Well, hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Tales of Recovery podcast. This is Gris Alves, your host, and my friend Mimi Young is here today again back at the podcast. Thank you, Mimi, for joining us. Thank you so much, Gris, for having me once again. I'm so happy to be back. It's so fun to reconnect. Mimi is, if you guys have listened before, she's an animus spirit medium, a business entrepreneur, a mother. Just really, has been a very good friend for me. You've been my teacher.
I'm taking your year-long classes. And so I'm excited that you're here to talk about the Year of the Snake and your spell-cousing course and mother and woman issues and everything under the sun that just comes up like it does here at the Tales of Recovery. So thank you everyone for listening and thank you Mimi, welcome. Thank you. Yeah, so I guess we can start, we were kind of talking a little bit about what we were doing before we started, but why don't we start with the year of the snake?
And whatever you want to teach us about that or share about that. Thinking about how I had posted something about Kendrick's performance at the Super Bowl on my IG account and I, I basically broke down how his performance is very much channeling this year's energies in general. So I talk about how he's speaking in code. He's speaking with symbols. He's making political statements, but they're not outright because it puts him potentially at risk.
And not only at risk, but when you speak in such a way where it's much more open to interpretation, You're inviting people into a conversation that maybe they normally wouldn't be invited into or have interest in. So these are general qualities of the serpent or the snake, because the serpent likes to speak in symbols. And it's literally the most occultic sign out of the 12 zodiac animals.
This is according to Chinese astrology. So it wants to talk to people through dreams and through art and through poetry and through things beyond the literal. And sometimes it likes to say something and then hide behind what it says, forcing the viewer or the listener to make their own interpretations. So those are kind of aspects. They're not the only aspects of the snake, but maybe we can start with that. Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense. And it's when I saw your post about the Super Bowl show that I was reading it, and I'm like, gosh, I love how she gets always these really amazing perspectives, and just the truth is coming out. So, I mean, that's when I reached out. I'm like, I need you to come back in here.
And all of us because there's always I just love how everybody has different ways of perceiving things and understanding things and different backgrounds and stuff and it's, Well, what else is coming in through besides the Kendrick thing? So snake, because it's an animal that sheds its skin, I mean, this is cross-cultural. It's related to the perpetual cycle. So the perpetual cycle meaning birth, growth, death, and renewal.
And you're constantly recycling and re-approaching something, but perhaps transformed. So that's a theme. and then another theme is like is a snake charming or is a snake venomous kind of both right like there's a seduction to snake there's an elegance to snake it can hypnotize and hold attention and it can also poison us so these are sort of all the themes that actually also showed up in Kendrick's performance but these are the things that will be affecting all of us and already have this year.
An example of this would be, well, with poison or venom, it's as much potentially healing as it can be destructive.
And a lot of times, if you look in the wild and you look at herbalism, sometimes the same plant, just depending on the dosage, can be really restorative or it can be really damaging and that's what snake is also talking about is like how much is too much for you and are you able to say stop or are you able to say yes like these are a lot of it is kind of reading between the lines and and getting a sense of what your own limits
are and then of course all the things around being cautious being cautious around power because venom is a form of power. You know, the how much is too much is so powerful because, I mean, not just with me, but a lot of my friends, a lot of the people that I'm working with. And, you know, we mentioned a little at the beginning, it's like, oh, everyone's dealing with perimenopause or menopause and the hormonal things.
And yes, of course, but I think when you're mentioning this, I'm saying it's too much, everything that we're doing, you know. And there's the restructuring that, you know, I've been having this word in my mind, like we're having, I'm total restructuring here in my family with the move and everything. But just how much is too much has been a theme for me for years, like slow it down, slow it down, adrenal fatigue, freaking thyroid, slow it down.
And I pretend to slow it down, but I really just switch it. Like instead of CrossFit, I'm in yoga, ashtanga. Exactly. And it's not. So it's like really this how much is too much is, yeah, maybe something to really look at. I hadn't really thought about it as a year of the snake. But of course, these things always come up. And it's the, why cannot we slow down?
I know we got to pay the bills and do these things. But really, like, the velocity sometimes that I feel in my body, it's like, I'm home, I'm done. And I still have, like, this frequency of urgency. Yeah. I think, yeah, you said that you've been feeling this for years.
But chances are it's a year of the snake that's going to move you and move me and move our listeners to making those decisions finally because that's the other thing with snakes the snake is in the wild it's both predator and meat for larger animals so it's also vulnerable in the wild it's also a cold-blooded creature meaning it is very dependent on heat sources to stay alive And so because of it, the natural nature of snakes is that they are conservative.
They typically have a watch and wait attitude instead of being super proactive and diving in. But they're also smart to not slither away right away. They're like, I want to stay observant. I want to be there when I need to be there. And so they tend to spend a lot of time just simply perceiving. And I think that's a really important thing, because I think in our cultures, in the West, there's such an emphasis on doing. And doing is like the only thing that's considered productive.
But watching and waiting is also productive. That's what snake is reminding us. And biding our time is part of that knowing how much is too much or when should I do it, that kind of thing. And the other thing is the snake is very much, because it's conservative, it's interested in looking at long-range goals. So long-range health goals, long-range relationship goals, long-range career goals or financial goals. And it wants to start planning.
It doesn't just want to want something or wish something. It's like, I'm going to put those ideas to paper. I'm going to put it in an Excel spreadsheet or I'm going to put it in my calendar. and I'm going to make a commitment towards something. So that idea that you're saying about reconfiguring, that lends really well to planning and long-term vision.
Wow, that's such a trip you're saying that because I'm so now getting shit done that I haven't been doing or that I've been having in my head for years. And there's an Excel spreadsheet. And yes, we sent out, you know, we wrote a little children's book on grief. and now this is just like oh this makes sense like having to do.
Actually you know watching and doing besides but in a different speed i really like what you said about how the snake doesn't you know it's not like a hamster nope no it's it's not a reactive animal until it absolutely is cornered it actually is more of a proactive animal and even though i just I might be sounding like I'm contradicting myself because as I said earlier, it won't sort of offer up and volunteer things right away. It wants to watch.
But it's proactive in the sense that it wants to get a really clear grasp of its surroundings, its context before taking any form of like plunge forward. Yeah. What would you like tell our listeners to watch for or to prepare for or to organize? How could they benefit from the information of, or from the essence of the year of the snake?
I think from a practical side, I think it is good to look at your five-year, ten-year plans and goals, and maybe even longer if you have that range within, to not just look at decisions made from week to week, month to month. And that would relate to everything. So, you know, financial, career, relational, health, like all those things.
I think another thing is going back to the symbols is know that the symbols and the little messages that you've been getting from source or the universe, whatever you want to call it, from your ancestors, to not dismiss them, to not say that it was a coincidence, and to absolutely take them in as information. And you decide what you want to do with that information, but don't dismiss that information. I think that's really important because that is how the snake likes to communicate.
And because it likes to communicate through a lot of more of the artistic, spiritual things, is really make space for that in your life. Make space for art and beauty and creativity and make space for spiritual practice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the spiritual practice has been huge for me. It's funny because I teach mindfulness, and we have these circles, and I'm constantly talking about connecting. But I think the last three or four months, it was just like I couldn't even.
I mean, I would come in here to my studio, my sanctuary, and get on my knees and start crying and then really pray. It was just, you know, it's been a winter, I'm telling you. between my dad and the changes and just life and these few things. And I'm finally back to where I was maybe. I want to say 10 years ago, where I'm committing to my spiritual practice, like literally 45 minutes in the morning, I just sit and watch the candle and connect to my heart.
I don't really have like specific, I mean, I just breathe, you know, I just sit there and see what happens and then, or nothing happens. And then doing it again at night, and I'm beginning to feel way more grounded. And it's in a matter of two weeks that I was like, okay, I gotta do this.
So when you say come back, and people are coming and my friends and just in general, you're right, spiritual practice, not religious, just something to practice clearing the mind and calming down my body because, oh my gosh, the energy is like, you know, the information, Instagram and all these things that are just coming down, pipeline. And that being said, I have been having these really cool dreams.
And I wake up and I'm like, what was that? It's almost like I'm on a trip somewhere and I wake up and I'm like, okay, why? Let's see. I have to lay there and really just not move so that I don't forget, you know, write it down.
But yeah, so it's a year of more dreams you think that we should be paying attention to yep it'll be heightened communication from the unseen so one channel that the unseen and when i say the unseen i mean ancestral spirits i mean land-based spirits i mean deities that maybe people work with and you know are devoted to in any other spirit really one channel is through dreams but it might not only be through dreams it might be through an increase in psychic ability it
might not necessarily be psychic ability that you can 100 have command over but it might just be like whoa i just experienced a little esp today with my sister or whatever um that that will be heightened this year and also uh symbols and omens that come through nature like you know it's it's astounding okay i'll give you an example, i earlier last week i just had a feeling that there was just some strange energy around and so i did my
usual cleanses and i did some protection rituals as well and then i thought i kind of finished it and i told myself that i finished it but something deeper was like you might not be finished yeah. And then in my mind, I was like, you know, I should go to the dollar store and grab some chalk and I should do some chalk outline around my home and just really create some strong protective boundaries. But I haven't actually had the time to go to the dollar store to pick up chalk.
My boys now are too old to have chalk in, you know, the home where they used to when they were really little. But I don't have, they've outgrown that phase. And so we don't have chalk anymore in the house.
Guess what i find today at my office my office is my yard so just just so you know there's a chalk that i think a bird brought over one piece of chalk i was like how on earth is that like so this is like the kind of stuff that happens especially in the year of the snake these like very uncanny things so it can be a way where you receive messages and also you just receive support like thank you bird spirit for bringing over that chalk now i can finish that
ritual that i've been putting off yeah that's great.
Yeah no these things and i love talking to you because i see them all the time and and you know low-key most unless you're like doing this all the time the culture is just like oh come on it's just whatever it's just you know it's just the coincidence but i i don't think there are coincidences i'll tell you what this is super funny i'm in the middle of the city middle of the city speaking of science and stuff where we're going to move is in julian so it's
you know it's up in the mountains about an hour 15 away and there's lots of i don't know what they're called woodpeckers you know the woodpeckers here in down in in the city yeah there's lots of birds but there's not any woodpeckers you know about a month ago i started to hear like and you know like somebody knocking i was like who is out there doing construction so early two three four days until i realized i'm like that is a freaking woodpecker in the
electricity pole um well just going and going and going and i told my daughter look it's a sign they're calling us over to julian because my daughter's like oh come on mom there's woodpeckers everywhere no. There is not woodpeckers in our in the city here in in the neighborhood at least not that i've I hear tons of other birds and I thought, that's it. That's where we have to go, you know, cause we were looking at places and, and, and now that we made that decision,
I haven't heard the woodpecker. See, that's it, right? It's like once you hate the message, you don't need any more messages about that. You might get other messages, but it won't be about that anymore. Yeah. Which is great. Information is taken. It's done. Like, you know. Yeah, because we can also be like, show me more. Show me more. I'm like, you. Right. Totally. Totally. We can get almost. But the thing is, we don't need more for that message. because you've already responded to it.
So, yeah, you already have that combo with spirits. And it's done. I know. It's so cool. So, so cool. Okay, so what more on the snake? Well, it's a year. If you're going to get witchy, this is the year.
Yeah, because it's a year. It's funny. Okay, so you used the word, or so earlier you described, you haven't practiced your you know you haven't engaged in your spiritual practice in this way since 10 years ago so this idea of returning so like another like if we were to say returning, if it had a shape it would be a spiral well what kind of animal has a spiral a spiralic shape or can take on a spiralic shape it's a snake so this idea of returning to the things that are important to,
or maybe returning to old memories that have haunted you or wounded you in some way, this is a really good time to engage in magic to either clear those things or move you along further. Because you're literally harnessing the shape of the snake. Yeah. Jump on the opportunity. Yeah this is like the this is your window yeah yeah and some things have been coming up it's oh gosh. Yeah, I've been in this like whole trauma school, you know, with Gabor Mati for like four years.
For that, you know, the whole somatic stuff with the prison yoga project. And now some of the things that are coming up with my witchy friends that have nothing to do with the compassionate inquiry, even though I think Gabor is very witchy. But, you know. Very witchy. Yeah. He's just, he even looks like a little. Kind of. He looks a bit like a magi,
right? That's like a sorcerer. Yeah. Yes and he is i mean i've had a one-on-one session with him and i was just i just i lost it i don't know what happened you know but it was like a session and just it's very like, i don't know if the word is shamanic but it's just like you have this out of body in the body experience and then what the hell happened so whatever the whole returning is that after like all this studying and studying and studying of trauma in the body and how this happens.
I meet with one witchy friend who tells me one message, and she has no idea of trauma and therapy. And she just talks to the guides. That's just what she does. You meet with her, and she's like, Okay, hold on. Oh, they're telling me this. They're telling me that. And one of the first things she mentions is, Yeah, you're a little baby, and I see you in the crib. And it's been really hard. And this is the breath you need to take. Inhale. And then exhale like this.
And just put your hand in your heart. And I was just like, how does she know? Because, you know, all this trauma studies and work, it really, like, it all comes down to the brain development. If you were a baby, if you were held, if the attachment, you know, if you had to be super scared or really quiet because your caregivers were not very available emotionally.
But uh but it was a total snake turnaround because how did you know she has no idea, this is kind of what i've been seeing and working on for so long and anyway i don't know that's just see those signs they're just blowing my mind again, and i think it's like when these things happen just receive the medicine of the snake right be like yes like thank you like this is what this year is for this is what like the cosmic conditions are here to make sure that snake in doing what
it's supposed to be doing with us and i mean our job is just to show up as best as we can and to be willing to not resist the snakes call and it's like this for any animal custodians years so you know last year was the dragon so it was very much about growth and new experiences and in many ways like, showing ourselves what is possible, reimagining the things. And then this year, it's all the things I've said so far. And I want to add one more thing. It's a year of accountability.
Because in medicine, you know, it's kind of, in a way, like accounting. Like, it's like, you need to understand, well, how did this herb actually assist you? Or if it didn't assist you, then maybe we need to prescribe a different herb. So it's, there's an evaluation that's really much present in the snake here, where we need to see what has worked, what hasn't worked, and make changes. And part of that is the accountability of our own selves.
Like what, you know, and accountability takes many different forms. But I think the first one is, where have I been lying to myself or like telling myself something else that isn't actually true? And am I ready to just take ownership and be honest and move forward? And then it's also going to be like this with friends. You know, for, I don't know if there's anyone listening that is going through maybe some filtering and sorting through friendships.
Be like, I don't really know where I stand anymore with this. I'm not sure if my friends are showing up for me in the way that I need. And I'm not sure if I'm able even to show up for them in the ways that they need. And there's like a reevaluation there. Yeah, so that's the accountability piece is really important for snake. It's the only way that we can kind of grow up and grow as people. Yeah, exactly. Get out of the rut and actually be held accountable. I like that. I like that word.
It's helpful. it's helpful by the time you have this aired my blog will have also have it published but i have written out some additional things about the snake year that's just happening in the news so one of the things for instance is boeing boeing they've dropped the ball a few times i know this is understatement but they've they brought the ball on some really important safety requirements and they have chosen you know profits over the safety of passengers.
And there have been whistleblower cases in the past there have been some press but they're getting a lot more heat this year and that's because it's the year of the snake your accountability yeah no, Yeah. So when, so your blog is, well, we'll put the link on it, but it's in the shop ceremony. Yeah. Yeah. So you would go into shop ceremony and then there's a section that talks about free resources. And then you just go down the free resources and there's the blog.
And there's also the podcast one where they can listen to podcasts. You know, the last one that we had together too. Right. Yeah. And so many, you're in so many podcasts. It's so fun. Yeah. All right. So we got to do accountability, slow down, makes time for art. Time for art. The mystic, yeah. And I think after the accountability is the now what, right? Is, okay, well, what am I going to do? And this is when I think being able to utilize all the tools available to you to make things happen.
To either make changes or to progress towards your goal or whatever it is maybe. And this is when I find, because the snake is already such a mystical animal, let's leverage this in a way. I know that sounds very, like, business-y to use the word leverage. But it's really just about optimizing, another business word, I suppose. Like, how do we channel and work with the snake? How do we collaborate with the snake? And the snake is so willing to share these energies with us.
And so let's receive those energies. Let's receive those energies of spellcasting and use it towards our purposes that are for good. And so this is why I'm like, yeah, if you're going to get witchy, this is the year to do it. So tell us why, because if everybody wants to get witchy, it means having a year round, right? Spellcasting course. Yeah. So the course, the series is called Crafting the Arcane. It's also on my website and I can provide you all the links and we can put in show notes after.
It's 12 meetups online. And each two hour meetup, we are going really deep on one aspect of casting spells. So, for instance, the very first one we just started, so the very first one, all we talked about are alters and how fundamental proper alter skills and the management and the maintenance of alters become fundamental. The foundation for everything. So for instance, just something as simple as like, what are the different types of alters that exist?
What kind of alters do you need for certain situations? Because I think a lot of people tend to just think alters is a place where you put photos and flowers. But actually you don't need either of those for spellcasting. In fact, it's better that you don't have those things on your altar for spellcasting. So yeah, so like we get really technical and really detailed and then we explore things, the different aspects of spellcasting.
And by different, I mean all the constructive aspects of spells and all the very necessary destructive aspects of spells. So, you know, how to fuck over those fuckers, essentially. Like, how do you cast a hex? How do you hex someone who's been fucking you over again and again?
I think that's actually important that we talk about that because we're in a climate where the leaders, I mean, I live in Canada, but it's happening too here, where the leaders are making choices that continue to abuse their power at the expense of the common people. And so I do think it's actually a really relevant time to be talking about spellcasting in ways that can protect the common people and ensure that we can continue living in a way that's, you know, fruitful.
We don't have to be scared about our safety and like his common survival things. I mean, some people are scared about the safety, I tell you what, over here and all the states and when it started and, you know, I mean, people sending messages, okay, this, you know, the Border Patrol stop over here is open or it's closed and be careful. And it's, yeah, the level of stress that's, you know, that was rising and a lot of friends that are in here and don't have a passport or whatever.
And they've been here for years and years and years. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, no. Here we go again. And I understand if you're, you know, killing someone or selling heavy drugs, but just for being it. So yeah, so that's good to know that there's ways to protect and ways to stop that or keep it away, you know, or yeah. And I think the more people who know how to do this and who know how to exist in community, the more we're able to really channel that energy for the common good.
I mean, I, actually, this is the thing that we haven't chatted about before, but I also facilitate a digital coven. So it's an online meetup, not in person, which is all over North America and one in Europe. And we gather a lot of times for political spells. And, you know, there's an element of learning and there's a lot of practice, like a lot of application.
And you know we've noticed that it's so much easier to navigate this world when you can lean on one another and sort of like show up for one another it's a lot less energetically expensive, to cast spells when you have a group to do it with a hundred percent community is just yeah everything community that's kind of, That wants the goodness and that is aware of the fuckery, like you said before. Yeah. I have no other word for it. Excuse me, French.
It's a good word. You should probably have a shirt that says that. Say no to fuckery. But just, yeah, to have the community to be able to lean on. Guys, you express it so cool. Energetically less expensive when you're not doing it on your own. In general, right? For whatever. But for anything, really. Yeah. It's like if we can pull together our resources, we should be able to pull together our witchcraft, too.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So you have so you have this meetup? Yeah, so it's called the homing coven. We meet on average twice a month on Sundays. And then the other two Sundays, the rest of the group, they meet in smaller groups based on what are the kind of rituals and magic and practices they're interested in.
So for instance, there's one, we call them cohorts. One of them is called the rest cohort because they maybe historically have had a really hard time resting and they have like an issue with being overproductive. And so they're utilizing witchcraft to help them actually play more and, you know, put their feet up more. And it's been really healing for that group. We've also had other cohorts where maybe they're focusing more on ancestral connection.
So, really getting in touch with their cultural roots, getting in touch with their family traditions, and then, you know, speaking necromantically, so speaking with their dead ancestors. Right now, there's also another cohort that's interested in the I Ching. So the I Ching is the Chinese occultic system of divination. So just like how, you know, there's runes and there's tarot and there's, you know, all these different ways to speak with spirit.
The I Ching is another method. And so that group is much more interested in understanding and practicing and really keeping those skills very much alive within their repertoire.
Are and so yeah it's it's it's been going for three years and there's you know members that come in there's members that go out and there's members that have been there from from day one and it's just a small little group of us but it's we're we're i would say we're small as that mighty yeah oh that's great yeah and it's necessary you know i mean thank you for doing that it's just It's just everybody's doing it. I used to, you know, before when I was young, what, two days ago.
I wanted to do everything, right? Like, what the, you know, what the Nahuatl is like, you get the Lakotas and with the witches and with this and the mindfulness. And now I'm realizing, you know, I'm good for this, you know, for meditation and singing just earth, tamascal, just being the trauma stuff. And then you're doing those things in the, you know, in the coven and teaching people spell courses and somebody else.
And I just love now being able to see, like, thank you, Mimi, for the work you do. Thank you, Jessica, for the work you do. You know, thank you, Paula, for the work you do. And not have this need to grasp it all because it's just too much. It's too much. And it's also, like, I mean, this is kind of the whole point of diversity, right? We're all trying to be roses, but maybe I'm a dandelion. Maybe you're a lily.
We can't all be roses, and that would be kind of boring if the only flower that existed is one type of flower. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. It's just sometimes, I guess, it's part of the seeking, right? To getting to a certain space where you realize, kind of known this all along. You're just kind of not discovering it. I don't know. But especially Mexicans.
Very very colonialized mind very very you don't do that magic that's just silly that's just over there you know the poor people and and i was like what do you mean this is even though even though that's just really like a mindset to you know the whole survival of colonialism but in reality you know everyone's an herbalist like i would get asthma when i was young and i would get you know, purple onion tea and mold and stuff they never had anything you know like the asthma inhalers
is just they just wouldn't do that in mexico you know but but even so it's like you're kind of doing it undercover and you're doing all these totally you know these different celebratory things that are just stupid in this catholic world but at the same time people are doing it on their own and they're just rites of passage and celebrating a different moment in your life, And I would say that Mexican Catholicism is so witchy.
It's a very different kind of Catholicism compared to other parts of the world that practices that faith.
Just your reverence of like i feel like fine they might be called like saying guadalupe or whatever but it's an older goddess that actually is you know like she she has the adornment of guadalupe but she's a different goddess underneath yeah yeah it's still not seen right like the yeah exactly exactly yeah a hundred percent everything's mixed in there and it's very very witchy and there's lots of witchy stuff that i would get into when i was younger
that i was like how in the heck did this just happen and so but it's also very.
Like they they they really do a good job of scaring you to not trust your own power right even just a couple days ago I was having lunch and one of the girls was saying like yeah remember we used to go get our cards read when we were young in high school but then I didn't really go back because you know what they say you let in you let you open these portals that might be dangerous and I just turn around like well that's what the Catholic people want you to think because they don't want you
to empower yourself and they want you to just be over here you know paying them money and keeping you completely out of your power so there's that part too you know it's witchy but it's like. But it's controlled, witchy, I would say. Right. Yeah, yeah. I see what you mean. Unless one can approach their own Catholic faith on their terms, right?
But I mean, oftentimes I think you're probably taught that, certainly in Protestant faith of Christianity, that you're not taught, you are taught how to interpret the Bible. You're not allowed to interpret the Bible on your own, right? Like it's like, like, so there's a sacred text here and yes, it's ancient. There's many, many, many copies of it, but it's been, there's only one proper interpretation in each denomination's mind.
And that's why there's so much infighting with them, you know, like Presbyterians don't get along with the whatevers. And it's like, because they can't even agree on the interpretation of it. And they don't want the people to have that agency to do so, to make their own decisions. For sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't really think Catholics read the Bible that much.
It's very mystical. And I do believe really like, yes, you can be a Catholic and really just make the spirit to source and not even give a shit about all these rituals and rules. I do think that comes with the process of practicing connecting to yourself. And maybe of knowing what's real, knowing what's not real, and then still choosing, well, yeah, whatever. But this is where I grew up.
I have friends that just love Jesus, and they go in there. But they're completely open-minded, not religious at all. That's just the tool and the memory inside of their body that they have to connect. Right, right. That's the language. I think ultimately it's where your heart is. A hundred percent. You know, But beliefs come in and wiggle the heart, you know, that's why. Yeah. Yeah, it's that. Yeah, and I think that can be said about everything.
You know, one can approach witchcraft and be completely off, completely out of alignment. You know, it can be with anything. So when you're doing witchcraft, for example, bringing it up, and if you're doing like these protective, I'm always doing protection and these rituals of, okay, I'm sealing here, no bad spirits coming in for this special time or whatever. So I guess my question is, I'm sort of answering it already, right?
As long as your heart is in a good space and you're aligned, or is it okay, I guess, to just sometimes, maybe that you're not going to hurt people, but stop people from doing their fuckery?
So your question is like where does the protection end and where does something a bit more, defensive can begin is that what you're I guess and I don't mind the defensive thing you know but it's probably a question from my upbringing of like wait is this evil is this bad which I don't really think there's good or bad but yeah that's the question yeah I mean I love that you bring this up because I was speaking with a client of mine and I said 99% of witchcraft is gray area.
Very little of it is black and very little bit is white. And it's like, you can say that about everything just about right like when you have to make a decision. You have to be able to discern in the gray area because things are not always really clear. But my sense, this is a generalization, is I mind my own business and I don't want hurtful, harmful things to happen to me or my kids. I think that's a perfectly fair statement.
And if it has happened to me then I'm going to be very very cautious around that situation or situations that are similar to that situation and around those kind like that person or that group or whatever it may be I also think it's absolutely appropriate to bring them to justice whether if and there's so many different ways to do it right so if if let's say a teacher is not doing their job, then yeah, I wouldn't just say, okay, keep doing that.
What I would say is I would probably want to speak with the teacher. And if it can't be resolved, then I probably would want to speak to the principal. And if then the principal and I can't meet some sort of resolution with the teacher, then I may need to up it a bit more to like school board level or something. Am I being offensive. Well, maybe to them I am, but all I'm doing is advocating for safety and rights for my children. So it's kind of the same thing with witchcraft.
There's some baseline things that you can do to protect your home. And if you're noticing that it's not enough, then it might mean it's justified to increase, you know, up the ante a little. And if someone is being a bully in your life and literally looking for trouble and you're just mind your own business and you've already used all your other quote unquote muggle ways to say no, then yeah, maybe a little bit of some oomph would be helpful to keep them away.
Yeah and really for me it's like it's not like i want to hurt people it's just to say i'm not it's i'm not okay with you hurting me or my children right like it's just that simple and i think in witchcraft there's an oath in certain traditions and the oath is harm none but i think you really have to ask yourself what exactly does harm none mean right if you are one of the people that are being harmed then are you are you upholding the harm none then right
and i think for a long time i thought harm none means i can't hurt anybody around me even if they are hurting me right but hold on i'm a person that also counts in the harm none oath so i think it's okay to ask for a spirit to assist in protecting you and keeping, once again, those fuckers away. Boundaries. Boundaries. That's all it is. Right. Okay. It's not that different than washing our hands so that we don't accidentally swallow some parasite that's invisible on our fingers, right?
Yeah, it's true that the soap might... I don't think the parasites particularly enjoy having soap all over them, but I need that to stay alive. Yeah. No, yeah, yeah. It makes sense. It makes sense. See, there was my mind already. Like, this colonial thought of, like, the Christian girl. Like, that's evil. And where did you put the stand? You have to be a good girl.
No, harm none includes me. Yeah. And I'm not going to allow this because it's harmful and I've been doing it for 20 years and I can't do this shit anymore. Totally. Sometimes, just go with the family or talk to that person that I don't know why I keep talking, you know? I mean, I think one example of, like, maybe some people, just in case people are like, oh my gosh, curses.
A lot of times, the most ethical thing for rich to do for curses is just to send that negative energy back to the original person. I didn't create any new energy of harm.
I'm just saying this is not for me I'm going to boomerang it back to you return to sender and I also have a fair amount of return to sender you know descriptions on my site in my blog I talk about that and I also have a conjure oil that's made with eating elements that is designed to return negative energy back to its sender as well and you can apply it to your body you can apply it to your doors. You can apply it to your car. You could do all sorts of things.
But that's really, for me, it's just like, I didn't, it's not like I had negative intentions. It's just, I don't want it to touch me. I just want it to bounce back to that, to wherever it came from. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. Just return to center. Yeah. Another teacher right here. Return to center. Yeah. I guess exactly. Yeah it's so good beyond so okay i'm looking at beyond the medium here is that yes yeah so that's my my new new word business.
There, I'm wanting to utilize my experience in a completely different way. So this is like less, way less witchy. I mean, it's still witchy in a different way, but it's copywriting. It's doing SEO strategy and SEO implementation. So SEO stands for search engine optimization. And so the work is marketing, but it's marketing your website through really strategic use of words, keywords, and writing the sequence of your copy in such a way.
That will make search engines such as, you know, Google or Bing or whatever, easier to find you. My focus is less on ads, because with ads, it's like you get the benefit of ads as long as you pay for it. But you don't really own those benefits. My, my focus is how do we configure your site in such a way, not just with words in terms of copy, but even just how to how do we save your images and in strategic ways? How do we name your images in strategic ways?
How do we, And, you know, do all that so that your site is reaching the people who are looking for you. Right. That's great. So marketing, but we were talking about earlier, not specifically on social media and Instagram and TikTok, but for everyone. Yeah, exactly. Because the thing is, Instagram used to be such an amazing place to find new clientele, at least for me. And I know you were saying that too, but it's really changed.
Now it's like, it's a great place to maintain connection with your existing clientele who are followers on your particular profile. But there's also very little control who actually sees it in their feed.
And you know if anyone has happens to speak about things that are contrary to the machine of meta it it is possible for you to be shadow banned or banned altogether and so there's a lot of censorship but the thing with you know the worldwide web of your website where it resides is those things don't exist in the same way. So you are able to describe your work in such a way that your users can find you and you're not being filtered by algorithms.
And yes, there's always things that are changing as well, but that's also part of my work is to keep you updated on what it is that you need to be looking for and whether if it is I'm providing you strategy on how the business owner can implement it or if I'm actually implementing it for the business owner. Like, I mean, those are two options, but I have found it to be instrumental in reaching new audiences for me because I've been using all that SEO training onto my existing site and it works.
Yeah that's great your existing site is shop ceremony.com yes yeah we'll put all the links but i just like to say it i know i got um all of a sudden i was banned from facebook like maybe, eight months ago um yeah and i was like i didn't know i even and there's no way of contacting them there's no way of emailing them because they just they just took it down they just took it down I couldn't download my information I mean whatever I just after a while of freaking out I just closed it out and,
honestly I wouldn't have even opened the new one but I do use it some for my business and to connect to some people or whatever but, but I'm pretty sure it was some of the stuff that I was posting on there. And so and it's not even like that bad you know it's like what the hell is wrong with these people so yes SEO much better or at least you know, we got to diversify. Yeah. I mean, it's another way of reaching either your existing target audience or expanding to a new demographic.
And I think what's really nice is that you have... A lot of times it's really hard to know exactly what is working on social. You don't really know why. Like it gives you a little bit of analytics, but it's not specific enough. Whereas with, you know, Google Analytics for your site, you'll know. You'll know which keywords are the big ones that are driving people to your site. You'll know what people are clicking on. You'll know what pages are performing well.
You'll know which blog post actually worked in, you know, getting people hooked and all these things. And what I love about it is it's all in your control. You can change at any time. And you can change it as the market evolves. You can change it as your own business evolves. And it's been great for me. And for the amount of time that I was spending on social, I realized I could just allocate those hours towards the same amount of hours to SEO as maintenance.
It's a little different when you're first setting it up but once you are at that maintenance level. You're the the roi far far far exceeds instagram yeah that's good to know because instagram is a hole of the devil sometimes. I love it i love connecting i love but yeah i have to i literally have a timer on them like After 20 minutes, hey, you've been on 20 minutes, turn it off. And now, I just can't. And so, but yeah, I get a lot of business through SEO as well, you know, through the webpage.
So if people want to be on the medium, I'll put the post on here as well. Anybody that wants to reach out and get information, they can do that to you, right? Yeah. And what, you know, if a lot of these... Like I've noticed that people who offer these services, if they even offer these services, they don't put their rates on their website because they want, you know, to book a consultation with you and like sell you on all these things.
And I don't really believe in that. I don't really want to waste anyone's time. And I don't want anyone to waste my time either. So my rates are there. You know, done. You look. If it fits your budget, then get in touch with me. And if it doesn't, then great. You didn't have to sit through half an hour of me talking. Right? Like it's, who wants to do that? And like, I just, I, I'm very, like, I really like to keep things as essential
as possible. I don't have like flashy 20 page, you know, decks that talk about my services. It's like, okay, you, you, you want this? Okay, let's get this done. You know, my contracts are an email form. Like I'm super, super, like, I, I like to, I'd like to distill things down to what is essential, because it saves everyone's time. And yeah, I think this is how I think another thing I see again and again is small businesses trying to be larger businesses.
No, no, no, no, no, no. If you're a small business, you have to think like a small business, you have to know how to utilize your resources in such a way that's going to give you the return to kind of bring you over to the next milestone.
But enough of this, like making our businesses look much larger than they are online and trying to imitate what medium-sized or large-sized businesses do it's like well that's not even that's not even humane to expect a small business owner to do that for sure and it's simple simpler to have a small business and to be you know totally that's not your thing and you want and grow, but I like simple, small, concrete.
Yeah. Yeah. There's a whole lot of complexity when you have, you know, a payroll of 20 people, 40 people, a hundred people, right? Like it's, yeah. No, I can't even think that. No, no, no. And that's too much government. Just simple. Yep. Totally. Simple. That's so funny you say that.
But yeah, anyway, so we're going to put all of this stuff up on there and so people can find your your spellcasting course because you said it started but they can people can still join right yeah so it's a live stream series everything is being recorded we have one nerve belt and yeah the idea is after this live stream it'll just become a collection of recordings that are available on my website as well so depending on your listeners if they're
listening to this like two years from now it's still available but what's nice about being able to join the live stream is that you can ask your specific questions. And if you have specific needs in your specific spell crafting practice, then it's really great to be able to ask those questions and get some specific feedback.
What I also love about it is in the live stream, like those who are currently already in the program, is that they have the option to pick a buddy and they could cast spells for each other on their own time. They could engage in spells together online or if they happen to pick a buddy who lives close enough to them that they could even meet up physically and do that because i just feel that.
What i love about this it's 12 12 sessions and it's spread out you know so that it's once a month you're not taking in so much information that becomes so overwhelming you have some space to digest to put into practice and to very often to practice it more than once and it's nice because when you can do it more than once you have a little more fluency and also you can make some comparison and contrast so in a way we're kind of we're we're being really spiritual and
esoteric about things but we're also leaning into data and like i'm encouraging everyone to document their spells and to you know journal about it afterwards and to note things like what time of the day did you do it what day of the week did you do it did that bear any relevance or results you know and in that way you get you have some actual data and you're looking at it a little bit more.
Scientifically and you know spellcasting i i would consider is it's equal parts of art as well as science yeah.
Sure and you hold a great container i i did thank you one yearly programs years ago it wasn't spellcasting but it was the mystery mentorship yes and it was so good and it was we also met i think once a month and i had my buddies i mean i still talk to ellen and it was yeah it was, you're right you have enough time to sit with it play with it even now i'll sometimes be like oh i remember when i learned to do this you know like this whole going
down the underworld and these shamanic journeys and seeing things that to me it was very helpful because i kind of already did those things but you know i had my little mexican colonial hat that no that's bullshit you're not doing this that's blah blah blah and then i was actually like but here's the data because i knew exactly what was happening and she didn't say anything and i would talk i mean it was to so many things that were just coming up, and I loved it. I learned a lot. Thank you.
Very organized, very clear. So, yeah, I highly recommend working with Mimi, anyone listening. Thank you. I have gotten to know myself more and more over the years, as we all do, and I think what I bring to the table is discipline and structure.
And once the structure and the discipline is there it's so much easier to get creative and to you know flow and it's really nice when you have someone outside of yourself that's holding that space because then you can just show up in your own way and and be fluid and yeah so that's so so thank you for that for for affirming what i've noticed about myself great thank you well yeah Thanks for showing up here and chatting again. I hope you come back.
Anytime. It's always such a joy. It's great to hear about the snake and all that information and the spores. Great to see you. And thank you, everyone, for listening. Please go and check out all of the links that we're going to put on here. Check out Mimi's blog and her webpage. And if you're trying to grow your small business, check out her Beyond the Medium as well. All the links will be here on the show notes, and we will see you guys next time. Thank you, Mimi. Bye-bye.