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Bonus Episode: Coping With Shelter-In-Place with Mat AurynCourtney 0:03 (Intro music) 20 years ago, three young friends realized they were witches. They scattered to different parts of the world following Magick and Spirit. Now they're back in their hometown to share what they learned. Welcome to That Witch Life Podcast. Your home for living as a Witch in today's world.Kanani 0:49 Welcome witches to another bonus episode of witches in quarantine. We are this time going to have a very special Guest who's joining us. His name is Mat, you may have heard him in a previous episode with us, which was fantastic. We will have a link to that episode on our website. Mat Auryn is the author of the recently released "Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magic and Manifestation." He also runs the blog "For Puck's Sake" on Patheos Pagan, as well as the column "Extra Sensory Witchcraft" in Witches and Pagans Magazine. Thank you, Mat, for joining us. It'll make it much more interesting to have someone else on the podcast with us.Mat 1:36 Yeah, thanks for having me back. I'm happy to not be driving on my cell phone in Maine this time.Courtney 1:43 Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. It was still a great episode. I think it was also really cute that Mat was saying that he thought he would have a cocktail before coming on the show, and then declined out of professionalism and we said, 'Oh, dude. That was a mistake.'Kanani 2:01 I have vodka in my ice cream. I posted it on Instagram in case anyone doesn't believe me. I said "when ice cream just won't do."Courtney 2:11 Oh my god and Kanani was mad at me because I was late to get on the recording because I couldn't find my weed chocolates, which I thought I was gonna need and I'm eating right now.Hilary 2:21 Man like, I feel like this is a definite time to like have weed everything. Courtney 2:25 Well, I tell you what, I got these weed chocolates because I helped out a senior in need during this time of social distancing because she was in vulnerable health and shouldn't be going into grocery stores. So I told her I was coming by and I was going to drop off the medicine she needed-didn't go inside. Just knocked on the door. We did the exchange and she said, "I got something for you." And I'm like, "okay," and she comes out with a jar of homemade weed chocolates that are all in the shape of little animals. They're so cute and they're so wonderful, and this is why you should help your seniors in need. That's all. Kanani 3:02 I was just talking to a friend today because they were talking about how in Oregon they've allowed it so that pot shops can either sell out like in their the front of their store or not in the store and or they can do delivery and I was laughing with my friend and I'm like "Isn't having a guy show up with a backpack of weed like have we just come full circle?" Courtney 3:23 It's like, so Oregon, too. There's um, strippers I saw somewhere or doing like home deliveries? Where if you need it you know you need to see you need to see a pretty girl dance will actually come to your house I guess. I don't know. Did anybody read that article?Kanani 3:41 I saw that where they're doing food deliveries.Courtney 3:43 Oh! Food deliveries. Oh, my God. I thought they were delivering dancers at your house, which is awesome.Hilary 3:52 Oh yeah. Boober Eats is what they're calling it. It's so good. It's like, it's I was like, wait, I said that and I was like, wait, were they talking about some other dance thing, but I just like totally messed up like they're talking about some like ballet at the door and I'm talking about dancers from the club down the street. Um, yeah, it's called Boober Eats. And it's, it's the cool thing about it is is actually they're keeping their dancers money coming in for their dancers during this time, but it's also a staffing their security guards because they're accompanied by security guards, and it's staffing their kitchen as well. So it's kind of a really ingenious idea.Kanani 4:39 Mm hmm. That actually is a really smart idea.Mat 4:42 Oh, yeah. Sounds safer than strippers stripping in your home that because that would kind ofHilary 4:48 that defeats the purpose. Mat 4:49 Right, right.Courtney 4:50 lap dances, lap lap dances from six feet away. The whole point of going is for a moment of intimacy, which you're just not really get a...stripper poles have got to be just like hotbeds of coronavirus. You know, so yeah...Mat 5:08 maybe psychic lap dances need to be a thing.Courtney 5:12 Is that Is there a chapter in your book about psychic lap dances, Mat? If not... Mat 5:17 Book two. That's intermediate material.Kanani 5:27 We'll have your whole book half written by the time we're done tonight.Courtney 5:31 You're welcome, Mat.Kanani 5:33 So Mat, you actually just moved from the east coast to the west coast. So that must have been fairly stress free.Mat 5:43 Oh, extremely. Totally peaceful. No problems. No rush. no urgency. No, it's crazy times we're in right now. My relationship ended in December officially. So I had been planning to move out here at the end of summer right before autumn hit. And then I started getting nightmares and I started getting like psychic messages and my spirits started talking to me and they were like, "Go now, go now, go now. If you don't go, you're going to be waiting for more than a year. Um, so, you know, living with my ex at the time, you know, that's it makes sense now because that's not...he's a good person. And we get along, but that's not necessarily who I would want to be in quarantine with. Hilary 6:37 Fair.Kanani 6:40 Sorry, I just had a shiver just...ugh...Courtney 6:41 Now you were moving out from Salem, Massachusetts, right. Mat 6:46 from that area. Yes. Courtney 6:48 So what's going on there now or what was going on when you left?Mat 6:52 So nothing had been going on when I had left. Right now they're starting to call The shelter in place it's a soft one sort of like they did here in the Bay Area before they made it like a mandatory thing. So it's probably going to escalate to a mandatory thing. Yeah, the whole thing was really rushed because I got the messages. They were super strong the weekend before I left. And I, you know, of course, like any major life change, you know, even though I am psychic, you know, I have my psychics that I trust. So, you know, I was asking them and they pretty much verified all that I was receiving. So I bought a plane ticket for Wednesday. So this was on Saturday that I had made the decision to just do it. I booked a flight for Wednesday, because that was what was suggested and that was also what I was feeling. And I flew out here I took a nonstop flight. Just to be safe, because the last thing I want to do is be stuck at an airport in case in case they called like a domestic travel ban, for example, Hilary 8:09 oh my god in limbo, that would be a nightmare. That would be the worstMat 8:17 So it's Byron Ballard has been talking for a long time how we're in the time of The Tower, right? And that is definitely how it feels on many levels of my life. But I'm also with my interpretation of the tower and Tarot, which is what the reference is, I'm really optimistic about it, right? So it's usually I see it as you know, the crumbling of a structure that no longer is serving you, but is kind of imprisoning you like Rapunzel. So it provides an opportunity, although it's painful, and it's scary, and it's chaotic, to sort of figure out what do you want to build in its place now that you're liberated from that thing. And so I'm seeing that on lots of levels on a microscopic level on a macroscopic level. And something that a lot of elders told me about my book release is that if I write on a subject I will most likely be tested by the universe on it. So one level I feel I had this personal test of just trusting my psychic information, even though it felt crazy even though there wasn't you know, this is before the pandemic got really hyped up and I'm not saying hype as if it's not real but before the extremity of it started growing, and I felt a bit like one of those biblical characters like Noah or Lott or something where you're getting this crazy message and you know, people are gonna think you're crazy. To do something drastic, like get all my shit and leaveCourtney 9:57 And were you getting a message to kill your children.Mat 10:02 No, no, no, I didn't even mean Job but that's really funny. I meant Lott. But, you know, no, I, you know, I I'm a witch so if I were to kill my children I would you know, I would be very mindful of it. I would be eating them I would be using their fat for ointment...I would use their bones for divination,Kanani 10:23 I am sure my children would taste nasty. So they're fairly safe in that regard.Mat 10:29 Are they not free range? Kanani 10:31 You know, they're just not. They watch too much TV. They're too you know, they're First of all, they're too scrawny. So they're too bony. Like, come on. Eat something.Mat 10:40 I love joking about eating children. I don't know why because to me, it's so absurd that it's funny. Like, I love the gingerbread Witch, right? I mean, like they're eating her house. Fuck them. She's a senior citizen out in the woods, minding her own business. Courtney 11:06 She's worked very hard. Anyone who has built a gingerbread house, you know, it takes some effort. Hilary 11:10 It is a pain in the ass.Courtney 11:13 and then these kids just want to come eat it. You're like, you know what? Screw you. I'm gonna eat YOU. And you're gonna see how you like it.Mat 11:19 Yeah, I usually joke with my friends. Like for cauldrons, we usually reference ages for it. So like, "Oh, that's a six month old cauldron. Oh, that's a three year old." You know, like, about what you could put in it.Courtney 11:34 I know right now Kanani is sizing up the cauldrons at her house. I know what she's looking at them right now I feel it. Kanani 11:41 I clearly need bigger cauldrons.Mat 11:47 But to go back full circle a little bit. Um, you know what's interesting is one of the things that I teach from the book and I've been teaching in workshops which pretty much aren't going to happen anymore for the rest of the year is this idea of working magic without anything, because I had to leave everything behind. So I don't really have magical tools. You know, I've had to do filtering exercises and grounding exercises. So it's been really interesting to sort of be tested on these things by spirit, you know? Because the energy outside I mean, in the world in general, like, I'm sure you can feel it.Kanani 12:32 It's very, you know, with all the stuff that's been going on, and you know, having children and dealing with the school stuff and still trying to work from home and we have some family that are having housing issues and we have another family member who has been in and out of the hospital and right now this is the last place you want to be is in the hospital. So when she goes in, no one can visit because no one's allowed anymore. And so, you know, I was talking to someone who was kind of talking to me like about how I was, you know, doing well or something like that. And I just kind of laughed and I said, "I am coping." I said, "Do not, you know, feel like you have to be tough around me, because, you know, I'm not doing poorly. But I certainly wouldn't say I'm doing...like I'm coping." And I feel like there's a lot of people that are just kind of in that spot where you're just kind of, you know, feeling it out and just going through the motions and trying to take it as it's coming.Mat 13:41 Yeah, absolutely. And I think, like you were saying, I mean, I think coping is it for where we are in the world. That's a good spot to be in. It's not ideal, but it's, it's The Tower card right now.Courtney 13:57 And I know what's really gotten to me is that we're just at the beginning of this tower falling. This is almost like I think I realized today this was going to be like the the prequel and that we're we're into the meat of things as people say next week Anyway, here in Oregon, they're anticipating the peak to happen in mid April. So we've got a couple of weeks of watching this happen and it it's slowly been hitting home for me just how serious this illness really is. I know of two people who have lost close friends and relatives to this virus in the past week. One of these mutual friends was someone that I probably came across when I was in New York City because we used to frequent the Bowery poetry club together. And so now he's gone and then the the cousin of a guest we had on on the show last year passed away. I'm not going to say who because I didn't get their permission. But you know, that's it's, it's hitting home pretty quickly. And now I'm hearing people say things like "Please pray for my Husband"... "Please pray for so and so ,they're very ill." And then I'm wondering is it? Do they get food poisoning or do they have COVID 19, which on the last episode I was calling it CORVID 19 the whole time. Something about crows? Mat 15:15 I've been doing that as well. Hilary 15:17 Have you really?Courtney 15:20 I even put it in my newsletter. I thought it was just my latent Southern accent that throws random R's and things but no, actually in my newsletter I called it "All things canceled because of corvid-19." And that's not it. I think coping is that's how we're going to be we can't really...this is out of our control. The only thing we can control is ourselves. Which is a great lesson for life and something that will hopefully stay with all of us forever and ever. But in the moment, it's not easy.Mat 15:50 Yeah, I mean, like we're in such unprecedented times, like I posted on Facebook today. like Britney Spears on her Instagram was calling for revolution and wealth distribution and all this stuff. And it's like what? Hilary 16:05 I agree with that. I think it's it is nothing like we have ever seen before, at least in our lifetimes. I also, I mean, I think there's a healthy level of fear and anxiety that we all have. I mean, that's I feel like completely normal to, to feel in this time. I said that to a friend of mine today, who was like, I just feel like really overwhelmed and kind of anxious. And I said, I think that's pretty normal. But I also am really inspired by watching how community has come together and watching how people have stepped up to the plate to try and help other people. I watched a friend of mine in the Bay Area who owns a startup was able to get production out of places in China that have reopened in order to get PPE, protective personal protective equipment, to the frontlines of hospital workers here in the United States. And it's like, very inspiring to see how many people have just like, you know, put them themselves aside and are out there trying to help people actively and just a huge thank you to people that are on the front lines of the medical personnel, the the grocery, the people in the grocery store so we can get food, you know, people that are in the pharmacy, veterinarians that are open, you know, all of that. I'm just very grateful for people who are out there helping us with resources, you know, even though it must be really scary for them.Kanani 17:31 So, everyone that had to hear my phone beep because I forgot to turn it off. I get text messages that say things like "Need a jar of seawater? I'm collecting soon." Hilary 17:43 I love it. Kanani 17:46 Of course, that text comes right now. And of course the answer was yes. But that's not the point.Courtney 17:55 Was that your mom, Kanani? Was she out there being a witch on the sea?Kanani 17:58 No, it was I've asked her. She's so bad at being an old woman. She doesn't have any mason jars or any kind of jars. She's just terrible at being an old woman she just doesn't understand. And so I've asked her to do it before but she doesn't have jars so I have to provide her with jars which I'm like, you're supposed to have these things. Like, come on. Courtney 18:22 I don't even think she has bowls of candy sitting out in her house either. I don't recall that.Kanani 18:25 Oh no. She's terrible being an old woman.Courtney 18:28 Oh, kanani you've got some work to do. Kanani 18:31 I know.Mat 18:31 Is she not giving you animal shaped weed cookies? Because apparently that's a new standard I'm going to hold senior citizens to.Kanani 18:40 If she had them, she would not share them. That's how this works. If she had them she would eat them and not share them. she very well might have them, but she would hide them from me and keep them for herself.Courtney 18:56 Mat knows he moved back to the right coast when the senior citizens are giving out weed chocolate in exchange for picking up someone's Prilosec.Mat 19:07 I love the West Coast. I am I'm originally from the west coast. So one of the things I struggled on the East Coast with is just like not feeling connected to the land and not feeling like it was home. And now I feel like I'm home again.Courtney 19:23 Yeah, well, what's been interesting, we're talking about being unprecedented in our time. And I feel like it's the response and the global connection. That is what is really unprecedented. And it's been very, very eerie for me in many ways. One of the ways that I've been filling up this time is by finishing some genealogy work. My sister and I hired a genealogist to do some research into our family and that was a Christmas/birthday/mother and father's day present for our parents. And I was finally collecting all the information for my dad and looking at his in comparison with my mom's and seeing how, in both sides of the family we lost patriarchs to the Spanish flu. So there were widows left raising single daughters alone. It's very interesting of both this happened in two different families that that the fathers passed away, leaving their widows with single daughters to raise, both of the Spanish flu and reading this, it was almost a reminder I felt like from my ancestors of what what these illnesses can do and how they can deeply impact a family for generations because a child that loses their father, very young to something scary, like or anything like that, but that's going to have an impact in how they raise their kids. For sure. I'd have to I have to say though, in doing this research, I've had this really incredible gift is that I have learned about my great great, great aunt, this is my great grandmother's aunt, who is the most perfect ancestor i think i've ever heard of. So She was a single woman and don't know if she was divorced or she was a widow, she raised three girls. And apparently, her thing was to collect stray cats. And she Yeah, and she, as my my great aunt was telling me, she would come to my great grandmother's house for Christmas every year on a train with her daughters. And that one year, she brought an entire basket of kittens that she found at the train station. And then I'm hearing more stories and how she would always mess with the collection plate at Mass. And so when the plate would go by, she would like take change back. Like if she put in an quarter, she took back a dime because she didn't want to give a whole quarter or whatever, or she would have, she would throw the quarter so it would bounce in and out of the collection plate. And then Apparently, she used to kick people under the table and make somebody else think that they had done it, so she'd start fights with other people. If she was kicking them under the table, and I heard about this and I'm like, "oh my god. I need a picture of her immediately with a candle and a whole shrine, frickin on my altar because the great, great, great aunt that rescued kittens and kicked people under the table and fucked with the communion plate at Mass is one of my ancestors, guys. I mean, I am so full of the light and divine spirit of this woman and I will carry her message forward.Hilary 22:24 I love it.Courtney 22:25 And you know, because this was the early 20th century, you know, she wore a big hat. You just know it. Hilary 22:30 Huge hat!Courtney 22:31 Giant hat. Getting off the train in Pittsburgh with a basket of kittens. Hilary 22:36 A giant hat and a basket of kittens. That's like, the best. That's the ultimate.Courtney 22:40 She is, no seriously I've got to find a picture of her because this woman belongs on my ancestor altar. That was one of the things that Queen Mother Imakhu said two episodes ago. Some people don't belong on your ancestor altar and some do. Great, great, great aunt Margaret definitely belongs on my ancestor altar. Hilary 22:56 Heck yeah. Courtney 22:59 So that's one of the blessings of this time has given me is the revelation of my new ancestorHilary 23:04 administrator for an online group and people have been doing this amazing thing where they're setting up time to livestream stuff. So we had someone showing you how to make pastries, we had someone DJ and DJ party we had someone giving us a lesson on tea making a lesson on coffee making the lesson. So it's like every day there's these the sharing of knowledge and then you know, people if they really like it, they're welcome to tip people as well. We know some of the people that are sharing out of work. One of the women DJ that do like an online party this morning to raise funds for to support resources for sex workers during this time and I just was like, What a cool concept of how much art and talent and and inspiration people are showing during this time. I see From celebrities to friends and I think it's it's really nice to see people sharing in that wayMat 24:08 like Britney Spears calling for revolution and wealth distribution. Like what???Hilary 24:16 I know that's still kind of blows my mindCourtney 24:19 This is a call out there to our artisans we definitely need Britney Spears saint candles because you know they've got a lot of them you've got you've got I think there's Beyonce candles, I know there have been...Hilary 24:29 There's definitely Beyonce candles Courtney 24:32 We need a Britney Spears candle cuz apparently she's going to save us.Mat 24:35 They probably already exist I'm sure I'm sure some small seller on Etsy is selling them who we should supportHilary 24:43 who we should definitely support! Etsy is a great way to support small businesses and individual artisans during this time. I know I've been like perusing going like "what do I want? what do I want to buy? What should I get to put into my house?Mat 24:58 It's funny because as I was saying, like I could only bring limited things, right? because it was like a rush move and one of the things that I did pack in my luggage was my Nancy from "The Craft" saint candleHilary 25:15 amazingMat 25:17 because I couldn't I couldn't part with that.Hilary 25:21 No You definitely cannot part with that that is critical to bring anywhere. Mat 25:27 I'm a "The Craft" boy. That was my gateway drug into the world of witchcraft,Hilary 25:32 You're like: "Clothes, toothbrush, toiletries, Nancy candle...." "Come on, Nancy. Let's go. We're gonna move to California."Mat 25:42 Well one of the things that made it easy is a lot of my oils and sprays I had to leave behind. I packed some, but the majority of my sprays and oils are modern conjure the mystic dream. So if there's any that I can easily replace now because I'm now living with them. I'm roommates. So...Kanani 26:04 That has to get you some sort of a discount, like I'm saying,Mat 26:08 right, right, I hope so,Hilary 26:10 You don't have to pay for shipping at least.Mat 26:12 Well, the actual store is like the physical store is closed, it's because we do have a shelter in place. And now it's an order. So it's a non essential business. So I came at a very interesting time where it's just Tower on lots of levels, you know, which is cool and exciting because now, you know, despite all the chaos and stuff, it's all about learning, 'Well, what now? What can we build together?" Because, you know, like, they are like, peers and teachers and collaborators. You know, I got my final initiation for Sacred Fires. So me and Devin are going to be like expanding that and geeking out on that. But now it's kind of like figuring out since like, you know, the store was essentially their bread and butter, you know how to do that remotely. So there's a lot of emphasis on course building and readings right now. Storm and Chas just released a spiritual cleansing course. And I know Devin's working on stuff and I'm working on stuff. But it's an interesting time of sort of, like you were saying, just figuring out how, how to exist now during this time. And how to, you know what I mean? Because like, it's the small businesses that are hurt the hardest, and the people that are freelancers and artists and crafters and stuff.Kanani 27:44 There's a lot of other ways that I think that we're also seeing how I mean, one, this is going to do a lot of things like you're talking about where people are going to kind of be expanding their repertoire, right like now they're, they can do things over the phone, they can sell things online, they can do things like that. I think the other thing that's gonna change is, you know, we're seeing a lot of companies. So that are, you know, say upping their cell service, they're upping their...they're offering free cable, they're offering free internet, they're offering free this or offering free that, I think we're going to get to kind of a point where people are going to be like, "should you really be charging people for that? Like, should we really be paying for internet? Because we kind of see that in a national emergency. We all need internet. So should we really be paying?" You know what I mean? So should it really not be available to some people? Or does this need to become a new public service? So it's like, I feel like this is gonna change a lot of our normal day to day routines in a more permanent in a more permanent way.Courtney 28:52 Can we go ahead and cancel student debt if you're so worried about the economy? Let's go ahead and free up what is it a trillion dollars in student debt locked up? There's your economy. There you go.Mat 29:05 Yeah. And it's interesting because a lot of these things are things without naming specific candidates, but things that, you know, a lot of these presidential candidates have been proposing. And now it's becoming a thing where we're kind of seeing the importance of it when you know, shit hits the fan. Like, I know one candidate, at least one candidate was very firm that like the internet is essential. It's not it shouldn't be a privilege type thing. It's literally needed for survival.Kanani 29:37 And I think this is proving that Mat 29:39 exactly. Because like if the internet went out I mean...whew...Kanani 29:43 well that's what I was telling my husband. I mean, this is a catastrophe so I'm in no way trying to downplay what's what we're going through. I mean, we're at the you know, we're the calm before the storm even still, but, um, you know, I was telling my husband like, "Imagine if this was like, A natural disaster where this is happening, but you have no electricity, you have no sewer, you have no water, you know, you have no cell phone service." It's like, I can't even imagine how people would be behaving when it's it's already fairly Bedlam. And all people have to do is sit on their couch and watch cable. You know, I mean, for the most part, there's the people, of course, who were losing their jobs. And so there's there's financial stuff, but I mean, as far as like security, you know, for the first few days, you know, if you paid your rent, you know, you still were okay. You had to worry about future stuff once people started losing their jobs. But I mean, the sheer panic and craziness that happened was just kind of it was jarring for me and shocking, because I've always been one of those people that, you know, is kind of a prepper. So I'm always thinking about that stuff. I have a lot of that emergency stuff and to see how people have behaved while still having access to everything has just been very eye opening,Mat 31:06 right and seeing how that's creating shortage, by people freaking out. Yeah, I know there's also like, certain it's cool to see like it really does feel like a weird global shift not to sound like too new-agey or to make it into something that is purely good because I don't want to underplay how horrible this is. But like we're seeing companies like Tito's vodka for example. Like they were talking about how they're not making vodka right now they're changing their factory into a hand sanitizer factory to help people and I didn't mean to like name a brand but you know what I mean? Kanani 31:45 We already talked about vodka. It's fine.Courtney 31:49 Even Ford is is working to change that they're going to be starting to make ventilators and other ICU equipment. And I think it's what this is showing us is that I feel like right now one of the gifts of The Tower is that it shows you, it shows you where you "I can'ts have been artificial. They've said for so long, we can't shut down. We can't we can't shut down these massive facets of industry on behalf of climate change, because terrible things will happen. Well, people adjust, right? So people aren't going to conferences, and that's, you know, it's it's pretty, it's really disappointing, especially when part of your livelihood are those conferences, but then just like Mat said, people shift to start doing online things. So it's saying yeah, it is possible to do things differently. It is possible to give everybody in the country $1,000 when they said "no, we couldn't possibly do that. That would be way too much on our on our national budget," but suddenly, "oh, well, we can make it work." You know, we don't always have to have $1,000 although Andrew Yang's platform was pretty compelling. But it just goes to show that all the things that we've been told, by, by society, by, by people in the government by, you know, by talking heads are impossible, we're looking to see that it is possible all these things are. It doesn't mean we want to live this way forever, but we're making it work Mat 31:51 well, and one of the things that I find kind of weirdly inspiring is a lot of what we've been talking about, like people supporting each other and even like companies and corporations stepping up to the plate, because right before this, you know, I, I, like many people was slowly losing faith in humanity. And we've never seen at least just in our country, and I know this parallels in other countries too, but such division between people, and I think this is starting to bring out that humanness in people. That has been sort of disappearing.Kanani 34:01 I have totally noticed that people aren't trolling like they used to. They used to be nasty for literally no fucking reason. No reason for you to come out and be nasty. But you just think it's funny. And I've noticed that's really kind of gone away. And I'm seeing people that used to kind of write really mean snarky stuff just have kind of chilled. Their whole tone, their whole demeanor has just kind of, you know, like you said become everything's become more humanizing. Like Well, maybe maybe it's actually not funny, you know, people are being more aware of of the fact that they are a part of something bigger, and they have a part to play in that and maybe they should, you know, do something good with that. So I definitely think I agree with you 1,000% Because I just didn't know how, you know, it is happening all over the world, but how we as a country we're ever going to get along again. Because it just seems so, so far apart, and suddenly, all of that stuff just seems so trivial. And everyone just wants everyone to be okay.Mat 35:19 Well and you know, to keep going with our metaphor of The Tower card, right? What's next? It's The Star card. Yeah, the Star Card is all about healing and hope and, you know, the figures naked, you know, and there's no buildings and so it's, there is this sense of like coming back to human-ness and coming back to that spiritual essence and focusing on hope of what the future has. And you know, because I do think that the Tarot you know, regardless of its history, and its debated history and stuff, like it does seem to be a very archetypal sequence of things that unfold in people's lives. And so it makes sense that if the same is happening on a larger macroscopic level, that to where we're coming into next is the star card energy.Courtney 36:12 It's so funny that you say that because I've been doing a lot of tarot readings this week for people and everybody's getting The Star card. And I didn't connect that, that that's perhaps something that they individually are each going to experience but also perhaps taps into this collective refocusing. I feel like a lot of times The Star card is the highest ideal and it's the one part of the Tarot where the fool who's the main character in this journey loses sight of that. And it's through the the moments of the tower when everything they felt was so important, gets built up and falls away that that clarity comes back in and how many of us have had our moments when things were more difficult and painful, but it was a sight of the stars that managed to, even if it didn't give us the answer we needed at the moment, just helped us reset ourselves and know we're going to get through it.Mat 37:06 Another thing and I'm going to get a little New Agey here, but there's parallel concepts in Thelema with like the Aeon of Horus, The Star card is ruled by Aquarius you know, and there's this whole idea of the Age of Aquarius, you know, where people sort of start waking up to what is important and start seeing things in a different light and becoming more in touch with their spiritual and divine humannness. So I think that's also kind of interesting that we're going from The Tower to The Star cardKanani 37:40 reminds me of when we were talking to Theresa Reed about you know what's coming up in this year and she kept talking about how we're in a time of Pluto, and Pluto just fucks everything up.Courtney 37:52 Plutonium! Kanani 37:53 It destroys everything and tears everything down. And then we're going from that to an Age of AquariusMat 38:00 Right, well, it's very Inanna in a lot of ways. That descent, that stripping of you know, what you're holding on to, you know, these ideas of...well, it would be like, identity and stuff. But like if we were to take that as a cultural context, you know, this idea of stripping away these cultural ideas that we're holding on to that aren't necessarily true. So, for example, you're talking about, like, all of a sudden, like, you know, we can afford, you know, basic income and stuff. But it's a descent into the underworld before, you know, rising as a new creature.Kanani 38:43 Sorry, I'm staring at my cat right now.Courtney 38:45 You're supposed to be hosting the show. Kanani 38:48 Well, you know.Hilary 38:51 We're like, "okay, what's next, Kanani? And she's all, "staring at my cat."Kanani 38:59 He's snoring!!!Courtney 39:00 Yeah. Well what I was going to, to add, we were talking about, you know, supporting people in business and things that when the virus has passed and when all of this is over, we're going to feel the effects of this in the in the economy for a while, especially among our beloveds who are in service work, you know. And so, one of the things we asked for and we are still open to this are, our witches who are listening who are artisans, to let us know about your store or your online business. So friends, if you have the ability to go ahead and do your Christmas shopping early, now's a good time to do that and try to support people especially if they're not able to get in and do their jobs at the moment. You know, we talked about the Mystic Dream in the Bay Area has now Online merchandise, is that what we understand, Mat? Mat 40:02 Yeah. And and because there's the whole Academy aspect of it. So we're trying to provide workshops and even just like single download type things, you know, for low prices just to give people to be doing the teaching and this stuff. I do believe that they're still selling things through the actual storefront, the online storefront, obviously not the store itself. But yeah, it's just sort of like a refocusing, but it's good because this is something that like, we had been talking about doing for a long time, but you know, has been put off because, you know, they have a store to run. And now it's sort of like the universe is forcing it.Courtney 40:48 Yeah, it's I think a lot of people are experiencing that the projects that they've been putting off, I know I recovered a chair that I put off recovering for two years. It took me all of 10 minutes and I will learn nothing from this and I will put off other projects for two years. But now I've got this really cute chair that's recovered with mermaid fabric.Mat 41:07 That's exciting. Courtney 41:08 It's so cute. You have to come visit and see it. Kanani 41:11 I'm going to take itCourtney 41:12 no you're not Mat 41:13 when the when the plague is over we we should take a road trip up there andCourtney 41:18 so some other stores that are selling online right now: The Raven's Wing and Q Meb but also check your local metaphysical store as well. Many of them may be doing things online and there's a number of stores that are completely online that you might want to know about. These are all witches, many of whom are listeners to our show. Gaia's Workshop drums, drum making and other sacred art. There is an Etsy link, you can get that on our website. Also Smashing ivory production, which is music and fancy photography. And then there's I think it's pronounced Swandee, an alt-electric trio from South Africa whom you can find on Spotify. And The Witch's Resistance online store. They have magical candles and herb concoctions as well as lots of paraphernalia to let everybody know that you were part of the resistance. There's an Etsy store called Alchemical Goddess is featuring absolutely beautiful handcrafted pagan talisman jewelry and I believe is also now selling our spell cards. Yeah, and then Transcendant Art, a gallery of artists and spiritual metaphysical pieces, created to add lasting beauty and gentle loving ambience to every sacred space. Are they carrying the cards? Kanani 42:22 Yes she is.They're also carrying our cards we have actually with all of this stuff going on, we continue to have stores contacting us wanting to sell our spell cards which I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart, to be mailing them out and making them and just it feels amazing. So yes, fire spell cards cuz makes us happy to send them to you.Hilary 42:59 So amazing, incredibly magical artists that I know Addi Miyako. She is just created the Botan Tarot which is a whimsical deck illustrated in watercolor, drawing inspiration from Art Nouveau, Addi's Japanese heritage and the character characters from folk tales she grew up with. Botan in Japanese means peony, which is the flower prominently featured on the back of the design of the Tarot deck as well as on separate cards, several cards, and in Japanese flower language, peonies represent bravery. Botan is also a play on word the word botanical as Addi uses Japanese flower language and other plant imagery throughout the deck. So this deck started out and launched on Kickstarter earlier this year and reached full funding within like six hours. Her artwork is phenomenal and she also sells artwork on top of the Tarot deck which will be actually taking pre orders outside of the Kickstarter starting in April with with product being shipped in July, we'll post her website on there, but the deck is so beautiful. And her art in general, which is also on her website is just so like it's just really beautiful. It's very sweet. She does pet portraits, pets in these, like, you know, different beautiful scenarios and they're just awesome. So I'm excited to a I was one I bought one of the decks through the Kickstarter campaign and so I'm super excited to get that when production is done and yeah, it's just a really she's, she's amazing and, and I think her artwork is amazing. So we'll list her shop as well. on there. Kanani 44:34 I'm gonna need a private link for that, because that's absolutely happening.Hilary 44:38 Oh my god, when she first started I got to see some pictures of what she was working on. I was just like, oh my god, this is so cool. It's really beautiful. I can't wait to have it in my possession.Courtney 44:50 Two other things that I wanted to throw in as well. There are two new witchcraft podcasts, both of which were launched this week. So all of y'all sitting at home: extra things to listen to. So the first one is Science Witch podcast, which is led by Anjel and Iris. And this is for people who love both witchcraft and science as well as how they intersect with each other. Awesome. This is like totally by speed as in the next one, which is "When God Was Queer," which is a weekly podcast in which Dakota St. Clare shares various legends, lore and myths, which function as divine reflections of LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences. I'm a huge fan of Dakota, I knew them when I was living in New York City. And so I'm very excited that they've started a podcast, and both of these are available on anchor.Kanani 45:41 So Hilary, so you mentioned that you had that tarot deck. And then you had also mentioned that you had possibly some different causes and whatnot.Hilary 45:51 Yeah, absolutely. So there are two causes. There's one that's local to where we are so local for Oregon State and there's another one that's A general one that is helping kind of all over the place in multiple countries. So the local one is called the Oregon Community recovery Fund, which will rapidly deploy resources to community based organizations at the frontline of the of the Covid-19 outbreak. And we'll put a link to that. On the website, and the other one is called the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. And it has established the COVID-19 response fund to support preparation, containment, and recovery needs with a focus on nonprofit organization, working in areas with high numbers of cases. And those working with vulnerable populations in those areas include including hourly and gig economy workers, immigrants, although elderly adults and individuals with disabilities, so we'll post that as well. So those were two, you know, we'll try and feature some each episode while we're going through this just areas that you can get back. I mean, I think it's really beautiful, I see people like giving exercise classes for free online, meditation classes for free online, you know, just anything to help us all get through this together. And I think that sense of community is just a really powerful thing. And I think that it's what is going to get us all through this together. You know?Courtney 47:21 I've been streaming videos of my dog sleeping.Kanani 47:26 Yeah, we know,Hilary 47:28 My charitable thing, for I think I sent a picture to Kanani and Courtney but my charitable thing for the week is we, the rescue that I adopted my dog from, had a foster family pull out with a dog that was in transport. And so we are going to be fostering a four and a half month old puppy coming from Texas named Yoko, who is pretty much the cutest thing ever. She looks like some sort of Catahula, or Catahula mix, which is my dog here. Riley is a Catahula mix, a lab-Catahula mix and so they're basically the opposite color pattern. Riley's dark with light patches and this one is light with dark patches. So I'm pretty sure that we're gonna have a lot of things to do to keep us busy. Puppies are a lot of work, but also lots of cute cooing at the dog and we'll definitely post photos.Courtney 48:21 I am so mad about this quarantine thing now because I really want to come over and play with that puppy and I can't,Hilary 48:27 We'll do virtual!Courtney 48:28 It's not the same and you know it. Puppies need to be cuddled. They're like wiggly and cute and warm. I'm sad.Hilary 48:36 It was one of my co workers who had brought it up when we were you know, when we were before we had actually closed, but when we were talking about closure. And you know, she said "this is a really good time to foster" and especially now that of course, many people are at home during this time. Most people are at home during this time. For us. We were like well yes, you know, fostering a puppy right now is doable where maybe normally it might not be because of our work schedule. So it's really, it's a night it'll be a nice uplifting addition, although I'm sure chaotic, uplifting addition to our household.Kanani 49:14 So since we're doing the bonus episodes, and we'll be doing another bonus episode next week, I was thinking it would be fun. You know, last week we'd asked for people to kind of send in their artistan links. And we certainly would still like people to do that. And I thought it would be really fun is kind of like Courtney, you talked about how you recovered a chair that you've been wanting to do for two years and you finally got around to doing, for people to send us like pictures of their craft projects, or house projects or writing projects or just tell us about something that you've been wanting to do and now you've gotten it completed so you can brag on yourself a little bit. So you can email those pictures or stories or whatnot to us a thatwitchlifepodcast@ or you can also post it on Facebook or Instagram. Find us on one of those but I thought that would be kind of fun if people could kind of share their fun stories of "I finally did this!" Courtney 50:13 We will post a blog with all the pics of the cute things everybody has been up to during this time of a lot of un-cuteness. Plagues are uncute. Hilary 50:24 They are not cute. Courtney 50:26 We need t-shirts that say, "plagues are not cute."Hilary 50:29 Plagues=Not Cute. Courtney 50:30 Plagues. Not cute. Plagues #notcuteHilary 50:35 We need a thing that says plagues are less than....puppies are greater than plagues. With the "greater than" symbol.Kanani 50:47 I was talking about people work when I told him that this is not my favorite and he just laughed.Hilary 50:56 That's not my favorite. Hey Courtney! How's that chocolate treating you?Courtney 51:03 It's treating me beautifully. I'm over here both laughing and crying feeling all the joy and all the star of the world. It's basically how I am all of the time, but just kind of more.Hilary 51:15 Heightened. Heightened Courtney. Courtney 51:17 Heightened CourtneyKanani 51:19 That's horrifying.Courtney 51:21 Well Kanani is over there eating vodka not drinking vodka, eating vodka and staring at her cat because that's how she wants to spend the apocalypse.Hilary 51:29 Eating vodkaCourtney 51:33 She put it in her ice cream. Kanani 51:35 It was delicious, by the way. I definitely recommend it.Hilary 51:43 I have like a kid's juice box of apple juice that I randomly found in my car. I was like, Oh, what's this? That's what I that's what I had during our podcast. minute made kids juice box.Courtney 51:55 Mat's regretting his choice to not have the cocktailHilary 52:00 No I haven't been drinking at all during this actually I've been sticking the weed mostly I mean I don't drink a lot to begin with but it just it lowers your immune system so I was like you know what if there's any time for me to you know focus on focus on the marijuana instead of alcohol.Kanani 52:17 See, ice cream and vodka actually boost my immune system. Hilary 52:21 a friend a friend was like a posted some some thing online that was like talking about people in Amsterdam who like made a you know started panic buying marijuana and I was really funny is I just commented and everyone was like, "Oh my god, that's so funny." I was like, "I panic bought marijuana."Courtney 52:37 Hilary was all, "That was me too."Hilary 52:41 I like went to the thing and I was like, I need all of it. I need everything, everything ever, and then I was like, What am I doing? We're not going to be inside for seven months, hopefully, but if we are....Courtney 52:51 I didn't rush out and just take. I just opened myself to the universe and someone gave me weed chocolate. So that was the lesson. Not to get all new-agey, y'all, but just think positively! Weed will come to me.Hilary 53:04 Harness your inner weed energy and it will appear in front of you.Courtney 53:11 Pot not plagues! Pot not plagues!Hilary 53:15 Oh, man, we've derailed. Sorry, Mat!Mat 53:22 It's all good.Kanani 53:24 Hopefully he found some weed candy to entertain himself while we've just been jabbering.Courtney 53:29 He's writing out "help me" notes and sticking them under the door.Kanani 53:35 Well, thank you so much for joining us and tolerating our nonsense and crazy. I was just wondering if you kind of had any favorite meditation intention or anything like that, that you're kind of using right now that you might like to share with anyone?Mat 53:51 Yeah, there's a couple but one of the things I really want to drive home is just meditation in general at this time and Not just because, you know, we need to calm our shit down. But you know, I try not to get to pseudo scientific with with anything. But there have been numerous studies that have shown and they're not quite sure how. But meditation does boost the immune system. Like there's been controlled studies in scientific journals and stuff where they've seen with a controlled group that after a period of meditating, you know, certain genes are shifted, that helped fight viral infection. genes that are related to stress and inflammation and wound healing are activated and changed. And this is like studies done by like Harvard and University of California. And you know, so I think right now a major thing to do is reframe Meditation. So not to reference my book again, but one of the things I talked about is how a lot of us and I, I was in this boat too, you know, meditation, we just kind of sigh and we're like, I don't want to do it, you know, there's a lot of resistance, but really reframing that as self care and as something that you do for yourself, not because you're obligated, because whether you get the health benefits from it or not, you know, there is something about that keeping your sanity and keeping your emotional strength. Beyond that, a lot of things that I've been doing, that have been helping me is obviously grounding. There's a volume control exercise that I talked about in my book, and I think I may have talked about it in the last podcast, which is when you're starting to feel overwhelmed by energy, so like earlier, I was talking about how the energy is so intense outside, like it's just in the air, you know, this idea of imagining That you have a volume knob. And when you turn it down that your input is turned down. The main thing that I've been doing is an exercise for my book. And I'm trying not to be like my book, my book, my book, butKanani 56:18 I wrote a book, I'd be like my book, my book, my book, Hilary 56:22 please book all over the place.Mat 56:25 So the exercise that I've been doing a lot is exercise 44 in my book, which is a filter shield, so it's essentially taking a moment and visualizing the energy around you like your aura, and then imagining that there's a mesh strainer of silver light around it, and then a gold strainer around it, and then using your intention to program it, because we're witches, right? So it's not all about visualization. It's about that willpower of moving that energy. Empowering that visualization to be magic. And then you know, I have my little witchy affirmation that I state which is "by lunar and solar opposite and polar energies that Harm and wilter cannot pass through my magic filter." So I've been doing that a lot. And you know, I'm not saying that that's going to protect you from viruses. I'm not saying that at all. But there's a lot of funky energy out there. And as someone who is psychic, and I believe everyone is psychic, it's overwhelming. It's very overwhelming at the moment. So just that kind of mindfulness of like, what is my energy? What am I allowing into my energy, taking a moment to ground yourself to center yourself and just you know, that mindful meditation of just taking time to just, you know, meditate and see that as something you do for yourself something you do As self care as opposed to some, just another chore that you feel you need to do, I think would be very beneficial for people at this moment. Kanani 58:13 I think that's phenomenal. We had talked about kind of meditation and stuff, the last bonus podcast we've done and I think that that's...I think that's a good way to look at it is try not to look at it as something that you just should do or need to do, but just really think of it as self care. And something that is like a gift that you're giving to yourself. Mat 58:35 Exactly. And also, when it comes to things related to the virus because I'm such, you know, they're She's my friend, I'm still a fan girl of Laura Tempest Zackroff. And she's creating these amazing sigils for like, you know, boosting your immune system and you know, emotional self care and making sure you have all your needs met. She's really stepping up to the plate. I love her work. I love her method of sigil creation. Because I think right now is also an opportunity for people who are homebound to really, you know, do those things they've been putting off in regards to their practice and their development. So like employing sigils, you know, working meditation, developing their psychic ability, getting back to strengthening a daily practice. You know, we're given this opportunity, we're stuck at home rightKanani 59:34 100%. And I think also when you are in such a stressful and chaotic situation, I think giving yourself some sort of routine can actually be really helpful. And so this could be a great time to kind of work some of you know, work some more magical practice into just your normal daily routine.Mat 59:59 Absolutely. Hilary 1:00:00 Absolutely, I definitely find myself having the space to do that more than I have before. You know, I mean, obviously I always have worked magic into my life but I have found my I have found myself with time to actually work on some of the areas that I want to or delve more into areas that I want to and being able to use magic as self care but also to affect change in general. And having the the space to do so. has been nice toMat 1:00:29 totallyKanani 1:00:31 I'm waiting for Courtney. Courtney usually jumps in.Courtney 1:00:34 Pardon? You're hosting today!Kanani 1:00:39 but that doesn't stop you.Courtney 1:00:42 Oh, well. Everybody else said things. I was all, like okay, covered.Hilary 1:00:47 If Courtney needed to follow along with things for this episode, Kanani, you probably should have let her know before she ate the weed candy.Kanani 1:00:56 Excellent pointHilary 1:00:59 Courtney's all, "isn't everything nice over here?"Kanani 1:01:03 Courtney's staring at her pretty, pretty walls.Courtney 1:01:08 They are really pretty. The lavender color was a really good choice.Kanani 1:01:16 And with that...Hilary 1:01:18 and there we are.Kanani 1:01:21 Thank you, Mat, for joining us and we are very happy that you are back with us on the west coast and we will absolutely make arrangements after all of these shenanigans to have a get together and and have some fun because...Mat 1:01:35 share survival stories? Kanani 1:01:37 Yes, absolutely.Mat 1:01:39 Yeah. No, thank you so much for having me on. You know, it's it's always fun. I don't reappear on podcasts if I don't have fun or I don't enjoy it. And I I find you entertaining. And that's a big part of it, as I'm sure Courtney knows, like once you start doing lots of podcasts, like other people's podcasts, you you don't want to go back to the ones that feel like it's pulling teeth. Kanani 1:02:06 No, you just have to hope that next time we're a little more sober apparently. Or you be a little less sober. That might help. Hilary 1:02:17 Yeah, a little more sober on our part, a little less sober on your part will even it out...Kanani 1:02:24 I will absolutely make a point to come see you guys next time I come down Mat 1:02:30 Yeah, that would be great. Kanani 1:02:31 It would be so much fun. and I think that's important. We all just need to remember that as awful as all of this is, it is temporary. It is temporary, it is temporary.Mat 1:02:42 And if not, we'll find new ways of being you know, and we'll create you know, new witchy plague masks.Kanani 1:02:51 Just what I need: another accessory to buy.Mat 1:02:55 Yeah, I mean like, humans are resilient. Humans are ingenius, I think that this is a big wake up shake up call, you know, and it's devastating in a lot of ways. It's scary in a lot of ways. But I'm an optimist. You know, like we were saying after The Tower is The Star. So we gotta hold on to That Star, that hope, that goodness in humanity and the universe and each other and figure out how we are going to tap into that Aquarian energy. I did look it up it is Aquarius.Hilary 1:03:35 You're like, I'm for sure at this time.Mat 1:03:37 Yeah. Which I think is beautiful, you know. And now it's the time of...so now I have the Age of Aquarius stuck in my head, that like 70's...Hilary 1:03:50 Like, for a whole week, people have brought up Aquarius to me and it's like, I'm like, 'Oh, no, that song is never going to leave.'Courtney 1:03:56 I have the Twin Peaks theme song in my head. So I'm ahead of both of you.Mat 1:04:01 I've never seen Twin Twin Peaks. That's one of the things Chaz is like, "no, you're gonna watch all of them." Like you won't understand me as a roommate if you don't watch all of them. I'm like, "okay, I don't know how to take that but I'm down."Kanani 1:04:14 I don't think I've ever seen them either.Courtney 1:04:17 Oh, Kanani, there's something I want to double check. You have seen "Monty Python And The Search For The Holy Grail," haven't you?Kanani 1:04:24 I know I should say yes. Courtney 1:04:25 Oh, no....Hilary 1:04:26 Oh my god. You need to go watch it immediately.Courtney 1:04:29 It's on Netflix and actually you can watch it with the kids. There's only one reference to oral sex in there. And the rest of time it's totally PG. They would love it because it has crazy British accents in itHilary 1:04:41 It's so funny.Kanani 1:04:44 All right. Well, we'll add that we'll add that to our list then,Courtney 1:04:48 Maybe you should watch it this week. So you can review it on the next episode. I think that would give poeple a lot of joy.Kanani 1:04:54 I will do that. I will watch it this week. So I can review it but I will I will remind everyone my children have been Every episode of "The Owl House."Courtney 1:05:02 Oh, good. Mat 1:05:03 Oh, I haven't seen that yet. I want to. Kanani 1:05:05 it is so good. It's a great, it's a great little sitcom. We have it on season record. And my kids have seen every episode at least once or twice.Hilary 1:05:15 That's awesome.Kanani 1:05:16 All right. Well, thank you so much, Mat, for tolerating us and our shenanigans. And you know, hopefully next time we have you on it'll be...we'll all be having a lot more fun in our houses. And I just I really want to thank you. I'm glad that you had a safe trip to the west coast. I'm glad you're back. And I just want to thank all our listeners, just know that we are thinking about you. We are going to keep doing these weekly additional podcasts to kind of just check in and to kind of hopefully send some good vibes out there for people who we are sure you know, are having some difficult times are just kind Trying to find some things to do. So thank you for listening to us. If you do have projects that you've been working on that you've completed, please feel free to send them to us. we'll create a blog post of all the pictures and and let you brag about yourself. And if you have an artistan marketplace you would like us to advertise, we're happy to do that as well. Thank you so much for joining us and we will talk to you next week. Bye Witches!(Exit Music) 1:06:28 Join us on the first and third Mondays of the month for magical tools, tips and stories about living as a Witch in today's world. Find us at for archived episodes or to ask your burning questions for us to answer on a future podcast. So Mote it Be!Transcribed by ................
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