Is revolution inevitable?
witchcraft, divination, and revolution + an invitation to the Full Moon ritual on Sunday
On how revolutions happen, and what that has to do with magic, witchcraft, astrology, and your own life. Plus an invitation to the Full Moon gathering on Sunday.
A few days ago I saw a beautiful interview with Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary physician (who happened to be even hotter than Luigi Mangione), which got me thinking about astrology, witchcraft, and many of our concerns here at Mystery Cult.
In the interview, the reporter charged Guevara with attempting to export Communist revolution throughout the Americas.
[You can watch the interview from a 1964 episode of the news program State of the Nation below, the point I’m referring to comes at about 7 mins 30 seconds]
Guevara laughed and responded [basically, I’m paraphrasing] that revolution can’t be exported like a product.
Revolution arises from the conditions of oppression. Wherever oppression exists, revolution will come raging from beneath its boot.
In other words, revolutionaries like Che Guevara don’t create revolutions, oppression does.
Imperialism creates the very thing it tries to extinguish by attempting to extinguish it.
From a theological perspective, one of the primary concerns of witchcraft and astrology (i.e. divination and magick) is the nature of fate.
Is our future inalterably written in the stars/by god/by fate (as the doctrines of Calvinism would suggest)? Or do we have free will?
Discussions on the topic of free will have been of primary spiritual concern going back for thousands of years.
That’s why in witchcraft rooted in Northern European lineages we have phrases like “the web of the wyrd.” Or why in the Greek tradition there are concepts like moira. Or in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions concepts like karma and dharma. All of which touch upon the same central themes.
Even contemporary science contemplates issues regarding biological determinism: do we make choices inevitably based on our hormones and genes, or do we have a will outside of these influences?
Practices such as witchcraft and astrology, which are so often considered frivolous, are actually wrestling with the concept of fate and free will in imaginative and beautiful ways.
When Saturn — often considered an oppressive force — is active in your life, for example, then so too will a revolutionary force be fomenting underneath it. To understand how to work with that revolutionary force, look to the wisdom of Uranus in your natal chart.
From there, we can do rituals to guide our fate when we see that certain conditions are forming, and work to change the outcomes. Likewise, we can also perform rituals in times of abundance/Jupiter, to make the most of the god’s expansive moods.
Practicing magick and divination provides us the opportunity to slow down and pay attention to the conditions around us. From there, we take action.
We can use our rituals to help us midwife new worlds wanting to be born, and to act as doulas to all that which is in need of a good death — in our personal lives and in the world at large.
The Full Moon in Cancer coming up this week is a midwife Moon.
I will be holding a ritual on Sunday, the 12th at 5pm PST to help you bring into being that which you’re wanting to open space for in your life.
Hope to see you there!
Love,
Amanda
P.S. Yearly and Founders level subscribers will also get access to the replay downloads of the Hermit Year workshop series, which includes a Book of Shadows workshop, a Hermit Year workshop, and a Guardians of Space and time workshop. You’ll love them!