The best part of the Many Moons publications is getting to collaborate with one-of-a-kind magic makers. For the January Full Moon of the 2020 Many Moons Lunar Planner, Edgar Fabián Frías wrote us a water spell. Edgar is an MA MFT, nonbinary, queer, indigenous (Wixárika) and Latinx interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and psychotherapist. Edgar is currently participating in the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.

Learn more about Edgar below:

You are a witch, an artist, a writer, a counselor, a musician… I know the list could go on and on. In other words, you do a lot of different things, all require a lot of different talents and energy! What are a few baseline spiritual practices or belief systems that keep you focused and grounded as you do your work in the world?

Wow! Let me first say, what an honor it is to be getting interviewed by you and to be a part of this year’s Many Moons Lunar Planner! Total dream come true! And, yes, my praxis is forever shifting and incorporating new ways of being and knowing! As a Gemini Sun, I have a voracious appetite for new information and for ways of experiencing the world. This has led me to move into various paths, disciplines, and vocations. At its core, I would say that a lot of my interdisciplinary work is grounded in consciousness, collaboration, and creativity. Awareness as a tool of magic is huge in all of my work: noticing subtle changes, shifts, and sensing energies in relationships, locations, and ethereally, are guides that move through all and are, therefore, integral to my daily magical practices. I also work on cultivating a deep trust in the unfolding process that Goddexx is laying out in front of me, and knowing deeply that They are leading me to the right people, places, and portals at the perfect moment! This has freed me to play and explore passions with ease. I trust that my praxis is emergent, ever shifting, and growing—As am I, a crystal exuding ever transforming energies.

For your January Full Moon contribution to the planner, you gave us a spell inspired by water. You touch the natural intelligence of water: structured yet adaptive. What other lessons do you think water can teach us about collaboration, creating new structures, and adapting together harmoniously in the Gregorian Year of 2020?

Water is a portal and a crystal. Water is fluid and solid at the same time; it is both incredibly complex and utterly simple. Water holds the memory of time immemorial and can also also be cleared and is just as programmable as a piece of quartz crystal. Water has so much to share about being inclusive, adaptive, rhizomatic, and it can teach us how to effectively wield soft power. I chose water as the medium to work with as I feel it’s going to be an incredibly important ally in the Gregorian Year of 2020. Water is life. Water is the matrix we’re all born within. It holds the imprint of all the love that’s been shared on this planet. Water begs us to join together; to work as one; to dissolve all boundaries. I highly recommend witches from all backgrounds work with water’s divinatory capacities and practice hydromancy as a way to contact ancestors, spirits, Deities, and all of the ancient wisdom that water itself holds. Water has the answers in terms of how we can dissolve capitalism and co-create new structures to come in and replace what’s been cleared. Ask water for guidance: do this alone, in groups, in public, and in your sacred sanctuaries. Imbue water with intentions before you drink it or offer it up to the earth, plants, or other beings. Allow water to be a prayer that constantly surrounds you and inspires you to also dissolve and be effusive like water. Dissolve and transform. Expand and include.

Monica Orozco & Vincent Price Art Museum

On many different occasions I’ve heard you identify yourself as a mutant. I’m hoping you could briefly give us an illustration and definition of mutant magic and some of its benefits.

Mutation is emergent magic. It is a powerful process that nature has imbued into our systems of life. Identifying as a mutant acknowledges my constant state of flow and formation. It allows me to disrobe from the identities that colonization and capitalism have placed onto me, and step into a subjective, contextual, and ever transforming self-fashioned sense of self that is based on the narratives and perceptions I hold dear to my own heart. Mutation is a strategy: it allows oneself to constantly integrate new superpowers, abilities, belief systems, ways of knowing, experiencing, and connecting. It also honors the ways in which others show up and the ways in which our communion together imbues us with something that is much larger than the sum of our parts. I’ve definitely noticed that some mutants have the ability to amplify your own abilities or, at times, others can even bestow upon you “their” gifts, temporarily or even permanently. Mutation is queer. Mutation is sacred. Mutation is unique and common at the same time. Mutation is holographic. Mutation is Spirit acting through the physical form. Our mutant magic will save us.

Mutation is also a reclamation of a sense of self that has previously felt broken, fractured, and has often had to exist in hiding and/or within alterity as a result of heteronormativity, patriarchal epistemologies, colonization, capitalism, and white supremacy. Mutation is my way of proudly acknowledging that I am a sacred liminal being that has often felt isolated and othered within mainstream communities and culture. This being has now, with the help of SO MANY ANGELS, found and forged their place in this world and is joyously using their superpowers to join with all the other sacred liminal beings in order to co-create a huge mutant multiverse! Mutations are natural and a part of Gaia’s plan. Gaia has imbued us with mutant powers/abilities/intuitions/etc. as they are a part of a sacred lineage of beings that have historically been centered in communities and supported for their visionary, healing, and/or other liminal capacities.

With my superpowers, I am holding the vision of mutants, witches, healers, caretakers, artists, and other sacred, liminal beings coming back to their ordained place in the center of our communities, and acting as our guides and oracles again. Not only for personal and spiritual matters but also for economic, political, and overall strategic, cultural, and communal planning. I’m so over seeing war mongers and greedy, old white men take the lead while eschewing the sacred knowledge that’s found within the voices and presences of femmes, Black, Indigenous People of Color, our LGBTQQIP2SA+ communities, our plant and animal kin, and the sacred wisdom found within the spirit realms and from our ancestors.

Edgar Fabián Frías, LMFT

What is your current, favorite Moon phase? Why?

This is such a hard question as I feel all the phases play a deep role in my life and in the magic I work. I’d have to say that as a divination-loving brujx, I adore the Dark Moon and feel as if it’s the perfect time to work with obsidian, hydromancy, astral projection, and spirit communion. It’s also such a time of clarity for me and a time of intense downloads. The Void is the perfect space to ask for transmutation, clearing, cleansing, healing and Moonifestations of all sorts. It’s also the most blessed time to invite ancestors to sit with you in ceremony. Divine visionary and witch, Eliza Swann, was one of the first people to introduce me to the potency of the sacred void and its divinatory qualities, what a gift! I also have to share that the Dark Moon Essence you co-created with Dori Midnight has literally changed my life and my Dark Moon practices, and I am forever grateful to the two of you for co-creating it!

What are a couple of things (anything, a record, something you are learning, a new boundary practice) that you are excited about? Why?

So, I’ve been a plant lover my whole life. I’ve had hundreds of conversations with plants and have been guided to work with them in so many different ways. I’ve also been slowly getting more and more into vibrational medicines, such as the Dark Moon Essence I spoke about above and flower essences in general. Recently I’ve gotten incredibly excited about the idea of co-creating these essences in ceremony, thanks to some recent collaborations with Saewon Oh, who is a magical artist, educator, herbalist, and a total mutant with many superpowers, including the most divine ability to be a conduit for the plant queendom as well as activate and amplify other’s abilities to do so as well! Saewon has a line of flower essences, tinctures, teas, and sprays under the name Sun Song and also provides individual consultations and can concoct an essence potion just for you!

Saewon and I created a flower essence together in the most amazing ceremony for my recent solo show, Perpetual Flowering, at Vincent Price Art Museum. Ever since this experience, I have been fascinated by essences and have taken a deep dive into them! Another way I have also recently engaged with plants was that I curated and participated in a series of Golden Dome workshops and performances in Tulsa, Oklahoma under the name Common Rhizomes, with support from the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Artists from both Tulsa and Los Angeles were asked to create experiences for folks working with the Rhizome as both physical and conceptual entities. Allowing their form, structure, and process to guide our work/play.

Another thing I am incredibly excited about in this upcoming year is seeing my artwork continue to expand as a practice and develop in its own beautiful and organic way. I am so excited to create a bunch of installation projects next year and to be more involved in physically creating artwork as much of my previous work has been non object based and more socially engaged than “visual art.” With that said, I am also obsessed with teaching art practice and supporting others in their creative dreams. That’s why one of my goals for 2020 is to get into a graduate MFA program so that I may one day be able to teach creative practices as the University level along with through underground/non-normative spaces, such as with The Golden Dome School, Mystic Bazaar, and through my own healing/energy/pedagogical praxis Our Sacred Web.

Eliza Swann

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