Q&A: Navigating Rituals, Spiritual Blocks, and Cord Cutting

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Episode Summary

In this episode, we're diving deep into answering some of your burning questions about spirituality and rituals. From keeping accountable to your rituals, witchy things we want to explore but haven't yet, to why you might struggle to connect with the divine and much more!

We also address common concerns, such as feeling spiritually inadequate, and shed light on practices like cord cutting—how it's done and its efficacy. Trust us you’ll want to stay tuned in for that conversation.

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✨ Demystify Magic instagram: @demystifymagic

✨ Molly’s instagram: @m0dizzl3

✨ Madison’s instagrams: @madisonlillian.jpeg and @healinghedgewitch  and @shopspellcrafter

🥳 Submit your questions/topic requests here: https://forms.gle/t8iwjYbA6Re4WTqN6

✨ Demystify Magic instagram: @demystifymagic

✨ Molly’s instagram: @m0dizzl3

✨ Madison’s instagrams: @madisonlillian.jpeg and @healinghedgewitch  and @shopspellcrafter

🥳 Submit your questions/topic requests here: https://forms.gle/t8iwjYbA6Re4WTqN6

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🕯 Shop spell candles and oils at Spellcrafter https://shopspellcrafter.com 

🔮 Shop magical tools to enhance your practice, use code MAGIC to get 20% off your order: https://thehealinghedgewitch.com/

🔮 Join the waitlist for Reiki 1: The Science of Self-Healing: https://www.mollydonlan.com/reikiwait

🔮 Download the FREE Manifest with Reiki Ritual: https://www.mollydonlan.com/manifestwithreiki

🕯 Shop spell candles and oils at Spellcrafter https://shopspellcrafter.com 

🔮 Shop magical tools to enhance your practice, use code MAGIC to get 20% off your order: https://thehealinghedgewitch.com/

Transcript

Transcript

0:01Welcome to Demystify Magic with Molly and Madison.I'm Molly, a former skeptic turned full time energy healer and teacher.And I'm Madison, a born and raised witch running my family's crystal shop.And we're here to explore all things woo through the lens of both science and spirituality, so that you can find the moments of magic in your everyday life and create an intentional spiritual.0:19Practice.So if that's what you're into, find a cozy spot, take a deep breath, and let's demystify some magic.Howdy Doody, friends.Howdy doody, friends we are.Doing one of my favorite things to do today, we're doing another Q and AI love doing these because I love that we get to learn so much about what interests you guys and something.0:43I found this is the easiest way for us to get new episodes because we start talking about something and we're like, oh, we could talk about this for the next 45 minutes.We need to table this.Yeah, I have a lot more to say about this.We should probably make a whole episode.Yes.And so we are doing AQ and A today you guys sent in really really good questions.1:02I feel like we always we're getting to a point now where it's like really hard to choose what we're gonna talk about.So thank you for all of your lovely questions and I will shout out.Molly posted a picture of her dog Hercules as the as the photo to ask for questions on Instagram.1:18If you don't follow us on Instagram what do you should maybe try to you should do that.Yeah.At D Mystify magic.That is where we will often ask for questions.We also have a forum that is in the show notes But Molly, to ask for questions for this episode posted a picture of Hercules and the first response that we got.1:35I shit you not.Was is Hercules the cutest dog in the world?I think so, and I just love that.I just want you to know I responded to that person directly and I said, I don't know, it's a toss up between him and Woody.Did you really?That's funny.I just wanted to to give that person props because that was an excellent response and we're not.1:55We won't be answering it because the answer is obvious.Yeah, it's a it's a toss up.But first, Molly, what's your magic moment this week?My magic moment is so my bestie, my bestie.That's not Madison, my bestie that lives near me, my local bestie.2:13My local bestie.My local bestie has she got promoted recently and so she was needing to move across the country in like a month.And I have been avoiding my feelings around it because I'm pretending it's not happening and it's really healthy, by the way, to do that.2:33You should definitely do that.You should try it.Yeah, yeah.And so I reached out to her the other day and I was like really, really missing her and feeling like, Oh my God, we have less than a month together And all in my feels about it.And she's casually was like, oh, did I tell you I got an extension on my relocation?2:52I'm not moving until November.And I was like, thank you universe.Thank you, universe.So now we get the summer together, which is so fun, 'cause that's our favorite time to hang.And yeah, it just felt like a little magical treat.Little little treat.Magic happened without me even needing to ask for it.3:11We love a local bestie staying local bestie.Yeah, I'm hoping it just perpetually gets extended, 'cause she also doesn't want to move.So maybe we can all collectively manifest that my local bestie stays local.I can't have two besties across the country.Trust me, as someone with two besties across the country, it's rough.3:30It's we're in the trenches out here.Yeah, it's rough.I can't handle it.What was your magic moment?Mine is also local bestie.OK.I have a really good friend who I feel like I have like it is such a blessing that we kind of work together because the only people who see me these days are people who I work with.3:55It like, just it's a very busy season.Spellcrafter, you know, getting a store open, it takes a lot of work and I have been working hard and I haven't been able to see anyone that I love unless they, like, are at the store, which I never, I like never ask people up, you know, like, that feels weird.4:14I have a local bestie named Abby who I love very dearly.And I haven't seen her in months.And she lives like maybe 10 minutes from me, like it's bad.And I miss her so much.And we'll like routinely, like, once a week, check in and be like, I still miss you.4:30Like, how are you?What's going on?I see.You know, one day I'll emerge from this cocoon that I live in and go out and see the world again.But there was a foreigner.Sorry, I couldn't.4:45There was a what?I almost said there was a Fine parts festival, so there was.So there's a Fine Arts festival in time in the little the small town I live in.I'm always laughing at me so hard because before this, I said.5:01Fine parts, you know, we're keeping that in Lily.Keep that, keep that.The Madisonisms.So the fine part.Festival.There was a Fine Arts festival.These don't disrespect these artists.5:19There was a Fine Arts festival in the small town I live in and my boyfriend Drew and I went and all week I meant to text Abby and ask her if she was coming to the Fine Arts festival all week and all week.I forgot, I would like go to do it and then, you know, like there's Adm or there's an e-mail or so like in.5:40My mom.I just like I.Yes, the ADHD was so bad and in my.And then so Sunday morning, Drew and I are getting ready to go to the Fine Parts Festival.And I'm like, so mad at myself that I didn't text Abby.It would have been so easy for us to meet up.My mom is volunteering at this festival, right?5:58She's checking people in.She texts me.I'm about to walk out the door.She texts me.Abby and her husband just got here.Yes, You should text her.I'm running to my phone.I'm like, see you in a minute.Oh, yay.6:14So we got to hang out all day.It was lovely.She, like, had never met Drew.That is like how sporadically we've been able to hang out over the past few months and so it was just very exciting, like they got to hang out.It was the best.6:29I was so happy and I got to go to the Fine Arts Festival.And enjoy some fine parts.Some fine fine parts.Love that, love that for you.Thank you.All right.I'm just kidding.I'm gonna divert from the fine parts thing and get right into the questions.6:48I'm not giving you any more energy.How?How do you hold yourself accountable for staying consistent with your rituals?I don't so.7:03Thank God, that's also my answer.Oh perfect.My, my thought is that if I'm struggling to stay consistent with my rituals, the ritual needs to change to fit that season of my life better.So like you just said, Madison, you're in like such a crazy, busy time of your life and your business that your rituals have to look different, right?7:28If you try to do the same ritual that you did like a year ago, you're just going to set yourself up for failure.That's kind of the way that I work.And especially like when you have a brain like ours, like with the ADHD, if your consistency and your ritual starts fading out, it's because your brain needs novelty in order to stay consistent.7:50And so I'm constantly switching up my rituals.Right now, I'm really into mundane magic.You probably know that if you follow me on Instagram, my rituals have so much to do with like, you know, I'm using my moon water to mop my floors.You know, I'm, I'm lighting a spell candle to convince me to clean my kitchen.8:07That's that's what my ritual looks like right now.In the past, it hasn't looked like that.It's looked like much more, you know, sitting down and lighting the candle and holding the crystal and connecting with my guides and all of that.And I might go back to that, I don't know.But right now I'm really enjoying just like finding ritual in the mundane and making the chores that I normally put off into magic so that I kind of like feed two worms with one apple, you know?8:34Yeah.I think for me, if my spiritual practice is something that I have to be held accountable to, I don't want it.Mm hmm.I don't want another like.Another check on your To Do List.Yeah.For me, it's like I have to be held accountable with like going to the gym and mopping my floors and you know, making like, I don't know, taking the cat to the vet, whatever it is, I don't know.9:00Those words don't compute for me with spiritual practice.And so if the question is like, how do I create a practice that is consistent in my life, it's creating a practice that you don't feel the need to be held accountable to.9:17Yeah.And I think that is a part of like becoming so, like spirituality, becoming so ingrained in who you are that it's no longer, it's no longer like a habit or A to do list.It's like an instinct.It's like a part of who you are.9:32And so I think it's finding those things that light you up in that way.Yeah, yeah.And I think a really good episode, if you're like, I don't even know where to start with, this is one of our first episodes.It's called Magic in Minutes, and it sort of lays the groundwork for how we started to do this and our like beliefs around what our spiritual practices look like.9:53That you can maybe consider exploring with curiosity or even adopting if it works for you.But that episode we talk more about?Like how you can set your rituals up to be consistent without needing to hold yourself accountable.Or like, stress yourself out in the process.10:08I don't know how you have such a good memory for like our lexicon of episodes.I don't even wanna think about like the 1st 10 episodes that we put out.I don't know her.OK, next one.What's something witchy you want to explore but haven't yet?10:26I both love and hate this question because like the big answer is both, I don't know and everything.Yeah, I feel.Very much in this place of like, I want to learn about all facets of spiritual practices.Specifically, like, I would like to, not for the sake of my own practice, I do want to say, but I want to know more about other cultures and the craft in other cultures.10:51That's something that has, like, made me feel kind of nervous in my tummy over the past few years.And I really do have such a curiosity.And as we're like, try.So at Spellcrafter, we have this library that I mentioned with my flooring, my flooring magic moment, last episode.11:09You'll remember.It's huge.It's this big, big library and we've got to fill it.And so I've just been like going through all of the, like, lexicons and all of the catalogs of all of the book publishers that we work with.11:26And it's really like ignited this thing in me of like, oh, I want to learn and know everything.I want to, I want to have, like, I want to see how other people do things.And so I know that that's like not really an answer because the IT feels like that question is more so like what do I want to add to my practice?11:43But really what has been a focus for me right now in terms of like true exploration is I just want to soak up information.I just want to know how everybody experiences everything.And I want to learn about, like I want to learn more about the Greek pantheon and I want to learn more about deities across all.12:01Like, I think that that is so cool because I think the interconnection of how so many different cultures have come to so many similar ideas and ideals really do like, shape how I see the world.Mm hmm.And that is something that I really want to explore right now.12:18I love that.I love that.I think for me it's so interesting because I they're definitely like I'm, I'm one of those people that when I feel interested in it, I just go down the rabbit hole.Like I don't not explore, like it's just it.It just takes over.12:34And if I haven't explored something, it's because I intentionally don't want to explore it.Like for instance, I'm I'm fascinated by light language.I don't want to know more about it because I know myself.And I know that once I start exploring something, I go down the rabbit hole and then I can't stop until I feel like I've mastered it.12:53And in order to master it, I have to teach it because I learn through teaching and so light language.I have a Reiki master that I see for sessions and she does light language and I don't understand it.I think it's real Woo.I'm sure, I'm sure there's some basis to it that I don't know of 'cause I don't understand how it works.13:10I don't understand what it is.All I know is that my body really responds to it and I don't want to learn more because I don't want to teach it.And so for me, I I guess I'm going to take this kind of similar that you did of like what's something witchy that we're currently exploring?13:27And for me, I have really been enjoying exploring the intersection between feminism and witchcraft.But in particular, really looking at intersectional feminism and the intersect with witchcraft has been really interesting to me.13:44So I I studied women's studies in college.I have a minor in it.I would have majored in it if they let me, but they wouldn't.And so we've talked in the past how I have a background in social justice work and equality work and anti violence work.And I'm really interested in how I'm seeing like the threads of that work and the threads of what I learned through college and through working with survivors of sexual violence, weaving similar webs into the history of witchcraft.14:11And it reminds me of when I first started learning about energy work and I started to see like the weavings of energy work on the nervous system weaving into the impact of trauma on the nervous system that I was experiencing in like my work.And so I see this as like this cool kind of like web that I'm untangling for myself that I know is gonna like bring 2 parts of my interest together and two parts of like myself together really.14:38And I'm excited.I'm already seeing like the threads of it weaving into how I approach the practice and how I teach the practice and everything.So that's what I've been learning.It's just like the history of feminism and in witchcraft and those crossovers.What I love so much about you and our friendship is that we have such same different ADHD.14:59And so you go down rabbit holes and you learn through teaching.And so then I learn whatever you're learning because you are, as you're learning it, teaching it to me.Because I am very much like AI feel so overwhelmed by all the things that I want a rabbit hole down, then I like halfway rabbit down, rabbit hole down like 6 things and then I can never like fully get where I wanna go.15:22Yeah, and so you just rabbit hole on something that I'm interested in and then I get to learn about it through you.It's great.I love it.All right, Next up.Do you ever have times where you feel like no matter what, you can't connect with the divine?15:39I I wanna answer this with not an answer.OK.Because like, yes and no.I think when I first started practicing, I would say yes wholeheartedly.15:55But what I've learned through my practice is that is to release expectations of how that connection looks and feels.And so now I feel like I can connect with the Divine when I'm washing dishes, or I can connect with the Divine when I'm driving, or I can connect with the divine when I'm like at the dentist.16:12It just doesn't always look the same or look like what I quote UN quote, think it's supposed to, which I feel like is how I want to answer this question is like if you're struggling to connect with the Divine, practice curiosity and practice releasing expectations of what your connection should look like.16:33Or does look like anything can be a connection to Divine.It doesn't have to be like a super deep, intense channeling session.It could just be like finding a little blip of joy in like, drinking your morning coffee.I love that I am gonna give a real answer.16:51Great.Love that.Because I had a conversation with my friend Anthony, who also is the manager at Spellcrafter, who last time I referenced him on the podcast, he listened and sent me a selfie of like the moment when he heard his own name.So Anthony, if you're listening, I expect that again.Me too.Me too.17:06Sorry.Me too.Send it to me too.Now that Anthony and I are friends, we've met in real life.Now we're friends.I want to be a part of this.Molly Van Anthony at the Soft Open and it's so fun watching all my friends interact with each other because it is just like, oh, I'm I'm just, I'm just coordinating a perfect group of people that I love.17:25And all are similar enough that, you know, we all just hang out and it's the best.But we were having a conversation, 'cause he's a medium, and we were having a conversation about grief and how a lot of what he does is kind of explaining this concept of the people.17:42And I I think this is, I'm gonna talk about it within the concept, like, or within the context of losing someone.But I do think it translates to spirit in general.Yeah.The people that you love, who you have lost, are with you always.Grief creates a block that makes it harder for you to see them and so you have to process your own grief before you can see what's right in front of you.18:09And I think that this can apply not just like with the big, you know, life altering grief, but with things like doubt, with self criticism, with these like you know, these expectations that we put on ourselves.18:28So maybe I am tying a little bit into your non answer, but this like being hard on yourself in this way I think creates that same block.I've really been thinking about this a lot and Anthony talked about this like maybe two or three days ago.It's really like changed a lot of how I see things and how I see spirit and how I see like my own relationship because I have felt like, like the cord's been cut between me and abilities.18:59You know, when I, I had a really rough time about 18 months, two years ago, right when I moved to Florida, that I was like, I have no, I have no practice, I have nothing left, you know?And I felt like I was like losing that part of me, that there was something in between me and and spirit.19:20And now I can see it with fresh eyes of like, oh, that was grief.And I think that sometimes, I don't know, I don't want to say this in a way I don't want to use the words pulls away.I don't want to say spirit pulls away, 'cause I don't believe that's true.19:35That's just the closest words that I have for it.I think that spirit can create distance or perceived distance when there are things that we need to work through in our human brain.Yeah, not to dive down the science rabbit hole, but here we go.19:55I'm putting.On my seat belt.I'm just thinking about, like, how the brain works and how the nervous system works.And when you're experiencing grief, when you're experiencing times of great fear, anxiety, stress, scarcity, any of that.And you're in that survival response of your nervous system, right?20:12Your brain doesn't know the difference between the grief of, like moving across the country, like 118 of your life and a tiger chasing you.And so if you were literally running from a tiger, you would not.Spend that time connecting with spirit you would be running for your life And so that like often times I think the block is because there's a part of us that's protecting, right.20:39And until we feel safe, we're not going to be able to connect.And that's why I always lean on like the curiosity and releasing expectations.Because expectations, when we don't meet them, become another tiger.And expectations and curiosity, they can't coexist.20:55Judgement and curiosity can't coexist.So the pathway out of that tiger response is curiosity.I love that.I love that we just wove into each other.Mm hmm.I.Love that about us.We're so we're so In Sync.We're so aligned.Cute, cute, cute, cute.21:11OK, next one.So this was this wasn't a question, but there's a question mark at the end, so we're gonna we're gonna answer it.I feel like there's a theme to all these questions.I know.I think there's an unspoken What do I do at the beginning of the?Sentence Yeah, so it says I've become spiritual recently, but I feel like I'm not doing enough of spiritual stuff.21:29Which I'm gonna say to you, rewind about 3 minutes and listen again.That expectation will kill your spiritual practice.Mm hmm.Yeah, yeah.And there's no like, there's no rubric, right?21:48There's no gold stars.Nobody's grading your spiritual practice, right?Like I just said, I'm connecting with spirit while I'm doing the dishes.Like, sometimes that is my only spiritual practice, you know?And so your spiritual practice looks like however it needs to, it should serve you right not to pleat you.22:11I'm raising my hand.I don't know why I'm raising my hand.I just was.Yeah, I don't know either.I made a connection in my brain.I'm also high fiving you.I think a lot of this idea of like needing to do enough is leftover Christianity ingrained in US.22:27I was gonna say capitalism.Also capitalism, but specifically the like, I when you were like, there's no rubric.And I don't know if this is true for this person, I don't know this person's past, but I think for a lot of people, like, we repackage the rules of the systems that we've left and make them fit the new systems that we are living in.22:45And so, you know, famously, I don't know a ton about Christianity, but I do know that the idea is when you die, someone takes a look at everything that you've done in your life and decides if you did enough, if you're good enough, to go to heaven.Yeah.And nobody is doing that for your spiritual practice.23:04Like no one is looking at, no one's tallying up how many spells you did, how many times you drew a little pentacle in your coffee cup, how many, how many sigils you made to decide at the end of your life that you did enough to say that you had a spiritual practice or did enough to, you know, whatever it is that the goal?23:23Like, I don't even know what the goal is.I don't even know what the, what the Gold Star that you would get is, but nobody is tallying up that thing.And that feels very much like repackaged.You know, I have to do enough to be a good Christian.Or a good student.Or a good child.23:39You know what's so interesting is, at least for me and my spirituality and my connection to spirit, I feel most spiritual when I'm actively deprogramming that.23:55Oh, like, I think that is because I always talk about how I I, for me, in my spiritual practice, is like a path home to the true self, to my authentic self.And my authentic self is not judging how much I'm doing, is not trying to do the most, is not trying to make the aesthetic, is not trying to be perfect.24:18Get the Gold Star to all the things right.And So what if if this is something that you're struggling with?What if you saw your spiritual practice as an opportunity to let go of this programming that is so ingrained in us from Christianity but also from capitalism, right.24:37Like I'll sleep when I'm dead?Mentality.Like you have to do the most.Like we thrive off productivity.Like, you know, bring home the bacon, but also in school, right?Like you have to do the most.Like even creative writing.You get graded on, which doesn't make sense.24:52You know what I mean?Art class.You get a grade and and you've never had this opportunity to just explore with curiosity what feels good to you, what feels like enough to you, and let go of expectations outside of that.What if you saw your spiritual practice as a deprogramming of that?25:12Oof, Molly with the hard hitters.Hey.This is why I love when we do these kinds of episodes, 'cause this is where I feel like I learned the most from you.And there's like a really, I don't know, there's this great opportunity to talk about things that we maybe, like, wouldn't get to talk about.25:30I just have so much fun when we do these.I know, I like.I like how all of these are like kind of.The theme is like there's a little bit of a string of like not self doubt but like unsuredness.And I feel like the thread for all of these questions is like, you get to choose so like you know, put your pants on and say this is enough for me.25:56Really.And also the thread is everything's OK.Everything's fine, yeah.Yeah.And then our final question we're gonna cover, which I feel like Madison, you and I have talked about.We have so many hot takes on this and we've talked about doing a whole episode on it for so long and we just keep kicking the can down the road.26:13So if you listen to this and you want us to do a whole episode, please slide into our DMS.But the question is cord cutting.How do you do it and how does it work?I think the idea of a cord cutting is why this podcast exists.Oh, OK.I remember it.26:29I remember the day that we talked about this for the first time.So it's like ingrained in my memory because we were so incensed, like sending voice memos back and forth.We have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it that have pushed us from making the episode.So when somebody asked a question about it, I was like, I'm all in.26:47We got to talk about it at least a little bit to see if what people, you know what the vibe is.I need a vibe check on a cord cutting vibe check.So a cord cutting is a spell that is traditionally done with two candles and string wrapped around the 2 candles and it's meant to sever a connection between 2 individuals.27:09It's most often done by wrapping the string around the two candles, putting them on a fire safe plate.They're connected, you know, like the string is, they're like on 2 and I don't know if I'm gonna describe this accurately so you might wanna just Google it.But 2 candles on opposite sides of a plate string, attaching them through the middle, you light the 2 candles.27:30You let them burn down until the string catches fire and the string catches and you know breaks the bond.And you'll see.A lot of times on TikTok people will do like analyzing how it plays out.You know of like what candle represents what person and what's happening and blah blah blah.27:47That's how you do it.That's how it works.I don't know how I feel about them specifically from the place of they are what I see most often, somebody selling as a service.Mm hmm.Yeah, it's outsourced a lot.28:03Mm hmm.I feel pretty neutral about doing it on your own.How do you feel about doing it on your own?Yeah, I think the outsourcing is where we get the ick.Yeah, And I think that, you know, somebody said something to me once when I I was at a point where I was kind of like considering doing one and like someone who I look up to a lot and has done a lot for me.28:24And my personal practice and my craft looked at me and said some chords are there for a reason.And it was like a gut punch, but it was like the gut punch that I needed in that moment of someone to tell me, you know, like, I think that cord cuttings as an idea, they're, they feel very spiritual to me in the fact that they are so symbolic.28:45Like, I I understand them as a need.Like sometimes something feels so big that I need to see it break.I need to see myself removed.Mm hmm.And so I do feel neutral about doing them for yourself.29:01But I do wanna just give that disclaimer because that was what I needed to hear in that moment.I don't think it was right for me in that time of my life.And so if it's something that you're considering doing, just hear some Chords are there for a reason and that doesn't have to apply to you.29:17Yeah, but if you feel like it does, you know, noodle on it, sit with it a little bit.Yeah, I'll tell you why I feel apprehensive about outsourcing something like this.And it's because if you've listened to this pod for a while, you know, I have background in working with survivors of sexual violence.29:35Also I have a background working with survivors of domestic violence.And part of the work of advocacy in that, with those folks who've experienced those things, is helping them regain their power and control over their life because it's been taken from them, right.29:53That's what abuse is, right?Like someone taking power and control from another person and not allowing them to have it.And so as an advocate, we had very strict boundaries around.We don't tell people what to do, we show them.30:08We lay out all the options like a menu, and we walk through each one and we support whatever they choose, no matter what it is, no matter what I think about it, no matter what anyone else thinks about it.And the reason for that is because if I tell you you should do this, I'm taking more power from you, I'm doing more harm than good.30:29And so I think I see a lot of cord cuttings done for people who are leaving abusive situations or in abusive situations.And I feel really hesitant about, like, whether or not those are doing more good or more harm.30:51Because if you are outsourcing that and if someone is saying like, I can't, I can't break this connection on my own.I need someone to do.I need to pay someone to do it.And the other person is saying, yes, you need to pay me to do it.Here's all of my marketing.Here's why you need to pay me to do it instead of doing it on your own.31:09Then it's just handing your power from one person to another person or someone else now taking your power and telling you you don't have the autonomy to do it on your own.You don't have the power to do it on your own, which is frankly not true.And I think that is gross.31:25And I am like notoriously like very against spiritual teachers who don't consistently give the power back to the person that they're supporting.Because for me, like I always live my and you know, take, take what resonates, leave the rest, right.31:42But I always live as a spiritual teacher, as my my job, my role is to help connect to you with your own inner teacher.And so I've I very, I have very strict boundaries around like whatever I do, whether it's Reiki training, whether it's a one-on-one session, whether it's reading, it's always in putting the power back in your hands.32:02And I don't know if that's just like my value system and my background coming through.But I think that's why I get the ick around like seeing people selling cord cuttings or seeing people outsourcing cord cuttings, because it just feels like a transfer of that power and not a reclaiming of that power, which really is like how the spell works, why it's so powerful.32:25Yeah.And I think that's why it's gotten such a bad Rep for me that it just like in general now gives me the ick, mm hmm, a little bit.And I think it's just because it's like one of the very few spells that I see marketed.Yeah.And specifically, it is so easy to do.32:41Yeah.And it's always marketed towards vulnerability.That's the thing that I don't like.It's always marketed towards like the person who's experiencing abuse or the person who's experiencing, you know, stalking.I see a lot of like stalking cord cuttings, which is just like.I don't like that my thing is in that there's no cord there in my opinion.33:02Sorry, I'm gonna now I'm upset.Please, in my in my opinion, with a like the whole point.Not the whole point.No, I don't.The whole point of a stalker like stalkers.There's no cord.Yeah, yeah.OK.If we, if we.That's a fixation.33:18Yes, but also if we say that, hey, Madison, you have a cord with your stalker, you need to pay me to remove it, now you're getting blamed.That is victim blaming.That is saying that you are responsible for that stalker's behavior, which is frankly not.True, That is giving.33:36Like when you walk it.Like when a when a woman approached like not a woman.I don't know.It's always been a woman.It's giving.Me.What was she wearing?When someone it's giving, when someone walks up to you and says, Oh my God, you've been cursed, I can see it all over you.Give me $20 and I'll take it off.33:51Yes, yes.And at the same time, on like an institutional, societal level, it's giving.Well, did you say no?Did you cut the cord?Did you cut the cord?Right like that is not OK we.34:06And I only see them marketed to women.Yes, yes.So anyways, we have lots of feelings on this.So if you'd like a whole episode, and I would love to talk about how to do one on your own.There'll be a lot of shouting in that episode.34:22Just you.Know, I know.I'm really through talking about it.I'm like, Oh, my beef is not with cord cutting.No, my beef is with the bigger, bigger societal ramifications we have with spirituality being marketed in this way.Yeah.So if you want a whole episode, let us know.34:39Yeah, now I'm all riled up, yeah.If you agree with us, please slide into our DMS if you think we're totally off base.We are so open to hearing a different perspective.So again, we're not against cord cutting as a ritual.We just think it's gross the way that most people market it.And I'm not anti outsourcing spell work.34:56No.I am team delegation, you know.I am anti outsourcing your power.Yes.Yeah.Mic drop, See you next week.We love you very much.All right.See you next week.35:12Bye.Thanks for listening to Demystify Magic with Molly and Madison.If you want to learn more about us, you can find all our links in the show notes.We'd love to know what you think of today's episode, so drop us a review or give us a shout out on social media.And don't forget to let us know your magical moment of the week.35:28OK, love you.Bye.

0:01Welcome to Demystify Magic with Molly and Madison.I'm Molly, a former skeptic turned full time energy healer and teacher.And I'm Madison, a born and raised witch running my family's crystal shop.And we're here to explore all things woo through the lens of both science and spirituality, so that you can find the moments of magic in your everyday life and create an intentional spiritual.0:19Practice.So if that's what you're into, find a cozy spot, take a deep breath, and let's demystify some magic.Howdy Doody, friends.Howdy doody, friends we are.Doing one of my favorite things to do today, we're doing another Q and AI love doing these because I love that we get to learn so much about what interests you guys and something.0:43I found this is the easiest way for us to get new episodes because we start talking about something and we're like, oh, we could talk about this for the next 45 minutes.We need to table this.Yeah, I have a lot more to say about this.We should probably make a whole episode.Yes.And so we are doing AQ and A today you guys sent in really really good questions.1:02I feel like we always we're getting to a point now where it's like really hard to choose what we're gonna talk about.So thank you for all of your lovely questions and I will shout out.Molly posted a picture of her dog Hercules as the as the photo to ask for questions on Instagram.1:18If you don't follow us on Instagram what do you should maybe try to you should do that.Yeah.At D Mystify magic.That is where we will often ask for questions.We also have a forum that is in the show notes But Molly, to ask for questions for this episode posted a picture of Hercules and the first response that we got.1:35I shit you not.Was is Hercules the cutest dog in the world?I think so, and I just love that.I just want you to know I responded to that person directly and I said, I don't know, it's a toss up between him and Woody.Did you really?That's funny.I just wanted to to give that person props because that was an excellent response and we're not.1:55We won't be answering it because the answer is obvious.Yeah, it's a it's a toss up.But first, Molly, what's your magic moment this week?My magic moment is so my bestie, my bestie.That's not Madison, my bestie that lives near me, my local bestie.2:13My local bestie.My local bestie has she got promoted recently and so she was needing to move across the country in like a month.And I have been avoiding my feelings around it because I'm pretending it's not happening and it's really healthy, by the way, to do that.2:33You should definitely do that.You should try it.Yeah, yeah.And so I reached out to her the other day and I was like really, really missing her and feeling like, Oh my God, we have less than a month together And all in my feels about it.And she's casually was like, oh, did I tell you I got an extension on my relocation?2:52I'm not moving until November.And I was like, thank you universe.Thank you, universe.So now we get the summer together, which is so fun, 'cause that's our favorite time to hang.And yeah, it just felt like a little magical treat.Little little treat.Magic happened without me even needing to ask for it.3:11We love a local bestie staying local bestie.Yeah, I'm hoping it just perpetually gets extended, 'cause she also doesn't want to move.So maybe we can all collectively manifest that my local bestie stays local.I can't have two besties across the country.Trust me, as someone with two besties across the country, it's rough.3:30It's we're in the trenches out here.Yeah, it's rough.I can't handle it.What was your magic moment?Mine is also local bestie.OK.I have a really good friend who I feel like I have like it is such a blessing that we kind of work together because the only people who see me these days are people who I work with.3:55It like, just it's a very busy season.Spellcrafter, you know, getting a store open, it takes a lot of work and I have been working hard and I haven't been able to see anyone that I love unless they, like, are at the store, which I never, I like never ask people up, you know, like, that feels weird.4:14I have a local bestie named Abby who I love very dearly.And I haven't seen her in months.And she lives like maybe 10 minutes from me, like it's bad.And I miss her so much.And we'll like routinely, like, once a week, check in and be like, I still miss you.4:30Like, how are you?What's going on?I see.You know, one day I'll emerge from this cocoon that I live in and go out and see the world again.But there was a foreigner.Sorry, I couldn't.4:45There was a what?I almost said there was a Fine parts festival, so there was.So there's a Fine Arts festival in time in the little the small town I live in.I'm always laughing at me so hard because before this, I said.5:01Fine parts, you know, we're keeping that in Lily.Keep that, keep that.The Madisonisms.So the fine part.Festival.There was a Fine Arts festival.These don't disrespect these artists.5:19There was a Fine Arts festival in the small town I live in and my boyfriend Drew and I went and all week I meant to text Abby and ask her if she was coming to the Fine Arts festival all week and all week.I forgot, I would like go to do it and then, you know, like there's Adm or there's an e-mail or so like in.5:40My mom.I just like I.Yes, the ADHD was so bad and in my.And then so Sunday morning, Drew and I are getting ready to go to the Fine Parts Festival.And I'm like, so mad at myself that I didn't text Abby.It would have been so easy for us to meet up.My mom is volunteering at this festival, right?5:58She's checking people in.She texts me.I'm about to walk out the door.She texts me.Abby and her husband just got here.Yes, You should text her.I'm running to my phone.I'm like, see you in a minute.Oh, yay.6:14So we got to hang out all day.It was lovely.She, like, had never met Drew.That is like how sporadically we've been able to hang out over the past few months and so it was just very exciting, like they got to hang out.It was the best.6:29I was so happy and I got to go to the Fine Arts Festival.And enjoy some fine parts.Some fine fine parts.Love that, love that for you.Thank you.All right.I'm just kidding.I'm gonna divert from the fine parts thing and get right into the questions.6:48I'm not giving you any more energy.How?How do you hold yourself accountable for staying consistent with your rituals?I don't so.7:03Thank God, that's also my answer.Oh perfect.My, my thought is that if I'm struggling to stay consistent with my rituals, the ritual needs to change to fit that season of my life better.So like you just said, Madison, you're in like such a crazy, busy time of your life and your business that your rituals have to look different, right?7:28If you try to do the same ritual that you did like a year ago, you're just going to set yourself up for failure.That's kind of the way that I work.And especially like when you have a brain like ours, like with the ADHD, if your consistency and your ritual starts fading out, it's because your brain needs novelty in order to stay consistent.7:50And so I'm constantly switching up my rituals.Right now, I'm really into mundane magic.You probably know that if you follow me on Instagram, my rituals have so much to do with like, you know, I'm using my moon water to mop my floors.You know, I'm, I'm lighting a spell candle to convince me to clean my kitchen.8:07That's that's what my ritual looks like right now.In the past, it hasn't looked like that.It's looked like much more, you know, sitting down and lighting the candle and holding the crystal and connecting with my guides and all of that.And I might go back to that, I don't know.But right now I'm really enjoying just like finding ritual in the mundane and making the chores that I normally put off into magic so that I kind of like feed two worms with one apple, you know?8:34Yeah.I think for me, if my spiritual practice is something that I have to be held accountable to, I don't want it.Mm hmm.I don't want another like.Another check on your To Do List.Yeah.For me, it's like I have to be held accountable with like going to the gym and mopping my floors and you know, making like, I don't know, taking the cat to the vet, whatever it is, I don't know.9:00Those words don't compute for me with spiritual practice.And so if the question is like, how do I create a practice that is consistent in my life, it's creating a practice that you don't feel the need to be held accountable to.9:17Yeah.And I think that is a part of like becoming so, like spirituality, becoming so ingrained in who you are that it's no longer, it's no longer like a habit or A to do list.It's like an instinct.It's like a part of who you are.9:32And so I think it's finding those things that light you up in that way.Yeah, yeah.And I think a really good episode, if you're like, I don't even know where to start with, this is one of our first episodes.It's called Magic in Minutes, and it sort of lays the groundwork for how we started to do this and our like beliefs around what our spiritual practices look like.9:53That you can maybe consider exploring with curiosity or even adopting if it works for you.But that episode we talk more about?Like how you can set your rituals up to be consistent without needing to hold yourself accountable.Or like, stress yourself out in the process.10:08I don't know how you have such a good memory for like our lexicon of episodes.I don't even wanna think about like the 1st 10 episodes that we put out.I don't know her.OK, next one.What's something witchy you want to explore but haven't yet?10:26I both love and hate this question because like the big answer is both, I don't know and everything.Yeah, I feel.Very much in this place of like, I want to learn about all facets of spiritual practices.Specifically, like, I would like to, not for the sake of my own practice, I do want to say, but I want to know more about other cultures and the craft in other cultures.10:51That's something that has, like, made me feel kind of nervous in my tummy over the past few years.And I really do have such a curiosity.And as we're like, try.So at Spellcrafter, we have this library that I mentioned with my flooring, my flooring magic moment, last episode.11:09You'll remember.It's huge.It's this big, big library and we've got to fill it.And so I've just been like going through all of the, like, lexicons and all of the catalogs of all of the book publishers that we work with.11:26And it's really like ignited this thing in me of like, oh, I want to learn and know everything.I want to, I want to have, like, I want to see how other people do things.And so I know that that's like not really an answer because the IT feels like that question is more so like what do I want to add to my practice?11:43But really what has been a focus for me right now in terms of like true exploration is I just want to soak up information.I just want to know how everybody experiences everything.And I want to learn about, like I want to learn more about the Greek pantheon and I want to learn more about deities across all.12:01Like, I think that that is so cool because I think the interconnection of how so many different cultures have come to so many similar ideas and ideals really do like, shape how I see the world.Mm hmm.And that is something that I really want to explore right now.12:18I love that.I love that.I think for me it's so interesting because I they're definitely like I'm, I'm one of those people that when I feel interested in it, I just go down the rabbit hole.Like I don't not explore, like it's just it.It just takes over.12:34And if I haven't explored something, it's because I intentionally don't want to explore it.Like for instance, I'm I'm fascinated by light language.I don't want to know more about it because I know myself.And I know that once I start exploring something, I go down the rabbit hole and then I can't stop until I feel like I've mastered it.12:53And in order to master it, I have to teach it because I learn through teaching and so light language.I have a Reiki master that I see for sessions and she does light language and I don't understand it.I think it's real Woo.I'm sure, I'm sure there's some basis to it that I don't know of 'cause I don't understand how it works.13:10I don't understand what it is.All I know is that my body really responds to it and I don't want to learn more because I don't want to teach it.And so for me, I I guess I'm going to take this kind of similar that you did of like what's something witchy that we're currently exploring?13:27And for me, I have really been enjoying exploring the intersection between feminism and witchcraft.But in particular, really looking at intersectional feminism and the intersect with witchcraft has been really interesting to me.13:44So I I studied women's studies in college.I have a minor in it.I would have majored in it if they let me, but they wouldn't.And so we've talked in the past how I have a background in social justice work and equality work and anti violence work.And I'm really interested in how I'm seeing like the threads of that work and the threads of what I learned through college and through working with survivors of sexual violence, weaving similar webs into the history of witchcraft.14:11And it reminds me of when I first started learning about energy work and I started to see like the weavings of energy work on the nervous system weaving into the impact of trauma on the nervous system that I was experiencing in like my work.And so I see this as like this cool kind of like web that I'm untangling for myself that I know is gonna like bring 2 parts of my interest together and two parts of like myself together really.14:38And I'm excited.I'm already seeing like the threads of it weaving into how I approach the practice and how I teach the practice and everything.So that's what I've been learning.It's just like the history of feminism and in witchcraft and those crossovers.What I love so much about you and our friendship is that we have such same different ADHD.14:59And so you go down rabbit holes and you learn through teaching.And so then I learn whatever you're learning because you are, as you're learning it, teaching it to me.Because I am very much like AI feel so overwhelmed by all the things that I want a rabbit hole down, then I like halfway rabbit down, rabbit hole down like 6 things and then I can never like fully get where I wanna go.15:22Yeah, and so you just rabbit hole on something that I'm interested in and then I get to learn about it through you.It's great.I love it.All right, Next up.Do you ever have times where you feel like no matter what, you can't connect with the divine?15:39I I wanna answer this with not an answer.OK.Because like, yes and no.I think when I first started practicing, I would say yes wholeheartedly.15:55But what I've learned through my practice is that is to release expectations of how that connection looks and feels.And so now I feel like I can connect with the Divine when I'm washing dishes, or I can connect with the Divine when I'm driving, or I can connect with the divine when I'm like at the dentist.16:12It just doesn't always look the same or look like what I quote UN quote, think it's supposed to, which I feel like is how I want to answer this question is like if you're struggling to connect with the Divine, practice curiosity and practice releasing expectations of what your connection should look like.16:33Or does look like anything can be a connection to Divine.It doesn't have to be like a super deep, intense channeling session.It could just be like finding a little blip of joy in like, drinking your morning coffee.I love that I am gonna give a real answer.16:51Great.Love that.Because I had a conversation with my friend Anthony, who also is the manager at Spellcrafter, who last time I referenced him on the podcast, he listened and sent me a selfie of like the moment when he heard his own name.So Anthony, if you're listening, I expect that again.Me too.Me too.17:06Sorry.Me too.Send it to me too.Now that Anthony and I are friends, we've met in real life.Now we're friends.I want to be a part of this.Molly Van Anthony at the Soft Open and it's so fun watching all my friends interact with each other because it is just like, oh, I'm I'm just, I'm just coordinating a perfect group of people that I love.17:25And all are similar enough that, you know, we all just hang out and it's the best.But we were having a conversation, 'cause he's a medium, and we were having a conversation about grief and how a lot of what he does is kind of explaining this concept of the people.17:42And I I think this is, I'm gonna talk about it within the concept, like, or within the context of losing someone.But I do think it translates to spirit in general.Yeah.The people that you love, who you have lost, are with you always.Grief creates a block that makes it harder for you to see them and so you have to process your own grief before you can see what's right in front of you.18:09And I think that this can apply not just like with the big, you know, life altering grief, but with things like doubt, with self criticism, with these like you know, these expectations that we put on ourselves.18:28So maybe I am tying a little bit into your non answer, but this like being hard on yourself in this way I think creates that same block.I've really been thinking about this a lot and Anthony talked about this like maybe two or three days ago.It's really like changed a lot of how I see things and how I see spirit and how I see like my own relationship because I have felt like, like the cord's been cut between me and abilities.18:59You know, when I, I had a really rough time about 18 months, two years ago, right when I moved to Florida, that I was like, I have no, I have no practice, I have nothing left, you know?And I felt like I was like losing that part of me, that there was something in between me and and spirit.19:20And now I can see it with fresh eyes of like, oh, that was grief.And I think that sometimes, I don't know, I don't want to say this in a way I don't want to use the words pulls away.I don't want to say spirit pulls away, 'cause I don't believe that's true.19:35That's just the closest words that I have for it.I think that spirit can create distance or perceived distance when there are things that we need to work through in our human brain.Yeah, not to dive down the science rabbit hole, but here we go.19:55I'm putting.On my seat belt.I'm just thinking about, like, how the brain works and how the nervous system works.And when you're experiencing grief, when you're experiencing times of great fear, anxiety, stress, scarcity, any of that.And you're in that survival response of your nervous system, right?20:12Your brain doesn't know the difference between the grief of, like moving across the country, like 118 of your life and a tiger chasing you.And so if you were literally running from a tiger, you would not.Spend that time connecting with spirit you would be running for your life And so that like often times I think the block is because there's a part of us that's protecting, right.20:39And until we feel safe, we're not going to be able to connect.And that's why I always lean on like the curiosity and releasing expectations.Because expectations, when we don't meet them, become another tiger.And expectations and curiosity, they can't coexist.20:55Judgement and curiosity can't coexist.So the pathway out of that tiger response is curiosity.I love that.I love that we just wove into each other.Mm hmm.I.Love that about us.We're so we're so In Sync.We're so aligned.Cute, cute, cute, cute.21:11OK, next one.So this was this wasn't a question, but there's a question mark at the end, so we're gonna we're gonna answer it.I feel like there's a theme to all these questions.I know.I think there's an unspoken What do I do at the beginning of the?Sentence Yeah, so it says I've become spiritual recently, but I feel like I'm not doing enough of spiritual stuff.21:29Which I'm gonna say to you, rewind about 3 minutes and listen again.That expectation will kill your spiritual practice.Mm hmm.Yeah, yeah.And there's no like, there's no rubric, right?21:48There's no gold stars.Nobody's grading your spiritual practice, right?Like I just said, I'm connecting with spirit while I'm doing the dishes.Like, sometimes that is my only spiritual practice, you know?And so your spiritual practice looks like however it needs to, it should serve you right not to pleat you.22:11I'm raising my hand.I don't know why I'm raising my hand.I just was.Yeah, I don't know either.I made a connection in my brain.I'm also high fiving you.I think a lot of this idea of like needing to do enough is leftover Christianity ingrained in US.22:27I was gonna say capitalism.Also capitalism, but specifically the like, I when you were like, there's no rubric.And I don't know if this is true for this person, I don't know this person's past, but I think for a lot of people, like, we repackage the rules of the systems that we've left and make them fit the new systems that we are living in.22:45And so, you know, famously, I don't know a ton about Christianity, but I do know that the idea is when you die, someone takes a look at everything that you've done in your life and decides if you did enough, if you're good enough, to go to heaven.Yeah.And nobody is doing that for your spiritual practice.23:04Like no one is looking at, no one's tallying up how many spells you did, how many times you drew a little pentacle in your coffee cup, how many, how many sigils you made to decide at the end of your life that you did enough to say that you had a spiritual practice or did enough to, you know, whatever it is that the goal?23:23Like, I don't even know what the goal is.I don't even know what the, what the Gold Star that you would get is, but nobody is tallying up that thing.And that feels very much like repackaged.You know, I have to do enough to be a good Christian.Or a good student.Or a good child.23:39You know what's so interesting is, at least for me and my spirituality and my connection to spirit, I feel most spiritual when I'm actively deprogramming that.23:55Oh, like, I think that is because I always talk about how I I, for me, in my spiritual practice, is like a path home to the true self, to my authentic self.And my authentic self is not judging how much I'm doing, is not trying to do the most, is not trying to make the aesthetic, is not trying to be perfect.24:18Get the Gold Star to all the things right.And So what if if this is something that you're struggling with?What if you saw your spiritual practice as an opportunity to let go of this programming that is so ingrained in us from Christianity but also from capitalism, right.24:37Like I'll sleep when I'm dead?Mentality.Like you have to do the most.Like we thrive off productivity.Like, you know, bring home the bacon, but also in school, right?Like you have to do the most.Like even creative writing.You get graded on, which doesn't make sense.24:52You know what I mean?Art class.You get a grade and and you've never had this opportunity to just explore with curiosity what feels good to you, what feels like enough to you, and let go of expectations outside of that.What if you saw your spiritual practice as a deprogramming of that?25:12Oof, Molly with the hard hitters.Hey.This is why I love when we do these kinds of episodes, 'cause this is where I feel like I learned the most from you.And there's like a really, I don't know, there's this great opportunity to talk about things that we maybe, like, wouldn't get to talk about.25:30I just have so much fun when we do these.I know, I like.I like how all of these are like kind of.The theme is like there's a little bit of a string of like not self doubt but like unsuredness.And I feel like the thread for all of these questions is like, you get to choose so like you know, put your pants on and say this is enough for me.25:56Really.And also the thread is everything's OK.Everything's fine, yeah.Yeah.And then our final question we're gonna cover, which I feel like Madison, you and I have talked about.We have so many hot takes on this and we've talked about doing a whole episode on it for so long and we just keep kicking the can down the road.26:13So if you listen to this and you want us to do a whole episode, please slide into our DMS.But the question is cord cutting.How do you do it and how does it work?I think the idea of a cord cutting is why this podcast exists.Oh, OK.I remember it.26:29I remember the day that we talked about this for the first time.So it's like ingrained in my memory because we were so incensed, like sending voice memos back and forth.We have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it that have pushed us from making the episode.So when somebody asked a question about it, I was like, I'm all in.26:47We got to talk about it at least a little bit to see if what people, you know what the vibe is.I need a vibe check on a cord cutting vibe check.So a cord cutting is a spell that is traditionally done with two candles and string wrapped around the 2 candles and it's meant to sever a connection between 2 individuals.27:09It's most often done by wrapping the string around the two candles, putting them on a fire safe plate.They're connected, you know, like the string is, they're like on 2 and I don't know if I'm gonna describe this accurately so you might wanna just Google it.But 2 candles on opposite sides of a plate string, attaching them through the middle, you light the 2 candles.27:30You let them burn down until the string catches fire and the string catches and you know breaks the bond.And you'll see.A lot of times on TikTok people will do like analyzing how it plays out.You know of like what candle represents what person and what's happening and blah blah blah.27:47That's how you do it.That's how it works.I don't know how I feel about them specifically from the place of they are what I see most often, somebody selling as a service.Mm hmm.Yeah, it's outsourced a lot.28:03Mm hmm.I feel pretty neutral about doing it on your own.How do you feel about doing it on your own?Yeah, I think the outsourcing is where we get the ick.Yeah, And I think that, you know, somebody said something to me once when I I was at a point where I was kind of like considering doing one and like someone who I look up to a lot and has done a lot for me.28:24And my personal practice and my craft looked at me and said some chords are there for a reason.And it was like a gut punch, but it was like the gut punch that I needed in that moment of someone to tell me, you know, like, I think that cord cuttings as an idea, they're, they feel very spiritual to me in the fact that they are so symbolic.28:45Like, I I understand them as a need.Like sometimes something feels so big that I need to see it break.I need to see myself removed.Mm hmm.And so I do feel neutral about doing them for yourself.29:01But I do wanna just give that disclaimer because that was what I needed to hear in that moment.I don't think it was right for me in that time of my life.And so if it's something that you're considering doing, just hear some Chords are there for a reason and that doesn't have to apply to you.29:17Yeah, but if you feel like it does, you know, noodle on it, sit with it a little bit.Yeah, I'll tell you why I feel apprehensive about outsourcing something like this.And it's because if you've listened to this pod for a while, you know, I have background in working with survivors of sexual violence.29:35Also I have a background working with survivors of domestic violence.And part of the work of advocacy in that, with those folks who've experienced those things, is helping them regain their power and control over their life because it's been taken from them, right.29:53That's what abuse is, right?Like someone taking power and control from another person and not allowing them to have it.And so as an advocate, we had very strict boundaries around.We don't tell people what to do, we show them.30:08We lay out all the options like a menu, and we walk through each one and we support whatever they choose, no matter what it is, no matter what I think about it, no matter what anyone else thinks about it.And the reason for that is because if I tell you you should do this, I'm taking more power from you, I'm doing more harm than good.30:29And so I think I see a lot of cord cuttings done for people who are leaving abusive situations or in abusive situations.And I feel really hesitant about, like, whether or not those are doing more good or more harm.30:51Because if you are outsourcing that and if someone is saying like, I can't, I can't break this connection on my own.I need someone to do.I need to pay someone to do it.And the other person is saying, yes, you need to pay me to do it.Here's all of my marketing.Here's why you need to pay me to do it instead of doing it on your own.31:09Then it's just handing your power from one person to another person or someone else now taking your power and telling you you don't have the autonomy to do it on your own.You don't have the power to do it on your own, which is frankly not true.And I think that is gross.31:25And I am like notoriously like very against spiritual teachers who don't consistently give the power back to the person that they're supporting.Because for me, like I always live my and you know, take, take what resonates, leave the rest, right.31:42But I always live as a spiritual teacher, as my my job, my role is to help connect to you with your own inner teacher.And so I've I very, I have very strict boundaries around like whatever I do, whether it's Reiki training, whether it's a one-on-one session, whether it's reading, it's always in putting the power back in your hands.32:02And I don't know if that's just like my value system and my background coming through.But I think that's why I get the ick around like seeing people selling cord cuttings or seeing people outsourcing cord cuttings, because it just feels like a transfer of that power and not a reclaiming of that power, which really is like how the spell works, why it's so powerful.32:25Yeah.And I think that's why it's gotten such a bad Rep for me that it just like in general now gives me the ick, mm hmm, a little bit.And I think it's just because it's like one of the very few spells that I see marketed.Yeah.And specifically, it is so easy to do.32:41Yeah.And it's always marketed towards vulnerability.That's the thing that I don't like.It's always marketed towards like the person who's experiencing abuse or the person who's experiencing, you know, stalking.I see a lot of like stalking cord cuttings, which is just like.I don't like that my thing is in that there's no cord there in my opinion.33:02Sorry, I'm gonna now I'm upset.Please, in my in my opinion, with a like the whole point.Not the whole point.No, I don't.The whole point of a stalker like stalkers.There's no cord.Yeah, yeah.OK.If we, if we.That's a fixation.33:18Yes, but also if we say that, hey, Madison, you have a cord with your stalker, you need to pay me to remove it, now you're getting blamed.That is victim blaming.That is saying that you are responsible for that stalker's behavior, which is frankly not.True, That is giving.33:36Like when you walk it.Like when a when a woman approached like not a woman.I don't know.It's always been a woman.It's giving.Me.What was she wearing?When someone it's giving, when someone walks up to you and says, Oh my God, you've been cursed, I can see it all over you.Give me $20 and I'll take it off.33:51Yes, yes.And at the same time, on like an institutional, societal level, it's giving.Well, did you say no?Did you cut the cord?Did you cut the cord?Right like that is not OK we.34:06And I only see them marketed to women.Yes, yes.So anyways, we have lots of feelings on this.So if you'd like a whole episode, and I would love to talk about how to do one on your own.There'll be a lot of shouting in that episode.34:22Just you.Know, I know.I'm really through talking about it.I'm like, Oh, my beef is not with cord cutting.No, my beef is with the bigger, bigger societal ramifications we have with spirituality being marketed in this way.Yeah.So if you want a whole episode, let us know.34:39Yeah, now I'm all riled up, yeah.If you agree with us, please slide into our DMS if you think we're totally off base.We are so open to hearing a different perspective.So again, we're not against cord cutting as a ritual.We just think it's gross the way that most people market it.And I'm not anti outsourcing spell work.34:56No.I am team delegation, you know.I am anti outsourcing your power.Yes.Yeah.Mic drop, See you next week.We love you very much.All right.See you next week.35:12Bye.Thanks for listening to Demystify Magic with Molly and Madison.If you want to learn more about us, you can find all our links in the show notes.We'd love to know what you think of today's episode, so drop us a review or give us a shout out on social media.And don't forget to let us know your magical moment of the week.35:28OK, love you.Bye.

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