The Inquisitor in My Inbox: Who Gets to Gatekeep the Divine?
- daniellemariefusco
- Apr 12
- 7 min read
by Danielle Marie Fusco
I recently stood at a cultural venue to present a lecture & performance series which was a multidisciplinary presentation about the exploration of my ancestral journey as an Italian American. This wasn't just a "dance lecture, performance and class." It was a piece of the story of my life as an Italian-American in search for understanding a deeper meaning of who I am and sharing the abstract way in which I sought truth.
Having this blog is new for me and being a writer is new domain. My language and the most natural way for me to express is through movement. But I am also a teacher so I decided to fuse contemporary choreography, ancient stories and a process of healing and here I am trying to put it in words. At this event, I spoke about shared traditions we carry in the diaspora as well as the internal and external struggle to keep our ancestral memory from being flattened into a Hollywood stereotype.
I presented an artistic contemporary work inspired by the work of Carlo Ginzburg, showing how the Inquisition systematically rebranded folk protection and agrarian fertility rites as "witchcraft." I shared a media presentation of my life—from me as a child dressing up as Mother Mary
examples of concert and commercial stage performances to the piazzas of Southern Italy, clips of tarantellas I learned on the land and demonstrations of healing mentorships in Folk Healing modalities where I was taught in the "old ways" of healing and exposed to the raw, beautiful reality of Folk Catholicism, primordial mysticism, The Old Religion, land based practices and more.
Then, drumroll…suspense…
the email arrived.
An attendee, someone who sat through the documented history, the lived experience, and the crafted artistry wrote to tell me I was "saturated in the occult." She warned that my salvation was at risk because I "mix Christianity with the occult," and declared that "just because one says they believe in God doesn’t make them a true Christian."
I felt this was a classic act of spiritual gatekeeping. And it forced me to ask the question: In a world this expansive, who gave you the authority to decide who belongs to God? I truly respect the diversity of cultures and belief systems of anyone, but this felt like a modern witch hunt.
The Colonization & Erasure
To label my work to a limited concept of "New Age Occultism" is more than a personal insult; it is a colonial erasure of Southern Italian and rural or agrarian matrilineal history. What this woman saw as "sorcery" is, in part, a survival strategy of our grandmothers and for others, a way of life.
For some people in Italy, there is not really a clean line between the Church and the Earth. Our ancestors practiced folk magic, folk medicine, some call it Benedicaria—the Way of Blessing, others call it “The Old Ways”, Stregoneria and so on. In some practices, they didn't see a conflict between the Saints and the spirits of the land. They healed with their hands using channeled focused magnetism techniques passed down through mentorship and for some, mediumship. (I like to think of it similarly to Reiki, perhaps with a different interpretation and technique). They even danced to exorcise the "bite" of life’s traumas...the tarantola of poverty, systemic oppression, and grief. (look up ritual roots of Pizzica)
When you call these practices "detestable," you aren't defending the faith; you are attempting to scrub the "folk" out of the soul. You are trying to sterilize a lineage that survived through rhythmic ritual long before it was forced into a rigid, patriarchal catechism. You are siding with the very Inquisitors who tried to burn the medicine out of our lineage.
This brief email used Deuteronomy and Matthew as weapons to suggest I am calling upon "unclean spirits." It is a tired tactic: using the “scripture” to cut down anything that feels too feminine, too bodily, too demonic, too fear based, too ancestral and the list goes on. But if we are going to use the Bible as a yardstick, let’s look at the verses many gatekeepers choose to ignore:
On the Wildness of Spirit: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." — John 3:8
And with all due respect, “The Spirit” is not owned by a specific denomination or a Sunday morning schedule. For me life is a dancing prayer, and divinity can move through the dancer, the artist, and the ritualist. It is wild, unpredictable, and all encompassing in every corner of creation.
On the Arrogance of Judgment: "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls." — Romans 14:4
For a message that ended with a quote from Romans, the sender missed the most crucial instruction of that book: Mind your own soul. My spiritual standing is not subject to a peer review by a stranger in a dance workshop. And even if I was standing there with a pointy hat, burning incense and chanting….is it not my right to be a witch if I so choose to believe in the occult here in America? And another point....when you sign up for a class in a cultural dance...is it not common practice to dig a little deeper in reading about what you are signing up for?
On the Diversity of the Sacred: "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit... and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone." — 1 Corinthians 12:4-6
My "activity" is the dance. My "gift" is the ritual of connection and the preservation of history as well as telling more of our story. Much of our Italian roots in our Italian American story have been omitted. Similar to much of women’s history across many cultures. To call my spiritual relationship "detestable" is to tell the Creator that He made a mistake in how He empowered me.
The Patriarchy of "Salvation"
Let’s call this what it really is: a fear of a woman in her power. Throughout history, women who spoke to spirits, healed with herbs, or led their communities in ecstatic movement, who danced around the trees and so on were labeled "witches" or "servants of the occult" to strip them of their agency.
When someone tells me I need "saving," what they are really saying is that I need to be contained. They are uncomfortable with a woman who claims a direct line to the Divine without a male mediator or a rigid, written dogma to tell her how to move. Which is why much of the stories of Mary Magdalene and her experience as a high priestess and equal to Jesus is rarely discussed. Their Heiros Gamos union was not emphasized in my Catholic upbringing here in the USA. It is my observation, experience and opinion that the “system” of which we live in fears a woman who is "saturated" but not in the occult, but in her own sovereignty…a woman who cannot be easily policed.
The Night Battles Continue
In my presentation, I showcased a contemporary reimagining of the Pizzica as well as a modern interpretation of a ritual dance utilizing a stick and castinettes inspired by the Benendanti (as I mentioned above). It was a tribute to the resilience of the Italian spirit told through a mystical woman’s perspective….a woman with gnosis…a woman who questions. Whether we are discussing the Benandanti of the North or the Tarantate of the South, the narrative is similar: institutional powers try to label our healing as "evil" or a necessity for "exorcism from demonic possession" so they can own our "role" in society, our voice, our path, our purpose…..
Receiving that email reminded me that these "Night Battles" for our cultural and spiritual autonomy are far from over. The battle today is against the narrow-mindedness that seeks to colonize our spirituality and tell us that our ancestral traditions are "sinful."
I am an Italian-American artist. I am a dancer, a mystic, and a student of the old ways. My work explores the beauty of ancient wisdom in a modern world. I reimagine folklore, I give voice to the women who were silenced…..My relationship with the Divine is not up for debate, and it is certainly not up for "salvation" by those who fear the very ground they stand on.
I appreciate this woman's genuine concern for me as I do believe it came from a good intention.... however I’ll keep my dance. I’m not "saturated in the occult".....I’m embodyling lineage practices that were here before your dogma, I am utlizing my divine gifts. My dance is my prayer, and I don't need a permit to pray nor permission to express my own artistic voice.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. This space is a platform where I share my perspectives, experiences, and reflections as an artist, healer and educator.
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