"That Practice is a Closed Practice?!?"

Most commonly referred to as closed practices are smudging, hoodoo, and burjiara. For new witches, the term “closed practice” can be confusing as it is a very “in-the-know” term, which means you have to be familiar with it because no one is going to explain it to you (except us!).

Let’s Break Down “Practice”

A practice is a tradition, meaning a specific culture or group of affiliated witches have over time developed a common way of doing things in ritual or spell casting. Think Wicca as a more modern example. Another common example is Norse-Paganism.

“Closed” Does NOT Mean “No Entry”

From our own observations it is incredibly common to associate “closed” with “can’t ever”. This is technically incorrect. “Closed” basically means “entry with special permission or training only”.

“Closed” + “Practice”

A “closed practice” merely means that without special permissions or training, a witch should not attempt to delve into its deep cavernous realms for their own safety and the safety of others.

“But Why Shouldn’t I Try It?”

We are not saying you cannot practice it...We are saying with particularity that such workings are dangerous for several reasons. Take “freezer spells” for example. Freezer spells were popularized by the hoodoo tradition, though they exist in some form or another across the vast majority of traditions. It is important to be educated on any topic in witchcraft before jumping in head first, particularly when it comes to closed practices. You need to know what lies beneath the surface of these potentially dangerous practices.

So, what makes a freezer spell “entry with permission or training only?” If you research freezer spells, you’ll run across a bunch of different formats and rituals that all have different end goals in mind. Freezer spells have been around long before hoodoo adopted their version of the practice. In western witchcraft, the freezer spell results in the subject of the spell’s actions freezing in place. Meaning that the subject will continue doing whatever offending behavior they were doing, but it won’t get any worse. For example, if you freeze a wife beater using this method, he will continue to beat his wife, but he won’t injure her any more than he already has proven he is capable of doing. This practice involves solely the energy of the caster and the subject of the spell. No other entities are required. I.e. Not a closed practice. However, the hoodoo tradition is a little different as it involves their ancestral spirits doing their bidding. Historically, a hoodoo freezer spell invokes their ancestral spirits, and uses the ice to encourage those spirits to freeze the “tongue” of someone speaking against them to other people. Basically, a practice is closed when a culture’s ancestral spirits are involved.

What Makes Cultural Ancestral Work Dangerous and Why Does This Mean The Practice is Closed?

So far we have established what a closed practice is and how different traditions have similar spells, but what sets a lot of closed practices apart is the invocation of cultural ancestral spirits. Why is working with a specific set of ancestors dangerous if they are not your own ancestors? THEY AREN’T YOUR ANCESTORS!

Take the practice of “smudging” for example, another example of a closed practice. Smudging is a Native American tradition, which involves a smoke cleanse, invoking ancestral spirits for protection, and a ritual dance (in a nutshell that’s what it entails). Imagine for a moment that you’re a Native American ancestor that died on the Trail of Tears and you’re just living the dream in the spirit world, and all of a sudden you’re summoned into a Caucasian's happy little circle. You would be pissed. You don’t owe that witch anything and you definitely don’t want to help her. So, what typically happens when you piss off a spirit? They follow you around and make your life a living hell. Basically, in the case of closed practices you need to know what exactly you’re getting yourself into.

Now, let’s jump into a non-Native American witch’s body again. Let’s say, for whatever reason and for the sake of argument, that you’ve been hexed or cursed so badly, that the only reasonable option is to perform a smudging. What do you do? You have two options. Option 1. Find a professional smudger who is willing to perform the ritual on you. This protects you from angry ancestral spirits, as you have an “in” if that person is already on positive terms with those spiritual ancestors, so the likelihood of offending one of them is very slim.

Option 2. Do it yourself (YIKES). This requires a shit ton of research and training, so either way you’ll need to see a professional. In addition to this, you have to petition the ancestral spirits you intend on working with. In the case of smudging, you cannot just willy nilly use your own ancestors (sorry), because they don’t know how to do this type of cleansing. You must respectfully reach out to these specific ancestral spirits and ask for their permission to summon them. If you get the ok from them, you’re golden, if not, seek out professional help.

As with any closed practice, you’ll want to consider either option 1 or option 2. DO NOT just jump in. You will get hurt and your life will seriously suck.

Brujara is a South American tradition. Not all brujeria spells are closed, so it is important to research any spell you intend on performing. The brujeria version of an egg cleanse (you guessed it), involves ancestral spirits, which means you either need a professional or you need to petition some ancestors.

Types of Practices and Traditions That Are Commonly Mistaken As Closed

Tarot

Does Tarot involve ancestral work? Nope! So, why do so many people think it is closed? Again, a common misconception about closed practices is that they are strictly closed because they are related to a non-Caucasian culture. And even if this is what made a practice closed, the argument for tarot being closed holds no merit. Thanks to witchtok, new witches are becoming highly misinformed about the origins of tarot. Historical scholars ALL AGREE that it originated as an Italian card game in the early 1500s with traditional Italian imagery, and it was not until the late 1700s that the FRENCH (not the Roma) began using it for divination as a party trick. The Roma only adopted it in the early 1800s and THEN created their own cards using middle eastern and north African imagery to better relate to the cards.

Runes

Another popular divination tool. Does it involve ancestral spirits? Sort of. Let’s explain. A witch CAN choose to communicate with THEIR own ancestors using this tool. The practice is not strictly related to one culture or another. In fact, runes show up in almost every culture in some for or another. The most popular runes are the Norse (Futhark) runes. The energy of these runes come from Odin himself. Each rune releases a different energy to different people as Odin uses it to aid users in their daily lives. See below for more details on working with non-caucasian deities.

Non-Western Deities

African, Egyptian, Asian, etc. deities are not closed. Deities gain their specific powers from SPECIFIC devotional acts. See our article on working with deities. So, naturally, deities require many many followers to become powerful and do their jobs efficiently. Thus, deity work, regardless of culture is not closed.

Chakras

By far one of the most ridiculous things we have ever read is that Chakras are a closed practice. EVERYONE has seven chakras. This principle is the ENTIRE PREMISE of the theory. Thus, how can one say it is closed, if literally everyone has them? They can’t. That is dumb as shit.

Spirit Animals

Cultural appropriation is not the same as a closed practice. This term, popularized in the American media in saying “xyz is my spirit animal” is cultural appropriation, because it is taking a cultural term and appropriating it. Spirit animals exist across many cultures, but was popularized in the Americas by Native Americans. Spirit animals or guides choose you, thus if one chooses you, it is not a closed practice. Whereas a familiar is a being (physical or spiritual) that will take a spiritual bullet for you and lend their energies into your spell work. More on that in future posts.

Evil Eye

The evil eye exists across many different cultures, though it was popularized by the Greeks. Just to be on the safe side, use it for its intended purposes and not for its mere asthetic and you won’t be guilty of cultural appropriation. It does not involve ancestral work, and therefore is not closed.

The End

Thanks for coming to our Ted Talk.