Witch, Witchy, Crystal Toolkit, Midsummer Ritual and Tarot

In this enchanting episode, we dive deep into the heart of what it means to be a witch, focusing on personal journeys that define modern witchcraft. Then, we embark on the first part of our series on building a crystal toolkit, discussing essential stones and their uses. We'll also guide you through a powerful Litha or Midsummer ritual to celebrate the summer solstice. Finally, we wrap up with a three-card Tarot pull to provide insight and inspiration for the days ahead. Join us for a magical journey full of wisdom and wonder!

Transcript

Unknown: 0:16

Hey, and welcome to Intel intentional spiritual living with Brian. This is season three episode one. It has been quite a while since episode. I think it was four in season two before I took a hiatus to continue growing the business and so for those of you who do not know me, I want to kind of go over a little bit about who I am and what to expect out of this podcast if you're just picking it up in 2024 for season four. My name is Brian Campbell. I'm the curator and owner of ravens cauldron We have locations in Delaware and Marysville a into N full service metaphysical shop. We offer tarot readings, a monstrosity huge collection of crystals. If we don't have it, we'll get it anything from the rare things like Vivian knight to common things like Amethyst, and anything in between the smallest pieces the size of a pinky nail to statement pieces taller than me. And we have been growing and curating that business since 2020. And I just feel like the world is in such a place right now that it is time to get back into this podcast. And so I have written 10 episodes for season three. And you're about to experience episode one. I also have moved the store in Delaware for those of you that have not been in or don't know, we used to be at 110 South Sandusky Street in our cute little Victorian house where we had the downstairs occupied and we simply were busting at the seams. We love that building. We own that building and we needed more product. We wanted to expand our offerings, things like DW home candles and event space and stuff and we'd simply were busting at the seams in our little building. So we moved to historic downtown Delaware. And we now have Escape Rooms cricket cottage escape rooms. In that old building. They were upstairs when the Ravens cauldron was still there. And now we have five rooms we're opening a new one on August 1. It is called Crabtree Manor death in greed. It's kind of a haunted Victorian Manor where two kooky old ladies live there who have since passed. And their younger mean sister Constance Merriweather is challenging you and your group to go in there and find the last will and testament she hated her sisters. But she wants their estate and their money and she will give you a portion of it if you escape. So enough about that. Cricut cottage escape rooms so intentional, spiritual living with Brian season three. What can you expect out of this? I am a practicing eclectic witch, if you will. I've been into this craft my entire life. I am a nearly 40 year tarot reader. And so I practice in this stuff daily. And I love to share things like I've done in the other seasons of this podcast, rituals, tarot readings, topics about witchcraft, pagan holidays, crystals, anything that you want to know to grow your craft, and we have different topics with each episode. So I don't want to spend too much time on this introductory stuff. I don't want to get to the meat and potatoes of it, if you will. But what you can expect coming up in this episode, we're going to be talking about witchy stuff. What is a witch? What is witchcraft? How do I Brian practice and I'll talk to specifically why I want to talk about me. I'm not wanting to want to talk about myself a lot. But in this instance, it's irrelevant. So the first thing we're going to talk about is witchy topics, then we're going to have a 10 part series for this entire season on how to build a crystal toolkit. We often get people coming into the store. And they love the crystals. They love the look. They love how they feel in their hand, but they don't necessarily know what to do with them and how to get to know them. And I feel like we're pretty good at that. And so I want to talk and share some insights with you. And we're going to talk about 10 different crystals, we're going to talk about clear quartz, the master crystal Master Healer today. Then we're going to talk about litho and mid summer, which began on the 24th of June and in the first couple days of August, I'm going to litho slash midsummer is all about a magical time, prosperity generating fortune, that type of thing. And I've designed a ritual around an avocado seed that I think you're going to enjoy. I love plant rituals in the craft. I'm a bit of a kitchen witchery kind of person and I'm really into that. And so I did one of these with fennel for my very first podcast episode back in 2020. And I want to do this one with avocado and finally we're gonna pull a three card Tarot reading to kind of set the stage As you can use this as twofold, the cards are going to be pulled during this podcast. So you can look at it as what's going on in the world right now. It's a general reading, it's not about me, it's not about you. It's about collectively all of us. Or you can use it to kind of learn the ins and outs of tarot. And that's certainly a huge undertaking, as we all know. And so I'm here to share. So with no further ado, my good friends, enough about me, let's talk about fun stuff. Let the show begin. Okay, so what is a witch? What is witchcraft? These are questions that are very interesting to many of us and are widely misunderstood in the world. And it bears repeating a million times. And so if you've heard me talk about this in person, on another episode, I apologize. But for the new folks that are coming around, and for those of us that just need to rehear it, that's what this is all about. And so in our world, and globally, really, which is have a connotation of Hollywood, women with black pointed hats and green skin and cauldrons with green, bubbling water in them, where they're putting the eye of a newt and the tail of a rat and making potions and doing seemingly harmful things, if you will. So why are we all attracted to that? Well, we're not for instance, not everybody is just like, not everybody likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, if you will. But for me, since a child I love that esoteric, Arcane stuff that kind of spooky vibe, the the the natural way of living, if you will, making tinctures and potions. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about how I practice rather than answer what is a witch? And what is witchcraft? I would rather lead by example, if you will. And so, for me, for those of you who have never met me, or I'm very unassuming if you were to meet me, I dress like a dork. I am 52 years old, six foot two average white man, if you will, no one would point at me walking in a crowd of 100 people be like now that so which right there that person practice witchcraft. That person is into weird shit, if you will excuse my language. But I'm into all that. Well, I don't know if I would call it weird. I don't believe in the word weird. And I don't believe in the word normal. There are no such things as our ideas and ideals that are, I believe thrust upon us. But since I was a child, I've been drawn into all this stuff. I've always liked to go to the crystal stores. I've always like to collect crystals and see what their powers are. I'd like to practice the most basic alchemy, if you will, as a kitchen, which I started cooking. For instance, when I was my mother, I should back up a second my mom, she drove a school bus. And so I would have about an hour and a half after school when I walk home from school school day before she got home and I learned to cook that way. Most basic things all the way up into soups and chilis and hamburgers. Making a big potato Boylan goofy stuff like that. But it's all alchemical if you will, you're taking raw materials and your denaturing them you're changing them to put them to your good use kitchen witchery at its finest. So I've always been attracted to that. I've always been attracted to the power of intention and manifestation and feel like I have been very very good at manifestation and believing in the power of an intention so things I how do I practice? Do I Do I Do Full Moon rituals every month? Am I chanting to do tattoos and hecka tea and all these figures that we know about? No, no and no, I lead a very normal life. And when I say normal, I don't believe in that word, but I don't do the things you are people may assume that comes out of a witch when I go home at night I watched things like RuPaul drag race or I love Niecy Nash's show don't don't forget the lyrics, that type of thing I cook, but I do also honor my spirituality. And so I want to talk about and it was a long winded way to get around to this because I want to really press upon this point of what a witch is, what witchcraft is and what it isn't, versus what a Hollywood would have you to believe with horror movies and that type of thing. That is simply an aesthetic and aesthetic that we collectively typically love as craft Partly practitioners, I love to deck my house out in Halloween with spooky clowns and witches and stuff. But that's just all for fun. So, one example of how I practice. As you know, we talked about Cricut cottage escape rooms. And I still have a couple of places over there that are not part of the escape room that's kind of that building has a bit of haunting to it. And we will do a whole episode on that on paranormal stuff that I've experienced in that building is the most active place I've ever been. And so I practice over there, I may go into a secret room in there, and I may place four crystals to the north, south, east and west. And I will change the elemental representation of those crystals based upon direction based upon what I'm doing. So I may, for instance, say, gods and goddesses of the North and the element of fire, I'm calling upon you and this piece of Carnelian to aid me in getting passed a test that I'm about to take, for instance, and I would do a similar thing for South, East and West with different materials, usually a crystal in the middle. And then I leave them there for 24 hours. It's like a living crystal grid, if you will, and then take them out of there and put them back in my crystal toolkit. These are crystals that I've worked with for years and that type of thing. So that's just a quick and goofy example, about how I might practice and I would do that late at night. Is that does that seem spooky? And weird? I don't think so. It's no different than a prayer. As many of you know, and my new people that you don't I was raised in a very Catholic family. So where does my love for the stump? This type of thing come from very simple. I mean, I went to all the Catholic grade schools, high schools, all the services and stuff, and to those who have ever been to a Catholic mass. I mean, there's all kinds of smells and bells, if you will, incense of different kinds, frankincense, myrrh, bells, transformations happening and that type of thing. And so ritualistic stuff is in my blood. But I don't like the organized portion of it, if you will. And so that's kind of how I went out and went upon my own path with crystals and herbs and manifestation, that type of thing. So does that make me a witch? Sure. I guess it does. Is it practicing witchcraft when I take crystals and assign elements to them with directional to try to pull energy into them to navigate the path of my own life, if that's witchcraft, and I practice it all the time. And so that's really what I wanted to talk about, in a nutshell is simply these are topics that are near and dear to all of us. And we all have our way of practicing and what I want each of you to know, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing bad about it. You're simply just enhancing your own life with your own spirituality and your spirituality really comes from your own heart. Yes, it can be taught to you there are people that can stand up at a pulpit and tell you, you should do this, and you need to do that. And that works for a lot of humans, it doesn't work for just as many. I like to kind of navigate my own path and evolve with the times and my craft has certainly changed over the years. It's not written in stone. I'm not reading some stone tablet to tell me how to live I'm actually evolving as a human being with wisdom, on my path from things that I've ascertained and grown with, I mean, for instance, one of the most powerful things that I practice with and many of you who may be listening to this have come to our events. We do candle magic events at ravens cauldron and they're extremely powerful. I've had testimonies of people coming in and saying whatever they were focusing on for our two hour event, where we're grinding crystals, were grinding herbs were oiling a candle or carving sigils into a candle. We're writing letters of intention, we're burning things, to get a seven day candle to represent your desire for your own life. And I've had many testimonials about how powerful and well that worked. And that's, that's what we do. These are the types of things that these you can call it pagan practitioner, you can call it a Wiccan, if you practice Wicca, you can call it you're just simply a witch. You can call it witchcraft, you can call it your spiritual path. I don't call it anything. I never refer to myself as a witch to people. It's not something that I talk about with my friends all the time. Everybody knows by coming to my house, there's crystals everywhere, and I'm into tarot cards and stuff, but that doesn't make me any different than you. And so I know I keep rounding back to that same thing, that same idea that it's all the same story. It's been written before but it because it kind of is and what I love about the craft is that we can manipulate that craft to work for us and the only rule that I have, it's very similar to Wicca. I only do things in my craft to illuminate The path and enhance my very own life. That's the rule I have. That is not a rule, I'm telling you you need to live by, I'm not telling you to practice like me, I'm just telling you what I do. I would never, for instance, my partner, I would never go do some sort of ritual for him. Now, if he's aware of that, and wants me to, because he knows that I know how to get things done. That's a whole completely different story. But I don't feel like it is in my bill of rights, if you will, to manipulate anything in anyone else's life. But mine, for the love of all things good. My life is in a constant state of flux, and its constant need, it needs all my attention. I don't have the energy or the time to fix somebody else's life and who am I to say what you need to do to make your life good. So that in a nutshell, my friends is a roundabout way of talking about what is a witch? What is witchcraft, and how I particularly practice, and I want you just to reflect on that. Who are you, and labels are not necessary. But this is a here, here's what I call myself, I don't call myself a witch, if you will, I'm not offended by that. And I can be called that I call myself a spiritual person, plain and simple. I have my own Brian spirituality path. And I'd like to share it with all those that want to know about it. It doesn't make me much different than any one else. All right. Up next, we're going to talk about building a crystal toolkit. And I'm very excited about this next section. Right, let's get into how to build a crystal toolkit. I talk about this lot in my store in in my events. And one of the most common questions that ravens cauldron that comes up, when you come in there can be overwhelming because we probably have 165 Different tumbled crystals. And when I say tumbled crystals, crystals the size of a quarter or less, you can carry in your pocket, all different metaphysical meanings. Plus we have all these massive crystals and POM stones and the list goes on. And people come in constantly and they say things to me, like, I love all this stuff. But what do I do with it? And that's a truly valid question. Because a lot of times you could just come in and buy all these crystals. And then they just sit in your house and yeah, sure they're pretty good. You dust them and but what do you do with them? It's kind of like they become Nitnem knickknacks, if you will or tchotchkes and no, that's not what they are. And so I want to start with building your crystal toolkit. So I have a massive crystal toolkit in my house. I have a special kind of carrier for them. Most of my ritual type crystals are palm stone, so literally the size of a lemon flat and then a lemon but that kind of palm size. And then I also have an inordinate amount of small crystals tumbles that type of thing that are with me constantly for different reasons. So right now I just reached into my pocket as I said that and I have a tumbled piece of Chevron amethyst, why would I carry a piece of Chevron Amethyst with me? So last night, I went to see Christie hind and the pretenders in Akron. For those of you that know she actually is from their legendary singer legendary band called The Pretenders and had to work today to record this podcast and Dan is working at the Marysville store. And so Chevron Amethyst is the keep on keeping on stone for me. What it does is it lets me be the best version of myself and through thick and thin when I'm tired when I'm not feeling it. Not that I'm not feeling this today. But I knew that being out late staying at a hotel driving back from Akron and getting on line to do all this stuff today was going to require stamina. And it helps me to not take things so seriously like the tiredness and that type of thing. And just to keep on keepin on and that's what I use Chevron Amethyst for. Which brings me to a point about metaphysical meanings with stones. Only take what you read about them. So far, like kind of with a grain of salt, if you will, because it's not it's somebody's opinion. I just told you my opinion of dream Amethyst or Chevron amethyst. And what it does for me, it helps kind of sustain my energy, not ramping up to where I'm like a nut job where I'm busting at the seams and wanting to get things done. But just to kind of help me sail through my day and get things done. You may read 1000 Different things online. And it may be completely different may make zero sense to what I'm saying. And that's the beauty of crystals. There are a few generally accepted truths with them. A lot of them have to do with chakra colors and chakra For us, but for the most part you do with them how you feel, if that makes any sort of sense. So one of those master truths one of those universal truths is with the one we're going to start with today. When you're building your crystal kit, everyone needs a nice, high quality. And when I say high quality, what I mean by high quality is not somebody valued it for expensive price, but a piece of clear quartz that you can see into and it feels and looks right to you. And you only it might be the cloudiest, clear quartz you've ever seen. But you may see a rainbow in there. And that rainbow sparks something within you, it may be worth two cents, it may or may be worth $2 million. And who knows, it doesn't matter. None of the value stuff on crystals matters. They're expensive, because they're we're paying for people to go miles into the earth and pull them out for us and risked their lives and all these mineral rich areas. And one of the most mineral rich countries in the entire world is the United States. So just know that if a crystal is expensive, it's not because somebody says it's powerful, it's because of what it takes to get it or its its value. You know, it might have a clarity that's never been seen before that type of thing. But clear quartz is known as a master crystal. And when I say a master crystal, it's like rosemary is in the herb world. If you're doing potions and witchy concoctions with herbs and you're missing something like something a little rare, maybe clean of the meadow, or Mullin you can't get a hold of that type of thing. You can always substitute Rosemary that same concept holds true with clear quartz it's known as a master crystal. So if you're in a hurry needed to throw something together real quick to get some manifestation done. And the only thing you have access to is clear quartz use it by all means, but what it does in the crystal world is it magnifies the intensity and properties of other crystals. So when you put a piece of so for instance, if I was doing a crystal grid and I it's just five tumbles five tumbles, I've got a piece of Carnelian. For vitality, I've got a piece of Amethyst for peace and calm. I've got a piece of Celestite for psychic ability and I've got a piece of adventuring for prosperity. So I've covered the whole gamut and this is not a crystal grid I would normally do I'm just I'm just making an example here in the middle of those four crystals, I would lay them appropriately on my grid would be a piece of clear quartz. So if you imagine those four corners feeding into that clear quartz and then the clear quartz pushing out, it is amplifying all of those properties to give it your best chance to work and that's what a master crystal clear quartz does. So that's part of the part of the deal here is to learn that but that's only 50% What I say how to build your crystal toolkit, the other 50% is getting to know your crystal and it's not all pieces of clear quartz. It's not all pieces of Amethyst, it's the ones that speak to you and I know that sounds a little woowoo and quite honestly my version of witchiness is not woowoo I am a pragmatic logical person. But it is an absolute truism that you cannot assume that every piece of Amethyst is the same you've got to go to your crystal store. This is why I'm totally against buying a lot of this stuff online. You got to hold it you got to get to know it and a plain and simple I use this example in the store all the time Amethyst does not speak to me. It's okay. But it will it's just very common to me I have tons of it. I love big Amethyst geode and that type of thing but Amethyst tumbles and stuff. They're supposed to induce calm and make you feel great and help you sleep and stuff. I don't feel that way about them. Purple is not my favorite color and it's just not a stone I vibe with but if you were to read all the documentation on amethyst, it would say quite the contrary. So what I tried to say is get to know your crystals, go to your crystal store, hold them Go to a corner of your store, any self respecting store owner will allow you to do this and see how you feel. Dig through those tumbles, take two or three of them feel how you feel separately. That's how you get to know your crystals and then when you bring them home. You really it's not as if a lot of people get hung up on this ritualistic thing like I don't have time to sit for an hour a day and you know when you're eating your dinner when you're watching your TV show, hold one of your crystals that you just bought and see how it makes you feel. If it makes you feel inspired. For instance, then You put that in your vitality collection, that's one that for me, that would be a carnelian. It helps, helps me want to get it done, get the job done. But start with this clear quartz because clear quartz when you hold, it can have all that manifestation feeling of all these things of energy of peace, all those things, because it's kind of a master crystal. But what you're looking for with your first piece of clear quartz that you're going to use to amplify everything is just make sure when you hold it that you feel good, that it feels right to you. If it doesn't put it back and find another one. This is how we get to know our, our crystals. And it's only once we get to know them. And we know that we can stand them and handle having them in our life is it that we start using them for manifestation and in some of those meanings and clear quartz is one of the most benign because it amplifies everything else. And so that's the one to get to know. And it's always for me a central crystal and crystal grids and rituals and stuff. It's the piece in the center, and it pushes out its energy and pulls in the energies from the others. And so that exact four piece crystal grid that I talked about with the earlier with the clear quartz in the middle. So after I was done charging that crystal grid, if you will, I would actually leave it sit for a few days to get the power swirling and all the energy and then I would pull the middle piece of clear quartz. And that's the piece I would carry with me for the duration of what I'm looking for leave the other four because they've been charged and fed off that energy, leave it in the room until my wish has been granted if you will. And then when you're done, you simply set all five of those crystals when it's all said and done in a windowsill on a moon. It doesn't have to be a full moon, you don't have to get that scientific about it. But where you can actually see the moon and it's illuminating, to sit them right in your windowsill and they will be charged and ready for your use. Again, they last forever. There are also beliefs like you can one use a crystal and then it's done. I don't believe that. Now there are certain things that I will do with rituals. And this is going to be on how to build your crystal toolkit but let's just say that I was doing some month long ritual where I was adding crystals and herbs and all that stuff. And these weren't showcased this is wasn't my crystal toolkit stuff actually obtained these crystals for a ritual, I may want to take all of that tie it up in Muslim and return it to the earth by burying it that's completely permissible. But it's not because I feel like the crystals have done their job and now they're not useful to anyone else. It's just giving a gift back to the earth if you will. All right friends. So that's what I wanted to talk about there. I just this is the beginning of how to build a crystal toolkit and it's the master crystal with clear quartz. So if you haven't started building your toolkit then yes, start with clear quartz go to your crystal shop, get to know it and give yourself a couple of weeks to get to know it. It could be just a tumble, it could be a palm stone of clear quartz, anything like that. And then once you get to know it, you add it and I really encourage you to find a vessel to store them in and keep your crystals in one place because you will call upon them to do glorious and huge things in your life. I have examples after example of that, I'm going to give you one to close off the success this particular session. Those who have come in the store may know Laurie Laurie is the manager of the Delaware store she manages all things ravens called her and I other team members are Miss Katie she runs Cricut cartridge escape rooms you might see her at the store occasionally to on Thursdays and then we have Tracy and Kim who work in float between both stores for customer service for us. So Lorie long, she's got a very beautiful long red hair. We do a lot of rituals together. And so I had set up a new shop online, I won't get into all those details yet. But I set up a shop to kind of cater to people. We get a lot of people that come into ravens cauldron that don't necessarily love metaphysics, if you will, they don't love we will studies they just love geology, they love the crystals. They want the showcase pieces, but they don't want anyone to tell them that that's going to bring them prosperity, and to each their own look just as much as people judge us for believing that I don't have a right to judge people for not believing that. So I want to make sure that those have those people have a welcoming space where they can come by Carnelian palm stone palm stone because they want it for their house because they love the look. They don't necessarily think that it's a vitality razor, if you will. Okay, so I set up this whole new online store for those people and it's kind of a new brand and that type of thing to kind of get in front of people that again, just love geology. I just love Earth made things. It was maybe the second week and I think I had sold a couple things but it was very slow. And I have the if I need anything in my life, I should do rituals every day to enhance my patients because I have none so we were over in our secret room at the escape room kind of working towards getting some prosperity for this new brand. So I bought several crystals. And we did the north south east west, I talked about assigning in rituals, assigning elements and direction I really believe in that and deities to these crystals sitting in these particularly physically sitting in north south east west and doing some chanting, and walking in circles to kind of drum up what I wanted. And so the underlying desire here was I need sales for my new brand. Universe, I'm begging you, please give us sales for our new brands. So I can get this off the ground and get cars for me. They don't have to be huge sales, but I have to show people loving and getting interest so that I can get interest and vitality and energy to take the next step and take it over the moon. So we did that we probably spent an hour and a half on this ritual pack today. And it was midnight got in the truck, I was getting ready to take Laurie off. And as I got in the truck to leave to Ching Ching, there was a sale right there for my new brand. And it was a big sale was like $300. And so there's just one of a million examples I can give you this stuff really does work. Where we get in our way with it is if we don't believe in it, if you believe in it, it'll happen. There's a will there's a way this is powerful, powerful stuff. So how to build your crystal toolkit, grab yourself a master crystal of clear quartz and start your toolkit today because it's done wonders for my life. And I know it will you too. Coming up next we're going to talk about a litho midsummer ritual that I think you're just going to love