Missing Witches - WF Erica Feldmann： Like Witchcraft, Anti-capitalism Is A Practice

00:00:00.000 The Missing Witches fundraiser for Native women's shelters is now complete.

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00:00:12.000 If you love the Missing Witches project, consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches. 1.00

00:00:19.000 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:22.000 Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. Be a witch. 1.00

00:00:26.000 You must be a witch. 0.87

00:00:28.000 hello and welcome to the missing witches coven it's always a party here today our honored party

00:00:38.060 guest is an author a business owner and the head witch in charge h-w-i-c erica feldman hi erica

00:00:51.760 hi i'm so excited to be here me too the last time we spoke we were on instagram live and we

00:00:58.660 were talking about books and page the junk witch turned me on to itituba which like became my

00:01:06.020 favorite book of the year it's so incredible when was that i don't know i think everybody

00:01:13.580 was that 2020 was that 2021 like was that this year i don't even know i mean i had a great time

00:01:20.660 If you have any sense of time for the last two years, please email us at missingwitches.com.

00:01:26.540 No, at gmail.com because I want to know how you're keeping track of time.

00:01:30.680 I literally have no idea.

00:01:33.860 Please put some brain cells in a little jar with a cork tap and mail them to us.

00:01:39.480 Send them off to us.

00:01:40.960 I mean, you and I were talking about how like literally everyone we know is in some kind of crisis right now.

00:01:46.180 So we are being super cutting each other lots of slack.

00:01:50.060 not being too worried if we don't remember what year it is, cutting ourselves the same slack that

00:01:54.660 we're trying to cut everybody out. But for our listeners who maybe don't know who you are,

00:02:00.280 who missed that Instagram live, who have been missing out on all of the publicity for our

00:02:04.560 fundraiser, which Erica is a part, tell our listeners who you are. Okay. Well, my name is

00:02:10.980 Erica Feldman and I am the head witch in charge of Housewitch Home and Healing in Salem, Massachusetts.

00:02:17.200 it. I guess just a little bit about me personally, I grew up in the Midwest working class, which

00:02:24.660 definitely has like informed my point of view and my, you know, locational identity, especially

00:02:32.160 moving out to the East Coast for graduate school, which is definitely sort of like an elite sort of

00:02:40.620 thing. Um, and so I think, um, so I moved out to Salem. I fell in love with it. Um, I studied

00:02:49.860 witches in grad school, um, at Simmons. I got a master's degree in gender and cultural studies

00:02:56.360 and my research concentration was witches. Um, I have been a witch all my life as long,

00:03:04.180 as far back as I can remember. Um, I am lucky that I did have a family where

00:03:08.660 we weren't so much like um performing magic or casting spells but it was sort of like um

00:03:19.100 like my grandfather was a really um incredible person and and manifester and so you know he

00:03:28.400 would always say I'm a witch so we just always kind of had this understanding of like oh well

00:03:32.120 grandpa john's a witch and you know we're all witches on this side of the family it wasn't a

00:03:36.200 taboo thing at all. It was like completely normal. Meanwhile, I mean, my dad was a practicing

00:03:40.400 Christian and like went to church every Sunday. And so, um, anyways, so finally, you know, when

00:03:48.740 I was finishing up my undergrad, uh, in history, I took a class at Cambridge university in England

00:03:54.780 called, um, witchcraft in early modern England and realized that, you know, which is aside from

00:04:00.800 being like rock stars to me, like the cool, like literally like the top coolest thing you could

00:04:06.380 ever be in your life for me was a witch. Um, and so I realized that through studying, you know, um,

00:04:15.460 which is in a historical context that it really married, like all of my interests, um, in this

00:04:21.860 really satisfying way, which, you know, is history and feminism and the occult. And, um, I think what

00:04:28.540 I found most interesting in grad school and still kind of do is this like the opportunity of

00:04:32.880 witchcraft to be sort of like a language of marginalized folks, a language and a technology

00:04:41.500 that is outside of the, you know, normative hegemonic culture and how powerful that is

00:04:48.260 for people who are othered either by, you know, the powers that be or, you know, who make a choice

00:04:56.140 to be othered, um, as much as it can be things like that can be a choice, I suppose. Um, and

00:05:03.840 so that was, it was really interesting looking at those things in graduate school, um, from like a

00:05:09.800 post-structuralist theory perspective or media studies perspective, because those, those, um,

00:05:15.620 kind of paradigms are looking into, you know, these kind of like alternate languages or alternate

00:05:21.040 ways of being in the world, which I think, you know, the study of witches and witchcraft lends

00:05:25.280 itself beautifully to that. And then after grad school, I took a few years to kind of all come

00:05:34.180 together. But eventually, Housewitch as a concept was kind of downloaded from Spirit. And it had a

00:05:44.680 few different iterations before I opened the shop in 2015. And now we have the shop and the online

00:05:50.820 shop and I have my book house magic and we have a line of ritual cleaning products called counter

00:05:57.240 magic. And yeah, that's where we are today. That was like, that was maybe like the quickest bio

00:06:04.720 I've ever done. Okay. I just wanted you to say your name, but I'm a Gemini. I'm going to tell

00:06:15.140 you right now i'm a gemini sun and mercury so um i'm gonna talk a lot but um yep scorpio rising

00:06:21.940 and pisces moon so um which i think is like a pretty witchy top three but we always say um

00:06:29.660 please expand please expand people you won't have to you won't have to say that

00:06:34.720 no need to apologize for a long story first time i had to say please contract

00:06:41.240 too many details no always always more details and I have like about a million follow-up

00:06:50.240 questions for your introduction but first in my excitement I was hoping that you would do us the

00:06:58.540 honor of helping me calm down my excitement by giving us your grounding meditation from your

00:07:06.780 book house magic and then yeah I think it's the medicine of the moment for me too and that'll

00:07:13.340 that'll help me like get all of my like super crazy tee he's out of the way and and then we

00:07:19.160 can continue with my million questions for you cool yeah perfect so um when I first really

00:07:27.580 started practicing witchcraft as an adult which was after I moved to Salem um and I you know was

00:07:35.020 struggling in some ways. And, um, I don't remember exactly how psychic meditation came into my life.

00:07:41.780 I have a person that I'm like extremely close with, who is a clairvoyant. Um, so I'm sure it

00:07:47.620 was sort of through a suggestion of his, uh, and, and then I found like an incredible book and, um,

00:07:53.420 I started doing a version of this grounding meditation, um, on my way to work in the morning,

00:07:59.540 on the subway on the way to an incredibly toxic job that, you know, I really needed to be able to

00:08:07.540 be centered and just really be the best version of myself so that I wasn't kind of like getting

00:08:13.280 into this like toxic energy. And I think what's amazing about a grounding meditation

00:08:19.460 is that you can do it on the subway on the way to work. And it is such powerful magic. I think

00:08:28.000 some people really think they need to carve out a lot of time or be in a very specific context to

00:08:35.200 be doing ritual. And of course, some rituals call for that. Of course, you want to always bring

00:08:41.700 intention into any practice that you're doing. But at the same time, if you are really spiraling

00:08:48.700 on the bus because you're about to go somewhere you don't want to go, you can 100% close your

00:08:54.220 eyes for 30 seconds and ground and you will be in a much better place to face whatever it is you're

00:09:01.160 about to face so I definitely knew I had to have a grounding meditation in the book um and so this

00:09:07.300 is where this is how it all shook out so I'm gonna read this so everybody just kind of like

00:09:13.060 get comfortable um you know maybe just take a one nice deep breath just settle into wherever

00:09:22.960 you are in the space. I'll just read straight from the book so I don't have to improvise and

00:09:32.780 we can just all stay in flow together. So a grounding meditation is a great introduction

00:09:38.260 to working with psychic space and is a crucial exercise for feeling safe and supported. It is

00:09:44.380 very simple to do, yet I think you'll be amazed at how effective it can be at helping you feel

00:09:49.360 centered and balanced in all areas of your life. Grounding works by creating a connection between

00:09:54.980 our physical body and the center of the earth. So sit in a chair with your back straight and your

00:10:02.020 feet flat on the ground and your hands on your thighs face down. And then just close your eyes

00:10:10.300 and breathe deeply, but calmly. Now I want you to imagine a beautiful green glowing sphere of light

00:10:25.280 spinning at the base of your spine and just take a few smooth, deep breaths to connect with it.

00:10:33.400 now picture that ball of light dropping through your body through the chair down through the

00:10:47.700 ground all the way to the earth's core as it drops imagine it's leaving a green cord behind it

00:10:56.100 connecting you to the center of the planet

00:10:58.680 feel the connection between the base of your spine and the earth you can begin to imagine

00:11:06.540 the nourishing energy of the earth running back up your grounding cord securing the connection

00:11:12.400 feel free to bring that energy all the way up into your solar plexus

00:11:17.240 from where you can flow it can flow freely throughout your body

00:11:21.280 send any negative anxious or unwanted energy down your grounding cord where the core of the

00:11:29.980 earth can recycle it into positive energy and you know you can really sit here in this place

00:11:40.960 for as long as you want um you can just i mean think of really anything that's made you feel

00:11:48.620 anxious or any negative energy from whenever today last week 2020 whatever if you feel like

00:12:00.320 you're still carrying it send it down that cord and then when you're ready open your eyes stand

00:12:07.140 up and stretch and come back to the room a different person slightly

00:12:15.400 so yeah um I hope you enjoyed that it's definitely always such a good reminder you know if you're

00:12:27.580 feeling a little scattered that you can really just like hook that little cord to the center

00:12:33.040 of the earth and you know once you've done it really even just a few times you sort of like

00:12:38.340 get the imprint of that feeling and you can and you truly can connect with it you know anywhere

00:12:44.220 and just help you feel a little bit more solid and a little bit more well grounded right I I love

00:12:51.480 this idea of going beyond the ground to ground ourselves and and digging to the core of the very

00:12:58.520 earth how much more grounded can you possibly be than like the center of the earth I mean truly

00:13:05.440 you know because it's like I don't know for me like I'm such a literal person that I'm like okay

00:13:09.160 if it was like not the core, then who knows, there could be an earthquake that would like shift my

00:13:14.460 grounding cord or, you know, some like horrible construction, like bulldozer or something comes

00:13:19.900 along. It's got to be all the way in that core, you know, and there's so much like energy in the

00:13:24.860 core of the earth. And, you know, something I really love is like that, you know, you can give,

00:13:31.220 you know, kind of your worries to the center of the earth and it can, it can recycle it into

00:13:37.020 positive energy um so it's not like you're like just dumping your your problems on mother earth

00:13:44.740 you know like she can do something with them so turn them into hot magma and use them to fuel

00:13:50.640 our existence even oh yeah yeah you mentioned that you use this grounding as a way to ground

00:13:59.520 yourself before entering a toxic workspace can you maybe tell some of our listeners a little bit

00:14:06.960 about how this magic and other magics can help them to sort of survive in these environments

00:14:13.100 yeah absolutely I mean um I think like so much mad the foundation of so many magical practices

00:14:25.100 really has to just come from like you being a like centered person with an awareness of your own

00:14:33.400 energy. Um, and you know, and I say an awareness and, you know, in some ways it's like a control,

00:14:40.940 but I don't really like that word, um, control, but although I will say like, I have used the

00:14:47.420 acronym, which woman in total control of herself, um, for a long time. And I, I do think there's,

00:14:53.040 you know, it's obviously a little cheeky, but, um, if you, it's like getting pulled into

00:15:02.240 you know think about like something really like frenetic like I don't know why this is like really

00:15:08.060 dumb but like um you know when like they're pulling lottery numbers which I never watched

00:15:12.620 the lottery I have no idea but this is just spirit of sending me like this visual so um you know like 0.97

00:15:17.500 in a thing where it's like the balls are all like flying around in the little lottery thing and

00:15:21.680 she's like picking them out well I think of like energy like that right so like at the time like

00:15:26.260 I was working in a hair salon that's what I like did while I was in college and grad school and

00:15:29.880 in hair salons there's like a lot of really big personalities and it's a really like emotionally

00:15:34.060 charged environment and um you know sometimes that leads to real chaos and real toxicity and

00:15:40.880 again not just in hair salons but in a lot of places and um so if you picture those like lottery

00:15:46.260 balls kind of flying around in this thing and then you go into it it's so easy then to get

00:15:52.340 picked up and you become one of these balls swirling around flying around and um then you're

00:15:58.500 reacting, you know, you're not, you're not operating from your core, you're not operating 0.61

00:16:03.860 for your from your authentic, like energy, you're operating in reaction to all these other things

00:16:09.940 around you. And not only does that like not feel great, you know, if you're matching energy with

00:16:15.480 people that you don't want to match energy with, like, that doesn't feel good. And there can be a

00:16:22.700 lot of effects, lasting effects of having to be in that over and over again, any child of, you

00:16:28.340 know who's had a traumatic upbringing myself included can tell you that you know that the

00:16:33.140 effects of that reverberate all of these years of matching energy with chaos or you know toxicity

00:16:40.940 eventually that becomes part of your energy and so um energetic hygiene is really important and

00:16:47.900 grounding and centering yourself is kind of like i think step one in spiritual hygiene and in

00:16:56.420 taking care of you know your own energy so that you can be operating from exactly the the place

00:17:01.220 that you want to be operating out of and that's called power you know it's a need that is

00:17:06.660 empowerment um so you know that no matter how these balls are flying all over the place

00:17:14.580 you know who you're walking in as and you know who you're walking out as and if you know those

00:17:20.800 two things, then I think, you know, you're going to be in the place that you want to be in rather

00:17:28.280 than where other people can take you. Does that make sense? It makes absolute sense. And you just

00:17:34.460 got me thinking about how like, we're forced to react to whatever is the culture in our workspace.

00:17:41.820 And often workplaces are entirely homogenous by rule. You have to wear this, you have to,

00:17:49.720 you know behave this way you have to do this in this certain you know this is how we do it this 0.96

00:17:55.920 is how we've always done it and so as a as now a business you're a boss a witch boss now um so how 0.60

00:18:03.980 do you bring that from the top down to your work environment i have to tell you i mean i really put

00:18:12.660 like my mental health and like my yeah like staying centered and staying grounded it's a

00:18:19.500 huge priority for me because I never want anybody coming to work here feeling like it's a toxic

00:18:25.360 environment and I mean being a business owner like I'm not perfect and I'm not anybody's mom

00:18:31.020 and I and there's there's a lot of different um there's just a lot of different factors and I just

00:18:39.440 feel that it's really important, um, that I show up for my staff in a way where they

00:18:46.820 feel safe and, um, they feel, they don't ever feel like, um, you know, I don't, I don't

00:18:55.300 ever want to act in a way where they feel anxious or, um, like they, or misunderstood

00:19:01.900 or like there's a lack of consistency, just kind of all of these things that I think parents

00:19:06.140 kind of try to, you know, create that kind of environment for their children. And I don't think

00:19:12.560 of my staff as my children. I don't, you know, we don't have a lot of like family, you know,

00:19:16.740 kind of stuff, because even though I definitely have love for them, and I hope they have love for

00:19:22.100 me too, you know, there's just, it's a question of boundaries, really, right? And I and so many

00:19:30.140 people I know did not actually really grow up knowing what healthy boundaries look like. And

00:19:35.000 And even myself, I know that when I first started running this business and was first managing staff of my own as opposed to managing other people's businesses, I have had to do a lot of work around figuring out what kind of like appropriate boundaries look like while also trying to run a business that prioritizes empathy and prioritizes compassion.

00:20:00.880 and it's a fine line you know and I think I probably don't always walk it very well but at

00:20:09.720 the end of the day even just the consideration of like okay I'm in this role of authority which

00:20:17.020 again it's not like I'm like a hard ass on anybody right but you just in implicitly I hold power I'm

00:20:23.620 I'm an authority figure as being like the one that signs the paychecks.

00:20:28.020 But someone that, you know, maybe these folks are, you know, look up to, or, you know, just

00:20:36.060 see as kind of an elder.

00:20:37.140 I'm definitely, I think I'm like 11 years older than my next youngest or my, yeah, like

00:20:42.080 the oldest person on my staff.

00:20:43.820 You're not exactly a crone yourself.

00:20:45.740 So you must have quite a young staff. 1.00

00:20:47.860 No, they're, I know they're, they're like the youngest millennials and then like zoomers 1.00

00:20:52.900 And, uh, I mean, they are the, you know, young, young people are so cool. 1.00

00:21:01.060 Um, I just, I sound like a total old person, like saying that, but I think we all know

00:21:06.760 like, no, I mean, that's honestly like, yeah.

00:21:10.320 Um, but you know, I just, I love my, I do, I really love my staff and I look up to them

00:21:17.560 in so many ways.

00:21:18.200 And so I just always want to make sure that I'm showing up for them and not putting them

00:21:22.660 in a position.

00:21:22.900 place where they have to do like grounding meditations on the way to work to deal with

00:21:28.300 my toxic energy, you know, but I just know, you know, from working for small businesses for a

00:21:33.260 long time, you know, when it is one person in charge, like there's not an HR, you know,

00:21:39.020 like a wing of this business, you know, and there really aren't for a lot of small businesses. And

00:21:45.160 So a lot of times you're at the whim of like one person and being that one person, it definitely

00:21:53.280 there's a lot of pressure and there's a lot for me anyways.

00:21:56.400 And I just take really seriously my role in setting that tone and, um, you know, knowing

00:22:03.920 that because we don't have like an HR department or whatever, um, there is no one really aside

00:22:13.720 from me to address issues. And so everybody has to feel comfortable enough coming to me with

00:22:19.960 whatever it is. And it's a lot of work and, but it's, that's the work for me because everything

00:22:27.380 else feels like just the best time I've ever had. I mean, we just all have so much fun and it's like,

00:22:32.040 I, I, we just, all we do all day is just trying to figure out how to like teach people to do

00:22:38.120 witchcraft and like empower themselves and, and, you know, be anti-racist and anti-capitalist.

00:22:43.200 And it's like stuff that I just like would do in my free time on my own, you know?

00:22:47.800 And so that's not really doesn't feel like work to me, you know, but what feels like

00:22:51.700 work is this, you know, really just trying to make sure that I'm my best self because

00:22:56.300 I'm the leader and I never really saw myself in a leadership position in my life.

00:23:03.500 But once I got here, you know, I realized that I really wanted to take it seriously

00:23:07.620 after having so many bad bosses, you know, it's one of these things, right, where I've

00:23:12.480 had way more instruction in how to not be a boss, honestly, than how to be a good boss. And so that's

00:23:19.820 why I think it's just kind of a lot of work for me. Because I haven't really had the best example,

00:23:25.180 if that makes sense. You know, I mean, I definitely think that you we can learn as much from bad role

00:23:30.440 models as we can from good role models. But the experience of learning, of course, is quite

00:23:36.060 different yeah you you brought up um something that we talk about around these parts all the

00:23:42.220 time is this notion white feather hunter put it the most succinctly so we give her the credit for

00:23:47.380 this quote is that great witchcraft is inherently anti-capitalist and we believe that but at the

00:23:54.020 same time as we say to our our patrons who are so generous and making their ritual sacrifice

00:23:59.040 monthly to help fund this project um we we live in the world you know like we're all looking

00:24:05.560 forward to this beautiful utopia where we can just make sure everybody's needs are met with

00:24:10.060 you know common communal farming and everybody's treated beautifully and perfectly unfortunately

00:24:15.600 we're not there yet so we have to balance our need to be anti-capitalist in philosophy and in

00:24:24.040 practice with our need to eat food and keep a roof over our heads so I wanted to come to you

00:24:30.500 specifically you to talk about this because you seem to be really nailing this balance between

00:24:37.060 running a successful quote-unquote profitable business that is growing and you know your

00:24:44.320 your work is has expanded into a book I know you started your business as like a little

00:24:50.680 thing that you were just kind of doing and you know growth growth growth how do we deal with

00:24:56.680 unchecked growth, this desire for unchecked growth when we're running our own business?

00:25:02.180 Can we be satisfied with like a plateau? Anyway, I just really would love to mute my microphone and

00:25:09.340 just have you go off on this subject. I mean, I could talk about this for a thousand hours and I

00:25:15.060 feel like I do talk about this with like my staff and other people that, you know, we work with

00:25:19.720 like pretty much constantly because just like anything else, I think anti-capitalism is a

00:25:25.240 practice as well. I mean, like none of us, like truly, unless you have the ability to just be

00:25:30.180 like, I am going off the grid in my like electric vehicle and will rely on no one and no structures

00:25:40.120 and no organizations and like nothing. I mean, you have to participate in capitalism, you know?

00:25:45.960 And so, you know, and I think it's important to just kind of make the distinction right away that,

00:25:51.140 you know, there is a difference between like mercantile capitalism, which is like, I'm going

00:25:57.280 to buy, you know, a bag of wheat with six seashells and, you know, whatever, like what people did for

00:26:03.540 thousands of years and like what we're doing now, which is like late stage hyper capitalism,

00:26:08.240 which really started in, you know, earnestly in the 1800s, late 1700s, early 1800s with,

00:26:18.280 you know, the industrial revolution in Britain. I mean, I studied Russian and Soviet history in

00:26:24.760 college. And so I actually read a lot of, you know, kind of Marx and Lenin. And so I was like

00:26:30.560 19 going to like, you know, the socialist convention at University of Illinois. And,

00:26:35.640 and, you know, and what I'll say about that, though, is too, is that like, the problem there

00:26:40.880 is like, there's a lot of gatekeeping kind of stuff when you get into these really like hardcore,

00:26:46.880 like socialist um organizations and um so that honestly like wasn't really my home either but

00:26:55.540 I'm really grateful that I got that perspective so early on um one of my best friends is like

00:27:01.100 you have been screaming you have been working late-stage capitalism into like every conversation

00:27:05.920 for like 20 years at this point and I'm proud of that but I'm proud of you for that but I think

00:27:13.680 what it is really for us and for me. And again, it's like a practice. I, I, you have to kind of

00:27:20.000 hack capitalism, I think is what it is. Right. And so, um, so for example, for the most part,

00:27:30.000 the vendors that we work with are all small or micro businesses that are, you know, for the

00:27:37.500 most part owned by you know women identified folks queer folks people of color um which is 0.98

00:27:45.440 certainly so how is it you know um nefarious or or um sinister if to be in you know engaging in

00:27:58.360 this kind of trade where the people i'm engaged like the people that are being supported are like

00:28:03.880 exactly the people that I would want to support. You know, it's not, it's not, um, these big

00:28:09.660 corporations. I'm not stocking anything that comes from, um, you know, like unfair labor practices

00:28:17.460 or, um, you know, just a lot of the, just unsustainable practices and, and, and, um,

00:28:25.840 corporate, you know, again, like hyper-profit motivated businesses. It's like, you know,

00:28:36.780 my friend Cass, like in her workshop in Providence, just making bath bombs, you know what I mean? And

00:28:41.680 what's awesome about Housewitch is that that is what Housewitch is made up of and almost

00:28:48.500 entirely, you know, I think the only thing at this point that we really carry that's like mass

00:28:52.740 produced are the books that we get from corporate publishers. And, you know, even in 2020, that was

00:28:58.740 one of the things I did when we were kind of pivoting for the pandemic was like, all right,

00:29:04.460 well, I don't, these publishers don't need our money right now, you know, but, you know, Brandon

00:29:09.040 of Hills and Holler down in Austin, who I know is like one person that like screen prints things in

00:29:14.160 their home or whatever, like does need our money right now. And so I think it's just being really

00:29:20.000 thoughtful about where you are doing business and who you're doing it with and what that exchange

00:29:26.060 is like. Is it fair? You know, it's like as a retailer, I might be able to take something that

00:29:31.440 someone makes for a certain price and mark it up way more than what they would. And I could

00:29:37.040 probably still sell it, but that's not how that's not fair. Like that's not how it works. Like

00:29:41.780 that's why we're in the situation that we're in is that, you know, it's just greed. Right. So as

00:29:47.760 long as you're like kind of just always questioning yourself, like, am I making this decision from a

00:29:52.060 place of like greed or from a place of like, I want to make money. I love making money. I love

00:29:58.280 that my business has grown as much as it has. I love that it is profitable. I'm super, super proud

00:30:03.620 of that. And I don't feel any type of way. I don't feel any conflict around that at all, because I

00:30:08.500 know that all of the money that flows through this business and around this business is, like I said,

00:30:13.900 truly supporting like the best people who I know also have like really ethical business practices

00:30:19.420 and, you know, sustainability in mind and fair labor. I mean, that's a huge thing. Right. And

00:30:26.700 I think it's really, um, even for me, like over the last couple of years with this, like there's,

00:30:34.060 I've had a huge wake up. I mean, I've always wanted to pay people as much as I possibly could,

00:30:38.120 but really having this wake up around like, it doesn't matter what everybody else is paying for

00:30:45.460 the same position. If people can't pay their bills, like why would people come to work if

00:30:51.500 they can't pay their bills? And I think there's just so many things that we take for granted.

00:30:57.800 Well, if it's retail, it should be, you know, 15, $16 an hour. You're working in retail. It's just

00:31:02.640 a job a kid gets. We're not living in that world anymore. I don't hire high school kids. I hire

00:31:07.660 people who have, you know, degrees or have done advanced studies on their own. And, um, you know,

00:31:14.520 they're in their twenties and they have to pay rent, you know? Um, and if they can't pay their

00:31:20.100 rent based on what I'm paying them, like, why would they like me at all? And why would they

00:31:23.680 want to come to work and why, you know what I mean? Um, but yet there is this like vibe. And

00:31:28.260 I think we've seen this just come crashing down over the last couple of years. And I love it.

00:31:32.040 this vibe of like, well, why would I pay $5 more than I was paying before the pandemic? And it's

00:31:39.040 like, well, because you can't find any to anybody to work for you for that $5 less anymore, because

00:31:43.820 people are like, I'm not doing this. And there's still so much resistance around just like paying

00:31:49.680 people more. And I'm here to say like, as a business owner, like just like pay people more,

00:31:53.900 like it's not even that much of an expense. And it will literally like transform your workforce

00:32:00.180 because, you know, all of a sudden it's like,

00:32:03.180 they don't feel like you're just getting them

00:32:06.200 for the cheapest possible amount

00:32:09.160 that they can get you to do that labor.

00:32:11.700 You're like saying to people and people who,

00:32:15.640 like I said, retail is an interesting place right now

00:32:18.320 because I think traditionally it's seen as like this place

00:32:20.820 where young people, unskilled people work.

00:32:27.520 And so you just don't have to pay them very much, right?

00:32:29.200 It's like customer service and it's just kind of like, you know, um, whoever you get, you

00:32:34.620 get, and, and, you know, it's, it's X amount and, you know, um, and I think that's really

00:32:40.120 shifting in a really wonderful way.

00:32:42.740 And, um, again, I'm shifting along with it.

00:32:46.160 I'm not, I'm not trying to be out here saying I'm like way ahead of the curve, but it's

00:32:49.980 like, when you really look at it and you're like, all right, if I just paid that person

00:32:53.140 like $2 more, I know what a difference it would make in their life.

00:32:56.380 What difference does it make on my bottom line? I promise you business owners, it's like, you wouldn't probably even want to notice it. And it's really just about putting, I think, for people who I was a worker bee for, you know, 20 years, I worked for other people.

00:33:13.460 and I think once you flip yourself into the other you know position where now you're you know the

00:33:23.720 boss or the employer um there's so much unlearning to do there's so much unlearning to do and I what

00:33:31.880 I would find is I would get so like frustrated and like um just kind of like upset when I would

00:33:38.220 put myself in the position like kind of in the energy of like bosses that I had had before like

00:33:43.180 small business owners and I just like found myself I'd get like really frustrated like I

00:33:47.440 like I had given myself all this permission to like get really frustrated about things because

00:33:51.520 that's what I had seen you know like so put upon to be a business owner just so like oh well you'll

00:33:57.720 never understand all my responsibilities and how I have to consider all of these things and you know

00:34:03.860 and I would just and then I like realized like what if I just wasn't like that like what if I

00:34:08.080 just literally was like, this is my dream job. I could have never even imagined that this is a

00:34:13.860 reality that I could have. Um, and that, yeah, there are responsibilities. Of course, there's

00:34:19.500 a ton of responsibility that comes along with being a business owner, but I don't have to take

00:34:23.280 on this, like this just resistant, frustrated, um, like I have all, I have all this permission

00:34:32.860 to just take up this space in this kind of like negative way, just because I'm the boss, just

00:34:37.160 because this is my space. I had to unlearn that. And it sounds like, again, from like a witchcraft

00:34:42.420 perspective, it sounds like, well, duh, you don't want to like be a jerk in your own space. And like, 0.99

00:34:48.020 but like I said, I mean, I think there's this like vibe of like, all right, I finally made it. I'm

00:34:52.960 the boss. I can be a jerk now. Do you know what I mean? Anyways. And, and so even I had to like 1.00

00:34:58.940 push back against that and just be like, or not, or you just be thrilled to show up here every day

00:35:03.420 because you are, you know, and that's not to deny that, you know, again, it's not always like super

00:35:10.300 fun. And like, I definitely have, you know, responsibilities that, um, I wish I didn't,

00:35:15.440 but it's just, I don't know. All I can say is like unlearn, just like wake up every day and

00:35:21.920 like try to find a new thing to unlearn because I think more than even like learning witchcraft

00:35:28.400 practices or like learning spells or like learning associations of, you know, Zodiac

00:35:34.680 with crystals and, and with tarot and all of those things are important and will probably

00:35:40.520 come to you pretty easily and naturally.

00:35:42.240 If you're just interested in those things, the real work is the unlearning because we

00:35:48.180 just have so many bad ideas steeped into us.

00:35:53.140 And you can tell by the way, the whole world is falling apart.

00:35:57.840 And I think that's okay because the way that we've got it should fall apart.

00:36:04.860 That needs to fall apart.

00:36:07.360 Do you know what I mean?

00:36:08.680 So anyways, I've just found all of these little ways that were just like, not, you know, not

00:36:14.880 super, like I wasn't super conscious of, but that I just was like, oh, this is how I understand

00:36:21.700 what it is to be in business and it doesn't have to be like that at all. And, um, so we work from

00:36:31.600 that place a lot. I, um, there's a business, um, called sister, um, who they had, um, a feminist

00:36:42.100 business school that I went through it right after I opened the shop, probably like a year,

00:36:48.080 year and a half later um my friend Rachel Howe from Small Spells who is an incredible artist

00:36:54.700 and tarot reader and astrologer um handed me a card from sister um that was the 12 principles

00:37:01.840 for prototyping a feminist business and I'm looking at it right now because I have it posted

00:37:06.500 up behind my on my window in my office um because it I don't know if I would have been able to do 0.99

00:37:15.060 the like complete reorientation um that I needed to do around business had I not seen this because

00:37:21.600 I think when she came to me with this it had been like a year or so and so the store had resonated

00:37:27.980 and and people were loving it and I was getting tons of really good feedback about it um but I

00:37:33.720 didn't really know how to be a business owner and I didn't really know how to be a boss especially

00:37:37.700 because I don't resonate with most tenants of like capitalist business practices and specifically

00:37:44.860 like patriarchal business practices. And so I just think the work that they did in terms of

00:37:51.680 kind of working out this difference between, you know, a patriarchal economy and like what a more

00:37:57.440 feminist economy looks like and, you know, ways that you can bring in feminism to the way that 0.99

00:38:03.280 you run your business. For me, one of the most important ones is about bringing empathy into 1.00

00:38:13.020 your business, um, divorcing from the idea of like the meritocracy, I think for me personally

00:38:20.380 was very, very important. Um, it's, you know, the myth of the meritocracy, um, the myth that

00:38:28.100 like some people deserve things that, you know, it's just, it really, you really need a complete

00:38:35.080 kind of paradigm shift. I feel like, um, if you want to be in business and not just really like

00:38:40.400 follow the rules. And I think growth, you brought up growth. And I just want to say, like, I think

00:38:46.320 that is such an interesting topic because like people ask me all the time, like, when are you

00:38:51.580 going to open another location? Like, what is going to be next? And I'm like, I'm so chill,

00:38:56.820 just like living my life with my like nice manageable business. Like I truly do not

00:39:03.080 understand the impulse. Of course. Like, do I have dreams of a house switch in every city? Yes,

00:39:08.860 of course, am I going to like destroy myself and have like no, um, comfort and like no standard

00:39:16.540 of living to like get there? No. Or even just destroy the ethos of house, which as it is to

00:39:23.560 get there. We are chilling. You know what I mean? Like we're not, we do not dream of labor at house

00:39:28.800 which, you know, we are like, we want to like hang out with our friends who come in. And when I say

00:39:34.400 friends who come in, I mean, everybody, because, you know, we always say like, how many friends

00:39:37.960 do we meet today um and hang with our friends and like make enough money to pay our bills

00:39:44.380 and support really cool people and artists we're not trying to take over the world you know that

00:39:50.400 sounds stressful to me and the the most important reason though is really that like right now

00:39:58.500 and this was so important you know during the pandemic um I'm the queen of the castle like I

00:40:06.240 get to make, I get to call all the shots. And if I want to close my shop down for three months,

00:40:10.840 because COVID is raging and I don't want to, you know, put my staff through that. I got to do that.

00:40:19.320 You know, we did that several times when COVID was, you know, when the outbreaks were really

00:40:24.080 bad because this is a tourist town. And so even though like we're in a place where a lot of people

00:40:29.500 were on board with masks and vaccines and all that kind of stuff, like being in a tourist town,

00:40:34.020 Um, we get a lot of visitors who like maybe aren't from those places and, um, I just fully

00:40:41.460 closed the shop and we just ramped online because, um, I just wasn't going to do it.

00:40:47.260 And I just know that, you know, from a lot of other people being like, oh, I wish we

00:40:51.780 could have done that.

00:40:52.400 I wish my boss would have done that.

00:40:53.780 Like, you know, man, yeah, I wish I had like the online store so that I could, you know,

00:40:58.880 do those things.

00:40:59.520 if I wanted to grow, I would have to take on investors. And see, that is where capitalism

00:41:06.620 goes crazy. It's like, as soon as you have to answer to other people about why you're not

00:41:13.380 making more money or like how you're going to make more money, then it becomes about making money,

00:41:18.940 not about, I want my staff to pay their bills and be able to like go out to a nice dinner.

00:41:24.600 I see them every day. I can say like, Hey, what's going on? Are you all right? Is there anything I

00:41:29.500 I can do that. Once it's about making money, you're just only, you're working for your board

00:41:35.160 of directors, you know, or your investors or both or whatever. No, thanks. You know, no, thanks.

00:41:43.580 I am totally good to bootstrap, which is, you know, also kind of like a misnomer, but, you know,

00:41:50.320 to just grow this organically, how it wants to grow. And again, in a way where it really serves

00:41:56.340 me and my co-workers rather than the other way around yeah I have this little like visual in

00:42:03.960 my head of like a a cartoon greed monster coming up to you like are you sure you don't want to do

00:42:09.540 this and that and you saying to them I am unlearning you something that I think we can all

00:42:16.940 take unlearn the greed because you use the word steeped we are steeped we are tea bags

00:42:22.420 steeping in the boiling water of capitalism and it seems like there's no way out but

00:42:27.800 you are an example of just like life's not fair but people should try to be

00:42:32.760 and that's how you're doing your business I'm trying I mean it just it doesn't you know

00:42:38.780 just doing things like business as usual just is so boring to me and I just couldn't

00:42:45.440 I just couldn't do it it's so much more interesting to you know have it be this

00:42:49.760 practice of like yeah how like how anti-capitalist can um a gift shop be i don't know let's find out

00:42:57.920 together right we are we are finding out together you know we are doing it and you know it's like

00:43:03.940 also using our platform you know we work with a mutual aid group here in salem called solidarity

00:43:08.860 north shore and we help them um get donations for their free store and obviously we you know we just

00:43:14.780 donate a portion of our sales to them, um, frequently and stuff like that. And I think

00:43:20.420 it's just really like thinking about profit in a way where like, great, if you are making a profit,

00:43:26.820 but then what can you do with it other than like, put it in your pocket? You know, I, I,

00:43:31.440 because that's what it is, is just that business owners really like feel entitled to build a

00:43:37.980 business with as cheap of labor as they can possibly find and then pocket the rest of the

00:43:44.720 money. And I'm not saying that this is like everybody. And I'm not saying that that even

00:43:48.920 makes you a bad person. That's just what we're taught. That is what we are steeped in that you

00:43:53.680 are supposed to do. Like you are a smart business owner. If you pay people less is like the vibe

00:44:01.480 and you're like, wait, what? And then you like have a business where like your coworkers are

00:44:06.280 your friends and you're like, well, I don't want to not pay, like, what am I going to show up in

00:44:10.580 like fancy new clothes all the time? And they like can barely survive. Like that's what, that's not

00:44:16.020 who I am. That's like, not what I, I, that's not capable. I'm not capable of like operating like

00:44:21.260 that. So, um, you know, I just think that's what we're taught that it's all about. And, um, I I'll

00:44:29.500 never forget, like I sit on a, um, this is like a sidebar, but it feels important to mention. I sit

00:44:35.220 on a, um, committee here in town with a bunch of other, uh, business owners and like the head of

00:44:41.520 the chamber of commerce and, um, just, you know, some other kind of like community-based initiatives.

00:44:48.040 And, um, you know, I think it was like late last year, early this year, you know, we have,

00:44:54.620 we have a real like labor shortage, you know, hiring shortage around town. And, um, you know,

00:45:00.420 so they were kind of like asking people for ideas and, you know, I'm the only openly anti-

00:45:05.140 capitalist person on this committee, you can imagine, you know? And I said, you know, well,

00:45:10.400 you just have to pay people more. I mean, that's literally it. I mean, you just literally, there

00:45:14.120 was like a, there was like a, an initiative where people were going to go around and like ask small

00:45:18.620 business owners, like, what, what are your pain points here? And like, how can we help you? And

00:45:23.400 I'm like, your people just need to go around town and like tell everybody to just pay people more.

00:45:28.160 And that's just it, you know? Um, and we got to the head of the biggest bank here in town. Um,

00:45:35.180 who's a guy named Jason, who's great. And, um, you know, he said, look, uh, this might be weird,

00:45:40.680 but I completely agree with the anti-capitalist, uh, anti-white supremacist socialist, which on

00:45:47.920 the committee, um, I see everyone's balance statements. I see everyone's profit and loss

00:45:53.680 statements. And so many business owners just waste money that they could be using to pay

00:46:00.780 their staff more. And it's just this culture of exploitation is just so ingrained in us

00:46:08.040 that it's like when you start to untie that and think about just like, well, yeah, why does

00:46:13.620 anybody work? Well, so that they can put a roof over their head. So if they can't put a roof

00:46:17.760 over their head, why would I expect them to work for me? But a lot of people do is what I'm here

00:46:23.360 to say and a lot more people did before um you know a lot of these sort of like upheavals that

00:46:30.060 have come over the last couple years um where you know now I do see that the median kind of hourly

00:46:35.800 wage um at least in Salem has gone up quite a bit and I'm happy you know and I to keep up with that

00:46:42.000 and I'm happy to um because like and I don't have to tell you this but it's just like that's

00:46:48.040 community. I mean, that is anti-capitalism, right? I mean, just being like, I'm going to take care

00:46:53.900 of my people. It's a really simple idea. And it really like comes down to that. But like I said,

00:47:00.280 I think a lot of people have to do a lot of unlearning to just be able to see that.

00:47:04.760 Yeah, we have to get out of the teapot. You know, we've been steeped in. Okay, so we've left the

00:47:11.640 workplace and we've gone home and yet we still feel steeping how do we turn our homes into not

00:47:22.920 tea kettles the bad kind we love a tea kettle around here but you know I have my tea and my

00:47:30.440 life is relentless my best friend is a cancer and she um said because because life is relentless

00:47:38.280 you know we've sort of lost lost the opportunity to just go and like well I'm gonna go and live

00:47:43.980 in the woods and live off the land like it's illegal to do that so we sort of we're forced

00:47:48.860 into the into the kettle so how do we like how do we make our homes places that are are steep yeah

00:47:57.220 well you know of course it's not really an easy answer but well the easy answer is intention

00:48:04.040 and um unfortunately for some people that's not an easy answer because um I can't prescribe to

00:48:12.100 you what your home needs necessarily but I know what your home needs is for you to think about

00:48:18.720 what it needs um and to really let yourself be in some kind of communication with your home

00:48:27.500 around what you need from it and what it needs from you um you know I would say in general most

00:48:36.480 people could use a decluttering um or some more intentional ways of um having clutter my wife and

00:48:45.020 I she's definitely more of a maximalist than I am um we have a lot of clutter but it is intentionally

00:48:51.880 displayed and just, and, and, and put throughout our home. Um, we have a woman that comes and

00:48:58.280 cleans and I'm always just laughing because I'm like, I don't even think Paloma can like

00:49:01.740 clean any of the actual surfaces in our home because they're all so covered in like crystals

00:49:06.580 and animal figurines and like magical implements. Um, but I think it's really just important. Like

00:49:14.400 I said, to just think about what do you want to feel like when you come home in my book? Um,

00:49:19.000 this was like a really, this is a fun exercise that I would encourage people to do. If you really

00:49:23.960 don't feel like you have any kind of idea what, you know, you want your space to feel like, um,

00:49:28.820 you can look at, um, what is going on in your fourth house in your astrology chart. Um, and

00:49:36.860 then I gave some suggestions based, based on each, um, sign planet. I have to tell you, I had some

00:49:45.160 fun last night. So I'm a little slow on the uptake today. But, and then if you don't have

00:49:52.280 anything in your fourth house, just to go by your moon sign. So depending on which sign system you

00:49:59.000 use, I have a Pisces moon in my fourth house, which is like pretty much, you know, your fourth

00:50:06.400 house is all about home. And, you know, it's like kind of, you know, corresponds with cancer. So

00:50:11.780 it's about home and kind of you know mothering in a way like how you take care of yourself

00:50:16.980 um and but so for me like I really need my home to be an oasis like I really need my home to be

00:50:25.260 a space that I can come and I can like let my little Pisces moon I always kind of like describe

00:50:30.220 having a Pisces moon as like kind of having like a really dreamy open room all the time you know

00:50:35.240 so I really need a space where I can just like be wrapped in softness and like and like kind of

00:50:41.220 you know, let that open wound like feel okay. Cause we definitely have to cover that up to be

00:50:46.280 out in the world, if you know what I mean, you know? So I need to be able to like release a

00:50:50.060 little bit when I'm at home. Um, but you know, somebody with like an Aries moon or, you know,

00:50:55.300 with a lot with, with different stuff going on in their fourth house, like they might need a big

00:50:59.400 backyard so they can run around or, you know, kick a soccer ball or, you know, whatever. And so

00:51:04.840 it's really going to be so different. The, the thing that I can prescribe is just that you

00:51:10.160 spend some time thinking about it. And then it's not just about like, well, what can I get on sale

00:51:15.560 at home goods to put in my space or like what, you know, what's going on on HGTV? Like, because

00:51:21.200 I mean, watching HGTV is like fun and everything, but like I'm me and like pretty much everybody I

00:51:28.080 know, we're not really in a position to be like, we're going to just knock out walls and put in an

00:51:32.680 all marble kitchen or like whatever it is. Right. So that doesn't really help us either. It really

00:51:38.160 just puts us in this place of like aspiration culture, which I obviously I have huge issues

00:51:45.120 with, which is like funny because I'm in this space. And this is why Housewitch became what

00:51:49.660 it is, as opposed to it being about decor and design solely, because really that world is so

00:51:55.780 steeped in aspirational culture. And my wife asked me the other day, you know, she was like,

00:52:01.380 do you think Housewitch is like aspirational? And I was like, I hope not, honestly, because

00:52:06.320 I think like the thing about aspirational culture is it makes people feel less than,

00:52:12.040 you know, it makes them feel like they're lacking. And so while I want people obviously to think our

00:52:17.840 aesthetics are beautiful and that like, you know, we have it all together in some way or that like

00:52:22.900 my house is this like example, because that does feel important if you're going to have a brand

00:52:28.000 that's like based on home, that like my home would be a good example. But at the same time,

00:52:34.140 I'm like, I don't want anybody, anybody to feel a shred of like, that they're not good

00:52:40.700 enough or that they don't measure up in some way because they don't have maybe the same

00:52:45.160 kind of resources that I have, or that they, they put their resources in other places.

00:52:51.540 So it's definitely like hard to try to be in the like interiors world with that kind

00:52:58.300 of a view.

00:52:59.000 um but so like I said you know it's not I don't think it's about buying things um I don't think

00:53:05.520 it's about trends um I don't think it's about I don't even necessarily think it's like about um

00:53:13.900 casting like lots of spells or something I think it's really just about building up an intuition

00:53:21.460 about your space and just being um like having your energy in movement enough that you can pick

00:53:30.660 up on like what you need or what your home needs um from you that like reciprocal relationship

00:53:39.920 and you you i'm paraphrasing here but you you said earlier that witchcraft is sort of like

00:53:46.760 the religion of the othered um and uh so how do you have any advice for magical ways of making

00:53:56.500 our houses not just beautiful and welcoming and comfortable but safe

00:54:00.260 definitely I mean again you can ground your whole house like you can do that grounding meditation

00:54:08.920 like not just in your home but you can like ground your home like you can imagine that same kind of

00:54:15.900 like green core going from like your floor for instance to um the center of the earth we really

00:54:23.360 like to we you know we just came out with our new line of cleaning products and so the glass cleaner

00:54:28.180 um it's called gaze and it has yarrow in it for protection um and i think um obsidian um but also

00:54:37.900 we give some like longer rituals on the website and one of them is to when you're like wiping your

00:54:44.600 glass or your windows to wipe it in the pattern of a daisy wheel, which is based on old counter

00:54:50.120 magic, you know, from around New England, daisy wheels, they would carve them, you know, into

00:54:56.120 church walls or into their homes as a protective talisman. And so we were like, well, wouldn't it

00:55:03.480 be really cool to just like build that into, you know, cleaning your windows or your mirrors or

00:55:09.000 whatever um so you can get you know really granular and like do practices like that our

00:55:14.960 floor wash like same thing um we have a ritual where you um mop your floor floor counterclockwise

00:55:20.520 um as an abundance practice um so you can get really granular and like do things like that

00:55:27.140 and i encourage you to go on countermagic.com and you can see all of our rituals that we came

00:55:33.020 up with for the products um but again sorry you you have a separate website for these

00:55:39.360 yeah it's a whole other little little sister business yeah counter magic ck on magic um

00:55:46.880 yeah we'll put it in the show notes for everybody who's listening yay yeah so like i said if you

00:55:51.880 want to get witchy and use tools and products and stuff like that i get it they smell amazing

00:55:57.020 we formulated them specifically you know to be what people like me want which is like really

00:56:03.500 good smelling stuff that's going to like multitask it's going to like clean your windows and protect

00:56:08.060 your space um but it's also you know for me like it's a visualization when I leave my house every

00:56:15.300 single day I like kind of look at it from my front door and I close my eyes for just a second and I

00:56:20.300 imagine a glowing orb of protection around it and I say you know okay you're protected I'll see you

00:56:26.260 later um I definitely say hello and goodbye to my house every time I come and go um I think

00:56:33.620 something that I've really realized over the last couple years is just how much of an animist I am

00:56:39.180 and I think like really how how much of animus a lot of people are I think we all kind of like

00:56:46.240 have these urges to like talk to our rocks and our homes and our you know we obviously it's okay

00:56:53.040 to talk to your pets we've like all decided it's like totally okay to like

00:56:56.260 talk to your pet like a looney tune but um you know then when I tell people that I like greet

00:57:02.260 my home they're like really I'm like why is that that weird like my home is just as part of a big

00:57:08.460 part of my family as like my pets I mean we're all in it um but again like this is this is what we

00:57:16.340 have to unlearn right because I think like just think about like when you were a kid you wouldn't

00:57:20.480 have even thought twice about that you know um and then we all just like grow up and have to like

00:57:25.360 get jobs and not be weirdos anymore and i'm just like no not for me and i mean for me you're making

00:57:33.980 me think about this notion of our front door as a portal you know and that whatever energy we are

00:57:39.760 bringing through the portal and if we see our front door again whether you own or rent the energy

00:57:44.980 belongs to you solely um yeah so if you just think of that front door as a portal as a place where

00:57:53.020 you're you're literally I mean there's no magic here you're going from outside to inside but if

00:57:59.660 we can think of it also metaphorically like don't don't bring those toxic energies leave them

00:58:06.020 outside imagine yourself stepping through a portal when you come through yeah absolutely exactly and

00:58:13.220 if there are any tools that you can use to like help you do that great you know again like we do

00:58:18.620 have a clearing spray. Um, but you know, any spray or any product that, you know, maybe right

00:58:25.880 when you come in, you spray something over your head and you can kind of feel that, you know,

00:58:30.800 you're, you're clearing your energy a little bit before you go in or, you know, kind of build into

00:58:36.080 the energetic hygiene of your home. Like, look, I'm going to come in here with some like wacky

00:58:40.260 energy sometimes because it's wild out there. And I need you to be able to like, what do you need

00:58:46.320 to be able to like help absorb that you know we fill our home with a lot of plants we actually

00:58:51.260 live in a building that's um just about 200 years old it was the first um this is another cool thing

00:58:58.080 to do is find out a little bit about the history of your home if um if you can because uh we did

00:59:03.900 actually buy our home um a couple of years ago and uh which we feel very privileged and lucky about

00:59:10.120 um but my wife was like very nervous about it like the night before we were going to sign the

00:59:14.780 papers obviously and then we found out that it um the building itself was built as the first

00:59:20.860 theater in Salem and the Puritans were not happy about it they did not want a theater

00:59:26.500 but they built it and get this this is so wild the first play that was put on in this theater

00:59:34.700 was written by an out lesbian in the late 1700s and it's like a gender satire it's called like

00:59:42.280 why wives as they were maids as they are wives as they were and maids as they are something like 0.98

00:59:48.220 that and um like what it was put on in 1828 like I had no idea that there could be like out queer 0.97

00:59:55.880 folks in like 18 in like you know between 1790 and like 1828 just like writing plays and people

01:00:02.620 were just like performing them I mean there's such an erasure of that history and of course

01:00:07.520 Melissa and I would find the building in Salem where like they were like fighting Puritans to 0.87

01:00:12.520 put on queer plays you know but like once we found that out like Melissa was like okay let's go sign 0.88

01:00:19.060 those papers like this is obviously meant to be you know but consequently like it has all these

01:00:24.980 like columns it has all this like weird kind of colonialist architecture and like we love it but

01:00:30.860 it does have that vibe to it so we've started letting all our viney plants grow up the columns

01:00:37.100 like, you know, reclaiming the kind of patriarchal vibes with, you know, lush greenery. I love the

01:00:46.300 like energy of like when the plants take back over, when we're all gone from the planet and

01:00:50.960 the plants take back over, that's kind of like an aesthetic that we're trying to cultivate in my

01:00:56.000 home. And I, and, and I feel like that's, you know, it's just like asking the center of the

01:01:01.380 earth to kind of take your troubles doing your grounding meditation is like having living things

01:01:06.400 like plants and obviously animals and stuff like that but that's another way of just bringing 0.55

01:01:11.420 really supportive energies um into your home and you know don't if you're like a black thumb don't

01:01:17.560 go out and get like a million house plants so that you know you don't have to do any other

01:01:20.860 energetic hygiene or whatever but i'm just saying like if you are um i just think of that as one of

01:01:26.920 the ways for us that we uh you know cultivate supportive energy in in our home perfect ursula

01:01:34.360 has a question for you Ursula great hi um so first uh I wanted to say that I love your earrings

01:01:41.820 oh thank you I'll put the brand in in the chat yeah can you describe them for listeners who

01:01:48.620 can't see them real quick Erica yeah absolutely so they're they're I think called portal earrings

01:01:54.940 on on brand um yeah they're kind of like the shape of what I imagine a portal is which is

01:02:02.560 like an arch um and then one has a sun with steps and one has a moon with like a doorway

01:02:09.080 and they're by um while odin sleeps who is an incredible and they're brass and black and um i

01:02:17.160 have another pair that's kind of similar but their house it's like a haunted house um a different

01:02:22.720 haunted house on each year and uh obviously being the house which i loved that they made those too

01:02:27.780 but anyways okay thank you thank you thank you for bringing that up ursula i have been a little

01:02:32.000 bit mesmerized by them but I never thought to ask now I know what I'm getting for my birthday

01:02:36.240 Ursula um going back to um being a small business owner um I worked in several small businesses and

01:02:46.980 I noticed that um the owners always used to work overtime work on weekends because they were like

01:02:54.380 self-employed so they worked all the time um how do you how do you deal with that I think you have

01:03:01.020 strategy for that, I guess. That's such a great question. And yeah, I'm really glad you asked that

01:03:09.720 because there is this, like, it's all this kind of like grind and like hustle culture. Right. And

01:03:14.660 I remember when, like, I first opened the business, like seeing something, a meme that was

01:03:19.560 like small business owners or entrepreneurs work 80 hours a week so that they don't have to work

01:03:24.820 40 hours a week, um, you know, for someone else. And so I work all the time. I mean, there's the

01:03:34.660 boundary between like, what is Erica and what is house, which is like pretty thin sometimes. And so

01:03:39.240 it's sort of like anything that I'm interested in myself is going to factor into the business

01:03:45.200 somehow. You know, I was just having a conversation with my bookkeeper about like vacations, like,

01:03:49.340 well, which ones can I like say our business trips? And I'm like, well, kind of all of them,

01:03:53.120 because I'm like always talking about this stuff with everyone. But, um, so I'm always working and

01:03:59.380 that's okay because I love my business, but I have very firm boundaries around certain things.

01:04:07.940 So, um, I really don't work past six at night. The shop closes at six. And if I'm still working

01:04:14.120 at six, I stop. I don't look at emails. I take two days off a week, Sunday and Monday,

01:04:20.140 it which is a holdover from working in hair salons where um most of them are closed on

01:04:25.440 Sundays and Mondays or like kind of on a skeleton crew and so I just that worked for my life so I

01:04:32.600 still take Sundays and Mondays as my day off and I do not check email um at all on those days and

01:04:39.300 um those are non-negotiables so it's like I and sometimes you know definitely talk to me in

01:04:48.660 October and I'll be like, yeah, right. Work-life balance does not exist, but you really have to

01:04:54.480 put these structures in place and boundaries in place. And again, like this is goes for whether

01:04:59.180 you're a small business owner or anything else, determining what your boundaries are around work

01:05:04.460 is really important. And then sticking to them. And, um, you know, we were talking about learning

01:05:10.020 things, learning how not to do things. Right. Well, so, you know, my mother, um, struggles

01:05:15.520 with mental illness. And I watched her my whole life, you know, kind of work too much and not

01:05:21.760 take enough rest and not take enough time for self-care. And it was had a hugely detrimental

01:05:30.020 effect on her life and my whole family's life. And so in a lot of ways, I learned that really

01:05:36.520 important lesson out of that, which is just that, you know, I am a person that needs downtime. I am

01:05:44.020 a person that needs rest. I am a person that needs to not check my email and not get that

01:05:48.940 blood pressure spike that you get when you check your email, um, a couple of these a week, or I'm

01:05:53.880 going to be useless, um, the rest of the time. And so I definitely think it's about figuring out

01:06:00.040 like how much time and space you need to carve out for yourself where you're not going super hard

01:06:06.420 so that you can grind as hard as you have to when you have to. But I also like, just want to invite

01:06:13.120 everyone to like, like make some space for ease in your life. Because I think another one of these

01:06:20.940 things that we're like steeped in is that everything that's right, you have to put a

01:06:24.800 bunch of effort into, and it has to be hard and a fight and all this kind of stuff. And, you know,

01:06:30.920 what I'm here to say is like, for me, starting the business was like, I was like walking against

01:06:36.660 the wind for years. And then I just turned around and everything has actually felt extremely

01:06:43.720 easeful. Notice I'm not saying easy, but I'm saying easeful because even if it is hard,

01:06:51.860 you know, even if I am working harder than maybe I want to be, or I'm tired and I still have to do

01:06:56.940 things at the end of the day, like, I know that I'm still in this like incredible flow because

01:07:02.500 what I am doing is so aligned with my values and my spirituality and just what I kind of feel like

01:07:11.000 is my destiny that I don't have to hustle super hard for that. Does that make sense? Like, so,

01:07:18.120 but I just think there is such a culture around small business ownership around like, you're the

01:07:24.580 first one there in the morning and you're the last one to leave and you're the, and energetically

01:07:29.400 that's true right like energetically I wake up in the morning and I'm like okay it's 8 30 which

01:07:35.140 means there's an hour and a half until people are going to be at the shop but Paige will probably

01:07:38.640 be there because she likes to come in early so Paige will get there in a half an hour and then

01:07:42.160 again like the same thing at night right um but I'm not actually doing I'm not like the one I'm

01:07:51.640 not doing work all day it's just in my consciousness because I own the business um but

01:07:58.800 rest is really important and again like just like ease like just let it just like let it

01:08:07.440 come does that make sense that answer the question yeah yeah yes it does um I worked in in

01:08:15.400 different types of businesses I worked in law firms and um there was a lot of the clients were

01:08:21.060 writing emails around the clock and my bosses were checking them on their phone on the go

01:08:25.560 and it messed them up really I I want I have to respond to that because I was like that when I

01:08:35.060 first opened the store I mean I came out of a culture of that just working for other people

01:08:39.480 and then when I first opened the store I was doing that and I realized that when you check

01:08:47.260 your email less, you send less emails, people send less emails to you. It's like you're slowing

01:08:55.500 down the conversation, you know? And I'm sure in a law office, there are probably, there's like

01:09:02.400 probably a lot more like urgency, but like with what I do, you know, like, yeah. Oh, like people

01:09:10.680 think it's urgent. Right. And that's the thing is like, I think we've all, we are all in such a

01:09:16.740 tizzy and everyone is thinking that we're all, you know, like you have to respond. And I'm here

01:09:22.840 to just say like, you don't, you know, and a good thing that I did in the beginning that I don't

01:09:27.500 have to do anymore, but I do see a lot of my like kind of compatriots doing is having like an

01:09:32.020 auto responder that just says like, thank you for reaching out to me. Like I'm on a different pace

01:09:37.200 than everybody else. So I'm going to get back to you in four to five days. And you know, if it is

01:09:41.900 urgent, then email this person. But otherwise, luckily, like I did that for a couple of years

01:09:46.920 and I just feel like kind of people got used to my pace and I don't, um, worry about it too much

01:09:52.840 anymore. But it's like, if you're checking the email at seven and then you respond to it, then

01:09:57.560 they're going to respond to it. And you're going to check your email at eight and you're going to

01:10:01.160 respond to that. And it's just a vicious cycle. Whereas if you just say, I'm not opening my email

01:10:06.680 from 6 p.m. until 10 a.m. the next morning, again, in my world, nothing super urgent is going to

01:10:14.940 happen overnight that I would need to freak out and respond to. But again, it's about stepping

01:10:23.440 on sleeping. We have so much messaging telling us that you have to be super tapped in at all times.

01:10:33.760 And, um, your nervous system, it's unsustainable.

01:10:36.700 It's, it was completely unsustainable for my nervous system because my blood pressure

01:10:41.080 spikes.

01:10:41.760 Anytime I see a work-related email, um, unless it's from lovely people, which a lot of times

01:10:46.880 it is, but, um, you know, and I just can't, we got too much going on right now that our

01:10:54.980 nervous systems are having to deal with to like add more, um, when, you know, what I'm

01:11:00.740 doing is like selling magic and candles and like, you know, just hopefully things that are supportive

01:11:06.640 to people. It's like, what am I going to like, you know, um, compromise my own mental health

01:11:14.460 that goes against the entire ethos of my business. So, um, but again, I, I'm, I am a rarity. Even my

01:11:23.880 own therapist emailed me on Sunday. And then I got a follow-up on Tuesday that was like,

01:11:28.540 I emailed you days ago about something blah blah blah blah and I was like I don't look at my emails

01:11:33.940 on Sundays and like period even my own therapist was like wow good for you and I was like I mean

01:11:42.700 it's a Sunday I mean like I feel like there's like any day that like most people could get behind

01:11:47.140 that you like don't work it's like Sunday so I was like so shocked that this like mental health

01:11:51.320 professional was like shocked that I didn't answer an email from a Sunday but I was like you know I

01:11:56.280 I don't answer emails on Sundays or Mondays. And she was like, wow, good for you. I was like,

01:12:01.140 I can't believe I get ahold of you. That's great for your mental health and all, but I had a

01:12:06.900 question. No, it was so funny. I was like, I hope, but again, like, it was just like, I can't,

01:12:13.040 I was a little miffed about it, you know, but I just like came at it from my center and I just

01:12:16.660 gave her the information. I didn't have to put any judgment on it. I didn't have, all I said was

01:12:20.380 like, I just don't open emails on Sundays or Mondays. So that's why you haven't heard from me.

01:12:25.100 And, um, she definitely, I, it was, yeah. So anyways, this is kind of a funny story, but, um, but in that it's up to us. If I can't even get the message from my therapist, like, Hey, take it easy on a Sunday or a Monday. It truly is just up to us to create those boundaries and then stick to them.

01:12:44.120 And it's so hard, but I have a lot of practice growing up with how I grew up, I guess, you know, sticking to boundaries, but it's really hard. And I think it's really hard when it comes into stuff around like work and, and supporting yourself and like root chakra related things, because I think all of our senses of safety and security are like shattered right now.

01:13:07.560 yeah yeah so but thank you for that that was an amazing question and probably something that you

01:13:15.260 know i get questions about all the time and talk to my small business peers about all the time and

01:13:21.080 so a lot of people are wrestling with those types of questions and um i just i feel fortunate that

01:13:26.880 i found kind of my speed in all of this because it's hard to even just do that yeah but you really

01:13:32.640 you thank you you've really underscored that it is up to us to set those boundaries despite what

01:13:39.860 we have been taught about productivity and growth we need to unlearn and set those boundaries the

01:13:46.520 snake's going to keep eating its own tail but it doesn't have to you know do a full cycle every day

01:13:50.940 we can slow down take little bites of our own snake tail at a time yeah definitely definitely

01:13:58.120 They spread out the feast, you know, like let it last you all season or something like

01:14:03.020 that.

01:14:03.260 Yeah.

01:14:03.500 At the risk of sounding capitalistic, how can our listeners buy your book, buy your

01:14:09.820 wares, give you their hard earned money that they've sweated their asses off for?

01:14:15.380 How can they find you?

01:14:18.820 Yeah.

01:14:19.220 Oh my gosh.

01:14:19.760 Well, you can go to housewitchstore.com and that is where obviously we have all of our

01:14:26.820 merchandise and access to our virtual events. But there's also our community page, which is

01:14:32.540 something I am so super proud of because it is all free content. Spells, suggestions, tarot spreads,

01:14:42.940 you know, historical information about different Sabbaths. Every once in a while, I jump in with

01:14:47.380 like a DIY project or like a remodel related project, but it is so much great information

01:14:54.480 for free. And it's like me and my staff and my community that write the, the, um, articles. And

01:14:59.860 so, um, you know, again, here's me like tempering, like, yes, there's a shop, but there's also like

01:15:05.540 this amazing free resource. Um, and you can buy my book house magic on my website. That'd be

01:15:13.060 awesome if you did. Um, but you can also buy it, um, like through Barnes and Noble and all those

01:15:18.780 of their places um request it yeah request it from your public library so they buy yeah

01:15:24.760 it's so great when they I people send pictures of it in their libraries to me all the time and

01:15:32.140 it's like so heartwarming and I love it um and then yeah the new cleaning products are called

01:15:36.780 counter magic uh ritual cleaning products and um we're very proud of them and they are very

01:15:42.800 sustainable and eco-friendly and magical and on instagram the shop is at housewitch and then i

01:15:51.060 have a personal account that's housewitch at home um which i don't do a ton on but uh if you are

01:15:58.360 interested a little bit more in the behind the scenes of like my personal life and stuff about

01:16:03.420 um just home decorating and stuff like that then housewitch at home yeah and that's house h-a-u-s

01:16:10.580 for those of you who are listening and can't wait to get in on that and magic always with a k right

01:16:15.640 yeah thank you so much it's been uh amazing talking to you and so inspirational that we

01:16:24.500 can do it that there are small business owners who don't just want to grind us to bone dust who

01:16:31.880 you know people who are bosses who are you know doing boss the right way and it's really

01:16:38.900 uplifting to hear you talk about how that is possible everyone there is hope there are business

01:16:45.200 owners out there like who are really balancing mutual benefit with you know running a business

01:16:52.620 that works so again thank you so much it's been oh it was an honor thank you so much for having me

01:16:59.240 and for all the um incredible things that y'all do with missing witches i mean we all you know

01:17:06.140 the the shop witches wanted me to say you know hi and you know we're not worthy

01:17:11.120 you know this big love from Salem oh and please tell every single witch in Salem that you meet

01:17:19.160 that you are worthy I never want to hear we're not worthy again in a Wayne's in a Wayne's world

01:17:27.480 but we are also worthy and we are worthy of being treated well by our employers

01:17:35.600 we are worthy of having houses and homes that feel safe we are worthy of eating food that we

01:17:42.580 buy with the money that we are paid fairly for the jobs that we do we are all right now we are 0.99

01:17:49.560 all worthy yeah blessed be blessed fucking be you must be a witch the missing witches fundraiser 0.99

01:18:00.860 for Native women's shelters is now complete. 0.99

01:18:04.200 Together, our coven returned over $4,000

01:18:07.780 to our local Indigenous communities.

01:18:11.160 If you love the Missing Witches Project,

01:18:13.180 consider joining us on Patreon

01:18:14.560 at patreon.com slash missingwitches.

Missing Witches - June 02, 2022

WF Erica Feldmann： Like Witchcraft, Anti-capitalism Is A Practice

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