Author: Jessi Huntenburg

I’ve been walking the Earth in my bare feet.

Every morning (or afternoon, as the day dictates), I strap on my crossbody bag, slip on my thong sandals, bound down my steps and make my way to the beloved cemetery/arboretum/community garden in my neighborhood. Years of daily running and walking have created a natural path around the periphery of its fifty acres, and once I reach the path’s mouth I slip off my sandals, clip them to my bag, and bare my soles to the dew-drenched ground. 

It feels just as delicious as you think it does, Beauty. 

I started this practice after watching “The Earthing Movie,” a documentary that explores how the simple act of digging your toes into the grass (or sand, or dirt) can potentially alleviate inflammation and the symptoms it causes.  

It makes intuitive sense to me that we need the Earth in this fundamental way.  We “grew up” and evolved in her embrace. Until very recently, we slept and worked and played on her surface. As much as we try to forget, we rely on her for everything. It’s through her grace that we’re even here at all. 

A week before I stumbled across the documentary, my family and I spent a few days at an organic farm in Raleigh. We fed chickens and pigs. We creek-stomped, searching for butterflies and crayfish. We pet pigs and rode the pendulum of tree swings. And we put our bare feet on the Earth because it was the most natural thing to do. 

I’ve lived in the city for sixteen years. Looking back, very little of the time I’ve spent here has been shoeless; after all, you never know when you’re going to stumble on a scattered collection of broken glass, rusty screws, or a rust-eaten aluminum can. This ever-present human trash blanket keeps you on your toes and keeps those toes in your shoes. It never occurred to me that I was denying myself a natural healing practice, and even worse, that I was denying my daughter the same (she walks barefoot with me too). 

There was no buy-in for this, no psychological, financial, or emotional risk. So, I decided to go for it. I haven’t been “tracking my progress” or trying to measure an improvement in my feelings. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m getting a little tired of thinking about myself. But I can tell you this: two days ago, I was sitting in the shade of my daughter’s favorite tree, peering at the recently renovated carriage house of the eighteenth-century mansion nestled at the back of the cemetery. There’s an alpine tree that grows beside the house and that extends its trunk and branches far higher than its roof. I love looking at its silhouette, so beautifully outlined by blue sky and whirling tendrils of ivory clouds, and I was doing just this when it occurred to me that I felt in perfect harmony with my environment. 

Suddenly, my mind received the bird’s chirping–what a gorgeous cacophony. I saw each bee buzzing around each flower. I felt the wind rolling across my cheeks and the warm heat of the sun soaking into the few toes that had inched their way beyond the protection of the shade. And a feeling of infinite abundance and benevolence washed over me, and I felt Gaia’s primal love. 

It was pure magick, Beauty. 

I spoke to this experience earlier this year during Venus Vibes month in the Mind Witch Coven, and it aligns so closely and beautifully with what I’m sharing here that I decided to share it with everyone. What better way to reaffirm my place in the cosmos than through sharing myself with it?

So Much Love, and go Take a Walk on Gaia, Beauty!

xoxo Mind Witch Mama

Writing a poem is like taking a journey to the deepest, truest, most treasured parts of ourselves to unearth the power that resides there. When approached with sincerity, vulnerability, creativity, and intuition, a poem can become one the most powerful spells a witch ever casts!

When we cast a spell, we create change, access the divine, and connect with our inner genius. As it happens, we do the exact same thing when we write poetry! By simply changing your mindset and approach, you can become a badass, poetry-writing Mind Witch Mama today!

Poetry Magick is an act of Alchemical Transformation

When we write poems with all that we are, we are changed by them. The process itself illuminates hidden truths, unlocks buried emotions, and provides us with insight that shifts how we see ourselves and the universe. If you doubt this, I challenge you to write a poem the next time you’re feeling lost or confused. Just write the details of your confusion, and watch them bloom into clarity and insight.

Poetry Magick is Vehicle for Divine Connection

When we set the intention to write poetry, we invite the liminal world of symbols and mysteries into our psychospiritual space. We step outside of the lines and so step outside of the systems we normally operate in, and we access a voice and a source that’s much greater than ourselves. In this way, writing a poem is working with the power of the all.

Poetry Magick is a Channel for Our Genius

I believe that our personal genius is the very best part of ourself. It is creative, it is elevated, and its mission is to coax us into our most authentic expression.

Poems don’t lie, and neither does our genius. If you want to rediscover you talent, creativity, and joy, write a poem!

Poetry Spell Casting | Getting Started

The best thing you can do to coax a truly transformative poem from the ether is to get yourself in the right mindset. If you work with candle magick, perhaps you can create a designated “poetry candle” that you light before you write. Maybe you want to call in the muses to aid you. Perhaps it would help you to travel to a place that’s deeply moving and inspiring (like a favorite park bench or a special place in the woods) to get your juices flowing. You can even ask a goddess or guide to speak through you and lend their voice and wisdom to your work.

Happy Spell Casting, Beauty!

xoxo Jessi, the Mind Witch Mama

Are You Ready to Become a Powerful Word Witch? Enroll in POetry magick: A Mind Witch Academy lesson!

In this lesson, you will:

~ use poetry as a vehicle for connecting with guides and deity

~ catalyze psycho-spiritual shifts through poetry craft

~ use the poetic form to charge an intention

~write an ode to a deity you wish to invite into your magickal + spiritual experience

~ craft a candle spell that supports your poetic creativity

~ petition deity and ask for guidance through the poetic form

By the time you finish this lesson, you will have written at least three magickal poems and will have gained the knowledge and experience you need to craft many more!

ENROLL IN POETRY MAGICK

My first real crush bloomed just before the summer solstice.

I was eleven. My mother had taken my sister and I to swim in the pool of a family we were just becoming friends with, none of whom my sister and I had met. Mom wasn’t sure who would be there, but her friend had four kids, so there was definitely a chance that at least one of them would be. 

When we arrived, it appeared that no one was home. We reached over the fence to unlatch the gate and let ourselves in. After twenty minutes of splashing, diving, and laughing in the pool, a shortish, lanky kid in black Nike swim trunks emerged from the sliding glass door and introduced himself.

I was instantly drawn to him (and I mean instantly). I couldn’t believe that he was just here, standing in front of me, getting ready to jack knife into the pool and play Marco Polo with us. Every crush I’d had until then had played itself out in the school environment, in full display of a highly critical public. This was instantly intimate, private. There weren’t the boundaries of desk placement, cliques, and academic performance to keep us from spending time with each other.  We could just…have fun.

We played wiffle ball in the side yard. We went for walks to the gas station convenience store and bought lemonade and candy bars. We joked and jibed and practiced flips off of the diving board. We just existed as humans, and somehow this felt really new and incredibly natural to me. It felt like everything a crush should be, but hadn’t been until then.

Even though everyone in both families knew that there was adolescent “like” between us, we never said the words to each other. When the summer was over,  the crush went into hibernation, only to be revived the following summer (only to go into hibernation once more).

During the third summer, our families went “down the shore” (that’s New Jersey speak for “to the beach”) with each other.  We were thirteen by then. It was very clear that we felt something for each other, but we said nothing. By then, our families had become the “highly critical public,” so our exchanges were neither private nor intimate.

One night, we all went miniature golfing together. I have these memories of looks I’ve shared with people that are burned into my brain, and one of these is from that golf outing. He was ten feet away from me, jauntily leaning on his putter, smiling and speaking to someone else but looking at me with an expression that can only be characterized as love. No words spoken, but meaning conveyed.

Once we got back to the hotel room, he and I sat together on the balcony watching tv. Neither of us had the courage to kiss the other, so the moment passed. After that summer, our families largely stopped seeing each other. And really, that was the end of that.

Each year when the summer solstice approaches, I’m reminded of these summer days. There’s something in me that remembers a feeling of walking through tall grass by the old train tracks, shooting the shit and skipping rocks. There are other summer memories I have of wasting time in the same beautiful way, and when the temperature rises past a certain point, they come rushing in like storm rain floods the sill of a window that someone left open. Some years (like this year), these memories signal a truth long forgotten, an ease of living and a deeper connection available to each of us.  All we have to do is forget that we’re trying to impress someone, that we’re trying to make something of ourselves, that we’re trying to reach some unachievable standard.

All we have to remember is that when we let ourselves play, we find joy, passion, and connection.

xoxo Jessi

explore the spirit of play with the mind witch coven

This June in the coven, we’re exploring the sacred practice of play! Through the video, spell, and ritual offerings, you’ll…

~ be invited into the spirit of play through recalling and recreating the playful experiences of your childhood. 

~ recite an incantation that connects you with the moment and releases attachment to outcomes (a key component of recapturing play). 

~go outside to perform simple spells and “inside” to remember what it feels like to have fun. 

~be inspired as I share my own experiments with play through high production, high quality video content!

LEARN MORE