5 Ways Warriors Have Used Magic for Social Justice

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tomás Prower, author of La Santa Muerte, Queer Magic, Morbid Magic, and the new Warrior Magic.

Everywhere in human history where there have been oppressed peoples, there have also been warriors willing to fight back. In my book Warrior Magic: Justice Spirituality from Around the World, you can learn, in depth, the many ways warriors from cultures around the world have utilized magic in the good fight to break the societal chains that bind. Though, for now, here are four eclectic examples curated from the book among oh so many.

1. Astral Travel Infiltration
   Being in the fray of a fight isn’t necessary if you can astral travel. For the Inuit peoples living on the arctic island of Igloolik during WWII, there are records of them having planned to astrally project themselves across enemy lines to help eliminate the Nazi top brass in Germany. A few months later, Hitler was dead by his own hand. Perhaps coincidence, but then again, perhaps not…
2. Protection Ink & Potions
   
   Spiritual protection upon entering battle came in the forms of sacred tattoos among the native Maohi of Tahiti and dawa potions among the native peoples of the African Congo. In Tahiti, the subsequent outlawing of tattoos by the Catholic monarch and missionaries made the protection ritual of tattooing also a symbolic rite of passage among warriors entering the resistance. As for the dawa potions of the Congo, they were believed to make those anointed with it invulnerable to bullets, and though revolutionaries like Che Guevara (who were actively assisting the native peoples of Africa in their revolutions of liberation against colonialism) didn’t believe in the magic of these potions, he did admit that being anointed with dawa gave the people a sense of self-power that made them ferocious on the battlefield.
3. Open-Minded Aid
   The native Mapuche peoples of Chile relied on the spiritual powers of those regarded as “different” in their fight against the colonizing Inca and Spanish. In particular, they believed that genderqueer members of the community possessed a divine and mystic aptitude for understanding the magic of plants. Thus, their open-mindedness toward queer individuals granted them access to potent herbal medicines created by non-binary nurses.
4. Spatial Blessings
   The urban battlegrounds of modern revolutions are just as magical as the fields and plains of battlegrounds long ago. Modern magical revolutionaries understand this, and this is why they often partner with the spirits of their cities to bless a public square, a protest march route, anywhere else those who rise up in righteousness will confront the enemy head on, adding strength to their spirit and handicapping those who uphold injustice and oppose our modern warriors of the good fight.

Our thanks to Tomás for his guest post! For more from Tomás Prower, read his article, “Why Magic Has Been So Important in the Fight for Justice.”