Sarah Lyons > Quotes

“With a tool like crystals—or herbs or candles—I see a lot of people buying and selling them like they are buying and selling feelings. I want to feel love, so I’ll buy a pink rock; I want to feel safe, so I’ll buy a black rock; I want to feel calm, so I’ll buy a clear rock. When it doesn’t work, the only logical conclusion—or so you’re led to believe—is that there must be something really wrong with you or maybe magic isn’t real after all! It’s not the crystal, and it’s for sure not you. It’s all based on manufactured insecurities—buying and selling feelings, especially to women, is just marketing 101—which are based on fears, and when you are afraid, you are easy to control.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“It’s important to lean into initiation and let yourself be changed by it. Remember, the world isn’t actually different—all the same stuff is still there—you are just seeing it differently, and in magic, perception is half the battle.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“It wasn’t until I was able to name why I felt upset and identify what was wrong with those interactions that I started to gain power and get over some internalized BS. It was an initiation and an act of empowerment all in one. I felt the same way when I discovered socialism. Suddenly I had a framework to describe power and money in the world in a way I didn’t before. I could name the things I thought were wrong, instead of vaguely pointing at things like poverty and saying “I don’t like it!” Naming oppression doesn’t make it go away, but it gives you the power to fight an actual problem instead of just flailing around boxing with shadows.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“Another uncomfortable truth is that much of the “magical” stuff being sold by big companies has been made in factories or dug up from mines that don’t treat their workers or the earth very nicely. I know, I know, there’s no truly ethical way to consume under capitalism (I’ve seen the meme), but it does sometimes feel ironic that people buy something to make them feel empowered, when the person who made it is so disempowered themselves.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“Imagine you have the power to change and shape reality and you have thousands of years of magical knowledge at your fingertips because of the internet. But right at the time when humanity leans dangerously close to the brink of extinction, you use all that to… put pentagrams on knee-high socks? It feels weird, right? I don’t think the commodification of witchcraft is entirely witches’ fault. Capitalism is really good at neutralizing a threat through commodifying it. Put a price tag on something and you can own and control it. Finding your inner power is so important, especially for women, girls, queer people, and people of color, who are told so often to shrink themselves for others. Witchcraft is a tool for accessing that inner power, and it gets me so mad to see all this potential energy directed at purely surface-level aesthetic stuff. Are women really going to have our power reduced down to image once again?”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“I actually don’t mind if you’re one of those people who is side-eyeing this book right now, but I will make a utilitarian plea to you, just once, before you put it down and walk out of the store to post something angry on social media: Magic, or at least a belief in magic, has been around for pretty much ever, at least if the oldest artifacts of humanity are to be believed. And the way I see it, we can either make a home for these beliefs or face the consequences of leaving all this power and history for our political adversaries.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“The gift that witchcraft gives us is the gift of connection—the very thing the Disenchanted World wants to take away. When we do a spell, we are connecting to ourselves and our own power. We can connect to the land, stones, animals, and plants that surround us, along with the spirits we cannot always see, but that are here just like we are. In most group witchcraft rituals, people sit or stand in a circle, often holding hands to collect and raise power. Witchcraft is about connection, and feeling connected is punk as hell.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“Magic can be a lot of things all at once: It’s a tool for making your reality a little bit better. It’s a philosophy for understanding the world we live in. It’s a language through which we can talk to the divine. And it’s a technology for self-transformation and betterment. At different points in your magical practice, you will find that different aspects of magic resonate with you.”
― Sarah Lyons, How to Study Magic: A Guide to History, Lore, and Building Your Own Practice

“So why witchcraft and activism? Why not just magic more broadly or a Necronomicon-style book that will summon the Old Ones to reclaim the world? A few reasons. 1. I know witchcraft best. 2. The second option would drive you insane.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism

“As an activist myself, I’ve been all over the place the last few years, taking stock of what’s been going on and advocating for change. I’ve marched, organized, and agitated; slept in tents on the path of pipelines with snipers in the distant hills; been arrested for civil disobedience on one of the largest bridges in New York City; and seen tanks rolling down more than one street—under two different presidential administrations. It’s all given me so many reasons for despair, but also for hope.”
― Sarah Lyons, Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism