Katie Rempe: Welcome to episode 1 0 4, knit A Spell fans. Woo.
Katie Rempe: woohoo.
Katie Rempe: This week we dive into some of Jim's favorite guest moments from season two.
Katie Rempe: Much like last week where I dove into mine this week. Jim shares episodes that I didn't necessarily pick so that we could make sure we share even more great moments with you guys.
James Divine: And why are we doing this?
James Divine: Because April is.
Katie Rempe: It's Knit A Spell's birthday.
James Divine: Two years on the air every week. And I still like you.
Katie Rempe: I still like you. And in fact, I like you even more.
James Divine: Fact, I might even love you.
Katie Rempe: Oh. Oh.
Katie Rempe: This is a beautiful love that we have. I appreciate you so much, Jim.
James Divine: I just podcast to say I love you.
Katie Rempe: Aw. I hope we never get sued for all the songs that we sing on here, slightly differently. They're satirical, right? That's a thing.
James Divine: I don't think we can be.
Light From Lantern presents: Knit A Spell.
I'm magical maker: Katie Rempe.
And I'm the maker of magic: James Divine.
Join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and 'The Craft'.
Katie Rempe: Who have you picked this week, Jim?
Katie Rempe: I'm so curious!
James Divine: Episode 61 we had Nicholas Pearson. You can find him at the Luminous Pearl. We talked about crystals of protection.
James Divine: Remember we had this conversation, I wonder what gems or crystals were really protective?
James Divine: And we thought, oh, I know who we should have on. We should see if Nicholas Pearson, who is an amazing author, he's written what, seven or eight books?
Katie Rempe: Oh man. Probably more by now.
James Divine: Including Crystal Basics.
James Divine: Such a fantastic book here.
Katie Rempe: Yes. the book on Crystals. Get it today. Do It
James Divine: And oh my gosh, of course he was delighted to come onto the podcast. What do we think about when we think about protection?
James Divine: We think about black turine, Or we think about Hammerite . Didn't he surprise both of us when he talked about labradorite because of Oh wait. I don't want to ruin it. Let's let Nicholas tell you in this clip.
Nicholas Pearson: Some of the other stones that I like to use for protection are things that have maybe some interesting optical phenomena that give us clues as to how they might interact with say capital L light because of how they interact with lowercase L light, if that makes sense.
Nicholas Pearson: So something like labradorite. Labradorite has this effect like defraction grading. So as light penetrates, it gets scrambled. And then we see beautiful color.
James Divine: Isn't it called labradoressence? Don't they call it that? Yeah.
Nicholas Pearson: Labradoressence is that phenomenon exhibited in this stone from its unique makeup.
James Divine: It's that luminous quality that Labradorite has that we would maybe call iridescence. But it actually, I think it's really cool that it actually has a name in Labradorite called Labradoressence.
Nicholas Pearson: And what's nifty versus iridescence, which is like a superficial thing, labradoressence occurs because of something called an admissibility gap. So feldspar is a big family. It includes labradorite and moonstone and sunstone, lots of other things.
Nicholas Pearson: But here's something that might blow our minds a bit. Like sunstone and moonstone are phenomena. They're not substances. So any number of substances, when they demonstrate those optical phenomena can be called those things. So with the property of labradoressense, it's typically found in Labradorite, but it can also be found in other things that do the same thing.
Nicholas Pearson: So we have these layers, we call them lamini from like the Latin word to laminate to bond together. Yeah. Yeah. And they, they intermingle and depending on the relative width of those individual layers, They will bend light in slightly different directions because they have different refractive indices.
Nicholas Pearson: The width of it will be related to the wavelength of light that we perceive. If it's much wider, we're gonna see red. If it's much narrower, we're gonna see like blue and violet. So the thinner, the layers, the short of the wavelength of light gets through to our eyes. That's how we perceive it.
Nicholas Pearson: Even though none of those pigments are in the stone. There's no chemical in there that changes the color. It's all like a trick of the light.
Nicholas Pearson: But it's the fact that it deals with boundaries. It is the boundary between these two closely related things that are not the same. And so in our own energy field, it does something similar.
Nicholas Pearson: It reminds my aura where its boundaries begin and end, so that way I'm not taking on other people's crud, to use a technical term. Even though my energy field resembles someone else's quite a lot they're distinct. They're separate.
Nicholas Pearson: And so labradorite allows that boundary to be there, a selectively permeable membrane. There's some things that can come and go, certain wavelengths that pass with ease and others get scrambled and filtered out.
Nicholas Pearson: That is helpful because boundaries allow us to remain whole boundaries allow us to express unconditional love without having to sacrifice ourselves, because that doesn't mean we have to have unconditional relationships.
Nicholas Pearson: If we have these unconditional relationships, we can't practice self-care. And at the end of the day, self-care is community care. So lab rights are really great stone. If we tend to show up better for other people, then we show up for our. It's just enough of a reminder to say, Hey have you taken a step back yet?
Nicholas Pearson: This burden you're carrying. I don't think that came from you. Would you like to put it down? Okay. Let's do that.
James Divine: So Katie, that blew your mind too, right?
Katie Rempe: I think about it all the time and I always carry my moonstone with me now for those lab, lab
Katie Rempe: road. Oh, good luck saying that one.
James Divine: Labradoressence!
Katie Rempe: Due to the labradoressence. That's right.
James Divine: Your mind will be blown throughout that episode. Episode 61 Crystals Of Protection with Nicholas Pearson. Go back and listen. We talk a little bit about how Rose Quartz, we don't know why it's pink.
Katie Rempe: So many great stories. He's a real expert and a joy to listen.
James Divine: Yes. He blends the metaphysical and the scientific together in a way that's beautiful. I know it's one of your favorites, too.
Katie Rempe: Absolutely.
James Divine: Up next is my selection from our month of tarot and Oracle deck creators. Remember, we had an entire month where we talked about oracle decks and tarot decks.
James Divine: Of course the Northern Animal Tarot with Linda Ritter, episode 67, she is a dream.
James Divine: She talks about why she chose to feature animals instead of humans in her deck. Why did she choose to do that?
James Divine: You gotta listen to this. It's a fascinating answer.
Katie Rempe: How did this project become in your purview. You're like, oh, I like tarot. I'm gonna make my own deck.
Linda Ritter: Yeah, I definitely went more into silk screening and design, but never forgot about like fairy tales, stories. I still loved movies that were more like fantasy based, but then I was at a cafe and this girl came in with her tarot deck and started pulling cards, and I was like, whoa.
Linda Ritter: It's like the addiction came back and. Like what? Because , I wasn't allowed to use them. It was like, no go. And I like was like, Hey, whatcha doing? And so she had the Ryder Waite Smith, so she showed them to me and she's now my friend, we now friends.
Linda Ritter: And she had taken like a two year tarot course and knew them all and I was like, so cool. And I ran home, but I only had the Alice in Wonderland deck, which is pretty close to the Ryder Waite, but I felt like I wanted her deck. So I went and got the rider weight Smith deck and then started like pulling cards and tried to learn.
Linda Ritter: Because before, obviously I was just liked the images and like what the little things on the cards were, like the story and symbolism. But I didn't know that there was actually like, like a thing to it. So it was fun to dive in.
Linda Ritter: Like I love her and I love that art, but I just felt like I would get stuck on the human when I would look at them.
Linda Ritter: When I spread them out, I just saw humans. What I wanted to see was like a fairytale. Where I could see that they enter a scene, something happens, and then it will take you to a finale card or like what you've pulled, and I wasn't getting that from the humans. I would get too distracted that it's a male or it's a female or , whatever.
Linda Ritter: And I wanted it to feel like the story still. Wanted the secret of Nim but me to be in it. Yes. I wanted to be the main character! And I felt like that was easier for me to slip into as like stories and creatures and that kind of thing. It felt too like human problems. And I wanted more of like narrative story, like how do I overcome something rather than will this person and this person get together?
Linda Ritter: And I had more journey questions, I love that it didn't connect.
James Divine: I always wondered about this. Some people have talked to me about, I don't like cards with people in them. And I thought, why? But now I have a better understanding from you saying that you can be the central being in the story if you're looking at the card and now you have this animal guiding you. You were then the protagonist and it's instead reflective of what's going on. That just is hitting me right now for the first time. And that totally makes sense.
Katie Rempe: Linda was such a sweetheart. I just loved talking to her.
James Divine: I know what a great perspective on tarot. And I recently had someone over at my house who is actually on the spectrum, and when she looked at those cards, she said, I really appreciate these cuz they don't have people in them and they're easier for me to read.
James Divine: And I said Exactly.
Katie Rempe: Bingo.
James Divine: We look at so many of those gorgeous cards and hold them up. That's one to watch on YouTube for. Sure. Check out episode 67, Northern Animal Tarot with Linda Ritter.
James Divine: By the way, just in case you missed last week's episode, you can watch all of our guest episodes on our YouTube channel because Katie, you have organized our YouTube so that all the guest episodes are in one channel.
Katie Rempe: That's right. You can see an entire playlist of all of our guest episodes from all of the seasons. So they can just play one after another and you can enjoy every juicy bit from all of our amazing and guests, which are vast, at this point.
James Divine: And of course while you're there, subscribe cuz why would you not?
James Divine: Thank you for being that Virgo organizer.
Katie Rempe: If anyone has other suggestions, I love to make more lists, so just drop me an email.
James Divine: All right, my next selection is a double feature. No selection of mine would be complete without my bestie.
James Divine: My friend, talented Witch, the amazing Madame Pamita. Pamita and I go way back. And so that's why I can always rely on her to be like, yo, Pam, be a guest on the podcast.
James Divine: She's always good to go. And she's also proven to be one of our most listened to guests. So Madam Pamita has written Madame Pamita's Magical Book of Tarot. She's written The Book of candle Magic and her latest book is Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft, and we did a double feature on that book.
James Divine: It's about slavi magic , specifically Ukrainian magic. So check this out, one of our best episodes of season two, episode 68 and 69 in this clip.
James Divine: When did you first learn about Bobby Yaga? Was Bobby Yaga a term that you were taught as a child, or did you learn about this archetype and then learn her name later?
Madame Pamita: I can't remember when I got introduced to her, which tells me it's been since, I was a little girl, so I knew about Baba Yaha. We would call her a Ukrainian Baba Yaga. English version of that, and Baba Yaga is the Russian version of that.
Madame Pamita: In looking at this archetype, I don't know what inspired me to get I I do know what inspired me, but I don't know exactly when it happened or when that transition happened. But, she's always a kind of secondary character in an antagonist or secondary character in the fairytale.
Madame Pamita: She doesn't have any old fairy tales that are just about. But she does show up in hundreds and hundreds of fairy tales, pan-slavic, fairy tales. So she's variations of her show up in, of course, Russian folk tales. But also Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria.
Madame Pamita: You find these variations of her Macedonia. You can go into all the Slavi countries and find Baba Yaga character. We even see a correspondence, which isn't very surprising in some of the Germanic tales. So we have somebody in Germanic folklore named F Perta or fta who is like a wicked old witch who comes around at the fall wintertime.
Madame Pamita: And she goes around and checks your house to see if it's clean and if it isn't clean, she's whacks you with something implement that she's carrying. So this is something. We aren't seeing it like contained by borders. We also see, there's like the Wicked Witch in Hanson Gretel. So for people who aren't familiar, see I thought everybody was familiar with her again, cuz this is the way I grew up.
Madame Pamita: I thought, yeah, everyone at least knows who Baba Yaga is writing if they don't know the stories word for word. But there I found a lot of people and actually a lot of witches who weren't familiar cuz I thought, maybe okay, it makes sense that regular people, but witches not being familiar with her, was pretty eye-opening for me.
Madame Pamita: So what I like to tell people is that the closest thing that they're probably familiar with, we're mostly talking to people in the States or in Western Europe, is the witch in Hansel, Gretel. The Witch in Hansel, Gretel. She lures the children in and then she's going to fatten 'em up and then she's gonna put them in the fire and eat them.
Madame Pamita: So in some stories of Baba Yaga, she is that kind of ogre creature whose sole purpose is just to consume something. But even within those stories, there's some deeper significant spiritual meaning that goes back to ancient practices that we can talk about. But I think that these stories where she's evil character are actually the newer stories, the post Christianity story. Once Christianity came into slavic nations in 988 AC we see that evil version of her. But prior, the older stories tend to focus on her, is either very ambiguous, like she could go either way, or she's a donor character of some.
Madame Pamita: But her unifying thing is that she's always a crone and always powerful. So she's never depicted as a young woman. She's always old. She's always a little bit intimidating because of her looks sometimes ugly, just intimidating, wrinkled, old looking. But she's extremely powerful.
Madame Pamita: So whether you're going to her and she's going to eat you or you're going to her and she's going to give you a magical gift. That's where we see this unifying theme. The essence of her is that she's a forest witch. She is solitary witch. She is a crone and she's extremely powerful. And we go back in Lauren Legend and we see the forest mother or the forest grandmother as this caretaker of the forest realm, and really that's who she is.
Madame Pamita: And that is going back to her oldest Pagan roots. And this is the way her story was continued to be carried on. Even in Christian Times. It's oh, I'm just telling a fairytale about the spirit. Or a little, Hey, don't go there. Baba Yugas gonna get you. Those kind of statements would be. That's really who she is versus who she has evolved to be understood to be.
Madame Pamita: So she's that spirit that people would go to. And if we look at those old stories, people go to her with a question, a problem, or a need of some kind, and then she oftentimes will test the person. Sometimes she doesn't test them and she gives them something and then they go on their way. That's when she just makes a cameo appearance in story.
Madame Pamita: But the ones where she's more involved, it usually involves some kind of test. So you're gonna do this thing and at the end if you accomplish it, I'll give you the result, which also relates to the story Rumpelstiltskin.
Madame Pamita: The girl needs to spend the whole room of flax into gold, or straw into gold or whatever. And once she gets the help, the magical help and accomplishes this, then she gets the reward. So those stories we see blending and crossover in the stories.
Madame Pamita: So Baba Yaga would often give a task of some kind, and then usually in the stories there's like a let's say. The good girl and the lazy girl, and the good girl will do all the things and then she'll get some reward. And then this evil stepmother says, oh, I want my daughter to get that reward too.
Madame Pamita: It's just she sends the lazy daughter off to do it, and of course the lazy daughter doesn't accomplish the things, and then she gets some kind of terrible thing happening to her.
Madame Pamita: But what that tells us is also it tells us about ancient spiritual practices of initiation. This is an initiation. When you're ready to go onto being the healer of the community, or join the group of healers or join the group of warriors, or join the group of house builders, you would go through some initiation process.
Madame Pamita: An initiation process, a good initiation process, is not meant to keep you out, but meant to prove to yourself and to the higher ups that you're ready for that next step. So whether you're being initiated into the world of adults or whatever, you are gonna go through an initiation of some kind.
Madame Pamita: In Traian culture and old cultures that existed 7,000 years ago on the land that's now Ukraine and Hungary and Moldova these areas, oh, sorry, Romania, not Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and. These areas had traian cultures. There's lots of different cultures that existed, neolithic cultures that existed at this time.
Madame Pamita: But we see a very interesting thing. In Traian culture, they would have initiation huts. These initiation hats would look like the power animal of the group. If your tribe, your city was the badger your little initiation ha would look like a badge. And you would go in through the door of the mouth of the badger into the badger.
Madame Pamita: So there's an act of consuming that we see in the baba Yaga stories. She's going to eat you, which is also an initiation, a symbolic initiation. And these huts that they would have out in the woods far away, you'd go to the initiation hut were animal shaped and stood on legs. Four legs. What do we see with Baba Yaga's house?
Madame Pamita: It has chicken legs. It is quasi anthropomorphic. It's alive, and you go in through the door into that other world, into that world of the spirits. When you enter in, just like you go into the initiation hut, you are going to meet your teacher and be tested and then emerge from the hut with the gift of being initiated, or you're not ready this year, kid come back next year.
Madame Pamita: Right? That's really her role as an initiator, and when you start to see the stories through that lens, they're all initiations. Whether she's putting you into the fire, into the oven, which for Ukrainians was the symbolic home of the spirits. The peach, the oven was the home where the ancestors lived.
Madame Pamita: So it's not I'm just going to eat you or I'm just gonna burn you. I'm putting you into the world of spirit. Oh, you avoided that. You escaped it, this time, so you're not going yet to that world of the spirit. That's another initiation. So we see her as a really, very fascinating, very complex and teaching us about old ways when these things weren't document.
James Divine: Madame Pamita and her shop parlour of Wonders, has been an amazing resource throughout these entire two years of Knit A Spell. We are always grabbing our go-to oils or beeswax candles. How many times have we used her stuff?
James Divine: Right?
Katie Rempe: Even in episode 100, which I referenced last week, we used so many of her products to improve our luck, including the Billen Coin, her Good luck oil, her good luck Horseshoe Candle. Good luck potion. I even put together her lucky seven gambler's mojo bag just to help increase my odds. really it is such high quality products and I, for one, feel good about knowing that it's coming from a good source. Someone who's legit.
James Divine: Yeah.
James Divine: And very low waste and low carbon footprint, packaging and all of that. So we're not sponsored by her, but we really enjoy working with someone who's so eco-conscious and has such high quality products.
James Divine: So check out Madame Pita we'll have her on again I know. Episode 68 and 69 to hear the full episode and our whole conversation.
James Divine: The next episode that is on my list episode 71.
Katie Rempe: Ooh.
James Divine: Friend of mine, Laura Tempest Zakroff. I used to cat sit for her because she used to be my neighbor, but of course you'll know her because she's a prolific visual artist. Her paintings are amazing. And a prolific author, not to mention she's an amazing dancer. And we talked to her about her deck.
James Divine: She has an amazing anatomy of a Witch Oracle deck. And she has a particular card in there. That has a hand on it.
James Divine: Hello?
Katie Rempe: Duh.
James Divine: duh. The card that I was really into. So I wanted to know her perspective on that card. And so this is one of my favorite clips.
Katie Rempe: I know. Okay. Jim, what you know about the hands With the Hands.
James Divine: I know a lot about these symbols, but I want to hear from you.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: So for the folks who, who aren't watching along, we have the manga, the Manuta, and then we have the Hamsa or the Hand Fatima. It's all mixed in there. And those are three big important ones to me. There are so many other things that we could have done, but the two, particularly on the end, the mids I'm wearing a me carta right now.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: I also have lots of mangas, but very heavy into Mediterranean culture is a symbol of protection, empowerment, as well as a bit rude. It has some rude, some of the members, a bit more rude meetings to them. And then also as someone who's been involved in Folkloric and Middle Eastern and Arabic dance, all the variations, that the Hand of Fatima, which also crosses over in a Jewish culture, so again, that comes down through the line.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: And then the eye thing seeing eye within that. So against the evil eye, so another layer of protection and this connection and peace. But the kind of the fun pun for that car too, in, in the. Prescription for it cuz there's description and then there's a prescription is like you need to get hands on.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: So when you get this, it's like, all right, stop being like, I'm just going to do meditation. And it's alright, what physical things are you going to get active? What are you gonna do with your hands hopefully that you can do something right that is crafty that alternating things. Not just thinking about it, reading about it, listening about it, but doing the thing.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: So that's brought into it
James Divine: too. I love this. Yes. Because you have a snake around the egg. You have a, also that image holding the paint brushes with the music out of it. This is a very much Nita spell type of card. Yeah.
Lara Tempest Zakroff: Got the little needles in there.
James Divine: Your ability to draw hands.
James Divine: Is unparalleled. I never can!
James Divine: So that's all about the hand, Katie.
James Divine: But there's so much more in that episode.
Katie Rempe: Oh yeah. Her entire deck is so comprehensive.
Katie Rempe: Plus it comes with a very detailed book. This one is actually really valuable and really features her excellent writing skills.
James Divine: Not to mention the incredible artwork. So this is one to watch. Check out the entire episode 71 with Lara Tempest Zakroff.
James Divine: Our next clip features one of the people who has been on Knit A Spell most often.
Katie Rempe: Episode
James Divine: 73, Sew Witchy with Raechel Henderson.
James Divine: Raechel Henderson came out with amazing book. So beautifully photographed . So
James Divine: gorgeously put together so well written, it's so right up our alley. Such magical fiber art and sewing projects, and I don't know, is there knitting projects in there?
James Divine: There's a few, right?
Katie Rempe: I don't think so. I think it was more about the sewing, but trust me, there's so much that could apply to any craft, even the section on, when things go wrong and you've checked your sewing machine and this and that, and everything's in good order, but things aren't still working.
Katie Rempe: Have you checked your metaphysical self, your metaphysical tools? I was like, oh, that of course applies to knitting and everything else. Her perspective on practical magic and magic making right up our alley.
James Divine: Yeah. And this was the first time we had Rachel on the podcast.
James Divine: I think this clip will show you why it was a no-brainer to have Rachel back on the show, which we did several times.
James Divine: Check it out.
Katie Rempe: Part of the reason I love this book is because so many correspondences and I like people with differing opinions on how they feel about stuff. Because you can go online and find basic correspondences for colors and whatnot, and it's all the same and that's fine.
Katie Rempe: But what about more new stuff and new ideas and other people with other ideas. And I really loved how you had, not only just like tool correspondences, but what if something goes wrong? What if you wanna incorporate diety into it? They were really more layered ideas, even though it is quite a beginner book.
Katie Rempe: It can take you on a further journey than some which I really appreciated.
Raechel Henderson: I really feel that a lot of magic is very personal. I liken it to language in that if I say cat, all three of us and everybody listening are gonna have a different picture in their head. We may all imagine a domestic cat, but it's gonna be different colors.
Raechel Henderson: It's gonna be a different, length of hair, all of that. And I feel that way for correspondences. That pink, okay, romantic love. And there's gonna be other stuff, but people have their own internal emotions and contexts. And if you come from a background where romantic love has, either it's something you've longed for or something that's been withheld or something that has been used to hurt you, you're gonna have a different relationship to that correspondence than somebody else.
Raechel Henderson: And. I feel that it's great to have. And I provide correspondences in the book, but it's always good going back to this idea of book of shadows, to just sit with yourself and go, okay, what does this color actually, what does this herb actually mean to me? What does any of this and to, how can I incorporate that in my magic and not let somebody say you really should be using this rather than that.
Raechel Henderson: No, I'll just use my thing. Thank you very much. And you do your thing and everything will be fine.
Jim: I love that.
James Divine: Okay, so obviously. It's a love fest between you and me and Rachel Henderson, right? Oh, you can learn more about Rachel Henderson. Check out episode 73 Sew Witchy in full. And you can just search Raechel Henderson on knitaspell.com or on our YouTube and listen to full episodes. That feature Rachel Henderson.
Katie Rempe: She's been in three of our episodes already, so one of our, no, absolutely. Our most reoccurring guest so far. And Jim said, absolutely for a reason.
James Divine: Yeah.
James Divine: Okay. I'm ready for a cocktail.
Katie Rempe: Yes, please.
James Divine: Are you ready for a cocktail?
Katie Rempe: I'll take one.
James Divine: Good.
James Divine: Our friend Runa troy in episode 86 this was around the holiday around Yule Tide. And Runa came on talking all about mixing magical cocktails and mocktails, in a whole new way. Runo was a fantastic guest and her storytelling was so great.
James Divine: So check out this cocktail.
James Divine: Your mouth will be watering when you hear what she has to say about it. Check this out.
Jim: Speaking of spirits, is there like that nostalgic beverage from your past that comes to mind?
Runa: Oh yes. It's actually the very first ritual of drink that I was ever exposed to, and it's a Tom and Jerry. It is a old school cocktail made with eggs and butter and Christmas spices and brandy and rum, and it was something that was always featured at my paternal grandparents' house during the winter holidays.
Runa: It was topped with whipped cream too, which was especially enticing to the little ones. We were allowed sips, but there weren't enough mugs to go around except for the adults. So we'd be like, ma, can I have a drink? Can I have a drink? But it's frothy and boozy and creamy and spicy all in one, like my family.
Runa: So it's definitely something that I remember.
Jim: This is on your paternal grandparent side?
Runa: Yes, my Pepe and Gigi.
Jim: And wasn't Pepe a little bit of a mixologist himself?
Runa: Yeah. To give you a little bit of background, my father comes from a family of nine children.
Runa: He's got three sisters and or three brothers, excuse me, and five sisters and families were big like that back then. Birth control was wonky at best, and my maternal grandmother comes from a family of 10. So I was surrounded by people all the time. So it's no surprise that big punch bowl were brought out when the family all got together cuz it, really went ways to feed and drink a big gathering like that.
Runa: And I remember my Pepe, he would be so proud of his Tom and Jerry's. God, I would love to have his Tom and Jerry's set too. But he was tasting it and you have to separate a dozen eggs and the butter has to be the right temperature. And, he was mixing and tasting and mixing and tasting and, he looked like this, potions wizard hovering over it and everything like that.
Runa: And I remember sitting in the basement bar watching him do this. And it was very hypnotic. Now today I can say that, I was getting those alpha and theta brainwaves going and, being very meditative. And that's why I remember this particular moment.
Runa: But my one uncle, the youngest of the uncles put more brandy in. Yeah, exactly.
Jim: Wait, so his intention was like to spike it or make it a little more like , let's get lit or something. Let's that, let's get lit.
Runa: Yeah, let's get lit. Let's have fun. And my Pepe was furious. He was a pretty easygoing guy.
Runa: You would have to have nine kids. But he. So mad and he made my uncle go out in the winter and go get more ingredients so he could start it all over again. And it was funny because he didn't see my uncle do it. He tasted it. He knew it had been messed with and you were messing with the energy that he put in.
Runa: He made this with so much love and care and intention that everyone would feel welcome and loved and cared for. And my uncle messed that up and he was none too happy.
Jim: So it wasn't about getting effed up, it wasn't about like drinking, it was about the recipe and the ingredients and the
Runa: Absolutely.
Runa: Finding the balance. Yeah. Yeah. Our yu yues for any families and definitely for mine, were fraught with families squabbles and drama and that, and I'm sure that once I left Detroit, my life choices were gossiped about at that bar over the Tommy Jerry's punch and stuff like that.
Runa: But you know in my crone mission to seek peace and sanctuary, that's none of my business. But at that time, as a child, I look and I was like, yeah. That's not okay. You can't do that. So that kind of sticks in my mind. There was a lot of magic to it.
Runa: And it was labor intensive, separating a dozen eggs.
Runa: That's no easy feat. Today, it's a little bit easier. We got all these cool, kitchen tools and stuff, but for my grandfather, that wasn't the case at all.
Jim: We can buy egg whites at the store in a carton.
Runa: Right? There you go. And then the butter having to be at the right temperature in that.
Runa: So I've taken that and created my own version of it, which is a whole lot easier and a whole lot more accessible for people. And I'm calling it Good Forward Nog, because I wanna take the good of my ancestors that care and that love, and leave the squabbles and the drama behind.
Katie: So in this case, the ingredients are just as important as the intention.
Katie: Absolutely. And so what makes this recipe easier than the original?
Runa: Because you don't have to make the Tom and Jerry's batter, right? Ah, you have to do that ahead of time. And it can look a little not good.
Runa: The batter itself doesn't look that appetizing, and a lot of times, depending on what's going on, I'll make this individually for folks, so I use eggnog instead. It's basically the same ingredients. It's readily available anymore for anybody, and you save a little bit of calories.
Runa: Because you're not using the butter, but the way that you mix it and the things that you mix it with, allows for that creaminess and that good mouth feel of a Tom and Jerry.
Jim: We'll have a link to the recipe in the show notes so you don't have to have a pen and write everything down.
Jim: Give us an overview of how we might do this.
Runa: It's eggnog so you can support your local dairy because they all put out eggnog at this time of year. Some of 'em are plain, some of them already have the spices in it.
Runa: It's okay, it doesn't matter, whatever. You're still gonna add more spices because that's what makes it so good.
Runa: The eggnog holds the energy of new beginnings and abundance and it's important for the intention of why we're making and consuming the Good Forward Nog. You want that new beginning, you want the abundance. Because with those things, you can take the good forward, right?
Runa: It has aged rum, which holds the energy of strength because you're gonna need some strength to discard the generational traumas or, whatever negativity you wanna leave in the past that you've gotten from your family of origin or whatever. You could use this particularly and whatever you wanna take forward as far as the positivity goes.
Runa: It has brandy, which has four ages been used for health. And I love me some good brandy for sure. It's also holds the energy of prosperity. So you have abundance with the eggs. You have a prosperity with the Brandy because you wanna continue to move forward in the good.
Jim: Which makes sense because the brandy is distilled from grapes. And that has that symbolism. Rum is distilled. It depends. Rum can be distilled from different things, but good rum is distilled from sugar cane. And those both have that energy that comes from them.
Runa: And this is aged drum in this recipe too. Been cooking for a while.
Jim: Ooh, yeah. This is great. I see where you're going. Okay, keep going.
Runa: And then there's whipped cream, which is about luxury. And then all those spices like cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg, that's life full of love right there.
Jim: My Taurus Moon is in love with this cocktail.
Katie: Yes. Sweet and delicious and spicy. Oh my gosh.
Runa: Yes. And warm. And that's what we need right now. We need that warmth.
James Divine: The biggest lesson to learn from this episode: don't mess with someone else's potions.
Katie Rempe: No, don't add more booze.
James Divine: Even if it's a big bowl of punch. Don't spike the punch bowl.
James Divine: Do it at prom
Katie Rempe: Not somebody's brew that they've made for five hours cracking like a hundred eggs to do it and getting it just right. Just add more booze in your cup.
James Divine: Yeah. Spike your own.
James Divine: Yeah. That was really fun with Rena. I can't wait to have her on in the future.
Katie Rempe: Yes, and all of her delicious recipes are still linked in our show notes, so be sure to check those out as well. And her Patreon, which is awesome.
James Divine: Her Patreon, her email list, everything that Rena does is fantastic.
Katie Rempe: Yes.
James Divine: All right.
James Divine: Our next episode is Tarot in Love with the Reverend Doctor Elliot Adam.
Katie Rempe: Oh, I love him. This was such a great episode!
James Divine: Episode 95, and that wraps up my picks for, season two. But let's just talk about this episode. Tarot in Love is Dr. Elliot Adam's latest book. His book is all about how you can do love readings or look at the tarot through the lens of love in all aspects of love, romantic, platonic, self-love all those aspects.
James Divine: And after having Elliot on my Meet A Mystic show that is currently on hiatus, I knew he had a wonderful story, has wonderful stories, and is a fantastic tarot reader.
James Divine: So we talked to Elliot about his new book and he addresses why do so many people ask about love readings?
Elliot: As a reader the number one question I get asked about, Is love. Relationships.
Elliot: When am I gonna meet somebody? Is the person I'm with the one for me.
Elliot: Sometimes readers get asked this so often, it can even get a little annoying. I write about this in Tara in Love. You'll get the client who is with the absolute worst human being, so abusive, so negative, and they're calling the tarot reader and they want the tarot reader to tell them that this relationship's okay.
Elliot: And that actually everything's gonna be fine. They just have to stick it out. And it doesn't matter if you're going through abuse, you're in love, which somehow makes you someone who should stick in this through thick and thin and no matter what you're going through. And I was having a conversation in the yard with my sister and that's how this book got started.
Elliot: And we were talking about relationship readings, and I was saying, why is it that people are asking these questions with individuals who aren't respecting them or caring for them? What is that saying to them?
Elliot: And then I had to remember, Oh, I remember a time in my life before I got married when I was looking for love and I was accepting all sorts of relationship behavior that was subpar.
Elliot: Because I didn't really know, number one, my own worth. And I also didn't know how a healthy, functional relationship should transpire. And so I was thinking, you know what? I think I'd like to write a book to my younger self, the version of me that was long ago looking for love. Just desperate to find that, and who had to find out that love doesn't come first to validate you, and then your life is happily ever after.
Elliot: Oftentimes what we learn is that we have to go toward our own best life. We have to go through this journey of loving ourselves, warts, and all, everything that we don't like, and to really get so enthusiastic about our own that we put out a different frequency.
Elliot: Because people who come to me for a love reading and are desperate, when am I gonna meet him? I just wanna have a relationship. Do you realize you're going out into the world with that energy and people can perceive that? Isn't that repellent? If someone was like that to you, wouldn't you be like, get away.
Elliot: I don't want your needy clingy energy. Ugh.
Elliot: But if you are someone who's saying, you know what? I am involved in school right now. I'm building a business. I have this wonderful job. I love my life so much, I'm gonna go travel. I have so much fun in my daily life that I don't need somebody to complete me.
Elliot: I'm having a great time. I love me. And if I meet someone, great, that's a cherry on the Sunday, but I'm not looking at this relationship as my last meal.
Elliot: It's a totally different vibe, and when you're in that space, You attract love. It's like magic. People are like, who is that? What kind of energy do they have? I wanna get to know that person. They're powerful, they're confident.
Elliot: So I wrote Tarot in Love to address the energy we bring into our relationships. To make people self-aware. The book can tell you a lot about what another person might be feeling about you, but what it more can teach you is what do you need to learn about yourself?
Elliot: Why is this annoying card coming up over and over in your love reading that you're not wanting to hear? What is that saying about you? Because if you can get your breakthrough, the relationship's gonna follow suit.
James Divine: All right. Now we know.
James Divine: That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Katie Rempe: Everything has been solved, thanks to him. Just grab a copy of his book, Tarot in Love, and you'll know exactly how to deal with questions about love and how to address your own questions for love as well.
James Divine: Check out episode 95, Tarot in love with Dr. Elliot Adam in full. It is really a fantastic treat.
James Divine: I think the hardest part of doing these episodes, Katie, is how do we just pick?
James Divine: We could just do a four hour. I think that's what we need to do. We need to do a four hour podcast.
Katie Rempe: Oh yeah.
James Divine: Yeah.
James Divine: And just enumerate at length.
James Divine: And rebroadcast every one of our favorite moments. For four hours, I think people would stay on for four hours.
Katie Rempe: Yeah. While we're at it, why don't we make season three just replaying all of season two? That'd be great. So much easier for me.
James Divine: That was really the hardest part was choosing and editing down. Just a few of the clips that were so meaningful because there were so many others. There were so many moments that were just so great and how could we remember them all throughout an entire year?
Katie Rempe: And as we're even talking about this, it's oh, and this, oh, and this!
James Divine: Remember Jennifer Stidely. Remember with
James Divine: that moment with your brother? Oh man.
Katie Rempe: Theresa Reed. Like how?
Katie Rempe: Just another reason for every one of our listeners, if they're interested to just hop on over to our YouTube channel and watch 'em all in a row.
Katie Rempe: Binge watch 'em this weekend, why don't ya?
James Divine: right.
James Divine: Thank you everyone for listening. Next week we have something super fun planned.
Katie Rempe: Yes.
James Divine: I am surprising Katie with questions that she has not seen.
James Divine: So a lot of times we do work from scripts and from things that we have talked about and planned.
James Divine: We are surprising each other with questions.
James Divine: We have not prepared for, we are springing it on each other. We have to answer in the moment. So this'll be like, a Super fun.
James Divine: Can you answer on your toes type of experience.
James Divine: And Katie has questions for me and I'm just gonna have to answer them on the fly.
James Divine: So I have no idea what's gonna happen next week. A little scared.
Katie Rempe: It's jim's favorite.
James Divine: Yeah, it's like a rollercoaster. I'm scared, but I know I'm safe.
Katie Rempe: I promise I'll be gentle,
Katie Rempe: Oh Jim, I can't wait. And for our listeners, get ready cuz you'll definitely learn some stuff about us that you did not know in next week's episode.
Katie Rempe: So until then, Jim, thanks for sharing your thoughts on all of our awesome guests that we've
Katie Rempe: had
Katie Rempe: over the past year.
James Divine: All right, see you then.
Katie Rempe: Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes and Spotify or following Knit A Spell on Instagram.
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See you next week. Next week.
