156: Ostara to Beltane - Magick Between the Spokes

0:00Welcome to Back on the Brumstick, a modern witch's spoken word grimoire, where two witchy friends from way back are reconnecting to their pagan roots after a long period of manganity, where re-walking the path of the wise and trying out all the latest spells, rituals, and magical theory in today's witchcraft and pagan practices. So grab your wand and your incense, your cauldron, and your crystals, and join us as we get Back on the Brumstick! Hi and welcome to Back on the Brumstick! I'm Layla, and on this episode we're walking the liminal and taking you on a magical journey from Ostarra to Belting. We're practicing magic between the spokes, because witchcraft isn't just about the holidays of the wheel of the year, it's what we do every day. So let's talk about that wild muddy stretch from Ostarra to Belting. That space where nothing is fully formed but everything is becoming, and we'll talk about how you can harness that energy in your witchy life.

1:00And I'm Shell, and as you're taking a walk on the liminal, I am enjoying that muddy, gritty, earthy feel of right now. So right now I'm trying to be conscious of the physical space beneath me, the actual mud in your toes. We really want to focus on the lived experience of these six weeks between the holidays, not just the holiday itself, but that time between the spokes of the wheel of the year. There's so much change, and the older and wiser I get, dare I say, the more I kind of notice how drastic this change is and has always been. And I think that we forget sometimes that the upheaval of the season is something that can either work for you or against you, and it's how are you going to ride that wave. I like to think of this as like a crossroads in the year. There's a lot of upheaval going on, and are you going to ride that wave and use that

2:00in a positive good way to your advantage, or are you going to let that upheaval just take you down with all the crumble? I love how you put that, because spring is very much about that big change that becoming, and it's not always easy. It's messy. Spring becoming is very messy, there's mud, there's seeds cracking and breaking open, and a lot of big change, and that usually comes with difficulty. So we want to talk about different magical practices, so that you can harness that energy and work with it as we move to the season of Beltane, which is more the season of abundance. And it's a little bit softer energy than the wild chaos of spring. You know, I'm glad you mentioned that, because when we talked about this previously with in bulk to Ostarra energy and magic, that is probably a little more chaotic. Right now, it's almost like we're going from that chaotic and starting to transition into that smoother Beltane energy. Yeah, hopefully by the end of the six weeks, we'll get there.

3:04Exactly. Beltane is generally in the area that we're from, kind of the unofficial start of summer. You know, May is when summer starts to, you start to feel it. So this is kind of that time where you're still in a little bit of chaos, but there's that light at the end of the tunnel. This transition, like when this episode comes out, will actually be on Ostarra. And it's such a transition, you'd mentioned before, like that balance of light and dark on Ostarra. We're going to be going right over that tipping point. Yeah, exactly. And we're coming out of the cold and moving into the spring. And that's a difficult time because in the cold and the dark, you're quiet, like the seeds, like the animals under the earth, and you're in that dark, that comforting space. And then suddenly it's spring and it's chaotic and it's lightning and it's rain and it's spring storms that kind of bring you up out of the ground. And now I'm going to call out one of the Crystal City community members here, Nicole, who

4:04did a workshop on astrology just recently, darn her, I missed it. It was excellent, by the way, I'm sad you missed it. But one of the things she talked about is we're coming out of Pisces season and Pisces is more dreamy, they're more esoteric, they're more in your head. And we're coming into Aries season. The 20th marks the transition to Aries, to fire, to that go get them hot energies. Get up and go. Yeah, so that's a tough transition. It's not an easy one. So we have to get through that first and we have to get through several weeks of this transition of this crazy weather. It went from 70 degrees to two inches of snow and ice the other day. That's this tumultuous spring and we have to make it through that. So let's talk about some magical things that we can do to help us harness that energy of potential and get us through to that energy of sensuality of lush early summer. No, you know, my go-to is always going to be tarot.

5:06Laila, I hear a little birdie told me that you've got an interesting spread that has never dawned on me before. So honestly, I want to jump right into how can we utilize tarot in this time? I knew you weren't going to let me leave that tarot spread to the end. I know. But curious since I mentioned it. So yes, I have come up with a tarot spread, let me get to the end of my notes because that's where it is. And I just shoved it right up front. I should have known that you were. I should have known. So I called this the spring between the spokes tarot spread because I'm really intrigued. We kind of started working with this idea back an imbulk of the between the spokes times. And I'm very much enamored with it right now. So this is the spring between the spokes tarot spread. The space in between is what I like to think of it as. Yeah, exactly. The space in between. So this tarot spread is to get you from aries to torus season. So it's kind of in the shape of horns.

6:06And it's six cards for the six weeks between Ostarra and Belte. And you have a tarot deck on your shell so you can lay it down. I actually think I do, yes. It's not that hard, but of course it's slightly different. So I want you to lay it down while I say it so that you can follow along. Now I have been playing with this new deck that Shell and I have. It's called the animal tarot by Oriens and it is an absolutely beautiful deck. I will put up pictures of this spread. All right, Shell, you ready? I'm ready. OK, again, it's six cards and it's going to be shaped like a V. OK. And you're going to start in the middle. Deal the first three cards up the left side of the V from right to left. So the first one will be at the bottom, second in the middle, third at the top. Then the next three cards are going to start again at the bottom just to the right of the first card. And you're going to go up the right side of the V, four, five, six, up the right side of the V.

7:07The idea is these are horns. It's the beginning part of the curling rams horn and it's the horns of the tourist bull. So these are the horns, the left and the right horns of the season, right? Grab the bull by the horns, kind of thing. OK, I gotcha. You got my cards laid down. All right, so the card in the number one position. That is, what am I leaving behind? Card in number two is what is waking up within me? This is spring. There's energy waking and a bounding here. Number three is what unruly, feral, boxed up, which part of me is screaming to be let loose? Interesting. So back to the next base, number four. What should I plant now? What seed should I start? Number five is the storm. What disruption or unpredictability in my life is actually serving my growth right now? And number six, the last card is the flower.

8:08What am I actually moving towards? What flower will actually grow at Beltane from the seed that I plant now? So that's your outcome card. So these are the horns of the ram, the horns of the bull for this season. So thank you, Nicole, for the idea. Nicole's just so sweet. She is and you know, she really made astrology easy for my brain to understand. I started back with one of our guests, Laurie Farrington, but Nicole really made it easy. And I just, I fell in love with a couple of different parts of it in Nicole's workshop. So thanks for the rabbit hole, I guess, thanks for the new addiction. I love tarot rabbit holes. They're the best. So this spread is really about grabbing that energy because that's what this is. Spring is that tumultuous energy and it doesn't always look pretty, but it's powerful and it's strong, but it can be hard to pin down sometimes. And when you do, sometimes it's muddy and dirty and you have to kind of deal with that.

9:10So this spread is supposed to help give you a little bit of a map for your six weeks. I love this. I love this. I am actually going to redo a spread in a couple of days on this again. I could see this one being utilized maybe every other week during that six weeks. Sure. Yeah. It can really give you an idea of what's going on right now, right now, because bulls and rams, their horns are right there. They lead the way with the horns, right? It's immediate. You can't miss them. It's right now. And that's kind of what this season is all about. So I kind of wanted to focus our ideas on what we can do every day. So you can do this terror reading once a week during this time. And I know that you like to do altar refreshing and and simmer pots. Can you tell me a little bit about things that you like to do in this six week space? You know, this is definitely whether it be in a magical way or a mundane way, a good time to just kind of clean and rearrange and freshen up things.

10:12And you know, I love altar stuff and I love knickknacks and I just, I have enough. Things that I need to sometimes just rip it all down, dust it all off, clean it all up, sometimes re-blast it, whatever the case may be, and put it back, and depending on what's going on or what season or when the last time is that I've done this, and I do it differently or with a different purpose or for maybe a different intention. You know, if I'm doing some maybe shadow work, some inner deep work, I may have that be like a hakate themed altar. Or you know, if I am say really focused on manifesting something or got some money bulls going, you know, my altar might be kind of built around that intention or what I'm trying to manifest. So I think right now is a good time to kind of, I use it in conjunction with the reading.

11:14You know, do your tarot spread, see kind of where things are headed, and then maybe rip your whole stuff apart and redo your altar in a fashion that's conducive to the direction that the tarot says that you're headed. You know, that actually, I just came up with that on the fly, that might be something I might be doing is kind of do that spread, see where I'm headed, and then maybe refresh an altar based on that. But also, simmer pots in the fall are very different in the winter are very different than spring simmer pots, and I'm also a fan of that because again, all about putting that cleansing energy, that cleansing vibe out into my space and into my air. So this time of year, I would maybe do things like have some bay leaves or some basil in a simmer pot, maybe some lemon going on. Right. Fresh things. They're a little more zippy as opposed to like the cranberries and stuff that I would use over fall and winter in a simmer pot or pine needles, you know. So kind of refresh the simmer pot and what my intention is for the simmer pot based on

12:19the season. You know, I might start put a little some flower buds in there, maybe some first sprouts of petals I might toss in there. So same idea, but different vibe because it's now that that bursting with spring and that kind of cleansing my air, cleansing my space. A simmer pot is a good way to also use up all the almost expired herbs in your cabinet. Well, yeah. Yeah. Now, I have admittedly not the world's best housekeeping which, but I found that my altar and my office tends to get cleaned much more often than the rest of my house. So if I can turn it into a spell or if I can put a little mini altar somewhere in the main part of my house, I found that that will help me do a little spring cleaning. It might actually motivate you because you're looking at it as a magical practice and not as actually cleaning. Ha! Yes. Don't tell my conscious brain that though because it's now. So I've come up with a window washing spell to help me wash my freaking windows this

13:23spring. And I like the windows because it lets the light in, it lets the sun in and this season is about those opening spaces, opening the doors, opening the windows, letting the fresh air and letting the sun shine in. So I thought it was very symbolic to wash those windows and to energize them to let positive energy. So like you were mentioning some of the herbs, I like rosemary because it's just really good for blessings and cleansings. But I also like white clover which pops up fresh in the northeastern United States. There are everywhere I make sure lawn look white. It does. And the little white flowers are perfect for splashing a little bit of blessed water on your windows. Another plant that's very common in the northeast is wood sorrel which tastes so good. If you eat the little leaves, they taste really good. It's probably one of the first herbs I would forage as a kid. But it's a fantastic spring herb. Both white clover and wood sorrel are excellent for luck, cleansing, protection, and because

14:23they're spring plants, they're going to bring in that fresh, bright spring energy. So take something like that. Maybe you could also take a brand new bud or brand new flowers from your garden to bring in that new bright spring energy. Literally not what I thought you meant when you said put in a bud. Well, if you're a weed witch, a little bit of bud works as well. Fantastic sacrifice, good blessing. So add that to your water, just a little tiny bit of water. And then you're going to add that to your cleaning solution. Use that to clean your windows. And as you're washing the window and vision that, letting in the light, letting in the spring, letting in the energy tempered a little bit by that glass. Just like the glass isn't going to let the sun burn you, get to sun burn. Also imagine that it's also going to filter out any negative energy and filter out a little of that chaos of the spring, but still let in the strength and the power of the sun and the season. And when you're done doing the wash, just put your hand up against the window. Don't touch it because you don't want to smudge your nice, beautifully clean window.

15:26But put your hand right up near the window and imagine that energy. Just picture it at the palm of your hand, picture that energy and say something like lightness comes in, freshness comes in. All that is good is allowed in anything, say whatever you want. Just something to honor the energy, to acknowledge what you want to happen with that. And then you're done. And I might do one or two a day. I'm not doing my whole house, but it's something that you can do throughout the next six weeks. Exactly. Exactly. Something is your best done over time. You know, I like to put you said about the Simmer pot, how you can toss in some herbs that are kind of at the end of their of their due life. Same thing with this window wash. You know, if you've got some herbs you need to use up, I would think I would toss them in there. You know, intent is everything. So as long as your intention is to is to have that cleansing clearingness, I would also utilize the the window wash with herbs that I'm trying to utilize before they're expired.

16:30That's an excellent way to use up those herbs. But I do think that there is something to be said, it's the cliche about spring cleaning. And you know, I've talked about it a million times, but I do think that magically there is something to be said for even on a mundane level, just kind of ho and stuff out and reorganizing and going through stuff. We always talk about get rid of what doesn't serve you. That includes like physical things too. Sometimes clutter in your life creates clutter in your life. It absolutely does. It's been psychologically scientifically proven that clutter in your space, clutter's up your brain. It causes stress. It causes you to feel discontent and your home is at your space and that's your magical space. And so what you're doing to it physically can very much affect you magically. And what you're saying about decluttering and getting rid of that, if you're opening up space in your home, that means you're opening up space for new energy to come in.

17:34You don't necessarily have to fill it with stuff, but you can fill that with positivity. You can fill that with forward momentum. Invite that spring energy to come fill in the space that you've just cleaned out. Now I got stuff. Do not get me wrong. I've got stuff, but it's about only keeping the things that serve you and if it doesn't serve you, what do you, what do you, what are you looking at it for? Yeah. And letting go of things can be difficult. And I know there's a million and one different like Mari Kondo and different methods like that that can help you declutter. And honestly, none of that stuff you said, I used to be a pack rat. I still fight it a little bit, but I've moved so many times that packing my house up like I'm going to move has really been the best thing for me to pair down what I have and to pay attention to what I buy, try to be very mindful because it's too easy to fall into the trap of getting everything and then it's hard to move, man. Yeah. Yeah. I hear that.

18:35I feel that. So moving energy is what spring is all about, right? It's storm fronts. It's cold one day hot the next. It's muddy and growing and cracking open literally, persevering through the storm. Yeah. To get through. And you should harness the urgency of that. You should harness the fierceness of that. This is the time of year when I feel my most feral, my most unruly, when I feel like the wildness of the season, it's almost like the quickening of the trees. You know, I see everybody out here has got all their sugar shacks going because the sap is running in the trees, everything's waking up. And I feel like I'm waking up to coming up out and I have all this extra energy, like a little groundhog. Yes, the second time you called me a groundhog, we're going to go with it. Well, brown, petible, sure, I'm there. But I do have a rabbit spell, it's not a groundhog spell, it's a rabbit or a hair spell

19:38to kind of capture that. It's just perfect because when I see, you know, this time of year, when you see rabbits and hairs out and about all you think of is bursting with energy, going almost from sleep to 100 miles an hour. And that's what this time feels like from sleep to 100 miles an hour. Oh gosh, it really does. So this spell is about capturing that energy. And you can do this more than once, it can be a little spell meditation, if you'd like. And all you need for it is a small candle, a birthday candle might be too small, a small red or orange candle, paper and pen, a safe burn dish, and a fiery herb, it can be more than one spring herbs like mint, maybe, or you could go with ginger or a cinnamon pepper or something fiery. And what you're going to do for this spell is capture the energy of the season. And the way to do that is you'll light the candle and you're going to sit and absorb the energy of that candle, watch it flicker, watch it burn, feel the heat of it, think of it as the sun of the season, think of it as the earth warming and gather that energy

20:41into yourself. Feel like you are gathering that glowing energy at a ball at your center. And once you have that glowing energy, that glowing sun at the center of yourself, take the paper and write on it something that you're ready to move towards throughout this next six weeks, not something that you want to get, something that you're ready to run straight towards, something that you are ready to charge at because you are going for it. Put the sprint and choose on. Yes. So write that down on the paper and sprinkle your fiery herbs on it and say something like, like the rabbit across the open field, I am fleet, I am fearless, I am certain. I move towards my goal, I do not hesitate, I do not wait. The season is fast and so am I. Then you're going to fold the paper, you're going to fold it three times and you'll fold it away from you if you're ready to push that energy outward and have that energy run with you towards your goal as you manifest that. Or if you need the energy to come into you, fold it towards you three times to bring

21:46that motivational energy in to give you that fire at your core to go after that goal. Then you're going to touch it to the candle, touch it to the flame and drop it in the burn dish, whoo, activate that energy and either pull that into you to empower your desire to empower what you want to manifest or push it out to the world to enact your will. Then you can either let it burn or if you don't want to burn it, you can also bury it in the earth. Like a seed, it'll take its time and grow as it composts into the earth. So if you want it to happen fast, burn it if you need it to happen a little slower, bury it. There's your spell right there, let the candle burn down and you're done. And if you have little candles that only burn for like five, ten minutes, that's perfect for this. You know, patients ain't my strong point, so I'd probably be a burner just saying. It's that spring energy, beltain that's six weeks from now, that's when things start to slow down. That's when it starts to look more like spring. It looks more like early summer, things are green, there's flowers.

22:47It's beautiful out usually. If you're daring, you can put your seeds out. You know, it's a safer time of season, more slow, more sensual, more lush, but I've got to get through the chaos to get there. Whew, sometimes the burn hurts, but the burn is good. You know, I think of it as like, I can think of it as like the Adams family where, you know, you've got this, this very dark and mysterious inside of the house. Imagine going through the Adams family house or the monster house. I want that house so bad. With like a cobweb sweeper. Like imagine how it would just be all the sudden, you know, you pull the curtains open, sweep off the cobwebs and all the sudden it's like a whole new place. That's what spring is like. You just watch what I did in my office. No, but I did recently watch an episode of the monsters. Oh, there you go. But yeah, no, it is like that is it's clearing out all that dust is clearing the cobwebs. It's being ready for the light. It's being open to the light. It's different practices that you can do that show that you're ready and open for that.

23:50And you actually as a side perk get some shit done in the process, right? You know, moving towards Belting once we get there, this is what I really like to start working with glamour magic. So towards the end of the six weeks, if you want to start working with glamour magic, to harness that spring energy, to empower you to have more confidence, to feel better in your own skin, I would say the same thing, you know, everybody thinks of Belting is like love love magic, you know, okay, I can buy into that a little bit, but sometimes that means love of thyself. And it's a good time to kind of you spend this period clearing stuff out, getting rid of what doesn't serve you opening the path, clearing the way. The next step is be good in your skin, be okay with who you are, love who you are, love the place that you're at because you have to love who you are in the place you're at in life to be able to effectively move forward. So I see Belting is a lot of that energy and kind of this being a transition into that.

24:55Because the season is about that self empowerment, glamour magic goes along with that really well. And we'll talk about this more as we get closer to Belting. But glamour magic is not about falsehoods, it's not about Hollywood glamour, it's about the craft. No, no, it's not, it's, it's more about persistence, it's more similar to like if you ever met someone and as you got to know them, you were like, wow, all of a sudden you are hot, you are drop dead gorgeous and I didn't realize that when I first met you or the opposite, you know, you talked to someone after a little while and you're like, I thought you were hot at first, but damn, you are, you are not a very, you're not, right? That's a form of glamour magic because of their personality, their aura, their vibe, something about them, it can completely change how you see them and how you respond. That's glamour magic at its most basic form and you can harness that same type of energy to make yourself more confident, to make yourself happier and, and moving out of spring

25:59and into belting, it is a really good time to practice that because it is a becoming time. Now Layla, pull it back, pull it back, you are given away the next couple of episodes. Second, so excited and spring, it's my favorite season right now, I just, I love the chaos. You know, and I love that this is like the beginning of foraging season because yes, things are starting to grow and burst and emerge, but there are things that are to the point of foraging and as the weeks and in such go on, there's going to be more and more and more of that happening and I love that time of year, I love that, how I can think of as fresh restock, but I love being able to kind of go and commune with the earth and and make that connection and then ask for things and bring them back as far as the foraging process. I just love that time of year, I mean, we've done that several times together, we just,

27:01we just walk through the woods and take our little cute baskets with us and off we go. That's one of my favorite ways to connect with the land is to get outside as much as possible and walk it, get my bare toes in the mud. So I send the beginning, mud in the toes, my toes. Yeah, exactly, I love that so much and yeah, just like you said, getting the baskets and going out and foraging in my land or if I can't do that, just walking apart or walking downtown and seeing everybody outside, just getting outside as much as possible over this next six weeks, I will take every excuse I can get to be outside even when it's snow way and freezing. I was still outside walking around picking up trash that had been hit with less winter, you know, seeing what's grown, seeing what got covered in the snow, seeing what's changed, feeling the different energies, feeling how the land itself is tumultuous, it's awake, it's sleeping, it's cold, it's hot, it's an interesting energy. So getting out there to just kind of feel it as it changes day by day, hour by hour sometimes

28:04is an amazing part of spring. But I don't want to forget that there's also that segment that has a little bit of mourning in it because yes, you're going out and all of that's there, but some things aren't quite the same, some things didn't make it through winter, some things are a little bit different and there is almost that touch of grief or grieving of that while that excitement is bursting. So yeah, it's just, it's a weird time, it's a weird time. It's, you know, before we end, I'm going to go back to something that you said at the very beginning because it's important to remember and pay attention to right now, to experience right now, there is mourning, there are some people that aren't in love with the longer days and the warmer days and they're mourning the quiet and the dark and the cold. Change can be difficult, so whether you're in love with the change of the season or you hate the change of the season, paying attention to right now can be a very difficult practice,

29:08but a very magical one and you wanted to remind people to pay attention to these days between the spokes of the wheel and I think that's so important to be here now. And whether you're mourning that or being ecstatic about that, relish that moment, experience it. Relish the now, whether it's joyful or mournful, relish the now. Because it will change, spring teaches us that everything will change violently sometimes, beautifully other times. My spirituality is kind of like upstate New York weather in March. Yes, yes it is. There you go and that's us in a nutshell, I guess. All right, well thank you so much for listening to this episode of Back on the Broomstick. We hope you'll join us next week for another episode as we move through the liminal space between the spokes of the wheel. Well, dig in our feet in the ground. Please like, subscribe, send us an email, send us a text, send us a DM. We are moving our PO box, so we will be giving you

30:10our new PO box here shortly. So at this point, folks, just a little favor, if you have mailed something recently, no worries, no harm, we will get it. But from this point on, if you could hold off on any and all mail, while we switch our PO box, we got some some exciting stuff coming and a new PO box is one of those things, so stay tuned for that. I hope you're enjoying the spring or the fall wherever you happen to be in the world. And whether it is joyful or mournful, we got you, we're here and we want you to stay wise and wicked and keep it witchy.