Burn And Brew Rituals - Rhonda Kuykendall-Jabari

Your coffee can be more than caffeine. It can be a steady, repeatable way to calm your nervous system, ground your energy, and remind you that you belong to yourself. We sit down with Reiki master teacher, ritualist, and Wellness Uprising founder Rhonda Kuykendall-Jabari to talk about her new book Burn And Brew Rituals and the real life spirituality behind incense blends and cozy healing drinks. 

We get personal about where ritual actually starts: family, memory, and the small routines that raised us. Rhonda shares how her mother’s dresser became an unspoken altar, complete with music, scent, touch, and that ever present cup of coffee. From there we break down what makes a ritual a ritual, why intention matters more than fancy tools, and how you can work with what you already have, even if you live in a small space or can’t burn smoke. 

We also go deeper into ancestral connection and boundaries, especially for anyone who worries their ancestors might not approve of spiritual practices. Rhonda offers a clear approach: invite the supportive ones forward, set parameters, and listen in meditation. Along the way we talk moon phase meditations, food as energetic support, inclusive holiday rituals, and how Reiki and chakra healing quietly weave through everything she creates. 

If you want practical self care, accessible spiritual practice, and grounded energy work you can do today, this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs a softer morning, and leave a review telling us what daily routine you’re ready to turn into ritual.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Rhonda Kuykendall-Jabari

GDC 0:01

Welcome to Belief Being and Beyond with your host, Granddaughter Crow. Hi, everybody, Granddaughter Crow here with my co-host Jenny C. Bell for another episode of Belief Being and Beyond. And today, grab a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, a cup of hot cocoa, and if you don't know what you're doing, our guest today will make that cup of coffee, tea, cocoa ritual. It is beautiful. I can't wait to introduce you guys. We have Rhonda Kuykendall-Jabari is a Reiki master teacher, ritualist, and founder of Wellness Uprising, where she guides others into grounded, sustainable healing through energy work, ancestral connection, love that, and everyday ritual. I love that. As the author of Burn and Brew Rituals, she blends the art of intentional scent with the comfort and warmth of healing beverage to create accessible practice that calms the nervous system and deepens spiritual awareness. So many recipes, guys. Her work is both mystical and practical, rooted in Reiki, chakra healing, and lived experience, which we will get into that, offering a path that honors the body as much as the spirit through her teachings, meditations, I love that, and community offerings. Rhonda invites people to slow down, reconnect, and return to themselves with clarity, softness, and power. So without further ado, Rhonda, welcome to the show.

Rhonda 2:13

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here, Sister Crow and Jenny. Thank you for having me and for appreciating my baby burn and brew rituals.

Opening Book Blessing And Sacred Space

GDC 2:23

We are totally here to celebrate the release. This is such a birth, and I am going to do something I never do. But it is so important to me to do this because it is when I read part of what you wrote in your book. I was like, this is how we're going to open the podcast. Okay. So sit back, guys, with your coffee, tea, and hot cocoa. A magical blessing for this book.

Rhonda 2:58

Yes, Abel.

GDC 3:00

May every page in this book be a portal, a doorway to a deeper knowing, a mirror for healing, a flame that lights the way home. May the hands that hold it feel held in return. May the heart that reads it find themselves reflected, respected, and restored. May the words, rituals, and recipes stir the sacred remembering that you are powerful, worthy, and already enough. May the herbs speak, may the smoke rise in wisdom, may the bruise warm your spirit and anchor your soul. To the ancestors who walk beside us, to the elements who dance within us, to guides, guardians, grandmothers and grandfathers of light, bless this book, bless this journey, bless the reader who dares to begin. And it is so Ashe Amen. It is done. Thank you for that. Yes, thank you. Thank you for that. Because that's sacred space right there.

Rhonda 4:25

Yeah. Everything, but isn't everything we do sacred right? Because we are sacred beings. So anywhere all the time.

GDC 4:35

Anywhere, all the time. And I thought that would be a beautiful way for us to kind of show people not just your book, but who you are in this ritualistic space and being able to bring it home. I really like the practicality and the lived experience. And you're right, ritual is done every day. Every day. Every day. So, Jenny, do you have any questions for Rhonda?

Ritual Roots At Home Through Mom

Jenny 5:09

Yeah, actually, um, but I have to say I had that prayer also marked, and we didn't talk about it, but I was like, I have it marked because it's such I we talk about how like writing a book is like a portal, and then the reader and like you share this connection, but it's not in a linear time or space. And so that prayer is like opening up that portal and making that connection. So I also have that marked. I thought that was so beautiful. Um, we also start our books that way. Um, but yeah, my question is Rhonda, and here you talk about your mom and the importance of like you learned ritual from her because she'd line you all up and say prayers before you went to school. And I just I love that. So I don't know if we could start talking about that influence as a way to kind of jump into the book.

Rhonda 5:59

Absolutely. My mother's an incredible woman, incredibly strong. She's still alive. She is, she just turned uh she'll be 90 in October. And and when we were coming up, mother was someone who was, you know, she was from the South and probably even a little bit naive, but she here she was fast forward, she came to California, got married, had five children, and then got divorced. And so everything that she did with us, we always laugh at her and say, we all grew up together because she started by the time she was 27, she had five children. Wow. And so everything that she did was teaching us she was like, you know, a model for us. And there were so many things that even if I didn't recognize it in the moment, later on, I was like, why do I feel like this? Or why does this strike me this way? And uh very often it leads back to either my mother or my father, but certainly my mother as the female uh role model in my life, just the way that she approached things, yeah, that prayer in the morning and getting up and getting dressed. And I'm I'm the youngest of five. So many times the others would already be off to school. I was still at home with mom because she was taking me to daycare instead of school. And so there was that we had all these moments alone. But my mother also in ritual was uh, she was, I think, very progressive in that she used to spend time with us one at a time, leave the others at home, and take just one out with her so that she could sit with you and look in your eyes. And she did that uh many times in my early life. And I I I heard one of my other sisters talking about it, and I'm like, okay, so yeah, that really happened. So yes, my mother is definitely a very powerful influence in terms of my becoming a ritualist at this stage in my life.

GDC 7:55

I love that. There is a part, I think it's in chapter two, that you talk about that her altar was her dresser. Oh my god, yes. And I I love that because there are so many people who treat their dresser as an altar, but they don't recognize it as an altar.

Rhonda 8:15

Could you explain that part a little bit? Oh, sure. And she did not recognize it as an altar, but I certainly did do now.

GDC 8:22

Right.

Rhonda 8:22

When I was a kid, I didn't, you know, maybe I didn't relate everything. But you know, an altar is where you you sit and prepare for work. It could be spiritual work, it could be any kind of work. And so for my mother, and I don't know if your mothers did or not, but in every black household, the mothers had these oval-shaped um gilded gold around the edges mirrors. And they put all of their you know things on the mirror so that it was it was like it was contained. And um, and so there, do you remember the little tiny uh Avon lipstick samplers? Right. Yes. So she had those. Yeah, and she had, oh my god, her Jean Nate spray. She had her Afro Sheen hairdresser, she had um, of course, a comb and a brush, and my mother didn't wear a lot of makeup. She didn't need a lot, you know, but uh she always wore a little bit of eyeshadow and a little bit of blush, and she wasn't a big foundation lady. Every once in a while I saw her putting on powder because we all have very oily skin. But um, yeah, so that I mean I just realized, I'm like, oh my God, that's where she prepares. She would sit down, she would turn on her music, and back in the day that was Wilson Pickett, Johnny Taylor, you know, uh Jackie Wilson, all those guys, and the music we'd be playing, and you know, which was anything that you do the same way, right? Over and over. And so that was her thing. She would run the water. You she had those um little dissolving, colorful, they look like marble, um, bath beads. Right? Yeah. So she would throw those in the bathtub and run the hot water and you know, throw something else. And so, you know, there was a smell that went with it was a five senses experience. Um, because she also had, I say five senses because you know you could see what was going on, you could hear the music, you could smell the aromas, you know, she's touching because she's picking up everything that she needs to use. And then the taste came from her constant companion, a cup of coffee. So it was all right there.

GDC 10:28

I love that, and I love this five senses because I also think that when we bring in our five senses into that ritual, we then embody the ritual for sure. I love that. Cheers to your mother and to your father, who you dedicated the book to.

Rhonda 10:54

Yes, yes. He was with me his last six years of life. That was an adventure.

The Dresser Altar And Five Senses

GDC 10:58

Oh man, and if you want to know more, pick up the book. Pick up the book, yes, burn and bruise rituals. So you just said a ritual, it flow it just flowed off your tongue. A ritual is something you do every day, right? And I'm just like, yeah, it is. I mean, in this world, we kind of go, oh, you need to get this and you need to do that, and and and all of a sudden you're talking to us about the altar can be our dresser, and that a ritual is something you do every day. Could you kind of ground us in how do you define a ritual? Because I think that in a daily practice, a lot of times people are like, but I don't have time to do ritual. And it sounds like Rhonda's saying, but you already are. You already are.

Rhonda 11:47

If you brush your teeth every day, you're doing a ritual. So it's just a matter of intention. And if you are mindful, and when I say slow down, I mean you don't have to do this this grinding halt or anything, but just to pay attention to what you are really doing, that makes it ritual. Just, you know, whatever brushing your teeth. I have a I have a eight-step, um, I have an eight-step tooth protocol that I do every single day. That's ritual, right? You know, I mean my gums are terrible, my teeth are terrible, whatever. But I, you know, it's like, okay, I have to create a way to build this into my well-being and to do it, you know, twice a day and to bring mindfulness to it. That makes it a ritual. Yeah, if you have an intention.

GDC 12:35

I love that. What do you think, Jenny?

Jenny 12:42

I well, I felt like I was with your mom right now. Like you brought it, like it's like I'm people are listening, they eyes, and it's like, I can hear the music, I can smell the bath beats, because that's very familiar to me too. My mom had the mirror. And it's so true. Like just getting ready in the morning, that's a ritual. Your nighttime routine's a ritual. You pack in your lunch for work's a ritual. You brought it to like a place where I feel like it's attainable. Like everybody's realizing, listening right now, going, Oh, I have several rituals that I wasn't even aware of. So I just I think that's really approachable for anybody.

Rhonda 13:17

Yeah. Yeah. All you have to do is is bring your intention, and that will turn your routine into a ritual. It doesn't have to be. I know I like the big fancy fluffy. I mean, sometimes I'm you should see my altar. It is ridiculous. It's probably about six feet. It's an L shape, you know, six feet and two-tiered, and you know, but that's not necessary. You know, it could be anything. And a lot of people don't have the space. What if you're renting a room somewhere? What if you live in an apartment and they don't allow you to, you know, to burn herbs or what? I mean, there are there are all these so-called obstacles, but really all you have to do is set your intention. And that and you know, and set your intention, perform an action. That simple.

GDC 14:00

Set your intention, perform an action. I love the way that you write to Rhonda. It it's really it kind of drew drew me in when I was just like, wait, what? Wait, what? It just drew me in. And you know, looking at the the aspects of it, it's very grounded in that you're like, hey guys, here are ritual basics. So, you know, don't leave a candle burning on its own, you know, like that. And and this is about incense and and all of that. And then you put it all together in such a basic way that people can utilize this book when they are doing what they're gonna be doing anyway, you know, manifesting, healing, emotional healing. And I don't know, I just heard lavender hot cocoa, and I'm like, I am in, let's get her on the show.

Intention Turns Routine Into Ritual

Rhonda 15:08

Thank you. Yeah, you know, and it's funny because lavender is really kind of bitter, right? When you mix it with that hot cocoa, and especially if you use a white chocolate, oh my god, it is so mellow. It makes me, it always calms me right away. I love it. I love that one. Look, I'm writing down a note to uh because I'm out of white chocolate. So I need to go and get some right away. But yeah, I um those recipes, you know, when okay, so when I decided to make this a book, I won't say when I decided to write the book because I didn't sit down and write a book, I had sticky notes all over the place. I've been I've been a practicing reiki practitioner and spiritualist for over 20 years. So um when I decided that it was time to birth, or when I was told, because the ancestors speak to me in my sleep, so when I was told you need to work on this, there was a great deal of resistance because it was just a bunch of scrappy notes all over the place. And I was taking care of my father, and you know, and at the time I I was I won't even talk about my my health journey right now, but there was just so much going on. I'm like, I don't have time for this. And then I I got checked, something happened, and I was forced to stop. And it's like, you know, if you had been practicing what you preach to your clients, you wouldn't be in this position. So I decided I'm gonna take all these scraps of notes and everything and just slow down and put it all together and see what happens. And this book even is very different than the book that I submitted to Llewellyn. Um, the I think the the first draft, because I'm not, I don't consider myself a writer really, you know. I I mean this is like my fifth or sixth book, but I always self-publish and I feel like I'm just teaching, you know. So I submitted to Llewellyn and one other company, I knew I wanted to go with Llewellyn and one other company, and Llewellyn right away responded. I couldn't believe it. I I thought I was being punked because they my email wasn't working and they reached out on Facebook. And I I told my girlfriend, I said, see, somebody's punking me because they're pretending to be from Llewellyn. Why are they reaching out to me on Facebook? And then when I spoke to Alicia, she said, Well, you know, we we couldn't, we didn't hear back from you on your email. I said, Ooh, okay. But I, you know, I submitted the book and it came back with a ton of edits. And I so I sat down and said, What does it look like they want the book to be? Because they're the experts, really. And once I got that answer back in resonance, then I basically took the whole thing apart and rewrote it. And when I submitted it, she said, This is exactly what we wanted. I said, Okay, good. That happened. So yeah, but it was just, it started out just being a bunch of tasty notes or scribbles in my uh in my grimoire, or I mean, you know, it was just it was all over the place. And they the the editors were really helpful in helping me to pull this whole thing together. And I do, I love this book. I've read it over and over and over again, and every time, you know, some of my other books, I read that, I've read them, but by the fourth or fifth time, I'm thinking, because we're always hypercritical, I'm thinking, you know, this book isn't as good as I thought it was. I do not feel that way about Burning Brew rituals. It is every bit as good as I thought it would be, as I hoped it would be, as I wished it would be, and I am so grateful for that.

Birthing Burn And Brew As A Book

GDC 18:37

Well, you are absolutely right. It is tasty, you guys. Pick up this book, just came out by Llewellyn Worldwide in April 2026. It is incense blends and cozy drinks for balance, healing, and inner peace. And it is so much fun. Like you can utilize this, you know, on holidays. You can utilize this as an addition to your practices, and you can also understand where Rhonda is coming from with the ritual aspect of it. It's a state of mind, it's it's tasting the magic, it's tasting all of these things. Oh, absolutely, you guys pick up this book. Also, we have website www.wellness uprising.com as well as you can reach it by just putting in her name, ronda keykendal jabari.com. It'll take you there. There is so much stuff going on. And she also, side note, she also does these like moon meditations sometimes. You guys have to check out her calendar on our website for her offerings located in the LA, you know, California area, so you can reach out and maybe get your own copies signed.

Moon Meditations Plus Food Support

Rhonda 20:11

Talk to us about that moon, moonlight meditation. Meditations and moon beams. So I have a contract. Um, we actually uh I'm a subcontractor on a contract that is funded by the Department of Mental Health here in Los Angeles. And so, you know, which kind of had I I'm really grateful for it because it's given me like a slight clinical edge in terms of my practice, my one-on-one Reiki healing. But they contacted me about a year, I think I'm going into my third year now with that, and they fund that work for me. So every Wednesday, um, I I facilitate a 30-minute call where we come on, we talk about wherever the moon phase is, I focus on the you know, the four major lunar cycles, and then I talk about you know things like what the general energy is for everyone, which astrological signs are going to be the most influenced, in what ways are we all going to be influenced? What are some of the foods that support that energy so that you can leverage? I also create a mini ritual for every one of those, and then um we close with uh a topical medica meditation. That's about 15 minutes long. So the call is about 30 minutes, but it's a nice little midweek boost. It's every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Pacific, and you can um go to my website and look up events uh and find out how to link to that call.

Jenny 21:38

I love that. That sounds amazing.

Rhonda 21:41

It is such fun work.

Jenny 21:43

Yeah, that's and I like I love that you pair foods.

Rhonda 21:47

Oh yeah.

Jenny 21:49

I've not heard of other people pairing, like I mean, people touch sometimes herbs, but like foods for the can you talk a little bit about that?

Rhonda 21:57

Sure. First of all, let me just say don't ask Like you don't know because you have cancer influence, and cancerians love to what? Eat. So food is a big deal for me. But um, yeah, so what I do is I think about what is happening in that moon phase. Is it is it fire? Is it water? Is it air? You know, what is that? And then what foods can we ingest that will place our our our energy bodies within the frequency to capitalize on whatever that moon phase is. So that's a lot of fun.

Jenny 22:33

That's really cool. That's really cool. I'm also a Taurus son, so I do love to eat.

Rhonda 22:38

Okay, yeah. Yep, how fun. Yeah, I am I tell you, I can't don't even get me started talking about food. I really love to eat and I love to cook. And I love to recommend healthy things that people can do, you know, to bring into their bodies and to shift their vibrational frequency to help them be more in alignment with what's going on cosmically. You know, I think I think that's something that's overlooked a lot. So it's a self-world.

Jenny 23:06

Yes, that's amazing. I I don't know anybody else that does that. That's really useful. And for people like thinking about getting the book, the book is like uh like an old school, old timey receipt book, is what they would call them, where it's recipes and more. And so, like if you're like, I don't know, there's recipes for all the brews and the burns, but then there's all this ritual. There it's like a it's a catch all for so many beautiful things. Like, I'm personally gonna keep it in my kitchen. That way I can grab it and do the teas and do like all of that, because I'm a big tea drinker. And so all these tea recipes, I'm like super excited to try them all out. Um, but yeah, absolutely cool. And one of the cool things I think is that you have holidays talked about in here, and you know, it's a Llewellyn book. So normally it's like the eight Sabbaths, the witchy sabbath. But no, we have International Transgender Day of Visibility. Yes, and you have a burn suggestion and a brew suggestion. You have Easter, you have Juneteenth. This is stuff I'm not seeing anywhere else, and I'm like really excited by this idea of celebrating more throughout the year.

Rhonda 24:15

Right, and being more inclusive, right? That's what we need right now. And I think that the timing of this book is what spurred me to really um broaden that calendar. So I yeah, I'm I'm proud of that piece because I tried to make sure that I included something for everyone. We don't have to be a monolith.

Inviting Ancestors With Clear Boundaries

GDC 24:36

I love that. I love that. And you know, obviously, I am well, maybe not obviously, for those who know me, Granddaughter Crow, I'm all about the ancestors, the natural world, and all of that. And when so I read about the ancestors with you, I was like, okay, let's talk a little bit about the ancestors. Rhonda, how do you work with the ancestors for our listeners, for people who maybe haven't done that before, how do you work with the ancestors?

Rhonda 25:12

I always say that um in meditation, we're always in a state of receiving. So ask for what you want to know and then be quiet and just sit. And you will be amazed. So if you want to be connected to your ancestors, that's the time to ask. You know, say, hey, where are you? I invite you into my life. They're always waiting, I think. They're always waiting, they're just waiting to be invited. Um, for me, it I I'm a natural-born um intuit and empath. So it began for me when I was a child and I had no idea what it was. It felt scary sometimes, it felt alienating sometimes. But as I grew into my practices, I realized, oh, these, you know, these are the people that were sent here to help me navigate this life, whatever that means. And once you align yourself with that energy, you'll find it easier and easier. But I always say, invite them, that's the biggest thing. Open the door and invite them. And for me, what that looked like in the early days, I think, was just, you know, um, setting up an altar. I've always been very fortunate to kind of have my own space to work within. So, you know, um, setting up an altar, grabbing a few things that are meaningful for you. The whole, I talk about in the book, my incense journey, right? How back in the 70s, incense was what people burned when they wanted to bury the smell of marijuana. And so I was turned off to that for a long time. But then when I got to college and I was able to explore on my own, I was like, oh my God, these aromas mean something. It's connected to something more, sitting and watching the swirl of the smoke, you know. And that's when I think I really began my heavy work, uh, becoming more acquainted with my ancestors, asking the questions and just sitting and waiting patiently and listening.

GDC 27:13

I love it. So, Jenny, in reading the book, is there anything else you wanted to highlight before I ask her to share something that the listeners can do today?

Jenny 27:28

So Yeah, actually, uh, well, I actually had a question about the ancestors because this is something I see a lot on social media. Um, a lot of people will say, well, they'll say, What if my ancestors wouldn't approve of what I'm doing? So a lot of people have this idea that because their ancestors were Christian or Catholic, then they're not gonna approve of them burning incense or doing something more spiritual. So if someone were to ask you that question, what would you say to them?

Rhonda 28:02

I would say we are so much more powerful than we know, and we always have choices. Ask for the ones to come forward who are in support of what it is that you're doing. You don't have to invite everybody. You know, you can set your own parameters and then you'll, you know, then you'll know. And the same here, you know, I come from an African-American family, there are Christians, there are, I ask for the ones, you know, for whom this is the right thing. So you can set those boundaries and then you don't have to worry about it, you know, whether or not, oh my God, but she practiced this way, and she, you know, I even wrote in the introduction um or the the uh dedication to my father about how when he first moved in with me, you know, I was I was the the family member, they whispered out, oh, you know, she's crazy, you know, she's different. And so um it took him a while. You know, he came, he was an old southern gentleman, he had he came with his Bible, he was a deacon, he, you know, all of that stuff. And it took a while. I just had to kind of just to remember to do me, not to be overaccommodating, because I I don't have any question about whether or not this is the path that I'm supposed to be on. I really don't care what anyone else says. And that was hard to do, you know, with my dad, because he's dad. But I had to make sure that I just stayed on the path. And, you know, before he passed away, he came to understand more and see more and to respect it more. So you can always ask for the ones that will support you in what you're doing.

GDC 29:36

That is such a beautiful question and answer because it's empowering. You know, you get to, you know, a lot of times as practitioners, you know, if you haven't worked with ancestors, or let's say, even let's stretch it out to deity energy, you have the authority within you to be surrounded by those that support you. Make sure that you call them in accordingly. And absolutely, I love that you were born an empath and intuitive, and that you came to terms because empaths and intuitives tend to, especially when they're children, seek out like, how can I help? How can I please? What do you want me to say? What do you want me? You know, I'm not trying to say people pleaser, but they're very, very good at reading it. And how did you get to the empowered, this is my path? Because I think a lot of listeners are probably like, I want to be like that. I want to be like this is my path.

Rhonda 30:40

You know, I just there I definitely had to put distance in some relationships, and that was very painful. Um, but like I said, I know what I know, what I know. And at times, spirit would even say to me, Oh, you're gonna ignore that? You think you can just, you know, turn your back and not do this? And I would get what I call a spiritual spanking. So I I it's I just had to say, no matter what, respectfully, uh maintaining the love and always speaking kindly and gently, but do not allow someone else to take you off your path. We come here, sadly, uh, in one sense, you know, like my mother used to say, you're born alone, you die alone. And so these connections with family are negotiable. The hope is that you don't have to, you know, sever those ties or anything like that, but it's all negotiable. And so it just depends on how solidly planted you are in your understanding of what it is that you're here to do and how you want to be represented in the world and how you want to represent your deity in this world.

GDC 31:52

So beautiful, so empowering, and so very true. I like to say that some of my ancestors, some of the people that are family members are my cactus. I love them from a distance. I am not dumb enough to go and embrace a cactus because I know I will get poked. But that's okay because sometimes I'm somebody else's cactus too. And it's all about that healthy boundary. And like you said, you are worthy, like right now.

Rhonda 32:30

And I think that is and you know, I mean, I didn't always feel worthy. I'm from a very uh, I mean, my sisters and my brother are all brilliant. I don't know how my mother did it. We were raised um with very, very little money. Uh, you know, I I don't know how much money came from my dad and my mother. That was their business, but I do know that there was never a lot of a lot of excess. So my parents paid and sweat, you know, to make sure that their children had certain opportunities. Five out of five of us came out of South Central Los Angeles and matriculated from high school into four-year universities. This is the gift that they gave us. Um, so they're very, they're very straight-laced, they're very academic. Um, I think over the years it's been, you know, what we've come to realize is that there are five of us, and everyone serves a very special purpose in the family. You know, I have my I have a sister who's an RN and a jurisdictor. I have another sister who's an MBA. My brother is a psychotherapist in the LCSWMSW. You know, another sister who is just this wizard at managing money and relationships. I mean, just we all have a role to play. No one else in my family went down the spiritual path. No one else. So after a while, I began to recognize it as, oh, this is what this is the role I'm supposed to play in the family, whether they like it or not is something different. Whether they understand it is something different. But they certainly have come to understand. You know, you just have to be willing to put in the time. And again, be patient. Be patient. Every I always laugh because I tell my older sisters and brothers that I got something from all of them that they never got from each other. Every one of them changed my diaper, held a bottle to my mouth. You know, I'm the youngest. So I have more patience with all of them than they have with each other, you know. But I so I think that that feeds into my role, uh not just in the world, but then how do I bring that into my family to make us better? So, yeah, yeah, interesting. But yeah, they're very straight laced and it it has not been an easy journey. I did not feel worthy. I thought that I had to do things a certain way, you know. Um, I had to redefine success. I had to uh redefine happiness for myself and to broaden my my scope of what is abundance. Because I felt like, oh my God, the reason why I'm struggling with money is because I didn't, you know, I didn't stay on the path. So um you that worthiness piece is very interesting. But yeah, I didn't feel worthy for a very, very long time.

GDC 35:11

So what you know, there's a couple of things that I absolutely love. You had mentioned that your father was a deacon and that you carried on spiritual path. And I'm like, this correlation there, like, is there a lineage thing there that you've ever thought about?

Rhonda 35:30

Uh not from my father necessarily. Um, but my mother's father was the one. Tell us. He was he was African American and blackfoot in Louisiana. He was six foot seven. And he was a sharecropper. He was a farmer, so he his hands were always in the earth. And I didn't know him that well, uh, you know, because he lived in Louisiana and we lived here, and I think I met him probably all of two times. But there were a couple of things that I got from him that I realized now, wow, his name was uh Talma, Talma James Champ, TJ Champ. And he, uh, one of those things was that when he wanted to know what we had done, and yeah, we would we were bad kids. Like we would let all the chickens out the coop and they'd be running all over the place. He's like, put those chickens back in that coop, you know. Or I had cousins who would lock me in the curing house, you know, and I would scream because I'm the city cousin. It's like, oh my God, there are dead animals here. And uh, you know, and then go running, look what he did to me. So um, but one of the things that I got from him was when he would ask us, you know, say, for example, yeah, we somebody let the chickens out the coop, who did that? And no one would speak up. He had a piece of ginger that he tied to a rope. It was ratty and dirty and fray, and he would walk down the line holding it over our head. He called her Queenie, and Queenie was the biggest tattletale in the world. And so, as I grew up, guess what? That's what this was. I said, Oh my God, he was dowsing and divining. I had no idea. And I am so connected to pendulums, it's just crazy. So, you know, I do feel like there's some things that I got from him. Um the other thing was his his love and respect for the earth, of course. Uh, that was always not, I mean, you know, I I some of my fondest memories, and I don't, my memories are very faded. I was very young. I got to Louisiana because my mother didn't trust my older siblings to take care of me while she was gone. So that's why she would take me with her and leave all the others, or you know, myself and my sister right over me and leave the others here in the LA. Because she's like, oh no, y'all not gonna kill my babies, you know. And so she would take us with her. But um, you know, I mean, like that red clay dirt, it's not really a memory so much as a feeling. We would this is so crazy. Remember the big stick popsicles? Oh yeah. Okay, so we would take the big stick popsicle, lick on it, make it really sticky, right? Rub it on ourselves and roll in the clay dirt to protect us from the sun, from the sun. You know, I mean, just think that those are the memories that I hold. I didn't understand any of that as being connected to the earth and maybe even being a sacred activity, you know, because it was very protective. I mean, oh my god, we did so much stuff. But yeah, I I feel like it this probably came from my mother's side of the family. My father, um, his father died when he was 14, and his mother died when he was two in childbirth. So, you know, I never met them. I never met them, but I didn't I remember my mother's father, and I vaguely remember her mother. Yeah.

Jenny 38:57

I love that story about the pendulum.

Rhonda 39:00

Mm-hmm.

Jenny 39:01

Like, I'm like, that's that's so cool. And do you like because you probably work with ginger, right, in different recipes and things like that. Have you ever like thought to yourself why ginger?

Rhonda 39:12

I never did. Thank you for that. I will yeah, I'm curious. I'm gonna meditate on that and see what the ancestors have to say. I never thought, I just thought, you know, because it was handy, you know, I don't know, maybe it was the most affordable thing. I do not know, but he sure did. He made pendulums out of ginger and rope. And like I said, her name was Queenie, and Queenie used to tell on us every time, and she was very accurate. So yeah.

A Simple Burn And Brew Practice

GDC 39:36

I love that. Love it too. So, you guys, if you have kids that let chickens out of chicken, right? Get yourself a queenie. I love that. Okay, so I Jenny and I would love to hear. Could you walk us through some brew or a simple burn and brew thing that listeners could actually do today and apply today?

Rhonda 40:09

Okay, thank you for that question. So burn and brew uh is something I had been doing for years before the before I even thought to write the book. And it began because, like I said, ritual, every single morning I wake up, I light incense, and I, you know, I made well, I just stopped drinking coffee, so but I would make coffee or hot chocolate or tea, and I would sit on my front porch because I could face east and watch the sun come up. And uh I would uh put you know, incense, whatever I was running out on the front porch. So again, it doesn't have to be big and fancy, something as simple as, um, and I love to say, use your intuition. You don't need a recipe, a formula, or anything like that. Use your intuition. What do you feel like today? Today I felt like green tea, so that's what I'm having. Um, you can uh use charcoal if you want to, or stick incense, it doesn't matter, or cones, whatever you prefer, and whatever you have on hand. I like keeping charcoal on hand because I can always reach into the cabinet spice rack and grab anything to throw on that charcoal. It might be, you know, sage, it might be rosemary needles, it might be cinnamon, you know, but it's the same stuff that comes in in the McCormick cans that you get at the grocery store. And um, I always say that if you are in tune, your hand will guide you where you need to go. Reach into the cabinet and grab something, light a charcoal, put it on a fireproof uh dish, and while the charcoal is heating, go and select your beverage. It does not matter, it can be as simple as you know, people buy the ready-made coffee uh and it's cold and it's in the refrigerator, you can throw it in a pot and heat it up. Or you can do something more ritualistic. You can get tea leaves, you can hold the tea leaves in your hand or up to your heart for just a few seconds, and then you can stuff them into your tea ball and immerse that in water and boil it, sweeten it however you want. It does not matter what it is, it is completely up to you. This is your personal ritual. Um, so then uh you move to the kitchen, you make your um your beverage, and then uh when your beverage is nice and hot and ready, you go back and you sprinkle whatever you want to on that charcoal. And just kind of, you know, allow yourself to get lost in the aroma and in the smoke. Yeah. It's it is so relaxing. And then think about we often are inundated with a whole bunch of stuff, you know. Even as we talk about how we want to change our lives, we don't speak in terms of today, I just need to do this. We think about long range, it's always a long list of things. Pick one thing, you know, or I just want to relax, I just want to feel calm. I don't feel safe, I want to feel safe, whatever that is, and then sit with your drink. And I love the idea, and I don't know how I began doing this, but to take your mug and inhale the aroma of it and then sit and sit with it and let that incense burn, you know, and allow your intention to do whatever it's going to do for you that day. That's there you are. That's your basic burn and brew ritual. You can speak words if you want to, you can light candles if you want to. Um, you can do you can make that into anything you want it to be, and as elaborate as you like it to be, or as simple. Sometimes we only have five minutes. We got to get the kids to school, you know, you gotta get to work. It it it could be anything. Uh, in my case, it was you know, knowing that as soon as dad's feet hit the floor, I was gonna be at his best call for the rest of the day. So I had to, you know. Move in the morning, get up, move it, because this is your only time right now. So um what at whatever pace and for whatever length moves you, then that's that's what you do.

Jenny 44:16

That's beautiful. That's so beautiful. And I want to say too, for people that are interested in the book, there's also alternatives to burns. There's mists. And I love that. Yeah, I love that. I love that you included that because there are people that have newborns or babies and they don't want to burn stuff or they have some people's pets are really sensitive. I live where there's a smoke season, so during that month or two, I don't like to burn anything in the house. And so you also have the alternative of the mist, which I think is equally as like powerful and really good alternative for people.

Rhonda 44:51

Right. I mean, like right now, I'm burning and brewing, but uh uh, but I'm diffusing rosemary. You know, I wouldn't that's just what I was in the mood for. And I'm I love it, it feels so refreshing. You know, I just did what you know everybody calls it the big chop. So I just cut all my hair off, and I love the feeling of air running across my scalp, you know, and I said, you know, I don't want to burn burn anything because it's hot, right? So I just fire up or plug in my uh humidifier, not my humidifier, my diffuser, and uh, and that becomes my my aromatic effect.

GDC 45:26

Wow, I absolutely love that. And you know, to all of those little post-it notes and all of your lived experience, congratulations for putting it into burn and brew rituals. People, it is out now. Go to wherever you get books, wherever you get books, you can get one of these and enjoy. Enjoy it and put it in your kitchen, just like me and Jenny. We're gonna put it in our kitchen and allow it to remind you that everything that you do is a ritual. So if everything that you continuously do ritualistically, are you doing it with what intention? Are you like, I gotta brush my teeth because I got it? Or for me, what I do when I brush my teeth, I'm like, may my words come out right. May I be, may I be, may they be sweet, may they not stink, you know? And and and when I put on makeup, I'm like, again, the words, may they be sweet, may I see what's right in front of me, or all of those things. And so it's kind of like if it be a ritual, make it a grand ritual that is going to serve you not only just in your service, which we do, but in feeling worthy, in feeling empowered and slowing down.

Rhonda 47:03

Yeah, I love that. I love that. And you know, it is my hope that this book, when people see this sucker on your show, that it is dog-eared and written in with, you know, pages folded back, and yeah, because that's what it is. This it's really a reference book and a guide. You know, and the stories are just there because I always say people should know the source, you should know uh the person that wrote the book. And I think that people get to know me pretty well within these pages, you know. But yeah, I I want people to use this book. There are there are um actually note pages in the back. So you can document as you go, and but that's what I want this book to be. That that is my hope for this book that people use it, it's it's a tool, something to be utilized.

GDC 47:53

I love it. You have an index and all of it.

Rhonda 47:58

Uh-huh.

GDC 48:01

Was there anything else, Jenny, that you wanted to ask or that highlighted that you when you were looking through the book and reading the book that stood out that you want to ask the author?

Reiki Community Plans And The Beyond

Jenny 48:16

Um well, yeah, actually, we didn't touch on this, but you're a Reiki master teacher. And so I wanted to know like how that kind of background influenced the writing process or coming up with the recipes. Is it just like infused in everything you do at this point? Like, how is that connected?

Rhonda 48:36

Yeah, you know what, it is infused in everything I do. I got certified um Reiki level one in 2002, and by 2004 I had reached my master level. Um, my practice, wellness uprising, you know, our primary service is Reiki. It is in everything that I do. Before we started this call, I drew Chokare on the screen. I drehe key on the screen, asking that our words be, you know, heard and felt as we intend. It is in everything that I do. Everything. Um, even I also, you know, I read tarot, but I do something called, and I'm working on a book actually, called Reiki RX, which is uh prescriptions uh that involve Reiki for practitioners and non-practitioners. You know, so I would say that there is Reiki all throughout this book. You know, I do self-reiki every day. I lead communities. Um, I have uh another book called uh 66 Days of Remote Reiki for Personal Transformation. And that's now a WhatsApp group, and that's what I do. I send uh Reiki through to the group for 66 consecutive days through meditation. You know, so they just go in, play the meditation. I I guide them through, and that happens. And I hope to do something similar with burn and brew. I want to build community. I want for people to be able to go somewhere and do something. Action is so important. Do something with what is in this book. Let's get together, let's burn and brew together so that people really come to understand it and love it the way I do.

GDC 50:13

Oh my goodness, I absolutely love that because both Jenny and I, in our body of work, are all about community. Let's do, we're about, yeah, there's a lot of ways to think, but how are you being? Which is leads me to this question. You are on belief, being and beyond. And in that, what the connotation is, what you believe in constitutes how you are in the world, your beingness, but there's always something more, there's always something beyond. So, Rhonda, what do you think is beyond?

Rhonda 50:59

I think we're in the beyond of a very near past. I think things got sped up for humans uh when COVID hit in 2020 and we were all on lockdown. I mean, it changed the world, it sped everything up. I think that we're standing in one great beyond right now, and what exists past this? I have no clue. This chaos is something different. And so each individual's job is to self-heal, is to bring that energy. You know, every time you self-heal, you raise the vibration of the universe and the cosmos. So it's to self-heal, take care of you, and to not be sucked in by all the craziness going on around us. But I don't have a clue what's beyond. I'm excited to see.

GDC 51:49

I love it, I absolutely love it. Everybody, burn and brew rituals, pick it up, read it, do it, follow. We've got www.wellnessuprising.com and spend some time with Rhonda. Spend some time in her book. This is something that I believe it's interesting because this has been going on for a long time. Because I was looking at your YouTube channel and on like four years ago, she talked about burn and brew. I'm like, how long has this baby been in her?

Rhonda 52:28

Oh my God. Yeah, it's I mean, it really is what I've been living for a very long time. As a matter of fact, Llewellyn wanted to change the title because they said, Oh, when you say burn and brew, people are gonna think it's about beer. And that's how the word rituals got added. I said, I'm not dropping burn and brew, it's already branded. I've been doing it for years. You know, I really did start this when I was a very young adult, you know. So, yep. If you look at YouTube, you'll see all those old burn and brew videos, you know. And they're very simple, right? Just something in a cauldron, fire it up, you know. And sometimes I didn't even talk about the brew. I just, you know, said this is what I'm burning and this is the energy of it, and this is what I'm doing today. So, yeah, a long time.

GDC 53:13

Love it. And good for you to to be attached to the title, you know, because I looked at it and I'm like, oh, let's get into the kitchen. You know, I was like, let's get into some magic, let's get into some ritual. That was my first thought. Plus, the cover is so wonderful. So my God, they did an amazing job on the cover.

Rhonda 53:35

When you touch it, there's like this Yeah, it's gorgeous. Not to boast about my own book. No, to boast about the own book. When I saw this cover, I cried. I'm like, that's it. This is this is what I envisioned. So Llewellyn did an excellent job.

Jenny 53:53

Yeah. And uh just say this is my teapot. I have the exact same teapot.

Rhonda 53:58

Oh, really? Oh my god, really?

Jenny 54:00

Yeah, I have a like an Asian-style metal teapot, just like that. But I did not think beer at all. I did not look at this and say beer.

Rhonda 54:08

But maybe there was a population, yeah, they really were like, Him, you know, don't what about this? I said, no, burn it, it has to be burn and brew because again, it was that was already branded. I've been doing it for years. I said, You guys, I promise you, people are not gonna say, Oh, what this is probably beer recipes. I mean, when you look at the cover, if you think beer, there's something wrong. And that's fine.

GDC 54:30

If you think beer, pick it up anyway and get into the hot cocoa with the white jacket and the lavender surprise.

Rhonda 54:39

Yes.

Final Perspective Shift And Farewell

GDC 54:40

We got you again, guys, trying to heal you, help you heal yourself. So, Rhonda, thank you so very much. Is there anything else that you would like to say to the listeners before we sign off?

Rhonda 54:54

Yep, I want to say to everybody, just hang on, guys. Just hang on. It's not going to be all right, it's already all right. All you have to do is shift your perspective a little bit. And that's what these rituals are all about: controlling your perspective, controlling what you are allowing to um to resonate uh in your ears, in your mind, and your whatever. Just know that you're okay today. You really are.

GDC 55:22

So beautiful. Thank you guys once again for tuning in to another episode of Belief Being and Beyond. Absolutely love everything that's going down here. The words of Rhonda herself. Please like, subscribe, subscribe, hit the notification button. Share this, share this one because it is going to build community and it is a wonderful resource, burning through. Thank you, Rhonda. Thank you for having me.