Participant #1:
Welcome to episode 16 of season two. If you just joined, this is Maria at Maria Barricane on Instagram, and I have Robin at A Tired Witch on Instagram. Also have a very special guest this podcast, and it is Corey Hutchinson, and you may know him from his book New World. Thank you for having me on. Thank you for being here. Yeah.
Participant #1:
So, Corey, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Sure. This is the superhero origin story?
Participant #1:
Like you said, I wrote the book New World Witchery, which is basically an overview kind of guide to North American folk magic, based on a podcast that I’ve been running for the past almost twelve years at this point, where we talk to practitioners of various branches of North American folk magic. We do articles and discussions about aspects of North American folk magic. I do that with my co host Lane, who is absolutely delightful. Adore her.
Participant #1:
Yeah. So this is all just come together in book form recently. That’s my long time fascination is folk magic, particularly North American folk magic. That’s me. I really like your book, by the way. Amazing.
Participant #1:
Thanks. If nothing else, can hold the door open when you need to, but it’s such an easy read. When we first brought it up, our discord members, they’re like, this is a textbook, Maria. Why did you choose this as our book club? And I was like, but you got to understand, it’s a good book and it’s like, really easy. It is a textbook, but it’s also, like, not a textbook. I want people who are listening to this who’ve seen Corey’s book and maybe been intimidated by the size. It’s also in like 16 point font, and Cory writes in a way that is very easy to read. I’m a relatively slow reader, I think, and I think I read the whole thing in a week while juggling a newborn. And my job, I know if I can do that, it’s kind of time for it. Anyone can feel terrible, Robin, because I got your book, and I think I’ve only gotten through the first three chapters so far because I got so busy, but now I’m like, well, I feel terrible, but I will forgive you because not everyone can meet my standard of living, so I really made an effort to prioritize it. Listen, I am a Greek powerhouse, okay? You are indeed. You are some kind of magnificent goddess for sure. You can ask Maria. I don’t actually take free time. No, like, you power on in the morning and you’re on until you power down in the evening. It’s true. I work every waking hour that I’m awake.
Participant #1:
Even then I was still working. Yeah, you were talking to one of your episodes at one point about I think it was like your perfect day or your perfect morning, and you were like, at this hour, I get to work. Yeah, I feel you on that your perfect morning is like, I have to have work to do. If I don’t have work to do, I don’t feel complete. Yeah, we’re talking about you. I don’t want to talk about me. The Bet Midler one like, oh, that’s enough for me. Talking about myself. Now you talk about me for a while. Oh, my goodness. Do you yourself practice corey I do, yes. I’ve been practicing folk magic, some form of witchcraft or another since I was a teenager, really? And I’ve always been interested in folk magic. I mean, even since I was a very young child. I remember going into a bookstore with my mom, who was very Catholic, which that doesn’t preclude practicing folk magic, obviously, right? Yeah, 100%. There was this enormous book on the shelf called it was just called White Magic by someone named Patty Slade. And it’s really focused on kind of British seasonal folk witchcraft magic, stuff like that. But I begged her for this book, and I think she flipped through. It was kind of like, well, there’s not a lot of devils or anything in here, so maybe it’s okay. She had known. But it was just one of those things that I really liked that, because as I was flipping through it, I saw there were lots of little interesting tidbits about peeling an apple all in one strip and throwing the strip over your shoulder and it reveals your true love. And that’s the kind of stuff that as soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, I love the sort of fictional wand waving, sparks flying magic on the movie screen. But I knew that wasn’t that it wasn’t real in some capacity and sort of able to inspire us or something. But I knew that wasn’t something that we were going to see out in the world. But I knew there was something there had to be something out there. Even from a very young age, I was absolutely looking for that. And yeah, finding it was delightful. Loved it. I love that I can’t recall most of the books I read as a teenager, so I’m always of anyone who can I know I was a military brat, so anytime my books I would get a bunch of books and then they’d go missing the next move.
Participant #1:
But in your book, you brought up Mormonism. And my family was actually Mormon until we left the church. And I was like, oh my God. I never thought of them practicing folk magic. And I was like, Mormon? Mormon is the most occult fucking book I’ve ever read in my life. We’re keeper home now. He looked into a hat and went, I’ve seen the word of God.
Participant #1:
They have the peep stones as well, the peep stones that he used for translating and reading the book and all that. Angel his dad was a treasure hunter up in Palmyra area of New York. There are modern day practices where they’ve got the special outfits that they wore in the secret temple nobody can talk about. Tell me that doesn’t sound like some Oto shit. You can actually go in the temples if you find out when one is being built. So they recently built one over here in Philadelphia, and before they are consecrated, you can go in and tour them. And I always think that’s really interesting, but once they’re consecrated, it’s like verbolton. Growing up Mormon, was there a lot of emphasis placed on dreams as sort of like, revealing messages or anything like that? Honestly, my family were like, we would go to church. My mom was just there to make friends because she grew up in the Mormon Church, and so she just felt like she had to continue on with the thing. But we left, actually right after I was baptized. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was like, that’s good. Okay, we’re leaving. We check that box. I know,
Participant #1:
yeah. We didn’t really get into it as much as others did, but it was really interesting reading about it in your book and was like, Oh, wow, okay. My mom or my grandma would be like, yes,
Participant #1:
that’s so funny. I was going to ask you because you did say that you are practicing and you’re a practitioner of Folk magic. Do you feel like it leans towards any specific tradition or just, like, amalgamation of several? I would say that I’m probably most deeply immersed in Southern conjure, which is sort of a broader brush, sort of Southern style Folk magic that has elements of hoodoo, but it also has elements of Scott’s irish practice has elements of some of the stuff that you find kind of in the Appalachians, more generally, upland south kind of stuff. That’s what I was kind of raised around, and so there’s a lot of that that I kind of knew from being in that area. And then the other side of that is, like I said earlier, my mom was Catholic, but sort of similarly to what you’re saying. Maria was sort of like, we went to the church. It wasn’t going to Mass every three times a week or anything like that exactly, but it was very much kind of, oh, you lost something. You should pray to St. Anthony Folk Sauces, which, as I got older, I was like, Oh, there’s a lot of that that I still draw upon, even though I’m not exactly I certainly wouldn’t be in good standing with any official member of the church. But I think I kind of practice sort of round about Folk Catholicism that’s linked with sort of animism and things like that. And then the sudden conjurer kind of influences me as well. For the record, I don’t think anybody even, like, devout Catholics are really in good standing with Catholicism. It’s not like the whole point of the religion. It’s like the bare minimum requirement is that you need to be sitting in order to be saved, right? Isn’t it like by default that all Catholics are guilty of something? Isn’t that for sure? And you can get told about it all you want by any member of your family? Absolutely. Be as guilty as you need to be. I was talking about your book to my wife and her brother, and they grew up Southern Baptist, like the whole, like, bringing out the snakes and service and people going into trances and stuff like that. And so I was like, did you guys ever consider that was a ritual? Like magic is? And they were like, Oh, well, now that you put it that way, I mean, yeah, maybe a little bit, right? I was just with Temp, as you guys know, and my husband is a Catholic and we’re talking about ghosts or something, and he’s like, no, don’t believe in ghosts. You either go to heaven or you go to hell. And Temp goes, your entire religion is based on ghosts. And he was like, what do you mean? And she’s like, the Holy Ghost. It’s like the main guy. And that really made me laugh.
Participant #1:
Yeah. Plus there’s the whole, like, whether or not they formally recognize is the whole sort of hierarchy of the levels of different sort of Dantes Inferno. You’re in hell, but you’re not in real hell. You’re in kind of like hill suburbs right now, right? Maybe there’s a day trip that people take back from space. We were talking about Limbo and how Limbo is a part of Earth, and it’s like it’s directly below the Earth crust. It is on Earth. We love a little good bit of Catholic jokes in the morning
Participant #1:
if you just join us this week. Every week we talk about an upcoming lunar phase and what that means for our practice. This is just a recommendation for what you can utilize the moon for. It is not an astrological reading. Please stop DMing me telling me that I did it wrong because it didn’t affect your sign, because that’s not what this means. So that being said, the full moon in PISCES on September 20. So when this comes out tomorrow, it’ll be three days after this episode airs. We are looking at a bunch of different energies that involve kind of like dream work magic. We’re looking at things like past life, healing. We’re looking at divination, interpreting our life cycles. We are looking at healing from trauma and basically just allowing the dream aspects of ourselves, the intuitive aspects of ourselves, et cetera, to thrive. If you are doing magic that is trying to heal or repair things, you might want to focus on things like repairing lack of empathy in somebody pride, any detachment or indifferences as somebody has or you yourself have. We remember people aren’t projects, but perhaps we need to do a little magic every once in a while. And that’s okay. These are the sort of things that we’re going to be looking at so very emotional moon. So if your feelings crop up for you during the saluter phase, that’s normal and valid. And as Maria said, there is well, you said off air, none of you know this. I’m saying, like, you know that there is a retrograde coming up on the 23rd is when Mercury retrograde starts. So you can do what Maria does and already start blaming retrograde before it starts. Pay nike said it and said that we’re already starting to see some of the effects. I’m just saying. I’m just going off of what nike.
Participant #1:
Nike. And I want to be like, you started something. I like to use the PISCES Moon for, as you said, divination. And I like to use water for the PISCES Moon. So I do like scoring with water, which if you are on our patreon, we have a water scrying spell on there. So I highly recommend looking at that. And also I like to do a good terror reading about emotional healing and stuff. Yeah, it’s a very yeah. With the emotional content of PISCES. Would you feel like that’s also a time when you might look to either provide yourself with kind of emotional comfort food or emotional comfort for others? Not necessarily like food food, although yeah, but also like watching your favorite movie or reading a favorite book or something to that? Yeah, 1000%. Yeah. And I would also like my personal moon lands on the full moon. So yes, I’m definitely already doing those things. Love that for you. I would also say in a non magical aspect of things in my at least my personal experience when it comes to the PISCES full moon, this is the time that the gaslight girl boss and gatekeep people come out. So just witness it and move on. Don’t fight with them, you know what I mean? They’re doing their own thing. PISCES traditionally rules the feet, right? So walk away. Literally. Literally walk away. Yeah. I’m pretty sure that the High Priestess is the PISCES card in Tarot. And I could be wrong. I know I just wrote a whole book on this, guys. If I’m wrong,
Participant #1:
wow. I’m pretty sure it is PISCES though for the hypocrisy. We could just blame it on mom brain. It’s fine, it’s fine. Well, now I’m like second guessing myself. No, it is. You opened your book. Oh my God. What am I, like an author or something? Anyway, know my actual subject or something? Impressive, Robin Dent. But where I was going with this is the High Priestess is very much so about already knowing and being of a higher mentality and a higher mindset. And so when the triple G’s come out, you channel that energy and just you know what I mean? You’re above it and move on. I can’t believe I forgot that. It is mom brain. Everything is mom brain. Brain. It’s fun. He’s the next.
Participant #1:
So if you just started listening to us every podcast we talk about a random tarot card. We go over the universal meaning and then we go into our own interpretations of them. Hearing other people’s opinions helps beginners form their own opinions, or even those who have been practicing for a while, expand their views on other meetings. So this week we’re talking about the nine of pentacles. On this card. You’ll see a lady dressed in her finery. She’s holding a bird and standing in front of an abundant grapevine and there are two trees in the background as well as a big house. The universal keywords of this card are success, achievement and enjoying the finer things in life. When this card pops up in readings, I always think it is important to note that it isn’t a ten, which means, well, yes, it does resemble some success. We have to keep it up in order to keep it going. Success can be fleeting. And just because we have a successful harvest this year doesn’t mean that we’re going to have one the next. This doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves, though we should. We’ve worked hard for what we’ve cultivated thus far. And if that means going out and buying yourself something nice, do it. Go out and have a fancy dinner. Upgrade your living situation. You deserve it. Additionally, even though we still have to continue to keep up with the abundance we’ve created, this card means it will be like smoother sailing from here on out if you handle the maintenance. But once again, if you let it fall to the wayside, you’ll have to work hard to get it back and to get back to where you once were. So how do you see this card? Robin Deer the exact opposite of you, of course. The nine off pentacles to me is a kept woman. So obviously, woman being in the car, not specific to the gender of the querent. It is a card of somebody who has the finer things in life, but also gets to live the life of luxury, where they get to hang out in their garden and enjoy the things that are around them. It is a card that does, like you said, it’s in the process of developing things like our self worth, our selfdiscipline. But it also tells us that while we’re working on these things, that you are not going to sort of lose your footing, if you will, in terms of your personal wealth and comfort. And so it is finding this really great balance between things like material wealth and also having the time and energy for our personal self growth, our spiritual growth, and just having inner completion. I think, like I said, it’s like a kept woman. It is a housewife, but it is a housewife who has people who clean her house for her and a personal chef to cook. She just gets to focus on things that fill her own personal cup. I like this card every time I see it, I’m like Empress energy. Very big Empress energy. Yeah. But the Empress is so much about like, what’s where I’m looking for here, growing all those things, where I feel like this is a little bit more stable than that, if that makes sense. The growth has already happened, but we can to a functioning level and now we can just kind of continue to grow and explore ourselves, if that makes sense. I love your point of view. I disagree. Well, you’re stinky and wrong. I know you read. I do. I tend to use playing cards more. Oh, I love that. Tarot cards. And this would kind of equate to, I think, the nine of diamonds, the pentacles being about sort of material things. The diamonds being about sort of material things. But then this would be kind of daydreaming or peace, which you get this idea that she sort of has this luxury time in the garden. It could also be, depending on how you read, it could also be the nine of clubs, which also has that kind of business association that the Pinnacles have, and that would be like a forest or a reaping harvest of some sort as well. So the idea of sort of seeing things that have come to completion, but not necessarily without labor. But the real thing, like with the thing I tend to do with a lot of cards when I’m reading cards, is I also try to sort of think about the story that’s kind of being connected here. And she’s got a falcon, right? Like that’s the bird that she’s got. It’s like a falcon of the hood, right? It makes me think of there’s this Russian fairy tale called Finnish the Falcon, or Finnish the Bright Falcon, which is all about this young woman who has this kind of prince who can transform into a falcon, who comes and visits her in her either her tower, her gardens, kind of what Robinson the kept woman. Right. The sort of secret. She has this kind of space to herself and she gets to have this lover that comes to visit her and it’s really nice. But then as soon as she reveals that she has this lover, her sisters decide, well, we don’t want you to be happy because we’re sisters. And that’s what sisters do, right? So we’re going to put stuff on the window to chase him away and all this. So to me, one of the things that you could see in this card is a sense of being satisfied, but kind of keeping it to yourself, enjoying it privately, enjoying a little bit of peace and tranquility and the fruits of your labors privately, without needing to make a show of it, so that you have that space, which is a little more nine energy than ten energy, I think. Yeah, I agree. Love that. Oh, my God. Yes. Ten out of ten. She’s just kept warming and her little secret garden just thriving. Right? Yeah, her little falcon friend, right? Her little bird friend. She’s on Twitter, but not that Twitter. She keeps her account private. Yeah, exactly. She’s going to lock that through the hood.
Participant #1:
So the autumn equinox is right on the horizon. This is another harvest festival in a time of equal night and day. On one hand, we celebrate the abundance we’ve created through the year, and on the other, we explore the polarity of life and death. The leafs are starting to change. Well, if you’re not having a second summer like us in the south, and the leafs are starting to slip in hibernation for the cooler days, the nights will get longer, the days will get shorter. Everyone seems to begin to slow down, which is nice respite from the go, go, go nature of summer. So what are you doing, Corey, for this time ahead? Sure. Well, first, my actual wedding anniversary is on September 23. Tends to kind of take precedence. Yeah, a lot of other things. So there’s that. But then I actually don’t wind up celebrating what sort of is normally seen as like mabin on the autumn equinox, just because my practice is more Catholic inflected. I wind up celebrating something called Mickey Mouse, which happened on September 29. It’s technically the feast of St. Michael and all archangels, which the all archangel stuff was added on a good bit later. It used to just basically be St. Michael’s Day and St. Michael is one of the archangels. But there’s a lot of really neat lore that kind of gets packed into that. So Michael is one of the few angels that’s named in the Bible. He’s seen to do battle with this kind of great dragon in the Book of Revelation and all this kind of stuff. And I’m not going to get don’t worry, I’m not trying to get all biblical on you saying this because they’re like, no, this is really interesting. Yeah, that kind of goes with this. So you really have kind of these two things. And honestly, when I’m doing my kind of like my honoring, I’ll do candles to both Michael and then I do kind of a version of Lucifer as sort of a counterbalance because it’s both of their day, really. He is also essentially an archangel, right? Yeah. Like all of us Catholics, he’s just not in good standing. Right, yes. So I do that. And it’s also a good day for like telling devil tales. Right. So telling stories like the Devil city brother from the brothers Grims and things like that. So it’s kind of like the whole like this exploring the polarity of life and death a little bit. Just like yeah, it’s really upper world underworld kind of mingle because the dragon is also kind of the serpent. And so you can do like sort of this slipping into Earth Catholic sort of stuff and connecting with the underworld that way. And then there’s also sort of because Michael is the protector, the archangel protector with the big old sword. I also sort of renew all the wards on my house that day as well. So I put up a lot of protective stuff around my house during that time period. So that’s me. Blackberries. Blackberries are a big part of it because you’re not supposed to pick blackberries after Nicholas.
Participant #1:
I remember reading about that somewhere before and I remember thinking about that was so interesting. So I didn’t mean to shout like that. I love it.
Participant #1:
But I would get the $600 for that one point. Absolutely. And he’s so excited about it too. Except for I wouldn’t get it because I worded it wrong. I’d just be like, blackberries. It wasn’t in the form of a question. Please leave the stage. How did you get it? Easy. Get out of here, Robin.
Participant #1:
I love that I zoned back in for half a second to be like, blackberries. Yeah, I know it. So what do you all do? Well, for me, I do not celebrate via Tamil equinox as it often is. I also use this time of the year, though, to focus on wards, like you said. I tried doing it like the end of September, beginning of October. I don’t have like a specific date that I do it on, but with that two week window, I will do all my window washing and floor washing just to protect for the season ahead. Actually just did a ring of eggshell powder around my house like the day before I left for Portland because we were going to be gone and I didn’t want anything inviting itself in. But yeah, I massively use this time of the year to focus on things like wards and semi annual big re upping protections. So I focus on that sort of thing because especially when we focus on not focus, but when we shift towards sowing you have like the veil crumbles into dust and the plot of Ghostbusters comes alike. I told somebody about that last weekend and they were like, that literally is the plot of Ghostbusters. I was like, Yeah, I know, that’s the best. But because we do traditionally see this time of the year as the beginning of the shift towards the veil spinning and getting at its fittest or whatever, depending on, of course, what school of thought that you believe in. For me, in my culture, we are moving a lot closer to the Day of the Dead and with that it is own kind of veil thinning and I like to just start preparing now for that sort of thing. So keeping unwanted spirits out, but also inviting wanted spirits in and that sort of balance, if it makes sense. I make chamomile washes for the windows. So it’s essentially like a giant chamomile tea. And I wash all the windows and door frames with that. And then I do a peppermint based floor wash. My house smells like an amazing herbal tea when I’m done. But it’s real. Yeah, but it does the job. It takes, like, three days to get it all done, too, because I don’t know if you’ve ever hand washed tiny home windows when you live in a school bus, but there are 50 of them. It’s a lot of windows washing. And every year my husband is like, why don’t you just use a stick with the brush on it? And I’m like, that’s not what it’s for. It’s not for visual washing. I’m not trying to get things clean. I’m literally putting herbs on the wall. I’m not trying to clean something, you fool. You dang it. I clean everything first, and then I put this shit on it. He’s just like, you’re weird little chamomile. Like those little pills just hanging off. I don’t know if you’ve ever used a chamomile before for your skin, but if you do a window washing with Camel, don’t wear gloves because your hands will feel incredible afterwards. Like, absolutely incredible. Thank me later. And you smell delicious. You will. You smell like fun. Little fact, camomile means ground apple because it smells like apples. That’s where the name comes from. So you’re all welcome. This has been Robin. Truly. I know the most ridiculous things like, that etymology is my passion. Okay.
Participant #1:
It’s good. Okay. It’s good, actually. Okay.
Participant #1:
Yeah. That’s what I’m doing. What about you? So my family and I, we personally treat the autumn equinox as, like, a Thanksgiving. We don’t celebrate traditional Thanksgiving, for obvious reasons, but we have, like, a huge dinner with all the fixings, and it’s seriously a day of non stop cooking. And when it’s all done, hopefully it’s worth it. But my family and I go, like, around the table and tell each other how thankful we are for one another, and then we say what we wish would happen for each other this upcoming season. And after dinner is all cleaned up, we do, like, a little family apple spell, which is actually on the patreon. So if you’re a patreon member, please check it out. It’s super easy and even delicious. It’s a great way to get a whole family involved if you have, like, witchlings running around. And after all is said and done, and then if the night is cool enough, we sit around like a dressed cinnamon all spice and orange pill, birchwood fire, and we drink, like, a glass of glob. Now, I know that’s traditionally a winter drink, but it’s my favorite, and I’m not going to give it up, but it’s just a day of family and togetherness and stuff like that. And we try to donate and stuff, like, give back in some way on Map. On as well.
Participant #1:
Thanks. Probably made pumpkin bread. So I feel like that’s pretty much the same thing as a lovely dinner in every way.
Participant #1:
I only make two big dinners a year, and that’s all everyone is getting. When is your other big dinner? During the winter solstice. I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Sometimes sometimes we have one for the, you know, for spring, but I don’t know, usually it does not end up working out in my favor, but you know how it is with the equinoxes and the solstice. It’s all about food and putting food in your stomach. Right. Literally every holiday that I can do is, how can I use this as an excuse to eat something I really want to eat? It is literally just bread. How many different ways can I make bread?
Participant #1:
Yes. We don’t need a wheel of the year. We need a wheel of baking. I used to recipes on Tired Witch for all the Sabbath, and I quickly realized I was like, I’m just giving them different flour based recipes. That’s all it is. I had, like, a dried tomato one for the summer solstice. Like bread. I had the woven bread for Bell Tan. Just bread. So I do feel like half of the year is, like, the sexiest celebrations ever, and then the second half of the year is like, okay, I’m getting ready for winter. I’m going to eat as much as I can. Yes. To me, those two things merge together. Let’s eat lots of food, and then I don’t know. That’s something very sexy about really well made food. There’s no distinguishing line for me, is what I’m saying. There is something sexy about really good food. There’s something exceptionally sexy about really good food that was made with love. Okay. And I get that doesn’t sound maybe like it should be that way because most people think of their mom making them food with love, but trust me, the food can be sexy. Okay. Is that a sexy roast beef? Like yes, it is. I don’t know if I actually want Robin smashed potatoes now. I think that’s called a cake of light. These are my potatoes of light. Okay.
Participant #1:
Disgusting. If you are listening to this and you don’t know what a cake of light is, do not Google it. You’re going to go, surely this isn’t what she means. It is. That’s exactly what after the mercury retrograde. Please. Oh, God. Oh, my God.
Participant #1:
So, Corey, what is stirring your cauldron asleep? You prepared me for this sexy voice. You told me there was going to be this sexy voice, and then I still totally got off guarded by that. What’s stirring my children is really sciency stuff right now. There’s been a lot of really fun kind of science based things that I’ve just either been running up against her or kind of running into. So Kep Borealis, who does the Borealis meditations podcast. She’s a geologist and a pagan, and she’s been posting from Ahu Au, which is this volcanic rift on Hawaii and, like, showing, like, her doing field work there and, like, collecting some of the obsidian and things like that. And I don’t know if you guys follow do you know Alexis Nicole, the black forager? I don’t like her whole thing on TikTok. If you are not following her or watching her videos, you are doing yourself a massive disservice. She’s amazing. She’s so good. And then I just finished reading Merlin. Sheldrake’s entangled life, which is all about kind of why mushrooms will save us all, basically, and kind of getting into, like, fungi and plants and how they all work together. So weirdly. Like, science is just making me really happy right now. We need that. Yes, we do. That’s awesome. I think it’s good. We’re a very magically oriented group of people, and sometimes it’s really good to also kind of turn back to the real world and say, hey, the science can be just as enchanting as the magic is. Exactly. Yeah, I totally agree that. Yeah. And brewing, like, tinctures and cells and stuff like that, that’s sciencey. Yeah, for sure. The only difference between scientists and things like that, they have crazier, better equipment, and a great education.
Participant #1:
So, Corey, what’s not stirring your cauldron this week? You severely undersold the sexiness of that.
Participant #1:
Just flinging boners for everybody, okay? There’s your T shirt, there’s your next podcast T shirt. Plain boners. So what’s not stirring my children right now is, honestly, there’s been kind of a rash. And this has been not just this week or month, but very much for the past couple of years. Instant experts coupled with anti intellectualism, where you have people who, because they did a ten minute Google search, they now feel like they have a credible argument against people who have been doing lab research for the better part of a decade, or there’s a strong kind of anti book sentiment for a minute there with kind of community, which, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think books are the end all, be all of everything. And I’m not saying that because I’m an author. I think before I did this book, I literally had something like 200 articles for free up on our website. But it’s about making sure that people go and do their research and think through these things and don’t just take for granted because they saw one person on TikTok do this one spell, this one way, that’s the only way that spell can ever be done, or even the best way to do that spell. And then they’ll take that information and then turn around and say, well, you’re not doing it the way this other person did it, therefore it’s wrong, and shut it down. Everybody go home. Right. So that’s very frustrating. Which people were saying, Oh, I don’t know, or I’m open to learning, or I was wrong, would be fantastic. Social media. Yeah. I think that’s something that social media in general could take home a lot better is by learning to be okay with saying, I don’t know. Yeah. Or I made a mistake. I’m happy to learn from that. Yeah. It’s impossible for anyone to know literally everything, so there’s no shame in saying, you know what? I don’t know, and I’m going to look that up. You know what? I don’t know. And it doesn’t really pertain to me, so I’m going to just move on with my life, and that’s okay. Yeah. And then there’s the whole not trusting experts, as you said. I posted to Twitter about, which is being really pushy when it comes to fixing everyone’s issues, including those with, like, chronic illness and even disabilities. And then the same breath, like, scoffing at someone who says they got help for it medically. And I’m all for doing things natural when it warrants it, but unfortunately, there’s often a disease growing in my body. It isn’t going anywhere, even with medical intervention. In the herbs I take, the spells I do to help with it, but all I can do is treat it. So, like, someone coming in and being like, I can fix you. It’s so cringy. I cannot I can fix you.
Participant #1:
Just grab it out. First of all, there is a joke there, and you just open the door for it.
Participant #1:
I think Marie is going to be getting some of Robin’s potatoes of light real soon.
Participant #1:
If somebody listening to this is not making me Madame Maria getting fisted, I’m going to be so mad. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not going to be mad.
Participant #1:
Okay, let me clarify before somebody takes it way too far. Do not take a photo of someone getting fisted and put Maria’s face on it, please, of, like, the expression. Okay.
Participant #1:
I think that’s way better. Oh, Jesus Christ. I also think it’s important to be, like, not a lot, but some witches are illiterate. But there are other ways to learn this information. Like, you can listen to Cory’s podcast
Participant #1:
and then also go to witches that have background and knowledge and stuff like that and watch their YouTube videos, because a lot of authors and stuff like that do have different media outlets where they talk about their work, and you learn a lot, and it’s actually really fun to just sit there and watch it. Yeah, absolutely. That’s the one thing I’ve seen. Most of the authors we have kind of in the witchesphere, at least the ones that I’ve interacted with and the ones that I think are reputable, they’re so willing to share information. They’re so eager to just connect and put information out there and yeah, they would love for you to bite there by their book, but they’re also just as happy for you to get it through your library, and so they’re willing to put this stuff out there and really share it. I would say definitely, yeah. Experts are not your enemy. Yeah, exactly. And I feel like a bunch of witches. We’re very creative people, so we’re going to find any way to spread that creativity in domains even outside of books, even masculine. You can’t say that, Robin. You have like, what, six social medias. You’re being very loud right now. Okay. I’ve never done any of that in my life. You make me feel so like I don’t work enough. That’s true. You’re very lazy. I’m constantly saying that.
Participant #1:
You really do need to take a photo, maria, you need to take a photo of you with a falcon if you can work that out somehow.
Participant #1:
Real falcon, so I know it’s real. Okay, okay. I’m hearing it fantastic. Please,
Participant #1:
if you’ve just joined us this week, every week we talk about creators that we are loving right now. These are accounts that we have found shops, that we found artists, that we found organically, and these are not ads. So that being said, as I have to say it every time, apparently, Don’t DMA’s asking to be on here or similar, it’s not going to happen. And Maria and I will privately laugh at you. Not publicly, we’re not naming shamers, but privately we’re mocking you. So don’t do that. It’s rude. So that being said, Corey, where are you loving right now? I am getting really excited about there’s going to be, you know, how every October there’s this sort of collaboration, or there’s not collaboration, but the sort of outpouring of art from artists for what’s called inktober. And that sort of has shifted the past couple of years. And this year I saw there’s going to be a whole thing that’s called Folktober, where they’re using largely kind of British Isles folklore, but just sort of themes from folklore to inspire the art. So, like, one day they’ll do the Green Man, one day they’re going to do the Mary Low, they have Sennas, they have the Dorset Kelpies, things like that. So being inspired to do art kind of on that hashtag called Folktober. And I’m really, really excited about that. I love October. It’s so much fun online just seeing everyone gets so creative. And yes, please
Participant #1:
represent. What about you, Maria? Well, I got a book about maybe a month ago called Kitchen Witchery by Laura Woodward. And it is amazing. It is so good. It’s a correspondence book for, of course, for Kitchen Witchery stuff, but it also has recipes that I can actually eat. Like, there’s gluten free and dairy free recipes in there and that’s hard to find for kitchen with your books. And she even goes into the different grains and what they mean and how you can use them as spellwork vegetables. It’s just a really well written and well researched book and I really appreciate it. And I think she’s coming up well, she’s starting to begin the process of writing a new book and it seems like it’s going to be something to do with house spirits. And I’m here for it, like ten out of ten. That’s really cool. I’m so excited. Yeah. So how about you, Robin, as you guys know, I just did a book signing in Portland at this place called Sea Grape Apothecary, and the shop in general was really cool. But specifically, I use their soap in their bathroom that they make there at the shop. And when I tell you I have never in my life used a handmade soap that made my hands feel softer immediately afterwards, I bought four bars, and I’m probably going to be buying more. It was incredible. And they’ve got, like a whole line that has correspondence, like magical correspondence with the soaps, et cetera, like, really freaking cool. It was honestly incredible. That entire shop was incredible. And they had an entire bath line. So I can’t obviously speak for the bath salts and stuff like that because I wasn’t like, hey, can I take a bath really quick in your back bathroom?
Participant #1:
Just fold myself up in the utilities. And like, this is great. But I did use their soaps and it was incredible. And they all smell incredible. So I will be continuing to buy from them. And if you guys go and you buy a soap from them, which you should do, all the copies of my book at that store right now are signed whether you buy it online or in person. So just saying because I’m not bringing signed copies back to my store, that was a lot of work, shipping all day. Robin, I feel like I’ve learned in this episode that soft hands are very important to you. It is important to me. Listen, here’s my dirty secret. You’ve called me on the floor, and I’m going to tell you the worst part about me. I have hyperhidrosis, which means that I have really sweaty hands and feet. Like, really sweaty. And it causes my hands to be really dry simultaneously. They’re really sweaty, but the salt from the sweat makes my hands dry. So soft hands is, like, hard to find for me. So, yeah, I love that.
Participant #1:
I can imagine with two buckets on the side with chamomile water, and you just have a candidate. It’s true. If something for me works well enough that I noticed my hands being soft, I’m like, it’s such a big deal to me. I’m like, wow, all right. This is how hands are supposed to feel. Amazing. I love that. Yeah, I’m sweaty. Shit. So that is 100% what’s going on there. I am disgusting.
Participant #1:
Oh, my God. Do the tik tok thing. I’m still a piece of garbage, literally, that’s me. But I’m still set a bit in.
Participant #1:
Yeah, with soft hands. Thanks, C Grape Apothecary
Participant #1:
thank you all for being here today, and we hope that we will see you for our next episode on Friday, October 1. And if you didn’t already see, Maria and I made a website. It is Coffee and Colombia website, all kind of coast of Robin. It’s amazing. You were there in spirit. She was there, sort of, so it’s fine. Maria helped go to Coffeeculture.com, where it has all of our links, including things like the free book resources that are free and legal, as well as the beginner list recommendations. It has links to our Twitter, our Now, Facebook, because we have Facebook Now and our Instagram. And you can do any of that to find out more information about the podcast. Yeah, or even better, joining us on our discord here, which is First Covenant on Patreon so we can answer your questions. And our part two, next time you’ll even get to hear our very sexy voices for an additional 30 ish minute episode on being in the Patreon casting tier end up. So again, this is Coffee and cauldron with Robin from Attitude, which on Instagram. And I’m Maria from Maria Darken on Instagram. I’m Corey from At New on Instagram and all of the places. Are you guys ready? You’re ready? Let’s try it.
Participant #1:
You guys are great.