After a  very brief gem show break, I'm back, and no longer dependent on the moon! Though I still respect her of course. Now you get to hear from your average witch every week on Tuesdays.
In this episode I talk to Crystalina Mae, the Witchy Historian. Crystalina tells us about how she became a witchy historian, a little about growing up in the church, and introduces us to her new podcast!

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Crystalina Mae

The Witchy Historian

Welcome back to your Average Witch, where every Tuesday we talk about witch life, witch stories, and sometimes a little witchcraft. In this episode I talked to Crystalina Mae, the witchy historian. Crystalina tells us about how she became a witchy historian, a little about growing up in the church, and introduces us to her new podcast. This episode of your Average Witch is brought to you by the Rusted Rabbit.  The Rusted Rabbit is a handmade crystal jewelry business based out of Michigan. Whether you're looking for a head turning statement pendant or something more simple and dainty, they've got the piece you need. 
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Kim: Hi Crystalina, welcome to the show. 

C: Hi, Kimothy. How are you today?

K:  I'm great. How are you? 

C: I'm great. I'm really excited to be here.

K: Would you please introduce yourself, and let everybody know who you are and what you do and where they can find you? 

C: Yes, absolutely. So my name is Crystalina. Currently, my last name is Peterson, but that's probably going to be changing rather soon. So Crystalina is where you find me. And for those of you who were at or who have listened to the maybe the Two Geminis and a Leo live episode from the Anahata's Purpose retreat this year might know me as the historian. I was there. So I am a practicing eclectic pagan witch. I am a mom of four and I am a historian. I'm currently a graduate student at the University of Virginia and specializing in early modern Europe, religious law and the development of radical Protestantism. So yeah, my socials are,you can find me on Instagram @witchyhistorian, and TikTok @thewitchyhistorian. And I am also getting ready to launcy a Patreon and possibly a podcast of my own. So yeah, things are happening. 

K: What made you want to be an historian who focuses on witchcraft? 

C: So it's actually a really long story, but I really like old stuff, right? But in reality, I've always been kind of fascinated by people, and the institutions that they create, and kind of how everything like happened, to kind of get us to where we are today as a society, the good, the bad, the ugly. So I really want to take that understanding and be a part of making the world a better place. 
And as I started doing a lot of my own deconstruction of religious trauma and other traumas in my life, I started realizing that there's a lot of stuff in the Protestant reformation and all of that that has impacted the way that our government functions, especially in Western culture, the way that women and gender are perceived, and all of these different concepts that we're starting to realize are really problematic. And so I was like, wait a minute, this all ties back into creating an "other". 
You know, the in-group and the out-group and that out-group in some cases was the witch, witches, you know, witchcraft. So that is a really important part of this journey I'm going on, as both a historian and as a practicing witch. So yeah.

K: Probably as a woman, too. 

C: Yeah, absolutely. This is definitely one of those times where I'm like really stepping into, for the first time in my life, being comfortable in my femininity. I've always hated the fact that I was a girl. Not in the way that like I don't feel like I'm a girl, not like somebody who is trans would experience it, but like I don't like my uterus, like that kind of a thing. 
And so it's always been really difficult for me to kind of like feel feminine, and be feminine, in the way that we see it and think about it in Western culture. And I've always been very uncomfortable with that, because it makes me feel like I'm weak or incapable, when I know that's not true. And so now this is really helping me kind of step into that divine feminine aspect and realizing that femininity does not mean weakness. It actually means strength, and determination, and all of these things that I've been embodying for so long.

K:  I believe that I share your issues with that term because when you said divine feminine, I immediately got tense. 

C: Yes. Yes. And I still struggle with it and I'm actively working on this like today, like right now. And I've been doing this for a couple of months now since since Anahata's Purpose actually. And I am making improvements, but it's one of those things. And I think that's the thing about witchcraft and the parallels with being a historian as that history is one of those, one of those fields that is constantly progressing and growing and shifting. And you learn how to be adaptable, and witchcraft is very much the same way for me. 

K: What does it mean when you call yourself a witch for you? 

C: Yeah. So for me, being a witch really is stepping into my own power, and reclaiming my agency and my independence. So there's a lot of things that have happened to me in my current life and my past life. I believe in past lives, I have past life memories, all of that, all of the things. So I've had lots of instances and I have lots of kind of built up trauma from that where my agency and independence has been minimized or taken away entirely by other people or by institutions. So this has really been a big process of healing for me and becoming a whole and becoming a whole person again. 

K: Hmm. 

C: Yeah. Yeah. 

K: I've never heard anybody, I don't believe, I've heard that response before.

C: Well, I'm glad I could give you something new. 

K: Do you have any family history with witchcraft or supernatural paranormal metaphysical, anything in your family growing up or do you have any ancestors or grandparents or relatives that people whispered about, or that you have memories of anything weird happening as a kid? 

C: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So my grandmother on my mom's side, she is Romani. Yeah. Oh yeah. 
K: Oooooo!
C: We love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Yes. Yes. Yes. So for me personally, if this has been a really huge part of my craft. But she introduced me to things like tarot cards and like deities and spirits from a really young age, my mom was in the military. She was a single mom with me. So every summer I would go to grandma and grandpa's house. And my grandfather was not so much into the spirituality things, but he was very supportive of kind of like how my grandmother practiced her faith. 
And so her Romani practices that she learned from her family, and were passed down through generations, she combined with Greek orthodoxy. So she's a Greek, I guess now it would be called Eastern Orthodox Catholic as well. So this is a very, very unique thing for Northern Minnesota, where everyone is Lutheran. So everyone was Lutheran and she was the only one. She was kind of like the odd person out when it came to things like that. 
And my mom was livid when she found out that she had shown me her tarot cards. It was one of those things, like most of the women on my mother's side have some kind of claire ability. Most of my aunts and my cousins do, all of my sisters do. My mom does not. And a couple of my cousins don't, but most of us do. And so this is something that we've all kind of talked about pretty openly in the family. But when it came to like in the immediate household with my mom, especially once she married my stepdad, it was really talked about in this really Christianized way where seeing things and hearing things, you always had to be very careful, and make sure that you were in touch with God and all of that. 
And there was a lot of fear surrounding that. And I did not, I was not given the tools to really process a lot of the clare ability that I had at a young age. And I saw a lot of things when I was young. I actually had an attachment for a while when I was young. I got stuck in a time loop that was weird. It's a whole thing. I'm pretty sure that my, the house that my grandmother and grandfather built, it was built on indigenous land. Fortunately, my grandfather was understanding and did talk to, even though he got it through the GI Bill, that part of Minnesota was still part of some treaties that were in effect with some of the indigenous nations in the area there. 
And he spoke to the indigenous people that were still living in that area and still have land rights to that area before he made the purchase. And so he had them, he, I don't want to say gave them permission, but he basically struck a deal with them. You can own this land and you can live here as long as we can still do our practices as we need-

K: Do the stuff they need to do. 

C: Yes, exactly. And he was like absolutely. And after a few years of that, he, you know, he asked them if he could learn some things about how they survived on the land. And they were very happy to share that with him and with us older grandkids at the time. And it was a really, really interesting and amazing experience. On my birth father's side of the family I am also indigenous, and so that was another part of the, of the kind of the inner spirit calling of me that was, felt really connected in that area. 
But there was a lot of energy there that I think once, once the nations had moved on, the leadership had passed away. And so his, the people who were still in the group had decided to move on into a different area and they moved out into South Dakota. They were no longer there, and I feel like there was probably a lot of protective work and things like that that they were doing that moved on with them.  
And that's when I got stuck in a time loop in my grandparents' basement and had an attachment from that time until I was about, I think it finally actually went away when I was maybe 25. So it followed me for about 15 years. It was really weird. Not a fan of it. But when I was 15, my dad showed up, my, my birth father, he had passed away and he came to say goodbye to me because I hadn't seen him since I was very young. And I knew that that was it, that he had passed on. 
So there was a lot of other experiences as well. And to this day, I do a lot of ancestor work. Now that I have, you know, kind of reclaimed some of that. And I'm more comfortable with that spiritual aspect of myself as I've done a lot of the deconstruction of religious trauma and things like that. I have been able to step back into that power. And I've been able to connect with my grandfather, and with my father, and his mother as well. So yeah, it's been a very interesting kind of full circle experience. 

K: Well, now that you've brought us back to the present, do you have regular practices? What's your practice look like now, like your everyday or at least regular, consistent things that you do in your practice that you'll share? 

C: Sure. Yeah. So I mean, some might say that I'm kind of a bad witch. I don't always say on top of things the way that I would like to. But a lot of that is a combination of like, you know, ADHD, being a grad student, being a mom with a toddler, things get busy. And you know, I kind of forget what day it is sometimes. But I try to remember to take my crystals and my runes and my tarot cards, I put them out on the full moon. I do make moon water a few times a year, usually around the Sabbats. And I try to do some kind of divination, either with runes, oracle cards, or tarot. And I meditate with that. And I do that most today is not every day, but most days. 

K: Would you say that witchcraft has changed your life? 

C: Definitely. Absolutely. So, I mean, as I've mentioned before, I have been deconstructing and healing from a lot of trauma for a long time. But once I started my practice and really, especially the shadow work parts of that, it's really helped accelerate that process. I was still taking parts of myself and I was pushing them aside, you know, in therapy and in self-analysing and all of that.
 And I was kind of like pretending like everything was okay. But now I can actually step into that. I can own those moments, even if they're parts of me that I don't necessarily like. I can turn them into positive aspects of myself, instead of kind of running away from them or hiding them. And I've been able to take things like my scattered brain, and I've learned how to work with it instead of against it. So I've definitely become a lot more effective both in my craft and as a person, just because of the things that my practice has brought to me. 

K: That's cool. 

C: Yeah, it's great. It's really, my mental health is a million times better than I was before. 

K: When would you say you officially started calling yourself a witch? 

C: So I mean, I was doing low-key practicing, like I've been doing this for most of my life. Between my grandmother, and my stepdad was actually into herbology and he is a certified natural practitioner. So I learned about like herbal medicine and all of these things that I do now as a witch except for focusing more on the physical side instead of both the physical and the metaphysical. And, but I didn't start calling myself a witch until about 2020, late 2020, early 2021. So I mean, I've really only actually been calling myself that and identifying as a practicing witch for a couple of years. 

K: So how long, what's the correlation between calling yourself a witch and your study? 

C: They kind of grew together. So I went back to college in 2017 and back then I thought I was a conservative Republican and I did not know that. 

K: How dare you.

C: I know. It was, I was, I really was not a good person. Like I, I, and that wasn't because I was like conservative, or I thought I was conservative. I literally was not a good person. I was super judgmental, and I carried around negativity for everyone and everything, and I was inviting negativity into my life by being negative all of the time. 

K: I bet you were super unhappy too. I know that life.

C:  I was. I was miserable. I was miserable and I was constantly switching churches because no matter what, like I could never find the peace that I was looking for. And I have switched churches so many times, or I'd gotten kicked out of churches over the dumbest stuff. 

K: Kicked out of church?!

C: Yes! Yeah, I actually, I have been-

K: Goals.

C: I have been kicked out of multiple congregations because I was a single mom...

K: Oh Jesus, get the hell out of my face with that. 

C: Because I came out as bisexual... Oh, no, it was ridiculous. And I was like, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was my fault that my husband cheated on me and left. Like that's whatever. But you know, through kind of like years of therapy and all of that, I realized that living my own truth was more important than fitting into a little box. And I was like, I realized that the box isn't real. It doesn't exist. It's fake. So I was like, I'm going to make my own box.
  So I went back to school and I was like, I love history and I"m fascinated by history. And I was always told there was no career in it, but I don't care anymore. And I started pursuing it, and I had some of the most incredible mentors, and they really just showed me the truth. They showed me, hey, you know, this is just history. This is what happened. And I was like, wait a minute. These people that I have worshiped my whole life thinking that they were amazing and awesome heroes and founding fathers and all of this, whatever, they're assholes!Like they're terrible people! 

K: And maybe the Constitution shouldn't be what we base our entire everything on. 

C: Yes, exactly. So I really started, I left the church, the organized Christian church, in 2019. And I was like, I had just had my daughter at the end of 2018 and we were not married. And they were like, we want you to be on our worship team, but we can't have somebody who doesn't ex, like, exemplify... 

K: What is a worship team? 

C: So basically it's like the singing, and music band, and all of that. Yeah, so I was supposed to be-

K: I wish you could see my face right now. 

C: Oh, yeah. 

K: I was just like, what are you talking about? I haven't been in a church in a very, very, very long time. 

C: Yeah. So the church that I was attending at the time was very much like into the modern style of worship music, where it's all about like a little more, I guess you could say like Pentacostal Southern Baptist, where there's a lot of clapping and dancing and that sort of kind of a thing, not so much with the fundamentalist Southern Baptist, if that makes sense. 

K: I think that's what I grew up in. 

C: Yeah, I also grew up, yeah. I grew up in a fundamentalist white nationalist cult. So going from that to-

K: Jeez!

C: Yeah. So going from that to moving into a like more open kind of Pentacostal kind of Baptist event, evangelicalism was a big shift away, and my parents were not fans of it, but I did it anyway. I was like, I'm 30. What are you going to do? Yeah. So I went through all of that, and I had gotten really involved in this church and they wanted me to join the worship team and be a singer for Sunday morning worship service. And they were like, well, because you have your baby and you're not married to her dad, we can't have you on stage unless you exemplify what our morals are as a church. 

K: Wow. Wow. 

C: Yeah. Yeah. And like they literally went to the point where they were like, you know, could you guys just go to the justice of the peace and just do it real quick? It doesn't really matter if you know-

K: Well if it doesn't matter, then why do I have to do it? 

Kim voiceover: And at this point, I noticed a weird technical issue that we were having and it took about five minutes to get it handled, and in that five minutes, we lost the flow of this conversation. So I just jumped in with the next question. 

K: What would you say is the biggest motivator in your practice? 

C: So for me, the thing that motivates me the most is my growth and change. As I was talking about, you know, just I never want to go back to where I was before. I hated myself. I was miserable. But now I can look at myself every day, and I can look at myself in the mirror, in the eye, and I could confidently say I did my best. I gave the world something good. I gave something positive out to the people in my life. And, you know, I can be proud of what I give back every day now. And I couldn't say that before. K: Mine is to be happy, but I think yours is good. 

C: Yeah. Yeah. And for me, and that's one of the biggest motivators in my career as well. is what... it kind of reminds me of like Alexander Hamilton, and like what, who tells your story, right? Like what gets left behind? What is your legacy? What are people going to say about you when you die? And I'm raising my kids to like, recognize the spiritual side of death and all of that.
 But that doesn't mean that they're not still going to have to hold on to memory of me. And I want those things to be good. And in those moments, especially when I was in my 20s, and my older three kids saw me when I was at some of the worst points in my life, they can now look back and they can be like, yeah, mom was having a rough moment, but she grew out of it. And that means that if that happens to me, if I have a rough moment, that I can find that strength too. 

K: Yeah. 

C: You know, and so setting that example instead of dwelling in the, oh, well, this person was so bad, and all of these terrible things happened to me, I'm not going to let myself be a victim anymore. You know, I was victim in those moments, in some cases, but I am not going to live in that. That is not my identity. And I let it be my identity for a long time. 

K: And that, so the lack of self-flagellation is probably good, too.

C: Yeah, definitely. 

K: Yeah, I did, but I don't have to murder myself over it now for the rest of my life because I did something bad once. 

C: Yes, exactly, exactly. 

K: Would you say that you have to deal with imposter syndrome or self-doubt about your practice? 

C: So most of my self doubt kind of it comes from me running away from my gifts, especially my claire abilities for so long because I was so afraid of them, because I didn't have the tools to deal with them. So now I'm kind of trying to re-awake in some of those again. But I really think that, that's more like there's just some blockages there that I just don't have the experience to deal with. So I might need to get some help with that. 
Five years ago, I never would have admitted that. I don't need help with anything! But my imposter syndrome comes out more in my daily life with like school, especially, because I'm the first person in my family to be in grad school. And my mom always basically kind of pounded it into my head from a really young age that because I'm Latina, and I am indigenous, that my only value was as a wife to somebody, or to be a mom. I didn't want to be a mom. 
Here I am a mom of four, but like,  I didn't want to be a mom. I did not identify with that at all. And so that is really where that imposter syndrome kind of comes back and rears its head every once in a while. But I'm working on it. I can honestly say that I am making some big strides and some growth in that area that I don't think would have been possible without my craft and my practice.

K: What would you say is your biggest struggle with your practice? 

C: Consistency. Like I said earlier, like I forget what day it is. I lose track of time. I forget to take care of my body physically, properly. And then when that happens, I forget to take care of my spirit, too. Right? So like I'm like "Oh, I haven't taken a shower in like four days. It's fine." And then I'm like, oh, I also haven't even like meditated for five minutes. Like I haven't stopped and taken a breath for like a week. I need to do that. And also I'll notice that when I start to let my spiritual self-care slip, that my physical self-care will also start to slip too. And when they both start to slip, then my mental health starts to slip. It's just, everything is interconnected, right? So remembering that I am a whole person and I have to treat all parts of myself. 

K: Oh, my God. 

C: Yeah. 

K: Yeah. What brings you the most joy in your practice? 

K: Oh, I love sharing what I learn. I have a Facebook group. It's called Moonlit Shadows. I forgot to mention that earlier. Y'all.Go to Facebook and look up Moonlit Shadows. Moonlit, one word, Shadows. Ask to come into the group. It is a private space just so that everybody is...

K: Safe. 

C: Yeah. So everybody's safe and nobody is outed and uncloseted before they're ready. And I love sharing them. I do little like live lessons. I just started an astrology series. I'm a beginner. I don't know anything, but I learn from other people, and I've been able to kind of pull some of that knowledge into little PowerPoints that I make up for people and say, "Hey, this is what I've learned." And it's a great way for me to also boost up my friends that are actual business, that have businesses as astrologers or as chakra healers or whatever. I've been able to put out their businesses and be like, hey, go to this person if you're looking for this thing. 

K: Go to, go to Theresa Mariesa.

C:  Yes. Theresa Mariesa. 100%. I've already mentioned her and I've only done one lesson in this astrology series. But I had to get it out there, because she's so incredible and she's so gifted. And a lot of what I have learned is what, maybe not from her directly, but it's things that I've, that have been reaffirmed from how she shares her knowledge, and it's just incredible. Yeah. 
So I love sharing, and I love being able to, as I share that information, whatever it may be, seeing positive changes and impacts on myself and on others. Putting out positive energy for growth is like a lot more effective than yelling at people to grow up all the time. I spent the good portion of my life like why? Just grow up, man. But now I literally I'm just like, you know what? I just, I wish the best for you and I hope that this works out. And I have a really good friend who I adore immensely, but she has been struggling for a while and I stopped being like, get your shit together and I just started going, you know what? It's going to be okay. 
And I started feeding positivity into her, you know. Tough love still, but positivity in a way that I'm like, "Okay, so you know that you need to do this thing. You have the strength to do it." and reminding her where her own power stands and she has made such huge growth over the last six months to a year since I've really started actively doing that with her, and it's just... And that's just one example. I have found that being a happier, healthier person myself has allowed the people around me to also be happier and healthier, and that just makes the world a better place. And I'm good with that. 

K: Cool. What is your biggest fear in which craft? 

C: So in my actual practice, I don't really necessarily have a lot of fears per se other than maybe like "Maybe I will never get this ability back, because I shut it down for so long," but for me, especially living in the United States right now...I lived in Minnesota for 30 years and then I moved to Wisconsin and I hated it there so much because it is such a hateful place. Some of the people there are amazing but in general, the laws and the environment is very anti-outsider. 
And I now live in Virginia, which is also not ideal, but it's better than Wisconsin was. So I will take that. I will take small wins where I can get them. And so, because of the way that with the rise in Christian nationalism and white nationalism being allowed to gain positions of power and authority in government makes me nervous, in the US, about laws and restrictions that could potentially be enacted that could target witches in our practice, but I have done a lot of social justice work, and civil rights work with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood back in Wisconsin, and I'm not going to stop doing that just because I moved, you know? 

K: Hell yeah.

C: Once I get my tubes tied that doesn't mean I'm going to stop fighting for medical freedom for all women, all uterus-having people. That is something for me that, it just makes me more determined to ensure that the people that come after don't have to worry about that right being taken away from them. 

K: Thank you.

C: Yeah. Absolutely. 

K: Do you have a favorite tool in your practice? 

C: I never thought that I would be a candle person but I currently have what, one, two, three, four, five, six candles on my desk just burning away. 

K: Holy crap.

C: Yeah, I really like candles. They keep me warm and they give me energy. Like they just kind of feed my mental and physical energy. But I also love, I have a lot of rocks, too. Like I have crystals everywhere but my favorite is Labradorite. I have Labradorite with me all of the time. And my tarot journal. There's two different formats that you can get it in, in like a three card draw or a one card daily draw. I usually get the three card one, but this year for 2023, I got the one card, and I'm going to use that for, or that way you can use it for like an oracle card, or a rune drawing or something like that as well. 
So it doesn't have to be just for tarot. But this particular one also has like the moon phases, and then there's a space for your birth chart in the beginning, and you can mark transits and all of that in there, and it's really, it's a really good tool. And I really like it because it helps me kind of keep track of my spiritual growth. And this is the third one that I've gotten from this particular company and it's fantastic. 

K: I think that would be good for Imposter Syndrome so you could look back and actually show: yes, I've made progress. 

C: It is. It's really, really good for that because I will have moments where I'm like oh my gosh, I am so trash at this, and then I'll go back to my 2021 tarot journal and I'll be like oh, remember when you kept drawing that five of Pentacles, Crystalina? And I'm like oh, guess what? I learned how to pay attention to what that meant. And how to shift my daily life to adjust to those needs that I was leaving unfulfilled. So oh, will you look at that, I did grow. So now I don't have to feel like I'm not doing anything right. So yeah, it definitely is really, really nice.
 This one isn't necessarily for witchcraft, but I also get self-care planners. They send a new one every month. It just kind of helps me keep track of like, if I'm, if I'm slacking on my physical self-care one month and then my spiritual self-care another month, I can prioritize that differently as I need to throughout the year. So like this time of year for me it's because I love fall and winter. This is when I have my energy.

Kim: What?!

C:  Yes. I don't like cold but I love this time of year. I just I have so much energy this time of year. I feel alive during the school, like the academic year. I'm alive. Like this is what gives me life. And so this is when I start prioritizing things like my research, and my cleaning, and all of that. But come May, June, July, in the summer? That's when I get my seasonal effective disorder. That's what it hits me. And I will hit my lowest lows, and that's when I prioritize things like my physical and spiritual self-care. Yeah. 

K: If you could only recommend one book to a new witch, what would it be and why? 

C: This is a really tricky question for me because I am a book fanatic. We literally have like four of those tall bookshelves in our house, and we still have books that don't fit on those shelves. But I think one of the most important things to remember in this, is that your spirituality care is part of your physical care. As I have mentioned many times. 
So The Witch's Book of Self-Care is what I would recommend. It has a lot of practical, kind of like crafty things that you can do. But it also talks about the properties of herbs and crystals, how to meditate with them, how to do like a healing bath, how to do different well, uh, bath salts and things like that, how to make different teas for different purposes. And it prioritizes, and the book sections out different parts of self-care. So like your house, your body, your spirit, your mental health, all of those different things are covered in this book. And it's not a huge book, it's not overwhelming, it's really easy to get through, it's easy to reference back to. And I think it's one of those ones that should be in every practitioner's library. That's just my recommendation though. 

K: How do you pull yourself out of a magical slump? 

C: So for me, there's two things that will help me kind of like break that. Usually when I'm in a slump, it's because I have been overworking myself and I'm not letting myself rest. So I will literally be like, okay, I'm noticing this... actually it's usually my partner. He will be like, "So I've noticed that you are really off your game lately and you're just not doing well." And I'll be like, "Yes, yes, you're right, you're right, hun. Thanks for, thanks for the mention."

K:  My thought was "Excuse you, rude!"

C:  Yes. And I mean, I guess we need that. Yeah, I'm one of those people that I kind of need it blunt like that because otherwise I'll just be like, "Okay, no,  it's fine." But he literally will be like, "You're not okay right now." And I'll be like, yes, I know. And so one thing that I used to do a lot more often, and that I'm going to try and do again, was that I would either kick everybody out of the house, or I would go to a hotel room, like it's just a cheap hotel room. For one night. 
I would get there as soon as I could check in, and I would order takeout, and I would binge watch like, a comfort TV show, or movies that make me cry. If I'm at home, which is, I'll do this over the break after my kiddo goes back to school. And I don't go back to school until the end of January. So I'll have two whole weeks with the house to myself. So I already have it planned out. I am going to do a binge watch of the Harry Potter films and then the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Those are my comfort movies. I usually watch them during the holidays every year, but my four year old doesn't get it. She's like, "Mom, this is boring." I'm like, I'm sorry. 
Yeah, so that is what I do. And I just kind of like, I'll get some comfort food, for me it's usually Chinese, and I will just cuddle up in my comfy clothes and a blanket and I'll light some candles and I'll watch my nerd shows. That's how I kind of just, and I let myself have a couple of days to just... be. And to really sink back into those parts of like, my... things that I enjoy. I love Lord of the Rings, the books, the movies. I love it. And so I will immerse myself in that world for a little bit. It's kind of like escapism in a way, but it just gives me a moment to like, let everything else turn off. And then I can kind of reboot. 
It's kind of like a hard, hard reset, right? But another thing that I do, if I don't have time to do that or whatever, I will literally tell my partner, "Hey, can you take the kiddo out of the house for a few hours? Go shopping. Go whatever. I don't care." I will, yeah, just I need quiet. I just need quiet. And I turn on some good, good vibing witchy music. Wendy Rule is my go-to these days. She is an Australian artist. I got to see her live at PaganiCon in Minneapolis last spring of this year for the spring solstice. She's incredible. Spring Equinox? Right, whatever, yeah. She is absolutely incredible,   and she had just released an album that was about Hades and Persephone, their whole story, and it's just beautiful and it's very primal music, but also very calming and grounding at the same time. 
And so I will run a bath, and I'll put a bunch of herbs and salts and like crystals everywhere, and I will get in this bath that's probably a little too hot at first. And I turn on that music and I just like submerge myself in the water and let the music and the sound wash over me. And so it's like sound cleansing, salt cleansing, herb cleansing. Sometimes I'll even light some herbs and just kind of like smoke out the bathroom a little bit, and water cleansing, all at the same time. A little bit of all of those elements are going and it just, it helps me center and ground. And when I do that, that just really kind of brings me back to center again, and it refreshes me and gives me the ability to get through another, another day, you know. And it can really help pull you out of that slump, you know. I at least that, that's what works for me. 

K: Nice.

C:  So, yeah. 

K: Do you ever work with other witches or are you just sort of do your own thing sort of witch? 

C: So I usually am a solitary practitioner, but every once in a while, my partner and I, he actually has been practicing way longer than I have. He was introduced to paganism in the Marine Corps. 

K: Huh!

C: And yeah, he was in the Marine Corps for 10 years active duty, and he was raised Lutheran and he was like, that's definitely not my jam, so he was looking for something else,  and just kind of accidentally came across it. And he was like, these are the experiences I've had. And these are the things that I feel, but it doesn't translate into traditional Christian religion and I don't understand, I don't know how to connect with this. And so some of the people that he met were like, "Hey, you know, I do this too. This is how I do it."  and he got involved with a coven out in Japan, actually, when he was based out there. 

K: That's even weirder!

C: Yeah. It was really weird. Yeah, it was really crazy. But he, after that, especially after he left the Marine Corps. But he practiced pretty solitary on his own for a long time and when we started dating, he's like, "I know you're a Christian. I'm definitely not. But I respect your beliefs as long as you respect mine." and I was like, "Hey, that's really cool. Tell me more." 
And then I realized that he had a tarot deck that he had never shown me. We'd been together for like two years and I was like "You have a tarot deck? What?" And so we had this whole conversation about tarot and his practice. And this was, as I was starting to kind of get into it, I had just left the church and I was like, or I was getting ready to leave the church. And I was like, you know, this place is not vibing with me anymore. This sounds more like what I, what my experience with spirituality is. And so him and I will do things occasionally together during the sabbats and full moons and stuff like that. 
I have some friends occasionally that when we get together, we'll do something more like a fun ritual usually we'll be like, "Hey, let's like make some magical food or whatever." But yeah, so I will occasionally do some things with other witches, but for the most part I'm pretty solitary. My partner, his path is markedly different in mine. I work with Apollo and Loki and Morrigan. He works with Cerridwen, and like, she was bothering me to get to him because he was not listening. He's like, nope, I will never, I will never work with a deity, never, never, never. And he was ignoring her for a very long time and she did not appreciate that, but now he's been working with her. That's been really cool to see like his growth and development just since he started that with her. It's been really cool. 

K: What or who are the three biggest influences on your practice?

C: So I can honestly say that I think ancestral energy, my Romani grandmother is still with us, but she has been ailing for several years now. And so I catch pretty strong whiffs of her energy from time to time, I think when she's just not doing very well and fading away, you know, I can feel her presence pretty strongly, but a lot of ancestral work. Especially with my dad and his mother, because that's my only connection really with him. I have gotten back in contact with my siblings from his side of the family, but I'm the only practitioner. 
So it's not quite in the same way, but yeah, so I think that the influence there is really from kind of getting back in touch with that part of my heritage and my ancestry that got kind of taken away from me. And that part of my identity that I was not able to claim as a child, that I've now been able to start to step back into. Another big influence has been my partner James. He is kind of the one that really showed me like what a witch can look like in normal life. He was like my first experience with somebody that was actually a practitioner who was just like a normal person, and who was really laid back and wasn't all like woo woo in your face about it. 
He's like really chill, like "Hey, this is just what I do. This is how I do my thing. And I don't know. I like if it's not your thing, cool, just as long as you just let me do my thing, I don't..." you know?So I really appreciated that on that side from him and it really introduced and influenced how I interact with people who practice differently than I do. And I think my final influence, one of my bigger influences have definitely been Charlye and Macy from WBAH. Like literally, I just gotta give them a shout out because they are so incredible. They have really created this community and sense of unity, but they are so just... real. 

K: Yeah, they're super genuine.

C: They are so genuine, and authentic in a way that I had never experienced either within the church or within the witchcraft community prior to finding their podcast. And it was really funny, because I had just started listening to podcasts and I was listening to The Friendship Onion by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, because I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan. And one of the days I was listening to that and I was all caught up and I was looking for something else to listen to, and Spotify was like "You might like this podcast," and it was the Witch Bitch Amateur Hour. And I was like that sounds interesting, and I clicked it and I started listening and I instantly connected to like, just their whole message, and who they are, and how genuine and unapologetically authentic they are. And I was like, "This is what I aspire to be. This is what I want to put out into the world." And so I can definitely say that they're probably one of the top three influences on how I have moved forward in my practice.

K: Me too. 

C: Yes. They're amazing. I cannot hype them up enough. Like at all. 

K: Who would you like to see on this show? 

C: Oh my goodness. There's so many amazing, amazing people that I would love to see on this show. You know, I don't know if you've already interviewed her. I don't recall. But from Anahata's Purpose, my good friend Blythe. She has amazing things to say. She is so smart. She is so smart! And I would really love to like hear her on the show and learn more about her practice and her perspective because I think she has a lot of wisdom and a lot of really good things to say. 

K: Is there anything else you wanted to bring up or did you have any questions for me? 

C: Yes. So I will go over the socials again. So Instagram is @WitchyHistorian. TikTok is @theWitchyHistorian. And so T-H-E-W-I-T-C-H-Y-H-I--T-O-R-I-A-N. And then on Facebook you can search for Moonlit M-O-O-N-L-I-T shadows, S-H-A-D-O-W-S. And you can just request to be added to the group and I will go ahead and approve that. As long as you're not a bot or somebody really weird. Actually we like weirdos. We are the weirdos, mister. So it's fine if you're weird. That's the main thing. But there is one other thing. I had a recent experience where a fellow practitioner told me that I was violating the rules of witchcraft by celebrating both Yule and Christmas.

K:  (vigorous laughter)

C: And I was like, well first of all Christmas is Yule, but okay. And I think the thing that hurts me the most about it was that they then turned around and started posting pictures of them celebrating Christmas with their family. And then when somebody asked them like, oh I thought you celebrated Yule, they went off. Like they freaked out. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. And I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. What's good for the goose is not good for the gander? What? I was very much like this is not how we do things. This is not okay. So I just wanted to let everybody know that if you are still in the closet, or even if you're not, it is totally fine to celebrate Yule and Christmas, or just Yule, or just Christmas, or like all of the things. Who knows? Literally, if you're celebrating Hanukkah and Yule and Christmas, or Kwanzaa, like do what is right for your practice. We don't get to tell you how to celebrate your sabbats, okay? That is between you and the spirits and deities that work with you or don't work with you or whatever. That's your practice. You know, it's okay to step into your power and be like, this is my practice. You know how a lot of people say that's between them and God? I have a very similar perspective on witchcraft and our practices. 

K: Now you have a perfect example of gatekeeping to tell people. 

C: Yes, that is a prime example of gatekeeping. Like no, just stop. It's that Michael Jordan commercial. "Stop it. Get some help." It has that energy. 

K: And now at the end I ask two things of my guests. The first thing is to recommend something, anything at all. It does not have to be witchy or paranormal or metaphysical or supernatural in any way. Anything. To the listeners. 

C: Oh, recommend anything. Oh my goodness. You know what? I have a good one. I have a really good one. So as a historian, I love history podcasts. I have so many history podcasts. It's ridiculous. Two of them that I'm going to put like top tier is the podcast by B.B.C. sounds called "You're Dead to Me."
 They have a public historian named Greg Jenner who runs the podcast. He is the host. And then they get a historian who is a specialist in that area. And then a comedian who is somehow related to that area of history, or knows a little bit about it. And they do a show. And it's great. It's really funny and it's irreverent. But it's factual, and they stick to "This is a historical- this is what we might know about it. This is what we might think we know about it. But this is what actually happened. And this is the real stuff." And they talk about things that we know about.
 They did a really fantastic episode on Josephine Baker that talked a lot about racism of the time and how that impacted her career. They've done some amazing, amazing episodes on like ancient Greece and Rome. And yeah, I just, I'm a big fan of You're Dead to Me. But another one is actually done by one of my professors at UVA. And I'm not hyping them up just because he's there. But he's, it's actually a really good podcast. It's called The Ottoman History Podcast, by Chris Gratien. So yeah, that's what I recommend as The Witchy Historian.

K:  The last thing is, please tell me a story you love to tell. 

C: Oh, I have a great story. Okay. Okay. So I am the youngest of the older set of grandparents on my mom's side. Grandchildren, grandchildren. Yeah.

K: I was thinking "Your grandkids must have aged quickly."

C:  One of them is going to be 18 soon, but we're not going to talk about that right now. Yeah, so I am the youngest out of the oldest grandkids. And then there was a gap for like five years. And then there was another group of grandkids that were born. But I'm the youngest out of that older group. And so my older cousins, they would do like bonfires and camping trips out on my grandparents land on the parts of it that weren't really used for the yard or the gardening and stuff like that. And so I was 11 and this was after this attachment thing had like started following me around. So that's a whole thing. It doesn't tie into the story, but for a little bit of context. 
And they were like, my parents were like, okay, you're old enough now. You can stay overnight at the campsite. I was like, okay, cool. I am a grown up now. I'm a big kid, you know. So we had a barrel fire instead of like a bonfire. It would, we had it in a barrel because a bunch of teenagers and young kids, like you're not going to have an open fire, right? So we had it in a barrel like an old oil barrel. My cousin had her boyfriend there. And people don't believe me when I tell the story, but I was standing right next to the fire. Roasting a marshmallow. And I had it like in the flames and I was like had my face over the barrel. 
And I was like roasting this thing, trying to make sure that it wasn't catching fire, but it was getting nice and golden brown. And then my cousin's boyfriend, he had his back turned to the barrel as I was doing this. And he like... farted. And made the fire like whoosh up. It singed off all of my eyebrows and my eyelashes and my bangs. I have bangs again right now, but they got singed up really bad. I had to cut them into what we now call like a baby bang because they were so burned. My whole face, my whole face, like all of the hair on my face got singed off. And like, yep, yep. And to this day, I can't grow in my eyebrows still look like the 90s eyebrows because they didn't grow in fully. And then my eyelashes, when they grew back, they grew straight out, not curled. So like, yeah, I can't, like when I wear mascara, it gets, it's just gets in my eyes, because my eyelashes stick straight out from my eyes now. Yep, so that's my, that's my story.

K: That is rude.

C: It's so ridiculous.

K: Aim it in another direction, you gross boy.

C:  I know. And it's so funny because when, the next day, my mom was like, "Oh my gosh, where's all the hair on your face? We have to see your bangs, right?"  So she's like, what happened? So my cousins, my older cousins told her and she did not believe that. She's like "That did not happen. That can't happen. That's not real." And I'm like, no, literally, literally that is what happened. I was looking at my marshmallow,  and Doc farted and made the fire whoosh into my face. Yes, yeah, I tell you, I tell you. 

K: Plus there was food there, even, I mean, double ew, dude. 

C: I know. We literally, and they had been, because they were older, they were the older kids. So they were like, they'd been out there for a couple of days already. So it was literally like, beans, hot dogs, and marshmallows. It was so bad. It was so bad. It was awful. It was awful. It was like, yeah. 

K: On behalf of the universe, I apologize to you for that having happened.

C: It's fine. Now I just have an excuse to actually like go get like...

K: Lash extensions?

C: My lashes... Yeah, or like either extensions, I did extensions for a while, but I think I'm going to try the like the lift and curl or the lift and tint. I'm going to try that. It's a little less expensive and you don't have to maintain it as often. So I think I'm going to give that a shot. But it's like an excuse to like give myself some self-care, and embrace my divine feminine, even though it makes me want to go "bleah" a little bit. 

K: Well, thanks for coming on the show. 

C: Well, thank you for having me. This was a pleasure. I'm really glad that we got to do this. 

K: Me too. 

C: And in the middle of finals week, of all things. 

K: Oh my gosh. 

C: Yeah, it's great. It's great. We love it.

K: Gross, I'm sorry. 

C: I am... No, I needed the respite, I needed the break. I have a paper that I am going to write today. I'm going to try and get it in today. And I get to take that paper and turn it into a syllabus and hopefully turn that in on Friday. And then I'm done. 

K: Yay!

C: Yay!

K:  Okay, well, then I will see you in various places on the internet and possibly Marco Polo. 

C: Sounds like a plan.

K: Bye. 

C: Bye-bye.

K: Crystalina.

C: Yeah.

K: Welcome to Patreon.

C:  Oh. We love Patreon. 

K: Do you celebrate any sabbats? 

C: Yes. So we celebrate the traditional quarters and cross-quarters in our house. So, you know, the normal eight that are on the wheel of the year. Coming from like the Wicca side of practice. But I, okay. So like I also do things. I've recently started working with Artemis. And so I've been doing a little bit more with the moon lately. All of the cycles of the moon. So that's been a little bit. That's becoming more of a kind of a special... *fade out*

K:  Thanks again to Crystalina for sharing her stories with me. To hear more of the Patreon episode, head over to patreon.com/cleverkimscurios for a free seven day trial. Get podcast bonuses, videos, recipes, access to the Marco Polo group and more. There are also tiers where you can get a monthly spell box, intentional handcrafted jewelry that I make especially for other witches, and even a special crystal box. Check it out today at patreon.com/cleverkimscurios. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Your Average Witch. 
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