6 years of being promised that the cow would be in the next video and we still don't even know her name, I'm beginning to think she doesn't want to actually be in a video.

im paying an Etsy witch to cast a spell so that we can see the cow

"Tara is the cow's familiar" really caught me unprepared

This was great! As an Indigenous woman (from what’s now CA) the white sage thats so popular is only native to SoCal and into Mexico. Thats it. And there’s ZERO regulation around how it’s marketed. It can be poached by whoever and sold as “ethically harvested by Indigenous people”.
The plants are being stripped bare, which doesn’t just affect Indigenous culture but the ecological niche the plant fills. And it can’t reseed as well.
The same thing is happening to Palo Santo, ayahuasca, peyote, etc. A few years back an ancient peyote garden in Texas was totally poached.
Even the abalone shells used to hold smudge are problematic. Before colonialism Natives cultivated extensive abalone gardens in tidal pools. When I was a kid we could get them right on the beach. Then people had to dive for them. Now there’s a moratorium because when sea otters were over hunted for pelts the urchins took over and ate too much kelp, starving abalone. But that doesn’t stop poachers, especially those supplying the bougie sushi market. The shell is also an important material used in our regalia.
We can’t get the natural shells anymore, just farmed ones that are much thinner. And even those are being shipped all over the world for smudge.
There’s a documentary, Saging the World, that goes into more detail.
Even crystals come from mining in Brazil and other countries where child labor is exploited.
We’re told that HOW a medicine/food/etc is harvested is just as important as the innate properties.
I tell people their smudge is probably cursed!😂
And a side note; early American feminists were directly inspired by Indigenous women who culturally had far more agency. And Baum was also vehemently anti-Indigenous. He wrote a frightening editorial calling for the extermination of Indians and right after that the massacre at Wounded Knee happened.
And the government collaborated with churches to eradicate our spiritual practices. Many treaties, that were coerced, forced Native communities to allow churches to be built, often before housing.
So seeing modern witchcraft become modern colonialism is another thorn in our collective side! Don’t even get me started on the dreamcatcher thing!

SHE MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO CHURN MY OWN BUTTER

"Etsy witch" is such a dystopian capitalist phrase. Mixing belief in magic and the supernatural with capitalism.

"my love language being info dumping" lol same same

I am so glad you talked about work there is the pervasive myth that "women entered the workforce in the 1960s" when this isn't true at all, what actually occured was the 1950s was the lowest point of womens participation in the work force in recorded history, so any decade after will have an increase in participation and the roles women could do opened up and new industry with no specfic gender mandated (same with men moving into the service industry from manufacturing). More women are working now, however it was not a 0-100

I remember being enamoured with Terry Pratchett's witches as a child. While they were generally positive figures, they were allowed to be mean, standoffish, wicked, and to make mistakes. Like so many of his characters, they feel so human.

In Hanover, PA, US, there is an ongoing legal kerfuffle over witchcraft. Pennsylvania has an obscure law on the books from 1861 making it illegal to practice fortune-telling for money. Beck Lawrence (they/them), owns a metaphysical shop in Hanover, where they offer tarot readings. They did all the normal legal things that should have protected them, such as posting signs that readings were for entertainment purposes only. Nonetheless, when the chief of police heard about the opening of the shop, he and another officer went to Lawrence's shop, refused them their legal right to record their conversation, and told them that if they got any reports about Lawrence actually doing any readings, they would be back to arrest them, put them in jail for up to a year, or charge them a fine of up to $2500. (There have never been any complaints to the police about Lawrence's shop. There are also 3 other metaphysical shops in town that have never been targeted.) Lawrence has now filed a lawsuit against the Hanover police, declaring the fortune-telling statute a violation of freedom of speech, hoping that the PA Attorney General will strike down the law. The issue is still ongoing.

I really hope the cow is in this one 🤞

EDIT: oh man 😞

Thank you for talking about the appropriation of white sage and sage in general. As a First Nations person, it feels awful to watch cultural practices be made into a spectacle :( I recently unfollowed a YouTuber because she was using white sage to create a mainstream "witchy aesthetic" for her videos, rather than using it for its cleansing purposes.

39:30 this was such a genuinely wholesome surprise that I almost cried out of nowhere. Lately I’ve really come to expect the worst with stories like these (ie that he would take people’s money or if not, encourage them to spend it on/donate to something harmful) so the fact that he didn’t take ppl’s money and actively encouraged those with money to spare to donate to help queer folks made me feel some hope in the world that I desperately needed. I hope that guy is doing well :)

18:03 only vaguely tangentially related but reminds me of when the queen of England died and there was a performance of wicked on the same day, they announced her death right before the show and then the musical starts with "GOOD NEWS! SHE'S DEAD!"

As a witch, and someone who does free/paid readings: there are definitely times I refuse to do a reading for someone for various ethical reasons. I had a young person on Tumblr ask me to do a reading on what their actual gender is, because they weren't sure. I told them that that was a question that only they could answer, and instead offered them a lot of ideas for ways to explore their gender that wouldn't get them in trouble in their conservative family/town. I also recently got a request for a reading that was clearly written by someone in the depths of depression. One of those states where ANYTHING you say to them will probably only fuel a downward spiral. So instead of giving them a reading, I gave them some empathy, told them I'd been where they were now, and encouraged them to seek medical help for their mental health. // I was actually really torn about doing readings AT ALL when I first started, worrying about whether the things I told people would lead them to make bad choices. But I've gotten over that for a number of reasons: 1) I am always careful to frame readings in ways that are mentally healthy and don't give any advice that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving. 2) I've realized that people are much more interested in confirmation bias than anything else, and I literally cannot get them to hear me on things they don't want to hear. You should see the way people twist things you tell them to fit what they want to hear; it's incredible lol So I just do my best to give helpful, supportive readings that are really based on a person's situation and mental state (as best as I can judge it), and leave the rest up to the Universe. // Man, if demand for readings on Etsy are on an uptick, maybe I should reopen my Etsy shop... lol

I’m First Nation from around the Edmonton area and I 100% guarantee that girl did not get the blessing or permission from the groups around Edmonton to sell sage kits

0:32 in 2019 i had a horrible psychiatric moment for which i ended up with aggressive twitching in one arm. My aunt insisted on doing that egg thing to cure me.... What cured it was clonazepam, half of a 0.05 pill, for three nights. Gone. Go figure.

The cow lore never ceases to get me

Strega Nona (a children’s book) also has an adorable old witch lady (warts and all!) in it. I loved that book as a kid

This cow has such a wide range of activities and social groups, I aspire to be her