Pagan Coffee Talk
Pagan Coffee Talk is a modern paganism & witchcraft podcast exploring spiritual practice, community, and clergy experience weekly. Each episode invites listeners into candid, grounded conversations about what it really means to live, practice, and serve within today’s diverse pagan paths. Whether you’re a long‑time practitioner or someone newly curious about earth‑based spirituality, the show offers a welcoming space to learn, question, and grow.
Hosted by experienced pagan clergy, Pagan Coffee Talk blends humor, honesty, and hands‑on wisdom to demystify the realities of practice. The podcast dives into topics such as ritual structure, magical ethics, coven dynamics, and the lived experience of serving a community—always with a focus on accessibility and authenticity. You’ll also hear discussions on the challenges of modern pagan leadership, the evolution of contemporary witchcraft traditions, and how practitioners can build sustainable spiritual habits in everyday life.
Listeners searching for “practical pagan spirituality for beginners” or “real‑world witchcraft guidance from clergy” will find the show especially valuable. Episodes often highlight the difference between pop‑culture witchcraft and grounded, lineage‑informed practice, helping listeners navigate misinformation while strengthening their own spiritual foundations. The hosts also explore seasonal observances, ancestor work, devotional practice, and the importance of community support within pagan traditions.
Pagan Coffee Talk isn’t just a podcast—it’s an ongoing conversation shaped by real questions from real practitioners. By sharing personal stories, hard‑earned lessons, and thoughtful commentary, the hosts aim to foster a sense of connection and clarity for anyone walking a pagan path. Whether you’re brewing your morning coffee or settling in for evening reflection, this podcast offers insight, companionship, and a deeper understanding of modern pagan life.
A special thanks to Darkest Era for the use of their songs: The Morrigan, & Poem to the Gael. Check them out at http://darkestera.net/.
Pagan Coffee Talk
Beyond the Band-Aid: The Truth About Magical Healing Work
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Magical healing carries profound responsibility and potential dangers that many practitioners overlook. When we suppress symptoms without addressing root causes, we risk masking serious conditions—as illustrated by our cautionary tale of healing spells that concealed diabetes symptoms until crisis struck. The fundamental rule? Always obtain proper medical diagnosis before attempting healing work.
The energy exchange in healing deserves careful consideration. Many practitioners use crystals to contain negative energies extracted during healing, but these objects become repositories of harmful forces that can leak back into your environment over time. This explains why many dedicated healers find themselves chronically ill. We discuss practical solutions: proper containment vessels, cleansing practices, and most importantly, removing these contaminated objects from your living space.
Our conversation explores a rarely discussed aspect of magical healing—what might be called "spiritual hospice care." Sometimes, the most compassionate healing involves helping someone transition peacefully rather than prolonging suffering. Like hospice nurses who provide comfort during end-of-life care, some magical practitioners must develop the strength and wisdom to guide others through their final journey.
The podcast features a fascinating philosophical debate about the nature of healing energy itself. Are healers sacrificing portions of their own life force to heal others? Or are we simply channeling universal energy that naturally replenishes through our connection to cosmic forces? This fundamental difference in understanding shapes how practitioners approach their work and subsequent self-care.
We note the particular aptitude many women demonstrate for healing magic—likely connected to natural nurturing instincts, though certainly not excluding men from developing these abilities.
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Welcome to Pagan Coffee Talk. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating and following our socials. So we had a suggestion as much as you hear our dog, we should introduce him. Everybody say hey to Baller.
Speaker 2Hi Baller.
Speaker 1You'll hear him off and on in the background. It's okay, we're also drying some herbs, so you'll probably hear that in the background as well, anyway.
Speaker 2Yes, I'm being productive today. Right, let's talk healing spells. Okay, this is a subject we need to cover anyway, because healing spells can be sometimes can be a little dangerous. I will agree with you on that. When performing a healing spell, first thing you need to know is what's wrong with the person Right? What's the diagnosis, what's the diagnosis? And the diagnosis isn't a list of symptoms.
Speaker 1No, that's not. You're not looking for symptoms, you're not looking for anything like that.
Speaker 2I would even sit here and suggest try not to cure symptoms right.
Speaker 1I think that kind of defeats the purpose of what you're doing right, I mean.
Speaker 2so let's let me give you an example of where in the world healing symptoms went horribly wrong. Yes, let let's do All, right, a friend of Lord man back in the day kept on having different symptoms and stuff like this, so they kept on doing healing spells for the guy. You remember him telling this story.
Speaker 2Very vividly yeah it was like over a month, over a couple of years or something. This guy kept on having different symptoms and they would do healing spells and move on. Well, one day the guy just suddenly falls out on the floor of going into a diabetic coma, right, because he didn't have any of the symptoms of being a diabetic, because they healed him off, so it wasn't being treated, so it wasn't being treated, so it wasn't being treated. And then causes a bigger problem.
Speaker 1Okay, but now question comes, and I'm sure somebody's going to ask this If you're healing the symptoms, how are you not, in essence, treating the root problem?
Speaker 2Well, diabetes is a biological problem I don't think any magic will fix. I mean, there's just certain things I don't think magic can fix.
Speaker 1But you see the question though, right. How are you healing symptoms without touching the problem? How?
Speaker 2can you do that? Well, I believe that most of these magic spells are just suppressing the symptoms. See, that's where I'm getting at All right, they're not actually getting rid of them, they're just suppressing the symptoms or causing the symptoms not to appear.
Speaker 1Right or somehow Right. So that's where the danger is.
The Dangers of Symptom Suppression
Speaker 2That's where the danger is If you're not really healing anything, you're just suppressing. When we're doing a healing without a diagnosis, we run into problems. Yep, all right, there's the trick on this you have to have a diagnosis Right, and I don't mean just going out on WebMD going oh here.
Speaker 1This is what I think I got. These are my symptoms. Don't miss it. Click, click, click, click, click, click. Oh look, this is it. No, no, Go and have your test done. Go and get your test done With your doctor and have a discussion with your doctor Right and actually have a diagnosis Right.
Speaker 2Because this is a big. Nobody understands how in the world the healing works in the pagan community. You have to work with your doctors, you have to work with your herbalist. You have to work with your doctors. You have to work with your herbalist. You have to work with your apothecaries.
Speaker 3You have to work with all.
Speaker 2You've got to get all these people to work together, Right? If you're going to somebody and you're doing a healing or something, you need to be aware of what in the world is actually going on. Absolutely. There are some other problems with healing. Now. I know a lot of healers like to use crystals and stuff to put the bad energy in. This becomes a problem too. All right, Because, again, most crystals act like regulators and will slowly leak out energy over time Again.
Speaker 2that's the reason they're great for protection. But if you're putting something bad in there, you've got to put something good in there to hold it in place. You've got to put a guard on that.
Speaker 1Well, and not only that, but if you're using that crystal to contain whatever bad energy you're quote-unquote healing from somebody, you need to cleanse that crystal every once in a while, bury it in the ground, let the ground soak it. Well, you need to get it away from you, no matter what.
Speaker 2Because again this stuff sort of acts like radiation.
Speaker 1Yes, it will leak out. It's like nuclear waste.
Speaker 2It will leak out, it will affect you. Matter of fact, a lot of the healers I know over the years seem to be the most sickest people, more than anything else, and every time you walk into their house they're surrounded by all these crystals that they've got sickness in and they're sitting there in the middle of them.
Speaker 1Yep Stewing in their own juices, so to speak. Right and no that's not good.
Speaker 2No, I mean, if you're going to use this, yes, you need to put something in there to hold it in place and get it out of your house.
Speaker 1Right, Get it out of your house. You need to periodic. Like I said before, if you're going to hang on to that crystal, then you need to cleanse it. You need to find something to do with that energy.
Crystal Healing and Energy Management
Speaker 2Right. Regardless, however you handle it, it needs to be dealt with. I mean, lady Abba has a box that's had spells and stuff to trap everything inside the box that she puts inside the box. All right, it's kind of like a a safe a witch safe?
Speaker 1yeah, I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 2But yes, that's it right. I mean we find a big cabinet or something and we scribe stuff all the way around it runes and other symbols, sigils.
Speaker 1you know angelils, you know angelic symbols. Whatever you want to use, but you put some protection on there To try to hold things in.
Speaker 2Yes, absolutely so. Again, here's one of the things I see a lot of healers do, that I don't want to disagree with them. I understand what they're doing, but I still think they need to put something in there Again. They themselves are too sick, and I think this is where the problem is Right Is that they use these stones to keep trap this stuff in there and then they hang on to them.
Speaker 1What's that old saying? Physician, heal thyself. Come on, take care of yourself, baby, Take care of yourself.
Speaker 2Please, I mean dipping into those energies and messing with them. You already got the stink on you. You just don't need to be sitting in it too, Right?
Speaker 1There are residual effects absolutely and you need to be aware of that Now there's another part of healing that gets a little rougher.
Speaker 2Do tell, because sometimes the only way to heal someone is to allow them to move on, sometimes reincarnate and stuff like that. So the healing no longer is a healing but more of a here, let me guide you over to the other side, you know, and that's can be a little daunting. Yeah, you know, I mean that procedure sitting bedside and trying to guide that person over is not a. It's not a fun thing no, it's not.
Speaker 2Sometimes it's necessary and it can take you to some dark places for days afterwards when you yes, it can if you're not careful when paying attention. Absolutely so. I don't hear a lot of healers talk about that part. They seem to want to ignore the part that maybe reincarnation is the only solution.
Speaker 1I think we don't talk about that because it's I think it's probably more of the taboo side of and taboo is not the right word, but it's part of the darker side of healing. And it's not something that people want to talk about.
Speaker 2Well, I mean it's like hospice care.
Speaker 1Yeah, hospice care is. It's a terrible thing.
Spiritual Hospice and End-of-Life Care
Speaker 2It's a terrible thing, but it's there, it's necessary. It's necessary and these nurses and stuff are doing everything they can to make everybody comfortable Right During this process.
Speaker 1Because we know what's going on and, honestly, it takes a special person to be a hospice nurse. Yes, it does. I mean wow, because you're dealing with not only dealing with the patient, you're dealing with all the family members. Yeah, because the house is going to be full of family members. Yeah, and you're dealing with them and they've got questions. They're angry, they're sad, they're distraught.
Speaker 2Oh, Lord, you know, mm-mm. So again, there is a part of healing where, even in the pagan traditions, we have a sort of hospice care mindset. Yes, that you know. We realize there are times we have to let nature take its course. Mm-hmm, you can't fight it anymore. I mean, it's true, but don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2Now, like I think, reiki is a good thing, and especially when you're having chronic pain, okay, but I don't think Reiki will ever actually heal anything. I think to me and I could be wrong Reiki to me is more like just going to the doctor and getting flu or cold.
Speaker 1You think it's more like a Band-Aid?
Speaker 2I think it's more like a Band-Aid.
Speaker 1It's not really going to do anything to help the situation, except maybe Relieve the pain for a little while, for a little while, yeah.
Speaker 2Kind of like, oh God, the acupuncture, acupuncture, right. And again, just like you know, doing Tai Chi and yoga and stuff like that, as long as you're doing it it helps, right. But as soon as you stop doing it, so again, it's not necessarily a cure, right, it's you're managing, you're helping someone's, managing their pain.
Speaker 1Right More than anything else, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2So, which you know, you can also do that through meditation. You can up your pain tolerance, sure, yeah, which is possible. You know a lot of people in temples seems to do that automatically at some point for some reason. Right, it does happen For some reason, and it's always centered around meditation. As soon as your meditation starts to really take off, suddenly it's just like oh, I burnt myself. When did that happen, right? What else can we talk about?
Speaker 1What else would you like to say about? Well, I know, uh, you and I have a little differing opinion about how healing works with the healer. You have the opinion that the energy that you're using doesn't replenish itself, that once it's used, it's used.
Speaker 2No, not necessarily.
Speaker 1I believe the energy we're using is our own life force, energy Right To heal someone else Right, and that once it's gone, you've actually, once it's used, you've actually taken time off of your lifestyle.
Energy Debate: Life Force vs Renewal
Speaker 2Yeah, I believe every time you do that, when you're doing healings and you're really trying to use literally life force energy, my belief is that you're whacking off days and hours at the end of your life. You're just shorting it slightly to help somebody else.
Speaker 1So you don't think it's by a whole lot, but you do think you are taking some time off.
Speaker 2I believe it affects you. It depends on the sickness, how bad it is, how severe and how many people are helping you. Okay, but again, when you do those spells, I don't think there's any way to sit here and go. Okay, we're all going to take four hours of our life and put it. I don't. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? It's not quite that technical. Some people, I think, have a easier time transferring that life force energy, so they might accidentally give too much okay while other people might not give as much because they're not quite as talented in that.
Speaker 2Alright, are you?
Speaker 3with me.
Speaker 2We're talking about like the difference between someone who naturally plays a piano and someone who's taught a piano Right. You know only really smart music. People can actually hear the difference sometimes. Sometimes, yeah, the way they do that, but there is a difference in the way you've learned and the way you I don't know how to explain that the easier talent person just seems to be able to do it easier, right? It's like they got an extra skill or something right.
Speaker 1It's kind of like, um just uh, something that comes naturally right, just to some people and not others.
Speaker 2I had no rhyme or reason. I've never figured that out but yeah, that's what I believe. You don't think that.
Speaker 1No, I am of the opinion that our energy is constantly. It's like a circuit with the earth and with everything that's around us, right?
Speaker 2So we are made of stardust.
Speaker 1Scientifically, we are made of stardust, right. Scientifically, we are made of stardust, right. Which means we are part of the cosmos, which means we are tapped into an infinite source of energy, right, right. So that makes us part of that circuit. So I think that whatever, whatever we're throwing out gets recirculated. It may take a little longer to replenish, maybe. Whatever we're throwing out gets recirculated. It may take a little longer to replenish, maybe.
Speaker 3But think of it kind of like let's take.
Speaker 1RPGs right Games, right when you play an RPG, a role-playing game, most of the time magic casters have what's referred to as mana Right or mana, however's referred to as mana Right, right or mana, however you want to say it. You use it up, you sit down, you rest. It replenishes, right. That's kind of how I view it. Not quite, but that's kind of how I view it. It's just, it's something that recirculates. We are part of a giant circuit of energy.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm not saying we're not, it's just for some reason. When it comes to healing, I think to help someone heal we have to give them over life force, actual life force, energy. I don't know how else to explain that. I get that You're trying to do something a little bit extra.
Speaker 1This is not like me casting a spell to win the lotto or something no, I understand that, but I just I I can't, for, for whatever reason, I can't get on board with that because it's not how I view energy. Again, for me it's just, it's, it's something that we can do, right, because we are part of this greater force of creation.
Speaker 2I understand that.
Speaker 1You know, it's kind of like. It's kind of like in the Bible. Okay, we'll go back to Christianity, because I have my roots in Christianity. Right, right, Right In the Bible, jesus tells his disciples you too can go and do the same things that I have done. Yes, which includes healing people, raising the dead, healing the sick, you know whatever. Right? Yeah, if that's the case, how are we shortening our lifespan? I just I can't.
Speaker 2I mean you. The sad part about this is it's never one way, to approve or not.
Speaker 1No, there's not.
Speaker 2We don't know how long. We know the average, but for one particular individual, me myself, nobody knows how long I'm supposed to live. What was my, what was my expiration date when I was born?
Speaker 1no, nobody again, we can't prove it, we can't disprove it, just like you can't prove or disprove what I'm saying well of course I believe, but it just. It's an interesting argument when you sit down with people, because people have different views on it right.
Speaker 2It's just, for some reason, when I think it comes to life force, energy and I'm going to put it to you this way we're mainly talking about healing other humans and stuff like that. Even if it was your dog and you're doing this, I still think you're giving up something, a little bit of your life. Okay, all right. And again, I'm not sitting here saying that you're taking years off out of whack or anything like that, right?
Speaker 2no, it's just, you are taking some fraction of time Some time away from yourself, however big or small it might be, you know, and no, I'm not sure that energy might sort of replenishes itself. There might be a little bounce. You might not use it all up, but hey, you know what. You used two hours, but hey, guess what. We're going to give you an hour back. There might be a cash back program.
Speaker 1Who's to say? It's like the discover of healing Cash back. We'll match it at the end of the year.
Speaker 2I mean, healing is a very big part of a lot of the spells and stuff we hear. It is for a lot of people, yeah Right, I mean from getting pregnant to easy childbirth to not getting pregnant. These are all healing spells technically, technically yes, because we're messing with our biologies.
Speaker 1We're trying to ease pain, we're trying to make things more bearable, right?
Speaker 2but yeah, yeah, so yeah, I can see that they're all forms of healing now, I think it takes a certain mindset to be one of these people which I, I will sit here and I am not one of those people I am not either.
Speaker 1I think I can be if I need to be, but I've got to be in a specific situation for that.
Healing in Different Contexts
Speaker 2I tend to see more women do this than men. Priestesses seem to be better at this versus priests.
Speaker 1It's that mother nature, it is.
Speaker 2It's the whole entire thing. You and the family are out in the woods. A bear comes out. Everybody jumps behind dad.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But the kids go outside, scrape their knees. They're running to mom first.
Speaker 1Exactly, I mean it's nurture. It's what women are good at.
Speaker 2You know, I'm not sitting here saying men can't do this.
Speaker 1No, absolutely not. I just tend to think women tend to be better at it yes than we are.
Speaker 2I'm not saying we can't do it, it's just I don't know, I can't explain that it's um, it's kind of like it's kind of my mindset about women being nurses. They're better, they're better at it than guy nurses. Like I see the use of guy nurses. Women tend to be better at that position.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think it's more of again, I think it's more of. Women have that natural affinity towards nurturing and caring. Yeah, and I think that's what makes them better at it's because they're more in tune with it they it's just again, it comes natural to them and I think that makes them natural healers
Speaker 2right, like I said, I don't. I think guys can do it.
Speaker 1I just don't think we're as good at it, as women tend to be right that's all. Yeah, it's kind of like we might struggle a little bit to get it done, but you know, hey, hey.
Speaker 2You know, it might take us a little bit longer.
Closing Thoughts
Speaker 1It happens.
Speaker 2Right, anything else.
Speaker 1No, I think that about covers it.
Speaker 2Let's go get some coffee.
Speaker 1Let's get some coffee. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pagan Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary. Please visit us at lifetempleseminaryorg for more information, as well as links to our social media Facebook, discord, twitter, youtube and Reddit.
Speaker 3We travel down this trodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by a sea of blazing pyres. And so it is the end of our day, so walk with me till morning breaks. And so it is the end of our day. So walk with me till morning.
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