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The-Cauldron-Conversations-Zine.Pdf The Cauldron Conversations insight, sharings and magic to wake the witches Table of Contents page 1 Welcome, Witches! by Lisa Lister page 2 Deepen the Connection by Maya Hackett page 10 Start with True Self-Love by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener page 13 The Witch Spread by Victoria Maxwell page 16 Root. Grow. Flower. by Jenny Gibbons page 20 The Magic of Yoga by Adriana Rizzolo page 25 Words are Wands by Sarah Starrs page 27 Teen Witch Baby by Heather Blanchard page 30 Dirty & Divine by Alice Grist page 33 From Maiden to Mother by Sarah Durham Wilson page 35 Grounding & Clearing Your Energy by Kristen Wingeier page 38 Remember Your Roots by Angelique Arroyo page 44 Simple Lunar Rituals by PJ Superior page 48 Closing with Lisa Lister Welcome witches! We’re currently in ‘interesting’ social + political times right now, never has it been more needed for women to wake + reclaim the word Witch + the power that’s associated with it. The Witch represents the part of each of us that has been censored, ignored, punished + demonised, which is why it’s time to wake. To re-member (integrate all the parts of ourselves that have been dis-membered by patriarchy + put in the dark) and become whole. For ourselves and for the planet. Wake the witches is a movement. A collaboration. A collective. For a LONG time now the patriarchy has tried to keep us separate. Why? Because they KNOW the power that rises when women gather + magic. Yet, it’s this gathering of women to discover their magic in sisterhood + collaboration (don’t get it twisted, that doesn’t mean we have to like and love everyone, but it does mean showing a woman support when she’s willing to speak up and out - even if you don’t agree with her) is what the world needs more than ever right now. It’s why I’ve written WITCH. To support the waking witch in each + every one of us. Now, while I was writing the book, I gathered some of my most favourite witches around the collective cauldron to share their insight + magic, the conversations were originally for the book, but they were SO filled with potency, that they called for a publication all of their own. The Cauldron Conversations are a direct transmission from each Witch. Each woman has different thoughts and beliefs about what being a witch means to her - some have very distinct hereditary traditions that they follow, while others have discovered their own path + are still very much paving the way - the whole point is, and I make this SUPER clear in the book, that the call is to be your own witch. None of us are telling you HOW to be a witch, we’re sharing stories, thoughts + ideas to help support + guide you as you create your own. Together we invite you to: • Remember all the parts of your wild and feminine nature that have been placed in the dark. • Reconnect with mumma nature, your body and truth. • Reclaim what’s rightfully yours, starting with your menstrual cycle, and declare that shit sacred. • Revere it all. The mess. The truth, the polarities, the paradoxes, the Mystery and EVERYTHING in between. Be the woman you were here to be this lifetime. Witch: Unleashed. Untamed. Unapologetic. Love + fierce magic, Lisa x Deepen the Connection A CAULDRON CONVERSATION WITH MAYA HACKETT Maya is a woman who moves towards life, beauty and magic. Her grandmothers and theirs before them were medicine keepers of a Filipina tradition – visionary women who live and work in the unseen worlds. She gathers people together, facilitates real connections and she’s offered me up some of my most potent medicine – truth and realness – by basically being a Pinay Mama. She’s someone who makes magic by cooking up a little sumthin’ sumthin’ with lots of food, lots of laughing and lots of swearing. Follow Maya on Instagram. When did you first know that you were a Force of Nature? “Look where you’re going! I don’t like this! Do you? Do you? You do!” “What? What Grandma? What the hell?” I was 24, with my four-month old on my lap. My grandmother, Aurora Legasca Fernandini Jundis, was gripping my hand tightly, and her huge eyes flashed back and forth as she watched my 2017 adventures unfold in the lines of my palm. She had Alzheimers Disease, and she wasn’t totally sure who I was anymore. But she declared, back in 2002, what would unravel until I followed my wanderlust into Europe’s icy fjords, before landing squarely in the lap of my husband’s massive commitment to my magic, self-expression and sovereignty. She told me how I would walk out of the trappings of my traditional Western mama role, and evolve my own fierce fire to include freedom, fearless exploration, and unconditional support. She told me how to feed my Self, after a lifetime of giving my energy away to everyone else, before I had The Cauldron Conversations "4 even begun to go weak. Where does your own personal tradition come from? I’m a hereditary witch. I come from Vasayan Baybaylan, a matrilineal tradition of clairvoyant service and leadership, interceding for community and individuals. I bring together visionaries, and co-create healthy micro- economies. What does living with the knowledge that you’re a force of nature mean to you? There’s a word in our culture for a possessed heart. Bathala: masculine and feminine, intermingled in an enchanted atmosphere. It’s also the name of the Eternal. It includes life’s 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. And that has been my work in the world. Fertilization. Birthing. Magic. Chaos. Global collaboration. I’m a curious, grateful and delighted pollinator. I move towards life, beauty and magic. I keep my head on Earth, listening for what’s needed. A home birthing, urban steading, unschooled mum of four life learners: Mahal, Lake, Mekhi and Saki. A goat, turkey and chicken keeper, but also a half-time islander, who sometimes sleeps at sea for clarity and support. My heart is endlessly wandering towards great open expanses, so I’m a bit of a selkie, who cannot bear the pain of sitting inside the systems, structures and boundaries of this colonized world. I’m no rebel, though. I don’t have the double middle finger swag of my mother and favourite clients. I simply live outside the grid; and everything I do is about purification, regardless of the rules. My life is spent gratefully collecting minute bits of grace, then spinning it out as community caramel. With the blessed help of thousands, I live On Purpose. I know for certain that we have all the answers we need for a just, thriving planet. There are millions working for good, every single day. I understand that lifelong communal, financial and emotional sustainability results from The Cauldron Conversations "5 strategy based on biomimicry. The natural world has figured everything out for us. The most important product of any business, community or initiative is the wellbeing of the community landscape. I love a woman with big vision! How do you balance that vision with your everyday work? I taught myself that leadership is the capacity to hold difficult space. And so my life, my magic, has been to joyfully and faithfully hold the gap between the genius of others, and their ability to fulfil on their brightest self-expression. It’s excruciating for them to hold on their own. But I see the symbolic, archetypal need for their work in the world. It often leaves me starry-eyed and jaw-dropped; but also makes me broken on my studio floor, because it’s not always easy for me to let go of the creative processes, strategic implementation and collaborative connections I want to make to see their paths through. If women want to experience what this is like, how can they do it? That’s both easy and difficult at once. Our challenge, opportunity and first nature is to multiply, forward, and magnify life force. First we must purify ourselves by decolonizing our spirituality, shedding inherited beliefs, ancestral trauma, and cell-level fears of being tortured, abandoned and killed for using our voices and bodies as instruments. So as a *healthy* force of nature, we move in this magnifying gesture. Purification, Nature Immersion and Personal Practice => You, As Conduit of Pure Life Force, Act as a Force of Nature => Impact the World with a Distilled, Distinct and Directed Gesture => Multiply and Magnify the Eternal as Goodness, Truth and Beauty => The World and Community Responds in Kind, Supporting Each Other => We do this best with a cyclical lifestyle, paired with a daily practice of pausing at the heart floor and touching bare skin to the Earth’s surface. They are the same, and we all share these spaces. So if you need to The Cauldron Conversations "6 commune with another who isn’t accessible to you, you can do it here. You can meet your ancestors, your lost loved ones and beloved teachers here. This is where we practise the sacred PAUSE. Goodness, truth and beauty, all hallmarks of the Eternal, can be found on the heart floor and Earth’s surface. How can we bring more of this to our roles as women in the world, re-wilding yet part of it all? Leadership requires charisma, or deep presence to each task. It requires bringing our full force to each moment. How does one do this? Well, humbly, because it’s not about the ego! So it’s a bit by trial and error, but it’s the most accessible possible thing.
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