Everyday Magic & Witchy Wisdom - Deborah Blake

Join us as we welcome the fascinating Deborah Blake, a prolific author and modern witch, who opens up about her world of everyday magic, making spirituality accessible and enjoyable. Deborah shares her journey of writing 18 books, including beloved titles like "The Eclectic Witch's Book of Shadows" and "A Year and a Day of Everyday Magic." With authenticity and humor, she explains how she balances her writing career with a day job, all while being playfully supervised by her cats. This episode is an invitation to integrate spirituality into the everyday, infusing life with fun and meaning.

Discover the ethical heart of witchcraft, as Deborah emphasizes the significance of respecting free will and adhering to the principle of "do no harm." We explore how small, mindful actions can create positive change, and introduce the whimsical practice of bubble magic—a delightful way for both kids and adults to send wishes into the universe. By embracing small, intentional acts, Deborah illustrates how everyday spirituality can lead to a more connected and conscious life, encouraging listeners to "walk their talk" in simple, impactful ways.

Our conversation takes a deeper turn as we discuss how witchcraft can be a powerful tool for navigating life's hurdles, like depression and chronic illness. Deborah advocates for flexibility and personalization in magical practices, sharing insights from her books, including practical spells like "jerk avoidance." Whether through engaging in communal experiences at book clubs or local shops, Deborah highlights the empowering nature of witchcraft. As we close, we express gratitude for Deborah’s wisdom and extend warm wishes for a magical 2025, inviting our listeners to stay connected and explore more enchanting content with us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Everyday Magic With Deborah Blake
• 12:22 Witchcraft, Ethics, and Everyday Magic
• 20:23 Everyday Magic and Witchy Wisdom
• 30:57 Beyond Belief Podcast With Deborah Blake

Transcript

Granddaughter Crow: 0:00

Welcome to Belief being and Beyond with your host, granddaughter Crow. Oh, awesome, hi everybody. Granddaughter Crow here with yet another episode of Belief being and Beyond, and today I have a wonderful author. But before we get into that, happy New Year, people. This is a wonderful year to start more practices and maybe even have another tool in your toolbox to accompany you to become your greatest life on purpose, your greatest self on purpose. So that kind of is a prelude to who I have. So nevertheless, I have Deborah Blake here in the house. Say hello, deborah.

Deborah Blake: 0:50

Oh hi, witchy people, everybody else, people. Happy New Year from me too. I hope it got off to an okay start. I know things are a little iffy in the world right now, but you know I hope that everybody's staying as grounded as possible despite all the crazy.

Granddaughter Crow: 1:09

I love that. I love that. So let me give you guys a little touch of who Deborah Blake is Not only an author and a witch, but an author of 18 books on modern witchcraft, include the eclectic witch book of shadows. Have to check that one out, you guys. It will be a great compliment to your magical path and maybe, if you start a coven this year, that could be helpful. Also, the little book of cat magic. You just have to get that one because there's cats, there's a lot of cats.

Deborah Blake: 1:47

There's big cat themes in my books.

Granddaughter Crow: 1:49

I love it. I love it, and so we also have today. We're going to be talking about a year and a day of everyday magic. She also produced Oracle decks decks. One of the most fun things is is that she lives in a 140 year old farmhouse in upstate new york with numerous cats, and I love it because she says that their cats actually supervise her activities. I love that. I love that. How did you write so many books, deborah? How can you think of so many words? Well, honestly.

Deborah Blake: 2:33

First of all, I've been doing it for a while. I mean, I was sort of a late bloomer. I think my first book came out in my 40s, but I'm 64 now, my 40s, but I'm 64 now. So I've been at it for, you know, a while. Yeah, I think my first book with Llewellyn came out in 2007, and all but one of the 18 books are from Llewellyn. I have one that came out from somebody else and all the decks are through Llewellyn, and for the longest time I actually had a day job job too. So that makes the whole how did you write so many books thing even. You know. I just you know some of it is.

Deborah Blake: 3:12

A lot of what I write about is not deep intellectual, like witchy, like exactly. It's not theology, it's. I call myself the everyday witch. A lot of my books have, you know, the everyday witch. Like the everyday witch, come in, you know, a year and a day of everyday magic.

Deborah Blake: 3:38

Because for me, my style of witchcraft which doesn't have to be yours I put a lot of focus on my just day-to-day life. You know how do I integrate spirit into my daily life. So when I write a book, a lot of times I'm just writing about the things that I do, like, you know, the Everyday Witches, coven and Circle, coven and Grove, which was my first book, and that was also about leading a coven. Those are based on my experiences with my own coven and, you know, sometimes input from other people. So you know most of it, except the one that's coming out next year which had a lot of research in it and I was just like, why do this to myself? Um, but yeah, so some of it is that, some of it is. I had a lot of research in it and I was just like, why do this to myself? But yes, so some of it is that, some of it is.

Deborah Blake: 4:33

I'm just passionate about it, you know, for me being able to share my knowledge and my ideas with other people and maybe make their lives a little bit better, a little bit easier, a little bit more fun, because I think witchcraft should definitely be fun. I mean, it's serious and you want to take it seriously. But that's why they say to practice with reverence and mirth. And you know I've got the reverence and mirth part down, because I laugh at myself all the time. You know, can't get the candle lit. You know cat walks through the stuff you laid out so perfectly. So, yeah, I mean that's where it comes from really is. I'm just sharing my passion and what I've learned in my thousands of years of living and from my cat, and just trying to pass it along in a way that's really, you know, fun and easy for other people to use yeah, and that's one of the things.

Deborah Blake: 5:31

I love this book because I don't know about everybody else, but I don't have a whole lot of time in any given day to devote to spiritual practice. I wish I did. You know, most of us are just running from point A to point B trying to clean the litter boxes and, you know, do our taxes Sorry, I said bad word, you know and all of the other everyday stuff. Keep ourselves fed, maybe keep some other people fed. And so the year and a day books are great because it's just one page. It's just, you know, one idea or a thing you could practice really quickly. There's a few recipes in there. There's sometimes it's like, okay, let's connect with the energy of this animal. Or, you know, here's the holiday that falls around this time. Because, of course, when you do a year and a day book, you're like, well, no, it's going to show up somewhere in there. And, yeah, it's just one little bit.

Deborah Blake: 6:37

And the funny thing is I wrote this one because in 2017, I did this one which is a year and a day of everyday witchcraft, and people really loved it, which is great. But I kept getting notes from people saying you know, I use this every year. Couldn't you do a new one. So I'd have something oh hello Diana Something different you know to do. So I basically twisted Llewellyn's arms into letting me do another one. So but yeah, I mean, you know you can. You can use it in a lot of different ways. You can follow along. You know we're at the beginning of the year. You know you can. You can play catch up. Or you can just start on whatever day. You get the book and you can look at whatever that day is. Or, if you're in the mood for it, just open the book randomly and go oh look, you know, here's a, here's a thing to say to myself, an affirmation that says I am magic. Yeah.

Granddaughter Crow: 7:43

I am a witch.

Deborah Blake: 7:44

I am magic. Magic lives within me, in every heartbeat and every breath. I am a witch and I am magic. How simple is that? Anybody can do that. You don't even need five minutes. You need 30 seconds, with nobody right where you are right where you are. So, you know that's again. This is part of my focus on being practical but also truly spiritual. I mean, just because you're practical doesn't mean you can't also dive deep into spirit. You just can maybe do it for a shorter period of time.

Granddaughter Crow: 8:24

Yeah, I love, I love that. And there's a couple of things that I really enjoy about you and this book, which we'll be getting into a little bit more. So, basically, people, there is a year and a day, so 365 plus one, 366. And I love that. You know, you could even follow through, so one day, every day, there's a page and, like she said, you could do it chronologically and or you can just magically go. I am magic. But another thing that I really enjoy about you is that what you just said about you know, there's a saying that says we're so spiritually minded that we're no earthly good, and what I really love to do is make it where we have we're actually living a life practically and like wake up in the morning, make this a part of routine or whatever.

Deborah Blake: 9:23

But I like that routine or whatever, but I like that. Or on your lunch break or whenever you happen to get that minute or two, I promise I am not going to come to your house and check and see if you're on the right page. The other thing I did on purpose because I have a lot of readers who are in the Southern Hemisphere and you know many of the things in the book. Doesn't matter where you are. But what I did is I designed it so that if they were in the Southern Hemisphere, they could start with the opposite time of the year and just go through from there. So say you know, if, if you, if they're looking for spring equinox that are fall equinox, it still applies. It's still, you know, because that was one of the things that people said with the first book.

Deborah Blake: 10:18

I do actually listen to y'all, so you know. So I've tried to make it as flexible as possible. There's also, if you look in the back, there's a list of things by grouping, like OK affirmations or kitchen magic, bathroom magic Because hey, where do you spend a lot of time in your day? In the bathroom. You might as well do some magic in there. Like I said, practical. So if you need something in particular. You could look at the back of the book and go, oh okay, on this day she has a thing.

Granddaughter Crow: 10:52

I absolutely love that you do that and you know I've been following you and what you do. I've seen you at the Llewellyn Con, you know, and if you guys want to still check it out, just go to Llewellyn Books on YouTube and you can watch a lot of magical practitioners, to include Deborah Blake, and what I was watching with Llewellyn Kahn that really spoke to me is that you do have this outlook of play and have fun, but ethics people do no harm. Do you know harm? None, don't mess with somebody's free will and I kind of want you to talk a little bit about that because it brings a safety and a security around doing this type of work. You know where you're just waking up in the morning or who is this lady and all of that. Talk to us a little bit about the ethics aspect.

Granddaughter Crow: 11:49

The reverence aspect of it.

Deborah Blake: 11:58

Well, you know I was my first coven where I was trained was led by someone who was Wiccan. I don't particularly call myself Wiccan anymore, I'm more sort of eclectic. But one of the things that I really liked about the Wiccan practice was this idea of do no harm. You know the Wiccan read and also you know my high priestess, my teacher, taught us about not interfering with free will, which I understand. Not every witch agrees with this, and that's okay. You don't have to agree with me. There are lots of people who don't agree with me. You should meet my family. My cats don't even agree with me half the time, but for me I think about it as OK.

Deborah Blake: 12:37

Would you want somebody to cast a spell on you that influenced your free will? Say, somebody decides that you know I'm their true love, I should be so lucky, and decides to cast a spell on me and we have a wonderful relationship. And then at some point I find out that we're in this relationship because that person cast a spell on me. How do I ever believe in that relationship again? How do I believe that person will not manipulate me in other ways? So if you don't want it done to you, don't do it to anybody else. It seems pretty simple to me and, yes, I am pretty big on ethics. I don't believe in hexing. I know that that's one of those things that not everybody agrees on and I understand that in certain circumstances it is extremely tempting, but I try and have faith that the universe is going to deal with this stuff and we don't necessarily know from our very tiny point of view what the best way that is. I mean, it looks like things are really unfair Right now. It looks like things are incredibly unfair, but I will try and change that on a personal level. I am not going to change that with witchcraft. I mean, I will put out positive things every day. You know I start my day by chatting with the gods. I say, you know, thank you for the day and can you help me with this? And I always ask for my country and the world to move in a better direction, that's. You know that's as close as I get to trying to influence the outside world. Trying to influence the outside world, you can influence yourself and you can, without witchcraft, be kind and be active and do things in your community. I support my local shelter. I sign a lot of petitions. I occasionally join a little march, but I'm not going to try and influence other things with magic other than putting out my energy and hoping that enough other people will want the same things that I want. Put out enough energy to counter the negative energy. But yeah, I am.

Deborah Blake: 15:01

I am very much a do no harm kind of witch, because I do believe it will come back and bite you in the butt and besides, it's just wrong. You know it's. You know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We didn't make that up but it still works. You know, I grew up Jewish, so you know. That was one of the things that I heard and it makes sense to me. Ethics are not about being perfect. None of us are perfect. Ethics are about doing the best you can in an imperfect world.

Granddaughter Crow: 15:38

I love that, I love that. And again, it takes responsibility to put yourself in action. And you know, if you want to change the world, start within All of those ring true.

Deborah Blake: 15:52

And so, within, start local, start small, you know, and and yeah, you know walk your talk. That's one of the things many of my books like especially my most popular book I've ever written which was my third one, I think, so it was a long time ago is the Goddesses in the Details, and that's all about integrating your spiritual life with your everyday life. But one of the things that I talk about is how really being a witch is about walking your talk. Being a witch is about walking your talk if, if the earth is of value to you, if you look at the earth as your mother, which I do then treat the earth well. You know recycle things. You know there are a lot of practice. I have a compost heap because I have a garden.

Deborah Blake: 16:42

Um, you know, I try not to use anything more than I need to use. Doesn't always work. Um, but crystals are recyclable, so they don't count. Um, crystals don't count. No, crystals don't get their rocks. They were there anyway. I didn't. I didn't, you know, make more. I just, I just inquired them, just acquired them. Yeah, they just showed up at my house, they followed me home, sort of like the cats.

Granddaughter Crow: 17:10

I love that. If you're enjoying the Belief, being and Beyond podcast and would like to support it, I'm on Patreon. Just go to Patreon Granddaughter Crow or you can find it at granddaughtercrowcom. Thank you so much. I love that. Another thing is is that when we talk about then let's talk about that fun side, as I'm flipping through here. It's not just about, like meditations and or an incantation Bubble magic. Talk to us what is bubble magic? Talk to us about this.

Deborah Blake: 17:46

It is so simple and it's so easy and when you think about it you're going to be like why didn't I think of this myself? This is so easy and makes sense. One year my group, blue Moon Circle, and I were doing summer solstice and I wanted to do something where we were sending our wishes and hopes out into the world. And I found these tiny little vials of bubbles. They were actually in the wedding section. They had little hearts on top. They were very sweet. You know you're supposed to hand them out to your guests, I guess, instead of rice. But so everybody got a little vial of bubbles and we all said some sort of spell. And we all said some sort of spell and then we blew this combination of water and air that had our personal breath in it out into the universe and sent our wishes out to the gods. So fast, so easy. And you know you could be blowing bubbles on your lawn. Nobody knows you're doing witchcraft. They just think you're out there blowing bubbles on your lawn.

Deborah Blake: 18:53

It's also if you are raising pagan children which you know some of the women in my group have done that We've been together so long that pagan children are now pagan adults. But you can do that kind of magic with your children because they understand it. You can say blow your wish into this bubble and we're going to send it out to the goddess. They'll get that. You know, it's really simple. And you can also say you have grief or anger or anything else you want to get rid of. Blow it into a bubble and send it out. Just say I'm letting go of this.

Granddaughter Crow: 19:36

I love that. I absolutely love that. So for our listening audience to find out more about Deborah Blake and everything that she has to offer, it's just wwwdebrablakeauthorcom, and that's Debra the Long.

Deborah Blake: 19:51

Biblical Way.

Granddaughter Crow: 19:52

Debra the Long Biblical.

Deborah Blake: 19:54

Way Debra.

Granddaughter Crow: 19:55

De-B-O-R-A-H Debra. I love it.

Deborah Blake: 20:00

Yeah, I mean, if you Google me, it'll come up. I'll show up. And you know, on my website it's got links to all of the places online, all the books, so if you're curious about the other books you can look them up and go. Oh yeah, that one looks like it would be for me, or why would I want to read that?

Granddaughter Crow: 20:17

not nothing and you can see the decks and that kind of group. I absolutely love that, so that's. Another thing is that sometimes witchy books will just come out and only talk about peace and joy and love, which I love, right. But Deborah goes into oh, let's figure out how to go through depression, let's figure out how to. So you, you, you're not shy on those topics.

Deborah Blake: 20:47

I'm not in part, because that's my life.

Deborah Blake: 20:49

I mean I wrestle with depression, like so many people do, especially in the last bunch of years. I have chronic illness, so I wrestle with pain and frustration and all of the other things that you know. This is everyday life. An everyday witch doesn't just live in a pretty little like castle, wave a wand and go ooh, life is perfect. No, we have rough times and one of the great things for me about witchcraft is how it can help you get through those rough times. It can't necessarily fix everything with a spell I wish it could, but I would be way wealthier, I'm just saying but it can help you cope.

Deborah Blake: 21:42

As you said at the beginning, it is a tool. We have tools in our tool bags that non-witchy people do not necessarily have. I mean, some people who have spiritual paths have their own form of those tools, which are just as good as ours. I'm like you, do you? As long as you're not trying to make me, do you? I'm fine with it. But yeah, if you can use a spell or an affirmation or, you know, make yourself like a magical sachet you can tuck under your pillow using herbs that are appropriate and maybe smell yummy, yeah, all of those things can help you deal with everyday life.

Deborah Blake: 22:30

My, you know, one of my favorite books that I wrote again very early on was the let's see the Everyday Witch A to Z book of Spellcraft. And I had books for, you know, spells in there for things that you don't normally find in a spell book. I had books for. I think I had one for potty training, because people need that stuff I had my very favorite one is for jerk avoidance, because who?

Deborah Blake: 23:03

Yeah, well, that's that's my fun one, because it's actually done in the style of Dr Seuss. So it's a very amusing spell to say, but it actually helps. If you're going to go to a convention or if you're going to be, say, at a family event and there's some people in your family that maybe you don't get along with as well and have opinions that you'd rather not listen to, again you can say the jerk avoidance spell. So, yeah, practical fun and it is fun to say I mean it really it's just one of those, one of those spells. But yeah, life is not all blowing bubbles I wish it were. So it's good to be able to focus on ways to use the tools you already have to help you deal with the crap that life throws at us on a fairly regular basis.

Granddaughter Crow: 24:01

I love it. I love it Again. It's grounding. It just came out here. We're recording this in January 2025. However you can like Deborah said, you can get it. It's a great gift too to give. I mean, I would love to see book clubs and covens do this as well.

Deborah Blake: 24:22

But that would be so much fun for people to do it together, absolutely, people do this together.

Granddaughter Crow: 24:28

Or if you have like a little bookshop or witch shop and you could just turn the page every day and everybody that comes into your shop reads it and it kind of emphasizes or, you know, amplifies that energy. I'm just coming up with fun ideas.

Deborah Blake: 24:44

I love your ideas. These are great. Everyone should do this. Buy one for all your friends, just saying, yeah, they're small, buy the new one, buy the old one. They look so pretty together. I do Because they have cats. I'm just saying.

Granddaughter Crow: 25:00

I know I absolutely love it and it's so much fun. I mean, I I even looked up my birthday and just like looked up my husband's birthday and I like.

Deborah Blake: 25:13

You know what it says on my birthday. Oh, my birthday is how does witchcraft improve your life? Okay, there you go. Apparently, it's. It's by writing books about witchcraft it's by writing books about witchcraft.

Granddaughter Crow: 25:31

I absolutely love it. So there's so many ways to have fun with this book and if you're watching this in the future maybe 26, 2026, 2027, it's fine. It's magic. It wasn't written only for 2025.

Deborah Blake: 25:44

Oh yeah, no there's dates on there, dates on there, but there's not like it's not tied to anything and, like I said, people have been using this first one for years, waiting for me to come out with the second one. Yeah, and you can switch back and forth between the two of them. If you have them both, you can look at what's on the day and go okay, today I want to do the thing out of book A, tomorrow I'll do the thing out of book B.

Granddaughter Crow: 26:11

I absolutely love that. It's all about being flexible.

Deborah Blake: 26:16

One of the things in my books I say over and over again is as long as you are not hurting yourself or anybody else, there is no wrong way to practice witchcraft. Whatever way works for you is the wrong way to practice witchcraft. Whatever way works for you is the right way to practice witchcraft. If you're you, you know you're not me, you're not her, you know you're you. And if you never want to say a spell, don't say a spell. There's no rule that says you have to do spells, you know. If you don't want to have a garden, grow your own herbs. Again, you know, nobody's going to make you Right. Well, I might, but there is.

Granddaughter Crow: 26:57

There is how to grow a moon garden in this book. So it's, it's a suggestion, people, it's a suggestion. So a year and a day of everyday magic which witchify your life, with a daily dose of magic, by deborah blake. Deborah, is there anything final that you want to share, that kind of inspires you that you want to share with the belief being in Beyond Audience.

Deborah Blake: 27:28

I guess, for me, the whole thing is putting your best self forward every day, and that doesn't necessarily mean you are going to save the world. You may not even be able to save your burnt toast, but whatever it is you do, do it to the best of your ability. Try and focus on the positive. I know that's hard, you know, sometimes the best thing you can do I have days where I go well, I'm not in the middle of a flood, it's like it's still sort of positive. You know, yes, it's, it's pouring out, but the flowers are going to come out. That's that's great is allowing yourself to be your own best human being, your own best witch, your own best, whatever it is. You identify as to the best of your ability and when you fail and we all do, when you fall down, pick yourself up, read another page in the book and go okay, I didn't do so great today, I'll do better tomorrow.

Granddaughter Crow: 28:40

And then get another cat and get another cat and another crystal right.

Deborah Blake: 28:44

Another crystal, yes, and possibly some chocolate. I believe chocolate cures almost everything. I mean, unless you're one of the very sad people who's allergic, which I'm sorry, sorry. But yeah, chocolate, chocolate, but no, that's just try your best and be kind. That's my big message is be kind. It takes just as much energy to be mean as it does to be kind in a world full of mean people. Be kind.

Granddaughter Crow: 29:10

I love it. I love it. I love it. If you guys are inspired by this conversation and are curious about this book and maybe want to support an author, go give a review. People, Reviews are gold. I am going to be reviewing this book. You can go to Goodreads, which shows up on Llewellyn. You can go to Amazon, wherever you get your books.

Deborah Blake: 29:36

Goodreads shows up on Llewellyn. How did I not know it was a?

Granddaughter Crow: 29:39

rating book. No, well, because I do this podcast, I'm like I'm going to start reviewing the authors that I have on the podcast Because I'm going to ask the audience. Well, we appreciate it.

Deborah Blake: 29:52

Yeah, well, and the other thing that I tell people about reviews it doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be detailed or complicated, it can literally be. I really love this book. The author is down to earth and fun. You know I love everything she writes. Feel free to quote me and then you can take the same review and copy and paste it on Amazon, on Goodreads, on Barnes, noble, wherever it is you want to put it, and feel free to put it online. People do get book suggestions, you know. When folks say you know, oh, I read this book, I do that with other authors. If I'm reading a book I really like, I will take a picture of the book, often with a cat because people will notice the cat of the book. Often with a cat because people will notice the cat and because the authors are like look, her cat liked my book. But yeah, if you can spread the word about a book, it really does help authors and we appreciate it more than I can say.

Granddaughter Crow: 30:50

Absolutely. I 100% agree. So with that, thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening to yet another episode of Belief being and Beyond. If you're watching this on YouTube, like subscribe, hit the notification buttons. Lots more to come. You can hear this on Spotify Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. And you know, if you are listening on Spotify Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, you can text the show. Yeah, you can text the show from your phone. I will only see the last four digits of it. You can text me from around the world and I will get it, and you can comment about what you saw, or maybe even suggestions for future. So, deborah, thank you so much for taking the time to spend with us. I really appreciate. You have a wonderful 2025.

Deborah Blake: 31:44

Thank you and thank you for having me. I appreciate you Aw.

Granddaughter Crow: 31:48

I love it.