Brujxs, Babaylans, and Other Intersectional Mystics
Who I wrote Intersectional Mysticism for, and who inspired me
This e-book is primarily for intersectional mystics and those who feel called to this path. By intersectional, I mean those who understand that contemporary human society is structured by many simultaneously existing, historically emergent, hierarchical power systems—white supremacy, heteronormative patriarchy, neoliberal capitalism, imperialist coloniality, and the modern nation-state, to name a few. These overwhelmingly extractive and exploitative frameworks privilege a few while oppressing many, manifesting in various but interconnected ways worldwide.
At the same time, these structures are being actively resisted by healers, activists, artists, teachers, organizers, and other liberation practitioners who courageously imagine and work to build a more just, fair, and free world. Much of the knowledge in this book comes from what I’ve learned and co-created within these kinds of communities—through encounters, exchanges, and relationships with acquaintances, friends, and loved ones. To them, I owe a profound debt of gratitude.
By mystics, I refer to those who recognize that we are intrinsically part of the natural world—capable of influencing and being influenced by it—a connection they might define as magic. The mystic tradition is long, rich and diverse, encompassing people from all cultural and religious backgrounds. However, in my experience, these beliefs are particularly prominent among people of colour (PoC), Black and Indigenous peoples, whose ancestors courageously preserved and passed down this knowledge despite overwhelming physical, social, and epistemic violence. Historical attempts to erase these traditions—for example, through (neo)colonialism, the Inquisition, Enlightenment rationalism, indigenous genocides, witch hunts and all forms of femicide, genocide and epistemicide—were met with resilience and defiance, protecting the knowledge that survives today.
In our current moment of human-caused economic, social, and climate crises, ties to Indigenous spirituality are reemerging as many reclaim this birthright. I began to write this book in 2018 after conversations and collaborations with my colleague Dr Sadhvi Dar; we organised a series of anti-racist interventions at conferences and in universities, using art, altars and tarot to gather insight and community wisdom. This coincided with months of listening Nuyorican emcee Princess Nokia’s track Brujas on repeat. In it, she proudly situates herself among the circles of Latinx, specifically Puerto Rican, brujas (witches), who tracing their lineage to enslaved African and Indigenous ancestors who risked everything to preserve their sacred traditions.
The intersectional mysticism flourishing in the digital era—largely led by women, femmes, queer and trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour—is this project’s core inspiration. These individuals share and teach about a range of spiritually medicinal technologies and modalities, including altars, astrology, tarot, crystals and other sensory grounding tools, rituals, and other sacred traditions, using social media to disseminate the wisdom and inspiration of their practices and knowledge. Witnessing this vibrant resurgence made it clear to me: the time to write this book is now. I include some of these elements here, but do not attempt to cover them all, since specific specialist texts offer excellent in-depth explorations regarding each of these traditions. Where relevant, I will highlight texts I have found useful in ‘Further Reading’ at the end of each post. My book complements these specialist investigations in a more generalist way, using the frame of self-development as the core of community building for liberation to synthesise the emerging movement.
Some of the more well-known mystic teachers of colour whose lives, work, writings, and lineages have profoundly influenced me include the Sufi poets Hafiz and Rumi; Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti; Indian ecofeminist and biodiversity warrior Vandana Shiva; Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh; and Indian yogis Paramahansa Yogananda and B.K.S. Iyengar. Although I no longer consider Amma, the hugging "saint" whose seemingly boundless love for the people was at one time an inspiration, my teacher, the mantra practice I received from her built my focus, discipline, and willpower.
As a poet at heart, I see poets as mystics. Poets inherently understand the interconnectedness of all things—the oneness of Being—which is the essence of metaphor. Dr. Maya Angelou was the first poet I emulated, and my artist community reflects this same spirit. They are poets and activists from diverse heritages who engage with mysticism in its many forms: poetics, cooking, music, cultural work, artistry, herbalism, tarot, sacred tattooing, and even karaoke—walang hiya (without shame). This book is for all of us who draw upon ancient beliefs and practices, weaving them through the loopholes we create in time and space, to heal ourselves and our wounded world.
A mystic perspective recognizes that social differences are superficial, rooted in constructs rather than the holistic, unified reality of existence. While my chosen source texts prioritize Donna Haraway’s concept of a “vision from below,” my overall perspective remains untethered to race or ethnicity. I believe intersectional mystical wisdom can emerge from any source, though it is less common among white communities in the Global North/West, where privilege and modern social engineering often encourage a disconnection from the spiritual aspects of existence, or alternatively, contort, colonise, or capitalise upon them in the manner typical of the New Age movement.
That said, I find value in the teachings of many individuals who refuse to use whiteness to dominate or claim power, and instead choose to speak in service of or amplify voices from the margins. People like Chani Nicholas, Esther Perel, Donna Haraway and Brené Brown exemplify critical self-reflection and a commitment to an anti-racist, decolonized, and more healed, just, and free world. In my adolescence, I devoured Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series, whose concept of the tesseract first introduced me to the idea of folding time and space. Aldous Huxley, while known for his novels, built an early bridge between Eastern and Western mystic philosophies. Rilke’s Book of Hours remains one of my most treasured texts and accompanied me in my move from the US to the UK. I have also studied British mystic Evelyn Underhill, as well as Alan Watts, Ram Dass, and Richard Hittleman—pioneering figures who brought yogic philosophy to the West. Additionally, Tita Evelie taught me directly from the core text of modern wiccan activism, Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance.
To my mind, it is synchronistic that Evelyn Underhill’s Practical Mysticism was written just before the outbreak of World War I—a moment marking the beginning of a violent century of European imperial conflict and decline. Similarly, Intersectional Mysticism has been written and is being published in an apocalyptic moment when the Anglo-American political empire is imploding under the weight of its white supremacist and patriarchal foundations. Climate catastrophe wreaks havoc on vulnerable communities, and digital authoritarian capitalism threatens to dismantle what remains of democratic institutions. Yet, amidst this turmoil, radical futures are continually being imagined and demanded. Abolition and decolonization—rooted in centuries of Black and Indigenous feminist futurity work—are entering mainstream global discourse.
In her book, Underhill reminds us that mysticism is a practical, everyday practice. Far from detaching us from society, it invites us to engage with it more deeply, especially during troubled times. She writes, “It will help them to enter, more completely than ever before, into the life of the group to which they belong. It will teach them to see the world in a truer proportion, discerning eternal beauty beyond and beneath apparent ruthlessness.” Connecting dots between this, the Emergent Strategy method articulated by Black movement doula adrienne maree brown, and the decolonial approach of scholar Priyamvada Gopal, the objective becomes: getting in right relationship with our selves and our surroundings, to envision and enact new possibilities, seeking out in particular those potentially liberatory trajectories curtailed by the colonial encounter. This book echoes and expands upon these themes, offering a framework for intersectional mysticism that meets the challenges of the 21st century and beyond.
I am not only an aspiring mystic teacher and philosopher but also a social scientist, mathematician, and student of natural science. My theory is therefore grounded in a material relationship with the natural world. This book incorporates evidence from across the natural and social sciences to elucidate the effects of certain practices on the body, whether beneficial or harmful, and provide a rationale for affirmative socialization and relationship-building, drawing from physics, biology, psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and psychotherapy. For example, my conception of what it takes to grow as individuals and societies takes for granted the brain’s plasticity, integrative and holistic medical approaches that link the biological with the psychological and social, the role of nourishment in physical and spiritual healing, and the importance of fostering human connection through emotional openness, vulnerability, and consistency.
Countless teachers have shaped my thinking, politics, and practice. These include anti-imperialist Marxian and Black feminist analyses of capitalism, tech and digitization, the cantadora traditions of Latinx storytelling, with their deep knowledge of relationality and the divine feminine, and the philosophy and practice of progressive, queer, non-traditional intimate relationships—arguably among the most radical and honest forms of connection we can currently imagine.
My political analysis builds predominantly on the work of Black American queer and feminist thinkers, theorists, and artists: intersectionality architects Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins, preacher and prophet James Baldwin, warrior poet Audre Lorde, the radical lifework of Professor Angela Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s reporting from within the prison-industrial complex, and adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy for activist organizing. I owe my platform and voice to the Black American spoken word tradition and have learned nearly everything I know from Black feminist Professor bell hooks (except to throw shade on Beyoncé). I have engaged deeply with the life stories and analyses of trans activists like Julia Serrano and Janet Mock to better understand how the gender binary—intersecting with other structures of oppression—constrains human agency and, therefore, liberation.
I am moved by Frida Kahlo and Anaïs Nin’s commitments to their own bisexual, non-monogamous brand of creative innovation. Arundhati Roy and Joan Didion’s cerebral, emotionally charged, politically incisive – though fundamentally divergent – prose. Naomi Klein’s groundbreaking critiques of disaster capitalism. And all the other, mainly feminist, journalists, economists and political economists, ecologists, and geographers exposing ties between the collapse of democracy, resurgence of fascism and authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and the exploitative, racialized neoliberal capitalist system fuelling patriarchal wealth and resource hoarding, distorting reality, and wilfully ignoring the interconnected nature of life on Earth.
This book distils and builds upon my readings of this and similar work, and is informed by them as I write about how and why to implement ancient spiritual and contemporary relational practices into daily life and community building. In doing so, I endeavour to engage in the decolonial practice of folding time and space – to tesser, in the L’Englian sense - to generate sonorous resonance between these seemingly disparate wisdom traditions. However, echoing what peace activist Kazu Haga points out about his own work, there are likely to be ideas here that I have inherited or imbibed without conscious awareness; I may even unfortunately imagine them to be original insights – he describes this phenomenon using the psychiatric concept of cryptomnesia. Thus, although it is my intention and training to reference my work to the fullest extent possible, I express here a blanket apology combined with an unequivocal sense of gratitude for the gifts of any ideas or learning experiences I have encountered for which I am unable to cite the source, and yet which I am still able to convey to you in this text. Any errors contained within are my own.
Further Reading
brown, adrienne maree. (2017). Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press.
Cameron, J. (1995) The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self. Basingstoke and London: Pan Books.
Haga, K (2020) Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. Berkeley: Parallax Press. p. 31
Haraway, D. J. (1988) ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Studies, 14(3), pp. 575–599. doi: 10.2307/3178066.
Underhill, E. 1914. Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons.