welcome everybody to another episode of knit a spell we have a guest katie we sure do raven digitalis is the author of the empaths oracle the everyday empath esoteric empathy shadow magic compendium planetary spells and rituals and gothcraft all from llewellyn worldwide light from lantern presents knit a spell i'm magical maker katie rempe and i'm the maker of magic james divine join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and the craft raven has been a witch since 1999 a priest since 2003 a free mason since 2012 and an empath since the day he was born today we are specifically focusing on your newest project the empaths oracle along with artist constantine backs that's right right welcome to another spell raven digitalis
so nice to be here you guys thanks for having me on i'm so glad you're here and i love you guys energy and especially you know being in seattle i know that a lot of people just are down in the dumps most of the time so it's really nice to see vibrant seattle folks you're catching us at the right time of year i have been so excited because i have had this copy of the deck for a couple of weeks few weeks at this point and one in particular keeps popping out at me every time i open it well i'm curious we want to just pop right into it we might as well just it's up to you you're the host there you go of course the final one in the deck right bonding with the rhythm of life bonding with the rhythm of life you know that was the first card that i told also after a thorough shuffle there you go that's so funny it seems like any time even if i'm just like shuffle and then i kind of walk away and do whatever i'm like oh i wonder what's on the top it's always this one yeah well i hope that card is teaching you well and uh it actually you're saying that reminds me that i uh crafted the deck in such a way so that when people open the box the first card they see is called establishing emotional boundaries and i think that's the most important lesson for an empath it's like that's where it all starts and then the last one bonding with the rhythm of life it's felt like a good sandwich
i agree yes so raven your last three you know works that were published with the well and all center around empathy in some way including your most recent so and i see that you know i see georgian witchcraft which i think is like a more traditional you know british traditional witch which wicca yeah yeah that's right uh-huh and i see freemasonry i see some very sort of formalized you know structured ritualized type of practices and then i see you know empathy empath i see that and i read that as very like the opposite of very structured witchcraft and and it's seems to be very much um you know white pillar black pillar type of feeling to me um if you will that's maybe an inside thing to many of our listeners but i guess i want to start with how did your journey into magic and the esoterics start well born and raised in missoula montana lovely place and montaukis some of my friends montauk i know yeah
uh luckily missoula was always the uh liberal haven of the state so much more like the pacific northwest in vibration um but weather-wise i uh pretty harsh i moved out here to kauai hawaii uh two and a half years ago right before the pandemic lockdown began everything synchronized to get me over here so i just had to follow that very very difficult challenging move in the sense of life lessons emotionally challenging because i had faced so much burnout in missoula with my healthcare job there and then also with the non-profit multicultural temple that i was cooperating there and just really uh the universe said it's time for a change right now and i had to listen and everything synchronized and made it happen so basically my introduction into the craft was as a teenager around 16 when a schoolmate introduced me to just uh general eclectic liquor and then of course all the films that we all love practical magic and the craft and charmed and just you know journeyed from there did group work solitary work lots of studies and eventually a mushroom journey told me to become an author about 22 years old well that is interesting so then when did empathy come in like when did you learn the term to put into what you were likely feeling this whole time yeah it's interesting i uh was first introduced to the esoteric in uh the form of witchcraft and wicca and at that time i didn't know what an empath was or what that meant i just knew what a psychic was or medium i remember very clearly one day in high school and you know i talked about it in my esoteric empathy book which was my first one and my it's my baby it's my best book and that one's designed for witches and bacons and so-called this people like us are people um because i have an empathic anecdote at the beginning of each chapter in there and i believe the first chapter opens with what i'm about to say which is there was just one day in high school where i just couldn't take it like there was so much i was overwhelmed with energy absorbing the emotions from all these different people and i didn't realize that that was happening i thought i was going crazy or i had been drugged or something not in a good way and so i just cut class and thankfully a spiritual elder lived blocks away and so i walked to her house and she was there and she's like oh honey you're an empath and i said what the heck is that so
she told me and it made total sense we did a cleansing and then you know just began to learn how to work with that skill gift not a curse even though it feels that way sometimes and you know everybody is empathic in different degrees two different degrees and same with being psychic or medium all those all these things clairvoyant we're we're all everything we just have different degrees and levels of power to become powers to sound special and so then how did the creation of that come into a deck specifically this oracle deck is so stunning and with the artists and everything it's it's really just a playground for the mind and every card i've really enjoyed just gazing into each one i'm just honored by this deck so the empaths oracle is like jim mentioned the third in the trilogy of my empathy projects with lou ellen and like you said i began with writing about darker subjects you know gothcraft and shadow magic and my shadow magic book is going to be re-released revised expanded very soon i'll talk about that later but yeah like i said it began with esoteric empathy and that took six years to write and get just right super perfectionist with that and it is more than i could have ever hoped and then the next book was the everyday empath which is written for everybody from any background it's a smaller one and it's very accessible not just for witches and pagans and things like that it's for everyone and then that got translated into spanish an audiobook it was really neat and then finally it has concluded now with the empaths oracle deck when i first started writing esoteric empathy midway through i was at a psychic player where i was a reader because i used to do that in montana at a metaphysical shop and i traded a reading with uh no tools psychic there and i said so how is this esoteric empathy book going to be received how's this going to go am i doing it right she's like oh honey it's going to be a trilogy and i said oh honey no way oh don't say that that's like a guarantee and now it is so but but it's great it's an honor and i am just so honored to work with constantine backs with this deck and my first is my first ever deck and everybody wants my such deck honor beautiful so the speaking of the artist so the the artwork is so speaking of a mushroom journey the artwork is a trip it is each card i mean every i'm looking at the images and even on the even on the cover like the box you know i think that's what's so cool is you can just look at the image on the cover of the box i think that's that image actually or one of them i mean the the image of the face and just you can dive in and there's like images within images and i see like ocean waves or corals or moons they almost have you would imagine like a lumen like there's a luminous quality to them there it's absolutely stunning stunning art they really move it's shockingly cool what was it like working with the artist did you have a lot of direction on them or did the artist really take off and just do their own thing it was great it was you know how things synchronize when they're meant to be even for occulty people like us we're still shocked when think how well things can synchronize and uh this is the same thing so basically all of the card titles came to me all 40 card titles and i knew that it's it's like which i always reference tori amos my number one artist of all time she's the muse of my life so you know just like she explains and like many artists explain there's this force and it's etheric force it wants to come down it taps it on the shoulder and then it wants to be expressed in the physical form in some way and so this is how the cards came to me and i could see in my mind's eye you know relatively how they would look and so i all i did was look up uh modern abstract psychedelic artists and constantine's work just stood out and i immediately contacted him and he responded with a yes i've always wanted to do a deck and make some cards and have my work in that way and it was just incredible and his work is yeah it's all acrylic nothing in these cards are digitally altered it's all acrylic and i don't know i thought for sure it was computer i thought for sure was digital oh my gosh yeah i know it's like a wild mine trip you're telling me that there are originals of these pieces in acrylic that exists somewhere big ones right shut up incredible yeah and this is and these cards are the tip of the iceberg of his work so for listeners and viewers if you look up constantine backs with the k or you can look up empaths oracle then you can see his name and then you can look up his instagram and his uh formal website and to see the scope of his work because with this deck these are specifically faces and silhouettes and they're very diverse and the reason that we crafted it this way so that people who are utilizing the debt can step into them and see themselves in the cards no matter who they are sure enough like when i gave him the card titles he had images that just seamlessly matched with the theme i think he only did three or four originals for the deck and the rest were already pre-created that he's done over time oh wow oh amazing it's meant to be it's meant to be huh oh you mean this one that you were picturing in your head that's already done yeah right i was really moved by realizing empathy as parentheses are evolution and this idea of empathy as evolution empathy as revolution and i thought that was a really interesting idea that empathy as evolution empathy as revolution that really had me spinning and the the card itself kind of has a swirl with a bird in the center the person seems to be in meditation it's got like maybe a very abstract fish but definitely sort of a hummingbird in the center maybe one of those spiral uh shells i forget what they're called sort of image on it i don't know why that hits me or that sticks with me but is there a reflection on picking out a card everybody vibrates with uh different cards at different times i think and that even you know stands true with tarot traditional tarot and with with this pack of parts i also do have this the same thing so something will because it's this isn't like i'm only partially credit i give myself only partial credit to the empaths oracle not only because constantine's work but because of the work with you know editors publicists and uh designers and uh factory workers all these things um printers and so it so it's like a lot like uh the lovers card in the top or toes tarot uh it's like creating a third creating a baby my baby yes so now it's birth to the world and i definitely have a bit of a what they call it post arnhem oh that's a thing yes when you finish your project and you're like depressed yeah i used to get that when i would be finished books all the time yeah right but that card yeah i really like that card too not just for the imagery but like you said empathy as evolution and revolution simultaneously well it's empathy is revolutionary in the fact that well by the way i think that wicca and witchcraft traditions need to emphasize empathy more than they do but anyway that's the hindu and buddhist in me speaking but uh yeah it's uh empathy is revolutionary because that changes the world it brings us all together it's the true oneness we are all connected interconnected and if we can separate this idea of i am totally separate from everything else which is illusion that's maya that's that's false and and step into the reality of empathy which is that we are everything and deeply interconnected that's reality like that's physics it's it's actual reality like and metaphysics so it's very revolutionary that way and then when it comes to evolution in my studies of empathy it was really neat to see modern scientific studies about empathy affirming it as an evolutionary force just as important as uh biological evolution because how else will a species survive and thrive if they don't have empathy and compassion among one another it was again literally reality scientific evolution evolutionary theory that empathy is that binding force that propels species and there it is yeah that helps create that card and i go into it more in the uh company mini book that comes with it did you say the mini book the mini the mini book yes well to you i suppose it's a mini book to us it's fairly a large book that would come it's beautiful yeah well much like you say in that last card you know we've kind of divorced ourselves from nature and that has had its effect noticeably well wonderful uh let's take a quick break and then when we come back we'll dive into the quote little book and all of its wonderful details all right we'll be right back exciting news listeners knit a spell is coming to patreon this summer
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and it's funny you said that because uh each i purposefully made sure that each card or the spiritually told or what what not that each card would begin with something active an active title uh you know releasing creating mentalizing welcoming offering creating healing utilizing you know crap obviously very clever yeah so yeah came together like that and i'm very happy with it and which section became your favorite out of all of those in the end i mean not like the card per se but like like were you like oh maybe like the this part i really enjoyed that there's an action taking part for people or that you know there's you know this sort of part that reoccurs through it yeah i think the action part like you said is uh a great focus is one of my favorites because then it kind of goes a little deeper than it's not like this means this then it's like okay you can try this and like you can try fasting from technology you can try fasting from food in this way you can try fasting from speaking um or you know that's just one example of a car uh taking a bowel is where those action steps come in but yeah i think that is a like you uh intuitive is one of my favorite aspects because then it's just it's like yeah here's the information and now activate it do it do it do it you guys these are the cards come with me and come up with your own interpretations and make it real how do you as the creator of the deck utilize the cards like do you give readings to people do you use it for yourself it's what july 13th and uh so far i've only uh pulled three cards for myself that's it oh interesting because i the way that it works i didn't know how how i would work with the deck myself even as a co-creator it just turned out that i need to it just tells me like and i'll draw i'll i'll know when i need to draw a card and then i'll really have to think about it get into it actualize it and once i've learned from that then i can move on and then for other people like because i've been reading tarot professionally for 15 or 16 years and i do readings regularly every week so if anybody listening or watching would like the reading you're welcome to contact me just go to ravendigitalis.com or i'm on social media stuff and we can set up a reading an official one that lasts about an hour and i use the top three after votes deck and then what i do now that the empath oracle has come out i conclude each reading with a single card draw like as a wrap-up for each client which is really fun and i shuffle it and i say okay give me a number between 1 and 40 boom 16. okay number 16 boom boom boom boom boom there it is whoa that's fun what's your shuffle style i will show you so i have big old hands so i think that's handy i take them yeah candy
i didn't mean it so because i big hands i take them the wrong way and then just you know yes
comes let's pull a card for everybody okay so this is for everyone listening what do you need to know about accessing your own empath nature this week we have got celebrating the world's diversity
the timing celebrating the world's diversity let's look at that image real close for a minute just stare into that image what do we have there raven you can look at yourself and describe it a little bit describe it for people who are listening well you know i think uh the best way to describe it would be to read uh from the mini book great yeah because constantine the artist uh mostly contributed to that section of each card yeah you know you can see what it is like an etheric bird and the face of a person man woman non-binary who knows human maybe so imagery the explosion of color in this image illustrates the diversity and joy of life as a symbol of personal freedom the bird it is a word depicted in this card's art is especially prominent empaths from all walks of life desire for every living being to be free from suffering we must start with ourselves while we examine our own contributions to freedom or suffering for other beings throughout our daily choices
how topical very cool yeah and the essential themes are looking outside ourselves oh and these are all active words also looking studying celebrating you know made that very consistent so looking outside of ourselves in order to avoid emotional overload studying different cultures identities religions and ways of life and celebrating our own unique contributions to the world's diversity so yeah that's a great one i love that card and well i love all the cards but yeah and then of course in the book it goes into deeper meanings for that and suggestions for action so yeah what's what's an action let's give us if you skim through that what is one action that you'd suggest
yeah and again the card is celebrating the world's diversity so uh it's pretty short actually this card encourages you to explore the world beyond yourself at this time in human history it has never been easier documentary films are an excellent place to explore the world ads are numerous books articles and personal experiences gained by traveling the globe empaths have an innate ability to approach other types of people and cultures because we tend to see similarities before we see differences we are all the same in essence the culture and experiences in which we were born naturally aid in forming our identities and egos by branching outside of ourselves we can see how others live think operate and celebrate empaths are quick to break barriers of division because our focus is on similarities rather than differences what a great blessing so cool focusing on similarities other than differences yes it's all just a mind reset just so raven when you're not writing books or co-creating decks or you know being an amazing empath what do you do to be creative as an outlet yeah i mean writing is really my creative outlet and then i i get so much joy from reading cards for people because you know when doing and reiki energy work things like that which is very easy to do here in hawaii because like in person if i do one person once because just the the prana the mana here is just shocking it's just incredible but it's easy to tap into but um i i think writing is really really my thing and i guess fashion and makeup kind of used to be more of my thing but still can be fun now and then so what about writing specifically d really calls to you again it's about helping people and to the best of my ability and with every project it's also a learning experience for myself it's very it's very mutual i can write and research something and create something and learn learn all these new things and then transmit that so i'm teaching myself at the same time as teaching other people and that's really fun i just love that you know empathically that reciprocity and and i still also work in healthcare i do one-on-one healthcare work and again helping others in their lives trying not to get burnt out in the process and and actually here in hawaii i'm doing one-on-one work with folks rather than a group home with a bunch of individuals which is less pressure and allows for more personal freedom and communication and assisting others with goals and things like that okay raven where can everybody find you i'll tell you oh i know where people can go yes i can go to raven ravendigitalis.com
and you know why you want to go there because it's a list a beautiful gothi website with all of your books and links to the services you provide reiki services reading spiritual counseling everything that you want from raven you can get at ravendigitalis.com how do you spell raven digitalis you don't have to worry about it because you can go to our show notes we are going to link to raven and all of raven's stuff like crazy and i can't wait to visit the pacific northwest yes raven digitalis will be in the sea in seattle live doing a book signing at the beginning of september at edge of the circle books so keep your eye out if you're yeah yeah if your proximal to seattle you will want to be there and meet raven and get your book signed or your oracle deck signed or just be touched by this amazing human if he'll so if anybody wants hugs and hugs and more hugs he did say he was a leo so you know everyone hugs for you hug for you hug for everybody do you have uh instagram and facebook yep i've got facebook.com ravenditchtalus instagram.com ravendigitalis lowercase one word well we'll make sure to put it all in our notes so that it's easy for everyone to pop over and put all the iron in the kitchen exactly ah well thank you so much for coming on our show really appreciate it we could just dive in forever i know i'm so happy to be here and i'd love to come back at some point and you know i promise i'd mention my next yes yes so maybe wait what secret that into that only five out here it's not yep yep only here uh no not only here but so i'll spill it i was approached by frost crow press like crossroads and and pro uh new press in chicago run by the lovely malloway brothers and that's also the name of their gopro shop oh that occult shop in chicago is amazing i love that occult shop everyone should go there yeah and in september i'll be at chicagoland pagan pride also and at mellow brothers and in minneapolis and in montana as well as seattle and tacoma if you all live around there i'll be posting my tour schedule sometime soon so the rights reverted to me from llewellyn for shadow magic compendium which was my second book and they i said let's do this i knitted a spell and i said to the universe i don't want this to gather virtual dust i actually like this book but i'm not going to reprint book gothcraft because that's like it that's like a time capsule i'll never reprint that but i said you know i like shadow magic compendium i don't want it to gather vertical dust so it showed me a way if it's meant to be thanks bye then then a month later these guys were like can we reprint shout out to magic i'm like yeah let's do it and so it's revised expanded three times better than the original version of shadow magic compendium except now it's called a witch's shadow magic compendium and there's going to be a limited edition hardcover run which i've never had it's so cool and then the regular print version which has gorgeous art done by rick malloway on the cover it's lady luna it's a very lunar yes sonic book so it's gonna just be beautiful and i had a very harsh but genius editor for the book so that was challenging they're the best yeah deep breaths happy little ptsd but it's fine no it turned it turned out really well and i'm so excited about it so that'll be out in august and so my september book tour will be promoting that and the empaths oracle and my other two empathy books wow how exciting well those kind of editors it's like editor crossfit you know it's good for you but you hate it
it's like that exercise thing sounds awful editor hatchet yeah no no amazing well i can't wait to see you in september yeah yeah we'll uh we'll share more if we end up doing like a thing local together or something we'll make sure everyone's informed so yay please suit thanks so much for having me on it's just a pleasure you're both just radiant and wonderful and witchy and super special and i'm so happy that you're doing what you're doing
we really appreciate you coming on yeah all right well we will look forward to having you on again thank you for joining us and knit a spell and thank you everyone listening for tuning in until next week farewell everybody and we'll see you next time see you then namaste blessed be thanks thanks for listening if you enjoyed the show consider sharing it with a friend leaving a review on itunes and spotify or following knit a spell on instagram you can also subscribe to the like from lantern youtube channel to enjoy full episodes of knit a spell and see our happy faces you can also learn more about ratings classes and events going on with your favorite maker of magic james divine by visiting thedivinehand.com and subscribing to his newsletter then follow jim's fun and interactive instagram account at divine hand gym keep up with katie the magical maker by subscribing to her newsletter at lightfromlantern.com you'll even receive a free knitting pattern as a thank you gift then follow katie on instagram lightfromlantern for even more magical making tips see you next week
