City Alchemist ft. Alexis & Eric

WHATUP WITCHES! It finally happened! In this episode, Ayden interviews Alexis and Eric, the owners of City Alchemist in Austin, Texas. They discuss their backgrounds in spiritual practices, the intersection of brujeria and business, and the importance of community engagement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
A girlfriends it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Sustal,
the podcast of paranormal folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures. Now,
if you are a best golfriend on Patreon, you have
already seen that things look a little different. I'm joined

(00:42):
by some people today, some people right. That is because
today I have the privilege and the honor I'm so
excited to finally it's been a long time coming interview
the owners of City Alchemists here in Austin, Texas. Please
please welcome to SUSO today. Alexis and Eric, thank you
all so much for I was gonna say thank you

(01:02):
for being here, but I'm the one that's here. Thank
you for having me. Thank you so much. So could
you please, maybe just for anybody who for some reason
has not heard of you all, give a brief introduction
of who you are and where we are today.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah. So, my name is Alexis out of Londo. I'm
from South Texas, a small little town near the border
called Hebronville, and I grew up kind of in that area, learning,
you know, kind of like like SUSTO, like learning all
the folklore things like that. So being very enamored with
things like and is opposed to just people who just

(01:42):
kind of listen to it tell a story. I wanted
to kind of learn it, and so I started learning
from a brucha. I started learning from healers and and
people from the community over time, and then eventually met Eric,
and he and I realized that we had one similar goal,
which was to own a witch shop one day. And
this is it, what five years later, some like five

(02:05):
years later, this is where we're at, so our technically
third location.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, So my name is Eric. I grew up in Alpaso, Texas.
I shared a similar story to alexis very fascinated with
like ghost stories, like folklore from al Paso specifically because
there's so much. I also grew up in a very
spiritual family. Specifically they would practice things like folk Catholicism,

(02:32):
pudan de dismo, a little bit of hitchy Cidia, and
I was really always drawn to that. I don't know why.
I always felt like innately there was I knew that
there was like a spiritual world even before I knew
what spirituality was, and growing up I was really fortunate
to be guided by my grandma, my mom, and my aunts,

(02:54):
and they really encouraged me to practice and to learn.
And Alexis and I we both share an interest and
a lot of like spiritual practices, and we both practice
a lot of spiritual things.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, So speaking of those things, because I'm curious to know,
and you kind of spoke about it with your upbringings
and your your elders, your relatives, how did you get
into practicing more specifically like bouhidi and grandaismo. Yes, but
we know that those could be kind of umbrella terms
and there are more specific practices. So if you had

(03:26):
to identify your practices to you know, you're meeting someone,
you what would you tell them? Those practices are those
traditions and like how did you find your way to
those specific things?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Wow? How much time do we have? I mean, I
always if I had to brand myself, I don't like
branding myself at all, but if I had to, I
always tell people modern day necromancer in the sense that
all of the traditions that I practice have one thing
in common, which is working with spirits. So I'm a
spiritual list medium. I work with balamiyombe, which comes from Cuba,

(04:03):
which is very heavily associated with spirits. I have like
a base level initiations in Santharia and Haitian Vodu also
works a lot with spirits. So there's a lot of
disconnection to spirit and understanding how we can use spirits
as a form of communication for healing, to give messages

(04:24):
and kind of connecting with spirit on that level, right,
and even you know, allowing them to do things for
us and sending them to do things for us. So
I think finding my way to that was kind of
like when I moved from Hebronville to Corpus Christi for college,
I started meeting people in the communities of more like
Conandsmo and Brukhelia as well, and I started working with

(04:48):
something what at the time of twenty two thousand and
three actually, so it's been about twenty years, a little
over twenty years at a botanika there, And that's how
I started kind of learning, was going to the botanicas,
asking questions, being taught by them essentially, and then eventually
finding teachers. When I moved here to Austin, and I

(05:09):
had found a teacher here who was kind of guiding
me with things regarding like follow and Haitian Woodou and
things along those lines, but at the same time not
really fully getting initiated until we both met a local
business owner's husband who was involved with the tradition and

(05:30):
kind of helped us kind of branch out even more so.
And that's kind of how I ended up on that path.
Eric was already on the path of Santhidia when I
had met him, so he already had that knowledge. But
that's kind of how it all played out in a
very very shortened version.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah, and Eric, what about you.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
It's interesting because I don't really consider myself anything absolute, right,
I think, if anything, I'm probably always going to be
some sort of seeker. But I do wear different hats.
I guess specifically, I am initiated into Lukumi Santa Ria,
and I have a house here in Austin, Texas, which

(06:09):
we call Eule, so I have responsibilities to help my
godchildren evolve within that tradition. I also do practice, I guess,
like you said, the umbrella term of gudam derismo, because
I have been giving people here in the community limps
for about two years now and then just general magic

(06:32):
in general. Right, I think Alexis and I also share
that where we're very interested in putting the puzzle together
because once you start to understand these traditions, you see
they all fit into something. They're all coming together somehow.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
So definitely, I think probably just a seeker.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, I love that. This is I think a really
good segue into the next question I had. But I
wanted to get you all's take on something. So you
mentioned Palo my own day, and I think many people
are familiar with the story of Adulto Constanzo and Mark Kilroy.
And from what I read when I did my episode

(07:10):
on that, what I kind of picked up was that
people were a little I guess it was like a
hot button topic. You know, people were like, you know,
he's he's skewing the practice, he's doing it not. I
don't know if I could say he's doing it wrong,
but like he's basically not. Like it's hard to say.
And I guess that's why I'm trying to ask you,

(07:31):
is I want to know I guess maybe what your
take on that, or your stance on is on that.
If you are okay with yeah, giving your opinion, I.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Mean, it's it's good to talk about these things, because
I think one of the reasons people fear these practices
so much is the silence and nobody knowing what's happening.
That's the way I teach these classes. Even though you
have to be initiated to practice, it doesn't mean that
I can't teach you the basics and the foundations. So
one of the things about the Mark Kilroy case, in
particular with El Padrino as they call him, yes, there

(08:03):
were inconsistencies in this practice. He technically, from what I've
been told, was not fully initiated into Ballow and showed
up in Mexico knowing with the knowledge that he did
know very charismatic person. We've actually seen this with people
that we know even around here, who come off as
very charismatic and pretend to know all these things that

(08:23):
they don't actually know, and you know, over time those
things get revealed, and in that situation, that's exactly what happened.
If you look at some of the photos of the
Mark Herold case, there were like altars with like something
what the and mixture of all kinds of different practices,
which tells me that that's not Ballow. Because Babo is

(08:44):
very specific even the different forms that bollow. There's like
San Cristo, Bemijake and all these like grussaldos or crossed houses.
Even those don't work with things like some of them
what they are, or work with other practices, they still
kind of stay within the Cuban type of religion. So

(09:04):
that tells me a lot. That tells me that there
was definitely some mixing and even the kind of the
ideology that he created the whole, like, oh well, if
you want your preanda, which is your spiritual pot to
be strong, you got to put the muscles of a
strong person inside of it. That's not the way it's done.
It is on an other level, but not on that level, right.

(09:26):
It's more so things that represent the spirit, things from nature.
So for example, for strength, we might put something like
a tooth of a tiger or something along those lines,
as opposed to a human being. So I think that
a lot of it was just mixed and then them
kind of coming up with their own way of understanding
how to do that practice. So it was definitely not

(09:47):
correct in that sense.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, I will say something though, and I think it's
very interesting because Alexis it's definitely the main point where
it's not an authentic practice in the sense of traditional
bottle of my own bit. In my opinion, what we
saw there was a perfect example of like Mexican magic,
the idea of this accumulation of different types of practices

(10:09):
coming together to form this one sort of energy. And
it's interesting because we live along the border and we
go to these border towns, right, and once you get there,
if you practice spirituality, there's a vibration and you can
feel it. Right, it's in the valley, it's in Corpus,
I'll pass though, even San Antonio, right, And I think
that with that type of thing or a practice that

(10:30):
he was doing, we started to see what, like the
practices of Mexico we're starting to become, which I think
is super interesting and beautiful.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Not the murders obviously, right, but the idea of like
Mexican magic becoming its own thing.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, again, perfect segue.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
It's like, you guys are psychics or something.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I wanted to ask about this idea of the blending
of practices and maybe where there's opportunity for that to happen,
and are the there are traditions or practices that are
maybe not meant to, but that you kind of practice
practice as an individual thing, and you say this is
not something that I am willing or able or I

(11:13):
want to incorporate with or blend with other practices.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's a really good question. I mean even earlier Eric
mentioned this idea of like, we are seekers, we are students.
We're never going to be like, oh, we know all right,
We're always learning, and we do have other practices that
don't come from Latin America. We practice like Hindu contric practices,
Buddhist contric practices. And I think for us, or as say,

(11:41):
for me, for sure, there is a definite understanding of
how they can relate to other practices in Mexico and
folk practices and traditions, and we can see those connections
and make those connections. But we can also do that
without blending them completely to the point where now we're

(12:02):
just calling it's something completely different. Right, So I'll give
you an example of this. I always tell my students,
especially students who are non POC for example, who want
to practice things like HCD and bu Hidia, They're like, well,
I can't practice it because I'm not I'm not from
I'm a Hispanic on a Mexican cent and I say
that's not necessarily true. You can practice it, just don't

(12:24):
make it public. Just don't go on Instagram and be like,
look at my Bluehidia, look at my st it's your
personal for twenty five dollars exactly. I'm like, it's your
personal practice. Make it your personal practice. You know, if
you look at it, she said, at you sett it's
like what we call sorcerers essentially and brujos in Mexico.

(12:44):
There's a lot of mixing. You know. They're if they
need to call Venus on a Friday to do a
love spell, they will. If they're going to call something
to do a love spell, they will. It's whoever is
going to come along and do the work, right, They
don't necessarily yes, exactly, don't have to just choose one.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
So I think that there's a good way to do it,
to blend a lot of these these these practices and
make it your own. But the issue is that everybody
wants to make everything public and they want to post
it on Instagram, and they want to post it on
on on Facebook or wherever, and immediately you're going to
get feedback because now you have pissed somebody off.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Basically, yeah, I guess when we talk about like traditions,
it's very important for me specifically to make sure that
when we practice formal things like Santhaia out of my
own by Kimbanda whatever, well not whatever, because they're very powerful,
but we have to do it in a traditional way
in that context, we cannot bringing in outside influences. It

(13:47):
already in itself is perfect, has its own divination system, hierarchy,
everything else. But when we talk about Mahia like Magic, Bukidia,
hitchy Cia, it's personal because you're learning from where you
grew up. So every town, every city was going to

(14:08):
have a different flavor. You're going to have the foundation,
absolutely right. But the more you learn, the more you
start to incorporate from different people in different styles. So
for example, I, you know, having the shop, we start
to meet a lot of people and I met a
group of Venezuelans and they started teaching me their practices

(14:32):
within the Marie leonsa cult right, and it was interesting
because I saw similarities and they say try this, try that,
And now as a practitioner, I can use that in
my arsenal, have that in my Arsenal.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
See. Wow, so I kind of want to shift gears here,
but of course all related. I'm curious about what the
journey was from like Bilu Hitia to business owners, and
I know that they're not maybe mutually exclusive, and I
guess that's where I'm curious, is I do want to

(15:06):
hear about your journey, but also maybe like a fun
kind of question because we know that there are workings
out there that people can use, Like how much of
your practice was involved in manifesting and creating and building
this space.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's a good question. Yeah. I will say this something
that Eric taught me and I say it all the
time is if you're working these traditions, if you're doing
these practices and things are not getting better in your life,
then you're doing something wrong or you're on the wrong
path basically. And I would say that a lot of

(15:41):
the success of the shop comes from the fact that
we have been working these traditions correctly with a good heart.
We're not out there saying you need Olympia. Okay, it's
going to be six thousand dollars and I'm going to
just use an egg and I'm going to just like
half asset you know, we're always doing things for our community.
Times we don't even charge because we know that they

(16:02):
can't afford it. You know, it has to be done
with heart. That's the biggest thing, and I think that's
why we've been so blessed with these spaces. I will
also say that a big part of it is finding
a good a good balance with spirituality and business, because

(16:23):
they are two different monsters sometimes and a lot of
people have a tendency to think, well, I'm spiritual and
I can do cleansings, therefore I can start a business.
But I will say the hardest thing is that nobody
ever tells you how hard it is. And it's consistent work,
consistently having to you know, do events, consistently, having to

(16:44):
do things for the community. And I will say that
most of it has been blessings from the spirits. And
I've always said that, We've always said that, like, we're
extremely blessed by the spirits because they've guided us to
be able to do this work not only for the community,
but to have a beautiful shop on a beautiful location
on historic East sixth Street. You know. So I think

(17:05):
that that's a big part of it.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, I like the question like you talk about the
idea of manifestation, because if I'm going to be honest
with you, I don't do a lot of spellcraft for myself.
I don't need. Well, it's not that I don't need to,
it's my awareness has shifted to a different place, which
is manifestation, which is if I want things to work,
then I need to make sure that I'm doing my

(17:27):
part as well. Right, I send that signal out to
the energies that I work with, and then when we're
in connection, I start to manifest. So I don't even
do spell work for myself that much anymore, and I
feel extremely blessed, extremely protected. Right. The business aspect in
it is like totally separate in my opinion for my

(17:50):
spiritual practice, because being a business owner comes with its
own set of responsibilities not only for me but for
the community as well. But yeah, being able to manifest
is is interesting because I think that I had manifest
Alexis and I manifested the shop, and I literally manifested
this shop with the playlists. I started listening to songs, right,

(18:10):
and I got really inspired when we were even before
Machia Mahia, our book. That playlist I started to put
together on Spotify. I was listening to it and just
envisioning my shop and envisioning people, and literally, I swear
six months later we opened up a little small pop up,
and then half a year later we opened up next
door and literally still playing that same playlist.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I remember he would always say like, wouldn't it be great?
Our shop was on Sixth Street, We should have a
shop on six street one day. One day, We're gonna
have a shop on sixth Street.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
And here we are, here we are, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
One day, Like Alexis and I were driving during the pandemic.
It was right after like the lockdown was like lessening
up and people were able to move around, and we
had just started talking about opening up our shop, and
I was like, let's go just drive around and see
if we find anything. And Alexa was just like, well,
that's not the way you do. You have to work
with like a realtor and all that stuff. I'm like, no,
do we do, Like, we'll just we'll drive around and

(19:04):
we found our little spot on sins oar Java Street
and we call the number and our landlord. Now she
asked us, well what do you do? And we're like Uh,
how do we explain what we do right? Well, we
still like crystals and incense, try making it very light.
And she's like, oh, dude's like spiritual cleansings and readings.
And I was like, yeah, we do. She's like, Okay,
can you meet me on sixth Street in this location

(19:26):
about fifteen minutes oh, and literally right after that, everything
just started falling into place. We're lucky. Our landlord is
from Peru and she does spiritual cleanses.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
She sends her like she she's employees, a lot of employees,
and she'll send them to us to get cleansings. She'll
reach out to us because sometimes she has to clear
out houses because she also owns houses. And then she'd
be like, they left some weird stuff, can you come
clear it out? And just bad energy. So we'll go
and help her out in that sense.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Also, wow, it's you just have to ask the city
for a spot.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Honestly, I tell people that all the time.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
When people first moved to Austin and they get into
a new house and like, I feel weird, I don't
feel like there yet. I'm like, well, did you introduce
yourself to Austin the city, Because there's energies here before
any sort of development was here. When you start giving
your your your acknowledgment to them, they start to protect
you and they start to help you, and people don't
realize that.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, I will say when I moved here maybe about
three years ago, and it was during when like the
housing bubble was like it was just rapid and things
were going before we could even get an application in.
And it got to the point where I had come
to visit and I was so frustrated because I had,
you know, I had a job opportunity, I was ready
to move and my life was kind of stagnant at

(20:44):
that point, and so we were like this, like we
need to make this happen. And so at one point
I came to visit and I just like out loud,
I was like, please please accept us, like this is
like we need, we need this, like this is the
next step for us, and just saying it out loud.
And so yeah, hearing you all kind of talk about
this too, and like your journey with just finding the
physical space too, is like it takes back to that moment.

(21:06):
It almost felt like desperation, but also, like like you said,
just introducing myself and saying like, hey, this is my
next step. I'm gonna be here. Please help us like
land on our feet, and we really did. I love
where we ended up.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
It's it's funny cause you talk about desperation, right, and
I always teach people whenever you're in desperation of what
happens inside. We're like this, right and nothing can reach us.
We're bundled up and I'm not. And as much as
it's cliche to say, well, just relax, you know, you
don't tell someone who's already upset to relax. Yeah, right,
But at the same time, it's true because once you

(21:39):
start lessening up and that not starts to unravel, everything
opens up and everything falls into the place.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah. So the next question is actually a question from Patreon,
and this is a question from Madita phittanandas thank you
so much for sending your question in and Mariitza and
I would like to know what are some good starting
point for a beginner looking to decolonize their thinking around
traditional spiritual practices and fulk remedies. Are there any recommendations

(22:07):
for books, classes, general tips, especially for those who are
interested but are healing from religious trauma, and are unsure
about the basics.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Really really good question, Melissa. Thank you Melissa for that one.
This is something that we get asked a lot, actually,
just because we are POC people of Mexican descent, and
we did write two books on Mexican witchcraft and magic.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Do we do you all have them here?

Speaker 2 (22:32):
I think we had some. We just sold that we
can never get onto them and we signed them too,
so but we will get them in. But I will
say this, So there's a lot of talk about decolonizing practices,
and I say, the first thing you have to work
on is letting go of fear, because that is the

(22:52):
first thing that colonization did was take our normal, everyday
practices and put fear behind them, calling them things of
the devil, calling them things and even that I always
tell people like they're like, oh, well, I don't mess
with anything devil related. I'm like, you have to understand
that that's also a form of colonization.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Who decided yes exactly.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Because they created essentially an enemy, right being the devil.
And where where most people were afraid of that, many
of the older mechica anastic practitioners were like, oh good,
a new superpower that even the enemy is afraid of
that kind of thing. So a lot of it was embraced,
and you see practices with al Diablo, like we have

(23:35):
a peer in Guatemala and Wajaca, and all the areas
were heavily Michika influenced as well. So that's the first thing.
The second thing I always tell people is it's it's
not impossible, but it is almost impossible to completely decolonize
Mexican blue Hidia because Mexican blue Hidia and Echi Sidia

(23:58):
and even Counandismo is a melting melting pot of so
many traditions. And I always give this example all the
time because I had this one person asked. They're like,
I don't want to do any Catholic prayers. I don't
want to do any Catholic prayers. I just want to
do now Whata prayers. And I said, okay, well, I'm
gonna teach you my favorite now prayer. And I said,
it's Lancinko to tel Tazin. It's Sancigo too, tel Pislin,

(24:21):
it's Skopumnajani. And they were like, oh, that's beautiful. What
does that mean. I said, it means in the name
of the Father, in the name of the Son, in
the name of the Holy Spirit. I said, because this
has become the prayer that we say in Nawwat, to
call the four Directions, because remember that that's what they
saw when they saw the cross. They said, oh we do,

(24:41):
we have that too, and it's the Four Directions. So
it's been mixed, it's been interwoven. And you still have
people to this day in Mexico who will see Cristo
Negro and say that's not Cristo Negro, That'sca. You know,
they'll say John the Baptist and they say, that's not
John the Baptist. The sla Look. So these have been

(25:02):
interconnected and so it's almost impossible to completely decolonize. But
if you really truly want to decolonize, decalonize the thinking,
don't decolonize the actions.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
I have read this really good book called Aztec Philosophy
by James Maffie, and the book is not going to
teach you how to practice, but it definitely teaches you
the metaphysics of the Michika and the meso American people.
I think if you really want to decolonize your practice,
it's best to look into your family and go far, far,
far back, as far as you can. You know, you're

(25:38):
saying you want to decolonize. So before Spaniards came to
the US, to Mexico, and once you find out where
you're from, start learning the language, start learning the customs,
start learning those things. That is to me, how you
start to decolonize your practice, right, knowing that it's going
to be a journey. It's not going to be easy,

(25:59):
it's going to be very difficult, but it is possible.
Right once you understand, in my opinion, and start to
see that, it's not like groups of people did not
mingle with one another. Right, Once you start to really
embark on these traditions, you see, oh but they also
believe the same thing, but they twisted a little bit,

(26:21):
not twisted, they do something a little different. Oh my god,
this group of people they do the same thing that
my family does, but they add a little something to it,
and you see it all starts to come together. You know,
there are some saints in Mexico that are secretized with
Aztec gods. You know, I think that's very interesting and
a proof of the resilience of our ancestors to be

(26:43):
able to see the similarities in their religion and their
spiritual practices with this Catholicism, you know, and from a
magical standpoint, right, I think it's super interesting because, like
we were talking about in the beginning, we're seekers. We
start to see the similarities everything, right. Another tip is

(27:05):
to really understand what's called non dualism, right, and that's
to me, in my opinion, and where a lot of
scholars believe our ancestors believed in. We are not separate
from God. We are always connected and we are God
as well. Unlike the Catholic churches, you have to be
saved first in order to be with God. But you're
still separate, right, but you have to be saved in

(27:29):
a mess American practice, we're already perfect. We just evolve
and evolve and evolve.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I feink that's a really good place to take a
quick break. Welcome back, well friends again. We are here
with Alexis and Eric, the owners of City Alchemists. It's

(27:57):
where the witches shop. And it's not only where the
witch's shop, it's where the witches learn and commune. Can
you tell us about the classes and some of the
community events that you have held here or that will
be held in the future. And even before I mentioned
in the last maybe episode or two about the link

(28:18):
by the level or the egg cleansing class that I
was able to come and take here, which I loved. Oh,
it was so good. It was such a good experience
aside from you know, just coming to learn and shopping.
Just every time I have people visit here, especially if
it's their first time in Austin or visiting in a
long time, I tell them, Okay, well we have to
go to Cidy Alchemists and just so you can at

(28:39):
least like get in there and it feels like coming
in and like taking a bath, I don't know, like
spirits For me, that's I love coming here just you know,
I like to come and bother you and pop in
and like just look around and because it just feels
good aside from like everything that you offer, but also
of course including classes and events.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, I mean, first off, thank you, because that's great.
We we want to be that for people, you know,
we want to be that place where that people can
coming and just like take a breath of relief. Yeah.
So we have now, especially that we've moved into this
space it's been a little over a month, we have
more space now for community events. We had a space

(29:17):
prior to this. It was like a small little warehouse,
but it was very small. It could only house maybe
like eight max. So now we had literally thirty people
in here last night for an event. So we have
been doing mostly things like you know, movie nights. We're
actually doing the Craft on the fourteenth, which everybody's really
excited about. We have been doing those are the kind

(29:39):
of fun things. And then we've been doing classes, which
is something we've been wanting to do for a really
long time, and we've done a few of them at
the old space, but now that we're here in the
new space, we have more agility literally and that's why
I really enjoyed the Limpuda level class. We were able
to do it and have people be able to do
the Olympia on every as well. So we do those

(30:02):
types of classes. We also have online classes because obviously
we have community all over the world, and we have
a few that are available now, and then we have
some that we offer like kind of seasonally, like our
the other list, month lists and things like that. And
then we also have an online academy called the mcmon Academy,
where we teach pretty much everything. I have classes that

(30:24):
are on ballow, we have classes that are on Speithismo,
and then we even do things like traditional witchcraft and
European witchcraft and spiritism and all kinds of things like that.
And then I think a big thing for us, is
it kind of now, is that we're trying to get
more people here. So we're seeing about hosting more people

(30:45):
from out of town, other healers and practitioners. We have
one of our favorite people, Medicinal Milans, actually doing readings
here today. She's doing a strology readings correct. So we
definitely have more space, which means more opportunity for the community.
Is there anything you want to add to that? So?

Speaker 3 (31:02):
I think that I'm really excited for the classes coming up. Specifically,
we're going to do a candle magic course beginner in advance.
I did a link I did a spiritual bath class
last year, and I want to do that again because
everyone really liked it, how to prepare and take spiritual baths. Really,
anything that people want to learn, I think we're going

(31:23):
to start doing it.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
What's the class coming up in March? It's on yoga correct.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah, So we have a class specifically not just on
like body postures, but working with the purana, which is
like the life force, how to cleanse, how to work
with chakras correctly from a traditional Vedantic Tantra tan tric
Indian standpoint or a viewpoint. And it's good because people

(31:53):
come into the shop they're like, well, how do I start?
And I'm like, well, you're not going to like this answer.
You have to start meditating to start clearing your mind,
because if you don't do that, you're not going to
be able to hold the visualizations you need to practice
these things. But I can concentrate, My mind is going everywhere.
That's the point. You're not supposed to concentrate on anything, right,
You're just supposed to bring your awareness and understand that

(32:15):
you are awareness, right, That is how things manifest. So
this class is really cool because the person teaching it
has been trained in these practices correctly. How to work
with your chocolates, how to clean those energies out, And
we'll be hosting that in March a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I'm not sure when exactly this episode will come out.
So if people wanted to keep up with the classes
and the things that you're offering, where could they find
all that information our website.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
We usually post everything on their. Instagram is probably our
number one though, because we're we use it a lot.
So we're always posting advertisements on their stories when we
get you products, and we usually post it on there too.
So if you're wanting to know if you know when
our books come back in, we usually post it on there.
So follow us on Instagram for sure, which is at
city Alchimist all one word on Instagram. Apparently we do

(33:04):
have a lot of our lot of fake versions of us.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Out there, and I'm always reporting them.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, thank you, And so if we reach out to
you wanting to give you a reading, that's not usum
and the same thing with our personal We've had fix
of our personal profiles as well.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
I have yet to have one, but I'm still waiting.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
I thought you did.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
I'll make one.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, that's how they say you made it.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
Yeah, it's me Eric, send me twenty five dollars.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
And then the website is Cityalchimist dot com.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Correct awesome.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
So I also want to talk about some of the
misconceptions that are out there about I'll just use the
word bu hitia to kind of cover maybe anything that
you want to go into. But are there any misconceptions
about boou hitia, about the work that you do that
you just kind of wish people would let go of.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I mean, one thing that we talk about in our
book Macha Machia in bookw Mexican Magic is that we're
we grew up. Bruhidia was a very specific term and
meant a very specific thing, whereas echisiitia is kind of
more so what we're seeing today, and then gurdanddismo as well.
So let me break that down really quickly. So for us,

(34:14):
if you were to refer yourself to yourself as a
bruja or brujo or bru hex, that was a fairly
dark thing. It meant that you basically had the power
and the ability to manipulate someone's life, make them obsessed
over somebody else, possibly kill them or hurt them. It

(34:36):
wasn't necessarily a healing term. It wasn't necessarily a general
magic term. If you were just practicing general magic, which
could include things like love spells but also money spells
and things along those lines, that was known as an
ecchy settle or somebody who practices spoke magic. Whereas if
you were a healer, you were a gurandeo, which is

(34:57):
a folk healer. So we've always kind of that distinction,
but of course nowadays especially it's been kind of taking
on its own terms. So you know, people who practice,
for example, they just read taro and they say every
taro bruja, right, And I mean, it's fun to play with,
you know, But at the same time, if you're if

(35:18):
you're being serious about it, it's it's an issue. So
let me give you an example. I've seen books come
out by non POC writers talking about bow hidia and
they're talking about limp yas you know, and even POC
writers for that matter. And that's to me, is is
hard because we're trying to educate people and to understand

(35:39):
that these are the practices that we grew up with
and so we're just trying to keep that distinction. But
I would say the one thing that probably when it
comes to brew hidia is it this idea that it's
always of the devil. Right, That's the main thing, is
of the devil. Everything is just like witchcraft. You say,
that's of the devil. And yes, there are some Brewas

(36:01):
that work with the devil. They are, but not every
form of bougidia works with that, we have blujidia working
with like I said, people like Venus, San Machiman, San Pascua,
like all these other saints and folks, saints not necessarily
just the devil or just dark evil types of presences.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
I don't know kind of where I stand anymore, because
I think I'm becoming like those like older people in
the community, that we're just like, we'll just let people
do their own thing. We'll work on ourselves, and we'll
do what we have to do. Right Because Paso, we
didn't even call it brugidia. We just called rabajos, you know,
like workings, right. I think it's just where you come from. Obviously,
we have a generation now, especially in the US, that

(36:49):
really wants to reclaim the wordia in general. And that's
totally fine, right, You're allowed to do your own thing specifically.
What I'm understanding now is that even our ancestors, the mishika,
depending on where what season you were born in, that

(37:09):
automated that automatically you were recognized as someone who could
manipulate the forces, all right. So in I think in
our tradition, what I believe in is that our ancestors.
My ancestors, they recognized you as a person who can
do these things, and I think that that tradition is
being lost because even in Guddandadismo, right we had Guando's

(37:34):
recognized young children is oh they have the dawn or
they have something about them that they need to be
practicing these things, and that's lost. So it's it's it's
like becoming its own thing. It's totally fine. I think
what Alexis and I want to do is remind people
there's actually there's there's also this which is from the

(37:57):
past traditional. You know, I'm very much a traditionalist, but
I definitely also understand the resurgence and wanting to reclaim
that for ourselves.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
You know. So, I think it would be safe to
say and correct me if I'm wrong, that you all
have had paranormal experiences. I think some people would say
that the work that you do innately is supernatural, it's
paranormal in the sense. I'm curious if either of you

(38:27):
have had, either individually or maybe in doing the work together,
if you've had any experiences that were really impactful or
that maybe even frightened you, because I would imagine that
it could be a little difficult to scare you all
because you know, I'm sure you have you.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Work with your I'm already getting excited.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, I just wanted to say, because I'm sure that
you know you all have your protections. You work with
spirits and with guides and ancestors that also guide and
protect you. So like, I'm like, do you ever actually
get scared? Is the opportunity to have it? Seeing your
reaction already, so please let me know, let us know.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
So I have like two instances, right. One of my
first memories was actually seeing a spirit and I was
sharing a bumpk sorry bunk bed with my brother. I
was on the top one, and it was right when
the lights was breaking through in the morning and I
looked to my door and I see someone who I
think is like maybe even my cousin, but traditional, very pale,

(39:28):
wearing old style clothes, and it freaked me out, but
it didn't scare me right, and I turned the other way,
facing the wall, and then of course when I turned back,
they were gone. I told my parents about it. They
didn't really say anything, but they took me to a
gurandetto just to make sure because I started to see
spirits when I was little, Yeah, and the Gudandetto said

(39:49):
we'll get these iron scissors, we'll bless them and put
him by his bed to remove any sort of negative spirits.
I was trying to mess with them. So that was
my first one. The most recent one was when I
I acquired a San Cipriano book, and there's a lot
of legend around the book, right, so that it has
its own energy and it can be inviting negative and

(40:13):
positive things into your life. And I was like, okay, whatever,
and I put the book next to my bed. I
had a chair right there and I had to put
the book there. And then around three o'clock in the morning,
I started to have very very vivid, vivid, vivid dreams
in the valley and I'll passo old Brujas house and
everything like that. It was almost like test and trials.

(40:35):
And then I remember going into like sleep paralysis, and
I remember seeing like this force all around me trying
to like literally like the classic like choke me right.
And at that time my it sounds fanatical, but it's not.
My spiritual guides in my mind's eye in the spirit
world gave me like this dagger and with the dagger.

(40:57):
They told me, you have to defend yourself. So I
took the dag and I cut off this entity's hands
and then I woke up and immediately I thought to
myself and the message came to me. I have literally
just been initiated into the cult of San Cibriano and
I passed the test.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Later that night, I wrapped up the book. I put
some holy herbs in the book, and I whooped that
book's ass. Because you're supposed to you have to show
it like, yeah, you're not going to dominate me. I'm
going to need you when I need you. Don't ever
do that to me again, you see. And I was like,
that was super vivid to me.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Okay, before you you answer, I need to share it.
So I've had an experience with the Sun Civiana book
and I did not pass the test. I was not
ready for her. So I bought the book and I,
you know, like started kind of skimming through it, and
then I slowly started reading it, and then I got
to a point where I was like, I don't know

(41:52):
if this is for me, and especially right now.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
And that's how I inquired the books. The girl was
like this is not for me. Do you want it?

Speaker 1 (42:00):
So?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yeah, I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
So it Yeah, it definitely at the time, thinking back
to where I was in life then it was this
was maybe like almost ten now, maybe like seven years ago,
I don't know, years ago. It's definitely not for me,
probably still not yet, but I was very curious and
so I got the book and then I got to
the where I was like, yeah, this is this isn't
for me. I'm going to return this like it, and

(42:23):
I also felt that energy where I was like a little.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Uneasy, a little that's the current of blue.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Hitdi Yeah, And so I was like I was like, no,
this is not for me, and I also don't think
I should hold on to it until I'm ready. I
was like, I'm going to return it and if I
ever need to revisit or I feel like already, I will.
So I was like, okay, I'm going to return it.
So i go online to the retailer to return it,
and I'm like shaking a little bit and I put
in the request and the site crashes and I'm like, okay,

(42:54):
so let me try again. So I keep trying and
the site is just not working. Mind you, like I
have like other tabs open. They're all working fine services okay.
I was like, it's their website whatever. So I call
the number and I say, hey, I have a book
I need to do your return. This is my order number.
And she's like, okay, if you could just go ahead
it the call drops. I was like, I was like,

(43:16):
I'm telling you I'm not ready for you, Like, I'm
so sorry I bothered you. I'm like I'm gonna I'm
trying to step away. And I called again and I
was like, hey, I'm so sorry, I just had this
call drop whatever whatever and explain again and they're like, oh,
if you just bring it into the retailer, they'll they'll
accept it. I was like, okay, thank you so much.
And before they could even respond, they're like, okay, have

(43:39):
the call drops again. And I was like, I'm getting
rid of you. I was like, I was like, this
relationship is not ready yet, obviously, and I don't want
to piss you off or bother you anymore. So I'm
going to go send you maybe somewhere where you're you know,
more respected, or just someone more equipped for you. And
so I had to physically go in mind you the
whole time I was driving, I was like, please do

(44:00):
not get in a car. At least I was like,
I hear you a lot and clear I shouldn't have
done this, like not ready yet. So fortunately I made it,
returned the book and yeah, so it's funny that you
brought that up and you mentioned this. I didn't know
the lore about like the energy around the book itself,
but I definitely felt it and was.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
Like, and that's what Alexis and I talk about, right,
this idea that we want to reclaim a term that
has been a tradition for a very long time. And
then you get something like that book and you're not
ready for what's inside that book because it's what we
might consider sinister and things like that, right, and it
freaks us out, and then the energy starts to attach
itself to us, and then it starts to take over

(44:40):
our lives. We've had literally people bring in those books
and just hey, do you want this, and you give
it to you like yeah, sure, you know, yeah, that's Brewhidio.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
I learned that actually when I was in high school
from this lady who was a Bruha. Her name is
the Rain, and she was the one that told me.
She was like, you cannot just like keep your books
prim and her like on a on a library. Like
She's like, you have to dominate those books. You have
to wrap them up in chains to throw them across
the room. And then she was like, I like to

(45:09):
put mine into the bedpost so that I cannot open
and like, and I was like, I was like, wow,
what are these books?

Speaker 3 (45:16):
You know?

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Like I need these books?

Speaker 1 (45:19):
And so I'm sorry. This was who Lorraine who her.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Name was Lorraine? And I meet us and she was
the first boukuy I ever learned from in my hometown.
And she actually had and this is actually the story
I was going to tell too. She had what she
called her witch house, which was literally like it was
her house, and then she had this really old decrepit
like falling apart house that's old school. And it was
like we were like in the kitchen and a hard

(45:41):
bruhidias everywhere, and it was pretty crazy. And so one
time she was like, I want you to come help
me with this working that I'm going to do, and
I'm like, okay, So we go as me and my
friends because we were all into witchcraft at the time,
and she sets up like this pot and puts it
on the table. And then she has like this little
wax figure she's putting together, like she's literally making out

(46:02):
of wax, and she sticks like a photo inside, and
then she's taking pins and putting it in the doll
or the wax doll, and every time she's doing it,
she's like saying things like may she go crazy? May
she do this? Like pretty intense stuff, right, And then
she kept saying like may she have a heart attack,
and like putting like pins in the heart. And then

(46:23):
she put this whole wax doll in this pot, and
she took some lamp oil and she like throws throws
lamp oil and then sets it on fire, and then
it starts to make this kind of a woofing sound
like who and then it starts to sound like a heartbeat,
it's like, and then it starts going like that, and

(46:45):
then it just kind of just like goes out, And
I was like, that is crazy. And then I got
sick the next day, like just horribly sick. And I
got better after a few days, but I got sick again,
and then I got better and I got sick again,
and like each time, like the doctor's like why what's

(47:05):
going on? Like, how are you getting sick over and over?
Like it's impossible because usually you get sick with like
a flu or something, you've got the antibodies for a while.
But I literally got sick three times after that, and
so it kind of really freaked me out. That was
definitely like one of the crazier experiences. The other experience
I literally had one just the other day. Here. I
was like here at the register and I was on

(47:26):
my phone doing something and I was like, somebody's watching me.
I turn around and the best thing I could describe
is like a seven or eight foot tall being was
standing behind me, and I was like, God, so, yeah,
we do get scared, you know. It's not like we're like,
oh yeah, I've seen it all. Yeah, Like stuff like
that happens. Definitely.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
I did at least buy something.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
You got the skull, oh yeah, So we we sell
human bones here, like it's something that we have some
right now, And we've had human skulls before. And we
had one that we had just gotten in and we
still had it at like the house, so we're just like, okay,
it's you know, it's fine. So I had you had
already left. No.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
I had an experience the night before we had experience that.
So I was taking a shower. I was taking a shower.
We had just bought that skull in and you know,
I lived like like Alexis and I used to be partners.
We were together for a while. And when I would
take a shower to sleep, the door open, right whatever.
And the shower that we had didn't have like an
actual like shower curtain because it had like a divider,

(48:28):
and so I left it open, and I looked to
the room area and I could see like an outline
of somebody walking across the room and I thought it
was Alexis. And I was like hey Alexis, and nothing right.
I was like, okay, whatever, And then the next day
Alexis has an experience.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
I was sitting at the table and the table was
like it was actually that table. I was sitting at
the table and behind me the I had just kind
of set the skull like on this window sill that
we had. It was really big, it was like almost
like two feet and I was like, oh, yeah, i'll
take it to the shop later, that kind of thing.
And so I'm sitting there and I'm on my computer
or something working on something, and I just kind of

(49:03):
like do this kind of thing, and I'm like, oh,
that's weird. I feel like like my my shirt's choking
me or something. And then I do it again and
I'm like, oh, I feel like I'm choking. And then
it started to feel like hands were choking me. I
was like, okay, it's like something's going on, and I like,
what is going on? Like, what's different? What's changed? You
know what I mean? Because we have the house pretty protected.

(49:26):
And then I turn around and there's the skull, just
like staring at me, and I'm like all right. So
I was like, you want to mess with me? Fine,
and I grabbed it and I took it to At
the time, we had this garage where we kept like
like all the follow stuff for example, and I said, fine,
I'm gonna put you with with the spirits, and I
wrapped it up in a handkerchief and I put it
there with the spirits and everything was fine. But then
Eric gets home and he was like.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
What did I say to you?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Were like, like, I had the craziest dream last night.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Oh yeah, I was like the dream I dream was
like I was I don't know if I was liking
lucid dreaming or something, but I had a dream something
was like choking me and I was like, oh my god,
I was I felt like I was getting Choked's that damn.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
School, that damn skull. So we named him the Choker. Yeah,
and for the longest time like that was it. That
was the Choker, And I think, if I'm not mistaken,
I think Alex has him.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
Now I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Yeah, one of our friends who's who actually teaches from
mclon Academy is a brujo in South Texas. I think
he has the Choker.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Now do you know any history of who that school
was or No?

Speaker 2 (50:27):
It was a male male skull, yeah, and he had
Is that the one with the really messive teeth? I
can't remember. Yeah, I hate this really messed up like teeth.
But we've had that one. And we had one called
the Bier because every time we would see it look
like like a pac Man like, yeah, it was like
like that kind of thing. But yeah, they have personalities
and some of them are not great. We've had a
really nice one. Actually, we had this one little it

(50:50):
was an Asian male skull that would just brought so
much happiness to the shop, Like every time people would
see it be like, oh, I feel so light and
you know, and then even when we sold, we were
so sad whether he was gone my friend, Yeah, exactly exactly.
But we have had experiences like that, for sure, and
we've we've had also, like just like some more positive ones.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Yeah, anything that you care to share.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Oh, I mean the one that I always tell because
this was amazing, was when we had an individual call
in the morning saying, uh, is there any way that
y'all can fix the candle for me? And we're like, yeah,
what's going on. He's like, well, I'm here at the hospital. Uh.
He's like, my son was in a was in a
really bad car accident, and they're telling me that he's

(51:33):
not going to be able to walk again, that he's
shattered like all these bones in his body, and that
you know, possible brain bleeding. It was a pretty intense.
He was an er and he's like, I'm from Corpus
CHRISTI and I go get my candles fixed at uh
text Max Curios, which we know very well. We actually
know the owners of text Max Curios. And I said, Okay,

(51:56):
He's like I know that you know candles can do things.
I've see them heal all kinds of things, and I just,
you know, I want to get my candle fixed. My son.
I said, absolutely, so come on by. I said. We
opened a few minutes. So he comes by and he's
showing me pictures and I mean, he looks bad. He's
covered in blood. And then I said, well, you know,
we're going to fix acoustic attabacca candle because the lady

(52:19):
who runs text mix Curios, she wrote a book on
the crusta cutabaca, a really great book that I always
recommend to my students, and it's at all healing candle.
It's known for its miraculous properties. So he was like,
can you all burn it for me because the hospital
want me burn it in the room. I'm like, yeah,
that's not a problem. So I said, before we do that,
I said, I want to sell it to get together,
and we're going to pray over this candle. So we're

(52:40):
all his him and I think his girlfriend, and we're
all holding the candle and praying for his son. And
I took the candle home and I said, give me
your own phone number. When another candle's done, I'll text
you and let you know that it's clear or whatever.
The next day, I was actually off, but Eric was
working and he gets a phone call and the guy says,
he's he literally just walked out of the arm And

(53:04):
the doctors can't figure out how this happened, Like they're
like they don't know how, but he walked out, like
he's like literally because I texted him, I was like, hey,
your candle's clear, and he's like, he literally did not
even take the wheelchair, Like he literally walked out.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
Of r miraculously.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Oh. It's got to feel so like I didn't want
to say rewarding, but just like I feel like I
would feel so grateful too, who or whatever is out
there for like listening and responding and like holding that family.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
That's the to be sure, you know, it's I never
we've we never took like oh yeah we did that. Yeah, Like,
well we petitioned on your behalf and this energy took
interest in you, and.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Yeah, that's spirit, you know that spirit, that's God, that's
whatever you want to call it. They did the work.
All we did was help.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeah. Yeah, oh my god, what a beautiful, beautiful light.
Notue to get close to the end of the episode
on So speaking of spirits and whether positive or negative,

(54:14):
what is something I'm curious. This is something I am
trying to ask all my guests now. I'm curious if
there's anything that is currently haunting you. And by that,
I mean is there a song, a book, a musician,
a movie, anything that's just kind of like won't leave
your head for some reason that you've been either attached

(54:35):
to or has been attached to you lately?

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I mean, what isn't haunting us? Right? I mean, you know,
this year, as I work with a night hourl podcast,
I'm always having to put myself in those situations, right,
always having to work with spirits and clearer spirits out.
But I mean I would say that I think we're
both kind of an ANALYSTI Crawley Kick lately and so
he's definitely been haunting us lately. We've been and I

(55:02):
mean we've been reading Alstacoli for a really long time.
But for some reason, like you started reading Magic and
I was like, oh, I'm reading Magic, and then like
you know, it's kind of going back and forth. But
I think for me what haunts me is, Yeah, this
is probably the most honest answer you're ever going to
get out of me too. What haunts me is the

(55:23):
fact that I have so much more that I want
to learn and I want to do, and I just
feel like I don't have the time to do it.
That's what haunts me the most, because I want to
be able to to travel more and go experience more
of these traditions in the heartlands. Right, to be able
to go see one of my gurus who lives he
lives in Italy, but he goes to India many many times,

(55:46):
you know, because that's where he's from. Or to be
able to go to Brazil and work with my teacher
in Brazilian Kimbanda, you know, to go to Cuba and
visit the grave of Da Jose, the most famous you
know Balto in the world essentially, you know, So that
type of thing. That's probably what haunts me because as
we said earlier, this is a lot of work and

(56:08):
running a shop takes a lot of time. So we'll
get there.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, I don't know. I think what's been
on my mind recently a lot or a lot? Is
it sounds weird, but like New Orleans. I used to
go there like every single year, right, and then recently,
I've just been getting hit with like New Orleans, New Orleans,
New Orleans to visit North.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
We literally went like right before we opened.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
That was the last time we went, and that.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Was the last time.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
That's calling you back, Yeah, and needs to show you
or tell you something.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Yeah, nothing fun. I mean, I guess it could be fun,
but it's not like, oh yeah, Billie Holiday is calling me.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Yeah, you know, I'm curious. And this is also like
a personal question. Is he I think I can see
him on the stickers over there, but also on the
bags that you like give people the little figure with
it looks like leaves sprouting from the head. Yeah, I'm curious.

(57:06):
Can you tell us who that is and why them?
If you'd like to, you don't have to share if
it's too personal.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Connect No. Well, so, I mean our name is City Alchemist, right,
which is a name that Eric came up with. This
is a fantastic name. It means, you know, as an alchemist,
you have the ability to make things change, to manifest.
And we are in the city, you know. So we
talk about this idea of like it's one thing to
go we able to go into the woods and do
your witchcraft. But we have to work in this industrial park,

(57:36):
right and we have to be able to connect to
the energies through that. And so for the longest time,
our image was the alabara, which we have a lot
of association with, but we wanted to change it up
a little bit and we both really liked the mandrake.
We actually both have the mandrake tattoo and because it's
a representation of that alchemical change and reaction essentially, so

(58:00):
we were like, why don't we just change it to
the mandrake, and we both have a mandrik Tech two,
we both associate ourselves with it, so that's how it showed.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Up also for me. Supposedly there's some lore in the
nineteen sixties that gay witches were also using the symbol
of the man drake as a form of resistance to
the system. So that's another like legend that's out there.
Whether we can prove it or not, we don't know,
but it's a documented that male witches in the nineteen

(58:30):
sixties was use it as a symbol of Yeah, the
one with.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
The mandrake and the and the horn, the horn one, yeah,
we're considered, but also the lady drake too, the you
know that is so patch up there.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Actually, the Lady Drake, I see her, I see her.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Or as I like to call her, the wo Man Drake.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
The warm Magic the she Drake. Yeah, because I remember
now that you mentioned it, I like, I do, I
remember the original the ala vera plant that you all
used to have.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
You still have it on the signe outside.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Oh my god?

Speaker 2 (59:02):
How cool?

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Well, thank you for sharing that. All right, and then
we'll be right back. We're gonna go ahead and take
a break.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Welcome back. All right, we are once again joined by
Eric and Alexis of City Alchemist. Now we're going to
talk about paranormal investigations as you both have done. Alexis
and Eric, you've both been on The Night Owl, which
has been what is it three years now? Best of
Austin podcast three, Steven give me a chance. But honestly

(59:47):
one of my favorite shows too. It is like a
go to. I always save it for road trips because
you know, between episodes, I'm like, please, I need the
next one. Yea, So please go listen to The night Owl.
It's so good and I love the work that you
all do over there. But I'm curious about I guess
your perspectives as practitioners as and maybe for other like

(01:00:11):
mediums and psychicks out there if they could, they're curious
about this sort of thing. So could you share a
bit about your experience as paranormal investigators or as people
who have done paranormal investigations?

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Yeah? Well, I mean I met Stephen in college and
we were both actually one film school. And it was
funny because we talked about this a lot, how we
kind of had like a tiny little rivalry, not in
a bad way, but just kind of like we were
both making really fun, creepy films and we were like, oh,
who does this person think they are like that kind
of thing? And then it turned into from that into

(01:00:44):
us realizing that we loved the same type of movies,
especially paranormal movies. And then I was kind of like, hey,
do you believe in ghosts? He's like, I do believe
in ghosts, and I was like, well, when I was younger,
I used to go to the graveyards and take tape recorders.
She's like, oh, I hued to do that stuff too,
And then it went from there to like let's do that,
you know, And then whenever he moved here and I
moved here shortly after. We just kind of continued with

(01:01:07):
doing that through a group we had called the Occult
Sciences Society, and then afterwards that kind of ended and
we started working together at the same nonprofit. And that's
when he was like, I have this idea for the show.
Actually this was the original idea. He's like, I have
this idea for the show where I just interview people
who are having haunted experiences at their workplace and then

(01:01:31):
we just get all the stories in the history. But
then he just kind of like randomly decided to invite Sarah,
and then Sarah started picking things up, and that's literally
the first episode of the show, and it became kind
of the formula it was bringing in clairvoyance and psychics.
And I was already involved with the show, but I
was kind of in like behind the scenes. I wasn't

(01:01:52):
really didn't hear my voice or anything until later whenever
he had me coming in and helping out with the
more spiritual aspects of the show. So go out negative energies,
showing people how to protect themselves, showing people how to
deal with spirits in their own home, things like that,
And I mean, so I already had a paranormal background,
but it just kind of like mixed with my spiritual background.

(01:02:12):
And that's kind of how I found myself on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yeah, I record about yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Well, just like through a lexus to association, just like
going to every now and then. I used to go
to like some investigations. Yeah, I think. Also I also
clean like houses that have spirits in them, so I
clean those houses too. I actually clean Monica from Soul
Solace's studio one time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Yeah, she told me about the experiences there. I haven't
heard that episode, go check it out. So I mean
and listening to the night Alu also like getting to
know you a little bit more. I'm really appreciative and
interested in your approach to the lenp bails and stuff,

(01:03:00):
and like the cleansings of not only people, but of
like their spaces and when you're encountering entities let's call
them or spirits. I get the sense that you approach
it with a set of like ethics, and I'm curious
about your approach to and maybe I guess, yeah, just
how you like ethically approach cleansing a space, especially when

(01:03:24):
you encounter an entity, whether it's human or non human.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
I mean, I will say this with then, we have
yet to come across some inhuman spirit I mean, with
the exception of elementals and gnomes for those of you
that know the stories. But I think the biggest thing
for us is, like, we have to remember that these
are human energies, right, These are human people who at

(01:03:51):
one point, you know, had normal lives just like us.
So I think that the biggest issue that we see
a lot is that people have a tendency to kind
of mistreats spirits. Right. They come in to their space
and they're like make noises for me, or make a
banging sound or whatever, and it's very much like a
like a show. Right. So I think that the biggest

(01:04:11):
thing is we have to look at it from the
perspective of humanize it a little bit more. Have empathy
and sympathy, you know what I mean. That's the biggest
part of it. So we do that a lot as healers.
I think too. For that matter, we don't go in
there and be like we're gonna blast all these spirits out,
you know. We go in there with this idea of like, okay,
well let's see who needs to go. Are they stuck here?

(01:04:35):
Why are they stuck here? You know? What can we
do to help them? And then if we get at
those people who are like I just want to cause
chaos and wreak havoc, then those ones we're probably gonna
you know, help them push them out a little harder,
a little nudge, yes, would you agree? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
For sure? I think for me, since I know, I
don't do the podcast a lot, but I have experiences
with spirits and things like that. I don't really tell
a lot of people at all, actually, but I have
performed like what you might consider like exorcisms, you know,
and the ethics that's involved with that. You have to

(01:05:12):
be very careful how to navigate those types of situations
because not only are you dealing with an entity that
has basically got into somebody's astral or spiritual body, but
you're also dealing with the person who's the victim as well,
and then trying to heal the components of why it happened,

(01:05:34):
you know. But yeah, I have a Alexis like Alexis
like very respectful, right. I think my specialty is removing
harsher energies and negative what we might consider negative spirits.
So for me, my spiritual guides have helped me to
develop a type of attitude a very like we're going
in with the mission, do not deviate from it, and

(01:05:54):
you have to do what you have to do, And
what I have to do is very very forceful, you know,
that's my personality in general. Sometimes this is very very
like Mars energy with that, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, which is do you all have maybe a bit
of advice for either like psychic mediums or brugues or
people who have a practice, who have a skill a
skill set who want to use that skill set to

(01:06:27):
help people with these kinds of cleansings or investigations or
anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Yeah, I would say that, you know, I when it
comes to working with spirits or with a podcast, I'm
an investigator first and a spiritual leader if you will, second,
and a cult expert, meaning that I'm going to go
in there with an investigative mind of what is an
actual spirit, what is just made up? What is most

(01:06:53):
likely just wind or you know those types of things.
If you go in there with this mindset of like
I am a spiritual healer and I'm going to go
in there and I'm gonna blast out anything that's negative
you're not You're not keeping it balanced, right, So it's
a we refer to it as open minded skepticism. Be
open minded, but also be skeptical to get to find

(01:07:13):
that balance. Uh. Not everything is a spirit, Not everything
is a demon, you know, So bring that part first,
That's the first thing I say. Then once you have
discovered what is happening and investigated and done that part,
that's when you put your spiritual cap on and say, Okay,
now how can I either help or remove this energy
or entity. I think that's the biggest part of it.

(01:07:35):
Uh So many of the mediums and occult experts that
we see sometimes on these types of like paranormal shows,
go there with the immediate like the d word. Right,
it's a demon. It's a demon. We get it, remove it,
We have to we have to do this hoodoo spell
or whatever it is to remove it. It's not always
the case, right, it's really it's really rare for stuff.

(01:07:58):
And not only that, but like as the spiritual practitioner,
we also know that demons aren't necessarily a bad thing.
They're just extremely powerful entities that don't necessarily think the
same way we do, Right, They don't have the same
vibes that we carry, you know, that type of thing.
And yeah, some of them are mischievous and some of

(01:08:18):
them just do want to reak havoc, but most of
the time they're just kind of like, I got my
own thing, you know, I got my own thing I'm
worrying about, and you all are over here like you're
agitating me. Yeah, you know that type of deal.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Yeah, if you agitate someone enough, they're going to respond.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Yeah. Yeah, whether it's a human entity or another. So
I think that's the biggest thing, you know, and we're
seeing a lot more of that than we're seeing demons
just going out there to reak havoc on people. Not
saying that doesn't happen. It does, but it's to me,
it's more rare. I think. I think people get upset
with me a lot on investigations because they expect me

(01:08:53):
to come in with that mindset of like it's a spirit,
I gotta clear you, we gotta do limpiap and I'm
just gonna like, no, honestly, this is something that you
can to tell it to leave you alone, and it will, yeah,
you know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
And Eric, any advice.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
I think my advice would be to have a healthy
balance between humility and confidence. Listen more than you talk.
That's definitely been something that my mentors have taught me
is listen more talk less. And I've known very strong
mediums who you don't even know that they're a medium

(01:09:26):
or a booh or anything like that, because they just
stay quiet. They listen more. Right. Like Alexa said, you
have people coming in look at me, right, And my
advice is just to listen as best you can because
you find out a lot about a place just by
staying quiet.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
And do you need to add one more thing about mediums,
especially because this is something that I've seen a lot
in the field. Mediums who are not very well trained.
And I'm not trying to sure be you call anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Out or anything, say their nickn.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
They have a tendency to create stories exactly. So for example,
they hear something or see something and instead of trying
to piece the puzzles together, they piece the puzzle together
in their mind and create a story. Oh well, this
person made this specific gesture, so it must mean that

(01:10:21):
they're being held by a dmon or an energy. You know.
It could be that we're just not interpreting it or
understanding it. Correctly. So I would say that's the biggest
thing for mediums is really for a focus on your practice, study, learn, train.
You know, just because you're a natural medium doesn't mean
that you can't train, you know. I go to the

(01:10:41):
Spiritualist Church every Sunday to help open up my mediumship.
We do a free mediumship class every Thursday to help
develop mediumship. I'm never going to stop learning, you know.
So I think that's a big part of it. And
so many times two people come in there thinking like
I'm a medium and I know I have the ability
there before I can see and I know everything. Yeah,

(01:11:02):
not necessarily the case. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Thank you all so much for that advice, and thank
you for joining us for this episode. We were at
the end of our questions today. Again, I really appreciate
all having me here. I was telling Dan and thank
you Dan behind the camera that this interview has been
a long time coming. I have been visiting Sadi Alchemists.

(01:11:24):
I've been visiting y'all since before I moved to Austin,
and then as soon as I moved here, I was like,
I gotta have them on the show, and it was
always like, let's record. Yeah, and then I just never
did anything. So I'm happy we're finally able to make
it happen to bring you all to the listeners of Sustel.
And if you all are out there, if you are
in Austin, if you are visiting, please I implore you
do yourself the favor and come visit City Alchemist, take

(01:11:47):
a class, come to an event, follow online. And again,
if people wanted to do that, where could they visit
you all online?

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
So Instagram is a really good way to reach out
to us. We usually, I would say, respond to it
more so than email, to be honest, because we have
like thousands of emails. Instagram's good. We'll try to get
back to as soon as we can. You can also
reach out to a personal Instagram mineus journey to McMahon
on Instagram, and also you can email us info at

(01:12:17):
Citiakamas dot com or dot co either one. We own both.
And I would say the other thing too is you
can always call the shop. Everybody who works here has
the ability to help you out in any way that
we can, and if we need to take it to
a higher level, we will. You know, we've had cases
for the night. It will happen because the people that
came into the store, so feel free to reach out.

(01:12:39):
And that's a big thing too. I think I tell
this all the time to people, like reach out to us,
like we will try our best to help you, and
so many times people are like, I just I just
didn't want to bother you, and I'm like, okay, I
get that, but I mean, yeah, we're busy, but at
the same time, we will make the time. You know,
we will make the time to help it in any
way that we can. If we can't help you, we
will send you to somebody who can. That's really a

(01:13:01):
big thing about us, even at our store, Like we
don't have the product, We'll send you to the place
we know that does have it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Yeah, and Eric, any online things that you would like
to plug, no.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
Lex has pretty much covered all of them. My personal
handle on Instagram is so you can find me there.
Just search Eric Lobrado and I'm there. Like Alex I said,
I'm very good at responding to d ms for some
reason and not like professional. I think it's just like
the generational gap there, but I'm pretty quick.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
Awesome. Well again, thank you all so much. I will
talk to you in the next one and until then
not the Bye stars st.