Missing Witches - Missing Witches Coven Yuletide Special 2024

00:00:00.000 Oh beautiful time, oh solstice, oh the longest night of the year,

00:00:16.300 We gather together to share our hope and our fear, because we are riches in the night.

00:00:34.200 We are wishes we bring our own light to the soul that I know is by all this day.

00:00:49.660 Welcome and Merry Yule.

00:00:52.260 Merry Yule.

00:00:54.100 I feel so out of practice from doing podcasts, Amy.

00:00:58.240 it's been so long it's been a minute it's been a minute but i feel like

00:01:07.100 you know it'll it'll come right back to you like riding a bike as they say yeah i fortunately don't

00:01:15.080 feel like it's been a long time since we've all been together in the coven those of you i can see

00:01:19.800 which feels homie and nice but this is the yule special yeah this has become a bit of a tradition

00:01:25.900 where we invite the coven to have a sort of new tradition

00:01:33.680 of a different kind of family gathering,

00:01:37.000 a chosen family gathering centered on the winter solstice

00:01:41.500 instead of the birth of baby Jesus.

00:01:46.580 And so we invite the coven to share poems and stories

00:01:50.580 and songs and ideas and thoughts.

00:01:54.120 and that becomes our Yuletide special.

00:01:57.180 Yeah.

00:02:01.580 For the first time ever, Amy's bells work in this audio format

00:02:05.620 and it's delightful.

00:02:08.580 Zoom has some new settings.

00:02:10.240 I think in the past I had to like edit in my jingle bells in post,

00:02:15.140 which is also a delightful exercise, but you know.

00:02:18.820 Well, let's quickly open so we can get straight to all of the different, I don't know, whatever

00:02:27.400 we brought.

00:02:28.400 It's like our family talent show, this episode, and that gives me so much joy.

00:02:34.120 I want to just open with a little reading from the Yule chapter, but Amy, do you want

00:02:39.460 to light a candle?

00:02:40.460 I do.

00:02:42.100 For those of you who are listening, this is how we start all of our meetings, with the

00:02:47.260 symbolic and ceremonial lighting of a candle and this is something that we do

00:02:52.720 as a reminder of the covenant that we make when we enter this space that we

00:02:59.680 are collaborators we are not each other's competition we want each other to

00:03:06.760 succeed we want to be in a space that is as unhostile as possible and in this

00:03:16.360 world, when you can't find something, you make it yourself. So that's what we did.

00:03:22.120 This candle is a reminder that nobody came here to judge you. And we hope that that compassion

00:03:29.800 you can also extend to yourself. We didn't come here to judge you. I didn't come here to judge

00:03:35.960 myself. I came here to be who I am. And for some of us, this is the only place that we get to do that.

00:03:42.600 sometimes we raise our candles to our cameras in the zoom room just as a silent uplifting

00:03:50.000 to each other and also to make our own light at yuletide this is from the yule chapter

00:04:01.000 of missing witches reclaiming true histories of feminist magic

00:04:06.320 here is one secret of why they burn witches witchcraft and activism are one with our acts

00:04:15.800 words and rituals we summon a better world and we fight inequality yes we summon it for ourselves

00:04:22.580 personal healing joy and fulfillment all acts of love and pleasure are our world-changing rituals

00:04:28.700 finding our own peace and safety a room of one's own honors the fight that came before

00:04:34.600 and gives us strength to press forward again,

00:04:37.980 to take the knowledge of our luck and strength and beauty with us

00:04:41.140 into the next entanglement for justice.

00:04:44.440 Individual healing from trauma helps set a piece of the pattern of the universe

00:04:48.140 into a new ancient rhythm of resounding care.

00:04:52.700 Care deviates the drumbeat of trauma on repeat.

00:04:56.020 Quote, caring for myself is not self-indulgence.

00:04:58.800 It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

00:05:04.040 End quote.

00:05:04.600 self-care changing the world for ourselves is only half of the work of a witch

00:05:10.220 this is low tide a drawing in of breath a rest a gathering of strength a necessary withdrawal

00:05:16.960 after low comes high tide we gather our power to challenge the violently empowered

00:05:24.280 and to act for the source of all power as monica show makes clear over and over again in her writing

00:05:32.220 and research, magic comes from the earth. She wrote, I believe that we are conscious and alive

00:05:40.140 only because she is. Earth is our great planetary mother spirit, end quote. We have to spiral from

00:05:48.500 self-love, nesting and nurturing to the work of resistance and of remaking and of re-enchanting

00:05:54.960 the world.

00:06:02.220 I brought, as my offering to this circle, the Jinx and De La holiday special,

00:06:10.760 which is a delightful romp, and I encourage you listeners and Coven to check it out.

00:06:17.600 It's all about how forcing each other into our traditions, because we think that that's going

00:06:25.060 to make them happy, ultimately doesn't work. And that a beautiful way to celebrate the holiday

00:06:31.200 season is to create new traditions. But there's one tiny bit that I just wanted to play for you

00:06:36.800 all right now. I believe in things, real things, tangible things, like attuning myself to the

00:06:46.880 natural rhythms of life's forces marked by the phases of the moon and the seasonal quarters

00:06:53.540 of the year you know real stuff so i want to thank thank jinx and dala for that if you brought

00:07:04.380 a song a poem a story a well wish an idea a thought we invite you to use the raise hand

00:07:12.260 emoji under the react button and then we'll get started yay

00:07:18.780 let's start with Melissa hi Melissa hi everyone Mary Ewell I have my Mary tinsel baubles for

00:07:33.000 everyone today so I have a poem um I don't know if anyone else brought this poem um but I put my

00:07:42.900 And at first, so I get to say it first.

00:07:45.700 It's called The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper.

00:07:51.140 And so the shortest day came and the year died.

00:07:54.880 And everywhere down the centuries of the snow white world

00:07:58.700 came people singing, dancing to drive the dark away.

00:08:03.440 They lighted candles in the winter trees.

00:08:06.380 They hung their homes with evergreen.

00:08:08.440 they burned beseeching fires all night long to keep the year alive and when the new year's

00:08:15.140 sunshine blazed awake they shouted reveling through all the frosty ages you can hear them

00:08:22.180 echoing behind us listen all the long echoes sing the same delight the shortest day as promise

00:08:31.800 wakens in the sleeping land they carol feast and give thanks and dearly love their friends

00:08:39.560 and hope for peace and now so do we here now this year and every year welcome you all

00:08:48.680 melissa you got a bit emotional reading that poem do you want to talk about it a little bit

00:08:56.260 oh i think i always get emotional just being in this space no matter what we're talking about

00:09:01.780 So it seems to be sharing is like I don't like being in the spotlight for anything, which is so strange because I started I wanted to be a journalist a long time ago.

00:09:16.960 So I think it's just that. And I'm just so grateful for everybody.

00:09:20.660 So I often get emotional. But the peace part, definitely, you know, hope for peace, you know, within ourselves and within the world.

00:09:30.440 that sort of just got me in the feels there thanks everyone

00:09:34.460 thanks Melissa thanks for bringing the tears of this great overwhelm of peace you know

00:09:47.200 you're not alone in that I want to lay those absolutely on the snowy altar of this yule

00:09:54.880 fire you know thank you and thank you for that poem brianne hello mary yule mary yule

00:10:08.540 so i brought my lady buffana is this you know she is the italian christmas witch

00:10:19.060 and uh there we go see she even has her little tiny broom oh my yeah I've got this for decades

00:10:29.220 uh I'll kind of spare the story of her I used to every winter read my twins the story and it's

00:10:37.720 yeah it's kind of a terrible story she goes to find the wise men and they leave her in the dust

00:10:42.900 because she's busy picking up sticks and so then she searches through the night to try to find the

00:10:48.800 baby Jesus and, you know, written from a very religious kind of background. So I always like

00:10:57.460 to kind of now bring her out and into our life to remind us that, you know, this old haggard lady

00:11:06.520 is still a beautiful being. She is all parts of the triple goddess. She is the mother. She's the

00:11:14.760 she's the maiden and she flies through the sky and brings hope and courage and kindness to the

00:11:23.060 kids who need it the most so that's it that's all I have just Bafana wanted to say hello

00:11:30.940 can you describe her describe what she looks like and why I don't know what you see that's

00:11:36.880 beautiful in her like so we can see her through your eyes oh absolutely so she is always um 0.65

00:11:44.280 always depicted as she has a head shawl and a shoulder shawl she's always wearing a dress and

00:11:54.320 she has a tiny broom with her that she flies on and she has her her pack of gifts and but her face

00:12:02.440 and in to me what I always find so beautiful about her and even in the stories that kind of

00:12:08.100 make her even look more haggard because she has such kind eyes and she's kind of a winter force

00:12:16.560 to be reckoned with but she's so sweet and this tiny lady but she flies on this broom

00:12:23.460 through the night through the storms through everything and it just her love of wanting to

00:12:31.040 be there for the kids, naughty or nice, I think is the most beautiful part. She does this all by

00:12:40.060 herself. Just one lone little lady flying the skies and bringing hope and cheer to everybody. 0.90

00:12:49.460 There you go. I hope I described her well enough. 0.97

00:12:52.640 you absolutely did um i put this in the chat but i'll ask you anyway can you send us a picture

00:13:03.660 of her for the show notes for the web oh absolutely yes yay thank you thank you so

00:13:10.200 much mary yule mary yule happy solstice another melissa hi hi mary yule hi beautiful coven um

00:13:23.840 hello uh i brought a book from my childhood so i won't read it i'll give a quick synopsis if

00:13:33.140 anyone is familiar with the bunnies get well soup it's not only written it's also illustrated by

00:13:39.580 Joan Elizabeth Goodman, who wrote some other books. But I rediscovered this book going through

00:13:47.660 stuff. And when I read it, I was like, it's a mutual aid story. And it, I think, influenced

00:13:55.600 who I was. And why I wanted to bring it is that I'll quickly just synopsize. So Mother Bunny wakes

00:14:03.700 up and mother bunny has a bunch of sick bunnies but mother bunny doesn't have anything to make

00:14:11.340 the get well soup so mother bunny in this terrible snowstorm runs around town and visits all her

00:14:18.440 neighbors each neighbor has an ingredient so maybe someone had beans somebody had turnips

00:14:26.720 etc etc mother bunny gets back to her house and tries to put a soup together and realizes that

00:14:34.780 she doesn't have enough ingredients she gets sad sad mother bunny but then there's a knock on the

00:14:42.920 door and the whole neighborhood has shown up and everyone has brought ingredients for the soup

00:14:50.580 including homemade root beer there's badger there's the families of uh I think they're

00:14:59.740 thunks that's the other cute family but at the end of the day they all get together and make

00:15:06.340 a huge vat of soup and I ended up being a professional chef who also spent a lot of time

00:15:12.200 in nutrition and uh kind of culinary education this book starts with a recipe in the front

00:15:19.540 But on the longest of days, I think it's such a blessing to remind ourselves that we can do so much with so little, especially when we're supported with community.

00:15:33.700 So I love you all. Happy Yule. Thanks. Let me share.

00:15:39.880 I'm so glad to hear this bunnies get well soup version, because the version of that story that I'm kind of familiar with is stone soup or sometimes nail soup.

00:15:52.900 And the idea of that one is that the soup maker is kind of a scam artist, you know, and he's like tricking people into giving him ingredients for the soup.

00:16:03.000 But the bunnies get well soup is this this mutual aid story that you're talking about.

00:16:08.020 there's no trickery there's just a community coming together to pool their resources and again

00:16:14.600 especially at this time of year you know we we live in a very convenience-based society right

00:16:22.800 but back not that long ago we really really really needed each other to get through this

00:16:30.880 time of year you know like our harvest is maybe starting to dwindle and I wonder about that as

00:16:39.760 like part of the gift giving the spirit of giving like lore of this time of year if it really does

00:16:47.120 stem from this bunnies get well soup idea of mutual aid that is so important in the the dark

00:16:55.800 long winter months i think so we'll do a jingle bell for that while vermilion unmutes

00:17:04.840 hi vermilion mary yule mary yule everyone i am so so so excited to be here and i don't really

00:17:16.560 have anything specific that, um, I was able to find, I was going to, um, I wanted to find like

00:17:25.500 a poem or something, but it just didn't end up happening. So I guess my message today is just

00:17:30.420 gratitude. Um, I'm so thankful to have gotten to find all of you and the space and the ability to

00:17:39.680 participate so frequently and with such love um in a group that isn't judgmental like there's so

00:17:51.300 many amazing people here and I have a tendency to um be super shy and not want to be on camera

00:18:02.640 I'm actually very well known in other groups for not being on camera um but with this group

00:18:11.340 it was never difficult for me to feel comfortable doing so um which is honestly unheard of uh for

00:18:20.700 me so just uh thank you all of you for being so open and welcoming and fun I've had so much fun

00:18:29.140 the last like week that I've been here this has been wonderful so I just wanted to say thank you

00:18:34.180 so so so much to every single one of you and and to everyone listening to the podcast like you're

00:18:41.740 all amazing and I love you and Mary Yule. Ah Vermillion I'm so happy to hear that that means

00:18:53.040 so much and you're so fun we're so glad you're here we're so glad you're all here it's just

00:19:01.080 I mean we feel the same way about you just so relieved that you're all here and you're such

00:19:08.340 such an ease to the spirit yeah and don't hesitate to let us know if we as a group if

00:19:18.240 there's things we can do like to describe things better to experience like to be more accessible

00:19:24.400 to you and to each other that's like something we really care about and have talked about for

00:19:29.180 a long time so we always want to know and it makes it more fun and we know you know so that's

00:19:36.820 for everyone um love for joy and also wait vermilion thank you for opening the door to

00:19:47.780 anybody who didn't bring anything and just wants to say something this is welcome and always

00:19:53.560 delighted to and we want to hear just what comes out of your mouth uh michelle i'm having internet

00:20:04.600 problems today so if i stop talking it's because i had to log off log back on don't need to circle

00:20:10.960 back around to me um michelle uh started going within the app by love for joy so put it that on

00:20:21.020 my as my name so you'd know who i was i live in um the colonized name of raleigh north carolina

00:20:28.580 land of the tuscarora and today i've got on a olive green tank top pink stretch pants short

00:20:37.780 brown hair brownish blondish curly blue eyes female white presenting okay i think i got the

00:20:45.580 intros right i wanted to share with you all um a family tradition that's also kind of unique to

00:20:52.580 north carolina some of the settlers that came through our state were of quaker background so

00:20:59.560 there's still um a sizable number of quaker congregations in the piedmont area of the state

00:21:05.440 There's also Moravian churches, and they always put on a candle tea event around Christmastime and invite the public in.

00:21:17.180 So you go in and they are in their original colonial outfits.

00:21:22.120 They usually have a brass band that plays within the church.

00:21:26.000 They make this really good tea and coffee cake and sugar cookies.

00:21:30.020 and then they also make candles from hand with the molds and the beeswax candles so I bought

00:21:38.160 some of those I use those for ritual things but one of the things I found when I walked in because

00:21:43.500 they have got an upper bazaar with a craft and I'll hold this up and then I'll try to explain

00:21:48.260 what it is so it's about two foot long one foot across it's actually the cutout of a turtle

00:21:59.160 but what they did is they took a wooden outline of a turtle painted it gold and then took oyster

00:22:09.820 shells that they painted in blue and white and glued it on to the turtle tortoise so it's up

00:22:17.220 cycling right of like used products ties in with all the times I talk about water and just got a

00:22:24.860 chance to listen to the recent podcast drop that you guys did with the water witch I can't remember

00:22:30.180 her name but that was a very good interview thank you for sharing that with all of us

00:22:34.620 and when I walked in this was the only turtle there most of their things were like

00:22:39.320 single individual ornaments one shell and had like uh something from the nutcracker painted

00:22:46.220 in it for example so the turtle was kind of hanging out all by itself and they were a little

00:22:51.300 shocked when I walked up and I was like I want that I think they'd probably been hauling this

00:22:55.760 around for who knows how long as like a centerpiece on the table and nobody had ever bought it

00:23:00.940 and so I'm hoping my husband didn't hear too much of this this is his gift this is his Christmas gift

00:23:06.560 because turtles have lots of connections I like how they have to dive deep for things but we've

00:23:13.340 also had some things in our relationship that connect back to turtles and then you've always

00:23:17.620 Scott Terry Pratchett's world that's the turtle is involved in that as well so I just wanted to

00:23:24.580 share that but also share a little bit of the Moravian Christmas tea traditions my mom still

00:23:30.280 makes a trip they've all moved to New York now down from New York to go to this candle tea each

00:23:37.340 Christmas and so I'm like the lone relative that lives here and we make a big deal out of it and

00:23:42.240 a weekend fun event in a very strained torturous relationship of many many years it's like 0.99

00:23:48.280 the one time we can um agree to get along and set aside our differences is that the moravian

00:23:54.460 church around there candle tea thanks everyone for letting me share thank you michelle and yeah

00:24:01.140 let's shout out omi um she had a lot to say about water so if you're listening and you missed that

00:24:07.060 episode definitely check it out and i love your turtle i do hope that your spouse is surprised

00:24:15.080 please send us a picture of it so we can put it in the show notes

00:24:18.860 i may calm down with the jingle bells as we keep going but i'm just i'm just so delighted

00:24:27.860 to have them that you know i'm gonna keep shaking them i'm megan mary you all mary you all um

00:24:36.720 thank you guys for having the space today. Um, I was looking around also for things, but

00:24:44.600 actually, um, I'm going to share something I wrote after yesterday's dance party. Um, I did a little

00:24:52.440 reflecting and, um, I listened to my body a lot after that and it was like super relaxed. It was

00:25:03.120 like I had been letting go of a lot of stress and I've been having some health issues and just

00:25:10.000 letting go of a lot during that session. So thank you, Amy, for that. So this makes me a little

00:25:19.780 nervous, but I am dancing in the darkness, beckoning the light, opening my heart to these

00:25:27.300 witches, strangers once, but now my coven. I have danced in the darkness so long, and now I find

00:25:34.980 my light. I suddenly see a thousand stars shining all along. I feel free and a belonging to the

00:25:43.900 universe, a sense of renewal, full of peace and power. Merry Yule, everyone. Thank you for letting

00:25:51.220 and share. Merry Yule, Megan. I love that that emerged out of you spontaneously after shaking it.

00:25:59.340 That is correct. So beautiful. Thank you. Tess, Merry Yule, Merry Mother's Nights,

00:26:09.900 Merry Solstead. Merry Yule, or should I say Scary Yule? I'm here to just encourage everybody

00:26:18.900 to take up the tradition of telling and reading ghost stories this time of year.

00:26:29.760 Not so much probably in the U.S., but in other countries, particularly the U.K.

00:26:36.020 This is the time they tell ghost stories.

00:26:38.900 This is the time they gather around the fireplace or wherever

00:26:43.080 and read a ghost story aloud, tell a ghost story, whatever.

00:26:48.900 People who know me recognize my statement that is a statement of fact. It's always a good time for a ghost story, but particularly now when we're, you know, heading into the darkest time of the year and ready for them to emerge out of that darkness.

00:27:06.180 it's always a good time to in a way not just have the little you know delightful thrills that

00:27:15.100 a good ghost story can bring us but also to explore a little bit of our shadow side through

00:27:22.020 that that means of storytelling so whether it's something that has actually happened to you

00:27:28.240 something that you've heard a story that you'd like to share with with folks invite some folks

00:27:35.760 over and just say, let's just get together and have some apple cider and some mulled wine and

00:27:42.320 tell some ghost stories. I have like dozens of anthologies of ghost stories that I've collected

00:27:48.680 over the years. And some of my fondest memories have been having people over or being asked to

00:27:55.420 read some ghost stories out loud and just pouring over my anthologies and finding just the right

00:28:01.380 ones to do that, and sharing them with folks who maybe have never heard something like that before.

00:28:08.300 It's just a real delight. So I just wanted to share that with you. And also,

00:28:12.620 something that I pulled off my shelves that I had forgotten that I have is this book. It's

00:28:17.520 called Witch's Brew. And it's an anthology of horror and supernatural stories by women. 0.76

00:28:24.660 So there is actually even an anthology that specializes in these types of tales that are

00:28:31.120 written by female authors so there you go so that's all i've got to share and if anybody wants

00:28:38.420 a ghost story in the middle of the night or where whenever it's some evening get in touch with me

00:28:43.820 via the coven circle and i'll be happy to have a phone call with you yeah and tell a ghost story

00:28:51.580 you must tell us a ghost story well i i will when we have some more time we should actually have

00:28:57.180 like a dedicated time to do that and in the middle of winter let's do it let's i'll set up an event

00:29:04.400 and let's just do it that would be actually a lot of fun to have as an event yeah that sounds perfect

00:29:11.580 for a season when we'll be dealing with terrors and horrors or darkness or who knows you know

00:29:20.420 Who knows?

00:29:21.080 Yeah, who knows?

00:29:22.900 Great joy, spectacular unification.

00:29:26.880 Let's tell stories.

00:29:28.900 Yeah.

00:29:29.200 I'm thrilled to hear.

00:29:30.320 I wanted you to come out with like your best 30 second ghost story, but it doesn't really

00:29:35.820 work, does it?

00:29:37.880 No, because then I'd have to think about, you know, what are the ones that are so famous

00:29:42.040 for being told around the campfire?

00:29:44.760 And it's usually the little lady who's some baddie has taken her her finger bone from her place of rest and taken it as some kind of a souvenir or whatever. 0.98

00:29:59.820 And she's not happy about that.

00:30:02.680 And so she comes walking gradually down the sidewalk, walking up the pathway to the front door, walking up the stairs of the front porch and scritching on the front door.

00:30:20.960 Let me in.

00:30:22.580 I want my finger back.

00:30:25.600 So there's always that one.

00:30:31.780 Perfect.

00:30:32.680 um ideal uh very well very mother's nut

00:30:38.600 for letting me share oh thank you laurie did you bring ghost stories

00:30:47.880 i did not bring any ghost stories but i was thinking that um the little match girl is kind

00:30:58.920 of a sad christmas ghost story so yeah i'm gonna be brave and come on camera even though i just

00:31:05.440 woke up and i'm like in pajama nap mode um i wasn't gonna share and i was like i don't know

00:31:12.860 i have little bits and pieces so there's this book the winter solstice that's um really fun

00:31:20.140 and it just talks about like how prophecy was the first gift of yule like way back when um

00:31:28.280 and that also made me think of another one of my favorite witches a lot of you are probably

00:31:33.160 familiar with daniel dolsky so she has she has several books but this is one of my favorites

00:31:39.980 one of her most recent ones um bones and honey a heathen prayer book so this doesn't rhyme i really

00:31:47.440 wanted to find something that rhymed but it just really speaks to to how i'm feeling at this time

00:31:52.980 of year it's prayer 3.5 this follow this follow ground a song to our inner snow days

00:32:01.740 a heathen soul is a wild ground and we must leave the land follow fallow for a time that it be

00:32:09.620 better seated when the warmer winds return may our winter tears bless this barren snowscape

00:32:15.600 may our weary songs be heard by the land spirits and may the corpse of our despair be buried

00:32:21.860 swiftly with great care its grave dug deep under the thick ice of winter's silent wait

00:32:28.040 its leathery flesh ripped and nibbled away by its ravenous elementals may our grief seed our

00:32:35.500 gratitude these early dusks and may this fallow ground be consecrated now in its emptiness come

00:32:42.540 spring may our will bloom lush and green like the woodland forest full of lust and so it is

00:32:49.020 so yeah that's just kind of a this time of year is honestly like super depressing and I'll give

00:32:57.520 another ode to Danielle she talks about like the the the depression that we feel in winter but it's

00:33:06.420 also a need for like deep rest so as opposed to being depressed it's just like we need that deep

00:33:12.760 rest in winter and I just absolutely feel that like I've been crying and napping a lot lately

00:33:18.860 So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. So thank you for seeing me. Thank you for letting me share.

00:33:25.780 I love that homonym of trading depressed for deep rest. We love a homonym and that one's really good.

00:33:36.080 But I can't let you go yet, Laurie, because you said kind of in a laissez-faire way that you're reading about how prophecy was the first gift of Yule.

00:33:45.600 um one of our mottos around here is people often apologize for rambling or going off track and

00:33:54.240 we're more likely to want you to talk longer than shorter so please expand has become one of our

00:34:02.000 our little catchphrases can you tell us a little bit about this like

00:34:05.780 idea that prophecy was the first gift of yule i actually i think i heard about that in another

00:34:14.680 book that i read from danielle but then she recommended this um the winter solstice by

00:34:20.480 john matthews and it really talks about that but i think i think a lot of it goes back to

00:34:28.400 the story of odin and just like him being kind of um linked to yeah like the first the first

00:34:38.460 christmas tree and like he was hanging upside down in the tree and so he he gained like prophecy

00:34:44.240 for the year and so i don't know there's some really cool pictures in this book if i could

00:34:49.020 find them of kind of like the first saint nicholas like dressed in kind of like these like ancient

00:34:55.980 i don't know like robin hood type clothes i guess if you will like that i think it stems from like

00:35:03.560 the story of odin honestly and yeah that was great we don't need you to write us a dissertation i

00:35:09.860 just want to know like a little bit more about what you're talking about and thank you so much

00:35:17.260 thank you so much i'm curious if anyone who's here or anyone who's listening has like a

00:35:23.740 a specific divination practice around yuletide um something to think about and maybe something

00:35:32.720 to investigate as we go forth a yuletide divination hi liana

00:35:39.940 got it took me a minute oh wait did i mess up the audio no no you're good you're good okay um

00:35:54.300 so that kind of tracked um i'm kind of glad i got after the other two because i didn't wasn't

00:36:02.120 really going to share because holidays for me are the same very depressing um I actually have

00:36:08.900 two different ones that I'd like to share then since I'm not the only one struggling um if any

00:36:16.420 of you have ever read uh Nikita Gill she is fantastic she does poetry um Wild Embers is

00:36:24.220 also amazing. The first one is called Difficult Damsels. Not all girls are made of sugar and

00:36:32.940 spice and all things nice. These are girls made of dark lace and witchcraft and a little bit of 1.00

00:36:39.200 vice. These are daughters made claw first and story mad, tiger roar and wolf bad. These are 0.83

00:36:47.420 woman made of terrible tempests and savage storms and the untamed unwanted these are damsels made of

00:36:56.000 flawless fearlessness made of more bravery than knights have ever seen these are princesses

00:37:03.140 made of valor and poison alike they are and they are here to hold court as your queens um i've been

00:37:13.200 in and kind of in the shadows and I've had the opportunity to kind of listen from afar to a lot

00:37:20.260 of you and there are so many amazingly strong women in this group it is just mind-blowing

00:37:29.920 and I hope that you all see the strength in yourselves as much as we all do in each of you

00:37:38.980 um and the other one is a little bit longer but it's called the healing and that for me is what

00:37:47.380 winter is um especially when there's snow and it's just like this blanket of comfort

00:37:53.640 and everything sounds differently and it just insulates you um sometimes healing is the way

00:38:02.320 you become yourself a path made of thorns which could lead you to your own incredible destiny

00:38:09.340 Sometimes healing is how Little Red Riding Hood became the wolf, because every woman has a howl trapped in her chest.

00:38:17.060 Sometimes healing is how Cinderella never gave up on herself, because she knew deep down how to love herself.

00:38:23.680 Sometimes healing is the story of a villainess who was not a villainess at all, just someone hurting from their trauma and not having a good friend to call.

00:38:33.360 sometimes healing wears the name of a human when you are stuck in a tower with no other way down

00:38:40.060 but your own long hair but on most days healing wears your own name painted in your own blood

00:38:46.800 messy hard to tame but the only way to learn self-love so that's what i got thank you so much

00:38:56.320 and yeah that's that candle energy that we're talking about where we're all looking at each

00:39:02.340 other in awe and admiration but not in a way where it makes us feel small like we're not as

00:39:10.580 smart as as confident as as whatever as but in a way where we're all in this boat that's being

00:39:17.800 lifted up together by the waters of our love for one another oh

00:39:22.940 let's take a second now um we have a dear friend who usually comes to these yule recordings

00:39:34.780 baba yaga could not come and be here live but she did send us a greeting and so we'll hear that now

00:39:45.960 Hey, kids. It's Baba Yaga. Somebody wrote something about me that I'm going to share

00:39:55.380 with you now. It's called, A Wild Woman is Not a Friend. She's a Relationship with Nature.

00:40:05.600 Can you love me when I drink from the wrong bottle and slip through the crack in the floorboard?

00:40:12.260 But can you love me in the deep, in the dark, in the thick of it?

00:40:17.280 Can you love me when I'm bigger than you,

00:40:19.960 when my presence blazes like the sun does,

00:40:22.960 when it hurts to look directly at me?

00:40:26.180 Can you love me then, too?

00:40:29.080 Can you love me under the starry sky,

00:40:31.760 shaved and smooth, my skin like liquid moonlight?

00:40:35.120 Can you love me when I am howling in fury,

00:40:39.680 standing on my haunches, my lower lip stained with the blood of my last kill?

00:40:46.840 When I call down the lightning, when the sidewalks are singed by the soles of my feet,

00:40:53.300 can you still love me then?

00:40:56.140 What happens when I freeze the land and cause the dirt to harden

00:41:00.900 over all the pomegranate seeds that we've planted?

00:41:05.000 Will you trust that spring will return?

00:41:08.520 Will you still believe me when I tell you I will become a raging river

00:41:14.000 and spill myself upon your dreams and call them the surface of your life?

00:41:20.100 Can you trust me even though you cannot tame me?

00:41:24.980 Can you love me even though I am all that you fear and admire?

00:41:30.200 Will you fear my shifting shape?

00:41:33.420 Does it frighten you when my eyes flash like your camera?

00:41:37.560 Do you fear that they will capture your soul?

00:41:40.560 Are you afraid to step into me?

00:41:44.620 The meat-eating plants and flowers armed with poisonous darts

00:41:48.720 are not in my jungle to stop you from coming, not you.

00:41:54.000 So do not worry.

00:41:55.900 They belong to me, and I have invited you here.

00:41:59.780 Stay to the path revealed in the moonlight

00:42:02.440 and arrive safely to the hut of Baba Yaga.

00:42:06.120 the wild old woman

00:42:09.680 she will not lead you astray

00:42:12.060 if you are pure of heart

00:42:13.520 you cannot be with the wild one

00:42:16.540 if you fear the rumbling of the ground

00:42:18.920 the roar of a cascading river

00:42:21.740 the startling clap of thunder in the sky

00:42:25.100 if you want to be safe

00:42:27.460 go back to your teeny room

00:42:29.540 the night sky is not for you

00:42:32.140 if you want to be torn apart

00:42:34.800 come in 0.99

00:42:35.720 be broken open and devoured 0.99

00:42:38.580 be set ablaze in my fire 0.99

00:42:41.380 I will not leave you as you have come 0.98

00:42:46.040 well dressed in finely threaded sweaters

00:42:49.220 that keep out the cold 0.98

00:42:50.460 I will leave you naked and biting and clawing 0.97

00:42:54.200 leave you surrounded by owls and hawks 0.95

00:42:57.920 and flowers that only bloom when no one is watching

00:43:01.220 so come to me and be healed

00:43:04.700 in the unbearable lightness and darkness of all that you are.

00:43:09.440 There is nothing in you that can scare me,

00:43:12.500 nothing in you that I will not use to make you great. 0.55

00:43:16.760 A wild woman is not a friend.

00:43:19.040 She is a relationship with nature.

00:43:21.260 She is the source of all your primal desires,

00:43:23.880 and she is the wild whipping wind

00:43:26.300 that uproots the poisonous corn stalks on your neatly tilled farm. 1.00

00:43:32.160 She will plant pear trees in the wake of your disaster. 0.97

00:43:36.020 She will see to it that you shall rise again.

00:43:39.860 She is the lover who restores you to your own wild nature.

00:43:44.400 That was by Allison Nappy.

00:43:49.440 Yuletide and solstice blessings to you all.

00:43:54.960 Thanks, Baba Yaga.

00:43:57.140 I did bring a short poem.

00:43:59.480 We've been talking so much about embracing the darkness, you know, again, like, electricity is really new in the grand scheme of things, but if we think about what our lives would look like without it, it's crazy that it's only been around for like 150 years and it's changed the world so much.

00:44:19.100 So something that we often do on the solstice is to turn off all the electricity, turn out the lights, turn off our devices.

00:44:30.460 We are lucky enough to have a wood-burning stove, so we sit by the fire with a couple candles and kind of bask in that warm glow.

00:44:39.040 And it's amazing to me how psychologically calming and rejuvenating it is to do that.

00:44:52.080 But it's hard.

00:44:53.140 It's hard to turn off our devices.

00:44:54.800 It's hard to turn off all those lights.

00:44:57.040 So I make it a specific tradition. 0.99

00:45:01.120 My spouse is like, you know, he's not really like a fuck around kind of guy. 0.93

00:45:05.160 he's very, but if I'm like, it's tradition, then he'll go along with whatever insanity I come up 0.98

00:45:11.940 with. So I set certain days and make them for certain things. And then we know to do them every

00:45:20.200 year. We have at least two hours where we sit in the beautiful, warm glow of darkness. And on that

00:45:26.540 note, I brought this very short poem by Wendell Berry. It's called To Know the Dark.

00:45:35.160 to go in the dark with a light is to know the light to know the dark go dark

00:45:45.040 go without sight and find that the dark too blooms and sings and is traveled by

00:45:56.480 dark feet and dark wings. So I encourage everyone who is here and who is listening

00:46:05.940 to see about knowing the dark. How do we combat that fear of the dark? What do we do?

00:46:14.300 Maybe slip into it slowly, one little toe at a time, like into warm water.

00:46:19.740 does anyone else have a message for missing witches listeners or for each other

00:46:29.500 i just wanted to share that i pulled two cards out of the missing witches deck i did a split so

00:46:37.940 the one is like the main message then the other one would be that what's influencing

00:46:43.640 the message just to see what the deck wanted to say to us as a group. But before I read that,

00:46:50.840 I was on a retreat in Colorado in October and I left my deck with my friend that was on the trip

00:46:59.840 with me. And so I finally have the deck back. This is my first time using it, but it's a new deck to

00:47:04.900 me. So the main message was Toni Morrison perception is who came out first. And next to

00:47:16.040 her in the split deck was Lady Frida Harris perspective. So those are the messages according

00:47:29.760 to my shuffle for this yule for the missing witches can you read what the message where it

00:47:38.380 is and maybe a little bit of the back you want me to read from the back of the deck is that what

00:47:45.140 the back okay so for tony morrison with perception the first black woman editor at random house

00:47:51.880 fiction and the first black woman to win the nobel prize in literature tony morrison conjured

00:47:57.860 a new generation of writers and readers. Her novels sat on best-selling lists for record-breaking

00:48:03.020 weeks and showed the world as it was to her, full of magic, misery, and everything in between.

00:48:10.600 She grew up in a family that told folk tales and ghost stories and laughed to stay sane.

00:48:16.320 She said, my own use of enchantment simply comes because that's the way the world was for me

00:48:21.660 and for the Black people I knew. There was this other knowledge or perception,

00:48:26.280 always discredited but nevertheless there enchantment is in the world tap into other

00:48:33.140 perceptions now so that speaks volumes to me as to what this missing witches coven has meant to

00:48:41.200 me since i've joined and i hope it resonates with others as well later lady frida harris 0.96

00:48:48.680 perspective as the bombs rained down on london she dyed her hair red and navigated between the

00:48:55.840 House of Lords, the world's most famous occultists, and experimental mathematicians,

00:49:00.880 drawing a new understanding of the universe. She studied projective geometry. She painted

00:49:07.280 insights from the mathematical worldview where all lines meet and all parallel worlds converge.

00:49:13.260 She painted symbols from science, mythology, and different mystery traditions into the 78 images

00:49:19.000 of the Thoth hero. I don't know if I pronounced that right. She created with Aleister Crowley.

00:49:25.840 Then she moved to India to live in a houseboat. 0.79

00:49:28.480 She triangulated between worldviews.

00:49:31.440 This card invites you to change your perspective,

00:49:34.400 study something brand new, alter your trajectory or velocity.

00:49:38.420 Notice where the lines converge.

00:49:40.880 So I think those cards very much complement each other

00:49:44.460 into what a lot of us get out of this coven

00:49:49.160 based on the things that I hear people share in circle.

00:49:52.680 So thank you everybody for showing up.

00:49:55.840 and sharing and helping to change each other's perception and perspective yeah perception and

00:50:03.140 perspective may we see it radiating out from all sane places Vanessa hi everybody um

00:50:13.860 I'm gonna I was about 15 minutes late but I heard Michelle I think it was I'm gonna try to

00:50:21.560 introduce myself. I'm coming from unseated, occupied Pomo and coastal Miwok land, otherwise

00:50:28.680 known as North California, San Francisco Bay Area. And I have long, brown, curly hair, glasses,

00:50:37.200 wearing kind of a burgundy twirl neck. And I'm sitting in what probably looks like a very black

00:50:41.720 in white room right now I just have um two white skin um I just have two things to read I kind of

00:50:52.080 just pulled some books off my nightstand and they were relevant to other things I'd heard

00:50:56.200 discussed um I'm gonna start with actually this book from the end of night um he's talking about

00:51:08.000 darkness and I just I just kind of did like a bibliomancy I just opened it to these pages so

00:51:13.060 I'll read just a short part from each book um oh and I and before I forget I want to say

00:51:20.680 that I'm tending a fire behind me in my wood stove so that's why I keep turning around

00:51:24.820 checking on things um I there there was the geminid meteor shower um I think it was Friday

00:51:31.120 night and maybe last night I'm not sure if it's still visible but I learned that what's really

00:51:35.080 interesting about this one is that it's tends to have the most colorful meteorites like blues and

00:51:41.300 greens and oranges and stuff because of the various i think gases that are in this particular

00:51:47.440 of the universe that we fly through every time of years i thought that was kind of cool um

00:51:56.940 this uh is from um the end of night and it just is talking about van gogh van gogh lives in a time

00:52:06.840 before electric light this is why it sparked my interest in a letter from the summer of 1888 he

00:52:12.900 described what he'd seen while walking a southern french beach the deep blue sky was flecked with

00:52:20.020 clouds of a blue deeper than the fundamental blue of intense cobalt and others of a clearer blue

00:52:27.960 like the blue whiteness of the milky way in the blue depth the stars were sparkling greenish

00:52:34.360 yellow white pink more brilliant more sparkling gem-like than at home even in paris opals you

00:52:42.580 might call them emeralds lapis lazuli rubies sapphires so the author goes on to talk about

00:52:51.400 how remarkable it is and he would reference stars like that in paris at that time and then this is

00:52:57.760 from the wild will call you back it's a poem winter solstice

00:53:03.580 and i'm not sure who it's by because i think this is a

00:53:10.680 it's all gina m poro actually winter solstice the rebirth of the sun and the slow slow return

00:53:20.420 of the light tis the season to turn inward stoke the fires nourish snuggle reflect rest

00:53:28.080 the time to tend our roots that will feed the blooms yet to come sip broth of bone fat and root

00:53:37.040 and simmer yourself right down to the bottom of the pot revel in beeswax lit lullabies the smell

00:53:44.820 of old books and tea kettle conversations tuck yourself in and hibernate in the sweet blanket

00:53:51.160 of darkness in the moonlit snow in the long cold nights take some time to slow down and stop

00:53:58.940 doing doing doing and just be undress the heaviness from your bones and dance with your

00:54:07.100 ghosts sink your teeth into this long night let the moon howl at you and slowly sing you back

00:54:13.760 from shadow to light

00:54:16.040 so both relevant to the conversations that's all happy you all and solstice and i love you all

00:54:28.940 what a perfect poem um i want to say you said gina and poro

00:54:35.380 because that poem kind of hit so many of the things that we've already been talking about

00:54:42.700 tonight so i'm definitely going to revisit it again and again add it to the traditions

00:54:48.080 good uh evening good afternoon wherever you are uh settling

00:54:56.280 from somewhere somewhere somewhere out there in connecticut one of the oldest

00:55:04.420 horrifically colonized places in new england so yes this is the first um verse of in the

00:55:14.900 bleak midwinter which is is a christmassy jesus song which i never actually knew because we never

00:55:23.460 sang that part in glee club but i very much like um and have used this on my solstice cards before

00:55:31.680 In the bleak midwinter, frosty windy moon, earth stood hard as iron, water like a snow stone.

00:55:54.900 Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on fallen snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

00:56:17.200 Thank you.

00:56:19.800 I invite everyone to unmute so that Satleen can hear your applause.

00:56:26.240 Thank you, Satleen, for your bravery.

00:56:29.300 That was beautiful.

00:56:30.840 I knew that you're an excellent singer and you were just being shy.

00:56:36.300 The most beautiful.

00:56:38.280 What a gift. 1.00

00:56:40.720 I think that we should have a Missing Witches Glee Club of sort.

00:56:46.200 and for anyone we could call it whatever we want but you know it doesn't have a glee club

00:56:51.420 a singing group and i mean you know satelina i still haven't received your

00:57:00.340 yule carol recording so i'm making a face at you right now um but this is something that i would

00:57:08.860 love to do and if someone can figure out the technology of a zoom choir that isn't just total

00:57:14.460 chaos and cacophony

00:57:17.080 of delays

00:57:18.560 and various times

00:57:20.880 then I would love to hear it

00:57:22.880 as soon as we have the technology

00:57:24.300 in the meantime

00:57:25.540 you are invited to join

00:57:28.740 the Missing Witches choir

00:57:30.680 by way of sending me a recording

00:57:33.080 that goes for everyone

00:57:36.440 I'll cut this out

00:57:38.960 but deadlines tomorrow

00:57:40.060 I'm so glad you all get to experience

00:57:44.440 it's amy bullying you to make art i'm so glad we can all have that experience

00:57:54.840 you know like we maybe in the midwinter could be our first our first you know official missing

00:58:02.840 witches singing choir no chorus group whatever you know could be the first yeah i i love it i

00:58:12.520 love it and you know as witches like we are comfortable in paradox and one of those paradoxes

00:58:18.920 for me anyway um is that i want everyone to feel very safe and very comfortable but i also want to

00:58:26.520 push you a little bit i also want to push you to be a little bit uncomfortable and try something

00:58:32.680 new and do something that you wouldn't necessarily do if i didn't make a face at you so i'm always

00:58:39.000 kind of you know walking that tight rope of everyone wanting to feel safe and comfortable

00:58:44.360 but also like let's be brave let's be brave and try things that make us feel outside of

00:58:52.440 our comfort zone so I'm glad that uh that Risa likes it anyway the bullying practice it's my

00:59:01.360 favorite thing because you are you're not like this for here you're like that across the board

00:59:07.700 as a human

00:59:08.880 like just to like people we just

00:59:12.060 meet and are hanging out with and you're like

00:59:13.360 you should do yes

00:59:15.380 what about

00:59:16.680 yeah

00:59:19.760 yeah making

00:59:21.860 magic and I just see

00:59:23.980 like I've never met a

00:59:26.000 person where I didn't see in them

00:59:27.740 infinite potential

00:59:28.680 and maybe that's what I'm trying to

00:59:31.900 draw so

00:59:33.700 Satleen thank you for being brave and your singing

00:59:35.940 was so beautiful

00:59:37.000 and i really appreciate that i just want to sample that first and last bit over and over

00:59:42.740 the haunting beautiful tone of your voice was so so beautiful thank you so much

00:59:47.980 anyone else feel brave and having sea shanty or witch song

00:59:58.020 or a message for the darkest night of the year

01:00:07.000 I just had a thought that always makes me feel better

01:00:24.060 when I feel like I'm lost in the dark.

01:00:29.560 And it's those, that quote where...

01:00:37.000 And those who sought to bury you didn't know you were a seed.

01:00:47.160 I don't know.

01:00:48.280 Gave me, always gives me a little bit of peace.

01:01:02.920 I felt my breath get bigger as you said peace.

01:01:07.000 And the idea of being buried and it being a seed to me is like infuriating to have to work through it all, but also so exuberant and also so strenuous and also so, so to hear you say peace, it gives me a sense of peace.

01:01:30.200 Thank you.

01:01:37.000 seeds in the dark, in the dark season. It's very peaceful. It can be.

01:01:49.920 They won't bury us for too long. There you go. We got off on a little tangent over here in the chat

01:01:58.520 and Lori mentioned a divination practice, the 12 divinatory days of Yule and pulling one card

01:02:06.640 each of the 12 months for 12 days and I learned about that from one of my teachers Brianna Sassi

01:02:14.000 and she refers to it as omen days and it's got something to do with Christmas and ends on

01:02:21.240 epiphany and none of that means anything to me because I was raised Jewish but I loved

01:02:26.920 the idea of these omen days and I feel like it's for everybody so the day after Christmas you

01:02:34.240 every day look for an omen possibly out in nature around your house and the beauty of it is it's

01:02:43.400 super accessible because if you forget to or if nothing presents itself to you then you can pull

01:02:50.760 a tarot card or an oracle card so then I like to write down what the omen is that I've seen or the

01:02:58.980 card that I've pulled and what it means to me, um, at the beginning of each month in my yearly

01:03:05.640 planner and, uh, me being me, sometimes I then don't even open up my planner on any given month,

01:03:13.140 but it's interesting to look at in hindsight as well. So, um, and the other thing that I shared

01:03:19.780 in the chat was one of my favorite, uh, things to say on solstice, which came straight out of

01:03:25.360 a Doctor Who Christmas special that involved lots of singing and flying, a flying shark,

01:03:32.240 which is on solstice, halfway out of the dark.

01:03:43.700 Here's the halfway out of the dark.

01:03:47.480 Holly.

01:03:50.580 Hi, everybody.

01:03:52.160 Happy solstice.

01:03:55.360 really quick for everybody who's at the dance party yesterday and sent some

01:03:58.000 magic my way for the MRI. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

01:04:02.020 Very grateful for you all.

01:04:03.760 Such a badass, which is like,

01:04:05.840 it's really nice to know that there are so many people who have your back and

01:04:09.320 maybe you'll never meet them. And yet here we are.

01:04:12.360 This community is so incredibly amazing.

01:04:16.340 So I am Holly.

01:04:19.180 I live in unceded Tongva land in Southern California and I am a

01:04:24.860 um middle-aged white witch dark hair and um i didn't bring any sort of poem or anything but

01:04:34.580 when he mentioned just different rituals or whatever the last few years i've been doing

01:04:38.600 something where in the 12 days leading up to the new year i will i've written down ahead of time

01:04:49.120 12 wishes for myself for the upcoming year on separate pieces of paper and it's in the like

01:04:55.680 in the i statements or the things not i want or whatever but you know like

01:05:01.900 crap i'm intentional with my crafting the messages for it you know my body is strong

01:05:07.420 like that kind of thing whatever um and then each of the nights in the in the 12 days before the 0.98

01:05:15.160 new year i will burn i will like fold each individual one up and then i will pull a whichever

01:05:21.620 one i don't even know what it is and then i'll burn it put it in my cauldron and just like send

01:05:26.660 that message out to to the ethers and um so the first one you the the ritual behind it that i've

01:05:36.460 learned was the first one you burn that's january second one's february like that but you just don't

01:05:42.020 know what it is so you just kind of leave it up to chance of of what what wish is going to come

01:05:46.700 through what uh what intention what spell however you want to phrase it that's that's that so kind

01:05:52.740 of fun and then on new year's eve during the day i spend time cleaning my house and opening all the

01:06:01.280 windows and sweeping dusting get the ceiling fans get the corners you know go after that you know

01:06:08.760 mop the floors like like do it do a deep clean but not in a like psychotic chaotic sort of a way

01:06:14.520 just in the like energetic like let's just clear this shit out of here get it out and uh and then

01:06:21.680 before um before the new year strike um i'll take out all trash all recycling like that so it's like

01:06:31.460 starting the brand new year super fresh not bringing in any of that stuff from us dishes

01:06:37.640 are done you know what i mean again like not trying to be all like oh great now i gotta clean 0.91

01:06:41.420 my fucking house for new year's eve rad you know not that kind of a thing but just you know throughout 0.83

01:06:46.500 the day just doing some things intentionally my partner's been on board so that's very helpful 0.99

01:06:50.620 it's not all on me you know um but anyways it's just it's just felt nice the last few years of

01:06:57.320 just like all right let's start this year with some just fresh energy in the mix so

01:07:01.800 something to play with there yeah my my spouse and i do this at the beginning of december

01:07:08.420 and it helps us with our consumption our consumerism for sure because when you're 0.99

01:07:16.300 organizing all your fucking shit it really like makes you want to pare down that gift list like 0.99

01:07:23.980 you're like oh my god i don't need anything and there have been times where i was like oh 0.99

01:07:29.340 you know i'm i'm putting um oven mitts on my wish list or whatever i need some new oven mitts and

01:07:35.820 then we're we're doing our organize and clean at the beginning of december and lo and behold there's

01:07:40.480 like a pair of old oven mitts at the bottom of a drawer that i had forgotten about so

01:07:44.760 there are multiple multiple reasons to do this holly and none of them are psychotic

01:07:50.920 so i'm gonna give it a jingle

01:07:54.560 hey julian hi everyone i'm julie or julian pronouns are she her or they them um my visual

01:08:12.240 description is i'm in a pretty dark room but my low light is lighting up my face a bit i'm a white

01:08:21.000 person with fairly short brown hair that comes to the bottom of my ears and I'm wearing a dark blue

01:08:27.180 top I uh missed the first part of this but happy to participate in this part now and listen to the

01:08:36.340 recording later um I'm inspired what Holly just shared to share a bit about um

01:08:43.020 kind of what I do related to intentions this time of year which is I take the period from

01:08:51.640 the winter solstice to in bulk to simmer on what I want my intentions to be rather than putting

01:09:00.020 pressure or whatever at this time of the year probably because my birthday is at the start

01:09:05.600 of February so I feel like it's from solstice to my birthday but regardless of that I view

01:09:12.760 those six weeks as kind of I don't know interior time and you know I used to do this like all in

01:09:23.260 one shot but now I take my time to do it is to reflect over the past 12 months kind of going

01:09:32.580 through the different categories of my life thinking through everything like what happened

01:09:36.740 in the social areas of my life what happened in the professional areas of my life what happened

01:09:41.960 with my health and body and then I go through the next 12 months with the same different life

01:09:48.840 categories kind of thinking about like you know what's on the agenda what are my hopes and dreams

01:09:55.340 so then I have this like backwards and forwards and yeah I used to you know just do this in one

01:10:02.400 sitting but now I just kind of dip into those reflections I'll choose like one category for

01:10:08.540 one day and then another day do another category so that by the time i reach in bulk at the

01:10:15.200 beginning of february i yeah i've like fully taken time to process and imagine um and then

01:10:23.360 sometimes throughout the year i'll i'll do like a similar check-in but for a smaller amount of time

01:10:30.240 like at the summer solstice i might do the past six months reflection and then the forward six

01:10:36.240 month's reflection and then at the equinoxes I do like the past three months backwards the next

01:10:42.200 three months forward and then at the cross quarter days I'll do like the past six weeks looking back

01:10:49.220 and so then like all throughout the year it's kind of like this back and forth and back and forth

01:10:53.640 although I feel like this year I haven't been as on top of that but that's okay so I'm looking

01:10:58.260 forward to catching up with myself as I um don't rush and take time to look back at the

01:11:05.900 the past year and look forward at the at the next so that's my practice to share that's all

01:11:12.820 I love this idea of taking enough time to catch up with myself

01:11:19.440 yeah yeah six weeks minimum

01:11:24.800 i'm i'm not sure how to raise my hand can you hear me we can oh hello i just pulled over i'm

01:11:34.880 gonna read a quick little poem okay be safe be safe first oh yes i'm on a road well well now

01:11:43.420 there are two cars passing but here we go this is um this is a poem called it's by donna ashworth

01:11:51.380 and it's called joy chose you and um uh an elder shared this with me a couple years ago and i think

01:12:01.300 about it every year now at this time of year joy does not arrive with a fanfare on a red carpet

01:12:10.040 strewn with the flowers of a perfect life joy sneaks in as you pour a cup of coffee

01:12:17.660 watching the sunlight hit your favorite tree just right and you usher joy away because you're not

01:12:26.200 ready for her your house is not as it should be for such a distinguished guest but joy cares

01:12:33.760 nothing for your messy home or your bank balance or your waistline you see joy is supposed to 0.71

01:12:42.960 slither through the cracks of your imperfect life that's how joy works you cannot truly invite her

01:12:51.200 you can only be ready when she appears and hug her with meaning because in this very moment joy chose

01:13:00.400 you that's that

01:13:04.400 marry you all

01:13:09.380 marry you all and thank you so much

01:13:14.380 oh i don't i don't know if you can see everybody's face because you're in the car but

01:13:22.300 i felt like a visible relaxation and

01:13:27.280 and gratitude of that i even the possible opening of that idea you know joy chose you

01:13:37.420 it's just there good to have it yeah thank you the line that stuck out for me jasmine i was uh

01:13:49.240 joy is supposed to slither in through the cracks of your imperfect life

01:13:55.720 i know it just flies in the face of this idea that we have to somehow earn joy that we have to

01:14:03.120 like you know be be very very perfect in order to experience it and know it it is supposed to

01:14:12.620 slither in through the cracks in our imperfect life i am going to carry that in my back pocket

01:14:18.600 for the rest of my life here here and i just went to this very christian um lessons and carols at

01:14:27.520 the school where my husband teaches and heard the passage about eve and the snake and thinking about

01:14:35.140 all the snake energy that's been moving through the coven and how beautiful that is and joy is

01:14:40.900 a beautiful slithering snake yeah um all right I'm gonna keep driving I love you all I'm so

01:14:48.980 so grateful for this space marry you all marry you all we love you too we love you all drive safely

01:14:59.040 what do you think folks any last yule messages for the

01:15:08.600 great extended cabin out there in the dark oh there we go um I just uh was noticing in the

01:15:19.220 chat someone asked uh what we had on our uh yule wish list um and for me like I think the thing

01:15:28.460 that I've been focusing on the most as far as um like a wish for the coming year and just for yule

01:15:37.440 in general is peace. Like there is so much stuff going on right now that is affecting everyone.

01:15:48.640 And I just, I wish for a calmness. I wish for that security and, you know, that light in the

01:15:58.880 darkness for everyone who really needs it right now. That's, that's like the one thing on my list

01:16:05.960 that I just keep coming back to but yeah I just figured I'd share

01:16:10.720 peace on earth right it's on all the cards but how many of us are actually you know

01:16:18.920 living inside that that card peace on earth Julian did you want to share a closing question

01:16:30.480 mark sure yeah i put in the chat that i just remembered that last year at the solstice i

01:16:38.340 during our meeting channeled this blessing i wrote and like read it immediately after

01:16:45.060 um and figured i would read it again this year as a as another offering so i pulled it up

01:16:51.220 so this is a solstice blessing for our coven

01:16:56.100 may we spend time together in loving ways may we embrace both joy and sadness as we gather

01:17:05.560 throughout the year may we celebrate when we have things to celebrate may we hold each other

01:17:12.320 when we break apart may we encourage each other as we birth new ideas into the world

01:17:18.960 may we learn and grow together may we ask questions and share wisdom may we may we

01:17:28.100 wonder about the unknown may we sit in the discomfort of being wrong may we tickle each

01:17:36.440 other with glee but only first if we ask for consent or only if we first ask for consent

01:17:44.200 May we respect each other's boundaries around tickling and all other boundaries.

01:17:50.720 May we acknowledge our privilege in having access to this community and that many cannot access it, even though they may be the ones who need it the most.

01:18:02.140 May we do the difficult work of challenging the inaccessibility and ableism that shows up in this space, and the white supremacy in this space, and the colonialism in this space, and all the isms in this space.

01:18:19.900 May we listen to those most impacted by these isms.

01:18:24.640 May we have hard conversations.

01:18:27.520 May we be accountable to each other.

01:18:29.480 may we be activists together as we resist oppression in the world may we include slowing

01:18:37.320 down in our activism may we soothe and fuel each other so that we are equipped to do social

01:18:44.440 justice work may we offer care to each other in tangible ways may may we normalize asking each

01:18:53.060 other what our needs are. May we organize to collectively meet our needs. May we play

01:19:00.780 together. May we cry together. May we love each other. Blessed fucking be.

01:19:11.040 The end. 0.99

01:19:11.960 i'll leave the door open for another minute just in case someone has something last minute that they

01:19:28.200 want to share go ahead vanessa

01:19:34.340 um it's along the lines of what vermilion was saying

01:19:40.980 um i'm i've been thinking a lot over the past few months about how how we can create a a really

01:19:54.060 care-centered world um we're all the most vulnerable of all of us including the creatures

01:20:03.820 and the plants and the insects are truly centered in how we all move through our world and even the

01:20:12.140 policies of our communities you know all the way on up to the top and it seems daunting a task

01:20:20.420 but I think in this time of darkness which is soon going to be tipping back over into the light

01:20:27.400 a question i find myself asking of myself and in various circles where i'm trying to make the

01:20:36.220 tiniest bit of change is if you could imagine something better like really better what would

01:20:45.060 it look like um and that's not a very specific question but just how can we use our imaginations

01:20:52.200 to create um much safer and healthier and care-centered

01:20:58.460 communities and behaviors on this planet um and so i think as we're sitting in the dark

01:21:06.360 um you know maybe that's a question that we might all entertain what what would it look like

01:21:12.260 if we really truly had care-centered policies um in how even just like one-on-one in our

01:21:20.080 friends and families or in our communities and in the world so just put that out there to like

01:21:26.200 use our power as witches to imagine radically care-centered community

01:21:35.800 here's to imagining radically care-centered community

01:21:41.520 everywhere we can

01:21:45.820 it feels like the darkest nights of the year

01:21:50.120 that's for sure

01:21:51.020 but I know

01:21:53.320 I know we're on the wheel

01:21:57.460 we just always are

01:21:59.820 and it will get brighter

01:22:11.520 Amy, you got any last wishes for the Coven?

01:22:21.800 I do indeed.

01:22:24.280 That's right.

01:22:26.840 I just want to return to the lyrics of The Missing Witches' Yule Carol.

01:22:34.120 You know, we're witches.

01:22:36.780 We make our own light.

01:22:37.780 So when we imagine peace on Earth, when we imagine care-centered communities, when we

01:22:46.320 imagine beautiful, quiet spaces or warm, engaging hugs or singing out loud, we can do that.

01:23:00.320 We can make those things.

01:23:02.900 there's something that you're missing what can you do to make it because we're witches of the night

01:23:11.300 we are witches we make our own light on the solstice 0.99

01:23:15.700 blessed fucking be 0.99

01:23:27.200 and blessed fucking be 1.00

01:23:30.760 blessed fucking be 0.99

01:23:32.220 blessed fucking be 1.00

01:23:33.880 blessed fucking be 1.00

01:23:37.980 fucking be 1.00

01:23:38.840 happy yule 0.99

01:23:40.160 happy yule 1.00

01:23:41.240 blessed fucking yule 0.99

01:23:45.220 be safe out there everybody we love you love y'all 0.99

01:23:52.260 love you all

01:23:56.540 oh

01:24:02.940 oh

01:24:06.940 oh

01:24:07.940 We gather together to share our hope and our fear, because we are riches in the night.

01:24:28.200 We are wishes we bring our own light to the solstice at Yuletide on the longest night of the year.

01:24:45.240 Please bring us together to share our hope and our cheer

01:24:54.420 Because we are witches of the night

01:25:03.140 We are witches, we make our own light

01:25:11.460 On the solstice, at yuletide, on the longest side of the year,

01:25:20.120 please bring us together to share our warmth and our cheer,

01:25:29.880 because we are witches of the night.

01:25:37.940 We are witches

01:25:42.440 We make our life

01:25:46.440 Peace on Earth. Happy Solstice.

01:25:48.460 In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the date at which the sunlit hours are shortest

01:25:54.160 and the darkened hours are longest.

01:25:56.460 This, due to the tilt of the Earth's axis, is an astronomical fact.

01:26:03.140 Happy Solstice.

01:26:04.260 We are witches

01:26:08.700 We are witches

01:26:12.860 Science is magic

01:26:17.300 Mary Yule

01:26:18.780 That's it, we love you

01:26:19.800 We love you

01:26:20.620 I love you guys

01:26:22.680 Solstice and Yule

01:26:25.680 I come along this night of the year

01:26:29.900 Please bring us together to share our warmth and our cheer

01:26:39.180 Thus we are witches of the night

01:26:47.720 We are witches, we bring our own light

01:26:56.400 we dance in the darkest dark of the night and we return we call the return of the light 0.99

01:27:08.560 blessed fucking be 0.99

Missing Witches - December 21, 2024

Missing Witches Coven Yuletide Special 2024

Episode Stats

Transcript