Missing Witches - IMBOLC： Future Histories of Black Magic - Black Witch Council 2024

00:00:00.000 If you want to support The Missing Witches Project, join the coven.

00:00:04.540 Find out how at missingwitches.com. 1.00

00:00:08.060 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:14.520 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:17.620 Hello and welcome to an extra special episode of The Missing Witches podcast. 0.81

00:00:24.680 For those of you who are longtime listeners, you know that we love to celebrate Black History Month. And every year, we invite a panel of brilliant, inspiring Black witches to sit in circle with us and chat, because we believe, and we say this all the time, that our guests who are here tonight are creating what will be thought of.

00:00:54.460 as black history in the future so we call this future histories of black magic and this panel

00:01:02.680 y'all if you're in the coven and you you saw this invite so many of you were in the comments

00:01:08.180 freaking out over this panel and i am kind of too this is an amazing array of thinkers

00:01:16.060 and dare i say historians before i get into the prompt um that we chose for this year

00:01:23.060 all of you contend with history in some way or another, whether it's your personal history or

00:01:29.060 the history of the United States of America or the history of the stars, even. And I'm looking

00:01:36.160 at you, Thea. So I want to, again, say a huge and special, very, very special thanks to Maria

00:01:48.020 Feminist, a.k.a. Feminist.

00:01:50.440 Oh, so happy to be here.

00:01:53.080 Oh, I didn't know if I was supposed to say that.

00:01:55.060 No, I paused.

00:01:58.820 I paused.

00:02:00.200 Well, hello.

00:02:01.540 Hello.

00:02:02.300 So let's everybody, when I say your name, give me a big well hello.

00:02:06.000 Hi, Maria.

00:02:08.120 And Olomi Amaloku, a.k.a. Got2bOshun is here.

00:02:13.140 Hi.

00:02:14.260 Hey, greetings, everybody.

00:02:15.360 hi Nadra Niddle is here hi Nadra welcome back hello hello Christina Cleveland hi mama

00:02:26.400 that smile I'm telling you the first time I met Christina I was so nervous

00:02:31.980 because her book was so good and then she smiled and I was like

00:02:38.120 okay everything's gonna be okay Marcelite Fala hi how are you doing

00:02:45.680 and Zoe Flowers is here hi Zoe hello hello and of course Thea Anderson our resident astrologer

00:02:59.300 is here hi y'all it's an honor it is always an honor to be in circle with all of you thank you

00:03:07.200 again so much so of course again we're marking black history month with this conversation with

00:03:14.580 this episode and so I pulled a prompt from um Frederick Douglass a speech that he made in I

00:03:22.460 want to say 1852 a speech that he made in 1852 where he says we have to do with the past only

00:03:32.500 as we can make it useful to the present and the future. So I feel like a lot of us, again,

00:03:40.740 are encumbered either by our own personal history or American history or global history,

00:03:49.640 and sometimes it can be difficult to figure out how to make use of those feelings for the present

00:03:56.360 and the future. Again, whether that's our own personal history or a global history that we

00:04:02.300 are contending with. So I want to start by asking you to introduce yourself. You know,

00:04:12.480 there's that old saying, you're under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.

00:04:17.060 So we always ask our guests, even if you've been on the podcast five, ten times,

00:04:21.580 I want to know, who are you today? Where are you today? And I mean that in a metaphysical sense.

00:04:30.340 Like, where are you at? How are you contending with the past? But let's just start with an

00:04:35.880 introduction. So I am going to turn to Zoe Flowers, who happens to be in the top corner of 1.00

00:04:42.880 my display. How are you? What are you? What's going on, Zoe? Tell me about the past, present,

00:04:49.980 in the future. Sure, sure. Thank you again for having me. Love to be on the panel again. Yeah,

00:04:56.360 I've been sitting with this question since I saw it. I'm well, you know, as well as, you know,

00:05:02.460 can be expected with everything going on. My pronouns are she and they, and today I'm calling

00:05:09.060 in from Connecticut, also known as the land of the podunk and the piquanic people. So I just 0.96

00:05:15.680 wanted to start out with that first. So I think I'll just call myself a storyteller today since

00:05:23.940 we get to choose every day. And that's kind of the vibe I've been in since the beginning of the year.

00:05:29.800 This history piece. So I'm in my mother's house, the house she grew up in,

00:05:38.520 the house I spent a lot of time in. So it's also my grandparents' house. I came here during COVID

00:05:44.160 at the very beginning I thought I'd be here until April because of course it was going to be over in

00:05:47.740 April and still here going back and forth between Brooklyn here in Brooklyn and so I've been

00:05:54.300 confronting my past like every single day what did it mean to be you know growing up as like the

00:06:01.760 sensitive weird kid in the family um healing those wounds repairing the mother wound day by day

00:06:13.340 sometimes I do it better than others and um yeah and I've also been wondering about the history of

00:06:20.900 my grandmother because I remember her doing things you know she's from Tipton Georgia so I remember

00:06:25.460 her like sweeping the front doorstep I remember dream books by the bed so there are certain like

00:06:31.580 witchy things that I remember that we they would have never called witchy um so yeah so I've been

00:06:38.240 you know i renovated this house about a year and a half still more to do um and so

00:06:45.280 yeah i'm trying to find pieces of myself in this family i would say yes and as it is you know we

00:06:55.100 are literal pieces of of our ancestors you know that's what makes our dna right but then what

00:07:01.000 about what we do with those bits of DNA and how we go into the world and being in your mother's

00:07:08.260 house I imagine like literally and metaphorically is like a lot to contend with. Yeah yeah it is but

00:07:16.800 we're making it through. Of course of course I mean we all come from our mother's bodies and

00:07:22.740 you know in effect our mother's houses and it affects us all completely differently. I am not

00:07:29.560 a mother but i know that olomi is one and maybe you want to tell us olomi about the mother wound

00:07:38.860 from from both sides of that being a child and also being a parent hi i'm so glad you asked i'm

00:07:49.600 happy to be here as always it is always a blessing and an honor to be amongst those that know and a

00:07:58.780 specific blessing and honor to be around sisters that know so grateful always grateful oh the

00:08:06.680 mother wound I am actually in the process of kind of musing over this over the um the winter holidays

00:08:16.180 I was just thinking about how a lot of the way that we view our mothers is still through a

00:08:25.980 patriarchal lens so there are so many ways that our mothers were just powerful beings and the 0.98

00:08:34.640 leaders of the family and that translates to bitches you know it's a bitchy translation and 0.98

00:08:42.280 it's like if your father was there then he he ganged up on her with you both of y'all thought 1.00

00:08:48.960 she was a bitch you know and if he wasn't there when you did see him he still thought she was a 0.99

00:08:53.880 So it's like you're looking at her still through a patriarchal lens. And I always hope and pray that for each of us, we can come to a point where we understand that for most of us, our mother was the first strong woman that we were taught to despise. 1.00

00:09:09.820 the first strong feminine presence that we were taught to despise for her strength in ancient 0.85

00:09:17.020 times it was understood that your mother was the being whose whose responsibility it was to push

00:09:23.740 you to your highest level and so you expected your mother to tell you what to do and do these

00:09:29.360 things and do it now we see that as nagging as worrying oh she made me do all these things i

00:09:34.820 didn't want to do whereas in ancient times that was part of what made her the goddess we were like

00:09:40.100 of course yep she's gonna come along and write the whole script and I'll just follow it up until

00:09:45.260 I'm ready to follow my own you know so now it becomes this thing that is so daunting and

00:09:51.380 dangerous and something that we have to heal from so there's that side of it of course and that

00:09:57.620 comes from not only me being a mother, but my mother being an ancestor. And so much of our

00:10:05.340 relationship is better now that she's an ancestor, because there's so many things that she can say

00:10:11.140 that she couldn't say while she was alive. So there was so many pressures on her to make me

00:10:17.900 be a particular type of person. And she knew I wasn't that kind of person. My mother is the

00:10:22.540 person who told me I was a witch. She was like, you're a witch. And we come from a long line of 0.99

00:10:26.720 witches right but she still was afraid of what that would mean in my life so still you know

00:10:33.440 there was all of this oh don't do that don't say that don't wear that you know and so so much of

00:10:38.780 that happened while she was alive that then once she became an ancestor it's like oh really you

00:10:45.400 just wanted to say this my vision of her is always in the spirit realm in hot pants and a thigh high

00:10:52.740 boot dancing with jimmy hendris because that's who my mother is but she didn't get to be that

00:10:58.160 person in my life for social reasons so whenever i think about the mother wound i think about that

00:11:03.940 and then as far as mothering i try to explain to my children if i have to put some sort of

00:11:13.120 strictures around you it is to keep you safe it's not because i don't think you're perfect as you are

00:11:18.500 it's not because i'm not proud of you as you are but so many places in this world are still unsafe 0.99

00:11:25.920 for you as you are so having children that are non-binary having children that are trans you

00:11:32.140 know there were certain ways and especially in the black community there were certain ways we've

00:11:36.020 always had to navigate that you know from the time they were small we were navigating in particular

00:11:41.260 ways it's like you know now that they're adults i'm like okay i'm just the supporter i'm just the

00:11:46.760 ally but when you're little I have to tell you to do it a certain way we don't want to but I want

00:11:53.580 you to be safe so I think for me from that mothering perspective I really think I know you've

00:11:59.980 heard me say a thousand times and I hold true to this I don't believe in forgiveness I think 0.85

00:12:04.980 forgiveness is something that was created to keep women and to keep black people in a position that's 1.00

00:12:11.180 less than human because nobody that is considered fully human is expected to forget people who are 0.91

00:12:17.560 considered fully human are expected to fight when they are confronted with something that can take

00:12:22.420 their lives but the only people i forget are my mother and my children that's it so i i always

00:12:29.920 try to come from the perspective of give your mother grace if you ain't gonna give nobody else

00:12:33.920 grace. Give mama a little bit of grace, you know? So yeah, those, that is my thought on that.

00:12:40.240 And before, um, I, I ask our, our next guest, um, can, can you tell our listeners who maybe

00:12:48.700 are new to the podcast, who you are as people who haven't met you before?

00:12:53.320 Alrighty. Well, I'm a homeschooling mother of six. My oldest child will be 34 this year and I

00:13:01.100 I have an 11-year-old grandson, so I've been homeschooling my entire life.

00:13:05.980 Also, for that whole same period of time, I've been a priestess of the Yoruba deity, Oshun.

00:13:12.320 So I'm a priestess of Oshun.

00:13:14.580 I'm also a hereditary witch from my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. 0.95

00:13:19.880 And I am the teacher and the creatrix of what we call Black witchcraft, the Black witchcraft 0.93

00:13:24.940 lifestyle, being a witch and making sure that you're incorporating your Blackness, your 1.00

00:13:29.620 diasporic African-ness and those aspects into your craft. So that's who I am. I teach courses. 0.96

00:13:38.820 I do funerals. I do weddings, you know, all of those priestly things. And I try my best to

00:13:46.540 always be an example of a ferocious woman and to encourage other women to be ferocious. I think

00:13:53.640 that to save the world, which is ours because we're the ones who gave birth to it,

00:13:59.620 we have to become ferocious we have to get out of the patriarchal mindset of trying to be sweet 0.99

00:14:05.300 and kind and meek and mild and we have to realize that motherfuckers are coming for our creation 0.99

00:14:10.560 and we've got to be fucking ferocious so yeah that's who i am yeah and there's like a ferocity 0.99

00:14:19.120 that is somehow tender that comes off of you it's um you're such a paradox and that and that's one 0.96

00:14:25.880 of my favorite things about you you're like equally like terrifying and comforting as a human

00:14:31.880 so thank you for existing inside the paradox that we all do um i want to move to sherry shown that

00:14:41.720 hoodoo lady because you arrived just as we were doing our brief introductions and so i missed your

00:14:48.540 name so also with us tonight is sherry shown aka that hoodoo lady it's so good to see you mama how

00:14:56.060 are you doing highly favored y'all i am so grateful to be around all of this love and magic i love this

00:15:05.400 time of year and i love that the work that we do can be so eclectic but yet still from that same

00:15:12.860 unified spirit yes tell our listeners who you are i am that hoodoo lady i am honored always to be

00:15:22.660 on anything that you all do on mrs and witches podcast um i am an author of two books who for

00:15:30.520 everyone else so and also the hoodoo guide to the bible i am a believer in intention faith and

00:15:36.580 direction. I am a believer that the Bible is the largest spellbook known to our understanding over

00:15:43.580 the last 2,000 years, and it can be used for deliverance purposes. What else? I no longer do

00:15:52.480 readings, but I am doing classwork in the form of book events, virtual hosted class and work that

00:16:02.500 we're doing um as well as wine cheese wisdoms every third wednesday online as well so i don't

00:16:09.920 get into a lot of classy things because i'm actually still doing my next project which is

00:16:16.600 my very first oracle deck that if everything in spirit says the same will be produced in

00:16:22.860 saman of 2025 well i'm looking forward to that i cannot wait to see your deck

00:16:30.760 y'all y'all the artist is from peru and i just every time i look at the artwork i just go

00:16:38.480 that's that's mine that's mine that's all yours jeremiah 29 11 you know we're always preaching

00:16:46.000 that jeremiah 29 11 it's about bringing forth that thing it is all for good it is all for your

00:16:53.300 forward movement right the times of us thinking that to me the times of us thinking that deity

00:17:00.400 or your ancestors or your guides are there to put a thumb on you and put you in your place are over

00:17:05.860 this that to me when I want to encourage you and inspire you I'm doing it to push you forward

00:17:13.180 as you want because I believe the deity loves you exactly who you are and what you are

00:17:18.700 they're not asking for you to change but they're giving you the tools to change if that's what you

00:17:24.740 want okay sherry can you tell me how do you define deliverance so how i define deliverance

00:17:34.140 is very tactile it is very action-oriented and very now so if i need rent paid that's deliverance

00:17:40.940 i'm not gonna ask in my hoodoo practice i don't ask hoodoo for i can but i don't ask hoodoo for

00:17:48.380 what hairstyle i need i can do that something other way i can pick a card for that right i can

00:17:54.280 pick out a card and if I see the tower card I go oh time for a new wig great total change

00:18:00.120 but when I use hoodoo for is the rent page is somebody stepping out that doesn't need to step

00:18:07.700 out if I'm trying to banish a neighbor who's coming over to try to partake of my legally growing

00:18:14.600 herbs that's deliverance that's an absolute need that you are needing to come about with

00:18:25.620 some kind of change that you want to influence your world if I want to change the vote if I

00:18:32.960 want to cover myself in protection before I go out and protest so that I can get the right to 0.93

00:18:38.560 have an abortion. These are the things that are deliverance to me. Versus I'm just going to ask

00:18:45.760 for deliverance that when I drive down the street, I get the best coffee. That's not deliverance

00:18:54.680 work to me in my world. My world is when you're coming to something with a place of urgency.

00:19:01.900 when my daughter was growing up we would ask her me and her other mother would ask her

00:19:09.340 to have alacrity are you doing this with some kind of urgency and she would go no okay there

00:19:19.160 are times to be urgent and there are times not to when there's a fire happening that's urgency

00:19:23.640 to get that fire out when there's something else going on that's not an urgency if you're if you

00:19:31.760 have time and your and your maslow's hierarchy of need is being met at the first and second level

00:19:38.380 probably not urgent but if you're not beginning food shelter health that's urgent that's deliverance

00:19:45.780 thank you maria i thought of you when sherry said you know

00:19:52.620 maybe the tower card just means it's time for a new hairstyle

00:19:57.820 i freaking love it i love it yeah tell us about your book that just came out and who you are

00:20:07.500 and hi maria love you hello i'm so excited to be back thank you for having me i am so grateful

00:20:16.620 to be in community with all of you today both everyone who's in the room with us as well as

00:20:24.100 the listeners thank you for tuning in um so yeah i'm maria menace i consider myself to be

00:20:31.220 an unapologetically black earth worshiping jewish autistic queer woman um who's and i

00:20:41.780 think you can sum up my work that you know i'm a tarot reader i'm a teacher i'm a ritual

00:20:47.840 facilitator and my work centers around blending spirituality with magic liberation work and also

00:20:55.680 eroticism in everyday mundane life I think that there is so much self-development that you can do

00:21:05.800 with spirituality but what is what is the point if it ends when you die right like it has to extend

00:21:14.100 beyond yourself. I think the end result of all of our magic should be to cultivate a more equitable

00:21:20.440 and empathetic planet. And I consider myself a vessel, a future ancestor. And I am so proud of

00:21:29.360 the book that I just had come out, Tarot for the Hard Work. It is an anti-racism tarot workbook

00:21:37.300 that I have written for all kinds of people, people who care about tarot, people who don't,

00:21:45.660 people who know a lot about tarot, baby tarot readers. And honestly, I also wrote it for white

00:21:53.840 people and people of color, because I have to admit, and this is one of the hardest things I've

00:22:00.020 ever had to admit is so I come from the sticks I come from just I come from Virginia right near

00:22:07.740 the West Virginia line not even gonna bother telling you the town but just to sum it up

00:22:13.660 my county was called the breadbasket of the confederacy so I am not I am ashamed but not

00:22:22.660 afraid to admit that I'm working on my own internalized racism. And that's why when I

00:22:30.360 wrote this book, I started it with an intro that says, you know, I'm not the boss. I'm not the

00:22:37.280 master. I don't have the answers. I'm doing this work alongside you. And that's the, that's a God

00:22:44.720 honest truth. You know, I'm doing the work and I am teaching people what I'm learning along the way,

00:22:51.120 But I'm also trying to inspire people to come up with their own strategies and understand their own sort of superpowers and how they can superpowers that they can leverage in within themselves, within their relationships and in their communities.

00:23:07.840 Because I feel like all the work that we do toward this more equitable and empathetic planet ripples, and it ripples beyond what we can ever fully perceive in our human bodies in this human life at this time.

00:23:23.140 I think that the root of all of our work, and honestly, all of our existence, is interconnectedness.

00:23:31.120 And I know we'll talk more about the prompt that you shared, but I repeat it over and over again, none of us is an island. And this mass, rugged individualism is a huge part of why we are where we are. And we what do we have if we don't have each other?

00:23:53.380 I think I don't have anything if I don't have my health and part of my health is community and I care a lot about bringing people together and helping people empower themselves to see themselves as agents of change rather than just passive bystanders in a world where convenience seems to be king.

00:24:23.380 Um, I'm very passionate. I'm sure that's not, not too, um, not too, uh, much of a surprise for

00:24:32.220 anyone, but yeah, my book, Tara for the hard work in archetypical archetypal journey to confront

00:24:39.140 racism and inspire collective healing is, um, it's, I think of it less like a book. It's more

00:24:47.160 of a tool. Like, yes, there are 60 essays, but there are hundreds of activities in there and

00:24:52.940 they're for everybody. And I, um, and I'm just really proud of that. And it's honestly a great

00:25:01.200 book, I think for anyone who's like, well, where the hell do I start? You know, who the hell am I

00:25:06.840 to, you know, think that I can make a difference? Well, wake up, you can. And this book for me is

00:25:13.920 sort of like my interpretation of a wake-up call um and and i i it's my biggest spell yet and it's

00:25:24.100 the one i'm the most proud of absolutely and we are so proud of you we're so proud of you maria

00:25:31.900 and we're proud of you too nadra who has written books about some of the greatest minds of our time

00:25:41.060 Toni Morrison, Bell Hooks. What are you working on right now, Nadra? Who are you today?

00:25:49.140 Well, thank you for having me. I'm a journalist as well as an author. So right now I'm just

00:25:55.680 focusing on journalism, but I am toying with the possibility of writing another book.

00:26:04.200 But my first two books that you referenced, I wrote about the spiritual visions of both Bell Hooks and Toni Morrison.

00:26:14.200 So my latest book, which came out in October, is Bell Hooks Spiritual Vision, Buddhist, Christian, Feminist.

00:26:23.600 And in that book, I explore the role of, like the title says, Buddhism and Bell Hooks life and writing.

00:26:32.780 But as well as the divine feminine and witchiness, witchcraft, the African-American folk tradition of hoodoo and also the role of, you know, anti-capitalism and anti-patriarchal thought in Bell Hooks' writing as well.

00:27:00.680 And the first book was about Toni Morrison's spiritual vision, and that one I look at faith, her faith, her folklore, and feminism in her books as well.

00:27:17.560 and I'm in Los Angeles I'm on Tongva land and I think that's that's pretty much it that's who I

00:27:28.280 am today I'm kind of nursing a sore throat right now and I have to say I I didn't mention the dark

00:27:35.520 version or the black Madonna which I explore and both of those and one of the reasons I'm pointing

00:27:41.220 that out is because Christina Cleveland is here and she sent me a sweet message I just want to say

00:27:47.260 I'm also you know a huge fan of your work Christina and so grateful that you are exploring the role

00:27:55.700 of of the Black Madonna and what that means yeah let's pass the mic Christina hi I am not a fangirl

00:28:06.600 like I'm like Beyonce who you know but Nadra I am fangirling right now I'm so touched that you

00:28:15.200 even know who I am because I'm working on another book on the Black Madonna and I'm quoting you

00:28:20.140 about as much as I'm quoting myself. Oh, well, thank you. But anyways, for people who are new

00:28:30.580 to my work or I'm new to you, my name is Christina Cleveland. I'm coming today enraptured.

00:28:38.340 it's a new thing for me i i i've always been a little envious of the sort of historic saints

00:28:49.840 of all stripes and traditions who have these moments of ecstasy um that are rooted in

00:28:57.200 spirituality but i feel like i'm experiencing some of that with the black madonna the last few months

00:29:02.720 um as she helps me to release some attachments so it's also been gnarly

00:29:09.020 and there have been a lot of tears and sleepless nights but also transformation

00:29:15.560 um I am grateful to be here honored to be with all of you I think I know all of you either through

00:29:23.100 your yeah through either reading one of your books or hearing you on this podcast and or

00:29:28.740 all of the above so thank you for existing you you feed me all of you all of you um and nourish me

00:29:37.240 um i'm currently working on a second book on the black madonna the first book had a little bit more

00:29:42.940 me in it than i would have liked um and so the second book is really about her and i'm looking

00:29:49.760 at three aspects of the black madonna across history and across blackness um and icon of

00:29:55.980 resistance, a term I borrowed from bell hooks in the way that she described the black Madonna,

00:30:01.700 mother of abundance, and then nourisher of black souls also borrowed from bell hooks. So that's

00:30:09.280 kind of those three aspects I'm looking at and writing in from what I know, the first book for

00:30:15.020 black people on the black Madonna. Unfortunately, white women have had the mic for far too long. 1.00

00:30:25.980 that's where I'm at today happy to be here I'm gonna pass the mic as quickly as I can

00:30:31.320 how are you doing Thea Thea Anderson whose approach to history is so fascinating and inspiring

00:30:40.600 I'm fascinated and inspired to be here hi y'all I I'm just speaking of being fed speaking of

00:30:49.060 the mother wound speaking of community speaking of lineage speaking of um Black Madonna

00:30:55.860 I just feel all these energies and I, I want to have like a three hour long conversation,

00:31:00.220 but I mean, I listen all day also just hit me up.

00:31:05.380 I'll talk to you.

00:31:06.340 I'll take a break.

00:31:07.740 Um, we should, we should form circles, but I think the childhood version of me is just

00:31:12.480 like, Oh my God, Thea, look what you get to be a part of.

00:31:16.180 Like there is a kid version of me.

00:31:18.720 That's just freaking out right now.

00:31:20.820 And I'm really excited to bring that forth, you know, for the future, for my own daughters, for this whole world.

00:31:30.360 My approach to history is that I don't think that time is what we think it is.

00:31:35.720 I think that time is ritual.

00:31:38.800 It's motion.

00:31:40.000 It's movement.

00:31:41.620 It's not calendars.

00:31:43.320 It's not schedules.

00:31:45.180 um i'm really interested in this age of productivity how we experience our lives

00:31:51.740 how we experience the past and for me what astrology has given me time and time again

00:31:58.800 as a as an astrologer and as someone who does planetary magic is an ability to apprentice time

00:32:05.900 the way that i want to and so that means uh looking at things that are on the edge of the

00:32:12.100 archives, understanding what, what is the story that I want to tell? We're all here telling

00:32:18.220 stories and history is the telling of what has happened and what is happening and what will

00:32:25.220 happen. It also points to that. And so I just, um, you know, there's that, um, what am I working on?

00:32:36.160 I, okay. I have a lot of Gemini placements. I work on a lot of things at one time. So if you

00:32:40.960 asked me, I'm like, ah. But most recently I finished a piece and it was the same editorial

00:32:47.660 team who helped me bring forth the Harriet Tubman piece that I published in the Mountain

00:32:53.680 Astrologer two years ago. So this one is looking at the astrology of a discovery of mass graves in

00:33:00.940 the town of Sugarland, Texas, where I grew up. And it was the graves of, they call them the Imperial

00:33:06.780 95 um but the people who died working where they stood um during the time of convict leasing and

00:33:14.720 the uh studying those charts and what led to their discovery had been i would say an obsession for

00:33:20.400 far too long i could probably i would like to write a book about it at some point but the

00:33:26.620 article feels like a good resting place for now so i talked to ghosts as well in my astrology

00:33:31.900 um that's really important to me um they're just here sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like

00:33:39.860 ah like I feel like I've I've wrought all I can from a chart and then three months later I'll

00:33:45.600 wake up in the middle of the dream and I'll be like there's war here so it's a it's a it's a

00:33:51.220 flat 2d chart but I view history as also like the spiral that I can keep going in and that's sort of

00:33:56.600 what a horoscope shows me as well um but I give readings I work I'm the chief of staff at the

00:34:02.860 Chani app so I get to work with brilliant people um it's a feminist-led company just doing things

00:34:10.060 in a completely different way um I love the work that I get to do um and yeah that's that's it

00:34:19.040 that's you in a nutshell

00:34:20.640 and it's a big old nutshell thank you so much for being here Thea and Marceliette Fela an

00:34:30.320 incredible scholar and also a powerful powerful spirit how are you contending with the ritual of

00:34:38.300 time these days you say me my um my headphones cut out right as you as you turned to me I'm so

00:34:48.060 sorry. I was like, right now, really? How am I continuing with time? Well, I'm well. So,

00:34:55.660 hello, everyone. Thank you all for having me. This is such a wonderful space. I'm really

00:35:01.980 honored to be around such powerful, powerful people. So, I am. So, my name is Marcelie

00:35:09.660 Faela. I'm a scholar of Black religion. I currently am a visiting, assistant visiting

00:35:17.460 the assistant visiting professor assistant professor at emory where i teach classes in

00:35:23.140 africana religions and in black feminism um and what i'm i think what i wanted to say today was

00:35:33.420 i'm what i'm excited about right now is teaching i'm really excited about teaching i really it's

00:35:38.720 all consuming um but it's what i'm excited about and so yesterday um yesterday the last

00:35:47.440 week fine time I don't know time um but last week my students I so I do a lot of ritual in the

00:35:56.800 classroom because um I try to I try to make religion not taboo um religion and spiritual

00:36:06.800 practice not taboo um and so we and so I have students from all backgrounds all different

00:36:14.020 backgrounds um and we did a honor we did a ritual for oshun um and i brought in my uh i brought in

00:36:25.220 some of my altar um items and so they were introduced to florida water they were introduced

00:36:31.580 to a foam they were introduced to uh had some sunflowers sunflowers for oshun um and it was

00:36:39.820 just so beautiful to see each of them um participating and honoring uh ocean and and

00:36:49.280 and and kind of comfortable and like very uncomfortable you know but then they start

00:36:54.460 saging each other and then make them stand and like put their arms out and turn around and lift

00:36:59.740 up their foot and lift up the other foot and sage the back and stuff um and they loved it and they

00:37:05.240 loved it and they you know and some of them were like you know a little scared you know definitely

00:37:10.460 I had some students of like Christian Baptist backgrounds and some were raised in Muslim homes

00:37:17.480 and and a little concerned about the you know the the um about about particularly about traditions

00:37:24.360 that um their parents had said were demonic um and so um but but it it it related um

00:37:36.320 it connected them to the material and the spiritual element of the traditions in a way that

00:37:42.660 I could lecture all all day you know and I don't think that they would have really gotten it so

00:37:48.120 um so it was beautiful so that's what I'm excited about um in terms of what I'm working on

00:37:53.800 uh i submitted an article it'll be in a it's going to be in a chat in a volume um new new

00:38:04.720 oh my goodness african-american new movements in african-american religious history i'm getting

00:38:11.720 that right um but it's on the term witches and witchcraft um and it's a it's affiliated with

00:38:18.040 Crossroads Project of Princeton. And it is, it's on the terms witches and witchcraft and how

00:38:25.400 African American people have been using this term for a very long time, and that the terms are not

00:38:31.320 exclusive to white practitioners. And so I did quite a bit of archival and primary source

00:38:37.560 research to uncover how, how our Black ancestors have been using these terms in much of the same

00:38:45.800 ways that we use conjure who do root work um and uh yeah there's one case of this woman

00:38:52.920 interchanging the term queen and witch and uh it it's everything is wonderful so um that is me yes

00:39:02.760 happy to be here thank you yeah i think i could get into witch and queen being interchangeable but

00:39:08.440 Marceline, I feel like, you know, as a history professor, you're like uniquely qualified to speak to our prompt for this evening.

00:39:18.260 So by you, for you, from you, how do we make the past useful for our present and for our future?

00:39:28.220 And from this point on, guests, please just jump in.

00:39:32.240 Don't wait for me to call on you.

00:39:33.720 don't don't wait till the end of the song to clap your hands as Lisa always says during her shows

00:39:39.260 um please just jump in at any time um but yeah Marceline okay um how do I

00:39:47.480 well I'm thinking about my classes from yesterday so that's okay um uh

00:39:55.900 the day we were to my black feminisms class and we were talking about um

00:40:01.580 what are you talking about we read we had read bell hooks like the first chapter of ain't i a

00:40:07.880 woman um it's just talking about slavery and um the ways that black women experience racialized

00:40:15.120 and gendered violence um and then we read we're reading the canon so we read angela davis and

00:40:21.460 um and then and then so um and then i showed them so i live in the in the west end in atlanta

00:40:31.660 um and maybe like this summer um there's it was the malcolm was the marcus garvey festival

00:40:39.400 um and uh umar johnson i don't know if you knew at all no he was there speaking and he was spewing

00:40:48.340 hate. He was spewing hate against women and queer and trans people. And also, I think his name is 0.96

00:41:00.160 Ifa Tunde, too. So I think he definitely calls forth in the ways that he might call forth

00:41:07.400 some Ifa orisha communities is quite concerning. But just to kind of bring it back to religion,

00:41:15.720 But but I showed this video and then we just had a long conversation about and we actually showed the video and they all kind of they all maybe knew who he was or, you know, like, oh, my goodness.

00:41:27.940 And we just had this long conversation about how these messages are still very much ingrained in kind of a black masculinist nationalist rhetoric and how it's still being used.

00:41:49.660 right um and and why um uh and what is the kind of the history of um you know the black feminists

00:42:00.380 of the 80s at this at this point you know who was the legacy of their lineage um and so just yeah

00:42:08.620 just kind of thinking about you know bell hooks and just really honoring those ancestors i thank

00:42:13.260 thank goodness for their work, and that we still have so much to learn from them.

00:42:20.440 Making sure that we are truthful in our representations of the past is essential

00:42:31.620 when we move forward. I'm an Afrofuturist working on my PhD in Afrofuturism. When I was allowed to

00:42:41.440 teach classes at the florida university where i teach um that was what i was teaching was

00:42:46.760 afrofuturism obviously you can't teach that in florida anymore so no longer doing that

00:42:50.700 but um i think that it is essential to be truthful and to be honest i think that so many times

00:42:59.180 what marcelete was just saying there's a particular um type of what's the terminology

00:43:04.800 marcelete will know what i'm respectability politics that's the terminology that we always

00:43:09.900 play with past black figures that is just a lie it's just a lie um i did a podcast on that earlier

00:43:18.040 this year and it's like when you're a black woman and you're being very free in your religious 0.99

00:43:23.480 expression and your sexual expression when you're not dressing like a middle eastern woman when

00:43:29.160 you're not doing those types of things they waggle you know sojourner truth and harriet chubman

00:43:35.400 at you, and they say, what do you think those people would think? So Jonah Truth took her

00:43:40.360 breasts out. In the Ain't I a Woman speech, she took her breasts out. So I don't think that she 1.00

00:43:47.780 would mind that I don't have a bra. Harriet Tubman was literally walking around toting a gun, 1.00

00:43:55.680 completely removing people from one system so that they could be liberated. So I don't think

00:44:00.960 that she would mind that i don't follow the status quo so i think when you think about the past

00:44:06.420 you have to actually represent it for what it is it's even even when we if we go into jesus

00:44:12.480 jesus is literally a middle eastern revolutionary who turns over tables and kisses his favorite male

00:44:19.840 disciple in the mouth like let's actually be truthful about what was happening in the past

00:44:25.900 as opposed to we'll just turn it all into a respectability thing and we will use it to force

00:44:32.220 people to act in a certain way and from a strictly diasporic african perspective we have to always

00:44:41.000 remember and a witchy perspective that time is a cycle right time is not linear so whatever point

00:44:48.440 in the circle was important to you you can always come back to it if you do the ritual right you can

00:44:55.760 come back to when your mother was alive when i need to talk to my mother i do the right ritual

00:45:00.780 and i go back to that point in the circle and say okay i gotta talk to you about this because we know

00:45:06.820 that that linear time is something else that's just used to keep us tied to capitalism clocks

00:45:12.740 were created for capitalism so the way we look yeah the way we look at time is strictly so that

00:45:18.600 people can treat us like nudes. So be honest about the past. Nobody that helped us to get

00:45:26.340 to where we are now was a good girl. All those people were bad girls. All those people were

00:45:31.740 acting outside of the realms of what was acceptable on purpose. So that, first and foremost,

00:45:37.820 and then second of all, stop treating time as if it's linear and therefore feeling as if you've

00:45:43.040 run out of time, or therefore feeling as if you don't have enough time, or feeling as if you're

00:45:48.220 too old to do this that or the other you're too far in the in some linear cycle to do this that

00:45:53.540 or the other treat time as the circle that it is and go back to whatever point in the circle you 0.97

00:45:58.340 need to go back to to fix some shit a lot of time that helps us to heal trauma go back to that point

00:46:03.660 in the circle and fix it you know i am loving that i um i want to continue that discussion so i 0.95

00:46:13.800 I had a dream last night that I was driving and my car's right hand mirror was askew.

00:46:24.340 It was just flat out, just wonky, y'all.

00:46:28.380 Like just, it was the only rear view, right?

00:46:31.700 Only the rear view mirror.

00:46:33.500 And whoever's listening or however you're interpreting that, for me, I took it as when I have moments of anxiety.

00:46:43.800 or fear or wonder, and I feel like I want to go back, I have to be careful because there are

00:46:55.280 times when spirit doesn't want me to go back because I'm supposed to be going forward. But

00:46:59.560 then I love what you were saying. There are absolutely times when you need to go back

00:47:03.780 and heal. And I believe that currently with many mental health professionals and currently with

00:47:13.660 different religious institutions. They try to hold the past as if it was so beautiful and so

00:47:22.900 wonderful. And all of us should go back to that point that it does prevent you from looking to

00:47:29.040 the future and looking ahead and going, that wasn't me. That's not me. I'm not even claiming

00:47:35.600 that anymore right because I could and as if I am meant to keep my rear view mirror askew

00:47:43.520 then I'm not going to look back there yet I'm going to keep just moving forward and driving ahead

00:47:49.240 and going y'all got this whoever it is that y'all for me that's who has this and then that takes

00:47:57.480 away that need or that fear to go about a clock which I I believe if I'm right if I'm correct me

00:48:05.000 y'all but I believe that clocks were first figured out so that they could have at least the clock

00:48:10.660 system we have now where we have timetables is really just for trains to get materials to and

00:48:16.640 from east and west coast in a matter of time so that you didn't have car so that you didn't have

00:48:21.040 train crashes that was it they were like we needed to have a time to make sure that when this train

00:48:26.380 leaves this one comes through and we get all of our chattel and everything which unfortunately

00:48:31.760 included some of us back and forth so that in itself makes me think time is irrational right

00:48:41.520 but then also if I look at because I'm gonna throw a few bible verses in here if you look at

00:48:46.860 Galatians 3 28 it says there is neither Jewish nor Greek there's neither slave nor free there's 0.74

00:48:54.620 neither male or female you are all one and so now I'm gonna go oh well then hell that means 0.98

00:49:01.740 if you're going to come after me from my naughty bits and try to tell me that I have naughty bits, 0.85

00:49:06.680 I'm going to say all these bits are beautiful. You want to see them? Hold on.

00:49:10.640 I just wanted to touch on respectability politics in the church. And you had mentioned

00:49:16.280 Jesus earlier. And I was thinking about, I don't know how many of you know about

00:49:23.460 a couple of weeks ago, President Biden spoke at Mother Emanuel Church, the church that several

00:49:30.640 years ago had the mass shooting of Black parishioners by a white supremacist. Well,

00:49:36.860 when Joe Biden was speaking there recently, there were protesters who stood up and, you know,

00:49:43.980 accused him of genocide. And they were shamed and told that they shouldn't have done that. This

00:49:48.860 wasn't, you know, church is not the place, you know, to take political action despite having

00:49:54.780 a political figure there. But people brought up the example of, you know, Jesus turning over the

00:50:03.480 tables of the money changers in the temple as an example of Jesus, you know, was willing to take

00:50:13.140 political action in the church. And so I was thinking about that when someone earlier was

00:50:19.340 talking about how we try to impose respectability politics, even on historical figures. And I also

00:50:27.440 in a very different example of thinking about Jonathan Majors, who in his domestic violence

00:50:34.940 trial supposedly kept telling his ex-girlfriend that she needed to be a Coretta, like a Coretta

00:50:41.520 Scott King. And I just thought, you know, those are two examples of respectability politics being

00:50:48.540 applied in very screwed up um ways in my opinion and what did Coretta's daughter say keep keep my 0.98

00:50:57.300 mom's name out of your mouth yes and that her mother was not a prop her mother was an activist

00:51:02.900 her mother basically was someone said earlier a bad girl you know yeah and didn't uh this is Zoe

00:51:13.140 by the way um and didn't one of the other uh someone from the king family also came forward

00:51:19.640 and said stop trying to sort of um whitewash martin luther king as well recently and i feel

00:51:27.820 like this was the first time that we're hearing that as well um i've been thinking about as far

00:51:35.760 as the past this sort of the censorship that's happening the active censorship is it it's ola

00:51:41.160 me, is that correct? So you were talking about your work in Florida, right? So you being censored

00:51:46.720 and then also people self-censoring themselves with everything that's happening. And so as an

00:51:55.140 art, you know, as a writer myself, I started actually going back and looking at different

00:52:01.480 artists who were, who spoke up during McCarthyism. Like I know some of the stories, but I don't know

00:52:08.720 really about visual artists like Romare Bearden and things like that. And so, because I have been

00:52:14.460 struck by how silent some of our more popular people in the world, I'll just leave it at that,

00:52:24.160 have been with the genocide happening globally. And I understand that that's not a new thing,

00:52:34.660 right? Like you're talking about Harriet Tubman, you're talking about Sojourner Truth. It was

00:52:37.760 always sort of a few folks, you know, moving people forward and the masses just kind of

00:52:44.040 doing whatever the masses do. So I was just, you know, I've been compelled to go back and look at

00:52:50.620 who were the artists who spoke up during McCarthyism or during the civil rights movement,

00:52:56.120 just so that I could try to get some context for what is happening now. Because I'm like,

00:53:01.340 is it my imagination? Did I just imagine when people were active during the 60s? Because that

00:53:05.580 was the story that we were told or you know what's what's really happening here um so that's that's

00:53:13.380 the the journey that I've been on and I've been actively um I haven't been on Facebook for like a

00:53:18.320 while but I've been actually posting um Black artists in particular who have been speaking up

00:53:26.260 you know in the past at various times in history for social justice and things like that

00:53:35.580 a lot of what's this is the a lot of what's being said to just to pin it to like the current

00:53:42.340 astrological time frame and we're talking about respectability politics and how that's not

00:53:48.000 that has to go has to be garbage and it's just bringing up the fact that the south node right

00:53:55.720 now is in libra which is that sort of the shadow side of libra can be very people-pleasing right

00:54:03.800 That might be the part that has to be disposed of.

00:54:08.580 And the North Node, what we're hungry for right now, is that sort of like buck the system,

00:54:16.840 the call for like, what are we going to fight for?

00:54:20.880 What do we need to do?

00:54:22.200 It doesn't care about making friends.

00:54:24.660 And so I think about the fact that we're in that timeline right now and that we have

00:54:29.860 eclipses coming up in the spring.

00:54:31.600 And it's interesting to see how we get there from here. I've also been thinking a lot about censorship as well. I think that's one of the things that I didn't foresee with, well, maybe a year ago looking at this timeline.

00:54:47.160 But as you get closer, you can see how Pluto, the planet of power, into Aquarius, the collective, is both an opportunity for us to strengthen our collective power, our grassroots power, but it's not a given.

00:55:04.180 Because the other side of that, I think, is what I see is like the censorships or turning school libraries into detention centers, banning books, all these kinds of things that are happening.

00:55:17.280 Also, just the fact that there really is no social media.

00:55:20.820 There's like ads, you know.

00:55:22.660 So like we were promised these things that we would be able to, you know, communicate and have power and be able to connect.

00:55:29.900 and I don't I feel like we have to we can't take it as a given one of the messages that keeps coming

00:55:35.560 up for me this year in 2024 is that we have to take it we have to claim it and we have to be

00:55:42.720 willing to fight for it and I just really like this idea we were saying just now so we have

00:55:46.980 people who have done this in the past um and where can we go to that for for just anything real

00:55:55.960 because it's not in the media it's not in the news you know people it's it's um not mainstream

00:56:02.880 unless it's like individuals it's it's in a yeah that frees me in a particular type of way Thea so

00:56:10.380 thank you for that my mother was a hippie um I was born in 1969 my mother was a hippie during those

00:56:16.600 times and I grew up feeling like um the age of Aquarius was something that I was promised

00:56:22.220 and I did take it all as a given I mean you know by the time I came into womanhood abortion was 0.96

00:56:27.940 legal my mother was so proud my mother had five daughters and she was so happy that we would never

00:56:33.060 have to have children that we didn't want to have like she would just you know she would just be so

00:56:37.160 gloriously happy for how our lives were going to be and I was the first person in my family line

00:56:42.560 to go to an integrated school so it was so many things that our the mothers of my generation felt 0.83

00:56:48.280 like they had put in place for us and you know my mother because she was a hippie literally did

00:56:52.580 call it the age of aquarius and she was like it's fine you guys are gonna have it so much better

00:56:56.440 than us and so much like what you just said i i took all of this for granted and i did not think

00:57:03.440 i knew that you know i was gonna have to fight for something i mean it's the world we're here

00:57:07.260 we're playing the game of life you know there's gonna be things you have to fight for but this

00:57:11.040 stuff uh they last the week before last they banned dictionaries in florida schools

00:57:17.380 so that i literally didn't think i was gonna have to fight for that that wasn't what i thought i'd

00:57:22.700 never expected abortion to not be legal again my mother fixed that you know so you you saying

00:57:29.100 we have to fight for it it's not a given that clicks something on in my mind so thank you so

00:57:35.060 much for that because i literally was feeling like uh you know my mother passed that down with her

00:57:40.160 good genes that's good i'm good on that but you're right you're right yeah y'all are reminding me of

00:57:47.320 that quote um well well behaved women seldom make history and so maybe that's that's a way that we 0.99

00:57:55.920 can make the work the past work for the present and the future is to like learn from the people 0.97

00:58:02.520 who made history and recognize that they were not well behaved that they did not succumb to these

00:58:07.800 like respectability politics so he said that you used to have a bumper sticker

00:58:13.320 i mean how has that influenced your life how have you

00:58:17.700 misbehaved in a way that made your world better

00:58:21.480 me well christina i think has something good yeah i'm happy to chime in this is christina

00:58:31.940 Yeah, I love everything I'm hearing. It resonates so deeply. And also, I'm thinking theologically, and I'm wondering if I'm giving it a new name.

00:58:47.580 So these women in history weren't misbehaving. They were saints. They were holy women. They were sacred sisters. And what it means to be holy is to move in their lineage. And as we do that, we heal too.

00:59:06.200 we heal from respectability um it was Maria who I could I could relate to I grew up in the suburbs

00:59:13.760 in California so so much of white supremacy I'm healing from myself and so it's like yeah I

00:59:21.080 I need more cleansing and even just reframing that I think might be helpful it's almost like

00:59:29.680 we're rewriting scripture when we do that um and we can and yes i i hear you um the hoodoo lady

00:59:39.400 that hoodoo lady um i hear you nodding

00:59:42.560 because there are rahab and jezebel and um mary of magdalene and a bunch of other people

00:59:53.960 who are holy women and um we and their witness and their strength is like just such an honor to

01:00:05.420 be part of that lineage so that's one thing i've been thinking about as i've been listening to

01:00:09.100 this conversation um who are our saints and how can we name them and prop them up i but i was

01:00:14.220 faculty at duke divinity school inside this huge chapel that basically is just like one big phallic

01:00:19.680 symbol like it's just a huge tower on campus and if you walk inside all you like next to all the

01:00:25.980 actual like judeo-christian saints there's like robert e lee and like a bunch of other people too

01:00:31.800 like life-size statues next to like moses

01:00:37.080 in the church in the church like in the duke chapel yeah it's like you're walking in and

01:00:46.920 you're like hey Robert E. Lee hey Moses hey John the Baptist like and they're all lined up together

01:00:52.700 and it's like what is what would it look like for us to do that with some of these 1.00

01:00:56.520 these poorly behaved women um how do we create monuments for them in our lives and in our 1.00

01:01:02.580 communities um that's one thing and then for whatever reason so much of mother motherhood 0.95

01:01:09.600 birthing abortion has come up in this conversation and um I was most recently in France in November

01:01:16.620 and December, just listening to black women's stories about the black Madonna. And I heard

01:01:21.620 some from history that I'd never heard before. And I also just heard some from contemporary

01:01:25.260 black women. And there's one black woman who was, content warning, was sexually assaulted 0.91

01:01:34.760 as a teenager and ended up getting pregnant through the assault. And she decided to abort

01:01:42.760 the baby, but the way she talked about it, she said, I decided to put the baby back in the Black 0.95

01:01:48.100 Madonna's hands. And I've never heard anyone talk about abortion that way. I mean, I'm so American 0.95

01:01:56.840 and she's not. So maybe she's coming from a different spiritual perspective, but I've never

01:02:03.300 heard of anyone saying, I'm going to put the baby back in God's hands. However, I define God. But I

01:02:10.580 was just thinking about how she that black madonna is this this figure this misbehaving figure 1.00

01:02:17.480 who we can give babies back to in this in the context of abortion but then i heard this other 0.89

01:02:23.220 historical story from a black woman and this is like during the spanish inquisition this um this

01:02:30.540 abbot in a in an abbey like a like a nun got pregnant as as nuns do and um that the actual

01:02:40.120 like spanish inquisition were coming for her like they it was in spain she was in an abbey in spain 0.83

01:02:45.560 and like the inquisitors were like we're coming to kill you like you're a nun and you got pregnant 0.95

01:02:50.620 we're coming to have a trial trial and scare quotes but like they're gonna be coming to kill 0.99

01:02:54.680 her according to the legend the black madonna came in the night she was due in like two months 0.67

01:03:01.860 The Black Madonna delivered her baby early, sewed her up, and took the baby to a community that would care for it. 0.56

01:03:12.000 And when the Spanish Inquisition came for her, they medically examined her and determined her to be a virgin.

01:03:21.960 And so I'm thinking of, like, these community-based ways that we can embody the Black Madonna

01:03:28.460 to defend people to defend their choices defend their rights defend their body

01:03:36.220 to stand in the gap to to get gofundmes going so that someone can get across state lines

01:03:44.540 and take care of what they need to take care of with their own body like when i think of

01:03:49.200 these stories about the black mandana i think of us and it kind of makes me think like as you know

01:03:54.480 someone who studied the American civil rights movement a lot like there was a there was a

01:03:58.980 national game that that gets a lot of play you know like all of the um the legislation that was

01:04:04.720 passed all the conversations with rfk all of the you know all of the big speeches that people gave

01:04:10.180 but then there was a ground game too where it was just people making sure that the families who were

01:04:15.000 boycotting got fed and nobody no there's no tales about that nobody is like look at look at this

01:04:23.040 incredible resistance work. And when I think about the Black Madonna and that type of work

01:04:27.560 that she often does, it usually is in these small communities where we're just taking care of each

01:04:31.920 other. We're just making sure that mouths are fed, people have roofs over their heads, that their

01:04:38.060 physical needs are cared for as we do this work together. And it's just kind of chastened me

01:04:43.400 because in the social media or like social ad age, it is easy to get caught up in like, I need a

01:04:47.880 bigger platform or I need a bigger you know significance equals prominence and that's not

01:04:53.220 the message the message is mustard seed the message is we just need a remnant we just need 0.91

01:05:00.600 like three gangsters three holy women to shake things up so yeah I don't know those are just 0.91

01:05:09.680 some of my thoughts yeah I I love that as well and um this is Maria I've been super quiet usually 1.00

01:05:18.220 I am a motor mouth um but I have just been so enthralled by all of these people here today

01:05:25.820 and I am feeling so inspired and reminded of how I choose to stand in my wholeness and

01:05:35.080 going back to the respectability politics thing I for tarot folks I think about how I talk about

01:05:44.520 the temperance card and for some people that card is about balance and and you know temperance

01:05:52.700 around drugs or food or alcohol so on and so forth but for me if I were to name that card

01:05:59.720 I would call it life art. And so many decks call it the art card, because I won't go too deeply into it, because I will totally nerd out. But I'm thinking about this sort of topic of holiness, and its connection to a sense of wholeness.

01:06:22.400 and that connects us to the interconnectedness of all things but holiness and wholeness I think

01:06:32.080 for us starts with within and I'm thinking about how I feel my own holiness and I think

01:06:40.840 that shows up in the remembering of all my parts like remembering and refusing to compartmentalize

01:06:50.220 my wholeness like one part about me is one thing about me is that if you are subscribed to my

01:06:57.720 newsletter follow me on instagram know me anywhere i'm very open about my life i'm very you know i

01:07:04.840 share the good i share the bad and that's just a part of my processing and healing and i don't

01:07:09.780 recommend that for everyone it's not obligatory that's just something i choose to do and one way

01:07:17.240 that I feel whole that I think has been sort of that some people have tried to quell is that

01:07:24.660 I share very openly that I am a very sexual person I you know I met my partner at sex camp

01:07:32.560 you know like I that is an integral part of me and yet so many people have said you have

01:07:40.800 multiple degrees you're successful you talk about anti-racism this and that and it's like

01:07:46.440 I am a whole freaking human being. And if you don't like that, that's okay. But I'm standing

01:07:53.200 in my wholeness, which makes me feel holy, which makes me feel interconnected with all that is

01:08:00.460 holy. And that's what I live for. That's what I fight for. And so this sort of respectability

01:08:06.780 politics, I think, is just, you know, one of the many strategies that the dominant,

01:08:16.260 quote-unquote dominant, I prefer to say dominating members of our society, try to

01:08:23.620 distance ourselves from our wholeness and try to sort of feed into this idea that everything you

01:08:34.660 need is external you don't feel whole here go buy this product go take this class go do this

01:08:42.100 go do that and it's like no like I've been whole this whole time I am I am my mother's daughter

01:08:51.280 and nobody can tell me different and I stand tall in that and I think my in my relationship

01:09:01.480 with respectability politics has come at a little bit of a cost you know I've lost people who once

01:09:09.200 supported my work who are like tired of me just being like this is what I did today and it was

01:09:14.320 really erotic and lovely and it's like they just want to put you into a little hole and it's like

01:09:21.020 the more fragmented we are the more power we give to the forces that want us to be fragmented it's

01:09:32.260 like it's sort of like uh how how much we are expected to work it's like they want us tired

01:09:39.940 so we can't fight back they want us to feel like we're in so many different places and so many

01:09:45.760 times, different times that we don't have enough, that we tell ourselves that we don't have enough

01:09:51.360 to offer. We, who are we to do this? I'm just this. I'm just that. When you take away that

01:09:57.760 compartmentalization and be like, okay, I'm a full ass human being. There is something so powerful

01:10:06.080 in that. And no amount of respectability politics can tell me that I'm wrong for that. That's my

01:10:12.560 truth I'm speaking for it I'm not for everyone and that's okay but I know for myself I am whole

01:10:19.520 and I am holy and I'm so grateful for that real quick when I think about um respectability

01:10:29.100 politics I think of black witches I think of Zoe Flowers and your poem in praise of the witch

01:10:35.140 and I always come back to that I love it so much that's all I wanted to say Zoe maybe you could

01:10:41.200 call up the poem and read it for us when we get to the end so that our listeners can have the same

01:10:47.320 experience that marcelette is having thinking about it although me i maybe i'm mistaken but

01:10:55.100 i seem to recall there being in your book um onagbani there's um a discussion of this like

01:11:02.680 holy h-o-l-y and holy w-h-o etc etc do you want to expand on this notion of holiness and

01:11:13.420 wholeness for us it's literally what i was thinking about when maria was just speaking

01:11:20.120 and i completely agree that from a from a witch perspective that is that's our redefinition of

01:11:32.400 that term. And in my book, in Ana Agbani, I really took liberties to redefine, because I find that

01:11:40.340 the English language and the way we've been taught to speak it is so lacking, especially in explaining

01:11:47.700 spiritual nuances. And so when we think about holiness, and not only that, but those words have

01:11:54.700 connotations that then have become harmful to us. You know, if people say a righteous woman,

01:12:01.340 if people say a virtuous woman there's connotations that have hurt us so i felt that way about that

01:12:08.040 word holy it has a connotation that has been harmful and but using holy with the two l's you

01:12:15.820 know fully with the w and then with the two l's being full and fully present and fully here in

01:12:22.460 your body and unapologetically existing that's the actual holy like maria was saying that's that's

01:12:29.580 the actual holy that is the full thing and that is how you're able to access your magic and that

01:12:37.200 is how you are able to share it with others and heal and help and protect you know you have those

01:12:44.240 moments that you always hear people talk about where somebody's mom lifted a car off of them

01:12:49.100 that's a holy moment you're holy in your body and suddenly you're able to do this thing that you

01:12:56.820 need to do. For me, that's the magic. So yeah, that's why I did it that way in the book to show

01:13:03.020 be holy here. Don't worry about this other term that makes us feel small and makes us feel not

01:13:09.380 enough and makes us feel unclean and unworthy. Don't worry about this other term. Actually think

01:13:17.560 of it as being holy yourself, fully yourself, and then you'll be comfortable being as holy as you

01:13:22.880 possibly can so yeah i was literally thinking about that yeah it's a great book listeners i've

01:13:31.040 recommended it a hundred times but here's 101 onagbani by um i believe your author uh name

01:13:38.100 for this particular work was um iolosa kalatunde yeah it's my uh my priestly my title so iolosa

01:13:47.500 Oshunyemi Akalatunde yeah um Sherry do you want to drop in on this like non-synonymous

01:13:56.260 relationship between sweetness and holiness my goodness there's so much in my head right now

01:14:02.300 y'all y'all are getting me um and then of course then my male dog had to try to attack my female

01:14:09.520 dog and I had to go help her um and I was like that's just acting out and what we're already

01:14:15.080 talking about right so when we're thinking about this holiness y'all um and my tradition

01:14:25.520 holiness was this epitome of the church mother or something like that where they were always

01:14:36.460 quaffed to the t and they were always you know whatever and they had a the fruit of the spirit

01:14:42.440 for them with meanness yes yes how can i yell at you in the back how can i yell at you

01:14:50.240 how can i control you especially to the women yeah if you're going to be a mother of the church 0.60

01:14:57.600 you are going to dominate just like my dog tried to with my little dog you're going to dominate 0.99

01:15:03.220 all the other women in the church to protect this phallic man that is the minister 0.93

01:15:11.540 so that he can be the lion amongst all of the what okay so there's that image and then i had 0.59

01:15:19.300 just put in the chat about and this is to sherry and then that then the other part was the moon 0.98

01:15:23.900 symbol in tarot right where she's to me identified as female walking around naked 1.00

01:15:32.920 with all of her animals and crustaceans that are everything at her feet drawing water to me for

01:15:40.720 herself not for anyone else and to me that's a holy experience that's the perfect time that you

01:15:50.080 are creating sacred self and the sacred space for self where you are in that moment with you

01:15:57.960 and whoever you define as deity and you all are cleansing you all are healing you all are

01:16:05.360 vanishing, you're coming after somebody, whatever you need to do. And to me, that's holy work.

01:16:13.280 What I have not had a lot of experiences with is biblically or otherwise,

01:16:22.440 saints, like many of us were saying, that we're brown and black.

01:16:26.720 when i first read about the black madonna when i was in italy everyone was saying oh no that's just

01:16:37.680 that's just um ash that's just um the ashes from the okay we know what that is

01:16:42.920 and i'd love to have one i'd love to have one because other than ancestors when i think of 0.83

01:16:51.980 our own sacred texts, they rarely have any black and brown women that are saints.

01:17:01.360 And then growing up as a black woman of faith, what does that mean? Does that mean that I'm

01:17:06.980 never going to be holy enough, that I'm never going to stand up enough to sainthood? What does

01:17:11.040 that mean? Right? And if I want to be a saint, that means that I have to prescribe to the same

01:17:16.040 thing that everyone else has and I can't step out on my own. That's ridiculous to me. That's 0.83

01:17:21.180 ridiculous and I know that's not of spirit because my spirit tells me every day to do stuff all the

01:17:26.340 time that I go right I'm trusting you this this may not be cool you may not want to submit this 0.69

01:17:34.040 book for and it's like no but I will but I will and I think that's one thing that all of us are

01:17:40.000 doing is we are showing that we are holy and we don't have to cross over yet we are showing that

01:17:47.140 we are absolutely the person to be without having anyone else tell us what that looks like

01:17:54.360 in our own pride and walking out on our own faith um yeah that's what I got

01:18:02.540 I wonder too um I don't know if you all have this experience because I don't know your age

01:18:10.780 because you're black women so you could be 20 or 80 I literally have no idea um but I'm 43

01:18:17.120 now my grades coming in and I live in Minneapolis where there are a lot of like young uh Gen Zers

01:18:22.980 who are Black and so I'm like a Black auntie now I didn't know but like at at events they come speak

01:18:28.300 to me out of respect and stuff and I'm like oh wait that's you now um which is powerful because

01:18:35.060 I wish I'd had a Black auntie who was in conversations on respectability and Black 0.62

01:18:40.780 witchcraft and uh grappling with history and rewriting history and so I wonder if there's 0.80

01:18:49.240 a way that we can be intentional as we move through the world and be that be that figure

01:18:57.580 in the community who's showing up to these events that are not respectable supporting them

01:19:06.780 um telling them you're doing a great job financially supporting them if we can just

01:19:12.700 because I think so many young people are waiting for the elders to say you're you're on the right

01:19:18.800 track maybe the establishment doesn't support you whether the establishment is the church or

01:19:23.200 the academy or whatever but we do um because it's amazing I mean it's it's just amazing to

01:19:31.960 noticed that I'm no longer in the upstart like generation now I'm older and I'm not an elder

01:19:37.540 but I also have some status in the community and if I say this is awesome and legit

01:19:44.360 that matters to the young people and to my peers um and I wish I'd had people cheering me on when 0.99

01:19:53.100 I was taking my steps towards liberation and doing things that were illegible to black

01:19:59.200 respectability, which I think a lot of it is now, especially around gender.

01:20:06.880 And there's still so much work for us to do within the Black community around gender,

01:20:11.680 particularly trans and non-binary Black folks.

01:20:14.420 And so how can we be the ones who are those elders saying, yeah, that comment was not

01:20:19.780 okay.

01:20:20.160 We need to unpack that because this is a human being here.

01:20:25.220 And this tradition doesn't matter.

01:20:28.120 also trans people have been here but you know how black people try to save and nobody was trans 0.98

01:20:34.840 and I'm like no they just didn't come around because y'all are the worst but anyways I grew 1.00

01:20:41.200 up in a Kojic family so yeah yeah that always makes me so angry because I grew up in Columbia 1.00

01:20:47.860 Tennessee we had like one street light one McDonald's and I grew up around trans people 1.00

01:20:53.820 right i remember my mother saying you know call these people her she if that's what they're asking

01:21:00.080 you to call her i have this whole experience in my little chinese and black they was black too

01:21:05.180 in this little chinese southern town so i and i'm you know i'll be 55 this year so i hate hearing

01:21:10.800 people of my generation saying this is something new i did a youtube video about it years ago

01:21:15.840 because they were swearing up and i think umar johnson may have spoke on it that marceli

01:21:20.000 mentioned earlier um that's when i was living in atlanta and i think he came to speak on and he

01:21:24.660 was saying you know it's being caused by the amounts of chicken that we eat and the hormones

01:21:29.600 in the chicken and so i had to do a youtube video i was like yeah these people have always been

01:21:34.160 around i don't know what you're talking about this is a normal part of life it has always

01:21:37.900 happened i'm from the countryest of the country and if it was a norm in my town then i know it

01:21:43.520 was a norm where everybody else grew up so yeah i completely agree with that we as the older people

01:21:49.140 I'm an actual elder in my community have to definitely always be standing up for that and

01:21:54.780 speaking up and making sure that people are not being othered for things that are life yeah

01:22:04.480 yeah this is Zoe we're in the same age group I'm a Gen Xer so we're in the same age group

01:22:13.880 And I do have lots of young witches around me, so much so that I'd be looking for witches my age. Although they call me big sis, they don't call me auntie. But I love it. I love having conversations with them.

01:22:29.900 And, you know, it's like the world had to catch up to us.

01:22:35.620 And but along this lines of people's platforms and people continuing to platform people like Mr. Johnson, it does make me wonder about what we can do more collectively to platform to have.

01:22:58.040 because he stay going on the breakfast you know they stay giving these folks platforms that are

01:23:03.900 so harmful and we hardly ever hear from folks like us you know we do our youtube we do all those

01:23:12.060 things and those are relevant but it's just it's just i'm just wondering like what we can do to

01:23:17.780 have this other conversation be elevated I didn't want to say I think I really I mean I really think

01:23:30.980 that y'all are changing things you know I mean especially Iolosha I mean Zoe I think you know

01:23:40.020 um i'm so i'm just so excited about um this next generation it's like gen z right now i'm really

01:23:51.920 they're they're adopting okay let me back up like 1985 right uh louisa tish writes jambalaya

01:24:03.940 um and it comes out and it's a big hurrah because she's talking about spiritual practices that are

01:24:13.020 in some places closed and um and she's kind of making it accessible and open to this broader

01:24:19.120 this broader public um and and she spurs like this broader interest in african heritage religions

01:24:27.500 um and then and then Beyonce right in 2017 um comes out with the Lemonade album and she has a

01:24:37.100 growing interest in Oshun um and I think and and then all the the like this concentration of um

01:24:46.360 people online talking about who do especially who do African heritage religions broadly but really

01:24:53.300 What I'm most excited about right now is hoodoo because of its accessibility and because it's just this broadly open practice for people of African descent, you know, and because of its practical application.

01:25:15.180 and i think how uh i i've seen i had a i had a mentee last semester um the sweetest the sweetest

01:25:25.280 thing she was probably 19 and she was saying how and she was just like she just ate it up

01:25:30.360 you know she just ate it up i introduced her to the jujube um i uh i introduced her we watched

01:25:38.600 Daughters of the Dust. We went to the Shun Festival. She just ate it up. And then she

01:25:45.700 started realizing that actually there are people in her family who have been practicing

01:25:50.460 these traditions for a long time and very secret or maybe they talk to spirits or maybe

01:25:58.440 they feel things, you know, but they have this within them, I think. And actually,

01:26:08.600 she was she was on a medical track and then she switched her major to african african american

01:26:15.360 studies too um so she'll she'll be doing the work that we're doing too but um i don't know i think

01:26:24.140 i'm i'm just um not to put it all on them but i think i think there is a cultural shift happening

01:26:32.540 and i think it's happening with with spirit and in conjunction in conversation with spirituality

01:26:38.080 um particularly as we think of this kind of kudu cultural spiritual broad open

01:26:46.880 change making liberation inspiring producing tradition you know um i'm just thrilled

01:26:57.740 i'm so happy that um the sort of some of the conclusions that we've come to

01:27:07.980 for the prompt how how do we make the past useful for the present and the future are both to be

01:27:14.760 honest about history and also to rewrite it and i love talking with witches because we always are

01:27:23.440 like this and also the opposite of what i just said at the same time and that makes me so happy

01:27:30.300 because you know we say all the time like light is a light is a wave and a particle it shouldn't

01:27:37.120 be the case but this is the universe this is the paradoxical universe that we live in where light

01:27:41.480 is both particle and wave and and this can also be our treatment of history as both a particle and a

01:27:48.160 wave of something that we need to be honest about but also something that we can rewrite and

01:27:52.160 translate for ourselves i i hate to be the the time keeper um but i really want to be respectful

01:28:02.060 of the time frame that we

01:28:04.060 put on this. If you all have a

01:28:06.140 few more minutes, I would love to

01:28:07.800 quickly go around the circle so that

01:28:10.060 our listeners, you can tell our

01:28:12.020 listeners how to support you

01:28:14.020 in your future making,

01:28:16.080 in your future 0.97

01:28:17.720 making of Black history. 0.75

01:28:20.460 And then, Zoe, if you

01:28:22.080 would take us out within Praise

01:28:24.100 of the Witch. Are you cool with that?

01:28:26.140 Good. Let's start with Olomi. What's 0.85

01:28:28.060 the best way for our listeners to support you

01:28:30.120 and your work and your creation of future history all right well i'm i teach classes all the time

01:28:37.880 currently i created a 12 essential lessons for black witchcraft so you can purchase that you can

01:28:46.100 find me at got to be ocean g-o-t the letter the number two sorry the letter b-o-s-h-u-n dot org

01:28:55.980 And I'm also Got2BeOshun on all platforms.

01:28:59.260 So you can get the 12 essential lessons.

01:29:01.600 And I'm also offering now witchy mentorship because so many young people, kind of like

01:29:06.760 Marceline was saying, so many young people want that mentorship and learning how to

01:29:10.960 center this in their lives.

01:29:12.520 So you can reach me there.

01:29:14.040 I'm always somewhere, you know, being irreverent, pooping and hollering, as my mother would say.

01:29:18.560 So those are the places where you can find me, Got2BeOshun.org and Got2BeOshun across

01:29:24.000 all platforms.

01:29:25.020 thank you

01:29:26.720 Marcelite

01:29:27.460 yes you can find me

01:29:32.780 at Marcelite

01:29:34.440 the third dot com

01:29:36.220 as my website 0.98

01:29:38.240 it's M-A-R-C-E-L 1.00

01:29:41.100 I-T-T-E

01:29:42.780 the third

01:29:44.400 I am a third

01:29:45.760 my mom's name is Marcelite

01:29:48.420 and I have a great grandmother

01:29:50.760 it's Marcelite too 0.97

01:29:51.880 Marcelite the third dot com

01:29:55.000 I guess my writing is on there. So my articles are accessible. And yeah, reach out. I'm around

01:30:05.240 and I love to talk to people. Thank you so much for being here and for being period.

01:30:11.240 And thank you for having me. It's so phenomenal. Thea.

01:30:14.000 so my website is thea nichelle.com so nichelle like nichelle nichols that's named after um

01:30:26.800 my instagram handle is thea astrology all together no underscores or anything like that

01:30:34.720 um and i like on both of those i try to post like if something one of my like article comes out or

01:30:42.180 if I have anything to share.

01:30:44.220 You can also go to TheaNichelle.com

01:30:45.880 for any, like, if you want to book a reading with me,

01:30:50.200 I tend to keep a space open like for a month.

01:30:54.760 And I'm also part of the new trio

01:30:57.620 of a podcast called Down to Astro

01:30:59.940 with two other Astro Witches,

01:31:04.240 Chani Nicholas and Eliza Robertson. 0.75

01:31:07.060 So that's fun.

01:31:10.000 Yeah, and that's what I got.

01:31:11.240 Thank you.

01:31:12.180 thank you so much christina

01:31:15.340 hi um christinacleveland.com um christina with an e but i'm sure you'll put this in the lighter

01:31:23.840 notes because i don't spell my name like all the other christinas um let's see what's going on with

01:31:30.260 me uh well if you are black or know someone's black um i'm taking 23 black women to the black

01:31:36.740 madonnas of paris in may and we only have two spots left so anybody who wants to sign up is 0.95

01:31:42.080 welcome to join us for the sacred black women retreat you can find information on my website

01:31:46.340 um and i write a lot for my patreon community i actually wrote something today on how one

01:31:52.140 particular black Madonna speaks to late stage capitalism and liberates us so you can join my

01:31:57.860 patreon community and get access to some of that content and yeah i'm on i'm on the socials and

01:32:03.160 whatnot around and nadra yay so um you can find me at nadra n-a-d-r-a nittle n-i-t-t-l-e dot com

01:32:16.760 you can support me by buying a copy of bellhook spiritual vision which is available pretty much

01:32:24.180 anywhere books are sold and if you like it please leave a review um and also i am a reporter

01:32:32.780 for the 19thnews.org. So that's the website, 19thnews.org. And it's named after the 19th

01:32:44.820 amendment when some women in the U.S. got the right to vote. So there's actually an asterisk

01:32:50.660 next to the 19th to point that out. Thank you for having me. It was so nice meeting all of you.

01:32:59.360 thank you and definitely please listeners go and buy nadra's books like immediately immediately

01:33:07.280 and maria's too maria's book just came out like just a couple weeks ago so you probably if you

01:33:14.860 haven't had a chance yet maria tell us about how our listeners can support you and immediately buy

01:33:19.780 your book absolutely so you can join me in my latest spell by purchasing or renting tarot for

01:33:28.040 the hard work online or in a store near you within a store or a library near you it's also available

01:33:35.140 as an audiobook I'm not afraid to say that it is being quite highly acclaimed and you might think

01:33:43.000 I'm boasting but that's the truth and I refuse to obscure my confidence and my wins to make other

01:33:49.660 people comfortable you can find me on instagram at feminist f-e-m-i-n-n-i-s you can also find me

01:33:59.580 at mariamedis.com you can sign up for my naked tarot newsletter forewarning it can be pretty

01:34:06.200 nsfw at times it's where i get raw and vulnerable and show how and really illustrate how tarot

01:34:14.400 shows up in my real life because I think that tarot is a tool that reflects life and it's not

01:34:22.960 just the descriptions in the little white book that comes with you that it's real life and I

01:34:29.020 choose to share my life openly in order to illustrate how tarot shows up in the real world

01:34:35.760 I'm starting to open up to doing readings again so you can find information about that on my website

01:34:42.300 And I'm returning to teaching workshops in the coming months in the U.S., Europe, and Central America, as well as online.

01:34:50.120 So follow me for more information about that.

01:34:53.180 And thank you all.

01:34:56.180 I'm so in complete adoration of everyone here today.

01:35:02.680 Hard same.

01:35:03.920 Hard same, Maria.

01:35:04.700 I also want to underscore what Nadra said, that if you love an author, give them a good review.

01:35:10.660 go online go on goodreads go wherever it really helps more than you might think not just a little

01:35:16.680 like ego boost that the author gets when they see a five-star rating but it really affects like

01:35:22.920 algorithms and book deals and all that shit so if you if you love an author go put a good review

01:35:30.780 on whatever website you use to get your books thank you for mentioning that i am so excited 0.58

01:35:37.520 to about my next book idea so if you are into it if you enjoy my book please do give a review

01:35:45.600 just want to emphasize what nadra said reviews really do go a long way yes and we're manifesting

01:35:53.560 that second book right now that's not even a question we know we're we're eagerly awaiting

01:35:58.000 your second book maria no doubt it's gonna happen one way or another oh all the ways it's gonna

01:36:04.220 happen every single way that it can sherry shown that hoodoo lady my friend i love you

01:36:11.400 how can those who also love you support you so good so in addition to helping all of these other

01:36:19.900 beautiful women black authors historians teachers y'all for black history month please buy at least

01:36:31.540 one thing from a Black person. Please support one Black author. Please retell through their words.

01:36:45.460 Share their information to your audience, right? If you could do that, that'll help so many of us

01:36:52.960 so much because we don't have access to your audience, but you do. So don't try to retell

01:36:59.620 our stories for us share your share our stories with them so that they can now learn that so

01:37:06.780 that's that's the message from that i'm off the pulpit for a second so

01:37:10.860 lady i'm on all the platforms at that lady um if you need to email me sherry shown at gmail.com i

01:37:20.340 don't have my domain anymore it was getting way too ridiculous um on every third wednesday of the

01:37:27.540 month from four to six pacific time seven to um nine eastern time you can find me on wine cheese

01:37:37.340 and wisdom where myself joy vernon beautiful astrologer and also ceremonial magic worker

01:37:44.240 and witch and also granddaughter crow um native indigenous shaman woman all of that we all get

01:37:51.820 to hang out and do some wine some cheese and some wisdom um this february for black history month

01:37:59.540 it's all about sacred spaces and how do we create sacred spaces but every single wednesday we come

01:38:07.200 every single third wednesday we come up with a new thing it's only 33 bucks but i am just excited

01:38:12.660 to be part of this and thank you as always for letting me be on this show but love y'all for

01:38:18.720 letting you come on you know it's my honor and privilege to be in this space right now and I'm

01:38:25.280 just so grateful that you all said yes you know that's a big thing for me is like they can't say

01:38:32.340 yes if you don't ask so thank you all for saying yes Zoe can you tell us how our listeners can

01:38:40.740 support you and then give us a reading yeah yeah yeah thank you thank you again and somebody has

01:38:47.540 said, we need circles. So maybe we could keep this conversation going in some way. I would love that.

01:38:54.340 So how to get in touch with me on my YouTube channel is the magic hours. And so it's T H E 0.99

01:39:01.180 M A G I C K hours H O U R Z. And on Instagram, it's Gemini moon to row underscore one Oh one one.

01:39:13.000 and uh what else oh my website is iamzoeflowers.com so on my website i'm gonna be starting

01:39:22.460 principles of ritual classes in the spring and tarot 101 classes so lots of classes that you

01:39:29.520 can sign up for um on my website and by my candles i'm making reiki and magic infused

01:39:37.980 goddess candles they're fabulous buy one or five and that's oh shoot and I have two books um so

01:39:48.400 this one which I'm gonna read um in praise of the witch so it's actually called in praise of the

01:39:53.660 witch and then my other book is called from ashes to angels dust a journey through womanhood so I

01:40:00.180 think yeah that's all the things all right in praise of the witch

01:40:05.820 earth we are the elements stay close to the ground omnipresent six feet under our mother's

01:40:15.320 blood courses through our veins out our wombs down our legs feeding soil hungry we are dirty

01:40:21.800 with your sadness different from anyone you know omnipotent we lick wounds and swallow sorrows 0.99

01:40:28.480 name ourselves goddess are not afraid of the dark call on gods angels and ancestors when shit gets 0.84

01:40:34.900 tight we are round full figured full of ourselves water we bathe in basil and sea salt we're shackled

01:40:43.460 but jump ship anyway sharks fed on our flesh we are ocean now you eat us unknowingly drink us in

01:40:49.240 believing you can suck us dry and quiet our storms but we are oya settling accounts we are maat

01:40:55.120 shifting you can't box us in pin us down or tell our story fire we eat men whole when given the

01:41:02.940 chance burn sage incense candles tools of the trade dance under moons full we are allowed

01:41:08.960 alive stretch things out to fit our shape you itch to see us put in our place we are witch

01:41:14.880 wise woman and crone burned at the stake air but we are immortal reincarnated in the poems of our

01:41:23.380 daughters. We are Phoenix. Eyes in the back of our head. We are Sankofa bird. Live betwixt worlds.

01:41:29.500 Float through walls you build around us. Blowing cigar smoke in your face. We are juke joint.

01:41:34.880 Speak out both sides of our mouths. Seeing your future in eggshells. It's not looking good for

01:41:39.360 you. Familiars at our side. We tag Miami, Haiti, and New Orleans with chalk circles. Drink with 1.00

01:41:45.140 Legba at the crossroads. Walk on water masquerading as poet, artist, mama. We eat too many carbs, 1.00

01:41:53.100 fall in love with men who are afraid to love us back and turn our crooked noses up at your

01:41:56.940 traditions. Jazz, poetry, and Sade are our religions. We are black cat crossing your path,

01:42:03.620 that poem you wish you were smart enough to write, that rhyme you were too afraid to spit, 0.99

01:42:07.720 fucking up the mood. We are the ejaculation that comes too quickly, gas on a crowded elevator, 0.99

01:42:12.520 the uninvited party guests flirting with your boyfriend and eating all your food, 0.98

01:42:16.420 an inconvenient truth. We are those shoes you can't afford to buy, that thing you hate but

01:42:20.320 can't let go those pants that are too tight around your waist now that song that keeps playing in 0.99

01:42:25.020 your head that chick you know you're not good enough to bang the one your mama warned you about

01:42:28.960 we are trouble urban sprawl haunting your daydreams we are muse inspiring you to get 0.96

01:42:34.480 your game of teaching by example we are root worker oh be a lady and conjure woman that scary

01:42:39.880 broad living at the end of the road alone glamoring you through fork tongues we make miracles and yes 1.00

01:42:44.380 motherfucker we do ride on brooms you should be afraid of women like us chastity belted we fuck 1.00

01:42:50.180 anyway do what we want to do walk butt naked in the daytime and coming to you at night 1.00

01:42:55.220 carrying blessings and justice in your left hand machetes and curses in our right 0.99

01:43:00.780 thank you fuck yeah thank you zoe thank you zoe thank you olomi thank you marcelette thank you 0.99

01:43:08.720 thea thank you christina thank you nadra thank you maria thank you sherry as always i am thrilled 0.95

01:43:16.340 and inspired to be with you and thank you for creating the future histories of black magic 0.95

01:43:23.160 right here right now in this present moment thank you all so much and blessed fucking beef 0.97

01:43:30.200 thank you thank you love you too 0.99

01:43:33.000 you must be a witch if you want to support the missing witches project join the coven

01:43:43.400 Find out how at MissingWitches.com

Missing Witches - February 01, 2024

IMBOLC： Future Histories of Black Magic - Black Witch Council 2024

Episode Stats

Transcript