September 5, 2024 • 31 mins
Cinnabar - What's the big deal? Tarot and Toxicity in Witchcraft
In this enlightening episode, we dive deep into the world of Cinnabar—a mineral that has fascinated spiritual practitioners and alchemists for centuries. Join Brian as he explores the captivating geology of this vibrant red stone, delving into the earth's processes that bring it to life. Discover the powerful spiritual uses of Cinnabar, from manifestation and protection to its role in spiritual alchemy.
But there's more to Cinnabar than meets the eye. We’ll discuss the importance of understanding its toxicity, especially for those who incorporate it into their witchcraft and spiritual practices. Brian will also provide a Tarot card reading, offering guidance on how to navigate the potent energies of Cinnabar in your own life. Finally, Brian will discuss toxicity in witchcraft and how to weed out the negativity and immerse oneself in the craft.
Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just curious about this intriguing mineral, this episode will provide valuable insights and practical advice. Tune in and elevate your spiritual journey with the knowledge of Cinnabar's mystical and material aspects.
www.ravenscauldron.com
facebook.com/ravenscauldrondelaware
instagram.com/ravenscauldron
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:15):
Music, hello and welcome everyone to season
three, episode seven ofintentional, spiritual living
with Brian. Gonna shake up theorder this week. I'm really
excited to talk about our thirdtopic. I'm excited to do
everything always but thirdtopic, near and dear to my
heart, and I've heard a lot ofthings lately in the store about
(00:38):
toxicity in the craft andonline, and I want to talk about
that at length. So we're goingto talk about that. But the
order today, excuse me, theorder today is I'm going to pull
our three card Tarot Spread toget us started off. And after
that, I'm going to talk aboutour building our crystal toolkit
that we've been talking about.
And I'm actually going to talkabout a rarer stone, not rare,
as in, can't find it in theearth, but you don't see it for
(01:01):
various good reasons. And thatis cinnabar, something that I've
loved since I was in the singledigits in age. And can't wait to
talk about that. And thenfinally, we're going to talk
about toxicity in witchcraft andin the craft in general, online
and things I'm hearing andseeing. And just want to have an
open discussion with you guys,food for thought, and anybody
that's experiencing that, I wantto give you my opinion and my
(01:24):
encouragement, So with Nofurther ado, let's get started.
You all right. Up first, we aregoing to talk tarot and find out
(01:50):
what the universe wants us toknow for the week ahead, I have
shuffled my cards I am pullingright now.
Major Arcana, 17, the star.
Major Arcana, zero, the fooland the three of pentacles.
Again, the star, the fool andthe three of pentacles. What a
(02:11):
lovely, lovely combination. Thisweek, with all the kind of chaos
that's going on the world. It'sgreat to get a peaceful and
hopeful reading for the week.
And my personal favorite card,I've been reading Tarot, as many
of you know, for upwards of near40 years, and
(02:33):
the card I vibe with the most ina tarot deck is the star. And I
won't dive into that too much,except for that, it has
everything to do with hope,optimism and transformation,
renewal, if you will. And I feellike, okay, I
said I wasn't going to do it,but I'm going to do it. So if
you kind of dive into the fool'sjourney, right? And you
chronologically walk up from thefool to the world, we know one
(02:58):
of the scary cards is the tower,and the tower precedes
the star. And so what I loveabout that is that we all have
to have tower moments in ourlife, and we have them on the
regular. And when I teach Tara,I talk about the fool's journey
as a lifetime within a lifetime,within a lifetime. We walk that
journey many, many times, andit's symbol, symbolically
(03:21):
different for each time. But thethe journey from going from one
of those moments of desperationdespair, the rug getting pulled
out from under you, from a towermoment, into a new rebirth of
hope and optimism. It's calledwisdom, wisdom. And I take the
bridge between those cards, andI define that as wisdom, and
it's the most hopeful, lovelycard to me in the world. And so
(03:43):
when I see it come up, anyway, Itold you I wasn't going to dive
off the deep end and look what Idid. That's why I love it. And
when you combine it with thelovely energy of the fool
in the teamwork aspect of thethree of pentacles, it's just
lovely, lovely combination. It'ssuggesting that we're entering
it into a time, a phase, aperiod, in our trust and belief
(04:05):
in ourselves and the universe,and our optimistic
looking at things from allangles is working for us, and
it's going to start a newbeginning. And when we start
that new beginning, we're notgoing to necessarily dot every I
and cross every T, because theuniverse is telling us that
that's okay right now, let'snot, let's not take out a GPS.
Let's not do everything but thebooks. Let's just enter into
(04:26):
this. We have wisdom behind us,and it's okay, but remember, you
can't do it all. It requires ateam, and the three of pentacles
is all about how you couldcreate one thing that's semi
beautiful. You and I could, butif we had a third person into
the mix, a younger person that'slooking at things from different
angles, that maybe we have lostour insight on, or our
(04:48):
creativity on, and the teamcomes together. We can make
something instead of being semibeautiful, we can make it
amazing. And that's what this isall about, trusting in your
intuition, in your wisdom.
It will propel us into a newbeginning, and that new success
that we are requiring and askingfor will be supported and
necessitated with teamwork andothers. And that is what the
(05:12):
universe wants us to know forthe week ahead. What a great,
great reading. And I apologizefor going off the deep end on
the star, but it is the Tarotcard that I truly, truly, truly
love I could talk about it foran entire episode. Alright? Up
next we're going to talk aboutcinnabar.
(05:42):
All right, let's talk aboutcinnabar.
If you're tuning in for thisepisode for the first time this
season, this is episode seven,and I have done a series we were
on Part Seven of a building yourcrystal toolkit, where I pick a
particular crystal and I talkabout it and tell you how I vibe
with it, what I use it for, howto get to know it, and
(06:05):
just all around guidance forpeople that are wanting to
answer the question, I have allthese beautiful crystals now.
What do I do with them? Sothat's what this whole series is
about. And we're stepping out ofthe box a little bit this week
to talk about cinnabar. Yes, weare going to talk about its
metaphysical uses, of course,and how I feel like you should
all have it in your crystaltoolkit. But I also I want to
(06:26):
talk a little bit about why itcame to be. Because, again, most
of you know I am 52 years old,so in my youth, when I would go
to the metaphysical stores inthe crystal shops, as few as
there were,cinnabar was still something you
would see on the regular. Now, Idon't know how much you guys
know about cinnabar, but I'mgoing to dumb it down. So it's a
(06:47):
red mineral. It's mined all overthe world. There's huge deposits
of it in California, forinstance, China,
Spain, a huge amount of it fromSpain. But cinnabar is red.
It is a Mercury sulfide, and itis very toxic. For that reason,
it is the biggest source ofextracting Mercury,
(07:11):
the most common source forextracting mercury. It's
typically found near VolcanicVolcanic activity, but not
always. It is a bright redcrystal. And so there's
different kinds of cinnabar likeso you see a lot of vintage
Chinese and Asian jewelry thatwas carved out of cinnabar, and
it was a relatively low on theMohs scale. So it's easy to
(07:34):
carve into a lot of dragons andornate cinnabar carvings,
especially in some vintagevintage jewelry, is some really
cool cinnabar, and then you seea lot of cinnabar and matrix. I
actually am holding a piece ofit in my hand right now from my
crystal toolkit. The veryvibrational right now, by the
way, if ever we're going to stepout on the woo, woo lane, it
(07:55):
might be this episode, and it'svibrational. So I'll get back to
the cinnabar. But if you've beenfollowing this entire season,
then you heard my two episodesabout the paranormal activity.
Well, I'm in the building wherethat paranormal activity
happened, and I talked about thehuge crystal grid I made. Well,
this cinnabar crystal that Ihave in my hand right now as
part of that crystal grid, and Iwanted to hold it during this
(08:17):
episode. So by myself in thebuilding, I went back there into
this kind of very paranormallyactive room, and got my
cinnabar, and I took it outthere, and the energy on it is
just amazing. I'll put it backinto the crystal grid, and I'm
done here, but this stuff isreally powerful. So back to
cinnabar. So it is very toxic,and you'll see it now in certain
(08:38):
forms, like what I'm holdingright now is a cinnabar in
matrix, and it's just eithersurrounded by quartz or
dolomite, I think is the otherwhite mineral that you'll see it
in matrix with, and you'll seelittle flecks of the cinnabar.
I'm looking at it in my hand.
And so it's been sealed andpolished and tumbled in this
palm stone, and so I can holdit, but there's a lot of concern
with the toxicity ofcinnabar. And so that's why you
(09:02):
don't see it in the stores asmuch as you used to. But when I
was a child, and I studied and Ihad all these books, I always
wanted a piece of cinnabar, butI couldn't afford it. And so
here we are today. I actually, Ithink I have nine or 10
specimens of it at Raven'scauldron of the crystal formed
cinnabar, so it looks like aRuby. It's just exquisite.
(09:23):
They're little, you know, thesizes of quarters to half
dollars. And I've really beenlooking and looking and looking,
and I finally found a source forthat. So why would you want this
in your toolkit, and why I'm soobsessed with it? Well, part of
it is my childhood, and I alwayswas chasing it, and then I think
I just fell into that wholehuman trait of, when it's harder
(09:43):
to come by, I want it more. Andthen when I finally got a couple
pieces for the store. Now, Ithink I said I had like 10, it's
just jaw dropping. It's abeautiful, beautiful mineral,
but you can't the crystal stuffI have in the store.
If you hold, if you touch it,it's.
Not going to really harm yougreatly. I wouldn't recommend it
(10:03):
for a long period of time. Youknow, you could have it on a
shelf and that type of thing.
But where cinnabar becomes toxicand where it becomes a problem
is when it is heated, and a lotof cinnabar is powdery,
especially rough pieces ofcinnabar, a lot of times you'll
see people hold them in waterand stuff, because when it gets
powder, then you're inhalingthat, and it's mercury, and it's
hot outside, and you get thatvapor rising up and stuff.
(10:24):
That's where it becomes toxic.
And so that's why you don't seeit anymore, except in sealed
stuff, like what I'm holding.
But if you want to see the realthing, you can go to
ravenscauldron.com we sellactual real cinnabar crystals
and their collector's pieces ofjust beautiful. So what I love
about it. It has a longevityfactor to it in a lot of
cultures. It was revered inIndia and refined and believed
(10:46):
that the deep red color meantimmortality. So it has a lot to
do with good health andlongevity and vitality and just
making us be the best versionsof who we're supposed to be. And
it's not just something. What Ilove about it so much is that,
you know, there is a newminerals in the trade, you know,
(11:09):
that we get in the store all thetime, something I don't know,
like chestnut Jasper, forinstance, that doesn't go back
very many years, but it has allkinds of metaphysical beliefs.
So it's relatively newsomebody's opinion. The stuff
we're talking about here withcinnabar goes back hundreds of
years and and how it was usedand refined cinnabar powder.
That's why some of the oilpaintings were toxic, because
some of that red pigments thatthey used was made out of
(11:33):
cinnabar. And so it has a richhistory, but it has everything
to do with with vitality andwith energy. And it also has to
do with spiritual alchemy,because it was thought, you
know, to be almost a gold likesubstance, and used in alchemy
in India. And so for spiritualit's connected to alchemy
because it's a transformation ofus ourself, symbolizes the
(11:55):
process of taking the basemetal, or aspects of ourself
into gold or something even morevaluable than that, a higher
spiritual awareness. And so whenyou combine all that and the
manifestation aspects ofcinnabar, there's just I would
never be without a piecein my crystal toolkit.
(12:19):
And for me, I wouldn't take mypiece of cinnabar on vacation,
because that's a time to laydown and relax and chill. So I
have a toolkit for that, butthis one, when I need to get
some stuff done, when I needcreativity, when I need energy,
when I need to be a badass allaround you, simply can't go
wrong. Cinnabar, get a piece. Ihighly encourage it for your
crystal toolkit, and that's howI'm using it again. I'm holding
(12:42):
this piece, and I just feel theenergy rating out my arm. So I
know like when I get donerecording this podcast, I'll
probably get a bunch more stuffdone today. And that's what I
love about it, the energy, thepassion, the drive. All right,
friends, up next, we're going totalk about a topic near and dear
to me that I just want to have afrank discussion about, and
that's toxicity in witchcraft.
(13:17):
Okay, let's talk about toxicityin witchcraft for the duration
of this episode, it's a near anddear topic to me, and I'm going
to kind ofattack it from a few angles
based now, based upon what Ifeel now. This is going to be
like an opinion piece, folks,not that everything that we talk
(13:41):
about is an opinion piece.
Nobody can prove themetaphysical usage of cinnabar.
Nobody can prove something aboutTarot. So this is no different,
but this is more of aconversational opinion piece. I
will sayI see a lot of toxicity. I have
customers and young folks comein the store and talk to me
about this, and I join, I am ina member of many, many, many,
(14:05):
many witchcraft groups andsocial media, and therein lies
where the trouble begins for me,and there's where I kind of want
to start so. And it justrecently came to a bubbling
issue with me, because I joineda new witchcraft group last
week. I'm not going to mentionthe name. I'm not here to
gossip. I'mnot a member of this group
(14:27):
anymore. I didn't post a thing.
It was the commentary that I wasreading that really just makes
me sick to my stomach, andI want to talk about it. So
first thing I want to talk aboutbefore I talk about that
specific issue,we work in towns, in small town
Ohio, where there is someChristian bigotry. And I'll
(14:54):
just leave it at that. You know,people that look at our store
for, you know what, it's called,Raven's cauldron, and I think
evil.
And Christians and throw Bibletype discussions at us and
stuff. It doesn't happen often,but it does happen, but it
happens to everyone andeverything. So I'm not singling
us out, but I'm saying that ascraft members here, when we see
that kind of behavior and wecan't stand it and it makes us
(15:16):
crazy, but yeah, we do the samething, and that's what I want to
talk about. We do the same thingamongst our own community. So
let's talk about the Wiccanread. And I'm not here to really
talk about anything more thanI'm just going to say the one
sentence, the shortened versionof the Wiccan read, and ye harm
none. Do what you will ifyou want to interpret that, the
agreed upon interpretation, aslong as you're not harming
(15:38):
anyone else. Do as you must.
That fact right there that Ijust gave you can bring up such
toxicity and vitriol inwitchcraft groups. And it just
amazes me. You know, thesepeople throw a fit on both sides
of the fence. I'm not wicked,and how dare you call me wicking
(15:59):
and vice versa over again. Letme tell you that it's like, as
long as you're not harmingsomeone else, do what you must.
First of all, mofos, and this isBrian's book, speaking
ridiculous, ridiculousthat you would feel
defensive about following, that.
That's simply being a good humanbeing. Let's start there. You
(16:22):
know, if I'm, you know, I'm notcriticizing what you believe,
but don't criticize that otherpeople believe that. I don't
follow any, I don't followanything. I'm eclectic, but I do
live by that exact beliefsystem. And that exact belief
system for me is that I will doall kinds of spell work. I will
do all kinds of spell craft andrituals and with my friends, and
(16:43):
get really, really ceremonyceremonial with it and deep in
the woods, but it's always toenhance our own lives. And those
present have to agree, I don'tthink that it is in my power of
a human being assign my powersthat they be that I should be
manipulating somebody else'slife for the worse because they
(17:06):
did something that I don't like,or they have wronged me in some
way during my life, and theyneed to pay I don't I cannot
wrap my head around that. NowI'm not criticizing if you feel
that way, but the hatred and thebickering over this exact topic
online is justI cannot even believe what I'm
seeing.
(17:32):
And so what I saw online that Icouldn't believe that made me
leave this group. So these twosomebody posted on there
about how to get over aheartbreak. Is
there any like, love spells Ican pull you out of, like, the
seven season slump type ofthing. They had recently broke
(17:53):
up and stuff, and so somebodycame back and had given them the
ingredients to do this toxicHexing type spell on the person
that broke up with them. Then itwas collecting urine and shit
and fingernails and sour milkand all this, and putting this
jar and wishing all this helland horrible things on this
(18:15):
person. And the person thatasked how to get past it said, I
really would not want to harmanyone else. I don't feel like I
have the right and it justexploded into like, 500 comments
both sides of the fence andoh, it just makes me sick,
because for me,growing up Catholic and having
very Catholic family, andgrowing a Catholic grade school
(18:37):
and high school and all thoserules, kind of the reason that
I'm into this craft is that I'ma very spiritual person, but I
don't necessarily. I kind ofwant to walk my own path. I feel
like I have a good relationshipwith the divine, and I know what
my path is and what I want outof it. I take from things, I
read books, of course, andunderstand those that come
(18:58):
before me, but I kind of makeBrian's rules, and i That's why
I broke away from that organizedstuff. So I can certainly
understand this side of thefence. It's like, why would you
want to go to practice Wicca?
It's just another organizedreligion where you have a human
being if that you're going toservices and that type of thing
standing up there and tellingyou how to walk the walk and
(19:18):
talk the talk, and their vision,and you're walking is through
the bare vision. So I cancertainly understand that, but I
can't understand is criticizingsomeone for it. Though I can
understand, like, thinking in myhead, like, why would you want
to do that? But who cares? Whothe hell cares if that's what
you want to do?
The other side, you know, theWiccans. You know, not
(19:38):
understanding the other side.
Excuse me.
You know, Hexing and wishing I'mnot making a moral judgment on
anyone and anything. I refuse toever do that. I don't believe in
any of that, but I'm not goingto criticize you if you do, and
if you feel that that's in yourpower, and that's something you
want to do and you feel goodabout it, I can't say as I
(19:59):
support your.
I don't support you. It's just,it's just something that
happens, but to get online andattack you like, I don't know,
it's just this poison, and thishas been going on for years.
Which leads me to the nexttopic. So
this whole lineage thing,now, the newest thing I'm seeing
all over as these superiorwitchcrafters, because, you
(20:22):
know, their great grandmotherwould practice hoodoo and voodoo
and was this and that, andtherefore they're stop with all
the bullshit, stop with all thatnonsense. And anybody listening
to this, especially that youtake any inspiration from
anything I've told you and youwant to get into this craft, and
you're drawn to this deepinside, and you just know it's
(20:44):
part of you pay no attention toany of that bullshit, okay?
Because I don't care if yourentire family came from a
history of Scottish witchcraft,that doesn't make you any more
powerful at anything than aperson born into a family that
practiced nothing, for instance,nothing. They were raised with
nothing. They were raised in theinnate ability to choose their
(21:06):
path will be just as powerful asthis whole lineage thing and
that,again, I can't wrap my head
around it. And that was anotherthing in this new group, you
know this, like you know this,these two girls were fighting
back and forth about, you know,because one of them's
grandmother's Appalachianbackground went back this far,
and she didn't it was like two,three generations before her.
(21:31):
And I'm just kind of like, youdidn't even know these people.
Like it bears no meaning on yourpower
as a witch. So anyone listeningembrace this craft, learn as
much as you can, but honest toGod, any of the online shit that
I'm seeing right now, you know,take that with a grain of salt.
(21:51):
Follow your heart,which leads me to the next thing
you know, and this happens inthese groups as well. Just the
word by itself makes me cringe,and it's the word rules I'm
gonna tell you right now. Anyclass that I teach, and I teach
a lot of stuff at Raven'scauldron, crystal grids, six
part deep dives on tarot,puppets for manifestation,
(22:16):
puppets, candle magick. The listgoes on. We start all of our
classes and we start talkingabout witchcraft. Is the number
one rule of witchcraft is thatthere are no rules yet. When I
get on these witchcraft groupsand just try to see what's going
on in the craft, that's all Isee is rules and people putting
hard, fisted lines down thereabout their way or hit the
(22:41):
highway, and that's not true,and you can't do that. I saw
somebody having an argumentabout how to something I talked
about last week, about how todispose of spell materials.
Guess what, folks, there's noright or wrong answer, and it is
so maddening. Again, the wholereason I came to this craft, the
Whois. And I embraced thiscraft. Having been raised
(23:03):
Catholic, I loved many thingsabout that religion. I loved the
saints and the stories of peoplethat made differences in the
world, and the relics that arestill around of them, and the
ritualistic stuff with themasses, with sounds and incense
and all of that. And I took outwhat I loved and followed my own
path, and I vibe in my own pathand my own power. And
(23:29):
if I knew now what I knew, thenI would have been a much easier
landing into it, because you dohear these opinions of these
other people, and in my day, Ididn't have the internet, thank
God, so I got so I was able todo it from a more innocent
standpoint. But you know, ifyou're young now and you're
getting into the craft, get intothe craft because you feel it in
your stomach, because you feelit in your heart, and design
(23:51):
your rituals, and design yourspells based upon the way you
want to do them. Everything Italk about in this podcast,
which is a lot of rituals, a lotof crystal stuff. I just if
you're listening to thisepisode, of course, you just
heard why I love to vibe withcinnabar. These are Brian's
opinions. These are true lifeexperiences, and I speak from
the heart. I tell you the truth.
I'm not making any money off ofthis podcast. This is something
(24:13):
for Raven's Calder and visitors,people that follow me, because
it's my passion, and I'm sharingwith you my experiences. By no
means ever take something I sayis that way or hit the highway,
because I can't think of toomany things in the craft that
are like that. You know, we doour own thing. We design our own
rituals, and we come together asa community, because we vibe
(24:35):
with nature. We vibe withcrystals and runes and tarot
cards and things of an arcane,esoteric nature. That's what
brings us all together, andthat's what's important. So that
was a long ass rant, and Iapologize, but I don't
apologize, because I think itall needed to be said. But if we
can boil that down, my friends,it's okay to love the craft,
(24:57):
it's okay.
To feel the calling of all thisstuff and do it your way,
because your way is best. Yourway of manifesting is the best
way of manifesting. Come toclasses and learn about my
experiences. Come to otherclasses elsewhere, go to circles
and festivals and talk to peopleand figure out how they do it,
(25:17):
and that's how you then startthrowing that in your bowl and
making your own recipes to dothings. And that's what's
beautiful about this craft, notjust somebody that is making us
feel inferior to theirsuperiority that doesn't exist.
And that's what I see so muchonline right now. And I just
really, really, really, reallyhate it. And I don't I want to
discourage young people, oranybody young or old getting
(25:37):
into the craft, come right inand figure out your own path and
come talk to real people, andthat's the way you'll get to
know it. Thank you for listeningto that, friends.
I appreciate that we all need tostick together as a community.
The craft is a beautiful thing.
Youand that is a wrap. All right,
(26:08):
coming up on episode eight nextweek, I'm going to do a deep
dive on Amazonite in thebuilding your crystal toolkit.
Series, we're going to talkabout Amazonite. I love that
stone, and we'll talk about itsproperties and how I like to use
it. And then we're going to gothrough the process to put
(26:31):
together a fast manifest crystalgrid. And I will talk you
through the crystals required,the materials required, where to
set it up in your house, thedirection to put it in the deity
that we're going to call upon ifyou wish to do so, the
incantation, all the things thatneed to do to make this crystal
grid for fast manifestation whenyou need something quickly. So
(26:53):
you'll want to tune in for that.
That's going to be a fun one.
And then, of course, we're goingto do our three card Tarot pool,
and I want to talk about ourtarot card pools. I was having
it. Somebody sent me an emailand asked me this, so it's a
very good question. So if you'rean active listener to
intentional spiritual livingwith Brian, and you're following
along, and then you're gettingthis Tarot guidance the week
(27:14):
that they're happening. Andthat's a wonderful thing, but I
get tons of people downloadingepisodes from season one, two
and older episodes. And so allthat means then is, this is an
education for you. I am a veryseasoned, almost 40 year tarot
reader, and so you will get tohear my interpretation of these
(27:36):
cards and how to put the storiestogether from three and what's
powerful about it, what Iencourage you to listen to if
you're aspiring to read tarot,is that I'm taking three cards,
I'm not answering a question,I'm just giving spiritual
guidance for the for a weekahead based upon three cards.
And I really like that. I'm themore and more that I read tarot
over the decades, I driftfarther away from using spreads.
(27:59):
You know, like this card meansthis, and this means that,
versus just putting out as manycards depending on how long I'm
reading with someone, andtelling the story based upon
left to right, these are thecards, and it just seems a lot
more powerful. So we'll talkabout that in an episode coming
up. But in the future, you know,if you're tuning in, years down
the road, yeah, use those Tarotreads as education on getting
(28:22):
getting to know those cardsbetter, like we talked about the
star tonight. So I thank youall, and I look forward to
talking to you next Week. You
Music, hello and welcome everyone to season
three, episode seven ofintentional, spiritual living
with Brian. Gonna shake up theorder this week. I'm really
excited to talk about our thirdtopic. I'm excited to do
everything always but thirdtopic, near and dear to my
heart, and I've heard a lot ofthings lately in the store about
(00:38):
toxicity in the craft andonline, and I want to talk about
that at length. So we're goingto talk about that. But the
order today, excuse me, theorder today is I'm going to pull
our three card Tarot Spread toget us started off. And after
that, I'm going to talk aboutour building our crystal toolkit
that we've been talking about.
And I'm actually going to talkabout a rarer stone, not rare,
as in, can't find it in theearth, but you don't see it for
(01:01):
various good reasons. And thatis cinnabar, something that I've
loved since I was in the singledigits in age. And can't wait to
talk about that. And thenfinally, we're going to talk
about toxicity in witchcraft andin the craft in general, online
and things I'm hearing andseeing. And just want to have an
open discussion with you guys,food for thought, and anybody
that's experiencing that, I wantto give you my opinion and my
(01:24):
encouragement, So with Nofurther ado, let's get started.
You all right. Up first, we aregoing to talk tarot and find out
(01:50):
what the universe wants us toknow for the week ahead, I have
shuffled my cards I am pullingright now.
Major Arcana, 17, the star.
Major Arcana, zero, the fooland the three of pentacles.
Again, the star, the fool andthe three of pentacles. What a
(02:11):
lovely, lovely combination. Thisweek, with all the kind of chaos
that's going on the world. It'sgreat to get a peaceful and
hopeful reading for the week.
And my personal favorite card,I've been reading Tarot, as many
of you know, for upwards of near40 years, and
(02:33):
the card I vibe with the most ina tarot deck is the star. And I
won't dive into that too much,except for that, it has
everything to do with hope,optimism and transformation,
renewal, if you will. And I feellike, okay, I
said I wasn't going to do it,but I'm going to do it. So if
you kind of dive into the fool'sjourney, right? And you
chronologically walk up from thefool to the world, we know one
(02:58):
of the scary cards is the tower,and the tower precedes
the star. And so what I loveabout that is that we all have
to have tower moments in ourlife, and we have them on the
regular. And when I teach Tara,I talk about the fool's journey
as a lifetime within a lifetime,within a lifetime. We walk that
journey many, many times, andit's symbol, symbolically
(03:21):
different for each time. But thethe journey from going from one
of those moments of desperationdespair, the rug getting pulled
out from under you, from a towermoment, into a new rebirth of
hope and optimism. It's calledwisdom, wisdom. And I take the
bridge between those cards, andI define that as wisdom, and
it's the most hopeful, lovelycard to me in the world. And so
(03:43):
when I see it come up, anyway, Itold you I wasn't going to dive
off the deep end and look what Idid. That's why I love it. And
when you combine it with thelovely energy of the fool
in the teamwork aspect of thethree of pentacles, it's just
lovely, lovely combination. It'ssuggesting that we're entering
it into a time, a phase, aperiod, in our trust and belief
(04:05):
in ourselves and the universe,and our optimistic
looking at things from allangles is working for us, and
it's going to start a newbeginning. And when we start
that new beginning, we're notgoing to necessarily dot every I
and cross every T, because theuniverse is telling us that
that's okay right now, let'snot, let's not take out a GPS.
Let's not do everything but thebooks. Let's just enter into
(04:26):
this. We have wisdom behind us,and it's okay, but remember, you
can't do it all. It requires ateam, and the three of pentacles
is all about how you couldcreate one thing that's semi
beautiful. You and I could, butif we had a third person into
the mix, a younger person that'slooking at things from different
angles, that maybe we have lostour insight on, or our
(04:48):
creativity on, and the teamcomes together. We can make
something instead of being semibeautiful, we can make it
amazing. And that's what this isall about, trusting in your
intuition, in your wisdom.
It will propel us into a newbeginning, and that new success
that we are requiring and askingfor will be supported and
necessitated with teamwork andothers. And that is what the
(05:12):
universe wants us to know forthe week ahead. What a great,
great reading. And I apologizefor going off the deep end on
the star, but it is the Tarotcard that I truly, truly, truly
love I could talk about it foran entire episode. Alright? Up
next we're going to talk aboutcinnabar.
(05:42):
All right, let's talk aboutcinnabar.
If you're tuning in for thisepisode for the first time this
season, this is episode seven,and I have done a series we were
on Part Seven of a building yourcrystal toolkit, where I pick a
particular crystal and I talkabout it and tell you how I vibe
with it, what I use it for, howto get to know it, and
(06:05):
just all around guidance forpeople that are wanting to
answer the question, I have allthese beautiful crystals now.
What do I do with them? Sothat's what this whole series is
about. And we're stepping out ofthe box a little bit this week
to talk about cinnabar. Yes, weare going to talk about its
metaphysical uses, of course,and how I feel like you should
all have it in your crystaltoolkit. But I also I want to
(06:26):
talk a little bit about why itcame to be. Because, again, most
of you know I am 52 years old,so in my youth, when I would go
to the metaphysical stores inthe crystal shops, as few as
there were,cinnabar was still something you
would see on the regular. Now, Idon't know how much you guys
know about cinnabar, but I'mgoing to dumb it down. So it's a
(06:47):
red mineral. It's mined all overthe world. There's huge deposits
of it in California, forinstance, China,
Spain, a huge amount of it fromSpain. But cinnabar is red.
It is a Mercury sulfide, and itis very toxic. For that reason,
it is the biggest source ofextracting Mercury,
(07:11):
the most common source forextracting mercury. It's
typically found near VolcanicVolcanic activity, but not
always. It is a bright redcrystal. And so there's
different kinds of cinnabar likeso you see a lot of vintage
Chinese and Asian jewelry thatwas carved out of cinnabar, and
it was a relatively low on theMohs scale. So it's easy to
(07:34):
carve into a lot of dragons andornate cinnabar carvings,
especially in some vintagevintage jewelry, is some really
cool cinnabar, and then you seea lot of cinnabar and matrix. I
actually am holding a piece ofit in my hand right now from my
crystal toolkit. The veryvibrational right now, by the
way, if ever we're going to stepout on the woo, woo lane, it
(07:55):
might be this episode, and it'svibrational. So I'll get back to
the cinnabar. But if you've beenfollowing this entire season,
then you heard my two episodesabout the paranormal activity.
Well, I'm in the building wherethat paranormal activity
happened, and I talked about thehuge crystal grid I made. Well,
this cinnabar crystal that Ihave in my hand right now as
part of that crystal grid, and Iwanted to hold it during this
(08:17):
episode. So by myself in thebuilding, I went back there into
this kind of very paranormallyactive room, and got my
cinnabar, and I took it outthere, and the energy on it is
just amazing. I'll put it backinto the crystal grid, and I'm
done here, but this stuff isreally powerful. So back to
cinnabar. So it is very toxic,and you'll see it now in certain
(08:38):
forms, like what I'm holdingright now is a cinnabar in
matrix, and it's just eithersurrounded by quartz or
dolomite, I think is the otherwhite mineral that you'll see it
in matrix with, and you'll seelittle flecks of the cinnabar.
I'm looking at it in my hand.
And so it's been sealed andpolished and tumbled in this
palm stone, and so I can holdit, but there's a lot of concern
with the toxicity ofcinnabar. And so that's why you
(09:02):
don't see it in the stores asmuch as you used to. But when I
was a child, and I studied and Ihad all these books, I always
wanted a piece of cinnabar, butI couldn't afford it. And so
here we are today. I actually, Ithink I have nine or 10
specimens of it at Raven'scauldron of the crystal formed
cinnabar, so it looks like aRuby. It's just exquisite.
(09:23):
They're little, you know, thesizes of quarters to half
dollars. And I've really beenlooking and looking and looking,
and I finally found a source forthat. So why would you want this
in your toolkit, and why I'm soobsessed with it? Well, part of
it is my childhood, and I alwayswas chasing it, and then I think
I just fell into that wholehuman trait of, when it's harder
(09:43):
to come by, I want it more. Andthen when I finally got a couple
pieces for the store. Now, Ithink I said I had like 10, it's
just jaw dropping. It's abeautiful, beautiful mineral,
but you can't the crystal stuffI have in the store.
If you hold, if you touch it,it's.
Not going to really harm yougreatly. I wouldn't recommend it
(10:03):
for a long period of time. Youknow, you could have it on a
shelf and that type of thing.
But where cinnabar becomes toxicand where it becomes a problem
is when it is heated, and a lotof cinnabar is powdery,
especially rough pieces ofcinnabar, a lot of times you'll
see people hold them in waterand stuff, because when it gets
powder, then you're inhalingthat, and it's mercury, and it's
hot outside, and you get thatvapor rising up and stuff.
(10:24):
That's where it becomes toxic.
And so that's why you don't seeit anymore, except in sealed
stuff, like what I'm holding.
But if you want to see the realthing, you can go to
ravenscauldron.com we sellactual real cinnabar crystals
and their collector's pieces ofjust beautiful. So what I love
about it. It has a longevityfactor to it in a lot of
cultures. It was revered inIndia and refined and believed
(10:46):
that the deep red color meantimmortality. So it has a lot to
do with good health andlongevity and vitality and just
making us be the best versionsof who we're supposed to be. And
it's not just something. What Ilove about it so much is that,
you know, there is a newminerals in the trade, you know,
(11:09):
that we get in the store all thetime, something I don't know,
like chestnut Jasper, forinstance, that doesn't go back
very many years, but it has allkinds of metaphysical beliefs.
So it's relatively newsomebody's opinion. The stuff
we're talking about here withcinnabar goes back hundreds of
years and and how it was usedand refined cinnabar powder.
That's why some of the oilpaintings were toxic, because
some of that red pigments thatthey used was made out of
(11:33):
cinnabar. And so it has a richhistory, but it has everything
to do with with vitality andwith energy. And it also has to
do with spiritual alchemy,because it was thought, you
know, to be almost a gold likesubstance, and used in alchemy
in India. And so for spiritualit's connected to alchemy
because it's a transformation ofus ourself, symbolizes the
(11:55):
process of taking the basemetal, or aspects of ourself
into gold or something even morevaluable than that, a higher
spiritual awareness. And so whenyou combine all that and the
manifestation aspects ofcinnabar, there's just I would
never be without a piecein my crystal toolkit.
(12:19):
And for me, I wouldn't take mypiece of cinnabar on vacation,
because that's a time to laydown and relax and chill. So I
have a toolkit for that, butthis one, when I need to get
some stuff done, when I needcreativity, when I need energy,
when I need to be a badass allaround you, simply can't go
wrong. Cinnabar, get a piece. Ihighly encourage it for your
crystal toolkit, and that's howI'm using it again. I'm holding
(12:42):
this piece, and I just feel theenergy rating out my arm. So I
know like when I get donerecording this podcast, I'll
probably get a bunch more stuffdone today. And that's what I
love about it, the energy, thepassion, the drive. All right,
friends, up next, we're going totalk about a topic near and dear
to me that I just want to have afrank discussion about, and
that's toxicity in witchcraft.
(13:17):
Okay, let's talk about toxicityin witchcraft for the duration
of this episode, it's a near anddear topic to me, and I'm going
to kind ofattack it from a few angles
based now, based upon what Ifeel now. This is going to be
like an opinion piece, folks,not that everything that we talk
(13:41):
about is an opinion piece.
Nobody can prove themetaphysical usage of cinnabar.
Nobody can prove something aboutTarot. So this is no different,
but this is more of aconversational opinion piece. I
will sayI see a lot of toxicity. I have
customers and young folks comein the store and talk to me
about this, and I join, I am ina member of many, many, many,
(14:05):
many witchcraft groups andsocial media, and therein lies
where the trouble begins for me,and there's where I kind of want
to start so. And it justrecently came to a bubbling
issue with me, because I joineda new witchcraft group last
week. I'm not going to mentionthe name. I'm not here to
gossip. I'mnot a member of this group
(14:27):
anymore. I didn't post a thing.
It was the commentary that I wasreading that really just makes
me sick to my stomach, andI want to talk about it. So
first thing I want to talk aboutbefore I talk about that
specific issue,we work in towns, in small town
Ohio, where there is someChristian bigotry. And I'll
(14:54):
just leave it at that. You know,people that look at our store
for, you know what, it's called,Raven's cauldron, and I think
evil.
And Christians and throw Bibletype discussions at us and
stuff. It doesn't happen often,but it does happen, but it
happens to everyone andeverything. So I'm not singling
us out, but I'm saying that ascraft members here, when we see
that kind of behavior and wecan't stand it and it makes us
(15:16):
crazy, but yeah, we do the samething, and that's what I want to
talk about. We do the same thingamongst our own community. So
let's talk about the Wiccanread. And I'm not here to really
talk about anything more thanI'm just going to say the one
sentence, the shortened versionof the Wiccan read, and ye harm
none. Do what you will ifyou want to interpret that, the
agreed upon interpretation, aslong as you're not harming
(15:38):
anyone else. Do as you must.
That fact right there that Ijust gave you can bring up such
toxicity and vitriol inwitchcraft groups. And it just
amazes me. You know, thesepeople throw a fit on both sides
of the fence. I'm not wicked,and how dare you call me wicking
(15:59):
and vice versa over again. Letme tell you that it's like, as
long as you're not harmingsomeone else, do what you must.
First of all, mofos, and this isBrian's book, speaking
ridiculous, ridiculousthat you would feel
defensive about following, that.
That's simply being a good humanbeing. Let's start there. You
(16:22):
know, if I'm, you know, I'm notcriticizing what you believe,
but don't criticize that otherpeople believe that. I don't
follow any, I don't followanything. I'm eclectic, but I do
live by that exact beliefsystem. And that exact belief
system for me is that I will doall kinds of spell work. I will
do all kinds of spell craft andrituals and with my friends, and
(16:43):
get really, really ceremonyceremonial with it and deep in
the woods, but it's always toenhance our own lives. And those
present have to agree, I don'tthink that it is in my power of
a human being assign my powersthat they be that I should be
manipulating somebody else'slife for the worse because they
(17:06):
did something that I don't like,or they have wronged me in some
way during my life, and theyneed to pay I don't I cannot
wrap my head around that. NowI'm not criticizing if you feel
that way, but the hatred and thebickering over this exact topic
online is justI cannot even believe what I'm
seeing.
(17:32):
And so what I saw online that Icouldn't believe that made me
leave this group. So these twosomebody posted on there
about how to get over aheartbreak. Is
there any like, love spells Ican pull you out of, like, the
seven season slump type ofthing. They had recently broke
(17:53):
up and stuff, and so somebodycame back and had given them the
ingredients to do this toxicHexing type spell on the person
that broke up with them. Then itwas collecting urine and shit
and fingernails and sour milkand all this, and putting this
jar and wishing all this helland horrible things on this
(18:15):
person. And the person thatasked how to get past it said, I
really would not want to harmanyone else. I don't feel like I
have the right and it justexploded into like, 500 comments
both sides of the fence andoh, it just makes me sick,
because for me,growing up Catholic and having
very Catholic family, andgrowing a Catholic grade school
(18:37):
and high school and all thoserules, kind of the reason that
I'm into this craft is that I'ma very spiritual person, but I
don't necessarily. I kind ofwant to walk my own path. I feel
like I have a good relationshipwith the divine, and I know what
my path is and what I want outof it. I take from things, I
read books, of course, andunderstand those that come
(18:58):
before me, but I kind of makeBrian's rules, and i That's why
I broke away from that organizedstuff. So I can certainly
understand this side of thefence. It's like, why would you
want to go to practice Wicca?
It's just another organizedreligion where you have a human
being if that you're going toservices and that type of thing
standing up there and tellingyou how to walk the walk and
(19:18):
talk the talk, and their vision,and you're walking is through
the bare vision. So I cancertainly understand that, but I
can't understand is criticizingsomeone for it. Though I can
understand, like, thinking in myhead, like, why would you want
to do that? But who cares? Whothe hell cares if that's what
you want to do?
The other side, you know, theWiccans. You know, not
(19:38):
understanding the other side.
Excuse me.
You know, Hexing and wishing I'mnot making a moral judgment on
anyone and anything. I refuse toever do that. I don't believe in
any of that, but I'm not goingto criticize you if you do, and
if you feel that that's in yourpower, and that's something you
want to do and you feel goodabout it, I can't say as I
(19:59):
support your.
I don't support you. It's just,it's just something that
happens, but to get online andattack you like, I don't know,
it's just this poison, and thishas been going on for years.
Which leads me to the nexttopic. So
this whole lineage thing,now, the newest thing I'm seeing
all over as these superiorwitchcrafters, because, you
(20:22):
know, their great grandmotherwould practice hoodoo and voodoo
and was this and that, andtherefore they're stop with all
the bullshit, stop with all thatnonsense. And anybody listening
to this, especially that youtake any inspiration from
anything I've told you and youwant to get into this craft, and
you're drawn to this deepinside, and you just know it's
(20:44):
part of you pay no attention toany of that bullshit, okay?
Because I don't care if yourentire family came from a
history of Scottish witchcraft,that doesn't make you any more
powerful at anything than aperson born into a family that
practiced nothing, for instance,nothing. They were raised with
nothing. They were raised in theinnate ability to choose their
(21:06):
path will be just as powerful asthis whole lineage thing and
that,again, I can't wrap my head
around it. And that was anotherthing in this new group, you
know this, like you know this,these two girls were fighting
back and forth about, you know,because one of them's
grandmother's Appalachianbackground went back this far,
and she didn't it was like two,three generations before her.
(21:31):
And I'm just kind of like, youdidn't even know these people.
Like it bears no meaning on yourpower
as a witch. So anyone listeningembrace this craft, learn as
much as you can, but honest toGod, any of the online shit that
I'm seeing right now, you know,take that with a grain of salt.
(21:51):
Follow your heart,which leads me to the next thing
you know, and this happens inthese groups as well. Just the
word by itself makes me cringe,and it's the word rules I'm
gonna tell you right now. Anyclass that I teach, and I teach
a lot of stuff at Raven'scauldron, crystal grids, six
part deep dives on tarot,puppets for manifestation,
(22:16):
puppets, candle magick. The listgoes on. We start all of our
classes and we start talkingabout witchcraft. Is the number
one rule of witchcraft is thatthere are no rules yet. When I
get on these witchcraft groupsand just try to see what's going
on in the craft, that's all Isee is rules and people putting
hard, fisted lines down thereabout their way or hit the
(22:41):
highway, and that's not true,and you can't do that. I saw
somebody having an argumentabout how to something I talked
about last week, about how todispose of spell materials.
Guess what, folks, there's noright or wrong answer, and it is
so maddening. Again, the wholereason I came to this craft, the
Whois. And I embraced thiscraft. Having been raised
(23:03):
Catholic, I loved many thingsabout that religion. I loved the
saints and the stories of peoplethat made differences in the
world, and the relics that arestill around of them, and the
ritualistic stuff with themasses, with sounds and incense
and all of that. And I took outwhat I loved and followed my own
path, and I vibe in my own pathand my own power. And
(23:29):
if I knew now what I knew, thenI would have been a much easier
landing into it, because you dohear these opinions of these
other people, and in my day, Ididn't have the internet, thank
God, so I got so I was able todo it from a more innocent
standpoint. But you know, ifyou're young now and you're
getting into the craft, get intothe craft because you feel it in
your stomach, because you feelit in your heart, and design
(23:51):
your rituals, and design yourspells based upon the way you
want to do them. Everything Italk about in this podcast,
which is a lot of rituals, a lotof crystal stuff. I just if
you're listening to thisepisode, of course, you just
heard why I love to vibe withcinnabar. These are Brian's
opinions. These are true lifeexperiences, and I speak from
the heart. I tell you the truth.
I'm not making any money off ofthis podcast. This is something
(24:13):
for Raven's Calder and visitors,people that follow me, because
it's my passion, and I'm sharingwith you my experiences. By no
means ever take something I sayis that way or hit the highway,
because I can't think of toomany things in the craft that
are like that. You know, we doour own thing. We design our own
rituals, and we come together asa community, because we vibe
(24:35):
with nature. We vibe withcrystals and runes and tarot
cards and things of an arcane,esoteric nature. That's what
brings us all together, andthat's what's important. So that
was a long ass rant, and Iapologize, but I don't
apologize, because I think itall needed to be said. But if we
can boil that down, my friends,it's okay to love the craft,
(24:57):
it's okay.
To feel the calling of all thisstuff and do it your way,
because your way is best. Yourway of manifesting is the best
way of manifesting. Come toclasses and learn about my
experiences. Come to otherclasses elsewhere, go to circles
and festivals and talk to peopleand figure out how they do it,
(25:17):
and that's how you then startthrowing that in your bowl and
making your own recipes to dothings. And that's what's
beautiful about this craft, notjust somebody that is making us
feel inferior to theirsuperiority that doesn't exist.
And that's what I see so muchonline right now. And I just
really, really, really, reallyhate it. And I don't I want to
discourage young people, oranybody young or old getting
(25:37):
into the craft, come right inand figure out your own path and
come talk to real people, andthat's the way you'll get to
know it. Thank you for listeningto that, friends.
I appreciate that we all need tostick together as a community.
The craft is a beautiful thing.
Youand that is a wrap. All right,
(26:08):
coming up on episode eight nextweek, I'm going to do a deep
dive on Amazonite in thebuilding your crystal toolkit.
Series, we're going to talkabout Amazonite. I love that
stone, and we'll talk about itsproperties and how I like to use
it. And then we're going to gothrough the process to put
(26:31):
together a fast manifest crystalgrid. And I will talk you
through the crystals required,the materials required, where to
set it up in your house, thedirection to put it in the deity
that we're going to call upon ifyou wish to do so, the
incantation, all the things thatneed to do to make this crystal
grid for fast manifestation whenyou need something quickly. So
(26:53):
you'll want to tune in for that.
That's going to be a fun one.
And then, of course, we're goingto do our three card Tarot pool,
and I want to talk about ourtarot card pools. I was having
it. Somebody sent me an emailand asked me this, so it's a
very good question. So if you'rean active listener to
intentional spiritual livingwith Brian, and you're following
along, and then you're gettingthis Tarot guidance the week
(27:14):
that they're happening. Andthat's a wonderful thing, but I
get tons of people downloadingepisodes from season one, two
and older episodes. And so allthat means then is, this is an
education for you. I am a veryseasoned, almost 40 year tarot
reader, and so you will get tohear my interpretation of these
(27:36):
cards and how to put the storiestogether from three and what's
powerful about it, what Iencourage you to listen to if
you're aspiring to read tarot,is that I'm taking three cards,
I'm not answering a question,I'm just giving spiritual
guidance for the for a weekahead based upon three cards.
And I really like that. I'm themore and more that I read tarot
over the decades, I driftfarther away from using spreads.
(27:59):
You know, like this card meansthis, and this means that,
versus just putting out as manycards depending on how long I'm
reading with someone, andtelling the story based upon
left to right, these are thecards, and it just seems a lot
more powerful. So we'll talkabout that in an episode coming
up. But in the future, you know,if you're tuning in, years down
the road, yeah, use those Tarotreads as education on getting
(28:22):
getting to know those cardsbetter, like we talked about the
star tonight. So I thank youall, and I look forward to
talking to you next Week. You
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!