Hello Kindred Spirits,

In this issue, themed: Rebellion; we are tapping into the voices that paved their own way. Since the dawn of recorded history, systems were created for organization and eventually become a mold. Unfortunately it also brings in leadership that become drunk with control and power. Rebellion is often the response.

Initially, I created this magazine to follow psychological themes through art, culture, and social commentary in a very generic sense. Recent observations have led me to an epiphany: again and again, indigenous people, women, queer, POC, who challenge what is expected of them are demonized. Sometimes metaphorically, oftentimes literally, as they are still being subjected to witch hunts.

Metsti, is the Nawat word for Moon. This magazine serves as a living space for connection across cultures by exploring womanhood, pre-columbian lifestyles, creativity, rituals from first nations, and power across generations and borders.

Solidarity has always existed alongside systems designed to divide us. Race, class, nationality, sexuality, gender identity, and other social boundaries can determine which people are deserving of being protected, which people are believed and which are more vulnerable. For people living at those intersections like: indigenous women, Black women, trans women, immigrant women, poor and working-class women is where the consequences can become even more severe.

History is filled with empires built through conquest, accumulation, and domination. It is also filled with women denied political, economic, intellectual, and bodily autonomy. So I find myself wondering: what might we learn from cultures in which women have held greater social authority? What can matrilineal and matrifocal societies teach us about power, community, care, and survival?

That is what we will explore here in Metsti Mag, and perhaps there is no better season for it than Spring.

After a long and wild Winter in the souther hemisphere, the dead will push through the soil and bring forth life again. And for us women, survival requires its own form of rebellion.

To survive is human. To insist upon thriving can be an act of rebellion.

From the mossy edge,
Liz Eclair M.Sc in Psychology
Letters from the Margin