Missing Witches - MW Rx. 31 - Our Circle, Our Cauldron

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

00:00:09.900 My love.

00:00:10.940 The spirit is rising, they're rising, they're rising.

00:00:14.680 It's okay.

00:00:15.460 The spirit is rising.

00:00:17.260 Weird days.

00:00:18.960 Mm-hmm. I'm here, I'm listening.

00:00:22.420 Oh, I posted about it, maybe, but in circle, but you know my bestie?

00:00:28.220 Of course.

00:00:28.720 she has a baby brother who I've known his whole life he's the same age as Brianna

00:00:33.100 just just one morning clump of cells they didn't know were in his brain burst

00:00:40.540 his girlfriend found him seizing he was in brain surgery for eight hours

00:00:46.200 then their family like flew out there and like waited to find out if he was going to be totally

00:00:52.180 brain dead or paralyzed those were the options and then I heard from her two days ago that he 0.97

00:00:59.360 had moved his hands um and she hasn't answered a text since so I don't know what the fuck is going 0.97

00:01:06.100 on yeah that's one of those I don't even know if knowing or not knowing is the worst 0.94

00:01:13.900 fate there oh god man you know one of the best people i ever knew died of a brain hemorrhage 0.98

00:01:25.540 really like everything was fine and then suddenly she fucking died you know yeah 0.86

00:01:33.640 just how quickly like someone you love could just not wake up like 0.99

00:01:42.120 yeah well i have nothing but thoughts and prayers unfortunately for that i know

00:01:51.000 i've just been

00:01:54.560 i had this line in my head um all day when i found out i was driving around it was like that heavy

00:02:03.200 snow day because it's sunday and um it was hard driving it was like driving with all the kids and

00:02:10.660 it was really thick everywhere and I had this line in my head I was sure it was from like a

00:02:15.300 T.S. Eliot poem oh the many paths of the way and I just kept thinking it over and over again like

00:02:21.360 our brains can find paths like they can we can rebuild there's many paths to the way of

00:02:26.900 consciousness like he can do this he has a young strong mind like he can survive this oh the many 0.97

00:02:32.940 paths of the way and I got home looked it up for sure it was going to be I can't fucking find it

00:02:38.280 anywhere well because it was the muse that sent it to you and you made it up but you didn't because

00:02:44.240 it was the muses it's probably daoist but i'm just gonna put it out into the world and i don't mind

00:02:50.700 if this ends up in the rx all of this but just i'm holding on to that a lot right now this idea

00:03:00.400 that there are many ways and we don't know them you know around collapse around violence

00:03:08.280 around cruelty like around catastrophe there are many many many ways yeah not just like the

00:03:16.820 cruelty of humanity but the cruelty of fate of fate yeah of cells just cell death like that

00:03:23.220 not even cruelty just

00:03:25.740 randomness and you know uncertainty

00:03:31.700 yeah you know i i look to nature all the time

00:03:38.000 um like just this morning i was like looking at my bird feeder and there's like

00:03:43.540 four different breeds of birds all sort of just like you know sharing the space and it's tempting 0.93

00:03:51.400 to be like well you know nature has it all figured out but like nature is fucking cruel too

00:03:57.300 yeah nature is violent and terrifying and a snowstorm will take you out or a cluster of 0.78

00:04:07.800 cells will take you out and all of that is like part of that like random cruelty of life

00:04:17.600 yeah yeah that essentialism is is dangerous anywhere be like oh mother nature has all

00:04:26.500 our answers i mean yeah she also has all our questions all our problems you know all it's not 0.91

00:04:33.300 you know it's not just because patriarchy had a lot of shitty men in it doesn't mean there 0.98

00:04:38.560 aren't a lot of fucking shitty women you know like let's beware essentialism everywhere 0.99

00:04:44.040 absolutely right i i think about phyllis shaftley all the time who like was like famous for for 1.00

00:04:52.580 working against the equal rights amendment what a dick her her thinking was that she was like a 1.00

00:05:00.380 very happy rich housewife and if you know the equal rights amendment came through that she 0.97

00:05:07.820 would have to go and get a job and she didn't want to do that so she figured the best course 1.00

00:05:13.360 of action would be to just slam those rights for everybody who might actually want to do that or 1.00

00:05:21.780 have to do that yeah what what will women do in the protection of their privilege that's what 1.00

00:05:32.900 what we call white feminism right it's like it aligns itself with the power in in in self-protection 0.96

00:05:41.900 and then ignores everything that doesn't go along with that this brings me to my song although I

00:05:48.580 didn't expect it to do you want a prescription yeah you ready you ready my my stick one how are

00:05:56.940 you first of all are you okay yeah I mean you know I'm I'm sick I the COVID finally got me and

00:06:04.060 thank you listeners for your patience last week there was no rx because i was

00:06:10.100 asleep and uh i texted risa like i don't know how little wayne does it like i don't know how 0.74

00:06:17.860 you can go into a studio on half a bottle of nyquil and like spit some shit because 0.71

00:06:23.480 it was not happening for me there was no way i was gonna i was gonna go and record but 0.92

00:06:29.040 I mean again like I could complain but at the same time it feels a bit like that interview

00:06:36.980 that Paris Hilton did where she was like every bad thing that's ever happened has happened to me

00:06:42.360 you know like yeah I was sick but um you know my spouse was off work and did everything for me my

00:06:50.060 dog literally wouldn't leave my side like Andrew was like you want a treat you want to go for a

00:06:55.720 he physically at one point tried to pull her away from me and she was like no no no like I'm not

00:07:01.320 leaving her I'm not leaving her so um I'm good I mean I'm like rotted and gutted and mucusy and

00:07:08.620 shitty but like I'm so good so good I'm so lucky and you know what's what's a little what's a

00:07:16.820 little virus yeah in the grand scheme of things i'm glad for that and also i'm sending a little

00:07:26.440 love to paris hilton too because i i heard she just sort of was open about being in one of those

00:07:31.440 like scare him straight camps when she was a kid where they come and take you from your home and

00:07:36.520 like force march you in places and she was sexually assaulted there and stuff and those places are a

00:07:41.620 nightmare and I'm sorry anybody had to go through that yeah and I remember seeing another there was

00:07:48.840 something I mean I we didn't mean to talk about Paris Hilton today but nope but here we are

00:07:53.420 where she was talking about like how her her followers like you know her social media followers

00:08:00.580 her fans basically that she like felt sometimes closer to them than the people in her own life

00:08:07.520 because and at first I was like you know that's kind of weird and sad and gross but then 0.88

00:08:14.280 I get it now you know like the these are the people who actually like give a shit about what 0.94

00:08:20.540 you're doing and the work that you're doing and sometimes the people in your life just like don't 0.96

00:08:25.480 care about what you're doing and the work that you're doing and so I get it we get you Paris we

00:08:30.820 feel you we're not gonna put you down mama we're not gonna put you down

00:08:37.320 No, I don't have the energy to put people down. I'm in this local Facebook group and this lovely woman posted in English, willing to invite people to a circle with traditional Colombian singing. She's from a shamanic tradition. I was like, how beautiful and generous. And somebody replied in French, the equivalent of like, go play in traffic if you can't be bothered to communicate in French here.

00:09:05.680 there's like very french racism here in Quebec and uh she and I were chatting afterwards we

00:09:12.920 were in messages and she was so lovely she's like you know I just that you have to have such a

00:09:18.320 so much sadness in your heart to say something like that and so I just wish them the best I

00:09:24.040 was like oh yeah totally me too of course I fucking reported them for hate speech on every

00:09:29.820 platform she's like oh me too i'm like okay good yes we can we can report them but we don't have 0.95

00:09:37.000 to like carry their hatred in our hearts i can send them love and also be like unacceptable

00:09:42.520 anyway you said you had a prescription yeah i was thinking about um

00:09:50.460 i was thinking about you know the kinds well you know originally when i was saying about this song

00:09:58.940 or when it hit me, it was this idea of like a sort of a warrior-like faith

00:10:07.320 that things will be okay someday.

00:10:15.300 I stumbled on this song.

00:10:17.180 One of our coven mates made this ridiculously awesome playlist on Spotify, 0.50

00:10:22.640 which I'll link to, called Brew Ha Ha.

00:10:25.820 Thanks, Sarah.

00:10:26.520 It's really good.

00:10:28.940 um and i was listening to it and this song that i wasn't familiar with

00:10:36.880 called mother fighter by nadine shah came on i don't know i was not familiar and i was not ready

00:10:46.460 you know i think she wrote this song during sort of the peak of the um war in syria

00:10:55.100 and it was in response to a real woman in a documentary film a mother and the song is

00:11:03.360 and the lyrics are just I mean for this time we're in watching children in Palestine you know 0.99

00:11:17.380 legally the definition of genocide is being enacted in Palestine Hamas is a fucking nightmare 0.98

00:11:23.620 you know there there's these ideologies based on murder and rape that are terrifying like just to 0.99

00:11:29.540 live in a place like that and to know that your family has tended olive trees and will one day

00:11:35.000 again like that is the heart of this song and there is such a resilient faith in that like

00:11:43.120 i can't promise you it'll be okay but you will come back to this place you know she says these

00:11:49.640 streets are yours and they're mine I can't promise all will be fine when you're grown you no longer

00:11:55.900 have to ask why just come back home when the land is as calm as the sky and so I'm putting it on the

00:12:02.660 altar I'm putting it in the prescription it goes hard not crazy hard this song but it goes hard

00:12:09.180 too so dance it out feel in your body call it in there will be peace again kids will go home 0.63

00:12:17.840 i fucking insist upon it i insist upon it we all insist upon it together 0.86

00:12:25.680 my um my song that i brought this week is like a similar vein um you know i've been wallowing in my 0.98

00:12:35.600 my sad girl sad girl times and uh and i have a reading i'm gonna do in a little bit too that

00:12:44.160 kind of speaks to this but like you know like we were talking about nature like there's beauty

00:12:49.500 there's magic there's love um there's also you know um birds that will kick other birds eggs

00:12:57.200 and steal the nest and you know it's not all it's not all beautiful um and one of my favorite sad

00:13:04.100 girls has always been of course janice joplin um she's great if you need a minute to wallow and

00:13:11.300 just like embrace that the blues for lack of a better term the blues then Janice is somebody

00:13:18.460 that I go to to do that and I brought get it while you can um I mean it starts out like in this world

00:13:26.920 if you read the papers darling you know everybody's fighting with each other and there's no one you

00:13:34.220 can count on dear not even your own brother so if someone comes along who's gonna give you some love

00:13:42.560 and affection i say get it while you can get it while you can and then she sings that line over

00:13:49.960 and over and over get it while you can don't turn your back on love don't turn your back on love 0.98

00:13:57.880 It's tempting when you read the papers, darling, to feel like turning your back on love and just like embracing this Facebook fucker who was like, I'm angry and I feel bad, so I want you to feel bad too. 0.89

00:14:16.740 but the option is if someone comes along who wants to give you some love and affection 0.96

00:14:24.620 like this Colombian woman who wanted to share this beautiful circle I say get it while you can

00:14:32.360 and one of the other lyrics in the song is like um don't you know when you love somebody

00:14:39.520 you're taking a gamble on a little sorrow and we've talked about this before that grief comes

00:14:45.340 from love we wouldn't grieve if we didn't love um you're taking a gamble on a little sorrow but

00:14:51.780 who cares because we may not be here tomorrow because we may not be here tomorrow so if someone

00:14:59.200 comes along who's gonna give you some love and affection i say get it while you can get it while

00:15:06.540 you can so that's my prescription like get it however however wherever from whomever

00:15:16.060 when you feel like you want to hate

00:15:19.960 find someone who's going to give you some love and affection and get it while you can because

00:15:29.560 we may not be here tomorrow and we definitely won't be here a hundred years from now you know

00:15:35.660 so get it while you can is my prescription whether you listen to the Janis Joplin song or not just

00:15:42.020 get it while you can whatever it is get it while you can I love that don't you turn your back on

00:15:49.800 love no no that's what's so important to insist upon and it's so funny because in the past I've

00:15:56.320 been like with the message can't just you know like the core it can't just be that simple like

00:16:01.400 it's just love like that you know the the message at the heart of every movement every peace

00:16:07.780 movement every religion that i was i've really had in my head a lot lately i did an episode on

00:16:13.980 lucille clifton a little while back this incredible poet and um marina magloire went who is this great

00:16:21.880 researcher went through this period of lucille clifton's life that was sort of lesser known

00:16:27.360 where she was um channeling she started with a Ouija board and then she progressed with automatic

00:16:34.640 writing and stuff and the one message that kind of comes through over and over again and that

00:16:39.440 Magloar cites is is her sort of voices who would return to her over and over again being like

00:16:45.180 the time is short like you have you know your children's generation and their children's

00:16:51.220 generation to insist and remind the world that love is that truth is and if we can then we will

00:17:01.040 have a thousand years of love and peace on earth and if we can't then there will be a really long

00:17:06.640 dark period and I don't know I just keep I don't know about the the prophecy element of that or

00:17:13.140 the way that our own fears can manifest in voices or or how deeply accurate

00:17:19.140 I think she was as a poet as a listener you know but uh it does ground me to think like

00:17:27.640 it is enough and more than enough and kind of everything to insist that love exists that we

00:17:35.680 love I truly you know that like love is we don't skip it we don't just skip over it and and like

00:17:41.560 forget how fucking miraculous and astounding it is the people fall in love even with love with a

00:17:50.520 place that we imbue so much life into things so much love to our relationships with like animals 0.93

00:17:56.280 and tools and like i don't know staying there not letting that magic slip through our fingers

00:18:04.700 in those moments but like really staying in what love is

00:18:08.260 is all that i have for the prescription

00:18:15.800 because it is you know um post enlightenment and we want to be logical and people say feelings are

00:18:27.580 not facts and all of these things and yeah totally um but at the same time like love is a great

00:18:35.020 mystery we don't understand it we don't know we've had you know biologists tell us that like

00:18:43.260 you know certain pheromones will attract you because of immunity differences and then your

00:18:48.720 body like wants to make a child with this person because you have like different immunity and and

00:18:53.920 all of that stuff but like falling in love loving has no logic it is magic it is unknowable and yet

00:19:05.720 like it's all we know so that that is magic that that great unknown that is the most beautiful

00:19:15.960 thing that we can conjure in our lives and it is the magic of this time of year right like

00:19:21.040 it's if you live in the north like we it's dark and darker every day and so we are drawn inward

00:19:29.960 we're drawn into our small homes we're drawn towards small lights you know we we see the

00:19:37.780 hope of the sun and just like these it's so precious you know so it we we have to like

00:19:44.760 aim ourselves at the joy of the solstice and like the crazy painful mother's night rebirthness of

00:19:51.360 the whole world that is the solstice and like just lean into like some somehow the fact that

00:19:58.320 it is dwindling away makes it all the more more clear and all the more like everything

00:20:05.840 all the more everything all the more everything

00:20:10.260 um i brought uh i brought one of my old women's spirit magazines um yay listeners if if you don't

00:20:21.700 know what i'm talking about um i did a zine post about women's spirit magazine so we'll we'll link

00:20:26.640 that in the rx um but they this this group of of women feminist witches they they put out this

00:20:35.480 magazine four times a year um on the solstices and on the equinoxes and this is from winter solstice

00:20:46.000 um i can't find the year here but it was in the 70s this is number 14 and i found this piece

00:20:56.160 it's called our circle our cauldron and i really feel like you know we talk metaphorically about

00:21:04.680 the cauldron and i and and to extend that metaphor like i feel like our circle is the cauldron into

00:21:11.600 which we put things and this is like a four page long kind of play so obviously i'm not going to

00:21:20.120 read the whole thing here but um this just really struck me so i'm going to read a bit of it

00:21:27.020 one of the older women rises to her knees and looks soberly around the circle

00:21:35.340 she holds an ornamented stick with a rattle on the end she speaks let us all breathe deep

00:21:43.340 sisters and focus let us center our hearts and minds here on this empty space between us

00:21:52.200 this is a receptive space it is our cauldron whatever we put in it will be transformed

00:22:02.760 it can nourish us all what do we need today a woman answers we have each come to this circle

00:22:12.500 hungry. Our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our very souls are lean and restless. Is there any

00:22:23.140 food that will fill us? Another woman says, we have only the fragments of our lives, some bits

00:22:32.200 of insight and pieces of our dreams, but we can pour in the salty water of our tears. We have so

00:22:41.240 many tears. Our tears of pain, of hopelessness, of fear. The first woman replies, here,

00:22:52.180 stir the cauldron as the rattle comes to you. Throw in whatever you bring. Empty your pockets. 1.00

00:23:00.160 Shake out your secrets. Turn the dark corners of your past to our sight. We need all that we can

00:23:09.380 bring that is true. Whether it tastes of honey or vinegar, salt or spice, whether it is herb,

00:23:20.640 flower, root, or rind, surely there is nourishment in all the scraps of our lives.

00:23:31.120 The second woman adds, we have brought fire to transform them with our hot tempers,

00:23:36.640 our burning passions, our desire and the warmth of our love, the white heat of our resentment

00:23:45.300 and the searing blaze of our rage. All three speak together. Come, together we will make a rich stew

00:23:55.480 and we will feed each other

00:23:57.880 we will all be filled

00:24:00.360 a nourishing

00:24:02.260 broth, a healing

00:24:04.240 potion, a

00:24:06.240 magic brew

00:24:07.380 there is a soft

00:24:09.920 drumming which fades

00:24:11.720 into silence

00:24:13.600 we need all

00:24:22.020 that we bring that is true

00:24:23.580 all of it if you got spice if you got sugar all is welcome in the circle of our cauldron

00:24:31.040 because our our circle is our cauldron so if you're sick if you're mourning if you're happy

00:24:39.120 and in love all of these are the ingredients the scraps of our lives that form this stew

00:24:45.540 that will nourish us together here's to the fighter moms and the warrior moms and the sick

00:24:53.820 and the loving and the getting better and the kids rebuilding their brains and get it while 0.99

00:24:59.780 you can get it while you fucking can and bless it fucking me 0.99

00:25:03.500 If you want to support the Missing Witches Project, find out how at missingwitches.com. 0.99

00:25:33.500 Thank you.

Missing Witches - December 11, 2023

MW Rx. 31 - Our Circle, Our Cauldron

Episode Stats

Transcript