Kaitlyn Greenidge: Psychic Writer Energy

Sometimes creativity is a physical instinct. For novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge, it activates her mind like a lightning bolt — a bodily sensation that occurs mysteriously close to her third eye. This week, Kaitlyn joins us to discuss trusting that impulse, being a Scorpio, and what her 2022 has in store. Then, House of Intuition owners Marlene Vargas and Alex Naranjo share a bath spell to inspire your creativity.

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Kaitlyn Greenidge: What has been really challenging for myself as a writer is to take those sort of like inklings of inspirations really seriously. And if I ignore it, usually the pang just comes faster and I feel it sort of over and over again until I somehow either document it or take a picture or make the recording or write down the note or whatever it is that is going to sort of help it. 

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Michelle Tea: Hello and welcome to another episode of Your Magic. In this one, I’m hanging out with novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of  We Love You, Charlie Freeman and Libertie, winner of a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. We’re going to talk about trusting our irrational impulses, Scorpio energy and the tarot’s predictions for her 2022. After that we’ll hear from Marlene Vargas and Alex Naranjo, owners of the completely crucial House of Intuition occult stores, with a bath spell to inspire your creativity. Stay with us.

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Michelle Tea: Listeners, I’ve been on a bath bender. I don’t know what it is about. Well, I sort of do - a few months ago I learned that my chiropractor is also an energy-healing witch, and as someone who occasionally needs their neck cracked and their auras cleansed, I’ve had a few visits lately, and she always sends me home with a bag of epsom salts and a little pouch of herbs. And it has been so freaking nice to fill up the tub with scaldingly hot water - yes I know it’s not great for you to have it so hot but listeners, I have so few vices left, do not kink shame my hot baths! So, I get it real toasty and dump all the salt in and fling the herbal pouch in and watch the cloth turn brown as the herb juices sort of leak into the tub and I feel like I’m climbing into a giant mug of tea or something, sliding into a potion. And then once I’m in I never want to get out. I’ll just lie there, knocking the hot water back on with my foot, playing Words with Friends on my phone or falling into an occult khole on twitter or listening to a dharma talk on an app. 

When I’m in the bath I’m like, Why don’t I do this ALL THE TIME? Why does the task of filling the bathtub USUALLY feel impossible? I’ll look at it, notice the stray hairs stuck to the sides of the tub and be like, gross, forget it. As if cleaning up a couple of hairs that are definitely my own is way too rough of a task to take on. The thought of taking a bath is now so exhausting it makes me need, like, the relaxing sensation of a bath. I can’t do it. I don’t want a bath. I want to want to take baths, because they are so witchy and sensual and Piscean and like romantic but solo, they’re the ultimate ME TIME activity that deeply chill, earthy people indulge, and I want to step into that fantasy about myself but ugh there is hair in the tub and like what about when I’m done with the tub, do I take a shower, how do I clean my hair, why is a bath so complicated forget it.

I think the bath treats from my Chiro-Witch helped me push past my resistance. And then it did again. And I was like, maybe baths are awesome. Doing it once helped me do it a second time helpled me do it a third and after three baths, baths are just your thing. You’re one of those bath people now. Welcome to the new you.

I’m sharing this because I know I’m like every one of you and every one of you are like me. We all want to do these nice cozy, self-care things for ourselves, and sometimes we do but often it just seems impossible. Well, people, I’ve been to the other side, and I’m here to report that it’s actually not too hard to get out of our own way and actually do whatever cute, stupid thing we feel like doing. Whatever that might be for you - a bath, a candle spell, some meditation, working on some art - it’s not as far away as you think it is. The process of rousing yourself is not so arduous, and doing it once creates some momentum so that your next effort is a little bit easier, and so on. I swear! Give it a try! Or don’t, it’s your life. Sometimes not doing the magic is the magic, right? I’ll be wishing you well from the aquatic coziness of my new bath lifestyle.

Michelle Tea: Hi, Kaitlyn Greenidge, thank you so much for being on your magic

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Oh, thank you for having me. I'm really happy to be here.

Michelle Tea: I'm so psyched to talk to you because we're both from Massachusetts. We both we both escaped the Boston area are sure you're still in Massachusetts.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I came back for the pandemic and I'm still here as like stuff continues on. But yes, I escaped for about 20 years.

Michelle Tea: What was it like for you growing up on the like spiritual, mystical tip? Did you were you raised in like a religious family or a spiritual family?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Raised in a in a not very religious family. So. So my mom was raised by nuns. She went to a boarding school at a young age at about five or six, basically because my family was living in the south end of Boston at the time. And my grandparents were really worried about Boston public schools at that time. So they got her into this boarding school in Arlington that was run by these Episcopalian nuns and the whole family converted to Episcopalian ism. And my mom was pretty deep into it, I would say. But you know, like a New England version of Episcopalian ism, so and at a time in the church when they were sort of, I guess, becoming more open and like and a version of the church that was always sort of very social justice organizer oriented, which is a long way this way around to say that my mom is she knows her Bible back and forth. She loves the ceremony of religious sort of all religious ceremonies, but she's sort of she does not track with like the patriarchy of religion. And it was always like even as we were young kids, like very vocal about pointing out when that stuff was happening. And so she has a very conflicted thing with with religion, but I think it's probably the good things about it that I've sort of inherited has been like an observer's appreciation for people's ways of finding like religion and spirituality with a tendency to always sort of be a little bit skeptical of each of those roots and sort of like where they may be upholding certain kind of hierarchies or damaging ways of thinking.

I remember finally sort of making closer friends with people who were raised either Baptist or evangelical and reading their Bibles that have been like, translated into like American speak and being like, This is how you guys worship. I think I would much rather read like a beautiful like King James, like, you know, like Van Eyes or whatever than like, you know, whatever, like, hey, kids, here's Jesus kind of thing. The way this stuff is translated, I always like blew my mind as a as a person in college when I would meet people who came from those traditions of being like, Wow, OK, this is like a completely other way to think about spiritual forces in your life.

Michelle Tea: Do you have a spiritual any sort of like spiritual practice or relationship with ritual now in your adult life?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I like reading about different people's versions of that, but I've never like whole heartedly taken that taking any of those into my own life or like made a regular practice with me.

Michelle Tea: But what about as a writer? Do you have rituals, as a writer, as a writer?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I'll have superstitions around a certain project or a certain piece of work. What has been really the biggest challenge for myself as a writer is to take those sort of like inkling of inspirations really seriously. So like on Friday, I had taken the day off from work and I was sort of going for a longer walk in the city, which I don't get to do very often because I have a kid and I don't really get time away from her that much. But I was taking a walk through the city and I saw something that reminded me of an essay that I've been sort of thinking about for a really long time. And my impulse was to be like, Take a photo of it. Take a photo of it. And my rational impulse was like, There's no need to take a photo. I'll just remember it, and I'll just keep walking away. And because I couldn't really articulate to myself why I needed to have this image, I just instinctively knew it was going to help. I still don't know how it's going to help, but instinctively felt like it was going to help with creating this thing. And so I had to sort of like talk myself into turning around, going back, taking it and taking a photo to make sure that I have it and all the times that I have ignored those instincts, I've always really regretted it on a like an artistic level of like I should have saved or documented or done this thing that that my like somehow unconscious mind was telling me was really important to figure out what the next step was going to be in this project.

Michelle Tea: Wow. Can I ask what the picture was of or does that feel superstitious to reveal? 

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Oh it was of like a historic it was like I was walking through Harvard Square, actually. And all throughout Harvard Square, if your listeners and have never been. It's kind of like a place where there's always these like plaques around with like different historical facts about the place. And so I was taking a picture of one of those plaques that I don't even know. I don't even think the fact itself is going to be important. It just was like something was somehow connecting.

Michelle Tea: So this hearing this like this tiny little battle that's going on between like your unconscious and you're like, lodged like quote, logical mind makes me want to ask you. Like, where do you feel like you're your creative impulse comes from your storytelling impulse. You're your writerly-ness.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I experience it as both those things at once, there's like a deep, sort of like instinctual thing that happens where it's like a. Anything, it's a flash of color. It's like a piece of a song, whatever. And usually that comes through repetition. Like, it's like, I have to listen to this thing over and over again, or I have to keep looking at this thing. It's like a very instinctual it's almost like a like it literally feel like we're talking a little bit earlier about like religion and stuff. It literally feels like like a like a lightning bolt right to the middle. Like, it feels like this part is being activated in my head.

Michelle Tea: And she's pointing. She's pointing, interestingly, close to the third eye.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: It's like it literally feels like a like a electrical current is coming right here when I see something that like pings off of it. And then there's the rational part of my mind that is sort of like, why am I having this reaction to it? Is this even going to go anywhere? It probably means nothing. Talk yourself out of it kind of thing. And if I ignore it, usually the it just comes faster. The pang, just the pang just comes faster. And I feel it sort of over and over again until I somehow either documented or take the picture or make the recording or write down the note or whatever it is, it's going to sort of help it.

Michelle Tea: That's really fascinating that you're that you're I mean, like a lot of what you're saying is as recognizable, but you're you're that it's so physical for you is so cool really like, what do you think that is? Like, what do you think that lightning is?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I think it's probably my mind making a bunch of connections to whatever it is that I'm interacting with that are happening much more quickly than my conscious mind is thinking. And so I think probably all those connections just probably feel like that because they're happening really literally in a blink of an eye. They're sort of happening all at once. All these sort of different thoughts and feelings are coalescing into something that I'm not even really sure what the conclusion is. I just know like a conclusion happened in that moment.

Michelle Tea: Do you ever feel like when you're when you've been in the midst of one of your novels, is there ever do you ever feel like there's synchronicity or once you've once you've embarked on that project? Are there like signs or weird coincidences that sort of like affirm that you're like on the right path?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yeah, for sure. One hundred percent like it's it's oftentimes I'll meet people who have some sort of tangential connection with a big part or a large part of the project. Like when I was writing, I wrote this not my first novel is this book called We Love You, Charlie Freeman, which is about a Black family from Boston. And they moved to a nearly all white town in the western part of Massachusetts, and they moved there to take part in an experiment where they're teaching sign language to a chimpanzee. And so when I, it took me a long time to write that book. And but when I was writing it, I would always sort of meet people and even before I would tell them what the book was about. Sometimes it would come up that they had. Somehow, they know that that experience sounds like very made up. And like very particular, I would meet people who had some sort of similar or like rhyming experience to that. Like I remember I was, this was like many years ago, probably like 10 or 10 or 11 years ago, I was flirting with some guy about just in general. And he mentioned in passing that he grew up in this town where they a I think it was like a monkey had like escaped from a research facility and it was on Halloween when he was like six or seven. And he has this very he had this very vivid memory as a child of trick or treating and seeing this monkey get elected electrocuted in their town and they never spoke about again, like everybody repressed it in the town time I never spoke about again. And I had never I didn't tell him what this book was about or anything like that. And that just sort of came out naturally in conversation. And so that's a very extreme example. 

Michelle Tea: That's wild. Oh my God.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: This poor guy. Very, very wild example. But you know, and then it's just weird coincidences with people who I would not expect to share certain coincidences with the project will come up.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I think it's probably true for all people whose work is creating something or being creative in some sort of way, I think the literal sort of like psychic and imaginative energy that you put into that has to go somewhere and in it is responding to and attracting certain energies from other people. And sometimes the energies are very obvious like that very sort of crazy story that this guy told me when we were talking. And other times the energy sources are attracting are much more subtle and you don't recognize it until sort of like years after the fact where you realize, Oh, when I was working on this section of a book, I had this friendship that was very similar to it. And looking back, I can see immediately how this was like a one to one correlation. But at the time, this was just another like, very good friend in my life or a thing that happened in my life or whatever kind of thing.

Michelle Tea: You do have an a known interest in astrology.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yes, I do.

Michelle Tea: What is your sign?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I'm a Scorpio.

Michelle Tea: Oh, right on happy birthday! Main course. You told me the story of the monkey to illustrate your point.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: I try to keep my macabre side a little bit under wraps, but it's nice when people understand it.

Michelle Tea: It's so sad to me that it seems like it's a learned thing of Scorpios of like, we've got to tone it down. We got to tell, Yeah, the macabre down a little bit. Yeah, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And what sign is your child?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: My daughter is a Leo.

Michelle Tea: What do you think about? I don't know the Leo Scorpio energy together.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Well, my my rising is Leo. And my older sister is a Leo and there's a lot of Leo's in my family. My niece is a Leo as well. So I know that energy very well. And then sometimes I'm able to tap into that as well.

Michelle Tea: It's so weird what you're saying about, like all the Leos in your family. I feel like like there's like like astrological like genetics or something like it's such as, I don't know. I mean, we don't know how to prove astrology or disprove it anyway. So why not just throw another weird thing on?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Tea: But I feel like there is a weird astrological legacies within family is like, there's so much Scorpio and my son was almost a Scorpio. I stopped the doctor on the day, the last day of Libra because he was he was he was breech. So I had to have a C-section and they kept delaying it until finally it was the last day of Libra. And they're like, Come back tomorrow when everything moves into Scorpio and there's a eclipse. And I was like, I don't want to die. I know I would just rather you them right now, you know? So, but it was almost the most massive Scorpio of of all with like four planets. But but now he's got this big Libra Stadium, so it's just probably going to be a different suite of problems, you know?

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yeah, it's super interesting. So one of my sisters is a Leo. The other one is a Gemini and I'm a Scorpio Sun, Leo Rising Gemini Moon. And so I think that's probably the only way that though all of us having those three signs have been able to be so as close as we are because otherwise I feel like we would all be at each other's throats. But I think all of our different sort of planets are mixing and then every most of my plants are in the fourth house, which is also how I'm able to. My mom is a Cancer to the absolute T. She's like super Cancer, and that is I'm pretty sure how we are able to connect very well.

Michelle Tea: Well, I mean, I would love to pick some cards for you. I'd like to know I'm using this Aleister Crowley Thoth deck.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yeah, for sure. So I just had a birthday on Saturday, and I'm super. This is maybe too broad of a question, but I'm just very curious about what the next 12 months will bring because it feels like a real big time of transition. But there's also really great things happening in my life. So I'm just sort of really curious about how this all will spin out over the last year.

Michelle Tea: Here's what I'll do. I just did something like this for a friend when she had a birthday in the Leo season, but I'm just going to do it season by season. Not astrological season, but like the four seasons. So we're going to play cards for what it looks like for you in the winter. And of course, you know, this is always tricky to do a large reading because so many energies impact even a single day, let alone, you know, three three are so months. But we'll see. Like, what are the dominant energy is the dominant movements. So I'll do three for winter, three for spring, three for summer and then into like next next fall.

Michelle Tea: Truly, it looks like a really big year for you, like something big is coming through for you this year. And I say that because you've got the Universe card in this year, when the Universe card comes up, it's it's such a giant. Like, everything is in its rightful place. Stepping into your destiny kind of a feeling in true Scorpio fashion, you have like really high highs and then you have some sort of like jagged, sharp edges in here also. But the high highs are much more dominant in this reading. So I picked a card to be like, What is the what's your what's the card for your for your year this year, right? And it is The Fool. What a great card for a year. So I feel like this is a great year for you to take risks. A great year for you to say yes. To like push your comfort zone. Like move into new new realms and new new areas that you just haven't either worked in or lived in. It's encompassing of all the different areas of life, but coming up for you for this winter, the three cards you have, the first one is this Nine of Wands, which is called Strength in this deck and its Moon in Sagittarius, which is like, really fun and creative, super optimistic, idealistic. Like if you're sort of pushing for something this winter, it looks like are sort of having to advocate for something or even just sort of muscle through something. It looks like you've got the resilience in the inner resources to really do that.

Your next card is the Two of Cups, which is this Love card. It's a really beautiful card of like loving exchange. It's Venus in cancer, which makes me think of your mom being a cancer. But of course, you know this could be about like a loving exchange sometime this winter could be reconnecting with somebody that you love deeply. Like leveling up with someone that you love deeply because it's following the strength card, which is sort of talking about this movement. You know, this movement could be around a relationship where you're like that. You're trying to make work, you know, or feelings of inspiration towards. So and it could also be about, you know, if it's about more of a project or something, it could just be about a project that's very close to your heart that you truly have love for. Coming up at the end, though, you do have this Nine of Swords card that's called Cruelty. In this deck. It's Mars in Gemini. And, you know, in the Rider-Waite deck and all of those decks, this is the nightmare card the person sitting up in bed holding their head. I just read this more than cruelty per se as an anxiety card, you know, because I feel like that's what that nightmare, you know to me, really speaks as anxiety.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: You should know this is my continual card that I, I always pull. I've been pulling this card since I was like since I started doing it at like 14 years old.

Michelle Tea: Are you kidding? You started young too with the tarot.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yes.

Michelle Tea: All right. Well, sorry.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: That's in every reading. Again, another writer who does here is yes, energy. And when when I talked to him about this card, it was sort of like, it always pulls and it always makes me feel really terrible and inadequate. He was like he tried to explain it as you are sort of explaining it. How much of it is actually about sort of internalized anxiety and those sorts of fears. And it is just sort of like a part of yourself that will show up in every reading because it's a part of your outlook.

Michelle Tea: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you know, as a Scorpio, honestly, as a Scorpio Sun, I can't imagine you being able to escape this sort of vibe on some level, you know, it's definitely not your dominant energy. So that's rad. But like you guys are so in touch with like the depths of suffering and that the human beings can put each other through and endure on a personal level. And that's in your work, too. And so it's sort of like, yeah, you're going to have anxiety, like, how can you not see so much and have that not resonate on a physical level with you? So, you know, for some reason that's coming up in regards to this, you know, this winter in regards to whatever this sort of strength and love thing is. And it could be that like the stakes are high. And so that's why it makes you feel shaky like that, that you can see things going wrong. It could be that there's something that that isn't that doesn't go the way you hope. With this, I wouldn't say that it's strong enough to kind of like. You know, trash the you know, it's not going to delete whatever this is, be it a relationship or a project, it's something just to be sort of overcome and worked within. It just looks like it's a bit of a mixed bag. But I mean, I think that's also could be one of the reasons why the strength card is in the forefront of this. And so important is like, yes, there is this anxiety, you know, swords, as you know, mental, you know, it's our mental processes. And when it's they're hard ones, it's, you know, our mental processes working against us. But you have this like light inside of you with this that's being represented by this. That's enough to sort of like pull you through and pull you through. It shall because come springtime, the the that card has turned into Fortune. If there is a bump, you know, in whatever this is. Again, what relationship project relationship with the project? If there is a bump, you can definitely expect it to be resolved with this beautiful Fortune card here. However, you also have The Devil such a complicated card so resolved at a price. Maybe, as you know, as long as the price is, I don't know in your favor. On some level, it doesn't look bad. I mean, on the other side, is this Princess of Disks here? And you know, she's great. You know, she's just like, I've been through it and I've got a story to tell you now. So it's like, yes, you're definitely in a real process with all of this. Sometimes The Devil card comes up when we have to do something for ourselves that's very strong, that asserts ourselves and asserts our power and other people are like, you know, but it's like the right thing to do. It's like Capricorn. It's like, I'm actually the boss, and you might have to assert your boss, your boss-dom, you know?

The other thing that it could be is it it could be like you have to make a sort of compromise that feels like I'm making a little bit of a deal with the devil here, you know? And that could be, you know, in the, you know, if it's a work related thing like, I think this guy comes up a lot in work related things when we're like, Oh, this is a rad opportunity for me. I don't love that company. So, yeah, I mean, in either scenario, I feel like it's uncomfortable for sure. But I don't. I think that, you know, the Fortune card and this Princess of Disks being like, OK, we're doing this like, she's pregnant. She's about to give birth, you know? So I think it outweighs the devil. But there will be discomfort, probably to process with The Devil. But whatever that leads you into the Universe in this summer. So it's like, Wow, I just really see like this. Is it happening, whatever it is, you know, like, there's these energies that are sort of growing or, you know, it's hard not to read it as one continuous story, but you know, this could be there could be about lots of different things. You know, you could have a whole new thing sort of come through for you with The Universe. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of things with that Fool card being for your year. But The Universe to me is just like, yes, all those as it should be, you are right where you're meant to be. You know, even though there's been cruelty, there's been the devil, whatever here you are. It's really great Knight of wands. So much energy, so much motion. This is fire upon fire. You know, it might feel a little bit like, Whoa, can I handle all this? Can I balance all this? Is too much happening too fast? I would say no. With this Fool card, I would say it's all supposed to be. But that said, with so much energy, something could fall by the wayside or like, end up kind of petering out. You've got the Ruin card here, the 10 of Swords, right? So again, it's like, I feel like this is we're seeing this all through your reading. You've got these really powerful, beautiful, strong cards and then you have these little cards that are difficult. So it's like there's something to be managed. It feels like with every step, although it feels like the harder parts are no match for these big, beautiful major arcana cards that you have here, right? So, you know, the 10 of Swords card, it's like, you know, every something has gone something that you kind of probably knew was going to go bad went bad, right? If you do want to see it as a continuation of your potential anxiety or an evolution of this nine, it's like, is there something that you're like, Oh, that could happen, you know, and it's keeping me up a little at night. You might find that it happens. There's, you know, a strange relief with the 10 of Swords because it's happened, and now you can just deal with it. You know, whether it's something falling through that you were relying on, it's like, OK, here you are in the after effects of it and everything's OK. Life goes on in. Now and again, you've got this universe card, so it's like something big is coming through for you. What's the weird trade off like? Does something have to go away in order for this to happen? Is there like a compromise that feels like, OK, this compromise actually has some consequence, but you can manage it. You can, you can work with it. And so then on the other side, then we come on the other side of The Universe and the Ten of Swords bringing us back into the fall. So like this time next year, Queen of Swords, like she's just you going to learn a lot this year, you're going to learn a lot. And I mean, as somebody who already already is so worldly and know how the how the world works, it's going to be, you're just going to be able to see this at a different level. She's on this cloud, so she really sees the big picture. She has the bird's eye view. And I think after going through these massive ups and in and, you know, noteworthy downs that you're going to go through this year, you're going to have just a larger everything's happening at a larger scale like your life is getting scaled up and you're seeing the bigger picture also like you're not going to be afraid to like, you're not here to make make friends, Kaitlyn, you're not here to make friends, OK, you're here to like you do some other stuff. And I think that's not going to feel bad like you might have some concerns about that or worries about that. But by the end of the year, you're like, Oh, this is just some of this is just business. Some of this is just being a boss. Some of this is like having to like, call it how I see it. And like, you know, this lady's not afraid to do that up here. She's got her sword out. She she chopped off a head there. She's like, That head had to go. There's another, there's another raid on her and that's a mask she was wearing. And then that this card is also about yet taking away falsities and masks that we have to wear. So this could also be, you know, another a year where you just get a little closer to just being able to show up more completely as yourself.

Next to her is the Strife card. So, you know, again, this is just like we're seeing just like every every pull has just like one a little bit of a rough card here. This Strife card, which is about conflict, it can be about a frustrated, frustrated energy is it's flanked by the Queen of Swords and then this great Power card, Sun and Capricorn. So, you know, she is such a boss. And I also really read the Sun in Capricorn card as about boss like boss-hood, you know, so I don't know. I feel like a lot of this is about coming into like another degree of power, whether it's in relationships, in the world, in your professional life, maybe a mixture of all of it. And with that comes a little bit of like having to sort out the discomfort or, you know, maybe even other people's discomfort as you assert new roles.

I look at this year and I see it's you know, it grow, you know, from the strength card to the fortune card to the universe, it's such an ascension in The Universe is like the ultimate. And then it leaves you off on a sort of smaller. It's almost like, you're like, OK, now I'm at the beginning of a new cycle that's happening on a higher level. You've you've amassed a bit of power. You've accrued a real foundation to build on because of because of this stuff that's contained within the Universe card. I feel like is so yeah, like is like these. These problematic cards that you have are minor arcana and you're big, powerful cards here. These big, gorgeous sort of like magic. Lucky cards are major arcana with the fool and fortune in the universe and the devil who I'm kind of thinking, is your friend? Honestly, like maybe a bit of a mixed bag of a friend, but but I feel like I really don't have what might be an ally you now. Whether it's about, you know, you asserting your own power or having to learn how to negotiate power on a level that you haven't yet, you know, on a level. Does this sound like it makes sense? [

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Yeah, this makes complete sense, it makes perfect sense because there's a lot of things in the coming year that sort of need to be decisively decided and both personal and professional. OK, stuff so good.

[Music]

Marlene Vargas: Hi, I'm Marlene. I'm one of the owners here to the House of Intuition, we are located in L.A. We also have a store in Miami.

Alex Naranjo: And I'm Alex coowner of House of Intuition.

Marlene Vargas: We are also the authors of Your Intuition Led You Here that will be released on December 28th.

Marlene Vargas: We created a creativity bath that is also shared in our book. So for spell, one ingredient is an orange candle. You want to use basil and rosemary, and you can use fresh or dry. An orange that you can cut in half and you will use the juice of the orange to squeeze it into your bath. A small pumpkin or yam as an offering to your spirits, guides and guardian angels. A bowl of water and black onyx to remove self-doubt and fear. This is a crystal that will help to remove those fears. Also, you want to express gratitude to your ancestors. 

Next we want to set an altar and you want to have a glass of water. You want to have incense and you want to place your orange candle onto your altar. Then you want to cleanse your body and your space to create it as a sacred space by burning any herb that is connected with you so you can use sage. If you use Palo Santo, which is a wood, you can use eucalyptus again, anything that is connected with you that's going to cleanse and clear your space. After that, you're going to go ahead and steep your herbs in your water. As you're doing this, I want you to pray, and I want you to focus on the energy of creativity and stay in that state of mind as you're stirring. I want you to make sure that you're staying clockwise, not away from you. I want you to bring it around you as you're being. Once it's done, you can turn off the flame, let it cool down, and then you're going to place that into your glass bowl. You're going to squeeze your orange juice into your bowl day in the state of prayer, asking for creativity. And once you're done with that, you're going to place it onto your altar, you're going to give it as an offering to your spirits, your angels and your ancestors. After that, you're going to light the candles, stay in your prayer. Make sure that you are focusing on creativity. And when you feel that your your bowl is infused with the energy from your guides and your ancestors, you're then going to remove it from your altar and you're going to take that into the bath or into the shower with you. You can place your bowl then on the floor or next to the tub. You're going to wash your body of your physical body of all dirt. And then once that is done, you're going to place that bowl over your head and you're going to say again a prayer to your angels, your ancestors, your God. And you're going to ask them for the blessing of creativity. You're going to thank them, then splashed that over your head. With a sweeping motion with your hands after you place the ball back on the floor, you're going to sweep it off of you with the visualization of it going into the universe for creativity. Do not use soap anymore. You're going to go ahead and just use water. Towel dry. Stay in the state of mind of creativity and let your candle continue to burn. Now you can let your candle burn throughout the time. Or if you are not comfortable with the candle burning, you can definitely turn it off and turn it back on. But again, I want you to stay in a state of ritual. Your crystal. You can place that in your pocket as you go out into the world, or even when you're at home to remind you of the spell that you've cast. So that you stay in that state of mind for the entire time that the candle burns, if you turn your candle off and on, I want you also to turn it off and on at the same time as much as you can. I don't want you rushing home or or panicking that your candle didn't turn on at a specific time, but I definitely want you to try to stay within that time frame. So then that way you're staying in that state of ritual until the candles completely done. After that, again, just today in that state of mind of creativity, that is the most and important thing is your intention and your mindset. Because your ritual doesn't end when the candle is done burning, your ritual ends when you bring in the creativity that you want into your life. And if you need to do it again, then you can do it again. I never stopped ritual rituals, a state of practice in a state of being. So the more you do it, the better you will get.

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Michelle Tea: Well, not that I need an excuse to hop into the tub these days but thank you so much, Alex and Marlene, for this really beautiful spell that I am definitely going to do. And thank you for your shops, where I’ve gotten many lovely crystals and candles and books! And speaking of books, if you want more epic and powerful spells like this one, check out Alex and Marlene’s book, Your Intuition Led You Here, which tells the story of how they found their magic and gives you tips to get closer to your own.

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Michelle Tea: Thanks for tuning into Your Magic. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and Instagram @thisisyourmagic. You can subscribe to us right here on Spotify — do what you need to do to never miss an episode. You can email us at hello@thisisyourmagic.com, we would love to hear from you. And you can support us — plus get access to a whole bunch of bonus content — at patreon.com/thisisyourmagic.

This episode was produced and edited by Molly Elizalde, Tony Gannon, and Vera Blossom. Our executive producers are Ben Cooley, myself, and Molly Elizalde. Our original theme music is by John Kimbrough. 

Thanks for listening!