MISSING WITCHES IS GOING ON HIATUS FOR AUGUST. Or as I prefer to think of it: SABBATical! We usually take a break in August to re-energize and prepare for Witch Season in the fall, but this summer has been hard, so we especially need a bit of time off. Our members-only Coven space will still be active, and our dear friend Holly will be keeping tabs on shop.missingwitches.com for your back to school shopping. AND we just put a new design in the Coven-only section of the store so go take a look!
We’ll still be kickin around but we may be very slow to respond to emails, instagram DMs and all that. We need to read, research, rest and write to gear up for an all new season of the Missing Witches podcast! I’ve already booked the guests for our Autumn Equinox Mabon special and I’m super excited to return to true stories of real Witches in the fall.
Stay tuned for our Lammas special, coming August first, where I sat down with Ùna Maria Blyth AND Loretta Ledesma to talk about Rituals.
We hope y’all can get some rest too.
As we were recording this, Risa was under anaesthetic having her first surgery.
UPDATE: I heard from Risa and she is out of surgery and recovering well. Please send ALL the Recovery Love!!!
Risa and I met about 15 years ago and we would sit around and I’d play guitar and she’d play ukulele and we’d scream and laugh and sing. At one point she was going through the break up of a long term relationship and she’d show up at my door and I’d ask: do you wanna talk or do you wanna sing?
One of the songs we played a lot was Ween It’s Gonna Be (Alright) - so I’m dedicating this to Risa:
it’s gonna be alright baby, it’s gonna be alright love.
Last night I sent Risa a poem: I Worried, by Mary Oliver
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.
So my prescription is to go out into the morning and ask your friends, "Do you wanna talk or do you wanna sing?"
I'm joined by THREE members of the MW Coven, snatching the last pre-hiatus chance to share their Get It While You Can prescriptions. Many thanks to Kristen, Melissa and Nicole for sending us off with love.
Kristen prescribes the rewarding, defiant and revolutionary act of cultivating and tending to native plants - and/or just marvelling at the purple splendour of Joe-Pye-Weed and all the beauty in flowers dismissed as mere weeds. Kristen is the founder and owner of Lightning Struck Gardens, a not for profit that benefits survivors of gun violence.
After surviving a mass shooting in 2021, Kristen found healing in working with native plants, and gardening. Kristen transformed her trauma by planting seeds of hope and change, which have now grown into prolific gardens of native plants and herbs.
Kristen sells her native plants and dried herbs from her gardens through an Etsy shop. This shop provides funding for her Lightning Struck Gardens, which provides support for survivors of mass shootings and those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.
Lightning Struck Gardens provides emotional support to survivors through peer support groups, where survivors can process their grief and trauma in community. Lightning Struck Gardens also provides survivors with plants and native seed packets to begin memorial gardens. The funding from the shop keeps these resources free for survivors.
We are thinking of Sonya Massey. We are saying her name.
You can find Kristen's shop on Etsy at: LightningStruckGdns.etsy.com
Melissa also comes bearing plants, and the faith, curiosity and creativity inherent in natural dyes. She learns life lessons from one of our oldest pigments: indigo. Like life, you just can't know for sure how things will turn out, but you do it anyway. Regard the power of oxidizing! Melissa's prescription is to re-evaluate your relationship with Control. Relax the tight-fisted and illusory grip. Unclench, look at Nature's colours, and watch a butterfly in flight. Smash up some wild berries and use them as paint - see what surprise transpires.
Nicole brings some iconic DC Punk with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (who, Nicole notes just to drive home the appropriateness of her choice, go by Ted Leo and the RX for short), and the holy power of live music. Shake The Sheets, a 20 year old song, rings out with relevance today. Shake the sheets, shake your ass, and dance your way through the revolution. Do the best you can, and above all Don't Give Up. Do your part. Make your mark.
I said, "I wonder how it is I'm standing here
War is raging everywhere under the sky?"
I feel defeated here by everything
Cheated here by everyone on every side
I want to take you to a quiet place
And never ask the meaninglessness to reply
When will we get an hour to celebrate
Find the time to breathe a sigh?
I want to take it to the president
Him and all his cabinet with a broom
I want to sweep the Halls of Arrogance
When will we find a chord as resonant
As to shake the sheets and make us move
And she said, "Roll out and make your mark
Pull on your boots and march
Then roll on and meet me where
You'll find me doing my own part
"Roll out your dented car
Maybe it won't roll far
But if you do everything you can
Well babe, that's more than a start."
Cultivate. Nurture. Unclench. Do your part. Rest. And as The Happenings sang in 1966, See You In September!! Blessed fucking be. We love you.
The Missing Witches Shop is now open to the public. Every purchase you make helps fund the podcast and keep the Missing Witches Project alive! Coven-only merch section password: witchfound
shop.missingwitches.com
AND The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles is available in our bookshop or wherever you get your books and decks.
