Episode 7: Mental Health

Welcome back dear listeners. In this weeks episode the witches are talking about mental health, how it impacts and intersects with their spiritual practices, and how they cope during The Dark Half. The colder seasons can be hard on us all for various reasons, but with cunning, compassion, and creativity you can find new ways to not just endure, but find beauty in the darkness. Hopefully by joining Skye, River, and Poppy in this episode you'll feel less alone if you find yourself struggling to juggle your mental health and magical practice, and maybe even think of some new ways to integrate coping skills in your own day to day life.

Grab a warm drink, a snack, and snuggle in for this much more candid and cozy episode with the witches. Remember to be kind to yourself, and be kind to each other always, especially in this upcoming season. 

General Trigger Warning for discussing less pleasant aspects of mental health, nothing severe or intense, but use your best judgement on deciding whether or not you're in a good place to hear it. If you decide to skip this weeks episode we understand and we'll see you next week xoxo

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Join our community of listeners as we explore the mysteries of the afterlife through the lens of witchcraft.
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Transcript

Poppy 0:18

Wait. Southern. No, it's the same. It's the same.

River 0:25

And that was your fun little game for this opening. Was to lie to us about Australia.

Poppy 0:30

I'm sorry. I don't know. I, I don't, I really don't know why in my brain I was like, yeah, cause they're like upside down from us. So that means that they're West or that our West is their East, but that's just not how it works.

River 0:45

No.

Skye 0:46

It's still like from space, you know what I mean? Like

Poppy 0:50

it's all magnets, yeah, it's all magnetism, um, yeah, anyway, hiiii!

River 0:57

Welcome

Poppy 0:58

I love, I love beautiful people!

River 1:00

six.

Poppy 1:02

Episode six

River 1:04

said it couldn't be done. They said it was impossible. And here we

Poppy 1:09

they?

River 1:09

Me, I'm they,

Skye 1:11

But guess what, it's November now!

River 1:13

be done. Stop killing these gnats!

Skye 1:16

They're pissing me off, dude.

Poppy 1:18

Skye is inundated with gnats.

River 1:21

being attacked. She's in the trenches.

Poppy 1:24

Yeah. It's cause she has her dogs out. They're flocking to the stench.

River 1:28

they need those toes.

Skye 1:30

It's because of my sweet, tasty little beverage.

Poppy 1:34

Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, we're doing a podcast. Hi, everybody. welcome. This is Death Coven, the podcast where a death coven talks about what it's like to be in a death coven. And today we're going to talk about mental health.

Skye 1:49

Yeah, let's lock in, team.

River 1:51

Yeah, let's lock in. I will say for transparency, we are recording this episode after we recorded a different episode for almost three hours.

Poppy 2:00

Yeah. It was a longy. It was episode

River 2:02

a little bit fried, uh,

Poppy 2:04

which is perfect. It's perfect for the episode about mental health, where our brains are in

River 2:10

They're not chugging along as they need to be.

Skye 2:13

we're doing things up top, we also Need to put some trigger warnings on this episode.

Poppy 2:19

yeah. So obviously today's episode, we're talking about mental health, which naturally might bring up some topics and some feelings that might trigger some people. So at this point in time. since this is kind of a conversational topic, we don't really have anything planned. We don't know what we're going to be bringing up. So if you haven't yet, please go look at the show notes because we'll put the trigger warnings there for you. But yeah, just, you know, if you're in a sensitive mind space right now or, you know, you just don't want to hear about certain topics that might come up around mental health, then I advise, you know, put this down, maybe come back to it when you're feeling a little bit better.

Skye 3:04

Yeah. Or if want to skip it all together and don't come back That's totally fine too.

Poppy 3:09

We won't be hurt.

Skye 3:10

No.

Poppy 3:12

But before we get started, I have another fun little hypothetical game.

Skye 3:17

Are these all from Reddit do you come up with these?

Poppy 3:20

Um, the first one, I think episode three, I Modified from what I found on Reddit the other ones I came up with

Skye 3:29

Okay. What about this

Poppy 3:30

including this one that I came up with this one Okay, so this one kind of loosely ties into mental health and I think you guys are gonna feel called out by it so

Skye 3:42

me out. what this

Poppy 3:43

up

River 3:43

my own damn podcast? Man, come

Skye 3:47

we're, we need a little icebreaker into being vulnerable. I think so

Poppy 3:51

Okay. So hypothetically, in this situation, a mysterious benefactor will give you 1, 000 every day if you answer every single phone call that you get. Every single time your phone rings, you have to answer it, no matter what time of day it is.

Skye 4:11

yes.

Poppy 4:12

So you're going to quit your job and you're going to

Skye 4:15

shoot. I didn't think about the intricacies of, I, cannot have my phone on me.

Poppy 4:22

Exactly. Exactly. That's why, that's what makes it interesting. So

Skye 4:25

I think I would quit yeah,

Poppy 4:28

yeah,

Skye 4:29

Because

River 4:29

I

Skye 4:29

would

River 4:30

a guaranteed thousand dollars a day.

Poppy 4:33

you can never fly in an airplane.

River 4:35

I already don't.

Skye 4:36

risk I'm willing to take.

River 4:38

Yeah, what it what's the consequence if I do take on this

Skye 4:42

Do I just get cut off?

River 4:44

my phone?

Poppy 4:45

yeah, you just get cut off, but that means, you know, if you quit your job to do this and you're going to have to, you know, get another job,

Skye 4:52

I'll take the risk.

Poppy 4:54

you'll take it.

River 4:54

that's

Poppy 4:54

do thousand dollars. Okay. What if, what if I tell you, if you, if you miss a phone call, they're going to take everything back. Yeah. Exactly.

Skye 5:02

Like I have to pay them back.

Poppy 5:03

Yeah.

River 5:05

Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know, but I got

Poppy 5:07

How confident are you in your ability, how confident are you in your ability to answer the phone every single time it

River 5:15

Here's the thing. I don't get a lot of phone

Skye 5:17

yeah, me either.

River 5:19

in general It's mostly like spam calls and I can like hit answer and then decline it. Yes. I just have to answer it I don't have to talk to the person.

Poppy 5:27

Yeah, you just have to answer

Skye 5:28

Do you think that they would send you extra phone calls because it's technically like your job or whatever?

Poppy 5:33

They might, if they want to get rid of you, they could, I guess.

Skye 5:37

I would, I would consult with my husband, I think, and see what he has to say.

Poppy 5:41

a good answer. He would say do it, I think.

River 5:43

Yeah

Skye 5:44

He'd be like, shit, I'm quitting my job too. A thousand dollars a day. I'm

Poppy 5:48

Yeah. Okay. I thought, I thought this would be a harder question because I thought you guys would be more phone averse.

River 5:55

not particularly.

Skye 5:56

No.

Poppy 5:57

I don't think realistically for me, I think I could do it. If I didn't have to give the money back, I think I could

River 6:05

Oh, yeah.

Poppy 6:06

If I had to give the money back, I think I would, probably not do

River 6:11

Yeah. It wouldn't be fun for me if I there was the fear of I have to get this money back. I wouldn't do anything with it. I would just have it in a savings account that I would never touch.

Skye 6:20

if there's any sort of like severe consequence like that,

River 6:23

Yeah.

Poppy 6:24

Mm

Skye 6:24

I'd be like, uh, if the, if the risk outweighs the benefit that I'm like, no, if they would cut me off, like if they're like, yeah, but if you don't keep up with it, then we're going to cut you off. Then I'd be like, Yeah. sure. Fine.

Poppy 6:36

Okay.

Skye 6:37

But no, I am down to be like basically a little sugar baby

River 6:41

Mm

Poppy 6:43

Come when you're called.

Skye 6:44

or what's called? I guess it would be a Splenda baby. Cause the Splenda babies are the ones who like, don't really do it. work. They just, they're the ones who provide companionship. They don't, do favors, if you will. I believe so.

River 6:55

heard of a Splenda baby before. Good for them.

Poppy 6:59

baby. A honey baby.

Skye 7:01

know, me like, I mean, I don't know anything about that. Just kidding. Ha

River 7:04

Definitely didn't look into it. Closes out my Google tabs.

Poppy 7:10

Okay.

River 7:11

Some mental health. Raise your hand if you're mentally ill.

Skye 7:16

All of our

River 7:17

We all raised our

Poppy 7:18

we all raised our hands.

River 7:21

Hey, at home, raise your hand if you're mentally ill. Don't think I won't know. Not if you're

Poppy 7:25

if you're driving.

Skye 7:26

both hands on the wheel, please.

River 7:28

you know,

Poppy 7:29

Okay. So who wants to kick us off then?

Skye 7:33

Well, let's start. How are we? How are we doing mentally lately? Crickets?

River 7:41

crickets. I would say I was in, I was in me personally river. Hi, how are ya? I was in the shits for a solid, I'll say three weeks. I'll give myself that big window. Like I was in the shits for a while and then I was doing really good for the past few days and I was doing really good this morning. And now I'm, I'm slowly falling back into the shits again, which is just sort of the cycle of my moods and my brain personally. That's where I'm at. I'm not bad, but if I'm not careful and I don't take care of myself and I don't Rest, I'm gonna get bad.

Poppy 8:20

Mm hmm. Relatable.

Skye 8:22

How is your magical practice been for the past three weeks up to now?

River 8:27

Um, not great. If I'm being real, I've been doing things mostly out of a sense of obligation because I've had things where it's like, Oh, it's a new month. I have to do my monthly tarot spread. Oh, it's a, I didn't even do the new moon spread. Cause I just couldn't be

Skye 8:45

It's those have to,

River 8:47

yeah. Yeah, but I did, I like had to do these things to at least, like for me, I have to force myself to do things just to have that consistency so it doesn't completely go to shit. So I am forcing myself to do it for my betterment.

Skye 9:05

it is nice have those things, those markers, like the beginning of the month and the moon phases to have as a, um, like a bookmark of, because if you had no frame of reference, you wouldn't, if you fall into the shits, you don't really have that starting that jumping off to be like, Yeah. you'd just be in the But if you're not doing so well, but you look at the calendar and you're like, Oh man, the full moon's coming up in three days. maybe I'll try to amp myself up a little bit. And then hopefully by the time the full moon comes around, I can use that as a springboard to get back into the things that I've fallen off.

Poppy 9:40

And you're working with the moon phases too, especially like as we're talking about mental health, working with the new moon, you can think, you know, what am, what am I missing that I need to manifest? Even if that's something as simple, it's not simple, but something like self love or, you know, You know, just generally compassion for yourself. and then on the full moon, if you have something you're trying to get rid of, I know the three of us have really been, kind of on an anti self sabotage journey for the past.

Skye 10:13

Lifetime.

Poppy 10:14

know, our, our entire lives. Yeah. So, that can be a good just a good time to really check in with yourself and think about what it is that you actually need.

River 10:25

Which is maybe the hardest thing of all to do. Especially when you're so used to just not giving your needs the time of day and the attention. You're like, I don't know what the fuck this bitch needs.

Poppy 10:37

Mhm. And when

River 10:38

I don't know what you want.

Poppy 10:39

really care sometimes, you know? It's hard to care.

Skye 10:43

And it's tough because like, When we're doing really good, mentally and spiritually both, when we're, you, for me, I do daily tarot, I also, on top of doing, these monthly full moon, I do, tarot all the time, I would do, weekly check ins with deity, and, Refilling offering, like I'm keeping things fresh. I'm like Staying in touch. I'm staying in contact and I'm consistently regularly doing spiritual things throughout my day. And it's easy that if I were to slip a day or two of not doing daily tarot, it feels like a failure and you have that mentality of I'm already behind. I already feel like I'm already tired. I've already failed. So why

River 11:26

I might as well run this into the ground fully.

Skye 11:30

Exactly. And then, and you know what you get from that? You get a dirty altar and moldy wine offering.

River 11:37

And you

Poppy 11:37

Not the moldy wine.

River 11:41

we've all been

Skye 11:41

hey, if you've

Poppy 11:43

And that shit has alcohol in it. It's not supposed to mold easily.

River 11:47

I know, that's how bad it gets. It

Skye 11:50

talking like a couple months. it's been up there for like, a long time.

Poppy 11:58

it happens. And it's okay, because especially when we're talking about deity and ancestor and offerings, like these, these are relationships. And I mean, just like your real life relationships. Yes, you have to put in work, but also the people that love you are going to understand when you need to take a step back and when you need to, you know, take care of yourself first.

River 12:21

They don't love you because you are doing these things for

Poppy 12:24

Exactly. They're not, unless they're like 16 years old, they don't love you because you're buying them wine, right?

Skye 12:31

Yeah, for me, it's in a way a good thing to see the moldy wine because Sometimes when you're in the shits, you lose track of how long it's been and how bad it really is. And sometimes can kind gaslight yourself into being like, it's not that bad. I am still doing this, but I'm not doing this, but it's okay. And you talk yourself into allowing yourself to rot and allowing yourself to fall But like

River 12:55

it could always be worse.

Skye 12:57

Yeah, but recently when I was like, okay, for real, like we got to redo this altar. I got to take everything off and reset it up and everything. And when I found the moldy wine recently, cause I also was recently in the shits for a little bit and I saw the moldy wine, I saw how bad it was. It was like that realization that really brought me back to be like, Oh, you were bad. It was bad. This is the physical representation, the physical embodiment of how bad you were, and it's sort of a validating to to know that you were bad. Do you know what I mean?

River 13:30

And there's like evidence of that. You weren't like being a little baby and like in your feefies about it.

Skye 13:37

Cause like, nobody moldy wine. I wouldn't have allowed mold to grow on my altar had

River 13:42

was in my right mind, that never would have happened.

Poppy 13:46

and like, it's crazy how we're constantly comparing ourselves to others, whether that is, we think that others are better than us, or we think that others have it harder than us or doing worse than us. So whatever we're experiencing isn't valid,

Skye 14:02

Yep.

Poppy 14:03

and you just need to take a step back. Everybody's different. Everybody is on their own journey.

River 14:09

Especially the suffering competition. I feel like so many people are either trying to make their suffering seem More than somebody else's or they're like trying to minimize it in comparison to other people's suffering and I'm like babe That's not helping anybody me pointing a mirror at myself, babe. That's not helping anybody

Poppy 14:32

think that's a very Western, like American thing, but also like a very Western thing where we correlate work with success and we correlate, you know, you're not working hard unless you're suffering

River 14:46

are burning yourself out for the bare minimum and then even still you need to be working harder

Poppy 14:52

whether it's for productivity or even creativity, you know, where it's like the whole tortured. Artist trope where it's like your art isn't going to be beautiful or valid or meaningful unless you're Suffering when you

Skye 15:06

Yeah. especially when you work with a deity and their sort of main goal is for you to improve and grow in yourself, in your own personal path. And so for you to constantly be set back and to not listen to, guidance or whatever, like they're usually willing to wait for you to find your footing. But if the reason why. You are faltering or you are on a pause is because you're comparing yourself to others when they've been screaming at you the whole time. I need you look inward. I need you to only focus on

River 15:42

don't

Skye 15:43

problems.

River 15:43

that. That's not for you

Skye 15:45

That must be incredibly frustrating for them. So they could honestly probably give a shit if their wine offering is They're probably more mad about

River 15:51

babe, this is a symptom. This is not the cause.

Skye 15:55

more mad about you not listening to what they're actually trying to tell you, but it happens. We fall off

River 16:02

It happens

Poppy 16:02

happens to everybody whether it's because of mental health or just because you're not feeling that connection

River 16:09

Yeah. Everything's got an ebb and flow.

Poppy 16:13

always comes back though

Skye 16:14

It happens in transitory periods if you've moved house, and you haven't unpacked your magical stuff, or you you're just in a new environment, you're on vacation, you're staying in a hotel, you're on a cruise, you're on a plane, you're jet lagged, you're on vacation. This year that like if you're in a different state where you're not in your normal routine for any reason, or you're still in the process of establishing a new routine, it's easy to fall off for a long time and have a hard time restarting over because restarting is the hardest part. Starting is fun, but starting over is really, really difficult.

Poppy 16:47

picking up too, for me at least, when I think about starting over, starting over for me is the same as starting. I get that excitement, that wind, that temporary honeymoon period. And then as soon as it gets regular and routine again, I'm like, Oh, this isn't fun anymore. And then I stop,

Skye 17:06

novelty wears off

River 17:08

It becomes more of a

Skye 17:10

a chore.

River 17:12

Which is not bad. You gotta do chores to maintain that homeostasis. Even sometimes there are some things about my practice that I do find kind of boring. And I'm

Poppy 17:24

Mm hmm.

River 17:25

joy. It'll be like, refreshing and offering or like saying a prayer or just like small stuff that adds up where I'm like, it's not a big ritual. I'm not lighting anything on fire. I'm not like harnessing this big energy. It's like such a small little thing that I could so easily just not do.

Skye 17:45

or so easily do

River 17:47

or so easily do. Yeah. Either way.

Poppy 17:50

And that's the thing. It's like, if you just do the thing, it's so much

River 17:55

Yeah. You keep that momentum going.

Poppy 17:59

well, it's like you put more effort into dreading doing this simple thing than it would take to just do it. And that translates to every aspect of life, right?

Skye 18:07

do you guys ever fall off your practice? And you're feeling in your feelings, you're feeling bad. And then all of a sudden you get like this gust of Inspiration and motivation and you're like, that's it. I've enough of this bullshit. Like I'm, I'm I'm, a, I'm a fucking witch. God damn it. And then all of a sudden you're doing the biggest ritual of your life and you're like laying out a pentagram on

River 18:29

Yeah. You're doing more than you have any right to be doing.

Skye 18:33

like, bitch, who do you think you are? You literally can't even Refill your water

River 18:38

Baby got

Poppy 18:38

Yeah. And you're asking for so much energy, and you haven't been

River 18:44

yeah, yeah,

Skye 18:46

protection from what

River 18:47

yeah,

Poppy 18:48

That's a whole thing though. Hexing yourself is so real.

Skye 18:52

Hey, raise your hand if you've done it recently. Yeah.

Poppy 18:56

our hands.

Skye 18:57

Yeah

Poppy 18:58

But breaking that hex can be so cathartic, even just acknowledging like, Oh, I am doing this to myself. What can I do so that I stop doing this to myself and I get rid of that ick?

Skye 19:16

Yeah, I literally wrote in one of my tarot readings, regarding, my mental health a few weeks ago, something along the lines of, and it was with the morgue, and it was with her deck, and she said, you are both the problem and the solution. And I said, huh, huh, yes, ma'am, I'll try.

Poppy 19:33

Yeah. Have you guys ever, broken a self hex before?

Skye 19:37

Yes, but not, it's not always intentionally, I'm not doing, a cord cutting with myself, or, it's usually, like

Poppy 19:44

I

Skye 19:44

like a, true, that's true.

River 19:47

yeah,

Skye 19:48

It's usually like a cleansing bath or usually like how were talking about in the dream episode, the whole epiphany thing, like I'll usually an epiphany will come to me either through, not usually a dream, but I'm clear audience. So sometimes I'll just be conversing with the divine just throughout my day and I'll hear something or I'll have a thought come up of my own subconscious. And I'm like, Oh, that's the issue. That's what I need to do. That's what I need to remember. And then I latch onto that and then let that give me motivation to propel me into a better mindset. So it's not usually like a. A ritual per se, but it's sort of like, uh, I need to remember my foundations of who I am and latch onto that to then instead of getting rid of the bad shit, just like putting in more good shit moving forward.

River 20:40

while not being hypercritical and beating yourself up about. Everything else you feel like you've fallen off of.

Skye 20:48

It's okay, maybe we haven't been good about keep our altar space or doing daily tarot, but guess what? you can clean the altar and we can do a tarot reading today and then you can do a tarot reading tomorrow and then we can just, we can we can pick it up. It's okay.

Poppy 21:03

Sometimes even that's too much energy. And if that's the case, like, literally the simplest, smallest thing that you can do. I, when I'm like really, really in a bad place. I'll just make a mantra for myself and just, throughout the day, give it a little bit of attention, give it a little bit of energy, whatever it is, whatever I need, and then eventually that'll add up

River 21:28

Yeah.

Poppy 21:29

ready

River 21:30

Yeah. It's like

Poppy 21:32

have

River 21:32

up that

Poppy 21:33

yeah, mm hmm. Because sometimes even cleaning the altars too much, you know,

River 21:39

Brother, as somebody that is chronically fatigued and with chronic pain, some days I can't do jack shit. for spiritual or my general health. So some days I'm like, I have to lay down and t pose for eight hours, and that's all I got today.

Poppy 21:56

you're just planking.

River 21:57

Yeah, I'm just planking and I feel like shit all day, and I'm like, all right, great job.

Skye 22:03

My biggest crutch is like when I'm at work, I have oils, like magical oils that I've bought and I'll just put some drops

River 22:09

easy. If nothing else, just get an oil and just slather it on you.

Poppy 22:15

And scent is so powerful, too. Like, if you have that association with the oil and you put a little bit on your wrist and you're smelling it throughout the day, like, just does something to your brain that can put you in a completely different mind space.

Skye 22:27

If I can't bathe, like I can at least put on that magic oil.

Poppy 22:30

Mm

Skye 22:30

You know how it is when you're rotting and you haven't showered in three days.

Poppy 22:34

Yeah.

River 22:34

yeah.

Skye 22:35

Oh, I do want to talk about. Going back to basics, because that's part of mental health. Sometimes you do need to, maybe you were at your peak and you were. Scrying and doing all kinds of cool stuff. You're receiving lots of messages. You're getting lots of synchronicities. You're feeling power. Your hands are tingling. you're on top of the world. And then all of a sudden, you beat that cliff. You fall all the way down. And you're like, I actually don't know if I've ever performed magic in my entire life. And you're gaslighting yourself. And you're in your head.

Poppy 23:09

it?

Skye 23:09

Am I imagining it?

River 23:11

Is it psychosis?

Skye 23:14

and whatever other mental health issues that you have, you know,

River 23:18

Just speaking from my own personal, sometimes I'm like, is this real or is, am I having an episode?

Skye 23:25

Yeah. I just it can be, if you're at a point to where you're like, okay, I feel like. Doing and practicing magic makes me feel very empowered. It makes me feel good about myself. And right now I'm not feeling very good about myself. A good place to start can be that sort of quote unquote, baby, which sort of step one revisit, like color. meanings revisit, like the elements, reread, books that you've already read or parts that you skip like, I already know it light a candle.

River 23:56

Grab that smoky quartz for dear life and do not let it go.

Poppy 24:01

Put it in your pocket. That's

River 24:02

Yeah.

Skye 24:03

Yeah. Just put an amethyst next to you, like on your desk while you're working or

River 24:07

I have an amethyst under my pillow every single day. That thing stays in my bed.

Skye 24:12

yeah, just like those basic things that you take for granted when you level up, so to speak as a witch, like just revisit that and go outside, dude.

River 24:24

That's the most important. Please, please, if you take nothing else from this, please just go outside and sit in the sun.

Poppy 24:32

Yeah. I do want to say real quick, just as a disclaimer, we're not doctors, we're not mental health professionals, we're not therapists or counselors, et cetera, et cetera. will say, as somebody that deals with, uh, in R. I. V. I. R., you can probably, Relate to this, but as someone that deals with paranoia as a symptom of my mental illness, Sometimes you need to take a step away from your practice because for me I start thinking that I'm seeing signs Everywhere positive negative and if that's the case if it's if it's negatively affecting

River 25:07

If it's becoming such an obsession that you can't function without thinking of it, take a step back.

Poppy 25:18

If you're starting to think that, you know, everything is a sign, especially if it's causing negative emotions, talk to your doctor, Please

River 25:26

Yeah. Witchcraft is not a substitute for comprehensive, accurate medical care. I was medicated for a very long time and I was also a witch. You can be both of those together. You can have it all.

Skye 25:41

can

Poppy 25:41

you can't just slap a crystal on it.

Skye 25:43

it can be confusing because oftentimes when we're doing, obviously we talk about shadow work, all the time, but if you're doing shadow work prompts, if you're doing something as Seemingly simple as journaling, maybe you have some shadow work prompts, you're working through oftentimes shadow work feels like therapy. It feels like addressing childhood wounds and working through those to assess whether you need to integrate that into your life or whether you need to let that go in order for you to grow as a person that is part of shadow work. And that's the, meat and bones of it, which kind of feels like therapy, but just don't get too in the weeds. and feel like the shadow work is fixing your mental health when it they're both closely related and shadow work can go hand in hand if you are in therapy like i'm sure that your therapist may or may not recommend something similar akin to what shadow work is it's just called something different just journaling they might call it but don't just rely on that Listen to your doctor's recommendations, and then have, know sort of be in addition to.

River 26:54

Yeah, I do want to say,

Poppy 26:56

I'll go ahead.

River 26:58

Who's gonna go? Okay.

Poppy 27:00

just going to say this quick. I was just going to say from my viewpoint, I feel like shadow work is good for Changing and challenging your perspective, not necessarily for healing all of your wounds, you know, like, can it help get the ball rolling? Yes, sure. But for the most part, it's not. Reframing things for you so that you, instead of looking at those things that you consider big and scary and awful, you see them more objectively, which is not a substitute for therapy or medication

River 27:39

Yeah.

Poppy 27:40

any of, that. So

River 27:42

Yeah. Know you're good. I was gonna say this might be a hot take and a controversial opinion, but it is my fully believed opinion that I think that shadow work can be dangerous if

Skye 27:56

percent.

River 27:57

if you've never had any sort of experience with therapy and with A professional holding your hand and walking you through this, like, difficult, impactful, deep work. I don't think you should just jump into it if you've never had any experience

Skye 28:15

be intentionally triggering, just because you hear people say, oh, it's good to face your fears head

River 28:20

Yeah. But if you don't know how to do that, and you don't have anyone that can pull you out of that, I don't think

Skye 28:27

no. No, to me, shadow work is intentionally carving out time. When you feel you are mentally able to address a certain issue. And I would say to start lightly, start with little things. if you're having a recurring thought or a feeling something light, obviously don't go to your deepest, darkest childhood traumas right away. But if you're like, Gosh, every time this person says something, like it really irritates some reason. really sit with that for a minute and be like, how, what are they saying? How does that make me feel? Why do I think that I feel that way? Those are the little things like your little, little, nagging things in your mind that keep coming up for you. That's where I would start. Not with the big, Oh, what's the thing that I'd really don't want to look at thing. Like work your

River 29:13

what's the worst thing that's ever happened to me and how is it affecting me right now in this moment?

Skye 29:17

Yeah.

Poppy 29:19

You don't even have to address the big whys. You can just address the whats, like the identification of the feeling. Like, am I actually feeling annoyed or am I feeling jealous? Am I feeling confronted? you don't have to go all the way back to when you were six years old and whatever happened happened and hurt your inner child. Like it doesn't need to be. It can be a, you know, quick before bed exercise that's not going to give you horrible nightmares and keep you up at night.

Skye 29:51

No, the realization could just be like, Oh, I'm feeling frustrated because I'm actually just insecure. Like you realize that you're feeling jealous about somebody and you're like, Oh, it's actually because I'm feeling insecure about X, Y, Z, which is still a big thing. that's still. to uncover, but it,

River 30:06

Yeah.

Skye 30:07

but at least then you can be like, maybe I should work on my feelings about insecurity. And then that's a starting point. Yeah. Don't sit down with your journal or sit down however you're doing your shadow work and expect to have like a result or an answer at the end.

River 30:21

Yeah.

Poppy 30:22

enlightenment in 30 minutes.

River 30:24

And can I say that's my problem? I'm always like, wow, I'm going to do this one next thing and everything's going to be fixed and I'm going to escape Samsara with this one this time. And it's

Skye 30:36

River's I'm going to uncover the answer, capital A

River 30:39

Yeah, the capital A answer and then it doesn't work and I'm like, son of a

Skye 30:45

and then you beat yourself up more and then the cycle

River 30:47

then I beat myself up and the cycle continues.

Poppy 30:50

But it's that whole thing about us feeling like we are a, a problem that needs to be fixed, or like there's a solution, rather than the actual point of shadow work, which is more

Skye 31:03

understanding

Poppy 31:04

understanding and acceptance and realizing the things that you actually have control over, the things that you have agency to change, and the things that you don't, and, you know, deciding. How to live with that and how you're gonna reframe your and perspective and, deal with it.

Skye 31:24

Yeah. I feel like a lot of people, cause it's like shadow work. It's the shadow me, the ugly

Poppy 31:30

Devil

River 31:31

Yeah. The worst version of me that I have to kill to become

Skye 31:36

the, unwanted, the things I don't want to at.

River 31:39

Babe, that's you. That's just you. That's just part of you.

Skye 31:43

There are two wolves that live inside me. Like this is

Poppy 31:47

There are literally 10, 000 wolves

Skye 31:49

Yeah. The thing that you have to really realize is that all of it it's all you and you. Yeah. And you just have to be like, the end of the day it's damn, that's me. Like it or

Poppy 32:03

And you get to choose

Skye 32:04

Yeah.

Poppy 32:06

That's the thing.

Skye 32:07

and you have the goal, I guess. For all of us is to love ourselves and to accept all of ourselves and to not Reject parts of us because of XYZ and ideally we're not repressing emotions But let's be real we all are and sometimes it's for our betterment and safety for right now Sometimes we have to

River 32:27

Sometimes you're not ready.

Skye 32:29

No

River 32:29

you can't handle it.

Skye 32:31

No, it is for our brain does it for a reason. I'm not encouraging repressing your emotions, but I'm just saying like your brain represses things for a reason to keep you safe because it doesn't think you're ready for it and it might be right.

Poppy 32:43

But, I mean, there's a difference between that and willful

Skye 32:48

Yes.

River 32:49

yeah.

Skye 32:50

Being like I don't want to look, I don't want to look, I don't want to look. I don't want hear, I don't want to think about it. And then running away. Yeah.

Poppy 32:56

Mm hmm. Yeah. But there's a difference between, yeah, there's a difference between being safe and being comfortable, right? it's okay to be uncomfortable.

Skye 33:06

Yeah, sometimes you get to a point to where it's okay, you, you, it's time

River 33:10

Okay, you're a little too comfortable right now. You need to, you need to put a different pair of shoes on.

Skye 33:17

yeah, it's a really weird fine line that, only you can really define, when it's time for you to look at stuff, and only you can ultimately make the choice to look at it, even if everyone around you is begging you to introspective and to do work on yourself, and that goes for other people, too. If you're someone who's done a lot of work, Introspection at work and you see someone in your life who you're like, Oh my God, if they would just sit down and journal and pay attention to their actions and realize that their actions are, also involved with how their life circumstances are, then they would realize and they would realize, but you can't make that decision for them,

Poppy 33:54

All you can do is be a safe place for them to come to and when they're ready, you can be there for them. But they have to do the work for themselves and part of that work is coming to the realization that they have work to do, right?

River 34:07

And some of that is realizing that you are holding your mirror up to them and realizing, Oh, I'm not doing this work that I'm like begging this person to be doing. I'm just talking to me.

Poppy 34:20

Yeah.

River 34:20

It's complicated.

Poppy 34:22

It's hard. It's scary.

River 34:24

It's scary, and it sucks sometimes, and it's not fun sometimes.

Skye 34:29

Bro, and can we talk about how we have to relearn the same lessons over and over again? I've already done this

River 34:35

can this bitch, me, get it together and remember anything that they've already learned?

Skye 34:43

How many times do I have to go through suffering and hardship to remember this one lesson?

River 34:48

Constantly?

Poppy 34:49

a human being. You're just a human.

Skye 34:52

Yeah,

Poppy 34:53

It's okay.

River 34:54

This is my first time being alive. I'm still getting the hang of it. I'm still figuring it out.

Poppy 34:59

I was just going to, kind of piggyback off of that whole like looking at other people and wanting them to wake up kind of thing. So this is a, kind of a separate avenue, but you know that saying, you can't love other people unless you love yourself first and that's just not true for a lot of people, right? Like For most people, it's not for most people. It's easier to project love outward before you direct it inward. Um, and I think I talked a little bit about this during the, an iromancy episode, but something that can be so powerful when you are in the shits is something called meta meditation. And you should look into it if you haven't yet. It's basically, a compassionate meditation. And generally speaking, it's a meditation in which you are trying to project out love and compassion to every other living soul on the planet. River's cat Hermes is just going to town licking himself in the background. Um, Yeah, but so that it's just this meditation technique that can be really powerful because when you send love out to the world, you open yourself up more to receive that love because you recognize that Every other living being on this earth is deserving of my love and compassion. I'm also deserving of love and compassion. And so typically when you practice this type of you start out with I statements. So you start with yourself, showing your love self and the mantra I shared on the last episode. I am safe. I'm healthy. I am happy. I'm peaceful and at ease. And then you direct that towards your loved ones, in your immediate circle. We are safe. We are happy. We are healthy. We are peaceful and at ease. And then eventually you can send that out to the entire universe. But if you're really struggling, sometimes it can be really, really hard to use those I statements, right? Because you don't feel safe, you don't feel happy or healthy, you don't feel peaceful. And so it can be really, really helpful to work, from the outside in instead. And if you can't start out, you know, projecting your love and compassion to the entire universe, every being out there, that's fine. Start with your inner circle, the people that you love, and just, you know, send them out a prayer, a wish, a blessing. Do that enough times until you are satisfied. realize that you yourself are also worthy of that love and that care and compassion. disclaimer though, I will say if you're already the type of person that is burning yourself out, caring for others before yourself, do the inverse and really focus on yourself first. You know, cause that's also an issue. I'm sure you both have experienced that, putting others before yourself to the point where you're just empty and spent and there's nothing left over for you.

Skye 38:06

this reminds me of whenever I'm in the shits, I look at my cats and I'm like, because it's like, when you're in the shits, you're like, I don't want to go to work. I don't want to even do things that I enjoy when I come home. I don't feel like talking to anyone, but the one thing in the world for me is looking into those little eyes and knowing that they are fed and they have a house, like a roof over their head. And I'm like, And you know what? I do this all for you. So even if you have to do that meditation mantra just for your cats, or your dogs, or your hamsters, or your whoever,

Poppy 38:43

your partner, or your fifth grade teacher, whoever it is, that's special to

Skye 38:49

like, I know you got that one someone

River 38:52

You got one thing that if it's not yourself, it's that one thing.

Skye 38:58

that you, that you always have room for in your heart. even if you gotta

River 39:03

Don't matter if it's a fictional character. Don't matter if it's an object. Don't matter if it's a tree you like a lot.

Skye 39:12

a food even.

Poppy 39:15

you can look at that thing and. Say like, hey, if that thing was really suffering and really stinky and hadn't been taking care of itself, would I want it to take care of itself and take a shower and maybe have a good meal? Of course. And I deserve the same treatment, right? Because I'm also a living, breathing part of the universe. I am a reflection of that thing that I care so much about. I am within that, that is within me, so I also deserve to take a shower and have a good fucking meal and take care of myself. Which is easier said than done, of course, but it's, I feel like people need to hear this sometimes to help them find that perspective. Because it can be so hard when you're in that space, because everything seems like the worst thing in the world. Nothing seems like it matters, right? So, you just gotta. Reframe.

Skye 40:12

Yeah, circling back to like deity work in general, I feel like it can be equally really daunting and also really rewarding to think like well, Poppy and I, our gods both reached out to us, and it can be like a Not a chosen one, but like it's like, they chose me. What is it about me? They saw something in me. And even if, you know like River, you do reach out, they do eventually say yes. It's still being chosen, being like,

Poppy 40:42

He saw something in you. He's like, yeah.

River 40:44

If anything, it makes me feel worse because I'm like, I wanted this so bad. I pursued this

Skye 40:49

it's

River 40:50

I'm flopping. Well, I just feel like sometimes he's like, you asked for this. why aren't you doing anything I'm asking you to

Skye 40:58

when they reach out, it's you accepted this. It's the same thing either way. It's hey, we told you what you were going to get yourself into. but yeah, I feel like that can, on both ends, on one hand, if you're feeling down, you can be like, Why me? What about me? But on the other hand, you can be like, what a blessing that something or someone so powerful saw something in little old me saw my potential to grow. And even in that moment, if you've been working with a deity, you can look back at when you started versus now and think, wow, I really have grown actually.

Poppy 41:33

hmm. Mm

River 41:34

sometimes even when you're in the shits and you're, in my experience, beefing it hard, Dionysus has still been so gentle and compassionate with me where I'm beating myself up. I'm self flagellating. I'm crawling across a broken glass and he's like, babe, get, what are you doing? I'm not asking you to do that. I want you to take care of yourself. Please go eat and have a nap. Stop this. This is not helping you.

Skye 42:03

Most of the time, they're like, I'm not asking you to do all that. I

River 42:05

It's the Catholicism in. me.

Poppy 42:08

Yes. Oh my god. Relatable. I'm always so worried to check in when I haven't been doing well and I'm like, oh no, they're gonna break up with me. They're gonna be

River 42:17

top of not feeling well, I don't want to get yelled at.

Poppy 42:21

Yeah. And then I do check in and they're like. I mean, Hades specifically, he's always like, okay, you have room for improvement, but remember, look back at everything that you've done. Let's think, let's talk about the good things about you real quick. Let's reframe. Yeah. Mm hmm.

Skye 42:41

like, I wish you would have checked in.

River 42:43

Yeah.

Skye 42:44

you

River 42:45

the bit. They're like, I've been waiting.

Poppy 42:48

And I guess that's another thing too, because Sky, you were talking about those regular intervals, like the monthly moon cycle, daily readings. That's all great. Like you can, you can start on the first of the month. You can start on the full moon, but you can also remember that. Every single day is a new day. Every minute is a new minute, right? You can start whenever, and something that the coven does that we've mentioned before are the mind body spirit readings, which I think are super helpful, for checking in with your mental, physical, and spiritual health. And you can do that whenever. You can do it whenever you want. I think we all do it kind of differently. I personally do a six card spread where I'll do three cards for like the status, my current status of my mind, body, spirit, and then I'll do three cards for advice about what I need to look into, what I need to work on for each of those three categories. how do you guys do yours?

River 43:46

I do mine in a similar way.

Poppy 43:49

Yeah,

River 43:49

Yeah, I'll do like where it's at and what I need.

Poppy 43:54

Mm

Skye 43:55

I do just a basic three card, but I also I'm pretty good with automatic writing. So usually if I get like a message come through, if I'm doing it with the Morrigan's deck, her words will start coming out, um, unless I'm drawing a blank and I don't understand what the card means, then I might pull a clarifying card if I, don't fully understand. And if I'm using both the guidebook that the deck came with and then also that'll usually I'll read like a phrase or a sentence in that book and that'll kick off she'll start speaking and I'll start writing and I'm like, I understand. Okay. Okay. Okay. I get it. I get it. I get it. So that's. So I need a clarifier, it's just one card for mind body spirit.

Poppy 44:37

Yeah, but that can just be so helpful for not only coming back to it, but like reorienting and really getting your bearings again. because you can just get lost, right? You're like, what was I doing before I, uh, Checked out mentally.

River 44:55

spinning.

Poppy 44:56

And it's also related like, you know, mind body spirit. You think oh, well, why why we're talking about mental health? Why wouldn't I just do like a mind like an emotional reading but they're all so connected your emotional body feeds into the physical body feeds into the astral body and it's all just

River 45:14

It's all you. It's all you that needs to be taken

Skye 45:18

Yeah, and we all know like when you're in the shits, when you're in a bad spot, it's not just you being in your head and taking care of everything else in your life. The dishes are piling up in the sink. You're not taking a shower. You're in. You're snoozing your alarm. You're probably not drinking enough water. You're probably overdoing it on the caffeine because you're not sleeping well. the physical body, the mental body, the spiritual body, they're all impacted by your mental health when you're not doing well.

Poppy 45:44

hmm here here

River 45:46

Here, here. I do have questions for both of you.

Poppy 45:50

Ooh, crack it.

River 45:53

are you feeling about this impending dark half, and what are your plans to help mitigate your ills and your woes?

Poppy 46:04

So my perspective is kind of two pronged because on the one hand, I am looking forward to it because Hades is coming back and I feel like it's a new opportunity to work with him. Um, yeah, I miss him, but also I acknowledge that. At this point in the year, I'm typically looking forward to the dark half, because we're right before Samhain. We're right before Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and that's not the hard part. The hard part is

River 46:40

fun part.

Poppy 46:41

That's the fun part. The hard yeah, last half of January and February, Jesus Christ.

River 46:48

Honestly, first half of March, if I'm being real, slog. Yeah.

Poppy 46:53

honest here.

Skye 46:54

April.

River 46:54

First three months of the year, rough.

Poppy 46:58

Because you're, by that point, you haven't, you know, seen the sun in months and you're, you're wearing thin, your resolve is thin, you forget about the things that you have to look forward to because you've gotten all of those holidays, all of that,

Skye 47:16

of excitement. to back it's

Poppy 47:19

Yeah. and then it's done. you feel like you're alone and it's dark outside and it just feels bad, right? So, on the one hand, I'm excited to work more because I do feel, it's not that I feel more spiritually connected during the dark half, but it's a very different kind of connection for me, at least.

Skye 47:42

a personal one. I feel like in like the light half, we're being sociable and we're going outside and we're planning more social functions. And it's a very active sort of magical experience with other people. But in the dark half, it's like brooding and the, you

River 47:57

of have no other choice but to turn inward. Yeah.

Poppy 48:00

it's introspection and it's also ancestor work too. So like you're looking inward and you're also looking backward. So, so that's my answer.

Skye 48:12

plans forward.

River 48:14

what

Poppy 48:14

am I going to do?

River 48:15

on doing

Poppy 48:16

I am picking up dream work again. I kind of let that fall off after Ostara as we entered the light half last year. Um, and then I had, you know, a stressful Spring and summer, which just kind of took me out of things and I'm finally really getting back in the groove of my practice again after Anahatas this past year and entering the dark half. So I think I'm going to put myself into that. I think too much introspection can not be a great thing if you're alone too much, so I'm planning on leaning on others, on my loved ones, like you guys. yeah, we, I mean, we have that support system. Last year during the dark half, we really leaned on each other, I think, and it, for me, it helped

Skye 49:04

Last year was the best dark half I'd ever had.

Poppy 49:07

yeah.

Skye 49:08

Here's hoping it gets even better.

Poppy 49:10

see.

Skye 49:12

Well

Poppy 49:12

Sky?

Skye 49:13

Well, I, like you said, I I was feeling a bit, the hermit card derogatory recently, you know, being very, withdrawn, secluded, to the point to where it was less positively introspective and more. Secretive and withholding myself and feeling like I, I was really in that shell of that hermit. Like I'm, really tucked up in there and like I can't come out for both my own safety and for everyone else's safety for whatever reason. I don't know. I don't know. Hey, I'm still working through that. But come out of that a little bit and I I'm now going to tell the story about that little gift I got the other day,

River 49:58

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Skye 50:01

this ties, this ties, in with mental health because I was feeling particularly depressed one day. It was day off. And so I took a little midday nap as you do when you're depressed and you're like, I simply can't be conscious anymore. I have to just lights out. I haven't done anything. I've been feeling unmotivated and yet I'm so exhausted. I take a nap, I don't know, two or three hour nap. I wake up feeling refreshed. I haven't left the house all day, by the way. I just like maybe threw in a load of laundry, did the dishes, took a nap, wake up, I'm in like baggy, cuppy clothes. I come downstairs and I'm taking my medicine in the kitchen. My husband comes home. It's probably like 6, 6 30 at night. And he comes in. And the first thing he says to me was, why is there a jawbone on the front porch? I said, beg pardon? What did you just say to me? I haven't been outside all day.

Poppy 50:54

he knows you're a witch, and he's like, you must have put it there,

Skye 50:57

Yeah, I've got like this moss birdhouse outside that I sometimes will put offerings in because I do also work with the Horned God, who I'll also mention in a moment as well. But anyway, I go out there and we have a little, and to be clear, I don't live in the woods. I live in like a suburban busy ish area. I live just like in a neighborhood. There is a tree outside my house and at the base of this tree, there's a deer jaw bone. And at first I didn't know what it was. I sent a picture to the coven and Poppy being a scientist knew exactly what it was as soon as she saw it.

Poppy 51:36

I'm like, that's a deer jaw.

Skye 51:37

That's a deer jaw. And was like,

Poppy 51:39

tailed deer.

Skye 51:40

I was like, Oh, herd. Okay. maybe I'll, after this episode goes live, I'll post a picture of it on so I was like, Oh, we do have a little neighborhood cat who has left to dead things on our porch before. So I suspect that physically that's how the deer bone got there. But. The bone was like, It clean when I found it. There was no

River 52:03

no

Skye 52:04

no meat,

Poppy 52:06

no fur,

Skye 52:07

fur, no nothing. It was clean. it looked very intentionally placed at the base of our tree, underneath where like my little, what's it called? The bird tree house altar thing is. So I go grab gloves and I grab it and I'm cleaning it and I bleach it or whatever. So now I have a deer jaw bone. Which I took to mean that the universe was like, Hey, Little, little neighborhood cat. If you could throw our friend a bone, that'd great. And then he took it literally and he just saw a deer jawbone out in the wilderness and was like, who would love this sky I'm going to go.

River 52:42

exactly what I needed right now.

Skye 52:44

Yeah. And he's,

Poppy 52:46

I've pet him before.

Skye 52:47

so good. He's so

Poppy 52:49

such a good cat.

Skye 52:50

We have another new little neighborhood cat named mango.

Poppy 52:53

Ugh,

Skye 52:53

Who's an equally sweet orange boy. He's very, very cute.

Poppy 52:58

Mm

Skye 52:59

We, we pet him yesterday,

Poppy 53:00

hmm.

Skye 53:01

but yeah. yeah. it's a deer. And because it's the jaw, I took this, and because I work with Horned God, I took this as a, uh spiritual voicemail Hey, give me a call back, babe. And so because of that, and I was after that, I started getting out of my funk a little bit. I did have an epiphany one day at work and I was like, yeah, Okay. I'm getting back into my group. I bought a box of these black bath bombs for the dark half. Cause I do love to take a black bath to symbolically submerge into darkness. In way, so I used one of my new black bath bombs last night as a devotional bath to the Horned God to say, you rang, how can I help you? there something that you wanted?

Poppy 53:49

He's like, how can I help you?

Skye 53:51

So I, Horned God isn't really a patron deity of mine. He's just sort of, you know, Always there and every now and again, it'll pop in to be like, Hey, just letting you know that if you ever need anything, I'm here and I'm like, appreciate you first met him in a guided, meet your spirit guides meditation and he'll just randomly pop up river, saw him at Anahata's

Poppy 54:14

yeah. I forgot about that.

Skye 54:17

the form.

Poppy 54:18

in the trees.

River 54:19

Yelp. yeah. It was nighttime.

Skye 54:23

Shown a flashlight up into the leaves, just in the form of the green man saw green man face.

River 54:28

Just right there, right in my flashlight. And I went, ah,

Poppy 54:30

Mm

Skye 54:31

Yeah, some people think they're different. I feel like they're aspects of the same guy. So I'm probably going to be doing a bit more work with Horned God, leaning more into sort of that masculinity trope, if you will. I don't know what that's going to look like specifically, though. I think that there are just aspects of inner masculinity that I need to address, maybe. via Shadow Work, via just more workings with him. maybe trying to be more in nature, trying to go on more walks, even though it sucks when it's cold and dark outside, just forcing myself out of my cave and out of my shell a bit. Um, while continuing working with the Morrigan, obviously she is my patron. She is my number one. And as far as I know, Horn God has respect for her. He's Hey, I understand that she's, your number one. I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes. I'm just saying that I'm also here and he's got such a a dad energy to me. Of course, he's like the hunt in the wild and he has the anger masculinity, but to me, he is very gentle and patient, which I need. sometimes, because the Morrigan is very, she's lighting a fire under my ass. She's go, warrior mode. Not that she doesn't have the other aspects, obviously, but I feel like the Horned God adds a nice balance to the mix. maybe slowing down a bit, maybe doing some more work with him. Obviously, I want to journal more. I want to be, I'm trying to get really into, More types of divination. I feel like Dark Half's a good time to do that. You guys know that I bought that scrying mirror. I've used it a couple of times. So maybe I'll, play around with that. I bought that rug, that circular rug, to cast circles with. To make my scrying easier. So kind of want to whip that bad boy out, play with that a little bit. yeah, that's pretty much it. Just kind of, I want to have fun again. I want to try new things. I want to take things that I already

River 56:32

drink to that. I want to

Poppy 56:34

Yeah.

River 56:34

again.

Skye 56:35

fun again.

Poppy 56:36

It's so easy to just fall into that rut. You know, you're just doing the same things

River 56:40

Yeah.

Poppy 56:41

because you feel like you have to.

Skye 56:43

Yeah. I want to work up to it. obviously I want to be in a good groove to be like, okay, maybe I'm doing my daily divination through tarot, but then being like, you know what? Maybe on the new moon, I'll whip out the scrying mirror. Who knows?

Poppy 56:58

And how about you, River?

Skye 56:59

Yeah.

Poppy 57:00

gonna do?

River 57:00

Who me? I didn't think this was circle. I thought I was just the interviewer. I thought I would never have to answer. Fuck.

Skye 57:07

You, thought we'd

River 57:08

it's I was hoping.

Skye 57:10

No.

River 57:11

Nah, I have to have sort of both a literal practical approach as well as a spiritual approach because of my own mental health issues. I have to be, I have my sadlet. I already pulled it out of the closet. I'm going to be using that thing every day. I've got countless of vitamins and supplements that I'm just going to be slamming down. I'm gonna be really trying to be more intentional with living seasonally. I feel like that's always my goal, but I'm not ever actually really doing it. I'm buying like frozen pizzas and shit like that, so I'm trying to buy produce that's in season, so tonight I'm making roasted sweet potatoes with

Poppy 58:03

Ooh.

Skye 58:04

mm

River 58:05

ginger

Poppy 58:07

Damn.

Skye 58:08

Damn. I'm

Poppy 58:08

I will say though, good to have both Pizzas and that frozen shit for when you need it.

Skye 58:14

Yeah.

River 58:15

the shits, absolutely. Yeah, it's important to have things when you can't do too much,

Poppy 58:23

Mm hmm. Ha ha ha ha ha.

River 58:26

early. I fallen off. big on ancestor work this past year. I really haven't been doing too much. So I do want to get back into that. I also really want to get into this protection and reversal magic book that I got at our local metaphysical shop recently. I have not really cracked into that and I, I need to keep my brain constantly.

Poppy 58:53

Mm hmm. Elasticity.

River 58:54

Yeah, I need to be like learning things and throwing in new elements while also remembering basics of what I'm doing and

Skye 59:03

Hey, good news. podcast can probably inspire that.

River 59:06

Yeah,

Skye 59:07

Cause

River 59:07

probably.

Skye 59:08

be looking for topics and being like,

River 59:10

Yeah,

Skye 59:10

something? Like I need to,

River 59:12

Oh, I have, I have a podcast I have to record. Yeah. And honestly, this podcast itself is going to be a huge thing for me to look forward to in the dark half, just having some creative project. And I also get to hang out with my friends, which is huge community togetherness.

Poppy 59:31

I mean, we usually do something for The Sabbats usually, but I have since left the area and so we're pretty far away now. So it's nice to weekly be able to get on and

River 59:46

yeah,

Poppy 59:47

on the coven call with each other. And of course we have the group chat that we're constantly talking in.

Skye 59:52

Yeah. And just every day we're in the Coven group chat, just. Talking about our

Poppy 59:56

Post and feat

Skye 59:57

or talking

Poppy 59:57

pics.

River 59:58

yeah, yeah,

Poppy 1:00:00

Yeah.

Skye 1:00:01

shit.

Poppy 1:00:03

Speaking of the dark half, can I go ahead and talk about a book real quick? A little book recommendation? Okay. So, speaking about the dark and like preparing for winter and squirreling things away and resting, I wanted to recommend the book Wintering, the Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Catherine May. It is a fantastic book, especially to read during the dark half. basically Catherine May is an English, I'll call her a scholar. Like she's a professor. She's written a couple books too. And she wrote this book, when she was going through a really difficult time. I think her, she was going through a really hard illness. her Child was having some issues. Her husband was having some issues, like just basically it was not a good time for her. And so she started looking into what people and animals and the world and environment did. What they all do when winter comes, how they prepare for winter, how they weather through the storm and come out the other side still alive. And a lot of it is about slowing down and accepting where you are and resting. each chapter goes over a different season. So she starts in. September, and then October, November, December, January, February, and ends in March. So it goes all the way through, like

River 1:01:31

Everything I need, yeah.

Poppy 1:01:33

March is hard too. Um,

River 1:01:36

as February, but God, it's not easy.

Poppy 1:01:39

for me, it doesn't start getting bad until like late, after Thanksgiving, I would say.

Skye 1:01:45

So when the light is actually

River 1:01:47

get, I get a little weepy and I start feeling it mid December.

Poppy 1:01:52

Because what, the solstice is the 21st of December, right? Is that Yule? That's like officially Yule?

River 1:02:01

Something like that, either the 21st I can't remember off the top of my head.

Poppy 1:02:05

Yeah. It's just, because at that point, the sun rises at like almost 8 a. m. and it sets at like 4. Yeah. So it's, there's just not enough daylight, but yeah, so this, this book, I read this book when I was personally going through a really hard time and it's not just about the actual dark half. It's about, those periods of your life when, you know, something big and traumatic has happened or any kind of situation where you need to retreat and rest and recuperate before you get back out

Skye 1:02:41

Is it like that scene in Twilight where Bella's just sitting in that chair for months?

Poppy 1:02:45

No, Bella was not being good to herself there.

River 1:02:49

She was rotting.

Poppy 1:02:50

wintering. Yeah. No, she was ho a ho a ho a ho ing. Um, but yeah, highly recommend. She also has a book, Catherine May called Enchantment, which is about, rediscovering the magic of life, and like how

River 1:03:07

I need to smoke a blunt with her.

Poppy 1:03:09

god.

River 1:03:09

Oh, I need to smoke a blunt with her. She gets it.

Skye 1:03:13

blunts.

River 1:03:14

I don't care. I will for her.

Poppy 1:03:17

She's, Super analytical and she writes a lot about how sometimes that alienates her from other people, and how in that case especially it's important for her to find these aspects of life and living an everyday life that have that little sparkle of magic.

Skye 1:03:37

Let's have fun again.

Poppy 1:03:38

Yeah, as children, you know, everything is in technicolor, everything is magical. And then as we age and we grow up and we have to work jobs and

River 1:03:47

We've been through these cycles over and

Poppy 1:03:50

is sepia, sepia,

River 1:03:52

Christmas doesn't hit the same as it used to.

Poppy 1:03:56

just re discovering those things, because they're still there. They're always there. We just, Are living in a way where we don't see them very much Yeah, they're less obvious. And when you really think about it, and you really connect again to the Earth, and to other people, and to life itself, you realize it's, it's so special, and it's so fleeting, and it's unique. And important.

River 1:04:22

yeah.

Poppy 1:04:23

So

River 1:04:23

things aren't little.

Poppy 1:04:24

yeah, so if, you are the type of person that has a difficult time adjusting to the dark half, I really recommend wintering by Catherine May. or, you know, you don't even have to read it during the dark half. Like I said, if you're just going through a hard time, I really, really recommend this book. It's easy to read. It's beautifully written. So yeah. So check it out.

River 1:04:46

I

Poppy 1:04:47

Yeah.

Skye 1:04:48

I low key want to read that book now.

Poppy 1:04:50

Do

River 1:04:51

want to read that book so bad. Yeah,

Poppy 1:04:53

share

Skye 1:04:54

We'll fight over it.

Poppy 1:04:56

Yeah.

Skye 1:04:56

Aw,

River 1:04:57

side. You're holding the other

Skye 1:04:59

I'll hold the flashlight.

Poppy 1:05:00

foreheads.

Skye 1:05:01

We're under a blanket.

River 1:05:03

Yeah, please

Poppy 1:05:05

on Samhain?

River 1:05:06

Please please. Yeah.

Poppy 1:05:09

We'll record in our little blanket

River 1:05:12

I will say one more thing I do have for my own dark half. I have Recently purchased a st. Dimfna candle And she is the patron saint of the mentally ill and those that suffer nervous disorders. You better believe I'm gonna be burning that thing every single day, and when it runs out, I'm gonna be buying another

Poppy 1:05:33

another one.

Skye 1:05:34

get a babe. Get a

River 1:05:35

I'm gonna have them, stocked up,

Poppy 1:05:38

I mean, like, what, metaphysically, like, what, can we do, like, grounding wise, we have dark stones,

River 1:05:44

yeah, just trying to get into the cycles of

Poppy 1:05:49

vegetables.

Skye 1:05:50

Guess what I got now?

River 1:05:52

out of place. Delicious.

Skye 1:05:54

some pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies right now.

River 1:05:58

Ah,

Skye 1:06:00

molasses, brown sugar. Ooh,

River 1:06:03

I want chili so bad, dude.

Poppy 1:06:06

I think we all always want chili. I think that's, that's just how it is.

Skye 1:06:11

You just want a hearty,

River 1:06:12

It's just the best food. It's just the best kind of food.

Poppy 1:06:15

There's, it's

Skye 1:06:16

Soup

Poppy 1:06:17

a, medley. Yeah. Make a grounding soup.

River 1:06:19

Yeah,

Skye 1:06:20

little

Poppy 1:06:20

Light some incense, some

River 1:06:21

yeah.

Poppy 1:06:22

in February, are you

River 1:06:24

A nice bath or shower. Put some warming ginger. There's um, there's a Dr. Teal's bath. I think it's a bubble bath. That it's like a clay and ginger and it just feels so warm and like comforting

Poppy 1:06:40

hmm.

River 1:06:41

you that winter is not forever.

Poppy 1:06:44

Yeah, you can do those little things like putting a couple drops of oil in your lotion or whatever, you know, just those, those tiny little things that bring a little bit of light, a little bit of joy, a little bit of magic into your everyday life.

Skye 1:06:58

If you're old enough and you drink, maybe do a little warming, like a bourbon cocktail. Do look forward to the seasonal things that you don't typically enjoy because it's a part of the whole thing. you can't expect to be in your son mentality and your son productivity. In the dark half, because I feel like that's just realistic. you gotta wax and wane with the seasons, with the in order to, you know, not feel like you're discombobulated for no reason. Cause it's not for no reason. Like we're animals too. We're a part of the earth.

River 1:07:34

We're not supposed to be getting in our cars at 7. 45am and driving to work when there's no sun. We're supposed to be in a cave, sleeping in a cuddle puddle,

Poppy 1:07:43

Mm hmm.

River 1:07:44

eating

Poppy 1:07:44

most importantly, prepare now. before you're

River 1:07:49

Yeah.

Poppy 1:07:50

of it. You know, buy those frozen pizzas, put that oil in your

River 1:07:55

your tea, get your fuzzy socks, have a contingency plan now, before, yeah.

Poppy 1:08:03

movies, whatever you need, know, think ahead.

Skye 1:08:06

this, episode will be coming out first week of November, if I'm correct.

Poppy 1:08:10

Mm hmm.

Skye 1:08:11

mean it's kind of like, this is like your last sort of like

River 1:08:16

is,

Skye 1:08:16

Okay.

Poppy 1:08:17

Collect those acorns.

River 1:08:19

Yeah.

Poppy 1:08:19

a little hole, put them in there.

River 1:08:22

Start watching Interview with the Vampire on AMC because it's really good and you'll hyper fixate on it and it'll be your reason for living if you're anything like me.

Skye 1:08:31

It's time to get a cup of hot cocoa and watch over the garden wall. If you haven't

River 1:08:35

I was just thinking that the other day, dude. I was thinking the other day I needed to be tucked in on Skye's couch under a blanket watching over the garden

Poppy 1:08:46

that.

Skye 1:08:47

come

River 1:08:47

come through baby girl!

Poppy 1:08:50

I'll be there in like three weeks, like two weeks.

River 1:08:53

Come through faster. Pencil it into your schedule. We're having over the garden wall

Skye 1:08:58

that's it. I'm grabbing you through the webcam.

River 1:09:02

like a wet napkin. I

Poppy 1:09:04

Okay. Well, do we have any, any last little nuggets?

Skye 1:09:09

I just hope that everyone out there is okay. Like I, we're talking about mental health. It's rough. And I think that we just want you to know that we are with you. We support you. We understand how difficult it is. And, we want you to get the help that you need to get when you need to get it. But, otherwise, your best is all you can do. And we support you to make the correct decisions for yourself.

River 1:09:36

Period.

Skye 1:09:37

That's all I got.

Poppy 1:09:39

And, uh, Well, I guess we'll, uh, Do some socials then, if you want to email us, if you want to, you know, let us

River 1:09:47

Sentence your contingency plans

Poppy 1:09:50

send us your plans, send us what movies you like to watch.

Skye 1:09:54

Yeah, how do you winter?

Poppy 1:09:56

I wanna know what you do. What movies do you watch in February when you are trying to comfort yourself on the couch? What do you do? and you can do that. You can send your emails to death Coven pod@gmail.com. That's death as in death, coven as in coven, pod as in podcast@gmail.com. Um, we also have an Instagram you can go to at death coven pod.

Skye 1:10:22

Yeah, go look at my weird deer jawbone. Tee

Poppy 1:10:26

Sky

Skye 1:10:27

hee. Hey,

River 1:10:28

maybe her feet if you're lucky.

Poppy 1:10:30

Ooh, those

Skye 1:10:31

that. It's just because I've had my feet out this

River 1:10:34

You're holding it with your toes.

Poppy 1:10:37

Ugh.

Skye 1:10:38

I'm not that disrespectful.

Poppy 1:10:41

with that, by the power of three,

River 1:10:44

And so it is.

Skye 1:10:45

And so it is.

Poppy 1:10:47

so it is. Bye

River 1:10:50

Bye guys. Go eat some

Poppy 1:10:54

Go eat some sweet potatoes. Ow.