I don't claim to be anything other than a witch of British Traditional Wicca lineage, since that was the tradition I was trained and initiated into. I received the psychic stamps of the BTW tradition through my initiation and elevations. I don't claim to have anything other than Catholic heritage, because that is the religion I grew up with. Having worn, personally, the white dress and veil for First Communion, attended the Catechism classes, been terrified by strict nuns, and so on, I have an imprint from Catholicism. That imprint was made at my Baptism as an infant, accepted at my First Communion as a child, and sealed at my turn to adolescence in my Confirmation. Oh, and I'm a chaos magician. More about that later.
Converts to cultures can never know those experiences, whatever they are. In an attempt to make up for a lifetime of learning, converts to new cultures often have to study hard and go through some tough trials to become imprinted with the new culture. It isn't easy, but it can be done by those who have a strong enough drive to do so - hence, the hard work, trials and initiations that were part of my own conversion to the Craft.
Yet, we live in the information age, and information, more than anything, resists being restricted. Humans are memetic replicators - we love to communicate, and through us, memes spread. With the global reach we now have through the internet, our memes can spread far and wide, to unexpected places.
Cultures have always begged, borrowed, or stolen from other cultures. As people traveled and intermingled, so did their gods, their rites, their sacred texts, and their spirits. Hermes, Isis, Astarte, Hekate, Christ, Legba, and many other gods, spirits, and legends have appeared in writings from cultures across the globe, often in the same, or similar forms. As they were adopted by others, their worship spread while it also changed to fit the people who adopted them.
Without cultural intermingling, most occult systems as we know them would not exist. Hoodoo? Christianity, various American Indian traditions, West African traditions and grimoire traditions. Santeria? West African traditions syncretized with Catholicism. Wicca? Ceremonial magic, Druidism and other pre-Christian practices from the British Isles, grimoiric magic and a dash of Thelema. Ad infinitum.
I look at magical practices as a spiritual technology, wrapped in cultural trappings. The cultural trappings aren't easily emulated, but the underlying technology is. As a spiritual technology, ancestor veneration has been practiced world-wide and througout human history. People have always given gifts and offerings to their beloved dead in hopes that the ancestors will continue to protect, guide, and bless the living. In the West, under the thumb of the Abrahamic religions, this practice has tapered off, but it's still thrived in the East, hence growing a modern edge to the practice with offerings of cell phones and computers available now to delight and please your ancestors. (Does this mean Grandma will be calling me every time she can't get her email? This could get weird. I don't know if I'm up for being an afterlife tech support guru.) Regardless of who you are or where you're from, honoring your ancestors can be a valuable addition to your spiritual practice.
Some of the most important spiritual development that I have undergone happened in sweat lodges. I was invited to participate in an Ojibwe-run sweat lodge a number of years ago. The ceremonies were powerful and transformative, creating life-long changes that have made me a better person. While I found myself on the outside, culturally speaking, the sincerity of my heart in my desire to learn what the sweat lodge had to teach led me to get a lot out of the ceremonies, regardless of my upbringing. The technology spoke louder than the cultural trappings.
Good technologies will do that. Their usefulness will transcend the cultural landscape from which they arose. You don't need to be a Hindu to work with the chakras in your body, you don't need to be from one of the many indigenous cultures around the world to use drumming to induce trance, and you don't need to be a Catholic to know that repitious prayers said with a set of beads is a great way to meditate.
One must be careful, though, in adopting the practice while not making a mockery of the culture it arose from. Though I can get a lot out of the ceremony, I would never attempt to lead an Ojibwe sweat lodge ceremony for this reason. Bringing the depth and meaning to it requires a deeper understanding of its culture than a weekend guest like me can offer. While my ancestors appreciate the hell bank notes, I would never attempt to lead a traditional Chinese ceremony to honor the dead.
When adopting the technologies, respect for yourself is also important. If I am pretending to be something that I'm not, I am denying the importance of my own experiences and cultural heritage. One of the reasons I practice chaos magic in addition to my work in the Craft because chaos is based in the culture I embrace. It's pure delight upon my soul to find spiritual inspiration from comic books, movies, and television. And yes, I do use electronic music and metal in my ceremonies. It gets the blood flowing, and because it spiritually resonates with me. Because I have memories that hold lots of joy for me of dancing all night to the Sisters of Mercy in a goth club, the music touches my soul that much more strongly and is therefore much more powerful to me. Regardless of whether you choose to practice in this manner, I find that recognizing who I am and the culture I am a part of gives my magic a real-world grounding. I am not trying to do magic for medieval faeryland - I'm doing magic for Planet Earth, 2012.
As I stated before, I was not raised in a neo-pagan tradition. I am a convert from Catholicism. Therefore, not adopting those technologies that appear to be useful to me because I'm not from the correct culture or part of the world, then, seems foolish to me. If I took that sentiment to the logical extreme, I never would have left the Catholic church, nor would I listen to most of the music I like, eat most of the foods I like, watch most of the movies I like, and so on.
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, our awareness reaches to the farthest corners of the globe. I am excited about humanity's recently acquired ability to be global citizens in a global village. Looking forward, I see the increased amount of cultural exchange as a force that will bring healing and hope to all of humankind. With our increased awareness of the people of the world, so will respect increase for all of the cultures that gave birth to the spectrums of ideas that we embrace.
