Incoming and Outgoing Shipments in 1 STEP Using Odoo 17
Witches of Instagram and Material Turn
1. #witches of instagram, global
interest in anime and Japan, the rise
of women, and the cultural turn to
the material
2. Scene of a ceremony….
• Standing hand in hand, they form a circle around a
smooth black cauldron, their voices setting off a
reverberating hum as they repeat, “Omm, omm,
ommm.”
• Outside twilight is approaching. Inside the Malliway
Bros. witchcraft shop in Chicago, candles burn and the
smell of incense hangs in the air.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-
witchcraft-popularity-millennials-10172019-20191024-
7luvsszmszgybfpn6c6f7vag34-story.html
3. Smoke, flower petals, lavender
oil, spit…..
• Twenty-one guests, some seasoned witches, some curious
newcomers, have gathered for a full moon ritual in which
Latin chants will be recited and lavender-scented “moon
oil” applied.
• Friends and strangers will bond, flower petals will swirl
alongside spit and parchment, and a big plume of filmy
whiteness — smoke? steam? something else? — will rise
from the cauldron right on cue.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-witchcraft-popularity-millennials-
10172019-20191024-7luvsszmszgybfpn6c6f7vag34-story.html
5. Some voices of the people who were there:
“I saw this event on Meetup, and I’m like, ‘Why
not?’ I’ve always been interested,” said Elena
Ivanovska, 30, who was visiting from Phoenix,
where she works in finance.
The internet plays a role in spreading the
popularity of witchcraft.
6. Young people are getting back into
touch with nature too:
• “Ivanovska said she already does moon-
related meditations and wanted to learn more
about the moon’s power.”
7. Witches can practice alone so it’s
convenient
• Marty Severino, 25, of Niles, said he started
reading up on witchcraft after a friend lent
him some books.
• Today, he considers himself a witch but one
who practices independently, without a coven
or a priest.
• Coven= group of witches, usually 13 people
(no more than that usually)
8. Young people are using witchcraft to
get power in their situation
• “I think there’s just so much hopelessness in the
country right now, with the political climate, that
people are trying to reach out to something,”
Severino said. “People are trying to regain some
sort of power within themselves when they have
no power in their environment.“
• Trump, division of left and right, economic issues,
environmental issues= what people are facing
these days
9. • Experts offered many reasons for the
popularity of witchcraft among young people
in the USA (and elsewhere), including:
• that it’s a very customizable experience
• it values the human body and the natural
world
• and it’s free from the male power structures
that frustrate many women and LGBTQ people.
14. • Pam Grossman, author of “Waking the Witch:
Reflections on Women, Magic and Power,”
also points to the hands-on, DIY aspect of
witchcraft.
• “The more digital we are, the more we long
for sensory experiences,” she said.
• 「私たちの世界がますますデジタルになる
につれて、私たちはもっと感覚的経験を渇望（かつぼう）
するようになっている。」
15. Pam Grossman is a witch and she
wrote a book called “Waking the
Witch”
16. • “Withcraft is so super-sensory. Not only is it
honoring nature and the body, but there are
beautiful objects, and candles and this really
creative experience that you’re having
because you’re crafting your altar. Many of us
use tools like tarot cards and beautiful flowers.
It’s a really lush experience that is very tactile
and just aesthetically stimulating.”—Pam
Grossman
18. 1.5 million witches in America
• The number of self identified witches in
America has soared in recent years to 1.5
million.
• A survey by the Pew Research Center found
that 0.4 per cent of Americans, between 1 and
1.5 million - identify as Wicca or Pagan,
according to Quartz.
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-
witchcraft-estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
19. • That means there are now more witches in the
US than there are Presbyterians who have around
1.4 million adherents.
• Experts believe that the explosion in the witch
population is due to millennial women’s
embracing of new-age spirituality, mindfulness,
meditation, and yoga.
• (Presbyterians=one branch of Christians)
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-witchcraft-
estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
20. • Wicca, also called Witchcraft or The Craft, is a Pagan
religion which emerged in Britain in the early 20th
century. Based on ‘pre-Christian traditions,’ it was
popularized by a retired British civil servant named
Gerald Gardner throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
• There are Wiccans in Britain and other countries too.
• Wicca adherents praise nature and nature's gods and
goddesses.
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-witchcraft-
estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
21. • They practice outside in parks, gardens or
fields.
• They endeavor to achieve self-awakening
through dancing, singing, chanting, and with
the use of herbs and incense.
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-
witchcraft-estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
22. • While in decades past the term ‘witch’ has
misogynistic connotations and was used a
pejorative, modern-day witches have adopted the
lifestyle as an expression of their feminism.
• Social media has been the forum through which
witches and witch influencers can gain a mass
following.
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-witchcraft-
estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
24. Wicca is an official religion in the US
• Wicca is recognized as an official religion in the United
States.
• It is a primarily Western movement of nature worship
based on pre-Christian traditions.
• The Wiccan witch religion honors the 'Elements of
Nature' - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit - and their
associated directions - North, East, South, West, Center
- in 'sacred circles' where rituals are held.
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
6404733/Number-Americans-practice-witchcraft-
estimated-high-1-5-MILLION.html
26. Over the same period of time, roughly the past 2-3
decades, there has been a huge rise in the popularity of
Japan
• Top tourist destination
• Anime exported everywhere
• Foodie mecca (Michelin stars of Tokyo
restaurants)
• Cultural popularity
27. Anime and Shinto
• Religious sites and artifacts appear constantly [in anime]. Clerical
characters such as monks and mikos are regularly included in the
cast.
• Ordinary characters routinely pause to engage in some sort of
religious observance.
• Sometimes the religious elements aren’t obvious to outsiders.
• Shinto in particular is so different from what Americans think of as a
religion that references to it are sometimes overlooked.
• Even those Japanese who do not think of Shinto as literally true
tend to think of it as a key part of their national and cultural
identity.
• https://www.greenshinto.com/wp/2014/03/07/shinto-and-anime/
29. Japan as tourist destination
• When I first came to Kyoto on a trip in 1992 it was
not crowded at all. But 10-15 years later Japan
and Kyoto became very popular. (That lasted until
coronavirus reduced travel.)
• Fushimi Inari Taisha has become one of the most
popular spots.
• People became curious about Japanese culture
and wanted to experience it.
• Shinto’s interesting features such as goddesses
and nature worship contrasted with the “Western
symbolic”.
30. What is the “Western symbolic”?
• In the “Western symbolic”, based on
Christianity and monotheism, there is one
male god and this male god is only made of
spirit, no material at all.
• Material therefore in general cannot be sacred
in the “Western symbolic”.
• Nature, which is material, cannot be sacred in
the “Western symbolic”.
32. “the western symbolic”
• Male “better than” female
• Human “better than” the natural world
• Spirit “better than” material
• Oneness, not multiplicity or relational
• Rule based: humans must follow certain
religious themed rules (social hierarchy
religions)
34. Recent academics are struggling
against the “Western symbolic”
• Let’s watch this video with Mary-Jane Rubenstein,
professor at Wesleyan U. in USA.
• “our Western concept of god establishes humans
as more important than other creatures; it
establishes male as more important than female;
it establishes Western as more important than
other areas of the planet”. Professor Rubenstein
wants to change this.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzK1ejXMO
Ho&t=51s
• (please watch it with subtitles)
36. Other points made by Mary-Jane
Rubenstein
• “what we (pantheists) mean by god is the natural
world itself, the material world”
• She proposes “pantheism”---
• How does the “natural world work to get stuff
done?”
• “The agents who are doing stuff are bacteria,
microscopic beings, natural forces, magnetism,
gravity…a mustard seed, an acorn….”
• She proposes we look for divinity using these
material things.
38. The new importance of the material….
• Witches are using materials: herbs, feathers,
crystals, moon water, etc. for their spiritual
ceremonies
• Shinto and anime conveyed this material divinity
to foreigners watching anime and visiting Japan
• Books like Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s Pantheologies:
Gods, Worlds, Monsters (2018) are questioning
monotheism and its disrespectful attitude toward
the material world.
40. At the same time…..
• There is the rise of powerful women in recent
decades
• Greta Thunberg, Jacinda Ardern, the fearless
girl statue, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, the
heroines of Ghibli movies, Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez….
• Once again, this move towards the female
contrasts with the “Western symbolic”, which
stresses the importance of the male.
43. Fictional recent powerful girls/ women: “fearless girl statue”
(2017); “Spirited Away” heroine Chihiro ; Katniss Everdean from
“The Hunger Games”; “Wonder Woman” character Diana Prince
44. “Young female activists have the world’s attention”---
https://www.vox.com/2019/12/11/21010936/greta-thunberg-time-magazine-
cover-person-year
• As we approach the beginning of the 2020s, more and more
progressive movements around the world are being led by young
people, many of them girls and women. And while those female
activists have long been a key part of such movements, they’re
getting mainstream attention in a way they haven’t always in the
past.
• According to Time, Thunberg herself was inspired by the Parkland,
Florida, high school students who became gun safety activists after
a shooter killed 17 of their classmates and teachers —
student Emma González, for example, gave a widely seen speech
after the shooting and went on to co-found the group March for
Our Lives. Meanwhile, Thunberg is joined in her climate fight
by activists like Jamie Margolin, 17, who co-founded the
organization Zero Hour, and Xiye Bastida, also 17, who helped lead
a student climate walkout in New York City earlier this year.
45. • Beyond climate activism, young women in
government are also capturing the attention
of the media and the public. Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, now 30, has made her age an
asset, connecting with young progressive
voters around issues they care about in ways
that feel authentic to them. And across the
Atlantic, a new coalition government in
Finland will be led by five women, four of
them under 35.
46. https://jerichochambers.com/as-leaders-men-may-have-the-power-
but-women-are-more-powerful/
• More collaboration and power-sharing
• Leaders have teams around them. The most
powerful thing a leader can do is ensure that
their collective performance is stronger than any
individual. Research shows that leadership teams
with plenty of women – especially if led by
women – are more likely to achieve this. Male
teams and leaders are too focused on their own
goals, needs and pressures – and so more likely
to hang on to their personal power.
48. • Less short-termism vs long-term progress and
legacy
• Research also suggests that women are more
likely to be driven by long-term outcomes, and
good at leading to those ends
50. • The same combination of hormones and social
conditioning that drives males to like the
short-term, also drives them to take more
risks – excited by the sense of power that
comes with taking big risks. Research suggests
that women, by contrast, are more likely to
understand disruption, embrace
transformation, to innovate, to think in new
ways – to be bolder.
52. • Overall, women are more likely to live up to
the best definition of the role of leadership: to
create the conditions for everyone to succeed.
In other words – to give up ‘control’ and
ensure shared power for the greater good.
54. New focus on the material in
environmental activism too
• Plastics found in our the oceans and in our poop.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environme
nt/2018/10/news-plastics-microplastics-human-
feces/#:~:text=Microplastics%20have%20already
%20been%20found,part%20of%20a%20pilot%20
study.
• Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• No longer just vague “pollution” and “garbage”
55. People is the west are asking “is it time to reassess our
relationship with nature”?
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/is-it-
time-to-reassess-our-relationship-with-
natur/p08l2xcb
• Please note that this video starts with a
discussion about materials.
56. • The new focus on materials is now also part of
the corona virus issue because the virus is a
material (a tiny tiny material).
• The story of materials and the issues
surrounding them is still developing. So watch
for developments (in the news or media).
