Witching Hour Theater

The hours are ours! Step into the coven. New music streaming every month.

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TITLE — "The hour was never hers alone, vol. II" / "five more women who ruled, wrote, and endured, and the ones who never left their side"

Penelope & Eurycleia (Greek myth, the Odyssey) — the queen who outwaited her suitors for twenty years by unweaving her own loom work, and the old nurse who recognized the beggar at her door by a scar on his knee and kept the secret until her queen was ready to believe it. Image: Waterhouse, Penelope and the Suitors, 1912

Circe & her handmaid-nymphs (Greek myth, the Odyssey) — the witch-goddess who could turn a man into a pig with a poisoned cup, and the nymphs who kept her halls running regardless. Image: Waterhouse, Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus, 1891 (deliberately picked for the cup echo)

Wu Zetian & Shangguan Wan'er (China, ruled 690-705) — the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name, and the poet she raised from the daughter of an executed enemy into her own private secretary. Image: Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian portrait (secondary option if wanted: Shangguan Wan'er portrait)

Empress Teishi & Sei Shonagon (Japan, court served c. 1000) — the empress whose court glittered with wit as her family's fortunes collapsed, and the lady-in-waiting who wrote it all down (the "snow on the mountain" line is the real Pillow Book anecdote about Xianglu Peak). Image: Lady Sei Shonagon, LACMA ukiyo-e via Commons

Mary, Queen of Scots & Mary Seton (Scotland, served 1548-1583) — lost two kingdoms, kept composure to the scaffold; Seton was the only one of the Four Marys who never married and stayed until her own failing health forced her away in 1583, four years before the execution. Image: Mary, Queen of Scots, after Nicholas Hilliard (no Seton-specific portrait exists, same as Vol 1's Blanche Parry)

CLOSING — "No queen, witch, or empress does it alone. Someone always stays to pour the tea." Image: Chardin, Woman Taking Tea

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Long before there was any way to send a group text, communities used fire to gather with each other. The old Celtic bel-fires were lit on hilltops specifically so the whole valley could see them and find their way toward the light. Down Off the Hills is our version of that walk toward the fire. Wine poured, vine and stone and flame doing their part, the circle already dancing before you even arrive. Second release as Witching Hour Theater, out now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Come find us.

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we could not agree on what salt was actually for, so it turned into a full cartoon fight. pow

pow, boom boom, the whole bit. turns out we were both right, we just forgot for a second. sun and moon don't argue.

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which one is salt to you: the wall, or the welcome?

Salt has always carried two jobs for us: the line nothing crosses, and the welcome at the door. We've written it both ways because we've felt it both ways, sometimes in the same season. We're curious which reading lands first for you: the boundary, or the invitation? Tell us in the comments. We read all of them.

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no one tells new witches this

Before you buy a single thing, build your foundation. Learn the real history behind the traditions you're drawn to, not just the movie version. Learn that there isn't one kind of witch: hedge, kitchen, green, ceremonial, hereditary, eclectic, and dozens more, all valid. Sit with the ethics too. Most traditions carry some version of a return principle, whatever you send out, you're accountable for. And learn to protect your own mind first: grounding, shielding, telling the difference between intuition and anxiety. The tools come later. The foundation comes first.

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the hour was never hers alone. five women and the ones who stayed.

Five women history could not ignore, and the devoted souls who stayed beside them through every hour. A pharaoh and her architect, a mystic and her scribe, a queen and the handmaiden who followed her into death. We tell the stories of women and the quiet people who never left their side. Which pair surprised you the most.

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Every witch in here is real. These are paintings, etchings, and carvings that actual people made over five hundred years, all of them circling the same idea of a woman who answers to herself.

We open on a pair flying off without a stitch on, because the first thing a witch apparently doesn't need is a dress code (Otto Goetze, Riding Witches). Then four of them carry baskets to market like it's any other Tuesday, owing no one a word about it (Alice Boyd, The Witches Go to Market, 1876). The marble one with the snake is just sitting there, hexing absolutely nobody, keeping her options open (Carl Cauer, Hexe, 1874). Durer's four stand around like a group chat, no thunderclap, no awakening montage (The Four Witches, 1497). The busy 1621 scene is somebody's idea of a witch and her familiars, animals everywhere, most of them clearly not listening. And the last one, an old folk charm box, makes no sense at all, which was always the point.

Five centuries of people drawing witches and landing on the same joke we did. We just added the captions.

Art: Otto Goetze, Riding Witches / Alice Boyd, The Witches Go to Market, 1876 / Carl Cauer, Hexe, 1874 / Albrecht Durer, The Four Witches, 1497 / A Yorkshire terror, 1621 / folk-art witchcraft charm box. All public domain.

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every thorn is a tooth. every petal is a prayer.

three centuries at the same window, and she has outlived every man who called her witch and whore, every man who nailed her sisters to the floor. she does not drink for hunger anymore. she drinks for remembrance, for a quiet vow. salt for the threshold. moon for the glass. thorn for the rosebush. bone for the past. she waited a century to hear a voice at the door, and she will wait no more.

we are not monsters. we are what remains, and what remains decides what it is called.

the countess' lullaby.

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hush now, sister. there is nothing to fear.

three hundred years they called her a monster. she outlived every man who said it, and she kept the candle burning at the window for the ones still coming. we are not monsters. we are what remains, and what remains decides what it is called.

the countess' lullaby.

Spotify Apple Music YouTube Music Amazon Music

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a witch is just a woman who remembered her own breath. the title track from our new EP, the hours are ours, now streaming. salt, moon, thorn, bone. the hours are ours, and you are not alone. step in, the tea is warm.

More music

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The hours are ours. Step into the coven.

[witchinghourtheater]

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Witches know the Cypress has seen a lot. The coven knows that the Cypress has many stories. it has a lot of history; it might even have some answers. But just because it has answers doesn't mean it will share them with you. A meditation on speaking to something seven hundred years old. You set a cup at its roots, pour a little sassafras, and you do not ask it for anything. The Cypress Remembers is on our new album, streaming everywhere now.

The Hours Are Ours is now available on Streaming services

Available now: Spotify Apple Music YouTube Music Amazon Music

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The Hours Are Ours is out everywhere. Rock, Rap, Southern Gothic, all witches heed the call. We are not alone.

Now it lives on every shelf you stream from.

Available now: Spotify Apple Music YouTube Music Amazon Music

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the long dance comes out july 10.

before we say too much about it, here are the four things it lives inside.

the cup. the vine. the fire. the stone.

Find us on Streaming services everywhere.

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do you still remember your first long dance? Was it at midnight, or was it 3am? Do you remember?

I still remember mine...

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the door was never locked.

things you don't need to be a witch

the right bloodline (the thread connects us all)

expensive tools (price 4 the task)

a teacher's blessing (half mine cursed me)

years before you start (don't make my mistake)

anyone's permission

the practice has always been yours.

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things witchcraft tiktok oversells

candles depends what you actually need it for. (we have candles, we use them, but it ain't like that)

a quartz crystal doesn't amplify everything. a bit touchy even then. does look incredible on many surfaces.

a cauldron it's a pot. who doesn't have a pot?

jars for freezing, or anything else different containers can work. they use the wrong jars anyway.

a moon phase calendar to track her Luna's never hard to find. just look.

(it's ok if you have these, but if ya don't, you're fine)