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00:00:17.220You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch.1.00
00:00:41.420I am so happy to be here today. Thank you for inviting me.
00:00:45.900Can you further introduce yourself to our listeners? Who are you? What do you do?
00:00:51.080absolutely i am beverly smith also known professionally as dr beverly and when i say
00:01:00.380professionally i mean i am a root worker i come from a background of um i come from an event
00:01:11.800evangelical christian household and when i was in my single digits i saw and communicated with
00:01:22.520earth spirits garden spirits um nature spirits and of course that was discouraged frowned upon
00:01:31.700and not believed by my parents and other adults in my life so i learned to keep that to myself
00:01:40.740Once I was an adult and living on my own, I did find a Druidic group and I found that Druidism really did feed my soul as in Druids are very in tune with the cycles of the earth, with the seasons, with earth spirits and nature spirits,
00:02:10.100with the cycles of the moon so that really I became a tree I was I was born a tree hugger
00:02:16.380and um being a druid allowed me to really expand my spiritual connection with my home planet with
00:02:29.660Gaia with this beautiful rock that we're on and uh I felt very connected to and entitled
00:02:38.600to study druidism because while i am of jamaican heritage my
00:02:46.600grad i have a my paternal great-grand either great yeah he's my dad's grandfather yeah my
00:02:55.700paternal great-grandfather was an irish immigrant to jamaica during the irish potato famine
00:03:06.980And he stayed and married a local Black Jamaican girl, and they had a big family, and I am descended from him.
00:03:17.560So I felt very comfortable and entitled to study drumanism.
00:03:22.800Fast forward 20 years, I was feeling like I needed something Black, that I needed to also honor the majority of my ancestors who are Black people.
00:03:38.020And so I found Hoodoo, which is also called Conjure, and which is the practice of African-American herbal magic, herbal medicine, herbal lore.
00:03:57.480And folks that work with roots, and by roots, I mean all kinds of plants, all the parts of the plants, the gums, the resins, the stems, the flowers, the pollen, the roots, the leaves, all aspects of plants are referred to in conjure or hoodoo as roots.
00:04:25.700Now, let me just get this last little bit out before I forget.
00:04:34.300Please don't confuse hoodoo with voodoo.
00:04:43.500Voodoo is actually an incorrect pronunciation of the Haitian religion, which is Vudan.
00:04:50.420and hoodoo is not from Haiti and hoodoo is not an initiatory hierarchical
00:05:04.680practice which voodoo is okay so a lot of people like to interchange hoodoo and voodoo
00:05:16.720And that is incorrect. So I just wanted to make that clarification really quick. But that is who I am right now. I'll always be a druid. I have the nature spirits in my body, in my blood, in my heart and in my soul.
00:05:34.620But I'm loving for about the last decade or so being root worker. And so I do offer my services in root work, whether it be cleansing, whether it be jinx breaking, whether it be blessing, whether it be increasing prosperity.
00:05:56.900I do offer those services to anyone who comes to me needing those services because Root Work
00:06:06.880and Hoodoo, they address need. They grow from a culture, the African-American, the enslaved1.00
00:06:16.180Africans, the descendants of enslaved Africans, who grew from need, the need to be invisible when
00:06:27.560you escape, when you try to escape, the need to keep master from raping you, the need to keep
00:06:38.200your family together from being sold off. And then, you know, it evolved to the need for a good
00:06:45.300crop, when we were sharecroppers, a good crop, the need to protect your property, the need to
00:06:55.240keep the money coming in, the need to keep your husband or your wife at home instead of going on
00:07:01.920the great migration, you know, to look for jobs. So Hoodoo and Conjure have evolved from a sense of
00:07:10.640need. And root workers have come around to help fill those needs, to help solve and offer
00:07:23.220solutions, to help solve problems. So that's why I like the practice of hoodoo because where a lot
00:07:37.180of other magics are very magical systems are very ceremonial. And there's so much beauty in the
00:07:45.140ceremonial, you know, there's so much beauty in calling down the moon. There's so much beauty in
00:07:51.780invoking divinity. There's so much beauty and power and, and, and, and, and, and just so much
00:08:00.300loveliness around that there is also so much loveliness in the practical
00:08:07.660and so I love them both I love the ceremonial and the the ritualistic and I love the practical
00:08:18.020let's get down to nitty-gritty let's get you something that's going to help those clients
00:08:22.760keep coming to you let's get you something that's going to keep that paycheck coming
00:08:27.220i love root work for that for that reason and um and i hope i haven't talked too much
00:08:36.900no like you you can't see me but i'm just like nodding and groaning and nodding
00:08:42.900excellent excellent yeah but you sort of already um started talking about something that i wanted
00:08:49.480to bring up i read something that you wrote online that was in response to someone having
00:08:55.480told you that they didn't mix their spirituality with politics? Oh, oh, no, no, no. Well, you know
00:09:02.060what? I would never be in a position to tell people how they should be spiritual. I am very
00:09:12.120well aware that spirituality is a very personal thing. And that's why for me, I cannot separate
00:09:20.000my politics from my spirituality because politics is about what happens at home.
00:09:28.780You know, the old phrase is all politics is local. You know, politics is what happens at home. Yes,
00:09:36.440the national does affect us in a big way. We've all seen this. And that is why I don't shy away
00:09:47.400from mixing my politics with my spirituality now when it comes to my clients when it comes to
00:09:55.780other people I keep my politics out of it however what when people say what religion do you practice
00:10:04.060Beverly I say I practice the religion of justice justice is my focus so while I do
00:10:13.140root work for people while I do help them get the one they love, help them reconcile, you know,
00:10:19.240help them make that money, help them find that perfect job, help them keep protection around
00:10:26.160their household and around their possessions. I also want to bring justice to their lives.
00:10:40.760You know, I believe that without justice or accountability, there can be no peace.
00:11:01.080There can be no tranquility without justice.
00:11:05.600because when people have done wrong they should be held accountable and when people have been
00:11:14.840wronged they should have justice and and so I feel like that there is the balance in life
00:11:25.300is that and that's why I do work that's why I do call myself a double-handed worker or a worker
00:11:34.700who will work with the left hand because you know especially in magical circles especially
00:11:43.020in magical circles particularly in so-called wicca that sort of lowercase broad umbrella
00:11:55.160term in those types of circles there's a lot of love and light love and light I love love
00:12:04.680and I love light. Oh, right. But remember, we all love love and light. We all do. And we all need
00:12:12.420love and light. But remember, there is no light without the darkness. Was it Terry? Was it Terry?
00:12:18.460Oh, a famous author, Terry Pritchard, maybe. I don't even know if I'm saying his name right.
00:12:24.220And I'm just paraphrasing. When I wish I had the quote, the exact quote, because the exact quote
00:12:30.440is brilliant. But to paraphrase, it's something like, no matter how fast light moves and thinks
00:12:41.140that it's there first, whenever light arrives, it finds the darkness waiting for it. There is light
00:12:50.920and there is dark. I work with both the right hand and the left hand in that I want to bless
00:12:59.320and uplift and heal and encourage. But I also want to bring accountability. I also want to make
00:13:13.380right. I also want to bring balance to what has been done wrong. So when it is justified
00:13:28.680And that is a very important word right there. I consider myself a justified worker. When it is justified, I will use my left hand to cross. I will use my left hand to get revenge. I will use my left hand to slow down or stop the stem of evil.
00:13:54.000it's like love and light people are like we can't do anything but if I see a rapist that's running
00:14:01.680around in the community and not I know who he is or she is I will use everything in my magical
00:14:09.560arsenal to shut that person down now you may ask me how do you know who they are
00:14:15.860in some cases you know who they are because they got off out in court on the technicality it's
00:14:22.500made the news. In other cases, the way I call myself justified is because I will do divination.
00:14:32.780I will do divination to ask my deity or my deities. Sometimes I'm asking on behalf of myself.
00:14:45.940Sometimes I'm asking on behalf of my clients. I have clients that only worship one God. I have clients who have several. So that's why I say deity or deities.
00:15:00.420But divine answers are requested through divination.
00:15:10.460And only when the green light is given on a certain situation for a certain individual, then I consider myself a justified worker.
00:15:21.460And also through divination tells me how far I'm able to go in so-called punishing that individual.
00:15:31.600So that is why I call myself a justified worker and why I feel totally comfortable, completely and utterly comfortable with working on both.0.97
00:15:44.220I sleep like a baby at night working on both sides, with both, with both hands, because I know I'm not, you know, somebody's not looking at me going, oh, bitch, those shoes don't even, don't even look good on you.0.98
00:29:52.560stop them from their evil and their harm and that's part of my magic my part of my religion
00:30:00.060is bringing balance through justice and so my social justice focuses on police brutality
00:30:14.860It focuses on juvenile, the juvenile delinquency system. Oh my goodness, the abuses that they do to our juveniles. Abuses, you know, the prison system, sex workers, you know, battered women.
00:30:41.740I definitely personally like to donate to battered women, but we're not talking about
00:30:48.320donations here. We're really, I mean, those are all important, but I think you're trying to focus
00:30:52.260mostly on magic. What we can do is a lot of protection, magic, name people individually.
00:31:02.160If you know their names, name them collectively as a group. Example, battered women.
00:31:09.360example kids in the system and then put a protection spell on them you know um all
00:31:24.460of us witches all magical spiritual individuals who practice the form some form of magical work
00:31:37.000no protection spells. Light a candle for them. So you don't have to know who you're targeting
00:31:48.360precisely to do social justice magic. Light a candle for them. Write a prayer or a petition
00:31:59.100for them. Do a ritual or a circle around juveniles in the system, around battered women, around
00:32:10.140binding and holding back those who are physically abusive, like police and correction
00:32:20.140officers. We don't have to know their names. We know their prototype. We know their archetype.
00:32:29.100and we know that these things are being done. So we can do protection work to protect those
00:32:35.700victims. We can do, you know, blessing work to bless the people in these categories that we want
00:32:46.880to protect. We can do, you know, community outreach. We can do community outreach through
00:32:58.620our donations and through, we can also through our social media platforms or our podcasts or
00:33:08.700our blogs and our vlogs, we can also draw attention and raise awareness about these
00:33:17.860subjects. And that is what I feel is the most potent and most powerful social justice magic
00:33:28.860is to draw awareness. Because when people start becoming aware, you know, the first part of
00:33:38.260change, of any change, is to be aware of it, is to be aware of the need for change, and so by raising
00:33:46.760awareness, I really feel that we're doing a lot as magical people to help progression, to help
00:33:55.420manifest change, to help manifest progress. Yes, it's been super useful for me, too, to sort of
00:34:05.840rethink donations reparations as ritual sacrifice you know oh wow yes I had this ten dollars and
00:34:16.380in the name of whomever or whatever I'm going to you know sacrifice this ten dollars and hope that
00:34:22.380it goes to a greater good you know so that again for me instead of just like you know instead of
00:34:28.820just thinking like oh you just can't throw money at it but you also have to you know so yeah donation
00:34:34.520donation reparation this ritual sacrifice has been sort of very used absolutely and that can
00:34:39.660be turned into such a beautiful personal or even group ritual that can be turned into such a
00:34:46.120beautiful ritual because what is ritual to us as magical people it's really an act of making sacred
00:34:56.260it's an act of making something sacred and here you are saying i'm going to give this donation
00:35:05.660may it be sacred may it go to the greater good may my may it may its absence from my life
00:35:19.460enrich someone else's life this is balance this is balance I love that I love that
00:35:30.220yeah and again like I I feel like um you know I because I'm a witch I already know that I have
00:35:40.180more than I need if that makes sense you know as long as I can take a breath and and you know feel
00:35:46.280the sun on my face, then, then everything, you know, I have a roof over my head and I have food
00:35:51.540in my cupboard and anything beyond that is more than I need. Know that we do have more than we
00:36:00.500need. And if the need arises, we can manifest. We can manifest. Yes. I just, I want to repeat
00:36:13.160one thing that you said, anything that we do to help each other is resistance. That's beautiful.
00:36:20.060I really want to keep that in my journal and in my heart. Absolutely. Because you see the powers
00:36:27.960that be and just life itself wants to wear us down, wants to take from us, wants to, you know,
00:36:35.660every time we turn around, something is costing the rent, the taxes, the gas, something is costing
00:36:42.080us, time, money, energy, everything. So resistance is life. Resistance to say, you know what?
00:36:53.560okay, this is, I am being taken from, but I can add to, I can add back to by helping someone else.
00:37:12.560And that's going to help me. And the thing is, if we all have this mentality of whatever we do for
00:37:22.280each other is resistance and resistance is life, we are all going to raise each other up. As my
00:37:30.280friend says, all boats rise with the tide. A high tide raises all boats. So what uplifts you
00:37:43.820uplifts me, when I, when I raise you up to your highest good, then I feel like I have just
00:37:53.300perfected another notch. Oh, here I am talking druidism that we're constantly perfect. You know,
00:38:02.340we're constantly progressing towards perfection because we're all children of God. And if we're
00:38:07.420children of God, we're young gods in the making, right? We're young gods and goddesses in the
00:38:11.280making and we're just perfecting we're perfecting and so when I raise you up when I honor you when
00:38:19.580I acknowledge you something god-like has improved has enlarged within myself and I love that
00:38:28.660I have another question that's too big for a podcast oh my goodness but I want to I want to
00:38:35.900directed at you because like you you know you are a druid a root worker also a yogi so i want to ask
00:38:44.080you like what what's your like guttural reaction when i ask what is the connection between the
00:38:51.160divine the soul the self and nature oh my goodness well wow well that is that's a powerful question
00:39:01.460I mean, that's almost like asking, what is the meaning of life?
00:39:28.300I've had a practice for about 30 years.
00:39:30.460and I like to say that it's a very consistent practice, but it's been on and off, but I would
00:39:39.360say the last 10 years or so, it's been very, very consistent and I swear by yoga. I swear by it
00:39:49.260and yoga is not just the practice of the stretching and the different poses that you
00:39:56.320move through. Yoga is an eight-pronged practice, and it's way too much to get into in one podcast,
00:40:05.800but I will say that the basic tenet in yoga is that to be completely healthy or to strive
00:40:16.620towards perfect health, to progress towards greatest health, you must engage the body,
00:40:24.360the mind and the spirit and some some people might refer to that as the soul
00:40:31.720but you must be you must bring all of those into you must engage them all at once and that is
00:40:44.820when you are practicing yoga the way that you should be striving to practice yoga it should
00:40:51.580be within a meditative state, which engages the mind. It's a state of mindfulness. This was also
00:41:02.120huge in the Druidic practice that I was part of. I was part of the Druidic craft of the wise,
00:41:12.940the American right, not the American alt-right, but the American right as in R-I-T-E.
00:41:24.340And that, the basic tenant of our practice was daily meditation. You started out0.74
00:41:34.180slow and short. And we were striving for an hour daily practice, 365 days a year. That was what
00:41:48.620we were striving towards. And I've got to confess, I never really got to that place, an hour every
00:41:55.960day, daily. But the mindfulness allows the spirit to speak. When you quiet the mind,
00:42:11.260your God self, your goddess self, that part of you that is divine, because if we are children
00:42:21.820of God, we are divine. That part of you that is divine, your spiritual self, your soul allows you,
00:42:33.080when you quiet the mind, either in meditation or in yoga, and bring a mindfulness or a mindlessness,
00:42:44.680However people like to say it. But if you quiet that mind through chanting or breathing, I was never a chanter. I found chanting to be very distractive. So what I did was I listened to my breathing.
00:43:04.760when you quiet the mind, you allow the spirit to speak. You allow the soul to teach you. You allow
00:43:16.480your chakras to become aligned. And I know it sounds like a lot of gobbledygook, but
00:43:22.780while the body is going through the various asanas, which are poses, a Sanskrit for poses,
00:43:30.640while the body is going through the various asanas, the mind is quiet and your God self
00:43:38.320is speaking to you. And I feel that through the practice of yoga, I've been able to align
00:43:50.600my physical, my mental, and my spiritual. And I have gotten my greatest insights.
00:43:59.220and I've had my greatest spiritual, I'm not going to say awakenings because that almost
00:44:05.720sounds very cliche, but I've had some great spiritual clarity during that practice.
00:44:23.920In that case, then I would suggest a mindfulness practice, whether you want to sit and meditate, whether you want to do breathing exercises, whether you want to do chanting, that will help to quiet the mind and allow you to sit with your God self for any period of time.
00:44:47.540And I always suggest start with three to five minutes at a time and build up as gradually
00:44:57.620or as quickly as you need to go, because it is all a very personal thing.
00:45:04.760But I tell you, once you get the chatter, once you get that mental chatter under control,
00:45:11.720even if it's just for a few minutes a day, that makes a huge difference also in your physical
00:45:20.500health. It's unbelievable. But I would suggest to anybody, start with deep breathing exercises,
00:45:31.600sit in a comfortable position, or lie in a comfortable position, and breathe into a count
00:45:38.260of eight and out to a count of 10 and do that as long as you feel comfortable and when you're done
00:45:45.900move on to the rest of your day and you this is going to start coming so comfortably and it's
00:45:52.940going to start getting to the place where you're like wait wait i got i i gotta go and take my
00:45:57.420breathing my breathing time you're gonna love it that's great i think and especially because
00:46:05.420breathing is something that we all know how to do and it's free it doesn't cost anything
00:46:12.000it doesn't cost anything but it's amazing how shallow how how shallow our breathing is
00:46:18.420um that's why the count of eight is so important because you're breathing slowly and deeply
00:46:26.080and deeply um when we really pay attention it's kind of shocking at how we all are doing how
00:46:35.340so many of us, not all, but so many of us are really doing chest breathing, just breathing
00:46:41.960from the chest. Breathe so that your belly expands, so that your belly expands as you breathe.
00:46:51.320And that is really diaphragmatic breathing. When you've got the diaphragm fully engaged,
00:46:58.660that is, if you watch children, and when I say children, I mean little ones under the age of
00:47:04.900five, if you watch them, their bellies expand when they breathe. It's that as we grow older
00:47:11.780and as we start dealing with sort of deadlines and worries and daily concerns and daily schedules,
00:47:21.920our breathing becomes more and more shallow. If we just deepen our breathing,
00:47:30.040you will start noticing that your shoulders don't start scrunching up towards your ears as much.
00:47:40.420That's my biggest thing. Once I notice my shoulders are climbing and I'm starting getting
00:47:45.460that tension in my neck, I start doing the deep breathing and allowing those shoulders to fall
00:47:52.040back down, to ease back down. So yeah, it's going to really just breathing, just doing a nice deep
00:48:03.780breathing. It's amazing how much body awareness that will bring. And that's very important in
00:48:13.840the practice of magic too. In the practice of manifestation, we really need to be very aware