A Witch’s Journey Through Religious Deconstruction- The Magic of Change
A very important aspect of practicing witchcraft and occultism is ‘building’ an individual practice. Every occultist has their own unique way of executing magic. As a witch grows and flourishes... old and outdated beliefs are altered or discarded. For those who were previously religious, this act is called Religious Deconstruction.
Recently my family came to visit. This family time gave me the opportunity to appraise my own deconstruction.
My family members are still active in my childhood religion. My current area is predominantly Christian with many different denominations and a variety of church buildings. My family were not accustomed to this as my childhood church makes up 85% of the population. Their church buildings are on every city block with very few others in sight. They informed me they saw the church location in my city, I joked with them not to tell me where It was, since ignorance is bliss.
The response I received is a fairly common one. My family was sad I was no longer part of their faith. Parents tend to ponder where they went ‘wrong’ when raising their little black sheep. They can think over the possible traumas and disappointments which led to the religious departure. For the person who left, this response can feel pretty disheartening, or angering. I used to shift between those two emotions in the past. I was either sad my choices upset my family, or angry I was forced into a religion that I never had the capacity to believe in.
A moment after this exchange, I went into my study where my magical tools and altars reside. I looked around at everything I’ve built over the years. I felt incredible peace and gratitude that I have put together a practice which I love deeply.
In psychology oriented circles, I have found more and more people are Deconstructing their religions. I almost always see this practice being done with an Atheistic tilt. And I thought... we need more occultists discussing this topic. As it’s something we naturally tend to do, and I feel new occultists really need supportive material... the transition can be mentally daunting.
It is important to note here before I continue. When I speak on atheism I am not referring to it as It is practiced and experienced in the occult. I have practiced atheism inside and outside of the occult and have found the ideologies to be very different. One does not need to believe in a god, goddess, or gods to practice witchcraft. I feel the belief in one’s own inner power is enough. I myself was an atheistic occultist for the first two years and found tremendous growth in It.
When I first left Mormonism, I incorporated aspects of Tantra into my spirituality. And while Tantra gave me some inner peace… The angry parts of myself leaned hard into atheism... and I found I was just as depressed. When it came to the notion of ‘God’ I wasn’t deconstructing my faith... I was destroying it. I was bulldozing beliefs and leaving them in the rubble. I was frankly quite ‘lost’ until I discovered Chaos Magick.
This is why I tend to recommend chaos Magick to new practitioners. Liber Null by Peter Carroll and Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine give magical and practical insights about how we may play with beliefs and ideas until we find an authentic fit. Some of us also remain Chaos Magicians.
There is a famous Peter Carroll quote which is, ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted’. This doesn’t mean everything is false. It simply takes the pressure off of looking into the ‘truthfulness’ of a practice, and instead analyses its workability.
This would be the key piece of advice I would give to a new witch. Try your absolute best to consider WHY you view things as ‘good or bad’. There are many multilayered ways to approach ethics. I will be expounding upon the topic in future posts. Once you overcome the moral hurdle, then put the belief into practice and see if It works for you. And most of all... don’t be afraid to get it wrong. I have explored many beliefs over the years... and I found equal value in discovering what did not work.
The secondary piece of advice I will give... grant yourself a lot of love and patience. This process can be very troublesome in the beginning, it gets easier.
Thank you for reading and I hope this perspective either resonated or offered some helpful advice.
