This guide will continue to be updated with workings, safety information, and resources as needed.
My ancestors lived in Italy during the rise and the fall of Mussolini. They are from Southern Italy - Cosentian farming folk, hailing from the smallest of towns and communities. Italian American folk magic is marked by many things, but one of them is our apotropaic charms and protective magic against many things - mal'occhio, or evil eye, jettature, or hexes/curses/intentional evil eye, legature/binding, fatture/death curses - but in our modern times, when we are seeing our friends and neighbors disappear at the hands of masked men, our queer elders and community members living at the hands of threats of violence, murder, and hate crimes - Another need comes into play. Justice. Protection of our most vulnerable.
If you've been doom-scrolling on Instagram, watching both the Freedom Flotilla and the LA protests, you're not alone. There is a palpable energy in the air - the realization for some what others, especially marginalized groups, have always known - we protect us.
The police do not protect us. The governments do not protect us. The National Guard, which has now been called in by our current president to be utilized against Los Angeles protestors, is not here to protect us.
I am a firm believer in two things; one, that mundane action is necessary to create change in our world and that two, witchcraft and folk magic are resistance. They are intertwined with revolutionary moments, with community support, and with work against injustice.
I write this article and write it with the assistance of many individuals who have been doing this work for much, much longer than I have - BIPOC practitioners, Hoodoo practitioners laying down Law Keep Away and justified work. Jewish communities making lists of antisemitic symbols. Indigenous communities fighting for Land Back and Indigenous sovereignty and stewardship. Hong Kong and Chilean protestors sharing how to handle ourselves in the most dire of situations.
This blog post is a collection of knowledge, magic, and support in times where we are scared.
Before we begin, I think of a post from @abnormalize.being in the midst of the L.A. protests, where they shared pictures and videos from June 9th, of a grafitti that says:
"When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty." This quote is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and when you look it up, it's often pictured along tread-on-me symbols, Patriot attire, and American flags.
Yet, tyranny has been the law in the so-called United States for as long as we can remember. It has been a reality for Black folks, Indigenous folks, brown folks, immigrants, and more for longer than the past seven months - we must tread understanding our privilege, always. We must tread understanding our needs, limits, and presence as a way to keep others safe, as a way to ensure we know what we can and cannot handle, to ensure that when we arrive, we are part of a collective movement, not an individual one.
Folk magic is community. Being in community is relational, collective work.
Protest Safety
When you go to a protest...
- Know your rights.
- Bring a backpack filled with water, snacks, and first aid supplies.
- Wear comfortable shoes you can run in easily.
- Wear a N95 or higher mask for the safety of yourself and fellow protestors and if you can, cover your hair and any visible, identifiable tattoos and marks. If you are expecting teargas (or even if you're not), bring a respirator, eye protection, head protection, and extra bandanas or fabric pieces - these can be dunked in water and placed over the nose in mouth, or they can be used for first aid. This link is from a certified EMR sharing tips for this.
- Leave your phone at home - if you are unable to do this, turn on lockdown mode or invest in a Faraday bag to block cell phone tracking - police and FBI agents will track your phone using specialized equipment like Stingray devices.
- Never go alone. Buddy up at protests. Have a friend, or several, that you travel/carpool with from one general location to the protest location and back.
- Learn to extinguish teargas as well as provide aid to folks who have been teargassed.
- Dress to fit in rather than stand out with dark, baggy clothes - protests are not a photo-op or about you.
- Be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of the protest you are attending, what they are asking of you, counterprotestors, and police presence.
Protest safety guides:
EFF Pocket Guide for Protecting your Data During a Protest
Crip the Gig's "The Revolution will Be from Bed: a Guide to Protesting for Disabled Activists"
Digital Safety Guide/Comic by Comics are for Kids
Protection Magic for Protestors
Breve are Italian-American charm bags, meaning "short". I have been making breve for others and for a variety of reasons for at least a few years now - and while breve are often made for healing and protection from mal'occhio, I have consistently made bags such as these for a variety of situations and healing ailments.
Breve are just the Italian-American word for these bags, which exist in every culture across the world. I encourage you to work with allies you know and are comfortable with for protection, visibility/invisibility, and justice.
When my friends and I attended a protest earlier this year, I created three charm bags (breve in the Italian-American tradition) with the goal of protection, flying under the radar, and awareness of our surroundings. These can be made with red or black fabric and sewn shut, then given to friends and family protesting to amplify their protection. You can also embroider the bag with the sigil for protection of protestors or one that feels it resonates with you for extra potency.
In the black or red fabric, add:
- Vervain, conjured for justice
- Garlic peel and bulb with a prayer to St Michael the Archangel
- Fennel seeds conjured for clarity and invisibility
- An apotropaic stone of your choice (hagstone, obsidian, coral, black tourmaline), conjured for protection
- Dirt from the location you are protesting at, sourced beforehand.
- Salt
- Blessed palm, prayer over with one Hail Mary for one piece of blessed palm.
Other items that can be added include:
- Rosemary for cooling, clarity, and sight
- Eyebright to see the truth in a situation/bring awareness
- St John's wort for protection, visibility of the collective action being taken
One of the most important aspects of creating protective magic is to talk to the spirit of each of these herbs. Ask St John's Wort for help with not just protection, but visibility of the collective as they protest. Ask fennel to bring clarity and awareness to your vision, but also for invisibility of those most vulnerable.
Tailor your charm bag to the need of the individual you are making it for - a protestor who is Black may need more invisibility/protective herbs than a protestor who is white-bodied. A protestor who has a family at home depending on their return may need more tools to ensure their safe travel - however it is up to you, the folk practitioner, to decide what goes in this bag.
Another ally that often goes unattended for works of quick-footedness, resilience, and being aware of our surroundings is Fox. Her call woke me up early this morning, and I knew she wanted to be included in this. Other animal allies that can assist with being unseen or seen are the Snake. Both of these animal spirits and creatures move at liminal spaces of the day, are only visible when they wish to be, and are associated with various things. Trickery, slyness, resourcefulness, quick-footedness, and more.
These bags can be made for an individual, or create to protect the protest and buried on site the night or day before.
Protection of Identity and Head
Other than covering up noticeable tattoos, turning off our phones, and wearing a mask - how do we protect our identities, heads, and ensure that we and our loved ones stay safe during protesting or other direct action?
Veiling, or covering of the head, is not just about devotion - it is about protecting a part of our bodies that is sensitive, covering our hair, which can be a distinguishing mark, protecting our peace, and also invisibility.
Some of my favorite methods for veiling/head protection include:
- Rosemary. A rosemary hair rinse, spray, or smoke cleanse focusing on the head and hair will help keep your head protected, clear, and tended to.
- Stinging Nettle. A fantastic ally for more banefully protective works, stinging nettle ensures that gentleness is necessary - she teaches us that if someone can not approach us through kindness, they will be stung. She can be put in a small satchel and placed on your person, under your hat, specifically asked for help with warding you and those around you.
- Charm bundles. These can be made at home with a pin, protective charms and saint medals, then pinned under your hat, clothes, or veil to ensure safety.
- Olive oil or leaf. This oil can be placed on the back of the neck, the top of the head, or the leaf used in a smoke cleanse of the head. It promotes peace, protection, and clarity.
Protection of the head can be offered to anyone in your life that is protesting that you wish to protect in the form of a rinse, smoke cleanse, or even a gifted bag of the dried material.
When we talk of protests, we have to talk about visibility versus invisibility. We want the actions, the harm that is done to protestors, and the collective to be viewed - but we don't want an individual that could be detained, disappeared without due process, or face extreme violence from police force to be more visible than others. In the current system, those individuals are already more heavily targeted by violence and injustice - so a little bit of work to ensure they blend in, remain more invisible, and stay more protected from harms they already are engaged with may be necessary.
Santa Lucia is a fantastic Saint to work with for this - to ask for visibility of collective action, eyes on the presence and those who harm the protestors, but also for invisibility and protection from eyes of those who need to fly more under the radar.
A simple invisibility working is taking a bit of fennel leaf, root, or seeds, and pray to it as an extension of Her. Place these in a bag, smoke cleanse the person with them, or carry them with you as you go to direct actions.
For visibility, you can use the same seeds petitioned in a different way - for those who harm others or protestors to be seen in their true light, for the action you are taking part in to be highlighted and seen by many, and for the protest and the reason for the protest to be heard and seen by many.
Another aspect of identity protection is the covering of the face - N95 or higher masks are not just for hiding or obscuring the face, but protection from COVID-19. If your mask is cloth, you can smoke cleanse it or spray it with a protective/veiling spray before protesting. If your mask is a standard N95, write a sigil or utilize the following, then place it inside your mask or the mask of the individual.
Don't take pictures of fellow protestors' faces unless they give permission, and if an uncovered face is present in a photo, do not post it online.
Sigil for Protection of those Protesting
Protective magic is not just something we do for folks - it is how we live. Folk magic and witchcraft are practices we embody. We live by our ethics. We live by our morals.
I was taught that protection is communal. We can not be protected as an individual if our neighbor, our teachers, our families, our friends, our partners are not protected. To be an Italian-American, to be a folk practitioner, is to be part of an ecosystem, one small part of a bigger whole - while this is often said about families, it is true for our communities. It is true for how we interact with spirits. It is true for how we show up on the day to day. We are all intertwined, inevitably, and what the government and the oppressive class does to others, they can do to you. Always trust what is shown to you when they show it.
Some, but not all, of the ways we can show up in communal support and protection if we are unable to protest include:
- Participating in or donating to a mutual aid fund local to us, like Mutual Aid Monday.
- Donating to organizations supporting protestors and immigrants, including the Detained Immigrant Bond Fund via Clue Justice and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. For Denver/Colorado, the Colorado Freedom Fund, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and the Colorado Immigrant Justice Fund are a few places to donate.
- Support small, marginalized and local businesses that are Black-owned, immigrant-owned, Indigenous-owned, queer-owned, and disabled-owned. Your support of a small business, wherever that is, goes right back into the community.
- Get out into your community and get to know your neighbors! Your hyper-local and local community is imperative for creating a support network. Get to know your neighbors. Get involved in city council meetings and decisions in your local neighborhood regarding parks, developments, and other decisions that affect you and your neighbors.
- Volunteer at a community garden, invest in a plot, or purchase a farm share.
- Re-share information to friends, family, your social media, print zines, red cards, and place into Little Free Libraries or distribute to your community.
- Support events, organizations, and spaces that line up with what you believe in.
- Donate to your local food bank.
- Call your representatives and ask them to remove ICE from your local area.
Resistance is not just one thing. It is refusal to believe that citizenship is determined by legality. It is taking to the streets. It is contributing to mutual aid, donating to your local food bank, giving magic and medicine to your people. It is calling in your ancestors and tending to ancestral magic. Resist in any way you can - by standing firm. By moving quick. By being aware. Do not lose hope.
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