In today’s landscape across the US, we see diminishing communities in every city and town. Communities that have held for generations, being dispersed in all directions in search of affordable housing as the cities become increasing expensive, poor and other marginalized are being pushed out. Many people sick and ill, and also feel a loss of sense of community, lack of connection, and the feeling of not having a place to come together in purpose, to support one another and actively work towards creating to world we envision. This type of disconnection leads to social isolation and loneliness, which research supports can be a major contributing factor to depressive symptoms, particularly for people who are already marginalized such as low income or elderly. There are a lot obstacles to receiving quality unbiased healthcare such as race, class, gender, religion, language spoken, sexual orientation and gender of a patient, and this is often where community and traditional healers have always picked up the slack in marginalized communities. It’s well known that race, gender, class and all other aspects of identity contribute to the social determinants of health. Empowering people in their health and allowing them to find spiritual, emotional and community connections while gaining more knowledge of the healing systems that sustained their own ancestors for generations is exactly what is done every day the Cunning Crow Apothecary and Witches Temple.
The Cunning Crow Apothecary and Witches Temple provides a space for people to explore these practices, to learn, share ceremony, support groups, classes, and events of all kind to foster a safe and inclusive community for all. It is more than just an apothecary, clinic and school, it is a grassroots community that has sprung forth to facilitate a lot of necessary change in our local community, and it is a place that people know they can go and always be safe.. Many black, indigenous, people of color, and marginalized people of all kinds have begun to reconnect with their cultural identities that were systematically stripped from them via colonization, and many are turning to natural and holistic ways of healing both their ancestral and lived trauma by learning and reconnecting with their own ancestral traditions. Indigenous cultures worldwide have rich nature, healing and faith based practices, that have been his passed down through generations, and despite colonization, have been maintained in many places. And while there is a general disconnect from these practices in dominant mainstream American culture that is deeply rooted in forced Christianity and capitalism, many marginalized people are starting to reject organized religion for ancestral traditions of worship and healing rooted in deep observation of and understanding of nature. Whether it’s a Gullah conjure, Hoodoo rootwork, Voudon or voodoo, Ifa, Santeria, Candombole, all of these practices have always been rooted in the liberation of oppressed people and the dismantling of the systems that oppress, so this return is powerful, and many activists are finding a welcome home within the resurgence of various forms of witchcraft that have gained popularity over the years. The return to witch is about resistance of the white supremacist heteropatriarchal religious institutions of domination and destruction that are the very reason we have to organize at all.
The Witches temple serves as a safe haven for all the most marginalized members of society, black and indigenous, queer, trans, disabled, nuerodivergent, immigrant, sex workers, working class, all education levels, from traditional and ancestrally trained witches and healers to formally trained clinicians, it’s a place for people who exist outside the margins of mainstream society to come together in community, get and provide healing services such as acupuncture and reiki, host anti-racism and other oppression education workshops, recovery and addiction support groups, transgender support groups, a monthly meeting for black and brown witches and healers called the Mystic Melanin Meetup, hosted by a local Black burlesque queer entertainer and activist, it continues to provide space to those who are often not allotted space in society. The temple hosts monthly new and full moon services, a weekly alter service, and is a general place that anyone in the community can come find solace, support, rest and communion. While there are clinical and other services provided daily, there is also a monthly community clinic where people can get sliding scale healing services from students enrolled in the Crow School of Traditional Magic.
The founder of the Witches Temple, Ylva Mara Radziszewski, who is a practicing witch since she was age 13 upon finding her coven in the Florida swamps where she was raised, is also formally trained in herbalism and is a licensed acupuncturist. Ylva works tirelessly to not only create a safe, intersectional, and inclusive space, but also stands strong in the community as a force that consistently holds a mirror to those in power, holding them accountable for how they harm marginalized communities, particularly in the worlds of witchcraft, herbalism, natural medicine and healthcare in general. Ylva and her team work in conjunction with other local organizers and educators to provide facilitation and accountability processes when issues do arise in community. This is the duty of the witch, as she says, “Witch has been a title given to those who hold wisdom and power. We know that in supremacy culture, particularly within colonial white supremacy, anyone who represents an identity outside of the culture of supremacy, is a threat. When those folx also possess wisdom and power, they become even more of a threat to the tenuous authority of supremacy. If we think about those who’ve historically posed the biggest threat to systems that perpetuate supremacist culture, they are black, brown and indigenous people of color. They are those who exist outside cis-gender and heterosexual centrism. They are non-binary and trans folx. They are queers. They are femmes. They are the disabled and the marginalized. The witch has always been the face and force behind movements of cultural change, including feminism. One thing to note however, is that Witch, like gender, is not limited to the binary of cis-centric, colonial, white supremacy. Witches CAN be women. Witch is NOT woman. Witch is revolution. Witch is genderless. Witch is a battle cry without constraint of language or allegiance to state. Magic is a faithless devotion belonging to everyone. Much like how our modern feminism must be intersectional to make any real impact … magic must also [be intersectional].” The Temple is in its third year, and is ever expanding its projects and programs to meet community needs.
References
21st Century Witches: Ylva Mara on Bringing Witchcraft into the Future. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2019, from https://dopemagazine.com/21st-century-witches-ylva-mara/
Penner, L. A., Hagiwara, N., Eggly, S., Gaertner, S. L., Albrecht, T. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (2013). Racial Healthcare Disparities: A Social Psychological Analysis. European Review of Social Psychology, 24(1), 70–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2013.840973
Home | The Cunning Crow Teaching Temple. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2019, from https://www.witchestemple.org/
Safer, J. D., Coleman, E., Feldman, J., Garofalo, R., Hembree, W., Radix, A., & Sevelius, J. (2016). Barriers to healthcare for transgender individuals. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity, 23(2), 168–171. https://doi.org/10.1097/MED.0000000000000227
Black Millennials Leave Church for African Witchcraft – The Atlantic. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/11/black-millennials-african-witchcraft-christianity/574393/