I think one of the most frequently-discussed conversations we have inside That Witch School is the ebb and flow of life and how it impacts our witchcraft practice. When we’re getting hit hard by the external stressors and we find ourselves not having or not making the same kind of time we usually do for working with our tarot cards, studying astrology, tending to our altar, meditating—you name it.
There’s a natural guilt that arises, and I personally remember in the first years of my spiritual practice this would trigger comparison cycles and imposter syndrome.
Am I not really a witch after all?
Does this make me a bad astrologer?
I bet other tarot readers don’t have such long lapses between readings.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. And this episode is really going to help you start laying those thoughts to rest.
|| S H A D O W W O R K S U P P O R T G R O U P ||
→ If you think it sounds pretty nice to be able to talk to other folx who actually get this kind of thing, I cannot recommend the weekly Shadow Work Support Group inside That Witch School enough!
This is a weekly meeting exclusive to Full-Time Students, and is hosted by my dear friend and colleague, Sierra Joleen—That Witch School’s residential medicine witch and spiritual therapist.
Sister Yarrow is a handmade clothing, homegoods, and accessories company located in the heart of The Rocky Mountains created by owner and artist Madeleine Greeson. Formerly Paragon & Bone, Sister Yarrow connects you to both earth and spirit by bringing you handmade, one of a kind pieces inspired by nature and all things magic. Stay up to date and follow: sisteryarrow.com @sisteryarrow
I think one of the most frequently-discussed conversations we have inside That Witch School is the ebb and flow of life and how it impacts our witchcraft practice. When we’re getting hit hard by the external stressors and we find ourselves not having or not making the same kind of time we usually do for working with our tarot cards, studying astrology, tending to our altar, meditating—you name it.
There’s a natural guilt that arises, and I personally remember in the first years of my spiritual practice this would trigger comparison cycles and imposter syndrome.
Am I not really a witch after all?
Does this make me a bad astrologer?
I bet other tarot readers don’t have such long lapses between readings.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. And this episode is really going to help you start laying those thoughts to rest.
|| S H A D O W W O R K S U P P O R T G R O U P ||
→ If you think it sounds pretty nice to be able to talk to other folx who actually get this kind of thing, I cannot recommend the weekly Shadow Work Support Group inside That Witch School enough!
This is a weekly meeting exclusive to Full-Time Students, and is hosted by my dear friend and colleague, Sierra Joleen—That Witch School’s residential medicine witch and spiritual therapist.
Sister Yarrow is a handmade clothing, homegoods, and accessories company located in the heart of The Rocky Mountains created by owner and artist Madeleine Greeson. Formerly Paragon & Bone, Sister Yarrow connects you to both earth and spirit by bringing you handmade, one of a kind pieces inspired by nature and all things magic. Stay up to date and follow: sisteryarrow.com @sisteryarrow
Hey, do you want to come over and make a pot of tea? Bring your favorite crystals. You know we could talk about our birth charts, spirits, the latest house spells we've been doing. Welcome to the neighborhood. I'm that witch next door. ["witch Next Door"]. Well, hello, my friend and my wonderful neighbor. Welcome to another episode of that witch podcast. I'm Dany and I'm that witch next door and I am really excited to offer you some very comforting spiritual validation today.
Speaker 1:
Maybe it's a little more human validation, but this is a subject that comes up in my work over and over and over and over again. It is something that came up for me just as many times on a personal level when I was embarking on really really living my witchcraft practice on a day to day, regular level. This concept of daily ritual brings us so much excitement and inspiration. It makes a lot of us feel so aligned, like these ideas and visions that we have of ourselves. Like really stirring our coffee with intention every day, or remembering to cleanse our mirror so that when we're getting ready in the morning and looking at ourselves, we are looking at ourselves with these charged, powerful intentions that we put into our mirror. All of these different rituals that we might come up with on our own. They might be ideas that we get from friends or people in our community, or ideas that we see on social media. And even though witchcraft, our energy practice, our spiritual foundation, is this part of our life that has brought on so much alignment, so much centering in our own authenticity for so many of us, every single one of us, every single one of us, I really there's no exceptions to this rule. Okay, every single one of us goes through periods where we disconnect from, detach from, maybe disassociate from and, in any other words, kind of separate ourselves from our spiritual practice. And time and time again I hear witches and energy practitioners say I've really fallen off of my practice, I've gotten so far off track. It's always along these kinds of lines I'm off track, off center. Now I wanna make a special sort of distinction here. It's always gonna be helpful information when we are taking note in the fact that there are things around us that we use to love and enjoy and we're not able to find joy and fulfillment in those things for an extended period of time, regardless of the reason, the trigger, the root, wherever that comes from, for each individual person, this is a sign of mental illness, of depression. This is why it's helpful information, so I don't want by any any means to bypass how important that signifier is and being able to take notice. This is something that I've always really enjoyed, and I'm not feeling fulfilled by it.
Speaker 1:
What we're talking about today can branch over. There can be some overlap into depression here. A lot of what we're talking about may very well be linked to depression or depressive episodes for you, and in fact I think it would still be. I think it would be a good idea to put a little bit of a trigger warning. We're not gonna go into anything graphic or intense, but we are gonna be talking about mental illness, particularly depression, today, and these ideas and these time periods and stages of detachment and disassociation, and so I think that it would be a good idea to put that out there and offer that to anybody. That may not be in the right space for that today, but I have.
Speaker 1:
In the past several years I have been able to get to a place where, regardless of whatever the reason is or why it's happened, but if I am disconnected from or I'm not nearly as active or proactive in my ritual workings, my witchcraft practice I've gotten to a place where that doesn't really concern me anymore and it doesn't put me in a place of feeling impostery anymore. I don't feel like, oh, I'm not being a real witch. I'm so disconnected from my tarot practice. I'm not a good tarot reader. This has happened so often for me. Quite honestly, that's how normal it is. I think that's probably my biggest intention with this episode today and that's what I met at the very top of the episode when I opened with. I hope I'm able to offer you some validation today because it's so normal. My business is called that Witch Next Door. You're listening to that witch podcast, you might be a member in that witch school and even I, the creator of all of that.
Speaker 1:
It's so normal and regular for me to have periods where I'm very, very disconnected from my magical workings and it used to throw me into this tailspin of imposter syndrome and comparison cycles. And am I a real witch if I do this? And I only smile if you're watching on YouTube, I only you know I kind of smile when I say that because I you know, when I think back on my past self who felt that way? It's like this energy of like buzz her heart, like, of course she felt that way, you know, but she never, ever had to, because your witchcraft practice and your spiritual beliefs, and however those fit into your witchcraft practice, they are not dependent on the amount of times you do a spell or how frequently you pull cards, or if you remember to do stuff for the full moon and the new moon, or if you journal regularly. Like I wish, so bad, I could give you guys, like behind the scenes, footage of my real life and show you, like organically, how often and how these long stretches of time will pass without me picking up a deck for myself.
Speaker 1:
Now, obviously, because of my job, I pick up a tarot deck pretty frequently, I look at astrology pretty frequently. What I'm talking about is I get, just like everybody else, just like you, I get wildly disconnected from looking at my astrology, setting aside time to really work with my planets, to really interpret and sit with any upcoming or current transits happening for me. And again I smile because I help so many clients and students through this struggle of feeling like, oh my God, I haven't. Again, there's a fine line, a very fine distinction between a couple of different things here that we're talking about, and again it's technically a very nuanced and different thing. When the reason we're pointing that out like, oh, I've been so disconnected from my practice lately. When the reason that we're pointing that out is because we're trying to communicate or acknowledge or realize or recognize for ourselves, oh, I've been in this kind of disassociated place, I've been in a depressed place, I've been feeling very disconnected, I've been feeling very off-centered. That's different. What we're addressing today mainly and the difference is is when you not only maybe make that acknowledgement I've been feeling disconnected from my practice but that then goes even further to make you feel like you're not a real witch, or your magic isn't very powerful, or this is a big one, or your guides aren't with you. I think that that was one of my biggest ones. You guys, I think that was one of my biggest ones for a long time.
Speaker 1:
Today's episode is brought to you by Sister Yaro, one of my favorite handmade clothing, home goods and accessories companies. Located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, created by one of my dear friends, owner and artist Madeline Greason, sister Yaro connects you to both earth and spirit by bringing you handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by nature and all things magic. Now, this autumn, sister Yaro's most recent collection is called the Earth Seasons Collection. It is a mixture of earrings, necklaces and accessories and more that primarily focus on beautiful mixed metals, crystals and other minerals, with an emphasis on simplistic, gorgeous, bohemian designs. Now, in addition to their newest collection, sister Yaro also offers a wide variety of products like sun catchers and mobiles. I have a couple in my home and they are a favorite of myself and my daughter. They cast little rainbows across the room. We've got home goods candles, crystals, clothing and more. And listeners of that witch podcast also get an exclusive discount on SisterYarocom. Simply use the code THATWITCH10 to receive 10% off your entire order. Go to SisterYarocom, make sure you subscribe to their email newsletter so you never miss their newest collection, newest products or exclusive discounts and sales, and make sure you use code THATWITCH10 to receive 10% off your entire order at SisterYarocom.
Speaker 1:
How many of you ooh this one's coming through super strong? How many of you accidentally associate and treat your relationship with your spirit guides and your spirit team Similarly to that of however you were raised and whatever caregivers brought you up in this life looked like? Now, very often, as soon as we know this is our spirit guide, we know this is our spirit team, very often right off of the bat even if you had a very, very, very traumatic and difficult childhood we usually can automatically see our spirit team and our spirit guides in a much more loving and tent way. We're usually able to sense that and feel that right off of the bat and we still inadvertently, through our own kind of automatic programming, these autopilot moments of thinking that we can do something to make them abandon us.
Speaker 1:
There is a little bit of a difference between maybe a deity that you've been working with or a certain type of spiritual entity or creature that you've been working with, like if you had been working with gnomes recently or the fey recently, or you've been working with dragon or unicorn energy recently and you're just not really feeling as connected to that energy or that entity anymore. Yeah, you might be sensing an actual disconnection there and maybe there is a bit of a separation happening. That's part of the seasons and the flow of having a spiritual practice and working with spiritual beings. That is very different and that relationship is very different than that of your spirit guides that reside on your spirit team. When I'm talking about your spirit team, this fucking lifetime beyond lifetimes, the type of soul connection there is quite beyond the relationships that we can cultivate with spiritual entities and energies that we're feeling called to and we're honoring during a season of our life. Our spirit team, the members on our spirit team, they're not going anywhere. They've never gone anywhere.
Speaker 1:
So what can kind of help some of us remember this sometimes is if you can open up your perception and your connection to God, or source, or creator, or spirit okay, whatever kind of term, universe, whatever term resonates the most with you when we're talking about spirit, source, god, open yourself up to whatever. Your best understanding and your relationship to that is right now. And most of us, a pretty high number of most of us, hope, all of us, hope, all of us because it's a good hope Hope all of us can recognize that source, god, spirit, creator, the universe is always with us because we're always a part of that. We are these spiritual, universal creatures of spirit and God. We are fractals of source. We all are part of the intricate fabric that makes up and creates and makes source and God what it is in the first place. Your spirit team, your spirit guides, are such an interwoven part of that and so all of that beautiful intricacies to say your spirit team ain't going fucking anywhere.
Speaker 1:
My friend, I don't care how long it's been since you've practiced, I don't care how long it's been since you prayed, I don't care if you got angry with them for a while, I don't care if you entered periods of self-doubt or spiritual doubt. Your forces that are here supporting you in this life, they're not going anywhere and you don't have to do anything to earn that love and support. It's just a part of your existence here and when you really really let yourself sit with that information and really truly let it soak in, then not practicing witchcraft for a little while is not a big deal anymore. And you realize, especially when I go back and read previous journal entries. I have journal entries where I felt so disappointed in myself and I felt so embarrassed and ashamed all these big, very unnecessary emotions and reactions to myself for disconnecting from my practice for a little while. It took years of feeling that way and then really reflecting on that in and of itself, those feelings, reflecting on feeling that way and then trying to fit that experience in and of itself in with the spiritual experience, like what is the point of my spirit team? What's the? You know?
Speaker 1:
Again, when I open up to my understanding of God, the universe source, there is no abandonment, because it doesn't work that way in the first place. And so I know that, if my spirit team, and everyone's spirit team, are these forces that are here to always, always guide our spiritual bodies, no matter what that's, in so many ways, that's a huge part of this notion of knowing that we're never really alone. Even when we're alone, like we're always, these multifractal beings with these huge, huge spiritual teams always on our side, we are always part of universe, we are always part of source. So we're never really alone, we're never really abandoned. We do, however, have limits and capacities. In this human form, in this human earth life, there are so many tasks, responsibilities, duties these commitments that we agreed to when we entered into this earth life, and it's okay to say that we're not alone and it's okay that sometimes those take up all of our room. It's okay that that's everything that we can focus on for a little while. It's okay if other things take our focus for a little while.
Speaker 1:
Knowing I'm a witch through and through, day in and day out, it helped me not look at my actual practice so linear like that, so on and off like that it's never an on and off thing. It never, ever, has anything to do with turning it on and off, maybe ramping it up, maybe dialing it back, sure, sure, but it's never about being on or off. I'm always a witch, I'm always a spiritual being. There are these constants about ourself that, when you really anchor into them and accept them about yourself, you realize that just because you have some human things to do doesn't make you any less spiritual, divine, sacred. And again, I wanna remind you like this is a different feeling than when your intuition is calling to you and saying hey, you're feeling off center, like you're feeling out of alignment, there's something that you've been disconnected from that's calling you. That's different.
Speaker 1:
When we take space from our practice and then we feel that pull, like oh, it has been so long since I picked up my deck, it has been so long since I made my own incense in my kitchen and burned it on the stove, like when we feel those callings, like that's for a reason and it's beautiful, as you can imagine, absence makes the heart grow fonder. It's a great, great feeling when we pull that, when we feel that nudge and that pull to something that we've been away from for a little while that we really, really enjoy. I think what you can leave at the door a mentality perhaps that's not serving you, that you can just start to work on releasing is that those periods of time and disconnection make you any less of the absolute spiritual badass that you are my friend. I really, really believe that, and so I mean it when I say like it's been a really long time since I felt like, oh my God, I'm like the worst witch in the world that I haven't, you know, I haven't pulled out my herbs in so long, I haven't charged my crystals and really sat with them, or I haven't carried my crystals in my bag or in my pocket or in my bra for a really long time. It's okay Now I just look at it in the nice way which is, oh, it's been a little while. That would be really nice, that would feel really really nice to just kind of dive into again. It's been so long I missed it. Just let it be this beautiful reconnection and renaissance. You don't have to let the self-deprecation accompany you. Okay, on that beautiful rendezvous. So this is just something that we talk about.
Speaker 1:
It comes up a lot again in my work. It comes up a lot in our weekly shadow work support group in that witch school, which, if you haven't heard before, it's just one of the absolute pinnacles of being a full-time student in that witch school. It's a weekly spiritual support group where you can come and connect with and relate to other practitioners and individuals that are also navigating real magic in a very anti-magical world and we come and we celebrate our wins, we cry together and hold space for our losses, we examine and reflect on our learnings and our lessons, and it's an incredibly bonding, wildly supportive experience. It's hosted weekend and week out by my wonderful friend and colleague, reverend Sierra Jolene. You can find all of her info in the show notes below. By the way, if you're a full-time student, you can connect with her on Mighty Networks as well.
Speaker 1:
Sierra is just this amazing medicine witch who holds this space, this really sacred, protected space for us every week to show up with our shadows, with our wins, connecting with one another in a really authentic, genuine way. It is honestly one of the most heart-centered reasons why we're cultivating and creating the community that we are in that witch school. So if you struggle with some of these things as well, and then on top of that you struggle with the fact that you might not have that many people in your personal life that get these struggles and challenges. As a witch, you might be the only witch in your inner world. We would absolutely love to have you over in that witch school. You can always just give things a try for $5 a month, but if you are interested in trying the Shadow Work Support Group, that is something that is available at this time to full-time students. Only For just $30 a month you get this weekly support group call along with literally all of the rest of the amazing magic that we're always getting up to in that witch school.
Speaker 1:
We would love to have you and hold space for you and support you and connect with you. So I really wanted to make sure to offer that to you today at the end of this, because today's episode is one of many of those very common witchy spiritual struggles that a lot of people just don't get if you're not a part of our little world here. So thank you, neighbor. Thank you for your time today. I hope that I gave you some validation today. It's totally normal if you take breaks, even really long breaks from your magical practice, from your astrology studies, from your tarot practice. It doesn't make you any less of a witch, of a spiritual baddie, of the incredible person growing and thriving and learning that you are. I hope that you have an amazing rest of your day. I can't wait to see you on Monday for moon day. Have a great rest of your weekend and make sure you stay magical out there.
Speaker 1:
Did you get something valuable out of today's show? Here's how you can help continue to grow our magic. First, you can head over to Apple or Spotify and leave a five star rating in review. You can also share a shout out on your social media page and make sure you tag me at that witchnextdoor. And, of course, you can just tell a friend that you think would enjoy the show and send them a link to the episode. Thank you so much, neighbor, for your support. I'll see you next time. I'll see you next time.
