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 Alexandra Raquel 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
Jesica Medellin 1:31
I think that I'm in the beginning of learning how to really embody the divine feminine, how to embody being a witch. And I think that all women are inherently born that way, right? We're, we're born with this innate power inside of us. And it's been suffocated for so long. It's been pushed down and told it's wrong. And we've hidden that intuition, even though our intuition is what would guide so many great decisions in so many creative endeavours and so much of the beautiful gifts of the world, right, so. So I'm finally leaning into that time of life where I'm learning about it even more, and I'm starting to tap into it.
Alexandra Hughes 2:16
Hello, and welcome to episode 49 of the witch hunt podcast where I have the privilege of introducing you to, and you have the privilege of meeting Jessica Medellin, a woman who was born in Utah, raised to conform to very conservative patriarchal values, and someone who faced blatant sexism in the school system as a teacher. Yet, she found herself leaning into the rise of the divine feminine. This is a story about a woman, a mother who decided that enough was enough, and that she would take her experience and gifts and package them up in a way that would ensure her daughter wouldn't have to face what she did. I just love stories like this, I highly doubt that most girls Menasheh experiences were as traumatic as my own. But I can pretty much guarantee that with Jessica's manual in hand, the next generation of menstruating humans will be liberated from the internal narrative, that bleeding makes us dirty and sinful, and instead be able to honour their bodies and their cycles. To find power in the red thread lineage. We are all so beautifully a part of I'm so excited to be sharing this conversation with you, and all of Jessica's beautiful energy and magic. But before I do, I wanted to let you know that I've heard something that I'm super excited about too. And I'm really excited about sharing it with my beloved which have listeners. It's called the witch hunt collective. And it's designed for those seeking community seasoned witches and the witch curious alike. So here's a quick summary of how it works. The witch hunt Collective is a 13th moon experience that combines for in person seasonal ceremonial gatherings, with 13 less formal Full Moon women's circles. In other words, when you join the witch hunt collective, you gain access to two sets of gatherings. The first is 13 hour long, full moon women's circles with me online. These Full Moon women's circles are a curated non judgmental, safe space for self reflection and rest. There are no judgement zones, where we'll come together and sisterhood to share our wisdom and our experiences. I want you to think intention setting accountability and integration support guided meditations, tarot card polls, burning of cleansing herbs and the exploration of all witch related topics including what we talked about on witch hunt. Also, you'll get access to my for seasonal ceremonial workshops, and first dibs to join in person. So these four ceremonial workshops will take place on the solstice, the summer solstice, the winter solstice, and on the fall and spring equinoxes. To join the collective go to Alexandrahughes.com/witchHuntcollective, you can choose to pay $400 annually, or $37 a month. And this offer will be available until March 20. And it will be priced in Canadian dollars until the end of January. We've already got an amazing group of women gathering. So I have decided to cap the group somewhere between 30 and 40. If this is something that's calling out to you, I really encourage you to join earlier rather than later. I'm super excited. Here's to a year of sisterhood and Moon magic together. I'll leave the link in the show notes. And now let's meet Jessica. Welcome, Jessica to the witch hunt podcast, I'm so delighted to have you here to share your story and to share your most beautiful gift that like it seems to me is just born at such a perfect time for our younger sisters.
Jesica Medellin 6:26
Thank you so much. I appreciate having being on your show. Thank you.
Alexandra Hughes 6:31
Yeah, it's gonna be such a great conversation. Okay, so could you please give us the honour of an introduction?
Jesica Medellin 6:41
My name is Jessica Medellin. I am in an author, a creator, a visionary, a mom, a wife. Not necessarily in that order. They all seem to mesh together. I have a master's degree in curriculum and instruction design. And my undergrad was in journalism and communications. So I'm very much about the written word and about how, you know words can move us to have actions and all those things. So I taught for like 10 years, I was an administrator for an after school programme. And now I'm here working on spreading the word about like period positivity.
Alexandra Hughes 7:23
Yeah, yeah. And, and I love how everything that you've done has culminated in this beautiful gift that you're going to share with us today. But let me first ask you, because it's interesting that you were attracted to the podcast. And so I'm curious to know, what was it about a podcast called Witch Hunt? That called to you?
Jesica Medellin 7:50
I think that lately in my, I'm not going to say lately it's been a few years in my search for the divine feminine and my own dabblings in how women have been portrayed, and the ostracization that they've been through passing that word, right? When I saw your podcast name, it drew me to it because I knew I wanted to kind of be part of that. Like, I'm often saying, like, is this what our mothers or grandmothers just much older now? Is this what our grandmothers burning their bras for? Right? Like I'm kind of in this divine feminine awakening time, and I just knew that this was a podcast that felt very aligned. I
Alexandra Hughes 8:30
love I love that you say is this what our grandmother's burned their bras for? I really firmly believe that it is I feel like we're taking it that one next step, you know, and like with each wave of feminism, we come closer to a liberation that's rooted in ancient wisdom. At least that's my take. But so so how What's your relationship with the words that I use all over the place like priestess in which
Jesica Medellin 9:01
I think that I'm in the beginning of learning how to really embody the divine feminine, how to embody being a witch, and I think that all women are inherently born that way, right? We're, we're born with this innate power inside of us and it's been suffocated for so long. It's been pushed down and told it's wrong. And we've hidden that intuition, even though our intuition is what would guide so many great decisions and so many creative endeavours and so much of the beautiful gifts of the world, right, so So I am finally leaning into that. Tom my life where I'm learning about it even more, and I'm starting to tap into it. And I am enjoying this process. And I'm really enjoying the part like, I don't have to be a certain way. I don't have to do certain things on my own. Are there certain rituals? I can choose the ones that I want, right? Like, I get to just embody what it all is? And I'm not sure. I don't know if I'll ever reach the part where I get to call myself a priestess or a goddess, but I do know I want to be there, right? Like I, I feel like I want to be embody that those words and those declarations and just really be a beacon of what that means. Am I resonating here?
Alexandra Hughes 10:28
Yeah, yeah. And I'm, I want to dive into it. I'm curious to know, do you remember a point in time when you felt that call to start exploring? And, you know, because there's kind of a difference in exploring the concept and understanding it cognitively. And then but you use the word embody. So I'm curious to know a little bit about your journey around like around both of those things. You know, do you remember what woke you up to this? If there was anything? You're nodding your head? Yeah.
Jesica Medellin 11:12
So So I lived a very good portion of my life in Utah. And I'm not sure if you're familiar with Utah, it's a very in my perception. It's a very patriarchal society, conservative run. In my household feminism was like a bad word, you know. And I really started to wonder about embodying feminism, in a way that didn't seem like it was angering people, right. But I really started to feel the push as I got older and older, and I kept, you know, I kind of kept wondering, like, Why do I feel like I'm being kind of caged in, right? Why do I feel like when I raise my voice, it's not okay. Why do I feel like when I stand up for myself, I'm being yelled at and pushed back? Why do I feel like when I bring up something that I feel like, is inherently wrong, I'm being told I'm not to be quiet, you know. And I was working. My first job at a school was in 2010. And I remember not getting along with a male colleague, and having some real feelings about this person that just were really uncomfortable and, and my principal pulled me in, and he told me that a good principal would hire someone, a mediocre teacher who got along with a faculty over a fire starter. Somebody who starts fires and burns bridges. That was the first time that I was like, wow, like, I know, like, I know what's happening isn't right, right. And I know that this person is not a good person, and I'm voicing that concern. But he's a male, the principal's a male. And I'm being told to shut up, right. That was the first time and then I moved on to a charter school. And every year, we had to go into a male director and advocate for our pay. And I remember my husband and I worked at the same charter school. And I went in and I listed out everything I was doing. And he said, Well, it sounds like you're just doing your job. So no, we're not going to raise your pay. And I was like, like, how much more clear cut I'm making? My husband walked in. And he was like, oh, yeah, we're just gonna give you a raise no problem, like, didn't even have to advocate for what he was doing. And at that point, I watched a lot of the females who were working eight times as hard as the males just struggling to even get a pay raise, you know, and, and our male counterparts, of course, didn't have an issue with that. Now, my husband did he was like, this isn't right, you know, we left that position. I recently he was working for a school district, and the new superintendent they brought on we just had very different thoughts. I don't want to my morals and values definitely didn't align with this. The people he was promoting, didn't have the experience. The other people who were more qualified did he was bringing people in he was doing some things very inappropriate. And it was all brought to light by another female who he like yelled at, but nobody would listen. Not several months after I left in front of a crowd he said like men are the ones who get the work to push through it the women are there like worker bees or sudden like flip it comment like that. And and he had to resign like he was like, at that point they finally forced him out. So I think that my awakening is like just been this like gradual flame, right? Like it was like this little light. This like was inside of me. And it was like, this isn't right, things aren't right. And it just kind of grew and grew and grew. And I'm finally able to kind A step into that, like, Okay, we need different societal standards. We need it. And I think it also helped when my daughter was born, because I knew that I didn't want her living in the same world that I had been living in. Yeah,
Alexandra Hughes 15:18
yeah, there's a really strong impetus there. I, you know, things that stood out to me, as you were talking was, how this kind of conditioning around anger and staying quiet and submissive and secondary and not starting any fires and not burning any bridges? And how, like, there was something inside of you, that was like this, this is wrong. You know, this is this doesn't feel like it's, I think, for a lot of us, or I shouldn't say I think sort of in the past, we didn't feel safe enough. Or maybe we were so disconnected from our bodies and looking for external authority and external rules. But there's something shifting now, where we hear and you mentioned the word intuition earlier on, like we hear, and we feel in our bodies, this is off, you know, this isn't right. And then a child is born. And you're like, This isn't right. And I've got to change it for her. Right. I mean, for me, but also for her.
Jesica Medellin 16:28
Well, and here's the other thing is the examples of feminism that I was seeing when I was younger, were like, women's screaming, and like all this, like, loud and, and it didn't, that didn't feel comfortable, either, like the violent kind of like, things that I had seen them or portrayed on the news or whatever, that didn't feel aligned, either. But as we're coming into this kind of new era, I'm finding like just this kind of softer form, like, like, just letting things be just proclaiming loudly who we are. In, in just a very comfortable way. Does that mean? I'm not sure if I'm making sense, but it's just kind of somebody who picks up my book the other day, they said, this is beautiful feminism. It's not like painting the walls with our menstrual blood, but it's allowing us to just be like, supportive and loving to each other. And I think that's where I resonate. Like, I want to I'm very loving world, I want it to be very nice and sweet and quiet. I don't. I don't like loud. I don't like, you know, that kind of masculine foreign things. I like things to be calm.
Alexandra Hughes 17:41
That makes sense. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Though, I do have to say that I'm sure there are some listeners who are all about painting the walls with their menstrual blood and about kind of a dark, feminine, who is here to rage and yell and scream at what feels wrong. But I think what's so beautiful about the divine feminine is that she comes in all these different forms,
Jesica Medellin 18:06
right? And all I'm saying is it didn't resonate with me at the moment. And it doesn't have to
Alexandra Hughes 18:11
be right we try to draw on what we need when we need it. And I think it's like right now I'm doing a lot of research into different Goddesses and their different energies. And so there are times in life when you may want to draw upon a goddess like Freya or Aphrodite, who is really about beauty and fun and pleasure. And then there are times when you may want to draw upon like hacker T who is the goddess of witches and she's she's able to go into the underworld and she's like, very familiar with the dark side and so maybe there are times in our lives where we will want to go there or maybe there are times when you know we all need to draw on the fire of Cali and and her like capacity to kind of alchemize that fire through rage and and loudness. But I just feel like whatever we are called to there was a goddess there waiting for us.
Jesica Medellin 19:14
Yeah, and I think that my my issue is like I had only seen it one way like it was either if you're a feminist, you were just angry. But now like through social media and through podcasts like yours, right? We are opened up to a whole new world where it can be several ways, right? And you're right, we draw upon those things because there are times that I am angry and I need to draw upon the strength of other sources and goddesses in and I get that like I do. I just think that now I'm able to like everybody can see that. It doesn't have to be just one way like feminine. feminism isn't just about isn't just about painting the walls with him or servlet it isn't just about being angry. It's also about advocating it's also about loving it's also about like, holding space. It's also about standing up for ourselves in a way that feels aligned, whether that is with yelling, or whether it's with being very quiet and just moving through what we need to move through. Right? Like, it's kind of like it's all things, not
Alexandra Hughes 20:10
just one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think that one of the things and we were talking to this a little bit before we press the record button, and one of the things that the patriarchy has been really effective in doing is deciding or telling us and convincing us that we have to be this way, or that way. And men have to be this way. Or that way. Like, there's no nuance, there's no in between, you're either the good patriarchal man and husband, or the bad one, right? And the good one does ABC, and the good woman does x y Zed, right? Like there's no space in between. And what I'm hearing you say is that you found your space somewhere, your relationship with feminism, and it from like, what felt aligned to you? Yes. And out of out of those, like pre defined preconditioned boxes? Yes, they
Jesica Medellin 21:10
want you to think, well, the patriarchy, in my opinion, wants you to think that it's just black and white, right? You are either this way, or you're right. Like you're saying, right. But we are not black and white world, we are a colourful world. I'm gonna say we're grey, right, we are colourful, your greens, and blues and pinks, and yellows. And when they all come together, it's just beautiful, right? Like, it's just like, it gets to be all the things. And I respect everyone who, whether they are raging because they need to rage. And, or if they're living their life, the way that you know, whatever they are respect, everyone's I love it. And I love seeing it. And I'm getting to step into my feminism now.
Alexandra Hughes 21:54
So tell me more about that. Like, tell me more about what you're doing to support yourself on this journey with the feminine,
Jesica Medellin 22:06
have recently really been aligned with learning yoga. So I had never thought I was aligned with yoga before I'm a heavier woman. And I have a lot of self image and body issues. And, and one of my brother who passed away and his one of his best friends. One of his best friends, his wife started just recently offering yoga for zoom. And I have been able to connect from my house, like from my safe space, right? Like I'm in my little safe space. And I've been able to connect with her over zoom, and she's been so loving and so kind and so gentle. It's been amazing. So So one of the things I'm doing is yoga, another thing I've been doing a lot is walking in nature. So I get out and I'd get outside and I walk and I listen to podcasts, such as the witch hunt and other podcasts that are very feminine aligned. I've been doing a lot of sub journaling. And I've lit my candles today on my answer. I think that my journey is I mean, it'll never end right. It's not anything that has a destination but it's really cool to be able to explore all the feelings and the rituals and all the things that go into this right so as I really dive into like who I am as a as a feminist who I am as a witch who I am as a just a Divine Being anyways, I'm able to explore several different avenues.
Alexandra Hughes 23:45
Yeah, it's Did you feel like I'm curious because sometimes my experience was that I found that I was doing stuff and then I could put a word to it like it's not as though I was kind of seeking to be a witch is that I've kind of found myself doing strange things strange and like it for people listening. You know, I'm doing the air quote thing. Yeah, strange things like dancing in the back of my garden, in a circle of cypress trees. And, you know, and then in playing with the herbs in the garden, and and then I kind of identified but it sounds like for you it was almost a little bit the opposite, or was it parallel? Like how was it? Like, kind of? I'd like to explore some of this, or was it more like you're exploring it and you realise Oh, this actually feels really witchy
Jesica Medellin 24:39
Wow, I'm not sure how to answer that. I'm not sure what came first the chicken or the egg, right? I'm not really sure. But I know that at some point, I started insisting that I'm saving my house when people have been in here or after it's cleaned or at a full moon or on a new moon. At some point I started creating similar plots on my stove. They include things that make me feel like they're cleansing my air and aligning with whatever I have for intentions. A year and a half ago, I started having a full moon meeting with some females where we would meet on the beach and just talk about our successes, and then anything we wanted to accomplish in the next month. And that became a ritual for us. And we would burn our intentions or whatever we wanted to get rid of, you know, so I think that I'm not sure like, where it started. And I guess I don't even always think like, oh, I'm a witch, right. I just think I'm just doing what? feels normal, right? And it's funny to me that people say those things are like, what do you think's when they're so seeped in, like, tradition, and, and ancestry? And the things that are our women didn't like, long before we were here, you know, the people did? I mean, people, not just women. Right?
Alexandra Hughes 26:00
Yeah, because people need it. I mean, we didn't have TV, we didn't have Wi Fi, like, humans need the stars were our newspapers, right, like humans needed to understand the cycles of nature around them. And so I feel like, it's almost as though our cellular memories are drawing us towards things that brought comfort, yes. And supported our personal growth and evolution. And so whether you're, you know, male or female, and gender completely irrelevant, right, anywhere along that spectrum, is it doesn't matter. The point is, is that you're a human that is a part of a larger system. And somewhere inside of you, you remember what your ancestors like, 1000s of years ago used to do?
Jesica Medellin 26:54
Yes, and it surprises me that we're on like a 12 month system, because our moons are on it's like 13, right? And then the female cycle, the menstruation cycle is on the 13th. If you go every 28 ish days, which not everyone does that. So I'm not calling that normal. But a good percentage of people are 28 ish days, same as the moon. And so it's crazy to me that we have like this 12 month calendar. It's very patriarchal, right? Like, it doesn't make, I don't know, like, it doesn't make any sense, right? We have a 12 month calendar that has weird days. And there's 30 in this day, and 28 here and 31 here, and every once in a while we have like 29. It doesn't make any sense to me like, it just feels like very picture is
Alexandra Hughes 27:43
patriarchal. And I'll tell you why. Because I just learned this in my last class. So I'm doing a course called Witch School of Canada, up here. And in our last class, I learned about calendars. And the calendar that we have right now is the Gregorian calendar. In its second calendar, the first one was the Julius calendar. Sorry, the first non lunar calendar was the Julius calendar. And the second was the Gregorian. And so the Romans instituted these calendars. And they now I can't, I wish I have my notes with me. But my understanding is that they went from being nature based calendars to leader based calendars. And so that's why like, all them, they're misaligned with the moon and the seasons. But Julius Caesar wanted to give all his important like Augustus, and I don't know, I don't know what other leaders are in there, but all of the like them a month, and then there were fights between them around who had more days. And so he gave less to February and more to another to Junius, unless to Augustus, I don't know, but apparently there was like this, this whole political negotiation around who had more days in their month, and it stopped being aligned with the moon, because the moon was associated with feminine power. And when you're trying to bring in a church that controls the population and a political system linked to a church that controls the population, anything that is outside of that, and that allows for an immediate connection to the divine, which is what which is offered and priestesses, you know, then it threatens, like the powers that be and so you're, you're completely right there used to be and even the Judaic calendar is lunar. So there used to be it used to be 13 months, people used to have a calendar that was 13 months I want I want to get you all the details and I'm completely like blasphemy or anything but the lesson because, well that's what my how my brain captures it. information. And that's
Jesica Medellin 30:01
true. And I often wonder, like when we allowed the patriarchy take our power away because it's feels like it. Like it wasn't always like this, right? Yeah, it wasn't always we had very powerful women who were, who were in charge and leaders. Way, way back, right? And then all of a sudden, we became these dainty little fragile things that had to be taken care of. And men got to have power. Oh, and I'm just like, I'm like, when did it change? What happened? Yeah, I do feel like the tide is starting to change, though. And I have faith that as we lean into our power as we become beacons for other women, like social media has been such a gift, because it allows us to connect right? Like it allows us to connect with people podcasts and came about and allows us to connect with all these people. And that's the key right is that we're when we become more powerful when they're connected with other women. And that's like, that's the secret, right? Is that we become more powerful, we become more statuesque, we can we can do really great things when we become connected with other great women.
Alexandra Hughes 31:14
Absolutely, absolutely. And it's, you know, it feels like to us when we look back, like things happened all of a sudden, but really, this was like 1000s of years even of fear mongering and you know, the Inquisition colonisation, the witch hunts, like all of it. All of it has resulted. I feel like in a very traumatised female population that is in our body scared to step into the power that we once did have.
Jesica Medellin 31:47
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I I'm 100% there. I mean, when I think about the witch hunts, and I think that women were just hanging for just paying they were i It breaks my heart. Because most of the time, it was just falsities anyways, right? It was just men who cheated on their wives or whatever had happened, like, or women who were leaning into their natural power. And man, it just breaks my heart brings me to tears to think about it, and I just can't even imagine. But then I think it's still happening today, right? Like you, you see women who are powerful and speaking and like, their pictures are hung, you know, like buy nooses and, you know, super horrible things. And it's kind of why I hate politics so much, it puts us on two different sides. And as women, I think we should all be connected no matter what, right? So like, we've the patriarchy has created this like party system that pits us against each other, and even on subjects that we should really be talking about, and at least agreeing on some level on. It just puts us together so much. It's us against each other. makes me crazy.
Alexandra Hughes 32:54
Yeah. Yeah, I keep looking at the world situation and asking myself, like, where's the Council of grandmothers? Yeah, we need accounts, a global Council of grandmothers that can have conversations, as opposed to like these toxic toddler leaders that we have right now. That are just, you know, fighting with each other and worried about like, the bottom line and bank accounts and all of that. So, yeah, I think we're totally on to talk about that forever. Yeah, yeah. But I want to talk about your passion for period positivity, and, and how it was born. And then I want you to start, like telling us the story of the beautiful creation that you're sharing with the world now. Okay,
Jesica Medellin 33:43
I think that it's a passion for women empowerment. And it's a passion to talk about things that don't necessarily get talked about all the time. That's where I'm really feeling my power is coming from these days, right. So when I had my daughter, my life absolutely changed. Of course, when I had my first son, my life changed. Then when I had my daughter changed again, when she became when she turned 13. She had her first period. And I knew that I wanted her experience just to be so vastly different than mine had been, you know, I had had shame around mine, my whole life I'd hit it had a lot of pain. I had two ectopic pregnancies, and a Blasian and then eventually a hysterectomy. And had I known now, what had I known them what I know now I would have never gotten rid of that, like, key component of my body. And it does, it feels like there's this piece missing that's outside of me that that it's your core, right? Our womb is our core and it feels like I don't have a womb anymore. You know, it's it's kind of hard to come to terms with all the time so. So when she had her first period, I knew I wanted her experience to be different than mine and I saw out letters of advice from friends and family in the string COVID. When she had her parents blessing me, she was at home, we got to just enjoy it at home and she got to rest. And it was no big deal. I reached out to friends and family because we couldn't have a party and I have a lot of friends and family across the nation. So they sent her letters of advice. And as Bella and I sat down and started reading these letters, we just were both in tears, like, the love and the support that came out in these letters was so moving. I mean, she's 13 and she's crying, like for crying together, right about just the advice that it comes. And it was simple things about just loving your body and accepting who you are, and knowing your own power and, and I knew at that moment that I wanted every woman to feel this way about her body. I wanted every woman to feel disempowered. This loved this health, you know, and so I started on my journey of creating the first manual. So over the next two years 1020 20, Southland 2020 to 2022 I started compiling letters, art and poetry for women across the nation. So I had, I kind of reached out probably even a little bit of a cringy way to women all over Instagram that I had seen that there for whatever reason, I felt drawn to them. And I probably reached out to at least 100 women and I got 24 contributions back and what came back was just just this amazing compilation of, of words and an art pieces, just I mean, I can't even explain it. It's just so beautiful. And and I found that this is now just a space where women can feel like so held, you know, so it's called the first mood manual. And it includes I mean, it's so much more than just a book right so much more than the there's affirmations one artists Academy, the artists she contributed affirmation art and art with words of affirmation. So with every affirmation word, I created an affirmation. So like, this one says ambitious and I said I am ambitious ambition comes in all shapes, forms and sizes. It's the little voice that whispers You can do it. It's also the plain voice that screams just do something paint, right? Run, fix, build dream. Ambition helps you get out of bed on the hardest days, on the other days is the drive that helps you climb mountains, win battles and conquer fear. So like, it just became this really beautiful. Manual is all I can explain it as of, of affirmations of letters of support and love. There's journaling inside of it. So there's reflection questions after each letter. After the affirmations, there's a page where you can create your own affirmations. There's creative space where you could draw and doodle and kind of express yourself. And I think that that really was drawn off my teaching experience. I was a special education teacher. And I had students who were incredibly bright, they just weren't given the tools, they didn't just learn one way, right. And so I wanted to create something that was very valuable and easy to dive into. And something that you could do on your own, like, you can just do it any way you want. There's no set way to do it. So that's where it came from. That's what it is.
Alexandra Hughes 38:23
It's so beautiful. And I just I want to kind of tie it into the conversation we were having before because one of the things that I've been learning in my research around the erasure of the sacred feminine in churchianity, you know, what's become the dominant mono theistic churches, one of the major shifts was like before that, like if you can imagine, in Neolithic times, like there were these two kinds of creatures, there's the female creature and the male creature, and one could bleed but not die. And the other one couldn't do that. And then one, I was reading yesterday about how women were pregnant a lot of the time, and they sometimes didn't, there wasn't necessarily an association back in that, like very early days between pregnancy and sex. So then you also had this creature that not only bled without dying, but also created life. Yeah. And so it was like this magical thing that resulted in the worship of the feminine, you know, the fertility, the power to bring life and the end the blood, the blood of menstrual blood was sacred. Yeah. And it became all associated with the earth and her power to create and her power to give life which was everything to these two These ancient communities. And so we went from that to these churches that basically said, The reason you're evil is because you bleed. And the reason that the world has all the shitty things that the world has is because you're a woman and you destroyed everything on day one, right? Like, and because and the reason that you suffer in childbirth is because you're inherently evil, like, we went from one extreme to the other. And what you're doing, Jessica, is you're bringing back the sacred. I just get chills thinking about it, you're bringing back the sacred feminine through honouring the, the that part of us, that makes us woman really? Yes,
Jesica Medellin 40:51
yes. You know, I've been saying this, I've been saying, since the creation of Adam and Eve, since the creation of Adam and Eve story, women have been shamed for what they do. Like, they made the decision to eat apple, like we've been shamed since that moment. And it's so important to realise that that's did that's not our story. Like, there's a whole story before that, you know, and, and that one was created to control and to really put us in a box and make sure that we weren't in our power, right. Like we weren't in that sacred power. It's so frustrating. And I knew I didn't want my daughter to feel that way. I wanted her to feel very empowered. I wanted every young woman to feel empowered, I wanted it for a woman to feel empowered. And that's and that's where that is the spirit this comes from. So thank you tell me
Alexandra Hughes 41:42
tell me more about the letters because the thing that I love about the letters is not only that they're received, but that women like us, who didn't have that experience can contribute to the healing through the writing of the letters.
Jesica Medellin 41:59
Yeah, you know, that's what ended up being so beautiful about this is when I asked for letters, some people were very hesitant or didn't know, I had one person who I said Isha really write a letter for this book, it's, you know, what would you say to your daughter? I don't have a daughter, okay? What would you say to your daughter? What would you say to your younger self? What do you wish your mom and I told you? What do we what do you wish, like knowing now, what would you tell yourself, right? And she told me, I came tell you how healing that letter was to write to my younger self. And hers was about coming into womanhood as a 10 year old. You know, she's like, I'm told, I'm a woman now. And she's like, but I'm 10. And I want to be a woman. And it took her years because she continued to ensure that she knew how to wear a tampon, so that she could still swim. And she ensured that she just could hide that part of herself for so long. And she says, When I finally embraced my, my menstrual cycle, and my femininity, it's when I finally embrace, like, the whole side of myself, and I stopped pushing so hard. And now my life has aligned so much better. You know, I think there's a really nice balance between the masculine and feminine. And if you can find that balance, then you get to just live this like really aligned beautiful life, right? So so many of the letters are just one, they're all addressed to Dear beautiful girl, or Dear gorgeous girl, or, you know, daughter or whatever, so that their general sort of feels like we're speaking to whoever's reading it. So when you pick it up, and you read it, you feel like somebody's talking to you. Because somebody asked me there's like, why letters instead of short stories, or whatever I see, you know, letters are so personal. And we've lost the art of letter writing, right? I was on the tail end of that, in my younger age, and I remember getting letters from my grandma, or getting a letter from an app or being able to send a letter out, and how it felt to receive those, right. And I wanted people to feel that, again, to feel that connection to feel like, like they could resonate with what people were telling them. Like, like, they felt like people were supporting them. That's how I wanted people to feel, you know. And, and I think it really came to that. So that's, that's why the letters, that's how they came about. That's their messages. It's
Alexandra Hughes 44:22
just I think it's such a beautiful, beautiful part of part of your offering, is the letter piece. It's yes, we've lost the art of of letters and words, and it's a way of sharing words and experiences and also of Holding, holding that person and reminding them that, you know, this is a collective experience. There are people that have gone before you and there were people that will come behind you. And here's a piece of me and the other thing that's so empowering written about this is that we do hide it, or we have hidden it. But it's and to not hide it is honouring our whole selves. And I think the patriarchy has been really good at having us feel shame for big parts of who we are.
Jesica Medellin 45:18
Yeah, I agree. I do agree with that. And the beautiful thing about this as, as all ages who have contributed to this, so far, my daughter, one of her poems is in it all the way to grandmother's. And, you know, so people in their 70s, so we have a large range, and I tried to make it so any girl who picked it up, no matter her race, whatever it would be able to feel connected to it, I again, it does have the female label. So if anybody is female, and doesn't identify as female, it's not, it's not really geared towards them. They're not not probably feels connected. But I wanted it to feel very much like the girls were being written to, you know, and I wanted the connection of people all over. So. So I think one of the beautiful things about this is, we all go through all females have a period. So 50% or more of the population, either will have house or has had a period, right. And so we all go through it, we've all felt the shame, we've all bled through something we've all had, you know, had cramps, or been a little moody, or wanted a piece of chocolate or whatever, like, like, we've all felt that way, right. And everybody feels it to different degrees. So so we have this whole collective of knowledge that we haven't tapped into, right, we haven't connected all these pieces. And I'm hoping that that's what this does is it connects people across a broad range. So from the poet in California, who like her Instagram was filled with, like, really beautiful nature pictures, and she's a typewriter poet and to the business coach in West Virginia, who are in Virginia, who, you know, has great retreats, and like, you know, all these things, like they're all connected, right? And it is like, wow, we brought all these people together, so we can hold space for all these females. Holy cow, like, what does that feel? Like? You know?
Alexandra Hughes 47:20
Yeah, yeah, it's, I've heard the term red thread. And I've never really quite understood what it meant. But what's kind of coming to me is like a woven web of, of red threads. Be between all the women who share this experience and who are healing from, you know, the trauma of, of hiding that part of themselves or feeling ashamed of that part of themselves.
Jesica Medellin 47:53
I love that red thread. Yes.
Alexandra Hughes 47:57
Yeah, I think, I think it's associated with like, the lineage of Mary Magdalene. And, and Sophia, like kind of the strong priestesses who of course, were like when Constantine wrote the Bible, and three 300 years after Christ died, and he decided to, like, you know, pretend like there were no women involved in anything, when actually we know that his mother was a priestess trained in, in Egyptian temples, and that Mary Magdalene was also a very powerful priestess, both of them practised sex magic, and that like, so they're starting to kind of dig these things out. But I think that the red thread is something about that lineage. So, but I like to, I like to imagine it as something that really connects all of us who are on this rising wave of the divine feminine.
Jesica Medellin 49:03
I don't know if that makes sense. I love that we're the red web.
Alexandra Hughes 49:06
We're the red web. We're the red Web.
Jesica Medellin 49:08
Yeah, we're all interwoven and connected. And I want to
Alexandra Hughes 49:13
I want to ask you a question that I asked a lot of the women who come on the podcast, and that is, what do you How would you define magic?
Jesica Medellin 49:23
Oh, well, what I define magic, I think it's the energy, right? It's the energy of whatever our intention is. So it's not like Harry Potter, though. I wish it was and maybe at some point, it could be but I think magic is, is what we're inherently born with. The energy inside of us, you know, and our intentions behind it. So it always amazes me like when you hear about miracles, and you hear all these people prayed, but really it was their intention, right? Like if you think about it as a collective intention going towards something In a loving like, wholesome way, and it's the same thing with whatever we have in our lives when you put some intention behind it, and really powerfully believe in it, then things happen that just seem like miraculous. Like your body. Yeah, yes, yes. Thank you. Yes.
Alexandra Hughes 50:20
Yeah, yeah. So tell us where people can find your book, Jessica, and where they can find other bits of magic that you offer. So
Jesica Medellin 50:32
really, I'm an Amazon. So just look up first moon manual, people always put fall. And I know that sometimes it doesn't come up because for whatever reason, Amazon has this algorithm. So sometimes you have to put in my name. So just J and metagame is what it's under Jessica Marie muddy GMAT. But you can also find me on Instagram first we manual and on Tik Tok for something manuals on there. And it's fun and I'm, I'm a Gen X are like, trying to figure out social media.
Alexandra Hughes 51:05
Come to the welcome. And I just you know, as someone from Canada, I know that the shipping is complicated for overseas people. So is this but is that will that be true for the UK? If you go with the UK publisher as well? I'm
Jesica Medellin 51:21
not sure but I know that on Amazon. There's an Amazon Canada so you should be able to go Okay. Okay. For whatever. For whatever you guys pay for shipping anyways.
Alexandra Hughes 51:32
Okay, okay. That's great. So if it's on Amazon, if it's on one Amazon then it can be on various Amazon's Yes. All right. Okay, cool.
Jesica Medellin 51:42
Maybe I just need to come up there.
Alexandra Hughes 51:44
Or maybe you need to probably. I'm going to recommend Jessica, you do not come up right now. And you wait until my Texan friend.
Jesica Medellin 51:55
I moved from Utah to Texas for a reason to not deal with snow anymore. I'm on an island but literally it's beautiful, sunny and like 65 degrees here today. It's perfect.
Alexandra Hughes 52:07
Just listeners know what is sun buddy? I am so I'm obviously very jealous, though. We do have a nice sun today, which I'm grateful for. Thank you so much for being on the podcast, is there anything else that you'd like to share?
Jesica Medellin 52:22
Just thank you for having me. And these great conversations, we need to continue to have them so that we we can all become more enlightened. And we can have these conversations with other women and, and our younger woman and bring them up in a world that's more accepting and loving and helping them like lean into themselves. I appreciate you so much. And I
Alexandra Hughes 52:40
appreciate you and the healing that you're bringing to our younger or younger girls is just you know, I see it when I engage with younger women, how the layers of patriarchal Wait, aren't there? Yeah. And a lot, you know, and your book is going to just support that in really big ways. So let's get let's get it into the hands of our, our beautiful maidens. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, thank you, Jessica, for being here today. It's such a pleasure.
Jesica Medellin 53:15
I appreciate you so much.
Alexandra Hughes 53:19
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 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
