by Soror Brigantia
In occult circles and within occult literature we hear a great deal about people who make outstanding contributions to magical practice. There are, for example, countless blogs and publications regarding the fantastic work undertaken by Aleister Crowley, Edward Kelly, John Dee and Austin Osman Spare — to name just a few.
While the contributions of these men cannot be undervalued, the lack of a female role model can leave many female practitioners of the occult wondering where their place is in all of this and where are the female occultists. It’s my opinion that the female role models are there, such as Dion Fortune. It’s just that they don’t get as much ‘air time’ as the men. For me personally one outstanding example of a female magical practitioner is Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross in the 1820’s and was born into slavery. A remarkable woman, she liberated herself from the bonds of slavery and fled to Pennsylvania. Not content with this she made several trips back south to liberate other Afro Americans held in bondage. She even risked recapture by going back to Dorchester County – where she had been held in slavery – to free others.
She became one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad and one of the most unusual. Few Underground Railroad conductors would conduct their people all the way from plantation to freedom. Most of the time they would work as a team with different conductors picking up the escapees at different stages of their journey. Feeling a sense of responsibility towards the people she had freed Tubman would take them on the whole route.
Due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 it become legal for bounty hunters to cross into a free state and recapture escapees. Tubman took her charges all the way to Canada to ensure their continual freedom after escaping. Most conductors would only lead 2 or 3 escapees; Tubman made a speciality of conducting larger groups of sometimes up to 25 people. This was dangerous work. Most conductors who did take their charges for the whole of the journey were white men and were therefore protected in some measure by this status. Tubman was a black woman and an escapee herself making this work more dangerous for her.
However, unlike many of the men who did this work Tubman was never caught. She had an innate sense of strategy and knew her terrain well – for she was also a Hoodoo woman, a practitioner of Conjure. She is famous for her Christian faith as in those days it was not uncommon for a Hoodoo practitioner to also be a Christian. She could hear the voice of god who would tell her what lay ahead on the course she was travelling on the Underground Railroad and she would change direction if she was told that danger lay ahead.
During the civil war she worked as a nurse for the Union and a considerable amount of her nursing was aiding soldiers who had contacted contagious diseases. Tubman of course never contracted those diseases herself. As she was a Hoodoo woman and knew the herbs and plants and their medical properties she was able to take measures to protect herself. Due to her advanced ability as a strategist she also worked more directly for the army and led a raid during which 750 Afro Americans achieved their liberty. She truly earned her nickname of ‘the General.’
After the war she worked for civil rights for women and Afro-Americans. When she saw that older Afro-Americans with poor health were not able to obtain the health care they needed she used all her financial resources to establish housing for them where they could receive this care.
Harriet Tubman was a very practical woman who used her Hoodoo and conjure skills in a very real way to achieve very real results within the realm of civil liberties and for that I applaud her. What better role model could there be?
See more at http://www.harriet-tubman.org/