Witches, Whales, and Other Sea Creatures
Plus Book Club Tonight + Full Moon Reminder
Inside:
Imaginary Prize-Winning Essay: Orcas Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Essay Club: Tonight at 6pm PST.
Calendar Questions: Can we have one?
Full Moon Ritual Reminder: Mark your calendars for next Monday!
Hi everyone!
I was going to write you a “heartbreaking newsletter of staggering genius” tonight.
My plan was to write about orcas. Because they’re on my mind a lot recently. The satisfaction of watching them fight back, their power and beauty. My worry that they’ll ram one too many rudders and be drone bombed by some soldier eating Cheetos in El Paso.
And see, it was going to be perfect timing too. Because tonight at Essay Club, we’re going to be reading sections from Alexis Pauline Gumbs book, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals - a book that invites us into communion with the ocean. Mystical communion. Ancestral communion. Ecstatic communion.
It’s a book that teaches us how to be in deep relationship with the ocean, and deep relationship in general.
But alas, it’s past 10pm, and my wrists hurt and I’m trying to model resting when I need to rest, so… you’ll just have to imagine my brilliant essay. And instead of reading it…
…come to Essay Club tonight at 6pm PST so that we can celebrate literature and talk about the ocean together with other witches!
Scroll alll the way down for the link to the meeting.
And don’t forget: the Full Moon is coming up on Monday. We’ll be doing a ceremony to help us cultivate a sense of inner security. Join us!
In solidarity with the Orcas,
Amanda
*If you’re experiencing financial hardship and can’t afford a subscription right now, we have scholarships. I want these rituals to be accessible for all. You can email us at: guardian@oracleoflosangeles.com
Question: Can We Have A Calendar?
Many of you have been asking if we can have a Mystery Cult calendar so that you can plan ahead with babysitters, nights off, and things like that. I have been wanting that too!!
I keep having Conor (my assistant) write to Substack and ask for a calendar widget. And every time I follow up and ask if he’s written them he’s like: “Oh the Substack tech team knows me verrrrryyy well.” LOL.
So the answer is… we’re trying.
I really want one too, since, like many of you I have ADD/Dyslexia/Neurodivergence and need to check things a million times to make sure I’m not getting my days mixed up etc.
We might have to have like a Google calendar or something? We maybe could do something like that? So the answer, for now, is STAY TUNED. We’re trying to set something like that up.
And thank you for your patience, beloveds. We adore you.
Upcoming Mystery Cult Events
A few reminders…
Tonight: Thursday, 6/29/23, 6pm PST – Language of the Birds Reading Group.
Tonight we will be reading a section from Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. We’re reading chapters 1, 6, and 19 (it seems like a lot but the pages are small and it’s a quick read). If you can’t buy the book right now, you can read the section we’re covering here.
Here are some study questions for tonight’s reading…
What might listening and trans-species communion have to do with witchcraft as you understand it, and how might one go about such a process based on the reading material. Speaking of a manatee, in Chapter 1, Gumbs asks, “How can we honor it, the archive of your breathing?” And so I ask, how do we honor breath? And what is an archive of breath? Let’s discuss together.
Another Gumbs’ question from Chapter 6: “What could enable us to live more porously, more mindful of the infinite changeability of our context, more open to each other and to our own needs?”
And finally, based on the reading, can we answer Gumbs’ question: “How can we best care for each other across generations, borders, and other barriers?” What does it mean to, as Audre Lorde said, “be very strong/ and love each other/ in order to go on living”?
Next Monday, 7/3/23 6:00pm PST Full Moon in Capricorn Ritual.
Returning to a felt sense of safety within. Practicing sending magic from our imagination into the material world and back again. Working with stones. Sensing kairos. If you’d like to attend, become a subscriber.* We’d love you to join us!