Hello everyone and welcome to the Awaken Together podcast.
I'm Jen and I'm Kat.
And today is going to be our Halloween episode.
Great go sound.
Thanks.
Glad you realized what that was.
I knew right away.
We are going to share with you some rituals for the actual day of Halloween and discuss
what we've mentioned in previous episodes, but review our review, how to protect your
energy, review how to set your space and just some more rituals you can add into your life.
But before we get into all of that, Kat and I just completed our second Awaken Together
retreat in St. Augustine.
It was a witchy theme and we would love to share a little bit about how that was.
So Kat share your heart, all the things that came up and it was just incredible.
Oh my God.
It was a dream come true.
Like I'm having trouble explaining when people ask me now that we're back, like how was it?
I'm like, oh my God, no words.
It was absolutely perfect.
The group always comes together just so beautifully.
Even though many people come into it not knowing each other and then they leave as family,
as a sisterhood.
And in terms of this retreat as a coven, I was just so proud of how vulnerable everybody
was.
It's like this container creates such a sacred space for everybody to drop in really quick,
get deep, share their hearts.
And I really believe that everyone comes to this for their own reasons, but takes what
they need out of it.
And yeah, all the little things that we did from our mystical dinner where everybody dressed
up as a different feminine archetype and we went around our table.
We did a cord cutting ceremony with candle burning.
Which was wild.
It was so wild.
So many stories on that.
And just being a five minute walk from the ocean provided space for everybody to just
really connect with nature, which is as we know, like a big part of witchiness and the
elements in connecting with the earth in that sort of way.
So I'm still like on a high, just glowing from it and can't wait for the next one.
But what was your experience, Jen?
Yeah, I had, I actually drove down to Florida from Colorado.
So I had a lot of time to sit and kind of think of everything.
And it was, it was so special.
I think every retreat is special in its own way.
It's impossible to say, yeah, one goes over the other because yeah, it meets everyone
exactly where they need.
And I just think it really shows what I would love to see humanity just be able to offer.
I tried to cultivate as many retreat like experiences as possible now in my life because
that kind of intimacy and vulnerability and true play without judgment and just really
delving into what we can do as like a group energy.
It's just something that is so sacred and important.
And you can just feel in your being that it's what is supposed to be happening.
It feels like a click of alignment, I think.
And yeah, our schedule is so, so beautiful.
I loved doing all of our little workshops.
I loved all the classes.
We had one of the moments that was so beautiful.
I was doing Reiki on a big chunk of the group and I just like look up and the moon is rising
over the ocean and it's this giant pink moon.
And it was so beautiful.
So, so gorgeous.
That was so special.
I remember we all hovered out the front deck and we're just like gazing in awe of just
this gorgeous pink moon over the ocean.
Yeah, the moon was really showing up for us.
Yeah.
It was like such beautiful views and so big.
And yeah, it was so special.
I will.
Yeah, I've sat and done some journaling on just little moments, but it's absolutely incredible
to watch.
First of all, new people that came, but we also had some repeat people that have come
to previous events and just watching people's growth along the way and how every single
retreat is so different.
You cannot ever get the exact same thing and you really get to explore multiple sides.
So watching even people that have attended multiple really play with that has also been
such an honor.
But yes, I'm so happy, Kat, that we get to do what we do.
And I love you.
I love you too.
I'm so grateful to be able to do this with you.
And you're so right.
The world needs more of this magic.
Yes, absolutely.
And we're going to keep making it happen.
Yes, that's right.
So to switch gears into Halloween, I thought before we went over just kind of some rituals
that we would share a little bit of our experience with Halloween, because I think this is a
very funny conversation with my background versus Kat's, which we have given you little
glimpses of.
But I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween.
It was like the biggest no ever.
My family really saw it as being a very evil holiday and that any participation in it was
just a really dark thing to do.
And so I had this confliction growing up.
I always remember just being like so confused between my own family experiences and then
at school, like seeing kids come with costumes.
And I wasn't allowed to participate in like Halloween parties that happened in class either.
So it was always this weird like I got more isolated.
Like I feel like I had the darkest times of my life around Halloween because there would
be these.
Yes, it was just always so confusing to me.
Like, are these people like participating in evil?
It like just doesn't seem to land for me.
So I was always just such a watcher and paying attention to like everything happening.
And I remember, yeah, classes would play like movies and stuff that I wasn't allowed to
watch.
So it's always all this like, oh, gosh, this is embarrassing.
I have to like go somewhere else for things.
And it was also so strange because the day of Halloween, we would we didn't participate
in any like church events either.
My parents were even against like churches trying to do like spinoffs of Halloween.
So we yeah.
So we would like turn all the lights off in our house on Halloween because we didn't want
the trick or treaters like coming to our house.
So it's just like this really weird, like sitting in the dark doing other stuff, which
sounds kind of witchy.
Right.
I feel like they made it so much more like Halloween became the biggest emphasis ever
when it was supposed to not.
But yeah, we had like a very strange ritual around it regardless, which shows anything
can kind of turn into a ritual if you do it every year.
So I just like came to yeah, came to know what to expect and what was coming.
But yeah, that was kind of my experience with it.
So once I became 18, I feel like I became one years old with Halloween.
And so that would make me, let's see, 12.
Halloween years.
And so yeah, so I still feel like it's such a like inner child, like healing experience
to kind of do the playful side of it.
And yeah, kind of throw like parties and the dressing up.
And I think there's so much fun to that.
But I also do believe that there is a spiritual emphasis on this holiday because a lot of
culture celebrated that way.
And it's not necessarily exactly on October 31st, but there's a lot of heightened energy
at this time in the year anyway, you get closer into Scorpio season, a lot of the eclipses
come up.
And so I do think there's a lot of rituals that are important to ground in.
But we'll get to that cat share a little bit of little cats Halloween.
And I want to hear what your favorite costume was.
Oh, OK.
OK, this will be fun.
Yeah.
So it's crazy how Jen and I have had like such different upbringings with it, but have
now like met in the middle and share this love for Halloween.
I love that.
But yeah, growing up Halloween was something that was encouraged in my household, not for
any particular reason other than just being like a fun time for kids to go out trick or
treat, dress in costume, be silly, just be kids.
So I grew up going to church every Sunday.
But like in my parents' mindsets, Halloween wasn't like tied to church in any way.
So of course, I'm grateful for that because it's always been one of my favorite holidays.
I remember when the like costume catalogs would come in the mail.
I'm really dated myself here, like early 90s.
When the costume catalogs would come in the mail and I would circle the ones that were
my favorites and I would talk to my mom and say, Mom, which one?
Like I can't pick.
I think I really like this one or this one.
She would help me make my decision and then we'd order it from the catalog by like calling
them.
So cute.
Placing an order.
Oh yeah.
So that was a big highlight.
Just picking my costume and then it would come in the mail.
And of course, I'd have to try it on right away.
And then I'd all get all excited about my little basket and what candies we would buy
from CBS to have for trick or treaters when they came to our house.
And then I remember always wanting to have like a Halloween party with my friends at
my house.
So we would host that one year.
We actually made a fort in our living room.
Me and my friends out of just boxes and like sheets and we would draw on the boxes like
little baths and windows.
So we went all in.
And like yeah, Mary-Kate and Ashley, double double toil and trouble.
I just like that was a big part of my childhood.
I was going to watch that one.
We'll have to have like a full Jen inner child healing Halloween night where we go trick
or treating.
Even if it's just with people we know.
So people aren't alarmed.
We're going to make this happen Jen.
Mary-Kate and Ashley for wonderful.
Yes.
Exactly.
I also just like really, I don't know, I wanted to have magical power so badly as a kid.
I really wanted nothing more to be like then to be Matilda.
And that sounds really messed up because if you've seen Matilda, like that movie is pretty
sad with her family life.
Of course, that's not what I wanted.
I just wanted her power.
So I would stare at a light switch for like 30 minutes and just begging it to turn on.
And unfortunately it never worked.
But you were, you were meditating though.
I mean, I was meditating really hard, focused.
And then fast forward, I mean, a couple of years ago, I remember listening to a podcast
called witchy wisdom.
And it's funny.
Like I looked at it recently and it's not really still going, but it was that podcast
that turned me on to Reiki because she said that Reiki is the closest thing she sees to
magic.
And then I started investigating it.
And yes, I very much align with that.
Now energy healing is definitely the closest thing we have to magic.
It is magic.
So that was kind of my experience.
I love it.
And didn't you, I mean, you grew up pretty close to Salem.
Did you guys do that around Halloween a few times?
Yes, I would go to Salem every single year with my mom.
We would have like a little girls day where we would just like go to Salem and go to the
crystal shops and get lunch.
And it's a beautiful town right by the water.
And it's like quintessential fall in New England vibes.
So I would highly recommend it to anybody.
I'm actually going to be in Salem on Halloween for the first time this year.
I'm pretty stoked.
It's going to be a madhouse.
I'm already preparing, but going to go dressed as a witch with Kyle and my best friend, Margie
and her boyfriend.
And we'll probably have a couple of drinks and just, you know, do a little shopping and
see what else Salem has in store for us.
I love it.
I did that last year.
I was a few weeks before Halloween, but I was in October and it was so fun.
I think, you know, I can feel like, I mean, a lot of sad stuff happened during that time.
I like that there is a combination of kind of reflection on the bad that occurred, but
also a chance to kind of switch the narrative, celebrate the fact that, you know, we can
be so much more open about our gifts and what this is and work together to, you know, unpack
the mystery of everything.
I think that's one of the beauties of, yeah, we talked about this a lot at our witch retreat,
like calling yourself a witch, you know, and working with witch practices and rituals is
really a beautiful way just to reconnect to what is already happening around us all the
time, the cycles that are around us, the moon cycles, the season cycles, the cycles in our
own body.
If you're a bleeding body, like there is just so much magic that's already happening.
And when you're conscious of it and kind of ebb and flow with it, you really do start
to see that form of magic that you can practice with.
And I think it's absolutely incredible.
It's very sad that, you know, we can reflect back on history in times that any time someone
was stepping into their healing powers and abilities that were gifted to them, I think
a lot of it was was conflicting against power and greed and the things that needed to happen
in the patriarchal view that, you know, it was a confliction to have these kind of alternative
or integrative healers working with the community.
So I think it's a beautiful time in history that we can step into those gifts and play
around with what feels good to us.
And I believe we all are magical.
And I believe that you were doing magic, even though the light bulb didn't turn on.
You were regulating that nervous system.
Yes, absolutely.
And I love what you shared too.
It's like for me, witchiness, whether you are practicing witch or you just feel drawn
to magic and energy work and healing and being in nature, I think that it's reclaiming our
power as women and our femininity because it was repressed for so long.
And we were told to be small.
We were told that there were so many things that we couldn't do when it's like innately
in our DNA.
This is who we are.
And so it's just embracing the isness of that.
Absolutely.
Yeah, so next, we actually have a lot of fun rituals to share with you all that you can
really practice, whether it's on All Hallows Eve or the time leading up to it or even the
day after.
Just some ways that you can really lean into the energy of this day, whether it's with
your friends and with community, but also in your home yourself.
Yeah, and I was going to add to that, Kat, that these are a lot of the rituals we have
shared like for full moon ceremonies, new moon ceremonies.
So these are more than just for Halloween, but we're going to kind of re-explain to you
how you can really hone in on creating ritual practice.
And I think these can be interchangeable with being the day of where there can be maybe
a heightened mystical spiritual aspect that a lot of cultures really tune into and reflect
with.
Or you can just use this as this is a good time to kind of reset and restart.
We're still entering into a new season.
We are fully embracing fall, like the leaves here in Colorado are falling to the ground.
There's a lot of shedding happening.
So I love the fact that the timing of the leaves doing what they're doing also coincides
with Halloween.
I think it's a perfect time to kind of do all these things.
Definitely.
And our episode, I believe it was in season one called All Things Energy.
That's where we first briefly touched on all of these things.
So it's a little bit of a review from that.
But if you want to go even deeper, you can listen to that episode as well.
We'll be touching on those as well as some other practices to add to your tool belt.
So the first one, when just thinking about being in your home, creating a sacred space,
you're going to want to clear the energy in your home.
So really the first step that I would recommend doing is really simple.
It's cleaning.
And it doesn't sound like magical or mystical, but it's actually really important because
stuck energy gets trapped within dust particles, within dirt, and of course, like in the energy
of trapped emotions that might be stuck in the place as well.
So literally cleaning the floors, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, all the surfaces, that's
going to be a really great first step.
And then from there, totally recommend smudging.
So this is burning something.
So whether it's traditionally sage or Palo Santo, maybe some lavender, even a candle
if you don't have those other things at home, but you'd like to...
Incense sticks for the win.
I keep a pencil holder of incense sticks.
I keep a pencil holder of incense sticks right by my front door so that it's in my face.
I can grab it.
I do that so often.
I can cleanse myself off in my space.
There you go.
So many ways to do it.
So smudging, and there's a couple of ways that you can keep in mind while you're smudging.
So if you are holding your smudging agent, the way that you remove unwanted energies
is by creating counterclockwise circles and just moving deliberately and slowly around
your space.
Counterclockwise is always an act of closing off, sealing, removing.
So counterclockwise, moving around your space.
Ideally if you're approaching this from a mindset of being really present and kind of
protecting your own energy while you do so, open the windows so that the stuck energy
can move on out.
So it has a place to go and exit.
Then once you've done that throughout your space, recommend moving clockwise throughout
your space.
This will seal the space with protective, healing, and safe energies.
So this can be whispering protection spells under your breath, like please protect this
space.
Those who don't belong here, please leave.
And yeah, just having that moment of creating sacred space within your house that feels
loving and nourishing and like your energy.
So creating that and from there, playing music is another great way to change the frequency
within your home.
So this can be loud enough that it can permeate through each room or you can play it in each
room separately, but just playing music that you feel resides with the frequency that you
want to be inviting into your space.
I love that.
And I want to add one more thing.
I just did this yesterday and it's so funny to think back to my childhood because I swear
I rearranged my bedroom like so often I feel I would just redo my room and I didn't really
think much of it, but I just redid a lot of the stuff in my house yesterday.
I switched up the bedroom arrangement, the living room slightly, and just kind of switched
a lot of stuff up and it feels so new and that feeling of it feeling new is such a beautiful
new energy to step into.
I even think like maybe little Jen was onto something by switching her room all the time
because she's probably trying to fix some energy.
That's so funny you say that because I would rearrange my room all the time as a kid too.
I think it's a way probably to regulate yourself.
You're trying to bring up, but it's really probably reflective of energy as well as yeah,
I'm sure there's some psychology behind why we do that.
It's probably a form of let's start something fresh and new, but I'm sure there's an energetic
component to it.
I can feel the difference in my house from doing what I did yesterday.
Yeah, definitely.
I love that and I love that we both did that.
So fun.
Little witches.
That's right.
So another tip that we have is using protection salt.
So this is something that's really common.
You've probably seen it in movies like Hocus Pocus.
Salt is a really protective healing element.
So it's something that you could literally just take your salt shaker from the grocery
store and you could walk around the perimeter of your house.
You can simply draw a few lines around the entrances and exits of your house and as you're
sprinkling it, sharing that same sentiment of only wanted energies are allowed to enter
this space, all unwanted energies, you cannot pass this line.
You really like being with your energy, grounding in and being present as you're sprinkling
the salt around.
Now another thing that you can add to this, which is really funny, is black pepper.
Black pepper is to keep away on anything that's unwelcome.
So adding a little bit of salt and pepper, it's like we're cooking, but we're creating
a little spell outside of the doors, outside of the windows even just to protect your home
and keep all that serves you within, all that doesn't outside.
So we've created a sacred space.
We've really made our markers for where energies can't come in.
So inside of your house now, this is a great time to create an altar.
And this is something again that we've mentioned in the past, but an altar can serve as a physical
manifestation of creating that sacred space in your home where you can come to your spiritual
practices.
This can be where you lay your crystals.
This can be where you practice yoga or meditate in front of just having like a designated
space in your home to really call home for your practices.
Now we really recommend utilizing the four elements of nature in your altar in any way,
shape or form that resonates with you.
So fire, earth, wind and water.
For me, I like to have a bowl of water and something that I smudge with along with a
lighter for my fire.
For me, I have a pine cone because the way that it falls from the tree, that's air to
me and then earth, that's my crystals.
Now something else, a great ritual that we can pull from other cultures and do so honorably
is from Dia de los Muertos, having photos of loved ones who passed on to honor their
memories on your altar as well.
If that's something that really resonates with you and feels aligned.
I think anything that sparks some joy.
So any photo, quote, anything that when you're sitting there in reflection, it brings you
a sense of peace and calm.
Some people have pictures of deities if that's in your practice.
It can be so much more casual than that on just being even a little picture of you, something
that really connects you back because the whole point of the altar space is not to necessarily
call in something unless you're setting the intention for that.
It's really just to give you a set place that you come back to, that you sit with and that
you honor and respect kind of what's going on in life, who came before you, who inspires
you.
It's just supposed to be a sacred space for you.
That's right.
And a very sweet movie that depicts this really well is Coco.
I love that movie.
Grandma Coco.
I love her.
So cute.
Yeah.
So cute.
So Jen, calling in ancestors and protection in the four directions is where I usually
go next in when I set up my altar.
Would you like to share a little bit about that?
How you do it?
Yeah.
So I loved everything said about cleansing the space.
I also, whenever I go into a ritual and to add that I haven't always had a set altar
in my house.
I really believe for me, like my yoga mat was kind of playing the role of an altar.
I would always roll out my yoga mat and I just knew who I was in that space because I
have ebbed and flowed with my yoga practice since 2010.
So every time I roll out my mat, it's like all previous versions of me that have stepped
onto the mat kind of come together.
It feels really sacred for me once the mat is rolled out.
My homes have changed a lot over the years, so I haven't always had it in the same space.
Sometimes yeah, I've, I moved my crystals around so much because I'm always taking them
places with me.
So definitely what my altar has looked like has shifted, but I do, I can feel the difference
when I create a space in my house that is primarily for that.
I like to have it face the North.
And yeah, I think when you have a set place, you can kind of then drive that energy to
mean something else.
So if you're in your living room, you probably have habit, habit loops around what the living
room means to you.
If you're in the kitchen, you know what the kitchen kind of holds for you.
So there's like stories within our house of what we do because we're always generating
routines and habits.
So I do believe that when you have that space, that's kind of defined as something different.
It leads to that space having its own story, if that makes some sense.
So that's how I view an altar.
Whenever I'm sitting down to go into a more practice of calling in protection, calling
in spirit guides or calling in any higher being connection and information, I do a lot
of cleansing on myself first.
So the same way Kat described cleansing the house, I would cleanse myself that same way.
So counterclockwise, I started at the crown of my head, work my way down, get underneath
my feet, do my hands.
And I set the intention, may anything that is not serving me be released.
And then I do a lot of like actual touch connection to my body.
I sometimes put my hands on the crown of my head, my third eye, my throat, my heart, my
solar plexus, my womb space, my sacral area, and then my hips and just say, you know, may
my body arrive in this moment.
May I be grounded.
May any information that is needing to come to me be clear.
And I always do an intention before I go into a space of like kind of calling in more.
I like that sense of protection.
I do this before I, we do this before any retreat.
I do this before I really pull cards most of the time, because unless I'm doing cards
kind of after a yoga practice where I've already stepped into some mindfulness, I believe that
it's important to do that because that's how I think you really connect to your cards and
start to realize that there is more than just a lucky card pool.
There is a story there.
And I always keep my card decks on my altar, by the way.
But to call in protection, I do those practices.
And then we have shared on meditations on this podcast of envisioning a white light
just above your head, picturing that light pouring through your body, really setting
that intention through visualization of a dome of protection within you and around you.
Imagining is really how you can call in that protection so easily.
Visualizing really drives our energy.
It drives what we're doing, how we're perceiving things.
And yeah, I think visual meditations, I like to picture a dome of protection around me
before I go into a space that I know is going to suck a lot of my energy or take a lot of
my energy if I don't kind of call that in.
And then, yeah, I think once you're in that space of protection, other things you can
do to invoke kind of that connection to higher realms, higher beings, or even your higher
self, if that feels like it resonates more with your practice, is using your voice.
So saying something out loud, you can ask questions, say what you're needing clarity
on.
You can call in the four directions, which I usually do this practice.
You can do it sitting down, but I also like doing it standing up.
This comes also from other cultural backgrounds where they really believe that connecting
to each direction has different elements and energy qualities behind it.
You can search calling in the directions, little mantra, quote, what's a good word for
that?
Invocation.
Love that.
Yes.
And so you can search that and kind of read it out loud.
I like to face each direction and just honor each space before I sit down.
You can also actually read out the whole thing that you can search very easily.
And maybe you print a copy to have on your altar.
We went over this with our retreat space and kind of said it all out loud.
And I've said this before and I'll say it a million times again.
Our voice creates vibration and vibration interacts with energy.
And when you really speak something out loud, there is incredible significance in that.
Your body responds to those vibrations.
What's around you responds to those vibrations.
So actual chanting and saying something, not just in your head, but out loud has a lot
of power behind it.
Yeah.
Brings it out from inside into the physical realm, into reality.
Right?
Yes.
It's incredible.
We did chanting at our retreat and I chanting just you can feel a high and a buzz like you've
never felt before when you really sit with chanting.
There is something so sacred.
I think of that a lot in religion even just amen.
Just some of these sacred words.
Om for our yoga philosophy and practice.
These are vibrational sounds that you create that really have significance.
And when we make those those out loud, not just individually, but even in a group setting,
whoo magic.
Like so.
Yeah.
It's powerful.
Yeah.
The more voices, the more powerful and yeah, it's just really, yeah, it really feels like
that's saying a spell.
That's what it is.
It's chanting these words out loud.
That means something.
Sorry, Minnie's barking.
It's okay.
Yes.
So, so all of those things, meditating, calling in the ancestors for protection, the four
directions, everything we've mentioned so far, all beautiful practices to really spend
for your Halloween.
If you're looking to invite some more sacredness into that day, that night, or really anytime
in your life.
Some other great practices are charging your crystals.
So putting them in the moonlight, charging them up, dancing.
So again, getting back into the body and just letting energy flow through you.
And feasting.
This is a big tradition that for years and years and years, women have come together
on Hallows Eve and broke bread together, feasted, drank wine, ate nourishing foods from the
earth, harvested fresh at this time of year, and just celebrating because this is entering
into a new cycle, a new year for many of us.
Connecting with nature, both by eating it and just surrounding ourselves with all the
different elements so that we can find unison and the beauty and the magic that comes from
that balance.
I went outside yesterday and collected some fall leaves to put along my little sacred
altar space.
I think that is a beautiful way to connect with nature.
It's doing so much outside.
There's so much beauty to the transition into fall and winter.
And it's beautiful.
And we've shared this on the Ayurveda podcast, but really paying attention to what the earth
is giving us seasonally.
That is why the pumpkin craze is what it is.
It's beautiful.
Nature gives us something that automatically is going to balance us with the changes that
are happening externally with the seasons anyway.
So some of those warmer soups, things like that, when you're incorporating meals to it,
look at what grows with the season.
There is huge significance in that.
And then just to add a couple other things, I always love to do card polls on special
days like Halloween and just any time the moon is doing something wild up there, which
our next one is on the 25th of October.
I think pulling cards and doing some journaling reflection with it is also a beautiful practice.
So that could be any form of meditation that works for you, setting the tone so that you
can pick a card from a deck that you have.
And then sitting with that, doing some journaling and reflection so that you can always look
back and remember what was going on at this time in your life and what you were hoping
to invite in and let that be an anchor of new energy as well.
That's right.
Full sensory experience, taking it all in, giving it all out.
Oh, well, this is a fun one.
I hope that y'all took something away from this that you'd like to inspire your own celebration
on Halloween.
And we'd love to hear if there's anything else that you do that we didn't mention that
really means something to you.
We'd love to hear it and to share it as well.
You can follow us on Instagram at Awaken Together Podcast.
And we'd love it if you followed us, rated and reviewed this episode and other episodes
of the show.
We love y'all so much and can't wait to chat with you again next week.
Happy Halloween.
Bye.