Paige McKenzie - Witch Rising

Hey, listeners! Thanks for joining me on the podcast premiere of The Tea with T. Thats tea as in the drink, and the letter T as in my initial. Ill be coming to you each week with the hot tea on all things magical, mystical, and mundane and of course, my favorite tea recipes!

Today, Ill be talking to you about Callixta Crowes Descendant. Thats Descendant with a capital D because there must be many Callixta descendants out there, and its important to keep the Descendant separate from the rest.

So Ive been trying to solve the mystery of the Descendants identity for a while now. Heres what I have so far, and bear with me because its complicated:

SheI will use she/her/hers pronouns for now, although the Descendant could also be male-identifying or have another gender-expansive identityfirst made herself known on March 12, 2016. She wrote and posted a letter on several deepsites, like w/witchworld and other hidden locations, and basically blew up everything we thought we knew about witches and witchcraft.

What we knew, pre-Descendant, was that some portion of the population identified as witches and practiced witchcraft throughout history. It was a generally accepted thing until 1877, when the government passed an anti-witchcraft law called Title 6, Section 129, and the Great Witch Purge happened. Hundredsno, thousandsof witches were hunted down and executed, including Callixta herself. Since then, witches have mostly practiced in total secrecy, including me. Over time, the authorities became less strict about enforcing 6-129. Until now.

The Descendant came forward and warned us in her letter that things are changing. In addition to stricter enforcement of 6-129, there are new anti-witch forces at work, mainly in the government and through a hate movement that seems to be growing more aggressive and violent every day.

The Descendants letter wasnt all bad news, though. She also shared Callixtas previously unknown theories and scientific findings regarding witches, which are very illuminating. Plus, she posted a link to a partial manual by Callixta called The Good Book of Magic and Mentalism. That was the first time Iand Im sure many other witcheslearned about spells and potions, about the fact we arent alone in the world, and that there is a secret community of witches out there practicing in private.

The Descendants letter and link to Callixtas book disappeared after twenty-four hours, but not before they presumably went viral.

There have been names tossed around on deepsites about who the Descendant might be. A biologist at MIT. A high school technology teacher in Atlanta. A flower-shop owner in Cleveland. Also some famous people, like the gamer Xandri. The artist Ekon Uba, who died last yearalthough people say he didnt actually die but is in hiding. And even the US presidents oldest daughter, Karine Ingraham.

Ive tried a number of advanced identity spells, some from Callixtas book and some that I developed on my own, but they havent resulted in anything solid. Ive also tried some of my divination tea blends, but no luck there, either.

Lately, Ive been leaning toward the Karine Ingraham theory. I suspect the death of Elsa, her younger sister and an alleged witch, turned their dad into a ragingly anti-witch politician, and those events could have motivated her to post that letter and link. But I dont have any proof, and neither does anyone else, as far as I know. Of course, the White House has publicly denied that anyone in the Ingraham family has anything to do with witches or witchcraft.

Recently, Ive been experimenting with some old-school methods to solve the mystery of the Descendants identity. Like codesIve tried bifid and Amsco and some other ciphers, but nothing. I will continue along these lines, though, and maybe create more divination tea blends. I will be sure to report on further developments.

In the meantime things are bad for witches, here in my new hometown and everywhere else. But its important not to lose hope. As Callixta says, Its when things seem darkest that we must find the dying flame within us and breathe it back to life.

Keep breathing, fellow witches. Dont give up.

And someday soon, when all is safe and well, I can tell you what the letter