Thanks for tuning into Mystic which I'm your host blue June a Tarot reader teacher and which you can find out more about me at Blue June tarot.com Mystic, which is a podcast about magic divination and all things Supernatural.We are here with Debbie who grew up on a farm but became a city girl to pursue her art career. She always had magical pretenses, but she was 14 when she received her first Tarot deck and it was a quick Journey from there to her magical path. She started her business hissy fit three years ago an intersectional feminist which clothing andAccessories line and open cold party a year and a half after that. Welcome Debbie. Hello. He'll are so my first question that I want to ask you is what tarot card do you feel represents you and why I would say so the deck that I use is called Osho and it's a little bit different but it's based on the rider weight. So I would say In OSHA, I believe it's receptivity. And in the regular deck. It's the queen of water and I'm total. I am a Cancer Rising cancer sun. And is Scorpio Moon? I am all water and like Pisces season right now. I'm a Wreck It All right, but yeah, I'm very all water all emotions all Fluid oh goddess. Yes. I have a friend that when she comes to the shop. She's like I need my water which energy I definitely feel that when I'm around you for sure. It's like I'm like the I'm not fire person Aries, Leo Rising like craves water all the time. Oh, yeah. I need baths. I need pools. I mean oceans and I need hot water. And I need like I really like being around fire signs. I feel like it balances when it gets me out of my own head so I can you tell us a little bit more about how you got introduced to your spiritual path. You want to talk about? Yeah. Yeah history. Yeah. Sure. So as a preteen it would say this is probably one of the area's it started. I was like sell into exploring the realm and like I'd sit in the library and go through the metaphysical section, you know and read all the which books and sit right on the floor in front of the section and then we got into trances and Ouija board. So it was like always something that I was really interested in and then and also like growing up on a farm there was a lot of I don't know. I think there's like just us a special connection with just The outdoors and the land and plants and everything that I really was just really just was natural. You know, I remember when I first was kind of a little off topic, but when I first moved to the city the first thing I remember missing from the farm was being able to go out in the woods and scream at the top of my lungs and no one hear me which as a teenager totally makes sense. But looking at back on adult like as an adult. I'm like, what the fuck but yeah, like I'm You know, I think my spiritual practice began pretty young and my both my parents even as Christian as they are they're like total which has you know, they both like my mom if something's wrong with her anyone she'll see them in the mirror like someone close to her. She look in the mirror and she'll see their face and she hates it. She was like, so I was always surrounded by a my dad and knows something's wrong with them. Yeah, either something really bad or something really good. Okay, and she can never tell which And yeah, so it sees them. Yeah, so it freaks her out and my dad is always been he's very psychic so and he's also a water which so he's like he can find water with a stick a cherry choke stick. It's got to be a certain inner and my sister can do that. So it's just always kind of been around and you know, my parents are always like you got the gift and like even now it's like my mom talk to you felt like my witchcraft. Practice. She like she's like mmm. She's like no, we're all witches and the family. I'm like Oh my like Republican Christian mom secret, which well, which is secretly. Well, you know, it's historically been a very secretive practice anyway, so not really surprised and then there's this whole thing on my mom's side of the family of a seventh child of seven child. And so there's like all this like history of that in the family too. Obviously the lineage of which is would die out completely. Lee if that was the only way that this one because no one's even having children let alone seven happen. I know it's so intense. I my sister got me a terror attack when I was 14 and and I play around with it but still even at that time it was like I felt like it was kind of like bad or something like it was like there was like a lot of mystery and like wrapped up in it and I was like like kind of a little scary but exciting I can relate to this because I was raised in a Christian household as well and stuff like that is labeled as sinful. Yeah. Yeah, is that why or yeah or no? It was like I would go to these I would constantly be I would have to go to these evangelic old Christian camps. I was a kid and I was always getting in trouble for doing trances and stuff and then I'd have to go into the pastor's Chambers and he'd like tell us all these like Big scary stories about when he used Ouija boards. I'm like trying to scare as straight. So there was like you'd like even just around like witchcraft there was always this like blanket of it's bad but like really fun and it was really confusing I think for me as a kid trying to like until I turned finally like just tossed Christianity out the window and I was like a little bit older. I was like almost 16. I think when I finally was just not that I tossed it out the window, but like there's a lot of baggage that comes along with it and like the shame and the guilt and everything. I was just like I'm over it like I'm done. But so my first Tarot deck was like there was a lot of emotions and everything into it and I think it was a writer way and I don't know if I ever really fully connected with that deck and then I got when I was 18 my best friend got this Osho deck and lie, just like I just fell in love with that deck and that's the deck. I've been using son. Okay, so tell us a little bit about what the difference is between hissy fit and Colt party. What is called party? What is Hissy Fit? Sure. So his chief it is my my own mind where I do. So I used to be an art director at a t-shirt company and I was getting frustrated that all my best designs were never, you know, like to political to this to out there below. And so I started hissy fit by just taking life. essence, you know and I started actually like 7 years ago, but I would just take like my first design was Minnie Mouse but like turning her into a zombie like things that I would never be able to do like just like because a lot of the license stuff is cartoons and just like really making them, you know inappropriate and then but they were always like with a female Edge so like they'd always have like pretty nails and like, you know, I was kind of trying to like Corner this like there weren't that many Female monster characters that I would see out in like mostly in like streetwear and like skate apparel and it would always frustrate me and then I restarted his see fit when I was like I was actually doing shopping trip for work and came across a design. That was like a Skate brand. I'll say it rip and up and they had done a shirt that was said don't be a pussy and it got me so mad and I was like, fuck you. I like pussies are so strong. And so like I like went back to work after that and I did this design that said I'm a pussy and then I was like, fuck it fuck everything like I'm gonna you know, like do like more like of a feminist like kind of like graphic little bit like a lot of attitude a little bit punk rock like a t-shirt line and them like also like with his you felt like I'll do With the t-shirts are mainly like way more feminist and and then the but like I'll also do like Botanicals and stuff because I grew up on a farm. So now so that's kind of where the witch stuff comes in. We're all like make my own herbal bundles and like tinctures and solves and that kind of thing. So it's a little bit of both and then cult party is kind of became an extension of that kind of by chance. since I wasn't planning on having a shop, but it just kind of all worked out and It just naturally kind of formed and then called party became this this like I don't like to think of it as just shop. It's kind of a creature. Yeah, and and that's just like where we carry brands that are, you know, mostly mostly female or you know, genderqueer people. We like to carry a lot of POC like kind of underrepresented groups that like don't get as much or that have always been marginalized. Yeah, push to the front and then it's also a community center and event space. It's kind of just like a bit of like a club hosts like play space and I love it. It's fucking hard as shit to have a retail shop. I can't I can imagine especially in February. I'm like, where are the people will anyone leave the house? Like I totally got it. Like I don't even want to go anywhere right now. Well, what are some of the really cool events? I know you just had something really recently for Black History Month. Yep. And what else people can I have can expect to find there? Yeah, totally. So the Black History Month event was amazing. We had so many great performers and which has mystical mandrake root did a talk on connecting with your ancestors and like ways and tools that you can use to connect and Guidelines and it was really good Stacy Ivory kind of led a circle on kind of like all of us. It was more Stacy does a lot more working with in creating co-created spaces. So we kind of all shared and opened up and then Carmody Faye asks who's like an amazing Dominatrix and Artists Against sexual assault and also a stand-up comic did a stand-up routine. That was so good. It was just like the whole thing. Odie Anka, did Tiana. Oh my God. It was amazing and like me and honesty Anka an amazing writer. She's so good. So good. If you don't know who the Anka London is check her out and we like she have a shared history of like growing up very Christian and both being like she read one piece. It was about this movie that both really this movie like really fucked us up as kids. Um call the fee for the night. And so she did a piece on that and I was like because like we both have Have just this obsession with this movie because it was you know, such a big part but some of the other past events that we've done that have been really great. We did a on my period event with pussy Power House last year nice and that was it was amazing. We did a whole period Wellness basically about female Health we had medical practitioners we had which has all kinds of people doing like a panel discussion on your period and Ryu mostly focused geared on reusables. And then we had a period fashion show. I'll read fashion show. It was just like really I'd never been to a period party before it's really fun. And then we did Kristen sole wrote which is flotsam feminist. We did a reading Series last year on where we had a bunch of different writers and she would read clips of the book and that was amazing Jackie the stripper did a performance a bunch of great writers did Readings and we do like we do a lot of like a clothing drives and stuff. So we try to like balance it out. So we'll do stuff that our get that's giving back to the community. And we also want to do a free teen witch Circle which we haven't really gotten going yet. But that's something I definitely want to do with people in the neighborhood and there's tarot as well as lots of different vendors who also make feminists witchy. Inclusive type of Art and media of all different types. If you're looking for an animal pins, if you're looking for like specialty candles if you're looking for bath bomb and also I sell my products the broom closet sir just soaks there. Okay, so just really quickly. I just want to say that, you know, I hope you know that it's recognized that there's more to to effort of you putting cold party into its existence maybe not consciously, but you worked your ass off and you know selling at markets, you know, getting like, you know people to recognize your branding and I thought you know, when we work together, we work together in a few markets and I thought your displays and your eye for detail and your effort and like just the thought you put into everything as well even just like the way that Appeared you know the Aesthetics I was always so impressed and I think like you're engaging with the people like this was always another table in my opinion and I just want you to know like I recognize how hard you worked to get to where you are to build this beautiful amazing super successful space. Thank you feel very soon. But I would also like to mention that cult party is a Cooperative space. So it isn't just me than the like I founded it and it was my dream baby brainchild. But like I have I started it with a group of women. I run it with a group of women. It's you know, shout out right now to mute and land and modern girl Blitz my amazing lovely dream Partners. We like I couldn't ask for better Partners in the world. Like it's I like every time we're together. It's a meat we have such a good time together. We recently did a Phillies so fun. They're so fun. We did a Philly field trip and it was like it was so fun. It's like all non stop laughing and silliness and I could definitely do that. Yeah, it's I love them. Yeah. Okay. So when we come back Debbie's going to talk about what it means to be a responsible which and give us some pointers on how to not overstep boundaries and cultures that we may not be exactly entitled to practice in. So we're going to talk about that when we come back. Hey, mr. Glitches, it's blue. And this is a segment from the broom closet. Today. We're going to be talking about the Dark Side of crystals with a main focus on ethically sourced Stones. Now, Debbie Allen co-owner of cult party an intersectional feminist. Which shop in East Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. She's going to be talking through some tips on appropriation. And ethically harvested cleansing herbs in just a moment and we will be talking much more in future shows about ethically sourced magical tools, but just to quickly clarify gemstones is one of the few magical tools that it would be very difficult to call appropriative crystals grow on every continent. So if someone is saying that I can't use a Canadian Jade unless I'm Canadian that point would be a pretty big stretch. I mean technically salt is even a crystal because a crystal is just a solid substance with an internal order that physically manifests in symmetrical or and or geometrical shapes. Physically, it grows geometrical shapes within itself. And so salt salt is considered a crystal and pretty sure I'm not appropriating that we can talk about it though. I'm very very interested in. Anyone's opinion on gemstones. I would love to hear from you the email for the podcast is Mystic which podcast at gmail.com. And yeah, please tell me what your opinions are. So let's talk about the Dark Side of crystals and how that comes to be the problem that is happening all over the world is that stones are being over harvested and in Extremely unsavory ways. Let me give you some examples. The workers are sometimes making little to no money. Sometimes they even use child laborers and this is under extremely dangerous working conditions because these are technically minds and as you know mines are not a forever thing. Do you know of a mine that is safe after forever because I don't The workers are in these binds breathing. Whoa, who knows what all of the trauma of our the history of our world dinosaur farts? Who knows but there is there down there and these children sometimes are down there risking their lives often times and these the people who have them doing this work oftentimes take no little to no account of what the effects of overharvesting is going to do. You to the surrounding environment, as you know, this Earth our planet has a very delicate ecosystem and overharvesting anything can affect everything around it on a molecular level, you know, so the mining itself is bad enough, but these stones are non-renewable resources. So what happens when They're depleted and a lot of places aren't even taking this into account. Do you know how long it takes for a crystal to grow look it up? Yeah be fun exercise. So as you know gemstones historically have been used for many different things. I mean, the their benefits are astounding you can use it for sore muscles you can use some for healing shop. As and they're very specific as to which chakra they work best with you can use them to help stay sober. If you're trying to get sober you can you can use them for headaches you can use them for anxiety. You can use them to open up your psychic awareness. And that is like just barely scratching the surface of what some gemstones can do and what their benefits can be. B and the reason why they are so very good at this is still a mystery, you know, but we do know that gemstones are also very susceptible to energies around them. So when these things are happening all around them, they're soaking in that energy the low morale the abusive conditions. And then also we also have to consider that Times these stones are being stolen from land. That doesn't belong to the person harvesting them. That's a really think about these things because our responsibility as Debbie would say is to Value the Earth and honor it, correct. So if we're if you are and on any magical practice, even if you do not consider yourself to be a which it is your responsibility to think about these types of things and it is your responsibility to be very responsible. Oil is your responsibility to be responsible. What can I say? So while gemstones are taking on all these energies around them the I feel like that is one of the things that gives them all these amazing energetic electrical magnetic and healing properties. That medicine is still trying to figure out these crystals tend to carry the energy of these experiences with them. You can call me crazy all you like but as a clerk And Tiant sensitive I have personally felt the depression in a gemstone. So what do we do? Okay, so you the first step you go to your local Crystal shop, you ask the owner not the person behind the counter get the owners information and find out where they order their crystals from if they know anything about the physical history of their Stones if they Until you who their vendor is if they won't give you that information fine. We're going to move on. Okay, but then you do not know and it is your responsibility to find this out. So, okay. Let's say you ask and they just don't know. Okay. Does this mean you shouldn't buy it? Not necessarily. I just said your responsibility is to the Earth and what are gemstones? They're Earth. Okay, so not necessarily if they don't know if what if they let's say they knew that the stone wasn't harvested in a peaceful way. Is it trash know we have a responsibility to this Stone. Okay. This is my point. We have these high expectations of these crystals. To do this amazing work and what have we offered them in return? What have we offered them to honor them? Anything no, we just expect them to be a factory of healing and support. What are we doing for them in return? We have a responsibility there too. So I want you guys to think about honoring the land honoring your magical tools it almost in an atom is MM way of thinking think about those things as though they were living breathing creatures. Because if you don't honor them, that's when you get that's when you get the dark side. That's that's the easiest way to get the dark side. You know, we know that crystals break when they are tired. We know that and if you don't know that that's what that means when your stones break in half chip away. They're done. And then your was the responsible thing to do is return it to the Earth. And that is the The way to honor that stone, that's what they want. But there is a way to honor them before they go to the Grave. So what else can we do to honor these Stones the stones that may have this trauma that could be depressed. If you're not sure you're going to want to do some very specific healing practices for this Stone and we owe it to them. They do a lot for Us and I think it's time be on time for us to start thinking about what we owe in return for things when you ask a deity for something you usually give them something in return when you ask the universe for something you got to show it that you're working for that thing and you have to have to honor that in return. So why would someone why would gemstones that? Are literally Earth by themselves on their own already? Why would that be any different? Why would we not be responsible to heal these Stones? So how do we do that? How do we heal them? The first thing is you have to do your research. I'm not going to sit here and educate you my podcast. The point of it is not for education on that level. There are plenty of other podcasts out there that are doing that. But if you have questions, please feel free to email me. As I said the email is Mystic which podcast at gmail.com. I'm happy to answer your questions, but you can do your own research and people need to start educating themselves instead of asking someone to teach them because all you have to do is Google. I have a piece of selenite. How do I Cleanse This Stone and it's going to be different than a lot of other Stones a lot of people don't know that they're selling it can be toxic. A lot of people don't aren't aware of that. You know, people want to drop stones. In their water all the time, but you got to be really careful what you're drinking water with because selenite ain't the one it is not the one and you have to do your own research. Are you able to cleanse with some sort of water? Are you able to cleanse with the moon the sun will how does it vibrate if you're not fully connected in a clairsentient way and no one expects you to be then the thing is you're going to want to ask someone who is and see. they can feel the energy of your stone and there are people out there who would be more than happy to tell you how your stone is doing and what it's health is like but each Zone has its own needs and its own properties its own life its own life force and it's very specific to each one and you're going to have to take care of them in those ways and I feel like that's just the beginning of the healing process, but that is a really good start so I want you to start thinking about that everybody just take that into account. Thank you so much. And this has been the broom closet. Welcome back to Mystic which we are here with Debbie. And so basically we're going to jump into the more sort of I guess political aspects of the discussion and we were talking about how you have a workshop coming up that's going to got like guide people and kind of developing their own herbal fun. Almost crap. Yeah. All right. So do you want to talk a little bit about that and why this is such an important part of Witchcraft in 2019 Gaba totally. So I think that as witches that we know that the words we use have a lot of power and I don't call it spells by mistake. Yeah and like in writing this, you know, because at the shop, we only carry we carry all herbal bundles that I make and a lot of the times it goes. With the seasons too, and we're trying so we're trying to be responsible in the sourcing of our plants and everything that we use. Even our Palo Santo right now. We get from a friend that lives in Ecuador so we know that it's coming from a you know, a responsible place anyway, like so this so the re one of the things that I learned when creating this Workshop was the term Aang and smudge and how that term is a Native American practice and how we as responsible witches should not be using that term it. It's there's been a history amongst native people and America's where their religion has been suppressed. There were even laws in the 18 late 1800s. I think 1892 that made it illegal for Native Americans to practice their religion. So as over as white people as non-native people we need to respect that. Now what terms can we use Herbal bundle? There has been a practice of smoke cleansing through, you know, I And incense was I think developed in Egypt throughout the world people have used and in Europe. A lot of peasants would use it to actually fumigate and get rid of parasites not only as a spiritual practice, but as a real something that needed to be, you know, it was very day and day out type of practice. Now that being said well herb should we be using if we are going to to use white sage my opinion is that we should either grow it ourselves or we should Source it from Native American sources because a lot of the time when we stage is over use is causing a lot of the wild plants that you would find to disappear. So people that you know native people that don't have that don't have the resources to go by as Sage stick. You know it Kind of Disappearing anyway, and also like just find what herbs you you really connect with. There's a lot of herbs that we can be burning in the wintertime Cedar Juniper Pine. All of these things Pine actually has a lot of anti-microbial properties and you Burnett all of those three. I feel like are very good in the winter time. You can use rosemary you can use ugh War if you want to have some really wild dream Rosemary to Mystical mandrake root was really talking about using it as a space cleanser like hanging Rosemary around in the corners of your room to kind of claim your space and keep the spirits in in kind of inject and not having to like go all over the house whatever it's like and then there's lavender of you want to coming, you know, V we have oh eucalyptus, you know, there's a ton of different herbs that you can burn. We have a bunch of those in the shop and it's kind of just, you know, seeing what you really connect with. So yeah, that's my little Spiel and we're doing a class. I'm going to be doing a class on it. So stay tuned. Follow the cool party Instagram kill party NYC. Yeah. All right, Debbie. Well, thank you so much for coming onto the show and sharing all that really important responsible which behavior with us. Thank you. Okay. Bye follow us at Mystic which podcast or email Mystic which broadcast at gmail.com.
Intersectional Feminist Witchshop Co-owner, Debbie Allen talks about Cult Party, how her history with magic and experience in the art world led her to opening this amazing bewitching space. What you'll find inside this shop is not just magical products made by women, gender queer, POC, and other under represented groups, BUT ALSO is an event space that offers regular tarot readings, classes, exhibits and other events. This is more than just a shop, it's a community. It is within this little playhouse of political enchantment that Debbie will soon be teaching a workshop on creating your own herbal bundles. Follow @cultpartynyc for more info and if you don't live in NYC you can shop the website cultpartynyc.com  Following The Broom Closet segment  "Dark Side of Crystals" Debbie and I talk about why we (non-native people) should cease even using the word "smudge" what some alternative options are to the massively over harvested sage, and in her class Debbie will be teaching supplemental ways to cleanse your space without appropriating native cultures! Follow Mystic Witch on Instagram or Facebook for bonus audio, pictures and info about our guests. 