The climate crisis and the plight against the feminine and the marginalized

In this episode, we are discussing the intersection of the climate crisis and the feminine and marginalized communities. This episode highlights the profound impact of the climate crisis on marginalized groups, particularly women, the LGBTQIA+ individuals, people of color, and the disabled. 

This episode emphasizes the need for global policy changes and individual actions to mitigate the crisis. We also discuss the concept of working with the elements as they are, acknowledging environmental degradation. Finally, there is a need to advocate for awareness, interest, and action, and using magickal practices like hexes and bindings to address systemic issues can be helpful for the witch who wants to embrace reality and compassion alongside sacred rage. 

**At about minute 14:30 I say infecting, but I mean affecting**

Links included from my research:
*Climate Reality:
Instagram
YouTube
Climate Reality article

* Other Resources
BBC article
LGBTQIA+ article
Disabled article
Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Gray
BBC article 2
Witch and Climate Change article
Witch and Climate Change article 2

*Allies and Inspiration
Raven Instagram, 
Raven website

*Theme Music is by GraveDancer*
 Click on the link to the their Instagram and show them some love. Also check out their beautiful new album Cult of the Red Goddess
new album
Instagram

*My links
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
website
Patreon
email is teaandtombstones@gmail.com

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:19

Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Tea and Tombstones is a platform dedicated to helping you root into nourishment through the haunted darkness and claim your hallowed ground through tarot education, spell crafting, spiritual coaching and nature-based services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf-child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you here. Hello there, my sweet, sweet hauntings. I hope you are well. Happy Ostara everyone. Well, it's Ostaraa now. It won't be when this podcast drops, but yeah, it's Ostara today. This is a time of balance. Light and Dark today are in equilibrium. So this means that the extremes on the spectrum, including perhaps even the haunted and the hallowed, the masculine, the feminine, birth and death, creation destruction, are truly equal today. What a beautiful moment, just to take reverence of how the natural world brings us to these points, organically and with purpose, that there is a time and a place for things to be completely in balance, to be completely equal and yet still opposite. This is a time when fertility, expansion and joy are apparent and abundant. It's such a beautiful day, and so I just want to record. This is a good time to record, to really step into my exuberant narrative, although this podcast episode is perhaps not going to be as joyful as exuberant. I recently hosted a poll on Instagram asking you guys what you wanted to hear in the next podcast episode, and the majority of the votes went to a nature-based episode. And I just want to say I really loved doing that. I'm definitely going to do that again. I love really engaging with you guys, connecting with you guys, and interacting with you guys on the podcast. One of the things that I questioned when starting a podcast was, as much as I wanted to, there's still, in some ways, a bit of a division because it's just me sitting here talking to a mic and to a computer, but I liked the idea of a podcast more than a YouTube or something else, but I really liked the interaction with you guys, so I'm definitely gonna do that again. But the nature based episode had the most votes, so that's what we're gonna be talking about today, and I have mentioned multiple times in previous episodes the, the profound effect that nature has on my own magick and on my own spiritual health and also physical health, there is abundant evidence to now show that being out in nature actually supports and improves our immunity. Just supports and improves our overall state of well being. Nature fuels my magick. It, it makes it possible. Nature invites me and all of us to see the ways that we can become, that we can bloom, that we can nourish, and that we can rise. And that's why I wanted to record this podcast episode today, and as beautiful as this energy is, as transformative as this energy is, nature is wounded. Nature is the ornate, overt, apparent and encompassing mother, and she is wounded. She is... She is breaking, and in some places, she is broken and those wounds can never be healed. Some can, if we choose to act. Part of choosing to act, it's really about those with power creating global, massive change and massive shifts within how we approach policy and procedure going forward, to really take into account how we interact with nature, how we protect nature, and how we try to roll back the, the damage of the climate crisis, because the climate crisis is real, and it not only affects nature and animals and the ability to really feel into this beautiful sense of, of spring and joy and fertility, fecund fertility, this awakening of life again and the ability to sustain our physical lives, our spiritual practices and our magickal reverence. The climate crisis drastically affects people. It affects us. The people that are the most affected by the climate crisis are marginalized communities, and so in this episode I wish to highlight the spiritual and the very real ways that the climate crisis affects these marginalized communities and those of us who see nature as our living, breathing cathedral. I also wish to discuss what we as, as witches, we as earth-lovers, we as beings of this world and part of this world can do to help and some things to consider going forward in my magickal perspective. But when I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about for the episode today, in regards to nature, I just kept coming back to this, that nature is this beautiful place, this place of life and sustaining and nourishing and, and birds and trees and flowers and babes in the woods, you know, like it's full of all of that, and yet it is full of so much hurt and pain and suffering and anguish. It's because of humans. It's because of humans that it's like this. So, I do not want this episode to just be a downer. I'm sorry just to, like, throw all this narrative into such a beautiful day, in such a beautiful time. So I don't want this episode to be a downer, but I do believe that the truth about this is the only way that we are going to create actual, mindful, intentional shifts. I will also have links to all of the resources and places that I have found, the statistics and also ways to go forward, but again, you can just, even just putting in the climate crisis into Google, you can find a ton of resources, so obviously, my list is in no way exhaustive, and there's no way that I could feasibly or physically include all of the resources that I want to because this podcast episode would be 30 days long, probably even longer. So, uh, so just know that I am fully aware that the resource list that I have is nil compared to what is out there, but it's it's such a popular topic, and there's so much being done on the ground by so many amazing people. So just keep that in mind. And I fully believe that, like I said, knowing the truth means that we can create change no matter how disturbing the facts. So grab your tea, or whatever you're sipping on. This was a hella long introduction to the podcast, but I have things that I want to say today, and I say them with reverence and with love, and I invite you, and I thank you for listening. So let's start talking about nature, the climate crisis and the plight against the feminine and the marginalized. One of the first places that I started looking for information regarding the climate crisis and the plight against the feminine and the marginalized was the Climate Reality Project. This project is a nonprofit. It was actually founded by Al Gore after he came out with his now infamous documentary An INCONVENIENT TRUTH, and I follow them on Instagram, and I was just kind of looking for ways to start talking about this. How could I get this conversation started? Where did I... where did I plant the seed to begin this narrative? And the Climate Reality Project has so many amazing resources, tools. First, I want to just state some statistics that I have found from the Climate Reality Project and from another source in relation to the effects of the climate crisis. Again, I don't want the stats or the truth of this to make you want to turn the podcast stop, turn me off. I mean, you definitely can, if you feel so called to do so, but I invite you, and I hope that the stats instead just really open us up to no longer be as perhaps, I can only speak for myself, just be as insulated. I've known about the climate crisis, and I try to do certain acts in my personal life and change my living so that I am contributing where I can to help mitigate my carbon footprint, but there is still a sense of insulation where I live, and as someone with privilege, that privilege insulates me even further and as we will go into the stats even more, we will see that that's going to be a recurring theme, and I want to just highlight the reality, because that is the reality of nature as it is right now. So one of the first statistics that I read was according to Climate Reality leaders Bruce Buchar and Susan Pacheco, who's a pediatrician, the research is especially concerning for pregnant women. Adverse pregnancy outcomes, specifically premature birth and low birth weight, both of which often have lifelong consequences, as well as stillbirth, have been associated with increasing heat and air pollution. Some of the stats go on to say that the UN figures indicate that over, that about 80% of people displaced by the climate crisis are women, and their roles as primary caregivers and providers of food and fuel make them more vulnerable when flooding and drought occur. In Central Africa, where up to 90% of Lake Chad has disappeared, which is horrifying in and of itself, nomadic indigenous groups are particularly at risk. As the lakes shoreline recedes, women have to walk much further to collect water. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, African-American women were among the worst affected by flooding in Louisiana. As sea levels rise, low lying cities like New Orleans will be increasingly at risk, and in New Orleans, there was much higher poverty rate among the African-American population before Katrina says Jacqueline Litt, Professor of Women's and Gender study at Rutgers University. More than half the poor families in the city were headed by a single mother. They are reliant on interdependent community networks for their everyday survival and resources. The displacement that happened after Katrina essentially eroded those networks. It places women and their children at much greater risk. In the immediate aftermath of extreme events, emergency shelters can be inadequately equipped to support women. The Superdome in which evacuees were temporarily housed after Hurricane Katrina didn't have enough sanitary products for the women accommodated there. There is also inadequate representation in the policies and procedures that are working to fight the climate crisis. One of the most disturbing statistics that I read, well, it's all disturbing, let's be real, but one of the most disturbing that I read was that the UN has noted that the average representation of women in the national and global climate negotiating bodies is below 30% and scientist Diana Liverman goes on to say that these numbers don't improve at the local level. She states that women are often not involved in the decisions made about the responses to climate change, so the money ends up going to the men rather than the women. And she is an environmental scientist, and she spoke this to the BBC science and action program on the World Service. Clearly, these statistics show an alarming and disturbing trend that women, and also those who identify as women, are going to be hit harder, and yet they have often more responsibilities in terms of providing resources and making sure that other members of the household are provided The statistics, or I should say, the climate crisis is not going for first. to just affect only women. The LGBTQIA+ plus folks are going to be also more vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. One of the statistics that I found stated that they are more likely to be living on lower incomes, to experience homelessness, and have limited access to health care. People who identify as LGBTQIA+ plus, as well as black, indigenous, and or as people of color will likely to be hit even harder. So basically, this just comes down to those in power, which is mostly cisgendered, white, old ass men have the economic resources to create the change, and yet what they do with those economic resources is protect themselves and insulate themselves more from the harms of the climate crisis. And even then, they're not going to be fully immune, because even, even billionaires who drink tainted water are going to get sick, but they can,.. they can have access to to better health care. They can in like I said, they can insulate themselves from a lot of the immediate harm of the climate crisis, and yet they are the ones that are in a position to create the most change, so obviously there needs to be a shift in representation in the working bodies. There also just needs to be there.. just needs to be more support and policies put in, in place that protect women, that in that protect the LGBTQIA+community, and also protect the disabled community. This is another community that is going to, if not already, has been feeling the effects of the climate crisis more drastically, more severely. Part of this is because they experience poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities, according to one of the resources that I found in my research. The resource also went on to say that there has been an increase in human migration lately because of extreme weather events, and the ability to migrate often depends on resources and mobility. Because of this, marginalized populations, such as those who have some sort of disability might be unable to travel, and so they are forced to remain in degraded environments, without housing, or with improper housing, employment support networks, or healthcare services. I think it's important that we know and we become more aware of the effects, not only of the climate crisis, but how it is infecting these marginalized communities. It's not enough just to say that we want to fix the climate crisis, where we want to roll back the effects of the climate crisis, as much as we can, we have to be willing to to see and how others are living, or how others have been forced to live or have been forced to go through grief and loss and suffering because of the climate crisis. It's... it's one thing to say I want to reduce my plastic use, but it's another to say I want to reduce my plastic use, because this is part of the climate crisis, and even if I am not immediately or directly affected by the climate crisis right now, if I am more able to insulate for myself from the climate crisis, there are others out there that can't. So, in being an advocate for putting into place actions and policies and procedures that try to shift from fossil fuels and from non-renewable energy to renewable energy, I just think it's important that we take into account the human element and the living element that comes with us. There is no planet B, this is the [sic] this is the world that we live in, we live on. I hope that the stats weren't too, weren't too much if you're still with me, thank you. I would like to shift now and talk about why I decided to do this episode. What inspired me to do this episode? Because most of the time I try to have my episodes be obviously based in tarot, based in spiritual practices, based in a sense of our magickal reverence for each other, and for the world, and for ourselves, and that's exactly why I decided to do this podcast episode. When I was thinking about what type of nature-based episode I wanted to, to do, I kept coming back to this... to this piece of discussion that I heard when I was in a Shadow Working class a while ago with a beautiful spirit named Raven. Her Instagram handle is Lightbringerrituals, and she is just such an amazing practitioner. She is a beautiful writer, a powerful witch. She's a YouTuber, and her Instagram bio says that she's a slayer of monsters because she's a Twitch streamer, which I just love. But she was teaching a shadow working class, and in this class, we were talking about how to show up for shadow working that is beyond us, meaning, how do we show up and work with the shadow of the communal and one of the things that she stated that really, if I'm being fully honest, at first, really triggered me, not that she said anything wrong, but I just, I had never considered this before, was working with the elements as they are. Now, working with the elements is standard for witchcraft, for any sort of spiritual practice that is based in nature, because obviously the elements are what bring inspiration and purpose and, in real time, very physical benefits to our health and to our magick or spiritual practice. But I would ask you, if you're working with the elements, have you ever worked with the elements as they are? So for instance, if you're working with the element of air, are you taking into consideration the amount of pollution that's in the air, the amount of carbon dioxide that's in the air? I would venture to say not, and I say that because I didn't work with the elements that way, and to be honest, sometimes they still don't. If we're working with the elements of water, are we taking into consideration that the oceans are now just the world's biggest landfill? Are we taking into consideration the toxic chemicals that are in the water that are creating cancers for, you know, for the fish and killing the frogs? Are we taking into consideration the heavy metals like um that was in the water in Flint, Michigan. We don't work with the elements this way. And when she said that, as I said, I felt quite triggered, because I was like, I don't want to work with the elements this way, because it's.. it's bad, it's dirty, it it hurts my heart. It makes me it makes me grieve for this planet that I love and and that's kind of the point It's the point in that we can't spiritually bypass the reality of the world as it is, disconnecting us from the world. When I talked to her about seeing if it was okay if I mentioned this on the podcast, and just kind of mentioning it how it inspired this podcast episode to begin with, that the inspiration for her came from apocalyptic witchcraft by Peter Gray. And so I just wanted to include that I personally do not have that book. I haven't read it. So I just wanted to mention that even her inspiration came from another source from this piece. And then she added again her beautiful, powerful teachings on top of that. And I wanted to mention that because, and I'm not saying that we need to be using the elements this way all the time. That would probably be detrimental to our magical practice overall, but I think it's important to consider so that we are inspired to be part of the process of creating the shift that we want and need to see. I fully believe that the only way to show up, create presence and be an advocate for for the world, for the plants, for the flora and the fauna, and for the for everyone that lives on it, and most especially the marginalized communities that have already been feeling the effects of the climate crisis, more drastically, more severely, is to not be disconnected from the reality of the world and the elements as they are. So I would invite you to the next time you work with the elements, or the next time you're at nature, or whenever you're making contact, spiritually, magically, physically with nature. Just consider the elements as they are, and how does that change? How does that shift the internal energies and the internal layers, the internal faculties within? I know that for me, every time that I think of the elements as they are, again, trash in the oceans and the air being filled with carbon dioxide, the ozone layer being burned away, the, the icebergs melting and the extreme fires, especially being in Colorado, where we just had one of the biggest fires on record. When I think of the elements this way, I feel just in so many ways sad. I just need to sit and cry over it. Sometimes I need to just sit in a state of grief with it. And then I also need to be enraged by it. Feeling that rage within me shifts me to to show up more powerfully, to show up more fully and to use all that I can to be part of that change. And I'm not saying that we all need to go out and march on on the Capitol, march on Wall Street and protest. Some people can't do that, and some people, just like me, I I probably could go out and protest, but I energetically choose not to, because, as someone who already has pretty high anxiety that situation, just even thinking about it really triggers me, so I try to use my advocacy in other ways. And that's the point again, is that we we do what we can in the best in the best space for us personally, but we do it in a way so that it is advocating for change and for others and for all that live on this world more fully. So yeah, consider, consider working with the elements as they are, and just again, see what that brings up for you, and do not let your your anger or your tears be reduced to being sensitive, because the world needs us to be sensitive. If we're not sensitive, we're numb. And if we're numb, we have no hope. If we are sensitive, we we can create passion. We can create space to see and witness both the world as it is and to work to create the world that we want to live in, that we need to live in for survival and for thrival, I invite you to to just try this even one time, to work with the elements as they are, including everything that is dirty and horrible and rotten about the truth of it, and see if that which comes up within you with those thoughts and those emotions can be used to be a catalyst for for you in any way. And I'm not saying that. Obviously, I have no idea what my listeners are doing in their own life. I'm sure that most of us are trying the best we can. So I don't mean that in any sort of judgment or shameful way. I simply bring it up because I think that often when we step into a spiritual practice, we The liberty of considering and visualizing the elements in have the. their best and most beautiful space. And I I do that too. I'm, as I said, and I don't always just see nothing but the worst, because that would be detrimental to my magickal practice. But sometimes I need to work with the elements as they are, because I think that's a powerful spell for creating change. See how the emotions and thoughts could maybe create a shift in some way. And other than that, what can we do? What can witches, allies and those of us with resources do to to really create presence and create space and create the shift that we want to see. As I mentioned before, just googling what to do about climate change or the climate crisis, you will get a whole host of tips and tricks. So I actively chose not to go into any specifics, I personally just focused on four things that are kind of a progression, if you will, that I have found helpful for me. So the first is awareness, and that's obvious, just becoming aware of the facts so that we can see where we feel called to act. And I think that awareness and where we feel called to act is important because we can't take on the burden of the climate crisis by ourselves. We need the support of of the community in order to carry this heavy, heavy burden. Seeing where we feel called to act means that we are moved from a place of passion, from a place of love and from a place of again, from sacred rage and from sacred grief in order to contribute and to help the community. It's not about knowing everything there is to know about the climate crisis or how to create change. It's about being aware so we can see where we feel called to act and create an interest going forward. I would like to point out, though, that I think it is also important to not get bogged down by by the statistics and the facts. We need to also live and we need to live beautifully, even in dark times. Sometimes that's the best way to show up for this world is to is to laugh and to let go of the worries that keep us up at night, especially in this cycle, in this time of having 24 hour news cycles, having immediate access with our phones and with all of the technology we have, it can be quite easy to get bogged down and to feel compelled to always be gaining more awareness of the situation, and it is important to be aware. We don't want to be sticking our heads in the sand and being blind to what's happening. But we also can't always be be receiving in this type of information. We, like I said, we need to be able to live and we need to live beautifully as well. We need to live happily, because that's the only way we're going to create real change. The second, as I mentioned, is interest, and this is taking that call to act and really placing it into a space of investigating with passion, as I said, investigating with purpose. What we're interested in is going to allow us to not feel burdened by the facts, but to continuously be interested in ways that we can we can grow and we can be part of that change. So the interest is really the hinge from awareness and into action. And as we create new action, or stop doing an old action, whatever action is happening in order to create that change, I just really find that the action is again, it's important that we not be judgmental or cynical or shameful in all reality it's not going to happen in our lifetime in order to really, really see much of the effect of the rollbacks that hopefully happen, it's not going to happen in our lifetime. So it's about creating action in order to, to undo what could have been done decades earlier. The action itself is, it's important that we live our truth, but it's also important that we not shame ourselves, or judge ourselves, or beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. It's not about perfection, like for instance, for me, one of my big calls to act, and one of the things that has interest me in investigating with purpose, is the use of palm oil. Palm oil is in almost everything. A lot, you'll see it a lot. I've noticed in a lot of foods like chocolates and ice creams, because it is a good preserver for that type of food, but it can be found in almost any type of food out there. But I felt called to act when I saw a video of an orangutan trying to fight off a bulldozer and a palm oil plantation, and that just completely hurt my heart. And I was like, I can't be part of this process anymore. I try to read the labels to make sure that what I am buying does not have palm oils. It has also made me start baking more, because when I want something sweet, it's just easier now to bake it or to make it myself, because I know that there's no palm oil in that, and then just making sure that the ingredients I'm using don't have palm oil. But there was one day where I bought something and I was like, I looked at the label, and I got home, and I was like, this has palm oil in it. And at first I felt so guilty. And then I was like, I need to take it back. I can't have this. And then I was I tried to just show a little compassion for myself and be like, Okay, now I know not to buy this again. So it's not about creating perfection. It's about showing up with love and compassion for for the love and for others and as and as well as yourself. And then finally, the last step that I wrote is advocacy, and that's really taking the action into the space of the communal, really showing up for others, for for the planet, for the flora, for the fauna, and using our personal actions to create communal shifts. Again, we can't tackle the climate crisis by ourselves. We can only do it with this with the supportive community, really using our our vote, our voice, our dollars, to, to lead the way, and as I said, speaking up for others, and also speaking to others about ways that they can change, not from a place of judgment or shame, but just from a place of information. We can speak to other people about the information and ways to change, and hopefully they feel that that call to action, hopefully through the awareness they feel that call to act, and that's all we can do. We can't control others, but we can show up and and be there to, to have the information at hand, and hopefully it will create awareness and shifts in other people. And finally, I would also like to say that I sometimes get really frustrated when I read about the climate crisis, and a lot of this stuff is based on individuals taking an extra five minutes in the shower, not bringing my reusable bags to the store, eating beef one night. It is important to to recognize the... the lasting, lingering effects that our choices have. I fully agree with that, but I would also just like to say that I think that when we continuously place most of the burdens on ourselves as individuals, it's allowing the large corporations and the the ones with the true power to kind of get swept under the rug, if we're so busy focusing on how many minutes our hot shower was, not realizing that large-scale corporations, like over 70% of the fossil fuel emissions came from just 100 fossil fuel providers. My five minute shower pales in comparison. Like, yes, we need to be mindful as individuals of how we are part of this world and our choices create, create a cause and effect, but we also... a light just needs to be shown on the large corporations and on the ways that they are continuously finding loopholes and kickbacks so that they can keep making money while destroying everything about the planet in the process, and in speaking to the ways in which the powerful have shifted and placed the pain and suffering and anguish and even blame onto those with less social standing, those with less resources or less power or protection for themselves, I found an interesting article that has discussed how witches have been blamed For extreme weather events, going all the way back to the 14th century with the Little Ice Age. Now this is not new. What I find interesting, though, is that it seems that there is still this space where things don't change, that those in power have not learned, even with the advance of science. There are those who still will shift the blame and the consequences off onto onto individuals, off onto those who don't have as much of a resource to fight back, just so they appear to be in the clear and they can do everything they're doing in the dark. And that is why one of the last things that I will say that we can do, I can do, you can do, if you feel comfortable and called to do it, is to then use our magick to usurp and fight back against the powerful with spells like hexes, bindings, banishment, domination spells, control spells. I would love to do a whole podcast episode on these types of spells, because many in the community see these spells as to be irresponsible, to not be, to not be right to do. Now, if one personal practitioner feels that it's just not a good if it's not a good way to spend their energy, I totally, I totally respect that. However, I see my magick as a way to protect me, protect that which I love. It is in some ways, actually, like it is both the weapon and the armor. And because of that, I have no problem. We are to hex the patriarchy, and we see that all the time, you know, like, that's kind of a catchy slogan on like, shirts and hats and stuff, but, but I think there is an actual space for that in our magical practices. Now, again, I am not I'm not saying that we all need to be going out there and and Hexing and binding everyone for every little thing that happens to us in our life. It is vitally important, I think, when we approach these That's wrong. kinds of spells, that we come to the space with, or we come to the circle with a sense of grounded purpose, grounded intention, and honest clarity.What are we looking to get at when we, when we step into this type of spell crafting? It's, in my opinion, it's not enough to say hex the fossil fuel industry or hex the patriarchy, because as someone who is a consumer of non renewable resources, I could be contributing to a backlash on my energies, on my spiritual or on my magickal practices, and obviously I do not want to be doing that. I would approach this type of spell from the space of of saying that those in power need to do better. There needs to be sacred protection and sacred rage towards a higher social order. It's not about simply hexing because they are the fossil fuel industry, even though there is deep problems in continuing to line their pockets and go through loopholes and buy off politicians so that they can keep making money. Those are obviously problematic, and that is much different. That narrative is much different than just hex the fossil fuel industry. So I make this point of being radically clear, radically honest, and radically intentional, because these are not types of spells that we should be doing every minute, every time something bad or negative happens in our life. It's not the place for that. These are the spells that, in my opinion, we should be turning to or using with the intention to still walk the path to love compassion. It just doesn't take the love and the light path. It takes the path of sacred rage, sacred protection and a call for higher social for higher social order, for higher social good. So I make that point, and I make that point heavily, because these types of spells can face some energetic or some can face some narrative backlash. Everyone is free, I think, to do their own kind of of spell crafting. I am not here to say that one way is wrong or another is right. This is just obviously, because this is my podcast, I'm going to be speaking about what is coming from my narrative, from my expression, and from my seat at this table that has been that has been practicing for centuries. So again, I just I make that point, and I make that point heavily because I it's important to really look into what is right for each individual person, spell crafting, and not just, not just follow with some catchy slogan. Like, I mean, I personally love the slogan hex the patriarchy. Or, you know, Hex racism, but it's, it's. These types of spells are not a catchy slogan. They are an actual practice and an actual offering of our energy and our magick out into the world, so it is important that we are in a space of understanding and clarity and transparency with ourselves as to what is what is happening within this spell, down in the details.Most importantly, I think that it is important that we just simply show up and commit, that we try to commit to to do better, that we try to commit to change where we can, and to learn more where we can, and to move from a place of sacred love.Sacred rage, sacred grief, and sacred protection are incredibly vital and important in any spiritual or magical practice, I would argue. But sacred love is the highest and the most divine, so it is from that place that showing up and holding space and creating space and creating change is going to be the most transformative. It is going to be the most important, in my opinion. One podcast that I would really like to mention if you are looking for another podcast that speaks to creating more intention around living more eco-mindfully, or living more sustainably, or just trying to do what you can in the ways that you can. The podcast is

called Good Together: 41:33

Ethical, Eco-Ffriendly, Sustainable Living. What I love about this podcast is that each and every episode features a lot of great knowledge, a lot of great dialog around living more eco friendly tips and tricks that we can do to create space for being more mindful of our carbon footprint. But again, they don't come from a space of guilt or judgment or shame, which I think is really important, because we can only show up and do the best that we can. One final thing that I would like to mention before I end this podcast is going back to the role of the Earth as the Earth Mother, as the all encompassing, ornate and overt and apparent mother. She is the provider and the sustainer for me, spiritually, magically and physically, those spaces that she holds for us now needs us to hold that space for her. She is one of the oldest spirits that we can come in contact with at any given moment. She is one of the oldest witches that we can turn to for for guidance and for support in our own magical practice. And she is one of the physical beings that will never leave us, no matter what we do to her. And I don't say that to be preachy. I don't say that to be up on my pedestal, pointing a finger again. I am just as much in the need to gain more awareness as anyone else. But I simply say that because I need that to be spoken here, just speaking the words creates a shift within me energetically, just like working with the elements as they are creates a shift. My words are part of that shift back. So yeah, that is where I wish to end this podcast episode today. This podcast was a process to make, but I am so glad that I did. Thank you for your votes. Like I said, I will do another poll again in the future. I want to thank you to send a thank you to my Spooks, Lisa Zimmerman, Bobbie McDiarmid and Deb guy. Thank you so much for your continued support in Tea and Tombstones. I am always so humbled and grateful each and every month for your presence on my Patreon page. One big announcement that I have is that if you are in the Denver area, I will be doing a physical pop-up event at Nurture, a wellness marketplace, on April 24 from 9am until 2pm. I will have a little table set up, and I will be doing some physical tarot readings. You can find all of the details on my website. It is on the sidebar, on the right, on every single page that you're on in my website, it is best if you do want to see me there to book an appointment either 30 minutes or 60 minutes. That just guarantees that we will have time together. Any available slots will be on a first come first serve basis. So if you would like to be there and to work with me, you can head over to my website and book an appointment and hold your space there. I would also like to give a shout out to grave dancer, the band that does my theme music. I am always so grateful, and I had so much much positivity come to to me in relation to my theme music. And I love my theme music, but they have a new album out the Cults of the Red Goddess, and it's beautiful. All of the links for them, for everything, is going to be in the show notes. If you would like to work with me. You can head to the store on my website and see what offerings I have up and available. I did just recently increase my prices. I have been working through one of my final classes before I graduate from Red Rocks Community College, and this class is all about starting an integrative practice and going through this and writing the business plan and researching the business side of this, I I realized that I needed to honor the years of work that I have put into Tea and Tombstones. I don't like to toot my own horn. I never want to sound arrogant or anything or egotistical, but I've put a lot into the space, and it has not always been easy, but increasing the prices I felt was the right thing to do, to move forward, to still be of service, but also to to show myself some love and to show myself a little bit of gratitude for how I've shown up to the space each and every day. On my website, you can also subscribe to my monthly newsletter, and there, you can also keep in contact with me as to what's going on in the platform as it happens. And finally, you can always connect with me on social media to share any thoughts, comments, questions. I love interacting with you, so don't be shy until next time. Thank you for letting me into your day, and thank you for the interconnection here and everywhere to this beautiful practice and to this beautiful space.

Unknown: 46:57

Take care.