An Open Letter to White Witches:
Sacred Lattice Collective writes this open letter to address a disturbing and harmful pattern of engagement experienced through participation in the Northwest Magic Conference and Portland Plant Medicine Gathering. The individuals and organizations we wish to address include the founders, instructors, and certain alumnae from the Blue Iris Mystery School and Arctos School, as well as the planners and organizers of the NWMC and PPMG.
The patterns of behavior we observe are deeply rooted in white supremacy, they uphold and affirm white supremacy culture.
The trauma we experience as oppressed peoples is the genesis of global colonization, of 400+ years of war, plague, serfdom, the rise of Christianity as a thought system of superiority. We find that the above named organizations and individuals co-opt paganism, witchcraft, alternative spirituality, and alternative healing methodologies. We observe as you weaponize these spiritual and healing practices into a new wave thought system of superiority. We reject the weaponization of our traditional ways of knowing and we reject those who seek to do so.
White supremacy culture privileges individual identity over collective or group identity. The Sacred Lattice Collective does not work this way; despite our repeated attempts to explain to you that we are individuals who work in collective we find that you insist on treating the individual and the collective as interchangeable parts in your machine. We experience your repeated attempts to seek out the members of the Collective perceived to be most influential or powerful. We reject your assertion that our individual and collective selves can be reduced to cogs and wheels which can be prioritized by the whiteness-driven notion of importance.
Sacred Lattice Collective is its own legitimate entity and each member their own individual being. We weave together, honoring both the lattice and each individual strand. We will not be compressed into a single entity to suit your myopic understanding of collective social dynamics. We will not rearrange our structures to suit your need to establish power and dominance over others. We reject your inability and unwillingness to hold complexity and tension.
We observe and document your attempts to use us as entree to the work of anti-racist action and divestment in white supremacy that bewilders you. You dangle your offers of funding over us, with opaque structures of requirement. We’ve told you, make your donation without expectation if that is what you are moved to do. We reject your grounding in capitalism and urge you to unfuck your shit.
Sacred Lattice Collective