I am a weaver. I put my loom away for a few years when the Wee Dictator was born, but started getting back into it again. I have also been wanting to spend more time on spiritual work and maybe sharpen my magick skills. When I read Cat Heath’s book, I realized I can do all of the above.
Fiber magick is practical. We all need some form of textiles. It is also sneaky. Not many people would be able to identify what a particular pattern, number of knots, or colors mean. A lucky scarf won’t raise any eyebrows. It is a practice I am eager to explore.
There is also the spiritual connection to making textiles. In general, making fiber into usable cloth is a very labor intensive and skilled process. There is a reason textile production was literally the first thing that was industrialized in the industrial revolution. Back when each step—from spinning each yarn to finishing the cloth—was done by hand, textiles were considered valuable. To rob comes from the word for robe. There are many gods connected to spinning and weaving. Without cloth, there are no clothes, and people die. The act of weaving itself can certainly be a devotion to a god associated with weaving. If I am making something from my own hands to dedicate to a god that has no association with weaving, that too is an association.
Realizing all of that gave me a release. I am not neglecting my spirituality by indulging my hobby. With the right mindset I am working on both. But that has me thinking—why do we separate mundane crafts like weaving from magickal work? Why is the act of creation not considered spiritual unless it is specifically for a ritual?
If turning either a plant or the fur of an animal into a scarf to keep one warm in winter is not magickal, I don’t know what is.
Within Western Society Christianity has dominated what we even consider to be religion. Church is a place you go. Religious practice is done at church, in a place designated for worship.
Neo-pagans, out of necessity, do not have this divide. Very few temples exist nowadays, and most pagans practice do to day worship at their home altar. Which is actually closer to ancient polytheism than the Christian model. Temples were usually available to the elite, or for specific functions. Most worship was done by families in their home.
So why do I have this belief that worship is only done at my altar and not at my loom? That magick is done by burning candles and incense and drawing sigils and not by creating an item that is practical? A part of being in this modern society, and a belief I have to defeat.
I can’t help but think back to Women’s Studies classes I took in college, and the discussion of private (feminine) space vs public (masculine) space. Separate spheres ideology is very prevalent today—I see it quite often in right leaning groups given a different name. The home space has been labelled feminine, and undervalued. The last few decades have seen great change in women accessing the public (male) space, but there has not been nearly as much valuing and opening to men the private (feminine) space.
Which is odd if you stop and think of it. The home is where our basic needs as human beings are met. We place far less value on being clothed and fed than in being entertained. It is there, it will always function—we don’t need to think of it. Private after all also means hidden. Problems that are hidden are ones we don’t have to try to solve.
I suspect in the hands of a skilled witch a spell made with fiber crafts is no less potent than a spell made with herbs and chants. Before modern times things had value because they were expensive. It took either work or wealth to acquire them. Now that things are cheap they have no value. If things have no value, there is no reason to invest the time needed to develop the skills to make them.
Using the hands is good for the brain. Learning to make things gives them value, and connects us to the days when everything was made by hand. While without a doubt there are advantages to industrialization, that doesn’t mean accepting everything being made by machine. If I am taking the time to develop skills to weave, then I can also use those skills to create for my gods and connect to them.