Welcome to SITS! 🥣
intros & info & gifts, oh my!
What’s up, swimmers! I’m psyched you’re here.
I’m Rebecca, Becca, or you may even know me as Bee—I’ll answer to pretty much anything these days (within reason, please!) My pronouns are she/her, and I’m an emotional witch, forever seeker and queer human lady. I’m also a multidisciplinary artist, and like working in many mediums. I currently live on unceded and occupied Lenape land, also known as New York City, with my wife and our dog, Gus. I’m deeply obsessed with them both, so don’t be surprised if they’re semi-regular topics of conversation.
This is the very first installment of a new project: swimming in the soup 🥣 (or SITS for short!)
My hope for this adventure is that it’ll be a little bit of this, a little bit of that, all magical and mundane, spanning a plethora of topics around Witchcraft, Philosophy, Spirituality, Religion, Pop Culture, and more.
SITS is both a podcast and a written newsletter, primarily hosted right here on Substack. (Coming soon to other podcast platforms!) It is my hope that regardless of whether you prefer to listen or read, you’ll be able to easily engage with the material, me, and even possibly each other!
Below, you’ll find way more information about this endeavor and me—no really, this first letter is essentially a transcript of the first podcast episode (which you can also listen to now!)—but before that, let’s handle some business!
For those who love a freebie! All episodes of the podcast, and their accompanying newsletters, will be kept free for all subscribers! Accessibility is super important to me and I love being able to offer whatever I can for the sweet price of zero dollars!
For those who can spare a few bucks! If you’d like to support my ongoing work, as well as receive Monthly Numerological Forecasts, additional newsletters with podcast BTS and research, plus first dibs on any future offerings, like tarot or numerology readings (on zoom or by mail), you can sign up for a paid subscription! There are both monthly and yearly options, as well as a founding member subscription for those who want my undying love & devotion.
In fact, the first 22 people that sign up for a paid subscription will receive a mailed tarot offering! 💌 To provide some creative inspiration and play, this reading will include a written message from me, along with cards from the Affirmators! deck and the Absurd Box by Cards Against Humanity. Use them as prompts or as your own personal cheerleaders! We’ll connect separately, via email, for mailing info. Readings will be sent sometime during the month of August.
Keep reading for a deeper dive into both myself and SITS, including what you can expect from this project both content-wise and ethically, or pop over to the podcast tab to listen to the first episode in full. And be sure to let me know what you think of this whole thing. Feedback and encouragement are both welcomed, as well as sharing with friends you think would dig.
Thank you for hanging by my proverbial pool. I think we’re going to have a good time.
xx, Rebecca
Hello again! Let’s keep swimming!
About Me 👋
I consider myself to be an eclectic witch! I’ve only really started identifying that way in the last couple of years, though my overall life as a student, a seeker, a creator and a magicmaker has always been my craft, even if I didn’t call it that. But eclectic just means that I don’t subscribe to a particular belief system, coven, lineage, religion, or other dogmatic or structured practice. It also means I’m a bit of a messy witch—like Bakara Wintner says, I do a lot of “Trash Magick.”
Ancestrally, my practice comes from cunning folk—healers and herbalists and magicians who were supporting their communities in what we would call today “alternative ways.” Which also means they were working with and in service to the lands that they lived on as much as they were attuned to the spirit world, and all of that which they couldn’t see.
My muggle self (used in an anti-JKR kind of way, ya know?) had a decade-long career in digital and print media, as well as in film & television. I’ve worked for brands like W Magazine, Nickelodeon, Nike, and TodayTix, and I’ve also made dozens of independent shorts and web series, including one that I wrote and starred in—which I’m still super proud of. If you want to see a younger version of me, grappling with life and love in the big city, grab some popcorn and click here.
For the last 2 years, I’ve been focused writing, speaking and teaching about witchcraft, numerology and alternative religions. You may have listened to my previous podcast Discourse of the Stranger (DOTS), a modern-day exploration of the Gnostic Gospels, but the wowee kazowee project I’ve been working on is my first book, THE WITCH’S BOOK OF NUMBERS, which comes out September 27th from Hierophant Publishing, and can be pre-ordered wherever books are sold! You can also read the first TWO CHAPTERS for free right now by clicking the button below!
About SITS 🥣
The Soup™ is a catch-all term that I like to use for the Whole of it All. Everything we discover, everything that wows us, inspires us, connects dots for us, teaches us, challenges us, stumps us—it all goes in the soup!
In short, I don’t know exactly what this offering will be, but I think the unknowns are what’s going to make it pretty brilliant. Episodes, and accompanying newsletters, will come out biweekly, and will cover topics that fall into one of a few Cup of Noodles: little buckets like Witchcraft, Spirituality, Philosophy, Religion, Pop culture, History, and much, much more!
One thing that has already dropped in is a little book report project! One of my favorite magical practices is Bibliomancy, which is essentially a way of speaking with the Universe through books or other forms of the written word, and since I’ve been communicating in this way, books have seemed to find me! As a part of SITS, I’m going to (finally!) be reading DUNE by Frank Herbert, through the lenses of eco-fascism, capitalism and colonialism, and climate change. More on this later, but snag a copy if you want to read along!
About Ethics ✨
If I can’t tell you exactly what’s going to happen here, I can at least tell you the quality of the space I’m hoping to create!
I could give you the yard sign version of this that says, “In this house, we believe: Love is love, Science is real (and so is Magic and folkloric, Indigenous wisdom), Black Lives Matter, White Supremacy and capitalism and patriarchal greed is killing us all and fundamentally changing the planet we live on…” and yes, I do absolutely believe all of those things! But more importantly, you can rest assured that while we’re gathered together, all of the information I share will take into account the ethical and communal aspects of each topic of research.
I will be putting content warnings on any episode that delves into anything I think might be tender or even controversial. That being said, I also expect you, as the listener and consumer and keeper of your self, to be responsible for yourself and your own experience of this project. I trust that you will know what information is helpful and interesting to you, and what is not, and if we cover things that aren’t, I totally permission you to skip those episodes!
But I really hope that you’ll stick around!!! I know I can’t be everything for everyone, and I can’t promise you that I’ll never say something you don’t like, but I hope that we can have open, honest and respectful conversations around these issues. If nothing else, SITS can be like your favorite tv show where there’s just that one episode or storyline that you can’t fucking stand. But don’t give up on the show!
About Us 🤝
I’m also hoping that you’ll help me in creating this space, and giving it life. Oral storytelling needs an audience, and if we’re gonna do it all digital-like, that’s cool with me—I honestly love not having to leave my house!—but it would be amazing to have a bit of interaction. That’s why we’re primarily on Substack, where we can use the comment section to chat, and you can reach me via my Substack email address.
BUT there’s absolutely no pressure to interact! If you love a parasocial, one-way relationship where I talk and you listen, that’s also totally fine by me! My Mercury’s in Leo, so I love a good microphone.
Still, I am really hoping that we can all swim together, and that you can be a part of whatever this is, whether that’s through feedback, conversations with listeners or fellow witch types, further investigations, or even like, Q&A episodes? I’m playing around with that idea and would love to offer that if it’s wanted and helpful!
Finally, because I’m a tarot bitch (affectionate) at heart, I pulled us some cards!
Cards from “Postcards From the Liminal Space” by Bakara Wintner
The Farm invokes a space that belongs to us all, but also doesn’t belong to anyone. We can come here to find respite and belonging, and to safely expand. And I think Imagining More is pretty self-explanatory… These cards feel sweet and supportive to me!
PHEW. I really think that covers it for now!
Thank you for coming with an open mind and heart, and please let me know what you’re excited for as we cannonball into The Soup™.
See you in a couple weeks! xx