folk the system
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folk the system *
modern myth-making and mysticism for revolutionary change.podcast
meet modern mystics working to create a more inclusive, just world on this bi-weekly podcast. episodes every new and full moon.
folk futures
explore original folkcraft and fresh takes on ancestral wisdoms —through a queer, climate-adaptive lens — to support unfolding times.
full spectrum justice
here, we connect the threads of birth, loss, postpartum, and care on the continuum of (dis)ability— creating a world for all bodies.
“God is Change.”
- Octavia E. Butler
Mama.
Dreamer.
Reader.
Folkorist.
Mama. Dreamer. Reader. Folkorist.
Isabel Mares, aka the optiMYSTIC
Our world is shaped by myth*. Culture is rooted in stories (myths) that bear the sigil of collective imagination. Humans are story-telling animals, and each generation participates in its own myth-making. Often in mystic** ways.
We are in a moment of collective awakening. Some are calling this time apocalyptic, but the greek root of that word just means "revelation.” As we try to tell the story of humanity in the wake of colonization and capitalism, we are working to truth-tell. We are un-silencing the marginalized — the many. We are re-membering stories of who we really are. And in a world of many illusions, sometimes that very much means feeling around in the darkness for what’s real.
All of my work swirls around what it means to know, reclaim, and in some cases re-weave our mythologies. Those of self and systems. To trust a world that’s yet-to-come and to serve those whose stories may be unfound, unfinshed, and unfolding.
myth /miTH/ (N): a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon
mystic /mis·tik/ (ADJ): relating to the belief that there is hidden meaning in life, or that each human being can unite with the absolute.
