Hypothetically Intentional

Pulling the Threads: Deconditioning, Practical Magic, and Your Witchy Mother with Melanie Raphael

• Michelle Aalbers • Season 3 • Episode 49

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 44:01

What if the guidance you’ve been searching for was already inside you, waiting for you to simply "pull the thread"? In this soulful and rebellious episode, Michelle connects with Melanie Raphael, also known as Your Witchy Mother, for a conversation about unlearning high-control systems and reclaiming your personal power.

About Our Guest: Melanie Raphael is "Your Witchy Mother": a mentor, somatic practitioner, and Akashic Records reader who helps others navigate their spiritual journeys without performance or guilt. With six children of her own and a mission to be a "mother to other souls," Melanie provides a safe, nurturing space for those exploring practical rituals and deconditioning from religious or societal trauma.

In This Episode: Melanie shares her journey of being raised by a Baptist preacher, where blind faith was required, and inquisitiveness was discouraged. We discuss her transition through Catholicism and a world-shattering intuition in 2019 that led her to fully embrace her witchy path. From using simple rituals like "touching grass" to regulate the nervous system to the importance of somatic integration in healing, Melanie offers a grounded roadmap for spiritual exploration.

Key Conversations:

  • Defining "Your Witchy Mother": Why Melanie chose a title that offers nurturing guidance without judgment.
  • The Sinner's Grimoire: Melanie’s free resource of five practical rituals.
  • Somatic vs. Energetic: Why affirmations aren't enough if you don't change the tissue of the human vessel.
  • The Witch in the Pew: Navigating spiritual curiosity while respecting your own unique roots and labels.
  • Childlike Wonder: Why connecting to Spirit requires the naivete of a child sitting in the grass.

Connect with Melanie:

Send us Fan Mail

This podcast is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute providing professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or professional healthcare services.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Want more from Michelle?
Visit ChooseYourself.com

Find us on Social Media
 Facebook: facebook.com/michelleaalbers/
Instagram: @michelleaalbers
Facebook: facebook.com/JaiDeeWellness/
Instagram: @jaideestudio

Music Credit Through Season 3 Episode 41
Title: Ebb and Flow
Author: Fabian Measures https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/
Source: Free Music Archive https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/Singles_Album/Ebb_and_Flow_1829/
Licence: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


SPEAKER_00

Hi, and welcome to Hypothetically Intentional, where we ask the question, what if we set intentions with everything we do? I'm your host, Michelle Aubers, and today I have your witchy mother, Melanie Raphael, with me. Welcome, Melanie. Hi, thank you for having me. You know what I did not ask you before we hit record? I didn't ask you if you wanted to set an intention for us today. Are you welcome to doing that or do you want me to do that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love um Yeah, go ahead. I so my intention for today, because I I I I don't want to say I dug in. That sounds like terrible, but I I know just the tiniest bit about you because you only just sort of came into my world. Um, but I'm just really my intention today is to be curious from like a wholehearted place because I'm excited about getting curious. Well, I am curious about what you do and how you show up in the world, and I I resonate with a lot of it. And so I'm just excited to get into this. So that's my intention. Does that feel does curiosity feel like a good intention?

SPEAKER_02

Totally. Yeah, totally. I'm my intention would be, yeah, like just to explore everything. Like just see, see where we're going. And just pull the thread.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and right out of the gate, your witchy mother, that already brings like inquiry and curiosity. And like, can you just say like however however deep you want to dive into it? But like, how did you come up with that that title or that like name for your business? That's the name of your business, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then like, when did you start it? I don't know. It's just I'm so curious.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm a mother, like, and I've always I've just always identified as a mother. I have six kids of my own. Um, and I just kind of was like, I one day was just went really deep into my chart, my astro uh my Vedic chart, actually, because I do Vedic, not um tropical. And I was looking at that and I realized that I'm here. My sole mission is to be like a mother to other pe to other souls. And I am a witch, so I'm like, your witchy mother compared to maybe your your mother, your actual mother, you know, because I know a lot of us didn't grow, probably it a lot of us grew up in religious households or and you know, witches were terrible, and I mean I did, and I was just kind of like, I think a lot of people are exploring this right now, and it would be nice to have a mother slash big sister to walk alongside with them and explore things with them, and not like I coddle anybody or I tell anybody anything, it's more like we explore things together and I witness what you go through, you know, and witness other people's journey. Um, so I did it about a year ago. Um that's when I started. And my spiritual journey's been, well, it's been my whole life, right? But it always is. I only actually got to this spot. Right. I only got to this spot. Um right before the pandemic um in 2019. It was just like, I don't know, I'll I'll just say how I how I got here. I was raised by a Baptist preacher. My dad was a Baptist preacher. I was told out of the womb, you're a sinner, you're bad, you're horrible, you need someone outside of yourself to save you, right? And um none of it made sense. And I would, as a child, I saw angels around my bed. I knew things, I had prophetic dreams. I just and when my dad would say something to me about uh, you know, like how we're saved or or whatever, any kind of theology, I would hear what I now know is like my guides saying that's not right. You know, I just knew and I would say to my dad, I don't think so, or that doesn't make sense because you know, X, Y, Z. And he would say, Well, you know, sometimes we just have to have faith. If if something doesn't make sense, we just have to have faith. And I was just like, No, like, so I've been searching my whole life, even though I was told I was given the answers, I didn't feel like it, right? And I was very, very sheltered. I couldn't even watch Wizard of Oz because it had a witch in it. I was very like, um, I was homeschooled before it was cool in the 80s, very, very sheltered. So then when I turned 18, I went haywire and I met my first husband who was Catholic. And I went to a couple of his a couple of masses with him, and there was something about the the Catholic Church, if it was the incense, the stained glass, it felt very ritualistic, and it felt like I was a little closer to home, like and to what I was looking for. Um, so I converted, I went through, they call it RCIA, um, and it's classes, I guess, to um convert from whatever religion you are to Catholicism. And I did all of that, and it still felt right, but it also felt wrong because I was like, I'm still like giving my power and my authority to someone outside of myself, and it was men mostly, right? Because there's no women priests. Um so that marriage dissolved and I got married again, and then that one ended in 2019 when my daughter came to me and told me something. Um, and I remember when she came to uh sit and tell me I just knew my intuition kicked on, and I heard who who I now know as my guides say, She's your world is what she's gonna say is going to completely shatter everything that you know. Your world is ending. Will you will you finally listen to us? Because all my life from you know when I was born until 2019, I was I always heard them, but I always did my thing, right? Because you you're taught not to listen to your inner and your inner knowing. Um and they were like, Well, just will you listen to us for once, trust us this time, right? So I was like, fine. World completely shattered, absolute insanity. Um, and then I was watching, and I just kind of was like, you know what, let's go down this path, let's go down this spiritual path, because it's always kind of interested in me. Let's just go and explore it, right? So I was on, I don't know, I just started like following the threads and following the breadcrumbs that were put in front of me. And I found the Gaia network. Have you heard of that? It's like a TV network, yeah. So I was on there and I saw Corinne Grillo speaking. They had her on as a guest. I fell in love with her because she like had purple hair and or she had like, do you know what I mean? Like she had purple like streak. Yeah, she was doing her own thing, and I was like, this chick is red, I love her. And it wasn't the whole like love and light bullshit, right? It was because I can't stand that. I mean, yes, love and light, but also we got some dark, right? And I was like, I love her. So I went and followed her and I got in her ecosystem, and that's how I found Amber, because Amber is a student of hers, and then it was it just like um snowballed from there. And I learned how to read the Akashic Records. I just started um really listening to my own inner knowing, and it's just been like amazing since then. You know, the the woman that I am now is not the woman I was for the first 42, three years.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I relate to a lot of what you're saying. I I want to circle all the way back to how I what I love about when I asked you about your witchy mother, I love that you described what mother means to you because I think so many people like mother is a complicated word, right? Some people have a relationship with it that's like means one thing that's really warm and loving, and another person has a relationship with that word that means something completely different. And I love that you really you explained that it's not about, you know, telling you what to do or um, you know, pushing you in a certain direction or even doing it for you. It's about I heard nurturing in what you said, I heard guidance in what you said, I heard maybe some mentoring in what you said, but none of it was controlling or boxing, or I say boxing, I mean putting into boxes. That's kind of my phrase. I'm a I'm a human who claims that like I've always been put into boxes until I decided to fuck the boxes. And then my whole life got so much better. Uh and maybe everybody else is around me got more complicated, but that's we figured it out. Do you know what I mean? Exactly. We figured it out. And some by figuring out means we we went away, and others it means we we leaned in and new and different ways, and and it all worked out uh for the best for sure. But I I love that you started there and I just kind of wanted to honor that. And just for anybody who maybe even mother could be like a triggering word or a word that makes them feel kind of some kind of way inside. I I love, I just want to emphasize that like you really defined that in such a beautiful way, and I just want to lean into that and and say it louder, you know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. And I will say it's actually been healing for me too. Yeah. Because I had a horrible relationship with my mother. My mother was a narcissist, and I had to earn her love. She never once told me she loved me. Still to this day, she hasn't told me that she loves me. And she only hugged me once when it was performative. We were like in a group, right? Yeah. Um, so I myself have that like mother wound. So I think that's kind of guided me to be very um nurturing and be almost be the mother that I never had. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do spiritually and to my kids.

SPEAKER_00

And I think there's something about your witchy mother that I don't know, just there's something about like those three words together that almost like make it clear that it's not what you think. Yeah, yeah. But it's not like stereotypical or standardized. I mean, it's very much like, ooh, it kind of like perks you up and goes, hey, what's that about? And I love thank you for sharing a good chunk of your story. I know it's not all of it, it's not even close, but I just I think it helps people, I think it just helps people understand where we're coming from and like the lens we're viewing, the the lens we live through, so to speak, right? And when it when it becomes more and more our own versus someone else's. Uh, that's a beautiful thing. The other thing you said that just totally stuck out at me, and I know this is my own bullshit, right? Uh, but I really I I appreciated hearing it again. And you said something about um it didn't make sense, and then your dad's response was, well, sometimes you just have to have faith. And I was just like, I and I and it it it gave me that ping of like my old anger because it's like, well, why can't I ask questions about it though? Yes. Why can't I be inquisitive? Why can't I be curious? Clearly, I'm a curious person. I ask questions all the time for this podcast, and I ask maybe too many sometimes. I don't believe that's true, but I mean, because we can redirect it and you're allowed to say no, you know what I think. Exactly. But I just think like anybody who doesn't who isn't okay with you being inquisitive, I'm like, now I'm just like, well, that's a red flag for me, but it's also something where it's like, okay, well, now I now I want to ask even more questions, and you know what?

SPEAKER_02

I'm going to right so right, yes, and we're we're curious by nature, right? And like, who are you, dad, at the age of seven to tell me not to be inquisitive, you know? I encourage my kids all the time. Oh, let's explore, or you're thinking about this, let's explore that. Why? And I I think that's where um the church and people who wanted to control us, that's that was their purpose, right? To silence us and to just kind of put us in a box, like you said, and um not have us question anything. Well, just just give all of your power to someone outside of yourself and don't question it. Just have blind faith, and that's what will get you to heaven. Yeah. Um that's like yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Why can't I be inquisitive? Right. Okay, so can we lean a little bit more into the witchy part? I I want to get more into like how do you how do you work with people, how do you help people? What I'm hearing, what I'm hearing and assuming, and I and I don't want to assume, which is why I'm asking, but I'm hearing a lot of like maybe I don't know if this is the right phrase, but like spiritual abuse or just kind of like religious trauma or or just like maybe confusion around like what religion or spirituality or faith might have to do for you or with you. Is that specific what you're working with? Or is it more only only I don't say, but like more witch focused versus like healing the old stuff focused, or is it all of the above?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, it's all of the above. Um, so it's part somatic, part energetic, part rituals, part. Um, I don't call myself a healer. I don't do the healing, I um facilitate and witness you doing your own healing and you, and I give you resources and things like that. Um, and I share my journey, and it's kind of like, well, this is how I went through it. Maybe this will help you and let me witness you and hold space for you. Um, but yeah, some of it is body work and then some of it is actual energetic work. Um, like in my clarity sessions, I read their Akashic records and kind of see what their field is, what's in their field and what what is going on. A lot of the women that I work with come from high control systems, whether it's a religion, a culture, a family, you know, and they're like, no, I don't want to be controlled. I want to have my own power. And um I help them walk away from that. And if they've already walked away, it's I help them with the well now what? How do I explore who I am? Um, and then the ritual is just kind of um acting it out in their daily lives, right? Like everything, the somatic and the energetic work that we've done, then it just gets put into their daily lives. So a threshold, a salt threshold at the door. You know, it's it's it's something that you've already done energetically. It's a f and then the rituals are like a fit a physical manifestation of it. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Do you f I find I've been kind of it's funny that we're talking about this today. Like, I love that like when you came into my life, right? Because I just I've been thinking and talking a lot about like our divine self versus our human self and how they they both exist and they're both important. And I find I don't, I this is gonna be a this is me stumbling over my thoughts because it's hard for me to put them into words. But I find myself curious about like our I feel like our humans need things like rituals, our human side needs labels on some level, even our human side needs something that we can almost like because like this is what I try and thrive to go away from, but attached to. It's like if when you're not attached, it's such an easier life. And so I I understand that. But I also think like there are tools that help our human experience the divine. And that, and I think that's a slippery slope. And so I'm asking for your take on this, and it's a long way to get to a to a to a question, but I just am there's this human side that wants us to be able to intellectualize it or to like understand it. And there's so much about the divine that just is doesn't really work that way. It's more of like a inner knowing about it or like a just a it is a faith thing, which is almost like undoing what I just said before about that. It's but it's but it's different than that. And I'm just gonna leave that mess in the puddle in the room and let you either decide to jump into the puddle. Let me clean it away.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, let me stomp in it and play in the puddle.

SPEAKER_00

Or take us somewhere, or just say that's a dumb question, move on.

SPEAKER_02

No. No, let's play in this puddle. Um, so for me, the ritual, okay, so we have a lot of us have these beliefs and these systems deeply ingrained into us. Um, we're taught from birth, and even um it's it's in our DNA, right? Because our parents pass on these beliefs, you know. I mean, my my dad and my mom have the same fears and beliefs that I struggle with. I've they've given me their their shit, right? Um so it's deep in there. And affirmations and journaling and doing all the energy work and stuff is only going to go so far. You have to change the nervous system. You have to change, you have to do the somatic work, you have to change the tissue of this human vessel. And I think rituals kind of anchor it, anchor those, and they give the body and the nervous system something to hang on to. Because if you just do the energetic work and and kind of change the way you think about something, but you don't integrate it at a human body level, you're just gonna be right back where you were. That's why um, like say you break up with someone and you do all the rituals or you know, you do all the energetic stuff to let them go and you set the boundaries and you're like, I'm done with you, and blah, blah, blah. And then six weeks later, you're checking their socials, right? And you're like ruminating about them, right? Well, that's because you didn't do anything at the somatic level. You didn't do anything to show your nervous system that we are done and we're moving on, you know? So that's me playing in that puddle.

SPEAKER_00

No, I love it. I think I think it's an important thing to talk about because I think people don't know what it looks like when we say integrate. I think people don't understand what it looks like when we say well, or like we poo-poo labels, but it's like, well, how else do you describe a ritual? How else do you describe, you know, healing? How else do you describe what's going on in your thinking mind versus your, you know, feeling body versus your, you know, there's just and your nervous system. I just, and that's what I wanted to play in a little bit. It's like I I can I've landed in a place where like my practices work for me for now. And I've also learned over time that they're ever evolving, like they never stay the same. And the moment I get really attached to them and think, oh, I've got this, this feels so good, everything's so comfortable right now. Spirit comes in and goes, Yeah, okay, well, it's time to change it. Exactly. I'm like, cool, fun, let's play. I mean, I used to get frustrated by it. Now I'm like, okay, this is fun. Where are we going next? I'm excited. What's the next layer? Let's do it, you know. Exactly. But I just think people sometimes um don't really know how to unpack this kind of stuff. And I think it's it, it, it sounds complicated when you haven't stepped into the world yet for or you haven't really explored it for very long. But then once you get into it, it's it's not as complicated, but it's kind of hard to put into words, at least today for me. But it might be because I have a tired brain today.

SPEAKER_02

It's okay. My brain's always tired. It's like you're almost 50. Go to bed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Already.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm I I just I wanna ask about you can you can do this from a personal standpoint or maybe from a collective, like how you work with people's standpoint. But like, can you give some examples of some like really profound but simple? Gosh, this is a big question. I'm sorry, girl, but it's coming in this way, and this is why I'm gonna ask it. Really profound but simple, like full-blown, like actual shifts that might mean like might give somebody a seed of hope of like, oh, this is possible for me. You know, like I started here and I landed here, and it wasn't that many steps in between. Basically, I'm asking for like a small step. Like, what does a small step look like?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um did you have small steps? Well, did you have no not really? Well, and do you do you didn't have small steps in your healings journey? Were they all just big, big blow ups?

SPEAKER_02

It was it was everything, yeah. I did everything huge. Um I don't know why. I maybe it's my Leo moon. Um but I don't let's see, a small step.

SPEAKER_00

Um, like even to support the nervous system. Let's even just start all the way there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So to like to support the nervous system, if you can, it this sounds so corny. Touch grass. Like seriously. It doesn't though. Go outside and just touch the grass. But but don't be it to don't don't do it to be um, you know, oh Melanie said to touch the grass, oh no, I'm gonna go touch it. Really feel the earth and feel, see what it feels like, what the blades feel like, how cool the earth is, or how warm the earth is, and just really like just sit with it, take some deep deep breaths and really. just feel and and feel into how connected we are to the earth and how because we're all one and kind of not separate yourself from the earth but realize that like we're all connected. Um my daughter the other day went out on the deck and um she's like I don't know what it is about going out on the deck but I just feel so much better. She's 13. She's like I don't know mommy it just feels so good out there. And I was like because we back up to woods and I said well that's because you hear the birds and that's a signal to your nervous system that it's safe. When you hear birds everything's safe. That's a very like baseline level um nervous system like like instinctual yeah instinctual we're safe and she goes huh that makes sense that's why I love going out there. So yeah just go out there and listen to the birds. Put some bird if you live in the city put some birds on you know on Spotify or whatever. Um and just connect to nature nature is really the best way to kind of get in tune to get in like touch with your inner spirit your inner your higher self is is nature. Go on a walk put some headphones on and um just play nature sounds or listen to the actual nature around you depending on your situation. And I think a lot of us do ritual we just don't know it.

SPEAKER_00

Our morning cup of coffee that's a ritual right yeah um our shower can be a ritual everything can be a ritual um it just comes with intention right it just comes with intention right and being mindful in that moment you know yeah that's amazing we got there that was exactly what the what I was looking for like and I didn't I didn't I didn't know what I was looking for but I was like oh we just landed and some of this is like I'm messy today because I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately so I'm fully acknowledging that. But it's some of it is just downloads of where where we're gonna go what I absolutely love about how you uh described the grass thing because you know you've your grounding go put your feet on the earth blah blah blah and that becomes it becomes I don't know like just sort of routine versus ritualistic which those are two very different things and tension and how it feels in your heart space I would say is maybe the clue as to which one it is. But like when you were describing touching grass, I'm looking outside there's no grass right now, but I'm picturing it in my third eye. And I'm just thinking about um how different it would be to have like just beautiful grass under my feet, bare feet and then to sit down in it and look at it as if I was a toddler. Like I've never seen it before I don't know what it does. I don't know what it's there for. I don't know how it works but I just want to feel it get to know it and just like explore it in a new and different way. And the way you described that made me think of that. It's like I'm looking at this through the eyes of wonder through the eyes of like I've never I've never thought about it in this way before. So I'm just gonna sit and wait and see what it feels like to me or if it has even this is going to sound well it doesn't in the spiritual world but it's it if it has messages for me, if it has something to tell me if it has something to give me or if it needs something from me right it's just I the way you described that took me to that place and I wanted to verbalize that out loud in case there's some listeners who maybe haven't done anything too terribly witchy or don't really know about what I don't know I I used to roll my eyes and be like you just need to ground it's like now I'm like it's like well first of all I found out grounding is in my nature. I'm pretty easily grounded so that's why I'm like well I don't get why I need to do that.

SPEAKER_02

It's like while I'm already right yeah yeah um what came to me while you were speaking was and I know this is weird for a witch to be quoting the Bible but my opinion Jesus was a witch. But anyway um Jesus said and I I don't believe that Jesus is our savior or anything like that because we don't have anything that we need saving from but I believe that Jesus came to earth he's an ascended master and he was here to show us how to live the the the I am it's we can be not we go to him so when he said come to me like children right what I take that verse as is like you said explore everything as a child and that's how you get closer to the Christ consciousness is going and sitting in grass like a two year old and having that awe and that and you know two year olds are closer to spirit than we are you know up until age seven they're pretty they're pretty touched they're pretty tapped in um and and that's how you can get closer to Christ consciousness is just coming at it with a childlike wonder and curiosity and almost a naivete about it. It's just like I don't know what is this you know and um I think that's what he was talking about. I don't think he meant like we've been taught in religions um I think it was a that's how you get to connect to spirit is in is through nature and is through that childlike curiosity.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. As you were talking about that I was sitting here thinking about if you're on the beginning of your journey or heck even if you're I don't know I'm decades in um I think I think one of the best ways to learn about what might work for you or what might not work for you is to notice your current state and be aware of that. And then try something and get curious about it and then notice your current state again and if it feels better cool maybe explore it some more and if it feels worse maybe explore some more but for a different reason.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Yeah just go with the flow just pull the threads yeah you know just let's see what this does.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no don't like that okay cool let's see what this does and you go and you know just follow what's put in front of you you know yeah and I think in order to do that you have to have some awareness of self first and you have to set have some willingness and or ability maybe it's both to actually see sometimes we get so stuck in our routines and so stuck in like our day to day that we don't even like literally there's something a quarter like a quarter of an inch to your left that you it's been there for weeks, days years months you know however long it's been there and you just you literally haven't turned your focus just that small bit to see it. It's been shining it's been a shiny penny on the sidewalk for you know and you just have you're just so engrossed in what you're doing and you're just not you there's something about pausing and like looking around up down over behind you and just to see what else is there. Because I think sometimes I don't know we call it comfortable but is it is it comfortable or is it stuck? You know right right yeah yeah no I just think it's such an interesting journey you know I I can't I can't I'm I'm curious about like growing up in a house where you're where your father was a Baptist used Baptist preacher right?

SPEAKER_02

Baptist yeah well I take that back yeah he he's a Baptist preacher but before he became a b before he was ordained we like and this is kind of what made me go wait what's what what we started out um Baptist then and I went to a Baptist school when I was a kid it was you were all in that was fun whether you wanted to be or not you were all in Baptist school and then we were non-denominational just a Bible church and then we even had this is when my dad started to become ordained we had church in our house and then finally we were and by we I meant us as a family um reformed Presbyterian and one of the things and this is one of the things that my dad gave me the faith thing about because I was like wait a minute dad who says that the Baptists are like why did the Baptists say that they're right and then you say that you're right and then the Presbyterians say they're right like there's so many different like who's right you know if you ask them they are right and I was like what how do I and also what about the person that never ever hears about us right like or about Christianity. How do they get into heaven? And he was like well that's why we have to be missionaries and I'm like okay well I can't get to everybody in the world right that's that's a big task for a seven year old right and um so that you know so yeah it was it was that and then he became a Baptist preacher and he still is um and it just it was it was it was a lot it was a lot I just think it's like everyone thinks they're right right but what if it's right or wrong what if it's not right or wrong what if it's right for you right now that's where I go I'm just like this is right for me right now.

SPEAKER_00

Can I just land there and be okay with that.

SPEAKER_02

And that's what I do too. But um the problem with my parents in particular was they were kind of judgmental and it was like well because they don't believe what we believe they're going to hell.

SPEAKER_00

Well who are you are oh now you're God you know you're you're deciding who's you know I don't care who it is every time anybody says that to me I'm like oh okay so you think everyone in heaven is Baptist then it's just Baptist no one else yeah right like really really I don't think it's just that I kind of don't think it's that kind of club.

SPEAKER_02

No it's not and in my opinion I don't think it is a physical heaven and a physical hell I think that's states of consciousness.

SPEAKER_00

I think heaven is when you're like higher you know a little more higher vibrating and I think it's just um levels of awareness hell is when all of your fears are taking over and you're living in hell you know I've said that before too it's like well what if both is right here right now what if it's exactly I mean in my opinion earth is hell but I mean like warming that's what I'm hearing from what state you're in emotional mental physical is going to can either feel to you like a like a living hell or a living heaven. And what if what if that's it?

SPEAKER_02

Right and the definition of hell is separation from God, right? So when we are fully like our demons aka our fears are really loud and we're letting them control us and can letting them um make our choice influence our choices that we do and things like that, you're not close to God, right? You're not in a higher vibe.

SPEAKER_00

Um so yeah I think that's what hell is is when you're not close to God, not close to spirit so when you work with people you I heard you say a clarity did you say clarity session? Clarity call? How does how does what is that is that how else do you work with people or is that is that the way you do it?

SPEAKER_02

No so I have clarity sessions and that's just an hour where we go, I read your field and we kind of figure out what you're dealing with and what your next step would be um I also have a field reset program. It's a four-week thing where we kind of we focus on one thing and we clear it out and we um I give you practices to to integrate the new belief we download a new belief and and all of that. And then I have um a six month mentorship where we go through all the things like one month we deal with one issue the next month we deal with another issue um and it's both somatic and energetic so we're working with the nervous system plus we're working with um your energy body your physical body like everything um so that's an intense one but yeah mostly it's clarity sessions that's awesome and do you do most of your work online like virtually or do you do stuff in person too or how does that work? I'm working towards doing stuff in person.

SPEAKER_00

Um I'm where are you located?

SPEAKER_02

I didn't even ask that I'm in Virginia I'm in central Virginia okay kind of near Charlottesville. Okay um so I'm kind of working towards that I've met some people in Charlottesville that I'm like oh we could we should totally do a collab or like host sessions together and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm working towards that but right now it's all virtual yeah okay yeah so that's so anybody can find you and access to you and book book uh whatever they're looking for. That's awesome. I love it. And rumor has it I'm just like want to make sure we don't forget anything, right? Because I want to make sure people know how to contact you and how to get in touch with you and and also a little bit of how you work and I I'm I also like to know where people come from and like kind of their journey and what were their challenges and how did they land where they are today, right?

SPEAKER_02

But rumor has it you have a freebie a freebie for our listeners it's the sinner's grimoire and it is five different rituals um for money protection uh there's a glamour ritual in there like five different rituals um that you can uh just do to start your witchy journey yeah do you uh do you recommend just kind of picking one and going with that first and just doing that for a little bit and then finding another one awesome yeah like literally just go through it and say that one speaks to me I want to do that one and then do that one for a little bit and then go to the next one if you want. That's awesome. That's literally all it is yeah. And I I named it the sinner's grimoire because it's just kind of like you know a little rebel thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah very rebellious if you can't tell I like how clear that is I you know it's like how clear you you show up in the world and and it's there's not a lot of there's not a lot of guessing even though I have a lot of curiosity around it I still there's a baseline there that makes me feel comfortable enough to lean in and ask and that's what I think is beautiful. I think sometimes it gets too obscure and then nobody really gets it you know um but this is like oh this is where we're starting I get where we're starting and now I want to know more. I want to know more how I can lean into this and how I can dive in. And I think there's something comforting to me too about because I also grew up in a very judgmental environment I'll say it that way. That was much of my life for a very long time and I'm not even just talking about my family. I'm just mean like people in my world I don't know what kind of karma I had but it was definitely a whole lot of judgy stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Husbands father mother everybody's judgy and to be fair I I was too that's I didn't know anything else.

SPEAKER_00

I but I judged myself more than anything else. Yes that's maybe not fair but I feel like that's how it felt to me. I mean I'm with myself all the time so of course yeah oh my God I just totally lost where I was going with that. I think it just had to do with being accessible and be oh I it was just the freedom to explore without judgment. That's where I was going just the you feel like a a safe space a safe vessel a safe um contact where you can lean in and like and it's funny because even in your story there's maybe some stuff there that could make you an angry quote unquote. Right like but but it doesn't feel like if I came in and said I actually really do land in baptism in in a Baptist you know faith and and and and I I still want to work with you. I'm still called to that what does that look like for you and you don't feel like the kind of person that would be like yeah no that's not gonna work for me. Because what I'm hearing from you is it's about like finding finding what is challenging you and what might work for you. And it's not about like a label it's about like what's yours.

SPEAKER_02

Yes I will yeah I will never ever and this is kind of what tripped me up with what's the difference between a Baptist and a and a Catholic and all that why do we have to be have a label everyone has their own journey. If you want to go to my one of my daughters goes to a Pentecostal church every every Sunday okay that's her journey you know I don't I don't tell her you're wrong you need to believe what I believe this is how you're wrong and blah blah blah I'm very like oh that's interesting and you know I will of course if she wants sometimes she'll talk about things and I'll give her my my view but I'm never saying you're wrong you know because everyone has their own journey with spirit and who the hell am I to say you're wrong.

SPEAKER_00

You know I needed my journey in the beginning like where I started I actually think that was really good for me. And I learned a lot we picked it yeah our journey I picked my my overprotective parents I picked my two abusive husbands and now I see why you know I I can look at those experiences and say oh okay I I see how it led to this it was hell going through all of that but I'm thankful for it you know yeah and I had a yeah that's amazing I think that's a great place to be in and I think it's a hard place to get to I had a friend ask me I had a friend ask me the other well it wasn't the other day it was probably a couple months ago but he said he goes Michelle have you have you come to the realization of the benefit of all that you all that you've been through he didn't say it exactly like that right it wasn't a victimhood thing or a martyrdom thing it was just like he goes do you actually recognize like that it is part of why you can be do the gifts that you're here for he's like do you understand that have you come to that place and I said I actually 100% have but it was a long ass journey getting to that place.

SPEAKER_02

Yes yes and I I had that uh probably a year ago it's like I've been through some shit I have been through some shit and and it it's not like I'm better than anyone else but I could have become very bitter I could have gone down a completely different way um but I didn't and I can see the value of all of that and what it taught me and I I can see how I got here. And I'm grateful for it. And you know I I don't ever say I'm a victim. I don't ever say I wish that hadn't happened to me um because if it hadn't I wouldn't be here and I would still kind of be like who would I even be you know like what would I be doing if I hadn't gone through all that and I love who I am and I love my life now and it's like oh thank you husband number one and number two for I mean it was it was 30 chaos. Yeah all the lessons. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

All right um so yeah yeah yeah it's a beautiful thing when you can hear the witchy whispers and see the witchy winks right yeah yeah exactly takes a while to be able to tune in yeah yeah uh I don't know that feels like a really good place to land I I know I've been a little more chaotic in my interview today and I appreciate you playing in the puddles with me. That's totally fine.

SPEAKER_02

I love getting dirty.

SPEAKER_00

I love it too is there anything that you feel like you really just are called to say to for our listeners um and I do want you to share your website and contact information verbally and then I will also put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02

But I just if there's something that feels like it would be a good just you know come into share at the end I would say um really trust that little that quiet little voice and pull the threads and just have the curiosity of a of a little child and see where it takes you because it's gonna be beautiful and don't listen to the the fear of um oh no that's that's wrong that's a sin that you shouldn't do that you know you shouldn't you're you're gonna be bringing in the devil um don't listen to that and just listen to the quiet little voice inside and pull those strings and just follow and see where it takes you because it's gonna be amazing. I love that so much. But yeah my website is melanierafa um and you can find everything there.

SPEAKER_00

I'm on TikTok and I'm on YouTube uh just your witchy mother um and that's it yeah thank you so much for your time today I have loved this conversation and I can't wait to see where we go next I am excited yeah thank you all right I think I think that's a wrap for today and we'll catch you next time

unknown

Mm-hmm.