In this episode we get bite-sized stories from author Byron Ballard, host of Daily Witch Show Tonya Brown, Kacie from Kacie's Corner, and many more!

Snack Size 5.

Byron Ballard, Tonya Brown, Weather spell gone wrong

Welcome back to Your Average Witch, snack size edition number five. It's like a bite size version of the longer episodes that come out on the full and new moon every month. In this episode, Byron Ballard talks a little about the afterlife, Kacie is back with another story about one of her spells, Taryn, Jayne, and Lera explain whether or not they feel that being a witch is a choice, and you get a sneak peek into the next episode with Tonya Brown. Tonya is the editor of Witch Way Magazine, founder of Witch Way Publishing, host of the Witch Daily Show Podcast, and author of the Door to Witchcraft. You can hear the full interview on the full moon of Saturday the 10th. As I've sure you've heard me mention before, Anahata's Purpose is happening this week and I'm actually flying out tomorrow, so I'll be away from my mic... kind of. I'll be at Anahata's Purpose in Spring City, Pennsylvania, talking to witches, doing witchcraft, hanging out at the Hive House with my patrons, and of course, crying in the river. There probably won't be time for me to record a snack size before my next full episode after Tonya Brown, but I'll have lots of stories, epiphanies, and heartfelt joy from Anahata's Purpose in a few weeks. Now let's get to the stories. First up, author, educator, and witch Byron Ballard tells us about how she recommends we connect with our ancestors for the first time. 

Byron: Let me offer you this piece that I absolutely believe is true. Because once we, all of us, make the transition from matter to spirit, when we go to whatever place your culture believes you go when you die, that we keep our personality, but we also have a broader perspective so that we know that that thing that we did or those things that we did that were so terrible, we are aware of that. And we do what we can in recompense. So the best way to start an ancestor of integration is to pick somebody that you personally knew and loved, who loved you, and who is now dead. That is the best way to start instead of, "I'm calling all my ancestors in because it's Samhain-tide, and that's what I'm supposed to do." 
Well trust me, if they all come, you will not be happy. Because it's an awful lot of people. So if you can start, and even if it's somebody that you didn't know, but it's somebody that, that in the family stories, "Oh you remember great aunt Frankie, you remember her? And she always, she did the biggest best spread at Christmas time. I love to go to her house because she always made that good punch." So find someone in your bloodline that everybody had respect for, even if you didn't love them, and everybody loved, and go to that person first. Well you don't have to... gosh, I don't know how anybody could do all of your ancestors, because that's an extraordinary...

 Kim: It's overwhelming. And that's what I've been trying to do.

Byron: So if you can do that... just take it one at a time, the one at a time. So for most people, but not all people, it's a grandmother. And that was the person who spoiled you rotten, and made the cookies that you love anytime you were coming over. My husband had a great, had an aunt, and his aunt, she always, when he was coming over, she did make him all the things he loved to eat and made sure that he was, you know, had special toys and all that. And yeah, pick somebody that you, that you'd like to have a relationship with. Because that's what it's about, it's establishing a relationship. 

Kim: Well, thank you. I will be doing that. 

Byron: Well, let me know how it works. Because I think, I think you may be surprised. I always advise people to start with a photograph if you have one, a picture of the person. And just put it in a special place, you don't have to do a fancy table setting or any of that, just a picture. And then, in my tradition anyway, we, I mean, we feed people whether they're alive or dead, let's just be honest. So feeding them, for me, I start with some strong coffee. And I do not do alcohol until I know them, because alcohol has an interesting effect on spirit folks and I come from a long line of alcoholics on both sides of my family. So I don't necessarily want to bring that into the conversation early on. But almost everybody back in the day drinks strong coffee. 

Kim: This was part of a much longer interview that will come out later this year. Byron was an utter delight and I plan on trying very hard to make it to an in-person class with her at some point in the future. Through this interview, I immediately went and joined her Patreon and I recommend you do the same. Next we hear the familiar voice of Kacie of Kacie's Corner. Kacie tells a little story about an unintentional weather spell, then lets us know her opinion on the question of choice.

Kacie:  Hey, y'all, this is Kacie from Kacie's Corner and I am back with another witchy story for y'all. I told you all last time about my first intentional spell work. But this time I wanted to tell you guys about my first accidental spell work. And just so you know, there is a storm going on outside at this moment. So if you hear anything in the background, if anybody asks, I called that up for ambiance. And this story is about the first time I accidentally called the storm. 
It was the mid-90s. I was in probably elementary school, and Garth Brooks was everything at this time. And so one day me and my sister and a couple of our friends, we were playing outside on our front porch doing our usual thing, working up choreography or favorite songs. And this time it was, you know, Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks because of course it was everything. I'm pretty sure he had that big live concert coming up. He was doing a tour. He was everything. And so we were at my house on my front porch. And this was a big, you wide, like, you know, deck sized porch. This was a white porch with a good, like, for us little kids. It was like, you know, almost shoulder height railing, you know, with that lattice work on it. And you know, like a step to the door. And then there was the front door. 
And we were there singing, there was the four of us. And we were, for some reason, our choreography involved pretty much, it was the pitcher's move for softball. We were winding up our arms and for, and the Thunder Rolls and we would do, you know, wind up our arms and then the lightning strikes and we would like, you know, it was like releasing the ball. I don't know. It was, we were, we were pitchers for some reason, but it felt, it was like, it felt powerful for that moment. And it turns out it was a little too powerful because we, we conjured something. And when we started singing the song, it was, you know, a beautiful day, the kind of day, you know, you let your kids roam around free and do whatever they want unsupervised. As we were, blue skies, gorgeous.
 As we're singing, you know, kind of feel a little bit of a breeze pick up. It's fine. And as we're working our amazing choreography, we're winding our arms up. And when we get to that lightning strikes and, you know, throw our arms out in front of us and just throw, like we are bringing down the lightning of the heavens ourselves. We did just that. And there suddenly was just loud, just loud roll of thunder, and just this big gust of wind kicked up out of nowhere. It just happened so fast all I had time to do was just register everyone's scream and get down. And I turn around in time to realize that this wind has blown like the front lining of the front door off and the inside core of the front door off, blown it off and straight at my face. Just THWACK. Door to the face, and it flies off. Keeps going. 
Did anybody get the number of that door license plate? No? And just oh my god, the wind took it across the way. And nobody's worried if I have a concussion or anything. No, we're like, did we do that? Did we, because we look up and this storm's rolled in, there's clouds all around us. We all had to run inside and real quick after that. And we're left just like freaking out for a long time, sure that we could not sing that song safely, not without conjuring up some sort of thunderstorm. And to this day, I do feel much closer to wind and storms. Like I do feel at home in them. 

Is being a witch a choice? All right, like so many, I heard, answer this before me. I do kind of agree to yes or no. I know it's a cop out, but hear me out. You can absolutely choose to embrace or reject the label "witch". You can actively choose that lifestyle of your own free will. You can seek it out. You can practice it. You can identify yourself as that to the community around you. However, sometimes the society we live in gives us no choice. They recognize the strange and uncanny in you and decide that makes you a witch no matter what you say. Your very nature sets you apart, and signals to the homogenous community that you should, you should be outcast from the group whether you like it or not. When that's the case, the only choice left for you is what kind of witch will you be. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you for having me on again, Kim, and letting me tell another story. And y'all can follow me over on the Facebook at facebook.com/welcometokaciescorner. See y'all on the interwebs. Bye. 

Kim: Thanks, Kacie. I've always loved that Garth Brooks song. I have not, however, been smacked in the head by a door blown off in a wind storm, so that's something. Let's knock wood on that one. I also like this angle on the choice question. I haven't considered the idea that society may not give us a choice as to whether or not we have to learn and use witchcraft. And I'm excited to get a chance to talk about it more when we are finally on the way to Anahata's together, travel partner! I'm excited! And I want to thank you again for all your help and support. I appreciate you so much as a person and as a witch. Now we listen to Taryn as she gives some insight on the choice of being a witch with an unexpected, at least to me, response.

Kim: Do you feel like being a witch is a choice? 

Taryn: I do. I do in the sense that I feel like most things, there is some level of choice to it. I mean, you can always choose not to do it even if it's just in your nature. I don't think that's healthy, but I think it's possible. I mean, for me, I have chosen not to embrace it at different points in my life, and I always come back to it. It always, something always brings me back. So I'm maybe in a sense you could say that that's not a choice that it always brings me back, but...

Kim: Do you feel like practicing witchcraft is a choice, and could you stop? 

Taryn: Yeah, I think it's a choice too. I have in fact stopped before and started up again. Now could I stop for good? I don't know if I could or not. 

Kim: You're the first person to say yes at all to that question. 

Taryn: Really, interesting. 

Kim: From somebody who's been practicing 30 years to somebody who's only practiced like one, they all said they could not stop. 

Taryn: Oh wow, that's amazing. 

Kim: So I've become fascinated with this question. 

I may be wrong, and someone may have answered yes to this question before, but my sieve-like mind can't recall it. I am fascinated though that most of us are saying no without question. Next, I talked to one of my favorite people, Lera, and how she feels about the choice of witchcraft. 

Kim: Do you think being a witch is a choice? 

Lera: I think choosing to practice is a choice, but I think all that witchcraft is and this kind of goes back to the first question you asked me, is choosing how you use your inner wisdom. And I think we are all born with very specific spiritual gifts, whether we want them or not, but I think how we use them is our choice. And I think the universe is a very impartial player in how all of this plays out. So I think it is a choice and it isn't, you know. To me witchcraft is just cultivating a deeper understanding of your inner wisdom and how it works with external elements. So if you feel called to certain things, you can choose to follow them, and if you don't feel called to them at all, you can choose to stay where you are. And then you're kind of left to the impartiality of moving forward, doing nothing, or somehow going back. 

Kim: For you, is doing witchcraft the choice and could you stop? 

Lera: I wouldn't want to stop. Now that this practice has such strong spiritual ties for me, I feel like I would be very, very lost and very deflated if I were to stop. It would take something pretty extreme for me to stop practicing outwardly. I would say that, but I feel like for the rest of my life, my spirituality will be tied to my practice and the deities I've worked with and the energy that I've created and the community I've connected with. That won't go away, even if I can't practice outwardly. 

Kim: Hopefully nothing extreme happens, because I need to know Lera is witching it away forever. Now we hear from Jayne, who describes what a witch is to her before answering the question of choice. 

Jayne: Do I think that being a witch is a choice? My answer is kind of evolving. At one point I would have said yes, that you had to choose to learn and study and go against what most people consider normal. But as I study and as I learn, I don't know that that's accurate anymore. A witch, to me, is somebody who basically works with nature and not against it. So yes, we use energies from crystals and from herbs to enhance our spell work or to amplify our intentions, but we don't actively go against nature. So I think the potential to be a witch is in everyone, but the choice to actually practice is obviously a choice. Which kind of goes into, yes, practicing the craft is a choice. For some of us it becomes so ingrained that it no longer feels like a choice, but it's still a choice. 
And do I think that I could ever stop practicing at this point? No. Because of the way I see witchcraft that would be like, I would have to actually make the choice to stop doing what was best for the earth or working with the energies of the earth. And I don't think that I have that in me as a person. But I think there is a big difference between being a witch and practicing witchcraft. Kind of like if you are estranged from your parents, you're still their child, but you're not close with them. If you become estranged from your craft, you're still a witch. You're just not practicing. 

Kim: Like Jayne, I believe we all have the ability to manipulate energy. Some are just more aware of it, more willing to use it, and more talented at it than others. Finally, we hear from Tonya Brown of which way magazine, who gives me one of the best analogies for the choice question, and who is a witch, that I've ever heard. 

Kim: Do you feel like being a witch is a choice? 

Tonya: Oh, okay. So here's a way I've always kind of talked about it. I just have a, on the best friend who was a professional ballerina and she would teach children ballet. And she was telling me about her students because I was going to go to their show. So she was like, oh, this is so-and-so, and so-and-so, and she told me something once and it has always translated for me to a craft. And I think it's applicable. But she said, you know, student A here, student A has so much natural talent, but they're lazy. And student B here does not have a lot of natural talent, but she's so ambitious. And at some point, they will be equal or the student B will outgrow student A, you know?
 So I do think you are born, I do think there are people born with talents and skills that lean towards witchcraft. But if so many people don't go that route, or they don't care to go that route, or they can't go that route or they interpret it into a different route, and then you, I think your people who are not born with any, with those maybe talents, or what we would consider maybe witch-tangent talents who wanted enough and worked enough and build it enough, and make that choice. So I do think it's a choice. 

Kim: That's a really good analogy. The ballerina one. 

Tonya: Yeah, ballerinas, man.

Kim: Is practicing which craft a choice for, for you and could you stop? 

Tonya: I don't know if I could at this point. No, I don't think I could. And I think it's just so interwoven by now into like my structure, that I don't know if I would know how to navigate life without it.

Kim: This question, the answers that I get to this question are interesting because if somebody identifies as a witch so far, no matter how long they've been practicing, because one of my friends has only been practicing for like a year. They've all said they do think it's a choice but that they couldn't stop. Could not, not would not. 

Tonya: Yeah, it's kind of like once you see how the world, or how the universe, once you see how beautiful the universe is and how interconnected it is and how you're part of that, it's really hard to choose to pull away from that. 

Kim: And that's it for this week. Make sure you come back on the full moon of Saturday of 10th, that's the Saturday after this one is released. To hear the rest of Tonya Brown's episode where she tells us about familiars, discusses the scary speed at which social media spreads the current cinnamon in the front door fad, among other things, and tells a great story about how she discovered one of her more recent ancestors. Thanks for listening. If you would like to tell your story about your first spell, a particularly funny spell, how a spell went terribly wrong, I really like those to be honest because, I relate. Or you want to answer any question of whether or not you think witchcraft is a choice and whether or not you can stop doing it, then you can email me at youraveragewitchpodcast at gmail.com, or call and leave a voicemail at 520-230-3896.