Andrew Cox's Path to Nexus and the Mysteries of Magical Practice

What does it take to transition from a Catholic upbringing to becoming a chaos occultist? Join us on this enthralling episode of Your Average Witch as we sit down with Andrew Cox, the visionary owner of Nexus Occult Books and Oddities in Tucson, Arizona. Andrew opens up about his unique spiritual journey, from his early fascination with the supernatural—sparked by childhood favorites like Ghostbusters and The Exorcist—to his eclectic practice that fuses ceremonial magic and various forms of witchcraft. This conversation provides an intimate look at how Andrew's personal history and cultural influences have shaped his path in the occult, offering valuable insights for both seasoned practitioners and curious newcomers alike.

Ever wondered about the secrets behind handcrafted scrying mirrors infused with materials from historically significant sites? Andrew reveals the transformative power of such tools, sharing stories of mirrors made with ashes from Alistair Crowley's Boleskine House and sand from the Pyramid of Khufu. We delve into how these unique ingredients have deepened his ritual practices, underscoring the importance of creating personal rituals and building genuine relationships with deities. Through Andrew's experiences, we explore the necessity of failure and patience in mastering the occult, evolving from casual interest to disciplined devotion.

But the journey doesn't stop there. We also discuss Andrew's bold decision to leave a stable career in sales to open Nexus, a community-focused occult store. This chapter celebrates the courage to follow one’s true calling despite uncertainties. Plus, meet Marcella Krol l, a tarot and oracle expert who has recently joined the Tucson community, bringing her wealth of knowledge and authenticity to Nexus. As we highlight upcoming events and influential figures in the world of magic, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration, advice, and the importance of community in the magical journey.

Follow Andrew and Nexus here: nexusoccult.com  instagram.com/nexusoccult

Click here to enter the sabbat box giveaway!

Kim: 0:04

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 Crepuscular Conjuration, and supporters like you. Before we get started, I just want to tell you about a giveaway I'm doing. I am making Sabbat boxes and I'm giving away two, one for the winner and one for the winner to give away. This is an exclusive box. There will only be 10 to purchase for each holiday. Each box will have Sabbat themed altar cloths, a pendulum kit, a tea or other drink, a treat, a piece of Clever Kim's Curios jewelry, and a few other little bits and pieces that I put in there. You can join the giveaway by going to crepuscularconjuration.com/giveaway or by clicking the link in the bio of all my social media, and it's in the show notes of this episode. There are multiple ways to enter, so be sure you join in and good luck. This week I'm talking with Andrew Cox of Nexus Occult Books and Oddities here in Tucson. Andrew tells us about his shop, about his practice and about the occult. Now let's get to the stories. 

Hi, Andrew, welcome to the show. 

Andrew: 1:22

Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Kim: 1:25

Thank you for being patient with me. 

Andrew: 1:28

Absolutely I'm good to go. 

Kim: 1:30

Can you please introduce yourself and let everybody know who you are and what you do and where they can find you?

Andrew: 1:37

Absolutely. My name is Andrew Cox. I am the owner of Nexus Occult Books and Oddities, as well as Nexus Academy of Magic and Esoteric Sciences here in Tucson Arizona. We are located at 4865 East Broadway Boulevard, Tucson Arizona. You can find us online at nexusoccult.com. 

Kim: 1:58

And Instagram.

Andrew: 2:00

And Instagram and Facebook. Yes, Just go to Nexus Occult.

Kim: 2:04

Make sure to go follow them on Instagram, because they post a bunch of cool stuff.

Andrew: 2:09

Yeah, we do. We post literally like almost every day because we're constantly getting new stuff in or it's new class schedules. There's always something going on here.

Kim: 2:19

Also, I want to point out that a lot of times I get more like new age sort of guests. Andrew is occult. Yes, this is the one you want to listen to if you want to do the real magic. First, do you call yourself a witch?

Andrew: 2:37

No, I don't call myself a witch. The best way for me to describe my practice is just chaos occultist, because I mix ceremonial magic and witchcraft in my practice and it's multiple different paths of witchcraft and different types of magic that I use in my path.

Kim: 2:55

So what does it mean when you call yourself that?

Andrew: 2:59

So for me it helps. Oh, here's the thing. I mean there's lots of different types of witches. Some people are just fine with being a hedge witch or a green witch or whatever, if they're magicians. Sometimes they're demon alters. They are left hand path. I like to take bits and pieces from everything and kind of mold it into my own working and so that way I don't get pigeonholed into one, one path, one structure, because, uh, I, I do what works best for me.

Kim: 3:37

Would you say that you have any family history with a magical practice?

Andrew: 3:41

Good Lord, no, no, so I like not even a little bit Okay. So I mean I was raised Catholic and the majority in my family are practicing Catholics.

Kim: 3:57

Are they horrified by you or are they okay with it?

Andrew: 4:00

I mean, growing up they were definitely not pleased with me, you know reading occult books. But now they just kind of, they just kind of leave me alone about it. It's like just something like OK, he does the occult thing, we just won't talk about it. My mom is. She actually is no longer a Catholic, she's just a Christian and she's very supportive, she's great. But the other side of the family. They're all wonderful people that I love and adore greatly, but it's just something we don't talk about.

Kim: 4:49

How long have you been practicing? If you don't mind me asking.

Andrew: 453

Yeah, okay. So I did my first spell when I was 15, but I have been obsessed with the occult since I was four years old, when I saw Ghostbusters. that was like the catalyst for me. At four, I was like, oh, I just want to be Peter Venkman, and my family didn't try to dissuade me from doing that, so that was cool. When I was nine, though, my father let me watch the Exorcist by myself at night.

Kim: 5:15

I don't know why did our parents do that? Mine did the same, except I was like six.

Andrew: 5:19

Exactly. I mean, my dad was a deacon for a long time and so like, just like looking back on that now, like I won't let my kids watch it and they're all adults, so like they're not allowed to watch it in the house, but like so, when I saw that at nine and my dad even told me like hey, this is based on a true story, that kind of broke my brain a little bit, because at nine I'm not processing that there's a lot of hollywood stuff going on,  but that there is a real story behind it. So that's when I switched from like being really into the paranormal, extraterrestrials, cryptozoology, that type of stuff, into true occultism, where I was trying to find out what the hell demons were, which led to learning about books of ceremonial magic, and it just snowballed effect there.

Kim: 6:20

I am not too concerned with, I'm gonna say demon, like I'm not scared of something coming through a Ouija board to come after me or whatever, but the idea of possession scares the living shit out of me.

Andrew: 6:30

Oh yeah, no, I get it. It literally made me sick to my stomach and it terrified me. I was like are you kidding me? These things can just like come out of nowhere and get in you and do these horrible things. Oh, it was. It was, but I had to know, I had to understand the like, what is happening and and it just, it's just well, like I said, it was a snowball effect. I just couldn't get enough information about it.

Kim: 6:56

I hate it very much. Right, right, can you introduce us to your practice, like, do you have any consistent things that you do?

Andrew: 7:06

I would say I'm 44 years old now, so I would say that the most consistent thing that I do now is I routinely scry using a black mirror. That is kind of like my daily ritual, daily ritual. So scrying is obviously a divination. It's a divinatory art. There's different ways you can scry. So I would say, 70% of the time when I'm scrying it's typically in the morning when I get to the store, and that is a ritual process that I do, where it's more grounding and almost meditation. It's a way for me to kind of open up the store, like open a portal for the store and, you know, let the spirits in, start communicating. That's what the majority of the time that I'm doing for me. That works. For me it's just kind of like a daily ritual of okay, I mean right now I'm at the store, it's magic time. You know I do. For the other 30%, yeah, I do different things. You know I'm looking for different things. I have questions that I'm searching for answers for, and sometimes it's successful, sometimes it's not, sometimes it's horrifying, sometimes it's awesome.

Kim: 8:22

What is your preferred mirror material? And do you have any for sale right now?

Andrew: 8:24

So we actually have very unique mirrors and so I had tried scrying years and years ago and I never really got into it. I never really found it useful. I'd use black acrylic, I used obsidian. I never got a lot out of it, but also, at the same time too, I didn't have a true ritual base for it, it was just a tool in the toolbox that I truly didn't understand.

Andrew: 8:55

So the mirrors that we have here are very special, and the one that I, I mean mirrors come in all different sizes. The one I use is massive. It's like three and a half feet squared. It's a huge mirror, so I see more than just my face. I can see practically my whole body and in the room that I'm in. And the ingredients for our mirror consist of ashes from Alistair Crowley's Boleskine House that we got from the Boleskine House Foundation, so that, I think, really adds a very unique and powerful kick to it. They also contain a sand from the Pyramid of Khufu, graveyard dirt and tar from La Brea tar pits and a few other kind of secret ingredients. All the mirrors are made by Jake Richardson. He's a part-time employee here. 

Kim: 10:01

 I didn't know that. 

Andrew: 10:03

Oh, yeah, yeah, he makes all of them himself. He does them all on an equinox or a full moon. There's something special that goes into them and we have a variety of different sizes. But having that gigantic mirror just really changed everything for me and, like I said, I really do think the ingredients, have something to do with it as well, because once I started using those mirrors, a lot of things changed for me. So, like now, like I said, that is my go-to ritual process every day, almost.

Kim: 10:26

I'm going to have to get with Jake.

Andrew: 10:28

Yeah, no, Jake's awesome, he's. He's a. He's been a practicing witch forever. I mean, he's multi-generational witch. He knows this stuff backwards and forwards, so his, his mirrors have a lot of kick to them.

Kim: 10:42

I actually took a tarot class with him, so I recommend people go, go visit the store and talk to everyone there, apparently. How would you say your practice has changed your life?

Andrew: 10:56

Well, I mean, here's the thing for me. It has opened me up to so much more possibility. For me, I think, when I was younger, that more gothic-y, angst-ridden teen who was more about just fooling around with magic and spells and not really taking it that serious and just being more reckless with it. Now, over the last decade or so, when I've kind of redefined my practice and process, where I'm more patient, I'm more calm and I do more work. So if I'm going to work with a specific deity, this is something that when I do scrying classes that I teach with everybody is that I do the research on whoever I want to work with. I'm very patient. I make, I check the correspondences to make sure I'm having the right offerings, whether that's herbs or crystals or spring water or honey, whatever.

Andrew: 11:56

It really depends on the deity. You know what color candle, what type of incense. I put all that work into it. I don't really ask a deity for anything and, more importantly, I do not force the relationship. You have to understand that sometimes some deities just are not going to want to work with you. They are not there for your amusement and they are not that they're not there to just give you stuff. So that's something that I really harp on when I'm teaching classes. When people want to work with a deity just so they can get something out of it for themselves, it is never a good idea. That's not what magic is. That's not what witchcraft is. There's no balance with that. There's no relationship built, it's just transactional.

Kim: 12:41

What is the biggest motivator in your practice and has it changed since you first started?

Andrew: 12:46

I mean, it sounds like it has just based on what you out there and it's also about personal limitations how far can I push myself and at the same time being healthy and respectful about what I'm doing? That's always at the top of my mind Anytime I do my practice. It is not just a show, it is not something just I do willy-nilly. This is something. Anytime I do a ritual, whether it's just my simple scrying practice in the morning, it's ritual based. I mean there's an entire ritual that I follow to the T, you know, and it's my ritual. This is not a ritual that I got out of a book. I mean, it's great to learn from other people, learn from books, but for me the whole point of the occult is to learn from other people, but to create your own path, to create your own rituals. So I might take a ritual that's in a book and I'll adapt it and evolve it to what fits me as a person, and I love doing that. So I have my own rituals that I just don't follow somebody else's.

Kim: 14:12

You got to be able to read a recipe and follow a recipe before you can make your own recipe.

Andrew: 14:16

Correct. Exactly, yeah, you need to learn the basics. You need to learn the structure and form of witchcraft, of magic. But the whole idea is for me at least, in my opinion is to go out there and form your own path. I refuse to be stuck into somebody else's way of doing something. My favorite quote within the occult is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” I take that to heart. You know, I try not to do harm to people, at least anymore. I mean, it's there if I need it, but you know. But I do what works best for me. And that comes with trial and error. I mean I say this all the time. Failure is part of the process. Failure is a necessity for you to ascend through any practice and a lot of that comes from a deity might stonewall you, they might be adversarial, they might push back, they might cause an issue, and then a lot of people's first reaction is to back away and disengage from that practice or from that deity. What I tell people is dig your heels in, you know, be face to face with them. If you're going to fail, you're going to fail, but that's necessity because that's also the deity or spirit, whoever you're working with, testing you to see if you truly are committed to that relationship with them. If you're going to tuck tail and run the second you get a little scared, or you're going to walk away because this ritual didn't work and that ritual didn't work, then you have not earned the right to work with them. I tell people that the occult is a right for everyone, but it is an earned right. You don't walk into a karate dojo and go up to the sensei and be like I just want the black belt stuff. No, that doesn't happen. That's not how it works. You know, put the white belt on and start at the beginning.

Kim: 16:17

What is your biggest struggle when it comes to your practice?

Andrew: 16:22

Time. Time is my biggest struggle. Biggest. I own the bookstore and we have the academy next door. There's a million moving pieces to this machine and time is just something that I never have. I work seven days a week. I'm usually at the shop by 7.30 or 8. I leave around 8.30 and at home I'm still working my two days off that we're closed. It's just always me doing Nexus stuff. It's whether I'm going book hunting or getting books from storage or alphabetizing or answering the 5,000 emails that I have, or trying to do next month's schedule or what there's. I never have enough time. So I think my practice would be significantly different if I had more time. But I don't, and so that's where, that's why I I like to at the very least start my day with something magical, and for me that is scrying.

Kim: 17:24

Duh, I need to do that. What the hell, good Lord, yeah, damn it. Do you feel like you ever have imposter syndrome about your magical practice? And if you do, what do you do about it?

Andrew: 17:41

Not at all. No, and that's because I'm confident in who I am and I don't care what anybody thinks or has to say about me or my practice, because it's mine. I don't give a shit if you don't like my practice or if you disagree with the way I'm doing things, you know. Your way of doing things doesn't mean that my way of doing things is wrong, it's just different. I can't stand the gatekeeping that that I come into contact with every once in a while, on like well, you're not allowed to to practice this or that because of you know who you are, the color of my skin or my family's heritage. That's bullshit, man, I'll, I'll do whatever I want and I'm not going to apologize for it, and I sure as hell I'm not going to ask for permission. My craft is my craft. If you don't like it, f off.

Kim: 18:35

What brings you the most joy in your practice.

Andrew: 18:40

Right, okay. So for me, when, when I, when I get into my ritual meditation in the morning I mean I did teach two classes on scrying and you know I gave everybody a before, during and after lesson script to follow of how I do my scrying and what I really like the most about it is when I can actually feel, I literally feel, a palpable change within myself and within my environment, within the room, within the store, when I'm getting into ritual, when I know that the energy is different doesn't necessarily mean it's like positive or even negative I can, I feel that palpable change and that is like the lifeline to the occult that I get to feel like every morning. You know, some mornings are better than others, but when I'm sitting there in a ritual meditation in front of my gigantic scrying mirror and I feel that energy change, man, that just that's just the best way for me to start my day, because it is true magic for me, and then it's just like waking up my store with magic. I love it.

Kim: 19:59

I love it. Cool. What is your favorite tool? It does not have to be a physical object. It can be a thought or like a philosophy, or a song, or a smell or something. And how do you use it?

Andrew: 20:14

My physical. My favorite physical tool is my scrying mirror, because it's so unique and because it's mine. That's one of the things that I love the most. My other favorite tool is my ritual journal. So when I do go through scrying, I typically will keep a journal with me and I will write down my experience, my messages, what I've seen in my third eye. You know whatever message or feeling or thought that whoever I'm dealing with, even if it's just the energetic void of the universe, has given me that it's like it's this great roadmap of what I've been doing, so that by far, my personal scrying journal and my scrying mirror are one of my favorite things.

Kim: 21:05

Cool. I never wanted a mirror very much until recently. Now I want it even more.

Andrew: 21:14

Right? No, I mean, yeah. I mean it's so odd because before I got into like heavily scrying every day, I mean I had my own altars and whatever deity I was working with. Of course I had my cauldron and my offering bowls and a wand and anathema, all that stuff. I still have all that stuff, I mean, and I use it when need be. I try not to do my practice at home because I have children at home and I don't like bringing that into that environment because they are not involved in it in any way, shape or form. So I try not to. I mean, I might meditate at home, but if I'm going to do any type of actual ritual or spell work, I do that at Nexus. Any type of actual ritual or spell work, I do that at Nexus. That's where I feel the most comfortable. My home is really just my house. Nexus is truly my home and for me it's just one big sacred space. That's for me and obviously for the community as well.

Kim: 22:19

That's neat, yeah, can you pick out one decision you’ve made that changed the direction of your life?

Andrew: 22:30

Man, that's a tough one, you know. I think it was when I made the commitment to leave muggle world, as we call it. That was such a big, scary decision because I worked in sales advertising sales for a very long time and I was very good at it and made really good money. So having to take that leap of okay, I have almost 23,000 books in storage because I've been collecting books for two. I know it's a nightmare. Yeah, no, I like literally. I mean people don't understand. I was spending $600 a month just to store my collection. Cause I had three gigantic uh storage units and not to mention all the damn books in the house. My house actually used to look a lot like Nexus, but when it came time to to open Nexus, that was this terrifying leap of faith of like, okay, I have some money to do this with, not a lot, it's going to be on a shoestring budget and from the time that I signed the lease to the time I opened was two months exactly. So it's terrifying. Because I know business, I'm good at business Nexus does well, but I mean I'm still learning as I go. I mean, like last summer, we weren't prepared for how big the slowdown was going to be. We knew like, okay, everybody keeps saying okay, well, summertime comes, you're going to slow down. I'm like, okay, fine, maybe what 10, 15%? No, it was like 30 to 50% loss of revenue, and so it was nuts. It was like horrible, like oh crap, because you know we're budgeting and we're not. All of a sudden now we're not making budget routinely and so the panic sets in. So I would say that the biggest change in my life was having that leap of faith to quit muggle life and truly pursue my passion. And I'm not stupid Like. I understand that what I'm doing is amazing. Most people, unfortunately, will never have that gift to truly follow their passion, for whatever reason. I mean, most of us work a nine to five or an eight to five making money for some other company, and we get the scraps from the table to live off of with a weekend, if we're lucky, to try to enjoy our life, hoping we make it to retirement. I try to really live every day like it's my last. I always tell people I have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. I go full force with this. I'm so committed to this. I feel blessed for being able to do it. I don't do this for money because, like, look, I make no money doing this, but it's all about the community for me. I love our community and that was one of my biggest fears when opening this door. I'm like, okay, is there enough weirdos in Tucson like me to actually make this happen. And luckily, Tucson is full of weirdos and we are so community-driven and focused. And I love our customers. I love to be on a first-name basis with them. I love getting to talk to them. It's not about how much money can I make today. Yes, we have a budget to meet and we have bills to pay. Sure, but the idea of Nexus was for community. The occult community has been maligned and hidden for so long, and I love the fact that people can come into my store and feel like they are home too. They feel like they have people on their side to back them up that we are helping people connect to the community.

Kim: 26:33

Yeah, I do really like going in. I remember when you first opened and I thought what the hell another one? But then I walked in and I was like, oh, this is not a metaphysical shop.

Andrew: 26:50

Right? No, exactly, and that's one thing I wanted to really make sure of, because there's lots of new age and metaphysics shops in Tucson. In fact, if you, if you go to our website, there's a tab that says Occult Tucson. That has every you know, quote, unquote competitor in Tucson. There, you know, you can visit all of them. We were not trying to compete with anybody, but we're not a new age or metaphysical store, we are strictly an occult bookstore.

Andrew: 27:18

Now, on the academy side, yeah, there's tons of you know, crystals, cauldrons, incense and candles, all kinds of stuff. That's great. But the heart of our business is the preservation of occult knowledge and the sharing of that occult knowledge. That's why we are a true occult store. In fact, it became such a problem that after we signed our lease, I was working on getting the sticker decals for the windows and the signage and the landlord was like oh, you can't have the word ”occult” in any of your signage. And I was like I've already signed a lease, that's my legal business name. And it became this back and forth. It was such a nightmare and I had to threaten to sue them and then, luckily, they let me go ahead with it, but people wouldn't even rent to me to begin with.

Kim: 28:13

I did wonder about that.

Andrew: 28:15

Yeah, it was so hard to find a spot to open my store because no one wanted to lease to an occult bookstore anything occult. I mean they wanted me to change my name to metaphysics or mystical or I'm like, no, that's not, that's not me, that's. That's not what I'm doing. That's a misrepresentation of who I am and what I do. So I'm we stuck to our guns, man, and I'm proud that we did.

Kim: 28:44

I'm glad of it too, Right, Honestly, cause I really like the other shops, but I also like a little bit of grime and you sell used books.

Andrew: 29:00

Right, yeah, yeah, the majority of our inventory is used. You know, the majority of the new books that we bring in is going to be mostly in the in the magic and witchcraft section, because we obviously sell so much of that. But we specialize in stuff that you're not going to find anywhere else and that's because this collection, I've been cultivating it for over 20 years. You know any store can bring in the brand new Weiser, Llewellyn or Intertradition or Hay House books. That's fine, but there's nothing unique about that. I mean, that's easy. What we specialize in is the stuff that hasn't been in print in decades. You know the hard to find stuff and on top of that, the stuff that other stores won't touch with a 10 foot pole.We have a great left hand path section and I'm proud of that. I mean, you know we were. I think we're the only store in Arizona that has a specific left hand path section and it's huge for us people. No other stores will bring that in. They're too scared of it, they don't like it and blah, blah, blah. And that's the thing about the occult. For me, it's stupid to be too far black magic, too far white magic. I'm a gray path man. I like to keep my foot in both worlds. I utilize aspects of both quote-unquote black and white magic.  I think you have to and I think it would be boring just to be all. You know all light, fluffy and bunny, or all dark and moody, and you know demons, this and that, whatever you know. But demons, this and that, whatever you know. But I like to. Again, that comes back to my chaos of cold. I'll pull from anything and I like to understand and work with both sides.

Kim: 30:54

Speaking of pulling stuff, I am a master of segues. How do you pull yourself out of a magical slump?

Andrew: 31:05

You know that's a good question, because there are times where I feel like I'm just kind of spinning my wheels a bit, you know, where I don't want my practice to ever feel routine, even though that I come in every morning and I get within my scrying mirror and I do my thing. But what I will quickly notice is when I feel that I'm on autopilot, where I'm just doing it out of muscle memory, I have to take a step back and then I will switch to doing more altar based stuff or more deity specific stuff, because I don't ever want to feel like I'm just stuck in a rut, like, okay, here we go again, I'm scrying again, you know. And like I said earlier, I'm okay with the failure part of it. I'm okay if I'm scrying. I don't feel anything right, I'm not able to make that connection that day. Okay, that's just part of it. I'm okay if I'm scrying. I don't feel anything right, I'm not able to make that connection that day. Okay, that's just part of it. That happens, that's not a big deal for me. I'll do it again tomorrow, or I'll stay late and I'll do a ritual. You know, something simple, you know, or sometimes complex, it just really depends. But you know it's always about moving forward. You know how can I, how can I continue to be healthy in my practice and just try to find the silver lining, and knowing that failure is is a necessity to what I do.

Kim: 32:35

Hmm, what is something you wish was discussed more in the magical community?

Andrew: 32:44

Good lord, okay. What I get frustrated at is when I see people come in and they just grab a book. And I'm gonna start working with Hecate today, I'm gonna start working with Lilith today, I'm gonna call on, call on Beelzebub, okay fine, but it's just like this novelty, though it's not a true practice. I would really caution everybody, regardless of whoever you're working with, whether they are a low vibrational spirit or deity or high vibrational to do your work. Do the, do the damn research, understand that spirit's story, their history, understand what connects with them, and then approach that spirit patiently, cautiously and, more importantly, I don't like it when people just rush into.

I'm going to call on Isis today. Who the fuck are you? You know what do you, I mean, do you know anything about Isis? Do you know her correspondences? Do you know her story? You know that just gets annoying. So if I could say anything, it's just people need to just have patience and slow down, slow down, do your homework. You know everybody wants to skip over theory and go straight to practice. Don't do that, you know. Learn. That's, that's my big gripe.

Kim: 34:13

Hmm, I am excited to see how this stirs discussion in my group.

Andrew: 34:20

Go ahead, Email me all that Hate email. If y'all are mad at me, that's fine. I'm a sweetheart and y'all understand too. This is just my perspective. Okay, you don't have to do anything that I'm saying I'm not saying. If you don't do the things that I say, that you're wrong. It's just not how I do it.

Kim: 34:42

I don't disagree with you, I'm just excited for the discussion.

Andrew: 34:45

Right, right. Yeah, I can't wait to hear what you tell me people are saying.

Kim: 34:54

Okay, think of the three biggest influences on your practice, whether it's a book or a person or whatever. Okay, thank them for the influence that they have on your practice.

Andrew: 35:07

So I would say my three biggest influences. One would be Alistair Crowley. You know Crowley, for a lot of people are, it's either you love him or you hate him. Obviously, Crowley wasn't the greatest, nicest person on the planet. It's one of those things where I don't necessarily need to like the artists, but I can enjoy their art. So Crowley was one of the first introductions to magic for me, which was actually a bad thing in the sense that he's so chaotic that it was really hard for me to understand what the hell he was even talking about. So you know, if I I wish I would have started with like something much easier somebody like Lon Milo DuQuette. I mean, he's another great influence, but he he takes magic from where it's not all doom and gloom, it's not all theatrical. Lon Milo Duquette's absolutely brilliant and I really like his work and he is a Thelemite, so he's done… he's kind of demystified a lot of the Crowley stuff. So I think the Crowley stuff, so I think definitely Crowley. Paul Huson's Mastering Witchcraft was.-

Kim: 36:28

Yes! That's one of the first books I ever bought.

Andrew: 36:31

Right, exactly that book was just that. I I enjoyed that book so much, I just had it just it was great that that was a that was a really good, good read for me and that helped slow me down and center me a bit. I would think that the third one was probably Cunningham. I really enjoy his. I enjoy his whole body of work but, like his encyclopedia, like magical herbs and his Incense Oils and Brews, those were two of my earlier books that were just so easy to understand and took out a lot of the scary stuff that growing up I had been told you know the occult devil, evil, scary, bad. I really enjoy Cunningham's work for its simplicity and its purity. So you can't go wrong with Cunningham or Buckland for that matter, if you're talking about witchcraft, if you're talking about magic, start with Donald Craig's Modern Magic, or even a newer artist author is Damien Echols. His story is is super unique. But the way he explains his book in high magic, y'all need to read that. It is beautiful man, I mean this guy, I mean, if you don't know Damien Echols, I won't go into the full story, but he was on death row and,  basically, people would send him books on magic and he had little to no education. And so the way he, his approach to magic, of this kind of self-taught with not a lot of you know knowledge beforehand, is, is, is very interesting and it's refreshing, it takes a lot of the, the maze of like, if you're reading, like the three books on occult philosophy. Yes, that's a great book. Yes, it's, it's foundational, but it's like it was written in like the 1500s and it's like, holy crap, like it's old english and it's I get it. It's a great book, yes, everyone needs to have it, but like, don't start with that book, good lord. No, I mean that it's, it's the size of a, of a brick and it's brilliant, but it's like that's never a place to start.

Kim: 38:53

So when are you bringing him here?

Andrew: 38:55

Right, right, right. I've actually reached out to him via Instagram. I haven't heard back and I get it because he probably gets like people fawning over him and asking him to do stuff. But I mean, at the Academy, I mean, we do have authors coming in. We do have a bunch of different people teaching classes. You know, we had Dr Paul Kuninaris who wrote Heavenly Bodies he wrote Memento Mori. Different people teaching classes,  you know, we had Dr Paul Koudounaris,  who wrote Heavenly Bodies. He wrote Memento Mori. He's this amazing guy who, like literally travels the world. I'm just like I'm just making his job very simplistic here and taking pictures of, like,  beautified dead bodies and skeletons and stuff. I mean, they let him in the vatican. If you saw Paul, you're like you'd be like there's no way they're going to let you in the Vatican. The Swiss guard will spear you on site. But his work is just so beautiful and amazing. In fact, he's releasing a new book on pet cemeteries in, I think, September or October, so he's going to come down here and do a release party, which is awesome, yeah.

Kim: 39:56

Y'all. If you follow @hexencult on Instagram, that's who we're talking about, Because I did not know his name by any other besides @hexencult, but I followed the hell out of him on Instagram.

Andrew: 40:07

Yeah, that's Dr Paul man, and I was literally talking to him this morning. So he's such an amazing man he really is. I mean. That kind of pisses me off too, because, like during high school career day, like my choices were join the army or be a plumber, like the, the option of like traveling the world taking pictures of beautified dead bodies was never even discussed. So like I didn't even know that was an option so, but he's absolutely brilliant. He's such an incredible artist, he's a true gem.

Kim: 40:46

Also very sweet.

Andrew: 40:48

Yes, he is, he's like adorable.

Kim: 40:54

Do you have any advice for new practitioners?

Andrew: 41:01

Yeah, absolutely. Don't skip over theory and jump right into practice. Get yourself a journal, you know? Your grimoire, your book of shadows? Keep track of your dreams. That's very important that. The thing that I think most importantly, that thing that that people miss and just miss and just don't pay attention to is you need to understand meditation and psychic ability. So learn how to meditate and learn how to develop your psychic ability, because a lot of communication with spirits, deities or whoever, whoever, is through your third eye. I mean, these spirits aren't popping up and just talking to you. I mean, yeah, every once in a while you'll hear audible voices and stuff like that, but most of it's telepathic, because they're at a different vibration than we are. So really work on developing your psychic ability. For me that is a necessity for spirit communication and that also falls into your astral projection and your lucid dreaming. So that's all kind of on the same family as psychic development. So psychic development and meditation are at the heart of everything that I do and that works well for me.

Kim: 42:18

So you've talked to me, we've interacted before. You kind of have a hold of who I am as a person and now you know what the questions are like. Who do you think I should have on the show for this?

Andrew: 42:32

That's a good question. You know Marcella Kroll. She just moved to Tucson from Los Angeles. She is an author. She has, I think, four decks now, like two tarot and two oracle, if I'm not mistaken, and she's taught a few classes at Nexus and she is absolutely brilliant. She's adorable, she's like total sweetheart and she's been doing this her whole life. She's traveled, she's been to Egypt. She is. She is a true practitioner in every sense of the world, in every sense of the word. She knows what she's doing. She's legitimate because that's one thing you have to really watch out for in this community that there's a lot of snake oil sales, there's lot of bullshit artists and I have no patience for people like that. And Marcella is just a darling and she's amazing and she's brilliant.

Kim: 43:43

 I took her timeline jumping… it wasn't really a class, but the meditation session, whatever you call it. Yeah, and then suddenly, so just suddenly things happened. So if you're in Tucson or near Tucson or coming to Tucson, look and see if you can work with her.I really want her on the show. 

Andrew: 43:58

Yeah, she's great. I mean she's on Instagram. It's Marcella Kroll, k-r-o-l-l. Just reach out to her. I mean she is, she's legitimate. I would never recommend somebody who I haven't worked with personally and she's absolutely amazing. So I mean it's check her out, give her a follow, just reach out to her. She's very communicative. She'll communicate with you. You know she's great.

Kim: 44:24

And she has a cute little lizard named Lord. Everyone go look, that's right.

Andrew: 44:28

She loves that damn lizard? Yes, she does.

Kim: 44:32

Is there anything else you wanted to bring up, anything happening soon, any sales you have going on, or any questions you had for me?

Andrew: 44:40

Yeah, absolutely so. If your listeners want to check out more about Nexus Occult, I would refer you to our website, which is just nexusoccult.com. There's a tab up there that says classes. You can see all of our upcoming classes. We have all the classes for June up there. Now, June's almost over. I should have July's schedule out last week, but I'm going to have it done by Friday.

Andrew: 45:02

I promise I'm working on it. So we have a variety of classes coming up next month. Some really cool stuff coming up, including like wet specimen make and takes, some entomology, some bug pinning. But we also are going to have Marcella's doing a past life class On the 20th. We have a special author coming in from Sedona teaching a class on psychic self-defense in the Zodiac and the class is like $28, but you get her book that goes along with the class, so it's totally worth it. I think we're having the class at 20 people. So when we get the sign up out this this week, definitely look for that. We also have a sleep and dreaming class done by Dr Alice Elias, who is somebody else you should definitely have on your show. And then we have The Truth About Voodoo.

Kim: 45:56

Yeah, I want to take that one.

Andrew: 45:58

Yeah, that's going to be on Frederika Turner. That's another person who is just one of my favorite people on the planet. Sweet as hell, Just completely legitimate and adorable. So we have just a high caliber of amazing people teaching classes here. So yeah, NexusOccult.com, you can see our classes and again, there's a tab that says Occult Tucson, where you can check out all the other amazing local stores. And we also have  books for sale online. When you go to the homepage, there's a little button that says shop our books and,  most of those books that are going to be more high end,  because we can't compete. We can't compete with Amazon on the $8 book, so it's mostly the harder to find rare stuff that we have online. But there's definitely some really cool things there and, again, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. Thank you so much.

Kim: 46:50

I copied your idea, yeah, and I made a page on my own website. 

Andrew: 45:55

Well, there you go. 

Kim: 46:59

You're on it.

Andrew: 47:01

Right, perfect, that works. Yeah, I mean there's lots of awesome stories here.

Kim: 47:06

So the final two things that I ask of guests. Thing number one is recommend something. It doesn't have to be related to your practice or witchcraft or magic or anything. It could be just whatever you are into this week.

Andrew: 47:22

Got it. One of my favorite things to do is shadow work, and what that means for me is is the journey of knowing thyself. I have no problem admitting that I go see a therapist twice a month, and it's not because I'm like I'm not depressed or anything like that. It just helps me work through, whether it's generational traumas or or any issues that I'm having. I think a lot of people try to shy away from having to admit that they might be struggling with something, and if you're going to go down this path, for me, I think it's so important to have a great understanding of who you truly are, and we've all gone through traumas and that sucks, but the whole point of that is to learn from it and grow from it and accept it and not move past it, but move through it. So shadow work for me is something that I love to focus on, and I think a lot of people would benefit from doing it.

Kim: 48:29

The last thing is please tell me a story.

Andrew: 48:32

Tell you a story. Okay, so when I was 13, I was at home alone and this is when I really started like reading. Like witchcraft books, like before that it was a lot of reference books and not necessarily like the practice, but like the history of witchcraft, I really enjoyed learning the history. But like the history of witchcraft, I really enjoyed learning the history. So I had this little mass market paperback and I had been kind of messing around I feel like a storm spell or I remember that and some other little things and I was downstairs by myself and I shit you not. I was going through this book and I heard the loudestest, scariest guttural growl echo through my house. We did not have dogs, it was just me alone. It wasn't like the tv was on,  and I heard it so clear. I was in my. I remember I was wearing a white t-shirt, gray sweatpants and white socks. I literally ran from my house and it's exactly a mile to the Circle K at in Snyder and called my mom at work, collect, that there's a monster in the house. And my poor mother had to leave work to come pick up her spastic child at Circle K that's basically his pajamas go home and check the house for me and tell me that there were no monsters there. At 13 years old that happened.

Kim: 50:17

That's a true story that is horrifying and amazing.

Andrew: 50:21

Yeah, it was it was terrifying, but it didn't stop me. It just like it slowed me down a bit.

Andrew: 50:26

I was going to ask what you did about it Right, exactly, I like I put that book away literally for a couple of weeks and I was just like maybe this isn't the thing for me. But then I mean curiosity killed the cat and I have this horrible thirst to know the unknown. I'm not okay with just not knowing. I need to know what's going on, not just in the occult, but with, like ghosts, aliens, conspiracy theories, secret societies, alternative history. I can't learn enough of it.

Kim: 50:59

Cool. Well, thank you so much for the story, because that was hilarious and horrifying, and for being on the show. No, absolutely Everybody. Make sure you check the link in show notes Click follow Come visit, if you come here for Gem Show I will take you to the shop.

Andrew: 51:27

Awesome. Thank you so much Again. I really appreciate the time and I hope your listeners were okay with my jabbering. And you know I'm very easily reachable, so if you guys have questions with me personally, you can just DM me, and I'm the one that answers all the social media stuff. So I'm happy to answer any questions and if you disagree with what I'm saying, that's OK too.

Kim: 51:48

I will say that you are one of the most responsive people on Instagram that I have ever met.

Andrew: 51:54

Yeah, I love what I do. I absolutely love it. I love our customer. I, I absolutely love it. I love our customers, you know.

Kim: 52:00

So it's I, I enjoy it, it's, it's truly fun for me okay, well, I will see you, uh, next month when I come to that Marcella Kroll class.

Andrew: 52:09

Aawesome. Thank you so much. 

Kim: 52:15

Thanks, thanks, bye. 

Andrew: 52:16

Bye.

Kim: 52:18

Andrew welcome to Hive House!

Andrew: 52:23

Thank you.

Kim: 52:25

Okay, I got some cards here. Please say when. and I'm gonna pull it.

Andrew: 52:27 

When.

Kim: 52:28

Name- don't name all the places you've traveled to, but what was the favorite, your favorite place you've traveled to and why it was it… (fades out)

Andrew: 52:46

(fades in)... madness, the whole thing, you have a psychotic ceremonial magician, a drunken hysterical captain, and then an amazing assassin. The five things I would grab would be my rifle… (fades out)

Kim: 53:03

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 Conjuration, giving you bonus podcast episodes, coloring pages, guided meditations, spell crafting videos, printable downloads and a lot 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 and transcripts. Check it out at crepuscularconjuration.com.

Kim: 53:54

Thanks for listening to this episode of Your Average Witch. You can find us all around the internet on Instagram @youraveragewitchpodcast, facebook.com/groups/hivehouse, at www.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 youreveragewitchpodcast at gmail.com. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday.