When I first embraced myself as a witch, I really struggled with the whole idea of Christmas. Was I doing something wrong by celebrating it? Was I being a hypocrite by singing Christmas carols about Jesus? Did this mean I wasn’t really a witch after all?
If you’re feeling any of this confusion yourself, today’s Moonday Musings is especially for you, neighbor. All you need is 15 minutes of your time today for this episode, and I really hope I’m able to help you release some tension around this day, and lean into it in whatever way feels right for YOU.
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|| T H E N E I G H B O R H O O D ||
That Witch School: thatwitchnextdoor.com/enroll
YouTube: That Witch Next Door
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When I first embraced myself as a witch, I really struggled with the whole idea of Christmas. Was I doing something wrong by celebrating it? Was I being a hypocrite by singing Christmas carols about Jesus? Did this mean I wasn’t really a witch after all?
If you’re feeling any of this confusion yourself, today’s Moonday Musings is especially for you, neighbor. All you need is 15 minutes of your time today for this episode, and I really hope I’m able to help you release some tension around this day, and lean into it in whatever way feels right for YOU.
★
|| T H E N E I G H B O R H O O D ||
That Witch School: thatwitchnextdoor.com/enroll
YouTube: That Witch Next Door
Instagram: @thatwitch.nextdoor
TikTok: @thatwitch.nextdoor
Pinterest: @thatwitchdani
Twitter: @danithatwitch
Contact: thatwitchnextdoor.com/conjurethatwitch
I don't know what's more confusing Learning astrology or just being a human. Moon Day Musings is here to help with that A weekly, no bullshit guide for the upcoming cosmic forecast and how you can actually use this in your real life. Hello, hello, neighbor, happy Monday and happy Moon Day and, if you are a celebrator of it, merry Christmas to you. I really debated doing an episode today. Obviously, there are lots and lots of people who are not gonna get to this episode today, on Monday, the 25th of December, but there's lots of people that will and that I know will appreciate having their regular Moon Day episode today. Despite it being a big holiday for a lot of people, this is still gonna be a little nontraditional. Don't worry, our regular structure of Moon Day Musings isn't going anywhere. It's just that, if you already listened to last week, we had some pretty extenuating circumstances and I offered instead really raw, open, vulnerable episode that I hope spoke to some people in the way that they needed and was able to offer some big connection, healing, validation, et cetera for anyone that needed it. This week I'm also doing a little special Moon Day because of the day, because it's Christmas for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Tomorrow is also the full Moon in Cancer, just so that you have those details, that's gonna be tomorrow, Tuesday, december 26th, at 7.33 PM Eastern time. This is happening at four degrees of Cancer, so the Sun will be at four degrees of Capricorn and the Moon will be at four degrees of Cancer. On this same day, chiron, our wounded healer, also stations direct in Aries. God, that felt like the longest retrograde cycle in the history of retrogrades. Sometimes it just feels that way. We also have Jupiter stationing direct this week on Saturday, december 30th, stationing direct in Taurus. We have Venus moving into Sagittarius this week on Friday, the 29th, and then, when I come back and talk to you for Moon Day on the very first day of 2024, january 1st, that Monday, mercury will station direct. We have a lot of direct energy. It's a very cool time, astrologically speaking, when you combine the astrological transits with the different celebrations, energy of this year, cultural practices of interactions honestly, both good and bad it's very, very fascinating. It's all very intriguing and ultimately, what I wanted to come here with today are my thoughts on Christmas as a pagan. I wanted to talk about this because I remember when I was the babyist witch, when I very, very, very first started purposefully practicing witchcraft. This day was kind of an anomaly for me, and so this is going to be super, super bite-sized and short, because I want you to be well on your way to enjoying your week.
Speaker 1:This week is just like limbo, let's be honest. The week before Christmas and New Year's, as in the Western world, is like a wash. It's like this week practically doesn't exist. It's such a weird blurry time vortex. Right now Nobody wants to be doing anything. It is like brain vacation for everyone, but there's still plenty of responsibilities and duties, expectations, both personally and professionally, for basically everybody. And so, first of all, I want to come on here and remind you to do yourself check-in today, just like last week. I'm not going to walk you through the full guided meditation today. I want you to do yourself check-in this week. I want you to take those big, deep breaths. I want you to create a moment of stillness and grounding for yourself. I want you to offer any energy that your body, your mind, your energy, your spirit needs right now, and just to give yourself that two, three minutes to just check in and be present with you. Don't forget to do that. We'll be back to our more normally structured Monday next week, like I said, but seeing as the moon is going to be full in cancer tomorrow, I think that it's very fitting to just come on here and speak from the heart right now.
Speaker 1:When I very first claimed or reclaimed, if you will witchcraft in my life, I also flipped the lid and just blew the top off all of my religious trauma and all of my religious wounds. Personally for me, I was raised technically Catholic, but I more even accurately call it like this Catholic Christian hodgepodge, and it was a hodgepodge because I had very passionate authority figures in my life fucking one way or the other, all spirituality and about religion. Many, if not all, of them had a fucking host of religious trauma themselves, even, I would might say, especially the ones that were extremely religious. When I reclaimed witchcraft, I allowed myself to enter the stage of anger when it came to facing my religious wounds. That stage is important, by the way. It's Sacred rage. It's it's in my opinion, it's technically sacred rage to a point. It depends on how you wield that energy and how long you sit in that energy, because sacred rage can can turn into Very pointless, very damaging anger, so keep that in mind. I Do think, though, that it is necessary to get pissed in the first place.
Speaker 1:I, a very wonderful friend of mine that you have all heard here on the podcast before and a regular listener and just my best friend that I love so much Christie Christie Gussipson, my, my friend, is a Just, absolutely Wonderful therapist and counselor, very well educated, very experienced. I value I'm just giving you such a shout out right now, chris, but I'm serious I just value your opinion, your insight so much and I won't. It was like probably two years ago I Remember talking about a situation of mine personally that required some allowance of anger and and Christie told me that and she's learned this in her experience in her education as a counselor that we have to let ourselves access anger in order to eventually access acceptance. Like, how interesting is that? We do have to let ourselves get mad first. We do have to experience the sacred rage if we ever want to get to a level of acceptance. I am very happy to tell you that, with a lot, a lot, a very intentional, very purposeful work Around this which is nowhere near done by any means I have done a ton of Work, of introspective work, therapy, therapeutic practices, digging Into my religious trauma and my religious wounds and Because of that long Dedicated work I have been able to reach all, all kinds, all kinds of levels of acceptance that I, holy cow, even just a handful of years ago version of me, was just felt fucking light years away from, so disconnected from and so distant from. It's really, really cool to experience.
Speaker 1:That being said, when I very first started practicing witchcraft, I didn't know what to do about this Christmas business. You know it depends first of all, you know that the whole moral of this story I'll just spoil or alert for you right now, because you know me enough to know what I'm gonna tell you, which is, yeah, it's gonna come down to following your own intuition and just following what feels best for you and your family. That's the only way. But I, I For me, when I had to look at it through my particular lens and scope of you, christmas was this wonderful delight. Growing up, I got to have the magical Christmas experience in lots of ways, lots and lots of ways. I've had my really shitty, hard Christmases, like anybody else, but overall I love this time of year.
Speaker 1:I Mean, if you really know me, you'll know that I will take any fucking excuse to be festive for anything. I love celebrating. I love seasonal and and and cultural Celebrations. I love what they bring, I love the energy around them. Any excuse to be festive and I'll take it, and that very much goes for this time of year.
Speaker 1:But I just want to say this there is a lot of information that I'm sure you've already seen about how rooted in paganism Basically almost every part of Christmas is rooted Like. I mean, it's true, there is plenty of research out there that will back up and support the pagan roots of these Christmas traditions. I'm not here to go over those. I'm not here to tell you how I feel about those or how you should feel about them. They're true, they're true historical roots and using not even using anything, going out of your way to stomp all over a person's truly innocent and harmless celebration Celebrations that fall under that category, which is, honestly, most of them you are being a dick. I am just going to say that.
Speaker 1:I am going to say that there are a very sad amount of pagans I saw all throughout the week last week that went out of their way to try to make Christians feel bad and rub their nose in this information, and I'm sorry, but there is a different way to share information and spread the reaching of said information that will actually do that and accomplish that 20,000 times more effectively than being a pompous, bitter asshole. And I'm getting very real and very blunt about this, because this constantly I saw it so many times coming from people that talk about the tolerance that they want to see in the world, the acceptance, this universal acceptance they want to see in the world. How sick it makes them to see intolerance and division and hate and unnecessary hate, by the way, and these were people literally participating and spreading unnecessary hate. I watched it with my own two eyes and I would never have been able to see it that way had I not done the intentional shadow work that I've done around my religious wounds.
Speaker 1:I am a pagan through and through. I am a witch through and through. I worship and work with ancient gods, gods that are ancient but not quite as old as that Various planets, entities, beings past on loved ones, spirits. Okay, I'm a pagan witch through and through. And and here's the big fucking caveat y'all I have healed my relationship with the word God and I have healed my relationship with Jesus and who he was as a person and all that has trickled down from that, I have been able to address my shadows and because of this, because of the shadow integration, I have been able to now see true spirituality and true religion when it's existing in its true, pure essence and form.
Speaker 1:It's when you do that it's so much easier to see the people that are speaking from a wounded place and the people that are speaking from a healed or healing place. Because, by the way, there are a fucked-on of people that fall into these categories in every single sect, in every single denomination, in every single non-denomination. It doesn't matter, even if you're atheist, there are people in both of these categories. You can tell when people are speaking from a wounded place and from a healed or healing place, and that's very, very helpful because when you get to that point, you can let yourself realize and accept that there's more than one path to spirit, that it is not just important but so, for a divine reason, that we all have our own spiritual language and we all have our own spiritual practices. Please do not come at me with the but, but, but. This example and this example, I am not talking about those people. I am talking specifically about true, harmless religious and spiritual practices, and including in religions that pagans don't participate in. There are people doing that, and if you are a pagan thinking that your way is the only way, you're doing the same shit as other people.
Speaker 1:The moral of all this story is that, through my experience and my shadow integration personally with my own religious wounds and my own current spiritual lifestyle and beliefs and choices, I've been able to just celebrate this time of year for what it is and what it means to me, which, in my opinion, is just like the fucking beauty of being a witch and being a pagan, in my opinion and I have been able to incorporate practices I was raised on and taught, and taught to believe, and the ones that I came into came into this world knowing or learned in my pagan ventures. I can practice a lot of the traditional Christmas traditions and sing Christmas songs and carols yes, even ones that are about Jesus. My goodness, it's crazy how much that people want to boycott that. If you want to boycott that because it does not resonate with you, because it's just not for you, that's fine. If you're boycotting that, to fucking stick it to somebody your wounds are showing, my friend. That's the real spirit of Christmas. That's the real spirit of you. That's the real spirit of giving and acceptance, in my opinion, and I wanted to offer that to you today.
Speaker 1:Tomorrow, like I said, is the full moon in cancer. Let yourself feel what needs to be felt. Let it be released as it comes. Let as many waves crash over you as you may need. Breathe through each of them, connect with those that love you the most. Right back and, of course, make sure that you stay safe, that you let yourself have some damn fun in this life and that, of course, neighbor, you stay match club there. I'll see you next week. 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 and review. You can also share a shout out on your social media page and make sure you tag me at thatwitchnextdoor. 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.