “If you do, then how can you say that a practice is closed to someone?” Many theories on reincarnation and immanent deity contend that we experience a plethora of different lives in different places, times, genders and roles. how can you discern whether someone is “stealing” a particular method of doing something or simply remembering how they practiced in a different life and incorporating it into this one. If something comes to me in meditation or through intuitive channels, I tend not to question my spirit guides and helpers, instead I do what they tell me.

The other thing I wonder about “closed practices” is how its proponents rationalize this stance with trying to create Unity and Peace within the world? My family is an amalgamation of many different cultures, and we have woven them together into something that is beautiful and entirely unique, but it holds the traditions of all cultures, we honor them equally without choosing one over the other. Furthermore, judgments such as “you can’t practice that because you don’t look like you belong to that group” are incredibly closed minded.

For me this trend feels like it comes from a very wounded place. It is a limiting belief which keeps us from appreciating, respecting, honoring and understanding each other. It further divides us as it becomes one more thing to fight about. Whereas, when cultures are shared amongst each other something new and mutually fulfilling can come about. The more we divide ourselves over the fear of loosing something of ourselves by sharing information and practices with each other the more lost unity, respect and equality are to us.

I personally, feel that when it comes to practices for which you CAN find information for, ( I do want to specify here, that I feel the source should be a member of that specific culture, tradition organization etc. and not something like a sociologists or anthropologists perspective, but someone who actually practices these methods) then it shouldn’t be considered a closed practice. There are many things that I do within my spiritual practice that I do not share with my readers, why? Because they are personal to me and I do not feel guided to share that particular thing with others (anyone, who read yesterday’s blog, knows I chose not to disclose some of the details of my preistessing ceremony, or my sacred name, because those are things I keep for myself) Those to me are the things that are closed practices. Anything I do share is out there in the world, usually because I have been guided to share it. Spirit feels that it may help someone else, or have decided I am the vehicle through which the information should be shared. After many years spiritually seeking, I will say, I don’t personally believe that Spirit truly concerns itself with what language we speak, what color our skin is or how we grew up… They will speak to the people who they feel should be going certain work.

Right now, I am saddened, that the Pagan community, that was once so open, accepting and respectful is now causing people who are being called by the Old Gods, question if they even have the RIGHT to leave the religions of their origins, where they may feel repressed, and unaccepted, because when they go looking for insight from others and are met with attitudes that basically say: You’re not welcome here either. I actually cried the other day when I came across a chat on social media when I saw a discussion post that said something along the lines of ” I have always felt a pull to witchcraft, but now I am questioning if I am allowed to study and learn because I don’t belong to a culture that traditionally has these practices” and then I saw another which asked what was truly left for people of European descent since our history has been completely destroyed by the Burning times. Saying these people are only left to the minutia left behind by murderous bigots, is basically saying that their ancestors didn’t win or survive (or perhaps survived but weren’t large enough risk takers to preserve their indigenous wisdom) is saying that magic, spirit, the Divine and Elements are not in fact Universal.

The last thought I would like to address on this topic is that traditions, languages and cultures that are not shared are traditions, languages and cultures that vanish from the face of the Earth, leaving nothing more than a mere whisper of their magic within the world. And if you only seek to teach “purebloods” about these things, then you are damning them to oblivion. However, when they are shared with respect they can spread and grow.

I know my mind is still spinning around this term and trend, I know my stance is probably not the popular one and I am okay with that. I am also interested in honest, respectful discourse about this topic; the only way we understand others is through listening to their point of view. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to mine and I encourage you to share yours with me, especially if you feel differently than I do about this topic.

I am an amalgamation of many different cultures, which I have ofttimes describes as a Heinz 57 Mutt; where does that leave someone like me, raised with a mix of traditions, languages, and cultures; taught to respect everyone regardless of whether they were different from me and my family or not (though I will be honest I haven’t really met anyone yet that seems that different from my family- at least when I take time to step out of my egoic self and attempt to see things from their perspective) Without one primary culture I am left to wonder which of my family taught traditions will get me called names, which I will admit will not deter me from practicing the way my Goddess has shown me to practice, but brings discord where there should be peace.

I will finish off with saying I will not quantify why I do the things that I do to another person, I answer only to my Goddess and my Ancestors. How I practice is between myself and those I work with.

Please share your opinion on this, and please remember disrespect to anyone commenting on my blog will not be tolerated.