An open letter to "WitchTok," from a magical practitioner of 25+ years.

The babies have run the daycare for too long over there. And a reckoning is coming.

I've written about my past 28 years as a magical practitioner before, so I'll just include the highlights here:

• Full conscious Chakra system activation at 16 years old, and continual skilled self maintenance since.

• Professional tarot reader since July 2000.

• Reiki Grandmaster in the Usui Tradition since 2004.

• Hoodoo apprentice since 2011.

I got a dual degree in Anthropology, and Classical Latin Language in between the Reiki Grandmastership and the Hoodoo apprenticeship, hence the gap.

So, please put your "gatekeeping" accusations aside for a moment when I tell you these things:

Magic is not for everyone. Gatekeeping is and has always been required. We call it "initiation." You have to prove yourself before you get to the initiation stage. Be invited to participate.

I do come from multiple "magical" ancestral lineages and y'all, they did their absolute damnedest to get me to revoke my magic and be a good Christian girl. Because they KNEW how hard this is. They knew how dangerous this is. They knew how easy it is to go in with the best of intentions and fuck it so far up the family line feels it both ways for generations and generations. But, I listened to my ancestors instead of my living relatives, and here I am.

Here is the thing. If you are meant to practice magic, the keepers open the gates for you. My family sure wasn't going to teach me the legacy, so my ancestors sent me teachers who would.

Reiki? Closed practice at the time. I was specifically invited into the practice by my Reiki Master when we met at meditation classes in our area.

Tarot? This was pre-modern internet, I was sent a teacher through a social group my family and I belonged to when I was a teen, who happened to get me set up with just the right scenario to give me my ancestral inheritance with the tarot.

Hoodoo? I met my mentor through mutual friends (who I met through my tarot business), and she just started... teaching me. Yes, Hoodoo is a closed practice. Yes, I have an ancestral claim to it. And yes, I have been taught how to practice in the proper way, by an elder.

And am I going to start writing blog posts spilling all I know about these topics? FUCK NO. I don't care what's happened in the past 20 years, Reiki is still a closed practice in my eyes. Why? Because in my 20 years as a Reiki healer, I've gone in and done clean-up after clean-up after a "reiki session" or "reiki attunement" left my client with anything from a vampiric cord at best, or a demonic entity at worst. Not. Every. Energy. Is. Reiki.

And Hoodoo is a closed practice. I was invited in. I will invite you in if certain Orisha tell me to. And no other time. That's not gatekeeping. That's practicing Hoodoo correctly.

I've been watching "witches" spread misinformation in the name of "not gatekeeping" for a few years now, and any time I try to correct their misinformation, I get told I'm "gatekeeping." Okay, first of all, how am I "gatekeeping information" if I'm giving you the correct information in the same sentence? You just don't like my information because my information is real, and not easy, and therefore you want to throw your little buzzword at me.

And secondly, not everyone is a witch. You are special in many other ways, but not that one. And trust me, that is fine. It's a much, much easier life. I am not saying this to "gatekeep you from your true self." I am saying this because we are entering a time where demons are going to be out in force, and trust me, this is not Hazbin Hotel. Demons are not "cute" or "relatable," they're powerful beings who will fuck you over for the upper hand and a good feed (I mean that literally and figuratively - you want demonic realism? Check out AHS: Hotel's Addiction Demon). From now until 2036, the whole world is having its Tower moment, the Kali Yuga is doing its thing to trample the old world, and if you're declaring yourself a "witch" to the Universe, but riding on misinformation, vibes, and main character energy... please be sure you're not prone to psychosis. Y'all, I had to cure my own OCD as a young teen in the early 90's without the help of therapy or drugs to prove to my ancestors that I was ready for energy work. Every single step listed up there took an act of significant personal sacrifice and mastery before I was allowed my next teacher and my next phase of study.

And I do actually work with deities, multiple deities (as evidenced above). Do you know what it's like to work with a deity, truly work with one? You're in constant communication with them. Constant. In everything. The algorithm. The song lyrics that come up. Hell, there was a gigantic poster of Hecate's Labyrinth in the elevator lounge outside my Surgical Optimization office (at a Catholic facility!), and then She scolded me for not being more awed by the sign at the time in my dream that night (I had a lot on my mind at the moment!) 😅😅 Here's the deal, if you're working with a deity, and you've established multiple lines of communication, including piped right into your head (like I said, you cannot have psychosis to do this...) - that's when you start following their directions. And this is where faith comes in. Because their directions will involve presenting opportunities to make sacrifices to continue your journey. Big sacrifices. Sacrifices that change you. And you have to be willing to say, "okay, I trust you" and leave it behind, whatever it is, no matter how much it hurts. The Book of Job is in the Bible for a reason. Can you do that? Is witchcraft so important to you, that you will literally dedicate your life to it, death experiences and all? If it isn't, now is the time to step back.

This doesn't mean you can't still be a pagan. You can still worship your favorite deity, or deities. Have an altar, light them candles, show them reverence, they love that. But when it comes to practicing magic? Indigenous tribes had what we call "shamans" today, the small number of people in their tribal group who had a direct connection to the other side, and could communicate with the deities and ancestors on behalf of the human realm. It took a gift, that was identified young and trained early. Apollo did not select just any girls in Greece to be His Oracles. These are the people you should be going to to do magic for you. This is why "intercession" has always been included in religion, at least until Martin Luther got a hold of Christianity. They're the ones that risk the Other Side to be intercessors for the people who are still firmly behind the veil, and need to stay so for their own safety. And your real magic workers go through a lot of lifelong personal sacrifice and deep healing to do that. If that is truly the life for you, the gates will open for you. But the gates know who will do the work, and who will simply play the part. And throwing a fit about "gatekeeping" is not going to change that.

Behold the Gate, fuckers.

While yes, the goal is humanity leveling up to 5D as a whole, and everyone having a direct connection to the Universal Source, this is something that needs to be learned right now through practice. You don’t get to make up your own fantasy OC here and expect it to have real-world consequences. That is what demons feed on. If you’re smart, and if you’re serious about opening some gates for yourself, you’ll find the people who have successfully done it - not the ones who just say they have, hell, don’t even take my word about me until you check me out and see the fruits of my practice. And you’ll humble yourself to learn from them. Because guess what the main goal of witchcraft is? Ego death. You’re all doing SO great with that right now, bravo 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Also, please do realize that curses are real, and used very commonly in the community. Update: I happen to have a perfect personal example of this now. What did I do to piss people off this badly? Shine too brightly. Had too much knowledge through experience, and started to realize my destiny. Imagine what they can do to you if you come at them with all the belligerence you can muster? You might want to think about that the next time you want to come at someone in the comments because you want to feel superior to them. That giant spider demon I mention at the end of the linked example was sent to bind me. Can you flip the script on being attacked by a powerful demon? You may not want to flirt with having one sent after you.