[This was published in the first issue of the queer witch club zine, released in 2019, some information may be out of date.
Please note – this interview contains reference to derogatory language/slurs that the author has been subject to]
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Christopher Penczak is a Witch, teacher, writer and healer. His practice draws upon the foundation of both modern and traditional witchcraft blended with the wisdom of mystical traditions from across the globe. He is a practitioner and teacher of shamanism, tarot, Reiki healing, herbalism, astrology and Qabalah. Christopher has penned over twenty books on spirituality, witchcraft, healing and magic, including ‘Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe.’
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What was your first introduction to witchcraft?
My first teacher was also my art teacher from when I was seven to about sixteen. She beat around the bush about being a Witch for about a year, never using the W word, but talking about alternative points of history and culture through art and music. Then, once I had graduated Catholic School and was eighteen, she revealed she was a Witch. In those days, people were not open about it, and you didn’t tell “kids” you were a Witch. But thankfully she did, and opened a path for me that changed my life.
When did you first hear the word ‘queer?’
Most likely in a derogatory way in grade school. Growing up in the era I did, queer was almost akin to the word fag or faggot. It wasn’t a word I embraced. At that time, gay was the popular choice, and the discussion of gender was less vocal than orientation. It was only after college I had heard terms like queer liberation and got more involved in the LGBT community. My partner Steve was co-facilitating Nashua Outright, a LGBT Youth support group, and was a bit more versed in the community than I at the time. We later joined a community described as a queer pagan brotherhood, the Between the Worlds festival, and that is probably my first strong positive association with the term queer, and when I began to identify with it as a broader identity in my life.
For you personally, does your queerness intersect with your witch practice?
I think the two are deeply entwined for me.I was leaving a dominant religious paradigm of Christianity and becoming agnostic and I had never conceived of a spiritual tradition that would be welcoming to me and embracing of, not just tolerating, my sexual identity and orientation. In classes with Laurie Cabot, at age nineteen, I met the first adult openly queer people in my life, and they also identified as Witches prior to the class. It was a life changing class for both the Witchcraft and for that connection. I later realised some branches of Wicca were not as welcoming, at least at that time, but I was very lucky to find a Witchcraft that was embracing. Laurie [Cabot] would often write and talk about the connection between the persecution of Witches and of LGBT people, even though she doesn’t identify as such. She taught from a very inclusive worldview and that has been at the core of my own Craft.
In a general sense, do you think there’s an inherent link between identifying as queer and as a witch?
There is certainly the aspect of otherness to both being queer and being a Witch, though it’s good to make sure people know that just because you are queer doesn’t mean you are a Witch, and just because you are a Witch, you don’t have to identify as queer. But the sense of being outside of the mainstream goes hand in hand for both. I think those of both identities often are creative and seek the beauty and light amid the darkness, but are also on familiar terms with the darkness itself. I sometimes wonder what will happen when/if both Witchcraft and queer identity is more accepted and common in the mainstream, yet I think being accepted and not persecuted is also a far cry from walking the edge of society and seeing things differently and creating from that place.
I think those of both identities often are creative and seek the beauty and light amid the darkness, but are also on familiar terms with the darkness itself.
Who is your favourite queer witch?
Oh, I know so many amazing people, I think I would be hard pressed to pick just one. I think my two partners would be on the top of the list, Steve Kenson and Adam Sartwell. For deceased Craft elders, Scott Cunningham was a huge influence on me and hearing stories of him doing drag made me wish we had some photos or videos of it.
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