Missing Witches - MW Rx. 53 - Come And Get Your Love

00:00:00.000 The Missing Witches podcast follows the wheel of the year, with true histories of real witches in the autumn, and meditations on kinship with the more-than-human world in the spring.

00:00:11.840 Stay with us in the off-season for The Missing Witches prescription, plus interviews and Sabbath specials all year round.

00:00:19.400 Join us as we change with the seasons, but always return to our roots.

00:00:24.520 If you want to support The Missing Witches project, join the coven!

00:00:28.920 Find out all about it at missingwitches.com.

00:00:58.920 right i guess i'll jump right in and say that um we if you're listening to this which i guess you

00:01:05.700 are because you're you're hearing what i'm saying that didn't make any sense but y'all know what i

00:01:12.180 mean come on um we are recording this on thursday may 30th which means technically the fundraiser

00:01:23.320 as of this recording um isn't finished yet um however i can officially tell you

00:01:33.080 that we reached our goal and passed what we did last year

00:01:36.140 so i feel very comfortable dropping the red bone

00:01:53.320 come and get your love people we did it we came together it's beautiful it's been such an amazing

00:02:05.760 thing to witness because like we know some of y'all personally and we know you're not rich

00:02:13.320 we know you don't have tons of extra money lying around and so it's so beautiful to see the

00:02:20.780 sacrifices that you are willing to make in the name of reparations in the name of this coming

00:02:28.220 together i especially want to shout out some of our top donors who honestly account for like

00:02:37.220 almost a quarter of what we raised so shout out claire julie sarah karen and especially brie

00:02:47.420 Brienne has been our top donor for the past two years in a row we love you so much we're so grateful

00:02:53.660 that you have chosen to be a part of this coven first of all and bring that generosity of spirit 0.99

00:02:59.740 into everything that we do and I also want to say that if you're hearing this and you're like fuck

00:03:11.420 I forgot, or I didn't, or I didn't have any, like, again, on repeat, we are not a shame coven, we are a love coven, and I want to sort of especially remind you of that with this quote from Bell Hooks. 0.98

00:03:28.180 bell hook said shaming is one of the deepest tools of imperialist white supremacist capitalist

00:03:36.020 patriarchy because shame produces trauma and trauma often produces paralysis so i know i

00:03:46.360 personally know that feeling where i felt a sense of shame that was trauma induced and led me to

00:03:54.980 just freeze in place happens and it has happened to me and Risa is nodding so I'm gonna guess it

00:04:03.580 has happened to her too again like this is something that we do throughout the month of May

00:04:10.000 but ideally we would take this spirit with us throughout the whole year if you feel like I wish

00:04:17.400 i could have joined this fundraiser then like in the middle of june you know takes some parsley

00:04:26.180 from your garden to your neighbor like it doesn't have to be a huge world changing and that and

00:04:32.800 that's the other thing about this sort of paralysis is like we think well i can't change

00:04:38.960 the world in one fell swoop so i'm not i'm just not gonna do anything but we can't like

00:04:46.640 I prefer to focus on what I can do you know and it's the same thing with chronic illness for me

00:04:52.260 like I could spend my whole day like listing the things that I can't do because I'm too tired but

00:04:58.700 I think it's more beneficial to focus on what I can do so what can you do again like taking this

00:05:05.840 spirit of the reparations fundraiser throughout the whole year and you know checking in on a

00:05:12.920 neighbor that's elderly you know mowing their lawn like what can i do so if you wish that you

00:05:19.580 joined in but circumstances prevented you just know that you have your whole life to go and like

00:05:28.160 take this feeling and and make it part of it recently i were talking earlier about urgency

00:05:33.680 and and i always go back to something that a friend of mine's dad said i was really overwhelmed

00:05:40.840 We were renovating the house, like the wrecked shack that we bought and managed to cultivate into a house.

00:05:50.740 And I said, like, Mac, like, I'm so overwhelmed.

00:05:54.280 There's so much to do.

00:05:55.400 I feel like the to-do list is, like, taller than I am.

00:05:59.060 And he said, Amy, this farm's been in my family for 250 years, and we haven't run out of things to do yet.

00:06:08.140 So just know that there's time and there's always going to be something to do.

00:06:12.900 And if you can do it now, great.

00:06:14.940 And if you can't do it later, it's all good.

00:06:18.340 The only thing I need you to do right now, today, in this moment, as you're listening

00:06:22.960 to this, is come and get your love. 0.99

00:06:25.880 Listen to a fucking Redbone song and dance and know that you are loved and come and get 0.99

00:06:31.900 some of it. 1.00

00:06:32.640 Come and get your love.

00:06:33.800 Come and get your love. 0.94

00:06:35.500 Congratulations to the Missing Witches Coven. 0.99

00:06:38.140 we fucking did it. We're fucking awesome. I fucking love you. I love this coven. Every day 0.99

00:06:43.460 I'm blown away by your amazingness. In our circle space, it's kind of like the Missing Witches

00:06:50.400 social media, like private social media. Every day, I'm like, wow, these people are amazing.

00:06:58.200 Your knowledge bases, the things that you do, how you take care of other people, how you take care

00:07:04.980 of yourselves how you take care of your altar like the the consciousness of care is so deep

00:07:15.660 and so profound in this coven and i just want to thank you people send donations and they're like

00:07:22.420 thank you for organizing this thank you for organizing and i'm like thank you like it

00:07:26.420 literally would just be me and risa like sitting and talking about witchcraft like it was before

00:07:32.800 we started the project if it were if it weren't for you so thank you thank you thank you thank

00:07:38.860 you and come and get your love come and get your love i'll just add i i don't know if everybody

00:07:47.940 knows this but the money that amy and i donate to the fundraiser is our subscription fees for

00:07:55.820 the month of May. And so this year we're able to donate more than ever before because our

00:08:03.980 community has grown. That also means that if you're a member of this community at the like

00:08:09.400 $1 level or any level, you are donating to the fundraiser. We're taking what you contribute to

00:08:17.340 our coven and this month it goes to reparations because that feels healthy and good for us as a

00:08:23.420 way to try to grow a business to make consistent active repair it's also like really practical

00:08:29.680 magic um that like there is something that happens that when we we give and make repair

00:08:39.080 like lean towards repair in the web that it makes more of a fluid passing for magic for fertility

00:08:47.360 for joy like for easing in our bodies so every time we get to make that donation there is more

00:08:55.480 magic flowing in our community and so I just want you to know that you are a part of it no matter

00:08:59.640 what and if you're looking for a way to feel some of that love that come and get your love love

00:09:06.980 doesn't cost anything um Amy has been keeping track of every single organization that you all

00:09:15.920 have donated to on our website so if you go look at the reparations page for this year which you

00:09:22.060 can easily find on our website there's a really long list of urls of websites to incredible

00:09:29.100 organizations and so just like if you need a little bit of that love like just schedule some

00:09:34.620 time to go learn about this work because there is so much good work happening there's so much

00:09:42.900 deep deep interesting brilliant good work happening like just let yourself be in awe

00:09:48.300 of it for a bit i think they're like at this point and again you know we're recording this

00:09:54.800 before the official um finish of the fundraiser um i think there are 85 organizations on the list

00:10:01.600 right now and a lot of them had multiple donations of course like the native women's

00:10:06.480 shelter of montreal and indigenous women rising the pcrf um and so the total will be in the

00:10:16.960 newsletter so by the time you hear this we will be closed and concluded and so you'll be able to

00:10:23.440 see that in the newsletter or um on instagram but risa you reminded me of that wonderful like

00:10:29.160 fred rogers quote that i'm going to sort of paraphrase and misquote um when like when times

00:10:36.000 are down and you know you're you're not feeling super hopeful look for the helpers so that list

00:10:42.120 is a great way you know emails come in and we're like i had never heard of this organization

00:10:47.480 there's an organization in australia called olive kids um that's like about like australian

00:10:55.920 children raising money for palestinian children and you know so like every time we learn about

00:11:02.740 one of these organizations it's just that little boost of like finding the helpers and seeing the

00:11:08.080 helpers yeah they're everywhere i know it feels really terrifying right now in so many ways but

00:11:15.560 this is what we can do so let's do it um i have a really kind of different prescription

00:11:24.420 this week so i hope you'll allow me to go on this sort of detour

00:11:28.660 come along friends as we go on a detour again we love a detour I'm sure our listeners are tired of

00:11:35.380 us talking about the fundraiser so don't worry this is the last one and Risa's gonna take us

00:11:40.040 on a detour now thank you Risa let's go somewhere new okay so this prescription also isn't a song

00:11:47.080 although I feel like in talking about it we will find the song for this but what happened was uh

00:11:53.700 this week I had a beloved friend reach out to me because his friend had asked

00:12:00.040 him to reach out to me because she was looking for a witch prescription.

00:12:05.400 So I want to share what the ask was and what I said,

00:12:09.120 and I would love your insight, listeners,

00:12:13.440 AMZ and also invite you if you have questions for the coven,

00:12:18.940 we will be including weavers from our coven in some of these prescription episodes going forward.

00:12:27.700 And so if you have a question for an incredibly educated, badass, deeply magical group of coven

00:12:36.040 people, I invite you to write them into missingwitches at gmail.com. So here's the question

00:12:41.220 I got. And this was over the phone, so I don't have it cutely written up, but you can write

00:12:45.980 ears up cute if you want um so there's a young girl teenager early teen um she had been through

00:12:59.040 a really hard time a couple of years before um lost her father in a really awful way and had

00:13:06.320 gone through a mental health crisis of her own at the time and a lot of the darkness of that time

00:13:14.820 was poured into a journal. This object contains things that her mom and her, I think, are both

00:13:24.100 scared of. There's a heavy, dark, scary energy now with this book. And so the way it was presented

00:13:32.280 to me was the mom and the daughter had agreed that this journal should be disposed of, that it should

00:13:38.980 be gotten rid of and then six months went by and then the mom found it again turned out

00:13:46.000 the kid hadn't hadn't disposed of it and so they were looking for ideas to sort of

00:13:52.720 ease a ritual passing of this object so i think a lot of us can relate although this is very specific

00:14:01.740 but like a lot of us can relate to like i have this thing and it feels really charged and i

00:14:09.260 don't i feels like it needs more than the customary dealings with of life i can't just 0.97

00:14:16.160 burn this fucking thing i can't just throw it in a lake it needs something more and i don't know 0.98

00:14:20.740 what that is does this make sense so far absolutely it does it makes perfect sense okay 1.00

00:14:28.240 Okay. So my first question, of course, was, or maybe not, of course, but my first question was

00:14:34.500 like, well, why didn't she get rid of it? Like before I give a prescription for how to ritually

00:14:41.360 get rid of something, the phrasing tripped me up a little bit. The mother and the daughter had

00:14:47.780 agreed that it needed to be disposed of. That doesn't sound so clear cut to me that the teenager

00:14:53.200 agreed having a kid who is like uh four going on 14 i know that sometimes she will agree with me

00:15:00.460 just to get me to shut up but she has a different plan so i think that's the first thing is like

00:15:07.100 really honoring and this goes back to like children's rights in a really fundamental way

00:15:12.800 like what does she need from this object why didn't she get rid of it what is it is there

00:15:18.140 is there still a connection to her dad there even though it's dark like is there something like

00:15:22.140 really important in it. So that's the first question is like, why aren't you able to let

00:15:29.260 go of something? And if it's a kid's thing, like, let's really listen and really value

00:15:35.060 what the connection is for them. Let's really believe that they're people. And I'm not saying

00:15:40.780 that to say that this mom didn't. I think that this mom is deeply respectful of this child and

00:15:45.700 this object. But I just want to pull back into a real generalization about how that can be.

00:15:50.400 so then assuming maybe the kid is ready to let it go or you are ready to let go of an object

00:15:59.200 or you need to kind of transition away so here's what i recommended and tell me what you think and

00:16:05.500 what you would add so my first thing is to pick gentle flowers or even take them out of tea bags

00:16:13.340 take chamomile take lavender take things that feel like gentle and nurturing and caring and put them

00:16:20.040 in the inside the journal in between pages of the journal and then put the journal in a plastic bag

00:16:26.100 and put it in the freezer which my friend found very funny but he was also really into um and i

00:16:33.360 know it sounds silly if you are not uh familiar with this kind of magic if you are then this is 0.95

00:16:38.820 real old hat but um there is just something amy have you done a freezer spell have you put shit 0.80

00:16:45.520 in the freezer yes and you know what at our last cauldron we had a whole conversation about freezer

00:16:53.660 spells and i think deb would be fine with me telling this story that she did a freezer spell

00:16:58.740 and then when she was ready to like take it out of the freezer and just be done with it and be rid 0.98

00:17:05.380 of it she she took the contents the the frozen block of you know and left them at a crossroads

00:17:13.260 and she lived in a big city at the time

00:17:16.000 and within something like a week or two

00:17:19.060 of her leaving her freezer spell

00:17:21.500 to sort of melt and disintegrate at this crossroads

00:17:24.500 the whole area of the crossroads

00:17:27.860 where she had left this

00:17:29.240 like pipes burst 0.89

00:17:31.300 they needed to do a bunch of like road work

00:17:35.540 and replace a bunch of pipes

00:17:37.520 our coven has had a lot of success with freezer spells for sure like like big time yeah big time

00:17:48.740 and one of the one of the witches who was there suggested again post freezer spell once you're

00:17:57.260 ready if you're cleaning out your freezer or you just need it out of your house and you feel like

00:18:01.420 the freezing is complete she recommended compost and again you're not going to do this if this is

00:18:09.220 something that's like plastic or or whatever but assuming that it's like paper or or other

00:18:15.580 organic material and the metaphor there of course being like we are taking something that is trash 0.99

00:18:23.140 and by trash i mean something negative painful hurtful fucking trash people that have like 0.99

00:18:31.080 tried to hurt us or whatever and through the process of decomposition turning it into something 0.99

00:18:40.780 useful and healthy and something that can help us grow right like to extend that metaphor again like 0.98

00:18:48.980 a an organic growth material that has been made from fucking trash so yeah I think a freezer 0.91

00:18:58.180 spell is the way to go i just i always get a little trepidatious about and i understand why 0.97

00:19:07.000 people do it like burning journals but i just wonder about this is like a resource for future

00:19:17.300 you like 20 years from now are you going to wish that you could remember how you felt that day

00:19:24.160 or what you thought that day so i again i think sticking something in the freezer if you're not

00:19:29.680 ready to burn it or if you feel like it might be useful to you someday then a freezer spell i think

00:19:35.900 is absolutely the way to go there's just something about it i mean if if this sounds really silly to

00:19:42.020 you you're not um in this kind of practice that is totally totally okay um you don't have to believe

00:19:49.020 in all the things to be here we know we have a lot of like kind of science-minded people who

00:19:54.120 are interested in the way that we write about theory and think about these things I will say

00:19:58.140 for me when I had gone through an like abusive experience with an ex and I was trying to do

00:20:05.180 layers of like work to stop having constant nightmares and being terrified that this person

00:20:12.700 was going to show up again um just and this is different right from the journal but it's the one

00:20:19.380 time that I did a freezer spell or maybe the first time but um I put their name on a piece of paper

00:20:25.960 in a plot in a baggie and filled it with water and put it in the freezer and at night when I

00:20:32.200 would start to feel the panic come there is a really concrete feeling of coolness when you're

00:20:39.100 like that's on ice like I can picture where that person is and that relationship is and it's on

00:20:46.420 ice it's frozen it's immobile it's kept from me and it worked that person was kept from me I mean

00:20:55.460 we just didn't run into each other or whatever and I I never dealt with it again and I you know

00:21:01.640 hucked it in a river at one point with a journal if you do want it to dissolve you could put it in

00:21:07.360 the water and then those pages will sort of be melted and dissolved and that could be on its

00:21:12.440 way to composting my suggestion was if you get it in the freezer right away like if it's freaking

00:21:19.240 you guys out if it feels heavy if it feels contentious whatever put some flowers and put

00:21:23.520 in the freezer and just between you and the mom or whoever in this situation the kid and the mom

00:21:28.780 like this situation is on ice we don't have to make other decisions about it right now

00:21:33.380 it's cool it's safe it's it's over there and then my if you do want to make a ritual around

00:21:41.580 disposing of it here was my suggestion so book a campsite you don't have to be camp people you can

00:21:48.660 just go for the day but book a campsite there's something private and you pick it something with

00:21:53.920 water you know where you can swim nearby pack food that you love maybe think about food from

00:22:01.760 your ancestry from your culture maybe there's like something sweet you've never made before

00:22:06.900 or a juice or like something that connects with your background could be really nice

00:22:11.520 and then go to the campsite and swim and laugh and be in the sun and then make a meal and make

00:22:22.060 a fire and set a spirit plate and invite whoever is, whatever ideas, archetypes, slants, ancestors,

00:22:36.240 ghosts, whatever you believe in, whatever is around you with love and support is invited to

00:22:42.060 the spirit plate. And so you can tell stories, you can talk about why this object is painful,

00:22:48.460 You could read pages from it and share it with the spirit plate, share it with your mom, share it with whoever is in your safe circle to dispose of this object.

00:22:58.540 A lot of us have objects where we have kept the truth of traumatic experiences.

00:23:04.660 If it's possible to share it with another person, do so.

00:23:08.620 Share that weight, please.

00:23:10.800 You do not have to carry that alone.

00:23:13.320 I love this idea.

00:23:14.760 I mean, at the meeting I was talking about, Zoe was talking about, you know, putting vinegar in the in the freezer bag or whatever container you're using, black salt for protection.

00:23:27.100 But Risa, I love this idea of like the kindness, like if it's something you made or something you wrote that is painful, like maybe instead of vinegar, you said like chamomile and lavender.

00:23:41.820 there is always room for calmness and sweetness um in all of our spells even when we're hexing

00:23:51.580 i think we need to like leave a space open for chamomile and lavender so i love that idea like

00:23:58.620 because we're not just freezing like shitty people who were shitty to us sometimes we're

00:24:03.300 we have to freeze like deep emotions that are inside ourselves and we want to do that with

00:24:08.700 kindness right like we have to right like you it's okay for you to build a barrier of protection

00:24:15.500 between yourself and a hurtful feeling that's that's not always dissociating you know like

00:24:21.540 that can be really really protective magic but I agree with you doing that with like honey or

00:24:27.200 chamomile or something gentle and then and then yeah burn burn pages of it if there's if there's

00:24:34.780 things in it that you are ready to release release them and burn them with the flowers burn them with

00:24:40.120 dried things you know if you can find just around you like cedar it's really sort of prickly and

00:24:46.500 evergreen and protective you could dry that and burn it at the end you know just like let yourself

00:24:52.460 bask in the smoke of it let yourself feel cleansed then go for another swim you know like really make

00:24:58.880 a day if you're trying to make a ritual for your kids making it a day and being in nature you're

00:25:05.580 you know you don't have to be campers you can you can spend the 30 bucks for a campsite and it's

00:25:10.720 yours and make a fire and swim and do the whole thing let yourself have the kinds of conversations

00:25:16.080 that only happen when you're removed from your normal day to day that's my prescription it's a

00:25:23.480 weird one it's not a song what's the song that goes with this prescription amy do you know i know

00:25:28.000 this song i thought i thought you would yes i have the perfect song i thought you were and the

00:25:35.800 perfect song is by the perfect song is by band called argent and the sort of leader of this

00:25:43.460 band you might rod argent you might know him better as a member of the zombies you know tell

00:25:48.640 her no and she's not there 60s band and so he started this band called argent post zombies

00:25:55.160 and a friend of mine actually sent me this song this friend of mine is not a witch but he was like

00:26:02.920 i heard this song and i thought of you so i'm texting it to you and thank you thank you glorious

00:26:10.320 friends who like text me songs and poetry you have no idea how much you've like just made my

00:26:15.980 life that much more magically those of you who are not witches those of you who are

00:26:19.980 So this song is called Dance in the Smoke.

00:26:49.980 smoke and there's a bit about like um taking a tree and everybody every branch will tie somebody's

00:26:59.480 worries to it we will burn it and dance in the smoke and most of the song is just we will burn

00:27:07.980 it and dance in the smoke we will light a giant burning fire tonight we will light it and dance

00:27:16.180 in the smoke every branch will tie somebody's worries to it we will burn it and dance in the

00:27:22.920 smoke oh my god that's so perfect and beautiful also take a branch and tie your worries to it 0.95

00:27:31.940 and light it on fire that's a fucking great ritual piece yeah yeah i think of it often and i'm sure 0.86

00:27:40.220 that you know i thought when i first heard it like oh i'll definitely bring this to the prescription

00:27:45.080 one day so risa i'm glad that you like opened the space for this argent song thank you so much to

00:27:51.740 the friend who reached out with the question and thank you so much to this mom and teenager for

00:27:57.220 thinking about ways to ease what sounds like such a heartbreak and to find their way to something

00:28:05.560 really healthy and joyful together thanks for reaching out to each other and honestly i hope

00:28:12.260 you feel empowered to make up ritual with the plants that are near you um with the allies and

00:28:20.380 relations that are all around you and you feel that like deep power in yourself to do that

00:28:25.500 because you know ritual will work best when it relies on the symbols that already exist within

00:28:33.940 your personal symbol system so that's the things you've read the things you've imagined the things

00:28:40.540 you've been exposed to when you take those and use those symbols to make ritual those are the

00:28:46.140 things that will help you the most on your own path so read all the books and have all the fun

00:28:51.680 but your magic is is the most powerful for you I think yeah and let me just add dance to all the

00:28:58.780 songs burn it and dance in the smoke or if you're feeling lonely come and get your love come get it

00:29:08.180 It's here. It's waiting for you.

00:29:10.180 We love you so much.

00:29:12.080 We love you so much. 1.00

00:29:13.540 And blessed fucking me. 1.00

00:29:15.180 Blessed fucking be. 1.00

00:29:16.280 The world's taken to me 0.99

00:29:18.920 And my life is all to me

00:29:22.040 I love myself and all of me

00:29:25.120 I love myself and all of me

00:29:28.180 All of me

00:29:29.220 I love myself and all of me

00:29:31.820 Love myself and all of me

00:29:34.140 I love, I love, I love myself and all of me!

00:29:40.300 The Missing Witches podcast follows the wheel of the year,

00:29:44.340 with true histories of real witches in the autumn

00:29:46.960 and meditations on kinship with the more-than-human world in the spring.

00:29:51.820 Stay with us in the off-season for The Missing Witches prescription,

00:29:55.460 plus interviews and Sabbath specials all year round.

00:29:58.960 Join us as we change with the seasons, but always return to our roots.

00:30:04.140 And if you want to support the Missing Witches project, join the Coven!

00:30:10.060 Find out all about it at MissingWitches.com

Missing Witches - June 03, 2024

MW Rx. 53 - Come And Get Your Love

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