We’re excited to announce the workshops, PAPERS, and rituals that our headlining VIP’s will be presenting at Mystic South 2023! Be sure to register today – your registration grants you access to each of these presentations, along with all the rest of our workshops, PAPERS, and rituals throughout the weekend.
Click the image below to read the bio for each of our headliners!
Stephanie Rose Bird
The Keys to Southern Conjure Metal Magick
Stephanie Rose Bird shares insights on the elements, talismans, spells, and amulets in Modern Southern Conjure that feature metals, such as skelton keys, horse shoes, fools gold, coins, he/she and magnetic sand, and their African magickal and spiritual connections (this is an interactive workshop).
Hants in Lore and Life: Oral Storytelling and Demonstration of Dispelling Hants, with Q&A
A reading from Stephanie Rose Bird’s memoir that explores her personal introduction to hants, something well-known in Southern Lore of the past and present. This ends with a simulated hant Dispelling Hoodoo Ritual.
Opening the Mystical Portal
Cultivate your ashé by opening-the-way, to the spirit realms. We will work together to create a loose incense blend, using a variety of herbs, spices, fruits, flowers, and tree resins. Includes an intro to various grades and types of frankincense, myrrh from East Africa and the Middle East. Blessings, and conjuring the ancestors and nature spirits along the way, you will create an ancient magickal blend, capable of clearing, cleansing and divining through vision quest and meditation. (Hands-on Demo and Workshop) *Please bring a journal and pen. Strong aromatic scents may be too challenging for some.
Najah Lightfoot
Groove with Me
Music is magickal. Music is healing. Music is transformative. It’s the “Powerful Juju Playlist!” In this workshop we will listen and groove to songs, which have become powerful muses for my new book, ” Powerful Juju: Goddesses, Music & Magic for Comfort, Guidance & Protection.” Be prepared to listen, move, and allow your magickal self to show up and dance. We’ll take a breather after each song and allow ourselves to process the power, of the songs chosen for this workshop.
Doll Magick
Dolls. Not everyone is akin to having dolls do magickal work for them. Some people are terrified of dolls, but for those of us who are not, making a doll into a powerful ally, can be one the most rewarding magickal experiences, one can have. Dolls have been used as powerful forms of magick since humans first crafted images into clay. Dolls can be made from porcelain, fabric, or clay. They can be hand stitched or made in a factory. They can be old dolls, antique dolls, or new dolls. They can represent protection, revenge, or love.Your special doll might be found in a bin in a secondhand store, or on display in a vintage, antique shop. It seems for those of us who work with dolls, they arrive in our lives at their own time and speed, ready and willing to become a part of our magickal family. In this workshop I’ll discuss my relationship with dolls and how I use them as powerful juju to bring positive change into my life. I’ll also introduce three of my most beloved dolls to the audience and discuss why they are important to me. If dollie magick isn’t your thing, this may not be the workshop for you!
Ritual for Tituba – Black Witch of Salem
The year is 1692. Anyone who is interested in Witches or calls themselves a Witch, knows about the Salem Witch Trials. But what about Tituba, the enslaved Woman of Color, without whom there would have been no Witch hunt or trials?
Tituba is a legendary figure. We know she existed yet very little is known about her. In this ritual we will honor the life of Tituba, by bringing her from the shadows into the light. Please bring a small black onyx stone for the altar.
Laura Tempest Zakroff
The Business of Witchcraft
One of the key lessons to learn from Witchcraft is that there’s always an exchange of energy involved. Time and effort spent is a kind of currency, whether you’re meditating, performing rituals, making offerings, crafting spells, gathering wisdom, or tending to people, places, and things. In this workshop we’ll explore what happens when money enters into the magical equation including: vocational framing, energy exchange, personal values, presentation, finances, goals, client needs, health, boundaries and more.
Visual Alchemy: From Creation to Connection
Since the beginning of time, humanity has made art as a way to affect, influence and seek order in the seen and unseen world. In turn, art has initiated civilization, crafted community, and created culture. Art is (and should be) accessible to all, helping us to explore ourselves while collaborating with others. In this lecture we’ll explore art as essential magic – not only as a tool for tapping into our own power, but also how we can connect and collectively build common ground together.
Hekate at the Crossroads Ritual
In honor of the goddess Hekate, we shall meet at the Crossroads, engaging in a ritual that combines live music, sacred dance, and embodied movement to allow us to see where we have come from, where we are at, and where we are going- individually and as a community. This ecstatic rite fuses together elements of Modern Traditional Witchcraft, Myth-inspired Dance, Live Music, and Ritual Performance. You will be welcomed to participate at your own level of comfort, no dance or ritual experience necessary.
Cory Thomas Hutcheson
“I went through Hell That Night and Back Again” – An Annotated Examination of the “Dumb Supper” Ritual
In an Ozark folktale recorded by folklorist Vance Randolph, a young woman and her friends perform a silent eating ritual known by the (rather ableist) name, ‘The Dumb Supper.’ This rite, done to divine the identity of a future spouse, appears in numerous sources from North America and England, often played by young people as a sort of party game akin to a seance. Many versions of the stories, including Randolph’s, include dire consequences for the ritual as the future husband or partner reveals that their spirit was inadvertently tormented by the people doing the ceremony. Other variations include visions of coffins that reveal an impending death or other woes. This paper will look at several different iterations of the story, providing a detailed analysis of the rite, its trappings, its performance, and its meanings in a historical and folkloristic context.
Prognostication Pajama Party – A Fortune-telling Games and Rituals Practicum
The slumber party has been a locus for divination and fortune-telling for a very long time. Games of prognostication dating back centuries involve everything from eggs dropped in water to trance-induction to ouija boards and so much more! In this hands-on practical session, folklorist and author Cory Thomas Hutcheson will give a brief historical overview of some of these traditions including Concentration, Charlie Charlie, Red Door/Yellow Door and more. Then, he’ll help to guide those who wish to play a few of them, as well! In the spirit of the slumber party and all things a little spooky, feel free to come dressed in your pajamas and see what spirits we can conjure up and what the future may hold for you.
The Witch’s Ire – Witchcraft Accusations and the Social Contract of Narrative Folklore
A pair of West Virginia folktales tell of two suspected witches accused of the magical theft of milk from neighbors’ cattle. In both stories, however, community members paint the witches involved as disreputable, but refuse any legal or retaliatory action against them, recognizing that without the milk the women would likely not survive. The use of witchcraft, curses, and other harmful magic in European and North American folk narratives often portrays those using sorcery as villains, but also frequently as victims of a broken social contract in which a community fails to meet the needs of its members. This paper looks at a variety of folk stories–some based at least in part on historical persons and events–and examines the tales in light of legal and social obligations found in the communities circulating narratives about witches. Marxist and Weberian theoretical frameworks provide insight into the ways that class and social hegemonies are frequently a subtext of witchcraft folk stories, ultimately revealing that an angry witch is often a desperate witch operating within a system that offers her few legal, social, or economic alternatives.
All that’s missing is you! Get Registered Today!