211: Bringing a little magick to everyday life, ft. Bloom n Witches

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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Canny Crystals, the podcast. I hope that you're all well. My name is Mart Tweedy, I'm your host, and this week I said that I was going to do a podcast episode all about How to Manifest Your Dream House. Well, spoiler alert, it's Halloween. I forgot. How the hell could I forget Halloween? So instead, I'm going to do that podcast episode next week. It's already recorded, it's an amazing episode, don't worry, you'll still get to hear it, but I'm putting it back to next week because today I wanted to do something extra special for Halloween. Now, just to paint a bit of a picture for you all, earlier this week I went on a little shopping trip to the Metrocentre here in Newcastle, which is basically an indoor shopping center, and I took my son who was 22 months old. He needed some new clothes for nursery, some new clothes for like knocking around the house in, and I thought I want to get him a Christmas outfit sorted as well. So parked up, went inside, straight away he's going through all the shops like talking to the mannequins and saying hiya, hiya, as he does because he's so friendly. And I forgot his pushchair. I forgot his pushchair. How much of a bad dad am I? So straight away I was having to carry him. Now he's 22 months old, like I've just said. He weighs, I'm gonna say, 2 stone. Is that about right? Probably. Anyway, this 2 stone in my arm was absolutely crippling us, so I kept putting him down, holding his hand. As soon as he saw something like a little toy car or a balloon or whatever it was that he was attracted to, he would immediately let go of my hand and try and dive for it. So I just had such a stress on, okay? I was trying to sort through rails, I was trying to get him to stand still, I was either trying to pick him up or put him on me shoulders. He was having none of it. He just wanted to go and run away from me and hide, and he was doing it with such a devious little smile on his face as well. He knew exactly what he was doing. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I went into Next and I got him a hat. I picked up some socks, somehow came home with 5 to 6-year-old boys' socks. Just wasn't paying attention clearly because of everything else going on, and I somehow came home with a 5 to 6 year old boy's tracksuit as well. He's 22 months and I came home with a 5 to 6 year old tracksuit. That's how much baby brain affects you. You just can't, you can't concentrate, you can't focus. So anyway, I went upstairs to Primark, and as I was going past Card Factory, he looked in and he kept on saying, "Balloon, balloon, balloon," and I was like, "Oh yeah, pretty balloons," kept on walking. He was like, "Balloon, balloon," he started having a full-on meltdown. So anyway, I went inside. I thought, you know what, just for the sake of keeping him happy, I'm going to buy him a bloody balloon. So I bought him a monkey balloon. The second I give him it in the shop, he let go of it. He wasn't having any of it. So I tied a little loop in it, I put it in between my fingers and held his hand so he thought he was holding it. Job's a good'un. So anyway, off I toddled into Primark, did a little bit more shopping. He started having a full-on meltdown because he didn't want the balloon anymore, and I thought, I can't cope with this, I need to get home ASAP. So I got him home, my partner started giving him his tea, and I thought, right, I'm going to catch up on emails while I've got an opportunity here. I've got 15 to 30 minutes to catch up on some emails. I opened up my inbox and the very first email was from someone called Dani, and she emailed me and said, have you just been in Primark with a beautiful little boy? And I was like, oh my God, yes I have, are you my stalker? So anyway, I sharply realized that this Dani is actually from Bloom and Witches, and they are coming as an exhibitor to Manifest 2023. 26 next year. So we got chatting backwards and forwards, and she said, you know what, we would love to come on the podcast to talk about how to bring everyday magic into people's lives. And I thought, oh my God, this would be perfect for the Halloween episode. It's October 31st, we have to do something special for Halloween. So without further ado, today I'm joined by two incredible women from right here in the Northeast. We've got Dani and Abby, the co-owners of Bloom and Witches. They describe themselves as two normal busy mums with a touch magic. And honestly, I think that sums them up perfectly because Abby is the bloom. She brings all things floral, creative, and full of light. And then we've got Dani, who is the witch, with her love of crystals, spells, and that mystical witchy energy that we all secretly crave more of. Now together they've built something really special, which is a space that's part holistic shop, part coffee bar, part spiritual sanctuary, where community, creativity, and magic all meet. I can't wait to dive into their journey to hear more about how they weave magic into their daily life and learn a few of their secrets for bringing a little more sparkle and witchy wisdom into the everyday. So ladies, welcome to the podcast. How are you both?

Hello, thank you. Lovely to be here.

It's lovely to hear a Geordie voice. I know it's not a proper Geordie or anything, but it's like a Northeast voice, isn't it? So I want to start by asking you both, like, I want to start with what magic actually means to you both. Like, how would you describe magic in your own words?

I mean, it's pretty simple. Magic for us might be very different from what it is for someone else. Magic has got its own identity with everybody, no matter what your journey, your path, or your beliefs, your background. So the lovely thing about magic is that it can be simple as well. It doesn't have to be complicated, and it's just enjoying the simple things in life, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Like the changing of the seasons, the warmth of the sun, the wind rustling through the trees, um, you know, the phases of the moon and the different energy it brings. It's just stopping and taking stock and appreciating the small things in life that end up leading to the bigger things. Yeah, absolutely. Just taking a minute and just reflecting, appreciating, that kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah, it's about being more mindful for yourself and others. Yeah, and more patient.

I love that. Because obviously my background is I worked in mental health in the NHS and I trained in mindfulness. And there's a lot of like comparison I see, well, from myself mainly, about religion, spirituality, that kind of thing. It's like, you know, when Christians are always like praying to Jesus or God, I don't even know who they pray to, whoever they pray to. It's like me as like someone who's a bit of an agnostic, I know there's something out there, but it's not necessarily Jesus or God. So it's kind of like the same concept as magic. As well, because you're putting something out there into the universe and you're using all these tools in nature. And so it's kind of like the same kind of concept. But when I was working in the NHS in mindfulness and teaching that as well, I've brought all of those concepts into everything that I do now because it is all holistic health and it is all holistic well-being, isn't it?

Yeah, I mean, that, that's massive at the minute. And even within the school curriculum at the minute, um, for the, for the hidden curriculum part of it, mental health is— and welfare is a massive aspect now to try and teach people from from a young age about mindfulness and kind of manifesting for what you want for yourself, that there is manifesting, that there's opportunities out there for you. So now, look, I mean, my generation, we didn't have anything like that, but now we're turning a corner with that. It's making it a better, better society. But like you said, whatever religion you are, man, so you could be a Buddhist and believe in reincarnation, you can be a Christian and do a prayer, It is all magical kind of elements of witchcraft without even realizing you're doing it.

Yeah, I think a lot of people see magic as something a bit more mysterious or separate from daily life, and it's not all like conical hats flying around on a broomstick under a full moon, is it? Do you know what I mean? So how do you both bring magic into your normal routines, especially as busy parents as well?

So magic doesn't have to be complicated. As we said, you don't have to spend a fortune and have all the fancy tools for your altar. It can be really, really basic. You know, we're busy mums, so maybe we'll just use some herbs out of our cupboard. You know, for example, blowing cinnamon across your front door on the first of the month brings good luck and prosperity.

You know, I teach this all the time and people think I'm a nut job. My neighbors have stood out the front watching me and I'm stood there like with my cinnamon in my hand, like, set my intentions, then blowing it across the threshold, and they're looking out the windows like, what the fuck is he doing?

Yeah, we went to our friend's house a few years ago and did it, didn't we? And then she came home and she was like, have you been out of my house videoing? I've got cinnamon all over the door. I was like, no, we don't. Aisling adored it. We were like, yes, we have.

So what are some small, simple rituals that you both do every single day that help you stay grounded or raise your energy?

So always put yourself in a bubble in the morning. I'm a Reiki practitioner as well, so use my Reiki symbols, put ourselves in our little positive bubble. And because we have the shop, we have so many different energies coming in all the time, and some of that energy gets a little bit stagnant. So we love to have a window open or a door, and we smudge and sage and get, you know, we'll chant to ourselves, out with the negative, in with the positive, out with the negative, in with the positive. Even our kids follow us around doing it as well with a little palo santo. Yeah. And just trying to shift that energy. But there's little things that we can do as well. So if we've got a problem in our life, something really simple to do is maybe write the problem down on the sole of your shoe.

Oh.

And as that wording fades on the bottom of your shoe, so does that problem in your life. There's other ones like a little— if someone's not being very nice, yeah, because we don't do hexes and curses, but if someone's not being nice, what you could do is the freeze spell. Probably heard of it. You write their name down on a piece of paper, yeah, put it in your ice cube tray, yeah, in the freezer, off the park. And it, it just kind of freezes their behavior where they are. It doesn't cause any malice or anything like that. It's just about stopping the behavior where it is in the tracks.

Now, when you're talking about the ice cube tray, so I have a friend, um, she's another podcaster called Francesca Amber. She hosts, um, Law of Attraction Changed My Life. She wanted to do this a few years ago, and she was told that you had to pee in the ice cube tray. So she put the, this name of this person inside of her frozen pee into her freezer. And there was one day that her electricity had gone off. Her mum was around at her house and thought everything in the freezer is going to defrost, sent everything round to her next door neighbour's house. Her next door neighbour was holding on to a frozen pot of her urine. So is it not, is it not just wee that you have to do this with? You can do this with water.

Freezer. It's just water. It's water. It's just what you need. You don't need pee. I mean, some people might like to use that. It might be more potent. I was thinking about wee or poo, I would maybe, because you could also write it down on a piece of toilet paper, the person's name or the problem, and then you kind of flush it. Do your bits and then flush it. So if you want to get pee and poo on it, then do it that way instead. Not in your freezer. Yeah, don't put it in your freezer.

Yeah, it's kind of like what I kind of do on a full moon as well, because I like to obviously release things that I don't want to take with me into the next cycle. And I tend to write them all down. And I always say to people, if it's safe for you to do so, go out into nature, into your back garden or something, set it alight in a fireproof dish. Some people often don't like to play with fire, or, you know, they might have— what's it called— that fake grass, that plastic grass, and they don't want things setting alight. And I always say to people, just get rid of it, flush it down the toilet. Obviously biodegradable paper. Um, make sure that you've ripped it up into tiny little pieces, do you know what I mean? Just get rid of that paper because then it's getting rid of it out of your body, isn't it?

Or just, um, even if somebody lives in a flat or apartment, even if you've got a pot of plant, just put it in with the soil and you're giving it back to the, the universe. Yeah, it's the same as if you broke, broke a crystal, just put that in with your plants or whatever and it'll help You thrive there that way. Yeah.

So how can someone that is kind of brand new to magic, how can they start weaving this into their life without feeling a bit overwhelmed or silly? Because like I was saying earlier with the cinnamon thing, when I first started doing that, I was worried about what the neighbors would think. Now I just get out there and do it and they're all staring. But, you know, magic to some people might feel a little bit overwhelming or a bit silly or chanting and things like that, what you were saying about saging, you know, how can we get over that?

That's exactly where I was, wasn't it? Yeah, so obviously I'm the Bloom side, very glitter, fairies, scared of my own shadow, so it's definitely not scary, I can say that, but you don't have to do anything that you're not comfortable with either, so if you're not comfortable, you know, going and doing a tarot or anything like that that's magical, or setting fires in the garden and dancing around, that, that's absolutely fine. You can, you can really just do it like Dani said, really simply by yourself. And you know, even when you're talking about manifestation and the magic of that, sitting at home thinking to yourself, you don't need your incense burning, you don't have to have all the music on, you can simply just lie at home in the quiet by yourself and think about things that you would like, be grateful, a lot of gratitude, that kind of thing. Yeah, definitely. So yeah, that's exactly where I've started. I'm well behind Dani on the Wiccan spiritual journey. We get a lot of newbies in the shop who said they're just starting the path, and yeah, we help them. And I'll say to them, well, just get rid of all the stereotypes. Because I mean, I don't look like a witch, I don't always dress like a witch, sometimes I don't, I'm more of a Winifred from Hocus Pocus, to be honest. What I'll say to people, because I'm agnostic as well, Mart, and I'll say to people, you don't have to be pagan or Wiccan, you don't have to wear black, you don't have to have a tattoo of a pentagram, you don't have to be part of a coven to be a witch or be magic. That is just within you. Yeah, you know, and I'll say it to people, for years you've probably been doing it without realizing. When it's somebody's birthday and you blow out the candle, you're making a wish, you manifest. Although I do hate that mind, because when you blow out a spell candle, you've blown away your intention. So I always, our friends, I'll say, I'll let you blow it out, but then we need to go back and redo it. And I get them to lick the fingers and snub it out, or with a candle, snub as well. Which, by the way, is the most scariest thing to do for the first time. So yes, and I say to people, you know, have you ever used a dock leaf to help a nettle sting? Yeah. Or have you ever been sat at traffic lights and willed them to change to green? Or sang, 'Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.' It's all magic that we do without even realizing. So I'll say to people, you're already doing it. What you need to do is research, because there's so many books out there and so much information. Read, research, and find out which path suits you. And no pressure to stick with one path. If you want to dabble in a bit of this and a bit of that, you do your own thing. That's exactly what we do as well, isn't it? Yeah, we don't, you know, we don't just follow one thing. It's like, if we like that, we like that. If we don't like that, We don't do it. The only thing we do say is we don't, and I mentioned before, we don't do hexes or curses because we believe in filling people with love and light, and we kind of kill people with kindness, and we don't do any of that. We think positively. And an example of that is we had someone who had a boss at work who wasn't particularly nice, and they were asking if we could do something to help them in that situation. But what we advised them to do was wish luck and wealth and abundance on this person and positivity and light. Anyway, it turns out this horrible boss went and got a promotion and ended up moving departments and going off somewhere else.

So, when, when.

But yeah, so the manifesting worked but in a positive way. Nobody was affected negatively, and that's how we've got to look at witchcraft because the rule of three applies in witchcraft. Whatever you put out, you get back threefold. If you've ever watched The Craft, the movie—

have—

yeah, yeah, when her hair falls out, that, that'll all happen. So you've got to be very mindful about what you manifest.

I love that as well. And I love that you're both kind of agnostic as well, because I just assumed coming into this call and you having this like shop that you were both like huge Wiccans or pagans or something. And it's funny because like I remember being in my teens, and you might have watched this as well, but I was obsessed with the TV show Charmed and it was about like 3 witches, and you know, they were Wiccans. And I would read books about Wicca and spell books and stuff like that, and I just assumed that you had to look a certain way, you had to follow the Wiccan creed and stuff like that. And the more I've grown up, I'm like, I can incorporate a bit of this and a bit of that. And you know, like the cinnamon thing, that's not a Wiccan thing, but it's just magic, isn't it? So it's just incorporating what works for you, I think. But What fascinates me the most is that you two have opened up this shop in Spennymoor. Now, for those of you listening, Spennymoor— how can I describe Spennymoor? Are you both from Spennymoor, by the way?

Yeah.

Yeah. So I lived in Willington, which is about 3 to 5 miles away. They are— if you think of the Dark Ages, they are like little towns, little villages that are still stuck in the Dark Ages in so many respects.

Mining villages. Yeah.

Yeah, they are mining villages. They are very much stuck in the Dark Ages. And I just thought when you girls said, oh, we're in Spennymoor, I was like, what? Spennymoor? I was like, I don't know. I just found it very odd. But how does that work? Because I love that it blends like florals, crystals, witchcraft. Can you talk about how that all came about? Because like I say, it's not exactly somewhere that I would assume that would want that kind of thing.

Yeah, well, my, my previous job, I've worked in, um, social work for, for years, and, um, one day somebody bought me, um, a crystal book as a gift, and I just could not put it down, and I was absolutely obsessed. And I visited a crystal shop for the first time, and the crystals were literally like, pick me, pick me! I was in there forever. I had to park my husband in the nearest pub, and I toddled bags. And I've like never looked back. And at work, when I worked in social work, I used to take the crystals into work and get everybody rubbing them, and I used to have people like laid on the office floor and doing a little bit Reiki on them. And I used to think to myself, I'm destined to be something else, I just don't know what. My mum died when I was 3, so my auntie more or less brought me up, and she always had a pack of tarot cards and could speak with spirits. So I just thought that was kind of normal. Normal, yeah. So it's in, for me, it's in my family, um, and it was only in later life that I established that I really love this. This is where I need to be. I'm comfortable, I'm relaxed, I'm a different person around crystals and magic. Um, so I started, um, from my cabin at home doing little witch's bee songs and putting little spell packs together and doing Reiki And Abi and I were friends from— our children are exactly the same age, so we were mum friends and we used to meet up for coffees. But Abi used to make these beautiful floral wreaths. Yeah. And sat at home beavering away. And I used to ring up and say, can I pinch some flowers for this witch's beesong? So we used to swap all the time. Yeah. And then we kind of said, you know what would be nicer? Magic, crystals, and florals. Oh my God, let's join forces.. And then Kind of Blue and Witches was born from there. Yeah. So, and like Dani said, I mean, hers is just her complete, you know, the shock has literally grown from when she's been small and it's just always been a part of Dani's life, but just waiting to come out properly. Yeah. Um, for me, like I said before, completely scared of my own shadow. Um, used to do things like when you're in the playground and, you know, when you're like, um, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt. So really doing all of these things, um, worked in retail, worked with children, going around doing mindfulness. And so I used to do a, a music and movement group, so it was all nursery rhymes. I can sing Rainbow. So whilst Dani was chanting all of this witchy stuff, I was there like, happy, happy, happy. Um, and that's basically how we, how we came about, wasn't it? We're like the weird ones. Yeah, we are. Yes. Very much. Guess who's the pink, who's the green? So yeah, it's very much, it's been very much like that. But us two together were mum friends and had no idea really that each other was interested in these few things. The thing that connected us was like crafting and stuff, wasn't it? So we would be like, oh, what are you doing? And when Dani rang me and said, can I borrow some flowers from our B-Sums? I was like, what on earth is that? I didn't know until, what, 4 years ago that a broomstick was actually called a besom. And again, that's okay. But yeah, because we're mum friends and our kids go to school here, we were like, we're going to have to basically have one in Spennymoor, wasn't it? Really, there wasn't really much more thought about it's the area or anything. It was really funny because I went to witch school in Leeds. That's where I trained. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Wiccan lady Louise Bluebell. She's—

no, I haven't.

Oh, she's like Captain Witch. She's brilliant. Anyway, I trained with her and my husband always said, Dani, don't mind you being a witch, but don't tell everybody about it. But then I've opened a shop, right? So yeah, there's no getting away from it now. Even when we walk down the street, people go, it's the witches. Yeah. So we're kind of known in the area now and we kind of love that because in— it is only a little town, but it's surprising how many people are wanting to be on this journey and just didn't know where. And we've provided that opportunity for them. And they'll come in and they'll look at the shop and they'll be like, oh my God, it's like a warm hug. And we get loads of clairvoyants and mediums and magical people who come in our shop, and they all say the energy is amazing. Everybody leaps. Feeling calm and relaxed and that they kind of found what they were looking for, if you know what I mean. Yeah. So we've built a community in a niche that we didn't even know existed. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. Do you think that there's still some stigma around though as well about the word witch and witchcraft and stuff? Because one of my best friend's cousins, she did witch school via Sarah, Sarah Darg in Durham, And, um, she put on Facebook that she'd graduated from witch school. My mom saw that post and my mom said to me, 'Eh, have you heard about Caroline? She's dabbling with the devil and all this.' And I was like, 'What?' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' She showed us the post. I went, 'No, she's just graduated from witch school.' And my mom went, 'Well, what's that?' And I was like, 'Well, she's been learning about herbs and nature and plants and plant medicine and stuff like that.' I was like, 'It's not all riding around on broomsticks, you know.' and she was like, I know, but what if she's like summoning the devil and summoning spirits and stuff? And I'm like, that doesn't happen. It literally doesn't— well, it might happen, but it doesn't happen like in witch school. So do you still think that there's like an element of stigma around? And do you get like funny looks from people walking past? Or, you know, because sometimes even in the post I will get letters from priests or vicars saying what you're doing is wrong, um, you need to shut down your website. And they all go in the bin at the end of the day because I'm like, I'm not hurting anyone. But do you get that as well?

Yeah, we have had letters in the post trying to save our souls. But not so long ago, some customers came into our shop and said, are you aware there's a lady outside of your front door giving leaflets and trying to stop people coming in? She's telling people that you worship the devil and you practice dark magic. So obviously we just went down, shooed her away with our broomstick. No, we were really nice to her and we invited her in for a cup of tea and said, get yourself up and see what we really do, you know, instead understanding here, making judgments without knowing us. Yeah, but we welcome that, you know, that yes, we've got a sign that literally says Bloom and Witches, so yes, sometimes it does put people off, but when we've had these conversations with people where someone's gone, oh, I didn't really dare come in, we're like, really? We are just a coffee shop as well. So yes, there might be some decorations that is our everyday that people might call Halloween, but it's just there and there's witch hats and all kinds. But once they come through the door, they realize that it is just a— normal is not the right word, but it's just a nice place to be. So we, you know, we try not to get hung up on being offended by, you know, you get little old dears and coming in with the husbands, and the husbands will joke, saying, oh, you need one of them brooms over there, you're always being a witch. And they'll go, oh, shut up, like that. And We welcome that. There's no point in us standing at the door going, you can't come in and say things like that because it's funny. It's what people do think. Everybody is looking for something to make themselves feel a little bit better or make their lives a little bit more improved. So I think everybody is more open-minded. It's a very generational thing thinking that all witches are green and they've got warts on their noses and that we've moved on from that. And it doesn't help that there's still movies out there that kind of dictate people in that way. But that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to move on from that stereotype and say we are normal people and we are agnostics. We're not pagan, we're not Wiccan, and we just believe in what we want is magic. Yeah, yeah. It's your own, it's your own choosing. Yeah, yeah.

I love that. I am going to have to have a nip down at some point as well. It's very rare that I go back over that way, like that side of Durham, but next time I am, I'm just going to nip in for a coffee. I'll surprise you.

I think you'd be very surprised when you walk in what vibe it is, because witchy places are very— you can imagine it being quite dark and lots of black, and we're not. There's pops of color everywhere, and it's so energetic, high vibrational energy in there. Yeah, we've definitely got the fairy elements in there, haven't we? I love it.

What are your favorite everyday tools or items to work with then? Because I know you've mentioned like crystals, herbs, Is it those, or is it something else entirely, or is there like plant magic as well? How does nature play its role in magical practices?

Yeah, well, I think our main tool is probably the pen because my life is written down in my books. So whether you call it a grimoire or book of shadows or your diary or journal, everything I do every day, um, what herb I need to use for this spell, or what crystal would suit best for this, and I write it down. But we get requests for a lot of bespoke spells as well, so I'll find always on the spot with me books thinking about how I could make this work for somebody. And as long as they take away and use their own intentions on it, you know, it's given them a bit of guidance. I can't do spells on people's behalf. But yeah, I would say my pen is my most powerful tool. Now, plants in nature, we as witches, we absolutely love, and he will often find me down the woods cuddling a tree. Always ask permission first from the tree. The same as I'll go to the beach and collect pebbles to make witches' runes, but I always ask nature if it's okay for me to take the pebbles first.

I've never even thought about that because I always do that.

No, especially with trees. It's like you're just randomly turning up and hugging it. It might not want to be hugged, so you've got to check with it first, it's okay to do that. And yeah, so, and if I go down the woods and I'm looking for sticks to make pentagrams, certain sticks will be like, I'm here, and others will be like, not me today, I'm all right, are you with me, mate? So I'll leave that one, you know, it's about being respectful to nature and incorporating that in spellwork. And we have a whole herb section as well in the shop where people can come and I've got a list of what all the herbs are and what you need them for, and people come in and make their own little pouches. And it— yeah, yeah, it's great, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely.

I wish I had somewhere like that when I was growing up because I don't know about you both, but like growing up with that kind of mindset, it's almost like you feel like a bit of an outcast. You feel like that nobody else is kind of involved in what you are wanting to be involved in, or they don't understand, and you just feel like you can't speak up or speak out about it. So I kind of wish that something like this had basically been around when I was little. I think the only thing I can think of when I was little is that, you know, Bishop Auckland. So up the High Street, there used to be Woolworths, and then right next door there used to be like this little shop that sold crystals and incense, and you could smell it when you were in Woolworths walking around. Now it's always be like Mama, am I allowed to go in there? And she'd be like, no. And it was just like thick of like goth t-shirts and stuff like that, but they would have incense and crystals, and that was the only reason that I was drawn to go in because I wanted that. So for you to have something like that on Spennymoor High Street is just incredible because you're inspiring the next generation of people who are shown that willingness and that interest in that kind of thing, do you know what I mean? And it's opening people's minds to what else is out there as well. So hats off to you both.

Thank you. And we have, we have run a mini witch school as well for, for children who are maybe wanting to just dabble into that little bit of magic, but we do it in a very light-hearted way. Fun as well, you know, crafting wands and making friendship spells and little jars and trinkets and things like that. Yeah, it's about giving them the confidence to just be in a space where they feel safe to, to just be and do what they would like to do. So if Yeah, it's something that we're doing on the day, you know, it's never anything, again, it's not scary, it's just a craft. But if they don't want to do it, we get some of the little ones coming along and they'll potter off, have a bit of cake, and then come back to the table and it's absolutely fine, isn't it? It's just making them feel a bit more confident in everyday life when they're at school or wherever they may be. They can almost have choices to do the little bits that they do like, as long as they're doing the things that are right as well, and we have to. Well, we do run Able Witch School as well, so Sarah Dagg, as you mentioned, Power Botanicals, she uses our venue to facilitate witch school in there, and there's a lot of people who are enrolled. There's so many people, what's this witch school about? I might be interested. So the reason we are going online as well, we're going to be hopefully going online very soon is so that we can widen our audience of who we reach. And we've got, um, some exclusive spells and products that we've been bavering away busy making that's going to be exclusive online as well. Um, very excited about that. Very excited.

Yeah, amazing. So how do you believe that magic works best? Is it through intention? Is it through emotion, action? Or is it kind of like a mixture of all three? What do you think?

Oh, definitely a mixture of all three. But I do say to people, don't always act on emotion because sometimes your heart overrules your head. Yeah. And what you might do when you're caught up in the emotions of something might not be when you've sat down on a cup of tea and thought about it. Yeah. Yeah. So there's been a few times if somebody's upset me, I've come home and thought, I'm gonna do a headbang. I'll get myself a cup of tea and careful breathing and then realise what I'm saying and doing. And then obviously, and sometimes it can take a day, or, you know, it could just be a couple of minutes you need to sit and think, or it might be a few days. And again, we are only human, so it's normal to, if you need a little bit more time out to think about something because it's a big emotion or a big feeling that you're dealing with. In life, everybody's either a positive Polly or a negative Nancy. No offenses to Pollys or Nancys out there. We love you. But that's the analogy that I use. So you can either be a negative Nancy and, oh, everything's doom and gloom, why does everything happen to me, and such a negative person. That's all you're going to get. And it's hard to snap out of that once you're in that spiral, which leads to anxiety, depression, low mood, isolation. Or you could be a positive Polly. And maybe look for the good things out of each situation, you know. Yeah, that shit thing happened to me, but what did I learn from it, or what can I gain from it in, in the future? So it's just putting a spin on how you see things. So I always say to people, are you a Nancy, are you going to be a Polly? And we try to— because we run a new moon group as well, so we always talk about the positives in our life and what we're going to let go of, what's no longer serving us anymore. And we, like you say, burn things, but we use bay leaves and So many times we've set the fire alarms off in our shop as well. We've got the cauldron, the bloody fire alarm thing. Our landlord's like, what, oh, it's the witches again? Who's in? And they're like, the witches, the witches are in. I'm like, sorry. So yeah, so it is a bit of all three, but we are a massive believer in the universe will guide you, and when it's right, it's right. You can manifest all you want, but you've got to do something about it as well. So put your heart, your emotion, your manifesting, your mind, everything into it. Don't just think, I've put it out there, universe, I'm gonna sit me ass and wait. No, you can't help it yourself. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm assuming that magic is pretty much the same as working hand in hand with manifestation. Like, you know, if you wanted to manifest abundance, love, or healing into your life, that kind of thing. Have you seen that happen firsthand through using like magical tools and like rituals like that as well?

Yeah, yeah. I think sometimes even just the practice of magic or doing a little ritual or coming to our groups is a healing process in itself, because we find that even if Abi's running like a wreath workshop, people who come along, when your hands are busy, your mind opens up. Yeah. And you talk about things that you maybe wouldn't necessarily sit face to face talking about, because you're busy doing, your mind's busy. You talk about your emotions and your feelings and what, what you're going through, and we find it very cathartic and, and very therapeutic. Yeah, our craft sessions. But I mean, Abi and I know that's what our agenda is, to try and be a bit of a therapy session for people, but people think they just come to make things. Yeah, yeah. Which is, which is where I started, wasn't it? You know, um, when, like Di says, when your hands are busy, you, if you're in a group you do start talking and stuff, but equally, if you're on your own, you're thinking, oh, what shall I, what flower shall I use there? And your mind switches off. So you've got a minute or a few hours in my case, because then I get a bit lost in it and do it longer. But you've got time to just not think about your worries or even what you want for tea or anything. It might not even be as big as worries, but you just have some time to yourself to switch off from the world, which is totally chaotic. And whether it's a placebo or not, I mean, obviously I believe in crystals. I believe crystals have healing properties, as I'm sure you do, Mart. I always have a wristful. Some people come in the shop and say, I need a crystal for this, I need a crystal for that. And they generally leave with that crystal, you know, with the intentions of programming it and looking after it. And they'll come back in and say, 'Do you know what? That crystal really helped me. I haven't slept for weeks and I popped an amethyst under me pillow and, eh, I've been snoring,' you know. And people do come back in. Or our favourite one is when they've, like, it's broken or something and they're like, 'I've come back in for that crystal because it's broken,' and oh my, and the panic, don't they, you know. And we're like, 'It's just, it's just done its job. It's served its purpose. It's done its job. Don't don't stress, don't panic. I mean, 9 times out of the 10, they still want to buy it again because they're still panicking. But, and the other thing is as well, I think with us having the shop, people can come in and we have the most weird and wonderful conversations with people and nothing fazes us. Like someone will come in and say, I've got a dark entity in me loft and it smells of rotten egg and I can see its red eyes on a night. And we're like, oh yeah, we've had this before. So that's Yeah, so I'm getting there, but I'll be like, I'll just get Dani. Yeah, I'll just get Dani, or we'll ring somebody else. But if we're having a séance night, Abby will be like, I'm washing my hair that night, you'll have to work it on your own. Yeah, I plan my hair washing night at least like, you know, 6 months in advance when I know séance is coming. People know they can come in and ask us questions without judgment. Yeah, yeah. And that we're going to take them seriously as well.

Do you ever get questions from people that are quite like common misconceptions about witchcraft or daily magic?

Oh, well, there's a— what you touched on it before about consulting with the devil and dark magic, and I've said, yeah, some people do do that, and that's up to them if that's how they want to live, but that's not us, and we don't do that. Yeah, either. Obviously the hexes, that's one, you know, they'll come in and again ask for a hex, or that's another thing that we'll go, oh, only love and light. If they want to have a further conversation about it, we do, but And yeah, and we don't, you know, we don't sacrifice goats or drink the blood of small children. It's not sinister and dark like that. It's fun and light and positive and normal.

Yeah, it's almost like you've modernized witchcraft. That's what it feels like.

Yeah, that's what we're trying to do. Trying to do just make it part of everybody's daily routine and that it's not weird or strange or like, say, you don't have to be part of a cult. We're not a cult. At all. And you don't have to have grown up with it. That's what we like. That's what we like about us two together. Yeah. You know, we're very different. And I think it's nice that people come in and then we have the stories to share. Well, actually, Abi's into that now or whatever, you know. It's not scary. No. You know, it's fun.

And you're going to show people that it's not scary as well because you're both coming to Manifest, aren't you? Yeah.

I'm so excited.

I can't wait for that because do you know what's funny? Like Sarah, that I was talking about earlier, she's doing a witch school workshop as well. So it's almost like there's going to be people in that workshop and they're going to come out and they're going to be hungry for more and they're going to flock straight to your stall and they're going to come straight over. And I just know that you two are going to give them the best energy.

Some know Little Blue Witches in Spenyrum as well, a lot of them, because that's where my Sarah runs the school. It's exciting. There's loads of Spinning Mirror witches coming. No, we can't wait to come and bring some of our new and exclusive products that nobody's seen as well. That'll be really exciting.

Oh, I'm excited. I'm going to be spending all my money there. I can just tell. And finally, just before I let you girls go, if someone listening to this wants to start living more magically tomorrow, what is one thing that they could do just to start?

Reading. I would swear by just, just read. There's so many books out there. In our shop, we have a free library that people can come and help themselves to.

Oh.

And tarot cards as well. We have tarot cards people can borrow. Yeah. But just research, because there's so many paths to take. You need to find out where you're comfortable, you know. You might be a witch who's into herbs and nature, or you might be a crystal witch, or you might be, you know, a sea witch. So you've got to work out where you want to be, what is your interest. Or like me, an eclectic, just take a little bit of everything. Yeah, and don't say no to things. So I know I'm still not there with the séance and things, and maybe one day I will, but, you know, don't say no, be open-minded. So I now go to the medium evenings. Initially I was like, again, Dani, you can just do that. But yeah, be open-minded and try not to say no just out of fear or embarrassment because you think it's not quite right. Go and join a sound bath, and if it's for you, it's for you. If it's not, it's not. And yeah, open-minded. Yeah, try it.

I'm very much of that mindset as well. I'll go and try anything, do you know what I mean? I've tried sound healing. Have you heard of the Harmonic Egg in Sunderland?

No.

Oh, I've talked about that on my podcast before. You need to go and try that. It's basically sound healing, but you're inside of this giant egg and you just sit there and it reclines you so that you're kind of like, your head's down here and your legs are up there. And it's just, yeah, it uses the Tesla 369, um, modality and stuff. And it basically, it's like sound healing and Reiki combined. That's the only way I can describe it. But it is so intense. And every time I've been, I've had these weird trippy visualizations. So, yeah, I'm all for trying little new things like that. Anything that comes up and I'm like, I'll take a bit of that and a bit of that and just see what works for me. Because what works for one might not work for another.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, and like Dani said, you might like a little bit of the Greenwich things or a little bit of Bristol, and that's okay. You don't have to like or practise it all. You can just do what you're comfortable with and what makes you feel happy. Yeah.

There'll be a lot of people obviously listening to this podcast as well, wanting to maybe ask questions or, you know, follow you girls on social media. So where's the best place to get in contact with you?

Yeah, so we are on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook. We've got a Facebook group, which is kind of our biggest thing. I know it's a little bit old school compared to the TikToks and things, but it's where we started and it's where people again feel like they're in a community, so they interact on there and things as well. So I'd probably say there was a really good one, but So again, if you're local, don't be frightened to come down, whether it's your thing or not. Come down and don't be disillusioned by the look of Spennymoor and the outside of our shop. You make your way to the first floor once you get there. Yeah, on Spennymoor High Street, it's a bright pink entrance, you can't miss us. But we are a hidden gem, but once you've found us, you'll want to keep coming back and coming back. We say the people that find us are the people that either need us or want to find us the most. So yeah, we are in a building that's not necessarily obvious, but we've got a bright pink door once you get in the building, which you can't miss. So, and our website's coming, we'll be launching that very soon as well. So we're going to have a bit more information on there about what we do. We're going to have some how-to videos so I can do some spellwork and show you what to do. And we're going to be writing blogs and posting those as well.

Well, thank you so much for the chat. I've really enjoyed speaking to you both. And what I'll do is I will put all the links that you mentioned in the show notes for today's episode. But thank you, Dani and Abi from Bloom and Witches in Spennymoor. I'm going to visit. It might even be this weekend. I'll get myself over there.

Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. Thank you so much for having us, and we look forward to meeting you at the shop.

Wasn't that such a gorgeous chat? I just love hearing how Dani and Abi are helping people bring magic into their everyday lives. So if you've enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you could take a quick second to share it with a friend. Leave a rating or even just drop a review wherever you're listening to this from. It really helps the podcast reach more people who just need that bit of inspiration and magic in their days. And since we're right in the spirit of the season, I hope you all have the most amazing, wonderful, witchy Halloween. Whether you're manifesting under the full moon naked, dancing around in your back garden, whether you're just lighting candles, or maybe just even indulging in some spooky snacks, have an amazing weekend, and I will see you all next Friday for another episode. Speak soon, guys.

Bye!

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