Eugenicist and bioessentialist beliefs about magic
Like New Age, modern witchcraft developed at a time period when eugenics and so-called race science were highly popular ideas – and consequentially, some of these ideas influenced people’s beliefs about magic. These beliefs also influenced modern conspiracy theories about the occult, which in turn influenced perceptions of magic in general. Here’s some of these beliefs:
- People are either born with magical gifts, or they’ll never have them at all.
- People born with magical gifts are meant to be spiritual leaders and guide the world into a new age.
- There are special bloodlines whose members are more capable of performing magic than others.
- People who can perform magic are able to do so only because they have special ancestry.
- Some racial groups are more capable of performing magic than others.
- Some bloodlines or racial groups are more capable of performing certain kinds of magic than others (EG, so-called “light magic” or “dark magic”).
- The traditions of your genetic ancestors will always come to you easily and intuitively, with little to no study required. (And if they don’t, you aren’t a “true witch.”)
Modern witchcraft was also hit by the gender essentialism stick, and claims that come from this line of thinking include:
Magic requires or at least massively benefits from some performance or symbolic representation of heterosexuality or heteronormativity; other forms of magic will be inherently weaker.
- Literally all magic is a recreation of heterosexual reproduction.
- The womb is a woman’s most potent source of magic.
- There are only two important deities: the god and the goddess.
- All goddesses represent the divine mother archetype, all gods represent the divine father archetype.
- Feminine energies are soft and nurturing, masculine entities are aggressive and bold.
- Masculine energies are too strong in the world, and are the reason for imperialism, violence, etc. The imbalance can be corrected by focusing on feminine energies.
So yeah, always watch out for claims like this because they don’t come from a good place.
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