K-Folk Magic
The foundations of mudangs practices are rooted in the folk magic.
Do not overlook folk magic.
Its often carried quietly through the maternal line. Through the mothers, grandmothers, and matriarchs. It holds weight. It holds medicine. It holds story.
Recently, mudangs have become a popular topic through films, dramas, and social media. More people want to learn. To know. To reconnect with culture and ancestry. But much of the focus has been placed on the mudang as a figure and not on the foundational practices that sustain the tradition.
Folks magic is the structural foundation of the spiritual cosmology and practices of mudangs. With its roots in animist beliefs, that understanding that energy is present all around. That nature is the earthly expression of the divine. Land, water, wind, fire, stones, homes, ancestors all carry presence. And we as human, are part of and living within that sacred system. It is not separate from us.
Folk magic is aligning with nature, connecting with the land, and building rituals, and practices. Its the rituals of harvest, planting and cultivating earth stewardship. That extends to the tending and caretaking of our homes, business and other sacred places. It is understanding that a home accumulates energy just like a body does. Your home is sacred. Your body is sacred.
It is all part of our work, not just mudangs. It is communal responsibility.
Mudangs cannot hold nor carry the entire communities on our back.
I think of my own grandmother, who worked the land, the fields while carrying the entire family on her back. Her back curved, heavy from all that she carried. I also realized, that I carried the same weight and heaviness in my own life. The difference is that I chose to lighten what I carried.
I severed what was not mine. I chose what I would hold, and burned the rest.
My back began to straightened. Then I remembered my vision of a wooden rod, my spine straighten. Upright and intentional.
When people want to “become” a mudang, they often overlook the groundwork and foundations. Without understanding folk magic or the land practices, the home tending, the ancestral etiquette. They see the regalia’s, the tools and popularized glamour. They dont see the work or the cultivation. It is repetitive and mundane. It is seasonal. It is embedded in daily life.
If you want to understand mudang work, begin there. Look in the folk magic that was carried by our mother, grandmothers, the matriarch and stewards of the land + home. Cultivate you, your home and altar.
