066: The power of lunar living, ft. Kirsty Gallagher

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Hello everyone, and thank you for joining me on another episode of Cani Crystals, the podcast. As you know by now, my name is Mart I'm your host, and this week I've got another guest on the show, and I'm just so excited because I've been a massive fan of her now for a few years since embarking on my own spiritual journey. And I think if I remember rightly, I first came across her when I saw her on This Morning. And you know when you just connect with someone with their energy straight away? It was like that. And I followed her straight away on social media. I've since bought all of her books, and I know that they're firm favourites on my website as well, especially Luna Living and Crystals for Self-Care. So please give a very warm welcome to the gorgeous Kirstie Gallagher. Kirstie, I'm so happy to have you here. How are you?

Thank you for having me. I'm very— after that intro, I'm very happy to be here.

Oh, bless you. I'm so glad because I know in December obviously you weren't very well, were you? So we've had to postpone this, and then we've just had a bit of technical issues. And I'm saying it's all Mercury retrograde, isn't it?

It is. And now you not having been well either, with your little croaky voice. Love you.

I know, I'm sorry. But this is kind of a full circle moment for me, Kirstie, because we actually bumped into each other about a year ago in York. I don't know if you remember.

Yes.

And like a bit of a crazed fan, I came running over and had a bit of chat with you. And I remember asking you then if you wanted to come on my podcast. So thank you for honoring that. I really do appreciate it.

That's all right.

And I guess I'm just going to jump straight in and start by saying obviously congratulations on all your success, especially with Luna Living. It's now become the Sunday Times 3 times bestseller, hasn't it?

Yes, it has. Unbelievable.

I was going to say, and for those that haven't read it, it's all about connecting with the magic of the moon cycles to basically ultimately live a happy life, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly. So when we look at the moon in astrology, the moon is our inner world. It's our emotions, our hopes, our dreams, the voice of our soul. And so the more we can connect to living with lunar cycles— and also one of my really big passions is we've tried to make life really linear and we expect things to be the same all day, every day. And we live in this very kind of masculine world in that way. It's always push and go. And as humans, we are cyclical. We should live by the cycles of the seasons and nature and the moon. And so when we start to allow ourselves that and realize we shouldn't be the same all day, every day, that life has rhythm and life has flow, we can start to access then that more deeply intuitive part of us that naturally knows all of these things anyway. And so, um, it's been such a beautiful journey with Luna Living.

I love that. And I mean, there's so much science and magic when it comes to the moon cycles themselves, isn't there? So how can we utilize the cycles of the moon to forgive, let go, and manifest our dream lives?

So I think the first thing to do— I mean, there's, there's not a lot of scientific research, but either way, so you'll find some people trying to disprove it and say, oh, that's rubbish, this theory said this, but then there hasn't been the, the kind of the, the tests done or the research done either way. So I always say to people, even if you're a bit skeptical, give it a try and see where it takes you. Because it's only, you know, we want to start to embody things. Knowledge only becomes wisdom when we embody it. So it's all, it's very well reading something and going, oh yeah, that sounds good, that makes sense. But it's only when we really embody it that it starts to become a deeper wisdom within us. So the moon moves through 8 different phases. When people are just beginning, I really encourage you to start simple. So like anything in the spiritual world, we can overly complicate it and we can believe that, you know, the moon has to be in a certain place in the sky and there's got to be rituals and candles and incense and it's got to be the right time of day and there's space for all of that, but ultimately it also can become a form of sabotage. So initially, just do something. It doesn't have to be an hour-long ritual every morning and night. 5 minutes a day will make the biggest difference in your life. So the same with lunar work, start off slow. New moon and full moon are the two main big checking points. So the new moon is the very beginning of a lunar cycle where the moon is, is new. And so on the new moon, we set intentions with the moon, the moon at new. We say, okay, what do I want for this next lunar cycle? What intentions can I put in place? What do I want to try and manifest and create? What do I want to do? We then have a two-week period where the moon waxes, gets bigger. And as the moon grows bigger in the sky every night, we, like the moon, start to let ourselves be seen, let ourselves shine. Do what you can do towards your goals. Say yes to things. Go out there in the world. Full moon comes 2 weeks later. Full moon is that halfway point of the lunar cycle, and the full moon illuminates. So on a full moon, the full moon really illuminates our lives. And at this point, we get a check-in point. Where first of all, we see very clearly what got in the way of us achieving what we wanted. 9 times out of 10, it's us. We got in our own way. We didn't go to that event we got invited to because we got scared no one would like us, or we got scared of following that little intuitive voice that said, go out there and do this, or we got scared, we got a bit small, we ignored the little nudge. And then the moon shows us from that, what do we want to work on releasing? What do we want to let go of? And so then we use the next 2 weeks of the waning lunar cycle, letting go of the little voice of doubt in our head, letting go of the inner critic, letting go of the sabotages, letting go of the doubts and the fears and the things that get in our way. So then we come around to that new moon again and we start all over again. So what the moon actually does and working with the moon does is it's an incredible tool of self-empowerment where you get to know yourself. Because you start to notice moon after moon, month after month, you're coming up against the same things over again. There's that same fear again, there's that same little doubt again, there's that same little nudge of intuition telling me to follow this again. And we start to really see the patterns, and then that enables us to have that inner alchemy and transformation and to really work on ourselves and grow. And what you can achieve through working with the moon, even just for a couple of lunar cycles, is incredible.

Yeah, I love that. And what I was going to ask as well is what was your take on all of those little things that you can do? Because I'm sure that you've seen on TikTok, for example, it's a huge rabbit hole of information, isn't it? Like about making and drinking moon water and full moon affirmations and should be charging your crystals here and you shouldn't be charging them then. And like you say, it's basically just taking 5 minutes a day and doing what feels right for you.

Absolutely. Because again, you can— and it's about as well being careful who you listen to, because I mean, you and I have both been on a spiritual journey, and especially when you first start out on a spiritual journey, there's so many different things, especially nowadays. Like, when I first started doing this work 22 years ago, there wasn't TikTok or Instagram, you know, there was me on my own with the books and all those different things. Whereas now you only have to go online and you'll see a million different people telling you a million different well-meaning things to do. And what it comes down to on a spiritual journey ultimately is self-trust. And I remember when I first started, I'd start on a path and then I'd hear about something else, so I'd read about this and I'd be like, but then what about this? And I want to try this and I want to do this. And should I bring in this? And should I also do this? And they say do this. And it can get so confusing to the point then when you have to start to discern for yourself what works for me. And even in the work I do, I say to people all the time, take what lands. And let go of what doesn't. If that's not your truth, that's not your truth, and that's okay. But it takes a while to get to trust yourself enough to be able to know what's right for you, and that's also part of the journey.

Yeah, I definitely think self-trust is a massive thing when it comes to your own spiritual journey. Like I say, it's, it's trusting and believing in what you actually want to read about and what you actually want to learn about, and then having the trust and the belief that that is what's right for you. That makes sense. So can I ask as well, Kirsty, because every now and again we kind of get— we'll get a blue moon or a super moon, or we'll be told we're moving into eclipse and retrograde, like I was saying earlier about it being Mercury retrograde at the minute. And I think, how do we— how do these kind of rare occasions kind of fit in with all of that? So what are the difference between those? And like what, like what you were saying earlier about living with 5 minutes each day, how, how will we adapt that when it comes to things like the super moon and the blue moon?

Yeah, so what I say to people all the time is first of all, just get used to working with new and full moon. Just get used to that. Just when you've got that down, then start to add on the different layers. That's the— it's like with anything, spiritual work, meditation, self-growth, anything. There's the bare bones of something and that's where the real work is. We can then put lots of other different things on top of that and yes, they might make it a bit better and improve it, but ultimately it's the bare bones of anything where the real work is.

Yeah.

So New Moon, Full Moon. New Moon, check in, what do I want to create? Full Moon, what did I do? What worked? How can I celebrate myself for a moment? Because that's one thing we do not do enough as humans, we never celebrate ourselves. So we always say as well, a Full Moon, as well as looking at what got in the way, look at what worked. What did I do well? Because the more you celebrate yourself, the more you trust yourself when you go, oh my God, I made that thing happen. I did that. I did that brave thing and, and I manifested that and I created that.

Wow.

It helps us build that self-trust. So celebrate you. Celebrate what worked, what got in the way, work on letting go of that. Once you've got that down, then you can start to add on all of these different little things if you choose to. So what things like supermoons and blue moons and eclipses and things come along to do is they're almost like, if we imagine them like amplified full moons or new moons. So a supermoon just means that the moon goes new or full in its closest point to the Earth. So when the moon goes around the Earth, it's not an exact circle, it's more of like an egg shape. So there'll be certain times the moon is further away. And depending on when this podcast is going to come out, people might not be able to remember back to this, but we've just had what's called a mini moon, which is when the moon is furthest away. So for anyone that saw this last full moon, she'll have looked quite small in the sky. So a supermoon just means the moon is new or full at the closest points to the Earth. And so because the moon is closer to us, the effects are a bit amplified. So a supermoon just means that whatever we're feeling, experiencing with the moon, we're going to experience it a little bit more. Blue moons are really, well, they're kind of special, but again, they're not as rare as one might think. It's where the saying 'once in a blue moon' came from because they don't come around that often. There's two different theories to when a blue moon is, and there's quite a lot of kind of argument, I guess, in the astrology world about what the exact terminology is. But a blue moon is when you either get two full moons in the same calendar month, or this is where it gets confusing. Whereas in a season, so spring, summer, autumn, winter, we should have three full moons. If there are four full moons in that season, it's the third full moon out of the four. Who made that rule up? I've got no idea. And a blue moon, as it sounds, just means that we kind of get the extra opportunity. We get to live in those once in a blue moon moments What do I keep putting off? What keeps coming back to me that I don't go through with? Almost like that. If I fully trusted right now, what would I do?

Yeah.

And then eclipses, to be fair, eclipses are something I do pay attention to and I do encourage people to pay attention to. But what we can find, especially when we delve into astrology, is that astrology is such a huge world. I've been studying astrology for well over 20 years. I've barely scratched the surface. You're never going to know everything there is to know about astrology. It's impossible. Yeah. So what you'll find a lot of astrologers do is they'll focus on certain things. So for me, the Moon is one of my main loves, and I love eclipses because eclipses are connected to what's called the lunar nodes. So because it's still got the Moon energy in there, I do, I do work a lot with lunar nodes now. The lunar nodes in your birth chart— your— we have a South Node and a North Node that always opposite each other. Your South Node in your chart is all about past lives, what you brought into this lifetime, what you're really comfortable with. It's your comfort zone. And your North Node in your birth chart is your soul's purpose and lesson and mission in this lifetime. It's what you need to grow into, all of who you came here to be. But your journey to take you from your South to your North Node, it's really uncomfortable because it stretches you, it expands you, it asks you to come out of your comfort zone. It's what asks you to grow and to push up against your edges in order to evolve. And so when we look at your birth chart, I honestly believe your soul chose— chooses the exact moment to come to Earth, and your birth chart is a blueprint of the exact moment you chose to come to the Earth. And your birth chart contains the lessons your soul gave you for this lifetime. So it's a really beautiful kind of spiritual tool to use. And the lunar nodes are a really big part of that. They'll tell you a lot about your soul purpose this life. Thank you.

Like, this fascinating, by the way. It's absolutely blown my mind because I should have looked at yours.

Well, when we— we'll, we'll look at yours. Yeah. So the lunar nodes are really beautiful to look at, to just have an understanding of. And so eclipses work with the lunar nodes. So we get an eclipse when we get a new or full moon that happens on the lunar nodes. Now, the lunar nodes aren't like planets. They're a space in time. So they're the moment that the ecliptic, the pathway of the sun, crosses over with the pathway of the moon. So it's that like crossing points. So when we get eclipses, the lunar nodes get activated. So eclipses are almost like they're a little, um, a moment from your soul where your soul will speak to you. So a lot of people kind of fear eclipses because eclipses tend to come along and bring huge change, unexpected things. It can sometimes feel that like the rug gets pulled out from underneath you. Eclipses bring a huge amount of energy, but they only bring it to show you where you're straying off your soul path. So if you've moved off your soul path and you're somewhere over there, eclipses are going to be like, hey, hey, hey, hey, come back over here. What are you doing all the way over there? And what we'll notice if we're really honest with ourselves is that we've had the nudges for a while we're going off the path. Our little intuition or little things will be going, you're going the wrong way. No, you're going the wrong way. And then there you go, and then an eclipse will come along and go boom, you're going the wrong way and just whip you back on track. So eclipses literally come along to help you to get back into alignment with your soul journey, your purpose, and what you agreed to do in this lifetime. So eclipses for me, they hold some real magic and power.

Yeah. Wow. I didn't know any of that. So I am really fascinated because I've read through Luna Living obviously, but you've just gone into a lot more detail about the nodes and things like that. And I just know that my listeners are going to explode with excitement at all this because honestly, Kirsty, you wouldn't believe how many messages I get every single week to do with the moon. So honestly, thank you for clarifying all of that.

Pleasure. Well, if nothing else from this call, I'd say to people, go find out your moon sign. That's really important. Most of us know our sun sign. So our sun sign is the sign that the sun was when you were born. And that's when you look in the paper or magazines, you'll see, here's what your astrology for the week. It plays such a small part of the story. So you've got what's called your big three. So your sun sign, who you're here to shine as, it's your ego, it's your conscious mind, it's your personality. Your moon sign, who you are on the inside, who you are when no one else is watching, your soul, your hopes, your dreams, your desires, everything in your inner world. And then you have what's called your rising sign. Your rising sign is the— is the planet that was— or the sign, I'm sorry, the astrological sign that's rising on eastern horizon at the time you were born. So it's also sometimes known as your ascendant. Your big three is super important because— and I'll just give you an example for me. I'm a Leo Sun, so chances are you think I should love being on stage and on TV, and my Leo loves it. It's so difficult for me. It's really not comfortable for me because my Taurus Moon wants to be at home on the sofa under a blanket. I felt like a bad Leo for so long. Until I realized you've got— the only way to be able to really truly live life is to nurture your moon. Your moon is what helps you feel like you belong. So I know as long as I nurture my Taurus moon, my Leo sun can shine. Your ascendant is who people meet when they meet you, which is why when you meet someone and then you get to know them and you're like, wow, when I first met you, I thought you were like this. You meet their rising sign, then when you get to know them, you get to know their moon sign. So find out your moon sign, if nothing else, because that'll help you to know what you need to nurture in yourself in order to feel at home in the world. And then find out your lunar nodes because they will help you to know the journey of your soul this lifetime.

Have you got resources on your website to do that as well?

Yes, you can get a free birth chart downloaded on my website.

Everyone head to Kirsty's website. I'll put the link in the show notes. Honestly, love that. I'm going to go straight away and do my own straight after this. Now, obviously, Kirsty, as well, you're a yoga teacher as well, aren't you? Yes, I try and do yoga at least once a week, but I'm not the most flexible of people. But I stay in the room and I do what I can in the hope that this will kind of improve over time. So are there any benefits of doing yoga to celebrate the new or full moons?

Absolutely. That's, that's the work I do now. So I only teach yoga now around the new and full moons. Now, traditionally, if you go into Ashtanga yoga, and this is how I got into the lunar work, because in Ashtanga you don't practice on new or full moon days. Now, one of the jokes was that, um, Pattabhi Jois, who founded Ashtanga Yoga and brought it really to the West, wanted an extra day off. And so it was a bit of a kind of a running joke. But the other, the other thing that got told was because of the energy. So the moon turns the tides. So whenever anyone's like, don't believe in the moon, I'm like, what do you think turns the tides on the earth? The moon turns the tides on the earth. The moon keeps us on our gravitational axis. Without the gravitational pull of the moon, the Earth would just spin around. We wouldn't have any seasons anymore. And a day on Earth without the moon would only be between 4 to 6, 8 hours long because we spin so much quicker. So it's the gravitational pull of the moon that gives us a 24-hour day. So because the moon works on the, the water on the Earth in terms of tides, we too are made up of, depending on what body part and who you speak to, 60 to 80% water. So the moon also kind of pulls on that watery inner world of our emotions, our dreams. So the theory is that on a new moon, lowest energetic and emotional point of the lunar cycle, everything's quite heavy and grounded and we can't really move and we can't really get going. Full moon, highest energetic and emotional point of the lunar cycle. We've got so much energy, we don't know what to do with it. So there'd be a lot more injuries on new and full moon days because on a new moon, everyone would be like slow and, oh, couldn't quite do it. On a full moon, everyone would be like bum bum bum bum bum and going through. So I do still feel that holds a little bit of resonance if you're not practicing in a mindful way. But what working with movement yoga enables us to do is to feel energy in our own bodies. Because again, it's one thing to read on this full moon, you might feel a little bit like X, Y, or Z, and this is what you should do with it. But then it's another thing to actually work that energy into our bodies. And one of the main things, the reason I fell in love with yoga kind of 15, 20 years ago is because the philosophy around yoga was so rich and so beautiful. And it gave me answers to nearly every question I was searching for back in the beginning of my spiritual journey. And so what we're doing in yoga is that we're using our body to access deeper levels and layers of ourselves. So that same little voice that you'll come up against on your yoga mat that goes, 'Oh, you're so rubbish. Look at how they're doing it better than you. They can touch their toes and you got—' That's that same voice that when you go out there in the world and try to do something will say, 'Oh no, you can't do it. You're rubbish.' So when you can spend time on your mat going, 'It doesn't matter that I can't touch my toes. I'm here. I love myself.' And a lesson that my teacher, my teacher in India taught me so well— I've been doing Ashtanga yoga for a few months before I went and joined him. It's where I did all my teacher training. And he made me just stand with my arms and legs out, like wide legs, standing with my arms out to one side. And that's all he let me do. And I was raging because I was looking at everyone around me and I was like, they're doing that and they're doing that. And does he know I can do like the primary series? And does he know I can do this? And does he know what I'm capable of? So angry. He made me do it for probably at least a week, if not longer. And I really disliked him. And then I remember as clear as anything, this one day I was standing there and I was like, okay, if he's going to make me stand here, let me actually be here. And I was like, oh, that's my feet on the earth. Oh, that's the energy of my fingers. Oh, and I actually for the first time went into myself and connected. And then that day he let me move because he could see I was practicing mindlessly. I wasn't in the practice. I was in what I was doing next, where I could go next, how I could advance this. Yoga is a tool to get you to access your inner awareness, your inner voice. So when we do yoga around the lunar cycles, it helps us to take the energy of whatever that particular moon is beaming down to us and to take it into our bodies because our bodies hear and store everything. Yeah. So whereas we can walk around going, yeah, I'm fine, I'm good, I'm okay. Our body's like, no, you're not. Our body holds on to any emotions we suppress, any hurt we don't deal with. It holds everything. And so as we get to move our bodies in a mindful way, we're unraveling stored emotion, stuck energy, the little negative voices. We're unraveling all of that. So when we can come into our bodies, you know, we— many of us live from the neck up, we live in our heads, we don't realize we've got a body. All our wisdom lives in our bodies. So when we can access that, that's when we get into the depth of wisdom. So practicing yoga around the lunar cycle really helps us to embody the energy of the moon and really work with it.

You've got your fingers in so many pies, haven't you, Kirsty? You know, it is like, I was just like, honestly, like when I was reading, I've obviously read all your books and then I was just reading through your website and things just to see what you had available. And you've also got your Luna Living membership as well, haven't you? So what does that involve?

Oh, it's been one of the biggest joys of my life. I was doing the Soul Space, the Luna Yoga classes, so I wanted somewhere that people could then come to because In Lunar Living, I give an overview of when the moon is in Cancer, this is likely how you're feeling. When the moon is in Leo, this might be how you're feeling. But then with each and every moon in, in real life, the moon will make different what's called aspects. So the moon might be working with Neptune, or the moon might be working with the lunar nodes, or the moon might be working— so it gives a real different flavor to each and every moon. So all of the lunar cycles aren't the same. They're all completely different. There's a— there's an underlying energy and essence of what that moon will bring when she's full or new in that particular sign. But everything else is so much more to it. And I wanted to create a community, a place where people could go to, to first of all, learn about those things because I cover quite a bit of astrology in Lunar Living as well. So it helps to start an astrology journey, but somewhere we could go to then to work together moon by moon and month by month to really see the journey and the difference it made and to do it in community. Because I honestly believe community is one of— particularly after the last few years, it's one of the greatest gifts that we've got. So it's just an online membership whereby every single new and full moon you get the exact specifics of what this moon is doing, why we're feeling the way we're feeling, how we can work with those energies, how we can use those energies to evolve and to grow. It's just so beautiful.

And then you've got your moon meditations in that as well, haven't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely love that. It's just such a good all-round package. Like, so if anyone is interested in learning more about the lunar cycles and astrology and things like that, literally go and check it out. It's an amazing package. So how did all this come about for you, Kirstie? Because I know you mentioned that it was about 20, 22 years ago. So when did you first get into astrology and spirituality and want to like know more about the universe?

Yeah, I mean, I think I've always, always been a little bit like that. Always. I've always been different, always like pushed boundaries, never quite wanted to conform. Just I remember from being as young as I can remember, I just didn't. I'm a why, but why, why do I need to do it? Why? And if someone can't give me a good why, I don't want to know. I'm like, well, that's just stupid. And my great-great-aunt used to do tea leaves and tarot cards. I adored her. So they lived in Yorkshire, we lived in Lancashire, but whenever we go and visit, she'd get her tarot cards out and her teles out. And I just remember being so fascinated. And I got my first Parker's Astrology book when I was like, I don't know, 12 or 13. And my first crystals around that age and just searching for meaning. And especially then, like I say, school, I was kind of good, but I just pushed the boundaries. I didn't really, it just didn't, I don't know, that whole academic world. Sometimes it's good for many people and I understand it and there's need for it all, but equally Hopefully I hope nowadays we're much more coming into accepting and embracing different people for who we are. And I remember always just then being like, why? What's it all about? What are we doing this for? And when I first started work, I had a real struggle with why a 9 to 5? Why not 10 to 6? 8 to 4? 11? Like, I don't, I don't understand why people have to sit at desks for this amount of time. And so I guess around that time, around kind of mid to late teens, starting to really search for what's it all about. There's got to be more to life than this. So I became a Reiki healer and I became a crystal healer like 22 years ago before it was fashionable, and I became a regression therapist looking for answers, and none of it quite did it. I worked with angels and guides and chakras and auras and all of that kind of different stuff. I've channeled for many years, and then I found yoga, and yoga really gave me answers to many, many questions. So I quit the corporate world and went to India and lived there for 9 months and did my teacher training. Wow. And it was there that I really got into living by the moon because, as I mentioned earlier, on new and full moon days you don't practice. And I, I'm a real people person, so on new and full moon days everyone would go to the coffee shops and cafes and hang out, and I'd notice people's energy would be different on new and full moon days.. And then I'd notice that people would have similar issues. So everyone would be having relationship problems or everyone would be overly anxious or everyone wouldn't have slept. And it got me really hooked. So on those moon days, then I would, I would talk to the moon. What is it you want to tell me? What's the energy feel like? What's coming through? What wants to be known? And that's when I first started working with the moon, like seriously then as well. And now, as you say, it's all come full circle. I get to bring all of that now. So nothing's ever wasted on our journey. I think people forget that. Even working with the lunar nodes, I talk about this a lot, that people want to know what their purpose is. Yeah. And it's like, but you've got lots of little purposes. My purpose back then was to be a crystal healer, and then I would—

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Professional therapist, and then a yoga teacher, and then a meditation teacher. That's all now brought me to this place, or I get to bring all of that in and use it together. So it's important to remember that, that you might have lots of little purposes and not to constantly just look for this elusive thing out there that you're never going to quite get. It's happening all the time in life.

Yeah, I know you mentioned there as well that you got your first crystals when you were 12, 13, and I know you use them in your daily practices, don't you? And can I just basically praise you firstly before we go any further? For writing the ultimate crystal bible, Crystals for Self-Care. Because just to put this into perspective, little over a year ago when the book first came out, I was having a bit of a real downer moment in my life. So I think trying to run Canny Crystals as well as still working full-time for the NHS, I was doing like 18-hour days, 7 days a week. I wasn't seeing friends or family. I specifically remember lying there one night in bed calling out to the universe for a sign that things were going to get better. And I remember that your publicist sent me a message that very next day being all like, hey, Kirstie's new book Crystals for Self-Care is coming out soon, send us your address and we'd love to send you a PR pack. And just like that, it was like a light, do you know what I mean, from the universe. And your book arrived all signed, and I just implemented the lessons within that book, and I feel like it was really that kick up the bum that I needed. So I just wanted to know basically what was your thought process doing, uh, going into writing that book, basically.

So what I wanted to do with that book was my publishers were the ones that first mentioned, to be perfectly honest, a book on crystals. And I was very clear with them from the start that I would, I would love to do this because it's, it's, I guess it's strange for me as well with having worked for crystals for 20-odd years and them just being a part of my life. There's a little part of me that's like, are we not all using crystals? And then you have to remember, you have to stop and remember that like, no, most people still do not know anything about these gifts from the earth. That the Earth gives to us, that she grows to help us in our evolution as humans. And so I said to them, I will, but I do not want to do another crystal book that's just, this is a rose quartz and this is what rose quartz does for you. This is a— because the thing I found over and over again is nearly everybody, nearly everybody nowadays has got a crystal somewhere. Nearly everybody. The main thing is though, I've got this crystal, now what? That's what stops most people. They get it, they look at it, they go, it's pretty, I'll put it on a shelf, I'm never going to look at it because I don't know what to do with it. And again, I think we've made— there's a lot of like gurus in the spiritual world where we try to make it that you can't do this without me and you need to know this and I need to help you with this. And in actual fact, no, you don't. It doesn't need to be overcomplicated. It doesn't need to be— you don't need X, Y, or Z to be able to do it. You just need to connect with that crystal. So I said, the only way I'm do it is if I can write a 'I've got this crystal now, what do I do with it?' book that takes us through what you actually do to be able to connect and work with the crystals. And again, I was very clear in the beginning of that about you are your own guru. You are, you know best what's best for you. Again, you go online now and Google even rose quartz, you'll find, I don't know, 750,000 different sites telling you exactly what rose quartz does and it does. Hold your rose quartz, ask it, what are you here for? What do you want to help me with? What are we going to do together? And let that be a— that's the journey, you know. So I really wanted to write something. And don't get me wrong, I've got a tiny bit of backlash about why is there not pictures in there and this and this. And I was like, because that's not— that's not the point. The point is I want you to feel empowered to be able to go out there and buy a crystal and actually know how you can work with it and what you can do with it, because that crystal came to you for a reason. Yeah, yeah. So let's do the now what part. Um, so yeah, it was to help people with the now what. I've got it, now what. I love that.

So what crystals do you carry around with you daily, or does that all kind of change depending on your mood?

I have, I have a couple of real, uh, real staples. I love Kundalini citrine at the moment.

Do you? I love Kundalini as well. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Kundalini citrine. So I've always got a Kundalini Citrine. I mentioned in a few of my books. I've got this. Oh yeah, this quartz, just, just, it's like, you know, and that's how you're probably the same as me. I know a crystal belongs with me and it fits in my hand like holding hands. I love that. When it gets in my hand and it molds to me, I'm like you and me. So I have this on every interview, even on this morning, it's behind the cushion.

Really?

Every interview, every podcast, every class I teach, everything. This, this goes with me. It's just, uh, I'm not sure, like a little bit of a safety blanket, I guess. And then again, I talk about this all the time, you— we're all guilty of it, but few are better than many. So I mean, if I was to show you around my house, you know, there's so many crystals, but you can't work with them all, all the time, can you? So sometimes it's better to have that 3 crystals that you work with every day until your work together is done and then add more in. Um, I am a big— I, I'm a big— I do love moldavite, although I've not worked with it for a little while. But I remember when moldavite kind of first came on the scene. I mean, moldavite brought in some messages, hey? It was when that first landed, you know. Um, I worked— I've had a few favorites. I worked like— you'll surely remember Melody. So the Super 7, the original Super 7s, were all also really powerful, but I always normally just come back to basics as well, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think that's super important.

I think, I think you're right, it is super important coming back to basics and things. I think for the last year my journey has been supercharged because all I've really worked with is moldavite, prophecy stone, wow, Libyan desert glass, tectite, and then like, I was just gonna say, like, all the like high energy, high vibe and like large lumps of malachite and things, and I'm just sat with them all on my desk, and like I go to bed and I put them— take them all out of my pockets and put them on my bedside table and then wonder why I'm not sleeping at night. Not sleeping, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, malachite again is a— be ready for malachite, it's a big one. That's your favorite.

I love it. So a lot of my customers and listeners as well, they're keen to learn about manifestation So what I'd like to know is, what are your top tips for manifesting? So if you got something in your head that you wanted, how would you then go about bringing that into reality?

So I would work with the lunar cycles, obviously, and then I am also big on crystal grids. So the, the thing I think you can do, I think the main ways to work with crystals are, as I said earlier, connect with them. So I will either have that crystal with me physically, and even if it's just every morning, I'll hold, check in. Well, like you would imagine a good friend or a partner you live with, you have that checking in the morning. Hey, how are you? You good? Yeah, I'm okay. Do you need anything? No, do you? Off we go. Same with crystals. Or you can put them in a grid where a grid is just crystals set out in a certain kind of geometric pattern that then holds an intention. And so very often on a new moon, what I will do is I will write down my intentions, my wishes, what I want to manifest. One of the first pieces of advice I give to people is never work with more than 3 to 5. Because we're so sneaky at sabotaging, like we're so sneaky at it. Even with crystals, people are going to buy 500 crystals and then not work with any and wonder why. And it's like, because you've got 500. Yeah. Buy one, work with that, then add another, then add another. And like you'll know, we'll go through phases, won't we? Where we'll suddenly find one we've had for a while and we'll be like, hey friend, where have you been? And we know we need to work together again. Same with intentions. People set themselves 14 intentions and it's just not going to happen. So just check again. Luna Work really helps with that. It helps to know your sabotages. So I often like to admit my things because I think it helps other people to know as well that we're all human. But I'm a really big procrastinator and I will very often dress that up as self-care. So I notice that if I've got something huge coming, if I've got a really big opportunity, I'll be saying to myself like, oh, Kirst, you should lay on the sofa today and watch Netflix and look after yourself. And it's not— it's my self-saboteur that's scared of the big opportunity, scared of what's to come. But I know that now, so I can check myself. So getting to know your own shadows and sabotages is as important as getting to know kind of your lightness and what you can offer the world, because the two walk hand in hand. So first of all, work with about 3 to 5. Of intentions. Make one or two really simple and easy, because again, if you set these massive big intentions that you're not going to reach, and you're not going to reach them maybe for 6 months, a year, 2 years, you're going to feel like you failed, and you're going to feel like you can't manifest, and you're going to feel rubbish about yourself. So I always say set one or two little simple things, and then I always work with one or two longer term things that I might be working with for the whole season, or for 6 months, or for a year. I will then write them down and then I'll create a crystal grid around them. So I normally always have what's called an anchor stone, which is the anchor crystal. That might be a tower, it might be a particular crystal. It sometimes depends on the intentions. It might be like a rose quartz if you're looking to bring in love or whatever it might be, you'd add the anchor crystal. Then I will then hold that anchor crystal and speak my intentions to it, speak my wishes to it. This is what I really want to manifest. And then I would grid. And a simple grid is just 4 quartz points around the grid. During the waxing lunar cycle, they face in because then that quartz is bringing the energy to what you want to manifest. At a full moon, then, which we'll get to in a moment, you turn them out and then they help you with the releasing energy. So I would then put the— what I've written down underneath the grid. But then what's really important to remember is that In manifesting and in the spiritual world, it's not enough just to write it, that you've gone, then got to show up for it every day. Yeah, every day. So that grid becomes a place then that I can go to and connect in every day. And what I do then is I use that anchor crystal to meditate with every day and just to spend time and tune into and feel into those intentions. And it's really important when we're looking at setting intentions, um, a couple of things. First of all, you have to honestly have that self-belief within you that you can actually achieve it. It, which again takes time to grow. So if there was a part of you— some things might feel a bit scary and a bit big, granted, but you've really got to work on that inner belief of, I know I can do this. I don't know how, I don't know how it's going to happen, but there's just something in me that's like, you can do this. So as you sit there with that crystal every day, you might repeat those intentions to yourself, you might feel into them, you might spend some time visualizing them like they're already here. And again, it was really important with intentions because I just like a why. Why do I want this? Because 9 times out of 10, we want what we want in order to give us a sense of validation, a sense of worth. Start to find that then in yourself every day. And what you might find then as you're meditating is you get little signs and little images, or you might get someone's name in your head and do something about it. Then call the person because they might then say, oh, hey, yeah, my work at the moment is looking for this new role. And it's exactly the role that you've written down that you want. Start to act on those things. So every day for that waxing lunar cycle, where the moon grows bigger, connect to those intentions and do everything you can to help them to come true. And then at the full moon, look at what stood in the way. I sabotaged that. I didn't follow up on that little nudge I got then. Why not? Well, I didn't trust myself enough. I didn't trust what my voice was saying. I doubted myself a little bit. Okay, so how do I now start to work on more self-belief and more self-trust? And that's what you'd work on in the waning part. So Manifestation, a lot of it is believing in yourself, but also this or something better. Yeah. Because again, I think we sometimes dream small because it's all we think we're capable of. So there's also something to be said for we have to have the dream, but then we have to loosen the grip. Because while we're then clinging, holding, controlling, micromanaging, we suffocate the life out what we want. And so it's about then dropping it out into the universe and trusting and then just becoming all we can be in daily life to embody the energy of what it is that I want. So I like to work with people on that future self, that future you has what you want. How does she or he show up every day? So if I was talking for myself, that future vision of what I want, what decision would she make right now? What energy would she embody today? How would she move through the world today? What would she do in this difficult period? So you can start to really embody the energy of what it is you want. And what we find then, 9 times out of 10, is it's the journey to get in there that was actually what really mattered. And when we get the thing, we're like, oh, got the thing, but we've already got everything that we wanted the thing to bring us inside ourselves. And just a final tiny point on that, and I always like to make this point, I think one of the things that we've done really badly in the modern day kind of spiritual world is manifesting is we've gone high vibe, high vibe, high vibe, you've got to be high vibe all the time. And then people have a bad day and they're like, oh my God, I'm going to ruin all my intentions, I'm going to manifest all this horrible stuff into my life, my whole life's going going to go wrong, and it's just really not the way that it is. If you stay in that energy for a long, long period of time, of course, like attracts like. And as we're in a slow-moving energy, we're going to invite those— you're moaning all the time, complaining all the time. If you're in victim mode all of the time, of course, because those are the glasses you're wearing, that's what you see in the world. You only see then the people that do you wrong and the things that don't work. But we can't just high vibe our way— that's spiritual bypassing. And actually emotions are our greatest teachers, especially around the lunar cycles. So it's really important as well to sit in that emotion, sit with your sad, sit with your lonely, sit with your grief, sit with your fear. Don't be afraid of them and just think you've got to high vibe your way out of it. Sit in that and let it show you what it's there to really show you. And that in itself as well will help you to manifest way more.

I was going to say there was, there was really a couple of bits there that you mentioned as well. Taking that inspired action, that is a massive one for me because a lot of people just sit in the, oh my God, it's like a wishing phase almost. It's just wishing for something but then not doing anything. And I always say, you can't win a marathon just sitting at the start line. Sooner or later you're going to have to start moving your feet. And I always say that. And there was something else that you mentioned there about not dreaming too big on your vision boards, because someone I saw on Instagram who I follow I was quite surprised last week. She was advising her followers to make a vision board for 3 months, and then they were all like sharing their vision boards with her, and it was all things like the house and a car. And I thought, that's not— there's— I mean, it might happen, don't get me wrong, but when that doesn't happen, then you're going to be sat in that, oh my God, it hasn't worked, I can't manifest. And immediately your mind goes to the, it doesn't work for Do you know what I mean? So I see vision boards as more like 1, 3, 5 years at least.

Yeah, at least. Yeah, exactly. And that's, that's a lot of the problem. We give up because we set ourselves these huge expectations. Like with the moon, I'm going to work with all 8 phases and the moon. Like, the moon changes zodiac sign every 2 and a half days. Yeah, you try changing what you're doing every 2 and a half days. It doesn't work. And again, as we've mentioned a few times, come back to the bones of it. Come back to what really matters. Come back and sit in those And if you set those kind of smaller intentions and they always say like, you've probably done this before in your spiritual journey. When I first started, it was all about asking for car parking spaces. Yeah. So you'd ask for a parking space, you say, please, angels, help me find a car parking space, and then you'd find it. That in itself helps you to build the trust and belief in yourself that you can then do the big things. So if you can have those little small wins and you can really celebrate those wins I found a parking space. This thing really, really works. I asked for that little thing. It really, really works. How are we going to ever be able to achieve the big stuff if we don't see that we can actually achieve the little stuff? Yeah. And so the more and more we can set those little things and we can trust and believe in ourselves enough to then go after the big things, even if it's scary, we've got that, that bank in us already that's like, well, remember that time I created that and then I manifested that and then I made I made that happen, and then I made that work. It's how we learn to trust ourselves. It's so important.

So can we talk about your new book as well, Kirsty? Because Sacred Seasons is out on the 16th of March, if I remember rightly. So can you tell us a little exclusive goss about what it's all about and how you find writing it? Because I know you've been working so hard behind the scenes to hit those deadlines, haven't you?

Yes, yes. This, so the, the writing of this book, I'm really excited about this book. So this book takes us, if you've not already noticed, a lot of my work and passion is about living back in alignment with seasons and cycles and flow. The planets have seasons and cycles and flow. The moon has seasons and cycles and flow. Nature, seasons, cycles, flow. And there's almost an arrogance about us humans. It's like, oh, I'm not affected by the planets or the moon or nature. And it's like, we're part of nature. So the whole time we push against that, the whole time we avoid our our true nature. I, I genuinely believe with every cell of my being that the same life force energy that tells the buds when to blossom and bloom and that causes the trees to grow is the same energy that grows our hair and our nails and our eyelashes. Like, we're made of life force energy, and when we start to really accept that, that's when life gets really, really beautiful. And so I wanted Sacred Seasons to become a way that we can live back in alignment with nature Nature once again. So it takes us through a whole year, and it touches on the solstices, the equinoxes, and the cross-quarter festivals. But then it also takes us through every single month, but done by the astrological year. So we've obviously just had New Year, and the traditional New Year's never resonated with me. I'm like, how can we dream and vision and wish when it's cold and dark and gray, and I just want to hibernate? So I live my year by the astrological year, which starts with the spring equinox. Equinox on the 21st of March. That's how I live. Um, so even now I'm like, I'm coming into the year slowly, but we're still kind of sleepy. We're not, you know, we're not pushing yet. And that's what this book hopes to do. It hopes to get us back into that alignment and rhythm with nature of every single month. What astrological season are we living in? What's the energy? What new and full moon comes in that season? What nature festivals are in that season? Because our ancestors used to live by nature and they worship nature. They believed that the divine moved through nature. And it's only when kind of the church came in and took us from a nature-based worship to a civil-based, a man-based worship, that things really started to change. And I believe that's one of the real moments in history that we then lost touch with who we really are and the power that's really within us. And I hope this book connects us back to nature once more, and therefore our own true nature in that remembering of who we are.

I love it. I can't wait to read it. I'm really excited for it. I've got it on pre-order on Amazon.

Thank you.

You're very welcome. So what's next for you then, Kirsty? Do you have a vision board? Like, what's on it? What are you hoping to achieve next? More books. I love it.

Definitely more books. There'll definitely be more books to come. And then I I think for me, and this is a good opportunity for me to speak out and to be in and speak out into the world, I think I'm ready also for what's next. I think so. I feel like last year for me was a real, um, it was an incredible year. So many wonderful things happened, but I think there's an awareness in some ways as well that I'm still hiding a little bit. I'm playing small a little bit, and I know there's so much more I can offer and I can give. And even my journey you know, with, with what I've been through and the success of Luna Living. And, you know, I speak about this openly as well. But when I first got signed for my first book, I think I only had about 3,000 followers. So again, not to let things like that put you off when you've truly got a passion in your heart and a purpose, nothing's going to stop you from getting there. But my journey has been, you know, going from a yoga teacher who taught in village halls where barely anyone would come and I'd cry when people were in shavasana because I'd not made the— I'd not managed to make the room rent. To now where I am now has been incredible. And it's been a journey where I've had to also really grow and evolve in order to be able to hold that. And it's coming to the stage now where I'm like, now there's an expansion, now there's more to come. So I'd love to start working more, weaving more into a lot of the work I do. So I say behind the scenes, I guess, like when I used to be a crystal dealer behind the scenes before a lot more people did it and now I do a lot of work behind the scenes that isn't necessarily public-facing, but I want to bring a lot more of that out. So a lot more of the spiritual work I do. I do a lot of work around working with divine feminine energies and tantra and witch kind of stuff. I did a lot of work last year on kind of healing the witch wounds, which is really beautiful and important work that men, women, everybody, you know, we, we, I mean, you and I, we'd have been burned at the stake for having this conversation. 100%. We would have been. We probably were together. Them back then, weren't we, as they dragged us off. And that wounding goes deep, though. Yeah, that wounding is what makes us scared of using our voices. It's what makes us scared of stepping into our full power. It's what makes us afraid and dim ourselves and hide ourselves and get stuck from following our intuition. Because again, trusting our intuition at one point would have got us into trouble. Yeah. So I want to do a lot more work around that kind of thing and bringing that much more into the forefront, which again asks me to step into it. Like, I remember when I first started doing lunar work, I'd get ridiculed in the press and things of like lunatic and crazy woman. Yeah, I think when I first went on This Morning, I think it was the Express ran a story on me about like crazy moon lady, and I probably sat in my bedroom and cried for about 6 weeks. Stuff like that, it's taken me a long time to get a little bit of a thicker skin as well, which you have to doing the work we do, you know. Um, as a recovering people pleaser, it's been a very, very difficult journey to go on. But yeah, I'm ready now to just come into, into what's next. So there's a lot of me at the moment, especially as we're still in this kind of winter phase, where I'm just spending time quietly asking, how can I serve? How can I show up more? What's needed? How am I needed? Show me where I'm needed. Help me to step into more of my purpose so I can really then let myself be guided. Because it's not really about us, is it? It's about what the universe needs, what the world needs. And so, um, yeah, I'm quietly excited about this year.

And everything I was going to say, I think people are a lot more accepting of spirituality as a whole nowadays. And I think probably because of the pandemic and things, people have looked to something else for a bit more hope and empowerment and things, you know what I mean? So I I think the future is bright for all of us really, isn't it?

I honestly think we've not even touched the surface yet. Yeah, I really, I really don't think we've even touched the surface of things like astrology, crystals, lunar work. I think we're just at the beginning, and I think it's beautiful now that we get to be— having lived and experienced it for so long, we now get to be those guides that then show people the way through our lived experience.

Yeah, love it. So Kirsty, how can people find you then? Where are you at online?

Um, I'm mainly an Instagram girl, so Kirsty Gallagher or Luna Living on Instagram. And you need to show me the world of TikTok. I don't understand it. I do not understand it. But everyone I speak to is like, you gotta get on there, you gotta get on there. Um, Instagram Kirsty Gallagher, website Kirsty Gallagher, they're the main places I, I hang out. And then everything about the Luna Living sisterhood is on I do classes every new and full moon, yoga classes for the moon where I tell you everything you need to know and then we move through that energy together. I started that in the pandemic and the community of people we have on there now is incredible. It's a beautiful place to be. So yeah, amazing.

I'm going to pop all of Kirsty's links in the show notes below, including links to her books, website, and socials, and go and get, um, her new book pre-ordered as well. So yeah, thank you so much for coming on the show, Kirstie. It's been so lovely to catch up with you, and I can't wait. Thank you. So thank you. I really—

thank you so much, my love. Thank you.

And for everyone else listening, go follow Kirstie at the link in the show notes. If you've enjoyed this episode, please submit a quick 5-star review. It really just helps this podcast grow to new audiences. But for the time being, I just want to say have a have a lovely weekend, everyone, and hopefully I'll see you all next Friday for another episode of Cunny Crystals, the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye.

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