Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee, Allabest. Black cats, broomsticks, and a history of patriarchal oppression. This podcast has discussed witchcraft and witch hunts specifically in the past. Back in May, we were joined by Lucy Allab us to explore how the label Witch has been historically

levied against women as a means of persecution and control, punishing them for a long list

of imaginary crimes like devouring children and consorting with the devil. Those who were

unjustly accused of witchcraft often faced horrific punishment. So can we even imagine

the prejudice which actual self-identified witches would have faced? The very word itself,

witch, has become a slur against women all across the English-speaking world. And yet the beliefs

and practices of witchcraft have never died out. In fact, it's believed that the number of modern day witches is on the rise. According to a 2014 survey from the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Americans openly practicing witchcraft in one form or another. In all likelihood, those numbers

have only increased in the years since 2014. TikTokers, for example, sharing witch-based content,

have amassed over 20 billion views under the hashtag witch talk. And as the trend grows,

major retailers, including Sephora and urban outfitters and many more have eagerly started selling mystical crystals and spellbooks and other witchy paraphernalia hoping to cash in on the growing movement.

And yet all of this still leaves us with the question, who exactly are these self-professed witches?

Some of you may even be wondering,

is witchcraft actually real? So to help cut through misinformation and shine a light directly on what

witchcraft looks like today, we decided to go straight to the source. And fortunately, we found

a present day practicing witch who was willing to sit down with our podcast editor, Sam Rose, for a conversation about ritual, history, stereotypes, and the self-identified witches who still walk among us.

And with that, I'll turn things over to Sam to introduce our guest. Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Sam Preminger. Prominter. Pronouns are they, them? And maybe you've heard my voice

once or twice on the feed before, but I'm sneaking out one more time from being your behind-the-scenes

editor in order to talk to just the most incredible guest. This guest is a student of Jungian

psychology and has been a practicing witch for over 40 years. And she's agreed to come on the podcast

to tell us about herbcraft and rituals, about gods and devils and what it's like to be a present day practicing witch.

It's going to be such a great episode, and you're going to learn a whole bunch about witchcraft and how it helps fight patriarchy.

But before we get into it, I'm going to let her introduce herself.

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