Missing Witches Risa Dickens + Amy Torok

"No stories inspired by a kinship with trees move in straight lines. I am tracing roots as deep as I can imagine, reaching in the dark. As usual, I’m trying to find the outlines of a story I’ve been missing, just hoping not to f*ck it up too much.

But I’ll say this from the start - to orient this kinship meditation on the Missing Witches podcast - witchcraft is activism, it’s political, it has to be, we are people who are kin with those who have been oppressed. Witchcraft then is a land back movement. It has to be, we can’t look for connections to spirit and not throw our lot in with the people who spent hundreds of generations here, learning the spirit of these places.

In mapping the practicalities of land back, we follow the lead of indigenous people like Georges Lafontaines, Communication officer at Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, who writes,

“our demands are not aimed at suppressing the non-native presence. We do not want to put the houses of non-Aboriginal people on wheels. Unoccupied lands are claimed, as well as participation in the management of the lands of the region… we wish to claim this territory in harmony with the population present. We also want important symbols put back in place, such as renaming waterways in the area, which had Indigenous names for millennia before the arrival of Europeans.”

I lean into this kind rationality like resting my tired weight on a great tree."

Feral for spring...Groundbreaking. (Note: The RX this week was was preempted by our Ostara special but will be going back to Mondays next week.)

As we burst forth into spring, we're joined by Artist, Mystic, Witch, coiner of the word GoddETC, Maria Molteni, to talk about social magic, colour, scale, basketball and stars. Maria walks us through their process of a life's work - art, religion, sports, cards, Scopa, Senda, Sedna, stones, queerness, quilts, Counting To Infinity, the fall of patriarchy, and seeking sainthood. Maria says, "Anyone can be an artist. Everyone should be an artist. Everyone has that innate vision and ability - just like Magic."

You've gotta believe that I am beautiful.

Dance in Defiance, or take a nap. Both are valid options.

Spiritualité. Ancestralité. Décolonialité. In this episode, Amy sits down with Maya, PhD, to learn about Natural Beauty as resistance to colonialism, racism, sexism and ageism. We talk about herbalism and tattoos as Maya's ancestral languages, buying as voting, and deconstruction of the self as existential praxis. We discuss kindness, Maya's work in diversity training, and on being multi-lingual, tri-continental, bi-racial, Maya says, " I AM diversity...I am doing this for my ancestors and for my children...My ancestors look at me every day and they are proud...I am beautiful."