What if your pain isn’t blocking your magic, but trying to tell you where the spell begins?

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I’m joined by Laura Tempest Zakroff for the final conversation in the Protection Magic for Women series. Together, we unpack the energetic purity trap, the damaging idea that anger, grief, fear, overwhelm, or messy human emotion means your vibration is wrong, your magic has failed, or you are somehow the problem.

We talk about why “high vibration” language can become another ranking system, how shame interrupts magic, and why real witchcraft brings us back into the body, the land, our tools, our communities, and our actual lives. Laura shares wisdom on sigil magic, embodied practice, magical resistance, shadow work, and why sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply do the thing, make the mess, and learn from it.

This conversation is about reclaiming magic from perfectionism, purity culture, spiritual bypassing, and the myth that you have to be healed, calm, or perfectly aligned before you are allowed to be powerful.

Your pain is not proof your magic failed.
Your fear is not proof you are broken.
Your mess is not the opposite of magic.

Sometimes, it is where the working begins.

Learn more about Laura Tempest Zakroff at lauratempestzakroff.com.

Learn more about Jacki Smith, book an Akashic reading, or find more episodes at AuntJacki.com.

Until next time, trust your magic and keep your candle lit.

Sometimes protection begins much earlier than the spell.

It begins in the moment something feels off and you decide not to talk yourself out of it.

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I sit down with beloved author, folklorist, and magical teacher Judika Illes for a conversation about protection magic, women’s power, self-trust, fear, discernment, and what it means to stop apologizing for being a witch with claws.

Judika is the author of many essential books on magic, folklore, spirits, and spellwork, including The Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells and Pure Magic. Her work has helped shape modern magical practice by bringing historical, folkloric, and practical magic into the hands of real people living real lives.

We talk about:

• Why protection magic is one of the oldest forms of magic
• What magic can and cannot do when danger is real
• Why “harm none” does not apply to every magical path
• The problem with the “good witch” and the declawed version of magic
• How women have been trained to doubt their own instincts
• Why fear is not always the enemy
• How intuition can be damaged by abuse, gaslighting, and conditioning
• Simple daily protection practices that help rebuild self-trust
• Judika’s Protection Spells deck and how portable magic can support people in real-world moments
  

This conversation is part of my ongoing series with magical women about protection, power, and what it means to claim yourself in a world that often teaches women to stay quiet, stay nice, and stay unsure.

Because the first protection spell may not be the candle, the charm, or the ritual.

It may be believing yourself.

You can find Judika Illes through her books wherever books are sold, and on social media.

To book an Akashic reading with me, visit:
https://auntjacki.com

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I sit down with Cairelle Perilloux, author of The Magic in Your Genes and the upcoming Motherline Grimoire, to talk about ancestor magic, the maternal line, inherited survival patterns, and the deep protection carried through generations of women.

This conversation is about power, lineage, boundaries, and remembering that you are not starting from zero.

When something goes wrong, when you feel scared, depleted, threatened, or unsure, where do you go for protection?

A spell?
A crystal?
Your anger?
A trusted friend?
Your own stubborn refusal to fold?

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I’m joined by Cairelle Perilloux, author of The Magic in Your Genes and the upcoming Motherline Grimoire, for a powerful conversation about protection, power, and the ancestral strength carried through the maternal line.

Cairelle is a genealogist, integrative RN, and magical practitioner whose work brings together ancestry, DNA, science, magic, and deep spiritual relationship. Together, we talk about the motherline, the women who came before us, and the patterns we inherit, both the ones that protect us and the ones we are here to interrupt.

We explore how women have survived through silence, back-channel communication, intuition, endurance, adaptation, and fierce quiet strength. We also talk about what changes when protection stops being automatic fear and becomes conscious choice.

This conversation moves through boundaries, inherited compliance, medical advocacy, ancestor altars, mitochondrial DNA, the power of naming your mothers, and what it means to walk through the world aware, but unafraid.

Because you are not starting from zero.

Your mothers are behind you.
Your grandmothers are behind you.
Your lineage has already survived more than you can imagine. And maybe the protection you’ve been looking for has been in your bones all along.

Learn more about Cairelle at cairelle.com and follow her on social media at I Am Cairelle.

You can find me at AuntJacki.com for Akashic readings, classes, podcast episodes, and more.

Please like, subscribe, and follow Chats with Aunt Jacki wherever you listen.

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I sit down with Byron Ballard—folklorist, author, and longtime voice in the magical community—for a real conversation about what’s happening right now. Not in theory. Not in headlines. In lived experience.

We talk about “Tower Time”—what it means when the systems we’ve relied on are cracking, and why this moment isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about seeing clearly what was never built to hold us in the first place.

This conversation goes into hard territory:

• the visibility of organized harm against women
• the conditioning that keeps us quiet or compliant
• the ways fear, isolation, and distraction keep us from acting

And then we move into what actually matters.

Power.
Protection.
And the truth most people don’t say out loud:

We don’t do this alone.

If the system isn’t going to keep you safe, then the question becomes—what does?

We talk about grounding, energetic protection, and why community is not a luxury. It’s the work. It’s the protection. It’s how we move forward from here.

If you’ve been feeling unsettled, questioning what you’re seeing, or trying to figure out where your power actually is in all of this—you’re not wrong. And you’re not alone.

And if you’re at a place where you need clarity, perspective, or help sorting through what’s yours and what isn’t, you can connect with me for a reading at AuntJacki.com

Listen in. Stay grounded. And start finding your people.

Not just spells. Not just mindset.

We’re talking about what protection actually looks like in real life—awareness, boundaries, physical safety, and the ways women move through the world every day.

In this episode, I’m talking with Amy Blackthorn about protection on every level:
mental, physical, and magical.

This isn’t about fear.

It’s about being aware, prepared, and in your own power.

Because protection isn’t one thing you do.
It’s how you move through your life.

If this is something you’ve been navigating, you can go deeper with me here: https://auntjacki.com/book-a-reading.html

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, I sit down with Amy Blackthorn to talk about the part of growth most people avoid—the truth about shadow work.

Not the aesthetic version.
Not the “I journaled and feel better” version.

The real version.

We get into what it actually means to carry wounds, defensiveness, and patterns through life—and the harder truth: how those same wounds shape the way we impact other people.

This conversation moves through:

• Why shadow work feels so intimidating (and why that’s a lie)
• The difference between being hurt… and doing harm
• How trauma responses quietly run your life
• Why “healing” isn’t about fixing the past—it’s about changing your future
• How working with plant allies can make shadow work feel supported instead of overwhelming

Amy shares the heart behind her new book Blackthorn’s Botanical Shadow Work and how she reframes this work into something grounded, relational, and actually doable.

This isn’t about becoming perfect.
It’s about becoming aware enough to stop repeating what hurt you.

If you’ve been avoiding your own shadow—or you’re tired of doing the same work over and over—this is the conversation that will shift something.

Listen in. Then decide what you’re ready to face.

Subscribe for more real conversations about magic, growth, and doing the work that actually changes your life.

shadow work, emotional healing, trauma response, personal growth, Amy Blackthorn, plant magic

In this episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, Jacki Smith strips away the "aesthetic" of modern witchcraft to reveal the gritty, grassroots reality of the 1990s. Before information was free and shops were on every corner, magic was practiced in church basements and secret hotel rooms. Jacki honors the "Mighty Dead" and the elders who took real-world risks to normalize the word Witch.

But this isn't just a history lesson. Jacki connects the dots between the secrecy of the past and the current struggle for trans and non-binary visibility. If your magic doesn't have room for the ultimate alchemy—transforming your reality to match your inner truth—then what is it for?

Inside the Episode:

• The 90s Underground: Calling landlines in search of mugwort and hiding pentagrams under work clothes.
• The Myth of Gatekeeping: Why the "survivalist era" focused on what actually worked, not what looked good.
• The Alchemy of Identity: Why the trans community is currently performing the highest grade of magic.
• A Call to Protection: Recognizing that our visibility is a hard-won luxury we must use to protect others.

About Jacki Smith: Jacki Smith is the founder of Coventry Creations and the author of Coventry Magic with Candles, Oils, and Herbs. For over 30 years, she has been a leader in the magical community, dedicated to normalizing the practice of magic and the path of the Witch.

In the debut episode of Chats with Aunt Jacki, Jacki Smith strips away the "guru-speak" to reveal the nuts and bolts of practical magic. From stirring your morning coffee to moving traffic with your mind, Jacki explains why magic is a lived-in tool, not a performance.

She dives deep into the "Glass Ceiling of Energy"—the specific point where our own fears and old habits cause our manifestations to shatter. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or someone wondering if you’re "really a witch," pull up a chair. We’re talking about the messy, psychological, and deeply practical reality of shifting your energy in 2026.

Chats with Aunt Jacki is a seat at the kitchen table for real-life magic. No fluff, no vague theories—just lived-in tools for candle magic, conjure, and soul-work that actually fits into your everyday life. Pull up a chair. The books are open.