00:09:32.820and you know i don't know how many years there were like that and you know in my head it really
00:09:38.100became a painful thing and i you know you you have new young kids and you sort of fill in the
00:09:43.900outs anyway and you're teenagers you fill in the outs of everything anyway and you live in the0.95
00:09:47.860suburbs and you fucking hate everything and you're nobody understands an anarchist and nobody gets0.96
00:09:52.760you so it all built up into this real bubble of pain that i associated with christmas you know0.99
00:09:59.200um I love Christmas I like holidays you know really I like when any you've got 20 people in
00:10:05.500a room I'm like halfway to tears just because people are together you know uh I like Christmas
00:10:10.800and you and I have gone to every you know Christmas parades for 10 years in a row together
00:10:15.240just screaming and clapping screaming and clapping and crying you love Christmas parades more than
00:10:20.760anyone I've ever met uh-huh and you're you're a total like anarchist you know anti-faith in a way
00:10:26.740witch you're not anti-faith that's not right no no no i don't know i think faith is often misplaced
00:10:32.180but um yeah for me i mean aside from yule which i kind of think of as separate from christmas yeah
00:10:39.160so we're talking about this like coca-cola christmas you know um to me it's the absurdity
00:10:45.280right if i could live in the theater of the absurd which i most times feel like i do
00:10:51.060but these are times um halloween is another one you know where you're on the subway with lady gaga
00:10:57.840and a dinosaur and it's totally normal and everyone just expects it and that's fine
00:11:03.660and christmas to me is the same thing it's got its own soundtrack it's got its own color story
00:11:09.560we do the most random things i mean now that we are informed pagan witches we understand why a
00:11:16.100tree would have been brought into the house or and these kinds of things but um as like a modern
00:11:20.840person who doesn't have that like yule association it just seems bananas yeah but it's like joyful
00:11:28.000bananas and those are my favorite favorite kind of crazy like you've seen me go like absolutely0.92
00:11:34.940lose my shit santa is coming yeah and he's coming up the road and i can see his chair0.95
00:11:40.420And I can see how I'm screaming because at some point in my life, I decided that if you're at a Christmas parade and you can get Santa to, like, make eye contact with you direct, or if you can get Santa to wave back, you're golden.0.99
00:15:32.040And then before I moved out to the country, the last one we did, if you remember this, Risa, I had recently watched like a short form doc about homelessness and menstruation.
00:15:42.180yes and what a difficult fucking process that is to deal with and so i knew that there were
00:15:49.360already going to be five or six people coming over so i asked everybody to bring a couple boxes of0.96
00:15:53.580tampons yeah and i did what we called a tampon drive yeah and we filled like two big grocery
00:15:59.680box bags and then my favorite part of the story is my husband who looks like a lumberjack very
00:19:25.100My sisters would go and they had these bonds with people that I felt like there was this secret that no one knew that I had had this painful encounter and I wasn't.
00:20:10.480And some of them are witches, you know, because they're really just going to talk to you about how you're going to change the world that you're in.
00:30:46.700Yes, and this is Selma God, Mistress of Business, and the Supreme of Montreal Coven.
00:30:54.180I'm clapping my hands, not too loudly, but yeah, I love that show.0.56
00:30:58.580And you two kind of inspired this year's Yule episode theme of Chosen Family because you're witches.
00:31:06.220But you've also really built a family together, like together and within your community.
00:31:11.380So we'll get into your shows and everything and all the amazing drag stuff and your beautiful coupleness and love and regard for each other.
00:31:19.020But I want to start sort of from scratch and ask, what is a witch and how do you fit into that?
00:31:26.800I mean, I have been practicing some form of witchcraft ever since I was in the sixth grade.
00:31:34.480And I kind of am one of those people that's like very vague and just kind of like, if you say you're a witch, you're probably a witch.
00:31:40.360i mean it's it's the you know working magic aspect but then you know we've seen a bajillion
00:31:48.680and four ways to work magic so like i'm not gonna judge certainly yeah there's we always say it's
00:31:54.620the least labely label of all labels because it really can mean anything that you decide that it
00:32:00.940means and and how do you practice if you don't mind getting into that a little bit like what is
00:32:06.380your personal practice like um uh so this is uma again um we've been told that we sound the same on
00:32:13.040the phone so i just wanted to clarify thank you so um yeah my my personal practice i mean um
00:32:19.380it's evolved over the many years that i've been practicing but you know i i tend to do uh i have
00:32:26.100an overlap between my religion and my witchcraft but there's this side that's very kind of like
00:32:32.980herbally sachets and and you know a lot of bathtub witchery is what i what i specialize in
00:32:40.440um so you know candles and herbs and flowers and and that kind of thing um and then in my
00:32:47.440religious side um i am a hellenic polytheist so i i worship dionysus and the ancient greek gods
00:32:55.560And I try to do it in a historically informed way.
00:33:01.300And then in my worship, I tend to use aspects of my witchcraft as well.
00:33:05.640So they kind of like cross over a lot.
00:33:08.140And how did you get drawn to these particular deities?
00:33:11.920Actually, it's kind of funny because like, you know, being the typical weirdo kid that couldn't be conformist in any way whatsoever.
00:33:20.660Like, when you start researching, you know, like, what ends up being, like, Neo-Wicca, you know, that's the gateway into so much witchcraft for a lot of people, the first thing that comes up is the ancient Greek gods, right?
00:33:33.840and so i was like oh that's so basic i'm not even and then i went i went the better part of
00:33:42.520of like 15 years um kind of feeling that way uh and then i went to a a pagan festival and i had
00:33:51.560been growing out my hair and somebody gave me a flower crown and then somebody looked at me and
00:33:55.480was like oh my god you look like dionysus which was really rich because i'm straight like i was
00:33:59.560straight edge at the time and so for those of you that don't know Dionysus is the god of wine and
00:34:05.200revelry right so like party hardy right and you were not consuming these things exactly I was I
00:34:12.880was partying and like we used to go to raves and everything but I was not consuming in any way shape
00:34:17.080or form and so I thought that was really funny but then it kind of like crept up on me that like
00:34:22.040everywhere I started going there was all of these symbols and these like I was getting vibes and
00:34:27.260messages kind of feelings from Dionysus and then my whole life went into chaos and then as I was
00:34:31.980researching him it was like oh p.s. he's a right he's a life ruiner um in the best way possible
00:34:39.740sort of like the the tear uh the tower in the tarot exactly yes that that's very that vibe
00:34:46.120and so I was just like okay listen like I've avoided this my whole life let's see what happens
00:34:50.980if i dive in and you know i've been doing it now for uh six or seven years uh just kind of like
00:34:59.240worshiping dionysus in that way so yeah and are you still straight edge um i am not although i
00:35:06.920still i've never done any drugs um i'm kind of waiting for that moment where it's like okay
00:35:11.960this is it this is the moment when i'm gonna do it 100 years old by the way when we're 200 years
00:35:18.740old I'm finally going to do it and it's going to be like a big
00:35:20.840experience I've decided it's going to be like
00:35:46.960to the original question and then meld into this one oh yes please i am not a particularly
00:35:52.180religious person um but i am a very um how could i put this i strongly believe in the energies we
00:36:01.860put out and and witchcraft and how to harness that energy so to me being a witch and witchcraft
00:36:08.000is channeling your energy towards goals if you haven't noticed i am the mistress of business
00:36:13.060I am a very pragmatic person. And to me, witchcraft is one of the ways to obtain your goals and one of the ways to focus your energies and your life.
00:36:22.580I love this that you say like a business, but I know it's not like some capitalist greedy. When you do your shows, you do like an even door split, I think, between everyone who performs.
00:36:36.000So how do you negotiate the business queen with the community building altruistic queen?
00:36:43.820Well, to me, that's part of business, right? Business doesn't mean capitalism. Business just means any form of exchange of energies, right? So for me, the moniker of mistress of business is just someone who is going to organize things in a way to achieve a goal. That is business, right? Let's be honest here.
00:37:01.920Yeah, exactly. It's getting shit done. And doing business doesn't mean being a capitalist asshole, necessarily. It's what our society has brought it to. But there's so many other ways of doing business. And I think I'm one of the people that proves in our community here that you can do business in a way that's sustainable and can lift everybody up. And that's one of the things I am very vocal about all the time. And it's very important to me.0.99
00:37:28.560Yeah, I've been to a few of the Coven shows, and they're always very emotional. And part of that is because of the way that you host. It's like, very welcoming. And very, I mean, it's tongue in cheek. And you know, there are bratty moments too, of course, it's a drag show. But the underlying current is like, you know, you are beautiful talking to the audience, talking to the performers, you bring your audience up on stage to have their own moment.
00:37:57.000So, again, I'll ask both of you, like, why is that so important to you?
00:38:01.620Why is this community building and uplifting, I guess maybe is a better word, aspect of what you do so important to you?
00:38:16.620And maybe, oh, well, we'll probably have stuff to add in a different direction to go with it.
00:38:20.520But let's just start with the aspect of drag, first of all.
00:38:23.860um drag has exploded over the past 10 years a big part of that is thanks to drag race um
00:38:30.160drag race yeah grace unfortunately the show is not perfect and neither is rupaul um so let's be
00:38:37.840real here there's some you know very problematic behaviors and things that have been said um
00:38:42.600and different people have different opinions but you know for the first of all i think drag is for
00:38:46.320everybody not just for cis white gay men so that's the first thing of wanting to build communities
00:38:51.700and make a difference um so those of you that are not familiar with drag i mean i'm not going to go
00:38:57.840and do the whole tirade about the difference between drag race dragula and drag ethics it's
00:39:02.740something you can look up really easily we've done a bunch of interviews about it if you look
00:39:05.900up our names you'll find a bunch of stuff i promise i definitely think there's sort of like
00:39:10.880what what y'all are doing is more like closer to dragula than to uh to drag race and and by that i
00:39:17.900I mean, not just the dark witchiness, but also the gender inclusivity, the broader range of what is being allowed to be called drag in that moment or to win a crown or whatever.
00:39:29.900Yeah, so I started basically doing Coven because Moxie Hollow, who used to do drag with Uma under another name, quit drag and was like, oh, I'd like to start doing it again.
00:39:41.380I was like, oh, yeah, you know, I could do that.
00:39:53.720And honestly, it just, I've been floored with the amount of support and how much the show means to everybody in the community.
00:40:02.440Because it does mean a lot to me, but I wasn't expecting to have this big of a reception on the audience end for the show.
00:40:08.920And I think for me, what makes it super important, I think what works for the audience is that it's not just a show of like, look how fabulous I am on stage.
00:40:17.340it's a show of yeah look how fabulous i am on stage and look how amazing we can all be together
00:40:22.240and let's voice these opinions and these thoughts and let's be there for each other
00:40:27.220i think that's the that to me is what coven is right it is a coven we're there to to lift each0.98
00:40:32.340other's energies up and you know what fuck shit up because um being kind and docile isn't always0.96
00:40:40.360the answer sometimes being angry is the right way to do things and there's needs to be space for0.98
00:40:46.540that even when you look at more liberal left spaces i think we forget that we can also be
00:40:52.060angry and that's okay and that's how we get shit done oftentimes if if you're not angry then what0.81
00:40:58.160are you going to change it's fine all this is fine this oppression is fine yeah there's a place0.79
00:41:04.280for everybody and everybody's needed but yeah i think uma has something to add there um i mean
00:41:09.280just for me in terms of of why the the community aspect is so important to the drag that we make
00:41:15.180honestly it all comes back to my first experiences with real live drag performers
00:41:21.040um unfortunately my first experiences were not positive with them a lot of drag at the time
00:41:27.780where i'm from was um was kids who were bullied for being femme for being queer they were bullied
00:41:35.260and then now that they had started doing drag they were the queens of the community so they
00:41:39.540became the bullies and drag was just kind of their opportunity to be mean to people with like a free
00:41:47.740license to do whatever they wanted to touch people how they wanted to comment on people's bodies and
00:41:52.200how they do things and how they talk and how they dance and i hated it it actually made me not want
00:41:57.920to do drag yeah and so when i started doing drag i said you know like i'm going to be an auntie i'm
00:42:05.760going to be the nice one that makes people want to come in to see the show i want people to leave
00:42:10.700my show feeling like they've been seen like they've been uplifted i mean of course you know
00:42:15.620like i've got snarky comments for everything i'm a very sarcastic person but i never i never want
00:42:22.360to turn it on the audience you know uh punching up is fine sort of deal but that's part of the
00:42:28.040reason why community was so important but also when i started drag we started outside of the
00:42:33.900village we weren't relying on the system that was already in place to get our names and our shows
00:42:40.720out there and so the only way that we were going to be able to have an audience was for us to
00:42:47.520reach out to them and to make them feel like they wanted to be there we were we were starting a new
00:42:53.300thing at the time there was nobody else out of the village that was really doing exactly what
00:42:57.500we were doing and so a big part of it was like we have to create the community that we want and that
00:43:03.880community is not going to stick around if we don't make them feel good about being there so you kind
00:43:08.100of you you get into it on like a practical level and then the more community that you build up the
00:43:12.620more you support the more you reach out the more you like the more they support the more people you
00:43:18.580meet and it just gets bigger and bigger and it sort of has become this beacon of light like selma
00:43:24.160can you tell the story of i believe it was demon who showed up looking for yeah you tell the story
00:50:03.460and then it comes out in other more nefarious ways, I think.
00:50:08.040I mean, my partner and I, I always say, we've been together for a long time too,
00:50:12.320and I say, you know, we fight more than I've ever fought
00:50:15.560in any other relationship up to this point,
00:50:17.960but we also resolve more issues than I've ever resolved
00:50:22.400with any other partner up to this point.
00:50:25.220And I mean, I think it's something that's worth mentioning outside of a romantic relationship, especially since you're talking about like, it's that it's that holiday time of year right now. Like, even when you're dealing with your family, the fights sometimes can be healthy, right? Like you have something to say, and you have something to learn. And that's the big thing with Selma and I is that when we fight, every fight is for a reason.
00:50:50.220it's often because of the same reason over and over and over again but there's always a reason
00:50:55.600and we both recognize that so like it's not don't fight and it's not wrap up every fight with a cute
00:51:02.260little bow it's make every fight worthwhile every time you fight make sure that you've
00:51:08.740expressed something that you needed to express but also maybe that you've you've heard something
00:51:14.460that your partner whether like the fight partner so whether it's someone in your family a friend
00:51:18.900your boss your your lover who cares but maybe you've you've heard something that they needed
00:51:24.460to express because if you're just fighting to get your point out then like it's not going to go
00:51:28.980anywhere but make every fight count honestly is one of the biggest things that has helped
00:51:33.980our relationship and it's something that people don't talk about because it makes it sound like
00:51:38.400we're in a weird unhealthy relationship but i think it's so normal and i love that you brought
00:51:46.980up the extending this into everyone in your life too like you said it's the holiday season so uh
00:51:54.300when you're dealing with your family i think choosing your battles but making every fight
00:51:58.980count is is very very very good advice because we've seen maybe your experience has been different
00:52:05.200but to me i've seen a lot of intersection between queer people and witches um have you found that
00:52:12.920oh absolutely and so i actually work at the the store here in montreal melange magic oh really
00:52:20.580it used to be the president of the montreal pagan resource center and i worked at melange magic and
00:52:27.300so like this conversation would come up a lot where it was um does witchcraft break people
00:52:33.060or do broken people come to witchcraft and i think that it's i think it's both um
00:52:40.300you break in the tower way yeah yeah definitely it's why we have so much crossover with like
00:52:47.160the the queer community it's these people that are searching for their power because they feel0.93
00:52:52.040less than or broken or helpless and then that's where we all find it right but uh sorry continue
00:52:58.840you were saying something no that that was my question like can you talk about this intersection
00:53:03.240between queerness and witchness and and as and then part b of my question i guess is um
00:53:10.840dealing with your family or people's families as a queer person or as a witch or whatever
00:53:17.340i'm using air quotes your difference you might bring in you might be bringing to your family
00:53:22.560um and just how to navigate all of that yeah i that's that's not even a question that was like
00:53:29.160Write us a manifesto in the next seven minutes.
00:53:36.040You know, put something to light here that was really interesting is that often people that are broken or seeking some power are attracted to witchcraft.
00:53:46.240And I think the big part for me in that is when you're a victim to a situation or something happens, it's the sensation of being powerless, right?
00:53:55.540and that's the sensation that nobody wants to be stuck with because who wants to be powerless
00:54:00.580um and witchcraft is one of the ways that you can gain control and power over your life and i think
00:54:07.440that's one of the biggest draws to it and once you realize that that you can apply that type of
00:54:12.400potential to everything in your life that you yes things can happen that are outside of your control
00:54:17.420but there's always something you can do you know like when people think of witchcraft whether
00:54:23.480you're thinking religious witchcraft or secular witchcraft everyone always thinks of like a
00:54:27.560cauldron and a candle and herbs and uh you know pricking your finger and the whole thing right
00:54:32.000but let's be real here after a certain point all witches eventually just start banging pots0.98
00:54:38.180like get the fuck out negativity you know when you're in your car and you're like gee i really1.00
00:54:45.960hope i get a parking space like all you do is wiggle your fingers and you're like witchcraft0.97
00:55:19.380the bare bones of you know a last second spell and i think that that's that's a really beautiful
00:55:26.780part of of that progression in our lives is that eventually we do find that power that we're
00:55:31.440looking for hopefully yeah um when it comes to family and stuff like that i mean um when i came
00:55:37.940out i was i was a neo-wiccan at first that's basically i went to catholic school until the
00:55:42.840sixth grade um i did my confirmation and then uh my godmother who for those that don't understand
00:55:51.560what a godmother is uh your godmother is basically if your parents die your godparents are the people
00:55:57.400that are in charge of your spiritual well-being within the church uh so for my confirmation my
00:56:04.040godmother gave me a book on greek mythology so the day i stood in front of the church and said
00:56:13.760i believe in the lord god our savior the the catholic the holy catholic church the spirit of
00:56:19.960all of this she gave me a book on greek mythology so obviously she was off to a good start
00:56:25.580um and then when i and then i immediately converted to neo wicca that summer um a little
00:56:34.260while later i i came out to her and basically she looked at me and she was like i'm worried
00:56:39.640that you're joining a cult and i told her i was like it's like the least culty thing that i could
00:56:46.780be doing because there's no central power i can't give money to anybody i don't know i don't know
00:56:51.160anyone so we're safe and that's bang on yeah right um and that's basically all i like ever
00:57:00.220since then i've just decided like i don't have to tell anybody um none of my family is involved in
00:57:06.040my spiritual life they never were uh even when i was you know uh catholic they they weren't really
00:57:13.540involved in my inside spiritual life and so they don't necessarily know what i get up to
00:57:20.280so I'm blessed that I have a family that like knows about my otherness and anytime I tell them
00:57:25.680anything they're kind of like oh well yeah I tell them that I'm moving to Montreal I tell them that
00:57:33.000you know I'm I'm gonna get married to a guy I tell them that I who like I can say that I'm I'm
00:57:39.020a Dionysian I can say I'm a witch I can say I do this that and the other thing I'm doing drag and
00:57:43.900basically everyone just kind of goes like stop trying to one-up yourself
00:57:46.840yeah i think both of us are very blessed that we have very um accepting families that are very
00:57:56.020open and and very close to us right like we were both very lucky to have that type of family
00:58:00.980dynamic um that being said we touched really briefly on the aspect of chosen family and i
00:58:06.320think that's a very important part of our lives too as queer people and often even as witches
00:58:10.200it's surrounding yourself with people that you connect with and and making bonds that are
00:58:15.360important right and that's what family is about it's being there for each other through the good
00:58:19.540times and the bad times and i think having that network can really be a lifesaver and i know that
00:58:26.260that's also again part of why community is so important to us is that selma and i we do recognize
00:58:31.680that we have a lot of privileges in our lives and whether it's it's you know uh financial or
00:58:37.640familial or you know any kind of privilege we have a lot of them yeah and so that means that
00:58:43.440we've got a lot of spoons, we've got a lot of spoons to spare. And so that's why we've always
00:58:49.780tried to make a space for people that need family. We know that ours will support us. And so we're
00:58:55.500out here trying to support people that need it. That's one of the big reasons why we've had such
00:59:00.580a commitment to this aspect of building community and recognizing our community. But not just saying
00:59:05.780like our community in the broad sense, but like really stopping and getting to know some of these
00:59:09.420people like i know when a particular member of our community has had a concussion and because
00:59:16.060she gets a lot of them and i know the story behind all of them and like i know when someone's having
00:59:21.280a hard time with their family and so we're there for them and that's part of the reason is because
00:59:25.020we have such a great family background that we want to we want to share that with people and i
00:59:29.980mean people people feel i think i think that connection that we want to have is real because
00:59:34.780we have people constantly messaging us talking to us and we have that relationship with yes their
00:59:39.000audience members but they are our extended family you know if someone writes me say hey the thing
00:59:43.780that happened in your show made me really uncomfortable i'll take the time to listen
00:59:46.940to them and understand and have a conversation with them about it because i'm not just putting
00:59:51.120on a show for my own pleasure i'm there it's supposed to be there for everybody and you know
00:59:55.820talking about uh witchcraft and everything i mean i think everybody that knows me and especially
01:00:00.760uma can attest to this i'm very much your guardian archetype i'm the protector the guardian the
01:00:07.600justice seeker the aquarium yeah i think that's something i try to really project in in coven
01:00:15.580that's like you know i'm the main host and that's something i want to project to people is that
01:00:18.680you're safe here you know and you always make sure to bring up that message at the start of
01:00:26.400i mean all the covens that i've been to it's like a call to arms you know yeah not hugging arms but
01:00:32.780A call to arms, nonetheless, against capitalism, against the patriarchy specifically.
01:00:38.960Why do you feel like that's so important to start your shows with this empowerment, political empowerment?
01:00:46.480Honestly, because I think that's one of the things that makes us feel the most like victims right now.
01:00:51.880It sucks all the energy out of all of us.
01:00:54.180The need to be productive, the need to make money, the need to be part of this capitalist system to survive.
01:01:00.180and let's be real here the world is on fire right now when you look around us and that sense of
01:01:06.160helplessness is just exhausting but knowing that we're there for each other and we're fighting
01:01:11.380alongside each other can be really uplifting and knowing that someone else gets it and you don't
01:01:15.640have to explain why you're depressed why you don't want to get out of bed like going to your
01:01:19.600nine-to-five job is a nightmare even if you love it or it pays well you don't need to explain that
01:01:24.800I get it you're in a system that sucks the life out of you and you know what yeah we have to
01:01:28.960operate within it now but doesn't mean that we can't be there for each other and keep fighting
01:01:32.860it beautifully said do you have any special longest night of the year messages for our
01:01:40.960listeners before i get i let you get back to your busy busy lives um i mean i think it's just kind
01:01:48.960of like that classic imagery of like there there's light coming you know you might you might be facing
01:01:54.780the wrong way in the darkness you don't see where the light is coming from you might not see it
01:01:59.560because it's just starting to grow you might not see it because there's an obstacle in the way but
01:02:04.520the light is there and you know we're in for the long night but you know we're gonna we're gonna
01:02:11.020dance we're gonna dance until dawn baby that's what we're here for i love that thank you so much
01:02:19.820Happy Yule. I'm going to throw now to my conversation with Monifa Walker, who's going to give us some astrological tips going into the new year. But thank you so much to the gods. Can you drop your socials or any kind of links that you want our listeners to know about you or last thoughts, anything?
01:02:41.420If you want to follow us on the social medias, you can look us up, Uma and Selma God, and God is G-A-H-D, like hot damn, like hot dogs, so G-A-H-D, you can find us on Instagram, I'm on Twitter, we're all on Facebook, or you can look up House of Laureen to know when we're doing different shows.
01:03:07.140um but yeah i mean uh we're we're here for you uh we want to be there for everybody as much as we
01:03:13.920can be so uh come to the shows give us a message uh say hi like we love we love to hear from
01:03:21.140everybody so thank you all so so much and uh god bless god bless next time we have you on the show
01:03:28.140we'll get into why you named yourselves the gods but we'll save that one for next time thank you
01:03:34.380so much and Merry Yule to you both. To you as well. Merry Yule Monifa. Thank you. Merry Yule.
01:03:46.440So some of our listeners might recognize you because you were on our Beltane Music Witches
01:03:51.520special earlier this year and you're here today to give us some astrology tips and tricks for the
01:03:59.100new year but before we deep dive into all that can you tell us about the musical composition
01:04:04.420project that you're working on that's related to all this it's 12 preludes of the zodiac that's
01:04:10.020not going to be the album title by the way but it is it is essentially uh 12 short preludes for
01:04:15.720each zodiac sign and then there's going to be some additional tracks at the end from um other
01:04:20.320classical composers and two will be from more uh modern day artists like 21st century artists so
01:04:27.420It's like a piano cover of a couple of songs, but yeah.
01:05:44.160that's their their way of kind of making a declaration they want to uh cultivate a
01:05:50.700relationship with you and that's what happened with me last year in January just kept getting
01:05:54.860these these dreams and I was like okay I'm listening and then it is interesting even after
01:06:01.120changing my business name there is still a few things I had to integrate about the energy itself
01:06:06.440so I had some very interesting experiences um but yeah it's helped me to grow really fast a lot
01:06:13.800much quicker and it's also something that I now integrate in my one-on-one work when I do
01:06:21.320like spiritual coaching and shadow integration with people so yeah it's definitely expanded in
01:06:27.820less than a year and the goddess Sekhmet has been a big part of that because she's all about
01:06:33.480drive and courage and a deep deep healing and it's like I can't there's no point me
01:06:39.860offering to help others to heal themselves if I'm not doing that work first so it's all falling
01:06:45.780synchronistically in place anyway yeah yeah and you mentioned a lot of these messages came in
01:06:53.140dreams and you did you mentioned shadow integration so since we're at Yuletide which is this dark
01:06:59.560dark time of the year um let's talk a bit about not demonizing the dark um because you said dreams
01:07:07.700Like dreams are obviously, I'm using air quotes here, but a dark place.
01:07:12.940But they're also a very creative space, same with, you know, the womb or planting a seed underground.
01:07:18.740Like a lot of creation takes place in these very dark spaces.
01:07:24.000So can you get into your perception of shadow work just a little bit?
01:07:30.220The first thing that I'd say is that creativity is related to divine feminine.
01:07:35.160so already um there's been like this unconscious conditioning that to be to be fear of darkness to
01:07:42.960be fear of creativity is to be fear of the um divine feminine within you or also known as the
01:07:49.700animal as people like Carl Jung used to describe it as and um in my experience the more you're
01:07:59.760focusing on just being good and just being positive and just being righteous and what I
01:08:07.340like to claim when somebody doth protest too much about those things what I actually observe happens
01:08:12.900and even in some experiences in my past is that you start experiencing things in your life that
01:08:20.240your conscious self really didn't want to experience because you've switched off to
01:08:26.200your unconscious and what happens is when you're switched off to your unconscious it kind of allows
01:08:32.480anything to happen now right because you're not governing it you're not checking it out you're
01:08:36.600not uh checking in to listen to it to integrate it so it starts acting out in more erratic ways
01:08:42.540to get your attention usually in situations with people or happenings and a lot of the time you'll
01:08:48.640be like why is this happening i don't get it and it's a way of your unconscious trying to get your
01:08:53.040your attention another way of trying to explain it um I don't know if anyone saw the film by
01:08:58.960Jordan Peele us but that's a really good I did yeah that's a great way of explaining um
01:09:05.960shadow integration because if all the people above ground choose to acknowledge that darker
01:09:12.920part of them that's still made up a part of who they are not just who they are entirely
01:09:17.520um would they have acted out in such a horrific and violent way my guess is no and that's what
01:09:25.220our shadow does a lot of the time um for instance you could be somebody that says continuously
01:09:30.420i really don't enjoy drama i don't enjoy conflict i don't know why i keep attracting it it's so
01:09:35.680annoying and then you keep falling into situations where you're continuously having conflict with
01:09:41.300people and having arguments with people until you really dig into that darker part of yourself that
01:09:47.920you've ignored that you've denied for so long that you um until you kind of make friends with it and
01:09:54.960come to an agreement with it and this is something that it again shows up in the dream space as well
01:09:59.620when this integration occurs you actually have different dreams where you realize that your
01:10:04.960light and dark can actually agree not having to do the same thing and when this happens
01:10:09.700it's really interesting you don't you tend to co-create less of those experiences not to say
01:10:16.500you don't have conflicts and you don't have situations that will still irritate you but
01:10:21.700you're not repeating the same patterns you're evolving and as you're evolving obviously the
01:10:27.440tests get harder but um shadow integration is something that's definitely uh it's a very deep
01:10:35.540and transformative medicine and it goes back to sex met as well if you're going to heal
01:10:39.740it makes sense to heal from the inside out rather than pointing at things externally
01:10:45.640to solve all of your problems for you and this is why i call you the astronomical psychologist
01:10:52.740because you really you take the stars and you take their patterns but you really put them into
01:10:58.860like our human lives and our psyches absolutely but it's like astronomy is i always say astronomy
01:11:06.660is just the study of the planets themselves and astrology is the behavior of those planets and
01:11:13.020how they affect everything including earth beings us and um something that i do actually do now when
01:11:19.960i work with people one-on-one which many um those two people have done in the past including car
01:11:26.020young is actually check their birth chart and actually see where they have um the most fears
01:11:31.620where they have the most blocks the most challenges but also as well where they have um the most uh
01:11:38.660shadow placements like their black moon lilith like their psyche um even their vertex because
01:11:45.080their position in the chart actually determine where they can get the biggest breakthrough
01:11:50.040through if they choose to be brave and invest in themselves and dive deep into actually getting to
01:11:57.960you know know who they are possibly for the first time in their life because we've talked to only
01:12:02.760acknowledge a half of ourselves or part of ourselves and when we integrate our shadow
01:12:07.460we're actually getting to know our whole selves and that can be startling at first naturally of
01:12:12.240course but then you get very very comfortable and then you realize that it wasn't actually you that
01:12:16.920was fearing that you was acting on the fear of others around you if you were to have complete
01:12:24.760approval for your whole self. I, and I'm going to guess some of our listeners too, I find,
01:12:31.220and maybe it's the math, maybe it's the complexity, but I'm super interested in astrology,
01:12:36.280but I find it very intimidating. So for me and for our listeners who are on the same
01:12:41.560page as me what's like a good entry point to start learning about astrology in a more
01:12:49.060defined way i mean i don't know um yeah that's been so complex that there isn't even a simple
01:12:58.360place to start well i was about to say that i mean i'm personally i'm very um good with maths
01:13:03.920and maybe i've taken that for granted um so i've always understood it and also there's there's so
01:13:09.940many connections between astrology and numerology as well but that's for a different conversation
01:13:14.760a different episode we'll have you back again thank you if anyone is i mean i have done many
01:13:23.940readings for people where they've had absolutely no previous knowledge to astrology they had no
01:13:29.540clue about their chart they only knew what their sun sign was and i do do those readings in a
01:13:35.260different way where I do break it down but essentially you know if even getting to know
01:13:41.660the personal planets is too much for somebody I'll just say get to know the three basics or
01:13:46.460the foundations which is your ascendant your sun and your moon if you really want to understand
01:13:51.200how you behave how you think who you are on a day-to-day basis and you can do that without
01:13:58.200having to look at all the other houses and all other planets but I will warn you that if you
01:14:03.360are somebody that gets into astrology or likes astrology which again is shown in your chart
01:14:08.600you will start to eventually find your own way of digging into that whether it's hiring somebody
01:14:13.820or investing in courses or investing in books but yeah for people that just look at a chart
01:14:20.640and just get nothing but confusion I would just recommend just look at the the main the foundation
01:14:27.380the ascendant the sun and the moon sign because they're the three most important from
01:14:33.020the moment of birth so ascendant sun moon yes okay i got it so now whether we're on this oh go ahead
01:14:42.580now i'm just going to say the moon is going to be more connected to your unconscious your
01:14:48.140subconscious your emotional health the sun is going to be more connected to your ego your
01:14:52.480confidence and that masculine energy the moon is more feminine energy and your ascending is
01:14:57.980more about your physical body and the first impression that you give people so if you're
01:15:03.320one of those people that continuously get told oh when we met you we thought you were like this
01:15:07.680and now we realize you're like this chances are your ascendant is different from your sun and
01:15:11.960moon sign that's so useful thank you so much that is an excellent jumping off point for me I feel
01:15:19.360less intimidated already so um what uh what can you tell us about the stars for 2020 for the new
01:15:27.760year what should our listeners be prepared for um there's two main uh two main dates i'm going to
01:15:36.120talk about obviously we all know that jupiter is ingress capricorn which is going to be very
01:15:41.200interesting because it now joins that capricorn stellium and there's going to be um obviously
01:15:47.520there's going to be expansion in capricorn things and that one of the main things that capricorn
01:15:51.620rules is institutions like the government like the police um even institutions that are higher
01:15:59.040than that so every country on this planet is going to be experiencing a razor focus on this area but
01:16:06.240also they're going to see there's going to be a lot of judgment and a lot of scrutiny and out of
01:16:10.900that judgment and scrutiny is going to become a lot of it's going to come a lot of changes
01:16:15.700and that's with the Pluto and Saturn still playing its part in there now March 21st Saturn
01:16:22.500officially ingresses Aquarius now for many of us out there in their late 20s um including myself
01:16:30.660this is the actual activation of the our Saturn return for anyone that has a Saturn in Aquarius
01:16:37.040and it's very very very interesting Saturn is naturally one of the rulers of Aquarius
01:16:43.100or the ruler if you're talking about traditional astrology and aquarius is about connection and
01:16:50.460it's about a long-term vision you know having what you have you know high hopes friends but
01:16:57.720it's also about freedom and saturn is about longevity it's about long-term you know visible
01:17:03.120results public image and aquarius is about publicity so what we're all going to be activating
01:17:09.180in our lives is how can we all seek a healthier way a better way of achieving freedom on an
01:17:20.060intellectual level on a spiritual level on all levels and how can we maintain that on a long
01:17:26.000term basis and this is something that's going to continue on for the rest of this century for the
01:17:32.700next century because uh we are edging that ever so closer to the edge of the age of aquarius sorry
01:17:39.320i was gonna ask about that there's a theory that um we are entering a new dawn so uh a lot of us
01:17:49.200feel a bit helpless and a bit like just freaked in the face of what's going on in the world right
01:17:55.420now but astrologically can you tell us about this new dawn that is approaching it's happening now
01:18:02.180It's something that I actually wrote about in an article that was shared in Rich magazine.
01:18:07.120We're still currently in the age of Pisces, so we're still at a point of disillusion,
01:18:11.500but we are going into the age of Aquarius.
01:18:14.320And actually the planet that's going to really display a visible shift towards that is Jupiter.
01:18:24.640And Jupiter is one of the social planets.
01:18:26.400And Jupiter will go retrograde on May the 14th and will be direct again on September the 12th.
01:18:36.880And then towards the end of 2020, it's then going to enter Aquarius.
01:18:42.100And this is going to be a phenomenal moment for us all.
01:18:46.120You think about the things that Jupiter rules, like education, like justice, the higher self, how we think, our belief systems, even how we travel.
01:18:55.840this is all going to have a massive shift and we're all going to witness and experience it
01:19:01.600by 2020 most of us are going to be feeling it by March especially those of us that are going to be
01:19:06.840activating their Saturn return in Aquarius but for everybody globally they won't be able to ignore it
01:19:12.940when Jupiter goes into Aquarius because that's going to mark the first shift into how we think
01:19:20.640And once Uranus goes into Gemini in, you know, five, six years time, Pluto will be in Aquarius by then as well. So we're going to actually see a massive paradigm shift in consciousness within the next 10 years, which is very, very interesting.
01:19:36.720and you know uh there are a lot of things that we do need to address and we do need to change now
01:19:42.200but am I one of those people that thinks that we have you know less than 10 years I actually don't
01:19:49.040but again that's another conversation for another day
01:19:52.360you're hopeful you are hopeful well you know that is the nature that's one of the uh natures of
01:20:02.700Aquarius to have high hopes and wishes but yeah I am very hopeful but not only that um my soul is
01:20:10.460knowledgeable and so is everybody else's and once we tap into that and we align with that
01:20:15.300a lot of fears that we've been conditioned with that we've had hardwired into our brains for years
01:20:22.340we will start to release and that's all I'll say about freaking out any of your listeners but yeah
01:20:27.840let's let's have this as our mantra then you said my soul is knowledgeable yes listeners let's all
01:20:37.260say that together right now my soul is knowledgeable so return to that if you get freaked out like i do
01:20:44.460so okay monifa having a human experience um it'd be very weird if we didn't get freaked out now
01:20:52.720again especially for me freaked out is sort of my baseline the world is an insane place but it's so
01:21:02.000beautiful and and so hopeful so um monifa can you give us like just a couple things that we
01:21:09.480should be focused on headed into the new year as we go into 2020 yes um do you protect the moment
01:21:18.540is now invisible and he becomes visible again at the end of january and i'll just say uh get
01:21:26.380prepared for the shifts of the nodes as well that will come around about spring summer time they'll
01:21:31.960shift into germany sagittarius where they're actually exalted so for everybody um whether
01:21:37.860you study a shoulder or not or you seek out on a shoulder like myself um if you're in your late
01:21:43.86020s definitely check out your Saturn return and how best to navigate that because Saturn returns
01:21:49.780can be a really amazing experience to enjoy if you have the knowledge about how it's going to
01:21:55.420affect you and also everybody check where Jupiter is both natalie and where it's going to be in your
01:22:03.180chart where Capricorn is as well because it's going to be a shift in expansion and growth that
01:22:10.060no one is going to be able to ignore so be prepared or get trampled pretty much yeah
01:22:18.580you know it's that is the nature of aquarius in capricorn you know what are the structures in
01:22:25.800place how can i be um independent you know and you combine the two it's like well yeah now the
01:22:31.500time to um not get not make excuses and point fingers and actually like okay now it's my
01:22:37.260responsibility what can I do to improve things what can I do to be the good that you seek you
01:22:43.520know and trust that my soul is knowledgeable exactly thank you so much can you tell us your
01:22:51.840links one more time for our listeners who might want to contact you by the way Monifa is in London
01:22:56.880England Mary Ewell all the way from England so especially if you happen to be here by the way
01:23:02.560if any of our listeners are in the uk you definitely want to hit her up otherwise you
01:23:09.240can you can definitely do that online so tell us your links one more time and then we'll wish you
01:23:14.420a merry yule and a good sleep thank you and thank you for having me back by the way um yeah thank
01:23:19.960you for coming you're a joy and a treasure you know that oh thank you um so yeah my business