Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and a welcome to woke F Daily
Speaker 1: with me your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the Long
Speaker 1: Island Bunker. You know, I often say to you that
Speaker 1: you need to take a break so that you do
Speaker 1: not have a breakdown. And with all of the compacted
Speaker 1: crises that we are dealing with at this time and
Speaker 1: making the march to midterms, there never seems like the
Speaker 1: right time to take a break. But I say that
Speaker 1: you have to make that time. And so for me,
Speaker 1: dear friends here on woke a F, I am going
Speaker 1: to be taking a much needed vacation so that I
Speaker 1: can rest and recharge as we head into what I
Speaker 1: believe is going to be one of the craziest falls
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. I have left you with eight amazing
Speaker 1: episodes that we have recorded back in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: with some of the most thoughtful, engaging and insightful commentary
Speaker 1: that looks at our politics, our spiritual nature, our emotional
Speaker 1: well being, and a look inside frankly with some of
Speaker 1: the guests that we are bringing to all of you.
Speaker 1: These conversations have been heard by our amazing Patreon supporters
Speaker 1: who get video episodes every single day. Because of their
Speaker 1: belief and financial support of woke F throughout the years,
Speaker 1: and so I'm really excited to bring all of you
Speaker 1: across all the platforms that you listen to woke F
Speaker 1: daily on these episodes and these interviews that I think
Speaker 1: will be enticing to all of you. They hit on
Speaker 1: all of the major topics that we consistently discuss here
Speaker 1: on woke F, from racism to gender inequality, to police
Speaker 1: misconduct to wealth inequality, which my God, and the need
Speaker 1: and the need and the need upmost for spiritual connection
Speaker 1: and wellness practices that allow us to successfully maneuver all
Speaker 1: of the things that have been thrown at us over
Speaker 1: the past couple of years. And so, friends, while I
Speaker 1: will be out from the show, I will not be
Speaker 1: out of sight for the next several days, and so
Speaker 1: you can continue to follow me on Instagram and on
Speaker 1: Twitter at D two Cents, D E two c E
Speaker 1: n TF. Of course, I will be dropping in with
Speaker 1: my two cents and you can check me out on TikTok,
Speaker 1: where I'm sure certain that I will drop a few
Speaker 1: videos in the next couple of days, and there you
Speaker 1: can find me at Danielle Moody Underscore I hope that
Speaker 1: you all enjoy these next fantastic episodes that we have.
Speaker 1: Do drop your thoughts in the comments section, do hit
Speaker 1: me up in the socials. Just don't draw my attention
Speaker 1: to anything that is terrible because I'm taking a break
Speaker 1: from the news. But dear friends, I really do hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoy these next eight episodes and I will
Speaker 1: see you with brand new episodes after Labor Day. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm David Plots of Slates Political Gabfest. As another election
Speaker 1: season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all
Speaker 1: the noise and the news. Each week, on the Gapfest,
Speaker 1: John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break
Speaker 1: down the races, and tell you what issues really matter.
Speaker 1: We do not always agree, we definitely do not always agree,
Speaker 1: but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have
Speaker 1: a good time. So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest, new
Speaker 1: episodes every Thursday. It's no secret that the news is
Speaker 1: horsepill are to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room podcast,
Speaker 1: hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini, for a
Speaker 1: lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week, The Bituation
Speaker 1: Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to break
Speaker 1: down the issues in a way that won't just leave
Speaker 1: you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube and Twitch. Folks,
Speaker 1: I am just always so tickled and honored when I
Speaker 1: get to have my friend, my big sisth Rissy kat
Speaker 1: okay day and join woke app daily. She is the cone,
Speaker 1: co owner of Black Magic Sisters and the co founder
Speaker 1: of strobe Apothecary. Rissy. Yes, my dear love, how are you?
Speaker 1: How have you been? It has been sometime, We've been
Speaker 1: living in a time and there has been a lot
Speaker 1: going on. So how how are you doing? So I
Speaker 1: am and so let me say preface this by saying,
Speaker 1: and I think because of the nature of this conversation
Speaker 1: and the way I'm showing up today, transparency is absolutely important.
Speaker 1: A very dear friend, the sister friend of mine, died
Speaker 1: earlier in January January fifth, to the exact Simon Briziando,
Speaker 1: and I'm in a grief fog. I am fighting very
Speaker 1: hard to be present because my life has got a
Speaker 1: lot going on, and so I have to be um
Speaker 1: and at the same time, Yeah, it's been rough. Um.
Speaker 1: And the last time we physically saw each other, it
Speaker 1: just hit me was Valentine's Day twenty ninety nineteen. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. It was twenty twenty. It was twenty twenty. Yep,
Speaker 1: it'll be a year right this month that we saw
Speaker 1: each other. We had the most amazing Valentine's Day. It
Speaker 1: was like, so we did, we did? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell everybody so so I so I know. Uh,
Speaker 1: just just so folks are aware, m RISCy and I
Speaker 1: have been friends for god, uh, well, well over a decade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely well over a decade. And when I was
Speaker 1: living in UH in Washington, d c. Uh is where
Speaker 1: we solidified our our relationship, our friendship, our sisterhood. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then since leaving RICI had so come to New
Speaker 1: York uh last year. And this is like right before
Speaker 1: COVID hit. Who knew at that time that that was
Speaker 1: going to be that we wouldn't see each other again
Speaker 1: in the flesh for for quite some time. Um. And
Speaker 1: so it's just an unexpected It was one of those
Speaker 1: days that you know is unexpected. Everything gets like canceled
Speaker 1: or thrown off and then you're like, wait, what's happened?
Speaker 1: And then you realize that the universe has made space
Speaker 1: for terally literally make time, check in coffee fee you
Speaker 1: and it turned into a whole magical friend date. It
Speaker 1: was fantastic. Yeah, it was a good time. It was fantastic.
Speaker 1: We did tarot, we eat lake candles. We we did
Speaker 1: we we did that. But we drank. We drank wine.
Speaker 1: I had the best lam ever. I think Lamb Shank
Speaker 1: get that little confidence too. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I like that. I like the way I'm living right now.
Speaker 1: It was fantastic, it was It was a fantastic day.
Speaker 1: Just a sense to say, you need to make room
Speaker 1: for the unexpected, and sometimes your plans get thrown off kilter,
Speaker 1: and that is actually for the best because it is
Speaker 1: being thrown off one path and a line in a
Speaker 1: new way. Um. I'm so sorry to hear about the
Speaker 1: loss of your friend. And I know that so many
Speaker 1: of us have been dealing with so many different forms
Speaker 1: of grief and have experienced a lot of loss uh
Speaker 1: in in the past year and in the past um
Speaker 1: several months, And that is something that I think a
Speaker 1: lot of us are sharing and so UM, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you so much making the time, UM, and the and
Speaker 1: the space and the space to join us, because I
Speaker 1: think that what you are doing with Black Magic Sisters
Speaker 1: and with Strobe is something that is so intensely needed
Speaker 1: at this moment. So, I mean, I want to start
Speaker 1: with just what have you noticed over the past year,
Speaker 1: Receive as we are moving through this multiple pandemics, right,
Speaker 1: we're moving through and kind of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to manifest ourselves but in this new normal space,
Speaker 1: and so what have you found in terms of the
Speaker 1: way that people are trying to connect and trying to
Speaker 1: ground with themselves. So the big thing is that a
Speaker 1: lot of people haven't been doing it, don't know how
Speaker 1: to do it because our life, you know, pre COVID
Speaker 1: was go go go, go, go go go. And so
Speaker 1: while yeah, I make tea blends and you know, I
Speaker 1: like candles, and you know, I'm do full Moon and
Speaker 1: New Moon rituals, that was there was there was a
Speaker 1: part of my life that was that was a very
Speaker 1: small group of people that UM kind of operated in
Speaker 1: that space naturally. And when the pandemic hit and folks
Speaker 1: were forced to sort of sit still, you start to
Speaker 1: actually have you start asking questions like well, what the
Speaker 1: hell am I doing here? And why is this happening?
Speaker 1: And in order to address like, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: I had a lot of friends that I you know,
Speaker 1: had to talk off the tree, I call it to
Speaker 1: prefer a real tree where I'm literally at the basis
Speaker 1: tree like all right, come on, you can come down now,
Speaker 1: Like no, and it's like no, but you can really
Speaker 1: come down. It's okay. Um. What happens is that when
Speaker 1: you were forced to sit with yourself, you were forced
Speaker 1: to face things. And what you find is that a
Speaker 1: lot of us, myself included, had not been doing our
Speaker 1: due diligence when it came to our self preservation. And
Speaker 1: I don't I don't like the term self care because
Speaker 1: it can, you know, for a lot of people, visions
Speaker 1: of spa days and getting your nails done and backrubs
Speaker 1: come in. And that's not really what self care is about.
Speaker 1: It really is asking you to preserve the self. And
Speaker 1: that looks like you know, meditation for others. That looks
Speaker 1: like you know, turning off Twitter for some. And we
Speaker 1: initially are so wedded to our technology because that's the
Speaker 1: only way for us to stay in touch that I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people just went into overdrive. And
Speaker 1: then at some point when you realize this was not
Speaker 1: going to end quietly and quickly, and as more things
Speaker 1: started to get canceled, you start to see people really
Speaker 1: start delving in too, like you have to find some balance,
Speaker 1: you have to figure out how your life is going
Speaker 1: to look because you can't go outside and you can't
Speaker 1: you know, socialize, and people start finding ways to manage.
Speaker 1: But they also start to realize that in the sense
Speaker 1: of constant motion, that their lives, if they allow it,
Speaker 1: are actually more enriched in the staying still and sort
Speaker 1: of not having there because part of the going going
Speaker 1: on is the expectation that somebody's looking for you, or
Speaker 1: the idea that you that's a that's proof of your hustle,
Speaker 1: or proof that you're making moves because you're going, going, going.
Speaker 1: For some it's a way to fill the void. And
Speaker 1: so when all of that goes away and you're kind
Speaker 1: of forced to sit, you start to really think deep
Speaker 1: and ask questions, and there's only so much netflix benching
Speaker 1: that you can do. There's only so much, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, pandemic eating that you can do before you're like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: what exactly what does my life look like now? And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us are finding that previous,
Speaker 1: pre pandemic, we were doing a ship job of taking
Speaker 1: care of ourselves. And now that you have no choice
Speaker 1: because it's just you and your kids, or you and
Speaker 1: your family or whoever's in your household, if you want
Speaker 1: to be here when it's all said and done, then
Speaker 1: self care, self preservation becomes a natural part of this.
Speaker 1: And folks are finding that they actually like it. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of folks that I'm talking to, they're not
Speaker 1: trying to go back to whatever was normal before. They
Speaker 1: really want They like getting up and working from you know,
Speaker 1: working from a place that is not the office. They like,
Speaker 1: you know, taking their time, you know, they like the
Speaker 1: idea of setting boundaries because COVID has taught us a
Speaker 1: set boundary. So I'm not taking meetings after six pm,
Speaker 1: or I'm not you know, taking meetings at eight o'clock
Speaker 1: of the morning, or whatever it is that you're doing.
Speaker 1: And people are like, yo, this way of living is
Speaker 1: not ideal because we didn't expect it, but it's teaching
Speaker 1: us all some things and one of the big lessons
Speaker 1: is that the life, the way we were living before
Speaker 1: was just it was insane. It was absolutely insane, and
Speaker 1: that was considered normal. You know, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I think about myself. I mean when you know you
Speaker 1: have always been a teacher and a guide for me,
Speaker 1: like through various struggle points of my life. And one
Speaker 1: of my things that I have noticed over the past year,
Speaker 1: I mean what I was doing was just not sustainable,
Speaker 1: right like that that that the pace of running, the
Speaker 1: pace of the work, um, the consistency in always finding
Speaker 1: a flaw and and never feeling like enough, so needing
Speaker 1: to produce more because just you're I'm trying to fill
Speaker 1: a hole that the work is not going to fill um.
Speaker 1: And I think that for a lot of people like
Speaker 1: myself who are incredibly ambitious, it was it's like, well,
Speaker 1: what happens when all of those things are stripped away? Right,
Speaker 1: like what are you? What are you left with? And
Speaker 1: you know, pre pandemic, I was thirty pounds overweight, I
Speaker 1: was not sleeping, I you know, was drinking like a fish,
Speaker 1: um and doing a lot of things that were set
Speaker 1: up to make me feel better, but we're actually making
Speaker 1: me feel worse right, and it's just there's also the
Speaker 1: assigning value to those behaviors as some form of success
Speaker 1: or some form of prosperity, an abundance. Because I can
Speaker 1: drink and because I can eat, and because I can
Speaker 1: be out in here, I'm actually doing things. But it's
Speaker 1: really not. It's not sustaining, it's not fulfilling. We found
Speaker 1: out because once those things get stripped away, you start
Speaker 1: to find there are other things that are far more
Speaker 1: important to you than whether or not you you got
Speaker 1: this particular thing done. The other thing I'll say, as
Speaker 1: you know, someone who has been part of your life,
Speaker 1: I'm incredibly proud of you, the shift and energy, the
Speaker 1: shift and focus like what gayf is. I love what
Speaker 1: you do because we need that kind of righteous anger
Speaker 1: and indignation and we need it in the way that
Speaker 1: you do it because you know other places are trying
Speaker 1: to be nice about it, and I love the way
Speaker 1: you just shoot straight. But in order to sustain that
Speaker 1: kind that give you know, I see that as part
Speaker 1: of your soul contract and what you're supposed So you're
Speaker 1: supposed to beat the drum and wake everybody up, and
Speaker 1: that's what you're doing. But as we have become more
Speaker 1: and more been forced more and more to sort of
Speaker 1: slow down and sort of think. I feel like the
Speaker 1: show has become even hotter, like the Blade is just
Speaker 1: like you are out here like joking people, and then
Speaker 1: I love to see it. But I also see someone
Speaker 1: who has found her rhythm, someone who like you, got
Speaker 1: the energy. You know, Yeah, you be like holler and
Speaker 1: holler and holler and hollerand and like call God Dan,
Speaker 1: you'll need to drink water, but be like did k
Speaker 1: And now you're like juicy and holleran and it's a
Speaker 1: whole different kind of holler. When you know, when you
Speaker 1: have the energy for your righteous indignation, it just hits
Speaker 1: a bit differently. And I see how much work you've
Speaker 1: been doing, and I see, honestly how much you're enjoying this,
Speaker 1: and so I'm proud of you as your basics a
Speaker 1: fantastic job. And I think that your transparency in all
Speaker 1: of this is really what we need. We need people
Speaker 1: to be transparent that this is not easy and that
Speaker 1: you know you've been doing you're producing this every day,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, yo, I'm proud of you, but
Speaker 1: you don't look the worst for wear it does. It's
Speaker 1: not it's like there's something about it now that's changed.
Speaker 1: It's there's an exchange happening, and I'm just incredibly excited
Speaker 1: to see what comes next, because like, if this is
Speaker 1: where you are now, once we're able to kind of
Speaker 1: be back out, yeah, I appreciate that so very much.
Speaker 1: And I think that, you know, I finally it's like
Speaker 1: all of the lessons, all of the advice, all of
Speaker 1: the things that people have given to me, from you,
Speaker 1: my mother, and my sister, you know, the yogis, the
Speaker 1: people that are deeply grounded and meditative. I feel like
Speaker 1: I have finally woken up and listened to that that like,
Speaker 1: in order to do this work, you need to preserve energy,
Speaker 1: you need to be in flow and aligned with what
Speaker 1: the calling is. And I think that pre COVID, for me,
Speaker 1: it was more so about like the drive and the push,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't pulling anything back in and so that
Speaker 1: left me depleted. And so I want to talk about
Speaker 1: Strobe the apothecary and like why now, like why in
Speaker 1: this moment are you are you doing this work of
Speaker 1: bringing that type of energies, healing crystals, tease, all of
Speaker 1: these things to people. So Strobe is a five person collective.
Speaker 1: All of us have a couple of things in common.
Speaker 1: We all worked at the same earth Shop over time,
Speaker 1: and in the middle of the pandemic, as the pandemic
Speaker 1: was sort of getting up, I happen to stop by,
Speaker 1: and you know, we had some conversations. I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to have my own sort of apothecary space. Black Magic
Speaker 1: Sisters is really about ritual tools. So it's me taking
Speaker 1: the knowledge that I learned actually over time working at
Speaker 1: the Earth Shop and just experimenting and trying to figure
Speaker 1: out ways to make ritual easy and to make ritual
Speaker 1: something that you can do intentionally every day. I believe
Speaker 1: in ritual. I mean everything from the colors that I
Speaker 1: wore today to the stuff I chose to bathe with
Speaker 1: is all part of my daily understanding of how I
Speaker 1: get ready for the world and so what wait but
Speaker 1: for you, but tell us about ritual and why that's
Speaker 1: why that's important for how we develop and show up
Speaker 1: in the world. So for me, ritual is something you
Speaker 1: do with intention. There are a lot of things we
Speaker 1: do out of habit, and you know, the issue with
Speaker 1: habit is that there's no thought to it. It's just
Speaker 1: something that you do, so it becomes easy over time
Speaker 1: to not realize that you're doing it, or to not
Speaker 1: realize that you might be harming people and doing it
Speaker 1: because it's just like if you have people say, well,
Speaker 1: that's just the way we've always done it. For me,
Speaker 1: ritual is really about being intentional. And I think anything
Speaker 1: can be ritualized if you take a minute to think
Speaker 1: about what it is that you're doing. So, for example, transparency,
Speaker 1: because it's going to be transparent. I sat with an
Speaker 1: astrologer I'm yesterday to go through my chart because of
Speaker 1: just everything that's happened. And planets don't lie where they
Speaker 1: are and how they sit. They you know, they kind
Speaker 1: of give you so truth and he kind of he
Speaker 1: gave me some amazing insights. And you know, I know
Speaker 1: that I'm in a grief spiral, but I also know
Speaker 1: that there's some things that I've been neglecting because I'm
Speaker 1: in a grief spiral. So when I got up this morning,
Speaker 1: I made and I was very intentional about you know what.
Speaker 1: I looked at myself as I washed my face, I
Speaker 1: thought about the oils that I was going to use Afterwards,
Speaker 1: I decided that because I, you know, because of where
Speaker 1: I am, there were certain herbs that I was going
Speaker 1: to you know, pull together. Today I haven't I have
Speaker 1: a personal apothecary at home. My kitchen in my living
Speaker 1: room looked crazy, and so that I needed to sustain myself.
Speaker 1: And so when I think of ritual, I think of
Speaker 1: this is self preservation at its sort of basic form.
Speaker 1: It is literally, before I step out of my before
Speaker 1: I get out of bed, what am I doing with
Speaker 1: my day, and what are the things that I'm going
Speaker 1: to use to align So even before I got in
Speaker 1: the shower, I did this. You know, I'd been doing
Speaker 1: this thing where I forgot what the poses where you
Speaker 1: put your feet up against the wall and your legs
Speaker 1: are straight up, and I've read up about that, and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay. And at the same time, I
Speaker 1: was listening to this really great podcast on Newer Diversity.
Speaker 1: I'm not a meditator by nature. I'm just my mind
Speaker 1: is all over the place and it's just too hard
Speaker 1: for me to sit. But when I get in that position,
Speaker 1: I'm make a decision on what I'm going to listen to.
Speaker 1: So that for at least twenty minutes I'm in this pose,
Speaker 1: and I took in that information. It was around this
Speaker 1: one was around metabolism and insulin resistance. It's fascinating topic.
Speaker 1: I felt it, you know, I just happened on it.
Speaker 1: I was like, let me listen, and so listen to that,
Speaker 1: and then it went about my day. And when you
Speaker 1: do this, what it does is it tells the universe
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways that you're ready to go
Speaker 1: about your day. But you've also set this intention of
Speaker 1: how you're going to receive in exchange. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of our way of being there's not enough exchanging.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of putting out information, putting out energy,
Speaker 1: but there's not a lot of getting it back. And
Speaker 1: sometimes when you get it back, it's really just you know,
Speaker 1: low level you know, low level demon energy that's not
Speaker 1: really helpful to anybody. So when you get into a
Speaker 1: space where ritual is sort of how you leave your day,
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is you prepare yourself. And some
Speaker 1: of us, let's be honest, we live in spaces. We
Speaker 1: operate in spaces. Our soul contracts require us to be
Speaker 1: to be in service. You are in service, and so
Speaker 1: those of us who are born to be in service
Speaker 1: and to lead as servant leaders. Oftentimes we don't have caretakers.
Speaker 1: It's it's just it's this weird thing. But what happens
Speaker 1: is that you have been given certain amount of knowledge
Speaker 1: and you are surrounded by people who can show you
Speaker 1: how to care for yourself. And when you remove the
Speaker 1: sort of the the sort of human aspect of oh, well,
Speaker 1: what I want to want to take care of me? Yes,
Speaker 1: we would all love that. But in order for you
Speaker 1: to do your job, in order for you to do
Speaker 1: what you came to do, you have to be fully charged.
Speaker 1: That means that you have to be intentional about what
Speaker 1: you put in your body. You have to be intentional
Speaker 1: about the colors that you might wear that day, or
Speaker 1: intentional about you know, who you talk to that day,
Speaker 1: just because if your goal is to get this information
Speaker 1: out and you know that there's going to be very
Speaker 1: little reciprocity, then that means you charge up and you
Speaker 1: go out into the world protected and you can sustain yourself.
Speaker 1: So for me, anything can be a ritual making that
Speaker 1: tea because the moment that I decided what I was
Speaker 1: going to do, everything else stopped and I was very
Speaker 1: present about how much tea for each of the thing
Speaker 1: the herbs I was using was going to go in there.
Speaker 1: I waited for the water to boil. It was this
Speaker 1: really great thing. And what it did was I had
Speaker 1: an appointment in the morning. It come to be down
Speaker 1: so I could go to that appointment fully present. Things
Speaker 1: for me that I like about ritual. When I'm intentional
Speaker 1: in what I'm doing, it lets me be more present
Speaker 1: in whatever I'm supposed to be, you know, focusing on
Speaker 1: and so that is that is a way that I operate.
Speaker 1: And when I get off track, when I get when
Speaker 1: I allow myself to get too busy, when I don't
Speaker 1: do those rituals, when I'm just zipping in, zooming and zooming,
Speaker 1: I see it. I see how more irritated, ridable I
Speaker 1: can be. I can feel it, you know, in my
Speaker 1: just my body feels funny. I may feel rush. I
Speaker 1: forget things, I leave things on that should be off,
Speaker 1: you know, I forget to send this, or it just
Speaker 1: becomes really really really um just disharmonious. So for me,
Speaker 1: ritual is a way the center, and for me it's everything.
Speaker 1: It's the bathing, it's the the you know, even the
Speaker 1: oil pulling with the coconut oil. Well, I purposely walk
Speaker 1: around swishing for like a minute or two, like that
Speaker 1: is all part of it. And I have this thing
Speaker 1: where I have an ancestral altar and I can't I
Speaker 1: can't go talk to my people without brushing my teeth.
Speaker 1: Like that's kind of a thing, like I just don't
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. So I don't go upstairs to talk
Speaker 1: to my people until I brush my teeth. And so
Speaker 1: these things are very much part of how I am
Speaker 1: able to manage and stay present. And then Strobe was
Speaker 1: really something where like one of the things I loved
Speaker 1: about working at the herb shop was being able to
Speaker 1: be a messenger for people that came in. You're working
Speaker 1: with herbs and herbs. For me, it's an intuitive practice.
Speaker 1: I'm a root woman. I learned from other women. I
Speaker 1: learned through experimentation. I learned by reading. And people would
Speaker 1: come in and they would just you know, they would
Speaker 1: have that energy about them, and I would and I
Speaker 1: would know that this person is coming. They don't know it,
Speaker 1: but they're coming to see me. And I would be
Speaker 1: able to sit and talk with them and we could
Speaker 1: take our time, and you know, what's the issue, what's happening,
Speaker 1: and whatever was coming up for me. I could communicate
Speaker 1: with them and people would leave with things that we're
Speaker 1: going to help them get back to themselves. And a
Speaker 1: lot of what we do now in the Western world
Speaker 1: outsources so much of our sense of being to other people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's not enough collaborate. So, yeah, I may be
Speaker 1: feeling something, but you, as my sister who knows me
Speaker 1: at my best, you may be seeing something that I'm missing.
Speaker 1: So it should be a collaborative effort as opposed to
Speaker 1: me sitting here on a Google machine trying to find
Speaker 1: out what my symptoms are. I should be able to
Speaker 1: come and talk to you and say this is how
Speaker 1: I'm feeling, and you can remind me, well, you know
Speaker 1: when you were doing this, when you were on this,
Speaker 1: you know particular practice you know, or have a drink
Speaker 1: water today. You know. There's just ways that we need
Speaker 1: to be more collaborative. And Strobe comes from that desire.
Speaker 1: We all we all have different ways that we operate,
Speaker 1: so like and strokes. Then the name comes from the
Speaker 1: initial of each of our name, so Sean, Tiffany, ristic,
Speaker 1: at Olivia and Bonnie and everyone has a different sort
Speaker 1: of art or practice, and so bring it all together
Speaker 1: just made sense. I don't know that we thought we
Speaker 1: would still be here. We just when we decided to
Speaker 1: do it, I knew that I couldn't. I knew that
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it by myself, like I don't have
Speaker 1: the attention span. So I was like, you know, if
Speaker 1: you guys are interested, I'd love to be part of something.
Speaker 1: And that just kind of how it turned into this
Speaker 1: amazing thing that has blossomed in a very short period
Speaker 1: of time. And so right now. Initially, you know, it
Speaker 1: was crystal elixirs and we had custom t blends that
Speaker 1: we had created, we all formulated, and now we have
Speaker 1: moved into a straight autopathecary, so we're carrying loose herbs.
Speaker 1: Now we have the ability to powder things, you know,
Speaker 1: for formulations, are working with herbalists who are now using
Speaker 1: us to formulate things, and it's coming. It's a beautiful
Speaker 1: expression I think of all of our intentions, and the
Speaker 1: beauty of the pandemic is that it is given those
Speaker 1: like we all have different time constraints, so five people
Speaker 1: it's so much better than one. The collaboration and how
Speaker 1: people are allowed to sort of operate and collaborate works
Speaker 1: really well. And so Strobe right now is on a mission.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you go to the site, you'll
Speaker 1: see we have all sorts of offerings and so if
Speaker 1: you're looking for crystals, if you look at for crystal elixus,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know about until I started working with these,
Speaker 1: with this crew of amazing people, where you can take
Speaker 1: the essence of a crystal and use it in sort
Speaker 1: of a liquid form for internal use. Like I've learned
Speaker 1: so much just hanging out with these folks, and the
Speaker 1: exchange of energy and the ability, like the way that
Speaker 1: we all support each other in the way you know
Speaker 1: that people are able to say you go rest, will
Speaker 1: take care of it and then you come back. That
Speaker 1: that give and take on the back end is what
Speaker 1: I think has made this a really it's such a
Speaker 1: phenomenal experience to be having in the midst of all
Speaker 1: of the other things. So it's been a bit of
Speaker 1: a joy, you know, a little light in and the
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel. And the goal is to
Speaker 1: help as many people as possible and to make sure
Speaker 1: that people learn how to trust their instincts because it's
Speaker 1: the outsourcing for me. That has been that has been
Speaker 1: the biggest concern that I've had, just watching people give
Speaker 1: in to sort of these outside these outside forces that say,
Speaker 1: this is what your problem is, this is the way
Speaker 1: you had when you can only handle it this way,
Speaker 1: So don't go look at anything else. Just you know,
Speaker 1: take this medicine or just do this or do that,
Speaker 1: or just the stress that we create when we forget
Speaker 1: that we are enough, you know, it's it's so um.
Speaker 1: I think that the beauty I call the now that
Speaker 1: we're living in a beautiful disaster right like it's it's
Speaker 1: it is beautifully tragic. There are ways in which you
Speaker 1: can look at the collective experiences that we've been having
Speaker 1: and you can see obviously there is deep tragedy, but
Speaker 1: there's also deep beauty in the ability to slow down,
Speaker 1: to do a deep dive, to connect to a line
Speaker 1: and figure out, you know, what what is happening with me?
Speaker 1: Like what is coming up for me? How am I feeling.
Speaker 1: I was able to do a crystal consultation with Bonnie
Speaker 1: the Bee in Strobe, and I was so excited to
Speaker 1: do this because as folk snow, you know, I have
Speaker 1: been on a meditation journey for I think now I'm
Speaker 1: close to one hundred and seventy days consecutively. I tell
Speaker 1: thank you. I tell folks all the time that you know,
Speaker 1: it took me years to get here. My mother and
Speaker 1: my sister were just like, so you should start meditating,
Speaker 1: like they're concerned, they're concerned about my level of rage.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, now whatever. But over the
Speaker 1: past several months, that's exactly what I've done. And then
Speaker 1: I when I connected with Bonnie, it was like, how
Speaker 1: do I enhance this experience? How do I connect? And
Speaker 1: I feel like there is this pull back to an
Speaker 1: ancestral place, right like all of the things that have
Speaker 1: been wiped away that we were told were barbaric, or
Speaker 1: we were told were voodoo, or we were told and
Speaker 1: I mean specifically as black people I see at least
Speaker 1: on my Instagram, And I don't know if you see
Speaker 1: this recie with people like, you know, going into plant
Speaker 1: care in the way that I am going into crystals,
Speaker 1: going going back to what I can recall my grandparents doing, right,
Speaker 1: And I didn't understand, like, you know, Grandpa's out in
Speaker 1: the garden tending to the mints and you know, the
Speaker 1: Scotch bonnets and the and the kohlilu and all of
Speaker 1: these things and realizing that that was his ritual, right,
Speaker 1: that was how he was reconnecting and realigning um and
Speaker 1: my grandmother intending to her, intending to her plants, and
Speaker 1: like what you gain from that? And I think that
Speaker 1: there's so much beauty that, to me is the beauty
Speaker 1: of this moment is like is the pause and the
Speaker 1: recognizing that there is so much that is out there
Speaker 1: that isn't about consumption, right, And that's that's where I
Speaker 1: think that we all got kind of um trapped in
Speaker 1: was the consumption of it, all right. And the other
Speaker 1: piece of this is like everything that you just said,
Speaker 1: I echo it three thousand percent, but you have to
Speaker 1: want to do it. Yeah, you know. I think that
Speaker 1: you are going to find that there are some people
Speaker 1: who are absolutely resistant to what the pandemic is trying
Speaker 1: to teach us. This is a time to sit and
Speaker 1: think and talk to your people. And when I say
Speaker 1: your people, I mean your ancestors and how you connect
Speaker 1: with them as a variety of ways. But I think
Speaker 1: that the consumption pieces is a big part of what
Speaker 1: we of what sort of technology has sort of kind
Speaker 1: of pushed us into and also that balance. You know,
Speaker 1: technology isn't a bad thing, it's just not used well.
Speaker 1: And so finding ways to take in what you need
Speaker 1: and then go sit out by the trees or go
Speaker 1: for a walk or whatever, being able to do a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything. I think the pandemic is trying
Speaker 1: to teach us that. I do think that rest was
Speaker 1: a big thing. I remember I was in Nigeria not
Speaker 1: this path to Scember, December before, and I remember hearing
Speaker 1: reports of you know this viru. I said, uhan da
Speaker 1: da da da dad. And I remember specifically then saying
Speaker 1: that it started in November, and there was this sense
Speaker 1: that now it probably started in October. And then there
Speaker 1: was this moment where I felt this message coming through
Speaker 1: what you need to get ready, enjoy yourself now, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna need to rest. And so when everybody, you know,
Speaker 1: when you know, LLC Twitter was telling everybody doing this pandemic,
Speaker 1: you need to learn a new language, you need to
Speaker 1: start a business, you need to do all these things,
Speaker 1: I was sleeping, you know. And then the civil unrest
Speaker 1: kicked off with the murder of George Floyd, and before
Speaker 1: you knew it, we were you have the backdrop of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. But then you have this massive push of
Speaker 1: people saying these systems, we're not taking it anymore. And
Speaker 1: so we if we do this pandemic the way I
Speaker 1: think it's meant to be taken, for those of us
Speaker 1: that that make it through, we are hopefully there's enough
Speaker 1: of us that have changed, but we won't allow the
Speaker 1: before to creep back in. To me, that's going to
Speaker 1: be the challenge. It's once you get the rhythm of this,
Speaker 1: and you your remote class learning and you've learned to
Speaker 1: get up and take a bath regardless of whether or
Speaker 1: not you're going out, and you've found a way to manage,
Speaker 1: you know, your anxiety. The idea is you fight to
Speaker 1: keep that because once this vaccine comes through the way
Speaker 1: it's supposed to, and once we start to see these
Speaker 1: numbers drop, there is going to be a desire I think,
Speaker 1: to normal stems to come back. And if enough of
Speaker 1: us have been through this and understand the importance of
Speaker 1: our peace and how it's how we need it for
Speaker 1: our self preservation, what I'm hoping we will find is
Speaker 1: that enough of us will push back and say no,
Speaker 1: we're not doing that. We were able to survive just
Speaker 1: five without having to do two our commutes every day.
Speaker 1: So how about we keep those things the way they are.
Speaker 1: I'll come in maybe once a week, you know, where
Speaker 1: we can start negotiating what our quality of life looks
Speaker 1: like because our productivity has been affected, yes, because of
Speaker 1: what we've had to go through, but we've also I
Speaker 1: think now I've gotten to, like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: my third semester now teaching in the midst of a pandemic.
Speaker 1: So I've now figured out my highs and my lows,
Speaker 1: and I've figured out how to you know, support my
Speaker 1: students and you know, take care of myself and all
Speaker 1: of these things. So if we if we if we
Speaker 1: have to sustain a remote situation, great, If we have
Speaker 1: to go back to a hybrid, that's fine too. But
Speaker 1: do we have to go back to these things where
Speaker 1: you know, students are, you know, having to commute from
Speaker 1: two hours away to get to school on time, and
Speaker 1: all of these things by public transportation. Maybe not. And
Speaker 1: if enough of us push back, because enough of us
Speaker 1: want to preserve that that sense of peace, I think
Speaker 1: we will see that this pandemic you know, will have
Speaker 1: changed systems as well, which I think is the point
Speaker 1: I think our ancestors were like you people, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you all are doing? Why are you living
Speaker 1: like this? This is crazy? And that this is an
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to really do a read. This is
Speaker 1: a control of delete. Yeah, yeah, I think that you
Speaker 1: are a thousand percent right. I You know, I found
Speaker 1: myself earlier this week. Uh you know, I go through
Speaker 1: my times of spinning where I just start to spin
Speaker 1: the fuck out and and I and I had gotten
Speaker 1: up in my head and all of a sudden, my
Speaker 1: my calendar was out of control and I had all
Speaker 1: of these meetings and I'm exhausted, and yesterday I was like,
Speaker 1: what the hell is happening here? Like why? Why is
Speaker 1: the pace kicking up again? Like what are you know?
Speaker 1: And realizing that I needed to calm myself down that like,
Speaker 1: I work for myself. I'm in control right like and
Speaker 1: so it's like you need to take a step back.
Speaker 1: And my mother was just like, so, do not fall
Speaker 1: back into your old patterns. Did you work out today?
Speaker 1: Did you meditate today? Did you do these things? Do
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying? And I recognize now because
Speaker 1: I'm more in tune than i've ever been that When
Speaker 1: I fall out of step with one of my rituals,
Speaker 1: with one of my things that I do to keep
Speaker 1: my self level, I realize how quickly I will fall
Speaker 1: off the cliff. It's so easy to fall off the cliff.
Speaker 1: Like that's the thing about ritual and it's about and
Speaker 1: about you know, you know, sort of self preservation. It
Speaker 1: is amazing. It is much harder to get back off
Speaker 1: the cliff than it is to get you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. When you fall off that cliff, if you
Speaker 1: don't catch it and you and recalibrate immediately, it is
Speaker 1: so much harder to get back up there. Like for
Speaker 1: all of that momentum that you build the minute you
Speaker 1: fall off, it's such it's such a hard place to
Speaker 1: get back from. So that's the part, you know, I remember.
Speaker 1: I would have clients who would you know, I would
Speaker 1: work with them. We would put blends together, and I
Speaker 1: would say, if this works, don't let it run out,
Speaker 1: because once it runs out and you've gone two or
Speaker 1: three weeks without it, it's gonna We're gonna have to
Speaker 1: go through a whole process to get you back and sink.
Speaker 1: And those that listened fared well. And that didn't you
Speaker 1: know here we are. So it is important that you
Speaker 1: recognize them as rituals and you recognize them as intentions,
Speaker 1: and that you know you have people around you be like, hey,
Speaker 1: did you did you do? Did you drinkers movie? Today?
Speaker 1: You seem a little on edge because it's easy, right
Speaker 1: all right, back off? Yeah, Accountability partners is also a
Speaker 1: big part of how we take care of each other.
Speaker 1: Everybody can't maybe everyone can't take care of you, but
Speaker 1: people can ask did you drink water? Did you eat today?
Speaker 1: You know? Have you you know, have you gone outside?
Speaker 1: You know you taken a stop for a minute and
Speaker 1: done some deep breathing, And that is just as that
Speaker 1: is just as critical I think we we're not we
Speaker 1: can't do it by ourselves, like we definitely need our
Speaker 1: village to help us. I definitely realize, you know, more
Speaker 1: so than ever, how important community is, because we have
Speaker 1: to restructure community now, right like in the ways in
Speaker 1: which you know. I was actually having this conversation with
Speaker 1: my sister and we were talking about missing the casualness
Speaker 1: of interaction that would just happen day to day, whether
Speaker 1: it's on the subway, at the coffee shop, running into
Speaker 1: somebody at a restaurant or what have you. And so
Speaker 1: the intention of like what it means to create and
Speaker 1: sustain community, right and deepen those relationships with people, because
Speaker 1: I also think that the frivolousness, right is gone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nobody has the time or the energy for bullshit, right, Like,
Speaker 1: so if I'm going, if I am spending time to
Speaker 1: connect with you, it is because I genuinely want to know,
Speaker 1: how are you, how are you faring? You know these things,
Speaker 1: And I think that it is important for us to
Speaker 1: realize that while the ways in which we have interacted
Speaker 1: maybe on pause, we can consciously create community that fills
Speaker 1: us up. Right. That isn't about obligation, but is about intention.
Speaker 1: But it also about transparency. I have learned to be
Speaker 1: more transparent in this pandemic. I'm not usually wanted to
Speaker 1: be like, oh so by the way, all of these
Speaker 1: things happened, You ask me how I'm doing, Like I'm okay,
Speaker 1: you know, and that'll be it. And so transparency. It's
Speaker 1: also I think a really big component of this, like
Speaker 1: we there no one should be pretending that they're okay
Speaker 1: if they're not, and sort of giving people space to
Speaker 1: have those conversations like the like I've noticed even in
Speaker 1: the way that I communicate with my friends, there used
Speaker 1: to be like I try to, I often try, and
Speaker 1: it's probably because you know, it's very Nigerian thing. You
Speaker 1: ask after everybody, how's everybody doing, how's the family? Dada
Speaker 1: da da? You do all these things, and you know
Speaker 1: you're taking longer, longer to get to what it is
Speaker 1: that you need. And so what I am appreciating right
Speaker 1: now is that folks are being very clear, like I'm
Speaker 1: having a hard day, I need to talk. We're starting
Speaker 1: to see more like this is what I need and
Speaker 1: if I can give it to you, great and if
Speaker 1: I can't, let me put you in touch with someone
Speaker 1: that can. And so there is this this transparency that
Speaker 1: I don't think we had before. People would literally how
Speaker 1: you do it, don't find out or not and on
Speaker 1: the inside be really really messed up. You wouldn't find
Speaker 1: out about it until you know, you happen to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody else, maybe who talk with them. So now
Speaker 1: I think we are realizing and because of the way
Speaker 1: COVID has been taken out, the gen xers, which I'm
Speaker 1: a part of, like we like we don't really have
Speaker 1: the luxury to sit around here and pretend that everything's
Speaker 1: okay when it stopped. We really do need to let
Speaker 1: people know. And so I do think that that conscious
Speaker 1: community building, it's very much a part of this. And
Speaker 1: what I'm hoping also is that there's a lot more grace.
Speaker 1: Like I tell me, you know, grace is something that
Speaker 1: I am leading with. So I'm not here to test
Speaker 1: you to see whether or not you're telling me the truth.
Speaker 1: If you tell me you have COVID, then I'm going
Speaker 1: to believe you, and whatever we can do will do.
Speaker 1: But grace and that balance of grace and accountability, you know,
Speaker 1: that that type rope walk that is all part of
Speaker 1: this now because we still have to continue as much
Speaker 1: as as hard as it can be. Some we can't.
Speaker 1: We don't have the luxury of just giving in to
Speaker 1: the whole thing. So we do have to and that,
Speaker 1: to me is where the rituals come in. That's where
Speaker 1: the crystals and the elixers and the teas, all that
Speaker 1: comes in, because those things can help sustain us even
Speaker 1: when we don't necessarily feel like we can go on. Chirstycat,
Speaker 1: I mean, I could spend literally days talking to you.
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like whenever whenever we do talk,
Speaker 1: for me, it feels like a mini retreat. I think
Speaker 1: I need, like I need the grounding, the and the connection.
Speaker 1: And so before before I let you go, um, please
Speaker 1: tell people where they can find more information about Black
Speaker 1: black Magic Sisters and strobe, how they can connect, how
Speaker 1: they can get consultation, all of those wonderful things so
Speaker 1: that they can truly find themselves aligned. Absolutely so with
Speaker 1: Black Magic Sisters, m we do ritual tools right now.
Speaker 1: Our biggest seller are these or expays that kind of
Speaker 1: helped shift the energy around you. You can go to
Speaker 1: b ok MGK Sisters dot com. So it's Black Magic
Speaker 1: Sisters without the without the viols. I'm actually teaching a
Speaker 1: herb class. I'm calling you, you know, herbal alchemy. I
Speaker 1: got five on it tongue in cheek and so there'll
Speaker 1: be five herbs that we commune with and I have
Speaker 1: this way that I'm using intentions to kind of help
Speaker 1: you understand the herbs and figure out how the rbs
Speaker 1: work with you and for you. And so that'll be
Speaker 1: February twenty seven. You can just register and I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot of fun. People have been
Speaker 1: asking me to teach for a while, and so I
Speaker 1: finally found a way that I think will communicate how
Speaker 1: I want people to think about herbs. And then would
Speaker 1: Strove strove as tr ob Apothecary dot com. It is
Speaker 1: a playland of amazingness. And so you can buy t blends,
Speaker 1: you can buy both herbs, you can buy crystals, you
Speaker 1: can buy Crystal lixers. We got ritual boxes. It's like
Speaker 1: a whole like it's it's just this, just go and
Speaker 1: hang out there. We got stories, we have everything. It's
Speaker 1: just so much fun. Um and we offer all sorts
Speaker 1: of UM consultations. So if you need an herb consult,
Speaker 1: if you need UM, you know Crystal consult, I do
Speaker 1: spiritual like you know, readings on both in both platforms.
Speaker 1: So however you want to engage us, we are here
Speaker 1: for you. And in both cases there are contact information
Speaker 1: like contact portals that you can go through and you
Speaker 1: can also follow us at black Magic Sisters and it's
Speaker 1: m A G I S c K on Instagram and
Speaker 1: we are Strove. We we w E A R E
Speaker 1: S t r O B on Instagram as well. So
Speaker 1: just wherever you find Stroke you'll find black Magic Sisters
Speaker 1: on the other way around. Ric kat Okay Day, I
Speaker 1: love you so much and I and Hey appreciate you
Speaker 1: joining woka a daily to give us. I just want
Speaker 1: to rank with you. I love it, I love it,
Speaker 1: I love it so thank you for having me. It's
Speaker 1: been an honor to sit with you, and like I said,
Speaker 1: super Priet, you a little sense just I love what's
Speaker 1: happening and can't wait to see more. As always, dear friends,
Speaker 1: Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck. See after Labor Day.