I know that some of you in the ear bud coven never thought I’d get this one out
Pop in those ear buds because to get real practical answers not just form mem but also from my real life casting partner and coven sister Nathalie. With over 25 years of witchcraft experience, between the 2 of us, once we get chatting conversation get windy and full of wisdom. So this has evolved into to a 2 part episode.
You will get answers today about, safe herbs for beginners, the importance of closing a circle, and the necessity of protocols and magical boundaries. All the information is from our practical experiences and ancestral teachings, making this a must- for both new witches and seasoned practitioners.
Now while you’re listening to this new questions bubble up n your mind ….. You can send those in to the podcast and they will answer them on a future ask a witch episode.
- 00:00 – welcome and introductions
- 02:40 – safe herbs for beginners?
- 09:13 – candle magic: do you need to burn the whole candle?
- 14:56 – what makes a protocol a protocol?
Transcript
📍 Hello, beautiful coven. Welcome back. My earbud coven. I've brought my actual real life coven mate. Natalie with me today because we're answering your question. So these are. Questions from all of you? Well, a few of you in the earbud coven that you wanted to ask. So we're doing Ask a Witch today, so we're bringing my expertise of Oh, more than 25 years of witchcraft and your expertise of growing up a witch.
Yeah. 'cause your mom was trained, right? Yes. And your mom raised you in the pagan faith. Yeah, so we're bringing you real sage advice from real witches. This is stuff you can't even find in Google because it's tried and true. We've used it, we've worked with it, and we're offering you our sage advice. Is there anything I miss about your intro?
Do you wanna tell everyone a bit about
yourself? I am a third generation witch. My grandmother was a kitchen witch, which is someone who cooks spells into their food, um, and also a lot of cleaning spells as well, like that. She didn't do a lot of high ritual or a lot of high ceremony or anything like that.
It was more domestic tasks that had very specific things that she used to do. My mom on the other side was a wild witch, which meant more that she just could walk through nature in a way that. A lot of people can't. She had an innate ability to like bring animals home and that kind of stuff. She also could find herself in a forest and just find her way home, no matter where she was.
Right. I don't think I've ever been with my mom where she got lost.
Does she get lost in the city?
Yes, all the time. Interesting. All the time. Yeah. But finding mushrooms. Finding the plants she needs, like they, they just showed up, right? Like. Anything that she needed for SAV or like a spell or anything like that, just grew in her hair when she needed it.
It's just that's how she was. I would consider myself a healer more than anything. So I do know how to do the kitchen witchery. I do have a little bit of the wild witchery, but I am a very social being and I like to heal people, which is more, well, they heal themselves, but I'm, I'm the facilitator in that.
And that's what I've been doing for, let's see now, 23 years or more. Yeah, so that's a little bit about me.
We are going to dive into some questions and answer them for you. They came from a class I was teaching. I've finally gotten around my loves to answering your questions, so we'll go through as many as we can today and if we don't get through them all, we'll just keep doing these regularly.
Okay, so the first question we have is from a self-identified baby witch, and what she wants to know is, I've got it written down here, herb suggestions. And when I read it and I feel into it, I think she's a little nervous and she doesn't want to make mistakes. She doesn't want to cause harm. So what are safe herbs you could start practicing with?
I'm probably gonna answer from my grandmother's pantry, right? All this stuff that's been there. 📍 Things like time, right? Like you can cook patients into meals right when you need it.
I never thought of
using time for patience because you know, I am not patience or sage for wisdom. Yeah, right. Pepper can be a little bit like dependent on what type of peppers.
You can either put some spice into the mix and like have spicy time might be happening or things like if you need to get. Rid of something too, right? Yeah. Like that. Pepper's good to get rid of. Same with bay leaves, right? I'm going to ward off something with any of the ones that you can use as pest around the house, right?
So, Bailey, oregano, like those are ones that you can actually mint, mint, mint, peppermint. So there's a little
spell, a quick spell we'll give you, so when you're releasing, because bay leaves, you can actually write on them with a sharpie. So what you don't want, what you want to go away, you can write that on the bayle and then you can crush your bayle and let it go or burn
it.
'cause it smells really nice when you burn it
as well. Right? Burn safely.
Yes.
Yes. With water nearby. One of my very favorite, beautiful Reverend Terry, she's always like, don't burn your house down, which the gods do not need you to burn your house down. Stop the magic. Stop the magic. You can blow out the candle.
Yeah. So always burn safely. I always keep water nearby when I burn or painter to put it in. That is fire safe? Yes. Like a nasty pie plate that you buy, like the cheap pie plate that you can throw out. Mm-hmm. I fill that with water and then I put my burning vessel in that, and then I burn and then there's water in.
So most
of the stuff that you can find in your home that you can eat is. Probably a great place to start. Mm-hmm. Right. When you're looking at herbs. Yeah. There's other things like, there's a reason why we pick up dandelion fluffs to make a wish. Right? We don't think of them necessarily as spells, but they are, and the more intention you put behind it, the heavier the spell is.
Mm-hmm. So it's one of those, like you really believe in that wish when you're blowing, that's all you need. Or you can do it in very elaborate where you spend days putting your intention into that like ball of fluff to send off.
And I think one of the things that I've been learning about is how to incorporate the elements into each thing, right?
So I like to do rituals with the moon when it's in specific signs. So each astrological sign has a specific. Element associated with it. So dandelion wishes are perfect for when you're manifesting underneath a Libra New Moon or underneath a Gemini New Moon because you're using the power of air to blow that dandelion wish.
You're using the element of air to scatter your intention and to have that seed. Find a place where it can be in fruition. And the interesting thing about that I'm hearing, I love when I get together with you and I can hear our guides so clearly. One of the things I'm hearing is the idea of all those many seeds.
So you don't need a wish for every seed. You wanna keep your wish, your intention as a singular, but all the seeds go out. There's multiple seedlings, there's multiple sparks, there's multiple ignition points. To what you're manifesting. So dandelion spells would be really good for complicated things that have a lot of moving parts in order for that wish to come to fruition because there's so many seeds on that dandelion,
and what I appreciate about the doing it at certain times, doing it with a recipe book, I think it makes it easier when you step into those.
Things and you're utilizing an ease, right? It's going to be easier. It doesn't mean that you can't do it at different times, but there's a little bit more of a cost to your own intention that has to be there. I never shy away. If something needs to be done, it needs to be done. I don't always have to wait for the right celestial like alignment.
No, you need to do it. You
need to do it.
But there are times, especially when it's something that you really want or it's a big spell or something like that, just lining up everything, just makes it move. Like butter, right? Yeah. Like a hot knife through butter, right? It does. So
I wanna circle you back to kitchen witchery.
When we're looking at using herbs in our cooking, what kind of spells could you use herbs for? So you said patience with thyme, you could cook some patience. So you'd cook it into like a biscuit. You'd cook it into a stew, and then what happens when you feed it to people? Because I wanna talk to all of you without any experience.
And so is it safe to feed people your spouse?
I. What I always hold in the back of my head is my spells for other people are a gift and they can pick it up or not. You go, that's the ethics piece. Once I have handed it to them, I have no more say past that point, whether they pick it up or not. Right At that point, I have done my work.
It's up to them or the universe, whatever that wants to decide to pick it up. Like if they decide not to pick it up, it's still nutrients, it's still food, still tastes usually amazing. Your cooking. Yeah.
Can we Ready for another question? These are good. We're deep diving. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna do this question because we already started talking about burning and there's so many things on the internet about candle magic, telling you how to do candle magic.
So 📍 a baby witch asked us. Do you need to burn the whole candle during a spell? Especially, 'cause there's seven day candles out there. There's 12 day candles out there.
I think it depends on the spell. Mm-hmm. And the candle. Tell me more about that. I have a couple of candles that are for, I wanna say ritualistic magic.
So if I'm opening a particular circle, right? Mm-hmm. I use them till their completion, but that's because. It's not during that particular ritual, like I will reuse them. So what I'm hearing you say is your
alter candles? Yes, my alter candles. I have those too. Yeah. So I will buy a candle. It's my alter candle.
So every time I cast a circle and light that candle. So the intention and the magic associated with that candle amplifies every time we use it. But I've been using a very. Almost the same style and shape of alter candle for I've got big, yeah, big killers. I've got big
beeswax ones that are like burn forever.
Yeah. So long like, and I push them in too, right? Yeah. Like at the end of every time you hug it, you huck it right to.
Remember we had that circle, the three of us, and we all ended up bringing a beeswax candle. Yeah. So then we did, we light lit them that day. And then the next time we, every time I did magic that I wanted to feel my sisters around me, I lit that specific candle because the magic is in that candle from that circle we had.
Yeah.
And it grows. It's the same way as people who collect ashes from every fire. Like every time, like the first fire. Yeah. Yeah. Candles can work in the same way. Now there are spells where if you are trying to get rid of something or some one out of your life, or like if it's more of a right, like you kind of want that to like, but
you still don't have to burn it all at one time.
You don't?
Yeah, sometimes. It's interesting because I've had candle magic where it's a two hour candle and it'll take five hours to burn. Because what I'm releasing exactly or what I'm pulling in and it's taking that long and I don't always have the time to sit. So what I will do is I will extinguish it, close my circle, and come back.
I never leave a candle unattended. Magic candles can spark up. They can firmly hot, they can firmly fast, they can do all kinds of magical things. You don't have to burn it all the way if it's a small, like it's dependent on the spell, but I always feel that I can always chuck it out. You don't wanna reuse it if you've got a candle for a specific spell, like you've bought a pink candle for a self-love spell so that your confidence is up and you love yourself more and your healing work is better.
Or a heart chakra candle that's bright red or beautiful, emerald green and you wanna like oom that love. You're having like a ritualistic bath or a ritual day or something and you only burn half that candle, you're then not going to use that candle for a releasing spell next month. 'cause it's already,
yeah.
You can think of it as like cross-contamination, right? Like you don't necessarily want to Yeah. Because then the effects of your spell are a little bit unpredictable. Yeah. At that point, right? They start to, it becomes muddled and we want clear communication. To the universe. Your helpers, your right, like of what you're looking for.
You send the mixed messages, they're gonna give you mixed results.
Yeah.
You know when you're
in your lunch bag and you find a random fork at the bottom and you're not sure if you use it or not, don't. That's like the random candle. Don't do it. Just don't do it.
That's a great comparison. If there are times where I need the candle to burn out mm-hmm.
I will use something that I know that can burn. Yeah. Quickly. Like birthday
candles. I was just gonna say, when I hold circles and I know I only have a 90 minute circle. Yeah. I bring birthday candles and people are like. Oh my a birthday candle. Like that's not very ceremonious. There's actually some really beautiful magic in birthday candles 'cause they're designed to be wished on.
Mm-hmm. There's this whole collective conscience that believes that they are wishy magical. And so, like you were saying, swimming with the current and creating that easement. You can use a birthday candle for a spell. They're colorful, so you've got your colors that you can pick. Super easy. They burn really fast.
You don't have to babysit it for seven days, and if you want a seven day spell, you can have seven green birthday candles and burn one a day. Anoint them all at the same time.
I will say I love using colored candles for different purposes because I like how colors invoke things in me. However, you can use different colors for the things that you are going to do.
At that point, your intention is the thing that's going to matter most in that, right? Yeah. It's a little bit upstream in that sense. Yep. But you can do it. So it's one of those things that like, oh, I don't have the ingredients, or I don't have the money to buy all this stuff. White candles. Beeswax candles, like, we need to think of our ancestors doing stuff.
Believe me, they didn't go out and find a pink candle. Right? I think this
will lead into our next question, which is why are protocols? 📍 Protocols, and who decides their protocols? I do think there's something about having magical tools that retain the sacredness, but a broom is a broom. Your fingers your best wand.
So what makes a protocol a protocol? This is a big question.
It is a
big question.
I'm gonna have a sip of tea while she thinks about this. Essentially, I grew up with rules right in my house of what I could initially cast and what I couldn't initially cast, and there's some things that are like very, very drilled into me that I cannot do right?
I will never do a lift belt, absolutely refuse.
Mm-hmm.
With the exception of calling forth more love in the world. Right? Yeah. That's a little bit different. You're talking about. I want this man, this want this person, person. I want this relationship, the Hollywood love style. It was completely taboo in my house.
Like my mom would've made me, oh, I would've been in so much trouble for something like that. Mm-hmm. And of course, as a teenager, of course, we couldn't do it once. Right? Yeah.
The earbud, Kevin, they know we talk about ethics, like we talk about love spells. We've had episodes
on this, and it was one of those things that like.
It's a protocol for a reason, so I ended up with a stalker. Yeah. That worked out horribly. And then I also ended up in a relationship that I had a really hard time leaving.
Yeah.
Yeah. Until I like put one and two together and went, oh. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's something that we can't control and the universe is going to give you lessons and why you can't control that particular thing.
Mm-hmm. The other rule in my house that stands out like there was a lot of rules, but big ones was also weather magic. Yeah. I wasn't allowed to do weather magic in an area unless I'd lived in the area for at least a decade.
Mm-hmm.
Um, my mom was very adamant that when you start to play with nature around you, you can upset the balance.
And it should be the people that are the guardians of that area that perform the weather magic there. Yeah, I know. 'cause we've had conversations about weather magic. 'cause I do a little weather magic. Yeah. But at the time too, when we met, I hadn't lived here for a decade. That's true. So I wouldn't have done it.
Now that I've been here for a while mm-hmm. I will. Right. I understand how important rain is here. Right.
So you guys know we were talking about. Ing rain for specific days like weddings and graduations and celebrations, and the idea around very selfish weather, not, oh, there's a tornado building. Maybe we should help the earth minimize the damage done by a tornado.
It was like, I wanna go camping and I miss the sun because we live in the lower bay. So we've had lots of conversations about weather magic, and Natalie does not agree with my requests.
Oh, I love having you on the podcast. I honestly think protocols are usually there for reasons. Yeah. And like everything, you have to understand the thought behind it, the reason behind it. Mm-hmm. Right. If you are going to break rules, you need to understand why those rules are there, and I firmly
believe that if you do break rules.
You will be shown why they are there.
Yes, and I am completely a hundred percent okay with someone that decides to break protocol or ruled if they are willing to accept the consequences.
Mm-hmm.
They need to graciously take the learning experience that will come with that. Yeah. And people's risks on that are very, very different.
So it's one of those things that that has to come from you.
Yeah.
Right. That has to just, that has to come from a place of knowing yourself, whether you are willing to push. Mm-hmm. And find out why you don't push there. Or you'd rather play within the lines.
Yeah. So now I'm gonna say things that are not popular.
I also believe that there are certain protocols that are in place. Certain. So when we are dealing with sad deities, when you're dealing with a specific God or goddess, the way you address them, the way you call them, in the way you work with that God or goddess, there's specific protocols that are usually handed down from your teacher to you around how to do a specific spell, how to perform a specific ritual, how to work with a specific energy or a specific deity.
And I actually don't think that good intention and not knowing I. Will protect you from not following those protocols, and that's one of the pieces about this path that I can find can be very tricky because we're in this space where all this information is out there. All these different things. Things are published, things are taken out of books in excerpts, and then rewritten and put on a blog or rewritten and put on Reddit without full context.
The book it came from, of the teaching, it came from, of the culture, it came from of what you're evoking and and the energies you're stepping into. So protocols are important because they're about balance. Keeping the balance of energy. They're about protecting you. They're about really understanding.
Right. It's kind of like I keep going back to nature and stuff, and probably because my son is fishing right now. Like you don't just go out into a lake with a flashlight and grab every fish you can. It's possible, but it doesn't keep the balance. It's not good practice. There's rules around what you can harvest and there's rules around it that are baked into cultural understanding of specific rituals.
So just because you're walking around in love and light and positive intention does not mean you are not going to mess up a protocol. And have consequences based on your actions. Does that make sense?
Well, are you going to go out and for the tornado and be like, I love you, open arms, right? Like the tornado's still gonna take you over.
I mean, you could really test it if you wanted to, right? You, it might just pass right by you. But at the same time, like I think there is a certain respect that I am, I am a part of nature and I'm a part of the magic, not the magic, right? Mm-hmm. I like to work within the network of. That web.
Yeah. And working within the network of that web has brought me so many blessings.
Yes. Yeah. So much abundance and so much, so much healing. And I've learned a lot about myself. Right? So if you don't like a protocol, this is my advice to all those out there who are like not liking what we're saying. If you don't like what we're saying, if you don't like the ideas of protocols. I invite you to examine why you have that feeling.
Where is that resistance coming from and why? Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The the other thing that I will say about protocols is when I am stepping into somebody else's space, somebody else's circle, I am a guest. Yes, they are the host. Mm-hmm. There are groups that I step into. There are rituals that I step into that are not of my path or calling, and I set that aside to be a part of that at that time.
The respect given to a host is so important now, if they are abusing it. That is a different story. And you have those conversations with that person outside of that particular like scenario, but the need to show up as a good guest.
Yeah,
and I struggled with this a lot. I struggled with this with my first sweat lodges.
'cause my first sweat lodges, I was required to wear a skirt or a dress.
Mm-hmm.
And. I had a hard time with that. I was not particularly fond of dresses or pink or a lot of stuff that had been genderized when I was younger. The stuff I liked was more boy, so I would opt for more boy stuff. It's a different conversation these days, but at the time I was not happy with that protocol.
Still did it.
Yes,
because it was their ceremony. Mm-hmm. It was not mine. Years later when I was taught the teachings behind it, where women are so powerful, we need to be balanced and we need to be the center of the circle, which is why we wear a skirt that felt like it wasn't a. You're a girl, you have to do this.
It was, you are a woman, you hold this. Yes. And it wasn't until I got that teaching that I could bridge that gap of feeling good about it. But I still, when I was at those ceremonies, I respected the person that was putting on those ceremonies, right? As uncomfortable as it made me. I sat in my uncomfortability with it.
I love that you shared that
because it's a perfect example of the respect that is needed on this path and the teachings that you got from following the protocol and learning about your own uncomfortability and then eventually being gifted, the whole story, right? I think it's a perfect mirror to, I think, what a lot of people feel like.
Who makes this protocol? Why is this a protocol? And that information isn't readily available. We have to remember that the occult means hidden. So a lot of the teachings were held close to our chest for years and years, and even though we're in this information age, the true meaning behind something might not be available to you, but it's been handed down.
So follow it. Respect where you are. Be a good guest, bring your energy with you and follow the protocol there. And I think it answers to who decides the protocol. The high priestess or priest in the circle who's running the ritual decides the protocol When you're practicing as a solo, if you don't know the protocol, do your best.
I. One of my teachers taught me when I'm calling in, if I don't know if I remembered everything to say, and I stand in humble correction, if I've missed anything, I am here. I stand in humble correction. If I didn't get this right, I'm not sure if you like daffodils, beautiful goddess, but I've brought them as a gift and I stand in humble correction if this is the wrong flower for you.
So there's ways you can. Show your positive intention as you're learning protocols, and you'd be surprised what comes back if you stand in humble correction. What your intuition here is telling you in that moment what corrections can come in for you. What. Teachings you may dream about next because you did stand in correction and you did show your openness and your
willingness to be a good student.
I can hear the, like, you know, the differences is, the answer you might get is death deals are not really my thing, but thank you for trying versus like, you're daffodils, right? And someone going, well that ain't right.
And getting a little
bit of attitude back, right? Yeah. Because there can be, and I think that's, there's a lot out there about not mixing medicine. Not mixing pantheons. Right. And it's true. But also, so I have called in gods and goddesses together. I've had them sometimes from the same pantheon, sometimes from different ones.
They flat out say, no, they do not come in 'cause they don't like that one or this one doesn't like that one. Or there's an old beef that you later find out in a reading that you're like, oh, they have beef in the history, in the lore, so they're not gonna work together. But I've also had times when I've called in for specific purposes and another patron, god or goddess I work with often I can feel their presence.
And when you ask nicely, mixed medicine can happen
at work. And there are times where mixed medicine is extremely appropriate, like celebration type stuff where like think of, you know. In the throw of like gladiator weak, where there would be a lot of people from outside coming in and stuff like that.
And there's a lot of commingling and sharing of cultures and stuff like that point the markets. Where there is like this intersectionality of like different cultures of different beliefs, right? Like they're happy to mingle there.
Well, 'cause we've all been at Pagan pride and the opening circle, everyone is invited to call in.
Yeah. And they call in from every pantheon and the energy that is pulled into that space and the co-mingling. The beauty and the sharing that happens at that celebration every year. So when it comes to protocol, I guess do some research is the final answer. There's real no yes or no for these things.
Everything is yes. And
I think that's the other thing too, is when you are given protocols, it is good to start with all the steps, right? When you are a beginner, it's good. To break it down step by step and do all the steps. 'cause there's something to be learned at each step. Yeah. And each component in each, it's by doing protocols again and again.
That you can master something and that's when you can start to change it. And we are so used in today's society that all the information is at our fingertips and we should have it all. And that's simply not true. Yeah, that's simply not true. It is good to have things that are still. Mysterious that we're learning.
It's, and what those mean, those things mean for us too. Yeah. The this idea of like, I'm going to come in and I'm going to be a master right away. It is. We, you can't, there's this idea of the, I've learned it on the internet and I can do it all. There's something to be said for the practice. There is something to be said for repetition and also failing.
Yeah. And learning from the mistakes that we make on failing. The notion of I'm gonna pick up like a tennis racket and all of a sudden know how to play like a full day. You're be Serena Williams because you read a book. It's just not feasible. And the same thing with magic, right? We all start somewhere, right?
Some of I, I'm blessed, I was brought into this as a baby child, right? So. A lot of things. I'm like, oh yeah, I've been practicing this for a long time. Right. And I had parents that watched me do it.
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of people that don't get that right. Mm-hmm. And it is very daunting trying things on your own.
But they're not on their own. They're on their own. They're here, but there are, there are blessings right on having people that have walked the path before and listening to them.
Yeah.
Right. I never, I never assume that just because I am a third generation that I know it all. It's ridiculous. Right. There are going to be people that open my eyes to things that I have never thought about.
And some of it is because I was brought up on the practical side of it and not the written side.
Yeah. Or
the high ritual side or the right. I've got friends that are Ian. I have friends that are Kabbalah. Right. Like that it, it's very protocol and very indoctrinated and it's beautiful. That's not, that's not the type of magic that I practice, but it is.
Amazing when I get to talk to them. Right. To see like where we are the same, where it differs, where it
Right. I love that too. I love, as we're talking about protocol, you can hear the respect you have or paths that are not your path. Yes. Yeah. So we didn't even get through all of our questions, so we're gonna have to come back and do more episodes of this, but for now.
📍 We are just going to sign off. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope that you gained a lot out of this. I wanted to bring another witch to ask a witch so that it's not just me all the time, giving you my opinion. Yeah, and we're gonna have to do this again. So again, my beautiful cousin, sister, Natalie, do you wanna promote anything on here?
No,
it's, I didn't think so little.
It's been an honor though, to speak with all of you in the idea of like, I want to share knowledge and I love people that want to walk this path. Just know it. It's a pack. You gotta walk. It's not one that you finish right away. No, it
spiral. You can reach me on my website, jody m psychic medium.com, where you can book a reading.
You can see what offerings I have. And I'm on TikTok. I'm on Instagram, the witching half hour or so. There's a Facebook group, the witching half hour or so. Put your questions in there. This is going to be an ongoing reoccurring happens every now and then thing. Because we want you to grow. We're here to assist you.
We have all this knowledge. I have all this knowledge. I have people to bring to you, to help you, to teach you, so that your path is less bumpy. Yeah, it's still gonna be windy though. Okay. Bright as blessing.
Well that's, we have How anymore? I don't have a pen. Do you need a pen? I dunno. I usually have pens, but I guess because I'm, I feel like I should be on the table. So we did protocols. Top three things. Circle. What was the top three things We didn't do that one. No, we can do that one or this one.
We did this one. Yeah. So we did threes. We got three more. This might even be like crazy.
Yeah. Because how to know it's not your ego. Yeah.
Yeah. So those three. Yeah, I do need to be okay.
Jodi Anne 
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