Samhain Season Ancestor Practice: Interview with Susan Rains

On today's episode, I have the amazing honor to interview my beloved friend and fellow witch, Susan Rains, who is a part of a sibling coven, Coven of the Mystic Path, based in the Philadelphia and Springfield, PA area.  Susan shares her unique and profound Ancestor practice for working with her recently dead family members and beloveds for deep healing and transformative connection.   She shares several offerings with us and how they connect to one's spiritual path and evolution.  If you want to work with Susan and develop your own Ancestor practice, Altar, or if you want to take her up on her generous invitation to help you audit your home in the spirit of Samhain season to release what needs to go and create a more intentional environment, you can find her here: https://www.rains-design.com/

Here are the books Susan recommends to support your Ancestor practice:

"Spirit Speak: A Comprehensive Guide to Connect Beyond the Veil" by Ivo Dominquez Jr., (Foreword by Mat Auryn) www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spirit-speak-ivo-dominguez-jr

 "Communing with the Ancestors: Your Spirit Guides, Bloodline Allies, and Cycle of Reincarnation" by Raven Grimassi www.thriftbooks.com/w/communing-with-the-ancestors-your-spirit-guides-bloodline-allies-and-the-cycle-of-reincarnation_raven-grimassi

Assembly of the Sacred Wheel Tradition: https://www.sacredwheel.org/

Chapters

• 0:26 Welcome, Samhain Context, Scorpio Season
• 2:38 Meet Susan And Her Tradition
• 5:03 Fears Of Ancestor Work And Agency
• 7:38 Classes, Discomfort, And New Approaches
• 10:35 Books That Clarify Spirit And Practice
• 12:35 Creating A Compact Ancestor Altar
• 15:34 Opening Ritual: Bone And Blood Candles
• 18:19 Sunday Visits And Offerings
• 20:02 Beacon Candle, Hourglass, And Presence
• 22:06 Automatic Writing As A Bridge
• 24:06 Meeting Guide Galen And Clear Signs
• 28:12 Strength Of Energies And Recognition
• 30:21 Healing Family Trauma Through Connection
• 34:24 Inviting A Chosen Ancestor And Adoption
• 38:05 From Altar To Home: Designing For Spirit
• 42:11 Space Audits, Symbols, And Goals
• 46:31 Feng Shui Insights And Practical Changes
• 50:11 Seasonal Discernment And Letting Go
• 54:12 How To Reach Susan And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

Hello, and welcome back. Get ready to dare together, truth seeking in the depths for healing, transformation, and collective liberation. I'm your host, Erin O'Brien, licensed psychotherapist in practice for over 20 years, intuitive healer, relationship counselor, and dare I say which? Well, it is November 3rd on a Monday, and I am here finally having a guest on this little podcast. And it's a very wonderful dear friend, someone that I have come to know and love a lot. And her name is Susan. And she is here to share with us her very profound ancestor practice. And I'm gonna say a little bit more about that in a moment. And why now are we doing this? Well, it is sowin season, and Sowin technically was just on October 31st. However, astrological Sowin is going to be on Wednesday, November 5th. And a little um tidbit, my birthday is tomorrow, which is fun. Um, so here we are in Scorpio season. And also the supermoon is on astrological Soin, November 5th, and it is in Taurus. And my moon is in Taurus in the 12th house. So lots of 12th house energy here at Sowin season. So I am new to doing interviews, and we've got one mic, we're just passing back and forth. So just, you know, be with us and give us all the, you know, grace for how this might come out. But we are doing it. So Susan is also a witch, and she is a part of a sibling coven within the larger tradition of assembly of the sacred wheel, which is the tradition that covers the entire Mid-Atlantic region. We have 14 covens and more coming. And Susan is a part of the Coven of the Mystic Path, which is in the Philadelphia PA area and Springfield area. So Susan is many things and offers many gifts. And why I wanted her to add her beautiful voice and self and spirit here to this space is to talk about her ancestor practice, which I believe is really important right now with Sawin and with the veils being very thin, and we're so connected to all the realms. And her practice is very unique, very accessible. And I'm gonna let her talk more about it, but she doesn't just work with ancestor lineage in terms of those beloveds and ancestors that are far, far back in our line and in our, you know, blood line and or um chosen ancestor line, healing line, creative lines, all the different ancestors we might connect to. She really has developed a very special practice in working with the recent dead, the recent beloveds who have passed on. And I'm going to let her talk more about all of that and have her say anything else that she might want to say. And we're just gonna pass this back and forth. So, hello, Susan, and thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01: 4:47

Thank you so much, Erin. I am so delighted to be here with you. This is such an honor to be your first guest. So thank you. Thank you so much for taking this leap of faith with me. Yes. So my ancestor practice was a long time coming. In the beginning of entering into my coven, the idea of ancestor work, anytime someone would even mention ancestor work, I would feel very overwhelmed by that for a number of reasons. The ancestors feels so big. You know, like where would I even start with that? It also has to do with my own family history and definitely not wanting to come into contact with my father, who verbally, mentally, sexually abused myself and my brothers. So, needless to say, I did not want to come in contact with him. And I think it's kind of common to maybe hold yourself back from working with your ancestors because you you may have someone in your past or you have some trauma, you know, that has occurred and you don't want them to show up. Fortunately, as I've learned over the years, you have agency over that and you can specifically say that they are not welcome here and they they must obey that, fortunately. Yeah, so in the beginning, I had a lot of hesitation and really avoided the subject altogether. At the same time, I was intrigued by it. So often in my life, when I feel resistance to something, it is it is quite often the thing that I need to be doing. And I was recognizing that I have a coven mate who is very much into ancestor work and she goes very deep in it. And I think because I was new to being in a coven and new to practicing magic in that way, that her example, I guess, in the beginning was to me what you were supposed to be doing. And I didn't really know that there were other options. As time progressed and I was still feeling a lot of resistance to that, I started maybe looking for opportunities to acquaint myself with maybe other ways of practicing ancestor work. And I went to Sacred Space in, I think it was 2024. And at that Sacred Space, just as a happy little coincidence, there were quite a few ancestor classes available. So because it was on my mind, I decided that those are the classes you know I wanted to take opportunity to attend. And it's an interesting experience. During both of them, I felt very uncomfortable. Very, very, very uncomfortable. And in both of them, we were going way back. And I found myself really just wanting the pathworking, the ritual to end. Like I was so uncomfortable. I didn't want to just get up and run out of the room, but that's what I really wanted to do. But I just sat with it, you know, deep breaths, stayed in it, came out of it, just feeling deeply uncomfortable with what I had experienced. And fortunately, I was able to talk to uh the one man who had given the path working. And I also talked to my mentor within my coven. And speaking to him first, that was such a gift to talk to him because I learned that in his practice, he really focuses on his most recent beloved dead. He has gone further back at this point, but his focus is on his closer relatives. So that really kind of opened my eyes, like, oh, there are other potentials here. And later on, I shared with my mentor what I had been feeling. And I mentioned what he had said, and you know, she was, you know, confirming that that that did sound like a really good approach for me to start. So I I also, well, I also read a book about it afterwards, um, wanting to learn more. I'm sorry, I'm not remembering the name of the book or the author right now, but it was really helpful. And if you have show notes, we could put that information in the show notes for people. I'll get that for you. Um and that book was really helpful. And um, the other book that I read was Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez Jr. And that was really helpful to me as well because my mind was still unclear as to where spirit kind of lives and what that looks like and what that acts like. And that made me feel more comfortable too, reading that book and having some deeper understanding of what spirit looks like, right? I think it was near the time of Sawim, maybe in like September or so, I started to feel more comfortable with the idea of doing this and the actual desire to set up an ancestor altar, because that's one of the things that they talked about a lot in the book was giving you um different examples of what your ancestor altar might look like and how you could work with that, how to open the altar, what to have on your altar, all those kinds of helpful resources to get you started. And yeah, I just really started the the comfort was really sinking in. So I I was downstairs in my basement one day and I found this shelf, this unit that was collecting dust. I hadn't had it, hadn't used it in years. It was in my old apartment when I lived in Maryland years and years ago, hadn't hung it up in a long, long time. And I have very limited wall space in my home. And I really wanted to set up this altar in what I consider my sacred space, where I both work on my business, but is also the place where I meditate and journal and pull tarot cards, all those things. So I wanted that, especially something that feels so very personal in that sacred space. So it needed to be something really small. So this shelf is very long and thin. And uh I set aside some time to paint it. I painted it black. Um, and I had some really cool wallpaper that has more of like a Greek kind of style look to it, which felt right for me and my family, not because we're Greek, but because we all had a deep love of the ancient world. So I know my my brother Steve in particular really liked Greek, Greek and Roman history. So that felt really great as like a background, and I actually found a uh skeleton just the right size. And one of the things that they talk about in the book is using you you could use a real skull or you know, a fake one. And so I beheaded the skeleton, and that sits on the lowest level of my altar with the two femur bones that cross, like a skull and crossbones. And then on the second shelf, I have a uh um hourglass that I had learned in a class at Sacred Space about a little piece about time magic. And I decided that I wanted to utilize that hourglass, so I put that on the shelf. Um, and next to it I have a small offering dish. My mom collected salt dips, so a little antique bowl that has an F on it for our last name. And on the very top shelf, there is a candle that I use as like a beacon. And the two candles that I use to open the altar. So there's a white one for bone and a red for blood. So that was part of the opening ritual that I did. I used those candles and they stay on the altar all the time. And I think I opened my altar shortly after Sawin. And that was that was a very um emotional experience opening the altar. I used the ritual that was in the book, and it uh has proven effective the opening of that that altar. I have a practice of visiting with them on Sundays.

SPEAKER_00: 14:53

Who are the beloved dead that you work with? Who visits with you?

SPEAKER_01: 15:02

So when I when I opened my altar, one of the things, if I'm remembering correctly, or maybe one of the things I interjected was specifying who it was that I wanted to invite to come through the altar. And for me, it started with my mother and both of my brothers who have have passed on. Um, so I call, I called all three of them in and continue to to work with them still. And yeah, I I do typically meet with them on Sundays as often as I can. And I use the if you want to know like how I open it, um, I light the candle and speak to it as like a beacon to see me in this space. And then I take my hourglass and turn it over. And I should write down what it is that I say just to make it really consistent. But the gist of it is that I'm asking them to, I'm kind of like tracing the top and the bottom of the hourglass into the center, kind of like pulling the the past and the present into that that narrow center and asking them to be with me in this time, in this place. And just kind of like I trace that a couple times over and speak to being with me here now. And then I put that back on my altar. I I speak to them and tell them what offering I have brought them this day. Often what I'm drinking at the time, which is usually coffee because it's Sunday morning. And I and they also liked coffee. So I feel like that's a nice offering for them. And sometimes I add food, you know, maybe if I've had some breakfast or something, there might be a little bit of that as well. Uh, special offerings for birthdays, uh, anniversary of death days, I do those as well. And then the final thing to open it is the bones that are in front of the skull. They're crossed when it's closed. But when I then officially really open it, I move the bones over and open it, put the bones one to either side so that is that it is really open. And my experience with that is as I'm moving from the top to the bottom, I feel that I often feel the energy building as I'm going from one thing to the other. And then once I really uncross those bones, that's when I'll often feel kind of like almost a little bit of a rush coming in. Um for me, one of my physical recognitions is uh often tears. So it is often a very weepy kind of experience. And uh I usually, you know, start off by speaking to each of them, often calling, sometimes calling the the maybe the one that I really want to speak to that day, but sometimes saying all of their names because the list has grown since opening the altar, like a little over a year ago. Sometimes I called all of them, including my my guide, who's also a family member. And yeah, that that that rush can be can be a little bit of a tear jerker. I I don't know what it is. It's just one of my recognitions, I think, is the the tears. And I I speak with them for a few minutes. I like to kind of do like a little family visit, you know, telling them what's going on in my life, and if there is something that I would like their guidance on, help with advice, I I will ask it at that time, and then I uh will say, okay, you know, I'm going to sit down and be with you now, and I'll sit on my bed. And uh I have I think it's a a beta track soundtrack that I had gotten years ago when I took a automatic writing class, which is kind of a recent development in how I I utilize this this altar. But I do use automatic writing, and it was a track, they gave us several tracks to work with, and it's the one that I like the best, and I guess it just you know helps you get into the right mind space. And I'll I'll have that playing, usually from the beginning of opening it, I'll put that on, and I'll sit down and I have a journal dedicated to my conversations with them. And I usually start off by writing the date and what it is that maybe I was asking for that day. Like most recently, uh yesterday, I asked for someone to help me unravel a dream that I had had recently that was still very much on my mind, and I was asking if they could maybe help me unravel that, along with some other things, but that was one of the things that I was uh particularly interested in seeing if there was some insight from my family.

SPEAKER_00: 20:33

So I know you mentioned that you have a guide also. Can you do you feel comfortable sharing a little bit about that beloved dad?

SPEAKER_01: 20:44

Sure, yeah. So his name is Galen, and uh he is actually my mom's second child who passed away when he was he was only six weeks old when he passed, and I was uh reunited with him at Sacred Space. Gotta go to Sacred Space. You gotta go to Sacred Space. Um, I went to an ancestor ritual and it was aimed at people that had family trauma and in particular women that had lost children. And he wasn't my child, and I wasn't there specifically to reconnect with him. Much, very much a surprise. But I went to this ritual, and she led us through some like pathworking, and then she was drumming, and you're kind of you know waiting to receive who it is that wants to connect with you. And it was interesting. The first impression that I got was of a baby. And my my logical mind was like, a baby? What why what you know, like what what what kind of conversation am I gonna have with a baby? But then my grandmother came to mind and I kind of rolled with that. Afterwards, I you know, I I go home and I had gone for a walk and I was speaking to my grandma out loud. And you know, I did that for a little while, and that and that felt good, but then when I started to speak to Galen, my brother, I was remembering the baby and you know, knowing that it was him, most likely, I started speaking to him, and that's that's when I get the tears and felt a lot more emotional connection to you know, speaking to him. And I I don't really have like a a personal connection with him. I never I was I was born probably 20 something years after he was born. So I don't really have like an emotional tie to him necessarily, but I was feeling a whole lot of emotion just even speaking to him. And actually what I was doing was singing to him. That was something that we were doing in the pathworking, which she was encouraging us to to talk to our beloved, to sing to them. And that's I was forgetting. That was part of what I was doing when I was walking. I was singing to them, and yeah, it got it got quite emotional, and it was funny. I turned a corner. I was I was leaving a park, and there was a man that I know from networking coming towards me, but I didn't see him at first. All I heard was, hi Susan, and I looked over and it was, you know, this man that I know, and it just felt it was the timing was so on point with what I was just experiencing and what I was very much in the thick of. And then he showed up. I don't know, as I was walking down the street, I I just kind of knew that Galen had sent him to say hi. It was it was his way of giving voice to maybe what he wanted to say. And then when I saw him, that man later for networking, he he said, I I never go that way. So that felt yeah, that felt like something too, because that was not his usual, his usual route. So that yeah, that felt quite special. So Galen is there, right? And I'm curious to know more about him. And it was a couple days, I think, until my next Sunday that I was gonna work with my family. And during that week, I was reminded of automatic writing. That's how automatic writing came back into my life. I think I was scrolling Facebook or Instagram or something, and somewhere in there, somebody reminded me. Yeah, I had opened, I think it was Instagram, and the first thing I saw was this guy talking about automatic writing. And I was like, oh yeah, I forgot about that tool. I had completely forgotten that that was something that I could work with. And I thought that could be perfect, you know, to to really like facilitate conversation with my family. Cause up until then, I had only been uh more like meeting them, I don't know, through my mind. Like I was in meditation and I was receiving what it is that they wanted to share with me that way. But yeah, I decided to try automatic writing with him for the first time and called to him. And as we started talking and learning more about how this connection has come to be and whatnot, yeah, he he told me that he has has always been my guide. Yeah, and I I could I could go more into that. I almost feel like I would need to go back and like look at some of the things that I wrote down in my journal because there was a lot, a lot in there about our connection and him being with me always. So yeah, like the the ancestors that I work with, he's one that if I do call on him, he he comes the most swiftly. And I think it is a lot because he is my guide, one of my guides. He comes right away. And what has been kind of extraordinary about working with him too is that I have been able to feel the energy of some of my other beloved dad, but with him that energy is even stronger to the place where I can um kind of like feel his energy pushing into my own. And I have felt that a little bit with my mom in particular, but with him it's it's a lot stronger. Yeah, and that has been really lovely as well.

SPEAKER_00: 27:01

So you have a very powerful and in-depth and also like ever evolving practice for having just opened your altar a year and some months ago, right? Like not that much long ago. And it just really seems like it's transforming quickly for again. And and what is time, right? Like time. Like a year is a year to us, but in the other dimensions it time is different. And what do you feel is going to continue to transform or ways that you want to evolve your practice? Louis, let me back up. You mentioned automatic writing. Can you say a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01: 27:55

Yeah, a couple years ago I learned about automatic writing. Took a little, it was like a 21-day challenge, something like that, where every day you would get a little lesson and then you could practice on your own. It's a very like meditative state that you go into. And you you do want to call on somebody specifically and try to kind of bring them, you know, in and then allow, allow them. For me, it's I guess you would call a like a download of some sort where I don't know for me, it's almost like it's like a side conversation in my mind. It's not, it's not me, it's it's them. It's not my thoughts, but it's theirs that's coming through. And you can help facilitate that through writing. So you can I write down a question that maybe I want to ask, even something as simple as um, like if I've if I've called to maybe my mom and my brother, I'll ask who am I speaking to just to like clarify who you know who I'm speaking to. Sometimes I also do just want to clarify who it is, even if I have asked for somebody specific. I do want to maybe just confirm, you know, who that is that that has shown up. So do that, and then you can start to, you know, maybe write down a question, and then I'll just sit and be receptive to whatever is entering into my mind, and then writing that down as well. And then it it usually seems that it will there have been times where it's just kind of jumped right in and been there, you know, almost as soon as I sit down. And then other times I just need to be a little bit patient and just sit for a couple minutes and allow it to to begin. And then it seems that if I can get it to begin, I and start writing, then it'll start flowing faster and faster, and I'll be able to really feel like I'm almost having a a conversation with them. And then and then it often seems to kind of wrap up naturally at some point, you know, where it's it's time to go. We we've said enough and you know, they're ready to, I guess, move on to other things that they need to do. I need to do. It has evolved a lot over the course of this year, for sure. And but probably the the best thing about it for me and I could imagine other people as well is how healing it has been for me. My family, we were not close in the way that I had really wanted. You know, there was a lot of trauma within our family, which had caused a lot of mental illness, physical illness, causing a lot of barriers to connection. My mom didn't suffer as much physically. And her her trauma, her big mental trauma, it looked very different than my brother's, but there was this feeling of not really knowing each other. And so when they passed it, you know, that still remained there, there felt very much like there was a lot of loose ends, a lot of things that were left unspoken. And that could you know that that really hurts when they're not there anymore. But the great thing is that when they have passed you have another opportunity to connect with them in in now a way that is so different than what you maybe experienced in life. Now they're free of all the trauma. They're free of the physical and the mental anguish that they were suffering. So often when I am speaking with them, if I'm really in touch with say my one brother in particular who had schizophrenia and was bipolar and he had a lot he he was he was sick most of his life from a variety of things. He was hurting in you know so many ways through most of his life and his mental illness also created you know a lot of barriers to us. There's a lot of misunderstanding going on with what he maybe thought was happening wasn't happening you know and there's no reasoning with that. But now he is free of that and we can be together and when I when I feel into his energy when he is present he is playful and he always had a really good sense of humor and that it comes through so strongly even now I I can he he makes little funny jokes sometimes it's just so so him um and he was a very generous person in life but like that generosity you can feel all of that generosity coming from him when he is present. And it's so interesting how each one of my family members has a very different feeling like their presence is different from one to the other. And just over time you know I can I can ask them who am I speaking to but now I'm also starting to be able to identify their energy as well which you know feels like confirmation like yes this is who I'm speaking to right now. And we are here together. And there's just so much love from all of them. And I can say things that I had wanted to say and there's so much more clarity you know in uh in their responses that maybe couldn't have been when they were alive. So it's been really really healing in that way. And it and it's also just really beautiful to know that they aren't gone that they're still here with you and they still love you. And that yeah like even even in the times in your life when you feel the most lonely you're never really alone ever they're always there with you. So if anybody is interested in in pursuing an ancestor practice I would really encourage them you know to to read that book or go to that ritual or you know just poke around until maybe you start to feel a little bit more comfortable and and find your you know your path into what that looks like for you. And no my dad is still not welcome to come. He's he's not welcome to the party I don't believe he's really part of things with us anyway. He has his own work to do. He probably has a lot of work to do. So he's off doing that um and since opening my altar I've also reconnected with a dear friend of mine that I worked with who was much older than me. We worked together for I think about five years and during that time he uh got lung cancer and um he was at least let me think it's probably about 30 years my senior but we had we had become really good friends. I was new to the area and he was very welcoming in sharing this music group that he belonged to and he would invite me to join him and I would go with him to these parties. So much fun to be hanging out with a bunch of musicians and singing I don't I don't play anything but it didn't matter you could sit and play the tambourine or whatever you wanted to do and just sing along it was a lot of folk songs because most of these people were ex-hippies you know so it was a lot of Peter Paul and Mary and Paul Simon and stuff like that. So it was really it was really fun because I also enjoy that kind of music. And he and I would go to early bird specials and we just shared a lot of things in common and had grown really close to one another and there were times when I would think to myself he feels like a father to me like he would be dropping me off you know at the end of a hangout and I would think he feels kind of like my dad in some ways you know and and when he was coming close to the end of his life he had said to me that if if he had a daughter he would have wanted her to be just like me. Oh wow and unfortunately I wasn't able to reciprocate that at the time I've often had trouble saying how I really feel and I had a lot of regret about that because I really I really did love him. And I I still miss him a lot. And I think about two months ago was his uh death anniversary and I have some artwork that he made but he left me a lot of his artwork and I had a a piece of his and I held it and I was you know reaching out to him and it felt very much that that he had come in and and and we had connected that night and then I tried again and I think on the third time it was a whole big thing that happened in the astral but we uh more or less adopted each other.

SPEAKER_00: 38:10

Oh wow as father and daughter yeah it was it was really beautiful and so I've invited him into my into my family and he's now part of my family and he comes through my altar as well and the funny the really funny thing with the first time I brought him through my altar his first reaction was whoa how did you do that and that that made me laugh like all of this kind of practice is so new to me and so fascinating but like yeah you're you're actually bringing them through that altar and his reaction just kind of like affirmed that idea to me and it was very funny too so I'm wondering about for you you clearly have a calling to be to be experiencing this kind of healing for you for your family and I'm I'm tuned into this offering and and how it connects with the other things that you offer like how you in your you know mundane life but also I know it also it holds a lot of spiritual purpose for you being an interior designer and helping people create their home spaces as these sanctuaries that call in kind of more of who they are and who they want to be and just that evolution and spirituality. And I I'm I'm having this like idea of this is something that you've been able to create for you and how beautiful for you to be able to help other people create this. I don't know I'm having this like vision of like you going into people's homes like maybe as a as a side part of like what you're already doing. But just this you're clearly tapping into something that is very healing and really profound. And I think so many people this is the missing piece. You know this is like that ability to have those relationships with your beloveds and it sounds different from some of what I've heard in our spiritual world. Like this is just very practical and also so healing and therapeutic and it's like you're having these family bonding these family rituals that can continue on and even just I didn't know about you being able to adopt this beloved that was like this father figure. I mean there's just so much here there's so much here Susan my gosh so yeah I'm I'm wondering what you feel about that as something that maybe you could be bringing in or helping other people with it would be amazing to help other people with it.

SPEAKER_01: 41:07

I going into this my intention was to share this story with people so that you know if they are missing somebody who's past you know to know that it is possible for them to also reach out and to make that connection with their beloved they're not truly gone. I I know we can't see them we can't hug them but as I've been able to connect with them in spirit form and feel into their energy they are really there with you in that moment and it it really does mean so much. I feel sometimes as if I know them almost a little bit better than I did in life sometimes being there with them. Sometimes when I hear people missing their family members um I I wish that they either had a spiritual practice or that you know that that they really knew that they weren't missing and that there is this potential if they if they were to reach out then you know they could have that too you know our ancestors talk about ancestors they they really did it right you know like honoring their ancestors and caring for them and giving them offerings and just remembering the remembrance is so important. I don't know our lives are so fleeting and it can feel rather lonely at times but they're always there to have that connection that flowing you know of time what is time but that we're all here together all the time yeah I I it's funny you bring up maybe wanting to help people with their spaces in this way. And that and that is something that I I have actually thought about it's something that's rattled around in my mind for a long time. It's a little a matter of being brave and taking the leap to actually put myself out there in that way. I don't market myself as even an intuitive or anything in that kind of woo-woo zone I would I would like to I'm a little afraid too to be honest. I'm afraid that people will would reject me if I were to put myself out there that way. But it keeps that that idea keeps lingering so that kind of tells me something too that it's probably not going to go away until I actually do something about it. I I would love to help people with their homes to make them more spiritually supportive. One thing that I've also kind of witnessed in a number of people's homes is that there is often a disconnect between what it is that they really want in their lives and what they've chosen to surround themselves with. Which is I think related to feng shui in a way because years ago I had studied just a little bit of feng shui and I realized in my own home at the time I had some artwork that was really not helpful when I was trying to find my partner. Oddly enough I had uh gosh probably four or five images of single trees around my home and and that isn't I it was just an image that resonated with me and I I guess it was because I was single and feeling lonesome in my landscape of life. And I had yeah I had inadvertently collected all these images and I realized oh wow like that's that's really not what I want for myself to be this lone tree. You know I wanted to find my partner tree. So I took those down and I replaced them with things that brought me more joy, you know, made me smile were more representative of couples. But yeah I have witnessed that in in a couple people's homes artwork objects that may be good for maybe appropriate for somebody else but aren't supporting what they really want in their lives. Of course clutter is one of the number one things that people will talk about is being like a a block to the flow of energy within the home so that can be an issue too and just furniture placement can be an issue as well. I tend to maybe want to look more at the colors that you've surrounded yourself with what you're choosing in that way and the objects I think the objects really stand out for me because my first career and passion was art. So I tend to be you know maybe a little a little more preoccupied by the things that people have surrounded themselves with. And I also uh really love symbolism and have studied quite a bit of symbolism when I was an artist I used a lot of symbolism in my work. So the symbol you know the symbolism of what people are surrounding is is so important. I've thought about offering actually as like a free kind of thing at first if anybody out there is interested in maybe doing this with me as an experiment on process and what the deliverable might look like and how um actually beneficial it is to the recipient doing kind of like a an audit to their home where I would come in and talk about what it is that you maybe want to work on in your life, what your goals are, you know, what your heart's desires are both you know both in your heart but maybe could be even like practical things like I want to get in shape. You know could be multi-leveled you know goals and whatnot. And then to observe the home probably take a lot of pictures maybe some video and maybe even just sit in your space for a little bit you know and just kind of soak it in, feel the energy that I'm you know that I'm receiving and then go home and do more reflection on that and then provide um like a room by room observation and then also maybe what solutions I would recommend for each of those spaces and to see if that's actually helpful to people. I think I think that that offering would be something that you would maybe notice some aspects of the benefits right away if you were to implement them. But then it's more it's more of a long game kind of thing I think where I might want to check in with you at like six months and maybe like a year later to see if you've been able to reach your goals and if you feel as if the the changes that we made were beneficial to you. Yeah what you surround yourself with it it's it's a lot subliminal and I for a long time have been really interested and kind of fascinated by what the environment is telling you and sending you on a subliminal level. And people go about their days not really realizing all that input that's coming in you know what they're receiving and not even realizing it. So I think there's you know there is some good potential in there.

SPEAKER_00: 48:51

I love all of that and I love that we're talking and exploring all the offerings and how they're connected in terms of your calling your purpose your passion what you're maybe here to guide others in in terms of their spiritual path or their evolution or them reaching their you know highest potential in this incarnation and I'm thinking about this being the Sowin season but the season of discernment and deciding what do we need to let go of so that we can really live you know some of our ancestors would this is the time of culling deciding what needed to be harvested what needed to be sacrificed for the community to survive through the times that were going to be more challenging certainly with less abundance and all of that. So I'm just I think it's I just I'm tuned into what you're offering and just how aligned it is with you coming into people's homes, helping them sort of discern what needs to be let go of to create more of the life that you want to call in. And so yeah I'm just tuned into that I'm thinking about the ancestor practice and just your beloved dead like the recent beloved dead and just how how beautiful how special how unique and there's so much more that we could talk about I'm tuned into how our time and next time you grace me with your presence uh I will have better technology set up and I will have two microphones and it will be a different thing but that was not to be for today. So I want to maybe close with anything that feels um important like how people can find you and I'll you know include some of this in the the notes on the episode but anything that feels important for people to find you and something that feels really true to you right now like in this energy of truth what just what feels like a truth that you would be willing to share how can people find me um my practice is called Susan Rains Design and it's rains like it rains outside R-A-I-N-S.

SPEAKER_01: 51:36

The web address is susanraignsdesign dot com very easy I serve the Philadelphia metro area anything within basically an hour's radius is how I usually frame that I offer residential interior design services and I do almost anything you can think of that would fall under that umbrella. If you are interested in maybe doing an audit of your home I would love to hear from you. It this would be a great opportunity to just take the leap and if you want to take that leap with me I would be really honored to do that with you. I would definitely give it a lot more thought before I showed up but I think the framework has been bubbling in my head long enough that maybe putting it on paper and sharing that with someone who's willing to experiment would be wonderful. I do come with 10 years of interior design experience. So um and especially if you are you know more spiritually minded um I would love to expand my practice that way too and be able to talk with you on that level as well. We wouldn't have to just stick to the normal ways that I do consultations we could really explore in that way too we could even talk about an ancestor altar if you wanted to go there as well maybe finding a space for it. I could share you know the resources that I've learned from that you could maybe also learn from too a truth what kind of truth could we share today anything you want. I'm gonna go back to the truth that I was focused on this morning of process over perfection. I love that this is your first go-around with having a guest and there are always hiccups with technology even when you're on your 200th guest you may have some hiccups with the technology my husband works in audiovisual and believe me hiccups are even happen to the professionals on a regular basis. So no worries about that and that is a truth right and that and I think that's part of why I'm I'm putting it out there that I would be happy to hear from someone if they'd be interested in that audit that it doesn't have to be perfect. This would this would be a learning together. And I would so appreciate it if anybody out there would be willing to do that with me.

SPEAKER_00: 54:06

Beautiful and I also heard you say that if anyone was interested in an ancestor altar or space and I know earlier you were saying that that's something that also has been rattling around for you to offer and maybe do. So if any person listening to this who was like yes what you said resonated so much I would love to learn from the path that you've created and get some of your guidance as maybe someone who is called to do this. Is that something people could contact you on?

SPEAKER_01: 54:46

Yeah sure I'm always happy to talk to people about any questions they might have I've done that many times with interior design people that are interested in going into the field and this is something else I'd be happy to share.

SPEAKER_00: 55:00

So thank you so much for being my first beloved friend and witch and one of the things that I really wanted to do when I started this little passion project was to really uplift the voices of my community and the people who are witches and healers and intuitives and people who are truth tellers and wanting to help transform ourselves and the world. So thank you for being here and we will leave this here for now. Have a wonderful Monday moonday and I'm your host Erin O'Brien a licensed psychotherapist in practice for over 20 years intuitive healer relationship counselor and dare I say witch so as above so below as within so without as the universe so the soul bye for now