Without killing it, Wicca and Neopaganism, more broadly, really could use a fresh start, without the mistakes of the earlier versions. There is much of value there, in my opinion.
But I also feel we can't just sweep the magical colonialism under the carpet. There is a debt that is upaid, but I think it is unfair to younger folks to block off their own explorations. So in that spirit maybe just to clear the plate, by taking a hard look and unpacking some of it, in the hope something new and better can grow out of that "blasted heath."
Preamble aside...
The use of Hoodoo or Brujería formulas and recipes isn't really the issue, in my view. Use the Hodoo / brujeria formulas, but recognize that it's this Neopagan shell game that’s often unethical.
Folk magic has always been a "take-what-works" approach, so the recipes themselves aren't the primary issue. The real problem is the systemic grift and the manufacturing of neopagan fakelore and speading misinformation to justify the theft of credit and stolen authenticity.
After a few decades of watching the Neopagan grift, the pattern goes something like this:
Claim is that all this Hoodoo is "really" a surviving thread of "paganism" from the frozen lands of Ancient Paganistan of the far north, where they have this totally lush ecosystem of rocks, fir trees, peat moss, fish, reindeer, holly, snow, and more rocks.
The grifters claim that a specific Hoodoo or Brujería practice isn’t actually the result of Black or Brown ancestors surviving through struggle. Instead, they claim it "really" is a surviving thread of a lost, prehistoric European paganism. They mentally transport the practice to that frozen tundra of Ancient Paganistan where all the pagans lived. This is not the "ethical paganism" which we can usually poinpoiunt to spfic people and cultires of pre-Christian people, say n Egypt or Greece. We can use the PGM without it all being flattened into the same grey goo of "The Paganism."
By framing it as Origina (tm) Secret Knowledge from the far North, they create a fictional lineage that allows them to bypass the actual, living history of the people who practiced it. It’s a cynical attempt at "jumping ahead in the timeline" to bypass all those inconvenient contemporary practitioners.
If you acknowledge that your "Money Drawing" oil comes from a Black Rootworker or a Latino Folk Catholic, you have to acknowledge their humanity, their history, and their authority. But if you jump the timeline to an imaginary Celtic past, you can write the "definitive" book on it yourself. A few years ago it was "Celtic Witchcraft" - now that the trend has shifted, it’s all "Celtic Shamanism." Either way you get the aesthetic "altar-gram" photos without ever mentioning the botanica down the street.
I was in San Antonio, Texas, recently visiting Papa Jim’s famous botanica. After picking up some materia I jumped over to the "white witch" stores, where they sold the exact same formulas - not even renamed - but with a 300% markup and a fancy bottle. Bougie Brujeria.
The most cynical part of the comemrialized play is the "Anti-Abrahamic" smoke screen. They label the Catholics and Protestants whose stuff they just took as "evil Abrahamists." It is so incredibly unethical it irritates the fuck out of me. It’s totally obvious they’re just covering their tracks. By demonizing the Church and the "Abrahamic" influence, they ensure their followers never look too closely at the New World Folk Catholic Latinos or the African-American Protestants whose traditions they are currently wearing like a costume. A pox on that horsehit.
