Alexandra Hughes 0:12
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 vecchio Hughes, who identifies as all three of these sacred types 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.
Hello, and welcome to the witch hunt, podcast. And welcome to the Roman Gregorian calendar year of 2024. I am so delighted to have you here. I'm going to begin our podcast today in a bit of a different way. I'm going to begin with a land acknowledgement. It's with gratitude and respect. I acknowledge all of creation and my place within it. I live and work on the shared territory of the hardened assignee, the Mississaugas of the credit, the initial Nabi, the Chippewa and the Wendat peoples, now known as C, Toronto, or Toronto, I strive to live in a way that promotes reconciliation and meaningful relationship building between all peoples of this land, and how we care for it. And I just like to add that I encourage our listeners to reflect on your role in reconciliation with the peoples indigenous to the land that you're on, and to learn about them and the land. And you can do that by going to www dot native dash land dot C A, the reason that land acknowledgments are important, in addition to really honoring the stewards of these lands, the knowledge holders and keepers is also because it helps to situate us in place and in time, and helps to remind us of our own ancestry, whether it be indigenous, settler, or mixed, telling us that we too have in our bones, memories, of lands, the wisdom of ancestors who lived in harmony with the Earth, even if it was 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of years ago. And even if our conscious minds can't remember, I like to, in the land acknowledgement. remind myself that the ancient wisdom that my ancestors held around living in harmony, in reverence with the Great Mother exists in my bones. And so today I want to talk a little bit about the Wheel of the Year. Because a lot of the time, we simply assume that the way things are have always been in that way. And this isn't true. The Gregorian calendar is the Roman calendar. Prior to that calendar. There were lunar calendars that followed the 13 moons of the year and there are still lunar calendars that are used in ritual amongst different communities and in different countries even around the world. I want to talk a little bit about our place in time and how it is represented through through a pagan view, what is often referred to as the Wheel of the Year and I'm going to be reading from a book. This is one of the very first witch books that I bought. It's by Marissa Mayer Now Scott, and it's called the witches herbal apothecary. And I really love the way she brings together the seasons, the moon cycles, the stages and phases that a woman goes through throughout her life and weaves ritual and plant magic into all of it. So if you are either new to witchcraft or a seasoned which I really encourage you to find this book, rituals and recipes for a year of Earth magic and sacred medicine making the witches herbal apothecary, and I will add that in the show notes, so in this book, Marissa talks about the Wheel of the Year. She says, The Wheel of the Year is a visual depiction of the cyclical nature of seasons and time. It's used in many traditions of modern pagan cosmology. The wheel is divided into quadrants, which marked the beginnings of the Four Seasons and correspond to the four major Earth worshipping celebrations of the equinoxes and solstices. The four quadrants are each divided again, marking the middle points of the seasons and the cross quarter Holy Days associated with those moments in time. Although the wheel itself is a modern depiction, our ancestors of diverse lands and cultures celebrated these sacred moments of the sons journey of growth and retreat. They celebrated the glory and might have the sons peak of strength at the summer solstice, when the day is the longest of the year, and the Holy darkness of the winter solstice when the night is the longest, and we pray for the rebirth of the sun. They celebrated the moments of balance at the Spring and Fall equinoxes, when the days and nights are of equal length, marking the beginning of waxing and waning cycles of nature. To an earth worshipping pagan, it is clear that many of today's Judeo Christian holidays are riding a wave of celebration that goes back to pagan festivities. Easter and Passover, for instance, incorporate symbols and practices that are more ancient than Christianity and Judaism. They celebrate the renewal of the Sun su N, or sun S O N, reborn in the spring. She goes on to say that a witch is a person who works with the cycles of nature to create transformation and magic. Therefore, we use the sacred moments on the Wheel of the Year as portals to connect powerful energies of the earth and sun. We weave the regenerative currents of nature's energy into the medicines we make the rituals we embody, and the offerings with which we feed the land spirits, our loved ones and ourselves in the solar year. The season of winter connects us to the energy of the Northern portal, spanning the months of December, January and February in the northern hemisphere, with the winter solstice. That happened this year on December 21 22nd. Marking the portal of darkness when many cultures pray for the rebirth of the sun. In the wheel of our lives, the North corresponds to the archetype of the Crone, the hag the hermit and the mystic. We arrive in the winter after releasing worldly obligations and linear doings in the fall, becoming lighter and more fluid so that we can dissolve into the void consciousness and merge with the great mystery. Our only work is to unravel ourselves so that we can drop deeply into restorative rest and deep sleep. There we enter the slow brainwaves which renew cells and bring harmony to our body functions. spiritually. In this state of deep rest, we dissolve our ego consciousness and our separate sense of self into the fertile darkness. In the moment of oneness with the fertile void, something mysterious and utterly magical occurs. We become pregnant with the dream of Gaia. After this merging with the void consciousness, we begin to stir awake and bring our energy back to ourselves awakening our boundaries of self. Only this time, a part of the great mystery remains in us an energetic imprint of the dream that Gaia is dreaming into being This dream becomes a seed. And while the gateway of the darkness and void consciousness is most secret and often feared or rejected, it's from this very fertile nothingness that the first spark of life emerges. Without death, there is no life, quote, die before you die, and quote said the Prophet Muhammad. In the portal of the North, we learn how to die. Here, we dissolve here we become wise, by realizing we know nothing at all. And we practice and get better at surrender, at bowing before the great mystery at releasing control, at dying, over and over and over again,
this is what the Earth does every winter. And as my relationship with the earth and her cycles deepens, I also feel myself called to slow down to rest. And sometimes, if a cold or a flu will take me over, I am really drawn under, under this sheets under the blankets under the covers, to sweat to fever, to lie there frustrated with my ruminating thoughts to dream. And this is exactly what happened to me just days before I was to lead an in person Solstice ceremony in December. When I woke from that, what felt like being dragged down into the darkness by the Goddess, it happened very quickly. But when I woke from it, I was inspired to share a myth that I had recently learned, that I felt very much spoke to where we find ourselves now astrologically. And this is the myth of the goddess the in wheat goddess Sedna. So I am not in wheat. And there are many versions of this story. The version I'm going to share with you today is a personal interpretation and adaptation drawn from research of many of these stories. And I do make an effort to draw on those stories that came directly from Inuit voices, and that were shared orally, mostly on YouTube videos. So I'm going to try to merge the different interpretations a little bit. And in the end, the, the the lessons and the symbolism are the same. So it goes something like this. Said now lived with her father, alone with their Husky dogs. She was a maiden, who was very sought after and suitor after suitor after suitor would come and ask to marry her, and she rejected all of them. And her father was very frustrated by this. In one version of the story, when her father goes out to hunt, and to fish, Sedna, goes off on long walks with her beloved dog, and every night she returns with her dog to be with her father, so that he's not alone. In another version of the story, setting up falls in love with a raven Shapeshifter who takes her away to his land to be his wife. But let's go back to the dog version. So sadness father becomes very frustrated with her and starts to ask her why why will you not accept any of these amazing input suitors? And she finally because he's just at his wit's end finally explains to him that actually her dog is a shapeshifter, and her lover and her husband and every day when they go for a walk, they go to his igloo, and they live together but because she doesn't want to leave her father alone, she always returns back to him with her husband, in the form of a dog. This is so taboo in Inuit culture, to marry a shapeshifter to be with to be in part Your ship with a shapeshifter. And so her father is livid and becomes terrified of being cursed by his daughters choice. So that's one version. In the other version, her father, when the spring breaks the ice on the sea, goes in his kayak to visit his daughter who has married this Raven, Shapeshifter who came disguised as a man and see how she's doing. And when he arrives to this land, he sees that his daughter is not being treated well at all. And that all the promises made by this incredibly handsome suitor, who was disguised as a human but is actually a raven, were empty promises. And Sedna is so unhappy. And so in both cases, Sedna ends up on a kayak with her father in the ocean. And in the case of the dog, the father takes her in with the intention of killing her, because he knows that that's what's necessary has to get rid of his daughter in order to save his life because what she's done is just so taboo. In the case of the Raven, he takes his daughter onto the boat in an effort to bring her back. But when the Raven finds out, that his wife has been taken him and the Arctic birds fly over the ocean, and they dip their wings into the ocean to cause the storm. They're so angry sadness father, in that version of the story pleads to the gods pleads to Raven, you can have my daughter just spare my life. And he throws Sedna over the boat. And in the case where he takes her in, because he believes that she's with her dog shapeshifting husband, he throws her over the boat as a sacrifice for similar reasons. Now, Sedna is not about to just die the early death, right? So she comes and she clings onto the boat with her frozen fingers. But her dad's freaking out, he's full of fear. He's full of a sense of betrayal, and rage. And so he takes his sharp fishing knife, and he begins to cut her fingers off. And as he cuts her fingers off, they fall into the water. And they start to turn into marine mammals, which, according to this legend, didn't exist before the sea was full of fish, but there were no mammals. And so her fingers as they drop into the water become narrower whales, and seals and walruses. And eventually, Sedna runs out of fingers, and she has nothing to hold on to. And so she begins to drown and make her descent to the bottom of the sea. And the legend is that as she drowns as she goes deeper and deeper and deeper, she metamorphosis into the Sedna that we know today, which is the goddess of the sea. And she is responsible for the food source that comes from the sea to the Inuit people. And when there is abuse of this food source, overfishing, maybe wasteful use of the animals that are caught, she gets pissed off, and she causes a storm. So Sedna is not one of those smiley, happy goddesses she gives from her bounty, but only when honored and only when done in balance. And the other beautiful thing about this story, which is the creation story, but it is also a story of death and rebirth.
Is that said enough? followed her heart she followed her. Got she went for it. She went for what was different, even if it was taboo. And when she was brought back or attempted to be brought back to Justice brought back to her community brought back to her family, she learned that it wasn't possible to go back. Once we step into our awakening, once we step into our power, there is no going back no matter how much we yearn for it for that simple life of ignorance, there's no going back. And instead, you met him more faiz over and over and over. And so in trying to hold on to the safety that the patriarchal systems offered her, her fingers were cut off, and her power, and her goddess nature came to life. And so I want to talk a little bit about the astrology of our time. And how, during these weeks of the year initiating around the solstice, the sun was in alignment with the galactic center. And so the galactic center is essentially the black hole, the fertile void of everything, right. And when the sun hangs out there, it's really inviting us into this mystery. The mystery of the darkness, right? One of the astrologists that I have gotten into lately, her name is Heather Ainsworth, she speaks a lot about Sedna, actually, she says that, when we only focus on the light and what's visible, then we're caught in that paradigm of scientific materialism that keeps us from deeper wisdom from honoring what is in the mystery. And I really feel like right now, particularly given where the earth is relative to the sun, we're being invited into that mystery. But there's something else that is just so magical about this time. And it's that said Na is actually the name of a dwarf planet in the outermost reaches of the solar system that was discovered in 2003. And her orbit is one of the largest in the solar system. It takes Sedna approximately 11,400 years to orbit the sun, she has an exceptionally elongated orbit. She was discovered by Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of Gemini Observatory and David Rabinowitz of Yale University on the 14th of November. And it said that one of the reasons that she was named Sedna is because of her traditional location at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, which reflected sadness, large distance from the Sun. So in other words, this orbiting dwarf planet goes into depths that are so far and unimaginable darknesses mysteries that we have yet to and may never discover. And right now, Neptune is in Pisces, in aspect with Sedna, who's at 29 degree of Taurus and all of these, this is squaring the sun. So Neptune is in Pisces squaring the sun, in aspect with Sedna, who's in Taurus. And this invites us to really honor and open up so that we can dive into the currents of change and dissolve old ways of being allowing us to transmutate to alchemize ourselves. And as we alchemize ourselves, we alchemize our families, our communities and the world in new ways. And Pisces is also about letting go of judgment and opening more fully into compassion, compassion for yourself, and for others. But let's talk a little bit about Sedna because her placement in Taurus is really important. We've got the sun inviting us into the mystery and sadness smack dab at the end degrees of Taurus ready to step into Gemini inviting us to reflect on our relationship with the earth. Remember, she's all about balance. And she's also about forced release of those systems and structures that we thought were keeping us safe. But that we're actually holding us back from our true goddess power. And so I know it's January, and we're all about fresh starts and new beginnings. But I want to invite you to really take in the vibe, take in the energies of the earth, and the cosmos around us. And feel into the lessons that come from slowing down from resting, and from relaxation, maybe messages and illuminations that are that are coming in through your dreams, whether they be nighttime dreams, whether they be during your meditations, or just daydreams, what is coming to you. And some really fun questions to play with at this time might be around what you want to stand for in 2024? And how you want to show up in order to honor this? Who is the version of yourself that you need to be in order to stand for what you're here to stand for this year? And what do you need to do daily, in order to show up in this way, and so I want to leave you with this understanding of the Wheel of the Year, it's holy days, this goddess myth of creation, death, rebirth, a reflection on your own many deaths, or Maxi deaths, and rebirths that happen over and over and over again, as you evolve and grow into that version of yourself that you were born to be, as opposed to the version of yourself that you were told you should be. And to just take this next little while, especially if you're in the northern hemisphere, to take it slow, one of the most pivotal practices that I integrated into my life in 2019. And I have to give credit where credit is due here it was introduced to me by a woman called Kate Northrup is cyclical living. And to me at that time, what that really meant at a very basic level, was honoring my hormonal cycle. So really being aware of where I was at in that cycle, and then planning my activities so that they aligned with my chemistry, my hormonal set up and my energetics. So for instance, when I was bleeding when I was in my menstrual phase, I would take it slow, I would rest. And when I was in my follicular phase, I would start to plan and brainstorm ideas and projects. And when I was in my Abila, Tory phase, I would be social. And maybe that's when I would do podcast interviews, for instance. And then when I was in my luteal phase, I would organize and I would tick all the boxes and close things out preparing again, for rest.
The impact this had on my productivity blew my mind. And so then I started exploring other cycles, and diving deeper into the moon and her cycles, and then the seasons and her cycles, and then the planets and their cycles and their orbits, learning all about how every single natural thing or being is cyclical on the planet. If you are interested in learning about that I have a free guide called this cycle and you can access that at Alexandra hughes.com/the cycle. But something that has made a remarkable difference for me is honoring the cycle through ceremony on holy days. I have experienced the power of ceremony, the transformative power of ceremony as a participant in ceremonial circles, principally with a woman called Sarah Jenks. She has also been on the podcast, check out episode number 36. If you want to tune into that, and this last year, I began to unknowingly experiment with a combination of modalities that have come to be my way of honoring these holy days through ceremony. And while I have held many ceremonies online to my beautiful online community, I have only held one in person ceremony and that was on this past December solstice at community out which this is a community center for witches here in Toronto, run by an incredible Jew which Shawna Sperling, and you can learn all about Shauna story and about community out which and how it came to be, as well as a little bit about loose l us Zed, which means light in Spanish. And that is the name that we gave to the incredible solstice celebration that we had, in this celebration, I shared exactly what I've shared with you in this podcast. So I shared where we were at, as a planet, visa vie the other cosmic energies around us. And I shared the myth of Sedna. And together, we reflected on those questions after going through a series of rituals that supported the release of what no longer serves, and the embodiment of the version of ourselves that we are stepping into. And it came to my attention, given the fact that well, let me talk a little bit about witch hunt. If you've listened from the very beginning, you know that witch hunt came to me as a divine download while I sat on the Mediterranean in between my international move from Brazil to Canada. I know that sounds strange, but while they were shipping our things from Brazil, up to Toronto, we spent we had the privilege of spending the summer on the Mediterranean where my husband is from. And so, I was simply instructed, as I sat there meditating, you will do a podcast and it will be called Witch Hunt, the trailer copy everything just came to me so easily as it was meant to. So witch hunt is now it was born in 2021. It is now just over two years old. And we I'm celebrating because we have reached nearly 8000 downloads. And we've done that with organic promotion, really, and self well out of pocket funding. So it is a huge accomplishment. And I just want to thank all the listeners for listening for coming back time and time again for any reviews that you have shared. All of this matters so much. And now drumroll please. I am so excited to share with you another witch hunt related download that came to me not on the Mediterranean sadly. But it came to me last night at I as I was sitting by my fire, pondering how to support the ongoing production and growth of the witch hunt podcast. The download is so beautiful in its simplicity and in its communal nature, and I'm really really excited because it will allow not only listeners to get to know one another, but also for me to get to know you and for you to get to know me so here's how it'll work. Witch Hunt listeners who join what I am calling the witch hunt collective will have access to 13 hour long, full moon women's circles with me. So these full moon women's circle holes are a curated sacred space for witches and the witch curious. These are no judgement zones where we're going to come together in sisterhood to share our experiences, The Good, the Bad, and the ugly. And to share our wisdom. I will guide you through meditations, visualizations, we'll do tarot card polls, we will burn cleansing herbs, and we will explore all witch related topics. And we'll do this under the energy of the full moon every single moon cycle for the next 13 moon cycles, so for an entire year. And here's the best bit when you become a member of the witch hunt collective. You also gain access to my for seasonal ceremonial workshops, including having first dibs to join in person. So these seasonal ceremonial workshops and I've referred to loose already, they are powerful. They're designed specifically as portals to self discovery and empowerment, a sacred time and space to harness the energetics of earthly and cosmic cycles in support of your individual and of our collective healing and thriving. So to join the witch hunt collective, you can choose to pay either annually, or monthly. If you pay annually, it's $400. If you pay monthly, it's $37. This offer is going to be available until March 20. And it's going to be priced in Canadian dollars until the end of January. So this is a super deal right now, for our US listeners. And I'm going to be capping our collective somewhere between 30 and 40 women. So because this just landed for me last night, I haven't had time to put a sales page together. But I did want to share it with you. If you are keen, then please send me an email at Alex at in essence coaching.com And I'll put my email in the show notes. And just put in the title, which hunt collective or the collective. And I'll get back to you with everything you need to know. So that we can jump into our first full moon circle together already on January 25. I think the 25th is the next full moon. It's a full moon in leo, it's gonna be a powerful one, and I cannot wait to share it with you. I'm just so excited about this offer where I get to bring you all into community with one another. And with me, it just feels like the most natural and beautiful next, Win Win witch hunt step. I'm so excited about it.
And before I jump off, I just wanted to let you know what we have coming your way this season. Our first interview will be with an incredible visionary and mother who has transformed her life story and woven in her conscious mothering experience to create something called the first moon manual. I am so excited to introduce you to Jessica Mytho Yean a woman born in Utah, conditioned under pretty conservative patriarchal norms, who broke through and is now a period positivity activist, and creator of this most beautiful collaborative project called the first moon manual so you will get to meet her on the next episode. And following that episode, you will get to meet an incredible old soul evolutionary astrologer who takes astrological readings to the next level, in that she is able to actually help you to identify your soul calling for this earth walk by simply looking at your chart. Get ready to meet Evelyn Marie Crete who also happens to be from my hometown Ottawa, Canada, which is pretty exciting. So as always, our episodes will air on the new moon and the full moon of every month. Wishing you all the magic that winter offers if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, the rest the respite the reflecting the dreams I invite you to open yourself up to the messages that may come open yourself up to any shadow work that's calling you in and to bring along with it. Sadness, courage, her bold, non negotiable drive to do what feels right, even if it's scary, and her invitation and call for a more balanced relationship with our great mother. And so it is. Thank you beautiful for listening to the witch hunt podcast. We appreciate your presence and are so honored that you're here. If you enjoy 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 take 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 gamma skies. Till next time
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
