Harness The Moon: Unlocking Lunar Magic & Your Inner Power w/Lady Jesamyn Angelica

0:00 Coming up on Paratruth Reborn, I'm gonna be talking to Jessmine Angelica about the Llewellens Book of the Moon. Welcome, Well, do parry Truth Truth?

0:40 How's it going Paratruthers. Welcome to another episode of Paratruth Reborn. My name is Justin and I'm very excited to welcome lady Jessmine Angelica to the show. Jasmine, Welcome to Paratruth Reborn. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, absolutely so. Before we get into the book itself, what first drew you to the path of the Moon. Well, that is an interesting question because I feel like I have always always been drawn to the moon. My mom loves to tell this story that when I was a little girl, before I could even talk, I would see the moon and I would wave my arms and I would yell and she'd have to lift me up so that I could get closer to the moon. So I don't even have any conscious memory of this, but I do know that I've always had this attraction to the moon.

1:33 Okay, And they never could tell, like what the reason was anything like that. It was just you were fascinated with the moon. It was just my thing. That's interesting. So what made you want to write the book? Oh goodness, So I have been following this path. For thirty very much closer to forty years at this point, and we have a whole community that practices moon magic together, and it got to the point where I realized that it was now or never. That I needed to set these things down now before it was too late. So this book is really a compendium of my own practice and the work that we've done in community over decades. So it's tried and true kind of things in there, practical things as well as ceremonial aspects.

2:28 When did the Sisterhood of the Moon start. The Sisterhood of the Moon began in twenty ten, so we turned sixteen this past February. Okay, And it's just a bunch of people that are attuned to like moon magic or the moon itself. It's a lot of magic. We do ritual once a month. Most of our gatherings are women only, so we're doing women's magic in women's circle. My own background owned in this spirituality witchcraft even goes back to the women's spirituality movement of the nineteen seventies, so we're really informed by that kind of feminist structure around egalitarian magic and practice.

3:16 Okay, interesting, Now, what does it truly mean to work with the moon? Well, that's a question and a half right there. Well, for me, I like to look back at the moon as humanity's first calendar and humanity's first clock. And when we begin to learn how to time our own lives with the cycling in the moon, we can slow down our everyday activities and instead of running in this post capitalistic sprint that we're all living through right now, we can learn to kind of slow things, savor things, learn when it's best to do things that are outward and when it's best to do things that are inward. So for me, it's really about bringing a sense of mindfulness to everyday life, not just in a magical or ritualistic sense, but in my everyday practice.

4:14 Okay, Now, this was a question that was submitted by a listener, and she puts it very much better than how I had worded it. So, how true is it that a full moon causes odd things to happen or are these just coincidences? I believe that the full moon causes odd things to happen, and I think this is true because the moon is at the highest point of the cycle at the full moon, so it's exerting a greater pull on everyone. And when we consider the fact that our adult bodies or are about sixty percent water, and that the moon pulls tides in the oceans, it makes a lot of sense to me that wild things happen during the full moon. Now, some people feel really energize during the full moon and want to go out and do all sorts of fun stuff, and there's other people that the full moon becomes more of an internal thing for them and they want to kind of be at home, hiding away. And it really depends on what moon you were born under and what sign of the moon you were born under how you interact with the phases. So not only is there kind of like a protocol for every phase in general, there's also a very personal aspect to working with the moon.

5:33 Well, that's actually a good segue into my second listener question, Like this is actually from my mom. She says, to my zodiac is cancer also known as moonchild? Does the moon actually have more effect on me as opposed to someone not born under that sign? All right, Well, I love that question from your mom because I'm also a Cancerrian, so my son is in cancer and this is the sign that the moon is considered most at home, and this is the sign that's literally ruled by the moon. So every zodiacal sign is ruled by a different planet, and Cancerrians are ruled by the moon. So yes, mom, you are probably feeling it more than other people are, because I know that I do, and I think that is part of my connection to the moon. You were asking about, like how why do you have this connection from being so small? It could also be that that's my home planet. The moon is considered a planet in classical astrology.

6:31 Okay, for beginners, where should someone start when it comes to moon magic? Well, the first thing in my feeling is that we develop first a personal relationship with the moon, because then we know how the moon interacts with our own unique nature. And the absolute best place to start, I think, is to look for the moon every single day, so choosing a time of day or night and making it a thing that you do consistently every single day for at least a year, and then you start to know where the Moon's going to be before she's there, because there's sometimes you can see the moon and sometimes you can't, but you start to develop this organic understanding of where the moon is and also how she influences you personally.

7:20 So how the moon interacts with me is going to be different than how she interacts with you, and it's up for us up to us to each develop that relationship because it is a really unique individual relationship that each person has with the moon. Now you're calling it a her. Is moon kind of considered a feminine energy? Well, you know, it really depends on the tradition that you come from. So there are deities that are both masculine and feminine associated with the moon. There are also non binary deities that are associated with the Moon. I grew up calling the moon her, so that always slips out because I'm a goddess worshiper. I don't worship God's so the she is really kind of my home frequency with the moon. Other people may experience it differently, but I grew up calling her like grandmother Moon or Mama Moon or sister Moon. So there's always been that femininity to me, and that resonates with who I am. Now, you know, your mileage will vary, Like the moon is so old that I don't think she really is gendered, but every planet is assigned kind of a masculine or feminine energy in classical astrology. So that's that's my little spiel about the moon, as is she.

8:41 All right? Well, and that's fair enough. I mean I remember studying astrology, so that makes a lot of sense that you attribute it to that. So, now, how does moon work connect to intuition and psychic development? And this actually really does fascinate me since I had started developing for a very long time now, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that. So the moon is said to rule intuition and to rule our psychic nature, and the home element of the moon is water, which is also connected to our intuition and to our psychic abilities. And I do believe that everyone has psychic abilities and that we all have intuition.

9:23 It's just learning how do we tap in to that knowledge inside of us and to that wisdom inside of us. And when the moon is in various phases, you can work with her in different ways. So I prefer to work with the psychic arts when the moon is waning, and especially when she's in that final part before she goes new, so that waning crescent that dark moon. I really like to engage with divinatory arts using the moon during that time, So I might do terrot spreads using the moon. I might do scrying in water and seeing what comes up from there, because not only do we receive information from the moon, but we can also receive that deep inner wisdom from ourselves when we're scrying that we're not really aware of until we enter into that space where we're really connecting into the energies and the vibrations of the moon. And I really love when the moon is in a water sign to do this work.

10:20 In particular, so Scorpio Pisces cancer, that can really help to enhance the information that we get from our intuition and from our psychic nature. Now, that's interesting you brought that up. Is because I've always heard people saying during like the new moon portals opening and that that is like the best time to start putting your intentions out there for what you want to manifest. Is that true? It is true because that's the beginning of the cycle. So when we're timing our lives with her tides, we're going to look at the whole cycle as a continuum.

11:01 So there are eight scientific phases, but lately I've been playing around with something that I've been calling the four phasal pillars, and that is two points and two waves. So we have the point of the new moon, and that is the beginning point of the lunar cycle, which is about twenty nine ish days depending on the cycle. It varies a little bit here and there. So I've been New Moon. That is the seed that we're planting for the whole rest of the lunation. So that's the first point. And then as the moon waxes, we have that waxing wave, which is the tide rising, rising, rising until we hit that full moon, and that's the point of culmination and celebration and just really feeling the power of everything that we've been working on for that whole cycle.

11:52 And then once we hit that pinnacle, the only place to go is down, So then you have that waning wave that brings us all the way back down to the new moon where we can begin again. So I like to use the new moon to consider what i want to do during that waxing wave. I'm not necessarily going to take action at the new moon, but I am going to dream into what I want to manifest Over that next twenty nine is days, I'm going to do some brainstorming. I'm going to do some visioning. I might do a tourou or other kind of reading to see what other information might come down towards me. For that, I might start to make plans, look at my calendar and feel into what might be the best time to schedule certain things. So the new moon is really kind of a spark that can jump, that we can jump off of into the whole rest of the lunation.

12:46 Now, can working with lunar cycles actually change your life trajectory? I feel that they can because we're not just blindly moving through life anymore where literally working with that cycle, that rising, the peaking, the falling. So there's time built in for rest and relaxation and rejuvenation, which I think can really change our modern lives. We don't really give ourselves time to relax and rest and refill unless we force ourselves to. And I really feel like that last part of the lunar cycle, if we're flowing with it, we can feel that need to pull within, to go within, to just take a break, to give our brains, our bodies, our minds, our spirits, that relaxation and then we can be refreshed and start that whole cycle back over again instead of just this one continual straight line that we tend to run in that brings us usually into burnout and depression, anxiety, stress, all those things that happen when we're not taking care of ourselves. So built into the Moon's cycle is that time for self care. We just listen and I'm not saying, oh, we're going to do it for twenty nine days, but there's there's three days that are really built in to every cycle where we can just think about taking care of ourselves and then enact something. It doesn't have to be, oh, I'm taking the whole day off from work, but it can be like, Okay, I'm gonna do this thing for myself. I'm gonna, you know,

14:18 give myself an extra hour sleep, or I'm going to read this novel that I've been longing to read. Or I'm going to take that walk, or I'm going to go to the beach, play hooky for the day and just give my spirit a moment to just pause. So I think that pause is an essential component of alignment for us as humans that we have forgotten about. You brought up goddesses at the beginning there, What role do luer goddesses play in this practice? In my personal practice, they play a very large role, and within our community they play a large role, although we do work with goddesses that are necessarily lunar goddesses.

15:03 But for me, the Moon herself is a goddess, So I will sometimes call her Selene or Luna and then other names as well, But I do view the Moon as deity, not always. So she's one of those sacred paradoxes, right, She's a satellite of our Earth moving around us at all times, But she's also the personification of a deity, of something greater, of something bigger, of all that is in some ways. And one of the things that I love about the Moon is that she has witnessed every moment of humanity. Every human that's ever lived has been able to gaze up at the Moon, and the Moon has witnessed every single thing that's ever happened on this planet.

15:48 And that just always gives me this feeling of connectedness and that bigness that makes me feel small, and that smallness really is a comfort to me in many ways. How do dreams tie into lunar energy and divination. Does it affect those things very much, so, very much so. And as one works of the moon, they'll discover at what point in the cycle that they dream more, where they sleep deeper, where they might not remember dreams at all. And you can ask the moon for a dream before you go to bed. You can petition the moon for a dream that will perhaps shed light on a conundrum that you're working with, or just something that might sort something or untangle something for you in your life. And I really have always felt, you know, dreaming, divination, intuition, psychic abilities, gut feelings, flashes of insight, epiphanies, all of these things, to me are intertwined with one another. All of these threads can come together and help us create richer lives for ourselves here on Earth, and the Moon can illuminate things for us that might have been hidden.

17:06 You know, she's very much connected to our subconscious, and that's where a lot of that inner wisdom rises up from, is the subconscious, which might be our subconscious, or might even be the subconscious of our ancestors, our epigenetic subconscious rising up, and the Moon can shine that light so that we can actually see, making the visible the invisible visible, making the unconscious conscious, bringing it into our waking lives so that we can move forward with more information. Now I've heard this, and I don't know how true it is, but that the word lunatic or lunacy came from the belief that it was the moon that was causing mental issues. How true is that?

17:54 It's very true? It's very true. It's the same root in language. And yes, people did believe that the moon made people crazy. I mean, look at werewolves and such that. You know that's the full moon right there. So yes, that that is correct. I know the full moon can make us all a little bit wild, though in the good ways. So I like to like claim the title lunatic in that kind of celebratory, relevatory way instead. Of the negative way. Very much.

18:34 What are the biggest misconceptions about witchcraft and moon magic? The people tell you? Well, I think like the biggest misconception about witchcraft is that it is of devil, which is, don't have a devil. That's a Christian construct, So we don't have we don't have a devil in our in our spirituality. So I think that's the biggest misconception. And I also think that people believe that witchcraft is like the Hollywood style witchcraft, you know, the wiggling of the nose, the snapping the fingers, that like you know, something happens. But that's really not how it works. And maybe it works for some people that way. I've never met those people yet.

19:16 And if you are one of those people and you're listening, get in touch with me. I really wor a lot. But witchcrad to me is more of a path of self development and self understanding and growing and changing and becoming the best person I can possibly be in this lifetime. I think it's a lot to do with self reflection and mindfulness and knowing that we do have the power to influence reality on many different levels, so setting those intentions and making things happen. When you set an intention or do a spell in witchcraft, you don't just do that and right walk away. You still have to do the things in physical reality to make that happen. And so you know, the example people use is, well, you don't do a spell to get a job, and then you don't put your resume out there and you just you know, wait at home for somebody to call you up. So you have to keep taking action as well. You have to keep walking that path in the physical and the metaphysical realities. You do both.

20:18 I think that's one thing that people get confused with with when somebody says, set your intention. Just setting the intention isn't going to do anything. You have to also manifest the reality of it. And that includes yeah, like you're saying, the physical side of. It exactly exactly, So yes, set those intentions on the new moon, and then as that cycle is waxing, make your plans. How are you going to manifest this? What are your steps? And then take the steps you know, just you have to take them too. So I think it's also important to note that the new moon intentions that we set, even if we're working really hard to manifest them, the chances of them manifesting at the first full moon are pretty low. Right, We don't manifest things instantaneously.

21:05 Those dreams and hopes that we have will plant that seed at the new moon, but it might take several lunations. It might take several years of lunations for a dream to manifest, depending upon how big that dream is and how things are lining up. And also if we're ready to actually manifest that dream. We all talk about what we want to manifest, but sometimes we're actually not ready to accept the manifestation of that. So it's not going to happen very quickly in that case, or it might happen and we might not recognize it because it doesn't look the way that we have a preconceived notion about. Well, right, in the same and age, it's very much a instant gratification. So I feel where you're coming from there, and same thing like the the magic you see in Hollywood. Yeah, if we could shoot energy bolts out of our hands and stuff like it wasn't on the movies, I'm sure people would be trying to do it all the time.

22:12 Oh yeah, there would be a lot of chaos happening if we were capable of that. Now, there's many different magical practice out there. What's the difference between moon magic and those other practices? Well, I mean chrinas, there are so many different practices, and I can really only speak to what I do, and that is really just digging deep into what the moon is doing on a daily basis and letting that guide my actions. So letting that lead me so for example, today we have the moon waning in the sign of Capricorn.

22:59 So waning moon work is the work of releasing and letting. Go, of pruning, of composting, of taking a really good hard look at those things that are holding us back and making the plans to remove them. And because the moon is in an Earth sign today in Capricorn, this would be things on the physical, earthy level, right, it's an Earth sign, So practical matters are things that I tend to on a daylight today, So decluttering something, also looking at things like finances, help gardening. I did some gardening today, some weeding, and using that too as a metaphor for things that I want to weed out of my life, So weeding those plants away and naming those things that I'm letting go of at the same time and really following that cycle. So also like, so we're waning now, and I'll look ahead and I'll make plans. Okay, what am I going to do when we get towards the dark moon, towards the end of that lunar cycle?

24:04 How am I going to rest? How am I going to honor myself? How am I going to make space for that rejuvenation? For that replenishment so that I can be ready for that cycle to start again when it does, and really just every single day connecting with the moon. So, like I mentioned early earlier, looking for her in the sky and you can look day or night. The moon is not just visible at night, and it's not strange when she's visible during the day. I saw this very wild thing on the internet a couple of weeks ago where people were freaking out because they saw the moon during the day and they thought that, you know, that was the sign that you know, something really crazy was about to happen in the world. At times, yeah, yes.

24:45 And I'm like, no, like, how long have you been alive? Because the Momon can be seen during the day just as often as at night. It really does depend though, come where you live, what time of year it is, where the moon is in the cycle, because we have to remember, the moon doesn't have her own light source. The moon is always reflecting and carrying the light of the sun, so she doesn't have her own light and we can't see the moon day or night. During that dark moon new moon phase. There's about three ish five ish days there towards the end of one cycle. The beginning of the next where we're not going to be able to see the moon at all, but looking for the moon every day, even if you know that you're not going to see her, so you can get in that flow. And every morning I also offer water to the moon, and then the next day I'll pour it out, perhaps in a houseplant or outdoors, depending on what feels right.

25:43 I'll also bless water, hold it up to the moon, bless it and drink that in as a way of connecting with the Moon and deepening my connection and relationship and practice with her. So, like I mentioned earlier, water is her home element. Water is a really great way to deepen connection in a very easy way. I mean, most of us live where we can just you know, get water out of our tap and connect with it in that way and connect with the Moon through that. Now I've heard people talk about moonwater and stuff like that, when you drink it, or even when you're watering plants stuff with it, does it show like a more energetic feel to you compared to just drinking regular water.

26:31 I do feel that it does contain that, and I do try to always know not only the phase of the moon, but the sign that she's into, so I can really start differentiating the difference between each of the signs, but especially each of the elements, so air, fire, water, and earth. There's three astrological signs that go in each of the elements of life, and noticing how I feel like I'm going to feel very differently when the moon is in a water sign, then when the moon is in an air sign, because A, I mean can't there in sun, so I'm already resonating with the element of water.

27:11 And then b I have a fire moon. My birth moon is in a fire sign, so I can really feel that. But really learning over these years to make peace with the air and the earth moons have been a really big thing for me, especially the earth moons, but getting to know them has really changed my life in my practice in really beautiful ways. So I really I invite everyone to do this water practice and to drink it or just hold it. But when we drink it, I feel like we can really connect more deeply with what's happening in our body and how our body is resonating with what those vibrations are in the moon. And again, you don't have to be able to see the moon to ask for her raise her vibrations, her frequencies to come into that water. And I know that sounds out there, but try it and see and let me know, let me know how it goes for you.

28:08 Now you've brought up a couple times now about the moon being in different astrological times? Does that affect the outcome of a spell? Like, depending on where what sign it's in. It definitely can. And I would say not so much adverse reaction, but that it can help to empower. If you time your spell in a certain way with the lunar phase and then the lunar what I call frequency, which means the constellation she's passing through, you can use that extra power to really move your spell more quickly. So, for example, if you wanted to do something that has to do with intellectual pursuit, so say writing, for example, it would be good to time your spell when the moon is in an air sign because that is related to vision, inspiration, intellectual pursuits. Air signs are also good if you want to do social activities because Gemini and Libra are really connected with people. So if you're why to do something with partnership or other people, if you have a difficult conversation, you might want to time that to an air moon can be really helpful. So now nothing's going to go bad if you time it to another moon, but it can help. So I don't think that it can be harmful per se if you time

29:39 it wrong. But we're looking for like what causes the most amount of fluidity and flow, what can bring the most amount of ease and effortlessness, and then timing it in that way. And because the moon moves so quickly through the signs, at the most, you're going to have to wait three days, like yeah, so if you can wait, wait it out. And that's why I say everyone should get either a paper lunar calendar or put one of those apps on your phone, a moon phase and sign app, and then you can just look every day and know what's happening. And then you can look ahead and be like, hmm, could this conversation wait till tomorrow? And if it can and that's an air sign, then then that's the time to do it. So it's really not that hard once you move into flow with learning where the moon is, learning what she's doing, and feeling into those vibrations and also how they react to you. So As I mentioned earlier, some people feel really inspired during the full moon. Other people feel really drained. If you're someone who feels really drained, the don't plan something that's going to require a lot of energy but the full moon.

30:55 Now, working with magic and even being a psyche, how do you stay grounded while working with power? For energy like this, I do a lot of earthing, so a lot of feeling the Earth through the soles of my feet and sending from the souls of my feet and from my spinal column etheric roots down into the Earth and connecting with her that way, sending my roots down, down, down, and then breathing the earth the energy up into my body. And when I exhale, I'll send those things that are not supportive to me. So if I am feeling scattered or ungrounded or all over the place, I'm going to use my breath to send that energy out of my body through my roots, through my spinal column which has grown into a tap root, and I'm going to send it into the core of the earth where that fire is, and I'm going to let the Earth take that energy and transform it. And then I'm going to breathe and again that earthy grounded energies, and those energies are also of stability and strength and health and healing, peace, calm, all those energies of stillness and quiet, and I'm going to bring those up into my body. So when we work with cosmic bodies, it's really important that we're also embodied in our physical bodies and connected with the earth. So that's really the first

32:27 step if you're going to do lunar magic, is being embodied in your own physical body and connected with the earth below. And then once you're connected with the earth and connected with. Your own body, then you can send branches up from your shoulders, from your head, from your hair, sending those branches up to commune with the moon up there. Okay, and this may not apply exactly, But is there anything that advanced practitioners you'll get wrong, or can you get it wrong? I don't think we can get it wrong. It's a personal relationship with the moon, right, How can we get any of our relationships wrong. I think that the only way to get it wrong with the moon is not to do it. That's really the only way, you know.

33:20 And so much of magic is trial and error because there's so many things that work so here's a spell somebody wrote, you know, here's the rituals somebody work, somebody wrote, and you do it and you're like, uh, that's flat. That didn't work for me. Well, then take that speller ritual and create something from it that does work for you. It's really about finding our own individual individual ways. So of course, you know, paths have been trodden and we can follow those paths, and we should follow those paths. And it's important to learn from people who have gone before us. But it's also important to remember that we have what we need inside of us as well, and that our intuition can guide us. So, yes, study, learn, I think this is so important to be educated. And then it's also important to trust ourselves enough that we can be educated and soar off from that point and learn what it is that we're supposed to bring into this world, that unique connection that we have with the moon that nobody else has.

34:21 Okay, now that's twice. Now somebody has told me that, you know, don't take a written spell as gospel. You definitely have to make it your own for it to work for you. So that is very much true to you then, too, Yes. Very much. So I always say that magic is an art, it's not a science. So once you learn how things work, then you can mess around, just like if you're a cook, right, I love to cook. If you know what you're doing in the kitchen, you can substitute ingredients without having to worry because you already know the protocol of how to make and create something. So then you know what you can do to make something that you'll like even more than the original recipe, or that will work for you or your family even more than the original recipe. So practice and learn from people who have gone before you. Definitely, I think teachers are so important, especially if you can learn in person, which is very rare in this day and age. But if you can find an in person mentor that is just the most perfect thing that you could possibly do for yourself. And to go into that relationship with humility so that you learn and then be brave and try things out and see what works, and don't be afraid to fail. I think people are so afraid to fail lately that people don't take those risks that maybe some of us took years ago before there was an Internet, to tell us what we are supposed to do next.

35:51 That's I mean that's one hundred percent true. And I feel way back in history, you know, finding written spells where it's probably not as common as is today as well. Yeah, I mean even when I was growing up, like I literally had one book for years and years and years. I mean I lived in rural New England, but still there was no internet, there were no bulletin boards, there was no bookstore. You got one book and you studied that. Like people of my generation, generation x woho, we would have one or two or three books and we would learn those books inside out, backward forward, and they became a structure that we could then build our own things out of. And I think that's important. And you mentioned it earlier, like this immediate gratification, that's not reality in magic.

36:44 And I know that things look really pretty on Instagram and TikTok et cetera. It makes it look beautiful and easy. Well, you know, real magic is not always pretty. It is often very unattractive, and it's not a picture that you put on the internet. But it works, right, a handful of sticks and stones, you know, roots and bones. It's it's not supposed to be pretty. Witchcraft isn't supposed to be pretty. It's supposed to be primal. It's supposed to be real and raw. It's not glossy, it's not. Now, how can skeptics approach this with an open mind?

37:26 Because I can guarantee you many skeptics out there that listen to the show are already like, well, magic doesn't work anyways. Yeah, well I feel that, And you know, not all witches practice magic. So if you're not interested in magic and you don't want to experiment with it, then that's fine. I completely understand skepticism. But I would invite everyone to still attempt to time your life to the lunar cycle and see what happens. And remember that that cycle was humanity's original calendar, so our original way to tract the days, it's the original month comes from moon month, is what I call it. Sometimes, so attempting to take even just one lunar cycle and see what it would be like if you aligned your habits and your routines and your goal setting with that lunation. So the moon influences the tides, she influences our bodies, she influences animal migration, she influences how plants grow. Even so, if we use lunar magic as a framework for kind of our circadian cycle. Using those phases and frequencies as a framework, it will remind us when we can dream, when we can plan, when we can act, when we can rest, And again, you

38:56 can't do it wrong, right, but how to best do this so that we can create more fluidity and flow in our lives, and so that we can live these lives with more intention, with more mindfulness, so we can kind of slow our role. I feel like we're all missing out on so much because everything moves so fast right now. The moon is kind of like a psychological tool. So if you don't want to look at her as a magical tool, you can look at her as a psychological tool. And remember that all cultures throughout all time use the moon to represent things like the cycle of birth and death and rebirth and the cycle of growing.

39:43 So the seed, then the fruiting or the flowering, then the harvest, and then the dying or the dormancy of that plant, and then that cycle is starting again, right, So the moon can remind us that we can hope because that cycle is perpetual, cycle never ever ends, And we can apply this ancient symbolism to our modern lives. I feel like it can help us to move out of that survival mode and into a thriving mode where things are more conscious, where we're more mindful about ourselves, who we are, where we are, what our role and place is in this lifetime. And also to help us to focus our creativity to manifest our hopes and our dreams.

40:38 And you don't have to use spell work in order to make that happen. Now, what does often say through belonging mean in your work? Oh? I love this question. So belonging in our tradition is a very central point of what we do and the way that it is, the way that we approach it is really highlighted by a book called Belonging by Tocopah Turner, who's an amazing writer, and in this book she talks about how we don't need to wait to belong, that we need to choose to belong ourselves. So in our community and our tradition, we ask for people to bring their whole self with them, meaning that you don't have to dress a certain way, or be a certain way, or act a certain way, or speak a certain way.

41:36 You just need to be exactly who you are and to be brave because we have to be really brave to be who we are, right, it's a very vulnerable place to be just being ourselves, and that in our authenticity that we already belong. So we say to newcomers, and we say to everyone actually, that if you show up to a ritual, if you come through a door, that's because you already belong. You don't need to wait to be invited to belong. Just stepping through that door into space with us means that you already belong, and that when you bring your whole self into belonging, that you can live a life that's very real and very open and very heart centered. And I feel like in this time, this is so so needed, and this is something that I wish that I had heard as a young witch, as a young person, even that I can bring my whole self somewhere and that I can choose to belong myself to something that I don't need to wait and look and hope for someone to reach out that hand and invite me in that because I'm already in the place, that means that I already belong.

42:52 That's an excellent way to look at it. Now, you've been doing this for thirty plus years. How has your practice evolved over the years or has it? Oh, it's definitely evolved. So you know, I came from that one book and then learned and basically I had to teach myself pre internet, right, So I taught myself for many many years, and you know, attended events here and there because there wasn't just like you know, Coven, No one's putting out a sign about Joiner Covin like back then. And I think as I matured, my practice matured. And I think that's for That's probably true for anything we do in life, right, you know, we approach it as a certain thing, and if we stick with something, then that practice matures along with us. And one of the most important things that I feel like I studied over the years was how to be a good leader.

43:50 And the way I learned how to be a good leader was by spending a lot of time with those who ended up not being good leaders. So learning what not to do, I think was more important in some ways than learning what to do, because what you do is for me to just be that authentic self that we were just talking about. But knowing what doesn't work can often be the most helpful thing. I think in a lot of in a lot of different places in our life, knowing what not to do, what watching what doesn't work can be really helpful. And just being willing to learn and to know that I don't have all the answers, and then I will never ever have all the answers, and that that's a really exciting thing. That there is always going to be mystery in this world.

44:40 There's always going to be things that we can't explain or we don't know why that's happening. And there's a concept called the altar of mystery, and I believe it comes from Carolyn Casey, but I did learn about it from one of my priestess elders named Boo. And the alter of mystery is this furic place, right, So it's not a physical place, although you could create a physical alter mystery. And on this altered mystery we can put anything that doesn't make sense, anything that we can't figure out, anything that might not be for us to figure out. And this could be terrible, awful things that happen in the world. Sometimes we need to put those on the alter of mystery, or they could be really beautiful, exciting things that we put there, and sometimes the mystery is solved, and then oftentimes the mystery is not solved, And there's something very exciting about that to me, and I feel like that's you know why I will never be bored in this life, is that there's always mystery out there and how beautiful that is.

45:45 With as crazy as the world is right now, I think we've got a ton of mystery that we need to solve, so we need to put it on that alter of mystery. Yeah, for sure, there is a lot that needs solving. There's a lot that needs solving. And then also to remember that there's also a lot of beauty out there, because I know I get caught up in all this just as much as we all do. Right, we're humans, like we want good things for one another, and when good things aren't happening, it can be really stressful. And I've been really doing my best over the last couple of months to be looking for beauty and joy and delight and pleasure as well as handling all of the things to try to make the world a better place.

46:27 Right. I'm not talking about spiritual bypassing. I don't think that's of service at all. We each need to do what we need to do to make this world better for everyone, but to not have that be the only thing we do, because we have to be filled up in order to serve. We cannot serve from an empty vessel. So making sure we're filled up or else will all be burnt out and nothing good will come of that. So right now I can see roses in bloom outside of the window, and that is beautiful to me, and that fills me with joy. So I can take that. Okay, I'm filled up with this, and now I can serve more because I've seen something beautiful and I've allowed myself to witness that and take that in and change me in a good way.

47:13 We've talked a lot about how things are so much different compared to when we were younger, and the easiness of finding information now. But one thing that is of concern it is spirituality. Like I feel a lot of people have fallen away from it, and there are plenty that are coming to it just because of the information that we can find. Now, why is it inclusive spirituality? Why is that so important right now? Yeah? Well, I think as we were talking about belonging, right people are looking for places to belong and I think that is possibly one of the biggest problems in the world right now, is people don't feel like they belong.

48:00 People feel isolated and alone. And being inclusive in our spirituality means that the door is open. If people want to come and learn, will come and learn. If they want to come and be in community, will come and be in community. And I feel like the world changes one person at a time, right like one person feeling belonging, one person feeling included, one person feeling witnessed or seen in their struggles. One by one by one, those small things add up to create tidal waves of really big beneficial change. So I think now more than ever, inclusivity is important, especially with what's happening in the United States where our government is choosing to try to stop people from being included in all different realms. So moving we're at this precipe, it really does feel like we're at the end time, but not like the end of the world times, where at the end of a big, big cycle.

49:05 And because of that, you know, there's like the death throws. I feel like the death throws are happening, and what do we want beyond that? What is our vision for the future and what are small steps we can each take to get there. And I think being inclusive, belonging, loving, that is one of the most important things that we can do right now for one another, is really reaching out that neighborly kind of connection, like that compassion, that empathy. That is one thing we absolutely have lost is being neighbors. The funny thing about that is when I moved into the place I have right now, our neighbor has been like the best person to us, and you don't find that anymore.

49:52 Yeah, yeah, And I think it's up to us to change it. Each one of us could change that. And I feel like the same, Like our block was like really kind of strange, and last year we had tons of extra produce in our gardens, so we just went around knocking on doors and like cucumber bombing people with like a little note, you know, you know, from our house, and then people started. There's reciprocity going on now because of just these little actions of just being like, hi, neighbor, Like here's a bag of cucumbers that we can't eat, and that planted the seed of like beautiful things that are starting to grow. So hyper local I think is really the place to go. Like I always say, like work on the micro level, find the smallest possible action that you can take. Because as above, so below, as below, so above, So we talk about the hermetic maxims, but micromagic is what I call it, and it's finding the smallest possible place to work and planting that seed there and letting it grow. So we don't have to have a grandiose vision, because sometimes that will mean that we don't do anything because that's overwhelming, we don't even know where to dive in. But just one small action, choosing one small thing. There's so many causes that they think that that also makes people feel overwhelmed, and then they just end up not doing anything because there's too many choices.

51:15 Choose one thing that's important to you and do one small thing to support whatever that is, and then just keep doing it and see what happens. What is one ritual anyone can start doing tonight using moon magic. So we've already talked about looking for the moon, and we've talked about water. So I think a very easy other thing to do would be breath. Right, we all have our breath or holds. We're not alive, so Haha, consciously breathing the moon into your body and seeing what that feels like. So breathing and the moon, asking the moon to create more spaciousness and openness in your body, and then exhaling anything that you don't need to hold, and just slowing down in that way, just slowing down three or four or five breaths with the moon every time you see her, and then see what happens for you, see how that slowness starts moving into other aspects of your life and that ritual. You don't need anything at all but yourself in the moon, and you don't even have to see her, but when you see her, I think it's it can be more fun because there's that visual connection as well as just that energetic connection.

52:43 Well, you are the second person today to mention that breath is a huge part of a practice. The other person was talking about shadow work, but I think it all applies. And that makes me really think, like, is there a message I'm missing? Man? I need to start speaking. Time to do more breaths. So, Harry, right, conscious breathing. How often do we remember to do that? Like there's so many times during the day where all of a sudden I realized I've been holding my breath and I didn't even know it, or that I was breathing really shallowly. And if I just stop and do like three or four breaths and tune into the moon, I'm like, huh, Like so much stress just leaves my body. And you know that's something I can do in like a minute. It's a whole reset.

53:29 It's amazing. It's amazing to me. What is one thing or multiple things that you hope people take from this book? Wow? Okay, So I have to just say, first of all, that book when I read it, I'm like, who wrote this? Like I channeled a lot of it. So most like the practices, especially like the herbalism and the rituals, those kinds of things, those are my Those are my things, but like huge swaths of information, like damn, you were in the flow and like I don't even remember writing that, right. My favorite stuff in the book that I would love for people to experiment with is the green witchcraft, so the making of elixirs and potions. This is just kind of a home frequency for me, working with the moon in conjunction with the plant realm. I'd love for people to experiment with that, but I'd also love for people to just read the whole book through and see what calls to them and then follow that. So the coolest thing about this book is you can jump in anywhere.

54:35 It really ended up turning into a big reference book. This is not the book that I proposed to Llewellyn, but when I turned in the manuscript, my editor was like, oh wow, this is really long. Let me get back to you, and they came back with retitling it Complete Book of the Moon. So I get to add in a little bit more stuff too, but I suggest, you know, gosh, just kind of diving in, like turning to the pages in the book that are highlighting the lunar phase that you're in when you pick it up, and then reading that, and then going and reading the part that highlights whatever the frequency, whatever the constellation is that the moon is passing through, and reading that little passage and seeing how you feel about that information and if it is resonating with you. So that's really easy if you're a Charro reader.

55:28 There's a bunch of Charro spreads in there that I really like too, so try those out. There's several that are just three card readings, So if you only have a few minutes, like popping in with one of those, or trying one of the larger spreads that I created as well, and then you know, making sure to write it down and a photograph that's spread, and then checking back in with it to see how it manifested for you, which I think is also one of the coolest things. I think a lot of times we divine and then we forget to note it, and then we don't know. But when we take the time to note it, and then like I'll come upon like an old notebook and be like, oh my gosh, like all this happened like exactly the way that that was, but the spread would have been done like five years ago. So I just I love that kind of stuff, like synchronicity. That is just one of my favorite bits of I always say synchronicity is magic, but I think synchronicity is actually proof of magic, proof of magic.

56:23 Yeah, well, it is about that time to let you go. So I did want to give you the chance to tell everybody where they can find you find the book the Mike Olyers. Excellent, Thank you. So my website is Jessmine Angelica dot com and my name has one s, so please note that Jessamine Antelica dot com. And on social media, I'm most active on Instagram, so that's Jessamine Underscore Angelica. And you can find my book anywhere books are sold. And if you have a local bookstore, it would be really cool if you called up and asked if they would, because I really love supporting local businesses, especially local bookstores.

57:05 They're so needed. Thank you all so much for being here with us. Yeah, and thank you for being on Paratruth. I do have to say that it is a huge book of knowledge, so absolutely get it in your local book But Jessemine, thank you for being on Paratruth. You be born. Yeah, thank you so much. Justin I really love their talk. Thank you. All right, folks. That is Jesslemine and Jacka lou Ellen's Complete Book of the Moon. I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope you check out the book and check out Jessmine's work. It is a great addition to your paranormal library or your witchcraft library. It's a great book.

57:50 That is it for us this week Paratruthers, and we hope that you've enjoyed every minute of this. Make sure you're checking out the Facebook Comparatruthers community where again those people ask questions. I also had a poll in there which a lot of people answered sorry, and it was do you believe the moon effects your life? And one hundred percent said yes absolutely, and Jessumin has confirmed that now as well. So we hope you've enjoyed it until next week, folks, where you will find us, same time, same show. My name is Justin. I'll talk to gays later