Latest / The Liminal Lounge Mediums / Ep 3 Discovering Witchcraft: My Journey into Paganism and Earth-Based Spirituality

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Ep 3 Discovering Witchcraft: My Journey into Paganism and Earth-Based Spirituality · The Liminal Lounge Mediums

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Soul to Earth Podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Carrie Coss, psychic evidential medium, mentor, and witch, here to help you explore your connection with the spirit world and discover your own grounded spiritual practice.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Soul to Earth Podcast.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I am so excited about this episode and also hopefully prepared because this episode is going to contain my sharing a newer part of my journey or a reawakened part of my journey.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you who know me as being a medium and a mentor don't know actually about this part of my life.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really excited to share it with you.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think many of you are going to find yourself in this episode.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Either you're on this path already, you're intrigued by it, or you have lots of questions and you're wanting to know more.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to be talking today about witchcraft.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to be talking about my journey entering into, as I say, a recommitted witch.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to be working on deconstructing a lot of myths around witchcraft.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to be talking about a lot of predispositions and a lot of bias that people have against it, misunderstandings, how society in general is incredibly misinformed when it comes to actually what witchcraft is.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're also going to talk about the beautiful form that witchcraft can take in people's lives because it's very, very varied and different.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a lot of different people who are practicing witches who've been doing it for years and years.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Many of them are in the closet, do not share it with people.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Many people practice it in different ways.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to be talking about these things.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be telling you about, as I said, my own journey.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then going forward in the podcast in general, I am going to be introducing you to not one but two of the mentors I have that I've been working with and continue to work with to help me first of all really educate me on the craft that I am really drawn to, which we're going to discuss.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then also as I'm beginning to learn about really the fundamentals of what we like to say is being a practicing witch, about doing spell work, working with the elements, in my case, working with deities, my ancestors, and all the things that are entailed that can go into a witchcraft practice.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Not to mention, um, we're probably going to be interviewing other people who are practicing witches along the way as well.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very excited to get started.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, admittedly, in this episode, I am going to be bringing uh through some notes because there are some important points that even I am really still learning about.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I like to be very transparent about it.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to be referencing some notes from my one of my teachers as well as notes that I have in general from uh some different areas of people that are practicing witchcraft and things that I really respect.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really excited to get into this episode.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get started.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's begin with more of a personal, what I like to say, gnosis, gnosis being my own experience on a spiritual level of coming into witchcraft and how I got to this point.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to go back actually to being in my 20s when, believe it or not, I was living in Los Angeles and I was really exploring my spirituality.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I had graduated from the uh psychic school that I had been at.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I was also had been feeling the limitations of that school when it came to defining my spiritual practice.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I was feeling very experimental and I was very drawn to what I now know is really being pagan-centered.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I began exploring.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: I started reading some books, but then also learning in this case about more of the traditional like Wicca holidays when it came to um different cycles of the year and being able to start to connect with just this element of being more of a nature-based spiritual practice.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I was really drawn to that initially.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think because I've always been someone who's very, you know, obviously sensitive and very connected to nature and the world around me with spirit.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I was very drawn to that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh when I had I had a friend actually when I was going to cosmetology school in LA, and she and I started just getting interested in this of you know, finding out more about this and what the expression was like and kind of bucking mainstream and what mainstream was doing as far as holidays and spiritual practices.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what happened, though.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: At some point, I came up against my own religious programming.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very interesting because I grew up in a very open-minded, liberal, you know, Christian home, pretty much where people were quite intellectual and my parents were very open-minded, but they still, you know, had believed on a fundamental level that there was one God and that Jesus was, you know, your Lord and Savior.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did they go around telling everybody that's what they believed and trying to convert people?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I believe it just permeated my subconscious.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it really had me thinking in terms of, well, if you're celebrating and connecting with different gods and you don't believe that there's just one God, then fundamentally something's wrong with that.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And although I didn't really realize that was what was happening, I was hitting up against that, you know, in my subconscious.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And some part of it felt like it was wrong to me because it was so far out of mainstream from what I knew at the time.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I pulled away from it and I leaned more back into the most liberal version of Christianity.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then I and I think I stuck with like working with angels.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this happened for years, and I just was in that space of in some ways, you know, making my own brand of like really liberal Christian, you know, beliefs.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: So when things really started accelerating and changing for me was when I um the late to like 2017 or so, and I started seeing a lot more spirits, I started having different experiences, and my world began to really shift.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I just became also aware that nature is alive, that there are spirits in nature, and that I was starting to interact with them and have experiences.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I just couldn't deny that.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I also felt so intrigued by the thought of this.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: But just like many other people, it wasn't until I had these really mind-blowing experiences that I realized that, you know, what my perceptions were telling me about even reality, as far as the way uh about spirituality and spirit and the world around me, I didn't really move towards paganism.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so it wasn't until I started having these experiences with these, you know, actually as a Magdalene Rose priestess, which I will be talking more about that in another episode.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you can also go back to some of my original first seasons, first original seasons from two years ago.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I do talk about that at length about being a Magdalene Rose Priestess and having these profound experiences and going through this initiation.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it was when, you know, um it's almost like in that what we call the liminal space or that spiritual space, when you and I, as a medium, started having these profound things that I could validate based on, you know, research and evidence and things that were coming forward to me that just made me have to start turning towards it and realizing that I was I was following more of a patriarchal religion and that I was, you know, missing out on all this beautiful, really soul history of being leaning to see Earth as mother and as a conscious source of you know, a being and a spiritual source, in fact, a feminine source.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started coming into contact with all these different goddesses and deities myself in real time, you know, without, you know, without even it, it was very natural.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was almost like um they'd always been there, but I was allowing it to occur, you know, opening up to it more, and I was able to validate it, and that was profoundly happening to me.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I couldn't deny that experience and I couldn't block out that my own gnosis and my own revelations.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so it started really changing me.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so as I was moving towards more the goddess work and seeing how there are all these goddesses and what has happened with women in religion throughout millennia and time.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started deconstructing things that happened in the Christian church and how I believe that we were basically, you know, controlled and the narrative was changed because uh what happened to our original, like the pagans, how Christianity was, you know, basically snuffing out and trying to convert everyone who once was a pagan, and my eyes started opening profoundly.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And how throughout history I was just it was clicking, it was all clicking for me, and it was personal revelation, you know.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and listen, I have always had a thing about, you know, the spirit of Jesus.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So even when I was Christian, I had my own supernatural experiences with Jesus all the time.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: But my supernatural experiences had nothing to do with the doctrine of the Bible that was done, you know, changed and converted, I believe.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the, you know, what was placed out of the Bible, I thought was very tampered with and biased.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, once I found about the Nicene Council and what happened in 300 AD, that they took out a lot of parts of the Bible, and then what happened with Mary Magdalene and all these things started unfolding so much, and I couldn't deny it any longer.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Consequently, at the same time, then I started having my own experiences with nature, nature spirits.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I started being able to connect with, you know, what most people don't interact with on a regular basis unless they're really intrigued by it and want to develop it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that has to do with nature spirits, the Fae.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have had experiences with Sasquatch, which, you know, all of these things that most, you know, a lot of people don't talk about, you know, in the circles that uh, you know, I raise my children in in like suburban Portland.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they were happening to me and I was profoundly moved by the beauty of it and the connection with nature and my part in it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, overlay on top of that, the other piece that was so magnificent was that when I was 20, I began studying the law of attraction.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it all originated from me because I had such massive anxiety and I felt powerless.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: I felt powerless and that I was just asking some one God to help me move out of the place I was in.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I felt powerless.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought I have to be able to somehow embody my own power.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: I can empower myself.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when I began to work about mindset work and then about how I could change my reality, and I began to understand how things work within the universe and how you can manifest what your desires are and align with them and heal and clear out energy, things began to really change for me profoundly during that time.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: So now, as I'm moving towards all these other beliefs that are coming and unfolding for me, I'm realizing that we've had it all wrong.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: We've had it all wrong because we have been putting over our power, our trust, our faith, and our also our connection to being part of the spark of the divinity to an outside God and a masculine God at that and a patriarchal God at that, and a God that sometimes would be vengeful, you know, based upon the Old Testament.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it just made and I it makes you feel disempowered and like you have no control.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And all these things were feeling so fragmented.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the more I started learning about paganism and the more I started learning about witchcraft and what it really is at its heart, I began to know it was for me.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was for me.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was excited about it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I felt connected, I felt empowered, I felt healed, I felt in alignment.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was just absolutely 100% behind it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It blended all my creativity, it blended my artistic, you know, way of expressing my spirituality.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love ritual, I love traditions that I make myself that I feel in alignment with.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm very much a I have a sense of I think uh loosely I like some acts.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love sacred ceremony, things of that nature and literally nature, and um being able to work with the elements and just learning about that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like an endless fascination and how everything connects.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So then it led me to realizing that I needed more knowledge, you know, and I began that search of um, you know, where do I feel drawn in this huge thing, you know?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then also the deconstructing I had around what it actually meant to be a practicing witch.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started going about the business of educating myself and knowing I wanted to work, and this is just the what works for me, with a mentor who who I aligned with both on with ethics and integrity, but also um education, wisdom and knowledge and with curriculums I knew would make sense to me because I like organization and openness, but also I want, I don't want to just grab books and start scrapping things together.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing about witchcraft in and of itself, it's like there is it's not a religion, so it's more of a spiritual practice.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very individual, it is very unique, and it is in an in and of itself a freedom-based expression of spiritual practice.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, what we're gonna do is go into a little bit about the history, what what is known, and this some of this comes from um my mentors as well.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Want to make sure we're, of course, including them in this conversation, part of the education I've gotten from them, and then my own reflections on it.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna get into it.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: One of the most for me beautiful parts, as I mentioned to you before, about witchcraft is that it's an expression of who you are on a fundamental level.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you as a person aligning with your truth, you realizing and understanding that you are part of the greater universe, that you're not powerless, and that you in fact can uh connect with all the elements and the essence of what creates this universe.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And also having it be very based in very earth-based, which very much speaks to me as a human being.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, after all, caring for the earth and and this planet, as if it's not something that we dominate, but something that we revere and respect and understanding we are part of it and it is part of us.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, as we can imagine, Christianity has always been and never supportive of witchcraft.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And quite frankly, it literally demonizes witchcraft at its core.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And there are many Christian authors of antiquity who have really uh treated witchcraft as a evil, out of control, demonic practice.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna be reading now from my mentor, one of my mentors, and her name is Fiona.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be quoting her um throughout this.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And Fiona Duncan is her name.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: She is my mentor.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I am doing a year-long program with her, and I highly recommend it.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's called The Way of the Witch.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: It she has a 30-year practice as a practicing witch.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she is incredibly, and she's an educator.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is her background.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: She got her master's in education, you know, she's an educator, and so her her her program itself is incredibly in-depth, very comprehensive.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if anyone is interested in doing it, what I love about it actually is that it's all written.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's all written, and there's no videos, and it's it, I feel like I'm learning it in the way that it was meant to be learned, which is from you know, mentor to student.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: It is uh, you know, I read the assignments, I do reflections, I do my own practice, and then I have a monthly meeting with her.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's the way it was intended to be.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna be reading some of the things from her program here and referencing this is more to do with the witch's primer.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So this quote was taken from Jonas Clark, who was a Christian author, which is to say, witchcraft, according to him, is a demonic power released through various activities such as words, curses, spells, amulets, charms, occult powers, chants, magic, drugs, potions, or directive prophecies.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: The purpose of witchcraft is to wear you down little by little to control your life.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Witchcraft is one of the demon spirits in Jezebel's network.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you can already see, even by the writing from this man, I'm not even sure when this was written.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: I imagine it was probably sometime in the 1600s, but how it's seen as being this disgusting, you know, evil, vile practice.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: It makes me laugh now.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just think it's quite funny how how threatened they were by these incredible, especially women, but often men as well, who were doing these incredible things to help heal the people in their community, to create, you know, there's just so many things that that witches have done to help people when it comes to health, when it comes to in in times of old, um, helping crops grow, helping families, you know, be in harmony, curing, you know, disease, and just making things better in general because of all the different ways they are empowered through connecting with these different practices.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, because it's they demonize it, they're threatened by it, they turn it into something negative.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it goes way back, friends.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: It goes way back.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Here's another quote taken from the editor of the gospel coalition, Joe Carter.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Witchcraft refers to the worldview, religion, and practices associated with using rituals that are believed to harness and focus cosmic energies or psychic energies to bring some desired change, as if that's a bad thing.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Modern witchcraft is the largest and most common subset of neo-paganism, a diverse group of religious movements that claim to be derived from historical pagan religions.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So actually, that's even a little bit more positive and to a certain degree.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, but you can still imagine that every piece of how they even, you know, speak on it, it is it's definitely lean, it leans towards that you're gonna be, you know, you're doing something wrong, you're doing something evil, and that um it's against man, you know, it's against God's plan, and that there's only one God and you can't absolutely so it's been going on for you know, controlling since the beginning of time, as soon as the Christian faith started coming in and infiltrating and coming into alignment, you know, uh with most of society in Western culture.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's seen as being negative.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then not to mention, on top of that, we can even go further into just in society in general when it comes to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: you know, movies and television and witches seen as being these cackling, evil, uh, you know, horrible, vile creatures that, you know, scour the earth and just look for victims and take advantage of people and do things all manner of things that are evil.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it just it just goes to show you that you know we are easily influenced, even if we're not Christian, by public perceptions and by uh what you know can be deemed as looking at something as positive versus negative, right?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna also give you um my teacher's perception of this is Fiona's perception, which I think is so beautiful, uh, that she's written in her, according to her, the course that I've been taking.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's so beautiful.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Witchcraft is a transformative, life-affirming spiritual path and way of being, working with the energies of self and the natural world is witchcraft at its basic core, which is our healers of nature and humans, the diviners, the fortune tellers and soothsayers.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: We are the magic makers that direct energy and create change.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: We are the midwives and the psychopomps who lovingly welcome new life into the world and gently usher it home.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: We are the powerful sons and daughters of the cosmos and earth who walk this realm in service to the planet, to others and to ourselves.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: We know our lives have meaning and purpose and we are tasked with certain lessons and obligations to fulfill in this incarnation.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: It just switches you back into this place of feeling like you are following a path that is believe believable to you and you understand it.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you're not having to do it based on anyone else's interpretation of what is good, what is bad and you are you know black and white masculine feminine like pulling things apart that nature doesn't matter.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it it just goes on and on and on.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now this has to do more with also being a pagan which of course for me is also it is being a witch there are Christian witches which we may interview one of them some time as well but in general most witches are uh pagan.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: So this is taken also from the course and this is the Pagan Federation International which describes paganism in the following way paganism is the ancestral religion of the whole of humanity.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: This ancient religious outlook remains active throughout much of the world today both in complex civilizations such as Japan and India and in less complex tribal societies worldwide.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was the outlook of the European religions of classical antiquity Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as of their barbarian neighbors on the northern fringes and its European form is re-emerging into explicit awareness in the modern West as the articulation of urgent contemporary religious priorities.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: The pagan outlook can be seen as threefold its adherents venerate nature and worship many deities both goddesses and god nature veneration polytheism pluralism and diversity and the goddess I mean that just gets me so excited.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally I did want to expand on this there is a quote here by Selena Fox and she says this I am a pagan.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm part of the whole of nature the rocks the animals and the plants the elements are my relatives other humans are my sisters and brothers whatever their races, colors, ages, nationalities, creeds or sexual preferences the earth is my mother and the sky is my father.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: The sun and the moon are my grandparents and the stars are my ancestors.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I am part of this large family of nature not the master of it.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: I have my own special part to play and I seek to play it that part to the best of my ability I seek to live in harmony with others in the family of nature treating others with respect not abuse.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: That just makes me smile even just reading that out loud and really for me to be honest with you confirms for me why I love being a pagan because it's inclusive it's not dominating it works in harmony with nature and the world around it not trying to dominate it.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it also recognizes that the world is animated that nature's animated that it is alive and that the elements themselves as well as the planets the air the water the land and everything in between and spirit is alive and part of divine what we're going to be looking at next are some references of different types of witches and then I'll let you guys know like a little bit about where I find myself right now in that practice.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: I did want to just take a quick moment to say I would love if you guys could make sure that you are following me on this podcast, that you are liking this and sharing it with friends.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And please be sure to comment again I want to remind you that if you sign up for my email list and you interact with my this content, I am going to be picking people in order to do readings on on the podcast, which I'm really excited about.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: So in the next section we are going to be talking about different types of witches and then also my own personal experience.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right stay tuned now witchcraft and all the many types of witches there are this is such a big topic that I'm really not doing it justice by even skimming over it because as I said you know like my studies with my mentor Fiona Duncan is a year long and you know witches you know they what they learn over time, even if they tend to be more of what we call like a chaos witch or an eclectic witch which is that they do things more um I would say by their intuition and it's not as it's it's say more of a type of magic that isn't as um ceremonialized or it's much more intuitive and has a flow to it.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Even then learning everything connected to it takes a lot of time and there's different parts of it.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: And just as we are you know learning about what the difference is when you start connecting in even like something with moon cycles and planetary and astrology how it affects us and how it affects our even things like what we call as our spell work or our workings it's vast.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to just really clarify for all of you who are listening that this is a practice that does take time and development and study and understanding it it is your own expression of what it is.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need to be complicated but there's a lot of segments to it.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so as I'm running through this understand this is just a real touchstone of these things and it's not in any way meant to be a replacement for really learning about being a practitioner yourself as a clarifying note.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's just get into it though about you know different types of you know different ways people can express this incredible sacred practice right so I think part of what I love about witchcraft is that you start to understand you find yourself and what works for you in your practice.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned there's no right or wrong way to practice there is certainly things where you'll learn that what you're doing is effective and uh you're more connected and you're paying more attention to things like correspondences, how you know how things like herbs connect to you know planetary cycles, moon cycles, what their strengths are, what they are connected to, how you can work with them as well as what crystals do, how you can work with them you don't um what their different attributes are, their characteristics, their correspondences, learning about how to do different types of spell work.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's definitely frames if you go in and start studying witchcraft and you understand there's different types of basic we call them workings or spell work which really is different essentially different ways to learn to work with energy in your life right so we we will be going into that later.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Again this is not this podcast is not a podcast about learning to do witchcraft this is a podcast about my experience and then hopefully opening you all up so you can start exploring these things and then me bringing on experts and but I I do like to share my own experience and different things.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: So as we're talking about these different you know what different types of witches there are that are this available practice, it's mainly meant to excite you and inspire you and for you to start doing your own research.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think as you're learning about yourself and your expression you can see what you're connected to right and again some of these things are taken from the incredible course that my teacher and my mentor is teaching.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna I'm only gonna give you high level what she's doing because I don't want to in any way you know disrespect all the hard work she's put into this I'll just kind of gloss over these things but you can look these up yourself.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: So as you're looking at your own expression of your what how you feel drawn to these things you can see if you find yourself in this.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we know first there's what is more known as the modern witch right and um the modern witch is very much uh free to create and some of this is taken from her text by the way as you're reading this Fionis um is the most free and create a magical and spiritual path that resonates with his or her own soul on the deepest level.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So they can free to take different elements of different magic traditions and do what works for them.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then in that they can go into things like high high magic, low magic that high magic has to do with a lot of ceremony and ritual and detail and steps and low magic is much more what we would consider like kitchen witchery and things that are a little bit more not as structured and things that have a little bit more of an air of you know like as if you were almost uh what would have been not as overly ceremonialized and uh just a little bit more accessible to people like people using like the herbs in their kitchen and creating you know like different things for their families that would work for healing and manifestation and things like that.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's differences, right?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: So modern is you're doing all the different things that appeal to you in that way.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Then we have the eclectic witch right and that eclectic wish is similar in that you're you're taking different styles and traditions and practices as well for healing connecting with the occult um and magical paths right and it's spiritually based and it may be spiritually based and also secular so it just kind of has a little bit of everything.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's similar to the modern witch solitary witch is someone who practices on their own right an ancestral witch is someone who's learned the practice from their a family member right then we have an angel witch which is someone who connects with angels and maybe looks at ancient grimoires grimoires are definitely have to do with magical books that of different spells that have been written down and passed down and ways that they worked with angels in order to manifest, right?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Especially the archangels then we have a ceremonial witch which we kind of talked about sent more high magic and that's where they have a lot of steps and ritual and um it takes a lot more time and there's more detail to it.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little more serious okay um that also might work with angels and deities as well in that work then we have the cosmic witch who tends to connect in with like lunar cycles celestial energies cosmic energies we have a crystal witch someone who works a lot with crystals in their spell work things of that nature we have an elemental witch right who definitely work this is more folk magic things of that nature they work with earth air fire and water a lot specifically in in the work that they do let's continue then we have an energy witch which I sometimes relate to because I do a lot of energy healing so that's partially why it's appealing to me as well and you manipulate and work with energy mainly for a variety of reasons for healing manifestation things like that.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: They can also be a little bit of mental magic cosmic magic a green witch a lot of people relate to that also known as a hedge witch or a kitchen witch an elemental witch very much is connected to um live plants herbs oils barks seeds and fruits and flowers in order to heal and work on manifestation things of that nature okay then we also have a hereditary witch and that is very similar to the ancestral witch is that it's passed down through family members nature witch there's a secular witch and a secular witch is much more I would say they said does not work with deities or angels or any spiritual beings.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: They commune with the universe much more so they're a little bit more mainstream in that regard.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then there are traditional witches which is that you find from different parts of the world British Celtic African Italian European and Norse connected to their cultures their folklore then there's the there's Wicca.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: So and I'm gonna read what she's written Wicca is also who is one who practices many traditions of Wicca, the neopagan earth-centric 20th century religion that also practices witchcraft there they have solitary Wiccans and also they have you know covens within Wicca and they I would say they do things to the letter and that they also have it's a little bit more like a membership and things and coven training.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: So as you can see I mean that's just getting started and that's an over you know sort of a I want to say a broad term for that I also consider myself besides I was mentioning being a energy witch I also consider myself to be what I call a liminal witch.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now a liminal witch is someone who works with the spirit world who goes between the spirit world and earth because I'm a medium and because I work in that space all the time.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then I also consider myself to be and this is where some people find to be possibly controversial what's known as a death witch and a death witch is really just someone who works with the dead.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: And for me because I am a medium I work with the dead and are they dead in the physical yes are they dead in spirit absolutely not so I do a lot of healing work around that I help my clients connect with their loved ones in spirit I teach people to learn to see you know sense loved ones around people as well as do readings.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot to it.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: So now where do I find myself in all this how do I find myself in this and what do I talk about what are we interested in talking about as we go forward on in this podcast.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: So for me what I'm really in love with about witchcraft especially at this moment is I feel like I'm getting more in sync with the cycles of nature and the earth and the planets before I didn't feel as much of a connection I had no idea what was going on with the moon cycles like most probably a lot of people I didn't really seemingly didn't pay attention to the different cycles in the year right how the different seasons would affect us and how we could then align our lives to connect with all of these different changes that go on.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that the more I connect and educate myself on these things and the more I align what I like to say is my spell work around these things, I feel more in line with the universe, with the world around me, with nature and with spirit.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I do pay attention to the moon cycles I do pay attention to the different times of year.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: I you know am learning about you know when the moon is waxing you're opening up to things when the moon is waning you're closing down to things so you're letting things go in your life.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're learning to do spell work more or less I can say universally most witches are paying attention to when they want to focus on healing for themselves or others.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to do those spells or those workings at different times of the month because depending on the energies, right?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then they're also going to use certain herbs or certain oils or things like that to enhance that work, to deepen it.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just a way of living in empowerment but also it's just so enjoyable.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing is we work with are more connected to spirit because we are interacting often either with our own higher self in some cases but for me I'm working with my spirit guides and deities and ancestors also to help me with these things.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: So because I'm a medium and I connect with my guides I'm able to get information about spells from them.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm able to get understanding from my ancestors about different herbs to use in the workings I do.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: And this is for things like healing and for uh like doing road openers, which are are some spell work that's we'll get them more into different types later on in this podcast.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm learning different things that help to activate to better my life and those around me that I'm connected to so that we we are in harmony, right?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we are not resisting.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's reflected it's an absolutely beautiful practice and there's so much to be learned from it.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it it makes you feel more alive to the world within you and the more alive to the world around you.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something that I am so thankful I found.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: I wished I'd found it so much earlier in my life so that I could have shared it, you know, with more people and then it had it enrich my life I am where I'm meant to be and I'm excited to share it with all of you on the podcast.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: I really want to remind you that as you're listening to these different topics if it's new to you to keep an open mind to do your research do not believe everything you hear and make sure that you do what is right for you.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I always tell my students your nervous system so if this intrigues you but yet you maybe you feel triggered understand why are you feeling triggered?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where does that originate from and what can you do to learn more because nothing in witchcraft is ever going to push you to do something you're not meant to do.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's not meant to it's not designed to manipulate someone's thought process in that sense consciously you know and so but it is meant to empower you and to free you from the constraints of feeling powerless.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much there to follow and we I can't wait to talk about it more in this season.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: So for me again learning about witchcraft learning about my own practice realizing all these things about myself I'll be sharing more about this as time goes on.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: We just came off of a first quarter moon in Libra and I did what I like to say is a spell or we call it a working specifically for things connected to things that are dear to me that are important.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: And in that I tend to be someone who likes to do a lot of candle magic.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: So in that practice I chose a specific candle I put certain symbols also known as sigils on the candle I use I crafted my own oil with specific herbs and flowers and I it steeped over a month all these parts I'm very connected to right each piece of it it's like a recipe you're learning right on my altar I have specific symbols on there and crystals and things that are from the earth and that represent the energy of what I want to manifest.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's absolutely a beautiful practice and it is something to be cherished and coveted and it should not be hidden.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can keep it private to yourself and if you if your loved ones are in no way supportive you need to protect yourself but it should never be something that you're ashamed of.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it is an absolutely beautiful piece of us that when we reclaim it.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well that's the end of this episode I have absolutely love opening up and sharing this with all of you.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to see what your questions are if you have any comments please feel free to do that.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: I also want to let you know a few things please be sure to follow me on all the social media channels I have TikTok, Instagram and of course here on YouTube.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: And also make sure that you are following and liking and sharing the podcast and I'm going to be picking someone as I mentioned earlier who's going to be able to few people over the course of this season who I'll be bringing on and doing readings for, sharing that with you.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: And also I do have a blog and so all those things are going to be connected in the show notes along with everything else.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: And please make sure you're on my email list so you can stay up to date about all the classes I'm teaching and also the private sessions I offer not to mention coaching.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you again for listening dear podcast listener I'm so excited to have you here I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and as always be well you've been listening to the Soul to Earth podcast follow me on social media and watch the full episodes on YouTube