Book-It '21! Book #23: "Initiated: Memoir of a Witch" by Amanda Yates Garcia
The all new 50 Books Challenge!
Title: Initiated: Memoir of a Witch by Amanda Yates Garcia
Details: Copyright 2019, Hatchette Book Group Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): ""Early on in her beautifully written memoir, Amanda Yates Garcia says of her sister, 'I decided to love her forever.' That is precisely how I felt about this gorgeous memoir that refuses to be labeled or to fit inside any kind of box. Part history, part mythology, part poetry, part prose: but mostly: magic. Which is to say: this is a book about love."
--Jennifer Pastiloff, author of On Being Human
An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through. Some traditions dictate that a witch be imitated through a formal ceremony complete with rose wands, red candles, and sacred chants. But even though Amanda Yates Garcia's mother initiated her into the goddess-worshipping practice of witchcraft when she was thirteen years old, Amanda's true life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own.
Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work, and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her natural power, and finally reclaim her witchcraft to create the magical world she envisioned. Hailed by crows, seduced by malicious spirits, and haunted by ancestors broken beneath the wheels of patriarchy, Amanda adventured across the globe. On the way, she survived abuse, resisted societal expectations, and struggled to create intimacy-- all while grappling with the question: it is possible to live a life of beauty and integrity in a world that feels like it's dying? Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely at the intersection of witchcraft and feminism. Amanda shows that practicing magic is about more than spells and potions: magic is nothing less than claiming power for oneself and taking back our planet in the name of Love. Initiated is both memoir and manifesto, calling the magical people of the world to take up their wands, be brave, and create the enchanted world they long to live in.
"A journey through wild beauty and deep wounds, Initiated is the book we need right now-- it is an embrace, an awakening, a forging by flame, and an enchanted rallying cry."
--- Jade Chang, author of The Wangs vs. the World"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I recently rediscovered one of my favorite authors as a kid, Francesca Lia Block, and in reading up on her current activities, she mentioned a Witch called the Oracle of Los Angeles and reading about her, she seemed interesting.
I was burned recently since I discovered one of my favorite Witch authors as a teenage Witch, Z. Budapest, is a TERF (for those unaware and who haven't seen the implosion of once-beloved children's author JK Rowling, TERFs, or trans exclusionary radical "feminists" or "fauxminists", are transphobes that cloak their transphobia with feminist cant; I don't have to tell you that seeing women as walking vaginas is not actually very feminist). Although there was nothing overt in the books by that author (Budapest) I read and owned, there were a few off phrases I'd chalked up to just clumsiness/datedness and apparently, yes, they were meant to absolutely convey Budapest's bigotry and exclusion. After finding out her bigotry, though, I got rid of the books and have vowed to be much more careful.
So once I made sure this person wasn't a TERF or a SWERF (that'd be a sex-worker exclusionary radical "feminist" and they are frequently also TERFs and vice versa), I was willing to read her work.
I had heard of a lot of Witches taking action in the wake of the previous Presidential administration, but I admit I tended to avoid stories about them and Witches in non-Pagan/occult spaces in general. As someone who has fought against various stereotypes and nonsense about Witches and Pagans, it's usually painful/frustrating to me to watch most public appearances by them, since if the
subject manages to conduct themselves well and isn't dressed ridiculously (yes! We should be able to dress ridiculously! But generally when people see a segment with someone calling themselves a Witch and dressed unconventionally, they're going to think "That's what a Witch is" rather than "That's how that person dresses."), they are being treated as a punchline and edited accordingly. So while I heard about it, I avoided the author's viral appearance on a certain show on a certain network, and was a bit leery about all of this.
How I Liked It:
QUICK CONTENT NOTE!
For the sake of clarity, I personally give a capital W (Witchcraft and Witches) to those that practice the spiritual/religious practice as "Buddhist", "Christian", "Jew", "Taoist", and the like all have capital letters. I give a lowercase W (witchcraft and witches) to storybook/fairytale/fantasy types of magic-makers called witches, for the purposes of differentiation. This author does not, and refers exclusively to the lower-case W. Save for when I directly quote from the book, I'll be using my form of capitalization. I also capitalize Gods, Goddess, Pagan, Paganism, and Ritual, among a few others.
Can a book change your life? According to author Francesca Lia Block who blurbs the front cover of this book, yes it can. But I could've told you that a book can change your life. It doesn't have to be a "self-help" book or anything instructional at all, really. A fictional book that changes your way of thinking, portrays a character that has a marginalization that you realize you have, a way of coping, a new outlook on the world, and yes, memoirs.
The author begins as she is preparing to do Ritual as an adult. She reflects on her life and how far she's come, as well as gives some of her history with Witchcraft and her philosophy. From there, we swing straight into linear chapters, with the first chapter starting with her difficult birth. She faces a series of challenges as her parents ultimately divorce and form new families and the author not only struggles to belong, she struggles against various traumas and just about every form of child abuse. Her childhood is not without magic of various forms, though, be it the practice she and her mother share, or the games she imagines and enjoys with her new step sister.
She lives on her own early, still a teenager (as her own mother moved out on her own, when she was still a young teenager), and trouble finds her in a series of toxic to sometimes downright abusive relationships. She struggles and misfires and both turns to and turns from Witchcraft. She finds herself struggling for money and at the advice of a friend, she tries private strip shows, a harrowing experience. She supplements her income and honestly and frankly details sex work.
Throughout relationships, throughout continued education, throughout countries and continents, she struggles to find herself, always going down the wrong path (or several) it seems, but Witchcraft still being there for her, despite her less frequent practice. She blends both real Witchcraft and occultism (sensing ghosts in various living locations) with a kind of lyrical magical realism (a girlfriend that resembles a trickster faerie, an abusive boyfriend that's a vampire demon). She finds her way to a kinship with her mother as an adult, but still stumbles. But they both truly commit to Witchcraft again, and the book ends with the author self-actualized and on her way.
I won't beat around the bush. I adored this book. I didn't even have to be done with it before I loved it and felt I needed my own copy to own. I went in incredibly guarded and suspicious and ready to cringe and was instead enchanted and more excited and proud to be a Witch than I have been in years. I freely admit haven't read a modern book (as in, written in the past five or even ten years) about Witchcraft in years (meaning I usually read books printed many years or even decades prior to the date I'm reading them) but it's not just that. The last then-current Witch book I read didn't particularly impress me one way or another. But I've kept up with communities online, more or less, and while enjoyable, they still didn't shake me like this did.
The author doesn't offer easy answers. She doesn't suggest that Witchcraft is right for you. But she makes a convincing case for following your passion, whatever it might be.
Her philosophies on Witchcraft and magic alone are a revelation.
Like most women and femmes, witches are familiar with the demons of patriarchy. They follow us everywhere. Even out in the desert wilderness, we can't be alone in our rites. The shadow of violence falls unbidden, and for many of us, just the threat of it, the lifetimes of warnings to be careful, the accumulation of micro and macro assaults, are enough to keep us home, "safe" under the protective aegis of the patriarchal father gods. (pg 2)
The call to witchcraft often begins with trauma or illness. To navigate the underworld, you need to go there many times. (pg 21)
Creating a boundary is one of the most common practices in witchcraft. Spells always begins by casting a circle. The circle is a space where only love can enter, a place between the worlds where the practicing witch, a historic target of assault, is protected and safe. (pg 35)
The Threefold Law of witchcraft is less a description of a universal truth and more a statement of intention: as commitment to living AS IF your action will come back to you. (pg 36)
Our magical practice encourages us to move toward liberation. It helps us create space and empower ourselves. The daily practices of witchcraft-- grounding, centering, shielding, incantations, ritual offerings to enlist the help of our spirit allies-- all remind us that we have agency. These practices can help establish healthy boundaries and remind us that we are not at the mercy of outside forces. (pgs 107 and 108)
Though magic does often brings us the things we desire, satisfying our cravings is not magic's primary purpose. Magic connects people to their roots, to their spiritual ancestors and allies, to the hundreds of thousands of beings who have gone before them experiencing similar struggles. A creative act, magic brings richness to your life. (pgs 171 and 172)
When we're unstable or traumatized, we might not see the opportunities that magic presents us with; our expectations and patterns can blind us. (pg 176)
Magic is a duet between you and the Universe. A romance. Signs are the way the Universe speaks to you; they're sweet whispers, not orders. (pgs 181 and 182)
It always amazes me how people don't see the power they have and in fact feel that they are victims of the world. Truly, that amazement extends to myself as well. I didn't see the power I had at that age: I thought I was at the mercy of silly men like [pompous, red flag of a strip club client], and so I should scramble for whatever scraps I could get. But a witch needs to recognize her own power. If she doesn't, she can never escape the underworld. (pg 193)
Magic happens in a field, a system of energy. We can't go outside that system to do our work. Magical practices always reflect the social values, anxieties, and hidden beliefs of the culture in which they are produced. If we want to be able to focus our magic on more beautiful things, like communing with Spirit or celebrating the earth, or liberating all souls from servitude, we need to focus on changing the large systems that manipulate and exploit us. To do that requires a group effort. The spell of one witch alone, or even a hundred witches, is not enough. We need thousands of witches, in every city, in every nation, to participate. The struggles we experience don't happen just because we as individuals are failing. The fact that we are so often convinced our misery is our own fault, and not the direct consequence of deliberate political and social oppression, is one of the greatest examples of mind control magic the world has ever seen. (pgs 202 and 203)
I think the spell of even just one Witch can have an immense impact (not that the author is arguing it can't), but I agree group action and community are great ideas.
In general, witches don't believe in the devil. As pure evil, the devil is a Christian invention; pagan gods have more nuance. Deities that are difficult in the pagan world are not necessarily evil, they just have agendas that work in opposition to our own, or sometimes, on rare occasion, in antagonism to the life force itself. (pgs 218 and 219)
On the night of my first ceremony [that I publicly led], I realized that nothing could give me the satisfaction of witchcraft. No lover, no job, no money or career success. Witchcraft was love; it was engagement with life. Witchcraft marked the X of the spot where I realized I wasn't at the mercy of the world, but that I could create the world I wanted, together with my friends. This power was something unassailable and true, something that could never be taken away nor doubted. I knew this was a place I could always return to, my root, my fourth house, my terroir. (pg 272)
When it comes to magic, for me it's less a question of belief and more a question of value. Magic is a practice, not a belief system. Rather than asking, "Do I believe in this?" I ask myself, "Do I get something out of this? Is it meaningful to me? Is it helpful?" When it comes to magic and witchcraft, most always, my answer is: "YES." (pg 280)
To be a witch is to live inside your own personal myth... even if you know you're creating it yourself. (pg 220)
If one worried, as I did, that although she is not a TERF, her language might not be inclusive, the author certainly does her best, and it's great to see.
Furthermore, witchcraft isn't just for women. It's for men, and trans folx, and fairy creatures and animal spirits and anything in between. you don't need to menstruate or have a uterus to be a witch. You can find your power in being whoever you are. However, throughout this book, I refer to witches as "she," because that's my pronoun, and also because this book is a love letter to the femmes of the world. If you're not a femme, this book is still for you. Any lover of the Goddess is welcome here, and even those who are just "questioning." (pgs 4 and 5)
For those unaware, "folx" is a spelling of folks that indicates inclusion of nonbinary and trans people. While there are some within the community (and within the community are the only ones whose opinions matter, by the way) who question misspelling a word when there are other, arguably better ways to show inclusion (the singular they, not assuming someone's pronouns based on appearance, et cetera), the sentiment is still there and given that it's supported by the author's other inclusive language, it's not just performative.
I would maybe have phrased this as "Witchcraft isn't just for women. It's for people of all genders. It's for men, and nonbinary and trans people, all folx, fairy creatures and animal spirits and anything in between."
Witchcraft has always existed. The term comes from the Old English word wicce, pronounced "witch": a wise woman. She practices oracular arts and sings incantations, she knows the secrets of herb craft and can talk to spirits. The word wit and witch share the same root: "to know, to understand, to be a person of intelligence." Etymologically, the word witch refers to a kind of Northern European shamanness. That's the root of the word, although witchcraft is practiced throughout the world, by folks of all genders. You don't have to have Northern European ancestry to identify as a witch. In Spanish witchcraft is called brujeria; in African American folk magic, it's called conjure. In Italian, a witch is a strega. In Mandarin Chinese, a witch is a wupo. Witches exist throughout space and time. Witchcraft brings together the magical people throughout the world for the shared goals of justice, liberation, and celebration of the life force of the earth. (pg 12)
Some kind of rupture happened in my uterus, the part of my body that by cultural decree assigns me as female. (pg 65)
Standing in her ruins, I ask the Oracle to show me how to bring her wisdom back into the world, to call the snakes back into the garden, to resurrect the Goddess of the earth. To receive my words, I heard her say, open up your womb. You hear the voice of the goddess in your body, not your mind. Let your womb expand and be receptive. Spirit enters through the womb, as it did even for the Virgin Mary, as it does for all humans. Focus on listening. Spirit speaks through conception. Conceive in your body, then bring forth the world.
I didn't understand her to mean I needed to have a child, or even that I needed an actual womb. Women without wombs, transgender and nonbinary folks, and even men can still hear the Oracle speaking. She meant that through tuning in to our bodies, to our organs of regeneration, we connect to the life force, and that by tapping into that energy, we can know the nature of reality, far beyond what we can experience through our limited ego mind. (pgs 306 and 307)
One misstep though that I hesitate to add, but in the spirit of fairness feel I should address:
In most versions of the tarot, the Devil is depicted as the deity Baphomet, a winged hermaphrodite with the breasts of a woman, the muscles of a man, the head of a goat, and the Latin words solve and coagula written on his forearms. (pg 219)
I totally appreciate that she's talking about mythology and the word "hermaphrodite" literally comes from mythology (Hermes and Aphrodite). But it's an outdated and offensive word people still incorrectly use for intersex people. Also, it's not really necessary here. Easily, the sentence could've read "the Devil is depicted as the deity Baphomet, with bird's wings and the breasts of a woman, the muscles of a man, the head of a goat, and the Latin words solve and coagula written on his forearms."
Like I said, I felt I had to call it out, but the author otherwise clearly is inclusive and heartfelt about that inclusivity.
Similarly, concerns as to how sex work (and sex workers) are treated is a relief: the topic of sex work is treated thoughtfully and with nuance. This is literally someone with a background in sex work, and some of it was traumatic. But it's complicated and the author conveys that:
That was something I heard often throughout my experience in the sex industry. I was a better healer than sex worker. Probably because I liked healing people, but resented interacting sexually with people I didn't know or like, who saw me was some kind of faulty yet still magical fetish object they hoped to use to soothe their fears about their masculinity. (pg 85)
Holding suffering and looking appealing while you're doing it is the main function of the sex worker, it turns out. (pg 88)
Sex workers are witches, powerful, yet frequently traumatized. Wild and unhinged, ankles circled with parole devices, they wake up in the beds of strangers, still wearing their stick-on rhinestone jewelery. The magic of the wounded is chaotic and thirsty, flung out in every direction. magic like that often turns on the sender. (pgs 190 and 191)
She finds herself working at a famous, "high class" strip club in London, full of celebrity patrons and regulars. One celebrity decided to play tourist rather disrespectfully and it didn't turn out well:
Even famous women would come in: Kate Moss wanted the dancers to teach her how to "work the pole," until my friend Cassandra, a feisty Scot, threw a drew in her face in the women's bathroom. (pg 191)
Further, women [according to the prosecutors and leaders of the Witch craze] should have no access to money. Anyone with access to money has access to political power. Because prostitutes had access to money, which wives who had sex for pleasure or obligation did not, prostitutes also became vilified as witches. (pg 201)
She's quoting historian Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch here (which we'll get into more later), about deconstructing the Witch persecutions of Early-modern Europe.
Speaking of deconstructing, the author also posits Witchcraft as fundamentally against colonialism and capitalism:
But a call to witchcraft initiates us down a different path. When you are awakened to the culture of the witch, you are being called to a culture of interdependence and co-creation. There, your value is not contingent on your worth as a sexual amusement, reproducer of the workforce, or your ability to generate capital, but on what you can contribute to the process of re-enchanting the world. Our call to witchcraft presents us with the things we need to heal, rise up, and seize our power. (pgs 65 and 66)
Christianity is full of magical practices, and the language of economics is permeated by spirits and invisible hands. Magic is everywhere; it's just that the central power figures of a culture get to determine whose magic is considered "real" and whose is just considered embarrassing. (pgs 118 and 119)
In Caliban and the Witch, feminist historian Silvia Federici argues that the persecution of witches was based less on a religious or moral hysteria over pagan magical practices, and more upon the rise of capitalism. The rising capitalist class needed to control the workforce. The capitalist need for a steady supply of labor power meant that women who controlled their reproductive capacity through herbs and midwives (many of whom were witches) needed to be brought into submission. Further, capitalism required a division of labor into two camps: workers and reproducers of the workforce (i.e., the women who birthed and cared for babies and tended to the sick and elderly). The former being paid labor, the second being devalued almost entirely. In other words, the work of women lost its value, women's subordination to men had become an economic requirement, and the witch hunts were used strategically to make women accept their new role. (pgs 200 and 201)
Our magic today is not immune from similar requests, and like John Dee, our practices reflect the time and place we're living in. Today our magic is uneasily multicultural, anxious (rightly) over cultural appropriation, often delivered in bite-sized platitudes for expression on social media. (pg 199)
Magical practices were always part of colonized peoples' tactics of resistance. In the "New World," for example, the syncretic folk magic practice of Hoo Doo was one resistance tactic of enslaved Afro-Caribbeans who were prevented from fathering their own resources and wealth by rule of law. (pg 202)
My initiations have taught me that there is not escape and nowhere to run. There is not outside capitalism anymore. Capitalism has contracted all of our tribes. There is no persistent, everlasting fairy world where a witch can escape and be safe forevermore. But as witches, escaping isn't our mission. Once we realize we are witches, we use our magic, not to escape into an enchanted world outside the gates of ordinary reality but to bring forth the magic from within ourselves and pour it into the world around us. Little by little, the witch expands her magic circle to everything she touches, until she can push her circle up against the circle of another enchanted creature, join forces, and find more. This work is not easy. It's confusing, imperfect, and difficult. We are under constant pressure to sacrifice our integrity and are often forced to chose between a multitude of evils. There's no bible to tell us what to do, no grand authority to make our choices for us. But wherever we are, we begin. As witches, our work is to recognize the resources we have, cultivate the tools we need, and midwife our magic back into the world. (pgs 286 and 287)
We reject capitalism because it is abusive. Because it's a system that argues: as long as the oligarchy is profiting, no atrocity is too grave, no violation too gross. Slavery, genocide, atomic war, swamps drained, forests burned, animals brought to extinction. Nothing is out of bounds and there are plenty of reasons why it has to be this way... free market, forked tongue. To be fair, it isn't just capitalism. Before capitalism, before empire, there was still bloodlust, born at the moment of the first rape. An egregore that became stronger the first time a human roped a bull and commanded it to till the soil against its will. Every time a child's food was stolen to stuff the belly of a king, the power of the egregore grew. But my purpose was no longer just to point out what was wrong and then hide in the wilderness hoping the demon wouldn't come for me. Capitalism is the system we have now, and so this is where I make my stand. (pg 289)
Of course, if you invade a territory, take over its temples, and impose a new god, the conquered people won't just suddenly stop fighting and do as you tell them. In order for your new ideology to succeed, you have to either vilify the old gods (Snake Goddess becomes Satan, evildoer responsible for the downfall of humankind), or you allow people to follow their old traditions but tell them your new god is speaking through their old god's mouth (Apollo speaks through the mouth of Pythia). (pg 310)
Before we left for Crete, Carol had directed us to bring a stone from home that represented something we wanted to banish. I brought back a black obsidian knife that I had collected at a geological shop while visiting my father in the north, a replica of a Native American tool. But Native American culture is not what I wanted to banish. I wanted to banish the bloodlust in my own culture that had enacted genocide on the Native Americans and then sold their culture at a gift shop. (pg 326)
She literally does a Ritual in the book to contain capitalism and it's honestly incredibly satisfying to read.
More than any one political concept or belief, however (and arguably the formation of the author's political beliefs), running throughout the entire memoir is the author's belief in magic and the power of Witchcraft. Early on in school, she's diagnosed with dyslexia and reading is a problem until she enters middle school and is reevaluated in sixth grade. A better evaluation finds her high IQ and she's put with the "gifted and talented" students. Overnight, she went from reading at a third grade level to a college level ("Of all things that have happened to me in my life, my learning to read is the thing that most convinces me of the efficacy of magic." pg 49). She reshapes her thoughts of herself (and of the dyslexic in general) poetically:
The dyslexic has the mind of an ancient astrologer. She sees stars spread out across the universe and assembles them into a lion, a ram, a water bearer. Her thoughts come together in a chorus, singing in a diversity of voices. A rose nebula bursts and she knows, Now is when the king will fall. Or, Your fortunes will change come October. In the primordial world, I imagine the non-neurotypical as the ones who found new paths, invented new uses, could conceive of a world outside of ordinary convention. (pg 48)
This type of thinking and reevaluation forms the book and it's not only thought-provoking, it's frequently utterly gorgeous prose.
In books that too frequently claim to be life-affirming, coming-of-age, inspiring, or even "about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters", Initiated is genuinely all of those things and more, and on top of that, it's a compelling, interesting read, something else that you don't tend to find in these sorts of memoirs.
I don't know if this book will change your life. But I do know it's a masterpiece on many levels and also seemingly effortlessly achieves, again, on multiple levels, what many, many books try and fail to do. It's a book about following your passion that's written in an appealing and highly engaging style. A book that entertains like this while it makes you think might not ultimately change your life, but it's definitely worth the read.
Notable:
And so to get back at [his parents], [her Hungarian-American stepfather] left them in rural Pennsylvania with the fireflies and their wooden house that smelled of potato-stuffed pierogies [.] (pgs 41 and 42)
If you know, you know.
...Okay, so while Americans have become accustomed to calling those wonderful little dumplings "pierogies", the correct term is actually "pierogi," kind of like how you wouldn't say "pastas", you just say pasta. Now you know!
CREDIT TO THE MATRON SECULAR SAINT OF THIS BOOK BLOG CLAUDINE FOR THIS KNOWLEDGE! GO FORTH AND SPREAD THE GOOD WORD!
___________________________________________________________________________
Wiccan priestess and journalist Margot Adler said, "The witch is woman as martyr; she is persecuted by the ignorant; she is the woman who lives outside of society and outside of society's definitions of woman." (pg 57)
To be fair, it was Margot Adler's best known work Drawing Down the Moon (the groundbreaking 1979 book about modern Witches and Pagans) and its subsequent updates that propelled me to give Witch and Pagan capital letters. However, she could have been talking about the mythological figure of the witch, and also take into account the author of this book would've had to explain her capitalization (and decapitalization) choices.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Growing up in the '90s, obsession seemed like a romantic idea. Kate Moss and anonymous boy model careening through a white corridor, in a hungry pursuit only a malnourished waif could understand. (pg 228)
I absolutely get the image and the idea (and the fact the author is explaining her personal background with it), but my own obsession with history and deconstructing cultural trends prompts me to note that obsession as romance is not an especially 1990s concept.
In the decade previous, music videos depicted romantic obsession (and songs about obsession kept topping the charts) and it was even the name of a popular, still produced cologne.
In the decade succeeding the 1990s, a popular franchise was built around romantic obsession and with the popularizing and mainstreaming of social media (and the first decade that saw Internet-as-way-of-life-not-hobby for the masses) romantic obsession is kind of always a way of life and a popular concept, even if the reality, as the author notes in her own life, is far from the fantasy.
___________________________________________________________________________
To make her morning commute bearable, she'd wait out the traffic at her computer, glued to the Democratic Underground, an alt-left website with which she was on an intimate acronym basis: DU. (pg 247)
I admit I scratched my head at the author's use of that term. For one, "alt-left" is a blatant false equivalency in most (if not all) uses.
Secondly, the author is describing her mother's toxic habit of doomscrolling (although she doesn't call it that) in an online community that is based in the Democratic Party, which is not actually so much left as it is liberal, and occasionally not even that.
I'm choosing to believe she's making a comment about her mother's political "action", which mainly involved a not-terribly productive and certainly not good for her mental health activity of the doomscrolling. She goes on to describe her mother doing more healthier activities and being more active in general.
__________________________________________________________________________
Francesca Lia Block, thank you for the inspiration, the wisdom, and cracking open the door for us literary witches. (pg 339)
(From the acknowledgments.) This is a delight (although not a surprise, given the front-cover blurb) to see, and frankly the book does read in places like a Block novel, which is always welcome to me.
____________________________________________________________________________
Thank you, Gabriel Garcia; our chapter together here had to be cut, but it would have needed volumes anyway; thank you for all your encouragement and support. (pg 340)
Also from the acknowledgements! Yes, I always read acknowledgements. This is a fascinating omission and I hope she tells that story someday, in a future book.
Final Grade: A
DON'T FORGET I'M ON BLOGSPOT NOW!
Title: Initiated: Memoir of a Witch by Amanda Yates Garcia
Details: Copyright 2019, Hatchette Book Group Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): ""Early on in her beautifully written memoir, Amanda Yates Garcia says of her sister, 'I decided to love her forever.' That is precisely how I felt about this gorgeous memoir that refuses to be labeled or to fit inside any kind of box. Part history, part mythology, part poetry, part prose: but mostly: magic. Which is to say: this is a book about love."
--Jennifer Pastiloff, author of On Being Human
An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through. Some traditions dictate that a witch be imitated through a formal ceremony complete with rose wands, red candles, and sacred chants. But even though Amanda Yates Garcia's mother initiated her into the goddess-worshipping practice of witchcraft when she was thirteen years old, Amanda's true life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own.
Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work, and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her natural power, and finally reclaim her witchcraft to create the magical world she envisioned. Hailed by crows, seduced by malicious spirits, and haunted by ancestors broken beneath the wheels of patriarchy, Amanda adventured across the globe. On the way, she survived abuse, resisted societal expectations, and struggled to create intimacy-- all while grappling with the question: it is possible to live a life of beauty and integrity in a world that feels like it's dying? Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely at the intersection of witchcraft and feminism. Amanda shows that practicing magic is about more than spells and potions: magic is nothing less than claiming power for oneself and taking back our planet in the name of Love. Initiated is both memoir and manifesto, calling the magical people of the world to take up their wands, be brave, and create the enchanted world they long to live in.
"A journey through wild beauty and deep wounds, Initiated is the book we need right now-- it is an embrace, an awakening, a forging by flame, and an enchanted rallying cry."
--- Jade Chang, author of The Wangs vs. the World"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I recently rediscovered one of my favorite authors as a kid, Francesca Lia Block, and in reading up on her current activities, she mentioned a Witch called the Oracle of Los Angeles and reading about her, she seemed interesting.
I was burned recently since I discovered one of my favorite Witch authors as a teenage Witch, Z. Budapest, is a TERF (for those unaware and who haven't seen the implosion of once-beloved children's author JK Rowling, TERFs, or trans exclusionary radical "feminists" or "fauxminists", are transphobes that cloak their transphobia with feminist cant; I don't have to tell you that seeing women as walking vaginas is not actually very feminist). Although there was nothing overt in the books by that author (Budapest) I read and owned, there were a few off phrases I'd chalked up to just clumsiness/datedness and apparently, yes, they were meant to absolutely convey Budapest's bigotry and exclusion. After finding out her bigotry, though, I got rid of the books and have vowed to be much more careful.
So once I made sure this person wasn't a TERF or a SWERF (that'd be a sex-worker exclusionary radical "feminist" and they are frequently also TERFs and vice versa), I was willing to read her work.
I had heard of a lot of Witches taking action in the wake of the previous Presidential administration, but I admit I tended to avoid stories about them and Witches in non-Pagan/occult spaces in general. As someone who has fought against various stereotypes and nonsense about Witches and Pagans, it's usually painful/frustrating to me to watch most public appearances by them, since if the
subject manages to conduct themselves well and isn't dressed ridiculously (yes! We should be able to dress ridiculously! But generally when people see a segment with someone calling themselves a Witch and dressed unconventionally, they're going to think "That's what a Witch is" rather than "That's how that person dresses."), they are being treated as a punchline and edited accordingly. So while I heard about it, I avoided the author's viral appearance on a certain show on a certain network, and was a bit leery about all of this.
How I Liked It:
QUICK CONTENT NOTE!
For the sake of clarity, I personally give a capital W (Witchcraft and Witches) to those that practice the spiritual/religious practice as "Buddhist", "Christian", "Jew", "Taoist", and the like all have capital letters. I give a lowercase W (witchcraft and witches) to storybook/fairytale/fantasy types of magic-makers called witches, for the purposes of differentiation. This author does not, and refers exclusively to the lower-case W. Save for when I directly quote from the book, I'll be using my form of capitalization. I also capitalize Gods, Goddess, Pagan, Paganism, and Ritual, among a few others.
Can a book change your life? According to author Francesca Lia Block who blurbs the front cover of this book, yes it can. But I could've told you that a book can change your life. It doesn't have to be a "self-help" book or anything instructional at all, really. A fictional book that changes your way of thinking, portrays a character that has a marginalization that you realize you have, a way of coping, a new outlook on the world, and yes, memoirs.
The author begins as she is preparing to do Ritual as an adult. She reflects on her life and how far she's come, as well as gives some of her history with Witchcraft and her philosophy. From there, we swing straight into linear chapters, with the first chapter starting with her difficult birth. She faces a series of challenges as her parents ultimately divorce and form new families and the author not only struggles to belong, she struggles against various traumas and just about every form of child abuse. Her childhood is not without magic of various forms, though, be it the practice she and her mother share, or the games she imagines and enjoys with her new step sister.
She lives on her own early, still a teenager (as her own mother moved out on her own, when she was still a young teenager), and trouble finds her in a series of toxic to sometimes downright abusive relationships. She struggles and misfires and both turns to and turns from Witchcraft. She finds herself struggling for money and at the advice of a friend, she tries private strip shows, a harrowing experience. She supplements her income and honestly and frankly details sex work.
Throughout relationships, throughout continued education, throughout countries and continents, she struggles to find herself, always going down the wrong path (or several) it seems, but Witchcraft still being there for her, despite her less frequent practice. She blends both real Witchcraft and occultism (sensing ghosts in various living locations) with a kind of lyrical magical realism (a girlfriend that resembles a trickster faerie, an abusive boyfriend that's a vampire demon). She finds her way to a kinship with her mother as an adult, but still stumbles. But they both truly commit to Witchcraft again, and the book ends with the author self-actualized and on her way.
I won't beat around the bush. I adored this book. I didn't even have to be done with it before I loved it and felt I needed my own copy to own. I went in incredibly guarded and suspicious and ready to cringe and was instead enchanted and more excited and proud to be a Witch than I have been in years. I freely admit haven't read a modern book (as in, written in the past five or even ten years) about Witchcraft in years (meaning I usually read books printed many years or even decades prior to the date I'm reading them) but it's not just that. The last then-current Witch book I read didn't particularly impress me one way or another. But I've kept up with communities online, more or less, and while enjoyable, they still didn't shake me like this did.
The author doesn't offer easy answers. She doesn't suggest that Witchcraft is right for you. But she makes a convincing case for following your passion, whatever it might be.
Her philosophies on Witchcraft and magic alone are a revelation.
Like most women and femmes, witches are familiar with the demons of patriarchy. They follow us everywhere. Even out in the desert wilderness, we can't be alone in our rites. The shadow of violence falls unbidden, and for many of us, just the threat of it, the lifetimes of warnings to be careful, the accumulation of micro and macro assaults, are enough to keep us home, "safe" under the protective aegis of the patriarchal father gods. (pg 2)
The call to witchcraft often begins with trauma or illness. To navigate the underworld, you need to go there many times. (pg 21)
Creating a boundary is one of the most common practices in witchcraft. Spells always begins by casting a circle. The circle is a space where only love can enter, a place between the worlds where the practicing witch, a historic target of assault, is protected and safe. (pg 35)
The Threefold Law of witchcraft is less a description of a universal truth and more a statement of intention: as commitment to living AS IF your action will come back to you. (pg 36)
Our magical practice encourages us to move toward liberation. It helps us create space and empower ourselves. The daily practices of witchcraft-- grounding, centering, shielding, incantations, ritual offerings to enlist the help of our spirit allies-- all remind us that we have agency. These practices can help establish healthy boundaries and remind us that we are not at the mercy of outside forces. (pgs 107 and 108)
Though magic does often brings us the things we desire, satisfying our cravings is not magic's primary purpose. Magic connects people to their roots, to their spiritual ancestors and allies, to the hundreds of thousands of beings who have gone before them experiencing similar struggles. A creative act, magic brings richness to your life. (pgs 171 and 172)
When we're unstable or traumatized, we might not see the opportunities that magic presents us with; our expectations and patterns can blind us. (pg 176)
Magic is a duet between you and the Universe. A romance. Signs are the way the Universe speaks to you; they're sweet whispers, not orders. (pgs 181 and 182)
It always amazes me how people don't see the power they have and in fact feel that they are victims of the world. Truly, that amazement extends to myself as well. I didn't see the power I had at that age: I thought I was at the mercy of silly men like [pompous, red flag of a strip club client], and so I should scramble for whatever scraps I could get. But a witch needs to recognize her own power. If she doesn't, she can never escape the underworld. (pg 193)
Magic happens in a field, a system of energy. We can't go outside that system to do our work. Magical practices always reflect the social values, anxieties, and hidden beliefs of the culture in which they are produced. If we want to be able to focus our magic on more beautiful things, like communing with Spirit or celebrating the earth, or liberating all souls from servitude, we need to focus on changing the large systems that manipulate and exploit us. To do that requires a group effort. The spell of one witch alone, or even a hundred witches, is not enough. We need thousands of witches, in every city, in every nation, to participate. The struggles we experience don't happen just because we as individuals are failing. The fact that we are so often convinced our misery is our own fault, and not the direct consequence of deliberate political and social oppression, is one of the greatest examples of mind control magic the world has ever seen. (pgs 202 and 203)
I think the spell of even just one Witch can have an immense impact (not that the author is arguing it can't), but I agree group action and community are great ideas.
In general, witches don't believe in the devil. As pure evil, the devil is a Christian invention; pagan gods have more nuance. Deities that are difficult in the pagan world are not necessarily evil, they just have agendas that work in opposition to our own, or sometimes, on rare occasion, in antagonism to the life force itself. (pgs 218 and 219)
On the night of my first ceremony [that I publicly led], I realized that nothing could give me the satisfaction of witchcraft. No lover, no job, no money or career success. Witchcraft was love; it was engagement with life. Witchcraft marked the X of the spot where I realized I wasn't at the mercy of the world, but that I could create the world I wanted, together with my friends. This power was something unassailable and true, something that could never be taken away nor doubted. I knew this was a place I could always return to, my root, my fourth house, my terroir. (pg 272)
When it comes to magic, for me it's less a question of belief and more a question of value. Magic is a practice, not a belief system. Rather than asking, "Do I believe in this?" I ask myself, "Do I get something out of this? Is it meaningful to me? Is it helpful?" When it comes to magic and witchcraft, most always, my answer is: "YES." (pg 280)
To be a witch is to live inside your own personal myth... even if you know you're creating it yourself. (pg 220)
If one worried, as I did, that although she is not a TERF, her language might not be inclusive, the author certainly does her best, and it's great to see.
Furthermore, witchcraft isn't just for women. It's for men, and trans folx, and fairy creatures and animal spirits and anything in between. you don't need to menstruate or have a uterus to be a witch. You can find your power in being whoever you are. However, throughout this book, I refer to witches as "she," because that's my pronoun, and also because this book is a love letter to the femmes of the world. If you're not a femme, this book is still for you. Any lover of the Goddess is welcome here, and even those who are just "questioning." (pgs 4 and 5)
For those unaware, "folx" is a spelling of folks that indicates inclusion of nonbinary and trans people. While there are some within the community (and within the community are the only ones whose opinions matter, by the way) who question misspelling a word when there are other, arguably better ways to show inclusion (the singular they, not assuming someone's pronouns based on appearance, et cetera), the sentiment is still there and given that it's supported by the author's other inclusive language, it's not just performative.
I would maybe have phrased this as "Witchcraft isn't just for women. It's for people of all genders. It's for men, and nonbinary and trans people, all folx, fairy creatures and animal spirits and anything in between."
Witchcraft has always existed. The term comes from the Old English word wicce, pronounced "witch": a wise woman. She practices oracular arts and sings incantations, she knows the secrets of herb craft and can talk to spirits. The word wit and witch share the same root: "to know, to understand, to be a person of intelligence." Etymologically, the word witch refers to a kind of Northern European shamanness. That's the root of the word, although witchcraft is practiced throughout the world, by folks of all genders. You don't have to have Northern European ancestry to identify as a witch. In Spanish witchcraft is called brujeria; in African American folk magic, it's called conjure. In Italian, a witch is a strega. In Mandarin Chinese, a witch is a wupo. Witches exist throughout space and time. Witchcraft brings together the magical people throughout the world for the shared goals of justice, liberation, and celebration of the life force of the earth. (pg 12)
Some kind of rupture happened in my uterus, the part of my body that by cultural decree assigns me as female. (pg 65)
Standing in her ruins, I ask the Oracle to show me how to bring her wisdom back into the world, to call the snakes back into the garden, to resurrect the Goddess of the earth. To receive my words, I heard her say, open up your womb. You hear the voice of the goddess in your body, not your mind. Let your womb expand and be receptive. Spirit enters through the womb, as it did even for the Virgin Mary, as it does for all humans. Focus on listening. Spirit speaks through conception. Conceive in your body, then bring forth the world.
I didn't understand her to mean I needed to have a child, or even that I needed an actual womb. Women without wombs, transgender and nonbinary folks, and even men can still hear the Oracle speaking. She meant that through tuning in to our bodies, to our organs of regeneration, we connect to the life force, and that by tapping into that energy, we can know the nature of reality, far beyond what we can experience through our limited ego mind. (pgs 306 and 307)
One misstep though that I hesitate to add, but in the spirit of fairness feel I should address:
In most versions of the tarot, the Devil is depicted as the deity Baphomet, a winged hermaphrodite with the breasts of a woman, the muscles of a man, the head of a goat, and the Latin words solve and coagula written on his forearms. (pg 219)
I totally appreciate that she's talking about mythology and the word "hermaphrodite" literally comes from mythology (Hermes and Aphrodite). But it's an outdated and offensive word people still incorrectly use for intersex people. Also, it's not really necessary here. Easily, the sentence could've read "the Devil is depicted as the deity Baphomet, with bird's wings and the breasts of a woman, the muscles of a man, the head of a goat, and the Latin words solve and coagula written on his forearms."
Like I said, I felt I had to call it out, but the author otherwise clearly is inclusive and heartfelt about that inclusivity.
Similarly, concerns as to how sex work (and sex workers) are treated is a relief: the topic of sex work is treated thoughtfully and with nuance. This is literally someone with a background in sex work, and some of it was traumatic. But it's complicated and the author conveys that:
That was something I heard often throughout my experience in the sex industry. I was a better healer than sex worker. Probably because I liked healing people, but resented interacting sexually with people I didn't know or like, who saw me was some kind of faulty yet still magical fetish object they hoped to use to soothe their fears about their masculinity. (pg 85)
Holding suffering and looking appealing while you're doing it is the main function of the sex worker, it turns out. (pg 88)
Sex workers are witches, powerful, yet frequently traumatized. Wild and unhinged, ankles circled with parole devices, they wake up in the beds of strangers, still wearing their stick-on rhinestone jewelery. The magic of the wounded is chaotic and thirsty, flung out in every direction. magic like that often turns on the sender. (pgs 190 and 191)
She finds herself working at a famous, "high class" strip club in London, full of celebrity patrons and regulars. One celebrity decided to play tourist rather disrespectfully and it didn't turn out well:
Even famous women would come in: Kate Moss wanted the dancers to teach her how to "work the pole," until my friend Cassandra, a feisty Scot, threw a drew in her face in the women's bathroom. (pg 191)
Further, women [according to the prosecutors and leaders of the Witch craze] should have no access to money. Anyone with access to money has access to political power. Because prostitutes had access to money, which wives who had sex for pleasure or obligation did not, prostitutes also became vilified as witches. (pg 201)
She's quoting historian Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch here (which we'll get into more later), about deconstructing the Witch persecutions of Early-modern Europe.
Speaking of deconstructing, the author also posits Witchcraft as fundamentally against colonialism and capitalism:
But a call to witchcraft initiates us down a different path. When you are awakened to the culture of the witch, you are being called to a culture of interdependence and co-creation. There, your value is not contingent on your worth as a sexual amusement, reproducer of the workforce, or your ability to generate capital, but on what you can contribute to the process of re-enchanting the world. Our call to witchcraft presents us with the things we need to heal, rise up, and seize our power. (pgs 65 and 66)
Christianity is full of magical practices, and the language of economics is permeated by spirits and invisible hands. Magic is everywhere; it's just that the central power figures of a culture get to determine whose magic is considered "real" and whose is just considered embarrassing. (pgs 118 and 119)
In Caliban and the Witch, feminist historian Silvia Federici argues that the persecution of witches was based less on a religious or moral hysteria over pagan magical practices, and more upon the rise of capitalism. The rising capitalist class needed to control the workforce. The capitalist need for a steady supply of labor power meant that women who controlled their reproductive capacity through herbs and midwives (many of whom were witches) needed to be brought into submission. Further, capitalism required a division of labor into two camps: workers and reproducers of the workforce (i.e., the women who birthed and cared for babies and tended to the sick and elderly). The former being paid labor, the second being devalued almost entirely. In other words, the work of women lost its value, women's subordination to men had become an economic requirement, and the witch hunts were used strategically to make women accept their new role. (pgs 200 and 201)
Our magic today is not immune from similar requests, and like John Dee, our practices reflect the time and place we're living in. Today our magic is uneasily multicultural, anxious (rightly) over cultural appropriation, often delivered in bite-sized platitudes for expression on social media. (pg 199)
Magical practices were always part of colonized peoples' tactics of resistance. In the "New World," for example, the syncretic folk magic practice of Hoo Doo was one resistance tactic of enslaved Afro-Caribbeans who were prevented from fathering their own resources and wealth by rule of law. (pg 202)
My initiations have taught me that there is not escape and nowhere to run. There is not outside capitalism anymore. Capitalism has contracted all of our tribes. There is no persistent, everlasting fairy world where a witch can escape and be safe forevermore. But as witches, escaping isn't our mission. Once we realize we are witches, we use our magic, not to escape into an enchanted world outside the gates of ordinary reality but to bring forth the magic from within ourselves and pour it into the world around us. Little by little, the witch expands her magic circle to everything she touches, until she can push her circle up against the circle of another enchanted creature, join forces, and find more. This work is not easy. It's confusing, imperfect, and difficult. We are under constant pressure to sacrifice our integrity and are often forced to chose between a multitude of evils. There's no bible to tell us what to do, no grand authority to make our choices for us. But wherever we are, we begin. As witches, our work is to recognize the resources we have, cultivate the tools we need, and midwife our magic back into the world. (pgs 286 and 287)
We reject capitalism because it is abusive. Because it's a system that argues: as long as the oligarchy is profiting, no atrocity is too grave, no violation too gross. Slavery, genocide, atomic war, swamps drained, forests burned, animals brought to extinction. Nothing is out of bounds and there are plenty of reasons why it has to be this way... free market, forked tongue. To be fair, it isn't just capitalism. Before capitalism, before empire, there was still bloodlust, born at the moment of the first rape. An egregore that became stronger the first time a human roped a bull and commanded it to till the soil against its will. Every time a child's food was stolen to stuff the belly of a king, the power of the egregore grew. But my purpose was no longer just to point out what was wrong and then hide in the wilderness hoping the demon wouldn't come for me. Capitalism is the system we have now, and so this is where I make my stand. (pg 289)
Of course, if you invade a territory, take over its temples, and impose a new god, the conquered people won't just suddenly stop fighting and do as you tell them. In order for your new ideology to succeed, you have to either vilify the old gods (Snake Goddess becomes Satan, evildoer responsible for the downfall of humankind), or you allow people to follow their old traditions but tell them your new god is speaking through their old god's mouth (Apollo speaks through the mouth of Pythia). (pg 310)
Before we left for Crete, Carol had directed us to bring a stone from home that represented something we wanted to banish. I brought back a black obsidian knife that I had collected at a geological shop while visiting my father in the north, a replica of a Native American tool. But Native American culture is not what I wanted to banish. I wanted to banish the bloodlust in my own culture that had enacted genocide on the Native Americans and then sold their culture at a gift shop. (pg 326)
She literally does a Ritual in the book to contain capitalism and it's honestly incredibly satisfying to read.
More than any one political concept or belief, however (and arguably the formation of the author's political beliefs), running throughout the entire memoir is the author's belief in magic and the power of Witchcraft. Early on in school, she's diagnosed with dyslexia and reading is a problem until she enters middle school and is reevaluated in sixth grade. A better evaluation finds her high IQ and she's put with the "gifted and talented" students. Overnight, she went from reading at a third grade level to a college level ("Of all things that have happened to me in my life, my learning to read is the thing that most convinces me of the efficacy of magic." pg 49). She reshapes her thoughts of herself (and of the dyslexic in general) poetically:
The dyslexic has the mind of an ancient astrologer. She sees stars spread out across the universe and assembles them into a lion, a ram, a water bearer. Her thoughts come together in a chorus, singing in a diversity of voices. A rose nebula bursts and she knows, Now is when the king will fall. Or, Your fortunes will change come October. In the primordial world, I imagine the non-neurotypical as the ones who found new paths, invented new uses, could conceive of a world outside of ordinary convention. (pg 48)
This type of thinking and reevaluation forms the book and it's not only thought-provoking, it's frequently utterly gorgeous prose.
In books that too frequently claim to be life-affirming, coming-of-age, inspiring, or even "about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters", Initiated is genuinely all of those things and more, and on top of that, it's a compelling, interesting read, something else that you don't tend to find in these sorts of memoirs.
I don't know if this book will change your life. But I do know it's a masterpiece on many levels and also seemingly effortlessly achieves, again, on multiple levels, what many, many books try and fail to do. It's a book about following your passion that's written in an appealing and highly engaging style. A book that entertains like this while it makes you think might not ultimately change your life, but it's definitely worth the read.
Notable:
And so to get back at [his parents], [her Hungarian-American stepfather] left them in rural Pennsylvania with the fireflies and their wooden house that smelled of potato-stuffed pierogies [.] (pgs 41 and 42)
If you know, you know.
...Okay, so while Americans have become accustomed to calling those wonderful little dumplings "pierogies", the correct term is actually "pierogi," kind of like how you wouldn't say "pastas", you just say pasta. Now you know!
CREDIT TO THE MATRON SECULAR SAINT OF THIS BOOK BLOG CLAUDINE FOR THIS KNOWLEDGE! GO FORTH AND SPREAD THE GOOD WORD!
___________________________________________________________________________
Wiccan priestess and journalist Margot Adler said, "The witch is woman as martyr; she is persecuted by the ignorant; she is the woman who lives outside of society and outside of society's definitions of woman." (pg 57)
To be fair, it was Margot Adler's best known work Drawing Down the Moon (the groundbreaking 1979 book about modern Witches and Pagans) and its subsequent updates that propelled me to give Witch and Pagan capital letters. However, she could have been talking about the mythological figure of the witch, and also take into account the author of this book would've had to explain her capitalization (and decapitalization) choices.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Growing up in the '90s, obsession seemed like a romantic idea. Kate Moss and anonymous boy model careening through a white corridor, in a hungry pursuit only a malnourished waif could understand. (pg 228)
I absolutely get the image and the idea (and the fact the author is explaining her personal background with it), but my own obsession with history and deconstructing cultural trends prompts me to note that obsession as romance is not an especially 1990s concept.
In the decade previous, music videos depicted romantic obsession (and songs about obsession kept topping the charts) and it was even the name of a popular, still produced cologne.
In the decade succeeding the 1990s, a popular franchise was built around romantic obsession and with the popularizing and mainstreaming of social media (and the first decade that saw Internet-as-way-of-life-not-hobby for the masses) romantic obsession is kind of always a way of life and a popular concept, even if the reality, as the author notes in her own life, is far from the fantasy.
___________________________________________________________________________
To make her morning commute bearable, she'd wait out the traffic at her computer, glued to the Democratic Underground, an alt-left website with which she was on an intimate acronym basis: DU. (pg 247)
I admit I scratched my head at the author's use of that term. For one, "alt-left" is a blatant false equivalency in most (if not all) uses.
Secondly, the author is describing her mother's toxic habit of doomscrolling (although she doesn't call it that) in an online community that is based in the Democratic Party, which is not actually so much left as it is liberal, and occasionally not even that.
I'm choosing to believe she's making a comment about her mother's political "action", which mainly involved a not-terribly productive and certainly not good for her mental health activity of the doomscrolling. She goes on to describe her mother doing more healthier activities and being more active in general.
__________________________________________________________________________
Francesca Lia Block, thank you for the inspiration, the wisdom, and cracking open the door for us literary witches. (pg 339)
(From the acknowledgments.) This is a delight (although not a surprise, given the front-cover blurb) to see, and frankly the book does read in places like a Block novel, which is always welcome to me.
____________________________________________________________________________
Thank you, Gabriel Garcia; our chapter together here had to be cut, but it would have needed volumes anyway; thank you for all your encouragement and support. (pg 340)
Also from the acknowledgements! Yes, I always read acknowledgements. This is a fascinating omission and I hope she tells that story someday, in a future book.
Final Grade: A
DON'T FORGET I'M ON BLOGSPOT NOW!