The Witch Wave

Taisia Kitaiskaia is a Russian-American poet and writer of witchly words. She is the author of two books of experimental, enchanting advice from the infamous Slavic witch, Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles and its follow-up, Poetic Remedies for Troubled Times from Ask Baba Yaga. She has also written The Nightgown and Other Poems and Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers, the latter of which is a collaboration with artist (and former Witch Wave guest) Katy Horan that celebrates magical women writers - and was an NPR Best Book of 2017. Together they also released a divination deck, The Literary Witches Oracle. Taisia has received fellowships from Yaddo and the James A. Michener Center for Writers, and her work has been published in journals such as A Public Space, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, StoryQuarterly, Fence, Guernica and more. She has written for The Hairpin, Electric Literature, Jezebel, and Bitch Media, and her work has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize. On this episode, Taisia discusses her favorite witchly writers, the fairy tale aspects of her Russian childhood, and the wild wisdom of Baba Yaga.Pam also discusses the crone archetype, and answers a listener question about changing direction in her academic study of death.Our sponsors for this episode are Temperance Home and Bar, Mithras Candle, Seasonal Steep, BetterHelp, Hag Swag, and Sarah Faith Gottesdiener’s Moonbeaming online course

The Brujas of Brooklyn are Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon and Miguelina Rodriguez. They are identical twin PhDs who are professors of the Social Sciences within the City College of New York (CUNY). These brujas merge the magic of ancestral medicine with sharp intellect, combining the physical, the mental, and the spiritual to help people become more fully integrated beings. Their platform provides the balm to help folks heal from internalized oppression, particularly women. As certified kundalini and hatha yogis, these Black Dominican sisters design multi-sensory workshops that provide sacred space for women of color to heal from womb imbalances. They’ve both authored academic pieces on the effects of racialized oppression on communities of color, Dominicans in particular. And their work has granted them has been featured in such places as Univision, Google, Buzz Feed’s Pero Like, and Facebook to name a few. And they say that “Joy is their ultimate form of resistance.”On this episode, the Brujas of Brooklyn discuss their modern spin on brujeria, the importance of feminine bodily healing, and why the spiritual and political are intertwined. Pam also discusses the misogynist history of the witch hunts, and answers a listener question about magic and pregnancy.Our sponsors for this episode are The Flower Essences Deck, Witchy Washy Bath, The Spiral Bookcase, BetterHelp, and the Magic Monday podcast.

Douglas Little is a natural perfumer, creative director, product designer, and artist. He is the founding director of Heretic, a natural, artisanal fragrance brand that develops scents based on the mysterious, sensual and feral aspects of nature. He has collaborated with the likes of Lady Gaga, Dita Von Teese, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Alexander McQueen, and has also specialized in installation work, creating provocative window displays and other artful branded environments for luxury clientele like Van Cleef & Arpels, Bergdorf Goodman, Maxfield Los Angeles, Jim Thompson and the immersive dinner-theater experience Queen of the Night. Douglas’s prior namesake brand, D. L. & Co.: Modern Alchemists and Purveyors of Curious Goods, made a splash in the marketplace by infusing visions of antique luxury with a fresh, modern spirit, combining of botany, Edwardian decadence, and dark beauty to a range of products beginning with artisanal perfumed candles and extending to home goods and accessories. A California native, Douglas studied marketing and product development at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, as well as at the Syndicat National des Fabricants de Produits Aromatiques in Grasse, France. On this special Valentine’s Day episode, Douglas discusses how he’s blended his lifelong fascinations with fragrance and the occult, the magic of “dirty rose,” and how scent can make us more in touch with our sensual side.Pam also discusses her V-Day (and B-Day) rituals, and answers a listener question about a witchy connection at work.Our sponsors for this episode are Temperance Home and Bar Botanica, Mithras Candle, Hag Swag, BetterHelp, and Zouz Incense.

Leila Taylor is the author of Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul. She is a writer and designer whose work focuses on the gothic in Black culture, horror, and the aesthetics of melancholy. She’s been published in The Journal of Horror Studies, The New Urban Gothic: Global Gothic in the Age of the Anthropocene, Dispatches from the Institute of Incoherent Geography, and The Repeater Book of the Occult. She has given talks for the International Gothic Association in Mexico and the U.K. and at Morbid Anatomy in New York. Leila received a Masters in Fine Arts from Yale University and an MA in Liberal Studies at The New School for Social Research. She is also Creative Director for the Brooklyn Public Library.On this episode, Leila discusses the intersections of gothic culture and Black America, the history of goth music and the ghosts of history, and why dark art can help us find joy.Pam also talks about the Full Wolf Moon, and answers a listener question about leaning into Lilith.Our sponsors for this episode are Amanda Bienko, Witch Baby Soap, BetterHelp and Zouz Incense.

Jeanna Kadlec is a writer and astrologer whose work has been featured in such places as O Magazine, Allure, and Autostraddle. She is a culture columnist at Longreads and the author of the forthcoming memoir HERETIC. Jeanna describes herself as “native Midwesterner, ex-evangelical, recovering academic,” and she is also the founder of the now-closed Bluestockings Boutique, the first-ever lingerie boutique geared to the LGBTQ+ community. She now creates the Astrology for Writers newsletter and teaches her workshop, Astrology for Writers: How to Make Your Writing Work for You. On this episode, Jeanna speaks about radical astrology, her cosmic writing career, and the revolutionary energy we can expect in 2021.Pam also talks about the need to stay present for this moment of transformative upheaval, and answers a listener question about troubling anti-science sentiments in the occult community. Our sponsors for this episode are The Pretty Cult, BetterHelp, and Zouz Incense

Sarah Chavez has dedicated her adult life to examining death and dying through an intersectional-feminist and inclusive lens. She one of the founders of the Death Positive movement, through which she examines the relationship between ritual, decolonization, and death itself. She is the executive director of the Order of the Good Death, a founding member of The Collective for Radical Death Studies, and co-founder of feminist site Death & the Maiden. She weaves together the relationship between death and food, rituals, culture, and society, via her blog Nourishing Death. She is also a museum curator and a co-hosts the Death in the Afternoon podcast with Caitlin Doughty and Louise Hung. Sarah was the subject of a chapter in Caitlin Doughty’s NYT bestselling book, From Here to Eternity, and she has worked on the popular YouTube series, Ask a Mortician.Sarah has also garnered a wide, devoted audience for her writing and posts on folklore, mythology, and rituals that surround death, including her vast knowledge about witches, vampires, saints, and other beguiling beings.On this episode she discusses the importance of destigmatizing death, how both Hollywood and her Mexican-American neighborhood influenced her conceptions of the afterlife, and Yuletide myths and wintery New Year’s magic to help us celebrate what she calls “The Other Halloween.”Pam also speaks about honoring winter darkness, and answers a listener question about taking spiritual workshops online.Our sponsors for this episode are BetterHelp and Zouz Incense.

Sarah Faith Gottesdiener is an artist, author, and business owner living in Los Angeles, California. She wrote the cult classic workbooks Many Moons from 2015-2018, and now creates the Many Moons Lunar Planners. She has sold over 80,000 copies of her limited edition publications, completely independent of any traditional publisher, and almost entirely through word-of-mouth. In addition, Sarah has created art, design, and apparel via her Modern Women line that have been seen in movies, television, and on the bodies of many magical babes, and for brands you have absolutely heard of. Since 2012, Sarah has worked as a psychic tarot reader, reading for nearly 1,000 clients. She is a teacher of the spiritual, the creative, and the magical, teaching classes on energy, the elements, magic, and more. She is also the host of the Moonbeaming podcast. Her new book, The Moon Book: Lunar Magic to Change Your Life is out next week. On this episode, Sarah discusses the power of lunar magic, how to work with the phases of the moon, and why the divine feminine is not necessarily female.Pam also speaks about her lifelong love of the moon, and answers a listener question about how to find non-gender-essentialist, LGBTQ+ friendly witchcraft.Our sponsors for this episode are Lunalux Botanicals, BetterHelp, Mithras Candle, Seasonal Steep, & Zouz Incense

Susan L. Aberth is the Edith C. Blum Professor of the Art History and Visual Culture Program at Bard College, and a world-renowned expert on occult art and surrealism. Her 2004 book, Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (Lund Humphries) helped introduce Carrington’s magical work to the masses. She also recently co-authored The Tarot of Leonora Carrington (Fulgur Press, 2020) with Mexican curator Tere Arcq, which is an analysis of Carrington’s tarot paintings and original major arcana deck.Susan has also contributed to Surrealism and Magic, Guggenheim Venice (2021); Not Without My Ghosts (2020, Traveling exhibition in England); Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist (Phoenix Art Museum, 2019), Juanita Guccione: Otherwhere (Napa Valley Museum, 2019), Surrealism, Occultism and Politics: In Search of the Marvelous (Routledge Press, 2018), Leonora Carrington: Cuentos Magicos (Museo de Arte Moderno & INBA, Mexico City, 2018), Unpacking: The Marciano Collection (Delmonico Books, Prestel, 2017), and Leonora Carrington and the International Avant-Garde (Manchester University Press, 2017), as well as to Abraxas: International Journal of Esoteric Studies, Black Mirror, and Journal of Surrealism and the Americas. She received her B.A. from UCLA, M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.On this episode, Susan discusses her groundbreaking scholarship on Leonora Carrington’s occult art oeuvre, the newly discovered Carrington Tarot, and how bewitching women change the world. Pam also speaks about gratitude magic, and answers a listener question about how to give thanks for a priceless gift.Our sponsors for this episode are Luna Lux Botanicals, BetterHelp, Clarissa Eck Ceramics, Mithras Candle, Zouz Incense

Tayannah Lee McQuillar is a writer and researcher who focuses on shining a light on Black and Indigenous American spiritual and cultural history. She is the author of Rootwork: Using the Folk Magic of Black America for Love, Money, and Success, Astrology for Mystics, and the poetic novella Creole Fire, which imagines a relationship between historical occult figures Marie Laveau and Paschal Beverly Randolph. She is also the creator of two divination decks: The Sibyls Oraculum: Oracles of the Black Doves of Africa, and The Hoodoo Tarot, both illustrated by Katelan Foisy. Tayannah also does ancestor readings and comes from a long line of Hoodoo practitioners.On this episode, Tayannah discusses mindful ancestor work, Black American occultism, and how poetry and history can go hand in hand.Pam also speaks about pairing magic with material action, and answers a listener question about how specific to get in one’s spells.Our sponsors for this episode are Crystals of Quartz, Kismet Berlin, BetterHelp, Wishcraft Goods, and Zouz Incense

Clown is the percussionist, creative director, and co-founding member of Slipknot, one of the world’s biggest, most beloved bands, metal or otherwise.Slipknot has released 6 studio albums including their most recent, critically acclaimed, WE ARE NOT YOUR KIND, as well as 2 live albums, 1 compilation album, and 5 live DVDs. The band formed in 1995 and have since gone on to sell upwards of 30 million albums, receive 10 Grammy nominations, and win a Grammy in 2006 for Best Metal Performance with their song “Before I Forget.”Today Clown is the band’s only original founding member, and as such he’s worn many hats - and clown masks - over the years. He is also an accomplished photographer and filmmaker, collaborator on numerous side projects, and host of his own podcast, The Electric Theater.On this episode, Clown discusses the magical exchange that happens between performer and audience, the transformative power of masks, and the illusory nature of fame.Pam also speaks about Samhain and ritualized disguise, and answers a listener question about how to grieve and honor the passing of a beloved.Our sponsors for this episode are Mithras Candle, BetterHelp, and Zouz Incense