Missing Witches - May 30, 2022


You are Wuchak Kin Meditation

WF Michaela A. Harrison： We Are One WF Erica Feldmann： Like Witchcraft, Anti-capitalism Is A Practice

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

106.32

Word count

1,192

Sentence count

88

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

29

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Just a reminder that the Missing Witches fundraiser for Native Women's Shelters is happening now throughout the month of May.
00:00:08.900 Check out our website at www.missingwitches.com for all the details, and join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches. 1.00
00:00:20.920 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00
00:00:24.060 Be a witch! 1.00
00:00:25.500 Be a witch! 1.00
00:00:25.740 Be a witch! 1.00
00:00:26.540 Be a witch! 1.00
00:00:26.860 Be a witch! 1.00
00:00:27.560 You must be a witch.
00:00:30.000 The thing about the woods is that the wonders never cease.
00:00:42.320 And because I come from the suburbs, then the city,
00:00:45.720 nature always has a surprise in store.
00:00:49.840 And I'm always surprised.
00:00:53.200 I walked around the back of my house last week,
00:00:56.180 seeking forest bathing calm after a particularly shitty day
00:01:00.880 and was met by an unfamiliar
00:01:04.200 a furry stranger plump and round
00:01:08.380 we startled each other 0.95
00:01:11.100 I said whoop, they said whoop
00:01:13.220 and we both scurried back where we came from
00:01:16.640 I asked my partner
00:01:19.160 in phrasing that came out more riddle than question
00:01:23.980 What is a beaver without a beaver tail?
00:01:27.920 I imagine the furball returning home and asking,
00:01:31.520 What is tall and pale and lives on top of the ridge?
00:01:36.980 My new friend goes by many names, it seems.
00:01:40.600 Woodchuck, Groundhog, Whistlepig.
00:01:45.320 The common groundhog name Woodchuck was given by the Algonquins.
00:01:50.420 Initially, they were named Wuchuk.
00:01:53.120 which later was anglicized into a term easier for settlers to wrap their heads around and pronounce,
00:02:00.740 woodchucks.
00:02:03.240 When I meet a new friend in the woods, I have to wonder why today,
00:02:09.280 and I go looking for what this message or reminder from my kin might be.
00:02:14.240 I admit times have been tough, overlapping crises with no breathing space in between,
00:02:21.040 trauma, and recovery seem blended together into what we call survival mode.
00:02:28.760 Well, guess what? Dreams about groundhogs urge us to take a break and ensure that our physical, 0.83
00:02:36.080 mental, and emotional health is well taken care of. See, woodchucks are true hibernators.
00:02:44.320 They lower their body temperature, reduce their heart rate, and reduce their oxygen
00:02:49.940 consumption to allow for prolonged sleep. Because woodchucks are constantly on the alert
00:02:56.900 when outside their burrows. Because while dreams of groundhogs may encourage us to rest,
00:03:03.580 COVID lingers, civil rights are in danger, billionaires thrive while our planet becomes 1.00
00:03:09.680 increasingly inhospitable to witches and woochock alike. We can't afford to sleep. 1.00
00:03:19.940 We are on high alert.
00:03:22.460 There's danger and too much to be done.
00:03:28.000 We do not sleep just yet, Wuchuk Kin.
00:03:32.400 We go underground. 0.99
00:03:34.860 We dig in. 1.00
00:03:40.880 Here's what witches and Wuchuks have in common.
00:03:45.140 We are the underground.
00:03:47.820 In the seed and soils that sprout a grass-roots movement, we dig tunnels.
00:03:56.380 In the dark, where no one knows and no one sees, we dig tunnels.
00:04:05.600 Brave, safe spaces for Wuchak kin.
00:04:11.120 Because witches are outsiders, we are on constant high alert when outside our burrows.
00:04:17.820 But here, underground, away from violently mainstream ideas, we dig in.
00:04:27.460 As Amanda Yates Garcia wrote in her memoir, Initiated,
00:04:32.240 in our travels through the underworld, witches become map makers.
00:04:38.340 And so it is for our woodchuck kin, building a whole network of secret tunnels that, by the way,
00:04:45.740 end up getting used by many other animals in nature's great system of subsidized housing,
00:04:54.000 secret tunnels that both connect us and protect us.
00:04:59.500 Underground, a group or movement organized secretly to work against an existing regime.
00:05:07.720 Underground, a group or movement seeking to explore alternative forms
00:05:13.160 of lifestyle or artistic expression, underground, beneath the surface of the earth.
00:05:23.240 Given the ability of groundhogs to dig holes, they are considered symbols of truth-seeking.
00:05:29.820 In tales, groundhogs are depicted as kind-hearted animals.
00:05:34.000 They are often associated with being wise teachers and counselors, asking,
00:05:38.840 Do you want to dig a little deeper, a little farther?
00:05:44.880 Do you want to explore in the dark? 1.00
00:05:51.320 Wuchuk are archaeologists. 1.00
00:05:55.280 In 1955, Albert Miller first peered into prehistory through a groundhog burrow at the Meadowcroft
00:06:03.880 rock shelter when he found some artifacts excavated by the groundhog. After almost 20
00:06:11.660 years of excavation and consultation, radiocarbon dates came back from the Smithsonian lab,
00:06:18.380 confirming a human presence at the site going back 19,000 years. The evidence made Meadowcroft
00:06:26.220 the oldest site of human habitation to be discovered in North America. 0.97
00:06:32.880 But the groundhogs already knew.
00:06:36.840 They went into the underground and returned with traces of ancient humanity. 0.99
00:06:45.820 Harriet Tubman was Wuchak kin.
00:06:48.860 She went into the underground and returned as a savior of humanity, 0.89
00:06:52.660 built an underground railroad of protection. 1.00
00:06:56.220 and freedom-seeking. We are Wuchak Kin. In our book, Missing Witches, Recovering True Histories
00:07:05.280 of Feminist Magic, I wrote about Jimmy the Wisconsin Groundhog, who, on Groundhog's Day 2015,
00:07:12.520 bit the town mayor on the ear in what I interpret as an act of post-capitalist rage.
00:07:19.420 I assume Jimmy took an honest stalk of his situation and decided to protest
00:07:25.480 Jimmy would not be exploited
00:07:28.320 And neither will you
00:07:30.420 You are Jimmy Kin
00:07:33.780 My father was also called Jimmy 0.99
00:07:36.560 He was Wuchak Kin
00:07:39.020 He joined the underground in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 0.97
00:07:43.740 Walked from Hungary to a refugee camp in Austria
00:07:47.640 and never talked about any of it.
00:07:52.820 He buried that truth, and I think it haunted him.
00:07:59.400 I wish he had left this tunnel open
00:08:02.500 so I could crawl into the knowing
00:08:05.320 and sleep inside his burrowed story.
00:08:09.100 Brave.
00:08:11.620 Safe.
00:08:15.020 Underground.
00:08:17.640 As Audre Lorde wrote in her 1988 collection of essays, A Burst of Light,
00:08:23.800 caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.
00:08:34.400 There are lots of ways to go underground.
00:08:38.780 Dig tunnels, build railroads, or just sleep.
00:08:47.640 We ask, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
00:08:55.240 New York State wildlife expert Richard Thomas found that a woodchuck could, and does,
00:09:01.900 chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow.
00:09:06.760 Thomas reasoned that if a woodchuck could chuck wood,
00:09:10.080 he would chuck an amount equivalent to the weight of the dirt, or 700 pounds.
00:09:16.680 The more common answer is,
00:09:19.560 a woodchuck would chuck all the woody could chuck
00:09:21.840 if a woodchuck could chuck wood. 1.00
00:09:24.940 So, how much does a witch change the world? 0.98
00:09:30.000 As much as we can, and no more. 0.96
00:09:34.480 You are woodchuck kin, 1.00
00:09:36.140 and the underground awaits you. 1.00
00:09:40.560 Inanna, Persephone, Dionysus, Horus, Jesus,
00:09:44.760 we are Wuchak kin.
00:09:48.420 We go underground and return.
00:09:52.700 And when you pop back out into the sunlight,
00:09:56.920 maybe you'll surprise someone like me.
00:09:59.860 Walking in the woods, looking for a sign from above or below.
00:10:06.060 Maybe you'll surprise someone like me
00:10:08.460 with a reminder that wonders never cease.
00:10:12.560 A message contained in a brave, safe, cool, and dark place in the underground.
00:10:22.120 Where I can rest among you, my Wuchak kin.
00:10:29.880 We are Wuchak kin. 1.00
00:10:43.360 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00
00:10:46.520 Be a witch! 1.00
00:10:49.840 You must be a witch. 0.99
00:10:52.900 Just a reminder that the Missing Witches fundraiser for Native Women's Shelters 0.94
00:10:57.780 is happening now throughout the month of May.
00:11:01.960 Check out our website at www.missingwitches.com for all the details,
00:11:08.120 and join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches.