Devotaj Sacred Arts is Making Magic/k/q

What does it mean that Devotaj Sacred Arts' newsletter is called Making Magic/k/q and why can't she just pick a spelling of that word?

Photo by Luca Volpe on Unsplash

Making Magic/k/q

I finally named the Devotaj Sacred Arts newsletter. After yet another round of soul searching —* who I’ve been who I am, and who I intend to be. The same goes for how I show up in all the realms: online, offline, tehomic, and beyond.

The statement of intent (or mission / vision) for Devotaj Sacred Arts is:

Jewishly-rooted making, mussar, and magick to connect past, present, and possible future(s).

I mean that on several levels. My work is magic/k/qal. I practice and I teach mussar. And I am an artist and a maker. I also mean that as an entire sentence, part of my work is making the practice of mussar magic/k/q.

When the election results in the US were announced, I knew there was not only a big shift for the country coming, but for me personally. How my work shows up what is needed what is important what will hold and help and heal myself and others would no longer be taking the same shapes and forms that it had. The same thing happened to me in 2016; work that I was in the middle of making no longer felt relevant and I put it down.

In this case, it’s not so much that I’m putting anything down but I’m re-shaping it. And naming is a huge part of reshaping so I’ve decided it was time to give this newsletter an actual name.

So join me in welcoming Making Magic/k/q into the existence.

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Bearing Witness

As you might’ve noticed some of the work I have been doing is around bearing witness to what is happening. Right before I started to write this newsletter today I saw this lovely post by Kohenet Yedida Landis on Instagram.

It got me thinking that in addition to intentionally bearing witness to the tragedy and trauma to alchemize it into a revolutionary blessing — I want to do the same for the gorgeous, selfless, beautiful, brave things that are also happening. As you witness the beautiful and brave, please send it my way so I can honor it and add it to this ongoing magic/k/q working.

Bearing Witness #1 || Bearing Witness #2 || Bearing Witness #3

I’ve also created a dedicated space for spiritual leaders and art witches (and allies) who want to bear witness magiqally, liturgically, or ritually to what is happening in the United States and beyond as the world falls deeper into fascism. Find it in Auntie Ketzirah’s Tea Room on Discord: discord.gg/rjumVMW7c7

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Blessing you *the fuck up* with all you need to be spiritually, emotionally, physically, and materially resilient.

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* — Em Dash

note. I love em dashes — fucking love them. I wrote this not AI. Real people use them. Just because you don’t, doesn’t mean it’s ChatGPT.