Missing Witches - MW Rx. 17 - Missing Witches Prescription with Risa + Amy

00:00:00.000 The spirit is rising, she's rising, she's rising. The spirit is rising, it's rising, it's rising. The spirit is rising, they're rising, they're rising.

00:00:15.260 Hi!

00:00:16.320 Hi!

00:00:17.780 We're so excited to be here!

00:00:19.780 I know, we're back. We've been giggling. I don't know if the mic will pick it up, but my kid and Mark are hollering in the room outside. We're like, good vibes today. Yesterday, I was not good vibes. This is the Missing Witches Prescription. I'm Risa, by the way.

00:00:36.040 and this is amy yeah yeah um how were you this week i was dragged below yesterday i was i was 0.90

00:00:47.980 i was fucking all the way underground yesterday oh well um do you want to start then 0.91

00:00:53.480 i guess maybe i had a migraine i haven't had a migraine in so long 0.99

00:00:58.760 oh and that was like a real fucking issue for you in your past like 0.77

00:01:04.740 yeah yeah yeah i had i've talked about this before but i basically had a migraine for 10 years 0.88

00:01:10.280 so when they come which they almost never do now i have to kind of way find my way through

00:01:18.320 like all the fear because the fear makes it worse but i can't help it i like slip into

00:01:23.980 just being terrified that it's going to come back again and then i'll just like live in that

00:01:28.420 fuzzy no patience pain world again forever i feel it come over me i've had this happen once at your

00:01:36.740 house do you remember i had a panic attack at your house because on my way walking over to your place

00:01:40.780 walking through gentile market i got the um the like the visual field stuff so i couldn't see

00:01:48.740 clearly i got really overstimulated by the market it was a really bright loud day i lost vision in

00:01:54.120 one eye I started to like have the waves of pain like it all happens on my left side it all starts

00:02:00.300 to shut down and I got to Amy's house which was like this beautiful like wood like carved wood

00:02:07.220 dark kind of cozy den and I just like shook and cried and then I think we smoked a joint and then

00:02:14.740 I drank a bunch of water and juice and it never really got to the full-blown migraine but I

00:02:21.240 remember that feeling of the mounting fear so much. And yesterday I was able to just lie in

00:02:26.220 the basement in the dark in a fetal position and watch drag race when I needed distraction. And it 0.75

00:02:32.220 was very healing. That's perfect. Yes. It can be a little screamy for a migraine, but if you keep

00:02:38.400 the volume low. Yeah, it was like at a two and it was just sort of like keeping me company. And I

00:02:44.720 was very weepy and I was just dragged through it. And I don't know, so many of the conversations

00:02:50.860 we've had in recent years have helped me when that happens to not like clench around it in terror or

00:02:56.880 like try to manage it or try to push through it it's like no I'm just incredibly privileged that

00:03:05.560 I can just spiral in around this body and sink into the dark basement and just do that for

00:03:12.740 however long is needed and then I will spiral back up and I'll be okay yeah because I mean with

00:03:19.740 with an episode of any kind um the scariest part is like is this going to last 10 years

00:03:26.200 or 10 minutes you know um is this migraine gonna ever go away or is it gonna be tomorrow i'll feel

00:03:34.300 fine it's so scary to be in those places and and then you do that physically and you know

00:03:41.680 our bodies are are such a a communicator and we're sort of trained to ignore them especially

00:03:48.800 female bodies are trained to ignore pain trained to ignore signals trained to 1.00

00:03:56.320 say this is fine carry on chin up stiff upper lip put on some lipstick and go 1.00

00:04:04.080 do what you need to do but your body was like go underground and you were able to do that

00:04:11.360 yeah I felt really lucky and it's funny the night before and this goes into one of my

00:04:18.800 prescription bits um the day before I went back on LinkedIn for the first time in like

00:04:26.820 maybe like a month and a half or something and like doom scrolling LinkedIn was very much a part

00:04:32.280 of my life for a little while you know like I left like an intense kind of um big tech marketing job

00:04:40.880 that I had done for like almost 10 years all of the people I worked with in that time are in super

00:04:49.240 intense big tech marketing jobs still and so my LinkedIn is just like incredibly stressful

00:04:56.460 really nice people but there's a lot of performatives you know like just wanna so excited

00:05:03.320 to be starting a new gig with whoever all of that stuff is happening and when I left that job and

00:05:10.120 I was interviewing for jobs and I hated them and I just wanted to be here doing this but I hadn't

00:05:15.540 like I don't know let myself make that leap yet I was just doom scroll it and so anyway I took a

00:05:22.340 long break and then yesterday I went back on not yesterday the day before for like a hot second

00:05:27.820 and the only thing I saw the first thing I saw was um this woman Amber Goodwin I used to know her 0.89

00:05:36.300 in montreal indie artists she's she was in this rad band called cobra and vulture she used to run 0.99

00:05:41.360 like an indie porn zine called lickety split just very fucking cool you know she used to program

00:05:49.120 music and ckut um and she started and now she's the artistic director head of programming at the 0.78

00:05:58.240 regina folk festival and she just started a blog and it was like her first post on her brand new

00:06:05.360 blog where she's writing about music she loves and she shared this album and i had never heard

00:06:10.880 it before it and the artist is performing under the name the obia man and it's from like 1960s

00:06:17.880 mercury records like greenwich folk scene but he's drawing on his like bahamian bahamian 0.77

00:06:26.340 bahamanian musical roots and on like the obia traditions and it's so fucking rad so i i she 0.90

00:06:35.140 posted it and i was like that's my sign i'm fucking off linkedin i'm putting that album 0.93

00:06:41.260 on really loud and taking a bath in the dark honestly i mean imagine linkedin being the 0.90

00:06:48.920 source of that instead of like ah the crushing boob and boot of capitalism exactly what like

00:06:56.420 what a sign what an amazing sign I know you're you're like looking for validate you being me

00:07:05.260 and Risa and all of you are listening um like looking for signs that are validating the choices

00:07:12.000 that you're making and I think that's one of them it really felt like it and and then I was also

00:07:18.220 laughing to myself that like I've become the person who when I have a half an hour I've done

00:07:24.280 what I needed to do for the day the kid won't be home for half an hour I'm like immediately in the

00:07:29.700 bath in the dark something funky smelling is billowing smoke wise out there's candles lit

00:07:35.960 and I'm listening to one of the tracks is just like a seven minute long seance but it's so

00:07:40.780 beautiful and so I mean anyway the song that I'm bringing for the prescription because

00:07:47.960 it just fits with this sense of like just a release that I don't know everything and I don't

00:07:55.940 have to hold it all and controlled it all it's just called you don't know what's going on

00:08:01.020 amazing it's like you don't know what's going on and then um the verse I love is you can't change

00:08:09.740 the night into day and you can't take the milk from the Milky Way you can't take the sun from

00:08:14.460 the sky and you can't put the light in ray charles eyes it's like you don't know what's going on

00:08:21.280 you don't know what's going on so come go with me take my hand i'm going home

00:08:25.280 yeah it's so beautiful like i don't have to know i don't control all those things you know

00:08:33.960 i'm just gonna go hand by hand i'm just gonna try to find my way home

00:08:40.200 anyway i'm excited for you to hear it i'm excited for everyone to hear it i'm gonna link to amber

00:08:46.200 goodwin's new blog she said she's gonna post another song soon amazing we'll have to have

00:08:52.620 amber on the podcast yeah i would love that yeah she feels a bit witchy i don't know

00:08:59.140 a bit witchy is good enough for me i don't know

00:09:02.320 aren't we all aren't we all these days no we aren't all no way no no I mean those of us who

00:09:14.140 are in this coven in this moment in this space in the in the coven we create between our ears

00:09:19.460 as you always say um I think we are but you know it's important for me to poke my head out of the

00:09:28.060 bubble every now and again to remember what's really going on and also that I don't know

00:09:34.840 what's going on you don't know what's going on yeah

00:09:40.700 tell me about your week how are you doing um well I mean I have to um I'm not going to talk

00:09:51.780 long about it because there's other stuff I want to get to but I do have to shout out my

00:09:55.460 problematic old cultural uncle um gordon lightfoot who died this week and you know he struggled with

00:10:04.220 addiction and and didn't treat women well in life or in song um but really managed to outgrow

00:10:12.040 that in his later years um and outgrow that bad reputation but again i mean this is something that

00:10:20.380 i've thought about my entire life like um as far as like bad people go gordon life it doesn't even

00:10:28.360 really make like make the top one million right but still you know for me especially after the

00:10:37.400 person's dead and they can no longer profit then all bets are off we acknowledge you know that they

00:10:44.560 did bad things but i i mean i don't i'm not giving up my i can tina records i'm not i understand that

00:10:50.880 ike was a fucking horrible person but tina is a fucking amazing and inspirational person and 0.79

00:10:57.020 goddess tina is more in like i love tina more than i hate ike if that makes any sense but anyway i've 0.99

00:11:04.980 already spoken more about this i just want to say as a person with anxiety carefree highway let me

00:11:11.040 slip away on you is something that I've been returning to for you know almost 40 years when I

00:11:17.200 need that like acoustic picking of like you know drunk uncle who means me no harm singing a

00:11:25.660 bittersweet song about the times and people he once knew and just wishing that he could slip

00:11:31.900 away on a carefree highway so I had to bring that I had to bring that this week I I my other one is

00:11:38.920 the gordon lightfoot one too because i mean i just grew up on it you know i just grew up on it like

00:11:45.160 my both my parents didn't agree on much they they divorced when they were like 23 but they both had

00:11:52.780 gordon lightfoot records you know and uh it was it was in our van for most of a summer you know

00:11:59.360 the first time we brought may home we have a video of her in the car looking out the window and

00:12:03.640 there's gordon lightfoot in the background you know it was in our van when he died we'd just

00:12:08.100 been listening to it again you know we keep a box of cds in there and yeah so i i did i since you

00:12:14.480 brought it up i wanted to say from uh river of light he said i spent my life taking my time and

00:12:22.840 i can't change anything take a look at my river of light be a part of a river at night nice to

00:12:29.720 be on a river at peace like a june bug traveling heading off on a river at last my tears will be

00:12:36.560 all in the past i hope he's at peace i feel him i feel him in all those songs yeah i i again for me

00:12:45.740 he's on the carefree highway now officially he has slipped away onto the carefree highway and

00:12:51.360 he will continue to do so for all of eternity and so that's mostly what i've been listening to

00:12:56.260 this week honestly it's like a lot of lightfoot i'm we're canadian so maybe that rings differently

00:13:03.640 for our like south of the border and around the rest of the world listeners so just understand like

00:13:09.120 for Canadians I don't even know what the like the Bob Dylan but like sweeter like it he was more

00:13:17.720 less like a theorist and more of a poet philosopher if that makes sense if you're

00:13:22.760 comparing him to Bob Dylan but for Canadians like every Canadian grew up listening to Gordon

00:13:29.060 lightfoot or hearing gordon lightfoot or being exposed to gordon lightfoot so if you're like

00:13:34.100 huh that's why it's because we're canadian yeah and you know what that's part of your prescription 0.97

00:13:40.720 this week if you're not fucking canadian is come be a little bit canadian with us 0.97

00:13:44.760 put on some gordon lightfoot and just like go there with us for a little bit you know yeah 0.98

00:13:52.160 we talk a lot about this canadian identity that may or may not exist but i think gordon lightfoot

00:13:57.680 is like a strong part of that cultural mosaic that we all inhabit for sure yeah yeah so my

00:14:07.300 like I say I've been listening to a lot of Gordon Lightfoot um but one thing that I read this week

00:14:13.800 um I I really wanted to bring into the prescription because I think it ties into

00:14:21.220 everything that i want to say this week and that's that um the surgeon general in the u.s

00:14:29.800 this is i'm just going to read the headline surgeon general declares loneliness epidemic

00:14:35.680 says it saying it poses risks as deadly as smoking so the surgeon general has declared

00:14:43.580 loneliness an epidemic um and

00:14:49.760 that's to me is so so demonstrative of the system that we're living under and something that we've

00:15:01.700 been talking about forever particularly as it relates to witchcraft and witch hunts is this

00:15:08.180 forced suspicion creating individualism. You know, Sylvia Frederici talks about this,

00:15:14.880 how if you think your neighbor might be a witch, then you're less likely to help them

00:15:18.820 or ask for help. And all of this has created this system of individualism, this false sense

00:15:26.500 of individualism that we're all living under and feeling extremely lonely. I think everyone can

00:15:32.300 relate to this that it's not about how many people are around you you know or how many

00:15:39.040 instagram followers you have or facebook friends you have loneliness is not

00:15:45.600 wantifiable it is it is only qualifiable and it is a feeling that you are alone and oftentimes

00:15:55.060 that is that systemic feeling of like there's no support there's there's no one coming to help me

00:16:02.240 there i have no support again whether that's emotional support or financial support i have no

00:16:08.960 support and this is this is a created epidemic this has been created by the way that our society

00:16:17.300 functions and so how do we get out of this if loneliness is an epidemic then what is the cure

00:16:22.520 of course we have a coven which is part of it but also i want people who are listening to this

00:16:34.240 to think about this epidemic of loneliness what we can do in this very moment at this very second

00:16:41.540 and of course my first thought is to join our fundraiser because again if you have ten dollars

00:16:50.940 if you don't there have been times in my life where ten dollars would have meant eating or not 0.99

00:16:55.980 eating no shame no judgment i don't want you to think like if you are are living in fucking 0.69

00:17:01.880 poverty that we're trying to shame you into giving time we're not but if you have ten dollars if you 0.95

00:17:09.540 can figure out a way to find ten dollars in your budget this month and join our fundraiser not just

00:17:19.180 because then we get that sense of community of like look what we did together look how much money 0.97

00:17:24.020 we raise when we all work together but also because like we are a global unit us fucking 0.97

00:17:31.600 humans you know astronauts will tell you they went to look at the moon but really they looked back at 0.94

00:17:38.040 the earth and saw that we're just this like one unit and loneliness comes from feeling like you

00:17:44.220 have no support so many times when I'm looking for something I give it to somebody else and then

00:17:51.460 it almost like tricks me it tricks my whole body and mind into thinking that like I've also received

00:17:58.420 it you know it's one of the most beautiful things about being alive is this trickery of giving and

00:18:03.240 receiving so um I brought a song because we bring songs um I wanted to bring strong

00:18:13.920 Woman song. And this is a piece of music that Annie Lamoureux introduced us to. The first time

00:18:23.980 I heard it was her singing. The version that we're going to put in the newsletter is performed

00:18:30.420 by Lisa Muswagon and Ravenheart Belcour. But I just want to read something. Nancy Stevens reminds

00:18:39.940 those who sing it that the strong woman's song should be credited to the Anishinaabe

00:18:46.280 Kwiwag and the Zoganosh Kwiwag who were in solitary confinement in the prison for women

00:18:53.620 in Kingston, Ontario during the 1970s. Although Indigenous women across the globe have long been

00:19:00.120 guardians of human rights, the issue in Canada at the time was a need to revise the Indian Act

00:19:05.620 which removed a woman's indian status if she married a non-indian man

00:19:10.860 nancy said it was these women who had this song come to them my understanding from one of the

00:19:17.800 women i sing with and who went to p4w to work with the women there at that time that this song 1.00

00:19:24.020 emerged as a way of staying alive of supporting each other in that hell hole many women in p4w

00:19:32.240 lost their lives because of the horrendous conditions there we sing this song to honor them 0.99

00:19:38.020 and all women so my fucking prescription this week is money where your mouth is may listen to 0.98

00:19:47.180 strong woman song and while you're in that five minutes see if you can find ten dollars in your 0.99

00:19:53.820 budget and you could also win amazing prizes from like jinx monsoon and pam grossman and

00:20:00.500 Kate Baloo and Sarah Godsteiner and like so many other amazing things like this is an all-in-one

00:20:06.680 prescription this week we can do something for our bodies and our souls and our minds and try to

00:20:13.040 fight this fucking epidemic of loneliness that we understand is very real but has been constructed 0.86

00:20:19.160 by the way we've been forced to live and treat each other um strong woman song is my prescription 0.99

00:20:26.560 this week i when i saw that piece of news um and i think they even put a number on it like

00:20:33.080 the death rates from loneliness were equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day

00:20:38.120 like it's so like a pack a day almost like so so toxic so scary i thought about your chapter

00:20:47.440 um in new moon magic in our in our new book about the circle you know like

00:20:54.320 i was just thinking about how we interconnecting circles like even just finding one circle

00:21:03.600 and so i want to read a little piece from what amy wrote um about the circle she wrote a circle

00:21:12.860 doesn't require a card game or even a cheesecake she's telling stories about circles in her family

00:21:18.280 nor does it require goddesses chanting bonfires calling the corners or drawing down the moon

00:21:24.500 those though those things certainly heighten the atmosphere a circle is any place in any form

00:21:30.520 wherein witches women and or other marginalized people gather to safely exist to listen and be

00:21:37.700 seen hear stories tell stories share our gifts and burdens bear witness to trauma and steal its power

00:21:44.480 bear witness to joy and watch it multiply a quilting bee or a sewing circle a book club

00:21:50.340 or group therapy a sunday brunch with your pals where you piece together the hazy adventures of

00:21:55.160 saturday night can all be a circle and this circle is perhaps which is most powerful tool

00:22:00.580 it doesn't have to be framed as magical because it is inherently magical it's how we change the

00:22:06.620 world bit by bit together it is gathering in honesty vulnerability cooperation and collaboration

00:22:13.320 the having of problems and the doubling of dreams, the solving of some mysteries and the

00:22:18.400 discovery of others, a perpetual motion machine where we both produce and absorb energy, an

00:22:24.600 infinite Ouroboros, a ring of power and protection, a warm embrace, arms looped around and around each

00:22:31.640 other. That's the other piece of the prescription. You don't have to come out as a witch. You can

00:22:38.400 keep your secrets you can be a witch in the coven you know or with the one friend but you can tap 0.99

00:22:45.620 into the inherent power and political power of every political power of every fucking circle 0.96

00:22:52.880 right go to a knitting circle in a church basement and tell the truth about trauma or you know like 0.95

00:22:58.180 just tell the truth about who you are and what you see and what your kids believe you know those

00:23:03.380 those those actions in those circles resonate so that's the other part of that prescription I think

00:23:10.840 yeah but we want to leave you with the most special piece of music

00:23:15.300 that we heard or were a part of creating

00:23:20.340 this week um uh Risa sent me a little video and I pulled the audio so that you could all hear it

00:23:30.500 um Rhysa do you want to tell everybody what it is yeah so yesterday after I emerged from my

00:23:38.260 my spiral in the basement I was feeling a bit better I was on the couch and May and Mark were

00:23:45.360 like jamming out so he's on his guitar she's on her ukulele she's like bouncing around on the

00:23:52.800 couch with the ukulele on and um she's yelling at Mark like let's hit it let's do this he's

00:24:00.200 strumming and then she starts to sing and she she makes up the lyrics but you'll you'll hear

00:24:06.700 them in the track but i i think it starts with the universe is flowing through me something like

00:24:12.200 that what does she say it's better than that yeah it's like anyway you'll hear it folks something

00:24:18.220 about the world going through her as opposed to going through the world anyway yeah and then she

00:24:24.520 just starts rocking out real hard um repeating i love myself and all of me i love myself and all 0.98

00:24:32.780 of me and she's just like bouncing and hammering on the fucking uke and i love myself and all of 0.96

00:24:38.680 me she's singing it to the camera she's singing it to the window she's just like ah it's like 0.98

00:24:44.740 just everything that i need to hear and remind myself and it is incredibly fucking healing to

00:24:52.500 hear her say that about herself you know i love all of her i'm glad she does too yeah it's it's a

00:25:01.640 it's a mantra that i expect to adopt yeah so thank you may for part of this this week's prescription

00:25:09.340 sweet may sweet may marigold in the month of may reminding us all our transformative power

00:25:16.300 and loving ourselves and all of ourselves yes let's let's combat the epidemic of loneliness

00:25:22.820 by supporting each other not by not by counting the numbers that we have on our friends list but

00:25:30.080 by actually supporting each other and remember you don't know what's going on you don't know

00:25:37.780 what's going on none of us do honestly don't worry about it what was that what was it um

00:25:43.240 Farida was that the quote that I sent you this week was it from Farida um imposter syndrome

00:25:50.280 is just being so lit that you can't believe it yeah and I feel like that's where Mae's at

00:25:56.840 Mae's like so lit but she's like fully aware of how she believes it yeah she believes it 0.99

00:26:02.660 and we want you to believe it too yeah believe it and bless the fucking bee 0.91

00:26:13.240 Hi folks, it's Risa and Amy here from Missing Witches inviting you to get involved in our 0.99

00:26:40.540 annual raffle in support of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal and Indigenous-run nonprofits

00:26:46.560 wherever you live. We have a ridiculously fun witchy heap of prizes donated by a whole community

00:26:53.740 of folks joining together to make a magical wave of reparations magic. There's a prize pack from

00:26:59.940 Jinx Monsoon. A one-on-one tarot session with Sarah Godestiner. Magic classes from Pam Grossman.

00:27:07.780 A full year of writing workshops with Kate Ballou and the Bardo.

00:27:12.480 Art pieces, jewelry pieces, readings, books, and so much more.

00:27:16.920 Make a donation to your local Indigenous support org or the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal.

00:27:23.640 And then just forward the receipt to missingwitches at gmail.com with the subject line reparations before May 31st.

00:27:29.340 For every $10 you donate, you'll get one entry into the draw.

00:27:33.220 Check out all the details at missingwitches.com slash reparations.

00:27:36.760 and uh

00:27:38.440 blessed if I can be

Missing Witches - May 08, 2023

MW Rx. 17 - Missing Witches Prescription with Risa + Amy

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