#mormon folk magic

[verinqueerstake]

I’m curious about how people include the Heavenly Parents in their tarot practice.

[verinqueerstake]

(Image description: tags that read “very curious what tarot cards yall are using?” End image description.)

@funeralpotatoesorbust Currently the Rider-Waite-Coleman deck but there’s this owl deck I’ve had my eye on for a couple months and there are a couple others I want as well

“your spiritual abilities are unique, personal, and innate”

thank you for the endorsement of my tarot reading practice

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"Back in 1826, a New York court convicted 21 year old Joseph Smith for being a disorderly person and con artist who tricked folks out of their money by claiming to find lost treasures with his magic seer stones…

And, less than a year later, he founded Mormonism by discovering some gold tablets that only he could read with his magic seer stones…

In a hat…"

Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum.

[making-mormonism]

I think I get where you’re coming from, but I also think this is a misreading of the situation, especially as it exists today.

To start with statues and the like, Mormons are actually rather aniconic. While artistic depictions of religious scenes are certainly not banned (and indeed films and paintings have always been important instructional tools in the Church in lieu of anything like an official catechism), not only do images and objects play virtually no role in Mormon worship, but Mormons even avoid devotional items like crosses and prayer beads, which even many Protestants would feel goes a bit too far. Church meetinghouses are almost all, in a word, austere: sure there are various paintings scattered around the hallways and offices (the works of John Scott, Harry Anderson, and Del Parson are especially popular), but the walls are all whitewashed and the wood panelling plain, and the chapels themselves are required to be devoid of almost any decoration whatsoever, save maybe an American flag in the corner.

Only in temples does art play an actually important role in ritual, and even then, the murals painted onto the walls of ordinance rooms and the films shown in them are far more atmospheric, symbolic, and instructional than anything particularly akin to the iconodulia of Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Same with the bull statues that hold up the Brazen Sea fonts (where Mormons perform baptisms by proxy for the dead), and the sun-, moon-, and starstones that decorate temple doors and pilasters. The only other statue that plays a key role in the Church is the Angel Moroni blowing his trumpet, which in lieu of the cross has long been the main symbol of the Church on steeples and gravestones, but even then I think conceptualizing the Angel Moroni as an icon is misunderstanding its role. (I guess there’s also beehives? Choose the Right rings? Nothing particularly iconophilic though, I don’t think, at least no more so than Stars of David or WWJD bracelets are. Though I will come back to this.)

The Christus statue was only adopted in the early 1960s, at a time when the Church was desperately attempting to leave behind its associations with weirdness and paganism and join the American Protestant milieu of the Fourth Great Awakening, and was chosen specifically and explicitly as an outward-facing symbol—in order to project an image of Christianity towards non-Members (again, in lieu of the cross, which Mormons don’t use)—not an inward-facing one for Mormon devotion. In turn, the Christus has always only ever been erected in places intended for non-Members to learn about the Church, like temple Visitors Centers and the occasional Mormon Pavilion at a World’s Fair (most notably in 1964), and is never (so far as I have ever heard) present in temples or meetinghouses themselves.

The Christus was actually only adopted as the symbol of the wider Church in 2020, as part of President Nelson’s efforts to roll back Monson-era “I’m a Mormon” pride and again emphasize the Church’s fundamentally Christian nature to outsiders (this is the same reason the Church’s website is now churchofjesuschrist.org instead of the much more useful lds.org). I think there is something to be said about “Mormon leaders were drawn to Protestant art made in a Neoclassical style”, but I think that something is less “Mormons are drawn to Catholic imagery in particular” and is instead more “American conservatives like the aesthetics of Ancient Rome”.

I also wouldn’t read too much into the role of the Quorum of the Twelve in selecting the President; that’s more a byproduct of the largest body of the post-Martyrdom Church gaining its legitimacy by uniting around the Quorum and its president Brigham Young than anything particular to JS’s visions for the future of the Church. (Though I can’t seem to find the other post this is referencing where you make the “Americanized remake” argument, so I don’t know if you’re arguing that it’s just an interesting parallel or if it was actively intended.) For what it’s worth, it’s actually more likely that JS had intended for the presidency to be passed down through the male line to his son Joseph Smith III, with the Quorum or his brother Hyrum acting as a regent until JS3’s majority (the practice adopted by the RLDS when they reorganized after the collapse of the Strangite Church), or had otherwise intended for revealed candidates to stand in semi-democratic elections held by the Mormon people (possibly mediated by an electoral college like the successors of the Council of Fifty).

I also think it’s important to note that the Mormon Restoration of prophecy predates the First Vatican Council—where papal ex cathedra declarations were rendered infallible—by some fifty years, and that Mormons have always framed prophecy and revelation in terms of the Old Testament nevi’im, whereas papal infallibility is more like how you can’t appeal a Supreme Court decision. (Check out D&C 28:2-3 (1830), where, after another early Mormon named Hiram Page claimed to have received a revelation about the true location of Zion and the proper organization of the Church, JS sets him straight and establishes himself as the sole prophet of the Church by likening his relationship to God and Oliver Cowdery to that of Moses to God and Aaron.)

I do think there is a useful comparison here though, which I think you’re getting at: where the young Catholic Church adopted the administrative trappings of the Roman State, organizing itself into ecclesiastical dioceses and prefectures parallel to the civil ones and turning its Holy Orders into a kind of progressive cursus honorum justified through popular acclamation and imperial-papal consent, so too did the young Church of Christ look to the United States with its presidents and committees and councils and quorums and appointments confirmed by common consent. It’s no coincidence that the smallest unit of the LDS Church shares its name with the local electoral wards they were once coterminous with in Ohio and Illinois.

That said, I also think most of the organizational parallels between the LDS Church and the Catholic Church are simply down to the Catholic Church being, like, the prototypical hierarchical organization. The Watch Tower Society railed against Catholic organizational hierarchy in its early years, and yet as the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement began to grow and spread across the country, they too started to create bodies that paralleled their Catholic counterparts, with a president selected by a central all-male and infallible Governing Body overseeing branches which oversee local congregations.

Plus, the actual meat on the Mormon hierarchical skeleton is very different from basically any other Christian organization, let alone the Catholic one. Sure there are deacons and elders and priests and bishops, but any Pauline organization would have those, while they most certainly are not liable to organize them into a Levitical Order and a Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God, or to create parallel women’s and youth organizations like the Relief Society and Young Men’s and Young Women’s. And while LDS bishops do provide pastoral care (at least to some degree) to congregants, I think to equivocate them with a Catholic priest or even a Protestant pastor is missing important parts of the Mormon experience. Sure bishops may “preside” over sacrament meetings, but they play virtually no role in the actual rituals: they don’t lead a Mass (a kind of liturgy which doesn’t exist in the LDS tradition), they don’t consecrate or distribute Communion (which is instead done by deacons, teachers, and priests, most of whom have been teenagers since the late 1800s), they don’t even give sermons! (It seems to be relatively unknown outside of the Church that the most part of an LDS Sunday service consists of two or three “talks” given by laymen to the congregation. While the bishopric does choose who gets invited to speak and usually gives them a fairly broad topic to speak about, the bishopric has little to no oversight over their actual contents. The only exception is talks given to the whole Church during General Conference, which are vetted for doctrinal accuracy by the Apostles first.)

Anyways, on to relics.

Basically, in line with what @hybridzizi said, relics in the Catholic sense play no role whatsoever in the LDS Church today, and their role historically has been rather marginal—certainly nothing akin to the well-developed cult of the saints in early Christianity. Mormons don’t make pilgrimages to see relics (or if they do, they do so out of historical curiosity, rather than religious obligation), and they don’t build or consecrate reliquaries, temples, churches, or altars (insofar as altars even exist in the LDS tradition) to house them. And certainly today they don’t believe that relics have any particular miraculous powers to heal or encourage saintly intercession on their behalf, and they wouldn’t give a relic any kind of special devotion outside of its historical and spiritual significance as a symbol of their faith. I can totally imagine a Mormon bringing their pioneer ancestor’s shoe to a sacrament meeting and talking about how, when they look at the shoe, they remember the importance of perseverance and self-sacrifice and think about the faith their ancestor must have had to follow the Church to Utah and how that all strengthens their own Testimony that the Church is True, but they wouldn’t, like, kiss it or use it as a vehicle for prayer. It’s just a shoe. A special one, sure, but not a sacred one.

What you’re seeing instead in Murder Among the Mormons (I haven’t seen this either, but I’m well familiar with Hofmann and the Church politics surrounding his work) is an episode in the Church’s long quest for legitimacy. While it might help strengthen their Testimony in some way, Mormon laymen don’t actually particularly care if the Church gets its hands on some old papyrus or some Smith family heirloom. But for the Brighamite Church in Salt Lake City, every old artefact, every heirloom, every plot of land and historic building site in Independence and Adam-ondi-Ahman and Nauvoo, anything that belongs to the CoC or the Fundamentalists or the Bickertonites and not to them is a chip in their claim to be the One True Heir of Joseph Smith. The Church rarely even displays these items when they get them: they just store them with the Church History Department or the Presiding Bishopric in some vault in SLC, or maybe give them to a Church museum or BYU if they’re particularly interesting—certainly not the kind of behaviour you’d expect in a relic-oriented church.

There is, however, a historical example of this quest for legitimacy that I think is more similar to what you’re thinking of with the relics comparison. JS had a way of making the world around early Mormons feel magical, of making their faith in him and his work come alive, and one of the ways he did this was by regaling Mormons with the tales associated with the artefacts he collected, the accoutrements he carried, and the many places they travelled to.

Sticks, staffs, and stones were conduits for divine revelation, tools for discerning meaning in the mystical world. Those little bits of papyrus touring the US with Michael Chandler in 1835 weren’t just random scrolls, they were written by the very hand of the patriarchs Abraham and Joseph, and revealed hitherto unknown secrets about the nature of God and Creation! Chandler’s mummies weren’t just random mummies, they were the Pharaoh Onitas and his family, they were the daughters who saved baby Moses from the river, they were the royal entourage of Joseph himself! When the Zion’s Camp military expedition set off to reclaim some land that had been taken from some Mormon settlers in Missouri in 1834, that land became a prophesied holy site, the location of one of the future capitals of God’s millennial kingdom on Earth, and JS became like Moses and Joshua, a prophet ready to conquer the Promised Land with outstretched hand. And when on the way they passed by a Hopewell mound in western Illinois, it wasn’t just an ancient Indian burial ground, it was the tomb of the mighty white Lamanite warrior Zelph, who bravely served under the prophet Onondagus and fought a great battle against the infidels, against all odds, to defend what he knew to be True.

Stories like these abound in early Mormonism, and while again I feel that the comparison with Catholic saints’ relics is missing some important differences (as well as some important context about the role of ritual objects and folk magic across early American Protestantism), the objects they were attached to were certainly highly significant to early Mormons. It’s no coincidence that one of the first things James Strang did, in a bid to bolster his legitimacy in the post-Martyrdom Church, was to discover a set of brass plates containing the veritable Record of Rajah Manchou of Vorito. And when recent Mormon converts Wilbur Fugate and Robert Wiley wanted to play a prank on their local congregation in Kinderhook, to “prove the prophecy by way of a joke,” the proof they turned to was, fittingly, “discovering” and exhibiting in the town hall a collection of small copper plates, only to find that they were of interest to none other than JS himself.

Probably the most properly relic-like of these early objects were the coffin canes, a set of walking sticks made from the bloodstained oak coffins that were used to move JS and Hyrum from the Carthage Jail to their first burial plots and distributed among several early Mormon leaders and Smith family and friends. Some accounts even have their ivory knobs filled with locks of JS’s hair, or their handles made from the refashioned glass of the clear coffins JS and Hyrum were stored in until they were buried permanently. Brigham Young used his coffin cane for the rest of his life, and likened it to JS’s own serpent staff and the rod of Aaron as a symbol of his rightful authority and succession as leader of the Church. Many Mormons even believed, beyond their role as symbols of the Martyrdom and conduits for revelation (and in classic reliquary fashion), that the canes had the ability to heal ailments at a touch, and they remained in use as thaumaturgical instruments until as late the presidency of Wilford Woodruff (r. 1889–1898).

While likely few were converted by encountering these relics and artefacts alone, as holy objects they made Mormonism feel real. They were the faith made physical. They connected Mormons and their Scriptures to the land they lived on, made prophecy and history visible in their everyday lives, made them feel the blood of Abraham and Manasseh flowing through their veins.

And they also just kind of stopped happening?

Brigham Young, for all he modelled himself after JS, never found any plates or notable artefacts in Utah (in fact, he believed himself to not be a “natural seer”, and didn’t believe he was capable of using seer stones and translating as Smith had), and despite his cane he never took any great pains to work Mormon reverence towards JS and himself into a material cult. Because while the Martyrdom may have given Mormons the impetus and the materials to make relics of JS, the Exodus changed Mormonism. While Utah Mormons were of course still interested in Egyptians and the ancient history of the Americas (indeed, some Mormons were convinced of the prophecies of the Paiute leader Wovoka as late as 1892), and likewise in the life and works of Joseph Smith, the journey to the Far West had separated them from all but a few of their remains, and the trials of travel and building Zion shifted the spiritual focus of the Saints away from holy relics and seer stones and towards what I think can best be understood as a kind of national commitment to the righteous cause of the Mormon people. (That’s not to say that nationalism, especially of the American variety, isn’t in some way inherently religious, but the distinction I think matters when discussing the ideological and ritual implications of devotional objects like these.)

Even as early as the Mormon Reformation, a religious revival movement in the mid-1850s, you didn’t see an explosion of relics or pilgrimages to holy sites or even visions or speaking in tongues in Mormon communities, as might have been expected just ten or fifteen years earlier. The faith of people was instead evident in their perseverance and frugality, and was displayed not through dulia or the maintenance of the cult of Joseph Smith, but through impassioned personal speeches at Thursday fast meetings, through repeated rebaptism for the remission of the sins of yourself and all your ancestors, and through a with-all-your-heart-soul-mind-and-strength kind of commitment to building up the economic and demographic strength and unity of the people of Zion.

Save a short period in the 1880s and 1890s when the LDS Church happily testifies against the RLDS Church in the Kirtland Temple Suits and the Temple Lot Case (the LDS Church, then being disincorporated by the Federal Government and having its own property put under federal management by the Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887, was really in no place to claim legal legitimacy for itself), it’s only really after the 1950s, in a period when the LDS Church is finally starting to gain the political and cultural respect as an All-American Christian Institution™ that it had long craved (and a period when the Church finally had the economic resources and nationwide political connections to mobilize towards those ends—Deseret Ranches in Florida, for example, was only founded in 1949), that you see the Church move to collect relics and holy sites again, in a bid to materially delegitimize the other heirs of the Latter Day Saint movement. To some extent this was easy, as a lot of these movements were moribund, had had their property appropriated by the government or bought by private owners, or were going through crises of faith of their own as the Fourth Great Awakening wracked the old religious status quo. LDS businessman Wilford Wood had actually started buying back historic properties for the Church as early as 1937, though his goal of purchasing the Nauvoo temple lot was only completed in 1962, and his propositions to buy the Independence Temple Lot were all rejected out of hand by the RLDS and Hendrickites.

The RLDS Church, for what it’s worth, also sought to secure its legitimacy in this period, finally completing its Temple Lot Auditorium in 1958 and beginning its plans to preserve and rededicate the Kirtland Temple in 1952, not to mention its keen defence of Smith family real and personal property in Nauvoo and its unwillingness to work with Dean Jessee’s LDS-sponsored project to collect and transcribe JS’s personal papers in the 1970s. (This is indeed why the Joseph Smith Papers are only being collected and published now, after a trial run on the JST in 1997 showed that the two Churches could work together in good faith.)

To finish this up, I think there’s also something to be said for this being part of a general postwar trend towards historical preservation and collection, and part of a boom in the entire historical profession. Outside of the battle for material legitimacy, historians, archivists, and other academics throughout the Latter Day Saint movement would spend the period coordinating and organizing with each other to produce some of the earliest proper scholarship on Mormon history and culture (many other American Christian groups had begun to do so in the midst of the Third Great Awakening, the relationship of the Latter Day Saint movement to which is another essay entirely). The Mormon History Association was founded in 1965 and its journal in 1974, the CoC-aligned John Whitmer Historical Association was founded in 1972, the Association for Mormon Letters in 1976. Even the now-defunct FARMS, bastion of Mormon pseudohistorical apologetics, was first organized only in 1979.

It’s no coincidence that Hofmann, with his ready-made media sensations, appears only a year later.

I think that’s enough of that. For those interested in further reading on Mormon visual and material culture and its history, I think two very good starting points are D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Revised and Expanded ed., Signature Books, 1998), and especially Terry L. Givens, People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture (Oxford UP, 2007).

Can you explain the Mormonism/Catholicism comparison? I think I missed that one, and I never want to miss a chance to shit on the church of LDS

Key part in the post is the “Americanized remake” part but when I watched Murder Among the Mormons I was struck at how Mormons have a culture about relics and finding obscure paraphernalia relating to important figures so they can bring it to the church and this kind of veneration of relics is something you hardly ever see in other post-Reformation sects of Christianity

Plus the whole structured centralized hierarchy with the Americanized part being adding some nods towards republicanism. Like the spiritual head is picked in an election amongst senior clergyman who always elect one of their own and this spiritual head has the ability to say things and claim they came directly from God (granted papal infallibility hasn’t yet been used for a sudden 180 in teachings but it potentially can be used that way). Mormons call their guy “president” rather than using titles which come from the Roman Empire but this reflects the wider political context of the state they emerged in.

Also there’s an old stereotype of Catholics always having large families that is kinda outdated now in the US but that’s def an overlap

[bookish-bi-mormon]

Hey there. I had a question for you. I was wondering what kind of resources someone might look into if they were interested in learning more about Mormonism, particularly if the person is LGBTQ+ and also has a witchy spiritual side too? Not sure if the latter is relevant, but I thought I'd mention it anyways just in case.

oh boy oh boy this is quite a question. I do feel like both the LGBTQ and the witchy stuff are relevant because it kinda changes how I would approach it.

This is long so I put it under the cut

So, the official way to get to know more about the LDS church is to contact the missionaries. These are young adults who are dedicating 18-24 months of their lives to teaching people about the core aspects of Mormon doctrine, with the goal of baptism (usually within a month). They give out free copies of the Book of Mormon, as well as pamphlets that explain basic tenets of our religion.

That's not necessarily the path forward I would recommend to an LGBTQ person, or someone interested in the potential witchy/folk magic side of Mormonism. Most missionaries are young, and although some of them are queer themselves (I was a missionary and out as bi) most of them will be deeply steeped in the homophobia that is unfortunately all too common and perpetrated by our leaders. If a queer person wanted to get baptized into the LDS church, they would have to repent of any past queer activity and promise to live a 'chaste' life moving forward (no sex outside of a heterosexual marriage.) A lot of missionaries also will never have learned of the folk magic that Joseph Smith and other early saints practiced, because those things have all but been erased/denounced from church culture. Most missionaries aren't even comfortable acknowledging that Heavenly Mother exists.

That's not to say you shouldn't try if you feel called to the LDS church. We can use all the queer members we can get if we're gonna fight for change. But I just want to acknowledge that it is an uphill battle.

I would recommend reading the Book of Mormon, which you can access free online, plus there's an app you could download.

Saints Unscripted is a youtube channel run by members of the LDS church, where they talk about doctrine, culture, and all things mormon. Some of the videos get into some of the more controversial aspects of our history/doctrine, while other are just fun conversations about Mormon culture. I think it's a great place to go if you just wanna get to know some mormons.

Beyond the Block is a podcast run by a gay convert to the LDS church (like I said, it does happen!) and an African-american member of the church. They're on a hiatus right now but they have over 100 episodes so you'd have plenty to listen to. The LDS church has a curriculum called "Come Follow Me" where each week we are assigned certain chapters to read out of our scriptures (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants). Brother Jones and Brother Knox talk about the reading from each week specifically from a perspective of marginalized identities. Although they are speaking for an audience who is already familiar with Mormonism, I think it's a good example of what we believe, and the Mormonism that I personally strive for.

Queer Mormon Theology is another personal favorite of mine. Although also intended for a familiar audience, I think it provides enough background information (and sources you can look at to learn more) about what Mormons believe, AND it explains how these core beliefs include queer identities, and why the current queerphobic policies should be abandoned.

Witchy stuff is more difficult to find resources for. I started with Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn, but that's a hefty book and I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it if you are new to Mormonsim.

Most resources I have found online that explore Mormon folk magic are made by nonmembers, or exmembers, in an attempt to discredit or make fun of our founders. I've also discovered a few off-shoot groups that attempt to blend Mormon beliefs with Kabbalah (which seems like cultural appropriation to me) or psychedelics (drugs scare me idk man).

That being said, two resources I could point you to is this wikipedia article that is just like, an overview of some of the folk magic the early saints practiced. And this website which collects information about some of the less often talked about aspects of our history/culture/practices.

Most members of the LDS church don't know much about this stuff, or they just don't care. It doesn't really impact the typical LDS life, but as someone who is trying to expand my spiritual practice to include more magic/witchy stuff, it's interesting to me.

OH I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT. There's this music artist named Marcie Dawn who is a Mormon Witch. She has an instagram and here she is on spotify . She doesn't talk a whole lot about her personal beliefs, it's mostly ~vibes~ but I love her and I love her music so I had to give her a plug.

And that's what I've got for you! I hope this is helpful, sorry it's so long. Please feel free to send more asks/messages about this!

[art-that-fucks-you-up-tournament]

SET ELEVEN - ROUND TWO - MATCH THREE

"Seer Bonnets" (2008-present - Angela Ellsworth) / "Clytemnestra after the Murder" (1882 - John Collier)

SEER BONNETS: Well, my propaganda for Seer Bonnets. I'm not Mormon but grew up surrounded by them. More to the point, where this work fucked me up is the sense that, to be closer to nature is to be closer to the veil. To work the land is to be in tune with its patterns, and the still quiet voice that points the way. My grandpa was a water witch, and it is that kind of practical folk magic that speaks to me here. She looks left, right, center to skry the future - more than likely, to skry whether the rains will come, and when, and skry whether the calving will be troubled this year. But also to skry the other tidings of Heaven, like whether the cholera will strike or diphtheria will carry off any more of her children. @welcome-to-the-night-gallery

CLYTEMNESTRA AFTER THE MURDER: I adore this painting so much. Everytime I see it in person I just stare at it for a solid 10 plus minutes. The amount of detail is incredible and the power the artist gives to Clytemnestra is so important. In this moment she is a woman who has successfully got her vengeance on the man who killed her daughter and had the gall to bring a mistress back like nothing was wrong. She had been lied to and had her power taken away from her again and again and in this moment she gets it back

She is not scantily clad and she is not there to be beautiful or attractive, she is there and she is powerful. This is a painting that empowers women and those who have been oppressed. It is a painting for people who might not be as well versed in art and I adore it for all these reasons. It is a beautiful piece of art and a statement and a reminder and I love it so so much @castielsfrillywhiteknickers

("Seer Bonnets" is an ongoing series of pieces by Angela Ellsworth representing the 35 wives of Joseph Smith as tools for them to see visions. One bonnet is listed as being 30 × 13 × 14 in (76.2 × 33 × 35.6 cm) and being comprised of 17,424 pearl corsage pins, fabric, and steel.

"Clytemnestra after the Murder" is an oil on canvas painting by British artist John Collier. It measures 239 × 174 cm (94 × 69 in) and is held by the Guildhall Art Gallery.)

[logans-mormon-blog]

Just reached the part in "rough stone rolling" about joseph Smith and treasure hunting, or folk magic, and I'm VERY interested. Just bought a book on early mormonism and occultism which will come in the mail soon.

Im so resentful of how cookie cutter and set in stone mormonism has become. Mormonism's beauty is partly in its uniqueness and potential for flexibility and I a queer mormon have a lot of value to bring to the church BECAUSE of my uniqueness as well. In order to make this a place queer people can be, I think we need to embrace breaking the mold. Cultural mormonism, as I know it, is obsessed with conformity to a detriment. The restoration is not over. We don't believe in personal revelation or living prophets just so we can cling to a rigid, preconceived notion of right and wrong and who we are as Mormons.

[partikron]

Ghosts of New Eden and the Occult in Colonial America:

While playing Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, I was tickled when one of the first people you meet describes himself and his father as demonologists. That might seem out of place in colonial America, given the nature of the religious milieu at the time, but occultism was all over the place in the colonies.

Despite the belief that magical practice was Satanic in nature, fortune telling, palm reading and particularly astrology were very common practices, and even alchemists could be found in some places. Wealthy people often kept books on magic and demonology in their personal libraries, and one governor of Connecticut had a copy of Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy and some of John Dee's books in his collection. Even the family of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, practiced types of folk magic.

But how could people in a society built on what we would call extreme Christianity practice these arts? Well, faith never stopped anyone in Continental Europe, so many of those traditions carried over, but it was probably also the distance from standard religious ritual as seen in Catholicism that allowed folk magic to fill that void to some degree (the channel Esoterica on YouTube dives into this quite nicely). Even many monotheists today have spiritual beliefs and practices that aren't properly sanctioned by their religious texts or authorities, so it shouldn't come as a shock that people have, and always will, forge their own spirituality regardless of the "rules".

Just another reason that the setting of Banishers really tickles me.

[verinqueerstake]

I put in the tags of the original post that I wanna connect with my ancestors and didn’t even THINK about our unique forms of ancestor veneration! Genealogy is so important to us. We honor our ancestors by filling out our family trees, taking their names to the temple, and listening to what they have to say in our patriarchal blessings (at least, my ancestors had something to say).

Because I’m not doing the Church thing right now I’m not exactly temple worthy anymore, but I can do the other things and give the names to my sister who is a temple worker and SHE can do their proxy ordinances.

I’m thinking about keeping those name cards on an ancestral altar or in an altar box as another form of veneration and remembering them, too.

Mormon folk magic.

Discuss.

[latter-gay-witchery]

To the small handful of other LDS witches out there that follow me or otherwise: I just got my hands on a copy of Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview by D. Michael Quinn. Would folks here be interested in me like, writing up some posts here about my thoughts as I go through it?

I would probably write one post for each chapter or group of chapters depending on length and subject matter.

I’m probably gonna do the thing anyway for my own benefit but I wanted to gauge interest so I know what kind of target audience to expect if any.

[psychopomp-recital]

hi I just wanted to ask: what drew you to death magic specifically? and, if your comfortable, how do you deal with grief (both yours and others) by being a death witch? (plz don't feel obligated to answer if it's too invasive /gen)

Oh not too invasive at all! Thank you for being so polite, this response is very long I’m sorry you asked a rather deep question 🩵 CONTENT WARNING IN TAGS

What drew me onto this path?

TLDR; I have always been surrounded death and it has been an ever present part of my life. I hated the idea that when someone died they were gone forever that’s it. Because regardless if you believe in spirits, I hope we can all agree that we’re all collections of the ancestors who make up our bodies & the ancestors who make up our personalities, we are who we are because of those passed on. And I can all but hope that someday someone will remember me and my stories the same way I remember these folks.

I want to be a good ancestor someday.

THE LONG ANSWER

I was raised in the Southern United States. The culture of this area is that surrounded in death. Everywhere you go there is haunted places and cemeteries. There’s also a strong sense of family there, this feeling that everyone is woven and interconnected.

I was raised Mormon and by a folk magical family who taught me the importance of ancestor work. I understood that these folks are part of me, by blood or otherwise they have made me who I am.

I was raised holding hands with my ancestors chronic illness. I looked it in the face everyday. Haunted by the idea that someday my body would rot away the same way I saw theirs rot, reminded everyday that illness could rip my mother from me without warning.

I eventually realized I could continue to ignore death, pray I have time on this earth to do what I want to do and run from it. Or I could embrace its role in my life and welcome it like an old friend.

I found comfort in the idea that I could help those who have passed on. The families who never got to say goodbye now had an opportunity to at least send the message. I could do my part to calm the fear these folks feel when they slip further into deaths grasp. I found a purpose for the pain I was experiencing.

If I could learn all I can while I’m alive, perhaps when I die I’ll be able to leave behind my knowledge and someone can keep this practice going. In that way, they keep me alive too.

I heard you die twice, once when they bury you in the grave And the second time is the last time that somebody mentions your name.

How do I handle the grief of others and the personal grief I experience?

I think I actually made a post on this! I’ll link it below!

But honestly it just comes down to boundaries, and being kind to yourself. It’s okay to cry and be upset and miss those lost to us. It’s okay to mourn for the dead you work with. YOU ARE STILL HUMAN. Don’t loose sight of that.

Also if you check out #MyPsychopompJournal you’ll see some entries on grief and my raw experiences with it. The one below in particular is a pretty good example;

Let me know if you are interested in a more in depth post about how I handle grief personally because I don’t want to ramble more than I already have!

ASK MY ANYTHING ASKS ARE OPEN!

[alliluyevas]

Mormon apologetics about Joseph Smith’s involvement in folk magic are soooo funny they’re like there is NO evidence that Joseph Smith participated in a) animal sacrifice b) summoning demons c) hexing people. Also scrying and dowsing were totally normal harmless behaviors among rural 19th century Christians. Yes he used the same seer stone to search for buried treasure and translate the Book of Mormon 💗 and then there will be like a quote from Joseph Smith’s neighbor in palmyra like Joseph sacrificed a sheep in my dad’s backyard to appease a malevolent underground devil creature.

[musicarenagh]

Annie J Opens Up About Music, Motherhood, and Making Magic with "Been Loving You" Annie J's sophomore EP "Been Loving You," released October 18, 2024, masterfully blends retro-soul with modern pop sensibilities, creating a sound that feels both classic and refreshingly contemporary. From the introspective depths of "Your Power" to the infectious disco-inspired "Gotta Give It Up," Annie crafts a deeply personal narrative that speaks to themes of vulnerability, self-acceptance, and transformation. Annie's unique musical perspective was shaped by her upbringing as the second-eldest in a large Mormon family, moving between small American towns throughout her childhood. Finding refuge in music, she drew inspiration from a diverse array of artists - from the soulful prowess of Whitney Houston and Nina Simone to the storytelling genius of Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire. These varied influences converge beautifully in her work, particularly evident in this latest release. Now based in Seattle's vibrant music scene, Annie has surrounded herself with talented collaborators who have helped shape "Been Loving You" into a powerful testament to personal growth. The EP not only showcases her evolution as an artist but also demonstrates the profound impact of her journey and creative community. In our conversation, Annie opens up about the stories and creative process behind "Been Loving You," sharing honest reflections on self-discovery and personal growth. With engaging candor and infectious enthusiasm, she reminds us that while celebrating progress is essential, self-love remains an ongoing journey. Join us as we delve deeper into the music and meaning behind Annie J's latest release. Listen to Been Loving You https://open.spotify.com/album/0LUVPdZOt55oYiYVHOWb7Y?si=4pP7qJY_TMWjONuKgxBUQQ Follow Annie J on Facebook Instagram Congratulations on the release of "Been Loving You"! How does it feel to finally share this new music with your fans? Thank you! It feels…wonderful to share this very personal musical journey with folks. We began work on this project about two years ago and it’s shifted a lot since then, a lot of people really came together to make it shine and it feels authentic and loving. A positive drop in the community’s bucket! Can you tell us about your artistic vision and how "Been Loving You" fits into your overall musical journey? I think ‘Been Loving You’ digs a little deeper into what’s been going on for me, musically, over the course of my life. Pulling in current and very yester-year influences, not being afraid to see what bubbles up and see beauty in it - which is a new experience for me! I’ve definitely been in the “I hate everything I do” club. But there was a kind of peace within this project and the people I chose to work with. A new ability to leap and commit, which I’m super grateful for. And I know a lot of that comes from being surrounded by my trusted musical family and partnerships. How would you describe your sound and style, and how has it evolved leading up to "Been Loving You"? My style and sound are very R&B, soul, modern pop, with the subtle underpinning of 90’s country I was obsessed with as a kid that I kinda forgot about as an adult, honestly. There is story telling within tone and arrangement. Really colorful chords, kinda where hip hop and jazz meet. It’s my take on all of the beautiful things that have sunk in over the years. What inspired the concept and lyrics of "Been Loving You"? Is there a personal story or message behind the song? There are absolutely very personal threads on this record. A lot of lines were mumbled or improvised at first and then I’m like, “what does this even mean?” for a few days, and then it hits you hard. Like a part of my brain that rarely gets access to the real world was able to sing through in this work; it’s confusing and fascinating to me and I want more of it. And I’m at a point in my life where I’m really re-examining who I am vs who I want to be.

Like, I want to be a better partner and mother than I have been. I want to be a better friend and community member, which is hard to do when you don’t really like yourself that much. So there’s a lot of pumping up and self-affirming language and music here. And I think that’s a message anyone can relate to. [caption id="attachment_57750" align="alignnone" width="1987"] Annie J Opens Up About Music, Motherhood, and Making Magic with "Been Loving You"[/caption] Can you walk us through the creative process of writing and recording "Been Loving You"? Any notable challenges or breakthroughs? We gave ourselves a long weekend, four days; Nick Foster (my husband), Scott Paul Johnson, and myself, and all of these tunes were pretty well formed by the time we were done. I remember we thought we were done, went out to breakfast to celebrate, but then there was a nagging feeling like, nah we gotta get back in the studio for another hour or two. Scott had to make a flight back out to Chicago, so we were pushing it. And Makin Bacon just spilled out, super organically. We were all pretty high from it I remember! There were moments when our, then 2yr old, son desperately needed to be in the studio to “make music” with us. So, in the spirit of the weekend, we let him in which is how the song Interlude was born. He got the mic that time so mommy had to pick up the flute. Just as a result of saying, fine! Fuck it! And I love what we got there. Toward the end of the nuts and bolts of production and trying to get the project over the finish line, we hit some road blocks for sure which really only led to more character, and more flavor. It became a really lovely, personal connection point with folks that came through for us in the end. My dear friend, Emily Westman (a truer savant I have yet to meet) was just like, what do you need, I’m here for it all. She arranged and played strings for Gotta Give It Up, and did a lot of cool aux perc and synth stuff. A burst of energy as we were just dragging this thing across the finish line. Outa dough, outa ideas, and now looking back, lifted up by a whole lot of talent and love from our dear community. How do you hope listeners will interpret and connect with "Been Loving You"? Oh I hope people feel empowered and loved. It’s an “I’m starting with the man in the mirror” moment, its an “all you need is love” moment. But it’s not hitting you over the head, it’s all very personal, almost private, and I do hope there is some universality. https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Gdb2yCu7pAMUhcL3wm7bu?si=pqmd-8AzRNOeys9Xl7tXpQ "Been Loving You" seems to explore themes of love and relationships. Can you elaborate on what inspired this focus? Wanting them (love and relationships)! The onset of the pandemic and becoming a parent happened simultaneously in this household and…we all did what we could. I noticed a lot of darkness within myself that kind of exploded out in desperate moments and I really wanted to dig into that, to try and get to where that was coming from. I guess there’s a realization that, you know, youth is gone and things don’t come as easily, when things become more deliberate. Being decisive about how I was going to treat myself and others wasn’t always my thing. Honestly, I still really struggle with that. But, choosing to love is where new and old beautiful relationships are born or reborn. Who or what influenced the sound and style of "Been Loving You"? Any specific artists, albums, or genres that shaped the track? Eryka Badu was a big influence, that blend of jazz and hip hop. And I’ve always been inspired by the authenticity of the lyrics, the story, the creativity. One of my favorite moments of hers is a song that I’ve listened to hundreds of times, called ‘Out My Mind’ particularly the two minute intro. I was listening to Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ album on repeat that summer. It’s a gem top to bottom; I love the writing, production, and just overall style. It shows restraint and beauty, it’s patient and also hard hitting at times.

I remember thinking, that’s a pretty solid goal to be working towards. And as I said earlier, it was a process of closing my eyes and letting the music come out which I think means my influences are varied, often subconscious,  and rooted within different locations and times of my life. What's next for Annie J? Are you working on a new album or EP? What is next? Great question :) I’d love to do a few little exploratory things over the coming year in our home studio before working on the first full length. But, I am absolutely thrilled to begin that process. Just thinking about it fills me with excitement.

[pb-dot]

Today I read: Hide by Kiersten White

Well, I didn't read all of it today, but I had to title this thing something. Anyway, this one turned into a bit of a pleasant surprise. Going in, I expected a bit of a Death Game thing, as the "hide and seek reality show in an abandoned amusement park where there's OBVIOUSLY something spooky going on" setup seemed to beg for one of those cynical Most Dangerous Game-kind of twists. It certainly would be thematically apt, as our protagonist Mack is so deeply in the Survivor Guilt well after surviving her father going all Family Annihilator that having to go a little bit deeper to fight her way out would be one of those plot developments that'd make sense in the bleak headspace that a lot of horror operates.

That's not quite what is going on, though, and I'll get into it more under the cut on account of spoilers. Suffice to say that the book instead pivots on a twist that's just clever enough. It was a turn I didn't see coming, but looking back I see the book did put the work in. It does remind me a bit about how White's followup, Mister Magic, ratchets up the tension around the truth of what is going on in such a way that when it goes in a different way than you'd initially expect, it feels clever, like the inherent incomprehensibility of the forces at play kind of guides the story back down to the human elements, a bit of a lovecraftian "who was the monster and who was the man" kind of situation.

Alright, so spoiler talk from here on out. The quietly brilliant thing about Hide isn't that it turns out to be a "maze of minos" type of story as the abandoned amusement park being designed to function as a maze is indeed no coincidence, but rather that the beast at the heart of it certainly is minotuar-like, but also not a minotaur. It's shaped differently, it has too many horns, it's terrifying but also strangely pitiable, and it's invisible and intangible to everyone except the ones it serves and feeds on, the two groups is the same, technically. It is somewhat unclear whether the benefaction it provides can be separated from the privilege of those that feed it, or whether its ostensible masters merely sacrifice fourteen people every seven years to save their own asses at this point.

It's a marvelous take on the "necessary sacrifice," in part because the author, and by extension, the protagonist sees this ghoulish ritual for what it actually is. It isn't necessary, it isn't the lesser of two evils. It's a reinforcement of the heinous lie of founding mythology, an attempt to delineate between Us, the descendants of Hard Working Good People who made Hard But Necessary Sacrifices, and the Other, who as it turns out are descended from more or less the same people, but dilluted in some weird skull-measuring way. Never mind that these Good People created entire dynasties of suffering and want to keep the flow of people they were related enough to for the sacrifice, but of low enough status that they wouldn't mind their passing.

As a general rule, I prefer not to try to psychoanalyze authors while I read their work. That said, there's more than a touch of Mormon vibes to the villains of both Hide and Mister Magic, and while I think the symbolism matches pretty close to the general American folk myth of the pious, humble settler who through faith and Hard Work (and untold systematic exploitation and abuse of just about anyone not white, rich, and male) created the nation, I also get the distinct impression that looking deeper into the history of the Mormon church would have me unearth some very familiar-looking details. It is no surprise, I think, that White's horror protagonists struggle with Survivor's Guilt as they are pulled into unhealthy situations by wealthy legacy-obsessed crackers who don't like swearing, but I shan't make an ass out of myself by speculating any further.

White's characters are interesting to me. They're not exactly vivid, but there is something deeply relatable to how they're all compressed by their trauma, reduced to their most necessary functions by the stresses they go through. All the same, I can't help but feel for them. White is very efficient in how she shows those glints of personality, to the level where even Alpha Couple and Bog Standard Reality Show Douchebags Jaden and (Pretty) Ava have this desperate, cynical clinginess to them. They each only hold on to each other more or less to be the one to betray their ostensible partner first. Make no mistake, it's hardly a great tragedy when these two inevitably have their cards punched, but there is a certain melancholic humor to how their dedication to this sudden but inevitable betrayal rends them blind to the actual trick that's played on them until it's messily devouring them. It's a fun little thing to afford to the two most tedious participants in any given reality show.

In the end, I think I appreciated Hide more as a polemic than a horror novel per se. It's a book with some interesting thoughts, and its take on the conceptual minotaur is fascinating, if not quite as scary as, say, the House Of Leaves take on the same. That said, the book earns many points in how it resolves Mack's story, where she ostensibly surrenders to her own hopelessness and the heartless machinations of the piece's true villain, only to reveal that the petty, lazy, self-aggrandizing evil of the sacrifices have opened her eyes to the pathetic cruelty behind her own trauma, and now she's going to burn this mother down. It's a kickass turn, and while the finale feels a touch rushed, it's mostly because I want to see this great vengeance and furious anger play out even more. That said, the book ends absolutely beautifully, and pacing problems or no, there is something delightfully punk about it.

[fureverbookworms]

Mister Magic review

Do you also have a fascination with the idea of lost media and wonder what ever happened to that show you watched growing up but no one else seems to know about it? Do you also have a metric ton of religious trauma? Well, this is the novel for you.

This story follows Val, a woman who was essentially yanked off the grid when she was eight years old. She doesn’t remember anything from her life before, until her father dies and suddenly people claiming to know her arrive at the funeral. They tell her that they grew up with her on a children’s TV show and that they can take her to meet estranged mother. Against common sense, she feels drawn to them and gets in the car. What follows is a whirlwind of revelations, grief reconciliation, and religious trauma.

I loved the premise of this story and I think using a TV show as an illustration of children’s religious indoctrination was a bold move. Does the metaphor get very heavy handed? Absolutely. But it reminded me so much of when I was younger and attending Vacation Bible School just to have something to do over the summers. We were singing the songs and playing the games and making the crafts and generally having fun, all while “lessons” were being whispered into my ear.

I did enjoy Val and seeing the conflicting emotions she went through as she processed everything thrown at her. White does an understandably great job of capturing the guilt that compounds after leaving a tight knit group such as the Circle of Friends (or the Mormon church). Val seems to always be feeling an array of different emotions, often snowballing off of each other throughout each page.

But, there are times where the other friends simply feel like a checklist. We have a gay black man who is also a suppressed artist. We have a smooth talking, mischievous likely Latino man (I cannot remember if it was explicitly stated) who was sent to a Troubled Teen group to sort himself out. We have a stay at home mom with six (6) kids and a husband who couldn’t be more of a misogynistic asshole if he tried. I can see the point the author is trying to make, that folks like this were dimmed by the church’s influence and still rejected. But it ultimately feels like there is just a lot of pointing out and telling rather than showing.

I had a similar gripe about the “villains.” They felt so cookie cutter, just some generically bad evangelicals who are trying to brainwash the youths. This book might have been shocking to the senses a few years ago, but the fictional evil feels very lackluster on the coat tails of the real evil religious groups exposed in the last decade or so. I wish this book had been a little longer and gone a bit deeper into the side characters, the Big Bads, and magic system at play.

Overall, I was hooked for the concept and early chapters. I had really high expectations based on how things were being set up but the story does get lost in the sauce.

3/5 Stars