Missing Witches - MW Scott Cunningham - There Can Be No Monopoly On Wisdom

00:00:00.000 coven if you find you want more missing witches and this strange magic in your life get our book

00:00:05.800 we poured our heart and brains and minds and all the magic we could find into it we'd love to know

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00:00:20.100 missing witches thanks love you bye you aren't being a proper woman therefore you must be a witch 1.00

00:00:25.960 you must be a witch 1.00

00:00:30.840 ever since we first started scheming this podcast project which we didn't really think anyone would

00:00:38.740 listen to and was mostly an excuse to do the research we wanted we had a few made-up rules

00:00:43.840 and principles a primary one was we were committed to researching and interviewing at least 50 percent

00:00:49.920 witches, healers, magical people of color, because those were the stories most profoundly

00:00:56.020 lacking for us, and the ideas most profoundly and consistently and infuriatingly and explicitly

00:01:03.200 as well as subtly oppressed, and therefore also the most thrilling sights of new insight.

00:01:10.120 We're looking for what we've been missing, after all. We had a couple other tenets as well.

00:01:15.560 we were focused on the stories and ideas of living beings on this earth,

00:01:19.860 not fictional characters or deities.

00:01:22.420 Though goddesses and archetypes and the ways their stories are used and distorted is fascinating,

00:01:28.380 it wasn't at the heart of the questions that haunted us, personally.

00:01:33.260 We want to know the real people, who have been thinking about what magic is.

00:01:38.300 And we consider this work a project of feminist history,

00:01:41.960 And as such, we're focused on women and people of marginalized genders.

00:01:46.500 But the overarching and most repeated guideline was, and always has been,

00:01:51.160 our podcast, our rules.

00:01:53.880 This sort of vaguely punk, occasionally hollered mantra

00:01:57.980 has been a way for us to escape the constraints and anxieties that close in on you

00:02:02.640 while you're in the midst of a strange hobby becoming an enormous labor of love.

00:02:07.260 As Amy said recently in an interview we were doing with Yaro Magdalena

00:02:10.840 of the Daydreaming Wolves podcast.

00:02:13.100 We first met in the green room for a bizarro live show,

00:02:16.780 and that creative space has shaped our collaboration ever since.

00:02:21.600 We are perpetually in that moment, just offstage,

00:02:25.960 summoning our sources and spirits.

00:02:28.900 In the heart of all that limitlessness,

00:02:31.600 that just-about-to-be-born potential for play and creation,

00:02:35.960 our podcast, our rules.

00:02:38.060 anyway all of this to say today i'm breaking one of the seeming rules of the missing witches podcast

00:02:46.940 because after an unbroken streak of women and non-binary thinkers i'm going to write a love

00:02:52.520 story to the life and ideas of a white man named scott cunningham and before you at me here's the

00:02:58.460 thing that draws me in cunningham was an out gay man who seems to never have written about that

00:03:04.620 part of his life or identity and there's a puzzle at the heart of that which pulls at my heart 0.99

00:03:10.820 so if you're open let's go winding down these twisting thoughts and classic missing witches

00:03:17.600 deviations together inspired by scott's gift his enormous body of work

00:03:23.820 and by the heartstrings pulling quietly at the center of it all

00:03:34.620 I think, even if you decide not to bring some aspect of yourself into the public forum,

00:03:41.120 which sidebar is legit for all kinds of reasons.

00:03:44.860 The one that's resonating most for me these days is Dr. Marina Magloire,

00:03:49.060 wondering where her mind might go if she didn't have to spend so much time

00:03:53.240 considering the fact of being a black woman. 0.51

00:03:56.660 What might she offer to the great body of knowledge about the universe and the human mind

00:04:01.520 if she could carve more space for those thoughts out of the demanding and these days often brutally

00:04:07.280 exhausting reality of her particular human body. I'm paraphrasing, but the exhaustion and the

00:04:14.000 question at the heart of it are huge and valid and may be part of what motivated Cunningham.

00:04:19.820 What could he think about while he was writing and researching nature and magic and that vast

00:04:25.320 spectrum of unknown possibility if he didn't need to always start and end with his personal sexuality?

00:04:31.520 fair. And also, I think, ultimately, these fundamental pieces of who we are inform our

00:04:39.400 perspective and our power. The great this-ness, the livingness of the universe, knows one piece

00:04:48.180 of itself through us, whether we explicitly bring each bit of our body's placement in the matrix of

00:04:54.440 it all to the forum or not. Even if you don't want to talk about your experience in a marginalized

00:04:58.940 body, the history and ideas and spiritual philosophies of marginalized people, and of

00:05:06.220 all people, crucially includes your contributions.

00:05:11.860 And for me, the aching question is always, what did you see from your unique and glimmering

00:05:18.800 expansiveness, especially outside the braces of total quote-unquote normalcy, the numbing

00:05:27.480 totality of that normalcy as an illusion that we can help each other escape by being exactly the

00:05:34.120 strange and lovely beings we are and being honest about what we see and hear. What do you know

00:05:42.220 about the behemoth that it can't know of itself? And what did your vision and experience show you

00:05:49.420 of the potential beyond the illusion that only allows for the existence of itself? Even just

00:05:55.680 off center from the hypnotic heart of hegemony there is a different rhythm patterns of disruption

00:06:03.260 and revelation there are gifts to those who would reach for a life of liberation and joy

00:06:10.040 that would save our raped and brutalized planet hear the voices of ancestors alive and dead and

00:06:16.560 yet to come and save the world and gay voices are resoundingly gloriously crucially at the heart of

00:06:25.340 that wild harmonic from beyond the edges of the mainstream. Especially in the 80s and 90s when

00:06:32.020 Cunningham wrote, this was, remember, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, in the crosshairs of the

00:06:38.660 demonizing, brutalizing, denigrating blame game that so many, and in particular people of Asian

00:06:45.280 and Pacific Islander heritage, live in the crosshairs of today, in a world sick with COVID-19

00:06:51.680 and other epidemics because pandemics trigger fear and those who would profit from it 0.86

00:06:59.440 and in the 80s and 90s the fear and violence and isolation fell really fucking hard on gay men and 0.58

00:07:04.760 women the violence continues and it's exhausting but above and beyond it outside the logic of 0.78

00:07:12.340 violence and trauma i swear to god etc there is something else

00:07:19.200 being shoved into a marginalized perspective can crystallize the unique vision that was in us all

00:07:28.180 along you don't owe any thanks to your trauma and it didn't make you strong you survive because you

00:07:36.000 are strong and inherent in your brilliant resilience there are clues and seeds to the

00:07:45.280 resilience of all this vast, unfolding, delicate, fierce mystery that is life. And okay, that may

00:07:52.880 seem really bombastic for a podcast about a guy who wrote popular books on crystal and gem magic

00:07:58.020 and incense oils and brews. Or maybe not. You're a Missing Witches listener after all. Thank you for

00:08:05.360 going down these strange trails with us. Without you, we'd just be out here poking at muddy streams

00:08:10.960 and muttering to our dogs and toddlers and rocks and ourselves

00:08:14.600 about the ideas we've been missing.

00:08:17.680 And that would be a kind of magic too, but we like it better here with you.

00:08:26.400 Witches, we're back to talk about Fox Glow Farm.

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00:08:35.960 And how full of magic they are.

00:08:38.000 yeah recently you spoke once or twice or a million times about um us being so lucky having found like

00:08:45.160 soulmate collaborators in each other soulmate editors and i think i would like to add fox

00:08:50.960 love farm to that list of soulmates uh a soulmate sponsor who really is just like it's hard to be

00:08:57.420 anti-capitalist and still like eat food as we all know yeah so it was really important for us to find

00:09:03.380 a sponsor that was like ethically sound or at least like in line with our values and sammy is

00:09:08.180 like that and beyond yeah plus the boxes are so cute and they support so many witches and so many

00:09:16.200 artists it's just like a wonderful little bit of self-care that is community care that you can do

00:09:21.700 to go get yourself one of these subscription boxes and you're sponsoring and supporting

00:09:26.240 missing witches when you do it so get yourself yeah get yourself a monthly present and don't

00:09:31.860 forget to use that offer code missingwitches when you shop at foxglovefarm.com.

00:09:39.480 The thing is, for so many of us who deviated down the occult aisles,

00:09:45.160 Scott Cunningham was our first. We likely didn't know he was gay, that wasn't part of what he

00:09:50.860 shared, but he made this other crucial choice that opened a magic and unexpected door to a

00:09:57.100 way of relating to the living world, to ourselves, and to magic. And then he lived the craft and

00:10:04.920 labor of that choice with incredibly generous dedication. He left 22 books in his short 36

00:10:12.980 years before he crossed to the summerland in 1990, taken by AIDS-related cryptococcal meningitis.

00:10:20.940 And the crux of the change he made, a change that unleashed ideas and philosophies and practices of nature-based spirituality out on white North America and ushered in the most popularity Wicca and witchcraft had ever seen, was that he validated and empowered the lonely.

00:10:41.340 solitary practice of the craft became accepted and possible and powerful in his hands

00:10:49.880 you didn't need to find a coven to allow you to be a wiccan or a witch no one was required to give

00:10:57.540 you access or permission he made a leap a huge offering and opened up a completely personal

00:11:05.240 path to personal magic and relationship with the spirit of the world. And it changed everything.

00:11:15.040 DeTracy Regula describes finding Scott's book of shadows and what it means.

00:11:20.860 They write,

00:11:22.760 In late 2008, Bill Krauss called me from Loulin, asking if there were any materials from Scott

00:11:28.960 that might make a good book. After all these years, Scott's works were still finding new

00:11:34.000 audiences, and there was appetite for more of his works with a new generation of the magically

00:11:38.640 inclined. There were several things that came to mind, but they evaded me, mainly because 1.00

00:11:45.500 confronting the loss of Scott is still something that's very painful for me to do. Bill was

00:11:51.900 persistent in his request, but it seemed like this project was coming to a halt. Then one evening,

00:11:57.280 looking at the cover of Whispers of the Moon, where I have it facing out on a shelf in a

00:12:01.980 glassed-in lawyer's bookcase because the photo of Scott on the cover is my favorite, I realized that

00:12:07.780 years before I had placed several notebooks and envelopes of Scott's materials on the same shelf

00:12:13.740 behind it. It was all waiting, inches away from where I do my own work, yet I had forgotten until

00:12:20.700 that moment that I had it there. I lifted up the glass door and slid it back, and I reached at

00:12:27.360 random for a tightly packed manila envelope. On it, in the hand that I knew so well, was

00:12:34.960 the American traditionalist Book of Shadows, adorned with a pentagram and the comment that

00:12:40.220 this was the manuscript to be used for copying to send to his students. It was the core of

00:12:46.320 Scott's correspondence course, which he had offered to students before his works were

00:12:50.700 published. Arguably the book of magic of a young wizard, drawn from his earliest experiences.

00:13:01.020 The sort of thing you might expect a just-maturing Harry Potter to have created for his

00:13:04.980 extracurricular classes and advanced magic for his peers. He was ardent in his belief that Wicca

00:13:11.380 needed an American expression. He felt that the largely British-dominated magical scene was due

00:13:17.560 for a shaking up, one that embraced the seemingly more American qualities of equality, independence,

00:13:25.000 and a less restrictive hierarchy. A book of shadows that emphasized a greener, more natural

00:13:30.580 magic that could be practiced in a simple and sacred way by virtually anyone. In that

00:13:37.940 Cunningham book of shadows, which ends up being published by Lulon in 2009, Scott writes,

00:13:44.060 ever remember that the old ways are constantly revealing themselves therefore be as the river

00:13:51.240 willow that bends and sways with the winds of time that which remains changeless shall outlive

00:13:57.460 its spirit but that which evolves and grows will shine for centuries there can be no monopoly on

00:14:04.900 wisdom therefore share what you will with whom you will but hide mystic ways from the eyes of

00:14:10.620 those who would destroy, for to do otherwise increases their destruction. Mock not the

00:14:16.800 ways or spells of another, for who can say yours are greater in power or wisdom? Take

00:14:22.840 not one among you who serves to dominate you, who controls and manipulates your workings

00:14:28.220 and reverences. Only within ourselves can true reverence for the old ones occur, therefore

00:14:34.220 look with suspicion on those who would twist worship from you for their own gain.

00:14:40.200 All should share equally in the workings, thus none shall grow contemptuous of others

00:14:45.720 in our way.

00:14:47.440 Honor all living things, for we are of the stag and the salmon and the bee, so destroy

00:14:54.440 not life, save it be to preserve your own.

00:14:57.300 In Wicca, A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner first published in 1988,

00:15:03.720 which would become one of the most successful books on Wicca ever published,

00:15:08.660 Scott wrote,

00:15:11.980 When I began learning Wicca, there were few books, certainly no published books of shadows.

00:15:17.440 Wiccan rituals and magical texts are secret within many traditions of Wicca,

00:15:21.340 and it wasn't until recently that any systems have gone public.

00:15:25.480 Due to this fact, few Wiccans wrote books describing the rituals and inner teachings of Wicca.

00:15:30.960 Those outside the Wicca, or the craft as it is also known, who wrote of it could necessarily report only garbled or incomplete pictures.

00:15:40.380 Within a few years of my introduction to Wicca, however, many authentic, informative books began to be published.

00:15:46.640 As I continued my studies, both independently and under teachers I had met,

00:15:50.320 I realized that anyone trying to learn and practice Wicca solely from published sources

00:15:54.660 would gain a sadly unbalanced picture.

00:15:59.660 Most Wiccan authors tout their own form of Wicca. 1.00

00:16:02.320 This makes sense, write what you know.

00:16:05.060 Unfortunately, many of the foremost Wiccan authors share similar views,

00:16:08.660 and so most of the published Wiccan material is repetitive.

00:16:12.980 Also, most of these books are geared toward coven, group-oriented Wicca.

00:16:18.740 This poses a problem.

00:16:20.320 For anyone unable to find a minimum of four or five interested, compatible persons to

00:16:24.640 create a coven, it also lays a burden on those who desire private religious practice.

00:16:32.040 Perhaps my true reason for writing this book, besides numerous requests, is strictly personal.

00:16:38.680 I not only wish to present an alternate to staid, structured Wiccan books, I also want

00:16:45.420 to return something for the training I have received in this contemporary religion.

00:16:50.320 Please don't misunderstand me. Though this book's goal is a wider understanding of and appreciation of Wicca, I'm not proselytizing. Like most Wiccans, I'm not out to change your spiritual and religious beliefs. It's none of my business.

00:17:04.500 your beliefs are none of his business and his personal life is really none of ours

00:17:12.980 but i love that he shares that his desire is personal he was given something by his introduction

00:17:19.860 to the craft an independence and a livelihood and a sense of connection to the earth and he

00:17:25.800 wants to share that not with those who would structure a religion or impose their will or

00:17:31.680 use your power, but with those hatching their own individual relationships to a new kind

00:17:37.680 of praxis. Praxis as in the actions by which a philosophy or theory is embodied. Praxis

00:17:46.660 as in the craft, how we do what we believe, and thereby make our beliefs manifest. Cunningham

00:17:56.900 writes a spell is a magical ritual it's usually non-religious in nature and often involves the

00:18:03.400 use of symbols or symbolic actions and words it's a specific series of movements use of tools

00:18:10.600 and inner processes such as visualization to create a specific manifestation a spell is a spell

00:18:20.260 is a spell old spells are no more effective than new spells but to manifest your need

00:18:26.680 the spell must be designed to do three things a raise personal power and in natural magic to

00:18:34.520 unite it with earth power b program this energy through visualization c release the energy

00:18:42.220 this book is filled with spells of all types each is designed to accomplish these three things but

00:18:49.080 they need the magician's help a spell is truly magical only in the hands of a magician

00:18:55.360 once you've started practicing magic you are a magician cunningham's book earth power was one

00:19:04.300 of the first magical books i bought myself at missing witches we often say books are spells

00:19:09.860 and i have scott's phrase a spell is a spell is a spell echoing in my head now holding natural

00:19:17.500 magic and remembering what that book meant for me at that time and it contains this other radical

00:19:23.720 disruption of a common form of gatekeeping and also of commercializing the craft he writes

00:19:29.000 the common everyday stones you see lying on the street or dig up in your yard

00:19:33.840 those tumbled up on riverbanks or beaches or lying scattered as if a giant hand threw them

00:19:39.180 on the countryside are possessed of powers simply because a stone is valuable does not lend it any

00:19:46.480 special power we first shared that quote on our instagram even before we launched season one of

00:19:53.440 the podcast. It was something so core for both of us, because honestly, fuck all of the machinery 0.99

00:19:59.320 of capitalism's attempts to take what is sacred and sell it back to us. Preying always on our fear 0.98

00:20:06.080 and need and scarcity to turn us against each other and into ever more obedient consumers.

00:20:12.520 When we first shared that quote, Amy summarized our feelings, writing,

00:20:17.140 here at Missing Witches, we believe strongly in DIY. Having stuff is great, but making or finding

00:20:22.800 stuff is magic. Creativity is a spiritual practice. Plus, reusing and recycling things

00:20:29.620 you already have around the house for your spells is Hello Pagan. We love and support

00:20:34.140 witchy artisans and crafters and makers everywhere. And we encourage you all to get your coins

00:20:39.500 and spend them how you like. But remember, witches, your finger is a magic wand that

00:20:44.740 holds more power than any athame. Your bathroom mirror is as prophetic as a crystal ball.

00:20:50.980 a mud puddle is as much the goddess as is the ocean the internet is the world's greatest book

00:20:58.560 of shadows the moon and sun are yours to behold for free this club has no cover charge

00:21:04.980 no gatekeeping do as you will harm none this club has no cover charge our podcast our rules

00:21:14.800 this craft has no dress code and all our stones have souls 0.98

00:21:20.200 the cover to scott's the truth about witchcraft today features a casual 80s business lady 0.55

00:21:28.740 with great blowing hair and excellent smize and the introduction reads candles gleam incense smoke

00:21:36.540 swirls robed figures chanting in a long dead language whirl around a rustic wooden table

00:21:42.180 on it sit sacred images a robust female wearing a crescent moon on her forehead

00:21:47.720 A horned male holding a spear in his upraised hand

00:21:51.280 All movement stops

00:21:53.340 A woman standing near the altar says

00:21:55.720 In this sacred space and time we call now the Old Ones

00:21:59.160 The goddess of the moon, of seas and rivers

00:22:02.320 The god of the rayed sun, of valleys and forests

00:22:06.520 Draw near us during this circle 0.91

00:22:09.000 And this is witchcraft

00:22:10.720 Two thousand miles away, a fifteen-year-old girl affixes a green candle

00:22:15.120 onto a Polaroid photo of a friend

00:22:17.120 in the darkened room she lights the candle her eyes closed the girl visualizes her boyfriend's

00:22:24.380 broken arm surrounded by a purple light intended to quickly heal it this too is witchcraft

00:22:31.640 the 15 year old girl is me and honestly she's all of us going on instinct caring for others

00:22:39.200 full of her own power connected to the power of the world at a time when pop culture was

00:22:45.040 fetishizing and consuming teenage girls, Cunningham said, it's okay. Be a witch. 0.95

00:22:52.660 Everything around you can be part of your transformative magic. The power is in your

00:22:57.900 praxis. Scott worked incredibly hard on his incredibly prolific writing, and he was a

00:23:05.100 dedicated practitioner, only sharing information on craft he himself had explored and could speak

00:23:09.640 to firsthand. Donald Michael Craig in The Magical Life of Scott Cunningham writes,

00:23:14.660 I can't repeat enough how he could become so incredibly focused.

00:23:18.260 The kitchen in our apartment was separated from his bedroom by the living room.

00:23:22.080 When he was really focused on a writing project,

00:23:24.080 he would occasionally take breaks and go into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

00:23:27.900 On the way back to his room, he'd stop to talk for a moment and put his glass down.

00:23:32.880 An hour or two later, he'd repeat this,

00:23:35.160 totally forgetting that he already had a glass of water.

00:23:37.360 He'd get another glass and set it down.

00:23:40.120 Soon there were glasses all over.

00:23:41.400 it didn't require me to be there for him to forget his glass sometimes if i came home at night i'd

00:23:47.680 have to be careful to walk through the maze he created by putting down half empty glasses of

00:23:51.780 water i remember too that one time i found him in the living room with hundreds of three by five

00:23:58.060 cards on the floor what are you doing i asked this was during a time before there were computer

00:24:04.100 applications that could easily index a book and he was going through the laborious task of making

00:24:09.100 an index for one of his books by hand. This was an onerous, time-consuming task, but for a

00:24:16.520 non-fiction book he felt it was necessary. He took a break and explained to me exactly what he was

00:24:21.700 doing. It was from that lesson I learned how to manually index a book. The first edition of my

00:24:28.280 own Modern Magic was done that way, and I owned my understanding of how to do it to Scott.

00:24:32.800 Scott truly walked his talk

00:24:35.840 He had gone to a toy store and purchased several plastic toy monsters

00:24:39.640 Using magic, he transformed them into guardians

00:24:42.880 Talismans of protection for our apartment

00:24:45.200 I saw a news report that stated the area we lived in

00:24:48.920 had one of the highest crime rates in all of San Diego

00:24:51.220 However, we never had any problems with crooks or burglars

00:24:55.220 even though we sometimes left doors or windows open and unlocked

00:24:58.300 Perhaps the biggest worry we had was with the landlord

00:25:01.920 He was a fundamentalist Christian, who also owned the business next door, a combination vacuum cleaner repair and gun shop.

00:25:10.800 He would roll a large chalkboard covered with Christian messages in front of our apartment so people walking or driving by could see it.

00:25:18.920 Scott called our living there a hiding in plain sight.

00:25:23.060 Did hiding in plain sight have other meanings for Scott?

00:25:25.800 i don't know but it sure does for me having been the witch in corporate marketing meetings

00:25:31.720 winking at the queer co-worker with the pentagram tattoo i also love this description of scott 0.66

00:25:37.620 because i am perpetually the witch with water glasses everywhere catching dreams i guess in 0.88

00:25:42.300 every corner of my house ready for whenever the kiddo decides she suddenly needs to stay hydrated

00:25:47.560 and i've also been that writer with a manuscript spread all over the floor

00:25:52.600 trying to figure out which pieces go where

00:25:55.340 not indexing manually, thank God, etc.

00:26:00.680 But my knees and back definitely feel a memory link

00:26:03.800 to Cunningham and all you writers out there

00:26:07.000 down upon these marrow bones, as Yates puts it

00:26:10.240 doing the mundane work

00:26:12.180 learning in the labor what Loretta the Death Witch reminds us

00:26:16.300 that there is no mundane

00:26:18.200 the praxis itself is a magic

00:26:21.520 and making the index weaves the web to the sources.

00:26:29.260 Scott seems to have learned some of the tools and tactics of his practice from his dad,

00:26:33.480 Chet Cunningham.

00:26:34.120 With three children and a wife suffering from multiple sclerosis, he needed income.

00:26:40.180 By his own count, over nearly five decades, he produced 375 published books,

00:26:46.980 including westerns, thrillers, a motorcycle maintenance manual,

00:26:51.520 and handbooks for sufferers of sciatica and irritable bowel syndrome.

00:26:56.100 He occasionally wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Kathy Cunningham.

00:27:01.300 He pretty much wrote whatever somebody would pay him for.

00:27:06.920 So Scott learns about writing and its labor from his dad.

00:27:12.980 And he learns something about magic and also about living through chronic illness

00:27:18.120 and about love from his mom.

00:27:21.880 Craig writes,

00:27:22.960 Although Scott was born in Michigan in 1956,

00:27:25.840 his family moved to San Diego in 1959,

00:27:28.540 where, excluding brief trips, he lived for the rest of his life.

00:27:32.820 He told me he'd always felt different,

00:27:34.340 but it wasn't until high school that he saw his future.

00:27:38.140 From a young age, Scott had been interested in nature and in herbs.

00:27:42.180 In 1971, his mother gave him a copy of The Supernatural by Hill and Williams.

00:27:47.260 The book included Italian folk hand signs used to do such things as give protection and repel the evil eye.

00:27:54.420 A few years later, a girl in his high school, whom I'll call Dee, recognized the signs and introduced herself.

00:28:02.600 They became friends, and she introduced him to more magic and to witchcraft.

00:28:07.180 And from this time on, natural magic, witchcraft, and writing became the focus of the rest of his life.

00:28:13.220 scott joined the navy but the extreme regimentation didn't agree with his nature

00:28:19.040 he performed some magic and achieved the result he desired an early yet honorable discharge

00:28:25.760 his sister also a writer describes their childhood and her relationship with his writing in this way

00:28:36.820 one of his gifts was seeing into people divining what they would appreciate

00:28:41.640 He was an excellent gift giver.

00:28:44.380 Once he realized Anthurium was my mother's favorite flower.

00:28:48.720 That's part of what he'd give her for Mother's Day and her birthday, Christmas too.

00:28:53.420 In hindsight, his thoughtfulness and protectiveness of my mother was very sweet.

00:28:58.340 The year I turned 16 for my birthday, Scott bought the two of us tickets to see a chorus line in Los Angeles.

00:29:05.340 He drove us up and we enjoyed bouncing around Hollywood, seedier in the 70s than it is now.

00:29:11.540 He even took me to Capazio so I could get a couple pairs of pointe shoes.

00:29:15.700 And the show? Outstanding, mesmerizing, absolutely breathtaking, and such a joy to share it with him.

00:29:23.320 The ride home was filled with our chatter about the dancing and the songs.

00:29:28.160 Scott and I moved out of the family home the month I graduated high school.

00:29:32.540 In January of 1978, we shared an apartment on Orange Avenue for eight or nine months.

00:29:39.220 Newly in love, I was rarely there, and when I was, Scott wasn't.

00:29:43.180 We drifted apart as only roommates on separate schedules can drift.

00:29:47.940 When I married and moved to Los Angeles, Scott remained a part of my life.

00:29:52.180 Phone calls, letters the old-fashioned way, and visits.

00:29:56.340 For him, success. Book sales came, and then the book tours.

00:30:00.400 In between times, he'd retreat to Hawaii to recuperate and research.

00:30:04.760 When I had a good job, I'd drop him a check in the mail.

00:30:07.160 Surely his writing couldn't be paying the bills, and he'd always call with a thank you.

00:30:12.840 Then March of 1990 hit, and news of Scott's illness passed along from his tour.

00:30:19.800 We found out just as I was celebrating being three months pregnant with my first son.

00:30:25.640 The terrifying turned into the mundane.

00:30:28.640 Scott grew stronger again and wrote and traveled.

00:30:32.200 We laughed and talked and grew closer than we had been.

00:30:34.820 the baby was born

00:30:37.880 Scott kept a respectful distance

00:30:39.780 not quite sure what to do with such a little thing

00:30:42.120 but the disease stole him away

00:30:45.620 he grew weaker

00:30:47.620 and angry at not having the time

00:30:50.260 to finish everything he'd wanted to do

00:30:52.100 before he finally moved home

00:30:54.100 so my parents could take care of him

00:30:55.700 he invited friends over

00:30:57.160 and gave away many of his books and things

00:30:59.080 to people he knew would want or need them

00:31:01.160 sharing that last bit of himself

00:31:03.600 that he could

00:31:04.280 He moved into my childhood room, his big iron bedstead taking up most of the tiny space around Thanksgiving in 1992

00:31:13.960 And when he died, in March of 1993, he'd fallen into a coma early in the morning

00:31:20.580 My mother held his hand and was there at his side when he finally passed that afternoon

00:31:29.080 I was once again three months pregnant

00:31:31.080 it. I missed the pagan gathering for him in San Diego. My parents didn't tell me about it.

00:31:38.660 There wasn't another memorial ceremony, not one that the family had planned. So it was

00:31:44.840 just the family scattering his ashes up in the hills behind the cabin at the Laguna

00:31:49.340 Mountains. Fourteen years later, that seemed the appropriate place to scatter my mom's

00:31:54.880 ashes as well. My private grief and regret over the lack of a more public memorial service to

00:32:02.580 this day still hits me hard. It didn't seem right or fair, but I wasn't in charge. I spent several

00:32:10.640 afternoons over the next few months sitting on the sand, staring out over the ocean, sometimes

00:32:16.560 weeping, sometimes angry, but always in dialogue with Scott. I'd hear his laughter in the wind and

00:32:23.860 the waves. And the Scott I was communing with, the Scott I missed, was the brother from my childhood,

00:32:30.580 from those drowsy summer afternoons in the meadow, over the hill, and around the mountain from the

00:32:35.380 cabin. Finally, though, I started reading. I must confess I'd never read his books until after he

00:32:42.320 died. He never really expected me to be interested, I suppose, and in reading those books I saw and

00:32:48.900 grew to know the man he'd become, a deeper version of who he'd been when we were in the

00:32:53.680 mountains as kids. The same, only more. My creative, sensitive brother had grown to be

00:33:00.460 funnier, smarter, stronger, more compassionate, more tangible, more open, even while guarding

00:33:07.580 his privacy. His heart and soul are in those books, a clear expression of his driving need

00:33:13.960 to share what had taken him so much effort to learn.

00:33:18.000 It shouldn't be that hard, he'd once told me,

00:33:21.240 to find a different way to worship,

00:33:23.840 in such a natural way.

00:33:26.460 Well, for those who want to,

00:33:28.840 learning it shouldn't be such a difficult task.

00:33:32.320 Scott has always been good at giving.

00:33:35.080 The sharing of his knowledge with the rest of us

00:33:37.420 is his ultimate gift.

00:33:41.220 I find this all so sad.

00:33:43.960 and haunting. Why didn't the parents tell the sister about the pagan gathering?

00:33:48.640 Why was there no family service or public memorial?

00:33:53.440 Why don't we read each other's books sometimes till long after the loved one is gone?

00:33:58.160 Why does a deep kind of silence seep and solidify between us?

00:34:03.340 What are the unspoken layers of fear or awkwardness or shame?

00:34:07.760 why can't we find the words

00:34:10.840 which will be the necessary spells

00:34:12.540 to ease our hearts and minds

00:34:14.220 back into loving touch with each other

00:34:17.060 Scott's sister Christine

00:34:21.320 found what he had worked so hard to learn

00:34:23.380 right where he'd left it

00:34:24.960 in the wind and waves and in the books

00:34:27.780 an answer to the question

00:34:30.780 does it have to be so hard

00:34:32.920 a more natural way

00:34:35.940 of worship, of loving the universe

00:34:40.920 and each other and all that's living, extended like an

00:34:45.000 open hand to the lonely. In Wicca, a guide

00:34:48.900 for the solitary practitioner, Scott wrote in words that feel

00:34:52.580 heavy and prophetic today

00:34:55.340 times are changing, we are maturing perhaps too quickly

00:35:01.120 our technology outpaces the wisdom to utilize it

00:35:05.060 Vast unrest spreads over the globe,

00:35:07.220 and the threat of war looms over most of the more than 6 billion persons alive today.

00:35:13.540 Wicca as a religion is changing too.

00:35:15.940 This is necessary if it is to be more than a curiosity of an earlier age.

00:35:20.480 The heirs of Wicca must point their religion firmly to the future 0.95

00:35:23.820 if it is to have something to offer coming generations. 0.99

00:35:28.280 Since we have arrived at the point where one mishap could end our planet as we know it,

00:35:32.780 There has never been a time when Wicca, as a nature-referencing religion, has more to offer.

00:35:38.620 This book breaks many Wicca conventions.

00:35:41.000 It has been structured so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can practice Wicca.

00:35:45.840 No initiations are required.

00:35:47.900 It is designed for the solitary practitioner, since finding others with similar interests is difficult, especially in rural areas.

00:35:57.640 Wicca is a joyous religion, springing from our kinship with nature.

00:36:02.780 It is emerging with the goddesses and gods, the universal energies that created all in existence.

00:36:09.380 It is a personal, positive celebration of life.

00:36:13.700 And now it is available to all.

00:36:16.220 I don't know about you, but solitary practice is at the core of how I practice,

00:36:20.240 and still it can feel hard to carve out time for.

00:36:25.140 It feels self-indulgent in a way that coming together for my community doesn't.

00:36:28.980 it's a bit like writing in the way that it makes me face my guilt and shame around spending time

00:36:34.840 with my own thoughts and experiences and needs sometimes in writing i just want to paste together

00:36:40.700 brilliant quotes and bask in the wisdom of the web that's already out there and not get down

00:36:45.320 upon these marrow bones again but solitary practice and the real work of writing and

00:36:50.960 healing calls on us to go into the lonely into the layers of mind and experience that are ours alone

00:36:57.980 to look for the places that wound and haunt and shine

00:37:02.800 the places that the hegemon of ego cannot see so easily

00:37:07.620 when we make our art and rituals for ourselves alone

00:37:11.340 it's then we do it for our ancestors

00:37:13.880 and they come close

00:37:15.920 and we might hear them

00:37:18.080 in the solitary space of whatever is your art

00:37:22.920 your ritual, your most beloved praxis

00:37:25.420 following lanterns lit by dreams or song or poetry

00:37:29.620 unlocked by spirit writing or rambling gently across the keys

00:37:33.160 to see what surfaces we find

00:37:35.940 unexpectedly pathways to each other

00:37:39.660 Sue Monk Kidd recently wrote

00:37:42.340 the surprise is always this

00:37:44.200 the deeper we delve into our own lives

00:37:46.840 the more likely we are to tap into a universal experience

00:37:50.780 we find the portal to everyone

00:37:53.740 the truth is we are more lonely now than i can think we've ever been

00:38:00.800 we've spent over a year alone or in small bubbles walking within layers of fear fear of unseen death

00:38:10.720 on every surface in the air lurking in strangers and in our loved ones and the light is strange

00:38:17.320 and distorted in here in bubble land and the dangers that we're already stifling are worse 0.99

00:38:23.220 for black, brown, indigenous, Asian bodies

00:38:27.280 queer bodies, trans bodies, women's bodies 0.68

00:38:30.540 the violence is choking, stifling 0.98

00:38:33.420 the voices of sick hatred are losing their minds on buses

00:38:37.060 pouring evil out all over

00:38:39.220 and those who would profit from delusion are hard at work

00:38:42.700 casting chimeras of blame

00:38:45.560 while they increase their hordes 1.00

00:38:47.860 to be gay is still dangerous all over the world 0.99

00:38:51.580 And this was and remains tied to the history of colonization and control 1.00

00:38:56.780 over all our individual rights to our bodies and minds.

00:39:02.280 76 countries around the world maintain discriminatory LGBTQ laws.

00:39:07.900 Britain exported its sodomy laws to the empire, where many remain in force.

00:39:12.900 Human Rights Watch has reported these laws are routinely used for blackmail and extortion.

00:39:17.480 in settings as diverse as Kyrgyzstan, Jamaica, and Uganda.

00:39:22.640 Such laws contribute to a climate of prejudice and hostility

00:39:25.600 in which violence occurs with impunity.

00:39:28.600 The passage of the anti-propaganda laws in Russia

00:39:31.340 led to a peak in violence against LGBT people.

00:39:34.500 In Nigeria, the immediate effect following the enactment of draconian legislation 0.55

00:39:39.380 was mob violence against gay men.

00:39:42.940 The law in these places means that LGBT people must live in a shadow existence,

00:39:47.140 under the threat of violence. Sodomy laws have historically been used for political purposes.

00:39:54.040 In France, in 1307, King Philip IV brought sodomy accusations against the order of the

00:39:59.160 Knights Templar and dissolved it. The reason? He was heavily indebted to the Knights at the time.

00:40:05.920 In England, King Henry VIII promulgated the Buggery Act in 1533, then promptly accused

00:40:12.600 Roman Catholic monks of sodomy and used that as an excuse to confiscate their monastic lands.

00:40:18.720 He also disposed of his opponent, Lord Hungerford, by executing him for sodomy in 1540. 0.96

00:40:25.080 Such tactics are still in use.

00:40:29.660 With a push for more limited language on, quote, the family, and an emphasis on the rights of the

00:40:35.480 family as an entity rather than the individuals who make up the family, the Russian government

00:40:40.620 and its allies are pushing for a concept of human rights that protects the group over

00:40:44.680 the individual, this rhetoric and practice creates a false dichotomy and pits tradition

00:40:49.480 against human rights. LGBT rights are the wedge issue, but at stake are the basic principles

00:40:56.420 of international human rights law, that human rights are universal, inalienable, and indivisible. 0.94

00:41:04.780 What seems distinct about this particular time in our history is the way in which the rights of 0.63

00:41:09.340 LGBT people have become a lightning rod for competing visions of the world. So we're called

00:41:15.560 now to hold up a vision of the world that protects the individual, the lonely, those without family

00:41:21.820 as well as those hiding who they really are while with their families, those in danger in their own

00:41:27.220 homes, and we must use all our powers to call down protection for each other. And though this calling

00:41:34.620 is crucial now, it's not the first time that sexuality and gender identity have been used as

00:41:39.080 an excuse to control populations and exterminate alternative philosophies. The history of hermetic 0.66

00:41:45.800 philosophies and diverse ideas about the divine is also a history of love and sex. The first 0.51

00:41:52.800 allegations of homosexuality against the heretics was made in 1116 concerning the Henrichians.

00:41:58.960 From that time onward, we hear more and more frequently that the heretics copulated vir

00:42:02.920 com viris, man with man, and femina com femines, women with women. In 1209, Pope Innocent authorized

00:42:10.380 the crusade against the Albigensians in France, a policy which resulted in near-total genocide

00:42:15.560 throughout the southern part of the country. And by the time the Inquisition would finish its work

00:42:20.300 in the 17th century, several million heretics and homosexuals had been burned at the stake.

00:42:28.100 Heretics went underground, and when Wicca surfaces, it claims to be drawing on texts

00:42:32.200 and beliefs enculturated in part from that tradition. But the simpler form of religion

00:42:37.340 that Scott longed for, one that would enshrine our rights to love and find pleasure where we will as

00:42:42.360 long as we harm none and are unencumbered, isn't born into the world complete in Wicca.

00:42:48.200 Scott didn't triumph a form of Wicca he'd inherited cut from whole cloth.

00:42:53.080 That's why he emphasizes our right to solitary practice and constantly reasserts that we've got

00:42:58.200 to think for ourselves and reject those who would demand obedience. Because let's be honest,

00:43:04.160 Gerald Gardner baked some insidious homophobia into the craft, and even after Doreen Valiente

00:43:09.540 and others resoundingly rejected that rotten inheritance, as we talk about in our book,

00:43:14.800 Missing Witches, available now. Other forms of danger alert.

00:43:20.480 Trying to right the balance against the weight of generations of a male god and male dominance, 0.89

00:43:25.440 wicca cherished the divine feminine which hallelujah but then in many places tipped over

00:43:31.160 to a gender essentialism that we also talk about that again demeans the real lived experience of

00:43:37.640 individuals who knew in their bodies and spirit that their existence is beyond cis hetero boundaries

00:43:43.000 or that their experience of gender wasn't one they were born with wasn't located in their organs

00:43:49.320 but somewhere else, that who they truly are is beyond.

00:43:54.020 There's so much courage and magic in this,

00:43:57.680 but Wicca hasn't always made a space for it.

00:44:01.420 I think Scott does, though.

00:44:03.920 Though much of his writing calls out to the goddess and the gods,

00:44:07.320 there are doorways and portals he left that can help us,

00:44:11.240 tired from the struggle of fitting all our powers and desires

00:44:14.260 and characteristics into two tight and overused boxes.

00:44:19.320 help us expand into something infinitely more.

00:44:24.200 He calls out to the old ones.

00:44:27.740 And his origin story, his prayer, 0.55

00:44:29.920 begins where so many of them do,

00:44:31.600 in a place and with a power greater

00:44:33.440 than the dividing binary of the world that came after.

00:44:40.120 In the name of Dryton,

00:44:42.360 the ancient providence,

00:44:43.960 which was from the beginning and is for eternity,

00:44:46.980 male and female,

00:44:48.160 the original source of all things 0.91

00:44:50.920 all-knowing, all-pervading, all-powerful

00:44:54.620 changeless, eternal

00:44:56.860 he also wrote

00:44:58.980 never become rigid in your beliefs or practices

00:45:02.420 deep inside you will find your god and your goddess

00:45:06.320 and you will know their names and forms

00:45:08.760 if you are solitary, begin by living in the cycles of the sun and moon

00:45:13.920 i.e. by the seasonal celebrations, sabbats

00:45:17.220 and the lunar phases of full and new moon, esbats.

00:45:21.500 Even alone you can assume the roles of priest and priestess

00:45:24.480 and learn to experience the essence of those energies that are the tides of life.

00:45:29.920 The time will come when you will know the presence of both the masculine and feminine forces

00:45:34.420 we know as God and Goddess,

00:45:37.080 whose divinity lives within our body, our feeling, our mind, and our spirit,

00:45:41.560 and who live everywhere.

00:45:43.780 You can speak to them, inwardly and outwardly.

00:45:47.220 You can see them in your heart and in your space.

00:45:50.880 You can feel them and know them, and in your spirit, you can be with them.

00:45:56.180 If you prefer, you can perceive and receive their divine presence as singular rather than dual.

00:46:01.760 We can't define the creator in any other way than to know the divine is everywhere at all times

00:46:07.360 and is the source of all that is.

00:46:11.400 There can be no monopoly on wisdom.

00:46:13.760 never become rigid

00:46:17.940 you can know the gods and goddesses both in your body

00:46:21.860 or know them as one, the ancient providence

00:46:24.960 or as a multiplicity beyond counting

00:46:27.660 you can be your own priest and priestess and healer

00:46:33.060 even in danger and isolation

00:46:35.340 you are a being of light and power

00:46:38.220 and our waves of dust and sound

00:46:41.800 and love and light reach for you

00:46:44.420 and hold your cherished and hallowed and holy body

00:46:48.820 exactly as it is.

00:46:53.100 I want to imagine we are at a public memorial for Scott Cunningham

00:46:57.220 with his sister and brother and parents

00:47:00.680 and your siblings and parents too,

00:47:03.180 all healed and holy.

00:47:06.240 The sicknesses of the world and memory

00:47:08.500 that's made us wiser and kinder.

00:47:11.800 and all of us unafraid to hold hands and hold each other's face.

00:47:16.440 Through our bubbles and spikes and wounds shine the spark of the divine.

00:47:23.580 Generations of ancestors and old ones hold us.

00:47:28.100 Our collective power radiates out to answer the call for a more simple faith,

00:47:33.400 one that loves and is one with the great livingness of it all.

00:47:37.420 a faith that has been our leavening

00:47:41.580 letting us rise and uplift and also intertwine

00:47:46.060 a praxis that unfurls our unimaginably radiant uniqueness and individuality

00:47:52.440 and also nurtures the most profound and essential definitions of what it means to be a family

00:47:57.560 I am imagining this because I need to

00:48:01.120 and because imagination is a creation spell that calls forth new worlds

00:48:06.920 and this moment in the dark between our ears

00:48:11.800 it is a seed we plant that becomes real

00:48:14.420 we're there together on the shore with Scott

00:48:18.960 and all the missing witches and the witches found

00:48:21.300 and all the people who don't identify as witches

00:48:24.740 but are ripe with world changing power anyway

00:48:27.700 and we are honoring all those who poured their lives out

00:48:32.220 in service to the water, the trees

00:48:34.900 and each vulnerable and beautiful life.

00:48:39.880 There can be no monopoly on wisdom.

00:48:42.980 It's just not possible.

00:48:45.720 It moves like water and life and breath.

00:48:49.680 And it belongs to you, even when you are alone. 0.99

00:49:04.900 You must be a witch. 0.93

00:49:07.760 Hey friends, if after listening you find you want a little coven loving in your life, 0.89

00:49:12.140 our sponsor, Fox Glove Farm.

00:49:14.320 Use offer code MISSINGWITCHES to get some of that handmade, ethical, awesome witchy goodness in your life.

00:49:20.300 Send us your reviews on whatever podcast service you use.

00:49:24.420 And if you want to read the book, gosh, we'd love to send it to you.

00:49:27.220 So find it, tell us what you think, and share your thoughts on Amazon or Goodreads.

00:49:32.040 And yeah, see you out there.

00:49:33.240 We love you.

00:49:33.840 Be safe.

00:49:34.340 blessed if I can be

Missing Witches - April 25, 2021

MW Scott Cunningham - There Can Be No Monopoly On Wisdom

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