Latest / Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman / Melanie Marquis - Cookbook of Shadows

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Melanie Marquis - Cookbook of Shadows · Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman

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Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the New Dimension. Vox
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Novus fought and movement leaders who will share from their experience and offer tools to
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help us navigate our rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome
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to Vox Novus, the New Voice. Do you have a magical kitchen ready
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to cook up recipes with magical ingredients for prosperity, strength and romance. My
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guest this week on Vox Novis is my dear friend and favorite witch, Melanie
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Marquis. Melanie is the author of eight Llewellyn titles, including the Ippy Award
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winner carl Leewellyn, Weshke Beltane, a Witch's World of Magic, and Tarot
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Reflections Award winner Modern Spellcasters Tarot. She's a local coordinator for the Pagan Pride
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Project and the producer of the Mystical Minds Convention. Her website is Melaniemarquis dot
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com, and she joins me this week to discuss her path and soon to
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be published new book, cook Book of Shadows, Simple Recipes for Powerful Magic.
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Please join me in welcoming my dear friend and my favorite witch, Melanie
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Marquis. Welcome back, Melanie. Thank you, Victor. I'm happy to
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be here. Melanie. You know, I don't know if you realize this.
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This is the fifth time that you and I have done this. The
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first time. The first time was on Second Site Radio with Chris Chris George
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back in twenty fifteen, and then you did an interview with my wife Lori,
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Sue and I on Love and Romance Radio in twenty sixteen and twice since
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I've been working with Home Times. So this is your fifth show. And
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I don't know if you ever watch Saturday Night Live, they have the hosts
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who come in for five times or were members of a special club. You're
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the first member of our special club. So thank you. Wow, I'm
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honored. We've been friends in a while, I guess I absolutely so.
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For listeners meeting you for the first time, please share your path and what
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and how you discovered magic. All right, Well, I considered myself a
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witches, but i'd call myself I don't have any fancy titles. Let us
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call myself a folk witch. And what that means to me is that I
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work closely with the powers of nature. I see myself as a part of
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nature, as we all are, and I like to channel those forces and
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work with the powers of nature in my own path and practice. I see
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a witch is kind of like how everything is made of energy, just leaves
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throughout our universe, and to me, the witch's work is to reweave that
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energy where it's needed and kind of mend the holes. When you know,
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there's sometimes some tears in our reality and things that we don't quite like,
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So I feel like that's the witch's worked to kind of reweave these threads of
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reality in a way that's more conducive to joy and happiness and to realieve suffering
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for others. I guess I first got into it when I was really young.
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My mom was always magical, so I just kind of took it for
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granted that people could do magical things. I didn't really think of it as
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witchcraft or anything strange that my mom was a psychic, so she was always
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playing games with meing like that and teaching me to, you know, how
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to do weather magic and little things like that. And I didn't discover that
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I was a witch per se until I was about fifteen and found some Scott
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Cunningham books in my local bookstore. I know that's a that's a common theme
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for people around my age. But I lived in Georgia at the time and
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found the little freak section of the bookstore hidden way in the back. And
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my first book was The Truth about Witchcraft Today. And I remember getting that
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book and reading it and being like, this is that's what I do.
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Other people do this and it has a name, like I didn't. I
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didn't really you know, register that it was like, you know what it
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was until then. But ever since then, I guess I've been I've been
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a witch. So I started out wickaned, but then since then I considered
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myself more just like a traditional bolk witch. Now you mentioned that your mom
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was psychic. How did your family and friends react when you came out as
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a witch? Well, I h I guess that's they already thought I was
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weird. Like when I was a teenager, I was living in Georgia and
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everybody, like at my school, they already kind of thought that they looked
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at me like I was a you know, devil worshiper and bad person because
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I didn't go to a church, so I didn't I wasn't like very open.
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I remember I started wearing like magical jewelry and my friends knew. And
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my friends were cool though, so they were they were into it, and
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you know, excited about that. And then I started when I moved from
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Georgia much later in life, I started writing witchcraft books. I guess that's
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kind of how I came out out publicly to people that weren't my friends.
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I guess the public has reacted pretty well, and my friends have known who
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I am, so that's wonderful. Now you sort of touched upon this in
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the first question. But for those listeners who really aren't sure, how do
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you define witchcraft? Well, like I said, I think it's about working
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with the powers of nature and working with your own energies. Now, witches
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are very, very diverse and different, so I'm not speaking for all witches.
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I can only speak for my own path. But one thing a lot
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of witches do have in common is this respect and reverence for our natural world.
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You know, while some people in more traditional religions might go to church
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to worship and to open their heart to those good kind of divine energies,
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and many witches feel that same sensation as standing under the moonlight or be next
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to a tree, being outdoors, and I derive strength from nature, and
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I see myself as a part of it. So when I practice, I
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opened my heart and I opened myself to these energies flowing through me and working
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with that. And it's very proactive. Also. Instead of like in most
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most religions, you're praying for help, you're praying for help from an outside
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entity. And while witchcraft does have some of those aspects, it's also very
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much proactive where you're recognizing the divinity and sacredness of your own nature and utilizing
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that you're taking an active role in in, you know, kind of creating
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the world that you want in the process of practice. Have you ever witnessed
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or created something that others might consider to be miraculous? Oh? Yeah,
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I think magic is always miraculous, so you know, yeah, definitely,
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definitely for sure. You know, I can't sort of like name specific instances
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because I just feel like it's it's just it's it's always miraculous. I feel
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like magic definitely works in very very interesting, magical ways, and often better
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than we suspect to, like, better than we can even imagine. Sometimes
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when you're open to that flow of things and invite and I can share a
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little vaguely, but recently some magic I did on my own path was just
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deciding to say yes to my own happiness and say yes to things that made
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me happy. And I did a ritual for this, and it was very
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very clear. I remember looking up for the moon and saying, I say
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yes to all these miraculous, magical blessings that are flowing into my life right
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now. I want this, yes, yes, yes, And since then
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the blessings have just been pouring into my life like I've just feel I'm really
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really close and connected with nature right now. And yeah, I just want
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to encourage everybody to find your own miracles and you know, believe in that
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stuff, because if you believe in hope and believe in your own path and
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truly anything as possible, that's really so important that we many of us,
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often get involved in situations where we give and we give and we give,
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and at the same time that we neglect our special needs, our happiness,
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our health often and to say yes to oneself is so important, isn't it?
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It? Truly is it definitely definitely is because sometimes we make sacrifices for
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other people because it's needed at the time, and sometimes we put our own
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happiness on the back burner. And while that's understandable, and it is very
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important to honor yourself as part of this sacred, divine world. You know,
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everybody is as important as everybody else, and you know everyone's happiness is
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important and matters. It's kind of our moments or what we have in life.
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So I feel like it's important too, especially for witches and healers that
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are so often helping other people. Like in my own practice, I honestly
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like I rarely do for my own self. It seems sometimes even less unless
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I really like remember, like, oh yeah, I can do something to
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improve this situation. I'm usually doing workings to benefit others or to benefit the
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world at large. And I just think it's important to honor oneself as part
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of this divine nature that we're all a part of, and when appropriate to
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use the N word no, right, yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah.
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Sometimes we have to say yes to things that are really big, huge
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nos. It's important to say no when you can for sure. Did I
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ever share with you my poem the Healing Power of No? I think so
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yes. I think I've read that one time comes for choosing rather than losing
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the essence that makes us so and in the bestowing there's power in knowing the
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freedom that comes with no, when said with compassion, not angry in fashion,
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and letting the self love flow, there's a sense of renewing and deep
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soul imbeing the awareness that comes with no. So with gentle voice and the
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power of choice and the courage to make it so. I'm still here,
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my friends. There's no means in this end, just the healing that comes
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with no. I love that. That's so wonderful. And it took me
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a long time to get the courage to say no to certain situations after a
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life of saying yes to so many others, And so I'm grateful for having
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that awareness come to me. Now. You had mentioned wika. What's the
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difference between witchcraft and wicca and if there is one, please explain well.
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Wicca is a specific path of witchcraft, is a specific religion within it that
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honors a goddess and a god and has witchcraft practices are part of that religion,
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usually in practicing magic as very much has. It's more like, I
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mean, every wick and is different, but I feel like to me,
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Wicca definitely has more This aspect of a personified god figures like a personified god,
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a personified goddess, whereas in my own practice, of which I see
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kind of like as broader, I guess. But for me personally, I'm
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not that I'm not really dogmatic with it. I'm I'm reverent to the forces
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of nature, but I don't personally connect with this personified view of deity too
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much. And while I can see it that way, I see that the
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personification of our gods and goddesses as more a construct that helps humans to interact
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with these energies. But it's easier for me to work more on this broader
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scale of just thinking about the powers of nature in this non personified type of
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way. So I feel like witchcraft is witchcraft is more it can be.
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It's more more diverse, I guess amreo umbrella term that there's many types of
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witches that practice witchcraft, while wick as a specific path of it. Now,
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many of us are familiar with fictional covens, but what's a real coven
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like, Well, again, it's very diverse. You have all types.
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Usually it's the groups of friends, groups of people that work together kind of
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like you know, like a church study group, you know, people that
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get together to practice magic together, to enjoy good times together fellowship. One
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thing that's really special about practicing with a coven or with even you know,
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one other person, is that magic tends to magnify and kind of exponentialize when
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we get together and do it together. So being in a coven gives us
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these opportunities to kind of combine our powers and use our forces together to support
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one another and make even more powerful magic. So it's like taking one battery
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and adding another battery in another battery and just the combining the energy. Yeah,
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except I would say it's even more than that. So it's like one
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battery and one battery equals somehow like five hundred batteries. It's a miraculous effect,
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I would say. So it multiplies the energy each time that you join
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together with someone. I feel like it does. And that's that's one thing
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that I know that's even common in Christian tradition, that there is a there's
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I think a parable or something in you know, one of the teachings it
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talks about, you know, when two people get together and pray for something
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that can move mountains and you know, and magic. We also have the
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same idea of it. It truly is like when you find people that you
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can connect with that on that level. And what I mean on that level
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is it's being like pure beings of spirit, like being just the pure energy
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and pure essence of who you are. And when you find people that you
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can connect with on that level, it really I think it opens us up.
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It opens our hearts, and when our hearts are open, we become
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channels for the infinite power of the universe. So I think that's why it
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makes it this exponential effect, because with someone else that you can connect with
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like that, it opens up our heart space all the more and it allows
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that flow to be even greater within us. But there are those who are
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in solitary practice, right Oh yeah, yeah, definitely, And i'd say,
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you know, at a lot of people that even if you have a
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coven, you know, most people will practice on their own. Also,
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I know, I'm sorry, I was just saying like that, you know,
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even practicing solitary, I think it's good to realize that you can't tap
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into these same vast forces and you know, you can't even connect with people
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that you maybe can't see in person at the moment that you know there's always
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witches out there willing to join their energees. Now, you are a prolific
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author, written many wonderful books for Llewellyn, and you often write for the
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Llewellyn date Books and almanacs. Of course, this last week October thirty first
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through November first was Sowen. Please share about Sowen and the various sabbots and
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celebrations throughout the year. Well, so one is a very special one.
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It kind of marks a lot of people, kind of market is like the
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end of the year, the start of the new year. It's a sacred
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holiday where many witches honor the dead, honor our ancestors that have passed on.
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It's a time when the dividing lines between the worlds of the living and
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the dead are kind of blurred a little more. And it's believed that that
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tonight when spirits roam their earth and seeking seeking visits with their relatives and friends,
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they're still here on earth or seeking revenge for past misdeeds. It's tonight
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when spirits are definitely like out and about. So in my own practice,
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I like to honor my ancestors, honor my friends and loved ones that have
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passed on, and is honor the spirits of the dead in general and just
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you know, recognize that that's a cycle that we're all a part of.
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We're all a part of, and to realize that this this that that death
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and dying is very much a part of our world, to the point that
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I believe that our reality is literally kind of built on this frameworks. Like
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we're carbon based creatures, right and when we die, our bodies turned back
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into carbon and new life is built on that. So it's literally it's literally
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within everything. It literally creates the space and framework the darkness does on which
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all else can be built. So it's it's a very important day in my
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opinion, to honor that and know people might do different rituals to honor their
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ancestors. Divination is also real common, so you might do a tarot reading,
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you might do some meditation, just kind of connect with that darker side
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of things that underworld and to remember those who have passed and to recognize that
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we too will pass. And what are some of the other sabbats and services
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throughout the year, Well, there's many witches practice of eight different stabats throughout
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the year, just they basically marked the change of seasons of many are based
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on like a cultural festivals of the past. And we also honor like the
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solstices and equinoxes, or you know, we honor the winter solstice and the
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summer solstice in the fall and spring equinoxes, and there's holidays at the midpoints
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between these days, also called the cross quarter days, and all these holidays
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has kind of mark the changing tides of nature. They mark the changing flows
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of energy that occur throughout the year, and it helps it helps a lot
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of pagans and witches to feel closer to nature and to kind of tap into
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these different tides of the year and to just celebrate, celebrate the moment.
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And what about the special moons throughout the year, Well, I've always practiced
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a new moon and full moon every month. I like to do little rituals
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to honor those days. I think it's important and because again it helps you.
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It just helps you connect and feel closer to nature, to the natural
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world world, and to remind us that we are a part of nature.
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And it's always easier to swim with the tides than against the tides, So
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you know, and everybody is different. But I think if you start noticing,
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if people are listening right now, like start noticing, like, how
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do you feel at the new moon? How do you feel at the full
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moon? Do you feel differently? And a lot of people find that when
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the moon is waning and getting smaller that they feel they kind of start to
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like go within, and it's a good time to kind of meditate and look
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within and reflect on things in your life. And you know, take time
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to diminish things that you don't want in your life. And you can see
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the moon as a reflection of that diminishing. Whereas the full moon, a
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lot of us feel more energetic and energized. I think it's it's a magical
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effect. When we look up and see that full moon, it just seems
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like open possibility, a night of magic. It's so romantic to look at
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the full moon. And yeah, a lot of a lot of us witches.
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When we honor the full moon, we do things to magnify and boost
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our power, boost our happiness, boost our joy, and do magic to
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attract what we want our lives. So you know, and again, everybody's
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different that practices these things, and we are affected by the moon differently,
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but I feel like very much the moon does affect us other than siln.
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Is there any special calling that you have, any special day that you like
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to celebrate? Oh? Yeah, I celebrate all the different holidays throughout the
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year. I love all holidays. Really, Beltane is a real special one
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to me. I like bell Tane a lot that's celebrated on May the first,
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and that's a holiday to honor, honor the spring and at the very
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beginning of summer starting soon. And then it's a little confusing because to us
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in our current calendar, summer starts on June twenty first, and that's my
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other favorite one, that would be the Summer Solstice, but in pagan traditions
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that one is called Midsummer, and summer kind of starts with this May first
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holiday. Like it's kind of marks like when if you have trees in your
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area that have thorns on them, like you know, hot thorns, apples,
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things like that, like when when those trees start to start to blossom,
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that's time for Beltane to come. But and that dishonors owners the flow
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of that kind of spring growing again energy and the red blossoming of the earth.
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And it's a good, good holiday for romance and fun and excitement and
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bringing good luck and boosting beauty, boosting attractiveness, boosting prosperity, and just
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kind of honoring all the good flow and good things of life. My guest
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is my wonderful friend and my favorite witch, Melanie Marquis. Her new book,
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coming out in February is called Cookbook of Shadows, Simple Recipes for Powerful
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Magic. We'll be talking more about that in the next segment. Melanie,
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please tell our listeners where they can get all your books and find out more
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about you and your wonderful work. My website is Melaniemarquis dot com. M
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E l A n I E m A r q u I S. You
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can also find my books on Amazon and also at the Llewellen website l L
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E w E l l y n SO. At Llewellan dot com or Amazon,
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you can find on my books and connect with me on my website or
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on Facebook, and we'll be back with more of Melanie after these words.
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inspired conversations to empower you on your path to authentic, soulful living. Back
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on Vox Novus, my guest this week is the wonderful Melanie Marquis. We're
24:11
going to be talking about her new book, Cookbook of Shadows, Simple Recipes
24:15
for Powerful Magic Melanie. Before we talk about that book, let's talk about
24:21
some of your other books. Last time you were on, you shared about
24:23
your award winning biography of Carl Llewellyn Weshke. Tell us about some of the
24:29
other best selling books you've authored for Llewellyn and do you have a favorite one?
24:34
Well, I've wrote the Llewellyn's Little Book of Moonspells is my most recent
24:38
one, other than my Cookbook of Shadows. It's about to come out.
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I really like the Little Book of Moon Spells. It's in their series of
24:45
Little Books. They're a little cute hardcover books packed with information. My hands
24:49
over sixty spells for connecting with the Moon, And like we were just talking
24:53
about the moon phases, it tells you all about that. If you're curious
24:56
to know more about how to tap into these cycles the moon and use that
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to boost your own power and to create positive change in your life. That
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book is all about that. And my favorite book I've done, though,
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has got to be the Carl llewell and Weshki biography. And for those that
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don't know, Carl bought llewell and worldwide. It's one of the biggest New
25:15
Age magical publishers. He bought the company in the early sixties and built it
25:19
into what it is today. It was just a tiny, little mill order
25:22
company that sold some astrological pamphlets and Carl built the company up to the worldwide,
25:30
you know, huge publisher and go to for quality occult and metaphysical books
25:34
that it is today. Like this man literally like he was cranking out you
25:40
know, those printing press on his kitchen table making making these publications and he
25:45
brought He made a big impact because at the time it was pretty hard to
25:49
get occult books. There was most of them had to be ordered from overseas,
25:53
from England. It was kind of expensive and cost prohibitive for a lot
25:57
of people. So when Carl about the company, he made it his mission
26:02
to purchase the rights of a lot of these out of print occult books,
26:06
and he made he reprinted them in paperback and made them affordable, made them
26:10
widely available. So he kind of opened those doors to those doors to learning
26:17
for everybody that's curious and wants that. I think one of one of their
26:22
Leewowen mottos is the new worlds of mind, body, and spirit, and
26:26
that's exactly what he did, was kind of open up these new worlds for
26:30
people who were seeking that. And it was just such a joy to write
26:33
that book. I got to travel to the Llewellyn offices and look through Carl's
26:37
personal files that he had kept in archived for all these years, going back
26:42
from before the sixties and just his personal files, and discovered many people don't
26:48
realize that Carl was also very, very active in civil rights. He was
26:52
a leader in the NAACP and ACLU in Minnesota, and so going through those
26:57
files, I found a speech after speech that he had made and kept for
27:03
all these all these causes, all these civil rights causes. You did a
27:06
lot to to try to make change and create like equal houseeing opportunities and kind
27:12
of you know, kind of uh, you know, to terror fighting against
27:17
racism again in the housing in Minnesota and elsewhere. So it was just a
27:22
joy discovering all that and just kind of looking seeing the huge impact that he
27:26
made. So that's got to be my favorite book that I read, and
27:30
sure and share what that listen is a little bit about the other books you've
27:33
written, Well, I did the Moneris Filcaster's Taro was illustrated by Scott Murphy.
27:38
I wrote the guidebook for that and designed the card images, and Scott
27:42
Murphy created the illustrated this immadist for me and that deck is and the book.
27:48
The guidebook talks about how to use the tarot cards magically in your life.
27:52
A lot of people don't realize that tarot can also be used for magic,
27:56
not just for divination. So I designed the deck to be both for
27:59
divination and for and for magical purposes. So it's a great deck that's very
28:03
it's very diverse. It shows different representations of people, and you know,
28:08
not just heterosexual and all white, but a little more, a little more
28:12
diversity in that deck, some more of us they're able to connect with those
28:17
cards and images. And I also wrote The Witch's World of Magic, which
28:22
is kind of a It just gives examples of different magical practices that have been
28:26
done in different cultures around the world, not to copy, but so that
28:32
we can we can see and see how different things are practiced in different cultures
28:37
and to see if we can find any common threads by looking into that and
28:41
kind of seeing like doing so and comparing these different different types of magic around
28:45
the world allows us to kind of see some common threads and see the core
28:52
of the magic in the essence of the magical operations and a lot of these
28:56
senses. So I feel like that's a good book for people that are kind
29:00
of exploring and wanting to know, wanting to know more about different types of
29:04
magic that are done. It can kind of give you. It's give you
29:08
an overview of things to look deeper into and kind of pique interest in different
29:12
different things like that. And what's the difference between magic ending in a C
29:18
and magic ending in a K Google search results? That's honestly, I would
29:26
say the big the big difference, And I would say the reason for it,
29:32
like on it for all practical purposes, and I think, you know,
29:37
I think that it well, it looks cooler with a K for one
29:41
day in my opinion. But yeah, honestly, the reason I would spelt
29:45
with a K most of the time. Is because magic without the K a
29:49
lot we might think of like stage magic, you know, the magician that's
29:52
doing like sleight of hand tricks and things like that, you know, but
29:56
the magic itself, magic is the same with a C or with the K,
30:00
and it's you know, it's something filled with a wonder. It's something
30:03
that amazes us. It's something that shouldn't be possible, but is so magic
30:08
with a K or without the K. And just to see I feel like
30:11
that has that in common. But I feel like, out of respect for
30:15
stage magicians and out of respect for witches and others that practice magic with the
30:21
K or you know, witchcaft style magic, it's just it's helpful to spell
30:25
it with a K. I think when you're talking about like a cult type
30:29
witchcraft type magic, just because if I was a stage magician, I would
30:33
like I would get annoyed when I look up magic, you know, and
30:37
we're magic in Atlanta or wherever, and then like all these witches come up.
30:40
I'd be like, no, I'm looking for you know, where I
30:42
can get put on my slide of hand show. You know. I just
30:45
feel like it's kind of it's kind of helpful. You know, if you're
30:48
searching for magic books, you know, do you mean stage magic or do
30:52
you mean a cult witchcraft magic. So it can just help people kind of
30:56
find more what they're looking for and kind of differentiate between slide of hand magic
31:02
and magic that's more spiritual where you're you know it, it's not a trick.
31:08
Now. Your new book coming out this February is entitled cook Book of
31:12
Shadows, Simple Recipes for Powerful Magic. What inspired this new book? I'm
31:18
so excited about this book. I just I love to cook myself, and
31:22
I find a lot of people are a little intimidated in the kitchen, and
31:26
so I wanted to give something to kind of invite everyone, whether experience cook
31:30
or not, to kind of delve into their magical side and to delve into
31:37
cooking without being afraid, to experiment and customize and to make it your own.
31:41
So it's kind of it's a book that can help people who are not
31:45
experienced cooks feel more comfortable and confident in the kitchen, and it can help
31:49
people who maybe aren't as experienced with doing magic to feel more comfortable with that
31:56
too. And for those that are experienced of these things, it's an excellent
31:59
read difference that provides you know, I think around one hundred or so ingredients
32:05
and their magical attributes and lots of recipe ideas to try, and it's all
32:08
very customizable. So I wanted to provide this book to give people more ways
32:15
to practice magic more often, more easily, and to make make it practical
32:22
and tangible. Because we all have to eat, right, we all have
32:24
to cook eat. You know, every day most of us are preparing a
32:29
meal or eating a meal, and it's just a simple way that we can
32:32
we can honor our bodies on our food and honor our magic process more conscious.
32:38
So I cook every day and I consider my cooking to be magical,
32:43
even though I haven't read your book yet. What's the difference between magical cooking
32:47
and every day cooking? Well, as you say, Victor, you said
32:52
it all cooking is magical and food itself is very very magical. So in
32:58
my book, and what I refer to as you kitchen magic or you know,
33:00
cooking magic and making it more magical is this kind of being even more
33:06
mindful of the whole process and kind of oping that mindfulness of the process where
33:12
you know, every day cooking. If you're a good cook, if you
33:14
love to cook, or if you love you're cooking for we put love into
33:17
our meals, you know, and we say I was cooked with love,
33:21
and honestly makes it taste so much better when something is cooked with love,
33:24
right Well, that's kitchen magic right there, That's the magical process. But
33:30
in my book, you'll also learn more details about that and how to kind
33:34
of up that and do that process all the more consciously and mindfully through various
33:39
cooking techniques like the way you use a knife, the way you stir,
33:43
the way you heat something, the spices that you use, the particular ingredients
33:47
and ingredient mixtures, and you know, some visualization and intentions and some ideas
33:54
of how you can process the food as you're cooking it to kind of transform
33:59
the whole process of cooking and eating it into an even more magical act.
34:04
I know, when I'm in the process of cooking, Number one, I
34:07
express gratitude for the gift of the ability to do the cooking, gratitude for
34:13
the wonderful foods, the items that I'm adding to the recipe and doing the
34:16
cooking process. And I also visualize the people eating the food and smiling and
34:22
enjoying it and being blessed with that food. Is that part of that process?
34:25
Absolutely? Absolutely, that's a great, great description of Yeah, how
34:30
often, like I think a lot of us do this. It just kind
34:32
of naturally, you know. I think that's you know, I think you're
34:36
a natural kitchen witch, Victor. I've got to say you definitely have us
34:42
to have a streak to the kitchen witching you and anyone else listening out there
34:45
that does similar that think you do as well. Yeah. Yeah, it's
34:49
just so important to honor our food and honor our blessings and ourselves through through
34:55
cooking and through through the foods we eat, and through through the magic that
34:59
we do for that and acknowledge it as an act of caring. Now,
35:05
you mentioned that you share the magical attributes of over one hundred favorite ingredients.
35:10
What are some of your favorite ingredients that we can share with our listeners and
35:14
what are their magical properties. I like cinnamon a lot. I think,
35:19
yeah, it's so good for so many things. I feel like cinnamon.
35:25
It can just boost boost magical power in general. It can bring passion,
35:30
you know, it can up our energy, it can bring courage like he's
35:35
cinnamon and coffee and hot chocolate and chilies. Even sometimes a little dash of
35:44
cinnamon can be good on sweet potatoes. And another favorite power ingredient I have
35:50
these would call power ingredients that are just awesome. I would say rosemary is
35:54
a very good power ingredient that can be used for lots of different things.
36:00
Rosemary is good to bring a calming energy, to bring good luck, to
36:04
bring prosperity, to bring bring love, bring friendship, bring healing and protection.
36:09
It's good for all these different things. That's extremely versatile. And rosemary
36:14
just tastes so delicious. It's so great on vegetables like potatoes, or on
36:19
mushrooms, or on zucchini, or if you meat, it's really good on
36:23
chicken to spice that with. So that's another really good one. Now,
36:29
something I know everybody probably has in their kitchen is salt and pepper, And
36:34
I've got to say those are honestly some of the best spices and some of
36:37
the most magical ingredients that you can use just for magical basics that are very
36:43
strong and effective. Salt can be used for purification, for bringing out the
36:47
truth in a situation, for bringing strength, bringing cleansing, whereas pepper is
36:55
also really good for protection. It's good for banishing things that you don't want
37:00
and kind of also boosting your courage, boosting your defenses. So I'd say
37:05
those are very powerful ingredients that probably most people have in your cupboard already.
37:10
And aside from keeping vampires away, what about garlic. Well, you know,
37:16
I've got to say garlic is delicious, and it is my theory that
37:21
vampires started the rumor Ali calls them because it's delicious, And I think no
37:27
vampire is actually repelled by garlic. I think they like garlic. This is
37:31
my own theory. So and in my opinion, I think you can use
37:36
garlic to attract vampires, attract the dark beings. I know. Let's say
37:42
garlic is good for It is good for general protection, it's good for boosting
37:45
your courage, boosting your defenses, giving strength. It makes us feel more
37:51
fortified to eat garlic. It just makes us feel like like we've got that
37:54
little extra roof of power. And garlic has health benefits too, Yeah,
38:00
absolutely it does. And it can banish, you know, not only but
38:05
through bad breath. There's magical properties. I feel like it's very you know,
38:09
it can banish certain things, and that's something you can do and read
38:14
about in my book and get more ideas for like how you can incorporate that
38:16
into the cooking process. Like, say, if you're wanting to banish something
38:22
in your life, like you've just got a lot of anxiety you want to
38:24
let go of, or there's just, you know, some influences that you
38:29
just want to get out of your life. You could think about these things
38:31
while you're actually mincing the garlic, or while you're crushing that garlic, and
38:35
think about that you're crushing through those things that you no longer want and slicing
38:38
through that anxiety and mincing that anxiety away, and then when you eat that
38:43
food, it's going to help banish those things that you put that intention into
38:46
during that process. Is there any ingredient included in your hundred that are surprising
38:52
to folks? Oh, well, I don't know. I guess they'll have
38:57
to wait all comes out and see what people are surprised about. I tried,
39:01
for the most part, I tried to stick with with common ingredients that
39:06
we that were pretty all familiar with because I didn't to me, I get
39:10
kind of irritated looking at recipe books that call for all these very exotic ingredients
39:15
that I don't have in my house. And you know, frankly, I
39:17
don't want to go invest a lot and a bunch of ingredients that I haven't
39:21
tried and may not like, you know, I'm really just trying to try
39:24
some new things. But I don't want a recipe that I have to buy
39:28
like fifteen new things I've never tried before. So for the most part,
39:30
it sticks with ingredients that are very common that you're going to be able to
39:34
get and you know, at your local grocery store. One of the things
39:38
that I do when I'm cooking, especially making any kind of stew, is
39:43
I add apricots and I add prunes. Do you do Thatt? Also,
39:46
Oh, I did apricots are in my book? Yeah, I'm not a
39:50
prune fan. Yeah, apricots are good. Freudo is really good to cook
39:54
with in so many ways and ways they're surprising, Like you say, like
39:58
fruits go really well, lots of lots of meats and lots of savory dishes.
40:02
You can add those to you absolutely. My guest is Melanie Marquis.
40:07
Her brand new book coming out is going to be Cookbook of Shadows, simple
40:10
recipes for powerful Magic. We'll be back with more of Melanie after these words
40:15
on the Old Times Radio Network. Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with
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a big dream. Since two thousand and seven, HHI has been working tirelessly
40:27
to bring help to communities with little or no oh. Our projects are not
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broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions, but they bring the reassurance then
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no one is alone and that someone cares to learn more, Please visit Humanityhealing
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dot org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is. Hello. I'm Sandy
40:49
Sedgebe, a host of Home Times Magazine's Flagshit radio show. What is going
40:52
on? My passion is sifting through information, research and innovations from new thought
40:59
teachers, speakers and researchers, pushing back the boundaries of what we know about
41:04
life, energy, metaphysics, and the universe. I love shifting perceptions about
41:08
who we are, why we're here, and how quickly impossible becomes normal when
41:14
we open our minds, expand our awareness, and accept that the only limits
41:17
that exist are those we place upon ourselves. So, if you're the kind
41:22
of forward thinking, eager investigator of what lies beyond the current reality that most
41:27
perceive. Why not make a date to come play with me in the Field
41:30
of Possibilities at four pm Pacific time seven pm Eastern time every Thursday, and
41:36
together we can discover what's really going on. They are our love bugs and
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companions. They are our pets, our family, and they make life better
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when we face unexpected challenges. So do our pets. That's why we're on
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a mission to support people and their pets. Whether donating a bag of kibble,
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sharing an Instagram post of a lost cat, or welcoming a foster pet
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into your home, every bit of kindness counts. Visit Pets and People Together
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dot org to learn how to be a helper in your community. Brought to
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you by Mattie's Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and the
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ad Council. So I'm a cat and I just moved in with this new
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human and she's got this little toy she's always playing with all day long.
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Tap tap tap tap blue Bloop. She can't put it down there it is,
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the Shelter Pet Project dot org. More than twenty four million Americans have an
42:43
autoimmune disorder, and that number continues to grow. I'm Sharon Sailor, and
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I'm one of those twenty four million. To put that number in perspective,
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cancer effects about nine million, and heart disease up to twenty two million.
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That's why I've brought together top experts and those thriving regardless of their diagnosis to
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bring you the latest, most up to date information. Join me Sharon Saylor
43:04
Friday night, seven pm Eastern for the Autoimmune Hour on Life Interrupted Radio to
43:07
find out how to live your life uninterrupted. Back on Vox Novus, my
43:22
guest this week is Melanie Marquis. We're talking about her brand new book coming
43:27
out, cook Book of Shadows, Simple Recipes for Powerful Magic. Melanie,
43:32
let's share one or two of your favorite recipes in the new book. What
43:37
a couple of magical recipes for us? Well? I really like one that's
43:42
very simple, would be the cocoa coffee with cardamom spiced whipped cream. And
43:49
it's a very simple one that you can make with probably stuff you already have.
43:53
But that recipe, you just take like a half cup of milk and
43:57
heat that up on the stove. You don't want it to to actually boil
44:00
because that'll scald the milk, so you just want to heat it on like
44:04
low or medium low till it's simmering and starting to kind of steam so you
44:07
know that that's getting hot. And then to that milk, you want to
44:09
put in about one table spoon cocoa powder and one take the spoon of sugar.
44:15
If you don't eat sugar, you can use an alternate sweetener like a
44:19
gave syrup or honey egos real well with it, and you can stir that
44:22
in and let that heat, and then once that's heated, add that to
44:27
about a half cup of your favorite coffee, and then all you do is
44:30
just top that with some whipped cream and sprinkle on some cardamom powder. If
44:35
you really like the taste of carmeing, you can actually add that to the
44:37
hot coffee, I mean the cocoa and coffee blend as well. And this
44:43
is included in my book in the Winter recipes because it's a really good way
44:45
to just kind of fortify your energies on a cold winter day and kind of
44:50
bring more energy and bring more magic into your day and kind of just boost
44:53
your power for the day. It's also a really lucky drink. I feel
44:58
like that cardamom just brings this extra little boost of luck into our day.
45:01
So that's that's a really good simple one that you can do. Another one
45:07
I really like is just simple mushroom pocos that you can eat these for to
45:13
boost your defenses, boost your protection, and just kind of feel more,
45:16
film more courageous and film more. You know. Sometimes, especially in the
45:22
winter. I think it's natural, as you know, as creatures of the
45:25
earth, when the fall comes and it starts to get colder and approaches the
45:29
winter, we just kind of feel sometimes like a little bit vulnerable, you
45:34
know, like I think all animals do, because we realize the cold is
45:37
coming. You know, this is a time to kind of boost our defenses
45:40
and kind of prepare for these colder months ahead. So anything you can do,
45:45
like through the foods you eat, even to try to kind of fortify
45:47
your defenses and fortify your energies and to feel more strong as good to do.
45:52
Any hot spices are good for that, by the way. But one
45:57
of my favorite recipes that you can make spicy spicyes just simple mushroom tacos.
46:01
And for that I just use like just the normal you know, white button
46:06
mushrooms, the most common ones you can get for low cost at the grocery
46:09
store, and I'll slice those into quarters. I think is a really good
46:13
shape, Like you just for the mushroom cap to slice it in half and
46:15
then slice it in half again, so you have nice little chunky chunks of
46:20
that. You can mince some garlic to add with that, or you can
46:22
just use garlet powder. And you also want to take some onion, like
46:27
white onion or yellow onion, cut that into ril thin slices. Then you
46:30
can just melt a little butter on the stove or you know, olive oil
46:35
if you prefer on the stove over like medium high heat, and you just
46:38
kind of saute those mushrooms and garlic and onions together till they're nice and soft,
46:44
and then you can just eat that on like heated corn tortillas. I
46:46
think it is really good with it if you like them kind of greasye your
46:51
crisp. You can fry the corn tortillas or you can just kind of steam
46:53
those or heat them in a warm pan to your liking, and then you
46:57
can top that with a hot alsa. You can top that with cheese,
47:00
you can use cilantro. And while you're doing this, it's like while you're
47:05
cutting the mushrooms, you can think about you think about how you want to
47:10
how you want the food to affect you. Also, it's a blood this
47:15
recipe because it's very, very versatile. Mushrooms, I feel like are one
47:20
of those foods that can help us actually connect with the world of the of
47:25
the dead that we were talking about when you mentioned salin. And it's actually
47:29
one of most special sourin recipes that I'll personally make an eater around the time
47:32
of year to help connect with the dead and with ancestors. So you can
47:37
you can either think about that if that's what you're using the recipe for,
47:40
or if you're using it to gain strength and courage. When you're slicing the
47:45
onions and mushrooms, you can think that you're slicing through these obstacles in your
47:49
path. Think of yourself being really strong, courageous as you add any hot
47:53
spices or salsa onto that, and they're just really delicious, very easy to
47:59
make, low cost. So I think that's a really simple one that you
48:01
don't really need exact quantities for. You can just kind of make it to
48:05
your liking. What about a recipe for prosperity, But one of my favorite
48:10
ones is what I would call prosperity soup, and it's kind of have you
48:14
heard of stone soup that stone? Yes, it's kind of this. It's
48:19
kind of like that. I grew up really poor and when my dad was
48:22
really even poorer growing up, and his mom was even poorer than that growing
48:27
up, so we had a tradition of just making the soup out of anything,
48:30
basically anything and everything. So prosperity soup is basically it's to me,
48:37
when you're wanting prosperity in your life, if you focus on the lack of
48:40
stuff, it's only going to attract and more re lack. So the whole
48:44
key to attracting prosperity is you have to feel prosperous. You have to tap
48:50
into that energy of prosperity, right, So we have to acknowledge our blessings
48:53
and be able to feel prosperous. Therefore we can attract more of that.
48:58
So for prosperity soup, you can use literally any vegetable that you have,
49:02
any scrap of vegetable in your house, okay, like you can put that
49:07
in a pot. You can use green beans, you know, tomatoes,
49:12
onions, potatoes, celery, carrots, peas, like literally whatever vegetable scraps
49:19
you have leftover. Like I always save vegetable scraps, do you, Like
49:22
if I'm cutting up an onion or carrots or something like that, Like I'll
49:24
save the tiniest bits and just like put them in a tupperware container because then
49:29
you can make your own broth out of that. And basically you just add
49:31
these vegetables to some water, put in some salt, put in some pepper
49:36
if you have it. If you have it, add aregino is really good
49:38
with it. Garlic is really good if you have it, but again not
49:45
necessary. Really if you have a can of stewed tomatoes, like that really
49:50
benefits this prosperity soup, But if you don't, it's okay. Basically you
49:53
can just use any vegetable scrap, literally any vegetable, put that in some
49:59
water with some and pepper or rague, know if you have it, garlic
50:01
if you have it, a can of tomatoes, stewed tomatoes if you have
50:05
it, and then to that you can add you can also use beans,
50:08
and you can add to it some noodles if you have those. You could
50:12
use some croutons if you have those, or just some strips of tortillas if
50:17
you have those, and add that to it, and you got yourself a
50:21
soup there. And I think just use an app it's a good way to
50:24
clean out your refrigerator if you got some extra leftovers in there and it just
50:29
kind of needs refreshed, or just using up what we have and utilizing what
50:32
we have. And I think it's magical and it helps us acknowledge or blessings
50:37
and makes us realize how blessed we truly are. And it's also just a
50:42
way to kind of kind of acknowledge that the magic of cooking because it allows
50:47
us to make. To me, there's this special joy and when I can
50:51
make something tasty out of like basically nothing and I'm transforming, you know,
50:55
simple just some old scraps that on in and carratons that would have otherwise gotten
51:00
thrown away, and then suddenly you have like a whole soup I can feed
51:02
everybody with like. To me, that's just thrilling and makes us feel that
51:07
that miraculous miracle of magic. And what about a recipe for finding true love?
51:14
What goes into that cauldron? I mean pot, I would say,
51:20
an open heart and lots of hope. And for ingredients, I would say,
51:28
I like to make apple love muffins I call them. And you'll have
51:32
to check my book the exact recipe because I sent my own, my only
51:37
proofing copy to my friend that acknowledge the book too, so I actually don't
51:42
have a copy right here in front of me in my files, so you'll
51:45
have to look look given my book to get your exact recipe. But it's
51:49
a recipe for muffins that include cinnamon apples. Both are excellent ingredients for attracting
51:54
love. And it's opening your heart to that, because I think that's truly
51:58
the key to attracting love of is loving yourself. You have to have an
52:01
open heart and let those good funes flow from yourself, first all over you
52:07
and then out to the world. And then that will attract to you.
52:10
Absolutely absolutely. Is there a magical late night snack? Last one magical late
52:15
night snack? Yeah, I have one. I think I called it the
52:21
Midnight Sunday, I think, but that one that's basically it's bananas and with
52:28
some whipped cream and cherry on top and I think some slavered almonds, and
52:31
it's all designed to help bring good dreams into bring prophetic dreams. Wonderful,
52:37
wonderful. Tell us about the wonderful pagan organizations and events that you founded.
52:45
Well, I did not found it, but I had helped for many,
52:49
many years with Denver Pagan Pride. I'm still involved with that. I did
52:52
recently relocate, so I'm only kind of loosely involved with that now and that's
52:59
going to go to somebody else. But Pagan Pride is an excellent, excellent
53:02
organization that basically brings together people from the pagan community to kind of showcase to
53:08
the public what paganism is all about. And that includes Wicca, witchcraft,
53:13
other religions like that, and so it's kind of a time to bring people
53:16
together and show what paganism is really really is. It's not like the craft
53:21
or not like Sabrina the teenage Witch, but kind of shows more what it's
53:25
really about. So these are held all over the world. You can usually
53:29
find one in your area. If there's not winning in your area, you're
53:31
welcome to start one up. You can look at Pagan Project on Pagan Pride
53:37
project dot org and get more information about that. Also founded the Mystical Minds
53:43
of Festival, and that brings together not only Pagans but also people from the
53:47
paranormal communities and UFO researchers and cryptid investigators that you look for creatures like dog
53:54
man and sasquatch and things like that. So I've founded that because I've wanted
54:00
to as a witch. I'd met met you and many other people from these
54:02
other communities that I realized, well, we have a lot of common interests
54:07
in common ground, and yet there's this kind of kind of like divide for
54:12
some reason that really doesn't need to be there. So I wanted to bring
54:15
our communities all together to network and kind of you know, share resources and
54:20
just talk about these different things because there's so much, so much overlap of
54:23
interest. Most witches, I know, we're also very much into into you
54:28
know, you investigating haunted locations and learning more about you know, these UFOs
54:34
in our skyes and things like that. So that's Mystical Minds Convention. We
54:38
just had one in the end of October. There'll be another next year.
54:43
We helped lives in northern California, so you can find more about that at
54:46
Mystical Minds Convention dot com. My guest, the wonderful Melanie Marquee, Melanie,
54:53
one more time, please share with our listeners that can get your books
54:57
and find out more about you and your amazing work. Yeah, my books
55:00
are available at many local bookstores. You can always ask for them at your
55:05
local store to get those ordered. You can also find books on Amazon or
55:08
at Llewellyn dot com that's my publisher, lewell And Worldwide, or on my
55:13
own website Melaniemarquis dot com in E L A n I E n A r
55:17
q U I s dot com. You can also find me on Facebook.
55:22
Oh, I forget because I haven't done in a while. But I also
55:25
do stuffed animal magic shop magic with a K on them. You can find
55:30
out on YouTube and on TikTok. But that's a fun thing I do with
55:35
one of my favorite Teddy bears. His name is for Blanco and he does
55:38
taro readings and teaches all about magic and with some of the stuffed animal friends.
55:44
I'm teaching about magic and it's made for made for all ages to enjoy
55:49
that. So if you ever need a little pick me up, or if
55:52
you prefer to get your Taro readings from a sweet teddy bear, go to
55:55
Stuffed Animalmagicshop dot com. You can also find me there. Melanie always enjoys
56:00
talking with you. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so
56:05
much, Victor, it was a pleasure, and thank you for joining us.
56:07
I'm Vox Novis, I'm Victor the Voice Furman. Have a wonderful week.