That Witch Life – A Podcast on Living as a Witch in Today ...



Bonus Episode: Eclipse Magick with Damon StangWed, 5/27 12:21PM ? 1:04:09SUMMARY KEYWORDSeclipse, people, moon, eclipses, damon, new moon, solar eclipse, ritual, magic, magical, full moon, lunar eclipse, sun, powerful, work, witches, watched, energy, absolutely, groundingSPEAKERSKanani, Intro music, Courtney Hoover, Hilary, Damon, (Exit Music)Intro music 00:0020 years ago, three young friends realized they were witches. They scattered to different parts of the world, following magic and spirit. Now, they're back in their hometown to share what they've learned. Welcome to That Witch Life Podcast. Your home for living as a witch in today's world.Courtney Hoover 00:48Welcome back witches this is another one of our bonus episodes of That Witch Life Podcast. I'm your host today. My name is Courtney and I am joined by Hilary, Hilary 00:57Hello! Courtney Hoover 00:59and Kanani. Kanani 01:00Hello!Courtney Hoover 01:02and we are very excited to welcome back one of our absolutely most popular guests, Damon Stang is with us. For those of you who listened last summer, Damon did a phenomenal episode for us on house cleansings and which has, I have learned, has become required listening for a number of witchcraft groups around the country. So there are people that are learning about how to cleanse their homes and their magical environments specifically, because of our episode that we recorded with Damon, I believe it was July or August of last year. So for those of you who want to catch that, there will be a link to the original episode in our show notes on our website. For those of you who have not yet heard the episode, Damon Stang is a a scholar of comparative folk magic, and the cultural significance of ritual in contemporary cultures. He is a practitioner of traditional European witchcraft in both the pre Christian and modern lineages. He resides in Brooklyn. New York. Damon Stangs work has been covered in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, the New York Post, Elle Magazine, and Newsweek magazine. So Damon, welcome back. We really missed you.Damon 02:11Hi, thank you for having me. That was quite quite the introduction, no pressure.Courtney Hoover 02:16One of the things I want to talk about a couple of different things today, and one talk about some of the magic that we've been doing in these last couple weeks of the pandemic, and we're also going to get into eclipses a little bit later in the episode as we have two coming up in June and one in July. So very rich time for working on that. We had a listener reached out to us on Instagram asking us what to do about eclipses and we said, well, that sounds like a good topic to talk about with Damon among other things. But first of all, I want to talk about this new moon that we just had, because for me, it was super powerful. How What was it like for you all?Damon 02:54Well, I'll just jump in the New Moon, this new moon for me well Beltane has been quite a season for me and I do it seven times, no actually, all the time, think of the Sabbats as seasons and not days, you know, the days for me are event and then there's more than one event day. And so, beginning with a full moon of May, the lunar beltane that was sort of the pinnacle of my Beltane. And from there, things progressed with me into the new moon of this cycle, and it was very powerful and I did achieve a lot of magical work. And I felt that that whole cycle was very positive, actually, and I and you know, not not just in terms of my own magic, but I feel that was positive on a global scale. And I felt that powerful benevolent forces were being released.Courtney Hoover 03:57Well, I remember that you called me because you were at the beach before New York even opened its beaches back and you had some pretty intense experiences out there.Damon 04:06Yes. And to clarify, I was completely alone at the beach. Oh, you know, there's, there's a area of the New York beaches called Fort Tilden National Gateway many of which parts are actually nature reserves and things of that nature. So going out to the beach was not putting me in contact with other people. I was very isolated, very alone, alone enough to be able to make bonfires on the beach, which has become a new passion of mine. So yes, I was there for the full full moon and there for the new moon. Just recently, I was out there to04:42Hilary, Kanani, what was this new moon like for you?Hilary 04:44Similarly, actually, I felt it was quite powerful as well. And I did. I did a little bit of a ritual on the full moon. And you know, it's like it's this I found this myself in a scenario where I tend to do really elaborate things. I think that's the, like, performance artist and me that likes to make everything look really magical in my ritual and and one thing that actually came out of this is that I, you know, it's been a really crazy time, obviously, for everyone and the ability to get ahold of things that I would normally like to use, isn't there and mentally and emotionally I think I'm not as energized as I was. So I actually did like quite a small little ritual with my roommate. And it was really nice actually, I think that I it gave me a chance to focus on kind of what I wanted to bring in because when that had had just been laid off right before that happened right before hand and or maybe I don't know if it was my last day, but I've been notified that I was getting laid offCourtney Hoover 05:44Was this for the full moon? because you said the full moon or was this for the new moon?Hilary 05:48did you say the new moon? I thought you said the full moon?Courtney Hoover 05:50Yeah, no, this is for the new moon. That's okay. Tell us about your full moon. Right. That would have been like three weeks ago now.Hilary 05:55It was like three weeks ago. Yeah. And I totally thought you said the full moon. I was like, Well, yeah, I did all this stuff. So Yeah, I did just a small ritual with my, with my roommate. And it was it was really, for me a chance to kind of reset because you know, so much had shifted in my life and in the world but like certainly in kind of like my like a lot of a lot of my specific like life with work and obviously like as a performance artist things are really stagnant right now. And I kind of use that time to focus on kind of creating a reset and like stepping into an adjusted reality but still asking that things come in, but just in, you know, in an adjusted way, because I think during the time like this, we have to get or at least I have to get out of the habit of thinking like it's all this way or it's not good enough and really realizing that like there's a there's a chance to adjust my perception of what I want to meet what we're able to have right now and in So, so we did this small ritual, we had some offerings and we had did a little bit of candle magic and really asked for kind of a reset, and then some some bringing in of, you know, of financial gain and success and, and immediately I got contacted by a theatre company that wants to produce some work virtually, which will be happening. I think it's June 26. We'll have to look at the actual date. Courtney Hoover 07:25But that was directly after you did this spell? Hilary 07:27It was like a week later. Yeah. Courtney Hoover 07:29A week later, all the things that you needed to manifest so that's greatHilary 07:33yeah, it was really great, because I feel like it was kind of what I needed to remind myself that like, I can still produce work and still create work, even though it's in a different context, and that it's actually an opportunity to be really innovative. And then for the new moon, I actually just focused on gratitude, both for that and then just focus on really realizing that I think our sense of normalcy obviously is not what we're used to right now. So I just took, on the new man I really focused on, on gratitude and really making sure that I took time to notice and appreciate the things that I do have right now. Because I think it's easy and crisis to go, oh, God, I feel overwhelmed by all this stuff that I can't control. And so that was what the new moon for me was really focused around. And it was actually really, I think it kind of completed that reset that I asked for on the full moon. Because it kind of allowed me to come full circle and have that realization that like, you know, things are different, but they're not they don't have to be bad just because they're different.Courtney Hoover 08:39Right. And I think that's a really good lesson that when, especially for witches that are really busy, or really tired and you want to honor the different moons or the different holidays and if you just don't have the time or the energy to do it, doing the simple gratitude practice, whether it's standing at your altar, standing outside or even laying in bedHilary 09:00I went outside and I like audibly said, you know, like I said, while I was sitting there, what I was grateful for, and also just focused on gratitude, you know, and that is something that I've learned through a lot of this, which is that, you know, we don't have the same energy, resource, or access that we have had, because of our current scenario with COVID and the lockdowns that many of us are in. And so that it really is, I think it's again, another reminder that magic doesn't, even though my little like performance art heart likes to be really elaborate and over the top because I'm a very extra person, that it isn't any less or more powerful. It's just what I like from an aesthetic standpoint, you know?Courtney Hoover 09:49Yeah, for sure. But yes, exactly. listing the things you're grateful for is an incredibly powerful ritual, especially when you're running low on time and resources. So what about you Kanani when you posted a lot of stuff on Facebook about some things you were doing for the dark and the new moon. So what are you doing?Kanani 10:06I did I actually found a workbook. It was a dark moon, kind of little journal free download journal that we posted that was from the taro lady. And she kind of she did kind of a talk that I listened to that really, I think resonated with me because she said, she keeps a journal. And one of the things that I've noticed that I like when I listen back to old episodes sometimes that we have is all listened to when we did as as below so above. And it's interesting for me to think back to certain things and certain moments where that's what I was wanting to let go or, or wanting to bring in, because it just it's different moments in time. And so she was talking about how she sets an intention journal with the new moon, and so she'll actually she doesn't just do the the new moon kind of spell or intention spells, but she'll also journal what it is. And so I actually am starting to do that. And so I'm starting to, I've created a new moon journal, so that I can look back over time when I do my new moon intentions, and kind of what I did in different months and different years and I can kind of look back on that to kind of see how things came to fruition or did they not come to fruition or I find that a lot of the magic and spells that I do often do happen and do manifest themselves and the more I'm, you know, thinking about them and concentrating on them and focused on them, you know, the more effective they are. And so I feel like creating this journal will kind of also helped with that, that focus and manifesting that energy by kind of, you know, creating this document that's gonna you know last and so that's kind of something new that I've incorporated that I've never really, I was never one who really kept a journal so that's kind of a new thing that that I've wanted to start to kind of pick up on but like I said, I've really liked kind of being able to look past and see you know, not just have to rely on you know basic memory but being able to look and go Oh, I remember when I did that and and then you can think about how then that later manifested itself and so that's kind of something new I've been doing but yeah, I did some dark moon, did her little workbook where it just talks about what you want to let go of what you want to release and just kind of do that kind of purge and cleansing before the new moon so that you kind of have slough that off before you do the new moon intention spells.Courtney Hoover 12:57Hmm see there's that works on so many different levels because one it, like you said, It tracks your progress and it reminds you that how far you've come and how these things really do manifest which is a topic i'd love us to explore in a different episode is the necessity of a Book of Shadows because sometimes we forget that our magic is working, we forget what has come to fruition. And so having journals like the one Kanani that you're holding is really valuable, but it also works in the same level. Now Laura Zakroff, Laura Tempest Zakroff was talking about a few weeks ago that just the creation of writing the sigil is drawing the energy suggests the creation of writing the intention is already doing the doing the work. Yeah, you can still light your candles. You can you know, do your smoosh, your smooshing ritual and water or whatever it is that you need to do, but you've already done the work just by writing it down. It's a reminder to me that I do need to write down what I did for this past new moon because it was really, really powerful. I've really gotten lately into using invasive or introduced plants in my spells and one of the things I realized is that especially invasive plants, which it's good to use those anyway because you want to clear them out of the landscape, you don't want them to overtake and damage native populations. So it's good to go and remove them. But native like invasive plants are so excited to be anywhere. They love it. They are like the most extroverted energy that they're inserting themselves where they don't belong, you know, we've all met those individuals in our lives. Well, those are the those are the characters of the plant world of like lemon balm or thistle or our hairy bittercress. They love being anywhere so they love being in your spells. And so I did this spell earlier this year with the Harry bittercress, which is I learned was one of the nine sacred herbs of Odin and I'm not really versed in Norse mythology, so I don't really know a lot about it, but I when I was looking up the the folklore because when I find a plant that is invasive or introduced on my property, I will go look up the folk remedies for it because that will also give you a clue as to what the magical properties are. Or also look up what is unique about it scientifically, because then again, that will give you a sense of what it can do for your magic. So lemon balm is something that's often used for, for cleansing because of the citrus nature. But Harry bittercress was said in that it draws the poison out. Now, I'm not advocating this as a medicinal herb because I don't know enough about it so please do not take this internally. But what you can do with it is that because the ancients used to use it, to withdraw poison, you can use it to withdraw toxicity from your environment. So by boiling it, boiling it along with a also used against some lemon balm and those two things came off my property and one of the powerful things is that when I collected those I told them what their purpose was going to be. I said, You're coming with me now. Because if you don't come with me and do this, my husband's going to come through and chop you all up and you're going to go in the compost and there will be nothing for you after this. So these are your choices. You come with me magical where you go in the compost heap and they're like magical. So I said, Okay, well, lemon balm you're going to use for cleansing, hairy bittercress, you're using your old role of drawing poison out of a situation. So come on, it was actually very funny because Kanani and her kids were helping me clear that Harry bittercress earlier this spring, we had this total downpour of a day, and she's making her kids collect the magical herbs. And then I said, Kanani, you're gonna need to collect some too. And she goes, No, that's what I have you for.Hilary 14:33BlackberryKanani 16:31I made the kids. Do that workCourtney Hoover 16:35Oh, you told me I had to do it too.Kanani 16:37That sounds like me.Courtney Hoover 16:38Okay, yeah, that's when I said, no, you actually have to collect at least some because the herbs know you're standing there watching people do your bidding. It's different if you physically can't do it, or as a transactional thing where you're hired, you're you're buying herbs from someone, but the herbs just see you and they see your kids collecting them and you're not actually engaged with this. They'll work for your kids. They won't work for you. And so Kanani's like ooooh god and so she's pulling weeds.Kanani 17:05Well, it was hearing you talk about how you were telling them, you know that they have choices or your husband's gonna chop them up and they're gonna go in the compost because that's pretty much I think how you got me on the podcast? I think I got the same speech.Damon 17:19I think it's so interesting, because I was just reading something well written a few things about this, but that, you know, we often see in terms of working with plant allies and herbal spirits or flowers, you know, that when you're harvesting this, the witch does this like gratitude blessing, you know, Thank you Please, give me, lend me your power, you know, here is an offering of grace, you know, whatever, whatever the format of the conjuration or the blessing, the thank you to the plant ally is but, you know, when we look at, we look into history, there are a lot of coercive ways of harvesting things where there is actually an element of threat involved. You know that I was just actually reading one in the Greek Magical Papyri where the when, you know to paraphrase very, very terribly. You know, the the sorcerer is supposed to say to the plant like you're, you're coming with me and if you if you do not give me the powers that I wish for you to have, there will be no more water for you. The water will not fall for you, you will be denied, you will be denied sustenance and you and your breathren and will shrivel and die. So come with me. So there is actually a interesting precedent for that kind of that kind of like low key threat.Courtney Hoover 18:53Yeah, and, you know, and to be fair, I probably could be doing a little more work with the gratitude. It's when I'm out there in the soil that I start getting very, what is it that said on Downton Abby there's a thing about working with the land. There's a lot of sentiment and not a lot of sentimentality. You get down and dirty. But yeah, I boiled a bunch of this stuff and I, my depression have been kind of gross this last couple of weeks and I was getting to a place where I had no focus and no motivation was starting to get pretty effective and you know, something I deal with routinely, but it's awkward and challenging. And since the pandemic and let me tell you all after I did that, the floor wash on the Dark Moon the next morning, I was up I was so full of energy. I was listening to the soundtrack from We're Here, and I'm dancing around, like invoking my inner drag queen and like, Oh my god, I felt so good. So just a reminder, we really, you can't skip your work, you know, especially when you don't want to do it.Damon 19:51Yeah, Hekate loves the house cleanings on the on the dark on the dark of the moon. She loves that you always bring great, in my experience, she will Bring in great great blessings if you tidy to your house on that day.Courtney Hoover 20:05Yeah and she's tied a lot with a scavenger spirits So one of the ways in which I work with Hekate is that giving her with a say giving her the refuse so giving her the scraps from your table or for me it was a little bit of the dirty water left in the bucket after I mopped as I took it down to the three way crossroads, which is her sacred space. My husband came with me the dog came with us because it was pretty late at night and and we, and the dog had a great time and he's normally scared of things but he was kind of like a goddess who likes dogs here this is cool, you know, and grow through this just a little bit of the water because there was a little bit of soap in there. So I didn't want to like leave tons that throw a bunch of soapy water into the street because we'll end up in the creek but a little bit is okay, so Damon tell us about how that energy in the spirit of New York City has been in the last couple of weeks. With it with a pandemic. You guys have been on lockdown for so long nowDamon 20:55New York has gone through a lot of different psychological and spiritual phases there was the early phase when everybody was like, ah, whatever this is, it's all being blown out of proportion to suddenly people the reality of everything setting in, and then, and then there was a lot of fear. And I like as one of part of my spiritual practices to go for long meditational spirit guided walks at night. I've done that since I was a kid. And the first couple of nights that I tried to get back into that habit, it was the most eerie thing I have ever experienced. It was like being underwater, there was just silence silence. I've never experienced New York like that just absolute silence, but it was an ominous silence. It wasn't, it wasn't a mystical silence or a healing silence was the silence of foreboding. And that's when people were really taking everything very seriously and life is definitely different now. People are all, for the most part, people are wearing their masks and social distancing people are behaving, which is good, there is a spurt of support. And the I was very concerned that some sort of anarchy or like an uptick in violence might happen. I personally have not witnessed that that seems to be a spirit of people wanting to help each other out and wanting to get things done. And there's a friendliness even even though you can't see the smiles under the maks people are, there's a lot of eye contact, which is a new thing for New York. You know, New Yorkers do not like to make eye contact. There's an excessive amount of eye contact, which is fascinating. But we're hanging in there, what we're doing while everybody I know is is doing the it's it's doing what they're supposed to.Courtney Hoover 23:04So what was really, really beautiful is, is actually Damon and I were we, oddly enough, took walks at the same time a couple of weeks ago and I was out in the park with my dog when Damon called just to say hi. And I thought that there was a sound of bells in the background and I asked him what it was. And it was the banging of the pots at 7pm which is something that apparently happens every night right now.Damon 23:29Yes, every night at seven o'clock, that is a salute, a salute or a celebration, a recognition a blessing to the essential workers of New York City. And, and the first time I heard it, I was completely emotionally overwhelmed. I didn't even know what it was. I was coming home in my mask having running essential errand, and I was going Walking down Graham Avenue, which is in the heart of South Williamsburg. And this thing just started people leaning out of their windows banging their pots and pans, blowing on whistles, drumming, and I was just overwhelmed and was like what magical spell is this? What exorcism? This is just I was awe struck because I hadn't actually heard of this thing yet. It was the first time I'd experienced and it was big and impressive and lasted for a long time. And it was very, very beautiful. And yes, every every evening at seven o'clock here in New York, no matter what neighborhood you're in, they do it. Neighborhoods do tend to vary, you know, it's a it's more enthusiastic in in areas where there are more essential people who have families with more essential workers, obviously, you know, sort of in the more gentrified neighborhoods it still happens but it might last for like just a minute, you know? But I've seen it last like three to four minutes and I remember the first time there was this woman leaning out of her window and she was screaming at the top of her lungs "Go away Coronavirus, go away. Let us live, let us work" and people are like, like she was a preacher or something and people were like saying Hallelujah, Amen and like echoing her words, it was there's just this really powerful sense of community that arises.Courtney Hoover 25:38I love it. So she, she was doing some good old fashioned old school witchcraft banging the pots and pans to drive the demons away.Damon 25:46Yeah. And she was giving a voice to a to I mean, she was she she went into the whole ecstatic, you know, ecstatic riff and people were like, you know, like getting into. It's very powerful. It's very, very powerful. People bring out a drums, people in cars are like, you know, they turn up their music. I mean, it's a cacophony of sound. It's not like, you know, it's not melodic at all. It is a cacophony, but it's a beautiful cacophony.Courtney Hoover 26:17So we're in luck because Damon actually recorded this for us. And so we're going to play, thank you, Damon for sharing this. We're going to play it for our listeners who may not be having this in their area. And yeah, here we go. (recording playing)Hilary 27:24Wow, that is amazing. It's like I guess I didn't realize how much, like how many, you can tell how many people are doing it. It's quite amazing to hear that many people rally.Damon 27:36isn't it? It's really astounding. It's emotionally moving. Hilary 27:40Yeah Damon 27:40I recorded. I recorded that one in on a basketball on a basketball court in the housing projects. And it's yeah, it's palpable. It's palpable you feel it. It makes makes the skin and it makes the hair on your back of your neck stick up and you get goose bumps and, you know, I'm a very emotional person. I started to cry a little bit. Hilary 28:06Yeah me too. Just listening to it, I was like, okay, just pull it together.Kanani 28:13I think it's really cool because I actually have a co-worker who his wife is a nurse. And they do do that around, you know, other other places as well. Clearly, like Courtney said, and Hilary said, it's not, because usually we're far more spaced out, it's not so loud. But there, there was a time and I think she works the night shift. And so she was leaving around the time it was happening. And it just, it moved her to tears. Because here she's going to the hospital and she's going to the frontlines to help these people. And here's all of these people with their rallying cry, essentially saying we appreciate you and I think that it's good for the people who are a part of it who are showing their appreciation but I also think that you cannot underestimate the value for those that are doing the hard work in the hospitals how much it means for them to know that we have their back.Courtney Hoover 29:11Yeah. So thank you, Damon, that was a real gift to, to us and to our listeners as well.Damon 29:16I think it's gonna keep on going in New York for a long time.Courtney Hoover 29:21I mean, I'll be interesting to see what what ultimately shifts into if this becomes a new ritual where it's like 50 years from now, people don't know, why do people bang pots at 7pm? Well, back in the dayDamon 29:33I hope that happensHilary 29:35I hope that happens too, that's amazing.Courtney Hoover 29:37So I want to go ahead and switch gears to our next topic and talk about eclipses. I did some research y'all so we can talk science first.Hilary 29:46Oh, man.Courtney Hoover 29:47I know, right? I got this from the National Geographic website. Oh, sorry, the Farmers Almanac website. So it's much better. Damon 29:56Much better. Courtney Hoover 29:57Much better, much better source. But I think it is important for witches to understand the science of the scientific phenomena around these things as much as they do the magickal. Well, sometimes we, we tend to think that one trumps is the other. And I absolutely don't believe that I think that that science and magic are really either related or one in the same depending on how you look at it. So let's first talk about the eclipses that we have. There are two types of eclipses that we witness here on Earth, and these are solar and lunar eclipses. Now a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun, which partially or entirely blocks out its light. So solar eclipses are visible only in certain areas and require eye protection to be viewed safely. So the big, the big one we had in 2017, where people were, you know, people were traveling all over the place to get to see it and it was absolutely worth it. I was lucky enough to get to see it from my backyard and Kanani and her family were there. And it was a powerful experience we had. That is called that is a solar eclipse. Now a lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon enters the shadow of the earth which cuts off all or part of the sunlight reflected off the earth. The reason we have a full moon is because the moon is positioned in a certain way where the sun can illuminate it fully and so based on the reason where we have a waxing or waning moon is because the earth starts to block the block some of the sunlight from from the moon so lunar eclipses are technically visible for the entire night side of Earth, but doing during what is called a Penumbral Eclipse, the dimming of the moon's illumination, illumination is slight, sometimes the moon appears kind of red, or you can see a more direct shadow on the moon. Not all eclipses are the same. So there's a couple ways in which the lunar and solar eclipses happen. So you have what is called a total eclipse, in which the moon or Sun is completely blocked out. During a total lunar eclipse the moon is completely obscured by the dark Center of the Earth shadow, which gives the moon a dark reddish hue. During a total solar eclipse, again, like the one we had in 2017, the sun is completely obscured by the moon, resulting in a brief period of awe inspiring darkness and it surely is, it is truly is phenomenal. A partial eclipse which is a little more common of either the sun or the moon occurs when only part of the sun or the moon is obscured. And annular eclipse is a type of solar eclipse, which they are similar to total solar eclipses but in the annular eclipse, the moon's apparent size because it's smaller than the sun mean the sun is not completely obscured, so this results in a bright ring of light call and Annulus. And then there's a Penumbral Eclipse, which is a type of lunar eclipse, and this occurs only when the moon enters the faint outer edge of the earth shadow which causes a man to appear slightly darker than usual. The effect is so slight, this kind of Eclipse can be hard to recognize, unless you know how to look for it. Now, we have three eclipses coming up almost right in a row. We have one on June 5, which is the penumbral eclipse of the moon. This one is not visible from North America, but you might be able to see it in the western Pacific Ocean in parts of Australia. Asia, if you're listening from Antarctica, you might see it there. Europe, Africa and South America. So just we Yanks, Mexicans and Canadians are out. So then on June 21, there is an annular eclipse of the sun and this is also not visible from North America. But the other places I'm in may be able to see it. Then July 4, we have penumbral eclipse of the sun. This one is visible from North America except in the northern most regions, so we here in Oregon might be missing out and only a small portion of the moon will fall into this so you may not actually notice it. So magically speaking the uses of Eclipse and magick vary widely, because these are events that have historically caused chaos in societies because they really frighten people, they can cause magick chaos in your magic as well, which is one of the reasons why people don't always like them. So that doesn't mean that you shouldn't use them ever. So again, as a rule, what happens in nature is what's going to happen in your magic. So the eclipses on June 5, and July 4, which are penubral are going to make the moon look darker. So it's a good time to do some shadow work as in doing work, you don't want seen or magic to give yourself a little more privacy. On June 5, this is an astrologically tough moon because it is opposing the sun and squaring Mars. So vibes will be working against you with regards to... vibes naturally, will be working against you with regards to work and relationships. So the good news is that you can do spells on this on this particular day to turn attention away from your shortcomings whether they're perceived or not. So say for example, you're having a really hard time starting work on time. Okay, something you need to work on, you want to work on more punctuality. But if someone's being really hard on you on it while you're trying to adjust to a new schedule, you can do some work so people just don't notice for a little while. So this is especially good moon to use in realms of work. Now, because the eclipse on June 21, is an annular eclipse, recalling that this sort of Eclipse creates a bright ring of light in the sky. This is the sort of Eclipse that can draw attention to something that you are wanting to stand out. So maybe it is you want to stand out more work to get more attention. Or maybe you're wanting to do more glamour or attraction magic to get more people to pay attention to your dating profile, because you're not dating right now your social distancing, but you can still meet people online and chat. The moon is conjunct the sun at this time. So it is a great time to call attention to your strengths. So what I would recommend doing is considering doing work throughout these eclipses that both minimize the things you really don't want people to pay attention to in your life are about you right now and emphasize your strengths. So again, this is really great energy for work or creative endeavors. But just be sure that while you're working on this, you are addressing areas where you could be stronger, otherwise, this will come back and bite you. Because eclipses offer very temporary magickal energy. This is more like a band aid or a pause button than an actual elimination, but it gives you time to fix things. All right, your boss is mad at you, you're worried about losing your job, this will help you start to gain some really important ground to get back in their good graces. If you wear makeup, blessing your makeup with these energies can be very helpful. You can bless a specific piece of jewelry. So now here's what is really key there. So you need to try to time this around the actual time of the eclipse in your area. Just look it up what time is the eclipse in my zip code? That's really key. So other lunar transits like the new moon the dark moon the full moon those energies linger for a full day or some say a couple of days but these eclipses the energy changes just within a few hours. So all you have time to do is run over and light your candle saying, hey, you're gonna, you're gonna do some Eclipse magic for me. And you got to go back and finish writing emails or feed the kids or whatever, stuff like that, but just try to tap in at least during that specific window of maybe an hour or so. So now I'm going to hear from you all what are some of your experiences with eclipses, they can, they can vary very widely among, you know, among among witches,Hilary 30:57Yeah it was AMAZING I don't like eclipses. I mean, I like them visually. Like they're cool to look at the big Eclipse that you were referring to before I was in Oregon for that and saw it and it was really amazing. But I don't like doing magickal work during eclipses because they make me feel almost like chaotic or or unsteady. So I don't feel very grounded. So if I do anything at all, which I often don't do, it's grounding work. Because for me, they just made me feel like really scatterbrained or really like kind of unfocused. So I tend to when I'm doing work or doing any magical work, I do like a grounding spell, or I just do a grounding meditation to kind of like pull myself back into my body.Courtney Hoover 38:17That's some helpful work. I know there are a lot of cultures that do something similar, especially more indigenous cultures, they don't do anything spiritual on the eclipses or unless they go inside and pray. So you know, that's, that's absolutely valid too.Hilary 38:30Yeah, it's, it's weird. It's not like it's not a it's not a like negative feeling. It's more like that feeling of you're trying to focus or you're trying to think about something, but you feel like your brain can't focus. It's like that, but my whole body kind of feels like that. But yeah, it's really all been focused on grounding, which is tends to be good for me because I tend to I my attention span is short and I tend to get focused on many things so it kind of is a good reset in general. But yeah, I tend to not like to do any any work, that's Like any anything that's trying to manifest anything, because I feel like I can't even focus on it, so I just tend to focus on grounding.Courtney Hoover 39:07Hmm, yeah, that's fair spending. It also is a good point if you are someone who has focused problems that maybe eclipses isn't a great time to manifest, but like Hilary said, is a great time for grounding. Kanani do you do any work on the eclipses?Kanani 39:20I don't specifically do work on the eclipses I don't not like I don't have an aversion to them or feel like my magick has necessarily been any different. But I don't know I kind of am along the same lines as far as you know, like I was at your house for the last big one. And I actually I have to be I have to be honest, I thought it was gonna be fun, and I thought it was gonna be cool. It brought me to tears, which I did not see coming. I mean it absolutely. The solar eclipse just completely took my breath away. And I there were just tears running down my face and I was shocked by that how powerful that felt. And I think ever since then, I've been more focused on doing magick in alignment with the moon. So I don't think I've necessarily had any aversions to whether or not there was an eclipse happening. But I have tried to kind of more align the magic that I do along with the phases of the moon.Courtney Hoover 40:30Well, and I want to jump in on that too, because we both had similar experiences. And I remember one of the things that I experienced that I felt like tapping back into my most ancient ancestors, because just as the moon was about to cover the sun at this moment of terror sat into me where I was like, how dark is it going to get what's going to happen? What will what's going to happen to us and that is what the very earliest peoples how they experienced the full solar eclipse. And I was like, this is an eye that of course, I know. scientifically, it's only gonna last a couple of minutes there, Earth is not going to freeze it's going to be over and no time. But then when we took our glasses off, because there's a very, very narrow window when you are when you get a complete solar eclipse that you can take off your glasses, and you can see the ring around the moon, which is like green and white. And if your kids Kanani had not been there, I would have fallen on my knees and started wailing and saying I am not worthy to look upon your face lady, great Dark Lady. And I was like I was had this prayer welling up inside of me where I wanted to, like, shred my clothing and pull out my hair and pound the soil because I was not worthy of looking at such beauty. And I was like, but the kids are here Her children thank you for not doing thatKanani 41:42They'd just look at me and be like really, really she's doing this really?41:46And then they'd see you crying and then you're like, well, honey, you know,Hilary 41:49For years, they'd be like, remember that time Auntie Coco was really weird? Yeah, I remember thatCourtney Hoover 41:54Which time?Kanani 41:55I was gonna say they wouldn't say that because then it'd be like, you're gonna need to narrow that down.Courtney Hoover 42:00But we did something sweet with your kids and that we found these, these that there were witches that were living in this house before we bought it. And we keep finding crystals around the property. And we're like, I don't know what these are for, but we're going to use them now. And we each have we, the kids each took a stone and charged it. And we use those stones like when you don't want someone to see you, you just carry the stone in your pocket and you can hide the way that the sun went to the moon had the sun but Damon, how about you?Damon 42:25I do have a lot to say. eclipses have marked personally in my life have marked a lot of very important story moments. But before I talk about that, I want to talk about the mysticism my whole elaborate as you've already spoken about the mysticism of eclipses, but you know, they're very cthonic, you know, you have the Earth and the Moon and the Sun, which are the primary parent planets all in alignment with each other That's what it is. It's a straight line of Earth, moon and sun. That's cthonic, it's the chain from it's the chain from the underworld to heaven and back down again. You know, and there's all this interesting food stuff around eclipses you know, like cross culturally, there's this idea that an eclipse in you know, primary cultures this is a this idea then eclipses that partially what an eclipse is about is there's some sort of like a beast that is attempting to devour the sun or the moon, or has devoured the sun or the moon you know, comes out the other side or a demon has, you know, there's there's, there's there's this some Hindu mystic idea around this demon betraying the sun in the moon and he gets his head chopped off and gets thrown into the sky and he tries to eat the sun or the moon in revenge, but because he has no body, it just falls. out the other side, you know, and then they're wolves or dogs or chase the moon or a dragon. And, but not only that, they're also these ideas that food should not be consumed nor prepared, nor left open during a full or during, during the eclipse of the moon or the sun. And I think that's very interesting. If you have food, you have to cover it, you've got to cover your water. And so moving forward, I want to experiment with that one day, you know, because I do love a total eclipse. I really do. It's, if I if I had the funds, I would be one of those Eclipse chaser people. But, you know, it's an idea of mine because food and magic is very important to me and I like to prepare a lot of magical meals and banquets and, you know, make it make things as offerings like very elaborate things and then not consume them myself necessarily. But I think this idea of preparing a meal just before the Eclipse, covering it, doing your magical observations, while the event is happening, and then uncovering it, and eating the food would be very interesting experience if handled correctly. Because the eclipses, you know, they're not, they are generally not understood to be benevolent events. You know, they change the course of history. They, they, they, they I think in Mesopotamia, you know, a lunar eclipse was an attack on the king. So what they would do is they would get somebody to stand in for the king there would be a proxy, who would take all of the heat and all the anger of the lunar demons while the king hid away and then that puts soul whatever would befall in would befall them in with the king was safe. You know, Hilary 45:59Yeah well sucks to be that guyDamon 46:02Yeah, totally. And so yeah, I think they're very, very fascinating. And, you know, my first experience was of a lunar eclipse in South Africa, I think it must have been in the early 2000s. And that was phenomenal as a total lunar eclipse and a last much longer than a solar eclipse. They go on for hours. And, and yeah, that blood red color. And then finally, when you see that sliver of silver, it's miraculous. And, and that, you know, in that marked a very important day in my life, because it was unbeknownst to me the very last time that my whole family would be in the same room, and I know that that will be the very last time you know, because then I left for America and we all scattered to the four winds. You know, but that and I didn't know that but that night I forced, and my family are not into, into this at the level that I am, I forced everybody to go outside and we made a huge bonfire. And we sat outside, we watched it, and my little brother was kind of irritated with me. But you know, we did it. And it was beautiful. Then my second Eclipse that I experienced was on August 21, the one that all of you are referring to in 2017. Which, by the way, I think if I correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that the year that our current the current president of the United States was elected,Kanani 47:27yes, because they showed him on the news not wanting to wear glasses,Damon 47:32right? Yes. Courtney Hoover 47:34So he was elected in 2016 but he took office in 2017. Damon 47:43Yes he took office in 2017. Interestingly enough, the next solar eclipse, at full solar eclipse that would be that would be that we can witness here in North America is going to be on April 8 2024, which is another four years of presidential office, which I just, I'm not going to try to interpret that information, but I think that it is very significant and interesting information. Now, for that Eclipse, I was in Tennessee at a radical fairy sanctuary. I don't know if I have time to unpack what a radical fairy sanctuary is. I mean, the name sort of describes it a little bit, but it's a it's a powerful and mystical queer space. We're queer, absolutely queer, magical, wild, anarchic, pagan infused with all kinds of political energies and we gathered at at a sanctuary in Tennessee, to experience this all together. And we were all sitting on a hill and radical fairies, I mean, it's beautiful. I mean, people were in drag. People were naked people were like, dressed in, in costumes. People would come in mud i mean you know it's just beautiful and everyone was sitting together on this hill. This was my first experience of a solar eclipse. And you know I never you know and it was it's a very festive environment but but mystical as well I mean there's real sorcery that happens up at that up at that sanctuary his name I may not mention and when it started to happen everybody got so, because there's so much magic that happens at the sanctuary and the very element is a very real, the air was vibrating. You could feel it in the ground, if you were walking the shadows change the shadows started to do this weird vibrational pattern and, and, and the color of the sky, I will never forget the color of the sky, it was and you know, so you're up in the hills and then there's a slightly lower sort of like rain foresty kind of area behind you and as the eclipse became full, and there was this beautiful, you know, that beautiful light behind behind the moon, down in the you know, and everybody, I mean, people were possessed like there was no holding back there were no children present. I mean, you know, people were like banging on drums and shrieking and screaming and howling and rolling around. And this cloud of bats and insects just rose up out of the forest, because they thought it was nighttime, you know, they'd all been activated into this nocturnal state. This huge cloud of bats and insects just like blew up and crossed over the eclipse. People started crying and howling and I won't tell you what I was doing because it was very carnal and very x-rated, and possibly potentially ill advised, but I did bond ecstatically with that moment, that moment will live inside of me forever. And that was, that that I will remember till the day you die. It was just spectacular. I was I was sad it didn't last longer, but maybe something like that cannot last longer because maybe it would plunge on the world into chaos. You know, speaking of plunging the world into chaos Speaking of other things that Damon is working on Speaking of plunging the world into chaos, you know, lunar eclipses are really feared in terms of mystical Christianity. They are really considered to be bad things there are, they are considered to be a manifestation of the wrath of God. Okay? And they also connect that symbolically with the crucifixion. Now it's really interesting to note that that you know, Easter the day of the crucifixion, you know, is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. So that's very interesting because that makes it impossible in the Gregorian calendar for the eclipse to ever fall on an Easter Sunday. Because that would usher in judgment day.Courtney Hoover 52:19Ohhhh. Yeah! I had no ideaDamon 52:22Isn't that interesting? You know that I didn't know initially. Yeah, that brings it back to the eating thing. You know, Jesus is like this, the Jesus figure is a is a God that is eaten, you know. So I find that very interesting. And then in closing, you know, just, I suppose a couple of years ago, I don't remember the exact date we had a full lunar eclipse here in North America. Courtney Hoover 52:48Yes. Damon 52:49Yeah. So actually, for that I went out to San Francisco to go spend it to perform a ritual with your dear coven member Courtney, Dylan Henley. Courtney Hoover 53:04Yes. Yes!Damon 53:05Yeah. So Dylan Henley and his partner and I gather together on a hill underneath this huge huge oak tree. No it was an oak a massive oak tree and we petitioned Hekate under that oak tree to bring about the fall of the king. We're still waiting on that oneCourtney Hoover 53:28You're gonna revamp that one next month, put a little extra charge, right? Put a little extra in there? Yes, yes, I yes, I swear. I swear I shall. I love it. So I'm gonna sit with that for a second. Wow. Oh, Damon, I'm gonna relish the stories and know everybody else's as well.Hilary 53:50Absolutely. Courtney Hoover 53:51Yeah it's just gorgeous. So I'm sitting here and just trying to come down from being excited by Damon's stories. I'm turning this over to Kanani who's going to speaking of eclipses, is doing a review of Disney's The Watcher in the Woods, that film from 1980. She hasn't written to us cursing me out. So maybe it is the experience wasn't as bad as we thought.Hilary 54:11You mean we are not going to be bitched at for the next six months or making her watch another film, hopefullyKanani 54:16It was Disney. So luckily no one was buried or no one was burned alive. That was nice. So I had never seen this movie. And I never I don't think I've ever even heard of it. But it was called the wWatcher in the Woods, and it was about a family who's looking for a place to move and they move into this big, of course beautiful, mansion because that's where we all move. And it was, it shared a space next to a kind of eccentric old woman. And in the story, you find that they she let these people move into the house next door because the eenage daughter of the family resembled her daughter who had disappeared. I think if I remember right, the story was like 30 years prior or something. And essentially the the premise of the movie is this woman has spent 30 years trying to figure out what happened to her daughter 30 years prior when she disappeared on the night of an Eclipse. And so it's kind of funny when you look back because it's rather spooky, like that's like apparently that's my level of spooky is 80's Disney. That's my line. Because they get away with all kinds of stuff that like never would Disney try and make something that spooky now never. It actually gets pretty but in a really good way. And so there's just kind of about the girl starts having these experiences and events because she's trying to she's getting essentially messages from the girl that's gone, and how to bring her potentially bring her back and in and you find that it was some sort of, it was interesting how they did it, it wasn't even a spiritual thing that happened during a ritual, she actually said went to another quote unquote dimension. And they, she was able to recreate the ritual that had happened 30 years previously with the people who had performed it then. And they were able to bring the girl back. Now, I have watched enough Marvel movies to know that when the girl came back, she should have come back as her 17 year old self and not her 47 year old self, but that's my opinion. That's very upset about that, by the way. But it was really cute movie. I really liked it. It was good. OH MY GOD! FinnalY!!! She liked it. I did. I liked it. I watched it with I watched it with my son because even though my son's younger he has he's, he's not, he's not scared of anything. My daughter would have peed her pants she would have not been able to handle it. But, um, so yeah, no, I watched it with my son. He really liked it. It was it was fun. It was, like I said, it was a lot more spooky than they would try and do now. But I've also noticed that I had the kids watch Mighty Ducks, would you guys remember is an old Disney movie. And the kids actually swear in that movie. They would never do that now. The kids actually use swear words. So it's just kind of funny when you watch old Disney it's very different. But no, it was a good movie. I it's been remade. I watched the original. It was remade, I think in 2007 and it had Angelica Houston in it, but I watched the original.Hilary 57:50I actually think it was 2017Courtney Hoover 57:52Yeah, it's very recent, but you know anyway, continue.Kanani 57:58But yeah, so I didn't Watch the remake so the remake would probably be fun for kids as well. But I really, the original was cool. Courtney Hoover 58:07And it had Betty Davis in it playing the greatest creepy old lady in the history of ever and she has life goals for all of us. Hilary 58:13All of us!Kanani 58:13Yes, it was. It was fun. I mean they did a lot of different you know, kind of her getting the messages and her trying to piece together like how she's supposed to bring this girl back. And then like I said, it was interesting how it was because and I guess it's because of the whole moon element that it was more of a an extraterrestrial events as opposed to any kind of a spiritual, spiritual event that had taken place. But like I said, I got very mad and I yelled at my husband, I'm like, she would not have come back 30 years older. That's not how this works. That's not how leaving the dimension works. She would have come back as a 17 year old girl, and he just looked at me And there wouldn't be something different about her. She wouldn't have been the 17 year old girl they remember because she'd been trapped in another dimension for 30 years. Since Well, there's something about her either spirit or her body would not be what it was back then. No, I mean, she looked when she came back. She was like a 47 year old woman. She was old, like the people who were doing the, you know, the ceremony. She didn't come back as her teenage self. But, you know, and clearly they only know it must be her because who else are you going to bring back for the ceremony? But yeah, it was it was interesting. It was kind of a fun Eclipse movie and it, I do think it kind of draws on, it kind of speaks to that, the primal fear and power that an eclipse brings about like it just it's it's universal. And it's it's always been universal. You cannot help but experience something like that and not see the magnitude and the power. I mean, something so huge, and monumentus is happening in the universe and you literally have no control. You have no ability to make it stop, slow down speed up or happen, not happen. It's you are at the mercy of what is happening in the universe. And I think that that's a very universally powerful experience. And so I'm actually surprised that they haven't done more kind of horror movies and and that kind of stuff around the eclipse because I think that would be a good kind of way to just viscerally grab people and and just scare the crap out of them.Damon 60:37Yeah, and and yeah, and as I was saying, you know, they are they are linked to political events. So eclipses are understood to be events that overthrow, that change the timeline, essentially, you know, you're you're moving, you're moving it from one narrative into another narrative, but that narrative is historical. And I mean, witnessing it I think that that is true. You know,Courtney Hoover 61:02That's something else to keep in mind when you're doing Eclipse magic, especially with the full lunar or solar eclipses is you do them when you're also ready to and I don't know that you need to do it for the partial because again, it doesn't quite have the same impact. But definitely if you're doing full, you know, full moon or full moon giving total lunar or total solar eclipse Work, work, you're ready to change your own timeline change the direction of where you want your life to. Damon 61:27Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Courtney Hoover 61:30So Damon, where can people find you if they want to stay in touch?Damon 61:34People can find me on Instagram. And on Facebook. I do have a website. It is under construction, but it's under construction so it's a little bit bare bones currently because I had to change a few things. And it's gone a little stagnant because the person is helping me with that as you know, going through some pandemic related issues. But it is and on Instagram you can find me @revertstar. So there or find me on Facebook. Yeah, I've just moved into private practice very recently and I'm still finding my feet there. But please reach out to me,Courtney Hoover 62:38Damon, thank you so much for coming on today and links to where you can find Damon will be on our website in the show notes page. So don't forget everybody to check out our Etsy store. Kanani's been working on some really fabulous new items including a banner that says That Witch Life which you all really need over your magical space and she doesn't have many of them and they're going to go very fast. So please head to our Etsy store and check them out. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite platform. And we have a very big announcement coming up next episode so make sure that you, that you tune in. And in the meantime, um, wash your filthy hands stay healthy witches and enjoy this eclipse season. (Exit Music) 63:21Join us on the first and third Monday of the month for Magickal 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 in a future podcast. So mote it be. ................
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