Welcome back to Your Average Witch, where every Tuesday we talk about witch life, witch stories, and sometimes a little witchcraft. Your Average Witch is brought to you by Clever Kim's Curios.
Thank you, listeners, for giving me the past couple of weeks. Chuck was a big part of my life and I really needed that time to say goodbye. Thanks to everyone who reached out, and thanks again to Macy for doing the intro when my voice was gone.
This week I'm talking to Wish, a green witch from Appalachia. Wish talks about trees, security, and tells a story about a message from a goddess.
I also want to send out a special hello and thank you to E. R., who came in to see me at Bookman's. Thanks for listening and for coming in!
Now let's get to the stories.
Kim: Hello Wish, welcome to the show.
Wish: Hi, thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Kim: I'm excited to talk to you!
Wish: Yeah, me too.
Kim: Can you please let everybody know who you are and what you do and where they can find you?
Wish: Sure. My name is Wish. I also go by the Whimsy Witch. I have a small online presence that I only just kind of started really pushing, so I am on Instagram as the underscore whimsy witch, and all of my links to my online shops and things will be there. But I've been mostly a in-person and word-of-mouth witch for hire and tarot reader up until this point. I've read tarot for quite a while now, so that's kind of my main thing that I do. I'm an event tarot reader so I do like weddings and all other kind of like big events and stuff like that. I also do one on one stuff and my like daylight job is I am a landscape designer and a plant, just general plant person. I live in a city so I do small-scale urban Farms and gardens as well.
Kim: That's cool!
Wish: Thanks. It's pretty fun, especially in my area. Everybody seems to have a little bit of a desire for that right now. So that's been cool.
Kim: That's good. I think it's so neat when people do like event tarot. I think that's freaking cool. I don't want to have events ever, but if I did, I would want a tarot reader. (both laugh)
Wish: I fell into it naturally. Like I just did tarot anyways, and I was a bartender for events, and it kind of just happened, and I've been doing it since then. And it's really fun, and weddings are my favorite because people are like loose and free at a wedding, and ready to like celebrate, and people come with open, more open hearts and minds than you might expect at weddings. Like they're like ready, at weddings. And I kind of judge how well a wedding has gone or not, like my readings have gone at a wedding or not, like depending on how many people cry. (laughs)
Kim: I love that!
Wish: One is an okay night but like three or more is a really good night.
Kim: Whatever, crying's good for you.
Wish: No it is, it is, it's good for the soul. But yeah, it's fun, it is.
Kim: Can you tell me what it means to you when you call yourself a witch?
Wish: Yes, so what it means to me is tuning into the subtle energies of the world and finding how to ride those waves, I guess, and also cultivating a sense of wonder in all of the mundane moments that we have in our regular day-to-day lives like making the mundane magical is kind of my whole thing, and being a witch is, it really rings true in that vein of existence for me. Like I really try to cultivate a sense of authentic joy and whimsy and wonder in everything that I do. And it makes it way better to walk in this life, in my opinion, with that sense of all of those things I just mentioned already, words, but yeah, I think there's like all of these different subtle energies that we walk around in this primordial, excuse me, soup that we kind of bathe in all the time and like finding the different veins of those energies that really call to you is kind of what witchcraft is for me. I hope that made sense. Did that make sense?
Kim: I feel like it did.
Wish: I feel like it did too. We'll go with that. (laughs) Also nature. For me being a witch is like hand in hand with being in tune with nature. I'm a plant person and I don't think I could look at my witchy practice without looking at the inextricable hand nature has played in me being able to be where I am today with my magic specifically. Yeah.
Kim: Oooo, foreshadowing of possible responses to questions later. (both laugh) Do you have any family history with witchcraft? Were you brought up with tarot or anything interesting like that?
Wish: Okay, this is kind of a long story. I'm going to try and make it make sense. But on my mom's side of the family, my mom died when I was really young, but the women that I know on her side of the family. They all have some kind of witchy superpower. They're not, you know, blatantly witchy, but they don't necessarily deny those forces that I kind of mentioned being able to tap into earlier. And I think they're all time witches. I think we all have some kind of time thing going-
Kim: Oh no. That is a nightmare. For me, for me.
Wish: Yeah, it can be. It can be really weird sometimes, that's for sure. Like my great aunt, you walk into her house and I shit you not, she has grandfather clocks everywhere, like everywhere. Every inch of her house is covered in grandfather clocks and if you asked her, she would tell you that she tries to get them all to the right time, but they're always like a minute or two minutes off either one way or the other way. And that's just always been a part of my life. And she's always either late for this thing or, or, you know, on her way to something else. But, you know, doesn't seem like she's ever really going anywhere, if that makes any sense at all. Like, it's just a real, really weird relationship with time and like my grandmother, my nana on that side, she is a green witch herself. I call her grumpy Snow White because she is a grumpy old lady but she is so in tune with the nature around her house. Like I grew up in Appalachia, so like in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and they've all all been there their whole lives. I was the only one that really ever left and I kid you not, I can take a dead plant, like dead dead brown, and squishy even, and take it to my Nana and she just takes it into her house and you can come back the next day and it looks like it is vibrant and thriving and happy as can be and probably three times bigger than it was before you gave it to her. Like, it's crazy. It's awesome, but crazy. And our house is covered in vines and everything like that. So kind of tuned into like the being able to turn the clock forward or turn the time back thing with plants. I don't know. It's hard to explain, but just really interesting tapping into certain things and those mountain energies they got floating around over there. But on my dad's side of the family, I was raised Catholic. And because when my mom passed away, I went to live with my dad in Atlanta. And I went to Catholic school briefly, because I went to a bookstore by myself for the first time. I was let loose and I ended up in the new age section and I stole a book. Because I knew that I would never be allowed to buy it, so I stole it. And it was this teeny tiny red book called The Good Spell Book, and I, I loved this book so much. I read it cover to cover and it was my first introduction to like magic magic being an actual thing.
Kim: Oh, you got away with it?
Wish: (laughs) For a little bit. For a little bit. I was, you know, so entranced by like what the heck is a spell? Like what is all this? What does this all mean? I took it to school and that was the wrong move. I took it to school and I showed some of my school friends.
Kim: Oh no, they're such fascists at school!
Wish: (laughs) Oh, they really are! And they, we were on the playground and they took the book from me and they were like ripping the pages out and they were throwing it at me.
Kim: Oh, that's how you get fucked up, kids.
Wish: Yeah,, I was I guess this kind of is the kind of person I am though. Like I was, I thought it was funny. I was just laughing at them because it was like you know, I was laughing back I was like yeah this is a joke! !eehoo, wow! And the teachers didn't think it was a joke though. Like the the kids are pointing fingers and calling me a witch while ripping this book up and they come over to check it out and they pick up the pages of the book and they're like oh, you... Okay, you're a problem. And they called my dad and thus begun a very very very long war between me and my dad of me buying a witchy book, him finding them and burning them because they were of the devil, and me buying them again.
Kim: Oh, literally burning? Oh...
Wish: Yeah, literally burning. But this particular book, the funny thing about it is that I didn't, so this original good spell book, little tiny, small and red. I never purchased that one again. There were other books that I purchased multiple times, which were like foundations of like me learning initially, but I never repurchased that book. And later on, maybe like a year and a half ago, actually, I started the journey of doing like ancestry.com stuff with my DNA and trying to like really figure out where I come from and stuff like that. And I found out that we, on my dad's side, come from mainly Wales, but also that we have like Romani...
Kim: Hmmm!
Wish: ...Yeah, ancestry, which is not something I had ever heard a single peep about. But and I'm still learning more about that right now. But the relevance to this is is that my friend who lives in California sent me a care package out of the blue one day and it was this frickin book. This book, the Good Spell Book. And she said I found this in a thrift store and I don't know why I just thought you would like it. And she sent it to me, and I was like, you have no idea how much I like this book! This is the book that started everything for me. And going into this book, rereading it for the first time since I was like eight, I found out that it was a book of Romani magic. Like that is the, the whole book is about that. And I was freaking blown away because I don't know, it just felt like something had called to me and I had somehow managed to be exactly where I needed to be in a way. And I still have, I have this book, I'm looking at it right now. And it is very dear and close to my heart. And honestly, the magic in there is nothing... It's folk magic. And I love folklore and stuff like that and it's nothing like in your face crazy, but it is what started everything for me. So I don't really talk to my dad's side of the family very much, but there is a big call there to learn more about that. And I am starting to get up the courage to actually talk to my elders before they're gone on that side of the family, even if it means, you know, uh, yeah, uncomfortable. Exactly. Because I have so many questions now and only they are going to be the ones that can really answer them.
Kim: So they're going to be more uncomfortable about it than you are.
Wish: Yeah,, absolutely. And you know, like to answer your, your question about like tarot, my first tarot deck was given to me by my great grandmother and it was hers and it was, you know, in a box that she had locked up. And she was she basically said nothing to me and was like, I'm giving these to you because they're supposed to go to you. And so she gave them to me and long story short I ended up losing them in a move. We had a U-Haul breakdown and like all of our stuff got stolen out of the back of it, and so I lost a lot of my precious things, which made me really sad, but I have since tried to ask other family members about that and they just are locked up tight about it. Because like, you know, Christianity really, especially Catholic, Catholicism really forces you to like, feel some type of way about all of your uh, all of everything that makes you you. They really force that guilt into every aspect of your life so... (takes deep breath) that was a really long answer.
Kim: If they can't bully you into giving the church money why, what's the whole point?
Wish: Exactly! That's...exactly. Among other things, yeah. But I uh, that's a very long-winded answer to that question, but that was my answer.
Kim: It was delightful.
Wish: Oh, thanks. Thank you for listening.
Kim: Can you introduce us to your practice? Do you have any regular or consistent rituals that you'll share?
Wish: Yes, so every morning I wake up and I make myself a frou-frou coffee as my partner and his dad like to call it. But coffee is like a real special thing to me. My first ever job was as a barista and it just has carried into my life today. I love it. I make it into a big deal. I make my own like flavored syrups and I can make those witchy, I usually do like seasonal witchy syrups. And when I make them, I make them with different herbs and things that go with whatever I'm going to spell them with. Like right now I have one that is cinnamon and filé, or sassafras leaves. If you've never added sassafras to your coffee, coffee drinkers, please, please do it. It makes your coffee taste smoky and earthy and also it brings in that like, I don't know, syrupy sweetness that is really specific to sassafras and it is insane. But I have that right now with the intention of digging my roots deeper into my business right now because I'm really pushing my gardening consulting part of my business at this moment. So every day I wake up and I make my coffee and I stir my syrup or whatever into it and in my pantry I keep my coffee beans with sigils in them. So I put coffee beans in mason jars and I put sigils in the different roast of beans.
Kim: That's cool! I highly approve.
Wish: Thank you. You can do this with anything that's in your pantry actually, like any of your dried goods or herbs or whatnot. And if you don't want to do it for individual ones, you can just make like a sigil for your cabinet, you know? So like everything that's in there gets infused with whatever your sigil is for while it's... yeah. And your salt, salt is a really good one to stick a sigil in if you want to do that. But that's my main thing that I do every day. And then at the end of the day I try to sit down and pull oracle cards and journal about them because I have a lot of feelings, and they overwhelm me all the time. And journaling helps me sometimes get all of those out of my body. And sometimes I'll pair that with a little bit of shaking, like moving whatever I'm journaling about, like actually through my body, and that makes me feel real good. I usually sleep much better when I do that. But that's the only two things that I do like religiously I guess every day.
Kim: I like the shaking part.
Wish: Yeah, it's interesting when you think- I saw a video a while back where somebody was like, did you know that you're supposed to move your emotions through and out, rather than hold on to them? Like literally physically move them. And they brought up the example of like, have you ever seen a duck being chased by a dog? And at the end of the chase, if the duck gets away, they shake it off. Because they're actually moving that fear and that adrenaline and all of that stuff through their little teeny bodies, because they can't hold on to that. And they went into the science of how, you know, your body holds on to things like that. And it just, I don't know, really struck a chord in me. And I really do feel things super deeply, and if I don't do that kind of both spiritual and physical maintenance I guess, on my systems, my nervous system makes me do self-destructive bad things. I don't want to do those things, so yeah. It helps it helps me, anyways.
Kim: (pauses) ...a DUCK? (laughs)
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I did hear everything you said, but such a random thing for the dog to be chasing.
Wish: Well, have you ever... (laughs) I mean, every dog that I've had that I've like walked past a pond... We have a ton of ponds in my area as well, and like, because I live in like a little, like an area that has a bunch of hills and lowlands and stuff, and I don't know, there's a bunch of geese and when I mean, say duck, I guess I meant geese ,technically, but you know.
Kim: Either way a waterfowl is a very odd thing, instead of cat. (laughs)
Wish: Well they have this very specific, this is like part of this it was a whole... I don't know what the word is called. Words are hard, but it was a study or something that this person was referencing where they were looking at how different animals react to different high intensity situations. And birds specifically have a very in your face way of shaking adrenaline and adrenaline related situations, feelings, whatnot, out of their body. Like they flap their wings in a certain way and they shake their bodies in a certain way. And they applied that to, you know, how humans react to certain high adrenaline situations and what happens when we literally shake high intensity things out of our body. So. I'm like a bird. I'll only fly away.
Kim: Oh no. Oh NO. ( both laugh) I'm stopping this recording immediately!
Wish: It's the moon, it's the moon, I swear! (laughs)
Kim: How has witchcraft changed your life?
Wish: Well at this point, I don't even know who I would be if I wasn't allowed to do witchcraft or practice my witchy things or tune into what I tune into. I don't even know who I would be, so it's changed my life immensely. But it also has brought me, you know, if I want to bring it into more tangible... like it's brought me a ton of wonderful people into my life. It's brought me into a ton of just out-of-this- world situations. I've experienced some insane stuff when it comes to magic and like on my own and with groups. And just the pure level of connectiveness that I feel when I am not holding myself back from being the magical person that I am is priceless, truly priceless. And life is brighter when I am allowing myself to be who I really am, which is a witch, so.
Kim: That's a good way to phrase it.
Wish: Oh, thanks.
Kim: You're so welcome. (laughs)
Wish: (laughs) You're lovely, and I love your giggles. They bring such an effervescent bubbliness to this energy.
Kim: Ha ha to the reviewer who said I giggled too much! (laughs)
Wish: Yeah! Wow, what a weenie. (blows raspberry)
Kim: I doubt they hear that. I doubt they listen anymore because I know, I told them no I'm not gonna stop.
Wish: Laughter is the best medicine, right? That's a quote that we have probably heard once or twice. I believe that.
Kim: I take a ton of medicine. Some of it is laughter. (both laugh) I am sorry to everyone. (laughs)
Wish: I'm not. It's full moon tonight.
Kim: I went to the ballet last night, and...
Wish: Aries full moon.
Kim: Aries full moon and I'm just...
Wish: Giggly.
Kim: Feeling very airy.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I don't remember what... I'm like half air, a quarter earth, and a quarter fire. So I'm feeling that air a lot.
Wish: I am fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, water, water, water, water. I have one air placement in my chart and it is Gemini. You can cry for me.
Kim: Earth?
Wish: No. I don't have like any. It's literally all fire. I might have one earth placement in one of the you know, random houses.
Kim: Things that people don't know what it is.
Wish: Yeah like I'm not super into, I'm still learning about astrology but yeah I am an Aries and I am really feeling this moon for sure I'm wired. And it's not the coffee but the coffee is also not helping. But it is helping my soul, so.
Kim: We're gonna fly into the atmosphere!
Wish: That'd be cool, I'm cool with that.
Kim: What's the biggest motivator in your practice, and has it changed since you first started?
Wish: Yeah, absolutely it has. The biggest motivator in my practice is... Right now, the truth is, the biggest motivator in my practice is stewardship of the earth. Because we are in a place right now, collectively, where we really need to be aware of our impact, and that can come go like I believe in bringing that to a micro level you know like your impact on just yourself and how you walk through the world is really important. But I think everybody should have access, at least access to the ability to know how to be self-sustaining in one way or another, like not fully self-sustaining, but like, you know, starting small, like growing your own food. Or at least growing one thing, like not all of your food, that s a big thing, but like being able to grow something and eat it, whether it's a....
Kim: Cilantro.
Wish: Yeah, anything, anything truly. It's really, that is magic in itself, is starting something from a seed and then being able to take it into your body as nourishment. That is a whole, it's its own form of wonderful. And I am really committed to helping people realize that whatever space they have is enough space to do something that makes them feel like they have more security when it comes to food or water or energy. There's something that you can do with whatever space you have. That is entwined with my magic because I go for walks in the forest, and like the plants talk to me and they, you know, tell me their stories and they share their energy with me and that fuels me to you know, take care of them and in the way that I know how which is sharing the knowledge that I have. Which is what I just shared with you. So that's my like biggest thing that I feel energetically is the woods. I feel the plants, I feel the trees, I feel them all all the time. And when I look at what's happening in the world and I feel, you know, a sense of doom, I try to come back into what I know, which is the skills that I have to share. And the way that I build security and community is by sharing those skills, which is my biggest driver. So, stewarding, stewarding the earth, continuing this wonderful green planet as wonderful and green is a big deal to me. So.
Kim: That's so good!
Wish: Thank you, it feels so big and scary sometimes, but it is what I gotta do. So that's what I'm doing.
Kim: I'm glad you do it. I appreciate you.
Wish: Thank you. I appreciate what you do. This podcast is awesome and it is its own community in itself in the ether, in the liminal space of the interwebs. And I love that.
Kim: Oh, wow. Thanks.
Wish: You're welcome. I mean it.
Kim: Now that you've made me doubt everything that exists in my life, (laughs) tell me about how you feel about Impostor Syndrome!
Wish: (laughs) Um, how I feel about it is it's...
Kim: Let me rephrase that. (Wish laughs) You didn't make me feel that by saying that. My impostor syndrome did. How does yours react?
Wish: Oh, I call them, I call them the gremlins, the gremlins in your head, the gremlins on your shoulder, and I fricking hate those gremlins. They are dicks. And I, I deal with imposter syndrome, like all the time, honestly, like every day. And I have to fight them when that happens. I just have to literally be conscious as I possibly can be about that voice being, you know, not really the truth. And I've done a lot of work to get there. I have to kind of, I guess what I'm trying to say is I work real hard to say, nah, point a finger back to the gremlins and say, no, no, no, I'm not going to believe you. I'm going to choose not to believe you. And that sometimes takes all my spoons. Sometimes that's all the energy that I have, but that's kind of how I deal with it. It's the only way I found to deal with it, honestly. I deal with it a lot because I do a lot of deity work. It's... other than nature, like, that's probably my biggest thing. And sometimes, like, I just go through a moment where I'm like, Have the gods forsaken me? And if they don't come back and, you know, give me some kind of, like, No, we're still here. You're just, you know...
Kim: We're still cool.
Wish: Yeah. (laughs) You're just working a lot, that's all. If it's not, if they don't do something like that, I have to kind of like reassure myself in a way, and that's just by going into my delusions with wild abandon until they prove themselves to me yet again.
Kim: That sounds like a good time.
Wish: Yeah, yeah! It has not swayed me wrong yet. Well, maybe... maybe once but not like most of the time.
Kim: Maybe just a little.
Wish: Yeah, but that was fun too, so it's okay. (laughs)
Kim: So who cares! That is what I am on this earth to do... have a good time.
Wish: Yep. Oh my god, so true. I am right there with you in that belief.
Kim: I mean, other people I don't think are, but I am. (laughs)
Wish: I am. I am. I'm not here to toil. I'm...
Kim: I'm here for the damn enjoyment. And when people are like, you chose this before you came here. You're damn right, and that's why I'm going to eat this fucking cheeseburger.
Wish: (laughs) I actually just put in my grimoire, like my next section of my grimoire is themed with the theme of I am in the mood to be fucking enchanted.
Kim: Oh! Yes.
Wish: So, I have put the call into the universe, told the universe and the powers that be, what have you, that I am in the mood to be fucking enchanted. So we will see how that goes with this darker half of the year. I'm excited.
Kim: Universe better listen up.
Wish: Yeah, universe. I'm gonna take a couple more sips of coffee up there and we're gonna have some words. Gonna zoot myself into the atmosphere.
Kim: I would probably just cry, but either way, what's your biggest struggle when it comes to witchcraft? How you like that segway?
Wish: Nice, very good. (laughs)
KIm: (laughing) That's the one that you ride, it's not the linguistic turn of...
Wish: I don't know what my biggest struggle in witchcraft is, to be honest with you. Probably, I don't think it's, I think it's the fact that I'm an Aries and I'm just kind of doing things without thinking about the consequences and that's worked out for me. And I've been really lucky so far but I've never been in the broom closet, and I've been very fortunate that I have not faced some of the things that I have seen other people in my life face because of being an open pagan or witch or what have you. And so it is something that is on my radar though. Like I definitely, after moving to a city where it's more, there's more people and it's not quite as mountainous and you know do whatever you need to be doing down in the woods at whatever hour of the night like I am definitely more aware of the people around me and how I'm coming off to the people around me, and so I definitely feel that much more right now in my life. So I think that's probably the biggest thing for me right now, yeah.
Kim: What brings you the most joy in your practice?
Wish: (pauses) When... hmmm. When I get a moment where my intuition was right, or when my magic works. That's always just really cool. Like that might be... I don't know. I don't know what that is and I'm not gonna hate on myself at all. That's the truth. When something works, when I do something on purpose with a magical purpose and intention and that shit works, it's really freaking cool. Every single time. (laughs)
Kim: It's awesome.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: Especially if other people witness it with you.
Wish: Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The last group thing that I did was we we were we didn't know, okay this might ruffle some feathers and it's all good now, just so everybody knows, but we were doing a ritual. We were in circle and somebody took a picture of us while we were doing what we were doing, and they didn't tell us they were doing this because obviously we were in... we were busy. And we looked at the picture and you could just see there was like this giant orb, and inside of the orb were some other orbs and inside of those orbs just clear as day, and it was just so... that was just the most recent thing like that that has happened but it was all good because we were like whoa, this is really awesome, but please ask for consent next time, but this is really awesome! And we were all just kind of dumbfounded when we looked at that picture for a solid, I don't know two or three minutes we were just in silence and we were like Yeah! It worked! Wooo! We did the thing, and yeah it was real and we can see it with our human eyeballs right here in front of us. And that was really cool.
Kim: That is really cool!
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I'm envious! I want a visual representation of things that I do.
Wish: It's been, that particular photo has been so helpful for me with skeptics when I was like, yeah, I went to this thing and we did this circle where we called in this energy and it came to us in the circle and I felt so good after that and blah, blah, blah. And they're like, yeah, okay. A couple of people have been like, okay, sure. You're a crazy person, but fine. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, look. And every person I've shown this to has been like, what is that? I'm like, exactly. That's magic. That's freaking magic is what that is. So. (blows raspberry) but yeah.
Kim: What's something you did early in your practice that you don't do anymore and why don't you do it?
Wish: I had a little trouble with this question I don't really know I don't remember, I don't remember. Everything is always changing. But I think...
Kim: I relate to that. I don't remember what happened yesterday. Except for the ballet. (laughs)
Wish: Yeah. (laughs) I guess like listening to other people, and going to other people for, you know, like what should I do. Um, I just, I don't really, I feel like I don't need to necessarily be validated in my choices of what I choose to bring into my craft, I guess.
Kim: What the hell is that like? The hell? (laughs) How do you not seek approval from everyone around you?! (both laugh)
Wish: I got off the internet, to be honest with you. I was doing too much of seeking validation from other other places and comparing and stuff like that and I had to delete all my stuff to get out of that and now I'm back on because I need to...
Kim: Capitalism.
Wish: Capitalism! That's exactly correct. Yep. Yay!
Kim: What is your favorite tool in your practice? Does not have to be a physical thing. And why is it your favorite and how do you use it?
Wish: This is so hard to pick just one, but I think probably my feet or my imagination. Because without my feet, I couldn't go outside, which would be the worst. So I am very very thankful for my feet. They take me everywhere, first of all, but to the sacred places that I have deep connections with. I'm a big waterfall girly so I couldn't go and do what I do with the waterfalls if I didn't have my feet. And my imagination because I do a lot of trance work, and I really need that for, well, all that cultivating wonder and whimsy stuff that I mentioned earlier, but also trance work and journeying. I need a little bit of imagination I feel like to go to the, I personally need that to go to the places that I go.
Kim: I want to do that.
Wish: Come on.
Kim: I need to do that. I am going to be leading an online workshop where we are journeying into the next full moon. Because I was going to do it today, and then I had a little bit of a head cold and decided that was probably not the best thing for me to be doing today. So instead, we're gonna do it next month, but you are invited, 100%.
Kim: Cool, thank you!
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: If you could only recommend one source of information to a new witch, what would it be? You're not allowed to just say the internet or Google.
Wish: Yeah, I don't know. I want to say, talk to your elders, talk to the people, even if they're not your family, like talk to the older people around you, talk to whoever you can. And like wherever you live, like figure out what this place that you stand on and sleep on and do everything else on, like what that place is like. From an elder perspective, so you can really get a feel of where you're at. Because cultivating a sense of place, and stability through a sense of place, I think that's important. And even when you're nomadic, like doing the van life thing or bus life or just traveling, talking to people about the place that you're in can be a really powerful experience. And even if it's not a magical lens, I think there's a lot that you can learn from talking to people who have been around for a while, even if they have sometimes wildly different viewpoints and opinions than you. I feel like there's always wisdom to be learned there, even if it's like helping you better shape what your core values and beliefs and stuff are.
Kim: I agree Even, yeah, even if it's this is how I don't want to be.
Wish: Exactly. Yeah.
Kim: Glean, people, glean!
Wish: That's a fun word it's a word that when you say it, it sounds like what it means. Do you know what I mean? Like it comes out of your mouth and looks and sounds like... I don't know if that makes any sense. Like that... shink! Like it just kind of... That might not make any sense at all, but I feel that way.
Kim: I approve! (laughs)
Wish: Thank you.
Kim: (laughing) I feel like I'm interviewing myself! Except I don't know what I'm going to say next, so it's exciting! (both laugh) Also, for the listeners, we don't know each other at all. The first time I spoke to Wish is like how many minutes ago? 49 minutes ago, when I was like, hey I went to the ballet and I'm feeling weird about it.
Wish: Pew pew pew pew pew. We know each other now! (both laughing)
Kim: Okay, so we're doing an interview. (both laugh) So you live in, in or near woods. In North Carolina.
Wish: I do live in the woods.
Kim: So do you feel like your practice would be different if you were in Siberia or in the desert?
Wish: Oh yeah, yeah 100%. It's been weird being in a city. So I live in Durham, North Carolina, like outside of Durham. And I, you know, I grew up in Atlanta so being in the city is not weird. My grandma lives in the mountains and I've spent probably more time with her than I did with, you know, with my dad as much as I could. But, um, being in the city's not weird, but going from living on my own in the mountains and then going back to living on my own in the city is so crazy. And uh, finding places that I feel connected to, and also that I can perform magic outside, because that's a thing that I love to do, has been tough here... but not impossible. But yeah I think I would have to I would have to acquiesce to whatever you know wherever I was. In Siberia, that might be pretty cool, because I do kind of love cold and I think going and diving into some icy places would be interesting, but I definitely think that wherever I am, the land spirits and the geography of that place would definitely shape, you know, what I was doing. Seasonally and Internally and the kind of spirits that I have access to and stuff like that would definitely change, so for sure.
Kim: Do you follow the wheel of the year?
Wish: I do because here we get really distinct seasons which is super cool and I'm very thankful for that and it's something that I don't I could do for a little while but I wouldn't want to do long term I would want to have seasons wherever I end up staying for good wherever I put down roots finally I'm gonna need seasons for sure. But yeah, I do. Do you?
Kim: No. (laughs) There's only like two seasons here. So...
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: One, there's not any point. And two, I just don't feel connected to it at all.
Wish: Mhmmm. Valid. Very valid.
Kim: Also, I hate being cold. so we're not the same person because absolutely not. I'm not diving into anything.
Wish: I don't necessarily like being cold, but you know what I hate about being cold is being hot, so...
Kim: I... am the opposite of that. (laughs)
Wish: That's fair. That is fair. I just feel like it is much easier to warm up than it is to get cool. And so that's just where I'm at, but I don't really have to worry about that too much here. Thankfully.
Kim: That's good.
Wish: It's pretty mild all the time. Yeah.
Kim: How do you pull yourself out of a magical slump?
Wish: Okay, honestly, I don't. I kind of just let myself slump. And I tell myself that I'm not going to be here forever and that maybe I'm slumped because I need to rest and so most the time I just let myself have that, and kind of try to ride the the wave and find whatever it is that I'm missing. Because usually when I'm in a slump I feel like there's something that I haven't haven't latched on to, or I guess something hasn't clicked yet, and that's why I'm in the slump. And if I figure out something that I need, then usually the slump is over and I'm starting to go on the up and up again. But I usually just let myself slump, because sometimes you need to just rest, and nobody's gonna be on all the time. I mean maybe some people are, but that is really hard, and I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
Kim: Hello!
Wish: Yeah! As I said earlier. (both laugh)
Kim: What's something you wish was discussed more in the witch community?
Wish: This one was really difficult for me to think about because there's a couple things, but I guess the biggest thing is, um, I just wish gatekeeping was less of a big deal. Not like the actual act of gatekeeping, but here's what I mean. Before I got off of the internet, like when witchtok became a big thing, like it was blowing up and everything. There was a lot of stuff going around about how intention is everything. And even before that actually, like in classes and sometimes in books you would see like intention is everything, it's the basis of all of it. And I just feel like saying that intention is everything. It's not wrong, but it is not giving the full scope of how incredibly nuanced the conversation of intention in witchcraft is. And it can trivialize all of the work that does go into, you know, certain aspects of magical practices, I guess. And I just feel like the "intention is everything" conversation could be better utilized for people who are learning by saying something else. Like examining your core values and morals and motivations in a practice, are going to be the easiest thing to get you to a place where you can build. That's a better way to like really describe, I think. I mean I'm sure there are better ways to say it, but like what I think the idea of saying like, get your intention solid, and that is gonna be the biggest part of magic. Like it is for some people, and that is okay, but it's also not, for some people, and that is also okay, but I guess that what I also wish was talked about was the nuance of that, and how it can trivialize the real work that goes into like the practice part of having a magical practice. And that is just my little soapbox. That's it.
Kim: I feel like there's also, if you're new, a lot of people don't really know what intention means.
Wish: Yeah, exactly, exactly. I am right there with you. Like, do you mean visualization? Do you mean figuring out what kind of spell you need? Do you mean... what do you mean, exactly? That's... I agree 100%.
Kim: Plus, knowing yourself a know to know what your true intention is and not just, I want to win the lottery, I want a bunch of money. What do you actually want the money for? You want security or you want content.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: That's your intention. Not to win a million dollars. And it doesn't, it may not look like winning a million dollars and you might be surprised about it when you get it.
Wish: I feel like that could be a whole, you know, couple of weeks long class on its own, like breaking down intention, and what is intention really, could be a great thing for beginners to really like have access to. But it ain't gonna be me because I don't have the words for that, but I agree with you like that is really key element. But I do think there's been a shift just in people in general getting to the core of like who they are and what they want and X, Y, and Z which is going to spill over into the witchy communities, pagan communities and whatnot, which makes me happy. But I want us to, as a group, like I want witches to talk about more difficult things in a way that is welcoming, and not going to immediately be like, oh well you're gatekeeping. Or oh, well you're this. Like no, we're just here, and it means a lot to us, and that is okay, and we want understanding from everywhere all the different areas of the circle. At least I do anyways, and I would like to have more of those conversations in an open way.Yeah.
Kim: Along with some civility, which is free by the way, everyone. It's free to not be an asshole. Doesn't cost you anything.
Wish: It doesn't. It's also like takes much less energy in my opinion.
Kim: Consider the three biggest influences on your practice, not necessarily people, unless they are people. It could be a thought process, or a book ,or whatever, or a plant, whatever, it can be anything.
Wish: Trees-
Kim: Thank your three biggest influences for whatever influence they have on you.
Wish: Sorry I jumped the gun there. (laughs) Definitely trees. I have a big ol' heart connection to...
Kim: I thought you were going to say heart on and I was like, oh no. (both laugh)
Wish: Oh, man. I have a heart connection to specific trees. And when I go to a new place I try to like psychically connect to the trees that are in my area, and tell them like I'm a friend and that I appreciate what they do for our planet and stuff. And I've been doing this for maybe four or five years now, as a you know, like a practice I regularly try to keep up with. And they, you know, have given me much wisdom and you know, influence a lot of my dreams and my imagination and the way that I view the world. I've learned a lot from trees when it comes to viewing the world and I love them and they're really flippin' cool, and sometimes they blow my mind with just what they do and how, oh how- oh I'm sorry if you hear those dogs barking, that's my bad. But how they, how they grow, how they persevere, and how they help their forests that they live in is incredibly inspiring to me. And I sound like a hippie right now and I don't care cuz it's true I love trees, they're my biggest, my biggest nature pals. The second thing would be other witches, which is part of the reason why I love your podcast. I love learning how other people do their magical stuff. It is so incredibly uplifting, joyous, fun, wonderful, and it's just one of my favorite things. I will sit and listen to anybody tell me anything about like any magical experience practice whatnot that they do because I just find it fascinating. And the third thing I would say... maybe... I don't really know what the third thing is. I'm going to say my son, I have a seven-year-old, well he'll be seven in like a week, and he's awesome, but watching him grow up and experience the world in his way has been one of the things that has taught me how to cultivate a magical mindset the most. And we have fun together, we play. I guess what I'm the core of what I'm getting at is play. Because a lot of people walk through the world and they don't play, I think, which sounds like really not fun to me. Coming from somebody who does play.
Kim: That's why they're so mad all the time.
Wish: It is. And I think that is kind of a key element that we're missing but that play has been I guess the third thing, third biggest thing, yeah.
Kim: Do you have any advice for any new witches?
Wish: I would say whatever sparks joy the most inside is what you should go towards most fervently. I think that you know, if a lot of times there's this pressure coming from elsewhere to figure out X, Y, and Z. And there is no pressure. I'm just gonna go ahead and give you that hall pass. There is no pressure. You can just move straight into the fun and explorative part of it. And if you're wondering where to explore, look around and think of what gives you the most joy. And even if it's socks, there is a witchy thing to be done with socks. And there is no necessarily right way to begin. The important thing is just beginning, I think.
Kim: Is there anything else that you wanted to bring up or talk about that I didn't ask you, or did you have any questions for me?
Wish: Yeah, so I just wanted to let everybody know I also have a podcast. It is called WishCrafting. Like, you know, witchcrafting, but I'm Wish, so WishCrafting. It's kind of like my online grimoire, but, um, with a twist of like, I love folklore, I love mythology, so I also love plants, so we talk a lot about all of those things. Um, but I also just want to talk about the nuance of having a magical practice, being a witchy person in the world today. We do that there. My podcast was previously called Beyond the Balefire and I am working this weekend on updating my intro. So if you go to my first couple of episodes and it says, Hey, welcome to Beyond the Balefire, it's because we were that before, and now we're Wishcrafting. So I appreciate patience with that, but yeah that's the only thing I really wanted to to say. My Instagram, the underscore whimsy witch is new because I've only just come back online and so I don't have too much on there but there will be more on there moving forward and all of my workshops and offerings will be posted probably mostly primarily on there. That's it.
Kim: Awesome.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: Hold on I'm following you on Instagram.
Wish: Oh thank you. Yay!
Kim: So two things that I ask of my listeners at the end.
Wish: Sure.
Kim: Number one is please recommend something to the, I just said listeners, I meant guests. Whatever. Please recommend something to the listeners.
Wish: Okay. I recently went to Cullowhee, North Carolina to a place called Paradise Falls. So I'm going to recommend a whole-ass place because this place is so magical. It's in Western North Carolina. Cullowhee itself is a magical, insane mountain region and Paradise Falls, it is a... it is... you have to work to get there just a little bit, just a little bit, but not too much. I wouldn't even call it a moderate hike, I would call it easy and I've hiked a lot so it just takes a little bit of time to get there but once you get there it is this insane valley that has been falling in this one area for like hundreds of years. So there are terraced pools that you can get into that this waterfall has created. And the biggest one is right underneath the waterfall and it is so deep. I mean it's got to be at least like 50 feet deep which is insane for a mountain pool. It doesn't, it doesn't, it's really small though so it doesn't feel like that and it is like your own personal infinity pool over the top of this mountain. It just looks like an infinity pool though, it's not actually an infinity pool, it just goes to more rock, but it's, it's so beautiful and it's something that I had not heard of and I've done a lot of exploring in that area and so I'm going to recommend it to y'all. And what I did while I was there is I tried local honey with some local peaches and we put the honey on the peaches and we ate it in the waterfall pool and it was, that's why I am on this earth is for moments like that. (Kim laughs) And I recommend anyone in the area stopping by that has you know a couple of hours to go explore this place. Please do it. You will not regret it. It's called Paradise Falls for a reason, and you you won't regret it.
Kim: Can you spell the town that's near?
Wish: Oh, yeah. It's in Cullowhee.
Wish: It's CULLOWHEE.
Kim: Cool, thanks. I'm gonna tell my niece to go there.
Wish: Yeah. Yeah, if you look it up, I think it's on alltrails. On the alltrails app, just look up Paradise Falls North Carolina and it's on there.
Kim: Finally, the last thing I ask of guests is to please tell me a story.
Wish: Okay, since you asked the imposter syndrome question on your show, I want to share a moment when the gods, or specifically my goddess that I work with primarily, laughed in the face of my imposter syndrome. So I am a landscape designer and that sounds really nice and wonderful but it is also a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning. And I was working this job before I was working for myself, and we were digging for like a week straight, and I was also in a slump. And we had a lot of digging on this job and I hated it. I hate, it's not my favorite part of the job, well I'll just put it that way, and um...
Kim: You ain't got no earth!
Wish: I ain't got no earth! Nope.
Kim: You gotta get that dirt work. (laughs)
Wish: While I was digging, Venus was in the sky, and you could see her this particular week, right? And Aphrodite, Venus is the goddess that I work, I have a few that I work with, but she's been my girl for a while. And so I kind of felt like stuck and all these other different things and I felt like the gods had forsaken me and I wasn't feeling them, and I had just thought, you know, okay, she's given up on me. This slump is too slumpy for her and she's gone. I'm digging, and I just throw my shovel down at one point and I just start absolutely cursing at Venus in the sky. Like I'm just letting her have it. (laughs) And I actually felt really bad at the end of this but anyways, I was being, I was releasing. It was a release. And I went back to digging and at the end of that day I was driving home and I took a wrong turn I guess, and I ended up at the end of this gravel road. I was going to turn around but there was no place to turn around it just ended, and I was in this beautiful meadow that I had never seen before. And I mean there's like butterflies and wildflowers, I mean it was ridiculously pretty. And so I decided that instead of going home and being angry and grumpy there I was just going to get out and touch grass for a minute, so I did that. And I started to hear this weird ass noise coming from behind me and I turned around. Oh Yeah, and I should tell you that at the end of the throwing down the shovel thing I was like, if you don't give me a sign by the end of the day, we're done! or something. Something like that. Don't ever do that, y'all, don't ever do that. You might not get as lucky as I was with the sign, but I'm in the meadow and I hear the weird noise and I turn behind me to look behind me and the weird noise was a whole ass gaggle of white doves. Like pristine, beautiful doves. And we don't have those here. (laughs) We don't have those here. And the bird that she is most associated with are doves. And it just felt like she was like giving me a big fat eye roll and telling me that I just needed to like stop being a brat, pretty much. And yeah, that's my funny story. But all of my imposter syndromes with syndrome moments with specifically the deities have ended in some kind of hilarity like that where they just kind of roll their eyes at me, tell me to stop being a brat, and I say okay and I pick the shovel back up. Metaphorically.
Kim: Oh.
Wish: What?
Kim: I didn't know you meant metaphorically.
Wish: Yeah, I'm...
Kim: Good for you. For both ways.
Wish: Yeah, I don't do jobs where I have to dig like I did on that job anymore. To my dismay. I do like small scale stuff now with less digging so yay.
Kim: Well thanks for being on the show.
Wish: Oh thank you for having me. This was awesome and fun and I love the giggle medicine for sure.
Kim: Oh good.
Wish: I needed it. I have a head cold. I told you. Yeah, I needed the giggles.
Kim: You gotta get you some pho.
Wish: I, that is so funny that you said that. I actually have some pho that I ordered earlier that I'm gonna eat after we get off of this call. That's so funny. I'm gonna do that. Thank you. That is what I do. That and the pho will do it for me. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.
Kim: Thank you for being on. It was really fun. It was very strange because it was very much like I'm interviewing myself.
Wish: Well, I take that as a compliment, so thank you.
Kim: You should because I'm fucking great. (laughs)
Wish: You are. And I think I'm fucking great. We're both fucking great!
Kim: Okay, everybody go follow Wish immediately. Okay, see ya, bye!
Wish: Bye.
Kim: Now Wish-
Wish: HI!
Kim: Welcome to Hive House!
Wish: Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.
Kim: Can you please tell me the best part of your week? (fades out)
Wish: (fades in) ...fairy and the fairies were pissed off trying to find this frog so they could get their key back so they could go celebrate and party under the hill. And I just thought that was super cool, and has always fascinated me. (fades out)
To hear more of the members only episode head over to crepuscularconjuration.com. The monthly magic tier will give you access to the monthly magic Marco Polo group, the private Facebook group, and access to the written monthly spells. There's also crepuscular conjurations giving you bonus podcast episodes, coloring pages, guided meditation, spell crafting videos, printable downloads, and more. The free Witchy Wonderment level will give you a little sample of everything I just mentioned. You can also visit my shop, Clever Kim's Curios, to get spell boxes one at a time or by monthly subscription, intentional handcrafted jewelry that I make especially for witches, and handmade altar tools. You can even listen to the full Your Average Witch podcast library including show notes. Check it out at crepuscularconjuration.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of Your Average Witch. You can find us all around the internet on Instagram at YourAverageWitchPodcast, Facebook at Facebook.com slash groups slash Hive House, at YourAverageWitch.com and at your favorite podcast service. If you'd like to recommend someone for the podcast, like to be on it yourself, or if you'd like to advertise on the podcast, send an email to YourAverageWitchPodcast at gmail.com. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday.
Thank you, listeners, for giving me the past couple of weeks. Chuck was a big part of my life and I really needed that time to say goodbye. Thanks to everyone who reached out, and thanks again to Macy for doing the intro when my voice was gone.
This week I'm talking to Wish, a green witch from Appalachia. Wish talks about trees, security, and tells a story about a message from a goddess.
I also want to send out a special hello and thank you to E. R., who came in to see me at Bookman's. Thanks for listening and for coming in!
Now let's get to the stories.
Kim: Hello Wish, welcome to the show.
Wish: Hi, thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Kim: I'm excited to talk to you!
Wish: Yeah, me too.
Kim: Can you please let everybody know who you are and what you do and where they can find you?
Wish: Sure. My name is Wish. I also go by the Whimsy Witch. I have a small online presence that I only just kind of started really pushing, so I am on Instagram as the underscore whimsy witch, and all of my links to my online shops and things will be there. But I've been mostly a in-person and word-of-mouth witch for hire and tarot reader up until this point. I've read tarot for quite a while now, so that's kind of my main thing that I do. I'm an event tarot reader so I do like weddings and all other kind of like big events and stuff like that. I also do one on one stuff and my like daylight job is I am a landscape designer and a plant, just general plant person. I live in a city so I do small-scale urban Farms and gardens as well.
Kim: That's cool!
Wish: Thanks. It's pretty fun, especially in my area. Everybody seems to have a little bit of a desire for that right now. So that's been cool.
Kim: That's good. I think it's so neat when people do like event tarot. I think that's freaking cool. I don't want to have events ever, but if I did, I would want a tarot reader. (both laugh)
Wish: I fell into it naturally. Like I just did tarot anyways, and I was a bartender for events, and it kind of just happened, and I've been doing it since then. And it's really fun, and weddings are my favorite because people are like loose and free at a wedding, and ready to like celebrate, and people come with open, more open hearts and minds than you might expect at weddings. Like they're like ready, at weddings. And I kind of judge how well a wedding has gone or not, like my readings have gone at a wedding or not, like depending on how many people cry. (laughs)
Kim: I love that!
Wish: One is an okay night but like three or more is a really good night.
Kim: Whatever, crying's good for you.
Wish: No it is, it is, it's good for the soul. But yeah, it's fun, it is.
Kim: Can you tell me what it means to you when you call yourself a witch?
Wish: Yes, so what it means to me is tuning into the subtle energies of the world and finding how to ride those waves, I guess, and also cultivating a sense of wonder in all of the mundane moments that we have in our regular day-to-day lives like making the mundane magical is kind of my whole thing, and being a witch is, it really rings true in that vein of existence for me. Like I really try to cultivate a sense of authentic joy and whimsy and wonder in everything that I do. And it makes it way better to walk in this life, in my opinion, with that sense of all of those things I just mentioned already, words, but yeah, I think there's like all of these different subtle energies that we walk around in this primordial, excuse me, soup that we kind of bathe in all the time and like finding the different veins of those energies that really call to you is kind of what witchcraft is for me. I hope that made sense. Did that make sense?
Kim: I feel like it did.
Wish: I feel like it did too. We'll go with that. (laughs) Also nature. For me being a witch is like hand in hand with being in tune with nature. I'm a plant person and I don't think I could look at my witchy practice without looking at the inextricable hand nature has played in me being able to be where I am today with my magic specifically. Yeah.
Kim: Oooo, foreshadowing of possible responses to questions later. (both laugh) Do you have any family history with witchcraft? Were you brought up with tarot or anything interesting like that?
Wish: Okay, this is kind of a long story. I'm going to try and make it make sense. But on my mom's side of the family, my mom died when I was really young, but the women that I know on her side of the family. They all have some kind of witchy superpower. They're not, you know, blatantly witchy, but they don't necessarily deny those forces that I kind of mentioned being able to tap into earlier. And I think they're all time witches. I think we all have some kind of time thing going-
Kim: Oh no. That is a nightmare. For me, for me.
Wish: Yeah, it can be. It can be really weird sometimes, that's for sure. Like my great aunt, you walk into her house and I shit you not, she has grandfather clocks everywhere, like everywhere. Every inch of her house is covered in grandfather clocks and if you asked her, she would tell you that she tries to get them all to the right time, but they're always like a minute or two minutes off either one way or the other way. And that's just always been a part of my life. And she's always either late for this thing or, or, you know, on her way to something else. But, you know, doesn't seem like she's ever really going anywhere, if that makes any sense at all. Like, it's just a real, really weird relationship with time and like my grandmother, my nana on that side, she is a green witch herself. I call her grumpy Snow White because she is a grumpy old lady but she is so in tune with the nature around her house. Like I grew up in Appalachia, so like in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and they've all all been there their whole lives. I was the only one that really ever left and I kid you not, I can take a dead plant, like dead dead brown, and squishy even, and take it to my Nana and she just takes it into her house and you can come back the next day and it looks like it is vibrant and thriving and happy as can be and probably three times bigger than it was before you gave it to her. Like, it's crazy. It's awesome, but crazy. And our house is covered in vines and everything like that. So kind of tuned into like the being able to turn the clock forward or turn the time back thing with plants. I don't know. It's hard to explain, but just really interesting tapping into certain things and those mountain energies they got floating around over there. But on my dad's side of the family, I was raised Catholic. And because when my mom passed away, I went to live with my dad in Atlanta. And I went to Catholic school briefly, because I went to a bookstore by myself for the first time. I was let loose and I ended up in the new age section and I stole a book. Because I knew that I would never be allowed to buy it, so I stole it. And it was this teeny tiny red book called The Good Spell Book, and I, I loved this book so much. I read it cover to cover and it was my first introduction to like magic magic being an actual thing.
Kim: Oh, you got away with it?
Wish: (laughs) For a little bit. For a little bit. I was, you know, so entranced by like what the heck is a spell? Like what is all this? What does this all mean? I took it to school and that was the wrong move. I took it to school and I showed some of my school friends.
Kim: Oh no, they're such fascists at school!
Wish: (laughs) Oh, they really are! And they, we were on the playground and they took the book from me and they were like ripping the pages out and they were throwing it at me.
Kim: Oh, that's how you get fucked up, kids.
Wish: Yeah,, I was I guess this kind of is the kind of person I am though. Like I was, I thought it was funny. I was just laughing at them because it was like you know, I was laughing back I was like yeah this is a joke! !eehoo, wow! And the teachers didn't think it was a joke though. Like the the kids are pointing fingers and calling me a witch while ripping this book up and they come over to check it out and they pick up the pages of the book and they're like oh, you... Okay, you're a problem. And they called my dad and thus begun a very very very long war between me and my dad of me buying a witchy book, him finding them and burning them because they were of the devil, and me buying them again.
Kim: Oh, literally burning? Oh...
Wish: Yeah, literally burning. But this particular book, the funny thing about it is that I didn't, so this original good spell book, little tiny, small and red. I never purchased that one again. There were other books that I purchased multiple times, which were like foundations of like me learning initially, but I never repurchased that book. And later on, maybe like a year and a half ago, actually, I started the journey of doing like ancestry.com stuff with my DNA and trying to like really figure out where I come from and stuff like that. And I found out that we, on my dad's side, come from mainly Wales, but also that we have like Romani...
Kim: Hmmm!
Wish: ...Yeah, ancestry, which is not something I had ever heard a single peep about. But and I'm still learning more about that right now. But the relevance to this is is that my friend who lives in California sent me a care package out of the blue one day and it was this frickin book. This book, the Good Spell Book. And she said I found this in a thrift store and I don't know why I just thought you would like it. And she sent it to me, and I was like, you have no idea how much I like this book! This is the book that started everything for me. And going into this book, rereading it for the first time since I was like eight, I found out that it was a book of Romani magic. Like that is the, the whole book is about that. And I was freaking blown away because I don't know, it just felt like something had called to me and I had somehow managed to be exactly where I needed to be in a way. And I still have, I have this book, I'm looking at it right now. And it is very dear and close to my heart. And honestly, the magic in there is nothing... It's folk magic. And I love folklore and stuff like that and it's nothing like in your face crazy, but it is what started everything for me. So I don't really talk to my dad's side of the family very much, but there is a big call there to learn more about that. And I am starting to get up the courage to actually talk to my elders before they're gone on that side of the family, even if it means, you know, uh, yeah, uncomfortable. Exactly. Because I have so many questions now and only they are going to be the ones that can really answer them.
Kim: So they're going to be more uncomfortable about it than you are.
Wish: Yeah,, absolutely. And you know, like to answer your, your question about like tarot, my first tarot deck was given to me by my great grandmother and it was hers and it was, you know, in a box that she had locked up. And she was she basically said nothing to me and was like, I'm giving these to you because they're supposed to go to you. And so she gave them to me and long story short I ended up losing them in a move. We had a U-Haul breakdown and like all of our stuff got stolen out of the back of it, and so I lost a lot of my precious things, which made me really sad, but I have since tried to ask other family members about that and they just are locked up tight about it. Because like, you know, Christianity really, especially Catholic, Catholicism really forces you to like, feel some type of way about all of your uh, all of everything that makes you you. They really force that guilt into every aspect of your life so... (takes deep breath) that was a really long answer.
Kim: If they can't bully you into giving the church money why, what's the whole point?
Wish: Exactly! That's...exactly. Among other things, yeah. But I uh, that's a very long-winded answer to that question, but that was my answer.
Kim: It was delightful.
Wish: Oh, thanks. Thank you for listening.
Kim: Can you introduce us to your practice? Do you have any regular or consistent rituals that you'll share?
Wish: Yes, so every morning I wake up and I make myself a frou-frou coffee as my partner and his dad like to call it. But coffee is like a real special thing to me. My first ever job was as a barista and it just has carried into my life today. I love it. I make it into a big deal. I make my own like flavored syrups and I can make those witchy, I usually do like seasonal witchy syrups. And when I make them, I make them with different herbs and things that go with whatever I'm going to spell them with. Like right now I have one that is cinnamon and filé, or sassafras leaves. If you've never added sassafras to your coffee, coffee drinkers, please, please do it. It makes your coffee taste smoky and earthy and also it brings in that like, I don't know, syrupy sweetness that is really specific to sassafras and it is insane. But I have that right now with the intention of digging my roots deeper into my business right now because I'm really pushing my gardening consulting part of my business at this moment. So every day I wake up and I make my coffee and I stir my syrup or whatever into it and in my pantry I keep my coffee beans with sigils in them. So I put coffee beans in mason jars and I put sigils in the different roast of beans.
Kim: That's cool! I highly approve.
Wish: Thank you. You can do this with anything that's in your pantry actually, like any of your dried goods or herbs or whatnot. And if you don't want to do it for individual ones, you can just make like a sigil for your cabinet, you know? So like everything that's in there gets infused with whatever your sigil is for while it's... yeah. And your salt, salt is a really good one to stick a sigil in if you want to do that. But that's my main thing that I do every day. And then at the end of the day I try to sit down and pull oracle cards and journal about them because I have a lot of feelings, and they overwhelm me all the time. And journaling helps me sometimes get all of those out of my body. And sometimes I'll pair that with a little bit of shaking, like moving whatever I'm journaling about, like actually through my body, and that makes me feel real good. I usually sleep much better when I do that. But that's the only two things that I do like religiously I guess every day.
Kim: I like the shaking part.
Wish: Yeah, it's interesting when you think- I saw a video a while back where somebody was like, did you know that you're supposed to move your emotions through and out, rather than hold on to them? Like literally physically move them. And they brought up the example of like, have you ever seen a duck being chased by a dog? And at the end of the chase, if the duck gets away, they shake it off. Because they're actually moving that fear and that adrenaline and all of that stuff through their little teeny bodies, because they can't hold on to that. And they went into the science of how, you know, your body holds on to things like that. And it just, I don't know, really struck a chord in me. And I really do feel things super deeply, and if I don't do that kind of both spiritual and physical maintenance I guess, on my systems, my nervous system makes me do self-destructive bad things. I don't want to do those things, so yeah. It helps it helps me, anyways.
Kim: (pauses) ...a DUCK? (laughs)
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I did hear everything you said, but such a random thing for the dog to be chasing.
Wish: Well, have you ever... (laughs) I mean, every dog that I've had that I've like walked past a pond... We have a ton of ponds in my area as well, and like, because I live in like a little, like an area that has a bunch of hills and lowlands and stuff, and I don't know, there's a bunch of geese and when I mean, say duck, I guess I meant geese ,technically, but you know.
Kim: Either way a waterfowl is a very odd thing, instead of cat. (laughs)
Wish: Well they have this very specific, this is like part of this it was a whole... I don't know what the word is called. Words are hard, but it was a study or something that this person was referencing where they were looking at how different animals react to different high intensity situations. And birds specifically have a very in your face way of shaking adrenaline and adrenaline related situations, feelings, whatnot, out of their body. Like they flap their wings in a certain way and they shake their bodies in a certain way. And they applied that to, you know, how humans react to certain high adrenaline situations and what happens when we literally shake high intensity things out of our body. So. I'm like a bird. I'll only fly away.
Kim: Oh no. Oh NO. ( both laugh) I'm stopping this recording immediately!
Wish: It's the moon, it's the moon, I swear! (laughs)
Kim: How has witchcraft changed your life?
Wish: Well at this point, I don't even know who I would be if I wasn't allowed to do witchcraft or practice my witchy things or tune into what I tune into. I don't even know who I would be, so it's changed my life immensely. But it also has brought me, you know, if I want to bring it into more tangible... like it's brought me a ton of wonderful people into my life. It's brought me into a ton of just out-of-this- world situations. I've experienced some insane stuff when it comes to magic and like on my own and with groups. And just the pure level of connectiveness that I feel when I am not holding myself back from being the magical person that I am is priceless, truly priceless. And life is brighter when I am allowing myself to be who I really am, which is a witch, so.
Kim: That's a good way to phrase it.
Wish: Oh, thanks.
Kim: You're so welcome. (laughs)
Wish: (laughs) You're lovely, and I love your giggles. They bring such an effervescent bubbliness to this energy.
Kim: Ha ha to the reviewer who said I giggled too much! (laughs)
Wish: Yeah! Wow, what a weenie. (blows raspberry)
Kim: I doubt they hear that. I doubt they listen anymore because I know, I told them no I'm not gonna stop.
Wish: Laughter is the best medicine, right? That's a quote that we have probably heard once or twice. I believe that.
Kim: I take a ton of medicine. Some of it is laughter. (both laugh) I am sorry to everyone. (laughs)
Wish: I'm not. It's full moon tonight.
Kim: I went to the ballet last night, and...
Wish: Aries full moon.
Kim: Aries full moon and I'm just...
Wish: Giggly.
Kim: Feeling very airy.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I don't remember what... I'm like half air, a quarter earth, and a quarter fire. So I'm feeling that air a lot.
Wish: I am fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, fire, water, water, water, water, water. I have one air placement in my chart and it is Gemini. You can cry for me.
Kim: Earth?
Wish: No. I don't have like any. It's literally all fire. I might have one earth placement in one of the you know, random houses.
Kim: Things that people don't know what it is.
Wish: Yeah like I'm not super into, I'm still learning about astrology but yeah I am an Aries and I am really feeling this moon for sure I'm wired. And it's not the coffee but the coffee is also not helping. But it is helping my soul, so.
Kim: We're gonna fly into the atmosphere!
Wish: That'd be cool, I'm cool with that.
Kim: What's the biggest motivator in your practice, and has it changed since you first started?
Wish: Yeah, absolutely it has. The biggest motivator in my practice is... Right now, the truth is, the biggest motivator in my practice is stewardship of the earth. Because we are in a place right now, collectively, where we really need to be aware of our impact, and that can come go like I believe in bringing that to a micro level you know like your impact on just yourself and how you walk through the world is really important. But I think everybody should have access, at least access to the ability to know how to be self-sustaining in one way or another, like not fully self-sustaining, but like, you know, starting small, like growing your own food. Or at least growing one thing, like not all of your food, that s a big thing, but like being able to grow something and eat it, whether it's a....
Kim: Cilantro.
Wish: Yeah, anything, anything truly. It's really, that is magic in itself, is starting something from a seed and then being able to take it into your body as nourishment. That is a whole, it's its own form of wonderful. And I am really committed to helping people realize that whatever space they have is enough space to do something that makes them feel like they have more security when it comes to food or water or energy. There's something that you can do with whatever space you have. That is entwined with my magic because I go for walks in the forest, and like the plants talk to me and they, you know, tell me their stories and they share their energy with me and that fuels me to you know, take care of them and in the way that I know how which is sharing the knowledge that I have. Which is what I just shared with you. So that's my like biggest thing that I feel energetically is the woods. I feel the plants, I feel the trees, I feel them all all the time. And when I look at what's happening in the world and I feel, you know, a sense of doom, I try to come back into what I know, which is the skills that I have to share. And the way that I build security and community is by sharing those skills, which is my biggest driver. So, stewarding, stewarding the earth, continuing this wonderful green planet as wonderful and green is a big deal to me. So.
Kim: That's so good!
Wish: Thank you, it feels so big and scary sometimes, but it is what I gotta do. So that's what I'm doing.
Kim: I'm glad you do it. I appreciate you.
Wish: Thank you. I appreciate what you do. This podcast is awesome and it is its own community in itself in the ether, in the liminal space of the interwebs. And I love that.
Kim: Oh, wow. Thanks.
Wish: You're welcome. I mean it.
Kim: Now that you've made me doubt everything that exists in my life, (laughs) tell me about how you feel about Impostor Syndrome!
Wish: (laughs) Um, how I feel about it is it's...
Kim: Let me rephrase that. (Wish laughs) You didn't make me feel that by saying that. My impostor syndrome did. How does yours react?
Wish: Oh, I call them, I call them the gremlins, the gremlins in your head, the gremlins on your shoulder, and I fricking hate those gremlins. They are dicks. And I, I deal with imposter syndrome, like all the time, honestly, like every day. And I have to fight them when that happens. I just have to literally be conscious as I possibly can be about that voice being, you know, not really the truth. And I've done a lot of work to get there. I have to kind of, I guess what I'm trying to say is I work real hard to say, nah, point a finger back to the gremlins and say, no, no, no, I'm not going to believe you. I'm going to choose not to believe you. And that sometimes takes all my spoons. Sometimes that's all the energy that I have, but that's kind of how I deal with it. It's the only way I found to deal with it, honestly. I deal with it a lot because I do a lot of deity work. It's... other than nature, like, that's probably my biggest thing. And sometimes, like, I just go through a moment where I'm like, Have the gods forsaken me? And if they don't come back and, you know, give me some kind of, like, No, we're still here. You're just, you know...
Kim: We're still cool.
Wish: Yeah. (laughs) You're just working a lot, that's all. If it's not, if they don't do something like that, I have to kind of like reassure myself in a way, and that's just by going into my delusions with wild abandon until they prove themselves to me yet again.
Kim: That sounds like a good time.
Wish: Yeah, yeah! It has not swayed me wrong yet. Well, maybe... maybe once but not like most of the time.
Kim: Maybe just a little.
Wish: Yeah, but that was fun too, so it's okay. (laughs)
Kim: So who cares! That is what I am on this earth to do... have a good time.
Wish: Yep. Oh my god, so true. I am right there with you in that belief.
Kim: I mean, other people I don't think are, but I am. (laughs)
Wish: I am. I am. I'm not here to toil. I'm...
Kim: I'm here for the damn enjoyment. And when people are like, you chose this before you came here. You're damn right, and that's why I'm going to eat this fucking cheeseburger.
Wish: (laughs) I actually just put in my grimoire, like my next section of my grimoire is themed with the theme of I am in the mood to be fucking enchanted.
Kim: Oh! Yes.
Wish: So, I have put the call into the universe, told the universe and the powers that be, what have you, that I am in the mood to be fucking enchanted. So we will see how that goes with this darker half of the year. I'm excited.
Kim: Universe better listen up.
Wish: Yeah, universe. I'm gonna take a couple more sips of coffee up there and we're gonna have some words. Gonna zoot myself into the atmosphere.
Kim: I would probably just cry, but either way, what's your biggest struggle when it comes to witchcraft? How you like that segway?
Wish: Nice, very good. (laughs)
KIm: (laughing) That's the one that you ride, it's not the linguistic turn of...
Wish: I don't know what my biggest struggle in witchcraft is, to be honest with you. Probably, I don't think it's, I think it's the fact that I'm an Aries and I'm just kind of doing things without thinking about the consequences and that's worked out for me. And I've been really lucky so far but I've never been in the broom closet, and I've been very fortunate that I have not faced some of the things that I have seen other people in my life face because of being an open pagan or witch or what have you. And so it is something that is on my radar though. Like I definitely, after moving to a city where it's more, there's more people and it's not quite as mountainous and you know do whatever you need to be doing down in the woods at whatever hour of the night like I am definitely more aware of the people around me and how I'm coming off to the people around me, and so I definitely feel that much more right now in my life. So I think that's probably the biggest thing for me right now, yeah.
Kim: What brings you the most joy in your practice?
Wish: (pauses) When... hmmm. When I get a moment where my intuition was right, or when my magic works. That's always just really cool. Like that might be... I don't know. I don't know what that is and I'm not gonna hate on myself at all. That's the truth. When something works, when I do something on purpose with a magical purpose and intention and that shit works, it's really freaking cool. Every single time. (laughs)
Kim: It's awesome.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: Especially if other people witness it with you.
Wish: Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The last group thing that I did was we we were we didn't know, okay this might ruffle some feathers and it's all good now, just so everybody knows, but we were doing a ritual. We were in circle and somebody took a picture of us while we were doing what we were doing, and they didn't tell us they were doing this because obviously we were in... we were busy. And we looked at the picture and you could just see there was like this giant orb, and inside of the orb were some other orbs and inside of those orbs just clear as day, and it was just so... that was just the most recent thing like that that has happened but it was all good because we were like whoa, this is really awesome, but please ask for consent next time, but this is really awesome! And we were all just kind of dumbfounded when we looked at that picture for a solid, I don't know two or three minutes we were just in silence and we were like Yeah! It worked! Wooo! We did the thing, and yeah it was real and we can see it with our human eyeballs right here in front of us. And that was really cool.
Kim: That is really cool!
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: I'm envious! I want a visual representation of things that I do.
Wish: It's been, that particular photo has been so helpful for me with skeptics when I was like, yeah, I went to this thing and we did this circle where we called in this energy and it came to us in the circle and I felt so good after that and blah, blah, blah. And they're like, yeah, okay. A couple of people have been like, okay, sure. You're a crazy person, but fine. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, look. And every person I've shown this to has been like, what is that? I'm like, exactly. That's magic. That's freaking magic is what that is. So. (blows raspberry) but yeah.
Kim: What's something you did early in your practice that you don't do anymore and why don't you do it?
Wish: I had a little trouble with this question I don't really know I don't remember, I don't remember. Everything is always changing. But I think...
Kim: I relate to that. I don't remember what happened yesterday. Except for the ballet. (laughs)
Wish: Yeah. (laughs) I guess like listening to other people, and going to other people for, you know, like what should I do. Um, I just, I don't really, I feel like I don't need to necessarily be validated in my choices of what I choose to bring into my craft, I guess.
Kim: What the hell is that like? The hell? (laughs) How do you not seek approval from everyone around you?! (both laugh)
Wish: I got off the internet, to be honest with you. I was doing too much of seeking validation from other other places and comparing and stuff like that and I had to delete all my stuff to get out of that and now I'm back on because I need to...
Kim: Capitalism.
Wish: Capitalism! That's exactly correct. Yep. Yay!
Kim: What is your favorite tool in your practice? Does not have to be a physical thing. And why is it your favorite and how do you use it?
Wish: This is so hard to pick just one, but I think probably my feet or my imagination. Because without my feet, I couldn't go outside, which would be the worst. So I am very very thankful for my feet. They take me everywhere, first of all, but to the sacred places that I have deep connections with. I'm a big waterfall girly so I couldn't go and do what I do with the waterfalls if I didn't have my feet. And my imagination because I do a lot of trance work, and I really need that for, well, all that cultivating wonder and whimsy stuff that I mentioned earlier, but also trance work and journeying. I need a little bit of imagination I feel like to go to the, I personally need that to go to the places that I go.
Kim: I want to do that.
Wish: Come on.
Kim: I need to do that. I am going to be leading an online workshop where we are journeying into the next full moon. Because I was going to do it today, and then I had a little bit of a head cold and decided that was probably not the best thing for me to be doing today. So instead, we're gonna do it next month, but you are invited, 100%.
Kim: Cool, thank you!
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: If you could only recommend one source of information to a new witch, what would it be? You're not allowed to just say the internet or Google.
Wish: Yeah, I don't know. I want to say, talk to your elders, talk to the people, even if they're not your family, like talk to the older people around you, talk to whoever you can. And like wherever you live, like figure out what this place that you stand on and sleep on and do everything else on, like what that place is like. From an elder perspective, so you can really get a feel of where you're at. Because cultivating a sense of place, and stability through a sense of place, I think that's important. And even when you're nomadic, like doing the van life thing or bus life or just traveling, talking to people about the place that you're in can be a really powerful experience. And even if it's not a magical lens, I think there's a lot that you can learn from talking to people who have been around for a while, even if they have sometimes wildly different viewpoints and opinions than you. I feel like there's always wisdom to be learned there, even if it's like helping you better shape what your core values and beliefs and stuff are.
Kim: I agree Even, yeah, even if it's this is how I don't want to be.
Wish: Exactly. Yeah.
Kim: Glean, people, glean!
Wish: That's a fun word it's a word that when you say it, it sounds like what it means. Do you know what I mean? Like it comes out of your mouth and looks and sounds like... I don't know if that makes any sense. Like that... shink! Like it just kind of... That might not make any sense at all, but I feel that way.
Kim: I approve! (laughs)
Wish: Thank you.
Kim: (laughing) I feel like I'm interviewing myself! Except I don't know what I'm going to say next, so it's exciting! (both laugh) Also, for the listeners, we don't know each other at all. The first time I spoke to Wish is like how many minutes ago? 49 minutes ago, when I was like, hey I went to the ballet and I'm feeling weird about it.
Wish: Pew pew pew pew pew. We know each other now! (both laughing)
Kim: Okay, so we're doing an interview. (both laugh) So you live in, in or near woods. In North Carolina.
Wish: I do live in the woods.
Kim: So do you feel like your practice would be different if you were in Siberia or in the desert?
Wish: Oh yeah, yeah 100%. It's been weird being in a city. So I live in Durham, North Carolina, like outside of Durham. And I, you know, I grew up in Atlanta so being in the city is not weird. My grandma lives in the mountains and I've spent probably more time with her than I did with, you know, with my dad as much as I could. But, um, being in the city's not weird, but going from living on my own in the mountains and then going back to living on my own in the city is so crazy. And uh, finding places that I feel connected to, and also that I can perform magic outside, because that's a thing that I love to do, has been tough here... but not impossible. But yeah I think I would have to I would have to acquiesce to whatever you know wherever I was. In Siberia, that might be pretty cool, because I do kind of love cold and I think going and diving into some icy places would be interesting, but I definitely think that wherever I am, the land spirits and the geography of that place would definitely shape, you know, what I was doing. Seasonally and Internally and the kind of spirits that I have access to and stuff like that would definitely change, so for sure.
Kim: Do you follow the wheel of the year?
Wish: I do because here we get really distinct seasons which is super cool and I'm very thankful for that and it's something that I don't I could do for a little while but I wouldn't want to do long term I would want to have seasons wherever I end up staying for good wherever I put down roots finally I'm gonna need seasons for sure. But yeah, I do. Do you?
Kim: No. (laughs) There's only like two seasons here. So...
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: One, there's not any point. And two, I just don't feel connected to it at all.
Wish: Mhmmm. Valid. Very valid.
Kim: Also, I hate being cold. so we're not the same person because absolutely not. I'm not diving into anything.
Wish: I don't necessarily like being cold, but you know what I hate about being cold is being hot, so...
Kim: I... am the opposite of that. (laughs)
Wish: That's fair. That is fair. I just feel like it is much easier to warm up than it is to get cool. And so that's just where I'm at, but I don't really have to worry about that too much here. Thankfully.
Kim: That's good.
Wish: It's pretty mild all the time. Yeah.
Kim: How do you pull yourself out of a magical slump?
Wish: Okay, honestly, I don't. I kind of just let myself slump. And I tell myself that I'm not going to be here forever and that maybe I'm slumped because I need to rest and so most the time I just let myself have that, and kind of try to ride the the wave and find whatever it is that I'm missing. Because usually when I'm in a slump I feel like there's something that I haven't haven't latched on to, or I guess something hasn't clicked yet, and that's why I'm in the slump. And if I figure out something that I need, then usually the slump is over and I'm starting to go on the up and up again. But I usually just let myself slump, because sometimes you need to just rest, and nobody's gonna be on all the time. I mean maybe some people are, but that is really hard, and I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
Kim: Hello!
Wish: Yeah! As I said earlier. (both laugh)
Kim: What's something you wish was discussed more in the witch community?
Wish: This one was really difficult for me to think about because there's a couple things, but I guess the biggest thing is, um, I just wish gatekeeping was less of a big deal. Not like the actual act of gatekeeping, but here's what I mean. Before I got off of the internet, like when witchtok became a big thing, like it was blowing up and everything. There was a lot of stuff going around about how intention is everything. And even before that actually, like in classes and sometimes in books you would see like intention is everything, it's the basis of all of it. And I just feel like saying that intention is everything. It's not wrong, but it is not giving the full scope of how incredibly nuanced the conversation of intention in witchcraft is. And it can trivialize all of the work that does go into, you know, certain aspects of magical practices, I guess. And I just feel like the "intention is everything" conversation could be better utilized for people who are learning by saying something else. Like examining your core values and morals and motivations in a practice, are going to be the easiest thing to get you to a place where you can build. That's a better way to like really describe, I think. I mean I'm sure there are better ways to say it, but like what I think the idea of saying like, get your intention solid, and that is gonna be the biggest part of magic. Like it is for some people, and that is okay, but it's also not, for some people, and that is also okay, but I guess that what I also wish was talked about was the nuance of that, and how it can trivialize the real work that goes into like the practice part of having a magical practice. And that is just my little soapbox. That's it.
Kim: I feel like there's also, if you're new, a lot of people don't really know what intention means.
Wish: Yeah, exactly, exactly. I am right there with you. Like, do you mean visualization? Do you mean figuring out what kind of spell you need? Do you mean... what do you mean, exactly? That's... I agree 100%.
Kim: Plus, knowing yourself a know to know what your true intention is and not just, I want to win the lottery, I want a bunch of money. What do you actually want the money for? You want security or you want content.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: That's your intention. Not to win a million dollars. And it doesn't, it may not look like winning a million dollars and you might be surprised about it when you get it.
Wish: I feel like that could be a whole, you know, couple of weeks long class on its own, like breaking down intention, and what is intention really, could be a great thing for beginners to really like have access to. But it ain't gonna be me because I don't have the words for that, but I agree with you like that is really key element. But I do think there's been a shift just in people in general getting to the core of like who they are and what they want and X, Y, and Z which is going to spill over into the witchy communities, pagan communities and whatnot, which makes me happy. But I want us to, as a group, like I want witches to talk about more difficult things in a way that is welcoming, and not going to immediately be like, oh well you're gatekeeping. Or oh, well you're this. Like no, we're just here, and it means a lot to us, and that is okay, and we want understanding from everywhere all the different areas of the circle. At least I do anyways, and I would like to have more of those conversations in an open way.Yeah.
Kim: Along with some civility, which is free by the way, everyone. It's free to not be an asshole. Doesn't cost you anything.
Wish: It doesn't. It's also like takes much less energy in my opinion.
Kim: Consider the three biggest influences on your practice, not necessarily people, unless they are people. It could be a thought process, or a book ,or whatever, or a plant, whatever, it can be anything.
Wish: Trees-
Kim: Thank your three biggest influences for whatever influence they have on you.
Wish: Sorry I jumped the gun there. (laughs) Definitely trees. I have a big ol' heart connection to...
Kim: I thought you were going to say heart on and I was like, oh no. (both laugh)
Wish: Oh, man. I have a heart connection to specific trees. And when I go to a new place I try to like psychically connect to the trees that are in my area, and tell them like I'm a friend and that I appreciate what they do for our planet and stuff. And I've been doing this for maybe four or five years now, as a you know, like a practice I regularly try to keep up with. And they, you know, have given me much wisdom and you know, influence a lot of my dreams and my imagination and the way that I view the world. I've learned a lot from trees when it comes to viewing the world and I love them and they're really flippin' cool, and sometimes they blow my mind with just what they do and how, oh how- oh I'm sorry if you hear those dogs barking, that's my bad. But how they, how they grow, how they persevere, and how they help their forests that they live in is incredibly inspiring to me. And I sound like a hippie right now and I don't care cuz it's true I love trees, they're my biggest, my biggest nature pals. The second thing would be other witches, which is part of the reason why I love your podcast. I love learning how other people do their magical stuff. It is so incredibly uplifting, joyous, fun, wonderful, and it's just one of my favorite things. I will sit and listen to anybody tell me anything about like any magical experience practice whatnot that they do because I just find it fascinating. And the third thing I would say... maybe... I don't really know what the third thing is. I'm going to say my son, I have a seven-year-old, well he'll be seven in like a week, and he's awesome, but watching him grow up and experience the world in his way has been one of the things that has taught me how to cultivate a magical mindset the most. And we have fun together, we play. I guess what I'm the core of what I'm getting at is play. Because a lot of people walk through the world and they don't play, I think, which sounds like really not fun to me. Coming from somebody who does play.
Kim: That's why they're so mad all the time.
Wish: It is. And I think that is kind of a key element that we're missing but that play has been I guess the third thing, third biggest thing, yeah.
Kim: Do you have any advice for any new witches?
Wish: I would say whatever sparks joy the most inside is what you should go towards most fervently. I think that you know, if a lot of times there's this pressure coming from elsewhere to figure out X, Y, and Z. And there is no pressure. I'm just gonna go ahead and give you that hall pass. There is no pressure. You can just move straight into the fun and explorative part of it. And if you're wondering where to explore, look around and think of what gives you the most joy. And even if it's socks, there is a witchy thing to be done with socks. And there is no necessarily right way to begin. The important thing is just beginning, I think.
Kim: Is there anything else that you wanted to bring up or talk about that I didn't ask you, or did you have any questions for me?
Wish: Yeah, so I just wanted to let everybody know I also have a podcast. It is called WishCrafting. Like, you know, witchcrafting, but I'm Wish, so WishCrafting. It's kind of like my online grimoire, but, um, with a twist of like, I love folklore, I love mythology, so I also love plants, so we talk a lot about all of those things. Um, but I also just want to talk about the nuance of having a magical practice, being a witchy person in the world today. We do that there. My podcast was previously called Beyond the Balefire and I am working this weekend on updating my intro. So if you go to my first couple of episodes and it says, Hey, welcome to Beyond the Balefire, it's because we were that before, and now we're Wishcrafting. So I appreciate patience with that, but yeah that's the only thing I really wanted to to say. My Instagram, the underscore whimsy witch is new because I've only just come back online and so I don't have too much on there but there will be more on there moving forward and all of my workshops and offerings will be posted probably mostly primarily on there. That's it.
Kim: Awesome.
Wish: Yeah.
Kim: Hold on I'm following you on Instagram.
Wish: Oh thank you. Yay!
Kim: So two things that I ask of my listeners at the end.
Wish: Sure.
Kim: Number one is please recommend something to the, I just said listeners, I meant guests. Whatever. Please recommend something to the listeners.
Wish: Okay. I recently went to Cullowhee, North Carolina to a place called Paradise Falls. So I'm going to recommend a whole-ass place because this place is so magical. It's in Western North Carolina. Cullowhee itself is a magical, insane mountain region and Paradise Falls, it is a... it is... you have to work to get there just a little bit, just a little bit, but not too much. I wouldn't even call it a moderate hike, I would call it easy and I've hiked a lot so it just takes a little bit of time to get there but once you get there it is this insane valley that has been falling in this one area for like hundreds of years. So there are terraced pools that you can get into that this waterfall has created. And the biggest one is right underneath the waterfall and it is so deep. I mean it's got to be at least like 50 feet deep which is insane for a mountain pool. It doesn't, it doesn't, it's really small though so it doesn't feel like that and it is like your own personal infinity pool over the top of this mountain. It just looks like an infinity pool though, it's not actually an infinity pool, it just goes to more rock, but it's, it's so beautiful and it's something that I had not heard of and I've done a lot of exploring in that area and so I'm going to recommend it to y'all. And what I did while I was there is I tried local honey with some local peaches and we put the honey on the peaches and we ate it in the waterfall pool and it was, that's why I am on this earth is for moments like that. (Kim laughs) And I recommend anyone in the area stopping by that has you know a couple of hours to go explore this place. Please do it. You will not regret it. It's called Paradise Falls for a reason, and you you won't regret it.
Kim: Can you spell the town that's near?
Wish: Oh, yeah. It's in Cullowhee.
Wish: It's CULLOWHEE.
Kim: Cool, thanks. I'm gonna tell my niece to go there.
Wish: Yeah. Yeah, if you look it up, I think it's on alltrails. On the alltrails app, just look up Paradise Falls North Carolina and it's on there.
Kim: Finally, the last thing I ask of guests is to please tell me a story.
Wish: Okay, since you asked the imposter syndrome question on your show, I want to share a moment when the gods, or specifically my goddess that I work with primarily, laughed in the face of my imposter syndrome. So I am a landscape designer and that sounds really nice and wonderful but it is also a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning. And I was working this job before I was working for myself, and we were digging for like a week straight, and I was also in a slump. And we had a lot of digging on this job and I hated it. I hate, it's not my favorite part of the job, well I'll just put it that way, and um...
Kim: You ain't got no earth!
Wish: I ain't got no earth! Nope.
Kim: You gotta get that dirt work. (laughs)
Wish: While I was digging, Venus was in the sky, and you could see her this particular week, right? And Aphrodite, Venus is the goddess that I work, I have a few that I work with, but she's been my girl for a while. And so I kind of felt like stuck and all these other different things and I felt like the gods had forsaken me and I wasn't feeling them, and I had just thought, you know, okay, she's given up on me. This slump is too slumpy for her and she's gone. I'm digging, and I just throw my shovel down at one point and I just start absolutely cursing at Venus in the sky. Like I'm just letting her have it. (laughs) And I actually felt really bad at the end of this but anyways, I was being, I was releasing. It was a release. And I went back to digging and at the end of that day I was driving home and I took a wrong turn I guess, and I ended up at the end of this gravel road. I was going to turn around but there was no place to turn around it just ended, and I was in this beautiful meadow that I had never seen before. And I mean there's like butterflies and wildflowers, I mean it was ridiculously pretty. And so I decided that instead of going home and being angry and grumpy there I was just going to get out and touch grass for a minute, so I did that. And I started to hear this weird ass noise coming from behind me and I turned around. Oh Yeah, and I should tell you that at the end of the throwing down the shovel thing I was like, if you don't give me a sign by the end of the day, we're done! or something. Something like that. Don't ever do that, y'all, don't ever do that. You might not get as lucky as I was with the sign, but I'm in the meadow and I hear the weird noise and I turn behind me to look behind me and the weird noise was a whole ass gaggle of white doves. Like pristine, beautiful doves. And we don't have those here. (laughs) We don't have those here. And the bird that she is most associated with are doves. And it just felt like she was like giving me a big fat eye roll and telling me that I just needed to like stop being a brat, pretty much. And yeah, that's my funny story. But all of my imposter syndromes with syndrome moments with specifically the deities have ended in some kind of hilarity like that where they just kind of roll their eyes at me, tell me to stop being a brat, and I say okay and I pick the shovel back up. Metaphorically.
Kim: Oh.
Wish: What?
Kim: I didn't know you meant metaphorically.
Wish: Yeah, I'm...
Kim: Good for you. For both ways.
Wish: Yeah, I don't do jobs where I have to dig like I did on that job anymore. To my dismay. I do like small scale stuff now with less digging so yay.
Kim: Well thanks for being on the show.
Wish: Oh thank you for having me. This was awesome and fun and I love the giggle medicine for sure.
Kim: Oh good.
Wish: I needed it. I have a head cold. I told you. Yeah, I needed the giggles.
Kim: You gotta get you some pho.
Wish: I, that is so funny that you said that. I actually have some pho that I ordered earlier that I'm gonna eat after we get off of this call. That's so funny. I'm gonna do that. Thank you. That is what I do. That and the pho will do it for me. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.
Kim: Thank you for being on. It was really fun. It was very strange because it was very much like I'm interviewing myself.
Wish: Well, I take that as a compliment, so thank you.
Kim: You should because I'm fucking great. (laughs)
Wish: You are. And I think I'm fucking great. We're both fucking great!
Kim: Okay, everybody go follow Wish immediately. Okay, see ya, bye!
Wish: Bye.
Kim: Now Wish-
Wish: HI!
Kim: Welcome to Hive House!
Wish: Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.
Kim: Can you please tell me the best part of your week? (fades out)
Wish: (fades in) ...fairy and the fairies were pissed off trying to find this frog so they could get their key back so they could go celebrate and party under the hill. And I just thought that was super cool, and has always fascinated me. (fades out)
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