Pagan Coffee Talk
Pagan Coffee Talk is a modern paganism & witchcraft podcast exploring spiritual practice, community, and clergy experience weekly. Each episode invites listeners into candid, grounded conversations about what it really means to live, practice, and serve within today’s diverse pagan paths. Whether you’re a long‑time practitioner or someone newly curious about earth‑based spirituality, the show offers a welcoming space to learn, question, and grow.
Hosted by experienced pagan clergy, Pagan Coffee Talk blends humor, honesty, and hands‑on wisdom to demystify the realities of practice. The podcast dives into topics such as ritual structure, magical ethics, coven dynamics, and the lived experience of serving a community—always with a focus on accessibility and authenticity. You’ll also hear discussions on the challenges of modern pagan leadership, the evolution of contemporary witchcraft traditions, and how practitioners can build sustainable spiritual habits in everyday life.
Listeners searching for “practical pagan spirituality for beginners” or “real‑world witchcraft guidance from clergy” will find the show especially valuable. Episodes often highlight the difference between pop‑culture witchcraft and grounded, lineage‑informed practice, helping listeners navigate misinformation while strengthening their own spiritual foundations. The hosts also explore seasonal observances, ancestor work, devotional practice, and the importance of community support within pagan traditions.
Pagan Coffee Talk isn’t just a podcast—it’s an ongoing conversation shaped by real questions from real practitioners. By sharing personal stories, hard‑earned lessons, and thoughtful commentary, the hosts aim to foster a sense of connection and clarity for anyone walking a pagan path. Whether you’re brewing your morning coffee or settling in for evening reflection, this podcast offers insight, companionship, and a deeper understanding of modern pagan life.
A special thanks to Darkest Era for the use of their songs: The Morrigan, & Poem to the Gael. Check them out at http://darkestera.net/.
Pagan Coffee Talk
Male and Female Mysteries
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Join Lord Night and Oswyn as they discuss male and female mysteries. In this episode, Lord Night gives his theory on how the origins of the mysteries and whether or not there are any real male mysteries.
Join us on
Discord: https://discord.gg/MdcMwqUjPZ
Facebook: (7) Life Temple and Seminary | Facebook
Welcome to Second Coffee Talk. I'm Oswin, and I have with me Lord Knight. Today, let's talk about male and female mysteries. Now, believe this is just a theory that we're going to be tossing around.
SPEAKER_01So keep that in mind. This is just a theory. I'm not sure if anybody wants to know where in the world this theory or why it came about. But when I was studying for my second degree, my new teacher was Lady Alyssea. And uh she was of Dianic background. Right. And she did not believe there were any male mysteries whatsoever. Okay. So talked to Lord Minn about it, and he told me to sit down and come up with a argue. She he just basically looked at me and goes, Well, you're gonna have to figure out a way to argue this with her, that if you believe there's male mysteries, you're gonna have to convince her. Make sense? Yeah. And that's all any of us do. So I started to think about it. And this is how this starts off. Back towards the end of the dream time. The dream time for us, and the reason we refer to it like this, is this is the time when humans still acted like animals and we reacted to the world. So if it was thundering and lightning and raining, yes, we would be under a tree or in a cave, clustered together, cold and shivering and afraid because we didn't understand what lightning was. And that it because nowadays you do that, and most adults don't go run, you know, and hide underneath the bed just because they hear thunder. All right. We understand that it won't hurt us and all that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know there's people out there that are still afraid of this, but we understand it now compared to what we used to. This is what we call the dream time when we didn't understand these things, when we were more animal than we were human. Make sense? Yeah. So at the end of the dream time, all right, so this is when very primitive man would have been coming around, right? All right. So we're talking what Lucy, who probably still more looked more ape-like than human-like.
SPEAKER_03Probably.
SPEAKER_01All right. So hopefully everybody's around the same time period I am in my head.
SPEAKER_03Right. And if you don't know the reference to Lucy, please go look her up because that is some interesting information right there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this one that they found had like the a certain DNA that's like found in all human in all humans. Right. She's literally it's like boom, mind blown. Mind blown. All right. And this is the reason we focus around this part. So let's imagine that first human female, right? That human first human woman. Okay. And she's out there, all right. Again, no clothing, no nothing, just bare weather, and that's it. Right. You know, no real tools or anything like that, maybe a rock or something. And that's as close as they got. So imagine that first female who is starting to go from a heat cycle to a monthly cycle. All right. And this is where we start to begin in my head, and I could be wrong, where the female mystery started. So that first woman who started that cycle is bleeding and she don't know why. The only thing that is understood bleeding bad. Right. Everybody up to now, when you saw them bleed, no matter where in the world it was coming from, died. Because again, these these creatures, this humans that we are talking about, don't understand that if applied pressure, they stopped bleeding. They didn't understand that. They also don't understand the connection between sex and pregnancy. The two are completely or completely miracles to them.
SPEAKER_03The two haven't been put together yet.
SPEAKER_01Right. Because it's nine months later. Nobody thinks, hey, nine months ago, she hooked up with, you know, Ug. Right.
SPEAKER_03Well, that baby looks a lot like Ug over there.
SPEAKER_01It does, don't it? I don't know why. You know, she normally hangs out with Wussy. Wonder why, you know, it doesn't look more like him as he twirls by. Chasing all the hunters. Oh. But you know, imagine that first woman. I mean, we're we're joking here, but to be honest with it, if I was that woman and this is gonna be the I'd probably be scared out of my mind, thinking I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, definitely. Because I mean, that's like you said, up until then, if you bled, you died.
SPEAKER_01Right. So they don't so again, no clue what in the world's going on. And I'm sorry, if I'm bleeding and all that, last thing I'd hate to think that the people in my little group or my little clan that I'm living with might kill me. Why? Because hey, I'm bleeding. I could attract animals.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, that whole wounded animal thing and predators show up. So yeah. You know, I can see where in the world this, you know, this woman would like crawl into the back of a cave or a different cave and hide. Of course, you know, she's only hiding for a couple of days because eventually it stops.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And of course, then the urge to mate again then strikes her.
SPEAKER_03And the fact that she's just been bleeding and survived.
SPEAKER_01A miracle.
SPEAKER_03Right. People are saying that's the same thing.
SPEAKER_01This is the equivalent of Christ healing the blind man and bringing him bringing what's his name back from the dead.
SPEAKER_03Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01Lazarus from the dead. All right. I mean, I'm sure to this woman she feels the same way. But now here's where the interesting part is is because she's on this new cycle, her interest in hooking up with the guys, the other hunters, uh-huh, has increased too. Instead of having to wait until she's in heat to want to have sex.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Now there's more of a desire on a more frequent basis, which then begins the chance that she's going to get pregnant before all the others. Because she's all the all the new hunters' favorite toy.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And I hate to be kind of gross about that way, but this is exactly what in the world it amounts to. Hence the reason she has more kids than all the other females. Which means that genetic anomaly that sent her from a heat cycle into a s into a monthly cycle is being passed on to her kids.
SPEAKER_03Right, it's adaptation.
SPEAKER_01Right. And I think this is the first time that a more or a closer to a human souls are able to merge with these creatures. Does that make sense? More like what we're used to.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, even though the equipment is a little bit on the slower side. For the geeks out this, you know, the these new humans are like the 486 computers. Way back in the day.
SPEAKER_03Way back in the day.
SPEAKER_01All right. You know, eventually they get the pentiums, but you know, hey, the software's still a little bit more powerful than the actual hardware, but it's still kept at a level that can keep that energy in check for the soul.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, over time, this woman keeps on repeating this pattern where once a month she has the cycle, she goes and hides in the cave. That means all her daughters and granddaughters and stuff are probably going to follow her into the cave too. Because once it starts happening, they're going to be looking at their mom going, hey, what's up? And when she's going to be like, No, come on, we're just going to go sit in this cave for a couple of days, we'll be fine. Right. Because she already knows the secret. And the and the first female secret there is we can bleed for a period of time and not die. Does that make sense? Yeah. So there's the first that's the first mystery. They can bleed for a lot longer time from certain areas of their body and not die. Unlike guys, all right. We believe from that area. We're probably gonna die.
SPEAKER_03No, yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_01There ain't no problem but that we're gonna die. So this is how this all started. And of course, over the generations, as more and more girls start to switch over to a uh this type of cycle, the more of them wind up in the cave. But this also starts this also, and the guys finally figure out what in the world's going on and sort of leave them because in their minds, the only way these women can survive through this process is if the goddess herself has laid upon them, you know, that the gods themselves must be with them right now to keep them from dying. All right, which then starts this whole entire thought that we have to keep the women separate from everything else because they are too powerful. Like in Native American cultures, if a woman on her monthly cycle picks up a weapon and shoots it, it's no longer used again, not because it's been made nasty or dirty because a woman did it while on her monthly cycle. It's become too holy because she's on her monthly cycle. Nobody else can use it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, that's that's an interesting theory. The whole just makes it a different holy item that can't be used again.
SPEAKER_01Right. Because again, the thought is that the gods must be more with these women right now than any other time. Right. So they were separated out of a fear that they were too powerful, not out of a fear of they were nasty or dirty. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's where this really all starts. Now, again, other religions begin to make it a dirty, nasty thing, which again is wrong. Women should be proud of this. Don't necessarily mean that men want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_03True. True.
SPEAKER_01No offense. But I mean, I realize where the mystery comes from and I revere for that. Now, of course, now that all the women are either in a bleeding hut or a bleeding tent or a bleeding cave.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01All right, they take all their they take all the young kids with them, any kids being nursed, go with them. Any boy that's old enough to not be nursed stays in camp with the guys. Right?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And all the women take all the girls with them to the bleeding caves, even when they're not cycling yet.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01All right. That way the girls have time to learn certain mysteries and things that they talk about, preparing these girls for when they become of a of age. Now, here's the argument I gave to Lady Alicia. While this is going on, you're in the bleeding hut, you don't know what us guys are doing. That's very true. So it's for as many times as she gets sit there and go, as many times as she sat there and said, But how do you know there was mystery? How do you, you know, this or that? Lord Man would just keep on looking, you're in the bleeding hut. What do you know? I mean, and again, this is what was done. This is where the female mysteries came from. And yes, they probably even prepared them for marriage in these um huts and tents so that their first night would not be so bad. You know, and and the thought there that I've explained to people over the years is it seems like to me, if you know, if I was a young girl, what, 12, 13, and about to be married off, that this might be an easier way to get used to that around my mothers and other sisters and friends showing me what it's going to be like. Am I making sense there?
SPEAKER_03Or am I being a little too fake? It's no, uh well, you might be, but it's a very touchy subject.
SPEAKER_01It's a very touchy subject and it's a very grand subject, but I still like the idea of women being able to take time with their daughters to sit down when this first happens and having those conversations, letting them know, hey, this is what it's gonna be like on your first time, this is what it's gonna be like. Here's all your birth control, here's how you're gonna have to take care of yourself. Right. You know, and again, I'd like to see the same thing with the boys for the guys for for your dad, when you have that first dream, right, or when that first happens for boys, yes, we go to our dads going, uh, what's this stuff?
SPEAKER_03Right. I wish, you know, I wish I had had that when I was growing up because I had a lot of questions and I had no answers.
SPEAKER_01And again, it's different when you and your dad go out on a camping trip and him sit down and going, okay, it's just me and you here. So what happens here, what's said here, stays here.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And we're gonna talk about stuff that your mom might not want you to necessarily hear because she thinks you're too young. But here it is, and here's the truth. Yeah, you do it too many times, you're gonna rub yourself raw, you don't use this, you don't do that. It's gonna be bad.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But there's nothing wrong with doing this in moderation.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, you're not gonna go blind, you're not gonna go blind, you're not gonna get hairy palms, you're not, you know, and and and my hope is one day you'll grow up and marry a woman and have kids. And, you know, as you get older, I want you to sit down and we'll talk about how to make sure that you pleasure your partner in the correct way. I like these because these give those rites of passage to kids that parents are no longer going to be treating them. We're not gonna be treating you like a kid. We're gonna treat you like an adult. It's time to put away this stuff when you make a promise you're gonna keep it. Right. I mean, don't get me wrong, I realize that through the teenage years, there's a lot of rebellion and all this other stuff. But if it's worked through as I want to treat you like an adult, it becomes different.
SPEAKER_03Well, and you mentioned rites of passage, and it it may be completely off topic. And we, if it is, we can set it down for another topic. But um, yeah, I was listening to a podcast not too long ago, and they were actually talking about their coven has all these rites of passages. They they have them for the girls, they have them for the boys, and I thought it was a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, we normally we we have these, but these are done with the parents.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01All right, because uh you know the basic ritual I was told, and again, it can get a little bit more complicated than this, is the first sign, regardless of boy or girl, that you're an adult, okay, that you can fulfill all the adult requirements needed, right? All right, in a in a you know, in your family and stuff, that the cleanup of these things that happen, those are offered into the fire to the gods. Right. And don't get me wrong, there's a whole build-up ritual and all this to it, and getting the kid all excited and having them do certain tasks and stuff to show that they're ready to start this next adventure.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So, yes, that first that first menstrual cycle is saved and thrown into the fire. That first aftermath of a wet dream for boys is cleaned up and kept for them to throw into the fires as an their first offering to the gods.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I s I still think that's you know just a wonderful thing to do. And again, if I'd had anything like that when I was when I was growing up, it would have been I don't know, it would have been I would have been comforting for me.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I think my mom wished it would have happened. She would have saved a lot of money on a lot of socks. Right. You know, but here's where the mystery started. Here's where in the world these two halves of each culture started. When the women were segregated themselves in the bleeding huts to A, feel like they protect themselves, plus the guys were like, uh, they're too powerful, we have to protect them, you know, on the outside. This is probably when the guys did what the did all that uh honeydew list stuff.
SPEAKER_03Probably, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, fix cleanup, fix the huts, cleanups, fix the huts, fix this roof, the fence needs to be mended, the pigs keep on escaping when you go out and hunt. We gotta fix that. And here's the dad with their son going, okay, here's how we fix this. Here's how you hunt. You know, a lot of people think that what is that? The uh the hoop and stick. Everybody thinks this is a kid's game, and it is a kid's game and stuff like that, but people don't realize for boys this is eye hand coordination. Right to learn how to hunt.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01That you can do this, you know, you can get this uh ring, this wooden ring to roll down the street by using another stick. This was your eye hand coordination test.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01So now there is a male mystery wrapped up in all of this that we did not know for years. And you might have to look this up for me. But at least in the first trimester, all babies are female. Did you realize that?
SPEAKER_03I believe, yeah, I believe that's very true.
SPEAKER_01And then at some certain point between the first and a second trimester, if it's a boy, they get an extra shot, they get a big shot of testosterone, the wide chromosomes uh take an effect, the ovaries that have grown inside the boy drop and start becoming testes.
SPEAKER_03Right. I'm not sure, I'm not sure of the actual timing. I'm not either yeah, it's it's somewhere in there that all this sort of happens.
SPEAKER_01Right. This again, here's a male mystery for everybody. We give up our spirituality, we give up being women and lose our spirituality so we can protect them from birth. Technically, all natural men technically are transsexual because we started out as female and then converted into male. Now, the only reason I bring this up is because we do have a problem in our community about the priestesses wanting to treat the priests kind of like second-class citizens.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01But the priestesses have forgotten what we give up to be born male to protect them when we get to this realm of existence.
SPEAKER_03Right. And it's not saying it's not saying that they need protection, but that's that's our job.
SPEAKER_01Well, again, they control our spiritual lives, they're allowed to go full hog deep as they want into spirituality and all that. That's what we're here for.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01We're here to take care of the mundane when they take care of the spiritual. And I hate to be this way, but starting off as a woman, yes, we're losing our connection to certain energies to protect them. Definitely. Again, just the theory, it's an interesting theory. You know, and for some for the way some priestesses teach their priests, yeah, I want to look at them say, you need to be a little bit more respectful if you to remember, let me remind you what I had to give up to be a priest. Right. And I'm here. I actually have a job, I have a responsibility, and that is to take care of the mundane, the religious side of what we are.
SPEAKER_03Right. That way you don't have to. You can focus on the spiritual.
SPEAKER_01That way you focus on the spiritual. Now that's fine and dandy, but priestesses also have to listen to our advice too. We listen to them, but they need to start listening to us too and take some things into account.
SPEAKER_03Right. I haven't I haven't seen it too much. I have seen a few instances where priestesses are not treating the priests appropriately. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, I I do see it. I see it too. I mean, they're just as I'm sorry, there's some out there that are just as bad as the Christian churches or the other religions that do the opposite to the women. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's a lot of the same thing.
SPEAKER_01Right. I mean, that this whole entire thing has become a horseshoe. Yeah. And that these two, you got the women that believe, you know, are diehard feminist in our community, and then you have the Abrahamic religions that believe women should be quiet in the thing, have literally become their own monsters in their own right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, which is sad. I mean sad. It doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_01No, it don't. And it shouldn't be. Whatsoever. So I'm about out of coffee. I hope people like this theory. And if they want to try to poke holes into it, please do let us know, though.
SPEAKER_03I know, right?
SPEAKER_01I mean either watch the video or read the post or whatever. Please let me know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, tag us, tag us in it so that we can find you and send us a link, something.
SPEAKER_01I mean, this is just one theory that we have, and again, it could be wrong. But I mean, we really need to, as a community, look at the both the male and female mysteries.
SPEAKER_03Right. We've got to keep these going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, this is just the theory of where it all started. So we sort of have a basis on where to move to from now. And yeah, there's a lot of the guy, the male mysteries might just be knowing something, not actually being told. Right. I don't know how to explain that. It's that same obsession little boys still have to this day about you know writing their name in snow. We just know how to do it. Nobody ever teaches us. It's just at some point somebody goes, Oh yeah, hey, there, watch this. Right. You know, those might actually be the male mysteries. Very well could be. You know, hence the reason I really like the Boy Scouts for Boys. Right. Because it gave them that opportunity. And I really wish somebody would start more of a pagan version of this where boys could go into one camp and the girls could go to another. And if the girls want to do the stuff like the boys, then they can do it as a bunch of girls.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Because they need to learn that from their viewpoint without male interference and vice versa.
SPEAKER_03Right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01And especially at them young ages. You know, there's certain things that could be learnt there and stuff like that, how to get along with other boys and how, you know, boys can go out and fight their best friends in the backyard and two seconds later be sitting there going, Yeah, did you watch that game? And I thought y'all were mad at each other. Oh, we just beat the crap out of each other. We'll be all right. Yeah, we're good. We're good. And I know a bunch of women look at us guys going, that is insane. It's it's a guy thing. It's a guy thing. We get this is where we get rid of our emotion, is the actual fight. This is where we're using our emotions.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And then afterwards, it's like, okay, we fall. Yeah, you kicked my ass, but hey, you know what? I ain't got nobody else to hang out with, so here you go.
SPEAKER_03Right. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pacin' Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary. Please visit us at Life Temple Seminary.org to learn more. You can also find links to all our social media Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.
SPEAKER_00We travel down this trodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by a steel blazing fires. And so it is the end of our day, so off with me till morning break. And so it is the end of our day, so off with me till morning.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.