What If Being A Witch Is A Way Of Being - Raechel Henderson

You can tell a lot about a person by how they define “a witch,” and Rachel Henderson refuses to define it for you. Raechel is a pagan and a witch who writes at the intersection of magic and creativity, and her latest book, A Witch Is: 13 Keys to Witchcraft, is built to help you claim your practice without falling into someone else’s rules. We start with her path from a Baptist upbringing shaped by conformity to an eclectic witchcraft practice that values individuality, community, and lived ethics.

From there we get practical. We talk about why kindness is not the same as niceness, why boundaries can be an act of care, and how protection magic fits into an ethical framework. Raechel explains how she approaches guardrails in spellwork without fear-based dogma, and we dig into what new witches often ask for most: permission, structure, and reassurance that they are not “doing it wrong.”

We also go straight at the commodification of witchcraft. If social media altars make you feel broke or behind, you’ll love this part: thrifted tools, dollar store candles, found objects, and even your pantry can support real spellwork. Raechel shares a smart modern protection tip too, including how to ward your router, plus a clear explanation of sigils for anyone who wants simple, low-cost magic that actually sticks. We close with our favorite question about what lies beyond, and Raechel’s view of energy transforming into new forms.

If you enjoy the conversation, subscribe, share it with a witchy friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Rachel Henderson

GDC 0:01

Welcome to Belief Being and Beyond with your host, Granddaughter Crow. Hi everybody, Granddaughter Crow here with yet another episode of Belief Being and Beyond. And we have the perfect guest just released another book. We have Raechel Henderson here on the show. Just really briefly, I mean, you can't get everything that Raechel has done in a bio. So I'm just going to say Raechel Henderson is a pagan and a witch who writes about the intersection of magic and creativity. And today we're going to be looking at her book, which is A Witch Is 13 Keys to Witchcraft. And I am so excited to bring both me, Jenny C. Bell, my co-host, and Raechel Henderson to the show. Welcome, Raechel.

Raechel 1:04

Well, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

From Baptist Roots To Eclectic

GDC 1:08

That's so lovely. Here at Belief Being and Beyond, one of our things that we love to talk about is the belief system of our guests and where they're coming from. And I really like the way that what I have seen in your body of work flows exactly in line with the show, which is everybody has a belief system and it constitutes how they behave, but there's always something more, there's always something beyond, as well as this aspect of giving people the space to be their authenticity, to be able to express themselves. And I really saw, you know, just checking out your body of work, you have a lot of integrity, virtuous things. It's like a guidebook to liberate the witch, the new witch, the old witch, to do it their way, because that is the most magical way, because that is where their intention can come alive. Can you share with us a little bit more about that perspective and and how it was that you opened up this let's not do it the way that everybody tells us to, which doesn't embody it for us or make it personal, let's do it your own way? Oh, yeah.

Raechel 2:35

Well, uh, to start off, I was raised Baptist. Um and that uh belief system is very much rooted in um I wouldn't say groupthink, but in conformity. And very much this idea that if you don't believe or think or uh act in the way that the majority does, then you're wrong. And uh so that never really resonated with me. Uh I was very much an individual kid and very much questioning and asking questions which didn't sit right with a lot of my uh you know, Sunday school teachers and uh other elders in the in the church. Um but I went because my grandmother uh took all of us kids to church and our parents were like, yes, give us uh Sunday morning off. And I stuck with it mainly because of um my relationship with my grandmother. But once I went off to college, I kind of shed that. I was like, it doesn't resonate with me. I don't believe in it, um, there's gotta be something else out there. I ended up in first uh Wiccan, uh, was Wiccan for a little while, and that didn't really sit right with me either, and kind of branched off on this electric uh eclectic path. But um I'm also American and grew up in that kind of rugged individual. I grew up in Wyoming, which is a state that is very much all about rugged individualism, uh, which um is not a really healthy attitude to have. I think that when you go from you have these two extremes of either great conformity or uh you know individualism to the point where you don't have, you don't see um companionship or community, that both of those two extremes are really unhealthy. But I do feel like there is a middle ground for individuality. And as I went uh along my path of this practice, this witchcraft practice, I would find myself butting up against these ideas of you would find spells to in books or online, and I was always tweaking them, always changing them a little bit. And I feel like as I grew in my practice, that I came to realize that uh witchcraft is personal and our belief system is personal, and that we often feel pressured to act one way or another, or to believe one thing or another, and that can limit where our our potential. And so that's kind of where the through line of all of my work that I've done is this idea that uh we need to make our it our our magic needs to be personal, it needs to be rooted in our ethics, because some people will find like there are people who don't want to hex, and that's totally fine. Uh there are people who do hex, that's fine too. I mean, you you have to consider make considerations individually on what you're doing, and so that's what I'm trying to help people do is find their personal boundaries and their personal practice because I feel like it's more powerful when you root it in your own personal being and your own personal ethics.

GDC 6:22

I love that. What do you think, Jenny? I can see those little, you know, brain things going.

Why The Title Invites Definition

Jenny 6:31

Yeah, I I resonate a lot with your story. I also started off Wiccan and I explained to a lot of the younger witches, this is like pre-internet, and you had the local bookstore ahead of borders, and like almost all the books from the 90s are truly like Wiccan-based or pagan-based. And there was no like all these terms now. Kids will be like, I'm a cosmic witch. It's like, that's awesome. We didn't have that when I was a kid. Like, I really resonated with that story, and I like that your whole you know, background and purpose for what you do is to get people to come up with their own individual path. Because that's the beauty of witchcraft, is it's individual. We're not in a religious or church setting. You can really make it your own. I think that's really cool.

GDC 7:18

Absolutely. I too grew up um with a very um uh Christianized, I'll just say that, a Christian background, and asking questions was not allowed. And it's almost like that idea of don't ask questions, don't question authors, don't ask questions of spell work, kind of carried over when in truth witchcraft is creativity, which I think we'll get into a little bit more of as well. So your book. Okay. First, I recognized you from Llewellyncon. Oh uh, yeah, so cheers there, and as well as um when I saw your book, A Witch Is. Now, I am born 1970, grew up with Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang, and it immediately opened up my inner child with that old book, Happiness is a Warm Puppy with Snoopy. And I and I was like, this book has been a long time coming. It just by the title, it opened up my inner child. Did was that on purpose, or am I just crazy? Because I am just yeah.

Raechel 8:34

Now that you brought it up, I absolutely can see that it may have been something that was in the back of my head. Um really the idea was uh I wanted it to be open-ended because again, I want people to define for themselves what a witch is, because they that is them defining for themselves who they are. And so having a title that kind of invites people to think about that rather than telling them a witch is this. Uh while while I get into um things that a witch is in the book, the they're all traits, they're all attributes, they are not uh definitive. And so, yeah, that I can totally see that kind of the in the back of my head. I'm born 1976, so I'm fully aware of that book and uh have that in my childhood as well. So I think you know it's just kind of part of being the Gen X there.

Kindness Versus Niceness In Magic

GDC 9:35

Right, I love it. I absolutely love it. So Jenny loves, I mean, Jenny has a literary degree, so I want to kind of, as we get into the book, see what questions Jenny has come up as she has gone through the book.

Jenny 9:52

Yeah, so I just wanted to say I love the format of the book. And for anybody watching or listening, if you have been witchcurious, witchy, or interested, this is such a good book for you to just pick up and take a look at because there's exercises, there's spells, there's all of this stuff, there's all of these kind of information, and it's very open, it's very like do it your own way, make it your own way, this reassurance, which I think is so awesome for everybody. But for people that have been on the path for a long time, I I like it because there's stuff I've never done before. But like one of my favorite things is you have a chapter called A Witch is Kind. And I love that one of the exercises is a sour jar. Can you can you kind of explain that like to the people who don't have the book yet?

Raechel 10:42

Like you say a witch is kind and then you go right into but well, because there is a difference between kindness and niceness. And I believe that our society has conflated the two and has turned niceness into kindness. Where the way I tend to view it is niceness is what you say, kindness is what you do. And sometimes in order to be kind, you have to be kind to yourself and you have to protect yourself. And sometimes being kind means uh holding people accountable. Uh if there are people who are harming you, if there are institutions that are harming you, uh we as witches are allowed to use our magic to protect ourselves, and we are allowed to use our magic and our power to push back on systems of oppression, systems that would degrade us uh and that would try to disempower us. So, yeah, there's a sour jar in there because there are times where you need to um you may need to reach uh for something more than love and light. Um, and there's uh that's one of the very few spells that are in the book because uh basically I wanted to write a book that gets people I I meant it as a workbook. So that's why there's the exercises and stuff there, for people to work through it so that by the time they come out at the end of the book, they have a very firm grasp of this is what my witchcraft is, this is what my power is. So I didn't want to put a lot of spells in there because I wanted to be personal, but things like sour jars, things that are a little more um can get into the weeds of icky feelings, especially if you're like a people pleaser or you view yourself as a nice person. Um I wanted to make sure that there was a spell there that people could follow exactly and uh know that it's going to work uh and not uh get lost or get confused because that that kind of magic needs uh direct intention, very focused intention. And I didn't want people uh being confused or not being able to direct their intention uh properly for it to work.

Get The Book Through Libraries

GDC 13:16

I uh love that. I just want to drop in. That's one of my favorite things that I saw because I recovering people pleaser, or maybe I'm still practicing people pleaser, whatever it is. But but at the end of the day, that is so liberating to be like the kindest thing that I can do right now is say no. The kindest thing that I can do right now is be honest with you or the or say my piece, or you know, in in a way that you know comes across clear, you know, because the kindest thing that others can do for me is the same. I don't want to be placated, I want people to say, oh, you're just not my jam, you know, or whatever. And if we are, like, subscribe, share, you know, anytime you can. But it the beauty is it's like it's liberating because especially, and I'm gonna go here for females, because especially Christianized, raised, grown, United States, homegrown, you know, this idea of be nice, smile more, be pleasant, it doesn't matter if you're in pain, that's nobody's responsibility. You it's your responsibility to blah blah blah. And it's so liberating for you to for you to say that. You guys, we're talking about a witch is we have Raechel Henderson here with us. And if you're loving what we say, book was already released, you can get it wherever you get your books. We actually love to promote, go to your favorite witchy shop and ask them to, you know, get it. And and if you can't, you know, at this point, maybe you're not in the position to do so, but you're really digging Raechel's energy. Go to Goodreads, leave a review that really helps authors.

Raechel 15:18

Go to your library, go to your local library, uh, even and ask about uh ask if they will get it for you or see if you can get it through interlibrary loan. I want people to have access to this information. So uh I support my local library, I support libraries everywhere. Um it tickles me to no end when I see my books in libraries. So, yes, if you can, if uh if you can't uh get it um through your local bookstore or even you know online, go to your local library and ask them because libraries, if they have enough people ask about getting books, they will get them.

Jenny 15:59

And you can also request books on the Libby app, which is connected to the library. So that's another way that you could just do that from home and you can request, and those requests go to your library. The more requests the library gets for the same book, the more likely they're gonna carry it for you and similar books for you. So requesting witchy books, witchcraft books is really essential to getting them in the library.

Raechel 16:22

Yeah. So please, yeah, check and go to your local library anyway, because they're awesome. Just do it, guys.

Ethics Boundaries And Witch Virtues

GDC 16:31

A witch is going to the library today. Now I I absolutely love it. Another thing that is, you know, um, part of my practice is in the Norse Pantheon. And most of my practice, well, all of my practice is the natural world, right? Medicine woman, that's my jam, all of that. But I also with my husband practice the Norse Pantheon. And in such, there is the nine noble virtues. And we don't get to hear that word virtue outside of religion, but now I'm saying it virtues with witchcraft. And it is the nine noble virtues. I haven't had time to pull out my Excel spreadsheet yet, but I think you have nine plus four more of the noble virtues within your book. And I just wanted to say that this book is written on so much lived experience because I have, you know, checked you out, saw what you do. I totally admire what you're doing, and I love that you're doing it in a playful yet virtuous way, you know, that combo.

Raechel 17:46

Yeah, I was absolutely inspired by the um nine more uh noble virtues. Um my husband is uh Norse Norse pagan as well. Um I I work with Hestia, uh, so I'm not in I I'm not uh heathen in that way, but we we're a big our family is a big queer pagan family. So uh like I joke that our 15-year-old is a Loki son. Um and with all of that, what that entails, but yeah, no, the idea is um again, these the idea is these are supposed to be traits because one of the things that I recognize that doesn't happen a lot in uh paganism and it and especially in witchcraft is we don't talk a lot about um ways to act, ways to be. And this book started off with I was writing it originally as a guide for my daughter. Uh when she was 12, I was like, I want to give her a guide for because she was starting to uh practice a little bit with witchcraft uh and with magic, and I was like, okay, I want to give you a guide for how to be and how to make your you know what how you should act when it comes to magic because magic is powerful, and if we don't have some uh ethical boundaries around the magic, we can do a lot of harm, and mostly to ourselves. So that's kind of one of the things I wanted to talk about in this book is what does it mean to be to practice magic ethically, to practice magic that is grounded in your morals. Because as much as I don't subscribe to the belief of the rule of three, I understand why some people do. I but just because I don't believe in that doesn't mean that I think that there should be uh some guardrails. Um the whole idea of with harm towards none is uh very deeply inscribed in me. Um that uh we don't just uh do things that would harm other people in our practice unless there are very specific reasons for that.

Jenny 20:29

I love that. I 100% agree with that. I work with beginner witches in our coven, and so many of them are like, okay, but what are the rules? Because they a lot of them come, they're women around our age and they're coming from a religious background. They have deconstructed that, they found witchcraft, they're excited, but they're used to being told all these rules and can and can confines. So this book is like an anchor. I feel like it's an anchor without being like, here's what you should do or shouldn't do. It's more like, here's like a compass, and then use the compass. And I think it's really needed because I see it all the time. It's like, it's not that they are gonna be lawless, but they've just never been without the rules. And so it feels scary for a lot of them to be like, okay, but what are the rules? And we get into that a lot about like, but is it gonna be bad if I do this? What about free will? There's all these questions that come up, and I feel like this book is a good guide for me to be like, just get this book and read it and you'll be fine.

GDC 21:30

I absolutely love that. Yeah, absolutely. And this book also is really cool because as it being kind of from the position of a workbook, it's not necessarily a start to finish, it's more of a I'm gonna put this here, and when I need to figure out this, and oh, there it is, and oh, I'll work on this, and very, very user friendly. I absolutely love it.

Thirteen Traits And Real Confidence

Raechel 21:56

I love yeah, that was um well, I set it up as a Workbook, I didn't want it to be that you had to go from start to finish. Um, I wanted people to have the freedom to be like, oh, this topic uh talks to me immediately. I should check that out. Um, mostly what I want people to get from this book and from when I work with uh work with people is I want them to get the idea that however they're practicing is okay. Not that people need permission, but again, because we come from uh this idea that uh you have to get permission from an authority, I figure I will give permission to people to be like, oh, how I practice magic is okay and is right for me. Again, I don't believe people need permission for this, but I understand the want and desire for it. So I want to give that to people uh so that they can break free of this idea that there are rules, that there are uh that um that they're gonna bad things are gonna happen to them if they practice magic.

GDC 23:10

I 100% agree. And I love that stance because I've noticed that too within even my own self. Like, do I have permission to be nice to myself? Do I have permission to be myself? And and it's almost like this ingrained, like, you know, and I've been practicing forever, and it's kind of like, but that still creeps up. It's it's this what I'm gonna call a program that was a conditioning, that's I think a better word for it, a conditioning to have to ask for permission. And if you need permission, you heard it here, folks. Raechel is giving you permission to be you, and if you until you understand that she's just doing that on behalf of your inner witch. So I love that.

Jenny 24:00

I was gonna read uh the 13 topics for everybody that doesn't have the book yet, so they can know. So we have uh a witch is resourceful, a witch is resilient, a witch is creative, a witch is kind, a witch is patient, a witch is intuitive, a witch is self-aware, a witch is knowledgeable, a witch is purposeful, a witch is honest, a witch is respectful, a witch is curious, and finally a witch is confident, which is such a cool way to end. Um, I feel like they really flow into one another, but did you have like one that was particularly like this like I this is the first one that came to mind? You're like, this has to be in there.

Raechel 24:45

Um actually the way that they're in the book is the way that they came to me. Oh, wow. And the first nine, the first ten uh came to me immediately. And the last three were ones that I kind of had to dig a little bit for. Um partly, uh, yes, there is this idea of 13. 13 is uh uh great witchy number, um, but also because I felt that the first ten didn't cover everything. I was like, there's something missing here. Um so the last three were the ones that uh came they were a little more difficult, uh, mostly because things like a witch is confident, like I don't have confidence a lot of the time. Um I I have written seven books on witchcraft and I still deal with imposter syndrome. Um I still have, you know, like before I go on a podcast or before I go and do a workshop, I'm like, what am I doing? Who am I to be telling people anything? Um so yeah, that's how they came to me. Um resilience came to me because I have lived um not an easy life. Like when you are a creative in a capitalistic society, it is really difficult to make a living and to um and to feel comfort comfortable uh and feel okay with that when you have all this pressure of, you know, just go out and get a job. Uh so resilience was very important to me because you need to have that in order to survive uh what society throws at you. Uh and I believe that for witches that's especially important, uh, especially now with the rise of like Christian nationalism and what's going on. Um, you need to be able to be uh supportive of yourself and to think creativity creativity, creativity. I can't say the word today. There we go. There we go. Uh it's a Thursday. Um but yeah, that's uh it's important uh to be resilient right now. Uh that being able to go with the flow, bend, find uh new uses for old things is gonna serve people really well in the coming few years.

Budget Tools And Warding Tech

GDC 27:26

I love that because, you know, when I'm listening to your story around how you had to dig a little bit, it to me I heard, oh, to let it apply to this day and age, this modern day and age of where we are now, you know, and and doing all of this. And I absolutely agree with you that, you know, we have to, we don't always know, you know, there's always something in the back of our mind. Even if you've written all the books, you know, there's something in in the back of the mind, and maybe it's called doubt. And this doubt needs to be dealt with because there's going to be a lot of external doubt coming our way. And to be able to, that's one of the reasons uh that you know, as Jenny and I talk about the podcast and where we see it going, we're like, we want creatives, we want people to be able to have a platform, we're building a platform where we can hold up and and support the creatives within the world and that and and kind of move through that self-doubt or whatever it is. Because we all have it, people. It's not like you you have it. If you have self-doubt, it's not necessarily an indicator that you are on the wrong path. It could be an indicator that you have been programmed or that you're really freaking smart. Because when you're really freaking smart, right, you think about things from different perspectives. And sometimes you catch yourself saying, Who am I? And when you catch yourself saying, Who am I? you can pick up this book, right? I absolutely love, love, love it.

Jenny 29:13

Let's can we go back to um you were talking about resourcefulness and resilience. Let's just go back to that for a second. And if you could just share a few tips and tricks for people, because that's it right now. Like everything is so expensive, it's just gonna get more expensive. The world is a hard place to be in right now, and what's hard is you know, people go online and they see these extravagant altars and rituals, and it's like, what? Like they're it's like unattainable, and so you get a lot of new witches who are like, Well, I could never do that, and then they just are like, Well, I guess I'm just not gonna do this then. And so what I really liked is how you started with those as like guides because you it is, it's important. So if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about that, Raechel, like how someone could do these things, be part of the witchcraft community, be a witch without spending a ton of money, without having to go and buy all these cool things.

Raechel 30:16

Oh, yeah, let's totally talk about the commodification of witchcraft. Um, that has uh been with the with social media, that has become a real big thing. Like I love looking at reels and uh of beautiful altars and beautiful uh spells and all of the images for that, but also yeah, it's unattainable. I'm I'm poor. Uh I'm a poor artist, so I can't afford to go out and get like all of the silver, silver chalices and uh all of the really nice uh you know tools and things like that. But I think what we need to remember is at its core, witchcraft is a nature-based practice. So uh so I'll I'll share a little story. Um we just moved from Wyoming uh back to the Midwest uh in August and uh had to leave like half of our stuff uh back in Wyoming. So it's in a storage unit in Wyoming. And we get here, and I'm like, okay, we're getting set up, and I'm like, okay, I need to do something to ward our router because people never think about they'll ward their house. They don't do anything about their internet and don't think about how the internet is this big channel of energy coming into your space. So I'm like, okay, I need to ward it, but I don't have like any of my crystals. I don't have any, you know, I don't even have any of my crafting tools so that I could make something. So what I ended up doing is I'm like, okay, let's get back to fundamentals. And I went out into the yard and I looked around and I found a rock that resonated with me. I'm like, okay, this is Earth grounding energy. And then I found one, uh, you know, a big Sharpie that we had used to mark our boxes, and I put a sigil on it uh to uh bind rune for protection and place that by, you know, consec uh set it, uh did the intention on it, uh programmed it basically to protect the internet coming in, and I've set it up by the router. Um, you know, it cost me nothing. And I think that a lot of witches, uh, especially when they're new to the practice, they think that they need to buy all the stuff. And you don't. Go for a walk in your neighborhood. There I guarantee you there will be uh flowers and herbs and plants out there that uh you can use in your witchcraft. I guarantee that there will be stones, uh there will be uh twigs, sticks, uh for wands or for for marking uh runes on. There will be all sorts of natural material out there, but also don't neglect like your recycle bit. Cardboard, plastic, all of that, you know, can be reused. You can make runes out of a set of runes out of cardboard, you can reuse metal uh for stuff like that. I have a whole book that I talked about reusing items for making craft items. Um all of this to say that you don't have to spend any money. Look at your spice rack in your pantry. All of those spices there, they all have magical implications that you can use. So don't feel uh tools are helpful in honing and focusing our intention, but you don't need them in order to practice magic.

Jenny 34:02

I love that so much. I've totally gonna ward my router. I've never thought about that because like the house is secure. I like work with the phones and the computers, but never did it cross my mind like this energy is coming into my house, and I did not do anything about that. I love that. That's genius. And yeah, Raechel has a bunch of other books. She has Magic Month by Month, The Natural Home, Home Wheel of the Year, The Scent of Lemon and Rosemary, So Witchy, The Witch's Wardrobe and Yulecraft. And big, you're like a big DIY upcycling queen, which I think is so cool and so useful. And I love that. And so I just want to add, too, for people listening, go outside, do all those things, and then also make a list. I have an a perpetual thrift list, and so I will just be like silver chalice, and it'll be on my list for years. But one day I might get lucky at an estate sale at the half-off day and find it for the dollar that I'm willing to spend. And I have it. And it doesn't have to be like you don't need to get all the things today. Like let yourself have a wish list and just explore and look and search and make your own things. It's more powerful. I love the idea of making runes with cardboard. I made mine out of stones from the yard.

Raechel 35:22

Yeah, perfect. I made a set out of acorns. Oh, wow. Uh you don't neglect, like, I love the idea of thrifting. Don't neglect uh dollar stores. Like, go to your Dollar Tree and get your candles from there. They don't have to be because what you're gonna do is you're gonna be setting your intention and uh putting your magic into them to begin with. So it doesn't matter where they come from. If you're thrifting and you're worried about energies clinging to them, cleanse them. Give them a good smoke cleanse or a sound cleanse before you use them. That's perfectly okay.

Creativity As The Engine Of Magic

GDC 36:03

I love that because you know, eerie, even just irregardless of somebody's financial budget, being creative with witchcraft, there is a question in there. Okay, so here I have a question for you, Raechel. What is the connection between this creativity and witchcraft? How is it when you are being creative with your tools and even finding your tools, how does that even impact witchcraft?

Raechel 36:38

Okay, so crafting and witchcraft both involve intentionally transmuting uh uh items or energy from one thing to another. So if you're crafting, you're taking that clay, you're taking that fabric, and you are turning it into a finished idea. You're putting your intention into it. With witchcraft, you're casting your spell, you're taking your intention, you're taking if you're using tools, you're using herbs or candles or crystals, and you're transmuting the energy from that into your finished idea of what you're trying to accomplish in the world. So uh be and being a witch, you have to be creative. You cannot not be creative if you're casting a spell that like the two are uh entwined. And so when um I started off back in 2008, I got divorced and I had a four-year-old daughter. I'd been out of the job market for four years, and this was 2008 when everything was falling apart. Procession.

GDC 37:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sigils Made Simple

Raechel 37:49

Yeah, so I had to do something to support me and my daughter until at least she went off to school. Uh, and so what I did is I started sewing for friends. Uh, I was I had a bunch of friends in LARP, which is live action role play. So it's like Dungeons and Dragons, but you dress up as your character. Um and I started sewing costuming for them, and that's and I started sewing for other people, and that's uh so I spent many years um supporting myself uh financially through this crafting, and I incorporated my magic into that. I would do things like when I was cutting out patterns, I would use pins with green uh heads so that I could get that money magic and that prosperity magic into it. I would mark sigils on my sewing machines, I would um choose fabrics for certain projects based on what correspondences I knew about them. And so it has always been for me that this idea of being creative and making things is uh intimately uh involved with my magic and vice versa.

Jenny 39:12

Raechel, you've mentioned a sigil twice, if you wouldn't mind just quickly telling people what that is and what that is.

Raechel 39:20

Yeah, sigils are um symbols, and you can use any kind of symbol uh that basically you pour your magic intention into, and then it is a physical embodiment of that intention and helps use that uh send that spell work out into the world. So um, like I use uh bind runes often, which are runes that are combinations of runes that have special meanings, but um there's a lot of sigils are kind of a bit of chaos magic. Um came out from chaos magic. There's a lot of different uh uh instructions online on how to make sigils. Um one person that I really like and who I always recommend is uh Laura Tempest uh Zakroff. I think that's her name. Uh she does uh she has a whole book on sigil magic, and her sigils uh you know take symbols that we all know, like hearts and circles, and that have their own correspondences and put them together in this. So it's a very easy bit of magic that you can do um that you can then mark items and use that to cast your magic spell.

Jenny 40:47

Thank you. And it costs nothing.

Raechel 40:50

It costs nothing, yeah, exactly.

Jenny 40:53

I love that.

GDC 40:54

I absolutely love that. So is there anything else, Jenny, that you wanted to that you had um as far as what you wanted to dive into with the book or any questions for Raechel?

Coaching Patreon And How To Work

Jenny 41:08

Yeah, actually it's uh unrelated to the book, but also related. Raechel mentioned that she works with people and this book was part of like uh working with her own child and then also teaching others. So can you talk to us about like how people can work with you and like workshops that you do and things like that?

GDC 41:26

Oh yeah, and don't don't forget to tell us all about your Patreon. Oh yes. Thank you.

Raechel 41:34

Um, yes, so I just started Patreon um where what I like to do is I like to help people with their magical practice make, you know, especially people are like, I don't know, I've gotten into magic, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know, I I I'm confused, I I I don't know where to start. That's where I like to come in and help people. My again, my um slant or or my focus is on helping people make their magic personal. So uh to identify like what kind of magic they like to do, what resonates with them, what uh elements do they feel most comfortable working with? What kind of magic do they feel most comfortable working with? And putting together a plan of okay, here's what your magic is gonna look like. This is what you're gonna do. We're gonna make you some actionable uh activities that you can do. So I launched my Patreon, and that allows people, um, there's a couple different tiers. One of them is a coaching tier where every month you'll get a half an hour that we get together on Zoom or uh Google Hangouts or on the phone and we talk about your magical goals. Um, I also do coaching, which uh I have coaching for that where you can sign up for if you don't feel like you want to put in you you don't want the commitment of a monthly thing. You can just we can just do coaching one-on-one on individual time slots. Um, but that's what I want to do. I want to help people be comfortable in their magic, be confident in their magic, um, feel like what they're doing is seeing results instead of sitting there with a book and you know, my book or anybody else's and being like, I don't know if what I did worked, and I don't know if this actually is how I want to practice magic.

GDC 43:37

I love that www.ideorhythmatic.com where you can find Raechel. Did I say that correctly?

Raechel 43:49

It's ideorhythmic. It's a word that means living by one's own life patterns.

GDC 43:56

You can't do better than that. And follow on Follow on Instagram at ideorhythmic. Rhythmic. Rhythmic. Yep. Ideorhythmic. Now it'll be stuck. It'll be stuck in your head. Ideorhythmic. Ideorhythmic. Exactly. I absolutely love it. And I love that you what does it mean again, following your own?

Raechel 44:22

Living living in living according to one's own life patterns. So you have the idio, which is self, and rhythmic, which is patterns. It is a term that is often used for uh certain types of monks who uh set up their um ritual and based on their own uh it's usually for monks who are living by themselves. It's a term that I ran into years and years ago, and I was like, yes, this is this is how I'm living my life, is not via anybody else's uh schedule or patterns. I'm living it on my own terms.

What Lies Beyond This Life

GDC 45:05

Brilliant. I it's brilliant. I mean, that to me is like Nuff said that's what she's all about, right? This is what Raechel is all about. You know, Jenny, do you want to ask her the final question that we always ask our guests?

Jenny 45:23

Yes, I am excited. So our the podcast is Belief Being in Beyond. And so we like to ask the open-ended question: what do you think lies beyond?

Raechel 45:35

Oh, that's a really good question. Um, I personally my belief is we're all energy. It's all energy. So right now, the people that we are right now and the things that we see, the things that we interact with is just a manifestation of that energy. So I believe that beyond that is more energy, and that when we are no longer in this physical form, when things are no longer that physical manifestation or expression of the energy, the energy just becomes something else. We we become some other physical expression. Um and it doesn't take into account, it's not uh ego-driven, so it's not like we are going to be the same people that we were before. It's not even guaranteed that we will be people again. Uh it's a very big universe. I believe that there are life on other planets, and perhaps our energy becomes uh something else on another planet, and I think that that for me that's what makes the most sense.

GDC 46:50

I love it. That makes perfect sense to me, and now I'm like, what planet do I want to be a part of? There's always something more here on Belief Being and Beyond. I absolutely love it. Is there anything else that we that is burning that you want to kind of tell the listener, the ones who pick up your book? People, this is available at your shops, at your library, at your local shops, A Witch Is and uh by Raechel Henderson. What would you like to say to your listeners, to our listeners, to your readers?

Raechel 47:29

Um, I just want to end with again reiterating it's okay. How you practice your magic is okay. Uh again, as long as you aren't uh harming either yourself, other people, other things, as long as you are being true to yourself and staying true to your ethics, how you practice is okay. And I think that it's important in this day and age to hear that.

GDC 48:03

I agree, I agree, Raechel. Thank you so, so much. Not only just for being on the show and I love your energy, it's so great, but also for the work that you're putting out in the world and the empowerment that you are giving to people um with your work. So anyway, you guys, if this makes sense, follow Raechel at ideoric ideorhythmic. Ideorhythmic. Follow Raechel at ideorhythmic. See, I got it. No, I I absolutely love it. And of course, like, subscribe, share, share with those who you believe are gonna get something from this because we're doing this to empower you to be your best witch self, best magical self, best authentic self on purpose. Thank you so much.

Raechel 48:59

Thank you for having me.

GDC 49:00

This was awesome.