This week we're looping through time, following the algorithms and the omens, and telling the truth about where we're at because telling the truth is radical magic.
Risa was shored up by the reminder of "how a song, or a performance, or a painting can function as a survival guide, a weapon, a tool — an instrument for pleasure and social transformation." (LARB). The crucial reassurance that imagining better tomorrows infiltrates the present, and is crucial to the craft of surviving:
“The here and now is a prison house. We must strive, in the face of the here and now’s totalising rendering of reality, to think and feel a then and there. Some will say that all we have are the pleasures of this moment, but we must never settle for that minimal transport; we must dream and enact new and better pleasures, other ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds.”
― José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
Witches conjure the feeling — the embodied pleasure — of the future possible in our art, ritual, stories, and dances. The song "No Reason" by Tōth from the EP "Practice Magic And Seek Professional Help When Necessary" came through for Risa this week, and offered a feeling of ease, of opening the door, and walking on through to a better tomorrow:
I wanna be happy for no reason
Like the sun rising exactly
In every season
You've been here before‚ you opened the door
You walked straight on through, there's nothing to do
And nothing is wrong if nothing is right
We're happy now and, yes, we practice magic
Risa's prescription this week continues with a channeling of your teenage springtimes. What did it feel like for you to be a teenager in the spring? Can you call up in your body a sense of teenage fearlessness meeting the smell of the new blossoming world? What did you listen to? For Risa, it was 90s Indigo Girls and The Wood Song was medicine this week:
Sometimes I ask to sneak a closer look
Skip to the final chapter of the book
And then maybe steer us clear from some of the pain it took
To get us where we are this far
But the question drowns in it's futility
And even I have got to laugh at me
No one gets to miss the storm of what will be
Just holding on for the ride
The wood is tired and the wood is old
We'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go
We don't get to miss the storms of what will be, and we don't get to skip ahead, but we do get to laugh at ourselves, hold our teenage selves tenderly, and hold on for the ride.
Amy brings the truth of exhaustion, dragged through the strange days of daylight savings, the Ides of March, chronic illness, and all our weird brainstates as we pull ourselves through another day in the "prison house" of the present. Her self-prescription is songs that say it like it is.
First The Beatles, I'm So Tired:
I'd give you everything I've got
For a little peace of mind
I'd give you everything I've got
For a little peace of mind
Second, Fugazi, I'm So Tired.
I'm so tired sheep are counting me
No more struggle, no more energy
No more patient and you can write that down
It's all too crazy and I'm not sticking round
Make no mistake, when Fugazi sang "I'm not sticking around" what they meant and what they did was opt out of norms they did not consent to. They built their own version of the world in small ways wherever they could: all ages shows, 5$ entry, no slam dancing so all bodies could feel safe in the scene.
Imagine small ways you could enchant or hack or mend the systems you are entangled with so they might offer someone, somewhere, even the tiniest measure of relief. Adrianne Lencker of Big Thief recently shared a raw collection, songs that we otherwise might never get to hear in this state, a bit of vulnerability as a way to raise money:
i won't let go of your hand is "a new collection of songs i cherish, which were recorded in the moments they were written. 100% of the proceeds will go towards the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. www.pcrf.net"
Pay attention to what makes you tired. The blame is systemic and countless innocents end up in the line of fire. Find ways to live that offer you relief.
Be gentle with every little thing you love.
Remember what has made you resourced, resilient, rejoicing.
Savour it in your mind and your memory. Keep it alive somewhere in your body. Let yourself rest when you need to, sleep, daydream. Step into the multiverse of that lunar mind and let's together nourish our collective wild conjuring of the new.
Coven Invites
Meditation Group (RSVP)
Sunday, Mar 17, 8:00 PM - 08:45 PM EDT
Hosted by Liz: "Join us each Sunday evening to ground and clear your mind for the week ahead. Sessions will be 15-20 minutes with time to chat afterwards. I look forward to sitting with you!"
Weavers Co-Working Cauldron (RSVP)
Monday, Mar 18, 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM EDT
Missing Witches Coven members at the Weavers level are invited to jump in and see what's bubbling! Bring a concrete question to this ridiculously badass collective, or a desire just to simmer together: all is welcome at the Cauldron.
Equinox Dance Your Altar Party (RSVP)
Tuesday, Mar 19, 8:00 PM - 09:30 PM EDT
Time to call in change. We invite you to clean and craft an altar space while Amy (co-head witch of MIssing Witches) DJs for us live. Let's shake the dust off and see if we can feel into what still serves.
Write & Share Group (RSVP)
Wednesday, Mar 2008:00 PM - 10:00 PM EDT
Hosted by Deb: "Writing Share & Request: bring something you are working on to share and get only the feedback you ask for; problem-solving, critique, encouragement, whatever you need."
Resilience + Adaptation in Climate + Craft (RSVP)
Monday, Mar 25, 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM EDT
Hosted by Michelle: "Come join a discussion about climate adaptation and resilience through the lens of flooding and watershed approaches. After the presentation, we'll discuss how you think about resilience as an individual and for your community. I hope you will leave with a better understanding of how we can support each other in our adaptation journeys.
Michelle works on flood mitigation at a watershed scale where natural infrastructure is part of the solution set and all voices are at the decision-making table. She works at an international nonprofit and spent 20 years working with the agriculture community via soil and water conservation districts. She has practiced the craft for almost 30 years. She uses ritual structures as a framework to bring disparate groups together to devise landscape-scale approaches to climate adaptation. With magic brewing in the background, pathways open up that others could not always see and a better future is dreamed into being."
Mutual Aid Magic
Letters to Gaza
"Building upon the success of the original Gaza Monologues call in November 2023, which will continue indefinitely, and to amplify voices from around the world expressing solidarity, empathy, and hope for Gaza and Palestine, Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah are launching a second phase of the project under the name Letters to Gaza.
Up to March 24, 2024 (the International Day for the Right to the Truth), they will be receiving submissions of Letters to Gaza.
You are free to address a person, a place or an idea associated with Gaza as well as any format from a letter, a poem, song, prose, drawing, or any creative expression.
- Write and submit your letter as a pdf or doc using the submission form.
- Record your letter, post it on social media, tag us: ashtartheatre and use the hashtags: #gazamonologues #letterstogaza
- Organise an event: If you represent a theatre, institution, or group, consider announcing an open call for submissions locally and organising a public reading of selected submissions.
Can you think of someone who might like.. all this? (She said, gesticulating wildly.) Forward them this email with all our love! Introduce your witchy friends to each other and let's give each other hope + community.
Blessed Fucking BE!
Risa + Amy
