Missing Witches - Juneteenth 2022 w Sherry Shone aka That Hoodoo Lady： What Makes You Free？

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00:00:25.220 Happy Juneteenth, everybody! 0.95

00:00:27.340 Welcome to our Juneteenth celebration of liberation. And what possible better guest

00:00:35.040 could we have celebrating Juneteenth with us today than the author of the new book,

00:00:41.220 Hoodoo for Everyone. And I want to read the subtitle too, because it's part of the reason

00:00:44.920 we're here. Modern Approaches to Magic, Conjure, Rootwork, and Liberation. And that last word is

00:00:53.240 what we really want to focus on today. I will read you something very quickly, and then I'm

00:01:01.080 going to hand you the microphone. Our guest last year for Juneteenth was Lakeisha Harris, who is

00:01:06.640 the co-founder of Black Witch University. And she recently posted, I'm so disgusted at the

00:01:14.440 colonization of Juneteenth. This is the reason for the season. We never wanted plates and napkins 1.00

00:01:21.460 and ice cream. We want justice. We want to thrive. Not a damn CNN music special where you pay the

00:01:31.040 Black elite to hold space and sing, change is going to come. Sam Cooke is tired, she wrote. 0.99

00:01:39.540 The river is tired. I'm tired. And so again, we'll talk about all that, but the word liberation was

00:01:50.020 so important to you and your work that you put it in the title of your book and that's how we want

00:01:55.700 us how we want to celebrate juneteenth we run the risk of like what we see happening with pride

00:02:02.340 pink washing where the justice aspect the liberation aspect is completely lost under

00:02:09.640 late stage capitalism and and we're trying to avoid that today by once again focusing on the

00:02:17.760 real message of Juneteenth, which is Black liberation in America. So I'm going to pass

00:02:25.280 you the mic, Sherry Schoen. I know you have a lot to say on this. And thank you again so much

00:02:30.280 for celebrating with us today. Absolutely. I am so excited to celebrate this with you and also

00:02:36.020 everyone that will be listening, as well as those that are in the coven that are on the call with

00:02:41.400 us today. It is an honor to be able to speak about Black liberation and Juneteenth and giving

00:02:48.140 honor to the ancestors and those that are still here dorking and doing the cause because they're

00:02:53.680 not gone. It isn't like something that it was like, oh, you know, that was something we talked

00:02:59.700 about back in the 60s. It's over now. No, it's not. No, it's not. If you go to a mall, if you go rent

00:03:05.740 a car, if you are buying a house, if you are changing your hair, if you are walking across 0.94

00:03:14.220 a stand to go get your diploma, you will notice that Black liberation isn't here yet.

00:03:21.660 You know, and it's just, I'm excited that it falls on the same month as Pride, because 0.98

00:03:27.840 there are so many similarities with how the colonization and capitalization is trying

00:03:33.560 to take root.

00:03:34.300 And we as a witch community, we as a coven, it is our job to me to provide that deliverance and knowledge and education so that our rituals, our spells during this month are about the liberation and not about, oh, we get to wear something cute.

00:03:56.540 Like, I have a very cute little shirt on today, just as cute, just as cute, but it's flaming

00:04:04.440 lip pride.

00:04:06.760 Yes, love it.

00:04:07.860 However, when I go spend my dollars at a store, that's how I say where my pride is.

00:04:16.400 When I buy Black products, when I support Black witches, when I support Black communities,

00:04:24.440 that's my way to celebrate.

00:04:26.540 liberation and celebrate june team all of those things make up more than what

00:04:31.720 you know what she mentioned an ice cream okay y'all the ice cream

00:04:38.100 the plates the all of that when did that come anyway so yeah so we have a lot to talk about

00:04:47.920 yeah you know it's it's scary that um something can be co-opted so easily um and to to turn a

00:05:00.640 profit it's terrifying it's very terrifying because even when it comes to women's bodies

00:05:08.260 um years ago there was the silhouette dress make your body into a silhouette so that you look

00:05:17.060 smaller because that's what we need and that dress sold out right because our bodies are meant to be

00:05:24.840 small at the waist and larger at the hips than the breasts and everyone said yeah that's what I

00:05:31.440 want to wear I was tempted to go buy it and then I said wait a minute is that my body or somebody

00:05:36.640 else's because my body in the dress doesn't fit like that I got lumps and curves and thin areas

00:05:45.140 where's my silhouette dress right yeah i i joked with a friend of mine once that you know the body

00:05:54.880 types are like pear apple banana and i said my body type is a bag of grapes

00:06:00.600 mine too where's that where's that silhouette and why are they naming our body shape after food

00:06:11.080 for because it's for consumption right now that you mention it we are for consumption

00:06:17.140 right we are a fruit bearing seed holding provider that's all we are we're a shell

00:06:25.800 we're a shell to propagate and to bring forth more fruit really i don't have a mind where's

00:06:31.980 my mind shape isn't it funny how i have a walnut shape how like all forms of liberation are truly

00:06:40.780 connected they're all they're all connected when um so I'm gonna so when I start talking to you

00:06:48.580 about Opal and I talk to you about um where Juneteenth originated we're gonna talk about

00:06:55.520 when one of us is hurting all of us is hurting so we're ready we're ready

00:07:01.400 I feel like you were born ready

00:07:04.780 because when you stay ready you don't have to get ready

00:07:11.100 don't you kind of feel that for our ancestors we were i was on a um i do a lot of marco polo

00:07:19.120 which is one-way communication recorded that someone else can then reply back their one

00:07:24.120 recorded communication too um because i tend to have an issue when i'm trying to do two-way

00:07:30.100 conversations where I have to tell myself, wait, listen, think, and listen to what the person is

00:07:37.020 saying. Don't immediately start thinking, oh, no, I know what I'm gonna say after that. So

00:07:43.460 Marco Polo is perfect for me, because I can get through. But anyway, in one of our groups,

00:07:48.980 it's a group of us that are coming from different points of view. We are, one of us is adopted,

00:07:56.080 One of us is a sister, one of us is a foe sister or an adoptive sister that we have.

00:08:02.060 And then there's me and we all talk about religion and faith and manifestation and Abraham Hicks and I mean, just everything in between.

00:08:09.860 And one topic that we had this time around was around how our faith was shaped from trauma and abuse.

00:08:22.080 And how that's one thing that connects so many of us.

00:08:26.080 and isn't that a legacy that we want to stop as women

00:08:32.600 but instead and many times you hear the story of I was born out of an abusive relationship and

00:08:42.940 therefore I chose in a beautiful abusive relationship and therefore my child is probably

00:08:48.840 going anyway so i think that because unfortunately that's what binds us together that's also a good

00:08:57.780 place for us to start is ending the self-hatred ending the self-talk ending the ways that we

00:09:04.440 treat each other and ending the ways that we speak to each other as women when we call each

00:09:09.760 other out of our names whether it's a karen or a blah or a blah or a blah that is abuse

00:09:16.980 to each other as women and as women as our liberating factor if we don't live get it

00:09:23.920 together no one else is going to appreciate us okay okay so liberation there all right

00:09:32.940 where else do we want to go let's let's go back to uh the the reason for the season

00:09:39.580 what is your perspective on the history of juneteenth so the history of juneteenth to me

00:09:47.800 so i wasn't taught juneteenth as a history lesson um i was taught from a very white nationalistic

00:09:54.880 citizenship is being true watermelon eating on the july the 4th celebrating that if you did

00:10:00.180 anything other than that you weren't really an american that was put into my head you attend

00:10:06.220 the parade you wear the flag which actually is against the law anyway you wear the flag

00:10:12.880 you hang the flag proudly um you have barbecue there is none of this well I'm a vegan no no

00:10:21.500 that's not American either um but once I grew up once I grew up spiritually I sought out more

00:10:30.580 information about what my soul needed to be said because I had almost a soul um a soul drought

00:10:39.720 that I was feeling where something was telling me you're not being quenched yet you're seeking

00:10:48.260 you're reading tarot but you're not being quenched you're playing around with runes but you're not

00:10:54.960 being quenched you're reciting the chance of another culture but you're not being quenched

00:11:02.000 and when I sought that out I said well I got to go back and learn my own history of roots

00:11:07.240 and that brought me to Juneteenth I would go to the Juneteenth celebration I was originally born

00:11:14.760 and raised in Colorado and in Colorado there's a thing called a Juneteenth celebration and it is

00:11:20.960 the same weekend as pride celebration. So Juneteenth, you have a festival of a lot of

00:11:29.460 darker bodies and everyone displaying their artwork and everybody celebrating soul food

00:11:35.900 and everything else. And it's almost like you have a two different mindsets and even

00:11:39.740 dress codes, right? So when I'm at the Juneteenth, I have on maybe some cutoff shorts and a nice

00:11:47.320 linen shirt and I have my dreads loud and proud and that kind of thing. And then when I would hop

00:11:52.520 into my car and head over to Pride, less would come off. I would take off more and more and I

00:11:59.680 would be in the rainbow, right? But when I see Juneteenth, I saw more of my people and celebrating

00:12:07.840 music, dancing, food. And then I would go see the other people at Pride

00:12:13.160 through music dancing and food but it was with Juneteenth that I saw the deeper soul work because

00:12:20.720 I got to see artwork and I got to see practitioners and I got to see musicians that looked and sounded

00:12:29.280 and felt like me and that's how I started to experience Juneteenth and I didn't really think

00:12:38.140 about the parts of it that meant that would really feed my soul until I started getting

00:12:46.140 back into the church culture.

00:12:48.700 And in the church culture, because even in my book, I talk about this constant struggle

00:12:56.140 with me and church and religion and spirituality and still being liberated. 0.97

00:13:02.840 because to me the very nature of the church even the black church is to hold me down

00:13:08.640 and to push me into somebody else's box and to conform me into their thoughts and words 0.98

00:13:16.500 don't have a thought of a woman or a leader if you're in the black church your job is to be a 0.97

00:13:26.240 church mother. Your job is to serve. Your job is to be an usher. Your job is to be married 0.98

00:13:32.720 in a church, to have more children in the church so that you can propagate more of the church

00:13:37.880 foundation. That's what your job is. But when I grew up in the church of God and Christ,

00:13:44.520 the one thing that I love was testimony service because that was the one time that I actually

00:13:49.640 felt spirit that I felt a spiritual feeding that nothing else can fill and it wasn't until later

00:13:59.140 that I learned I didn't have to be in a church to have that happen but when I was growing up

00:14:04.220 that's where I did and so the spirit would get loose and people would speak in tongues and

00:14:09.080 people would run up and down the aisles and I always wanted to be a runner because I felt like

00:14:15.720 they had the most freedom they would they the music would start and we'd all be clapping and

00:14:23.300 having a good time and then all of a sudden brother so-and-so sister so-and-so something

00:14:28.720 would just go and they would run up and down the field and I was like I'm not saved enough

00:14:35.160 I'm not holy enough I'm because all I do is cry what kind of week

00:14:40.980 what the hell we first am I um yeah and all I was was a crier but then it wasn't I noticed later on

00:14:52.680 that as my spirit of discernment started and I could actually start reading more of what was

00:14:58.260 really truly going on as far as spiritual things that are going around and energies that were going

00:15:02.660 around while everybody was running and floating and doing things and speaking in tongues I could

00:15:07.720 actually see the spirits that were going through those pews, then I said, oh, this is something

00:15:15.100 more than a symptom.

00:15:18.640 You know, running was a symptom.

00:15:20.280 Crying was a symptom.

00:15:22.040 Hollering out loud is a symptom.

00:15:23.920 And it's a symptom that you're being touched by something bigger than you.

00:15:31.600 When you're liberated, you can't stop that.

00:15:37.720 voice. When I'm truly liberated, and in this time of Juneteenth, when our voices are no longer

00:15:47.380 silenced, then to me, Juneteenth will absolutely be a reality. We'll be liberated.

00:15:56.660 Yes, because we're still working out that Emancipation Proclamation. I mean, I don't

00:16:03.680 think there's anyone that would say that we've lived up to the promise of the Emancipation

00:16:08.860 Proclamation, right? Well, if you are in some schools now, yes, they are teaching. We are

00:16:16.680 liberated. The slaves were actually products of an agreement. They were resources the same way

00:16:30.100 are cattle and the same were horses and the same way it was sugar and the same way as wheat and

00:16:36.340 corn we were products we weren't human we were products and we were part of that and we entered

00:16:42.560 into a trade agreement with our enslavers and they were actually our employers not our enslavers

00:16:49.280 so this is the stuff that's being taught in schools now is that it wasn't it wasn't anything

00:16:55.780 to really worry about it was just part of being part of a capitalist society i mean i i didn't

00:17:04.700 mean to get into this um but i mean we're here this notion of it being like illegal to teach

00:17:12.460 critical race theory in schools and obviously this goes hand in hand with the don't say gay

00:17:18.220 uh all liberation is connected coincidence that we're all in the same month it is not

00:17:25.100 i mean it it boggles the mind this i mean obviously there are you know uh prejudiced

00:17:32.460 people out there who who don't want to believe that people who are different than they are our

00:17:38.120 people there are people out there who believe that but for that to come into our schools i mean what

00:17:44.640 is school even for them what is school for and school right now because even when you want to

00:17:52.180 say your truth and learn history, there's no history. They are limiting what can be taught

00:18:00.620 and finding those teachers that are bold enough to say, it is my job to educate. That's why I

00:18:07.160 became a teacher. And they're being told, no, you can only educate on what our ideals are

00:18:15.160 in this local area anything else outside of that they are to learn by their parents who maybe are

00:18:23.640 non-existent or not as educated as the person that actually took years and years of study to become

00:18:31.840 an actual teacher and they're leaving that up to them because of the fear of oh we could be sued

00:18:41.060 we could be protested against and really that's back to capitalism too we're worried that our

00:18:46.340 funding will go away we don't want to speak the truth because our funding will go away

00:18:52.060 it is all about funding and the minute they stop preaching critical race theory that's because they

00:18:58.400 wanted to start privatizing schools where their money could stop going to public schools where

00:19:04.400 they have to dare to teach the children of immigrants, which we all are, but I won't even

00:19:11.160 go there, but they want to start moving everyone's funds to private schools where they could teach

00:19:17.120 them their way. And they would not have to mix with all of these others that they're afraid of.

00:19:26.240 And we are all, I mean, by virtue of you listeners listening to this podcast, I don't know if you

00:19:31.640 call yourself a witch or not but we are most of us here othered in some way or another and it's

00:19:39.720 like uh faith ringold said i went to school and got my education and then i went out and got my

00:19:45.340 real education she had learned you know like you said about your own life she had learned nothing

00:19:50.060 about um african history of any kind other than you know this like the live emancipation really

00:19:57.800 You know, you just have a lie of the emancipation. You, you know, you, you look at the emancipation and the emancipation was signed back in 1963. It was signed by Lincoln back in 1963. And Lincoln actually 18, but you're exactly right.

00:20:23.020 He actually signed it September 22nd, 1862.

00:20:27.600 He issued the preliminary

00:20:28.580 and then it was declared January 1st, 1863.

00:20:31.980 That basically says all enslaved people in the States

00:20:35.120 currently engaged in rebellion against the Union

00:20:38.240 shall be then, thenceforth and forever free.

00:20:43.700 Okay. 1.00

00:20:45.160 All enslaved people.

00:20:46.940 So that included, but it wasn't recognized,

00:20:49.880 that also included First Nations.

00:20:54.020 That included our Latin brothers and sisters that were working in the fields just as hard as we were.

00:21:01.260 Okay, let's step back, because I know I might already feel the eyes rolling.

00:21:06.720 Why you got to bring, I'm going to bring up everybody.

00:21:08.780 Because when one of us is hurting, all of us is hurting.

00:21:11.800 So emancipation for First Nation didn't happen for several years after that, right?

00:21:17.480 But anyway, that was when it was signed, was in 1863.

00:21:20.620 The celebration of Juneteenth was taking us back to, it took two years before everyone in the United States knew that Juneteenth, that actually the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect.

00:21:41.780 And that didn't happen until 1865, on June 19, 1865.

00:21:47.740 And that is when the final enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas, were informed they were free.

00:21:58.140 And that is why we celebrate it on June 19th.

00:22:04.360 However, is that truly when we were all free?

00:22:09.520 No.

00:22:11.040 Right?

00:22:11.640 It's almost like you're working at your job and someone comes in and they say, oh, by the way, you don't work here anymore.

00:22:20.500 Does your work end? Do your bills end? Does your family get fed? How does any of that still happen?

00:22:29.440 All of that was still happening June 20th, 1865. Right. We still had that.

00:22:36.760 And it was like, oh, we can now celebrate. They're free. They're free. We had no land. We had no jobs at that point. We had no ways of making income at that point. There were still a lot of things to figure out. And for those people that kind of say, yeah, but you could just go back.

00:22:53.460 And what the minion slave did is they just went back to their plantation and said, OK, can you actually hire me now?

00:23:01.380 Because I don't have any other skills. Or they would try to go into the industrial area and do what?

00:23:09.700 Were they taught reading? Was anyone educated? No, no. So freedom really, truly wasn't happening until then.

00:23:17.620 Um, all right. So now let's talk about Juneteenth and it becoming a federal holiday. Should we go

00:23:23.820 there? Okay. Let's go. So Biden signed that it was a federal holiday last year, right? And see,

00:23:32.400 my whole pod popped out because something doesn't want me to say the truth. But anyway,

00:23:36.740 I'm going to keep going. I'm going to find my little ear pod.

00:23:40.720 see that's what happens when we all get together

00:23:45.860 and the things start popping out and they're like no no

00:23:52.800 you're gonna upset somebody but that's okay because if you're listening you're probably

00:23:58.920 not upset you probably want to hear from us so so i believe that he did that as a way to

00:24:09.440 try to appease and calm those of us that were

00:24:13.220 uprising against critical race theory. So it was a PR

00:24:17.320 statement. And I believe that with all my heart. Why do I believe that?

00:24:21.480 Because in the Obama administration, Juneteenth was not made a federal

00:24:25.520 holiday. Politics aside.

00:24:30.480 When that happened, no. When

00:24:33.160 we had Kennedy, Juneteenth wasn't celebrated.

00:24:37.380 When we had Bush, Reagan, no. Clinton, no. So I'm happy that it is a federal holiday. It isn't sour grapes for me.

00:24:51.440 but when you want to celebrate liberation what about buying that gun what about not taking away

00:25:03.640 black bodies or protection of black women and their rights to have abortions what about free

00:25:09.460 birth control what about stopping policing of blacks and brown bodies and the imprisonment 0.99

00:25:14.480 of our whole societies as a people and killing those that are lucky enough to make the journey 0.98

00:25:19.800 from arrest or jail that to me would be more of a statement right I mean yeah yeah I mean I love

00:25:31.760 a stat holiday as much as the the next person but I would rather see prisons for profit made illegal

00:25:39.320 like you say I would rather see the 13th amendment that basically makes slavery you know legal if 0.99

00:25:46.380 you've been arrested and as we know you know black and brown bodies get arrested at a much higher 0.98

00:25:51.100 statistical rate all of these things that would have been real something real that would have 0.98

00:25:58.020 been great if we could have done that however with I believe a Biden-Harris administration

00:26:03.200 they're pretty conservative and so they want black and brown bodies instead to stay in the 0.97

00:26:09.300 prisons. That's a great profit for them. It looks great to the voters, and it keeps those others 1.00

00:26:17.260 away too. Because when you're walking in a neighborhood like mine, because I live in a

00:26:21.960 very rural suburban neighborhood, and you see a black body walk by, and I know this because it

00:26:27.700 happens, not because of critical race theory, because in my body it happens every day,

00:26:32.080 and my reality is my fact. When I go past my neighbor's house, and I have a neighbor that

00:26:38.080 gets out and makes it a point to ask, where do I live? That to me speaks to

00:26:46.400 their privileged sense of you don't belong here, you are other. There is no other reason for them

00:26:54.080 to ask that. And even if you as someone of a different color gets asked that same question,

00:26:59.940 ask yourself okay why are they asking are they asking out of true neighborly love no they are

00:27:10.520 saying you don't belong and they are probably saying you don't belong because of your outward

00:27:16.720 appearance and if they're saying is you don't belong because of your outward appearance

00:27:22.380 start to look at what you have that they don't and then you'll find your other yes 0.96

00:27:29.220 i mean you are a black lesbian you take a bunch of those overlapping other boxes and yet you refuse to 0.97

00:27:40.400 put that onto other people i mean the perfect example your book is called hoodoo for everyone 0.96

00:27:48.460 and i know last time you and i spoke when we were talking about uh the hoodoo guide to the bible

00:27:54.400 which again listeners get both of these books uh and go back we'll put that episode in the show

00:28:00.620 notes for this because honestly sherry helped me to reclaim my ancestral connection to the bible

00:28:08.740 which i had for many years very harshly rejected very very harshly so we will we will put that in

00:28:16.160 the show notes so that you can go back and listen to that if you haven't already but it maybe it's

00:28:21.240 a little controversial for you to say that hoodoo is for everyone it's very controversial because

00:28:27.580 i have been shunned by hoodoo practitioners that say you're not really hoodoo should be a closed

00:28:35.520 practice and it should only be taught black on black and here's my question to that how black 0.87

00:28:41.180 is black in american history if you had one drop of black blood you were denied the right to vote

00:28:50.300 you were automatically assumed to be enslaved and anyone can come and take you at any minute 0.51

00:28:55.460 and the children and property and everything else that you held dear so if that is the case and you 0.97

00:29:01.520 have one drop of american black african black latin black blood in your body then you should 0.98

00:29:09.060 be black enough to get hoodoo lessons but to many other hoodoo practitioners no i want you to prove 0.99

00:29:16.800 to me that you're Black before I teach you? What if I have a condition where I am lighter than most 0.98

00:29:27.780 and I can't take pigment? Am I now not Black? Because you don't see me outwardly as Black.

00:29:33.480 Is it in how I speak? Is it where I grew up? Is it my parents? What if I was adopted? What if I'm

00:29:39.540 foster all of these questions make me say you know what if you and your heart feel that you can

00:29:46.700 respect the african-american experience you can respect the journey and the trauma and the

00:29:53.620 tragedies that we go through and you can respectfully without appropriating hoodoo

00:29:59.020 for your own causes then yes feel free practice hoodoo and that's what the book is about

00:30:05.540 journey. Yes. How to do that. Yeah. How to do that. It's a lot of my personal stories of how I got to

00:30:15.300 where I am, but hopefully in those stories, they see that shared connection. I bring up shared

00:30:22.180 ancestors that I have asked in my own history, can you please help this person reading this book

00:30:29.280 to help them with their hooting journey, regardless of where they are in their walk in life? That's

00:30:35.120 gender, that's sexual identity, that's associated, that's whatever that is. And I've found those

00:30:41.540 shared ancestors and those stories are the stories that are in the book. There's the story of the

00:30:46.340 blue lady. There's the story of tall man. There's the story of my dad. There's the story of Michael.

00:30:51.600 There's so many stories that help that person reading the book, hopefully see where they fit

00:30:57.320 in their place in their hudu lock yeah and and it's certainly you you you talk about it in the

00:31:05.240 book um about this notion of who is allowed and and who isn't allowed but i will say for those

00:31:12.480 listeners who um are are whitey white white not a single drop to be found in their whole germanic

00:31:19.360 lineage you can still get something out of this book if you if you feel uncomfortable with the

00:31:24.680 notion of practicing something that belongs to african-american people that's okay i always say

00:31:33.320 that i like to learn about traditional african religion not so i can practice it but so that

00:31:39.980 we can undo the lie that we have been told about you know this wisdom not existing certainly even 0.89

00:31:48.360 if you are Whitey McWhiterton and you're sitting there thinking there's no way that I'm going to 0.86

00:31:55.020 go out and start practicing hoodoo they're going to protest and that's fine if you feel that way 0.97

00:31:59.780 if you want to feel very sensitive about it but I'm here to tell you that this this book is for

00:32:06.020 everyone whether you want to practice or not this book is for you you brought up Michael do you want

00:32:12.520 tell a little bit of this story because this is shared ancestor michael um he was someone that

00:32:21.460 i was close to when i was dating i dated his father um he was a beautiful gay youth beautiful

00:32:30.220 and it was back in that time where i had in my head and heart that it was my job to judge

00:32:38.320 and judge harshly and he came to me in love and truth and said i'm gay and my parents don't

00:32:47.560 understand me what should i do and we shared tea and the story is more in the book but it's about

00:32:54.080 my experiences and my approach and really my plea to ask for his forgiveness i give a way that you

00:33:06.140 can honor michael in ritual um i talk about where his journey ended and i talk about how you can use

00:33:16.540 his journey in your own practice if you have a need to get forgiveness or protection from him

00:33:25.160 or guidance from him he's a beautiful shared ancestor especially if you're doing some work

00:33:31.380 with someone who is wanting to identify the real reality and wanted to speak their real truth

00:33:37.280 and unfortunately is not heard or listened to um yeah and now he's one of my ancestors that I can

00:33:46.520 talk to when I'm not really sure the right things to say and he will give me that knowledge and

00:33:51.980 guidance because he was a young soul, but he was very knowledgeable. And this you propose is

00:34:01.900 a version of emancipation. Self-love is a version of emancipation. The love of your community is a

00:34:09.940 version of emancipation. We are emancipating ourselves from A, being othered, and B, from

00:34:16.480 harming ourselves because we've been told or we have thought or yeah that those words you know

00:34:25.960 there's a there's a there's a story that when you're trying to teach children the power

00:34:34.920 and the harm of words you start with a tube of toothpaste and you give every child of two little

00:34:41.120 tube travel size of toothpaste and you give them a little piece of paper and you say okay in 30

00:34:47.820 seconds I want you to squeeze out all of the toothpaste and they start to do it and then

00:34:53.980 after they're done and everybody's so excited look how much I put and it's all on a big pile

00:34:58.540 it's so cool and then you give them a plastic knife you say okay now you have two minutes to

00:35:04.120 push it all back. Those are words. Those are words. Those are words that will never go back

00:35:11.400 into that toothpaste. And I think that the words that we share for each other, again, it's back

00:35:20.020 to that when that voice is not monitored, when that voice no longer is harming, when that voice

00:35:27.020 is no longer afraid to speak out, then we're truly free. And that's for everybody. That's

00:35:33.100 for everybody yeah can you tell us the story of the pink ladies oh the pink ladies so the pink

00:35:41.720 lady is the story of a quilt that's in my family when I wrote book one I did not have possession

00:35:48.840 of the quilt I thought it was lost forever and we moved me and my family my dad who's also a

00:35:56.040 share dance gesture in the book my imperfect dad my hero um but my um the pink ladies is a quilt

00:36:04.420 that my grandmother made my great great grandmother made that she would lay on top of me whenever i

00:36:10.980 would start to have visions and i couldn't go to sleep i was terrified um i would see death i would

00:36:17.520 see murder i would see rapes i would see everything trauma and tragedy um we would go into a concert

00:36:25.400 hall and I would sit in a chair that someone unfortunately did something bad and I sat on it

00:36:31.320 and I would see them and I would see what they did. I would go on a bus and same thing. And so

00:36:37.560 when I got at home and laid my head on the pillow, this would not leave. And my great grandma, who

00:36:43.360 always was around me, would lay the pink lady's quilt on me. And the pink lady's quilt was a woman 0.99

00:36:51.440 who was faced one way. You never got to see her face. It was a very popular pattern of quilt 0.99

00:36:56.740 making back in the day, but it was white, pink, white, pink, white, pink of the same lady and a 0.99

00:37:01.940 dress with a beautiful skirt and a bonnet where her face was shielded. And she was always looking

00:37:10.820 one direction, not at you. And when I was underneath the pink lady's quilt, all of it

00:37:16.460 went away I could concentrate I could get sleep I can get comfort and joy so book two starts and

00:37:23.760 I'm writing and I'm telling all of my ancestors and guys what book two is going to be about because

00:37:28.040 I just got it like that and my ancestors said nope my dad said nope you're not going to talk

00:37:35.860 about heroes and heroines because that was what book two was supposed to be about you're going

00:37:39.900 to talk about your stories and why we have to start including everyone in our walks.

00:37:48.300 We have to stop separating each other as spiritual practitioners, as healers, as lovers of this

00:37:56.960 wisdom and this education. Who are we to say that we have the monopoly on any kind of knowledge?

00:38:05.880 anytime because it's shared

00:38:08.040 from the minute they put

00:38:09.960 ochre on the cave walls

00:38:12.100 it was shared it was meant to be viewed

00:38:13.980 and seen and not viewed and seen

00:38:16.040 in a way that I

00:38:18.000 as Sherry I as that hoodoo lady

00:38:20.100 you as Amy could say 0.97

00:38:21.400 you know what I actually don't want you to read

00:38:24.080 that

00:38:24.500 actually don't

00:38:27.780 you can go into the

00:38:29.340 but really to say

00:38:31.900 that if spirit guides them to find

00:38:34.140 through their own walk

00:38:35.880 the cave where your

00:38:37.740 initials and symbols

00:38:40.020 are and they respect

00:38:42.060 it and are not there to wipe

00:38:44.160 the symbols off

00:38:45.040 or to take the symbols for their own and say

00:38:47.880 look what I made because that's a lie

00:38:49.800 then who are we

00:38:52.000 to come behind them and say you're actually

00:38:54.000 not worthy

00:38:54.580 I'm not that big yet

00:38:57.680 I will never be that

00:38:59.880 never

00:39:00.880 I'm not that big to tell anybody that they're not

00:39:04.000 worthy

00:39:04.360 no nor should we ever be right and i know that even in my in my book i try to be very honest

00:39:14.060 about my own fragility my own inner turmoil my own mistakes because all of us make it and i hate it

00:39:23.160 when people write a book and they make it seem like and look at everything that i do with love

00:39:27.680 light and beautiful crystals no it's we've all gone through something that helps us need

00:39:36.180 deliverance from something and not even of a place of victim but a place of I had no right

00:39:45.520 I had no electricity but I still needed to cook that's deliverance I needed to have my rent paid

00:39:53.280 And I know right now in my account, there's negative two, right? Those are deliverance requests that everyone goes through. I'm at the hospital, and my partner, my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, my grandpa, my grandma, someone, my friend, my dear friend is there, and there's nothing I can do about it, but ask for some kind of deliverance on their behalf.

00:40:17.560 these are the kind of stories that you use hoodoo for it isn't for i wish i knew what hair to wear

00:40:23.540 today that is not what it's for hoodoo has come from a place of enslavement for deliverance

00:40:32.240 so if you're in a placement of enslavement whatever that enslavement is then hoodoo's for

00:40:37.220 you whatever that enslavement is whatever that enslavement is i i um posted something yesterday

00:40:44.820 about how I've started to use elixirs and juices and teas as offering for those ancestors that had

00:40:52.840 an issue with alcohol, or even for those of us that are walking a sober journey. We don't have

00:40:59.360 to use alcohol because maybe that's one of our enslavers. So why as a practitioner would I say,

00:41:09.620 well, I don't know, you just got to put down some whiskey because that's what they like.

00:41:13.340 no you don't you don't not if it's one of your inslavers let that inslaver go tell him go yes

00:41:21.480 and that it was so wonderful about your well one of the many many many many things that's wonderful

00:41:27.240 about your approach is that you you do you're very much like tailor it to your situation tailor

00:41:32.800 it to your environment tailor it to your emotion tailor it to your circumstance what you have in

00:41:38.900 the cupboard. What you have in the cupboard. If I have in my ritual that I would like you to use

00:41:45.000 chamomile tea and you don't even like tea. Great. What do you have? Do you have some grass? Do you

00:41:53.460 have access to cement? Do you have something that smells good in your house that you like

00:41:58.540 that calms you down? Okay. Chamomile is used to calm situations. What else do you have in

00:42:05.460 your house that calm situation what if it's a teddy bear why can't you use that teddy bear

00:42:11.160 guess what you can't and if you're diabetic and something wants a lot of sugar like

00:42:18.440 none of your ancestors want you to harm yourself we can say that

00:42:23.180 want you to harm yourself and if your ancestor is telling you to harm yourself

00:42:28.200 then that's the ancestor not to listen to we have our own spirit of discernment for a reason

00:42:33.740 for a reason spirit of discernment i love that i'm writing it down discernment that is a word

00:42:45.960 that we don't use enough we don't we don't we do not use it enough and i remember in my journey

00:42:53.920 we were taught spirit of discernment which is insight or judgment

00:42:58.980 keeping keen insight and good judgment so when um i was in my walk as a church person and i would

00:43:12.800 have a situation where my spirit told me to say something to someone else

00:43:18.760 i also got a spirit of discernment with that too and if i heard so and so sister so and so

00:43:27.180 is walking this journey of candy addiction.

00:43:30.480 I want you to walk up to her as a young child,

00:43:34.760 to this grown-ass adult,

00:43:36.220 and say that she's going to be healed 0.99

00:43:39.980 of this candy addiction.

00:43:42.020 Okay.

00:43:42.480 But I also had a spirit of discernment

00:43:44.660 that let me know who to talk to

00:43:46.040 and tell the candy addiction and who not to.

00:43:50.320 And there are some times in life when you get that.

00:43:52.740 You'll be on a bus somewhere

00:43:53.860 and you will be perfectly free to have a talk with someone

00:43:56.540 And if they ask you what you do and what you heard for them, you may share that.

00:44:02.120 But then there are others who maybe don't have a spirit of discernment where they don't even know who you are.

00:44:07.400 And they walk up to you and they say, oh, spirit told me to tell you that you're having an affair.

00:44:12.520 And I need to tell you that he.

00:44:17.520 Could you please?

00:44:21.440 Just because it's right doesn't mean it needs to be right now.

00:44:26.540 it doesn't need to be right now

00:44:28.780 and that's

00:44:30.600 they're supposed to get that message

00:44:32.060 they'll get it

00:44:32.920 and it doesn't have to be by you

00:44:34.940 what a relief

00:44:37.880 am I supposed to talk to them right now

00:44:41.040 or are you going to let them know

00:44:42.880 and you're just letting me know

00:44:43.980 so that I know

00:44:45.140 okay you're just letting me know

00:44:47.320 okay well thank you

00:44:48.440 thank you for that message

00:44:49.660 and then when you see them you say

00:44:51.400 I really hope that they get their deliverance

00:44:54.980 that they need

00:44:55.600 And that's what they need is you saying to yourself as part of your prayer, as part of your ritual, I hope they get the deliverance they need.

00:45:06.040 Because as a lover of self and a lover of self-love, I want them to have the self-love that they need so that they can love themselves to get themselves into a situation that they don't need deliverance.

00:45:17.840 And that's what I'm asking for them.

00:45:19.940 I'm asking that they get deliverance for whatever they need.

00:45:23.360 i want to uh read something from the story of the pink ladies

00:45:28.500 if you don't mind um for those of you at home following along this is on page 149 of who do

00:45:36.820 for everyone modern approaches to magic conjure root work and liberation

00:45:40.280 um she she being your grandmother she would take the very important grandmother would take the pink 0.93

00:45:51.780 lady's quilt out of the trunk and put it on me then she would whisper a bible verse in my ear

00:45:57.460 rub sweet blessed oil on my forehead and put me back to sleep I would dream wonderfully after

00:46:04.640 that this my friend is hoodoo the oils the bible verse and the blessed quilt hoodoo uses all these

00:46:14.680 elements and more. But, and you're relating to my question, but you wrote, to get good at it,

00:46:21.240 you must start with Bible knowledge. Why must we start with Bible knowledge?

00:46:28.560 Start with Bible knowledge because as enslaved persons, that was the first book we were allowed

00:46:37.100 to be part of we were told that we were slaves because of stories in the bible book

00:46:44.900 we were told that we were to remain slaves because of the bible we were told that our

00:46:51.080 faith was to a god that we knew nothing about because in our indigenous industry and our

00:46:58.020 indigenous religion traditions we were taught by a monolithic god and we were also taught by

00:47:04.520 colonialism but we still didn't have this version of this jesus and many of those places unless

00:47:12.780 you're unless you're um unless your area your um your area was colonized you didn't know anything

00:47:21.400 about a a white god or a jesus like that you have several gods or goddesses or you had one god

00:47:29.760 that maybe was an animal or that maybe was another spirit that had nothing to do with what

00:47:34.820 we talked about in the Bible. But because all of our religious traditions could be transferred to

00:47:45.140 this new God, because that's what we were forced to use, we started to use the Bible as a way to 0.60

00:47:51.880 show how to get out of those situations and read through the lines so we would have someone who was 0.88

00:48:00.360 a black preacher on the slave site that would say this is what you need to do and then you would

00:48:08.880 have another person who would take that same oral knowledge and say actually this is how i'm going 0.76

00:48:16.140 to turn this around and this is how you're going to get your freedom totally different

00:48:21.860 totally different and that's how i practice bible knowledge is i want to learn um there's a there's a

00:48:29.440 there's a verse that i say over and over and over and over in the book from second timothy

00:48:35.780 um and that is second timothy 2 15 study to show thyself approved one that doesn't need to

00:48:46.620 be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth so when you are learning about yourself your whole

00:48:53.820 self and you are not afraid to question your god your goddesses your arishas your healers 0.66

00:49:02.620 your practitioners, the hoodoo lady, missing wishes, if you're not afraid to question,

00:49:10.980 then you also are free. Because the spirit that I know of, the deity that I know of, 0.95

00:49:17.900 does not feel bothered by your questions. You are here to question.

00:49:24.820 Study to show yourself approved, a work person that needeth not to be ashamed,

00:49:30.540 rightly dividing the word of truth it's back to that discernment to have discernment you have to

00:49:36.400 know the bible stories and judge for yourself what is true and what is a lie yes i want to repeat

00:49:45.600 if you're not afraid to question then you are free speaking of our emancipation proclamation

00:49:54.960 and we can write emancipation proclamations for ourselves maybe um and i love writing your own

00:50:02.580 emancipation what makes you free you know um going back to juneteenth opal lee started 0.86

00:50:11.380 the juneteenth being an actual holiday from her home in fort worth texas 40 years ago

00:50:20.500 her whole journey was to make as a texan educator she was a teacher of history

00:50:30.680 aids outreach um business good samaritan um she served on the grandmother's club the humanitarian

00:50:39.960 club she's an active member of the church she's in her 90s she still walks for juneteenth to be

00:50:47.540 a national holiday and she wasn't celebrated until last year but she coined the phrase none of us are

00:50:54.240 free until all of us are free and she meant that for everyone not just blacks

00:51:02.060 none of us are free until all of us are free let's say it one more time none of us are free

00:51:08.840 until all of us are free and i'm going to ask our listeners to ask yourselves this question

00:51:14.640 that Sherry just posed. What makes you free? What makes you free? I don't have an answer for you.

00:51:23.040 I just want us all to ask ourselves this. And I think that's another thing that I talk about

00:51:30.060 in the book or try to portray in the book is even your Hulu journey will be custom to you.

00:51:35.840 It won't be my journey. My journey was my, and that's why I read in some reviews that some people

00:51:43.140 were pretty upset that my book had two chapters of nothing but my personal story. And that's

00:51:51.660 because as part of the personal stories, I want you to weave in, okay, this is her story about

00:51:57.240 the pink lady. What do I have as a pink lady? And keep that knowledge for yourself because all of us

00:52:04.260 have a similar type of story? Well, we've been embarrassed, ashamed, hurt, angered,

00:52:12.800 happy, joyful, and turn that around and make your own journey of this is my journey

00:52:20.280 and my book of shadows to voodoo. Even if I don't practice, what is my lineage? What is my history?

00:52:27.080 What is my knowledge of Bible? If it's nothing, why is it nothing? And do I want to start actually

00:52:33.340 doing some bibliomancy on the Bible and just kind of go, I'm going to read through as doing

00:52:42.200 bibliomancy, I'm going to pick up a book. There's a thing on TikTok now where everybody's like,

00:52:47.140 pick up a book and turn to page 30 and whatever. No, I'm not going to say that. But as a person

00:52:52.280 that does bibliomancy, which is just basically divination through some type of written text,

00:52:57.800 I want you to pick up the Bible, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. And then when you're told to stop,

00:53:03.340 then look at that chapter and verse and see how that applies in your life and in your deliverance

00:53:09.900 request and if it doesn't make sense to you what you found as a verse or chapter then this is where

00:53:20.360 your study began this is where your second Timothy 2 15 picks him why is it not making sense and it

00:53:27.140 requires you to do the research and the reason I want you to get in the practice of research research 0.99

00:53:31.720 research is because as a hoodoo practitioner it's an oral history but it teaches you to do your own 0.80

00:53:38.320 history do your own research so that you aren't fooled by someone else that comes into your house

00:53:44.400 or comes into your healing practice or comes into your hoodoo work and tries to tell you that you

00:53:49.500 don't have the right to speak your truth we often we often sign our emails you and i sherry with uh

00:54:01.260 to each other well not to maybe to everyone to each other with uh jeremiah 29 11 there's

00:54:08.200 there's a lot of stuff that in the bible that has been used to hurt us but there is a lot of stuff

00:54:14.300 in there that we can use jeremiah 29 11 i know that i have plans for you plans to prosper you

00:54:21.960 and not to harm you and i love to use that and say it to my friends you know jeremiah 29 11 like

00:54:30.400 i have plans to prosper you prosper because the and that's another thing that i think that the

00:54:39.300 bible did very well is it incites some kind of trigger

00:54:45.100 those words are it's a sacred text because for many of us when we trigger it's a call to action

00:54:56.460 whatever that action is, right? Many of us think of trigger as a negative, but also trigger could

00:55:03.120 be positive. If I call to you and I say, I know I have plans for you that are to prosper you and

00:55:09.580 not to harm you, hopefully that gives you an action of, I'm kind of the shit. I have some 0.98

00:55:15.740 self-love going on. This other person that speaks that to me loves me, respects me. Therefore, I must

00:55:23.540 be worthy of that right so you're sharing so much so much yes let's have it yes what uh what are you

00:55:33.520 doing for Juneteenth how are you celebrating what are your plans for Juneteenth so um what I'm doing

00:55:39.640 to celebrate is um there's a few things that I like to do and I try to kind of mess it up a little

00:55:46.860 bit and switch it around a little bit but usually I will bring in some kind of ground nut into my

00:55:52.400 celebration. So that means that I will celebrate with a peanut soup. I'll celebrate with a ground

00:55:59.320 nut soup. I'll celebrate with sweet potato. I'll celebrate with gender and horseradish,

00:56:05.300 and I'll make a meal out of it. I'll separate a little side of that meal for my enslaved 1.00

00:56:10.800 ancestors that helped create the path for me to be free. And when we're setting aside and someone

00:56:20.320 says, Sherry, I don't have a ground

00:56:22.300 nut. I don't even know what a ground

00:56:24.400 nut is. Can I

00:56:26.460 still celebrate you?

00:56:28.540 Well, hopefully

00:56:29.540 from listening to everything

00:56:32.240 we have.

00:56:34.160 Do you have a nut? Do you

00:56:36.300 have anything that came from the ground

00:56:37.900 that you want to

00:56:40.280 use to give to your ancestors

00:56:42.060 to help

00:56:44.160 express freedom?

00:56:46.020 Then please use that. Please.

00:56:48.540 Please. If you have

00:56:50.160 herbs, you can use collards, mustard, kale. If you want to use any kind of herbs, you can use

00:56:58.060 holy basil, you can use thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, chives. All of these things were

00:57:04.060 herbs that were accessible and available in Africa when they were brought over. If there's a myth

00:57:13.100 that I like to associate more with folklore, that the reason that there's black seed and

00:57:18.720 black seed rice and certain parts of Southern California, I'm sorry, certain parts of South

00:57:25.640 Carolina, there's black seed and then there's also the golden rice seed. The black seed rice

00:57:33.120 and the golden seed rice were all brought over in folklore in the indigenous women's hair as braids

00:57:43.100 so that they always had something that reminded them of home to prosper with.

00:57:50.920 So they would take the seeds out and they would plant into the crops.

00:57:55.540 And that's how we have the southern rice that everyone knows about.

00:58:02.200 That I believe, I'm trying to remember the name.

00:58:06.180 It's escaping me.

00:58:07.780 I'm looking it up right now.

00:58:09.880 um there's a certain kind of gold rice that everyone uses and now it's escaping me so if

00:58:17.520 anyone that's listening remembers the exact rice name let me know um but that is one folklore

00:58:25.420 around rice so even if you have rice um you can use that if you have something that is more

00:58:33.800 traditional in your own system that you want to use and celebrate liberation then feel free to do

00:58:41.880 that um there's a black blue historian named chef michael twitty and he is on afro culinaria.com

00:58:52.520 and he teaches people how to use food cultivation from the perspective of ancestor

00:59:03.020 so he'll teach you how to make a yummy pot of greens but he will help you understand why

00:59:11.580 that yummy part pot of greens means so much to ancestor did you by chance see the netflix uh

00:59:20.760 docuseries high on the hog yeah that would be a great way to celebrate juneteenth people out

00:59:28.620 there if you don't have any plans high on the hog is a fascinating examination of food and

00:59:34.100 african-american and african history it was i love that series so much the the one um part of

00:59:43.940 because there were so many episodes in that anthology but there was one that focused on

00:59:48.480 the yam and the sweet potato and how they're not the same thing um and i think that speaks to us

00:59:56.300 on substitutions especially as those of us that consider ourselves witches or healers or practitioners

01:00:02.420 there are many times that we go into our pantry to do a certain body of work and we don't have

01:00:07.120 that body we don't have that ingredient that one thing um and then we get caught up in it and we

01:00:12.880 go oh well then the spell's not going to work um i think that that comes from a place of fear

01:00:18.820 false evidence that appears real it's not real it's not real if i have nothing one of the things

01:00:27.040 that i talk about in the first chapter of the book is if you have nothing else other than

01:00:32.320 intention faith and direction then you're good if you have nothing else other than intention

01:00:40.320 faith and direction it has been guiding all of us as spiritual healers since the beginning of time

01:00:46.420 When I breathe life into something, I truly breathe life.

01:00:50.240 I didn't have to go to a store for that breath.

01:00:53.740 I didn't.

01:00:55.000 You didn't have to go to the store for that breath.

01:00:59.320 Oh, Sherry, I just love you so much.

01:01:01.420 I hate to have to start wrapping this up.

01:01:04.460 But I do want to give our coven mates who are here an opportunity to ask you a question or give you a compliment.

01:01:11.200 Cass says no questions for me but she's so excited to be here thank you Sherry Schoen

01:01:17.240 and oh I see Julie that's good hi hi Julie um thank you so much for this really rich conversation

01:01:30.160 um my question is about when liberation movements are co-opted and I'm wondering

01:01:37.420 how do we fight this um i'm kind of at a point where i don't think it's possible to prevent it

01:01:44.040 under capitalism but i think it is possible to fight it i've seen different strategies you know

01:01:51.700 the body positivity movement became co-opted so people are now using a different term body

01:01:56.380 liberation although i'm seeing that co-opted too so i don't know if it's just going to be like

01:02:00.840 name replacement after name replacement or i see some people talking about feminism being

01:02:06.820 co-opted and they'll point that out that's capitalistic feminism um and i'm just wondering

01:02:11.900 if you have other ideas or thoughts about the fact that probably most social justice movements will

01:02:17.540 be co-opted at some point in some way and i i think they will thank you for bringing that up i

01:02:24.040 i kind of have to go back to my group system and my belief system and i truly feel that

01:02:35.340 when something comes in to try to divide destroy right we as hoodoo practitioners we as social

01:02:43.120 workers we are as healers our job is to continue to work our way through that regardless of the

01:02:54.120 distraction we get distracted and that is what the antithesis of love is about is it's about

01:03:03.980 So worry about this so that you don't focus on the deliverance.

01:03:09.520 So if you're coming from a place where you're focused on the deliverance and someone wants to brand it some way differently or talk about it differently or try to join us, it won't to me matter because you're staying on your path.

01:03:23.800 and if that other group entity wants to you know what have at it with them but you know where you're

01:03:32.860 going as Julie and you're going to stand your standard up here and therefore if they want to

01:03:42.140 use a different standard that's up to them but that's not where you're at I love that Risa and

01:03:48.540 I always say like we get down by exactly Julie what you're talking about like everything that

01:03:53.880 we want to be like beautiful and spacious and healing as a price tag attached to it or some 0.98

01:03:59.560 bullshit and so we just remind each other like there's so much bullshit there's so much baloney 0.99

01:04:06.280 there's so much bullshit all we can do is try not to be bullshit to try to be a voice in the crowd 1.00

01:04:13.540 that's not bullshit and even that feels hard you know we're always checking ourselves we're always 0.99

01:04:21.800 checking and by we I don't mean me and me Lisa I mean everyone in our coven you know we're always

01:04:26.280 checking ourselves um but yeah just I mean you didn't ask me this question but my answer is just 0.99

01:04:32.320 like try not to be bullshit when everyone around you is bullshit just try not to be bullshit 0.84

01:04:39.960 i really like that i really like that um and a final way to celebrate geoteenth is to 0.98

01:04:47.940 use your money because that's where we are use your money that you donate that you buy

01:04:58.340 that you visit to help in liberation causes so that means that if you're getting ready to

01:05:07.660 buy something from a local bakery and you have an option to buy it from a Black owner, 0.72

01:05:17.560 can you try to seek that out for Juneteenth? Before you buy something that's a new dress or 1.00

01:05:25.320 earrings or maybe you're shopping at a local farmer's market and you see that there's a

01:05:31.360 Black vendor, could you try to go at least check them out? I'm not saying buy anything.

01:05:37.120 Let's just check them out because many times it's about that awareness and making yourself

01:05:41.280 cross the street because when you're used to using the same things and we get ritual

01:05:46.740 and even our shopping, at least I do, where I go to the same store and I buy the same

01:05:51.060 things because it's comfortable for me and that's what I know.

01:05:54.460 But to seek out and to look up online, it's amazing that if you look up online and you

01:05:59.700 try to find Black-owned restaurants, Black-owned hair stores, Black-owned spiritual shops,

01:06:07.120 how many opportunities and options for your dollar out there

01:06:11.440 that you maybe never knew of.

01:06:14.060 And the option being like going on Amazon and buying,

01:06:17.620 like Lakeisha said, you know, Juneteenth themed serviettes and cups.

01:06:24.980 And if you must buy a Juneteenth t-shirt, 0.98

01:06:27.840 could you find it from a Black vendor? 0.99

01:06:29.560 Please find it from a Black vendor. 1.00

01:06:32.020 And if you're going to wear... 1.00

01:06:32.920 If you find it from a Black vendor, that'd be great. 1.00

01:06:35.020 And if you're going to wear a Pride t-shirt, 1.00

01:06:37.120 like Lakeisha is wearing today that's got these beautiful luscious rainbow lips on it like again

01:06:42.680 you know try to get it from someone who is actually going to benefit from the cause and

01:06:49.960 not just you know line their pockets yeah did that help answer your question at all Julie

01:06:56.960 yes thank you so much it it did I think it also helps my existential angst in terms of where to

01:07:09.460 be putting my efforts and maybe it's not actually productive to be putting my effort on how people

01:07:16.200 are messing up the movement but to focus on my corner of the movement that's doing amazing stuff 0.70

01:07:21.340 so thank you giving yourself the permission to go look at all the shit i'm doing that's amazing 0.65

01:07:28.620 because i mean how many of us in our own wasp ancestor many times our ancestors just want to 0.93

01:07:34.320 lift us up the plans for you they're plans for you they're not something that is to put you in

01:07:43.060 a corner and say oh you should have done better no it's look at all you've done you know my um

01:07:50.480 my ancestor walk with my dad one of the things that I want people to do was they work with my

01:07:55.760 dad is to learn how to open your arms and embrace the beauty of me embrace the beauty of you

01:08:05.280 in your walk self-love is huge it is huge I have a whole self-love ritual

01:08:15.720 that i share and so it's just it's just so good there's just so many good things about us that

01:08:24.840 are worth celebrating and worth being happy and worth being liberated on that it's a good time

01:08:30.140 to enjoy all of that during this month you've given us such a good thing to focus on sherry

01:08:35.580 intention faith and direction and what other people are doing we can't allow it to affect

01:08:44.300 our direction why not to let it affect our our path because our path is to study to keep our

01:08:51.440 minds focused on the deliverance that we're here to do if that means social justice if that means

01:08:57.220 whatever your cause is even if your cause is no cause that's still a deliverance request 0.97

01:09:04.100 yeah i don't want to be mumbled down with the bullshit okay and that's what your deliverance 0.96

01:09:08.660 the questions i don't want to be muddled down with bullshit i really don't but i do i i do want 0.95

01:09:19.100 everyone to um just examine this notion of emancipation in your life in the lives of the 0.63

01:09:25.700 people that you love in the lives of the people you hate why not examine this notion of emancipation

01:09:33.580 maybe we can even emancipate ourselves from that hatred if we think about the emancipation of the

01:09:40.020 people we hate there's so many like you say you know self-love is a version of emancipation

01:09:44.920 obviously we are here to talk about um black civil rights because it's juneteenth and we

01:09:51.120 have to keep our focus on that but we can take these notions of emancipation and we can carry

01:09:56.020 them with us whatever our our personal or ancestral history is absolutely and i wanted

01:10:02.340 to circle back on something once i moved my house because my my dad told me to move by april 1st

01:10:08.060 2020 he said you will be in your new house by april 2020 and so we packed up everything in

01:10:13.140 my old house in colorado brought it over to there and once we got everything unpacked

01:10:20.340 oh my goodness listeners i wish you were here with us right now sherry is showing us the pink

01:10:29.980 lady quilt and it's more beautiful

01:10:31.900 and pink than I ever could possibly

01:10:33.920 have imagined in my wildest

01:10:35.740 dreams

01:10:36.420 I can't believe what great shape it's in

01:10:40.000 it's like shape

01:10:43.740 like nothing I've ever seen

01:10:45.340 this quilt is

01:10:47.900 probably

01:10:48.580 75, 80 years old

01:10:51.320 and it's like 0.99

01:10:53.840 the white is like Javex

01:10:55.600 like I don't know how a child could have

01:10:57.880 ever touched this

01:10:58.960 parts of it where you know in the thread she re-sewed some stuff and patched up stuff but

01:11:10.080 and i can see thread that's gone because i remember i used to put my fingers through

01:11:15.940 some of the little holes of the patch where the patchwork is out and she would be like stop

01:11:22.180 sherry as a juneteenth gift to us all can can we have your grandma

01:11:28.420 yeah thank you so much please if you do anything she loves to be um sung to she would she had

01:11:40.400 beautiful white hair that was down to her shoulders she was first native and also black

01:11:48.880 And so she had long braids in her hair, but every wrinkle of her in her 90-something years meant something.

01:12:00.360 Everyone.

01:12:02.120 And for Grant, I just, I had someone do some ritual work with her, and they said that she would bleed them to a river, and she would dunk their head in whenever they tried to say something belittling for themselves.

01:12:16.780 good and that's my grant that's great so we can evoke you we can evoke sherry's grand when we

01:12:24.660 are tempted to talk badly to ourselves and give ourselves a little metaphorical head dunking in

01:12:30.220 water don't please don't let me in the water yes because she just she really was about you know in

01:12:36.480 an area where she was born in 1899 and to be told that she could be a single mother of two children 0.99

01:12:45.100 and be successful washing clothes taking care of other people's children and homes 0.54

01:12:53.500 and she was still free and her body she was just as free as the ceo somewhere else

01:12:59.940 you said she liked to be sung too so can you sing us out for juneteenth for your grandma

01:13:08.520 for all grandmas for all pink quilts everywhere and for our emancipation

01:13:13.820 So absolutely. So I'm singing on the lift every voice and sing, which is the national, the black national anthem. Yeah, yeah.

01:13:26.400 Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring.

01:13:39.140 Ring with the harmonies of lift the sea.

01:13:48.860 Let our rejoicing rise high as the sea.

01:13:56.400 See, guys, let it revel out loud as the rolling sea.

01:14:11.520 Sherry, thank you so much for sharing your liberation with us and helping us with our own liberation.

01:14:18.460 I want to wish you and all of our listeners a very, very happy Juneteenth, not because

01:14:24.040 of the napkins, but because of the idea of liberation, about passing the message of you

01:14:31.900 are free.

01:14:33.380 And it might take two years to get from the president's mouth to your ear, but as Chris

01:14:41.500 Scarborough said to me, the point is that we heard.

01:14:46.880 Yeah.

01:14:48.460 let's keep our voices open let's keep our voices with every voice thank you so much happy juneteenth

01:14:54.560 everybody and thank you so oh oh oh my goodness yes and buy the book when is the i know it's

01:15:02.540 available for pre-order right now um but i believe it you'll it officially comes out in august

01:15:09.060 august 23rd i will be in denver colorado at goddess isis books for the book signing

01:15:14.700 oh yay okay well we'll we'll come back around to that in august but in the meantime you can

01:15:21.760 celebrate your juneteenth by putting a few of your dollars into sherry's royalty fund

01:15:27.320 and purchasing hoodoo for everyone modern approaches to magic conjure root work and

01:15:35.240 liberation by sherry shown also while you're at it please check out uh the hoodoo guide to the bible

01:15:41.360 uh sherry's first book which again has been foundational for me and uh on instagram at

01:15:48.020 instagram at that hoodoo lady go follow and keep it easy yeah and once again let's let's all leave 0.91

01:15:56.280 by asking ourselves what makes you free what makes you free and with that bless the fucking be 0.90

01:16:04.180 just a reminder that the missing witches podcast is entirely listener funded if you love the 0.86

01:16:20.220 project and want to support us and join in on conversations like this one live find us on

01:16:26.180 patreon at patreon.com slash missing witches

Missing Witches - June 19, 2022

Juneteenth 2022 w Sherry Shone aka That Hoodoo Lady： What Makes You Free？

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