The Witch Wave

Joanna Ebensteinis the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy, which is the world’s leading community that focuses on, among other things, the culture and contemplation of death. Morbid Anatomy has taken many forms since its founding in 2007. It’s been a wildly popular blog, a library, a museum, a project-in-residence at Green-Wood Cemetery, just to name a few, and it’s currently both an in-person gathering space in Brooklyn’s Industry City, as well as a thriving online community that features lectures, workshops, and merch, as well as in-person experiences including field trips, conferences, and other events.An internationally recognized death expert, Joanna is the author of several books, including Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion, and The Anatomical Venus. Her newest book is Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life. She is also an award-winning curator, photographer, and graphic designer, and the teacher of the many times sold-out class, Make Your Own Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Art, History and the Imagination.On this episode, Joanna discusses the value of ancestor veneration, her research on varying cultural attitudes about grief and loss, and how befriending death can lead to a better life.Pam also talks about Samhain as time to contemplate the divinity of death, and answers a listener question about activism and the Goddess.Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, TU·ET·AL soap and skincare, BetterHelp, Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling out now from Weiser Books, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Mithras Candle, and the Missing Witches Deck of Oracles out now from North Atlantic Books.We also have print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here, and all sorts of other bewitching goodies available in the Witch Wave shop.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave

Judika Illes is the author of numerous books devoted to spells, spirits, and witchcraft, including Encyclopedia of Spirits, as well as Pure Magic, Daily Magic, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints, and Sages, and Magic When You Need It. Judika also was a significant contributor to the Witchcraft book Pam co-edited for Taschen’s Library of Esoterica Series, and she’s been a speaker at the Occult Humanities Conference as well.Her newest literary offering, Witches: A Compendium, explores what a witch is and the different ways to be one. In it Judika Illes presents the history, mysteries, and diverse natures of witches from around the world. Featuring a who’s who ranging from famous—or infamous—historical witches such as Tituba, Sybil Leek, Aleister Crowley and popular fictional witches such as the Scarlet Witch, Agatha Harkness, and the Wicked Witch of the West, Witches: A Compendium celebrates witches in all their complicated glory.Judika herself is a practicing witch who has been a professional tarot card reader for over three decades and is a certified aromatherapist. A native New Yorker, she teaches in the US and internationally, live and virtually, and is one of the world’s most knowledgeable and renowned experts in witchcraft.On this episode, Judika discusses her favorite pop culture witches, bewitching Egyptian deities, and why the witch is a symbol of transgressive joy.Pam also talks about her Occultober film and TV viewing plans, and answers a listener question about setting a protective magical boundary at work.Our sponsors for this episode are Luna Lifted, The Modern Witches’ Confluence, BetterHelp, Woodland Magic, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and Rue and VervainWe also have print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave

Welcome to Season 8 of The Witch Wave!Cécile McLorin Salvant is a three-time Grammy-winning singer and composer, considered by many to be the Ella Fitzgerald/Sarah Vaughan/Billie Holiday/choose-your-own-iconic-vocalist of our time. The late opera legend Jessye Norman described Salvant as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings.” Salvant’s style and repertoire are extensive and expansive connecting vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque, pop, and folkloric music. She’s known as an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor. Salvant is widely admired and decorated with such awards as being the winner of the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010, the MacArthur fellowship (known in shorthand as the MacArthur Genius Award), and the Doris Duke Artist Award, in addition to the aforementioned multiple Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal Album. In addition to her stunning singing, Cécile is beloved for her visionary visual style, as well as for the tropes of mythology, magic, and monstresses which often show up in her original songs and her interpretations of existing ones. Her two most recent albums, Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022) and Mélusine (Nonesuch Records, 2023) include songs about supernatural love and mythic transformations, and her forthcoming album and animated feature, Ogresse, is a musical fable she describes as both a biomythography and an homage to the loa Erzulie.Born and raised in Miami, Florida of a French mother and Haitian father, she started classical piano studies at 5, sang in a children’s choir at 8, and started classical voice lessons as a teenager. Salvant received a bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France.Salvant is also an accomplished visual artist, and her fantastical drawings, embroideries, and papercuttings can currently be seen up at Picture Room in Brooklyn through Nov 3, 2024. She is also on tour now, and will be performing at Carnegie Hall multiple times over the coming months.On this episode, Cécile discusses how she learned to embrace her “weird” in her music and other work, her love of hybrid creatures and mystical monstresses, and her burgeoning interest in ancestral magic.Pam also talks about voting as a means of counteracting tired old tropes about “diabolical” outsiders, and answers a listener question about getting to know the goddess Athena.Cécile McLorin Salvant songs featured in this episode:“Ghost Song” from Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022)“Wuthering Heights” cover from Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022)“Fenestra” from Mélusine(Nonesuch Records, 2023)Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, The Vintage Storyteller, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, BetterHelp, Blackthorn’s Book of Sacred Plant Magic out now from Weiser Books, Mithras Candle, and The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles out now from North Atlantic Books.We also have print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave

This season finale of The Witch Wave features Suranne Jones, the award-winning English actor, producer, and series creator. She’s been nominated for several awards for acting and won a BAFTA for her starring role in the hit series Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned. Some highlights from her decades long television career include starring roles in Gentleman Jack, Vigil, and Scott and Bailey, and she’s also appeared in such British television intuitions as Coronation Street and Doctor Who. She’s currently in production on a new Netflix thiller series called The Choice, which sees her starring as the British Prime Minister opposite Julie Delpy’s French president, so look for that in 2025. Suranne also has an illustrious theatre career, and has starred in such plays as Frozen, Orlando, and Beautiful Thing.As producer, Suranne runs the TeamAkers Productions company with her husband Laurence Akers, and it’s this company that is responsible for the new docuseries, Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials(which features our own Pam Grossman!) The series is currently airing in 2 parts on the UK’s Channel 4 on June 23rd and June 30th, and if you missed the first part not to worry as both will be streaming on the Channel 4 site as well.On this episode, Suranne discusses what compelled her to make a witchcraft documentary, her personal relationship to magic, and the shapeshifting abilities that she brings to the craft of acting.Pam also talks about why historical witch hunts are relevant to this present moment, and answers a listener question about revealing her witch self on a date.Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Nicole Marxen, BetterHelp, Snowy Owl Tea, Liza Fenster’s COMMUNION course, Sphere + Sundry, and The Queer Witches of Maude’s Paperwing GalleryWe also have brand new print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave