May’s full moon is known as the Flower Moon, Mother’s Moon, Milk Moon, and Bee Balm Moon. (Check out the end of this post for a fun lunar ritual!)
In this not-so-mini minisode we touch on a whole range of topics, including the reframing power of travel (perfect for a full moon in Sagittarius!); the grounding effects of place and heritage; Carnival and the liberation of marginalized bodies; the peculiar magic of royal weddings; fairies, ghosts, and monsters, and just about everything except witches–which is ridiculous, considering our conversations were centered around New Orleans and Scotland! (To make up for it, I’ve linked some witchy recommendations below.)
Our thanks to Sarah Littledrum for providing the theme song, “Moon and Spruce” (she gets a bee-themed shout out from Jenny in this episode!), and a very special thank you to Linda’s sister, Alisha, who rescued Linda’s recording for us when Linda was out of town.
Finally, if you are moved by Linda’s account of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, please consider donating to help the people of Puerto Rico who are still suffering from the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. You can find a list of relief organizations here.
Related Links
About women and masked/ liberated bodies in Carnival:
The Masked Merriment of Mardi Gras
Women krewes march, dance into Mardi Gras history
- Excerpt: “All the clubs owe a huge debt to the women-led social aid and pleasure clubs. … That image of women being able to be sexy and have a different body type really came from black Mardi Gras.”
NOLA History: Women in Carnival
“Carnival and the lower body” from Ritual in Early Modern Europe by Edward Muir (a little more on the academic side, but it unites several threads of our discussion)
- Excerpt: “Carnival liberated human consciousness and permitted a new outlook by allowing common people to organize themselves ‘in their own way’ as a Carnival crowd. According to Bakhtin, the basic mechanism by which Carnival achieved its liberating effects was through turning the world upside down, especially by privileging images from the earthly underworld and the lower body, what Bakhtin called the ‘material bodily lower stratum’ represented through ‘grotesque realism'” (99).
About Scotland:
Katie’s travel blog (see the Gryffindor apartment here)
Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition
Grey Cairns of Camster (which Katie crawled inside and immediately regretted)
The Jacobite Steam Train (aka Hogwarts Express)
Witch trials in early modern Scotland
Witchy Recommendations
Witchy things to do in New Orleans
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
Secret Feminist Agenda Episodes 2.18 and 2.19
Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Lisa Schneidau
Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook 2018
All of Scotland! (Katie stayed in the Highlands, but if you happen to go to Edinburgh, be sure to check out all the witchy things!)
And finally, here is the ritual Jenny shared from Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook. (Plus a resource for creating your own rituals.)
Witches in Britches 