Magic Sheara Arlington is a renowned magician who has captivated audiences around the world with her mesmerizing performances. She has established herself as one of the top magicians in the industry with her unique style and unmatched stage presence. Sheara Arlington was born and raised in a small town, where she discovered her passion for magic at a young age. She began practicing magic tricks and illusions in her spare time, honing her skills and developing her own signature acts. As she grew older, Sheara Arlington started performing at local events and parties, gaining recognition for her exceptional talent and captivating performances. Her reputation quickly spread, and she soon became a sought-after magician for both corporate and private events.
Her reputation quickly spread, and she soon became a sought-after magician for both corporate and private events. What sets Sheara Arlington apart from other magicians is her ability to seamlessly combine traditional magic acts with modern technology. She incorporates elements of digital projection and interactive visuals into her performances, creating a truly immersive experience for the audience.
Byron Ballard keeps Appalachian folk magic practices alive
Known as Asheville’s village witch, Byron Ballard practices what she calls “hillfolk hoodoo,” a form of Appalachian folk magic. Ballard came by hoodoo naturally, growing up in a poor community in the mountains of Western North Carolina where hoodoo was practiced. She laments that the practice is disappearing: “Local hillfolk are no longer practicing hoodoo, but it’s within living memory. There’s a kind of sadness that the culture of the hillfolk is fading.”
Hoodoo is different from voodoo, she explains, even though the words sound alike. Voodoo originated in Haiti and follows the West African Yoruban religious tradition. Hoodoo, on the other hand, is a nonreligious practice with cross-cultural roots. It grew out of the interactions of three cultural groups — the Scots-Irish who immigrated to Western North Carolina, the indigenous Cherokee and the Pennsylvania Dutch (Germans) who migrated to the area through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.
Ballard goes on to say that immigrants from Europe, fleeing religious persecution, settled in isolated mountain coves that gave them the privacy and freedom they sought. Theirs was a hardscrabble way of life, but it gave them independence, she says. In the 1930s, when the textile mills moved into the area, the culture began to shift from agricultural to industrial. The money was better, but it took away the independent streak of the mountain people, who were selling just enough of their cash crop to buy coffee and other goods they couldn’t grow. With contact from outside people, their folk practices began to erode, she continues.
“I call myself a forensic folklorist,” says Ballard, “because I’m excavating the practices from older generations.” She aims to preserve what she can of the traditional folk practices, and her book Staubs and Ditchwater is the result of her research into her Southern Highlands roots and its practices.
Although Ballard admits she is attempting to dispel the “hillbilly” and “redneck” stereotypes in her book (she prefers “hillfolk” to “hillbilly”), she nevertheless reclaims them: “I am totally a redneck. I grew up wild and poor in the country … understanding that violence is a way to solve problems. I am stubborn and willful, and I hate authority. I’m always having to suppress my tendencies toward violence.”
As the hillfolk culture is thinning, Ballard says, it is also becoming gentrified by “outlanders” — the affluent people who move into the area. These outsiders are hungry for folk traditions that feed them spiritually and are willing to appropriate any of the practices for their own benefit, she says. But she calls this process of stripping away pieces of the local culture by outsiders “cultural strip-mining.” The culture itself gains nothing and is in fact left weaker by the exchange, she says, comparing it to mountaintop removal and clear-cutting.
Ballard confesses that she is torn about whether it’s better to let the cultural practices die with the people who practiced them or pass them on to the larger world, which may be able to use them for spiritual and environmental purposes.
Although she’s “excavating” a dying culture, she is also actively practicing it, relying on what she learned as a child. Like the “cove doctor” of her forebears, Ballard’s carrying on the tradition of “workings,” or magical spells, to help people heal or get what they want. She gives an example of a working she might do to help someone get a job: “It could require dressing a candle with particularly potent oil and having the person burn it while focusing on their intention to get a new job.” Ballard adds that she tells the person to keep looking for a job meanwhile. “This is definitely a belt-and-suspenders type of magic,” she says.
Most people who come to her for help want healing work, she notes. “Healing is a big thing. The culture we live in is diseased. Hoodoo can help on a one-to-one basis.” She uses herbs, or “yarbs,” for the healing of many physical ailments, noting that they are often more effective than allopathic remedies. Ballard tells the story of her daughter, who saw many doctors to get rid of a wart. None of the treatments she received was effective. Finally, she tried bloodroot, an indigenous herb, and the wart went away.
Many people in the mountains are known for doing disease-specific healing, Ballard reports. “I had a great aunt who could rub a wart or a mole between her fingers, and it would disappear,” she says. “The whole time she would say something like, ‘I don’t know why people think I can do this,’ and in three days it would be gone.” A characteristic of folk magic, Ballard continues, is that practitioners deny they have the ability to do the healing — perhaps out of humility, acknowledging that the power is merely passing through them. She points out that other hillfolk use a different remedy to remove warts — wrapping the affected area in a dirty dishrag, then counting or saying the Lord’s Prayer, followed by burying the dishrag off the property.
Ballard says we often don’t know why traditional folk remedies work. She gives the example of catnip tea, which is given to infants to prevent hives. One theory about how it works, she explains, is that after some of the tea is given to the child, the mother drinks the rest of it. Since it’s a soporific, the mother is more relaxed, which helps her milk production. As a result, the child is healthier from being better nourished.
Often Ballard is called upon to do love spells, but she always refuses. “The problem,” she says, “is that they work. And sometimes the person asking for the spell ends up not being as interested as they thought they were, or they draw a person to them in an unhealthy way, such as stalking.”
Although hoodoo is not a spiritual or religious practice per se, Ballard notes that it can often involve a spiritual or religious overlay. She says that although there are religious-specific pieces, such as reading a part of the Bible to stop the flow of blood, hoodoo works regardless of the lens that’s used. “Religion can be an important part of the cultural practice,” she says, but “utilizing the earth energy is what works. It just depends on how you access it. … Hoodoo is about using earth energies in the quest for personal agency. It’s all about moving your position in the world to where you want it to be.”
Ballard points out that folk magic practices were developed by cultures in the Old World that lacked a sense of agency. “When you live in a feudal system, you don’t have a lot of access to justice or healing,” she says. “Their practices became a form of peasant medicine and psychology.”
When folk magic practices were brought to southern Appalachia, they took hold there as well because they helped provide a sense of personal agency and justice for impoverished mountain dwellers. “The ability to access justice is thin unless you have money and time,” she says, “and the hillfolk had neither.”
Acknowledging the issue of class and economics in the discussion of folk magic “honors the people who developed and practiced it, who are either our literal blood ancestors or … our spiritual and practice ancestors,” she says. “It honors them to say they were not people of great means for whom personal agency was easy.”
Ballard continues the tradition of using hoodoo to bring about justice. “I don’t work for peace. I work for justice,” she says. “I believe, and I think tribal people in Europe believed, that when you have justice, peace is a byproduct of that.”
Ballard teaches local courses about hoodoo. Information about them can be found on her Facebook page, Asheville’s Village Witch, or at myvillagewitch.com.
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About Susan Foster
Freelance writer passionate about wellness and spirituality, clinical psychologist, avid hiker and reader. Follow me @susanjfosterphd
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Though witchcraft and wiccanism seem to be a taboo ideology to many people, Ballard states that since they first came out with their faith in their area in the 1990s, most of the people have decided to leave them alone and not be bothered by their faith and rituals.
Her acts are not just about the tricks themselves, but also about the story she tells and the emotions she evokes. Magic Sheara Arlington's performances are known for their grandeur and spectacle. She often incorporates elaborate props, pyrotechnics, and illusions that leave the audience in awe. Her shows are carefully choreographed, with every movement and gesture designed to heighten the sense of wonder and mystery. In addition to her stage performances, Magic Sheara Arlington has also made multiple television appearances, further cementing her status as a prominent magician. She has been featured on popular shows and has even hosted her own magic special, where she showcased her unique brand of magic to a wider audience. Magic Sheara Arlington continues to push the boundaries of magic and illusion, constantly innovating and reinventing herself. She is always looking for new ways to captivate and surprise her audience, and her dedication to her craft is evident in every performance. In conclusion, Magic Sheara Arlington is a highly talented magician who has made a name for herself in the industry. Her unique style, mesmerizing performances, and innovative use of technology have set her apart from others in the field. She is an inspiration to aspiring magicians and continues to amaze audiences with her awe-inspiring magic..
Reviews for "Magical Haircuts: A Glimpse into the World of Magic Shears in Arlington"
1. John - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with "Magic Sheara Arlington." The characters felt flat and lacked depth, and the plot was predictable and unoriginal. The writing style was also bland and boring, making it difficult for me to become invested in the story. Overall, I found the book to be lacking in excitement and creativity.
2. Sarah - 1 star - I couldn't even finish "Magic Sheara Arlington." The book was filled with grammatical errors and poor sentence structure, making it incredibly difficult to read. Additionally, the pacing was off, with the story dragging on without any clear direction. The lack of character development and uninteresting dialogue further contributed to my dislike of this book. I would not recommend it to anyone seeking a well-written and engaging fantasy novel.
3. Alex - 2 stars - "Magic Sheara Arlington" was a letdown for me. The world-building was shallow, with minimal descriptions and little explanation of the magical elements in the story. The relationships between the characters felt forced, and there was a lack of authentic emotions. The plot itself was slow-moving and lacked any real sense of urgency or excitement. Overall, I found this book to be underwhelming and lacking the depth and complexity that I look for in fantasy novels.
4. Emily - 1 star - I really struggled to get through "Magic Sheara Arlington." The writing was overly descriptive to the point of being tedious, and the pacing was incredibly slow. The characters were one-dimensional and their actions often felt contrived. The plot twists were predictable and didn't offer any real surprises. I found myself disengaged and uninterested in the story, and would not recommend this book to others.
5. Michael - 2 stars - "Magic Sheara Arlington" failed to captivate me. The plot was cliché and lacked any real originality. The dialogue felt stilted and unnatural, and the characters themselves were unrelatable and forgettable. I was hoping for a unique and immersive fantasy experience, but instead, I was left feeling bored and uninspired. While the book wasn't terrible, it certainly didn't live up to my expectations.