Missing Witches - Part 2 Witches Found - The Divine Invites You To Dance

00:00:00.000 And now, on to part two of Missing Witches Live, The Divine Invites You to Dance.

00:00:07.260 Now we're joined by our wonderful guests, Phoenix Inanna and Jacqueline Beaumont.

00:00:12.780 If you missed part one, be sure to listen to that next.

00:00:16.960 Blessed be, happy Letha.

00:00:22.000 So, we're going to come back to Monica's show for a second.

00:00:25.220 I think it's important to be in here.

00:00:26.840 Now, Monica Show was involved with her co-writer.

00:00:34.700 If any of you listening to the podcast,

00:00:36.200 you're probably familiar with the name of the book,

00:00:38.040 The Great Cosmic Mother.

00:00:39.860 It's one of Missing Witch's favorite books.

00:00:42.400 And it was co-written by a woman named Barbara Moore. 0.95

00:00:44.520 Now, Barbara Moore got Monica Show involved 1.00

00:00:48.080 with this feminist spirituality cult in the 70s. 0.98

00:00:54.160 They formed a commune, they lived together with their power of electricity, and they published this magazine called Women's Spirit Magazine.

00:01:04.240 There are several volumes, we brought two, because we thought, what kind of place to go looking for the divine feminine than a feminist spirituality cult from the 70s?

00:01:15.040 I think you'll all agree.

00:01:17.020 So Risa is going to read a letter that was written into the magazine and published.

00:01:22.340 And please note that the woman who wrote this letter of dance spells the word woman and

00:01:30.520 women like three or four different ways throughout, so it really is this anti-patriarchy, fresh,

00:01:37.900 crazy movement that started with these women in a commune.

00:01:44.780 So I, before Risa gets started, once again, in honor of the Divine Feminine, we are taking

00:01:52.440 up a collection and we're donating the proceeds to the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal,

00:01:57.680 the most divine, from the stolen land that we live on.

00:02:01.100 So let's give back.

00:02:02.120 I'm going to pass the collection plate while Risa reads this piece.

00:02:06.320 Dig deep.

00:02:08.200 So this comes to us from Louise in Key Biscayne, Florida.

00:02:14.780 The Spring Equinox Issue, 1978.

00:02:20.340 Dance, woman, being, spirit.

00:02:23.440 The spirit of dance is that which is, and that which without it, the mind and body are incomplete.

00:02:30.100 Women are the spirit of the rhythm of the pulse of the world. 0.76

00:02:33.900 Women are the world's dancers. 0.99

00:02:36.180 They dance without athletics when they walk. 1.00

00:02:41.160 When they talk, they blend life into a perfection of living.

00:02:45.220 gladly denying that other Olympic mistake of comparing themselves to others.

00:02:50.440 They are happiest when they move, alert to their own rhythms,

00:02:53.600 which are the rhythms of the universe, the rhythms of the stars,

00:02:58.540 the rhythms of the days and nights of mood and change within themselves

00:03:02.860 and in the hearts and minds and bodies of those near and dear.

00:03:07.080 They respond to the pulse of the world's turning.

00:03:09.980 They listen when they have been taught to listen,

00:03:12.660 to the sound of their own spinning and inner convulsions.

00:03:16.980 They feel the stars in their majestic orbit

00:03:19.500 lilting in the night as the sun in the hours of its presence

00:03:23.180 lilts and lights the day. 0.97

00:03:25.920 Women are pulled in and out.

00:03:27.980 Their spirit is the spirit of dance joy, 0.95

00:03:30.780 dance speech, dance strength,

00:03:33.100 not proving power, not winning with tricks or games,

00:03:36.560 not defeating others with dramatic context.

00:03:40.500 This spirit of woman speaking is the light of the past that will light the way for the future of woman being woman.

00:03:47.580 There are many ways to speak, but dance is the most natural, the most easily understood of all languages.

00:03:54.200 It is universal and all-encompassing.

00:03:57.420 Knowing our own being spirit woman, our own being woman spirit, our own spirit being woman is joy.

00:04:04.060 for what other reason does life offer us this fluid changing body these earth curved lines

00:04:10.440 this lift and fall and breadth of pace woman open woman closed woman rhythmic as the sea

00:04:17.820 full and unfull is the moon steady as the mountains this body that folds and unfolds

00:04:23.540 bends twists whirls and is still it contracts expands births nourishes this body that says

00:04:30.780 more loudly than any spoken word, I am, you are. It is ours to speak our loneliness, our

00:04:39.100 friendliness, our hopes, our joy.

00:04:44.140 So here's another thing in Women's Spirit Magazine. I'll pass this one around in the

00:04:47.940 meantime so you guys can take a look at the artwork. And this is belly dance instruction

00:04:56.880 from one of the Spirit magazine now, you probably expect that something that's about the divine

00:05:04.120 and the clenomen and the rhythm and the dance is going to be all about the menstrual cycle

00:05:09.160 and I'm here to tell you, it's not. I personally found nothing miraculous about my menstrual

00:05:16.300 cycle until I had the inside of my uterus burned out intentionally. So when I'm thinking

00:05:21.540 about belly dancing, and as we go through this together, I remember that in ancient

00:05:26.880 times, the belly, the stomach, was considered the seat of the soul. So when I think about

00:05:33.200 belly dancing, and as we go through this together, I want you to moon or moonless, if you're

00:05:41.140 happy with your moon or you aren't happy with it, we're talking about the fruition

00:05:46.140 of the soul. We're not necessarily, although that too, Risa has a beautiful new baby,

00:05:51.420 and we're super grateful for that kind of

00:05:53.680 fertility. But what we're talking

00:05:55.620 about here is the divine.

00:05:57.840 The divine. Something that

00:05:59.660 is above what we as humans

00:06:01.880 put onto each other. 0.98

00:06:04.100 The divine has no binary

00:06:05.660 proposition. It's much too

00:06:07.740 vast for that. So I'm going to ask

00:06:09.880 you all to stand, if

00:06:11.780 you're able. Stand if you're able.

00:06:14.300 And if you're not, kiss your hands on 0.60

00:06:15.760 your belly. 0.85

00:06:19.580 Now,

00:06:20.100 Now, belly dances in ancient art, celebrating women as creator of life, we talked about

00:06:26.460 that.

00:06:27.860 Wombs aside, think of your belly as the seat of your soul, where you reproduce ideas, where 0.95

00:06:35.380 you're fertile with thoughts and feelings.

00:06:42.160 Is everyone ready?

00:06:45.600 Stand with feet about 14 inches apart.

00:06:50.100 Stand with the feet of it, 14 inches apart. Knees slightly bent. Put your two hands on

00:07:02.280 the two pelvic bones, just above the joint where your leg meets the body. Relax your

00:07:07.140 anus and buttocks. That's an important step. Now, give your hands a ride, forward and up, 1.00

00:07:16.020 slowly pushing your pelvis forward and up.

00:07:20.480 You can exaggerate the forward pelvic push even more

00:07:24.360 by tilting your shoulders and head back slightly

00:07:28.280 and at the same time, slightly, sorry. 0.90

00:07:32.120 Try to feel your genitals and the energy that begins to flow 0.97

00:07:36.960 all throughout the buttocks, genitals, and pelvic area 0.88

00:07:40.580 as you push it slowly forward and hold it there. 0.82

00:07:46.020 You can also have fun lying on your back with your head. We're going to skip that.

00:07:51.920 Alright, bend in slightly and put feet about 14 inches apart. 1.00

00:07:57.220 Tuck the pelvis back under you. Slide hips and pelvis out to the left. 0.94

00:08:03.500 Slide hips and pelvis forward so that you're leaning back slightly.

00:08:07.940 Slide hips and pelvis out to the right. Slide pelvis back under you.

00:08:12.200 And continue circling. 0.99

00:08:16.020 Now, again, the historical concept of belly dance is about childbirth. 0.98

00:08:27.700 It wasn't a sexualized harem, you know, dance.

00:08:31.700 It was about the fertility, again, not just of our human bodies, but of the soil.

00:08:36.960 These dances were performed because they mimic the movements when a person who gives birth

00:08:45.840 pushes that baby up

00:08:48.700 but again

00:08:50.820 we're thinking this in terms of how we

00:08:52.900 heal our soul, the fruit that we

00:08:54.940 make from our bodies in dance

00:08:56.580 move your arms

00:08:58.680 sweep from side to side

00:09:02.740 make that circle

00:09:04.360 and when you feel disconnected

00:09:06.720 from your soul, remember it

00:09:08.760 lives in your belly and you can shake

00:09:10.960 it up anytime you want

00:09:12.980 to, anytime you want to

00:09:15.040 This is where your soul lives

00:09:16.700 This is where your fertility comes from

00:09:18.860 Fertility of the mind

00:09:20.020 Fertility of the soil

00:09:21.460 Keep dancing

00:09:22.700 Keep dancing

00:09:24.340 Keep dancing

00:09:25.980 Keep dancing

00:09:27.600 Keep dancing

00:09:29.040 I used to start to Diana

00:09:32.340 I used to turn to me to Cali

00:09:35.560 I used to start to Diana

00:09:39.880 I used to turn to me to Cali

00:09:42.920 You're getting it, you're doing it

00:10:01.120 You're fertile

00:10:02.380 Your souls are fertile

00:10:06.460 Your minds are fertile

00:10:12.920 And I'll pass this one around as soon as anybody needs extra tips.

00:10:33.820 So now we're going to move on to what we call

00:10:40.820 Witches found 0.84

00:10:42.960 Witches 1.00

00:10:44.260 Witches 1.00

00:10:45.160 Witches

00:10:47.080 That we find contemporary witches

00:10:49.520 Such as Jackie and Phoenix

00:10:51.020 And

00:10:52.840 I have a lot of questions for you both

00:10:56.020 Now

00:10:56.300 I wanted to bring the two of you here

00:11:00.100 First and foremost because

00:11:01.540 You're both involved in this world of dance

00:11:03.780 but also because you both contend with divinity and femininity in your arts and in your lives.

00:11:13.340 So if we can start, whoever wants to start, how do we define divinity?

00:11:21.200 Right?

00:11:24.280 How do I define divinity?

00:11:26.120 How do you define divinity?

00:11:27.520 Um, divinity to me is a connection to first and foremost, my ancestry and the, the relationship

00:11:36.300 of my physical body through time and culture, but also, uh, it's a connection to, it's a

00:11:43.840 connection to the soil actually and the sky and, um, everything that's alive and everything

00:11:52.320 that's dead uh it's like an expression of soul that is not necessarily unique but multiplied

00:12:00.240 multiples and connected to other souls how about you jackie what's the divine the divine

00:12:09.360 for me takes so many different forms much longer yeah uh so to me uh the divine

00:12:16.640 of so many different forms. I think, to me, the most all-encompassing way of defining

00:12:27.040 what divinity is is almost like a something that runs through all existence and has an

00:12:36.160 equal pull and push on different things depending on what you put out into the world and what

00:12:41.720 it receives back. Yeah, I think that's a very simplistic definition for me.

00:12:48.720 And so how do we look at femininity then? Can we define it?

00:12:53.720 No. No, we can't. Let's try! What are our thoughts? What makes something feminine?

00:13:01.720 Um, femininity is completely defined by oneself that feels within themselves, it's something that is inherently there in all of us and some people are more tapped into it than others, some people, it just flows through them very naturally, so unfortunately I feel like a lot of people have been taught to block that flow.

00:13:31.720 I think that femininity and masculinity are concepts that only exist in the physical world of human society and like you see it in animal world too but like yeah it's really a construct and we're starting to really like investigate that and get away from these ideas but

00:14:01.720 we have to use them because of the world we live in where things that are defined as feminine

00:14:06.980 are like you know negatively affected so we we use these words for the purpose of understanding

00:14:13.240 the world that we live in but when it relates to divinity actually what exists exists like in a

00:14:19.720 you know in like a whole and complete way and so binaries and splits and divisions um

00:14:27.300 yeah they're just like a way of seeing the world and so like i work with femininity

00:14:32.240 in a way that is conscious that it it's constructive and so i like to experiment

00:14:37.480 and play with it and push the limits but it's also just an easy convenient word to describe

00:14:43.200 things in a way that there's some sort of people perceive that there's a consensus about what

00:14:48.960 femininity is so it makes communicating sometimes easier reductive but also it is reductive and

00:14:55.020 it's kind of violent too because it cuts people into pieces and people and things are not pieces

00:15:03.400 no I started to think of myself as being post-gender but I think that's easy to say in your bubble of 0.98

00:15:11.360 your mind and out of your philosophy when you go out into the world you have to contend with

00:15:15.620 how women are treated differently how males are treated differently you know and how patriarchy

00:15:22.660 hurts us all yes but certainly when we talk about the divine I think we all

00:15:27.380 agree that the masculine and feminine doesn't exist in the divine so much as

00:15:33.340 it does within humanity so again when we talk about dance this is bodily so we

00:15:40.780 have to be connected to our bodies in order to dance now Phoenix speaking of

00:15:44.920 gender you are a drag king and like a drag queen burlesque you know neo burlesque

00:15:50.160 So how do you find that you're smashing the binary by enacting the binary?

00:15:57.160 Well, I like how you actually just started that because it's funny, it's so hard to define what I do,

00:16:02.160 and I have to use terms like burlesque and drag and all this stuff so that people understand how to book me.

00:16:09.160 Very practical.

00:16:11.160 Yeah, even just what I do is nebulous. I'll belly dance, I do goddess drag, which is not just traditional queen drag,

00:16:18.160 queen drag. It's a specific kind of feminine exploration or exploration of the idea of

00:16:23.660 femininity. So I do like, uh, I'm very flexible. I'm very fluid, not just in my gender identity,

00:16:29.840 but in everything that I do. And, um, so that's one way that I smash binaries and, um, move around

00:16:37.640 definitions and navigate myself as like a jack of all trades kind of situation. Um, yeah. So

00:16:44.340 definitions are interesting names are interesting binaries are interesting

00:16:47.720 these are ways for which we feel control over the world and things but it's an

00:16:54.120 illusion of control because names are given by humans so why dance why dance

00:17:03.180 what else is there what else is there it is the most authentic way in my opinion

00:17:10.680 to communicate and to relate to the world um it is the primary it is the authentic it is like

00:17:17.720 um the oldest thing we we know about ritual is like movement and interactivity uh dance simply

00:17:25.480 put is a body in space um even if you're just standing still that can absolutely be seen as

00:17:32.120 dance so it's you're born dancing i don't know if it's come up yeah but i did have a clip from the

00:17:36.840 away. If any of you have watched the show,

00:17:39.040 the whole concept is that there are certain

00:17:40.720 movements that are magical when put together

00:17:42.880 that can move you.

00:17:44.620 I love that you're loving this. I was going to text you to

00:17:46.480 the specific

00:17:48.920 choreographed by Ryan Eppenton, by the

00:17:51.000 way. If you want to talk about dance, let's talk about

00:17:52.840 Ryan Eppenton, but you can look that up on your own.

00:17:55.580 But the idea that

00:17:57.040 ritual movement has magical

00:17:58.960 power. Jackie, what do you think about that?

00:18:01.500 Certainly. I think that there's

00:18:03.060 I think that also in terms of dance

00:18:05.100 it's not limited to just

00:18:06.740 human life as well. There's so many different ways in which dance can take form within the

00:18:11.840 rest of the biology. Can you tell us about how molecules dance? Yeah. The way that they

00:18:19.380 interact with each other, the way that they move their bodies in space determine the density

00:18:27.460 of that object or the characteristics that that object takes or the life that that object

00:18:34.000 case um i mean i've also been thinking a lot about um i've been thinking a lot about venus

00:18:40.960 lately as well lately and how interesting how you can actually hear an electromagnetic pulse of venus

00:18:49.040 and in space there's no sound um but you can we figured out how to hear the sound of its body

00:18:56.160 moving in space and so that sound is actually its body whirling through the abyss um really

00:19:03.920 label yeah right so i i've been i've just been fascinated by the the fact that like this is

00:19:11.900 actually just the sound of its body quivering um or just dancing through space um and now it's it's

00:19:20.200 not even perceivable in terms of we can't hear it if we were out there obviously we're not going

00:19:25.200 to be out there um but like uh it's just so fascinating to me that it's not just this bodily

00:19:31.720 movement uh isn't just limited to humanity as well you can take so many different forms i mean if you

00:19:38.680 look at like animal mating practices there are so many different species mating dances yeah mating

00:19:45.880 dances transcend past humanity into like billions of species around the world where uh again just

00:19:54.120 the movement of bodies and the precision of bodies moving in space um have have like a life or death

00:20:03.800 um reaction so that's really interesting i remember when we first interviewed you in your

00:20:09.480 lab you guys described and realizing that certain when you were trying to enact certain protocols

00:20:17.160 that for you they they were they were witchcraft that it was kind of like a spell book that you

00:20:21.960 guys were building of your scientific protocols and i thought of that when you were saying that

00:20:25.960 these specific movements create life that that it's almost like a dance that you guys do in

00:20:30.440 the lab definitely definitely it is and um yeah i've been i've been working with genetic engineering

00:20:36.120 as of recently and just realizing how uh and not not just how precise you need to be because

00:20:42.440 obviously biology is very precise um but yet also completely not at the same time sometimes it's

00:20:48.600 it's just a complete fluke but in a lab you run by a specific protocol that is

00:20:54.480 down to like the micro leader like like just the tiniest little amount that you

00:21:00.860 would never even think about but that will set all their bodies into movement

00:21:05.400 or they will set a reaction within themselves that will trigger something

00:21:09.240 and the the way that you put them on a shaker and how they move around helps

00:21:16.920 them to like develop themselves into life and at the end of it you actually have a living organism

00:21:22.920 that is conceived out of this dance of this movement um a dance that develops into life

00:21:29.480 it is yeah can somebody write that down please dance that develops into life and i think that's

00:21:35.240 what we're talking about here um i reached out to one of our friends um named lindsay aka dark lake

00:21:42.520 Tarot, because she's also a burlesque dancer, but she's of Caribbean heritage, and a lot

00:21:49.420 of her Caribbean ancestry and spirituality comes out in her dance, so I asked you to

00:21:55.240 write a little something for this.

00:21:56.880 I'm going to read it quickly.

00:21:59.780 Dance is an essential part of growing up in the Caribbean, whether you grew up brooking

00:22:04.480 it down the streets during junkaroo, carnival, or crockover, or if you were swaying to the

00:22:09.380 voices of God in church every Sunday.

00:22:11.280 But minutes away from stepping onto the stage to perform my act, tribute to the O.I.A.

00:22:17.280 Man, part of the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, I felt like I was drowning under

00:22:23.280 the weight of expectation.

00:22:24.280 Sure, there were nerves attached to performing at such a prestigious event, but I felt woefully

00:22:29.280 inadequate and unprepared for the enormity of the task at hand, representing my home

00:22:35.280 country and the cultures that birthed me.

00:22:37.280 The indigenous spiritual practices of my ancestors, successfully colonized and criminalized in modern society. 0.54

00:22:44.900 Communicating my existence in the intersection of women, behemoth, stripper, and witch.

00:22:51.460 And attempting in my own imperfect, struggling way to begin what I now know to be the start of a lifetime of ancestral healing and reconnection.

00:23:01.180 To be honest, I remember very little of the routine, and although there are pictures and video on the internet,

00:23:06.500 Although there are pictures and video on the internet.

00:23:09.500 I know I chose a song of cultural significance, Exuma the Obeying Man by Tony McKay,

00:23:15.500 and the intention was to channel the spirit or spirit of the obeying man,

00:23:21.500 read my heritage, my ancestry, my culture, my identity, through the routine.

00:23:27.500 Reconcile it all within my body.

00:23:30.500 All I remember is a blinding spotlight and a primal pulsation from deep in my blood.

00:23:36.500 But it wasn't through fear or even adrenaline, I think.

00:23:39.500 I think it was something deeper.

00:23:41.500 Drumlines and bloodlines stretching generations and miles and circumstances lit up like a circuit board calling me by name, as if I never left those shores.

00:23:52.500 I took flight and soared home triumphant, and I danced with the cosmos and innumerable ancestors I knew by sight.

00:24:01.500 I communed with the spirits, jubilant and supplicant, and let their truths, my newfound sacred truth, move through my body as it felt led to move.

00:24:12.500 When I came to, I had collapsed in the wings, in joyful tears, with friends and strangers alike, weeping with me, seeing me and acknowledging me in my wholeness, just as I now acknowledge myself in my wholeness. Transfigured, humbled to dirt, and bored.

00:24:32.260 now when I read this

00:24:34.240 I thought of you immediately because I know

00:24:36.300 that you use your dance

00:24:38.280 to connect to your ancestors, you mentioned it already

00:24:40.520 so how do we use our

00:24:42.260 physical bodies to connect to

00:24:44.220 the dead or to our ancestry

00:24:46.440 or to our culture

00:24:47.440 how do you do that

00:24:50.460 we collect perspectives one by one

00:24:54.420 here, nobody has a

00:24:56.360 universal perspective

00:24:57.240 wow

00:24:58.720 where do I begin

00:25:01.600 so like everything that I do is for spirit so like even just from my name

00:25:07.360 Phoenix in Anna Phoenix being the regenerative creation destruction cycle

00:25:12.580 that is so much home to me but also like a part of the universal communication

00:25:17.360 in Anna being the Sumerian goddess who you know is an ancestor to my Iraqi

00:25:22.060 heritage and Isis being my Egyptian queen goddess who I choose to worship in

00:25:27.940 in feminine form because of my experiences with patriarchy and my need for healing from

00:25:32.980 patriarchy i explore goddesses that's what i'm interested in that's what i'm drawn to

00:25:38.100 i've only got one act where i'm embodying male masculine divinity um because i have so much like

00:25:45.380 i've been raised as a woman perceived as a woman so i have that as part of my identity regardless

00:25:51.380 of whether or not i identify that way so i also identify as a woman as well as non-binary and then

00:25:56.900 i explore so like yesterday you were there at the the show yeah i did a a performance where i

00:26:05.540 you know wore these like house clothes that you know like an african auntie would wear like my

00:26:10.820 mom would wear when she's cleaning out the house you know and i danced with a very aggressive but

00:26:15.460 really fun song called get the out of my house and i you know i took to the stage and smoke

00:26:21.860 cleansed the room because you know when you're performing you're really absorbing a lot of energy

00:26:25.940 and i feed off the audience but sometimes that energy is wild and unpredictable and so you have

00:26:30.580 to kind of cleanse your space and then i started dancing vigorously aggressively viciously

00:26:37.060 unapologetically and i groomed and cleaned that stage with a broom with a literal broom because

00:26:42.100 that is the power of the witch that is the vehicle of the witch and it's it's you know

00:26:46.100 it's very important and we were under a scorpio full moon which is a really good time to detox

00:26:50.820 and what i'm going through in my life i needed that and so i choose to dance the things that

00:26:54.820 that I'm going through and I choose to dance for myself.

00:26:58.060 And when I perform it to others,

00:27:00.200 it's with the intention of sharing what I know

00:27:03.480 and knowing that the witness is privileged to witness

00:27:07.360 and also feeding me.

00:27:08.940 So it's a mutual relationship.

00:27:10.740 I am giving of myself in a way that is full of wisdom

00:27:14.520 and access to a culture

00:27:16.640 that people would not necessarily have access to

00:27:18.940 and that's very generous and vulnerable.

00:27:21.680 And then I receive from the audience,

00:27:23.860 receive all of this like you know um change and i can see how people are affected and how their

00:27:30.660 bodies are shifting in relation to what they're absorbing and so it's like a mutual care um so

00:27:38.660 yeah for me it's like the relationship with audiences a lot of connecting with spirituality

00:27:43.220 through dance the relationship to myself and my body and allowing the movement to guide me where

00:27:48.420 ongoing and trusting in that process

00:27:50.320 that I'm going to get there.

00:27:52.560 Is that kind of an answer to that?

00:27:54.140 I think so.

00:27:55.680 That was an answer to a lot of questions.

00:27:58.980 You brought up

00:28:00.280 the give and take between you

00:28:02.360 and the audience. I'll ask this about you

00:28:04.140 because you're both performers. What's the difference

00:28:06.220 between, or the difference in divinity,

00:28:08.760 the difference in ritual, between

00:28:10.440 performing a dance for an audience

00:28:12.180 or just dancing in your own home

00:28:14.440 like most of us do? I'm not a professional

00:28:16.560 dancer, but I dance constantly.

00:28:18.420 but not in front of an audience right so what's the what's the spiritual difference between dancing

00:28:23.240 alone and dancing for an audience i mean like for me when i when i'm performing i depending on the

00:28:31.800 performance i'm doing if i am embodying a storyline which is more centered around as you were talking

00:28:38.900 but more goddess-based persona. It's very close to what I do at home because it's drawing

00:28:53.740 myself down, it's connecting to it, whatever you want to define goddess as, and rooting

00:29:05.500 that up and bringing it forth and sort of letting it live within you um for me i can i can just feel

00:29:13.740 it pulsing through my veins it's like it carries me through um it's not like i'm in in that aspect

00:29:22.620 those performances aren't really me performing it's almost like i'm the channel yeah yeah like

00:29:27.980 i'm almost channeling something but um that's something that lindsay mentioned too that she

00:29:33.420 She almost came to at the end of her performance.

00:29:36.420 How do you feel for the exhibit? Is there like an element of possession?

00:29:40.420 Yeah, there is. It's a big difference.

00:29:43.420 When you're dancing for yourself, it's like a real connection to yourself.

00:29:47.420 And just like dancing for dance's sake, moving for movement's sake.

00:29:51.420 So it's very self-indulgent, which is really lovely and loving and important.

00:29:56.420 And I do that to prepare for performance.

00:29:59.420 You dance alone to prepare for performance.

00:30:01.420 It's movement like it's yeah like a stretch I move I dance I kind of wiggle around I like do some of this stuff

00:30:07.800 I breathe that's all dance right and then when you're in front of an audience

00:30:11.900 This is actually my forte. I really enjoy performing because it's there's a different quality to it the anxiety the fear

00:30:20.800 like of

00:30:23.420 The vulnerability and the unpredictability of people and the relationships between

00:30:28.020 physical bodies and souls and all this stuff and that consumption people

00:30:34.500 consuming you and you trying to either be consumed or disrupt that consumption

00:30:39.300 all of those things create an energy in my performance that is completely unique

00:30:46.780 and completely different from dancing by yourself and it's a gift but it's also

00:30:52.740 it's like I want to say the word is contrived but not in a negative

00:30:57.900 connotation but in an intentional way like I'm not just doing whatever flopping

00:31:02.360 around I'm kind of like you know using specific movements that I feel are

00:31:06.660 going to communicate an intention either that's going to be understood or it

00:31:11.120 doesn't matter if it's not understood it can also just be for me or knowing that

00:31:15.300 that movement has its own power regardless of whether it's understood or

00:31:18.620 not. Can I ask, make me think about Anna Halperin's idea of dancing to reconstitute the world.

00:31:27.660 When you talk about a series of gestures being contrived to elicit a specific response,

00:31:34.380 to elicit a specific change, what did you think when you heard those descriptions of Anna Halperin's

00:31:39.340 dance for peace? Does that jive with something you think is possible? Incredible, like goosebumps.

00:31:45.500 it's so generous and so um just fierce it's fierce yeah i think she's fucking fierce

00:31:54.860 i love the idea of this like 80 year old woman on a mountain you know in outside of san francisco

00:32:01.840 believing that 30 years of dancing can bring people closer to peace it's potent like the

00:32:07.860 feeling of impotence that we have in this world the feeling of helplessness that is how you

00:32:13.040 counter it you know you're like okay well i can't save the world i'm not the messiah i'm not like

00:32:17.880 i don't have ultimate power i am not necessarily god or whatever maybe you disagree with that

00:32:22.500 but this is what i can do in my space in my view my body is important this movement is important

00:32:29.600 my life is important these are huge ways to combat that feeling of despair that is just everywhere

00:32:36.840 and we're going through it right now with all that stuff happening in the states um it's terrifying

00:32:42.360 we live in a terrifying world so people who do this kind of work um are generous are full of

00:32:49.320 belief which is something that is so underestimated hope and faith i actually struggle with these

00:32:54.200 things so these are my elders these are people i look to for the support to do the thing and believe

00:33:00.760 that you are doing something and to keep doing that otherwise i think for the record too every

00:33:08.760 time I go to a drag show of any kind I feel the same kind of hope that there's

00:33:14.220 like a real act of bravery and of community building and a vulnerability

00:33:18.640 and generosity that gives me hope that I take into activism or community

00:33:22.740 organizing. So I want to ask Jackie, I know that you know Phoenix is connecting to her ancestors but when you do your dance it's more of a connection to our one common ancestor, that means Gaia, Mother Earth, and I know you have

00:33:37.740 Kind of an interesting theory on why the earth herself has been gendered female

00:33:43.500 Yeah, can you talk about that?

00:33:45.840 So if anyone is not familiar with the 1.00

00:33:50.820 Velocity of queer ecology 1.00

00:33:53.460 Queer ecology is 1.00

00:33:55.620 the practice of 1.00

00:33:58.200 trying to 0.88

00:33:59.980 erase gender

00:34:01.920 when 0.98

00:34:03.540 Thinking about the earth instead of thinking about her as mother earth

00:34:07.740 just acknowledging it as its own autonomous living organism.

00:34:18.100 Unfortunately, we live in a world where when we feminize something, 0.68

00:34:24.020 it means that therefore it is possible to take from that person. 0.63

00:34:31.660 And societally, we believe that a mother is to give, to care, to nurture, and to never ask for anything in return.

00:34:44.000 And the same reason why most AI programs, or almost all AI programs, are gendered women, right? 0.79

00:34:48.720 Because we can treat them as servants. 1.00

00:34:50.300 Yeah, exactly.

00:34:51.440 Yeah, there's a huge history throughout the world where technology or robotics or even machinery has been labeled female because they're meant to serve for a purpose.

00:35:01.660 and not have anything in return.

00:35:04.200 And so if we exist within a mindset where, unfortunately,

00:35:13.180 society believes that it's Mother Earth and that she gives and gives

00:35:18.860 and just wants to keep giving,

00:35:20.860 eventually her sources will be depleted completely.

00:35:25.920 And I mean, I think for the majority of us,

00:35:29.660 we don't have the same notion of a mother.

00:35:31.400 Yes, they want to give love and care and nurture, but there is also an equilibrium that needs to be reached within love and care.

00:35:41.400 It is a two-way street.

00:35:44.400 And so that's where queer ecology is.

00:35:47.400 is by by addressing the earth as a non-binary body and like recognizing it

00:35:56.640 as a queer spirit we can we can move towards a better mindset to address

00:36:03.680 questions about resource depletion land ownership yeah that there's there's an

00:36:11.340 endless amount of things that can be changed when we change the mindset

00:36:14.760 around the gender of the earth.

00:36:17.840 So, yeah, I think that's a good question.

00:36:21.260 That was the answer to the question, absolutely.

00:36:23.600 I want to get into one thing

00:36:25.380 before we move to Q&A.

00:36:27.940 Hold on, we'll move to the other room for Q&A.

00:36:30.760 Yeah, we don't have time for Q&A, let's see.

00:36:32.500 Let's do our closing meditation.

00:36:33.880 So, we... 0.98

00:36:35.420 Risa's going to do a closing meditation.

00:36:38.360 Well, I remind you of one thing.

00:36:40.140 The movie, Book Loops, was based on,

00:36:43.340 or not based on, but inspired by real events,

00:36:45.980 there was a Baptist town that I'd love dancing.

00:36:49.120 So if you're sitting here thinking,

00:36:51.160 dance can't possibly be as powerful as these people,

00:36:54.420 these witches up here are making it out to me,

00:36:56.340 just remember that it's been banned.

00:36:58.880 And it's been maybe illegal.

00:37:01.060 And it has been forced into darkness and forced into corners.

00:37:04.500 And if it weren't powerful, that would never have happened.

00:37:08.440 Now, Reese is going to lead us.

00:37:10.320 Oh, yes.

00:37:11.160 And I'm going to play guitar.

00:37:13.340 So this is a healing closing exercise that's adapted from Emma Halpern's book.

00:37:22.140 I'll start this and then we'll go into a final Burning Times chant.

00:37:27.020 Hopefully we've sung it a lot of times now that you're willing to holler the names of some goddesses out loud with us in this beautifully red-headed room.

00:37:37.640 Thank you so much for coming.

00:37:41.040 Take a minute to try your heartbeat again.

00:37:43.340 When you have it, turn to the person next to you, and with their consent, tap your heartbeat

00:37:56.560 against their back, or on the back of the chair in front of you as you confirm.

00:38:13.340 you know the story

00:38:17.680 cells put into the same petri dish

00:38:20.640 will quickly settle into a shared rhythm

00:38:22.700 we are these cells

00:38:25.380 hold your eyes and keep this peace

00:38:29.180 when you leave here today

00:38:32.540 carry this within you

00:38:33.900 the beat of our breath

00:38:36.100 hope and fear

00:38:37.940 and illness

00:38:39.580 and wellness

00:38:40.980 and light and light and light.

00:38:45.940 See it in the eyes and pace of everyone you encounter.

00:38:51.920 May all your encounters become an urban ritual

00:38:55.000 of becoming the divine dancer.

00:38:59.040 May these cells carry with you a rhythm of peace and a feeling.

00:39:04.420 Please continue to share your heart with us as we join in our clothing this morning.

00:39:34.420 Ake-de-de-meet-ir-kali

00:39:38.520 Ake-de-de-meet-ir-kali

00:39:46.900 Ake-de-de-meet-ir-kali

00:39:53.020 Ake-de-de-meet-ir-kali

00:40:00.700 Thank you.

00:40:30.700 We didn't record the Q&A, but if you have questions,

00:40:58.520 please send them along to missingwitches at gmail.com and we'll be sure to let Jackie or

00:41:05.320 Phoenix or Jonathan from the AGC know about your questions and hopefully we can get you some

00:41:11.180 answers. Blessed be and happy Letha. Keep dancing. 0.70

Missing Witches - June 21, 2019

Part 2 Witches Found - The Divine Invites You To Dance

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