Missing Witches - MW Rx. 60 - It's Gonna Be Alright, Baby

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

00:00:32.640 hi coven welcome to another installment of the missing witches prescription where we try to figure 0.96

00:00:49.760 out some shit that helps us get through this shit simple as that we actually have three coven 0.74

00:00:58.140 inmates joining us today i think that because this is the last rx before we go on hiatus there 0.98

00:01:05.700 is a bit of that like get it while you can and um maybe i'll i'll just link janice joplin get it

00:01:13.320 while you can since i said those words one of my favorite songs i want to start with some

00:01:19.280 housekeeping um if you don't already know missing witches is going on hiatus for the month of august

00:01:27.320 or as I prefer to think of it, sabbat-ical.

00:01:33.260 We usually take a break in August to re-energize

00:01:37.600 and prepare for witch season in the fall,

00:01:39.480 but this summer has been pretty hard,

00:01:42.060 so I'm sure you can imagine.

00:01:43.980 So we especially need a bit of time off.

00:01:47.300 Our members-only coven space will still be active,

00:01:50.160 and our dear friend Holly will be keeping tabs

00:01:52.980 on shop.missingwitches.com

00:01:55.200 for your back-to-school shopping.

00:01:57.320 And we just put a new design in the Covent-only section of the store, so go take a look, check that out.

00:02:03.260 We'll still be kicking around, of course, but we may be very slow to respond to emails and Instagram DMs and all that because we need to read and research and rest and write to gear up for an all-new season of the Missing Witches podcast.

00:02:23.860 I have already booked the guests for our Mabon special, and I'm super excited to return to True Histories of Real Witches in the fall.

00:02:35.560 And I guess my first prescription is that we hope that you can get some rest too.

00:02:42.660 As we are recording this in this very moment, Risa is under anesthetic, having her first surgery.

00:02:50.500 hopefully by the time you hear this i'll be able to update you on all that um recently i met about

00:02:57.800 15 years ago and we super bonded by just sitting around and i'd play guitar and she'd play ukulele

00:03:06.000 and we would scream and laugh and sing at one point she was going through the breakup of a

00:03:13.360 long-term relationship and she'd show up my door at my door and i'd first thing i'd ask is

00:03:19.920 do you want to talk or do you want to sing and one of the songs we played a lot was ween

00:03:27.520 it's gonna be all right so i'm dedicating this to risa it's gonna be all right baby

00:03:34.340 it's gonna be all right love

00:03:36.620 it's gonna be all right

00:03:41.740 last night i sent resa a poem i worried by mary oliver mary oliver wrote i worried a lot

00:04:04.600 Will the garden grow? Will the rivers flow in the right direction? Will the earth turn as it was

00:04:11.780 taught? And if not, how shall I correct it? Was I right? Was I wrong? Will I be forgotten? Can I do

00:04:21.980 better? Will I ever be able to sing? Even the sparrows can do it, and I am, well, hopeless.

00:04:30.800 is my eyesight fading or am i just imagining it am i going to get rheumatism lockjaw dementia

00:04:39.860 finally i saw that worrying had come to nothing and i gave it up and i took my old body

00:04:49.880 and went out into the morning and sang

00:04:55.200 so my prescriptions are to ask your friends do you want to talk or do you want to sing

00:05:03.740 and then go out into the morning and talk or sing and our guests today have come here to talk

00:05:14.300 and maybe to sing or maybe just give you a song or a poem that you can sing when you go out

00:05:19.980 into the morning thank you nicole kristin melissa for joining me today what a delight to have you

00:05:29.600 all this is our first group rx so we're super excited let's start with kristin kristin how

00:05:36.740 are you and what's your prescription for the missing witches calvin

00:05:39.660 yeah hi everyone um i am excited to be here it feels surreal um very thrilled to be here so thank

00:05:51.340 you for having us um the prescription that i brought is to tend to a native plant um it goes

00:05:59.880 along with the gardening theme that you had last uh prescription um but i tend to native plants on

00:06:07.000 my land. This summer I have introduced over 12 endangered native species. It helps. There's

00:06:15.760 really no other way to describe it besides tending to life in defiance of the violence

00:06:24.800 and pain in our world. One of my favorite native species to look at are the keystone

00:06:35.140 ones um specifically joe pieweed i put in my garden and it is it is buzzing with activity

00:06:42.620 it supports over 200 pollinators and i like to feel defiant in all of the things when i look at

00:06:52.200 my plant that i brought in i put there and now creates so much life so my prescription is to

00:06:59.480 tend to a native plant um several ways to get a native plant be creative they're all over but

00:07:06.980 yeah my prescription tend to a native plant i'm sure we're all thinking about sonia massey right

00:07:14.780 now and i'm just taking a deep breath as i say her name sonia massey um and that is a beautiful

00:07:27.580 prescription kristin we are faced with so much violence and death but it is so important to tend

00:07:37.840 to life you know so important to tend to life how many pollinators did you say

00:07:45.260 uh the keystone species support over 200 pollinators and birds um yeah it depends on

00:07:56.940 what you plant you know I planted a native hops vine and it is the specific larval host for two

00:08:03.940 butterflies that I had never seen in my yard before and then I planted the hops vine and the

00:08:08.500 next year I see these specific butterflies everywhere now so it just feels so rewarding

00:08:16.880 to tend to these plants that just give back and it feels defiant in the sense that

00:08:24.500 they don't always have a home here they're not a lot of people rip them out look at them as weeds

00:08:29.900 and they're not they're beautiful and it's it's revolutionary to tend to something so life-giving

00:08:38.600 yes rewarding and defiant and revolutionary i mean you know me like i i wrote the garden chapter

00:08:47.820 in new moon magic and just like studying how plants operated has given me like a million

00:08:56.280 metaphors has pollinated me so much to see how nature operates because we we we humans like

00:09:06.760 so often we think of ourselves as like separate from nature but i just want to remind everybody

00:09:13.260 like breathing in and out is a conversation with a loving universe you know like we take something

00:09:20.720 that is all around us into our bodies and when we expel it it's changed it's different and then

00:09:28.540 the universe gives it back to us and so on and so on and so on rewarding defiance and revolutionary

00:09:36.900 ism thank you so much for that prescription kristin how about melissa what prescription

00:09:42.680 did you bring for the missing witches coven today no surprise we are going to continue on a plant

00:09:50.140 journey um yeah i am summertime everybody yeah i'm living in an urban existence for now so while

00:09:58.760 i would love to plant pollinators i've been focusing on working with natural dyes um i took

00:10:05.920 a class with a really amazing instructor but i will say i've learned some lessons in working

00:10:12.120 with indigo because it's one of the oldest pigments it is one of the most difficult to grow

00:10:19.380 we have now found ways to control nature down into extracts and pre-reduced options but it's

00:10:30.320 been really amazing to tend to my own indigo vat what's amazing about the process is that

00:10:37.300 oxidation is really what changes it so you come out yellow and as water or oxygen exposes the

00:10:46.720 yellow turns these incredible blues right and you never know what you're gonna get you don't know

00:10:56.180 how depth of color how it's gonna show up and i will say as a former culinary professional

00:11:03.940 where consistency was like beaten to me my prescription has been

00:11:11.140 re-evaluate your relationship with control because nature does that for me too because

00:11:19.220 right now uh say her name sonia massey rest in power um the violence the control the attempt to

00:11:32.460 just clench the fist around us right now i love watching the butterflies in the morning 0.98

00:11:40.700 the cicadas that don't give a fuck like there are elements that can't be controlled 0.94

00:11:47.240 and i know that but it's so important to be reminded of it for me um 0.98

00:11:56.780 so yeah my prescription is indigo or whatever natural dye natural pigment you can go out and

00:12:07.380 find inedible berries smush them with a mortar and pestle mix them with a little bit of something

00:12:14.200 sticky and paint something with them today talk about the levels of entrance i think whatever way

00:12:21.620 maybe it's also just making a cup of tea with mint that you plucked from your window garden

00:12:26.360 but um plants will save us all and i'm happy to hear that we're all on the nature tip this

00:12:33.480 this round yeah um so prescription natural dyes and letting go of control

00:12:43.080 i love this idea of not like doing something and not knowing how it's gonna turn out

00:12:52.260 and doing it anyway it's such an exercise in faith but also like you say like the releasing

00:12:59.780 of control i'm gonna do this even though i don't know how it's gonna turn out you know we've been

00:13:05.200 so conditioned to like a b c one plus one plus one and these are the answers and life is a zero

00:13:14.080 sum game and there are winners and there are losers but like you know jarebear jones one of

00:13:20.140 my favorite artists um coined the term availableism i bring it up all the time so i also love this

00:13:26.640 notion of like you don't have to necessarily go and buy art supplies you can like smash up some

00:13:32.980 leaves or some weird berries and use those to create colors whether it's like with textile or

00:13:41.020 on a canvas or even in a cup of tea we'll we'll have to try to be careful about what we ingest

00:13:47.780 of course but you can paint with anything okay let me backtrack that again because I think a lot

00:13:52.980 of paints were like made with arsenic and all kinds of stuff so we'll always be like somewhat

00:14:01.280 careful in our self-preservation but just this act of faith of like I'm just gonna try this

00:14:07.860 and I don't know how it's gonna turn out but I'm gonna try it anyway you know talk about like

00:14:14.480 another metaphor for life coming from the garden i'm just gonna try this and see what happens

00:14:20.000 that's a beautiful prescription thank you so much melissa and nicole hey gorge hello

00:14:30.680 um so i'm coming today with a song um so uh been my husband and i and

00:14:44.420 uh stepdaughter we've been seeing a lot of live music this summer um i just i've been

00:14:50.180 going to shows since i was a teenager and um just something about being there experiencing

00:14:59.440 the music in a crowd with you know your favorite artist is just like the best so um earlier this

00:15:08.840 year um one of my favorites ted leo announced that um it's the anniversary of uh the shake

00:15:16.540 the sheets album the 20th i don't know how it's 20 years but um and uh to celebrate that he and

00:15:24.900 his band the full band ted leo and the pharmacist were going to go on tour do a few few dates um and

00:15:31.100 do front to back this album so immediately bought tickets um and we went last month and um

00:15:40.020 they were amazing like we're all like gen xers and just to see like somebody my age just kicking

00:15:47.740 butt on stage was like the whole band was amazing but anyways um i'm bringing uh for the rx this

00:15:55.280 the song uh shake the sheets which is like the name of the album but it's you know the song that

00:16:01.280 um i was saying before we went to the show i listened to the whole album and i'm like man

00:16:09.220 these lyrics like it's 20 years later but so relevant today um they're all kind of like

00:16:16.320 protest-y like songs so um some of the lyrics go i wonder how it is i'm standing here war is raging

00:16:25.660 everywhere under the sky i feel defeated here by everything cheated here by everyone on every side

00:16:33.500 um and then later on i want to take it to the president him and his cabinet hit him all with

00:16:43.620 a broom. I want to sweep the hollows of arrogance, sweep the walls of the excrement of these baboons. 1.00

00:16:50.680 But I respect and prize the covenant. I respect the process. I respect the rules. 1.00

00:16:56.920 When will we find a chord as resonant as to shake the sheets and make us move? And then

00:17:03.400 towards the end the

00:17:07.400 he's talking with I'm assuming his girlfriend

00:17:13.600 maybe now his wife and she said roll out

00:17:18.180 and make your mark pull on your boots and march then roll on and meet

00:17:22.260 me where you'll find me doing my own part so it's just

00:17:26.040 you know this band is like a DC punk band it's like

00:17:30.240 a punk ska song you're dancing to this song like the audience when they were playing this

00:17:37.660 we're just going bonkers um and i just love it so much so i wanted to share it with everyone

00:17:42.740 with everything going on right now in the good old usa um there's hope and try and do your part

00:17:52.040 do the best you can don't give up um that's my all right 0.62

00:18:00.620 we love dc punk around here don't we we fucking love dc punk around here

00:18:20.240 that amazing like diy attitude and again like this is this is such a perfect song for this 0.96

00:18:31.260 moment right because it's like yeah i feel cheated and fucked up but i'm not gonna allow that 0.77

00:18:40.740 to stop me from doing my part you know and we when we talk about rest we don't we're not talking 0.92

00:18:47.280 about like giving up and dropping out we're talking about like taking a moment to re-energize

00:18:53.820 yourself so that you can do your part right and live music is such a great way to do that i really

00:19:00.040 feel that this is like um like a secular church when you go and see a band and all of these people

00:19:08.700 are like in this one vibe together and having this one moment together it's so holy to me

00:19:16.580 i mean listeners you know this about me like i i'm sitting in front of my record collection

00:19:21.580 that i have been you know curating since i mean i can't even say since like my whole life i remember

00:19:29.840 the first record i ever got and it had like puppets on the front and there were like songs

00:19:35.020 about like farm animals and bang on the drum was my favorite song and i was like four years old and

00:19:43.280 that just started this like absolute love affair for me i do believe that music is one of the

00:19:51.660 highest forms of magic that we humans have access to i don't like to rank and file you know forms

00:19:58.180 of magic of course but for me it's instantaneous if i am freaking out um anxious sad or on the

00:20:11.460 other side like happy and joyful like i just need to pick the right platter and put it on

00:20:18.780 and it's immediate like the vibe changes or is uplifted and reinforced immediately

00:20:26.240 so everybody we're gonna check out um ted leo and the pharmacists we're gonna shake the sheets

00:20:34.020 and maybe we'll dye them with natural dyes and then sleep in those sheets that we've colored

00:20:41.000 with indigo not sure how it was going to turn out maybe we can lay a sheet for pollinators to come

00:20:48.680 and hang out with butterflies and all of that from this like political perspective of like

00:20:56.500 resistance and revolution because again we talk about it all the time there are a million different

00:21:05.540 roles in the revolution when maybe one of them doesn't fit you but maybe another one does i would

00:21:11.920 love for everyone to take like a moment as summer wanes i found my first red leaf on the ground

00:21:21.340 today and i was like damn that's bittersweet you know summer turns to autumn autumn turns to winter

00:21:32.800 winter turns to spring, spring turns to summer again. And we can do that too. We can't be 0.94

00:21:39.280 flowering all the time. If we're flowering all the time, we're not fruiting, right? Like this

00:21:44.680 is something that I've learned from my garden. Like first we flower and then we fruit. Like we

00:21:49.700 go through these phases and changes all the time, every day with the seasons or with the hour,

00:21:57.300 with the minute and once again on the subject of rest i do want to remind everyone that missing

00:22:05.080 witches is going on hiatus but only because we need to recharge so that we can bring you more

00:22:12.060 true histories of feminist magic in the fall or interviews our sabbat special is for llamas is in

00:22:20.780 the can that'll be out on august 1st and i'm so excited for you to hear this episode too

00:22:27.460 things will still be moving but i will be resting so we'll be recovering does anyone have any

00:22:36.320 concluding thoughts that they want to add before we go on sabbat pickle go ahead kristen um i would

00:22:47.680 just like to say that if anyone is interested in native plants I do have an Etsy shop where I sell

00:22:53.140 native plants so I'll send that over and perhaps it can be linked in the show notes but it's

00:22:59.760 lightning struck gardens and it's a non-profit that does benefit survivors of gun violence so

00:23:07.920 you can buy a native plant support your pollinators and be politically revolutionary

00:23:13.400 in every way you have really just tied up a little bow i have to ask because they're native plants

00:23:20.160 like what what area are you in i don't want you to dox yourself or whatever but like what general

00:23:25.500 area i am in the northeast i'm in the adirondack mountains um but all of the plants that i have

00:23:32.580 for sale online are um native to basically anywhere if you are in north america they will

00:23:38.840 take and thrive and support your pollinators and is it seeds or uh like how do you ship

00:23:47.460 yeah it's seasonal so um right now we're offering cuttings rooted cuttings in water

00:23:53.300 um and then they'll come to you with their little roots you plant them in the pot and then they can

00:23:57.960 go in the ground um when the fall comes and it's seed season i'll be gathering seeds making seed

00:24:03.060 packets um so we kind of just keep cycling through um so check in whenever you're interested um you

00:24:09.720 know depending on what you want to plant it's available i'm so excited i'm absolutely doing this

00:24:15.680 and um you'll send me the link so i can put it so i can link in the rx melissa nicole do you is

00:24:23.700 there anything you want to boost no i'm just happy to be here i'm gonna boost that the sabbatical

00:24:33.020 that you guys take is amazing and I know timing with Risa is also impeccable but even without that

00:24:41.120 you lead by example for me to also know when to rest so that we can give more of ourselves

00:24:51.200 and today being reminded that you have to do that to stay active much needed you guys are the best

00:24:58.920 yeah you know like imagine if you're on a road trip and your friend's driving and your friend

00:25:04.480 is like well we'll get there faster if we don't stop for gas and you would turn to your friend

00:25:10.360 and you would say okay but if we don't stop for gas we're not actually gonna make it to our 0.99

00:25:16.160 destination right so we're just stopping for gas and we're gonna fill that fucking tank to the brim 0.73

00:25:24.280 because we love doing Missing Witches we love it this break isn't like I don't want to do this 0.93

00:25:32.080 anymore this break is like I'm gonna read like four or five books I'm gonna write like 10,000

00:25:39.980 words and we just need a minute to do that and again obviously like Risa is in this moment as

00:25:48.700 we're talking right now having surgery so for her it's less of a choice right and listener is like

00:25:56.000 there's nothing Risa could have done to avoid what's happening to her right now but there are

00:26:03.200 certain kinds of burnout that you can avoid if you keep some consciousness about yourself and

00:26:09.040 remember to rest but rest to prepare for the next phase of the revolution right I want to lead

00:26:17.480 leave everybody for now with The Happenings 1966. See you in September and blessed fucking be. 0.89

00:26:27.940 See you in September. See you when the summer's through. 0.98

00:26:47.480 And my life is all to me

00:26:51.040 I love myself and all of me

00:26:54.140 I love myself and all of me

00:26:57.160 All of me

00:26:58.200 I love myself and all of me

00:27:00.800 Love myself and all of me

00:27:03.120 I love, I love, I love myself and all of me

00:27:07.440 The Missing Witches podcast follows the wheel of the year

00:27:12.820 with true histories of real witches in the autumn

00:27:15.960 and meditations on kinship with the more-than-human world in the spring.

00:27:20.820 Stay with us in the off-season for the Missing Witches prescription,

00:27:24.460 plus interviews and Sabbath specials all year round.

00:27:28.420 Join us as we change with the seasons, but always return to our roots.

00:27:33.880 If you want to support the Missing Witches project, join the Coven!

00:27:38.700 Find out all about it at missingwitches.com.

Missing Witches - July 29, 2024

MW Rx. 60 - It's Gonna Be Alright, Baby

Episode Stats

Transcript