Guide To Witchcraft [DISCONTINUED]

⇢˚⋆ 8 ˎˊ- Closed Practices

New terms:
- smudging

✧ From the last chapter:
"There are certain practices that are reserved for certain groups of people.
You are either born into them, or invited in by someone from that group.
Inviting yourself is very culturally disrespectful and could be very dangerous.
Some of these practises are:
- voodoo
- santeria
- candomble
- romani
- aztec
- saami
- hoodoo"

✧ Safety:
There have been some instances where people have tried to summon deities from closed practices and have sadly lost their lives.
*Please note: although what they did was incredibly stupid, the dead should be treated with respect!
Even the people who are part of these practises are incredibly careful, so a misinformed person is sure to get hurt.

✧ Appropriation:
Many things such as the practice of smudging, honey jars and voodoo dolls are now normalized even though they should not be used by outsiders.

- Smudging:
It is a Native American practice of cleansing with smoke, with bundles of different herbs.
If you're not Native, you're not smudging, you're smoke cleansing.
* White sage and Palo Santo are sacred to Native Americans. Due to them being exploited by big companies, there's less and less of them every day.
White sage is endangered due to over-harvesting.
Palo Santo isn't endangered, but its natural habitat is in danger.
Be respectful and responsible, don't use these plants.

✧ Learning/Practicing:
If you want to learn about a closed practice, do so respectfully and reach out to someone who practices it. Wanting to learn about something is okay.
However, do not practice it.

✧ Semi-closed:
There are some religions and practices that are considered to be semi-closed, like Wicca.
This means that there's a certain initiation period.
*For Wicca specifically, it's one year and one day.

✧ End note:
We are all human and we make mistakes. However, when you do make a mistake, be sure to learn and grow from it.

Next chapter: Meditation & Grounding