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Handwritten letters are actual magic!
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We are not doctors, lawyers, or professionals. We’re amateurs. Nothing we say should be taken as advice, instruction, or seriously. Any actions taken based on our content can and will lead to chaos, injury, existential crises, your pets no longer loving you, and possibly death. We make no promises and assume no liability.

SPEAKER_07 0:15

We don't know if we're doing this as a full up. We don't know what we're doing with this episode, but we're continuing with our music series.

SPEAKER_06 0:23

So I use magic in my practice. I mean, hello.

SPEAKER_07 0:32

I didn't even catch it. I was like, what did she say? Okay. I use music in my practice.

SPEAKER_06 0:41

Hello. I'm a witch and sometimes I do witchcraft.

SPEAKER_09 0:47

That's the show.

SPEAKER_06 0:52

And um if I really need to get if I'm doing like a long, drawn out, deep, thick, juicy ass working, I'm thinking of a steak. Or like a cut of like a a half a slab of cow that you're cutting into pieces. That's what I'm thinking about.

SPEAKER_07 1:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:17

And uh so I might make myself a soundtrack to work to. And it also helps me with timing because if I need to remember to do something, or I only wanted to do it for this amount of time because I don't want to do it too much or too little, then I will set it to a song. So if I do a playlist, like I will intro it and it'll get me in the mood, like something like uh an instrumental by, let's say War Jaruna, because everybody knows who War Jr. is. An instrumental by War Jaruna to lead me into the mind space. And then the action songs will help me remember what I'm doing. Number one, get me in, keep me in the mind space, number two, and number three, provide timing that I don't have to think about and watch the clock, which is cool. I mean, you can also use candles for that if you wanted to, but in this case we're talking about music, so that's what I use.

SPEAKER_07 2:16

Have you have you ever, in talking about time management, have you ever fucked around and looked at the clock and been like, I was doing that for three hours?

SPEAKER_06 2:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:28

When it comes to this kind of stuff. So sometimes having a little uh way to tell is very helpful. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 2:35

Well, part of it what made me realize it is um the gym. Because if if you do like high-intensity interval training, if you you need a way to tell the time for the intervals. And I don't already, yeah. I don't have I can't do that by myself. I need someone to do the timing for me, and music helps me with that.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_06 3:04

Um, it can remind you what you're mad about and help get you into the right mindset to do that work. And I like I mentioned, B Y O B by System of a Down when I'm trying to work against the man with capital letters. If I want to remember, like I like I said, how I was before OCD, if I need to be bold, that I'll play Glory B. Uh Lil Sims Point and Kill. See, this is the stuff that I talk about in that episode. Lil Sims point and kill. If I want if I want something, then I'm gonna go get it. And that m music is gonna help me. Pussifer's Grand Canyon helps me regain perspective and gives gratitude to a higher power. And so that's pre-made music that I'm listening to to put me in the mood. If I am actually doing my own work. I am not a musician. I don't have music in my head. It baffles me that people have that in their brains. I cannot fathom it. I do have rhythms and I repeat things because hi, OCD and autism. So I don't really do rhymey things, I don't really write things down, but I do end up saying things aloud, and I will usually repeat them, and you will usually have a rhythm. And and very often I will put it to some sort of tune that my brain just sticks in there and it helps me get into a flow state.

SPEAKER_07 4:32

And sometimes you can, if you're not feeling particularly crep somebody else's melody off. I'm not talking about for commercial use or anything like that. But if you have to put your your your words that you want to use to like Eye of the Tiger, do it. Especially if you want Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:49

Like if you have a really long statement that you want to read, put it to music and you'll remember it better.

SPEAKER_08 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 5:00

Um Yeah, I I so I think a lot of people have playlists or can make playlists for how they want to feel. I'm one of those people that has the playlist for when you need a good cry. It's all the cry songs, you know. Or if you are pumped up, I have a playlist that I keep those. What did we talk about? Those, uh, whatever the BPM number for like ADHD.

SPEAKER_06 5:21

I think that's interesting. I'm gonna look into that.

SPEAKER_07 5:23

Cleany, you know, you need to focus on something like there's that. And I think you can do the same thing with in calling up the mood that you were trying to get when you were doing these things, you know. Um I I had a spell that I wanted to do a long time ago now, but I was building it for two months. It was very it was intricate. I was putting it together, and anytime I heard a song that was like karmic, you know, sounded like some like some kind of act of karmic justice, boom, it went on that playlist. So when the time came to get in the head space, because you're not always, you know, when it's if it, you know, I I was doing the full thing. I was putting it like to the moon side.

SPEAKER_06 6:08

If you're doing planetary hours, sometimes you need to get yourself in that brain.

SPEAKER_07 6:11

You gotta get Yeah. So like to sit there and listen to it and be like, yeah, oh, oh yeah, that's ooh, that's how I wanted to feel. Yeah. I think it it can be great. It's it's kind of like um not everybody wants to have a a grimoire or a book of shadows or feels like they can keep up with that. But sometimes you can keep up with a playlist.

SPEAKER_06 6:30

Even if you do want to, sometimes you can't because you live in a place or in a family that you are unsafe if you have it. Another shout out to Amy Blackthorne because they pointed out that they never had that as a kid because it was unsafe. And I realized that's part of the reason I don't do it. Even though I I want to, now I still can't because I'm crazy. But but that's understanding that helps me.

SPEAKER_07 7:04

Mental illness. Oh, the way that that just I don't even have to ask what you mean. Um yeah, I I and and when you think about the intention and correspondence, there's so many correspondence with the red candle means this and this me, you know, and and core put it with songs, you know? Even if you're saving it for later. Sometimes I put songs and I'm like, I that I see a thread running in between. I'm like, this song sounds like power to me. Yeah. Because slap it in the power playlist. You'll probably need it one day, and be like, oh, I'm glad I have that.

SPEAKER_08 7:43

Check out our playlists.

SPEAKER_06 7:46

Drum circles became a thing for a reason. They're helpful for and it helps you, like if you want to do group work, it helps get everybody synced together.

SPEAKER_07 7:59

It's kind of like, not exactly this, but if you've ever gone to like a group thing, maybe it's Anahadas, maybe it's your own little uh group of friends doing their thing. If you ever shared a playlist with people and everyone's like adding the songs, I'm thinking specifically of the playlist and and and putting that on and everyone kind of sharing that same vibe, you know, or at least or finding new music that you think carries that momentum. Boah King and Rhapsody when that came on. Oh, that's such you that is in my my longer playlist because that was so important. Um, I can't believe I didn't put it in the section when I talked about magic, but whatever. You live and you learn. But uh I can't hear that song without thinking of that moment and being murdered by your tasty cake.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

But it was so it was it was magical. It was a magical moment.

SPEAKER_07 9:02

Oh yeah. It was magical for me because I was closer to God than I've ever been. Because I was, you know, about to die.

SPEAKER_06 9:09

But I will never stop feeling bad about that.

SPEAKER_07 9:16

Don't. Are you kidding me? Are you the mentality? It is making fun stories, but man, singing that and having this amazing moment and me just being like trying to keep my dying. This is it. This is the one that takes me.

SPEAKER_06 9:37

Everyone come to Anahadas, use code Church of Jim to get $10 off your tickets.

SPEAKER_07 9:43

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we'll sing to you know what? It would be a nice little ritual moment to sing bohemian bohemian rhapsody around a fire if we can and pass out tasty cakes like the body of Christ.

SPEAKER_06 9:58

You know? But it will not be anything powdery.

SPEAKER_07 10:01

Or maybe we'll do the cinnamon, the turmeric challenge. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 10:09

Did we say that on here?

unknown 10:11

No.

SPEAKER_07 10:13

They'll figure it out. They're smart. It's like the cinnamon challenge, but with turmeric. Come on.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

Oh man.

SPEAKER_07 10:22

Everybody's gonna wear white, so when we all start coughing, we'll have a snow vine here to take home. It's like the color, it's like the powdered color run runs, and like or like that celebration they do in India, you know, where they like throw the color. Except it's just coughed up turmeric. Oh my god, we're all gonna wear some. Yeah. But how fun would it be if we all brought white shirts or white smocks or something and then had like a paint fight and then kept those shirts. Maybe not a paint fight.

SPEAKER_06 10:59

But that sort of goes with what she's doing for merch this year. I hope I don't want to blow anything, but tell me. She's already said it. Oh, then tell me. She is getting really into lino cut prints. I don't know what the word is. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 11:15

That's right, that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_06 11:16

And so she's gonna have all these stamps and this paint for us to make our own merch.

SPEAKER_07 11:22

Can we do an old school, almost like a yearbook signing? Yes. Sign shirts. Sharpies! Yes. What's the best longest lasting won't wash out? I guess would it be a Sharpie? Everybody brings Sharpies of various colors. We'll sign each other shirts sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

Yes, and color in some of the Lino prints.

SPEAKER_07 11:43

Ooh, this is gonna be fun. And I'm gonna draw little pee-pees on places that people can't see, so they don't know what's there. Like right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right under the tag on your we can't see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:00

Wow. Um Do you want to do that right now? Let's put together a little mini playlist and uh so we can do it. We're gonna be like, hey, you guys are gonna come down a hot as we're doing this.

SPEAKER_07 12:14

Okay. Is that it will okay. I'm on YouTube. I'll make it because I'm already there. Okay, so what's the vibe of this play? We'll share this with y'all. It'll be down. It'll be uh my my playlist, Kim's playlist, and this. What are we calling this?

SPEAKER_06 12:29

AP energy boost. Because let's do one to whoop up a bunch of energy and then like good energy to share.

SPEAKER_07 12:37

Bohemian Rhapsody definitely goes on. Yes. Okay, so uh we'll start with that one. No, not the movie.

SPEAKER_06 12:47

The whole movie of Bohemian Rhapsody. The name of the song is T-U-U-L-I.

SPEAKER_08 12:56

Alrighty. Uh song by Head Headning.

SPEAKER_06 13:02

Super wizzy bro. Alright, that's going on AP.

SPEAKER_08 13:07

I have a scary story to go with that song.

SPEAKER_06 13:14

So everyone look up Head Ningarna, and just if you can't, don't worry about spelling that. T U T U U L I the song, and listen to it. Yeah. So Sarah and I were driving back from Anahadas. And I was driving this time, because I I was I was helping her drive. It was my turn. And I asked her to look through and find this song. And so she did, and she put it on, and it started playing, and about 12 seconds in, it just stuck on one note and it was going and we couldn't turn it off. Nothing would turn off at all.

SPEAKER_07 14:02

Hear that note.

SPEAKER_06 14:04

None of it was a little bit more. Is it like the wind whistling sound? No, it was in the middle, like the one of the weird doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. And we couldn't get it to turn off.

SPEAKER_07 14:17

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_06 14:18

I had to turn the car off, and then I turned it back on, it was still on. I had to leave the car off for like two minutes before it turned off, and I was like, delete that from the playlist. We can't play that again. The car does not like it. We're not doing that.

unknown 14:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 14:36

Scary. We were on the interstate. In a town I don't in like a state we don't live in. It was really strange. But anyway, it's a good witchy song.

SPEAKER_07 14:52

I'm gonna do speaking of witchy songs. Alright, this is a song called Give Us a Little Love by Faula. Faulula? Okay. It's on my list. And I feel like I I want to hear no objections to this. Okay. It's the song Space Jam from the movie Space Jam. That feels like come on, that's that's that's I've never seen that movie. Everybody get up, it's time to slam now. We got a real jam. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:35

Okay, I have one. Go. Inico. Uh, and the song is Jericho.

unknown 15:42

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 15:43

I'm not sure how to say her name.

SPEAKER_07 15:45

I'm gonna put a death clock song on there because I like the energy because it's a death clock song, but it's also the what is it, the something Philharmonic orchestra? I don't know. It's called Death Harmonic. And I feel like it just has an energy that I wanna that I would like to have.

SPEAKER_08 16:03

Running with the Wolves by Aurora. Oh, there we go. Added. Well, not yet, but now it's added.

SPEAKER_07 16:15

Well, I lied again. Now it's added. There we go. This will all be cut out. But don't cut it out of the video though. Uh okay, what else?

SPEAKER_08 16:29

What else? Because I'm enjoying watching you listen. It's called Ash Plus Bone. The symbol plus. Oh.

SPEAKER_06 16:46

By Sukmani. While you think about that, I'm gonna think about things that like physical objects I want to remember to bring. Like maybe a handful of creasote and some of the wormwood for my garden.

SPEAKER_07 17:01

I will uh bring a handful of things. I don't know what. I'll probably just pick right before I have to run.

SPEAKER_06 17:08

A bunch of cinnamon sticks.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah!

SPEAKER_06 17:11

I can bring cinnamon stick. I have shit tons. So everybody think if you're com if you're definitely coming to Anahadas and you want to do this, think of what your contribution to this spell will be.

SPEAKER_07 17:28

I'm gonna put the song on here called Strutton that I need to share with you.

SPEAKER_08 17:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 17:36

So everybody think about what um legal biological substance that is a plant that is not going to sit there and fuck up the fire pit because it's we don't own the fire pit.

SPEAKER_07 17:53

I'm gonna bring a handful of turmeric.

unknown 17:56

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:59

I'm gonna bring some creosote and some um whatever I said, wormwood. And the wormwood because that sort of gets into this spiritual plane. It's taking the place of mugwort for me because I have wormwood and I don't have mugwort growing here.

SPEAKER_07 18:17

I like you're being very sincere and very thought out, and I'm like, this song has a butt in it.

SPEAKER_06 18:26

But that's what we're gonna need at Anahadas.

SPEAKER_07 18:29

Yeah. Come on. Let me let me bring the energy I want to bring. It's the energy of butts. Alright. So we can say, um, okay, so we've got this spell playlist coming together. Some of all the stuff we're bringing. Uh email the requests. Yes.

unknown 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:53

And that way we can not have a playlist that is 17 hours long and that we cannot use. Right. Yes. And if you really want it, you will email us.

SPEAKER_07 19:04

That's how we weed out the uh the ones that are too lazy to have their songs on.

SPEAKER_06 19:15

I'm not going to pretend like that's not what I meant, but I just didn't want to say that word.

SPEAKER_07 19:21

I don't believe in that word. I want the effort to be made. Yeah. So uh let us know. Our email is wbhpodcast at gmail.com. Uh the playlists, all three of them will be linked down below. And now we're gonna talk about uh something a little special, a little a little trippy pippy. A little trippy pippy your granddaddy wandaddy went on. I hate that.

SPEAKER_06 19:50

And you too. I also hate that. Let's never let's never use that term again. Okay. Fine. Anyway, I went to Austin. I mean, no, I didn't. No, you didn't. Well you did, but I just was going along with it. Like you're not. Here's the thing. I haven't gone on this, gone on this trip yet, and I forgot where it was where I was going. I went to Mystic South.

SPEAKER_07 20:17

Which is decidedly not in Austin. It's not even in Texas.

SPEAKER_06 20:21

Nope. But uh uh here's here's what happened. Cut to a week from now or something. Yeah. I love a good ice water.

SPEAKER_07 20:33

A good ice water is a pleasure. Good for you for staying hydrated. Hey, thanks. Especially as hot as it is. Uh although I don't think you had to stay as hydrated in Georgia because it was so wet, yeah? Was it humid? What do you uh oh?

SPEAKER_06 20:54

Uh yes, it was so humid. Oh. Disgustingly humid.

SPEAKER_07 21:00

Well. Uh I hope that you enjoyed our musical endeavors and kind of talking about the witchcraft of it all. Uh, but now we've got a special treat. Everybody gather around, listen to your granddad.

SPEAKER_08 21:17

Sit down, kids.

SPEAKER_06 21:22

I'm here to tell you about my experience at Mystic South, which is not like most people's experience, probably, because I have different needs and wants. Oh. When I go to an event. Sure. And it's usually just sit in one place.

SPEAKER_07 21:36

I have needs and wants. It's to sit in one place. Not go to classes or really talk to very many people. Okay. Great. But you did, you did do some talking, and we are gonna plop those in. You just tell me when uh when a good time would be for those. Uh we have some interviews, so it kick it off. I'm gonna just sit here and ask questions that you'll probably get annoyed by and Be like, I haven't gotten there yet, Charlie.

SPEAKER_06 22:03

Well, first I got there and it was pretty easy. Sarah was very kind, and that I said, Oh my god, uh, I need to eat a food, and she said, Okay, pick one. And I'm like, I don't know. And we went through a bunch of things, and I wasn't gonna eat, I'm not, I didn't eat. This is the at the time of the explosive diarrhea, everyone, if you're listening in the future.

SPEAKER_07 22:32

So I was afraid to eat anywhere with lettuce. Oh, oh, because of the the okay, yes. Uh-huh. I thought you were just telling us that that had happened to you, and I was like, wow, she's just being really open.

SPEAKER_06 22:44

Although I did take an emodium the night before. And that's my new trick. Take an emodium the night before you fly.

SPEAKER_07 22:52

Yeah. Dude, I listen, I know some people who will purposefully okay, there are people whose names I won't say. Who I don't think they would even care. But travel with plums and plum juice or prunes and prune juice so that they can uh perform when they are on on the road. Me? I'm like a bear in hibernation. Yeah, I don't want to shoot.

SPEAKER_06 23:19

I don't need to worry about performance because mistakes happen pretty frequently in my life.

SPEAKER_07 23:29

If you're not aware of if nobody knows what a mistake is, they think you're just shitting yourself.

SPEAKER_06 23:38

Then they need to go listen to the Austin episode.

SPEAKER_07 23:41

Sure. Sure. Yeah, it's canon now, you guys. You need to know what a mistake is. Also, uh tell us what what is Mystic South? Before what is it and where is it?

SPEAKER_06 23:51

Mystic South is a uh I'm gonna call it a con because I don't remember what it's called. It's not really a festival. It's a gathering of witches and pagans and other magical people in Atlanta, Georgia in July.

SPEAKER_07 24:07

Hot. So very hot.

SPEAKER_06 24:10

So very much like sitting in someone's mouth after they drank hot coffee. Ooh, I hate that.

SPEAKER_08 24:22

Uh but your skin looks great.

SPEAKER_07 24:29

If by great you mean really sweaty and red, the way one of your eyebrows just elevatored up your forehead.

SPEAKER_06 24:44

Almost hurt my feelings. I did not see that, so I'll be excited to see the video for this one.

SPEAKER_07 24:50

In my mind, in my memory from five seconds ago, it was real dramatic.

SPEAKER_06 24:59

Anyway, she picked me up and she was like, Well, there's a cookout on the way, and I lost my shit because I love cookout. Because they don't I can't get barbecue here the way I like, I can't get Carolina style barbecue anywhere, basically, besides Carolina's. Uh, and apparently Georgia now, because they have a cookout. Even though it was obviously it was not perfect. But considering I was not in a Carolina, I was in Georgia, it was pretty good. And also the hush puppies were on point, so. Ooh, ooh.

SPEAKER_07 25:38

Oh my god, I love hush puppies. What are they? Are they cornbread that's been bald and fried? Or is it like I think so.

SPEAKER_06 25:45

It's a little bit tougher than cornbread, in my experience. Just so it doesn't fall apart in the oil.

SPEAKER_08 25:51

What do you dip it in? My mouth. Okay. Gross.

SPEAKER_06 26:02

Uh so nothing happened really the first day besides I got to eat at my favorite place.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Great.

SPEAKER_06 26:11

And so Thursday, Thursday that was a Wednesday. Thursday, we had to get ready, like I was helping. I was actually there to help Sarah at her booth. Sarah is a potter. She is the owner and artist behind Flora and Function. And she's great. You guys should go check her shop out.

SPEAKER_07 26:30

Yeah, absolutely. Linked below. But you were there to uh basically be the booth babe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:37

I prefer booth bitch, but yes. Sure.

SPEAKER_07 26:40

Aren't booth babes what they used to call the girls at cons that were like that would cosplay? No idea. And I was like, that's don't call them that. Maybe.

SPEAKER_06 26:52

I don't know. Go on. So we were in the process of getting the car loaded up, and Janie arrived because she drove up from Mississippi.

SPEAKER_07 27:01

Shout out to Janie.

SPEAKER_06 27:03

She was given approximately 43 seconds to put her shit down before we got in the car and went to Mystic South. Great. So we went and we loaded everything up and and went in and got to meet some people and helped set the booth up. And I got to meet Dave Gaddy, which I was really excited about because I had not met them in person. They are a person that I've had on my show before. They're an author and a witch, and you should check them out. And I also said hi to Tempest because I kind of think we might be friends now. Or at least close enough acquaintances that we recognize each other and say hi and stuff because we've interacted in the same circles for like 25 years. Not 25. I think like 20.

SPEAKER_07 28:09

I think we might be friends. We might be friends.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

We might be my friend.

SPEAKER_06 28:16

And then uh they did an opening ritual, which I thought was really nice because I know we do it at Anahadas, and that's basically what I'm referring back to when I think of anything like this is Anahadas and Austin, because those are my two experiences. Uh but it was really nice that it was set up well and it was very brief, which this ex-soldier loves. Remarks complete is my favorite statement.

SPEAKER_07 28:54

Uh was this opening uh was this just for like the the vendors there before this was open to the public?

SPEAKER_06 29:02

No, it was for it's because this happened in a hotel. I think it was the Crown Plaza. But it anyway, it happened at this hotel, so there were people who were not vending, presenting, or anything else. They were just attendees. And they got there early and they were staying in the hotel, so they got to come too, and it was really cool.

SPEAKER_07 29:25

Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

And they had little snackies. And I met at snackies. Um they had chicken skewers, three kinds of melon, strawberries, and I think one of oh, deviled eggs. Right? Oh, sorry. And they were veg the sweet potato deviled eggs. I almost said vegan, but that is obviously incorrect.

unknown 29:50

Huh.

SPEAKER_06 29:51

And one other thing that I didn't get, so I don't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_08 29:56

Bitchin'. And I meant a bean!

SPEAKER_07 30:00

Abby! I meant Abby! I appreciated the Marcos very much. I didn't get to be there, so I appreciated the the the Marcos.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

She's just being like, say hi, say hi to Charlie!

SPEAKER_06 30:16

It was really fun and it was very gratifying, and uh they are very kind. And hi Abby, be my friend now. I think we're friends. Oh, and I bought, because um everybody was all the vendors were setting up, I was able to do some shopping before everybody else got there, and I got something that I've been wanting for a really long time. I don't know if you were there the year that Deborah Burris, the weather witch, was at Anahata's.

SPEAKER_07 30:49

I do not remember.

SPEAKER_06 30:51

Well, she is the um the vendor coordinator for Mystic South now. And I bought something from their booth.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Whoa! Hell yeah, dude!

SPEAKER_07 31:07

I'm excited, so that's gonna be a topic soon. Paint us a word picture of what you just sh revealed.

SPEAKER_06 31:15

Dousing rods, and they are essentially um, I'm gonna say this is probably 14 gauge copper wire in an L shape. And then the short part is shoved through a three-quarter inch piece of copper tubing, and then under like through one end and out the end the other, and then it has a little like part that like it curves and holds it onto the tubing so you can't pull it out.

unknown 31:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 31:51

I don't know if you hear that. I like that noise. And then if you hold the tube, it allows the wire to spin and move so you can use it to douse. Okay. So everybody watch for the dousing rod episode coming soon.

SPEAKER_07 32:10

Are you going to like get out and and try it in your property?

SPEAKER_06 32:15

Not for water, though, because the water here is like 2,000 feet underground and I'll never know the difference.

SPEAKER_07 32:21

Sure.

SPEAKER_06 32:21

But I do plan on using it. Do it for dead bodies. I'm definitely not doing that. The fuck I've heard that. Yeah, yeah, you can use it to like ask questions to your spirit team.

SPEAKER_07 32:35

Oh no, I meant literally find dead bodies in the ground.

SPEAKER_06 32:38

I I'm sure I could try that, but I don't want to.

SPEAKER_07 32:41

Great.

SPEAKER_06 32:43

No.

SPEAKER_07 32:44

Wonderful. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 32:45

Um, I'm gonna try and bring him with me to Anahada so you can play with them there.

SPEAKER_07 32:49

Yes, but I was gonna ask. I was gonna ask. Also, guys, we're hot off the heels of realizing that we're gonna we're getting together in one month's time. So, and I know you won't be able to bring this then because this is a little quick trip, but we could. We could run around Dallas with the dowsing rods.

SPEAKER_06 33:08

Maybe I'll see if I can make some and send them to you. Oh. I So one of the things that I really noticed. I'm gonna go back to the one thing I really I was happy to see at the event was how many people were as they like would greet each other, they've obviously known each other for a really long time, and there were lots of hugs, and the thing where you hug somebody and then you stand there with one arm around them and talk to like you open up that circle to other people. Um, it was really nice, and it reminded me of an Anahadas, and it showed me that this event has history and family attached to it, and that is important to me.

SPEAKER_08 33:59

Yeah. Yeah. It was really nice.

SPEAKER_07 34:05

That's beautiful. That's one of my favorite parts of now. I can only speak uh in terms of it being at like Anahadas, but I I love the uh uh like we used to call it camp friends, you know? Like you just you see people that you haven't seen in so long, but it's it's also in this weird way, like there's been no time. You're just like, okay, what were we doing? It's like you put pause.

SPEAKER_06 34:27

Yeah, especially since we now can get on Marco and FaceTime and Instagram reels and things and still interact sort of sort of same time. Uh-huh. That's different than letters and texting.

SPEAKER_07 34:46

Using Morse code.

SPEAKER_06 34:48

Yeah. Yeah. So that was the the it the pre the prep day. And then the first full day was Friday. I woke up much later than Sarah because Sarah had to be there at 7.30. Oh. Gross. Yeah. Um, so I we ended up getting there, I think around 10.30 or something like that. Um I was pretty overwhelmed this day because I was I really tired and sleep deprived because I got I was jet lagged. Um, I so I would my babysat the booth when Sarah went to classes, and there was a Battlefield Magic class that I caught the last half of because I misread the schedule, and turns out it didn't start on the 30 minutes in, it started at 30 minutes before I thought it did.

SPEAKER_07 35:49

What is Battlefield Magic?

SPEAKER_06 35:51

Um, it was really interesting. The half that I caught, um, they were talking about working together to like so you have a group to pull of energy to pull from more than your own. And like setting up barriers. Uh okay, oh, here's something that I thought was interesting that I am incorporating into my practice. You know when they say when if you d are developing a personal shield, finger quotes how do you describe it? A defensive fiery thing around you. But what does it make around you? Protection, defense, uh, ward. Physical what physical object does it make around you?

SPEAKER_07 36:50

Shield, bubble.

SPEAKER_06 36:53

Bubble. So what happens with bubbles? All bubbles. What happens to all bubbles?

SPEAKER_07 36:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 36:59

Oh, oh, oh, they die. They eventually pop. And so I will no longer be calling it that. I'm not going to tell people to visualize that because in the back of your mind, that subconscious knowledge about what happens to bubbles is still there. So I won't be able to do that. So what's a good alternative?

SPEAKER_07 37:26

Steel sphere?

SPEAKER_06 37:27

Sure. Yeah. Tank. Yeah. That's up to you. But um not something fragile.

SPEAKER_07 37:37

Oh. Porcelain. China porcelain. Yeah, my porcelains. A porcelain thrown newbies. Try to be like a romance novel.

SPEAKER_06 37:52

Um, but basically they were like uh they talked about setting finger quotes, landmines, where you are putting levels of protection away from yourself. So you're at the center, and you have shield number one, which is number one is closest, and then two is further away, and three is the farthest out in this example. Number one is the thickest, and it is a reflector. Number two is a weakener. Anything that comes through it gets weakened. Weakened, not weekend.

SPEAKER_07 38:34

It gets the weekend. The musical artist, the weekend.

SPEAKER_06 38:38

Number three, the farthest out, is what something coming at you would hit first. And it is also a deflector. So rubber. The point of that is if it's strong enough to get through door number three, the deflector, it's gonna pass through something that weakens it. So that's two breaks that it has to smash through. So when it gets to number one, the final one, it will probably reflect back out. But if even if it doesn't, then those three barriers have hopefully weakened it enough that you can push it off yourself. And that's just one sort of idea they they threw out there. Another one was, like I said, um, I don't remember if they called them landmines or not. I think so. But they were like, if you do something like a witch bottle, you put something in it that that like represents you, you want to then cut off all energy from yourself so that it's it's it doesn't like have a little trail back to you. Because like if uh there are these things that I can't remember the name of that I killed my platoon with in basic training. I see the light, I see the light, I see the light. What? And then it was this competition.

SPEAKER_07 40:06

So not literally. Okay, all right. No, oh my god, no. I thought you were just dropping some serious lore on us.

SPEAKER_06 40:13

Okay. No. Um I don't remember what kind of mine it is. Somebody knows. It's the one that has the enemy or front towards enemy, and that even though it says front towards enemy on it, I still aimed it at myself. And I was so confident. And I said, I see the light, I see the light, I see the light, and clicked it. And then I looked like, how is that? at the drill sergeant. He was like, You just killed your whole platoon.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

How's that? You see that shit?

SPEAKER_06 40:46

Yep. Oh no. Anyway, that has a line, like a physical line wire that goes to it. If the enemy finds that wire, they can follow it back to you. So that's why when you're doing this like putting finger quotes, landmine, metaphysical landmines out there to defend your property and yourself, you gotta cut the lines. Don't leave anything trailing back to you. Release it, cut it. Even if that means using your knife hand, your metaphysical knife, cut it.

SPEAKER_07 41:26

Don't disrespect the knife hand, dude. The knife hand is so And these fingers, fingy scissors done.

SPEAKER_06 41:34

The knife hand is the military thing. Oh, drill sergeant. At least in my experience. It may be something else for everyone else.

SPEAKER_07 41:44

Magic when you cut your magical thread.

SPEAKER_06 41:47

I was just the drill sergeant talking like that. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Um I think we might have done a ritual that night. I don't remember. That's right. We did not. I mean, we did, we did. We did a rich we went to a ritual for Bridget. It was so nice. And these four people were standing around the we were all in a great big circle, and then they did the um they called the quarters sort of, not in a the craft sort of way. Oh. They did it in a way that um actually seemed realistic in my opinion. And then they went around and they said to uh uh they gave you a little charm and you were supposed to put in it what you wanted to make more abundant. And then you would dip it into the the blessed water that they have that they got from a s a natural spring that was nearby, and it would wash it clean of whatever crap was on it, and then when it came out, it was blessed by Bridget, and I st it's in my purse.

SPEAKER_07 43:09

Cute. That's sweet. Although when you first started describing it, it sounded a little bit like the scene from Rosemary's Baby.

SPEAKER_06 43:18

I actually have never seen that. Whoa, okay.

SPEAKER_07 43:23

Wow. Well, you've never seen Practical Magic, so that's I wasn't judging you, which I'm going to That's good.

SPEAKER_06 43:30

More on that soon. So the things that I found out about the event on this day were that um you know how in Anahadas they are just staggered depending on I don't know what, however long the class is.

SPEAKER_07 43:50

And so they overlap a lot. Sure.

SPEAKER_06 43:54

There is no overlap here. Your class is X minutes long, just like everyone else's class. And then there There's a break of, I don't know, 20 to 30 minutes in between, which I love because one, you have while Anahadas is an exercise in letting go, this is an exercise in making choices and standing by your choices because there are no repeated classes and they only offer them at certain times. So you have to decide what you're going to go to. Ooh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 44:26

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_06 44:27

Okay. Yeah. But also they have that the breaks in between, which I love because then you have time to sit down and process what the class was and maybe talk and hang out with your friends, have a snack, go to the bathroom. You don't have to rush because you know I have X amount of time before the next classes. And it also helps the vendors because we knew, oh, a class let out, so this is not when we go to lunch or go to the bathroom. We go when class is in because that's when it thins out in the vending room. It's super nice. I loved it a lot.

SPEAKER_07 45:06

Do you have any uh memory of some examples of classes that were being put on?

SPEAKER_06 45:12

Um there Tempest did her Tempest Ruins the Tarot, which I think is super funny. Morgan Daimler did one on fairies. I'm just telling you the ones that I remember that I wanted to go to that I didn't get to go to for whatever reason. There was one on uh Morgan Ravenna? Am I remembering that correctly? Did one on Tattoo Magic that I really wanted to go to. I basically only went to the Battlefield Magic one and I missed half of it. So that's literally the only class I went to.

SPEAKER_07 45:46

Yeah. Well, you were busy. You were you were you were watching the movie.

SPEAKER_06 45:49

Well, busy and crazy.

SPEAKER_07 45:53

We need busy and crazy shirts, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:58

Sarah went to a lot more classes than I did, and I think Janie went to a couple as well. And there was like a Strega class by an Italian witch. Or a couple of them that happened.

SPEAKER_08 46:15

Also, the hotel is really cold. I don't know, I'm not good at this.

SPEAKER_06 46:33

Yeah. The hotel is freezing a lot of the time. Nice. And the toilets are so short.

SPEAKER_07 46:43

So short. Like you gotta really get down there. You gotta really flip it.

SPEAKER_06 46:47

When I was sitting, my hips were below my knees. Oh no. Which is great for mistakes, but not so great for standing up if you're old and kind of.

SPEAKER_07 47:00

Exactly. Wow. Uh that sounds awful and terrible.

SPEAKER_08 47:04

And also, how often do people just fall into the toilet? I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 47:13

And then we went home and watched a lot of uh I don't know, we uh I think I don't know what we did. I think we might have watched Dropout until I couldn't stand it, and then I was like, I have to go to sleep.

SPEAKER_07 47:26

Yeah. I love that. Post like doing a busy thing that day, and then you're just like, I'm gonna watch stupid TV until I actually pass out.

SPEAKER_06 47:36

Yeah. And then we went to bed. And Saturday once again Sarah went in and early and we went in late. And I met Abby again, and we were in one of the little places just chatting, and this weird woman came up and she asked me if we'd seen the back of my shirt. Oh. And I said the back of my shirt? Yes. I've I know what it says. What's the back of your shirt? What was the back of your shirt? Which bitch amateur hour send us your tea?

SPEAKER_07 48:12

Wonderful. Have you seen the back of your shirt? She see, not only have I seen it, maybe I've made it.

SPEAKER_06 48:20

Basically.

SPEAKER_08 48:23

And then she called me annoying and said she had a podcast. She didn't. She didn't.

SPEAKER_06 48:32

That's just what I heard, and she said it twice, and I heard it twice, but that's not what she said. What happened? She said, I have a knowing. Oh but she had a very southern accent.

SPEAKER_08 48:54

Okay, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_07 48:55

She was she was she was uh complimentary.

SPEAKER_06 48:58

Yes, she was actually saying something nice, and she said that she called me annoying. So I was like that blinky faced man meme, that's what I did twice. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_08 49:17

I said, Did you say I'm annoying?

SPEAKER_06 49:22

And I waited about that long. Did you say I'm annoying? And she said, What? No. Luckily Abby was like, I also heard annoying.

SPEAKER_07 49:38

Are we talking like a she had like a thick, I guess, Georgia accent?

SPEAKER_06 49:42

Yeah. Southern Bell.

SPEAKER_07 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:45

But anyway, this person has a podcast called Abomination Goddess.

SPEAKER_07 49:50

That sounds fucking tight.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

Isn't it cool?

SPEAKER_07 49:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:56

Uh oh, um, and then I met Carla and Trina, two more beans.

SPEAKER_08 50:06

Uh they asked if I was Macy. They were like, are you the one with the tree?

SPEAKER_07 50:20

Did she say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:22

Fucking yeah, dude. And I was like, she is no longer with the podcast. And um there was Madame Pomita did a class. She has a new deck coming out, and she was doing a class about that, I believe. And so I got to talk to her for a little bit, which was super nice because I really enjoy them as a person. I got to talk to her like uh on uh with my face in person. It was wonderful. And blessings. Thanks. And so um I had her on my show, so I I I sort of was like, hey, remember that? And she was like, Oh yeah, hey, what's up? And she's interested on being but the fun part is she's gonna be on our podcast.

SPEAKER_08 51:29

Right here. No.

SPEAKER_06 51:32

No. She's a good one. Oh wait, like she's coming to do an interview. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 51:39

And maybe something else cool is gonna happen. We are still working that part out though.

SPEAKER_07 51:45

So talk about what uh Lou Ellen, the publisher that also and I'm not the only one. I have seen other people be like Lilloin. Um they they do the book pitch thing that you were talking about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:01

Sarah told me about this, and then I saw a sign. So Louen Lou Ellen is one of the big sponsors of Mystic South, and they do this thing on, I think Saturday mornings or whatever morning, I don't know what morning, one morning, and you can schedule a five-minute pitch where if you have an idea for a book, they'll hear your idea. The publishers are there and you can talk to them in person. So if you have a book idea that you want to talk to them about and you think it'll go better in person, go to Mystic South and do your five-minute pitch.

SPEAKER_07 52:37

And good luck to you because the way the telescope would open, and I would immediately just go, uh Yeah. I would look at their faces looking at my face. Yeah. And just be like, I Lord of the Rings, I would just describe the plot of Lord of the Rings and be like, that's my book!

SPEAKER_06 53:00

Do you like it? Yeah. And then we went home and Janie taught Sarah how to play Dicey slash Farkel.

SPEAKER_07 53:08

Farkel! Oh, I went through such a big Fle phase. I love a Farkel.

SPEAKER_08 53:14

Me too. It's a very summer late evening chilling game. Put some das on a cup. Yeah. Count. Do math for fun. And we went to bed early.

SPEAKER_07 53:28

Oh, good for you. Good for you.

SPEAKER_06 53:31

And then Sunday, I remembered that I'm a podcaster with a mic. Oh shit. Yeah. Yes. But then later on, I uh throughout the weekend I thought, you know, I really want to talk to people after they've experienced this thing fully. And I want to talk to somebody who's been here to several and then a brand new person. Luckily, Abby is the the one who's a bean. This was her first time. And I was able to talk to her for the newbie person and for the uh senior person who's been there, senior meaning many years, not elderly. Seasoned. Yeah. I got to talk with Marla and Heather, the two people who founded the event.

SPEAKER_07 54:30

Wow. Wow. Yeah, you wrote and you said we're like purely by chance you got to talk to them.

SPEAKER_06 54:38

Listen to Marla and Heather first and then Abby afterward. Okay. So Heather and Marla. I was told that you two created this. What made you do it?

SPEAKER_00 54:57

For me, it was community. Um, I'm a high priestess in my tradition, and as an elder, I think it is part of my job to make sure there is opportunities for community to grow and to find each other. Because that's that's my job. It's not just teaching the tradition, it's making sure that you are comfortable saying you're a witch.

SPEAKER_05 55:26

I appreciate it. How about you? How did you join? What made you decide yes, this is also what I want to do?

SPEAKER_04 55:34

Um, I think I saw this type of event and this type of community building, as Marla said, in other prairies of the country. And in those places and in the circles I ran and the people I spoke to, they were surprised that there were actually witches, magical people, um, occult practices here in the south. Like this is the Bible belt. Like there are witches down there, there are people practicing magic down there. Um, so I saw some of these events, and I'm like, we could do this down here. There's nothing like this down here. Everything is really far away. So, and there are tons and tons of magical practices, not just witches, not just pagans. So we said, okay, let's I said Marla, we can do this.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

And he was like, Yeah, we can do this. We were coming back from a conference in California, and the planes had been rerouted and all kinds of crazy because it was a crazy January, February weather event. And we ended up sitting on the plane next to each other, and we're saying, This was so cool, why don't we do this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

And we planned it out, and that was the very beginning of it. And you know, we could, and and we did.

SPEAKER_00 56:43

And it took us a couple of years to get it off the ground. We got different people involved. Uh, and one of the things that we really wanted to do, we had another friend that was working trying to do an academic track. And uh he said, I'm gonna go create this and do this, and we're like, join us. Yeah. So that's why we have an academic track. It's so that people not only can present workshops and present things to do, but they can present on their research. And I know we've got fifteen this time. Yeah, we had about fifteen or twenty and people love it. So we don't really have any pagan academics in this area opportunities for them to present.

unknown 57:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:39

That's something I I I was interested in because I haven't seen it at any events I've gone to. It's always here's a fun workshop, we're gonna do a ritual, and here's a vendor call. There's no higher ed stuff.

SPEAKER_04 57:56

Well, there's a there is um other experience. Yeah, no, and there you're you're correct in in a sense because um because uh it's very difficult to have academic, true academic papers and presentations within settings that aren't sanctioned by the university system or academia. So we don't get them as often because and it's harder to get them to come here because they're not they're not paid to come here, it's not it's not sanctioned. They're not getting credit. But some of them do come here because they can on their own dime, they're part of the community that want to offer that bridge. Um some of the other pagan conferences, specifically sacred space, I'll name them, they do offer the intermediate and advanced workshops. So they're giving that higher level stuff, but it's not necessarily academic, because that's two separate things. So we've tried to kind of maintain that uh that area as something a little unique.

SPEAKER_06 58:52

Why do you think people should come?

SPEAKER_00 58:59

I I think it's still community building. That's why I think because we'll see people, it's their first time, and they are just so excited. Uh my friend came this year and she hasn't really done anything like in a couple of decades, and she's blown away. She said, you know, I've missed all of this the last number of years, because life gets in the way. And um and that's what we see with a lot of the people their first year. If they come the first year, we've got 'em. And that's it. Yeah, I mean, that's it. They may and people, you know, as I said, with life and and costs and things like that might take off a year or two. But one of the things that I hear, because I s stay outside with all the workshop stuff, is I'm so glad to be back. I so missed you. And when we took the break for COVID, so many people they understood why we did not have the event that that year, but it was like the magic came back, yes, and and it's what kept some of them going, was to be able to do this. And I find that very I it's almost flattering, but on top of that, it's inspirational that they thought that much of this little event that we created that they wanted to spend their time and spend their money because it it's it's an expensive, you know, when you're staying in a hotel for three nights, yeah. And and it's not, you know, any hotel is gonna be that same price point. That's what it is. And uh we wanted a hotel thing because I'm tired of camping. I love I love being outside, but I'm 68 years old and putting that tin up and doing the thing, I love it. And I love being able to jump the fire, but I don't want to we need a space. We need a space we're not getting mosquito bit and ticks when we're getting home.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:17

I would not have been able to if we were gonna do camping.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

I don't camp, but that's that's and I love going to camping events, but we needed something that had air conditioning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

But uh getting back to your question for me about why people should come. So I think it's it's there's multiple reasons why. And it depends on who they are and what they are. Of course, like you said, different different types of people arrive here. But for young people or people who are new to the this world, um, they should come here because we aim to, and I think we do it successfully, provide a very um welcoming space where people who have never been in this environment will come in and feel comfortable. Um, will they're gonna be nervous, overwhelmed, of course. But we have everybody says hello to everybody. And we've been told that every time. There's no sense that they don't belong, even though they are welcomed right from the beginning. So I think one way to do this is if you are in an isolated place or you're not, don't have the access to community, you can come here, feel welcome, be exposed to all different types of practices, not just witchcraft, not just paganism, but all kinds of practices, all kinds of people who are just here to be joyful. And you can do that in a s in a single space for one weekend and then expand your practice from there. The other reason would be to come here and learn something new or learn something more about your path and then bring it back to the community that couldn't come. So not everybody can come. They can't afford it, time, whatever, kids, um whatever the case may be, you can send a representative here. You can learn from seasoned practitioners in a variety of practices, including your own, and then bring that information back. Another reason to come, if you're a seasoned practitioner or new whatever, you can make connections to other people to learn further outside of Mystic South. And there's nothing like making a face-to-face contact for learning. You know, I can email I can email a person for a year, I can email ten people. It's not the same as sitting down like we're doing right here and saying, hey, tell me about who you are, let's talk outside of Mystic South. It's a deeper connection, it's a stronger bond immediately, even if you don't know that person, you can come for that reason. And then, of course, seasoned practitioners who have known each other and been doing stuff like this for years. This is a way to come and see us, because we're all over the country and the world, really, to come see people we love and known for years. And I mean, every year, as soon as I see Marla, because we don't see each other sometimes during the rest of the year, rarely. Um, but when I see her face, come walk through those hotel doors. It's like a it's like family. We just give a bit. I'm gonna tear up thinking about it. Big hug to my sister, um co-event uh creator. And it's and it feels it it makes the year. It does the year.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:09

And that's what my friend was saying. It's like, wow. And people are so nice to me and they don't know me. And and uh I was talking to one of the other vendors, he said, you know, it's family. He said, whatever happens, this is family and we can count on each other. And that's that's important, especially during the turbulent times we are having. Um and and I think we offer that space, and as Heather was saying, we offer a variety of experiences and learning. Um we try and bring in a lot of different things. So when people apply for workshops, I'll send them out to the rest of the group and say, okay, what do we know about these people? And um is there anything going on? And and uh so we have different things every time. So she's presenting on a Buddhist practice. That's it. And last night we had voodoo. Uh we've had uh you know, we've had a lot of different things. I wanted to talk a little bit about what we offer through the year. Okay. And uh uh and it's not we offer more throughfer more through the year. No, but what I'm I'm saying. I'm not sure. She doesn't know this. Marla always springs ideas on her. Um what I am saying about that is we we have the online community, we do have the Facebook, we have other things like that. But when we get closer to the event, Heather puts out these survival guides.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:53

I saw those.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:54

And I think that has helped, especially the new folks coming in to be reminded of things. Because uh how do you travel here? How do you get Smarta? How do you buy food? How do you remember to bring your charge courts? Heather reminds people of that the month leading up. And I think that's very valuable because everybody's very excited to do something and you forget the practicality of what you need. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:23

We're we're coming here to learn about magic, but we still gotta remember everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

But you gotta eat.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:27

You gotta eat. So it kind of started and it was fun. Make it fun for everybody. But I think that's also one of the reasons people find this welcoming. It's not the only reason, clearly. Um but we set that up saying, hey, this is your survival guide, this is how, and it's a little funny, it's a little fun, and some of the stuff is serious. You know, you can't go sky clad in your rituals because this is uh hotel. And it's a hotel, but we also have you know fun things and we we give everybody a prep. And um especially for new people, that's really important. But also things change year to year. Like this year we had a different lunch situation, and or we have rooms change and we we have the survival guides and we have that out there and and the group to to prep people for changes as well. Um because like Marla said right at the beginning, this is about community, it's not about Marla and I, it's not about how we started. It's about our entire board, our staff. We have the biggest staff and volunteer team ever this year. And it has made such a big difference. Big difference for us as we grow. And we we try to keep saying, we say every time we have one of our group meetings, whatever, this is Mystic South first. It is about Mystic South. And Marla and I could plan a conference all day, all night, weeks, and if nobody presented, there'd be no conference. If nobody attended, there'd be no conference. If nobody volunteered, there'd be no conference. So this Mystic South is not just Marla and I. We just said this is a great idea, let's get people together. And you know, a party of two is not a not a party, it's just, you know, cut tea.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

Yeah. And I like that we have a variety. I like that uh our divination room has grown because you know most of us read tarot, at least for ourselves. But being having the opportunities of divination, if you want to have a crystal reading or your astrology chart, you might not get that at home, but you can you can do that here. That's your baby. That's my baby. It is your baby. I love my workshops, don't get me wrong. I love doing the tetras. I love doing the tetras of getting those workshops going.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:48

You do. But the dividend that was that was your baby. You've been trying for years. It took a bunch of years before it took off, and it's beautiful now. Beautiful job.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:55

Anyway. Just to sort of wrap up, what was your favorite part about this this year?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:00

It's not over yet. Why are you? May still come.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:08

What are you excited most about for the next quarter? Oh, it's a 10 year old set.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:13

We don't know. We're not gonna tell you anything about what's coming. Because it's all we'll tell you, it's a 10-year anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

One of the folks wants to have a kick-ass ritual, and we've been planning that for like a day and a half now.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:27

So if somebody's gonna come next year's the one, the big one.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:31

We don't know if it's gonna be bigger, but is it gonna be a good one because we are gonna be super celebratory? And we're gonna have some special things, no doubt. And and um we're gonna we're gonna be so happy because it is our type of yeah. It's in year, yeah. And we can't we can't go, you know, you have to this is this is a a rite of passage for Mystic Sounds, right? It is double digits. Yeah. So I think my favorite thing this year um would probably be having um my own staff person this year for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

And you know, I was gonna say the staff and the volunteers because we've been doing it alone with six people for for all these years. Yeah, and it's and nobody on the outside knows that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:16

Yes. Now they do.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:17

Well, I know, well, I mean, people know it, but they don't they don't think about running an event of a couple of hundred people and twenty-five vendors with six people, and yet that's I feel we've been very successful doing that. And it's just taken a while to get those. I know uh you you've got Amy, I've got D, and we've got different things going on.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:40

And we couldn't sit with you if we didn't have them this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

That would not happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:47

We we were like chickens with our heads cut off most of the time. But it worked, and uh having a tight smaller committee running things is good because it keeps us close, which sets the tone for the conference and keeps us working tight together. But um we are too big, we're growing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:04

So having the volunteers there, like I've got this young lady there right now, so she can kind of tell people what's going on. I make sure she has a schedule, and we've got volunteers other places, these folks, you know. Yeah, it has made a world of difference.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:25

But if if you're talking about events that people see outside of our work, which is definitely the best part, I think um I think we did something new this year, which we're gonna continue, which I really enjoyed. I don't it's not the best part. I love it all. How do you say what's the best? It's like choosing from your children. Um but we opened up on Thursday night, which I think was a really nice thing. We had a spiritual opening, which we hadn't done before COVID. Um, and um we we had a little reception and and this gets back to Yeah, and it gets back to the beginning of of this chat about community. That people come here excited on Thursday to start the the day on Friday, but they want to see each other. They're seeing each other for a sudden Thursday. So to offer that new, to offer a space where people can come together with a little fnosh, with a you know, just coming coming in as we did that for the first time this year.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:16

And I think it was fabulous. It was so nice. Yeah, and we're good to see as some as a first timer, it was nice to see that there is a community here that knows each other and they're coming back.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:28

Yeah, and from all they come from everywhere in the country, and we've had people from other countries come too. So we but but offering that Thursday night to the people who are here.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:36

And that was your you really have pushed that for a while.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:41

Yeah, and this is the first year we were able to do it in this space because of because of our growth, and so we're really excited to expand on that and um and do the opening before and just kind of like the kickoff. It's like you know, we're sports fans everywhere, that's our kickoff, or for Olympic opening ceremony. That's really beautiful to do that Thursday night.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:00

Yeah, because it did not work as effective when we did it on Friday, because what happened doing it on Friday is it would push the workshops back, and we get a lot of submissions and uh we like to make sure we have the best thing, but having an opening ceremony at the beginning would take an hour out of the workshop time. So, anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:30

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:31

You're gonna have the time to sit down with me even more than the last minute.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:38

So, Abby, hello. Hello, welcome to the to the show although this is for Wabah, not for mine. So we met on Thursday.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:51

Which was fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

I crept up to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:55

And I thought, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

So sorry. But I'm I was afraid.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:03

Um So is this the first time you came to Mystic South?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

Yes, this is my first time at Mystic Event.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:08

Is it your first time at any event or just to this one?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

At any like multi-day event. I've been to like cla like one-day classes and workshops, but my first time at a multi-day event.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:20

What made you come to this one?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:22

Partially proximity. I could drive. Um but also being growing up and living in Tennessee, I assume that a lot of people at Mystic South would probably be from this area and might have similar practices and things to me. Because I I focus a lot of my stuff on being in Tennessee, Appalachian um thing. So uh what's been your favorite part? Being able to just be myself, being with like-minded people, not having to explain anything. Um, not uh yeah, just be being able to be completely open in a way that I don't typically get to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:16

At the the Bridget ritual, um it was nice to just look around the room and be like, this is this these are not scary people, these are people that I'm comfortable with.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:29

But I said, I went to the drum circle last night. How was that? It was amazing. It it was very late. I actually went upstairs and I didn't go to sleep, but just like laid in bed for two hours and I was like, I'm doing it, I'm going. And I'm so glad that I did. Seeing adults in such childlike joy was like, I'm reading this because I want this specific thing. It's gonna it's gonna sound dramatic, but might be like a soul-altery experience. Like just seeing that that kind of joy. Um and feeling it, feeling it from the drums too, um, which is really cool. Yay.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:19

It's good. Drums are good. Uh so now that you've experienced it, are you do you think you'll come back again?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:27

Yes. Why would you recommend people come?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:31

And do you recommend staying in this hotel?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:36

To do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:37

So if it I can understand that it could be cost prohibitive, so I want to be sensitive to that. But I do think staying in the hotel was really helpful. Especially for me who I kind of need those breaks. So getting to take, you know, getting to go back to my room for a little bit. And it also just made it a lot easier for me to like when I said I'm going to the drum circle, I just had to get up and go. I didn't have to, you know, talk I didn't get to talk myself out of it. Yeah. It's just go downstairs. Yeah, there weren't opportunities to talk myself out of it. Um, so I mean, I would say if yeah, if if possible, it was nice to stay here. And it was also just nice to like come down to the lobby and people be hanging out and running into people in the elevators. Um got to hear a funny discussion this morning where um the three people I rode down in the elevator with, um, one of them was like, I think my husband talked to you yesterday and he was like, Oh, I don't I don't remember for sure, and she said, I think you all talked about magic. And we all just stood there for a second, and we're like, that can literally be anyone. And then she clarified, Magic the Gathering. Like, oh, okay, okay. But it was just that beat of course we talked about magic.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:54

That's good. Hopefully I can come back next year and hopefully we see each other again.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:00

Yes, I hope so too. I hope I can find ways to come to other things too. Maybe on the other.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:08

It would be so great. Because like like you were saying how you it's easier to talk yourself into it.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:18

Everything's there. It's not like you have to get in a car and go somewhere. You just have to put your shoes on, and even that's a maybe.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:29

So thanks. Again, I'm glad I got to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:32

I'm I'm so glad. Thank you for being welcoming and nothing too. Thank you for pushing through the discomfort of me just coming up to you. Thank you for doing it, because I know that's not comfortable to do. It was I I was like, that was one of um all my keychains. I have my full keychain because I was like, this is my energy for this weekend. Yes. I'm just doing the things. You're saying yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:59

That's good.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:02

And there we go. And the rest of the day was very laid back. Uh we basically just closed up at 2, which is when the vending area closed. And we packed up and left. Actually, right before that. I wanted to tell you this part. Uh right before that, someone well, the people across from us had brought their service dog. And sometimes the dog, when it was like off work, it had a squeaky toy or something, or I assumed it did, because it's a dog. And I heard a squeaky toy, and I was like, oh, is that the dog? Did they have a dog toy over there? Because it was coming it was coming from behind us. And Sarah said, No, that's the penises. Because the people behind us had crocheted penises. Put a squeaky toy in the dick and put stress balls like the kind that are like have liquid in them in the balls. I love that.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:09

What a good time. Oh, that's the dick. Oh.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:16

That was my part of her event, though. Is that a dog toy? No, that's the penises. Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:28

Love that.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:29

I and I want to tell you some of the things that were being vended because it's it it's pretty cool. It's a very curated vending area, and I appreciate that a lot.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:38

Pee-pees with squeaky toys.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:40

Yes. Yeah. There was a crochet person back in the corner, and they had these interesting capes that was like an owl head on the top. Like if it if you're behind them, it's an owl head. And then the wings are wings, and then the bat the body, the back of the body is an owl's body. So if you hold your arms out like that, it looked like an owl was standing on your back, kind of. Cool. And then there was the Deborah Burris's table, and they had stuff like the dowsing rods, which I bought, and something really cool which I've not seen before, in that they had rattles. But it was like skulls that they had decoupaged pressed flowers. Charlie, it was so cool. Pressed flowers on. It was really interesting. And they did houses in like a maraca?

SPEAKER_07 1:21:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:38

Ooh. And she did she did the bee.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:44

Not on the internet. I can't do that here. Don't say pussy. Don't so don't say pussy willow. Don't say pussy. Get your shirts. Yeah. Don't don't say pussy shirts.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:02

Um, anyway. Sorry to the visual health people who are listening to this. With in jokes.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:14

They said pussy way more than we thought they were gonna. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:20

Um temp is there was her booth of art. There was a huge book selling area because, like I said, Llewellyn is one of the sponsors. And I believe that's that they um the authors would come in and sit for an hour and sign books, and you could buy their book and sign it and talk to them a little bit. There were a ton of readers that were in another room, like a reading area specifically. There were lots of jewelers, there were some crystal sales, the b booth next to okay, the two booths next to us I've never seen anywhere before. One of them sold pens, really nice pens. Like uh Like a fountain pen? Yeah, I can remember that word. Fountain pens. And the booth next to us on the other side had shrouds.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

Whoa! Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:22

I don't remember what that really cotton, the thin cotton fabric is. Linen? Maybe it was thinner than that, I think.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:30

Cheesecloth.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:33

It seemed it reminded me of cheesecloth, but not quite that loosely woven. Anyway lawn. Maybe I mean cotton lawn. Anyway, they had taken um flowers and there's this thing. Rachel did it once to make that big banner. You take flowers and plants and you put them on fabric and then like beat them into the fabric or something. Ooh. I don't remember exactly how it's done, but she did that or they did that. I think they might be death doors. But they were beautiful, but I was still afraid to look at them directly with my eyes.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:14

Okay. Sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:18

Because I have issues. But if you don't have that the issues with that, you should really check them out. Because and they also, I think they might have also done a class where they actually, I believe, wrapped someone up, which would make me have a nervous breakdown. So I'm glad I didn't attend that. But there were some really cool classes. Y'all should really just look at the classes they had. Like it's a really cool event, and I'm really hopeful that we can go to it together next year.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:47

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it might be kind of hard because um they have seemed to uh grow a family there that once somebody it seems as if once somebody gets on the spot, they don't really have a high turnover rate. Yeah. So which is great for that event, but also makes it hard for us who wants to get in for the event.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:11

So we are hoping we don't want anything bad to happen to anybody, but we are just sort of hoping that maybe they'll have a spot and maybe we'll get approved in it. Because it is curated, like I said. They vet all the vendors to make sure there's not 70 people selling 3D printed stuff. Right. Oh, yeah, exactly. And no aim.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:36

Which by the way, get our 3D printed stuff at no.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:43

And so a good part of m my time there was spent looking to see what they didn't have that you and I could do. And so I have a list of things that I hope that we can bring to them next year if we manage to get in.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:01

Are you gonna read it right now on the podcast? Or no? No, you're not.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:07

I sure am not.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:11

What about like uh finger traps? We can make our own like woven finger traps.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:16

We can make uh it never even occurred to me to do that.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:21

Saltwater taffy.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:27

Basically, if you can find it in a showbiz pizza prize case.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:36

Like, turn it into Chuckie Cheese. Uh that was pretty much candy you haven't seen since year four mallow cups or whatever. Oh fuck up mallow cups.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:53

Those are blood candy bars.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:55

I don't know what that is. Blood?

SPEAKER_08 1:26:58

It's like a weird potato candy. It's strange. I don't know if I like it or hate it.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:08

I think I like it.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:10

But that was my experience. It is I know it's not the traditional event experience because I have specific needs that I like to do things I like to do, which is nothing. Well, and if that's stuff there with other people who who do like to do things, they'd like it.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:27

Those balls that bounce really high, but they also light up when they hit the ground. Yes. Oh my god. Yeah. Stickers. Lots of stickers.

unknown 1:27:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:40

About 400 dinos plastic dinosaur figurines that are all yeah. That are all twisted. That's when they got too hot and melty from the sun, like a little bit sun-bleached because nobody like has gotten them.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:54

One side is paler than the other.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:58

And then up on the wall we'll have like a PlayStation 4 for an amount of tickets that it would literally $4,000. Millions of dollars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:18

And an off-brand handheld not a steam deck. Just a steamy steamy deck. Steamy steamy deck. That one will be work.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:55

Thank you for telling us about your friend of the carnival or whatever. Also, the prints have like two days. If you're gonna do it, do it. Hold on. I don't want to say hold it. You're printing. Next week. You're gonna wanna do this. Spooky spooky spooky spooky. Spooky Scary Sco, little turtons dancing in your ass. Yeah. Okay, bye! Send in your stories. Oh yeah, please send in your stories. Put spooky somewhere in the title. If you've sent them before, send them again, baby. Let's go. Bye. I gotta pee.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:49

Okay, bye. Okay, bye.