There Are No Ingredients, Only Allies: A Conversation with Matthew Venus

Your Average Witch Podcast

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Matthew Venus of Spiritus Arcanum joins us to explore animism, witchcraft, and the spirits that inhabit everything around us. We dive into what it means to be a witch in today's world, examining the complex relationship between magical practice and capitalism.
• Defining what it means to be a witch through spirit work, spirit flight, shape-shifting, and bewitching ordinary objects
• Exploring panpsychic animism as a worldview where consciousness exists in everything from plants to rocks to spell bottles
• Understanding magical materials as conscious allies rather than mere ingredients in recipes
• Creating magical objects as vessels for spirits and developing relationships with the spirits we work with
• Using breath as a powerful magical tool for conjuring, offering, and transformation
• Navigating the contradictions of practicing animist magic in a capitalist world
• Challenging unhealthy authority dynamics in magical communities while valuing ethical eldership
• Reclaiming an animist perspective as a way to heal our relationship with the natural world
Join us next week for part two of our conversation with Matthew, where we'll discuss the Salem Witch Fest, making allies of plant spirits, and collaborate on a spell to connect with our ancestors.

Visit Spiritus Arcanum here!

spiritusarcanum.com
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Chapters

1. Welcome to Your Average Witch (00:00:00)

2. Meet Matthew Venus of Spiritus Arcanum (00:00:35)

3. What Makes a Witch: Spirit and Flight (00:05:01)

4. The Animist Perspective: Everything Has Spirit (00:11:40)

5. Working With Plant Allies in Magic (00:19:00)

6. Breath as a Magical Tool (00:35:23)

7. Challenging Authority in Modern Witchcraft (00:52:18)