The Blackthorn Grove

"Imposter syndrome is the human's natural predator."

-Lauren Parker

Spells for Success: Deck and Guidebook 40 Spells to Set Intentions and Manifest Everyday Wins by Lauren Parker

Sponsored by Amy Blackthorn Intuitive (https://amyblackthorn.as.me/schedule/5eacb6fa)

Lauren Parker stops by the Podcast to talk about growing up on the move, "My hometown is the back of a station wagon."

After you listen, go read 'Wise Child,' by Monica Furlong.

Edited by Cassandra Snow. (Cassandra-Snow.com)

Cassandra is a professional tarot card reader, and teacher, writer, and theather maker in Minneapolis, MN. Cassandra's writing focuses on tarot, paganism, arts journalism, queer lifestyle and personal storytelling. They are the author of Queering the Tarot and Queering your Craft: Witchcraft from the Margins and co-authored Lessons from the Empress: a Tarot Workbook for Self-Care and Creative Grow

Sponsored by Amy Blackthorn Intuitive (amyblackthorn.as.me)

Media mentioned during the episode.

Becoming Dangerous: Witchy Femmes, Queer Conjurers, and Magical Rebels by Katie West

Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries by Lee Harrington

Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow

Queer Devotion: Spirituality Beyond the Binary in Myth, Story, and Practice by Charlie Claire Burgess

Radical Tarot: Queer the Cards, Liberate Your Practice, and Create the Future by Charlie Claire Burgess

78 Acts of Liberation: Tarot to Transform Our World by Lane Smith

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness by Rachel Pollack

Finding the Fool: A Tarot Journey to Radical Transformation by Meg Jones WallTarot Original

1909 Tarot Circular Deck Cards, Sasha Graham

Next World Tarot: by Cristy C. Road

The Linestrider Tarot Cards by Siolo Thompson

The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans

Deviant Moon Tarot by Patrick Valenza

Crow Tarot by MJ Cullinane

Fat Folks Tarot (Fat Folks dot org)

Slow Holler Tarot Deck https://slowholler.com

5th Spirit Tarot Charlie Claire Burgess

Jasper @queerconjure

Houseplant Tarot: A 78-Card Deck of Adorable Plants and Succulents for Magical Guidance by Minerva Siegel

Moonlight Dream Tarot deck

In this episode I'll be answering listener emails!

BlackthornGrovePodcast@gmail.com to submit your questions.

Podcast sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals. Tea of the day: The White Witch (of Narnia), for an almond black tea, with cream and ginger.

Topics discussed today:

- Where does Witchcraft live?

-Brief discussion of tarot

-How Witchcraft works

Agency.

-How to write a spell

Example: Stabilizing finances

Ancestors

Plant spirits

Example: frankincense

-Magical Specializations

-Advice for new practitioners

-Initiation through Death -Celebrities Practicing WitchcraftAmy references her positive experience on "This Circle is Podcast" https://thecircleispodcast.buzzsprout.com and mentions public figures, noting the complexities and potential backlash celebrities may encounter when sharing their spiritual practices.

-Witchcraft Practices and Book of Shadows Discussion on whether a Book of Shadows is necessary in witchcraft.

-Length of Service vs. Credibility in WitchcraftLength of service does not automatically equate to authority or credibility, and experience is subjective and context-dependent.- Group Mind in Coven Dynamics Examines how the addition or departure of members affects the group mind or collective thought form of a coven. -Belief and Thought Forms in Magic Discusses the importance of belief in magic and the creation of thought forms. - Doubt and Skepticism in Magic Addresses how doubt can undermine magic, as doubt is described as the "killer of all magic." The speaker encourages healthy skepticism but poses a question about what might be lost—such as childlike wonder or ancestral connection—when realism overtakes magical belief. Listeners are invited to share their thoughts and experiences.

Sources:

Blackthorn's Botanical Magic by Amy Blackthorn

Blackthorn's Protection Magic by Amy Blackthorn

https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/i-want-to-believe-that-jennifer-aniston-has-formed-a-coven.html

Diana Rajchel, author of Hex Twisting: Countermagick Spells for the Irritated Witch, stopped by the podcast to talk the nature of curses!

DianaRajchel.com

Sponsored by AmyBlackthorn.com

Food has the power to nourish both our bodies and our spirits. The Kitchen Witch’s Culinary Oracle Deck harnesses this spiritual nutrition to provide guidance and inspiration from the foods and tools already in your home. 
With recipe suggestions and simple spells, these 50 cards invite you to go beyond divination and to harness the power of food to nourish and energize. Come learn about the different associations, connections, and uses of the different ingredients and utensils in your home, like:

1. Avocado for Inner Beauty 
2. Apples for Balance and Harmony
3. Pomegranate for Goddess Energy
4. Pots & Pans for Creativity
5. Asparagus for Masculine Energy

So come, pull a card, make a meal, and nourish your spirit. With instructions on different card layouts and a QR code taking users to even more information and inspired recipes, this oracle deck is the perfect gift for anyone who loves the warmth of the kitchen, including yourself!

Crystals for Psychic Self-Defense: 145 Gemstones for Banishing, Binding, and Magickal Protection Paperback – A full-color guide to protection, cleansing, and countermagick with crystals
• Presents magickal techniques with crystals for warding off harmful energies, binding, and curse breaking, including crystal grids, amulets, spells, and rituals
• Explains how to discern the symptoms of psychic attack and offers multiple methods for cleansing your energy field and your crystals
• Includes an in-depth directory of 145 of the most powerful and effective crystals and gemstones for protection, banishing, and recovery from psychic attack

Blackthorn's Protection Magic contains a 13,000 word escape and evasion course that includes how to evade a stalker, escape kidnapping, lose a tail and make it home safely.

Take care of each other.

LTZ: Artist, Author, Witch.

An artist, author, and fusion bellydance performer, Rhode Island-based Renaissance Witch Laura Tempest Zakroff is a simmering cauldron of talents and projects. They stopped by. TBG to talk about their work, Templefest shenanigans, book recs and more!

https://lauratempestzakroff.com/

Stuff discussed in this episode includes:

Adobe Fresco app

Blackfeather Mystery School: The Magpie Training by Irene Glasse & Caine Dreamwalker

A Witch's Ally: Building a Magical Relationship with Animal Familiars & Companions by Dodie Graham McKay and Kelden

Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small by Ted Andrews

Wise Child by Monica Furlong

Over Labor Day weekend (US) I was the keynote speaker for Templefest, put on by the amazing members of the Temple of Witchcraft. The lovely CD offered to record the speech and it is offered here for your listening enjoyment. I 100% endorse anyone attending Templefest and hope you find it as loving and inclusive as I did.

Blackthorn's Book of Sacred Plant Magic is available now, wherever fine books are sold.

Beck Lawrence (they/them) lunar witch, and polytheist, is battling an unjust law in the state of Pennsylvania, making it illegal to read tarot or engage in 'fortune telling' activities. This is their story.

Please feel free to sign the petition to overturn this archaic law.

https://www.change.org/p/challenge-the-constitutionality-of-pennsylvania-title-18-section-7104

Davezilla became in 2001 the first blogger to be sued by a billion-dollar company (he won). Because of this, there is a Davezilla Wikipedia page and Dave has the dubious distinction of being a verb in the Urban Dictionary. He is a Gardnerian witch (initiated 1979), Discordian (hot dogs on Fridays), Ngangalero (initiated 1993), Santero (initiated 2006), and full-time illustrator. He prefers to paint occult, cryptid, alien, and other fringe topics. He has over forty years in occult/new age religions and thirty years of illustration experience. 

https://davezilla.com

Sabrina is a teacher, diviner, writer, and coach. Over the last 40 years, she's developed her own system of reading and teaching tarot using round tarot cards. She's an Elder in the Blue Star Tradition of Wicca who also practices Buddhism, and a graduate of the Gryphon’s Grove School of Shamanism.  In a former life, Sabrina was a social scientist who loved being a professor. During her academic career, she excavated Mayan ruins as an archaeologist and directed an interdisciplinary Urban Health Ph.D program as a medical anthropologist. Now she's a full-time Diviner who specializes in deep dive-readings that encourage personal transformation. Most of her clients are teachers, healers, witches, and change agents---people who are here to create a new kind of world. 

Jamie Anderson said, “Grief is just love with no place to go.”

Today we hear from three experts on grief in their chosen fields and discuss how it applies to the witchcraft community.

Lulu- @thesalemplantwitch on TT. Runs a therapeutic group for witches in berevement.

Mortellus @acrowandthedead on Insta. Author of 'Do I Have to Wear Black? Rituals, Customs and Funerary Etiquette for Modern Pagans' and 'The Bones Fall In a Spiral: a Necromantic Primer.'

Courtney Weber @courtneyaweber on Insta. One of the hosts of That Witch Life podcast; author of the forthcoming 'Sacred Tears: A Witch's Guide to Grief.' Out June 2024.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand by Megan Devine and Mark Nepo

Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying by Sallie Tisdale

The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, et al.

There Is No Good Card for This: What To Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love by Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell

For children dealing with grief:

Death Is Stupid (Ordinary Terrible Things) by Anastasia Higginbotham

Deborah Castellano is author of 'Glamour Magic: The Witchcraft Revolution to Get What You Want' and 'Magic for Troubled Times: Rituals, Recipes and Real Talk for Witches' along with an assortment of short erotica pieces published by Cleis Press. She is an independent maker of ritual perfumes and other fineries and active in her local chosen communities. https://www.deborahcastellano.com/

Sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals

The delightful Thumper Forge @fivefoldlaw has stopped by to to talk about divination, and their lithomancy/geomancy practice and other fun things along the way!

In this episode recorded March 2022, Devin Hunter from Modern Witch dot com interviews Amy.

https://modernwitch.com/

Join The Blackthorn Grove in welcoming Victoria Laurie, author of the Psychic Eye Mysteries, as well as several other amazing series to talk about life as an author, questions she gets as a Medium, and how to balance it all and get words on the page!

Sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals tea shop.

Join Amy in exploring the steps needed to get your book idea to be seen by the traditional publishers in our niche.

Important: This is my personal experience, I don't speak for any publisher. I'm not available to read manuscripts.

It's a new year and that means a new visit with Cyndi Brannen from Keeping Her Keys! 

Content Warning: There will be discussions on chronic pain, chronic illness and a brief mention of Eating Disorders, listen appropriately.

Sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals dot com. 

Sponsored by BlackthornsBotanicals.com 

Blackthorn's Botanical Wellness, out October 31st, 2022 from Weiser Books.

Mortellus stopped by to catch up, and the amazing stories we exchanged were moving and empowering.

Content warning: frank discussion of parenting, aging, inter-personal relationships,  and brief mention of surviving s*icide towards the end of the episode. 

Mortellus at PanParaCon Sept 30th-Oct 2nd 2022 or at PanParaCon.com and Mortellus.com

Jennie Blonde: An eclectic Pagan witch with a love of hearth and home witchery, Jennie has been practicing witchcraft for twenty years. She lives in Pennsylvania with two furry familiars, one witchling, and her husband.

Hearth and Home Witchcraft

Blending storytelling, witchcraft, and warm advice, Jennie Blonde (the @comfycozywitch) offers recipes, rituals, and spell work, to nourish yourself and your family.

Hearth and Home Witchcraft explores the following topics:

• rituals for protection and cleansing the hearth and home
• kitchen witchery, creating a kitchen altar, and recipes and rituals for nourishment
• the witch’s altar, tools, and spells, and creating a sacred space, no matter the size of the home
• herbs and plants, grounding rituals, and meditations to connect you with the earth
• witchy self-care, complete with rituals and recipes for ritual bath salts, oils, balms, and more

Sponsored by AmyBlackthorn.com and BlackthornsBotanicals.com

Mentions:

So Potent Art: The Magic of Shakespeare by Emily Carding
The Ritual Deck by Cassie Uhl

Enfys is a nonbinary, bisexual clergy member within the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, and the High Priest of the Fellowship of the Ancient White Stag (Near the District of Columbia). Enfys has been studying the Qabala since 2012 and teaching since 2015 including presenting at the Sacred Space conference. 

Lisa Wagoner stops by to talk about how to maintain a positive outlook when the world is out of control.

LisaWagoner.com for autographed copies

This episode sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanical Wellness, out November first wherever fine books are sold.

Rachele Walter stops by the podcast to talk about why secular voting is important for witchy and Pagan-umbrella voters.  She is a secular activist in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is Chair of Secular Democrats of Nebraska, President of Lincoln Atheists, and the Director for American Atheists-Nebraska. She has been involved in politics for over 35 years. 

Daily Magic is a perpetual calendar focused on days of spiritual and magical significance. April 30th for example, is perfect for spellcasting—especially spells for love, romance, fertility, and prosperity. Judika Illes teaches you how to create rituals and cast spells, provides recipes for potions, and offers advice on creating feasts to honor sacred beings.

Judika Illes is an independent scholar, educator, and author of several books of folklore, folkways, and mythology. Judika is a graduate of Rutgers University and has a certification in therapeutic aromatherapy from the Australasian College of Herbal Studies. Her books include Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells, Encyclopedia of Spirits, The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, The Weiser Field Guide to Witches, and The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal (published under the name Judith Joyce).

:This episode sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals:

Cassandra Snow has been a tarot reader in some capacity since they were eighteen years old and have gone pro for the last decade. Their work includes teaching and writing about tarot and witchcraft as well as doing readings. Cassandra is also calling on their BA in Theatre Arts and Humanities from Waldorf College for this project, and the decade-and-a-half experience they have leading creative teams as a theatre director, producer, and show curator with Gadfly Theatre Productions.

Siri Vincent Plouff is the brain behind the radical Heathenry podcast, Heathen’s Journey. Siri runs several flagship teaching programs, such as the annual Witchcraft Immersion, which is a witchcraft apprenticeship program, and Radical Runes. They have been a practicing witch for nearly twenty years and have been reading tarot and runes professionally for six.

Sponsored by Blackthorn's Botanicals dot com.

Natalie Meraki is the creator of Tarot Mood deck, the Mood Oracle, Young Witch Tarot deck and a raucous fun time was had by all. (There are some brief mature themes in this episode, so listen wisely.)

Check out Natalie's Create your own Tarot deck workshop!
https://nataliemeraki.com/

@TarotMood on Insta

@MerakiMetaphysical on TikTok

Other resources:
78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack

The Ultimate Guide to Tarot by Liz Dean

Tarot Teas: BlackthornsBotanicals.com

Today I'm answering questions about what it is like to own a Pagan business, what we experience that non-Pagan businesses don't have to navigate, and how to make your Pagan business happy, healthy, prosperous and protected.  

Blackthorn's Protection Magic out March 1st from Weiser Books.

Download the first two chapters free at AmyBlackthorn.com

Nicholas Pearson stops by to chat with us about his books, crystals and plant spirits.  

Nicholas Pearson is a flower essence practitioner and researcher whose love for plants grew alongside his love for the mineral kingdom. Best known for his work with crystal healing and Reiki, Nicholas is also a practicing witch and occultist. An internationally acclaimed presenter, Nicholas is the author of several books, including Crystals for Karmic Healing, Crystal Basics, and the forthcoming Flower Essences from the Witch’s Garden. He lives in Orlando, Florida. Find him at https://www.theluminouspearl.com

Cyndi Brannen of Keeping Her Keys and I got together for Beltane and chatted about:

 our favorite herbal allies

plant symbolism in magic

Aesthetics in Witchcraft 

maintaining healthy boundaries

communicating with plant spirits

and our top 3 plants to include in a witch's apothecary.

This is a great interview with a friend of the podcast who had some questions for me about how to get started in incorporating herbs into our magic.  

Check out AmyBlackthorn.com to book a reading with Amy! 

Brought to you by BlackthornsBotanicals.com 

It's our one year birthday!  

In this episode we have the fabulous Mortellus back with us to talk about the useful materials we can find to incorporate in our magical practice and how they demystify necromancy.  Hint: most of us are practicing necromancy, without even knowing it! 

Find Mortellus' book, "Do I Have To Wear Black? Rituals, Customs and Funerary Etiquette for Modern Pagans" and other handmade curios at Mortellus.com 

This is an hour-long salon discussion about botanical witchcraft with 'Keeping Her Keys' author Cyndi Brannen.  https://keepingherkeys.com Featuring tidbits from both authors Amy Blackthorn and Cyndi Brannen discussing protection of the home, how to begin a botanical magic practice, how to start a relationship with your Spirits of Place, and more! Cyndi discusses her new book, 'Entering Hekate's Garden' and what our 'weeds' are trying to tell us.  

It's 9 days to Halloween and I'm seeing more (Non-Pagan) people mentioning their fear of Witches.  I try to tease out those strands with past  experience and truth. 

There's an announcement about my brand new candle line as well! Find those at BlackthornsBotanicals.com 

As always you can email me your thoughts at blackthorngrovepodcast at Gmail dot com.

Is the competitive spirit destroying your practice? 'Comparison is the thief of joy' -Theodore Roosevelt

If you do the thing that makes your heart sing, you'll bring magic into the world.  

30-page preview of Blackthorn's Botanical Brews, out Oct 5th
tinyurl.com/blackthornsbotanicalbrews.com
Brought to you by BlackthornsBotanicals.com 

You can read the excerpt at TinyUrl.com/BlackthornsBotanicalBrews

There are ones for Sacred Smoke, and Blackthorn's Botanical Magic as well.

Tinyurl.com/SacredSmokeBook

Tinyurl.com/BlackthornsbotanicalMagic