Thread by @skinpriestess, Trying to make your ancestral words/titles fit into the Western lexicon is [...]

Trying to make your ancestral words/titles fit into the Western lexicon is not a good idea.

First up, energy work.

New Age has people out here thinking that Reiki is the default term for energy work, and they also want us to believe it’s interchangeable with light work.

Light working is a type of energy work. So, even within this society, we can see that there’s confusion.

You know what else is energy work? Conjure. Spirits of the dead are energy, no? And you werkin that energy, no? Energy work.

Pero, calling it energy work is...reductive. At least, within the context of what most of us perceive energy work to be.

Herbalist vs Rootworker.
Clinical Herbalist vs Root Dr.

So yeah, Herbalist is a label. And within Hoodoo, rootwork could be seen as a branch of herbalism. But being an Herbalist ≠ being a Root Worker or Root Dr. Don’t force it, because it’s not the same.

Also, traditional titles are inherently wholistic. They cannot fit into the Western mindset because it’s allopathic. At times it may be pseudo-wholistic, but never authentically wholistic.

When we talk Hoodoo Midwifery, it is implied that the Midwife in question is also at LEAST 2 of the following:

•2-Headed Dr.
•Root Dr.
•Herbalist
•Diviner
•Seer
•Hands-Layer

Midwifery is it’s lineage within Hoodoo, and you are chosen. Can’t force that, either.

Most importantly, the Midwife was the primary care provider in the community. Full stop.

Birth control, abortions, fertility, love work/keeping families together, and pediatrician + family physician if we keeping it a buck. And let’s not forget community justice is a cornerstone in Hoodoo Midwifery.

I can’t really go into traditional birth work because

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤐" title="„Schweigen ist Gold“-Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: „Schweigen ist Gold“-Gesicht">, but it’s not the same as what any yt person is going to consider birth work. Chile, they so busy stealing rebozos and the closing the bones.

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😴" title="Schlafendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Schlafendes Gesicht">

Also, we must consider the ways in which yt ppl steal from TCM and Ayurveda. They use praise as an excuse for theft. “Look at these ancient practices. So powerful. Original medicine. I’m going to a Western acu school lolz”

TCM, Ayurveda, and *some* “New World/The Americas” Indigenous traditions are seen as the only acceptable “alternative” medicine.

They steal from The Continent + The Diaspora and try to completely erase us from it. See: Hoodoo.

Anti-Blackness is global and it’s sinister and we have got to stop trying to fit our practices, titles, words, into the colonizer’s frame work. How can you shrink God? Impossible.

Now, some folks know how to take the Western frame work and freak that bitch. But that’s advanced-level alchemy.

Anyway. As many people are remembering, waking up dormant bloodlines, and reclaiming their power, it is important that we decolonize everything.

Being a Healer isn’t just a term you call yourself. You pry into folks’ business energetically because you lack boundaries and hide behind “Empath.”

Being a Healer ain’t for play play. And it ain’t for the weak.

You can call yourself a New Age Healer. That’d be more accurate.

You know who my favorite character from Harry Potter is? Madam Pomfrey. She was that bitch. The damn school nurse. Why was she that bitch?

She understood that to be a Healer, one must be proficient in EVERYTHING. Yes, including the Dark Arts.

She was fighting Death Eaters in the Wizarding War, then was tending wounds immediately post-battle. A bad bitch.

How can you *really* understand a spiritual affliction if you don’t know lefthand work? You don’t even have to actively do it, just know it.

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