We often say the most powerful spell a witch can cast is to tell the truth.
Tell the truth and watch the world change.
This week, I’m back in the vortex of cancer follow-ups. The tests. The scans. The maybe-I’m-cured / maybe-I’m-not whiplash. Round and round the mulberry bush.
In this space, I’ve been remembering something I picked up when I was a teenager — a phrase from the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. I think I first encountered it in Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder — a novel that’s also a crash course in the history of philosophy. It stuck with me all these years:
“The truth is that which ennobles.”
Kierkegaard drew a distinction between objective truths — the boiling point of water, the moon landing, a scan that shows enlarged lymph nodes — and subjective truths: the ones that light you up from the inside. The ones that make you kinder, braver, more fully yourself.
And as science- and awe-loving witches, we walk both those paths at once. We don’t want to live in a haze of spiritual psychosis, warped by conspiracy thinking or sold snake oil by spiritual MLMs disguised as community care. We crave real insight — the kind that braids rigorous truth-telling with the pleasure of believing in something more.
That braiding is a practice. A devotion. A check-in with yourself:
💫 Am I leaning too hard on magical thinking right now?
💫 Or do I need to lean all the way in — fully, wildly — to the world-shaping joy of what I WANT to believe?
Is there a secret road between?
As we learned in our interview with neuroscientist Siddharth Ramakrishnan, rituals like divination can offer “cognitive ease” — a kind of gentle mental clarity that helps us move forward with less torment, more grace.
🧙♀️ This Week’s Rx:
Ask yourself:
🌿 Does this belief, this spell, this practice — ennoble me?
🌿 Does it offer balm, joy, courage, or clarity?
🌿 Or is it time to give it less space, and listen for what else wants to grow?
May your magic nourish you this week. May your truth soften you. May your rituals bring ease.
As ever, go gently. Drink water. Get plenty of rest.
📻 New on the Podcast: Danielle Dulsky + The Night School
This week, Risa sat down with poet, witch, ritualist, and founder of The Hag School, Danielle Dulsky, to talk about her powerful new book, The Night School: Lessons in Moonlight, Magic, and the Mysteries of Being Human.
Together they explored:
- Fairy tales and wonder stories as sacred texts
- Who gave us permission to imagine beyond the over-culture
- A powerful ritual for wayfinding a middle path between seemingly irreconcilable selves
- The question every story leaves behind, and the door it opens into your self.
This episode is thick with magic. Tune in wherever you get your spells.
🎧 Listen now on the Missing Witches Podcast
🧹 On the Zine: The Best Witch Podcasts — A Living Love Letter
Whether you're just starting to weave spells or seeking fresh sparks for your magical path, we made this for you:
📡 A list of 20+ incredible witch podcasts — hosted by storytellers, spellcasters, astrologers, and weirdos we love.
Start where you feel the pull:
🌀 Explore the Witch Podcast List →
FEATURED EVENT
🌀 You're Invited: Enter the Cauldron with Cyndi Brannen 🖤
Witches, we have a very special guest coming to the circle…
Cyndi Brannen, PhD — beloved witch, author, ritualist, healer, and founder of the Covina Institute — is joining us for a live coven conversation to mark the release of her powerful new book:
✨ Entering Hekate’s Cauldron: The Magick, Medicine & Mystery of the Goddess ✨
This book is a richly crafted Book of Shadows — a living grimoire that dives deep into personal practice, spirit work, spells, and Hekatean devotion. It's the final offering in Cyndi’s transformative trilogy (Entering Hekate’s Garden, Entering Hekate’s Cave, and now Entering Hekate’s Cauldron) and it’s already igniting cauldrons across our witchy worlds.
We’ll talk about:
🗝️ What it means to do witchcraft in service of healing and wholeness
🌿 How to merge ritual, natural magic, and inner transformation
🌓 The mysteries of Hekate as World Soul
🔥 Why witches return to the cauldron — again and again — to remake themselves
As always, this is a space for curiosity, care, and connection. You can come to listen, ask questions, share your practice, or just soak in the sacred weirdness.
📅 Date + Time: Monday June 16th, 2025 1pm ET
📍Where: RSVP
🔒 This event is open to our coven members. Not a member yet? Join Us!
Let’s gather with Cyndi at the crossroads and open the cauldron together.
Blessed be and see you soon.
🔮 Want to Go Deeper?
We share live rituals, private interviews, community space, and co-dreaming in our Missing Witches Coven.
If you’re not a member yet, this is your invitation.
