Mabon 2025: Word Witches With Charlie Burgess, Kate Belew, and Sanyu Estelle

What this episode covers

Happy Equinox to the Missing Witches Coven! The geese are leaving the lake, the leaves are starting to fall, and we’ve got this one day to celebrate equilibrium before we tumble into the dark half of the year. Fall/winter is the perfect time to sit, alone, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea and start writing, so for Mabon, we’ve invited three Word Witches from across the USA to guide us into our writing practice: Sanyu Estelle, Charlie Burgess, and Kate Belew. So, as Terry Tempest Williams wrote, "a pencil is a wand and a weapon", and our guests today will help us learn how to most powerfully wield this wand and weapon. Don't be afraid of the blank page, our guests tell us - it is an invitation to build worlds!! Sanyu Estelle is also known as "The Word Witch" because of her deep love for word origins (etymology) and word culture (philology). Sanyu is a self described pigmented, womoonist, cissy, flexible asexual, travel-apt and fashion forward SSJW (Sarcastic Social Justice Warrior). She’s also a musician, singer and lyricist - her Latest ALBUM 'Ship Wrecked came out last year. And she’s a tarot historian and CARD READER who promises THE READING YOU NEED, NOT THE READING YOU WANT. Her book The Cultural Roots of Tarot will be out in Fall 2026, so hopefully we’ll have her back on the pod to talk more about that more next year! In her essay I AM THE FIGHT Sanyu wrote, “Black Liberation does not equate to White Supremacy. IT REMEDIES IT.” Kate Belew is an author, poet, and Witch who’s work exists at the crossroads of creativity and craft. She has taught and facilitated circles and workshops worldwide since 2017. Kate has an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and is an initiated Green Witch, fully devoted to the magic of poetry and the poetry of magic. Also the co-host of Magick and Alchemy. The tamed wild podcast with co-host Kristen Lisenby. Kate's new book Word Witch is a literary grimoire, a guide and companion helping readers through the alchemy of becoming writers in which Kate reminds us that "Everyone is creative. Everything is connected. Writing is magic." . Word Witch is out October 7th, and available for pre-order now! Charlie Claire Burgess is a queer and trans-nonbinary author and artist working at the intersection of spirituality and queerness. A prolific author and deck creator, Charlie’s latest book is Queer Devotion. Queer Devotion reveals that spirituality has always been far queerer than we’ve been led to believe. Queer devotion’s first line is, “In the beginning, the gods were queer” and Charlie insists that they still are. Charlie’s decks too re-imagine archetypes beyond binaries. Their latest decks are Fifth Spirit Tarot and The Gay Marseille Tarot. And just to put a fine point on it: They are the host of the word witch podcast and their IG handle is the.word.witch. www.missingwitches.com/mabon-2025-word-witches-with-charlie-burgess-kate-belew-and-sanyu-estelle

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