On the one hand, I am hopeful because of the Trump election. With it, we have shown the power of the people, we have punched the elites who sought to rule us in their smug faces. We have not broken them, there is still far to go, but we showed that a man willing to voice the words of challenge could overcome everything in his way. The people have proven they have the Voice to be heard. And for anyone willing to step up and join with joy as power is returned to the citizenry of this nation, I am willing to offer the chance to come together despite past differences so that we can Make America Great Again.

But for those who want to instead insist on bigotry and stripping the citizenry of their nation because of ideological differences, I have but two words:

Vae Victis.

So as the articles are starting to come out, let’s see who wants to stand up, and who wishes only to languish as the conquered and receive all the tender mercies they were going to grant had their candidate been victorious. Today we’re going to look at The Witches Next Door’s After The Election – We Are Still Here

Last night did not go well for many folks. There is a lot of fear and worry this day. And there should be. It’s a shock. It’s a disappointment. For many, last night was supposed to be about making herstory, instead, we get even more history. We now see the harsh reality of who the United States really is. But we witches knew this was coming, right?

Actually, I’m going to go with “No, you didn’t.” Given that the Wild Hunt ran an article with three oracles who all said “Hillary will win.” Honestly, I don’t think anyone saw this coming, including Trumps supporters. I mean, shit son, everyone I’ve followed or watched during and after couldn’t and still can’t believe it happened.

But Praise Kek, it did.

Because it was supposed to be a night of Herstory, and Herstory was a tale of corruption, criminality, civil wars, assassinations, oathbreaking, intimidation, intimidating rape victims, and calling the people she supposedly wanted to lead a bunch of deplorables. Her story was a leadership marked with pedophilia, maybe even international child sex trafficing, ripping off disaster zones, and taking hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from nations that practice slavery, who do not even give their women basic human rights, and who butcher their gay people.

Frankly, if that’s herstory, I’ll take my history.

How many of us have seen omens in the last few years? How many of us have been told to gather our tribes? How many of us were warned? How many rituals have you attended (or read about) where the Morrigan or Hecate or Kali or Medusa or Ceridwen were invoked as representing change, fearsome, no bones about it, it’s gonna happen folks, change?

Well, I’ve been seeing the omens for a damn civil war, so I suppose I have. I’ve seen and read so many Pagans invoking the Gods to bring about Change, true, honest Change, unstoppable change.

Of course, they wanted changes based on sex, gender, race, and bigotry who insisted that their in group be given the power. That ideas and ideologies they didn’t like be utterly and completely destroyed. Hel, a few of them I’ve even seen going so far as to push for the destruction of white people and white men, because genocide is okay when the target is acceptable. And they invoked the Gods to destroy all that was.

Well, it seems the Gods have been listening to at least part of that.

Certainly, that most clever of the Ancient Egyptian Gods Kek was listening. That froggy bastard heard the prayers and memes of the multitudes and reached out with his amphibious hand form the primordial Chaos to bring for the the Light which has shed revelation upon so much horror that has controlled my nation.

Much of the magic we witches have been working is centered around social justice, dismantling the patriarchy, sexism, classism, racism, and even capitalism. We’ve been working to tear down these structures that are keeping us silenced and invisible and in our place. Maybe this isn’t what we expected, but remember the old saying “be careful what you wish for.”

All you wanted was destruction. All we wanted was our Country back. You wanted to destroy gender and sex, and you for got there were Gods and Goddesses who are gender and sex incarnate. You wanted to destroy the Patriarchy, forgetting that there are gods who are our Patriarchs, our Fathers, who gave birth to us mortals. You wanted to destroy an entire race, because you felt they were inherently racist and that racism would exist as long as they did. But you forgot the Gods were the Gods of those Races, and you wanted to murder their children whole. You wanted to destroy Capitalism, forgetting there were Gods and Goddess of wealth.

You wished for everything to change, for everything to be destroyed, and you wanted the Gods to give it to you, even if it went against everything the Gods are and were. And now, the Gods have given you what you want. All those systems, all those corrupt politicians, who were giving you what you wanted, who fanned your hatred of people based on their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, they just got punched in the Gods Damned Face by the people. Cause you guys never realized the Power was in your Pocket even as you prayed for the power to be broken.

The Reclaiming Tradition, our “home” tradition, has always worked with and for peoples on the margins. This past year, Witchcamps have focused on “Tearing down the web of lies” and “Speaking truth to Power” and “Looking at the world with the Unflinching Gaze”. Camps are already planned for 2017 that stress the importance of “Decolonizing and reweaving cultures of compassion and justice.”

Where was your compassion for the “Deplorables?” Where was it for the “racists” and the “Sexists” and the “bigots?” You had none. You wanted none. You wanted them gone, broken, destroyed to a man, woman, and child. You wanted to “reclaim” everything they had for yourselves, even when it wasn’t yours to reclaim. You wanted to “decolonize and reweave cultures” when they were not your cultures to reweave. They belonged to the people you hated. You wanted what they owned and you sought to take it. And now, on Nov 8, you got kicked back and told:

“Not To-Mother-Fucking-Day.”

You want “speaking Truth to Power?” Read the wikileaks. Read the Podesta Emails. Read about the corruption, the lies, the abuses. You want truth to power? Trump being elected was Truth to Power. The power of the corrupt, elitist, pieces of shit who have decided that entire groups of this country are evil for what they were born.

You want to speak of the “Unflinching Gaze?” I and millions of others have had to bear looking at the world with an unflinching gaze. Forgive me if now the world looks to you the same way it has looked to your enemies. The way you made it look.

And I have no sympathy for you. If Hillary had won, your article today would be very, very different. You would be cheering. You would be celebrating your power, the destruction of your enemies. You would grant no mercy to your foes, your blade would not be stilled, your heart would think only of ending the deplorable, the racists, the misogynists, the bigots, everyone and everything you hate.

Still many more traditions and covens and groups have been in the streets, marching, protesting, tending to the spiritually, emotionally and physically wounded. We are witches and for a big portion of us, this is the work we do. Of course, if we are going to dismantle something we have to be ready to put something in its place. So now instead of looking at the destruction, instead of focusing on the tearing apart (although this is far from over yet), now let’s start the conversation about what comes next? What do we want to build? What is the future for our communities, our country, and our planet? What replaces these structures that we have lived under for decades, even centuries? These are the important questions that need to be answered.

See? There is no grace in the defeat. There is only rhetoric of war, of resistance, of fighting on without end to get what they want. Screw democracy. Screw the voice and choices of the people. They want what they want, and damn anyone who does not give them what they want.

And the endless call for destruction.

Now, I’ve studied the ideology that these Witches are talking about replacing everything with…and it’s a world of racism, genocide, sexism, bigotry, and hatred. The only difference is its them at the top, rather than being at “the bottom.” It’s a world of bloodshed and hatred, as each person tries to prove that they’re the “best sort of person” because of all their intersectional identities. It would be Tumblr meets Mad Max.

And I want no part of it.

But hey, go ahead and get violent. See how that works out for you.

The Witches Next Door are open, public witches, living in a mostly white and brown suburban neighborhood. We aren’t planning on going back into the broom closet. We don’t plan on hiding out for the next four years. We plan on continuing to do the work that we do. We plan on helping to build the next thing that will help the future of our world. We hope that you’re with us. Of course, we look like the majority of people that just voted in a terrifying new government, so there’s a huge shadow of privilege wrapped up in all of our plans. Here in solidly blue, Northern California we’re unlikely to feel much backlash (until the Supreme court starts to fill up).

Well, no wonder you voted for the corrupt corporate candidate. You’re a group of privileged, entitled witches who are safe in your little suburb, living your nice middle to upper class lives, moaning about people’s sex, gender, and race. Who do not need to fear the outcome.

Unlike the rest of us who got out there and voted Trump into office. The people who are starving, struggling, living day by day watching our families suffer because all the decent jobs we could get that used to support a family well have been shipped off to slave labor in foreign nations. The people who are told they must spend 30-100% of their income on Health Insurance that will not even be usable to them. People who have watched themselves be demonized because of their race, their gender, their sex, their views, their dreams, their religions, their sexuality, their beliefs, their very existence.

You can live safely, and you know it. But if things had turned out differently? People like me would not have been able to. Even after Trump won, people are being beaten in the streets for even allegedly supporting him. There are protests raging against the election. Those would have been full blown mobs hunting down the “Deplorables.” There would have been groups hunting people down, harassing them beating them, making them get fired from their jobs.

If Hillary had won, I suspect I could very well be fighting for my actual life. There was no “safe space” for people like me. There was no “well, we’re privileged enough to survive the next four years unscathed except for a bit of mockery.” There quite literally was: Delete everything, and be ready to disappear, because now there is nothing to stop them because history is on their side and “madam president” smiles upon our jihad.

So, you know. Check. Your. Privilege.

So any work we do must include all of the People. It’s time to challenge ourselves around what it means to be allies and advocates and friends and witches. It’s time to listen once more, or for the first time, to all of the People that have much to lose. And let’s be clear, when we say “much to lose” we mean the very right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Somehow, I don’t think these People include the Poor, the White, the Male, the Cis, the Straight, The women, latinos, blacks, and others who voted for Trump. Some how I don’t think it includes the Capitalists, the Republicans, the indepindants,  the Average Citizen who just wants jobs back, to force out the elites and the corrupt.

You know the people who have indeed been loosing their liberties, who have watched as their ability to pursue their happiness has dried up, and who have watched as a bunch of “progressives” demand their very lives as a price for “racism, sexism, and bigotry.”

What about those people?

Oh that’s right. We stood up, and we voted for Trump.

We witches are in the margins and here we are likely to remain, but it’s in those liminal places that our magic has always and will always be the most powerful. Now more than even we need to stand together. Now more than ever we need to see the things that unify us and bring us together.

May our Ancestors and Godds and Guides bless us. May our resolve be strengthened by community. May our shoulders ever be beside those that need support the most.

We are witches. We weave spells. We have a helluva spell to weave today.

And yet for all your power…you lost to the meme magic. Kek reached out their hand, Jupiter threw down his lightning bolt, and Odin teased the Runes.

Your Gods abandoned your cause. They brought you the change, but it wasn’t the change you wanted. They used your power for their own ends. They did not buy into your hatred, but they used it for their own ends. Your spells to destroy the establishment were used to do just that. Your spells to break the powerful have shaken the roots of civilization.

Praise Kek

Because you’re not the only ones who are on the edges of society. You’re not the only ones with that power. You are not unopposed in the realms of magic and faith. And we will not go quietly into “that good night.”

But go ahead, try it. It already backfired on you once. I can’t wait to see how the Gods do it to you again.

 

Hela Bless