Latest / Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman / Michelle Cassandra Johnson – You Are Protected

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Michelle Cassandra Johnson – You Are Protected · Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman

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Speaker 1: My name is Victor Furman. Some call me The Voice.
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Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and
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Speaker 1: the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
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Speaker 1: we will explore these topics and so much more with
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Speaker 1: fascinating guests, authors, and experts who will guide us to
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Speaker 1: Destination Unlimited. Between global uncertainty, constant digital overstimulation, and the
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Speaker 1: heavy emotional toll of the collective climate, today's mystics are
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Speaker 1: running on empty. Many in the magical community know how
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Speaker 1: to cast a circle or perform a manifestation ritual, but
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Speaker 1: they struggle with the foundational requirement of the craft. how
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Speaker 1: to maintain their own energetic boundaries and avoid spiritual burnout.
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Speaker 1: My guest this week on Destination Unlimited, acclaimed mystic, activist,
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Speaker 1: and intuitive healer, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, says with a robust
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Speaker 1: spiritual hygiene plan, you are protected. Michelle Cassandra Johnson is
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Speaker 1: a beloved teacher, activist, and clinical social worker with a
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Speaker 1: background of over two decades of practice. She's led dismantling
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Speaker 1: racism work in many settings, and her work centers on
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Speaker 1: healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness,
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Speaker 1: and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart. She's the
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Speaker 1: author of several books, including Illuminating Our True Nature. Her
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Speaker 1: website is michellecjohnson.com, and she joins me this week to
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Speaker 1: share her path and new book, You Are Protected, invoking
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Speaker 1: spiritual support to sustain your energy. Please join me in
2:03
Speaker 1: welcoming to Destination Unlimited, Michelle Cassandra Johnson. Welcome, Michelle.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.
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Speaker 1: Michelle, please share with our listeners your early path and
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Speaker 1: the foundational lessons that you learned that shaped your life.
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Speaker 2: I love this question and to begin in this place.
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Speaker 2: In this way, I was a pensive child, I will say.
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Speaker 2: I was aware that there was some connection and recognition
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Speaker 2: from spirit that I was here in this incarnation and
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Speaker 2: body when I was very, very young, even connected to
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Speaker 2: how I came into the world and my birth story
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Speaker 2: and the struggles around coming into this body at this time.
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Speaker 2: And I was a child who understood that the universe
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Speaker 2: and spirit were in deep relationship with me and conversation
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Speaker 2: with me, sending signals often in the more than human world.
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Speaker 2: And this continues now, but sending symbols to me through nature.
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Speaker 2: So four leaf clovers, which I found since I was
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Speaker 2: a very young child, hearts in nature, in many different
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Speaker 2: places and other symbols and signs to let me know
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Speaker 2: I'm here, I'm present, and that I'm not alone. That
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Speaker 2: feels really prominent as a memory from my childhood. I
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Speaker 2: also grew up in a home where my mother, I
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Speaker 2: grew up with my mom and my brother. My mother
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Speaker 2: was Christian. She still is. deeply devoted to God. And
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Speaker 2: so was my grandmother and many of the people in
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Speaker 2: my family. And so I named this because I grew
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Speaker 2: up going to a Black Baptist church from the time
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Speaker 2: I was born until I was about 18 when I
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Speaker 2: went to college. And I still attended church, but not
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Speaker 2: as much. When I was a child, we went every
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Speaker 2: Sunday and my grandmother went every Wednesday and Sunday. My grandmother, Dorothy,
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Speaker 2: my maternal grandmother, is very present in my life. She
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Speaker 2: transitioned in 2017, but she's the ancestor I feel the
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Speaker 2: most around me all of the time. And so I
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Speaker 2: watched many of the women on the maternal side in
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Speaker 2: my family pray and engage in ritual and teach me
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Speaker 2: about what it meant to be devoted, which amplified what
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Speaker 2: I think I already knew about spirit and our connection
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Speaker 2: to spirit and also the idea that we are divine beings, um,
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Speaker 2: and animate and that every, uh, sentient being is divine
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Speaker 2: in some way. I didn't really have words for what
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Speaker 2: I just shared with you when I was five or
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Speaker 2: six or 10 or even 15. And it's, this is,
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Speaker 2: you know, upon reflection and looking back at the lessons
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Speaker 2: that I observed, um, from the more than human world.
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Speaker 2: And then my family, um, about ceremony and about God
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Speaker 2: and about this idea that we're here in these human
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Speaker 2: bodies for a short amount of time. We have big
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Speaker 2: work to do, but a short amount of time. And
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Speaker 2: so to make meaning of this time that we have,
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Speaker 2: that is a central lesson I learned from my mom
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Speaker 2: and from my grandmother, for sure. The only other thing
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Speaker 2: I'll name about my path, which there's a lot more,
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Speaker 2: but is that I was a curious child and Just
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Speaker 2: the other day, my husband said to me, he said,
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Speaker 2: you ask God-like questions. And I said, well, what do
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Speaker 2: you mean? And he said, just you ask big questions,
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Speaker 2: like these questions about the universe. And he likes them,
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Speaker 2: but sometimes he comes home from work and I'm asking
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Speaker 2: all these God-like, I'm putting that in quotes, questions where
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Speaker 2: they're big questions. So I've been curious since I came
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Speaker 2: into being in this body. And I actually really appreciate
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Speaker 2: that curiosity and the mystery that accompanies it.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. You share the story of your maternal grandmother and
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Speaker 1: her influence on you. What did you learn from her
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Speaker 1: and how did you incorporate this in your own life?
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Speaker 2: I have learned so much from Dorothy. I learned about
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Speaker 2: service and showing up in the world for others. I
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Speaker 2: also learned about showing up for oneself from her in
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Speaker 2: many ways, but she engaged in a ritual every morning
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Speaker 2: that I didn't understand was a ritual at the time,
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Speaker 2: but where she drank coffee, she would read her daily devotional,
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Speaker 2: she would pray. And I realized it was her time
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Speaker 2: to come into herself and to remember who she was
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Speaker 2: and that she was held and loved by spirit, by God,
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Speaker 2: by ancestors and whomever else she called into her space.
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Speaker 2: So I learned about the importance of tending to one's
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Speaker 2: inner sanctuary and before entering the outer sanctuary of the world.
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Speaker 2: Not that they're separate, but the importance of like, what
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Speaker 2: do I do to tend myself as I prepare to
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Speaker 2: go out in the world and be of service in
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Speaker 2: some way? I also learned about, um, bravery and like,
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Speaker 2: and courage from Dorothy, um, and strength. Like she, so resilient, uh,
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Speaker 2: and so very present, um, Even now, I mean, she
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Speaker 2: transitioned years ago, but so very present. And her stick-to-it-ness,
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Speaker 2: I would say, is something I learned about. So those
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Speaker 2: are a few things.
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Speaker 1: How did your spiritual path manifest?
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Speaker 2: This is a God-like question, a big question. I think
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Speaker 2: it manifested from being in the sanctuary of the Black
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Speaker 2: Baptist Church, in which I grew up, and listening to
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Speaker 2: the choir. sing. That was my favorite part of church.
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Speaker 2: And really that has to do with the vibration and
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Speaker 2: sound and movement and history and ancestry and remembering that
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Speaker 2: we're bigger than our bodies. That's where the seed was planted.
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Speaker 2: But then after I turned 18 and went to church
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Speaker 2: less and less, that kind of church, I started to
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Speaker 2: explore other spiritualities and lineages and started to practice, for example, yoga,
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Speaker 2: attended Unitarian services, Unitarian Universalist services, and definitely delved into
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Speaker 2: an interspiritual path. And I actually attended a 16-month spiritual
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Speaker 2: direction program that started three years ago and am now
8:47
Speaker 2: have introduced that into my healing work. And this interspiritual
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Speaker 2: path and program really drew from various lineages of Buddhism
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Speaker 2: and Sufism and Christianity and many other lineages, paganism, right?
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Speaker 2: Many other lineages of this path where we believe in
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Speaker 2: something bigger than us, whatever name we might call that.
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Speaker 2: So I consider myself to be interspiritual, but I think
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Speaker 2: it all started in that vibratory space of recognizing in
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Speaker 2: church and the sound of song, recognizing, oh, there's something
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Speaker 2: else that moves here with us, right? There's something I
9:27
Speaker 2: can't see that feels intangible. There's something that, I mean,
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Speaker 2: it's God, right? That feels ever-present, omnipresent is what I
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Speaker 2: would say.
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Speaker 1: We have many listeners who practice different forms of yoga.
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Speaker 1: You had mentioned yoga coming into your life. How did
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Speaker 1: that happen? And what lessons did you learn from the practice?
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Speaker 2: It's so fascinating because no one in my family practiced
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Speaker 2: what they called yoga.
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Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 2: Or the yoga that I understand, that I've trained in,
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Speaker 2: that I offer, that I teach. But yoga is about
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Speaker 2: union and connection to spirit through these different technologies, like
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Speaker 2: working with the breath or moving the body, right? Or
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Speaker 2: discipline or devotion. or drawing energy into oneself, right? Withdrawing
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Speaker 2: in a way to come back to oneself or concentration
10:25
Speaker 2: or single point in concentration. I do think my family
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Speaker 2: did practice those things in the context of that Christian
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Speaker 2: church and on their own spiritual paths from the lineages
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Speaker 2: they drew from. But yoga came into my life, even
10:41
Speaker 2: though I didn't have anyone in my family who talked
10:44
Speaker 2: about yoga, When I was 14, I somehow I found
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Speaker 2: a book at the library about yoga. I don't know
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Speaker 2: why I was interested in it. I didn't even know
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Speaker 2: what yoga was. And it was this book with this
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Speaker 2: person who was engaged in all of these different asanas
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Speaker 2: or postures, yogic postures. There was some philosophy in the
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Speaker 2: book as well. And I studied that book with curiosity
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Speaker 2: about what this was, right? I just didn't understand it.
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Speaker 2: And then ended up practicing some of the postures and
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Speaker 2: asanas and noticing, oh, it feels this way, right, when
11:17
Speaker 2: I place my hand or foot here or when I
11:19
Speaker 2: deepen my breath in my body. And then in college,
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Speaker 2: I took a yoga class, what was called a yoga class.
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Speaker 2: I actually took many, but it was a semester-long physical
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Speaker 2: education class that included yoga. And it wasn't presented in
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Speaker 2: that space as a spiritual path. it was really presented
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Speaker 2: as exercise or asanas, working with the physical body, which
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Speaker 2: of course is only one part of yoga. And then
11:46
Speaker 2: I went to graduate school for social work, for clinical
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Speaker 2: social work, and I experienced an assault actually during my
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Speaker 2: first semester of graduate school. And a friend right after
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Speaker 2: that assault, I think he was very present to the
12:03
Speaker 2: fact that I was disassociating from my body and he
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Speaker 2: was a yogi and wanted to invite me to engage
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Speaker 2: in a practice that might help me come back into
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Speaker 2: my body in a safe way. And so I started
12:18
Speaker 2: practicing yoga and the teacher of that class presented the
12:24
Speaker 2: yogic path as a spiritual path. So there was no
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Speaker 2: separation from asana or movement, right? Or breath practice or
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Speaker 2: meditation that wasn't separate from spirit. And that's when I
12:35
Speaker 2: like caught the bug of, oh, I need to deepen
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Speaker 2: my study of this. What is this? And from that
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Speaker 2: point on, practiced yoga in many different ways, in many
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Speaker 2: different spaces, learned a lot of different lineages or ways
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Speaker 2: to practice yoga. And it's a huge part of my
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Speaker 2: life and definitely a path I'm devoted to now and
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Speaker 2: something that I offer to others now. one-to-one, for healing,
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Speaker 2: but also within group spaces.
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Speaker 1: You are a prolific author. Congratulations on your just-published new book,
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Speaker 1: You Are Protected. Congratulations on that.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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Speaker 1: You're welcome. Now, before we discuss this amazing work, let's
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Speaker 1: look at some of your previous books, starting with Skill
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Speaker 1: in Action, Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World.
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Speaker 1: What do you share with listeners in that?
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Speaker 2: Skill in Action, yes, as you mentioned, it was my
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Speaker 2: first book. And it actually began with the desire I
13:39
Speaker 2: had that would not leave me, the desire to apply
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Speaker 2: the teachings of yoga to this present context we're in.
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Speaker 2: You know, a lot of the philosophy, it can be
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Speaker 2: difficult for people to really integrate that into their lives,
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Speaker 2: particularly if they practice yoga and it's not directly connected
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Speaker 2: to their own DNA. that path, right, their biological path
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Speaker 2: or journey. And so I learned about the philosophy from
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Speaker 2: the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, which is the
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Speaker 2: text that I study the most, and really wanted to
14:15
Speaker 2: think about, well, how do I live my yoga? If
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Speaker 2: this is a spiritual path, how do I live my yoga?
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Speaker 2: And skill and action came from that place of wanting
14:23
Speaker 2: to really, in some ways, ignite people's path and invite
14:28
Speaker 2: them into being of service to others, but also into
14:32
Speaker 2: deep analysis about the ways in which the world of
14:35
Speaker 2: wellness and even spirituality, these worlds and realms, the business
14:41
Speaker 2: of them can be exclusive. Of course, we understand the
14:44
Speaker 2: paths of spirituality and yoga as something that's expansive, but
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Speaker 2: the way we, and even wellness is expansive, but the
14:52
Speaker 2: way that we might offer these in the context of
14:55
Speaker 2: a capitalist culture can be so exclusive. And so I
14:59
Speaker 2: wanted to bring attention to that and invite people to
15:02
Speaker 2: think about, well, what contribution can I make to the
15:05
Speaker 2: world through this path of yoga if I live this path?
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Speaker 2: So that is where skill and action came from. And
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Speaker 2: I have created so many bodies of work from that,
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Speaker 2: you know, teacher trainings and working with studio owners or
15:19
Speaker 2: community holders who in some way practice yoga and offer
15:23
Speaker 2: yoga training people to, I've mentored people around the concept
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Speaker 2: of skill and action, which some of your listeners might
15:32
Speaker 2: know that that phrase skill and action is from the
15:36
Speaker 2: Bhagavad Gita. There's a verse there that is yoga is
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Speaker 2: skill and action. And when I heard that, I felt
15:43
Speaker 2: that sense of that inner fire and internal flame become bigger.
15:48
Speaker 2: So that's a little bit about skill and action.
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Speaker 1: Please tell us about the Wisdom of the Hive, what
15:54
Speaker 1: honeybees can teach us about collective well-being.
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Speaker 2: I love that you asked this because I am a beekeeper.
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Speaker 2: I have three hives now and they're doing well. I
16:07
Speaker 2: sit with them every day. I sat with them this
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Speaker 2: morning and I co-wrote the Wisdom of the Hive with
16:12
Speaker 2: my best friend, Amy Bertain, who is also a beekeeper,
16:16
Speaker 2: a bee tenderer. We both love to observe the bees
16:21
Speaker 2: and have learned more about community care from the bees
16:26
Speaker 2: than any other species we've come into contact with. That said,
16:32
Speaker 2: we could look at the mycelial network. We could look
16:34
Speaker 2: at a grove of trees. We could look at a
16:35
Speaker 2: body of water. We could look at a mountain or
16:37
Speaker 2: mountain range and learn a lot about community and the
16:41
Speaker 2: larger ecosystem and our place in it. And because the
16:44
Speaker 2: bees are superorganism, which means they do not think of
16:47
Speaker 2: themselves as individuals, they only think of themselves as an
16:51
Speaker 2: extension of the hive, we can learn a lot about
16:55
Speaker 2: what it might mean to embody this superorganism way of being.
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Speaker 2: We're an extension of one another. We are oneness, right?
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Speaker 2: We come from one place. And there's so much in
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Speaker 2: our world that makes us forget that. So the wisdom
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Speaker 2: of the hive is a call toward looking at the
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Speaker 2: the honeybee, the hive, every part of it, the hum
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Speaker 2: of the hive, the connection to the larger ecosystem, and
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Speaker 2: then reflecting on what we might learn to steward and
17:24
Speaker 2: shepherd ourselves through these times in which there's so much
17:27
Speaker 2: divisiveness and polarization.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. We need collective unity and respect and love more
17:34
Speaker 1: than ever.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely.
17:38
Speaker 1: And a space for us. A Guide for Leading Black, Indigenous,
17:43
Speaker 1: and People of Color Affinity Groups. What inspired this and
17:46
Speaker 1: what do you share with readers?
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Speaker 2: I have been a racial equity educator and space holder
17:56
Speaker 2: for that kind of transformation for almost 30 years. And
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Speaker 2: I also live in a black body. Of course, I
18:04
Speaker 2: have many other things, but I name that. just to
18:08
Speaker 2: add another layer of context for this particular, the book
18:12
Speaker 2: you just mentioned is space for us. And so after
18:15
Speaker 2: years of leading racial equity trainings within multiracial spaces, within
18:24
Speaker 2: those trainings, often we would offer what are called affinity groups,
18:28
Speaker 2: and they can happen based on many identities, not just
18:31
Speaker 2: racial identity, And so a space for us is a
18:36
Speaker 2: guide for folks engaged in healing work, community work, racial
18:41
Speaker 2: equity work, perhaps other forms of equity work because they're interrelated.
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Speaker 2: It's a guide for them to think about how do
18:49
Speaker 2: I set up the space? How do I hold the space?
18:52
Speaker 2: What do I need to understand? It has frameworks included
18:55
Speaker 2: in it. It has facilitation tips.
18:58
Speaker 4: It has.
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Speaker 2: case studies, if you will, related to what might come
19:03
Speaker 2: up in an affinity group, a multiracial, even if it's
19:07
Speaker 2: just folks of color, what might come up in that space.
19:12
Speaker 2: So it came from community and people asking, how do
19:15
Speaker 2: we hold this kind of space? How do we hold
19:18
Speaker 2: change in this way?
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Speaker 1: My wife in her mid-60s began to study history and
19:25
Speaker 1: museum science in And one of the eye openers she
19:29
Speaker 1: had was about cultural appropriation. Please define this for us
19:34
Speaker 1: and what actions may we take to correct it and
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Speaker 1: honor the source cultures?
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Speaker 2: Yes. Cultural appropriation, I first learned about it actually in
19:44
Speaker 2: a dismantling racism training as I was training up to
19:48
Speaker 2: become a racial equity educator. with a collaborative. And cultural
19:53
Speaker 2: appropriation is really when we take something from a culture
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Speaker 2: that's not our own. So we extract it from a culture.
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Speaker 2: And I'll give an example of this in just a moment.
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Speaker 2: without appreciation for that culture or without a relationship with
20:13
Speaker 2: that particular culture. So it's very transactional and extractive. Cultural
20:19
Speaker 2: appreciation is different than that. We have a relationship, there's reciprocity,
20:23
Speaker 2: that principle of reciprocity is present when we appreciate a culture.
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Speaker 2: And I'll also say, given the context, and then I'll
20:31
Speaker 2: give the example of And I mean, the times in
20:34
Speaker 2: which we live and particularly in spiritual spaces, there's a
20:37
Speaker 2: lot of cultural appropriation. And so often people are profiting
20:42
Speaker 2: from practices in some way. It might be financial, it
20:46
Speaker 2: might be spiritual, it might be emotional or mental or psychic.
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Speaker 2: They're profiting from practices in some way that are not
20:54
Speaker 2: connected to their source culture. And I think there's a
20:58
Speaker 2: way that we can engage relationally with other cultures and practices.
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Speaker 2: I mentioned I'm interspiritual, right? And so that means I
21:07
Speaker 2: am connected to many different lineages, but I also want
21:10
Speaker 2: to think about how do I give back and how
21:12
Speaker 2: do I do this relationally? We talked about yoga earlier.
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Speaker 2: So yoga is a good example, particularly a westernized version
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Speaker 2: of yoga, where millions of people practice yoga here. And
21:28
Speaker 2: some people have no relationship with it being a spiritual
21:30
Speaker 2: practice or the place from which it originated. I learned
21:34
Speaker 2: a lineage that we can trace back to India. There
21:37
Speaker 2: are other lineages like Kemetic yoga, which we can trace
21:39
Speaker 2: back to Africa. But I learned this lineage that's based
21:44
Speaker 2: in India. And what I try to do is honor
21:47
Speaker 2: that practice by thinking about who I learned from. So
21:50
Speaker 2: learning from teachers who are from that source culture, also
21:53
Speaker 2: naming people, what cultural appropriation is, and thinking about learning
21:59
Speaker 2: Sanskrit and using that in class, if that makes sense,
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Speaker 2: as I'm teaching. Learning the intentions behind mantras as I
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Speaker 2: share them and chant them and the invocations that I offer.
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Speaker 2: Storytelling and really developing a relationship with the deity that
22:17
Speaker 2: I might be telling a story about, not just sharing
22:19
Speaker 2: it because I heard it or read it, right? Developing
22:22
Speaker 2: a deep relationship with these gods and goddesses. So again,
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Speaker 2: that's relational and that's deep study and discipline and devotion.
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Speaker 2: These are some things we can think about that in
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Speaker 2: some ways, I think, repair that extractive way of being,
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Speaker 2: which really comes from like convenience. We kind of take
22:41
Speaker 2: and don't think about where things come from. And so
22:43
Speaker 2: the invitation with cultural appreciation is to think about where
22:46
Speaker 2: do things come from? And if I know that, what
22:48
Speaker 2: does that call me into versus appropriation taking?
22:52
Speaker 1: My guest, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, her brand new book, You
22:57
Speaker 1: Are Protected, Invoking Spiritual Support to Sustain Your Energy. Michelle,
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Speaker 1: please share with our listeners where they can get all
23:04
Speaker 1: of your books and find out more about you and
23:06
Speaker 1: your wonderful work.
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Speaker 2: Yes. My website, michellecjohnson.com, so it's my name, michellecjohnson.com, is
23:16
Speaker 2: the best place to keep up with me. There are
23:19
Speaker 2: events that I offer regularly. virtually and also in person
23:23
Speaker 2: all over the place if people are interested in that.
23:27
Speaker 2: I used to host my own podcast. There are episodes there.
23:30
Speaker 2: There's writing there and there's a books tab there. You
23:34
Speaker 2: Are Protected is my seventh book. And so everybody can
23:37
Speaker 2: find out information about all of my books on my website.
23:41
Speaker 2: And I'm also on social media on Instagram, Skill in Action.
23:45
Speaker 2: The title of my first book is my handle there.
23:47
Speaker 2: That's a great place to keep up with me as well.
23:50
Speaker 1: And we'll be back with more of Michelle after these
23:52
Speaker 1: words on the OM Times Radio Network.
23:57
Speaker 4: The cutting edge of conscious radio, OM Times Radio, IOM FM.
24:02
Speaker 4: OM Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
24:05
Speaker 4: providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization,
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24:28
Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited, my guest this week, Michelle Cassandra Johnson,
24:34
Speaker 1: her brand new book, You Are Protected, invoking spiritual support
24:39
Speaker 1: to sustain your energy. Michelle, you begin with a discussion
24:45
Speaker 1: of becoming a vessel. How do you define a vessel?
24:51
Speaker 2: I'm just chuckling because I'm thinking about my grandmother Dorothy
24:54
Speaker 2: again and the story that I shared about her ritual
24:57
Speaker 2: in the morning and tending one's inner sanctuary and how
25:01
Speaker 2: that connects to the recognition that we are sacred vessels.
25:06
Speaker 2: We are channels. We are conduits for change, whatever that
25:09
Speaker 2: might be, whether that is one-to-one with people or in
25:14
Speaker 2: groups or our work and practice and connection with the
25:17
Speaker 2: more than human world, whether that is through energy work
25:21
Speaker 2: we might do or song, sound, movement, or facilitation, right?
25:27
Speaker 2: We're all vessels for change. And I actually first really
25:33
Speaker 2: thought about being a sacred vessel. I think I was
25:36
Speaker 2: aware of it, but a friend named it to me.
25:39
Speaker 2: She reflected it back to me. She mirrored it. She said,
25:42
Speaker 2: thank you for being a sacred vessel. And this was
25:45
Speaker 2: after I had written A Space for Us and it
25:48
Speaker 2: had launched in the world. And this was a colleague
25:51
Speaker 2: of mine. And she just thanked me, gave me all
25:54
Speaker 2: my flowers for being a sacred vessel and allowing healing
25:58
Speaker 2: medicine to move through me in the form of words
26:02
Speaker 2: that people hear and that they read and reflection questions
26:07
Speaker 2: and exercises or activities for contemplation that people connect with.
26:12
Speaker 2: So I love the idea of being a vessel, which
26:15
Speaker 2: we know vessels, like I have a glass of water
26:18
Speaker 2: next to me, it holds water that is nourishing to me.
26:21
Speaker 2: And sometimes there are vessels like a bowl that may
26:24
Speaker 2: not yet hold something, but will in the future or
26:27
Speaker 2: holds energy, right? Or air or hold space. There's emptiness
26:30
Speaker 2: within that. So there are a lot of different ways
26:33
Speaker 2: we can think about the vessels around us and the
26:38
Speaker 2: vessel within us. And I think this calls us into intention.
26:43
Speaker 2: What do I want to do with this opportunity to
26:45
Speaker 2: be a sacred vessel and channel what wants to move
26:49
Speaker 2: through me? How does it want to move through me?
26:51
Speaker 2: How can I get out of the way so that
26:53
Speaker 2: it can? This is some of how I think about
26:57
Speaker 2: a vessel, right? It holds something with intention that is sacred.
27:01
Speaker 1: And what are some of the ways we may protect
27:04
Speaker 1: the vessel that we become?
27:07
Speaker 2: This is huge. Because it's not as if some of
27:13
Speaker 2: what is happening now is new, although I do in
27:16
Speaker 2: the world, I do think that the intensity of these
27:20
Speaker 2: times and technology and sort of the rapid pace at
27:26
Speaker 2: which we consume information, stuff is coming at us, which
27:31
Speaker 2: can overwhelm the vessel, right? Which speaks to the importance
27:35
Speaker 2: of caring for this? I've called it a vessel, an
27:39
Speaker 2: inner sanctuary. How do we tend to ourselves on all
27:43
Speaker 2: different levels, not just the physical body, right? How do
27:46
Speaker 2: I take care of my emotional landscape and my mind
27:50
Speaker 2: and my heart and my spirit and my soul and
27:52
Speaker 2: my soul's calling, right? And my energy body, how do
27:55
Speaker 2: these things happen? And what I've seen through my work
28:01
Speaker 2: as a space holder, a facilitator, someone who interacts with
28:04
Speaker 2: a lot of people and has a deep connection with
28:06
Speaker 2: the more than human world is that, um, there's a
28:09
Speaker 2: way folks who might identify as caregivers in some way, right? Um,
28:15
Speaker 2: there's a way that we can give and give and
28:18
Speaker 2: give and deplete our energy. Um, and there's a way
28:22
Speaker 2: for us to give and show up and be in
28:24
Speaker 2: service while tending ourselves. Um, and while bringing energy back
28:30
Speaker 2: to us so that we can continue to show up.
28:33
Speaker 2: And so protection in this way is not, and I
28:36
Speaker 2: wrote about this, it's not armor. It's not like self-defense
28:40
Speaker 2: in the way we may have been conditioned to think
28:43
Speaker 2: about self-defense. So I'm, I'm not defending myself against someone.
28:48
Speaker 2: I want to be open and relational and warm and,
28:52
Speaker 2: and connect. Um, And it is about understanding that how
28:58
Speaker 2: I care for myself is connected to how I care
29:01
Speaker 2: for the collective and that I need to turn toward
29:05
Speaker 2: myself enough to think about what do I need to
29:09
Speaker 2: sustain my energy so that I can show up fully
29:13
Speaker 2: in this world and contribute the medicine that wants to
29:17
Speaker 2: move through this vessel. This is how I think about protection.
29:20
Speaker 2: And the book talks about many different ways that we
29:23
Speaker 2: can protect our energy from And the importance of why,
29:27
Speaker 2: because I've just witnessed people burn out. And I think
29:30
Speaker 2: the context, the cultural and social and political context is
29:33
Speaker 2: enough to burn someone out, regardless of the work they
29:36
Speaker 2: do in the world. It's enough to overwhelm the system
29:39
Speaker 2: and cause disruption. And so you are protected as part
29:43
Speaker 2: of the medicine and antidote to this depletion and overwhelm.
29:48
Speaker 2: It is a way to come back to one center.
29:50
Speaker 1: And as you put it, we must pour into ourselves
29:54
Speaker 1: as much as we pour into others and the world.
29:57
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. Yes. And I think this can be a
30:03
Speaker 2: challenge for so many reasons. And I also think we,
30:09
Speaker 2: I'm not positioning myself as a martyr, right? And so
30:13
Speaker 2: I understand that archetypal energy and role and the importance
30:18
Speaker 2: of that and the way people embody that. And I
30:21
Speaker 2: want to continue to show up for a long time
30:24
Speaker 2: if that is what is in the plan, right? If
30:26
Speaker 2: that's part of the unfolding, I don't have control over that.
30:29
Speaker 2: But if that's part of what wants to, needs to,
30:32
Speaker 2: if that's part of what's been written for me, I
30:34
Speaker 2: would like to continue to show up. And so I
30:36
Speaker 2: need to fill my cup and fill this vessel as
30:41
Speaker 2: much as I pour into community. Because eventually something gives, right?
30:49
Speaker 2: Meaning when we give and give and give and deplete ourselves,
30:52
Speaker 2: the body breaks down. We may not be able to
30:54
Speaker 2: think as clearly. We may feel uninspired. We may not
30:57
Speaker 2: be able to tap into that creative force that moves
31:00
Speaker 2: through all of us or that life force, prana, that energy.
31:04
Speaker 2: We may feel despondent in a way or lost or untethered.
31:09
Speaker 2: And so this pouring into our own cup is a
31:12
Speaker 2: tether to the here and now and our soul's calling.
31:15
Speaker 2: And that's why it feels so important to me.
31:18
Speaker 1: As I shared to you offline, I became a caretaker
31:21
Speaker 1: at a very young age. And continued to do that
31:24
Speaker 1: throughout my adult life until my early 40s when it
31:28
Speaker 1: actually started affecting my health because I was running around
31:30
Speaker 1: taking care of everybody else except myself. And when I
31:34
Speaker 1: made that decision, a poem came through me. Can I
31:37
Speaker 1: share that with you?
31:37
Speaker 2: Yes, please.
31:39
Speaker 1: The poem is called The Healing Power of No. A
31:43
Speaker 1: time comes for choosing rather than losing the essence that
31:48
Speaker 1: makes us so. And in the bestowing, there's power in knowing.
31:52
Speaker 1: the freedom that comes with no. When said with compassion,
31:57
Speaker 1: not angry in fashion, and letting the self-love flow, there's
32:01
Speaker 1: a sense of renewing and deep soul imbuing, the awareness
32:06
Speaker 1: that comes with no. So, with gentle voice, and the
32:10
Speaker 1: power of choice, and the courage to make it so,
32:14
Speaker 1: I'm still here, my friends. There's no means in this end,
32:19
Speaker 1: just the healing that comes with no.
32:24
Speaker 2: I love that. I love, thank you for sharing that
32:28
Speaker 2: with me and with us.
32:30
Speaker 1: Thank you.
32:31
Speaker 2: It's powerful and makes me think a lot about boundary
32:36
Speaker 2: setting and the importance of that in service of oneself,
32:40
Speaker 2: but there's no disconnection, right? We're connected to the larger
32:44
Speaker 2: whole and the entire multiverse. And so no is such
32:49
Speaker 2: a powerful word.
32:52
Speaker 1: Especially when applied to situations where there are those who
32:55
Speaker 1: can really take care of themselves and sort of fall
32:58
Speaker 1: upon you because you're so open and giving all the time.
33:01
Speaker 1: If you stop, if you don't take care of yourself,
33:04
Speaker 1: you won't be around to take care of anybody else either.
33:07
Speaker 2: It's very true. I appreciate you sharing that. My mother
33:12
Speaker 2: has Alzheimer's and I am her main caretaker. And it's
33:19
Speaker 2: like a different level of caretaking. for folks who've journeyed
33:23
Speaker 2: through dementia and Alzheimer's and caretaking and also being a child, right?
33:29
Speaker 2: Like I'm her child. And so it's just really taught
33:35
Speaker 2: me about exactly what you shared in your poem and
33:39
Speaker 2: the tension around saying no to certain things or setting
33:42
Speaker 2: a limit and also the recognition that I have to
33:46
Speaker 2: take care of myself if I am going to continue
33:49
Speaker 2: to be in this role of taking care of my mom.
33:52
Speaker 2: Like there, there's no other option. So I just, I
33:54
Speaker 2: just share that as an example of that's maybe it's
33:58
Speaker 2: a role I've chosen, right? We could, we can have
34:00
Speaker 2: a long conversation about that, but or maybe it shows
34:03
Speaker 2: me I don't feel resentment about it. I just recognize
34:08
Speaker 2: that I have to take care of myself to be
34:11
Speaker 2: able to stay in relationship with my mom and her
34:15
Speaker 2: disease and the progression of it as I'm being called
34:18
Speaker 2: to do.
34:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely. In your book, and I quote, we have an
34:24
Speaker 1: entire team of guides, allies, ancestors to help protect us
34:30
Speaker 1: and our energy. Let's start with ancestors. How may we
34:34
Speaker 1: draw from their wisdom?
34:36
Speaker 2: Yes, I love to talk about ancestors. I've already mentioned one, Dorothy,
34:41
Speaker 2: but I've written about more, and you are protected, both
34:43
Speaker 2: my grandmothers, Sally and Dorothy. And ancestors can feel, there
34:53
Speaker 2: could be a mixed bag of emotions connected to ancestors.
34:56
Speaker 2: Often people who come to me to work with ancestors,
35:00
Speaker 2: they may have some fear about working with certain ancestors.
35:03
Speaker 2: They may not understand how to open that portal, which
35:05
Speaker 2: is part of what I help them with. And we
35:09
Speaker 2: may need to start with the more than human world
35:11
Speaker 2: as a living ancestor to like a mountain that is
35:14
Speaker 2: much older than me or a tree that is much
35:17
Speaker 2: older than me or a body of water to tap
35:19
Speaker 2: in there before we work with ancestors in their blood lineage.
35:25
Speaker 2: There's also the opportunity to work with ancestors who are
35:28
Speaker 2: not in one's blood lineage. Like we can work with
35:30
Speaker 2: teachers or teachings, right? Lessons from different lineages or other
35:37
Speaker 2: ancestors who have transitioned, maybe that we didn't know, but
35:40
Speaker 2: we looked up to, right? Who we, who, Maybe we
35:44
Speaker 2: read their work or heard them speak or were influenced
35:48
Speaker 2: in some deep way. I always say that I think
35:51
Speaker 2: the healthy and well and benevolent ancestors are waiting to
35:57
Speaker 2: work with us and to show up. And that part
36:01
Speaker 2: of the practice is beginning to believe that that we
36:09
Speaker 2: can have an ancestral connection, even if we don't see
36:12
Speaker 2: our ancestors in physical form anymore. We have to kind
36:16
Speaker 2: of work with, you know, I believe that something is
36:18
Speaker 2: there energetically, even if I can't see it, I feel it, right?
36:23
Speaker 2: I can't, I don't see my grandmother Dorothy in physical
36:26
Speaker 2: form unless she visits me in a dream, but I
36:28
Speaker 2: feel her all of the time. Sometimes even feel her
36:32
Speaker 2: physical touch her hand on my back is the, that's
36:35
Speaker 2: most often how she will communicate with me and let
36:39
Speaker 2: me know she's present. I also feel her energy. And
36:42
Speaker 2: of course I remember what she looked like, but I
36:45
Speaker 2: don't see her. Some people may see their ancestors. I
36:49
Speaker 2: just think there's this way. And some of it's our
36:53
Speaker 2: conditioning that we've been taught, you know, that we need
36:59
Speaker 2: to see things to believe they're true or there. And I,
37:03
Speaker 2: as spiritual beings, right? There's the essence of who we
37:05
Speaker 2: are that we may not see, but we feel. And
37:09
Speaker 2: so this is a starting place for people to lean
37:12
Speaker 2: into that. Oh, right. There's a whole other realm or
37:16
Speaker 2: many realms of experience that I may not be able
37:18
Speaker 2: to see in physical form. And I think this is
37:21
Speaker 2: one of the muscles to build the ability to, to
37:26
Speaker 2: see in different ways is the muscle to build. If
37:29
Speaker 2: we want to work with the full team of allies and,
37:32
Speaker 2: but particularly ancestors. And to remember that even if we
37:36
Speaker 2: had ancestors who did horrific things, which is most often
37:42
Speaker 2: what I hear from people, that we likely also had
37:46
Speaker 2: an ancestor who was healthy and well, who worked to
37:50
Speaker 2: disrupt whatever horrific things or bad behavior other ancestors may
37:57
Speaker 2: have engaged in. So this is some of how we began.
38:01
Speaker 2: And one simple practice is building an ancestor altar, which
38:07
Speaker 2: could be placing pictures if we have them or items.
38:11
Speaker 2: Like I have my grandmother's gloves, her ushering gloves from
38:15
Speaker 2: church on my altar. I have her Bible. I have
38:19
Speaker 2: her wedding rings. Not everyone has access to items like this.
38:24
Speaker 2: So we might put an empty picture frame in the
38:27
Speaker 2: space and imagine that as our ancestor altar. Because they're
38:32
Speaker 2: also ancestors that we didn't know, right? Who transitioned before
38:36
Speaker 2: we came into being. Or we can place flowers on
38:40
Speaker 2: an ancestor altar, things we think that our ancestors, our
38:44
Speaker 2: healthy and well ancestors may have liked and may appreciate now. Just,
38:50
Speaker 2: it's like an altar holds space and it also builds energy.
38:53
Speaker 2: And this is a way we can invite in, I
38:57
Speaker 2: keep saying healthy and well, because it's, that's the language
39:01
Speaker 2: that I've been taught. But also it is that no
39:04
Speaker 2: that you read about and that boundary of, I don't
39:07
Speaker 2: claim that I'll do all of the work for my ancestors,
39:12
Speaker 2: every one of them. I call in the healthy and
39:14
Speaker 2: well ones because I assume they're ready to show up
39:18
Speaker 2: for me and to express that benevolence. I also do
39:23
Speaker 2: some work on behalf of ancestors who may have had
39:27
Speaker 2: some unfinished business As most of us do. when we
39:30
Speaker 2: leave our physical bodies. But we can also set boundaries
39:33
Speaker 2: there too, which feels important for folks to understand.
39:37
Speaker 1: So we have ancestors. What about the guides? How may
39:39
Speaker 1: we identify and connect with our guides?
39:43
Speaker 2: We can call on them, right? We can build an
39:45
Speaker 2: altar for them. We can call on our guides and
39:48
Speaker 2: Sometimes people say spirit guides. We can call in our
39:51
Speaker 2: guides to support us, the benevolent guides and energies, entities,
39:58
Speaker 2: energetic forms to support us. Some of these are human.
40:01
Speaker 2: Some of these are more than human. Some of these
40:03
Speaker 2: may be deities or archetypal energies that we call on
40:11
Speaker 2: to be present with us. And we might call on
40:14
Speaker 2: them for specific needs. So if I'm in ceremony with people,
40:18
Speaker 2: And I call in the directions and cast a circle
40:20
Speaker 2: at the beginning of it to hold the energy of
40:22
Speaker 2: our work and practice that I may call in certain
40:25
Speaker 2: guides to be with us during that ceremony and to
40:29
Speaker 2: help hold the circle with me. Of course, we can
40:32
Speaker 2: call on them for protection. We can call on them
40:34
Speaker 2: for wisdom. We can call on them to hold something
40:38
Speaker 2: that maybe feels bigger than what we can hold. We
40:41
Speaker 2: can call on them to be with us as we travel,
40:44
Speaker 2: which I do all of the time. But our guides,
40:47
Speaker 2: you know, we think about guides and guidance and spiritual support,
40:50
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what they are present for and designed
40:54
Speaker 2: to do.
40:56
Speaker 1: And lastly, the allies. Who are the allies and how
40:59
Speaker 1: may they assist us?
41:01
Speaker 2: They're everyone. It's like the guides, the protectors, the animal energies,
41:08
Speaker 2: the elemental energies. We can think about allies and camaraderie
41:13
Speaker 2: and allyship, which means showing up.
41:16
Speaker 5: Right?
41:16
Speaker 2: Not necessarily on behalf of, although that might be part
41:20
Speaker 2: of it, but in solidarity with someone or a group
41:24
Speaker 2: of people that we show up as an ally to
41:27
Speaker 2: provide that support. That's how I think about allies in
41:30
Speaker 2: this conversation and the allies that are presented in You
41:34
Speaker 2: Are Protected, that they're on our side, right? They want
41:37
Speaker 2: what is best for us and the highest good, and
41:40
Speaker 2: they show up in service of that. This is how
41:43
Speaker 2: we can think about allies.
41:44
Speaker 1: My guest, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, her new book, You Are Protected,
41:49
Speaker 1: Invoking Spiritual Support to Sustain Your Energy. We'll be back
41:53
Speaker 1: with more after these words on the OM Times Radio Network.
41:59
Speaker 6: Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big dream.
42:04
Speaker 6: Since 2007, HHI has been working tirelessly to bring help
42:08
Speaker 6: to communities with little or no hope. Our projects are
42:12
Speaker 6: not broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions, but they
42:17
Speaker 6: bring the reassurance that no one is alone and that
42:20
Speaker 6: someone cares. To learn more, please visit humanityhealing.org. Humanity healing
42:26
Speaker 6: is where your heart is.
42:30
Speaker 1: Imagine yourself being transported to India to the banks of
42:34
Speaker 1: the Ganga and an ashram in Rishikesh. Visualize that you
42:39
Speaker 1: are welcome to satsang with an American sannyasi who shares
42:42
Speaker 1: the wisdom of her guru. Your visualization has manifested. Join
42:48
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42:59
Speaker 7: So I'm a cat, and I just moved in with
43:01
Speaker 7: this new human, and she's got this little toy she's
43:04
Speaker 7: always playing with. All day long. Tap, tap, tap, tap.
43:07
Speaker 2: Bloop, bloop.
43:08
Speaker 7: She can't put it down. There it is. Oh, and
43:11
Speaker 7: get this. She even talks to it. Last week, she
43:14
Speaker 7: asked it for Chinese. And guess what? Eggroll showed up.
43:18
Speaker 2: Like magic.
43:19
Speaker 7: Humans have cool toys. A person is the best thing
43:21
Speaker 7: to happen to a shelter pet. Be that person.
43:24
Speaker 2: Adopt.
43:25
Speaker 7: Brought to you by the Ad Council and the ShelterPetProject.org.
43:30
Speaker 5: The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be.
43:33
Speaker 5: So we asked kids... What do you want your parents
43:37
Speaker 5: to hear?
43:37
Speaker 7: I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would
43:40
Speaker 7: just want you to listen to me more often and
43:42
Speaker 7: evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success.
43:47
Speaker 3: We're not adults, so just be there and listen. I
43:52
Speaker 3: just want someone to yap to. And I just feel
43:54
Speaker 3: like I'll be fine if someone just hears me talk
43:57
Speaker 3: and talk and talk and talk.
43:59
Speaker 2: And talk and talk. You're doing a really good job.
44:02
Speaker 2: And I don't think I tell you that enough.
44:04
Speaker 3: And I know sometimes we get into it and it's
44:08
Speaker 3: just hard on both of us.
44:11
Speaker 1: But, you know, try to understand me more and I'll
44:13
Speaker 1: try to do the same.
44:15
Speaker 5: Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help
44:19
Speaker 5: you support your kids and their emotional well-being at SoundItOutTogether.org.
44:23
Speaker 5: That's SoundItOutTogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal.
44:30
Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited, my guest this week, Michelle Cassandra Johnson.
44:35
Speaker 1: We're talking about her brand new book, You Are Protected,
44:39
Speaker 1: Invoking Spiritual Support to Sustain Your Energy. So in the
44:44
Speaker 1: last segment, we talked about the ancestors. We talked about
44:47
Speaker 1: the guides. We talked about the allies. How may we
44:51
Speaker 1: determine which of them feel aligned to build an effective
44:54
Speaker 1: daily spiritual hygiene practice with?
44:58
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm really glad you mentioned spiritual hygiene because I've
45:02
Speaker 2: been having conversations with people about it and they've been like, oh,
45:05
Speaker 2: I've never heard that. And I just want to plug
45:09
Speaker 2: that spiritual hygiene is just like any other form of
45:14
Speaker 2: hygiene and the way that we care for our bodies
45:18
Speaker 2: or the way we might engage in meditation to care
45:21
Speaker 2: for the mind. the way we might practice gratitude or
45:27
Speaker 2: a practice of awe every day, which is something that
45:31
Speaker 2: I do, is a way we might take care of
45:33
Speaker 2: the heart or spirit or soul, right? That can touch
45:36
Speaker 2: many different parts of who we are. So I just
45:40
Speaker 2: wanted to name, that's what I mean when I say
45:43
Speaker 2: spiritual hygiene is what are the things that feed the
45:46
Speaker 2: spirit and all parts of who we are and how
45:49
Speaker 2: do we practice those in a ritualistic way Just as
45:54
Speaker 2: I brush my teeth, right, every day, which is part
45:56
Speaker 2: of my physical and dental hygiene. And the way we
46:00
Speaker 2: might begin to connect with and find these allies and
46:06
Speaker 2: protective agents and be those may be ancestors or as
46:12
Speaker 2: we've talked about, they may be guides, they may be archetypes,
46:16
Speaker 2: they may be animal energies or the elemental energy more
46:20
Speaker 2: than human world. it's similar in some ways to what
46:23
Speaker 2: I named about ancestors. You know, we open ourselves to
46:26
Speaker 2: develop a relationship with the benevolent, um, supports that wish
46:32
Speaker 2: to be present, but we also might look back, uh,
46:37
Speaker 2: and review our lives and think about the energetic forms, um,
46:41
Speaker 2: the deities, the guides who've shown up over and over.
46:45
Speaker 2: For example, uh, Mary Magdalene is one of those for me, um,
46:51
Speaker 2: And Mary Magdalene, I have several different representations of Mary
46:57
Speaker 2: Magdalene in my space and outside my home, the Buddha
47:01
Speaker 2: as well, in my space and outside of my home
47:05
Speaker 2: and near the bees. So people can look back and
47:09
Speaker 2: think about, oh, I've always been drawn to this particular god, goddess, deity, archetype.
47:17
Speaker 2: I've been curious about this space where they come from.
47:21
Speaker 2: Like I've written about Hecate from Greek mythology in You
47:27
Speaker 2: Are Protected and creating a cloak of protection around oneself
47:32
Speaker 2: and have been drawn to many of the, I mean,
47:34
Speaker 2: my middle name is Cassandra, many of the gods and
47:36
Speaker 2: goddesses and myths connected to Greece and Minoan Crete and
47:44
Speaker 2: that space in the world, which isn't my blood lineage,
47:46
Speaker 2: but I think it's my soul's lineage. There's There's some
47:49
Speaker 2: part of my soul that was there. And so we
47:51
Speaker 2: can think about those inklings too, like what are we
47:54
Speaker 2: drawn to and why? From various spiritual spaces or paths
48:00
Speaker 2: or parts of the world, who are the recurring characters
48:03
Speaker 2: who've shown up for us in times of need and
48:07
Speaker 2: made us more curious. These are threads to follow for
48:11
Speaker 2: people if they're not sure where to start. But there
48:14
Speaker 2: are also images, I'm thinking about animal energies right now,
48:19
Speaker 2: There's an image of a lion, right? Which is deeply
48:23
Speaker 2: protective of their pride, which most people know that, right?
48:26
Speaker 2: That a lot of people have that association. We might
48:31
Speaker 2: call in that energy for protection of the spirit, or
48:34
Speaker 2: we might call in deer energy, which a lot of
48:37
Speaker 2: people have had some connection to deer, even if it's
48:39
Speaker 2: not been in physical form, and their deep compassion. So
48:43
Speaker 2: there's some images of and icons that are present and
48:48
Speaker 2: in some ways cross-cultural, because they show up in story
48:50
Speaker 2: and myth, that people might draw from as they begin
48:54
Speaker 2: to think about protecting their energy. And again, the openness
48:57
Speaker 2: is the thing we want to think about, being open
48:59
Speaker 2: to these energies showing up for us more fully, like
49:03
Speaker 2: any other relationship that we wish to deepen.
49:05
Speaker 1: Let's talk about gimmicks and things of that nature, physical objects.
49:10
Speaker 1: Daily spells using amulets, sigils... protective baths, and everyday natural curios.
49:17
Speaker 1: What are some that may be employed here?
49:20
Speaker 2: Yes, there's an entire chapter about natural curios, which I've
49:24
Speaker 2: written about them as herbs and tinctures and oils. And
49:28
Speaker 2: so this connection to the more-than-human world that's a little
49:32
Speaker 2: different but connected to elemental energy. Things like rosemary and
49:36
Speaker 2: rose or thyme. certain colors with candles or crystals like
49:45
Speaker 2: the color black, often it can absorb energy. It also
49:49
Speaker 2: can repel energy that we may not want to absorb, right?
49:53
Speaker 2: It's that kind of protection or clear quartz, which can
49:57
Speaker 2: amplify the energy that it's around or rose quartz, which
50:02
Speaker 2: is for the heart. And we don't... Somebody doesn't need
50:05
Speaker 2: to go out and buy a bunch of crystals or candles.
50:08
Speaker 2: We can work with these things energetically or herbs even, right?
50:13
Speaker 2: But often those are around us in some way, but
50:15
Speaker 2: we can call them in through visualization. Maybe it's a
50:18
Speaker 2: rosemary bush that we remember from the neighborhood in which
50:21
Speaker 2: we grew up, but we don't have one now. Or
50:24
Speaker 2: the smell of rose, which shows up in lots of ways.
50:29
Speaker 2: Or time, the herb time that we might use in cooking.
50:32
Speaker 2: I mean, there are a lot of different ways that
50:34
Speaker 2: we create spells. Cooking is alchemy. So that is one.
50:38
Speaker 2: But we can also bring these natural curios in to
50:42
Speaker 2: spell work. And spell work is really about setting an intention,
50:47
Speaker 2: gathering the items that we might need in physical form
50:49
Speaker 2: or energetically, setting the circle. I mentioned casting a circle earlier.
50:55
Speaker 2: So a circle or something, vessel to hold our work.
50:59
Speaker 2: and then enacting that intention, invoking it in some way.
51:02
Speaker 2: That might be through saying a prayer or a blessing
51:06
Speaker 2: or a specific invocation one has written for the particular
51:09
Speaker 2: protection spell that they're working with. We could also create
51:14
Speaker 2: a tincture with these herbs and natural curios. We could
51:17
Speaker 2: create an oil that we anoint the body with or
51:20
Speaker 2: we ingest if it is safe to do. These are
51:24
Speaker 2: some ways to work with natural curios.
51:28
Speaker 1: You say that practitioners may reclaim the archetype of the
51:33
Speaker 1: witch as a powerful, grounded alchemist who can transmute chaos
51:38
Speaker 1: into collective healing. How may this be done, and how
51:42
Speaker 1: does it feel to do it?
51:45
Speaker 2: I love this because I've been saying this book is
51:48
Speaker 2: the witchiest book I've written to date, and the witch
51:52
Speaker 2: is an archetype. It is the alchemist archetype. It is
51:57
Speaker 2: the being that stood around the cauldron, which I happen
52:01
Speaker 2: to have one that's 250 years old, right? It's the
52:05
Speaker 2: circle and ceremony. It's what people conjured. It's a connection
52:09
Speaker 2: to the more than human world and the rhythm of
52:12
Speaker 2: seasonal shifts and change. This is how I think about
52:16
Speaker 2: witchery and magic. And I think we all embody this,
52:20
Speaker 2: whether we call ourselves a mystic or an alchemist or
52:23
Speaker 2: a magician, right? Or a witch, whatever that might be.
52:26
Speaker 2: And you know, People have been coming for witches for
52:29
Speaker 2: a long time because there's deep knowledge there. Like witchery
52:33
Speaker 2: is ancient technology that we're tapping into that for me
52:38
Speaker 2: is connected to spirit and the divine and what is
52:40
Speaker 2: bigger than me. And what I named earlier about believing
52:44
Speaker 2: in things that we may not be able to see,
52:46
Speaker 2: but believing they're possible and they're present. And so I
52:51
Speaker 2: invite people to, in whatever way, reclaim the part of
52:55
Speaker 2: us that is magic. And that can transmute in the
52:59
Speaker 2: way that you name. There is so much chaos going on,
53:02
Speaker 2: and we can actually use that chaos to turn it
53:04
Speaker 2: into something else rather than being consumed by the chaos
53:07
Speaker 2: that is happening culturally, socially, and politically. And so this
53:12
Speaker 2: inner witch is about how do we respond to these
53:15
Speaker 2: times and create the medicine that is most needed now
53:18
Speaker 2: through these various elements we might put in our energetic cauldron,
53:22
Speaker 2: or if we have a physical cauldron, We can use
53:24
Speaker 2: that or in our circle and community with others. This
53:28
Speaker 2: is how I think about the witch and the importance
53:30
Speaker 2: of it and inviting people into that curiosity of how
53:34
Speaker 2: they too are an alchemist.
53:36
Speaker 1: What would you like your readers to take away from
53:38
Speaker 1: You Are Protected?
53:40
Speaker 2: I would love for readers to take away the importance
53:45
Speaker 2: of caring for, tending to, and the ways I've spoken
53:50
Speaker 2: about their inner sanctuary, that sacred space within them that
53:55
Speaker 2: is unmessable and will not be disturbed or thrown off
54:00
Speaker 2: center by the chaos around them and the chaos that
54:03
Speaker 2: might also exist within them, that there is a part
54:06
Speaker 2: of them connected to something bigger that can remain centered
54:11
Speaker 2: and is ever-present and continuous and part of the larger
54:15
Speaker 2: cosmic unfolding of this time.
54:18
Speaker 1: And what's next for Michelle Cassandra Johnson?
54:22
Speaker 2: I'm working on another book. I mentioned I'm a spiritual,
54:27
Speaker 2: I went to a spiritual direction program. I'm a spiritual
54:29
Speaker 2: director or spiritual guide. And I am co-writing a book
54:34
Speaker 2: for really anyone connected to spirit who works with people
54:38
Speaker 2: and provides spiritual guidance, but also specifically for folks in
54:42
Speaker 2: the field of spiritual direction focused on sacred activism and
54:45
Speaker 2: the importance of pairing those things together as we work
54:49
Speaker 2: with seekers and or people who are interested in deepening
54:53
Speaker 2: their spiritual study and spiritual practice, or who are deeply
54:56
Speaker 2: engaged and on a spiritual path. So that's what's next,
55:01
Speaker 2: plus many other offerings connected to You Are Protected. Something's
55:05
Speaker 2: always in the works for me.
55:06
Speaker 1: Our brand new book, You Are Protected, invoking spiritual support
55:11
Speaker 1: to sustain your energy. Michelle, please share with our listeners
55:15
Speaker 1: where they can get all of your wonderful books and
55:17
Speaker 1: find out more about you and your amazing work.
55:21
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yes, people can find me at michellecjohnson.com. That's
55:26
Speaker 2: my website. Everything is there. Books are there. Events are there.
55:32
Speaker 2: Interesting ways to connect with me. And there's a way
55:35
Speaker 2: to sign up for my newsletter through the website, which
55:37
Speaker 2: I've heard when I send it out weekly is like
55:40
Speaker 2: having a cup of tea with me. It ranges in topic.
55:44
Speaker 2: Some of them are very personal. And some are connected
55:48
Speaker 2: to the larger themes that are unfolding and playing out.
55:51
Speaker 2: But there's always a teaching in the newsletter. So that's
55:54
Speaker 2: a good way to get to know me more deeply.
55:56
Speaker 2: And I'm also on Instagram at Skill in Action, the
55:59
Speaker 2: title of my first book. So those are some good
56:01
Speaker 2: ways to connect.
56:03
Speaker 1: Michelle, thank you so much for joining us today and
56:05
Speaker 1: sharing this amazing wisdom that you've brought to the world.
56:09
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me here. It's been
56:11
Speaker 2: a real pleasure to be in conversation with you.
56:14
Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm Victor,
56:18
Speaker 1: the voice, Furman. Have a wonderful week.