Cinnabar - What's the big deal? Tarot and Toxicity in Witchcraft

Cinnabar - What's the big deal? Tarot and Toxicity in Witchcraft

In this enlightening episode, we dive deep into the world of Cinnabar—a mineral that has fascinated spiritual practitioners and alchemists for centuries. Join Brian as he explores the captivating geology of this vibrant red stone, delving into the earth's processes that bring it to life. Discover the powerful spiritual uses of Cinnabar, from manifestation and protection to its role in spiritual alchemy.

But there's more to Cinnabar than meets the eye. We’ll discuss the importance of understanding its toxicity, especially for those who incorporate it into their witchcraft and spiritual practices. Brian will also provide a Tarot card reading, offering guidance on how to navigate the potent energies of Cinnabar in your own life.  Finally, Brian will discuss toxicity in witchcraft and how to weed out the negativity and immerse oneself in the craft.

Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just curious about this intriguing mineral, this episode will provide valuable insights and practical advice. Tune in and elevate your spiritual journey with the knowledge of Cinnabar's mystical and material aspects.

Transcript

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Music, hello and welcome everyone to season three, episode seven of intentional, spiritual living with Brian. Gonna shake up the order this week. I'm really excited to talk about our third topic. I'm excited to do everything always but third topic, near and dear to my heart, and I've heard a lot of things lately in the store about toxicity in the craft and online, and I want to talk about that at length. So we're going to talk about that. But the order today, excuse me, the order today is I'm going to pull our three card Tarot Spread to get us started off. And after that, I'm going to talk about our building our crystal toolkit that we've been talking about. And I'm actually going to talk about a rarer stone, not rare, as in, can't find it in the earth, but you don't see it for various good reasons. And that is cinnabar, something that I've loved since I was in the single digits in age. And can't wait to talk about that. And then finally, we're going to talk about toxicity in witchcraft and in the craft in general, online and things I'm hearing and seeing. And just want to have an open discussion with you guys, food for thought, and anybody that's experiencing that, I want to give you my opinion and my encouragement, So with No further ado, let's get started. You all right. Up first, we are going to talk tarot and find out what the universe wants us to know for the week ahead, I have shuffled my cards I am pulling right now. Major Arcana, 17, the star. Major Arcana, zero, the fool and the three of pentacles. Again, the star, the fool and the three of pentacles. What a lovely, lovely combination. This week, with all the kind of chaos that's going on the world. It's great to get a peaceful and hopeful reading for the week. And my personal favorite card, I've been reading Tarot, as many of you know, for upwards of near 40 years, and the card I vibe with the most in a tarot deck is the star. And I won't dive into that too much, except for that, it has everything to do with hope, optimism and transformation, renewal, if you will. And I feel like, okay, I said I wasn't going to do it, but I'm going to do it. So if you kind of dive into the fool's journey, right? And you chronologically walk up from the fool to the world, we know one of the scary cards is the tower, and the tower precedes the star. And so what I love about that is that we all have to have tower moments in our life, and we have them on the regular. And when I teach Tara, I talk about the fool's journey as a lifetime within a lifetime, within a lifetime. We walk that journey many, many times, and it's symbol, symbolically different for each time. But the the journey from going from one of those moments of desperation despair, the rug getting pulled out from under you, from a tower moment, into a new rebirth of hope and optimism. It's called wisdom, wisdom. And I take the bridge between those cards, and I define that as wisdom, and it's the most hopeful, lovely card to me in the world. And so when I see it come up, anyway, I told you I wasn't going to dive off the deep end and look what I did. That's why I love it. And when you combine it with the lovely energy of the fool in the teamwork aspect of the three of pentacles, it's just lovely, lovely combination. It's suggesting that we're entering it into a time, a phase, a period, in our trust and belief in ourselves and the universe, and our optimistic looking at things from all angles is working for us, and it's going to start a new beginning. And when we start that new beginning, we're not going to necessarily dot every I and cross every T, because the universe is telling us that that's okay right now, let's not, let's not take out a GPS. Let's not do everything but the books. Let's just enter into this. We have wisdom behind us, and it's okay, but remember, you can't do it all. It requires a team, and the three of pentacles is all about how you could create one thing that's semi beautiful. You and I could, but if we had a third person into the mix, a younger person that's looking at things from different angles, that maybe we have lost our insight on, or our creativity on, and the team comes together. We can make something instead of being semi beautiful, we can make it amazing. And that's what this is all about, trusting in your intuition, in your wisdom. It will propel us into a new beginning, and that new success that we are requiring and asking for will be supported and necessitated with teamwork and others. And that is what the universe wants us to know for the week ahead. What a great, great reading. And I apologize for going off the deep end on the star, but it is the Tarot card that I truly, truly, truly love I could talk about it for an entire episode. Alright? Up next we're going to talk about cinnabar. All right, let's talk about cinnabar. If you're tuning in for this episode for the first time this season, this is episode seven, and I have done a series we were on Part Seven of a building your crystal toolkit, where I pick a particular crystal and I talk about it and tell you how I vibe with it, what I use it for, how to get to know it, and just all around guidance for people that are wanting to answer the question, I have all these beautiful crystals now. What do I do with them? So that's what this whole series is about. And we're stepping out of the box a little bit this week to talk about cinnabar. Yes, we are going to talk about its metaphysical uses, of course, and how I feel like you should all have it in your crystal toolkit. But I also I want to talk a little bit about why it came to be. Because, again, most of you know I am 52 years old, so in my youth, when I would go to the metaphysical stores in the crystal shops, as few as there were, cinnabar was still something you would see on the regular. Now, I don't know how much you guys know about cinnabar, but I'm going to dumb it down. So it's a red mineral. It's mined all over the world. There's huge deposits of it in California, for instance, China, Spain, a huge amount of it from Spain. But cinnabar is red. It is a Mercury sulfide, and it is very toxic. For that reason, it is the biggest source of extracting Mercury, the most common source for extracting mercury. It's typically found near Volcanic Volcanic activity, but not always. It is a bright red crystal. And so there's different kinds of cinnabar like so you see a lot of vintage Chinese and Asian jewelry that was carved out of cinnabar, and it was a relatively low on the Mohs scale. So it's easy to carve into a lot of dragons and ornate cinnabar carvings, especially in some vintage vintage jewelry, is some really cool cinnabar, and then you see a lot of cinnabar and matrix. I actually am holding a piece of it in my hand right now from my crystal toolkit. The very vibrational right now, by the way, if ever we're going to step out on the woo, woo lane, it might be this episode, and it's vibrational. So I'll get back to the cinnabar. But if you've been following this entire season, then you heard my two episodes about the paranormal activity. Well, I'm in the building where that paranormal activity happened, and I talked about the huge crystal grid I made. Well, this cinnabar crystal that I have in my hand right now as part of that crystal grid, and I wanted to hold it during this episode. So by myself in the building, I went back there into this kind of very paranormally active room, and got my cinnabar, and I took it out there, and the energy on it is just amazing. I'll put it back into the crystal grid, and I'm done here, but this stuff is really powerful. So back to cinnabar. So it is very toxic, and you'll see it now in certain forms, like what I'm holding right now is a cinnabar in matrix, and it's just either surrounded by quartz or dolomite, I think is the other white mineral that you'll see it in matrix with, and you'll see little flecks of the cinnabar. I'm looking at it in my hand. And so it's been sealed and polished and tumbled in this palm stone, and so I can hold it, but there's a lot of concern with the toxicity of cinnabar. And so that's why you don't see it in the stores as much as you used to. But when I was a child, and I studied and I had all these books, I always wanted a piece of cinnabar, but I couldn't afford it. And so here we are today. I actually, I think I have nine or 10 specimens of it at Raven's cauldron of the crystal formed cinnabar, so it looks like a Ruby. It's just exquisite. They're little, you know, the sizes of quarters to half dollars. And I've really been looking and looking and looking, and I finally found a source for that. So why would you want this in your toolkit, and why I'm so obsessed with it? Well, part of it is my childhood, and I always was chasing it, and then I think I just fell into that whole human trait of, when it's harder to come by, I want it more. And then when I finally got a couple pieces for the store. Now, I think I said I had like 10, it's just jaw dropping. It's a beautiful, beautiful mineral, but you can't the crystal stuff I have in the store. If you hold, if you touch it, it's. Not going to really harm you greatly. I wouldn't recommend it for a long period of time. You know, you could have it on a shelf and that type of thing. But where cinnabar becomes toxic and where it becomes a problem is when it is heated, and a lot of cinnabar is powdery, especially rough pieces of cinnabar, a lot of times you'll see people hold them in water and stuff, because when it gets powder, then you're inhaling that, and it's mercury, and it's hot outside, and you get that vapor rising up and stuff. That's where it becomes toxic. And so that's why you don't see it anymore, except in sealed stuff, like what I'm holding. But if you want to see the real thing, you can go to ravenscauldron.com we sell actual real cinnabar crystals and their collector's pieces of just beautiful. So what I love about it. It has a longevity factor to it in a lot of cultures. It was revered in India and refined and believed that the deep red color meant immortality. So it has a lot to do with good health and longevity and vitality and just making us be the best versions of who we're supposed to be. And it's not just something. What I love about it so much is that, you know, there is a new minerals in the trade, you know, that we get in the store all the time, something I don't know, like chestnut Jasper, for instance, that doesn't go back very many years, but it has all kinds of metaphysical beliefs. So it's relatively new somebody's opinion. The stuff we're talking about here with cinnabar goes back hundreds of years and and how it was used and refined cinnabar powder. That's why some of the oil paintings were toxic, because some of that red pigments that they used was made out of cinnabar. And so it has a rich history, but it has everything to do with with vitality and with energy. And it also has to do with spiritual alchemy, because it was thought, you know, to be almost a gold like substance, and used in alchemy in India. And so for spiritual it's connected to alchemy because it's a transformation of us ourself, symbolizes the process of taking the base metal, or aspects of ourself into gold or something even more valuable than that, a higher spiritual awareness. And so when you combine all that and the manifestation aspects of cinnabar, there's just I would never be without a piece in my crystal toolkit. And for me, I wouldn't take my piece of cinnabar on vacation, because that's a time to lay down and relax and chill. So I have a toolkit for that, but this one, when I need to get some stuff done, when I need creativity, when I need energy, when I need to be a badass all around you, simply can't go wrong. Cinnabar, get a piece. I highly encourage it for your crystal toolkit, and that's how I'm using it again. I'm holding this piece, and I just feel the energy rating out my arm. So I know like when I get done recording this podcast, I'll probably get a bunch more stuff done today. And that's what I love about it, the energy, the passion, the drive. All right, friends, up next, we're going to talk about a topic near and dear to me that I just want to have a frank discussion about, and that's toxicity in witchcraft. Okay, let's talk about toxicity in witchcraft for the duration of this episode, it's a near and dear topic to me, and I'm going to kind of attack it from a few angles based now, based upon what I feel now. This is going to be like an opinion piece, folks, not that everything that we talk about is an opinion piece. Nobody can prove the metaphysical usage of cinnabar. Nobody can prove something about Tarot. So this is no different, but this is more of a conversational opinion piece. I will say I see a lot of toxicity. I have customers and young folks come in the store and talk to me about this, and I join, I am in a member of many, many, many, many witchcraft groups and social media, and therein lies where the trouble begins for me, and there's where I kind of want to start so. And it just recently came to a bubbling issue with me, because I joined a new witchcraft group last week. I'm not going to mention the name. I'm not here to gossip. I'm not a member of this group anymore. I didn't post a thing. It was the commentary that I was reading that really just makes me sick to my stomach, and I want to talk about it. So first thing I want to talk about before I talk about that specific issue, we work in towns, in small town Ohio, where there is some Christian bigotry. And I'll just leave it at that. You know, people that look at our store for, you know what, it's called, Raven's cauldron, and I think evil. And Christians and throw Bible type discussions at us and stuff. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, but it happens to everyone and everything. So I'm not singling us out, but I'm saying that as craft members here, when we see that kind of behavior and we can't stand it and it makes us crazy, but yeah, we do the same thing, and that's what I want to talk about. We do the same thing amongst our own community. So let's talk about the Wiccan read. And I'm not here to really talk about anything more than I'm just going to say the one sentence, the shortened version of the Wiccan read, and ye harm none. Do what you will if you want to interpret that, the agreed upon interpretation, as long as you're not harming anyone else. Do as you must. That fact right there that I just gave you can bring up such toxicity and vitriol in witchcraft groups. And it just amazes me. You know, these people throw a fit on both sides of the fence. I'm not wicked, and how dare you call me wicking and vice versa over again. Let me tell you that it's like, as long as you're not harming someone else, do what you must. First of all, mofos, and this is Brian's book, speaking ridiculous, ridiculous that you would feel defensive about following, that. That's simply being a good human being. Let's start there. You know, if I'm, you know, I'm not criticizing what you believe, but don't criticize that other people believe that. I don't follow any, I don't follow anything. I'm eclectic, but I do live by that exact belief system. And that exact belief system for me is that I will do all kinds of spell work. I will do all kinds of spell craft and rituals and with my friends, and get really, really ceremony ceremonial with it and deep in the woods, but it's always to enhance our own lives. And those present have to agree, I don't think that it is in my power of a human being assign my powers that they be that I should be manipulating somebody else's life for the worse because they did something that I don't like, or they have wronged me in some way during my life, and they need to pay I don't I cannot wrap my head around that. Now I'm not criticizing if you feel that way, but the hatred and the bickering over this exact topic online is just I cannot even believe what I'm seeing. And so what I saw online that I couldn't believe that made me leave this group. So these two somebody posted on there about how to get over a heartbreak. Is there any like, love spells I can pull you out of, like, the seven season slump type of thing. They had recently broke up and stuff, and so somebody came back and had given them the ingredients to do this toxic Hexing type spell on the person that broke up with them. Then it was collecting urine and shit and fingernails and sour milk and all this, and putting this jar and wishing all this hell and horrible things on this person. And the person that asked how to get past it said, I really would not want to harm anyone else. I don't feel like I have the right and it just exploded into like, 500 comments both sides of the fence and oh, it just makes me sick, because for me, growing up Catholic and having very Catholic family, and growing a Catholic grade school and high school and all those rules, kind of the reason that I'm into this craft is that I'm a very spiritual person, but I don't necessarily. I kind of want to walk my own path. I feel like I have a good relationship with the divine, and I know what my path is and what I want out of it. I take from things, I read books, of course, and understand those that come before me, but I kind of make Brian's rules, and i That's why I broke away from that organized stuff. So I can certainly understand this side of the fence. It's like, why would you want to go to practice Wicca? It's just another organized religion where you have a human being if that you're going to services and that type of thing standing up there and telling you how to walk the walk and talk the talk, and their vision, and you're walking is through the bare vision. So I can certainly understand that, but I can't understand is criticizing someone for it. Though I can understand, like, thinking in my head, like, why would you want to do that? But who cares? Who the hell cares if that's what you want to do? The other side, you know, the Wiccans. You know, not understanding the other side. Excuse me. You know, Hexing and wishing I'm not making a moral judgment on anyone and anything. I refuse to ever do that. I don't believe in any of that, but I'm not going to criticize you if you do, and if you feel that that's in your power, and that's something you want to do and you feel good about it, I can't say as I support your. I don't support you. It's just, it's just something that happens, but to get online and attack you like, I don't know, it's just this poison, and this has been going on for years. Which leads me to the next topic. So this whole lineage thing, now, the newest thing I'm seeing all over as these superior witchcrafters, because, you know, their great grandmother would practice hoodoo and voodoo and was this and that, and therefore they're stop with all the bullshit, stop with all that nonsense. And anybody listening to this, especially that you take any inspiration from anything I've told you and you want to get into this craft, and you're drawn to this deep inside, and you just know it's part of you pay no attention to any of that bullshit, okay? Because I don't care if your entire family came from a history of Scottish witchcraft, that doesn't make you any more powerful at anything than a person born into a family that practiced nothing, for instance, nothing. They were raised with nothing. They were raised in the innate ability to choose their path will be just as powerful as this whole lineage thing and that, again, I can't wrap my head around it. And that was another thing in this new group, you know this, like you know this, these two girls were fighting back and forth about, you know, because one of them's grandmother's Appalachian background went back this far, and she didn't it was like two, three generations before her. And I'm just kind of like, you didn't even know these people. Like it bears no meaning on your power as a witch. So anyone listening embrace this craft, learn as much as you can, but honest to God, any of the online shit that I'm seeing right now, you know, take that with a grain of salt. Follow your heart, which leads me to the next thing you know, and this happens in these groups as well. Just the word by itself makes me cringe, and it's the word rules I'm gonna tell you right now. Any class that I teach, and I teach a lot of stuff at Raven's cauldron, crystal grids, six part deep dives on tarot, puppets for manifestation, puppets, candle magick. The list goes on. We start all of our classes and we start talking about witchcraft. Is the number one rule of witchcraft is that there are no rules yet. When I get on these witchcraft groups and just try to see what's going on in the craft, that's all I see is rules and people putting hard, fisted lines down there about their way or hit the highway, and that's not true, and you can't do that. I saw somebody having an argument about how to something I talked about last week, about how to dispose of spell materials. Guess what, folks, there's no right or wrong answer, and it is so maddening. Again, the whole reason I came to this craft, the Whois. And I embraced this craft. Having been raised Catholic, I loved many things about that religion. I loved the saints and the stories of people that made differences in the world, and the relics that are still around of them, and the ritualistic stuff with the masses, with sounds and incense and all of that. And I took out what I loved and followed my own path, and I vibe in my own path and my own power. And if I knew now what I knew, then I would have been a much easier landing into it, because you do hear these opinions of these other people, and in my day, I didn't have the internet, thank God, so I got so I was able to do it from a more innocent standpoint. But you know, if you're young now and you're getting into the craft, get into the craft because you feel it in your stomach, because you feel it in your heart, and design your rituals, and design your spells based upon the way you want to do them. Everything I talk about in this podcast, which is a lot of rituals, a lot of crystal stuff. I just if you're listening to this episode, of course, you just heard why I love to vibe with cinnabar. These are Brian's opinions. These are true life experiences, and I speak from the heart. I tell you the truth. I'm not making any money off of this podcast. This is something for Raven's Calder and visitors, people that follow me, because it's my passion, and I'm sharing with you my experiences. By no means ever take something I say is that way or hit the highway, because I can't think of too many things in the craft that are like that. You know, we do our own thing. We design our own rituals, and we come together as a community, because we vibe with nature. We vibe with crystals and runes and tarot cards and things of an arcane, esoteric nature. That's what brings us all together, and that's what's important. So that was a long ass rant, and I apologize, but I don't apologize, because I think it all needed to be said. But if we can boil that down, my friends, it's okay to love the craft, it's okay. To feel the calling of all this stuff and do it your way, because your way is best. Your way of manifesting is the best way of manifesting. Come to classes and learn about my experiences. Come to other classes elsewhere, go to circles and festivals and talk to people and figure out how they do it, and that's how you then start throwing that in your bowl and making your own recipes to do things. And that's what's beautiful about this craft, not just somebody that is making us feel inferior to their superiority that doesn't exist. And that's what I see so much online right now. And I just really, really, really, really hate it. And I don't I want to discourage young people, or anybody young or old getting into the craft, come right in and figure out your own path and come talk to real people, and that's the way you'll get to know it. Thank you for listening to that, friends. I appreciate that we all need to stick together as a community. The craft is a beautiful thing. You and that is a wrap. All right, coming up on episode eight next week, I'm going to do a deep dive on Amazonite in the building your crystal toolkit. Series, we're going to talk about Amazonite. I love that stone, and we'll talk about its properties and how I like to use it. And then we're going to go through the process to put together a fast manifest crystal grid. And I will talk you through the crystals required, the materials required, where to set it up in your house, the direction to put it in the deity that we're going to call upon if you wish to do so, the incantation, all the things that need to do to make this crystal grid for fast manifestation when you need something quickly. So you'll want to tune in for that. That's going to be a fun one. And then, of course, we're going to do our three card Tarot pool, and I want to talk about our tarot card pools. I was having it. Somebody sent me an email and asked me this, so it's a very good question. So if you're an active listener to intentional spiritual living with Brian, and you're following along, and then you're getting this Tarot guidance the week that they're happening. And that's a wonderful thing, but I get tons of people downloading episodes from season one, two and older episodes. And so all that means then is, this is an education for you. I am a very seasoned, almost 40 year tarot reader, and so you will get to hear my interpretation of these cards and how to put the stories together from three and what's powerful about it, what I encourage you to listen to if you're aspiring to read tarot, is that I'm taking three cards, I'm not answering a question, I'm just giving spiritual guidance for the for a week ahead based upon three cards. And I really like that. I'm the more and more that I read tarot over the decades, I drift farther away from using spreads. You know, like this card means this, and this means that, versus just putting out as many cards depending on how long I'm reading with someone, and telling the story based upon left to right, these are the cards, and it just seems a lot more powerful. So we'll talk about that in an episode coming up. But in the future, you know, if you're tuning in, years down the road, yeah, use those Tarot reads as education on getting getting to know those cards better, like we talked about the star tonight. So I thank you all, and I look forward to talking to you next Week. You