Once again we're back at Anahata's Purpose! This was recorded live, in a variety of spaces, at Anahata's Purpose. I talked to a variety of people from all over the US, plus one friend of the maple persuasion, and they answered the questions about choice and told a couple stories of spellcraft. Again, these are just the snack-sized questions. Be sure to catch the longer interviews about Anahata's Purpose, similar to my AP 2021 episode last year, this December.
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Snack Size 8.
Anahata's Purpose 2
Welcome back to Your Average Witch snack size edition. Once again we are back at Anahata's Purpose. This was recorded live in a variety of spaces at Anahata's Purpose. I talked to a bunch of different people from all over the US, plus one maple bean. They answered the questions about choice and told a couple stories of spellcraft. Again, these are just the snack size questions. Be sure to catch the longer interviews about Anahata's Purpose, similar to Anahata's Purpose 2021 episode last year in December. First I talked to Lisa, one of my patrons.
Kim: Lisa, do you have- welcome- fr- Hi Lisa.
LIsa: Hi Kim.
Kim: Welcome to the show.
Lisa: Thank you, it's nice to be here.
Kim: That's staying. That's staying. Would you please tell me if you believe that being a witch is a choice?
Lisa: I think that some people may have a natural ability. But practicing is a choice.
Kim: Can you not practice? You personally? Can you stop practicing?
Lisa: When I get busy it just falls out.
Kim: But if I tell you you can't practice anymore ever.
Lisa: But how do I do, like...
Kim: Besides people telling you no, if that makes you angry, which it does me. But if you practice witchcraft again you're going to get some terrible disease and die. I don't know.
Lisa: I think my practice is so young that it wouldn't affect me too hard. But the religion part of it, like the spiritual part, would always still be there.
Kim: Do you have any spell stories that you will share?
Lisa: I don't remember my first spell. Because it was probably some time way back when I was a teenager.
Kim: And then it was probably something lame like a crush. Mine probably was something dumb.
Lisa: And then I lost everything and came back to it. But the most recent spell I did was to be well compensated for what I did. And then when we got to Anahata's, I found out that I had got a raise at work.
Kim: Yay! Did we applaud for that? I feel like we applauded. That makes me really happy for you.
Lisa: I'm pretty happy about it.
Kim: I would really love it if Lisa could do a successful prosperity spell like that for me. Next I spoke to Liz, lso known as the Texas goat witch or TX goat witch on TikTok.
Kim: Hello Liz.
Liz: Hello.
Kim: Welcome to the show. How are you?
Liz: I'm doing all right, how about you? We're managing. It's day three of the Purpose and we're...
Kim: I'm struggling.
Liz: I'm right there with you.
Kim: I'm actually not coming out of my room again after this.
Liz: Nope. I'm taking a shower and going to bed. It's a good exhausted. It's a good exhausted but I am exhausted.
Kim: I'm sad so it's not my favorite exhausted, but I did earn it.
Liz: There we go. Do some shadow work or just...
Kim: Yeah. And a lot of stairs.
Liz: Oh yeah. A lot of stairs. Wear comfortable shoes, y'all. Wear comfortable shoes.
Kim: Lord. So, first question is, do you feel like being a witch is a choice?
Liz: If you define a witch as someone who actively does spellcraft then yes, because we all have a choice to do or not to do. I think there's a certain calling and a spirit of a witch in whatever form they take, whether it's energy work or as a healer using non... Well, actually traditional medicine, just not Western medicine. I think there's just that kind of a witchy spirit that anyone... They can grow into it or they can be born with it, but it's definitely something that comes from within. It's not something that you just can buy all the books and say, oh I'm a witch because I read all of these. It's like, it's something you want to do. It's something you feel like you should do.
Kim: Do you feel like doing witchcraft? Practicing witchcraft is a choice?
Liz: There's so many ways to do spellcraft, whether it's in the kitchen and just stirring your Catholic grandmother's tomato soup that she used to feed the reverend, or the priest every Sunday. You can spin that recipe a certain way and that can be inviting abundance or banishing. Or you can even just, with meditation, there's such a breadth. Or even filling up the jar full of rusty nails and vinegar. There's such a breadth. I think you can do spellcraft...
Kim: (laughing) You went from comforting grandma to suddenly...
Liz: Like full left hand. There's definitely a spectrum. But there's so many ways that you can do it without trying and without realizing. So there's no... I don't think that's a really yes or no. If whatever you put your intention is, that's your craft. Whether it is just doing soup, or actively wishing justice.
Kim: Could you stop doing it? Could you just quit cold turkey and I'm not going to do witchcraft anymore?
Liz: I think it would definitely be a conscious choice. I know for me personally, my husband-to-be is supportive of a lot of it, because he's like "Whatever makes you happy, whatever makes you feel better." And he sages his house himself. How many cowboys do that? But I don't think I could stop it, because I was doing it before I knew what it was. It's one of those things that it would be like trying to tell me to stop drinking water, or stop enjoying the sunshine. It's just so ingrained in me, just stirring my soup and just recognizing the little things I do every day. Now do I think somebody could? Yes. Maybe overtly doing craft. But I think subconsciously they'd have a little bit of something, of saying bless you after a sneeze, or... It's something you can't stop 100% or else you'd go mad trying to catch yourself.
Kim: Do you have any spells that you'll share that... spell experiences?
Liz: I do a lot of candle work with dressing the candles. I'm a little ADD so I have trouble sitting down in just one place and I'm incredibly frugal. So I am not one that's going to go out and buy all the different spell ingredients. I use what's in my kitchen and learn what grows around my area that I can forage and work with it that way. So it's also I think there's a certain power that comes from when it's in your area, you're tied to it, you're channeling it. It's not- who knows that if rose petal that you get supposedly from the shop, whether it came from China and everything that's touched it since then, you know what's there.
I do a lot of candle work dressing the candles, blessing them, and then I will just light it while I'm going and doing round other things. And that way every time I come to the room I see it, and it's kind of like a "Oh yeah." And I say the affirmation, or kind of redo the spell that I want to bring. And normally it's prosperity. I mostly do prosperity spells for business or for my livestock procreation or just for positive feelings that those can prosper and multiply and just beat back the negative stuff. So that's kind of my spell history. And I love tarot. I know that's not really a spell, but like tarot is my jam. It's my jam.
Kim: It's not my jam. That's why I pay people to do tarot for me.
Liz: I have a deck that's like two years older than I am and it's from East Germany. It's got like English, French and German, and it's all in a Slavic pattern. I love it.
Kim: That's cool!
Liz: It's probably the only reason I do tarot. To be honest, just to look at the pretty pictures, if anything.
Kim: I still really want to see that tarot deck. It sounds really cool. Then I spoke with Mina, one of our first international Anahata's attendees.
Kim: Hello Mina.
Mina: Hi. How are you?
Kim: Hi. I am great. Would you please tell me if you believe that being a witch is a choice or not?
Mina: I don't. I think it's, you remember that you're a witch. It's a coming home for sure.
Kim: Do you think practicing witchcraft is a choice?
Mina: I think it's a choice to make it a practice, because it takes work and effort, but I think that the things that we do throughout our day, once you're a witch, are almost like magic in and of themselves.
Kim: Can you stop doing it? You specifically?
Mina: Me, personally? Like I could have...
Kim: Can you go cold turkey is what I mean. Can you go cold turkey and no longer practice witchcraft?
Mina: I mean I've fallen away from my practice accidentally over time, and so there are happen times where I stopped doing it, but being told that I couldn't do it if I needed to make something happen would be very tough not to do it.
Kim: Isn't that weird?
Mina: Mm-hmmm.
Kim: Witches are weird.
Mina: You wanna do what you wanna do. Told no, do it.
Kim: I'm sure by now you know that I hate being told what to do, and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. Now we hear from Sage.
Kim: Anyway, hi Sage, thanks for talking to me.
Sage: Hi, thank you for letting me talk to you.
Kim: So on this mini episode, I would love it if you would tell me if you think being a witch is a choice.
Sage: Okay. So I've actually thought about this quite a bit, because I've listened to some of your episodes and it's caused me to ponder. So the short of it is, on a philosophical level, no it's not a choice, but on a day-to-day level, like you kind of have to choose to identify it and be it. Like in practice. I can go into that more, or I can just leave it at that.
Kim: Go into it more, please.
Sage: Okay. So I'm kind of in the camp that I don't really believe free will is necessarily much of a thing, that we actually are all just doing our best. Like we have experiences and inputs that happen in our lives, and our brains output calculations, and we do what we do. So on that front, if you're a witch, it's because the things that have happened in your life up to this point have influenced you to be so. And I also kind of believe that there are people who have some level of witchness in them, and either deny it or don't know about it, and because of that they're just like kind of unconsciously going around probably manifesting things that they wish they wouldn't be. So because of that, you kind of have to make the choice to be a witch, so you don't do that. Or you have to make the choice, or step into it in some way, shape, or form, to practice day to day, and be in control of your witchness. Which is a paradox, I know. But that's kind of how I like to think about it.
Kim: Do you think practicing witchcraft is a choice?
Sage: Again I would say on a practical level of how we like to think about things, yes.
Kim: Can you just not do it anymore?
Sage: I would say no, because of how integrated it is into the way I view the world. Like I would have to totally like reshape my daily perception of just how things are, before I could stop.
Kim: I haven't gone into this before. You're the lucky one who caught me when I'm sleepy, so things are coming out of my mouth. So do you think, and this isn't a test, I'm just like talking. Do you think that if people, do you think people who haven't been doing it, I don't know how long you've been practicing but do you think people earlier in their practice, it's easier for them to stop doing it than not? I think it really depends. Because it goes back to that sort of world view thing. Because if you're early on in your practice but you see the world in terms of things like energy, or you feel like you have the ability to like, I guess influence fate a little bit, because I think kind of at the core of it that's what witchcraft is, is you're trying to pull on the strings of luck and fate. So if you have adapted that belief, it would be really hard to stop, even if you're early on in your practice.
Kim: Well now I might have to ask people if they believe in fate now, because I don't necessarily think I do.
Sage: Oh really?
Kim: Yeah. Or no. Whatever the answer to that means I don't believe in fate.
Sage: Oh well because it makes me wonder like when you practice is it like if you're casting a spell like what mechanism do you feel like you're acting on, to get an outcome from a spell?
Kim: Well, everything is made of energy.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: Even me. And if I, if- this is one of my greatest fears, maybe you've already heard it. If I piss off the cells and the atoms in my body, maybe they'll leave and I won't be me anymore.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: So I try to influence the energy and everything else around me to do what I want.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: But I don't necessarily think that there is something larger fixing things, and I mean fixing as in affixing, not like it's broken, but affixing things.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: Making it permanent.
Yeah. Like everything's written.
Kim: Yeah. I don't necessarily see that. And I'm wondering also, can we both be right?
Sage: Yeah. And I guess when I use the word fate I think like it's personal. It's like whatever your own personal beliefs are on like whatever that mechanism is. It's like once you believe you have control over some sort of mechanism, whether it's fate, or energy, or you know. Like I think that's huge. That's a huge step in like living life, and that's also part of just what which craft is.
Kim: Like people say everything happens for a reason? I super don't believe that. I don't believe in destiny. I'm just, I think we're just out here flapping.
Sage: Yeah. It's all just kind of a random number generator.
Kim: That makes me angry, but yes.
Sage: I love simulation theory but...
Kim: Fuck random.org. And finally after we've made me uncomfortable for however many minutes that's been...
Sage: Sorry. I'm just a super existential person, so...
Kim: I'm currently too sleep deprived to have this conversation, and be able to participate in it without probably crying in...
Sage: Sorry. Sorry for being triggering.
Kim: Hey. Hey, don't... my issues ain't your issues. But I would love it if you could please tell me a story about a spell you've done. It can be your first spell, or your most recent one, or the one that nothing happened, or everything happened, just pick one. I like for people to see and hear how it goes for everybody. It's not always "Oh look. I did a money spell and suddenly I'm rich."
Sage: Yeah. I actually don't feel like any of my spells have been too crazy. They've all been pretty like, you know. I've done a money bowl before and well, yeah, more money has come into my life, but is it from the money bowl, or is it because I graduated college and got a job?
Kim: That's the whole thing about witchcraft.
Sage: I guess like the probably the craziest story is I was just doing like a regular setting intentions ritual for like a new moon or something and I had a candle lit, and I reached over, and didn't have my hair tied back and my hair fell into the candle.
Kim: *gasps*
Sage: It luckily wasn't anything super like devastating. It was a pretty small amount of hair damage and it has since grown out, but this is a PSA to tie your hair back if you have long hair when you're doing spell work.
Kim: Oh man, I've been had long hair in a good while but yes. Yeah. Also don't use paper towels under your candles.
Sage: Oh did you do that?
Kim: Yes I did. Did I catch things on fire? Indeed. And that's it for say fire safety here today.
Sage: Yes.
Kim: Witch tips.
Sage: Yeah. I mean I feel like I've heard people say things like that, but you don't always think of it in the moment.
Kim: Actually I haven't heard it for witchcraft. I had heard it for working in a jewelry studio because you'll get your hair snatched into the spinny thing and you'll smash your forehead, but not in witchcraft.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: Probably your sleeves if you got that fancy flowy robe on.
Sage: Yeah.
Kim: Maybe don't do that.
Sage: Honestly when you think about it, ritualistic clothing is not the safest for rituals that involve candles and things.
Kim: That's a real reason everybody goes sky-clad, because they've all gotten lit ,and then just... literally lit, and then lit a bunch of stuff on fire.
Sage: Yeah. Huh.
Kim: Never again. I'm just going to be naked. Okay. Well thank you for talking to me.
Sage: Yeah. That was a good conversation.
Kim: And I can't wait for our full length interview coming soon!
Sage: Yes.
Kim: Bye.
Sage: Bye.
Kim: Hopefully everybody takes that great advice, whether they are in a studio with spinning objects, in the kitchen, or at the cauldron. Finally I talk to Summer.
Kim: Summer, welcome.
Summer: Hi Kim, thanks for having me.
Kim: Our hair almost matches this year.
Kim: Just about.
Summer: I don't think I had blue hair last year but I did remember that for you. So please tell me if you think being witch is a choice.
Summer: Honestly I really don't think it is, because I never really recognize myself as a witch until I was much older, and already well on my way to doing these different practices. I was already doing shadow work. I was already doing ritual. I was already attuning with nature the way that witches do. And whenever I started to read into witchcraft, I'm like "Oh yeah, this totally clicks." So honestly, no I don't. I think it's just something that you feel, and something that is a part of yourself that just comes out whether you want it to or not.
Kim: Do you feel like doing witchcraft is a choice?
Summer: I think doing the actual practice of witchcraft can be a choice, because I think it also takes a certain amount of recognition that what you're doing is witchcraft.
Kim: Can you stop?
Summer: I don't want to, frankly.
Kim: But could you?
Summer: No. It's a part of who I am.
Kim: So it's not a choice for you.
Summer: It's not a choice for me.
Kim: Nor is it for myself.
Summer: I guess we're witches.
Kim: Do you have a spell that went particularly well, or terribly, or hilariously, or you burnt something down?
Summer: Well I don't think there's any spell in particular that has gone hilariously wrong, but all of my spells are just hilariously messy. Because I am very much the witch, I will plan out a spell and then in the middle of it I'll be like "You know what would go well with this?" and then I have to go get like...
Kim: Mud.
Summer: Mugwort. Or "Oh no, I need this particular herb or this particular oil" so it can get particularly chaotic.
Kim: And then you gotta go rummage?
Summer: You gotta go rummage through your stuff. It's especially difficult when doing outdoor spells, because then I have to go all the way back into the house, and then carry everything back outside. But I can't think of any spell in particular that has... because I do a lot of protection work for myself, and I do a lot of, you know. Just warding and keeping, basically keeping my head on straight. So I can say I'm very grateful that none of those have gone hilariously wrong. I feel like that would be horrible.
Kim: Thanks again Summer, and thanks to all the listeners tuning in this week. Be sure you come back next week when I talk to Corey B. We talk about his latest venture, Corey's Cauldron, design a spell together, and he actually flips the script and interviews me. Catch the next episode on the full moon of November 8th. Thanks for listening and I'll see you when the moon changes.