Missing Witches - MW Killing Joke - We Must Dream Of Promised Lands

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00:00:05.680 Or buy our books, New Moon Magic, and Missing Witches, and our Deck of Oracles, the Missing Witches Deck of Oracles.

00:00:14.240 Find everything you need to know at missingwitches.com.

00:00:20.560 I've been a fan of post-punk Prophets, the band Killing Joke, for a long time.

00:00:28.880 their music feels like the consolidation and coalescence of all our human fears and dreams.

00:00:37.460 Like dark magic fighting fire with fire in the battle for our immortal souls.

00:00:44.440 But it's not just the music.

00:00:47.320 Killing Joke were a band for whom music was an occult ceremony.

00:00:51.820 Rituals performed backstage before the public rituals of their concerts.

00:00:56.620 brought together by spells and esoteric philosophies that formed the foundation of

00:01:03.160 their music and also their lives. A band who talked their way into a pharaoh's tomb in a

00:01:10.640 great pyramid to try to harness the spiritual power contained within and lay it down in their

00:01:17.080 recordings. Still, I hesitated. This is my first ever straight white men script for Missing Witches

00:01:25.600 and because of our feminist leanings, trying our best to find the women and people of marginalized

00:01:31.840 genders who have been erased from collective history, I paused. And yes, technically Killing 0.93

00:01:39.200 Joke founder and singer Jazz Coleman is half Indian, but still, he's white passing, pale as 0.99

00:01:45.900 the ghosts he conjures. The only marginalization that Killing Joke experienced was kind of 1.00

00:01:52.240 self-imposed. That refusal to trade their magical art for chart-topping hits. And the classic

00:02:00.140 citations, Crowley, Lovecraft. So I hesitated. Maybe this isn't the place for this story.

00:02:09.440 But then, as we witches train ourselves to keep our eyes open for messages from the universe,

00:02:14.960 I got a sign. A dear coven mate made a post in our members-only space. Punk witchcraft?

00:02:24.500 Does anyone have any information regarding this topic? Jasmine's question got a lot of great

00:02:31.320 responses, but for me, it was the permission slip I'd been looking for. As punk as I claim to be,

00:02:37.980 I still like a nod of encouragement from the universe or from my coven. So you'll forgive

00:02:45.560 me, sweet coven, for the straight manliness of this episode, because the story of Killing Joke

00:02:51.640 opens the door for us to talk about that intersecting ethos of punk rock and witchcraft,

00:02:58.780 the DIY experience of magic that doesn't require virtuosity, technique, education,

00:03:06.240 or even talent. Just a willingness to try and fail and try again. To take up an instrument and make

00:03:17.300 noise. To have something to say and to say it, regardless of what the prim, proper, and frankly

00:03:25.580 blithe mainstream thinks of us. To tell the truth, even when it hurts. The post-punk notions of

00:03:35.020 expansion, experimentation, and noise. It's all witchcraft. And as I swam deeper, I found in

00:03:46.000 Killing Joke a musical coven of witches whose magic sailed through typical rock and roll,

00:03:52.120 Jimmy Page, Crowley-ism, into an expansive ocean of geomancy, Rosicrucian, Hermeticism,

00:04:00.460 permaculture, animism, quantum physics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, symbolism, deities,

00:04:08.280 dreams, visions, Pythagoras, religious studies, and Kabbalistic numerology.

00:04:15.920 And beneath it all, another layer to our absorption of Killing Joke into this Missing Witches

00:04:22.280 pantheon that came to me as I listened to their music, read books and articles, immersed myself

00:04:29.400 in their world, their universe be. And that's the realization that we can relate to Killing Joke

00:04:36.600 not just as a beacon of that punk rock ethos, not just as a lighthouse for our Gnostic studies,

00:04:43.620 but also in our deeper practice of magic and being. Killing Joke is shadow work,

00:04:52.740 and their music allows us a glimpse into our own darkest resources. In his book, or as he calls it,

00:05:01.400 Allubrium, frontman Jazz Coleman wrote, quote, by removing the negative implications attributed to

00:05:08.580 sorrow, it helps one grasp the idea that suffering is an emotional energy which is used to open up

00:05:15.980 cavities in the human consciousness, as well as interdimensionally. They have been described as

00:05:24.960 apocalyptic, unlistenable, the sound of the earth vomiting. One critic said of their first studio

00:05:32.320 album, quote, if you're ever thinking of going insane, this is the album that will help your

00:05:37.880 descent into madness, end quote. But for us, and for the mighty joke, an acknowledgement must be

00:05:46.220 made that nothing changes if no one complains. That change comes from recognizing what's wrong,

00:05:54.060 shining a light into the dark basement corners of our minds and our societies. That utopia is just

00:06:01.380 around the corner. But first, we have to make that turn away from toxic positivity and see the truth

00:06:09.340 that hides beneath a candy coating. Shadow work begins when we stop running from ourselves,

00:06:16.740 when we turn toward the dark corners of the psyche, the shame, the anger, the fear, and ask

00:06:23.140 softly. What do you need me to know? It's not about exercising the shadow, though if that's

00:06:32.760 your bag-killing joke has a song called Exorcism that might fit your purpose, but integrating it,

00:06:39.560 remembering that we are whole only when we claim the parts we've cast out. The shadow is not evil,

00:06:47.420 It is a mirror

00:06:49.120 It's the archive of everything we've been told to hide

00:06:53.600 Our grief

00:06:54.800 Our rage

00:06:56.280 Our power

00:06:58.100 When we deny it, it leaks out sideways

00:07:02.660 In projection, in judgment, in exhaustion

00:07:06.040 But when we meet it with compassion

00:07:08.340 When we sit in the cave of ourselves and light a small candle

00:07:14.100 We begin to transform

00:07:16.840 shadow work like the work of killing joke is alchemy of the soul it asks us to witness our

00:07:24.200 own darkness without flinching to sift through the ashes of our conditioning and find the ember

00:07:31.160 still glowing underneath journaling dream work meditation therapy ritual these are the tools

00:07:41.200 But the true work happens in our willingness to stay present

00:07:46.360 And feel the distorted riffs and rhythms vibrate in our intestines

00:07:52.380 To dance our way through the apocalypse

00:07:55.440 Not an ending, but a revelation

00:07:59.280 This is the Requiem for the Past

00:08:11.200 not self-improvement self-reclamation the witch knows that to stand in her power she must also

00:08:30.600 stand in her shadow the moon waxes and wanes but she is always whole and on our faces we feel the

00:08:40.340 warmth and glow from flames that engulf and tumble the tarot's tower shadow work is the

00:08:48.580 practice of remembering that you too contain multitudes that even your darkness and discomfort

00:08:56.740 is sacred and your light the light of possible futures is born from its depths join me today

00:09:06.580 in tombs in sweaty smoky clubs lsd soaked recording studios in a circle of magic that declares quote

00:09:16.500 let success be your proof end quote that place in the cosmos where jazz coleman's vocals

00:09:24.260 and keyboards kevin geordie walker's guitar martin youth glover's bass and paul ferguson's drums

00:09:31.700 come together in sonic witchcraft that cast a spell on everyone who came after,

00:09:38.340 from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Metallica and Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Tool to Nine Inch Nails,

00:09:45.620 all claiming Killing Joke as inspiration. Robert Smith of The Cure once described Killing Joke's

00:09:53.220 early records as, quote, terrifying and beautiful, end quote. Something that he channeled for his

00:10:01.560 own music, and something we as witches can relate to ourselves. The terrifying beauty that is witch,

00:10:10.480 that is truth. A beauty that can only be found beneath the shadows. 0.97

00:10:16.180 join me today to discover the profane and ritual history of killing joke jazz said quote one cannot

00:10:28.060 bypass initiation thus the work of killing joke becomes considerably more coherent when seen in

00:10:36.520 terms of a generator musically suggesting such a process of initiation the effect is akin to that

00:10:45.220 of a vortex fascinating and ultimately all-encompassing end quote if it's safe

00:10:55.020 to do so if you're driving right now please keep your eyes open and stay

00:10:59.180 present with the road close your eyes and enter the noise killing joke taught

00:11:05.320 us that sound is not entertainment it's invocation and initiating each chord a

00:11:13.240 hammer striking the veil each drumbeat a summons to awaken what sleeps beneath

00:11:20.840 use killing jokes music to conjure a vortex conjure in your throat an anti-authoritarian

00:11:27.880 cry a call to action conjure in your foot a tapping of primal ancestral rhythm

00:11:37.240 breathe in the distortion feel it vibrating through your bones shaking loose the old ghosts

00:11:47.460 these are your shadows the parts of you that have been exiled censored colonized let them rise

00:11:56.440 let them roar jazz once said that apocalypse means revelation not destruction but unveiling

00:12:06.640 This is the apocalypse of the self. You, facing the mirror, stripped of illusions.

00:12:16.220 The rifts grow heavier. The base grinds.

00:12:24.100 In Killing Joke, you meet your fear and recognize it as power, misnamed.

00:12:29.880 You meet your rage and feel the pulse of life running hot.

00:12:36.640 true inhale the chaos exhale the control let the storm move through you you are

00:12:50.020 not breaking down you are being tuned aligned initiated in black moon jazz

00:12:59.440 sings here is the endless cycle break it if you can break it if you can the fear

00:13:08.320 that cancels out the love that's in our hearts break it if you can when the

00:13:16.540 noise subsides sit in the ringing silence

00:13:22.840 this is the afterglow the clear frequency of truth the shadow integrates the spell is complete

00:13:36.040 now open your eyes yes the world is still burning but so are you and your fire is holy 0.99

00:13:46.020 sacred and punk as fuck 0.96

00:13:51.140 jazz coleman was largely the mouthpiece of killing jokes so you'll hear me quoting him the most 0.97

00:14:04.060 but each member brought their own key pieces their own key ingredients tossed into the band's

00:14:10.500 cauldron the pharaoh's tomb for example was youth's idea he had taken dmt and seen or imagined

00:14:18.240 lines that connected across the globe, tossing him into a rabbit hole of ley lines, stone circles,

00:14:26.060 electromagnetic fields, sacred sites, and geomantic discovery. Every member has said

00:14:33.840 that the music came from the special chemistry of the four. Like earth, air, fire, and water

00:14:43.580 formed a universe. When Jazz met Paul, they were shocked to find in each other mirrored philosophies,

00:14:53.160 musical goals, occult curiosities, and a very rare for Brits, hatred of football.

00:15:00.840 Jazz said of meeting Paul, it was, quote, refreshing to find someone else who saw the

00:15:06.280 entirety of creative function as something other than a pleasure principle. In actual fact, we

00:15:13.200 utterly rejected the common artist's objective of creating a more desirable aesthetic effect.

00:15:19.200 Do you follow? We firmly believe that by employing a reversal of this process,

00:15:26.160 true progress could commence." End quote. Killing joke, mysticism, shadow work,

00:15:34.160 purification by ordeal magic that side of things Paul and jazz met through a

00:15:42.800 mutual friend in 1978 London and decided to become roommates as the story goes

00:15:48.660 the ceiling of the flat fell in the day they moved in together as if facades

00:15:55.880 naturally crumbled around them in his book killing joke are you receiving

00:16:02.180 Yerke Hamelainen wrote,

00:16:03.820 Both Jazz and Paul were into magic and the occult,

00:16:07.600 and the story goes they used magic to attract the other members of the group.

00:16:13.060 On the 26th of February, 1979,

00:16:16.060 they performed a ritual of dedication

00:16:18.580 in order to reach the other two members they were looking for.

00:16:22.700 They drew a circle on the floor,

00:16:25.280 drew a pentagram inside it,

00:16:27.060 and performed the ritual,

00:16:28.820 which led to a fire starting in the flat this was later said to have been caused by getting

00:16:35.300 the compass points wrong as they weren't fully rehearsed in the magic they were performing

00:16:40.100 so they put an ad in british music paper melody maker end quote after jazz and paul placed that

00:16:47.900 classified ad in melody maker seeking musicians quote who believed that the coming apocalypse

00:16:54.060 can be danced to, end quote, a 17-year-old named Youth answered. He'd been playing bass in various

00:17:02.960 punk bands around Ladbroke Grove and hanging around squats where punk dub and mysticism

00:17:09.880 intertwined. When he met Paul and Jazz, there was an instant chemistry, an understanding that

00:17:16.860 what they were building wasn't just a band, but a sonic weapon. Youth's dub-infused bass style

00:17:24.800 became the heartbeat of Killing Joke's early sound. Deep, hypnotic, ritualistic. His background

00:17:32.220 in reggae and sound system culture gave the group its trance-like pulse, while Jazz and Geordi

00:17:39.200 sculpted apocalyptic texture around it. Together they built something that transcended punk's

00:17:46.240 anger and moved into the realm of invocation. Youth said he joined because, quote,

00:17:53.120 it felt like we were conjuring something, not just playing music, but opening a space, end quote.

00:18:01.420 Next to join was guitarist Geordie Walker. Both he and Jazz were well-read and bonded over politics,

00:18:07.860 philosophy, and spirituality. Quote, I'd had a considerable occult library since I was seven,

00:18:14.680 Jazz explained to the Guardian,

00:18:16.740 early gigs featured a long-haired madman named Wizard who spit fire and chalked seven-pointed

00:18:34.920 stars on the stage. When youth ended up in a mental hospital after a particularly harrowing

00:18:40.780 acid trip, Wizard came to visit him, gave him a crystal and some sage advice. Tell the truth.

00:18:49.740 Tell the doctors it's just bad LSD. The advice worked, or maybe the crystal, and Youth was

00:18:56.820 released to go out on tour with Killing Joke again. Of their next album, Laugh, I nearly bought

00:19:02.120 one. The UK Chart Press wrote, quote, best enjoyed when heavily immersed in occultism, end quote.

00:19:10.480 The record opens with dance, dubbeats, and a pervasive fear of nuclear annihilation.

00:19:17.520 My favorite song on the album is Requiem.

00:19:21.620 Man watches video.

00:19:24.480 The bomb keeps on ticking.

00:19:27.900 But there's something hopeful about the chord progression that lets us know

00:19:32.220 the Requiem we are singing is for the death of something that no longer serves us.

00:19:37.640 And then there's war dance. This is music to march to. It's a war dance.

00:19:48.700 Laugh also includes love like blood. We must play our lives like soldiers in the field.

00:19:56.700 The life is short. I'm running faster all the time. Strength and beauty destined to decay.

00:20:04.860 So cut the rose in full bloom

00:20:07.900 Till the fearless come

00:20:09.920 And the act is done

00:20:12.000 A love like blood, a love like blood

00:20:15.000 Till the fearless come and the act is done

00:20:18.520 A love like blood, a love like blood

00:20:21.680 Every day through all frustration and despair

00:20:25.600 Love and hate fight with burning hearts

00:20:28.900 Till legends live and man is God again

00:20:33.240 And self-preservation rules the day no more

00:20:36.920 We must dream of promised lands and fields

00:20:41.560 That never fade

00:20:43.440 As we move toward no end

00:20:46.460 We learn to die

00:20:48.240 Till the fearless come and the act is done

00:21:03.240 in 1982 fresh from touring and teetering between revelation and collapse jazz and youth were

00:21:13.480 invited to speak at London's Courtauld Institute of Art what began as a lecture became legendary

00:21:20.340 sometimes thought of as a spoken word album definitely not just a talk it's a kind of

00:21:28.200 performance art of music and words, half manifesto, half mystical download. Music is a

00:21:36.140 force that can transform consciousness and tear down empires. You can listen to the whole thing

00:21:43.560 on YouTube, so I'll stick the link in the show notes. It's well worth the hour runtime.

00:21:49.100 The quartag talk opens with the soft ringing of bells

00:21:54.480 The rustling of paper

00:21:57.160 And the clomp of heeled boots across the stage

00:22:02.440 Jazz speaks

00:22:05.580 I work from the fundamental assumption

00:22:08.780 That for the artist

00:22:10.600 Dreams and visions are a more authentic source of information than fact or reason

00:22:15.860 now this hypothesis

00:22:19.800 has steadily evolved to the extent that it is no longer merely a conviction

00:22:24.740 but my perception of truth itself

00:22:27.780 consequently all activity

00:22:33.440 derived from such foundations cannot coexist

00:22:37.160 with any form of rationalist orientated thought

00:22:40.680 the primary objective is to set everything in motion

00:22:48.140 in the required direction

00:22:49.580 for example existing concepts of time

00:22:55.240 are only real if we accept and succumb

00:23:00.100 to the boundaries and divisions laid down

00:23:02.120 I'm simply pointing out

00:23:09.440 that we do, of course, have the option

00:23:12.220 to ritually smash the clock up

00:23:14.340 along with its corresponding restrictions

00:23:16.520 and transform, extend, increase

00:23:22.740 or decrease such boundaries

00:23:24.860 enabling us to achieve a greater freedom

00:23:28.480 by changing our perspective of truth and reason.

00:23:34.300 We may conclude that if truth as we see it to be

00:23:37.640 can be rearranged to benefit us in any way,

00:23:41.280 then this flexible truth is justified.

00:23:49.260 The same would apply in the eradication of supposed historic fact.

00:23:55.640 Now, in accepting the endless possibilities of the irrational domain,

00:24:00.320 we can evoke a chosen picture of the past

00:24:02.920 to influence the present and future.

00:24:07.640 The rejection or alteration of conventional perception of measurement, fact, time and reason

00:24:16.780 can shatter restrictive barriers and open up frightening possibilities.

00:24:24.160 To illustrate a point, an elementary annihilation of the assumption that Columbus was the first navigator

00:24:32.460 across the Atlantic changes the entire Western concept of civilisation.

00:24:38.200 Again, should we choose a certain axiom as a starting point, we do so regardless of so-called fact or reason.

00:24:50.580 However, today at the Courtauld Institute we shall be focusing our attention on those forces visible behind the changes in modern society.

00:25:03.760 and how we may view this criteria with true objectivity from within the medium of music.

00:25:13.780 Cheer up.

00:25:18.380 There are many strange phenomena where objective points are reached through working the metaphysical.

00:25:26.120 Now the dowsers or water diviners employed by the water boards to locate underground streams are a good example of this.

00:25:34.720 And yet the individual accomplishing them is generally not aware that he is doing so by the aid of a force.

00:25:42.720 He discovers he has a power, but does not know what that power is.

00:25:49.780 He only knows the results.

00:25:53.180 That's all he can see.

00:25:56.420 Had the atheist scientist of the rational world given this careful study to forces as he did to elements,

00:26:03.760 constantly working back and back, following one force to another,

00:26:10.000 eventually he might have some understanding of the origin of movement.

00:26:19.520 At this moment in time, our scientific rationale tells us

00:26:23.240 that the blood in our body is pumped round by our heart.

00:26:27.660 But what makes it tick?

00:26:31.320 He doesn't know.

00:26:33.760 Similarly, if we look at the rapidly transforming world of atomic power and super technology on its exterior,

00:26:45.040 we begin to wonder about the nature of force from which the ripples of momentum originated.

00:26:53.500 And I think we can all agree that there is something decidedly unhealthy about our current mode of existence.

00:27:03.760 but as I'm just a mad artist I shall view the changes perceived from that role I know best

00:27:13.700 later youth joins in on guitar and reality becomes what we make it and maybe that's one

00:27:22.120 of the keys to our witch punk ethos that we feel compelled to DIY our own realities

00:27:30.680 In the spring and summer of 1982, after delivering the Courtauld Talks and releasing their third album, Revelations, Jazz became convinced that an imminent global apocalypse was approaching.

00:27:44.620 Interpreting both world events and his own mystical experiences as signs,

00:27:49.100 he decided to leave London and flee to Iceland,

00:27:54.200 believing it to be a safe zone, both geographically and spiritually,

00:27:59.120 from which to begin the next phase of humanity.

00:28:03.140 Enter Universe B.

00:28:05.280 He was later joined there by Geordi,

00:28:07.760 and the two planned to rebuild Killing Joke from the ground up in this new world,

00:28:12.500 while youth and Paul stayed behind in the UK. This Icelandic exile marks one of the many

00:28:20.580 mythic and mysterious chapters in Killing Joke's story. Quote, in Iceland, jazz underwent the

00:28:27.900 process of individuation, principum individuationis. It is a process of transformation whereby the

00:28:36.100 personal and collective unconscious are brought into consciousness through dreams and active

00:28:41.960 imagination as well as free association these are to be assimilated into the

00:28:47.060 whole personality it is a completely natural process necessary for the

00:28:52.220 integration of the psyche it was also during this period that jazz made

00:28:56.960 contact with what he calls the universe be an alternate universe which was then

00:29:03.460 referenced in killing jokes music and lends its name to the B side of the

00:29:07.880 Hosanna's From the Basement of Hell, single in 2006. During that time, jazz also heard melodies

00:29:16.260 while going through the process. One of these melodies can be heard in Pandy's Are Coming On

00:29:22.800 on Revelation. Universe B is jazz's term for a parallel or alternate dimension, a psychic or

00:29:35.880 spiritual state accessed through music, ritual, or, if necessary, apocalypse. It's not a fairy tale

00:29:44.900 so much as a framework for consciousness, a way to describe the feeling of stepping outside

00:29:51.280 consensus reality into revelation. He's spoken about the idea since the 80s that our world,

00:30:00.720 universe A, is collapsing under materialism, and that through initiation, whether art,

00:30:08.240 magic with a K, or creative destruction, one might transition to universe B,

00:30:15.440 a realm of higher frequency and alignment. In interviews, Jazz has described universe B as

00:30:22.760 the next stage of evolution, not physical, but spiritual. So when Jazz fled to Iceland,

00:30:32.480 convinced that apocalypse was imminent, he wasn't just escaping. He was preparing an experiment in

00:30:39.580 frequency, an attempt to burn a hole through that consensus reality, and maybe save the world,

00:30:47.740 Transport us all to Universe B

00:30:51.340 Across albums, What's This For, Pandemonium

00:30:56.840 Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, Pylon

00:30:59.900 Across time and space, Killing Joke returned to the same idea 0.90

00:31:05.580 That collapse is also creation

00:31:08.780 That chaos is a doorway

00:31:12.500 Universe B is the world that waits

00:31:16.700 not the end of things but the crossing in this place music is not entertainment it is alchemy

00:31:27.500 sound is spell noise is prayer jazz is currently on an island in new zealand creating that utopia

00:31:39.120 that he dreamed of, obsessed with rescuing endangered moths, and creating a sacred space,

00:31:46.380 agonizingly planned and perfected circles, gardens, and altars. He wrote, quote,

00:31:54.040 The hermetic principle of as above, so below applies to the geomantic constructions,

00:32:00.520 as we are, in principle, creating a planetary and stellar imprint upon the landscape which

00:32:06.800 mirror the heavens in order to harmonize certain human activity with the forces of nature.

00:32:13.780 Central to this philosophy is the assumption that Mother Earth or Gaia Sophia is a living,

00:32:20.280 breathing, conscious being who will either nourish and sustain us or, like Kali, destroy us utterly,

00:32:29.940 depending on whether human activity ceases to become parasitic and achieves harmonization.

00:32:36.800 To quote the alchemist Basilus Valentinus,

00:32:40.260 the earth is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul.

00:32:50.280 My geomantic experiments are driven by notions of eternity.

00:32:55.260 So regardless whether the entire project might be destroyed by a mile and a half high tidal wave,

00:33:01.620 I continue with my endeavors.

00:33:03.360 The act of doing it is everything, for it defines who I am, and I remain convinced by the very

00:33:13.020 purpose of my incarnation, which is to inspire others. It is, when all is said and done,

00:33:21.340 just a work of art, and let's face it, nothing is permanent. In the end, it is all for a single

00:33:30.200 cry of ecstasy occurring within a millionth of a second, but it reverberates forever, end quote.

00:33:40.140 Later, in letters from Sathera, he writes, quote, the advice of William James is emphasized in the

00:33:47.200 undertaking of a colossal task in which the supreme aim is a complete change of mode in order to find

00:33:54.460 greater meaning and purpose in our lives. To change one's life, one, start immediately.

00:34:02.780 Two, do it flamboyantly. Three, no exceptions. End quote. One Killing Joke show poster declares,

00:34:14.400 from oblivion to utopia and back again. And I think this might be a crux of Killing Joke's magic,

00:34:22.780 That we can move between worlds from oblivion to utopia, from sorrow to ecstasy.

00:34:33.460 That nothing is permanent and everything changes.

00:34:37.900 But we are soldiers in a war for our own souls.

00:34:42.720 Start immediately.

00:34:44.720 Do it flamboyantly.

00:34:46.820 No exceptions.

00:34:49.100 This is a war dance.

00:34:52.120 Music to dance to.

00:34:54.120 Music to march to.

00:34:57.080 In Euphoria, they sang,

00:34:59.300 All creation lives, all creation dies, all creation's made again.

00:35:04.620 In Dark Forces, you'll need holy water and a little bit of knowledge.

00:35:10.480 In the Death and Resurrection show, mark out the points, build the pyre.

00:35:15.760 In Incythera

00:35:18.600 When the world's too much to bear

00:35:21.240 I'll take to dreaming of a time

00:35:23.760 When peace and love were everywhere

00:35:26.460 In Love Like Blood

00:35:28.460 We must dream of promised lands

00:35:32.640 And again, war dance

00:35:36.180 Do a war dance

00:35:38.540 Do a war dance

00:35:40.600 Killing Joke was never just a dystopian bummer

00:35:45.560 in almost every song there is a volta a turn where the band reminds us that we can get to

00:35:53.560 another reality the universe be that awaits us with loving arms when the world's too much to

00:36:02.420 bear i'll take to dreaming of a time when peace and love are everywhere we must dream of promised

00:36:12.060 lands. The world of killing joke is never pastel or polite. It's the light that seeps through the

00:36:19.140 cracks after the detonation. Their gospel is apocalypse as alchemy. The faith that every

00:36:27.540 collapse clears the ground for something true to grow. Love like blood, they sang, as though

00:36:34.460 devotion itself were a form of rebellion. All creation dies, all creation's made again.

00:36:41.660 Utopia isn't elsewhere. It's inside the act of becoming, inside the rhythm that refuses despair.

00:36:51.380 Again, it isn't escapism. It's the moment after the storm, the vision glimpsed through smoke when

00:36:59.780 the drums fall silent, and you can hear your breath return. Killing Joke's Hope is hard won,

00:37:10.500 ecstatic, electric. It asks us to meet the end of the world not with fear, but with rhythm,

00:37:19.440 with courage, with creation, because to survive is to transmute. And to transmute is to believe

00:37:29.240 in the possibility of another world humming just beneath this one. Catharsis is how we are made.

00:37:41.840 Killing Joke sings our hymns and offers real hope. Hope that isn't colored by the rose-tinted

00:37:49.960 glasses of toxic positivity and denial. Theirs is a hope that is action-oriented, that relies

00:37:58.660 on magical activism and the hermit's lantern to guide us through. Let's return to Jasmine's post

00:38:07.400 that asks about witchcraft and punk. Claire replied, witchcraft, as opposed to hierarchical

00:38:15.180 high ceremonial magic, is classically DIY. Use what you have confined, anti-establishment, 0.94

00:38:24.340 and probably a bit dirty around the edges. And ethically, witchcraft tends to emphasize

00:38:30.120 genuine justice or personal, intuitive morality rather than following rules or laws.

00:38:39.380 There's a thumbing of the nose at mainstream expectations and a way of turning nonsensical

00:38:46.500 norms on their heads. We're kind of okay with some people thinking we're a little scary and

00:38:52.760 not giving a fuck if they like our aesthetic or tastes or lifestyle. We welcome outcasts and 0.86

00:38:59.540 weirdos and take care of our own. And there's usually a political consciousness willing to

00:39:06.320 think outside the prescribed options and limits. All of that sounds extremely punk.

00:39:14.600 Jenna wrote, I went to an all-ages show in an alley over Labor Day weekend. I hadn't been to

00:39:20.520 a punk show in over a decade and it was mega nostalgic. The witch and the scholar in me

00:39:27.040 couldn't help thinking about it as a spiritual space and an intergenerational subculture full

00:39:34.720 of rituals, singing, dancing, ways of relating to one another. These are the connections between

00:39:45.600 witchcraft and punk. So, while we might debase punk as confrontation, rebellion without a cause,

00:39:55.220 for us witches, it represents so much more. A space where outsiders can come together and become

00:40:02.980 insiders. A place where hope is rooted in reality. And anarchy isn't mere destruction,

00:40:11.300 but a space where we can make new rules, new ways of governance. Killing Joke have always

00:40:19.500 reminded us that apocalypse isn't the end. It's the veil tearing. It's revelation.

00:40:29.420 Like witches in a factory age, Killing Joke gathered in the ruins and made rhythm their

00:40:35.740 spell. They took Punk's fury and aimed it at the soul, asking not just we want to destroy,

00:40:45.260 but what we dare to dream into being next. We must dream of promised lands. We must dream

00:40:57.540 of promised lands. All creation lives. All creation dies. All creation's made again.

00:41:06.460 In those words lives the punk witch's ethos. Transformation as defiance. Creation as survival.

00:41:15.220 To dance when the world ends is to believe another world can rise. This is a war dance.

00:41:27.540 They sang, I can feel the universe expanding. I can see your spirit rising.

00:41:37.200 The heart of it, punk as prophecy, witchcraft as resistance, art as invocation. Killing joke 0.72

00:41:45.840 taught us that hope isn't soft. It's a practice. It's a spell we cast together again and again.

00:41:57.540 Through chaos and through noise, until the veil thins and the future hums, grinds, and pulses beneath our feet.

00:42:08.920 We must dream of promised lands.

00:42:13.880 This is our exorcism.

00:42:16.140 Our resurrection show.

00:42:19.020 Our invocation for what comes next. 0.51

00:42:23.040 Make every dance a war dance. 0.82

00:42:26.100 Dream of promised lands

00:42:29.540 Now go listen to Killing Joke

00:42:56.100 What change is it all?

00:43:00.820 The board keeps on decking

00:43:04.300 He doesn't know why

00:43:09.300 He's just a capture for flutter 0.99

00:43:15.100 you must be a witch 0.94

00:43:39.460 if you want to support the missing witches project 0.59

00:43:42.740 join the coven come hang out with us or buy our books new moon magic and missing witches

00:43:49.580 and our deck of oracles the missing witches deck of oracles find everything you need to know

Missing Witches - October 16, 2025

MW Killing Joke - We Must Dream Of Promised Lands

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