Hello and thank you for being with me today. We are about four days or so out from a new moon in Pisces on February 20th, and that should be a hell of a time to dig into emotionally fraught issues and circumstances to sort of get to the bottom of things. Don’t shy away from having difficult conversations, and don’t accept evasive answers. Also, this is going to be a good time to listen to your gut. Our intuition recognizes truths that our conscious minds either can’t or won’t see, so let’s give it the respect it deserves. When that spidey sense starts tingling, let’s start paying attention.
We have so much to talk about, so we are gonna just dive right in. First and foremost, I did set up a Facebook group if you’re interested in checking that out. It’s called The Middle-Aged Witch Coven, and if you’d like to check it out, you can either look it up on Facebook, or you can find a link to it in the show notes.
And in the same vein, I do have a Discord server, if you’re interested in that. I don’t spend a ton of time on Discord, but I do pop in there for a couple hours here and there, especially on the weekends. So if you want to chat, you can look me up, and I’ll post that link in the show notes as well.
Now, I wanted to expand just a little on something I mentioned last week, and that is the occasional tendency for messages on social media to sometimes slip through the cracks. The reason that this tends to happen is because when I get a message or a notification on social media, once I open it, the notification disappears. And if I can’t respond to whatever the message is at the exact time that I open it, it is really difficult to go back and find it again because I can’t like, mark it as unread. This means that the message is no longer highlighted and it just sort of gets pushed down to the bottom of the scroll.
This isn’t a problem if it’s a quick message or like, a very simple basic kind of question, because I can just reply right then and it’s fine. But if the question is more complex, or especially if it’s a question where someone is specifically requesting spellwork, that is not something that I can just write a quick response for. Those kinds of questions require, and deserve, some thought. That’s not the kind of thing I can just like, fire off a quick reply while I’m pumping gas. But the problem is that I don’t know which kind of message it is until I open it.
So all of this yakking is just to say, if you want to just send a quick message or if you have a really simple kind of situation or question, then please, by all means, DM me on social media. Like, if you think it’s something I could tackle while I’m in line at the grocery store or something, then that’s totally fine. BUT, if your situation is any more complicated than that, please just email me about it at eli@middleagedwitch.com. It’s a lot easier for me to keep track of who I have already replied to and who I haven’t. And I am able to mark emails as unread, so the little notification won’t go away until I’ve addressed it.
People have a lot of significant concerns, and I take it seriously. I don’t always respond right away! It can take me a week sometimes to be able to sit down and consider each circumstance individually and even do a little research sometimes, if the situation calls for it, and then write a thoughtful response. So I appreciate your patience if it does take that long, but please know that it should never take more than a week. And if it’s been that long, please email me, because I want to be able to respond.
So that’s the housekeeping, and now I want to read a message I received. This was in response to last week’s episode. Now this is a whole ass roller coaster ride, so buckle up:
Dear Eli, you and your podcast have been such a warm welcome light in my life. I discovered your podcast Jan 2023 and am all caught up and get excited for every new episode. Your Sex Magick episode made my heart leap in my throat and prompted me to share a personal sex Magick story. (Feel free to share, and you may use my name)
In 2020 I was a lost, confused, and struggling new Police officer. Choosing to join at a very heated time in our society, I wanted to be the “change”. I was constantly communing with the Universe and asking for guidance and wisdom. Requesting to “make me the vessel” for change. I had met a fellow man in Blue who was 100% not my type, but I was DRAWN to him. My mouth and…nether regions would salivate in his presence. It was annoying because he really wasn’t what I went for.
On the Full Moon in June 2020 I was doing a bit of self sex Magick, using my climax and energy to promote strength and confidence in my new role as Peace Officer when all of a sudden I proclaimed his name at my peak… I’m not even sure why I said his name. After that I had 2 dreams. One dream was about a gender reveal with pink and blue smoke and me running naked, and growing large and pregnant. The next dream was of number combination. 3,10,2, 1. Once solved, the combination would unlock a door that was hiding children.
Eventually, this fellow officer and I became close. By the July full moon he and I were doing a bit of sex Magick together… It was irresponsible timing and I ended up taking the morning after pill. Thinking nothing of it, and continuing with my life, it wasn’t until I was hit by a drunk driver while on patrol that I discovered I was pregnant…the first ultrasound revealed TWINS, the genders were later identified as boy and girl.
And although I was predicted to be full term on March 29th, I was scheduled for a C-section on the 15th…but the babies decided to come on the 10th…3,10,2,1. Our first night home with the Babies, the Goddess Frigg presented herself to me. I had asked to be the vessel for change, and the Universe answered me with the literal future in my hands. The fellow officer and I are still going strong, although I didn’t return to policing and became a full time Mommy. I am fortunate that he not only supports my Practice, but encourages and participates. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share the POWER of Sex Magick. I was looking for strength and confidence from the Universe and she answered in the way that my life needed it. -Hazel
So yall, when I talk about sex magick, I am not kidding. That is some potent shit. I appreciate Hazel sharing that story. Like, the whole time I was reading her message, I could not anticipate what was going to happen next.
So let’s get to the topic of the day! I wanted to talk about incorporating our children into our craft. I did an episode about witchcraft for kids a while back, last March I think, but I wanted to revisit it a little bit. There’s always more to say, isn’t there? Back when we did that episode, we talked mostly about how to include young children in our daily practice in a way that’s easy for them to understand and participate and internalize.
We talked about how to dovetail lessons and subjects that young ones are already learning at home and in school, things like nature and holidays with the craft in a natural, non-preachy kind of way that makes it easy to understand. But I wanted to also talk about how we can make the craft accessible for our kids as they get a bit older, and especially how to approach the craft when they’re the ones who are showing an interest.
I recently got a question from a witch whose daughter, I think she said she was 14, was becoming more aware of and interested in mom’s practice. And this witch wanted to provide book recommendations and maybe like a couple different apps that she could give to her daughter that would provide a good jumping off point for her own exploration.
And I had to think about it for a minute, because here’s the thing. There are a lot of great witchcraft books that are written specifically for teenagers. But teenagers can be a little hard to please when they think they’re being pandered to. So it has been my experience that witchcraft books for teenagers are more well-received by preteens. If you can get them in that 9-12 age range, they really take to the teenage witchcraft book sub genre really well. If you’re trying to find books for actual teenagers, you’re probably going to have better results with a regular old beginner-level witchcraft book that are written for adults.
Another thing that I find helpful when new young witches start investigating the craft is to find out where their specific interests lie. Witchcraft has such a vast scope, and it can be overwhelming to seasoned witches who’ve been at it a while, but it can be flat out daunting to new witches. So figuring out what exactly has drawn them to investigating the craft in the first place and using that as a starting point, can make it more manageable.
My niece is 10 and she’s recently gotten really into astrology. So for Christmas, I bought her a book called Astrology for Teens by Olivia Smith. It’s an easy read and she totally loved it. And astrology is such a great jumping off point for a little witch. I know it’s a really involved discipline but the younger kids can start learning about it, the better. Astrology for grown-ups is a great tool for helping us understand ourselves and those around us. And so for little witches who are barely getting to know themselves, it can be so beneficial for figuring out what makes them tick, why they react a certain way to certain things and it’s immensely helpful for understanding the people around them.
For teenage witches, I like to recommend a book called The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine Woolfolk. I actually recommend it for everyone over the age of like, 14, 15. It’s so comprehensive and it can help a new witch put together a birthchart and begin to read and interpret your birthchart. Such a great book for beginners. And there are a lot of good astrology apps. My current favorite is Astrology Zone. There are ads if you’re using the free version, but overall it’s a great app. It doesn’t offer birth chart analysis, but especially for newbies, it’s a great tool for getting some insight into your day.
Another really great way to support the curiosity of new witches is through either tarot or oracle cards. It probably depends on the age of your little witch, and oracle cards might be a better fit for younger witches and tarot may be easier for those teenage witches. But this is, as we know, a really great tool for not just divination, or so-called fortune telling, but also for introspection and for giving us some perspective about our situations and circumstances.
Oracle and tarot cards come in so many different variations and basically any niche interest that your little witch has, you’ll probably be able to find a deck that suits them. It’s a great way to spend a couple hours, just on the hunt either in your local occult shop or online looking at different decks. And as far as apps, I’ve recommended this one before, but the Golden Thread Tarot app is my favorite. It’s got a card a day feature and it will also save and track your daily cards so that you can kind of see if there are any recurring cards or any recurring themes in your card pulls.
This is nice for younger witches because it’s first, a great way to reinforce the card meanings, which is the most overwhelming part of learning tarot and it’s also nice for more tech-savvy witches. I do carry a travel tarot deck in my purse, but that’s just because I’m old and crusty. Younger witches are a lot more open to and comfortable with technology. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We can’t be so set in our ways that we overlook or diminish the value of newer ways of doing things.
But back again to figuring out what kind of witchcraft our little witches want to pursue. Are they interested in exploring and strengthening their psychic abilities? If so, then maybe a book called Awaken Clairvoyant Energy by Cyndi Dale would be a good fit. That’s something it could be really fun to work on with your little witch.
I don’t know if anyone remembers that scene in Ghostbusters, when Bill Murray’s character is performing the psychic experiments with his graduate students and he’s like trying to see if they can predict the picture on the cards that he’s holding up and if they get it wrong, he like, zaps them with an electric current. Well anyway, those cards that he’s using in that scene are called Zener cards, and they were designed in the 30s specifically to study ESP. They’re real, and you can buy them. They have really basic symbols on them so that it’s easy to get a strong impression when you’re focusing on them. Like a circle, a star, wavy lines, a square, and anyway they’re a lot of fun. It’s an interactive way to get your little witch to stretch their mind and their abilities.
What about the fae? This is a thing for a lot of young witches. There’s a great book called Urban Faery Magick by Tara Sanchez. It really delves into seeking out and getting to know the fae folk in our own local areas in a really thoughtful and respectful way. It discusses how and when it’s appropriate to leave offerings and it even discusses some of the potential caveats to trying to reach out to the fae.
And then I did want to shout out my two favorite books to recommend for new witches. Any witches, really, but especially these younger witches who have primarily been exposed to the social media brand of witchcraft. And the first is called Earth Power by Scott Cunningham and the other is called Charms, Spells and Formulas by Ray Malbrough. I have recommended these many times and I always will. They were both originally published in the early 80s and they’re a breath of fresh air, in my opinion.
They’re written from a very practical perspective, which I really appreciate. They’re not particular to a specific sect of witchcraft, so you don’t have to wade through any sort of dogma. They’re not written from a Wiccan perspective or a hoodoo perspective or anything like that, and they don’t make the reader feel like they’re encroaching on a closed practice. These two books are really about witchcraft in action, and I like that.
When it’s all said and done, witchcraft is about taking an active role in our own lives. It’s about recognizing our own power and taking it back. And if this is important for adults, it is a hundred times as important for kids. There is so much in this world that feels out of our control, so any way that we can put some control into our children’s hands, so that they can feel empowered, and feel as though they have an understanding of the world around them and begin to recognize their place in it, is effort well spent.
As thankful as I am for the years I’ve spent as a practicing witch, I only wish that I could have started earlier. The knowledge and the insight I’ve gained could only be improved by having had more time. So if you’re a witch with little beginner witches, you’ve got the future in your hands. Be the mentor for them that you would have liked to have had. Be open to their questions, be ready to lend guidance when it’s appropriate and be ready to admit when you don’t have the answers. Let them teach you, too. Remember what it’s like having that new witch sparkle in your eyes.
And as always, thank you so much for joining me. You can find a transcript for this or any episode on the website, middleagedwitch.com. And we will talk again next week. In the meantime, enjoy the new moon in Pisces on Monday, and have a lovely weekend. My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.