your witchy bestie's guide to create your own magic
THE PULSE: YOU GOT THIS!
A LITTLE AWARENESS GOES GOES A LONG WAY
Ok, if you’re like us, you’re fully back into your routine. How are you doing? On a barometer of 1 to 10 – where are you at? Have you made any small changes? How about your perspective?
We’ve been doing a lot of work around awareness and perspective. By paying attention to our thoughts, and catching our own self-sabotaging habits in time to change them, we’ve noticed a huge difference in our lives, in such a short amount of time -- so we had to share with you.
You’ve most likely heard the phrase, “what you focus on expands.” It’s been attributed to Oprah and other esteemed thought leaders. For instance, focus on lack and you’ll notice that you feel like you never have enough. Focus on abundance or gratitude and you’ll realize that you always have more than enough. We've become hyper-focused on whatever we feel we need more of in our lives. We catch ourselves when we start to spiral in the opposite direction. You can do this too!
Since you’re a Seeker, this concept isn't anything new, but like us, it may be the reminder you didn't know you needed.
ASTRO-ENERGY FOR THE WEEK
Pay attention to what tomorrow brings. Wednesday, January 18 has Mercury finally moving out of retrograde, and on the same day, Pluto + the Sun are meeting up, all of this action is happening in the goal-oriented Capricorn. According to Refinery29, “Pluto wants to transform and evolve relationships and situations swiftly.” So now that you’ll finally have forward momentum and energy for change – how does this impact you? Keep your awareness up for anything that is revealed to you this week.
By Saturday, January 21 there’s a new moon in Aquarius delivering energy to start anew and be 100% your authentic self. It feels like this may be the real beginning to ‘23!!
MAKE YOUR OWN MAGIC
In this week’s podcast, we’re talking all things witchy, tarot and life-changing with Rebecca/Bex Szymczak aka Cardsy B. You don’t want to miss this conversation.
Your Witchy Bestie's Guide to Help You Create Your Own Magic
week. She's an intuitive tarot reader, healing catalyst, and a writer.
In addition to all of the badass tarot and astrology that she's been doing, she's also been busy brewing up her first book, The Saturn Diaries, A Modern Day Grimoire.Part memoir, part spell book – it is soooo honest and moving, yet also infuses lots of humor into her journey of discovery and remembrance of self.
If you are looking for inspiration to create your own magic – this conversation and book is for you.
R+K: Cardsy B, let’s start off by saying it's the first time we're using the words “witchy, tarot, spell book, magic and grimoire,” all in one of our guest’s introductions! Can you talk about why you use those words specifically in your work and in your book?
Cardsy B: Absolutely! It’s been my goal through making tarot more accessible, and definitely in writing my book and the community I've created, to de-stigmatize some of these elements of the mystical world and the mystery that can be around things, like working with magic. I have found witchcraft and tarot so deeply healing on my journey and helping others on their journey. You can tap into these tools without fears of darkness or negativity being invoked as a result of working with them.
R+K: And speaking of that, can you give a baseline definition for words like "witch," "spellcraft" and "grimoire?"
Cardsy B: Everyone who works with them has their own connection and meaning to those words. For me, really owning myself as a witch was tapping into my healing abilities and the way that I work with intention to create in my day-to-day life.
Even in my book I use the analogy of one of my first employers. I was in the fashion industry for years. One of my first jobs was designing for Nike. Their mission statement is, “we create innovative products for every athlete in the world.” And there's an asterisk next to the word athlete which explains, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”
I remember really loving that as a mission statement of how inclusive it was. And I feel like if you are a human in this lifetime, you can tap into magic. We all have access to intuition. It's a matter of how much we choose to work with it. So for me, the meaning of the word witch is someone who utilizes intentional magic in their daily life to help empower and heal themselves and others, which is very much what my purpose is in this lifetime. And spellcraft is just an extension of that. When we think about the word spell, it's putting out the intention to the universe so that we're able to actualize our intentions. And I do that in terms of things that are more, I guess traditionally witchcraft, like working with candles at certain times within the astrological cycle.
And then I also do it when I make my tea in the morning. When I cook, I think of stirring the ingredients in and how I want that to add energy and intentions into my day.
And then the word grimoire, that's been the biggest one that people ask me. When I titled my book, I'm like, everyone knows that grimoire means spell book, right? And so many people are like, “is that like a sad memoir or is it a dark grim memoir?” And I'm like, NO! I mean there's definitely some sad, grim parts in here, but no. It means a modern day spell book because the book itself is my story.
R+K: Love those definitions! And tell us about the book, which in itself is magical, entertaining and inspiring!
Cardsy B: Thank you and it's all a true story! It's my memoir coming through my dark night of the soul throughout my healing journey. And at the end of each chapter there is a spell, ritual, or an herbal elixir that helped me in different parts of my journey. I recorded that almost as if it was a spell book in tandem with the memoir.
So I always explain, you can read it in one of two ways. You can read it as the memoir or you can go into it and just look for, “Hey, I'm looking for healing tools around cord cutting, around self-love, etc.” Then you would go to the index and see that there's a spell for each chapter themed differently around what I was moving through in my life and that I offer up as tools to anyone that might resonate with them.
R+K: When you talk about The Saturn Diaries, you’re talking about your “Saturn Return.” For those who might not be familiar with that, can you share what that means?
Cardsy B: Yes. The Saturn Return piece of it is every 27 to 31 years, the planet Saturn makes a transit. So, we're all born with Saturn being in a specific place in our astrological chart. Saturn usually returns to that exact place for the first time for us when we're between the ages of 27 to 31, and then it will happen again closer to age 60.
For me, my Saturn was in Scorpio, so when Saturn looped back around when I was in my late twenties, it was a time when on the surface, I had it all. I was the Creative Director at Playboy. I was married, and we were this "it” couple in Manhattan. We had everything that was very Instagramable and it looked like I had the dream life.
But I was struggling with depression and addiction behind closed doors. And being in the fashion industry, it was kind of like everybody parties, everyone drinks this much, everyone does this. But I wasn't really facing a lot of my shadows. So that’s when my Saturn came back around.
Your Saturn Return will show you all of the things that you're living inauthentically. Things that are misaligned, things that you're trying to force that are no longer serving you.
So even though my first Saturn Return was really brutal, I was like, “give me all the lessons now!” It's fine, just rip it all out now so that I am hopefully much more in alignment when I go through the second one.
Cardsy B, you have…and are doing the work! Thank you for sharing everything about Saturn, spells and so much more.
For more on Cardsy B’s personal journey, why she started the SpellCraft Society and her collective message for what’s ahead in 2023, listen to this week's podcast.
Visit CardsyB.com for everything! You can book a reading, join her Spellcraft Society, buy The Saturn Diaries and The Badass Bitches Tarot Deck. Plus, find out about her upcoming events.
You can also listen to Bex’s weekly podcast, Hex and the City on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
And follow her @cardsyB on Instagram for her daily tarot readings!
SECRET POWER
Practical Magic: A Spell for Your Past, Present + Future Self
Cardsy B’s book,The Saturn Diaries, A Modern Day Grimoireis brimming with ways to apply modern day spells into your everyday life. We asked her to share one of her favorites here so that you can cast a magic spell in your own world.
Postcard to My Past Self Spell: My favorite spell is really simple and it's the last chapter in the book, and I call it “Postcards to My Past Self.” It's something that I practice on an ongoing weekly, if not daily, basis.
It’s about taking moments in time where we hold a lot of joy or gratitude and sending them back to past versions of yourself that needed that positive energy.
You can send these as a mental postcard to your past self or you can actually write them out. Sometimes if you're in another location that your past self would've always wanted to go to, you can mail it to your home address, like a letter to Santa.
It’s a really cool way of working with multiple timelines because I believe time is not linear, and I believe those moments where I would get tiny glimmers of hope were because me then, could feel me now saying “Oh, I got you. It gets better.” And those little pings to those timelines of our past really help pull us through.
Here are examples of how I use this spell:
Money Example: If you've ever, like myself, lost all of your money or have been living in extreme lack and you’ve later come back into being abundance again, it’s an opportunity to send that prior version of yourself some loving assurance that things get better. I take snapshots (either mentally or literally) of the present time where things have gotten better and send them to my past self. I tell her, “Girl, it gets better. We're buying this Versace bag or we’re in a great apartment. I got YOU.” It’s a way of sending assurance and positivity to that self when she needs it most.
Addiction Example: I was going through a really deep addiction and thinking I could never get out of that cycle of using alcohol and Xanax. And then, fast forward, I’m at a super amazing New Year's party, drinking an alcohol-free cocktail, and having the time of my life. So that postcard is, “You do this. You get through it. And it gets not only better, but it's easy.”
Try this as part of your meditation or visualization practice. You can also send postcards to your future self as a way of time-jumping your affirmations into reality!
Remember: Spells + Positive Energy = Magic!
THE WEEKLY DOWNLOAD: Direction to Shine Your Brightest Light
January is the time of traditionally looking for ways to “improve ourselves.” We lean into resolutions and intentions to create better versions of who we are and what we bring to the world. This week, our downloads provide alternative guidance. It’s time to release energy that is no longer serving you and shining your light from within.
KAREN’S DOWNLOAD
Oh the wasted energy that is spent on reevaluating and repurposing and reinventing our already beautiful selves. The emotion that weighs upon you at this time of year is so heavy. Creating a “new and better version” of self is not the intention of your soul at all. It is instead, what serves you now in understanding and learning more within this human experience to help you on your soul's journey, which is always on the path to love.
If we were to offer one north star for living happily, we would say, “let go of your ego.” When you hear the voice of measurement, of comparison, of evaluation, of not enough-ness (towards yourself or others), gently, firmly and lovingly, say “No thank you, that does not serve me.”
The ego is never the truth. However, it can be the invitation from your higher self to question it. What is that voice, that thought, here to teach me? Is this truth? How does this belief make me feel? How can it help me on this greater path of learning? How is it making me feel? And how do I reach for the opposite?
Remember, a belief is just a thought that you keep thinking. And Ego is never about yourself at all. It is just a measure of where you are in relation to this 3D world…and most of those beliefs are not based on love.
So how do we deal with this in the “practical world?” Here is an example. A friend says to you, “I received an invitation to go to a party. I’m excited!” Your reaction may trigger emotion of jealousy, lack, or exclusion. This can lead to feelings of sadness, anger, and isolation. Or the worst of all, “not enough-ness.” All of these feelings are the opposite of love.
Instead, consider what it would feel like to release that emotion the minute the trigger happens, knowing that this invitation may simply not be for your highest good. It might instead be an opportunity for you to experience the letting go of your ego of expectation. Of measuring your abundance, instead of your lack. Of leaning into your inner strength versus the need for external validation. You can affirm, “this is not about me. This is not a place I need to be. What else am I being called to do?”
As human be-ings, we yearn for connectivity and community. But as souls, we are here for our unique life experience. Release the need to compare your journey to another. No matter where you are in your life and what you are doing, you are on a warrior's path to experience and learn all that your soul has intended. Never forget who you are. You are a star of light! And you are here to shine. And you are exactly where you need to be and are everything you need to be for this life’s experience.
So ask yourself “How often have I let my ego stand in the way of feeling good?”
This is a new year in which to LIVE, to LOVE and to immerse yourself in ALL OF IT. This is the resolution of your soul.
ROBYN’S DOWNLOAD
Archangel Michael (Leader of All Angels) and Archangel Uriel (Angel of Wisdom) are with us. We are on a ship in the middle of the ocean and we look up to see all of these floating lantern lights. They tell me each represents a spark, a soul, energy. We are all sparks of light and we have the ability to float and to be free. It is our choice if we choose to be free or if we stay confined by the limits of our own minds.
The night sky gives way to the beautiful blue sky and what were floating sparks of light are now not visible by the naked eye. I’m reminded that we can choose to see these sparks of light within all of us. We can choose to see them within ourselves, as well as in everyone else. We are all unique, all here with different purposes and all with the ability to learn and create in our lifetime, even in what seems the most dire of situations. We must remember the sparks of light within ourselves.
How will you move forward this year?
I ask these Angels and to Spirit, “What do you suggest?”
Truly look within. Ask yourself what it is that makes that spark within brighter, more light? What dims that light? Do more of what makes that flame brighter. What will it take to do more of it? Who and what makes it dimmer? What can you do to do less of that? That should be your compass, your guide. Journal. Record in some way so that you can tangibly see these results. As humans we need to see things. It all helps us see what may not always be visible.
As you move towards making that spark brighter, your ship will pick up its speed and it will move in the direction of illuminations, with other bright lights. The light attracts light. If you do nothing else in these coming months, move in that direction. You don’t need to know exactly where you are heading or what you are doing, but move in the right direction and all will become clear. That is the message. That is all you need to know and that you are loved and supported on this journey — always.
I feel excited and relieved — there is direction, there is forward movement. There is so much opportunity.
SEEKING CENTER PODCAST SCHEDULE
DECEMBER 6: Taoism + Your Untapped Potential
DECEMBER 13: New Year Astrology Forecast: What's in Store for 2023?
DECEMBER 20: Coping with Loss: Messages of Hope + A Reading with the Other Side
JANUARY 10: Taking the WooWoo out of Wellness + Getting Your Life Back on Track
JANUARY 17: Your Witchy Bestie's Guide to Help You Create Your Own Magic
WE WANT TO BE FRIENDS
We want to hear from you.
Are you at a crossroads in your life? Are you seeking guidance? What do you want to hear about? What practices have you tried? Do you have a healer or practitioner or spiritual modality that we need to know about?
Email us: connect@seekingcenter.app
And follow us on instagram at @seekingcenterrobyn and @seekingcenterofficial.