WytchyWays

The stories of the struggles of reclamation and the joys of reconnecting with traditional tribal ways shared at Healing Turtle Island lead me to reflect on my own shamanic process of reconnecting with the Forgotten Dead of European tribes first hit by Viking raids, then further impacted by Roman colonization.

www.mywytchyways.com

Healing Turtle Island, a 21-year cycle of rituals dreamed into reality by Sherri Mitchell, focused in 2019 on Healing from Colonialism. The first day of ritual centered on colonialism’s impact on gender roles and how they relate with one another.

www.mywytchyways.com

Visiting the Friends Ancient Burial Grounds in Pennsylvania and attending the Chester Quaker meeting outside Philadelphia lead to a discussion on inclusion and the feeling of being an outsider- which seems like such a universal human emotion, but upon further reflection, is more likely the result of the colonialization that cut us off from our bodies, our ancestral practices, and the world around us.

www.mywytchyways.com

From the Quaker Ancient Burial Ground in London Grove Township, Pennsylvania, I’m processing the anger left still grinding from my visit through Virginia and an ancestor that owned slaves as well as the Jamestown Settlement and the summer of the first shipment of slaves as well as the Tobacco Brides coming into the colony. I reflect on the damage that sources toxic masculinity and wonder if there’s a difference between those that are traumatized and then become conquerors and those that have always been on top and defend their position.

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Recorded in Franklin County, North Carolina at the ordination site of my oldest known ancestor on my Father’s Fathers line, I wrestle with the welcoming I feel from the land and the anger I feel about the exploitive and abusive energy I feel on the line.

The worn gravestones made me realize that "written in stone" does not mean something's permanent. Stone wears down. The second segment delves into this and I recall a conversation I had with the stones at Burney Falls, CA.

Recorded at the Redcliffe Plantation in South Carolina, where many of the slaves reportedly stayed on as freedmen and sharecroppers until the 1970s. Their decision to stay on is usually seen as evidence of how much the plantation system met their needs and worked for them, but I believe it was more likely the result of terrorism like the lynchings that happened with such frequency in the South. I also speak about my experience at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

www.mywytchyways.com/podcast/staying_on_the_plantation

Works referenced in this episode: Beloved book by Toni Morrison and film starring Oprah Winfrey

Recorded in Mobile, AL at the Old Plateau Cemetery near Africatown in the north side of the Mobile Bay. Survivors of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to come to America, are buried there. I also visited the St. Michael’s Churchyard on the Faunsdale Plantation in Faunsdale, Alabama.

www.mywytchyways.com

Recorded in the Redwoods National Park spring of 2019 during a #vanlife trial run. While meditating in the ancient forest, a family cluster of redwoods invite me to tap in. Second segment is a visualization to tap into our own root systems and experience the support that is there.

Recorded in Austin, TX at the beginning of my Ancestral Borderlands Truth & Reconciliation Tour, this episode traces some of the yarns woven into the present moment as an introduction to the podcast

www.mywytchyways.com

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With guest Kaden Sheffield, we discuss the spiritual practices couched in traditional women's work, the feminine side of spirituality and religion, and the way text vs image impacts how we see the world.