I’m answering your questions with the help of my Coven sister Nathalie
I loved creating these episodes for you!
While recording this one, my conversation with Nathalie wandered down more than one rabbit hole. We ended up covering topics were not on our list…. but I suppose that’s the kind of magic that always happens when witches gather.
We talk about:
✨ How to tell the difference between ego, intuition, and divine guidance
✨ When to trust your “warrior self” and when to let your higher self drive
✨ Why it’s okay to want abundance, power, and joy (without guilt!)
✨ The truth about “harm none” and finding the third path in your spellwork
✨ Sky-clad rituals, consent, and red flags to watch for when finding a teacher or coven
If you want your question answered on a future episode of ask a witch, you can submit it here.
Transcript
Jodi Anne: Hello, beautiful coven. If you listen to part one of this series, then welcome back. I'm here with the beautiful Natalie, my coven sister, and very dear friend, and we are answering your questions. This is Ask a Witch. You have not just one, but two. Two very seasoned witches to answer your questions and these questions came from you.
So go to Facebook, join the witching half hour or so... earbud coven. You can pop any of your ask a witch questions in there. You can go to my website, Jodiannepsychicmedium.com. Under connect with me, you can reply to your monthly love letter with your "ask a witch" question any way you wanna give it to me.
We'll do these regularly 'cause I'm having a blast with you. Okay? So Natalie, you wanna do a little introduction? For anyone who didn't hear the first episode,
Nathalie: I am a essentially born witch. So my grandmother's a witch. My mom's a witch and I'm a witch.
We're all very different types of witches. To be exact. I am personally a healer, my job is a healer. Most of the stuff that I do magically tends to be towards healing. I don't tend to hold a whole bunch of high rituals. I don't tend to do a lot of divination. Where I am is on the inside healing or body healing is where I tend to do most of my stuff.
Jodi Anne: Okay? Let's start with this one. this is interesting. We're gonna attack this next one from a couple different angles. So the question is how to know it's not your ego talking.
So I feel like this came from someone who is doing new to divination or new to connecting to source new to connecting to their guide. So how can you tell that the information you're getting back. Actually from the gods and goddesses. How do you know it's a message? How do you know it's not your ego? I think the first step
Nathalie: in that one is befriending your ego.
Jodi Anne: Let's dive into that
Nathalie: so you can recognize it.
Jodi Anne: Yeah, yeah.
Nathalie: I have never resonated with the idea of you need to kill your ego or remove your ego. I have resonated with the idea of I need to know my ego Yeah. So I can make sure it doesn't drive my bus. Right. The part of me that I want driving the bus is my higher self.
Jodi Anne: Yeah.
Nathalie: The one that is that all knowing my, higher divinity part of me is really the one that I want driving that bus. It's not the only one that ever drives the bus. True. But I want to recognize who's sitting in that seat.
When they're sitting in that seat., And there are times that I let some of, you know, some other thing drive.
Jodi Anne: There are days when I let my wounded inner child drive. Yep. I let her drive. There are not days that I'm accomplishing a lot, but sometimes I need to allow that wounded inner child some space to pout.
In a way that my highest self can hear, so that she can be validated and the healing can happen.
Nathalie: And ego is a concept. It's not one that every culture has. And what some people would call an ego is also the part of me that I feel that steps up if somebody is reaching my boundaries.
Jodi Anne: So what I'm hearing you say is the label of ego sometimes goes on that piece of you that steps in when you need a warrior. Yeah. And so I don't call my ego that. I think of my ego as very close to my inner child. It's someone who is, I wanna say this, I think of it in that psychology term, right? Like that it is who you are. The ego is like a mask that keeps you safe in the world and your super ego is the part connected with your highest self. But I really feel like what I've learned over the past years is that's an oversimplification because there's multiple things happening inside every human being.
There's usually a wounded inner child. I've got a really angered teenager in me that needs to have work done , and I've learned this through the path I'm on. I've learned this through deep healing from looking at shadow work. So that piece that you're talking about who steps up to me, that's my warrior self.
That's the self that has kept me alive sometimes. That's the self that I call on when I need to really hold a boundary and hold space. Sometimes I need that piece to come in and like really hold space, that warrior aspect of myself when someone I love is hurting. To be a champion for someone else.
So I think the ego idea in the question is different from how we define it because there's a lot of overtones in North American culture about needing ego death, that your ego is something bad, right? That it's something that needs to be denied, that it's base needs or something like that. So it's interesting the question.
I think there's a lot of theology to unpack in this question.
Nathalie: There, there is a lot , I think there'd be more than just one podcast on this particular question. Well, yes. More. What I question myself though is if I'm going to do a spell or anything like that, is who am I benefiting? Is anyone going to be harmed or hurt with this? And if that is something that I need to mitigate or not. And then I don't think, I look now at what the I can't look at all the possibilities.
Jodi Anne: When you're talking about who could be harmed.
Nathalie: Yeah,
Jodi Anne: yeah,
Nathalie: yeah.
Jodi Anne: And this goes to something that people don't often think about because I'm gonna pause you 'cause there's a lot of stuff I hear from people around, oh, well I only work in the highest and best. I only work in the highest and best.
It harmed none if it harmed none. And I get that. I get that feeling that you do not wanna do banefull dark magic where you're hexing the world. However, if I want a promotion and I'm doing spell work,
Nathalie: there's someone that isn't going to get that promotion.
Jodi Anne: So it never harms none.
There's a black and white, a binary thinking in our culture of good and bad, black and white, right and wrong. That is very limiting. What I've been learning and what I've been taught and what I see unfold all the time in my path is there's the idea of what you don't want, and then there's the polar opposite.
And the witches way is somewhere in between. It's the third path because it's the hidden path that if you go from what you don't want to, the binary opposite, you're actually still in the energy of what you don't want. You want the third path
and it's unlimiting
Nathalie: and I think that's why I don't look at all the possibilities anymore.
Is because that person that doesn't get the promotion Yeah. Doesn't mean that they're not going to be happy or can't have something better than this job come up. There is an inherent amount of. Harm with just being alive. Yeah. . If we were to do no harm, we wouldn't be driving cars.
Jodi Anne: We [00:08:00] wouldn't be walking on grass.
Nathalie: We wouldn't be paving. We wouldn't be cutting down trees. We wouldn't be if there was absolutely no harm then,
Jodi Anne: we'd be airetarian
Nathalie: I think it's more the question of is this malicious? Is this going to harm someone for No. Good reason or no reason?
Jodi Anne: Well, is the intent of this spell to harm someone?
Nathalie: Yes.
Jodi Anne: We can just say it plainly, yes. Is the intent of this to harm someone? That is Banefull magic. It's also something that I am not above doing. I have no problem if Jeffrey Dahmer was in my life, hexing him to all Kingdom come.
And I'm saying it in extremes because I wanna hit the point that as human beings, sometimes we do things in defense of our loved ones that is not ethical. And I'm okay with that. Consequences of stuff like that
Nathalie: and other people wouldn't be. And that's okay.
Jodi Anne: And I love the conversation when we talk about it.
Nathalie: I think also this person needs to potentially ask, do you mean selfish? Yeah.
And why would that be a bad thing? . What beliefs do you have around a selfish request that you feel like you don't have? The privilege or the right, or the, the divine right to that. I think that's another thing that we each have to explore for ourselves.
Jodi Anne: Yes. And I like that you brought that up because I keep having this thing echoing in my head that I'm gonna get to, I keep throwing a pin in, but I like the idea of do you think it's bad because it's selfish.
It goes back to this culture and we're all raised in and I don't think I'm above North American culture. We're all in the water. We are all wet, we're all in it. I'm trying to, to the best of my ability, examine my belief systems. That's part of my path.
Examining the beliefs I was handed, examining my limiting beliefs so that I can do spell work and ritual work and healing work to release them and move forward and expand. So I like that idea of is it selfish? What do you think is selfish? Is it selfish to ask for what you want? And I've met people in the circles I attend and in the places I volunteer and some of the circles I co-host that really are battling indoctrination, that the self is bad, that it's evil to want
it's okay to want happiness. It's okay to want abundance. It's okay to want a flourishing life that you enjoy. And that brings me to what I had a pin in, is I think sometimes when people are wondering, how do you know it's not your ego, it is okay to accept that you're powerful. And if your ego is telling you you're powerful and you have the ability to do something magical, right?
It's that inside out there's the bravado of quote unquote psychology, ego, but then it's also the inside out of it where you think you are. So less than that, your self-esteem is so harmed because you couldn't possibly think you are good enough to receive a message from your gods and goddesses you feel like you are less than or below.
Where everyone who wants and is called to this path deserves to be on your path. Yeah. You're allowed to heed your calling.
Nathalie: I think the other thing too is we can go back to the idea of the witch as being the villain. Because she has desires. And the power to change things, so if you are walking down this path, right? There is a certain amount of this is what I want. That happens.
Jodi Anne: And standing in your power and asking for it and reclaiming, that's the whole dynamic movement of the seventies. Reclaiming feminine power. Elevating feminine power. Really being in that power
Nathalie: and the understanding that you can have those desires without stepping on others.
Yes. I think there's a myth there of you cannot have your desires without harming someone else.
Jodi Anne: I call that indoctrination, and I really believe it's in our culture to keep us small. The worst thing in the world is for a bunch of empowered people to come together, believing we're capable of change, especially right now in this economy, in this world we're in. We're right now,
Nathalie: let's be honest.
Jodi Anne: Not gonna get political, but I'm gonna almost get political.
Yeah, yeah.
Nathalie: So I understand why this is a, someone who's new to the craft question, right? Yeah. Because. Part of this path is breaking down that Yes. ,
And questioning the things that we are taught, right? And deciding what's right for us. I love sky-clad rituals where I get to dance around a fire completely naked.
Jodi Anne: Does not take much, but a drum to make you strip off and start dancing?
Nathalie: No. That has never been a
Jodi Anne: it's not a shame spot for you.
Nathalie: It's not a shame spot for me. But I do watch new witches coming in and for good reason. I've been in certain rituals where they're like, oh, this is sky-clad. And I kind of get the the weird vibe of like, Mr. High Priest up there calling it hi sky-clad and going, not this one.
As much as I love doing that, there are times that I'm like, my better judgment has decided that this particular group is not the one that I will be a part of. But then I have friends that will never practice naked. That will never be a part of their practice. They do not feel compelled or Right.
And they have questioned how they felt about it themselves.
Jodi Anne: Because maybe they're not witchy enough.
Nathalie: Yeah.
Jodi Anne: They're judging themselves by the witch measuring stick.
Nathalie: And no one should ever shame you. No. A ritual like that. Never.
Jodi Anne: Let's talk about sky-cladness.
Let's talk about this because I think this is something that's really important. So I know you practice sky-clad. I don't. I have a ritual. I. Have a ritual. moo-moo, basically it's, well you Yeah. You know, my black one with the skull on it. Yeah. So, I don't think it's anywhere near clothing. You can't wear it in public.
It's been around too many rituals. And I like it because for me, part of the thing about being sky-clad is there's no restriction of movements. And so I wear something that has no restriction of movement, but I don't like when air touches me, I get cold really easily. I love as a solo witch. I'm not sky-clad 'cause air is gonna touch me.
So you can be naked at a fire and dance your ass off. I've seen it. Yeah. So sky-clad. Why sky-clad? What are some of the teachings behind it? One of the things I was taught early on is that sky-clad ritual can take that tension. [00:16:00] Between people and then you put that into the ritual instead of into coupling.
There's also the idea of no restrictions, so no restriction of energy flow. Nothing confining you, no. Restriction of lymphatic flow of breath of any of that. You gotta think about what people used to wear.
Nathalie: Yeah. Right. And there's also a showing up bear
Jodi Anne: Yes. As you are no masks. And being okay with that.
Nathalie: It's almost the reverse of high theatrical At that point. Where like you're getting down to extremely bare bones
Yeah.
As you are in your natural state. And there, there is something extremely primal, feral. Right. That can happen with those types of rituals.
And some people aren't. I know some people that will shy away from those rituals because they are not comfortable with their feral or primal sides, and that's okay.
Jodi Anne: I've been in other covens where we recognize that and so everyone has like a robe. Yeah. So they're doing both. They're warm. , They don't have to deal with their own shame, shame that's been indoctrinated into us, and they're also sky-clad under their robe.
But this is where you decide what is right for you. And that's the point is no one can tell you have to be sky-clad
Nathalie: If the ritual is sky-clad, right? , That's what they're trying to do. You have a choice to either go in, sky-clad or remove yourself. As far as you are a good guest.
If that has been what has been set out in the invitation, essentially the idea to try to manage somebody else's ritual because you don't feel comfortable in it is not necessarily a good way to approach it.
Jodi Anne: No.
You could have a conversation outside of, yes. Outside of ritual with your host, with your priestess, and you can ask why sky-clad, you can use it as an opportunity to gain information if you are close enough with that priestess.
If you were close enough with them and you were really uncomfortable and you, and maybe it's just you don't like the way your pieces look. Maybe the conversation. 'cause I'm imagining we're in a Sky Cloud ritual with all women under a full moon. Let's take the tamest thing we can. Yeah.
Where it's not predatorial. Yeah. And how you can handle that. You could talk to your priestess, you can explain what's going on. Maybe it's a teaching for you so that you can then ruminate on how you feel about yourself and how you feel about other people's nudity. And you can digest that and maybe you'll circle back in six months.
Nathalie: And that's the learning part for you.
Jodi Anne: Yeah.
Nathalie: That's your part of the ritual.
Jodi Anne: . That would be your part of the ritual.
Nathalie: You don't have to participate in everything to get stuff out of it.
Jodi Anne: That's right.
And maybe there is a piece where maybe you'll learn where there is a covenn that practices the way you like to, because I think practicing in a coven is one of the best ways to learn.
Like even if it's at the back of a bookstore once or twice. At a full moon or for a high holy day, and you come together with others. There's a piece of community, there's an energetic exchange that happens that really helps people grow.
Nathalie: This is a part actually coming back to the ego where there were times when I was younger that certain people didn't want to let me into certain ritual because of my age. Because they didn't necessarily know me and I took offense. I think that's part of my ego that I had to look at.
Jodi Anne: Nice. Tell me more
Nathalie: In that sense of well, there was that wounded, rejected ness, right? Yeah. But I don't, I don't need to be invited to everything. I don't want everyone invited to something I'm doing. So that has to be a two-way street and an understanding. And we get, so I'm gonna use my grandmother's or knickers in a knot
probably because she's here.
Thanks
Gran - Over this idea of there being exclusionary. Don't get me wrong, there are some places that it is exclusionary, right? They're right. Yeah. There's closed coves that they're closed. They've been practicing for years. But I think sometimes it's important to understand that FOMO is okay.
Yeah, the idea of going into a men's circle when I am female presenting. Even though that I don't necessarily all the time feel female. Doesn't mean that I get to party crash. Somebody else's experience.
Jodi Anne: Yeah. I love that you said that because I think that there are,
I think there are spaces that are co-ed and there are spaces that are not, and there are spaces in non-binary circles . That are exclusive to non-binary, where you can have. What's the words I'm looking for? I don't think it's like, oh, the straight people aren't allowed.
No. It's like, just allow people to come together in communities that make sense for them, that feed them, feed their soul. I don't have to be in every community. No. Right. There is a community for me, community's important and I don't like to exclude people from my community, but it's also okay to have both.
Yeah. It's okay to have open circles. It's okay to have closed circles. Like there's, there's so many things. That's one of the most beautiful things about this path is that it's so expansive and inclusive and can be individualized, but still follows, I don't know, like. A rhythm or a recipe or something like there's, there's witches who practice very differently than me, but we can have conversations from a place of respect because protocols may be different, but we know what protocols are, right?
The sacred space we cast may be different. Who we call in may be different, but we know what sacred space is, it's really interesting. It's kind of like, I don't know, it's kind of like nothing else. I know. I can't compare it to anything else. I can't think of a metaphor, which is rare. So yeah, I think that's one of the beautiful things about stuff.
Nathalie: I think the important thing is, is being able to potentially talk to someone from that community about why if they're. Not at the time of the ritual. . That's not the place. . But the idea of having a conversation potentially with that high priestess about what's going on, that openness, I think is a good thing to stay open.
Yeah. I also think some people get to safeguard their time too. Yeah. We need to learn that when someone says no, that, that is their boundary, right?
Jodi Anne: I'm gonna interrupt you a little bit. I think that, especially with a sky-clad ritual, right? If you come to that person before the ritual and you say, Hey, I need to talk to you.
I'm uncomfortable with this. [00:24:00] If it's a not allowed to be a conversation, not a, I don't have time. I refuse to discuss this with you conversation, and this is what is demanded of you. And if you're going to learn from me, this is how you do it. That is so many red flags baby run,
I think any priestess worth her salt would be able to have a conversation with you and be able to say, I get that you're uncomfortable. We practice sky-clad. I might not be the coven for you. Let's see what else we can do. But to just be like, to demand of you to take your clothes off in a ritual.
It's just not okay. Do you know what I'm saying? Like Yeah. Not to ask you, not to say this is the protocol, this is how we practice, but to come from a position of. I am the one with the information you are coming to me to learn. Therefore, I have the power over you and I am telling you, this is what you do.
Now take your clothes off. That's not a good teacher. You are in the wrong coven.
Nathalie: Yeah. Now, if it's one of those covens that they've always practiced sky-clad and . Like if you approach them knowing that then you can't change. I, I can kind of understand that response, but Yeah.
Jodi Anne: But, but that's not what I mean.
Like, it's not like, oh, there's the most sky-clad, coven. I'm gonna go tell them they have to put their clothes on. No, no, no, no.
Well, and I think there's other things too, like there's other red flags. I think when you're learning and you're approaching someone to learn from, like I think a teacher who.
Who tries to bind you to them is a big red flag. Yeah, right. I think a teacher that demands that they use their students as a battery, an energetic battery is a huge red flag. I think a teacher that doesn't tell you the why behind the protocol could be a pink flag. Maybe they don't know the why, but then they should be able to say, I don't know.
I don't know. Right. Yeah. Can you think of any other red flags when people are looking for a teacher and then maybe this is where we'll close out this episode, since we're answering all kinds of questions.
Nathalie: I mean, we find teachers that know more than us, whatever you're finding the teacher for needs to,. Have knowledge that we don't the ability to transfer it. Yeah, yeah. Right. Because there's some people that know a tone Yeah, right. But aren't necessarily the right people to impart it.
True. Yeah. Right. I watched my dad be in a potter for years. Right. He was an amazing potter and I watched him try to teach several times and that was a painful experience.
Jodi Anne: So just because you're a master doesn't mean you're a master teacher. Yeah.
Nathalie: Yeah. So some, sometimes they're not a master of it, but they can teach it.
Jodi Anne: Yeah. I think there's also something to be said about, the learning covenn. Like sometimes you meet people on a path,
Nathalie: a cooperative learning experience. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Jodi Anne: Where you're learning together because you can't find a teacher. And so someone is brought into your energetic field and you gravitate to each other and you learn together and you bounce off each other energetically.
Yeah. Yeah. I think we've covered a whole bunch of stuff.
Nathalie: That's one more question that we didn't have on there.
Jodi Anne: Yeah. We covered stuff that we didn't even know we were supposed to cover. Witchcraft. So thank you all for joining us. If you made it to this part of the podcast, you should probably like and follow because you made it to end.
End. You probably like us. This is the witching half hour or so... You can find me on Instagram. You can find me on TikTok. We have a Facebook group. If you go to my website, jodianne psychic medium.com, you can learn all about the classes I'm offering how to book a reading with me. You can join my monthly love letter.
It is a low volume, high consent love letter. I send them out kind of every month and just to tell you what offerings I have, I am not gonna market to you unless I get your permission. So yeah, you can sign up for that and I think you can. I think it's set up to give them a water meditation when they sign up.
I can't remember because it's automated on the website. Go have a look.
Blessings. I love you here with me. This is fun. We got this regular.
Jodi Anne 
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