Brittany Howard: Spiritual Teams, Aliens, & Altars
In our debut episode, host Michelle Tea gets mystical with musician Brittany Howard, talking ancestral spirits, ghosts, and more. We’re also joined by Harvard professor Avi Loeb who believes that proof of alien civilizations has already revealed itself, and we celebrate the start of Pisces season with a DIY altar.
Brittany Howard: If you’re walking around here and you ain’t hurting nobody and you’re not hurting yourself, but you want to live in a world that has a little bit more purpose, and a little more sensitivity, and a little more magic in it. Well, that sounds a hell of a lot better than just walking around this computer, digital, credit card world.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: Welcome to the very first episode of Your Magic, a Spotify Original from Parcast and Your Magic Media. We are a podcast that explores and celebrates all things mystical. I’m your host, Michelle Tea.
Today on the show we’re going to speak with musician Brittany Howard, whose highly praised solo album Jaime honors the sister who passed away when they were both young,
After that, we’re creating an altar to salute Pisces Season.
And finally, we’re gonna synch up with Professor Avi Loeb, author of Extraterrestrial, and talk about — you guessed it — aliens.
Stay with us.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: Hello and welcome, again to Your Magic. I am so excited to share this, our debut episode with all of you. I’m Michelle Tea. I’m the author of the tarot how-to Modern Tarot, and I’ve been at tarot for a long time, starting when I was a teenager in the 1980s, throwing spreads with the Rider-Waite and Thoth decks for my misunderstood misfit friends. And I stuck with it into my 20s, when I lezzed out and discovered some feminist decks, like the Daughters of the Moon. I still love that deck.
And then when I got sober in my 30s, my spiritual practice became a lot more urgent. I engaged in a mode of sobriety that encouraged you to replace the god you’d made of alcohol with, you know, god. Whatever that means to you.
We’re in the middle of a huge renaissance in the occult arts — tarot, astrology, spellcasting — traditions that have, historically, attracted women shut out of patriarchal religions, and in recent times have come to be a powerful space for queer and non-binary folks of all races and backgrounds to connect with our innate magic. So many people right now are waking up to the reality that we are spiritual beings.
With this podcast, we call on a community of spiritual seekers to all bring you stories and ideas that we find curious and inspiring, and helpful and hilarious. We want to use tarot to get deep with beloved celebrities. We want to give you resources to experiment at home with rituals and meditations. We really want to remind you, as we are reminding ourselves, that although magic is full of mystery, it doesn’t have to be out of reach. Magic is accessible, it’s simple. It’s found in your kitchen cabinet, your backyard, your actual body, your mind, your emotions.
Wherever you might be in your journey — woo-curious, newbie witch, seasoned bruja — this podcast has something to feed your spirit.
Today, in our inaugural episode, we will talk to musician Brittany Howard about the sister who passed in their youth, about growing up Christian, and about how spirituality evolves.
Here’s Brittany Howard.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: Hey Brittany, thank you for joining us. I know that when we first invited you to be on the podcast, you were hesitant and thought, “Oh, maybe that's too private,” which is totally understandable. But it got me thinking, in our culture, spiritual beliefs are something that we're kind of not supposed to talk about, sort of like politics and money.
Brittany Howard: I feel like growing up, anything that wasn't Christian or any type of written down religion, anything that was spiritual was, you were considered crazy. Like, oh, they're a woo-woo person. They don't know what they're talking about. You know what I mean? So it’s not that I have any shame towards my own belief system, it was more just like, this is something really special and important to me.
Michelle Tea: Well, what are your spiritual beliefs?
Brittany Howard: I mean, like I was saying earlier, I grew up in church. Church of Christ on every other Sunday and then went to my father's Baptist church between then, so I went to a couple of different churches. And they had different belief systems within that church, even though they all believed in Jesus Christ and God and stuff. They still had different ways of practicing how they worship.
And around about the age where my sister started getting sick, my mom was collecting these books about what happens in the afterlife. You know, she's kind of preparing herself for my sister leaving this world. And so I started picking up those books and reading them. And it was kind of, it was fascinating. It was fascinating that there was an option, that there could be something else. And upon reading about just afterlife and spirit guides and all these possibilities, it just felt like it resonated. And it felt true. And it felt like, you know, there's no great punishment from, you know, a big white man with a long white beard sitting in a chair. There's no gates. You know, there's no you know, you can't really mess it up. And that was comforting. It was a lot more comforting.
For the most part, Church of Christ is pretty, at least in my church, you know, there's no instruments. It's all about raising your voice. So everybody, whether they could sing or not, would be in there singing. And that's actually where I kind of learned how to sing in harmony was sitting in between my mom and my aunt. And then at Baptist Church it was different, because there was instruments, drums and organ, keyboards, and bass guitar. Guitar player. It was exciting. And the choir sounded really, really good. And the preaching was like entertainment.
I liked going to the church. It was really thrilling, but I don't think I got anything out of the sermons besides like, you know, if you mess up too bad you go to hell. You know, that’s basically what I learned at that age. And I was scared. To me, spirituality is something you journey in, and you find for yourself.
Michelle Tea: Yeah. Well you've spoken a lot about your sister, and you made your whole solo album dedicated to her. Do you remember the first time that you were able to feel her with you?
Brittany Howard: I remember at first when she passed away, I was having all these dreams, you know, and I’d have the same dream over and over again. It was the weirdest thing. I would be in the desert and there's a road in front of me. And beyond the road is an adobe house. And I would always remember waking up on one side road and the adobe house being on fire and knowing that I had to run in there and save my sister. And I had this dream like so many times. Which is a pretty stressful dream. That’s not very comforting.
I always had these weird savior dreams about the situation. And I don't think it was until I was much older that I even cried about it or kind of came to terms with it, because everyone in my family was kind of grieving. And it's something you really, it's hard to grieve together. ‘Cause everybody has their own way of doing it, right? So it wasn't until I was much older that I realized that, you know, she's not gone. She's just, you know, it's just that she exists on a different plane that I can't really, you know, see, or hear, for that matter.
But it's more for me, the communication’s more like, I ask for help, especially in life when I just can't figure something out or I'm frustrated or scared or worried. And then things just kind of find their way together. It's like there's this awareness about the world where I can ask for help. And if I notice then that's where the answer lies.
Michelle Tea: But is it a lot about having to pay attention and observing? Is that like a quality of it?
Brittany Howard: Yeah, definitely. You have to be aware that things are going to work out how they should. And it’d be a whole lot easier on yourself if you just surrendered to that, didn’t try to fight everything all the time. And there’s a comfort in there, for sure.
Michelle Tea: Do you feel like your relationship with her has changed over time?
Brittany Howard: Maybe only because of my own awareness, and my own evolution of my spirituality. Yeah, I feel like I'm much more comfortable, like, you know, having a conversation just like between the two of us about something I can't figure out. And I'm sure to my neighbors, I look like a crazy person, but I don't care.
Michelle Tea: Why, because are you speaking, like, out loud to her when you talk to her?
Brittany Howard: Yeah, I speak out loud. You know, and it's not something I do going down the street or anything but it's just like, you know when I'm really trying to figure something out sometimes hearing your own voice come out just can help you figure things out. And sometimes if I'm asking for something that I need, it's pretty crazy how like, the next day, if you're just paying attention, it's right there in front of you. I don't know what to say. Like, it could be a coincidence, but there's like an awful lot of coincidences.
I feel like there's a lot of people who are kind of waking up to the possibility that there's more beyond our consciousness, right?
Michelle Tea: I know that you have lived in a house that was crazy haunted and that eventually you moved out.
Brittany Howard: It was really scary to me like, some people don't have, some people go ghost hunting. They want to see the ghost. They want to experience something supernatural. And for me, it’s like the last thing I wanted. I definitely wanted to repress any supernatural, anything. You know, I don't like it. I just want to go to bed at night and pay my bills. And not have to worry about a ghost, too.
Michelle Tea: Did the experience of living in a haunted house impact your spiritual philosophy at all?
Brittany Howard: I think it's just questions. You know, maybe when I die and go see what's on the other side, I'll figure it out then. But then what's it to me?
I don’t know, you know? I feel like you should have a ghost on your podcast, actually.
Michelle Tea: I would love a ghost on my podcast. Or maybe I should be careful of what I'm asking for.
Do you think that because you had such a close relationship with the spirit, and have such a close relationship, with the spirit of your sister, do you think that that has made you more sensitive to the presence of other spirits or entities?
Brittany Howard: I don't know. It's crazy. Like, sometimes some of my relatives that are a little less immediate, will pop into my mind, you know, and I'm trying to pay attention to when that happens, I guess.
Michelle Tea: When I've spoken to people who, like, help you find spirit guides and things like that, they really emphasize that it is those little things, those little things that pop into your mind that are what you're supposed to be paying attention to, which I think is so hard because if you're like a really mental person — and I am — I'm like, well, didn't I? Maybe I just popped that in there myself. Or is that is that really my great Aunt Ella trying to say hi to me? Or maybe I just was, I don’t know, spacing out thinking about Ella.
Brittany Howard: So that awareness of why did this pop into my head or why did I think about this? It could be, oh, you're just thinking, or there could be something more to it. And that always goes back to what you perceive is your reality. So if you're walking around here and ain't hurting nobody, and you're not hurting yourself, but you want to live in a world that has a little bit more purpose and a little more sensitivity and a little more magic in it. Well, that sounds a hell of a lot better than just walking around this computer, digital, credit card world.
Michelle Tea: It sure does. I heard you mention in a conversation having a spiritual team, which, I dig that concept so much. Can you talk about what that means to you, and how do you utilize your spiritual team?
Brittany Howard: Yeah. Easily. So do you know your spiritual team is just your ancestors that look out for you, especially in the Black community we always refer to our ancestors. It could be people that have been in your family in the past. Or I can also talk on spiritual ancestors, which is just, you know, I personally believe in several lifetimes. And you come across people in several lifetimes and sometimes you come back reincarnated. They might hang back, help you out. That's your spiritual team. They’re just looking out for you, making sure that you get your job done, that you're here to do on Earth, and what you're here to learn on Earth, you know, and someone's always got your back. That's the best feeling knowing that, you know, I can't really mess this up. This is what I'm supposed to do. And I got this spiritual backup back here, so we'll get it done.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: Have you ever had your cards read before?
Brittany Howard: Yes.
Michelle Tea: Of course. Would you like them read again, like right now?
Brittany Howard: Oh yeah. You got some?
Michelle Tea: I got this deck right here. Do you know, do you have any questions or anything sort of nagging at you? You want to do like, contrast and compare different life options?
Brittany Howard: Oh man, I think just home life. I'm home more than ever. And I'm so excited to nest.
Michelle Tea: Mm hmm. So cozy nesting life. What's that look like? How about anything else? Any other, like, quadrants of life that you want to peek at?
Brittany Howard: Let's see. I mean, we could look at my career.
Michelle Tea: What is what's 2021 look like at home? Cozy, nesting, slash trapped because of pandemic. Frustrating, welcoming. All of the things.
Oh, home! Home looks lovely. OK, so your first card for home is the Three of Disks, which is a big work card, actually. It's a career card. It's Mars in Capricorn. Capricorn is the big boss of the Zodiac. It rules career, being your own boss, being in charge. Do you have a home studio?
Brittany Howard: Yes.
Michelle Tea: You do. All right. I think that you're going to be spending a lot of time in that home studio in 2021, especially because your next card is the Prince of Wands. And you can tell by the lion pulling his chariot that this is a big Leo card and Leo's are the performers of the Zodiac. They're super entertaining. The Leo rules creativity, play, sex, romance, getting attention, giving attention, being a star. Really. So that is really good.
And then the last card. I think this is a very, it's a minor arcana, but it's very special to me. The Three of Wands in this deck is called Virtue. It's sun in Aries. There's your Aries rising. For me, this is like the wands are your personal energy and your will.
And this, when this card comes up, it means you are putting your will and your energy in the right place, in the perfect place. In the place it’s supposed to go. It’s sort of like a reassurance or a pat on the back from the universe, being like, “Yes. You’re in the right place. You’re doing the right thing.”
Brittany Howard: Excellent.
Michelle Tea: Yeah. Very cool. OK. Career in 2021. We have some more fire with the Queen of Wands here. And then we have the Eight of Disks, Indolence, which is Saturn in Pisces. And then we have the Princess of Wands. Very interesting.
So you have these two incredibly creative and high-energy cards. I mean, just like you've got the Prince of Wands in your home reading. You have like the rest of, almost the rest of, the entirety of the rest of the court cards for wands. And they're a lot about facing fears, being free. Again, because they're wands they automatically rule creativity and performance and things like that.
But, you know, the Queen of Wands is very specifically about like I've been through a lot. And I've become a queen. And I'm not going to hide the things that I've been through. Those things actually have helped make me the queen. So I'm going to actually show those. I'm not going to be ashamed of them. I'm not going to try to play like I'm something else. I become a beacon for other people who are going through those things. And they can see me and see like, oh, I can become a queen as well. So she's a really powerful card. And this is in your career sector, right? So that's really interesting that your career can bring you into that place. You know, because it's giving you that kind of a platform.
And then the Princess of Wands, she’s just like, disposing with fears. So you see, she's got the tiger by the tail. She's burning her fears on her altar. She's being guided by the sun. And those horns on her head are supposed to be a sort of intuitive antenna that are just like, putting out into the ether, allowing her to get all this subconscious intuitive information. So it's really beautiful.
And then in the middle, though. You have. This is really interesting. It's the Indolence card. So when the Indolence card comes up, you know, if you were to if you were to see this card, folks who are listening, it's like a bunch of cups that are cracked. The water looks kind of nasty and the flowers are sickly. It's Saturn in Pisces. So Pisces just wants to chill and just like, allow things to take care of themself, sort of, you know, just like everything's going to be chill. And then Saturn comes down and is like, no, no, no. Sorry, Pisces. You actually have some emotional work to do. Get up. There's some things you're not looking at. You're just glossing over some stuff.
So this is really interesting. It seems like, in the career sector in 2021, there could be something that historically you've let slide. You haven't paid as much attention to. And this might be the year for you to actually look at whatever you might be afraid of in that realm. Anything that's been sort of preventing you from going there and, with the help of all of this beautiful fire energy, this fearless fire energy, face those fears and actually look, whatever this thing that's been being ignored. Sort of look it in the face and let it feed into your career energy.
Brittany Howard: Mostly I'm just excited to hear that I'll be creating a lot in my new, in my space next year, in the new year. I'm very excited about that. I'm glad to hear that.
Michelle Tea: We're all glad to hear that.
Brittany Howard: OK. And then my last, okay, well, this is unrelated, but like, this is for everyone out there listening. When do aliens expose themselves to the human race? Because I know everybody wants to know.
Michelle Tea: OK. Yeah. So, like, what are we going to see? Are they going to show themselves in our lifetime?
Brittany Howard: Yeah. Respectfully.
Michelle Tea: Let's ask that, all right?
Brittany Howard: That’s a great question.
Michelle Tea: And we have Abundance. OK. That's Mercury in Cancer. That's like very loving, familial communication. That's nice. Oh, no. Ten of Swords, Ruin.
Brittany Howard: No!
Michelle Tea: No, god! And then, Ten of Cups, Satiety. OK. So here's the thing. This is what I'm, I don't think we're going to see, we might get more information in our lifetime, like more tidbits. Like something being revealed. Like nothing definitive. Not them kind of showing up, being like, “OK, you guys. Here we are.” Like, that's not going to happen. The Three of Cups — I can't believe I'm giving this reading. I love it so much. Thank you for asking me it.
The Three of Cups is a Mercury card. Mercury is the planet of communication and it's Mercury in Cancer, which is a family card. So I think there is, they're trying to communicate that we are of their family, right? Like we are all creatures of the universe. Like we're not that different from them.
But that Ten of Swords — they're scared. They're scared to come here. They might have already tried to come here. And the worst happened, you know.
Brittany Howard: Girl.
Michelle Tea: And so, I think that they're really scared, but they're not going to be scared forever. Like, they can't. I'm getting the sense from this. I'm really feeling this reading now. Like, I actually feel like I'm picking something up.
OK. Like, they can't be afraid of us forever. Even though we are fearsome, they have good reason to fear us, you know, fear Earth and earthlings. They can't. They can't remain in this sort of stasis forever. They are going to have to try another way or do something to try to make contact with us. And I don't know that we, I don't know that it's going to be in our lifetime with that Ten of Cups there. I don’t. There will be something. But I think it will — something bigger. But I think it'll be after our time.
Brittany Howard: Yeah. I mean, I don't blame them for not coming here because. Like, people can't even wear masks. We can't even do that. We can’t even hold that part together. So.
Michelle Tea: Humans can't even like, treat other people as humans. So how are they going to treat, how they're going to treat an alien being as like, our equal, you know, and deserving of, you know, equal respect and compassion and all that stuff?
Brittany Howard: We're not worthy.
Michelle Tea: Hold on to that Three of Cups, though, because I feel like it's maybe possible for you to have your own personal connection with the aliens.
Brittany Howard: I'm good. No thanks. No thanks. No, no, no, no, no. The only thing I want to talk to is animals. I don’t need anything extra right now. Thank you so much, Michelle.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: You know, it’s actually the season to talk to animals. And by that I mean, it’s Pisces Season. Pisces, the final sign of the zodiac, is represented by two fish swimming in opposite directions, and that speaks to the sign’s ability to flow between fantasy and reality, imagination and fact, and really, most significantly, the spirit-influenced world of intuition and psychic knowing, and the regular old, you know, boring, material existence. Pisces is famously one of the most compassionate, empathic creatures of the zodiac, and these combined abilities of a strong sixth sense plus a powerful capacity for sympathy makes Pisces the best animal communicator in the zodiac.
To help you channel this emotional energy, I have a recipe for a Pisces Season altar you can arrange right in your home. It does not have to be super fancy or take up a lot of space — my own altar is just on a bookshelf in my office. All altars should have something to represent the four elements — a crystal, rock, or even a jar of soil to honor the earth; something burnable for air, like herbs or incense, though you can also represent that element with a feather or any sort of a blade; use a candle for fire; and, of course, a cup of water. If you want to bring in the fifth element of spirit, or divine energy, you can add something that represents that realm to you. Some people recommend a little mirror, to remind yourself that you are divine; I myself have a little ceramic figure of a dancing girl, which I’ve decided is an aspect of the Goddexx.
Now that we’ve got our foundation, let’s bring in Pisces. As a water sign, all representations of that realm are appropriate: sea shells, sand dollars, fish bones, images of mermaids, and all creatures of the sea. If you have a tarot deck you can bring out the Moon card, which Pisces rules, as well as the Ace of Cups or any of the sweet cards from that suit, like the Two or the Three or the Six of Cups I like. Because Pisces is the ruler of animal love, I think it’s great to bring out images of any pets you might have, or maybe a whisker your cat shed, a representation of an animal that you really identify with.
Now, you can meditate at your altar, perhaps imagining the constancy and the power of the ocean. With each breath, visualize a tide approaching and receding. You can journal about your emotions, honoring them and not judging them. As a super emotional person myself (I’m very prone to crying in public), I’ve been shamed a lot for being “too much” or “over-the-top.” Maybe you can relate. Pisces season is a great time to work on healing wounds like that if you have them. Show appreciation and gratitude for your emotional body, with its deep knowledge, its expressiveness, and the way it binds you to other humans through this shared experience of feeling.
Pisces season is a great time to hone our intuitive gifts, so use your altar to help focus these powers inside of yourself, whether you’re waking them up for the first time or leveling up your psychic gifts to clairvoyant status.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: OK, like the Pisces fish swimming in two different directions, we’d now like you to float away from magic and join us in a deep dive into science. Yes, we at Your Magic are super science nerds. Well I am, anyway. Science often makes the world feel more magic to me, like when I see photographs of outer space, or learn about the wild physicalities of so many animals here on Earth. One of my favorite things is when science is able to shine the light of possibility on phenomena that have not yet been understood. Things that seem otherworldly.
Are you with me? OK, listen to this.
Named for the Hawaiian word for scout, Oumuamua is a strange, enormous rock that entered our solar system in 2017. Scientists bent themselves in knots trying to come up with a biological explanation for it, but for Harvard Professor Avi Loeb, the possibility of it actually being a piece of space junk from an alien civilization is actually the simplest, most probable explanation. As you can imagine, he’s gotten a bunch of push-back from the scientific community, but he spoke to us about the importance of keeping an open mind. Here is Professor Loeb.
Avi Loeb: I pretty much do my scientific work as a continuation of my childhood curiosity. And I really wish that my colleagues were more like children, rather than worrying about their image and trying not to be wrong and arguing always in favor of things that we knew from the past.
We now know from the Kepler satellite, that roughly half of the sun-like stars, stars that look just like the sun, have an Earth-sized planet at the right distance from the star to have surface conditions very similar to Earth.
What’s the chance that we are special and unique? I would say, most likely, we are sort of typical. We are not special.
The experience with Oumuamua may resemble a caveman that is used to dealing with rocks throughout his life and then finds a cell phone and then thinks that the cell phone is probably just a shiny rock. And so, naturally, astronomers looking at Oumuamua would initially just argue that it must be a rock, similar to the comets or asteroids that we have seen before. But it looked like nothing we have seen before. It was very unusual. And at that point I said, you know, maybe it's of artificial origin.
Now, you know, if you look at the history of physics, at the days of Galileo Galilei, he argued, the Earth moves around the sun. And philosophers came to him and said, “No, the sun moves around the Earth. We know that.” And he said, “Look at my, look through my telescope.” And they said, “No, we don't want to look through your telescope.” They put him in house arrest.
Oumuamua, even if it's natural, it's something that we have never seen before.
Nevertheless, the astronomy community regards it as something that should not be discussed. We should not even search for that.
You know, if we bury our head in the sand and say, we don't want to look, just like the philosophers said. You know, we know that the sun moves around the Earth, we don't want to look through Galileo's telescope. We know the truth. If we do that, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't look for evidence, you will never find it.
If you learn how the world works, you know, how the universe, what is it made of and how it works, you tend to appreciate more its beauty. And I think you gain a better perspective into the spiritual world, in a way.
[Music]
Michelle Tea: I’m so inspired by Avi Loeb. Not just inspired by his faith that we’re not the only kids on the block, but inspired by his commitment to open-mindedness. To not ruling out possibilities just because science hasn’t yet found the tech to confirm or deny it.
Thank you for taking in our very first episode. I’d like to send us all off with the inspiration to keep our minds daringly open to possibility. The possibility that magic is real and a force we can harness for good in our lives. The possibility that we’re not alone in this vast, ever-growing, mysterious universe. The possibility that loved ones we’ve lost linger by, still loving us, guiding our growth. The world we inhabit is full of unknowns, things that science can’t explain, but I’d like to think that’s only a matter of time.
Thanks for tuning into Your Magic. Make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @thisisyourmagic, subscribe to us here on Spotify, sign up for our newsletter at thisisyourmagic.com and you’ll get more musings from our team of spiritual seekers. You can email us also at hello@thisisyourmagic.com. We would love to hear from you.
This episode was produced and edited by Molly Elizalde, Tony Gannon, and Kristine Mar. We got production support from Veronica Agard, Vera Blossom, and Raven Yamamoto. Our executive producers are Ben Cooley, myself, and Molly Elizalde. Our original theme music is by John Kimbrough.
Join us next week for a conversation with Elle King. Thanks for listening!