When I was a kid, we lived walking distance from a big ole’ grocery store. At 11 years old, my bestie Nicole (who had bleached blonde hair and an inch of dark brown roots) would come over, and we’d go on pre-pubescent adventurous strolls to the Giant.
In the winter, we’d wear Jenco jeans — legs wide as the Mississippi — and overflowing puffy coats with a big front pouch pocket and a hood.
The front pouch pocket was important, because we’d go to the grocery store with not a penny more than $5. Enough for two Mountain Dews and a sharable bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. But not enough for taper candles.
And on this day in January? We needed taper candles.
With Nicole’s hands full of our snack stash, we meandered isle 6. The one with the greeting cards and the tins of cookies. The magazines, the wrapping paper, and the variety of candles – some in glass jars, others laid bare like zucchini. I picked up two red foot-long slivers of ignitable wick and wax, and nonchalantly slipped them into my massive kangaroo pouch.
My heart raced and my palms dampened, but my face remained casual and calm.
We pranced to the check-out line where the mildly depressed clerk rang us up. $4.72. (It was the 90’s, ya know?)
Toss your quarter, three pennies and receipt in that same guilty sack covering your belly. Walk at a normal pace. Out the automatic door. Around the corner from the store. Don’t turn around until you’re a half mile down the road. Then cackle like the 11 year-old secret bad girl witches that you are.
When we finally made it home, we rushed inside to my dad’s office, grabbed a book of matches, a half-used composition notebook and two big Sharpies. Then ran out back to the neighborhood tot lot and crawled under the play structure, cold damp mulch beneath our bums.
“Can you believe we pulled that off?!” Nicole squealed.
“Oh my god, I know!” I giggled back. “But also, like, we had magic on our side. OF COURSE we pulled that off.”
For a week we’d been planning a Big Witchy Ritual. Neither of us knew much about mysticism, other than what we’d seen in The Craft or Hocus Pocus. But we believed in something invisible to the eye, nevertheless.
When we’d play light as a feather, stiff as a board, we swore we saw our friends levitate.
When I was obsessed with Danny Stapler, I was certain my rhyming love spell and potion made of cinnamon and honey were the reason why he kissed me with his tongue (!!) during Micayla’s basement birthday bash.
And when Nicole’s mom got into another bad romance, we’d needle dolls of the dickhead dude, convinced our curses would protect her.
So this ritual we were about to do, it was the sealing-in type. The kind that initiates, only after ample practice.
We sat crosslegged face-to-face. Opened our spell book to the Witch’s Oath page. Lit our red tapers looking into each other’s eyes. And recited our vow to the mystery.
Oath of the Witches
Today we claim the power of magic
to guide and protect us in life.
We claim the power of the unknown realms
to bring us love and keep away strife.
We claim the guidance of the witches of past
who cast spells and incantations together.
We claim the cackling sisterhood of faith
may we walk this journey forever!
And then we let out what surely sounded like coyote snarls and echoing ancestral yelps.
When the rolling laughter subsided, Nicole’s grey-blue eyes met mine. “Are you ready to make this official?”
I nodded my rebellious head. A small fireball of anxious excitement swirled in my belly. And then I stated clearly, “I’ll go first.”
I gave her my hand, palm down, and spread my fingers wide. She placed her steady palm under mine, then in one fell swoop, turned the taper like a dagger and pierced my flesh with flame. Right between my middle and ring finger knuckles, a bubbling burn began to form. My inception scar. My offering.
I winched with gritted teeth. The smell of burning wax and flesh slid into my nostrils. And then, like a masochistic ageless sage, I smiled.
“Your turn.”
When it was all said and done, we gathered our supplies and went inside. Washed up our burns and hugged goodbye.
I don’t think about this ritual often. Ever, really. I was sitting at desk this morning wondering, “What’s a childhood story that relates to the work I do today?” And this one popped out, like a card fallen from the deck, taunting, “choose me”.
It’s wild, isn’t it? How the things we do as kids become our call as adults?
For almost 15 years years, I’ve been guiding brazen souls on the brink of change through rituals to ignite a new way. My spells no longer rhyme, and I don’t require flesh offerings. (Or do I? Muahahahaaaa….) But the essence remains.
To gain, you must give. Give up. Give away. Give in. Give over.
The magic is more powerful together.
A clear invocation is necessary medicine.
Cackling is not really an option.
This winter I’m hosting a 2-month CEO Coven Immersion for seasoned coaches, healers, business-owners & guides who are ready to make a Sacred Pivot in their lives – personal or professional.
You want to—
💖Renegotiate a major pattern, relationship, or way of offering your work in the world. (Heal your pattern of hiding your ART, move on from that business partnership that’s really not working, downsize your overdoing tendencies, bring forward your closeted genius, etc…)
💖Expand, outgrow or emerge into a new identity that scares you but is calling, nevertheless.
💖Prioritize a new direction without burning unnecessary bridges.
💖Receive the support of a highly experienced and masterful guide, with a proven track record of facilitating big change.
And you’re inner 11-year-old is also a secret bad girl witch who believes in magic.
Let’s cast it.
What’s Included:
A potent intake questionnaire.
4 alchemical 1:1s with me. One 90-minute session to dial in your intentions, 3 75-minute sessions to transmute led into gold.
4 group rituals. Specifically designed to help you move from a fidgeting sense that something needs to change, to crossing a threshold into new desired territory.
4 coven council calls. Wise support from the whole coven and me. Because the circle knows. All you gotta do is show up and be honest.
Group WhatsApp support Tues-Thurs. For celebration. For questions. For crowdsourcing. For collective courage.
$7k with an easy payment plan of $2k deposit followed by 5 monthly payments of $1k.
We begin Thursday January 19th. 6 spots only for ample intimacy.
Apply right here & we’ll go from there!
Big big love & mischievous cackles of trust.
xoxo,
Rachael