Jonah Welch {they} :: modern trans mystic
Work
April 2024. Guest Lecturer, Texas State University - brought by Assoc. Prof. Jennifer Stob (Art History Dept.) to teach a class on trans spiritual history
June 2023. Guest Speaker - The Time of the Feminine Podcast by The Global Sisterhood
June 2023. Contributing Writer - 2024 Many Moons Lunar Planner by The Moon Studio
May 2023. Teacher: “Transness as Sacrament”: an online lecture on trans-specific spiritual practices with Golden Dome School (download here)
April 2023. Guest Lecturer, Oberlin College: brought by Prof. Fernanda Villarroel Lamoza to give a public lecture to students, and teach a workshop for her course “The Feminine as Method”
April-August 2022. Stonekin: Mineral Healing Course Series: co-taught (with Olivia Pepper) two six-week intensive courses on the geologic origins, oral histories, mythologies, and medicinal uses of 12 minerals/gemstones
June 2022. Vow Destruction/Renewal: Officiant of a public ceremony to facilitate the dissolution of a couple’s vows of marriage made within the Mormon Church, followed by a renewal of vows to themselves & each other for their 20-year wedding anniversary.
June 2020-Nov 2022. Trans Rosary Circle: Founded and facilitated a weekly prayer circle for Trans & Gender Non-Conforming People
May 2022. Contributing Artist, custom spell/object created to bless & protect the entrance of Anna Campbell’s “Dress Rehearsal for a Dream Sequence” Participant, Inc. (NYC)
May 30, 2022. Mass for St. Jehanne D’Arc (Joan of Arc): co-facilitated with Olivia Pepper
May 2022. Contributing Artist - CHNGE.ORG - one of five designers for a clothing collection released on Trans Day of Visibility
October 2021. Interviewee: “Change or Die” with You’re Going to Die Podcast
Spring/Summer 2021. Organizer/Fundraising for the Trans People Are Sacred National Billboard Campaign with SaveArtSpace - raised $35,000 do pay 14 BIPOC Trans & GNC artists to design billboards on trans divinity and place them in a city of their choice.
July 2019. Contributing Artist, Save Art Space (“Trans People are Sacred” Billboard Detroit, MI) PRESS: Buzzfeed LGBT • The Neighborhoods • Detroit Free Press • (spanish) Chromosoma X
June 2018. Photographer "Diaries of Trans Man” - Refinery 29
March 2017-July 2018 Director of Photography We Are Transilient
Education
Summer 2021-present Master’s Student @ AIMC-Austin (Traditional Chinese Medicine)
2015-2018 Apprentice to Olivia Pepper
2010-2014 University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A. in Gender and Women's Studies, Minor in LGBT Studies, Feminist Theory)
tell me why / I remain unmoved from the seat of my self / a river of wine, one hundred rivulets of smoke - like wind over stone / tell me why I am abused but / spit it back into my hand like a foreign body / why do I enter the archetypes I desire without fear / PAN / I am not afraid to have no form / but I cherish this one / how can it be okay for me to be all these things / at times it is too much to bear / Ale said the trade off for the freedom is the pain / the balm for the pain is the indescribable magic of being who we are / the closeness to spirit / the many blessings of our character / you have to be resilient to live this life / nectar drips from the back of our throats / i eat darkness and make light / a Hail Mary / falling over the bomb as it blows / indestructible
tell me why / I remain unmoved from the seat of my self / a river of wine, one hundred rivulets of smoke - like wind over stone / tell me why I am abused but / spit it back into my hand like a foreign body / why do I enter the archetypes I desire without fear / PAN / I am not afraid to have no form / but I cherish this one / how can it be okay for me to be all these things / at times it is too much to bear / Ale said the trade off for the freedom is the pain / the balm for the pain is the indescribable magic of being who we are / the closeness to spirit / the many blessings of our character / you have to be resilient to live this life / nectar drips from the back of our throats / i eat darkness and make light / a Hail Mary / falling over the bomb as it blows / indestructible
FAQs
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a mystic is someone who believes that all people have access to the Divine, regardless of whether they are good or bad, addicted or lost or found, joyful, poor, ill or murderous, filled with hatred, filled with love. It was mystics who practiced the magic that existed before Orthodox Religions turned faith into a system of power and control.. Mystics carried the truest renditions of the lessons of great prophets and visionaries. They also rejected and questioned authority, sometimes to their death. A good mystic is a danger to those in power, in that they might teach people about their own spiritual sovereignty, so many mystics had to hide their teachings in poetry, dance, music, etc. In Christianity, there are the gnostics; in Islam, the Sufis. In the modern day, I inhabit mysticism by insisting that trans gender non-conforming people are an important part of the spiritual well-being of society, by claiming that we are sacred, and exploring how our embodied experiences connect us to the realm of spirit, irregardless of social/cultural understandings of our lives.
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I began studying magic in my undergrad in courses with Jill H. Casid on topics like psychoanalysis and visual cultural studies.
I have been studying minerals (their geology and energetic qualities) for 8 years. I was under the instruction of Olivia Pepper for the 3.5 years and have been co-teaching with them on this topic for about 5.
I have been facilitating/anchoring/leading prayer circles for trans and gender non-conforming people for about 2 years and praying actively for 3-4. I have no significant religious background.
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It depends on the project! The best way to contact me with questions is via email at jonah.m.welch@gmail.com
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Thank you for wondering — i have a shop where I sell my art and jewelry, a patreon where I share my art, and several ways to donate if you wish to support my work.
Press
