Memoir: Witches of America, Alex Mar

Witches of America

Alex Mar

ISBN: 9780374291372

Read January 6, 2016

Hoooo boy is this one causing controversy.

I'm not religious, nor am I religiously affiliated, but I have a perpetual curiosity about wicca and witchcraft that would probably be considered religious interest - if I weren't an incurable skeptic.

This book (out right before Halloween, natch) is right up my alley - this "journalist" is religiously-raised, over-intellectual, self-critical, endlessly obsessed with appearance (at least I'm a makeup artist and costumer, so I have an excuse), skeptical but emotionally and spiritually passionate, heir to lots of christian guilt and mental baggage, afraid of sensation and of being "in the moment," and yet simultaneously intensely curious and covetous of having overwhelming (spiritual?) experiences.  Her work on a video documentary of American mystical spiritual paths led her to realize that this particular sub-culture/counter-culture of practicing wiccans, pagans, druids and others would make an excellent subject for a book.  (Also I think she ended up with a sort of lifestyle crush on Morpheus, who appears from all accounts to have an amazingly magnetic personality.)

Using her contacts from the documentary film, Mar slowly becomes a part of the pagan community, always reminding people that she's writing a book.  She half-heartedly tries the anthro approach for a little bit, but that's just not her style, and she manages to convince herself (and, importantly, the community she's joining) at regular points along the way that despite the book, she really is personally interested in discovering if there really is anything to this world of spells and chanting and invoking goddesses and gods.   So she "goes native."

Now the book is out, and in it she explores only three traditions in any depth (eclectic Wiccans are immediately passed on because they're "too eclectic" - well, what did you expect? and Dianic Wiccans are just too seriously 2nd wave stridently feminist and woman-worshipping for someone with Mar's obsession with good/bad female forms and social appropriateness, and she never even thinks about Druidry as far as I can tell).  The trio ends up as Andersonian Feri (specifically the BlackHeart strain), Pagan rockstar Morpheus Ravenna's (at the time of Mar's research) growing Coru Priesthood, and New Orleans' developing O.T.O. temple.  

Oddly enough, none of these are really what I would think of as "traditional" American witchcraft or wicca practices, but what the hell ever - those are the connections Mar ended up with, so that's what she's investigating.  What is really interesting is that post publication, the Coru, and Morpheus by extension, rescinded their prior approval for Mar's book (with some harsh words about intent not matching actions), and Mar's Feri teacher has also expressed a sense of betrayal at her own portrayal.  The O.T.O. hasn't said anything, but I would be shocked if they felt it necessary.  In addition, Mar's less than entirely glowing portrayal of two major pagan events seems to have personally pissed off just about every witch in the entire country.  Balancing this outrage from the pagan community is a series of glowing recommendations from the mainstream press, and lots of positive acknowledgement from other powerhouse literary figures.

So what gives?  First off, the main issue I see from the Pagans is that Mar violated consent by recording (or transcribing from memory) quite a few personal conversations without explicit permission, and by writing about ecstatic rituals and shared sacred spaces in the first place, but secondly for writing about them in a very intellectual, somewhat sardonic, detached journalistic record-keeping manner.  As a note (spoilers?) Mar did not end up continuing her Feri practice, and she is currently carefully vague about her present involvement with the O.T.O, - this might help explain why so many in the community felt personally betrayed or violated by the portrayals of events and people (or of themselves) found in the book.  There are several smaller ritual events depicted, and Mar's sense of alienation and shaky self-image makes these events a bit warped in the recounting.  I don't get the impression that Mar TRIES to be hurtful or to exaggerate, but her personality (which she is constantly referencing and using as a narrative scaffolding) makes that nearly impossible to achieve.  Many of her comments ARE hurtful, or they read as uncomfortably exploitative or overdramatized.

Some things I wonder after reading: 

Was she faking her spiritual journey the whole time? (I truly don't THINK so, but then I see a lot of myself in her personality, and I very much understand that nearly impossible-to-shake desire to quantify and intellectualize experiences, and to second-guess and quarterback the "validity" of my involvement in communities.  Other reviewers who were actually there, or who knew her, do question whether she was actually ever a true "seeker.")

Was she perhaps a "spiritual tourist" and only interested in spirituality as long as it was easy and didn't require self-abnegation or hard emotional work, thus betraying the community through her dilettantism?  (Does that actually matter?)

Are the conversations and events revealed in the book consensually obtained?  (This last question becomes really interesting when considered in light of an interesting chapter about "Jonathan" the corpse-stealing necromancer.  Mar gets very philosophical here, and also in a subsequent disturbingly adoring chapter about Morpheus and her desire for her corpse to be left for the carrion birds) about the concepts of consent and of intent, and of magical purpose, and of violating people's autonomy and free will.  Perhaps a spate of guilt - a textual attempt to claim: at least I'm not as bad as this guy is?) 

Was any ritual secret or magical information disclosed that she either promised or implied that she would hold secret?  (Mar appears to have a very sincere belief that ONLY the very specific "secrets" of initiations (one from Blackheart Feri, and one from O.T.O. - both involving the names of gods) are off limits, and cheerfully (perhaps even licentiously?) reveals all sorts of other lurid details (again in a self-deprecating and intellectually-reserved way, distancing herself from the events even as she participates in them), shoving the curtains wide open about the specific and sometimes explicit activities that comprise circles, rituals, and initiations.  This attitude (and to be frank, the writing style) also seems to account for much of the vitriol from the community, and one hopes that either Mar's oaths were truly that literally specific, or that there truly is no magic for these very angry and betrayed people to invoke against her.)

Overall, a really interesting book about one flawed person's lurching journey along the borderlines of spiritual awakenings in a marginalized and deeply distrustful private community, made even more interesting by what the fallout reveals about that community, and about Mar's methodology in researching and in obtaining full and active consent from the people she interacted with.  One senses that her naively optimistic comment in the acknowledgements about an essay updating readers on her contacts' continuing lives is going to be a haunting memory, and one I predict will vanish from any re-printed editions.