James Divine: Welcome to Knit a Spell!
Katie Rempe: Woohoo.
James Divine: I have to tell you, I'm super excited today because we have a guest and here is your hint.
This is the Artist's Way for Witches.
I am standing by that. Inspiring Creativity Through Magic by Astrea Taylor.
And we have Astrea Taylor here today with us. Welcome Astrea!
Astrea Taylor: Thank you so much. It's such an honor to be here.
Intro
---
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'.
James Divine: Astrea Taylor is a witch, author, two time COVR award winner for Modern Witchcraft with the Greek Gods and Air Magic. She also wrote Intuitive Witchcraft. Her mission is to empower other witches and to encourage people to use intuition and creativity in their craft.
Today we're going to talk to Astrea about her magical background and her new book that I was just showing you, Inspiring Creativity Through Magic, published by our friends at Llewellyn. Oops. We'll see. It's creative because it's upside down.
Katie Rempe: That's right. You can read it in any direction, in fact.
James Divine: Yeah. I'm so glad you're here, Astrea. This is so fun.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Katie Rempe: As soon as we saw this book come across to our Coming Soon in the Publishing Queue, I was like, oh, yes, this is. perfect for our audience. Magical makers, which are our niche. This is what you need. It's so packed with inspiring information.
Astrea Taylor: Thank you.
It was, it was, I was driven to write
this book.
I think this book really wanted to be in the world. And I'd been working with spirits for a long time in my creativity. And I was like, Oh, that's what I could write a book about.
Okay. It's perfect.
It's
perfect timing.
Astrea's Background
---
Katie Rempe: From your book, we learned a little bit about your witchy workings and your out of body experiences that happened to you as an early child. How did that influence your magical journey?
Astrea Taylor: Those were really foundational in my relation to the world.
And we were talking before the show, um, I have a
moon on
Aquarius, and I kind of just see things from outside the box perspective, but I mean, I guess there was a reason for that. And those early childhood experiences of being out of the body, uh,
it taught
me a lot of things kind of about the world that there is another world.
That overlaps with ours, that spirits are real telepathy with spirits is real. I was literally speaking with my mind and, um, I was getting responses. So I knew that are my thoughts. My words were really important. My, my thoughts were my words, first of all. And then, um, what I was putting out there, I was getting, uh, responses to that from the spirits.
So. I really learned that at an early age and I learned that energy is real and just having the experiences outside of our bodies is something that can happen. And so when I was,
when
I was younger, I had a very liberal witchy, single mom, and she just let me do whatever I want with religion and stuff.
And. For a while, I was looking into all the world's religions, and I was trying to find one that affirmed like my am mystic way of thinking, and that kind of made sense of my out of body experiences, and there was nothing out there that was good, at good for that,
you
know, supporting for me as a a young woman or a a girl.
uh, except for Paganism Witchcraft. So that's how I made sense of the world at a very young age.
Katie Rempe: So growing up, how did you manage to keep that magical attitude that so many get squelched out of them.
James Divine: Yeah, I think about like as a kid, I saw fairies or as a kid, I was really into my imagination.
And then when you get older, it's like, Oh, I don't see those anymore. Or I don't have that anymore. Did you continue with that? Did you go through a period of time where you were like, Nope, I'm mundane now and then pick it up again? Or did you have it the whole time?
Astrea Taylor: Well, I think I had it the whole time, you know, my mom studied a little bit of witchcraft and she actually had out
of body
experiences.
So she knew what was happening and she explained it to me. She was
very gentle
and kind about it.
My sisters and I were kind of encouraged to, you know, just be ourselves. And so I didn't ever doubt my experiences. I didn't share them with everyone, but when someone would be like, you're weird, I, my mom taught me to say, thank you.
Thank you, you
know,
James Divine: Good job, mom.
Astrea Taylor: the Morticia kind of thing like thank you. Um, but
not
judging myself went a long way. And that means I didn't accept society's judgment of me as much either.
And when I was older I applied to and was accepted to Antioch college where, you know, weird was the norm and it was really fostered and encouraged and, you know, it was whatever you want to believe whatever you want to be, you know, that's, that's great.
As long as it's progressive. And so it was like a hotbed for that kind of spiritual cultural revolution. And I found a home I found friends who are also into the same kinds of things into magical things. We found our way into pagan gatherings as a, at a young age. And, uh, yeah, it, it just worked out for me that way.
And I know that's not everyone's path, but I think that it's becoming a more common path that people, uh, have right now these days, because when they're younger, you know, more and more people who are our age have kids who, uh, you know, we're introducing them to, this magical life and we're not teaching them to deny it.
James Divine: Right. Yeah, that's totally true. So this book is about creativity and inspiration. Does there a connection between your intuition and inspiration, do you think?
Astrea Taylor: Um, I think so. Um, but I think intuition comes from
within. I think that,
you know, it's that gut feeling
and
it's what we, um, used to check in to see, you
know, how
do we really feel?
How does this feel? How does this sit with us? Then inspiration, I believe comes from outside of ourselves. And then we feel it on the inside. So
we can feel the inspiration.
Uh, and it feels a little bit different from intuition. Intuition, you know, as I said, is in the gut. I feel. Inspiration mostly on my mind, like this beautiful soft caress, you know, uh, sometimes I feel like strike my heart or like come up through, um, my feet and into my legs, especially when I'm dancing.
I feel a different ways, depending on the artistic medium. When I was a potter, I would feel it in my hands and my heart, you know, like on the spinning wheel. And that was really beautiful too, but I feel like,
you know, we just feel those
things in different areas.
James Divine: That's cool.
Katie Rempe: How do you personally define inspiration?
Inspiration
---
Astrea Taylor: So I believe it's the magical energy that's given to artists and everyday people too, mostly artists though. Um, and it's given to us from creative spirits, whether that's, you know, actually a spirit or a deity or an ancestor, uh, anything like that.
It's kind of like, uh, this. Overwhelming, uh, sensation that can kind of just be like this, uh, guiding lights toward whatever creativity or art project. It can strike us like we can look at this color of an apple and just be like, Oh my gosh, that's, that's it. That's the color I'm going to use for this painting.
It's perfect. And, uh, or you can just hear this, song and be swept away. That's how I wrote my second book. I was just swept away. Away by a song. And I had to write this whole backstory because this character just came to life to me. And I feel like inspiration can strike us. In the most uncommon of places. And especially those liminal moments.
Like when we're drifting off to sleep, when we're in the shower.
uh, when
we're driving in the car. um, And it can just. Feel so powerful. And I feel like if you don't, you know, take note of it or try to remember it, you can kind of float on to somebody else and that's okay. We can't, you know, take care of all the inspirational ideas that come to us.
But, uh, I
think,
you know, if you can record those, as much as possible, definitely do, especially if you're into art, if you're seeking inspiration. That's the inspiration that's coming to you. That would be perfect for you. And that means that you can fulfill that artistic mission.
James Divine: Yeah, that's really cool.
You do a really good job in this book of footnoting
references. Which I love. When you were just speaking, I was thinking about Stephen King's book on writing, he talks about how sometimes his characters, he thinks his character is going to do one thing or the other, but then the character itself starts telling him what their path is, Yeah. and I'm sure you've read his book because I see that you've quoted him in your book, and, um, you must love his, That book on writing, don't you?
Astrea Taylor: I do. And I'm a
James Divine: audio book and he reads his own audio book, which is really awesome because you hear him. I think about how his characters become kind of muses, if you will. And I think about how you also reference and credit. Big magic, the book, big magic, which is written by what's the name of the author again,
Astrea Taylor: Liz Gilbert,
James Divine: Liz Gilbert,
which I know you give big credit to.
And I think your book is at that level. Your book is like big magic for witches also.
So can you talk about that concept of the muse or the, or the creativity comes to you? And if you don't use it, it might. Move to someone else.
Astrea Taylor: Even the concept of magic and creativity, there weren't a lot of books in our community, uh, you know, floating around
for a long
time. I signed this contract in November of 2020, and I had to get through the Greek gods. It's
book first, but I was just driven. I
I was
driven to like submit this proposal and to get it accepted and I really wanted to do it. And, you know, um, since I published this book, just, you know, uh, July of 2023, I mean, before that, there were actually a few other books about creativity and magic as well. There's like Art which by Molly Roberts.
Uh, Laura Tempest Zackroff had one. Uh, there's another one about art in the occult. So this is a very hot topic, but what's funny is. We're all interpreting it differently. You know, art magic is more about the arts and crafts, this of it all. Uh, Laura's book is more about like sigils and that kind of energy, the art of sigils and stuff like that.
And the occult book is more about the visual aspects and like what they have in common. It's more of like a historical. Ish book. Uh, they're all
great
books, but the last one's by S Elizabeth and, um, but we we're all saying different things, but we're, this message is coming through to
us. So
I think we all got the same kind of zeitgeist moments, you know, the spirit of the time, it was just time for everything to come through and we all interpreted it in our own beautiful
way.
James Divine: Yeah. that's really that's really cool. So is this you think where the idea came from for this book?
Astrea Taylor: Well, it really came from the fact that I was working with this creative spirit for so many books like this is my sixth book, my fourth with Llewellyn, and I have two self published books before the Maya Llewellyn journey, but, um, My creative spirit showed up and helped me write and help me finish my first book ever.
Before that, I had been plodding along. I had several other books, short stories. They just never got finished. I couldn't find the way to finish them. There was, it was like, I was missing the key to finish them. And then all of
a sudden,
boom, my creative spirit showed up and here we are like. I was like, Oh my gosh, the characters did take a life of their own.
They were like, this is what I want. This is what I don't want. This is what I'm going to do. Um, they're very cocky characters. Um, and I just stood back and wasn't all of all of it. And, you know, I came through the computer, it came through me, but a lot of the energy and inspiration and ideas came from the creative spirit. And, you know, the life of the work told me things as well. The, arts, it had a spirit, you know, what, which I call the egregore in the book and that told me what it wanted to be as well.
That's where the idea
from the
book came from maybe 10 years ago was when this, this all started.
So this has all of my information from working with my creative spirit for the past 10 years.
James Divine: That gave me tingles in the introduction when you introduce us to your
beloved creative spirit as you say in the acknowledgement at the beginning Crow. and you describe this spirit I got tingles as I'm reading because it was so like, I've been there, I've been painting.
And then eight hours later, kind of awoke from the painting, which there was there in front of me and I didn't go to the bathroom and I didn't drink any water and I didn't eat anything. And it was eight hours later and I'm like, how is this possible? Yeah. And here's this painting in front of me that I'm like, what, ha what happened?
Astrea Taylor: Right.
That's beautiful. Although I do
advocate
for hydration.
James Divine: Oh yeah, Of course, but for some reason it was like the muse took over and then I was like popped out of that experience and I was totally fine.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah. And you don't feel drained either.
Like some, if it was a negative spirit, you know, with you, you would feel like a hangover, you know, ritual hangover. Uh, but the creative spirit just uplifts you. And yeah, you might feel tired a little bit, just worn out a little bit from like, Cramping your hand like this for eight hours painting, but,
Katie Rempe: Human problems. Yeah.
James Divine: I've never had anything like that since, but I've also not committed to art in the same way.
Oh, that's not true, through palmistry I guess I have had periods of palmistry where I've popped out of it and been like, okay, Jimmy needs to rest now.
Katie Rempe: One aspect I really enjoyed that you covered in the book was that, if you try to look at it directly, or if you try too hard to reach and grasp it, it's like, it's like. Grabbing water.
James Divine: OR chasing a cat,
Katie Rempe: right?
And I have felt like I have gotten that message over and over again. And so it gave me a lot of great validation to be like, Okay. Yes. That's not just me. It's really happening.
Astrea Taylor: It's basically an occult spirit. It's hidden away.
These other spirits, they're barely discernible to me. And I've seen a lot of spirits. So I think that, yeah, we have to, um, accept that, you know, they're here and they may or may not make themselves seen to us, but, um, that doesn't mean they're not here if we don't see them.
We live in this world that, uh, really advocates for seeing as believing.
You have to have a direct experience. You have to know what you're looking at and, you know, you have to physically hear it, but, we don't actually need all of that to trust what we hear and feel inside, you know, and see from the corners of our eyes, or maybe not even see it all.
James Divine: Yeah.
Katie Rempe: We were just talking about how radio waves. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. We just didn't have the tool to tune into them. So we just need to find the tool or hone the tool.
James Divine: I also love this idea of like in that same idea, radio waves can be received.
Like if we want to hear them, sure, they can be broadcast, but. Like there's this gentle and amazing art of receiving. It wasn't about like, where are you? What are you doing? It was about allowing, and if you want that creative spirit to be there, there's a lot of allowing.
And a lot of the rituals in the book really are about allowing. Does your space allow for creativity? Is it organized? Is it clean? Is it distraction free? And does it allow for your muse, your creative spirit to be there?
It wasn't really said, I don't think overtly, but I think that that's something that's undercurrent. I'm curious about your thoughts about that.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. I did not say that in the book, but I love that. And here's another radio metaphor for you receiving, but also turning the dial and seeking out where we find the inspiration, our own brainwaves.
Our own thoughts, our own trans states, states of mind, you know, so what, what's the juicy spot for you to get to? I think for a lot of us, you know, we, it's with the slower brainwaves. We calm down, but some people like, you know, the faster brainwaves are more excitatory for them and they can, uh, experience that moment of bliss with a dance. I know for knitting it, I always slowed down for writing. It's a little bit of a slowdown. Uh, I think we all have to find our own pace as to uh, like how we can receive that energy the best for us. And our art.
James Divine: So fun
Katie Rempe: Speaking of knitting, we're going to take a quick break and we come back.
We're going to talk a little bit about knitting. Yay And
James Divine: more Magicians
and all kinds of stuff. Stick around. We'll be right back.
BREAKKatie's Workshop
---
James Divine: Katie. I got this email about a knit with color magic workshop.
Katie Rempe: That's right. I now offer a brand new workshop on my website. 100% self-paced. All about learning how to knit using color magic, cuz you already knit using colors, but why not be a little bit more aware of how they make you react, how you could use them to help other people express different emotions and feelings.
And more importantly, the ability to be more aware of how colors affect you and how you can use them to help make your knitting projects even more impactful.
James Divine: Even me colorblind Jim, and I'm in there in the comments.
Katie Rempe: That's right. Jim has taken the course and Jim has helped me actually with feedback in the bonus colorblindness section, so why don't you go ahead and learn more by visiting light from lantern.com, and if you have any questions, you can always just drop me an email at hello light from lantern.com. Hope to see you there.
Book a Reading with Jim!
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Katie Rempe: Hey, Jim, I feel like you've been doing a lot of readings lately.
James Divine: This is the time of year when people get their palm read. It's that time of year when, ah, time for my annual palm reading time for me to understand what's going on with me.
Divination really picks up so time to book a reading.
Katie Rempe: End the second half of the year strong with reading from Jim. Where do they go to find more information?
James Divine: You know, it's funny. You would go to my website, oh, the Divine Hand, I know, amazing the divine hand.com, and right there on the front page is book a reading.
So I hope you, take this opportunity and check it out for yourself.
Katie Rempe: Welcome back, everybody. I was very curious about this relationship that you make in the book, the magician in Tarot is basically an artist.
How did this come to you?
Magician Artist
---
Astrea Taylor: I think about that a lot. The tarot cards a lot. I love tarot. I study it every day.
I have cards that I choose multiple times, and I went through this phase where I was choosing the fool, the fool, the fool, you know, every other day, every day, whatever. And then, I, um, went into the magician and sometimes it does actually flow like that, but I was thinking about the transition between the fool and the magician.
And the fool is
just this
openness, the state of all receptivity, exploring, trying new things, going off of the cliff and, finding ourselves in this new place. I think that, unfortunately a lot of people do get stuck in the fool mode though, like where they just keep trying new things.
They don't latch
on to anything they can't
figure out this new world that they find themselves in.
And
they just keep falling off cliffs, another cliff, another cliff, and they just, keep exploring. And that's great. Especially, you know, younger people do that a lot. I did that.
and
there's no judgment whatsoever.
Um, but. The moment we decide to set an intention and to move forward with, the power that resides within us. The moment we decide to work with the elements that are all around us and to use them in our magic to make our intention come true. That's the magician to me. And I see that, you know, both in the magical practices that I do, but also in my art.
When you decide on what your intention is for your arts, you're more likely to actually finish your art and to accomplish that as opposed to, I'm just going to see what happens. I'm just going to color finger paint. I love finger painting. I never have a mission with that. Totally different. I don't have a goal.
It's just experiential. It's the fool
for me.
But if you want to really, um, you know, see a project to completion and have some kind of like a, goal actualized, then you need more of the magician energy in your creativity.
Katie Rempe: Otherwise it's just going everywhere all at once and like spraying like an open hose.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, that's fun.
James Divine: love about this is, on page 75, this thing about like people saying, I don't feel like I'm creative or
it's
like you said, stuck in the fool.
I was really nurtured as a creative mind by my parents. They always gave us outlets for creativity. And That isn't because I'm necessarily more or less creative than any other person, but it's because I was lucky enough to have parents that nurtured that.
So you say here, like several years of feeling like I couldn't identify as an artist. Your personal experience of like passive tendencies plaguing you and then you realize you had to change and that it took a lot of courage and course corrections, but you were determined to change how you identified.
And this sort of mental shift of saying, you wish a benevolent stranger would see my artistic potential, swoop me up into another life where they'd give me all the training and resources I need.
How many of you listening as an artist have had that fantasy?
Totally
me, right?
And instead of waiting for someone else to be my hero, I decided to be the person I was looking for.
I would see the artistic potential within myself. I would give myself everything I needed to create. It took a lot of courage and course corrections, but I was determined to try. My dreams were too important to give up on.
Holy cow, that hit me so hard and I was like, okay, yes. Everyone who's out there who doesn't identify as an artist, who looks at someone else in comparison, stop it. You are creative because you're human.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, it's exactly right. We all have the potential to be creative.
In that chapter I talk about the creative potential is like a book of matches.
We can just let it stay in the, uh, a little match box forever. We can use our creative potential to light other people's fires, or we can be brave enough to light our own fires. To light a fire for ourselves, to light a candle. A magical candle, maybe even for ourselves and our creative potential and make it come to life. So the candle is the fire correspondence. For the ritual, uh, the creative ritual. And it's really about
It's like having a mirror for you, expending this magical energy, doing this creation. And the candle is like keeping you accountable. It's like your friend, it's your mirror almost.
It's we're both expending energy. Keep going, you know?
I really believe that everyone does have the potential to be an artist. And, and like you said, I was one of those people who just admired other people's art so much. I didn't know what my own art would be. And, and now look at me and I've just done, I'm a fire dancer,
a writer,
a fiction writer as well.
And um, I've done all kinds of art in my life. Tried all kinds of things. And I just have to say there's so much joy in creation. I think there's a lot of fear that people feel, and they may feel like they're going to be judged, but I think most of all, I mean, everyone's in their own worlds. And if you do get judged, what's, what's the big deal.
You know, it's not like it's the end of the world. I think that the benefits far outweigh any kind of fear, any kind of bad results that could happen.
Katie Rempe: Absolutely agree. Anything is creative, and yet that is an impossible concept to accept when you're in the full stage, right?
Because you just don't know enough. about how hard or how much work the person that you're looking at put into it to make it look so easy, which is a concept that we've talked about in the past before. And so it's so easy to just be, like, frustrated and fizzle out And or just, like you said, be like, Okay, well, I guess not this.
Maybe this one I can immediately be good at. Well, no, Okay, not that. And so you never end up going into something where you're like, Just try. Just try to spend a little more time on it. And I feel like this was such a good message about basically just on what you focus on expands.
Astrea Taylor: Exactly. Yeah. That analogy of the fool can be like the blank page, the blank canvas, the idea that's like so good, but you haven't like really refined it. So that's taking it from the fool to the magician. And then just. you know, setting that intention out there. If you don't have an intention with your magic and you're just like, good things, you know, how are you going to know if it's good?
How are they going to know if it's good? How are they going to know what
Katie Rempe: Right. Good is a very, uh, subjective concept.
Astrea Taylor: you want? They're like, I gave you McDonald's. You're like,
I'm a vegetarian, you
know,
Astrea's Crafts
---
Katie Rempe: And so in that vein, what have you found has really lit you up over your years of magic and making that into a craft?
James Divine: Yeah. You said fire dancing and writing.
Katie Rempe: And in the book you mentioned knitting. So I'm excited to talk about that.
Astrea Taylor: So
I make scarves for myself and for trees and my husband too.
Katie Rempe: Ooh.
Astrea Taylor: I love to knit. It's so relaxing. When I was in grad school, it was, uh, one of my arts because it was something to do with my hands and I could kind of just space out, you know, listen to an audio book or a television. And it was a way of being creative where, you know, I could keep track of it.
I didn't really have to be on top of it too much, but I brought, um, my, uh, favorite. Scarf that I ever made to the show. And I want to show you.
It's a weird pattern. as you can see, it's like there's a solid color on one side and a fading changing color on another side. And it's made with like yarn from all over the world.
And in the middle, there's this beautiful zigzag, which has, um, Like, uh,
the sparkle
eyelash fabric too. And I just kind of like took my needles and was working up and down. And I had, you know, four balls of yarn going the same time. And, um, nobody's taught me this. I just experimented and just got weird with it.
And I love it. It's my favorite scarf.
Katie Rempe: What a beautiful piece. So what was the intention behind that one in particular?
Astrea Taylor: But I really like the thought of bringing all these different areas of the world together, but mostly it's about the visual texture, this is my favorite color, this raspberry red color.
And on the other side, you know, just how life changes. I can see how I use like a little bit of fat, like there was a color change here. But, um, just like how life changes throughout and then, you know, this sparkle eyelash fabric with the dark underneath it, it's kind of bumpier, um, it's just kind of like the magic's woven throughout the constancy and the change.
And it's a beautiful length
too, you know? Um, so
it's just
one of those things. It's not too much like
every, if it was
all eyelash. It would be like, whoa. What's up with that? It's very, it'd be very furry.
and sparkly. Uh, so yeah, it's the best of all worlds in my opinion.
Katie Rempe: it
looks like a painting that you're wearing.
It's really beautiful.
Astrea Taylor: Thank you.
James Divine: Wrap it three times and it's the Aquarius symbol for your moon.
Astrea Taylor: love it. Yes.
Katie Rempe: People reach out to you a lot when you wear that one to get a little grasp of that eyelash?
Astrea Taylor: No, I, think they're, intimidated by it. I don't know.
Katie Rempe: Okay,
Astrea Taylor: very homemade.
It's very, real. it's very honest. It's very, like, you know, nonconforming scarf.
Katie Rempe: I'm I think what you're saying is it's couture?
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, I think it's, it's, uh, just elevated.
Katie Rempe: Very Rodarte.
Astrea Taylor: It's visual. Yeah.
James Divine: It's one of a kind catwalk baby.
Katie Rempe: Yes.
Ritualizing Knitting
---
James Divine: One of the things that I think about knitting is that it's so, magical and so, ready for ritualizing. So when I think about, Ritualizing art do you think that knitting is particularly prone to ritualizing?
Astrea Taylor: Well, yeah, if you look back to ancient Greek, beliefs, mythology,
Circe was the goddess. She had a big weaving loom, she's the goddess
of witchcraft and magic. Well, besides Akate, um, but you know, she wove all the time. And whenever I knit, I go into this other state of mind. It's very calming. It's
very relaxing.
It's very like, um, I'm having all my great thoughts and great feelings.
And it's just, I feel like home. My home frequency.
But I really do feel like getting into a trance is key for making your art, especially if you're going to try to engage with the creative spirit and get that inspiration.
We're all familiar. I would think that most of your listeners and watchers are familiar with the concept of having a magical ritual.
Going into that other worldly state of minds, you feel different. Um, and that, you know, the more that you do ritual and that kind of stuff, it creates this pathway in your mind. You're like, this is how I get to the other worldly space. Great. Did those things now I'm there. Well, you can hack that to be more creative.
So having a ritual for your creativity makes you start along these same lines. And then, um, you go into, instead of like this, you know, magical, uh, workings, you kind of fall into your art mindset. And so I think that it's a really valuable way to kind of use that thought pattern to get to where you want to go.
It's like following breadcrumbs, you know, you're like, Oh, here I got to the magical place. Now I'm going to do my thing.
I really advocate, the trans state using, the magical ritual to get in the trans state. Because I do feel like, a magical ritual. It calls upon the elements. gives us in touch with our bodies, our intentions, our larger goals, where we want to take them. And then, uh, you know, whether you cast a circle or not, that's, I don't think that's as quite as important as acknowledging.
Uh, some of the elemental correspondences that are out there. So for my ritual, I like to use
music,
especially headphones. And, uh, I use incense or oil and that just kind of takes my mind into this other worldly space. And that's the element of air. I use a candle, to mirror my creative energies as I'm creating.
And then I, uh, have a vessel with, some kind of a drink in there just to stay hydrated, but sometimes it actually replenishes me to Like, uh, I really like to use hibiscus tea to make me feel more creative.
And then the earth elements, if you want to use some kind of herb or crystal, those all come together for me.
in a very holistic kind of way to help me get into the otherworldly state. And you don't have to take a lot of time to do this. It takes me about 20 seconds besides making the tea, you know, and so. Getting into that mind state, it just plugs me into, um, that creative headspace, the virtualistic, like the trans other worldly space.
And it helps me start creating.
Another thing that helps me a lot is playlists, musical playlists. And so, um, like Spotify. It's amazing for that. And I will just like, put it on, last like an hour and it's done. I will take a break or whatever. The music and all those little items and ingredients, they really helped me dial in my own creative energy into a way that, uh, it helps me get into the project and just go deep really
fast.
Katie Rempe: This also sounds like. If you can get a ritual to get yourself into doing the art, which I know many people struggle with, is the sit down to do, you're never going to get better if you're not even doing it for one minute a day, right? And So, do you think setting up something like this helps someone, be enticed to do it more often?
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
There's a, um, something that's known as habit stacking. And when you start to do certain things in certain orders, the more you do them, you create those pathways in your brain, and then you just, like, are like, boom, it's like being on the highway, as opposed to like traveling all the other roads
that are taking you
everywhere.
Yeah. And I also think that it's important that you have a workspace that's, you know, as James mentioned earlier, clear of clutter, uh, I like to cleanse it as well,
Like spiritually,
you know, with, uh, burning herbs or incense, whatever. And, make
sure that you're in the right conductive space. I also like to take a shower before I create.
I take a shower before magic. I take a shower before I write a sign books or anything like that. It's just,
it puts me in like
another state. It puts me over the edge in so I can do what I have to do. You know what I mean?
James Divine: I think it's interesting how I mean for a lot of our listeners who are really knitters that are just being exposed to the magical or being invited to bring some magic into their knitting.
I think about how some of the mundane activities or some of the sort of like regular activities that we do can also be magical. And a shower can be a magical. When you think about, gosh, am I using like an herbal soap? Like Madam Pamita sells, um, at her shop parlor of wonders. You can get soap that has an intention in it, or you can anoint yourself with just like you would use a perfume or a cologne.
And you have beautiful references in the chapter on earth about what type of oils and herbs, stimulate those things, you can drink a tea.
Those are things that you would normally have a cup of tea, perhaps ready for you when you're knitting.
Astrea Taylor: Definitely. And I think back to the kind of thought about, getting into the place that relates to me, to the earth environment, the earth element, I mean, and really. showing up. There's this concept in the writer's community called ass in chair,
abbreviated
AIC.
We all have our own way of, uh, being, having that inspiration, whether it's like needles in hand or yarn at the ready, or, the wet clay is in place, you know, and then getting in that posture.
And from then on, I think it just starts to flow more effortlessly, but we have to find our physical body in the right physical place in the right physical posture.
And
with the creative ritual, it, it all comes together and that's where it's like. Now it's time to do the work.
James Divine: Yeah.
Inspiring.
Tips for Ritualizing Knitting
---
Katie Rempe: For someone, who's listening and is a knitter curious about magic, what would be one tip you might give them in terms of ritualizing your knitting practice?
Astrea Taylor: So when I knit, I like to have like, you know, the creative correspondences. A little candle, you know, my tea going. And, uh, I like to have ambience music on. So, and how uh, magical is that? Just to have like a steaming cup of tea and a candle and your yarn and everything. Um, but I really liked the atmosphere.
So sometimes I will go to YouTube and try to find like a, which is a pocket carry or which cozy, which cabin or something like that. A haunted library. I'll put that on. And that just gives me the right mindset for that kind of art. There's something about that. And you know, that is not going to, uh, be the most attractive for everybody.
But there's, you know, there's something if you can just find that right.
ambience,
I think that's what we're looking for. Of course, like we have to have the right lighting in the right places. Um, you know, the right, you know, way to keep, uh, hold of our yarn and not let the cats get into all of it.
Right. Uh, and another thing.
I think is like
going to the store and then just being like, I love this one. Okay. I'm gonna get it. Okay. I love this one. I'm gonna get it. Whatever you're tickled by at the store, the yarn store is great. I have a great yarn store and I just adore it. It's just like shelves and shelves and shelves from yarn all over the world and I feel so lucky.
Use what inspires you. I think you know sometimes we get stuck in like, oh
I'm going to knit this
baby sweater, I'm going to knit This like baby blanket, but, um, make sure you're creating for yourself as well, because that's super valuable and needed too. So maybe every other one you need to be like, okay, I'm just
going to do whatever. I don't know what this
is going to be.
James Divine: Yeah,
Astrea Taylor: Have fun. Yeah.
James Divine: Does the world have enough light pink baby blankets?
Astrea Taylor: Yes.
James Divine: Yes. How about a really wonderful wild baby blanket that that kid will love forever?
Astrea Taylor: Yeah. Go wild. something
Katie Rempe: in here. Yes.
Astrea Taylor: Worst case scenario, you can unravel it.
Katie Rempe: Ooh,
yeah, there you go.
Color Magic
---
James Divine: Speaking of color. Katie has an amazing course online on the magic of color, really related to knitting. It's phenomenal. Everyone needs to check it out.
How can color help us connect to a rituals and with creative spirits, Astrea, You talk a little bit about color in your book, but I'm curious about your relationship with color and magic and how that connects with all of this.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, sure. Well, and I'm interested in Katie's take too, but, I'll go first. I just think that colors are feelings for me. They're either like love and excitement, like this, uh, beautiful raspberry color. It's like, woohoo! It's like my Aries color, I think.
Like the beautiful, calming, serene, purple here, you know, you see.
Or, you're like, blah, that color, I am very offended by it. So we all have feelings about colors. We have our favorites. We have our not so favorites or the ones we don't like at all. And I think, you know, working with those and tuning into how we really feel about them and how they make us feel can help us in our art.
So you have to make a scarf for someone you don't like, you know, you're getting the pee color, you know, cause I don't like that color.
If I have to do it, if you want to in a raffle or something, uh, this, this is what I'm giving to you or,
if, you know, it's good for them to calm down a little bit more. And you know that they're trying to work on being more calm than like, Oh, what colors do you associate with being calm?
And they say like blues. So you knit them a beautiful blue soft scarf so they can feel comforted. You know, there's magic in colors, I believe. For sure.
James Divine: Yeah. Do they connect with a creative spirit? Like do you think the muses have colors associated with them?
Astrea Taylor: Probably. I would say they probably have like all kinds of things associated with them, including like astrological signs, notes of the scale, 4-D way of thinking about things that, you know, we can't really put our fingers on.
James Divine: That's cool.
Astrea Taylor: That's definitely my opinion.
James Divine: Katie, what's your thought?
Katie Rempe: I totally agree. And that's basically what my workshop is all about is just walking folks through all these different colors, nine in particular.
to help them connect with how it makes you feel because if you've never taken the time to really even ask yourself that question, then, you know, I mean, it's always great to just go to the art store and be like, well, I gotta make Jim a thing. I happen to know he likes purple, but I don't know, I've never written any notes and I have no opinion, so we'll just go with it.
And so, you know, if you just take a second, you're like, oh wait, he likes purple, or I feel like he could, like you said, he could really use something calming. Maybe I'll use blue because I found that for me blue is calming so when I knit it, I'll be at peace, and so the piece will be wrapped in peace.
And so, just like you said, it's a course to learn how to transfer that energy according to how you see it in particular, whether you're colorblind, or a tetrachromat, or whatever else part of the spectrum out there.
It's all about just you discovering the power of how you see it and react to it.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah.
When we get in touch with those emotions, like, those intentions come out. Like you were saying, Katie, I'm going to put the calm energy of blue into here.
is going to be reinforced by the correspondence of the color blue. And so, Knitting with intention, any kind of art with intention, that's going to come through when you have a finished product.
Katie Rempe: Yes, you mentioned this in your book as well, and I totally agree. I have seen pieces that people have made where it has just struck me for the reason that it just was such an outpouring of whatever emotion was surrounding it, and it's palpable .
Astrea Taylor: Yeah,
James Divine: your scarf has that, which has me think about the agregor of the piece. Like the whole gestalt of it has then a consciousness, right? So would you define for everyone what an agregor is?
Astrea Taylor: I define it as it's like the psychic impression or a thought entity, a spirit of the your arts.
There are a lot of different definitions, but for this book, that's the basic combined definition. And your art starts to come alive. Of itself, you know, in of itself as you're creating, and that is an entity, in my opinion, I've worked with, uh, my own books and how they present themselves to me.
There's a meditation in there about meeting the egregore of your art.
And I'm always surprised by what comes through and my creations are really different every single time. I'm like, Oh, you're like a Griffin. Oh, you're like this uh, other thing. I don't even know what you are, but you're beautiful. And sometimes my creation, the egregore of my creations.
Uh, this spirit It's very playful. It's very funny. It's very jovial and sometimes it's quite a more shy, you know, a little
bit like,
I'm just gonna like be like the queen of wands over here, you know so, um getting in touch with this the spirit of our art can guide us in completing the art and it can also tell us A lot about how it feels about itself and acknowledging that you. it is its own entity It's going to go out into the world as well and be received by other people.
I think we can energize the egregore of our art, and help build that relationship with it. So we actually know what we're putting out there. And it's going to change. Other people are going to perceive it, and however people perceive it the most is going to be the predominant egregore, but we can still have our own egregore, our own ideas of how our art is.
And that's beautiful. I think that that's really one of the goals of art is sharing the spirit of the art with the world.
James Divine: I Love that Aggregor's are so magical so powerful. That's what got me at the end was like, of course the Aggregor of your art.
Astrea Taylor: Yes.
James Divine: This book published There are many actual physical books, but the Agregor of the writing and of the book has a consciousness and it has something that's been out there in the world.
Everyone's reading it and they're all like, Oh my gosh, that has a consciousness that's shared. It's so cool. And that's true of your scarf as an Agregor or the baby blanket that you listener are right now knitting or, you know, whatever project you're doing that the class that Katie has. available.
that has an Agregor.
Katie Rempe: a knitting pattern, anything.
James Divine: Just psychologically that for it to have its character and its consciousness allows it to, be in relationship with it. It's super magical.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, And it's a great magical practice too.
Katie Rempe: And we were talking with Stephanie again about how sometimes as a designer, it's almost like our job is to birth the idea and then, like you said, And now it's up to you, Knitter, to take it and run with it.
Like, how do me as a designer, how are you putting it together, the thing that I created in a way that I never thought about? But you wouldn't have had that. Without the initial step and so it's all magical and I never want anyone to feel like just because someone quote knit it better or different than them that that's ever bad.
It's all just extensions of the same thing. It's so beautiful.
Astrea Taylor: I agree.
Takeaway on Astrea's Book
---
Katie Rempe: What do you hope is the big takeaway for inspiring creativity through magic?
Astrea Taylor: Well, once again, I feel like everyone has the potential to make art. And I hope that they explore it because, It's a practice that really builds a value into our lives.
It saves us from bad emotions. It helps us work through things. It gives us a sense of accomplishments. And if you do want to make art, this is a into it.
And you don't have to do everything that I suggest in the book, but. There's a lot of ideas and ideas about, you ever get blocked there as a whole page and a half, I think of ideas of like everything you can run through and how to, work through those blocks.
Cause that's a natural part of creating for most people as well.
And then, just reach into that, magical part of creating. If you can go into the trance with your art. Find yourself in the flow with the creative spirit receiving inspiration. That's magical a F, you know, and I just, I think it's one of the best feelings that there is.
And the fact that we don't need to like have another bunch of people to do it. If we don't want to, you know, we can do this by ourselves. We can find this magical energy that really feels amazing. And then create art that can, that has the potential to move other people, whether that's music, a painting, a scarf, a tree scarf, a book, uh, whatever, we all have this potential within us.
And I really would like to see the world's. Uh, take that and light themselves a flame with it.
Metaphorically. Of course.
James Divine: so inspirational. This book has so many exercises, it's incredibly valuable. It's jam packed with rituals,
Katie Rempe: Correspondences,
James Divine: fill in the blank exercise. It is nonstop.
You will absolutely love. This book. Do not miss it.
Katie Rempe: This is the book for creative people. Because they want to keep creating. So, it's really just the perfect size to gobble up with all the good bits that will really, I think, inspire folks to try out their art or get back into it.
Especially if they've been on a break, which also is so natural.
Contact Astrea
---
James Divine: I'm so inspired by you, Astrea. Thank you so much. So how do people find you?
You can find the book online at your favorite local retailer.
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, please buy it locally from your favorite which shop or loon. uh, but all books sellers should be able to have it or, order it.
And then I have a webpage,
astray taylor.com or you could get a signed copy if you like, and my other books as well. I'm also on Instagram, @AstreaTaylor, and I'm sporadically on Facebook and Threads. Are you all on Threads as well?
Katie Rempe: No, I found out it was not a knitting community and was like, oh, nope.
Bye. Sorry.
Astrea Taylor: That would be yarns.
Katie Rempe: Ah, yarns. There you
Astrea Taylor: Yarns.
Katie Rempe: Have any upcoming events or classes that anyone needs to know about? Or a newsletter?
Astrea Taylor: Yeah, I'm doing the Columbus Witches Ball, November 4th, and, Earth Warrior Festival is in, uh, October, right before that, and I don't know, my newsletter is the best way to keep up with me, or I have an events, page on my webpage too.
James Divine: Cultivate your email as the new feed that you want in social media, do that with your email by subscribing to all your favorite people, like Astrea Taylor, like me, James Divine, like Katie Rempe. All of us have awesome newsletters. And you can find all of these links in one awesome place, right Katie?
Katie Rempe: That's correct, right in our show notes, whether you're watching us, hopefully, on YouTube, which, hey, take a second to subscribe, why don't you? Or listening to us, probably in the car, in which case, don't subscribe, please drive safely.
James Divine: Oh, Astrea, I adore you.
Katie Rempe: Yes, thank you
Astrea Taylor: for having me. you.
asked the best questions. I just love you all's like podcast and your interviewing style. It's been such an honor to be on here. Thank you so much.
James Divine: Oh my
Katie Rempe: Awesome. Oh,
James Divine: so much fun to be with you.
Katie Rempe: you. have you on in a, like a couple of months when you have like your, uh, ninth book dropping. No problem.
Astrea Taylor: And another
James Divine: Oh yeah, right. What does have you on every week?
Katie Rempe: Oh, perfect. Yeah. That's, That'll fit in your schedule
easily, I'm sure, so.
James Divine: All right. Well, we'll see you next time on knit a spell.
Bye everybody.
Katie Rempe: Bye.
Outtro 2022: 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.
