Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

WITCH Movement Toolbox & SM Analysis


Toolbox


In Jane Donaworth’s book, Conversational Rhetoric, an exceptional collection of critically analyzed woman’s rhetoric theories is discussed.  As woman’s voices became more socially outspoken in the late nineteenth century, elocution played a respectable part in broadening woman’s platform to communicate emotions by performance. Society frequently began accepting to see woman as public speakers. Restraints from traditional gender driven of expressing the physical body was often seen a provocative.  Specifically, Donaworth’s focus on Genevie Stebbins Emotional Semiotics, we see a parallel between Stebbins’s philosophy of semiotics and witches’ use of guerrilla theatre. This dramatic public performance known as guerilla theatre is demonstrated as socio-political activism derived from Marxism. It was developed in the 1960, structured as a form entertaining activism, highly based on satire. The unapologetic, dodgy acts drew in an audience and forced them to acknowledge issues that were being ignored or over looked. Just as woman professed in elocution to catch the public’s attention of their less-heard voices. WITCH dress against the social norm and purposely conveys a dark aura with intentions to shock the public into submission. Specific rituals and written hexes are created as a physical form of the inner passions. Stebbins found that ones’ outputs of communication are reflections of the soul and state of mind. Emotions are essentially translated from the inner form into the physical gestures in the performance of elocution. Withes tape into the inner source of power being the universe to extract the dark magic and use articulated rhetoric and gestures in synchronized hex rituals to reflectively communicate and implement change to the larger society. The power generated from a higher being merges with accumulated sentiments.

Egyptian Rhetoric
We see a connection in Edward Karshner’s book, Thought, Utterance, & Power: Towards a Rhetoric of Magic discussion on Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric and the WITCH magical rhetoric. Egyptian’s used articulated rhetoric to connect with hierarchical deities’ powers of the cosmological society through a two-fold dimension. A deep intellectual metacognition and rule on how to effectively communicate in these complex realms was established. Essentially, they would utilize articulated magical utterance in a onto-cosmological narrative to transcend mystic knowledge of truth to society. This discourse is particularly unique and apparent to witches use of magic and articulated rhetoric to ping into universal energies in seek of social order. WITCH is an exclusive society with specific practices and rituals put in place, with methods and rules to be understood to execute the desired spiritual transcendence in which will initiate societal justice. Witches praise the Goddess being the Universe and all surrounding energies for power. WITCH claims that “Magic has three parts: Intent, A Spoken Spell, and A Sympathetic Act” (WITCH.PTX). Indicating that an intentional goal must be established to cast a spell. Egyptians use a parallel process, their initial steps being, “Through perception, the heart/mind would design an idea”, in relation to the WITCH, this would be equivalent to having an intent (Karshner). This step requires a developed passion for a subject of change. Next the onto-cosmological narrative, much like spoken spells, create a bond between the divine power and humans using articulated rhetoric. Finally, through this established connection, the Egyptians utilized, “human desire to identify with and articulate, through symbolic expression, the innate knowledge of the cosmos”. With a sympathetic act, the power can be directed in a spell.
Displayed is a zine from WITCH-EARTH-DAY:




We see the use of magic explained in a context that is implementation. Magic is not a single step process just as Karshner acknowledges in magical utterance; as explained there are multiple extensions of connections required to activate this transcendence of energy. WITCH uses this approach to motivate the movement by relying on a superior presence in which establishes a sense of credibility to their odd behavior. The pubic gestures and guerrilla theater uses as a dramatized performance of keening into the powers of the universe through an unseen spiritual domain is practiced as a religion. Identifying as a religion associates a societal given respect that may not be given if say they didn’t implement magic into their practices or identify as a religion. For a decent human, this would create an ethical dilemma when avoiding arbitrating someone’s beliefs. With all skepticism aside, how is it any different than a Catholic creating a and praising God on two knees. These aspects of identifying as a religion and using magic is vital to the integrity and legitimacy of the movement.

In any social movement, gathering the public’s attention is vital to the Social Movement Plan. Analyzing the correlation of the WITCH movement to the social movement plan, we see a strong foundation for the witches’ intentions. The public issues are clear and known, mainly activating woman’s liberation and to dismantle the patriarchy. The first-wave and second-wave feminist were most responsible for the awareness trending and campaigning, not WITCH. After all, they did break off from the radical woman, so it is reasonable to take this approach of essentially winging off second-wave feminist’s campaigns and starting their social movement plan beginning at campaigns. It wasn’t until the hex on Wall Street that WITCH exposed their movement externally.

During this process an articulated magical and radical conspiracy rhetoric was used, mostly heard through their hexes. Although terrorist is in their name, they demonstrate more of peaceful protests and arranged civil disobedience during their hexes. Their demands are clear in fighting oppression and the patriarchy but allow for flexibility in how radical a witch prefers to be.

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