Alexandra Hughes 0:00
Hi everyone and their cat is talking about witches. But what is a witch or medicine woman or priestess? How does one become one? And what is the common thread between women who identify as such magical creatures? Welcome to the witch hunt podcast, where we hold space for healing conversations that collectively explore these questions with the intention of celebrating of illuminating and elevating the rise of feminine energy magic and self sourced power. All in a world that's gone pretty much mental. Every new and full moon host is Aleksandra Beckel Hughes, who identifies as all three of these sacred tights, in her own weird way, invites you to brew some tea to light a candle and to join her in her conversations with witches, medicine, women, priestesses, and other magical creatures from around the world. So come gather to share in the knowledge, experience, magic and sacred stories of those women, who once hunted to be burned at the stake, are now hunted, to be held in the light so that they so that we can illuminate the way
Shoshana Sperling 1:30
the reclaiming of pleasure and the reclaiming of us being nature of us being one with it. That is activism. When we accept or dig into or get curious or whatever about the blueberry and feeling those things and reclaiming our bodies. We're taking it back from consumption from being something that's a commodity
Alexandra Hughes 1:56
Welcome to Episode 41 of the witch hunt podcast. This episode, serendipitously airing under a Pisces full moon is a little different than most, because while we do dive into the stories of our guests, Kiki Koskinen, and Shana Sperling, what we talk most about is their teachings around the hot and sexy and mysterious topic that is sex magic. And I have to tell you, it's quite literally about the birds and the bees, the blueberries and the trees with a whole bunch of olive oil thrown in the mix. We talk about the environmental connection to sexuality, energetics manifestation, and the radical and revolutionary act of experiencing pleasure as women today. But most importantly, we talk about the sacred wheel of consent, which we all agreed should be taught to our teens in school. Without further ado, and giving it all away. Let's dive into the magic of communing romantically with nature. That is your body. Enjoy. Hi, Kiki. Hi Shawna. Welcome to the witch hunt Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today.
Shoshana Sperling 3:15
We're excited to be here.
Kiki Keskinen 3:16
Yeah. Thanks for inviting us in.
Alexandra Hughes 3:19
Oh, this is going to be such an amazing episode and so perfectly timed as I was saying before I hit the recording button under this gorgeous Pisces full moon. So let's just begin by maybe introducing yourselves to our listeners. And I'd also love to hear how your beautiful constellations came together through this witchy friendship that you have now. Well, Shana
Kiki Keskinen 3:45
invited me here. So I'll defer to you Shoshana.
Shoshana Sperling 3:49
Oh, well. Kiki is amazing. So I will speak. I am Shawna Sperling hailed from Regina Saskatchewan. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, flew all the way over here to Toronto Parkdale, Parkdale, Toronto and I met Kiki because I was in lockdown in the midst of a terrible divorce with my ex had moved back into the house. So because we thought the world was gonna end, and it will but not we're not doing it today. We weren't doing it then. Anyway, and I was scrolling on Instagram or Facebook or one of those. And I saw this ad for witch school. And I was like, it pulled me like a fish, cotton and net. And I was like, I don't know how to I don't know what that is. That's weird. And I signed up for it right then. Normally, I'm somebody who polls I go through all my friends and say what do you think of this? What do you think? But it was not that it was like instant I signed up. And the fact that it had an interview was like, I have to pass something I have to be approved. And then I read Remember, I had this interview with Kiki. And as I was talking, I think I got halfway through. My mother was a anthropology teacher. My, my father is a political science. I'm Jewish. I'm very spiritual, but I've never been allowed to practice my spirituality. I'm obsessed with myth. I'm obsessed with feminism. I'm obsessed with women. And right there, Kiki said, Well, you're just about perfect for this. And it was like, the first time that I felt like, all these weird things in my life, were good. were thought of as the right things. Rather than the things that made me stand out made me leave, Regina really made me escape from from where I was from and to come here and and I just felt really accepted. And I did which school with with Kiki and I was, I've never been so excited to learn the things like a lot of what I thought I knew, and then making it make sense in my heart. You know what I mean? Like some of its here, you go to university, I studied theatre at Concordia and New York University, and then children's literature at U of T. But in which school it all kind of went, all right. And it was a real weaving together. It was a tapestry of feminism and witchcraft, Volvos and magic. And yeah, just kind of became like, you know, we get assigned a crone in which school in the third trimester, as I say, and Kiki assigned me a pronoun, I love my Chrome very much. But Kiki will always be my Chrome. And it doesn't matter what she says or how she tries to escape me. That's just how it goes. And I think I think losing my mother, when my child was four months old, was like, the biggest hardest thing that has ever happened to me, and then getting a divorce from a 28 year relationship. But then finding a village online of women who were ready to listen and share and try and find, you know, there's a balance in which school of magic spirituality, faith, and just to support, it's not therapy, it's just a love of listening, and a love of story. And I think that that Kiki has found that that place between activism and and the Goddess, and so yeah, and now, whatever she does, I follow her and I just want to, like, take my clothes off. Not in a sexy way, although everything is a sexy way. But I just mean, like I would, you know, I want to put my cape across any puddle for Kiki. It makes me blush. Finally.
Alexandra Hughes 8:00
We're gonna talk a lot about sexy ways in a minute. But Kiki, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and maybe tell our listeners just a wee bit about which school?
Kiki Keskinen 8:11
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm a wonky story of nature and nurture in that I was adopted at six months during like Expo 67. In Montreal, right, feminism was hot jazz, you know, all these hippies were coming into Montreal to take over and there was activism in the streets. And I was, you know, a product of that. Because these two teenagers thought, let's have sex on the side of Mount Royal on LSD. And nine months later, I was born. So you know, who's to say what I was meant to be other than I guess I always from that moment on, I was out there. And I met my birth mom at 38 years old, because she put me up for adoption through the City of Montreal. And our first conversation was, you know, filled with tears and laughter. But she sits me down and she says, I have to tell you something. I know that your adoptive parents raised you, you know, Christian, but you come from a long line of witches. And she said, I don't know how you feel about that. But I my mother came from Ireland, and so did your father. I've stayed in touch with him. We actually have a little glass of scotch over the phone, every birthday that you the day you were born. And we've stayed in touch, you know, 36 years we've stayed in touch. So, you know, I meet him a month later. And he says the same thing. You know, your background is from a small town in Ireland. And they were known for their wise women. And so I sort of start piecing together that I'm Seventh Generation witch. But what both of them didn't realise at that point is that I had been practising witchcraft, my whole life without knowing. So inevitably, there was a reckoning of both my genetic disposition, but also this rich connection to my ancestry, no matter what, how I was raised, it was in me. And I guess it always knew from my restless nature, people could just like babysitters, and my mom could just drop me in the forest, I'm ticked off all my clothes, wear rubber boots and run wildly in the ferns. No, I was that kid, an only child, no real, you know, cousins or anything. So just solo making potions in the forest, or commanding the wind, or casting spells, you know, all those fantastical ways that children do. And I had no idea that this was rooted in me in my bones in my marrow. And intuition didn't leave me like it did. Most people, I could just trance out the backseat car window, and start seeing images and colours, and maybe even foretelling the future. So by the time I was 1920 years old, I was craving a community of people like me, that had kind of been raised in Christianity and gone to Catholic private schools, and the patriarchy had tried to pound it out of me, but it was still there. And then between second wave feminism, and being a young mom, and finding a women's circle of women that were, you know, maybe 20 years older than me, they were in their 40s. I started looking around. And remember, I didn't know my birth mother at this point. But I was looking around at these women that were all about 19 years older than I was. And we started studying archaeology and anthropology. The work of Maria can Brutus, this genius of archaeologists that broke patriarchal ground and retelling the stories of Maitre lineal lines. And it sort of carved out a place in my heart that I'll never forget. And when I started blending, at Shoshana says stories with anthropology like Neolithic and Palaeolithic anthropology and archaeology, it started making sense. And then here comes, you know, the industrial revolution and Christianity and it sort of fucks with us all, anyone who's just on the parameters of the pious centre, who doesn't follow the rules and who questions or who happens to be, you know, pretty and turns the men on and they think, Oh, she's, like, cast an evil spell on me. You're just suddenly hunted as pretty good podcast. But this circle of women that I joined when I was 1920, and they were 19 years older than I was, we continued to circle for 18 years. And those women came from their own stories. But I knew that this feeling I had, was age old, and that women had been gathering like this. And not just women, by the way, like, let me just say witches and women, because I think mystics and all kinds of shaman people have nonbinary, three spirited, they have been put on the outside of the Centre for so long that we've we've almost reclassified our history to say they never existed, but they did. And we're only in kind of wanting that back now. So I see which school as a creation of that original circle that helped me reclaim so I meet my birth mother at 36 years old in Vancouver off commercial drive. And she takes me to the seawall and we start walking, and it's cold, brisk day, and we meet on my birthday, march 22. And she starts singing, reclaiming music songs like chants from the reclaiming collective in San Francisco. And she says, I bet you don't know them. Well, lo and behold, that's exactly the tradition that I followed and learned about from the books of like, Vicki noble and star hawk and I'd been to Vermont which camp and she suddenly reveals that she was the founder Have one of the founders of BC which camp and we start harmonising. And yes, you have the prickles up the back of your neck. So did I. And I was 36. And it started all making sense. So I brought Sally my birth mother to my home, fluor across. She doesn't like using up carbon footprint, but I flew her across. And I introduced her to all those women that taught me. And there were like a compilation of her. So which school was born out of a need, like the right wing in the US and the Trump campaign was starting to really rise and maybe a necessary evil because it made the pimple pop, right. And there was a moment where in the campaign headquarters, they were accusing Hillary Clinton of x y Zed, not that I'm a huge Hillary Clinton fan, it doesn't even matter. But the crowd started this mob chant, saying lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. And in that moment, I knew that the right was gaining ground, particularly the religious right, and that we would see another burning times. And that lock her up was so easily rolled off the tongue. And whether she was right or wrong, it didn't matter. The fact that that was so easy to reach for meant that the burning times the times where those on the outside of the search of the centre, were, as you your podcast is named were hunted that that genocide wasn't that long ago, and that it's so easily retrievable, almost as retrievable as my own inner spirituality. So which school came from me running to these elders of mine, a circle that I'd been circling with for 18 years. And I was like, we had to do something this is going to defeat every achievement we've made in second and third wave of feminism. Even though there's a lot of broken parts to those waves of feminism that we need to repair. They said, it's now up to you. And I realise this is the passing of the oral history is that activism has been alive and well. It's just been suppressed.
We can call that witchcraft. We can call it activism, we can call it feminism. It's based in story. And it's a good versus evil narrative, and there's a protagonist and antagonist. And those stories have lessons. And that's what I wanted to pass along is that people who were fighting the good fight for compassion and humanity and the longevity of our planet and our climate, needed a spiritual place, that they could be honourable to the land, and respect the indigenous traditions, both of their own place that they were born, but also of the land that they're visiting. Today, like I live in Turtle Island and Canada on Anisha knobby land, I have to respect the trees and the insects. I have to respect the people that stewarded this land, but I have to do it with spiritual support. And that's where which school was born was a spiritual place where people could listen and talk and learn and experience ritual and ceremony in an old way that supports the new work, the new effort that we need to make as activists. So in a way, it's like, activist training school. And so Shauna has been instrumental for me and the school because she's so well connected and building community in such a genius, funny, sweet way in Toronto. And I live in Chelsea, on a Shinobi Lanza next to Ottawa, complicated Nation's Capital. And like, Shanna has just been this and her community outreach programmes have just been this like beautiful extension of her leadership work in which school, which is part of what she calls the third trimester. So there's a long story about me and which school and how important leaders like Shoshana are in the world because they help to build community, which we all need right now.
Alexandra Hughes 19:58
Thank you, Kiki. What a story. What a story.
Shoshana Sperling 20:03
Oh, good.
Alexandra Hughes 20:05
You know what, like, I mean, so many tingles and chills and everything and tears. You know what's so funny? As I look at the three of us on the screen, I come from Kiki's where Kiki is right now from this edition of a land. And that's where I was raised that when I drive up north from Ottawa where I was raised into those hills, I feel this sense of belonging those my summers were there. And, and then I look at the bottom of the screen, it's your Shahada. And I like and this is where I am now. You know, I am right next to you in Toronto, not quite in Parkdale, but just from a neighbourhood over. And I just like this was just so meant to be this was just so meant to be. And I also love how you know, out which, out which community Sean has community, which we're going to talk about in a second and some this most beautiful offering that I really want to dive into is, you know, an extension of something that that feels quite rooted in one part of our stories. Does that make sense? Like I'm just so overwhelmed by it all i These serendipities, the serendipities and synchronicities. They never cease to amaze me, they never cease to amaze me the way things work out like this. Beautiful witch hunt listeners. If you agree that it's time for women to stop living from a place of social conditioning, where we play small by over functioning and holding ourselves back. And you'd like to explore awakening your soul and rising into your calling as the version of yourself that's unstoppable. And whole, then please check out my upcoming ceremonial workshop thrive. Wheel gatherings sacred circle on Friday, September 29, at 10am. Eastern, you can learn more at Alexandra hughes.com/rise. Link is in the show notes. And I'd love to see you there. So let's talk a little bit about sex magic. This episode is a little bit different. Because what I would usually do is just dive deeper and deeper and deeper into your stories. But we're gonna do that in two separate episodes in the future. So listeners stay tuned for those. But today we are really going to dive into what sex magic is. And I would like to ask some questions around like its history or history, the energetics. Can we begin by maybe? I don't know. Let's talk about how you guys got into it or learned about it. Like how did it come into your worlds?
Shoshana Sperling 23:07
Well, sex magic came to me through Kiki. So I mean, and she cast a spell. In my space. We did a workshop with last year. Yeah, we did it. It's who knows it's been a long decade. So Kiki came and taught a workshop here in my space. It was sort of an introduction to sex magic. And, you know, I got this group together had no idea really what we were doing and people were terrified. Like, what do I have to take off my shirt? Is she going to teach us how to to like, do I have to know how to get a latch with for breastfeeding? No, it's not like that. Stop it. Do I need to know what pegging is? No, you don't need to know any of that stuff. So people were really scared and it was hard to figure out how to sell it and what to talk about because they didn't really know myself. But because of my history with being in a not so great relationship and having a really how to say it not great relationship with my body. And with sex itself. This workshop was so so poignant and beautiful. And so Kiki introduced me to it and then I sort of went down the rabbit hole of like reading all the books and becoming obsessed and going back as we do as the witches do. Going back in time and looking at Aphrodite and looking at the Dark Moon What's that book Kiki that you? Something the Dark Moon Demetria George said her name. Yeah, her book I started reading that and and then looking at the ancient like I've just Mary Magdalene, like, I really think that she was sex magic. And we can follow it so far back and and so Kiki knows all the things so she's going to talk but that's just how I came to it. So I'm done. Wow,
Alexandra Hughes 25:16
thanks for Shana. That sounds like an amazing awakening. I'm so curious to learn more.
Shoshana Sperling 25:22
That's the that's the the the commercial. And now Kiki will tell you the actual content.
Kiki Keskinen 25:29
Yeah, we can't forget Lilith, right? We can't forget the goddess Lilith and her role in our mythologies. She was the wild one the temptress, you know, almost the flip side of Aphrodite. Right. And so Lilith put an imprint on our DNA. And I think that's, like imprint archetypes. Right, a good Jung In term. Carl Jung, like um, Haytham both. When you think about archetypes, like Arch A, A R ch. That means first in Latin, like the first and then type is the original word for story. So first implanted stories, they live in our bones, you know, we pass on all kinds of genetic dispositions, your nose shape, your eye shape, your eye colour, your hair colour. Well, we also pass on, you know, beliefs. They come through, I like to say, our marrow, the marrow within our bones. And those belief systems pass over and over and over from generation to generation. And so whether we think we are good, or we are bad, based on our six choices, or our willingness to be open to sexuality, may very well be imprinted on us from a long time ago. So when I think about Lilith and her wildness, I think about nature, I think about how when we look at a field, or trees, or how they entangle, and how they complement one another, or create chaos, that in a way that feels like the way sexuality should be. So I make this maybe environmental connection to sexuality. And I don't mean, look at a tree and imagine making love to it. But look at a tree and feel the feelings of making love with it. Put your hand on the bark, smell the Earth. Look at it. Like it's the most beautiful thing in the world. Show it the love that you would a lover? And yes, isn't it wonderful to put your if you can, you know topless body on it, just to feel what that feels like on your back. And to remember that if we love something so deeply, we're more likely to take care of it. So when you swim and skinny dip in the water, you know, when it just feels so luxurious and luscious. That's sex magic. It is the opportunity to commune so deeply, even romantically with nature. That by its very reflection, you feel your own natural self, your own extension to nature. So when I came to Shona and community outreach, and I said, Let's do a sex magic workshop, I want to test some things I'm I was invited by the reclaiming collective in San Francisco to go out there and do a couple of workshops with a new camp called pleasures of belting. And for those of you that love Beltane, as much as I do that spring thaw when everything is drippy and wet, and the rivers and creeks are rushing, and the moss is drinking feverishly. You know, when you're reading sensual poetry to yourself, you get it, you understand what Beltane is. So I was invited to go out west and teach some workshops to the reclaiming community. And I was so you know, in awe that they asked me, I thought, oh my gosh, for sure. I have to test this workshop on some people. So community out which created that testing community. So here's what we did, and we're going to do it again. The first day is always about building like, a kind of agreement with yourself. Because we have to know what our yeses are, and our nose. And so the wheel of consent This is probably the first agreement that we make. Because a yes is a yes. A no is a no. And a maybe is a no. And if we are going to try touching our hands in olive oil, which is one of the exercises we do just running our hands in and out of a bowl of olive oil. I mean, when do we allow ourselves that luxury of being in our bodies and feeling our hands rolling up and down? This oily surface and feeling the skin feeling the bones? Knowing that these olives were they're enriched with sunshine, and earth and rain? And then they're pounded into this oil? And then we're running our hands through it? Is this a full? Yes? Or is this? No, that's too slippery slinky. I don't like it. Or is this? Uh, maybe I'll try it. That's a no, until you're a fool. Yes. So that's one of the exercises is putting your hands in a vat of olive oil. It's not that erotic. But with the right context and the right visualisation of how olive oil came to be, we start feeling more connected to nature. And our bodies can absorb how good this feels. Another exercise we do insects magic, it's particularly on day one is, you know, putting a blueberry in our mouth. And remembering what created this blueberry, don't bite it. Just remember. So it comes up in August for most of us in our climate. But it has this tart, tight skin. It has a little nub on both ends. And if you run your tongue on it, it feels a little bit curious. And so you just hold that blueberry. And we take you through a visualisation of how that blueberry was formed. All the things that went into creating this beautiful, luscious blueberry. And don't bite it. Just feel it, roll it around on your tongue. Imagine what it might feel like bit, but don't bite it. And after enough time, and enough build up. Are you a yes? Are you a no? Are you maybe? And if you're a maybe you're a no. But for those of us that are a hell yes, you bite down on that blueberry. And it's like nothing you've ever tasted before. It's the most erotic sensual, sweet fruit that's almost unexpected based on how tart its skin is. And so that's an exercise in sex magic, where you're reconnecting with your senses, and pleasure and the earth, and what it's like to play with time and linger. So there's the olive oil exercise, and there's the blueberry exercise. This is just a sample of what it's like to feel in your body. Feel a simple pleasure, but build up using your mind, your magical attitude, and your connection to nature. Wow, that's just the solo day. Because we have to figure our wheel of consent out first, we have to figure out what it is to be with nature essentially. And then on day two, that's when we start imagining what it's like to share with another person. Whether you're in a relationship or not. It doesn't matter, you can come no matter what. On day two, we start talking about how to ceremony allies, how to set an intention together, how to use the erotic pleasures of our senses. Whether that's co breathing, you know, our sense of smell like so many of us are like I don't want to smell their breath. But what if you embrace their breath like it's a smell in nature.
Speaker 3 34:30
And you just get with it like most of the time people's breath smells like some or pillows or it smells like an herb. You know, our breath is part of what makes intimacy happen. And when we can breathe together and share each other's breath in, out in out. We can imagine what it's like to have a pleasure that is both singular and join together. And when you create that sense of rise and fall using breath, that makes all the other senses alive and awakened. For those listeners that know about breath therapy, you know that you're elevating a heightened sense of awareness when you start breathing circularly. And so, you know, the beautiful genius of tantric has taught us about how to breathe together, and how to share in our bodies pleasure together. So the second day closer on, you know, never at any point is like it expected that we're all going to enter into some, you know, big play party. This is just very simple exercises to be intentional, with our erotic sense of pleasure, to connect it with nature, and to build power together so that we can build a spell, we can build an intention, maybe my intention is, we are beauty. And so you come together during the blueberry exercise, and you swap the blueberries from mouth to mouth. That's a very intimate exercise, but we're swapping liquids all the time. So that would be a very quick synopsis of the sex magic type of exercises that we'll be doing in this workshop.
Alexandra Hughes 36:30
I'm really curious to hear I mean, first of all, like, even your descriptions of the olive oil and the the blueberry exercise, you know, they just, they are very sensual. They are very turn on. You know, it awakens it's titillating. Right, just just to hear the description. I'm curious, because I've recently been diving into a lot of the writings around Mary Magdalene, and yeah, schwa. And I remember hearing or reading that there is some historical evidence that they actually went to India and studied Tantra. And I'm just curious to know, and practice the art of sex magic, and that Jesus's mother was a high priestess, who also mastered the art of sex magic, but there has never been any description around what that is. And I'm curious to hear a little bit. And I'm sure listeners would also be like, fascinated by the history or the history of sex magic. Are you able to share some of that with us here?
Kiki Keskinen 37:50
I think my it's more experiential, right? Like, when you're experiencing a pause in nature, like just a simple pause in nature. And I think this is age old where archetypes like Mary Magdalene, or like witches of the past, would spend time in nature, they inevitably found that the cycles in nature were about an ecstatic dance. And so for me, I'm, I'm not necessarily an expert in the the history of biblical figures. I would leave that to Judith Wolk, who's our resident, which school Crone. But I'm deeply connected to the history of what it was like to observe the patterns and cycles in nature. So for instance, have you ever watched the hummingbird or the bumblebee take nectar? And really, if you can get close up, it's an enormously erotic experience they're having. They're taking in a liquid from a source, and they're holding it in a little pouch. And then they're propagating all over the place and sharing with others. So I think you know, as long as nature has shown us, the cycles of sexuality, we have been magical mimickers. Now, when I think about what it was what it must have been like to be part of a matrilineal nomadic tribe, travelling from one place to another in search of food or shelter, or care, and, and looking up at the sun and the moon, and identifying that my body is bleeding in time with others. I would inevitably match that to the cycles of nature, I would look at, and I would imagine that everyone around me would see me as a body type that could pod another being, I would look at that as being inherently part of nature, like the bees and the hummingbirds. That what is happening with our body types, whether we have these nibs or those niblets, or it doesn't matter, we're these incredibly magical beings that reproduce and bleed and don't die. That this is what people witnessed, since the dawn of time, as being in all an unexplainable. And so part of nature, because animals and humans follow the same bodily functions that we are part of the Earth, the trees, the insects, we are, mimicked, were based on them. And so here we are, as humans, like, all drunk on power and ego thinking, well, we have to conquer it. Like the myth of the frontier, you know, we have to Well, that's wild, so we better control it. And I think that's how we've treated the land. And in many ways, the patriarchy has wanted to control what they don't understand. And so when we think about sex magic, and the erotic and ecstasy and orgasm really I think that's happening all over the place. Just when dandy lion puff balls start floating through the air. i My I can't help but think that's just semen floating through the air. It's the same thing. Yeah,
Shoshana Sperling 42:14
it's a seasonal semen.
Kiki Keskinen 42:16
It's a seasonal semen Shana.
Shoshana Sperling 42:18
I saw no love that image of it's just like, well, it's it's semen time, everybody. That's why my allergies are acting up because I.
Kiki Keskinen 42:30
So that is my connection is to re remember, in your body, what your genetic disposition suggests about our interconnectivity with nature, and the cycles of life. I wouldn't necessarily know to go to a book and figure that out. I know lots of people do that good work, but I want to feel it in my body first.
Alexandra Hughes 42:59
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like for me, understanding that it exists, this reverent connection with nature that allows us to experience the sensuality, the eroticism, the orgasms in a way that is free of shame, in a way that is free of guilt, in a way that is not we are nature, right? That is natural. Give such peace, because you know, and I know, you said that you went to private Catholic schools, like so my mum went through lots of different religious kind of institutional experiments when I was growing up, and I followed her along and one was Catholicism, which we we were both baptised in, but I feel as though for me like knowing that it existed prior to this disconnect between nature and human between mind and body. And, you know, coupled with the shameful narrative around pleasure, and sexuality, let alone like binary you know, anything that's beyond the binary like not even talking about that I really love that science is now bringing to the fore that animals were like have had homos are homosexual, just as much as heterosexual and that that's been hidden because it wouldn't be accepted. I mean, just the truths that are coming forward. Now that gives us a freedom and kind of a permission to really detoxify the narratives that have held us back from this kind of I experienced truth that gives that it's not only like fertile and nourishing, but just all about pleasure, right? Like, isn't it just all about that
Shoshana Sperling 45:14
the reclaiming of pleasure and the reclaiming of nature, of us being nature of us being one with it, that is activism. When we accept or dig into or get curious or whatever, about the blueberry and, and feeling those things and reclaiming our bodies, we're taking it back from consumption from being something that's a commodity, right. And people always say, like, Oh, it's this Love Your Body stuff. And it's like, that is activism. Because the second you start to dig into what I am is nature what nature is, as me we are, well, one, like, how Kiki was saying, you don't blow up yourself, right? So you're not going to blow up nature. We are one. That's where activism lies. So for me Sex magic is about activism. Like it's not about orgasm. And I think it's really important because again, our society is so stuck in this masculine have like the goal is to a Jackie late. The goal is to have money. The goal is your product. I'm not saying money's bad. Kiki, don't get mad at me because I know money is the lubricant of life. But I'm just saying that we are teaching we are being taught. And we are teaching that there's always a product. And I don't think that that's what nature is. And so therefore I don't think that's what we are. The moon has to be dark in order to be whole. We have to have winter in order to have summer. Right. And so, what's for play? What's what's what's the timeline when we're dark? What like, if we're always saying where's the full moon? I want the full moon. It's that's not how how it works. So for me, what I learned from Kiki in the original, the introductory sex magic, a lot about consent was my own consent. It's not about saying yes to other people. It was about me knowing the difference between yes and no. Because I'm I am in the patriarchy. I swim in the waters of patriarchy. I'm a part of it. I'm not saying those guys are fucked. I'm fucked. We're all thought. Because this is where we are. So to be able to understand what does consent mean, for me? I didn't know. When we did that workshop. I was like, Yes, of course. Yeah. Do whatever. Yeah, let's go. It was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait. Who am I saying yes to? Why am I saying yes? Did I actually feel that? And that's why I really think this is what should be taught in schools. But that's just because we don't our kids do not know what consent is because I'm 53. And I do not know what consent is. Because I say yes to my family every single time they asked me for something. I say yes. Anytime somebody says Can I have this? Can I have that? Can I Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm Yeah, I'm a woman. It's like, you know, babies are born, they come out. And we go, Oh, it's a girl. Go and give to everyone. Oh, it's a girl. Go. Go. Go be codependent off you go now. Like that you were born like that? That is I mean, I know. I'm being hilarious. But that is what I learned. My brother does not have the same feeling. He walks into a room and says, Can someone get me a drink? Right? Like, I'm like, Oh, sure. I'll get it. It's not my house, but I'm getting it. So to me, that's consent. To me. That's sex magic. It's all the same.
Alexandra Hughes 49:26
Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's Thank you for saying that. I think that the all the same piece, the consent piece, like we just need to shout it out. You know, stand on the highest mountain with our multilingual megaphone and talk about that I'm not sure they're going to bring it into the school curriculum Shona quite yet.
Shoshana Sperling 49:53
They won't bring it in if we don't say Hey, can you guys bring it in? And I say you guys can That's who it is. Yeah. But I mean, really, I for years have been saying it's never gonna happen. Nothing's ever gonna not nobody's gonna. But we got to some at some point say, let's, let's suggest it.
Alexandra Hughes 50:14
But the other really important thing I think that you're speaking to is how the answers lie within. And instead of going to the answers and saying, Okay, does my body say yes to the blueberry or to getting my brother the drink? What is my body saying right now? It doesn't, it just goes to the unconscious narrative that we've been conditioned, or that lives in the, you know, the epigenetic story. And, and just gone there. And so with this reclamation and awakening, I think this piece about like, playing with blueberries and olive oil, and really like getting to know what your body is telling you how that compass that we are also blessed with that is made of stardust, and made of stones and earth and trees, you know, that is part of the earth. And perhaps because I feel we are so intimately connected to this planet, perhaps when we, I mean, our grandmother is saying, No, can you hear her? Can you see the fucking fires? She's saying, Stop. Right?
Shoshana Sperling 51:28
It does not consent.
Alexandra Hughes 51:29
She does not consent. She's had it. And I think many women are doing exactly the same thing with this wave that we're seeing happening. And maybe it's my algorithm, I always wonder, is it my algorithm? But you know, there is something happening here. So thank you for saying for saying that. I wanted to ask a question about manifestation. Because the first few times I've heard about sex magic, and I think this is really interesting and important to touch on, it was presented to me, or taught to me as a means of manifestation. And for me, now we're in this was only, like, within the last couple years, maybe even trying to think one year two years within that kind of a timeframe. But like you said, like a year now feels like a decade, right? Like even July for me feels like anyway, I'm now at a place where I feel as though that teaching that you do it when you want to manifest something is transactional, and how so much of what we learn in our relationship to the planet, in our relationship to spirit, and you know, our ancestors, and all that supports us that we cannot see, has been transit has been taught to us, or, you know, it. Yeah, that our relationship has been kind of taught role modelled as a transactional one. And so I'm curious to hear what your experience and take is on that. Teaching that well, sex magic is the best way to manifest something, and maybe it is. But I'm curious to know, like, what do you think about that?
Kiki Keskinen 53:26
Yeah. Well, I really tried to describe the solo experience. And that's day one of the two day workshop. And the solo experience is that we'll have consent, and then starting to explore what are real yeses and are real No, and understanding where we want to bend shape and spark? And what is it that we feel connected to, like we may not have access to, you know, all the plants and animals, we may not go swim in a river naked. Not everyone has those. But these are simple exercises that we can do at home. And so I want to make it accessible. When it comes to manifestation, I think once we do that groundwork with the elements, like understanding our relationship to the sun, that produces these items, the the rain that comes that gives these these these fruits, what they need in order to be sweet, then I think we can start playing with the next layer, which is well, how do we look at other humans that way? How do we look at them with the same sense of awe and wonder that we do like we did in the first exercise with a pause in nature with trees? How can we Hold a little distance, because we spend a lot of time as humans trying to find our, our fucking twin, you know, like, I just want to merge with you, you know. And the reality is we are separate individuals that are choosing another. And if we can enter into that relationship of intimacy, having our own, you know, some people say, do your own work first? Well, sometimes we need another person to rub up against, you know, to figure out, how do I feel about this, that and the other. But if we can connect with our own bodies first, then we can bring that knowing to another. And hopefully, they also are curious about their own bodies. And so from an by the way, I'm using like, this dual binary way of talking, but I know three couples that love my sex magic workshop, because they can build together something that's mutual amongst the three of them or more. So, you know, don't be afraid if you think, Oh, this is just for couples only. It's not, you can come as a solo person you can come as someone who's, you know, not monogamous, or someone who's in a lifestyle, it's all welcomed. But first, you have to know what is your own sense of aliveness, your own sense of wonder. So, and that's like a ritual, right? Like, we don't just take on a ritual or a ceremony or manifestation without doing some of that kind of inner work of uncovering what it is that you want. So that when you set an intention, for a ceremony, like we're planning in the second day, it's doable, it's it's workable, and it's something that with your two intentions together, you are raising energy, I mean, that's what bodies together can do. That's what a hummingbird and a flower do together. That's what trees and sunlight do together is they raise energy together. And you can use the power of your senses. And we haven't talked much about your senses, but taste, touch, smell, sound, intuition, these senses culminated together, you can build a ceremony, so that you have a joint manifestation of something. And if you choose to raise energy during your exploration, your sensual exploration, again, doesn't have to be sex doesn't have to be that part goes into that part. It can be a sensual exploration, and raising energy from doing that, and then reaching the charge. Right. And I don't want to say that the charge is the orgasm, because not everyone can orgasm. But there's so many other layers to sensuality, that are heightened, you know, for those that don't come by the great, you know, pelvic orgasm, many don't. But they have ecstatic experiences nevertheless. And you know, in this day and time, we're all looking back to like, mushroom medicine and, you know, plant medicine and how can we get ecstatic states using, we outsource it through nature, but actually, we can do it through our own senses. And if you do it together with someone else with an intention, you can raise your senses to a point and a very simple exercise and I encourage your listeners to dry this sit with someone else could be your child, it could be your, your relative, your friend doesn't have to be a romantic partner, sit with them and start humming like a bee and start matching your harmonics together and set an intention beforehand and see whether you can raise your harmonics your vibrational humming together so that it rises up like a cone of power. Imagine visually that you're raising a spiralling cone and maybe it gets louder or higher. And then just when you reach the point where you can't go any further, just try going a little bit further. And then sing out loud your intention, your manifestation and then breathe and then return that cone of power back down through humming and quieting down your humming and then hold your hands down on the earth and maybe your forehead down on the earth and then hold a kind of stillness and see if that had a vibrational effect on Both of you with a sharing afterwards. And I can guarantee most people will have through it. And that's a fun sensory experience to they're laughing at themselves or laughing at the other, I'm pretty confident that by raising energy through our senses, we are manifesting a ceremony in a ritual together. And it doesn't have to be this body part goes into that body part. Although you can do it through a deep kiss, and you can hum into each other's mouths. And that too, can raise it, you might break out in laughter, and that's part of it. But if you have somebody that you'd like to kiss, that can be a fun thing, too. So there's an exercise of creating ritual and ceremony that we will design in day two of this workshop. And we'll design it based on your individual wants and wishes for the world, and what role you want to play in that world. Because I call it witch school, it means that we are a part of the healing process. I think as witches, we use our sex magic, to be a vessel for healing and transforming our own world, and thus the world around us.
Alexandra Hughes 1:01:27
Thank you. That's so poignant. I just like I said, I get excited, just listening to your description.
Shoshana Sperling 1:01:38
Awesome. Like,
Alexandra Hughes 1:01:40
I'm trying to figure out who I'm going to home with i and how I'm going to explain this to my husband. Anyway, that's another story. But let's share the details around the workshop. Where is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? How people sign up and we will put the link in the show notes. So listeners if you're interested and in Toronto, right? Yep. And in Toronto, then check it out. Please come
Shoshana Sperling 1:02:15
in September 31. No, 30 there is no 31 in September. There's a trick to figure that out listeners. Which month has 31 days in which has 30 Okay, but anyway, it's September 30 and October 1. And it is in Toronto at community. Oh, which WWW dot community. Oh which.com. And you can register there. And it is at 25 O'Hara Avenue in Parkdale. So it's just north of Queen and just west of Dufferin. In Toronto. Mr. Shawn has a beautiful house. So beautiful house. And yeah, it's it's a very private space. And we have inside and outside and there's going to be lunch. And I just have to say that because I'm a Jewish. So I explained, I can't not talk about the naszym there's gonna be some gnashing and everyone will be satiated. There will be a pre interview with Kiki to make sure that everybody knows what they're getting into. And that if they have any questions or anything, Kiki is the most open and all you give her she's been why? Why have we taken so long to have Kiki with us? And Kiki, do you want to talk? Is there any other detail that?
Kiki Keskinen 1:03:55
Yeah, I think that this space is perfect for eight people. I'm bringing my boyfriend Ryan. And so he is excited about this as well. And he knows that I'm going to have a lead role in facilitating, but he's also wanting to, like be the mask a masculine energy for me, and I really appreciate that. So, you know, I invite like, my trans friends, my queer friends, my non binaries, my solos, my lifestyle players, anyone that feels that the pleasure of nature is possible. And as Shauna says is a radical act of joy. You know, I have a daughter and she's a trans woman in Toronto, and she says right now her radical activism is at 27 years old, is to be one of the first generations of trans women to feel joy, to wake up every day and be happy. And that that is a radical act for this generation. And I hope that I can encourage all kinds of folks who are breaking new ground that are activists in their day jobs in their lives, to see sex magic as a part of their spiritual practice that can heighten their lives with new energy and new pleasure and make them feel more alive in their activism. So it starts at I think, 10 o'clock now and it ends up for both days, you can come for one day, but the ideal is to come for both. And come as you are, I think some people might want to try some of the exercises, you know, maybe they, they want to try it underneath a bedsheet because they want to remove their top and, or they want to feel a part of their body, but we're going to uphold to group consent. And I would say that it is not like a naked party. It's one where we're going to hold respect. And so if you feel like you want to try out some things and remove clothes, we're going to do bedsheet like forts, and we're gonna use our senses and our wheel of consent to be respectful of one another, and to care for our own bodies, the people that are around us to really explore the possibilities of this kind of pleasure, as a radical activism.
Alexandra Hughes 1:06:48
I love the relationship being created, not being created, being highlighted around pleasure and activism, and radical revolutionary joy. But the other thing that came to me, as you were both speaking was how, I think a lot of women, myself included, are practising this to some form through more, very simple, but very simple rituals that bring us into reverent connection with nature, sipping tea, you know, and really taking it in with some honey or maple syrup. Picking raspberries this summer, for me was like this incredibly magical experience, hugging trees, you know, which I've done forever. But now, I understand why. Right, like why it felt like that. So thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you for coming on the witch hunt podcast. It's been such a pleasure to learn from you and to talk about this important work that you're doing. And yeah, listeners, like if you're around, do it. I'm excited. I'm so excited.
Shoshana Sperling 1:08:12
Thank you so much for having us and highlighting this work and raising our voices up to get it out there. And if people aren't in Toronto, but they want to come to Toronto, this is a good excuse.
Kiki Keskinen 1:08:28
Alex, thanks so much. You asked such good questions, and I really like to get to know your audiences. So thank you so much for offering this podcast. I think it's so important in the world.
Alexandra Hughes 1:08:45
Thank you beautiful for listening to the witch hunt podcast. We appreciate your presence and are so honoured that you're here. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review, subscribe and share it with your friends. One great way to share is by taking a screenshot of the podcast on your phone and posting it on your Instagram story. Please tag us at the witch hunt podcast so that we can help share to spreading the word like this will help us to find more witches, and to wake more witches. Now you know what it's time to do? Dance it out to the groovy tunes of bass that I knew, which means I miss you in Spanish. It's by gametize. So next time
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
