Magick & Alchemy

In episode 178 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew conclude their series on Women in Art & the Occult by sharing the stories of Mary Wigman and Louise Bourgeois. As a dancer, Mary Wigman was an artist whose medium was not paint nor pen, but movement. She was the creator of the "Witch Dance," a performance that transformed her into a fluid, intuitive conduit of magic. Louise Bourgeois was a sculptor who considered her art a form of divination and a means of emotional restoration. She is most known for her spider sculptures, which she saw as symbols of resilience, feminine power, creativity, and independence. Bourgeois allowed her mind to wander while creating (a process she called ‘gathering wool’), letting "thought traces, fragments of dreams, idols, speculations, hunches, and intuitions" coalesce into art.
Sources & Shoutouts:
Tethered: An Anthology of Magic
“Re-reading Mary Wigman’s Hexentanz II (1926): the influence of the non-Western ‘Other’ on movement practice in early modern ‘German’ dance,” Lito Tsitsou and Lucy Weir 
Monte Verita
Witch Dance - YouTube
Stephando Mudo - La Biennale di Venezia
“Imagination is the Medium,” Literary Coven
“Breathing Back the History of German Modern Dance through the Horror Film Genre in Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria,” Wesley Lim
“The Language of Dance,” Mary Wigman
Louise Bourgeois - Gathering Wool
“Surrealist Threads in Louise Bourgeois’ Work,” Essie King
“Louise Bourgeois: The Woman Behind The Spider Sculptures,” Essie King
“The Damned, the Possessed and the Beloved: About Art, Architecture and Witchcraft”
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 177 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew consider the bewitching work of Stevie Nicks and Florence Welch. Standing at the crossroads of music, magic, and mystery, Kate and Kristin explore Rock & Roll’s occult muses before diving into Nick’s journey as a singer and performer. They discuss the inspiration for her first hit song with Fleetwood Mac, “Rhiannon,” which Nicks explains “is a song about an old Welsh witch.” Kate and Kristin also discuss Florence Welch, a songstress who compares witchcraft to medicine. They contemplate the creation of her band, Florence and the Machine, Welch’s Witch Choir, and share some of the enchanting lyrics penned by this word witch.
CW: Miscarriage
Sources & Shoutouts:
Tamed Wild Samhain Retreat - October 2026
10th House Rising Classes & Community
"It was if Merlin himself could not have concocted a spell more perfect": how Stevie Nicks turned to mythology to conjure up Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon,” Bill Demain 
“Stevie Nicks on Love, Loss and What She Wears,” Holly George-Warren - More Magazine
Florence Welch - Britannica
‘The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death’: Florence Welch on sexism, screaming and the lost pregnancy that nearly killed her, Rebecca Nicholson - The Guardian
“For Florence Welch, Grief Has Become A Superpower,” Sarah Cristobal - L’Officiel
“The Pagan Heart of Florence + The Machine,” Angelica Frey - JSTOR
“Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry,” Florence Welch
Paris Paloma, Labour
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 176 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew explore the creative lives of Ithell Colquhoun and Lucille Clifton. Colquhoun was an artist and author who combined surrealism with her interest in bodily landscapes, gender fluidity, ecology, mythology, transient states, and erotic alchemy. Both Colquhoun and Clifton believed their artistic practices were forms of divination and ways to connect with the spirit world. Clifton engaged with Ouija and ‘spirit writing’ to inspire her poetry, which focused on history, the African American experience, Blackness, and the Black body. She believed that the purpose of poetry and art was not to reveal answers but to ask questions.
Sources & Shoutouts:
The Myth of Apollo and Clytie
The Quest - Journal Archives
 The Quest Society 
“Ithell Colquhoun: A queer, occultist artist who created between worlds,” Isabella Greenwood
 Art Historian Katy Hessel
 “A Diagram of Desire, Androgyny, Queer Eroticism, and the Occult Visions of Ithell Colquhoun,” Isabella Greenwood 
First Look: Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds
Dawn Ades, ‘Notes on Two Women Surrealist Painters: Eileen Agar and Ithell Colquhoun’, Women in Art 3, no. 1 (1980) 
Scylla (1938)
Alchemical Figure: Androgyne  (1941) 
Diagrams of Love (1940)
About Lucille Clifton - Poets.org
"Won’t You Celebrate With Me," Lucille Clifton
“Spirit Writing, Body Problems: Lucille Clifton’s Faith”
“The Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton,” Marina Magloire
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 175 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kate Belew and Kristin Lisenby continue their series on Women in Art & the Occult, dedicating this chapter to Georgie Yeats and Sylvia Plath. Georgie was an author and medium whose journey with automatic writing began during her honeymoon with the poet and author W.B. Yeats. Over the next decade, she channeled messages from spirits who called themselves the “Instructors,” producing 50 notebooks and thousands of pages of writing and geometric designs on the occult nature of reality. Meanwhile, fellow author and mystic Sylvia Plath preferred the Ouija board to communicate with the spirit world. Although she was fiercely private about her magical interests, she relied on astrology, ‘homemade talking boards,’ and tarot cards as tools to guide her pen.
CW: Mention of Suicide
Sources & Shoutouts:
W.B. Yeats - Wikipedia
A Vision, W.B. Yeats
“The Vision of W.B. Yeats,” Gary Lachman
“Yeats and the Golden Dawn: Occult Poetry and Automatic Writing,” Nicole Lau
“The Tower,” W.B. Yeats
“Exploring The Occult Sylvia Plath,” Kalenna Fraga
“The Haunting Story Of How Sylvia Plath Died And The Tragic Events That Led Up To It,” Kaleena Fraga
“Uncovering Sylvia Plath,” Emanuela Borgatta Dunnett
Magic Maker, Pam Grossman
The Occult Sylvia Plath, Julie Gordon-Bramer
“Sylvia Plath And The Occult,” Terri-Jane Dow
“How Black Magic Killed Sylvia Plath,” - The Guardian
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio

In episode 174 of the Magick & Alchemy podcast, hosts Kristin Lisenby and Kate Belew delve into the creative lives of magical women for their new series, Women in Art & the Occult. They open with the story of Hilma af Klint, a Swedish artist who explored Spiritualism, mediumship, automatic drawing, and the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and Madame Blavatsky in her work and creative process. Kate and Kristin also discuss Vali Myers, a bohemian artist known as the Witch of Positano. Vali was a maker and a muse, a painter and a tattoo artist, who was compared to the goddesses Artemis and Diana for her close relationship with animals and mountains, and for her wild nature.
Sources & Shoutouts:
Episode 144: Wyrd Women, Pt. 2
New Moon Magic, Amy Torok & Risa Dickens
Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, Pam Grossman
Paintings for the Temple, Guggenheim, New York
“The Strange Afterlife of Hilma af Klint, Painting’s Posthumous Star,” Alice Gregory
The Spiral Dance, Starhawk
Just Kids, Patti Smith
A Lesson in True Bohemianism with the Witch of Positano
Bohemian like you: Vali Myers the Witch of Positano
Everything Shines in the Darkness: Sheldon & Diane Rochlin's Vali, The Witch of Positano - YouTube
Inside the remote Italian home of Australia’s bohemian high priestess
Photos: Revisiting Love on the Left Bank - Vanity Faire
Florence Welch on feminism, depression, fame
Vali Myers, the Witch of Positano - Tumblr
Join Tenth House Rising!

Tenth House Rising offers seasonal learning for those who seek meaning through myth, magick, and memory. Rooted in the rhythm of the seasons and inspired by the Wheel of the Year, each month brings a new theme that echoes the energies of the natural world. Learn more at TenthHouseRising.com.
For those who desire magick in the mail, you can also subscribe to the Tamed Wild Box, a monthly delivery of magic & earth medicine. Each box is crafted around a season and includes items for the earth-spirited and the lovers of all things mystical and natural. Deliveries can include crystals, herbs & teas, ritual tools, altar items, jewelry, essential oils & other lifestyle pieces. 
The Tamed Wild Box is a monthly offering of 5-7 items, chosen for the month and season we are in. Each delivery includes a box card that explains your items and a little ritual you can do with your new tools. You will also receive access to a monthly moon gathering, exclusive to box subscribers! 
Created by Tamed Wild.
Production by Julio Montero.
Music by Follow the Wind,
Taizo Audio